I’ve been interested in the bizarre since I was a kid, captured in particular by phenomena for which we have evidence but can’t discuss — UFOs, for example, or ESP, or the fact that Covid-19 appears to have come from a Chinese lab. But in the narrow, parapsychological bucket of “damned data,” everything comes down to materialism. Our culture is entirely beholden to the materialist worldview, any evidence to the contrary be damned. And evidence? It looks weird. But weird shit for which we have no explanation tends to be the gateway.

A friend of mine, and an old boss, wrote the book(s) on anti-materialism. In Fire in the Sky, I mentioned my time working in his editorial department. Today, we reconnect and talk about the unrelentingly normal paranormal.

Mitch Horowitz is an historian of alternative spirituality, from the esoteric to the occult, both in history and practice — in other words, where does magic come from and how do we use it? He’s the author of Occult America, a personal favorite of mine, and the forthcoming books Daydream Believer and Uncertain Places.