Taken from the late Dr. Grant's Secret Obake Casebook, these rules are there to make sure that the storyteller does not disrepect or invoke a spirt(s). Some entitys are better left alone, as is stated in the introductory part of that book, but as long as you take the proper precautions and have honorable intentions then the storyteller, you, should be safe.

FYI: Obake is Japanese for ghost, or spirit, as well as comically a type of flowering plant.

FYI part II: The Secret Obake Casebook deals with stories of darkness of the human nature, evil, and occurances of things of that nature, so I will not be posting anything other than the rules on telling a proper ghost story from it.

Glen Grant's: The Secret Obake Casebook: Tales from the darkside of the cabnet

"...It is important, then, for the spiritual protection of a ghost storyteller to have certain uncompromising standards to safely and correctly pursue his profession:


Golden Rule Number One:
Never ask someone to tell you a ghost story.

Ghost stories are private, spiritual encounters that must be volunteered, not sought after for the purpose of expanding a repertoire or selling more books. I never ask security gaurds if their buldings are haunted unless they first volunteer the information. Police officers, nurses, mortuary workers, gravediggers, and others who deal with the drama of life and death on a daily basis are never aggressively approached by me in the hunt for a ghost story. I don't intrude upon the private spiritual beliefs of others unless they willingly come forward for their own reasons to share their personal experiences of a ghostly encounter. Stories that are chased after for my own personal gain may bring to me forces that I don't wish to face. However, if the story comes naturally tome from someone seeking advice or merely wishing to share their story through me with a wider audience, then those tales seem filled with the truth.



Golden Rule Number Two:
Have a commitment to the truth of supernatural realities.

The ghost story requirtes the storyteller to respect the supernatural truth of the tale. The contribution the story collector makes to the process of storytelling is to emotionally, intellectually, and spiritually become one with the material which ever day accumulates in his files. In other words, to tell the story effectively, there must be a commitment to the reality of the spirits whose existance is being retold. This doesn't nessisarilymean that every story I hear is absolutly, 100% true in exactly the way it was collected-- or that the interpretation of why the event took place is always invariably supernatural. But the essantial truth of the uncany tales being shared, a faith that the ancient spirits can manifest themselves in the modern world, that the spirits of our dead loved ones do indeed walk, must be accepted if good intentions will flow from a lifetime spent walking with ghosts. The storyteller must therefore have the courage to stand up for the material that he collects against the charges of "superstition," "ignorance," or "deception," while makind sure that the crass exploitation of the sensation is never allowed to go unchallenced.



Golden Rule Number Three:
The storyteller must become the story.

A ghost story collector has a responsibility to elevate the tale that he has received--to use creative and inellectual insights to place the tale into the context of a greater meaning so the audience will be in some fashion enlightened by the fear, humor, wonderment, or other tingling emotions that are felt when one listens to ghostly tales. Hawaiians sometimes call this feeling which creates disturbing skin sensations 'ili 'ouli--literally, "skin signs." There are many such feelings types of skin sensaitons, including feelings of love, fear, awe, or anticipation. One special type of skins sign which signals the presence of supernatural beings is when the body is covered in goose flesh, a sensation called 'okakala. When the story teller has done his job well, with a love for the spirits whichhe invokes, then the audience will be overwhelmed by 'okakala..."