#69 David B. Metcalfe – Folklore of the Strange

 

David B. Metcalfe, Folklore of the Strange

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Kate Valentine and Fahrusha welcome paranormal researcher, David B. Metcalfe, to”Shattered Reality Podcast”. David is currently working with former guest, Andrew Chesnut, on a follow-up book about Santa Muerte. He is also the editor in chief of Threshold: Journal of Interdisciplinary Consciousness Studies (TJICS), a new, free, online-only, open access journal of the Windbridge Research Center. You may remember the Windbridge researchers, Dr. Julie Beischel and Mark Boccuzzi from past episodes of SRP. David studied Philosophy and Folklore at Elmhurst College in Illinois. His day job is digital communications and he is a two dimensional artist as well.

We spoke about the Santa Muerte (Saint Death) cult emanating from Mexico. The belief spans the Americas today. The tradition is widespread and runs the gamut from blessings to curses, some of which can be very violent. He and Craig Williams are involved in a book project to support Haitian artists in the Voodoo style. Listener Will had questions about the definitions of Satanism and Santa Muerte which David answered. We spoke about how we in the US seldom see dead bodies whereas in other cultures such as those of Latin America and India, it is common to see the bodies of the dead. It may not be healthy for us to almost never see a dead body because it allows Americans to deny the psychological truth of Death.

Other topics covered included UFOs, abductions, To The Stars Academy, the Christian faith healing practice of praying and talking away the fire (burns), Native American Skinwalkers, Pennsylvania Dutch Pow-Wow tradition and other communal practices. In addition, David writes for Medium and runs a website about Santa Muerte with Andrew Chesnut called Skeleton Saint.

 

An example of David B. Metcalfe’s art.

 

Note: Dennis Kuchinich is the former Senator whose name we forgot.

#68 Avrel Seale and Sasquatch

Avrel Seale, author of Monster Hike: A 100-Mile Inquiry Into the Sasquatch Mystery

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Avrel Seale is a seasoned writer who lives in Texas and has an abiding interest in Sasquatch (also known as Bigfoot). A father of three Boy Scouts, he is an avid and observant hiker. He believes he has found substantive evidence of the creature in Sam Houston National Forest an hour north of Houston. For his fiftieth birthday he decided to hike the full length of the Lone Star Trail by himself in search of the elusive hominid. His book Monster Hike: A 100-Mile Inquiry Into the Sasquatch Mystery (Anomalist Books) chronicles this adventure. In addition to Bigfoot he has written about the history of the area and the other natural features and creatures that abound there. If you are planning on looking for Sasquatch or Yeti, I recommend that you read this book before setting out. It is also of great interest to hikers or would-be tenderfoots like me. His eclectic blog, “The Trailhead”, is at avrelseale.wordpress.com.

Stephanie Quick graced our “Listener’s Corner” with some paranormal experiences of her own. She has had an interest in the weird and paranormal since she was a little girl, and (in her own words) “common sense has yet to prevail”. Stephanie reveals her Near Death Experience and a missing time episode in Northern California.

Our Listener’s Corner guest and paranormal experiencer, Stephanie Quick.

We regret that our co-host, Kate Valentine, could not be with us for the entire show due to technical difficulties. We continue to seek a remedy.

#48 Panspermia Investigator Professor Milton Wainwright

Professor Milton Wainwright, Ph.D. investigator into panspermia.

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Kate Valentine and Fahrusha are proud to present Professor Milton Wainwright, Ph.D. of Sheffield University who has done remarkable experiments concerning the theory of panspermia. Panspermia is an age old concept which had new life breathed into it by astronomer Sir Fred Hoyle and  cosmologist Chandra Wickaramasinghe. According to Wikipedia, panspermia is the hypothesis that life exists throughout the Universe, distributed by meteoroids, asteroids, comets, planetoids, and also by spacecraft in the form of unintended contamination by microorganisms. Neopanspermia is the proposition that it is happening currently as well. This is not to be confused with panpsychism which proposes that everything in the Universe is conscious on some level.

Professor Wainwright has done some very amazing experiments discovering life forms in the upper atmosphere (25+ miles up) that are heretofore unknown on Earth and rather too heavy to have floated up from the surface. He has devised an ingenious method to prevent contamination. He and his graduate students have analyzed his findings with two types of electron microscopes and are currently hoping to find some scientists around the world to replicate his experiments. Interestingly, physicist Stephen Hawking has mentioned panspermia as the possible way that life has been spread across the Universe.

Professor Wainwright can be reached by visiting his website miltonwainwright.com/contact/.

#21 Todd Robbins and True Nightmares

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Kate Valentine and Fahrusha welcome Todd Robbins of Investigation Discovery Channel’s True Nightmares to “Shattered Reality Podcast”.

Fahrusha has known Todd for at least 25 years. They have worked together at events. She was both happy and surprised to learn that he was hosting a new TV program featuring bizarre but true stories that could definitely keep you up at night due to their uncanny and grisly nature. Clearly he was a natural for “Shattered Reality Podcast”.

Some episodes of True Nightmares can be viewed at: http://www.investigationdiscovery.com/tv-shows/true-nightmares/    The program airs on Wednesday nights on the Investigation Discovery Channel. Todd tells us how the show was created and a few of the amazing tales from the show.

Todd Robbins is a magician and side show artiste who had a very successful Off-Broadway show called Play Dead written by Robbins and Teller of Penn & Teller. Todd is quite simply one fascinating guy.

Todd Robbins