Religion & SpiritualitySpiritualityExplicit

Splintered Spirits

with Gary and John

What are spirits, really? Splintered Spirits explores the afterlife, ghosts, and the mysteries of human consciousness. Hosted by producer Gary Shapiro (the uneasy novice) and his nephew John Santa of Santa Paranormal (the experienced researcher), this podcast bridges the gap between the physical and spiritual worlds. Tune in for unnerving, funny, and thoughtful interviews or on-location experiments with psychic-mediums, parapsychologists, ghost hunters, witches and everyday people who have pierced the veil.

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Avg 1 hr 12 min
English

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S2 · E26057
Friday · 1 hr 31 min
Ep 57: A Crash Course in Tarot with Beck Ravenswood
Tarot cards get a bad rap in the movies: dramatic candlelight, a mysterious stranger, and a death card that spells doom. The reality is a lot more interesting, and a lot less scary, and in this episode we're getting the real story straight from someone who reads professionally and is currently fighting a legal battle over it. Beck Ravenswood, the Hanover, Pennsylvania witch making headlines as the plaintiff in a landmark court case over Pennsylvania's fortune telling laws, joins Gary for a full breakdown of the craft that started it all. Beck walks through tarot's murky medieval origins, the difference between the major and minor arcana, why the deck splits into four suits just like a regular deck of playing cards, and what it actually means when a card shows up reversed. Along the way she also gives an update on her ongoing lawsuit, a case that's turned into something much bigger than tarot itself, touching on free speech, religious practice, and what the government gets to decide counts as legitimate spiritual work. Then Beck puts Gary in the hot seat for his first ever tarot reading, a full ten card Celtic cross spread that digs into what's really going on beneath the surface. Whether you're tarot curious, already have a deck collecting dust on a shelf, or just want to understand what's really happening in a reading before you write it off, this episode is a genuinely useful crash course in one of the most misunderstood tools in the paranormal and spiritual world.
S2 · E26053
Tuesday · 1 hr 12 min
Ep 53: The Warren Legacy with Chris McKinnell
Chris McKinnell, grandson of legendary paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren, joins Splintered Spirits for a conversation about ghosts, consciousness, fear, and the real stories behind the Warren legacy. With more than four decades of fieldwork across 10,000 cases in 18 countries, Chris brings a perspective shaped by firsthand experience, psychology, religion, cultural anthropology, and a lifetime spent around the unexplained. Chris discusses why he moved beyond the demonology framework associated with the Warrens, why he believes fear can make paranormal experiences worse, and what he thinks spirits actually are. He also talks about the true cases that inspired The Conjuring universe, the modern obsession with Annabelle, haunted objects, psychic ability, residual energy, and why the paranormal may have far more to do with human consciousness than horror movies. This is a grounded, surprising episode of Splintered Spirits with one of the most connected voices in paranormal investigation.
S2 · E260910
September 11 · 57 min
Splintered Spirits Live - September 10, 2026!!!
John Santa has a big problem this week. After a few too many cocktails at the haunted Tarrytown House Estate, a flirtatious spirit named Lily got a little too comfortable on his live stream. Then she followed him to home. Gary and John discuss the consequences of altered states of "intent,” why alcohol and ghost hunting don't mix, and whether it can be considered cheating if it’s with a ghost. From there the guys dig into some genuinely wild paranormal theory: entities that evolve over time, a possessed forest campsite nicknamed The Creature, water tables as spiritual conduits, and whether an 8 foot shadow figure could exist without even knowing it's terrifying anyone. There's talk of dowsing rods, ley lines, time slips, and a haunted Confederate soldier still walking someone's hallway. Real ghost stories, real paranormal investigation talk, zero filter. Splintered Spirits Live drops weekly with unscripted conversations about hauntings, spirit communication, ghost hunting equipment, and the paranormal community's strangest encounters. New episodes and guest interviews every Tuesday, live shows every Thursday. Time’s winding down to take Are You a Ghost Magnet survey at splinteredspirits.com/survey to find out if you're wired to attract the supernatural.
S2 · E260903
September 4 · 1 hr 2 min
Splintered Spirits Live with Fuel Neve!
This episode of Splintered Spirits welcomes viral paranormal reaction creator Fuel Neve, for a funny, thoughtful, and unexpectedly personal conversation about ghost encounters, horror, social media, and why the paranormal does not always have to be deadly serious. Fuel shares how his loud, hilarious reactions to strange internet videos helped build his following, and why John Santa’s ghost-hunting clips are perfect material. Then things get genuinely spooky. Fuel recounts the shadowy figure known as “Old Man Mr. Fox” from his grandmother’s basement in Crown Point, Indiana, a presence his relatives later admitted they had seen too. He also relives a terrifying solo hotel stay in Inverness, Scotland, where the temperature plunged, appliances turned on by themselves, and a closet door shook from the other side. Gary, John, and Fuel get into the big question behind it all: What are spirits? From residual hauntings and intelligent entities to time, dimensions, and the possibility that paranormal experiences are something the human brain cannot fully process, this is a lively paranormal conversation with plenty of laughs, strong language, and more than a few “WTF is wrong with you?” moments!
S2 · E26052
September 1 · 1 hr 17 min
Ep 52: Shari DeBenedetti from Ghost Hunters
What happens when a terrifying encounter in your own bedroom becomes the beginning of a life in paranormal investigation? On this episode of Splintered Spirits, Ghost Hunters and Ghost Nation investigator Shari DeBenedetti shares the chilling story that changed everything: unexplained activity in her family home, a physical encounter she still cannot explain, and a faceless doppelgänger that looked exactly like her then-boyfriend. Long before joining Jason Hawes and The Atlantic Paranormal Society, TAPS, Shari spent years investigating private cases across Massachusetts and upstate New York. She talks about building an investigative team in the 1990s, working with the limited equipment available at the time, and why a logical, evidence-first approach matters even when a case becomes deeply personal. She also tells stories that never made it to television, including the moment a skeptical engineer was violently thrown across a room. From Ghost Hunters to Ghost Hunters Returns, this is a candid, funny, and unsettling conversation about spirits, fear, skepticism, and the real work of helping people feel safe in their own homes again. If you love paranormal podcasts, true ghost stories, haunted-house investigations, EVP evidence, or behind-the-scenes stories from the Ghost Hunters universe, press play and dive into the conversation.
S2 · E260827
August 28 · 1 hr 5 min
Splintered Spirits Live with Reverend Meg
Reverend Meg joins Splintered Spirits for a grounded, funny, and deeply personal conversation about psychic mediumship, spiritual awakening, spirit guides, and the nature of the nonphysical world. An ordained minister and licensed psychic medium through the Chapel of Awareness, Meg shares how a former atheist began experiencing powerful intuition, déjà vu, and encounters she could not easily explain, eventually leading her into years of spiritual study and ministry. We talk about ADHD and learning to separate intuition from a busy mind, why meditation and skepticism matter in psychic development, and why Meg believes mediumship is a skill that requires practice, mentorship, and verifiable exercises. She also breaks down her view of ghosts, guides, and consciousness after death, including why she sees spirits as nonphysical energy rather than frightening human-like entities. What are spirits? Can paranormal investigators benefit from a more spiritual approach? And why does Meg believe we may be less separate from the spirit world than we think? This episode explores paranormal experiences, psychic abilities, spiritual healing, shadow work, religion, fear, and the ongoing search for peace, purpose, and connection.
S2 · E26058
August 21 · 1 hr 22 min
Ep 58: Much Ado About Bullying
In this episode of Splintered Spirits, Gary sits down with Mizz Paranormal, Cat, and Luna for an unfiltered conversation about paranormal experiences, ghost hunting ethics, and the growing fight for civility in the paranormal community. The three guests share the personal experiences that shaped their beliefs and drove them to speak publicly about what they see happening in the field. But this is also a conversation about accountability. Mizz Paranormal, Cat, and Luna break down what they feel is the line between paranormal entertainment and authentic investigation, why debunking is a necessary part of ghost hunting, and how misinformation, rage bait, bullying, harassment, and parasocial fandoms can poison online paranormal spaces. Gary pushes back from the perspective of a producer, leading to a real discussion about transparency, content creation, evidence, the Conjuring House controversy, and whether the paranormal community can make room for disagreement without becoming cruel - which this conversation proves: it can. If you love paranormal podcasts, ghost stories, spirit communication, and honest conversations about the ethics of ghost hunting, this episode goes deeper than the jump scares. It is a funny, candid, occasionally controversial look at belief, integrity, and what it takes to defend truth and human decency in a field where nobody can fully prove what happens after death.
S2 · E26051
August 18 · 1 hr 40 min
Ep 51: The Oman House
The Oman House is a three story home on Cielo Drive in Beverly Hills, built in 2002 on a vacant lot just feet from where the Sharon Tate and Manson family murders took place in 1969. Owner David Oman has spent decades living with unexplained phenomena in the house, from phantom footsteps and vanishing tools during construction to figurines and large dolls that topple on their own in rooms packed with cameras, all against a backdrop of Native American and old Hollywood history. In this episode I join David inside what has been called one of the most haunted houses in America for a full walkthrough of his home and his experiences. He shares how a childhood fascination with the supernatural evolved into a more skeptical, investigative mindset and recounts key moments, including the night he woke to see a full bodied apparition he later recognized as victim Jay Sebring standing at the foot of his bed and silently pointing toward the hillside next door. Whether you believe in ghosts or just love true crime and high strangeness, this is a rare chance to hear the story of the Oman House from the man who actually lives there.
S2 · E260813
August 14 · 1 hr 17 min
Splintered Spirits Live with Nine Lives Paranormal
What happens when a love of haunted history, horror movies, folklore, and ghost hunting brings two people together? In this episode of Splintered Spirits, we sit down with Cara Cilento and Gail Gamble of Nine Lives Paranormal to explore their path from Italian folk magic, Ozarks legends, abandoned asylums, and a first ghost hunt to becoming paranormal investigators, authors, educators, and creators of one of New Jersey’s most ambitious paranormal events. From ghost cats at the Conjuring House and Shanley Hotel to a chilling shadow figure encounter at Pennhurst Asylum, Cara and Gail share the experiences that made the unknown impossible to ignore. We dig into paranormal investigation techniques, haunted locations, spirit communication, EVP evidence, spirit boxes, custom ghost-hunting equipment, EMF anomalies, intuitive sensitivity, historical research, and the question at the center of every investigation: what are spirits? Cara and Gail explain their balanced approach to investigating hauntings, where Gail brings the technology, data, and experimental equipment, while Cara describes the physical and intuitive sensations that guide her toward paranormal hotspots. They also share why respect, ethics, open-mindedness, and validating history matter more than provocation or sensationalism. Plus, we take a deep dive into The Hollow Paracon & Film Fest, the New Jersey paranormal convention and horror film festival created by Nine Lives Paranormal. Hear how The Hollow grew from a small paranormal bazaar into a large-scale gathering of ghost hunters, horror filmmakers, paranormal researchers, vendors, workshops, haunted attractions, and independent genre films. If you love ghosts, hauntings, paranormal research, haunted asylums, folklore, supernatural stories, horror culture, or the ongoing search for evidence beyond the veil, this is an episode you do not want to miss.
S2 · E260806
August 7 · 1 hr 20 min
Splintered Spirits Live with Kaedrich Olsen and Ten Rules for Paranormal Interaction
In this episode of Splintered Spirits, Gary and John sit down with paranormal mentor and Norse mystic Kaedrich Olsen, a man who quite literally says he was “born into the paranormal.” From growing up in a haunted house and attending spiritualist church as a kid to teaching seances and Norse mysticism, Kaedrich has spent decades refining a practical set of “10 rules” for dealing with ghosts, spirits, and the unseen. Instead of rehashing ghost stories, we dig into the real question: what actually happened to him over the years that forced each of these rules into existence? Across the conversation we walk through those rules one by one and trace them back to lived experiences. Kaedrich explains how being a terrified kid in a haunted basement led to his first rule, “similarities attract and perpetuate,” why learning to laugh at strange activity completely changed his relationship with hauntings, and how years of helping investigators with attachments and problem homes convinced him you must “test and validate everything.” We get into Ouija boards, seances, spirit attachments, fear states, energetic boundaries, shadow work, “no veil” theory, and what spirits are from his consciousness-based model. If you’ve ever wondered whether your mindset can make a haunting worse, why some people seem like ghost magnets, or how to safely communicate with loved ones without gadgets, this episode is built to challenge your assumptions and give you a new playbook for coexisting with the paranormal. Perfect for fans of paranormal investigation, ghost hunting, psychic development, Norse mysticism, and shadow work, this is a high-signal, low-BS deep dive into how the unseen actually behaves in real life and what to do about it when it shows up.
S2 · E26054
August 4 · 1 hr 22 min
Ep 50: Sean Austin - Medium, Demonologist, Ghost Hunter
In this episode of Splintered Spirits, Gary and John dive into the strange and spiritual world of demonologist, paranormal investigator, musician, medium, tech developer, and all around Renaissance Man, Sean Austin. From Catholic school memories and horror movie nightmares to actual field work with dark entities, Sean walks us through how a flip phone EVP and a very skeptical waiter blew his life wide open to the paranormal. It is part theology chat, part quantum physics, part campfire story. And it is very much a ride. Along the way, we get into what Sean thinks spirits really are, why intent might matter as much as faith, and how his music background and finely tuned ear shape the way he investigates. There are stories of hauntings that unfold like cosmic practical jokes, out of body trips to places that feel a lot like heaven, and hard won lessons from demonology mentors who have seen it all. It is thoughtful and curious, but never too serious to laugh at itself. If you have ever wondered whether vibration, frequency, and the ways you live your life could shape what happens after you die, this conversation is going to stick with you. If you just want to hear smart people joke about last rites, skeptical lab rats, and Southern ghosts versus New York ghosts, you are in the right place too.
S2 · E260730
July 31 · 1 hr 8 min
Splintered Spirits Live with Brian Cano!
Splintered Spirits welcomes veteran paranormal investigator, TV analyst, and author Brian J. Cano (Travel Channel's Paranormal Caught on Camera, SyFy's Haunted Collector) for a deep dive into his personal research philosophy he calls “Paralosophy.” Brian breaks down why he refuses to research a location's history before investigating, why he thinks the Estes Method is little more than a placebo dressed up in headphones, and why the biggest source of ghostly EVPs might actually be us, not spirits. Along the way he shares his wild psychic projection experiment. This episode blends ghost hunting theory, parapsychology, and skeptical inquiry with real talk about tech gadgets, meditation, consciousness, and the science behind paranormal investigation. Gary and John dig into what makes a truly complete paranormal investigation, why TV and YouTube culture have warped how people chase the unexplained, and how humor and energy might unlock connections that gear alone cannot. Whether you are a lifelong ghost hunter or just curious about spirits, consciousness, and the unexplained, this conversation offers a fresh, thoughtful lens on paranormal research. Tune in for stories from Staten Island cable access shows to national television, insights from the Rhine Institute, and a candid look at how one investigator evolved from rigid skeptic to skeptical believer over two decades in the field.
S2 · E2260722
July 24 · 1 hr 6 min
Are You A Ghost Magnet? Splintered Spirits Live with Prof. Brian Laythe
What happens when you put a data-driven parapsychologist in the same room as two loud-mouth ghost enthusiasts trying to figure out what spirits are? In this episode, Gary and John sit down once again with Professor Brian Laythe to unpack his groundbreaking work on “Haunted People Syndrome” and why some people seem to live in a constant swirl of weirdness while others barely see a flicker. They dig into the idea of transliminality, thin psychic boundaries, and how your personality, your beliefs, and even your family can shape the way you experience hauntings, synchronicities, and all the “what the hell was that?” moments that never quite leave you.Along the way, Brian reads out Gary and John’s actual scores from a new survey they’ve created together and uses them as a live case study. Gary gets crowned an “internally enlightened mystic,” while John quietly blows the doors off the strange events scale. The result is part therapy session, part comedy roast, and part field guide to your own state of weird. If you’ve ever felt watched, had bizarre body sensations, smelled things that weren’t there, or just wondered whether your house is haunted or your brain is creative, this conversation gives you language, tools, and a fresh way to think about it all. Take the Are You A Ghost Magnet Survey Here: splinteredspirits.com/survey
S2 · E26049
July 21 · 1 hr 30 min
Ep 49: Haunted People Syndrome and Other Studies with Prof. Brian Laythe
If you’re into haunted houses, real-life ghost research, Western occult history, psychic phenomena, or just want to know what serious scientists actually think about spirits, this is the episode you don’t skip. Step into one of the most mind-bending episodes of Splintered Spirits yet, as Gary and John sit down with Dr. Brian Laythe, social psychologist, parapsychologist, Director of the Institute for the Study of Religious and Anomalous Experience, and co-author of Ghosted!: Exploring the Haunting Reality of Paranormal Encounters. Brian has spent decades at the crossroads of science, magick, theology, and hauntings, studying everything from the Golden Dawn and Western esotericism to real-world ghost encounters, ESP, and possession cases. In this conversation, he reveals how he went from “in the closet” paranormal nerd to one of the leading researchers publishing haunting and ESP studies in mainstream scientific journals, and why psychology as a field is often more hostile to the paranormal than physics. If you’ve ever wondered whether ghost experiences are “all in your head” or genuinely supernatural, this episode is your rabbit hole. Brian breaks down his Survey of Strange Events: a mathematically built hierarchy of haunting phenomena that shows subjective feelings (“I felt a presence”) and objective events (voices, objects moving, apparitions) are not separate categories, but one backbone of paranormality that repeats across hauntings, gang-stalking accounts, and creepy imaginary friends. He then walks Gary and John through Haunted People Syndrome, his six-stage model explaining why some people are haunted everywhere they go, how high “transliminality” (thin psychic boundaries) supercharges paranormal encounters, and why belief systems and social contagion can turn one “oh crap” moment into a full-blown, life-shaping haunting. Along the way, you’ll hear jaw-dropping field stories from infamous locations like Black Moon Manor and Whispers Estate; sites where Brian’s team locked down environments, ran A++ level EMF and geomagnetic monitoring, and still captured anomalies that defy easy debunking. Don’t just dive into the conversation with this one, become a part of it. Visit splinteredspirits.com and be a part of our study with Prof. Brian Laythe by taking our “ARE YOU A GHOST MAGNET?” Survey!
S2 · E260716
July 17 · 1 hr 20 min
The Business of Ghosts: Splintered Spirits Live with Tim Nealon, CEO of Ghost City Tours
Splintered Spirits sits down with Tim Nealon, the software engineer and entrepreneur who turned a “joke” ghost tour in Savannah into Ghost City Tours, one of the most recognizable brands in haunted tourism. This conversation starts out funny then dives into how Tim built a real world business around phenomena most people still consider unreal. Across the episode, Tim talks candidly about his universe and his competitors. He breaks down why most ghost tour operators may be passionate, but not great business people (or even ethical ones), how ambition and drive helped him scale to hundreds of employees, and what changes when every guest thinks they are a paranormal expert thanks to TV and social media. We also explore how years of investigations at famous haunted locations shifted his sense of what might happen after death and why he believes we have barely scratched the surface of how the paranormal interacts with us. If you care about ghosts, business, and the strange intersection of curiosity and capitalism, this is a sharp, funny look at what it means to build a haunted empire in the real world.
S2 · E260709
July 10 · 1 hr 35 min
Splintered Spirits Live: Balesky's Back!!!
Amie Balesky returns to Splintered Spirits for a conversation that pushes past easy labels like "spirit" and into deeper territory. She shares how her understanding of energy, vibration, and connection has evolved since her last visit, offering a fresh lens on how she experiences and interprets the unseen. Gary and John dig into what's changed for her, and how those shifts are shaping the way she works and sees the world.The conversation moves through some heavier moments, including stories of unsettling premonitions and a surprising new direction in her work that has drawn unexpected outside interest. Amie opens up about the responsibility that comes with the things she senses, and how she decides what to share and when.As always, the episode balances the eerie with the entertaining. Between lighter personal stories and a visit with the Annabelle doll, this one captures the mix of humor and mystery that keeps listeners coming back to Splintered Spirits.
S2 · E26048
July 7 · 1 hr 8 min
Ep 48: The Paranormal Princess, Haley Michelle
Meet Haley Michelle, the Paranormal Princess. By day, she owns Royal Wishes, an entertainment company where she has been bringing beloved princess characters to life at children's birthday parties for over a decade. By night, and sometimes in between, she is one of the most uniquely vibrant voices in the paranormal world. She has nearly three million TikTok followers, a collection of over 50 haunted dolls, and a brand unlike anything else in the ghost hunting community. Gary and John sit down with Haley to explore what it means to bring light, warmth, and a decidedly pink energy into a space that tends to favor black t-shirts and dark corridors. Haley opens up about growing up with mediumistic gifts from infancy, her journey into haunted objects, and how her princess persona may actually amplify her connection to the spirit world. Children's spirits are especially drawn to her. From paranormal investigations inside the Ohio State Reformatory to nursing home visits where spirits appeared alongside her while she was in full character, Haley shares her most extraordinary and emotional ghost encounters, including deeply personal signs she has been receiving since the recent passing of her mother. The conversation takes a thoughtful turn into some of the biggest questions in the paranormal community. What are spirits, really? Do past lives exist? And why do so many ghost hunters assume every cemetery is crawling with the dead? Haley also shares her take on the haunting of Disney World, introduces her famous haunted doll Cynthia, and explains why she will occasionally drop the crown on haters online. She is the rare paranormal personality who makes ghost hunting feel like magic.
S2 · E260702
July 3 · 1 hr 1 min
Splintered Spirits Live with Audrey xx Bella!
Audrey and Bella were just two best friends who bonded over K-pop in college until a trip to Salem, Massachusetts changed everything. With zero investigation experience, they started a YouTube channel about ghost hunting and the unexplained, and their very first paranormal investigation became their very first video. In this episode, Gary and John talk with the duo about building their brand from scratch. Audrey shares growing up in a haunted house and discovering her sensitivity to paranormal energy, while Bella explains how she conquered her childhood fear of the dark by diving headfirst into everything that scared her. They cover their evolution from taped-together gear to a fully planned investigation process, plus the moment a spirit box responded with "Lucifer" on their first ever hunt. The conversation gets into their most haunted location, Laurel's House of Horror in Maryland, where corrupted footage and an alleged possession changed how Audrey thinks about demons. They also talk business strategy, their five year plan, and what they believe spirits really are, all with plenty of laughs along the way.
S2 · E260625
June 26 · 58 min
Splintered Spirits Live with Angel Morgan, Pet Psychic featuring Voxxie (the cat)!
Animal psychic and “realm walker” Angel Morgan is back, and this time she brought backup: a ball python named Benedict and a whole lot of wild stories. In this episode, Angel dives into how she communicates with animals on physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual levels, from hearing a snake clearly say “You’re my mommy, take me home” to doing ceremony for frozen feeder mice and cattle bound for market. The conversation starts light and weird, then keeps surprising you as it goes deeper into the ethics, rituals, and real-world moments that shaped her work. Things get personal when Angel starts reading John’s infamous house cat, Voxxie. She calls out a spirit-level animal who wants to go to cemeteries, an orange cat with a tragic past, and a little girl in John’s home who might be tied to a destroyed haunted doll named Penny. From cinematic animal communication stories at historic train stations to a pack of dogs coming through a spirit box onstage, Angel keeps dropping experiences that challenge what we think “spirits” are and how they show up. If you’ve ever wondered whether your pets are just watching you or actually watching over you, this one is going to stick with you.
S2 · E26045
June 23 · 1 hr 28 min
Ep 45: Angel Morgan, Pet Psychic
Welcome to an episode that asks what happens when the spirits you talk to have fur, claws, or scales. In this Splintered Spirits conversation, Gary sits down with animal psychic and realm walker Angel Morgan, a psychic-medium who claims she can tune into animals on mental, physical, emotional and spiritual levels. Together they discuss the Akashic Records, haunted locations, nature spirits, and the hidden roles animals play as guardians, messengers, and energetic sponges in our homes. If you are into animal communication, pet psychics, paranormal investigations, haunted houses, mediumship, spirit guides, and real-life psychic readings, press play now. Angel explains how she works with spirit animals, gods and goddesses, and even restless entities attached to objects, while also talking about ethics, grief, and what it feels like to know an animal is preparing to cross over. The conversation moves from practical tools for protecting your pets during hauntings to big-picture questions about what spirits are and how consciousness moves between realms. Stay to the very end, where Gary includes his own dogs for an on-air reading that lands with eerie specifics and becomes one of the most personal and unsettling moments in the entire episode.

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