This Paranormal Life - #351 Are Dowsing Rods Real Life Ghost Magnets?

Episode Date: January 23, 2024

You’ve seen it in countless cartoons and movies over the years - a cowboy or other thirsty character carrying two rods through he desert, the sticks seemingly magically have a mind of their own and ...point in the direction of water. They’re called dowsing rods and go back potentially thousands of years into history. But how do they work? And if they locate water, why do paranormal investigators around the world keep them in their toolkit at all times? It turns out these unassuming sticks harbour a deep paranormal secret. Time for Kit and Rory to investigate!Follow us on Twitter, Instagram, and YouTubeJoin our Secret Society Facebook CommunitySupport us on Patreon.com/ThisParanormalLife to get access to weekly bonus episodes!Buy Official TPL Merch! - thisparanormallife.com/storeIntro music by www.purple-planet.comEdited by Philip ShackladyResearch by Ewen Friers Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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Starting point is 00:00:00 What makes a wand magic? Who would win in a fight? E.T. or the Queen Xenomorph from the movie Alien? Answers to these questions and more on... This Paranormal Life! Hello! And welcome back to This Paranormal Life, the weekly comedy podcast hosted every Tuesday
Starting point is 00:00:22 by me, Kit Greer-Molvena, and the guy sitting across from me, Mr. Rory Powers. How are you doing today, Rory? Doing pretty great, Kit. You know, starting off the podcast with an interesting question there. Is the wand special because it's held by a wizard or could anyone wield a magical wand? All I know is whenever I was a kid, I conducted my own experiments after, you know, watching the first Harry Potter movie. And I wandered around a forest picking up every stick I could find that looked remotely wand shaped. And did a quick, give it a quick Expelliarmus, nothing happened. Next one, Wingardium Leviosa. It didn't do jack shit.
Starting point is 00:00:57 So I don't know if that forest just didn't have any magic wands in it or whether I was just too much of a muggle. But I don't know. It was kind of embarrassing as well, because every stick you picked up, you tried to cast a spell to kill your father. I thought I watched the movie and thought, this is my chance. And it was painfully awkward every time when the spell failed to execute and you're standing there panting. You said, you're in for it now father i'm trying to use i'm using every one of the band spells i'm watching the movie with a
Starting point is 00:01:34 notepad and pen and i'm like okay what's the one that's literally torture someone right yeah kid's family ordered chinese takeaway one night and when the chopsticks arrived, Kit grabbed one and held it at his father's throat and said, you're done for. God damn it. So what you're saying is it didn't work. So it is, the magic needs to be in the beholder. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:01:59 And I mean, I think in the Harry Potter universe, I don't want to talk about Harry Potter, but I think in the Harry Potter universe, because they went into the most detail about how this all works, there was quite a bit of time spent on the wands, actually, because there was this whole thing of like the wand. It was very kind of Grateful Dead stuff.
Starting point is 00:02:14 It was like, the wand chooses the wizard, man. You can't just pick a wand, man. Yeah. But they were also made of, I seem to remember, like pretty magical stuff it wasn't just wood it was like oh there's a hair of unicorn do the wizards pick anything the wand picks the wizard the hat picks the school school your your broom picks the wizard every wizard gets their own little animal buddy do i get to pick it no the animals
Starting point is 00:02:46 choose you they don't get to pick anything what house would you have been in um what house is rat because there's like snake owl eagle is there a rat i don't know i think going off vibes alone it's a a toss-up between Ravenclaw and Slytherin. Okay. Is there a house for Weasel? Again, might be a toss-up between the two. Where are the Weasleys? I'd be with them.
Starting point is 00:03:15 Okay, well, they were Gryffindor, actually. Okay. Yeah, now that you mention it. I've never done the, I know that there's an official kind of quiz you can do online to find out what Harry Potter house you are. I think it's an official one. Yes. Which I haven't done before. That could be a fun one for
Starting point is 00:03:31 the after party. We find out which class we're supposed to be in. I'm pretty sure there's a whole social media platform for people who can't move on from Harry Potter. Really? Yeah. I don't know the name of it because I'm not that much of a pathetic millennial. But I think it's out there. I think if you're one of those people in recovery, you haven't quite moved on, you just every night when you go to sleep, you just replay images from the movies,
Starting point is 00:03:55 from the books in your head. Sure. Seek help and then look up this. You're wearing a Lord of the Rings t-shirt. And? I'm just saying I wouldn't criticize people who haven't moved on from a movie franchise from 20 years ago because... Okay, well, sorry. I just think that...
Starting point is 00:04:10 It's so tight as well. The masterworks of Tolkien, and it is Tolkien. Don't let anyone who says Tolkien, some kind of mouth breather who says Tolkien, tell you otherwise. It's Tolkien. Okay. His masterworks, I think, are a little different to some kind of jumped up, sorry, shit muncher. Calm down, calm down. Frankly, who wrote the Harry Potter series.
Starting point is 00:04:34 It is child's play. It is smut at times. And it is garbage. You're like, and yeah, I did a 350 question quiz on BuzzFeed to find out what fantasy race I would be, but that's very different from the Harry Potter quiz. Well, the thing was broken too because it said I was a dwarf, which is absurd.
Starting point is 00:04:55 So, I would obviously be one of the Rohirrim. You're like, my result was shrimp goblin, which I don't even think is a creature that exists in the Lord of the Rings franchise. This is absurd. I'm sorry, everyone.
Starting point is 00:05:10 We are normally cooler than this. We're not this painfully millennial, but let's face it, everyone listening also watched those movies growing up. Okay, we have a paranormal tale to dive into today, like every other week. As you well know, here at This Paranormal Life, we're expert investigators. I like to think of us as the special forces of the paranormal.
Starting point is 00:05:31 We are who you turn to when all else fails. We're like the Men in Black starring Will Smith if they drank on the job and also sometimes had a little weed on special occasions. What I'm saying is we're like 007. And like 007, we need our cue. We need the latest in paranormal detecting technology when we're in the field. Well, Rory, you'll be glad to know, today I'm your cue,
Starting point is 00:05:56 because I've got your latest gadget right here. Okay. What I hold in my hands is central to today's investigation. Can you tell the listeners what it is? It's a pen-shaped metal bar that does have kind of a lapel clamp at the top, but I don't see a ballpoint at the bottom. To the untrained eye, this is exactly what it is. It is a pen, but to me and you, Rory...
Starting point is 00:06:24 Whoa! Whoa! What the f***? If you're watching on YouTube.com, you see that I hold before you, Rory, a divining rod. Kit just neuralized me. Ugh! Whoa! Okay.
Starting point is 00:06:40 So, Kit just made this thing expand kind of like a university lecturer's pointy stick to point at a whiteboard. A telescopic expansion. But then it folded down. It looks like kind of the aerial of a car if it was bent at 90 degrees. And if you didn't already know what it was, it might be a giveaway that I actually have two of these.
Starting point is 00:07:01 So I'll give you both. Here we go. This is very cool. Very nice indeed. Oh, hell yeah. So I'll give you both. Here we go. This is very cool. Very nice indeed. I like this already. Now, what did you say that this device was called? Divining rods. Divining rods.
Starting point is 00:07:14 Okay. Are these the same rods that are used occasionally in the wilderness to hunt for water? Capital idea. That is exactly what these may be used for, among many other things. But yes, for thousands of years, these have been used, or devices very like it, have been used for locating water. And in our research, we have found that these are actually still in use. I mean, I guess because they still sell them, they're still in use in places today.
Starting point is 00:07:40 But the debate still rages. Is this science or is it superstition? Are these things actually paranormal? We're going to explore their history, how they're used, and crucially, whether we can perfect this ancient art form and use them to communicate with the spirit world. What do you think? Will we get into it? Let's do it. All of that after a couple words from today's sponsor.
Starting point is 00:08:01 And remember, every episode of this paranormal life is available ad free right now at patreon.com forward slash this paranormal life rory have you heard of divining rods really before you mentioned you you had a inbuilt memory that they might have been used for water yeah but i don't think that's the name for them is it dowel dowsing rods dowsing rods exactly that's the name for them. Is it dowsing rods? Dowsing rods, exactly. That's the name of the ones that I believe are used traditionally to detect a water source out in the wild.
Starting point is 00:08:32 Never really looked into whether or not there was any scientific backing of that theory. Right, there's some things you don't need to look up. You just look at it and you go, mmm, bullshit. And I'm good. I don't think that sticks can find water by just bending them in certain directions. I may be wrong.
Starting point is 00:08:49 There may be some science behind it. Your thirsty ass is about to realize you've been going wrong your whole life. You're never going to pay for Evian ever again. But these type of rods, what do you call them, divining rods? Yeah. Never really heard of it before. I believe they are one and the same uh these are very cool so this feels all a bit like uh our crystal ball episode isn't it because i think
Starting point is 00:09:14 like that these rods are a bit uncanny because they feel very familiar yet when you try and kind of pinpoint why you know about them outside Outside of media, you really realize you have no idea where they've come from. Yeah. Like a lot of other things from our childhood, I thought they were going to play a bigger role in my adult life, along with quicksand, crystal balls, slime, and piranhas. Right. Why did you think slime was going to be a bigger part of your childhood?
Starting point is 00:09:42 Bro, we've covered it before. Slime was everywhere in the late 90s, early 2000s. That's true. Children's TV shows, everybody's getting slimed. Slime, yeah. Nickelodeon Teen Choice Awards, slimed. You enter a game show for kids, you lose, you get slimed. You win, honestly, you might also get slimed.
Starting point is 00:09:59 There was probably five to ten years of game shows where the punishment for anything was slime it was like it was like all right so uh next up is the red team they're gonna try and cross the slime river while getting hit by slime balloons but if they make it across they'll trigger the slime avalanche to win the golden slime it's like what the am i watching it was so slimy looking backward like hey yeah i guess it was just a kind of safe kind of a tv studio the tv executives were like no actually a bunch of kids died what did you think it's like it's like having a bog a bunch of kids fell in the slime vat couldn't get them out but i guess it is true i mean yeah like what
Starting point is 00:10:44 can the punishment be for on a kid's TV show? Anything else would just not be funny. It's like, and for losing the game show, we broke your Buzz Lightyear toy, your favorite one. If you can't complete the obstacle course, Daddy loses his job. Uh-oh. Better run, Timmy.
Starting point is 00:11:02 He's like, okay, I guess. They slime him immediately, wipe him out. And the child with the lowest score, we will plant some dodgy stuff on their dad's computer. All right. Whoa, this is dark stuff. The practice of divining goes back centuries, and official accounts of water dousing, as it's also known,
Starting point is 00:11:21 are everywhere after about 500 years ago. We know about it mainly because of records showing that the church had to ban it. What? As we well know, when Christianity was introduced to pagan countries, which is a bit like saying my body was introduced to COVID-19 this Christmas, that is to say I didn't have too much of a choice. They banned a lot of pre-Christian pagan practices, worried that they could be actually occultist or satanic. Ah, but this really treads the line, doesn't it? Thinking that sticks can lead you to water. They're not worshipping the sticks. I guess maybe it does feel a little occult-y. It's a bit witchy, isn't it? If all these people were doing was finding water, there shouldn't be a problem.
Starting point is 00:12:08 Obviously something else was going on too with these sticks. But like when our primary school tried to ban Pokemon cars in 1999, it did absolutely jack shit. And like mine and Rory's Pokemon battles, they simply went underground, practiced in secret, surviving to this day. Now in short, the process of dousing for water is probably a lot like the vague image you have in your head. It's pretty simple. It involves the use of these two L-shaped rods. Now you hold them at their short end with the long end pointed away from the user. Walking across an open landscape, the rods are said to react and
Starting point is 00:12:47 respond independently based on the material you're looking for. The legend goes that the rods are said to cross inwards if the subject walks over water. Whoa, so you can pick what you're looking for? You can enter that into the search bar? You just flick a switch. That is right, because you're going to see that these things were used, probably historically, for the most part, for water and paranormal purposes. But then people, as it came on into modern times, people were like, well, what if we use these things to try and find gold or precious minerals? Things under the water.
Starting point is 00:13:30 Which, honestly, the f***ing minerals and the metals makes way more sense. Because if there's like a giant magnet of iron down there, it might affect the sticks. Yes, that's where I think I was getting confused. I don't know if there was actually any legit science involved in this kind of practice. But if there's a guy who's just picking up the sticks and going, boies it's like all right well i don't think they're gonna take you there because there's not a lot of science that could back that up you know whispering into the sticks women with loose morals
Starting point is 00:13:59 sticks break in half and fall off and the method i've described using these rods is pretty much how it's always been done. But before metal rods existed, people obviously used sticks, often from the willow or witch hazel tree. That's kind of of interest to me recently because we've been talking a little bit
Starting point is 00:14:21 in the last few months about kind of interesting woods because, oh, it was actually a bonus episode about Abertac, the Irish Dracula. Yeah. And it brought up this idea of specifically a hawthorn tree, which is where he's allegedly buried. Hawthorn having an interesting paranormal connection, but also that this vampire had been killed with a stake made out of the yew tree. So that's pretty interesting that there's a couple of different trees
Starting point is 00:14:51 of which this is answering the question at the beginning. Is the wood itself have some kind of property? Right, you can't just pick up two sticks and expect to get results. They have to be from a special tree. The whole thing actually reminds me a little bit as well of our ouija board investigation because this is this is kind of getting into like divining by getting an object to move independently now with a ouija we had the what was it like a planchette or something yes um that moves around the board
Starting point is 00:15:21 and in divining it's the rod it's like this idea of a spirit or something needing something to interact with. Right, I see. Yeah, the same way that if you're doing a seance, you have things like candles that might flicker. I mean, divining rods, I think, is one that people use for seances to ask questions. So the million-dollar question
Starting point is 00:15:43 and the reason for this investigation is why do these rods move and does it work well like i said earlier the ban changed nothing and dousing became bigger than ever in the 1700s in germany france and the uk this was actually the official way of mining you walked around with some sticks and when they went funny, you just found gold. This is literally written into handbooks and stuff like that about the mining industries of these countries.
Starting point is 00:16:16 And it was happening in America in the 1800s too. It's said that Stephen Sapper Kelly, a World War I soldier in the Australian Expeditionary Force, saved countless lives during the disastrous Gallipoli campaign in Turkey when he MacGyvered some dowsing rods together from copper wire to locate water. Army engineers dug over 30 wells based on his findings, and they managed to find enough water to save the lives of the entire platoon.
Starting point is 00:16:47 So the tree doesn't matter because he's making shit out of wire and it works. At least for the finding water side of things. Okay. The point is that it wasn't that these officers in the military believed in magic.
Starting point is 00:17:05 I think at this point in time, no one questioned why it worked. I guess there's a lot of things in life like that, right? You just accept that they work or don't. And they just figured on some level that the vibes from the water were affecting the vibes of the rods. Right, yeah. I mean, this is war as well. Crazier things are happening every day. So if a guy's showing up with magic sticks that can lead you to drinking water, it does you no harm to trust him.
Starting point is 00:17:29 So it's clear that even just in the last couple of hundred years, this thing has been pretty widely used for at least finding water, also some mining. The problem was scientists did try to figure out how it worked, and they couldn't prove any way it worked. You know, in the 90s, there was even a $10,000 prize for anyone who could prove it. No one would claim the prize. If you can find gold with sticks, you don't need 10K. You don't need the money, mother****er.
Starting point is 00:18:03 Because trees can lead me to minerals i can get whatever i want yeah right you know you talk about like survivor bias yeah you know this thing of like planes and when they study planes in war well we guess what we only have data from the planes that made it home not the planes that didn't make it home uh here we've got dowsers bias. Any guy who got the dowsing rods to work, you never heard from again. He's on a yacht in the Bahamas. Yeah, yeah. He's got the dowsing rods framed on the wall.
Starting point is 00:18:34 He used them once, found the biggest diamond ever found on earth. It worked. Yeah. And it only needs to work once. Yeah, yeah. All his friends are like, oh, so how did the dowsing rods work out?
Starting point is 00:18:45 Garbage, nothing. Don't worry about it. them yeah you got the rolls though but don't throw them away give them to me it's also not remotely the first time that the that kind of paranormal tools have been employed in the pursuit of material wealth specifically with. I don't know if you remember, you know, two-parter all about Uri Geller. Yeah. The story goes, and I know a lot of his story was unbelievable, but I tend to believe that bit because people are maniacs.
Starting point is 00:19:15 I tend to believe the story that he was hired by many mining companies over the years to try and psychically pinpoint where there might be minerals or oil reserves. And I think he hit it a few times, right? Yeah. Which again, what does that tell us? I mean, we don't know the ratio of hits to misses. That would be interesting to know. You know, is Uri Geller describing the oil he struck like Rory describing a night out at the casino? He's like,'s like hey you know I won a couple hands I did win a couple hands yeah now don't ask me what the total profit and loss
Starting point is 00:19:51 is of the night sure sure sure um so yeah we have seen this done before in the past and I guess it makes perfect sense it's kind of like in industries where there is a high risk, high reward component, let's say. It's like no one's saying monkeys are good at using typewriters, but apparently if you get enough of them together in a room, they will write the complete works of Shakespeare. I mean, that's not exactly high risk, is it? I mean, even using these rods as in high risk, like the worst thing is you kind of look foolish. Well, high risk in the sense of if you're like a mining company, digging in the wrong place is risky. I guess so.
Starting point is 00:20:30 You invest time and money. Yeah, that's fair. Okay, lots of interesting groundwork being covered here into how these rods have been used in the past. And a lot more often than you would think, being able to find water or minerals by means of a mechanism that no one can determine and yet, here on TPL, it's only the paranormal we give a shit about. This all matters because for thousands of years people have believed that these divination rods can actually be utilised to locate spirits and to even communicate
Starting point is 00:21:02 with ghosts. Hell yes brother, you had me worried at the first half with ghosts. Hell yes, brother. You had me worried at the first half with all that nerd shit, but now you're telling me these sticks can find ghosts. I honestly turned off the Zoom recorder about 10 minutes ago because I thought this was trash, but I'll turn it on right now because you're about to get to the meat of the show. I love this shit.
Starting point is 00:21:22 You're saying I could point these up at the night sky and they would triangulate the location of a moon base. They are paranormal tracking devices. I'm not saying that has never been done. I'm just saying maybe just looking ahead. Yeah, definitely temper those expectations, brother, for the second half of this investigation. I could strap these rods to the head of a donkey,
Starting point is 00:21:46 slap that ass, and he'll take me to the nearest paranormal source he can find. I mean, sure. That's what I'm hearing. Look, I'm not promising any of what you just said. I will say, you need to probe
Starting point is 00:22:02 something? This is the tool for the job. It is, yeah. It is. It's primed for probing, let me tell you. We are going to get into all of these paranormal possibilities right after a couple of words from today's sponsors. All right, we're talking about dousing rods and divination rods and the world of the paranormal.
Starting point is 00:22:22 One person who knows a little bit about these things is Patty Starr, a ghost hunter and president of Ghost Chasers International. Patty Starr? I thought that was Spongebob's best friend. Patty Starr? Unfortunately Rory, we know Patty because we tried to join Ghost Chasers International
Starting point is 00:22:41 once and she told us we can't chase ghosts on our e-bikes. The ghosts are too fast and our application was rejected. But Patty uses dousing rods in her paranormal toolkit and in 2020, she had an interesting experience.
Starting point is 00:22:57 Wow. She says, while I was dousing a bedroom at the Talbot Tavern in Bardstown, Kentucky, my first question after entering the room was, are there any ghosts present in this room? Sorry, so now you're saying, so these rods can be used in paranormal.
Starting point is 00:23:12 Sorry, because we're in the middle of it. We're ostensibly in a haunted house right now, so this better be good, the interruption. No, that's what I'm saying. We spent 30 minutes talking about how people use sticks to find water in a church bandit. And then you're like, we'll be back after this quick break. See you soon. And then you come back and you go, so the craft was approximately 60 meters in length.
Starting point is 00:23:36 The rods were used as kind of a nuclear key. All right, so we're just moving quickly. Too much for you. Okay, so you don't want the paranormal information. That's fine. Let's just slow down a little. We can talk about water all day long if you want. So, yeah, another guy tried to find water in the army. He died. It didn't work.
Starting point is 00:23:54 It's just the casualness. Oh, you want to know about all the times it didn't work? Oh, yeah, I got 20 pages on that, brother. The casualness of coming back after the ad and being like, so I was dowsing a couple rooms, and it's like, what what does that mean we haven't talked once about using them in a room is there water in the room no spirits you so fast haven't been listening i have been listening who are we talking about patrick star patty from bikini bottom no. A woman from Ghost Chasers International. Right.
Starting point is 00:24:26 Okay. Who uses dowsing rods to communicate with spirits. That's just a little bit of context that could have been included before we got into the haunted house. I said someone who knows about dowsing rods is Patty Starr. Patty uses dowsing rods in her paranormal toolkit. Okay. Cool. I think that was around the time I was thinking about SpongeBob. Patty uses dousing rods in her paranormal toolkit. Okay, cool. I think that was around the time I was thinking about SpongeBob,
Starting point is 00:24:48 so that might have slipped by me. I mean, this is fine. This is useful for the kind of, you know, the guys listening to this on a shift in Shake Shack, kind of on about 200 MGs of THC edibles right now who may be zoned out for a second. Fine. A recap. For our service worker homies
Starting point is 00:25:08 to get a little recap on exactly what's happening. Glad you're with us. To recap, Paddy, paranormal investigator, just like us, uses dowsing rods to find ghosts, communicate with spirits,
Starting point is 00:25:21 and she is in the Talbot Tavern in Kentucky. Great. Thank you. When she asked the words, with spirits and she is in the Talbot Tavern in Kentucky great thank you when she asked the words are there any ghosts present
Starting point is 00:25:30 in this room are you still listening yeah big time big time pop quiz what did she just ask for f*** sake
Starting point is 00:25:37 something about Krabby Patties I don't know oh my god I'm still thinking about Spongebob this is insane She's trying to communicate with spirits
Starting point is 00:25:48 Yes Is what she's doing, yeah I get it And at that moment, she says My dousing rod swung around me And pointed behind me Whoa The rod took a swing at her
Starting point is 00:25:59 Clocked her in the jaw She had a duck This rod saw something that likes me likey and stood to attention. Am I right, fellas? Oh, God. She says, Shortly after I entered the room,
Starting point is 00:26:14 I'd placed a mini cassette recorder on a dresser, which was now behind me. I didn't know why the rod did this movement until I returned home and listened to my audio tapes. When I came to that section of the tape where my rods swung around behind me, you could hear a whisper answer my question
Starting point is 00:26:31 about ghosts being in the room. The response was the clear whisper, BEHIND YOU! Oh. Okay, I wasn't expecting that. That's kind of an awkward thing with the rods. You know, if you were the soldier who's like out there looking for water and the rods are going crazy pointing in one direction
Starting point is 00:26:50 and you're like, all right, let's keep going, let's keep going. I think we should be digging just over this hill. And then you get to the top of the hill and it's just pointing at a graveyard and you're like, I think I'm using the wrong rods. I think I'm using the wrong rods, unfortunately think I'm using the wrong rods, unfortunately. Yeah. It is a fun, I mean, we can talk about this later, but this is a curious dual purpose of these, right?
Starting point is 00:27:14 Like if it's true that these do work for communicating with the dead, but also with finding water and other things, like I guess we're saying that there's a vibe system, a vibe ecosystem out there that these are tapping into. It doesn't matter whether it's water or whether it's something else, but they are being affected by stuff going on that we can't see. But they're just so different. That's the problem.
Starting point is 00:27:37 If you had two rods that pointed you in the direction of either french fries or onion rings that's fine because they're pretty similar but if you have a 50 50 chance of finding water or a ghost that's not a good that's not a good combination because usually when you're that desperate to find water you really need the water you really need the water and if you get the ghost you're not going to be happy about it you're going to be a ghost. Why do you think there's ghosts there? That's how it works. You walk for so long,
Starting point is 00:28:08 the rods start pointing at you because you're about to become a f***ing ghost. The sticks lead you to a graveyard where it just says like, John R. Chump. He died searching for water using rods. You're like, ah, shit. I agree. I agree agree it is strange and again it comes back to that idea of like maybe this is testament to the way that humans operate
Starting point is 00:28:34 that we operate kind of on this momentum basis of someone showed us how to use the sticks once and it worked for them so hell i'm gonna do it too and as long as it works we're just gonna keep doing what works right uh i mean hell we've watched enough youtube ghost hunters that we've seen we've seen in smoke alarms attached to slinkies right used in haunted houses we've seen stranger things being used to detect ghosts that's true that's true so who's to say uh the old ways don't work too well our friend patty claimed to have captured more during other divining sessions. She says, this was just the beginning of the many voices that I've been very fortunate to capture while dousing. And the voices seem to answer my questions or leave a message related to the subject of discussion. I really like that idea of them leaving a message like a call-in radio show.
Starting point is 00:29:27 Right. Hey, Paddy. Long time hunter. First time caller. I just thought it was interesting when you were back in Bardsville and you were talking about, you know,
Starting point is 00:29:37 are we the souls of people being left behind because of stuff that happened in our lives? It got me thinking about some stuff that happened in my life and I never really figured
Starting point is 00:29:43 that's why I was here. Anyway, keep it up. Love the work and hope you're well. All right. Well, thanks to Jimbo for calling in. Yeah. They're basically just two antennas that can receive radio signals from the other world. But this is pretty cool stuff and pretty in line with what we've seen in other cases involving divination. That's why I'm hesitant to come down too hard on rods themselves, because let's face it, we've talked about a lot of methods of divining in the past, and most times it goes the same way.
Starting point is 00:30:20 We enter a space, we want to talk to the spirits within, but we need a helping hand. Some kind of object the spirits can interact with and communicate their message. So with Ouija boards, they can spell out exactly what they want to say. Right. Or in the cases of, like you say, a lit candle. We ask yes or no questions. The candle flickers.
Starting point is 00:30:40 Just the same as divining rods. We ask a yes or no question. The rods move. I see. I see how it is but are the rods used to receive the message like yes or no questions and the rods move to give an answer is that the idea yeah because you brought up a minute ago this idea of them pointing in a direction i and again i think this this one maybe goes back to childhood media stuff that I think probably in like Looney Tunes, I think it probably did like point to where water was or something. But as we've seen with trying to find water and everything, no, the idea is that they would cross over. Oh.
Starting point is 00:31:18 That they would really move in any which direction. Right. But crossing over would be a sign of like an interaction. Okay. Rory, you've got some questions about how exactly it works. Well, the good news is that we have instructions
Starting point is 00:31:34 on how these things work from our arch nemesis herself, Patty. As you know, we've used, here on this show, Ouija boards, conducted seances and summoned spirits in a range of weird and wonderful ways. And that just means we have to test the divining rods all the same way for their spiritual capabilities. Okay.
Starting point is 00:31:53 Especially when we have a set right here in front of us. I basically got a step-by-step guide. What do you say we dive into it? I'm ready. Let's get them out. Right. Why don't you hold them? Can do. Now, so... out. Right. Why don't you hold him? Can do.
Starting point is 00:32:05 Now, so... Boobies. Boobies. Sorry, did that come through on the mic? Well, you said it right into the mic, so it actually did. And they're crossing over, so... Oh! The call's coming from inside the house!
Starting point is 00:32:21 You didn't say anything about man boobies. Okay. Rory has both the rods and uh you'll see there probably is a little bit of a knack to this because they're they are the idea is that they're sensitive they're kind of flimsy so that they can move pretty easily but it does make it yeah you'll get to grips with kind of holding them you've got them now that they're not really moving around. They're crossing over non-stop. I want to say before... You need to stop shaking. You're shaking in anticipation of finding boobs, which, to be clear, isn't going to happen.
Starting point is 00:32:54 We work in an office right now with three dudes. They are... All right, I'm starting to get the hang of it. Unless we're jumping right to step eight and this place is simply crawling with ghosts. Could be this office is very haunted. Okay, here we go as we embark upon Paddy's step
Starting point is 00:33:12 by step guide to using the rods. I will say these rods haven't been used before really for anything like this. These are fresh rods got because they're particularly cool. They transform into pens so hopefully they work for us. They actually are very cool. I like them.
Starting point is 00:33:29 Step one to this process. Relax your mind and body before starting. You should not douse if you are tired, sick, or stressed. Okay, well, I'm actually coming down with a little something because I'm so tired and that makes me so stressed that I won't be able to do it right. All right, so it's a hat trick then? All three boxes are ticked.
Starting point is 00:33:50 You are jet lagged. I actually am, yeah. Okay, well, we're just going to have to hope it still works. It'll be fine, I'm sure. It's like when they say like, you know, if you drink this, don't operate heavy machinery.
Starting point is 00:34:02 You can still operate the machinery fine it's a little more dangerous but it's the machine still works i think that's the idea it is a little bit of anything sometimes it goes faster the problem is when you drink you're gonna want to operate heavy machinery yeah that's the most fun time to operate heavy machinery step two dousing takes a lot of energy so keep the session short all right i am drinking an energy drink as well right now uh so hopefully that'll give me enough juice in my body to push through this thing you make a good point i need to grab a drink how relaxed do i have to be though because i don't want to piss myself yeah definitely don't piss yourself no one said relax your bowels step three
Starting point is 00:34:42 wear comfortable clothes and it's a good idea to remove your watch, jewelry and other metallic objects from your pockets. Is this to find ghosts or metal? Bro, nothing. Hey, you said it yourself. The shit is interacting. It's swirling about. So let's just try it out. Take my watch off. I got a necklace on. I have to take that off. Sure. Okay. Also, do not wear a heavy backpack or carry a bag during your dowsing session. That's a weird one. Yeah, I thought so too, but I guess if you're ghost hunting on location, you probably are like on the move with a bunch of other shit, you know?
Starting point is 00:35:19 I guess so. Or maybe it's like metaphorical, like, ooh, do not have any baggage that could weigh you down. It actually says, especially if there's a laptop, please remove the laptop, put it in a separate tray. Step four, to protect yourself from other energies and negativity, it is important to align yourself with meditative breathing. Rory, have you, I dread the answer to this question, have you ever meditated before? No, never before. Couldn't agree more, brother. I don't even believe in self-care.
Starting point is 00:35:51 I once as a teenager huffed so much glue that I blacked out into kind of a euphoric state that felt like meditation. Absolutely doesn't count. They said my heart was barely beating, so I think I did achieve some sort of enlightenment. Bro, I'm not interested in meditation. I'm not even interested in therapy anyway.
Starting point is 00:36:11 Don't believe in it. If I wanted someone to sit down and tell me all the ways my life has gone wrong, I'd go for lunch with my mom. I'd try and kill my dad again. With a stick. Now, it is time to calibrate your rods by establishing a yes and no response. So typically, here's an answer to your question
Starting point is 00:36:31 about how we use these things. We use both rods when we want to locate spirits, but we only use one rod during a conversation, which will swing either one direction for yes or the other direction for no. Ah, okay. Once this is established, you can start searching for a spirit. So I guess we just have to tell the spirits in the room.
Starting point is 00:36:52 What do you think? Left for yes or right for no? Yeah, that sounds like a good idea. I've worded that confusingly, spirits. Spirits, are you listening? Left for yes, right for no, wiggle for maybe, and I don't know which way you're facing, but let's use Rory's left and right, yeah?
Starting point is 00:37:13 Sounds good. Which is, to be clear, the audience on YouTube's opposite. So complicated. All right, paraphrasing. All right, left, yes, right, no. Right? That's what I said? Okay. This can't be so complicated That's what I said. Okay. This can't be so complicated.
Starting point is 00:37:27 It's one step of eight. Left, yes, right, no. That's it. Okay, Rory, it's time. Step six. We have to find our spirits. Now. Up, left, right for not sure, but possibly.
Starting point is 00:37:42 Down, down, right, up, left, for infinite lives. Start select. Rory, you've got to get up. You've got to walk around the room. You've got to locate these spirits. What? Yeah. I can't just sit here and point?
Starting point is 00:37:53 No, get up. Oh, what the hell, man? I didn't know I was going to have to get up. All right, you're going to have to get up, walk around the room, and then we're going to see if they cross. I mean, they will not stop moving. They're going insane.
Starting point is 00:38:03 I'm not. No, they won't stop crossing. So you're going to have to get a walk around the room, and then when they cross over, that's when we know we found the spirit. I will say, our studio is a f***ing box. It is a shoebox. It is a mouse's thimble.
Starting point is 00:38:21 So, you know, I don't know if it's going to make that much of a difference, but I think it's worth trying. Well, I haven't even moved one step, and both of these sticks are rotating like helicopter blades. I'm about to take off into the night sky. Okay, hold on. Ah, this one hit me. It's sharp, too.
Starting point is 00:38:38 All right, I'm just going to stand up and walk around the studio. I mean, where do I go? You talk, and I'll narrate for you if I need to translate your messages. Okay. Ah, Jesus. Alright, Rory is currently gone off camera, he's standing just off camera. Now, as he walks around, these things are- they are- Oh, they're coming for him! Whoa! That one came for me!
Starting point is 00:39:01 They're spinning around trying to punch Rory in his stupid face this feels like a game show where I'm going to get slimed yeah it feels like these are like electrically charged and if they cross over you get zapped currently they are because if anything they were
Starting point is 00:39:19 going in the opposite direction they haven't actually crossed over much which is interesting because they did cross over substantially right at the point where we're recording. Yeah. Okay, that took about 12 seconds
Starting point is 00:39:30 because the studio is so small. Right. We're always now back, seated in the studio. They were crossing over a lot. As you walked around, they kind of stopped.
Starting point is 00:39:40 Now that you're seated again, they aren't crossing over. So, our best guess here is that right where we're seated is the best spot to be asking some questions so i say rory you drop one of these things and just go down to one and we can ask the spirits a few questions the instructions go on drop one rod and ask permission to talk to them yo up? Are you okay for us to ask a couple questions? Okay.
Starting point is 00:40:08 If it's okay, I don't know if it's swung either way, but I guess it is okay. Like a horse's cock. This thing will not stay still. Now we've got to introduce the people from our group before we start asking questions. Hello, spirits. my name is kit uh i am the leader and the king of our group not exactly true this is rory my humble surf no and uh editor phil somewhere in the background we're all on the same level we humbly ask your permission for us to ask you a couple of questions. And monetize your responses.
Starting point is 00:40:47 Step six. Be sure that the wording of your question is clear and not ambiguous. I don't know if I'm actually capable of that, as you've heard, but I guess I'll give it my best shot. How are you guys doing? I hope you're doing well. I think it's supposed to be a yes or no question. Don't worry about answering. If that's prying too much, I suppose.
Starting point is 00:41:10 It's very ambiguous. How do you feel? How do you feel? We didn't even give them words to answer that question. How do you feel? No. He doesn't feel. Okay, from here on in, we'll be asking you yes or no questions,
Starting point is 00:41:23 and you can respond like so. Can we start with something important like are you going to eat our souls or are you going to stick around afterwards? Hey, well you're asking multiple questions so don't be ambiguous. Yeah, well he's swinging to yes and I'm getting a little worried over here. Okay. Spirits, are you planning on eating our souls? That was a substantial swing to the right. That was pretty good. All right.
Starting point is 00:41:49 Hey, that's a good place to start. We don't have to evacuate the studio. Okay. Spirits, did you die in this building? Okay, I don't think we have anything. He's going a little to the right. It's a maybe. It's going a little to the right. It's a maybe. He's kind of wiggling, potentially.
Starting point is 00:42:12 That was all the questions you had? I didn't think we'd get this far. Spirits, do you like sports? You got any holidays coming up? Can I ask the questions? Is there an afterlife? Oh! Would you look at that?
Starting point is 00:42:34 We got a yes. It kind of just went back to the middle though, right? No, that's super crooked. All right. Well, in that case, Spirits, are you in heaven? Oh, uh-oh. Well, I guess that makes spirits, are you in heaven? Uh-oh. Well, I guess that makes sense because you're still here. That's a pretty resounding no.
Starting point is 00:42:54 Are you in a kind of purgatory? No. Okay, that was so fast that it was kind of like a no dummy. Spirits, I want to know how many of you there are. Is there more than one of you? You're shaking like a leaf, man. It's hard to hold. I'm trying to focus. I'm trying to focus.
Starting point is 00:43:12 Okay, so it's inconsequential so far. Spirits, do you have unfinished business here on Earth? Oh. Okay, that's a yes. That's a yes. All right, there's some kind of unfinished business um not gonna lie spirits i kind of wasn't anticipating this kind of successful direct contact so i am scrambling a little bit for good questions um is rory gonna go to heaven oh shit look at that yeah i think
Starting point is 00:43:42 oh that's a yes i think you're kind of, that's the strongest yes we've had all night. Yeah. Damn. I think you're actually... That shit's crazy. I just want to test this for myself. Spirits, do you think Kit is cooler than Rory? Oh, straight to no.
Starting point is 00:43:58 That's wild. What's going on here? I just want to do a quick test. So you are rigging the test. No, I'm getting... I can feel it coming through from the other side yeah okay uh spirits is kit a bitch oh my god no spirits don't don't say that don't that's too far oh that's too much yeah i disagree with them personally but the rod
Starting point is 00:44:19 that was what i thought was uh maybe happening that's crazy. Rory, is this a joke to you? Am I a joke to you? I'm asking you yes or no questions. Science points to yes, yes, yes. Yes. Like, Rory, is this a joke to you? No. The rod swings, swings around, cuts me in the throat uh look i'm not convinced if anything
Starting point is 00:44:47 what i've just demonstrated is that it is very easy to uh hoax results for this level of kind of a paranormal investigation not that i was up until the point where we quite evidently did there was some movement in there that felt natural, but if anything, I've just illustrated, it is quite easy to move the sticks by themselves very discreetly. Okay, this is awkward.
Starting point is 00:45:12 I didn't know how that was going to go, but I was so confident I only wrote an ending to this script that worked perfectly. That says, that's right,
Starting point is 00:45:20 it worked. So there you have it. Inescapable proof of the existence of ghosts. I would like to formally accept in advance the Nobel Prize for physics,
Starting point is 00:45:29 chemistry, and honestly, poetry. I would also like to point out Rory did nothing to write or research this case, so I won't be sharing the prize money at all.
Starting point is 00:45:37 I want him to point that out too. Now, of course, it's just a small matter of agreeing on a double yes. Fine. I think you arguably, even though you'd ruined the investigation, I will say you pointed out something probably useful and worth bringing up,
Starting point is 00:45:56 which is the biggest criticism of dousing rods, is that the movement in the rods, it has been argued, that it is down to the idea motor phenomenon. Essentially, tiny unconscious muscular movements that even the user might not be necessarily aware of but become amplified by the rods. So, you know, you were sure hamming it up for the cameras, but that the same thing might be happening unconsciously if you were using it.
Starting point is 00:46:26 Even if you're the one asking the questions, you might be messing up with the answers. Yeah, you know, it's a piece of paranormal hunting advice that can leave a lot to human error, essentially. This is like when we investigated Mr. Fritz, the World War II puppet. And we were like, how could the puppet move by itself it's got strings on it it's a puppet it's designed to move by itself essentially so uh if you're looking at these sticks and wondering well how can the sticks rotate by themselves they're in a hand a human hand that can stay still yeah precisely if you were to hold one of these sticks in a metal vice and keep it locked on that location and then ask questions now that would be
Starting point is 00:47:12 interesting that's actually really smart would the would they still move if it was held securely by machines in place or would then paranormal enthusiasts argue no you need the human connection to power the sticks. Yeah, that's a pretty good cop-out, isn't it? Yeah. Okay. Yeah, that's an excellent point, though. That is an excellent point.
Starting point is 00:47:34 I think that is exactly probably what they would say. There is a lot of arguments against this idea of using dowsing rods, using divining rods. Of course, one of the other reasons when we look back at their use in finding water finding minerals things like that underground that's another interesting one because you could make the argument that that is some kind of proof that they do work if someone was able to use these rods find where water was dig a well and oh there's water that maybe that shows that that it's better than just guessing
Starting point is 00:48:07 and that in some way they work. But there is also an argument that at the end of the day, even Wikipedia points out, water dowsers often achieve good results because they start off by looking in areas where there's already likely to be water somewhere. Right, yeah. You wouldn't go into the middle of the Saharan desert
Starting point is 00:48:26 and break out the rods and try and dig. You're probably, if you're a mining company, you're probably in an area already to begin with where there might be something. Yeah, there's a high chance of discovering it. So it's like walking into the super expensive craft beer section of the off-license and then using the
Starting point is 00:48:45 rods to pick a beer at random and you're like the rods new it's incredibly delicious it's like you went into the delicious section and then ask the rods to help you find something delicious yeah yeah it's self-selecting yeah i mean it's also worrying to be kind of at our conclusions and to at this point have zero explanation as to how the rods work, either to find water or to communicate with spirits. Well, but we did. It's the same as the candle, isn't it? It's just a physical thing that they can interact around with. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:49:18 I mean, we've seen it, haven't we? It doesn't matter whether it's a candle or it's a rem pod whether it's whatever it's just arguably these are the simplest of all the detection devices because it's just something physical they can i think the idea is that i suppose these are more sensitive than uh you know asking it to knock over a book off a bookshelf yeah i guess so i mean i think that does a diss service to paranormal hunting equipment because then you could just say, just dangle a f***ing string. And if they flick the string, they've answered a question. I think there's honestly truth to that though,
Starting point is 00:49:54 isn't there? That like paranormal equipment often has like a cool vibe. It's like, we must use candles because the spirits that it's like, why can't we use a f***ing Zippo? Why can't we use a vape pen? Hey, ghost, hit this elf bar real quick. If it's a yes. You want to communicate with me? Here's a light-up LED Razer keyboard. And I've got Microsoft Word open up on my desktop.
Starting point is 00:50:21 Just type some shit. That's how you can communicate with me. But yeah, it has to be these kind of subtle little movements. word open up on my desktop just type some shit that's how you can communicate with me yeah but yeah it has to be these kind of like oh subtle little movements which coincidentally happen pretty easily by themselves all right we see where rory is going with this uh you know researching the history of this there was one thing i thought was quite fun and not really cool but i don't know it depends what way you look at it whether it's good or not but dowsing is probably a lot more widely accepted to this day than you think you know researcher ewan was on this case and in reading about all of this, he was, as he puts it, shocked and delighted to find out how in use dousing still is.
Starting point is 00:51:09 The BBC discovered that as recently as 2017, the practice was still widely used on farms. Around the same time, one biologist witnessed technicians from a water company using divining rods in Stratford-upon-Avon in England and then she took to Twitter to find out if anyone else had heard of other UK water companies doing the same thing. Now while no water company said that they like officially endorsed the practice many water companies said they were aware of employees using dousing across Anglian water, Scottish water, Southern water, Welsh water, Yorkshire water, and Thames water right here in London. That's a little worrying. So that leads me to believe that maybe right now at the present day, there are water technicians around the city right here in London still using dousing rods.
Starting point is 00:52:06 That's kind of worrying because Thames Water supply my water to my apartment. And I was hoping that they would use kind of more modern day equipment to kind of find and treat that water instead of just magic sticks. No, I'm not saying that this is commonplace. Magic sticks. No, I'm not saying that this is commonplace. Just that there are, it's not hard to believe that there's probably people who are old enough in these establishments, like I said earlier, who they maybe saw someone else do it.
Starting point is 00:52:35 Right. You know, someone else, maybe when they were being trained at some point years ago, someone said, look, between you and me, it's not company policy, mate. But look, just keep these power rods. I'll give you, you keep these power. I've got more at home. Just use these.
Starting point is 00:52:48 When you're in a pickle, yeah, and you can't find a source, listen to me, mate. Just take them out, give it a try, see if it works for you. And then, lo and behold, it does work that one time. And then they keep them in their van next time they're investigating a leak somewhere. And what do you know? It works the next time too. And they just keep them in their van
Starting point is 00:53:05 after that and then 20 years later we're talking about it on a podcast so that's pretty nuts now that is absolutely proof of nothing but it's just cool because I was going to say you know you said
Starting point is 00:53:18 researcher Ewan was very excited to see that the rods are still being practiced to this day to be clear not for the paranormal at all. Mostly just to find f***ing puddles. Well, the point is it could be paranormal
Starting point is 00:53:32 because no one knows how they work. Like, to communicate with ghosts? Hell no! You really think they can do that shit? You idiot. All right, we are at the end of our investigation into dousing rods, into divining rods, an ancient practice of both finding things.
Starting point is 00:53:51 Yeah. And also communicating with spirits with the other side. We've talked a little bit about history. We've used the rods here in the studio. We've tried communicating with spirits with mixed results, but we do, as always, have to come down at the end of an episode on whether it's real or not. Are you saying
Starting point is 00:54:07 these things are paranormal or not, Rory? I'm going to answer with the rods. Oh, right. It's a no! It was a yes! It was a no!
Starting point is 00:54:17 If you were listening at home and not seeing the video, they swung wildly to the left, which is pretty cool if you ask me. Kit bent the rods so harshly it can't move anymore. God damn it. I guess that that makes it a double no.
Starting point is 00:54:32 You know, these things are strange to talk about because, as I said, it's like a f***ing flickering candle. Yeah. It's a tool of paranormal investigators. Is it inherently paranormal? Not really. The only thing is, is like it's only weird when people say hey a candle can be used during a seance because they it can flicker when ghosts
Starting point is 00:54:51 touch it i kind of get that people have candles lying about who the sweet has a bendy metal rod that folds that this was invented by a guy who had too much metal that's what i'm saying and he said you could communicate with your dead mother if you buy my special metal it's such a weird thing like i don't know where it came from you know when you're listening to the damn show where the lore came from who ever said that it was a rod that could talk to spirits it was people with a stick. People have been using sticks for a long time. To locate water. And then someone was using a stick for finding ghosts.
Starting point is 00:55:33 And then one day the stick broke. And they were like, I've been going through too many goddamn sticks. I need a stick that won't break. And then someone was like, hey, here's a metal stick. Right. That spins around. Yeah, it's really nothing to do with the metal anymore. It started off as metal stick. Right. That spins around. Yeah, it's really nothing to do with the metal anymore. It's just to start off as a stick.
Starting point is 00:55:47 Now in our cyberpunk futuristic landscape, it's a metal stick. Okay, I may have missed that in the story originally. This is an uphill f***ing battle. Rory's like, he's like one of these like TikTok teens. He needs, whenever I'm talking about the paranormal, he needs like a feed alongside like a baby with an ipad he needs it to be showing cartoons simultaneously to hold his attention look i'm just saying if you want to try and convince me of a piece of paranormal hunting
Starting point is 00:56:15 equipment it's got to include more than one story by a woman who's named after a pink starfish. Okay. We're done here. If you have used these, maybe you live on a farm in rural Yorkshire and maybe your grandpappy showed you how to use the dousing rods in order to find running water. If that's you,
Starting point is 00:56:37 leave us an email at thisparanormallifepodcast at gmail.com. That's where we read lovely emails from our listeners and have done for many years now
Starting point is 00:56:46 if you give us a tip we will check it out there you can also hit us up on socials on Twitter actually don't bother with Twitter on Instagram
Starting point is 00:56:54 at this paranormal life and anywhere else you can find this paranormal life we're on all socials please get in contact with us
Starting point is 00:57:02 send us your tips send us your thoughts say hello we're hanging out over there on youtube you can watch the full length high definition video version of this show over on youtube search this paranormal life if you want to see rory using the rods watch the pole swinging it's been really fun we've started really only at the end of 2023 getting this paranormal life up in full video format. And it's been really rewarding.
Starting point is 00:57:27 It's a fun journey. There's a lot of people. I think around 10,000 of you subscribed over there, supporting the show. So if you're a YouTube user, there's every likelihood you haven't subscribed to us there, haven't followed us there. So please hit subscribe.
Starting point is 00:57:41 Helps us out a lot. And it's great because so many people who've been listening to the show you know started watching the YouTube version and they were like oh my god like Rory
Starting point is 00:57:49 I didn't realise you were 6 foot 3 like I know you had a cool voice but like I didn't know because he isn't yeah well I'm sitting down
Starting point is 00:57:57 so it's hard to tell what exactly my height is stand up then what well both stand up then we'll see that you're 179 centimetres probably and they were like Rory we didn't realise that you know we'll see. That you're f***ing 179 centimetres, probably.
Starting point is 00:58:06 And they were like, Rory, we didn't realise that, you know, we can obviously tell that you're good looking because it's just the voice, but we didn't realise you had like a f***ing six pack. Right. Yeah, lift up your shirt then, because this is a video and you can...
Starting point is 00:58:17 Lift up your shirt then. Well, I don't want us to get flagged for anything on YouTube. I think nudity is not well... The good thing is not nudity then. It's just your midriff. Well, it's going to be nudity if they want me to prove
Starting point is 00:58:30 I got a seven foot hog. Yeah, okay. Well, that's crass. And I'm not going to prove that on YouTube. Seven foot? So it's the same length as you? Longer than you actually, apparently. This is crass
Starting point is 00:58:42 and I've had enough. Okay, that's fine do you want your rods back no they're useless that's right search This Paranormal Life on YouTube
Starting point is 00:58:51 to check that out but that is not the home of TPL really it's one of our it's like our it's like our holiday getaway
Starting point is 00:58:59 where the the cult leaders Kit and Rory like to hang out but of course the place we call home the commun, is patreon.com forward slash thisparanormallife. The link's in the description of this episode, wherever you're listening to it. And this is where you want to go to get all the episodes that are not available publicly.
Starting point is 00:59:19 They are available only exclusively to our Patreon supporters. For years, the way we've kept this paranormal life going, the way this became our jobs, and the way it has grown and flowered like a beautiful rose is through people supporting the show directly on Patreon. And we've been able, in the last few years, to create, let me think, at the time of writing, there's about, probably approaching 200 episodes
Starting point is 00:59:45 between bonus episodes and after party episodes. 200 almost. Episodes of This Paranormal Life that are exclusive to Patreon. And much like the dowsing rods themselves, if you put $5 in your hand, we'll guide you to that bonus content.
Starting point is 01:00:01 We'll lead you right there. Don't worry. Grease our palms. I mean, I've said it before. Grease our palms. I mean, I've said it before. In this world of Bidenflation, that price has also
Starting point is 01:00:09 not changed. Right. We've added other tiers over the years, but for the low price of $5, you can get access to all the bonus episodes
Starting point is 01:00:19 at least, and those are the meaty, too hot for TV, full-length investigations into the paranormal. They're intense stuff. And up from there, you have weekly after-party episodes, shout-outs right here on the show, and even a limited edition.
Starting point is 01:00:36 I always laugh when I say it because it's too absurd. There's a coin. There's a limited edition gold and silver Night of the Commune coin that guarantees entry into the commune upon completion which is pending it's kind of the construction of the commune has gotten wildly beyond it's a bit like hs2 here in the uk certain bits of it are being scrapped the sauna and the playing grounds have been scrapped yeah we've got 300 guys who have been trying to find water for two years before we start construction. And it's not going well because, yeah, they're using the rods. But it will be done.
Starting point is 01:01:11 It will be done. And when it is done, you will be granted admission with the coin. Exactly. Just flash your coin. You walk right in. The funny thing is, you know, I remember I was so up for doing the coin in the beginning because it sounds like a joke. Because this is a comedy podcast, that you would buy a coin to get admission
Starting point is 01:01:27 into a place that doesn't exist yet. I liked it because I already did that. I bought a coin off Kickstarter that got me a gold coin that got me access to a temple, which I think I got the coin about eight or more years ago. It's still not done.
Starting point is 01:01:48 I think they're still... Yeah, that's to be expected. It looks pretty cool. It looks pretty cool. I'm going to literally look it up and show Rory. They're working on it. Oh, yeah, they're working on it. I'm going to say I don't think there's ever any temples
Starting point is 01:02:02 that have been constructed through Kickstarter. I don't know what you were expecting. Why don't I show you what it's supposed to look like versus what exists so far? Please do. Okay, hold on. So here's what they're planning on building. Right, a ridiculous... It's a temple. it is a temple yeah
Starting point is 01:02:27 meticulously carved many faces and intricate designs on top yeah i mean it's utterly ridiculous this is what the ancient egyptians would have built if they had had the gonads uh and then just to show you what is currently there that That is a giant box. That's it. It's an enormous cube. That's what you build when you're on day one of playing Minecraft.
Starting point is 01:02:53 It's just a brick house. So, you know, but hey, they are ahead of us in construction of the temple. Sure. And it's nice to know that there's other people
Starting point is 01:03:02 building temples too. Patreon.com forward slash this paranormal life to help the construction of the temple and get some cool bonus content
Starting point is 01:03:12 in the meantime and if you're out there thinking getting Rory I can't take your word means jack shit you just spent 45 minutes talking about a stick
Starting point is 01:03:20 that can't detect water and you're saying I need more to check this out why not listen to a clip right now of one of our recent bonus episodes he was convinced she was having an affair so one night he tried to catch her in the act he climbed the outside walls of the castle aiming to peer into his wife's bedroom which is kind of funny that that also wasn't his bedroom. That tells me everything I need to know.
Starting point is 01:03:52 Tiptoeing at the window ledge, he suddenly lost his grip and plummeted to his death. Relieved that the tyrant... So it wasn't that magic. It wasn't that good. Spells. Everyone obeys the rules of gravity, all right? Relieved that the tyrant was finally gone, the townspeople celebrated and buried Avertak outside the village.
Starting point is 01:04:20 The townspeople might have thought he was gone forever, but the very next morning, Avertak was back. Whoa! He had risen from his grave and come back to the village. But he didn't look great. He was looking a little pale for sure. But the people knew better than to ask questions. It was just like head down, pretend nothing ever happened. Only his demands were even more dark and ghoulish than usual. Finally, his demands were even more dark and ghoulish than usual. Heed my demands. Bring me bowlfuls of fresh blood cut from your wrists.
Starting point is 01:04:55 He decreed. Avatac, everything all right, bud? Because you did not sound like that when we buried you. Yes, I did. I sounded like this. No, you didn't. No, you kind of, you had like an Irish accent. Hey, I did. I sounded like this. No, you didn't. No, you kind of, you had like an Irish accent. No.
Starting point is 01:05:07 Hey, what's up, dudes? What's up, dudes? No, no, no. I always sound like this. Hey, what's up? All right, so you're the same old Avertac as always? Same old Avertac. Avertac.
Starting point is 01:05:18 Same old Avertac. How the f***? You don't know your own name. The dark one, right? That's what you guys call me, the dark one. Same old Avertac. one. Same old avatar. Same old blood drinking avatar.
Starting point is 01:05:28 Drink of blood six times a day. You didn't do that before. I was always drinking blood. You know me. Love a pint of blood. No. That would be a first one. That would be a new order.
Starting point is 01:05:40 Has anyone seen my wife? Has anyone seen my cheating wife? Oh, man. We are jokers. Oh, what a new order. Has anyone seen my wife? Has anyone seen my cheating wife? Oh, man. We are jokers. Oh, what a great clip. It really is. What a great show. On the bonus episode,
Starting point is 01:05:51 we talk about the sticks that can detect water. The real ones. The juicy ones. We should also, on an after party, find out what Hogwarts houses we are. That would be fun. Okay. We could do a little quiz.
Starting point is 01:06:03 Yeah. If anyone's up for that let us know some Harry Potter themed content that just about wraps it up for this week's
Starting point is 01:06:11 investigation into Divining Rods into Divination Rods we are of course going to be back next week with hopefully something resembling a double yes
Starting point is 01:06:19 in the meantime no no don't bet on it no sorry before you go out just don't promise anything because it's mine next week oh right
Starting point is 01:06:24 it is pretty spooky. It is a very spooky one. Okay, exciting. So it could be... Probably a little cursed object, a little poltergeist activity, a little paranormal stuff. A nice little taste.
Starting point is 01:06:33 A lack of physical evidence. Oh, don't say that. Sure. But that's to be expected with ghosts. It's not really. It could be a yes or a no. We don't know. But without saying too much.
Starting point is 01:06:45 You won't need your rods for this one. You can come up to your own conclusions pretty easily. The rods are swinging right. They're swinging right before I even reach the first paragraph. But it's going to be a great one. You don't want to miss it. Tune in for that. See you next week.
Starting point is 01:07:00 Bye-bye. you next week bye bye

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