Bio of a Ghost Hunter

   Jeff Dwyer is a third-generation San Francisco Bay Area native. Born in Oakland and raised in the island community of Alameda, Jeff became a champion swimmer in high school, a lifeguard, and scuba instructor while nurturing his love for local history. As a boy, he explored the old neigbhoods of Alameda, sometimes sneaking into a abandoned Victorian mansions to look for ghosts. About the age of 10, Jeff noticed that he could see things that others could not. He soon realized he was seeing ghosts or spirit remnants. Throughout his teenage years, Jeff's desire for adventure took him to many of the Bay Area's most historic locations including the old Oakland Airport, Jack London's home in nearby Sonoma,  Fort Point in San Francisco, and the Winchester House in San Jose. 

   Jeff attended the East Bay campus of the  California State University, the University of California at Berkeley, and the Unversity of Southern Calfiornia, earning a bachelor's degree, two master of science degrees, and a Ph. D. in the medical sciences.  He has held positions at various medical schools as a professor medical physiology, reseach associate professor of anesthesiology, and researcher in hyperbaric medicine.  These jobs took him west to Hawaii, east to North Carolina, South to Panama City, Florida, and back to Southern California. Moving away from research and academia in recent years, Jeff has had a variety of experiences in intensive care units, rehabilitation centers, and medical clinics in Southern California and San Francisco Bay Area hospitals.   

   Numerous paranormal experiences in hospitals and other clinical settings intensified Jeff's interest in ghosts and after-life phenomena and prompted him to write his first book, Ghost Hunter's Guide to the San Francisco Bay Area.  This was followed by his second book, Ghost Hunter's Guide to Los Angeles. Jeff's third book, delayed by Hurrican e Katrina, is Ghost Hunter's Guide to New Orleans. It was released in September of 2007. That highly successful book was followed in Jne of 2008 with the Ghost Hunter's Guide to Seattle.

    Jeff is currently writing Ghost Hunter's Guide to California's Haunted Coast. That mansucript will be completed March 17, 2009 and published late in the Summer. Future projects will take him to Portland,  Oregon and Santa Fe, New Mexico.

   Jeff Dwyer has also written three novels and a TV movie script--Sailor on Horseback--that chronicles the final three years in the life of legendary writer Jack London.  Jeff's work is represented by S. J. Clark Literary Agency.

   Jeff keeps busy with his ghost and paranormal investigations, writing projects, personal appearances at book events, radio and TV  appearances, and a demanding  job as a clincal specialist in cardiology at a busy medical center. He lives in Fairfield, near California's famous Napa Valley, with his wife and three children.  

Jeff Dwyer's books

  Go to the MY BOOKS page for information about my publications and reviews.

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How Jeff Dwyer hunts ghosts

    I recognize that most ghost sightings and ghostly experiences are completely serendipidous. They occur when least expected, often when the "witness"  was not looking for a ghost.  In fact, many ghost sightings are made by people who don't believe in ghosts, an after-life, or the reality of paranormal phenomena. These kinds of experiences can be the most rewarding because of the surprise element and sudden realizations they create about life, death, and relationships.

   Beyond these fortuitous, unantici-pated experiences, I believe there are two basic methods for ghost hunting. One of these I call the "Technical Approach."  This is best displayed by those fellows from TAPS (The Atlantic Paranormal Society) who arrive at a suspected haunted location with truck loads of expensive equipment, including electro-magnetic field detectors, digital thermometers, motion detectors, night-vision devices, video and audio recorders, and an array of computers for collecting and analyzing the data. These dedicated ghost hunters, and others who use the Techncial Approach, are usually after hard evidence for the existence of some kind of life-after-death phenomena.

    Occasionally, TAPS and others get some compelling images on tape, but no matter much time or money they spend, skeptics often remain unconvinced. And who can blame them? In this age of digital image processing, even the most impressive photograph or audio recording is subjected to intense scrutiny and not likely to be accepted as proof of anything.

   The other basic method of ghost hunting is the Psychic Approach. Jeff Dwyer uses this method and calls upon his abilities to hear, feel, and  visualize spirits and hauntings. Since the age of 10, Jeff has recognized his ability to tap into unseen energies, spirit remnants, and other paranormal phenomena. He is particularly skilled at psychometry, the ability to touch an object and learn things about its past, things about the people who touched the object, or the history of the place in which the object rests. 

   When Jeff visits a haunted house, ship, airplane, or office, he touches door knobs, books, weapons, tools, cooking implements, sits in chairs, and sleeps in antigue beds in order to detect ghosts and learn something about their reasons for haunting a place. 

   Jeff is also highly skilled at remote viewing. He has correctly viewed events as far away as 500 miles. He can remotely visit a haunted location before making a physical visit. This often makes the physical visit far more productive and insightful.

  As you might expect, the Psychic Method does not produce anything but a statement from the practitioner. These statements, however, often confirm or explain the impressions of the client.

   Jeff Dwyer's ghost hunting methods do not yield computer print-outs, indisputable audio or video recordings, or proof that would convince the most casual skeptic, but they are highly productive in terms of detecting the presence of ghosts and other paranormal phenomena and uncovering the reason for repetitive disturb-ances or unexplained experiences.  Often, Jeff's productive techniques produce information that eases the client's fears, facilitates a desired connection between the living and the dead, or clears the environment of the paranormal disturbance.