Dr. Hans Holzer is the author of more than 130 books, many of which cover the supernatural. He received a Ph.D. in parapsychology from the London College of Applied Science. He's been studying the paranormal for more than 60 years and has investigated haunted locations all over the world. He currently lives in New York City. He was the first to coin the term "the other side of life."
Q: What was your first encounter with a spirit?
My first visual experience was when I lived in New York City with my father in a penthouse apartment on Riverside Drive. I was asleep in bed, and I woke up and there was my mother dressed in a white nightgown, pushing my head back onto the pillow. My head had slipped off the pillow. At that time I was subject to migraines. Had I not had my head back on the pillow, I probably would've had one, and there would've been dizziness and I would've been out of business for a day. I said, "Oh, hello, Mama." And she disappeared.
Q: Is that the event that triggered your interest in the subject?
It's not a question of whether I had experiences. My interest has nothing to do with personal experiences. Nothing in my scientific view does not have an explanation. The question is, sooner we get it or later we get it, but there has to be an explanation. You can't say nobody knows. I don't accept that.
Q: How does the spirit world interact with our own?
What I have learned in my investigations is that there are seven levels of consciousness on the other side of life that are concentric with our world. It's not up or down, it's just concentric. We can't see it because it moves at a different rate of speed than we move.
There's three levels when you are born. You are born with a physical outer body, a duplicate inner body, and at the very moment of birth—that's very important—the moment the child is supposed to see the light during childbirth; that is, when the soul or the spirit is inserted from the pool of available spirits from the other side.
Q: What is the most important part of a ghost investigation?
We are living in a technological age. And some of the investigators that I've met believe in all sincerity that running around with Geiger counters and cameras and instruments that can measure cold spots will be the way to investigate a haunting or a ghost. That's wrong. Because if you really are an investigator of the paranormal, and you're dealing with ghosts or hauntings, you're dealing with a human being—nothing more, nothing less. Therefore, you should have with you a good trancemedium who can lend her body or his body temporarily for that entity to speak through so you can find out what the trouble is. That's the way it works— not a Geiger counter.
Q: Do you put any stock in the camera during an investigation?
I have worked with psychic photographers. That's a special form of mediumship. Psychic photography is a gift. Some have it. I've used these people in haunted places. When there was something there, they would photograph it.
Q: What is something funny that happened to you during an investigation?
I was one of the first to investigate the Whaley House in San Diego in 1960. I was there with [psychic medium] Sybil Leek and Regis Philbin, whom I've been friends with for a long time. He was hosting a local television show, and the three of us went there. While we were there, the older woman, she appeared—it was a very white figure, and Regis got excited and turned on the flashlight, and of course that was the end of the phenomenon. And I keep reminding him of that.
Q: Have you ever been afraid doing this work?
Fear is the absence of information. Fear is created by not understanding something. You bring on the fear. There is no object to fear. I've never been afraid during an investigation. I shouldn't be in this business if I was.
There's nothing out there that isn't one way or the other human. Hollywood notwithstanding, there are no monsters out there. There is no other supernatural race, no devils, no fellows in red underwear. It doesn't exist.
The paranormal is part of our experience—we just don't always understand it as such.
Q: What have you learned about yourself during all these years of investigations?
My purpose is that I have a job. First of all, the other side, being a bureaucracy and being a well-ordered world, invests in people's abilities. When the other side decides some individuals have very good minds and good hearts, then they are given talents with the proviso that they will use those talents for the betterment of the world and mankind. If you don't, they won't like it. So they make it very plain: You have a gift. Use it. I found out early enough that they had something in mind for me. I accepted that it's an assignment. I noticed that what happened to me was kind of programmed: I met some people who were important for my career or for my enlightenment—it was all arranged. So I finally said, "Friends, I noticed you're running my life. It's okay with me. I will do it." And I hear this in my right ear: "We will guide you, help you. Use your gifts. You have two separate paths—one has to do with science, parapsychology research, and the other has to be the entertainment business. But you combine them to let the world know what you find."
And that's what I do.