Dark Matter 10/14-Art Bell interviews Loyd Auerbach

[profparanormal]

I know numerous Associate Professors and Assistant Professors who worked YEARS and YEARS just to attain the deserved title of Professor - ALL Ph.D's. I have taught at the university level, and do not hold a Ph.D and would NEVER consider myself a professor. I know of no professors who do not hold a doctorate. I am glad you have found a place that gives out the title of Adjunct Professor to non-doctoral instructors and stand corrected in your case.

Wiki:

A professor is a scholarly teacher; the precise meaning of the term varies by country. Literally, professor derives from Latin as a "person who professes" being usually an expert in arts or sciences, a teacher of high rank.[1] In much of the world, including most Commonwealth nations (such as the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, English-speaking Caribbean) and northern Europe professor is reserved only for the most senioracademics at a university, typically a department chair, or an awarded chair specifically bestowed recognizing an individuaI at a university or similar institution. A professor is a highly accomplished and recognized academic, and the title is in most cases awarded only after decades of scholarly work to senior academics. In the United States and Canada the title of professor is granted to most scholars with doctorate degrees or equivalent qualifications (typically Ph.D.s) who teach in two- and four-year colleges and universities, and is used in the titles assistant professor and associate professor, which are not considered professor-level positions [2] in many other countries, as well as for full professors.

Beyond holding the proper academic title, universities in many countries also append famous artists, athletes and foreign dignitaries with the title honorary professor, even if these persons don't have the academic qualifications typically necessary for professorship. However, such "professors" usually do not undertake academic work for the granting institution.

JFK University is an accredited University -- in fact, while it has upper division undergraduate offerings , it has mainly been a graduate school.

Art did ask me if I was "a tenured professor," and I said no. I am not a full professor at either institution (JFKU has few full time faculty), teaching part time.

However, I have known several professors -- at other universities (including Northwestern University when I was an undergrad oh so long ago) -- they teach undergrad and graduate level courses academically, and even conduct research -- with only a Master's degree. Some were working on their PhDs, others were not.

All of them were addressed as "Professor" by students, faculty and staff.

 

[profparanormal]

I'll be dropping in and out of this thread throughout the day/evening today, and on occasion for the next week or two.

Feel free to ask questions -- still have a bunch of emails I'm responding to from the show as well.

-- Loyd Auerbach

 

[Seahunter]

JFK University is an accredited University -- in fact, while it has upper division undergraduate offerings , it has mainly been a graduate school.

Art did ask me if I was "a tenured professor," and I said no. I am not a full professor at either institution (JFKU has few full time faculty), teaching part time.

However, I have known several professors -- at other universities (including Northwestern University when I was an undergrad oh so long ago) -- they teach undergrad and graduate level courses academically, and even conduct research -- with only a Master's degree. Some were working on their PhDs, others were not.

All of them were addressed as "Professor" by students, faculty and staff.

Thanks for the further clarification Professor Auerbach, I appreciate the follow-up.

 

[Naked Apple]

I'll be dropping in and out of this thread throughout the day/evening today, and on occasion for the next week or two.

Feel free to ask questions -- still have a bunch of emails I'm responding to from the show as well.

-- Loyd Auerbach

Thank you, Prof. Will get my questions ready!

 

[Naked Apple]

Prof. Auerbach, have you ever been present during violent poltergeist activity? If so, what do you think causes poltergeists? Spirits of the earthbound dead or demonic entities?

 

[profparanormal]

Prof. Auerbach, have you ever been present during violent poltergeist activity? If so, what do you think causes poltergeists? Spirits of the earthbound dead or demonic entities?

I've been present during poltergeist activity, but it was not violent -- that's a rarity (incredibly rare). It is chaotic rather than violent, and with incredibly rare exception, the only time people get hurt is when they hurt themselves.

The field of Parapsychology has for decades viewed poltergeist activity as psychokinetic activity caused by the unconscious of a living person in the environment. This is based on extensive research and investigation by my predecessors, most notably Dr. Nandor Fodor, Dr. William G. Roll, D. Scott Rogo and many others. Roll came to firm up the model we work from today, Recurrent Spontaneous Psycho Kinesis (RSPK ) back in the late 1950s, and he and many others again and again tested the model that a living person was (unconsciously) responsible, with the model even holding in cases where one individual is also scratched or bruised by his/her own unconscious PK ability.

While there are cases in which physical phenomena is reported alongside apparitional experiences, we look at those as "apparitional PK" -- the activity is usually not destructive, but even when it is there is purpose to the movement/activity, unlike poltergeist cases in which the activity is chaotic, as though it's helping the poltergeist agent blow off steam.

We do not consider "demonic entities" as a possibility at all -- bringing "demons" and "angels" into it, all without any actual evidence of such things as distinctly different than other phenomena, brings religion into science. That not all religions or cultures have demons or angels is important as well. In my own case, I did not grow up in a religious tradition where demons exist (and even the traditional Old Testament angels are nothing like what people typically believe).

Read about poltergeist phenomena on my website (under the Articles category as well as the Info/Office of Paranormal Investigations category) -- www.mindreader.com and also at the site of the Psychical Research Foundation http://www.psychicalresearchfoundation.com/ as a start.

 

[Naked Apple]

Prof. thank you for your answer. I will definitely read at your site. When I speak of demonic entities, I am not necessarily using that term in the religious sense. In the middle east they speak of the Djinn, the Native American tradition speaks of a trickster entity and there are people who have claimed to see entities such as Mothman. These can all be described as demonic. It appears that in other dimensions or realms there may be some negative life force, whatever name we give it. Last night's guest spoke about seeing a shapeshifter that scared him so much that he could not speak about it for over a year. While these claims of other worldly entities are all anecdotal, they seem to point to something not human that is very negative.

Also, in the religious sense, what are priests battling when they conduct exorcisms? I have heard other guests on shows like Art's speak of being thrown across a room by such entities. Again, this is anecdotal and I am sure there are unscrupulous people who make up tales so that they could appear on a radio show, but not everyone can be dismissed who claims to have one of these violent experiences.

Also, have you ever found that people can be scared to death? Literally?

Last question, I once heard a story of some pacific islanders who had dreams that they were being chased by some entity in their sleep, and if it caught them in their dreams, they would die. Three of these men eventually died in their sleep and allegedly this real life tale is what the Freddy Kruger movies are based on. Recently, I heard some guest (can't remember) tell of having dreams as a child about a Freddy Kruger type monster in his dreams and if it caught him, he would die. Then years later he saw the Freddy K movies and it was the same monster. He dreamed this years before he saw the movies. I wish I could give you more background on both these stories, I am half remembering them. Have you ever heard of anything like this?

Thank you again for visiting us here on the forum. It's like being visited by a rock star when any of Art's guests take the time to stop by!

 

[profparanormal]

For the first, PK is somewhat of an unconsciously driven trickster to begin with, and in poltergeist cases -- the most chaotic of PK expressions, driven by the unconscious -- the human unconscious often shows itself to be quite trickster-like.

But lets remember that many mythological/religious deities and entities in times past were derived from the inability to explain things in nature that we have come to understand today.

I personally have seen no evidence of non-human entities other than perhaps the apparitions of dogs, cats and even a few other animals (mostly pets or other animals with real connection to humans).

My colleagues generally do not believe in non-human entities, and have not experienced them or had cases which pointed to something conscious yet not human.

However, there have been rare cases of poltergeistery where it was determined that the poltergeist agent was "seeing" something not human, though derived with fairly clear psychological origins, and often archetypal or even nightmarish in appearance. As rare as these are, even rarer are cases where others in the household also see the projection -- and it does appear to be a form of telepathic projection. I've had a couple of such cases myself over the years.

This is not to say that some places might not feel like something bad/oppressive/depressive or even "evil" is present. The basic definition of hauntings (what are often referred to as residual hauntings) is that places (and sometimes objects) can "record" information of past events, actions and emotions, which are then perceived by living people coming into those environments. Place where bad things have happened can feel awful, even if you had no idea of the history.

Often people have decided that such things must be happening because of some entity or other.

What are exorcists dealing with? Frankly, I would say they're dealing with the psychology of the person they are exorcising most often, and the unconscious sure likes to "play" (especially that of teenagers, who some would call "demonic" simply because of their normal behavior). On some occasions, they may be dealing incorrectly with some apparition or other who is in the wrong place (a family freaked out by the very appearance of the ghost, where that family is also either religious, or made incorrect assumptions based on TV shows or religion itself) at the wrong time.

On some occasions, they are dealing with psychic activity from the living or even the dead, their religion putting specific meaning/context on such activity that does not equate to the way parapsychologists/psychical researchers have dealt with such things, and what we've learned since the late 1800s.

Yes, people can certainly be scared to death -- there's some literature in Anthropology around this as well as psychology. We can convince ourselves to be physically ill and actually develop physical illness/damage in the body.

I've never encountered a situation where someone died of fright, though.

There are many places around the world where there is a belief that demons or other entities can harm you in your dreams. Freddy Kruger was based on that concept (and not the first movies that dealt with death-by-dreaming). But lets face it, the only way we could be sure that some entity actually killed someone while asleep would be to confirm it with that person's ghost!

 

[Naked Apple]

TY!