Arcane Station

Mike

 Arcane Station is a storytelling and research-driven podcast exploring cryptids, paranormal encounters, folklore, conspiracies, and high strangeness, blending historical accounts, modern sightings, and speculative theories into immersive narratives. Each episode invites listeners to journey into the mysterious and unexplained, where fact and legend often blur. 

  1. Episode 21 - The Supernatural and Occult Origins of Christmas

    28/12/2025

    Episode 21 - The Supernatural and Occult Origins of Christmas

    Christmas is often presented as a season of comfort, generosity, and familiarity. But beneath the modern imagery of nativity scenes, Santa Claus, and holiday traditions lies a much older structure shaped by fear, survival, and interaction with the unseen. In this episode of Arcane Station, host Mike Porter examines the paranormal and occult foundations of Christmas, tracing the season back to pre-Christian midwinter rituals, pagan enforcement figures, and belief systems that treated winter as a period of heightened spiritual risk. The investigation follows how early societies regulated behavior during midwinter through ritual, household inspection, and consequence, and how Christianity aligned itself with those existing structures rather than replacing them. From Yule and Saturnalia to figures like Krampus, Perchta, Grýla, and the Yule Lads, this episode documents how seasonal authority once operated through fear and enforcement before being consolidated into a single, non-threatening figure: Santa Claus. The episode also explores lesser-discussed elements of Christmas history, including altered states associated with winter ritual, the persistence of red and white symbolism, and why the season continues to feel psychologically and spiritually different even in a modern, commercial context. Rather than arguing belief or disbelief, this episode lays out how Christmas was constructed to manage instability, and what may have been lost as the season became safer, louder, and more transactional. Support the show

    36 min
  2. Episode 20 - Haunted and Abandoned Tunnels

    21/12/2025

    Episode 20 - Haunted and Abandoned Tunnels

    Abandoned tunnels have a way of unsettling people long after their original purpose has ended. Across different regions and eras, tunnels built for railroads, roads, and infrastructure have developed reputations for being haunted. Visitors report hearing voices, footsteps, and unexplained sounds. Some describe seeing apparitions, lights, or movement where no one should be present. Others leave with an overwhelming sense that they shouldn’t have been there at all. In this episode of Arcane Station, we investigate five tunnels with long-standing reputations for paranormal activity: the Crozet Tunnel in Virginia, the Stumphouse Tunnel in South Carolina, the Lakeview Drive Tunnel in North Carolina, the Arroyo Parkway Tunnel in California, and the Screaming Tunnel near Niagara Falls. We examine how these tunnels were built, why they were abandoned, and what people have reported experiencing inside them. We also look at how ghost hunting groups, tourists, and government agencies have responded to those reports, often avoiding investigation while keeping the sites accessible. From there, we explore several frameworks used to understand why these places feel the way they do, including the Stone Tape Theory, liminal space theory, kenopsia, and the possibility that some tunnels may genuinely be haunted. Drawing from science, psychology, theology, and witness testimony, this episode does not seek a single answer, but a clearer understanding of why abandoned tunnels consistently become places of fear and unexplained experience. Support the show

    29 min

About

 Arcane Station is a storytelling and research-driven podcast exploring cryptids, paranormal encounters, folklore, conspiracies, and high strangeness, blending historical accounts, modern sightings, and speculative theories into immersive narratives. Each episode invites listeners to journey into the mysterious and unexplained, where fact and legend often blur.