Psychology of the Strange

Medusa, the other version

Trigger Warning: This episode contains detailed discussion of sexual assault, honor killings, and violence against women.
Medusa. You know the story. Monster. Snakes for hair. One look and you turn to stone. Hero with a mirrored shield, clean ending, everybody goes home. Except, that's not the whole story. In this episode of Psychology of the Strange, I'm pulling apart one of mythology's most recognizable villains and rebuilding her from the ground up. Because in Ovid's telling, Medusa wasn't born a monster. She was made into one. By a god who assaulted her. By a goddess who punished her for it. And by a hero who found her more useful dead than alive.
This episode explores the psychology of victim blaming, institutional betrayal, and the logic that turns survivors into threats. A logic that didn't stay in ancient Greece. From Iran's legal code to Pakistan to a 2025 honor killing in Syria filmed and posted online by the perpetrator, the pattern Ovid wrote down is still operational today.
Mythology. Psychology. The stories we tell to make the rules we live by.
Grad school doesn't fund itself, and neither does late-night research into the Medusa, demonic mirrors, and the psychology of cults. If an episode got under your skin, sent you down your own rabbit hole, or made you text someone "you need to hear this", buying me a coffee keeps the strange alive.
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Sources and current events referenced in this episode:
Rahaf Alwan, Syria, April 2025: https://stj-sy.org/en/syrias-transitional-phase-honor-killings-persist-amid-failing-protection-and-legal-response/
Mobina Zeynivand, Iran: https://www.iranintl.com/en/202408284891
Honor killings in Pakistan 2024: https://www.dawn.com/news/1881836
Iran honor killings 2024 annual report: https://stophonorkillings.org/en/2025/01/03/fourth-quarterly-report-on-honor-killings-in-2024186-case-in-a-year/
Human Rights Commission of Pakistan: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/7/29/father-ex-husband-among-9-arrested-in-alleged-honour-killing-in-pakistan

The Galactic Goddess- Amy Carlson and the Love Has Won Cult

Love Has Won cult leader Amy Carlson, known as Mother God, was found mummified in a Colorado home in 2021, her body wrapped in Christmas lights, her skin turned permanently blue from years of colloidal silver ingestion, her followers still waiting for galactic beings led by Robin Williams to take them to another dimension. This true crime and cult psychology episode explores shared delusion, coercive control, and what happens when a group of people construct a reality so airtight that even death can't penetrate it.
Underneath the strange and visceral details is a question: what does it actually take for an entire group of people to surrender their grip on reality together and what does psychology tell us about how that process works? This episode explores  folie à plusieurs (shared psychosis) and how social media and livestream culture created a new kind of cult isolation that doesn't need a compound to function. We look at what terror management theory, moral disengagement, and unfalsifiable belief systems can tell us about Love Has Won, and the haunting reversal at the heart of this story, where the followers became so invested in her divinity that they couldn't save her even when she asked them to.
If you're drawn to cult documentaries, dark psychology, paranormal belief, or the HBO documentary Love Has Won: The Cult of Mother God then this episode is for you.
Grad school doesn't fund itself, and neither does late-night research into the rugarou, demonic mirrors, and the psychology of cults. If an episode got under your skin, sent you down your own rabbit hole, or made you text someone "you need to hear this", buying me a coffee keeps the strange alive.
https://buymeacoffee.com/psychstrangepod
 
New episodes every week on all major platforms. Follow @psychstrangepod.

The Necromantic Mirror of Floron: Vatican Secrets, Demonic Magic, and the Psychology of the Shadow Self

A demon mirror hidden beneath the Vatican. A cursed object so dangerous that even looking into it required a ritual: a celibate blacksmith, a waxing moon, and a virgin boy as the only one permitted to see what it showed. The Necromantic Mirror of Floron is not just a Vatican conspiracy theory. It's a real artifact documented in a 15th century grimoire, and what it allegedly reveals is darker than any demon: the version of yourself you've spent your entire life arranging not to see.
In this episode of Psychology of the Strange, I dig into the documented history of the Mirror of Floron, pulled from the Munich Manual of Demonic Magic, one of the most significant surviving medieval grimoires  and the legend that the physical mirror itself ended up locked in the Vatican's sealed vaults, retrieved by the Templars from communities torn apart by what it did to the people who looked into it. Then I break down the psychology underneath the story: why mirrors destabilize identity, what mirror-gazing actually does to the brain according to Giovanni Caputo's strange-face illusion research, how terror management theory explains why the mirror's particular brand of horror hits so deep, and why a 15th century magician built a child into the ritual as a buffer because he already knew direct exposure was something the adult mind couldn't survive intact.
This one sits at the crossroads of occult history, dark psychology, and Vatican conspiracy and by the end, you might find yourself avoiding your own reflection.
Grad school doesn't fund itself, and neither does late-night research into the rugarou, demonic mirrors, and the psychology of cults. If an episode got under your skin, sent you down your own rabbit hole, or made you text someone "you need to hear this", buying me a coffee keeps the strange alive.
https://buymeacoffee.com/psychstrangepod
 
For more strange between episodes make sure you follow me @psychstrangepod on socials
Topics covered: Vatican secrets | demon mirror | cursed mirror | shadow self | dark psychology | medieval grimoire | forbidden knowledge | occult history | mirror psychology | the Munich Manual of Demonic Magic | Necromantic Mirror of Floron | Psychology of the Strange

Narcissists, Psychopaths, and Heroes, Oh My! The Boys

Dark triad personality traits, narcissism, psychopathy, and Machiavellianism, may be the hidden ingredient of every superhero story you've ever loved. In this psychology deep dive, I'm using Amazon Prime's The Boys to explore what separates a hero from a monster and whether the answer is psychology, circumstance, or just really good branding.
Homelander is a clinical portrait of malignant narcissism and psychopathy wrapped in a cape. Billy Butcher is Machiavellianism with a vendetta. Soldier Boy is what happens when dark triad traits get a government contract and zero accountability. And Starlight and Hughie, you know the ones trying to stay decent, might be the most psychologically interesting characters of all.
I go deep on moral licensing, the neuroscience of why we can't look away from dangerous people, and what a dose of Compound V reveals about the difference between ends-justify-the-means thinking and actual ethics. Spoiler: it's not what we want it to be.
This is a psychology of evil episode, a superhero deconstruction, and an uncomfortable mirror all in one.
Grad school doesn't fund itself, and neither does late-night research into the supernatural, dark triad, and the psychology of cults. If an episode got under your skin, sent you down your own rabbit hole, or made you text someone "you need to hear this", buying me a coffee keeps the strange alive.
https://buymeacoffee.com/psychstrangepod
 
Make sure to find me on social media for more strange and psychology between episodes @psychstrangepod

Baba Yaga- The witch in the forest

Baba Yaga is one of the most enduring figures in Slavic Folklore, but she was never just a monster. In this episode I explore three different tellings of her tale and uncover what she reveals about the darkest corners of psychology. I trace her origins from ancient Slavic tradition to modern psychological theory, examining her through Carl Jung's Crone archetype, Arnold van Gennep's concept of liminality, and Albert Bandura's research on moral disengagement. Why does she appear at moments of desperation? What does her ambiguous morality tell us about the line between good and evil and why that line moves? And what happens when you get exactly what you asked for?
This episode features three original folklore stories including a Baba Yaga tale exploring obsession, grief, and the true cost of a granted wish. Whether you're here for the dark folklore, the psychology, or both this one will stay with you.
Grad school doesn't fund itself, and neither does late-night research into the supernatural, demonic mirrors, and the psychology of cults. If an episode got under your skin, sent you down your own rabbit hole, or made you text someone "you need to hear this", buying me a coffee keeps the strange alive.
https://buymeacoffee.com/psychstrangepod
 
Psychology of the Strange is part of the Dark Cast Network. New episodes every week. Find me on Instagram and TikTok at @psychstrangepod.

Modern Folklore- Urban Legends, Internet Horror, and Conspiracy Theories

Urban Legends, conspiracy theories, creepypasta, and internet horror explained through psychology because folklore isn't dead it just evolved.  In this episode I explore why scary stories, modern myths, and online conspiracy theories spread.  Long before the internet, people gathered around fires and told stories to make sense of a world they couldn't control. Today we do the same thing in the comment sections, Reddit threads, and TikTok videos. From Hookman to Slenderman, from Area 51 to the Russian Sleep Experiment every era builds the folklore it needs to survive fears. The monsters always change. The psychology never does.  
This episode covers the psychology of urban legends and why they warn us about spaces that feel unsafe, how conspiracy theories function as modern folklore where the monster is power itself, why creepypasta is designed to blur the line between fiction and reality, how internet horror and ARGs create new kinds of participatory mythology and why folklore thrives specifically when certainty collapses and authority can't be trusted.
Whether you are a true believer, a skeptic, or somewhere in between...if you have ever read something online that made your stomach drop in a way you can't explain this episode is for you.
Grad school doesn't fund itself, and neither does late-night research into the supernatural, demonic mirrors, and the psychology of cults. If an episode got under your skin, sent you down your own rabbit hole, or made you text someone "you need to hear this", buying me a coffee keeps the strange alive.
https://buymeacoffee.com/psychstrangepod
 

The Mask & the Jim Carrey Conspiracy

After Jim Carrey’s recent public appearance at the César Awards in Paris, the internet did what the internet does best: zoomed in, compared old footage, and started asking questions. Almost immediately, conspiracy theories exploded online. Some people believe he’s simply changed. Others think cosmetic procedures altered his appearance. And some are convinced something much stranger is going on including theories connecting him to the late Val Kilmer.
But this episode isn’t really about whether any of those theories are true.
It’s about why moments like this hit such a nerve and why conspiracy theories spread so quickly when someone who once felt culturally familiar suddenly seems different. What happens psychologically when a celebrity who helped define an era no longer feels like the same person? Why do we struggle more with change than with impossible explanations?
In this shorter, current-events episode, I explore the psychology behind celebrity conspiracies, internet speculation, parasocial relationships, and modern folklore forming right in front of us. Because today’s urban legends don’t spread around campfires they spread through timelines, comment sections, and viral posts.
And sometimes the story we choose to believe says more about us than it does about the person at the center of it.
Grad school doesn't fund itself, and neither does late-night research into conspiracy theories, supernatural, and the psychology of cults. If an episode got under your skin, sent you down your own rabbit hole, or made you text someone "you need to hear this", buying me a coffee keeps the strange alive.
https://buymeacoffee.com/psychstrangepod
 

The Psychology of The Backrooms

What makes the Backrooms so unsettling — and why do they linger long after you stop listening?
In this episode of Psychology of the Strange, I explore the psychology behind the Backrooms, the internet’s most disturbing modern myth, and why endless hallways, fluorescent lights, and empty rooms trigger such deep unease. This isn’t a story about monsters or jump scares. It’s a story about liminal spaces, derealization, and what happens to the mind when familiar environments lose their meaning.
I begin with a real experience of getting lost in underground hospital corridors — a real-life Backrooms moment — before moving into an immersive storytelling segment that recreates the quiet horror of endless space. From there, I break down the psychological mechanisms behind the fear: predictive processing failure, free-floating anxiety, social absence, and existential threat.
This episode connects the Backrooms to modern life — burnout, bureaucracy, and the feeling of being trapped in systems you didn’t design and can’t escape. I explore why adding monsters actually weakens the horror, how liminal spaces destabilize the brain, and why the Backrooms feel less like fiction and more like a mirror of the world we’re living in.
If you’ve ever felt unsettled in an empty hospital hallway, an abandoned mall, a quiet office after hours, or a place that felt familiar but wrong — this episode is for you.
Topics include:
The psychology of liminal spaces
Why the Backrooms are so disturbing
Derealization and depersonalization
Predictive processing and anxiety
Environmental meaning and fear
Modern folklore and internet horror
Burnout, bureaucracy, and existential dread
Why some horror stays with you
Listen now to understand why the Backrooms don’t end when the hallway does — and why some spaces swallow you long after you leave them.
Grad school doesn't fund itself, and neither does late-night research into the backrooms, horror, and the supernatural. If an episode got under your skin, sent you down your own rabbit hole, or made you text someone "you need to hear this", buying me a coffee keeps the strange alive.
https://buymeacoffee.com/psychstrangepod
 
 
Psychology of the Strange is part of the Darkcast Network-- Welcome to the Darkside

What If It Isn’t the House That’s Haunted? The Psychology of Haunted People

Haunted People Syndrome, recurring paranormal experiences, and the psychology of feeling watched. Why do some individuals report unexplained events across different homes and stages of life, and what does psychology reveal about ghost experiences and perception?
In this episode of Psychology of the Strange, I explore the idea of haunted people through cognitive science, perception, and meaning-making. I begin with a documented case of a man who experienced persistent disturbances in his home, but quickly move beyond the question of whether the events were supernatural to examine why certain experiences feel intentional and emotionally charged.
Drawing on research into sleep disruption, hypervigilance, pattern detection, absorption, and what researchers call Haunted People Syndrome, this episode explores how the brain interprets ambiguity, and why the boundary between external threat and internal perception can sometimes blur.
I also reflect on the modern context of storytelling, including how sharing extraordinary experiences publicly can shape interpretation and meaning, while recognizing that similar patterns have been documented long before social media existed.
As part of this season’s exploration of the psychological line between good and evil, I consider how cultures have historically framed unexplained experiences as supernatural or malevolent, and how psychology offers another way of understanding the same phenomena.
 
This conversation isn’t about proving or disproving ghosts. It’s about understanding why certain experiences feel haunted, why they linger, and what they reveal about the human mind’s relationship with fear, belief, and uncertainty.
Grad school doesn't fund itself, and neither does late-night research into the supernatural, cryptids, and the psychology of conspiracies. If an episode got under your skin, sent you down your own rabbit hole, or made you text someone "you need to hear this", buying me a coffee keeps the strange alive.
https://buymeacoffee.com/psychstrangepod
 
 
Topics explored:
– Haunted People Syndrome
– Psychology of haunting and ghost experiences
– Recurring unexplained phenomena
– Feeling watched and hypervigilance
– Sleep and perception
– Meaning-making under uncertainty
– Social storytelling and interpretation
– Fear, ambiguity, and the line between good and evil
 
Follow Psychology of the Strange for weekly explorations of folklore, perception, and the psychology behind the experiences that unsettle us most.

When the Rules Stop Working: Thin Places & The Morrígan

What happens when the rules stop working? In this episode of Psychology of the Strange, we step into thin places, liminal spaces in Celtic lore where the boundary between worlds weakens, identity destabilizes, and moral certainty begins to fracture. These are places of power, not comfort. Places where choice carries weight, and where survival often demands more than virtue can offer.
At the center of this episode is The Morrigan, a shapeshifting figure of war, prophecy, and sovereignty who appears at thresholds: river fords, battlefields, borders, and moments of irreversible decision. Often misunderstood as a goddess of death, the Morrígan is better understood as a witness to transformation appearing where people are no longer who they were, and not yet who they will become.
Through immersive mythic storytelling grounded in Celtic tradition, this episode explores how thin places function psychologically as environments of uncertainty, threat, and transition. We examine why ambiguity heightens vigilance, how identity shifts under constraint, and why being seen during moments of moral rupture can be more unsettling than judgment or punishment.
This episode builds toward a deeper examination of how humans navigate the blurred line between good and evil when moral categories begin to collapse.
Grad school doesn't fund itself, and neither does late-night research into the supernatural, mythology, and the psychology of folklore. If an episode got under your skin, sent you down your own rabbit hole, or made you text someone "you need to hear this", buying me a coffee keeps the strange alive.
https://buymeacoffee.com/psychstrangepod
 
If you’re interested in:
Celtic mythology and folklore
Liminal spaces and thin places
The psychology of uncertainty and moral decision-making
Dark psychology, identity under threat, and choice without certainty
Myth as a way to understanding human behavior…this episode invites you to stand at the threshold and notice what it reveals.
Because thin places don’t change who you are.
They show you what remains when certainty disappears.
 
psychology of the Strange is part of the Darkcast Network