#94 Sociological Research on Remarkable Experiences with Dr. Jim McClenon

Dr. James McClenon, sociologist and author of The Entity Letters, A Sociologist on the Trail of a Supernatural Mystery

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Fahrusha was happy to welcome Dr. James McClenon to Shattered Reality Podcast for the second time to discuss the different way that a sociologist researches paranormal and anomalous experiences. He was the guest on an earlier show in which he discusses his excellent book The Entity Letters, A Sociologist on the Trail of a Supernatural Mystery.

We covered a variety of topics from healing to shamanism to UFOs to out of body experiences and extrasensory perception but with a focus on the near death experience (NDE), all from the perspective of sociology. McClenon worked by collecting the extraordinary experiences of individuals by distributing questionaires. He had his students distribute questionaires as well. At first most of the answers came from a rural area in North Carolina where he taught. Later he distributed questionaires from a teaching cruise ship that sailed around the world making stops at a variety of locations. The conclusions he came to were from a different point of view than those of parapsychologists, philosophers or physicists. It was very refreshing to look at these subjects from a differing perspective. Most surprising, perhaps, is his assertion that in other cultures individuals don’t necessarily remember their near death experiences as paradigm changing events that were hyper-real. As a person who has had transcendent experiences but not an NDE, I (Fahrusha) cannot judge this, but it seems counter to other research.

Much of the material we covered on this episode can be found in Dr. McClenon’s book Wondrous Healing.

Wondrous Healing by Dr. James McClenon

Several listeners have expressed interest in participating in our “Listeners’ Corner”. If you would like to relate your paranormal or anomalous experience on “Shattered Reality Podcast”, please email me at fahrusha@fahrusha.com. You can write down your experience and we can read it for you on the show, or you can come on the show and speak it yourself. We also encourage comments.

 

#93 Hudson Valley Anomalies with WHAM

This is Dr. C. S. Matthews, a.k.a. Wahabah Hadia Al Muid, a.k.a. Professor WHAM author of the book Mysterious Beauty: Living With the Paranormal in The Hudson Valley.

To listen click HERE.

On October 1, 2019, Fahrusha was pleased to speak with Dr. C. S. Matthews about her exciting new book Mysterious Beauty: Living With the Paranormal in The Hudson Valley. She is the sometimes co-host of the podcast “The Church of Mabus” and teaches at a college in the Hudson Valley.

Our fascinating discussion covered a lot of ground, from the geology of the region to Native American beliefs and history through the Dutch and British settlers to the present time. In reading the book, Fahrusha was horrified to discover that she was born on or near the site of a massacre of Native Americans by some renegade Dutch in what is now Jersey City!

What is very wonderful about this book is that it gives people living in the Hudson Valley from Manhattan to above Albany (and those curious and intrepid travellers from points unknown) a tool to begin their quest for the anomalous right here in our backyard. Everything from ancient earthworks, to present day cryptids and UFOs can be found in the glorious Hudson Valley, along with the world’s best apples.

This episode is a natural follow on to our last episode with Susan Demeter St. Clair in which we touched upon some of the same subjects involving the Great Lakes region of Canada and N.Y. State.

“Shattered Reality Podcast” wishes to acknowledge sometimes contributor Stephanie Quick for introducing us to Professor WHAM.

We appreciate hearing about our listeners’ anomalous accounts. If you wish to be included in the “Listeners’ Corner” either as an on-air guest or would like to have your written account read, please contact fahrusha@fahrusha.com.

 

#92 Susan Demeter St.Clair and the Folklore of the Strange

Susan Demeter St.Clair, author of Making Mountains out of Mashed Potatoes: UFOs as a ParaPsychological Event, a chapter of the book UFOs: Framing the Debate

 

Click HERE to listen.

On September 17, 2019 Susan Demeter St.Clair joined Fahrusha on “Shattered Reality Podcast” to speak about UFOs and the folklore of the strange. Susan is a native of Ontario, Canada who is currently residing in Northern Italy. She is a researcher on the UFO phenomena and on European and Native American paranormal folklore especially the Italian Benandanti. The Benandanti were from the Friuli region of Italy of north eastern Italy, although it is thought that the tradition was probably very widespread in slightly varying forms in much of agrarian, Pre-Christian Europe. Meaning literally “the good walkers”, members participated in out of body travels on a number of Thursdays to war against evil forces that might destroy crops. They were also healers. They were viciously persecuted as heretics by the Roman Inquisition.

Varying possible explanations for UFOs and for the famous Philip Experiment (Canada) were discussed. Our interview with Dr. Jim McClenon also mentions the Philip Experiment in the context of the SORRAT Group. Susan was kind enough to share with us her personal UFO experiences that changed the course of her life.

Towards the end of the episode, Fahrusha read an amazing account from a longtime listener who had a life changing UFO experience in western New York State. The listener requested to remain anonymous, something that we at “Shattered Reality Podcast will always respect. If you, dear listener, have a paranormal experience, be it a UFO, a near death experience, an out of body experience, a cryptid encounter or other high strange unexplainable phenomenon, we want to hear from you!

Please contact Fahrusha at fahrusha@fahrusha.com if you would like to share a high strange experience with us.

#90 Neil Langdon Inglis Speaks About Brian Inglis

Brian Inglis, TV personality, author and historian.

Click HERE to listen.

Fahrusha was very happy to welcome Neil Langdon Inglis to “Shattered Reality Podcast”. Neil Langdon Inglis is the son of the late Irish historian, television personality and author of books on the anomalous and history. Neil has had something of a difficult relationship with his father during his teen years and had rather repudiated his father’s point of view during that time, to the point of becoming a member of a debunker organization.

Since his father’s death, Neil Langdon Inglis has gone from debunker to skeptic to a member of the Fortean community, which is where Fahrusha had the pleasure of meeting him. Brian Inglis was a prolific writer whose works on psi and the paranormal are currently being republished by White Crow Books. Among those works are: The Power of Dreams, Coincidence: A Matter of Chance- or Synchronicity?, and Natural and Supernatural: A History of the Paranormal from the Earliest Times to 1914.

Brian Inglis was a well know historian and media figure when he embarked on a second career writing extensively on paranormal subjects. He became friends with Uri Geller, the well known Israeli remote viewer, and was very convinced of his talents. Others, by whose accounts he was fascinated, were Italian medium Eusapia Palladino and Scottish levitating medium Daniel Dunglas Home.

Misfortunately Neil’s personal experiences with the paranormal have been less than pleasant. It has come to Fahrusha’s mind after interviewing Neil, that a possible reason why he has found his experiences disgreeable is because of the loss of control or volition implicit in them.

#88 Conversations in Cosmology Michael Grosso

Philosopher Michael Grosso PhD. author of The Final Choice: Death or Transcendence

To listen, Click HERE.

Fahrusha welcomed philosopher Michael Grosso, PhD. to “Shattered Reality Podcast” to have a conversation about cosmology and his updated book, The Final Choice: Death or Transcendence. He is very involved with the primacy of consciousness over reductive materialism. He came into this point of view through his experiences with the epi-phenomena of psychic functioning.

Dr. Grosso explains how through the study of psychic functioning one is brought to the understanding that consciousness is fundamental. He gives examples in near-death experiences, Goddess manifestations, UFOs, psychokinesis and dreams. Amazingly, Michael predicted the shooting and survival of President Ronald Reagan through a dream.

Michael Grosso, Ph.D. is an independent scholar and part of an ever growing group of scholars and thinkers critical of the prevailing materialistic view of the world. He has taught humanities and philosophy at Marymount Manhattan College, City University of New York, and City University of New Jersey. Among his other books are The Man Who Could Fly: St. Joseph of Copertino and the Mystery of Levitation, Experiencing the Next World Now, The Millennium Myth: Love and Death at the End of Time, Soulmaking: Uncommon Paths to Self-Understanding and Frontiers of the Soul. He is co-author of a number of books, most prominently Irreducible Mind: Toward a Psychology for the 21st Century.

Consciousness Unbound is Michael Grosso’s very interesting blog.

Fahrusha (red-faced), who has enjoyed visiting Charlottesville more than a dozen times, apologizes for renaming the city Charlottesburg.

The Final Choice: Death or Transcendence by Michael Grosso, PhD.

#87 Third Eye Spies with Russell Targ and Lance Mungia

Third Eye Spies is the new movie from the father of remote viewing Russell Targ and film maker Lance Mungia

Click HERE to listen.

On May 14, 2019, Fahrusha was very pleased to welcome physicist Russell Targ and filmmaker Lance Mungia to “Shattered Reality Podcast” to discuss their film Third Eye Spies. The film chronicles the story of the government’s remote viewing program with emphasis on viewer Pat Price and the role of physicists Russell Targ and Hal Puthoff. Many accounts of events in and around the movie were discussed that were absolutely fascinating. Many of the people discussed in the film are still in the forefront of psi research today while others remain totally anonymous. What actually happened to the amazing Pat Price is still something of a mystery, since there a number of conflicting narratives regarding his death. The film is available for sale through the website, and on rental and download from Amazon, iTunes, and other vendors.

 

Lance Mungia, filmmaker of Third Eye Spies

 

Russ kindly gave a number of pointers to those, like listener Earl, who would like to try remote viewing on their own.

 

Russell Targ of Third Eye Spies

 

Sad note: Yesterday the world of ufology lost a legend, nuclear physicist Stanton T. Friedman. Rest In Peace. He was a very approachable and friendly man whose contribution the study of anomalous aerial phenomena. I feel privileged to have met him and spoken to him several times.

Errata: This is the 87th “Shattered Reality Podcast” not the 89th.

#86 Anomalous Happenings in Hudson County NJ

Hudson County, New Jersey map.

To listen click HERE.

On March 26, 2019, Fahrusha interviewed Kate, a loquacious and interesting “Shattered Reality Podcast” listener, about her anomalous experiences in Hudson County, New Jersey. Closer to Manhattan than many parts of the five boroughs of New York City, Hudson County is steeped in its own legends and paranormal happenings. This is a short interview focused on Kate’s family experiences with the world of spiritual after-death contact. We also briefly cover a UFO flap of the ’60s. Think of Budd Hopkins’ recounting of the UFO landing in the park on Boulevard East, it is the same flap.

The interview is relatively short, but we think you will enjoy it. Strangely Kate’s story somewhat mirrors the experiences of another listener we interviewed, June Ponte, from Hudson County.

If you are a listener to “Shattered Reality Podcast”, even if you are not from Hudson County, and would like to tell us about your paranormal experiences please get in touch by leaving a message on this posting.

#85 Owls, UFOs and Synchronicity

Owls and their relationship to UFOs and synchronicity are the subjects of Mike Clelland’s work.

To Listen, Click HERE.

On March 12, 2019 Fahrusha welcomed Mike Clelland, an avid outdoorsman, illustrator and UFO researcher, to “Shattered Reality Podcast”. He has written extensively on the subject of owls, UFOs, and synchronicity. This episode was particularly conversational, with Fahrusha contributing some of her experiences to the mix. The short take-away from this is that people who have experiences with owls in the wild often also have UFO experiences and many of them may be abductees as well. Some folks see owls that are impossibly big to be flesh and blood owls. Under hypnosis these people sometimes find that what they saw were actually small grey aliens.

Though Mike’s research centers around the owl/UFO connection, Fahrusha drew parallels to other animal/UFO connections involving raccoons, cats and opossums among others. Fahrusha is a city chick, but she is a good spotter of birds and mammals in the wild. Owls have the best hearing of all birds and excellent night vision as well. Their feathers are specially equipped for silent flight. Cats and dogs also see more than the spectrum visible to humans, and may be sensitive to invisible intruders. All human companions of cats have been unnerved by the felines staring intently at something the human cannot see.

Clelland has written two books on owls and their relationship to the UFO enigma: The Messengers and Stories From the Messengers, both of which are an engaging read. He writes an interesting blog at http://hiddenexperience.blogspot.com/

Mike Clelland, author of two books involving UFOs, Owls and Synchronicity and other books on backpacking.

 

#83 Contactees with Bishop and Gorightly

“A” is for Adamski is the book written by Greg Bishop and Adam Gorightly

 

Listen HERE.

Fahrusha was happy to welcome Greg Bishop and Adam Gorightly authors of the entertaining book named A is for Adamski: The Golden Age of the UFO Contactees. The contactees are people who claim (largely) benevolent contact with the denizens of flying saucers. Their heyday was in the 1950s, but there were contactees before Roswell and after the fifties into the current period.

The book is arranged alphabetically by the person and there is a photo for each entry. There is a kitsch element to these photos that is definitely entertaining and fun. We spoke extensively about the reality or lack thereof of these experiences. I tried to make a possible connection between contactees and near death experiencers and to a lesser extent remote viewers.

Greg Bishop, co-author of A is for Adamski

 

 

 

 

Adam Gorightly, co-author of A is for Adamski

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There are many overlaps between different people in the book as some of them knew one another, especially those that gathered with Adamski and VanTassel at Giant Rock in the southern California desert over the years. There are also many questions about the honesty of some of the most notorious of the people profiled, but by and large, most were sincere. It must be understood that what ever they encountered had to be processed by the reducing valve of their brains which may have overlaid the experience with something familiar or understandable to them.

Kudos also to Douglas Curran whose photos inspired the book.

Errata: The near death experiencer Fahrusha referenced but couldn’t remember the name of is Anita Moorjani. She is representative of a number of NDEers.

#82 Botanicas, Magick Stores and Gris-Gris Shops

Jason Mizrahi, manager, and Jack Mizrahi, founder, of Original Products Botanica Supplies in the Bronx

Click HERE to listen.

Fahrusha warmly welcomed Jason Mizrahi, manager of Original Products and David B. Metcalfe, paranormal researcher to Shattered Reality Podcast to discuss the growing business of magickal supplies around the world. The founder of Original Products, Jack Mizrahi (retired), pictured above, is the father of Jason and an incredibly erudite businessperson. He started the business with his longtime friend Milton Benezra in the 1950s upon returning home from the Korean War. Because he could speak Ladino the language of the Sephardic diaspora, it was easy to understand Spanish, as Ladino has its roots in Old Spanish. As a result of his facility with languages and innate humor and common sense, Original Products became a successful institution in the South Bronx, catering to the Latin American community’s spiritual supply needs and later to the Afro-Caribbean  community. Today Original Products’ reach spans the globe and their products are used by people of many different spiritual traditions.

Also featured on this episode is return guest, David B. Metcalfe, a prominent paranormal researcher, writer and multimedia artist focusing on the interstices of art, culture, and consciousness. He is a contributing editor for Reality Sandwich, The Revealer, the online journal of NYU’s Center for Religion and Media, and The Daily Grail. His blog is Exploring the Outer Edges of Society and Mind. He has worked extensively with Andrew Chesnut who has researched the Santa Muerte tradition and is the co-developer of the website Most Holy Death.

David B. Metcalfe, intrepid researcher of the paranormal

We had a lively discussion about emerging spiritual traditions, magickal supplies, and what it is like to be involved in paranormal studies.

Shattered Reality Podcast encourages listeners to submit their own paranormal experiences for inclusion in the “Listeners’ Corner” featured on some episodes.