Blake and Jeb go In Research Of PAST LIVES with Leonard Nimoy. Subjects include reincarnation claims, past-life regression therapy, and some truly baffling Nimoy wardrobe choices. Link to YouTube Episode (while it lasts) Topics we cover include:

• Nimoy wandering a Los Angeles graveyard in a strange quasi-military sport coat, and Blake's detective work tying the filming location to Evergreen Cemetery in Boyle Heights.

• The famous Pollock twins case from Hexham, England, where two girls were said to be the reincarnations of their deceased sisters — and how later research complicates the story.

• Dr. Lucia Capacchione's art-therapy / inner-child work and how the show uses regression narratives to explain modern psychological problems.

• Playwright A.J. Stewart (Ada F. Kay), who became convinced she was James IV of Scotland and wrote Falcon: The Autobiography of His Grace James IV King of Scots as if from the king's own perspective.

• Whether past-life regression therapy produces evidence of reincarnation or just vivid, therapist-shaped fantasy, and why skeptics are so wary of hypnosis-based "memories."

  NFA (Nimoy Fashion Alert):

  Cemetery Detective Work:

  Using the 2nd NFA shot, I was able to decipher the tex on the dark tombstone. It is a lot darker in real life with a modern shot.

  That "Find a Grave" entry includes the exact location where Nimoy was standing for this episode's cemetery shot.

  Jeb asked for an animated gif of the woman in the castle with secret doors:

  The cover of Robert and Loy Young's book about reincarnation:

  The twins at the heart of the British (Hexham!) reincarnation story:

  And I can't help but scream - DON'T GO NEAR THE EDGE!!! This episode is such a cliffhanger.

  Deeper reading & sources mentioned: Pollock twins case write-up at the Society for Psychical Research's Psi Encyclopedia Psi Encyclopedia on famous past-life claims (including A.J. Stewart / Ada F. Kay): Ada F. Kay / A.J. Stewart biography (reincarnation claim & Falcon background) Evergreen Cemetery (Los Angeles) – history and the Japanese "Garden of the Pines" section Lucia Capacchione and inner-child / expressive-arts therapy Skeptical overview of past-life regression therapy (Harriet Hall, Science-Based Medicine): General background on past-life regression and why psychologists consider it pseudoscientific

Jeb and Blake ponder Atlantis and "healing holes" in the waters off the coast of Bimini. (Weirdly this is almost literally true as Blake ended up actually in Bimini just a week before this ep released. More on that soon.)

Links for Shownotes:

Roby Yonge on "The Beatles Paul is Dead"

Neptune Memorial Reef

"Psychic" Irene Hughes

Bimini Wall

Edgar Cayce

Beachrock

The Healing Hole

More on the crystal ball from 2010 (Cayce related)

Nimoy Fashion Alert:

Other interesting images from the episode:

Hemingway's Healing Hole:

Robey Yong and Irene Hughes re-enact their experiences.

Doc Raymond Brown and his crystal ball

Marcel Vogel and some crystals - he was also in S01E01 on talking plants.

Flashback to January 2018:In this episode of MonsterTalk, we return to discussion of the Ultraterrestrial Hypothesis (UTH) and what seems to be its growing influence in paranormal circles. It's been used to explain UFOs, mothman, bigfoot, fairies, dogman, ghosts and many other phenomena which defy scientific demonstrability. Now it crops up again in a new film event titled Alien Intrusion which turned out to be a stealth evangelical creationist film which suggests that aliens and UFOs are actually demonic. We are joined by MonsterTalk alum Joe Laycock, Natasha Mikles and Jeb Card to discuss the UTH and Jeb's Paranormal Unified Field Theory (PUFT) as it relates to this film and the work of John Keel and others. In Research Of… MonsterTalk Joe Laycock

Natasha Mikles Jeb Card Music Monstertalk Theme: Monster by Peach Stealing Monkeys

This is part 2 of our 2-part coverage of The Mothman Prophecies movie. If you haven't listened to Part-1, please turn over the record and start again.

Additional show notes available (for free) on our Patreon page: https://www.patreon.com/posts/s4-bonus-mothman-129987183

This is part 1 of our 2-part coverage of The Mothman Prophecies movie. This is in lieu of S04E21 (see below) but we hope you enjoy the content and after part 2, we return to our regularly scheduled episodes list.

"So... Air Disasters Predictions, Jeb? What do you think we'll get?"

Well it turned out to be more than we expected. During our research for this episode we ran into a bit of a puzzle. It turns out that one of the key figures in the episode is still alive and has become an important figure in the world of conspiracy and out of an abundance of caution for our own sanity (as regards potential litigiousness) we've decided to shelve this one for a while. Will we come back and fill in the gap when we think the coast is clear? I don't know - but we didn't want to leave a hole in your listening so we decided to do something... more ambitious. So what we did instead was we recorded a 4+ hour deep dive into the 2002 film The Mothman Prophecies.

Extensive show notes available (for free) at our Patreon page. https://www.patreon.com/posts/s4-bonus-mothman-126932315

Jeb and Blake go in search of John the Baptist's resting place. Content Warning: Human remains on screen. Discussion of murder.

Beheading John the Baptist (wiki)

Salome (play)

In 2018 the murder of Bishop Epiphanius took place and rocked the religious community -- not important for this episode but it popped up a lot in my searching.

San Silvestro "head" shown in intro

Same - but wiki article

Nimoy Fashion Alert (NFA Wardrobe consulting by The Hogtown Rake, Pedro Mendes)

The "head" of John the Baptist at San Silvestro:

Art historian Michael Patroconni (Petroccione?)

I think Jeb and I found this to be the most fun part of the episode:

Gerald Larue obituary

Herod Antipas (the Herod that executed JTB)

Wadi El Natrun

The Cave of John the Baptist

Blake tries to talk Jeb off the ledge as we return to the classic theme of "ancient astronauts" in this throwback episode titled: Earth Visitors.

Some links relevant to our discussion:

Dejah Thoris (character)

MUFON/Harzan scandal

Roman Dodecahedrons (archaeology)

Frank Frazetta

Boris Vallejo

We mention Zecharia Sitchin.

Research suggests humans grow more neurons than did Neanderthals.

A bunch of this episode comes from the work of Maurice Chatelain, who we shall refer to as "Shadowlane." His book Our Cosmic Ancestors sports one of the more interesting book covers we've seen while researching this show.

He also wrote Our Ancestors Came from Outer Space. Maurice Chatelain's credentials appear to have been somewhat overstated in the episode.

We'll be talking about several "Out of Place Artifacts" or OOPAs in this episode. Let's start with the "Boot Print" aka The Meister Print. (pictured below) See also this article by Glenn Kuban.

Very compelling stuff. I guess. I mean it sort of looks like show print.

This interesting looking skull also sent us down some research holes.

The text of the episode seems to be talking about the Del Mar Skull but the image doesn't look like a close match.

A lot of "shapes on the earth" are discussed. The shapes require you to do a lot of work. We'll get into that in the episode. But one is the Maltese Cross that is absolutely stunning, so long as you ignore that some of the points are hundreds of miles from the alleged anchor points and that the temples allegedly at each point were centuries apart. Skeptical response via CSICOP.

Also - this is supposed to be a "pyramid" but seems to be more of what geometry wonks call a "triangle."

I'm trying to find the type of terminal behind our statistician. And - behind the scenes I've managed to contact him and he assures me that the episode required many takes and that his students reported they made him sound like he believes in the whole ancient astronauts thing... More on this if I hear back from a rather lengthy email I sent him today (12/13/24).

Read even more about the Monte Carlo Method!

Vintage ad for the The Outer Space Connection.

According to Scientific American, the idea that indigenous Americans were here for a very long time (from across the Bering sea) really kicked off in the 1930s.

Read more about The Elephant Slab hoax.

This montage of Kachina dolls really impressed Blake:

Nimoy Fashion Alert!

Native Jewelry Artist Preston Monongye

Engineer Charles Ruggles

Could he be LARPing J. Allen Hynek?

Finally we get to the Cosa Artifact.

And - of course, The Jupiter Menace (1982)

Jeb and Blake head out to sea in research of the mystery of what happened to the crew of The Mary Celeste.

The Dei Gratia

Nimoy Fashion Alert (NFA Wardrobe consulting by The Hogtown Rake, Pedro Mendes)

Attorney Fred Flood

In 1913, The Strand Magazine provided an alleged survivor's account from one Abel Fosdyk, supposedly Mary Celeste's steward.

The Mary Celeste (1913 article)

Per "WhatTheFont" website identifier, that font is (appropriately): JOLLY ROGER!

Meanwhile on Skull Hut Island...

Pop Culture:

Dead Calm

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mystery_of_the_Mary_Celeste

Read it, it's a time. Hammer film -Jeb

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Chase_(Doctor_Who)

Jeb and Blake go into the jungles of California and France in search of WILD CHILDREN!

This episode of ISO contains a lot of disturbing content and our commentary is laced with expletives, hence the Explicit tag.

• Tarzan is raised by a fictional ape species known as The Mangani

• The story of Mowgli is LOOOOSELY based on the real-life person Dina Sanichar.

• Frequently referenced ERB Zine article

• Ian Jackson obituary

• News coverage of David as adult (BBC)

• 2021 update on David

• 1985 story about search for "wild children" (and Sham Dev/Shamdeo)

• Christopher Hitchens on Mother Theresa

• Japanese quadrupedal runner

• The Green Children of Woolpit

• Victor of Aveyron

• Disturbing story of Genie - more neglected than feral

NFA - Wild Children:

It's supposed to be a Bear but it has some other possumbilities.

How could Vincent have been a creative genius - yet also "insane?" Jeb and Blake take a look at Nimoy's very personal thoughts about this question.

This episode deals with the topic of self-harm and suicide. If you're struggling with thoughts of self harm, please get help immediately. You can reach trained and empathetic counselors (in the USA) by dialing 988 or 1-800-273-TALK.

We care about our listeners and want you to be around for many years to enjoy life - and our work.

Links for Show Notes:

Nimoy's play VINCENT via Archive

81 Words - This American Life on the DSM

The Book of Kells

Bullshit or Not? Was JTR really Nessie?

Article on Jo Bonger

The Golden Gate Quartet

Weird Al's Skipper Dan (YouTube)

Doctor Who clip of Vincent at the art gallery

Early montage sequence shows:

• Self Portrait (1888)

• Starry Night (1889)

• Vase with 15 Sunflowers (1888)

• Bedroom at Arles (1888)

• Night Cafe in the Place Lamartine in Arles (1888)

• Encampment of gypsies with caravans (1888)

• Langlois Bridge at Arles (1888)

• Fishing boats on the beach at Saintes Maries

• Wheat FIeld with Cypresses (1880)

You can find all these and more at the online Van Gogh museum.

Meanwhile... Could Manos be loosely based on Paul and Vincent?