Occult Experiments in the Home Duncan Barford

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Exploring the shifts in our experience of the other between psychology, the paranormal, magick, and spirituality, encountering along the way: a phobia of spiders; the abject horror of the object of a phobia; the psychological origin of the abhorred other in the self; fascination and fixation in phobia; the example of H.P. Lovecraft; the binding of the other; the other as a false appearance; desire and false appearance; personal experiences of projection; an ironic example from James Joyce; Jung on the animus/anima; how to spot an animus/anima projection; drawbacks and opportunities from projection; the other on the psychological level compared with the other in paranormal and magickal experience; the paranormal other as that which sees us and makes of us a false appearance; the story of a bizarre coincidence; the sense of the other in this experience; the sudden shift from the psychological to the paranormal other; how this applies to other types of paranormal and magickal experiences; an example in a magickal context; the curious problem presented by cases of high strangeness/weirdness; the approach often taken by investigators of these; the reappearance of false appearance; the seeking for “the other of the other”; examples from John Keel and the Skinwalker Ranch case; how the other of the other leads to just more of the self; an example from the movie The Mothman Prophecies; the trap of seeking the other of the other; the possibility of an alternative; personal examples of attempting to summon aliens and high strangeness; the tricksterish quality of the results; the paradox of a non-existent, empty, yet palpable other; this other as characteristic of the spiritual domain; the simultaneous disappearance of the self; the ongoing tendency to seek the other of the other; the return to the psychological realm in the event of this; the end of the podcast; how these reflections on the other might offer a coda to the series as a whole.

BBC2 Weird Night (1994). Strange days – coincidences, https://youtu.be/Cx56Qs2Q3g8?t=395 (youtube.com). Accessed September, 2022.

James Joyce (1916). A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, https://tinyurl.com/3p6uyfpc (gutenberg.org). Accessed September, 2022.

John Keel (2002). The Mothman Prophecies. London: Hodder & Stoughton.

Colm A. Kelleher & George Knapp (2005). Hunt for the Skinwalker. New York: Paraview Pocket.

Mark Pellington, director (2002). The Mothman Prophecies. Lakeshore Entertainment.

Donald Tyson (2010). H. P. Lovecraft: flight from madness, https://tinyurl.com/4keac27f (llewellyn.com). Accessed September, 2022.

WORP FM can be found on the usual podcast platforms and at: https://shows.acast.com/worp-fm.

Support the podcast and access additional content at: https://patreon.com/oeith. Buy me a coffee at https://ko-fi.com/oeith or https://www.buymeacoffee.com/dbarfordG. Or you could send me a lovely book from https://www.amazon.co.uk/hz/wishlist/ls/1IQ3BVWY3L5L5?ref_=wl_share.

Joined again by Paul, we probe the weirder sides of therapy and working as a therapist: defining the anomalous in the context of therapy; shifts in awareness and reality; Jeffrey Kripal’s definition of the paranormal and how it applies to therapy; the intensity of the therapeutic encounter; the pertinence of the psychoanalytic understanding of therapy; resistance to anomalous experiences (AEs) among the therapeutic profession; Freud’s ambivalence in this respect; Paul’s research and the responses received; perspectives from integrative therapy; transpersonal trends in EMDR; how what the theory allows influences what clients bring; clinical parapsychology in Germany; professional versus personal world views; problems concerning confidentiality and the discussion of AEs; the specificity of synchronicities; a personal experience of a prophetic dream; the pathologizing tendency of therapeutic language; collapsing boundaries; the therapeutic potential of AEs; possibilities for openings; the challenge to egoic structures; how the therapist might greet an AE; the “diagnostic” use of AEs; instances in which AEs might not offer opportunities; the shortcomings of therapists; holding AEs for clients; another personal experience, somewhat like a haunting; a sense of “the other”; an AE as an opening of “the reducing valve”; different types of AEs; the relative frequency of psi experiences and synchronicities; pathologisation and power structures; a personal experience of a presence felt in a session; bereavement as a hotbed for AEs; the question of whether the therapist should disclose an AE; when therapy encroaches upon psychic mediumship or occultism; the intersection of therapy, spirituality, and magick; the contrasting ethical frameworks of therapy and magick; erring on the side of minimising harm; the more open the therapist can be, the greater the possibility of grounding for the client; moving beyond vetoing AEs; the overlap of skillsets between therapy and psychic mediumship; a proposal for “weird therapy”; the lack of any manuals for how to work with AEs; the importance of keeping multiple paradigms in play; “living with” and “living in”; the importance of the therapist’s embodiment; holding AEs for clients; attunement; why the therapist must be well-versed in the weird; authenticity; the necessity of a certain selflessness in order to heal through therapy; why spirituality and psychology need to go hand-in-hand.

W.H. Kramer, E. Bauer & G.H. Hövelmann, eds. (2012). Perspectives of Clinical Parapsychology: An Introductory Reader. Bunnick, The Netherlands: Stichting Het Johan Borgman Fonds.

Jeffrey Kripal (2017). Secret Body: Erotic and Esoteric Currents in the History of Religions. Chicago: University of Chicago.

Thomas Rabeyron (2021). When the truth is out there: counseling people who report anomalous experiences. Frontiers in Psychology, 12: 693707.

Support the podcast and access additional content at: https://patreon.com/oeith. Buy me a coffee at https://ko-fi.com/oeith or https://www.buymeacoffee.com/dbarfordG. Or you could send me a lovely book from https://www.amazon.co.uk/hz/wishlist/ls/1IQ3BVWY3L5L5?ref_=wl_share.

Exploring the relationship to our ancestors, and how it might affect our lives and spiritual practice, encountering along the way: Carl Jung and his relationship to the dead; ghosts, the dead, and the possibility of further transformations after death; conversation with ancestors; Jung’s Seven Sermons to the Dead; individuation and the dead; a disturbing personal encounter with the ancestors; the similarity to and difference from a demonic encounter; a fallow period in my magick; how magick “fails”; the importance of finding “our” dead; a recourse to art; some help from the Archangel Raziel; how identification with ancestors causes division among the living; the necessity of confronting and criticising the dead; what “criticism” of the dead really entails; the possible negative consequences of avoiding this; a ritual that lead to the composition of Liber Pisces; observations on the technique of active imagination; Liber Pisces as the answer to my questions about the dead; the appearance of Jung and Dante in the visions; Daniel Foor on “ancestral guides” and “happy ancestors”; family tree research; what I discovered about my ancestors and how I felt about them; the legacy of my ancestors in the way I reacted to them; the karmic significance of shame and snobbery; an encounter with a happy ancestor; my earliest named ancestor; the possible impact of ancestral trauma on our spiritual practice.

Daniel Foor (2017). Ancestral Medicine: Rituals for Personal and Family Healing. Rochester, VT: Bear.

C.G. Jung (1967). Memories, Dreams, Reflections. London: Fontana.

Peter Kingsley (2018). Catafalque: Carl Jung and the End of Humanity, volume 1. London: Catafalque.

Printed copies of Liber Pisces are available from: https://tinyurl.com/3y5ewpk6.

Support the podcast and access additional content at: https://patreon.com/oeith. Buy me a coffee at https://ko-fi.com/oeith or https://www.buymeacoffee.com/dbarfordG. Or you could send me a lovely book from https://www.amazon.co.uk/hz/wishlist/ls/1IQ3BVWY3L5L5?ref_=wl_share.

OEITH is a content creator at Keikobad Radio. Tune in for 24/7 broadcasts on the occult, mysticism, esotericism, and the paranormal: https://radio.keikobad.com.

After a warning concerning the dark content of this episode, we explore (from personal experience) the shadow side of intense meditation practice: panic attacks on my first fire kasina retreat; the importance of reaching out for support from fellow retreatants; the usefulness of maps and models; fear, misery, and disgust; differences in approach between concentration and insight practice; the usefulness of distraction; the importance of sticking to the practice being undertaken; my second kasina retreat and how I made the same mistakes again; self-disgust; depression, unreality, suicidal ideation and intentions; the impact of life problems upon the practice; difficulties in reaching out for support; social alienation; projection of feelings of abandonment; the helpfulness of a group ritual and permission to freak out; the dangers of a highly focused mind; choosing the time and place for self-analysis; the importance of observing and offering support to fellow retreatants; my third kasina retreat, and some success at circumventing the same old difficulty; escaping the mind loop; the relationship and interactions between psychological issues and meditation practices; how psychological issues are resolved not by meditation but through other means; my own issues and how I have addressed them; the abject failure of the third retreat and how this came about; the need for processing and containment of overwhelming psychological issues; the difference between psychotic hallucination and beneficial insights; taking bizarreness as an insight versus living out the bizarreness in reality; the failure of processing and what helps re-integrate; the failure of processing and its possible relationship to trauma; the possible roles of trauma in spiritual practice; the usefulness of agreements to take a break from practice; the kind of experiences to look out for that might indicate a failure to process experiences; possible resistances to taking a break; the likely efficacy of some simple grounding interventions; circumstances leading to the failure of my third kasina retreat; the detriments of ending a retreat unexpectedly; summary of a simple model for keeping retreats safe; the real and significant impacts of spiritual practice and the difficulty of distinguishing psychosis from spiritual insight.

If you are in emotional distress, struggling to cope, or feeling suicidal, then call Samaritans on 116 123 (UK) or the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline (USA), or search for local suicide helpline services. There is someone there to listen and support you.

Support the podcast and access additional content at: https://patreon.com/oeith. Buy me a coffee at https://ko-fi.com/oeith or https://www.buymeacoffee.com/dbarfordG. Or you could send me a lovely book from https://www.amazon.co.uk/hz/wishlist/ls/1IQ3BVWY3L5L5?ref_=wl_share.

OEITH is a content creator at Keikobad Radio. Tune in for 24/7 broadcasts on the occult, mysticism, esotericism, and the paranormal: https://radio.keikobad.com.

We confront this most terrifying item of magical equipment, to explore what makes it so volatile, considering: my first experience of Ouija; the tendency of Ouija to creep into more direct forms of manifestation; the lifelong impact of these experiences; an example of a very physical manifestation; the tendency with Ouija for things to get out of control; obsession and the possibility of harm; comparison of the Ouija with other magical systems; tarot, runes, and the I Ching versus the Ouija; the lack of any system or wisdom in the Ouija; a mixture of divination and evocation; the pendulum and the Forty Servants versus the Ouija; how the onus of safety falls upon the Ouija operator; William Benjamin Carpenter and the ideomotor reflex; the ideomotor reflex as a classic example of “explaining away”; the magical dimension of the ideomotor reflex; a recent (2018) experimental study of the Ouija using eye tracking equipment; the theory of Ouija messages as an “emergent property” of its operators; belief in the Ouija and lowered “sense of agency” (SOA); SOA as a potential but risky magical technique; effective Ouija usage as a balancing of SOA; Aleister Crowley on the Ouija board; using magickal protocols with the Ouija; an example of a working to communicate via Ouija with a djinni; some simple techniques for “locking down” Ouija communications; J. Edward Cornelius on the magical mindset required when using the Ouija; a consistent application of will, thought, and imagination, in order to create an ideal balance of SOA.

Support the podcast and access additional content at: https://patreon.com/oeith. Buy me a coffee at https://ko-fi.com/oeith or https://www.buymeacoffee.com/dbarfordG. Or you could send me a lovely book from https://www.amazon.co.uk/hz/wishlist/ls/1IQ3BVWY3L5L5?ref_=wl_share.

Marc Andersen et al. (2018). Predictive minds in Ouija board sessions, https://tinyurl.com/ytxes9e3(springer.com). Accessed June, 2022.

Duncan Barford (2010). Occult Experiments in the Home. London: Aeon.

Duncan Barford (2020). Summoning the djinn. In: Even More Occult Experiments in the Home. Hurstpierpoint: Heptarchia.

William Benjamin Carpenter (1852). On the influence of suggestion in modifying and directing muscular movement, independently of volition, https://tinyurl.com/3enfb5cf (wellcomecollection.org). Accessed June, 2022.

J. Edward Cornelius (2005). Aleister Crowley and the Ouija Board. Port Townsend, WA: Feral House.

Aleister Crowley (1917). The Ouija board, https://tinyurl.com/2p9f3hnh (hermetic.com). Accessed June, 2022.

Tommie Kelly (2022). The Forty Servants, https://tinyurl.com/2p87es2p (adventuresinwoowoo.com). Accessed June, 2022.

Nuke’s Top 5 (2022). The Norwegian ghost, https://tinyurl.com/sb863ftz (youtube.com). Accessed June 2022.