Tommy Cowan is currently a PhD student in the Literature, Media, and Culture program at Florida State University. His primary interest is the confluence between literature and esotericism, including how literatures/texts are conceptualized as esoteric ritual, and the reception/transmission of literary esotericism as an intellectual tradition. He received his MA in Religious Studies from University of Amsterdam (2019), graduating Cum Laude. His 2019 master’s thesis centers around spirituality and esotericism in the works of American author William S. Burroughs. He is also an Associate Editor for Correspondences: Journal for the Study of Esotericism.

As this discussion was centered on research updates, we cover a range of topics- but highlighting a few here:  We start with Tommy’s research on Burroughs that grew out of Tommy’s work with Florida State University’s archive complied by Professor Bucher. Just a head’s up – our discussion is mature in nature, so listener discretion is advised, as they say. We cover two of Tommy’s papers- one that deals with sexual hanging as something that Burroughs was trying to read in an esoteric sense; the other deals with the tension between Burroughs’ misogyny and his ‘feminine’ coded texts,  which leads into a related topic of  transgenderism and alchemy, and circling back to sexual metaphors with brief tangents into Wilhelm Reich’s orgone energy and David Lynch’s atomic bomb scene in Twin Peaks: The Return. After all that, we move on to the concept of ‘normative esotericism,’ as Tommy is looking at ways in which esoteric philosophies and thought reinforce hegemonic normative culture. Lastly, Tommy talks about his new research into how animals enter into symbiotic relationships with plant and fungi substances, plus how we can analyze our own relationship to entheogens.
Check out my Patreon page for more information about memberships and the full interview: https://www.patreon.com/RejectedReligion

Theme Music: Daniel P. Shea

RR Patreon Excerpt Tier 3 Tommy Cowan: Research Updates: Burroughs & More

Full Title: Are We Living in A Simulation? Testing Tom Campbell's Consciousness-Based Simulation Theory

This hour-long audio clip is a collection of excerpts from a three-hour long conversation with guest Eliott Edge that can be found on my Patreon page. A new option of a one-time purchase is now available as well, if you'd like to listen to the whole episode!

As listed on Eliott’s website bio, he "is a critically-acclaimed author, artist, and international speaker. Eliott has published and presented through The Institute of Ethics and Emerging Technologies, The University of Melbourne, Stevens Institute of Technology, Anthology Film Archives, The C.G. Jung Center, The Fenris Wolf, The Museum of Computer Arts, VRTO, Block Seoul, and Disinformation. His work has been included in university curricula as well as cited in Masters' theses and Doctoral dissertations. Edge’s interests include cyborg anthropology, simulation theory, media theory, consciousness and psi research, liminality, psychoanalysis, psychedelics, western occultism, contemporary folklore, as well as AI, culture and film criticism. Edge is a member of Das Unbehagen: Free Association for Psychoanalysis, and a Media & Arts Advisory Board member for The Lifeboat Foundation."

In this discussion, Eliott shares his insights and views surrounding the work of Thomas Campbell, a former NASA physicist who specialized in technology development and complex-system risk analysis for both government and industry. In addition, for more than 50 years, he conducted scientific, drug-free research into altered states of consciousness. Out of this work came My Big TOE, or Theory of Everything,  a scientific model of reality based on the insight that consciousness is fundamental to all existence.  Eliott is currently working on his own book that discusses Campbell’s simulation theory, which posits that our idea of reality is actually a virtual simulation. According to Campbell, consciousness is the fundamental basis of what we consider reality, and the physical universe is a virtual construct created by this consciousness.

In our discussion, Eliott talks as well about another simulation theory called the ‘ancestor simulation hypothesis’ and the problems associated with this. We also talk about how paranormal, or supernatural experiences such as out-of-body experiences, remote viewing, ghosts, UFOs, etc., play into this concept. As Eliott is not only interested in the scientific side of the story, he also talks about how occult practitioners, such as those found in ritual magick and chaos magick, as well as religious practitioners from any path can also benefit from learning about Campbell’s work. He explains everything in a down-to-earth manner so that anyone from any walk of life can understand the principles.

Visit https://www.rejectedreligion.com/podcast or https://www.patreon.com/posts/rr-patreon-tier-111609568 for links. 


Theme Music: Daniel P. Shea

RR Patreon Tier 2 Eliott Edge Excerpts: Are We Living in a Simulation?

Note: This audio upload is a selection of clips taken from the full-length Patreon interview with Dr. Aaron French. To hear the full interview, please visit my Patreon page; you could consider joining to have access to more content like this, or have the option for a one-time purchase of the full episode (visit the 'shop' link for more information about pricing). 
https://www.patreon.com/RejectedReligion 

My guest this month is Dr. Aaron French. Aaron received his doctorate in the study of religion, including an emphasis in science and technology studies, from the University of California, Davis. His monograph Max Weber, Rudolf Steiner, and Modern Western Esotericism: A Transcultural Approach will be published by Routledge in late 2024 in the “Asia, Europe, and Global Connections: Culture, History, and Trans-Area Studies“ book series. Aaron has published numerous peer-reviewed articles in academic journals and regularly gives lectures and presentations at international conferences. He currently teaches in the international Religious Studies Masters program at the University of Erfurt in Germany and works as a postdoctoral researcher at the Freie Universität Berlin.In our conversation, Aaron talks about new areas of research that he’s been exploring regarding the field of ufology, and its connections with esotericism, technology and religion. He’s currently editing a forthcoming interdisciplinary academic collaborative work about this, called Religion and the UFO Phenomenon: Methodological Challenges, that asks the questions, “how best should scholars of the humanities and social sciences approach the UFO phenomenon as an object of study? Why are otherworldly experiences intertwined with new forms of religiosity?”Aaron also gives a re-cap of the recent developments in the U.S. with regard to the UAP, or Unidentified Arial Phenomena, in Senate hearings and discusses the issues surrounding disclosure, with the largely failed attempt to establish a committee that would force the US government to declassify and release all information on UFOs. He then moves on to discuss his own developing research into the connections between ufology and esotericism, and how religion is being transformed, with some in academia speaking now of a new religiosity forming around these experiences. Aaron’s work is looking at this modern esotericism that keeps popping up in this new ‘hybrid technoscientific religiosity’ as he terms it. Ideas of evolution and training for humans who are interested in future realities in space are also discussed in terms of ritual initiation or Hero’s Journey that is likened to the Jedi training of the Star Wars story.

In closing, we also explore occulture and the cultural impact on all of this a bit, specifically how these ideas are played out in shows like X-Files and of course, my favorite, Twin Peaks.

Theme music: Daniel P. Shea

RR Patreon Tier 3 Free Excerpts Dr. Aaron French: Ufology & Esotericism

This month’s Patreon Tier 2 guest is Peg Aloi. Peg is a freelance film and TV critic, a former professor of media studies, and co-editor (with Hannah Sanders) of The New Generation Witches: Teenage Witchcraft in Contemporary Culture (Routledge) and Carnivale and the American Grotesque: Critical Essays on the HBO Series (Macfarland). With Hannah she also co-organized two scholarly conferences at Harvard University on paganism, witchcraft and media. Peg's forthcoming book The Witching Hour: How Witches Enchanted the World is a cultural analysis of the witch in contemporary media. Peg was also one of the co-founders of The Witches' Voice and wrote about film and TV for the site for over a decade. Her long-running blog "The Witching Hour" can now be found on Substack. 

This conversation was inspired by a lecture in April of 2024 by Peg for The Last Tuesday Society called “The Satanic Panic: Its Roots and Branches,” that explored a number of disparate but often-related elements that converged to create the Satanic Panic of the 1980s and 90s, including Satanic-themed horror films. In this discussion, we pick up were Peg left off and explore how viewpoints surrounding Witchcraft and ‘The Occult’ have changed since that time until our present day. Peg talks about various instances within popular culture that have shown a shift in the ‘negative’ paradigm. This conversation spans several different areas, ranging from politics and society, education and scholarship, entertainment media, films and series, to magic and other ‘occult’ practices.

I hope you enjoy this as much as I did!

You can find the Full Episode with Peg Aloi at my Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/RejectedReligion 
The episode is also available for a one-time purchase. 

Theme Music and Editing: Daniel P. Shea
End Production: Stephanie Shea

RR Patreon T2 Free Content Peg Aloi: Contemporary Reception of Witchcraft and 'The Occult' in the USA

Dr. Tara B. M. Smith is an early career interdisciplinary academic that works in the fields of science fiction, literature, religion and popular culture. Tara is currently a research affiliate at the University of Sydney. In 2024 Tara was a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Center for the Study of World Religions at the Harvard Divinity School, Boston, writing on religious ideas and experiences of people that paint and play within the science fiction “grimdark” universe of Warhammer 40,000. Tara is a passionate educator who holds a Graduate Certificate of Higher Education and has taught in academic settings for over 5 years across a variety of units including media studies, religious studies, writing skills and composition. When Tara is not studying, she spends time with her two cats Thomas and Momo and her fiancé Luke in Sydney, Australia.

While most people who talk and think about the story of Dune focus on the political and religious aspects of the series [for example, the Bene Geserit with their genetic breeding program and the Kwisatz Haderach, or the Butlerian Jihad -the war against thinking machines = technology and AI], Tara's article, “The Anthropocene in Frank Herbert’s Dune Series” from 2021 takes a different approach and explores the ecological/philosophical aspects of the story. As she notes, Frank Herbert was warning his readers about their anthropocentric tendencies and urging people instead to think about ecological conservation, or at least he appears to be planting a seed in the minds of the readers to be more aware of their place or role on the Earth.

You can find the full episode at my Patreon: www.patreon.com/RejectedReligion 

Patreon Tier 2 Free Content Dr. Tara Smith Ecology & _Dune Trilogy_

Ayesha Adamo is an academic, performing artist, and filmmaker currently working towards a PhD in Religion at Rice University under Jeffrey J. Kripal. Her dissertation project explores fluid cosmological ideas, both historically and in current quantum mechanics. She holds an MA in Religious Studies from Universiteit van Amsterdam’s Centre for the History of Hermetic Philosophy & Related Currents and is a graduate of Barnard College, Columbia University, with a degree in music. Rumor has it she was once in an Asian pop band on EMI Records. Her most recent articles can be found in Anthropology of Consciousness and Religious Studies Review. She is also an ordained Hierophant and Grand Chief of Temple of Thelema.


In this discussion, we first look at Georges Bataille and his interpretation of the Acéphale. Bataille (1897-1962) was a philosopher and intellectual, interested in surrealism, and anti- fascist, who, in 1937 founded two groups with the goal of exploring how combinations of power and ‘the sacred’ were at play in society. The first group was called the College of Sociology that gave lectures (exoteric group); the second group was Acéphale, an esoteric ‘secret society.’ Additionally, a public review by the same name, whose emblem was a headless man, was published in 1936. Ayesha talks a bit about this Acéphale emblem and what this represents, including remarks about the connections to Aleister Crowley’s concept of The Abyss; the notion of receptivity, and the difference between the ‘magical’ and ‘mystical’ currents.

Moving from Bataille to George Balanchine, the famous choreographer who co-founded the New York City Ballet Company in 1948; Balanchine is probably most known for his plotless ballets and minimalism, and has a famous quote, “Don’t think Dear, just do!’ Ayesha shares how are she is linking these two figures and the concept of the Acéphale. She is currently thinking about how the meditative state is the artist’s state as well.

Ayesha then expands on her 2023 article, “The League of Endarkenment: Hakim Bey and the Way of Disappearance into Nature” talking about “Endarkenment” and how this fits into this same area of headlessness, the mandrake, and disappearance.

Lastly, taken from her paper abstract, Ayesha talks more about what she means by “the open fluidity of no-mind”  and “the performance of headless meditation.”

*Note 1: I mistakenly say ‘Endarkment’ instead of ‘Endarkenment’ (my apologies!); plus, around the 29:00 minute mark, the name ‘D.T. Suzuki’ is unfortunately cut off due to audio issues. Please find more information about Suzuki in the program notes below.

*Note 2 (Not Ignoring the Elephant in the Room): Peter Lamborn Wilson, who wrote under the name ‘Hakim Bey,’ was a controversial figure, and unfortunately, rumors have arisen surrounding some of his writings regarding NAMBLA. Accusations were made by a particular website (run by one person, a fellow anarchist) against Wilson, and due to the nature of the internet, damaging assumptions were made. This article A Tribute to Peter Lamborn Wilson - The Brooklyn Rail is a collection of testimonials, and discusses this matter in more detail, giving much needed context.

Full Program Notes with links available on Patreon or on the Podcasting platforms. 

Music & Editing: Daniel P. Shea
End Production: Stephanie Shea

Patreon T2 Free Content Ayesha Adamo: The Open Fluidity of No-Mind, The Acéphale, & 'Endarkenment'

Amy Hale is an Atlanta based writer and critic with a PhD in Folklore and Mythology from UCLA (1998). Her research interests include contemporary magical practice and history, art, culture, women and Cornwall. She has written widely on artist and occultist Ithell Colquhoun, and has been an academic advisor to the 2025 Colquhoun retrospective at Tate St. Ives and Tate Britain. She wrote the first scholarly biography of Colquhoun, Ithell Colquhoun: Genius of the Fern Loved Gully (Strange Attractor, 2020) followed by the collection Sex Magic: Diagrams of Love, (Tate Publishing, 2024), and A Walking Flame: Selected Magical Essays of Ithell Colquhoun (Strange Attractor 2025).  She is also the editor of the groundbreaking collection Essays on Women in Western Esotericism: Beyond Seeresses and Sea Priestesses (Palgrave 2022). She has written extensively on magic and contemporary art, and has written for Tate, Burlington Contemporary, Art UK, The Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Correspondences Journal and other institutions.She is an Honorary Research Fellow with Falmouth University in Cornwall, a trustee of the UK Charity Rediscovering Art by Women (RAW) and a member of the British Art Network. Beyond the Supernatural: Magic in Contemporary Art is due to be published with Tate Publishing in 2026.

In this discussion, Amy shares the inspiration for the upcoming 10-part series, “Magic in Contemporary Art,” in collaboration with Treadwells Bookstore  and the Museum of Witchcraft and Magic, beginning on March 30th, 2025. The current interest in magic and art is not a fad, as Amy explains. She gives us a sneak peek of the first four sessions, that cover topics such as “ecofeminist art,” the influence of Hermetic magic on art, and philosophical feminism as found in the works of Donna Haraway and Karen Barad. 

Check out my Patreon page for more information about the online series starting 30 March! www.patreon/RejectedReligion 

Patreon Tier 2 Free Content Dr. Amy Hale: "Magic in Contemporary Art" 10-Part Online Series

*This is the Free Content version of my interview with Mike Fiorito. To access the entire episode, please consider becoming a Tier 3 'Garden of Arcane Delights' member, or you can purchase this episode for a one-time fee. 

My guest this month is Mike Fiorito. An Adjunct Professor of English at City Tech (CUNY), Mike is a freelance journalist and author of several books: For All We Know, Mescalito Riding His White Horse, Falling from Trees, The Hated Ones, Sleeping with Fishes, Call Me Guido, Freud’s Haberdashery Habits, and Hallucinating Huxley. 

Mescalito Riding His White Horse received the 2024 Independent Press Distinguished Favorite Award in Spirituality. 

Falling from Trees received the 2022 Independent Press Distinguished Favorite Award in Short Stories. 

For All We Know, his UFO themed science-fiction novel, published in May 2024.

Mike’s new book, UFO Symphonic-Journeys into Sound, was published February 1st, 2025. 

UFO Symphonic: Journeys into Sound explores the profound connection between music and the mysteries of existence. The book delves into music as a form of complex communication and a potential bridge to other realms. Through personal accounts and stories from experiencers, Fiorito examines the symbolic language of sound, dreams, and high strangeness. It invites readers on an extraordinary journey into the unknown, raising thought-provoking questions about the role of music in connecting past, present, and future.

In this discussion, Mike and I talk about his latest book, and Mike shares several anecdotes from different people that Mike interviewed. Some highlights from this conversation include:

-          the concept of “The Harmony of the Spheres” that emphasizes the interconnectedness of the cosmos and the spiritual journey of the soul; the main idea of which is that the cosmos is ordered by mathematical principles, and that planets and stars move in harmony with these principles, producing a kind of eternal music;

-         How the stories Mike shared bring up a lot of ideas related to the notion of ‘tapping into’ a larger system (that we might call consciousness, or cosmos; additionally, it seems to be suggesting a type of mind-universe alignment;

-         Joshua Cutchin’s story about creating a new narrative that combines folklore and UFO phenomena; and the connection between paranormal phenomena and death (which lines up beautifully with a book we read for our prior Patreon book club meeting -- Dr. Jeff Kripal and Whitley Strieber’s book, The Super Natural: A New Vision of the Unexplained. In the Dedication, Whitley Strieber notes that his wife Anne said, after carefully reading and organizing the numerous letters that they received, that the UFO experiences all had something to do with death, too.);

-         Sebastiano De Filippi’s section, who also discusses similar ideas to Joshua’s about music in his work as a conductor;

-         Concepts such as entanglement and tulpas; and much more!

For more, please visit: www.rejectedreligion.com or www.patreon.com/RejectedReligion

Music and Editing: Daniel P. Shea
End Production: Stephanie Shea

New tracks tagged #rejectedreligionpatreon