Jill Stefko

Jill Stefko PhD has studied the paranormal since 1957, when, as a child, she bought her first parapsychology book, The Unknown Guest. In fall, 1965, she conducted her first investigation. Jill gives workshops and lectures, writes for selected Internet web sites and been a guest on radio call-in talk shows and local TV, as an expert in the paranormal. Each semester, Bill White's Journalism class at Lehigh University, as a part of their grades, interviews Jill about the paranormal and psychicism. She has given lectures to a psychology class at Lehigh Carbon Community College. Mental health professionals consult with Jill for advice about poltergeists, ESP and other parapsychological phenomena that their clients have experienced.

Her expertise in the paranormal including parapsychology, cryptozoology, Fortean phenomena, anomalies, UFOs, aliens and demonic possession and exorcism which some consider a religious subject. While doing research, Jill spoke to Father Alphonsus Trabold, the exorcist whom the Scranton Diocese asked to investigate the Smurl case, the subject of A "Haunting" in Pennsylvania. She investigates cases of alleged psi, tests people for ESP, telepathy and psychokinesis, PK, the ability of the mind to affect matter.

Jill created, hosted and served as a paranormal expert for walking ghost tours of a city’s historic district with the local tourism authority until the decision was made to dismember the organization.

Professional Affiliations

Director and founding member: FIRE-Psi, the Foundation for the Research, Investigation and Education of Psychic Phenomena, a parapsychological organization, founded in 1996. Mission: Adhere to scientific criteria when investigating, researching, educating and counseling experients, debunking frauds and alleviating fear of the unknown.
Member: IONS, the Institute of Noetic Sciences. http://www.noetic.org/, founded by former astronaut, Edgar Mitchell to scientifically research the potentials and powers of consciousness, including perceptions, beliefs, and intuition.
Associate member: CSICOP, http://www.csicop.org/. The Committee for Skeptical Inquiry supports critical scientific investigation of claims involving extraordinary human experiences
Member: International Paranormal Investigators, http://www.international-paranormal-investigators.tk/. IPI provides exchanges of information about paranormal subjects.
Member: Board of Directors for Pennsylvania based nonprofit corporation, North Penn Legal Services, advocates for legal rights. http://www.northpennlegal.org/ She is on the audit & finance and recruitment committees. NPLS provides free legal services to low income people who cannot afford a lawyer for civil issues that don’t involve monetary gain.

Education: PhD Counseling - Thesis theme: the interrelationship between the psychological and the psychic and how to treat the experients. Master’s Metaphysics. Thesis theme: the influence of Western European Shamanism on orthodox religion. BS Psychology major, sociology minor. Reiki Master. LLB. Certified Mediator.

Jill is a Shamanistic practitioner, Reiki Master, retired mental health counselor and former Suite 101 Feature Writer for Paganism/Wicca.

During her career as a counselor, Jill gained in depth knowledge of personality and anxiety disorders and Dissociative Identity Disorder, formerly Multiple Personality Disorder. Most of her clients were targets of people with psychiatric disorders.

Jill began her writing career as a reporter for Moravian College’s newspaper, The Comenian. She wrote and published a parapsychology book about ghosts which included a glossary, documented cases of ghosts and a “for fun” quiz. She created and published an AmerIndian Shield, Pennsylvania Hex sign and Hallowe’en coloring books. During her career in the executive search industry, Jill illustrated and helped write Job Search Blue Print for the '90s: The Doorway to New Opportunities, a book used in outplacement. She was the editor and a contributing writer for Dolphin Doin's, the Norfolk Submarine Officers Wives Club's monthly magazine.

Among her other passions are animals - their psychology, behavior and communication, mysteries of history, advocacy, law and cooking, especially creating new recipes. Jill, happily, shares her home with three feline family members, two of whom were abused cats she adopted from an animal shelter.

She enjoys writing for Suite 101 because of the camaraderie, sense of community and the fact that her research done in order to write articles fulfills her quest for knowledge. Jill believes that people can never satisfy their need for learning.

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