Weird Studies

In this episode, Phil and JF discuss Haruki Murakami’s “Cream,” from First Person Singular, alongside Jorge Luis Borges’s classic tale, “The Garden of Forking Paths.” Together, these two stories occasion a meditation on time, perplexity, and the strange possibility that meaning isn't found at the end of the maze, but discovered only in the course of wandering it. Photo by DMzlC via Wikimedia Commons. Pierre-Yves Martel's Bandcamp page, home of Weird Studies Vol. 3 (to be released May 22, 2026). Joel Plaskett's website and Substack References Geoffrey Cornelius, “Chicane: Double-Thinking and Divination among the Witch-Doctors,” in Divination: Perspectives for a New Millennium, ed. Patrick Curry (Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2010), 119– 42. Joe Leduc's Blood Oath Jorge Luis Borges, “The Garden of Forking Paths” Haruki Murakami, “Cream” Marc Augé, Non-Places Federico Campagna, Technic and Magic Phil Ford, “The View from the Cheap Seats at the UFO Show” Nicholas of Cusa, “On the Quadrature of the Circle” Ethan Weed, “A Labyrinth of Symbols” Kids in the Hall, “Premise Beach” David Lynch, Twin Peaks: The Return David Lynch, Lost Highway Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Don Giovanni Weird Studies, Episode 66 on “Diviner’s Time” Gottfried Leibniz, Theodicy Quentin Meillasoux, After Finitude Alejandro Jodorowsky, The Way of Tarot Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Kenneth Batcheldor was a British clinical psychologist who, during the final two decades of his life, investigated the paranormal through direct experiments in table-turning. The final fruit of that work was an essay, compiled from Batcheldor’s notebooks by Patric Giesler, entitled “Notes on the Elusiveness Problem in Relation to a Radical View of Paranormality.” Published in the Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research in 1994, it remained unknown to JF and Phil until Shannon Taggart called their attention to it quite recently. Since the theory Batcheldor presents here with admirable lucidity is deeply attuned to ideas they have been discussing on Weird Studies for nearly a decade, they decided to devote an episode to it. The core idea is by far the weirdest of all—in a sense, it is the weird itself. Read Batcheldor's essay on the Weird Studies Patreon. Visit Weirdosphere to enroll in Phil's upcoming 5-week course, "A Musical Tarot." Pierre-Yves Martel's Weird Studies: Volume 3 will be available for preorder on March 13. Visit his Bandcamp page for details. REFERENCES K. M. Wehrstein, “Kenneth Batcheldor” in Psi Encyclopedia Kenneth Batcheldor, “Notes on the Elusiveness Problem in Relation to a Radical View of Paranormality,” ed. Patric Giesler, The Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research 88, no. 2 (1994): 90-116. Kenneth Batcheldor, “Contributions to the Theory of PK Induction from Sitter-Group Work,” Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research 78 (1984): 105-122. George P. Hansen, The Trickster and the Paranormal Quintin Meillassoux, After Finitude Joshua Ramey, “Contingency Without Reason: Speculation after Meillassoux” Kenneth Batcheldor, Videos of Table Tipping Weird Studies, Episode 24 with Lionel Snell David Lynch, Wild at Heart William James, The Principles of Psychology Tom Cheetham, Imaginal Love A. Irving Hallowell, Ojibwa Ontology, Behavior, and World View Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This is the first of three episodes on J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings to be released in the course of the next several months. Focusing here on The Fellowship of the Ring, our hosts discuss the first leg of Frodo's journey into darkness, paying special attention to Tolkien's prose style, his modernism, his commitment to a truly magical realism, and his penchant for the weird and the tragic. Image: "Lothlorien" by Tessa Bronsky, via Wikimedia Commons. References J. R. R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring Algernon Blackwood, English writer Weird Studies, Episode 204 on “On Fairy Stories” Peter Jackson (dir.), The Lord of the Rings Ursula K. LeGuin, A Wizard of Earthsea Friedrich Nietzsche, History in the Service and Disservice of Life Milan Kundera, The Art of the Novel Kenneth Burke, A Grammar of Motives Carl Jung, The Red Book Lord Dunsaney, The King of Elfland’s Daughter Karl Marx, The Communist Manifesto David Foster Wallace, “E Unibus Pluram” Steven Chow (dir.), Kung Fu Hustle Donna Tartt, The Secret History Lost Lakes, YouTube Channel Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This episode was recorded before a live audience at Indiana University Cinema as part of Weird Academia, a series of events that brought much high strangeness to Bloomington, Indiana, in January 2026. The discussion followed a screening of Ken Russell’s 1980 cinematic fever dream, Altered States. In it, JF and Phil explore the weird intersection of mysticism, psychedelics, and institutional science, and they close with a brief Q&A with members of the audience. Visit Weirdosphere to enroll in Phil Ford's upcoming course, A Musical Tarot. References Weird Academia and the Center for Possible Minds Robert Louis Stevenson, Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde Roger Penrose, physicist and mathematician Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy Samuel Delaney, Dhalgren Henri Bergson, Introduction to Metaphysics and Matter & Memory H. P. Lovecraft, American writer Herman Melville, Moby-Dick Aldous Huxley, The Doors of Perception Clement Greenberg, American essayist G. K. Chesterton, English writer David Cronenberg (dir.), The Fly Michael Garfield, podcaster, writer, musician Weird Studies episode 205 on the Hierophant Victoria Nelson, The Secret Life of Puppets Neil Gaiman, American Gods J. R. R. Tolkien, "On Fairy Stories" Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode of Weird Studies, we turn to the fifth Major Arcanum, the Hierophant, symbolizing tradition, instruction, and the exoteric aspect of spiritual practice. Drawing on Meditations on the Tarot and other sources, we question the easy opposition between tradition and revolution, exploring instead how inherited forms can foster genuine inner growth, and how an interior revolutions may renew traditions from within. To reserve seats for Weird Academia events, visit the website of the Center for Possible Minds. References Johann Sebastian Bach, F# minor Fugue from The Well Tempered Clavier Book 1 (played by Rosalyn Tureck) Richard Wilhelm (trans.), The I Ching J. R. R. Tolkein, The Lord of the Rings P. D. Ouspensky, The Symbolism of the Tarot The Catechism of the Catholic Church Our Known Friend, Meditations of the Tarot Plato, "The Seventh Letter" Alejandro Jodorowsky, The Way of Tarot Dogen, Instructions for the Cook Gilles Deleuze, Difference and Repetition Weird Studies, Live at Illuminated Brew Works Franz Liszt, Hungarian pianist G. K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Biographia Literaria vol. 1 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

For Tolkien, fairy stories are not stories about fairies, but stories that take place in Faerie. And in doing so, they make Faerie present. They are not escapist fantasies but disclosures of a real mode of being and invitations to live in that mode. In this episode, Phil and JF explore the great writer’s radical claims about the nature of story, life, and reality. Upcoming Events Erik Davis and JF's six-week course on Herman Melville's Moby-Dick begins on January 20th. For details and to enroll, visit the Weirdosphere. For information on the upcoming Weird Academia events in Bloomington (Jan 27-29), visit the symposium web page at the Center for Possible Minds. Music in this Episode "What a Load of Gnosis," from Weird Studies: Music from the Podcast, Volume I "Springtime on Ganymede," from Weird Studies: Music from the Podcast, Volume II References J. R. R. Tolkein, “On Fairy Stories” Immanuel Kant, Critique of Pure Reason Arthur Schopenhauer, The World as Will and Idea Franz Liszt, Transcendental Etude No. 4: Mazeppa (played by Lazar Berman) Dogen, "Instructions for the Cook" Jeff Kripal, Mutants and Mystics Eric Wargo, From Nowhere J.F. Martel, Review of “From Nowhere” for Journal of Scientific Exploration Richard Wagner, Parsifal Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

To tide us over as we prepare for a new season of Weird Studies, here is an "audio extra," originally recorded for our Patreon supporters, wherein we discuss imposter syndrome, the eternal inadequacy of the intellect, the perils of playing with swords, and the role of trust in creation. A new episode will drop on Wednesday, January 14th, 2026. Happy New Year to all. To join our Patreon, go to www.patreon.com/weirdstudies To enroll in the upcoming Moby Dick course starting on January 20th, visit www.weirdosphere.org. For information on the Weird Academia conference in Bloomington, Indiana, visit www.possibleminds.org/weird-academia Episode image: Caspar David Friedrich, Abtei im Eichwald (1808-1810). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Back in episode 112, Phil and JF devised a gimmick for a show: randomly select one of the many aphorisms in The Book of Probes, a compendium of Marshall McLuhan’s prophetic quips designed by David Carson, and see what happens. It proved lively enough that they’re trying it again nearly a hundred episodes later. The resulting conversation touches the weird across a range of themes: tourism, the two kinds of truth, advertising, Kubrick’s marketing savvy, technology, orality versus literacy, and much more. A fitting feast for the mind as the year draws to a close. From all of us at Weird Studies, happy holidays. • Sign up for JF Martel and Erik Davis's upcoming course on Moby-Dick. • Join Phil, JF, and composer Pierre-Yves Martel for Weirdosphere's Solstice Story Hour on December 21. • For dates, venues, and the full slate of Weird Academia events in Bloomington this January, visit the Centre for Possible Minds website. • To participate in the Weird Academia Colloquium, email organizers Emma Stamm and Michael Garfield at [email protected] Header Image: NASA. REFERENCES Marshall McLuhan, Distant Early Warning Deck Thomas Mann, The Magic Mountain Plato, The Seventh Letter Marshall McLuhan, The Book of Probes Toronto School of Communication Theory Walter Ong, Orality and Literacy Paul Kingsnorth, Against the Machine Charles Taylor, A Secular Age Plato, The Republic Marshall McLuhan, Understanding Media Jonathan Crary, 24/7 H. P. Lovecraft, The Color out of Space Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode, JF and Phil discuss Robert Louis Stevenson’s Gothic classic, the tale that conjured the fog-shrouded London hellscape that has haunted the modern imagination ever since. Though written as a quick “Christmas crawler” to earn a bit of money, the novella has exerted an incalculable influence on art and literature. It also proved strangely prophetic, anticipating Freud and others who would soon make the fragmentation of the human psyche a defining concern of the new century. "The human is two" is a recurring refrain in the work of the scholar of religious thought, Jeffrey J. Kripal. References Dan Ericson, Severance Robert Louis Stevenson, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde David Lynch (dir.), Mullholland Drive John Frankenheimer (dir.), The Manchurian Candidate Galen Strawson, British philosopher Juan Eduardo Cirlot, A Dictionary of Symbols Jeff Kripal, How to Think Philosophically Rouben Mamoullian (dir.), Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde Weird Studies, Episode 161 on “From Hell” Sigmund Freud, “The Ego and the Id” Arthur Machen, Hieroglyphics Arthur Machen, “The White People” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode, Phil and JF are joined by independent scholar Peter Bebergal, author of Strange Frequencies, Season of the Witch, and other books on the intersections of culture, religion, and the occult. The topic is Frankenstein—not Guillermo del Toro's latest but James Whale's 1931 talkie along with its 1935 sequel, The Bride of Frankenstein, both starring Boris Karloff. The conversation touches on Gnosticism, alchemy, modern techno-hubris, the Gothic, and much more. Peter's new online course, Hacking the Invisible: At the Intersection of Technology and Magic, begins on November 20th, 2025, and runs for three weeks on Weirdosphere. Visit the Weirdosphere website for details and to enroll. References James Whale (dir.), Frankenstein Tobe Hooper (dir.), Texas Chainsaw Massacre James Whale (dir.), The Bride of Frankenstein Justin Sledge, Esoterica Henry Bergson, Introduction to Metaphysics David Bohm, Wholeness and the Implicate Order Mary Shelley, Frankenstein John the Apostle, The Apocryphon of John Stuart Gordon (dir.), Stuck Jennifer Kent (dir.), The Babadook Stephen T. Asma, On Monsters Thomas Paine, “The Age of Reason” Jean Gimpel, Medieval Machine Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Originally released in 2018 but remixed for your listening pleasure, here's Phil reading Arthur Machen's classic weird tale, "The White People." Happy Halloween! Machen's "The White People" was discussed all the way back in ⁠Weird Studies episode 3⁠. Earlier this week, JF and Phil joined Conner Habib on his podcast to talk all about horror. It was a great conversation and we hope you'll give it a listen. Image: Photo of doll from Auckland War Memorial Museum, via Wikimedia Commons. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

For their 200th episode, JF and Phil turn their attention to H. P. Lovecraft’s “The Call of Cthulhu,” a story foundational not only to modern horror fiction but to the very idea of the Weird. In revisiting this tale of forbidden knowledge and cosmic ambiguity, the hosts reflect on Weird Studies itself as a “slow piecing together of dissociated knowledge” that mirrors the work of Lovecraft’s own bewildered protagonists. Image by Antoni Espinosa via Wikimedia Commons. Upcoming Events: Peter Bebergal teaches on Weirdosphere starting November 20, 2025 JF Martel speaks at Back to Haunt Us in East London on November 8, 2025 Phil Ford speaks at the Durations Festival in NYC on November 7, 2025 Phil Ford hangs out at Archestratus Books and Food on November 8, 2025 References H. P. Lovecraft, The Call of Cthulhu Weird Studies, Episode 2 on Garmonbozia Rene Descartes, Meditations on First Philosophy Phil Ford, “The Wanderer” H. P. Lovecraft, "Nyarlathotep" Weird Studies, Episode 74 on Jung Phil Ford, Jacob Foster, and J. F. Martel, “Care of the Dead” Weird Studies, Episode 110 on The Glass Bead Game Weird Studies, Episode 101 on Tanizaki Graham Harman, Weird Realism: Lovecraft and Philosophy Weird Studies, Episode 156 on Donna Tartt Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Photographer and paranormal researcher Shannon Taggart joins JF and Phil to explore the phenomenon that was Michael Jackson. One of the most brilliant and successful musicians of the modern era, Jackson was also a liminal figure sans pareil, a shapeshifter who defied the binary categories through which we order the human world. His art and persona together enacted a transformation that can only be called shamanic. About Our Guest: Shannon Taggart is a photographer and author based in St. Paul, Minnesota. Her photographs have appeared in Newsweek, The New York Times Magazine, and The Wall Street Journal, and have been recognized by Magnum, Nikon, and the Alexia Foundation. Her monograph Séance was first published by Fulgur Press (2019) and reissued in a second edition by Atelier Éditions. Shannon is currently developing an illustrated history of SORRAT (the Society for Research on Rapport and Telekinesis) and hosts an annual symposium on the weird and the paranormal in Lily Dale, New York. Image by Daniele Dalledonne, via Wikimedia Commons. References George Hanson, The Trickster and the Paranormal Robert Chambers, The King in Yellow Rogan Taylor, The Death and Resurrection Show Pier Paolo Pasolini (dir.), Teorema Phil Ford, “The View from the Cheap Seats at the UFO Show” Michael Jackson, Moonwalker: A Memoir J. M. Barrie, Peter Pan Ursula K. Le Guin, A Wizard of Earthsea Miguel Connor, The Occult Elvis Tim Powers, Last Call Weird Studies, Episode 186 on The Wedge Raymond Moody, Elvis After Life Sub Rosa, Spectra Ex Machina: A Sound Anthology of Occult Phenomena 1920-2017 Vol.2 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Since 2020, Phil and JF have been creating an on-again, off-again series on the major trumps, or "arcana," of the tarot. In this episode, they continue the series with a discussion of the second arcanum: the High Priestess, also known as la Papesse, the female pope. One of the most enigmatic and powerful cards in the deck, the High Priestess symbolizes duality, contemplation, and manifestation. Support Weird Studies on ⁠⁠Patreon⁠⁠. Buy the Weird Studies soundtrack, volumes ⁠⁠1⁠⁠ and ⁠⁠2⁠⁠, on Pierre-Yves Martel's ⁠⁠Bandcamp⁠⁠ page. Visit the Weird Studies ⁠⁠⁠Bookshop⁠⁠⁠ Find us on ⁠⁠⁠Discord⁠⁠⁠ Get the T-shirt design from ⁠⁠⁠Cotton Bureau⁠⁠⁠. Listen to Meredith Michael and Gabriel Lubell's podcast, ⁠⁠Cosmophonia⁠⁠. REFERENCES Our Known Friend, Meditations on the Tarot Plancia Magna, Roman priestess Aleister Crowley, The Book of Thoth Leigh McCloskey, The Tarot Revisioned Henri Bergson, Matter and Memory Moina Mathers, French occultist Sallie Nichols, Tarot and the Archetypal Journey Rachel Pollack, Seventy-Eight Degrees of Wisdom Yoav Ben-Dov, The Marseille Tarot Revealed Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In a rare surfacing in the contemporary world, JF and Phil discuss a film that has just been released. Bryn Chainey’s Rabbit Trap is psychological horror in the tradition of Repulsion, Jacob’s Ladder, and Angel Heart. But it is more: a metaphysical film exploring the mystery of sound and the Otherworld of Faerie—an excursion into that weird country, so deftly explored by Arthur Machen and Algernon Blackwood, where wonder and terror perform their eldritch duets. Sign up for JF's new Henri Bergson course, starting September 18, 2025. Support Weird Studies on ⁠Patreon⁠. Buy the Weird Studies soundtrack, volumes ⁠1⁠ and ⁠2⁠, on Pierre-Yves Martel's ⁠Bandcamp⁠ page. Visit the Weird Studies ⁠⁠Bookshop⁠⁠ Find us on ⁠⁠Discord⁠⁠ Get the T-shirt design from ⁠⁠Cotton Bureau⁠⁠. Listen to Meredith Michael and Gabriel Lubell's podcast, ⁠Cosmophonia⁠. REFERENCES Bryn Chainey, Rabbit Trap Weird Studies, Episode 190 on “The Willows” Alan Crosland (dir.), The Jazz Singer Weird Studies, Episode 150 on “A Fragment of Life” Henri Bergson, Time and Free Will Vladimir Jankelevitch, Music and the Ineffable Hazrat Inayat Khan, The Mysticism of Sound and Music Herman Hesse, Siddhartha J. R. R. Tolkein, The Silmarillion Giles Deleuze, Cinema II Robert Kirk, The Secret Commonwealth Weird Studies, Episode 120 on Radical Mystery (story of the anti-sound starts at 52 minute mark) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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