I’m Melvin S. Marsh an adjunct professor and academic researcher with a passion for exploring the unknown extreme areas. My research dives into the compelling fields of aerospace and extreme psychology, as well as altered states of consciousness and transpersonal psychology. I’m also a fellow of clinical hypnotherapy, primarily using a story-based, indirect approach based on Ericksonian hypnosis.

My unique perspective is rooted in a childhood split between two worlds. My parents worked in media, and I learned from the best how to captivate an audience—a skill I use today in my teaching, hypnosis practice, and even my part-time acting and comedy career. At the same time, my father, an electrical engineer, fostered a love for science, especially astronomy, which led to my lifelong dream of working with NASA.

I’m also strongly influenced by my Surinamese heritage. My great-grandmother was a spirit worker/traditional healer/piaiman/piai (basically a Surinamese shaman), and my own childhood was filled with experiences that often defied scientific explanation. This background sparked my lifelong fascination with spirituality and the metaphysical, which I’ve explored through everything from reading ancient texts, my obsession with folklore to fortune telling to my interest in UAPs and spirits of all shapes and sizes.

My journey has been anything but linear. I’ve worked as an EMT, a genealogist, a hypnotherapist, and a business consultant. This path, along with my experiences as child of and parent to someone with mental illness, my own transition, my conversion to Judaism, as well as a medically retired after being severely injured, has given me a deep and empathetic understanding of the human experience. Today, I’m an adjunct professor who continues to learn and grow, taking as many classes as one can as the one who dies with the longest CV wins!  I am also hoping to one day pursue a Ph.D. in clinical psychology.

When I’m not teaching or doing research, I love to read, write, explore museums, and work on my ambulance conversion—my first step toward a new adventure.