Episode 143: On UFOs

Episode 143: On UFOs

Author: SpectreVision Radio March 29, 2023 Duration: 1:30:34
In the 1950s, Carl Jung expressed frustration at the impenetrability of the UFO mystery, the "strange, unknown, and indeed contradictory nature" of this "ostensibly physical phenomenon" with "an extremely important psychic component." Throughout his writings on the topic, he marvels at the impossibility of coming to even preliminary conclusions. Fastforward to 2023, after a series of astounding disclosures on the part of qualified government people, and we have as much reason to be baffled as we ever had. In this episode, Phil and JF discuss the mercurial, tricksterish fact of ortherwordly things seen in the sky. Learn more about the Ohio UFO Heritage Conference on May 5-6, 2023. Preorder Pierre-Yves Martel's album Mer bleue. Support us on Patreon and gain access to Phil's ongoing podcast on Richard Wagner's Ring Cycle. Listen to volume 1 and volume 2 of the Weird Studies soundtrack by Pierre-Yves Martel Find us on Discord Get the T-shirt design from Cotton Bureau! Get your Weird Studies merchandise (t-shirts, coffee mugs, etc.) Visit the Weird Studies Bookshop REFERENCES Patrik Harpur, Daimonic Reality John Keel The Mothman Prophecies Jaques Vallee Passport to Magonia William Shakespeare, Macbeth UFO Rabbit Hole Podcast Carl Jung, Flying Saucers: A Modern Myth of Things Seen in the Sky Weird Studies, Episode 141 on SSOTBME Henri Bergson, Matter and Memory Weird Studies, Episodes 73 and 74 on Jung Weird Studies, Episode 44 on William James’s Psychical Research Jacques Vallée and Paola Leopizzi, Harris, Trinity: The Best-Kept Secret Jacques Vallée, "Physical Analyses in Ten Cases of Unexplained Aerial Objects with Material Samples" Shepard tone Mark Fisher, Capitalist Realism Twin Peaks Mark Pilkington, Mirage Men Graham Harman, Weird Realism: Lovecraft and Philosophy Weird Studies, Episode 59 on Walking Weird Studies, Episode 142 on “Last and First Men” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

At the heart of Weird Studies, a podcast from SpectreVision Radio, you’ll find long-form conversations between Professor Phil Ford and writer J. F. Martel. Their discussions aren’t simple reviews or straightforward analyses; instead, they wander through the tangled undergrowth where art and philosophy meet, giving generous time to concepts that resist easy understanding and to creative works that fracture our ordinary sense of the world. This podcast deliberately lingers in that ambiguous space, treating the “weird” not as a genre but as a particular mode of experience-one that reveals the cracks in what we comfortably assume is real. Each episode feels like joining a deep, meandering dialogue between two friends who are both deeply knowledgeable and endlessly curious, covering a vast terrain that includes literature, film, music, and esoteric thought. It’s a show for anyone who suspects that the most profound truths are often found in the shadows, the anomalies, and the strangely beautiful. As part of the SpectreVision Radio network, which specializes in content that explores the uncanny edges of creativity, Weird Studies builds a unique community of listeners who are eager to think differently. You won’t find pat answers here, but you will encounter compelling questions and a shared sense of exploration that makes each installment a distinctive journey.
Author: Language: English Episodes: 230

Weird Studies
Podcast Episodes
Episode 66: On Diviner's Time [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:32:19
In the paper discussed in this episode, Phil Ford coins the term "diviner's time" to denote a particular feeling that will be familiar to anyone who has engaged in divinatory or magical practice, namely the feeling that…
Episode 63: Faculty X: On Colin Wilson's 'The Occult' [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:19:35
At its simplest, what Colin Wilson calls Faculty X is "simply that latent power in human beings possess to reach beyond the present." Yet its existence is evinced in all those phenomena that modernity files under "supern…
Episode 61: Evil and Ecstasy: On 'The Silence of the Lambs' [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:07:16
The Welsh writer Arthur Machen defined good and evil as "ecstasies." Each one is a "withdrawal from the common life." On this view, any artistic investigation into the nature of good and evil can't remain safely ensconce…
Episode 60: Space is the Place: On Sun Ra, Gnosticism, and the Tarot [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:26:27
Somebody once said, "No prophet is welcome in his own country." Whether this was true in the case of jazz musician and composer Sun Ra depends on whom you ask. With most, the dictum probably bears out. But there are thos…
Episode 59: Green Mountains Are Always Walking [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:20:28
"Perhaps the truth depends on a walk around a lake." This line from Wallace Stevens' "Notes Toward a Supreme Fiction" captures something of the mysteries of walking. It points to the undeniable yet baffling relationship…
Episode 58: What Do Critics Do? [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:00:34
What is the role of the critic in the world of art? For some, including lots of critics, the figure exudes an aura of authority: her task is to tell us what this or that work of art means, why it matters, and what we are…
Episode 57: Box of God(s): On 'Raiders of the Lost Ark' [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:30:49
Raiders of the Lost Ark is more than a Hollywood movie made in the summer blockbuster mold. As Phil says in his intro to this popping Weird Studies episode, the film is "a Trojan horse of the Weird, easy to let in but on…