Colleen Coffman: The "Crazy Ghost Lady" Haunts Us with Creativity and Empathy

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Hello and welcome to Inc.
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Verse Algorithm The Writer's Pod.
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I'm excited to have Colleen Kaufman in the podcast today.
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Welcome aboard, Colleen.
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Thank you.
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Thank you.
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I'm excited to be here today.
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I'm excited to talk to you.
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You are a retired visual artist.
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I'm a semi-retired um FX artist.
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FX artist.
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I'd like to talk to you about your career on stage and film.
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Yeah.
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And you are an active writer.
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That is correct.
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My viewers and listeners would like to hear about your works in progress.
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What you got cooking.
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And I understand too that there's elements of the spiritual, the paranormal.
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Oh yeah.
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Oh yeah.
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The oh yeah, that we could get into as well.
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So tell us about yourself and how you how you got yourself describing these days and what it's all about.
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By divine orchestration, I think.
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Just like most pieces and parts of my life are.
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Because I'm in the entertainment industry, we were out of work for the better part of two years.
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So, and that doesn't include all of the, oh golly, the vaccination issues that I had, and then caught the COVID, anyways, and it just kind of ravaged my health to the point where I had to go into semi-retirement.
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So I've that's when the book popped up.
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It was so divine.
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Um I'm gonna go back some time here, back to about 2020.
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Um, I was traveling all over the United States.
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I do um all kinds of airbrush body painting and makeup and special effects.
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I've been doing practical effects for uh a long, long time.
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It's it's been a great career.
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I've had a wonderful time.
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I've met some incredible people I've kept.
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Uh some of them I haven't, but some of them I have.
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Uh, anyways, my mom and dad, I was on the road a lot, and my mom and dad got me a sketch diary for my birthday.
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And at the time, um, I I've always seen and heard crazy things that most people either don't or won't.
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So um I started keeping a journal of the things that I was seeing, and I started drawing them.
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And before I knew it, I had some entities and energies literally coming to me strictly to be drawn.
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So that's how that started.
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I took the sketch diary on the road with me.
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Um, I used it many years.
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Uh, then, as life does, things changed.
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I went through a divorce.
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I moved several times.
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Uh, my storage unit was burglarized.
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And in the process of all of those things, my sketch diary went missing.
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So I didn't know if it was stolen, if it just got lost in one of the moves.
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I had no clue where it went.
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Uh, that would have been in 2014 that I noticed that it was missing.
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So, fast forward to 2020 when things were so incredibly bizarre for every one of us.
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Um, I was at a friend's house, babysitting, babysitting, puppy sitting for her and house sitting for her.
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I was in the backyard.
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It was just a little after dusk, so it wasn't quite dark, but it was the fireflies were thick.
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It was June of that year.
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And I just love the fireflies, and they reminded me very much of the days whenever I was drawing things, you know, fairies and spirits and these things in my sketch diary.
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And I I got to pining for my sketch diary just a little bit, you know.
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That's that was a sad, sad thing.
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I just a piece of my life that was gone.
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The very next day, completely out of the blue, I got a Facebook message from a young man who said, Hi, I have your sketch diary and was wondering if you would like to have it back.
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Blew my mind, completely out of the water.
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I mean, this is six years after it went missing.
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And uh the young man I vaguely knew.
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He um was a boyfriend to my roommate's, my ex-roommate's daughter.
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So I vaguely knew him.
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He had gone to school with my son, but I really didn't know this young man.
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So we went and picked up my sketch diary and I finished it.
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Uh, you know, I put the polish on it and and wrote some descriptions to go with the images that I had drawn.
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And then Hangar One Publisher popped into my life and landed in my lap from absolutely nowhere, and uh decided that they liked the sound of my book and they published it.
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So, like I said, kind of divine orchestration there.
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So this is a a visual book.
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So it's it adventures of your sketch diary is the title, is that right?
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And so what is it?
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Uh the sketches with your own commentary interwoven.
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Is that is that the book itself?
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That is the book itself.
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It has uh it has a journal.
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It's a journal, it's a diary of many of the um entities and energies that I've come across in my travels, and I drew them and uh wrote descriptions and and my interactions.
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So, how did these visions come to you?
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You're conscious and you see them in your mind's eye?
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Did they come to you in dreamlike ways?
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What was your experience like?
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Interesting that you would put them in those two ways because those were exactly the two ways that most of them did come to me.
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They were in my mind's eye.
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Typically, whenever I see something that most people don't or won't, uh, because I believe that everybody has the ability to see and interact with things that we've been told are not there.
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Um, when they come to me or when I recognize them, they're typically like a vapor or a smoky-looking substance or a glare or a light of different colors that moves around.
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Um, and they impose the visual of a physical self into my mind's eye.
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That's pretty cool.
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So, did some of them come with their own little mini bio?
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Did you interact with them?
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Did you communicate with them?
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What was that added dimension like?
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Uh it was really personal.
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They uh told me about, you know, their their physical structure and how they were built, um, what their feelings and thoughts were on us and the world that we live in, uh, their jobs here, the things that they take care of here, uh, just you know, a conversation with an individual that was very cool.
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Well, that is cool.
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And then could you categorize them?
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Was there like a zoo of creatures?
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Were they self-organized?
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Did they have particular roles?
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Did you give them names?
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Did they tell you their name?
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Give a give us some more details on uh these different entities that you interact with.
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So none of them ever gave me their name.
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Um, I would give them a name so that I knew who I was addressing, but by and large, they really didn't give me their names.
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Um, they typically would tell me uh what realm they came from, as far as what their jobs were and how they interacted.
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And if they were a unique individual and they really didn't have like, I don't know, a genus and species.
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Uh, you know, they shared, like, let's say a cat.
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Okay, what kind of cat?
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Well, is it a Siamese?
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Is it a Maincoon?
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Is it a tabby, you know, those kinds of things.
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Uh, it was very similar to that.
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Uh, the ones that I interacted with that I had the the best time with would have been the Sylphs, and and that's spelled S-Y-L-P-H-S.
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Uh, they are everybody knows them as being kind of a they're a fairy and they remind me incredibly much of Tinkerbell.
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They're little winged ladies that fly around and uh and sparkle.
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They sparkle a lot.
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Well, can you give us some samples or some visuals so we have a frame of reference to uh to maybe talk about a few in particular?
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Do any stand out as illustrative of your experience and how you shared it in your book?
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Absolutely.
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So, uh, like I said, the Sylphs were some that I interacted with a lot, and there were a grand variety of them, uh, just different breeds, I guess.
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They had different jobs, but they were very similar.
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Uh, and I found that a lot of our mythology uh was based on people who interacted with these entities and energies down through the ages.
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And for instance, um, I I interacted with a Seder.
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I had no idea Satyrs were real, but I surely found out that they are.
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And then there's lots of them, although I only I've only really ran across one personally.
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Um, another thing that you might keep in mind is that they they kind of feel like they interact on the same realm as like Bigfoot, you know, the woo-woo Bigfoot stuff, or uh uh cryptids of different varieties.
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They all come and go kind of the same way.
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That leads maybe some viewers and listeners to frankly call bullshit because a lot of people don't believe in bullshit of the Loch Ness monster or Bigfoot or UFOs and the like.
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As uh as a creative person myself, I find it intriguing that you have these experiences and that you documented them.
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And if we look at even philosophers and psychologists like Carl Jung, who write about the archetypes and about the common images and themes and language and associations and metaphor that human beings have been sharing forever, many of the creatures you describe fit into these archetypes.
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So let's go out on a limb here, okay?
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Let's say that because of our limited abilities to see and hear uh into to see into certain light spectrums, that we've not really been fully able to visualize these things down through the ages.
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Well, now, and this is my belief and my experience, we have uh a thinning of the veil, to borrow a phrase, uh, where people are starting to see and understand and interact with these energies more than they have in our own history.
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So that's kind of where I'm coming from.
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Somebody wants to call bullshit, they are incredibly welcome to, you know, people call bullshit on ghosts until their grandmother shows up in their room at the in the middle of the night.
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Yeah, I think that that's a fair observation.
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Um, I've related on other podcast episodes, for example, seeing my father's ghost, and it was pretty damn vivid to me.
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So I tend to be rational and scientific, but there's also a side to me which is very much a believer in this kind of phenomena, and whether it's an internal expression that then reveals itself externally, or whether we're tapping into anything that's genuinely outside of us individually, I don't know.
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But experience is experience, and if you are taking in these sensations and meeting these creatures, then I think it's interesting and and evocative and provocative that you put them together in a book and that you share it with the world.
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I think that that's very interesting.
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The Bigfoot deniers are gonna, you know, similarly deny your own experience.
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That's okay.
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That's what I'm saying.
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It's uh it's not about credulity, it's not about what is true or untrue, but it's about lived experience and sharing it.
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And I think most significantly it's about tapping into an individual's creativity and expressing it, and even for the purpose of this podcast, going out there and sharing it.
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So you published and you let it out into the world.
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How did you publish?
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You published with this publisher you mentioned who reached out to you.
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All right.
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Yeah, no, I reached out to them, they their information fell into my lap, and I took advantage of that and I reached out to them.
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I sent them a manuscript and they said, Oh, this is right up our alley, and we would absolutely like to publish it.
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So now I'm in the middle of writing my second book, which is more like memoirs, which is gonna include a lot of you know things that I experienced in film and theater with my effects career.
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Uh, makeup, hair, and effects.
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Woo-hoo! So um I, you know, I worked with a lot of really incredible people through the years.
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And so I'm gonna uh share some of those inside stories.
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But, you know, my life is one big spiritual fun park.
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And I I'm gonna share a lot of my crazy experiences in this book.
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Well, share a few now.
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Do you have any highlights that you'd like to tantalize uh the listeners and viewers with uh in terms of your career or this crossover?
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Let's talk about tangible creatures for a minute, shall we?
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Um, so I at the time, this is such a crazy story.
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Um, I my grandmother had been taken care of, my 90-year-old grandmother had been taken care of by my uncle, who passed away very unexpectedly from a heart attack.
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Uh, and so I ended up shuffling myself into my grandma's trailer and taking care of her uh and packing that trailer up after my uncle passed away.
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So one night, and I was incredibly tired.
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I mean, I was her only caretaker.
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She was invalid.
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I wasn't, I had to lift her and move her and all of these good things.
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Um, one night I was exhausted and I was staying in my uncle's room, which was like a 10 by 10 room in a trailer.
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It was so tiny.
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It was big enough for a small nightstand, a single-size bed, um, and his very tiny computer desk.
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That was it.
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That was all.
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There was about a foot, maybe less, uh space between the foot of the bed and his sliding door closet.
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Excuse me.
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So I had been going through his closet that day, which was a challenge because, you know, you have to kind of stand on the end of the bed and shuffle through the closet.
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So I had been uh sorting everything and I had a whole lot of plastic grocery bags that were full of like underwear and handkerchiefs and socks and those kinds of things.
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I was gonna donate.
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I just left them at the foot of the bed between the bed and the closet.
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I put Graham on a bed.
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I came into my room and I laid down in bed, turned the light off.
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I was fully awake.
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I had not been drinking or smoking anything that day.
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Um, but I laid down in bed and I heard the bags at the foot of the bed ruppling around.
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And I my very first thought was great, we have mice.
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That's gonna be fun.
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And so I kind of leaned over the side of the bed to check it out a little closer.
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And this little dude came running out from the foot of the bed.
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He was about 18 or 20 inches tall.
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Um, he was nude for all intents and purposes that I could see.
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I didn't see any hair on him.
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He had no hats.
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Uh, he reminded me very much of um one of the Harry Potter elves, you know.
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He was with the pointy ears and the long hooky nose and kind of the bulbous eyes and uh kind of hunched over a little bit.
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And he had a pair of my uncle's socks in his hands.
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So he looked, he didn't look at me at all.
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I was looking at him and I was afraid to breathe.
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He scared me to pieces.
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So he looked down both ways down the hallway and he slipped around the corner and into my grandmother's room.
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And I laid there.
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I just absolutely could not force myself to get out of bed and follow him into the other room.
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Uh the next day I got up and I called my ex-husband and I said, Would you please bring me my cat?
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And I uh brought the cat over, which helped a lot.
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I also did some smudging on the trailer and salted the doorways and all of those things for protection.
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And I never saw him again, but I saw that guy full on with my two eyeballs, just like I'm looking at you right now.
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Let me ask you a couple questions here.
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Uh, first off, you've been interacting with these entities and these spirits most of your life, it sounds like, right?
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That's correct.
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So, first off, this experience was apparently so vivid and unexpected that you were shocked at first.
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And I'm curious as to A, why you didn't follow the creature into your grandmother's room, because ostensibly, if it freaked you out, wouldn't it freak her out?
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Even from a protective point of view.
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And then and then B, uh why why such terror?
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Um, you've expressed interest in interacting with these entities in your in your sketchbook, right?
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Oh yeah.
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So why why not pursue this little guy or try to engage with him?
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Why tune out, go to sleep, and then get a cat who I guess you're thinking that the cat would like mouse this guy away or scare this creature away.
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Energies like that don't enjoy cats.
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Cats in them do not get along.
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So, and I knew that.
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So that's why I instantly thought, ooh, let me get the cat in here.
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So um boy, he scared me.
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And usually I don't I don't feel fear with these things, but whenever my gut tells me to lay still and be quiet, I'm gonna lay still and be quiet.
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I know it well enough to know that that's necessary.
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So, and that was the the whole vibe of this guy was dangerous.
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He was dangerous, he was not something that I wanted to mess around with.
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And it really surprised me too, because typically, like we talked about before, when I'm dealing with elementals or any kind of spirit, they're typically a light or a vapor or a smoke.
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And I I can see them in my mind's eye and I can hear them in my mind's ear, you know.
00:19:42.720 --> 00:19:46.160
But with this guy, oh, he was very physical.
00:19:46.319 --> 00:19:50.960
Uh, he wanted nothing to do with me, and he was putting up the warning signs.
00:19:51.200 --> 00:19:56.799
So I was not looking forward to tangling with something I knew nothing about.
00:19:58.240 --> 00:20:03.759
Okay, fair enough, but you seemed to grab uh the socks, you know, of your relative.
00:20:04.240 --> 00:20:08.400
So he he seemed to be operating with some kind of purpose.
00:20:08.640 --> 00:20:09.599
Yep, he did.
00:20:09.759 --> 00:20:14.880
He could have had all those socks, he could have taken the whole bag as far as I was concerned.
00:20:16.319 --> 00:20:25.759
All right, so this being, whatever and whomever it was, you had no interest in interacting with, you just wanted it to go away.
00:20:26.160 --> 00:20:30.319
I was very interested in him leaving the premises, yes.
00:20:30.559 --> 00:20:34.559
And I could hear my grandmother, she was sawing logs in the next room.
00:20:34.799 --> 00:20:36.960
He never interrupted her at all.
00:20:37.119 --> 00:20:45.279
But then it made me wonder later, you know, my my uncle had such a horrible time with sleeping, and the bed was horrible.
00:20:45.440 --> 00:20:55.839
So I can see why, you know, he wasn't getting great sleep, but it also made me wonder if he encountered anything and just was afraid to say it.
00:20:58.240 --> 00:21:07.200
All right, but that further makes me wonder why you weren't more inquisitive, apparently, than than you were, and you're saying you were just terrified of this thing, right?
00:21:10.400 --> 00:21:12.559
All right, well, that that's an interesting story.
00:21:12.720 --> 00:21:15.680
Did you draw this entity or you didn't do that?
00:21:16.240 --> 00:21:17.039
I sure did.
00:21:17.279 --> 00:21:21.599
And then years later, this was back in oh 2008.
00:21:22.480 --> 00:21:26.240
So um the internet was just getting a good roll on.
00:21:26.400 --> 00:21:38.480
Well, it was probably 10 years later when I saw that um these little guys are captured on video quite frequently, especially in um South America and Mexico.
00:21:38.640 --> 00:21:39.759
They're called Duende.
00:21:41.440 --> 00:21:45.440
What's their role and how do the Latins consider them?
00:21:45.839 --> 00:21:49.839
Yeah, they're not super friendly with anybody, and it's the same thing.
00:21:49.920 --> 00:21:58.799
They kind of appear from shadows and behind things and run through your room and terrify everybody and then disappear.
00:22:00.160 --> 00:22:07.359
It sounds kind of scary in a boo jump scare kind of way, but they don't seem to be doing any damage.
00:22:07.839 --> 00:22:09.920
But you have to understand something about me.
00:22:10.000 --> 00:22:17.759
I have worked in special effects creating monsters and commercial haunted houses for the majority of my career.
00:22:18.000 --> 00:22:21.119
So it takes a lot to frighten me.
00:22:21.279 --> 00:22:22.640
That guy scared me.
00:22:22.720 --> 00:22:25.359
I was not ready to tangle with him.
00:22:26.640 --> 00:22:29.039
Your reaction to it's your reaction.
00:22:29.359 --> 00:22:37.680
Tell us a little bit about some of the stories, apocryphal or or or not, of your days doing special effects.
00:22:37.759 --> 00:22:45.839
I'm assuming you worked on some films, some stage stage stuff that we would be familiar with and can recognize.
00:22:46.160 --> 00:22:49.359
So we'll start with film because that's a very fun place.
00:22:49.680 --> 00:22:51.519
Um I started in film.
00:22:51.599 --> 00:22:59.440
Um well, I started in commercial haunts, is where I started with my, and I was 10 years old whenever I started with special effect makeup.
00:22:59.599 --> 00:23:03.200
So I've done special effect makeup since I was 10 years old.
00:23:03.359 --> 00:23:09.359
Um a lot of haunted houses, but I started in film primarily with my career.
00:23:09.680 --> 00:23:13.039
And um I've done the two that I'm most proud of.
00:23:13.200 --> 00:23:15.200
Actually, there's three that I'm most proud of.
00:23:15.359 --> 00:23:16.720
One's called Nailbiter.
00:23:16.960 --> 00:23:17.839
That's a blast.
00:23:18.000 --> 00:23:19.200
It's a feature film.
00:23:19.359 --> 00:23:20.319
Uh, you can see it.
00:23:20.480 --> 00:23:22.480
I think you can see it on like Roku.
00:23:23.039 --> 00:23:25.759
Uh it's it's free nowadays, you can see it.
00:23:26.000 --> 00:23:27.759
Also, the stylist.
00:23:28.079 --> 00:23:31.920
And there is a feature film, and there's a short film called The Stylist.
00:23:32.000 --> 00:23:33.039
We did them both.
00:23:33.200 --> 00:23:40.880
Uh, the short film was done kind of as a fundraiser, you know, peak interest kind of film.
00:23:41.039 --> 00:23:42.559
Uh, and it's fantastic.
00:23:42.880 --> 00:23:45.519
All the special effects are things that I've done in there.
00:23:45.599 --> 00:23:50.720
Uh, best scalping scene you'll ever find anywhere, including in Glorious Bastards.
00:23:51.680 --> 00:23:55.759
Uh the feature film is brutal, just brutal.
00:23:55.920 --> 00:24:01.920
So if you enjoy good horror films and good thrill thrillers, those are three that you should absolutely check out.
00:24:02.079 --> 00:24:04.319
The stylist short film can be found on YouTube.
00:24:04.640 --> 00:24:12.400
The shilo the stylist feature film is on it's on one of the freebies, and I think it's Tubi.
00:24:13.039 --> 00:24:14.960
So you might check that out as well.
00:24:15.200 --> 00:24:18.079
As for the theater, oh, and I've worked with a lot of people.
00:24:18.240 --> 00:24:19.680
I worked with Wes Studi.
00:24:20.000 --> 00:24:20.960
I just love that guy.
00:24:21.119 --> 00:24:22.720
We had a great time together.
00:24:22.960 --> 00:24:27.279
Uh, we worked on three different movies together, uh, and they were just a blast.
00:24:27.519 --> 00:24:31.359
Um Barry Corbin had a great time with Barry Corbyn.
00:24:31.680 --> 00:24:33.680
I've just um Lou Diamond Phillips.
00:24:33.920 --> 00:24:38.799
I worked in my very first theater presentation was with Lou Diamond Phillips and the king and I.
00:24:38.960 --> 00:24:40.480
We had a ball together.
00:24:40.720 --> 00:24:45.279
Um I've done a lot of the Kansas City Ballet.
00:24:45.359 --> 00:24:47.200
I worked with them for many years.
00:24:47.359 --> 00:24:54.480
Uh, I did a lot of their, I did all of their makeup and wig stuff, uh their hair stuff.
00:24:54.720 --> 00:25:08.799
Um, I designed wigs and makeup and stuff for several different theater presentations, such as the um The Wizard of Oz and uh the Kansas City Ballet's presentation of the Nutcracker.
00:25:09.039 --> 00:25:11.119
Uh I've just I've done a whole lot of stuff.
00:25:11.200 --> 00:25:12.720
I've had a great time.
00:25:13.359 --> 00:25:23.680
Well, that sounds interesting and fun, and it's creative, and it introduces fantastic elements into everyday life, right?
00:25:23.920 --> 00:25:40.880
So you're taking what's what's everyday and making it either gory or scary or transformative, and it seems like your contact with what other dimension you've been interacting with is kind of similar, right?
00:25:41.119 --> 00:25:54.960
So I'm just drawing parallels between you bringing uh creative stuff to stage and screen, and then the creativity that you bring in the real world to interacting with these entities, right?
00:25:55.200 --> 00:25:55.839
Absolutely.
00:25:56.000 --> 00:25:57.680
Yep, you nailed that.
00:25:58.640 --> 00:26:02.480
Tell us about your your religious beliefs.
00:26:02.799 --> 00:26:08.480
So you have you have this interaction with all these spirits and entities.
00:26:08.640 --> 00:26:15.279
How does that jibe or not jibe with how you grew up from a religious point of view and what your beliefs now are?
00:26:16.559 --> 00:26:24.960
Well, my mom and dad came from my dad came from a Baptist background, my mother came from a Catholic background.
00:26:25.200 --> 00:26:29.200
That lent to incredibly bizarre childhood between the two.
00:26:30.400 --> 00:26:38.240
Um we really didn't prescribe to any of them, uh, but we kind of tested all of them.
00:26:38.480 --> 00:26:47.680
So we we went as a family, we went out and we tested everything from metaphysical churches to um the RLDS.
00:26:47.920 --> 00:26:52.640
So just a little bit of everything in between, and decided that none of them were for us.
00:26:52.799 --> 00:27:02.720
Uh, and we grew together spiritually as a family, and we kind of uh did our own thing and looked into what was good for us, uh, and we grew from there.
00:27:03.039 --> 00:27:14.400
Nowadays, I am I'm pretty convinced that there is a great creator of everything and always, and um that's everything else is for question.
00:27:16.720 --> 00:27:18.480
I lost the thread there.
00:27:18.559 --> 00:27:22.799
So you have a you know formal religion from two sources, right?
00:27:22.880 --> 00:27:34.400
And then your family tried different stuff and then didn't really land anywhere, so just figured what the hell landed on our own feet in our own area and did our own thing.
00:27:35.279 --> 00:27:56.319
Okay, so if I say God, what pops into your head is whatever that I mean it depends on what context you're using, because I believe that some people believe there is um there are there are gods that are not necessarily the great creator.
00:27:56.480 --> 00:28:05.519
I think that there is a great creator, and uh it, he, she, they um are responsible for everything in creation.
00:28:05.759 --> 00:28:14.799
Uh, but I think that there are some other entities who think that they are so all-powerful that uh they want us to call them God.
00:28:15.039 --> 00:28:18.640
So, you know, I I there there's just a whole lot out there.
00:28:18.720 --> 00:28:21.680
It's kind of hard to de-thread that one.
00:28:23.839 --> 00:28:26.880
I think religions struggle with this too.
00:28:27.039 --> 00:28:35.519
Um, you know, if you look at uh Judeo-Christian tradition, you know, Jude Judaism didn't really have a personal God at all.
00:28:35.680 --> 00:28:47.519
You got the uh the burning bush, and then and then you got this God that is not a person at all, it's it's something that's beyond even understanding.
00:28:47.680 --> 00:28:52.880
Then you got Jesus and Christianity, which I think had better better marketing, right?
00:28:53.119 --> 00:28:54.240
Personal Jesus.
00:28:54.400 --> 00:29:08.720
So God God came down from heaven in the form of a human, and then we could relate to that person who was nonetheless divine, and that was a connection with this all-powerful God dude, right?
00:29:08.799 --> 00:29:12.799
And then Islam came and kind of took bits and pieces of both, right?
00:29:12.960 --> 00:29:19.680
So you had Jesus in the form of Muhammad, but then you had God in a way that was like the Jewish God.
00:29:19.759 --> 00:29:29.279
You couldn't even imagine what this dude God was like because he was so amazing and powerful, and but that left a lot of space, right?
00:29:29.440 --> 00:29:38.240
So throughout the Middle Ages, you had all the religions thinking of demons and angels and all these intermediaries, right?
00:29:38.319 --> 00:29:57.200
So you have the Hebrew Hebrew Kabbalah has a whole hierarchy of angels all tied to the stuff hirote, and then you've got Christian angels and demons, and even in Islam, you've got the angels and demons, the angels and demons.
00:29:57.359 --> 00:30:09.440
So I think there's a human need and there's a human recognition that between this all-powerful God entity and us, there's a lot of room to move.
00:30:09.759 --> 00:30:12.480
And presumably nature abhors a vacuum.
00:30:12.559 --> 00:30:23.200
So if you do believe in anything spiritual, then it makes sense that there would be these entities that would lie in between us and and and that God does.
00:30:23.839 --> 00:30:28.559
Well, and not even necessarily in between us, but just how about all around us?
00:30:30.160 --> 00:30:32.400
You know, or or beneath us.
00:30:32.559 --> 00:30:36.240
There is it, there's just it goes in every direction.
00:30:37.440 --> 00:30:40.319
It just goes in every as above, so below.
00:30:40.480 --> 00:30:42.240
I think you know, you make a good point.
00:30:42.400 --> 00:30:45.119
Usually everyone looks at it hierarchically, right?
00:30:45.279 --> 00:30:48.160
The gods up top and that we're at the bottom.
00:30:48.480 --> 00:30:56.880
But by but by all around, I do appreciate what you mean, which is like it's not necessarily better or right or wrong, it's just um experience.
00:30:57.200 --> 00:30:57.920
It just is.
00:30:58.079 --> 00:30:58.799
That's right.
00:30:59.039 --> 00:30:59.839
It just is.
00:31:00.079 --> 00:31:02.640
And the deeper you look, the more you'll see.
00:31:02.960 --> 00:31:12.400
So um there's just a lot to look at out there, and I don't even think that we're fully capable uh incarnated on this planet.
00:31:12.559 --> 00:31:17.680
I don't think we're fully capable in understanding or seeing all of it by any means.
00:31:18.720 --> 00:31:20.640
Why do you think they're hiding out?
00:31:20.880 --> 00:31:34.160
So this is pushback that a lot of skeptics will provide, which is okay, let's say that your experiences are actually of something outside yourself and that these entities actually exist.
00:31:34.960 --> 00:31:39.039
So, how come they're not more prominent in our lives?
00:31:39.200 --> 00:31:42.240
Why do they duck and cover like UFOs?
00:31:43.039 --> 00:31:48.079
And why do they show up in these odd moments when we least expect them?
00:31:48.240 --> 00:31:54.720
And if they are powerful in ways, why aren't they influencing us more than they apparently do?
00:31:55.279 --> 00:31:58.960
Whew, I wish I could answer all of those, but I know I can't.
00:31:59.119 --> 00:32:06.240
So, what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna give you my opinion on that, and that would be that there's we're not capable.
00:32:06.480 --> 00:32:08.960
Our bodies are just not capable.
00:32:09.119 --> 00:32:11.920
Well, let's take light spectrum, for example.
00:32:12.000 --> 00:32:16.720
Uh, we are only capable of seeing a certain amount of the light spectrum.
00:32:16.880 --> 00:32:19.359
Beyond that, we're not capable of seeing it.
00:32:19.440 --> 00:32:29.359
You know, they're just now discovering that ocean life uh comes in all kinds of different colors, even though we don't necessarily see them as being different colors.
00:32:29.599 --> 00:32:41.359
A lot of that is um uh UV reactive, and they can see it in each other, they can see it in themselves, but we don't have those light spectrum capabilities in our eyeballs.
00:32:41.599 --> 00:32:53.200
So I think that it has a lot to do with that same principle that we are physically incapable of seeing or hearing these things around us.
00:32:53.759 --> 00:32:54.799
That's what I think.
00:32:56.240 --> 00:32:57.039
You're right.
00:32:57.200 --> 00:33:01.519
I mean, even the most rational, skeptical scientists would agree with that.
00:33:01.759 --> 00:33:09.759
I mean, even bees, bees tend to see ultraviolet, so they see patterns on flower petals that are invisible to us.
00:33:09.920 --> 00:33:10.400
That's right.
00:33:10.640 --> 00:33:22.480
So there's uh there's a whole spectrum of radiation sounds that we can't hear, sights that we can't see, yeah, that are that are invisible to us.
00:33:22.559 --> 00:33:24.559
And scientists even go further than that.
00:33:24.720 --> 00:33:30.960
They think that even our idea of space and time aren't aren't absolute either.
00:33:31.119 --> 00:33:42.720
And then you look at at specialties like quantum mechanics, the things are connected to each other in ways that don't seem to make rational sense, and we can't really explain it.
00:33:42.960 --> 00:34:00.640
So all of this is is sound, even from a very conservative scientific point of view, but it does beg the question as to why the veil parts so rarely under these circumstances and only for a few people.
00:34:00.880 --> 00:34:03.119
What's your what's your opinion on that?
00:34:03.359 --> 00:34:05.920
Why are you more in tune than most?
00:34:07.039 --> 00:34:16.159
And why isn't isn't this conversation more common than it otherwise could or should be, especially if this stuff is real?
00:34:16.719 --> 00:34:27.920
I think that the conversation is becoming way more acceptable and needed uh than it ever has been in history, in our history here on this planet.
00:34:28.079 --> 00:34:33.199
And I think the reason for that is because we are evolving.
00:34:33.440 --> 00:34:47.440
Our planet is evolving, we are evolving, uh, the veil is evolving, and um we are coming in closer contact with things that we've only speculated on before.
00:34:47.679 --> 00:34:53.679
And I think that that's also scientifically sound if you look at some of the things that are coming to light nowadays.
00:34:53.840 --> 00:35:02.639
Let's look at the fifth dump of UFO files on the uh whitehouse.gov or war.gov or whatever it is nowadays.
00:35:02.800 --> 00:35:14.079
Um, and all of these things that are there, and they're videotaping these things with specialized equipment that we've never had before.
00:35:14.400 --> 00:35:17.599
So, you know, I think that it's the same thing with us.
00:35:17.760 --> 00:35:25.760
I think that we are evolving to the point where uh we are seeing and hearing and feeling these things more than we ever have before.
00:35:26.000 --> 00:35:27.840
Did that answer your question?
00:35:28.639 --> 00:35:58.000
It does, but I'm a little skeptical, if only from a historical point of view, because before we really even had the scientific method or what we would consider a rational explanation of things, then this idea of spirits and demons and entities and not just one god but many gods was universally common and accepted from basically what we know of most of human history.
00:35:58.239 --> 00:36:08.639
Before we had a scientific or rational explanation to most of the natural world, we assigned it to entities like what you're describing.
00:36:08.800 --> 00:36:18.880
And then slowly, with the help of technology and what we would consider science, those beliefs started to ebb, right?
00:36:19.119 --> 00:36:29.760
We shifted our worldview away from this kind of thinking to uh into more technological, rational explanations of things.
00:36:30.159 --> 00:36:35.119
So I don't think that we necessarily shifted our focus away from that.
00:36:35.199 --> 00:36:39.119
I think our focus was shifted away from that for us.
00:36:39.599 --> 00:36:57.920
I believe that um I believe that the spiritual um we have been pulled away from that because I feel like this is gonna sound so conspiracy theory, but I believe that we have been pulled away from those things on purpose.
00:36:58.079 --> 00:36:59.599
They empower us.
00:37:00.159 --> 00:37:04.400
And um, the more we learn about them, the more we're empowered.
00:37:04.719 --> 00:37:11.840
And so um I think that we've been pulled away from that on purpose as a form of control, to be honest.
00:37:13.119 --> 00:37:17.199
I don't think it's that conspiratorial and it's not even that fringe.
00:37:17.280 --> 00:37:18.719
Let's go back to Carl Jung.
00:37:19.039 --> 00:37:46.960
Carl Jung would agree with you, he'd categorically agree with you, and he documented this in his Bollinger series of books, where basically history's movement away from accepting and embracing the archetypes was done for all these reasons like societal control and making people behave themselves, and when people are chasing after demons, they're a lot harder to put them to work and be citizens, right?
00:37:47.280 --> 00:38:04.800
So, so yeah, I don't think your idea there is that fringe, and I like your idea that it comes from here naturally, and that the side the science and reasonableness is the artificial construct that's put on top of that to try to explain, try to explain stuff.
00:38:05.039 --> 00:38:09.119
So I think I think that's legit and it's interceptive.
00:38:09.920 --> 00:38:16.000
And uh and and it it also kind of points in the direction of trying to find some kind of balance, right?
00:38:16.159 --> 00:38:22.960
Clearly, science and technology have advanced the species in ways that have been helpful.
00:38:23.360 --> 00:38:24.480
It's not all bad.
00:38:24.719 --> 00:38:32.559
I mean, we got a pot to piss in, we got running water, we got technology that enables this conversation.
00:38:33.280 --> 00:38:39.599
Uh, you know, overall the human population is doing probably better than it has been in a lot of ways.
00:38:39.840 --> 00:38:42.880
People are better better educated, better fed.
00:38:43.119 --> 00:38:49.199
They're actually safer statistically than they've probably ever been in documented history.
00:38:49.440 --> 00:38:53.440
So there's a benefit to this big mess that is civilization.
00:38:53.599 --> 00:38:59.840
There's a lot of prices to be paid for it, but the overall net benefit has been pretty good.
00:39:00.000 --> 00:39:12.159
We tend to live longer and better than we have, but what's lost is this spiritual essence and is this connection to these other things that you're bringing up.
00:39:12.559 --> 00:39:14.960
And I think that that's coming back around for us.
00:39:15.119 --> 00:39:31.039
I think that now is the time for us, and maybe it's because we have been uh so technologically advanced and things are relaxing enough that we can actually open our eyes to these other things that we've missed or been guided away from.
00:39:32.719 --> 00:39:36.320
I think that that's that's definitely a big part of the story.
00:39:36.559 --> 00:39:45.519
I think the other part of the story is that science and institutions have also let us down, and people like to gripe on the social media.
00:39:45.679 --> 00:39:49.599
So you mentioned COVID, COVID was a big experience for you.
00:39:50.239 --> 00:39:52.159
You weren't the you weren't the only one.
00:39:52.400 --> 00:40:13.360
So not only this government, but I think most governments blew the shot on COVID that they reacted to it or overreacted to it or underreacted to it in a way that really destroyed many people's faith in science and institutions and medicine and medicine.
00:40:13.519 --> 00:40:19.599
Well, science and institutions and medicine, they're all kind of interwoven, but yeah, and medicine, right?
00:40:21.280 --> 00:40:27.360
So with that increase in skepticism opens up the door to other kinds of thinking and being.
00:40:27.599 --> 00:40:39.360
It does, and if and if science and medicine and institutions let us down, well, maybe some of this spirit stuff can hold some of the promise that it has for millennia before, right?
00:40:39.840 --> 00:40:50.320
And self, too, because now we are having to depend more on our own selves uh for our own care and our own understanding.
00:40:50.559 --> 00:40:54.400
And that's that's rough, especially with the internet the way it is.
00:40:54.480 --> 00:41:04.159
You know, everybody's a keyboard warrior nowadays, nobody wants to have an eyeball-to-eyeball conversation, and that is so necessary and so lacking.
00:41:05.360 --> 00:41:07.599
Yeah, I agree a thousand percent.
00:41:07.760 --> 00:41:12.800
Uh, one of the many reasons I do these podcasts, I have five shows.
00:41:13.119 --> 00:41:20.400
Wow, I think this is this is episode 339, and it's only been like a year and a half or something.
00:41:20.960 --> 00:41:23.920
So I'm I'm doing a bunch of these every week.
00:41:24.079 --> 00:41:38.480
And at first I started because uh, you know, the technology's there, and I'm a writer, and I wanted to connect with the writing community, and then the realization struck me, which is exactly in line with what you're saying.
00:41:38.880 --> 00:41:45.440
Uh one one thing I cite frequently is you know, good old Socrates from from the Greek tradition.
00:41:45.599 --> 00:41:50.320
Yeah, he he distrusted people who wrote anything down.
00:41:50.559 --> 00:41:57.360
And I I used I used to always think, come on, man, you know what what what's the problem with that?
00:41:57.760 --> 00:42:01.199
And now I understand it, and it's based on what you just said.
00:42:01.360 --> 00:42:13.599
Everyone's a keyboard jockey right now, and people are doom scrolling, and then you see on your feed meme, meme, comment, mean comment, meme, meme comment about the mean comment.
00:42:13.760 --> 00:42:18.719
But yeah, and no one's directly interacting with each other, like like we are now.
00:42:18.880 --> 00:42:24.159
You can't look people in the eye, they're they're hidden behind their words and their post.
00:42:36.719 --> 00:42:39.599
Absolutely, and that's what Socrates was complaining about.
00:42:39.679 --> 00:42:47.039
If I'm reading a piece of parchment or some cuneiform carved out of stone, there's no emotion there, there's no essence.
00:42:47.119 --> 00:42:49.920
I don't know who you are, I don't know your intent.
00:42:51.440 --> 00:42:58.000
Oh, your tone of voice, I can't see you, I can't smell you, there's no real human contact.
00:42:58.239 --> 00:43:10.320
And and again, I was dismissive of that, but ever since I've been podcasting, it's been reinforced that you really need to just talk to people if you really want to communicate with them.
00:43:10.480 --> 00:43:14.880
So I feel blessed doing this because I get to meet people like you.
00:43:15.119 --> 00:43:20.719
I've met dozens of authors of books where I just read the book and I'm like, okay.
00:43:20.960 --> 00:43:32.639
And when you read, when you meet the author, sometimes it could be disappointing, sometimes it could be enlightening, but you do get that extra dimension to see who they are and what they're trying to say.
00:43:32.719 --> 00:43:37.360
And same goes for for idea people, for business people.
00:43:37.519 --> 00:43:40.480
It's like there's really no substitute to human communication.
00:43:40.719 --> 00:43:53.039
So to your point, it goes full circle, which is we've gone from like this technology that is helping us communicate better, like over time and distance.
00:43:53.440 --> 00:43:56.400
And then it gets to the point we're not talking to each other at all.
00:43:56.559 --> 00:43:59.440
And then it's like, well, well, we gotta start that.
00:44:00.159 --> 00:44:01.199
Start that again, right?
00:44:01.280 --> 00:44:07.199
If we're really gonna understand each other and ourselves, it has affected every single relationship in my own life.
00:44:07.280 --> 00:44:08.239
I know that.
00:44:09.599 --> 00:44:19.280
Have you noticed the deterioration in gratitude and kindness and politeness and basic human civility over the years?
00:44:19.599 --> 00:44:23.679
I have absolutely pretty so since 2020, really.
00:44:24.079 --> 00:44:30.719
Since 2020, it has been an insane thing to try and keep good relationships with people.
00:44:30.880 --> 00:44:41.119
Even the people that you love the most, you know, your children, your grandchildren, your sisters and brothers, your everybody that you were I grew up in such a tight-knit family.
00:44:41.280 --> 00:44:44.800
And nowadays it's just not the same.
00:44:45.119 --> 00:44:48.639
And it I can pinpoint it back to 2020 100%.
00:44:50.239 --> 00:44:52.239
I think that that's really insightful.
00:44:52.320 --> 00:44:54.719
And I don't think enough people are talking about it.
00:44:54.800 --> 00:44:58.639
I I think a lot of people act like the pandemic never happened.
00:44:58.800 --> 00:44:59.360
Oh, it didn't.
00:44:59.440 --> 00:45:03.199
It's something that, you know, we were locked down for a year or two.
00:45:03.599 --> 00:45:08.239
It's usually like this blind spot, and people just dismiss it.
00:45:08.320 --> 00:45:23.280
And this is actually common going back a hundred years to the pandemic of 1918, 1919, where there's nothing that came out of it really of note creatively and in terms of human processing and catharsis.
00:45:23.519 --> 00:45:28.320
No, no books, no plays, and then eventually no movies.
00:45:28.400 --> 00:45:30.079
It's like it just never happened.
00:45:30.159 --> 00:45:32.159
We just forget about it.
00:45:32.559 --> 00:45:48.239
And it seems to me that one of the reasons we're not paying attention to it is for the very reason that you bring up that it was so devastating, so transformative, and so impactful that we're like, no, we don't we don't want to go there.
00:45:48.320 --> 00:45:54.159
And yet we're living through it every day by being increasingly alienated from each other.
00:45:54.480 --> 00:45:56.559
We were so traumatized.
00:45:56.800 --> 00:46:02.960
Every single one of us suffers from PTSD to some degree or another over 2020, for real.
00:46:03.440 --> 00:46:06.559
And I wish that I could talk to more people about that.
00:46:06.719 --> 00:46:10.159
I wish that I could look them in the eyeball and say, I'm really sorry.
00:46:10.320 --> 00:46:11.440
I know that it hurt you.
00:46:11.599 --> 00:46:12.320
It hurt me.
00:46:12.480 --> 00:46:13.599
It hurt me very much.
00:46:13.679 --> 00:46:15.599
It changed my life completely.
00:46:16.880 --> 00:46:27.920
If you got through it with minimal overt damage, the broader psychological damage in terms of relationships with other people was significant too.
00:46:28.079 --> 00:46:31.440
And this has to do with every level of human interaction.
00:46:32.159 --> 00:46:42.320
Uh, arguing about the pandemic, arguing about what to do about the pandemic, arguing about how you were impacted by the pandemic.
00:46:42.559 --> 00:46:42.880
Right.
00:46:43.840 --> 00:46:48.880
Arguing about and fighting your circumstances during and after.
00:46:49.039 --> 00:46:57.519
It's all this big swirl of a lot of emotion that has never never really been released or settled.
00:46:57.840 --> 00:47:03.039
Well, then you throw in the fireball of all the politics, and it's insane.
00:47:03.199 --> 00:47:05.519
Nobody, nobody wants to talk about it.
00:47:05.599 --> 00:47:07.840
They all want to argue about it.
00:47:08.400 --> 00:47:13.039
And so it's just it's it's debilitating for our society, really.
00:47:13.119 --> 00:47:19.920
It is it goes back to um some of our foundational beliefs were crushed by it.
00:47:20.480 --> 00:47:39.679
So we we live in a society where we benefit from everything we've been talking about earlier, which is you know, running water and the lights go on and off, and traffic lights, you know, prevent car wrecks, and we go to the doctor when we're sick, and there's this parachute for us created by society.
00:47:40.320 --> 00:47:53.840
And we really we really felt to mix metaphor that the rug was pulled out from under us, and and it makes us feel that we're really truly alone, that that what we believed in was bullshit.
00:47:54.239 --> 00:47:58.800
And at the end, and at the end of the day, there's no one that could really help us.
00:47:58.960 --> 00:48:01.039
And that's that's terrifying.
00:48:01.360 --> 00:48:08.639
It is, especially whenever you are used to having people who are close to you that aren't close to you anymore.
00:48:08.960 --> 00:48:11.519
And that stands for everybody I know.
00:48:11.840 --> 00:48:16.559
That's not just me, that's not just you, that's everybody I know.
00:48:17.760 --> 00:48:20.079
Why do you why do you think that is, though?
00:48:20.159 --> 00:48:24.159
Let's unpack this because I think this is deeply insightful.
00:48:24.320 --> 00:48:30.800
And you bring up something that I've been ruminating over too, and I didn't really factor in the pandemic.
00:48:30.880 --> 00:48:32.719
I'm I'm getting a little bit older.
00:48:32.880 --> 00:48:37.039
As I get older, I do get a little wiser, at least I think I do.
00:48:37.599 --> 00:48:46.079
And and and as a product of experience, I'm kind of like, well, am I understanding people better than I did before?
00:48:46.320 --> 00:48:51.360
Is my tolerance for other people's bullshit less than it was before?
00:48:51.760 --> 00:49:00.079
And have I learned from my own successes and failures in a way where fuck it, I'm fine by myself.
00:49:00.719 --> 00:49:09.039
Or, or to your point, did something happen to the fabric of society that fucked fucked us all up?
00:49:09.280 --> 00:49:09.760
It did.
00:49:09.920 --> 00:49:11.280
We are fucked.
00:49:12.880 --> 00:49:14.960
We are fuckered, yes, we are.
00:49:15.280 --> 00:49:22.239
So I really believe that we are, like I said, we were all traumatized.
00:49:22.480 --> 00:49:27.440
I mean, we need human contact and interaction.
00:49:27.760 --> 00:49:32.960
What were we absolutely forbidden to do for almost two years?
00:49:33.199 --> 00:49:36.400
All of us, young and old alike, it didn't matter.
00:49:36.719 --> 00:49:42.239
People died without their people being able to hold their hands, you know.
00:49:42.559 --> 00:49:50.000
Um, I couldn't hug my own kids or grandkids, I couldn't even stand in the same room with them.
00:49:50.719 --> 00:49:53.360
I was lucky to be able to see them on video.
00:49:54.320 --> 00:50:02.480
You know, there was a sincere lack of human contact and communication for almost two years.
00:50:02.719 --> 00:50:04.400
We are social creatures.
00:50:04.719 --> 00:50:17.840
We need to be hugged, we need to be touched, we need to have your voice in your ear, we need to have um uh the contact and communication, and we were deprived of that.
00:50:18.000 --> 00:50:22.000
We were forbidden from that for almost two years.
00:50:23.440 --> 00:50:25.920
There's ancillary effects too.
00:50:26.000 --> 00:50:39.360
There's a wake that's that's been branching out, and this has to do with other implications of the pandemic that result in pretty much what you describe in terms of the breakdown of interpersonal relationships.
00:50:39.519 --> 00:50:45.360
So, for example, and you know, I don't mean to get political, I'm just talking about the facts.
00:50:45.840 --> 00:50:51.760
Ever since COVID, income inequality has only risen.
00:50:52.079 --> 00:50:56.960
The rich have gotten exponentially richer, and the poor have gotten poorer.
00:50:57.440 --> 00:51:08.079
So, what is what has separated us in the past is now a chasm, and that has a ripple effect throughout society too.
00:51:08.480 --> 00:51:32.079
And there's this general feeling that it's all about me, it's selfish, it's self-consuming, it's further reinforced by the clusterfuck that is social media, and and it seems to be, as I'm describing, the wake of what you're describing of this period of alienation where you feel like you're by yourself, you're like, fuck it, nobody cares.
00:51:32.400 --> 00:51:38.320
And then that translates into the economy, into politics, into culture.
00:51:38.800 --> 00:51:42.159
Look at Hollywood, look at our streaming media.
00:51:42.320 --> 00:51:44.960
It it sucks for the most part.
00:51:45.199 --> 00:51:52.400
The movies that are popular now, it makes you wonder what the hell happened.
00:51:52.639 --> 00:52:04.079
And and you can say that you know, we're turning into old farts and we're just like, you know, old movies complaining about Led Zeppelin, but it goes beyond that, right?
00:52:04.719 --> 00:52:06.480
It goes well beyond that.
00:52:06.639 --> 00:52:33.840
I know that my grandchildren, who are between the ages of six and eighteen, okay, that they have suffered interpersonal relationships and the cuddles and the the um all of the learning that that we should have been doing, the learning and the teaching, they lack because we were not able to be together like we should have been.
00:52:35.119 --> 00:52:37.280
It's like a double triple whammy.
00:52:37.679 --> 00:52:44.079
So, first off, you have digital technology that's kept people separate, more so than in the past.
00:52:44.239 --> 00:52:52.159
So young people had been dating less and interacting, yes, less because of the phones for years already.
00:52:52.239 --> 00:52:54.480
That was already starting to build up.
00:52:54.719 --> 00:52:59.760
And then the other punch came in, which is the actual physical separation from people.
00:53:00.079 --> 00:53:04.719
So you have people who are just staring at their phones instead of at each other.
00:53:04.960 --> 00:53:26.000
Then you have a pandemic that physically separates them even further, and then you have all these other implications about society reacting in a very selfish, narcissistic, yeah, asocial kind of way, and it's all been compounded into a fuck you society, which we still haven't gotten free of.
00:53:26.159 --> 00:53:29.360
It seems to be just getting worse with time, right?
00:53:29.679 --> 00:53:41.119
Well, it is, and I really feel like the political atmosphere is feeding that frenzy, and I don't, I, I don't have an ap a political affiliation.
00:53:41.360 --> 00:54:04.159
What I do have is a great deal of care for people who are so wrapped up in that that they have absolutely let go of interpersonal relationships because of it, and so that has also led to this lack of interpersonal relationships and closeness and communication, real communication.
00:54:05.199 --> 00:54:09.199
Nobody's interested in listening to each other's viewpoint anymore.
00:54:09.360 --> 00:54:12.079
They want you to hear theirs, and that's it.
00:54:13.360 --> 00:54:24.639
This goes full circle to to your sketchbook, which is um you got these entities that are visiting you, and then you're you're documenting them.
00:54:24.960 --> 00:54:36.159
Do you sometimes feel that it's a little bit compensatory that that that you're you're having a struggle connecting with the people that you love and connecting with society?
00:54:36.320 --> 00:54:50.639
And frankly, you feel increasingly alone and isolated, and these beings are coming to visit and say hi to kind of make up for other human beings not being able to fit the bill.
00:54:50.960 --> 00:55:01.760
I have to tell you that over the last six years, um, I have had probably less visitations than I had for the prior 20 years.
00:55:02.000 --> 00:55:04.239
So I don't feel like that's true.
00:55:04.480 --> 00:55:11.760
I feel like that is uh I wish I could say that was true, although it make me look like that crazy ghost lady.
00:55:12.719 --> 00:55:14.400
You know, not the crazy cat lady.
00:55:14.480 --> 00:55:15.920
I'm a crazy ghost lady.
00:55:16.639 --> 00:55:20.800
That's your purpose on this podcast right now is to share that point of view.
00:55:20.960 --> 00:55:24.800
I find it interesting though that my hypothesis was was wrong.
00:55:25.039 --> 00:55:36.719
So it seems like when society is more social and integrated and friendlier and more civil, then these creatures kind of pop up and visit the ghost lady, right?
00:55:37.360 --> 00:55:42.960
And then when you're when you're feeling alienated and fucked up along with everyone else, then they're like, eh.
00:55:43.840 --> 00:55:44.480
Yeah.
00:55:46.000 --> 00:55:49.119
Yeah, I don't want to around with her, she's being grungy.
00:55:49.599 --> 00:55:50.320
Very interesting.
00:55:50.400 --> 00:55:55.599
But you bring up great points, and I like your point of view, which is very emotional and subjective.
00:55:55.840 --> 00:55:58.800
That's who I am, and and and creative.
00:55:59.199 --> 00:55:59.599
Thank you.
00:55:59.840 --> 00:56:19.280
And you do you do introduce uh a very intriguing idea that we're still in the wake of this in ways that are impacting because even just personally, again, to be frank, it's like I find myself increasingly alienated from friends and family.
00:56:19.519 --> 00:56:27.119
And these podcasts are my way of connecting with people and learning, and and and I feel blessed for for doing these.
00:56:27.199 --> 00:56:29.119
I make time to do these.
00:56:29.599 --> 00:56:36.719
Uh, but it's but it also shows how the other aspect of my life is just not what it was.
00:56:37.039 --> 00:56:38.639
Where is everybody?
00:56:38.800 --> 00:56:42.880
I feel like everyone's checked out and they don't give a shit.
00:56:43.840 --> 00:56:45.119
That's not it though.
00:56:45.280 --> 00:56:51.760
They do give a shit, but they are so wrapped up in their own misery, just like we are, just like I am.
00:56:51.920 --> 00:57:05.920
I'm wrapped up in my own stuff so much, and I reach out, I do reach out, but everybody is so busy trying to connect with themselves that they're not connecting with anybody else.
00:57:06.719 --> 00:57:10.559
I just want to reiterate that that's uh a profound observation.
00:57:10.639 --> 00:57:14.719
It's one of those observations that are so screamingly obvious that you go duh.
00:57:15.360 --> 00:57:24.960
But you put it into a great context, which is it's just worse than it was in terms of human beings not connecting.
00:57:25.199 --> 00:57:31.599
I also I also find this degradation of civility and politeness and even basic etiquette.
00:57:32.000 --> 00:57:34.400
Manners, where are your manners?
00:57:34.800 --> 00:57:37.679
Yes, yes, exactly, exactly.
00:57:37.840 --> 00:57:51.679
And then uh I I think it was Nietzsche who said at some point that if if manners go, that manners and basic politeness are the surest sign of a society's well-being above all, right?
00:57:51.840 --> 00:58:00.960
The granddaddy of the Ubermensch insisted on politeness, and and I find that no accident, which is and I think he's right.
00:58:01.119 --> 00:58:11.760
If we if we jettison civility and the gratitude that is underneath that, then our raw our raw humanity is out the window.
00:58:12.000 --> 00:58:15.039
It's it's like where where do we go from there?
00:58:15.679 --> 00:58:16.559
I don't know.
00:58:16.719 --> 00:58:22.239
We need to reintroduce empathy and sympathy and feeling for other people, you know.
00:58:22.480 --> 00:58:26.400
Treat those, treat other people the way you want them to treat you.
00:58:26.559 --> 00:58:28.880
That's gone right out the window.
00:58:29.280 --> 00:58:42.719
It seems like a reflex action to the survival mode where I almost died and I was on my own, and now I don't trust anyone, including especially myself.
00:58:43.039 --> 00:58:44.480
And that and that's a real trend.
00:58:44.800 --> 00:58:51.840
So rather than being a Debbie Downer here, what what do you think could fix this?
00:58:52.400 --> 00:58:53.920
We need to heal.
00:58:54.239 --> 00:58:58.800
For one thing, and I I say this a lot on my podcasts.
00:58:58.960 --> 00:59:00.880
That's don't feed the beast.
00:59:01.119 --> 00:59:08.880
You know, there's a beast out there who likes to feed on our fear and our anger and our jealousy and our hatred.
00:59:09.039 --> 00:59:10.960
Uh, don't feed the beast.
00:59:11.199 --> 00:59:12.960
That is a number one.
00:59:13.119 --> 00:59:26.400
Don't worry, don't be, and that's so hard nowadays because we're all struggling with our bills and our families and our health and our jobs and our cars and all of these things.
00:59:26.480 --> 00:59:30.559
You know, your average guy is just struggling every single day.
00:59:30.719 --> 00:59:37.039
So it's very difficult to keep in mind that somebody else may have some feelings that you need to take into account.
00:59:37.440 --> 00:59:39.840
But I think that that's the secret right there.
00:59:40.000 --> 00:59:47.440
Remember that you're dealing with a human being here who has feelings and a family and a life of their own.
00:59:48.960 --> 00:59:55.199
Sounds like empathy is one of the the mad the secret sauce that could help us.
00:59:57.760 --> 01:00:00.639
A little more empathy, a little more caring.
01:00:00.880 --> 01:00:01.199
Yes.
01:00:01.440 --> 01:00:09.920
And and shifting the attention away from ourselves and our own bullshit, and frankly, giving giving a shit about other people.
01:00:10.000 --> 01:00:11.440
That might be a start.
01:00:11.679 --> 01:00:12.639
That's right.
01:00:12.880 --> 01:00:13.519
Yes.
01:00:15.119 --> 01:00:16.400
That that sounds good.
01:00:16.480 --> 01:00:22.159
I think that that's a great way to cap a very interesting conversation.
01:00:22.480 --> 01:00:26.639
I want to put links to your to your book in the description below.
01:00:27.039 --> 01:00:28.079
They can buy it online.
01:00:28.880 --> 01:00:33.599
Anywhere you can buy books, you can buy my book, The Adventures of a Sketch Diary.
01:00:33.760 --> 01:00:42.480
You can also get it on my publisher's website, which is hangarwhenpublishing.com, or you can find it on my own website, which is ColleenKaufman.com.
01:00:42.880 --> 01:00:43.199
Great.
01:00:43.360 --> 01:00:46.159
I'll put all three links in the description here.
01:00:46.400 --> 01:00:47.280
Thank you so much.
01:00:47.599 --> 01:01:01.280
Colleen Kaufman, retired visual effects artist for stage and screen, current ghost lady who has brought to life the critters and fritters who come to visit her.
01:01:01.599 --> 01:01:03.840
Critters and fritters sharing.
01:01:04.000 --> 01:01:10.880
And to me, the big takeaway is open your mind and most importantly, open your heart to possibilities.
01:01:11.199 --> 01:01:28.559
And and I think that the biggest challenge here isn't just that we're not feeling enough empathy toward each other, but we're not open minded and open hearted enough to embrace different people and different possibilities that could really make our lives more interesting and better.
01:01:29.840 --> 01:01:33.199
And I think you're doing that with your ghost lady journeys.
01:01:33.280 --> 01:01:35.760
And thank you so much for making time on Inc.
01:01:35.920 --> 01:01:36.960
vs the algorithm.
01:01:37.039 --> 01:01:38.639
Like, comment, share, everybody.