Episode 48: Walking the Tightrope with Erik Davis

Episode 48: Walking the Tightrope with Erik Davis

Author: SpectreVision Radio June 5, 2019 Duration: 1:25:09
Journalist and historian of religion Erik Davis joins Phil and JF to talk about his latest magnum opus, High Weirdness: Drugs, Esoterica, and Visionary Experience in the Seventies. In this masterwork of weird scholarship, Davis explores the simultaneously luminous and obscure worlds of three giants of Seventies counterculture: Terence McKenna, Robert Anton Wilson, and Philip K. Dick. Their psychonautical legacy serve as fuel for a deep-delving conversation on Davis' own ontological leanings, yearnings, and hesitations. We touch on his philosophical development since the release of Techgnosis in 1998, the meaning of "weird naturalism," the primacy of the aesthetic, the uses and abuses of anthropotechnics, the challenges of tightrope-walking across bottomless chasms, and lots more. REFERENCES Erik Davis, High Weirdness: Drugs, Esoterica, and Visionary Expreience in the Seventies Erik Davis, Techgnosis: Myth, Magic, and Mysticism in the Age of Information Philip K. Dick, American science fiction writer Robert Anton Wilson, American writer Terence McKenna, Half-elf bard Graham Harman, American philosopher Timothy Morton, British philosopher Jeffrey J. Kripal, The Serpent’s Gift: Gnostic Reflections on the Study of Religion William James, American philosopher and psychologist Hee-jin Kim, Eihei Dogen: Mystical Realist Dogen, "Instructions for the Cook" Steve Reich, "Music as a Gradual Process" Peter Sloterdijk, You Must Change Your Life Albert Hofman’s famous bicycle ride Erowid LSD vault George Lackoff and Mark Johnson, Metaphors We Live By Alexander Bard and Jan Söderqvist, Syntheism: Creating God in the Internet Age Special Guest: Erik Davis. 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
Halloween Special: A Reading of Arthur Machen's "The White People" [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:39:55
Originally released in 2018 but remixed for your listening pleasure, here's Phil reading Arthur Machen's classic weird tale, "The White People." Happy Halloween! Machen's "The White People" was discussed all the way back…
Episode 200 – On 'The Call of Cthulhu' [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:27:34
For their 200th episode, JF and Phil turn their attention to H. P. Lovecraft’s “The Call of Cthulhu,” a story foundational not only to modern horror fiction but to the very idea of the Weird. In revisiting this tale of f…
Episode 199 – On Michael Jackson, with Shannon Taggart [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:15:25
Photographer and paranormal researcher Shannon Taggart joins JF and Phil to explore the phenomenon that was Michael Jackson. One of the most brilliant and successful musicians of the modern era, Jackson was also a limina…
Episode 197 - Sounding the Otherworld: On Bryn Chainey's 'Rabbit Trap' [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:10:31
In a rare surfacing in the contemporary world, JF and Phil discuss a film that has just been released. Bryn Chainey’s Rabbit Trap is psychological horror in the tradition of Repulsion, Jacob’s Ladder, and Angel Heart. Bu…
Weird Studies Trailer [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 2:00
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Mid-Break Bonus: On Trust [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 57:06
We're breaking up our late-summer pause with an audio extra originally recorded for our Patreon supporters. This episode also includes an essay JF wrote on the philosophy of Henri Bergson. A whole course on Bergson's phi…
Episode 196 – Lost and Never Found: On 'The Blair Witch Project' [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:32:13
Of all the flavors of horror, few are as dreadful as that of being lost in the wilderness. In this episode, JF and Phil revisit The Blair Witch Project, the classic 1999 found-footage film that inspired a thousand imitat…