Against Everyone with Conner Habib

Friends, “The hour is late. It is time for unwanted guests to leave.” That's a line from this episode's guest, MITCH HOROWITZ, in his latest book, Esoterika: Formulas Against the False Self. The book as I see it, is a book of ethics. And its central question is: how do you navigate who you are and what your ethics are when you touch the continuously transformative fires of spiritual pursuits?In that sense, it is a book for anyone exploring their spirituality.In it, Mitch traces his own inner (and outer) conflicts with spiritual maxims. Particular to Mitch is the conundrum of: How do I get what I want, yet retain my integrity? What do I do when there's a conflict? And where does magic come in?This is a great discussion and one where we navigate our own tensions of belief and disbelief; will and surrender.Support the show via patreon.com/connerhabib

This is first episode in a series called The Spirit-Era and Its Aftermaths. Across the next few installments of AEWCH, I’ll be investigating the way the spiritual, technological, and occult flourishing at the turn of the 19th/20th century is affecting our lives to this day. The Spirit-Era was a time marked by spirits, of course. But also miracles, hucksters, paranormal investigators, and genuine spiritual teachers. There were seances and fakirs, performances of incredible feats in private and on stages both which were thought to be revelations of different worlds, or worlds that could be possible.The intelligentsia of the time might go to see spirits materialize in dark rooms. They might write novels inspired by meeting notorious occult figures. Or maybe they would decide to form societies to investigate the afterlife. Many of the Spirt-Era's most famous artists and writers found themselves inspired by and even joining occult orders. New occult organizations and forms - some with anarchist aspirations, others connecting to labor rights movements, still others taking fascist turns, - were rising and falling.Like in our own era, new technologies emerged and others became popularized. The telephone became more available, and so, later, did the car and motion picture with sound. But also there was the fortune cookie, bringing a sort of precogniostic levity to the everyday. These innovations marked changing experiences of time and space across the planet.Plagues, wars, sinking ships. It seemed like there was never a moment of rest. I’m sure you can relate.Two themes ran through the Spirit-Era: the shifting relationship of the spiritual and material, and the deep understanding that everything was changing, so anything might be possible.In these episodes, we won’t just be trying to learn from history to avoid repeating it, but rather to deeply consider the Spirit-Era and conjure its best aspects.Because within the spectacle, there were many revelations to be had. Some of them we take for granted in our everyday lives, and forget they were handed to us by people who took the great risk or the absurd plunge into the era's spiritual possibility.We’ll look at the ways paranormal investigations pushed on science, how esotericism informed advancing literature and performance. We’ll even investigate whole world views with their own coherence, that developed at the time, and see why we can learn so much from them.And we'll look at why so many of these boundary-pushing advances are stigmatized today. One reason I’ll mention now: The Spirit-Era is difficult for us because it isn’t part of the past, but something beyond us. A future where we allow ourselves to think in ways that dissolve the material realm as we know it, and try to understand the forces - whether social, dialectical, economic, or spiritual - fully anew.The Spirit-Era reflects the past and the future through smoke and mirrors. Yes, the tools of illusionists and frauds. But amongst the trickery, the truth of light and surface is there. In the aftermaths of the Spirit-Era, we continue to use its insights and gestures to figure out what we think is real, what is solid, and where illumination comes from.Welcome to this series.On the first episode, I talk with ALICE VERNON, author of Ghosted: A History of Ghost Hunting, and Why We Keep Looking. The book is vast in scope, and considers the many emotional resonances we have with paranormal investigation, ghost-hunting, and why it is important to us. We start in the 1st century, and go all the way to AI in this wide-ranging conversation about the topic. But the Spirit-Era here is unavoidable. People grieving, hustling, debunking, and believing all surround the seance tables, inviting new presences, new technologies, and new methods of investigation.I’m so happy to present this series and episode.SUPPORT THE SHOW VIA PATREONBuy Ghosted: A History of Ghost Hunting, and Why We Keep Looking by Alice Vernon

Friends,Is there any ghost lore in your town or where you grew up?Have you ever seen a ghost?What are ghosts, anyway?Three questions, three different ways to approach (or be approached by ghosts).Ghosts are at the heart of our folktales, our fears, and our fiction. And belief in them is almost universal. Unlike aliens, UFOs, cryptids, and other strange entities, belief in ghosts cuts across all demographics and borders. We're afraid of ghosts and fascinated by them.As you probably know from listening to this show, or if you’ve read my novel Hawk Mountain, horror is deeply important to me: in forming my imagination, my way of thinking, and even my lens on spirituality. To that end, this is one of two podcasts on the topic. This time, I just wanted to be personal, to have fun, to explore the pleasure of horror and the many springboards it gives us for conversation. To that end, I invited the hosts of my favorite movie podcast (maybe favorite podcast ever) THE IMPORTANT CINEMA CLUB onto the show, JUSTIN DECLOUX and WILL SLOAN.This marks the second crossover between our shows, as I appeared on episode 422 of The Important Cinema Club to talk about working with director Joe Gage.We ask the three questions up top, and explore three completely different representations of ghosts in movies:A Chinese Ghost Story (1987 dir. Tony Ching Siu-Tung)The Eclipse (2009, dir. Conor McPherson)I Am A Ghost (2012, dir. H.P. Mendoza)We summarize each movie, and then go in... tons of directions. I loved recording this episode, and I hope you do too. Next time, onto the more theoretical-serious kind of fun.Aside from The Important Cinema Club, Justin and Will have many projects.Justin is the author Radioactive Dreams: The Cinema of Albert Pyun, and has a Blu-Ray distribution company, Gold Ninja Video. He's also the director of films including Impossible Horror , which Will is in, and Teddy Bomb. Will's new book is Ed Wood: Made in Hollywood USA, and he has a great substack here.An episode that ties into this one, and that has more of my ghost stories in it than this one is AEWCH 138 with Edward Parnell, talking about ghosts embedded in the landscape. And I mention a great book towards the end, Paranormal America: Ghost Encounters, UFO Sightings, Bigfoot Hunts, and Other Curiosities in Religion and Culture.SUPPORT THIS SHOW: PATREON.COM/CONNERHABIB

On the first of two back to back episodes on christianity in the world today, I talk with writer LAMORNA ASH whose latest book, Don't Forget We're Here Forever: A New Generation's Search for Religion chronicles her conversations with christian converts and the newly faithful in the still-secular UK. In the process of writing the book, Lamorna has her own reevaluations of christianity and her own beliefs as a queer person. Of these conversations, Lamorna writes, “They taught me how to believe the belief of others.” It’s a beautiful sentiment and means that Lamorna is untangling the many ways to believe and understand.But it raises questions, too.How to believe others’s beliefs if they are threatening? If they are aimed against you? And what about when those beliefs are aligned with powerful political forces… can they be said to even be beliefs then, and not just coerced behavior?Please support the show via patreon: Patreon.com/connerhabib

Friends: We need ideas which are not just radical or "revolutionary." We need ideas, feelings, and actions that work on many levels; that are systemic; that have multiple potentials for realization, and have enough points of articulation that they can touch on their own fabric and maneuver to witness themselves. And what better place to start then the ground beneath your feet: where you live?After all, you see the place you live every day. It's entered you as a daily language of patterns. It's become a set of expectations for your feet as you move through the morning. It lives in your lungs and gives your eyes nourishment. And I'm sure it also frustrates you sometimes, makes you feel blocked and angry. You might feel threatened there or bored. But I hope you also find joy, surprise, and feel held by where you live, greeted by each of its days.When my friend and collaborator - the artist, organizer, and journalist UNA MULLALLY - released her new 10-part podcast series SAVING THE CITY , I found in it a perfect representation of that transformative ideal we need.I also knew that Una and I had different ideas of what we wanted from cities. I like cars, I have trouble with a lot of bigger cities that Una loves. I even like an area of Dublin that Una has... let's say, different feelings about. But this is exactly right for transformation of a place- discussing with your neighbors what you want, what your concerns are, but most importantly what would bring you joy, piece of mind, excitement, potential, opportunity in the cityThis is a long episode, and like a city, it encourages a sort of wandering. Stop along the way any time you want, think about how it will apply to where you live whether it's a city or somewhere else. I'm so excited to share this episode with you. THIS SHOW DEPENDS ON LISTENER SUPPORT. PLEASE PLEDGE TO SUPPORT THIS SHOW TODAY ON PATREON

Friends,After writing my previous episode, AEWCH 298, where I laid out my thoughts on how to reflect on A.I. to get to beyond the basic, boring conversation, I read ADAM BECKER's excellent book, More Everything Forever: AI Overlords, Space Empires, and Silicon Valley's Crusade to Control the Fate of Humanity .I immediately invited him on the show, and I wish I would've read it before. Even though there is plenty of overlap, Adam's vantage point offer a full vision of tech culture, and reveals just how deeply anti-science is is. That impact comes from the fact that Adam is great writer but also an astrophysicist, and author of the excellent popular book on quantum physics, What Is Real?: The Unfinished Quest for the Meaning of Quantum Physics.We talk about how we got here in science and technology, why technology has been conflated with science, how conspiracy and science intersect, and what physics has to do with all of this.Of course the conclusion is that A.I. is not super smart, not supported by smart people, that the fantasies of tech billionaires are bonkers, and that the singularity is not near because it's not even a thing.SUPPORT THE SHOW ON PATREON: patreon.com/connerhabib