This is Chris O’Brien’s fourth appearance on Radio Misterioso (since February of 2005) this time to promote and discuss his new book Stalking The Tricksters. The book is a thorough examination of the trickster archetype and its connection to the sort of paranormal events that O’Brien investigated for over a decade in the San Luis Valley of southern Colorado. Chris’ theory is that most, if not all sightings of UFOs, abductions, cryptozoological creatures, ghosts, and other strange events that challenge our collective ideas of reality are the result of a control system that operates on a symbolic level to shock us out of our emotional and intellectual complacency.
We talked about the trickster archetype, more as a force of the collective psyche than a clownish imp prancing about the countryside. Appropriately, the importance of humor and the court jester figure came up–the comedian whose job it is to tell the truth, couched in jokes–so that we can recognize and deal with serious problems.
Chris also discussed his recent work with officials of the Zuni tribe of western New Mexico, and a strange sandstone tablet recently unearthed on the Zuni reservation which appears to have Tibetan or Sanskrit letters carved into it.
We concluded with a discussion of why the paranormal is so compelling and why people would spend their lives in pursuit of something that may never have any conclusion.
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