Hans Holzer, one of the world’s leading researchers on the paranormal and ghosts takes time from his work to speak with Ghost! Magazine about his latest book, Hans Holzer's the Supernatural: Explaining the Unexplained, as well as what the last four or five decades have taught him as a parapsychologist. He has studied at some of the more prestigious institutes of the world, including Columbia University and the University of Vienna, as well as the London College of Applied Science. Dr. Holzer has been a teacher, lecturer, and is also active as a writer/producer of television and film documentaries. He was a writer/ producer and on-camera personality on the popular NBC series "In Search Of ..." and continues to obtain first hand accounts of paranormal activity from around the world. Imagine if you will, that you are sitting in his New York apartment, being entertained by his wonderful housecat, and marveling at the lifetime’s worth of knowledge that Dr. Holzer has accumulated. We should all be so blessed.

GHOST! MAG:
Hello Doctor and thank you for speaking with us today.

DR. HOLZER:
Thank you. It is always a pleasure to speak to someone who seems knowledgeable in this field and is trying to aid it in some way.

 

GHOST! MAG:
I am just in awe of your accomplishments. 119 books! When did you find the time?

DR. HOLZER:
(laughs) You are very kind. I have always been interested in these things since I was a very young boy.

 

GHOST! MAG:
I read your new book and I love the description of ‘spirit’ that you give in it.

DR. HOLZER:
Ghosts are somebody who are stuck in their personal turmoil at the time of physical death. They don’t understand what is going on and they do not know that they are dead. They are stuck. They don’t know what they are or where they are or how they got there.

 

GHOST! MAG:
No, I imagine not.

DR. HOLZER:
All they know is that something is wrong. They are stuck between two worlds and that is no place to be. You see, we are born with a double body. I only discovered this, maybe, seven or so years ago, and it is different than what I used to believe, oh, twenty years ago. But, I finally began to see what I should have been seeing. This double body is much like the inner and outer parts of a tire, if you will.

 

GHOST! MAG:
What an interesting analogy.

DR. HOLZER:
Yes, but you see it is exactly like that. The Outer part of the tire is the physical body, and the inner part of the tire is the spirit of a person. The bodies are similar except that the inner body is of a finer substance and detachable from the outer body. The inner body is what survives physical death. The two combined bodies, inner and outer, are what make the personality.

 

GHOST! MAG:
So, if that is the case, then, what are most ghost researchers seeing when they see orbs?

DR. HOLZER:
I am not familiar with the term ‘orb’.

 

GHOST! MAG:
Some people have called them ghost lights or spirit globes.

DR. HOLZER:
Ahh.. those personalities who are free spirits, who are not ghosts, can appear as globes of energy before they can manipulate that globe into the person that they were, to manifest as a full apparition. They must learn how to do this, you understand. They have to be taught how to communicate using Mediums.

 

GHOST! MAG:
You know, there are a lot of researchers who vehemently denounce the use of Mediums in their research.

DR. HOLZER:
(waving a hand) Science means ‘quest for knowledge’. Having access to a good quality trance Medium is therefore invaluable for the investigator. My job, as I see it, is to dispense with nonsense, to point out fakery, of which there is quite a bit, and to praise the praiseworthy.

 

GHOST! MAG:
So, besides the trance Medium do you use any other equipment?

DR. HOLZER:
I like a Polaroid camera because of the very high speed, but I do not need or use the rest of the equipment that so many are using these days.

 

GHOST! MAG:
No equipment at all? So, if you don’t happen to have a Medium with you do you just go on your sixth sense?

DR. HOLZER:
I’ve come to the conclusion, first of all, that there is no such thing as a sixth sense, that extra sensory perception does not exist. But what exists is some people have five senses that they sense further than most other people’s five senses. That is truly extra sensory perception. There is an ability for some to extend their own five senses further than others. And that is a form of psychic ability. Sometimes you can get pictures by simply having photographic paper, exposed in the presence of spirit. I speak of this in my book on that subject called: Psychic Photography: Threshold of a New Science.

 

GHOST! MAG:
Now, your teacher was Dr. Joseph Rein from Duke University. Among other things what do you think has been the most helpful thing you learned?

DR. HOLZER:
In research, it is better not to rely solely on the senses alone, that you have to have someone who can act as a ‘telephone’. That’s where mediums come in. I don’t mean clairvoyants or psychic readers; I mean trance mediums. They go out of body temporarily and they let the entity, if there is one present, speak to the researcher directly.

 

GHOST! MAG:
I heard from someone that there are certain ‘dirty words’ in this business that you don’t like.

DR. HOLZER:
(leans forward) There are some ‘dirty words’ in this work that I don’t like and I don’t use. They are ‘believe’ and ‘disbelieve’. One either knows or does not know. I made it a rule a long time ago to never talk about something that I don’t know about. If I talk about it, then I know.

GHOST! MAG:
Is this because believing and disbelieving are not based on fact?

DR. HOLZER:
Exactly.

 

GHOST! MAG:
So, how would the topic of possession fall into this area?

DR. HOLZER:
Oh, possession is a very real thing. Now, I’m not talking about something like Dracula, which is a very fine book, and the person who wrote that, by the way, was an agent before he became a writer. (laughs loudly).

 

GHOST! MAG:
(laughs too) Good one!

DR. HOLZER:
Seriously, though, the church believes, of course, that all possessing entities are all evil, that they are all demons. But fortunately for us, we know the true meaning of the word ‘demon’ which is a Greek word for ‘spirit’. The attachment of evil to this word is strictly American and European fantasy. Demon is Greek for Spirit. That’s all.

 

GHOST! MAG:
So, something like what is depicted in The Exorcist or The Omen is not correct, then.

DR. HOLZER:
No, not in the least. The Omen and The Exorcist are purely fantastical. The Exorcist, while it was based on a true story, was so changed by the time it reached audiences that most of the truth of the story had been eclipsed. True possessions bears little resemblance to that which is depicted in the film.

 

GHOST! MAG:
So what is true possession?

DR. HOLZER:
Possession is only possible under three conditions: Somebody is either an alcoholic, a drug addict, or they are extremely weak willed. What happens is that there is a person who has passed over and they don’t like it on the other side. They begin looking for someone that they can go back into.

 

GHOST! MAG:
They go shopping. Yikes.

DR. HOLZER:
Yes, and when they find someone, they will get in and will, at least temporarily, displace the person’s own personality. In this condition the person could do all sorts of things that they normally wouldn’t do, hurt people, murder people. Amityville, the case at Amityville that I was called in on, was a clear case of possession. The house was built on top of an Indian burial mound, which is not a good idea in the first place. But, then, the house that was there before this one, there was a flood, and a skeleton was exposed. Thrill seekers removed the skull and this is when all the ‘fun’ began.

 

GHOST! MAG:
I’ve read the story, but missed the movie version. I have to admit it scared the crap out of me. What part of it is true?

DR. HOLZER:
Well, the son of the family that moved in next was highly sensitive, though he never was aware of it, and he made the perfect vehicle for the Indians to take their revenge. They possessed him completely. He took a rifle and methodically went room to room and shot all of the family members. This, I tell you, is true. Now, what is interesting is that no one heard anything. This did not come out in the movie. But if they had heard something they would have gotten out of bed. They did not hear it. And even the neighbors in the neighborhood didn’t hear it. This is what happens when you have a psychic field in place. It doesn’t allow sound to travel normally.

 

GHOST! MAG:
Okay.. that’s frightening.

DR. HOLZER:
Drugs and alcohol have no place in this field at all.

 

GHOST! MAG:
I’ve had the experience where I was along on an investigation and all of a sudden was ‘overcome’ by this oppressive feeling of sorrow. It was so bad, Dr. Holzer, that it drove me to my knees. I had to hang on to the wall to keep my balance. It was overwhelming and it came out of nowhere. Was that possession?

DR. HOLZER:
Emotional transfer is a type of physical Mediumship. What you did was to pick up the ‘symptoms’ either from the past or the present, but you do not lose your own personality. And, the capture of voices, unless there is a medium nearby to give the entity the necessary energy to manifest, to use them, then these voices are left over from the past, imprints from the past.

 

GHOST! MAG:
So what are these imprints from the past?

DR. HOLZER:
The problem is that about a third of all psychic occurrences and all voices heard are not coming from living beings, they are left over from the past, imprints from the past.

 

GHOST! MAG:
I have to say that I wish I could talk to you longer. You have such an innate understanding of so many of the topics that I, and Ghost Magazine’s readers, really want to understand. And, for me, at least, one of the more incredible things that have come from all of this is that you have removed some of the frightening aspects from this unknown and mysterious world of ghosts.

DR. HOLZER:
It was my pleasure and any time I can be of help, I will be glad. It is important that the work continue. I hope that my new book can be a good guide for those who are just starting out and maybe a point of reference for those who have been in the field for a time, like myself.

Soon, it is Dr. Holzer’s understanding that the elements which were formerly considered supernatural will be fully understood in scientific principle. His book, Hans Holzer's the Supernatural: Explaining the Unexplained would seem to be a sneak peek toward that time as well as offering tips, hints and advice to ghost hunters on every level. At an advanced age, Dr. Holzer has compiled this book as a culmination of his life’s work.