Please join us for a very special Astonishing Legends episode – an All-Star holiday party featuring some of your favorite podcast personalities!  Along with consigliere Tess Pfeifle, we welcome our very own "Alexander Leek," sage, screenwriter and good friend Rich Hatem; podcaster, compadre, and casual archaeologist Micah Hanks; our Space Brother and To The Stars professor, Rob Kristoffersen; and our special guest, inspirational pathfinder, and podfather Jim Harold.  We'll engage in all the scintillating conversation and fascinating anecdotes you'd expect to hear at a holiday gathering attended by paranormal enthusiast friends and fueled by high octane egg nog, and Micah will treat us to a guitar performance near the end!  We hope you'll enjoy this virtual celebration and feel part of a fellowship as we find support and unity at the end of a trying year any way we can.



Visit our website for a lot more information on this episode!

An Astonishing All-Star Holiday Special!

The world is more mysterious than most people are comfortable imagining. We cross paths with the mystical from time to time and may not even notice it. If we do, we quickly return to our usually mundane daily existence. But what if we not only acknowledged the unknown, we investigated it and spoke with those in the know? That’s what co-hosts Scott & Forrest, and their producer Tess Pfeifle do at Astonishing Legends. Over 100 million downloads and hundreds of thousands of listeners have shown that exploring and embracing the wonders of our world can be not only enlightening but exciting.  Welcome to Astonishing Legends!

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Places & Travel

When most of us think of shipwrecks, images of rough ocean waves and sailing vessels of yore come to mind. But those familiar with the Great Lakes region of the north-central United States and southern Canada know all too well that these massive bodies of fresh water produce devastating storms and treacherous swells to rival any sea. Estimates are that around 6000 vessels and 30,000 lives have fallen victim to their notoriously severe weather and deadly waters. In December 1927, a "raging blizzard" on Lake Superior claimed the steamship SS Kamloops and all 22 souls aboard. But was she really a "Ghost Ship," as the legends often describe? The ship went missing and remained undiscovered until 1977 but is in unusually, reasonably intact condition. So, although the wreck was found, the SS Kamloops is still known for a ghost of its own. At least one crew member remains, still manning his station, who is perhaps both a ghost and a corpse. Some divers on the wreck have claimed that the body of this crewman follows them around as they explore, known as "Old Whitey" because of his appearance. Others have also claimed to see a spirit nicknamed "Grandpa" because of his appearance, still on duty in the icy depths. Are these beings the same, and are their perceived actions the result of fluid dynamics and decompression sickness? Join us as we take a deep dive to get to the bottom of the legend of the SS Kamloops and Old Whitey.



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The SS Kamloops and Old Whitey

For part two of our examination of the elusive force that flowed through Joasia Gajeweski, we're fortunate and honored to present a conversation with three knowledgeable professionals familiar with the case. We first learned of this fantastic story and the book that documented it from a clinical therapist, author, parapsychologist, past show guest, and friend, Brandon Massullo. Brandon then offered to put us in touch with psychologist, researcher, and author James Houran, Ph.D., who studied the case extensively. And for the trifecta, another past guest and friend, Michael Kishbucher, connected us with Joel Stern. Joel was a staff translator and reviewer in the Office of Language Services at the U.S. State Department in Washington, DC, for 28 years. He translated The Elusive Force: A Remarkable Case of Poltergeist Activity and Psychokinetic Power into English and spent decades attempting to get the book published, which finally occurred in 2023. Joel also spent time with Joasia and her family during the process and has specific insights into the people and their circumstances. Join us tonight for a lively discussion from the viewpoint of parapsychology and human behavior when it collides with the paranormal, and the impossible becomes impossible to dismiss. 



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The Elusive Force: A Powerful Polish Poltergeist Part 2

The Astonishing Legends Network presents the third episode of Richard Hatem's Paranormal Bookshelf! Listen, and after you love it, find and subscribe to it wherever you get your podcasts!



Richard delves into challenging misconceptions held by both skeptics and believers through the lens of Jule Eisenbud's "The World of Ted Serios," which underscores the significance of caution in scientific inquiry while also exploring the debilitating doubt often encountered in paranormal exploration.



“Certainly an attitude of caution and skepticism should be expected of anyone undertaking to test a hypothesis according to conventional cannons of scientific inquiry. But not the kind of gnawing, festering doubt that took possession of me." –The World of Ted Serios by Jule Eisenbud



In this episode of Richard Hatem’s Paranormal Bookshelf, we’re exploring The World of Ted Serios by Jule Eisenbud. And we’re taking on one of the longest-standing feuds in the world of paranormal exploration: skeptics vs. believers.



In the 1960s, Theodore Judd Serios, a Chicago bellhop, gained fame for producing "thoughtographs.” Ted, it seems,  could think images onto film. Polaroid film to be exact. Parapsychologist Jule Eisenbud arranges to meet with him, and over the next three years of wild experiments, Jule goes down a rabbit hole from which he never completely emerged.



As Richard immerses himself in Eisenbud's narrative, he grapples with the dichotomy between skeptics and believers, challenging misconceptions that often plague serious paranormal inquiry. Through insightful commentary, Richard sheds light on the rational pursuit of knowledge among individuals intrigued by the unexplained, contrasting it with the hasty conclusions drawn by both skeptics and true believers. 

The World of Ted Serios

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Significant poltergeist events often start with a minor incident and incrementally grow with a bit of intensity until they eventually fade.  This is somewhat true about the paranormal activity in a small town in southern Poland in 1983, except in this case, what started as a weird action by an unseen force quickly escalated into one of the most extreme and extraordinary poltergeist cases ever recorded.  Around 3:00 a.m. on April 4th of that year, Marian Tomecki awoke to a decorative straw mat falling on his head.  He tried to fasten it back to the wall when it "tore itself from his hands and danced around." Immediately, glassware and household items erratically fly around the apartment belonging to his daughter and son-in-law where he was staying, smashing into walls and furniture.  Andrzej and Ewa Gajewski's 13-year-old daughter and Marian's grandaughter, Joasia, appeared to be the catalyst for the impossible destruction, consistent with current theories about human conduits in many cases of the phenomena.  As the Gajewski family continued to be terrorized by the violent trashing, neighbors, local authorities, Joasia's school, and even a Japanese news crew became eyewitnesses to the bizarre happenings, becoming national news in Poland.  What also makes the Gajewski case groundbreaking is that it continued for an extended period and with such consistent power that scientists could study it.  Join us for a case of RSPK or "recurrent spontaneous psychokinesis" so disturbing and astonishing it has divided the parapsychologist community.  



Visit our website for a lot more information on this episode.






An Astonishing All-Star Holiday Special!

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