In the first half, guest host Connie Willis (info) spoke with Dr. Anona Blackwell about her career journey from rigorous scientific medicine to exploring the supernatural. With a background that includes a biophysics degree and several influential research papers, her current healing practice seeks to bridge science and spirituality. Dr. Blackwell explained how her transition to mysticism was shaped by personal paranormal experiences. During her medical career, she claimed to have encountered numerous inexplicable phenomena, often involving patients and their deceased loved ones.
Dr. Blackwell recounted instances where she saw spirit animals and late relatives in clinical settings, such as a "spirit dog" that jumped onto her lap during a patient consultation, and even a "spirit horse" that allegedly appeared. She also described her ability to predict deaths through lucid dreams, recalling a vivid episode at age 17 where she foresaw the death of her headmaster, and another vision where Archangel Michael revealed her dog's testicular cancer.
Dr. Blackwell has faced challenges integrating her paranormal experiences with her academic identity. She recalled a conversation with a "left-brained" professor who was shocked to learn of her spiritual practice, yet Blackwell stated that same professor later became a believer after a transformative healing session. "I turned her life upside down within a few seconds," she insisted. Her work also touches on the healing power of love, both in life and after death. She believes that strong bonds of love create a vibration that allows spirits to remain close to the living, as seen in her encounters with suffering patients whose deceased loved ones appear. "We are basically here to learn to love," she noted. "There's much more to this life than just the material world."
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In the second half, Chris Barrera, founder of Bigfoot South Dakota, examined Bigfoot reports as if they were crime scenes. He applies his law enforcement training to these cryptid investigations, offering a disciplined and methodical approach in the field. Barrera founded Bigfoot South Dakota in 2007 after encountering multiple reports of Sasquatch activity during his patrols. His Native American heritage also shapes his understanding of Bigfoot, known in Lakota culture as "Chiye-tanka," or "elder brother," with stories of these beings dating back thousands of years. Despite this cultural background, Barrera remained skeptical until his own experiences compelled him to take this creature seriously.
He described several standout cases, including one where a family reported Bigfoot footprints circling their home in the snow. The tracks allegedly measured much larger than human feet and showed distinctive toe impressions. "How they walk is always in a straight line," Barrera noted, contrasting this gait with a human's more staggered foot placement. Barrera also shared an incident where he and a fellow officer heard a loud, unidentifiable scream from the timber near Crazy Horse Canyon during a fatal crash investigation. Despite attempts to locate the source with a spotlight, the entity remained unseen, moving silently through the woods.
On another occasion, while retrieving trail cameras, he and a partner were startled by a similar scream in broad daylight. He also shared cases where witnesses were so terrified that they moved away from their homes. In one story, a man fired shotgun rounds into the air to scare off a 10-foot-tall hairy figure standing near his residence. Another instance involved a dispatcher who saw a Bigfoot standing along a fence line in the rain, prompting a full police response.