Some Other Sphere

Episode 17 - Aleksandar Petakov - Lake Monsters and Lions

When it comes to cryptids, one of the most famous of all is the Loch Ness Monster. However there are many other lakes around the world where it is believed creatures from Earth’s distant past have survived, even thrived – and some of these could well have more evidence to back them up than dear old Nessie.
A great example is Champ – the mysterious denizen of Lake Champlain in the United States. Sightings of an unusual creature have been reported for hundreds of years, as well as phenomena such as UFO sightings, and ghostly pirates.
My guest for this episode is cryptozoologist and filmmaker, Aleksandar Petakov. Aleksandar is a native of New England and in 2018 made a documentary called 'On the Trail of Champ', where he visited the lake, the communities that sit on its shore, and met some of the people who have seen the creature, whatever it may be.
In his next documentary he investigates the numerous mysterious sightings of mountain lions in the North Eastern United States, a species long thought to be long extinct in that area.
I talked with Aleksandar about how he has combined his loves of film making and cryptozoology, and the insights he has gained from his projects as to what sort of creatures might be out there, yet to be discovered.
For more information on his film projects, you can visit his website here.
If you'd like to view the news clip that started the episode, you can find it on Youtube.
 
Intro music: 'Hubbub' - Purple Planet Music.
 

Episode 16 - Aaron Gulyas - Flying Saucers and Folklore

My guest for this episode is Aaron Gulyas, author of books such as Extraterrestrials and the American Zeitgest and The Chaos Conundrum as well as being the creator of The Saucer Life podcast, where he examines the folkloric aspect to the Flying Saucer phenomenon and explores the history and lore of Ufology through the lens of individual stories of encounters, sightings, concepts or events.
I think he’s one of the most insightful voices exploring the history of UFOs right now and we had a really interesting conversation about his interest in this subject and the novel approach adopted to exploring it’s many fascinating characters. Albert K Bender, John Keel, Mothman, Hellier and a whole lot more were discussed.
You can find The Saucer Life podcast here and his books are available on Amazon.
For the full clip of the 1947 Kenneth Arnold radio interview click here.
Podcast Image: Thinkstock
Intro Music: 'Hubbub' from Purple Planet Music.
 
 

Episode 15 - Siân Esther Powell - Lady Charlotte Guest and the Mabinogion

This weeks episode is about a remarkable woman from Victorian Wales called Lady Charlotte Guest and her quest to preserve the folklore and legends of her adopted homeland, which would be published as the Mabinogion, widely regarded today as one of the most important collections of medieval prose literature in Europe. The stories it contains began life as part of an oral storytelling tradition in Britains ancient past, featuring political intrigue, bickering royalty, warring armies, noble warriors, brave princesses, wizards, magical technology, trickster like anti heroes, monsters and many other archetypal characters and settings. Before it’s publication there was no such genre of fantasy fiction and it’s influence on our understanding of Arthurian legend as well as other works by authors such as J.R.R Tolkien, Evangeline Walton, Alan Garner and Robert Holdstock cannot be taken for granted.
My guest is Siân Esther Powell. Siân is studying for Masters in Celtic Studies and is the creator and host of the excellent Celtic Myths and Legends Podcast. We talked about Lady Charlotte and the scale of the project she undertook to locate and preserve the stories that would make up the Mabinogion, explore what these stories can tell us about ancient Britain and the use of stories in that time to engage with the imagination, and of course look at one of the fantastic stories that make up this incredible work.
You can find Siân on Twitter here.

Episode 14 - Kellye McBride - The Haunted Worlds of Shirley Jackson

Shirley Jackson’s novel ‘The Haunting of Hill House’, written in 1959 is considered one of the best ghost stories of the 20th Century and is seen as highly influential in the depiction of hauntings in literature in modern times.
The protagonist of the story is Eleanor Vance. The novel opens with her travelling to the titular house to be part of a scientific investigation she has been invited to by Dr Montague. Eleanor is a troubled character and her arrival at Hill House instigates a series of unsettling events, that defy rational explanation. We’re never quite sure who or what is really behind the occurrences that happen at the house. It’s a fascinating portrayal of a haunting and was prescient in its depiction of how such events could be investigated scientifically, and how people would go on to theorise about the nature of ghosts and hauntings.
My guest for this episode is Kellye McBride. Kellye is a writer and journalist  and an expert on Shirley Jacksons work. We talk about The Haunting of Hill House and the events in the authors real life that may have inspired some elements of the story, and in other of her novels such as The Lottery and We Have Always Lived in the Castle.  These highly imaginative stories all contain troubled characters trapped in an unfriendly setting, which prompts disturbing events which are hard to fully understand.
Although works of fiction, it is clear that Shirley Jackson drew inspiration from real life and this episode is ultimately a discussion of how the ideas and themes in her works can be used to explore the weirdness of the real world today.
Kellye's excellent articles on the Sublime Horror website can be found here:
https://www.sublimehorror.com/books/legacy-shirley-jacksons-hill-house/
https://www.sublimehorror.com/books/the-lottery-banality-of-evil/

Episode 13 - Matt Frederick - Exploring the Occult

Interest in the Occult is a strong as ever in the 21st Century. When you consider that these subjects are usually those that sit outside of acceptance by mainstream science or organised religion but can have a deep connection to human experience, it’s easy to understand the appeal – and I say that as someone who is very interested. It’s interesting that a lot of these idea are devalued by the mainstream as much as they every were. Why is that?
To get a better understanding of this, my guest for this episode is Matt Frederick. Matt is a practicing magician and expert in all things hidden. We talked about his own introduction to the Occult, explore the makeup of modern day Occulture and why these ideas are valuable to help deal with the materialistic mainstream we all have to negotiate daily. It was a fascinating chat.
To find out more about Matt you can find him on Twitter here.
For more information on the book 'Condensed Chaos' by Phil Hine which was discussed in the episode click here.
I also highly recommend Carl Abrahamsson's Occulture website if you enjoyed this episode.
 
 

Episode 12 - Mark Bell - Mentalism, Magic and Mystery

When you think of magic, two things will usually come to mind; an artist on stage, performing fantastic acts such as card tricks, illusions, mind reading and hypnosis; or a more esoteric practice – someone, usually by themselves, enacting a ritual in an attempt influence their world by invoking supernatural assistance. In some ways, there would seem to be some similarities between these two scenarios.
My guest for this episode is Mark Bell, who has performed all across the world as the ‘magical mystery artist’ Mark Obscura. He is an expert in Hypnosis, Mentalism and Illusion among many other talents and has led a life regularly interrupted by unusual incidents featuring ghosts, unexplained lights in the sky and a range of puzzling synchronicities. As such he has an open minded approach to understanding the relationship between his career and these odd life experiences that made for a really interesting conversation.
To find out more about Mark, you can follow him on Twitter or visit his website here.
(James Randi clip provided from Wikipedia)

Episode 11 - Matt Hopewell - A beginners guide to Discordianism

In the late 1950’s, two high school friends, Greg Hill and Kerry Thornley would regularly meet at their local bowling alley in East Whittier, California to hang out and talk long into the night about the issues of the day and the limits of the world that they lived in – one they felt was based all to willingly on order and control. What if there was a different way of engaging with the world, something more chaotic, unpredictable and fun?
These conversations and an affection for a certain Greek Goddess led them to create the joke religion – or religious joke, depending on your perspective – called Discordianism, which included a text called the Principia Discordia. It’s creation would see Greg and Kerry become entangled with Lee Harvey Oswald and the aftermath the JFK assassination, confuse the authorities with ‘Culture Jamming’ and play a pivotal role in influencing conspiracy theory culture as we know it today.
My guest is paranormal researcher Matt Hopewell, who is an aficionado of Discordianism and it’s prodigiously strange history.This is probably as unusual a Sphere as we’ve explored so far.
Matt's blog is now up and running and can be found here.
For more information on Discordianism, I recommend visiting Adam Gorightly's excellent website 'Historia Discordia'.

Episode 10 - Elin Heron - An introduction to Tarot

In this episode, I discuss Tarot with Elin Heron, who has been a Tarot reader for over twenty years and also hosts regular classes and workshops for people interested in learning more about the cards.
I’m very much a novice myself, and as such, this episode is a beginners guide, discussing the origins of Tarot, it’s evolution from a renaissance card game into an occult resource, the Major and Minor Arcana and how to best start using a Tarot deck for readings. It was a pleasure to talk with Elin and learn more about this fascinating subject.
Click here to visit the Derbyshire Tarot website where you can find Elin's excellent blog and details on the Tarot workshops and classes she teaches.
Elin can also be found on Twitter.

Episode 9 - Alison Fearn - The Witch Marks of Creswell

Creswell Crags is a limestone gorge running from east to west on the border of Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire in England. Each side of it peppered with caves and until earlier this year, the site was most famous for spectacular cave art made by hunter gatherers many thousands of years ago.
A recent discovery has added a fascinating aspect to the history of the site however. What was thought to be Victorian graffiti turned out instead to be a vast array of protective marks, or "Witch Marks" dating back to the 17th century. It is thought that people would usually be making these to ward off evil, and prevent malevolent forces gaining access to our world.
My guest for this episode is Alison Fearn, one of the archaeologists involved in deciphering this incredible discovery. We talked about the history of protective marks, why those found at Creswell are so important, and what might have been going on to cause such a remarkable display of superstition.
To find out more about Creswell Crags, you can find their website here.

Episode 8 - Siobhán Clark - Myths, Legends and Lore of Scotland

My guest for this episode is author and host of the Myth Legend and Lore podcast, Siobhán Clark. In her podcast Siobhán discusses a wide range of stories from her native Scotland, which feature a fascinating mix of characters and settings, and date far back into the early history of the nation.
We talked about the storytelling traditions of the people of those times, the cultures they came from, and of course look at some of legends and mythical creatures that have haunted the imaginations of Scots for over a thousand years, perhaps even longer.
I heartily recommend checking out the excellent Myth Legend and Lore podcast, which you can find on Twitter here, as well as on all good Podcast apps.
Siobhán's first novel, “The Children of Midgaard” is available on Amazon here.