GHOST DETECTIVE TAKES HUNT ONLINE.

Byline: Jennifer Klein Staff Writer

VENTURA - Keep accurate records, investigate the site thoroughly, and above all, do meticulous research.

Those are just a few of the tips Ventura County ghost chaser Richard Senate offers would-be ghost hunters during an online interview for a planned Web site devoted to the trade.

``One thing I've found with ghosts is it's a natural phenomenon,'' said Senate, who prefers to be called a ghost detective. ``There's no real danger. Real ghosts appear to come and go like leftover videotape from the past.''

The interview was the second in a series Senate is taping with John Anthony Miller, owner of Phantom Bookshop in Ventura, who has served up strange stories from his shelves for years and now hopes to create an interactive site online.

Miller's hauntedradio.com Web site, which he hopes to have up and running within three to four months, would offer online visitors call-in chats, debates and interviews, including the 10-part series with Senate.

Miller, who put up and maintains Senate's popular site, has held a decades-old fascination with ghosts he believes will translate into the virtual world.

In Miller's home in Ventura recently, Miller and Senate taped a 20-minute installment - one on practical ghost-seeking advice.

In his interview, Senate tempered the seriousness of his subject with light-hearted humor and a laid-back storytelling style.

While he warned people away from using photographic equipment - because it can be easily altered and its authenticity questioned - he suggested using a small tape recorder because they frequently pick up the faint voices of ghosts.

But generally, Senate, 51, said the best tools of the trade are a pencil and paper and a person's own senses.

``Trying to make a living out of it is pretty difficult, but making a hobby out of it is wonderful,'' advised Senate, who has written dozens on books on ghosts in Ventura County and California, teaches at California State University, Northridge, and appeared on specials on A&E and the History Channel.

Senate's own Web site, www.ghost-stalker.com, gets roughly 50 visitors a day, and the most popular question they ask is how to go about uncovering a ghost.

``I try to tell my students as much information as I can and let them make up their minds,'' Senate said.

The two met years ago, when Miller was a fan of Senate's cable television show in the '80s.

Miller calls Senate ``a no-nonsense ghost hunter'' and said it's his attention to detail that makes his Web site popular - an approach Miller would like to take with hauntedradio.com.

Miller put his own Main Street bookstore - which specializes in the unusual - online 10 years ago, as a way to distinguish his shop in an era of competition among bookstores, and believes the marketplace is ready for his new Web site.

``You've got to be real creative nowadays,'' he said.

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Photo: (color) Ghost detective Rich ard Senate, left, sits with John Anthony Miller, owner of Phantom Bookshop in Ventura, who is designing a Web site devoted to hunting ghosts.

Gus Ruelas/Staff Photographer