David J. Pitkin Retired teacher and author David J. Pitkin has sought solutions to mysteries throughout his life. In the 1960s he became fascinated with the workings of the unconscious mind and on the growing evidence for ghosts and hauntings: consciousness surviving body death. Since hearing a ghost (later identified as a suicide from 1940) walking in a haunted barn in 1968, and visiting the “Riley House” in Saratoga Springs, NY, in 1978, he has experienced a number of paranormal phenomena. Over the years, he has collected over 800 folktales of hauntings and apparitions, in the Caribbean, Canada, the U.S., and is now interviewing and investigating haunted houses around the world. Many of these early experiences are detailed in his haunted house books, Ghosts of the Northeast, and his recent works: Haunted Saratoga County, New York State Ghosts, Vol.1 and  NY State Ghosts, Vol. 2. Pitkin’s first novel, which involves hauntings, ghosts and a near-death experience: The Highest Mountain: Death & Life in the Adirondacks, was published in June 2007. Conducting ghost research for forty years at many reputedly haunted sites in New York State, New England, and Canada, he has become a philosopher lecturing on death, near-death experiences and survival of death. A resident of Chestertown, NY, in the Adirondack Mountains, Pitkin lectures widely on parapsychology and metaphysical themes, including ghost stories from his books on haunted houses. His ideal is to enlighten others, but not frighten them. He studied dream analysis with Dr. Montague Ullman, dream expert from Maimonides Hospital, NY, and facilitated a dream study group in Ballston Spa, NY, for eleven years. Pitkin believes many vivid dreams of the departed are genuine ghost or spirit contacts. He is a tested intuitive and served as a reader at the Association for Research & Enlightenment (Edgar Cayce Foundation) in Virginia Beach Virginia between 1992 and1995. David holds Bachelors and Master’s degrees in Social Studies Education from S.U.N.Y., Albany, and a Masters degree in Counseling Psychology from Goddard College, Plainfield, VT. He served 25 years as a professional numerologist and spiritual counselor, and his analysis system is detailed in his 2000 book, Spiritual Numerology: Caring for Number One. He is also a credentialed Reiki Master. Following eight years of travel and research, Pitkin published New England Ghosts in 2010. This is a collection of over 135 New England tales gathered in the six states of that area.  He is currently working on a third volume of NY State stories, a single volume of stories from Warren County, NY, where he lives (scheduled for publication in autumn of 2012) and a sequel to his novel, The Highest Mountain, which will be set in both the Adirondacks and eastern Canada.