By now, most people have heard the musings of the former head of Israel’s Defense Ministry’s space directorate that there is a galactic federation and humans are not welcome. Additionally, America’s belligerent, Tang-skinned leader knows about it. It’s a lurid detail that was disclosed by Haim Eshed to Israel’s Yediot […]
Brian Baker
Founder Brian Baker’s take on the supernatural world.
What to listen to this Halloween
Paranormal and pop culture go hand-in-hand. A strong example of this is the “Supernatural” episode where the Winchester brothers battle a tulpa. Broken telephone factors into a ghost story that changes through online discourse. The changing story alters the haunting as the two brothers investigate. New tropes are added to […]
We need more diversity in our paranormal TV
Myling of Sweden. Banshee of Ireland. Manananggal of the Philippines. Mami Wata of Nigeria. Ifrit of the Middle East. Domovoy of Russia. La Llorona of Mexico. Chudail of Pakistan. Wendigo of the First Nations. And the Yurei of Japan. With the most commonly reported supernatural entity in the world being […]
Pandemic gives us a chance to reflect on the afterlife
Ever since I wrote the feature on past life regression in Canada, my mind has been thinking about what comes next. And maybe the pandemic is creating a minor existential crisis for all of us because a virus is threatening our very way of life and claiming a lot of […]
The challenges of being a journalist who digs in the paranormal dirt
I could probably defend the reason why I started the Superstitious Times until my vocal cords seize up, but some people will still see the endeavour as a Fox Mulder-esque pursuit. I prefer Dr. John Montague of Shirley Jackson’s universe because much like him, my fascination with what people believe […]
Being in the right headspace helps to process paranormal
A few years ago, I was having a conversation with an old university friend about the paranormal, and how as a neuroscientist he had induced ghostly sounds and associated symptoms of a haunting in a laboratory. I was hoping that he would share his thoughts in a column for the […]
Always remember the ‘unidentified’ in UFO, and take the Scully approach
There’s been a higher volume of UFO news over the past few months, ranging from the U.S. Navy changing their approach to members reporting sightings to the increased numbers of purported sightings. Often times, the usual suspects — International Business Times and the Independent — are publishing odd-ball claims of […]
The Warrens helped steer the cultural shift in paranormal investigation
A staticky ring tone filled the receiver as I dialed up the New England Society of Psychic Research while a student journalist at the University of Toronto. It was 2001 and I was looking to write my monthly Window column, “Paranormal Frontiers”, on the Amityville Horror. A calm and pleasant […]
The Superstitious Times chimes in on one year
It could have been inspired by existential angst, but as I sat in my Toronto apartment a year ago, both children snug in their beds and the wife doing the Netflix and chill, I pondered what portion of writing was absent from my career. Clearly the supernatural and how it […]
The give-and-take relationship the supernatural has with pop culture
As someone with an undergrad in archaeology, which was populated by a chunk of anthropology courses, I have a deep fascination with how the supernatural evolves in pop culture. And, in fairness, given the rise of creepypastas — uncanny internet tales — from pop culture. I’ve had the opportunity to […]