To celebrate Halloween this year I joined my friends Miguel and Vance of Aeon Gnostic Byte Radio and my fellow researcher Nate Miller aka "Occult Fan." With a general lean into the artistry of Clive Barker, we take a hard look at 21st century demonology at large today. In terms we Barker, we take time to dissect the philosophy and symbolism of the Hellraiser movies, Candyman, and Nightbreed. We also take the time to relate some themes to similar concepts found in the works of HP Lovecraft and Richard Matheson: the author I Am Legend, What Dreams May Come, Hellhouse, and the famous Twilight Zone episode where William Shatner freaks out on an airplane.
In the veins of demonology today, we also take time to discuss serial killers, real possession statistics and famous cases that inspired movies (The Exorcist, The Exorcism of Emily Rose, and The Rite), mental illness, Jungian psychology, and even a little bit of Anton LaVey.
I think it came out really well, and if I'm not patting us on the back too much here, I think we did a pretty solid job of packing as much pertinent pop culture as we could without overdoing it.
I had a great time, and I hope people find some good takeaways here. If I had to sum it all up in once small sentence, it is this: sometimes, given the right perspective, horror makes us better people.
You can find the link to the audio interview here on Aeon Byte's website, or on spotify, apple, spreaker, stitcher, and all your other podcast apps. To get the extra half hour of this conversation, become a patreon member with Aeon Byte and get a lot more great additional content as well. https://thegodabovegod.com/clive-barker-demonology-fortean-spirituality/
For this full length discussion without the patreon membership, you can take the hit on your wifi streaming packages and watch the full video recorded live here on youtube.
