Black Hoodie Alchemy
By Anthony Tyler
111: Son of Sam, Satanic Cults & 'The Ultimate Evil'
For this episode of Black Hoodie Alchemy, I'm finally covering a topic I have teased here and there since the beginning of the whole show-run! At last, I am covering the sprawling, Charlie-Kelly-in-the-mailroom-style conspiracy theory that suggests that David Berkowitz did not act alone in the Son of Sam Murders of NYC.
But make no mistake, this frenzied mailroom vibe comes not from the incredulity of the research, but from the sheer state of mind that tackling all of this topic's many threads will put you into! And let's not forget the fact that Berkowitz was working in a mailroom at the time, and contributed to the whole "going postal" phrase that we have today.
Get ready to enter a story that surprisingly finds us diving into real-life theistic Satanism, Scientology and L. Ron Hubbard, Charles Manson, a strange Scientology doom-hippie offshoot called 'The Process Church of the Final Judgment', the dangers of hysterical Satanic Panic, brainwashing, and so much more! There is a lot of hype, hysteria, and leaping-conspiracy-theory conjecture that surrounds this case, but the actual case for the 'Sons of Sam' itself is quite compelling to me.
In any case, I work my way through not only the classic tome on the topic, Maury Terry's 'The Ultimate Evil', but I also dissect the docu-series done by award-winning filmmaker Josh Zeman on this same subject, entitled: Sons of Sam: A Descent into Darkness. Not only was Zeman friends with Maury Terry towards the end of his life, but Zeman was the man that Terry willed his entire life's work to -- every document, photo, scribble, phone number... everything.
And as an inside scoop, I was able to pick Josh Zeman's brain about this over a Skype call many years ago. While there isn't much he told me that his documentary didn't say, I did get some more direct and explicitly informative answers from him that I share here in the episode.
Happy trip down the rabbit hole!
Related BHA true crime episodes:
Sante Muerte - the good and bad
Israel Keyes Alaskan serial killer
SHOW NOTES:
Sons of Sam: A Descent into Darkness documentary
Actual old school Process Church propaganda
Love, Sex, Fear, Death - book about the Process Church
Maury Terry's 'The Ultimate Evil'
Declassified FBI investigation into Process Church
Ed Opperman talks to NYPD Mike Codella
Opperman talks to childhood friend of Carr family
Opperman on History of 'Yonkers Cult'
Opperman talks to Carl Denaro, Son of Sam victim
This week's featured music -- a truly magnificent sonic assault coming from the strongest underground punk, hardcore, and experimental rock acts around!
110: Outer-Space in Philosophy & Metaphysics
Welcome back, folks! This week I'm doing an episode that I feel like I probably should've done a long time ago -- but everything comes in due time, and here it finally is! Two and a half hours hashing out outers-space through the lens of philosophy, alchemy, and metaphysics.
Diving into topics like the symbolism of outer-space from ancient to modern day; the possibilities and pros/cons of colonizing other planets; whether or not human survival for any deep length of time in space is possible; the history of Operation Paperclip and Warner Von Braun and the extremely dark legacy this paints on our space pursuits as a human culture; Jack Parsons and the history of NASA through Jet Propulsion Labs, including all his weird sex magick, his hang-outs with L. Ron Hubbard, and the absolute brilliance of his self-taught rocketry! And if that wasn't enough, I even take the time to dissect the Moon Landing a bit, discussing why people think that Stanley Kubrick faked the footage and what some of the key details of the hoax theory are. It's one wild fuckin ride this week, I hope you dig it!
RELATED MATERIAL
DIVE MANUAL AUDIOBOOK
BHA LINKTREE w books, shorts, and much more
BHA episode: UFO, Psychedelia & Disinfo Games
BHA episode: UFOs and Carl Jung
SHOW NOTES
Stanley Kubrick & the Moon Landing Theory
Jack Parsons, Sex Magick & NASA
Grabby Aliens & the Fermi Paradox
This week's featured music!
Aretha (feat. Grim Pesci, Coal Cash, Ixion Form, Coast LoCastro & Tone Spliff) - Dispatched to Hell
Gehennom Lullaby (feat. DJ TMB) - Dispatched to Hell
The Gates of Babylon (feat. Profit Pre & KDB) - Babylon Warchild
The Towers of Babylon (feat. Chief Kamachi & Wordsworth) - Babylon Warchild
109: New Age 'Prosperity Gospel' is Mental Illness
Welcome back -- at long last! Ending another unexpected break, I bring you an unexpected episode just in time for a 4/20-Easter combo, and this should mark the beginning of regular weekly or (at least) bi-weekly episode releases. I've had a lot going in my life recently, most of which has been very trying. It's brought about a lot of change, mostly for the better in the long run, but not before manifesting as horrific chronic pain for a couple months. More updates in the episode!
But as for the central focus at hand, I take some time to address some of the insights I felt I gained as I gritted my teeth through intense waves of pain -- as always, I used philosophy to try and preoccupy myself and sometimes when you are pushed to your limits, you find some of your best insights.
So I decided that for my episode back, embracing all the suck that I have gone through since my last episode (and all year honestly), I would explain just why all these New Agers that won't embrace the suck are seriously in the grips of mental illness.
Using books like Robert Pirsig's legendary Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance and others, I get into why exactly this is the case and why's it not even a controversial stance to take. Outside of these insulated and self-congratulatory New Age communities, none of the critical thinkers are fooled. But all the same, rest assured that these 'spiritual' people will keep high-fiving and congratulating each other for saving the world in a way all too similar to the Scientologist rah-rah mindset.
I'm just trying to do my part in this episode as a drop in the bucket. I hope you dig it!
Related Content
DIVE MANUAL AUDIOBOOK
BHA LINKTREE w books, shorts, and much more
Related Episodes
BHA Evolution of God and Goddess
Source Material
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
The Crow's Afterword by A.A. Attanasio
This week's featured music by talented homies of the show! Don't sleep on these underground titans, all their music is dope.
108: Tibetan Rainbow Body & the Christian Resurrection in Analysis (feat. Justin Otto of Gulf Coast Dharma)
Welcome back, folks! This time around on Black Hoodie Alchemy, after another small delay, is the investigation of the phenomenon known as Rainbow Body. I’m also joined once again by my friend and cohort, Justin Otto ofDharma Junkie Podcast andGulf Coast Dharma, who served as a great help not only in fleshing out the philosophies of Buddhism, but also helping me pronounce some of the terms!
Mostly found in Tibetan Buddhism, but with strong components also found in Hinduism and the lesser known traditions of Bonism and Jainism, Rainbow Body is an occurrence that is said to happen to enlightened spiritual masters in which, on their deathbeds, their bodies shrink and mummify to sometimes as small as an inch tall. Sometimes, these bodies even shrink out of existence, completely disappearing, and sometimes only hair and fingernails are left! It is usually reported that not only are rainbows found in the sky over the monk’s deathbed while the process is occurring, but that usually the shrinkage of the monk’s body comes with rainbows literally shooting out of it. Often there is also sweet-smelling scents surrounding the body as this happens, and not only has it been reported for thousands of years in different eastern traditions, but it continues to be reported to this day, with the most recent documented account I found being 2011!
The more I researched this curious phenomenon the more I even came across many esoteric Christian comparisons as well. Most notably, Father Francis Tiso has spent decades studying the history of eastern Rainbow Body out of his deep-seated curiosity about what light it might shed on the Christian resurrection symbolism and even the reported experiences of stigmata—where holy men report bearing the wounds of Christ with no discernable reason. And while Justin and I didn’t have much prepared material of our own on this next subject, Father Tiso even brings up the highly debated Shroud of Turin in some of the excerpts we read—which is supposed to be the cloth soaked with the blood of Christ, wiped during his crucifixion.
What are some real accounts of rainbow body achieved in the modern day? If this is real, how can we incorporate this into our daily lives, even if just as an ideal? More importantly, how can science come to verify these claims without destroying the spiritual traditions, and if science can do this, what kind of light might this shed on all of comparative religion as we know it?
There are really no concrete answers here, but both Justin and I found the case for the reality of rainbow body extremely compelling, and we found the Christian comparisons as well as the other religious comparisons to not be without merit! We hope this episode gives you some solid food for thought on your pursuits – smoke weed and God bless!
RELATED CONTENT:
DIVE MANUAL AUDIOBOOK
BHA LINKTREE w books, shorts, and much more
Paranormality Magazine w my Sasquatch chaos magick article!
Justin Otto on Insta
an episode where i chatted with Justin and our friend Max about esoteric Buddhism
an episode I did on enlightenment vs disillusionment
SHOW NOTES:
Meditations - Marcus Aurelius
Rainbow Body and the Resurrection - Francis Tiso
Tibetan Buddhist Religious Archives
The Holographic Universe - Michael Talbot
This week's featured music is a whole lot from the underground rap heavyweight UMANG -- a friend of the show whose artistry ages like fine wine that slaps you in the face! At the end of the show, we also are excited to share a brand new song from a rock-band homies over at ZIG MENTALITY -- playing some of the very best, grimy experimental alt rock you can find!
Spacesaver - Umang x Melvin Junko
Lizard Brain - Umang x Melvin Junko
107: Reincarnation, Natural Selection & the Image of Death (feat. Justin Otto of 'Dharma Junkie' & 'Gulf Coast Dharma')
Welcome back to Black Hoodie Alchemy, folks! When it comes to the soul and modern science, a question often overlooked is: how could something help ensure our genetic survival after death? Well, we've got some considerations for you!
It's been almost long enough since the last episode to count as another mini-hiatus unfortunately, but hey cut me some slack. With the start of January, I had a weeklong trip in Georgia to see family and ended up nearly dying in the Emergency Room from a septic colon-response that emerged from norovirus. I'm all good now! But it mostly ruined the trip and gave me a solid week and a half of recovery before I could even get back into the swing of the basics. Not the best start to the New Year, but I'm thankful to be alive and running strong as ever!
That in mind, we're diving into all things to do with death this episode, and I'm joined by my longtime friend and collaborator Justin Otto -- host of Dharma Junkie Podcast and facilitator at Gulf Coast Dharma. Justin has been heavily steeped in Buddhist practice and study for years now, and while he prefers to call himself a 'Dharma Practitioner' instead of the pigeon-holed spiritual label, he is one of the best people to have around for a conversation like this.
With his help, I go through the seminal peer-reviewed scientific study done on reincarnation and natural selection, published in 2000, and titled: The Structure And Function Of Near-Death Experiences: An Algorithmic Reincarnation Hypothesis based on Natural Selection. This study gets DEEP talking about modern Near-Death Experiences, ancient and modern accounts of Out-of-Body Experiences, chaos theory, anthropology, physics and the nature of algorithms -- and even more!
We also take the time to talk about Canadian psychiatrist Dr. Ian Stevenson and his dedication in the last half of his esteemed career to the diligent scientific investigation of reincarnation. Conducted out of the University of Virginia and continued in ways to this day, Stevenson absolutely pioneered the topic of reincarnation as a serious shadow of doubt even for the scientific materialist. Truly, even minds like Carl Sagan were fascinated with what Stevenson was doing and his work still leaves a tremendous amount for us all to digest today!
We hope you dig the chat, stay safe out there, and remember to enjoy the small things in life!
See you in a couple weeks.
PS: We've also got some fresh updates for you straight from Tippy Patson and Jeff Mamba themselves -- don't forget to check it out at the commercial break!
RELATED CONTENT:
DIVE MANUAL AUDIOBOOK
BHA LINKTREE w books, shorts, and much more
Paranormality Magazine w my Sasquatch chaos magick article!
Justin Otto on Insta
SHOW NOTES:
Murphy & Persinger's peer-reviewed Reincarnation Study
Todd Murphy's Lecture on Darwinian Reincarnation
Jim Tucker, Stevenson and University of Virginia
More Study into Birthmarks and rebirth
This week's featured music is brought to you by the titanic hip-hop talents of Unknown Mizery aka KING MIZO, Hex One, and Umang! These dudes are always holding it down for the underground with real muscle -- keep an eye out for their current releases and show em some love!
Living Dead - Unknown Mizery x Soul 4 Hire
106: Winter in Psychology & Hermetic Symbolism + The Holographic Nature of Reality Revisted
Welcome to the final Black Hoodie Alchemy episode of 2024 -- and we're all back in action! I'm joined by both my cohorts, Seedperson1 and Chris Fiato, and this time around we're getting deep into the analysis of the winter season itself.
Starting with the crucial role that cold temperatures play in studying chemistry, we move into the psychology of prolonged cold and darkness in the winter, considering what it does to the mind and body in a variety of different ways and bringing that with us into a symbolic analysis full of Jungian sentiment.
Considering the diurnal nature of the human being, we bring up the Kabbalist Trees of Life and Death and take some time to focus on where the winter season ultimately leads us: the Mother of the Mysteries. Kali and Isis being some of my favorite non-Abrahamic examples, we also take the time to talk about Lilith and others (and if you're interested in this angle, my book Dive Manual: Empirical Investigations of Mysticism gets into it heavily. Link below!)
But before all that cold winter talk, we take a good half hour or so to catch up with Seedperson about his fascinating updates with the practice of The Monroe Institute's Gateway Tapes. Some very interesting Out-of-Body food-for-thought! And as if that wasn't wild enough, we take some time to dive into the Hermetic nature of reality from a different angle by briefly talking about a Youtube video that blew my mind. Listen in for more info, but essentially, a cutting-edge gamer hooked the game SKYRIM up to VR and an AI model that runs through every single NPC in the game -- then he found an NPC and told it all about how it was in a simulation... Some really trippy shit that I couldn't help but bring up!
Overall, winter may sometimes be a harsh, dark, and dismal time of year -- but that's all the more reason to band together with your favorite people and your favorite simple pleasures. Bring some light into the dreary winter season and have a heartfelt holiday this year. We here in the Black Hoodie Alchemy fam wish you a pleasant holiday and New Year -- live it up!
SHOW NOTES:
BrainFrog gives Skyrim AI the Matrix Pill Options
Brainfrog brings Skyrim AI to Fallout 4
The Book of the Damned - Charles Fort
Tippy Patson & Justin Otto review 'Kirk Cameron's Saving Christmas' in a full conversation!
Our episode on CIA Remote viewing, The Monroe Institute and The Gateway Tapes
RELATED MATERIAL:
DIVE MANUAL AUDIOBOOK
HUNT MANUAL
BHA LINKTREE w books, shorts, and much more
Chris on Insta
This week's music is a combo of some of the very best conscious hip-hop from the titans of Toronto: Legitimate, Rex Seshunz, Unknown Misery and the company of their rap crew Babylon Warchild. We also have the thrashing and brutal auditory assault of the band SALT from Colombus, Ohio!
105: The Paris Catacombs & the Psychology of Creepy 'Subterranea'
Welcome back to Black Hoodie Alchemy! This week we're blowing the dust off of an episode recorded in early October. Unfortunately, it was temporarily shelved when I got blindsided by 12 hour shifts, 7 days a week for over a month! If you'd like to hear all about that, just give last week's episode a listen. That in mind, I'm now happy to report that I'm rested, back in a normal routine and ready to hit the ground running with more BHA.
This episode, my cohort Chris Fiato and I get into another sprawling, bat-shit crazy and fascinating subject! My research and focus for this episode started with the Paris Catacombs (and this takes up a good half of the runtime or so), but then it quickly spiraled out into the overarching history and psychology of 'subterranea' -- ranging across global history with catacombs, forgotten mines, freedom-fighter tunnels, expansive urban sewer and subway tunnels, and so much more.
I even learned about Buddhist torture chambers, functioning city blocks in Scotland that were buried underground intact with businesses and homes still in operation, and an ancient Turkish city that housed up to 20,000 people with several stories underground.
And to top that all off, as if this episode wasn't sprawling and crazy enough, we take some time to brush shoulders with the fringe-history conspiracy theories of the ancient advanced civilization of Tartaria and the obfuscation of history through "mud-floods." While these topics in and of themselves could warrant an entire episode, we do our best to get into this a bit and make some sense out of it!
We had such an eerily fun time recording this episode, and it's a shame we weren't able to get it out in time for the Halloween season -- but hey, fuck it! It's always a Halloween vibe here at Black Hoodie Alchemy.
That in mind, if you're listening to this when it comes out -- happy holidays and thanks for listening! We hope you dig it.
Sources:
A Skeptical Look at Tartaria & Mudfloods
People debating Pensacola Tunnels on Reddit
5+ Hr Out-There Look at Pensacola Tunnels and Tartaria
Theater in the Paris Catacombs
Legend of Ashoka's Hell - Buddhist Torture Chamber
Conspiracy Theories & Subterranea
RELATED MATERIAL:
DIVE MANUAL AUDIOBOOK
HUNT MANUAL
BHA LINKTREE w books, shorts, and much more
Chris on Insta
This week's featured music -- full of absolute bangers!
Raising the Culture III - Legitimate x Rex Seshunz
104: Back From Hiatus - Let's Catch Up!
THE WAIT IS OVER! Black Hoodie Alchemy is back in action, baby!
This episode might not be the greatest start for new listeners, just as a heads up, but hey if you're new and already here then give it a shot anyway! You'll certainly get to know me better for your dive into the increasingly large back-catalogue of episodes.
To start with (especially since I've been settling back into my regular life lately ) I present you this episode as a bit of a kick-back and catch-up session. No heavy research, I'm just going to fill you in on where I've been lately, and what is was like.
Long story short, it was a work opportunity that had me working 80+ hours a week, and it was a brutal, rewarding, life-changing experience.
But now that job is over, I've digested it a bit more, and caught up on regular life. So aside from the necessary breaks for the holidays, Black Hoodie Alchemy is back in full effect!
I missed y'all, and I hope you real heads out there enjoy this more casual episode.
RELATED MATERIAL:
DIVE MANUAL AUDIOBOOK
BHA LINKTREE w books, shorts, and much more
Chris on Insta
This week's featured music comes from the overwhelmingly talented efforts of an underground hip-hop champion - R DOTTA.
103: The Image of the Vampire in History & Psychology
For this episode on Black Hoodie Alchemy, we're celebrating the fall and Halloween aesthetic a bit more with our historical overview of the vampire!
As Carl Jung often said: whether or not God exists, the image of God certainly exists, and has propelled humanity thought throughout history in ways both enlightening and catastrophic. Certainly, one could say this to varying degrees about all symbolic aspects of the psyche, especially the particularly old and familiar ones -- and certainly, this mentality has a lot to do with Jung's overall viewpoint. All that in mind, we apply that the notion of the vampire!
Regardless of whether or not a vampire is real in a physical sense, the image of the vampire has been projected by the human imagination since nearly the beginning of human storytelling. Where did the word and belief come from? Why is it so compelling, and what can it tell us about our own psyches?
Join us as we dive into modern New Orleans vampire lore, the origins of the characters throughout comparative religion and folklore the world over, the modern human "vampire" culture that has sprouted up (especially in places like New Orleans and Buffalo, NY), and some of the many historical underpinnings to the vampire mythology that can be related to early medical misunderstandings.
We even get into pieces of American history like the New England Vampire panic -- something extremely similar to the Salem Witch Trials and just as terrifying! And we take a little bit of time to get into some of the key symbolic takeaways in our favorite works of vampire fiction, like the books I Am Legend and Interview with the Vampire.
Enjoy the start of this Halloween season! Embrace your shadow and enjoy the episode.
RELATED MATERIAL:
DIVE MANUAL AUDIOBOOK
BHA LINKTREE w books, shorts, and much more
Chris on Insta
SHOW NOTES:
Jungian psychology and vampires
The Carter Bro Vampires and DeathPenaltyUSA
Forgotten History of NOLA Vamps
PBS on Vampires and Real Disease
The Highgate Vampires of England
This week's music is brought to you by the homies of the Babylon Warchild crew in the Toronto hiphop scene! With bars as enlightening as they are brutal and beats of equal measure, these guys are some of the life-blood of the underground that you're probably sleeping on -- so catch up!
Bloodsmoke Camoflage - LostArtofFactz
Hold the Crown - LostArtofFactz
102: Santa Muerte - Catholic Folk Magick vs Drug Cartel Satanism
This episode of Black Hoodie Alchemy is a seriously wild ride! The un-canonized Latin American 'Saint of Death' aka 'Santa Muerte' is essentially the Grim Reaper or Angel of Death moved to the forefront of Catholic folk magick. Along with other folkloric figures like Jesus Malverde, Santa Muerte is considered a "Narco Saint" and is a spiritual figure that not only helps us process and contextualize the death around us in digestible ways, but they as well will never turn a blind eye to the criminal's plight.
The Narco Saint is not one that judges -- it is one that appeals to the humanity in us all, and in a large sense, the Narco Saints are the saints of impoverished people that, when pushed to the brink have resorted to crime, despite the great shame they might feel for it. In some ways, they are the saints of the second chance, but there's a whole lot more to it than that.
In this episode we take the time to consider the historical contexts that brought about Santa Muerte as the growing and de-centralized folk religion it is today. We analyze some of the practices, philosophies, neighborhoods, and local figures that have become commonplace in this discussion, but unfortunately, these somewhat inspiring and endearing folk religion roots are not where this story ends.
While it is important to remember the wholesome roots that Santa Muerte has come from, it has also branched out and been taken hold of by many, many competing criminal cartels in Mexico for intimidation tactics -- and these tactics are about as violent and horrifying as one could possibly imagine.
These various cartel have become roving gangs of Richard-Ramirez-style murders and drug smugglers that are willing to perform all levels of black magick curses, incantations, and hexes in order to protect their assets and destroy those out to end them. They're even willing to perform human sacrifices, and do so very regularly.
I told you this was going to be a wild ride with a lot of twists and turns! So buckle up.
RELATED MATERIAL:
DIVE MANUAL AUDIOBOOK
BHA LINKTREE w books, shorts, and much more
Chris on Insta
SHOW NOTES:
Interview with Edgar Santa Muerte
Mexico News Daily Santa Muerte
This week's featured music is brought to you some of the very greatest emcees of the underground! Don't forget to support that black hoodie rap and all your favorite independent artists!
Dreamz on Reset - Legitimate x Rex Seshunz
The Towers of Babylon (feat. Chief Kamachi & Wordsworth) - Babylon Warchild
101: Voodoo in History, Practice & Application
This week on Black Hoodie Alchemy, we're getting deep into the history, practice and application of Voodoo! Firstly, what's the difference between Voodoo, Vodou, Vodun, and Hoodoo aside from the spelling? We'll explain that and all the other African Diasporic Religions associated (like Santeria and Palo Mayombe) all the way up to traditions in good ol' New Orleans, Louisiana!
We also take the time to discuss in some detail the historical events and characters surrounding Voodoo, like the successful Haitian Revolution against Napoleonic France, and prominent New Orleans characters like Queen Marie Laveau and Dr. John Bayou.
As well, we analyze practices associated with Voodoo like the zombie, the doll, spirit possession and animal sacrifice, and their ceremonial drums' crucial influence on modern music today as we know it! And while it might sound a bit spooky to the un-studied eye, it's actually much more wholesome and cathartic and horror cinema would lead you to believe... most of the time!
Voodoo in history and modern day is a complex, de-centralized, and heavily misunderstood web of spiritual traditions that has their roots in what can only be described as the West African Mystery Rites. It's an absolutely fascinating spiritual tradition that deserves a bit more respect in the west, and we here at Black Hoodie Alchemy hold a deep reverence for it.
We sincerely hope we did it justice in our conversation and we hope you dig your listening!
RELATED MATERIAL:
DIVE MANUAL AUDIOBOOK
BHA LINKTREE w books, shorts, and much more
SHOW NOTES:
New Orleans Voodoo Robert Tallant
Leonard Nemoy narrates a Voodoo doc
Voodoo Afterlife considerations
Alex of Natural Born Alchemist talks about taking iboga
This week's featured music! Don't forget to support that black hoodie rap and all your favorite independent artists!
Equal Power - Babylon Warchild
Building Pyramids - Unknown Mizery x Odweeyne
The Gates of Babylon (feat. Profit Pre, KDB, & Laylow) - Babylon Warchild
100: Datura Flower, Chemical Gateways to Hell & Voodoo Zombies
This week on Black Hoodie Alchemy we’re celebrating for our hundredth episode! But aside from some sincere thank yous and some extra music, this is mostly another research driven episode that you've come to expect -- and it's one that we're very excited to get into for this hundredth go-round. For a little more celebration and absurdist humor, don't forget to check out last episode, 99.999!
For this episode, we're getting into the plant known as datura stramonium AKA jimson weed AKA devil's trumpets AKA hell's bells (among many other names) and the strange and vast comparative religious history that is carries with it. Perhaps used sacramentally in the ancient world even more than cannabis and mushrooms, THIS IS NOT A PLANT THAT YOU SHOULD TRY TO CONSUME.
Now, there are some fascinating caveats to that, but you need to understand right out the gate that you should not try to fuck with this plant at all. 99% of any trip reports you read will show you that this stuff is pure nightmare fuel every time. Even if you think you can handle it -- that you're experienced and spiritual enough to handle it -- you still won't be able to. Everyone from the wreckless partier, to the studied psychonaut, to the devout spiritualist has tried this plant and many of them have ended up in the hospital.
But still, this plant was used as a powerful medicine throughout history all over the world quite literally, and even has a surprising impact on the history of the Voodoo Zombie!
All this and more this week -- we hope you dig it, and we hope you stay safe out there! Thanks for tuning into this episode and all the others, we appreciate you sincerely.
Related Material:
DIVE MANUAL AUDIOBOOK
BHA LINKTREE w books, shorts, and much more
Paranormality Magazine w my Sasquatch chaos magick article!
Show Notes:
Discovering the Zombie potions
Understanding the Flower of Datura
Facts about people Doing Nutmeg
Detailed history of sacramental datura use (I'm not sure why it's not letting my hyperlink it):
http://cms.herbalgram.org/herbalgram/issue69/article2930.html
This week's featured music, brought to you by so many amazingly talented artists! Don't forget to support that black hoodie rap and all your favorite independent artists!
One Step Closer (feat. Slaine & Stoupe) - Switch
99.999: A Metaphysical Review of 'DONNIE DARKO' (feat. Justin Otto & Jeff Mamba the 'Mind Jockey')
Thanks for tuning in! This week on Black Hoodie Alchemy, we're taking a break from the intense rabbit holes of research involving extra-sensory perception, parapsychology, outlier physics and so much more. That's right, this week you're getting another surrealist comedic break from reality with the return of Jeff Mamba - Mind Jockey (AKA Steve Buschemi AKA Jefferson Tillamookslinger AKA Shnelius Maximus)!
Being a self proclaimed 'classy movie critic', Jeff sits down with returning-guest Justin Otto to give an in-depth, metaphysically minded movie review of the cult-classic movie DONNIE DARKO (the director's cut, to be exact.) We here at Black Hoodie Alchemy are all fans of the movie, and it seems fitting that it should be bundled into the pre-100th-episode-celebration!
For those that don't know, Jeff Mamba is colleagues with Tippy Patson - the Redneck Mystic Extraordinaire - who is the founder of the The League of Extrodniary Gents. This 'League' is a group of various drugged out conspiracy theorists camped out in the Everglades, and trained in the art of 'gator wrasslin'. They're also convinced that these gators are actually the shapeshifting shadow elite known as the Illuminati, and that's just the tip of the iceberg with all of their beliefs. For instance, Jeff Mamba himself is a self proclaimed 'former Illuminati cloning-lab manager from Newark, New Jersey.'
If you're looking for more from these wild characters, don't forget to check out the Black Hoodie Alchemy Youtube and tiktok for more ridiculous content related to them, and you can look through the BHA episode feed for more of their appearances, or this link here for starters! Not to mention every BHA episode break.
All hail The League of Extordniary Gents!
RELATED MATERIAL
BHA LINKTREE w books, shorts, and much more
This week's featured music is from the homie Switch and featuring the legendary MOKA ONLY of Swollen Members! Don't forget to support that black hoodie rap and all your favorite independent artists.
99: 'The Gateway Experience' Revisited & the Neuropsychology of ESP
This week on Black Hoodie Alchemy, Seedperson1 and Chris are helping me wrap up our multi-episode deep dive about the modern scientific research done on extra-sensory perception in general. Over the last month, we've talked about Jung and synchronicity, chaos magick, quantum and chaos theory, JB Rhine and Duke University's decades of study into ESP, and the CIA's Project Stargate, which involved the heavy funding of the Stanford Research Institute (associated with the college) and The Monroe Institute. And, as you can probably imagine at this point, Project Stargate involved the CIA's Cold-War interest in astral projection, remote viewing, and other forms of ESP.
So for this week, we are going deeper into the practices of Robert Monroe and the Monroe Institute, talking more about remote viewing in the modern day, and getting deep into what the actual scientific studies can tell us about the psychology and neurology of the extra sensory perceptions.
If there's one thing we've learned in all these episodes, it's that you can't bend the world around you with your mind like putty -- but if you're trained and try hard enough, you can likely bend the chances in your favor with your mind far more than you can imagine. It's easier said than done, of course, but it's just like the butterfly causing a typhoon half-way around the world with the flap of its wing. It probably won't happen, sure... but it could. And in that chance alone, there's a tremendous amount of self empowerment.
RELATED CONTENT:
DIVE MANUAL AUDIOBOOK
BHA LINKTREE w books, shorts, and much more
Paranormality Magazine w my Sasquatch chaos magick article!
Show Notes this week!
CIA assessment of The Monroe Institute
Monroe Institute on Infinite Consciousness
Remote Viewing Instructional Services
Copper Panel Room Monroe Institute
Michael Persinger's Neurology of the Paranormal
This week's featured music from the amazingly talented rapper SWITCH -- the epitome of that black hoodie rap! Switch is fuckin dope and I'm always especially glad to be able to bump the rappers holding it down for the underground. Salute!
Jeffrey Dahmer (feat. Solomon Childs) - Switch
98: CIA Remote Viewing, Astral Projection & 'The Gateway Experience'
This week on Black Hoodie Alchemy, Chris Fiato and Seedperson1 join me once again to help build off the recent conversations we've had about the connected web of: synchronicity, Hermeticism, psychology, physics, and even things like clairvoyance, remote viewing, ESP in general, and astral projection.
After discussing JB Rhine and his ESP research at Duke University, we are now diving headfirst into the waters of the CIA's research into remote viewing, astral projection, and all forms of extra sensory perception. We talk about Robert Monroe, the Monroe Institute, and the CIA's interest in what he dubbed "The Gateway Experience," which all sounds extremely Inception-esque. For many years, the CIA would send agents here to be literally programmed through a brain-hemispheric-synchronization process that is said to be similar to states achieved by monks in meditation, and agents would learn to both remote view and astral project at will.
And while the CIA says today that they found little to no use from their research in the Monroe Institute, their declassified documents say otherwise, and curiously, the Monroe Institute is still around today -- ready to train you like they did all those agents, but for a hefty fee!
We also talk about Ingo Swann, Uri Geller, and the related members of the Stanford Research Institute that were also well funded by the CIA in their efforts to scientifically document and analyze various forms of ESP.
It's all the way down the rabbit hole this week! We had a lot of fun and we hope you dig it.
RELATED CONTENT:
BHA LINKTREE w books, shorts, and much more
Paranormality Magazine w my Sasquatch chaos magick article!
Show Notes this Week!
Rhine Institute of Parapsychology today
Edgar Mitchell ESP on the Moon
CIA on Robert Monroe and Ingo Swann
This week's featured music is more from the incredibly talented trio of ZIG MENTALITY, off of their latest release LEAD US NOT ASTRAY.
BEST DIRECTION (album version) - ZIG MENTALITY
What Weighs on You - ZIG MENTALITY
When You Force It (album version) - ZIG MENTALITY
97.666: Your Haunted Pineal Gland on 'Juan on Juan'
Welcome back to Black Hoodie Alchemy! This week, to help supplement what we've been talking about on this show lately, I share with you my most recent appearance on the 'Juan on Juan' podcast (and one of the few guest spots I've had the time to do this year). If you didn't hear my first chat with Juan, you can check that out right here too!
I share with Juan some of my favorite research as of late, talking to him more about heuristic comparative religion, evolutionary psychology, dreams, trance states, and the pineal gland; as well as The Goblin Universe, exorcisms and the nervous system, demonology and Lovecraftian entities, the pan effect and wanderlust syndrome, the attempted exorcism of Loch Ness, Malachi York's hip-hop cult empire and so much more.
RELATED CONTENT:
BHA LINKTREE w books, shorts, and much more
Paranormality Magazine w my Sasquatch chaos magick article!
This week's featured music is more from my cohort Chris Fiato AKA ODD COMBO, always bringing that positive punk energy to several different genres!
97: Investigating Parapsychology, Remote Viewing & Supernatural Abilities
This week on Black Hoodie Alchemy, my cohort Seedperson1 and I build off of the discussions we've had in the last two episodes (shoutout to Chris Fiato!) as we dive into the history of modern parapsychology. What did these diligent scientists -- funded by the prestigious Duke University -- find out about extra-sensory perception over their decades of study?
Get your inner X-Man on this episode as we talk about people being tested in labs for telepathy, clairvoyance, remote viewing, telekinesis, and more! We also try and understand the distinctions between what one might call ESP and what one might call "mysticism" or "spiritualism" involving trance states.
It's a bit of psychology, statistics, sociology, pharmacology, chaos theory, maybe some quantum theory, a lot of Jungian and Hermetic sentiments, and so much more coming together this week as we dive down this historical rabbit-hole and sink our teeth into the meat of the data.
RELATED CONTENT:
BHA LINKTREE w books, shorts, and much more
Paranormality Magazine w my Sasquatch chaos magick article!
SHOW SOURCES:
Legacy of the Duke Parapsychology Program
Mitch Horowitz on JB Rhine's work
This week's featured music is from the homies Ronnie Pontiac and Tamra Lucid -- the duo of LUCID NATION (and both students and friends of the late great esoteric philosopher Manly P. Hall)!
96: Quantum Theory, Outlier Physics & Synchronicity
This week on Black Hoodie Alchemy, we are following up our conversation on synchronicity, with the cohort Chris Fiato jumping back in as well! Fronting the conversation topically, we are finishing our read of Seedperson's recommendation, Synchronicity: The Art of Coincidence, Choice & Unlocking Your Mind by Dr. Kirby Surprise.
Last week we talked a lot of chaos theory, chaos magick, and ideas about extra-sensory perception -- so we take these notions to help us dive further into the streams of thought found within quantum physics.
String theory, M and N Space, the Observer Effect, Many-Worlds Theory round out our quantum ideas, and we don't forget to talk about more fractal mathematics, chaos theory, magickal philosophy, plasma intelligence, and so much more! All of this to try to understand the practical implications of synchronicity -- oh, and of course we bring up some Carl Jung! But that's a given.
We hope you dig it.
RELATED CONTENT:
BHA LINKTREE w books, shorts, and much more
Paranormality Magazine w my Sasquatch chaos magick article!
This week's featured music is from the cohort Chris Fiato aka ODD COMBO and more! Don't forget to support your favorite independent artists! Glory Hole - Odd Combo
Song to the Siren (Tim Buckley Cover) - Odd Combo
95: Chaos Magick, Synchronicity & Extra-Sensory Perception
This week on Black Hoodie Alchemy, Seedperson1 joins me with a book recommendation. Many years ago, he read a book that really opened his eyes to the practicality of magickal philosophy and metaphysics, a book that got him looking further and asking more questions. This work was Synchronicity: The Art Coincidence, Choice & Unlocking Your Mind by Dr. Kirby Surprise.
Using this book as an opportunity to look further at CG Jung's research and philosophy of the "synchronicity experience", we also find ample opportunity to discuss chaos theory and the magickal philosophies related to it, and really probe the idea of chance and statistics in metaphysics.
This also gives way to secondary topics like JB Rhine's parapsychology program at Duke University (founded in the early 20th century and persisting to this day) and even the CIA and their own declassified studies into parapsychology.
While it's not nearly as cut and dry as smooth-talking cult leaders would lead you to believe, we certainly hold more power in our psyches than modern science has fully understood yet. It's largely a matter of trying to separate the wheat from the chaff in a topic like this.
It's all this and more this week! We hope you dig it.
This week's featured music comes from the amazingly talented homies at Zig Mentality with tracks from their latest album drop: LEAD THEM NOT ASTRAY. Don't forget to support all your favorite independent artists!
LEAD THEM NOT ASTRAY - ZIG MENTALITY
94: Tippy Patson & Joe Rupe Attempt to Survive a Zombie Apocalypse
This week on Black Hoodie Alchemy, we are taking a break from the dark character studies and metaphysical deep-dives to catch up with our old friend, Tippy Patson -- the redneck mystic extraordinaire who is NOT me with a modulated voice! Unfortunately (like usual when it comes to Tippy) I was unable to make it to this recording, but thankfully Joe Rupe was able to fill in for me! The twist here is that Joe was a bit tired of trying to put up with Tippy's bizarre and surrealist philosophies, so in order to stomach it, he brought Tippy onto a videogame livestream broadcast on his Lighting the Void Youtube channel.
That's right, for the first time ever, this Tippy Patson chat was recorded live! This specific podcast episode was edited for a punchier listening experience, but if you'd like to watch the entire livestream, you can check that out right here: TIPPY AND JOE LIVE STREAM VIDEO OF THIS CONVO.
The game they played was World War Z, (based on the bad movie based on the good book) and they attempted to see how long they could survive on Horde Mode, which is an equivalent to the old school Call of Duty zombie modes.
As they played, they caught up on Tippy's travels to NYC and his adventures with NFL quarterback Aaron Rodgers, they discuss what has become of Tippy's League of Extordnairy Gents and what his future plans are, and we get more into Tippy's redneck philosophies about reading the future in cow shit, praising Henry Ford, and saving the world from shapeshifting Illuminati alligators! Joe also tries to ask Tippy more questions about his past with dubious results.
We hope you dig it and have a laugh this week! You've never heard a podcast like this one, that's for sure.
Anthony and Joe live stream video playing the same game
This week's featured music are from the talented homie Chris Fiato! Don't forget to support all your favorite independent artists.
Where is My Mind (Pixies Cover) - Chris Fiato
Lord Give Me a Sign (DMX Cover) - Chris Fiato
93: Hobo Serial-Killing Author - The Infamous Carl Panzram
This week on Black Hoodie Alchemy, we're doing another deep-dive character study as I tell Seedperson1 and Chris all about one of the wildest serial killers I've ever heard of: Carl Panzram. Imagine if Henry David Thoreau kept some of artistic spark, love of philosophy, and awe of nature -- yet also assaulted thousands of people and murdered over 20, some of them even being children.
Immersed in hobo train-hopping culture in the early 20th century, Panzram was known to commit acts like church burnings, murder-and-pillage sprees on stolen yachts, successful prison-breaks, and a ton of robberies that even included former president William Taft. And not only did he do this in America, but he traveled to Africa and South America as well.
Truly tortured at a boy's reform school as a child, following severe abuse during his train-hopping, and then even more severe torture as he served prison time on and off, Panzram eventually came to see himself as a living embodiment of rage and vengeance, and the only thing he truly enjoyed was torturing the human race as much as it seemed to relish in torturing him.
And still, amidst all that, he maintained a deep love of nature, literature, and philosophy, enjoying the works of authors like Oscar Wilde, Immanuel Kant, and Friedrich Nietzsche.
Who is this bizarrely human monster and can anyone really understand his motivations? His infamy has fascinated true crime researchers for decades now, and now you can hear the story along with some good ol Black Hoodie Alchemy philosophizing.
Oh, and as some more get-out-of-jail-free cards to all the darkness and morbidity this week, I occasionally break up the conversation and share lesser known facts about Always Sunny with the boys!
We hope you dig it!
BHA LINKTREE w books, shorts, and much more
Paranormality Magazine w my Sasquatch chaos magick article!
SHOW NOTES:
the pic of Panzram mentioned in the show
Panzram All That's Interesting
This week's featured music! Don't forget to support that black hoodie rap and all your favorite independent artists!
Walk Wit the Word - KDB (feat. Unknown Mizery & Don Jon)
Devil's on Holiday - Legitimate x Rex Seshunz
92: Stalin's Cannibal Island & The World's Most Irradiated Man
This week on Black Hoodie Alchemy, we are going for the jugular and making this a chat with a heavy LISTENER DISCRETION ADVISED warning, trigger warning, and all that fun stuff. The full descriptions of gore will be left out of our discussion here, but the fact of the matter is that these stories in and of themselves are so gory, terrifying, and true that even talking about them at any length requires a legitimate WARNING.
And with that out of the way, my cohort Chris Fiato joins me with a strong existential, alchemical perspective as we dive into two of the most brutal true stories I've ever heard of in my life.
First it's Hishachi Ouchi -- the world's most irradiated man -- who basically stared into an active nuclear reaction like Bruce Banner, except instead of turning into the Hulk, he melted off his own bones like a marshmallow on a stick for 80+ days WHILE STILL ALIVE. Yes, you read that right, and it's as horrific as it sounds.
Second, it the story of Stalin's gulag on a tiny, unnamed Siberian island where men, women, and children were sent without food or supplies as punishment for their crimes, and told to set up a colony. However, because of the conditions and even the brutal torture from what little guards there were to have control, the island became known in the history book's as Cannibal Island, and it was probably even be worse than what you are imagining.
As we talk about all this, I give Chris some get-out-of-jail free cards by occasionally giving him factoids about the show, The Office, and we try and wrap our heads around these stories from the perspectives of existential alchemy, and even the biblical story of Job.
RELATED CONTENT:
BHA LINKTREE w books, shorts, and much more
Paranormality Magazine w my Sasquatch chaos magick article!
Joe Rupe and I streaming WWZ Horde Mode
SHOW NOTES:
Hishachi Ouchi All That's Interesting
Great mini doc on Cannibal Island
Another Cannibal Island article
This week's featured music! Don't forget to support that black hoodie rap, your indie punk and metal scenes, and all your favorite independent artists! Hold it down for the underground:
Shake, Rattle (snake) & Roll - A Girl A Gun A Ghost
No Light - Spoken Like a True Hero
91: Wanderlust Syndrome - From Chris McCandless to 'The Grizzly Man' & Many More Adventurers Gone Awry
This week on Black Hoodie Alchemy, we have a very information-dense topic! Lots of notes, lots of twists and turns, tragedy and comedy, philosophy and practicality, and a combination of essentially every topic that this show tends to cover. It's wilderness adventure-time!
I'm joined once again by my cohorts Seedperson1 and Chris Fiato, and I share with them ten stories of men who experience what I can only describe as "wanderlust syndrome", which is throwing away all of their worldly possessions to hit the open expanse -- whether it be the Alaskan wilderness, the desert, the mountains, the beach, or elsewhere. Sometimes this syndrome turns out for the best, in the case of people like John Muir, and sometimes in the case of Chris McCandless of 'Into the Wild' fame or Timothy Treadwell of Werner Herzog's tragic documentary 'The Grizzly Man', it can end in the most horrifying ways imaginable.
DIVE MANUAL AUDIOBOOK OUT NOW
MY LINKTREE WITH ALL MY ACTION
BHA DISCORD CHAT (invite link expires in 7 days but it's easy to find on discord, or you can send it to you on social media)
Here's the list of the names we discuss in the episode:
Chris "Alexander Supertramp" McCandless - a transcendentalist adventurer who foolishly died in the Alaskan wilderness, famous from John Krakauer's book 'Into the Wild.'
Everett Ruess - a young American adventurer from the early 20th century that embodied genuine poetic wanderlust, and who mysteriously disappeared in the Utah deserts.
Carl McCunn - a wilderness photographer who was lost in the Alaskan wilderness during a series of very unfortunate events.
John Waterman - a celebrated and very eccentric alpinist and mountaineer who mysteriously disappeared in the Denali Mountain Range.
Gene Rosellini - another eccentric and philosphical man, like a mild-mannered Ted Kaczynksi, who attempted to live like a stone-age man in the wilderness of Alaska for over a decade before committing suicide.
Timothy Treadwell - a very curious man who lived in the Alaskan wilderness amongst bears for many seasons before staying too late into the fall, only to be eaten alive on camera. He eventually became the focus of Werner Herzog's documentary 'The Grizzly Man'.
August Engelhardt - a strange German man who lived and died on the beach eating only coconuts, claiming that they were the fruit of the gods, only to slowly starve to death in the public eye.
Nathan Campbell - a man who went out searching for the alleged 'Dark Pyramid of Alaska' in 2020 and was never seen again.
John Muir - an ecologist, philosopher, adventurer, and the man on this list that embodies the truest definition of the genuine poetic wanderlust, because he is the only man on this list that doesn't have a tragic ending to his story.
We also bring up to lesser degrees: Aron Ralston of the '127 Hours' fame, Ted Kaczynski the Unabomber himself, and Carl Panzram the serial-killing train-riding hobo from the early 20th century.
Lots to mull over this week! We hope you dig it.
SHOW NOTES:
INTO THE WILD by John Krakauer
WALDEN by Henry David Thoreau
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert Pirsig
This week's featured music comes from an OG forgotten band that deserves way more respect for their innovation of hardcore, rock n roll, and experimentation!
Peregrine - A Girl A Gun A Ghost
(Curse of) the Horse Latitudes Pt. 2 - A Girl A Gun A Ghost
Bear Witness - A Girl A Gun A Ghost
Beware the Tales of Scorpains - A Girl A Gun A Ghost
The Fox is Restless (The Lamb is Found) - A Girl A Gun A Ghost
90: Family Curses, Epigenetics & Horticulture of the Psyche (feat. Seedperson1)
Welcome back, folks! This week on Black Hoodie Alchemy, we have the final installment of the post-patreon infusion to the main feed. Yes, the patreon was a thing we tried for a couple months, but decided to conserve our energy and momentum for one feed for the time being.
I'm joined once again by my cohorts, Seedperson1 and Chris, as we continue to unpack the concepts revolving around what we are calling 'Existential Alchemy in Practice.' We've discussed surreal and unexplainable memories from childhood, the strange modern-day concept of "lost media" and how this relates to surreal memories, black mirror philosophy and the concept of wild internet rabbit-holes, and much more.
This week, we bring all this into the discussion of family curses and epigenetics - using modern science to try and understand older folk magick and philosophies - and the overall idea of 'horticulture of the psyche.'
Since horticulture as a concept has so much to do with alchemy and Hermeticism, it's very easy to see how the principles of horticulture can be applied to psychological health! Yes, we get into beekeeping, holistic medicines, cannabis growing and genetics, we bring up the famed Alaskan Thunderfuck/ Matanuska Thunderfuck cannabis strain, and much more!
We hope you dig it.
MY LINKTREE WITH ALL THE ACTION YOU NEED
my feature in Paranormality Magazine about my potential Sasquatch encounter
This week's featured music! Don't forget to support that black hoodie rap and all your favorite independent artists!
89: Archaeology of the Psyche, Lost Media & Lost Memories (feat. Seedperson1)
This week on Black Hoodie Alchemy, we're releasing the third of four episodes from the now-defunct Patreon feed! Patreon will be back eventually, but no dates are set right now and I've decided that, for now, I do not want to split my time and attention up so much when it comes to my show.
So this episode comprises the third installment of Chris, Seedperson and I analyzing "Existential Alchemy in Practice" by sifting through the unexplainable, surreal, and highly symbolic aspects of our lives.
This week we build off our investigation of surreal, dream-like childhood memories - including a consideration of young children and the paranormal, and we also talk about the idea of Lost Media.
Lost Media is art that we remember from our childhoods, media that usually made an indelible impression on us - yet we cannot find a single trace of its existence in today's world. Today, people have whole internet forums dedicated to trying to find the things that scared or inspired them as very young children.
The idea of lost media, especially considering the surreal and unexplainable experiences that we often find in our youth, is quite an open-ended rabbit-hole for analytic psychology that we found extremely interesting.
It's all this and a whole lot more, so we hope you dig it!
my linktree, with my books, website and much more
This week's featured music! Don't forget to support that black hoodie rap and all your favorite independent artists!
88: Black Mirrors, the 'Influencer' Scourge & More Esoteric Rabbit-Holes (feat. Seedperson1)
Welcome back to Black Hoodie Alchemy, folks! This week is another chat I had with my good friend and fellow alchemist, Seedperson1. It's also a chat that was recorded in February of this year, and was originally put into the now-defunct Black Hoodie Alchemy patreon feed. (Candidly, we'll likely do a patreon again at some point, but it ended up being a greater strain on my schedule than I thought it would be, and there was not a huge amount of listener interest in it for now anyway.)
In this conversation, we build off of our last chat in episode 84 talking about existential alchemy and the inner process, and this time we get into things like maintaining sanity amidst conspiracy theory rabbit-holes, the black mirrors of technology and the potential black magick behind them (archetypally speaking, at the very least), the dark obsessions that so many people have with "influencer fame", and we even bring up the supposed underground pyramid in Alaska again in retrospect.
my linktree with my website, book links and more!
This week's featured music -- don't forget to support that black hoodie rap and all your favorite independent artists!
Building Pyramids - Unknown Mizery x Odweeyne
Sticky Bomb - Unknown Mizery x Odweeyne
Royal Flush - Unknown Mizery x Odweeyne
God's Image - Unknown Mizery x Arkeologists
87: How I Learned to Stop Worrying & Jumanji'd a Sasquatch (feat. Hunter Hanson)
Welcome back to Black Hoodie Alchemy, folks! This week is all things Sasquatch -- not only do we analyze some of the folklore and typical content in the sightings, but I also am pleasantly surprised to report to you all that I have my own Sasquatch story to share with you! It happened over the weekend of April 2024's Solar Eclipse, it was auditory with several people around, and it happened multiple times. Oh yeah and there was a Sasquatch hunting board-game involved! But you'll have to listen in to learn more.
From a hairy hominid, to mystical gatekeeper of the forest, or even a poltergeist of the wilderness, my guests and I take a look at this topic from several different angles, and we even contrast them to sightings of "skinwalkers" and "dogman" at the end.
my linktree to everything you'd need to follow up on my action
Best link I found to the Sasquatch SIERRA SOUNDS
(The opening is stick-beating, followed by the whooping, and right afterward, listen a little closer to hear what I can only describe as snickering-death-rattles. I heard the hollers and the rattles.)
related episodes:
#29 - Psychedelic Horror & Paranormal Activity
#21 - Unexplainable Phenomena & Mental Health
#5 - Demonology & Poltergeists
Where the Footprints End - Josh Cutchin x Tim Renner
Angels in Vermillion - PD Newman
Beasts Between the Rivers - Martin Grove
JC Johnson - Cryptid investigator and former exorcist
Martin Grove's Dogman interview, recommended by Chris
This week's featured music is brought to you by the extremely talented and multi-faceted musicians Zig Mentality. And we even have another collaboration between them and Cleopatrick! Very stoked to be bumping these tracks.
When You Force It - ZIG MENTALITY
What Weighs on You - ZIG MENTALITY
86: Dive Manual - Alchemy, Chaos Magick & Jungian Psychology (feat. Joe Rupe of 'Lighting the Void')
This week on Black Hoodie Alchemy, we have a podcast-swaparoo with my homie Joe Rupe, host of Lighting the Void, and we're both celebrating the fresh release of my audiobook Dive Manual: Empirical Investigations of Mysticism. With the paperback released in 2020, Joe has lended his narration and editing talents to help me bring this book into audio form, and since he took the time to read the entire thing -- including all the outtakes and re-reads -- he now has quite a bit to say about it all.
I admittedly have a hard time explaining this book briefly, but it is data-driven research about my own investigations into mysticism, magick, and the religious experience. I look heavily into scientific concepts like Jungian psychoanalysis, sleep paralysis, dream analysis, phantom limb syndrome, memetics, and chaos theory. In addition, I also investigate the mechanics and history of things like alchemy, astrology, tarot, numerology, reincarnation, the Trees of Life & Death, Hermeticism, Gnostic Christianity, Taoism, Buddhism, Kabbalah, Paganism, and much more. Lastly, it has at times a semi-fictional framework that includes me as the narrator guiding you as the reader through the proverbial diving experience.
There's more I could say, but I will leave it at that for now! It's a winding journey about insanity, neuroticism, catharsis, unexplainable phenomena, and ineffable transcendence.
Don't forget -- if you dig Dive Manual, check out my second work Hunt Manual: 21st Century Demonology & Forteana. Joe has plans to bring this to audiobook form soon as well!
my linktree to my books, website, comedic character shorts & more
This week's featured music is brought to you by the extremely badass rock n' roll talents of ZIG MENTALITY, including some of their collaborations with their well-known homies CLEOPATRICK. I'm very excited to be able to bump these killer musicians and you really oughta check em out!
Best Direction - ZIG MENTALITY
Hate to Say I Told You So (The Hives Cover) - ZIG MENTALITY x CLEOPATRICK
85: Alchemy in American History & Working for Manly P. Hall (feat. Ronnie Pontiac of 'American Metaphysical Religion' & 'Philosophical Research Society')
This week on Black Hoodie Alchemy, we have another special guest: the wonderful, talented and laid-back Ronnie Pontiac. Ronnie is the author of books like 'American Metaphysical Religion: Esoteric and Mystical Traditions of the New World', he's part of the punk rock duo Lucid Nation with his wife Tamra Lucid, and he also just so happened to work as the great Manly P. Hall's research assistant and substitute lecturer for the last seven years of Hall's life.
For the first half of the show, we talk about the legacy of Manly Hall as seen and experienced by Ronnie and his wife, who were completely taken under the wing of Hall and his wife in a relationship that eventually grew to feel like grandparents and grandchildren.
Ronnie shares many candid stories about Manly Hall and gives us further insights into his philosophies and personal conduct, but beyond this we also get into Ronnie's work 'American Metaphysical Religion', and what it means to consider American spirituality from an outside perspective that focuses less on labels and more on actual conduct.
The insights from these perspectives are huge, and include contexts like, for instance, all of the alchemists that were prevalent in Colonial America. Yes, the history of America is a whole lot more esoteric than the 'Pilgrim' stereotypes would lead us believe, and with all this context, Ronnie helps me take a look at modern American spirituality as well.
And if that wasn't enough, we also get a little bit into the philosophies of DIY punk rock and even astrology!
It was a great pleasure sitting down to chat with Ronnie, and we will definitely be getting him back on the show before too long -- we hope you dig it.
my linktree with my books & more
This week's featured music is brought to you by the wild punk talents of LUCID NATION -- music done by the guest and his wife, Ronnie Pontiac and Tamra Lucid!
84: Surreal Memories & the Inner Mysteries (feat. Seedperson1)
Welcome back to Black Hoodie Alchemy, folks! This week is coming in from the Black Hoodie Alchemy patreon feed, which I have decided to roll into the main feed of the regular show. Given the inconsistency of my own schedule, not wanting to split my show feeds apart, and the fact that patreon listenership can be a long game sometimes -- I am consolidating things just a bit!
With my cohort, friend, BHA listener and fellow alchemist, Seedperson1, this week we dive into the deeper aspects of alchemy in everyday life to include unraveling the idea that so many of us wrestle with, yet often do not acknowledge: how about those weird surreal memories from our childhood?
Damn near everyone has got one if they think hard enough -- some sort of memory that seems more like a dream than anything else, that no one else seems to remember, and perhaps even has some paranormal or mystical tones to it. Are they just dreams? Why do they stick out to us so much still throughout the span of our lives? Why do they seem to exist as strange existential riddles in the back of our heads, and what might these riddles be able to tell us about ourselves if we to unravel them?
PS: if you are in the show description looking for the name of the strange eastern-mystical portal that I was describing this week, it is called a SRI YANTRA.
my linktree to my books, video shorts and more
DIVE MANUAL AUDIO BOOK ON AUDIBLE (NARRATED BY JOE RUPE)
This week's featured music from my homie and fellow magician, Keats Ross AKA Dakota Slim. Don't forget to support all your favorite indie artists!
83.666: Frankenstein, The Elephant Man & Logotherapy in Practice on 'Lighting the Void'
This week, I share with you my most recent guest appearance on my longtime friend Joe Rupe's show, Lighting the Void.
By telling the traditional story of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (which is far more alchemical and esoteric than the Universal rendition), the heartbreaking and triumphant story of Joseph 'Elephant Man' Merrick, and discussing some of Viktor Frankl's survival of the Auschwitz concentration camp (and development of logotherapy), we try to understand the struggles in our own personal lives a bit more. Relativizing one's own suffering can be problematic, surely, and should be done with caution -- but looking into the stories of people with struggles far greater than your own can give great perspective and inspiration.
We hope you dig the listen!
BHA Linktree with my books, website and all
83: Divergent Magick & Anarchic Mysticism (feat. Keats Ross of 'PragMagick' & 'We the Hallowed')
This week on Black Hoodie Alchemy, our outlaw wizard friend Keats Ross returns from his last appearance on the show to talk about his latest work: Divergent Magick - An Anarchic Grimoire, which is far less destructive than it sounds.
Or, perhaps a better way to put it is: it is destruction with strong alchemical purpose. But beyond that, the true nature of the anarchy and divergence here lies in the difference between orthodoxy and heterodoxy; the tried-and-true versus the path less traveled.
With study, practice, and structure, so much of Keats' work is centered around flipping his study on its head and finding new meaning in the abstract, the mundane, and the intuitive rather than specific rules from books.
However, with discussion of anarchy and metaphysics we as well get into the more socio-cultural implications, dealing with wealth and poverty, struggle and resilience, and how the hunger that poverty can give us is truly something even the most pampered people are envious of.
We hope you dig it!
my linktree with my books, website and more
This week's featured music -- brought to you by this week's special guest Keats AKA Dakota Slim! Don't forget to support your favorite independent artists.
82: Navigating Conspiracy Theories & Occult Rabbit-Holes (feat. Jess Rogge of 'Escape the Simulation')
Welcome black to Black Hoodie Alchemy! This week I'm joined by yet another special guest, researcher and longtime show-host, Jess Rogge of 'Escape the Simulation'. In her time involved with broadcast and internet streaming, Jess has talked all sorts of people -- from Tommy Chong to David Icke and so many more in between -- and her wealth of experience helps me navigate modern conspiracy theory lore in our chat.
Jess is a researcher that is willing to look into just about anything with a healthy mindset that is equal parts skepticism and open-mindedness, whether it be esoteric knowledge or modern conspiracy theories. In this chat, we talk about Jess' Buddhist upbringing and her personal stumbling into the realm of conspiracy theories, and what it means to deal with these concepts and mindsets in the modern era.
9/11, the Illuminati, Alex Jones, William Cooper, David Icke, QANON and the post-Trump era of conspiracy theories, and many more topics are brought up in the chat as we try to our best to understand just what the hell is going on in the collective consciousness these days.
ESCAPE THE SIMULATION FOR LIVE YOUTUBE INTERVIEWS & MORE
This week's featured music! Don't forget to support that black hoodie rap and all your favorite independent artists:
81: Cancer, Remission & Alchemy in an Honest Discussion (feat. Leticia Martinez of 'Journal Chaotika')
This week on Black Hoodie Alchemy, I'm joined by another special guest Leticia Martinez -- an alchemist, journalist, and holistic health counselor that utilizes herbal remedies, massage therapy, and much more in her practice with clients. Not only has she taken her studies seriously throughout the years, she has also put her money where her mouth is being a terminal cancer survivor!
In this episode, we talk about Leticia's come-up into alchemy, her cancer diagnosis and also the path that lead her into a full remission that baffled doctors. With a combination of nearly all the doctor-offered treatments ASIDE from chemotherapy, Leticia as well used a wide varying combination of mushrooms, cannabis, and other medicinal herbs and extracts that we get into during our chat.
In addition to all this we also talk about mortality, life and death and survivor's guilt, Big Pharma's looming shadow, the suppression of cancer research and researchers, the philosophy of animism, and navigating one's personal health in a very flawed western medical system.
As a final disclaimer, it should be heavily noted that I am not a medical professional in any degree, and while Leticia is far more qualified to talk about these things than I am, she also freely admits that while her story should be taken into consideration -- it SHOULD NOT be taken as some sort of medical gospel.
We hope you dig it!
BHA Discord (link expires in 7 days but you can find it easily on discord)
This week's featured music! Don't forget to support that black hoodie rap and all your favorite independent artists!
Put Ya Lights Out - School of Thought
80: Health, Disease & Eastern Mysticism (feat. Max Komes of 'Clarity Wellness Collective' & Justin Otto of 'Dharma Junkie')
This week on Black Hoodie Alchemy, I got the chance to be in-studio here in Pensacola, Florida with my two guests and local Floridians: Justin Otto, host of the Dharma Junkie podcast, founder and instructor of Gulf Coast Dharma, childhood cancer survivor, former addict, and current wonderful human being; and Max Komes, licensed yoga instructor, operator of Clarity Wellness Collective, student wrapping up his Masters in Psychology, and also a current wonderful human being!
In this conversation, we peel back the layers of psychology and physical health a bit, discussing the mind-body connection in a way that seeks to dispel some of the New Age half truths that are really ancient wisdom taken out of context. We get into yoga, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Taoism, and also discuss the psychologies of Carl Jung and Victor Frankl in the context of the mind-body connection. Among the ailments of this physical spirituality, we bring up debilitating bodily pains and even conditions like cancer (no, not astrological conditions!)
And, as a final cherry on top, we take the time to get into the potential religious "superpowers" that esoteric circles of Buddhist monks are said to gain as byproducts of their enlightenment process, with certain a caveat: you must never use them to placate your ego, which basically means that you can't use them intentionally or they are said to disappear. Very curious, and definitely some black hoodie shit! Justin helps us navigate this more.
All this and more this week! We hope you dig it.
BHA Discord chat (link expires in 7 days but it's easy to find on the discord app)
my linktree with books, videos & more
Justin Otto's Gulf Coast Dharma
Max Komes' Clarity Wellness Collective
This week's featured music! Don't forget to support that black hoodie rap and all your favorite independent artists!
WaxWaner - Dakota Slim AKA Keats Ross
Psychic Trash - Negative Blast
Yosotros - Dakota Slim AKA Keats Ross
79: Artistry & the Shadow Complex in History (feat. Brad Kelly & Kevin Kautzman of 'Art of Darkness')
This week on Black Hoodie Alchemy I have a double-whammy for you! I'm joined by special guests and fellow writers, Brad Kelly and Kevin Kautzman of the popular biography-philosophy podcast 'Art of Darkness', which focuses on lengthy deep dives into the full lives and dark psychologies of history's greatest artists, whether they be painters, authors, filmmakers, et cetera.
With Brad as a published working fiction author and Kevin as a working playwright and director, armed with their encyclopedic brains about the plights of the artist, we get into more Jung and the shadow complex, the catharsis of art and the similarities to religion and mysticism. We also get into demonology and memetics, exploring our inner mythologies through our art, and the dichotomy of the "sell-out" vs the "real artist."
As for specific artists that we bring up throughout the chat, we discuss John Lennon, the director of the cult classic 'Solaris' Andrei Tarkovsky, Stanley Kubrick, Twilight Zone creator Rod Serling, Lucille Ball, Dante Alighieri and many more!
We hope you dig it.
BHA DISCORD (invite link expires in 7 days from posting but you can find Black Hoodie Alchemy easily on the app)
BHA LINKTREE w/ my books and everything!
Get Brad's book HOUSE OF SLEEP
This week's featured music -- don't forget to support that black hoodie rap and all your favorite independent artists!
Stay Golden - Epidemic x Jesse James
78: 21st Century Hermeticism & Manly P. Hall (feat. Ashley Ryan AKA 'Pythian Priestess' of 'The Occult Unveiled')
This week on Black Hoodie Alchemy, I'm joined by the wonderful and well-studied Hermeticist, Ashley Ryan AKA Pythian Priestess of tiktok (witchtok to be specific) and her investigative occult podcast, The Occult Unveiled, which you can find on all platforms. While tiktok is not usually on this podcast's radar, it's worth noting a bit since our guest has nearly half a million followers, and she is a refreshing example of a genuine person, putting out authentic content on tiktok (among other places), and it goes to show that you should never judge a book by its social media platform!
As for more serious matters, Ashley is an intriguing esoteric student, living in Los Angeles, doing consistent volunteer work at Manly P. Halls' Philosophical Research Society and working with a disciplined unnamed Hermetic Order in LA -- all with her tiktok virality and her detailed podcast on top.
Of particular note from her own show -- and a topic I bring up in our discussion here -- she's interviewed Manly P. Hall's last living personal student, Ronnie Pontiac, a name I hope to get in contact with in the future. Coming from the LA punk rock scene as a teenager, Ronnie's story about his time with Hall is touching, informative, and we just barely scratch the surface of the entire story.
So along with the life and times of the esoteric philosopher Manly P. Hall, we discuss some of Ashley's personal esoteric story, hermeticism in the modern day, the dangers of New Age cults, navigating the vapidness of the social media grind for positive reasons, magical philosophy, and of course we get into some Jung and shadow work!
BHA LINKTREE WITH MY BOOKS, WEBSITE, ETC
This week's featured music - don't forget to support that black hoodie rap and all your favorite independent artists!
City of Dreams - Babylon Warchild
77.777: Hip-Hop Cults & Malachi York REDUX on 'Aeon Byte Gnostic Radio'
This week is a revisit of the topic from BHA #62, but if you've heard that episode before I urge you to stick around for a listen! Not only is the true crime narrative polished and expanded, there is A LOT OF ADDITIONAL RESEARCH THAT WAS NOT INCLUDED IN EPISODE 62.
More research was done into the events and songs that put several big names artists (one way or another) in association with the cult leader Malachi Z York, to include: Jay Z, Nas, Andre 3000, MF DOOM, Prodigy of Mobb Deep, Army of the Pharaohs, A Tribe Called Quest, and a whole lot more.
From humble beginnings as a petty conman in Brooklyn, to an aspiring Islamic black rights activist and R&B musician, to child abusing cult leader with pyramids at his compound, Malachi Z York is one of the strangest cult stories that you've likely never heard before!
And on top of that, I join for the occasion Miguel Conner and his co-host Moondog on their flagship program Aeon Byte Gnostic Radio.
Miguel and Moondog have had longstanding fascinations with the dark and esoteric side of entertainment, to include Miguel's upcoming release on Elvis Presley's fascination with the occult!
Lastly, anyone that is familiar with this show knows that I am a big fan on authentic hip hop culture and music, so this not at all an indictment of hip-hop as a whole. Rather, it is a rabbit-hole-of-a-story that shows how we can find cult leaders anywhere that there is enough cultural traction for them to sink their teeth into.
Watch the video version of this conversation here!
LINKTREE W/ BOOKS, YOUTUBE, ETC
This week's featured music! Don't forget to support that black hoodie rap and all your favorite independent artists.
77: 'The Screwtape Letters' - Inside the Mind of a Demon
Welcome back to Black Hoodie Alchemy! This week is another solo episode, and another episode about the Christian author CS Lewis. Last time we brought him up, we went through his work The Problem of Pain and this time we're going to bring up a fictional philosophical book he wrote, something he dedicated to his friend JRR Tolkien, called The Screwtape Letters.
This is a fascinating read into the letters of an arch-demon, Screwtape, written to his nephew-demon-apprentice, Wormood -- teaching him how to claim the soul of a European man amidst the onset of World War II.
I am not Christian, but I do appreciate the esoteric notions found within the beliefs, and I also appreciate the writing and thoughts of CS Lewis -- so, while I do not agree with everything in this book, I think it is excellent food for thought that is well worth considering! And it has a very unique narrative context that you'll enjoy.
my linktree to my books, videos and more
This week's featured artists! Don't forget to support that black hoodie rap and all your favorite indie artists!
The Injustice - Babylon Warchild
76: Sex, Death & Rebirth on DMT (feat. Adam Butler of 'Butler's DMT Field Guide')
This week on Black Hoodie Alchemy, I'm joined by another special guest: Adam Butler -- philosopher, psychonaut, alchemist, and author of the book, Butler's DMT Field Guide.
This book is a dense collection of DMT extraction recipes, the various ways to consume DMT, the best precautions and intentions to shape when trying it -- as well as some of Adam's personal experiences with it, his rigorous study and experimentation, and his overall analysis of the biological and psychological potential. And yes, some of these studies include sexual activity of the tantric variety while under the influence of DMT!
So naturally we get into all this and more -- to include more hermetic philosophy, Carl Jung, shadow work, the strong case of John Dee and Edward Kelley using to DMT to create Enochian magic, gods and devils, the nature of consciousness, and trying to navigate the balance between the spiritual and the mundane grind of life.
We hope you dig it!
my linktree with my books n website n more
BHA DISCORD CHAT (this invite link expires in 7 days)
Adam's Audio version on Audible
This week's featured music! Don't forget to support that black hoodie rap and all your favorite independent artists!
God's Image - Unknown Mizery x Arkeologists
Fire in the Sky (feat. Fresco P) - Babylon Warchild
Travelling North - Legitimate x Rex Seshuns
Model Citizen (feat. Black da Plague & Fresco P) - Babylon Warchild
75: Alaskan High Strangeness to Every Degree (feat. Jessie Desmond of 'Saucers of the North' & MUFON)
This week on Black Hoodie Alchemy, I'm joined by special guest, Jessie Desmond! As former director of MUFON in Alaska, lifelong Alaskan resident, UFO historian, Sasquatch hunter, and overall Fortean investigator, Jessie has several books released, competes in bodybuilding in her spare time, and has several other projects and interest that we discuss.
It is highly encouraged that you check out episode 73 about some Alaskan weirdness that we get into more here!
Among the topics of high strangeness at hand, we get into all the UFO and Sasquatch action, but we also get into more investigations of the Dark Pyramid of Alaska, the Alaska Triangle (similar to the one in Bermuda), HAARP, paranormal activity, mysterious cattle mutilations, reports of Alaskan vampires, and even a discussion of the non-Alaskan alchemist, Count St. Germain!
Not only do we discuss reports of all these things, but we also get into the theories on why they might be happening, and why Jessie finds them so interesting. Heavy X-Files vibes in this episode!
We hope you dig it.
my linktree to my books, website and more!
BHA DISCORD (link expires in 7 days but you can find the chat easily)
Saucers of the North: A History of UFOs in Alaska Airspace
This week's featured music! Don't forget to support that black hoodie rap and all your favorite independent artists.
74: CS Lewis, God & 'The Problem of Pain'
This week is another solo episode where I take the time for a deep dive into the work of Christian philosopher and fictional author, CS Lewis. Most popular for the renowned Chronicles of Narnia, it is lesser known that Lewis was a damn good non-fiction philosophy author, and his journey tracks one of an atheist to a believing Christian through the helps of people like the very JRR Tolkien himself!
This is not a "Christian show", so I must say as a disclaimer that we will be using a much more interpretive tone when approaching Lewis' philosophy, but his book The Problem of Pain is a fantastic example of why I would've bought him a drink to pick his brain, even if I didn't agree with everything he said.
Here I share my favorites quotes from his work as well as my interpretations and musings. Don't forget to check out the other BHA episodes about God, Goddess and Jungian psychology for more food for thought on the subject! This is the latest update in a long string of episodic musings.
Cheers.
my linktree to my books, videos and more
This week's featured music! Don't forget to support that black hoodie rap and all your favorite independent artists.
Autumn State of Mind - Umang x BBZ
73: The Dark Pyramid of Alaska - Fact or Fiction?
Happy New Year and welcome black to Black Hoodie Alchemy, folks! This week, I'm briefly talking about my trip back home to Anchorage, and unfolding the lore behind the alleged underground "Dark Pyramid" of Alaska, near Denali, that is apparently underground and four-times the size of the pyramid of Giza. And on top of all that, we have an explicit government cover-up and an intrinsic tie to the history of the state. This story is wild!
I'm very skeptical, but as a longtime Alaska resident I love this story and think it's great weird food for thought! It is an old conspiracy theory by now, and with that it has an old school feel, harkening back to a time before things got soooo overtly bi-partisan.
This episode will serve as a bit of a part one to further investigation, trying to understand where this story came from and what, if anything, we should take seriously about it.
Supposed coordinates the mineshaft that leads to the underground pyramid, as reported by Linda Moulton Howe from her "sources": 63°17'51.4"N 152°31'24.5"W (blurred out on Google Maps last time I checked)
BHA DISCORD CHAT (this share link expires in 7 days but you can find it easy if you use discord)
my linktree to my books, videos and more!
my decade old article about the Alaska Pyramid
a search for the Dark Pyramid and a man's disappearance (not mentioned on the show)
Saucers of the North: A History of UFOs in Alaska Airspace - Jessie Desmond
Linda Moulton Howe's Earthfiles website
This week's featured music is from my talented childhood homies in Anchorage, Alaska! Don't forget to support your favorite indie artists of all types.
Workin - Black Barrel & the Bad Men
Evil Man - Black Barrel & the Bad Men
72.999: Deconstructing Cult Mentality on 'Lighting the Void'
Yet again -- welcome back to Black Hoodie Alchemy, folks! Sort of. This episode is another bonus episode of sorts, and was technically my last guest spot on someone else's show before I started doing Black Hoodie Alchemy. Longtime listeners will be very familiar with Joe Rupe and Lighting the Void, and you're in for a treat as always.
We talk about cult mentality, my ambitions for Black Hoodie Alchemy, the Children of Thunder wannabe-cult, and much more!
Here's this week's featured music! Don't forget to support that black hoodie rap and all your favorite independent artists!
72.666: Psychederelicts & Esoterica on 'Mind Escape'
Welcome back to Black Hoodie Alchemy, folks! Sort of. This is another bonus episode of sorts -- my most recent guest appearance on another show, this one being Mike Mazzei's Mind Escape. He's had a whole lot of impressive, heavy hitter guests over the years of doing his show, Mike is a truly wonderful guy, and I always have a blast talking to him!
Oh and I shouldn't forget to mention that he and his cousin Maurice were the ones to put together the award winning UFO-psychedelia documentary that I was featured in: As Within So Without: From UFOs to DMT.
If you liked this, you can check out the Black Hoodie Alchemy episode that featured Mike, and you can check out my other appearances on his show Mind Escape as well (there at least a couple.)
This week's featured music! Don't forget to support that black hoodie rap and all your favorite independent artists!
72: Yearly Wrap & Gratitude
Welcome back, folks! This week will serve exactly what the title says: we're going back through some of the most popular episodes, the most shared, the most slept-on, and the craziest.
We're also going through some of the listeners that have reached out and supported the show, as well as some of the amazing musicians we've featured on the show.
And a special shout out to Grant Mock aka Stray Puzzle Piece -- Alex Arck -- and Blackbird the Blacksmith -- because they are the only ones (so far) that I forgot to mention in my shoutouts! My bad, gentlemen -- you're real gems!
Thank you so much to everyone for being a part of the Black Hoodie Alchemy crew so far, and here's to a whole lot more action to come!
This week's featured music! Don't forget to support that black hoodie rap and all your favorite independent artists!
Origami Starlight - Umang x BBZ Darney
71: The Seven Stages of Existential Alchemy (feat. Martin Ferretti of 'The Alchemical Mind')
This week on the show, my good friend, colleague, and fellow alchemist Martin Ferretti comes back on to get real deep into the stages of alchemy throughout all processes of life. Despite his show The Alchemical Mind being on hiatus for some time, Martin has been a diligent alchemist in many capacities for years now, and he's one of my favorite people to talk to when it comes to this subject.
Calcination, Dissolution, Separation, Conjunction, Fermentation, Distillation, and Coagulation -- these are the seven stages of alchemy, whether it be mental, physical, or spiritual. In seven stages we even find the levels of heaven and hell, the seven chakras, concepts like the seven stages of grief, and so much more.
What does it mean to go through these processes on a psychological, existential level? To further elaborate this food for thought we bring up topics like Carl Jung, shadow work, the Kabbalah, Aristotle's distaste for the written word, Philip K Dick, Liu Cixin's The Three Body Problem, dark timelines and my recent conversation with Eric Millar, deciphering psychedelic revelations, and so much more.
We hope you dig it!
This week's featured music! Don't forget to support your favorite artists and all that black hoodie metal and hardcore!
Original Spirit - Negative Blast
70: Existential Fury, the Butterfly Effect & Dark Timelines (feat. Eric Millar of 'Outlet Press')
For Black Hoodie Alchemy this week, I have recurring guest, friend, and innovative mystic, Eric Millar on the show to talk about his latest work, WOMBAT and all that existential fury that it holds! A collection of several visual and literary artworks, I found particular fascination with the first two pieces: Operator's Code and Flight Interpretations.
What does it mean to be spiritual as a person living at rock bottom? How do we find alchemy in the drudgery of dirty, underpaying jobs and lives that don't provide us with what we need, let alone what we want? Where do we go when time and time again, the reward it seems we get for trying is actually getting completely fucked? How does one find peace in a world that feels like a dark, upside-down timeline?
For more food for thought along these lines, we bring up impressively daunting works like David Halberstam's The Powers That Be, Douglas Rushkoff's Life Inc: How Corporatism Conquered the World and How to Take it Back and Warren Ellis' Marvel Ruins.
We talk about magick, mysticism, chaos theory and many-worlds theory, comic books, spiritual anger and so much more!
We hope you dig it.
My Linktree -- where you can get my books, merch, bonus content and much more
This week's featured music! Don't forget to support that black hoodie rap and hardcore and all your favorite independent artists!
69: Anima & Animus - CG Jung's Alchemy of the Soul
This week on Black Hoodie Alchemy, I give you another solo deep dive into the mystical philosophies and analytic psychology of Carl Jung.
Anima and animus, yin and yang, subconscious and conscious, negative and positive, night and day, qliphoth and sephiroth, soul and spirit, feminine and masculine -- the union of opposites is something that the alchemist has always been focused on, and the reconciliation of opposites within a human being can manifest itself in a variety of peculiar ways, depending on how that human interacts and identifies with the world around them.
This episode is going to be a hard one to try and summarize -- but suffice it to say that throughout Jung's final book, Memories, Dreams, Reflections, the psychoanalyst opened up a great deal about what it meant to reconcile the opposites within himself. Namely, like with most average men, Jung's spiritual alchemy came in the form of communications with his anima -- the feminine nature of his soul itself -- and his journey mirrors direct archetypal equivalents in the stories of alchemists and artists like Dante Alighieri, Philip K Dick, and Wolfgang Von Goethe.
These stories and artworks do not represent end-all-be-all processes of inner alchemy, but they do serve as quality examples as to how some of these extremely esoteric mechanics will play out -- whatever faces they choose to use as they manifest!
I hope you dig it.
My Linktree -- where you can find my books DIVE MANUAL and HUNT MANUAL, merch, satirical bits and more!
PDF of Memories, Dreams, Reflections by Jung
This week's featured music! Don't forget to support that black hoodie hardcore and all your favorite independent artists!
68: The Divine Feminine & the Scientific Method (feat. Momma Bear)
This week on Black Hoodie Alchemy, we finally have our first lady guest on the show! While this show does have a little bit of a male slant, we've always maintained a solid third of lady listeners and I apologize for this taking so long! It's been a combination of me enjoying the company of my best researcher homies, doing solo shows, and having tricky scheduling. I wasn't even sure who the first female guest would be for a while, but I'm pleased to announce that it's working scientist, biologist, and longtime listener of the show, codenamed: Momma Bear!
Having been a longtime practicing mystic, occultist, and biologist, Momma Bear is a BHA listener that's lived a full life with a great deal of insight to share! We talk about the Divine Feminine in esoteric philosophy in Jungian psychoanalysis, recommended lady philosophers and magicians, paranormal activity in children, Houdini and his colleague (perhaps even muse) Rose Mackenberg, and female pharaohs in Egyptian culture.
We also take the time to discuss aspects of Mother of the Mysteries to include the Egyptian goddess Isis, and the relationship she and other figures have to Mother Mary in Christian theology. In this vein, we also discuss what the Divine Feminine and comparative religion at large mean to the modern scientific method.
Science itself seems to have no soul, ethics, or morals, and many argue that this is how it should be. However, the evidence empirically suggests otherwise. Science compels us towards ethics and morality, if we use it properly -- and in today's society, we've lost the plot. One might say in many ways that modern science today is far too masculine, and would do well to have more of a nurturing touch, so Momma Bear helps me sift through all this and more!
We hope you dig it.
Related show on Goethean Science
Further show considerations of the Divine Feminine
Siren Song and the Anima (Divine Feminine)
DIVE MANUAL, HUNT MANUAL, MERCH & MORE!
This week's featured music! Don't forget to support that black hoodie rap and all your favorite independent artists!
Way It Used to be - Tribesmen x Arkeologists