Are you interested in angels, demons, ghosts, spirits, and monsters? Are you curious about their origins, influence, and how to protect against the unknown? If so, then welcome to Southern Demonology, the podcast that explores all of this and more. When is the last time that an activity, hobby, or even a side job had a remarkable impact upon your life? Normally we think of these things as distractions or breaks from our normal course of living our lives. A way to refresh or at least divert ourselves from the hecticness and chaos of our normal day-to-day.
For example, I program, play video games, and of course, write, record, and edit Southern Demonology, and am one of the hosts on the Paranormal Rundown podcast. However, I never expected one of my hobbies to have such a profound significance, both good and ill, upon my life as writing and producing this particular podcast. Welcome to season 5, episode 5 of the Southern Demonology Podcast. As always, I am your friendly neighborhood ancient demonologist JJ. But before I get into the main gist of today's episode, I did want to share a few different items.
While I was in Tennessee to watch my son's graduation and hang out with my mom, both of which were just absolutely wonderful, I received an email from a listener who stated that she too had horrible nightmares and had found that few, if none of her friends even dreamed anymore, nevertheless be able to relate to her plight. And then one night she had a nightmare about hell that traumatized her.
In short, after listening to season 5, episode 2, which is entitled The Pain of Dreaming Demonic, she was so relieved that someone else had gone through something similar, that she just wanted to thank me for sharing my own experiences. In a follow-up, I asked if she would mind describing said night there without bringing up too many horrible memories, and she agreed. This is what she wrote. I may not always know the entire art of the storyline or to any depth of what's going on. Sometimes I just appear to be there as an observer. The observer ones seem to be the most horrific.
A downward spiraling cave made of rock or gore. The land mites. The light mites painted in blood, but made of gore. Along the spiral of the cave, my footpath would appear to be lay hundreds of mutilated animals, horses, dogs, cats, and all sorts of animal species, all dismembered, defected, and all in torturous pain. The noise was full of screams from the animals that never stopped. I had the distinct feeling that the cave was only the entrance to something far away. I do not remember seeing demons of any classical description. Just shadows of things I thought that might be demons.
I was forced to watch these animals be tortured and told I wasn't allowed to look away. I tried to close my eyes, but couldn't. I had to watch until I finally woke up. I do have nightmares involving the typical monsters. Only a few about werewolves, but loads of horrible zombie dreams. One running theme, which is the most disturbing, and the one that I have had since I was very young, involves infant sacrifice. I have had many dreams where I am forced to watch babies being murdered by some mysterious group.
Sometimes this group has a clear, occult nature, but others I get the impression that it's just a group of really evil people. For the sake of some decorum, I didn't describe the hideousness of those dreams in detail. I have spoken to so many people all my life, and every one of them has said that they don't have nightmares. Some don't even dream. I always dream and have many nightmares. I don't usually discuss the nature of my dreams, and I guess a part of me thinks I would be accused of some illness.
One thing that struck me while I listened to the dream episode was you talking about being in your school. I've been out of school for 25 years, and I have the same setting. But the school is always like a maze. I grew up in a very small town, 250 people. So the school was tiny. I often dream about houses in which end up like mazes. Ladies and gentlemen, I do believe that I have encountered a kindred soul out there who suffers from the same night maladies as I do myself, even down to the labyrinthine structures in which the dreams take place.
I cannot express how much I appreciate you sharing your harrowing night terror. If you, dear listener, have had any similar experiences, I would love to know. Please contact me through Southern Demonology.com and click on the contact button. Also note that anything shared with me will never go beyond myself unless I receive explicit approval from you. Considering that I am a long-term application developer, I take privacy to be the most important factor, along with personal honor. I do have one last item to share, and this one is from none other than our dear friend of the show, Dr.
Burt, an accomplished psychiatrist from the Netherlands, whom I interviewed in season 4, episode 9, entitled Faces of Evil. In our Discord channel, he posted, I enjoyed your latest episode, Demonology 201. And during my ride back from a friend this night, something peculiar happened. The road I was driving on was not very well lit, but it wasn't completely dark yet. As I came to a very light bend in the road, I saw still beyond the reach of the headlights, using my normal light, and I saw an animal crossing the road. It appeared to be dog light inside.
And I expected it to see it within a few moments as the headlights would pass its light on it. However, once the lights crossed the it was nothing. I had my eyes on it because I didn't want to drive over it and didn't see any sudden movement. There was there, and then it just wasn't. When I asked if I could hear this, he replied, hmm, you can use it, but I am still trying to figure out a rational explanation. I am very keen on watching out for war. Since they have been reintroduced in the Netherlands, they come closer and closer to the part where we live.
And since we have horses, this development isn't a comforting one, to say the least. There have been attacks on sheep, ponies, and horses on a regular basis. So when I saw this, I was really focused on it to see if perhaps it was a wolf. Now, this could have been a wolf sighting, or was it something entirely different? I have no idea, and neither does he. The coincidence of seeing such a strange thing while listening to the very charged episode Demonology 201 does make me wonder indeed. Have you encountered anything while listening to an episode? If so, please let me know.
And if you'd like to join our Discord, the link is also on the website. One last thing I would like to talk about before the main topic is actually evil. And though I don't mean the opposite of good on the morality spectrum, but rather the TV show that is currently in the midst of releasing season four on Paramount Plus as we speak. To date, episode six dropped on Thursday, and I am unafraid to say that I am absolutely in love with this show. Every single season has been phenomenal to the extreme, and I am happy to say that this current season is every bit as good as the other three.
The characters are just as compelling, the plot lines are original, and the fact that it deals with angels and demons is just icing on the cake. Even the intro is clever. Whenever the skip button is about to appear, a white box with black lettering appears at the bottom that has a haunting message to it, such as skip and you'll be haunted. Or best way to solve the haunting? Watch the intro twice. The best one was in the latest episode, which stated, You will not be haunted by skipping Netflix intros. I laughed more than a little bit at that.
Everything about this show just exudes love and passion, and it's really bloody hard to not fall in love all over again, each and every episode. For example, in episode five, it features some Tigrinian clergy members, and I got chills down my spine when they would utter the word Amlak, which means Lord. If you don't know, Tigrinian is the closest modern language to classical Ethiopic, and I was able to understand a few words that were spoken. And yes, that is highly specific to me, but I was nevertheless thrilled.
With that said, there are some weak points to this season, though they are akin to speed bumps rather than true barriers. Without going into spoilers, something happens to each character this season, and they never bother to reveal that to the other members of the group. And it's annoying just because it's attempting to keep the plot going artificially. Second, this is going to be the very last season, and that just casts a pall over every episode. I mean, at least it got the chance to go out with the ability to tell more of the story.
And I'm directly looking at you, Netflix, with Santa Clarita Diet. I will never forgive you for that one. But I really hate to see this show go. And the last is simply the fact that it's on Paramount Plus, which is the absolute worst technology platform that exists. Its network consumption is ridiculous. It does not remember where you left off in a movie or show. And on desktop, it takes three clicks just to get a show to play. If I didn't get the sub for free, then I would never ever waste my money on this horrific piece of crap. Even if it was the only place to watch Star Trek.
I mean, it's so bad it makes Shudder as a technology platform look decent. And that is truly sad to say. Now, speaking of evil, let's delve into our main topic for today's episode. Finally, I know, I'm sorry, I always do this. Which is the effects that this podcast has had upon my life. And to start, I really do want to cover the absolute positive that Southern Demonology has brought.
When I started this podcast back in 2017, I did so with the urging of some friends, as I would often regale them with some of the weird and wonderful things that I had the opportunity to study in both college and in graduate school. But after getting through episode three, I had largely covered most of what I had planned to say. But as I've said before, it didn't take long for me to realize that there really is no lack of topics in this space, and I simply haven't shut up since. Whether you think that's good or bad, I have no idea.
And thinking back on it, they probably wanted me to get this all out in the open just so I would stop babbling at them all the time. Who knows? But what I never expected in a million years was the sheer number of friends that I have made while on this journey. Met through Discord and through other podcasts. These have become not just people I know from the internet, which is an all-too common phenomenon these days, but rather true lifelong friendships that have immeasurably made my life better.
From my fellow co-hosts at the Paranormal Rundown, Vic from Trailer Trash Terrors, Father Bert Song and his son Josh, who run the Ending the Curse podcast, and David, to Chris and Dean from the Wandering Road podcast, the amazing Anna Maria Manello, the horror author who, by the way, has a brand new book who is about to release, the aforementioned Dr. Bert, Brandon from Cookville Ghost Hunters Podcast, and the fine folks over at Nikolayan TV. These individuals are simply amazing, and whom I never would have had the blessing to meet outside of the sphere.
And that list is only beginning to scratch the surface. So if you did not hear your name, please forgive me and know that you live in my heart. Further, that does not count the many lovely emails and conversations I have had with dozens of others. The Discord server is full of close friends, and the emails I have received are nothing short of phenomenal. The fact that people would take time out of their day to contact me still leaves me full of wonder and takes my breath away.
So for everyone who has had a part in this podcast and my journey, whether being a guest, a friend of the show, or listening, thank you a thousand times. Thank you. But with all that said, this podcast has brought darkness to my door as well, and a great deal of it. Since starting Southern Demonology, I have had a cancer scare, a severe eye injury, and other associated health concerns. Combine all that with troubling dreams and unexplained phenomena happening in my house, the EVPs I have recorded and shared, and that too is just really scratching the surface sadly.
Father Bird Song said it best in one of our conversations when he stated that the enemy or the kingdom does not like others talking about it. Especially when it comes to educating about them. And they will do anything to remove that. And I have had to learn a great deal about protection since starting Southern Demonology. You know, I remember receiving an ominous message through Facebook regarding the podcast early on in its run when someone wrote, You have left your modalities unprotected and wide open. I took it to be a spam message originally and deleted it. But now I wonder.
And after the cancer scare and being deathly ill to the point where I was hospitalized for over a week, I knew I had to protect myself. And protect I did. But the burning question I found myself asking is if you knew then what you know now, would you do it all over again? And I've really pondered this for a while. And the answer is a yes. This podcast is very much akin to a second job masquerading as an expensive hobby. I am a one-man operation who does everything from writing, recording, editing, and promoting. I didn't know anything about audio when I started.
I'm a programmer, I'm not an audio engineer, and that clearly shows from the early episodes. But I have learned so bloody much that I am deeply grateful for that. And if I have helped even one person, then I consider that all of this more than worthwhile. And based off from conversations and interactions I've had, I feel that I have already accomplished that. But as I am an overly ambitious soul, as always, that's not enough. I want to do more with this podcast. And so the show will go on for as long as I have breath in this body.
I truly love this strange offspring of mine, and I would never imagine, I could never imagine the podcast for all of you being absent. Thank you all for listening yet again. If you'd like to help the show grow from rating and liking it on whatever platform you use, to joining the Discord or even going the ultimate step and becoming a Patreon member, know that I appreciate everything more than I can express. Until next time, stay safe out there. Thank you for listening to Southern Demonology. Find us online at Southern Demonology.com, which offers links to all of our social media and episodes.
Southern Demonology is solely owned, produced, and edited by myself, and the intro and outro music are composed by me as well. If you have a moment, please rate, like, and share this podcast, as it is the best way to help support my work. As always, I am JJ, and it has been a pleasure to speak to you today.