The Occult Rejects

The Occult Rejects
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Occultists, Rejects, and Mystics trying to educate others about magick and occultism so others can figure out who they are and the world around them.

  1. Christian Architecture as Ritual Technology Part 1: The Building That Changes You

    1 HR AGO

    Christian Architecture as Ritual Technology Part 1: The Building That Changes You

    If you enjoy this episode, we’re sure you will enjoy more content like this on The Occult Rejects.  In fact, we have curated playlists on occult topics like grimoires, esoteric concepts and phenomena, occult history, analyzing true crime and cults with an occult lens, Para politics, and occultism in music. Whether you enjoy consuming your content visually or via audio, we’ve got you covered - and it will always be provided free of charge.  So, if you enjoy what we do and want to support our work of providing accessible, free content on various platforms, please consider making a donation to the links provided below.   Thank you and enjoy the episode! Links For The Occult Rejects https://linktr.ee/theoccultrejects Occult Research Institute https://www.occultresearchinstitute.org/ Substack https://substack.com/@theoccultrejects?r=7auau0&utm_campaign=profile&utm_medium=profile-page Cash App https://cash.app/$theoccultrejects Venmo @TheOccultRejects Buy Me A Coffee buymeacoffee.com/TheOccultRejects Patreon https://www.patreon.com/TheOccultRejects EPISODE 1 BIBLIOGRAPHY The Building That Changes You Ackerman, Joshua M., Christopher C. Nocera, and John A. Bargh. “Incidental Haptic Sensations Influence Social Judgments and Decisions.” Science 328, no. 5986 (2010): 1712–1715.  Key use: Haptics, touch, weight, texture, hardness, and the idea that physical sensation can influence judgment and social interpretation. This supports the tactile layer of the episode: heavy doors, cold stone, worn rails, kneelers, relic cases, and sacred matter as meaningful contact. Higuera-Trujillo, Juan Luis, Carmen Llinares, and Eduardo Macagno. “The Cognitive-Emotional Design and Study of Architectural Space: A Scoping Review of Neuroarchitecture and Its Precursor Approaches.” Sensors 21, no. 6 (2021): 2193.  Key use: Neuroarchitecture, emotional response to built environments, and the idea that architecture can be studied as a cognitive-emotional stimulus rather than only as art or style. Kilde, Jeanne Halgren. Sacred Power, Sacred Space: An Introduction to Christian Architecture and Worship. Oxford University Press, 2008.  Key use: Major backbone source for Christian architecture as a system of worship, power, spatial order, and embodied religious experience. Oxford’s description emphasizes Kilde’s argument that church buildings represent and reify different forms of power, especially divine power. Morgan, David. The Sacred Gaze: Religious Visual Culture in Theory and Practice. University of California Press, 2005.  Key use: Religious seeing, visual culture, sacred images, and the idea that vision is an active religious practice that can invest images, persons, times, and places with spiritual meaning. Taves, Ann. Religious Experience Reconsidered: A Building-Block Approach to the Study of Religion and Other Special Things. Princeton University Press, 2009.  Key use: Helps frame religious experience without reducing it to one fixed category. Useful for the episode’s approach to how experiences become interpreted, named, and treated as religious or sacred. Clark, Andy. Surfing Uncertainty: Prediction, Action, and the Embodied Mind. Oxford University Press, 2016.  Key use: Predictive processing, active inference, and the idea that perception is not passive recording but active prediction and model-building. This supports the “brain does not enter a church like a camera” argument. Krueger, Joel. “Extended Mind and Religious Cognition.” 2016.  Key use: Extended and embodied cognition applied to religious practice, ritual objects, and environments. Useful for arguing that worship is not only inside the head but supported by bodies, tools, spaces, and shared action. Oxford Academic. “Embodied Cognition in Ecclesial Practices.” In Oxford Studies in Analytic Theology, 2023.  Key use: Christian practices, embodied cognition, Eucharistic action, and religious material culture as cognitively significant rather than merely symbolic. Piff, Paul K., Pia Dietze, Matthew Feinberg, Daniel M. Stancato, and Dacher Keltner. “Awe, the Small Self, and Prosocial Behavior.” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 108, no. 6 (2015): 883–899.  Key use: Awe, vastness, the “small self,” and the psychological effects of encountering something perceived as larger than the ordinary self. This supports the cathedral-scale and sacred-vastness argument. Tarr, Bronwyn, Jacques Launay, and Robin I. M. Dunbar. “Music and Social Bonding: ‘Self-Other’ Merging and Neurohormonal Mechanisms.” Frontiers in Psychology 5 (2014): 1096.  Key use: Music, synchrony, social bonding, rhythmic action, and group cohesion. This supports the sections on chant, group singing, ritual synchrony, and bodies acting together in sacred space. Ittyerah, Miriam. “Memory for Curvature of Objects: Haptic Touch vs. Vision.” 2007.  Key use: Haptic memory, touch-based object recognition, and the idea that touch can produce durable memory traces. Useful for worn rails, thresholds, beads, icons, relic cases, and repeated sacred contact. Lange, Lisa S., et al. “Tactile Memory Impairments in Younger and Older Adults.” Scientific Reports, 2024.  Key use: Modern tactile-memory framing; useful for the claim that tactile experience is remembered and retrieved as part of embodied life. Freedberg, David. The Power of Images: Studies in the History and Theory of Response. University of Chicago Press, 1989.  Key use: Image response, embodied reaction to sacred or charged images, and why religious images can provoke devotion, fear, destruction, reverence, or bodily response. Plate, S. Brent. A History of Religion in 5½ Objects: Bringing the Spiritual to Its Senses. Beacon Press, 2014.  Key use: Material religion, objects, sensory experience, and the idea that religion is encountered through things, not only beliefs. Meyer, Birgit. Mediation and the Genesis of Presence: Toward a Material Approach to Religion.  Key use: Material religion, mediation, presence, and how religious traditions use media, objects, images, sounds, and spaces to make the sacred present. Pallasmaa, Juhani. The Eyes of the Skin: Architecture and the Senses.  Key use: Architecture as a multisensory experience, especially touch, materiality, atmosphere, and the limits of treating architecture as only visual. Mallgrave, Harry Francis. The Architect’s Brain: Neuroscience, Creativity, and Architecture. Wiley-Blackwell, 2010.  Key use: Architecture and neuroscience, built form, emotion, perception, and embodied response to space. Robinson, Sarah, and Juhani Pallasmaa, eds. Mind in Architecture: Neuroscience, Embodiment, and the Future of Design. MIT Press, 2015.  Key use: Embodiment, neuroscience, architectural perception, and how built environments shape lived experience. Eliade, Mircea. The Sacred and the Profane: The Nature of Religion.  Key use: Sacred space, threshold, center, axis mundi, and the distinction between ordinary space and holy space. This becomes more important in Episode 2, but it also supports Episode 1’s general sacred-space framework. van Gennep, Arnold. The Rites of Passage.  Key use: Separation, threshold, and incorporation. Useful for the threshold logic that runs through the whole series. Turner, Victor. The Ritual Process: Structure and Anti-Structure.  Key use: Liminality, transition, communitas, and the ritual power of in-between states. Tuan, Yi-Fu. Space and Place: The Perspective of Experience.  Key use: Lived place, memory, experience, and the difference between abstract space and meaningful place. Smith, Jonathan Z. To Take Place: Toward Theory in Ritual.  Key use: Ritual as place-making; sacred places are produced through repeated action, interpretation, and return. Morgan, David. Visual Piety: A History and Theory of Popular Religious Images.  Key use: Popular religious images, devotional seeing, sacred practice, and how visual material becomes part of lived religion. Kieckhefer, Richard. Theology in Stone: Church Architecture from Byzantium to Berkeley.  Key use: Church architecture as theology in built form, useful as a broad Christian architectural bridge source. Also want to remind people about the website, if you're into reading we have tons of information by multiple contributors, and we got t-shirts up on the site if you're interested. Fun fact, the art is all based on the eyeball. A

    1hr 3min
  2. The Soap-Maker of Correggio: Murder, Motherhood, and Folk Horror with Weekly Bizarre Podcast

    6 HRS AGO

    The Soap-Maker of Correggio: Murder, Motherhood, and Folk Horror with Weekly Bizarre Podcast

    If you enjoy this episode, we’re sure you will enjoy more content like this on The Occult Rejects.  In fact, we have curated playlists on occult topics like grimoires, esoteric concepts and phenomena, occult history, analyzing true crime and cults with an occult lens, Para politics, and occultism in music. Whether you enjoy consuming your content visually or via audio, we’ve got you covered - and it will always be provided free of charge.  So, if you enjoy what we do and want to support our work of providing accessible, free content on various platforms, please consider making a donation to the links provided below.   Thank you and enjoy the episode! Links For The Occult Rejects https://linktr.ee/theoccultrejects Occult Research Institute https://www.occultresearchinstitute.org/ Cash App https://cash.app/$theoccultrejects Venmo @TheOccultRejects Buy Me A Coffee buymeacoffee.com/TheOccultRejects Patreon https://www.patreon.com/TheOccultRejects Also want to remind people about the website, if you're into reading we have tons of information by multiple contributors, and we got t-shirts up on the site if you're interested. Fun fact, the art is all based on the eyeball. A

    1hr 59min
  3. Many Christianities: The Battle to Define Jesus — Part 1: Prophets, Mystics, and Rival Christs

    1 DAY AGO

    Many Christianities: The Battle to Define Jesus — Part 1: Prophets, Mystics, and Rival Christs

    If you enjoy this episode, we’re sure you will enjoy more content like this on The Occult Rejects.  In fact, we have curated playlists on occult topics like grimoires, esoteric concepts and phenomena, occult history, analyzing true crime and cults with an occult lens, Para politics, and occultism in music. Whether you enjoy consuming your content visually or via audio, we’ve got you covered - and it will always be provided free of charge.  So, if you enjoy what we do and want to support our work of providing accessible, free content on various platforms, please consider making a donation to the links provided below.   Thank you and enjoy the episode! Links For The Occult Rejects https://linktr.ee/theoccultrejects Occult Research Institute https://www.occultresearchinstitute.org/ Cash App https://cash.app/$theoccultrejects Venmo @TheOccultRejects Buy Me A Coffee buymeacoffee.com/TheOccultRejects Patreon https://www.patreon.com/TheOccultRejects Part 1 — Bibliography Secondary works Encyclopaedia Britannica. “Christianity: The Gentile Mission and St. Paul.” Encyclopaedia Britannica. “Saint James, the Lord’s brother.” Joel Marcus, “Jewish Christianity,” in The Cambridge History of Christianity, ed. Margaret M. Mitchell and Frances M. Young (Cambridge University Press). Carson Bay, “The First Christians of Antioch,” in Antioch on the Orontes, ed. Andrea U. De Giorgi (Cambridge University Press). Clayton N. Jefford, “Didache,” in The Cambridge Companion to the Apostolic Fathers, ed. Michael F. Bird and Scott Harrower (Cambridge University Press). David J. Downs, “Church, Church Ministry, and Church Order,” in The Cambridge Companion to the Apostolic Fathers, ed. Michael F. Bird and Scott Harrower (Cambridge University Press). Janelle Peters, “1 and 2 Clement,” in The Cambridge Companion to the Apostolic Fathers, ed. Michael F. Bird and Scott Harrower (Cambridge University Press). Jonathon Lookadoo, “The Letters of Ignatius,” in The Cambridge Companion to the Apostolic Fathers, ed. Michael F. Bird and Scott Harrower (Cambridge University Press). Dan Batovici, “The Shepherd of Hermas as Early Christian Apocalypse,” in The Cambridge Companion to the Apostolic Fathers, ed. Michael F. Bird and Scott Harrower (Cambridge University Press). Encyclopaedia Britannica. “Ebionites.” Encyclopaedia Britannica. “Nazarene.” Encyclopaedia Britannica. “Marcion of Pontus.” Harry Y. Gamble, “Marcion and the ‘canon’,” in The Cambridge History of Christianity, ed. Margaret M. Mitchell and Frances M. Young (Cambridge University Press). Encyclopaedia Britannica. “Valentinus.” Encyclopaedia Britannica. “Valentinian.” Encyclopaedia Britannica. “Gospel of Philip.” Bible Odyssey, “Gnosticism and the Nag Hammadi Library Explained.” Bart D. Ehrman, “The Discoveries of the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Nag Hammadi Library,” in Truth and Fiction in The Da Vinci Code (Oxford University Press). Encyclopaedia Britannica. “Montanism.” Bible Odyssey, “James.” Bible Odyssey, “James and Paul.” Bible Odyssey, “Priscilla and Aquila.” Bible Odyssey, “Lydia.” Bible Odyssey, “Women’s Work in the Greco-Roman World.” Primary texts used Acts 15. Galatians 2:11–14. Romans 16:1–7. 1 Corinthians 1:22–24. Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews 20.9.1 (20.200). Didache. 1 Clement. The Letters of Ignatius. The Shepherd of Hermas. Irenaeus, Against Heresies. Tertullian, Against Marcion. The Gospel of Truth. The Gospel of Philip. Also want to remind people about the website, if you're into reading we have tons of information by multiple contributors, and we got t-shirts up on the site if you're interested. Fun fact, the art is all based on the eyeball. A

    1hr 3min

  4. 3 DAYS AGO

    The Living Art of Alchemy with Phoenix Aurelius

    If you enjoy this episode, we’re sure you will enjoy more content like this on The Occult Rejects.  In fact, we have curated playlists on occult topics like grimoires, esoteric concepts and phenomena, occult history, analyzing true crime and cults with an occult lens, Para politics, and occultism in music. Whether you enjoy consuming your content visually or via audio, we’ve got you covered - and it will always be provided free of charge.  So, if you enjoy what we do and want to support our work of providing accessible, free content on various platforms, please consider making a donation to the links provided below.   Thank you and enjoy the episode! Links For The Occult Rejects https://linktr.ee/theoccultrejects Occult Research Institute https://www.occultresearchinstitute.org/ Cash App https://cash.app/$theoccultrejects Venmo @TheOccultRejects Buy Me A Coffee buymeacoffee.com/TheOccultRejects Patreon https://www.patreon.com/TheOccultRejects Also want to remind people about the website, if you're into reading we have tons of information by multiple contributors, and we got t-shirts up on the site if you're interested. Fun fact, the art is all based on the eyeball. A

    1hr 39min
  5. The Mechanics of Magick: Mirror Scrying and the Strange Brain

    5 DAYS AGO

    The Mechanics of Magick: Mirror Scrying and the Strange Brain

    This episode draws on experimental and review literature on mirror-gazing, strange-face illusions, anomalous self-experience, dissociation, agency, face pareidolia, and face-distortion disorders, especially the work of Giovanni B. Caputo, Caputo/Lynn/Houran, Mash et al., Bregman-Hai and Soffer-Dudek, Derome et al., Palmer and Clifford, and Blom et al. Historical and occult context comes from research on catoptromancy, John Dee’s angelic scrying records, the British Museum’s “Dr Dee’s Magical Mirror,” Campbell et al.’s Antiquity study on the mirror’s Mexican/Aztec obsidian origin, and Mesoamerican material on Tezcatlipoca and the “Smoking Mirror.” Links For The Occult Rejects https://linktr.ee/theoccultrejects Occult Research Institute https://www.occultresearchinstitute.org/ Cash App https://cash.app/$theoccultrejects Venmo @TheOccultRejects Buy Me A Coffee buymeacoffee.com/TheOccultRejects Patreon https://www.patreon.com/TheOccultRejects Core Scientific Sources: Mirror-Gazing, Strange Faces, and Altered Self-ExperienceCaputo, Giovanni B. “Strange-Face-in-the-Mirror Illusion.” Perception 39, no. 7, 2010, 1007–1008. Key use: This is the main science anchor for the episode. Caputo showed that prolonged mirror-gazing under low illumination can produce strange-face apparitions, including distortions, unknown faces, monstrous faces, animal-like faces, archetypal faces, and faces of relatives or deceased people.Caputo, Giovanni B., Steven Jay Lynn, and James Houran. “Mirror- and Eye-Gazing: An Integrative Review of Induced Altered and Anomalous Experiences.” Imagination, Cognition and Personality 40, no. 4, 2021, 418–457. Key use: This is one of the strongest overview sources. It reviews empirical studies on mirror-gazing, psychomanteum work, and eye-to-eye gazing, especially in relation to altered perception, anomalous experiences, bodily experience, and self-identity.Mash, Joanna, Paul M. Jenkinson, Charlotte E. Dean, and Keith R. Laws. “Strange Face Illusions: A Systematic Review and Quality Analysis.” Consciousness and Cognition 109, 2023, article 103480. Key use: Newer review source. Useful because it supports strange-face illusions as a reliable phenomenon in both mirror-gazing and interpersonal gazing, while also warning that stronger research is still needed on mechanisms and prevalence.Bregman-Hai, Noa, and Nirit Soffer-Dudek. “Mirror-Gazing-Induced Dissociation Impairs Self-Reported and Implicit Sense of Agency: A Causal Investigation of Dissociation and Agency Under Controlled Laboratory Conditions.” PLOS ONE 21, no. 2, 2026, e0341316. Key use: Excellent source for the agency section. This connects mirror-gazing-induced dissociation with weakened sense of agency, which pairs well with mediumship, possession, automatic writing, and the feeling that “something else” is present.Derome, Mélodie, Eduardo Fonseca-Pedrero, Giovanni Battista Caputo, and Martin Debbané. “A Developmental Study of Mirror-Gazing-Induced Anomalous Self-Experiences and Self-Reported Schizotypy from 7 to 28 Years of Age.” Psychopathology 55, no. 1, 2022, 49–61. Key use: Useful developmental source. It connects mirror-gazing-induced anomalous self-experiences with age, self-perception, and schizotypal traits.Caputo, Giovanni B. “Visual Perception During Mirror-Gazing at One’s Own Face in Patients with Depression.” The Scientific World Journal, 2014. Key use: Useful for the emotion/self-face relationship section. Caputo found that strange-face apparitions were reduced in patients with depression compared with healthy controls, including shorter duration, fewer strange faces, weaker intensity, and lower emotional response.Tramacere, Antonella. “Face Yourself: The Social Neuroscience of Mirror Gazing.” Frontiers in Psychology 13, 2022, article 949211. Key use: Strong support for the idea that mirror-gazing is like seeing yourself as another. It connects self-face perception with social neuroscience and the overlap between how we perceive our own face and the faces of others.Chakraborty, Anya C., and Bhismadev Chakrabarti. “Looking at My Own Face: Visual Processing Strategies in Self–Other Face Recognition.” Frontiers in Psychology 9, 2018. Key use: Useful for the self-face recognition section. This study looks at how people process their own face compared with other faces.Conty, Laurence, Nathalie George, and Jari K. Hietanen. “Watching Eyes Effects: When Others Meet the Self.” Consciousness and Cognition 45, 2016, 184–197. Key use: Best support for the gaze/presence section. It argues that direct gaze captures attention and triggers self-referential processing, which helps explain why a mirror can make the viewer feel watched.Face Perception, Pareidolia, and Monstrous DistortionPalmer, Colin J., and Colin W. G. Clifford. “Face Pareidolia Recruits Mechanisms for Detecting Human Social Attention.” Psychological Science 31, no. 8, 2020, 1001–1012. Key use: Best source for the “face-making brain” section. It supports the idea that illusory faces are not treated as meaningless noise; they can recruit mechanisms involved in social attention.Blom, Jan Dirk, Bastiaan C. ter Meulen, Jitze Dool, and Dominic H. ffytche. “A Century of Prosopometamorphopsia Studies.” Cortex 139, 2021, 298–308. Key use: Use carefully as a comparison source, not as a direct explanation for all scrying. Prosopometamorphopsia is a rare condition where faces appear distorted, showing that face-processing systems can produce frightening facial distortions under certain conditions.Psychomanteum, Grief, and Seeing the DeadHastings, Arthur, Michael Hutton, William Braud, et al. “Psychomanteum Research: Experiences and Effects on Bereavement.” OMEGA: Journal of Death and Dying 45, no. 3, 2002, 211–228. Key use: Main grief / dead-in-the-mirror source. Use carefully. It does not prove afterlife contact, but it supports the idea that mirror-gazing, darkness, memory, and grief can produce powerful experiences interpreted as contact.Moody, Raymond A. Reunions: Visionary Encounters with Departed Loved Ones. New York: Villard, 1993. Key use: Main modern popular source for the psychomanteum as a grief-contact chamber. Use as practitioner/popular context, not as the strongest academic evidence.Terhune, Devin B., and Matthew D. Smith. “The Induction of Anomalous Experiences in a Mirror-Gazing Facility: Suggestion, Cognitive Perceptual Personality Traits and Phenomenological State Effects.” The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease 194, no. 6, 2006, 415–421. Key use: Good supporting source for anomalous experiences in a mirror-gazing facility. Pairs well with Hastings and the Caputo review.Kamp, K. S., Evgenia Steffen, Louis A. Kasket, and others. “Sensory and Quasi-Sensory Experiences of the Deceased in Bereavement: An Interdisciplinary and Integrative Review.” Schizophrenia Bulletin 46, no. 6, 2020, 1367–1381. Key use: Strong source for the grief section. It supports the point that bereaved people often report sensory or quasi-sensory experiences of the deceased, including feeling a presence, seeing, hearing, smelling, or sensing the dead.Hewson, Helen, and colleagues. “The Impact of Continuing Bonds Following Bereavement: A Systematic Review.” Death Studies, 2024. Key use: Useful for continuing bonds. It helps frame ongoing inner relationships with the dead as part of bereavement rather than automatically pathological.Historical, Religious, and Occult Mirror DivinationJohnston, Sarah Iles. Ancient Greek Divination. Wiley-Blackwell, 2008. Key use: Broad academic background for ancient divination systems. Not only mirror scrying, but very useful for framing divination as a serious religious and cultural practice.“Technical Divination and Mechanics of Sacred Space.” In Technologies of the Marvellous in Ancient Greek Religion. Cambridge University Press. Key use: Useful for ancient catoptromancy. This chapter discusses mirror divination as a technical mode of ancient divination involving reflective/catoptric knowledge and assumptions about divine intervention in human knowledge.Lee, Mireille M. “The Gendered Economics of Greek Bronze Mirrors.” Hesperia 86, no. 1, 2017. Key use: Useful for Greek bronze mirrors as social, gendered, material, and possibly magical/divinatory objects.Pitt Rivers Museum. “Mirrors.” Body Arts Collection Resource. Key use: Good museum-level source for folklore around mirrors and catoptromancy. Useful for basic show-note support on the traditional belief that mirrors could reveal the future.John Dee, Black Mirrors, and ObsidianBritish Museum. “Dr Dee’s Magical Mirror / Dr Dee’s Magical Speculum.” Collection object 1966,1001.1. Key use: Essential object source. The British Museum identifies the object as Dr. Dee’s magical mirror or magical speculum, made of obsidian, catalogued as Aztec, and broadly dated to the 14th–16th century.Campbell, Stuart, Elizabeth Healey, Jago Cooper, Naomi Speakman, and others. “The Mirror, the Magus and More: Reflections on John Dee’s Obsidian Mirror.” Antiquity 95, 2021. Key use: Essential academic source for Dee’s mirror. The study uses geochemical analysis to show that the British Museum obsidian mirrors are Mexican in origin, with Dee’s mirror matching the Pachuca obsidian source.Nature. “A ‘Spirit Mirror’ Used in Elizabeth I’s Court Had Aztec Roots.” 2021. Key use: Short science-news summary of the Antiquity findings. Useful for quickly explaining that Dee’s mirror was traced to a source near Pachuca, Mexico.Smithsonian Magazine. “Obsidian ‘Spirit Mirror’ Used by Elizabeth I’s Court Astrologer Has Aztec Origins.” 2021. Key use: Useful public-facing summary of Dee’s mirror, its Aztec/Mexican origin, and its connection to Elizabethan occult culture.Dee, John, and Meric Casaubon, ed. A True & Faithful Relation of What Passed for Many Yea Also want to remind people

    1hr 9min
  6. Tarot and the Paranormal with Leigh

    6 DAYS AGO

    Tarot and the Paranormal with Leigh

    If you enjoy this episode, we’re sure you will enjoy more content like this on The Occult Rejects.  In fact, we have curated playlists on occult topics like grimoires, esoteric concepts and phenomena, occult history, analyzing true crime and cults with an occult lens, Para politics, and occultism in music. Whether you enjoy consuming your content visually or via audio, we’ve got you covered - and it will always be provided free of charge.  So, if you enjoy what we do and want to support our work of providing accessible, free content on various platforms, please consider making a donation to the links provided below.   Thank you and enjoy the episode! Links For The Occult Rejects https://linktr.ee/theoccultrejects Occult Research Institute https://www.occultresearchinstitute.org/ Cash App https://cash.app/$theoccultrejects Venmo @TheOccultRejects Buy Me A Coffee buymeacoffee.com/TheOccultRejects Patreon https://www.patreon.com/TheOccultRejects Leigh leighintune Official: TikTok, Instagram, Facebook | Linktree Also want to remind people about the website, if you're into reading we have tons of information by multiple contributors, and we got t-shirts up on the site if you're interested. Fun fact, the art is all based on the eyeball. A

    1hr 10min

  7. 16 MAY

    The X-Files with Christopher Knowles

    If you enjoy this episode, we’re sure you will enjoy more content like this on The Occult Rejects.  In fact, we have curated playlists on occult topics like grimoires, esoteric concepts and phenomena, occult history, analyzing true crime and cults with an occult lens, Para politics, and occultism in music. Whether you enjoy consuming your content visually or via audio, we’ve got you covered - and it will always be provided free of charge.  So, if you enjoy what we do and want to support our work of providing accessible, free content on various platforms, please consider making a donation to the links provided below.   Thank you and enjoy the episode! Links For The Occult Rejects https://linktr.ee/theoccultrejects Occult Research Institute https://www.occultresearchinstitute.org/ Cash App https://cash.app/$theoccultrejects Venmo @TheOccultRejects Buy Me A Coffee buymeacoffee.com/TheOccultRejects Patreon https://www.patreon.com/TheOccultRejects Also want to remind people about the website, if you're into reading we have tons of information by multiple contributors, and we got t-shirts up on the site if you're interested. Fun fact, the art is all based on the eyeball. A

    2h 16m
  8. The Rhythms of Consciousness: Delta, Theta, Alpha, Beta, and Gamma Part 2

    15 MAY

    The Rhythms of Consciousness: Delta, Theta, Alpha, Beta, and Gamma Part 2

    If you enjoy this episode, we’re sure you will enjoy more content like this on The Occult Rejects.  In fact, we have curated playlists on occult topics like grimoires, esoteric concepts and phenomena, occult history, analyzing true crime and cults with an occult lens, Para politics, and occultism in music. Whether you enjoy consuming your content visually or via audio, we’ve got you covered - and it will always be provided free of charge.  So, if you enjoy what we do and want to support our work of providing accessible, free content on various platforms, please consider making a donation to the links provided below.   Thank you and enjoy the episode! Links For The Occult Rejects https://linktr.ee/theoccultrejects Occult Research Institute https://www.occultresearchinstitute.org/ Cash App https://cash.app/$theoccultrejects Venmo @TheOccultRejects Buy Me A Coffee buymeacoffee.com/TheOccultRejects Patreon https://www.patreon.com/TheOccultRejects Full show-notes bibliography Core EEG and oscillations Abubaker, M., & Dankaerts, W. (2021). Working memory and cross-frequency coupling of neuronal oscillations. *Frontiers in Psychology, 12*, 742860. Axmacher, N., Henseler, M. M., Jensen, O., Weinreich, I., Elger, C. E., & Fell, J. (2010). Cross-frequency coupling supports multi-item working memory in the human hippocampus. *Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 107*(7), 3228–3233. Jensen, O., & Mazaheri, A. (2010). Shaping functional architecture by oscillatory alpha activity: Gating by inhibition. *Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 4*, 186. Rayi, A., et al. (2022). Electroencephalogram. *StatPearls*. StatPearls Publishing. StatPearls / NCBI Bookshelf. (2024). Introduction to electroencephalography (EEG). *NCBI Bookshelf*. Theta, alpha, beta, gamma, and control Cavanagh, J. F., & Shackman, A. J. (2015). Frontal midline theta reflects anxiety and cognitive control: Meta-analytic evidence. *Journal of Physiology-Paris, 109*(1–3), 3–15. Eisma, J., et al. (2021). Frontal midline theta differentiates separate cognitive control strategies while still generalizing the need for cognitive control. *Scientific Reports, 11*, 14641. Jensen, O., Bonnefond, M., & VanRullen, R. (2012). An oscillatory mechanism for prioritizing salient unattended stimuli. *Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 16*(4), 200–206. Lundqvist, M., Herman, P., & Miller, E. K. (2018). Working memory: Delay activity, yes! Persistent activity? Maybe not. *Journal of Neuroscience, 38*(32), 7013–7019. Sleep architecture, spindles, and memory Caporro, M., Haneef, Z., Yeh, H.-J., Mohamed, F. B., & Levin, H. S. (2012). Functional MRI of sleep spindles and K-complexes. *Clinical Neurophysiology, 123*(2), 303–309. Chen, P., Miao, X., Chen, J., et al. (2023). The devastating effects of sleep deprivation on memory: Lessons from rodent models, aging, and Alzheimer’s disease. *Frontiers in Neuroscience, 17*, 1151639. Ng, T., et al. (2025). Bayesian meta-analysis reveals the mechanistic role of slow oscillation-spindle coupling in sleep-dependent memory consolidation. *eLife, 13*, RP101992. Patel, A. K., et al. (2024). Physiology, sleep stages. *StatPearls*. StatPearls Publishing. Páez, A., Gillman, S. O., Dogaheh, S. B., et al. (2025). Sleep spindles and slow oscillations predict cognition and biomarkers of neurodegeneration in mild to moderate Alzheimer’s disease. *Alzheimer’s & Dementia, 21*, e14424. Hypnagogia, N1, and dream incubation Horowitz, A. H., Esfahany, S., Boyle, M. R., et al. (2023). Targeted dream incubation at sleep onset increases post-sleep creative performance. *Scientific Reports, 13*, 5055. Lacaux, C., Andrillon, T., Bastoul, D., et al. (2021). Sleep onset is a creative sweet spot. *Science Advances, 7*(50), eabj5866. Meditation, prayer, chanting, and yoga nidra Datta, K., Mallick, H. N., Tripathi, M., Ahuja, G. K., & Deepak, K. K. (2022). Electrophysiological evidence of local sleep during yoga nidra practice in young male volunteers. *Frontiers in Neurology, 13*, 910794. Dobrakowski, P., Błaszkiewicz, M., & Skalski, S. (2020). Changes in the electrical activity of the brain in the alpha and theta bands during prayer and meditation. *International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 17*(24), 9567. Gao, J., Leung, H. K., Wu, B. W. Y., Skouras, S., & Sik, H. H. (2019). The neurophysiological correlates of religious chanting. *Scientific Reports, 9*, 4262. Kaur, C., & Singh, P. (2015). EEG derived neuronal dynamics during meditation: Progress and challenges. *Advances in Preventive Medicine, 2015*, 614723. Lomas, T., Ivtzan, I., & Fu, C. H. Y. (2015). A systematic review of the neurophysiology of mindfulness on EEG oscillations. *Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, 57*, 401–410. Hypnosis and suggestion Jensen, M. P., Adachi, T., & Hakimian, S. (2015). Brain oscillations, hypnosis, and hypnotizability. *American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis, 57*(3), 230–253. Kirenskaya, A. V., Novototsky-Vlasov, V. Y., Chistyakov, A. V., & Zvonikov, V. M. (2011). Waking EEG spectral power and coherence differences between highly hypnotizable and low hypnotizable subjects. *International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, 59*(2), 144–164. Mendoza, M. E., & Capafons, A. (2024). Neural correlates of hypnosis: A systematic narrative review. *Frontiers in Psychology, 15*, 1327738. Ritual rhythm, trance, and synchrony Huels, E. R., Kim, H. S., Lee, U., & Mollaahmetoglu, O. M. (2021). Neural correlates of the shamanic state of consciousness. *Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 15*, 610466. Mogan, R., Fischer, R., & Bulbulia, J. A. (2017). To be in synchrony or not? A meta-analysis of synchrony’s effects on behavior, perception, cognition and affect. *Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 72*, 13–20. Tarr, B., Launay, J., & Dunbar, R. I. M. (2016). Silent disco: Dancing in synchrony leads to elevated pain thresholds and social closeness. *Evolution and Human Behavior, 37*(5), 343–349. Entrainment, binaural beats, fatigue, and overload Goodman, S. P. J., et al. (2025). Approaches to inducing mental fatigue: A systematic review and meta-analysis of (neuro)physiologic indices. *Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, 170*, 105957. Ingendoh, R. M., Posny, E. S., & Heine, A. (2023). Binaural beats to entrain the brain? A systematic review of the effects of binaural beat stimulation on brain oscillatory activity, and the implications for psychological research and intervention. *PLOS ONE, 18*(5), e0286023. Snipes, S., et al. (2024). Extended wakefulness alters the relationship between EEG theta and alpha bursts and behavioural outcome. *European Journal of Neuroscience, 60*(8), 6268–6284. Xiang, C., et al. (2024). A resting-state EEG dataset for sleep deprivation. *Scientific Data, 11*, 406. Parkinson’s disease and pathological beta Asadi, A., et al. (2022). The origin of abnormal beta oscillations in the parkinsonian corticobasal ganglia circuit. *Frontiers in Neuroscience, 16*, 823719. Paulo, D. L., et al. (2023). Corticostriatal beta oscillation changes associated with cognitive function in Parkinson’s disease. *NPJ Parkinson’s Disease, 9*, 202. Ancient sleep, dreams, and Asclepian healing Askitopoulou, H. (2015). Sleep and dreams: From myth to medicine in ancient Greece. *Journal of Anesthesia History, 1*(3), 70–75. Kapotsis, G., & Steiropoulos, P. (2025). Sleep incubation [enkoimesis] in medical practice at Asclepieia of Ancient Greece — the Ancient Greek sleep medicine. *Sleep Medicine, 130*, 85–89. Pavli, A. (2024). Asclepieia in ancient Greece: pilgrimage and healing. *Journal of Integrative Medicine and Research, 3*(2), 100119. Also want to remind people about the website, if you're into reading we have tons of information by multiple contributors, and we got t-shirts up on the site if you're interested. Fun fact, the art is all based on the eyeball. A

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Occultists, Rejects, and Mystics trying to educate others about magick and occultism so others can figure out who they are and the world around them.

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  • Creator
    The Occult Rejects
  • Years Active
    2021 - 2026
  • Episodes
    854
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    Explicit
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