What is the best book on paranormal activities in your opinions?

Question

I live in an area that is said to have a lot of paranormal activities. I want to find a book that can better explain to me what to look for, and also help explain to me what may be real or just my imagination. There is an old penetentary about 1 1/2 hours from where I live, that gives guided tours, also they let you spend the night there and run around on your own and see what you can find.

Some of you may have heard of it, it's the Moundsville Penetentary in WVa. MTV did a show on it a while back. I've been there a few times before, but it's hard to tell if it is the fact I was there for the haunted house or if some things really did happen there. I know for a fact it was warm that night and there were definite cold spots.

Any ideas on some books that could help me? Or even if you have stories I would love to hear them!

Thanks

Answer 1

You might wish to look at the web site

http://www.haunted-places. com they list reportedly haunted sites and organizations by state. Many organizations have rules and procedures they follow during an investigation.Some are listed on the web sites.

I agree with the other poster's suggestion about

Demon Haunted World by Carl Sagan it does an excellent job at laying the skeptical stance.

For the other side of the coin consider the following:

1. Varieties of Anomalous Experience

2. Parapsychology the Controversial Science

3. The Conscious Universe

Also, I don't think it a perfect manual but it's an OK starting point: The Paranormal Investigator's Handbook (Townsend & Hope)

Please let me know if I can be of further assistance.

Michael John Weaver, M.S., Director

New Mexico Anomaly Society

http://nmas.freeservers.com

Answer 2

Depends what you mean by best.  Any scientific book will lead you only in the one direction.  Of course there are loads of books written for enjoyment or profit or both which have no scientific basis whatsoever.  If you go to James Randi's web site you will see that JREF has a one million dollar prize for anyone who can demonstrate any paranormal phenomenon whatsoever.

As for warm spots and cold spots, yes, you can find those in any house.

Answer 3

Not to mention any specific titles, but African and Tribal voodoo books and beliefs on superstition, really open your eyes to much of this, on possibilities to happenings of it. Look em up, some are rather creepy but all are intriguing

Answer 4

Thanks for the mention of the penitentiary. I definitely want to check that out some day.

A really good book that gives the basics is "Entities among us" by Carolyn Kaganovsky N.D

As mentioned, its a beginners guide to a lot of different paranormal phenomena. Its an easy read. The only down side is it doesn't have a lot of depth.

Another place you can go for some very interesting  reading is the FATE magazine website. They also have a very reasonable subscription fee, which you might be interested in.

Hope that helps. :)

Answer 5

Personally, I would prefer the internet as there are more sources to be found (easily).

I don't actually know of any... (as I don't live in the US), but here's what I found...:

http://www.westvirginiaghosthunters.com/ - the offical website for West Virginia Ghost Hunters. (There's a forum on there, and I assume you have to join as a member before being able to post things on there... ).

http://www.wvghosts.com/index.php - here you can find many things. There's a section (on the left menu) that has a 'true stories' button. Click on it, and you may find yourself some real freaky stories... (ranging from Bigfoot, to UFO's - Ghostly encounters to odd Witch stories too). The stories are from real people, and have been collected over a few years.

http://www.wvpentours.com/main.php - the offical West Virgina Penitentiary website, and it's got links to a few ghostly stories, encounters...etc.

http://www.prairieghosts.com/hauntwv.htm... - has a few cases of hauntings in W.V - filled with a lot of historical stuff...

And now finally, here's a really special one... : http://www.wvtourism.com/hauntings/ - this website is more for the tourists (I assume), but its got a LOT of information (well, specific details as to where to FIND Haunted spots, as well as the history behind them).

I hope these help, I checked out each website - and I think I might have to visit West Virginia to check some of these out!

Answer 6

"The Real-Life X-files" by Joe Nickell

"The Demon Haunted World" by Carl Sagan

Answer 7

Thats really cool that you are close to Moundsville Pen. I was down at the Amityville house last summer, but it was totally not haunted. Those movies are so fake. However, it was cool to see the house that inspired them.

Ive researched moundville online, and they have photographed and filmed shadow people there. Shadow people are creatures who are like 3D walking shadows. They are not believed to ever have been human. I believe them to be demons.

I know I am going to get thumbs down for this, and you are not going to like this answer, but the best book to study when it comes to this stuff is the Bible.

If you have the LORD on your side, you can go in and explore with no fear. If I am right and shadow people are demons, then only his power can keep you safe. They wont attack you physically, but they are pretty scary, and will work on breaking you down mentally.

If you go, take a video camera with you and get some film. It would be cool if you caught some crazy spiritual action.