What happens when a love of haunted history, horror movies, folklore, and ghost hunting brings two people together? In this episode of Splintered Spirits, we sit down with Cara Cilento and Gail Gamble of Nine Lives Paranormal to explore their path from Italian folk magic, Ozarks legends, abandoned asylums, and a first ghost hunt to becoming paranormal investigators, authors, educators, and creators of one of New Jersey’s most ambitious paranormal events. From ghost cats at the Conjuring House and Shanley Hotel to a chilling shadow figure encounter at Pennhurst Asylum, Cara and Gail share the experiences that made the unknown impossible to ignore.

We dig into paranormal investigation techniques, haunted locations, spirit communication, EVP evidence, spirit boxes, custom ghost-hunting equipment, EMF anomalies, intuitive sensitivity, historical research, and the question at the center of every investigation: what are spirits? Cara and Gail explain their balanced approach to investigating hauntings, where Gail brings the technology, data, and experimental equipment, while Cara describes the physical and intuitive sensations that guide her toward paranormal hotspots. They also share why respect, ethics, open-mindedness, and validating history matter more than provocation or sensationalism.

Plus, we take a deep dive into The Hollow Paracon & Film Fest, the New Jersey paranormal convention and horror film festival created by Nine Lives Paranormal. Hear how The Hollow grew from a small paranormal bazaar into a large-scale gathering of ghost hunters, horror filmmakers, paranormal researchers, vendors, workshops, haunted attractions, and independent genre films. If you love ghosts, hauntings, paranormal research, haunted asylums, folklore, supernatural stories, horror culture, or the ongoing search for evidence beyond the veil, this is an episode you do not want to miss.

In this episode of Splintered Spirits, Gary and John sit down with paranormal mentor and Norse mystic Kaedrich Olsen, a man who quite literally says he was “born into the paranormal.” From growing up in a haunted house and attending spiritualist church as a kid to teaching seances and Norse mysticism, Kaedrich has spent decades refining a practical set of “10 rules” for dealing with ghosts, spirits, and the unseen. Instead of rehashing ghost stories, we dig into the real question: what actually happened to him over the years that forced each of these rules into existence?

Across the conversation we walk through those rules one by one and trace them back to lived experiences. Kaedrich explains how being a terrified kid in a haunted basement led to his first rule, “similarities attract and perpetuate,” why learning to laugh at strange activity completely changed his relationship with hauntings, and how years of helping investigators with attachments and problem homes convinced him you must “test and validate everything.” We get into Ouija boards, seances, spirit attachments, fear states, energetic boundaries, shadow work, “no veil” theory, and what spirits are from his consciousness-based model. If you’ve ever wondered whether your mindset can make a haunting worse, why some people seem like ghost magnets, or how to safely communicate with loved ones without gadgets, this episode is built to challenge your assumptions and give you a new playbook for coexisting with the paranormal.

Perfect for fans of paranormal investigation, ghost hunting, psychic development, Norse mysticism, and shadow work, this is a high-signal, low-BS deep dive into how the unseen actually behaves in real life and what to do about it when it shows up.

In this episode of Splintered Spirits, Gary and John dive into the strange and spiritual world of demonologist, paranormal investigator, musician, medium, tech developer, and all around Renaissance Man, Sean Austin. From Catholic school memories and horror movie nightmares to actual field work with dark entities, Sean walks us through how a flip phone EVP and a very skeptical waiter blew his life wide open to the paranormal. It is part theology chat, part quantum physics, part campfire story. And it is very much a ride.

Along the way, we get into what Sean thinks spirits really are, why intent might matter as much as faith, and how his music background and finely tuned ear shape the way he investigates. There are stories of hauntings that unfold like cosmic practical jokes, out of body trips to places that feel a lot like heaven, and hard won lessons from demonology mentors who have seen it all. It is thoughtful and curious, but never too serious to laugh at itself.

If you have ever wondered whether vibration, frequency, and the ways you live your life could shape what happens after you die, this conversation is going to stick with you. If you just want to hear smart people joke about last rites, skeptical lab rats, and Southern ghosts versus New York ghosts, you are in the right place too.

Splintered Spirits welcomes veteran paranormal investigator, TV analyst, and author Brian J. Cano (Travel Channel's Paranormal Caught on Camera, SyFy's Haunted Collector) for a deep dive into his personal research philosophy he calls “Paralosophy.” Brian breaks down why he refuses to research a location's history before investigating, why he thinks the Estes Method is little more than a placebo dressed up in headphones, and why the biggest source of ghostly EVPs might actually be us, not spirits. Along the way he shares his wild psychic projection experiment.

This episode blends ghost hunting theory, parapsychology, and skeptical inquiry with real talk about tech gadgets, meditation, consciousness, and the science behind paranormal investigation. Gary  and John dig into what makes a truly complete paranormal investigation, why TV and YouTube culture have warped how people chase the unexplained, and how humor and energy might unlock connections that gear alone cannot. Whether you are a lifelong ghost hunter or just curious about spirits, consciousness, and the unexplained, this conversation offers a fresh, thoughtful lens on paranormal research.

Tune in for stories from Staten Island cable access shows to national television, insights from the Rhine Institute, and a candid look at how one investigator evolved from rigid skeptic to skeptical believer over two decades in the field.

What happens when you put a data-driven parapsychologist in the same room as two loud-mouth ghost enthusiasts trying to figure out what spirits are? In this episode, Gary and John sit down once again with Professor Brian Laythe to unpack his groundbreaking work on “Haunted People Syndrome” and why some people seem to live in a constant swirl of weirdness while others barely see a flicker. They dig into the idea of transliminality, thin psychic boundaries, and how your personality, your beliefs, and even your family can shape the way you experience hauntings, synchronicities, and all the “what the hell was that?” moments that never quite leave you.Along the way, Brian reads out Gary and John’s actual scores from a new survey they’ve created together and uses them as a live case study. Gary gets crowned an “internally enlightened mystic,” while John quietly blows the doors off the strange events scale. The result is part therapy session, part comedy roast, and part field guide to your own state of weird. If you’ve ever felt watched, had bizarre body sensations, smelled things that weren’t there, or just wondered whether your house is haunted or your brain is creative, this conversation gives you language, tools, and a fresh way to think about it all.

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If you’re into haunted houses, real-life ghost research, Western occult history, psychic phenomena, or just want to know what serious scientists actually think about spirits, this is the episode you don’t skip.  Step into one of the most mind-bending episodes of Splintered Spirits yet, as Gary and John sit down with Dr. Brian Laythe, social psychologist, parapsychologist, Director of the Institute for the Study of Religious and Anomalous Experience, and co-author of Ghosted!: Exploring the Haunting Reality of Paranormal Encounters. Brian has spent decades at the crossroads of science, magick, theology, and hauntings, studying everything from the Golden Dawn and Western esotericism to real-world ghost encounters, ESP, and possession cases. In this conversation, he reveals how he went from “in the closet” paranormal nerd to one of the leading researchers publishing haunting and ESP studies in mainstream scientific journals, and why psychology as a field is often more hostile to the paranormal than physics.

If you’ve ever wondered whether ghost experiences are “all in your head” or genuinely supernatural, this episode is your rabbit hole. Brian breaks down his Survey of Strange Events: a mathematically built hierarchy of haunting phenomena that shows subjective feelings (“I felt a presence”) and objective events (voices, objects moving, apparitions) are not separate categories, but one backbone of paranormality that repeats across hauntings, gang-stalking accounts, and creepy imaginary friends. He then walks Gary and John through Haunted People Syndrome, his six-stage model explaining why some people are haunted everywhere they go, how high “transliminality” (thin psychic boundaries) supercharges paranormal encounters, and why belief systems and social contagion can turn one “oh crap” moment into a full-blown, life-shaping haunting.

Along the way, you’ll hear jaw-dropping field stories from infamous locations like Black Moon Manor and Whispers Estate; sites where Brian’s team locked down environments, ran A++ level EMF and geomagnetic monitoring, and still captured anomalies that defy easy debunking. 

Don’t just dive into the conversation with this one, become a part of it.  Visit splinteredspirits.com and be a part of our study with Prof. Brian Laythe by taking our “ARE YOU A GHOST MAGNET?” Survey!

Splintered Spirits sits down with Tim Nealon, the software engineer and entrepreneur who turned a “joke” ghost tour in Savannah into Ghost City Tours, one of the most recognizable brands in haunted tourism. This conversation starts out funny then dives into how Tim built a real world business around phenomena most people still consider unreal.

Across the episode, Tim talks candidly about his universe and his competitors. He breaks down why most ghost tour operators may be passionate, but not great business people (or even ethical ones), how ambition and drive helped him scale to hundreds of employees, and what changes when every guest thinks they are a paranormal expert thanks to TV and social media.

We also explore how years of investigations at famous haunted locations shifted his sense of what might happen after death and why he believes we have barely scratched the surface of how the paranormal interacts with us. If you care about ghosts, business, and the strange intersection of curiosity and capitalism, this is a sharp, funny look at what it means to build a haunted empire in the real world.

Amie Balesky returns to Splintered Spirits for a conversation that pushes past easy labels like "spirit" and into deeper territory. She shares how her understanding of energy, vibration, and connection has evolved since her last visit, offering a fresh lens on how she experiences and interprets the unseen. Gary and John dig into what's changed for her, and how those shifts are shaping the way she works and sees the world.The conversation moves through some heavier moments, including stories of unsettling premonitions and a surprising new direction in her work that has drawn unexpected outside interest. Amie opens up about the responsibility that comes with the things she senses, and how she decides what to share and when.As always, the episode balances the eerie with the entertaining. Between lighter personal stories and a visit with the Annabelle doll, this one captures the mix of humor and mystery that keeps listeners coming back to Splintered Spirits.

Meet Haley Michelle, the Paranormal Princess. By day, she owns Royal Wishes, an entertainment company where she has been bringing beloved princess characters to life at children's birthday parties for over a decade. By night, and sometimes in between, she is one of the most uniquely vibrant voices in the paranormal world. She has nearly three million TikTok followers, a collection of over 50 haunted dolls, and a brand unlike anything else in the ghost hunting community. Gary and John sit down with Haley to explore what it means to bring light, warmth, and a decidedly pink energy into a space that tends to favor black t-shirts and dark corridors.

Haley opens up about growing up with mediumistic gifts from infancy, her journey into haunted objects, and how her princess persona may actually amplify her connection to the spirit world. Children's spirits are especially drawn to her. From paranormal investigations inside the Ohio State Reformatory to nursing home visits where spirits appeared alongside her while she was in full character, Haley shares her most extraordinary and emotional ghost encounters, including deeply personal signs she has been receiving since the recent passing of her mother.

The conversation takes a thoughtful turn into some of the biggest questions in the paranormal community. What are spirits, really? Do past lives exist? And why do so many ghost hunters assume every cemetery is crawling with the dead? Haley also shares her take on the haunting of Disney World, introduces her famous haunted doll Cynthia, and explains why she will occasionally drop the crown on haters online. She is the rare paranormal personality who makes ghost hunting feel like magic.

Audrey and Bella were just two best friends who bonded over K-pop in college until a trip to Salem, Massachusetts changed everything. With zero investigation experience, they started a YouTube channel about ghost hunting and the unexplained, and their very first paranormal investigation became their very first video.

In this episode, Gary and John talk with the duo about building their brand from scratch. Audrey shares growing up in a haunted house and discovering her sensitivity to paranormal energy, while Bella explains how she conquered her childhood fear of the dark by diving headfirst into everything that scared her. They cover their evolution from taped-together gear to a fully planned investigation process, plus the moment a spirit box responded with "Lucifer" on their first ever hunt.

The conversation gets into their most haunted location, Laurel's House of Horror in Maryland, where corrupted footage and an alleged possession changed how Audrey thinks about demons. They also talk business strategy, their five year plan, and what they believe spirits really are, all with plenty of laughs along the way.