Rejected Religion Podcast

*This is the Free Content version of my interview with Dr. Liana Saif. To access the entire episode, please consider visiting www.patreon/RejectedReligion and become a Tier 1 'The Gates of Argonath' member, or you can purchase this episode for a one-time fee.  The Patreon page offers much more content as well, including a book club that meets 4 times per year via Zoom. If you are interested in eso...

Amy Hale is an Atlanta based writer and critic with a PhD in Folklore and Mythology from UCLA (1998). Her research interests include contemporary magical practice and history, art, culture, women and Cornwall. She has written widely on artist and occultist Ithell Colquhoun, and has been an academic advisor to the 2025 Colquhoun retrospective at Tate St. Ives and Tate Britain. She wrote the first s...

This Spotlight was scheduled to be uploaded in February 2025, but due to illness and scheduling issues, it was postponed. Conjuring Creativity: Art & the Esoteric #3 ‘Inhabiting Esoteric Ecologies’ MKII, 71 - 75 Powerscroft rd., Lower Clapton, London, E5 0PT                                               15-16/3/2025 In this month's Spotlight, I'm joined by guests Geraldine Hudson and Ben Jeans Hou...

Ayesha Adamo is an academic, performing artist, and filmmaker currently working towards a PhD in Religion at Rice University under Jeffrey J. Kripal. Her dissertation project explores fluid cosmological ideas, both historically and in current quantum mechanics. She holds an MA in Religious Studies from Universiteit van Amsterdam’s Centre for the History of Hermetic Philosophy & Related Currents an...

This is the 'Free Content' version of this interview, the full episode can be found at my Patreon: www.patreon.com/RejectedReligion  My guests this month are Dr. Sarah Perez and Dr. Cavan McLaughlin. Sarah is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Bern. While her previous research focused on early modern pamphlet about deathbed visions, she is currently working on contemporary spirituality...

Matt Marble is an artist, author, audio producer and director of the  American Museum of Paramusicology . Both creatively and through historical research, his work explores the inspired intersections of art and metaphysics and the intuitive disciplines they mutually employ. Matt is the author of  Buddhist Bubblegum: Esotericism in the Creative Process of Arthur Russell ,  and the producer/host of ...

David B. Metcalfe, Windbridge Institute Scholar in Virtual Residence, is a researcher, writer, and multimedia specialist focusing on areas where creativity, culture, and consciousness collide.  In 2011 he established the Liminal Analytics: Applied Research Collaborative to focus on building multidisciplinary lines of communication through applied scholarship, digital media, and social network deve...

Dean Radin is Chief Scientist at the Institute of Noetic Sciences ( IONS ), Associated Distinguished Professor at the California Institute of Integral Studies, and cofounder and chairman of the biotech company,  Cognigenics . He earned an MS (electrical engineering) and a PhD (psychology) from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, and in 2022 was awarded an Honorary DSc (doctor of science)...

Dr. Tara B. M. Smith is an early career interdisciplinary academic that works in the fields of science fiction, literature, religion and popular culture. Tara is currently a research affiliate at the University of Sydney. In 2024 Tara was a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Center for the Study of World Religions at the Harvard Divinity School, Boston, writing on religious ideas and experiences of people...

Happy New Year to you all! For those who may not be following me on Patreon or social media, I have some important announcements for 2025.     The first being that I’m offering a special 75% discount on the first month’s membership for all Patreon tiers! This offer lasts until the end of February. Use the code RRDINER75 for the discount.   And on the topic of the RR Diner, there’s also news about...

This month’s guest on the Rejected Religion Podcast is Brennan Kettelle. Brennan returns for Part 2 of our discussion on Monster Theory, this time looking at the applications of Monster Theory, as well as a more in-depth look at how Brennan is using this theory, along with other related concepts and theories.  Brennan is a PhD researcher at the Centre for History of Hermetic Philosophy and Related...

This month’s Patreon Tier 2 guest is Peg Aloi. Peg is a freelance film and TV critic, a former professor of media studies, and co-editor (with Hannah Sanders) of  The New Generation Witches: Teenage Witchcraft in Contemporary Culture  (Routledge) and  Carnivale and the American Grotesque: Critical Essays on the HBO Series  (Macfarland). With Hannah she also co-organized two scholarly conferences a...

My guests this month are Dr. Bernd-Christian Otto and Andrea Centore, co-founders of the Research Network for the Study of Esoteric Practices, otherwise known as RENSEP. In this discussion, Bernd and Andrea talk about how this network came to be, why it was created, and the exciting work that they are doing. As the name suggests, RENESP is focused on working with practitioners in all areas of esot...

Hi Friends! As promised, here is the impromptu discussion I just had with Dr. Christian Greer and Brennan Kettelle RMA about the new online winter school course, offered by the University of Amsterdam, called Forbidden Knowledge: Introduction to Esotericism. Christian and Brennan talk a bit about the changes that have been made in the summer and winter intensives, and how the desire for 'Forbidden...

You can find the full episode at: Patreon Tier 3 - Dr. Jonathon O’Donnell Research Updates – Modern Demonology, Spiritual Warfare & Politics, Technology & the Environment My guest this month is Dr. Jonathon O’Donnell.  Jonathon is a Visiting Scholar in the School of Natural and Built Environment at Queen’s University Belfast. They are the author of  Passing Orders: Demonology and Sovereignty in Am...

My guest this month is Dell Rose. Dell is working on a project for his PhD dissertation on Charles Augustus Tulk and the role that Swedenborgianism played in the reforming societies of 19th century Britain. Though Tulk is often only known as the artistic patron of William Blake, he was also one of the earliest advocates of "public science" and his quest to show the spiritual nature of the material...

Full Episode Notes My guest this month is Dr. Joel Bordeaux. Joel is a specialist in South Asian religions with a PhD from Columbia University (2015). He has published on East Indian Śākta traditions, early modern Hindu statecraft, Nath Yogi literature from Bengal, and Tibetan Buddhism in Anglophone popular culture. He is a Research Fellow at the International Institute for Asian Studies in Leid...

Due to scheduling issues, this episode is coming to you later than planned; my apologies for the delay.  My guest this month is Brennan Kettelle. Brennan is a PhD researcher at the Centre for History of Hermetic Philosophy and Related Currents (HHP), University of Amsterdam. Brennan holds an MA in Gender and Cultural studies (2016) and a research MA in Religious Studies, specializing in Western es...

Note: This audio upload is a selection of clips taken from the full-length Patreon interview with Dr. Aaron French. To hear the full interview, please visit my Patreon page; you could consider joining to have access to more content like this, or have the option for a one-time purchase of the full episode (visit the 'shop' link for more information about pricing). PROGRAM NOTES (FULL EPISODE):  My...

Full Title: Are We Living in A Simulation? Testing Tom Campbell's Consciousness-Based Simulation Theory This hour-long audio clip is a collection of excerpts from a three-hour long conversation with guest Eliott Edge that can be found on my Patreon page. A new option of a one-time purchase is now available as well, if you'd like to listen to the whole episode! Please visit my Patreon to learn more...

In this special Spotlight interview focusing on an important milestone in academia, Drs. Marco Pasi and Wouter Hanegraaff share their thoughts and opinions as they reflect back on 25 years of work at the Centre for the History of Hermetic Philosophies and Related Currents, otherwise known as the HHP Centre, at the University of Amsterdam in the Netherlands. The Centre was established in 1999, and...

Tommy Cowan is currently a PhD student in the Literature, Media, and Culture program at Florida State University. His primary interest is the confluence between literature and esotericism, including how literatures/texts are conceptualized as esoteric ritual, and the reception/transmission of literary esotericism as an intellectual tradition. He received his MA in Religious Studies from University...

My guest this month is Charlotte Rogers. Charlotte is an artist, author, practicing witch and magician. She recently was artist-in-residence at the Magickal Women Conference 2024. Charlotte and I met in 2022 at the Visionary Medium Conference in Copenhagen. I was intrigued by her presentation there and was eager to talk with her more. Although it's been two years since we last spoke, I am happy to...

This is an excerpt of my recent upload on Patreon Tier 2 'Groves of Orpheus.' If you are interested to hear more, please consider checking out my Patreon page:  https://www.patreon.com/RejectedReligion. You can find this full interview plus more to come! My guest this month is Bob Cluness. Bob was a guest on the podcast (E28) in December of 2023, and I asked him to come back for a deep dive into m...

This month’s guest is Dr. Phil Legard. Phil is senior lecturer in music production at Leeds Beckett University. His research interests lie at the intersection of esotericism, music, and politics. His doctoral work explored autoethnography as a research method for esotericism studies, from which he developed a theory of ‘creative seekership’. With Dr. Alexander Cummins, he is co-author of An Excell...