An Interview with Famous "Ghost Hunter" Hans Holzer
by Rev. Laurie Sue Brockway
Hans Holzer is a real Ghost Buster. The author of multiple books on the topic of disembodied spirits - those that know they are dead and those that don't (ghosts) - Holzer has had amazing experiences testing the existence of ghosts and helping many of them "go home" when they get trapped in between the worlds. Obviously, his experience of things that go bump in the night transcends popular images of Casper and Halloween haunting.
In fact, he speaks of ghosts and other spirit entities as if they are real people, like you and I, who are simply headed for, or living in, a different dimension. He shared with me his rather expansive understanding of the nature of spirit friends. With the world's most noted counselor to the disembodied spirits, sitting around telling ghost stories takes on new meaning.
"I'm a scientist and this does not mean 'to know,' it means 'to quest for knowledge,'" he clarifies. "It's never finite. It always keeps changing and moving and you learn new things. But you do have to have standards. And scientific standards preclude me from accepting some of these fantasies."
"The other side tends to confirm what most religions teach," says Holzer. "If it weren't for the facts of parapsychology, religion wouldn't have a leg to stand on. Religion takes some of the evidence, which we know in parapsychology, and uses it for its own end--to distort the truth, to get people to obey. I'm not against organized religion, but spirituality is not religious; spirituality is a way of life. You don't need intermediaries for that."
Rev. Laurie Sue: Do you believe in ghosts?
Hans Holzer: I don't believe in anything. Belief is the uncritical acceptance of something you can't prove. I work on evidence; I either know or I don't know. There are three dirty words in my vocabulary: belief, disbelief and supernatural. They don't exist. There's no "supernatural world." Everything that exists is natural. Yet there is a dimension of existence that is as real as your living room, even if the average person cannot access it with all their senses? I coined the phrase "the other side" because it really is the other side, like one side of the mirror. The spirit world, or "the world next door," as Eileen Garrett called it, is not up or down. It is here, moving at a different rate of speed. And the dimension into which we all pass--except ghosts, because they can't get into it until they are liberated from their compulsions--is concentric with this dimension. It exists in the same special area, but because it's strung out further, it does not clash with the thicker atmosphere, the thicker dimension, in which we exist.
LSB: What's "the other side" like?
Everything we have here they have over there. This is a duplicate of this world except over there the purpose is to develop the personality from the negative to the positive, or to give them assignments or to send them down for some more education.
LSB: What is the difference between a ghost and a spirit?
We are all spirit. When we pass on, we simply get rid of the outer layer and, underneath, there really is a duplicate layer. This inner body--like an inner tube of a tire--is where our personality resides. At death the physical body is worn out and dissolved, so the inner body is where we live. So we need to have an atmosphere, a dimension, that fits this inner body and that's the world of spirit, or the etheric world. The etheric world is all around us. At death, we ride out into that world and we are right there. That's our normal transition. However, once in a while something goes wrong when somebody passes from the physical state.
LSB: What turns them into a ghost?
The death is not smooth. When there is trauma--an unacceptable accident or shock or surprise-- this will, in some cases, cause the personality to go into a state of psychotic shock. In that state of shock they are not aware that they've passed on. They are confused as to their real status, because they can see everybody and no body seems to be able to see them. That's what a ghost is...somebody who's gotten stuck in the physical world but is not part of the physical world. And they become panic stricken for attention and eventually they do things to get attention, like moving objects, creating noises. This is not to frighten people, they're just attention getters.
LSB: But not everything that goes bump in the night is a ghost?
It's the exception, rather than the normal transition. I have found that about 75 to 80 percent of the sightings or auditory phenomena are not really people stuck in our atmosphere, but replays from the past. Like an imprint on the atmosphere. It's a psychic imprint; an imprint on the atmosphere, which is energy like a television picture that is stuck in time. To the average person it looks exactly the same as a ghost. Even some mediums can't tell the difference. But if phenomena are observed exactly alike at the same time in the same place and a number of witnesses have reported identical experiences, then you probably have an imprint. If, from different witnesses, you have reports saying there's a variation in what the ghost entity is doing, then it's a real person. That's the only way you can tell one from the other.
LSB: How are they different from ghosts who crave attention?
The ghost personality is generally in various stages of psychotic condition--otherwise they would move on. The stay behind is someone who lived in one place for a very long time, and usually dies a gentle death; they just fall asleep, no violence, no pain. They are unused to any other place, partially because their religious belief has primed them to believe Hosanna with angels wings on their back, or in some cases, fellows in red underwear with pitch forks, would take them away. Low and behold, at death, they're still where they were before. The physical body isn't there--but there's a body and they see themselves, so they stay put. That's why people go to the funeral of Aunt Minnie, come back and there she is in her usual chair.
LSB: You made a distinction between a ghost and a spirit. Is there a distinction between a spirit and a soul?
No. The soul is the spirit. The soul is the personality. The soul is energy that manifests through and resides in an etheric body. This energy field, which is us, is what the church calls the soul and what the spiritually inclined people call the spirit. Popular culture has offered a few glimpses into the other side. In the movie "Ghost" we saw a spirit shocked out of his skin, yet determined to finish some business.
LSB: In your opinion, was the movie "Ghost" an accurate portrayal?
Everything was correct except for that last scene--which is Hollywood--where the furies come and get the bad guy. It doesn't work that way. There are no furies, there is no hell. There is only that which you bring with you to the other side. But movies are fantasy. This is real.
LSB: So we do bring our baggage with us at death?
When you pass on you take your memories with you. And if your life has been negative or a destructive one, you will have to go to school, so to speak, and the next time around you will have a chance to confront some of those issues again. That's the whole idea behind reincarnation. I did a lot of work on reincarnation for Life Beyond (Contemporary Books). I have no doubts whatsoever it exists for everybody.
LSB: Yet in between gigs in human form, can our beloved relatives communicate from the other side without being ghosts?
It's very common. Unfortunately, our culture teaches people that it is not possible, there is nothing out there, yet when somebody passes on, the first thing when they arrive on the other side is they want to let their loved ones know that they are still alive and that they are well and they are happy being with other loved ones. There is touching and cases where they feel the person. Yes. Oh, all of this is very possible.
For More Information:
Holzer is author of many books on his topic. For everything you need to know about ghosts but were afraid to ask check out:
Hans Holzer's the Supernatural: Explaining the Unexplained
New Page Books; (May 2003)
GHOSTS: True Encounters With The World Beyond, by Hans Holzer, (Black Dog and Leventhal Publishers, 1998)
Hans Holzer's Travel Guide To Haunted Houses: A Practical Guide To Places Haunted by Ghosts, Poltergeists and Spirits (Black Dog and Leventhal Publishers, 1998)
