Come to Yourself

Fact Not Fiction: Parapsychology: Parapsychology in the Media

April 28, 2021 Gretchen O'Neal/Loyd Auerbach Season 2 Episode 7
Come to Yourself
Fact Not Fiction: Parapsychology: Parapsychology in the Media
Show Notes Transcript

Loyd discusses the harmful misrepresentations of parapsychology in the media.

Loyd Auerbach is a leading expert on parapsychology and is on the Board of Directors of the Rhine Research Center. He earned his B.A. in Cultural Anthropology from Northwestern University and his M.S. in Parapsychology from John F. Kennedy University.

Loyd has authored multiple books on parapsychology, appeared on several television shows and documentaries regarding the paranormal, and teaches parapsychology at several universities across the country. His knowledge and experience of magic and mentalism, coupled with his background in Parapsychology and broad knowledge of other sciences has led a number of researchers to consult with him, especially with regard to laboratory controls and where the potential for psychic fraud has existed. 

Gretchen O'Neal is a spiritual accountability and empowerment coach.  She owns and operates www.cometoyourself.com.  Come To Yourself provides unbiased, easily accessible information from the top scholars in the fields of transpersonal psychology and consciousness studies, coupled with personal insights from successful artists, musicians, and business professionals, to anyone looking to start their spiritual journey to discover and serve their soul's mission in life 

Speaker 1:

Hi, this is Gretchen from come to yourself.com with our series facts, not fiction, featuring a discussion about Paris psychology with Lloyd our back. Enjoy. Do you feel that like we were just saying pop culture in the media, but in particular, this, this media flurry is the kindest way. I can say it, you know, regarding shows of, you know, haunted ghost hunters and, you know, hunted the hotel, Cecil, you know, documentaries and things like that. Um, just do they help or do they hurt?

Speaker 2:

Well, I think in general, there's been a bit of help in that they have brought people out of the woodwork to admit their interests. Unfortunately, too many of those people, especially lands were became ghost hunters. And it's not certainly not everybody, but too many of them think that what they see on TV is real. Yeah. And they follow the so-called methodologies of the ghost hunters or the guys on ghost adventures, or, and because they're told that it's scientific since they're using things that light up, um, there's a lot of bad information out there. Um, on, on one hand, I think it's both good and bad that there's a disconnect between the ghost hunting community in Paris psychology. Uh, the guys on ghost hunters are used to the producing. The thing is that those shows are produced. Yes, they're not. And of course, all the ones that are showing up on Amazon prime now that amateur groups or other groups are doing, they're producing them. The problem is that they're basing them off what they know from TV. So that's that in itself is a real problem. Television is about entertainment. Those shows were about entertainment. Uh, it was early apparently decided early on by Pilgrim productions. People who produce ghost hunters, not to work with Tara psychologists. And that was after they spoke to my colleague, Barry TAF, and a couple of others. And Barry had a really bizarre conversation with one of the producers where, um, they, you know, they made the suggestion that they might, if nothing is happening, they might have to fake something. How does he feel about that? And he was like, no. And, uh, they even said, apparently Barry said, and I've heard this from TV producers. If there's something major that happens, we may have to not show it because people won't believe it because it's too big. And Barry's like, what's the point? What is the point at that point? You know, that issue. And I've actually seen that I've seen stuff happen where if it happens to the TV crew, they don't want to even talk about it on camera.

Speaker 1:

That's a big thing in the, uh, film community, you know, where, where my career is based that there's all kinds of incidents that happen on certain film sets and stuff. And, uh, the film crew absolutely does not want to talk about it or share it or anything else. You know,

Speaker 2:

I it's it's, I I've actually had some tell me, well, you know, doing news programs or doing documentaries, or even some of the reality show types show, you know, the magazine shows, Oh, w we can't go on TV and talk about it. We're journalists. It's like, you're not a journalist, you're producing entertainment. So you've got these shows that are out there and they're doing their thing based on what the producers thinks need to be, think, need to be on the ship, on the, uh, on TV, uh, Barry cath and others disagree. Didn't want to do the show. You know, I wouldn't do a show if we're going to fake something, unless it was a comedy that I would play with that. Uh, and Barry actually, even at one point, um, I think he actually considered doing the show, but when he asked him how much he would be paid and they said nothing

Speaker 3:

Next year. Yeah.

Speaker 2:

The first year of ghost hunters. Um, if you watch that, any reruns of that show, you'll see the guys, uh, Jason and Greg coming into a road order truck. Cause that was their day job. And the reason they're in that truck is for product placement. They were still on salary for Roto-Rooter till the show did well enough where they could actually pay the talent. Um, so that's, you know, it's a problem. Uh, you don't, you don't have the E the investigators have no control of what's on the, on the, on the screen, the executives from the TV, um, the network may actually Dicker with the show. The producers are going to screw with it in editing. It's not real. Uh, and unfortunately it's perpetrated a lot of new folklore.