German professor Walter von Lucado, head of the Freiburg Advisory Office for Parapsychology, does not like being called a ghost hunter. In a conversation with Sputnik, he told why paranormal phenomena sometimes happen to people and how ghosts protect a person
Halloween is behind, and clown masks and creepy outfits are back in the closet, ghosts resting. But there is one who is busy with evil spirits all year round - this is Walter von Lucado. This 71-year-old German is the head of the Consulting Office for Parapsychology in Freiburg. He takes a scientific approach to the study of evil spirits.
Not magic and not scary tales
Ghost stories are told everywhere, and almost every one of us knows at least one: about a castle in which the spirit of the old count can never find peace, about a swamp where ghosts rage every night, or about how the soul of a young maiden, villainously murdered in the Middle Ages, every year returns to the crime scene on the night of the murder.
Walter von Lucado is a scientist with a doctorate in psychology and physics. He doesn't like the term "ghost hunter", he prefers the term "ghost researcher".
He doesn't believe in magic and scary tales. But he knows that there are people with whom inexplicable, mysterious events occur. Objects move as if they are being pushed by an invisible hand; in certain rooms, for no reason, people feel uncomfortable.
People who experience such phenomena contact the Consulting Office for Parapsychology in Freiburg. It is the only organization of its kind in Germany and is led by Walter von Lucado.
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He takes eyewitness accounts seriously. “Such events happen very often. It surprises me that traditional psychology does not attach any importance to them at all,”complains von Lucada in an interview with Sputnik German.
From his point of view, it is the duty of any scientist to take these phenomena into account, regardless of where it leads. After all, there are many such cases.
The ghosts calling me
Some of these Dr. von Lucado included in his book Ghosts Calling Me. But if you think that everything is happening as in the movie "Ghostbusters": a client calls, says that he has got ghosts, and von Lucado and his team immediately jumps into a special "hunting" car and rushes to the call, then you are wrong.
First, the scientist acts by elimination. “If someone claims that strange events are taking place in his house, an inexplicable noise is heard, doors open by themselves, and objects fly through the air, then first you need to check for“natural”causes: perhaps there is a draft in the house, in the attic a marten started up or friends decided to joke,”explains the physicist.
The alleged victims of the ghosts are then tasked with keeping a diary. For four weeks, they record all the unusual phenomena in it, indicating the exact time and place. Dr. von Lucado then decides how to end this devilry.
Sputnik asked the ghost researcher what is hidden under the concept of "evil spirits" from a purely scientific point of view.
“The paranormal can be compared to a psychosomatic reaction that occurs outside the human body. It is known that if a person constantly experiences irritation at work, then he may develop a stomach ulcer. When a doctor asks what the problem is, the person often cannot explain himself what he is suffering from. There are various repressed problems that lead to disease,”says von Lucado.
Therefore, psychosomatic clinics are full of patients.
Psychosomatics calls spirits
And there are people who do not receive bodily diseases as a reaction, but radiate disturbances of their mental equilibrium into the environment, explains von Lucada. In this way, unexplained phenomena arise. The scientist calls this process externalization. This is a positive process because these people are in good health.
“How exactly this happens is unknown, but the very essence of psychosomatic reactions is also unknown,” the scientist argues his point of view.
Then he cites the following case as an example: a family bought the premises of an old tavern and wanted to "revive" it again. But an incomprehensible devilry began in the building. Beer casks were tipping over. The dog, which belonged to the family, flatly refused to enter this building. And my friends had a child who began to scream heart-rendingly as soon as he was in this room. Then rumors spread around the area that people had once been killed there. The family turned to a ghost hunter for advice.
After von Lucada ruled out all possible natural causes of the events, and the wife of the head of the family carefully kept a diary for four weeks, she suddenly called Lucada and said in a frightened voice: "You need to come urgently!"
The lady said that she was in the kitchen alone, when suddenly the knife flew into the air and nearly injured her. The woman swore that in life she would no longer cross the threshold of this inn. Von Lucado went to investigate the situation.
Hastily flipping through her diary, the scientist found out that such phenomena occurred only in the absence of her husband. Thus, the problem was solved: the lady unknowingly caused paranormal phenomena with the help of externalization. She wanted her husband to always be by her side.
Other cases of this kind, as well as a detailed description of his experience in this field, Dr. Walter von Lucada cites in his book "Ghosts Calling Me" - the stories of Germany's most famous ghost researcher, published by Lübbe.
