Product Description

From headless phantoms and screaming specters to invisible poltergeists and disembodied voices, ghosts occupy our homes, infest cemeteries and graveyards, lurk in nearby caves and forests, and even wander city streets. However, despite the wealth of sightings, aspiring ghost hunters have few resources.
        
Now, for the first time, here is a fully functioning field guide for those courageous investigators who wish to observe and interact with supernatural beings and the spirit world. Drawn from all available evidence, including recent research and sightings, modern urban legends, and Native American mythology and North American folklore, this book describes in detail over 100 haunted sites and their resident specters.
        
Brimming with useful advice and practical tips for the ghost hunter, The Field Guide to North American Hauntings provides vital information for those seeking to encounter ghosts. Whether exploring the lonely cells of Alcatraz or the desolate stretch of road known as Route 666, or searching for specters at the White House, ghost hunters will always be prepared with The Field Guide to North American Hauntings.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #342419 in Books
• Published on: 1998-10-06
• Released on: 1998-10-06
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 208 pages

Amazon.com Review
W. Haden Blackman itemizes over 100 haunted sites and their resident specters, focusing on haunted houses, haunted vessels, haunted cemeteries, and haunted sites in nature--from the Hotel del Coronado in San Diego (where Kate Morgan, killed on Thanksgiving Day in 1892, now appears in a black lace dress and makes strange choking noises) to Franklin's Haunted Orchard (where a foreign-born peddler was killed and buried under an apple tree in 1759, and where apple trees have continued to this day to produce blood-stained blossoms and blood-streaked apple pulp).

Blackman intends his guide, however, to be more than just another ghoulish anthology. If you want to find and interact safely with ghosts, you need to know where to go, what to look for, and how benign the ghosts are. For each site, along with a full narrative and supernatural history, Blackman includes its address and whereabouts, the number of ghostly residents, their identities, and the type of ghostly activities that have been observed. He tells what their demeanors are (their personalities; propensities for mischief, violence, or both; and attitudes toward the living), and the likelihood of encountering the spirit or ghostly phenomenon while visiting. A chapter on ghost hunting provides worthwhile tips for anyone wishing to avoid, cope with, or encounter a spectral presence, and the appendices--with sample questionnaires for ghost witnesses, sample questionnaires for ghosts, a glossary, and listings by state and province--round out the practical nature of Blackman's guide. But even if you haven't the slightest interest in searching out ghost haunts, the book is worth it for the sensational stories alone. --Stephanie Gold

From the Inside Flap
From headless phantoms and screaming specters to invisible poltergeists and disembodied voices, ghosts occupy our homes, infest cemeteries and graveyards, lurk in nearby caves and forests, and even wander city streets. However, despite the wealth of sightings, aspiring ghost hunters have few resources.

Now, for the first time, here is a fully functioning field guide for those courageous investigators who wish to observe and interact with supernatural beings and the spirit world. Drawn from all available evidence, including recent research and sightings, modern urban legends, and Native American mythology and North American folklore, this book describes in detail over 100 haunted sites and their resident specters.

Brimming with useful advice and practical tips for the ghost hunter, The Field Guide to North American Hauntings provides vital information for those seeking to encounter ghosts. Whether exploring the lonely cells of Alcatraz or the desolate stretch of road known as Route 666, or searching for specters at the White House, ghost hunters will always be prepared with The Field Guide to North American Hauntings.

About the Author
W. Haden Blackman is a corporeal spirit haunting portions of San Francisco, where he manifests to serve a prominent computer game company. He rarely appears during the day, cannot be photographed, and is easily repelled by the sight of religious artifact

Customer Reviews

Everything you need to know from a guy who doesn't know anything
If you're looking for a serious or even helpful book about hauntings, it's not this one. It's a rehash of every ghost story you've already heard. Resurrection Mary, some headless ones, etc. I picked this book up at the library (thank goodness) with a bunch of others, as I'm doing research for my own book. It turns out that this book is an example of what not to do when writing a book about hauntings.

I actually started laughing at a number of parts. And what really gets me is that the author speaks with authority about silly things. And he doesn't cite anything. Sure, there's a bibliography at the end, but nothing is cited, which is very unprofessional and questionable.

Some funny stuff:

*"Relatively few burial grounds are actually inhabited by ghosts." Yet ... "A cemetery or graveyard that is completely closed to the pubic is likely to suffer a rash of hauntings." And "haunted burial sites are frequently located near bodies of water ..." (Does the author realize how many thousands of cemeteries have been abandoned or how many cemeteries in use are near water or have ponds in them?)

* "Finally, almost all haunted cemeteries have visible boundaries that the ghosts cannot cross ... iron gates, stone walls, creeks, lonely roads .... If you are pursued by a dangerous ghost, you must leave the graveyard's grounds at once. After you have left the graveyard, you will be safe from any phantoms, as ghosts tend to dissipate whenever they try to stray too far from their new homes." Then, within a few pages, he writes about Resurrection Mary, who reportedly frequently leaves her cemetery. Hmmm.

* He mentions three main different types of ghosts--then uses their names interchangeably.

* He also says that "prolonged exposure to ghostly phenomena at a haunted site can cause eating disorders ... and outright insanity," among other ailments.

Yet not once does he state where he gets his information or why the reader should believe he's an expert on this stuff. He works for a computer game company and has written a book about monsters. He should stick with the imaginary stuff and leave the ghost stuff to people who have actually had experience with the paranormal.

I agree with the other reviewers who have said this is a book that is better for the 10-year-old set. Definitely not adults interested in learning anything.

Dissapointing! No scary stories here...
More historical and folklorish than actually about "hauntings". Worth a read but not for much money! Check it out at the library, save your money, you'll be more satisfied. Being native american and LOVING ghost stories, I had high hopes that I could connect with this book . NAW. I was very dissapointed!

A fun book
Field Guide to North American Hauntings is a fun book. Whether you believe in ghosts or not, the stories are good old fashioned fun folklore. The author's style affects to be that found in nature "field guides." He indicates the type of "animal," its "habitat," its distinguishing characteristics, and it's habits, the likelihood of encountering the "specimen"and the danger such an "animal" might pose the serious observer.

Some of the stories are well known to anyone who enjoys this kind of book, particularly the haunts of Black Beard, the Bell Witch, Amityville house, the Winchester mystery house, and Resurrection Mary . In fact, there are more and better tales out there about these particular hauntings. Each retelling makes the character of the ghost and its sightings more entertaining. Whole TV shows have been made featuring them, so even those who don't read the common literature on the topic will know something about them if they watch TV at all.

It's difficult to determine the author's own stand on the paranormal. There were times when I could have sworn he wrote with a definite tongue-in-cheek. Some of what he said was actually very comical if taken from a more skeptical frame of mind. Some of it was truly priceless. The credulousity of the spook hunter has to be overwhelming when some of the cautions the author provides are expected to be taken seriously, so it was difficult to believe that he "believed."

Whether the author is a skeptic or a believer, he does offer some very good advice to the perspective ghost hunter. "Be polite," being the most important. "Ask permission," being coequal. Since some of these haunted sites are on private property, the ghost hunter would be well advised to ask permission or risk breaking and entering charges. The ghost may or may not be tangible, but the fine or imprisonment will be! Also, not everyone who lives in or on reputedly haunted property actually believes any of the stories, and turning away prospective investigators at ones door at all times of the day or night may well be considered a great pain rather than a great opportunity. There are plenty of public venues that have had reported sightings, so I'd leave the haunted house to its owners unless invited to do otherwise.

Where there are public sites, many are historic in nature, celebrating--or commemorating--national or local events. If there is a fee of admission charged, as the author urges, pay it. These public sites are usually restored and maintained by what they earn in admissions fees, and while your interest may not be in the historic intent of the monument, that of others is. Furthermore, before rendering your opinions on the paranormal value of a site like Gettysburg, remember that a serious historian--academic or enthusiast-- can be every bit as intense about their passion as any would be ghost hunter about theirs, and that they can take considerably greater exception to having their pet monument visited by a lot of "hocus pocus" then the most irate ghost ever considered!

Some of the venues, like the Bird Cage in Tombstone and some of the hotels and inns mentioned here and in other books, actually capitalize on the public notoriety arising from their propriatery haunt,and these are probably the sites to visit for those with a psychic tourist orientation. Your interest is in their best interest, so you will be bothering no one and your interests and needs are more likely to be welcomed and encouraged.

The author also gives some very sound advice with respect to validating a haunting. Much of what he says in the section on this subject is very cogent, because what might be mistaken as a paranormal phenomenon is almost always going to turn out to be something among his list of likely physical causes.

A fun book, well conceived.