In the first half, guest host Rich Berra (email) spoke with Wendy Mata, a fifth-generation bruja curandera, about Mexican spiritual traditions, ancestral curses, and haunted encounters. Mata, who previously worked in cybersecurity for 25 years before becoming a full-time practitioner in 2021, described her lifelong experience with spirits and healing rituals. "I remember growing up going to witness family members doing 'limpias,' which are energy cleansings that we do in Mexico," she noted. "I grew up talking to the dead, seeing ghosts, seeing spirits. Realizing not everybody had that life was quite shocking to me."
She shared a childhood encounter with the legendary weeping spirit, La Llorona, while visiting family in Mexico. After the room grew intensely cold, Mata said she heard a piercing wail in the middle of the night. "I remember her screaming outside of the window," she recalled. The experience left her paralyzed with fear, requiring a traditional limpia to treat susto, a condition where extreme shock reportedly causes a piece of the soul to leave one's body. She also detailed encounters with parasitic entities during her global travels, including an experience with an alleged sleep paralysis demon in Venice, Italy. "Some buildings have spirits that are so old they live off the energy of the people staying there," Mata revealed.
Regarding family curses, Mata asserted that negative spiritual patterns can pass through ancestral lines. "It's actually a study of epigenetics," she claimed, "...which traces the DNA of our ancestors and their sicknesses and how they follow us." She added that certain individuals inherit these burdens specifically to resolve them, stating, "Sometimes we are the ones that are meant to break the curses."
------------------
The second half of the program featured Open Lines, where listeners call in to discuss topics of interest. Mike from San Diego described lifelong experiences he interprets as psychic or paranormal, including visions, sensing others' pain, and alleged harassment, hacking, and manipulation by people around him. Paula from Tacoma, Washington revealed that her goddaughter emptied her home while she was hospitalized, taking furniture, family heirlooms, clothes, and other belongings. John from Wisconsin recounted being homeless and struggling with alcoholism in St. Louis in 1984, when boxer Leon Spinks encouraged him to return to family in Milwaukee and seek treatment. John noted that he has remained sober ever since and views Spinks as an angel in his life.
Karen from Paramount, California shared a childhood story about being frightened by her grandmother's warnings about La Llorona after sneaking out at night to swing on a lemon tree. Myat from New York explained that trauma can leave people withdrawn and suggested some listeners may benefit from trauma-focused support, including shamanic practices. She also urged Paula to file a police report about her stolen belongings.
Ruthie from Maryland discussed seeing an unusual object moving erratically across the daytime sky as a child near a defense-industry facility. She believes some reported UFOs may be advanced government drone technology. Rooster from Osprey, Florida recalled seeing a towering figure he interpreted as a demon while praying at a trailer park. He connected heightened paranormal perceptions to surviving a severe electrical injury as a teenager and noted that he now interprets UFOs as demonic phenomena.