psychic – Beyond Beyond Belief

#44 Frakes and geeks [S4E12 with Samm Levine]

By Jesse Chapman | January 8, 2019

Kyle is sitting out but we have guest-host actor and podcaster Samm Levine. Samm has watched the show before, and also had a neighbor who bragged about acting in an episode of Beyond Belief.

Samm is a hardline skeptic of all things supernatural. A big believer of known skeptic James Randy and the million-dollar challenge.

Samm has appeared recently on the show Movie Trivia Schmoedown.

Story 1: Witness To Murder – A ghost hunter who captured ghosts on film meets a mysterious end.

Samm tries to unpack Chris’s belief in ghosts.
In talking about the integrity of true stories in BB, Samm tells us the actual true story of Cool Runnings.
Most people find this story too be ridiculous and very writery.

Story 2: Roulette Wheel – A down on his luck gamboling addict finds himself on a mysterious winning streak.

Samm does not believe that odds could allow this to happen. Also, the pit boss would have thrown him out way earlier.
Chris thinks there are so many gambling stories that this could have happened.

Story 3: The Phrenologist’s Head – A doctor given a Phrenologist’s Head finds a smudge on it that leads to a miraculous discovery.

Samm explains that the doctors would have figured it out eventually upon surgery…And a lawsuit.
Chris believes that something could have happened to lead the doctor down the right path.
Jesse wonders if Freud’s ghost is involved in the smudging.

Story 4: The Bridge – A hiker crosses a shaky bridge and is helped by a mysterious woman who turns out to be more than she appears.

Jesse thinks the woman had her mom’s name in her subconscious and projected onto the woman.
Samm thinks it’s a single-source story where the woman miss remembered the events. points to Malcolm Gladwell’s Blink.

Story 5: The Cigar Box – A girl buys an antique, which turns out to belong to a neighbor.

This segment stars Campbell Lane, who does VO for the second half of BB.
Jesse thinks there are one too many coincidences.
Samm walks through how it could have happened – he was just a bitter old man who died after being denied his antique box by a little girl.

Friend of the podcast, Misty Stinnett (who has a new podcast Go Help Yourself) shares some self-help tips. But some are fact and some are fiction.

The story results are revealed.

Samm tells us a story of when he “met” Jonathan Frakes.
To find out which stories are fact and which are fiction… you must listen to the podcast, or check out the full episode below or on Amazon Prime.

#43 A good first draft [S4E11 with Jonathan Kite]

By Jesse Chapman | January 1, 2019

Kyle is out, but joining us is the comedian, actor, and writer Jonathan Kite. Who has a new movie out – All The Creatures Are Stirring.

Jonathan is familiar with the show, but hasn’t seen it until now.

Jonathan talks about Nightmare on Elm Street’s origins, and how he’s seen a ghost in a girlfriend’s video.

Story 1: The Mystery Of Douglas Hibbard – A man, sick with the cold, checks into a motel and mysteriously stashes something in a safe.

Tiffany feels like it’s an urban legend.
Maybe the clerk just messed up the timing of events.

Story 2: Wheelchair Man – A criminal with psychic abilities gives up his cronies after being pushed out of a heist.

Jesse doesn’t understand why a criminal would help the cops.
Jonathan doesn’t believe cops would give up a witness.
Tiffany just thinks burglars are dumb.

Story 3: The Vigil – A comatose woman about to be taken off life support finds a way to communicate with her boyfriend.

Everyone agrees it was a very forgettable story. But maybe that means it’s true?
Jesse thinks the boyfriend believed it enough, but it was just a coincidence.
Maybe it’s too fact to be fact?

Story 4: The Mandarin’s Bowl – After a family trip to China town, a young boy is revealed to be the reincarnation of an old pottery master.

Jonathan doesn’t understand why the master and student don’t ask more questions. Their reunion is very short.
Everyone agrees the parents would have freaked out more.
Tiffany thinks the most ridiculous stories are fact.

Story 5: Ghost Writer – A cruel man hires a ghostwriter who accidentally records a confession of a horrible crime.

Chris felt it was very similar to Batman Returns.
Chris pitches the boring theory. So boring that it’s fact.
Jonathan thinks it’s a good first draft but then it falls apart.

This week we call up a listener and have him play a game in which he needs to decide if our news headlines are real or made up.

The story results are revealed.

To find out which stories are fact and which are fiction… you must listen to the podcast, or check out the full episode below or on Amazon Prime.

#B04 Uncut interview with modern sage, Ian Sneed

By Jesse Chapman | October 11, 2018

On this week’s episode, we interviewed modern sage Ian Sneed and asked: what are some tips and tricks for conducting a Oujia board night? Those of you who listened to the interview were probably as shocked to discover as we were that Ian believes there is no such thing as a safe Ouija board experience. The full interview was fascinating and went into much more detail that what we were not able to include on Tuesday, but based on the positive response we’re releasing the full, uncut interview for you to listen to. The full interview goes into much more detail on Ian’s background, and offers some additional interesting details on his methods and approach. Enjoy!

#27 The Help Me Help Me Ghost [S3E8]

By Jesse Chapman | July 3, 2018

Chris talks about his recent psychic reading with Marla Frees, where she explained that there are frequencies all around us that she can tap into to download info from beyond.

Story 1: Creepy Comics—after a publisher verbally abuses his comic book artist, he discovers his own fate illustrated before his very eyes.

Chris thinks he would have heard of this story if it happened. Kyle thinks this “would have heard about it” argument doesn’t fly with Beyond Belief.
Tiffany doesn’t know who told this story because both the characters died.
The group doesn’t understand why the police would have the deceased’s boss identify the body.
Paul Gleason played the mean boss.

Story 2: Louie The Dip—a pickpocket swipes a winning lottery ticket only to discover it has mysteriously vanished.

Kyle researches the term dip. Can’t find anything, but assumes it means a pick-pocketer.
Kyle then does find the term dip and it does mean pick-pocketer.
Everyone thinks this is easily fact. Yes, you could definitely lose a piece of paper.
No one understands why the lottery winner went to the bar before cashing his ticket. Just go cash it you idiot I mean come on.

Story 3: The Wailing—when a mystery writer moves into an old house, he soon discovers an eerie wail sounding from the walls.

What’s in the safe?! Everyone wanted to know what was in the safe. Turns out, we’ll never know.
Jesse points out how horrible the wig on the corpse is.
Chris, using the ghostly rules, buys that a traumatic death could cause the spirit to be trapped in the room.
Mark Moses from Desperate Housewives and Mad Men is in this segment. No one can play unconscious like Mark Moses.

Story 4: The Landlady—a wicked landlady is haunted by an old tenant.

Jesse reminds us that spirits can haunt people in addition to places.
The practical effects of a ghost trudging through mud were pretty good.
From a ghostly rules vantage point, Chris has an issue: why would a kind tenant spend his afterlife haunting the mean old lady.
No one understands what makes this story special, and where’s the evidence?
Chris and Jesse reenact the old lady shouting match.

Story 5: Curse—a young girl dabbling in witchcraft puts a hex on her psychologist and then joins a coven… a coven in which the tables are about to get turned.

Chris thinks the psychologist put on this whole witch thing as a scam to trick the girl into letting go of being a bad witch.
Tiffany thinks it’s so crazy it has to be fiction.

The story results are revealed.

To find out which stories are fact and which are fiction… you must listen to the podcast, or check out the full episode below or on Amazon Prime.

#21 Stop saying Willem Dafoe [S3E2]

By Jesse Chapman | April 10, 2018

Turns out no one knows know how pawn shops work. Jesse points out that in season 3, Jonathan Frakes doesn’t do intro lines before the opening credits. No one else seems to care.

Story 1: One For The Road—a truck driver meets a friend at their usual spot, only to later make a chilling discovery.

Jesse points out that if this was pre-Sixth Sense, we would have all been blown away.
Mark thought all the set-ups revealing Hal was a ghost could have just been due to production issues.
Chris dives into the ghostly rules and wonders when exactly did Hal die?
Mark decides to go with a strategy this episode: supernatural = fiction/coincidence = fact.

Story 2: The Music Box—a woman wanting to buy a music box discovers something even more unexpected in the shop.

The group agrees this story doesn’t handle women well.
Tiffany thinks the story probably originated from a wedding announcement or engagement story that gets passed around.
If the friend Gale set the whole thing up, then it’s not a beyond belief story at all.
Jesse points out that Frakes is more aggressive with potential realistic possibilities in season 3.

Story 3: Two to One—a man strapped for cash has a dream of a robbery gone wrong at a pawn shop he frequents.

The group discusses how pawn shops work.
Chris believes in premonition. Mark believes we can dream the future.
Tiffany doesn’t know who can corroborate the man’s story. But what else is new?

Story 4: Damsel—when a woman visits a fortune teller in the search for Mr. Right, she learns that appearances can be deceiving.

Jesse and Mark believe this is all a scam set up by the psychic.
Tiffany doesn’t understand why someone would want to start a relationship after a violent encounter. Kyle points out the movie Speed as an obvious counter argument.
After talking about Willem Dafoe, Kyle cannot stop laughing for some reason.

Story 5: The Horn—a mortician visits an antique dealer and discovers a special item called a death horn, which may just save one of their lives.

Jonathan Frakes thinks the horn could have been blown by air from the AC. Really, Jonathan?
Chris points out old coffins that had bells attached for accidental deaths.
The group wonders if there was sexual tensions between the two leads.

Break: This week Chris tries to tell Mark about his fascinating experience with a psychic, but is interrupted by a mysterious sound.

The story results are revealed.

Turns out Mark’s coincidence theory worked!
To find out which stories are fact and which are fiction… you must listen to the podcast, or check out the full episode below or on Amazon Prime!

#12 Call me when your horse is psychic [S2E6 with Melissa Dunham]

By Mark Walberg | January 9, 2018

“If you put a Roomba in the middle of Manhattan, it’s gonna find a dead body eventually.”

Today we review Beyond Belief: Fact or Fiction season 2, episode 6. Tiffany is out, but we have a special guest host: Melissa Dunham, host of the podcast #Obsessed. Melissa talks about her own paranormal experiences, of which there are many! In college, she was convinced her apartment was haunted, when she heard knocking from inside the closet…

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#11 Soft fiction [S2E5 with Eden Sher & Nick Cron-DeVico]

By Jesse Chapman | January 2, 2018

Today we review Beyond Belief: Fact or Fiction season 2, episode 5. Today we review Beyond Belief: Fact or Fiction season 2, episode 6. In this week’s episode we welcome two hilarious guest hosts: The Middle star Eden Sher and Robot Chicken writer Nick Cron-DeVico. Eden and Nick share their own stories of the strange and paranormal before we launch into this week’s stories.
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#10 Castles castles castles [S2E4]

By Mark Walberg | December 26, 2017

“Is anyone else turned on by this story?”

Today we review Beyond Belief: Fact or Fiction season 2, episode 4. In an attempt to be more casual, Chris botches his intro. It’s revealed that this week’s episode of Beyond Belief has a theme – Friday the 13^th! However, the stories do a pretty bad job of connecting anything to this theme and actually give up halfway through. Chris tries to get everyone to share their own Friday the 13^th story, but no one has one… except Chris, who ate a whole pepperoni pizza to himself on Friday the 13^th. Kyle explains the history of Friday the 13^th.

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#06 Subpoena the parrot [S1E6]

By Mark Walberg | October 31, 2017

“What do you guys think? Should we just end this podcast?”

Today we review Beyond Belief: Fact or Fiction season 1, episode 6. Mark steals Kyle’s trademark intro and it feels pretty good. Brolin eases into puns that make no sense like, “are we telling the truth, or is this just hard to digest?” Reminds Kyle of Sandra Bullock’s character from Demolition Man, Lenina Huxley, who mixes up expressions, like “you really licked his ass!”

A farewell to James Brolin! It’s JB’s last episode as host. Jesse would love to sing him off, but doesn’t know any Barbra Streisand songs. Chris thinks James Brolin was sleeping in his oversized jacket this whole time. Tiffany is just disappointed that the whole episode wasn’t hosted by literally a jacket.

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#03 Reverse Final Destination [S1E3]

By Mark Walberg | October 10, 2017

“The ghosts don’t lie.”

Today we review Beyond Belief: Fact or Fiction season 1, episode 3. Everyone lambasts Mark’s intro (again). The group talks about the story introductions performed by host James Brolin, especially his use of unnecessary and confusing props to illustrate very simple points. Also mentioned are Brolin’s infamous cold openings at the top of each episode, in which he says something very obvious and then is abruptly cut off by the show’s theme.

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