Exploring connections in high strangeness, fringe culture and the occult
Episodes
Sunday Jan 21, 2024
Sunday Jan 21, 2024
Unseen resonances, John Keel's early work, nefarious tendencies in the UFO subculture, and more in this conversation. Susan Lepselter's poetic-ethnographic book and John Keel's classics Jadoo and Operation Trojan Horse are consulted. Hermes fashions his lyre from a turtle. What's that mean for our turtle synchs? We discuss our newest exquisite corpse experiment and perform a new randonaut generation for the first time in a few years.
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Merch:
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Intro song by Treatment
Thursday Jan 11, 2024
Thursday Jan 11, 2024
In a classic wide-ranging CU discussion, we cover Kenneth Grant's bizarre ufological synthesis in his book "Outer Gateways", new MK Jessup weirdness, Jung's dense concept of the "psychoid" and how it relates to ufological events and the victims of artifact. We also talk on the trickster as applied to UFOs, "Operation Trojan Horse" the foundational survey of UFO related phenomena by John Keel, the doppelganger experiences, and the revival of our own brand of synchro-magic. First half is free, but sign up for our Patreon to catch the full episode, regular exclusive episodes, written content, discord server and more!
https://www.patreon.com/consensusunreality
Intro music by Treatment
https://treatmentforu.bandcamp.com/album/pond-life
Merch
Tuesday Jan 02, 2024
Tuesday Jan 02, 2024
In this in depth conversation with artist and researcher Carmelo Pampillonio we talked conspiracy culture and the allure and line of synchronistic and paranoid thinking in the artistic process and otherwise. We spoke in length about the nature of banned content concerning conspiracies and how that informed Carmelo's recent project "Apophenic Realism". We also dove into all mess of subjects like chemtrails, artificial intelligence, language concerning the UFO question and the elusive Gateway Process Dossier. We hope you enjoy this tumble and have a great couple Holidays here, whichever you celebrate.
We have included some snippets of audio, book-ending the podcast, from Carmelo's recent project "Apophenic Realism"
https://www.carmelopampillonio.info/info
This full episode, all exclusive episodes, full episode archive, written content and more at
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CU Merch
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Monday Dec 11, 2023
Monday Dec 11, 2023
In this episode, we interview writer, musician, psycho-geographer, and English Heretic Andy Sharp. We discuss his two books, the immediate classic The English Heretic Collection and the recent mystic travelogue The Astral Geographic, diving into subjects and figures as wide ranging as Kenneth Grant, place-based ritual, Winston Churchill's druidry, Dion Fortune, folk horror, the trickster, film's feedback relationship with reality, and tons more.
Exclusive episodes, written content, full archive and more at
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Merch
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Intro music by Treatment
https://treatmentforu.bandcamp.com/music
Monday Dec 04, 2023
Monday Dec 04, 2023
A long, thoughtful saunter through some new and some familiar terrains. We dive headfirst into D. W. Pasulka's new book Encounters, with its of-the-moment diagnosis of the UFO culture, its odd Rosicrucian connections, new angles on the same old flying discs, and vaguely apocalyptic tone. AI, angelic visions, Jacques Vallee's library, squaring the circle, and more. Plus: Macer-Story's rare classic Congratulations: The UFO Reality; a look at the blending of occult fiction into occult "reality" through an excellent scholarly essay on the subject (linked below); a brief glance at the peculiar Rosicrucianism of Pensatia; synchronicities and dreams aplenty. A really fun, vital episode.
First hour available to any and all listeners; full, extra long episode exclusive to Patreon supporters. Regular exclusive episodes, full archive, written content and more at-
Monday Oct 23, 2023
Monday Oct 23, 2023
In this interview with photographer and Spiritualism archivist Shannon Taggart, we discuss her incredible book, SÉANCE and the long, buried history of America's innovative Spiritualist tradition. Topics covered include the intertwined histories of photography and Spiritualism, the Burned-Over District of New York, the connection between the explosion of American New Religions and the creation of the Erie canal, the power of synchronicity, photographing Loch Ness, hoaxing and fraud as invocation practices, an exploding cabinet, and much more.
Shannon Taggart
https://www.shannontaggart.com/
Regular exclusive episodes, written content, full archive and more
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CU Merch
https://consensus-unreality.printify.me/products
Intro music by Treatment
https://treatmentforu.bandcamp.com/album/pond-life
Friday Oct 13, 2023
Friday Oct 13, 2023
It’s the witching hour! In this long-form Patreon exclusive, and a companion to our previous episode on the vampire, we discuss some of the many forms the witch has taken over the centuries. From shamanic to persecuted to modern Wiccan, this often ambiguous figure raises question after question, some of which we attempt to answer here. Cathars, Templars, sorceresses and sorcerers, ceremonial magicians , nudists, the inquisition, and more! Grab a black cat, a cauldron, a broomstick, and settle in.
Exclusive episodes and written material, full archive, private discord server and more...
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Wednesday Sep 27, 2023
Wednesday Sep 27, 2023
Bwah! In this episode we chat about the folklore, fiction, and cultural power of the figure of the vampire. Hammer horror, the Romantic era shift to a gentlemanly vampire, magical energy vampires, the navigation of death and the cost of averting it, Mark Fisher's take on the subject, and much more packed into this discussion. Plus, we start off with a discussion of Arthur Machen's classic weird fiction tale "The Great God Pan"— a vampire story? Perhaps...
This full episode and more exclusive episodes, complete archive, written content, discord server and exclusive merch at
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Thursday Sep 21, 2023
Thursday Sep 21, 2023
In this interview with comics artist and musician Christopher Forgues (C.F., Kites, Universal Cell Unlock, Daily Life etc.), we talk the cross-media creative process, music as ritual, the 00s noise scene, CB radio culture, occult theories of electronics and perfomance, tales of hauntings, the logic of the comic page, and more. A great conversation covering themes old and new to the CU universe.
PLUS: a Patreon exclusive bonus episode on recent events in the UFO circus, like Mexico's alien mummy extravaganza and the mind-numbing/blowing new Grusch interview, as well as some discussion of certain obscure occult documents on vortex opening rituals! ...
https://www.patreon.com/consensusunreality
cover image features 2 scans of C.F. comics
Music and sounds featured in the middle parts of this episode are from upcoming releases from C.F. as Universal Cell Unlock on No Rent Records and Psychic Sounds.. be on the lookout for those
Monday Sep 11, 2023
Monday Sep 11, 2023
We're back in the interview game! A great conversation with documentary filmmaker Brad Abrahams, known for Love and Saucers, Do You See What I See, and others, leads us down some of the many corridors of contemporary fringe culture. We talk about his experience of working with and filming controversial personalities like artist David Dees, as well as his nuanced portrait of contactee-artist David Huggins. Other topics include the possibility of parapsychological phenomena, the new age convention circuit and its many delights, the hoaxer/grifter tradition, the age of the benevolent (?) trickster like Gray Barker vs our more dire contemporary figures, the need for a Krishnamurti biopic, and much more.
Plus: tune in for a bonus Patreon follow up on a variety of things we've both been up to: the hand as the Grail; Gray Barker doc Shades of Gray, medium-as-message speculations, and more!
https://www.patreon.com/consensusunreality