{"id":397,"date":"2009-05-01T12:31:34","date_gmt":"2009-05-01T16:31:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.stacyhorn.com\/unbelievable\/?p=397"},"modified":"2009-05-11T08:09:03","modified_gmt":"2009-05-11T12:09:03","slug":"hans-holzer-rip","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.echonyc.com\/~horn\/unbelievable\/?p=397","title":{"rendered":"Hans Holzer, RIP"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>
\nGhost hunter Hans Holzer died last Sunday, on April 26, 2009. He didn’t like being called that so I apologize, but that’s how everyone thought of him. He’s in my book a little bit, but I ended up cutting most of him out, just because he’s so far afield from what they were doing at Duke. I kept him in mostly to contrast their experiments with the more 19th century seance thing he was into.<\/p>\n

I interviewed Holzer when he was clearly at the end of his life. He had trouble getting around, and remembering things, and he wasn’t happy at my shock when we started watching an old tape of his and I said something stupid like, \u201cLook at you all dapper and young.\u201d I meant it as a compliment, but he looked stricken and asked if he looked all that different and I immediately felt like an ass. I liked the guy. His cat was with us the whole time, which I enjoyed. At one point he said, \u201cLife is better with a cat,\u201d and it is. Nothing wrong with a guy who knows that.<\/p>\n

I have fond memories of reading his books when I was an adolescent, and just learning that there were people who believe in ghosts. Thank you for the memories, Hans. Here is the section I removed from the book.<\/p>\n

<\/span>Ghost investigator Hans Holzer sees the spirits who linger in places like the Morris Jumel Mansion as trapped souls, and he believes it’s both his job and moral responsibility to help these poor souls move on.\u00a0 This is accomplished by using a trance medium like Ethel Johnson Meyers.\u00a0 \u201cA trance medium is somebody who can slip out of their physical body,\u201d Holzer explains, \u201cand let the spirit or the ghost slip in and use them to talk.\u201d\u00a0 When this happens Holzer becomes something like a therapist for the dead.\u00a0 He gently tells the ghost that they have passed on and they must call on loved ones who have already died to help them move on to the other side.\u00a0 It may be that for many, getting to the other side is not an unpleasant trip.\u00a0 Ernest Hemingway had an out-of-body experience once when he was wounded in World War I.\u00a0 He wrote that it \u201cwas as if a silk handkerchief had been gently pulled from a pocket by a corner.\u201d\u00a0 J. B. Rhine kept a file on Hans Holzer, and occasionally added articles about his exploits.\u00a0 But Holzer’s work of helping people move on was pretty much as far from Rhine’s parapsychological world as one could get. \u00a0 No one at the Lab considered Holzer a scientist. [I’m sorry, Hans.] \u00a0<\/p>\n

<\/span>For Hans Holzer, the survival question is not even a question.\u00a0 Life goes on, and on the other side there’s a well organized society with a strictly defined caste system which has been outlined to him by those who are already there.\u00a0 \u201cThe first level is a very dark place,\u201d Holzer explains.\u00a0 \u201cThis is where the bad guys go.\u00a0 They need to be educated and shown the error of their ways in order to rise to go to next level.\u00a0 This is what religion calls Hell, but there are no devils or fire. \u00a0<\/p>\n

<\/span>\u201cMost people are on the second level.\u00a0 This is where everybody goes.\u00a0 They have a timeless existence and if they are happy there, if they don’t want to be a baby and be reborn, they can stay there.\u00a0 They have a normal life. \u00a0<\/p>\n

<\/span>\u201cThe people on the third level have special skills that could be used further for the benefit of humanity.\u00a0 Engineers, technicians.\u00a0 They will help someone in the same category over here, if they need help. \u00a0<\/p>\n

<\/span>\u201cThe fourth level is where groups form, like groups of doctors who work together in unison, to heal.\u00a0 They are spirit healers.<\/p>\n

<\/span>\u201cThe fifth level is where the leaders are.\u00a0 Jesus, Buddha.\u00a0 The great spiritual leaders. \u00a0<\/p>\n

<\/span>\u201cThe sixth level is where the government exists.\u00a0 They are the angels.\u00a0 The government runs the whole show.\u201d\u00a0 Holzer questioned the entity who was explaining the different levels via a trance medium about the final two levels.\u00a0<\/p>\n

<\/span>\u201cHow many are you?\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/span>\u201cThere are nine of us.\u00a0 There used to be ten, but one has left.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/span> \u201cWho’s in charge?\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/span>\u201cMy name is Michael.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

<\/span>\u201cWhat do you call yourselves?\u201d \u00a0<\/p>\n

<\/span>\u201cWe are called the beings of light.\u00a0 We don’t like to be called angels.\u201d\u00a0 (\u201cThey don’t like the term angels because they are not messengers,\u201d Holzer adds.)<\/p>\n

<\/span>\u201cWhat’s on the seventh level?\u00a0 Is that supposed to be God?\u201d \u00a0<\/p>\n

<\/span>\u201cAll we can see is an enormous power source, an enormous light.\u00a0 That’s all we know.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/span>Nobody knows, not even the angels (or beings of light) who or what is at the very top.\u00a0 When asked if he believes in God, Holzer answers, \u201cI don’t say I don’t accept the existence of a higher power, but the higher power is not just one person, it is an energy field.\u00a0 I’m still working on that.\u00a0 I want to know more about the nature of this seventh level.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

[The photograph is from the New York Times obituary.]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ghost hunter Hans Holzer died last Sunday, on April 26, 2009. He didn’t like being called that so I apologize, but that’s how everyone thought … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/piV6u-6p","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.echonyc.com\/~horn\/unbelievable\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/397"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.echonyc.com\/~horn\/unbelievable\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.echonyc.com\/~horn\/unbelievable\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.echonyc.com\/~horn\/unbelievable\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.echonyc.com\/~horn\/unbelievable\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=397"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.echonyc.com\/~horn\/unbelievable\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/397\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":422,"href":"https:\/\/www.echonyc.com\/~horn\/unbelievable\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/397\/revisions\/422"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.echonyc.com\/~horn\/unbelievable\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=397"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.echonyc.com\/~horn\/unbelievable\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=397"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.echonyc.com\/~horn\/unbelievable\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=397"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}