From Rock Journalism To Paranormal Research: Interview With Maxim W. Furek

A rock journalist walks into the paranormal and doesn’t come back out the same. I’m joined by author and researcher Maxim Furek, and we start with the kind of background you can’t fake: writing from childhood, underground papers, major music interviews, and the moment a real-world coal mine disaster story opened a door into something far stranger than a rock biography. We talk about the 1963 Sheppton Mine rescue, how myth and history braid together, and why reports of Pope John XXIII appearing to trapped miners still spark debate around miracles, hallucinations, and what “evidence” even means in paranormal investigation.

Then we zoom out to the bigger, human side of high strangeness. Maxim shares what he learned working in addiction recovery, where so many people describe the switch to sobriety as a “miracle,” and we explore the idea that spirituality, psychology, and science might be describing the same underlying forces with different vocabularies. I also share some of my own experiences with precognitive dreams during a terrifying time in my family, plus the odd, intuitive moments that show up as feelings, symbols, and signs like crow behavior that seems loaded with meaning.

We also dig into modern paranormal culture and how it spreads now: Maxim’s upcoming book The Scream of the Haunted House, ethical questions around ghost hunting and dark tourism, and why he wants the paranormal taken more seriously by academics. From Bigfoot research and the legacy of scientists like Jeff Meldrum to UFO disclosure fatigue, Roswell mythology, the Kecksburg UFO case, and even theories about UAPs coming from the ocean, this conversation keeps pulling the thread. If you’re into haunted houses, demonology, precognition, Bigfoot, UFOs, or just honest storytelling about the unknown, you’ll feel right at home.

If you enjoy the show, subscribe, share it with a friend who loves weird truth, and leave a review so more listeners can find us. What’s the one paranormal topic you want us to go deeper on next?

Transcript

Welcome And Maxim’s Backstory

SPEAKER_02 0:00

Hello everyone. Welcome back to Strange Derange Beyond Insane. This is your host, Melissa, and tonight we have a very special guest, and this is Maxim Furik. Am I saying your name correct?

SPEAKER_00 0:12

Absolutely. Maxim Furik.

SPEAKER_02 0:15

What a name.

SPEAKER_00 0:17

Sorry, I mean No, that's awesome.

SPEAKER_02 0:19

No, I mean it it sounds very strong. I love it.

SPEAKER_00 0:23

Oh, thank you. Yeah. Uh named, I don't know if anybody's interested, but I was named after my Ukrainian grandfather, Maxim, and my Czechoslovakian grandfather Vencel. So my name, my the pronoun the proper pronunciation that nobody uses anymore, but it's Maxim Vensel Fjodek. And that's not not German. It's not German, but it's uh uh Slovak and all that. So anyway, that's that's who I am.

SPEAKER_02 0:48

Wow, that's awesome. I love that you shared that with us. Thank you.

SPEAKER_00 0:52

Oh, yeah, you're welcome. Thank you. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 0:54

All right. Well, Maxim, tell us about yourself, how you got started in, you know, because you're a journalist, right? You were a rock journalist.

SPEAKER_00 1:02

Right. I started off as a rock journalist.

Rock Journalism And Extreme Stage Shows

SPEAKER_00 1:05

I mean, I've I've written since I was a little kid. I mean, I just like to write. I d drew comic books and I had underground newspapers in high school and in college, you know, very adolescent, uh, antisocial, rebellious stuff, you know, is I I'm embarrassed by it, but I mean that's part of my part of my resume. But um, yeah, I um, you know, um uh did a whole lot of rock and roll. I think the my biggest uh accomplishment with with rock and with rock and roll, I guess, with the interviews was Hall and Oates. I had a 45-minute interview with Holland Oates in Boulder, Colorado, and that was pretty awesome. And I mean that was really neat. And then also I interviewed uh Wendy O'Williams uh and the Plasmatics. And uh I don't know if you know her story, but she was like a heavy uh heavy metal girl, and um she was a porno uh star, and her husband thought she could make more money in uh heavy metal than in pornography. So uh when I saw her, I saw her several times and I interviewed her, but um uh when I saw her in Sunbury, Pennsylvania, uh the church groups were picketing, they were going back and forth with the signs, you know, they showed she was uh the devil, and she showed up on stage with the dry ice and just everything. I mean, it was just like awesome. I mean, it was it was like before Alice Cooper perfected all the technology, and and Rob Zombie and Marilyn Manson, all those guys perfected the uh technology, she was there with this very uh crude, amateurish uh uh, you know, technology and stage and uh stage effects, but uh special effects. But um, she came out there wearing like a uh fetishistic outfit, all the leather. She had uh electrician's electrical tape across her nipples and she had her hair spiked up. I mean, it was really crazy, and I'm watching that, and all the kids were going crazy, all the young guys are going crazy. But um then when I interviewed her, she was really kind of tiny and petite and soft-spoken. I mean, she was not that, you know, that heavy metal dominatrix that she the persona that she put on there. But uh the best thing she did was they had this bank of uh TV, uh TVs there on stage, and she was uh this was her symbolic uh, you know, criticism of technology and civilization. And she took the sledgehammer and they really made a big thing out of it as the music was getting higher and higher, and she lifted up that sledgehammer higher and smashed down on that whole group of TV sets, and then they exploded the pyrotechnics. And I mean it was it was cool. I mean, it was uh you know, uh it was old school, but it worked, and uh, yeah, that was one of the high points of the uh of the concert. But yeah, Wendy uh later on committed suicide, but uh, but I I liked, you know, yeah, uh, and for whatever reason, I don't know. But anyway, she was uh, you know, a nice person, and

The Sheppton Mine Mystery And Miracles

SPEAKER_00 4:00

I'm gl I was really uh fortunate to have met her. So, you know, that was uh that was and then um with with rock journalism I stopped doing that um with the Shepton book. I put out a book called Shepton, The Myth, Miracle and Music, and um and Shepton uh and I wrote this as a rock biography. Um Shepton, 1971, that was uh uh biggest, the highest charting uh song of any group in northeastern Pennsylvania. So being a rock journalist, I was really, you know, pretty uh skyed about that. You know, I mean this is pretty cool. Uh I was writing a book connecting the song Timothy, which was about three miners in a in a cave, and uh cannibalism. And I was connecting that with the real uh the real story of Shepton, the Shepton Mine disaster of 1963 that took place outside of um uh Hazleton, Pennsylvania. So what happened, and this was worldwide news. It took place over a uh two-week period. Uh three men were trapped in the mine. Uh they were down there for two weeks. Uh it was uh international news. They had thousands of people there at the site, this remote little coal patch town we called it, you know, uh with the coal mines, a patch town of of Shepton, Pennsylvania, and SHE PPT and um uh there were uh reporters and paparazzi, there are reporters from Japan, the UK, and uh Germany. Um it was the uh number one story with the Associated Press of 1963 until November and the assassination of uh President Kennedy. So so it was huge, and it was a story of human survival, and then it was a story about cannibalism, and then it was a story about uh the miners claiming that they saw Pope John the Twenty Third. Here's the crazy thing about that. And and my book started to get into the paranormal. As I'm researching the Shafton thing, I realized it was more than just a rock biography, but it was a paranormal story. But the miners saw Pope John the XXIII down there in the mine with them for two weeks. He stayed with them, he gave them the sign of peace that they were gonna be uh rescued. Pope John the XXIII died in June of 63. Shepton didn't happen until August of 63. All three of Pope John the XXIII's uh miracles, his purported miracles, uh happened after he had died. And I talked to uh a uh Catholic nun about this, and I said, Sister, did you know that all three of his miracles happened after he died? And she goes, Well, of course. And I said, What do you mean, of course? She goes, Well, he died and went to heaven where he got his power, you know, all things through God, and he was able to, God, and and God working through him worked those miracles. So that's you know, my understanding of how how that works. But um uh Shepton, Shepton, the myth miracle, and music was my uh my uh initial foray into the paranormal. And I'll tell you what, I just uh don't tell me how the hell this happened, but uh I had an article in Fate magazine about the Shepton mythology. I was invited to paranormal conferences, I had a 90-minute uh interview on uh Australia's mysterious universe, which was so awesome to hear those Australian voices, you know, reading over, cherry-picking through my book. I mean, it's really kind of neat. And then the last thing, the fourth thing was Skeptical Inquirer did this really long uh article about Shepton, and it tr said that my book was, and there's been several books written about Shepton, but it said that my book was the definitive book. And um but they said that because of Occam's razor, you know, that old archaic medieval thing that if uh philosophy that uh you use the simplest explanation for for th for these things that are very c complicated. And uh so in this case it would have been that the miners weren't experiencing any uh supernatural things, but they were hallucinating and and all that. And I don't believe that because I, you know, I I believe that Occam's I was pushed I pushed back against that Occam's racer argument because the paranormal by its very self is complicated, it's multifaceted. I mean, we don't know the top and bottom and the side. So to say to look for the simplest explanation for a paranormal event is just using it's comparing apples and oranges, it's just the the wrong metric, you know. So but but nonetheless, uh uh the book got wonderful publicity, and uh I've come close on two occasions to having that book turned into a documentary, and so far, you know, no look. I mean I've come close, but no cigars. So anyway, uh I think that it would make a wonderful uh you know uh documentary, and I've already written like a sort of like a screenplay, you know, like I know how I want to begin it and end it, and it would be just fantastic. So we'll see what happens. But uh Shepton, the myth, miracle, and miracle kicked it off. That was 2015, and since then I've just had like just like a a plethora of uh books that I've written, you know, about the paranormal, and I just love the genre. I just love being in the in the uh in uh a paranormal uh author and researcher.

SPEAKER_02 9:39

I love that. This is when it gets really excited. I mean, your backstory is awesome because that's how you came into this, and you've you've obviously lived a few lives, right?

SPEAKER_00 9:48

Being an author and journalist and Yeah, I think yeah, and uh, you know, uh I get that a lot of people, a lot of podcasters point that out, you know, that I've worn a lot of hats. But I contend that many of us have. I think we're all sort of the same. You know, we've had I had our ups and downs, we've had had our victories and our losses, uh, you

Recovery, “Miracles,” And Everything Is Everything

SPEAKER_00 10:10

know, we've had different occupations, whatever that is. And so, you know, I mean, I think that I've had exciting, you know, my day job was I was in charge of a drug and alcohol program, and I was really very much into uh addictions and recovery. And and you know, I I have a theory, a very basic elemental theory that I that I say everything is everything. And what I mean by that is that the supernatural, you know, the paranormal, the spiritual, the scientific, they're all the same. It's the same vibration, it's the same thing. There's and and my good friend Dr. Frederick Santee, who was the high priest for the Covenant of the Cata, Frederick Santee told me, he was my personal physician, he told me that um that there's no difference between the supernatural and the scientific. He said it's all the same. You know, we just gotta we just haven't figured out what the laws are, you know, the scientific laws. So uh he was pretty cool. Yeah, yeah. So anyway, I've uh, you know, I mean, I've had a um, you know, wonderful career as a drug and alcohol counselor, as a uh, you know, an anti-drug trainer for the Pennsylvania Department of Drug and Alcohol programs and for Counselor Magazine and all that stuff. I mean, that was uh the the point I want to that was that I want to make is this when I asked some of these people that were in recovery from heroin or alcohol or what I think is the worst one, that's methamphetamine. When I talk to these people that have been on this stuff for the longest time and then they got off, I said, Well, how did you get clean and sober? And to a person, so many of them said, I don't know. It was a miracle. Yep. And what they mean, what they mean by that is that they stopped, not because they got a DUI, not because their husband or wife left them, not because they lost their job, because something weird happened, like they were just like an aha moment. Like they realize they they're sick and tired of being sick and tired. They're they're realizing that that drinking and drugging just wasn't getting the job done anymore. As um Joe Walsh of the Eagle said that, you know, you stop uh the the drug stop were stops working for you and you start working for the drug. So you when you when you listen to these rock and rollers who were were got into recovery, I mean, man, they're philosophers. Like even Steven Tyler, he was talking about fame. He said that fame is like a thousand chickens pecking pecking at you at the same time. So you know what? I I you know, I mean a lot of us, a lot of us get our philosophy from from from the rock and roll school, you know, from the uh from the musicians rather than from theologians and from philosophers. And that's okay. But I mean, the the the rock stars have their pulse on the uh on on the on the uh popular culture. And so they f you know the we're we're we're we access that and we listen to that, and so you know, they have a stage and they have a you know a platform and uh you know, and some of that's good, you know, as long as as long as the message is a message that, you know, is sound and you know, I guess wholesome. I don't know. But um anyway, but um, but yeah, but I you know, I worked as a uh an addictions counselor and I uh was a uh a rock journalist, and now I'm a paranormal author and researcher, and uh and I've been called a futurist by some people. So anyway, that's uh that's kind of cool. So I just I'm having a great time in the paranormal realm, and since I uh entered, it's just been you know, the the community has been very accommodating and supportive, and I just can't say enough. You know, I mean, man, I'm just like I get invited to podcasts left and right. It's just like, I mean, man, I just like you know, I I mean I get goosebumps. Like, I mean, what's going on here, Anna?

SPEAKER_02 13:57

Well, do you feel like this came to you, right? You didn't go out searching it. If you it sounds like it came to you.

SPEAKER_00 14:03

Yeah, exactly. Yeah, I didn't go looking for the paranormal. It came after me, it stalked me and uh hit me over the head. And uh, but it just feels so good. It feels right, and you know, I just want to make a contribution to the paranormal realm. I mean, if I can do it as a as a skeptic, as an academic, if I can go and articulate what this what this is, you know, in a uh speaking the King's English, you know, if I could help the paranormal community get more respect from the scientific community and from the pot and from the uh you know from society, then I think that's what my mission is. That's what I want to do. So um uh anyway, but that's what I've been doing, and I and I do this through my podcast and through my uh um programs that I do, you know, and the book signings and all that. So it's just it's wonderful. I mean, I love doing it, and I've met you know, we're all on this journey and we don't know the destination, but along the way, you know, we we have our guardian angels and our ancestors and our family, but we also have wonderful people that we meet like you, you know, that I'm meeting on this journey, and and you know, not that you're gonna bring in the Calvary and you know and s save me or anything else, but just saying, you know what, you're heading in the right direction. Keep it going. You know, that's all yeah, all we need is a is a positive affirmation and and we're good. And that's that's what all of us need. And we just need to be heard, we need to be listened to. We want people to listen to us and and all that. And uh so you know, it's so I'm I'm just in such a good place right now. I mean, mentally and physically, that you know, I can't say enough about that. So again, I appreciate the the invite onto your podcast and being able to talk about all this stuff.

SPEAKER_02 15:51

Oh, absolutely. I mean, I'm like a sponge. I'm just I'm always so intrigued to hear people's stories um and just hear about them and you know their life and you know how it came to be, right? So I really appreciate your time hopping on here.

SPEAKER_00 16:07

Oh, absolutely. Yeah, this is great. And and what about

Precognitive Dreams, Addiction, And Omen Stories

SPEAKER_00 16:10

you? I mean, what sparked your interest in the paranormal?

SPEAKER_02 16:13

Um, you know, when I was really little, I was like anxiety ridden. Um, I was always scared, like I was always looking for an exit on an airplane, this, that. My mom would always tell me to relax. You know, I had an older brother. And um I mean I still have an older brother, but anyways, um, I always kind of felt things uh a little differently and I was scared of it. And then when I got older, um I had a lot of experiences and actually one um I can talk openly, right? Because my brother has been sober for god almost 18 years. Um I was in high school, I think I was a junior when it started with him, and to tell the short version, um, you know, he had a bad addiction problem, and um, you know, we were very frightened, it was going on for months, and I had gone to sleep, and I had must just fall asleep, and it felt like I went like through my bed and like all the way down to like the main floor. And I opened my eyes, I was in the back of a car, and I'm like, okay, what's happening? And I see I get goosebumps every time I talk about it, but I see the rear view mirror, I see my brother's head all the way back, his eyes are rolled back, and I'm watching um an air freshener on his mirror go back and forth, and all of a sudden I see these really, really bright lights, and I'm screaming, Jason, wake up, wake up, wake up! And then the bright lights just overtook us both, and I woke up in like just pure terror sweat. Um, I scream screaming for my parents. I'm like, oh my god, something happened to Jason, blah, blah. So, anyways, yeah, I was like in that car with him.

SPEAKER_01 18:04

Wow.

SPEAKER_02 18:05

And uh we couldn't, so that was a weekend, that was like a Friday night. Um, so we of course searched hospitals, called, you know, everywhere and anywhere, and Tuesday afternoon, get a collect phone call. He went to jail, thank God. Um and somewhere in that time, that bright light that I thought maybe was it looked like a like a semi-truck, it was actually an off-duty sheriff. And my brother was driving the wrong way um onto the on-ramp on the freeway. And the guy pulled them over, and Jason um was very upset and told him, Hey, I need help, take me to jail, I'm not doing good. And so that guy actually went my my brother's court case, he actually um the sheriff actually came and spoke on his behalf.

SPEAKER_00 18:55

Oh wow, man, hell yeah, how how he was awesome.

SPEAKER_02 19:00

Yeah, he was like, This this young man doesn't fit the profile. He was very upset. He told me I needed or he needed help.

SPEAKER_00 19:07

And uh so Was he was he just drunk or was he doing doing drugs?

SPEAKER_02 19:12

No, he was high on heroin. Yep. He had a reduction. Yep. So he ended up going to the rehab that Eminem went to in Brighton here in Michigan.

SPEAKER_01 19:25

Oh, okay, okay.

SPEAKER_02 19:27

And the morning that my mom was taking my brother, my brother had a doctor's appointment before he went, and um, I had fallen asleep, took a nap, and I had I slipped back into that dream again, and it was my brother and my mom, and I'm like, stop, stop, stop, and I seen like this car coming on. Three hours later, my mom called and said, Yeah, we got into an accident, we got T-boned. I still made it to rehab with my brother. My mom made it home okay, but it's just like it it my dreams were always like spot on. They still are, you know. So um, I think that's kind of like what got me into then. I went to Eloise for the first time. Um, that is an old um asylum that is here in Westland, Michigan. And I did I did a tour and had very, very amazing experience, and uh I said, well, hey, I think this is my calling. I I love doing this, you know. So I I can consider myself like a podcaster of a paranormal researcher.

SPEAKER_00 20:28

Yeah, yeah, oh, good for you. And what and do you have abilities? I mean, do you think that you have uh uh some sort of a uh pre-cognition or second sight? I mean, do you do this through dreams?

SPEAKER_02 20:38

Do you think you uh I've always been like that. I think I was really scared of it when I was little, but I think as I got older I started to understand it. Um I just have like a lot of weird experiences that, you know, like uh I this slew of crows that were following my son and I, because I have a a 10-month old and uh they followed me back and forth. We went up and down the street. I was walking a stroller, this was a few weeks ago, and my husband got home. I said, Something really good's gonna happen tomorrow. And he's like, How do you know? I said, I'm telling you. And uh he ended up getting into his dream truck, and then I ended up getting a new truck. So and it the way it worked out, it should not have happened that way. So I was like, Well, see.

SPEAKER_00 21:18

Wow, but you think you think that seeing the crows that was a good sign?

SPEAKER_02 21:23

Yeah, well, they were they were chattering, they were calling, yeah, and uh they wouldn't come and sit in the tree that they usually do right at my house. They were kind of like circling. There's three of them. And I just it it's just a feeling I get. I don't know. I can't a lot of times when I think of people, um, when I know something bad's gonna happen, it's kind of like a flip book in my head. I can't I can't explain why it came on. I don't know why I have the feeling, I don't know why it's seen, you know what I mean? It just it just happens.

SPEAKER_00 21:52

Yeah, yeah. No, I think cro crows are first of all, they're intelligent uh uh birds. I mean they their their brains are bigger than what they meat and so they do all kinds of things other than just surviving and procreating and and look searching for food. They play games, they steal shiny stuff, they drop pebbles on on sky sk skylights and that just crazy stuff. You know what I mean? Yeah, they're uh crows are neat.

SPEAKER_02 22:16

So did you know that if you piss off a crow, that crow will hold a grudge forever and it can the crow can pass it down to the other crows.

SPEAKER_00 22:27

Oh wow yeah I could I could believe that. Yeah I could believe that yeah so you never want to piss one off so no where where I live here in Pennsylvania we are just I mean my where I live we're just surrounded by trees and there's all kinds of birds. It's awesome. You know but we're we're l moving down to Florida uh in uh September so I'm gonna be down there full time so um oh wow but uh yeah so um I'm gonna miss Pennsylvania but because this is just so gorgeous but you know we you know it's time you know we we have a nice place down there on uh an Ocala on the Gulf side so uh you know looking looking forward to going there. Yeah that's the Ocala's like the uh horse capital. You know that's where the horse horses or the horse racing and the uh equestrian center and just like million dollar quarter horses I mean wow I mean I just it's just like you yeah yeah and you need a lot of money to have a horse. I mean just uh you know take care of it and groom it and all that stuff you know so that's an expense expensive habit but but it's right down the road from us so you know just it's very nice and I uh you know I I'm very creative down there and I'm looking forward to going back down and you know and finishing um you know an

Writing Haunted House Books And New Tech

SPEAKER_00 23:40

uh another book so um yeah that'll be fun I'll do it when I'm in Florida.

SPEAKER_02 23:43

Now how many books have you wrote so far?

SPEAKER_00 23:47

Okay the the one that's coming out is going to be number 10 that's the Scream of the Haunted House. And uh that's the one that um yeah let me just see if I could um pull up because I guess we wanted to talk about the schmiral hauling a little bit but uh let me go and uh hang on one second. Sure just grab me a little uh Italian mineral and you could probably edit this out I guess I don't know just keep it in okay so I'm gonna run up to my office and I wanted to read you what's on the back of the um uh scream of the haunted house that'll be published by hangar one they've they published uh uh The Lost Tribes of Bigfoot they've published my paranormal paranormal apocalypse is this is how it ends and then house will be the third one and this is uh Doug Highchek uh Doug and his son Alex have uh hangar one they used to have the um monster quest you know series but uh they're up in uh in uh Minnesota so uh hanger one like the number or like the word one uh the number one number one yeah H-A-N-G-A-R so um what am I looking for? Oh the book covers okay so that this thing then is um okay good okay so if I could read this um so uh Kristen Amanda she's the host of the Paranorm Girl podcast she wrote the uh the foreword to my book but on the back it says this quote every paranormal investigator needs this on their shelf the scream of the haunted house is the ghost hunter's bible end quote and then the text are on the back if if I may I'd like to just read this yeah of course okay okay so this is the Scream of the Haunted House paranormal author Maxim W. Fuhrer's groundbreaking book exposes the haunted house as a prison of despair where earthbound spirits cry for tranquility and tears are shed not from the eyes but from the soul despite belief that demonic infestation is rare the author probes the most terrifying of possibilities are ghost hunters disturbing things that should be left alone are they conceivable targets of demonic wrath and has dark tourism knowingly opened the profane cash registers of health hell and then the last one exploring the most infamous haunted locations the Conjuring House Anityville the Sally House the Lizzie Borden house the Stanley Hotel Penhurst Asylum the Schmerl House the Mansfield Reformatory and countless others this is the comprehensive text ghost hunters have been hungry hungering for read it and then lock your doors and cover your ears the screaming is about to begin. Wow I like that isn't that cool and the uh yeah so yeah so I'm just excited about this and uh you know um uh on Friday I'll be doing a um I guess a two-hour interview with this guy from the UK and what Hangar One does is they have a thing called IBT it's Immersive Book technology and what it is is that throughout the book there will be these QR codes and if you put your phone's camera on the QR code you could open up this video of me doing a synopsis of that chapter. So it's sort of like uh re uh purposing um uh you know the old technology you know with the barcodes but it's really neat it's it's it makes it interactive so as you're reading a chapter that say let's say that you're you're especially interested in uh there may be a barcode there with me saying a little bit more about that chapter but it's it's unique. I mean just man I don't believe I can't believe that they're doing it for me and you know but it's time uh intensive I mean we you know I mean I gotta have to prepare for these questions have the right lighting and you know comb my hair and put on a clean shirt about this subject for the podcast oh here you are yeah I pulled you up on there author Bigfoot uh let's see cryptozoology nonfiction paranormal yeah and where are you saying that is that my website this is on the hangar one oh good okay so they have me there okay good yeah hangar one okay yeah so hangar one um they published a book by with Jeff Meldrum and uh Doug Hichek was very good friends with uh with uh Jeff Meldrum who who passed away in 2025 so I'll tell you what the um uh cryptozoology um community lost a huge person he they lost a legendary person in Jeff Meldrum uh he was uh um uh uh uh anthropologist from the University of um of uh Idaho

Bigfoot, Academia, And Respectability Politics

SPEAKER_00 28:50

he knew about uh uh animal uh location and uh uh and uh the footprints and the strides and and muscularity and everything and he was able to take a look at the Patterson Gimlin film and he believed that it was it was authentic uh so so Meldrum did so much for us and he was like probably the leading voice in the Bigfoot community because he was the he was the um most uh had the he was the academic with the with the biggest profile so now that we've lost him I mean we have you know um what's his name uh Lauren Coleman and uh maybe uh Nick Redfern uh you know a couple of those guys but I mean uh Jeff Meldrum was really the he was the real deal and um you know was able to go and discuss the Patterson Gimlin film in very real uh you know scientific uh you know uh vocabulary and explanations and everything something that the the rest of us really can't do because I Jeff knew that he spoke that language so uh when I saw him at the O'Cala Bigfoot expo uh a couple years ago he was saying that he was he was always the last person to get invited to the high table and he was the last person to be respected by the academic community and you know we've seen this with other people I mean when uh John Mack from Harvard was uh was uh investigating uh uh alien abductions uh you know uh and people being probed and missing time and all that I mean there were a lot of people from a lot of the academics from Harvard that just turned their noses down at him you know anytime you go against the scientific grain and you step into the paranormal uh you know you're you're raising eyebrows and um and and a lot of those guys I mean they don't have a sense of humor. I mean they can't just see you know see the other side and I think that um some scientists if not most of them are very rigid. You know I think what we need here in the in the paranormal community and the cryptozoology community we need more

UFO Disclosure, Roswell, And Kecksburg Claims

SPEAKER_00 31:00

academics more scientists who are committed to helping us out in finding the things whether you know whether ghosts and spirits exist whether cryptids like dogman and Bigfoot exist whether they're you know whether uh you know there are UFOs or uh you know uh crafts crashed vehicles or whatever so I think we need more of that and we haven't been getting any of that uh you know with government disclosure I mean I am not impressed at all with the so-called disclosure that you know with all the things that the government's has been doing so I mean I mean what do you what what's your feeling what's your feeling about that um you know there's a lot of different angles but for me I'll say this uh my own opinion like right that's like everyone has one I get it um I guess the technology is so much better we're not dumb okay like civilization has gotten a lot smarter and we have a lot more techie and we got the younger ones coming in and they can do even more so they know that we know they know that we see so why are they still hiding it you know and they're always like it's it's it's for it will forever be quote unquote like woo woo you know I mean it's still looked at that way right but yes they they talk about it um you know you know the the aliens and you know UFOs and this was spotted and that was spotted and then it was oh it was um uh what is it a balloon remember like years ago they said it was like a Russian spy balloon with Roswell yeah yeah and uh yeah well yeah go ahead but it's it's like you can only cover it up so many times and every time they say they're gonna disclose information it's like they dance around it it's like cut just come out and say what it is and let's move forward.

SPEAKER_02 32:48

I think they're still scared of people going chaotic and crazy but it's like we're so desensitized as humans.

SPEAKER_00 32:54

I don't think it we would just be like okay you know yeah yeah I think what the government has lied to us so many times. I mean with uh Roswell um they said it was a crash disc that was picked up by the uh what was known as the Army Air Force back then in um uh 1947 and I met Walter Howout he was the publicist he was the public relations guy uh public relations guy for the Roswell Army Air Force before they changed it into you know the Army and the Air Force but uh but he wrote the press release that said that it was a crash disc and then they changed it the next day and they said that no it was a weather balloon and then they said it was Project Mogul which was uh the United States sending up these large balloons to test to see if the Soviet Union was uh doing underground um nuclear uh explosions you know tests so they claim that that's what it what it was and then just uh they I don't know I just think that they got them so I think that was just a matter of too many lies and too many too much hypocrisy that nobody believes them. But but as far as Roswell I contend that the Pennsylvania Kecksburg UFO of 1965 December 65 was more significant and more authentic than was Roswell. I think Roswell has turned into a mythology there's just a little bit of truth hiding inside that mythology you know just a kernel of truth and a whole lot of innuendo and keep in mind that was 1947 and we didn't hear a whole lot about Roswell until I think it was 1980 when um William was it William Moore and uh Charles Berlitz I believe wrote that book uh the Roswell Incident uh with a lot of groundwork being done by Stanton uh Freeman uh who was uh uh a scientist he was a scientist uh from the Pittsburgh area and he was one of the four and he did a lot of the legwork there he went out there and interviewed people so it was uh Stanton Friedman that really sort of like uh blew the lid off of this and that information was used by William Moore when they wrote the uh Roswell incident that was the name of the book but that was something like I think it was 33 years after the fact so everything they got from Roswell was secondhand information or third hand it wasn't first person because a lot of people had died but in the case of Keksburg from 1965 uh when that happened immediately there were people there that interviewed the witnesses they saw the government come in with those military trucks and transport this thing this object this acorn looking object out you know with covered by canvas tarps and everything so we had eyewitnesses that were immediately interviewed we had the Freedom of Information Act and here's the here's something that's really interesting they were not able to go and um uh get significant amounts of information because this information was either redacted you know scrubbed out or it was lost and that was from the so convenient lost so um you know uh we believe that they also took the uh what was left of uh uh Kexburg to Wright Patterson uh in uh in um in Ohio so uh in Dayton Ohio so uh anyway that's where the Rousewell uh little gray men are supposed to be too so who knows I think they like you said they they lie so much that the story has gotten so dirty and layered you know what I mean who knows what's what the actual truth is yeah I don't know but with all the disclosures like with the U congressional UFL disclosures of what was it 2023 24 and 25 I mean I have learned nothing and I've listened to David Grush and Luis Alexando and all the Navy pilots. I mean they're not telling all you know what they're telling us the same thing that the government knows something and they're not telling us right right the government knows but they're not being transparent my theory is is that those damn aliens and all those UFOs are coming from the ocean.

SPEAKER_02 37:16

I have said it for years since I've been hearing that yeah since I was a little girl I used to say why are we always up in space and we're not down in the ocean my husband will argue with me until he's blue in the face and he'll say we don't have the equipment for the ocean and I say Paul think about it honey you're very smart what is up is below right like they can go up but we can't go down they have the technology they just know they won't go down there because we all know um it's you you're gonna go down there you're not there's no way you're coming up that's good well yeah you know the uh as far as that underwater thing it was uh 2004 the Nimitz uh video yes uh yep uh tic tac video and uh it looked like a tic tac but anyway the the the the Pentagon changed uh UFOs to UAPs unidentified aerial phenomenon and then when this sucker went back and forth and went under the water they then changed the the term to unidentified anomalous phenomenon so but but I don't care what they say I keep on using the word ufos and flying saucers me but that works that works for that works for me so I don't care what the what the Pentagon says yeah you know they like you so they they they say a lot but they don't say anything at all that I think that's a good way to put it right yeah so now you knew

The Warrens, Demonology, And Making Money

SPEAKER_02 38:40

the Warrens and the right uh no no I didn't I never met the Schmirls um I met the Warrens in 1988 when they were on a 15 city book tour they were promoting a book called The Haunted that was written about the Schmerl haunting that was written by a guy named Jack Curran C-U-R-R-A-N.

SPEAKER_00 38:59

I worked with Jack at the uh Sunday independent newspaper in northeastern Pennsylvania and uh so he wrote it but it was co-written with uh you know uh uh by uh Ed and Lorraine Warren and Jack and Janet Schmerl uh after uh somebody else bought out the rights to his book if you see the new uh real newly printed uh uh revised uh print uh version of the book you'll see Ed and Lorraine Warren at the top and Jack Curran at the bottom so because Ed and Lorraine have the notoriety and they have the uh you know they everybody knows them they have the recognition so they've been writing with Ebb. So but um you know they uh you could tell what Robert Curran wrote because it was good stuff. He's a was a good journalist but um the other stuff was just like sort of pedestrian it wasn't that wasn't that good but whatever. But that was that was that was the book 1988 and I met Ed and Lorraine in a place called Jim Thorpe Pennsylvania and I uh hung out with them took pictures interviewed them and um the pictures I took of them a number of them are in my book The Schmirl haunting when Ed and Lorraine came to town so I uh now what did you did you feel that they were legit? Did you feel like they or were they in it for more like entertainment do you feel like no I think they were legit but I mean don't I mean don't uh discount the fact that some of this is entertainment. Don't discount the fact that some of this is for financial consideration and also don't criticize them for being financially successful. I mean they were the ambassadors of uh demonology they were the ones that um you know that spread the word about demonology at the same time that we were watching uh Rosemary's baby from 68 and the exorcist and the omen so you know we had an appetite the the world we had an appetite for the occult and for uh and for demonology but it was Ed Lorraine Warren who went around to these college campuses making I think it was around five thousand dollars per uh program and I mean they did like just under a thousand programs I mean for for back then in the 80s they made good money they were on the talk show circuit and I don't know how much money they would get paid to be on say Phil Donah Donahue was a and uh Jesse uh what's her name Rafael Rafael and and and uh Hernando what's the name uh Rivera I'm trying to think of all these yeah yeah yeah so the so there were all these people there um that were you know that these uh uh TV hosts that were really big time but uh in the Rain uh Warren were on all those shows and they were uh castigated for it because they were making money. Well they were successful. I mean listen we live in a capitalistic society. Melissa if you could get monetized and if you could make a whole lot of money from your podcast and if I could make and I'd be happy with like $200,000 with my books. You know, I mean we we sh we swing for the fences and uh not everybody gets it out of the park.

SPEAKER_02 42:16

You know it's just the way it is I would love to do this for a living.

SPEAKER_00 42:20

Yeah I know I know and and you know I mean I'm I'm in the black and that's great. I mean like I'm uh happy with my um you know my career and it's and it's getting better. I'm just it's getting real real it's I love where I'm at now so there's no problem with that.

SPEAKER_02 42:33

But anyway and I've been a hairstylist my whole life barber too now I'm a barber

Legacy, Journaling, And Closing Requests

SPEAKER_02 42:40

so I've uh picked up on a lot of energy over the years and a lot of stories and I just always wanted to write a book and then I got this about six seven years before I even made a podcast I was like you know what if I get dementia or something or Alzheimer's you know I gotta have some kind of book to go you know go back on and that's kind of how the podcast started because I look at it like it's a big archive you know so and now it's gonna be passed on to my son and he'll have all the recordings and everything that's happened. A lot of things I haven't posted. Um there's just some evidence I don't think needs to be out there right so I have uh a lot of a lot of stock if you will evidence on my own part that I've you know that will stay where it's at forever uh until either I put it out there or you know Jack when he's older he wants to do something with it you know but uh I just think it's so important to document your life and people that you meet and experiences that you have you know I was like you when I was younger I wanted to be a writer I wanted to be a journalist of course I loved writing and uh you know I think everybody should be like journaling you know everyone the whole I I think it's therapeutic I know some people don't like to write but I think it's you know both Both of my parents are gone. My dad passed away a month after my son came out, so that hasn't even been a year. So, um, and all the deaths that I have been around, you know, peaceful and not so peaceful. I think when you transition out of life, you know, you leave legacies, you know, your kids or your, you know, nieces, nephews, whatever, people you've met. You put a you touch everyone that you meet, right? In some way.

SPEAKER_00 44:23

And I just Absolutely, yeah, yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 44:26

I think it should be documented. I mean, it's it's things that you want documented, or write stories, you know, or you know, journal. I just think it's good to have these because when we're gone, that's all people have of us is memories and what we leave, you know?

SPEAKER_00 44:40

Yeah, uh-huh. The yeah, the legacy, correct, yeah, yeah. Um it's a um, you know, it's just such a fascinating uh world, you know, the paranormal that we that we uh that we dabble in. And uh, you know, again, uh there's just so many interesting people that I've met since I've been doing this. It's just you know, but I I meet people that claim that they have certain abilities, and um, and and maybe they do, you know, but I mean people that uh you know uh can read auras and they have remote can do remote viewing and all this and or astral projections, uh uh, you know, so it it's kind of interesting. I don't. I mean, I think that all of us can develop I think we have innate powers, and we can manifest those and we can develop those, but it's almost like a nine-to-five job. You need to go and uh clear the noise and the the white noise, and you need to get into that state of prayer and meditation where you were able to access these these gifts, these abilities. And uh it takes time though, you know. I mean, it's very difficult to do it when you have a nine to five job and you're taking care of babies and you're you know, you're and all that, you know.

SPEAKER_02 45:52

Well, I'll tell you what, it um we tried for a long time to have a kid or kids, right? Then happened, and I was like, you know, I said, Okay, I'm meant to be an aunt. Um, I actually on the Lions, the Lions Gate portal, which is 8-8, you know, every summer in August, the full moon, um, I actually made a little manifestation jar and I did a couple little things like in prayer, like what people call prayer. Yeah, I manifest. And um, I asked generously to the universe. I said, you know, if I if if I'm supposed to have this, you know, I would l love to have a healthy baby and this and that. So, anyways, Jack um was so I I did this on eight eight. He was born eight pounds, eight ounce ounces, and he was born in the eighth month of August.

SPEAKER_01 46:39

Okay, okay.

SPEAKER_02 46:40

So eight eight eight. So uh my husband was pretty freaked out that night when he came outside. He uh said it looked like gasoline was around me. And I said, What do you mean gasoline?

SPEAKER_01 46:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 46:52

And he said, I'm going back inside. He actually, uh my husband was atheist. He was a Marine um for he was in the Marine Corps for about almost seven years. Um so he came home atheist, you know, of course. And uh I said, Well, I'm spiritual, I'm like my grandma, I'm like my mom always called me woo-woo, you know. And uh we've been married for almost 13 years. We've been together for 15 and a half years, and he now talks a little bit woo-woo. And anytime I say, Ah, I got a feeling, he's like, Okay, I'm not gonna argue you. Okay, thank you. You know, so he he doesn't like to admit that he's on board, but he's definitely, you know, and he has seen just helping me go through evidence like videos and stuff, um, some stuff has freaked him out, and he will leave the room very, very quickly.

SPEAKER_01 47:43

Yeah. Wow.

SPEAKER_02 47:45

I think people are freaked out because they don't understand it. And I think people like us that even I'm a skeptic a lot of things, right? And there's some things, but I think it's up to us that are intrigued by this to help people not be scared of it, right? Because at some point we're all transitioning, we're all gonna leave, right? Physically.

SPEAKER_00 48:07

So it's it's you know, we all have a uh have a number, you know, we all only have so much uh so much time. And uh I like what you were saying about the legacy. I mean, I think that um, you know, looking back though, you know, like with people like uh uh Jay Allen Heinek and Jacques Villet and John Keel and all those people, I mean, those are those are the people that I always looked up to, you know, read their stuff and everything. Uh but now there's a new generation of podcasters and uh paranormal people, uh like like hopefully like me and you, that um, you know, uh, you know, you know, and I don't mean to disrespect the those people that I mentioned, but I mean I just like contributing to the to the field and trying to trying to make it more, trying to make it more uh legitimate and to help validate it and all that, you know. And and yeah, and if we could and if I can do that through my books, you know, um or my podcasts, then then great, you know, then then then.

SPEAKER_02 49:05

You have a podcast too. What is your what is your main platform? I mean, are you on Spotify?

SPEAKER_00 49:11

No, I don't have a platform. But what I what I do is no, I've had I did 87 podcasts last year. Wow, and yeah, eighty-seven. And I was doing like three a week. I mean, it's crazy, but you know, it slowed down a bit. But I mean, I do them in uh Canada, uh, United States, uh, the UK, uh, you know, Australia. I mean, on and on and on. I mean, just you know, because because this thing is international and because the podcast, you know, that it's really no big thing. I mean, that we're cut so connected, you know, with the technology. But uh no, it's uh uh you know, it's it's fun, and that's how guys like me can get our names out there, you know, through these podcasts that people say, hey yeah, I've heard this guy and I know of him and I like what he's saying about such and such, so I'm gonna get his book, you know. So that's the the greatest thing that could happen that you know that people get excited about my philosophy and want to read, say, Shepton or The Lost Tribes of Bigfoot or you know, whatever, whatever. Whatever.

SPEAKER_02 50:10

I mean, I have your book in my cart right now, Paranormal Apocalypse. This is how it ends. Oh yeah. Or is this how it ends? That's what it is. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 50:17

Yes, yeah, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, we we could do, we could do a podcast interview on that if you like, you know, down the line.

SPEAKER_02 50:23

So I would love to read it and then uh interview on that. And then I know you you're big into Bigfoot too, right? You one time. We'll have to well, when you're not so busy, and uh, you know, I really enjoyed this and I love love your time, and um, I would love to have you back on again. I mean, you're just so interesting. There's so many layers to you.

SPEAKER_00 50:43

Well, Melissa, thank you so much. That's very, very kind and complimentary. I really appreciate it. But you know, you're good as well. I mean, you you keep it going. You but you you you're uh very good with the articulation and with your body of knowledge and your and your background and uh you know, back at you. Back at you, you know. So uh it's it's just yeah, it's just fun. So um, yeah, I, you know, so um, you know, I'd be glad to come back on if if if if you like and um certainly for the folks that um you know, we didn't talk a whole lot about it, but the the book that we were talking about was uh published by Anxiety Press out of Chicago. It's called The Schmiral Haunting, when Ed and Lorraine came to town, and it's available on Amazon or on my website, www.maximfuric.com. That's M-A-X-I-M-F-U-R-E-K dot com. And if anyone is would be kind enough to purchase a book, um a copy of my book, please um you know leave a review on Amazon or on Goodreads. So that would that would work.

SPEAKER_02 51:49

So Okay, well that's the Schmerl one I gotta get to. I want I want to do the apocalypse one and the schmirl one, and then I will definitely leave you a review. And for all the listeners out there, you guys please leave him a review when you read his books because that is very helpful. We know.

SPEAKER_00 52:06

Uh-huh. Okay. Okay, okay, very good. It sounds good. So um, okay, well, very good then. I might my head's like spinning. I'm like just one of the one of those days, you know. But anyway, but um listen, uh Melissa, continued luck with Strange Deranged, Beyond Insane. Uh, for all the listeners out there, you're listening to a wonderful podcast. So support uh Melissa's podcast, uh, like it, you know, uh, you know, help keep her around and do what you can to support local, whether it's uh podcasters, authors, bookstores, or libraries. Support local. If you don't, they're gonna go away. You know, uh so uh so just do that.

SPEAKER_02 52:49

So well, thank you, Maxim. It was a pleasure having you on here, and I cannot wait to have you back on again when your your schedule isn't so busy. Probably after your book comes out, we'll um regroup and talk. And I will be tagging you in a lot of videos that I have. Um I'm gonna make some edits and stuff, and you know, once this pops on and advertise itself and goes through all the different platforms, we'll make even more videos, okay?

SPEAKER_00 53:15

Oh, so oh, it sounds good. Yeah, so if you could get those to me, that would be great. And uh Absolutely. Yes, yeah, and I could put them on my uh on TikTok as well as uh Facebook.

SPEAKER_02 53:25

Cool, cool too.

SPEAKER_00 53:26

Okay, I'll thanks. Okay, yeah, let me know. Okay. And do you need any uh headshots or book covers or anything, or are you good?

SPEAKER_02 53:35

You know, if you want to email me some bookshots, or I'm sorry, bookshots headshots, go ahead because I would love to make some videos with that. Yeah. I love I love making videos and editing. That's like my thing, besides podcasting.

SPEAKER_00 53:47

Okay, Paul Melissa88 at gmail.com. Yes, yep. Okay, okay, I'll get something over to you now. Okay, thank you so much.

SPEAKER_02 53:54

All right, thanks again.

SPEAKER_00 53:56

Okay, thanks. This was fun. Okay, thank you so much, and uh, I hope it worked out for you.

SPEAKER_02 54:00

Thank you. Take care.

SPEAKER_00 54:02

Okay, bye now.

SPEAKER_02 54:03

Bye bye.