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www.TheEpochTimes.com Science & Tech October 29-November 4, 2015 B3 Using psychics in the courtroom Parapsychology consultant discusses By Tara MacIsaac Epoch Times Staff T he occult has its place in American courtrooms – and police stations, and even business strategies. Lawyers sometimes use psy- chics to select favourable juries, for example. Or they may con- sider including paranormal phe- nomena in their clients’ defence. Proprietors of historic sites, res- taurants, and other allegedly haunted places consider how their ghosts should figure in their business plans. Consultant Loyd Auerbach helps in all these situations. He holds a Master’s degree in parapsychology, he is the direc- tor of the Office of Paranormal Investigations (OPI), a professor at Atlantic University in Virginia and at JFK University in Cali- fornia, and he is the creator of the Certificate Program in Par- apsychology Studies at the HCH Institute. His OPI work involves not only investigating paranor- mal phenomena, but also acting as a consultant on all things par- anormal. His background in the legal world has especially helped him to advise lawyers. He used to work for LexisNexis Group, a company that provides online legal and business research, as well as risk management ser- vices. Auerbach said that law- yers oſten consult him to see whether they should include an argument related to the paranor- mal in their cases. Killing a ‘witch’ For example, a husband and wife in San Francisco, California, killed their roommate, believing her to be a witch. The wife thought this roommate, a self- professed Wiccan, was stealing her beauty and energy. The Caucasian couple had been raised Christian. They had recently become fundamentalist Muslims, and they said they were following the Koran in not suffering the witch to live. e law does allow for people who believe they are being attacked physically to retaliate, within reason. Their lawyer decided to use this, and asked Auerbach to testify that a psychic attack could lead to such a belief. e prosecutor asked Auer- bach whether – within the belief that a witch can do physi- cal harm – the couple could have taken a different course of action to defend themselves. Was it nec- essary, within their belief, to kill the “witch”? Auerbach said it could be argued that there were other means of dealing with the situation, even from an occult perspective. In the end, the couple were convicted. In another murder case, a defence attorney asked Auerbach whether “possession” would be a potential defence, since his cli- ent believed himself to be pos- sessed when he committed the crime. “I advised the attorney to have the client evaluated for psychological/psychiatric issues, since that defence had already been tossed out in other courts,” Auerbach said. Psychic-aided investigation When lawyers or police ask him about using psychics, Auer- bach’s main job is to direct them towards psychics who seem more genuine, and to manage their expectations. Psychics don’t solve cases nec- essarily, but they may provide leads. ey also work in various ways. Some don’t want to be told anything about the case and will just see what they can come up with on their own. Some want to be told everything so they can focus on finding the new or miss- ing information. In the first case, it may be more amazing for the police officers. “Wow, this psychic didn’t know anything about the case and he came up with all these details we know to be true.” But where does that take the investigation if the police already knew those details? In the second case, the officers may be more sceptical. “Pschh, there’s no magic here. He just made a good guess based on the information we gave him.” But instead of wasting time on what they already know, they got a hint in a new, right direction. Psychics also have differ- ent talents, Auerbach said. He knows one psychic whose spe- cial talent seems to be visualis- ing a perpetrator. She works well with a sketch artist. When she describes the face she “sees”, it oſten turns out that face matches one of the suspects and can help police be a little more attentive to the case against that suspect. One of the most useful ques- tions Auerbach tells police they can ask a psychic is: “Where can we find hard evidence?” is is what they need, aſter all, to secure a conviction. Should I use my ghost to make money? Proprietors of public “haunted” locations also come to Auerbach for advice. Most of these loca- tions tend to be restaurants, he said. e owners want to know what to do with their stories; would it be good for business to publicise it? What would the potential effects be? He oſten asks them: “Is your food good?” Customers may come once for the ghosts, but they will only return if they like the experience – including the food. Return customers are bet- ter for business than many one- time customers. Auerbach has helped busi- ness owners build stronger sto- ries around their hauntings. He helps gather witness testimo- nies, investigate the claims and the history of the locations, and build true ghost stories. Reality TV? Media professionals are the larg- est group of OPI’s consulting cli- ents. Auerbach has observed a strange reversal in how the par- anormal is treated in movies and on TV. “e Reality TV folks don’t seem to care whether they talk to anybody in the field, or not these days – they used to, but they don’t [now],” he said. It’s the screenwriters working on fiction who want to have a strong under- standing of the reality first. He’s also noticed a change in the news media. When “Ghost- busters” came out in the ’80s, for example, he would receive media inquiries along the lines of, “We know it’s not like that in real life, what do you guys [par- anormal investigators] actually do?” Now, however, with para- normal movies focused on phe- nomena that are supposed to be more true to life, reporters ask Auerbach to take them to real locations to witness such phe- nomena. is is a less realistic request than those he got in the “Ghostbuster” days. He encourages reporters to carefully check the credentials of the paranormal “experts” they interview. More than 3000 amateur ghost hunting groups now exist in the United States. Many of them label themselves as professionals, though they clearly aren’t, Auer- bach said. Using some devices to measure electromagnetic fields, et cetera, does not qual- ify a group’s work as “scientific”, he said. In the classroom It’s hard to find accredited courses in parapsychology in the United States. But, Auerbach noted, the United Kingdom has more than 20 universities that offer paraspsychology courses. Auerbach teaches some courses in various formats – some as free webinars, some in univer- sity classrooms. ese include courses at the Rhine Research Centre, the HCH Institute, and JFK University, as well as men- toring for ghost hunters and psychics. He encourages anyone interested in learning more to contact him through his website Mindreader.com for more infor- mation. Many in the academic commu- nity are sceptical of paranormal phenomena, preventing them from being widely studied. “I deal with sceptics all the time, and I’ve dealt with some of the top guys over the years. People have these experiences, and the scientific and academic community wants to simply write them off,” Auerbach said. Auerbach would be happy even if these sceptics decided to thor- oughly investigate these phe- nomena to disprove them instead of ignoring them or immedi- ately attributing them to nor- mal explanations, such as hal- lucination. “You’ve got millions of people who have these experiences,” he said. “You can’t just write them off.” Follow @TaraMacIsaac on Twit- ter, visit the Epoch Times Beyond Science page on Facebook, and subscribe to the Beyond Science newsletter to continue exploring ancient mysteries and the new frontiers of science! His client believed himself to be possessed when he committed the crime. Auerbach knows one psychic whose special talent seems to be visualising a perpetrator. She works well with a sketch artist. Coal burns cleaner when you add oat hulls By Richard Lewis Scientists wondered what would happen if you burned biomass in a controlled environment, such as in a power plant, that at least partially replaces using a fossil fuel. To find out they examined practices at the University of Iowa Power Plant, where technicians have burned a mix of oat hulls and coal for more than a decade. e findings show that a 50-50 oat hulls-coal mix, when com- pared to burning only coal, reduces fossil carbon-dioxide emissions by 40 per cent and significantly reduces the release of particulate matter, hazardous substances and heavy metals. “Our general conclusion is that when optimised, co-firing (burn- ing biomass with coal) presents a good option for energy produc- tion, without incurring the neg- ative environmental effects that comes with burning fossil fuels alone, like fossil carbon dioxide emissions and harmful partic- ulate matter,” says Betsy Stone, assistant professor of chemistry. It may seem logical that con- trolled burning of any type of biomass – including grasses and wood chips – would be good for the environment. Aſter all, shouldn’t these sources be more preferable than coal, known for its deleterious environmental and public-health effects? Not necessarily, researchers say. Biomass burning requires specialised equipment, may not burn as efficiently as fossil fuels, and supplies may be limited, among other factors. In other words, the benefits may not out- weigh the costs. e UI Power Plant has over- come some of these obstacles with oat hulls. e supply is plen- tiful: e plant gets its feedstuff from the Quaker Oats facility in nearby Cedar Rapids. e uni- versity also tinkered with equip- ment to optimise its burning of oat hulls, now at 40,000 tons (36,287 tonnes) annually, accord- ing to Ben Anderson, the power plant’s manager. But no one had quantified the benefits, if any, of using oat hulls. “It’s not a linear effect. If you add more biomass, it doesn’t mean air quality is getting better,” Stone says. So, to find out what the oat hulls were doing, the research- ers took emissions tests in April– May 2014 to determine how co- firing affects air pollution. ey found significant environmental and public-health benefits. When compared to burning only coal, co-firing with the oat hulls reduced filterable particulate matter by 90 per cent, hazardous air pollutants dropped by 41 per cent, and heavy metals, including manganese, copper, nickel and zinc, fell by 51 per cent. Moreover, fossil carbon dioxide emissions were 40 per cent less than if only coal had been used. Carbon dioxide, as has been well documented, is a major contributor to global warming. “Many environmental advan- tages were observed with co-fir- ing oat hulls as a new potential fuel for energy generation,” the authors write in the journal Fuel. “Co-firing 50 per cent oat hulls with coal significantly reduced the emission of atmospheric pol- lutants.” Further, co-firing wood chips has minor impacts on the release of pollutants, although more analysis may be needed to fully understand the effect, depend- ing on the amount used and the mix percentage. is article was originally pub- lished by the University of Iowa. Republished via Futurity. org under Creative Commons License 4.0. Loyd Auerbach, who holds a Master’s in parapsychology and directs sev- eral such programs in universites, is a consultant on all things paranormal. COURTESY OF LOYD AUERBACH Can psychics help in the courtroom? VLADIMIR CETINSKI/ISTOCK Co-firing coal with the oat hulls reduced hazardous air pollutants by 41 per cent and carbon dioxide emissions by 40 per cent. HELT2/ISTOCK SVETA/ISOTCK You’ve got millions of people who have [psychic] experiences. You can’t just write them off. Loyd Auerbach, paranormal consultant
