Colored light around every living thing, readable by anyone with the right training — or by a camera at the mall. Jimmy Akin and Dom Bettinelli follow the aura from Mesmer to the selfie app, and weigh what happened under controlled testing.

https://youtu.be/UMsuQFcv_b8

Help us continue to offer Jimmy Akin’s Mysterious World. Won’t you make a pledge at SQPN.com/give today?

Links for this episode:

• Annie Besant and C. W. Leadbeater, Thought-Forms (Amazon)
• Sheila Ostrander and Lynn Schroeder, Psychic Discoveries Behind the Iron Curtain (Amazon)
• Walter J. Kilner, The Human Atmosphere (Internet Archive)
• Karl von Reichenbach, Letters on Od and Magnetism (Etheronics)
• Milán et al., “Auras in mysticism and synaesthesia: A comparison,” Consciousness and Cognition (2012)
• Zingrone, Alvarado, and Agee, “Psychological Correlates of Aura Vision,” Australian Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis (2009)
• Pehek, Kyler, and Faust, “Image Modulation in Corona Discharge Photography,” Science (1976)
• Robert W. Loftin, “Auras: Searching for the Light,” Skeptical Inquirer (1990)
• Bertram R. Forer, “The Fallacy of Personal Validation,” Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology (1949)
• “Aura” (Psi-Encyclopedia, Society for Psychical Research)
• “Kirlian Photography” (Psi-Encyclopedia, Society for Psychical Research)
• Mysteries from Beyond the Earth (1975 documentary)
• The Conversation of Saint Seraphim of Sarov with Nicholas Motovilov
• Society for Psychical Research
• Jimmy Akin’s Mysterious World, Episode 288: The Mystery of Synesthesia

• Please spread the word about the podcast. Leave us a review on Apple Podcasts!
• Purchase the books and other material from this and other episodes at the Mysterious World Bookstore.
• Join the conversation at the Starquest Facebook page and the Jimmy Akin’s Mysterious World Facebook page.
• Be part of the StarQuest Discord community at SQPN.com/discord
• Send your feedback or comments to feedback@mysterious.fm or send a tweet to @mys_world
• You can also leave a voice message on the Mysterious Feedback Line at (619) 738-4515

Chapters:

• 0:00:12 – Intro
• 0:00:43 – Cold open: an aura reading at the shop
• 0:01:40 – What an aura is supposed to be
• 0:02:36 – Layers, chakras, and prana
• 0:04:16 – What the colors are said to mean
• 0:05:21 – Rare gift or learned skill?
• 0:05:57 – Color and emotion across cultures
• 0:07:14 – Light around holy figures in scripture
• 0:09:31 – Halos, the nimbus, and the mandorla
• 0:11:06 – Franz Anton Mesmer and animal magnetism
• 0:12:41 – Mesmerism in Paris
• 0:13:49 – The Franklin Commission of 1784
• 0:17:18 – Karl von Reichenbach and the odic force
• 0:19:50 – The Society for Psychical Research
• 0:20:56 – Theosophy and Madame Blavatsky
• 0:23:21 – Besant, Leadbeater, and the color code
• 0:25:50 – Dr. Walter Kilner and the dicyanin screens
• 0:29:09 – Wilhelm Reich and orgone
• 0:30:39 – The FDA, the book burnings, and Reich’s death
• 0:31:56 – Kirlian photography
• 0:33:26 – Clip: Mysteries from Beyond Earth (Thelma Moss)
• 0:39:39 – The modern aura camera
• 0:40:30 – How aura cameras actually work
• 0:41:56 – Auras today: apps and selfies
• 0:42:42 – Thank you to Patrons
• 0:43:13 – Sponsor: Rosary Army and School of Mary
• 0:43:35 – Sponsorship opportunities
• 0:44:40 – Reason Perspective: the seven theories
• 0:46:14 – Theory 1: Do aura cameras photograph a real field?
• 0:47:48 – Theory 2: Do the colors carry universal meanings?
• 0:50:54 – Theory 3: A literal electromagnetic field?
• 0:52:52 – What Kirlian photography actually captures
• 0:54:21 – Theory 4: An undiscovered subtle energy
• 0:56:51 – The screen tests
• 0:59:21 – Why negative results from parapsychologists matter
• 1:00:11 – Theory 5: Biophotons
• 1:02:55 – Theory 6: Synesthesia
• 1:06:57 – Theory 7: Ordinary perception and suggestion
• 1:11:06 – Faith Perspective
• 1:13:47 – Halos as symbol, not photograph
• 1:14:38 – Bottom Line
• 1:15:39 – Further Resources
• 1:16:21 – Mysterious Feedback: #420 Pre-Sputnik Transients
• 1:22:06 – Your mysterious feedback
• 1:22:46 – Thank you to Oasis Studio 7
• 1:22:51 – Jimmy’s YouTube channel
• 1:23:52 – Next Time: The Shepherd of Hermas
• 1:24:23 – Share the show, write a review
• 1:24:34 – Get your Mysterious merch
• 1:24:45 – Show notes
• 1:24:52 – Become a Patron
• 1:25:04 – Sponsor: The Grady Group
• 1:25:20 – Outro

This Episode is Brought to You By:

Rosary Army. Featuring award-winning Catholic podcasts, Rosary resources, videos, and the School of Mary online community, prayer, and learning platform. Learn how to make them, pray them, and give them away while growing in your faith at RosaryArmy.com and SchoolOfMary.com

The Grady Group, a Catholic company bringing financial clarity to their clients across the United States. Using safe money options to produce reasonable rates of return for their clients. Learn more by visiting GradyGroup.us.

Want to Sponsor A Show?
Support StarQuest’s mission to explore the intersection of faith and pop culture by becoming a named sponsor of the show of your choice on the StarQuest network. Click to get started or find out more.

Direct Link to the Episode.

Subscribe on iTunes. | Other Ways to Subscribe.

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A flashlight, three discs over a Missouri ranch, and a ray that cured fifteen years of back pain. Jimmy Akin and Dom Bettinelli follow Buck Nelson from Ozark farmer to saucer celebrity — and to a twist that isn’t funny at all.

https://youtu.be/iP2GwjYOUfk

Help us continue to offer Jimmy Akin’s Mysterious World. Won’t you make a pledge at SQPN.com/give today?

Links for this episode:

• Buck Nelson, My Trip to Mars, the Moon, and Venus (modern paperback): https://amzn.to/3SygFit
• My Trip to Mars, the Moon, and Venus (free PDF of the 1956 booklet): http://gratisenergi.se/buck1956.pdf
• “The Ozarks Spaceman: Buck Nelson in 10 Facts,” Springfield-Greene County Library: https://thelibrary.org/post/the-ozarks-spaceman-buck-nelson-in-10-facts
• Ozarks Alive feature on Buck Nelson: https://www.ozarksalive.com/stories/2iepyyzyl2rk6jkohdpf633ftjaaoc
• Buck Nelson (Wikipedia): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buck_Nelson
• Sue Hubbell, “Buck Nelson and the Little Men,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, June 29, 1977: https://www.newspapers.com/search/?query=Buck+Nelson+Little+Men&dr_year=1977-1977
• Dale Freeman, “Out of This World,” Springfield News-Leader, February 26, 1956: https://www.newspapers.com/search/?query=Buck+Nelson+Out+of+This+World&dr_year=1956-1956
• “Trip to Venus Talk Packs Sunday School,” The Spokesman-Review, March 23, 1956: https://www.newspapers.com/image/568434786/

• Please spread the word about the podcast. Leave us a review on Apple Podcasts!
• Purchase the books and other material from this and other episodes at the Mysterious World Bookstore.
• Join the conversation at the Starquest Facebook page and the Jimmy Akin’s Mysterious World Facebook page.
• Be part of the StarQuest Discord community at SQPN.com/discord
• Send your feedback or comments to feedback@mysterious.fm or send a tweet to @mys_world
• You can also leave a voice message on the Mysterious Feedback Line at (619) 738-4515

Chapters:

• 0:00:12 – Intro
• 0:00:47 – Cold open: The Ozark Spaceman
• 0:01:50 – Today’s Mystery: The UFO Contactees
• 0:02:58 – Mountain View, Missouri
• 0:04:57 – Ozark Caves and Karst Country
• 0:06:00 – Who Was Buck Nelson?
• 0:08:11 – July 1954: Three Discs and a Flashlight
• 0:09:44 – The Healing Ray
• 0:10:28 – The Saucers Come Back
• 0:11:54 – Bucky, Bob Solomon, and Big Bo
• 0:14:04 – The Spacemen Tour the House
• 0:18:01 – The Twelve Laws of God
• 0:19:53 – At the Controls
• 0:22:03 – Mars
• 0:24:10 – The Moon
• 0:27:00 – Venus
• 0:29:21 – Home After Three Days
• 0:29:37 – What the Space People Were Like
• 0:33:26 – Atlantis and the Pyramids
• 0:35:01 – Christmas with Bucky
• 0:37:24 – Thank you to Patrons
• 0:37:56 – Sponsor: Rosary Army and School of Mary
• 0:38:38 – Sponsorship opportunities
• 0:39:26 – The Lecture Circuit and the Booklet
• 0:41:46 – The Spacecraft Conventions
• 0:45:16 – The Men in Black
• 0:47:50 – Trouble With the Government
• 0:48:49 – How the Story Ended
• 0:50:44 – Reason Perspective
• 0:52:46 – Faith Perspective
• 0:53:50 – The Twist
• 0:57:18 – The Civil Rights Backdrop
• 0:58:53 – Racism Is Evil
• 1:03:02 – Bottom Line
• 1:04:11 – Further Resources
• 1:04:43 – Mysterious Feedback: #419 Zombie Marriage, Holy Roman Emperors, Jesus’ DNA, and More Weird Questions
• 1:11:10 – Your mysterious feedback
• 1:11:46 – Thank you to Oasis Studio 7
• 1:11:51 – Jimmy’s YouTube channel
• 1:13:13 – Thank you to Craig Hart
• 1:13:18 – Next Time: Auras
• 1:13:38 – Share the show, write a review
• 1:13:50 – Get your Mysterious merch
• 1:13:58 – Show notes
• 1:14:05 – Become a Patron
• 1:14:12 – Sponsor: The Grady Group
• 1:15:03 – After the Credits: 1956 School Lunch Menus
• 1:17:15 – Outro

This Episode is Brought to You By:

Rosary Army. Featuring award-winning Catholic podcasts, Rosary resources, videos, and the School of Mary online community, prayer, and learning platform. Learn how to make them, pray them, and give them away while growing in your faith at RosaryArmy.com and SchoolOfMary.com

The Grady Group, a Catholic company bringing financial clarity to their clients across the United States. Using safe money options to produce reasonable rates of return for their clients. Learn more by visiting GradyGroup.us.

Want to Sponsor A Show?
Support StarQuest’s mission to explore the intersection of faith and pop culture by becoming a named sponsor of the show of your choice on the StarQuest network. Click to get started or find out more.

Direct Link to the Episode.

Subscribe on iTunes. | Other Ways to Subscribe.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

You are sitting with someone as they die, and the room fills with a light that is not from this earth. Jimmy Akin and Dom Bettinelli examine shared death experiences — the cases where a perfectly healthy bystander sees it too.

https://youtu.be/PzqqyTz9HfU

Help us continue to offer Jimmy Akin’s Mysterious World. Won’t you make a pledge at SQPN.com/give today?

Links for this episode:

• Raymond Moody and Paul Perry, Glimpses of Eternity (Guideposts, 2010)
• William Peters, At Heaven’s Door (Simon and Schuster, 2022)
• Peter Fenwick and Elizabeth Fenwick, The Art of Dying (Continuum, 2008)
• Sir William F. Barrett, Death-Bed Visions (Methuen, 1926)
• Karlis Osis and Erlendur Haraldsson, At the Hour of Death (Avon Books, 1977)
• Edmund Gurney, Frederic Myers, and Frank Podmore, Phantasms of the Living, vols. 1–2: vol. 1; vol. 2
• Daniel Bourke, Apparitions at the Moment of Death (2024)
• Shared Crossing Project
• Peters, Kinsella, and Williams, “Shared Death Experiences: A Little-Known Type of End-of-Life Phenomena Reported by Caregivers and Loved Ones,” American Journal of Hospice and Palliative Medicine, 2021
• See also: Pope St. Gregory the Great, Dialogues (especially Books 2 and 4)
• IANDS Fact Sheet on Shared Death Experiences

• Please spread the word about the podcast. Leave us a review on Apple Podcasts!
• Purchase the books and other material from this and other episodes at the Mysterious World Bookstore.
• Join the conversation at the Starquest Facebook page and the Jimmy Akin’s Mysterious World Facebook page.
• Be part of the StarQuest Discord community at SQPN.com/discord
• Send your feedback or comments to feedback@mysterious.fm or send a tweet to @mys_world
• You can also leave a voice message on the Mysterious Feedback Line at (619) 738-4515

Chapters:

• 0:00:12 – Intro
• 0:00:41 – Cold open: Have you ever sat at a deathbed?
• 0:01:33 – What is a shared death experience?
• 0:03:04 – What bystanders actually perceive
• 0:04:38 – SDEs vs. crisis apparitions and deathbed visions
• 0:06:18 – Raymond Moody coins the term
• 0:06:59 – The first case: Dr. Jameson and her mother
• 0:10:48 – Moody’s own shared death experience
• 0:13:16 – William Peters and the Shared Crossing Project
• 0:14:57 – Peters’ four modes of SDE
• 0:17:31 – Dana’s shared life review
• 0:20:37 – Veridical content: the yearbook photographs
• 0:21:34 – The mist and the soul leaving the body
• 0:24:46 – A whole family sees the light
• 0:26:59 – History: how far back do these go?
• 0:27:16 – Pope St. Gregory the Great’s Dialogues
• 0:28:16 – St. Benedict and St. Scholastica
• 0:29:56 – Benedict, Germanus of Capua, and Servandus
• 0:32:55 – Romula, Servulus, and Tarsilla
• 0:37:51 – The Society for Psychical Research
• 0:38:41 – Phantasms of the Living: little Isidore
• 0:40:40 – Fanny seen in Shanghai and in Wales
• 0:43:08 – Sir William Barrett’s Deathbed Visions
• 0:45:31 – Osis and Haraldsson: At the Hour of Death
• 0:47:11 – Peter and Elizabeth Fenwick
• 0:48:01 – Peters’ cases: the stairway of light
• 0:51:51 – Scott Taylor and Nolan
• 0:53:04 – Hospice nurse Julie McFadden
• 0:54:14 – Who has SDEs, and how common are they?
• 0:56:18 – Why SDEs matter for surviving death
• 1:00:13 – Thank you to Patrons
• 1:00:46 – Sponsor: Rosary Army and School of Mary
• 1:01:08 – Sponsorship opportunities
• 1:02:13 – Eight theories
• 1:03:43 – Reason Perspective: Fraud
• 1:05:48 – Coincidence
• 1:07:50 – Confabulation
• 1:09:32 – Bereavement hallucinations
• 1:11:30 – Chemical signaling from the dying body
• 1:13:12 – Expectation and cultural script
• 1:15:31 – Brain entrainment
• 1:18:50 – A genuine glimpse: the positive case
• 1:21:19 – The state of the evidence
• 1:23:07 – Faith Perspective
• 1:25:30 – Bottom Line
• 1:26:58 – Further Resources
• 1:27:43 – SpiderMail bumper
• 1:27:53 – Mysterious Feedback: #418 Skeleton Lake
• 1:28:03 – Feedback: “a historical” vs “an historical”
• 1:31:37 – Feedback: supercells, hail, and elevation
• 1:37:38 – Feedback: human sacrifice theory
• 1:39:35 – Feedback: bodies moved by freeze and thaw
• 1:41:05 – Feedback: why no animal skeletons?
• 1:41:36 – Your mysterious feedback
• 1:42:13 – Thank you to Oasis Studio 7
• 1:42:24 – Jimmy’s YouTube channel
• 1:43:09 – Next Time: Buck Nelson, the Ozark Spaceman
• 1:43:24 – Get your Mysterious merch
• 1:43:40 – Show notes
• 1:43:47 – Become a Patron
• 1:43:55 – Sponsor: The Grady Group
• 1:44:49 – Outro

This Episode is Brought to You By:

Rosary Army. Featuring award-winning Catholic podcasts, Rosary resources, videos, and the School of Mary online community, prayer, and learning platform. Learn how to make them, pray them, and give them away while growing in your faith at RosaryArmy.com and SchoolOfMary.com

The Grady Group, a Catholic company bringing financial clarity to their clients across the United States. Using safe money options to produce reasonable rates of return for their clients. Learn more by visiting GradyGroup.us.

Want to Sponsor A Show?
Support StarQuest’s mission to explore the intersection of faith and pop culture by becoming a named sponsor of the show of your choice on the StarQuest network. Click to get started or find out more.

Direct Link to the Episode.

Subscribe on iTunes. | Other Ways to Subscribe.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download