Altar Ego

Altar Ego

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TRUE CRIME
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Hosted by two close friends, one a therapist raised Southern Baptist, now agnostic; the other a spiritually curious ex-Catholic who believes in ghosts and is terrified of demons... we dive into dark tales and crimes committed in the name of God (or the devil). Through ethical retellings of possessions, prophecies, cults, and beliefs, we investigate spirituality, belief systems, and the ambiguous psychological spaces in between.

9 HR AGO

Episode 19: The Hat Man; The Shadow Figure People See During Sleep Paralysis

What... or who is the Hat Man, and why do so many people describe the same figure? In Part 1 of this two-part series, Jeri explores the Hat Man phenomenon: a shadowy “watcher” reported across cultures and decades. We look at what people consistently report, why these encounters often happen in liminal states like sleep paralysis, half-awake moments, exhaustion, and high fear, and how stress may shape perception. Editor's note: This episode has a notably different audio quality, and it has been resolved. Apologies from the team for the poor quality and delayed publishing, but we wanted to release it for you all regardless. -Heather + Jeri

52 min
9 HR AGO

Episode 8: Can You Murder Someone in Your Sleep; The Kenneth Parks Case

CW: Factual non-graphic descriptions of violence and discussion of parasomnia. This episode crosses the veil between sleep and wake, where science and superstition blur. Across cultures, sleep is seen as a liminal realm—where spirits move and the soul drifts. We explore this through the case of Kenneth Parks, a man whose stress, gambling addiction, and exhaustion led to an act he claimed happened while sleepwalking. His story raises unsettling questions about consciousness, responsibility, and what it means to be truly awake. If you or someone you know struggles with gambling, reach out to the National Council on Problem Gambling (1-800-522-4700, ncpgambling.org) or 1-800-GAMBLER. Sources: • Canada, Supreme Court of Canada. R v. Parks, [1992] 2 S.C.R. 871. (Supreme Court of Canada Decisions (https://decisions.scc-csc.ca/scc-csc/scc-csc/en/item/907/index.do?q=+glanville+williams&utm_source=chatgpt.com)) • “R v. Parks. Case Brief.” CanLII Connects. (CanLII Connects (https://canliiconnects.org/en/summaries/31806?utm_source=chatgpt.com)) • Fenwick, P., & others. “While You Were Sleepwalking: The Neurobiology of Sleep and the Law.” PMC, 10.5 years ago. (PMC (https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4506454/?utm_source=chatgpt.com)) • “Sleepwalking, Criminal Behavior, and Reliable Scientific Evidence.” APA. (American Psychological Association (https://www.apa.org/pubs/books/Sleepwalking-Criminal-Behavior-and-Reliable-Scientific-Evidence-Intro-Sample.pdf?utm_source=chatgpt.com)) • Grant, E. “While You Were Sleeping or Addicted: A Suggested Expansion of the Automatism Doctrine.” Illinois Law Review. (Illinois Law Review (https://www.illinoislawreview.org/wp-content/uploads/2000/04/grant.pdf?utm_source=chatgpt.com)) • “Only Murders While You’re Sleeping: The Parasomnia Defense.” Sleep Foundation. (Sleep Foundation (https://www.sleepfoundation.org/sleep-news/only-murders-while-you-are-sleeping-the-parasomnia-defense?utm_source=chatgpt.com)) • “Sleep-related automatism and the law.” PubMed / Forensic Sleep Medicine Review. (PubMed (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18533572/?utm_source=chatgpt.com)) • “The parasomnia defense in sleep-related homicide: A systematic review.” ScienceDirect. (ScienceDirect (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1087079224000029?utm_source=chatgpt.com)) • “Sleepwalking Violence: A Sleep Disorder, a Legal Dilemma, and a Forensic Nightmare.” American Journal of Psychiatry. (Psychiatry Online (https://psychiatryonline.org/doi/full/10.1176/appi.ajp.161.7.1149?utm_source=chatgpt.com)) • “Is Sleepwalking a Valid Criminal Defense?” Southern California Defense Blog. (Southern California Defense Blog (https://www.southerncaliforniadefenseblog.com/2022/06/is-sleepwalking-valid-criminal-defense.html?utm_source=chatgpt.com))

1h 12m
1 DAY AGO

Episode 26: From Internet Myth to Real Violence; The Slender Man Case and the 2024 Escape

CW: violence involving minors, themes of mental illness, delusion, and psychiatric hospitalization. Listener discretion advised. In this episode, Heather takes us back to 2014, when two twelve-year-old girls in Waukesha, Wisconsin, lured a friend into the woods and attacked her after becoming convinced they needed to prove themselves to the fictional internet figure known as Slender Man. We walk through how an online horror character created in 2009 grew into a widespread piece of internet folklore, and how those beliefs intersected with the girls’ lives. The episode also follows the legal outcomes and recent events involving a brief escape. Beware the Slenderman. Directed by Irene Taylor Brodsky, HBO Documentary Films, 2016. Broadcast on HBO, 23 Jan. 2017 Evan Casey, “Wisconsin woman who stabbed classmate in order to please Slender Man will be released to a group home,” Wisconsin Public Radio (WPR), July 17, 2025 Todd Richmond, “Slender Man stabbing victim’s family ‘nervous’ about release,” The Associated Press, Sept. 14, 2021 YouTube, “Bodycam Shows Arrest of ‘Slender Man’ Stabber Morgan Geyser: ‘I Did Something Really Wrong’,” published to YouTube, [video], https://youtu.be/anj5s5jAQgE. (Bodycam footage of her arrest after leaving custody.) Todd Richmond, “Wisconsin judge sends Slender Man attacker back to mental health institution after group home escape,” ABC7 Chicago (Associated Press), Dec. 23, 2025. Knudsen, Eric (Victor Surge). “Create Paranormal Images” thread. Something Awful Forums, June 2009. Dewey, Caitlin. “The complete history of ‘Slender Man,’ the meme that compelled two girls to stab a friend.” The Washington Post, June 3, 2014. Romano, Aja. “The definitive Slender Man story: how an urban legend went too far.” The Verge, June 3, 2014. Marble Hornets. Created by Troy Wagner and Joseph DeLage. YouTube series, 2009–2014. Federal Bureau of Investigation. Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program. https://www.fbi.gov/services/cjis/ucr Ammo.com Research Team. Murders by Weapon Type in the United States. https://ammo.com/research/murders-by-weapon-type Clauset, Aaron, et al. “On the Distribution of Criminal Offenses,” arXiv. https://arxiv.org/abs/cond-mat/0402646 Brennan, Iain R., et al. Journal of Forensic and Legal Medicine. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1359178922000556 National Library of Medicine (PMC). Knife Crime Risk Factors. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/PMC7732065/

2h 7m
11 MAR

Episode 25: LSD + The Acid King

In 1938, Swiss chemist Albert Hofmann synthesized LSD by accident and experienced the first-ever LSD trip. By the mid-1960s the U.S. government had funded over 1,000 clinical studies on it, secretly tested it on soldiers without their consent, and then criminalized it entirely... all within the same two decades. In the first of a several-part series, this episode covers the discovery and history of LSD. We also get into Ricky Kasso, the seventeen-year-old from Northport, Long Island, known as The Acid King among peers, who murdered his friend Gary Lauwers and left his body in the woods for 35 days. In 1984, Gary's murder became the face of Satanic Panic in America.

42 min
5 MAR

Episode 24: Judas Priest Suicide Trial

CW: This episode discusses suicide, attempted suicide, depression, substance use, and themes of self-harm. Listener discretion advised. In 1990, Judas Priest stood trial in a Nevada courtroom. Not for drugs. Not for violence. Not for anything they physically did. But for what their music supposedly said. Two young men attempted suicide after spending hours listening to the band’s song “Better by You, Better Than Me.” Their families believed hidden subliminal messages in the track pushed them over the edge. What follows is a lawsuit that combined grief, fear, culture wars, and the lingering shadow of the Satanic Panic. In this episode, Heather unpacks what really happened. We talk about subliminal messaging, moral responsibility, and why we so often search for something external to blame. Sources: Pazder, Lawrence & Smith, Michelle. Michelle Remembers. Congdon & Weed, 1980.https://archive.org/details/michelleremembers00pazdde Becker, Gavin. The Gift of Fear. Little, Brown and Company, 1997.https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/56465.The_Gift_of_FearMcNally, Richard J. Remembering Trauma. Harvard University Press, 2003.https://www.hup.harvard.edu/books/9780674016764Wright, Gary. Dream Weaver: A Memoir. Da Capo Press, 2014.https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/gary-wright/dream-weaver/9780306822374/Loftus, Elizabeth F. “Creating False Memories.” Scientific American, 1997.https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/creating-false-memories/Liu, Jia & Kanwisher, Nancy. “The Perception of Face-Like Objects.” Psychological Science, 2014.https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0956797614524583American Psychological Association. “Questions and Answers About Memories of Childhood Abuse.”https://www.apa.org/monitor/may01/memorieMcMartin Preschool Trial Overview – Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office.https://da.lacounty.gov/media/news/mcmartin-preschool-caseCalifornia Court of Appeal Records (McMartin-related cases).https://law.justia.com/cases/california/Vance v. Judas Priest, Nevada Supreme Court Opinion (1992).https://law.justia.com/cases/nevada/supreme-court/1992/22575-1.html

1h 11m
26 FEB

Episode 23: OneTaste Cult - The Institute of Orgasmic Meditation

CW: This episode discusses adult themes, including sexuality and coercion, sexual and labor trafficking, and sexual abuse. Not appropriate for children. Listener discretion advised. OneTaste was marketed as a path to awakening, empowerment, and liberation, but in actuality was sexual coercion and exploitation that led the founders to federal court. This episode examines a notable shift in accountability for the wellness world and what this ruling means for systems that sustain abuse. When do healing containers become exploitative systems? How can the law interpret psychological coercion? And what responsibility do leaders carry when empowerment language becomes a tool of control? A reflective discussion on accountability, cult dynamics, and what it means for wellness spaces to be held responsible for the harm they cause. Supportive Material: Orgasmic Inc. Documentary. Netflix

1h 19m
20 FEB

Episode 22: The Corpse Bride of Key West and Carl Tanzler

In 1930s Key West, a man calling himself Dr. Carl Tanzler believed fate had promised him a woman he'd seen in childhood visions. When he met Elena Milagro de Hoyos, she was alive... and battling tuberculosis. After her death, he did not accept the loss. What happened next went far beyond mourning. In this episode, Heather explores obsession disguised as devotion, the shocking lengths Tanzler went to preserve Elena's body, and the unsettling fact that parts of the community sympathized with him. Was this the unraveling of one man's mind, or a reflection of a culture willing to romanticize something profoundly disturbing? Sources “Carl Tanzler.” Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Tanzler “Anna Constantia von Brockdorff.” Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna_Constantia_von_Brockdorff “Carl von Cosel.” American Hauntings Ink. https://www.americanhauntingsink.com/voncosel/ “The Strange, True Story of Carl Tanzler.” Smithsonian Magazine. “Carl Tanzler, the Man Who Lived with a Corpse.” Atlas Obscura. Slatalla, Michelle. The New York Times. Historical reporting on the Carl Tanzler case. Key West Historical Society Archives.

1h 12m
11 FEB

Episode 21: "The Rain Boy" + Poltergeists

CW: Brief mentions of child abuse and SA. In this follow-up episode, we discuss the case of a man now known as “The Rain Boy,” Donnie Decker, who became the center of an odd 1983 case in which witnesses claimed water appeared inside with no clear source. Rather than asking only what happened, this episode, Jeri walks us through a different curiosity: what can happen when the body's survival responses are activated and unresolved? Through the lens of fight, flight, freeze, and fawn, we explore how humans successfully metabolize and/or struggle to metabolize extreme emotional experiences, all anchored in a phenomenon-based theory of how those processes may shape what and how we perceive things.

1h 8m

Hosted by two close friends, one a therapist raised Southern Baptist, now agnostic; the other a spiritually curious ex-Catholic who believes in ghosts and is terrified of demons... we dive into dark tales and crimes committed in the name of God (or the devil). Through ethical retellings of possessions, prophecies, cults, and beliefs, we investigate spirituality, belief systems, and the ambiguous psychological spaces in between.

Creator

Altar Ego
Years Active

2025 - 2026
Episodes

29
Rating

Explicit
Copyright

© Altar Ego
Show Website

Altar Ego