Do You Believe in Ghosts? - Intentionally Blank Ep. 162

[@cpozo3306]

erm they are actually called cognitive shadows ☝🤓

[@muchomango496]

wtf Somehow the comment section for Intentionally Blank appeared on a different video I was watching uploaded 3 minutes ago. Disregard my fake spoiler. I wouldn't dare to predict what the future holds, I'm a good Vorin man

[@sethischosen4338]

One thing I always appreciate about these podcasts is the respectfulness not only towards each others beliefs but everyone's beliefs. They'll tell you they don't agree, or they don't see evidence etc but they wont tell you not to believe what you want to believe. Incredibly respectful, and makes me only respect you two more. I've never read a Dan Wells book but I think I might have to after spending a few months listening to you guys.

[@saphna2095]

Dan you are so invaluable for this podcast:D I mean sure, "duh", it wouldn't be a conversational podcast without a talking partner, but your perspectives and character add so much and you're a rare breed of some contrarian craziness mixed with open-minded kindness and pacific introversion

[@rad4924]

My experience on this channel has been that I subscribed for Brandon Sanderson but stayed for Dan Wells.

[@alaskaaa684]

I'm agnostic, but very open minded, and it's pretty interesting to see people talking about their beliefs, specially people I look up to.

[@TheARESxGOD]

I am an optimist "Serial Killer Expert" t-shirt lol

[@Lukasafer]

Man so talented even his DREAMS are well written 😂

[@BoMwarriorVlog]

26:26 "The world needs mystery in it, the world needs a sense of unknowable wonder." - Dan Wells ... "Ok. That's a good argument." - Brandon Sanderson *(this needs to be on a poster 😁❤️)*

[@theworldsinger]

Brandon's bad story idea sounds like a mix between the Star Trek episode, and Everything Everywhere All at Once... I'm here for it.

[@Clayton-Noyes]

"Is crap haunted" is going to be the stuff of my nightmares now

[@lonnie6954]

Oh man now I'm imagining a slasher/poltergeist type story at a wastewater plant.

[@willowpackerthestoryteller135]

They keep trying to summon Van Helsing but different movie version of Van Helsing each time.

[@Sykdude]

Brandon's story idea is basically every shonen anime ever. It's pokemon with iconic movie characters or shaman king. I like it.

[@gordo6908]

was quite similar to inkheart

[@Enigmanaut]

I have some notes on this one: 1.) I once was in a job that was so boring I stood around for 8 hours with nothing to do, and in addition to reading the entire run of Calvin & Hobbes, I also decided to research Bigfoot. I came to the conclusion that Bigfoot is just a bear. 2.) The Hologram Dracula comes to life and causes problems thing was recently done in the comics for Star Trek: Lower Decks 3.) I once had an experience most would attribute to ghosts. I was asleep one night and woke up when I felt a weight settle onto my chest. I opened my eyes and saw a giant spider covering my entire abdomen. It was red and black, and I could see my face reflected in its many eyes. I had the absolute knowledge that this creature was utter malevolent and wanted to harm me. I was terrified and could not move. Suddenly, my dog (who had been dead for 7 years at this point) leapt up on the bed, grabbed the spider-thing in her jaws and wrenched it off of me. She dropped back to the floor with it. I still couldn't move, but I could hear crunching sounds. Then my dog leapt back up to the bed, curled up beside me, and stared out into the room as if she were daring anything else to try and touch me. When I woke up the next day to no dog, and no dead monster-spider, I knew what had happened: Sleep paralysis. I'd never had it happen before (or since) but I knew a friend who was prone to bouts of it. This experience was damned near text-book. The only odd part of it was how I conjured up a protector to end the experience. Memorable experience, but not supernatural. 4.) Ready Player One: Loved the Book, hated the film.

[@MrWazzietje]

I remain sceptic of most of the cryptid and UFO stuff, but I remain fascinated by the possibility. I do agree with Dan Wells, it would be a sad day if all sense of mystery would be gone from this planet.

[@mascot4950]

I don't think we have to worry. If there's one thing history has shown, it's that it doesn't matter how much we learn, we always come up with something fresh to imagine might be true. People with a superstitious bent might head for ghosts and religions, others read a pop-sci article and spend their days wondering what their multiverse clone might be up to.

[@jamesporrell5687]

@12:00 I think Dan might be my spirit animal. How can one be so crusty & grumpy, yet still so pleasant? It's so tough to be grumpy without being insufferable or unpleasant to be around.

[@jamesporrell5687]

Holy smokes, @17:25 describes my religious beliefs perfectly. What a way with words you have!

[@king_dot]

Your bad story idea actually sounds like a good story idea

[@pogostick43]

Somebody already wrote Brandon's bad story idea. Libromancer series by Jim C. Hines. IIRC they even fight vampires.

[@RumoHasIt]

I just looked this up and WOW, it's really well reviewed. And they do fight vampires! I always want to read Brandons bad story ideas, and this time there's a 4 book series just waiting to be enjoyed. God bless you for bringing this to my attention, Ive already downloaded it 😂❤

[@JimCullen]

​@@RumoHasItI think you're obligated to come back here and give your review once you finish reading it!

[@ephraimcullen7799]

​@@RumoHasIt have you looked into it yet? Haha

[@RumoHasIt]

@ephraimcullen7799 I actually just started it this weekend on a long flight, the magic system is fun! It's taking me a minute to warm up to the characters though

[@AFallingToaster]

In regards to the heist thing... The Tick (cartoon) did an episode with Leonardo Davinci as the inventor and there were other time-travelers all working together to do stuff.

[@briandw979]

Dan, I had the same experience. I'm a "free-grace" Christian, for background of my paradigm. I felt four.people.near me after death but they had died recently, within that last hour. It's a strange experience and I generally don't tell people about it. Lol. Thanks for sharing.

[@lordvayl2194]

Imagine of the tried summoning something from a H.P. Lovecraft story thinking it had to be nice because Love was in the title.

[@TheodoreMinick]

"I only look fast compared to my contemporaries" I mean, when you're being compared to Rothfuss and George R.R. Martin, it's not hard to look fast.

[@himekotakeranai]

I love Dan's shirt

[@RumoHasIt]

I think OKAY CRYPTID needs to be about helping Bigfoot finally find true love.

[@MrSilvUr]

You could even have the characters in the story talk about how they only have the archive for Universal to pull characters from.

[@chrisashford3379]

My favorite cryptid that nobody mentions: Maryland Goatman. Creepy backstory, creepy MO. Always thought he should be one of the greats. And as for bad images of Bigfoot, think of it this way... What if the images are good, but Bigfoot is actually blurry in real life?

[@DominickvdHoff]

The league of extraordinary gentlemen film is good imo

[@kryptonianguest1903]

I think it's one of those films where the idea sounds so promising that being good becomes a disappointment.

[@McCainenl]

A big problem with the Shakespeare revisionism (besides overwhelming evidence) is that so much of it is based on snobbery. People would rather believe that an Earl wrote some of the best literature than accept that the son of a glover from an English market town could do it. That's a real shame, because the latter is much more interesting as a historical fact.

[@davidmfr3y]

I saw the chapter entitled "Big Foot Talk" and didn't know what to think for a second

[@SirKn1ght47]

8:53 Catchphrase: No need to reinvent the wheel here! XD

[@JWilson-d9n]

Live in Wyoming. I’ve seen on a couple occasions things crossing the sky at night that were totally unexplainable. About half the height an airplane might fly but moved across the sky unfathomably fast. I’m sure that it’s some sort of military tech, but man, it just felt so unnatural the couple times I’ve seen it that I don’t know. When I say unnatural , I mean so fast that it went from one side of the sky to the other in a matter of seconds. Faster than I could pull my phone out to record it, and the second time I actually tried to because I regretted not trying to do that the first time. 🤷‍♂️

[@Grunik1618]

10:45 This reminds me of that scene in The Pagemaster where Richard is looking for a way out of the haunted house and opens The Hounds of Baskerville and gets attacked by vicious hounds then escapes by opening Jack and the Beanstalk and climbing a giant beanstalk.

[@aerynmusick4548]

Ahh yeah, Brandon believes Shakespeare wrote all that stuff because it makes his own writing speed seem less suspect. We’re onto you and your time travel shenanigans, mister!

[@willowpackerthestoryteller135]

Look we’ve known Brandon writes his books with time altering allomancy since Mistborn series 2.

[@hananmusovich]

I think BRANDON wrote Shakespeare, its the only way

[@A.Campbell]

Can't believe Brandon is a Sasquatch Denier

[@voidsabre_]

That gaming retreat sounds absolutely amazing, but the travel expenses it would take me to get there is prohibitive unfortunately

[@jonathankey6444]

Was waiting on them to talk about the gigantic corporate entities who concern themselves with feet

[@pa1degua]

ready player one tricks people into conflating their love of the nostalgia berries for their love of the actual story

[@popcorn908]

What makes Brandon’s bad story so much better is that a Star Trek Lower Decks comic did a similar storyline where holo-program of Dracula becomes sentient like Moriarty and wreaks havoc on the ship. They even reference that Dracula is in the public domain.

[@Connor_Crain]

For the bad story idea it’d be really funny if they pass up baby driver for driving ms daisy because they don’t know what they are

[@alexrechkin7]

Good episode!

[@KevinHorecka]

I prefer the Bayesian take on skepticism. It's not about (T)ruth or (F)alsehood, it's about confidence as a continuous value. And as you learn new information, that confidence changes. Then, given some choice you must make, you're either confident enough to make it a particular way or not. Not every choice requires the same threshold for confidence because context matters. It's a messier way of existing, but it bring so many benefits: humility, flexibility, openness, actionability, etc. And if you're not annoying about it and someone asks you "do you believe X?", you either have enough confidence to say "yes", little enough to say "no", or middle enough to give them a lecture on how you make choices based on Bayesian reasoning (which then forces you to reasses your confidence that you are not, in fact, annoying).

[@reflexjat3822]

The Peery is where I stayed when I went to Dragonsteel con for the first time. Cool hotel!

[@keepperspective]

As GK Chesterton said “the point of having an open mind is to close it again on something solid.”

[@adamjones3672]

Does anybody remember the episode of The Fairly Odd Parents where they bring Tom Sawyer out of his book and then have to chase him through various classic stories. That’s what that story idea was reminding me of

[@ephraimcullen7799]

24:02 maaan i was hoping we'd get to a third sneeze to hear Dan say AMOR

[@theaangeli6024]

The conversation about using the characters to fight Dracula is somewhat like the Bradbury short story "The Exiles"

[@Duiker36]

Brandon, you've described both Final Fantasy and Persona.

[@robbybevard8034]

Brandon's bad story idea is an existing series! Magic Ex Libris Series by Jim C. Hines, where the main character is a Libriomancer. They can pull objects from a fictional story. The better known and more popular the story, the better the results. It's also sort of the plot of the Schwarzenegger film, Last Action Hero.

[@stevenwojtysiak6392]

It's Last Action Hero meets Demolition Man. Wesley Snipes has even played a Dracula-like character.

[@miguelon2595]

The series Penny Dreadful is the Avengers of free to use characters

[@gabrielr7511]

What if it not a book it one of those CD flip cases. Could be a fun gag somewhere where they grab a pirated version of a movie, and the character they summon comes out slightly wrong. Like their audio is out of sync or something

[@ryanwraight5630]

So do we also get a roulette on which version of the character we get? Like we could get Christopher Lee Dracula or Nicolas Cage Dracula. Or you get excited that you have Samuel L Jackson on screen only to find out he is giving his speech from Deep Blue Sea.

[@Fabulist]

Re: Shakespeare - his early work isn’t nearly as good as his later stuff, showing a clear progression of skill. He always had the raw talent, but the reason you don’t see Titus Andronicus performed as much as his more famous later plays is because it’s just not as good. Also, people aren’t aware of how much he plagiarized other writers in his early plays. One could try and be charitable and say he was doing an homage, but to anyone conparing some of his plays with books published ar the time can see he was straight-up ripping them off.

[@Mendozam4]

I was just thinking about ghosts yesterday. What if the ghost realm was the inverse of the living relm? We can move freely in space, but are stuck in a point in time that moves without our volition. A spirit imprisoned in the inverse, would be free to move to any point in the eternal round of time, but would be stuck to a certain point in space that could potentially change but without being influenced at all by the will of the spirit.

[@DBPCINC]

I guess I’m quite agnostic over ghosts, I think there’s bad juju and thus spirits are doing something. I also believe in spirits of our loved ones hanging out, but I can’t explain spirits being lost or haunting places.

[@yakattack93]

PLEASE read Ready Player One! That book was 100000x better than the movie!

[@Omegaroth666]

11:25 this bass story idea reminds me of the game Monster Rancher Lolz 12:34 Has Dan seen Free Guy?

[@CthRyleh]

The bad story idea is basically the 1993 movie Meteor Man starring Eddy Murphy, somewhat.

[@quesadylan145]

Someone has to jump a shark in this bad story

[@tylerthorstrom4100]

Maybe spooky ghosts experience a scenario like the movie, What Dreams May Come. If a ghost wracked with remorse over life choices was hanging out and occasionally able to be sensed from the material world, it would be unsettling while not being dangerous.

[@wynnefox]

Someone tell Dan that there is a series of games called, "Monster High" thats all cryptids dating.

[@Karitz964]

In the philosophy community they are called Properly basic beliefs. So amything based on your senses are first hand and logical to believe in despite protestation to the contrary, because believing the detractors would require contradicting more direct experiences which are simply and more basic. Religious experiences can be claimed by the person experiencing them to be equally real to other perceptions, and essentially only that person will know if they are telling the truth.

[@dantzelcherry8677]

Pretty sure the Bigfoot professor is from Idaho State University, not U of I - if it’s the infamous one I was aware of back when I went to ISU.

[@forger03]

9:00 This is just the Time Heist from Overly Sarcast Podcast (an overly sarcastic production). I need a collaboration now. PLEASE. I BEG YOU.

[@tyghe_bright]

So the OK Cryptid idea? I have a short story coming out that's got similar themes. It's in the Garbology anthology (CriminOlly presents Garbology: The GarbAugust Anthology of Awesome Trash)--coming out August 1.

[@dragonsandwarts5644]

I love these two - and I hate when they mention Ben because it means it’s over :(

[@bo6686]

I do not believe in anything that Jasnah wouldn't believe in :-)

[@flommefelix]

I claped my hands for big foot

[@ArtSnob101]

The book ready player 1 was alot better as a book because the stakes make a lot more sense... Speilberg messed up on this one

[@octavia458]

Serial Killer Expert is much better than Expert Serial Killer.

[@relentlessbeast3]

At some point summon Stan Helsing to fight Dracula XD

[@maddmatts1320]

Brandon: "Bad story idea:" Proceeds to describe sometjing very similar to an idea I've been throwing around in my head 😔

[@pinpunk13]

If you live in Europe, people do not believe in ghost and "miraculously" there are no "haunted" places. Believing in ghosts and hauntings looks more like an American thing. It is more a cultural thing akin to the US.

[@for_one_and_all]

I believe people who are open to & emotionally available to 'see', see. Those who need it. Those who are more emotional/spiritual vs logical and thinking minded. Obviously there's a spectrum, but I've had too many personal experiences to deny spirits. There is a difference between spirits and demonic presences. Example: when we move into our new home, my 3 girls in their room felt like 4. I was very confused. After probing and reaching out myself found a 7-9yo girl spirit!! Aside from family members I've never run into a wandering spirit. She protected my girls. She'd wake me up when I fell asleep and left the Christmas lights plugged in in their room, etc. Eventually I found she was confused, lost, felt very protective of my girls, but was also looking for her grandma. Dug and dug and dug and found nothing. Thought i was going crazy. not until the daughter of the previous owner came to see the house did I learn a young woman passed in that room. Once I reached out to my aunt who'd passed to come help her, she has been gone. 🤷‍♀️ lots of prayer involved. LOL.

[@NarfiRef]

“Dirty Dancing” also starts with ’D’.

[@weather1635]

Brandon you are describing the plot to a gacha game that I would play

[@DiceMustFlow]

Conspiracy theorists 500 hundred years from now - who really wrote all of those Cosmere books and Secret Projects? 😂

[@giggleanthropisticon7061]

Hey Dan. Could you ask the Dragonsteel League team to not showboat when they win and hold their opponent hostage while minions finish the game?

[@the3Ebroadcast]

Brandon saying (for the bad story idea) that they have each character for 3 minutes sparked to life a title in my head. I know Brandon may not appreciate it but I'm a wrestling fan so hearing this all I could think is that the title of the story is "3 minute warning." Not only is it a fun title and cheeky wrestling reference but it applies to the story. Each time they summon a character there's a 3 minute warning because that's all the time they have for them to be effective. It could almost be a catchphrase. The moment they decide they absolutely need to summon someone they get the DVD ready, hit go on the machine and as the chosen character materialises another character says "Ok, Three Minute Warning!" and hits a button on his watch that beeps and starts a countdown timer.

[@jamcdonald120]

10:30 There is a TV show called The Librarians...

[@stefanneaga]

Where can I buy Dan's shirt?

[@pseudopod]

Given the overwhelming lack of credible evidence, if we found an actual bigfoot it would be an amazing scientific discovery if for no other reason than the fact that we missed it (them) for so long.

[@patrickhenry4067]

"Lots of things begin with 'D'."

[@jamcdonald120]

27:10 even unstabilized its just a guy walking through the forest

[@nickvallina7891]

Bad story thing is just Bohemian Rhapsody from JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure lol

[@benstapleton5319]

I *am* very good, aren't I!

[@jack21222]

Re: Ready Player One I watched it on a plane, and it was better than watching the clouds below me. I'm not mad that I watched it, but it was completely forgettable

[@daem0nfaust]

Lately I've been skeptical. Silent when I would use to speak.

[@AlexWells02]

So basically Tom Cruise as an Ash of War

[@goblinhero2900]

They mention Ready Player One and... I feel the movie was very visual but yeah the substance falls apart without that visual. Don't know about know about the book, never read it.

[@jamesboyleii6332]

Where is Adam? I haven't heard him in the last few episodes.

[@SirKn1ght47]

Wait, does “shill” derive from the old “shilling” coin?

[@Liatriss]

"I'm going to be in the region, but I'm not going to be where you are" sounds like the polyam queer dating scene

[@jamcdonald120]

30:15 I mean, compared to B$, Shakespeare was downright slow

[@pickpocket293]

Brandon doesn't realize this, but he was accidentally describing the universe of Equilibrium! There's no art and no happiness...and we need to fight Dracula! Mash it all together!

[@dutyfreeadventures5924]

That's not a bad story idea. That's Avengers meets Monster Rancher and I think somebody is going to abuse Deepfakes to bring it to life. Warner Brothers is DYING to make a new take on space jam

[@TheLordofMetroids]

This made me think of a spin on this. The protagonists have a Rolodex of DC characters, But they don't know if their heroes or villains, and the villains will try to sabotage them in some way.

[@ephanieblue]

Teddy Roosevelt believed in Bigfoot and claims he saw one. If you come stay in my son’s room, you can experience the cat ghost. The cat ghost curls up and sleeps with you, but when you reach to pet the cat it’s not there.

[@Seb_Falkor]

It sure would be neat if ghosts and cryptids and stuff existed, but unfortunately reality is often disappointing. I'm not in the completely impossible boat but I'm in the 99.9% sure none of it exists camp.

[@colethecollector6742]

just make it an internet fanfiction and no one can stop you,

[@UsernameAlreadyTaco]

Bill and Ted's 11

[@zenthepoet.]

Adoooonalsium

[@docstockandbarrel]

👍🏻

[@rad4924]

23:39 I think Bigfoot would be most popular on OnlyFans, not Cameo....