Test Tubes and Cauldrons

Happy Samhain! This week we discuss ghosts, what they are, if they differ from spirits, and how their descriptions have varied across cultures and centuries. Is the way we currently view ghosts different than in the past and if so what has influenced the change? Be sure to tune in to the end as well where we share some of our own ghost stories or frightening paranormal experiences!

Link to our discord! https://discord.gg/kJthJyxTBc

Resources:

• High Energy Ghosts: https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007%2F978-3-030-28902-7_6

• The Sixth Dimension and Gods Helmet: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7966009/

• A critical test of the EMF-Paranormal Phenomena Theory: https://www.proquest.com/docview/1537381235?fromopenview=true&pq-origsite=gscholar

This week hosts Astra, Han, and Fel dissect the science behind intuition and deja vu! Do these experiences have a scientific mechanism behind them and if so, what is it and how does it work? Or are they as mystical and immeasurable as people like to claim? Plenty of questions to answer and a few funny interludes (hint, we talk about some hilarious quantum findings)...grab some tea and pop into the lab....or come back? Do you get the feeling this has happened before?

Link to our discord! https://discord.gg/kJthJyxTBc

Resources:

Dèjá Vu: Possible Parahippocampal Mechanisms: https://neuro.psychiatryonline.org/doi/10.1176/jnp.14.1.6

Déjà Experiences in Temporal Lobe Epilepsy:https://neuro.psychiatryonline.org/doi/10.1176/jnp.14.1.6

Intuition vs. Insight: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2016.01195/full

Control of mental activities by internal models in the cerebellum: https://www.nature.com/articles/nrn2332

Meta-analytic Investigations of the Relations between Intuition and Analysis: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/bdm.1903

Neural processes underlying intuitive coherence judgments as revealed by fMRI on a semantic judgment task::https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1053811907006118?via%3Dihub

Intuition: A social cognitive neuroscience approach: https://psycnet.apa.org/buy/2000-03445-005

Intuition, Telepathy, and Interspecies Communication: A Multidisciplinary Perspective : https://sci-hubtw.hkvisa.net/10.14704/nq.2011.9.1.399 ****Please do not take any of this seriously....this is the paper that we reference when discussing the insanity of quantum entanglement

Role of intuitive knowledge in the diagnostic reasoning of hospital specialists: a focus group study: https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/9/1/e022724

Think rationally rather than intuitively to avoid diagnostic errors, doctors are told:https://www.bmj.com/content/341/bmj.c6705

State of Science, “Intuition in Nursing Practice”: A Systematic Review Study: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4800548/

Philosophy and WEIRD intuition: https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/behavioral-and-brain-sciences/article/abs/philosophy-and-weird-intuition/153A4771E2C1631DB37D01859D3D6087

Welcome back to the laboratory and to the second season of the podcast! This week hosts Astra, Fel, and Han travel back to medieval times and discuss magick during a time of heavy catholic influence, metallurgy, and medicine among many other topics including influential scientists, occultists, leech books, witch hunts!

A delightful historical concoction to explore that won't blow your head off.

Social Media Links:

Discord: https://discord.gg/kJthJyxTBc

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/testtubesandcauldrons/

Resources:

The Genius of Medieval Science: https://www.historyextra.com/period/medieval/medieval-science-medicine-dark-ages-discoveries/

Brief Biography of Jabir-ibn-Hayyan: https://www.britannica.com/biography/Abu-Musa-Jabir-ibn-Hayyan

Leech-Book Experiment: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4542191/

Brief overview of the Hortus deliciarum: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hortus_deliciarum

Discussion of potential scientific bias of medeival remedies: https://www.historyextra.com/period/medieval/9-weird-medieval-medicines

Alchemy Digital Occult Library (a great starting point): https://digitaloccultlibrary.commons.gc.cuny.edu/alchemy/

Tune in for our last episode of season one! We'll be back in about a month, though, so don't fret it.

Bias is human and helps us make decisions, but it can also hold us back and lead to some very serious ramifications. Tune in to the three hosts (Astra, Hanne and Fel) to discuss bias, what kinds of bias exist and how it shows up in both the occult and scientific community.

Links:

Discord: https://discord.gg/kJthJyxTBc

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/testtubesandcauldrons/

Poisons are a natural wonder and phenomena, one that should be handled with care, but have so much use within and outside of the occult. Yet, as with many things falling under the umbrella of left hand path, it is often demonized, seen as dark, ill-willed, and incapable of doing good. Join the hosts today as we discuss what the poison path is, misconceptions surrounding it, and how it actually requires having a hand in the benevolent and baneful realms.

Come discuss in our Discord! https://discord.gg/kJthJyxTBc

Resources:

Articles and Papers:

Poison as medicine: https://www.amnh.org/explore/news-blogs/on-exhibit-posts/the-power-of-poison-poison-as-medicine

Animal Toxins and Therapeutic Treatment for Neurological Disease: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5829052/

A Constructive Approach on Lethal Plants for Medicine: https://toxicology.imedpub.com/a-constructive-approach-on-lethal-plants-formedicinal-use.php?aid=23639

Books:

The Witches’ Ointment by Thomas Hatsis

The Poison Trials by Alisha Rankin

Viridarium Umbris: the pleasure garden of shadow & Veneficium: Magic by Daniel Schulke

Witchcraft and the Poison Path by Daniel Schulke.

Pharmakognosis trilogy by Dale Pendell

Want to learn more about separations? See the links below!

Introduction to Chromatography: https://chem.libretexts.org/Courses/ProvidenceCollege/CHM331AdvancedAnalyticalChemistry1/11%3AAnIntroductiontoChromatographic_Separations

Introduction to Mass Spectrometry: https://chem.libretexts.org/Courses/Purdue/Purdue%3A_Chem_26200%3A_Organic_Chemistry_II_(Wenthold)/Chapter_11%3A__IR_and_Mass_Spectrometry/11.06%3A_Introduction_to_Mass_Spectrometry

Mass Spec applications in biological research: https://iubmb.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/bmb.2004.494032020331

Do goldfish have spirituality? What are the correspondences of genetically modified ingredients? Are color correspondences different for people who are color blind? What if we could see beyond the visible spectrum? Join us for our third installment of the spiritual shower thoughts series where we dive into crazy spiritual questions, but this week....under the influence of mugwort! We get a little loose in this episode, but that's what made it fun!

Come discuss in our discord! https://discord.gg/kJthJyxTBc

Welcome back to the lab! In this episode the hosts dig into a hidden influential scientist turned mystic who had a huge impact on both our understanding of modern-day science and traditional witchcraft practices. Emanuel Swedenborg was a prodigy and striking example of a renaissance man with varying interests. He was the first to propose the proto-neuron theory, the structure of an atom nearly a century before its discovery and coined the term correspondence that is so widely used within the spiritual community today.

We fell across Swedenborg during a previous episode and found him incredibly fascinating, so please join us as we dig into him further, unpacking his influences and trying to understand the cosmology he lived by.

Come join our discord! https://discord.gg/kJthJyxTBc

Resources:

Swedenborg Foundation Website: https://swedenborg.com/emanuel-swedenborg/

A System of Occidental Occultism: https://opensiuc.lib.siu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=4046&context=ocj (has some unique insights into Swedenborg)

Swedenborg: An Introduction to His Life and Ideas: https://www.amazon.com/Swedenborg-Introduction-His-Life-Ideas/dp/1585429384

The three hosts (Astra, Fel and Hanne) discuss the science and history of entheogens in spiritual practices, how scholarship has changed and how it differs from other trance inducing practices. A general content warning for this episode, there will be a discussion surrounding drug use and its effects.

Come join our discord! https://discord.gg/kJthJyxTBc

Resources:

• Effects of Ayahuasca

https://www.imperial.ac.uk/news/193993/ayahuasca-compound-changes-brainwaves-vivid-waking-dream/

• Speculative ethnobotanical perspectives on the Norse berserkers

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31404578/

• The “Vine of the Soul” vs. The Controlled Substances Act: Implications of the Hoasca Case

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02791072.2008.10400630

• Quasi-Experimental Elicitation of the Differential Report of Religious Experience among Intrinsic and Indiscriminately Pro-Religious Types

https://www.jstor.org/stable/1387425?seq=5#metadata_info_tab_contents

• Psilocybin and mystical-type experiences

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00213-006-0457-5

• Of Roots and Fruits: A Comparison of Psychedelic and Nonpsychedelic Mystical Experiences

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0022167816674625

Welcome to the first episode of our new series where we take a look at the relationship between science and the occult through the ages. In this episode we take a look at the Classical Era, contemplating the words and ideas of many influential philosophers such as Thales, Anaximenes, Aristotle, Pythagorus, and Empedocles, and many more! We touch upon fundamental theories of how the world works such as the elemental theory, the cosmic cycle of Empedocles, and the humors, which played a key role in the development of medicine (by arguably doing most things wrong).

There are no resources for this episode as everything we talk about is publicly available, but we encourage you to do further research on a philosopher or theory that catches your interest!

Come join our discord! https://discord.gg/kJthJyxTBc

In the modern era, spirituality seems to have an overarching idea that technology inhibits one's ability to do magick. While the buzzing of notifications and constant flow of information can be a distraction to many people during ritual, that doesn't mean it is inherently bad or not useful in our practices! This week, the hosts are joined by Warrior Witch Nike to discuss tech magick, what it is, ways to use it, and some common misconceptions this paradigm often encounters!

Come join our discord! https://discord.gg/kJthJyxTBc

Resources:

Technomancy Blog: https://technomancy101.com/technomancy/ (this is a blog and not a peer-reviewed resource, but it has good information and would be an excellent place to start!)

AI to Generate Magical Symbols: https://ladvien.com/magic-symbol-generator-using-generative-advesarial-networks/