#110 Witchcraft with Susan Demeter

Susan Demeter’s book Cosmic Witch: Magic, Witchcraft, and the Supernatural

To listen click HERE.

On September 15, 2020 Fahrusha welcomed Susan Demeter back to “Shattered Reality Podcast” for an interesting conversation. Her new book is Cosmic Witch: Magic, Witchcraft, and the Supernatural.

At the beginning of the show Fahrusha talked a little bit about the relationship of animism to witchcraft. Many people around the world are still maligned and persecuted for practicing what is perceived as witchcraft. Susan is very brave to wear the appellation “witch” proudly. Because the word “witch” means different things to different people, Fahrusha broke it down to its most basic tenet, a tenet that runs through almost all of the various varieties of witchcraft. That tenet is animism, the attribution of consciousness to plants, inanimate objects, celestial objects and natural phenomena.

Susan began by speaking about her awesome experiences with UFOs and that dovetailed nicely into the practice of witchcraft. Her book is filled with her personal experiences which are extremely relatable.

She espouses strong powerful womanhood, empowering others, and a sex positive point of view as well. We spoke a bit of a mutual friend, Stephanie Quick, a practitioner of red magic, sometimes called sex magic. Fahrusha spoke about the vilification and denigration of Mary Magdalene by the patriarchal Roman Catholic Church.

There is an Italian language version of the book called La Strega. Both versions of the book are published by Due Torre in Italy.

Fahrusha apologizes for the quality of her audio. Being out of Bill’s excellent audio studio due to the lockdown has been difficult, but she feels it is necessary to persevere in the face of adversity.

Fahrusha invites listeners to submit their anomalous stories for inclusion in “the Listeners’ Corner”.

#109 Michael Grosso, Ph.D. and Miracles

Michael Grosso, Ph.D. author of Smile of the Universe

To listen Click HERE

On September 8, 2020 Fahrusha was very happy to welcome philosopher and friend of the show Michael Grosso Ph.D. to “Shattered Reality Podcast” for his third visit. His newest book is called Smile of the Universe: Miracles in the Age of Disbelief. Grounded in true stories and matters of fact, Michael Grosso argues for the reality of a great Mind and for the human ability to communicate with that Mind. The first amazing thing we discussed is that the word ‘smile’ and the word “miracle’ come from the same Sanskrit root ‘smi’.

Many miraculous topics were covered. Padre Pio is a 20th Century Roman Catholic Saint who is credited with abundant miracles, many of which were attested to by sources outside the Catholic Church. One of his charisms or siddhis was the ‘odor of sanctity’, a lovely smell both he and St. Joseph of Copertino were said to exude. The Padre was said to be able to read minds and bilocate.

Savants bridge the void between materialists and philosophical idealists because they exhibit skills they had no way of learning conventionally and these skills are undeniable. The Indian Ramanujan was a gifted wizard of mathematics with little traditional schooling. Derek Amato acquired high level musical skills after a head injury. Others start speaking in languages heretofore unknown to them.

We discussed axial ages and portal areas such as Western NY in 19th Century which was the birthplace of spiritualist movement and the Church of the Latter Day Saints (Mormons).

René Descartes and Isaac Newton who today are regarded as scientific materialists, both had deep spiritual influences and precognitive dreams.

We thank listener Chris from NJ for his wonderful dream UFO healing account and hope to hear more from him. If you have an anomalous true story you’d like to share on “Shattered Reality Podcast”, please contact us at fahrusha@fahrusha.com. All polite comments are welcomed. Please ‘like’ us wherever you find this show.

#107 Alex Tsakiris and Evil

To listen click HERE

On July 8, 2020 Fahrusha and Alex Tsakiris recorded their podcasts simultaneously which is a first for “Shattered Reality Podcast”. Alex’s “Skeptiko” is featured in video on YouTube, where he showed a picture of Fahrusha on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, much to her surprise.

Blake Shelton, Fahrusha and Jimmy Fallon on the Tonight Show in 2018

Then primarily they went on to discuss the thesis of Alex’s new book Why Evil Matters: How Science Religion & Spirituality Have Failed Us. Fahrusha pressed the point that to truly understand evil, one must look beyond humans to other sentient beings including especially mammals, but really much farther to beings such as trees and astronomical bodies like Our Sun. Consciousness pervades the Universe. The Universe is Consciousness.

Alex, while more human oriented, explained a good deal of his position, using as an example ritual sexual abuse of children. No sane person would not see that as evil. They also talked about religion and how differently people interpret religious scripture such as the Bible. Fahrusha felt that to get the most accurate view it would be instructive to study it in the ancient Aramaic form. She also pointed out that Satan as it is now defined, did not make an appearance as the ultimate evil in the early versions of the Old Testament and the duality with the Supreme Being is a more modern concept.

Alex Tsakiris’s new book Why Evil Matters: How Science Religion & Spirituality Have Failed Us

Alex has a brilliant way of encouraging people to expound on their ideas. They talked about the need or lack thereof for religion in general. While some people like Fahrusha and Alex spend lots of time focusing on extended consciousness, others are focused on careers like baseball and dentistry. Fahrusha felt that some people looked to others to provide good spiritual guidance, many religious leaders may have not provided the best possible stewardship. Much as one would not want to entrust their teeth to a less than superlative dentist perhaps some of these folks are not being well served in the spiritual area.

They also discussed some of the guests they both interviewed.

Please feel free to post polite comments on this page. We want to hear from you.

 

#101 Asian Shamanism

Kevin B. Turner is the Director for Asia of the Foundation for Shamanic Studies (FSS), founded by Michael Harner.

Click HERE to listen.

On February 11, 2020, Kevin B. Turner of the Foundation for Shamanic Studies joined Fahrusha to speak about Asian shamanism. Though born in Arizona, USA, Kevin has lived in Asia for over 20 years and currently has a shamanic healing practice in Bali, Indonesia and Kyoto, Japan. He has written the informative book Sky Shamans of Mongolia: Meetings with Remarkable Healers.

Cover of the book by Kevin Turner Sky Shamans of Mongolia: Meetings with Remarkable Healers.

The shamans in present-day Mongolia are plentiful and most fall within three general traditions: the Khalkhs (the ethnic majority in Mongolia whose shamans have been somewhat influenced by Buddhism), the Buryat (inside northern Mongolia and across the Russian Federation border in the Republic of Buryatia and influenced by Siberian shamanism) and the Darkhad (from the remote region of Khuvsgul and perhaps the most original form of Mongolian shamanism). Kevin visited members of all of these groups. He received a remarkable healing and was tested as a shaman, as a result of which he participated in amazing and arcane rituals.

Shaman Kevin B. Turner

Shamanism is widely practiced around the world but is most prevalent in places wherein the inhabitants are animists. Animism is the belief that natural objects, natural phenomena, and the universe itself possess souls and the belief that natural objects have souls that may exist apart from their material bodies. Shamanism is not a religion but a practice of Magick.

Fahrusha is facilitating a dreamwork course lead by Dale E. Graff, a physicist and a former Director of the D.I.A.’s Project STARGATE (remote viewing) at Fallbrook Farms in Geneseo, NY scheduled for July 16-19, 2020.

#99 Séance with Shannon Taggart

Séance by award winning photographer Shannon Taggart

Click HERE to listen.

On January 21, 2020 Fahrusha welcomed award winning photographer Shannon Taggart to “Shattered Reality Podcast” to discuss her amazing book, SÉANCE. We discussed her photographs and how she came to document séances and the Spiritualist religion.

The book is broken into three parts: 1) Foreward by Dan Ackroyd, Introductions by Andreas Fischer, Tony Oursler and Shannon Taggart herself; 2) 150 different images taken over 20 years; 3) an image index written by Shannon which includes stories about each image in the book.

One of the amazing spirit photographs.

Fahrusha spoke about her graduate school experience with a very frightening spirit photograph taken accidentally by her thesis advisor Ed Pramuk, a wonderful artist.

Spiritualism is the first religion to use photography rather than painting for its iconography. Shannon brings together visual semiotics, surrealism, feminism, religion, spirituality and how media shapes reality. We at “Shattered Reality Podcast” spoke about how media shapes the perception of history in our interview with Diana Walsh Pasulka last year.

Shannon praised the work of George P. Hansen and his work on the Trickster. We discussed fraud in séances, and physical mediumship versus mental mediumship. Infrared photography is used by Taggart in some of her work.

Shannon Taggart, author and photographer.

Errata: The Ghostbusters actor is Harold Ramis not Harold Ramey. Apologies to Mr. Ramis.

Please feel free to comment. All polite comments will be answered. If you’d like to participate in our Listeners’ Corner, kindly contact fahrusha@fahrusha.com. You can speak your anomalous or paranormal experience on the show or if you’d prefer, Fahrusha will read it. You can give your name or be anonymous. Thanks.

#97 Entities or Schizophrenia?

Jerry Marzinsky, BA and M.Ed.

To listen click HERE.

On December 3, 2019 Fahrusha was pleased to welcome Jerry Marzinsky to “Shattered Reality Podcast”. Jerry has been a licensed psychotherapist with over 35 years of experience working with schizophrenic and other psychiatric patients in state hospitals, state prisons, and hospital emergency rooms. His formal academic training comprises a B.A. in Psychology from Temple University, a Master’s Degree in Counseling from the University of Georgia, and two years of study in a Ph.D. Psychology program.

We discussed the history of the treatment of patients classified as mentally ill and specifically those currently classified as paranoid schizophrenics. It seems they have mostly not been cured by psychiatry and they have been given the most incredibly barbaric treatments over the course of time. Currently they are treated with electro-shock therapy and anti-psychotic drugs. The electro-shock therapy burns out brain cells and can cause bone breakage, especially in older patients. Anti-psychotic drugs can be very useful to stop a violent outburst and may reverse schizophrenia if used at the earliest sign of the condition, but it is very dulling and has many side effects with continuing usage. Psychiatry claims that paranoid schizophrenia is caused by a chemical imbalance, yet Jerry says that in all his years of work with these patients, none of them were ever tested for this imbalance.

After years of asking these patients why they would go off their medication, he discovered that the voices that the patients heard had much in common with each other. Then he began speaking not only with the patients but with the voices, which he believes are separate entities. He is joined in this belief by Emmanuel Swedenborg. Robert Monroe of the Monroe Institute spoke often about discarnate entities that live off the emotions of others. Don Miguel Ruiz, the world renowned Mexican shaman also speaks of this possession by entities. Jerry Marzinsky’s research partner is Sherry Swiney.

Errata: Jerry mentioned someone receiving a Pulitzer Prize; it was actually a Nobel Prize.

#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.

#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.

 

#81 Rupert Sheldrake- Science and Spiritual Practices.

 

Rupert Sheldrake, PhD, Author of 12 books including Science and Spiritual Practices:Transformative Experiences and their Effects on our Bodies, Brains and Health

Click HERE to listen.

Fahrusha was very pleased to welcome Rupert Sheldrake, PhD, to “Shattered Reality Podcast” to speak about his new book Science and Spiritual Practices:Transformative Experiences and their Effects on our Bodies, Brains and Health and other related topics. We began our conversation with an explanation of the hypothesis of morphic resonance in biology.

We continued onward to expound on the seven rather universal spiritual practices that can have transformative effects on one’s mental and physical health. Most basic of these practices is meditation, the sort which can silence the mind’s chatter and promote joy. Next comes gratitude which can be practiced as prayer, grace before meals, or simply earnestly thanking individuals for small or large acts that they have done.

“More than human” is the practice in which a person relates to the 99.9999% percent of the Universe which is not human or about human beings. This is probably my favorite. A sub-category is relating to plants as living beings. These first four practices can be accomplished solo, but Sheldrake is clear about the way in which doing things in community with others brings added benefits to the practioner.

Among the group practices are the practice of rituals with other humans, although it is possible to do some rituals solo. Singing, chanting and music have amazing effect on the human being and the benefits are multiplied when groups participate together. Going on pilgrimages and visiting holy places can be done alone or with a group. The practice of walking meditation is one that bridges both the category of meditation and pilgrimage.

Rupert Sheldrake, PhD, is the author of 13 books including his newest: Ways to Go Beyond and Why They Work: Seven Spiritual Practices in a Scientific Age which is only on order currently in the UK.

Rupert Sheldrake, PhD, and Fahrusha, after small group dinner in NYC. Courtesy of Andrew Dornenburg

Errata: During the introduction to this episode of “Shattered Reality Podcast” Fahrusha mistakenly said that it was the 82nd episode when in fact it was the 81st.

Any listeners to “Shattered Reality Podcast” are welcomed and encouraged to submit the names of thoughtful researchers into the Mandela Effect to be possible guests on the show.