Citrus College history professor Bruce Solheim started teaching Paranormal Personal History course for the second time on Sept. 16.Although the class does not offer credits, over 20 students registered for the fall semester. Solheim explained many students repeat the class to share and listen to others’ experiences.
He said he didn’t know what to expect when the class started, saying students might show up in witch costumes. But he said he realized his students are “people you see at the grocery store.”
Students of all ages registered, but Solheim said he noticed a lack of young students. The class meets seven times per semester to discuss telepathy, clairvoyance, apparitions, angels, demons, and aliens, among other paranormal topics.
He said he helps students examine their experiences in a safe environment and he has fostered a community who won’t ridicule beliefs.
“The people are very respectful of one another,” Solheim said.
Students in the paranormal class exchange paranormal ideas as well as interact with guest speakers.
Solheim’s syllabus praises the courage of his students who are “not afraid of the truth and stand ready to help your fellow beings prepare.”
Guest speakers this semester include: Peruvian shaman Esther Jenkins, Terry Lovelace, who was abducted by aliens, hypnotherapist Yvonne Smith and Psychic Medium Sheena Metal.
Yvonne Smith works with UFO abduction claims and has written three books on the subject.
“I think Bruce’s Paranormal Class is important because people need to know there is, what I terms as ‘high strangeness’ that hundreds of people experience, which, at times, is very difficult to explain,” Smith said.
During her guest lecture she plans to explain how people are taken, what happens while onboard the spacecraft and the different types of alien beings.
The class concludes a couple days before Halloween. This year students are invited to an on-campus field trip to the Tech C building.
Solheim said he created the trip after talking to custodians who said the building is haunted.
He said the first class’s paranormal investigation backfired when word got out he was coming. He took the class to a Steak Corral on Route 66, but he said the owner was frustrated by the arrival of news reporters.
Solheim’s memoirs’ Timeless and Timeless: Deja Vu focus on his paranormal experiences. The books are required reading for the class.
Timeless Deja Vu, came out in March while Timeless Trinity, the third book in the Timeless trilogy, will come out next year.
He did not intend to write a trilogy when a vision of his friend’s spirit gave him the idea for Timeless.
Solheim said the third Timeless book will be the most spiritual and deal with alien experiences he has never revealed.
“If they don’t think I’m crazy now maybe they’ll still not think I’m crazy if I come out with a third,” Solheim said.
His idea for the class began after Timeless came out, and people shared their stories with him.
“I thought, ‘why not go a little bit further, let me ask the administration if I can teach a class in the paranormal,'” Solheim said. “And nobody is more surprised than me that they said ‘yes.'”
Since assigning the memoirs for class reading, Solheim says he is better prepared.
He has also written a comic book, Snarc, debuting this year. The book mixes science fiction, humor, and adventure.
Inspired by his experiences with aliens, Solheim described Snarc as a comic for all-ages, dealing with social issues from a half-human half-alien’s perspective.
He said he wants people to think more deeply about aliens.
“The main reason people take the class is because they want a safe place to talk about those things,” he said.“And my job is to provide that safe place and also to provide some sort of framework for them to understand the phenomenon.”
He said he encourages people to reveal their experiences and not hold them deep inside.
“Experiencing is believing and believing is experiencing,” Solheim said.
