Between Myth and Belief

Before ghost hunting was a TV staple, Dr. Nandor Fodor was already doing it weirder and smarter than anyone else. In this episode we dig into the strange career of the paranormal investigator almost nobody talks about. From the Thornton Heath poltergeist to his most infamous case: a talking mongoose on the Isle of Man named Jeff who claimed to be born in New Delhi in 1852. Fodor's wild theory that poltergeists are manifestations of repressed trauma put him at odds with spiritualists, got him fired, and inspired more than a few lawsuits, but it also shaped how we think about the paranormal to this day. 

Calendar of the Weird:

Link: NJ Cryptids & Paranormal Conference Tickets via Eventbrite

Link: Pagan Wheel of the Year Context via Tripr Travel

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This week, Michelle and Beth dig into one of the strangest, saddest, and most compelling folk traditions ever pulled from a forgotten archive box: the Benandanti of Friuli, Italy. Born into a calling, dispatched four times a year in spirit form to wage plant-based warfare in the fields, fiercely proud of who they were — until the Inquisition spent a century grinding that pride into confession. We trace their roots from the crossroads culture of northeastern Italy all the way to the Wild Hunt, Livonian werewolves, and a pan-European shamanistic pattern that historian Carlo Ginzburg spent decades trying to prove. Plus: the amniotic sac as a lucky charm, why fennel beats sorghum, and what it means when an institution can't tolerate something it simply can't categorize.

It's not just folklore. It's a gaslit identity. And it almost disappeared completely.

📚 Resources from this episode:

🗓️ Upcoming Events (May 17–24):

Paranormal & Supernatural

Pagan & Esoteric

Sacred Days & Observances

In the Sky

What are dreams, really? Science says your brain is filing memories and simulating threats. Psychology points to the subconscious doing its messy work. Metaphysics suggests something far stranger, that it’s a doorway to other realms, other versions of yourself you can only half-remember come morning.

This week, Michelle and Beth float through the dreamscape: shared dreams that two people experience without knowing it, precognitive dreams that reach into a future you weren't supposed to know yet, and the dream locations your sleeping mind returns to that you've never visited while awake. They share their own precog dreams, including one born in the desert during wartime and one that foretold a tragedy before it happened and ask the question every vivid dreamer eventually faces: is it memory, the mind processing what it can't face in daylight, or something else entirely?

What happens when a community’s justice system fails, and the line between vigilante law and supernatural lore begins to blur?

In this episode of Between Myth and Belief (formerly Folkloric), Michelle and Beth travel to the dark hollows of Booger Hole, West Virginia. Known for a string of mysterious disappearances and a history of post-Civil War violence, Booger Hole became the stage for one of Appalachia’s most haunting legends: The Witch of Booger Hole.

We dive deep into the tragic story of Lacey Ann Boggs, a woman labeled a witch and targeted by the notorious Clay County Mob. Was she truly "hag-riding" her neighbors through sleep paralysis, or was she a convenient scapegoat for a community gripped by fear and lawlessness?

Whether you’re here for the West Virginia folklore, the Appalachian history, or the true crime mysteries of the 19th century, grab a hot drink and join us in the gray area between what we know and what we believe.

As mentioned in the podcast, here is the Upcoming Events for 4/16 to 5/1 of 2026:

This was the primary festival for Ceres, the Roman goddess of agriculture. The most evocative (and slightly "feral") ritual involved tying blazing torches to the tails of live foxes and releasing them into the Circus Maximus.

A pastoral festival dedicated to Pales, the deity of shepherds. This is a day of purification and "city-building" mythology.

A cornerstone of European dragon lore.

In British folklore, this was a night of eerie divinations, often focused on mortality and marriage.

A Roman ritual to ward off Robigo, the spirit of grain rust (mildew).

Known as the "Other Halloween," this is the night witches were said to gather on the Brocken, the highest peak in Germany's Harz Mountains.

One of the four major Gaelic seasonal festivals, marking the beginning of summer.

One of the most famous short-lived cryptid "flaps" in American history occurred in Dover, Massachusetts.

A more obscure historical sighting from the Pine Barrens region.

In the spring of 1973, in a small Southern Illinois town of about 800 people, something scratched at Henry McDaniel's door. He opened it. What he described was four feet tall, three-legged, pinkish-grey skin, eyes catching the porch light. It sent him rushing for his gun and sent the rest of Enfield into chaos.

Michelle and Beth dig into the 1973 Illinois cryptid sightings from the ground up, the place, the time, the people, and what Southern Illinois in economic decline might have to do with what showed up on Canal Street. They also drag in a French explorer, the Illini legend of the Piasa, the case for an escaped wallaby, and the question of what happens when a town's dread gets heavy enough to need a shape.

Whazat.mp3 by macindoe1 -- https://freesound.org/s/52890/ -- License: Sampling+

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They were here before us. They will be here after we're gone. And in the meantime, they are definitely watching. For as long as people have been brave enough to go into the woods, trees have given us shelter, oxygen, fruit, and stories. People from all over the world and throughout history have looked up into those branches and felt something old looking back at them.

So the question isn't if trees have power. Should we be afraid of it or respect it?

Join Michelle and Beth as they dig deep into tree folklore, forest mythology, and the very human need to figure out why something that old and that shouldn't make you feel that way makes you feel that way.

Let's breathe in the strange and suffocating tale of the Mad Gasser of Mattoon, the phantom prowler who paralyzed an entire Illinois town in the summer of 1944 with nothing but a sweet smell and a whole lot of wartime dread. We dig into the moments that lit the fuse, the armed vigilantes who followed, and why the army chemical experts found absolutely nothing. Plus, we trace the long, weird history of fear going airborne, from the Glass Harmonica's alleged nerve-shredding powers to Spring-heeled Jack, War of the Worlds, and the surprisingly ancient art of a town losing its collective mind.

Let’s take a walk through a blood soaked history of Greyfriars Kirkyard and the apparitions who do or maybe do not haunt there. We discuss the plague victims, mass graves, the Covenanters, and the monster who may be lurking in the dark. Plus, a bonus illness-induced, emotional rant about humanity and how we treat one another. 

R4_00597_EXP01_Horror_atmosphere by kevp888 -- https://freesound.org/s/759670/ -- License: Attribution 4.0

Follow along with us as we enter a different realm, beyond the known and into... Toronto, Canada. Where we watch the 1970s every day citizens embark upon a journey of mysticism and science. Philip never existed but he has gained a life in the minds of those who created him and for those of us who uncover this, for all intents and purposes, successful attempt to create a ghost. 

View the documentary The Philip Experiment

Most of us love to dance. School dances, dance clubs, weddings, etc., are all opportunities for those of us with the passion but not the professional skill to shake our groove thing. We dance until we need a drink or they switch to a song we dislike. But what if you couldn’t stop? What if your friends and neighbors were all dancing with you? What if none of you could stop? Join us as we explore the mysterious phenomenon known as the Dancing Plagues.