Robert Larson: Co-Founder of The Excluded Middle

If it weren’t for Robert Larson, I probably wouldn’t be involved in the paranormal. We encouraged each other’s interests in the early 1990s, and Robert was an equal contributor to the success of The Excluded Middle, a magazine we co-founded along with my friend Peter Stenshoel.

In the first hour, we talk about election fraud, 9-11 theories, and sliding democracy. The subject then changes to the suicide of CIA/ Contra reporter Gary Webb, as well as the work of author/ reporter Greg Palast (who wrote The Best Democracy Money Can Buy and Armed Madhouse.) Then Robert, Walter, and I discuss the films of Alexander Jodorowsky, and Robert Anton Wilson’s influence on our early thinking about conspiracies and anomalies. We also get into the work of Daniel Pinchbeck and the 2012 controversy.

In the second hour, the subject of grain circles crops up, and we talk about the trickster element in this phenomenon. We move on to our own paranormal experiences, including the time a drinking glass literally exploded in my hand in Robert’s kitchen.

In the late 1970s and early ’80s, Robert fronted a punk band called “Naughty Women,” and he says that perhaps there was some unconscious influence from famed sci-fi writer Phillip K. Dick, who lived in Fullerton, California when Robert was attending high school there. Occasionally he will take people on a “Phil Dick Tour” of significant sites in Fullerton.

We segued into a discussion about the adaptations of Dick’s stories to the big screen and filmmakers “teaching” audiences new ways of storytelling, the trickster element in paranormal research, the SERPO/ CARET fiasco, and an extended convsersation on the work of director David Lynch.

We end up with some of the implications of writing and producing radio shows, and how they may be agents for personal change for the audience and the writers/ hosts. Enjoy and listen to Robert’s own show “Out The Rabbit Hole” on Thrusdays from 5-6 PM PST on KUCI FM 88.9 or subscribe to the podcast.