One of the defining societal and psychological traits of electric media culture, stretching back many decades, is its collective wholesale infatuation with the cult of celebrity, which is of course a severely debased form of traditional hero worship. For a surprisingly riveting look behind the curtain and smokescreen of the whole sorry phenomenon, see the…
Category: Paranormal
‘Sirius’: A film about the scientific reality of UFOs, ETs, and advanced energy technology
Tonight will see the official premiere in Hollywood of the new documentary film Sirius, which promises to be one of the more interesting — and perhaps more starkly significant? — UFO-related film projects to emerge since, well, ever. The film brings together the enduring “UFO disclosure” meme with the equally enduring theme of our planetary…
Learned Psi: Training to Be Psychic
“Learning to become psychic involves a fundamental restructuring of the way we process information both inside and outside ourselves. This can dramatically alter one’s life, and not always in a conventionally positive manner.” Is it possible to take normal, healthy, emotionally stable people who do not think they are psychic, and who don’t recall having…
Recommended Reading 36
This week: How entire U.S. towns now rely on food stamps. The regrets of the Iraqi “sledgehammer man,” whose image became famous in Western media when Saddam’s statue fell. The Obama administration’s epic (and hypocritical) focus on secrecy. The demise of Google Reader and what it portends for Net-i-fied life and culture. The sinister rise…
Real Succubus Tales: Sleep Paralysis and the Genesis of Erotic Horror
I was struck by Richard Gavinâs recent commentary in which he observed that most horror fiction is rarely horrifying, but rather tends to focus on peripheral unpleasantness, such as nausea, gore, or bloodlust. As I read this, spontaneous images immediately welled up in my mind from some of the most horrifying moments of my life…
Book Review: ‘Supernatural: Writings on an Unknown History’ by Richard Smoley
NOTE: This is a longer version of a review that also appears at New York Journal of Books. The book itself was published just today. Supernatural: Writings on an Unknown History, by Richard Smoley. Tarcher/Penguin. Published February 7, 2013. 240 pages. Reviewed by Matt Cardin There’s a handful of writers working today whose books about…
The Plot Running Like a Silver Cord: Channeling and Mediumship on the Margins of Literature
(Given all of the conversations that have arisen here recently on the connections between theological speculation and fantastic fiction, it seems an appropriate time to revisit, and revise, and expand, a piece that I originally wrote for The Eyeless Owl.) Let no man read here who lives only in the world about him. To these…
George Clayton Johnson describes the reality of the ‘Twilight Zone’
Fans of both The Twilight Zone and the realm of philosophical, spiritual, religious, and psychological inquiry represented by the likes of books such as Daimonic Reality and Exploring the Edge Realms of Consciousness — the latter featuring contributions from Teeming Brain teem members David Metcalfe and Ryan Hurd — will find much of interest in…
Creativity, psi, and synchronicity: “The demon knows more than you know”
The link between creativity and the paranormal or supernatural is an old and enduring one, beginning with ancient ideas about the muse, daemon, and genius, which connected the inner world of artists and poets to the realm of the divine. For a detailed laying-out of this point, see especially chapters one and two of my…
David Metcalfe talks about liminal states, ESP, and more on the DisinfoCast
On a recent edition of the DisinfoCast, the popular podcast put out by The Disinformation Company, host Matt Staggs spoke with Teeming Brain columnist (and Disinfo.com contributor) David B. Metcalfe about parapsychology, liminal states, ESP, and various other matters. You can download the podcast in mp3 form or stream it directly from the site:…