I often kill time by browsing my amazon recommendation list. This has brought me to some of the best and worst books that now live in my library. The other day my list popped up with the suggestion that I read Michelle Belanger’s The Ghost Hunter’s SurvivalGuide. I was leery at first because I am not generally the author’s biggest fan. However, since the kindle version of the book was only $2.99 I figured what the hell. I was surprised to find that there was actually some useful information in the book, though not the kind I was expecting.
With a title like The Ghost Hunter’s Survival Guide I was expecting the book to focus on how investigators can protect themselves during an investigation. The book did spend about a chapter on this - discussing grounding and centering on a very basic level and an introduction to simple shields. However, the topic of protecting the investigator stopped there. Instead, the vast majority of the book focuses on how to cleanse a haunted house. So if you’re looking for a book that gives basic “how to deal with negative energy in a dwelling” information then this might be a decent book to start with.
On the plus side, the book is well written. It’s organized as a story of a particular haunting investigation and house cleansing. Each chapter tells a bit of the story and then goes into some technical details of what was done. The story makes the book an entertaining read and thus worth the three bucks I spent on it. The techniques she discusses for removing attachments and getting rid of stagnant energy are all good solid techniques if you’re unfamiliar with the practices. If you already have any proficiency with energetic cleansing then you really don’t need this book. (I’m certainly biased but I think most people would be better off getting my book instead.)
I guess my biggest problem with this book is that it’s really not what I expected from the title and the book jacket description. This is not a book for paranormal investigators. The actual “investigation” that’s discussed in this book is really just Belanger getting the psychic lay of the land and isn’t what I’ve come to expect from people that use the term “ghost hunter.” I tend to lump ghost hunters with paranormal investigators – folks who go into purportedly haunted place and try to gather some kind of tangible evidence that something beyond the mundane is going on. When I get a call from someone who wants my help dealing with a haunting I will basically do what Belanger outlines – go to the house, get a feel for it and then do the appropriate cleansing- but I don’t call myself a ghost hunter for doing it. That’s not being a ghost hunter, just a good witch.
So yeah, I give this book a solid “meh.” I didn’t really like it, but I didn’t really dislike it either. Belanger’s techniques are all well explained and will actually work if done correctly, but they’re really not for ghost hunters they’re for people who specialize in banishing. If you’re a ghost hunter who wants to transition to performing cleansings and banishings, then this might be the book for you. There are better books out there on basic psychic protection whose techniques will be far more valuable to paranormal investigators.
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