MonsterTalk

In this episode we talk with Dr. Alice Vernon about her fascinating look at the history of ghost hunting and psychical research, from the late 19th century to today.

Ghosted: A History of Ghost Hunting, and Why We Keep Looking (Affiliate Link)

Night Terrors: Troubled Sleep and the Stories we Tell About It

Ghostwatch (wikipedia) - (our previous coverage)

The Society for Psychical Research (UK)

Most Haunted (wikipedia)

The Haunting of Borley Rectory - the text of this critical book appears to be on the Harry Price website.

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Blake and Karen discuss the legendary photo said to capture 19th century cowboys or soldiers with a giant bird or pterosaur.

SHOW NOTE LINKS:

The original Tombstone Epitaph article about the winged creature

Karl Shuker's blogged several times on the Thunderbird Photo and wrote a eulogy for Mark Chovinsky, author of a thorough Strange Magazine article about the Thunderbird photo.

Ivan T. Sanderson figures into the story prominently.  Kevin J. Guhl has written an extensive article about this.

I think all the researchers - the serious researchers - are converging on the "False Memory" hypothesis to explain this story. 

However, debates about the photo continue.

Some of the online photos were promotional photos for Freaky Links TV show.

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We talk with journalist Lana Hall about her piece The Dead Mall Society, which details her journey to decaying malls in the Toronto area in search of Liminal Spaces.

Liminality (Wikipedia)

Victor Turner: Liminality and Communitas (PDF)

The Liminality Project (blog)

Liminal Space (Wikipedia)

The Backrooms CreepyPasta (Wikipedia)

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Friend of the show Dr. Joe Laycock returns to talk about LIZARD PEOPLE with us. He also has a new book: The Penguin Book of Cults

Joe's Books:
Penguin Book of Cults (publisher) (amazon affiliate link)
The Exorcist Effect: Horror, Religion, and Demonic Belief (affiliate link)

Other topics of discussion:
Shadow Kingdom
Brotherhood of the White Temple
Shaver Mysteries
Kull
Dark Shadows (Soap Opera) "Leviathan" storyline
The Naga who wanted to be a priest
Serpent People
Aum Shenrikyo Japanese death cult
Skeptoid looks at famous rumor that Aum Shenrikyo had a nuclear bomb
The Secret Rulers of the World - Jon Ronson (YouTube)
V - the Mini Series

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It took a minute but I finally managed to read one of these "live" to my own family for the holidays. This is such an evocative story that I wanted to add a little art to the mix. I really want to put together a slow but detailed "animated gif" that goes through the cycles of the print as described in the tale - and maybe I'll get around to that at some point.

But for now here is some really nice artwork that captures the ideas of the tale in gothic majesty. 

This piece is by Catherine Gogerty. (link to her work)
In 1986, the BBC ran a series featuring Robert Powell reading ghost stories. The episode featuring The Mezzotint included creepy illustrations such as this:
I've been unable to track that series down, but the illustration is quite chilling. Artist Richard Svensson produced this remarkable and evocative work - which is available in his self-published collection of M. R. James inspired images. Some previews from that set look really great over at DeviantArt.
Finally - UK artist Rich Johnson has a lovely set of James inspired images that generally aspire to haunt without beating you over the head with explicitness.

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