Loyd Auerbach - Ghost Detectives Guide to Haunted San Francisco

Praise for

The Ghost Detectives

Guide to Haunted San Francisco

An honest and top quality work which will delight those wanting a spooky ghost book, and, at the same time, please those seasoned readers of the paranormal who wish a book that delivers valuable research and seeks seriously to answer the eternal question that perplexes all of us: If a ghost was once a person like us, then are we all potential ghosts?
from the foreword by Brad Steiger, author of Real Ghosts, Restless Spirits and Haunted Places

A delightful book that is a must-have handbook for everyone and anyone thinking of investigating the best haunts in historical San Francisco. Dont go there without reading this first!
Chris Fleming, sensitive, paranormal investigator and co-host of Dead Famous on the Biography Channel and A&Es Psychic Kids

Should you plan on visiting and investigating the Bay Area, I highly suggest reading The Ghost Detectives Guide to Haunted San Francisco before you do.
Chad Calek, paranormal investigator featured on A&Es Paranormal State and The Ghost Prophecies and director of American Ghost Hunter

San Francisco is haunted! Loyd Auerbach and Annette Martin offer an inspiring and at times chilling tour of the city by the Bay. Great book!
Jeff Belanger, writer and researcher of the Travel Channels Ghost Adventures series

Annette Martin blows me away. She is the real thing. She not only sees the dead but speaks to them, gets them to let down their guard and tell us their secrets. I have never seen anything like it!
Lydia Cornell, star of Too Close for Comfort and Curb Your Enthusiasm

Another paranormal gem from the well-known and respected field investigator and paranormal educator Loyd Auerbach, as he reviews the investigations of several favorite San Francisco sites conducted with his long-time colleague Annette Martin.
Sally Rhine Feather, director, Rhine Research Center

The Ghost Detectives Guide to Haunted San Francisco
Copyright 2011 by Loyd Auerbach and Annette Martin.
All rights reserved.

map provided by Pat Hunter, Gallery II
cover photograph Stephen Coburn - Fotolia.com
all photos by the authors unless otherwise noted

Published by Craven Street Books
an imprint of Linden Publishing
2006 South Mary, Fresno, California 93721
559-233-6633 / 800-345-4447
QuillDriverBooks.com

Craven Street Books and Colophon are trademarks of
Linden Publishing, Inc.

ISBN 978-1-610350-07-5

135798642

Printed in the United States of America
on acid-free paper.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Auerbach, Loyd.

The ghost detectives guide to haunted San Francisco / Loyd Auerbach & Annette Martin.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-1-61035-007-5 (pbk. : alk. paper)

1. Haunted placesCaliforniaSan Francisco. 2. GhostsCaliforniaSan Francisco. 3. GhostsResearchMethodology. I. Martin, Annette. II. Title.

BF1472.U6A94 2011

133.109794'61dc22

2010051696

I f we may assume from the evidence of prehistoric burial sites that our species has pondered the mystery of life after death for about 60,000 years, it seems likely that humankind has been recounting the appearances of ghosts for at least that long. During that expanse of time there have always been shamans and mystics who have deliberately sought to contact the spirits of the deceased. However, in the conventional ghost report it is a specter that manifests to frighten or to enlighten the surprised beholder. Never, until the past few years, have there been legions of humans who have sought out haunted places so that they might hunt ghosts.

Yes, there was the rise of Spiritualism in the United States in the 1850s that, according to some historians, brought as many as eleven million believers to the sance table or spirit circle. When we consider that the population of the U.S. at that period in our history was approximately 30 million, the acceptance of Spiritualism as a religion served a sizeable percentage of the nation. When Spiritualism began to fade as a movement in the 1870s, such groups as the British Society for Psychical Research, founded in 1882, undertook a serious study of mediumship, apparitions, sances, and haunted houses.

Until quite recently, haunted houses and things that go bump in the night have remained the province of laboratory researchers and a few individuals who, because of their interest in ghosts or because of their demonstrated mediumship abilities, were called upon to investigate places thought to be haunted.

However, today, ghost busters and ghost hunters abound on cable television and radio programs. It now seems as if every village with a population of over 1,000 has a ghost hunting group. Indeed, some of these individuals with a self-professed ability to ferret out ghosts may have some right to claim such an ephemeral talent. In far too many instances, however, the credentials of the ghost busters consists only of watching the aforementioned cable programs and in some rare cases actually reading a few books on the subject.

How wonderfully refreshing it is to discover two highly qualified ghost detectives who have given of their unique talents to present a guide to haunted places in various cities, beginning with some of the well-known sites in San Francisco. I have known and respected the skills and acumen of parapsychological field researcher Loyd Auerbach for many years, and in the past three years I have come to delight in the multi-level paranormal abilities of Annette Martin, who surely ranks as one of the top psychic sensitives in the United States today.

Annette has been psychically gifted since she was a child of seven and has shared her gifts with hundreds of individuals, as well as assisting the police in recent years as a psychic detective. Annette is also a gifted singer, having her own radio program when she was ten and going on to sing with many opera companies. I have theorized that psychic ability is a talent given to certain individuals and if that person did not become a psychic, he or she might display a gift for painting, writing, dancing, and so forth. Annette proves the theory many times over, expressing her creativity in so many areas.

Loyd is my kind of psychic investigator. He doesnt load himself down with a lot of fancy high-tech gadgets that, in my opinion, more often than not merely provide environmental static that less astute researchers interpret as genuine indications of actual ghost phenomena. Loyd is open to many sources of information that may be present in a genuine hauntingprimary in this book to be that provided through the mediumship of Annette Martin. Loyd is constantly evaluating whatever input seems relevant, rejectingor at least tablingthat which seems extraneous to the case.

Annette and Loyd have chosen to express this book largely in the form of a dialog between them as they investigate a haunting. This technique allows the readers to feel that they are actually participating in the investigation as it progresses at each location. Historical background and other research elements are also provided to allow readers a total immersion in each case.