past
seminars, to be offered again
(depending on interest level) :
Please
let us know if the topic(s) below interest you (send an email to esper@california.com)
With enough interest, the class will be
scheduled.
DO
note that many of these are now classes that compose the Certificate Program in
Parapsychological Studies at HCH Institute.
For more information, click here.
Psi and the Media:
The Social
Impact of the Media on
Parapsychology, Psychic Phenomena & Belief
The Media (TV, Radio, Print and Film) has had an
enormous impact on the way
the public has formed opinions on psychics, psychic abilities and even the
field of Parapsychology. From horror
films to the tabloids, the portrayals of psi have caused many in the public to
form misconceptions and even fear-reactions where the paranormal is concerned.
In this full day seminar, we’ll look at psi in the
various media – both negative and positive portrayals, and consider just how
and why the impact has been so great.
We’ll discuss the reasoning behind some of the media’s decisions regarding how
to portray psychic abilities and parapsychology, and situations in which
parapsychologists have had an impact on those portrayals.
We’ll examine the variations of these portrayals of psi with regards to the
specific media forms, and what the needs are of those various media (and just
how this affects the media decisions being made).
We’ll consider the role of the Skeptics in all of this as well.
Finally, we’ll look at ways parapsychologists,
paranormal investigators and amateur ghost hunters can best deal with the
media, to make the experience worthwhile
and the end result (the media piece) closer to reality.
Naturally, we’ll be going over video and film clips,
as well as looking at print coverage. The instructor will be sharing quite a
bit of his extensive experience with the Media.
Attendees are encouraged to contact Loyd Auerbach in advance to discuss
video clips they might want to have
included in the class, and to bring along print articles for discussion.
“BEING PSYCHIC:
Focus on Extended Sensory Perception and Spirit
Communication”
This class/seminar covers the “informational” psychic abilities that have been called extra-sensory perception:
telepathy, clairvoyance and precognition. We’ll discuss how these abilities show up in people’s experiences,
both those of the average person and the ostensibly more “talented” psychics.
We’ll also discuss the role telepathy and clairvoyance play in ghost encounters, hauntings and mediumship.
With discussion of parapsychological research from the early days to the more recent remote viewing,
ganzfeld, and staring studies, attendees will also learn the evolution of research methods in the laboratory.
Some
time will also be spent discussing the recent research of Gary Schwartz,
working with psychic mediums at the
We’ll discuss how these abilities are experienced and accepted or rejected in various cultures around the world,
and the major part Belief plays in having and developing ESP. We’ll also discuss the major debate in Parapsychology
dealing with Survival (of Bodily Death) vs. Super-Psi as conceptual explanations for a variety of ghostly and after-death experiences.
Finally, we’ll take some time to try a few more experiential situations.
We’ll conduct some clairvoyance and remote viewing “tests” as well as play a few telepathy and psychometry games
based somewhat on my experience of a TV game show that was in development for the Game Show Network last year
(that show currently in limbo, it seems).
THE SEARCH FOR LIFE AFTER DEATH
Do we
survive the Death of our Bodies?
Is
there Life After Death?
This
seminar will cover what the evidence garnered from research into ghosts,
mediumship,
near death experiences, electronic voice phenomena, out of body experiences,
reincarnation
and psychic experience says about whether we live on in some fashion after the
deaths of our bodies.
Are mediums really speaking with spirits?
Why do ghosts stick around after death?
These questions and more will be addressed during this fascinating one-day
seminar
Precognition and Time:
PREDICTING THE FUTURE, CHANGING THE FUTURE
Look around you. Check the
supermarket tabloids for psychic related stories.
Look at what the general focus is of other print media sources.
Watch a variety of stories dealing with psychics on TV news programs.
Assess the coverage of psychics on the paranormal magazine programs.
What’s the most common theme in all the coverage?
Predicting the future.
But with all the psychics over the
years that have made predictions of events, both great and small,
why is it so many predictions have missed completely? And why is it so many
predictions and prophets
get so much publicity at the time of the prediction, but little or no
discussion of how and why so many predictions
miss the mark? In fact, only the skeptics seem to do any "assessment"
of psychics’ track records each year.
What about the premonitions of the
average person?
People report dreams and visions and feeling of both positive and negative
events that have come true for them.
But the skeptics keep pointing a finger, saying that if you take into account
all the premonitions people
have that have not come true, it’ll all boil down to coincidence.
But is this the case? Is it all good and bad guessing and coincidence?
Parapsychologists have evidence that
precognition, an awareness of future events without the use of logical inference,
exists.
Research, both in the lab and in life, indicates that people can predict some
future events, but not all.
Sometimes precognition works well, and sometimes it doesn’t.
The skeptics say that’s because precognition doesn’t exist, that no one can predict the future.
But the experiences of many
individuals, psychics and normals, coupled with the research findings
and the theories (however far out) of some physicists say it can and does
exist.
This
class will take a look at how theories and concepts of Time,
whether there is or is not a Future
to predict, and how precognition might work.
We'll
look at the more common ways precognition comes through,
from psychic dreams to prophetic visions, and
ways to learn about and
possibly enhance your own precognitive
abilities..
Finally,
we'll look at why you should not necessarily take premonitions literally,
whether you made the prediction or it came from
a psychic,
and how you can
use such premonitions
to create the best Future for yourself and those
around you.
Can we
predict the Future?
Can we change the Future?
Come to this one-day seminar and find out.
Remember:
As that great Jedi philosopher Yoda said in THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK,
"Always in motion is the Future."
Mind Over Matter:
PSYCHO-KINESIS and YOU
In this all day session, we'll review
what parapsychologists and many others know today about PK, how it manifests
itself, and how it hints at the broader interconnectedness
between our consciousnesses and the Universe around us.
In addition, there will be an
experiential segment to this class, beginning with some videotape of the late
(great) science and science fiction writer Martin Caidin, himself capable of
PK.
Attendees will learn from Caidin (and the instructor, Loyd Auerbach) his own
method for learning to do PK.
Following that, we'll all try it -- and if past workshops Caidin and I did
years ago are any indication, a good number of the people attending will have
some quick success at Caidin's method of PK.
The instructor is
parapsychologist/paranormal investigator and author Loyd Auerbach, M.S.
Auerbach is President of the California Society for Psychical Study, a
Consulting Editor for FATE magazine, an Adjunct Professor in Consciousness
Studies at
Ghost-Hunting 101:
INTRODUCTION TO PARANORMAL INVESTIGATIONS
We'll go
over the basic parapsychological models of spontaneous cases of
apparitions, hauntings, poltergeists and other forms of psi experiences.
We'll talk about the investigative process, from the initial assessment
(of whether it's a case that can or should be investigated)
to the on-site investigative techniques and how to come up with solutions and
resolutions.
We'll discuss the role of technology in the modern ghost-hunt,
as well as the place psychics and other sensitives have
(and developing one's own sensitivities).
We'll be
discussing motivations for being a paranormal investigator,
where data gathering comes in
and the importance of the clients (the living residents of the locations).
We'll also
compare the methodologies of parapsychologists to
the self-proclaimed "ghost hunter."
Special emphasis will be placed on their emphasis
on technology (especially cameras), why focusing on technology over human
experience
can easily lead to incomplete or incorrect understanding of the phenomena,
and why this focus does very little for the people who call for help in these
matters.
We will be
offering a follow-up class, with more in-depth investigative training
in the near future. Students who pass through these classes will be
invited on
investigations conducted by members of the Office of Paranormal Investigations.
BEING PSYCHIC, part one:
An Introduction to Psychic Experiences
This class/seminar is aimed at how
psychic phenomena and abilities
are experienced by people the world over.
What is the range of the experiences,
and why are some people evidently more "psychic" than others?
What have parapsychological researchers discovered with regard to
personality, physiological and belief variables?
In other words, what makes one psychic at all?
There will be discussion of research methods,
including recent research in Remote Viewing and Psychokinesis.
Psychic development will be addressed and some techniques passed along.
Basic philosophy behind "being psychic" will be discussed,
as well as a primary focus on immense part that Belief plays.
The concerns
of the skeptics/debunkers will also be addressed,
as will issues of how one can fake psi and why people believe it when it's
faked.
Finally,
there will be discussion of how to assess psychic readings
and even the backgrounds of self-professed psychics, parapsychologists,
and paranormal investigators.
GHOST HUNTING 201:
CASE STUDIES
[Note: You do NOT have to have taken the initial Ghost Hunting 101 class to take this one. Please tell all your friends who might like a day of “ghost stories”…bring a friend, get a discount!]
This seminar will look at paranormal investigations from the perspective of what actual cases can teach us
about the actual phenomena of apparitions, hauntings and poltergeists, how the cases can shape
the methodologies one uses to investigate, and a variety of means for resolution of the cases.
We’ll take a look at how “normal” happenings get mistaken for “paranormal” ones,
and the role fraud might play in deceiving the witnesses (and the investigators).
Throughout the day, we’ll review specific cases handled by Loyd Auerbach,
the Office of Paranormal Investigations, and other parapsychologists over the years. We’ll review cases such as:
· a couple haunted by amorous spirits
· an apparition of a living woman in an otherwise haunted house
· a woman seemingly choked by a ghost (in front of investigators)
· the case that convinced Loyd Auerbach that apparitions do exist
· a poltergeist that douses the ceilings of a home with water
· a case right out of the horror movies that turned out to be an environmental nightmare
·
the long-term haunting of the Banta Inn,
·
the long-term haunting of the Moss Beach
Distillery,
· the long-term haunting of the USS Hornet Aircraft Carrier Museum
· and much more…
Cases will be reviewed, and in some instances, attendees will be able to watch video
of the investigation and of the witness testimony. We’ll also focus on a few cases where
“something” was caught on video, and what that means.
Think of this as a day of in-depth ghost stories, with the twist that attendees will
learn how the different fact patterns and phenomena of each case plays into understanding
what’s going on, how to investigate and assess it, and how to deal with the phenomena to
a satisfactory resolution (satisfactory as far as the people living or working in the situation are concerned).
PARAPSYCHOLOGY,
PSYCHIC EXPERIENCE AND ABILITIES
FOR GHOST HUNTERS
(and other interested parties)
This class is both an introduction to and an in-depth look at:
1)
How psychic abilities play into the experiences of people who have encountered
apparitions, hauntings and poltergeists
2) Why ESP and Psychokinesis are essential to
the models of apparitions and poltergeists
(and maybe – or maybe not – to hauntings).
3) How psychic experience and ability plays into the investigation process:
a) As far as the subjective experiences you may have as an investigator,
b)In conducting field experiments on-site during investigations
4) How to select and work with psychics and sensitives
5) How investigators can recognize and enhance
their psychic abilities
(in other words, psychic development FOR paranormal investigators)
6) Why and how knowledge of parapsychological lab research can only enhance one's effectiveness in dealing with apparitions, hauntings and poltergeists (and even fraudulent case situation)
The
instructor is parapsychologist/paranormal investigator and author
Loyd Auerbach, M.S.
Auerbach is Director of the Office of Paranormal Investigations, a partner in
the Paranormal Research Organization, immediate Past President of the
California Society for Psychical Study, an Adjunct Professor in Consciousness
Studies at
For Information, contact Loyd Auerbach at esper@california.com
or call the
Office of Paranormal Investigations at (415) 249-9275.
