By virtue of the fact that you have bought this book, you must have at least a casual interest in ghosts and ghost hunting and you may very likely intend to visit some of the sites covered in these pages to conduct investigations of your own. You may have read books, or seen television programs about ghost hunting and thought to yourself, ‘Hey that looks like fun. Bet I could do that.’ And you are right. It can be fun; and, yes, you can do it. But for those interested in conducting a serious ghost hunting session it is not quite so simple as merely showing up at a haunted site and waiting for the spooks to appear. Certainly you can take the wait-and-see approach, and it can be enjoyable and requires no special equipment or permission, but some of us want to pursue a more scientific, in-depth approach to chasing the other-worldly. For those of you who are considering a full-fledged, whistles and bells ghost hunt, this chapter will tell you how to get started and walk you through some of the fundamental dos and don’ts of amateur ghost hunting. Most people tend to gather their initial information on any new interest either through internet searches or television programs. And unquestionably there is a lot of information out there. Some of it is good and useful, while some of it is pretty bad and some is even downright dangerous. Investigating reports of ghostly phenomena can be easy or hard, depending on the case and on what the goal of the investigation actually is.
