{"podcast":{"title":"Paranormia","slug":"paranormia-7042297","podcast_index_feed_id":7042297,"rss_url":"https://feeds.acast.com/public/shows/6704e5211a3de581c6a143cd","website_url":"https://audioalways.lnk.to/ParanormiaPod","image_url":"https://assets.pippa.io/shows/6704e5211a3de581c6a143cd/1763990919190-2853c3a9-b9fd-45c3-9bc1-5cebe474cb24.jpeg","author":"Audio Always","episode_count":34,"summary":"Are you ever awake in the cruellest hours of the night, when the world is quiet, but your mind isn’t? That’s where Paranormia begins. Hosted by journalist and parapsychologist Elizabeth McCafferty, Paranormia is a weekly storytelling podcast where true crime collides with the supernatural, the psychological, and the macabre. Each episode explores real cases where belief in something unseen becomes dangerous, cursed objects drive people to violence, psychic visions predict tragedy, cults where worship turns deadly, and hauntings blur into guilt, obsession, or faith. Elizabeth blends rigorous research with cinematic storytelling to uncover what happens when reason falters and fear takes hold. Because these aren’t just ghost stories, they’re stories about us: about the human need to explain the inexplicable, to find meaning in the dark. Paranormia: where paranoia meets the paranormal. Subscribe, and stay awake with us. If you have a story where crime and the otherworldly intertwine, something strange, unexplained or just plain haunted, get in touch at paranormia@alwaystruecrime.com . For more true crime that you'll be obsessed with head to AlwaysTrueCrime.com . Hosted on Acast. See a…","last_synced_at":"2026-07-22T10:19:11.404372+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/paranormia-7042297"},"episode":{"title":"Spirits: The God Helmet","slug":"spirits-the-god-helmet","published_at":"2026-06-02T23:01:00+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/paranormia-7042297/spirits-the-god-helmet","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/paranormia-7042297","url":"https://shows.acast.com/paranormia/episodes/spirits-the-god-helmet","audio_url":"https://sphinx.acast.com/p/open/s/6704e5211a3de581c6a143cd/e/6a1eff4dd610a774039015d8/media.mp3","summary":"Elizabeth takes us into the remote mining country of northern Ontario, where a neuroscientist named Michael Persinger has spent decades trying to understand how the brain constructs some of our most powerful experiences. At the centre of his work is a modified motorcycle helmet, fitted with coils that deliver weak, patterned magnetic fields to the temporal lobes. The idea is unsettlingly simple… could the feeling of a presence in the room, even something interpreted as God, be triggered by subtle changes in brain activity? As one journalist sits inside Persinger’s lab and undergoes the experiment himself, the line between neuroscience and the supernatural begins to blur in unexpected ways. Plus Elizabeth shares a little about the release of her new book. If you have a story where crime and the otherworldly intertwine, something strange, unexplained or just plain haunted, get in touch at paranormia@alwaystruecrime.com   Paranormia is an Audio Always production. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.","meta_description":"Elizabeth takes us into the remote mining country of northern Ontario, where a neuroscientist named Michael Persinger has spent decades trying to understa…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":2062,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/paranormia-7042297/episodes/spirits-the-god-helmet/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/paranormia-7042297/spirits-the-god-helmet.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}