Gods, Ghosts & UFOs

If you’ve got a quiet moment this week, here’s a thoughtful radio essay from Tom that explores the intersections of Victorian literature, social conscience, and what it means to truly connect with our fellows.

Yes, it turns out we can be serious sometimes. Please try not to faint.

In this piece, Tom tracks the circumstances that led Charles Dickens to write A Christmas Carol, from his disastrous American tour and the child labor reports that haunted him, to his compulsive night walks through London’s streets where he encountered the cast out and forgotten.

Within this substrate, Tom weaves together Dickens’ personal struggles, the neuroscience of human connection, and an urgent message about what we’ve lost (and must reclaim) in our age of radical isolation and screen-mediated existence.

Consider this our gift to you: a half-hour to slow down and remember that, “no one is useless in this world who lightens the burden of it for anyone else.”

Truly, we wish you the very best of the season, and count you among our beloved fellows.

Tom, Mal, & Jordan

PS - For six years running, Jordan has been making compilations on Spotify called Hot Christmas. Here’s the latest.

And here are links to all the others:

Volume 1

Volume 2

Volume 3

Volume 4

Volume 5

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Let’s talk about drugs.

This week we learned that some doctors have figured out how to make DMT trips last as long as you want. They can dial it up or down, or turn it off if things go south. And in the ultimate hack to do this legally, they formed an actual church, and they’re recruiting members for what they call “expeditions.”

Their stated goals are to develop therapies, solve advanced problems, explore consciousness, and build something called “the Matrix Machine.”

Probably a long shot, but maybe this is how we’ll find out who and what DMT aliens really are.

And speaking of non-human entities: it turns out there’s a mushroom in China that makes pretty much everyone see itty bitty little people. And this thing has absolutely no relation to psilocybin, if you can believe it. In fact, it doesn’t contain a single psychoactive compound that we know about.

So, once again, we’re left wondering if these are hallucinations, or…something else.

Highlights:

The Extended State DMT program (DMTX) has figured out how to stabilize and extend DMT experiences

The International DMT Church

Consistency of DMT experiences

Jordan conjures a comically horrible mental image of people handcuffed to beds with IV drips, trapped in thousand-year experiences they can’t escape

Are we exploring the architecture of the human mind, or accessing something external to ourselves?

Most psychedelic insights are “just vibes” (Paul McCartney, for instance)

A mushroom that makes 96% of people see tiny people or elves, often dancing, jumping, or marching (the story)

Reports span Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, and a third-century Taoist text about a “flesh spirit mushroom” that lets you “see a little person”

The mushroom is genetically closer to porcini than to psilocybin—contains NO known psychoactive compounds

Chemical analyses reveal nothing

Experiments on mice

Does this explain why every culture throughout history has legends of fairies, elves, and sprites?

Are the mushrooms making you hallucinate little people, or only allowing you to see the little people that are already there?

(Picture a Lovecraftian world full of squirming horrors just outside our normal perception)

Victorian art depicting sprites smoking pipes while sitting on mushrooms

No epilogue this week. Blame the holidays. But also, if you’re not one of the handful of heroes with paid subscriptions — well, now you’ve got time to catch up, don’t you?

godsghostsUFOs.com

***

SpectreVision Radio is a bespoke podcast network at the intersection between the arts and the uncanny, featuring a tapestry of shows exploring creativity, the esoteric, and the unknown. We’re a community for creators and fans vibrating around common curiosities, shared interests and persistent passions.

spectrevisionradio.com

linktr.ee/spectrevisionsocial

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What happens after we die? It’s one of the fundamental questions that drives all human interest in religion, philosophy, and science.

But while it might not conform to strict materialism, we actually do have a huge body of evidence about what the so-called afterlife might look like. You’ve heard of near death experiences, but you might not know how rigorously they’ve been studied. There are thousands of documented cases that reveal remarkably consistent patterns.

So that’s what’s up for today — NDEs, afterlife cosmologies, how the James Webb Space Telescope is breaking Big Bang theory, and what the handprint of God might look like to someone trying to build a religion.

Oh, and a few hours before we started recording, I heard about Robert Monroe’s visit to the afterlife, so we talk about that, too.

In other words, if you can only listen to one more podcast before you die, you could do worse than this one.

Highlights:

Growing up Mormon meant growing up with a rich afterlife cosmology

NDE stories as religious confirmation bias

Ancestors and experiences with people who’ve passed on

People get too comfortable with their pictures of reality in both science AND religion

Is the James Webb Space Telescope breaking the Big Bang theory? (that Kurzgesagt video)

In every generation, you can find prominent scientists who say we’ve figured pretty much everything out, right before some major paradigm collapses

Christian Wiman: “If you believe at 50 what you believed at 15, then you have not lived, or have denied the reality of your life” (from My Bright Abyss)

The large and rigorously studied body of NDE evidence (Jeffrey Long’s work, in particular)

What Robert Monroe saw in his trip to the afterlife (ht Jordan Crowder’s podcast, and Ultimate Journey)

Hell as a lower-dimensional experience

Can a higher-dimensional God manifest as a lower-dimensional being? Would that lower-dimension being not be God?

Bad branding for universal consciousness

Samuel Norton’s Come as You Are, and the hotel analogy for final judgment

And in the epilogue:

Why God might call most Christian creeds “an abomination”

The real definition of moral courage

How social media is like carbon monoxide, lulling doom-scrollers into the sleep of death.

SpectreVision Radio is a bespoke podcast network at the intersection between the arts and the uncanny, featuring a tapestry of shows exploring creativity, the esoteric, and the unknown. We’re a community for creators and fans vibrating around common curiosities, shared interests and persistent passions.

spectrevisionradio.com

linktr.ee/spectrevisionsocial

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Nick Cook is a British aviation journalist turned consciousness researcher. We discuss his take on the Age of Disclosure documentary, why the UFO conversation has become impossible to have like adults, and how simulation theory might be the most grounding framework for understanding reality (no but really).

Highlights:

Nick’s storied career, from winning four Royal Aeronautical Society Journalism Awards to investigating Nazi anti-gravity research (Hunt for Zero Point) to consciousness studies (Bigelow essay contest winner)

His “Age of Disclosure Challenge”: trying and failing to have actual conversations with skeptics about the documentary’s evidence

We’ve lost the ability to hold adult conversations about polarizing topics

Back to the co-creative nature of the phenomenon

Nick’s simulation theory framework: consciousness is non-local, not generated by individual brains but expressed through them

We’re all nodes of a larger consciousness system, constantly feeding data back

Simulation theory might sound meaningless, but it actually doubles down

Truly understanding consciousness totally recontextualizes human hierarchies

The great secret of disclosure isn’t about NHI technology, it’s about how governments have weaponized this for 80 years with Cold War mentality

Nick’s approach is the least horrifying version Mal has ever heard

Someone please come up with a better name for “simulation theory”

And in the epilogue:

Nick shares his perspective on human agency, or “free will”

Why our souls might have dreaded coming to Earth School

What the Belgium drone mystery proves what intelligence agencies know (or don’t)

***

SpectreVision Radio is a bespoke podcast network at the intersection between the arts and the uncanny, featuring a tapestry of shows exploring creativity, the esoteric, and the unknown. We’re a community for creators and fans vibrating around common curiosities, shared interests and persistent passions.

spectrevisionradio.com

linktr.ee/spectrevisionsocial

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Kicking us off this week, Mal takes us through the complete James saga—a YouTuber whose mysterious “UFO” turned into toxic performance art. After that, a high-level conversation about The Age of Disclosure, before Tom finally gets to share a wonderful update from Loch Ness.

It’s good, guys. It’s real good.

Highlights:

Recapping and then tying off the story of James the UFOtuber

How he started off, what made him compelling, etc

That time a couple weeks ago when he maybe faked his own death?

His half-hearted attempts to keep the mystery alive

The big reveal that it was all a hoax

A lively conversation about the crappiness of this whole thing, and what it reveals as an artifact of our culture

Weaponized sincerity, parasocial manipulation, and other fun ideas to enjoy

Jordan’s meta-review of The Age of Disclosure (including a quick recap of his experience attending a screening in LA)

A stupid review from the New York Times that we refuse to link to

A Bug’s Life as a labor organizing manifesto

Go join Citizens for Disclosure (after you hear an impassioned pitch for civic engagement)

Something is shifting, people are tired of the same things, conversations are bending differently

News from Loch Ness - researchers used underwater drones to capture very boring footage and very interesting SOUNDS

Very much also: charming Scottish narration and infectious enthusiasm

The lake monster laugh is going to be our new ringtone

And in the epilogue

***

SpectreVision Radio is a bespoke podcast network at the intersection between the arts and the uncanny, featuring a tapestry of shows exploring creativity, the esoteric, and the unknown. We’re a community for creators and fans vibrating around common curiosities, shared interests and persistent passions.

spectrevisionradio.com

linktr.ee/spectrevisionsocial

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This week, for kicks, we decided to flame a rancid piece of alien abduction “journalism,” including feeding the thing to AI on a whim to see what happens. Then, on the back of an article in The Debrief about a supposed “Seventh Sense,” we get into a speculative conversation about transhumanism, biology, technology, and human perception, before circling back to waste more time with sycophantic LLMs.

Beware the energy vampires.

Highlights:

A thorough dissection of alien abduction woo-woo gobbledygook

A “spiritual healer” who probably doesn’t exist, albino men in parks, bodies on spacecraft walls, O negative blood as 1950s genetic engineering, and UFOs “dumping out water and frogs”

The article claims “we are a much more advanced version of AI... Tesla approved that”—a sentence made of words

Experiencers dealing with trauma and isolation deserve thoughtful journalism, not content farm garbage

We ask Claude what it thinks, and are reminded how important it is to frame questions carefully when interacting with AI

From Chrissy Newton at The Debrief - New research from Queen Mary University reveals humans can detect objects buried in sand before touching them

Humans achieved 70% accuracy detecting hidden cubes; AI-assisted robots only managed 40%

Mirror touch synesthesia: some people literally feel what they see happening to others—sight translating directly into tactile sensation

The “seventh sense” is actually our fingertips reading microscopic disturbances in sand around hidden objects—feeling the echo of what’s beneath

Our technology mimics nature, then reveals deeper layers of complexity in nature, in an infinitely recursive pattern

Why transhumanist dreams of replacing our “fragile, broken bodies” with robot perfection are probably very silly

The more we understand biology, the more we realize how incomprehensibly sophisticated human bodies actually are

What if advanced civilizations actually value hard work done by hand?

Assembly lines run by robots: great. Assembly lines staffed by humans forced to behave like robots: the worst

Remember that AI slop is basically an energy vampire

And in the epilogue:

How good horror movies are basically modern incarnations of the Aristotelian tragedy

Wrestling with the probability that the universe is full of super-intelligent, non-human monsters

Why we blame victims to make ourselves feel safer

Last thing! Here’s the link to check out Anomalie - use code MAGIC for 60% off the full experience.

***

SpectreVision Radio is a bespoke podcast network at the intersection between the arts and the uncanny, featuring a tapestry of shows exploring creativity, the esoteric, and the unknown. We’re a community for creators and fans vibrating around common curiosities, shared interests and persistent passions.

spectrevisionradio.com

linktr.ee/spectrevisionsocial

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week we’re looking into a technology-assisted variant of an ancient, mystical practice to locate subterranean water veins, and then Tom’s got the full scoop on America’s first documented haunting. You can also expect an update on James the YouTuber with a tuber of a UFO, which has frankly not aged well.

We have a lotta fun, don’t we, guys.

Highlights:

Map dowsing! How it’s the same and how it’s different from using a rod to find water.

Tom’s family once hired a “water witch” with dowsing rods to find a place to drill their mountain well

The Stanford Research Institute studied dowsing for the CIA in the 1970s, finding statistically significant results but no explanation for how it works

Professional dowsers charge $500+ per session to help locate optimal drilling sites for major water works projects

An update on James, which, yes, we know is incredibly and hilariously OUT of date now

The Wizard Clip: 1790s Virginia haunting where invisible forces cut crescent moon shapes into everything — clothes, saddles, boots, bedding

Adam Livingston refused last rites to a dying Catholic stranger, then his property became ground zero for supernatural scissors

Witnesses traveled 75 miles on horseback to see clothing being cut while people wore it, invisible voices praying, and objects moving

After Catholic priests performed an exorcism, the haunting transformed — heavenly voices appeared, leading prayer sessions

The town of Middleway, West Virginia, still decorates with crescent moons and scissors

Multiple eyewitness accounts passed down through families are a “durable oral history”

Protestants called it “wizard” work, Catholics blamed evil spirits

This predates the term “poltergeist” — they literally didn’t have words for what they were experiencing

And in the epilogue:

The “two beers and a puppy” friendship test - Can you have two beers with someone AND trust them to babysit your puppy overnight? If not, what are they doing in your precious waking hours?

Irish fey hospitality rules - Never ignore unhoused people or street musicians because they could be vengeful fairies (faeries?)

True moral courage - standing up to the people you agree with on behalf of people you don’t agree with

Last thing! Here’s the link to check out Anomalie - use code MAGIC for 60% off the full experience.

***

SpectreVision Radio is a bespoke podcast network at the intersection between the arts and the uncanny, featuring a tapestry of shows exploring creativity, the esoteric, and the unknown. We’re a community for creators and fans vibrating around common curiosities, shared interests and persistent passions.

spectrevisionradio.com

linktr.ee/spectrevisionsocial

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week we did a bit more diligence on 3I/Atlas (it’s a big deal, ok!), and dove into the surprisingly emotional world of English psychic pub nights. We also took an extended virtual through Florida’s Everglades to see what we could see about the Skunk Ape. And then we stuck around to hear Tom’s theory about how Disneyland is a kind of metaphysical purgatory. Enjoy!

Highlights:

David Shealy, who saw his first Skunk Ape in 1973 at age 10, became obsessed, and opened the Skunk Ape Research Headquarters in 1997

Over 354 documented Skunk Ape sightings

The 2000 Skunk Ape video

The proposed bill in Florida to protect Skunk Apes

English psychic pub nights

Tom watched a medium correctly identify specific details about audience members’ deceased relatives, down to names and circumstances

Why Avi Loeb is pushing NASA to release all data on 3I/Atlas asap - every week of delayed data is wasted opportunity

Avi on Newsnation

Avi on The Hannibal TV UFO Channel

The comet’s astonishing orbital path

Mal’s reference to Don’t Look Up

And in the epilogue:

Tom’s theory that Disneyland is purgatory

The very boring purpose of enlightenment

Those rare people who change your life by simply giving you their complete and undivided attention

Last thing! Here’s the link to check out Anomalie - use code MAGIC for 60% off the full experience.

***

SpectreVision Radio is a bespoke podcast network at the intersection between the arts and the uncanny, featuring a tapestry of shows exploring creativity, the esoteric, and the unknown. We’re a community for creators and fans vibrating around common curiosities, shared interests and persistent passions.

spectrevisionradio.com

linktr.ee/spectrevisionsocial

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week we’ve got updates from James the UFO-Tuber, those photographic telescope plates from the mid-20th century, and Enigma’s recent USO report. All that ends up kicking off a deeper conversation about ontological wheel-spinning, and how a guy named Reed Summers is trying to help move the conversation about UFOs and NHIs in a more practical, impactful direction, especially against a chaotic informational landscape and the potential (probable?) manipulation of NHIs themselves.

Highlights:

James keeps on keepin on

An update on those photographic plates from Project VASCO

Enigma’s USO report - 9000 cases of unidentified submerged objects, with multiple incidents of craft entering and exiting water at impossible speeds

An introduction to Reed Summers, and his approach and methodology

The hazards of NHI emotional manipulation (with a reference to James Barber’s experiences - the clip we used starts around the 50-minute mark)

How to see through telepathic and/or emotional manipulation

The witness/observer behind emotions

Society as a “narcissist factory” that makes us feel we need to earn our right to exist

Meditation and ego dissolution — losing the stories, not the self

Mal’s friend’s wisdom: “If you could lose it, then it wasn’t everything”

Tom’s closing anecdote

And in the epilogue:

The etymological history of our names

One of Mal’s unique professional hazards

An existential fear of losing communal identities in whatever collective consciousness turns out to be

Last thing! Here’s the link to check out Anomalie - use code MAGIC for 60% off the full experience.

***

SpectreVision Radio is a bespoke podcast network at the intersection between the arts and the uncanny, featuring a tapestry of shows exploring creativity, the esoteric, and the unknown. We’re a community for creators and fans vibrating around common curiosities, shared interests and persistent passions.

spectrevisionradio.com

linktr.ee/spectrevisionsocial

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome to our (very) haunted Halloween Special.

We’ve been sitting on this one for a while, waiting for the right time.

In the first half, listen to the chilling, remarkable story of a childhood haunting. What starts as an early encounter with a long-haired figure in the shadows escalates into possession, physical attacks, and a deeply unsettling episode of missing time in a bathroom. (Good luck sleeping tonight.) Then, in the second half, we talk to the woman that child became.

Highlights!

Lisa’s experience with a shadowy figure who watched her motionless from the doorway so often that she got used to it.

A seance that went wrong (do they ever go right?)

Billy (6’7”, 300 pounds) gets possessed

The introduction of two distinct entities - the peaceful long-haired man (the shadow watcher) who apologized for his aggressive companion, and a “bored and angry” spirit responsible for years of harassment

Another friend lifted off his feet and slammed into a wall

The thing that happened in the bathroom

The motive behind Lisa’s extraordinary documentation, what Tom calls “a PhD thesis” of paranormal data

Lisa’s affinity for horror movies (she doesn’t scare easily)

Why the haunting makes no sense (the house was new when they moved in)

Ghosts are just “people you don’t see” who can be jerks or peaceful observers

Why most of her experiences were alone or with her friends, without the parents around

Tom shares his partner’s auto-writing experience that produced Victorian-era cursive spelling “Jeffrey C U”

Links!

Anomalie - The project Jordan talked about at the top of the episode

The original letter about Lisa’s experiences

Those 18 pages of documentation

If you’ve got ghost stories, share them at godsghostsufos.com

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