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Jeff Scott Cole is a writer, former middle school teacher, and broken-down archaeologist whose foray into the paranormal represents a hiatus from the traditional history texts typically found in his personal stacks. Born and raised in Cleveland, Ohio, Jeff holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Anthropology from Cleveland State University, where he was the first undergraduate in the university's history to successfully write and win competitive external grant funding from The Martha Holden Jennings Foundation, and The S. Livingston Mather Charitable Trust, for the production of a video documentary on Ohio prehistory for use in schools state-wide. Jeff continued his archaeology studies at the University of Cincinnati where he completed the course work for a Master of Arts degree. While in residence, he served as an Adjunct Instructor for UC's College of Evening and Continuing Education where he taught courses on North American Prehistory, and Ancient Mysteries. With the arrival of his son, Jeff retired his trowel, brushes and fedora, and shifted his career to the world of corporate human resources. Then, when saddled with the role of single-parent, he gave up his corporate ambitions and returned to the classroom as a long-term substitute teacher, teaching Social Studies and English/Language Arts for Madison Local Schools; Lake County, Ohio. Jeff is a member of the Society of American Archaeology, the Ohio Archaeological Council, and Co-Founder of The Friends of Prospect Place Association; a historic preservation interest group. Recently transplanted from Ohio's "eerie" coast, Jeff resides in Atlanta, Georgia where he is a Human Resources Consultant.
Reviewed by Jack Magnus for Readers' Favorite
Ghostly Encounters: Confessions of a Paranormal Investigator is a non-fiction supernatural book written by Jeff Scott Cole with Johnathon Robson. While the author was intrigued by some of the television reality shows featuring ghost hunters, his own interests in the paranormal lay with establishing credible, trustworthy documentation. He wasn't after spectacular results, but rather a reasoned, educated investigation tempered by the twin spirits of curiosity and skepticism. Ghostly Encounters is the result of those efforts. In it, Cole discusses how his move to a small town in Ohio was tailor-made for a beginning ghost hunter as the Madison Seminary, a 170-year-old building that had been used as a girls' school, an asylum and a poorhouse among other things, was situated in his new hometown, and, according to local legends, was haunted. His first step was to find other like-minded researchers. Searching the internet, he found a team based in Ohio that would allow him to join them, and another in the Tri-State area that was looking for new members -- and one of those groups already had plans to visit the Seminary.
Jeff Scott Cole's non-fiction spiritual/supernatural work, Ghostly Encounters: Confessions of a Paranormal Investigator, is a fascinating account of the author's investigations into a number of haunted buildings, cemeteries and historical battle sites, and he includes audio files from those investigations that are easily accessed by using a QR app or following the provided links. I have always been intrigued by the paranormal and ghost hunters, and had likewise become disenchanted with the somewhat fanciful reality shows that seem based more on conjecture than anything of substance, so I found the author’s accounts of his investigations to be refreshingly honest and trustworthy. Cole does more than share his experiences with the reader, however; he also gives recommendations on the types of equipment someone who wants to go into the field should consider buying, as well as providing an appendix with haunted buildings and paranormal investigative groups listed by state to help get you started.
Cole and Robson's own investigations are mind-boggling. I was spellbound reading each account and listening to those unforgettable and often poignant audio files. And while Cole's experiences in the field have led me to conclude that paranormal investigations are not something I personally want to get involved in, I definitely want to read about his and Robson's future paranormal encounters. Ghostly Encounters: Confessions of a Paranormal Investigator is most highly recommended.
