What happens when you talk about the paranormal long enough… and it starts responding?

For the Season 6 finale (Lucky Episode 13), JJ from Southern Demonology links up with The Wandering Road for a raw, unsettling roundtable about the unspoken “rule” of the strange: when you look into the paranormal, it looks back. What begins as an idea becomes a pattern—technical glitches, oppressive heaviness, sudden health scares, night terrors, EVPs that don’t belong, and that lingering feeling that something is listening from just outside the edge of the conversation.

Dean dives into eerie perception—faces in wood grain, patterns, and shadows—then connects it to darker frameworks like Gnosticism, archons, and “loosh farming”: the idea that something feeds on human fear and suffering. Chris shares the moment podcasting stopped being “just spooky fun,” including his first terrifying bout of sleep paralysis and the instinctive dread of don’t look up—you’ll see something you can’t unsee. JJ opens up about the message that started everything—“you have left your modalities unprotected”—and the cascade that followed: illness, hospital time, and the question every creator in this space eventually faces:

Do you keep going when it feels like the topic has noticed you?

We’re not here to convince you. We’re here to talk honestly—about the psychological, the spiritual, and the possibility that both can be true at the same time. And if you’re listening because you’ve experienced the unexplained yourself: you’re not alone.

Featuring: Southern Demonology x The Wandering Road

Topics: paranormal escalation, EVPs, sleep paralysis, night terrors, spiritual protection, Gnosticism/archons, and what it costs to speak.

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In this episode of Southern Demonology, JJ sits down with Jeff Lippman, host of the Garden of Thought podcast, for a wide-ranging conversation about podcasting, curiosity, and the strange intellectual corners we stumble into when we stop trying to control the conversation.

What starts as a discussion about booking guests and navigating cancellations quickly turns into something deeper: the unexpected power of fringe ideas, the cultural weight of astrology, and why some of the most meaningful conversations happen when you don’t fully know where the interview is going. From controversial belief systems to unanswered scientific questions—like what actually defines life, or how many countries even claim to exist—the episode explores the tension between skepticism and open-minded inquiry.

Jeff and JJ also reflect on the podcasting community itself: the quiet relationships formed behind the scenes, the influence a podcast’s name can have on who’s willing to talk, and the “white whale” guests that continue to inspire future episodes. Along the way, they unpack how preparation isn’t about rigid research, but about active listening, intellectual humility, and being willing to follow a thread wherever it leads.

If you’ve ever wondered how podcasts evolve, why unexpected topics often make the best episodes, or how belief, curiosity, and culture intersect in the modern paranormal landscape—this conversation is for you.

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Step into the hidden world of the debtera — the enigmatic, half-sanctioned, half-feared ritual specialists of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church. In this episode, JJ dives deep into the sacred highlands of Ethiopia to uncover a figure who is equal parts cantor, healer, scribe, exorcist, and yes… sometimes magician.

We explore what the debtera actually is, how they’re trained, why they live in the spiritual borderlands between priesthood and folk magic, and how they serve communities confronting everything from the evil eye (buda) to zār spirits to full-on demonic possession.

This episode also features a detailed look at the three stages of Ethiopian Orthodox exorcism — Meyaz (capturing), Masleflef (questioning the spirit through the host), and Maswotat (driving it out). These aren’t Hollywood theatrics. These are living, breathing, ritual systems practiced today at places like the Entoto Kidane-Mihret Monastery, where spiritual healing, theology, and human desperation collide.

Whether you’re curious about demonology, fascinated by ancient Christian traditions, or simply drawn to the edges where religion blurs into magic, this is an episode you do not want to miss.

Join me as we walk the threshold with the debtera — the man who chants by day, battles spirits by night, and lives in the liminal space between the holy and the haunted.

#debtera, #ethiopianorthodox, #tewahedo, #exorcism, #demonology, #southerndemonology, #folkhealing, #magicandfaith, #spiritualwarfare, #paranormal, #occultstudies, #hauntedhistory, #ancientchristianity, #demonicpossession

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