Some Other Sphere

Interest in the Occult is a strong as ever in the 21st Century. When you consider that these subjects are usually those that sit outside of acceptance by mainstream science or organised religion but can have a deep connection to human experience, it’s easy to understand the appeal – and I say that as someone who is very interested. It’s interesting that a lot of these idea are devalued by the mainstream as much as they every were. Why is that? To get a better understanding of this, my guest for this episode is Matt Frederick. Matt is a practicing magician and expert in all things hidden. We talked about his own introduction to the Occult, explore the makeup of modern day Occulture and why these ideas are valuable to help deal with the materialistic mainstream we all have to negotiate daily. It was a fascinating chat. To find out more about Matt you can find him on Twitter here. For more information on the book 'Condensed Chaos' by Phil Hine which was discussed in the episode click here. I also highly recommend Carl Abrahamsson's Occulture website if you enjoyed this episode.    

When you think of magic, two things will usually come to mind; an artist on stage, performing fantastic acts such as card tricks, illusions, mind reading and hypnosis; or a more esoteric practice – someone, usually by themselves, enacting a ritual in an attempt influence their world by invoking supernatural assistance. In some ways, there would seem to be some similarities between these two scenarios. My guest for this episode is Mark Bell, who has performed all across the world as the ‘magical mystery artist’ Mark Obscura. He is an expert in Hypnosis, Mentalism and Illusion among many other talents and has led a life regularly interrupted by unusual incidents featuring ghosts, unexplained lights in the sky and a range of puzzling synchronicities. As such he has an open minded approach to understanding the relationship between his career and these odd life experiences that made for a really interesting conversation. To find out more about Mark, you can follow him on Twitter or visit his website here. (James Randi clip provided from Wikipedia)

In the late 1950’s, two high school friends, Greg Hill and Kerry Thornley would regularly meet at their local bowling alley in East Whittier, California to hang out and talk long into the night about the issues of the day and the limits of the world that they lived in – one they felt was based all to willingly on order and control. What if there was a different way of engaging with the world, something more chaotic, unpredictable and fun? These conversations and an affection for a certain Greek Goddess led them to create the joke religion – or religious joke, depending on your perspective – called Discordianism, which included a text called the Principia Discordia. It’s creation would see Greg and Kerry become entangled with Lee Harvey Oswald and the aftermath the JFK assassination, confuse the authorities with ‘Culture Jamming’ and play a pivotal role in influencing conspiracy theory culture as we know it today. My guest is paranormal researcher Matt Hopewell, who is an aficionado of Discordianism and it’s prodigiously strange history.This is probably as unusual a Sphere as we’ve explored so far. Matt's blog is now up and running and can be found here. For more information on Discordianism, I recommend visiting Adam Gorightly's excellent website 'Historia Discordia'.

In this episode, I discuss Tarot with Elin Heron, who has been a Tarot reader for over twenty years and also hosts regular classes and workshops for people interested in learning more about the cards. I’m very much a novice myself, and as such, this episode is a beginners guide, discussing the origins of Tarot, it’s evolution from a renaissance card game into an occult resource, the Major and Minor Arcana and how to best start using a Tarot deck for readings. It was a pleasure to talk with Elin and learn more about this fascinating subject. Click here to visit the Derbyshire Tarot website where you can find Elin's excellent blog and details on the Tarot workshops and classes she teaches. Elin can also be found on Twitter.

Creswell Crags is a limestone gorge running from east to west on the border of Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire in England. Each side of it peppered with caves and until earlier this year, the site was most famous for spectacular cave art made by hunter gatherers many thousands of years ago. A recent discovery has added a fascinating aspect to the history of the site however. What was thought to be Victorian graffiti turned out instead to be a vast array of protective marks, or "Witch Marks" dating back to the 17th century. It is thought that people would usually be making these to ward off evil, and prevent malevolent forces gaining access to our world. My guest for this episode is Alison Fearn, one of the archaeologists involved in deciphering this incredible discovery. We talked about the history of protective marks, why those found at Creswell are so important, and what might have been going on to cause such a remarkable display of superstition. To find out more about Creswell Crags, you can find their website here.

My guest for this episode is author and host of the Myth Legend and Lore podcast, Siobhán Clark. In her podcast Siobhán discusses a wide range of stories from her native Scotland, which feature a fascinating mix of characters and settings, and date far back into the early history of the nation. We talked about the storytelling traditions of the people of those times, the cultures they came from, and of course look at some of legends and mythical creatures that have haunted the imaginations of Scots for over a thousand years, perhaps even longer. I heartily recommend checking out the excellent Myth Legend and Lore podcast, which you can find on Twitter here, as well as on all good Podcast apps. Siobhán's first novel, “The Children of Midgaard” is available on Amazon here.

My guest for this episode is Shanon Sinn, the author of a book called “The Haunting of Vancouver Island”. He has lived on the Canadian island for over twenty years and in that time has formed a deep, personal connection with the wildlife, landscape and people who live there. His book examines a wide range of supernatural tales, from first nations legends, through the early days of European settlement, and onward into more recent times. Shanon is an award winning journalist and author, whose life story could be a book in itself. His connection to Vancouver Island gives a real depth to the stories he has featured in the book and make it an excellent read. It was a pleasure to have him on the podcast. Shanon's website can be found here: You can find "The Haunting Of Vancouver Island" on Amazon here.  

My guest for this episode is Chris Reeve, the creator of a blog called “The Gotobed Diaries”. The blog details his discovery of the case files of one Doctor Thomas Gotobed, who appears to have been (or still is) some kind of researcher of the occult. The files themselves vary between reports on paranormal incidents and the good doctor’s own thoughts on various theories about the supernatural. Is Doctor Gotobed real? Well, I’ll let Chris tell you that. What I can say is that we had a really interesting talk about a broad range of supernatural subjects, from Werewolves, to Tulpas, Poltergeists and The Kraken. Enjoy! The excellent Gotobed Diaries blog can be found here:

My guest for this episode is author and folklore blogger Icy Sedgwick. Icy has written several novels and short stories, many of which involve the supernatural. She is also a keen folklorist, writing a blog on an array of fascinating subjects and regularly contributing to "Folklore Thursday" on Twitter.  We talked about her interests in the paranormal and writing, how the concept of a haunting varies in the writings of authors such as Charles Dickens, M.R James and Shirley Jackson, the depiction of the supernatural in books and on film and how that can influence theories on unknown phenomena in the "real" world. Icy's excellent website, where you can find her blog and details on how to get her books can be found here.

For this episode, my guest is comedian and Cryptozoologist Matt Kessen, who combined a lifelong obsession with monsters with his natural funnybones to create the phenomenon that is “ Reverend Matt’s Monster Science” – a regularly updated comedy show he presents that has covered an impressively broad range of subjects, most notable of which is perhaps “What to do in the event of a Dinosaur attack”. Matt has received praise from no other than Guillermo Del Toro for his work (“You’re my kind of guy!”) , so it was a real privilege to get him on the podcast. We talked about Dinosaurs, The Devil, Dragons, Kaiju and a whole lot more, it was a great chat. Enjoy! To find out more about Matt and his work, you can find his website at: https://revmattsmonsterscience.com/