Rogo, D Scott

Category: Other spiritually gifted people

 

David Scott Rogo (February 1, 1950—August 18, 1990) was a writer, journalist and researcher on subjects related to parapsychology.

He served on the graduate faculty of John F. Kennedy University in Orinda, California and worked as a visiting researcher at the (former) Division of Parapsychology and Psychophysics of Maimonides Medical Centre in Brooklyn, New York, as well as the Psychical Research Foundation in Durham, North Carolina.

He wrote over 20 books on the paranormal, and he was a consulting editor for Fate magazine, for which he wrote a regular column.  He also investigated hauntings and poltergeist cases and authored many books and articles on this subject.  Scott was also a leading authority on the history of psychical research, with a great breadth of historical knowledge of the field.

 

Rogo was an accomplished Out of Body traveller himself and he published a number of ‘self-help’ books on the subject. 

We have used his book Leaving the Body: A Complete Guide to Astral Projection [1983] as the source for our observations, as it has the advantage that he both describes his own experiences, but also says how he achieved them, occasionally in very helpful detail. 

He has also added the experiences of others in the book and where the experiences are not his, we have used the name of the experiencer, but kept the source as him, for ease of reference.

Career

Born in Los Angeles, California and educated at the University of Cincinnati and San Fernando Valley State College (now California State University, Northridge; he graduated in 1972.   

His B.A. was in music; Rogo played the oboe and the English horn, and for two years played professionally with the San Diego Symphony and other ensembles.

 

Rogo was open minded on the question of survival of consciousness after death, he wrote that he was "favourable to the survival notion" he was however skeptical about some of the phenomena involved in psychical research.

Thus he was closer to the skeptics than the unquestioning believers, his main motive for investigative journalism being to want to find out why these things happened and how. 

Despite the fact that some people [after his death when he had no chance to respond] accused him of being too easily led and too easy to believe, that is not at all how his books read. He just preferred to believe that people told the best ‘truth’ they could in difficult circumstances.  That they did not lie because they had no motive to lie, but sometimes the experiences defied words.

 

In his book The Haunted Universe (1977), for example, Rogo hypothesized that strange phenomena such as flying saucers and Bigfoot are really psychic projections that are produced by the minds of the observers themselves – either hallucinations or visions in other words; so spiritual experiences as opposed to physical experiences.

Death

Rogo was murdered in 1990 at the age of 40. He was last seen alive on August 14, 1990. He was found stabbed to death in his home by police on August 16. There were no signs of a struggle although a number of Rogo's personal items were missing and his wallet was empty. The police later arrested a 29-year-old Hispanic man, John Battista.

 

After an initial mis-trial, he was tried and convicted of Rogo's murder in 1992. After lengthy appeals, his conviction was later overturned, due to prosecutorial misconduct, in 1996. His killer is still unknown and the case remains open.

In his memory, the Parapsychology Foundation established The D. Scott Rogo Award for Parapsychological Literature in 1992 to benefit authors working on manuscripts pertaining to parapsychology.

References

Books authored by D. Scott Rogo

• NAD: A Study of Some Unusual “Other-World” Experiences. 1970.
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  A Psychic Study of “The Music of the Spheres” (NAD. Volume II). 1972.
• Methods and Models for Education in Parapsychology. Parapsychological Monograph No. 14. New York: Parapsychology Foundation, Inc. 1973.
• The Welcoming Silence: A Study of Psychical Phenomena and Survival of Death. 1973.
• An Experience of Phantoms 1974.
• Parapsychology: A Century of Inquiry. 1975.
• Exploring Psychic Phenomena: Beyond Mind and Matter. 1976.
• In Search of the Unknown: The Odyssey of a Psychical Investigator. 1976.
• The Haunted Universe: A Psychic Look at Miracles, UFOs and Mysteries of Nature. 1977.
• The Haunted House Handbook. 1978.
• (Ed.) Mind Beyond the Body: The Mystery of ESP Projection. 1978.
• Minds and Motion: The Riddle of Psychokinesis. 1978.
• The Poltergeist Experience. 1979.
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  (Ed.) UFO Abductions: True Cases of Alien Kidnappings. 1980.
• ESP and Your Pet. 1982.
• Miracles: A Parascientific Inquiry Into Wondrous Phenomena. 1982.
• Our Psychic Potentials. 1984.
• The Search for Yesterday: A Critical Examination of the Evidence for Reincarnation. 1985.
• Life After Death: The Case for Survival of Bodily Death. 1986.
• Mind Over Matter: The Case for Psychokinesis: How the Human Mind Can Manipulate the Physical World. 1986.
• On the Track of the Poltergeist. 1986.
• The Infinite Boundary: A Psychic Look at Spirit Possession, Madness, and Multiple Personality. 1987.
• Psychic Breakthroughs Today: Fascinating Encounters with Parapsychology’s Latest Discoveries. 1987.
• The Return From Silence: A Study of Near-Death Experiences. 1989.
• Beyond Reality: The Role Unseen Dimensions Play in Our Lives. 1990.

Observations

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• A well-known American parapsychologist - The windows had a different set of curtains in my OBE than the curtains which were in the room
• A young boy - Questioning and doubting one’s existence
• Dr Carl Happich - Guided imagery in healing and the importance of symbols
• Dr Hanscarl Leuner - Guided imagery in healing and the importance of symbols
• Drs Caslant and Desoille - Guided imagery in healing and the importance of symbols
• Drs Kretschner, Frank and Guillerey - Guided imagery in healing and the importance of symbols
• J. W. Skilton – Goes OOB to paradise
• Mr S H Beard wills a series of OBEs to his fiancée Miss Verity and her sister, and he is ‘seen’ by both!
• Patricia Garfield - Lucid dreaming as a precursor to OBEs
• Prescott Hall and Minnie Keeler communicate with ‘soi-disant Oriental masters’ on the mechanisms of OBEs
• Raymond Bayless nearly goes out of body using the yoga Shavasana position
• Rogo, D Scott - Leaving the Body - Contacting the Higher spirit for healing
• Rogo, D Scott - Leaving the Body - During the OBE, we contact only a parallel of the real world-a plastic interactional world
• Rogo, D Scott - Leaving the Body - I share the view that the OBE is a literal rehearsal for death
• Rogo, D Scott - Leaving the Body - Methods of separation in an OBE
• Rogo, D Scott - Leaving the Body - Scott’s own OBEs - 01 The first time
• Rogo, D Scott - Leaving the Body - Scott’s own OBEs - 02 A follow on experience with a little more control
• Rogo, D Scott - Leaving the Body - Scott’s own OBEs - 03 Getting used to the OBE, after one aborted experience
• Rogo, D Scott - Leaving the Body - Scott’s own OBEs - 04 An increase in visions
• Rogo, D Scott - Leaving the Body - Spontaneous OBEs caused by worry
• Rogo, D Scott - Leaving the Body - The best conditions for an OBE
• Rogo, D Scott - Leaving the Body - The dangers of yogic ‘cross breathing’
• Rogo, D Scott - Leaving the Body - The importance of symbolism in healing
• Rogo, D Scott - Leaving the Body - The value of the hypnagogic state in OBEs
• Rogo, D Scott - Leaving the Body – Heat, atonia and the fear of not getting back into the body
• Rogo, D Scott - Leaving the Body – Sinking, floating and humming or buzzing from OBEs
• The OBE case histories of Dr John Palmer at John F Kennedy University - 01 Using sensory deprivation and relaxation
• The OBE case histories of Dr John Palmer at John F Kennedy University - 03 The EEG and theta waves
• The OBE case histories of Dr John Palmer at John F Kennedy University – 02 Using vibrating chairs
• The OBE case histories of Dr Richard Green - 01 Transferring consciousness to a light bulb
• The OBE case histories of Dr Richard Green - 02 Projecting consciousness out of the physical body to a friend
• The OBE Case histories of Dr Sandor Brent - 01 Using Guided imagery
• The OBE Case histories of Dr Sandor Brent - 02 The experiments of Dr. Gertrude Schmeidler
• The OBE Case histories of Dr Sandor Brent - 03 Scott experiments with his own group
• Walter K Paul – OBEs from the Muller Mantra system