The Nonsense Bazaar

Ever wondered if your mind can do more than ruin your life? Did you know at one time you could get a degree in  ESP and psychokinesis? This week we're taking a broad overview of the real world of academic parapsychology. From the married-botanists-turned-married-parapsychologists J.B. and Louisa Rhine and the founding of the Duke University Parapsychology lab to the 21st-century psychic experiments at the Rhine Research Center, and testing our own psychic powers, we couldn't really decide what this episode is really about. Call it Parapsychology 101. Can we really create photons with our brains? Do our unmet psychological needs make reality suck more? We address these questions and much more. Keep us ad-free and away from starting our own psychic hotline by supporting us on Patreon. You'll get access to bonus episodes and our patron Discord server, and you'll feel better about yourself than you do now. Maybe.  https://patreon.com/thenonsensebazaar

What do you get when you cross sleeping pills with the tail end of the LSD molecule? Ambien! The miracle cure for insomnia taken by millions of Americans every year that definitely doesn't make your entire frontal lobe completely vanish while the rest of you walks around doing weird stuff. Stuff like perhaps taking a drive down the wrong side of the highway, start frying eggs in the middle of the night in a full body cast, and many other activities both hilarious and terrifying that you'll never remember even if you live through them. Ambien is an incredibly strange chemical, not just because of the sensational side effects that get people in a lot of trouble, but also because it truly does seem to be a miracle cure, not for insomnia but for brain damage. Ambien seems to allow neurons that stopped firing because of some type of damage to start turning back on and firing again. It's an incredibly strange chemical. And it's even stranger that this stuff is just being given out as a sleep aid. Keep The Nonsense Bazaar ad-free and away from ever considering slinging research chemicals on behalf of big-pharma by joining our Patreon. You'll get access to bonus episodes and our patron Discord server starting at just $5 a month!   https://patreon.com/thenonsensebazaar

Who among us hasn't had apocalyptic visions with a head full of mushrooms? Terrence sure did. This week we're looking at one of the pillars of the legendary psychedelic evangelist's cosmology: Timewave Zero. After Terrence McKenna and his brother Dennis had their noggins rocked by psilocybe cubensis mushrooms in Colombia, Terrence returned from the jungle with "some funny ideas," ideas around a self-similar fractal waveform, calculated through doing fancy wizard math on the I-Ching, the ancient Chinese divination system. According to McKenna the resulting waveform could be overlayed on top of human history and showed a steady, relentless march towards a point of infinite novelty, infinite newness, the eschaton. And this eschaton, according to Mckanna, was set to arrive "on time and under budget" on...December 21, 2012. Spoiler alert: it didn't. But that doesn't make the ideas within Timewave Zero any less relevant, worth talking about, or poetically true. And hey, maybe the apocalypse did happen in 2012 and this is all just our hallucinatory death dream. You really never know.  Increase the density of novelty in our lives by joining our Patreon. You'll get access to bonus episodes, our patron Discord server, and you'll keep The Nonsense Bazaar ad-free. All for just $5 a month! https://patreon.com/thenonsensebazaar

Who among us didn't have at least a touch of the mad scientist fantasy as a kid, right? Most of us, probably. And who among us failed to ever have anything come of it? Most of us, probably. Not David Hahn. David Hahn had himself a notion to build a fast breeder nuclear reactor in his mother's potting shed. And by golly, he did. By cobbling together stolen fire alarms, camping lanterns, and parts financed by selling stolen hubcaps, along with a whole lot of good old-fashioned bullshitting, David Hahn managed to build a small, functional, fast breeder nuclear reactor before he was out of high school. Neighbors said sometimes they'd even see a flashing green glow coming from the old potting shed. Part celebration of mad genius, part tragedy and cautionary tale, the story of the so-called "radioactive boy scout" is a tale of complementarity: it can be all those things, depending on how you look at it.  As soon as we get well and truly paid, we too will build a superweapon. If you want to speed up that ticking clock, throw us some Patreon bones. You'll get access to bonus episodes and our patron-exclusive Discord server for just $5 / month! https://patreon.com/thenonsensebazaar

Admit it, there aren't nearly enough creatures in your life. Weird creatures, cute creatures, mean creatures, there's a whole wide world of creatures out there. And today we're talking about three of them. And with a subtitle like "Water Monsters," you might be thinking we're talking mythical beasts, Nessie's or Champ's or the Kraken. Nope. We're talking real live creatures, but these dudes are most certainly monsters. In this episode, we talk about three animals each with attributes that most certainly qualify them as monsters (especially considering the etymological root of "monster" that Willow digs up), the electric eel, the Greenland shark, and the mimic octopus. Why those three? Because they're sweet as hell, that's why. Good creatures, the lot of 'em.    Join our Patreon and help us build our own menagerie. Buy us an octopus and keep us ad-free. You'll get access to bonus episodes and our Patron Discord server all for just $5 a month.   https://patreon.com/thenonsensebazaar 

Sometime during the 20th century, hot dogs became forever linked with an American pastime—Competitive eating—and with the most American holiday, the Fourth of July. One could argue that the business of “major league eating” is everything wrong with consumer capitalism. Because it is. However, today we'll be taking time to celebrate the absurdity of it all by discovering how Nathan's Fourth of July hot dog contest began and why it persists. Keep The Nonsense Bazaar ad-free and away from debasement on a Coney Island boardwalk by joining our Patreon! You'll get access to our bonus series The Corkboard Bizarre and our Patron Discord server for just $5 a month.    https://patreon.com/thenonsensebazaar

These days you can't shake a stick without running into some version of Gnostic Christianity. Why is that?  Gnosticism is absolutely wild and psychedelic, that plays a part. But did counterculture collectively decide one day that Gnosticism was pretty groovy? Well, apart from fragments of texts, writings about Gnosticism from the Catholic church's perspective (heresy!), and underground currents of mystic knowledge, mainstream culture didn't really know anything about what the Gnostics believed until the discovery of the Nag Hammadi Codices, a jar of 13 papyrus scrolls containing 52 books from Gnosticism, Hermeticism, and other mystic traditions. The collection was discovered in Egypt, 1946 by a pair of probable graverobbers, and wouldn't be fully translated and published until the 1970s. This week we're going to look at some core texts and definitely get some stuff wrong as we explore Gnosticism and the Nag Hammadi Codices.  Help us get a JSTOR subscription and get less stuff wrong by joining our Patreon, where you'll get access to bonus episodes and our patron Discord server, all for just 5 shmucks a month.    https://patreon.com/thenonsensebazaar

Sequoyah had to deal with some rough stuff this week so in lieu of chaining him to his keyboard and squeezing an episode out of him like an old citrus, we're unlocking an episode of our bonus series where we dive into the weird, disturbing, and hilarious world of internet tulpamancy. What's a tulpa? Well a tulpa (aka "tupper," apparently) is a thoughtform entity created by the power of belief that gains external agency and sentience. It's a concept from esoteric Tibetan Buddhism by way of Theosophy. But we're not talking about that side of it. We're talking about kids on 4chan learning how to break their brains in the pursuit of fun and profit. It's usually neither, in the end.   

Who among us can honestly say we've never been tempted to fake our own deaths? You know, get away from it all, start over as fresh as a newborn babe. Today we'll be looking at individuals who were pronounced dead only to miraculously come back or, in the case of Kaycee Nicole Swenson, who never existed in the first place. From England's 'Canoe Man' to the ridiculously dressed Violet Charlesworth to Lil Tay, you'll learn why faking a death is not a very smart thing to do. Pay us so we don't have to commit fraud and you'll also get access to our bonus series The Corkboard Bizarreas well as access to our patron Discord server all for just $5 a month! https://patreon.com/thenonsensebazaar 

We had a weird day. So this week we're talking about some of the things we've been thinking about recently: nature, defiant optimism, Catholic UFO propaganda, how Willow thought Sequoyah went missing but he was actually just napping, and much more. The state of the union is strong... and ridiculous.  Support The Nonsense Bazaar on Patreon and get access to our bonus series The Corkboard Bizarre and our patron Discord server starting at just $5 a month! https://patreon.com/thenonsensebazaar

This week It's a touch of the ol' divine madness in Middle America as we take a look at the highly entertaining and very American art form of revival preaching. From the big top on the frontier to Aimee McPherson, the sexiest preacher who's ever lived, to Oral Roberts' saying God was going to kill him if he didn't get eight million dollars, the tradition of the revival is a type of performance art in a league of its own. It also fills a pretty interesting role in culture. We also learn a whole lot about the very, very American form of Christian mysticism: Pentecostalism, AKA the flavor of Christianity closest to being bombed out of your mind on designer drugs at a warehouse rave. That's just a true statement. Jesus wants you to give us money too. So join our Patreon and for just $5 a month you'll get our bonus series The Corkboard Bizarre and access to our patron Discord server. You won't get healed. You won't be better off. But we will. And isn't that what counts? https://patreon.com/thenonsensebazaar

Finding yourself with one foot in reality and the other in dreamland is frightening, especially if you were alive in the 1940s when the solution was to remove all your memories by either drilling a hole in your head or hooking your brain up to the medical equivalent of a car battery. Today's episode takes us back to that time to explore a book of case studies titled Oneirophrenia and how the author, a physician named Ladislas Meduna, sought treatment for these patients. Know what keeps us engaged in the waking world? Cold hard cash. It also keeps The Nonsense Bazaar ad-free. Join our Patreon for just $5 a month and get access to our bonus series The Corkboard Bizarre and our patron Discord server. https://patreon.com/thenonsensebazaar

You know how they say you shouldn't stare at the sun because you'll go blind? Well, what if that's just what they want you to think? What if the secrets to immortality, an enlarged pineal gland, not needing to eat food, and not needing to wear a shirt on your youtube videos were all unlocked by simply...staring at the damn sun? Welcome to the "ancient" practice of sungazing. Where you stare down the sun until you receive magic powers. Is it an ancient practice? Will you go blind? Is it as stupid as it sounds? And didn't the sun used to be a different color? All these questions and more we will attempt to answer as we explore the world of sungazing.  Keep the Nonsense Bazaar ad-free and away from temptation in all its forms when you sign up for our Patreon. Starting at just $5 a month you'll get access to our bonus series The Corkboard Bizarre, as well as access to our patron Discord server.  https://patreon.com/thenonsensebazaar

Tiny Tim was once one of the most famous men in America. Everything about him was a spectacle. From his trembling falsetto to his odd mannerisms, it's easy to see how he became America's laughingstock. Most people know him as an entertainer but what about as a husband? While tabloids took shots at Tiny, he was taking shots of his own--at the teenage wife he married on The Tonight Show. She wouldn't be his only wife, however, as he'd go on to marry twice more! Tune in to learn all about the man who tiptoed through the tulips and what kind of lover he was. Tiny Tim got paid a little bit for making a fool of himself, why not us? Support The Nonsense Bazaar on Patreon and keep us ad-free and away from ill-advised cover albums. You'll get access to our private Discord server and our subscriber series The Corkboard Bizarre. This week we're talking DMT hyperspace and that time Ebay straight-up psyop'd a middle-aged couple who ran a slightly critical e-commerce blog. All this for just $5 a month.  https://patreon.com/thenonsensebazaar

This week we're telling a story that is very much not our normal fare here at the bazaar: a ghost story, a true-crime murder case, and a courtroom drama. But it also happens to be exactly what we're about. The story of the Greenbrier ghost is often told in the context of "that time an encounter with a spirit was used as evidence in a trial." But that doesn't really do the story justice. After 22-year-old Zona Heaster was found dead under mysterious circumstances, her mother Mary Jane Heaster claimed to have an encounter with Zona's ghost who told her exactly what happened. This story directly led to the arrest, conviction, and death of Zona's husband: Erasmus Stribbling Trout Shue, whose character was indeed commensurate with his name.  Support The Nonsense Bazaar on Patreon and get access to our bonus show The Corkboard Bizarre, as well as our patron-exclusive Discord server. It keeps us ad-free and will eventually buy us some weird, weird gadgets.  https://patreon.com/thenonsensebazaar

We're traveling to the past to explore the careers of two game show greats: Ralph “Nobody knows who I am anymore” Edwards and Chuck “They made a movie about me” Barris. Between the two of them, they're responsible for some of the most famous game shows of the 20th century including Truth or Consequences and The Newlywed Game. We'll learn how their creations altered the media landscape of the 20th century and discuss the possibility of game show hosts secretly having double lives as assassins. We also learn about a Victorian party game called "Forfeits" that we all need to put a solid effort into helping make a comeback. It's fantastic.  Keep The Nonsense Bazaar ad-free and continuing to embarrass ourselves in front of The Public by joining our Patreon, where you'll get access to our bonus series The Corkboard Bizarre (this week we're talking about Tulpas!) and you'll get access to our Patron discord server. All for the low, low price of $5 a month.  

Did you know that all of history is nothing but a bald faced lie? That the entire generally accepted arc of history has been fabricated to keep you, dear listener, from realizing your God-given birthright to fancy architecture, free energy and flying turtles? That there used to be a globe-spanning supercivilization with magic sound technology, strong jaws, and craftsmanship and artistry that we can't even come close to approximating in this fallen age of ours? And did you know that the evidence of this great, wonderful, and "fun, fun, fun loving" civilization is quite literally all around us? And unlike the Atlanteans and Lemurians, this lost globe spanning supercivilization with free energy technology was destroyed not thousands of years ago...but in 1850. Friends, welcome to the dumbest show on Earth. Welcome to Tartaria.  Support The Nonsense Bazaar, keep us ad free and far away from Tartaria by joining our Patreon! For only $5 a month, you'll get access to bonus content, our private discord server, and a deep, lasting sense of satisfaction, abundance, and grace.    https://patreon.com/thenonsensebazaar

This week we're taking a look at the curious history of one Charles Entertainment Cheese, a robot who claims to be “America's favorite rat” and built a cardboard-flavored pizza empire which heralded the cybernetic colonization of our childhoods and traumatized generations with animatronic animals dug straight out of the uncanny valley.  We look at the history of Charles Cheese and the various personas he's inhabited, from rude cigar smoking gangster rat, to rockstar orphan mouse,  the rivalry between Chuck E. Cheese and Showbiz Pizza, the incredibly odd persistent fandom and the ill-advised Chuck E. Cheese live action sci-fi film. We also look at the history of animatronics, from their inception to their role in keeping asses in pizza parlor seats, and how pizza and animatronics collided in 1970's California and gave birth to the eldritch terror that is Chuck E. Cheese.  Pay us and we won't send the rats after you. What's more you'll get access to bonus episodes and our patron Discord server starting at just $5 a month.  https://patreon.com/thenonsensebazaar

We're headed back to one of our favorite centuries to talk about one of the most famous UFO cases in history. Well, at least on the History Channel. The 1561 "celestial phenomenon over Nuremberg, Germany" entered modern consciousness by way of that spooky Swiss psychologist Carl Jung who wrote about this odd woodcut broadsheet describing a day in April 1561 when the sky filled with all sorts of strange, unidentified objects. Balls and rods and shafts of many colors (primarily "blood"), great big black triangles, swarming the skies and seemingly doing battle in what was, at the time, thought to be a revelation and warning from God signaling the end times. Of course, now we're past all that silly superstition now, we know the truth...it's aliens. Or...do we?  And what is it with revolutions in information technology always signaling apocalyptic mindsets and madness?  Support The Nonsense Bazaar on Patreon and keep us ad free and away from having to do propaganda for the Lutherans! You'll get access to our bonus show The Corkboard Bizarre, as well as access to our private Discord server. Starting at just $5 a month! https://patreon.com/thenonsensebazaar

On today's episode we're taking a look at some of the rather silly psychic experiments conducted by the folks over at the Center for Inquiry, a non-profit organization dedicated to stopping the spread of nonsense and promoting reason and skepticism. We'll learn about the founder Paul Kurtz, secular humanism, ol' James Randi, and their history of legal battles against the most famous spoon bender in history, Uri Geller. They claim to be skeptics but are they actually haters? Or are we? Listen and find out!

This week we're taking a look at one of the oldest and most influential epic poems in the world. Bhagavad Gita is the centerpiece of the much, much longer Sanskrit epic poem Mahabharata and has had a huge influence on culture and spirituality the world over. It's also just wicked cool. Taking the form of a dialogue between the god Krishna and the heroic prince Arjuna right before a massive battle is about to pop off, the Gita has a lot of stuff to say about the right ways to live but also has some of the wildest and most powerful passages you'll hear. So we're going through some selections from the Bhagavd Gita and  talking about what it has to say, as well as how it says it.  Support The Nonsense Bazaar on Patreon as an act of worship and with no thought for the fruit of such an action.  There are fruits though. We have a bonus series, as well as a private Discord. And you'll get access to that for just $5 a month! https://patreon.com/thenonsensebazaar 

If you're at all into the paranormal or supernatural you've heard the name Charles Fort. After all, his name has become synonymous with the study of anomalous phenomena, or "Fortean" phenomena. He basically invented the genre. Over the course of four books published towards the end of his life Charles Fort documented hundreds of cases of strange doings: fish falls, mysterious airships, teleportation, and much more, while arguing for a radically agnostic perspective on life and reality: we don't know anything. But who was Charles Fort? Well he was a soft-spoken weirdo of a writer and a jokester, at times a quiet homebody and at others hopping trains and ships and travelling the world, even dueling a fellow in South Africa. More than anything, though, Charles Fort was a writer and a hell of a writer at that. He was an artist with a love of language who used language to break open people's minds well before they were ready for it. Charles Fort absolutely rules. Because we forgot to say it in the episode, our main source is Charles Fort: The Man Who Invented The Supernatural by Jim Steinmeyer. It's great, go read it.  If you like what we do, you can support the show, keep us ad free, and get access to bonus content and our Discord server by joining our Patreon, starting at just $5 dollars a month. That's like one bag of chips and it'll make our day. You know you want to.  https://patreon.com/thenonsensebazaar

Who the hell is Greta Garbo? From her alleged espionage endeavors with plans to assassinate Hitler to passionate secret lesbian romances, this Old Hollywood icon lived a life worth discussing (although she would hate that we are doing so). Her intense desire for privacy over fame led her to quit acting at a young age but that didn't stop the media from being obsessed with her, particularly her dietary habits, love life, and the adventures she got into with her dietician Gaylord Hauser. Garbo is the paradox of a woman both revered and misunderstood, and you'll never believe what she kept under her couch. Give us money so we don't have to sell ourselves to the Jim Henson Company and join our Patreon for our bonus series The Corkboard Bizarre and access to the Unintelligence Agency on Discord    https://www.patreon.com/thenonsensebazaar

We're takin' it a bit easy this week and talking about something close to home: vampires! Specifically, the so-called "New England Vampire Panic" of the 1800s. Before vampires were sexy, they were something else entirely: the reanimated corpses of your friends and family who preyed upon the living and threatened to pull entire communities down into the grave with them. In New England, and very especially in Rhode Island, this type of vampire haunted small villages all the way until the very end of the 1800's. Meaning that even at the time of the "last New England vampire," Mercy Brown, it was played for laughs in the papers. The truth though is that the blood-sucking living dead has always represented the fears that people deal with at any given time, and the macabre rites and rituals to combat the vampires represent our species-wide drive to do something, anything, to keep the illusion of control, even when we know it's only an illusion.  If you're a fan of the show, why not fork out some of your own blood to us, metaphorically, by joining our Patreon? Unlike the vampire, we'll actually give you something in return: our bonus series The Corkboard Bizarre and access to our patron Discord server. Starting at the low, low price of just $5 a month. https://patreon.com/thenonsensebazaar

It finally happened, we lost our damn minds. In honor of No-Nut November, today's episode will explore the concept of Semen Retention (aka gaining magic powers and solving all of life's problems by not jerking off) by looking at online communities, exploring the religious foundations behind the idea, and speaking to two individuals who actually practice it. Support The Nonsense Bazaar on Patreon and get access to our bonus series The Corkboard Bizarre and access to our private Discord server starting at only $5 a month!   https://www.patreon.com/thenonsensebazaar

What do you think of when you hear the term "cybernetics"? Well there's a solid chance you're wrong. This week we're taking a high level overview of an intellectual Swiss Army Knife that rewired the way we think about everything from economics to ecology, psychology to semiotics.  In this episode, we'll unravel the genius of Norbert Wiener, the surprisingly sympathetic mathematician who gave cybernetics its name and set the course for a science of control and communication. We also dissect the Macy Conferences, where mathematicians like John Von Neuman and anthropologists like Margaret Mead attempted to hash out a universal language for understanding systems across disciplines and may or may not have set the stage for things like, ya know, MK-Ultra and associated devils. Cybernetics is cool as hell though.    By supporting The Nonsense Bazaar on Patreon you provide us with the feedback which prevents us from resorting to…other means. You also get access to our bonus series The Corkboard Bizarre and our private Discord server. Do it. You know you want to.  https://patreon.com/thenonsensebazaar

Today we're taking a look at one of the wildest, most enduring hoaxes of all time—The Taxil Hoax. Ever wondered why Freemasons are a magnet for conspiracy theories? In the 1890s, a French prankster named Leo Taxil tricked the Vatican into believing that Luciferian Freemasons were plotting world domination. We'll trace how Taxil's grand illusion unfolded, from his time as a schoolboy to his time pretending to be Diana Vaughan—a fabricated Grand Mistress descended from a 17th-century Rosicrucian. Through pseudonyms and theatrics, Taxil made a hoax so compelling that people today still believe in Palladism, the imaginary secret Luciferian society inside Freemasonry.   Keep us ad free, keep us sad free and get access to our bonus series The Corkboard Bizarre and our private Discord server when you support us on Patreon! https://patreon.com/thenonsensebazaar

This week we're taking a look at the stories of three legendary trickster spirits: the ever-sly Coyote of North American folklore, the web-weaving Anansi from West African tales, and the amorphous (but usually rabbit-eared) Nanabozho from Ojibwe legends. What does it mean when something is a "trickster"? Are they always out to steal your lunch money? Why are they always intrinsically linked to humanity itself? Maybe the trickster archetype is less of a con-artist and more of a lesson in how to dance with a chaotic and changing world. Give us your lunch money and keep The Nonsense Bazaar ad-free while getting access to our bonus series The Corkboard Bizarre and our private discord server when you join our Patreon starting at just $5 a month. https://patreon.com/thenonsensebazaar

Today we're diving into the multidimensional world of "Path of Sweetness”, one of the strangest books we've featured on this podcast. It was written by a woman named Joy Elaine who has had many hobbies throughout her life: body building, orchid growing, and playing the violin to name a few. It wasn't until later in life when she was introduced to New Age healing modalities that an entire world opened up for Joy, a world full of ascended masters, angels, fairies, and…a lover in the Ashtar Command. Could your soul mate be waiting for you in a 10th dimensional spaceship? Find out on today's episode!   Keep us on the path of sweetness and advertising free by singing up for our Patreon where you'll get access to our bonus series The Corkboard Bizarre as well as access to our private Discord server starting at just $5 a month! https://patreon.com/thenonsensebazaar

The KLF, aka The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu were the best selling singles band in the world for a period in the 1990s. Their last single featured Tammy Wynette, the "First Lady of Country Music", in what would be her last chart topping hit. They were pioneers in sampling and house music, but you've likely never heard of them. Why? Because in 1992, after being honored at the Brit awards, they fired a machine gun full of blanks into the crowd, deleted their entire catalog, and resurfaced a short time later only to tour a film of the two members of the KLF, Bill Drummond and Jimmy Cauty, methodically lighting their last one million pounds on fire in an abandoned house in remote Scotland, then they disappeared back into the ether (not exactly, but it's a better story that way). The KLF are, whatever else they might be,  are an example of just what you can get away with when you get wrapped up in Discordianism, the real/fake religion that worships Eris, the goddess of chaos, invented the illuminati, and which some suspect had something to do with the assassination of JFK. It's all very silly. But most importantly, The KLF absolutely rule.  We need money to burn, and you can help us do that while getting access to our bonus series The Corkboard Bizarre, as well as our private Discord server where we do most of our online hanging out by supporting us on Patreon https://patreon.com/thenonsensebazaar

This week we're looking at the reign (and dysfunctional family) Holy Roman Emperor Rudolph II, the sadboi emperor. Rudolph II was a patron of the arts while also showing a keen interest in alchemy and the occult. A good emperor, however, he was not, preferring to amass a monstrous collection of curiosities in art, science, alchemy and esoterica to actually doing anything. We look at where Rudolph came from and what may have lead him to choose a life of escapism and interesting knick-knacks over ever actually making hard decisions. You can help the Nonsense Bazaar keep the sad away by joining our Patreon where you'll get access to bonus episodes and our Discord server for only $5 a month.   https://www.patreon.com/thenonsensebazaar    

We're here. The finale and Aum Shinrikyo's Armageddon extravaganza. Aum has now fully transformed itself into a true paramilitary death cult with commando units, an  "Intelligence Ministry" multiple weapons factories for all the different types of weapons, conventional, chemical, biological, you name it. Most importantly, they have "The Wizard", a chemical weapons factory that, among other implements of death, produced two of the most horrifying and deadly chemical weapons known to man: Sarin and VX Nerve Agent. Shoko and the gang have their sights set on a series of insane plans to bring about the end of the world, all culminating in the infamous 1995 Tokyo Subway sarin gas attacks, which in turn will lead to the fall of Shoko Asahara and the rest of the Aum leadership. But not, amazingly, the fall of Aum Shinrikyo as a religion.    Get access to our bonus series The Corkboard Bizarre and join the TNB Unintelligence Agency on Discord by supporting The Nonsense Bazaar on Patreon. Your support keeps us from pullin' a Shoko, as they say.  https://patreon.com/thenonsensebazaar

Look, we warned you it was going to get bad. Following their totally unpredictable complete loss in the parliamentary election and the murder of the Sakamoto family, Shoko Asahara and Aum Shinrikyo begin the full-on militarization process that would ultimately lead to the 1995 Tokyo sarin gas attacks. But we're not there yet. First they need to experiment with other chemical and biological weapons, like botulism and anthrax. We also learn about how Aum got huge in Russia all in an attempt to buy weapons of mass destruction following the collapse of the Soviet Union, how Aum started making LSD, learned how to wipe people's memories with electricity, and the absolute horror show that was the Aum hospital. And much, too much more. It's not good. None of this is good.  Get access to our bonus series The Corkboard Bizarre and join the Unintelligence Agency on Discord when you sign up for our Patreon starting at just $5 a month! We weren't lying: when we hit our goal we will buy a God Helmet, and we will MK-ULTRA ourselves into being better people. https://patreon.com/thenonsensebazaar   

This week we're beginning the darkest story we've ever told here on The Nonsense Bazaar,, that of legendary Japanese death cult Aum Shinrikyo. But don't worry because it's as absurd as it is harrowing. And it is both to an extreme degree. Between 1987 and 1995, "blind" yoga instructor and quack medicine salesman Shoko Asahara did the hard work of turning a yoga school franchise into full-on sci-fi death cult that manufactured drugs, chemical and biological weapons, completely brainwashed and tortured their members resulting in many, many deaths, straight up murdered people, and culminated in the 1995 Tokyo Subway Sarin gas attack. In part one we take a look at how Shoko Asahara blended Buddhism, Tantra, and apocalyptic Christianity with sci-fi and anime and captured the hearts and minds of thousands of Japan's disaffected youth.   Keep us ad free, away from doing the bad bad thing and starting our own cult, get access to our bonus series The Corkboard Bizarre and our Discord server by supporting us on Patreon!  https://patreon.com/thenonsensebazaar  

We're back! Join us for a cosmic exploration of David K. Miller's Group of Forty, a meditation collective that promises a journey to the fifth dimension through…shimmering? Along with his wife Gudrun, Miller and his Group of Forty have pioneered techniques like "bio relativity" to heal Mother Earth and restore our personal feedback loop systems. From inconsistent accounts of channeling experiences to highly questionable Native American teachings, we'll unravel this nonsense and determine whether there's any substance beneath the surface or if Miller's cosmic plan is merely a far-fetched fantasy. Help us shimmer a little brighter, get access to our bonus series The Corkboard Bizarre and join the Unintelligence Agency on Discord when you support us on Patreon!   https://www.patreon.com/thenonsensebazaar

Doing that thing again where I ramble at you for way too long. Mostly about how much I hate UFOs. That's not true actually. I love UFOs and I love Uri Geller, but I hate UAPs. 

I wanted to do a remaster episode or two this week, but apparently my backup game is simply weak. So you're getting another Corkboard. Next week I might talk about UFOs while I drink whiskey If I can figure out what I even want to say other than like a muffled sob-scream. I can't wait to get back to regular episodes.  This week on the Corkboard, Willow auditions a new theme song, we learn about the seemingly common phenomenon of encountering the Easter Bunny, and we pop over to Gaia tv to find out what fresh hell they're pumping out now. It's Richard Doty talking about time portals on Cosmic Disclosure. That's the fresh hell they're pumping out.       

This week we're unlocking another episode of our bonus series, The Corkboard Bizarre and taking a look at the super spooky totally real and definitely not made up text at the core of Theosophy, the Stanzas of Dzyan. Referenced throughout Helena Blavatsky's magnum opus The Secret Doctrine, the Stanzas of Dzyan is allegedly the real, actual, secrets of how the universe was formed and functions. As a literary device, it's pretty cool in theory. But is it actually the whole truth and nothing but the truth? You can be the judge of that. At the very least, Theosophy remains just about the weirdest thing we've ever encountered. 

This week we're unlocking an episode of our Patreon bonus series The Corkboard Bizarre on the insane, highly detailed, and mind-numbing "Awakening Your Light Body" course that was mentioned in our episode on "The Bodysnatchers" that may have been the catalyst for driving Jennie Gosbell over the edge. We get some personal affirmations from the spirit world, listen to some brainwashing music, and maybe even learn something. You can find more episodes of The Corkboard Bizarre and fill the void left during our break by subscribing to our Patreon!  https://patreon.com/thenonsensebazaar

Wanted to record something just in case you missed our posts on Friday. Family stuff means we need to take a hiatus from regular episodes for a few weeks. Never fear, however, we shall return and we have episodes both recorded and in the pipes. They ain't got us yet.  And as promised, this week Sequoyah is going to mumble at you about God only knows what while he has a drink.

Intelligence agency recruitment tool? Alternate reality game? Cult indoctrination? Masonic conspiracy? Nerds being nerds? Non-lethal weapons testing? Cicada 3301 is one of the strangest of all the internet mysteries. In 2012 a picture was posted on 4chan claiming that a shadowy organization was looking for "highly intelligent people" and that there was a message hidden in the picture, from there internet sleuths were led down a seemingly never ending rabbit hole of harder and harder cryptography puzzles which incorporated the writings of William Blake, Aleister Crowley, and William Gibson among others (as well as a book code in a collection of medieval Welsh myths). It got weird. And it continues to be weird, although for entirely different reasons. This is one of those topics that will definitely be coming back up in the future. But for now, we're looking at the three "official" cicada puzzles from 2012 through 2014. Also this too was recorded before I fixed the audio driver issue. IM SORRY. Support The Nonsense Bazaar on Patreon and help fund our own PSYOPs (they're the fun kind, we promise). https://patreon.com/thenonsensebazaar

Join us on today's episode as we enter the confusing world of Susan Reed, a woman who was drawn into a web of extraterrestrial intrigue and danger, as detailed in her revealing book, 'The Body Snatchers: A Real Alien Conspiracy.' Her saga started innocently in a Spanish class where she met Brian, a host for interdimensional reptilian entities, and culminated in a questionable pilgrimage to meet John of God, the disgraced psychic surgeon in Brazil. But here's the question that lingers as we delve into Reed's life and the disturbing truths she unveiled: Was her mysterious death in 2009 an unfortunate accident, a desperate escape, or something more sinister tied to the alien menace she feared?   Note: Apparently some audio drivers weren't playing nice or needed updating or something and there are some pops and crackles throughout this episode. You might not even notice them had I not said anything. But I am ashamed and I'll do better next time. -S Keep us from being tempted by the psychic surgery bit and join our Patreon where you'll get bonus episodes and access to our Discord server for only $5 a month. https://patreon.com/thenonsensebazaar

We're taking a summer break this week so instead of a regular episode, Sequoyah read Jack Parsons' essay "Freedom is a Two-Edged Sword" which he completed in the year following the famed Babalon working. It remains one of very few completed pieces of writing by Parsons and if you look past some needed edits (due to excessive horniness, mainly) it's absolutely fantastic. However because we are technically on vacation, Sequoyah didn't have his microphones and had to use his phone so please forgive the sound quality (it's not that bad, surprisingly).

We've all heard about the things that supposedly happen at the moment of death: the life review that flashes before your eyes, the tunnel of white light, etc etc. But what if all of that truly does happen except…it's a trap. Meant to keep us stuck on the wheel of life and death feeding our tasty loosh energy to the evil reptilian archons again and again and again, forever. Yeah that'd suck, for sure. And that's exactly what some poor lost souls believe through a worryingly prevalent and insanely over-literal version of cyber-gnosticism spearheaded by the likes of David Icke and other bastards. And that's what we're talking about today as we explore the depths of r/escapingprisonplanet. Help us escape the wheel of samsara by joining our patreon! There you'll get bonus episodes, access to our Discord server, and a solid night's sleep for once in your life knowing you're helping to keep The Nonsense Bazaar ad free.   https://patreon.com/thenonsensebazaar

Returning to our enlightening study on Jane Lead, today we're delving into the pivotal years from her first vision in 1670 to her demise in 1704. We'll probe into how, as her physical sight failed, her spiritual visions proliferated, igniting both intrigue and devotion among a growing body of followers. This clandestine group, the Philadelphian Society, subscribed to Lead's prophecies of an impending era of universal brotherly love. However, the course to spiritual enlightenment wasn't always smooth. There's murder and mountain trolls. Join us as we unravel the complexity of Jane Lead's later life, as well as all the scandal and drama that went with it! Get access to bonus episodes and our discord server by supporting The Nonsense Bazaar on Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/thenonsensebazaar

We're turning back the hands of time to 17th-century England to learn about the eccentricities of post-Reformation life and Jane Lead's spiritual metamorphosis from rich girl to old blind weirdo. Learn how she journeyed from her Norfolk upbringing to marry her cousin and eventually become a conduit of Sophia, the mysterious embodiment of divine wisdom herself. She was inspired by the enigmatic teachings of Jakob Böhme and the Behemenists. Join us, as we uncover the unconventional path of a woman who dared to explore the divine and wasn't afraid to challenge the status quo.  Come back next week to learn about the Philadelphian Society, a small radical sect headed by Jane, and all the shady rumors about murder and mountain troll gold that surrounded it! Throw some brotherly love our way and support us on Patreon to get access to bonus episodes and our Discord server! https://www.patreon.com/thenonsensebazaar

Join us as we embark on a spiritual exploration to discover what connects the tale of Rapunzel with the ancient tradition of alchemy. We'll deconstruct the metaphorical tower and examine Rapunzel's encounters with the witch and prince as expressions of the seven stages of alchemy: calcination, dissolution, separation, conjunction, fermentation, distillation, and coagulation. It's a tapestry of history, philosophy, myth, and personal introspection that invites us all to look deeper into our favorite stories and our own lives.

Roadworn and weary, battered and bruised, this week we're finishing the series that actually might have been trying to kill us. It's Andrija Puharich part III, and it is completely insane. We find the good doctor Puharich after the publication of his book about how Uri Geller is the baby Jesus, convinced that the Soviets have mind control cannons pointed at the world, and now that even Uri Geller has distanced himself, trying to find a new Uri Geller -- with some incredibly dark consequences. Also someone burns his house down and he runs away to Mexico. Which is just a fun thing for anyone to do. And much, much more! Do your part to keep the alien menace at bay and sign up for our Patreon.  You'll get bonus episodes and access to our Discord server, and the satisfaction of knowing you helped make this mess possible! https://patreon.com/thenonsensebazaar

In the continuing saga of trying to record this series, not only did we have to re-record this episode, but Sequoyah lost his voice. So enjoy laughing at that. This week we find Andrija Puharich in Israel to research the powers of the international spoon-bending psychic superstar Uri Geller, and the truly psychotic misadventures that ensue after the mysterious voice of a time traveling artificial intelligence on board a spaceship named Spectra starts speaking through Uri Geller and leads the two on a wild goose chase across the Sinai desert to prevent Armageddon. Also Uri Geller is Jesus apparently.  Support The Nonsense Bazaar on Patreon and get access to bonus episodes and our Discord server and keep us from giving in to the demands of the alien menace. https://patreon.com/thenonsensebazaar

Psychic powers, mind control, mushrooms, the richest old ladies there's ever been, chemical and psychological warfare, Uri Geller, psychic healing, UFOs, the Dutch, you name it, this story quite literally has it all. We're finally doing it and starting our portrait of the man at the dark heart American high strangeness: Dr Andrija Puharich. While sometimes lionized as a maverick scientist who tried to legitimize parapsychology, Andrija Puharich was much, much more than that. While founding the Round Table Foundation, a parapsychology research lab in Maine that boasted members like former Vice President Henry Wallace, Puharich worked on chemical and psychological warfare research at Edgewood Arsenal, was involved with CIA's projects MKULTRA and ARTICHOKE, "discovered" Uri Geller, talked to spaceships, Hawaiian fire gods, "ancient Egyptian" deities, lied his ass off, and invented some potentially extremely sinister psychotronic medical implants. And yet, he's virtually unknown outside the real weird end of the pool. So what gives? Who was this man? What did he really get up to? It turns out all of those questions are much, much harder than they should be. So join us as we begin our unraveling of the mystery that is Andrija Puharich. Support The Nonsense Bazaar and get access to our bonus series The Corkboard Bizarre as well as our discord server and help keep us ad free and free of sinister plots of our own. https://patreon.com/thenonsensebazaar 

Today's episode takes us on a high-flying adventure as we delve into two infamous balloon hoaxes that took place over a century apart: Edgar Allen Poe's Balloon Hoax of 1844 and the Balloon Boy Hoax of 2009. From the pages of the New York Sun to the screens of millions of viewers, these hoaxes captivated the public's attention with their seemingly unbelievable stories of balloons soaring through the sky. But what was the truth behind these events, and what do they say about human nature's love for a good story? How does a rock opera about mescaline-spiked chili factor in? We'll be unraveling the mysteries behind these two infamous hoaxes and explore their lasting impact on history and pop culture. Support The Nonsense Bazaar and get access to our bonus series The Corkboard Bizarre and keep us from having to do a high-flyin hoax-em-up of our own! https://patreon.com/thenonsensebazaar