Our guest this time is one of the first guests to share the airwaves with me. His name is Peter Bebergal, and he’s written maybe the coolest book you’ll read this year. Actually there’s no maybe about it. It’s the coolest. It’s called Strange Frequencies: The Extraordinary Story of the Technological Quest for the Supernatural, and it’s a journey through the attempts artists, scientists, and tinkerers have made to imagine and communicate with the otherworldly using various technologies, from cameras to radiowaves to maybe even something like this here podcast.

Which makes sense, because technology has been used for centuries to bridge the gap between the material and the mystical, revealing that the workshop and the séance parlor have more in common than we might think. And if technology is the bridge between worlds, then I say we’re living in the most magical time in recorded human history.

PATREON EXTENSION

Listen at patreon.com/occulture

• Performance and it being the most potent form of magic
• The role of emotion in magic
• Stage magic,  technology and Harry Houdini
• Peter’s trip to a seance in New York
• Phantasmagoria and the television as the new phantasmagoria
• The dream reality, the subconscious and a contraption known as the Dreamachine
• Audio frequencies inducing out-of-body experiences
• Peter’s experiments with EVP for the book
• More about the analogy Peter made between magicians and hackers

 

RESOURCES

• Strange Frequencies on IndieBound
• Strange Frequencies on Amazon
• Peter on Twitter
• Peter’s previous appearance

 

DONATE

If recurring monthly support via Patreon isn’t your thing, we do accept one time-donations via PayPal, Bitcoin, Ethereum and Ripple. Every little bit helps. Click here if you’re interested.

 

MERCH

We recently released new merch! Check it out on our website or at our Etsy shop.

 

SOCIAL

• Twitter
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MUSIC

Vestron Vulture - “I Want to Be a Robot (Tribute to Giorgio Moroder)”

 

PRODUCTION & LICENSING

This podcast is produced in the Kingdom of Ohio and is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International.

Executive Producers: Mike K., Carter Y., Mauricio G., Alyssa S., Daniel R., Kelly C., Kaleb H., Bruce H., David B., Corey T., David G., Jeremy V., Marcelo T., Christopher B., Colleen F., Leonidas, Timothy W., Caleb C., VH Frater RC’s Hermetic Study Group, Nick F., Michael Q., Jamaica J., Mute Ryan, John W., Paul S., Maginfinit, Andy E.

 

REMINDER

Love yourself. Think for yourself. Question authority.