On October 3, 2019, Travel Channel will debut a new (10-part, hour-long) series entitled “The Holzer Files” at 10 p.m. ET/PT, in which a dedicated paranormal team will investigate terrifying true hauntings from the recently discovered case files of America’s first ghost hunter, Dr. Hans Holzer. Featuring Holzer’s daughter, Alexandra Holzer, a renowned author, journalist, and Paranormal Investigator in her own right, (who resides in Chester, New York), Travel Channel will exclusively reopen Dr. Holzer’s most captivating case files – digging into thousands of documents, letters, photographs and chilling audio and visual recordings dating back to the 1950s.
For more about the new show, see: https://corporate.discovery.com/discovery-newsroom/travel-channel-reopens-the-haunted-case-files-of-hans-holzer-for-the-first-time-in-groundbreaking-new-series-the-holzer-files-premiering-thursday-october-3-at-10-p-m-et-p/
Regarding “The Holzer Files,” Alexandra Holzer says, “Over 50 years ago, my father, Dr. Hans Holzer, gave life to the global fascination with ‘the other side’ as America’s first paranormal investigator. Now, 10 years after his passing, I’ve reopened my father’s case files for the very first time! Together with the producers of this new series, we’ve pulled together a team of paranormal experts to take a second look at many of my father’s cases, so they can re-investigate these remarkable hauntings. I’m thrilled and truly excited to welcome the launch of ‘The Holzer Files.’”
Recognized as the “Father of the Paranormal,” Dr. Holzer’s legendary four-decade exploration into disturbing hauntings like the “Amityville Horror” house helped spawn legions of supernatural enthusiasts. The author of more than 150 books on virtually every topic imaginable within the realm of the supernatural, Holzer even inspired Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis to write “Ghostbusters.” Dr. Holzer, whose first book, “Ghost Hunter,” was released in 1963, is not only credited for having coined the phrase “Ghost Hunter,” but was also, during his lifetime, America’s foremost authority on paranormal events, research and investigation, appearing on countless television and radio programs around the globe promoting his work.
Today, Dr. Holzer’s daughter, Alexandra Holzer (48), the author of her own book entitled “Growing Up Haunted,” has made a nationally recognized name for herself, not only for keeping the Holzer Legacy alive, but for having proven and established herself as one of the preeminent FEMALE paranormal investigators and intuitive psychics anywhere in the United States.
Holzer credits her father with having been the first person – ever—to have bestowed legitimacy to the field of paranormal research, allowing it to eventually become a real science by pioneering protocols using noetic philosophies, combining inner wisdom, spirituality and science.
Certainly NOT a stereo-typical “Ghost Hunter” by any stretch of the imagination, the eccentric Alexandra Holzer is a happily married mother of six, whose home life she readily refers to as the “Real Life Addams Family” — a haunted family affair. She says, “I grew up with a dad that spoke like Count Dracula – he was from Vienna. Also, my grandfather was an actual Count of Russia, and my mother is related to Catherine the Great. My father lived a life far left of center beginning back in the 1950's, with a daughter, ME, who regularly saw ghosts. With my family’s dark hair and pale skin — we look like a real-life Addams family.”
She adds, “Believe it or not, although he passed away in 2009, my father continues to help me –even today– to investigate Paranormal cases from the afterlife. My family is a uniquely supernatural one, filled with haunted legacies and everyday family chaos. My father had psychic abilities, and I inherited those abilities as well.”
Emerging publicly onto the Paranormal scene in early 2005 as a writer, Alexandra has, since that time, also appeared in numerous feature film documentaries, including the “25th Anniversary of Poltergeist” and filmmaker Ryan Katzenbach’s four-part investigative series “Shattered Hopes: The True Story of the Amityville Murders.” Alexandra has also appeared on television numerous times discussing various Paranormal issues, including on the Travel Channel show “Paranormal Challenge,” where she served as a “celebrity guest judge” for young paranormal teams investigating the haunted Eastern State Penitentiary in Philadelphia. She has been interviewed on hundreds of national and/or regional radio talk shows, even serving as host for a radio program on WY102 FM in the greater Philadelphia area.
Alexandra has published several books, including one about her life story entitled “Growing up Haunted.” A past contributor to The Huffington Post and a current columnist with OM Times online magazine, she has often gone on Paranormal investigations with local police departments, helping to solve cold-case crimes.
She investigates in her surrounding area, as well as helping others abroad with their ghostly claims, mediumship, the occult, and other needs in the field. But, Alex also feels that her expertise lies not just with haunted homes, places, or people, but in also getting 'impressions' and being 'sensitive' to her surroundings.
Referring to herself as a Psychic Paranormal Investigator, Alexandra is also renowned for her remarkable sense of humor. Literally growing up in the most “haunted environment” imaginable, she has known nothing else her entire life. As a child, Alexandra’s home featured Dr. Holzer’s living room/museum filled with voodoo masks, mummies, vampires, mementoes from witchcraft and the occult, folklore books, UFO artifacts, aliens, and tales of things going bump in the night.
“The dead living amongst us was the norm,” she says today, “while celebrities from movies and TV shows, along with gypsies, psychics and an assortment of other weirdo’s flocked to our Upper West Side Manhattan apartment. We all sat around a modern day campfire — my living room—to hear one of Hans’ ghost stories while drinking a nice cup of tea.”As far as can be ascertained, today Alexandra Holzer is the only second generation paranormal investigator in the world whose ghostly pedigree from the past has prepared her for a future in science, metaphysics, the occult and the supernatural.
What Notables Have Said About Dr. Hans Holzer & Alexandra Holzer:
“Hans Holzer understood the rules of ghostly behavior perhaps better than anyone else. It was his business to investigate hauntings. While he might not have been frightened by ghosts, most of the people who called on him for help were.” – Leonard Nimoy, Actor, Producer, Director
“Doctor Hans Holzer, probably the world's most credible and respected ghostbuster, writes in his ‘Travel Guide to Haunted Houses’: "A ghost appears to be a surviving emotional memory of someone who died traumatically… but is unaware of his or her death. Sudden death comes as a shock… and human personalities stay on the spot where emotional attachment existed prior to their physical deaths," says Holzer. He posits that ghosts are electromagnetic fields encased in the physical body. At death the outer layer dissolves, leaving this energy free to move forward and back in space and time interacting with the other waves which comprise our plane of existence.” –Dan Aykroyd, Actor, Writer, Producer, Director
“These days, there are countless books on the paranormal with chapters or mentions of the Whaley House, but I can remember as a child, when I first became a Whaley House enthusiast, Dr. Hans Holzer’s book ‘Ghosts of the Golden West’ was virtually the only one. I read my copy until it fell apart. Although that book is now long out-of-print, the chapter is reproduced in Dr. Holzer's book ‘GHOSTS,’ which has always been and continues to be a best seller at our museum shop. I think Dr. Holzer's name is still very well respected by people interested in the paranormal, and for that reason his visit to the Whaley House (as well as those of Regis Philbin, both with and without Dr. Holzer) are still inquired about by our guests, 50 years later.” — Dean Glass, Manager, San Diego’s historically haunted Whaley House
"Alexandra Holzer gives a whole new meaning to juggling family & work! Her abilities to touch the spirit world, while teaching her children to hone their skills, is amazing. She is truly a modern day marvel!" – Ernie Hudson, star of the “Ghost Busters” feature film series
Background Information on Dr. Hans Holzer
Dr. Hans Holzer, PhD, was a Modern Pioneer and Father of the Paranormal Investigative universe, having created protocols and advancements for over six-decades that catapulted and changed the field's historical course forever. In addition to his work as a playwright and lyricist, Holzer also authored over 150 books on ghosts and hauntings, and is perhaps best known for his books “Murder in Amityville,” which spawned the film “Amityville II: The Possession,” and “The Amityville Curse.” Dr. Holzer was on the scene at the site of the infamous Amityville tragedy with medium-in-tow Ethel Johnson-Myers, researching the haunted location in tandem.
Dr. Holzer, who famously declared, “A Ghost is simply a fellow human being who’s in trouble,” also appeared on NBC's TV show “In Search Of With Leonard Nimoy” during the 1970s, and had a radio stint with Manhattan's radio station WOR alongside the legendary Joe Franklin. Please see Dr. Holzer’s New York Times 2009 Obituary: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/30/books/30holzer.html
About ALEXANDRA HOLZER
Alexandra Holzer, a well-respected East Coast-based Paranormal Investigator, “Sensitive,” Journalist and Author, is inarguably living the life she was born to live.
Holzer’s father was the late author, lyricist, lecturer, educator, spiritualist, and parapsychologist professor Dr. Hans Holzer, PhD, who is known all over the world as the original Ghost Hunter, with over 150 published titles, non-fiction/fiction, to his name.
Alexandra’s mother is a Countess on the Baron side of the Russian Royal Buxhoeveden Family – an accomplished artist and relation to infamous Catherine The Great. Holzer inherited her passion for scientific research and unexplained phenomena from her father, while her mother’s relations passed down to Alex an unavoidable and fine-tuned ability to connect with the spirit world
Holzer has appeared in numerous film documentaries exploring the paranormal; on TV as a paranormal expert; and as a guest or guest-host of hundreds of national talk radio shows. She also created a paranormal segment for Reading Pennsylvania's morning show WY102 on WRFM, a commercial FM radio station.
As a result of her ongoing contributions to the field of the paranormal, Holzer has been featured in Broadly-Vice Magazine, Rolling Stone, Rue-Morgue, Fortean Times, MTV News Online, and Teen Vogue. She was also profiled on Hamptons.com.
Holzer is the author of “Lady Ambrosia: Secret Past Revealed” (2007) and “Growing Up Haunted: A Ghostly Memoir” (2008), which are available for purchase on Amazon.com.
Holzer’s other written works include: contributions to AOL's Huffington Post, Canada's UFO Digest, and the popular, holistic, green-zine OM Times, in Asheville, North Carolina. Her fresh, trademark journalistic approach doesn’t hold back – or shy away – from the truth, and the truth, for those who seek it, is out there.
Holzer also successfully partnered with the 2013 “Pulp Ark Award”-winning “Best Author” Bobby Nash to create the book “Alexandra Holzer’s Ghost Gal: The Wild Hunt,” with forward by Ghostbuster Ernie Hudson.
Another successful partnership led to Holzer’s contributions to the new TV series “The Holzer Files” for Travel Channel (2019). Making its debut on the 10-year anniversary of her father’s passing, the show takes a deep dive into Dr. Hans Holzer’s never-before-released case files.
Alexandra Holzer is the co-founder of the global organization Hunt with Holzer; is a tireless mother of 6 children, ranging in age from 2 to 20; is an advocate for adopting rescue pets from shelters; is a believer in setting wellness goals, and would love to see a cure for childhood diabetes in her lifetime. For further information, please visit:
- website: www.alexandraholzer.com
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Alexandra-Holzer/45302129522?ref=hl
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/alexandraholzer?lang=en
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/alexandra_holzer_lawson/
About “THE HOLZER FILES”: Premieres Thursday, October 3 at 10 p.m. ET/PT ON TRAVEL CHANNEL
In “The Holzer Files,” a dedicated paranormal team – led by investigator Dave Schrader, psychic medium Cindy Kaza, and equipment technician Shane Pittman, with special commentary and observations by Alexandra Holzer – investigates terrifying true hauntings from the recently released case files of America’s “First Ghost Hunter,” Dr. Hans Holzer. See: https://press.discovery.com/us/trv/programs/holzer-files/
Recognized as the “Father of the Paranormal,” Holzer’s legendary, four-decade exploration into disturbing hauntings like the “Amityville Horror” house helped spawn legions of supernatural enthusiasts. He wrote more than 150 books, and even inspired Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis to write “Ghostbusters.”
Now, for the first time ever, and with the cooperation and guidance of Dr. Holzer’s daughter, Alexandra, Travel Channel exclusively reopens Holzer’s most captivating case files – digging into thousands of documents, letters, photographs, and chilling audio and visual recordings, many of which date back well into the 1950s.
