Jason Hawes

Always try to find a natural explanation before accepting a paranormal one. Let's face it: paranormal occurrences are rare. Most of the time--eighty percent, in our experience--what seems like a ghostly voice is only a cranky waste pipe. Whether you're observing phenomena firsthand or analyzing them afterward, you have to be careful of matrixing.[Reviewer's note: Matrixing is the paranormal research term for the mind's filling in the blanks in a pattern to make a sensible picture.] The human show more mind is a helpful organ. If you let it, it will show you exactly what you want to see--as opposed to what's actually there.

TL;DR: Book is boring and slipshod. Get your nonfiction spooky somewhere else.

Full review: This was supposed to be my nonfiction read during my October ghost and haunting spree. Unfortunately the library was unable to get it to me until mid-November. I've never seen the show Ghost Hunters, from which many of these cases are taken; I just thought the book looked interesting. If there had been evidence that the authors actually followed the above advice (which is from the ghost hunter's manual in the back of the book) I would have given this at least one more star. (Even though I would have to note that if one fifth of all hauntings were genuine, we would have proof of life after death by now.)

Two plumbers with an interest in the paranormal form The Atlantic Paranormal Society (T.A.P.S.) to investigate hauntings, vowing to apply scientific principles to the task rather than just accepting wil-nil emotion as evidence of the paranormal, like other ghost hunters. Unfortunately, while they do 'debunk' some instances of haunting (often finding pipes banging - have your plumbing checked if you are experiencing weird noises in your home), they do not follow through on the science piece beyond looking for obvious environmental causes of unexpected noises, mysterious opening doors, weird lights, and moving objects.

I was mainly reading this for interesting stories and some idea what the real life ghost hunting business is like. I got the latter, but the stories, which are sort of a casebook for the show, move from answering private calls on hauntings to being invited to visit famous haunted sites, such as Winchester House and the Stanley Hotel. This is incredibly boring, especially when the team's interpersonal issues become the focus. (If I want to hear about HR problems, I can always just go to my own workplace, you know.) Also, I wasn't really inclined to pick apart their facts, but they make such a big deal about science and then ignore science so completely that I couldn't help myself. Here, in no particular order, are some of the assertions the authors make as simple fact with no background explanation given whatsoever:

Spirits need energy to manifest themselves and they'll take it from anywhere they can find it. In this case, it seemed to come from our camera battery. Say what? No research or background is given for this statement; it is just asserted as fact.

Dealing with the occult is a nasty business. The key is to remember that malevolent spirits don't just show up in a house--they're invited by something one of the residents did. Um, citations? Research? Anything? (This is actually straight out of a modern collision of the nineteenth century Spiritualism movement and pseudo-Christian beliefs; it is definitely not science.)

One thing to remember about residual hauntings is that they pose no danger to the observer. The entities aren't aware that anyone is watching them. They just go about their business. An intelligent haunting, on the other hand, is the result of entities that are aware of their surroundings and can freely move around. No explanation of how we know this.

It was about 3:30 a.m. That's the time, worldwide, when the most paranormal activity is reported. I've heard that rumor, only when I heard it is was 3 a.m. that was supposed to be the witching hour. Again, I'd really love to know how you know this.

An interesting footnote was Brian's discovery that the hotel was built on a mountain full of quartz, a situation that is believed to facilitate residual hauntings. The energy captured by quartz gets released when the conditions are right, allowing spirits to manifest themselves. I had to read that sentence several times in disbelief. I am not a scientist, but I am a rock hound. From our friend Wikipedia: "Quartz is the second most abundant mineral in the Earth's continental crust, after feldspar." Veins of quartz can almost be found around here by stepping out of your vehicle in the mountains and throwing a rock. If quartz were the problem at the Stanley Hotel, every hotel in Colorado would be haunted to the hilt, as every single mountain we have in this state is full to bursting with quartz.

Finally, a few regarding religion, which I will spoiler tag as this review is already way longer than I ever intended it to be:

[T]he owner had had a Catholic priest bless the place, but the exorcism hadn't obtained the desired effect. [Team member] Keith Johnson, who is a priest himself, explained that if an exorcism isn't conducted in a strategic manner, the entity in question can still find a way to hang on. Now, if any organization anywhere in the world would have some systematic understanding of the ghostly, it would be the Catholic Church. But there are some screaming problems with this casual statement. I don't think this [a:Keith Johnson|100273|Keith Johnson|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_50x66-632230dc9882b4352d753eedf9396530.png] is a Catholic priest, and nowhere do they say what sort of priest he is that he knows the proper way to perform an exorcism. If there is a sect or faith that has this information, I would like to know which one it is, just for personal reference, you know? And if he is some sort of a Christian priest, does that mean that the Bible is reliable regarding demons and ghosts and whatnot? Because if it is, these folks violate the biblical passages relating to these subjects several times.

From the vantage point of a playground across the street from the church, parents pushing their kids on swings would see a winged creature standing next to the church entrance--and it didn't look like an angel. Its wings were sloped downward, like a demon's. Wha??? NO. I mean, no science, no religion, no rational analysis. Just slop bucket pop para-psy. You know, like those other ghost hunters. (Just for clarity's sake, if we start with science, we don't assume the existence of angels or demons. If we start with religion, we would have to explicate our religious traditions a bit, but most likely we would be dealing with Judaism, Christianity, or Islam; I'm going with Christianity, as these folks seems to live in the pseudo-Christian zone. So, if we start with Christianity, there is no biblical basis for demons with sloping wings. That is a modern art convention. There is precious little basis for angels with wings; that would be Exodus 25, Ezekiel 10, Isaiah 6, and Revelation 4. No mention of wing shape, there.)

Calming everyone down, Grant and I explained to Annie what she had brought into the house. When it comes to the occult, the younger members of the household "belong" to the older members and can be placed at risk by the older members' actions. So when Annie had taken part in black magic [she used a Ouija board and other unspecified dabbling], she'd dragged her sister in with her, and it was Emily who was paying the price. Again, this is clearly a religious rather than a scientific understanding of the paranormal. I wouldn't mind that (after all, I'm just reading for the ghost stories), but they don't stick with any consistent view on this. (I happen to agree with them on the Ouija board thing from my upbringing, but I just can't get with their on again off again relationship with either logic or religion here.)

In the end, Pia and John decided to remove the spirit that was tormenting their children while letting the two benign spirits remain. We had no problem with that. Really, this book is whiplash inducing. I get that we are not really interested in science here, but you have to get your system from somewhere. This is again pure pseudo-Christian practice here. Actual Christianity does not allow any consorting with spirits of the dead. Also, is it really possible to exorcise just the one spirit? Cause you sure made it sound like you had to do the whole house to really get rid of them earlier.

My beef on the religion issue is not that they offend me on any faith basis. (I am a little up in the air on religion at the moment, myself.) Rather, it's that I would like some intellectual rigor to go with the hand waving at intellectual rigor. If you're going to pull from religious traditions, you have to account for the history of that and do so honestly. So if they had given any history of why they believe what they believe, I would have just accepted that for the book. Instead, they gesture at science, then offer facts that are actually a mishmash of religious hokum. (Not saying there that religion is hokum, but that the facts they offer are hokum, not in keeping with any actual belief system, except possibly Spiritualism, which they don't go into at all.)

Long story short, not a good book. Avoid. (If you want something touching on these issues, but better written, [b:American Ghost: A Family's Haunted Past in the Desert Southwest|22573854|American Ghost A Family's Haunted Past in the Desert Southwest|Hannah Nordhaus|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1411139409s/22573854.jpg|41947366] was an OK read. It's not really ghost hunting, but she does visit several paranormal professionals in her search and gives some interesting history on Spiritualism. I haven't got anything else comparable on tap right now; will update if I find something.) show less

I dunno what's worse, the fact that this is a sequel of sorts or the fact that I shelled out money to pay for it. With the extremely trite book cover, I should have guessed A) that I, as a 25 yr old woman, am not the target audience and B)that it wasn't going to be scary in the slightest.

It's one of those books that doesn't appear to have had an author at all. It's just lifeless words on paper with nothing to them. It's so unbelievably dull and boring and repetitive. And, like I said, not show more scary. Don't let the title or the fact that this is apparently case files from "real life" ghost hunters fool you, there is nothing scary about this book.

The characters, if I can call them that, are all the same. There is no difference between them, only that the girls are outnumbered by the boys two to one and the girls are the only ones screaming, getting scared and trying to act brave whilst feeling safe there is a boy nearby.

The writing is bleak and miserably repetitive. One character will say something, internally, and then voice that same thing, then another character will agree out loud, and then the first character will agree with their own words. Its so painful.

Character 1: We should go back now.
Character 2: Yeah, I was just thinking that. We should go back.
Character 1: Good, let's go back.
Character 2: Yep, lead the way back!
Character 1: Haha, let's get moving.

Whilst being painful, the writing is also obvious. Example, at one point a character thinks about himself "If he hurt his leg, he wouldn't be able to run". What a stunningly intricate observation! Another is the cabin revelation. The ghost hunting group stumble upon a cabin. Whilst in the head of one of the team, she thinks to herself. "Is that a cabin?" and then the group arrive at the cabin and each one says "Yes, that's a cabin. It looks like a old cabin." Makes for a group of incredibly stupid people.

In every "story" there is a conversation like this. There are also paragraphs upon paragraphs of info dumps jammed within parentheses to give the illusion that it's speech and not something copy/pasted from a website.

But like I said at the start of this, I'm not the target audience. This reminds me of a book a teacher would read her third grade class, putting on silly voices for each character and pausing for effect before making a loud clapping noise to make the kids giggle.

So, all in all, as the tag says, waste of time :) show less

This is an entertaining and relatively balanced memoir of paranormal research by an apparently earnest and committed investigator. I am no believer in ghosts, souls, etc. and this did not change my mind while I can say if I had the experiences reported by the authors, maybe I would change my mind. Possibly just the printed word and the few photographs here are not as convincing as certainly live experience and maybe even video. (This book comes between Ghost Hunters second season and the show more third.

I enjoyed the telling of building up the The Atlantic Paranormal Society including associate relationships and personnel issues. Probably most, I enjoyed this history and site-specific legends. While most cases are covered in two or three pages, the most interesting ones tend to be longer and include for me:

* Al Capone's Eastern State Penitentiary home where he was apparently haunted by a victim of the St. Valentine's Day Massacre
* The Myrtles Plantation historic home and former antebellum plantation in St. Francisville, Louisiana, apparently one of the most haunted places in America
* The USS Carolina which apparently panned out for paranormal activity.
* The Winchester house which apparently did not pan out in the reported investigation.
* The 1997 TV miniseries The Shining was filmed at the Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, Colorado, and that location is apparently rich in spooky supernatural happenings.
* It looks like they also here visited "The Conjuring House" researched by Skeptical Inquirer. This found them following up on the less scientific "sensitives" The Warrens with a Warrens nephew.

Indeed, Hawes and co-author Grant Wilson promote a consistent, scientific approach and bemoan the lack of respect for such efforts. As an atheist, I find the team clergyman able to end hauntings with blessings or such as placing their view of these events into a Christian mythology which rather undercuts that. They do reveal natural (even dishonest) causes to some of the cases. Also, they have little respect for "orbs" as being optical effects and I have to agree with the prosaic source of such bokeh.

For technology they seem to rely on EMF measurement systems for electromagnetic fields, thermal imaging, and audio devices for EVP (electronic voice phenomena). But are they just interpreting noise? show less

I am the "Ghost Story Junkie" and you can't imagine how excited I was to see that the library had ordered the second book by two main hosts of TV's Ghost Hunter programs. The beginning of the book was fantastic. An entire town that has an unusual amount of haunting and spectral visitors...so many that they host an annual event called "Dead Days". Of course there are authors of paranormal materials as well as ghost documentary teams and people that just hope to meet one...ghost to person. show more About midway into the book it began to become too much with the introduction of something called "the Dark Lady" that took the entire story in the realm of the really...really...really unbelievable with monsters and people turning into monsters and mind control...nothing was left out. It would have been great if they had stuck with the beginning concept of trying to document...understand...and prove the existence or the non existence of life beyond the vale. show less