Putting the Normal in Paranormal

By: Robert Diamond Oct. 31, 2018

GLENDORA, Calif., Oct. 31, 2018 /PRNewswire/ College professor, Bruce Olav Solheim, documents a lifetime of psychic experiences in his new book, "Timeless: A Paranormal Personal History."

Paranormal activities occur every day of the year. But for some reason, we focus more upon them during the Halloween season. The modern scientific world has no patience for the 'paranormal.' Strange experiences are explained away as dumb luck, coincidence, or misperception. Surely, we're told, no educated person could possibly believe in telepathy, spirits, ghosts, or magic.

Professional academic people also are afraid of destroying their reputations and careers by even considering that there is such a thing as the paranormal or psi, much less writing about the phenomena from a personal perspective. For those reasons, Bruce Olav Solheim, who holds a doctoral degree and is a former Fulbright Scholar and Professor has waited until retirement is imminent to write his new book, "Timeless: A Paranormal Personal History." In addition to his new book, Dr. Solheim also teaches a popular Paranormal Personal History course at Citrus College in Glendora, CA.

Now in a spellbinding series of true vignettes in his life, Solheim argues that the paranormal is vibrantly alive. "This book is not about belief. It's about genuine experiences that mainstream science has difficulty in understanding," he says. "Timeless: A Paranormal Personal History," documents 34 incidents of paranormal events in his life: telepathy, telekinesis, ghosts, demons, guardian angels, precognition, near-death experiences, and more.

"It's not that I believe in ghosts, it's that they believe in me, so I've no choice," Solheim writes. "The book offers a message of encouragement for others to share their stories of the paranormal and to be assured that there is a life beyond this one and that we are, indeed, timeless."

Having experienced ghosts, Solheim came to understand that death isn't an end, it's a doorway. So, what proof does he have? He doesn't have proof; he has personal experiences, not only with life beyond death but also with many other seemingly unexplainable, paranormal phenomena that have occurred over the years. Paranormal is usually defined as something beyond the range of normal experience or scientific explanation. Parapsychologists, who aren't deterred by skeptics calling their discipline of parapsychology a pseudoscience, have successfully studied many paranormal phenomena, including:

Telepathy: communicating thoughts or feelings between two people not using the five traditional senses.
Precognition: Perceiving information about future events before they happen.
Clairvoyance: Gaining information about places or events at remote locations.
Psychokinesis: The ability of the mind to manipulate matter, time, space, or energy.
Near-death experiences: An experience reported by a person who came close to death, or who experienced clinical death and then was brought back to life.
Reincarnation: The rebirth of a soul or human consciousness in a new physical body after death.
Apparitional experiences: Phenomena relating to ghosts of deceased persons in places they frequented or with their belongings.

People have been reporting paranormal events since the beginning of recorded time, but scientists have disagreed about the existence of these phenomena and many skeptics mock those people who see ghosts or have paranormal experiences. Yet, paranormal stories hold considerable interest worldwide. It's one of those things that ties all of us together, all cultures, everywhere in the world.

Solheim's view is that there are ethereal beings among us, but, for most people, their modern senses don't recognize them, and skeptics take comfort when scientists continue to disagree about the existence of paranormal or psi phenomena. For those people who have had significant paranormal events in their lives, it's not a matter of belief, as in religion, it's a matter of actual experience. Some embrace this gift, others shun it as a curse, and perhaps even some are driven mad. "The bottom line is that the paranormal is more normal than people think," says Solheim.

Solheim hopes readers enjoy his stories and open themselves to the experience of seeing, hearing, feeling, and sensing in every possible way the unknown. "It's time to put aside our fears and share our stories with each other," he writes. "Fear of death can paralyze us and make it difficult for us to live our lives fully and do good on this Earth. By embracing and understanding the spirit world, we can see that our fears were unfounded and that we can live forever."

Solheim, Ph.D. was born in 1958, in Seattle, Washington, to hard-working Norwegian immigrant parents. He was the first person in his family to go to college. Solheim served for six years in the US Army as a jail guard and later as a helicopter pilot. He earned his Ph.D. in history from Bowling Green State University in 1993. Solheim is currently a distinguished professor of history at Citrus College in Glendora, California. He also served as a Fulbright professor in 2003 at the University of Tromso in northern Norway. Solheim founded the Veterans Program at Citrus College and cofounded, with Manuel Martinez and Ginger De Villa-Rose, the Boots to Books transition coursethe first college course in the United States designed specifically for recently returned veterans. Solheim has published seven books and has written ten plays, two of which have been produced. Solheim is married to Ginger, the girl of his dreams, who is a professional helicopter pilot and certified flight instructor. He has been blessed with four wonderful children: and one grandson.