Some Other Sphere

Episode 135 - Susan Demeter - Ghost Roads of Ontario

Joining me for this episode is returning guest Susan Demeter.
Susan is a Canadian born author, artist, and witch. The themes of her writing, research and art incorporate a lifelong interest in exceptional human experiences, UFOs, nature, social history, mysteries, and magic.
She was previously a guest back in 2021 for episode 62 of Some Other Sphere, where we discussed her book Cosmic Witch: Magic Witchcraft and the Supernatural.
This time around, Susan joined me to talk about a recent paper she has written about three roads in Ontario, Canada which each have haunted reputations.
The paper explores the paranormal history of these places—Mississauga’s Trail, Texas Road, and Buck Hill Road—both through her first-hand observations and research of primary and secondary sources.
I begin the interview by talking with Susan about what drew her to this subject matter and her own unusual experiences when visiting Mississauga’s Trail. From there the conversation opens out to cover the other two sites included in the paper and consider why some roads seem to attract paranormal phenomena.  We discuss the symbolism present in some of the folklore and otherworldly beings connected to the roads, their role as both practical , imaginal and mythic spaces, the relationship between people and nature and what that all might indicate about the nature of our reality.
You can find out more about Susan and her writing at https://susandemeter.wordpress.com/.
If you enjoy what I do with Some Other Sphere and would like to support its upkeep, you can make a donation via Ko-fi. To buy the podcast a coffee go to https://ko-fi.com/someotherspherepodcast. Thank you!
 
The podcast theme music is by The Night Monitor, from his album, ‘Close Encounters of the Pennine Kind’. You can find out more about The Night Monitor's music at https://thenightmonitor.bandcamp.com/.
 

Episode 134 - Clive Bloom - London Uncanny

My guest for this episode is Clive Bloom, who joined me to talk about his new book, London Uncanny: A Gothic Guide to the Capital in Weird History and Fiction.
Clive is Professor in Residence at Hull University, Emeritus Professor at Middlesex University and a Visiting Fellow at the University of Western Timisoara, Romania. He is a feature writer for several newspapers and the author of many books on topics from literature to politics, including the London political histories Violent City (2003) and Riot City (2012).
 In London Uncanny, Clive takes the reader on a psychogeographical tour of the capital’s uncanny literature, arcane events and its infamous and imagined locations. The urban landscape is presented as a space of wonder and madness, both haunted by its past and haunting the present. With stories of death and murder, spiritualism, lunacy and the occult the London in the book is one where dreams and nightmares meet.
In the interview I talk with Clive about how the idea for London Uncanny came about, and some of the themes that are present throughout its pages. We discuss how different versions of the city intersect, such as the ancient and modern, the ways that some people have found ways to interact with the imaginary and mythic London, and how the effect of modernisation, such as the construction of the London Underground, have given rise to new mythologies and uncanny experiences.
You can find out more about Clive and his work at https://www.clivebloom.com/.
If you enjoy what I do with Some Other Sphere and would like to support its upkeep, you can make a donation via Ko-fi. To buy the podcast a coffee go to https://ko-fi.com/someotherspherepodcast. Thank you!
 
The podcast theme music is by The Night Monitor, from his album, ‘Close Encounters of the Pennine Kind’. You can find out more about The Night Monitor's music at https://thenightmonitor.bandcamp.com/.
 

Episode 133 - Dr. Bob Davis - The Science of Consciousness and Extraordinary Experiences

Joining me for this episode is research scientist and author Dr. Bob Davis.
After receiving his doctorate in 1981 Bob served as a professor for the State University of New York for over thirty years, where he conducted extensive research in the behavioural and neurosensory sciences, taught, and held many high-level administrative roles.
Following retirement, he published several articles in the Journal of Scientific Exploration and Edge Science and has given lectures at national and international conferences on consciousness, spiritually transformative experiences, and unidentified anomalous phenomena. He has also published four books - The UFO Phenomenon: Should I Believe?; Life after Death: An Analysis of the Evidence; Unseen Forces: The Integration of Science, Reality and You and most recently The Consciousness Connection: Extraordinary Human Experiences and the Nature of Reality, which has also been turned into a documentary.
As you can imagine with a subject as vast as consciousness, my interview with Bob is wide-ranging. I begin by talking with him about his early life and what drew him to a career in neuroscience, and then move onto how his interest in studying the more esoteric and fortean aspects of consciousness developed. We discuss how he moved past the materialist outlook he had developed from a career in science and the extraordinary experiences he had which helped him to do that. From there we discuss how such experiences are best looked at scientifically and what they suggest about the nature of consciousness and beyond that, reality itself.
You can find out more about Bob and his research at https://bobdavisspeaks.com/.
If you enjoy what I do with Some Other Sphere and would like to support its upkeep, you can make a donation via Ko-fi. To buy the podcast a coffee go to https://ko-fi.com/someotherspherepodcast. Thank you!
 
The podcast theme music is by The Night Monitor, from his album, ‘Close Encounters of the Pennine Kind’. You can find out more about The Night Monitor's music at https://thenightmonitor.bandcamp.com/.
 

Episode 132 - Dr. Nick Literski - Psychology, Spirituality, and Esoteric Traditions

My guest for this episode is Nick Literski.
 
Nick is a Jungian scholar, spiritual guide, author, and retired attorney.  Dissatisfaction with a career working in law, together with the experience of coming out as part of the LGBTQ+ community, led them to rebuild their life and pursue their interest in the intersection of spirituality and psychology. After three years of training as a shamanic practitioner, Nick’s desire to help facilitate the spiritual journey of queer persons led them to earn a master’s degree in Spiritual Guidance at Sofia University, where their thesis work focused on how gay men from non-affirming religious backgrounds create their own sustaining, affirming spiritual practices. This work, in turn, inspired Nick to pursue further graduate work in depth psychology and attain a PhD in that subject. Their dissertation work involved a depth psychological analysis of Palaeolithic cave art, through Carl Jung’s technique of active imagination, with an eye toward what these images can reveal about the human religious instinct.
 
Nick is an accomplished author, having essays and articles published in multiple academic journals. They also co-authored Method Infinite: Freemasonry and the Mormon Restoration, published in August 2022 by Greg Kofford Books. In addition, Nick served briefly as Assistant Editor of the journal, Anthropology of Consciousness.
 
I begin the interview by talking with Nick about the life events that led up to their decision to change career and pursue their passions for psychology and spiritual development.  From there we discuss some of the methods they use to help their clients and this leads into an interesting conversation about how best to understand extraordinary experiences and the importance of personal meaning and subjective reality in trying to do that.
You can find out more about Nick and their work at https://www.dancingancestors.com/ and they can by contacted by email at nick@dancingancestors.com.
If you enjoy what I do with Some Other Sphere and would like to support its upkeep, you can make a donation via Ko-fi. To buy the podcast a coffee go to https://ko-fi.com/someotherspherepodcast. Thank you!
 
The podcast theme music is by The Night Monitor, from his album, ‘Close Encounters of the Pennine Kind’. You can find out more about The Night Monitor's music at https://thenightmonitor.bandcamp.com/.
 

Episode 131 - Liz Williams - Rough Music

My guest for this episode is author Liz Williams, who joined me to talk about her new book Rough Music: Folk Customs, Transgression and Alternative Britain.
 Liz holds a PhD in the History and Philosophy of Science from the University of Cambridge and is a widely published journalist and writer of both fiction and non-fiction.
In Rough Music she examines the influence of themes such as transgression and shame in British folk customs, from ancient times to the present day. The book investigates a variety of ceremonial traditions in Britain such as May Day parades, Bonfire Night and other seasonal events and reveals the roots and roles of violence, mockery, protest and public shaming in some of these.
 In the interview I talk with Liz about her background and interest in this subject matter and the connections between some of the customs detailed in her book and otherworldly folkloric entities such as Woodwoses, the Green Man and Black Shuck. We also discuss the debate around the origins of some of these traditions and how this contrasts and compares with the timeless quality that they possess, which is something that they share with a lot of paranormal phenomena.
You can find out more about Liz and her book Rough Music at https://reaktionbooks.co.uk/work/rough-music and further details on the 2025 Black Shuck festival are available at https://blackshuckfestival.com/.
If you enjoy what I do with Some Other Sphere and would like to support its upkeep you can make a donation via Ko-fi. To buy the podcast a coffee go to https://ko-fi.com/someotherspherepodcast. Thank you!
 
The podcast theme music is by The Night Monitor, from his album, ‘Close Encounters of the Pennine Kind’. You can find out more about The Night Monitor's music at https://thenightmonitor.bandcamp.com/.
 

Episode 130 - Dr. Josh Bullock - Weekday Worldviews - Update

Joining me for this episode is returning guest Dr. Josh Bullock.
Josh is part of the team behind Weekday Worldviews, a sociological project which in 2023 began investigating the relationships between personal worldviews and psychological well-being amongst those attending public psychic events in the UK. He was my guest for episode 114 of the podcast, where we discussed the project, the subjects it was looking at and the methods to gather information.
In the interview for this episode Josh returns to discuss the project findings in more detail. To begin with we briefly go over the background to Weekday Worldviews and its methodology, and Josh shares his own experience of attending a Psychic Night at a pub in Bristol. After that we look at some of the answers given by people who took the project survey and sat down for interviews. It reveals some very interesting insights into the differences between the ways people view the truth of something and understanding it, the role of science in determining that, psychological attitudes towards death and grieving and personal belief in a wide range of paranormal phenomena.
You can find out more about the Weekday Worldviews project at https://www.weekdayworldviews.com/.
If you enjoy what I do with Some Other Sphere and would like to support it you can make a donation via Ko-fi. To buy the podcast a coffee go to https://ko-fi.com/someotherspherepodcast. Thank you!
 
The podcast theme music is by The Night Monitor, from his album, ‘Close Encounters of the Pennine Kind’. You can find out more about The Night Monitor's music at https://thenightmonitor.bandcamp.com/.
 

Episode 129 - Dr Ed Barnhart - The Maya Civilisation

My guest for this episode is archaeologist, explorer and educator Dr Ed Barnhart.
Ed specialises in studying the ancient civilizations of the Americas and has over twenty years of experience working at archaeological sites in North, Central, and South America. Of particular interest to him during his career have been the Maya, who are is the main subject of the interview.
In 1994, Ed discovered the ancient city of Maax Na, a major center of the classic Maya period in northwestern Belize. Later on he was invited by the Mexican government to direct the Palenque Mapping Project, a three-year effort to survey and map the unknown sections of the ancient Mayan city’s ruins. The resultant map has been celebrated as one of the most detailed and accurate ever made of a Mayan site.
In 2003, he became the director of Maya Exploration Center, a nonprofit organization dedicated to the study of ancient Maya civilization through study-abroad courses for college students and tours for the general public in the ruins of the ancient Americas.
He also presents the ArchaeoEd podcast, in which he shares his knowledge and experiences of the awe-inspiring civilisations he has researched.
We start off the interview for this episode by discussing how his career as an archaeologist began, what drew him to civilisations such as they Maya, and what his first experiences of visiting their ancient sites were like. After that I talk with Ed about the Maya themselves – who they were and still are, their customs, incredible talent for mathematics and astronomy and their fantastic architecture. Our conversation also includes their spiritual beliefs, and some of the supernatural beings that were part of their culture just to make sure this episode still has a little fortean flavour.
Further details about the Maya Exploration Center are available at https://www.mayaexploration.org/ and you can find out more about Ed's ArchaeoEd podcast at https://archaeoed.com/.
If you like what I do with Some Other Sphere and would like to support its upkeep you can make a donation via Ko-fi. To buy the podcast a coffee go to https://ko-fi.com/someotherspherepodcast. Thank you!
 
The Some Other Sphere theme music is taken from 'Window Area', from the album 'Close Encounters of the Pennine Kind' by The Night Monitor. You can find out more about The Night Monitor's music at https://thenightmonitor.bandcamp.com/.
 

Episode 128 - Elin Heron and Callum James - Magic, Landscape and the Dead

Joining me as my guests for this episode are Elin Heron and Callum James.
Elin is returning to Some Other Sphere, having first been interviewed by me in the very early days of the podcast. She is a writer and musician, a talented tarot reader and a speaker of Welsh. Callum is a poet, artist, bookseller and magical practitioner.
Both have long been close friends and 2024 saw them each publish new works - Jude by Elin, which is her debut novel and The South Downs: Paths of the Dead by Callum, which details his experience of completing the South Downs Way, an ancient walking route in Southern England.
In Jude, Fifteen-year-old Nick has just finished his GSCEs and is stuck at home in the seaside village of Brexenham. What starts as a boring summer quickly transforms, as he meets Jude Fletcher, a wild and otherworldly boy. Nick is pulled into another world, but the disappearance of local girl, Jemma Cox, hangs over the community, and is something that runs farther back than anybody realises.
The South Downs is partly a grimoire of the walk Callum undertook, partly a linear topography, and partly a treatise on necromancy. It recognises the folklore, spirits, and the magic of a place and Callum writes as one who does this magic, speaks to these spirits, and follows this lore.
In the interview I talk with Elin and Callum about their writing and their friendship, how the ideas for their recent publications came about and how their approach to writing them developed. This leads into a wide-ranging discussion, covering themes such as the role of the imagination and imaginal thinking in otherworldly encounters, the connections between the dead and the landscape, and the nature of otherworldly entities such as The Green Man, a character who features prominently in Jude. I also get to share a couple of my own unusual experiences with them as part of our conversation.
Further information about Elin can be found at her website https://www.elinheron.co.uk/ and you can order a copy of Jude from her publisher, Lucent Dreaming.
Callum's website is https://www.mercurysbrother.com/ and you can order a copy of The South Downs: Paths of the Dead from Broken Sleep Books. 
If you would like to support the upkeep of Some Other Sphere you can make a donation via Ko-fi. To buy the podcast a coffee go to https://ko-fi.com/someotherspherepodcast. Thank you!
 
The Some Other Sphere theme music is taken from 'Window Area', from the album 'Close Encounters of the Pennine Kind' by The Night Monitor. You can find out more about The Night Monitor's music at https://thenightmonitor.bandcamp.com/.
 

Episode 127 - Loren Hughes - The Ancients of Avalon

My guest for this episode is paranormal researcher Loren Hughes.
Loren is the creator of 'The Ancients of Avalon', an eclectic amalgam of blog and social media where he shares his own unusual experiences along with the folklore and weird history associated with the area around Glastonbury in Somerset, England where he lives. UFOs, Cryptids, the Fae and of course, the myths and legends connected with King Arthur have all featured prominently.
Our conversation starts off with Loren talking about the background to his interest in the paranormal, how he ended up living in Glastonbury and his experience of moving to a town with such an esoteric reputation.
We talk about a few of the unusual encounters he has had over the years, on Glastonbury Tor and further afield, which leads into a wide-ranging discussion covering the nature of other realms, the beings that inhabit them, the role of meaning, dreams and the imagination in these kinds of encounters and much more. Loren brings the interview to a close with a fantastic ghost story, perfect for this time of year.
You can find Loren's Ancients of Avalon project on X/Twitter at https://x.com/theavalonians.
If you enjoy what I do with Some Other Sphere and would like to support its upkeep you can make a donation via Ko-fi. To buy the podcast a coffee go to https://ko-fi.com/someotherspherepodcast. Thank you!
 
The Some Other Sphere theme is from Purple Planet Music - 'Hubbub' by Geoff Harvey and Chris Martyn.
 

Episode 126 - Timothy Grieve-Carlson - American Aurora

My guest for this episode is historian and author Timothy Grieve-Carlson. Tim’s work focuses on the intersection of esotericism, ecology, American religious history and the paranormal and his writing has appeared in magazines like Hellebore and in academic journals such as American Religion, Correspondences: A Journal of Esotericism, and Magic, Ritual, and Witchcraft.
2024 saw the publication of his first book, American Aurora: Environment and Apocalypse in the Life of Johannes Kelpius – which is the subject of this episode.
Johannes Kelpius is an enormously influential but comprehensively misunderstood theologian, born in what is modern-day Romania in 1667. His time studying at university would expose him to esoteric ideas and religious practices that would prove influential in his life, leading him to eventually settle outside of Philadelphia from 1694 to 1707. By the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, his legacy began to warp under the scrutiny of both enlightenment historians and antiquarian authors, entangling him in the legacies of nineteenth century Rosicrucianism and the occult revival.
In the interview I talk with Tim about how he first became aware of Johannes Kelpius and what led him to write a book about the man. From there we discuss the environmental, political and theological upheaval that was happening in Europe in the time Kelpius lived and the esoteric ideas made available to him at university that would pique his spiritual curiosity  and deeply influence the religion he practiced.
Tim also talks about some of the paranormal phenomena Kelpius witnessed in his lifetime, the events that would lead him to travel across the Atlantic Ocean to live a hermit-like existence in the wooded wilderness of Pennsylvania, and how we should view Kelpius’ legacy today.
Further details about American Aurora are available on the Oxford University Press website here and you can find out more about Tim and his work at https://www.timothygrieve-carlson.net/.
If you enjoy what I do with Some Other Sphere and would like to support its upkeep you can make a donation via Ko-fi. To buy the podcast a coffee go to https://ko-fi.com/someotherspherepodcast. Thank you!
 
The Some Other Sphere theme is provided by Purple Planet Music - 'Hubbub' by Geoff Harvey and Chris Martyn.