Citizen's Guide To The Supernormal

CGS Podcast Episode 15- The Willey Family: Live Free and Die Horribly

Welcome back the CGS Blog. It’s been a bit since we dropped an episode but we’re back like cooked crack, y’all. This week, we’re going all the way up to the great white north, AKA New Hampshire. We talk specifically about the tragedy of the Willey family who were killed in a mudslide. While this wasn’t a necessarily supernatural story, it is damn creepy. Imagine seeing a 60 mile an hour rush of mud 3 miles long coming at you. Now imagine there’s a flooded river in the other direction. Talk about nightmare fuel. There’s literally nothing you can do to stop it. It’s a big shit sandwich and regardless of which direction you head, you’re going to have to take a bite.

Anyway, I won’t say too much more about the episode because I don’t want to ruin it for you. What I do want to do is thank you all for listening to us. This show is a labor of love and we couldn’t be more humbled by your support. Our following is small right now but we’re growing by the day. We have listeners tuning in from all over the world and that totally blows my mind. The best part of it all, is that Jordan, Maynerd, and I get to hang out, learn some new stuff, and laugh at ourselves. We hope it provides a bit of an escape for you as well. The world is full of bad news so we want to fill a little of your time with Dick News instead. I hope you like the show. If you have a moment, please give us a review on iTunes or buy a t-shirt from Branded Sports or farkletees.com/collections/sarge. Also, keep telling your friends about us and who knows, maybe one day, we’ll come do a live show near you. A guy can dream, can’t he?

Thanks again,

Sarge

https://twitter.com/@bastardprophet

https://www.instagram.com/sargethedestroyer/

https://www.youtube.com/sargethedestroyer

https://www.patreon.com/Sargethedestroyer

References:

(n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.climate4you.com/ClimateAndHistory 1800-1849.htm#1826: The Willey slide in Crawford Notch

Communications, M. (1970, January 01). The Willeys and the Willey House. Retrieved from http://newhampshireadventures.blogspot.com/2008/11/willeys-and-willey-house.html

Crawford Notch. (2018, June 20). Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crawford_Notch

Mudslides Explained: Behind the Washington State Disaster. (2015, April 06). Retrieved from https://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/03/140324-mudslides-natural-disasters-geology-science/

Eastman, T. (2017, August 04). White Mountain Chronicles: The Willey Slide of August 1826. Retrieved from https://www.conwaydailysun.com/news/white-mountain-chronicles-the-willey-slide-of-august/article_154de85b-73fb-531f-9417-8205adaf0007.html

Hillwalking. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.mountaineering.ie/hillwalking/weather/part3/

The Willey Family Tragedy and a Painting Create White Mountain Tourism. (2019, May 04). Retrieved from http://www.newenglandhistoricalsociety.com/the-willey-family-tragedy-and-a-painting-create-white-mountain-tourism/

Willey Family Catastrophe. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://worldhistoryproject.org/1826/8/28/willey-family-catastrophe

Willey Family Tragedy Legen: Possible Origin of "Giving Me The Willys" Phrase. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://nhtourguide.com/legend-of-the-willey-family-tragedy-323.html

CGS Podcast Episode 15- The Willey Family: Live Free and Die Horribly

Welcome back the CGS Blog. It’s been a bit since we dropped an episode but we’re back like cooked crack, y’all. This week, we’re going all the way up to the great white north, AKA New Hampshire. We talk specifically about the tragedy of the Willey family who were killed in a mudslide. While this wasn’t a necessarily supernatural story, it is damn creepy. Imagine seeing a 60 mile an hour rush of mud 3 miles long coming at you. Now imagine there’s a flooded river in the other direction. Talk about nightmare fuel. There’s literally nothing you can do to stop it. It’s a big shit sandwich and regardless of which direction you head, you’re going to have to take a bite.

Anyway, I won’t say too much more about the episode because I don’t want to ruin it for you. What I do want to do is thank you all for listening to us. This show is a labor of love and we couldn’t be more humbled by your support. Our following is small right now but we’re growing by the day. We have listeners tuning in from all over the world and that totally blows my mind. The best part of it all, is that Jordan, Maynerd, and I get to hang out, learn some new stuff, and laugh at ourselves. We hope it provides a bit of an escape for you as well. The world is full of bad news so we want to fill a little of your time with Dick News instead. I hope you like the show. If you have a moment, please give us a review on iTunes or buy a t-shirt from Branded Sports or farkletees.com/collections/sarge. Also, keep telling your friends about us and who knows, maybe one day, we’ll come do a live show near you. A guy can dream, can’t he?

Thanks again,

Sarge

https://twitter.com/@bastardprophet

https://www.instagram.com/sargethedestroyer/

https://www.youtube.com/sargethedestroyer

https://www.patreon.com/Sargethedestroyer

References:

(n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.climate4you.com/ClimateAndHistory 1800-1849.htm#1826: The Willey slide in Crawford Notch

Communications, M. (1970, January 01). The Willeys and the Willey House. Retrieved from http://newhampshireadventures.blogspot.com/2008/11/willeys-and-willey-house.html

Crawford Notch. (2018, June 20). Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crawford_Notch

Mudslides Explained: Behind the Washington State Disaster. (2015, April 06). Retrieved from https://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/03/140324-mudslides-natural-disasters-geology-science/

Eastman, T. (2017, August 04). White Mountain Chronicles: The Willey Slide of August 1826. Retrieved from https://www.conwaydailysun.com/news/white-mountain-chronicles-the-willey-slide-of-august/article_154de85b-73fb-531f-9417-8205adaf0007.html

Hillwalking. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.mountaineering.ie/hillwalking/weather/part3/

The Willey Family Tragedy and a Painting Create White Mountain Tourism. (2019, May 04). Retrieved from http://www.newenglandhistoricalsociety.com/the-willey-family-tragedy-and-a-painting-create-white-mountain-tourism/

Willey Family Catastrophe. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://worldhistoryproject.org/1826/8/28/willey-family-catastrophe

Willey Family Tragedy Legen: Possible Origin of "Giving Me The Willys" Phrase. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://nhtourguide.com/legend-of-the-willey-family-tragedy-323.html

Episode 14- El Chupacabra: Lady Gardens and Evil Santa

Hey everyone, we made a survey, we'd love your feedback, it's just 5 questions.

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/6J7BVYB

Well here we are at episode 14. This is should be a light journey through the weirdness that is The Puerto Rican Yeti. The Chupacabra is a relatively new phenomenon as far as cryptids go. This legend can only be traced back to 1995. I find that fascinating. While I an a pretty firm skeptic, it’s always interesting to hear what people believe based on the limited evidence they’re provided. In this show we talk about all the possible explanations for what people have witness. As usual, this got me thinking.

A lot of evidence is usually a solution to a problem, unless you’re a moron and still believe the Earth is flat. No evidence is good too. For the most part, no evidence of something solves it’s existence pretty consistently unless you’re a moron anti-vaxxer. However, where there’s a little evidence and there’s no way to corroborate it or test it scientifically, that’s when the real problem starts. I could try and explain this but it might be easier for me to give you an example of a personal experience of mine, so here goes…

I used to attend Cub Scouts in a little church in Quincy Massachusetts. My father was my scout leader. After the meetings, he would hold meetings with the parents. I would play outside with some of the other kids while he held court. One winter night, I was having a snowball fight with my friend when we found some strange looking footsteps in the snow. They looked like regular tracks except for the tips of the foot. They looked like someone was walking barefoot. The snow had iced over due to light rain in the afternoon which then froze when the temp dropped again.

Anyway, off in the distance, at the end of the foot prints, there was a large Elm tree. At the base of the trunk, there was a shape that looked very much like a body huddled against the tree. My friend and I were terrified. Our minds raced with the sinister possibilities. We immediately ran inside and got our fathers.

It took our fathers roughly five seconds to ascertain that the form we saw was an inordinately large knot at the base of the trunk. The footsteps were harder to explain but my father is pretty smart. It turned out that the footsteps were nothing out of the ordinary. The reason they looked different was due to the rain. We discovered that not every footprint looked like it was from someone walking barefoot but the one I saw did appear that way. It turned out to be an effect caused by the rain. The drops fell and chipped away at the footprints.

That night, I realized that out of context, what I saw was scary but with context, it was a perfectly normal experience. As I grew older, I referred back to that lesson many times. The hard truth is that our eyes and minds can deceive us. There’s no shame in that. It’s easy to be confident in what our minds tell us. Our whole view of reality is based on our perception of it. However, perception is subjective. Sometimes it takes a community to alter our perception from fear of the unknown to an understanding of our mind’s interpretation of the unknown. The trick is being open to someone else’s perception. Sometimes that’s easier said than done but it doesn’t hurt to try.

Sarge

Episode 14- El Chupacabra: Lady Gardens and Evil Santa

Hey everyone, we made a survey, we'd love your feedback, it's just 5 questions.

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/6J7BVYB

Well here we are at episode 14. This is should be a light journey through the weirdness that is The Puerto Rican Yeti. The Chupacabra is a relatively new phenomenon as far as cryptids go. This legend can only be traced back to 1995. I find that fascinating. While I an a pretty firm skeptic, it’s always interesting to hear what people believe based on the limited evidence they’re provided. In this show we talk about all the possible explanations for what people have witness. As usual, this got me thinking.

A lot of evidence is usually a solution to a problem, unless you’re a moron and still believe the Earth is flat. No evidence is good too. For the most part, no evidence of something solves it’s existence pretty consistently unless you’re a moron anti-vaxxer. However, where there’s a little evidence and there’s no way to corroborate it or test it scientifically, that’s when the real problem starts. I could try and explain this but it might be easier for me to give you an example of a personal experience of mine, so here goes…

I used to attend Cub Scouts in a little church in Quincy Massachusetts. My father was my scout leader. After the meetings, he would hold meetings with the parents. I would play outside with some of the other kids while he held court. One winter night, I was having a snowball fight with my friend when we found some strange looking footsteps in the snow. They looked like regular tracks except for the tips of the foot. They looked like someone was walking barefoot. The snow had iced over due to light rain in the afternoon which then froze when the temp dropped again.

Anyway, off in the distance, at the end of the foot prints, there was a large Elm tree. At the base of the trunk, there was a shape that looked very much like a body huddled against the tree. My friend and I were terrified. Our minds raced with the sinister possibilities. We immediately ran inside and got our fathers.

It took our fathers roughly five seconds to ascertain that the form we saw was an inordinately large knot at the base of the trunk. The footsteps were harder to explain but my father is pretty smart. It turned out that the footsteps were nothing out of the ordinary. The reason they looked different was due to the rain. We discovered that not every footprint looked like it was from someone walking barefoot but the one I saw did appear that way. It turned out to be an effect caused by the rain. The drops fell and chipped away at the footprints.

That night, I realized that out of context, what I saw was scary but with context, it was a perfectly normal experience. As I grew older, I referred back to that lesson many times. The hard truth is that our eyes and minds can deceive us. There’s no shame in that. It’s easy to be confident in what our minds tell us. Our whole view of reality is based on our perception of it. However, perception is subjective. Sometimes it takes a community to alter our perception from fear of the unknown to an understanding of our mind’s interpretation of the unknown. The trick is being open to someone else’s perception. Sometimes that’s easier said than done but it doesn’t hurt to try.

Sarge

CGS Blog Episode 13- Spontaneous Human Combustion

This episode covers one of the craziest phenomenon in the world. It plays on the unthinkable fear of burning alive. The flames are inescapable. Do you suffocate? Do you burn alive? Is it a quick death? We just don’t know. There is really no consensus on whether Spontaneous Human Combustion (SHC), is even real. The only thing we know for sure is that the victims of SHC are nearly entirely consumed by flames while the room they’re in is virtually untouched.

Much like every other episode, we don’t seek to solve the mystery of SHC. The purpose of our show is to make you laugh and to attempt to entertain you because let’s face it, 2019 is a crazy time. Competing terrorist ideologies are committing acts of unspeakable violence with uninvolved citizens being caught in the crosshairs. The nature of political discourse in the halls of government are as partisan as they are unreasonably uncompromising. There are very real villains attacking people on social media for no better reason than they have nothing better to do.

We don’t want to be yet another voice telling you how shitty stuff is. You get that enough from everywhere else. We just want to give you an idea to play around with that isn’t thoroughly depressing. We want to be your biweekly escape from the bullshit of everyday life. Having said that, we also want to know what mysteries you’re interested in. What stories do you want us to cover? Down below this blog on www.thebrandedsports.com, is a comments section. Leave us a comment, telling us what you want to hear or just tell us how we’re doing. Thanks for reading and I hope you like the show.

Respectfully,

Sarge

CGS Blog Episode 13- Spontaneous Human Combustion

This episode covers one of the craziest phenomenon in the world. It plays on the unthinkable fear of burning alive. The flames are inescapable. Do you suffocate? Do you burn alive? Is it a quick death? We just don’t know. There is really no consensus on whether Spontaneous Human Combustion (SHC), is even real. The only thing we know for sure is that the victims of SHC are nearly entirely consumed by flames while the room they’re in is virtually untouched.

Much like every other episode, we don’t seek to solve the mystery of SHC. The purpose of our show is to make you laugh and to attempt to entertain you because let’s face it, 2019 is a crazy time. Competing terrorist ideologies are committing acts of unspeakable violence with uninvolved citizens being caught in the crosshairs. The nature of political discourse in the halls of government are as partisan as they are unreasonably uncompromising. There are very real villains attacking people on social media for no better reason than they have nothing better to do.

We don’t want to be yet another voice telling you how shitty stuff is. You get that enough from everywhere else. We just want to give you an idea to play around with that isn’t thoroughly depressing. We want to be your biweekly escape from the bullshit of everyday life. Having said that, we also want to know what mysteries you’re interested in. What stories do you want us to cover? Down below this blog on www.thebrandedsports.com, is a comments section. Leave us a comment, telling us what you want to hear or just tell us how we’re doing. Thanks for reading and I hope you like the show.

Respectfully,

Sarge

In this Episode, we learn about Maynerd's haunted house.

Episode 12, Maynerd’s Ghost

http://www.youtube.com/sargethedestroyer

https://www.patreon.com/Sargethedestroyer

Welcome back to the CGS blog. Last episode was pretty dark. This episode takes a different route. We enlisted the help of Maynerd’s long suffering wife as she talked to us about the ghost that lives in their house. Naturally, we were concerned for the ghost’s emotional state given Maynerd’s affection for animal skulls.

When we were talking about the episode, I couldn’t help but think about what scares us. I’m a pretty no nonsense kind of guy. I don’t believe anything without some fairly hard proof. However, there is something to be said for the human experience. No amount of science will convince someone who’s seen a ghost, that it wasn’t a ghost. Also, despite my skepticism, I can only say, I can’t prove that ghosts exist.

What I can say, is that every spooky experience that I’ve had can be easily explained by a mix of pareidolia and environmental factors and they still scared the shit out of me. This is a pretty typical emotional response. Being scared of weird shit we can’t explain is how human’s survived in our early history. This was a time when a weird sound or the shadow seen in the corner of our eye was most likely a giant prehistoric monster, eager to satiate their hunger with your terrified ass.

In 2019, we are the apex predator… unless you live in Australia where even the stupid duck-beavers are poisonous. However, our minds are still on the lookout for threats. Especially when we’re alone, which makes a lot of sense when you think about it. Human’s were pack hunters. We worked in teams to take down animals that would easily overpower just one of us. As a group we are safer. When we’re alone, we become intensely aware of our surroundings. This opens the door for heightened responses. When our minds are in overdrive, a cold breeze or creaking floor becomes something much worse than a drafty old house. It manifests in our mind as an intruder or worse yet, a malevolent wraith coming to … well, I guess that’s the real fear. We don’t quite know what a ghost would do to us, do we? Think about it, what would a ghost actually do to you? We just don’t know. That visceral fear has no end result. That’s what makes that fear so powerful.

Maynerd’s ghost is not a malevolent spirit. At least, no one in that home feels that way. I can’t explain their human experience in any meaningful way. Frankly, it would be presumptuous of me to pretend that I had any grasp on what someone else felt, heard, or saw. Ultimately, everything that I know about the environmental factors of perceived supernatural experiences does nothing to change my response to them so I doubt it will change the experience for anyone else. After all, I’m only human and so are you… well, as far as I know.

Enjoy the show,

Sarge

In this Episode, we learn about Maynerd's haunted house.

Episode 12, Maynerd’s Ghost

http://www.youtube.com/sargethedestroyer

https://www.patreon.com/Sargethedestroyer

Welcome back to the CGS blog. Last episode was pretty dark. This episode takes a different route. We enlisted the help of Maynerd’s long suffering wife as she talked to us about the ghost that lives in their house. Naturally, we were concerned for the ghost’s emotional state given Maynerd’s affection for animal skulls.

When we were talking about the episode, I couldn’t help but think about what scares us. I’m a pretty no nonsense kind of guy. I don’t believe anything without some fairly hard proof. However, there is something to be said for the human experience. No amount of science will convince someone who’s seen a ghost, that it wasn’t a ghost. Also, despite my skepticism, I can only say, I can’t prove that ghosts exist.

What I can say, is that every spooky experience that I’ve had can be easily explained by a mix of pareidolia and environmental factors and they still scared the shit out of me. This is a pretty typical emotional response. Being scared of weird shit we can’t explain is how human’s survived in our early history. This was a time when a weird sound or the shadow seen in the corner of our eye was most likely a giant prehistoric monster, eager to satiate their hunger with your terrified ass.

In 2019, we are the apex predator… unless you live in Australia where even the stupid duck-beavers are poisonous. However, our minds are still on the lookout for threats. Especially when we’re alone, which makes a lot of sense when you think about it. Human’s were pack hunters. We worked in teams to take down animals that would easily overpower just one of us. As a group we are safer. When we’re alone, we become intensely aware of our surroundings. This opens the door for heightened responses. When our minds are in overdrive, a cold breeze or creaking floor becomes something much worse than a drafty old house. It manifests in our mind as an intruder or worse yet, a malevolent wraith coming to … well, I guess that’s the real fear. We don’t quite know what a ghost would do to us, do we? Think about it, what would a ghost actually do to you? We just don’t know. That visceral fear has no end result. That’s what makes that fear so powerful.

Maynerd’s ghost is not a malevolent spirit. At least, no one in that home feels that way. I can’t explain their human experience in any meaningful way. Frankly, it would be presumptuous of me to pretend that I had any grasp on what someone else felt, heard, or saw. Ultimately, everything that I know about the environmental factors of perceived supernatural experiences does nothing to change my response to them so I doubt it will change the experience for anyone else. After all, I’m only human and so are you… well, as far as I know.

Enjoy the show,

Sarge

This is a story about the horrible murder of an entire family... it's not an easy listen. Maybe don't make this your first episode with us...

Episode 11- Hinterkaifeck

Well, here we are at episode 11. I’m pretty excited about Citizen’s Guide To The Supernormal and I hope you are too. I have no idea how many of you are reading this but I have to believe that it’s upwards of 8 people? Anyway, as we search for things that we think are worth of your attention, we go down some pretty weird rabbit-holes. Jordan is pretty relentless when searching for details and uses a number of sources. My job is host and blog-maker-guy (I’m a little skittish to use the term “writer” when referring to myself because that’s one step closer to corduroy sport coats with suede elbow patches). As my lofty title suggests, I am responsible for framing the show with an air of professionalism. In the interests of transparency, sources should be cited. In my efforts to get this show off the ground, I definitely skipped a step. Given my blog for episode 10 extolling the virtues of not taking someone’s word for it, I should have been more careful and maybe taken a little of my own advice. Going forward, links to our major sources will be included at the end of the blog so you too can now see why Jordan is slowly losing his mind.

While we’re on the subject of citations and sources, let’s talk about misinformation. I have a love/hate relationship with the media. On the one hand, they provide an invaluable service to the American people in terms of shining a light on bad behavior and telling us about events that any concerned citizen should be aware of. On the other hand, the vast majority of media is, and always will be, a business. There is one purpose for a business and that purpose is to make money. In order to keep making money, they need consumers. There’s no secret that biases are evident in almost every major news source. This is not just because the people in the corner office are affiliated with one party or another. This is because there’s a certain kind of person who wants to listen to Rachel Maddow. There is an audience for Sean Hannity. These media companies do what they do because they are giving their customers what their customers want.

Now stay with me, if I start a business, my goal will be to make money. I will have a business model and a target market which I will exploit to earn a profit. Now what if I discover that my sales go up when I tell my customers that doing business with me is a smart decision? Well, I’m going to tell my customers that they are smart even if they are currently drooling all over their “9/11 Was An Inside Job” t-shirt. Is it unethical? Hell yeah. Is it illegal? Nope. Every channel gives the people what they want. The problem is that when you prioritize giving the people what they want sometimes you forget to give them what they need.

Back to my business. If I start telling the bozo with the Loose Change t-shirt that he’s a fucking dum-dum, I’m going to lose that customer and probably a few of his tin-foil-hat wearing comrades. If this happens enough, I am properly fucked because my business will fail and I will have to go back to selling my used boxer briefs to weirdos on the internet. The question we have to ask ourselves is, who is at fault when the business lies to Ned? Do we blame the guy telling Ned the Village Idiot that he’s smart or do we blame the Village Idiot for not realizing that he’s just being told what he wants to hear? On that depressing note, enjoy episode 11. It’s about murder!

Love,

Sarge

http://www.youtube.com/sargethedestroyer

https://www.patreon.com/Sargethedestroyer

This is a story about the horrible murder of an entire family... it's not an easy listen. Maybe don't make this your first episode with us...

Episode 11- Hinterkaifeck

Well, here we are at episode 11. I’m pretty excited about Citizen’s Guide To The Supernormal and I hope you are too. I have no idea how many of you are reading this but I have to believe that it’s upwards of 8 people? Anyway, as we search for things that we think are worth of your attention, we go down some pretty weird rabbit-holes. Jordan is pretty relentless when searching for details and uses a number of sources. My job is host and blog-maker-guy (I’m a little skittish to use the term “writer” when referring to myself because that’s one step closer to corduroy sport coats with suede elbow patches). As my lofty title suggests, I am responsible for framing the show with an air of professionalism. In the interests of transparency, sources should be cited. In my efforts to get this show off the ground, I definitely skipped a step. Given my blog for episode 10 extolling the virtues of not taking someone’s word for it, I should have been more careful and maybe taken a little of my own advice. Going forward, links to our major sources will be included at the end of the blog so you too can now see why Jordan is slowly losing his mind.

While we’re on the subject of citations and sources, let’s talk about misinformation. I have a love/hate relationship with the media. On the one hand, they provide an invaluable service to the American people in terms of shining a light on bad behavior and telling us about events that any concerned citizen should be aware of. On the other hand, the vast majority of media is, and always will be, a business. There is one purpose for a business and that purpose is to make money. In order to keep making money, they need consumers. There’s no secret that biases are evident in almost every major news source. This is not just because the people in the corner office are affiliated with one party or another. This is because there’s a certain kind of person who wants to listen to Rachel Maddow. There is an audience for Sean Hannity. These media companies do what they do because they are giving their customers what their customers want.

Now stay with me, if I start a business, my goal will be to make money. I will have a business model and a target market which I will exploit to earn a profit. Now what if I discover that my sales go up when I tell my customers that doing business with me is a smart decision? Well, I’m going to tell my customers that they are smart even if they are currently drooling all over their “9/11 Was An Inside Job” t-shirt. Is it unethical? Hell yeah. Is it illegal? Nope. Every channel gives the people what they want. The problem is that when you prioritize giving the people what they want sometimes you forget to give them what they need.

Back to my business. If I start telling the bozo with the Loose Change t-shirt that he’s a fucking dum-dum, I’m going to lose that customer and probably a few of his tin-foil-hat wearing comrades. If this happens enough, I am properly fucked because my business will fail and I will have to go back to selling my used boxer briefs to weirdos on the internet. The question we have to ask ourselves is, who is at fault when the business lies to Ned? Do we blame the guy telling Ned the Village Idiot that he’s smart or do we blame the Village Idiot for not realizing that he’s just being told what he wants to hear? On that depressing note, enjoy episode 11. It’s about murder!

Love,

Sarge

http://www.youtube.com/sargethedestroyer

https://www.patreon.com/Sargethedestroyer