Well, wow.  I'm half-way through the magnum opus of Jason Hawes.  Just thought y'all might like a little taste of what's inside.

From the back cover jacket – "Jason Hawes, cofounder of TAPS, lives in RI with his five children.  Also a LICENSED PLUMBER, he likes spending time with his family and going deep sea fishing.  He is currently working on a science fiction screenplay."

Chapter 1-

*Jason's story – basically, at age 22, he got into Reiki.  After six months of exposure to the "life force energy", Jason started "seeing things".  These things included spectral animals and full-body apparritions that appeared "from the mist".  He finds someone who "tests" him for paranormal sensitivity and is deemed "sensitive".  Jason apparently had some trouble with the frequency of which he was seeing these spirits because a random old lady, also a sensitive, approached him (just 'cuz she could sense he was sensitive?) and told him he could stop his visions by eating green olives.  Yup. Green ones…and Jason ate.  Tons of them.  He says he was up to a jar a day…and the visions stopped.  Someone should really tell the rest of the world's psychics about this caveat. 

*Meeting Grant – Grant's paranormal genesis isn't really flushed out in this title.  It's referred to as happening between his 15th and 17th year, in a forest.  And we know that's true because Jason confirmed it with Grant's friend.

*Both men say "screw it" (the way paranormal research is carried out by other teams) and form TAPS.  They decide they'll "insist on a more rational approach".  However, there's this sentence…"Grant and I decided that in order to extend our contact network, we first had to separate the people who saw things our way from those who didn't, and the best way to do that was by being controversial."  Well, that explains a whole lot!  Seriously!  So, the two guys write an article on their website claiming that orbs are crud and have nothing to do with the paranormal.

*The rest of the team.  – This section gets downright uncomfortable.  The first guy mentioned is Brian Harnois.  Here's what Jason says about his "dear friend".  "Anyone who has seen GH is familiar with Brian's shortcomings.  For one thing, he likes to spin yarns (also known as lies), and it drives us crazy."  I crud you not, that's exactly what it says.  "All he really wants to do is make people like him, but it backfires."  Hey Jay, you know what else backfires?  Writing a book like a pissy little middle schooler with an axe to grind.  Jesus, if this is how you treat friends…

Jay then talks about Brian, like he's not there, as being "wide eyed", too easily excited, and how he loses expensive equipment.  But, Jay still loves him.  We then meet Carl, Steve, Donna, etc.,.  This comes with your standard, logically corrupt appeal to authority – "These people work for NASA, the CIA, and the FBI.   They include a forensic scientist, a nuclear physicist, and a Secret Service agent, but they're so dedicated to ghost hunting they don't mind doing it anonymously."  Guess I should stop writing or I'll be hunted down, nuked, and put on the terrorist watch list.

Some other interesting quotes:

"Grant's driving passion is to make the paranormal investigations more scientifically acceptable.  Me?  Even with the evidence infront of me, I'm pretty skeptical.  So we balance each other out." – Jason

Wha'??

That's just Chpt. 1