Ghost Hunter's Guide to The San Francisco Bay Area [Paperback]

Jeff Dwyer (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 31, 2005 | Series: Ghost Hunter's Guide

This guide highlights more than one hundred haunted spots, all accessible to the public, in and around San Francisco. Listings include addresses and other contact information for sites as diverse as the Old Bodega Schoolhouse, featured in Hitchcock's horror film The Birds, to the poltergeist-infested Bank of America Building. Intrepid visitors can even plan their own paranormal experiences with the author's handy checklists, procedural tips, and lists of published and on-line resources.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"This is a book that is a good guide to its subject, but it is also a pleasant read..." -- Dan Hays, Statesman Journal, Portland, OR

Fans of hauntings and ghost stories...will love this comprehensive guide to the Bay Area's most eerie spots." -- Fabuloustravel.com

From the Back Cover

Devised for the fearless tourist, curious traveler, or local resident craving a lively twist on local history, Ghost Hunter's Guide to the Bay Area highlights more than one hundred haunted spots in and around San Francisco, all accessible to the public, where you can research and organize your own ghost hunt. Complete with handy checklists, procedural tips, and anecdotal evidence of previous sightings at each location, the guide is a novel supplement--or alternative--to traditional tourist guidebooks. With advice on what to do with a ghost, basic preparation for ghost hunting, and other telekinetic tidbits, this guide invites day-trippers to experience an eerie encounter with a former Bay Area inhabitant. Whether your sleuthing takes you to familiar visitor spots like Alcatraz, Angel Island, Jack London State Historical Park, San Rafael Mission, Monterey Beach, or Winchester Mystery House, or you choose to venture to more obscure locations in outlying areas, readers who follow Dwyer's suggestions are sure to encounter territory unexplored by the average visitor. Jeff Dwyer, a native of northern California, has been fascinated with local history and ghost stories since boyhood. He currently works as a clinical specialist in cardiology. His numerous professional experiences working in intensive care units, rehabilitation facilities and hospitals, and his visits to cemeteries and other historic sites around the Bay Area led to extensive research that culminated in Ghost Hunter's Guide to the Bay Area. This is his first book.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 176 pages
• Publisher: Pelican Publishing (March 31, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1589802896
• ISBN-13: 978-1589802896
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.5 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #420,014 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Jeff Dwyer is the author of an 7-book series of non-fiction guides for ghost hunters published by Pelican Publishers of Gretna, LA. He has authored eighteen articles for medical journals, chapters for two textbooks, three novels, one hundred and fifty songs, and two screenplays for television.
Born in the heart of the San Francisco Bay area, Jeff spent his early years in the small island community of Alameda where he developed a love for sailing, fishing, and local history and a fascination with the ships and airplanes of the nearby naval air station.
In college, Jeff became an All-American swimmer while pursuing his interests in the medical sciences in which he earned a bachelor's degree, two Master of Science degrees, and a Ph. D. This education landed him jobs at prestigious institutions, among them Duke University and the University of Southern California. Currently, Jeff works as a clinical specialist in cardiology.
Inspiration for Jeff's writing projects comes from his personal experience and keen sensitivity to the emotional and spiritual aspects of issues facing people today. His most recent novel, Passages Home, takes readers into the heart and mind of a veteran of the war in Iraq. The story explores spiritual and emotional wounds known as post-traumatic stress disorder, and a process of healing discovered in then vineyards, forests, beaches, and meadows surrounding the northern California town of Mendocino.
Fascinated with the paranormal, Jeff is an active paranormal investigator, researcher, lecturer, and consultant. Visit www.jeffdwyer.com to read about his investigations.
Jeff Dwyer is an accomplished public speaker having addressed audiences in excess of 2,000 people on a wide variety of topics ranging from paranormal phenomena to issues in medical research. He has been a frequent guest on radio and television in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A highlight of a hundred haunted spots in and around the city, October 5, 2005

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Ghost Hunter's Guide to The San Francisco Bay Area (Paperback)

If it's ghostly encounters which attract you and a visit to San Francisco is in your future, take a look at Jeff Dwyer's Ghost Hunter's Guide To The San Francisco Bay Area: it's a highlight of a hundred haunted spots in and around the city, all accessible to the public, where you can search out your own haunts. Anecdotes of sightings accompany checklists and details on available tours. Addresses and phones, and black and white photos of each haunted place, are included. Dwyer is a native of northern California and personal, extensive research has resulted in a winner.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Easy to read, and full of great info., August 17, 2009

By 

Neil Nodado - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Ghost Hunter's Guide to The San Francisco Bay Area (Paperback)

This book is a must have! The chapters are well organized and the book itself is easy to read. The first chapter deals with the basics of ghosts and proper group investigation techniques, and the subsequent chapters are divided by Bay Area regions. In each case a brief history of the location is discussed, and reports of the paranormal are also included. In addition, the author was nice enough to provide contact information where applicable. In conclusion, buy this book.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Everything You Always Wanted To Know About Ghost-Hunting, But Were Afraid!, March 23, 2010

By 

Scotman55 "James" (San Francisco, CA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Ghost Hunter's Guide to The San Francisco Bay Area (Paperback)

Jeff Dwyer's book, Ghost Hunter's Guide to the San Francisco Bay Area is his first book written on the spiritual goings-on in San Francisco and Northern California areas. I picked up this book in the first place to check out where some haunts may be haunted, and where I might find myself a spook or two.

The book is very practical. He names names and where the hot spots are: Golden Gate Bridge, Los Gatos shopping mall (the site of a former graveyard), Mission Dolores and so on. He expands his reach to the obvious (Winchester Mystery House) and the not-so-obvious (The Balclutha!).

He tells you how to dress, what to bring, how to record and what to do when confronted with a spirit.

Cold spots are a good clue, as well as a whisp of an apparition or the sounds and moans that could be the manifestation of a ghost.

Are ghosts dangerous? How do you communicate with them? All this is answered.

There was even an informative essay about Hotel Leger in Mokelumne, California where I did a ghost tour. Murders and death awaited those during the gold rush.

Highly recommended.

Other Dwyer Books:

Ghost Hunter's Guide to California's Wine Country
Ghost Hunter's Guide to California's Gold Rush Country
Ghost Hunter's Guide to Seattle
Ghost Hunter's Guide to Los Angeles

...And many more!