Are you interested in angels, demons, spirits, ghosts, and monsters? Are you curious about their origins, tales, and influence upon history and on the present day? If so, sit back, relax, and welcome to Southern Demonology, the podcast that explores all of this and more.
Hello everyone. Welcome back to Southern Demonology. I am your host, JJ, and as always, I really appreciate you taking some time out of your busy day to listen to this um humble little podcast. Uh and before I proceed any further, I want to offer a profound apology. Um I have taken about a month off from uh producing this podcast, and it's not because I am abandoning it by any means of the word. I have had an entire slew of activities bombard me all at the same time.
Um and um it may sound like I'm trying to dip into the excuse bag and just pull out whatever I happen to find, but I do want to actually explain myself a little bit so you know that this is not a frequent occurrence. Um so first I actually developed the um Southern Demonology website. Uh you can find that at Southern Demonology.com. Surprise of surprises. But um it took a while to get done, but I'm really happy with it. Uh there you can it will list all episodes that we have available, it will list all tags of all episodes, and you can actually find episodes by those tags.
Um, so I'm going to be adding on to that a little bit later with some additional functionality. Uh, but the other nice thing about it is uh I have incorporated discuss message boards. So if you are so inclined, if you would like to uh spark up uh conversations with me online or with anyone else who happens to join, then uh please do so. Uh I think it would be a lot of fun to uh get some uh live feedback uh on each episode and actually see what people think, and uh you can also contact us directly there uh and submit um feedback or responses, uh etc. So I hope you like that.
So I started off by taking a little bit of a hiatus to finish that out uh because I'm a developer, I love getting to develop, and I actually played with some new technologies in getting this site uh up and going, and uh that's all I could kind of obsess about for a little bit. Once I finished that, um I went one day to turn on my computer and it would not turn on. I had a hard drive failure, so I said, Okay, well, um I've only got quite a few other computers around here.
Uh went to my super big desktop, which I custom built and went to turn it on, and same thing, uh hard drive failure all at the same time, uh, which is either the dark powers of the universe have um really uh conspired to work hard to jinx all of my electronics because they were so bad and mad about me actually uh talking about them, or much more likely, um I have put a lot of stress on my computers during the winter.
Uh see my um my family is Japanese and uh the Japanese are firmly in love with all four seasons, uh, which means that during the winter we do not use heat, and during the summer um we don't use air conditioning all that much. Um I have since negotiated with my wife to allow me to use the air uh a lot, uh otherwise I would be oozing sweaty puzzle puddles uh behind me whenever I would happen to walk. But uh during the winter we normally don't use any heat whatsoever, except for when it gets truly bitterly cold, in which case um I have a floor heater down here in my office, which I'll turn on.
Uh but if someone happens to turn on the microwave at the same time, then poof uh everything turns off and I have to reset the breaker box. And that happened quite a few times, and I have not been quite smart enough to actually get a um uh a backup system for that. So, anyway, took me a little bit to actually get everything up and going again, and right after I had done that, I uh actually uh started to go through the process of finding a new job.
Uh where I was wasn't um quite offering up the opportunities which I wanted, and so began that process and actually had a lot of hits and finally accepted an offer. And I am now in my second week at my new gig, and just to let everyone know, um I'm a workaholic by nature. Um it doesn't take much for me to uh for those symptoms to flare up, and starting a new job, hitting the ground running, and making sure that um I'm worth my money uh is always a way to uh to make that flare up. So I've been putting in copious amounts of hours and trying to get all of that going.
But now I have finally gotten all of my files back onto my uh my uh tower computer and I can now proceed forward. So uh I really appreciate y'all bearing with me during this time. Um now that I have the website up, I'm actually going to be able to broadcast if there's going to be any kind of a delay. Um and there might be uh just for this weekend uh because I'm gonna have some family coming up and I want to be able to spend some time with them, but um I do anticipate getting a uh a new episode out at least by Monday or so.
Uh but any uh further updates will be found on the website, which is convenient, thank goodness, and it's a great way for me to advertise it. So woo-hoo! Anyway, um enough about that. The other main update that I want to provide is I have been so touched by everybody writing to me. Um actually my um my new uh email buddy Carl and his uh fiance, they wrote me to tell me that they have actually gotten married now. So congratulations. That just uh that made me so happy to actually read that.
Um and I've had quite a few others to uh email me and uh say that how they've enjoyed the show or wondering if I'm still alive and gonna be uh pumping out some new episodes. So for everyone who took the moment to to write, I really do appreciate it. Um so we will be back on a regular schedule now, so uh uh please look forward to that and I think we're gonna have some fun going forward.
The last thing, uh just in terms of general updates that I want to go over, is um I've actually have been looking at uh SoundCloud statistics and wouldn't you know I have actually so the total plays for this podcast uh have now reached almost to twelve hundred. That is staggering to me. So when I started this podcast, it was not in the hopes of becoming famous, which wouldn't happen, uh or at least internet famous, which I have zero desire for. It would be nice if some, you know, side money came in, but that's not what I was after either.
This was really an avenue for me to a talk about some passions that I have, and B, um be able to actually put some of my education in use. Uh 'cause really besides writing some uh you know some small programming items for translation or for OCR, um, I really haven't done all that much. And i it it's been amazing just to be able to dig up some of this old knowledge that's been kind of rattling in the back of my head. But uh the main aspect that I've come to enjoy is this community.
Uh having people reach out to be able to connect with others and to go over some of these items, it's it's been truly amazing to me. So uh for I know I'll always say thank you because I I really do appreciate it, but I I just want to say it one more time. For those that have listened in, who have contacted me or lurked in the shadows, or whatever it may be, I appreciate you.
And if there's ever anything that I can do in terms of talking about um, you know, topics that interest you or uh discussing some uh further details about something that we've already covered, or just to say hi, whatever it is, um, please reach out because I'm always here. Uh I always have my phone in my hand, and um I I would love to hear from you. So uh one bit of bad news is that we are not going to go over the main topic that we've covered um in previous times, uh, which is the uh third episode uh for um for the idea of the demonic.
Um rather we're going to cover for the rest of this episode um a rather unique experience I had uh a weekend before last and go over some of the ideas behind that. Um and then we will pick up that third episode of the demonic next time. So I appreciate your forbearance. Uh we will be right back after this break. So this next bit is really inspired by my son. So he is uh just recently turned eleven, and it was pretty obvious a few years ago that he had inherited my love for all things horror. Whether it's monsters or scary movies or ghost stories or whatever, uh he is right there with me.
Now, he is entirely too young to watch most of the stuff, but a few years ago I had discovered this uh Japanese anime called Yami Shibai. And the they feat they're it's a very short form anime, only about five each episode's only about five minutes long. And they all tell ghost stories that are really very kid friendly. Um there's maybe two or three, primarily in the first season, that uh get a little freaky, uh, but by and far most of them are extremely uh kids friendly.
In fact, um uh TV Tokyo has recently picked up the series uh and has ran with it and bumped the production quality up a decent bit. Uh in fact, coincidentally, uh Monday uh the uh newest fifth season episode just aired and it was actually pretty good. But before I go way off on topic on that, um so my son would sit there and uh watch these things over and over and love them. So last summer when he was up here with me, uh uh I started looking on YouTube to uh find some additional videos that really would kind of freak him out.
Um and I first landed on um this uh one channel called um All Music Japan. And what it was is um they're all fake. Uh every single video of these are fake, but they're pretty long, they're about 30 minutes each, and they go through and they do these um hidden camera tricks. Um so you'll be looking at a picture of a car, and then all of a sudden out of the corner of your eye, you'll see a brief flash of mute of a of a visual, and it will usually be a ghost that is reflected in fog or smoke or in the window of a car or something else.
Um actually mo a lot of these have made their way uh onto Japanese talk shows, and for those who have never really seen one, they're typically they'll have an entire panel of celebrities, uh, anywhere from 3 to 30, and they will then show some uh interesting video, but they'll have one of the panelists or multiple panelists' faces uh up in the corner of the TV screen, and it will show their reactions live. So there's a lot of these types of videos, um, they've been very popular, so it's not surprising that people have started manufacturing their own in the exact same vein.
Um, so I showed a few of these to him, he really liked them, and then I started looking for some more believable paranormal videos that weren't too scary. Um, who among you are actually like really interested in ghost hunter videos or uh even just YouTube paranormal videos.
I used to be, like, for especially for the ghost hunter type things, um, the idea was really interesting, but then I became quickly disillusioned just because of the fact that in the back of my head I would think, well, if one of these groups had actually found something either A verifiable or B just truly freaky, I would not be hearing about it first on a episode of whatever show I'd happen to be watching. Uh it would be on the news, it would be uh in some, you know, uh article I found online or something else.
So I kind of abandoned those, but then I started finding some pretty good channels that would uh show some of the more recent um uh in uh paranormal videos that were making the rounds. Um one of these channels was the Boo Review. So it's these two two or really if you count Nathan three guys um from Mississippi who sit there and catalog and review all of these uh videos that their viewers would send to them or they would just find um on the internet. And it's a really good blend of like true analytical case studies, and they blend that with humor and uh some gag props, etc.
So it although it's been kind of losing steam as of late, um, just because I think some of their humor has been like really forced or uh just kind of taking a back seat. But still it's it it's really good. And so I went from there and found a couple of other channels, etc. But this um this highlight of uh ghostly videos or pictures or uh just investigations has really been kind of ticking in the back of my head. Um I would love to actually go off and do some uh minor investigations along this front.
Um of course I have no none of the equipment and I have none of the experience, but for me it would be more about the thrill of actually getting to go somewhere that actually could have some paranormal activity to it. Um I really love that kind of a concept. And uh in fact, m my my mom, who is very much not a horror fan, but whenever we talk, um she'll keep me updated if she's heard anything really kind of creepy.
Uh for example, in uh in a town that's very close to where I grew up, which is called Van Lair, it's about well then it was about 400 people, now it's probably more like uh six or eight, eight hundred. But um there's been a uh house that a um that was bought and is being renovated, and the contractor who was doing it uh would come into uh the workplace where my mom is and tell about some of the really freaky things that they've found.
Uh you know, when workers are in there, they'll have they'll hear uh voices, they will hear uh footsteps everywhere, uh they'll find items being moved, uh kind of your prototypical poltergeist kind of activity. Uh and that's not the only uh example. There's another house in White Bluff, which is um about thirty minutes away. And they've that town has actually had quite a few legends. One of them uh is the goat man. Uh but there there is a house in which very similar kind of activities have been reported. So it's not a one-off.
Um and I've often thought about getting to do this, but this weekend, uh the weekend before last, uh I took my family down to Williamsburg, uh, because there was kind of an e uh a professional activity that we decided to join in. Uh but also it'd just be fun to for the kids to get out and uh get away from their studying for a while and actually be able to kick back and relax some.
And uh I actually got to do a really minor version of some of these things that I've been wanting to do and it was a lot of fun and actually had something pretty strange happen uh which I am very much looking forward to uh sharing with y'all for those who don't know Williamsburg is a very historic city um in fact it kind of capitalizes upon that historicity uh to be almost a tourist trap but it is a nice place uh it's the home of William and Mary uh there's a a lot of uh historical buildings you have Colonial Williamsburg which is a uh historic uh recreation kind of village where you can pay and get in and walk around how a um how it used to be in colonial times etc so what we did was that night uh when we were there I uh actually purchased tickets to a ghost tour because I thought it would be interesting to a learn a little bit about the more about the history of the town but even more uh just to be able to hear some uh fun ghost stories with my wife as we tour around some of the more uh historic locations there so we get there and the tour guides uh really nice very articulate uh takes us into uh the College of William and Mary uh tells us a few uh ghost stories about uh some of the earliest buildings right there in the uh entrance to the quad and then we proceed uh down uh to this uh large green patch which is uh located right near the uh governor's palace which is a recreation of that building and uh tells a few stories there and then moves us to the very last location which is supposed to be the most haunted place in Williamsburg.
Let me start off by saying that Williamsburg has truly capitalized upon every facet of its history especially when it comes to ghost tours uh colonia Williamsburg has um uh two different types of ghost tours but then if you go to uh theghost tour dot com I believe it is uh then you'll find a company which does a variety of these different things so in fact they are so popular um we walked by probably a good ten or fifteen different groups uh and they're all being ran by different companies the one thing that they all kind of shared in common was the tour guide would have a uh either a plat plastic or glass lantern in which they actually used real candles inside and that's what they would hold up so you could keep track of where your tour guide is.
Only problem is is that there's a lot of these going on all at the same time.
So why we uh when we went to that last stop on the tour there was another group that was already there and the first thing that I heard was yes unsolved mysteries uh covered this place uh back in the late 80s and they found a lot of really interesting stuff and our tour guide gets us a little bit away from them and says don't believe a word of that uh unsolved uh Williams the city of Williamsburg would never allow unsolved mysteries to come in and cover one of its own properties uh and they definitely have never been here have never covered anything um like that but after that little preamble he then went through kind of a really interesting rundown of all of the deaths that this house had had uh it had um little boys died in it uh it it had um fires it had a whole bunch of different stuff but the one thing that the tour guy said that w really kind of caught my attention was a lot of people have problems photographing this place.
He said that um sometimes people would take photos and the house would simply never show up or it would be obscured by something. Um he said one time a few years ago uh he was given the tour a girl took a couple of photographs on her cell phone turned and looked at them screamed and threw her phone down the road. Now he didn't know what was on it and it was probably just a really good story and not really based in fact but something strange did happen.
So I I will set the picture it was a very hot and humid evening uh to the point where if you walked outside at least for me uh I would be instantly covered in sweat and walking around in this very hot uh atmosphere was not a pleasant experience to say the least but when I went to take photos of his house I was only able to get one photo that actually kind of showed the residents. All of the rest of them were covered by an obscuring fog.
In fact in some others I actually caught a lot of um wisps of light which some people have um attributed to um spectral lights uh some people have attributed to bugs flashing across the camera lens. I'm not really sure what it was. Um so I was taking all of this with my uh my Google Pixel phone and it was really kind of bizarre. Um I took probably a good fifteen different shots and anytime there was a um there wasn't a light source involved then there was a very thick fog which was not visible to the human eye uh that would cover the entire building.
If there was a light source then you could see that portion of the house okay but every other shot was completely obscured. So a few theories. It could be that um I would say that it could have just been my uh camera lens being foggy on my phone, but I uh specifically wiped it beforehand uh a couple of different times so I don't think it could have been that. It could have been the humidity and moisture in the air uh was deliberately being picked up uh because there wasn't a clear light source for some of these. And that could also be the case.
But I didn't encounter this at any other location while I was there. So it could have been something with that particular spot or it it could actually be something kind of supernatural.
I I don't know uh I am going to upload these to the website uh when I cover this story I've just got to build in that functionality first which won't take but uh a couple of days uh really take an hour but with my work schedule I'm not quite sure if I'm gonna get around to doing that anytime uh this week but and that way you can take a look for yourselves um I I don't hold any high hopes that this is something that falls outside of the realm of the uh of of uh scient of the of science but for me I mean this is my very first kind of experience um and the tour guide kept saying oh you know a lot of people have captured you know figures and windows etc so I thought wow it would be really cool if my first time out I actually got something and this could just be a gigantic stretch of the imagination but it was a lot of fun uh I truly enjoyed it so I might seek out some groups around here uh that do this kind of work and uh see if I can tag along not that I can really add too much but uh it was a really fun kind of experience so if anyone is in the uh Virginia neck of the woods and would like to try it or have tried it uh and have experienced anything uh please let me know I would love to hear some of your experiences it doesn't have to be about Williamsburg it can be anything um I went so I'm not from Virginia of course I've covered that uh but I did go to college here and now I'm living up here so uh it would be great to hear about any kind of experiences that people have had so that is going to wrap up this episode um I know it hasn't been too exciting I apologize for that but I definitely wanted to get a lot of these updates out of the way and an apology for being away for as long as I have and um I will try not to ever let that happen again but if something does come up now you can go to a location to find out what in the world is happening which is southerndemonology.
com thank you all again for listening and I will join y'all next week I hope y'all have had a uh great uh July 4th this has been Southern Demonology please feel free to contact us at southerndemonology at gmail.com we hope that you join us again for our next episode ProFootball is back and so are the predictions trade yours on CalC America's number one prediction market platform indie takes on Kansas City with Indy currently trading at 28% to win a $100 trade pays out $336 if they win.
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