Latest / Destination Unlimited with Victor Fuhrman / Maxim Furek – The Ghost Hunter’s Bible

Transcript

Maxim Furek – The Ghost Hunter’s Bible · Destination Unlimited with Victor Fuhrman

0:05
Speaker 1: My name is Victor Furman. Some call me The Voice.
0:10
Speaker 1: I've always been fascinated with human nature, spirituality, science, and
0:15
Speaker 1: the crossroads at which they meet. Join me now and
0:19
Speaker 1: we will explore these topics and so much more with
0:23
Speaker 1: fascinating guests, authors, and experts who will guide us to
0:28
Speaker 1: Destination Unlimited. What if one man's experience with high strangeness,
0:41
Speaker 1: including UFOs, cryptids, hauntings, and demonology, inspired him to write
0:48
Speaker 1: a book dubbed The Ghost Hunter's Bible? My guest this
0:52
Speaker 1: week on Destination Unlimited, Maxim Purek, is an author and
0:58
Speaker 1: researcher whose work spans psychology, addictions, music journalism, and paranormal culture.
1:06
Speaker 1: His academic background includes a master's degree in communications from
1:11
Speaker 1: Bloomsburg University and a bachelor's degree in psychology from Aquinas College.
1:17
Speaker 1: Drawing on these disciplines, Maxim examines the psychological and sociocultural
1:24
Speaker 1: currents behind these phenomena. He partners with Kristen Amanda, as
1:30
Speaker 1: Hangar One Publishing's paranormal duo. This dynamic pair will be
1:35
Speaker 1: featured in a series of informative podcast interviews focusing on
1:40
Speaker 1: the captivating theme of haunted houses. His website is MaximPurek.com,
1:47
Speaker 1: and he joins me this week to share his path
1:49
Speaker 1: and latest book, The Scream of the Haunted House, The
1:54
Speaker 1: Ghost Hunter's Bible. Please join me in welcoming to Destination Unlimited,
2:00
Speaker 1: Maxim Furyk. Welcome, Maxim.
2:03
Speaker 2: Thank you, Victor. I'm looking forward to a nice and
2:06
Speaker 2: deep podcast interview, so thank you so much for the invite.
2:10
Speaker 1: My pleasure. Maxim, please share with our listeners your path
2:14
Speaker 1: and how it led to your work in psychology, addictions,
2:17
Speaker 1: music journalism, and the paranormal.
2:21
Speaker 2: Yeah, there's a whole lot there, but it sort of
2:23
Speaker 2: fits in with my philosophy that everything is everything. I think,
2:27
Speaker 2: you know, when I was working on my book, Coleridge
2:30
Speaker 2: and Hoodoo, I tried to put together the spiritual, the paranormal,
2:35
Speaker 2: and the scientific. And I think that's just the way
2:40
Speaker 2: it needs to be. That's the way things are. And
2:43
Speaker 2: a lot of people don't believe that the spiritual fits
2:46
Speaker 2: in with the paranormal, but I think it plays a
2:49
Speaker 2: really good part, a significant part. As far as my
2:54
Speaker 2: career path goes, I worked as a drug and alcohol counselor.
2:58
Speaker 2: I was in charge of a drug and alcohol program.
3:02
Speaker 2: And my clients were known as individuals with co-occurring disorders.
3:08
Speaker 2: So they were dealing with addictions as well as some
3:11
Speaker 2: serious mental illness issues. So stating that, I have a
3:19
Speaker 2: real affinity for people that are in recovery. I think
3:22
Speaker 2: that people that are in recovery are just so empowered.
3:26
Speaker 2: And I would ask some of my clients how they
3:29
Speaker 2: got into recovery. And these are folks that had been
3:32
Speaker 2: addicted to alcohol, heroin. It doesn't matter what the drug
3:36
Speaker 2: is because they all lead you to the same place.
3:38
Speaker 2: And they all have similar beginnings. But I would ask
3:42
Speaker 2: my clients, how did they get into recovery? And so
3:46
Speaker 2: many of them said that, I don't know how I did,
3:49
Speaker 2: but it's a miracle. And typically, with people that are using,
3:53
Speaker 2: people that are addicted, they keep on using and they
3:55
Speaker 2: hit bottom, and they hit bottom, but it doesn't really matter.
3:59
Speaker 2: On a cognitive level, it does matter that you're hitting bottom,
4:04
Speaker 2: and all kinds of things are happening, like you're losing
4:06
Speaker 2: your car, your job, your boyfriend, girlfriend, whatever. There's a
4:11
Speaker 2: whole lot of loss, but you don't look at it
4:14
Speaker 2: that way. As long as you could get another bout
4:18
Speaker 2: of your drug, as long as you could do your
4:20
Speaker 2: drug one more time, it doesn't matter what the consequences are.
4:23
Speaker 2: So These folks that said that, well, it's a miracle
4:26
Speaker 2: how I quit, you know, it speaks to the paranormal.
4:30
Speaker 2: Because once again, here we have another scenario, the addiction,
4:37
Speaker 2: where we can't explain what happened. We can't explain that
4:41
Speaker 2: miracle of how a person got into recovery. So I
4:45
Speaker 2: think that, you know, that's just a wonderful example. way
4:51
Speaker 2: that my journey into the paranormal began, you know, with
4:55
Speaker 2: my actual day job. And then I had worked as
5:00
Speaker 2: a rock journalist. I had published a number of books
5:03
Speaker 2: on rock and roll, looking at rock music, looking at
5:07
Speaker 2: popular music through a cultural lens, a popular cultural lens,
5:13
Speaker 2: looking at it through a sociological lens, and just trying
5:18
Speaker 2: to validate what this was. But it's, it's again, it's
5:21
Speaker 2: nothing unique because it doesn't matter if you're a baby
5:24
Speaker 2: boomer or a silent generation, generation, uh, uh, X or
5:29
Speaker 2: millennial or a zoomer. I mean, we all have the
5:34
Speaker 2: songs that indicate certain aspects of our lives, things that happen,
5:39
Speaker 2: both the good and the bad. And those music, the
5:41
Speaker 2: music sort of reminds me of, reminds us of those,
5:46
Speaker 2: those episodes in our life. And, um, allows us to
5:50
Speaker 2: go back and recapture them through the music. So I
5:53
Speaker 2: think music plays a very important part. It's almost like
5:57
Speaker 2: getting tattoos. The soundtrack of our psyche is about the
6:02
Speaker 2: same thing as getting tattoos on your body. It works
6:05
Speaker 2: the same way. We just collect and we have a
6:07
Speaker 2: certain amount of a genre that we like more than others.
6:13
Speaker 2: So that's pretty much it. Me, I guess, you know,
6:17
Speaker 2: as a drug and alcohol counselor, as a rock journalist,
6:20
Speaker 2: and as a person that eventually got into the paranormal. Victor,
6:25
Speaker 2: not because I went looking for the paranormal, but because
6:28
Speaker 2: the paranormal came after me. I mean, it stalked me,
6:31
Speaker 2: it followed me, and it hit me over the head. Again,
6:34
Speaker 2: I wasn't looking for it, but it found me. And
6:37
Speaker 2: I'm just most appreciative to be working in the paranormal
6:41
Speaker 2: because of the acceptance I've received from the the paranormal community.
6:47
Speaker 2: It's just been a wonderful group of people that have
6:51
Speaker 2: welcomed me and accepted me. So I'm, you know, really
6:54
Speaker 2: a pretty satisfied individual, you know, as far as doing
6:58
Speaker 2: what he's meant to do, as far as doing, you know,
7:02
Speaker 2: something that gives me joy.
7:04
Speaker 1: Absolutely. And I think all of us have found that
7:07
Speaker 1: there have been multiple callings in our life. Sometimes we
7:10
Speaker 1: don't understand them, and sometimes they just unfold before us.
7:14
Speaker 1: But those callings are something that we're meant to do.
7:17
Speaker 2: Exactly. And, you know, we always talk about there's no
7:21
Speaker 2: such thing as coincidence. But I say, you know, take
7:24
Speaker 2: a look at something. And if there's a number of variables,
7:27
Speaker 2: you know, if there's one or two variables, you know,
7:29
Speaker 2: this thing could be a coincidence. But if there's more,
7:32
Speaker 2: then it may be something beyond that. It could be
7:34
Speaker 2: something more than that. It could be that something that
7:37
Speaker 2: is meant to be, you know, that was predestined.
7:40
Speaker 1: My middle name is Synchronicity. I've experienced them since childhood,
7:43
Speaker 1: so I know what you're talking about. And tell us
7:48
Speaker 1: now about your collaboration with Chris and Amanda. How did
7:51
Speaker 1: you guys connect and become the paranormal duo?
7:54
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's a nice long story. I had a couple
7:59
Speaker 2: of books published by Beyond the Fray. They're out in
8:02
Speaker 2: San Diego. And Jeff, the CEO... suggested to Kristen Amanda
8:10
Speaker 2: that she get me on her program. He thought that
8:13
Speaker 2: this would be interesting. So she had me on her program,
8:16
Speaker 2: her podcast, Paranorm Girl podcast. And she decided that my book,
8:25
Speaker 2: Co-Region Hoodoo, would be one of her top 10 books.
8:29
Speaker 2: And she would go and identify certain books that she
8:32
Speaker 2: came across. And that was just so great when I
8:34
Speaker 2: found out about that. So... My latest publisher is Hanger One.
8:41
Speaker 2: And Hanger One decided they thought that we worked well together.
8:45
Speaker 2: They saw me on her podcast. So they decided to
8:48
Speaker 2: go and do something kind of crazy, kind of unorthodox.
8:52
Speaker 2: And they put Maxim Furyk and Kristen Amanda together as
8:56
Speaker 2: the paranormal duel. And specifically, they had us go out
9:01
Speaker 2: there and talk about my latest book, The Scream of
9:04
Speaker 2: the Haunted House. So crazy. We've been on numerous podcasts
9:08
Speaker 2: so far, and we've been talking about whether or not
9:14
Speaker 2: there is an afterlife, whether or not we could connect
9:17
Speaker 2: with the ghosts, spirits, potter guys, demons in the afterlife,
9:21
Speaker 2: or if they could connect with us. And so Kristen
9:24
Speaker 2: and I have been talking about the world of ghosts
9:28
Speaker 2: and spirits, and it's been just a whole lot of
9:31
Speaker 2: fun because we sort of complement each other. She's very articulate.
9:38
Speaker 2: She's a former Los Angeles actor. She worked in Hollywood
9:44
Speaker 2: for like 25 years, but now she's on the Pacific
9:48
Speaker 2: Coast and she's doing the paranormal thing. Just a very
9:51
Speaker 2: accomplished young woman. And just, I can't say enough about her,
9:55
Speaker 2: you know, just, I mean, she's really a, you know,
9:58
Speaker 2: upstanding individual.
10:00
Speaker 1: Before we get into your new book, let's talk about
10:02
Speaker 1: some of the things you've done before. Tell us about
10:04
Speaker 1: your work with celebrity demonologists, Ed and Lorraine Warren.
10:08
Speaker 2: Yeah, that was a real, a real hoot. I met
10:11
Speaker 2: them in 1988. They were, Ed and Lorraine were on
10:14
Speaker 2: a 15 city tour promoting a book called The Haunted
10:18
Speaker 2: and The Haunted was written by Robert Curran, C-U-R-R-A-N. I
10:23
Speaker 2: had worked with Robert when he was with the Citizen's
10:26
Speaker 2: Voice and then also with the Times-Leader. These are newspapers
10:30
Speaker 2: in northeastern Pennsylvania, and at one time we had three
10:35
Speaker 2: major newspapers in that city, which was just amazing. Now,
10:40
Speaker 2: of course, we only have two, and they're struggling, but
10:43
Speaker 2: that tends to be all over the place. I mean, just,
10:47
Speaker 2: I mean... It's happening in Miami. Miami just cut their staff.
10:52
Speaker 2: You know, everywhere you look, it seems that the newspapers
10:56
Speaker 2: may be going by the wayside. And it's really sad
11:00
Speaker 2: and unfortunate because that's something that as a baby boomer,
11:03
Speaker 2: you know, I enjoy reading the newspaper with a cup
11:07
Speaker 2: of coffee and it's just like, you know, those creature comforts.
11:10
Speaker 2: But at any rate, that's going away. But, um, I've
11:14
Speaker 2: had a good experience with newspaper reporters, and it was
11:18
Speaker 2: always sort of an easy thing to put together a
11:21
Speaker 2: press release and send them to an editor or a
11:25
Speaker 2: reporter and have them publish it. That was back in
11:28
Speaker 2: the day when you knew these people on a first-name basis.
11:31
Speaker 2: Now it's getting a little less and less, and the
11:35
Speaker 2: whole world, I mean, my whole world is just changing.
11:40
Speaker 2: It's evolving with AI and with all the new technology. And,
11:44
Speaker 2: you know, I mean, I guess you could see the
11:48
Speaker 2: same thing. You can say the same thing, right, Victor?
11:51
Speaker 2: I mean, you're just saying, you know, a whole lot
11:53
Speaker 2: of technological changes. And, you know, I would say that
11:57
Speaker 2: your business isn't what it used to be, correct?
12:00
Speaker 1: Absolutely. Paunted or not, why has the Amityville horror fascinated
12:05
Speaker 1: us so much?
12:07
Speaker 2: Well, that's because it's a modern day story of Cain
12:10
Speaker 2: and Abel. Even today, we can't seem to wrap our
12:17
Speaker 2: arms around this, the Amityville Horror. It took place in
12:20
Speaker 2: Long Island, a very affluent community. And it was sort
12:24
Speaker 2: of a Shakespearean act and maybe three or four, or
12:27
Speaker 2: a play in three or four acts. Ronnie DeFeo, he
12:31
Speaker 2: was 23 years old. He took a rifle and he
12:34
Speaker 2: killed his mother and father, He killed his two sisters
12:38
Speaker 2: and his two brothers. And he claimed, Ronnie claimed that
12:42
Speaker 2: he was possessed by a devil, by a demon. And
12:46
Speaker 2: the attorney general, the prosecutor had to go and prove
12:50
Speaker 2: that he wasn't possessed by a devil, but rather he
12:53
Speaker 2: was a personality disorder and he needed immediate gratification. And
13:01
Speaker 2: also he had no compassion for his fellow human beings.
13:05
Speaker 2: And so That was the first thing that happened. So
13:08
Speaker 2: there was all this bloodshed at the family. Of course,
13:12
Speaker 2: they did prove that he was a personality disorder. And
13:17
Speaker 2: it was just an infamous case. But then the DeFeo
13:23
Speaker 2: home went up for sale. They sold it for only $ 80, 000.
13:26
Speaker 2: And George and Kathy Lutz bought it. But they only
13:30
Speaker 2: stayed there for 28 days. So this was the second
13:33
Speaker 2: act of the Shakespearean play where They left after 28
13:37
Speaker 2: days because of infestation of house flies, of the daughter
13:43
Speaker 2: talking to a talking pig, of rooms that were connected
13:49
Speaker 2: with heat that would be 30 degrees or 50 degrees.
13:54
Speaker 2: I mean, just all kinds of just weird stuff, voices
13:57
Speaker 2: telling them to get out. So after 28 days, George
14:01
Speaker 2: and Kathy Letts left. They claim that The story was true.
14:07
Speaker 2: What happened in those 28 days was true. But then
14:11
Speaker 2: the third part of it that was really interesting was
14:14
Speaker 2: that Jay Anston, who was the author of The Amityville Horror,
14:22
Speaker 2: his publisher suggested that he contact George and Kathy Lutz.
14:27
Speaker 2: What they did was they had the Lutzes get a
14:29
Speaker 2: tape recorder and just tape record their recollections of what
14:34
Speaker 2: happened there. during those 28 days. And so Jay Anson
14:39
Speaker 2: had to transcribe those, I think it was 48 hours
14:42
Speaker 2: of tape. And that became the Amity Bill Horror, which
14:46
Speaker 2: was just a million selling paperback. And then, of course,
14:51
Speaker 2: we had the motion picture with James Brolin and Margot Kidder.
14:57
Speaker 2: And then that was only the beginning of it because
15:00
Speaker 2: there were so many other books and motion pictures. So again,
15:03
Speaker 2: we couldn't get enough of it. And you can tell
15:06
Speaker 2: the significance of a topic by the number of attempts
15:13
Speaker 2: to make money from it. And certainly with Amityville Horror,
15:16
Speaker 2: we had all the motion pictures and the books that
15:22
Speaker 2: were written. The one act that I think everybody remembers
15:28
Speaker 2: was that Jay Anston's attorney claimed Out of all the
15:33
Speaker 2: things that were out there about Amityville Horror, this is
15:35
Speaker 2: the one that tends to resonate, which is interesting. But
15:40
Speaker 2: Jay Anston's attorney claimed that he conjured up the Amityville
15:44
Speaker 2: Horror over a couple of bottles of wine, that it
15:48
Speaker 2: didn't really happen, that he just fabricated it. And this
15:51
Speaker 2: is the one that I think a lot of people
15:53
Speaker 2: latch on to whenever they hear about Amityville Horror. They say, yeah,
15:57
Speaker 2: that was the one that was just conjured up by
15:59
Speaker 2: the attorney. It's not real. But, you know, that's just
16:02
Speaker 2: the last thing we heard. I mean, I believe that
16:04
Speaker 2: it is real. And I believe that the attorney was
16:07
Speaker 2: just saying that, again, just to sell copies of his book.
16:12
Speaker 2: I'm assuming that he wrote a book about this because
16:14
Speaker 2: everybody else has. But Amityville is not going away. And
16:21
Speaker 2: the last thing that he said, George, let's turn to Catholicism.
16:27
Speaker 2: And he claimed until his death that it was true.
16:30
Speaker 2: Everything that happened during those 28 days was true. So
16:34
Speaker 2: there it is. I mean, you take your pick. It's
16:35
Speaker 2: like door number one, two, three, or four.
16:38
Speaker 1: Absolutely. Before we discuss your latest book, The Scream of
16:42
Speaker 1: the Haunted House, let's look at some of your previous works,
16:46
Speaker 1: starting with The Smurl Haunting, when Ed and Lorraine came
16:50
Speaker 1: to town. What did you share with readers, and how
16:52
Speaker 1: did the story inspire one of the Conjuring movies?
16:56
Speaker 2: Well, the theme was the West Pittston, Pennsylvania haunting, and
17:01
Speaker 2: that was in the Jack and Janet Schmurl up in
17:04
Speaker 2: Northeastern Pennsylvania. So that was the true story of the
17:08
Speaker 2: Schmurl haunting. My book came out a lot earlier than
17:14
Speaker 2: Conjuring Last Rites. And I want to say this about
17:17
Speaker 2: Conjuring Last Rites, about the movie in my book. If
17:20
Speaker 2: you want to be entertained, then watch the movie Conjuring
17:24
Speaker 2: Last Rites. I mean, it's a fictional piece. Ed and
17:30
Speaker 2: Lorraine Warren, their daughter Judy, never, as far as I know,
17:33
Speaker 2: never set foot into the Schmurl house in West Pittston.
17:41
Speaker 2: She might have been there in 2025 for some publicity shots,
17:46
Speaker 2: but as far as I know, she was never there
17:49
Speaker 2: during the actual thing. So, The motion picture, Conjuring Last Rites,
17:52
Speaker 2: was all about her. It was about her. She was
17:54
Speaker 2: the protagonist. She was being stalked by the demon. The
17:58
Speaker 2: mirror played a part in this. I mean, all kinds
18:00
Speaker 2: of things, but none of this was true. And the
18:04
Speaker 2: truth was revealed in my book, The Shemero Haunting, when
18:07
Speaker 2: Ed and Lorraine came to town, that talked about the
18:12
Speaker 2: involvement with the Catholic Church that seems to be a
18:15
Speaker 2: little bit murky. I mean, some of the people were
18:18
Speaker 2: saying that the Catholic Church didn't— weren't cooperating with the Schmurls,
18:24
Speaker 2: but from what I've gathered, I think that the church
18:27
Speaker 2: did cooperate with them to resolve this. For example, Jack
18:34
Speaker 2: and Janet Schmurl were devout Catholics. They were churchgoers, so
18:39
Speaker 2: they were able to get their priest to come there
18:41
Speaker 2: and babysit, to just spend the night there to see
18:44
Speaker 2: if he could find anything, anything that was just of
18:46
Speaker 2: a paranormal nature. They had The local diocese send over
18:50
Speaker 2: an exorcist. Every Catholic diocese has a person who's skilled
18:56
Speaker 2: in the art of exorcism, which is just a prayer
19:00
Speaker 2: using artifacts like holy water and a crucifix, maybe the
19:04
Speaker 2: prayer of St. Michael, the archangel, other things. But it's
19:10
Speaker 2: reciting that prayer and allowing God to just come through
19:15
Speaker 2: us to utilize that prayer and our intentions. So that's
19:21
Speaker 2: how that works. So I think that the Catholic Church
19:25
Speaker 2: did play a key role in resolving this, and eventually,
19:30
Speaker 2: after four attempts, the Shemar haunting was excised by Father Amorth,
19:39
Speaker 2: Father Treebolt, rather, from New York State, who came down
19:42
Speaker 2: there and he had to do four attempts to cleanse
19:47
Speaker 2: the house, and he finally got it right. One more question.
19:50
Speaker 1: In regards to the work of Edith Lorraine. We all
19:53
Speaker 1: know the story of the doll Annabelle, but what happened
19:57
Speaker 1: to Annabelle Handler Dan Rivera after you met him?
20:00
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, he died. He died two days after I
20:03
Speaker 2: met him. I met Dan Friday, July 11th. 2025 in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.
20:11
Speaker 2: It was at the orphanage. And he was there along
20:14
Speaker 2: with the devils on the run tour. And this was
20:18
Speaker 2: something that Tony Shmira put together. That was Ed and
20:20
Speaker 2: Lorraine's son-in-law. And he put this together and they made
20:25
Speaker 2: quite a bit of money with this. Uh, they went
20:27
Speaker 2: to San Antonio. They went to the West Virginia penitentiary,
20:31
Speaker 2: went to new Orleans, and then they went to Gettysburg. And, uh,
20:37
Speaker 2: I met Dan Rivera on July 11th. We had a
20:42
Speaker 2: nice chat. I was going to interview him about the
20:44
Speaker 2: Schmerl haunting on July the 14th when he went back
20:47
Speaker 2: to Connecticut, but he died on the 13th. And the
20:53
Speaker 2: coroner said that Dan Rivera had cardiac issues and he
20:57
Speaker 2: died of a heart attack. Other people like the psychic
21:00
Speaker 2: Vincent sisters believe that there was something else in play.
21:05
Speaker 2: They believe that It was the demonic energies of Annabelle
21:11
Speaker 2: that over a certain period of time, Dan Rivera was
21:15
Speaker 2: worn down by these negative energies, and eventually he died
21:22
Speaker 2: from them. So that's another perspective of what happened to
21:28
Speaker 2: Dan Rivera. Not everybody believed that he died of a
21:30
Speaker 2: heart attack.
21:32
Speaker 1: One more of your books. What inspired Paranormal Apocalypse? Is
21:36
Speaker 1: this how it ends? And what did you share with readers?
21:40
Speaker 2: Well, I think what it was was just the very trying,
21:43
Speaker 2: very challenging times we're having in 2024, 2025, 2026. I mean,
21:50
Speaker 2: just with all this nonsense, all this disparity between the
21:56
Speaker 2: different political parties. The fact that we have very few
22:01
Speaker 2: voices of moderation out there and you just have people
22:04
Speaker 2: yelling at each other. And in Paranormal Apocalypse, I talk
22:08
Speaker 2: about fear and I talk about H.P. Lovecraft. I contend
22:15
Speaker 2: that we are being driven by fear through religious organizations,
22:18
Speaker 2: through political groups, through society. They try to keep us afraid.
22:23
Speaker 2: And when we're afraid, we'll do things. We'll join groups.
22:27
Speaker 2: We'll join cults. will develop a mindset where we're just
22:35
Speaker 2: like everybody else. We share the same mind, think the
22:39
Speaker 2: same ideas as other people. So it's really being disrespectful
22:44
Speaker 2: to ourself and to our autonomy. I mean, we should
22:47
Speaker 2: take a look at ourselves as independent voices, as free
22:52
Speaker 2: individuals who are free to go and express our ideas
22:55
Speaker 2: and our beliefs freely. without interference from external forces, et cetera.
23:00
Speaker 2: So with Paranoia Apocalypse, I used H.P. Lovecraft's motto, and
23:09
Speaker 2: Lovecraft was one who said it better than anybody else.
23:11
Speaker 2: He said that fear is one of the most powerful
23:13
Speaker 2: of human emotions, but fear of the unknown is the
23:17
Speaker 2: most powerful of human emotions. And I don't think there's
23:21
Speaker 2: been any other theologian, philosopher, scientist, et cetera, who's been
23:26
Speaker 2: able to go and come up with a definition of
23:29
Speaker 2: fear of the unknown as has, uh, H.P. Lovecraft. And again,
23:33
Speaker 2: he's gotten, even though he was obscure and he was
23:36
Speaker 2: in the shadow of, uh, Edgar Allen Poe, uh, lately, H.P.
23:42
Speaker 2: Lovecraft has come into his own. Uh, there have been
23:46
Speaker 2: more papers and more, more academic papers, uh, written about H.P.
23:50
Speaker 2: Lovecraft because he's just starting to resonate in, uh, uh,
23:55
Speaker 2: a more widespread manner than has Edgar Allan Poe. And
23:59
Speaker 2: Edgar Allan Poe can be clearly defined as to what
24:02
Speaker 2: he did, you know, with his poetry and his short stories.
24:07
Speaker 2: But with H.P. Lovecraft, we're just starting to mine that
24:11
Speaker 2: and find out exactly what he represented. So he's a lot,
24:14
Speaker 2: there's a lot of layers there with H.P. Lovecraft. And just,
24:18
Speaker 2: you got to love the guy for, you know, what
24:20
Speaker 2: he did for his volume of literature. the bulk of
24:25
Speaker 2: which was written to fellow authors. And that's where a
24:30
Speaker 2: lot of his time went, just writing these letters to
24:34
Speaker 2: his friends. So his output could have been a lot more.
24:37
Speaker 2: He could have been a lot more prolific, but he
24:39
Speaker 2: had a group of people that he connected with, like
24:42
Speaker 2: Robert Howard, like Robert Block, like a number of people.
24:45
Speaker 2: So pretty interesting individual.
24:48
Speaker 1: My guest is Maxim Furyk. When we come back, we're
24:51
Speaker 1: going to be talking about his brand new book, The
24:53
Speaker 1: Scream of the Haunted House. Maxim, please share with our
24:56
Speaker 1: listeners where they can get all of your books and
24:58
Speaker 1: find out more about you.
25:00
Speaker 2: Absolutely, Victor. I have a website. It's www.maximfuryk.com. And you
25:07
Speaker 2: could see, read all about me, see all my books.
25:11
Speaker 2: And then if you're interested in, if anyone's interested in
25:14
Speaker 2: purchasing a copy of any of my books, there's a
25:16
Speaker 2: way to do that. And I could certainly hook you
25:20
Speaker 2: up with an autographed copy or two of my books.
25:24
Speaker 2: I would suggest this. I would ask that with your listeners,
25:28
Speaker 2: if they were to purchase any of my books, if
25:30
Speaker 2: they would please be so kind as to go and
25:33
Speaker 2: offer a review on Amazon on any of these books.
25:36
Speaker 2: It seems to help us authors. It seems to help
25:39
Speaker 2: that algorithm just helps to do some wonderful things for us. So,
25:44
Speaker 2: you know, reviews are always great.
25:47
Speaker 1: Absolutely. We'll be back with more of Maxim after these
25:50
Speaker 1: words on the OM Times Radio Network.
25:53
Speaker 3: The cutting edge of conscious radio, OM Times Radio, IOM FM.
25:58
Speaker 3: OM Times Magazine is one of the leading online content
26:02
Speaker 3: providers of positivity, wellness, and personal empowerment. A philanthropic organization,
26:07
Speaker 3: their net proceeds are funneled to support worldwide charity initiatives
26:11
Speaker 3: via Humanity Healing International. Through their commitment to creating community
26:16
Speaker 3: and providing conscious content, they aspire to uplift humanity on
26:19
Speaker 3: a global scale. OM Times, co-creating a more conscious lifestyle.
26:25
Speaker 1: Back on Destination Unlimited, my guest this week is Maxim Furyk.
26:30
Speaker 1: His new book, The Scream of the Haunted House. So, Maxim,
26:34
Speaker 1: what inspired that book?
26:36
Speaker 2: Yeah, Scream of the Haunted House. After I wrote The
26:39
Speaker 2: Shmurl Haunting, When Ed and the Rain Came to Town,
26:41
Speaker 2: I decided I wanted to go a little bit further,
26:43
Speaker 2: a little bit deeper into the topic. And so again,
26:46
Speaker 2: my premise was this, you know, all mythologies and I
26:51
Speaker 2: think all religions, whether they admit it or not, I
26:55
Speaker 2: think they all believe in an afterlife, believe that we
26:58
Speaker 2: can contact these spirits and ghosts and they could also
27:01
Speaker 2: contact us. And we have all kinds of rituals to
27:03
Speaker 2: do that. You know, certainly the Mexican Day of the
27:07
Speaker 2: Dead is the one that comes to mind with with
27:10
Speaker 2: most of us, because it's not a celebration of sadness
27:15
Speaker 2: and loss, but it's a celebration of recognizing and celebrating
27:20
Speaker 2: one individual and what they represented, what they like to
27:24
Speaker 2: drink and eat and music and all that. So that's
27:28
Speaker 2: pretty interesting. But there's so many others, whether it's the
27:32
Speaker 2: Catholic rite of exorcism, whether it's the Wiccan banishing rite,
27:38
Speaker 2: where if the dark entities aren't getting along, aren't cooperating,
27:44
Speaker 2: then we use the right of banishment to just get
27:47
Speaker 2: rid of them, tell them to go away. So, you know,
27:50
Speaker 2: it's interesting how so many of these religions have embraced
27:54
Speaker 2: the afterlife and continue to do that. You know, it's
27:58
Speaker 2: just amazing. I think across the board, I think they
28:04
Speaker 2: all do, although not all of them will agree to that.
28:08
Speaker 1: In the forward to the scream of the haunted house,
28:11
Speaker 1: Kristen Amanda equates you with the upper echelon of the paranormal.
28:16
Speaker 1: How did your work impress her in that way? And
28:18
Speaker 1: how do you feel to receive that kind of an accolade?
28:21
Speaker 2: I'm just, you know, I'm just so overwhelmed with appreciation.
28:26
Speaker 2: I mean, Kristen is just like a wonderful individual. And
28:29
Speaker 2: I mean, if you were to read her, her bio
28:32
Speaker 2: and just listen to some of, some of her podcasts,
28:34
Speaker 2: I mean, she's just for real. She's really, uh, an
28:37
Speaker 2: authentic person and she makes a great contribution to the, uh,
28:41
Speaker 2: paranormal realm. So, um, but I, yeah, I'm just, I
28:46
Speaker 2: just think that we're kindred spirits, you know, we get along, uh,
28:48
Speaker 2: great and we compliment each other. And I think we've been,
28:51
Speaker 2: it's just been so much fun to be on these
28:54
Speaker 2: podcasts with her. And I think we've done maybe seven
28:58
Speaker 2: or eight of them so far. So, um, you know,
29:00
Speaker 2: just talking about the scream of the haunted house. So, uh,
29:03
Speaker 2: It's just a lot of fun to have somebody, to
29:05
Speaker 2: have a partner, I guess, if you will, to have
29:07
Speaker 2: somebody on your side. And it's kind of a lot
29:10
Speaker 2: more fun to have another person there answering these questions
29:14
Speaker 2: because it sort of blows it out. It expands it.
29:17
Speaker 2: It gives it more dimension and just makes it more,
29:21
Speaker 2: I think, more meaningful. So I think two is better
29:23
Speaker 2: than one.
29:25
Speaker 1: Absolutely. Your books always associate the paranormal with the psychological.
29:31
Speaker 1: In Paranormal Apocalypse, you cite fear as our greatest motivator.
29:35
Speaker 1: In The Scream of the Haunted House, are you focusing
29:38
Speaker 1: on another emotion? what is that emotion and why do
29:41
Speaker 1: you focus on it well.
29:42
Speaker 2: It's not not just one i think there's three i
29:44
Speaker 2: think uh with the scream of the haunted house we
29:46
Speaker 2: look at uh we look at respect we look at
29:50
Speaker 2: intention and we look at patience and i believe that
29:55
Speaker 2: And again, I've interviewed over 100 ghost hunters and ghost
29:59
Speaker 2: hunting groups for this book. So I have a whole
30:02
Speaker 2: lot of good information there. I mean, very diverse information.
30:09
Speaker 2: But I think that with a lot of these ghost hunters,
30:12
Speaker 2: when they go to a property, they ask permission. They
30:17
Speaker 2: respectfully ask permission to be there. They get permission from
30:21
Speaker 2: whoever owns the property. And then also they ask permission
30:25
Speaker 2: of the spirit of the ghost. You know, do I
30:27
Speaker 2: have your permission to be here? And the respect, the patience,
30:33
Speaker 2: waiting for something to manifest when it doesn't always. And Victor,
30:37
Speaker 2: when I talk to people that are Bigfoot hunters or
30:41
Speaker 2: they go into haunted houses, much of the time these
30:46
Speaker 2: folks will say that there's a lot of times nothing happens.
30:52
Speaker 2: I mean, you're just waiting for something to happen and
30:55
Speaker 2: nothing happens. And that's either with the boots on the
30:58
Speaker 2: ground Bigfoot people or with people that go into these
31:00
Speaker 2: haunted locations. So a lot of times they just come
31:03
Speaker 2: up with nothing. With some of the younger people, the
31:06
Speaker 2: more naive people, they are, a lot of times they
31:10
Speaker 2: lack the patience to just wait for something to unfold
31:14
Speaker 2: if it's going to unfold. And a lot of times
31:17
Speaker 2: they want this big magic thing dramatic thing to happen.
31:20
Speaker 2: So they could be on one of these, these, uh,
31:23
Speaker 2: ghost programs on TV. So, you know, you have, you
31:26
Speaker 2: have with the ghost hunting, you have that mix of
31:29
Speaker 2: people that are experienced and they bring that into the fore.
31:32
Speaker 2: And then you have people that are younger and a
31:34
Speaker 2: little bit more naive and, um, and may not have
31:38
Speaker 2: developed that patience yet, but hopefully they will. And, uh,
31:43
Speaker 2: but again, respect, patience, and, uh, intention are the, uh,
31:48
Speaker 2: emotions that I connect with the Scream of the Haunted House.
31:53
Speaker 1: From your experience, what are some of the violations that
31:56
Speaker 1: ghost hunters frequently make?
31:59
Speaker 2: Well, I just mentioned some of the young people that
32:02
Speaker 2: are kind of naive. So, naivety is the one thing
32:08
Speaker 2: that we look at. These are just pretty much amateurs.
32:11
Speaker 2: They're just new into the game, and they don't know
32:14
Speaker 2: the proper way to go about doing this. So, I
32:16
Speaker 2: think that Not having patience is one thing. Expecting something
32:20
Speaker 2: to happen all the time is another thing. If you
32:25
Speaker 2: go there with a bad attitude, again, we talk about intention,
32:27
Speaker 2: but if you're there with a bad head, if you're
32:30
Speaker 2: having a bad day, if you're miserable, you know, you
32:33
Speaker 2: shouldn't be at a haunted location because you don't know
32:36
Speaker 2: what's going to go and what you're going to attract
32:39
Speaker 2: and what you might bring back home with you. So
32:44
Speaker 2: I think, you know, Before you go into any haunted location,
32:48
Speaker 2: you need to be grounded, maybe say a prayer of protection,
32:53
Speaker 2: and then go about your business. But I think you
32:55
Speaker 2: need a starting point, and that starting point needs to
32:58
Speaker 2: be a place where you're grounded and you feel good
33:02
Speaker 2: about what you're doing and actually belonging there at that location.
33:09
Speaker 1: I actually had the blessing of meeting a man by
33:12
Speaker 1: the name of Dom Villella back in the early 2000s.
33:16
Speaker 1: And he was the founder and director of Paranormal NYC.
33:21
Speaker 1: And after meeting several times, he asked me if I
33:23
Speaker 1: joined the team. And ultimately, I became the co-director with
33:27
Speaker 1: him in that organization. And our premise was always, always
33:31
Speaker 1: to make the living feel comfortable in their homes, no
33:34
Speaker 1: matter what we found, and to work with spirit if
33:36
Speaker 1: there was actually spirit there. And I filled two roles
33:40
Speaker 1: in that regard. My first role was as someone with
33:43
Speaker 1: a background in engineering, electricity, welding, and so on. I
33:47
Speaker 1: would go and check to make sure that all the
33:49
Speaker 1: grounds were good in the place. I would make sure
33:52
Speaker 1: that there was nothing that was out of whack in
33:54
Speaker 1: terms of the electrical system because quite often things like
33:58
Speaker 1: lights going on and off and other manifestations can be
34:01
Speaker 1: attributed to bad electrical wiring or grounds. And then after
34:05
Speaker 1: we eliminated all the physical possibilities, all the natural possibilities,
34:10
Speaker 1: then we'd look at from the spiritual side. In my
34:12
Speaker 1: role in that regard, as an ordained interfaith minister, if
34:16
Speaker 1: we actually connected with anything spiritual, any disembodied person there,
34:23
Speaker 1: I would have a conversation. And that conversation would basically
34:26
Speaker 1: include whether or not we had permission to work with them.
34:30
Speaker 1: And if they chose, only if they chose, for me
34:34
Speaker 1: to work with them to cross over to the other side. And, uh,
34:37
Speaker 1: maybe one out of 10 investigations, we actually found something
34:40
Speaker 1: of that nature. And every time when I would ask,
34:43
Speaker 1: do you want to cross over? The answer was always yes.
34:47
Speaker 2: Interesting. What would be one reason why they can't cross over?
34:52
Speaker 1: Not that they can't, if they chose not to cross
34:54
Speaker 1: over because they wanted to stay there because they felt
34:56
Speaker 1: an affinity to the existing family or to prior family
34:59
Speaker 1: that was there.
35:00
Speaker 2: Right. Yeah. Um, My wife and I recently sold our
35:03
Speaker 2: home in Pennsylvania. And when I left, we had heard
35:07
Speaker 2: that a woman named Nancy died in the bedroom. And
35:11
Speaker 2: when I left, what I did was I thanked Nancy
35:15
Speaker 2: for allowing us to live in that home for 36 years.
35:18
Speaker 2: I told her that I respected her and appreciated what
35:23
Speaker 2: she did. And then we told her that we were
35:26
Speaker 2: leaving and I wanted her to stay there at this
35:28
Speaker 2: house and not to follow us. So That's what I did.
35:32
Speaker 2: But I would feel Nancy's presence. Typically, my wife would
35:37
Speaker 2: go to bed, stay up earlier than me or later
35:40
Speaker 2: than me. She would watch TV, probably go to bed
35:43
Speaker 2: around 11 o'clock. And I would stay in bed for
35:45
Speaker 2: a while. And I would feel who I thought was
35:49
Speaker 2: my wife coming into bed. I would feel the covers
35:51
Speaker 2: moving and the sheet and everything. And here was Nancy.
35:53
Speaker 2: It wasn't my wife. It was Nancy. And Nancy never
35:56
Speaker 2: did anything that was frightening. She didn't... move things around
36:01
Speaker 2: to toy with me like a poltergeist. She didn't do
36:05
Speaker 2: any of that. She was just there, and we were
36:08
Speaker 2: aware of her presence, and it wasn't anything that was threatening.
36:12
Speaker 2: She seemed like a nice lady. So I knew Nancy
36:16
Speaker 2: for something like 36 years.
36:19
Speaker 1: Absolutely. I was blessed with being born with abilities in
36:24
Speaker 1: order to see and sense energy and to see and
36:27
Speaker 1: sense those who have passed on A quick story of
36:30
Speaker 1: my own. I was seven years old. I was very
36:32
Speaker 1: close with my paternal grandfather. And one day I'm sitting
36:35
Speaker 1: in my room looking at a book and I look
36:37
Speaker 1: up and I see my grandfather standing there and I say, Grandpa,
36:40
Speaker 1: when did you come in? Didn't say a word, just
36:42
Speaker 1: smiled at me and then sort of disappeared. Went into
36:44
Speaker 1: the living room where my parents were and said, Grandpa
36:47
Speaker 1: was just here. They looked at each other and looked
36:49
Speaker 1: at me and said, you're imagining things. And I was
36:51
Speaker 1: labeled one of these kids with an overactive imagination. Two
36:55
Speaker 1: to three minutes later, the phone rang with word that
36:57
Speaker 1: my grandfather had passed. So from a very young age,
37:00
Speaker 1: I understood this connection to disembodied spirit and the fact
37:04
Speaker 1: that we do sometimes stick around for a little while.
37:08
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah. So this was a premonition on your part, correct?
37:12
Speaker 1: A visualization. I actually saw him.
37:14
Speaker 2: Okay, okay. Wow, okay. Amazing. Absolutely. How did your parents
37:20
Speaker 2: react to that?
37:21
Speaker 1: They were shocked. Obviously, they were upset that my grandfather
37:24
Speaker 1: had passed, but they were also kind of shocked And
37:26
Speaker 1: I had a lot of relationships, situations rather, later in
37:31
Speaker 1: life that I'm not going to spend your time on today.
37:36
Speaker 1: But when my mother was getting ready to leave two
37:39
Speaker 1: years before she passed away, I brought her lunch one day.
37:43
Speaker 1: And I said to her, I said, did you ever
37:45
Speaker 1: have any strange experiences? And she said, no, except for
37:49
Speaker 1: that time we were about a year old. And she
37:50
Speaker 1: started relaying basically an ET contact experience when I was
37:54
Speaker 1: about a year old. And I said, Mom, thank you
37:56
Speaker 1: so much for sharing that.
37:59
Speaker 2: That was great, yeah.
38:01
Speaker 1: Absolutely. Now, the first chapter in your book is, All right, Mr. DeMille,
38:06
Speaker 1: I'm ready for my close-up. Why did you begin your
38:09
Speaker 1: book in such an abstract, surrealistic manner, something that my
38:13
Speaker 1: generation and your generation might understand with Gloria Swanson's Norma
38:17
Speaker 1: Desmond character, but not recent generations?
38:20
Speaker 2: First of all, when Kristen and I do these podcasts,
38:23
Speaker 2: She usually fields that question only because she's a former actor.
38:28
Speaker 2: But this is Norma Desmond, who is delusional, and she
38:32
Speaker 2: thinks that she's actually doing a photo shoot when she's
38:35
Speaker 2: walking down there. And so what I did with that
38:38
Speaker 2: chapter on Hollywood Boulevard, with my chapter, I tried to
38:43
Speaker 2: equate it to Hollywood Boulevard, and my question was this.
38:46
Speaker 2: What is it like to be a ghost or a spirit?
38:49
Speaker 2: What is it like to be a uh, an entity
38:54
Speaker 2: that at one time shared human like qualities, emotions, memories,
38:59
Speaker 2: all that. So I tried to go and write about
39:03
Speaker 2: these spirits and ghosts through that lens. You know, what
39:05
Speaker 2: is it like to be this entity that is less
39:10
Speaker 2: than what they, what they once were. So that was
39:13
Speaker 2: pretty much what the premise was. Uh, the first chapter
39:16
Speaker 2: is surreal, but it tends to encapsulate that whole, uh,
39:21
Speaker 2: that whole topic. And I think that, you know, a
39:23
Speaker 2: lot of people have told me that they enjoyed the
39:26
Speaker 2: first chapter because it just set everything up it was
39:28
Speaker 2: the right tone and then you know we go from
39:31
Speaker 2: there so it was I think it was I think
39:33
Speaker 2: scream of the haunted house is my best book out
39:36
Speaker 2: of 11 books that I've published well 10 so far
39:40
Speaker 2: the 11th one paranormal monkey shines is will be published
39:44
Speaker 2: this year by hangar one anyway the first chapter was
39:48
Speaker 2: something that I had a lot of fun with And
39:51
Speaker 2: glad that I did. So it tends to make sense.
39:53
Speaker 2: And Hollywood Boulevard, for some of the younger people that
39:56
Speaker 2: haven't seen that movie, please see it. It's a classic
40:00
Speaker 2: motion picture. I think most people would enjoy that. It's
40:07
Speaker 2: probably one of the best motion pictures ever made. Makes
40:11
Speaker 2: all the lists.
40:12
Speaker 1: And the song by the Kinks, Hollywood Boulevard, will also
40:14
Speaker 1: give you a greater insight into what Hollywood Boulevard was
40:17
Speaker 1: all about and is all about. You can see all
40:19
Speaker 1: the stars as you walk along Hollywood Boulevard, some that
40:22
Speaker 1: you recognize, some that you hardly even heard of. A
40:26
Speaker 1: wonderful song by the Kinks.
40:28
Speaker 2: Had a chance to see Ray Davies in concert up
40:32
Speaker 2: in Scranton, Pennsylvania. I mean, I have good seats, but
40:35
Speaker 2: what a creative individual. Love the Kinks.
40:39
Speaker 1: Absolutely. Now, Jobe, An interesting chapter of your book describes
40:44
Speaker 1: dark tourism and the lottery chasers. In what way does
40:48
Speaker 1: this fit into the concept of the haunted house?
40:51
Speaker 2: Well, dark tourism is that billion dollar industry where people
40:59
Speaker 2: would much rather go to see, say, the house of
41:02
Speaker 2: Lizzie Borden or Alcatraz, rather than to go to the
41:06
Speaker 2: Liberty Bell and see something as commonplace and mainstream as that. So,
41:11
Speaker 2: A lot of folks get a vicarious thrill from going
41:14
Speaker 2: to these places where there was a lot of bloodletting,
41:18
Speaker 2: where there was just a bad story, a bad narrative.
41:23
Speaker 2: So they go there. They pay money for the dark tourism.
41:26
Speaker 2: But the other one that cost even more is called
41:28
Speaker 2: lottery chasing. And the two examples that I know of
41:32
Speaker 2: are the Lizzie Borden House in Massachusetts and also the
41:38
Speaker 2: Estes Park, the— The Overlook, the Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, Colorado,
41:45
Speaker 2: where Stephen King wrote The Shining. And people will pay money.
41:48
Speaker 2: They'll do a lottery, thousands of dollars, to try to
41:51
Speaker 2: stay there in these rooms where the story unfolded. So
41:56
Speaker 2: I have a friend of mine, Shadow Steele. He's with NASA.
42:01
Speaker 2: He's an engineer as well as a disc jockey. And
42:04
Speaker 2: he went to both places with his wife. spend a
42:06
Speaker 2: whole lot of money, but Shadow Steel got the money
42:09
Speaker 2: and he got the motivation. And you need the means
42:15
Speaker 2: motivation to make all of that happen. And you really
42:21
Speaker 2: have to be ready, willing, and able. And with dark
42:25
Speaker 2: tourism and with lottery chasing, a lot of us are ready,
42:29
Speaker 2: We're willing, but do we have the wherewithal? Do we
42:33
Speaker 2: have the money to do this? And a lot of
42:34
Speaker 2: us don't. So, you know, lottery chasers are a special
42:38
Speaker 2: breed of people that have all of that going for them,
42:41
Speaker 2: you know. So, you know, but it takes money to
42:44
Speaker 2: make that happen. And, you know, a lot of this
42:48
Speaker 2: dark tourism is about money. It's about a financial incentive.
42:53
Speaker 1: Absolutely. My guest is Maxim Furyk. His new book, The
42:56
Speaker 1: Scream of the Haunted House, we'll be back with more.
42:59
Speaker 1: after these words on the OWN Times Radio Network.
43:03
Speaker 4: Humanity Healing International is a small nonprofit with a big dream.
43:08
Speaker 4: Since 2007, HHI has been working tirelessly to bring help
43:12
Speaker 4: to communities with little or no hope. Our projects are
43:16
Speaker 4: not broad mandates, nor are they overnight solutions, but they
43:21
Speaker 4: bring the reassurance that no one is alone and that
43:24
Speaker 4: someone cares. To learn more, please visit humanityhealing.org. Humanity healing
43:30
Speaker 4: is where your heart is.
43:34
Speaker 1: Imagine yourself being transported to India, to the banks of
43:38
Speaker 1: the Ganga, and an ashram in Rishikesh. Visualize that you
43:43
Speaker 1: are welcomed to satsang with an American sannyasi who shares
43:46
Speaker 1: the wisdom of her guru. Your visualization has manifested. Join
43:52
Speaker 1: Satvi Bhagawati Saraswati, for inspiration and transformation every Thursday at
43:58
Speaker 1: 11 a.m. Eastern on OM Times Radio.
44:03
Speaker 5: So I'm a cat, and I just moved in with
44:05
Speaker 5: this new human, and she's got this little toy she's
44:08
Speaker 5: always playing with, all day long. Tap, tap, tap, tap, bloop, bloop.
44:12
Speaker 5: She can't put it down. There it is. Oh, and
44:15
Speaker 5: get this. She even talks to it. Last week, she
44:18
Speaker 5: asked it for Chinese, and guess what? Eggroll showed up,
44:22
Speaker 5: like magic. Humans have cool toys. A person is the
44:25
Speaker 5: best thing to happen to a shelter pet. Be that person.
44:28
Speaker 2: Adopt.
44:29
Speaker 5: Brought to you by the Ad Council and the ShelterPetProject.org.
44:34
Speaker 1: Back on Destination Unlimited, my guest this week is Maxim Furyk.
44:38
Speaker 1: His book, The Scream of the Haunted House. Maxim, in
44:42
Speaker 1: the book, are there any couple of stories that you
44:44
Speaker 1: can share with us that were shared with you by
44:47
Speaker 1: investigators who found some really outstanding things?
44:51
Speaker 2: I think... collectively, one thing I found was that, uh,
44:54
Speaker 2: like I said, the mutual respect, uh, of being there
44:59
Speaker 2: and not taking any of this for granted. Uh, one
45:02
Speaker 2: of the chapters are the 10 rules of ghost hunting.
45:05
Speaker 2: And so what I did was I took all this
45:07
Speaker 2: information that I received from these ghost hunters and ghost
45:10
Speaker 2: hunting groups. And I put those into these, uh, uh,
45:15
Speaker 2: these 10 tenants, these 10 maxims, and, you know, certainly
45:19
Speaker 2: respect is one of them, but getting permission to from
45:22
Speaker 2: the owners of the property, being respectful of the historical
45:27
Speaker 2: value of some of these haunted locations. So all of that.
45:32
Speaker 2: But I think that one of the things that I
45:35
Speaker 2: was on a personal level interested in was demonic infestation
45:40
Speaker 2: and demonic possession. And we know that it happens, but
45:45
Speaker 2: from the people that I spoke with, they said that
45:47
Speaker 2: it happens infrequently, that you could go into a haunted
45:51
Speaker 2: location but you don't have to be afraid of being
45:55
Speaker 2: possessed by this entity. Now, again, that seemed to be
45:59
Speaker 2: the general consensus of the people I spoke with. But
46:02
Speaker 2: the other thing is we talk about doing rituals, doing
46:06
Speaker 2: things to protect ourselves from any kind of demonic infestation
46:11
Speaker 2: or activity. And so we could do things like Lorraine
46:15
Speaker 2: Warren always said to envision a white light. So we
46:19
Speaker 2: do that. We have sage, we have crystals, we have
46:22
Speaker 2: the prayer to Michael the Archangel. There's all kinds of
46:29
Speaker 2: things that we can do that when you go into
46:31
Speaker 2: a haunted location, we are ready and we are steeled
46:36
Speaker 2: for this. Most of the people that I talk to
46:38
Speaker 2: tend to have a ritual of protection. Not everybody, but
46:43
Speaker 2: most of the people do, and it seems to be
46:46
Speaker 2: just the wise people. thing to do why take chances
46:50
Speaker 2: why not be ready in for you know in case
46:53
Speaker 2: something happens so that's uh i think that by talking
46:57
Speaker 2: to so many other individuals you know i came up
46:59
Speaker 2: with a uh a vision of what this is all
47:04
Speaker 2: about and again seeing through the eyes of a whole
47:06
Speaker 2: lot of other people so i think that's what makes
47:08
Speaker 2: the book so compelling i think it just has it's
47:12
Speaker 2: not just being told through the eyes and the psyche
47:15
Speaker 2: of maxim furick but it's being told through the you know,
47:18
Speaker 2: the eyes and the psyche of so many other people
47:21
Speaker 2: that have the experience, you know, and they've done this.
47:23
Speaker 2: So it's just, again, like I said, I think it's
47:26
Speaker 2: my best book ever.
47:29
Speaker 1: Did any of the teams say that with permission of
47:31
Speaker 1: the owner of the house or the apartment, when they
47:34
Speaker 1: were finished with the investigation, they saged the apartment and
47:38
Speaker 1: did anything for spiritual cleansing?
47:41
Speaker 2: Oh, absolutely. Yeah. And that happens all the time. At
47:44
Speaker 2: the end of the day, when they do rituals of
47:49
Speaker 2: protection going in, they do the same thing going out,
47:52
Speaker 2: what I did with Nancy. So what you do is
47:54
Speaker 2: you do a cleansing prayer, a healing prayer, a prayer
47:57
Speaker 2: of closure. And we say in mental health that if
48:03
Speaker 2: you open up a wound, you have to close it.
48:06
Speaker 2: And I think that sort of goes for the paranormal
48:09
Speaker 2: and haunted houses. I think the same thing. If you're
48:13
Speaker 2: going to go and disrupt some entity, you know, you
48:16
Speaker 2: need to go and have some sort of a dialogue, uh,
48:20
Speaker 2: you know, have some kind of a closure, you know,
48:22
Speaker 2: to this. So that's, that's my belief.
48:25
Speaker 1: On a different level with Halloween coming up this coming Saturday,
48:29
Speaker 1: are you, do you have any advice for people about
48:31
Speaker 1: Halloween and doing things on Halloween?
48:34
Speaker 2: Yeah, just, it should remember, remind you of the Wiccans
48:37
Speaker 2: and the Pagans. And this was, this, these were, this
48:39
Speaker 2: was their traditional holidays. And, uh, you know, when we
48:42
Speaker 2: look at Halloween and the, uh, the afterlife and the
48:45
Speaker 2: dead and all that. We're talking about something that came
48:47
Speaker 2: out of the Wiccan playbook, so we have them to thank.
48:51
Speaker 2: And look how huge it is. I mean, look how
48:53
Speaker 2: Halloween has turned into just a massive holiday. We can't
48:59
Speaker 2: get enough of it. So trick-or-treating or whatever. It seems
49:04
Speaker 2: to be the time of the year when you're allowed
49:06
Speaker 2: to get frightened. And we do. We love to get frightened.
49:10
Speaker 2: So it's part of that human experience, whether it's a
49:13
Speaker 2: vicarious thrill we get or go into a a scary
49:17
Speaker 2: movie you know it's a it's all it's all good
49:19
Speaker 2: we there's i think we have a need to do that.
49:22
Speaker 1: And they say that at this time of year the
49:25
Speaker 1: veil is thin what's your experience with that.
49:28
Speaker 2: I think it's true but i mean the veil's thin
49:31
Speaker 2: wherever you want it to be thin you know it
49:32
Speaker 2: just depends on that your intention and uh that's what
49:36
Speaker 2: i think it starts with you you know the uh
49:39
Speaker 2: the protagonist, the person who's, who's embedded in this story. So,
49:43
Speaker 2: you know, and I think it's important to realize that by,
49:48
Speaker 2: by being the best paranormal researcher you can, it just
49:52
Speaker 2: bodes well for the whole paranormal community. You know, it's,
49:58
Speaker 2: you know, because what we do is reflective of that
50:00
Speaker 2: paranormal community, which has been, you know, numerous people have
50:04
Speaker 2: told me that. So they take a look at these
50:06
Speaker 2: other ghost hunters and if they're acting out or misbehaving
50:10
Speaker 2: or not acting maturely, this, this, uh, acts on, this
50:15
Speaker 2: reflects upon the, uh, paranormal community and we can do better,
50:19
Speaker 2: you know, we, and we, and we can do better
50:21
Speaker 2: and we, we will do better, but, you know, um,
50:24
Speaker 2: but ghost hunters take a look at one another, you know,
50:27
Speaker 2: looking for, you know, uh, the people that are, uh,
50:31
Speaker 2: behaving in proper, in proper ways, I guess.
50:34
Speaker 1: Absolutely. A hundred percent. I agree with you a hundred percent. Um,
50:39
Speaker 1: Let's talk a little bit about some other topics. Why
50:41
Speaker 1: was Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House so well-respected
50:46
Speaker 1: and considered to be the best of the genre?
50:49
Speaker 2: Yeah, it really was because it wasn't just about the paranormal,
50:53
Speaker 2: but it was about the fact that maybe human beings
50:57
Speaker 2: are manifesting some of these things that are happening in
51:00
Speaker 2: The Haunted House. So with Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of
51:02
Speaker 2: Hill House, we didn't hear anything about the paranormal until
51:05
Speaker 2: the middle of the book. That's what she did. And
51:08
Speaker 2: then we don't know if it was actually a paranormal
51:11
Speaker 2: event or series of events, or if this was coming
51:14
Speaker 2: from the protagonist who was there at the house. Shirley
51:19
Speaker 2: Jackson was a follower of Viktor Fodor, F-O-D-O-R. Fodor was
51:25
Speaker 2: a Hungarian paranormal researcher. He was a journalist, and also
51:30
Speaker 2: he was a psychotherapist like Freud. But the interesting thing
51:34
Speaker 2: about Fodor was he believed that a lot of the
51:36
Speaker 2: paranormal things that we experience are not paranormal per se,
51:41
Speaker 2: but they are things that are manifested by the human
51:45
Speaker 2: beings that are there. In other words, we have certain abilities.
51:48
Speaker 2: And he believes that the egregore is one thing, that
51:51
Speaker 2: we can manifest these things. Fodor believed that some of
51:56
Speaker 2: the things that we see are not paranormal at all,
51:58
Speaker 2: but they have a human... And that's what Shirley Jackson
52:04
Speaker 2: taught us. And it's a lesson that I don't think
52:06
Speaker 2: we learned because, I mean, it's just so fascinating to
52:12
Speaker 2: believe that here's another way to interpret or to explain
52:17
Speaker 2: the paranormal, that it's not coming from some ghost and spirits,
52:20
Speaker 2: but it's coming from us, you know, walking, talking, living
52:23
Speaker 2: human beings. So Victor Fodor gave us that. And so
52:28
Speaker 2: did Shirley Jackson. And I think we need to consider
52:33
Speaker 2: that a little bit more because it has more validity.
52:36
Speaker 2: It has more significance than I believe we've given it
52:39
Speaker 2: credit for. So as far as me, and I've written
52:42
Speaker 2: a couple of articles about Shirley Jackson, and I'm working
52:45
Speaker 2: on a couple on Victor Fodor because he needs to
52:48
Speaker 2: have the recognition.
52:50
Speaker 1: Absolutely. And when you look at a lot of people
52:53
Speaker 1: and their activities today and their actions today, you can
52:57
Speaker 1: see evil manifesting from so many people, especially on the media.
53:01
Speaker 3: Right.
53:02
Speaker 2: And, you know, you have to go back to Dr.
53:06
Speaker 2: Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Robert Louis Stevenson from Scotland. And
53:10
Speaker 2: when he wrote that, he was writing, he wrote a
53:13
Speaker 2: story about a man's dark side. And it was interesting
53:17
Speaker 2: because when that book came out, people were saying, gee,
53:19
Speaker 2: I wonder if that's true. Do I have a dark
53:22
Speaker 2: evil side? And this is pretty Jungian, you know, uh,
53:27
Speaker 2: Carl Jung talked about that, about our shadow selves and
53:31
Speaker 2: that darkness. And we have an affinity for it. I mean,
53:34
Speaker 2: we just love to go and take a look at that.
53:37
Speaker 2: And even today with the anti-hero, you have these heroes.
53:40
Speaker 2: They're not all good, but they're part good and they're
53:42
Speaker 2: part bad. And they're more realistic. And so that's how
53:47
Speaker 2: we're looking at it today. But yeah, Shirley Jackson is
53:51
Speaker 2: She contributed a lot to the paranormal, especially with her book.
53:55
Speaker 2: And it was a blueprint for how to write a
54:00
Speaker 2: story about a haunted house. You know, just get some
54:02
Speaker 2: people together and give them a mission. Like if they
54:05
Speaker 2: spend the night, they make a million dollars. Or if
54:07
Speaker 2: they spend the night, they get something. They get some reward.
54:11
Speaker 2: But that was pretty much what Shirley Jackson's blueprint was
54:15
Speaker 2: all about. And she hit it out of the park.
54:18
Speaker 2: It was really, really a great book.
54:21
Speaker 1: What would you like your readers to take away from
54:23
Speaker 1: The Scream of the Haunted House?
54:26
Speaker 2: That there's more to the book than the cover. There's
54:30
Speaker 2: more to it. You know, it's been called the Ghost
54:32
Speaker 2: Hunters Bible. But there's so much in this book. I mean,
54:37
Speaker 2: like I said, I took a deep dive into the
54:40
Speaker 2: realm of the afterlife and what's actually there. And I
54:44
Speaker 2: think that when people read it, I mean, they're going
54:46
Speaker 2: to like the research that goes into this because it's,
54:50
Speaker 2: like I said, it's a deep dive into the realm
54:53
Speaker 2: of ghost hunting and all of that. And it's very significant.
54:58
Speaker 2: It's very complex. And like I said, I really enjoyed
55:01
Speaker 2: doing the research for this. And now I'm enjoying going
55:05
Speaker 2: out there with Chris and Amanda and just talking about
55:07
Speaker 2: the book.
55:08
Speaker 1: My amazing guest, Maxim Pyrrhic, his book, The Scream of
55:12
Speaker 1: the Haunted House, Maxim, one more time, please share with
55:15
Speaker 1: our listeners where they can get all of your wonderful
55:17
Speaker 1: books and find out more about you and your work
55:19
Speaker 1: with Kristen.
55:21
Speaker 2: Yeah, thank you, Victor. They could check me out on
55:23
Speaker 2: my website, www.maximfurek.com, and I have a website there. You
55:28
Speaker 2: could purchase books, and you could also go and, if
55:31
Speaker 2: you're amenable, you could also go and contribute a review
55:36
Speaker 2: on Amazon, which is a good thing.
55:39
Speaker 1: Absolutely, and his spelling is M-A-X-I-M-F-U-R-E-K. F-U-R-E-K, Maxim Purek. Maxim,
55:46
Speaker 1: thank you so much for joining us and sharing these
55:49
Speaker 1: wonderful stories. And have a very happy Halloween.
55:53
Speaker 2: Victor, thank you so much. I really enjoyed this, and
55:55
Speaker 2: you as well. And maybe we can do this again
55:59
Speaker 2: down the road a piece.
56:01
Speaker 1: Absolutely, when the next book comes out. And thank you
56:04
Speaker 1: for joining us on Destination Unlimited. I'm Victor, the voice, Berman.
56:09
Speaker 1: Have a wonderful week.