Torbjörn Sassersson's Oyster

One of the more remarkable public figures on the Swedish paranormal scene is 43-year-old Torbjörn Sassersson. Renowned for his crusade against "pseudoskepticism" and "scientism", Sassersson is the owner, publisher, and editor of Soul Travel Magazine, a webzine dedicated to the "sciences of human consciousness and anthropology" and related topics such as "psychology, parapsychology, neurobiology, quantum physics" (Sassersson 1). In short, Sassersson is a promotor of every possible and impossible manifestation of superstition there is.

Although he claims that "there are several people associated with Soul travel Magazine" (Sassersson 1), it is obvious that the webzine is a solo project; all editorial material is by Sassersson's pen and the list of "editors" he occasionally produces when pushed in this matter is a compilation of names never seen on the pages of Soul Travel Magazine before, or since. He just likes to give the impression that the webzine is more than it really is.

To the Swedish public, Sassersson is perhaps best known for his participation in the psychic TV-show The Unknown, where his OBE skills were put to the test on two occasions. Yes, not only does Sassersson report on miracles, he produces them too.

The first test was conducted by the TV production company Nordisk Film in May of 2003 and aired 18 months later on TV4. Why the post-production time equivalent to that of a multi-million dollar feature film project, you may ask. Well, the test was to identify an image with strong emotional content by remote viewing, or self-guided OBE, as Sassersson prefers to call it. The target image was placed in a locked room at the facilities of the production company. Sassersson sat at another location for a week, letting his "mind", "spirit" or "consciousness" fly to the target image. A physical walk would probably have cut down the time to a day but that would have been out of protocol, I guess. Anyway, Sassersson finally sent an e-mail to the production company, containing the message "WTC, 9-11" and an enclosed image of the twin towers in flames and smoke he had found on the internet. Ka-ching! The target image was indeed the twin towers after having been hit by the planes (Sassersson 2). What a success! Or was it?

First of all, my theory is that producer Caroline Giertz deliberately stalled the broadcast more than a year because she knew that it would be a better show if more time had passed between the actual 9/11 event and the show. She knew that 2003 would have been too soon, people would have watched the show and very likely guessed 9/11 themselves. Giertz and Sassersson will of course find my suggestion outrageous, but I don't think it's too far-fetched.

Secondly, in conjunction with the above, should the test have been conducted in a methodologically sound way, it would have been a sensation. A one hour special episode of the show would have been called for, aired shortly after the test! Instead, the audience got a re-enactment of the test 18 months later. Yes, that's right - a re-enactment. What really took place during this test, we will never know. But Sassersson of course refers to this as a "successful experiment".

The next test was conducted by Jan Dalkvist, senior lecturer at the Academy of Psychology at Stockholm University, assisted by Dan Larhammar, neuroscientist at Uppsala University. This time two images was to hang in a room at the academy and an adjacent room was to have a pool of 100 different images posted. Sassersson was asked if it was okay that some of the images were of revolting nature, something he consented to. Of course, Sassersson failed miserably (Sassersson 3) and there was no end to the rationalizations he presented. He didn't know the images in the pool room was to be that nasty. An image of a burning scyscraper filled with people comes naturally, but a body part - no, no. And Joe McMoneagle, one of the men that used to play psychic spy in the US military and now retro-fits his way through life, assured Sassersson that using two target photos was a mistake, it causes mental confusion. Imagine that. A man who claims to have "remote viewed" foreign military installements has trouble separating two images from each other. Mental confusion indeed...

Apart from the OBE tests and some guest appearances in talk and radio shows, Sassersson spends most of his time on the internet, where he rules with sovereignity over his own forum linked to the webzine (Sassersson 4). It is a forum open to the public and as long as you don't post opinions or arguments that Sassersson has trouble refuting, you are welcome. Many a member has experienced a sudden ban or having their posts erased. But in Sassersson's defense, he deletes or edits his own posts too, if attention has been brought to their obvious flaws. And he doesn't mind being thrown out from other forums, although his version of the reason often differs from the adminstration's in question.

I am not sure why, but a while back, Sassersson's forum was abandoned by most of the woo-woos. I don't know what Sassersson did, or who he offended, but the forum has failed to regain its former popularity and is now just a sad playground for a devoted few. But Sassersson struggles on and uses multiple nicknames to give the impression of a crowd.

Sassersson once claimed to know my real name. He had compared some posts on a couple of forums and flaunted the name all over. He was of course wrong and, as opposed to Johan Lundberg, he realized it. But he takes great pride in busting identities, because his cause is just. He knows the Truth and those who question him are enemies of the Truth. Because of that, exposing the real names of people who have chosen to be anonymous is just. And the people who oppose him are in general part of a Great Conspiracy aimed at suppressing the Truth of remote viewing, OBE, the afterlife, etc. A fellow skeptic was indeed exposed by Sassersson which caused some mild, but still, suffering for his family.

Since the minister of culture at the time, Bengt Göransson, attended the founding of the Swedish anti-pseudoscience society, VoF, in 1982, Sassersson claims that the society in reality is an extension of the Social Democratic Party and, in effect, Swedish Secret Intelligence. Although the VoF doesn't want to be called "skeptics" (they prefer "anti-pseudoscience activists" or something in that line), Sassersson regards them as part of a skeptic movement that is a global joint venture against the psychic and spiritual powers that rest in each one of us. Powers that in some way, I'm not sure how, opposes a threat to traditional science and society at large (allegedly in the minds of those in power). So the VoF is Sassersson's prime target. And as they are part of the governmental, high finance, and military complex, they are omnipotent and able to direct all possible, and impossible, counter measures towards Sassersson in his struggle for Truth. Apparently, Sassersson has never reflected on why such an almighty and powerful organization limit themselves to a quarterly member journal designed like a notebook and has virtually no public impact except for their annual "deluder" award. But then again, most of their work probably has to be done in secret. Swedish Secret Intelligence, you know...

And Sassersson knows these things - he claims to have connections in both the Swedish and American Intelligence. Among other things, he has knowledge about CIA sending personnel for telepathy training. So they can communicate with aliens.

As Sassersson views his activities as being "journalistic research" and rejoices at every personal or private detail he can "dig up" about his opponents, it might be interesting to look at what Sassersson is up to when he's not fighting the global skeptic conspiracy. After all, if it's out there on the internet, how personal can it be? Especially for a public figure like Sassersson.

Parallell to Soul Travel Magazine, Sassersson also runs a shareholding company called Sasser Media Lab, presented at www.sasser.net - the Soul Travel Forum is located on the same domain. This company, that last fiscal year had no employees, offers editorial services, web production services, print work, articles, documentary filming, and event production. Although the look of Soul Travel Magazine raises serious doubts regarding the competence in some of these areas, there's nothing strange about it. But when Sassersson states the partners in "his network", it gets really funny.

The first company is Vascaya, which probably is misspelled and should be Vascaia. Now, Vascaia is a company that offer the services of a network of independent consultants. But Sassersson is not mentioned in any of their listings of associated consultants. So, in what way is Vascaia Sassersson's partner? The Sasser Media Lab web page doesn't say.

The next Sassersson partner is Event Market. And this company actually has Sassersson listed. It may even have you listed. The thing is that Event Market, www.eventmarket.com, is a web portal where anyone can register for the price of 4,320 SEK. So in reality, Sassersson is a client of Event Market and the services they provide is exposure. How that amounts to a partnership evades me completely.

The next partner is Coreworkers, a communications and media agency. No visible connnection to Sassersson at all, but it looks impressive. Who knows?

Dreams Come True is a web host and development company. Again, no reference to Sassersson. Maybe it's Sassersson's website host. That would make me partner with Telia, one of Sweden's largest internet operators. Wow...

So Sassersson is, in part at least, blowing smoke. But what about his references? Well, if you disregard the obvious fakes, like "The Health Industry", "The Bio Energy Industry", "Companies of the Health Industry", "Projects of the Energy Department", and "The Bio Energy Companies", there is also Arla, Swedens largest dairy products company. What kind of web production has Sassersson done for them? No answer. And what article has Sassersson written on commission from Expressen, Sweden's second largest tabloid? No answer. And what event production services has he provided Kulturhuset in Stockholm with? This time there is an answer. Sassersson worked 18 months full time with "exhibition support and administration" in 2005 and 2006. I actually remember this, because Sassersson was listed as "Janitor" on Kulturhuset's web site at the time. But I guess it sounds better if you have worked with "exhibition suppport".

When you check some of the references, you realize that they are located at the same address as Sassersson, and they turn out to be his own companies or projects, old, bankrupt, or suspended. A kind of in-breeding, I guess.

It seems as if Torbjörn Sassersson is living, in part at least, in a make-believe world. There are monsters and conspiracies, he is the Hero and if he imagines or writes things up, they become real. The world is his oyster. What a colorful asset to the debate on paranormal phenomena.

Note: Sassersson tends to delete or edit his web pages when criticized, so I will post screen dumps if Sassersson resorts to that in this case.

Sassersson 1, Editorial office, Soul Travel Magazine, [web document] http://www.soultravel.se/redax/index.shtml

Sassersson 2, Successful Experiment on Extended Remote Viewing or "Self-guided OBE", Soul Travel Magazine, [web document] http://www.soultravel.se/2004/041208-TV4Plus/remote_viewing.shtml

Sassersson 3, Försök att bevisa fjärrsyn misslyckades, Soul Travel Magazine, [web document] http://www.soultravel.se/2005/1123-debunked/remote_viewing.shtml

Sassersson 4, Soul Travel Forum, [web document] http://www.sasser.net/forum/