Splintered Spirits

Paranormal author and investigator Sam Baltrusis joins Gary and John Santa from @santaparanormal live with a reveal they didn’t see coming. Sam’s distantly related to Lizzie Borden. With his new book, Lizzie Borden and the Family Curse coming out October 13, Sam digs into the Borden family tree and its unsettling ties to other infamous names, including Aileen Wuornos and Marilyn Monroe. He also traces an ancestor whose father was executed on spectral evidence, begging the question whether a family can really carry a curse.

The conversation goes deep on the Fall River axe murders. Sam walks through alternate suspects, including William Borden, and the Bertha Manchester murder theory. He also shares what Ryan Murphy's take on the Lizzie Borden story got wrong. From there, the talk turns thoughts on  a different ways ghost hunters should work. Sam, Gary, and John debate going into a haunted location cold versus knowing its history, trade notes with the skeptics, and explain why critical thinking matters.

If you love true crime, haunted history, New England ghost stories, or paranormal investigation, this live episode is for you. Sam and John will both be at MASS ParaCon, October 2 to 4, 2026, in Taunton, Massachusetts. Subscribe to Splintered Spirits for weekly conversations with the people chasing the unexplained, and Stay Curious.

Tarot cards get a bad rap in the movies: dramatic candlelight, a mysterious stranger, and a death card that spells doom. The reality is a lot more interesting, and a lot less scary, and in this episode we're getting the real story straight from someone who reads professionally and is currently fighting a legal battle over it.

Beck Ravenswood, the Hanover, Pennsylvania witch making headlines as the plaintiff in a landmark court case over Pennsylvania's fortune telling laws, joins Gary for a full breakdown of the craft that started it all. Beck walks through tarot's murky medieval origins, the difference between the major and minor arcana, why the deck splits into four suits just like a regular deck of playing cards, and what it actually means when a card shows up reversed. Along the way she also gives an update on her ongoing lawsuit, a case that's turned into something much bigger than tarot itself, touching on free speech, religious practice, and what the government gets to decide counts as legitimate spiritual work.

Then Beck puts Gary in the hot seat for his first ever tarot reading, a full ten card Celtic cross spread that digs into what's really going on beneath the surface. Whether you're tarot curious, already have a deck collecting dust on a shelf, or just want to understand what's really happening in a reading before you write it off, this episode is a genuinely useful crash course in one of the most misunderstood tools in the paranormal and spiritual world.

Chris McKinnell, grandson of legendary paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren, joins Splintered Spirits for a conversation about ghosts, consciousness, fear, and the real stories behind the Warren legacy. With more than four decades of fieldwork across 10,000 cases in 18 countries, Chris brings a perspective shaped by firsthand experience, psychology, religion, cultural anthropology, and a lifetime spent around the unexplained.

Chris discusses why he moved beyond the demonology framework associated with the Warrens, why he believes fear can make paranormal experiences worse, and what he thinks spirits actually are. He also talks about the true cases that inspired The Conjuring universe, the modern obsession with Annabelle, haunted objects, psychic ability, residual energy, and why the paranormal may have far more to do with human consciousness than horror movies.

This is a grounded, surprising episode of Splintered Spirits with one of the most connected voices in paranormal investigation.

John Santa has a big problem this week. After a few too many cocktails at the haunted Tarrytown House Estate, a flirtatious spirit named Lily got a little too comfortable on his live stream. Then she followed him to home. Gary and John discuss the consequences of altered states of "intent,” why alcohol and ghost hunting don't mix, and whether it can be considered cheating if it’s with a ghost.

From there the guys dig into some genuinely wild paranormal theory: entities that evolve over time, a possessed forest campsite nicknamed The Creature, water tables as spiritual conduits, and whether an 8 foot shadow figure could exist without even knowing it's terrifying anyone. There's talk of dowsing rods, ley lines, time slips, and a haunted Confederate soldier still walking someone's hallway. Real ghost stories, real paranormal investigation talk, zero filter.

Splintered Spirits Live drops weekly with unscripted conversations about hauntings, spirit communication, ghost hunting equipment, and the paranormal community's strangest encounters. New episodes and guest interviews every Tuesday, live shows every Thursday. Time’s winding down to take Are You a Ghost Magnet survey at splinteredspirits.com/survey to find out if you're wired to attract the supernatural.

This episode of Splintered Spirits welcomes viral paranormal reaction creator Fuel Neve, for a funny, thoughtful, and unexpectedly personal conversation about ghost encounters, horror, social media, and why the paranormal does not always have to be deadly serious. Fuel shares how his loud, hilarious reactions to strange internet videos helped build his following, and why John Santa’s ghost-hunting clips are perfect material.

Then things get genuinely spooky. Fuel recounts the shadowy figure known as “Old Man Mr. Fox” from his grandmother’s basement in Crown Point, Indiana, a presence his relatives later admitted they had seen too. He also relives a terrifying solo hotel stay in Inverness, Scotland, where the temperature plunged, appliances turned on by themselves, and a closet door shook from the other side.

Gary, John, and Fuel get into the big question behind it all: What are spirits? From residual hauntings and intelligent entities to time, dimensions, and the possibility that paranormal experiences are something the human brain cannot fully process, this is a lively paranormal conversation with plenty of laughs, strong language, and more than a few “WTF is wrong with you?” moments!

What happens when a terrifying encounter in your own bedroom becomes the beginning of a life in paranormal investigation? On this episode of Splintered Spirits, Ghost Hunters and Ghost Nation investigator Shari DeBenedetti shares the chilling story that changed everything: unexplained activity in her family home, a physical encounter she still cannot explain, and a faceless doppelgänger that looked exactly like her then-boyfriend.

Long before joining Jason Hawes and The Atlantic Paranormal Society, TAPS, Shari spent years investigating private cases across Massachusetts and upstate New York. She talks about building an investigative team in the 1990s, working with the limited equipment available at the time, and why a logical, evidence-first approach matters even when a case becomes deeply personal. She also tells stories that never made it to television, including the moment a skeptical engineer was violently thrown across a room.

From Ghost Hunters to Ghost Hunters Returns, this is a candid, funny, and unsettling conversation about spirits, fear, skepticism, and the real work of helping people feel safe in their own homes again. If you love paranormal podcasts, true ghost stories, haunted-house investigations, EVP evidence, or behind-the-scenes stories from the Ghost Hunters universe, press play and dive into the conversation.

Reverend Meg joins Splintered Spirits for a grounded, funny, and deeply personal conversation about psychic mediumship, spiritual awakening, spirit guides, and the nature of the nonphysical world. An ordained minister and licensed psychic medium through the Chapel of Awareness, Meg shares how a former atheist began experiencing powerful intuition, déjà vu, and encounters she could not easily explain, eventually leading her into years of spiritual study and ministry.

We talk about ADHD and learning to separate intuition from a busy mind, why meditation and skepticism matter in psychic development, and why Meg believes mediumship is a skill that requires practice, mentorship, and verifiable exercises. She also breaks down her view of ghosts, guides, and consciousness after death, including why she sees spirits as nonphysical energy rather than frightening human-like entities.

What are spirits? Can paranormal investigators benefit from a more spiritual approach? And why does Meg believe we may be less separate from the spirit world than we think? This episode explores paranormal experiences, psychic abilities, spiritual healing, shadow work, religion, fear, and the ongoing search for peace, purpose, and connection.

In this episode of Splintered Spirits, Gary sits down with Mizz Paranormal, Cat, and Luna for an unfiltered conversation about paranormal experiences, ghost hunting ethics, and the growing fight for civility in the paranormal community. The three guests share the personal experiences that shaped their beliefs and drove them to speak publicly about what they see happening in the field.

But this is also a conversation about accountability. Mizz Paranormal, Cat, and Luna break down what they feel is the line between paranormal entertainment and authentic investigation, why debunking is a necessary part of ghost hunting, and how misinformation, rage bait, bullying, harassment, and parasocial fandoms can poison online paranormal spaces. Gary pushes back from the perspective of a producer, leading to a real discussion about transparency, content creation, evidence, the Conjuring House controversy, and whether the paranormal community can make room for disagreement without becoming cruel - which this conversation proves: it can.

If you love paranormal podcasts, ghost stories, spirit communication,  and honest conversations about the ethics of ghost hunting, this episode goes deeper than the jump scares. It is a funny, candid, occasionally controversial look at belief, integrity, and what it takes to defend truth and human decency in a field where nobody can fully prove what happens after death.

The Oman House is a three story home on Cielo Drive in Beverly Hills, built in 2002 on a vacant lot just feet from where the Sharon Tate and Manson family murders took place in 1969. Owner David Oman has spent decades living with unexplained phenomena in the house, from phantom footsteps and vanishing tools during construction to figurines and large dolls that topple on their own in rooms packed with cameras, all against a backdrop of Native American and old Hollywood history.

In this episode I join David inside what has been called one of the most haunted houses in America for a full walkthrough of his home and his experiences. He shares how a childhood fascination with the supernatural evolved into a more skeptical, investigative mindset and recounts key moments, including the night he woke to see a full bodied apparition he later recognized as victim Jay Sebring standing at the foot of his bed and silently pointing toward the hillside next door. Whether you believe in ghosts or just love true crime and high strangeness, this is a rare chance to hear the story of the Oman House from the man who actually lives there.

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.