RAHM
Metaphysical Exploration Group
Resources for Awakening Hearts and Minds
Metaphysical Exploration Group
Resources for Awakening Hearts and Minds
January RAHM Event
Investigating the Paranormal:
A Parapsychological Perspective
with
Loyd Auerbach
A Parapsychological Perspective
with
Loyd Auerbach
Date: Sunday, January 29, 2012
Time: 6:30 - 7:00 PM snacks and networking
7:00 - 10:00 PM Presentation
Admission: $10 - $25
sliding scale
Place: Oaks Room
Novato Oaks Inn
215 Alameda Del Prado
Novato, California
(Directions)
Light Snacks and Drinks Provided
Time: 6:30 - 7:00 PM snacks and networking
7:00 - 10:00 PM Presentation
Admission: $10 - $25
sliding scale
Place: Oaks Room
Novato Oaks Inn
215 Alameda Del Prado
Novato, California
(Directions)
Light Snacks and Drinks Provided
Background
Human beings are drawn to a good ghost story. Human beings also are continually reporting situations in which they believe ghosts are playing a part. What are the methods for investigating and some of the possible explanations for these experiences that people have been having for thousands of years?
In this presentation, Professor Loyd Auerbach will examine methods and motives of field investigators who look into reported incidents of ostensible apparitions, hauntings, and poltergeists. It will be a guide to ghost hunting, and attendees will gain the basic skills and understanding for investigation of ghosts, poltergeists, haunted places and related psychic experiences.
The class will include the models of what these things are (from the field of parapsychology), how the scientific and psychic approaches can mesh together, and how to assess a situation, investigate it, and resolve the case to the satisfaction of the people having the experiences (and hopefully to the satisfaction of the ghosts, when they’re involved).
Finally, using some of his cases, he will discuss the role of the parapsychological investigator as "solver" of the cases (as opposed to "gatherer" of data) - the ghost buster.
Some of the questions that will be addressed are:
· Who were the early ghosthunters, and how did they go about their investigations?
· What has been learned about apparitions, hauntings and poltergeists since the start of the field?
· How do scientific investigations differ from ones focusing on “busting” ghosts?
· How does what parapsychological investigators do differ from what’s portrayed on TV?
· How do psychics and mediums fit in to case investigations?
· How do normal events sometimes get labeled as paranormal ones?
Outline of the Seminar
· What do we “investigate” and Why? Basic Concepts
o Apparitions (ghosts), Hauntings and Poltergeists
o Approaches
§ Scientific Conceptual Framework
§ Psychic Conceptual Framework
· History: 130 years of Field Research and Investigation and how modern pop culture (thanks to TV) has altered the public’s view of what paranormal investigation is all about.
· Skills and more needed for investigations:
o Interviewing Skills
o Background Research Skills
o Observation Skills: Perception, Magic & Fraud
o Intuitive/Psychic Skills. Techniques for psychic self protection will be given.
O Environmental Sensors: Equipment/Technology
· Technology:
o What’s the purpose of tech?
O What kind of technology can be used, and where do you get it?
O How does one interpret the data?
O What tech has been useful?
O Correlations between the environment and phenomena
o Non-tech “tech”: Ouija Boards and other “occult” trappings
o Orbs! And other photographic issues
o Electronic Voice Phenomena (EVP) /Instrumental Transcommunication (ITC)
· Psychics, Mediums and Sensitives: The Human Detectors
· Perspective: The Problems with Tech (or, Tech vs. Human Experience)
· Science and Paranormal Investigation
o How Science does/does not relate to Technology (and its use)
o How Science is applied outside the Laboratory
o What makes an investigation “scientific”?
O When should it not matter whether the investigation is/is not scientific?
· Psi and Paranormal Investigation: where the phenomena and investigations fit into the broader spectrum of psychic experiences and abilities, and why one cannot separate ESP and PsychoKinesis from the phenomena being investigated.
· Resolution Techniques: A short primer on techniques that have worked to “bust ghosts.”
· What I’ve learned from my own field work.
· What I see for the future of investigations of the paranormal.
· Summary: Dos and DON’Ts for investigating the paranormal.
Human beings are drawn to a good ghost story. Human beings also are continually reporting situations in which they believe ghosts are playing a part. What are the methods for investigating and some of the possible explanations for these experiences that people have been having for thousands of years?
In this presentation, Professor Loyd Auerbach will examine methods and motives of field investigators who look into reported incidents of ostensible apparitions, hauntings, and poltergeists. It will be a guide to ghost hunting, and attendees will gain the basic skills and understanding for investigation of ghosts, poltergeists, haunted places and related psychic experiences.
The class will include the models of what these things are (from the field of parapsychology), how the scientific and psychic approaches can mesh together, and how to assess a situation, investigate it, and resolve the case to the satisfaction of the people having the experiences (and hopefully to the satisfaction of the ghosts, when they’re involved).
Finally, using some of his cases, he will discuss the role of the parapsychological investigator as "solver" of the cases (as opposed to "gatherer" of data) - the ghost buster.
Some of the questions that will be addressed are:
· Who were the early ghosthunters, and how did they go about their investigations?
· What has been learned about apparitions, hauntings and poltergeists since the start of the field?
· How do scientific investigations differ from ones focusing on “busting” ghosts?
· How does what parapsychological investigators do differ from what’s portrayed on TV?
· How do psychics and mediums fit in to case investigations?
· How do normal events sometimes get labeled as paranormal ones?
Outline of the Seminar
· What do we “investigate” and Why? Basic Concepts
o Apparitions (ghosts), Hauntings and Poltergeists
o Approaches
§ Scientific Conceptual Framework
§ Psychic Conceptual Framework
· History: 130 years of Field Research and Investigation and how modern pop culture (thanks to TV) has altered the public’s view of what paranormal investigation is all about.
· Skills and more needed for investigations:
o Interviewing Skills
o Background Research Skills
o Observation Skills: Perception, Magic & Fraud
o Intuitive/Psychic Skills. Techniques for psychic self protection will be given.
O Environmental Sensors: Equipment/Technology
· Technology:
o What’s the purpose of tech?
O What kind of technology can be used, and where do you get it?
O How does one interpret the data?
O What tech has been useful?
O Correlations between the environment and phenomena
o Non-tech “tech”: Ouija Boards and other “occult” trappings
o Orbs! And other photographic issues
o Electronic Voice Phenomena (EVP) /Instrumental Transcommunication (ITC)
· Psychics, Mediums and Sensitives: The Human Detectors
· Perspective: The Problems with Tech (or, Tech vs. Human Experience)
· Science and Paranormal Investigation
o How Science does/does not relate to Technology (and its use)
o How Science is applied outside the Laboratory
o What makes an investigation “scientific”?
O When should it not matter whether the investigation is/is not scientific?
· Psi and Paranormal Investigation: where the phenomena and investigations fit into the broader spectrum of psychic experiences and abilities, and why one cannot separate ESP and PsychoKinesis from the phenomena being investigated.
· Resolution Techniques: A short primer on techniques that have worked to “bust ghosts.”
· What I’ve learned from my own field work.
· What I see for the future of investigations of the paranormal.
· Summary: Dos and DON’Ts for investigating the paranormal.
About Loyd Auerbach
To Contact Loyd Auerbach
Phone, Office of Paranormal Investigations:
(415) 249-9275
Email: profparanormal@gmail.com
Web: http://www.mindreader.com
Web: www.hauntedbychocolate.com
Phone, Office of Paranormal Investigations:
(415) 249-9275
Email: profparanormal@gmail.com
Web: http://www.mindreader.com
Web: www.hauntedbychocolate.com
LOYD AUERBACH is Director of the Office of Paranormal Investigations and was appointed to the faculty of Atlantic University in late 2010, where he’s involved in developing an online Parapsychology related courses, as well as teaching an existing Parapsychology course. He is the co-author, with the late renowned psychic Annette Martin, of The Ghost Detectives’ Guide to Haunted San Francisco (Craven Street Books/Linden Publishing, April 1, 2011). He is the author A PARANORMAL CASEBOOK: Ghost Hunting in the New Millennium (Atriad Press, 2005). His 2004 releases were GHOST HUNTING: How to Investigate the Paranormal and HAUNTINGS & POLTERGEISTS: A Ghost Hunter’s Guide (Ronin Publishing).
His first book, ESP, HAUNTINGS AND POLTERGEISTS: A Parapsychologist’s Handbook (1986, Warner Books) was named the “Sacred Text”` on ghosts by NEWSWEEK (in August, 1996). PSYCHIC DREAMING (1991, Warner Books; 1999 Barnes & Noble Books), deals with the current understanding of dreams in general and psychic dreams in particular. His third book, REINCARNATION, CHANNELING AND POSSESSION, was published by Warner Books in April, 1993. MIND OVER MATTER (Kensington Books, 1996) focused on the limits human beings set for themselves and on psychokinesis. In 1999, he released the first video on "The Haunting of the USS Hornet" (a haunted WWII era aircraft carrier in Alameda, CA).
In 2012, another book will have him jump genres to Chocolate (just call him the “Chocolate Maven”). Look for Haunted by Chocolate: How to Go from Chocoholic to Chocolate Gourmet in early 2012. In 2009, he finished a Professional Chocolatier course and began selling his own unique chocolate products (“Ghost Drops”) in late 2010. Visit www.hauntedbychocolate.com for information about the book, chocolate tasting sessions and his own chocolates.
He was just elected to the Board of Directors of the Rhine Research Center in Durham, NC and serves on the Advisory Board of the Windbridge Institute in Tucson, AZ, and on the Scientific Advisory Board of the Forever Family Foundation. He was a Consulting Editor & columnist for FATE Magazine, a national publication dealing with the “unexplained,” from 1991 to December 2004, and is a past president of the California Society for Psychical Study (CSPS is currently in suspension).
Auerbach is the creator and principal instructor of the Certificate Program in Parapsychological Studies at HCH Institute in Lafayette, CA. This California state-registered non-academic program started in 2005, and has been available for Distance Learning since 2006. For more information, visit
www.hypnotherapytraining.com/parapsych.cfm
Loyd Auerbach has been an Adjunct Professor at JFK University, Pleasant Hill, CA, since 1983, currently in Integral Studies. He also served on the faculty of Rosebridge Graduate School for Integrative Psychology 1996-1998. He holds a BA in Cultural Anthropology from Northwestern University (1978), and an MS in Parapsychology from JFK University (1981). In January, 2011, he began teaching Parapsychology (online) through Atlantic University of Virginia Beach, VA.
A married resident of Martinez, California, Prof. Auerbach has been teaching Parapsychology and related topics in the San Francisco Bay Area and before that in New York for three decades. He has taught courses in Parapsychology, Anthropology, Altered States of Consciousness, Science Fiction, Magic, Public Speaking, Publishing and Media Skills. He lectures to colleges, conferences, and on occasion to corporate audiences around the United States. His first job in the field was as Public Information and Media Consultant to the American Society for Psychical Research in New York from 1982 through mid-1983. While there, he acted as a spokesperson and as an intermediary to facilitate communication between the media and the parapsychological community. Auerbach is an associate member of the Parapsychological Association, and a member of the Society for Scientific Exploration.
For over three decades, he has been investigating cases of reported paranormal phenomena, helping people understand what may (or may not) be going on in their lives. In 1989, he founded the Office of Paranormal Investigations (OPI), an outgrowth of the JFK University graduate program, which is a group for people to call when they believe they have a psychic or paranormal disturbance, and a resource center for Media, businesspeople, scientists, law enforcement agencies, and attorneys. While OPI’s main investigations are in the Bay Area, the group has affiliated investigators in many other areas of the country through its own network. In addition, he is currently working with several others to establish an organization to help connect parapsychologists and the growing paranormal community (amateur and hobbyist paranormal investigators and ghost hunters).
Auerbach was President of the Psychic Entertainers Association (PEA) from 2001-2005, and again for a short time in 2006. The PEA is an international organization of psychic entertainers (performers of including mentalism, bizarre magick, hypnotism, cold reading, and allied arts). He currently serves on their Board of Directors.
Loyd Auerbach is an accomplished Mentalist and Psychic Entertainer, performing as Professor Paranormal for private parties, corporations, at colleges and restaurants. His knowledge and interest in magic began while he was a graduate student, through a course he took intended to introduce the would-be researchers to the methods of phony psychics. He has since taught that same course a number of times. He is a member of the Academy of Magical Arts, has served on the Occult Investigations Committee of the Society of American Magicians, and was 1989 President of Assembly 112 of the Society of American Magicians. He received a credit as a “Creative Consultant” to the Magic of David Copperfield X: The Bermuda Triangle (CBS 1988).
Since 1991, and the development of a “spirit theater” show called Séance Fiction Theater, he left behind being a magician a moved into the realm of psychic entertainment and mentalism. While he loves his séance show, his main focus is performing for small, intimate groups (dinner parties, and the like) and his one-man show for the corporate, association and college markets, "Professor Paranormal's Psychic Mind Theater!" And he loves to weave his love and knowledge of chocolate into it all (yes, it can be done).
Prof. Auerbach is quite focused on media portrayals of the phenomena and the science of Parapsychology. He has been a consultant to various television producers and writers in the United States, Japan, and Great Britain, providing scientific, creative and promotional input. A few of his more recent TV appearances include ABC’s The View, Ghost Adventures, Ghost Stories, the A&E special Mediums: We See Dead People, two episodes of LivingTV’s Dead Famous, season one of Criss Angel: MindFreak, and the History Channel Specials Vampire Secrets (2006) and Voodoo Secrets (2005) (talking about folklore). He keeps tabs on the Media’s portrayal of Parapsychology through his constant contact with the media and his colleagues, and a variety of online tools.
His media expertise is often brought into play as a media and public speaking coach for authors and businesspeople. He has taught a Media & Presentation Skills course annually at JFK University, and he is featured as an “expert” in Public Speaking for Dummies by Malcolm Kushner (IDG Books, 1999; John Wiley & Sons 2004), and was Technical Editor for the last two editions of that book.
Auerbach’s additional media exposure includes many prominent appearances on paranormal-related programs for The Travel Channel, the History Channel, A&E, the Discovery Channel, The Learning Channel, and the Sci Fi Channel. He was Series Consultant for America's Most Haunted Places for the Travel Channel.
He was frequently seen on Sightings, and has had other national exposure in the media on The View, Criss Angel: Mindfreak, Larry King Live, Coast to Coast, the Today Show, Unsolved Mysteries, In Search Of, Oprah, Popular Mechanics for Kids, The New Edge, The Next Step, The Joan Rivers Show, Hard Copy, Evening Magazine, The Late Show, PM Magazine, Hour Magazine, Strange Universe, NPR, Disney Adventure Magazine, Intuition magazine, OMNI, Gannett News Service, ABC TalkRadio, and the Associated Press, among others; Bay Area appearances & interviews with KGO Radio and TV, KPIX-TV, KTVU-TV, KHBK-TV, KCBS Radio, KRON-TV, the Oakland Tribune, the San Jose Mercury News, the San Francisco Chronicle and Examiner, the Contra Costa Times; New York appearances on many television and radio talk and news shows; and interviews in the New York Times and the Los Angeles Times.
A feature article about him appeared in Southwest Airlines' magazine SPIRIT in March, 1998. He was the subject of a 7000+ word cover feature in the East Bay Express in February 2003 (Go to http://www.eastbayexpress.com and conduct a search on his name).
His is a familiar name around the nation as his media appearances number in the thousands: he has been interviewed on television, radio and in print all over the U.S. and Canada. He also gained recognition in Japan, having been featured in six television specials in 1991-94 on Tokyo Broadcasting System, the last shot in the Australian outback.
On the “offbeat” side, in May of 1993, he took David Letterman on a walk through a haunted house, which was broadcast on Late Night with David Letterman (NBC). He worked on-camera and as Associate Producer for a TV pilot for a series called Haunted America with Abbitt-Prest Productions, and as a field director for Mysterious Forces Beyond and Strange Universe. In 1999, he co-produced the first in a proposed series of investigation videos about haunted locations, THE HAUNTING OF THE USS HORNET, focusing on the ghostly experiences aboard a retired naval aircraft carrier. He is currently working on a special paranormal television project with a major television production company.
Loyd Auerbach, M.S., is available as a consultant and lecturer, for interviews, and of course, as Professor Paranormal.
His first book, ESP, HAUNTINGS AND POLTERGEISTS: A Parapsychologist’s Handbook (1986, Warner Books) was named the “Sacred Text”` on ghosts by NEWSWEEK (in August, 1996). PSYCHIC DREAMING (1991, Warner Books; 1999 Barnes & Noble Books), deals with the current understanding of dreams in general and psychic dreams in particular. His third book, REINCARNATION, CHANNELING AND POSSESSION, was published by Warner Books in April, 1993. MIND OVER MATTER (Kensington Books, 1996) focused on the limits human beings set for themselves and on psychokinesis. In 1999, he released the first video on "The Haunting of the USS Hornet" (a haunted WWII era aircraft carrier in Alameda, CA).
In 2012, another book will have him jump genres to Chocolate (just call him the “Chocolate Maven”). Look for Haunted by Chocolate: How to Go from Chocoholic to Chocolate Gourmet in early 2012. In 2009, he finished a Professional Chocolatier course and began selling his own unique chocolate products (“Ghost Drops”) in late 2010. Visit www.hauntedbychocolate.com for information about the book, chocolate tasting sessions and his own chocolates.
He was just elected to the Board of Directors of the Rhine Research Center in Durham, NC and serves on the Advisory Board of the Windbridge Institute in Tucson, AZ, and on the Scientific Advisory Board of the Forever Family Foundation. He was a Consulting Editor & columnist for FATE Magazine, a national publication dealing with the “unexplained,” from 1991 to December 2004, and is a past president of the California Society for Psychical Study (CSPS is currently in suspension).
Auerbach is the creator and principal instructor of the Certificate Program in Parapsychological Studies at HCH Institute in Lafayette, CA. This California state-registered non-academic program started in 2005, and has been available for Distance Learning since 2006. For more information, visit
www.hypnotherapytraining.com/parapsych.cfm
Loyd Auerbach has been an Adjunct Professor at JFK University, Pleasant Hill, CA, since 1983, currently in Integral Studies. He also served on the faculty of Rosebridge Graduate School for Integrative Psychology 1996-1998. He holds a BA in Cultural Anthropology from Northwestern University (1978), and an MS in Parapsychology from JFK University (1981). In January, 2011, he began teaching Parapsychology (online) through Atlantic University of Virginia Beach, VA.
A married resident of Martinez, California, Prof. Auerbach has been teaching Parapsychology and related topics in the San Francisco Bay Area and before that in New York for three decades. He has taught courses in Parapsychology, Anthropology, Altered States of Consciousness, Science Fiction, Magic, Public Speaking, Publishing and Media Skills. He lectures to colleges, conferences, and on occasion to corporate audiences around the United States. His first job in the field was as Public Information and Media Consultant to the American Society for Psychical Research in New York from 1982 through mid-1983. While there, he acted as a spokesperson and as an intermediary to facilitate communication between the media and the parapsychological community. Auerbach is an associate member of the Parapsychological Association, and a member of the Society for Scientific Exploration.
For over three decades, he has been investigating cases of reported paranormal phenomena, helping people understand what may (or may not) be going on in their lives. In 1989, he founded the Office of Paranormal Investigations (OPI), an outgrowth of the JFK University graduate program, which is a group for people to call when they believe they have a psychic or paranormal disturbance, and a resource center for Media, businesspeople, scientists, law enforcement agencies, and attorneys. While OPI’s main investigations are in the Bay Area, the group has affiliated investigators in many other areas of the country through its own network. In addition, he is currently working with several others to establish an organization to help connect parapsychologists and the growing paranormal community (amateur and hobbyist paranormal investigators and ghost hunters).
Auerbach was President of the Psychic Entertainers Association (PEA) from 2001-2005, and again for a short time in 2006. The PEA is an international organization of psychic entertainers (performers of including mentalism, bizarre magick, hypnotism, cold reading, and allied arts). He currently serves on their Board of Directors.
Loyd Auerbach is an accomplished Mentalist and Psychic Entertainer, performing as Professor Paranormal for private parties, corporations, at colleges and restaurants. His knowledge and interest in magic began while he was a graduate student, through a course he took intended to introduce the would-be researchers to the methods of phony psychics. He has since taught that same course a number of times. He is a member of the Academy of Magical Arts, has served on the Occult Investigations Committee of the Society of American Magicians, and was 1989 President of Assembly 112 of the Society of American Magicians. He received a credit as a “Creative Consultant” to the Magic of David Copperfield X: The Bermuda Triangle (CBS 1988).
Since 1991, and the development of a “spirit theater” show called Séance Fiction Theater, he left behind being a magician a moved into the realm of psychic entertainment and mentalism. While he loves his séance show, his main focus is performing for small, intimate groups (dinner parties, and the like) and his one-man show for the corporate, association and college markets, "Professor Paranormal's Psychic Mind Theater!" And he loves to weave his love and knowledge of chocolate into it all (yes, it can be done).
Prof. Auerbach is quite focused on media portrayals of the phenomena and the science of Parapsychology. He has been a consultant to various television producers and writers in the United States, Japan, and Great Britain, providing scientific, creative and promotional input. A few of his more recent TV appearances include ABC’s The View, Ghost Adventures, Ghost Stories, the A&E special Mediums: We See Dead People, two episodes of LivingTV’s Dead Famous, season one of Criss Angel: MindFreak, and the History Channel Specials Vampire Secrets (2006) and Voodoo Secrets (2005) (talking about folklore). He keeps tabs on the Media’s portrayal of Parapsychology through his constant contact with the media and his colleagues, and a variety of online tools.
His media expertise is often brought into play as a media and public speaking coach for authors and businesspeople. He has taught a Media & Presentation Skills course annually at JFK University, and he is featured as an “expert” in Public Speaking for Dummies by Malcolm Kushner (IDG Books, 1999; John Wiley & Sons 2004), and was Technical Editor for the last two editions of that book.
Auerbach’s additional media exposure includes many prominent appearances on paranormal-related programs for The Travel Channel, the History Channel, A&E, the Discovery Channel, The Learning Channel, and the Sci Fi Channel. He was Series Consultant for America's Most Haunted Places for the Travel Channel.
He was frequently seen on Sightings, and has had other national exposure in the media on The View, Criss Angel: Mindfreak, Larry King Live, Coast to Coast, the Today Show, Unsolved Mysteries, In Search Of, Oprah, Popular Mechanics for Kids, The New Edge, The Next Step, The Joan Rivers Show, Hard Copy, Evening Magazine, The Late Show, PM Magazine, Hour Magazine, Strange Universe, NPR, Disney Adventure Magazine, Intuition magazine, OMNI, Gannett News Service, ABC TalkRadio, and the Associated Press, among others; Bay Area appearances & interviews with KGO Radio and TV, KPIX-TV, KTVU-TV, KHBK-TV, KCBS Radio, KRON-TV, the Oakland Tribune, the San Jose Mercury News, the San Francisco Chronicle and Examiner, the Contra Costa Times; New York appearances on many television and radio talk and news shows; and interviews in the New York Times and the Los Angeles Times.
A feature article about him appeared in Southwest Airlines' magazine SPIRIT in March, 1998. He was the subject of a 7000+ word cover feature in the East Bay Express in February 2003 (Go to http://www.eastbayexpress.com and conduct a search on his name).
His is a familiar name around the nation as his media appearances number in the thousands: he has been interviewed on television, radio and in print all over the U.S. and Canada. He also gained recognition in Japan, having been featured in six television specials in 1991-94 on Tokyo Broadcasting System, the last shot in the Australian outback.
On the “offbeat” side, in May of 1993, he took David Letterman on a walk through a haunted house, which was broadcast on Late Night with David Letterman (NBC). He worked on-camera and as Associate Producer for a TV pilot for a series called Haunted America with Abbitt-Prest Productions, and as a field director for Mysterious Forces Beyond and Strange Universe. In 1999, he co-produced the first in a proposed series of investigation videos about haunted locations, THE HAUNTING OF THE USS HORNET, focusing on the ghostly experiences aboard a retired naval aircraft carrier. He is currently working on a special paranormal television project with a major television production company.
Loyd Auerbach, M.S., is available as a consultant and lecturer, for interviews, and of course, as Professor Paranormal.