Speaker 1: Now here's a highlight from Coast to Coast AM on iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2: And welcome back to Coast to Coast George nor are
Speaker 2: you with you along with Teresa Chung live in the
Speaker 2: United Kingdom, where books is called Haunted World one oh one,
Speaker 2: Ghostly Places and Encounters. Teresa tell us about this book,
Speaker 2: it's fantastic, Thank you.
Speaker 3: George, and it's just such a joy to be here.
Speaker 3: I truly appreciate it. And before I mentioned the book,
Speaker 3: I just want to thank you also for the are
Speaker 3: you do and opening the phone lines in particular, because
Speaker 3: there's such power in that when people share their personal
Speaker 3: paranormal or dreams stories. And I've noticed that here in
Speaker 3: the UK because it's been incredible the last three or
Speaker 3: four years. There has been much more open mindedness to
Speaker 3: the possibility of life after death, dreams actually meaning something.
Speaker 3: Although we are still a skeptical nation, there is much
Speaker 3: more open mindedness. And I've been in the privileged position
Speaker 3: here in the UK to do national call ins on
Speaker 3: ITV This Morning and BBC radio stations and this would
Speaker 3: never have happened twenty years ago. But what it is
Speaker 3: is there's much more open mindedness and what you're doing
Speaker 3: as well, encouraging people to share their stories, that there's
Speaker 3: such power in that. But you mentioned a Haunted World. Yeah,
Speaker 3: this is a book that really tries to take the
Speaker 3: fear out of potential possibility that ghosts exist, because we
Speaker 3: still have so much fear and dread surrounding it. And
Speaker 3: what I wanted to do is normalize it. And that's
Speaker 3: what I've done all my career, you know, and these
Speaker 3: phone ins that I do now where I talk to
Speaker 3: people about these experiences to normalize them and say, look,
Speaker 3: it's part of being a human of being. Let's understand
Speaker 3: it better, let's discuss it. And what I wanted to
Speaker 3: do in Haunted World, it's not just the UK, although
Speaker 3: there are a portion of locations in the UK discussed.
Speaker 3: It's the US and a smattering of places all over
Speaker 3: the world, because that's whether book is being distributed, and
Speaker 3: I wanted to show that in wherever you go, you're
Speaker 3: going to find a location which has a reputation for
Speaker 3: something mysterious and out of this world happening, and let's
Speaker 3: just investigate it. Go there if you can and make
Speaker 3: your own mind up, gather your own evidence and your proof.
Speaker 3: And what I love about all of the one hundred
Speaker 3: and one locations and stories I chose for the book
Speaker 3: is that they all began with a human drama, whether
Speaker 3: that was back in the midst of time or more recently,
Speaker 3: because there are some recent hauntings in that book as well.
Speaker 3: They all began with a human story, and somehow that
Speaker 3: story has never ever died, and it's through the through
Speaker 3: the years, it has almost grown a life of its own,
Speaker 3: and that is fastating the students of human nature, for
Speaker 3: students of history and culture. It's just thrilling. It makes
Speaker 3: life so exciting. But I also give the basics of
Speaker 3: ghost hunting in there, you know, show that anyone couldn't
Speaker 3: be a ghost hunter if they have a ghost of
Speaker 3: common sense take that along with them. I also discuss
Speaker 3: the difference between ghost hunting and paranormal investigation, which is
Speaker 3: all high tech, etc. And I give all the theories
Speaker 3: in the introduction that could potentially explain ghosts from it's
Speaker 3: fraud which almost every ghost experience. That accusation will be
Speaker 3: leveled at the experience there. But I also say that
Speaker 3: every case in this book, there's always many elements can
Speaker 3: be explained away by logic and reason. And psychology. But
Speaker 3: there's always one element that simply can't be explained away,
Speaker 3: and that's where you need to focus your attention, and
Speaker 3: I focus my attention on in the book. There's always
Speaker 3: something that can't entirely be explained away, and instead of
Speaker 3: getting scared about that or nervous, get excited about it,
Speaker 3: because in all my experience, I just want to reassure
Speaker 3: everyone listening the living are far more scary than the
Speaker 3: dead every case, So don't fear what potentially may be
Speaker 3: on the other side. Just embrace it. Get excited about
Speaker 3: the possibility of it. It is all of our next
Speaker 3: great adventure. And I think just being open minded to
Speaker 3: the possibility that life goes on. Looking at the evidence,
Speaker 3: and there's growing evidence out there. I gather that together
Speaker 3: as much as possible in the book that will surprise
Speaker 3: you in every possible way. I hope it is a
Speaker 3: book that surprises you. I don't want to confirm biases
Speaker 3: in it. I want to surprise and show that there
Speaker 3: there's evidence out there's worries out there. It is truly
Speaker 3: a haunted world because despite centuries of trying to disprove
Speaker 3: those exist, they ain't going anywhere.
Speaker 2: The name of the book haunted world. Haunted has a
Speaker 2: connotation of being scary. Is that what you meant?
Speaker 3: You know? Actually, the root of the word is home.
Speaker 3: It's about it's haunted. I want to again educate people
Speaker 3: about that word, to look in the roots of it.
Speaker 3: And it's associated with a place that you feel most
Speaker 3: at home. And if you are spiritual and believe in afterlife,
Speaker 3: when you die, you go back home, you reunite, you
Speaker 3: become pure soul, you have returned home. So maybe change
Speaker 3: it to more of a feeling of familiarity that word.
Speaker 3: It's about going home, it's about finding out who you
Speaker 3: truly are.
Speaker 2: Interesting take on that, now, what was your reason for
Speaker 2: writing the book.
Speaker 3: The reason was that I wanted, as I say, to
Speaker 3: normalize the paranormal, to show people it was the norm
Speaker 3: rather than the exception. And it actually was inspired by
Speaker 3: a national call in I did over here in the
Speaker 3: UK for for ITV. There were so many calls coming
Speaker 3: in and I found that these people were very nervous
Speaker 3: when they called in, often wanting to change their names
Speaker 3: to protect their identity, or worried what other people would think.
Speaker 3: And I thought this is wrong because obviously in my
Speaker 3: line of work. It's totally normal, you know, It's what
Speaker 3: I grew up with. I grew up in a family
Speaker 3: of spirituals and mediumships. You know, I worked with medium
Speaker 3: psychics and scientists researching them, etc. So for me, there
Speaker 3: is no fear of it, and I found when you
Speaker 3: do lose the fear of it, that's when more and
Speaker 3: more mysterious experiences and proof of a possible after life
Speaker 3: start to happen. But this fear barrier has to go first,
Speaker 3: because we aren't going to get anywhere. Then then the
Speaker 3: ghost gets stuck and we get stuck, and we can't
Speaker 3: meet intelligently in between. And that's why the final section
Speaker 3: of the book focuses on intelligent hauntings, when there is
Speaker 3: an ease and a flow of communication with that fear
Speaker 3: barrier removed. The early part of the book explores residual hauntings,
Speaker 3: which you could argue is that a haunting or is
Speaker 3: that an emotional imprint and that when very sensitive people
Speaker 3: go to an environment they're actually sensing something traumatic that
Speaker 3: happened in the past. Is that truly a haunting or
Speaker 3: is that telepathy or being or retrocognition, you know, sensing
Speaker 3: the past so I explore that that's the most common
Speaker 3: form of reported haunting actually that people pick up on.
Speaker 3: I also explore poltergeist and inhuman which is when an
Speaker 3: alleged and I say alleged evil spirit latches onto an
Speaker 3: object or a person with devastating results and consequences often,
Speaker 3: but the final portion of the book is the most empowering,
Speaker 3: and it all builds up to that to show here
Speaker 3: is where the future of ghost hunting, paranormal investigation, signs
Speaker 3: of consciousness lies. When there is an intelligent interaction between
Speaker 3: the other side or what is invisible or unseen, I
Speaker 3: don't know. I can't fully rationalize it or explain it
Speaker 3: and the living and that happens more often than we
Speaker 3: are led to believe. I think if you stop any
Speaker 3: person in the streets, at least one in four will
Speaker 3: have said they've had an uncanny experience they can't explain,
Speaker 3: and why do then we try and explain it away
Speaker 3: and dismiss it as nonsense. It's not nonsense. It's something
Speaker 3: that's happened to you and something that you should celebrate
Speaker 3: as part of the glorious mystery of being a human being.
Speaker 3: Although I say we are all spiritual beings having a
Speaker 3: human experience. But again that is down to my personal belief.
Speaker 2: Theresa, what is the haunted person's syndrome? What does that mean?
Speaker 3: That's very interesting. A group of psychologists and parapsychologists very
Speaker 3: recently over here in the UK we're positing the idea
Speaker 3: that there are certain people who are highly sensitive to
Speaker 3: potential haunting experiences, and they gave it a term which
Speaker 3: sounds a bit scary, haunted person syndrome. But I actually
Speaker 3: don't think it's scary because I think we all, to
Speaker 3: varying degrees, we're all on a scale of haunted person syndrome,
Speaker 3: even the most hardened skeptic who says I'm rational there
Speaker 3: is no possibility of life after death. Something in their
Speaker 3: life is going to happen at some point which will
Speaker 3: cause them to have that question mark. But then there
Speaker 3: are people right at the top of the scale who
Speaker 3: are I would say the classed also is highly sensitive,
Speaker 3: individuals who are highly empathetic, highly intuitive, often highly creative.
Speaker 3: And these people at the top of the scale are
Speaker 3: more likely, especially when they go to a location which
Speaker 3: has a reputation for being haunted, so they've got that background,
Speaker 3: are far more likely to sense things. And what the
Speaker 3: study found, which is really interesting, is that once these
Speaker 3: people have had one paranormal experience, it's contagious. There's never
Speaker 3: really just one isolated incidence. More and more start to happen,
Speaker 3: and then they start to impact people in their own
Speaker 3: environment as well. But it's nothing to be frightened of.
Speaker 3: You know, in indigenous cultures it would have been called
Speaker 3: ghost sickness when someone is maybe having nightmares or sensing
Speaker 3: things that aren't there. What needs to happen there is
Speaker 3: through therapy or counseling, or just some really grounded friends
Speaker 3: to talk about these experiences. The fear of them comes
Speaker 3: when people don't talk about them and keep it to themselves.
Speaker 3: That's what I'm saying at the beginning of this section.
Speaker 3: The power of sharing really helps take that irrational fear
Speaker 3: out of it. Please don't be scared. If you do
Speaker 3: have a sense of something watching over you, or you
Speaker 3: have a dream that plays out, or you have a
Speaker 3: gut instinct that comes true, don't fear it. It's sign
Speaker 3: of your extraordinary potential. It's a sign of your your
Speaker 3: spiritual essence.
Speaker 2: Talking about this hunted person syndrome, yes, and does science
Speaker 2: back that up.
Speaker 3: There is published research into it now. There's certainly science
Speaker 3: into people being highly sensitive, and there's a highly sensitive
Speaker 3: person scale which if you score very highly on you
Speaker 3: are far more likely to have paranorl more experiences. And
Speaker 3: there is a movement to get it recognized within the medical,
Speaker 3: the the the psychology, the psychiatry professions to not get
Speaker 3: it dismissed because to the person that it's happening to,
Speaker 3: it is real and it needs to be recognized. There
Speaker 3: is there is research ongoing now to get it part
Speaker 3: of our you know, of of of of of therapy
Speaker 3: and of counseling. But if people have these experiences that
Speaker 3: they're not immediately dismissed as nonsense.
Speaker 2: The great parapsychologist Lloyd Auerback will the forward to your
Speaker 2: book and tell me how you got him and his role.
Speaker 3: I've known and admired Lloyd Auerbach as many people in
Speaker 3: this area of parapsychology and psychical research. Will He is
Speaker 3: kind of the original ghostbuster. There isn't he. He's a
Speaker 3: real legend and I've worked with him before on other projects.
Speaker 3: I've interviewed him many times on my podcast. He is
Speaker 3: an absolute delight. He also has devoted his life to
Speaker 3: researching the possibility of their being life after death. He
Speaker 3: actually conducts proper paranormal investigations of locations. He actually goes
Speaker 3: out in the field, has written many many books in
Speaker 3: this area, also collaborates with scientists, and it was an
Speaker 3: absolute joy that he wrote the forward, which I'm very
Speaker 3: grateful for.
Speaker 2: Tell us where people can get your book? Counted World? Sorry,
Speaker 2: where can people get your book?
Speaker 3: Oh? Wherever books are sold. It's available Amazon, everywhere. It's out.
Speaker 3: It's a haunted world, so I hope as many people
Speaker 3: as possible can get hold of a copy. It's also
Speaker 3: particularly good for the younger reader as an introduction, a
Speaker 3: very safe and careful introduction to it, because I always
Speaker 3: feel that very responsible when I'm writing about this subject matter.
Speaker 3: I draw on my academic credentials, my expertise in this
Speaker 3: area to present it in a very careful, controlled and
Speaker 3: safe way that encourages the reader to make their own
Speaker 3: mind up and do their own research.
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