Wanna Hear Something Weird?

This week, Tom and Laura are getting into tulpas — the ancient Tibetan practice of conjuring a living being purely through the power of concentrated thought. They explore how the concept traveled from Buddhist monasteries to 4chan forums (via a very unexpected My Little Pony detour), and discuss the modern "tulpamancer" community that's been trying to will fictional characters into existence ever since. They also dig into the Philip Experiment, a 1972 Toronto study in which a group of regular people invented a fictional 17th-century ghost and then tried to hold a séance with him — with some genuinely strange results. Plus, the Global Consciousness Project's claim that random number generators went haywire before the first plane hit on 9/11, Philip K. Dick's season pass to Disneyland and his very unexpected lunch companion, Alan Moore spotting John Constantine in a sandwich shop, and a comics writer who may have accidentally manifested an armed robbery straight out of a scene he'd just finished writing.

This week we’re covering the legend of the Black Knight Satellite, a purported alien object that has supposedly been orbiting Earth for 13,000 years. Was it the source of the mysterious radio signals Nikola Tesla found in 1899? Did NASA lie about the photo it took of it in 1998? Did a scientist decode its radio signal to find a map of the star system Epsilon Boötis?

Is the government finally ready to disclose to the world what it knows about the UFO phenomenon, or are they just trying to keep everyone confused? This week we discuss the upcoming Steven Spielberg movie “Disclosure Day” and the idea that the powers-that-be are softening everyone up for a big surprise. Also, Tom finds an old Berenstain Bears book and believes he’s a refugee from a parallel universe.

In 1917, two young cousins in England captured photographs allegedly showing fairies, which caught the attention of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and sparked a debate that lasted decades. We explore the aftermath of that incident, including the eventual admission of a partial hoax, while considering the enduring mystery surrounding the fifth and final photograph that one cousin insisted was genuine until her death. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week we're recounting the eerie tale of the Flatwoods Monster, an Appalachian cryptid with a mysterious and terrifying past. We discuss the 1952 sightings in West Virginia, examining this weird-looking, strange-smelling creature and the panic it sparked in the community. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Could the vast unexplored regions of the Congo still contain living dinosaurs? In this episode, we're exploring the intriguing possibility of living dinosaurs in Africa. We also discuss various cryptids, including the famous Mokele-mbembe, as well as other alleged prehistoric creatures like the Emela-ntouka, Kasai Rex, and Kongamato. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week we're going over the fascinating near-death experience of Pam Reynolds, a singer-songwriter who underwent a groundbreaking surgery, during which she died. But don't worry, she came back! Pam's vivid and well-documented out-of-body experience during the operation challenges skeptics and provides a crazy perspective on life after death. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode, we delve into the bizarre tale of John Titor, a self-proclaimed time traveler who captivated early internet forums in the 2000s. We explore Titor's claims about coming from 2036, his mission to retrieve an IBM 5100 computer, and his vague predictions about future events. Was this really a guy from the future, or just an early example of being bored on the internet? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices