Joshua P. Warren

My wishlist has gotten so large that I sometimes forget what I put on it. Therefore, I was surprised when this showed up in a Christmas package. I checked and sure enough, I’d put it on the “Pseudoscience” list and somebody bought it for me.


This is, of course woowoo, but it’s interesting woowoo. The author, Joshua Warren, is the president of LEMUR, a “paranormal research team”, and advocates a “scientific” approach to the study of ghosts. Thus he has perfectly reasonable advice, like document everything, don’t jump to conclusions, always apply Occam’s Razor and seek a natural explanation first, and beware of “psychics”, since (as he puts it) “why would you use one unexplained phenomena to investigate another?” Unfortunately he also believes in things like dowsing rods pendulums, and automatic writing. And the center of his hypothesis for “ghostly” manifestations is the notorious “human energy field” which turns up so often in woowoo, from Therapeutic Touch to Spiritualism.


Mr. Warren’s idea is that ghosts have an “energy field” that can manipulate things like dust particles and the like, sometimes gathering them together to make some sort of coherent image. The “energy field” is sort of like static electricity, and Warren notes that hauntings can sometimes be stopped by installing humidifiers in the haunted house. (Of course, the elimination of creaking noises and ghostly “footsteps” by a humidifier suggests a simpler explanation to me). There are some relatively exotic suggestions that build on the “energy field” theme, such that ghosts are more active during times of high solar activity and that you can track otherwise invisible ghosts with an EMF meter. The book includes the usual assortment of camera artifacts that are interpreted as spiritual manifestations, including the infamous Brown Lady of Raynham Hall, who turns up in just about every ghost book ever written. I wonder if she gets royalties? (It’s instructive to use Google Image on “Brown Lady of Raynham Hall” and note how the supposedly authentic original photograph somehow comes in many different variations of contrast and detail).


Fairly entertaining and a good source if you want to be familiar with what you’ll have to debunk if you run into a ghost believer.… (meer)

While at times reading more like ad copy for the locations mentioned than a look at their haunted histories, Haunted Asheville does still manage to cover some fertile ground of haunted happenings in the area. Most of the book covers the Grove Park Inn and the Pink Lady said to wander its halls, mainly because Warren was invited by the Inn to conduct a thorough investigation of the property to find answers.

Along with the Grove Park Inn, Warren relates other tales of woe and mysterious happenings in and around Asheville, including the well known Helen's Bridge of Zealandia, which is still a popular spot for teens and college kids to test their mettle or spook their dates into their arms.

Definitely an interesting read, and a welcome edition to my growing paranormal research library; but I have to ask one question: does Joshua P. Warren ever smile? Because he certainly doesn't in any of the pictures he includes of himself here.… (meer)