Rejected Religion Podcast

*Note: This is the Free Content version of my interview with Michael Eisenberg. To access the entire episode, please consider becoming a Tier 3 'Garden of Arcane Delights' member on Patreon, or you can purchase this full episode for a one-time fee. My guest this month is Michael Eisenberg. Taken from Metapsychosis: Journal of Consciousness, Literature, and Art, Michael describes himself as “an avid, deep listener of Acousmatic music. Many people know this music under a myriad of names such as Electro-Acoustic, Musique Concret, computer music, music for loudspeakers etc. but I prefer to call it Acousmatic because that term seems, to me… the closest I can get to the “classical” definition of experiencing sounds completely divorced from the physical, mechanical, technological gestures that produced them. Sounds for sounds sake, organized in a manner that is meaningful on some level, usually the imaginal to the listener. My project is to overlay the so-called esoteric idea space, both ancient and modern on top of this music and discover connections, correspondences, sympathies and synchronicities that may aid in making suggestions on how to listen to this music.”In this discussion, Michael introduces acousmatic music, the history, the ideas behind the genre, and how it differs from other sounds such as ambient/atmospheric film music or soundscapes, for example. He calls this “music for loudspeakers, not performance,” although the genre has expanded to include performances known as “diffusions”. Michael also discusses his thoughts on how this music acts as a bridge to the Mundis Imaginalis, an esoteric concept taken from Persian/Sufi teachings and brought to the West by scholar Henry Corbin. He then talks more about his project, in collaboration with the Metapsychosis Journal, called “Acousmatic Crossings.” The music featured in this ongoing project strives to “break down the holding cell of what’s inside all of us. Our innate imaginal faculty, our inner genius jail breaks out of its unconscious black iron prison—the prison imposed by modernities infatuation with the degraded image… and begins to dream.Acousmatic Crossings presents some of the artists creating in this space today.  We have received a plethora of works, some from artists well established in this realm, many from artists new to me, all bursting with an intrinsic and untaught ability to transport you, the listener beyond the fields you know.If you choose to explore these zones, there is only one simple prerequisite, a prerequisite that all of us have access to.  And that is to simply use your cognitive imagination.” During the course of our conversation, Michael generously offered to curate a list of creators and albums for us to explore. Please find a selection listed below in the program notes, along with several journal articles and essays taken from the Metapsychosis Journal. The full curated list will be put in a separate post on Patreon as it is very long! You can find it at: www.patreon.com/RejectedReligion. PROGRAM NOTES:Michael Eisenberg | MetapsychosisAcousmatic Music as a Bridge to the Mundus Imaginalis | MetapsychosisAcousmatic Music as a Divine Map | MetapsychosisAcousmatic Crossings:Acousmatic Crossings | MetapsychosisAcousmatic Crossings: Cinema for the Ears—and An Epiphany of Spheres | MetapsychosisAnd, if any of these connect, why not follow the series over at the Metapsychosis Journal? Here is a link to the landing page that will be updated every two weeks as new pieces by artists who have submitted their work are published: Acousmatic Archives | MetapsychosisMicheal is always available for chat, questions, love letters (or hate mail) and can be reached at meisenberg307@gmail.com . If you’d like to leave any comments on the pieces published over at Metapsychosis, you can be assured that he'll respond fairly quickly.Music and Editing: Daniel P. SheaEnd Production: Stephanie Shea        

*Note: This is the Free Content version of my interview with Veronica French. To access the entire episode, please consider becoming a Tier 2 'Groves of Orpheus' member on Patreon, or you can purchase this episode for a one-time fee. My guest this month is Veronica French. Veronica has an MA in Religious Studies from the University of Erfurt, Germany. She specializes in the study of modern shamanism, anthropology of religion and gender studies. Her master’s thesis explored how modern shamans living in Germany define a “shaman way” and their turning point or crisis, which informs their “shamanic journey.” Her undergraduate work was in medical anthropology with a focus on shamanic techniques and Chinese 5 Element, in which she explored the scholar/practitioner position. She presented previously at the 8th Biannual Conference of the European Society for the Study of Western Esotericism (ESSWE) with the paper “Performative Strategies of Creative Esotericism in 19th Century Jewish Communities” (Cork, Ireland, 2022); XXXI International Summer School on Religion Women and Religions with the paper “Modern Shamanism, Empowerment and Green Religion: Contemporary Shamanic Practice in Germany” (San Gimignano, Italy, 2024); and the International Theosophical History Conference 2024 with the paper “Modern Shamanism, Theosophy and Ecological Spirituality: Connecting Nature Spiritualities” (Ascona, Switzerland, 2024). Veronica also presented at three seminars at the University of Erfurt: “Initial Shamanic Interviews” University of Erfurt, Master’s Thesis Colloquium (2023); “Green Religion and Indigeneity in Popular Media,”University of Erfurt, Green Religion? Answers to Climate Change from the Perspective of Religious Studies (2023); and “Ethnographic Work of Shamanic Practice in Eastern Germany,” University of Erfurt, Master’s Writing Seminar (2023).In this discussion, Veronica shares her background and inspiration for her research into modern shamanism. We talk a bit about the terms shamanism and animism, as these are somewhat contested within academia, and Veronica shares how she is using these terms in her work. She explains what questions she was asking at the outset of her project, and also the surprising additions that arose once she started interviewing her participants. Veronica also notes the interesting data that she gathered regarding topics such as gender, identity, “lived religion,” and ecology. As Veronica has her own experience within the concept known as a the holistic milieu (referring to a broad and diverse spiritual landscape that encompasses various New Age and alternative spiritual practices; often contrasted with traditional religious institutions, as it focuses on personal spirituality, self-development, and holistic well-being rather than formal doctrines or organized worship), she found she was able to relate well to the experiences of her participants, and this aspect has led her to consider continuing her research using the method known as autoethnography. This is a qualitative research method that combines autobiographical storytelling with ethnographic analysis. It allows researchers to use their personal experiences to explore and critique cultural beliefs, practices, and social phenomena. Veronica talks about other scholars in the field who have been using this method, and how it is becoming more accepted within academia. If anyone has any questions or comments for Veronica, please post them here or contact me via email and I can pass these on to her. She welcomes further feedback and discussion! Veronica was also very kind to share some references for futher reading; please see this below. PROGRAM NOTESReferences:Olivia Cejan: "Arts and Crafts Divine" is her dissertation utilizing autoethnography and pedagogy to write about a secret society group. Talk at Copenhagen Conference:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4g2qvGcy5pY&t=524sCorrine Sombrun: -Her institute: https://trancescience.org/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4oDs10hUy6ETrailer to her movie; English subtitlesTed Talk:English subtitleshttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ym0kIECFi0Uhttps://amara.org/videos/Tcvokh51yb2Y/en/1543652/?tab=revisionsAnother interview with English (Google)https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Syy4MTHAfF4 Alice Ahern: Phd Cork Ireland, studying shamanism and pop culture:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OCCeV7MLtFcYoutube talk:  "The Reclamation of Feminine Wisdom in the Irish Neo-Shamanic Milieu" Traditional Religions view on Nature Religions:https://fore.yale.edu/Event-Listings/Religions-World-and-Ecology-Conference-Series/Religions-World-and-Ecology-Archivehttps://fore.yale.edu/sites/default/files/files/annual_review_environment.pdfBibliography :Eliade, Mircea. Shamanism: Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy. Princeton, N.J: Princeton University Press, 1972.Harner, Michael J. The Way of the Shaman. 10th anniversary ed. San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1990.Harvey, Graham. Animism: Respecting the Living World. Kent Town: Wakefield Press, 2005.Harvey, Graham. Shamanism: A Reader. London: Routledge, 2003.Jenkins, Willis. u.a: “Religion and Climate Change”, Annual Review of Environment and Resources 2018 (43), 85-108.Kaza, Stephanie. “The Greening of Buddhism: Promise and Perils”, in: Oxford Handbook of Religion and Ecology, Oxford 2006, 184-220.Kraft, S, T Fonneland, and J Lewis. Nordic Neoshamanisms. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2015. Nordic Neoshamanisms | SpringerLinkLaack, Isabel (2020) “The New Animism and Its Challenges to the Study of Religion”, Method and Theory in the Study of Religion, 1-33.Lewis, I.M., Ecstatic Religion | A Study of Shamanism and Spirit Possession | I.M.McGuire, Meredith B. Lived religion: Faith and practice in everyday life. Oxford University Press, 2008.Puca, Angela. Italian Witchcraft and Shamanism: The Tradition of Segnature, Indigenous and Trans-Cultural Shamanic Traditions in Italy. Leiden; Brill, 2024.Saler, Benson. Conceptualizing Religion: Immanent Anthropologists, Transcendent Natives, and Unbounded Categories. New York: Berghahn Books, 2000.Shelton, Dinah (2015): “Nature as a legal person”. In: Vertigo (Hors-série 22).DOI: 10.4000/vertigo.16188.Taylor, Bron Raymond. Dark Green Religion: Nature Spirituality and the Planetary Future. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2010. Dark Green Religion – Professor Bron TaylorZnamenski, Andrei A., The Beauty of the Primitive: Shamanism and Western Imagination | Oxford Academic Music and Editing: Daniel P. SheaEnd Production: Stephanie Shea 

This is a special audio interview for all listeners! As there was no Spotlight interview earlier this year, I have produced this 'extra' Spotlight for the month of May. I hope you enjoy it. :)David W. Kim (PhD: University of Sydney) is a Honorary Lecturer at the School of History and the Research School of Social Sciences (RSSS), Australian National University, a Mission Specialist at the ANU Institute for Space, and a Visiting Scholar, Harvard University, USA (2023-2024). He is a Board Member for UNESCO World Heritage Committee, Korea Government, an Associate Professor at Kookmin University, Seoul, and a NASA Judge for the Human Research Program (HRP), Johnson Space Center Huston, USA.Professor Kim, a Fellow of The Royal Historical Society (UK) and The Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britian and Ireland, has conducted a new study on the selection criteria for future Mars astronauts (2033) in conjunction with the Human Research Program (HRP), which remains an open question in the Mars exploration project as part of the Korea Research Foundation's long-term project (2022- 2025) in the field of integration of space science and humanities, as a result of a research visit to Harvard University and NASA Houston, human factors, astrobiology, astrophysics, life sciences, space politics, security, space exploration, and space well-being, and has been recognized as a pioneering study among scholars in the field. In this interview, Dr. Kim first discusses the phenomenon known as the ‘Overview Effect’, a profound cognitive shift that astronauts experience when they see Earth from space. It’s described as a state of wonderment and self-transformation that occurs upon witnessing the Earth as a fragile, interconnected whole. Many astronauts report feeling an overwhelming sense of unity, beauty, and a newfound appreciation for humanity and the environment. He then moves on to discuss his article, “Mars Space Exploration and Astronautical Religion in Human Research History: Psychological Countermeasures of Long-Term Astronauts” from 2022 in the journal Aerospace. He expands on the challenges and issues that arise when considering long-term space travel (of at least 3 years), such as radiation, zero-gravity, isolation, confinement, the distance from Earth, and emergencies that could arise, as well as the potential for an “astronautical religion” to help mitigate or prevent these challenges. PROGRAM NOTESDr. David W. Kim:Dr. David W. Kim | LinkedInDavid W. Kim - Australian National UniversityAsso. Prof. David W. Kim - The Australian National UniversitySCIE Journal of European Research on Mars Exploration and Human Spaceflight Policy / Professor David William Kim (College of Liberal Arts) - KMU NEWS | Kookmin People - Kookmin UniversityThe 201st Anniversary of the Royal Asiatic Society – Royal Asiatic SocietyAbout Us | RHSArticle from Aerospace Journal: Mars Space Exploration and Astronautical Religion in Human Research History: Psychological Countermeasures of Long-Term AstronautsEditing: Daniel P. SheaMusic and End Production: Stephanie Shea 

*This is the Free Content version of my interview with Dr. Lars de Wildt. To access the entire episode, please consider becoming a Tier 1 'Gates of Argonath' member on Patreon, or you can purchase this episode for a one-time fee. My guest this month is Dr. Lars de Wildt. Lars is Assistant Professor in Media and Cultural Industries at the Centre for Media and Journalism Studies, at the University of Groningen, The Netherlands.Lars studies how media cultures and industries make contemporary worldviews. Examples are how media industries construct 'global' culture and how local audiences consume it; how Western game developers sold religion to secular audiences; how online platforms birth conspiracy theories; and how Western videogames adapt to Chinese players and policies.His first book,  The Pop Theology of Videogames: Producing and Playing with Religion was published Open Access with Amsterdam University Press. Lars was part of the AHRC-funded project "Everything Is Connected: Conspiracy Theories in the Age of the Internet," was previously a (visiting) researcher at the universities of Leuven, Heidelberg, Bremen, Tampere, Jyväskylä, Montréal, and Deakin, and is working on an NWO Veni project about how the hegemonic worldviews of Western videogames adapt to Chinese players and policies. He is also a Member of YARN (Young ARts Network), anEssay-editor of Tijdschrift Sociologie/ Sociology Magazine, a Fellow at the Centre for Religion, Conflict and Globalization, at the University of Groningen, the Netherlands, a Member of Faculty of the Consultative Body for Teaching Policy (FOO), and a Research Fellow at the Institute for Media Studies, at the Catholic University of Leuven in Belgium.In this interview, Lars discusses his book The Pop Theology of Videogames: Producing and Playing with Religion. In it, he is offered up the question by a game designer, “what does religion have to do with video games, anyway?” This question opens our discussion on the relationship between games and religion, the differences between developers and players approaches to gaming, how video games can affect players’ worldviews, and how role-playing games can potentially contribute to a sense of personal identity. These are just a few of the points Lars covers in this interview. PROGRAM NOTESDr. Lars de Wildt - dr. L.A.W.J. (Lars) de Wildt | Waar vindt u ons | Rijksuniversiteit Groningen@larsdewildt | LinktreeThe Pop Theology of Videogames | Amsterdam University PressAll Music and Editing: Daniel P. SheaEnd Production: Stephanie Sheawww.patreon.com/RejectedReligionwww.rejectedreligion.com

*This is the Free Content version of my interview with Dr. Sue Terry. To access the entire episode, please consider becoming a Tier 2 'Groves of Orpheus' member, or you can purchase this episode for a one-time fee. My guest for the month of April is Dr. Sue Terry. Sue Terry is a writer, researcher, conference speaker and lecturer. Her PhD research in occult literary modernism focused on women’s empowerment in novels by early twentieth-century women authors, Florence Farr, Mary Butts, Sylvia Townsend Warner and P.L. Travers.  Dr. Sue is ‘The Esoteric Academic’, at www.sueterryacademic.comHer article, ‘The Myth of Family: Friendship and Sexual Impropriety in the Feminist Occult Grail Narratives of Mary Butts’s Armed With Madness’ was published in leading literary journal English Studies (https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/0013838X.2023.2291909). Sue’s current research is centered on literary evidence for occult communication with non - human intelligences/spirits and the cultural impact of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn in 20th century Britain that continues today.  Sue runs Owl House Seminars (www.sueterryacademic.com/courses-events)online and in person, from weird fiction to ghosts, occultism, ley hunters, UFOs, urban high strangeness, witchcraft and practical skills in tarot and numerology. Sue welcomes invitations to speak at events and is thrilled to return to ‘Rejected Religion’.On July 7th 2025 she is co-producing The Third Florence Farr and the Magical Imagination Conference in London, with Caroline Wise, author and esoteric publisher (Starfire Books), at The College of Psychic Studies South Kensington (https://www.collegeofpsychicstudies.co.uk/special-events/esoteric/florence-farr-and-the-magical-imagination/?id=5551)Meeting people to talk about weird stuff is one of Sue’s most favorite things. In this interview, I talked with Sue about her dissertation, “Occult Modernism and the Radical Reform of the Family: Female Empowerment in the Magical Fiction of Four Women Writers, 1890-1940" in which she writes about Florence Farr, Mary Butts, Sylvia Townsend Warner and P.L. Travers. (We didn’t have enough time to cover Travers, sadly, but Sue will be coming back in the future to do so!)Sue shares some of her research findings surrounding Farr, Butts, and Townsend Warner. In doing so, Sue beautifully emphasizes the important work of each woman, and their significant contributions. I hope you enjoy this as much as I did, and my apologies for the delay in getting this uploaded!PROGRAM NOTESMain titles mentioned in this interview:Florence Farr, The Dancing Faun The Dancing Faun - Florence Farr - Hermetic LibraryMary Butts, Armed with Madness #15 - Armed with madness, by Mary Butts - Full View | HathiTrust Digital LibrarySylvia Townsend Warner, Lolly Willowes Lolly Willowes : Warner Townsend Sylvia : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet ArchiveMusic and Editing: Daniel P. SheaEnd Production: Stephanie Shea

*This is the Free Content version of my interview with Mike Fiorito. To access the entire episode, please consider becoming a Tier 3 'Garden of Arcane Delights' member, or you can purchase this episode for a one-time fee. My guest this month is Mike Fiorito. An Adjunct Professor of English at City Tech (CUNY), Mike is a freelance journalist and author of several books: For All We Know, Mescalito Riding His White Horse, Falling from Trees, The Hated Ones, Sleeping with Fishes, Call Me Guido, Freud’s Haberdashery Habits, and Hallucinating Huxley. Mescalito Riding His White Horse received the 2024Independent Press Distinguished Favorite Award in Spirituality. Falling from Trees received the 2022 Independent Press Distinguished Favorite Award in Short Stories. For All We Know, his UFO themed science-fiction novel, published in May 2024.Mike’s new book, UFO Symphonic-Journeys into Sound, was published February 1st, 2025. UFO Symphonic: Journeys into Sound explores the profound connection between music and the mysteries of existence. The book delves into music as a form of complex communication and a potential bridge to other realms. Through personal accounts and stories from experiencers, Fiorito examines the symbolic language of sound, dreams, and high strangeness. It invites readers on an extraordinary journey into the unknown, raising thought-provoking questions about the role of music in connecting past, present, and future.In this discussion, Mike and I talk about his latest book, and Mike shares several anecdotes from different people that Mike interviewed. Some highlights from this conversation include:-          the concept of “The Harmony of the Spheres” that emphasizes the interconnectedness of the cosmos and the spiritual journey of the soul; the main idea of which is that the cosmos is ordered by mathematical principles, and that planets and stars move in harmony with these principles, producing a kind of eternal music;-         How the stories Mike shared bring up a lot of ideas related to the notion of ‘tapping into’ a larger system (that we might call consciousness, or cosmos; additionally, it seems to be suggesting a type of mind-universe alignment;-         Joshua Cutchin’s story about creating a new narrative that combines folklore and UFO phenomena; and the connection between paranormal phenomena and death (which lines up beautifully with a book we read for our prior Patreon book club meeting -- Dr. Jeff Kripal and Whitley Strieber’s book, The Super Natural: A New Vision of the Unexplained. In the Dedication, Whitley Strieber notes that his wife Anne said, after carefully reading and organizing the numerous letters that they received, that the UFO experiences all had something to do with death, too.);-         Sebastiano De Filippi’s section, who also discusses similar ideas to Joshua’s about music in his work as a conductor;-         Concepts such as entanglement and tulpas; and much more! PROGRAM NOTESMike Fiorito AuthorUFO Symphonic-Journeys into Sound : https://a.co/d/g1vsfHa Music and Editing: Daniel P. SheaEnd Production: Stephanie Shea

*This is the Free Content version of my interview with Dr. John E. Browning. To access the entire episode, please consider becoming a Tier 1 ‘Gates of Argonath’ member, or you can purchase this episode for a one-time fee. My guest this month is Dr. John E. Browning. A professor in the greater Atlanta metropolitan area, John Edgar Browning, Ph.D. has contracted or published 20 academic and popular trade books as well as over 100 shorter works on subjects that cluster around cultural studies, critical media literacy, Dracula, vampires, monstrosity, and horror. Included among his work in film and media studies is his decade-and-a-half-long ethnographic fieldwork with the human or real vampire subculture (a topic in which there are perhaps five scholars worldwide). In addition to academic venues, Browning has published on the real vampire subculture in public forums such as The Atlantic (2015) and Discover Magazine (2015 and 2018), and his unique expertise in this area has helped facilitate several public appearances as a guest scholar on, or service as a consultant for, over two dozen television and streaming networks, professional podcasts, and radio programs, including Discovery channel, National Geographic, Animal Planet, AMC Visionaries: Eli Roth’s History of Horror, History channel, Disney+, Netflix, Discover Magazine’s “It’s Only Science” podcast, Ripley’s Believe It or Not, NPR, The Howard Stern Show network, BBC Radio, RTÉ—Ireland’s National Television and Radio Broadcaster, Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Georgia Public Broadcasting, and SLATE among others. In this interview, John and I discuss his research into the Real Vampire Community. He talks about his motivation to begin looking into this subculture, as well as what he’s learned over the years. As this topic somewhat overlaps with my own research into the Otherkin community, I take the opportunity to ‘compare notes’ so to speak, and ask questions to gain more clarity on this group. John also discusses to what degree contemporary expressions of the vampire in popular culture have influenced the real vampire community, and how his research has contributed to changing perceptions of this subculture. He talks about his term ‘defiant culture’ as it relates to people who have been labeled ‘Other’ or ‘deviant’ and also mentions how his research has helped forensic professionals that deal with crimes that seem, on the surface, to involve people who label themselves ‘vampires’. We also touch upon the Temple of the Vampire, a group that is viewed as a religious organization, and how this group relates to the larger vampire community in the US. PROGRAM NOTESJohn Edgar Browning - Savannah College of Art and DesignForeword to The Palgrave Handbook of the Vampire (ed. Simon Bacon)"The real vampires of New Orleans and Buffalo: a research note towards comparative ethnography""Life Among the Vampires" (THE ATLANTIC, October 31, 2015)Vampire Fictions and the Conflation of Violent Criminality with Real Vampirism: A Practical OverviewJohn Edgar Browning - WikipediaAmazon.com: Dracula: A Norton Critical Edition (Norton Critical Editions): 9780393679205: Stoker, Bram, Skal, David J., Browning, John Edgar: BooksDr. John Edgar Browning (@jedgarbrowning) • Instagram photos and videosAll Music and Editing: Daniel P. SheaEnd Production: Stephanie Shea 

Vanessa Sinclair, PsyD is a psychoanalyst in private practice, who works remotely online with people all over the world. She hosts the internationally-renowned podcast Rendering Unconscious, which was awarded the Gradiva Award for Digital Media by the National Association for the Advancement of Psychoanalysis (NAAP).Dr. Sinclair is the author of Things Happen (2024), Scansion in Psychoanalysis and Art: The Cut in Creation (2021), The Pathways of the Heart (2021), and Switching Mirrors (2016).She is the editor of Psychoanalytic Perspectives on the Films of Ingmar Bergman: From Freud to Lacan and Beyond(2023), as well as the Rendering Unconscious: Psychoanalytic Perspectives book series.Dr. Sinclair co-edited The Queerness of Psychoanalysis: From Freud and Lacan to Laplanche and Beyond (2025) with Elisabeth Punzi and Myriam Sauer, as well as Outsider Inpatient: Reflections on Art as Therapy (2021) with Elisabeth Punzi, On Psychoanalysis and Violence: Contemporary Lacanian Perspectives (2019) with Manya Steinkoler, and The Fenris Wolf vol 9 (2017) and The Fenris Wolf vol 11 (2022) with Carl Abrahamsson. She is a founding member of Das Unbehagen: A Free Association for Psychoanalysis, sits on the International Advisory Board for the journal Psychoanalysis, Culture & Society, and is Editorial Advisor for Parapraxis Magazine.Vanessa and I talk about her upcoming course with Morbid Anatomy, “The Cut in Creation: Exploring the Avant-Garde, Dada, Surrealism, Modern Art, Noise Music, and Performance Art through a Psychoanalytic Lens.” This course will be taking place on Sundays, from May 25- June 15, and all classes will be recorded for those who can’t make it to the live class for whatever reason.As the Morbid Anatomy website states: Drawing on the theories of a variety of psychoanalysts, including Freud, Lacan and Laplanche, the course will explore the long and rich relationship between psychoanalysis and the fine arts – from painting and music to poetry, collage, photography, film, and performance art, including the use of technology and body modification to explore aspects of identity, gender and sexuality. Through immersion in the work of these artists and psychoanalytic ideas, participants will walk away with a better understanding of the transformative process inherent of the act of creation itself, especially when used as a powerful disruption of narrative, and hopefully feel inspired themselves to create! In this discussion, Vanessa gives a sneak peek into each of the four parts of the course. Some highlights are: talking about the inspiration for the course;outlining the events that led to the creation of psychoanalysis as well as the avant-garde movement;expanding on the historical backdrop – what was happening during these years that created this paradigm shift;looking at the years leading up to WW1, and what was taking place then, focusing on psychoanalysis and the avant-garde art scenes;focusing on surrealism and later developments in experimental film, followed by some discussion on the Beat Poets, and outlining how these three are interconnected;focusing on the birth of pop art, and art as it moved from the galleries to the streets, as well as performance art that included the body as an important vehicle/tool of expression. PROGRAM NOTES:Vanessa’s website (with all links): Dr Vanessa SinclairMorbid Anatomy Course:The Cut in Creation: Exploring the Avant-Garde, Dada, Surrealism, Modern Art, Noise Music, and Performance Art through a Psychoanalytic Lens, Led by Vanessa Sinclair, PsyD, Begins May 25 — Morbid AnatomySelected Works:Amazon.com: Scansion in Psychoanalysis and Art (Art, Creativity, and Psychoanalysis Book Series): 9780367567262: Sinclair, Vanessa: BooksAmazon.com: The Queerness of Psychoanalysis: 9781032603827: Sinclair, Vanessa, Punzi, Elisabeth, Sauer, Myriam: BooksPodcast Rendering Unconscious:Podcast – Dr Vanessa SinclairInstagram:InstagramRobert Frank, Me and My Brother (1968)Me and My Brother (1968) - IMDbMusic, Editing and Video Production: Stephanie Shea

Dr. Jeff Howard, an Associate Professor of Games and Occulture at Falmouth University, dives into the fascinating intersection of gaming and the occult. He introduces 'ludomancy,' where play and magic merge, and discusses how games can reflect deeper spiritual themes. Howard examines the evolution of magic in gaming, critiquing simplistic mechanics in favor of immersive experiences. He also highlights the powerful influence of language in gaming, drawing from Ursula Le Guin’s works to explore how words shape our perception of reality.

*This is the Free Content version of my interview with Dr. Liana Saif. To access the entire episode, please consider visiting www.patreon/RejectedReligion and become a Tier 1 'The Gates of Argonath' member, or you can purchase this episode for a one-time fee. The Patreon page offers much more content as well, including a book club that meets 4 times per year via Zoom. If you are interested in esoteric topics, please check it out!  ~ Many thanks, StephanieIn 2021, Liana Saif joined the Centre for the Study of Hermetic Philosophy and Related Currents at the University of Amsterdam as Assistant Professor in the History of Esotericism in the Middle Ages. Liana’s work focuses on Islamic esotericism and the occult sciences, with a special interest in the exchange of esoteric and occult knowledge between the Islamic and Latin inhabited lands. Her book The Arabic Influences on Early Modern Occult Philosophy was published by Palgrave Macmillan in 2015. She is currently preparing a long-awaited critical translation from Arabic into English of the grimoire known as the Picatrix. A few of her research projects include the tenth-century secret brotherhood known as The Brethren of Purity, and the pseudo-Aristotelian Hermetica. She also worked as a project curator at the British Museum, deepening her interest in the material and artistic manifestations of the occult and the esoteric.Liana is a founding member of the European Network for the Study of Islam and Esotericism (ENSIE). Editorial roles include being a board member for Aries: Journal for the Study of Western Esotericism and Brill’s Islamic Translation Series, and an associate editor of the journal Early Science and Medicine.In this interview, Liana speaks at length about Islamic Esotericism. This is an area of esoteric history that I haven’t yet touched upon, so I was happy that Liana agreed to share her extensive knowledge on this topic. Some highlights of our discussion include: why the views and discourse of Islam within the area of “Western” esotericism is problematic; academic debates and disagreements in this area, how Liana defines Islamic esotericism, including paradigms and social orientations; and why the relationship between the idea of an eternal truth and the Islamic law raises anxiety in how Islamic esotericism is interpreted. Liana also discusses her research that deals with the 17th century Maltese inquisition, in particular the trial of Sellem the Moor, a Muslim enslaved person who was accused of being a magician. This work is part of a larger volume called Magic in Malta, and Liana examines this trial on three interconnected levels, and is a down-to-earth, practical example of how magic was being used by people at this time. Be sure to check out the program notes for links to all of the articles discussed in this episode. I hope you enjoy! PROGRAM NOTESLiana Saif | University of Amsterdam - Academia.edu"What is Islamic Esotericism", Correspondences, Vol. 7, issue 1 (2019)The Past and Future of the Study of Islamic EsotericismMagic and Divination Lost in Translation: A Cairene in a Maltese InquisitionA Preliminary Study of the Pseudo-Aristotelian Hermetica: Texts, Context, and DoctrinesResearch: Dr. Liana Saif - HHP | History of Hermetic Philosophy and related currentsAll Music and Editing: Daniel P. SheaEnd Production: Stephanie Shea