Occult Confessions

Human sacrifice has been practiced across cultures among the ancient pagans, tribal Africans, Aztecs, and in the Old Testament. What are the magical implications of human sacrifice? Why do humans sacrifice themselves and each other? And are these sacrifices evil or benign?

We open our series on black magic by asking how curses like the evil eye can cause the medically-proven phenomenon of hex death. How can our beliefs lead to life-threatening and even fatal physical ailments?

We use quantum physics to describe how a secret conscious observer outside of our physical brains is the best way to explain our free will. Along the way, we happen across proof that the mind may be capable of seeing the future.

Apparitions of the living, mystical encounters with God, and genius accounting prodigies all have something in common. According to nineteenth-century psychologist F. W. H. Myers they were all signs of a subliminal soul capable of supernatural feats beyond the limits of how science has defined the brain.

We uncover history's earliest cases of multiple personality or dissociative identity disorder: the medieval nun Jeanne Fery, Mary Reynolds, and Louis Vivet, the real-life inspiration for Dr. Jeckyll and Mr. Hyde. Along the way, we consider how this phenomenon might provide evidence for the existence of a consciousness beyond our physical brains.

We explode the materialist theory of consciousness to prove that we are not zombies and argue for minds that exist somewhere, somehow beyond our bodies and possibly in traffic lights and strawberries.

Charles Darwin was not the only naturalist to arrive at the theory of evolution in the 1850s, Alfred Russel Wallace came to the same conclusions completely independently of Darwin except that Wallace believed that God and the soul maintained an essential role in nature.

Our brief history of the soul includes African ancestor worship, the Mayan creation story, Aristotle and Plato's ancient philosophical visions, Jewish mythology, the Islamic rational soul, the spiritualist Summer Land, Blavatsky's tripartite soul, and the conscious elevation of the New Age.

In this episode we explore five poltergeists at Enfield, Sauchie, Jaboticabal, in the Smurl Family, and at Andover. What makes poltergeist phenomena persuasive as evidence of paranormal influence? How do poltergeists fit into the larger story of teenage girl's millennia-long connection with supernatural power?

Wicca is based on an ancient pagan female-centric tradition. Or is it? Actually, it is. Sort of. In this episode, we track down the major female figures in the early days of Wicca's founding and the pagans hiding in the movement's distant past.

Victoria Woodhull ran for president in 1872, decades before women would even be given the right to vote. She spoke publicly under the inspiration of her spirit guides who revealed the occult secret to achieving a spiritual apocalypse through mutual sexual pleasure between men and women across the species.

Communicating with the dead became a worldwide phenomenon beginning with two little girls in Hydesville, New York in 1848. Maggie Fox led an eventful and tragic life. In addition to sparking the spiritualist movement, she was engaged to an Arctic explorer and attempted to snuff out the very movement she helped launch. But was she really channeling the spirits of the dead or was she perpetrating on...

Our team tackles the mysterious power of Marie Laveau. Along the way, we explore the history of New Orleans, the power of zombie poison, the practice of Afro-Caribbean Voodoo, and the biography of one of Voodoo's most famous practitioners.

We explore the history of Joan of Arc; the various miracles ascribed to her; the Catholic, paranormal, and rationalist interpretations of her voices; and conspiracy theories related to one of the most interesting women in medieval Europe.

We open our series on the connection between women and supernatural power by exploring ancient Greek oracles, bacchic orgies, the Roman vestal virgins, and medieval witch trials.

The Chevalier's editor was a player in the British occult scene and was inspired by occult celebrities like Edward Buller-Lytton. In this episode, we follow the career of one of the most significant figures in American spiritualism and one of America's first occultists.

Two books rocked the American spiritualist scene in 1876, both published by the British-American medium Emma Hardinge Britten and both written by a single man under the pseudonym of the Chevalier Louis de B. The Chevalier details elaborate occult exploits all across the globe including fantastic astral projections, exorcisms of elemental demons, astrology, and visions of planetary heavens that tur...

Paschal Beverly Randolph was a pioneer of American occultism. He began his career as a medium before branching out with his own occult philosophy involving Rosicrucianism and sex magic. The African American Randolph studied medicine and was also involved in efforts to educate recently liberated slaves in the southern United States. Randolph expressed his technique and ideology in fictional novels...

In this episode we analyze the life story of one of America's most famous mystics, Helena Blavatsky. We consider her world travels, training in Tibet, theories about the soul and afterlife, Egyptian inspirations, and Indian occultist connections.

Occult Confessions explores the history of magical belief and practice across time and cultures. Welcome to the podcast.