Hans Holzer - The Ghost Hunter

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The Original Ghost Hunter

M Y FATHER, THE LATE AND great professor and prolific author Dr. Hans Holzer, spent most of his life studying the paranormal. His lifes casework was collected in dozens of books that have been read by hundreds of thousands of people. Today, my fathers writing appeals to a broad range of people who seek out the inhabitants of a world beyond this one. Although many people will most likely remember him from his books about the Amityville haunting and his work on the groundbreaking TV show In Search Of..., it was The Ghost Hunter, published 50 years ago, that changed Hanss life forever.

Hans grew up in Vienna, Austria. As a little boy, he loved listening to his uncle Henrys tales about fairies, telling ghost stories, and thinking about the enigmas of existence. School became a place to discover who would be intrigued by his stories and who wouldnt. One teacher was disturbed enough by one of his tales to write a note home to his father, who initially scolded the precocious young Hans, but later laughed it off as he knew his son all too well. Little did Hans know that he would eventually come face to face with many of those same occult mysteries that fascinated him in his youth. In 1938, Hans and his parents left Austria for America. His father, Leonard, ran a tailor shop in Manhattan. Hanss brother Kurt took after their father in business, but Hanss interest in ghosts and witches did not seem as promising a career path. After just a few months of working alongside his father in the shop, Hans left and started working as a journalist, honing his writing and interviewing skills for publications as varied as the New York Times, the New Yorker, and Exploring the Unknown. That was when his supernatural adventure began.

After a swank cocktail party in Manhattan one night, Hans ran into some women who spoke about being psychic. This intrigued him enough to start looking into strange phenomena, which did not appear to have rational explanation. Shortly thereafter, he started his investigations, enlisting the help of academics and photographers to test assertions made by people who claimed to have psychic abilities. Although he would later come to be famously identified with the supernatural, Hans was a skeptic, first and foremost. People from all walks of life started gravitating to his home to hear about his investigations and maybe even get a tarot reading.

Word spread around New York that an intriguing young writer was lurking about the city asking questions of anybody he could find who had had a ghostly encounter. Soon after, Hans was discovered by Manhattans famed Irish medium, Eileen Garrett. He later contributed a remembrance to her autobiography, Adventures in the Supernormal, about how they met during a time when he was exploring other professional paths besides the paranormal:

Eileen was always right on and did not mince words when it came to the quality of work she considered proper by working trance mediums, or, for that matter working researchers. Just as I was about to try my luck with a Broadway musical, she summoned me and told me I was to investigate haunted houses in the eastern United States, and turn in a report about them. One simply could not say no to Eileen: so I did not, and went ahead and for two years investigated ghosts. When I wanted to return to my Broadway musical, she told me I was to write a book. Again, I could not refuse. The book, The Ghost Hunter, went to eleven printings, and changed my life forever...

In The Ghost Hunter, my father bridged a gap between science and mysticism by pioneering the Holzer Method, in which scientific fact and observation are used to study paranormal phenomena, instead of less rigorously applied psychic and metaphysical methods.

The book was notable at the time due to the fact that Hans talked about different ways of looking at life and death and opening ones self up to the possibility that there are more ways to see than with just the eyes. By talking about ghosts and apparitions in such a conversational, relatable manner, The Ghost Hunter also helped people around the world to start having conversations and exchanging stories about what they thought about the afterlife. Although Hans had thought that he might be a Broadway composer (and actually did compose music Off-Broadway), after the success of The Ghost Hunter he never went back to his musical passion. The dead were in demand. The Ghost Hunter was born.

To many peers, colleagues, admirers, and fans, this book remains their bible. Many booksnot to mention TV and radio showshave followed the trail my father bravely blazed in 1963 with The Ghost Hunter. But very few of those who have come after him have managed to create as pioneering, insightful, and iconic a work as this classic account of communicating with the otherworldly.

Hans Holzer left behind a strong body of work that vividly illustrates that there is something greater than us at play in this universe. Because of this pioneering research, he remains today the true father of the paranormal.

Alexandra Holzer, 2013

Ghosts, Anyone?

A S A PROFESSIONAL GHOST HUNTER , I am forever on the lookout for likely prospects. There is no dearth of haunted houses. There is, however, a king-sized amount of shyness among witnesses to ghostly phenomena which keeps me from getting what I am after. Occasionally, this shyness prevents me from investigating a promising case.

There was a man on Long Island who was appalled at the idea of my bringing a medium to his house. Even though he did not question my integrity as a psychic investigator, he decided to discuss the matter with his bishop. Mediums and such are the work of the Devil, the cleric sternly advised the owner of the haunted house, and permission for my visit was withdrawn.

Although the poltergeist case of Seaford, Long Island, had been in all the papers, and even on national television, the idea of a volunteer medium trying to help solve the mystery proved too much for this owner of the house.

Then, there was the minister who carefully assured me that there couldnt be anything to the rumors Id heard about footsteps and noises when there wasnt anyone there. What he meant, of course, was that he preferred it that way. Still, that was one more potential case I lost before even getting to first base. Dont get me wrongthese people understand who I am; they may respect my scientific credentials; and they know their anonymity will be carefully guarded. They know Im not a crackpot or an amateuramusing himself with something he does not understand. In fact, theyre very much interested to hear all about these things, provided it happened in