Bus Stop Seminars

Michael Aquino was a decorated U. S. Army officer specializing in military intelligence and psychological operations who was simultaneously running his own branch of Satanism called the Temple of Set. We're getting a little dark this month! On this episode we're not only diving into a how strange his life was but also taking a look at the landscape of contemporary Satanism between the atheistic, political activists of the Satanic Temple to the terrifying side of the Order of Nine Angles. Hail Yourself!

In observance of America's semiquincentennial, we're going to dive into the legend of The Count of St. Germain - a larger than life figure who is considered the "God of Freedom for this system of worlds," in esoteric tradition. He was, from what we know, an 18th century adventurer and alchemist with no known age or origin who somehow charmed himself into the highest ranks of European society. He possessed more talents than seemed possible to gain in a single lifetime and ALLEGEDLY made himself immortal. His status in the centuries after his SUPPOSED death has elevated to that of an Ascended Master. It was said he warned Marie Antoinette of the coming French Revolution. It was also said he was even present at the signing of the Declaration of Independence. OR was this all nonsense and was the Count just an extremely clever conman? Perhaps!

For the first of our Bus Stop Bench series we're joined with special guest John to discuss the use of LSD in the 1950s; primarily by the U.S. government but also how it seeped into broader society. The buttoned up & repressed era of the 1950s is not a time we typically associate with acid and yet that's when the research really kicked off. So throw on your best tie dye cardigan and join us as we play stickball with your mind!

The Sarajevo Safari was an ALLEGED war tourism phenomenon that POSSIBLY happened during the siege of Sarajevo between 1992 to 1996. Wealthy foreigners MAY HAVE been paying huge sums of money to the Serbian military for the opportunity to shoot civilians with sniper rifles. It could be a complete myth, but the story has carried on to this day and just last year (2025) the Public Prosecutor's Office in Milan opened an ongoing investigation into the alleged participation of Italian citizens in these horrific crimes. We wanted to come back with something light!

The 1st semester of Bus Stop Seminars has come to a close. We'll be back soon once we've banked some more episodes. In the meantime, please leave a comment for any topics you'd want us to cover. Thank you very much for joining this cult in progress! Happy Holidays!

To close out our series on the life and mind of John A. Keel, we're going to dive into his master's thesis on the paranormal subject captured in the book The Eighth Tower. Does it make sense? No. Does it have any real evidence? Also no. But is it just the kind of ludicrous escapism your life has been craving? Maybe!

Have you heard about Mothman, but never felt like reading the book? Do you want three guys at a bus stop to give you all the talking points so you don't have to? You got nothing better to do right?

For this series we're going to explore the life and work of ufologist John Alva Keel. The man responsible for the Mothman Prophecies, in some ways the Men in Black franchise, as well as the concept of "ultraterrestrials" to explain the UFO phenomenon. Join us on the bleeding edge of Woo Woo!

To wrap up our series on the book we're going to take look at Manson's time in San Francisco and all the groovy connections he might have had with the CIA through his visits to The Height Ashbury Free Medical Clinic. Come on in and don't mind the pencil pushers! It's all part of a test we're doing...

In this episode we're exploring the life of Reeve Whitson, an alleged spy who embedded himself in the Manson case as well as the FBI's COINTELPRO program and the CIA's Operation Chaos. We'll look at how the goals of these covert government operations aligned with the broader results of the murders. Coincidence!?…quite possibly.

We're starting our next dive into one of the most fascinating angles of the Charles Manson story painstakingly detailed in Tom O'Neil's book, Chaos: Charles Manson, The CIA & The Secret History of The Sixties. Over twenty years of research, Tom lays out how Manson very possibly may have been part of the confirmed shenanigans the CIA was up to at the very same place and time with the very same goals the Tate-LaBianca murders achieved - prove that mind control with the help of LSD is possible, create hypno-programed assassins and demonize the flower power movement while you're at it! In Part 1, we'll cover the peculiarities of the trial as well as the Hollywood criminal underworld that seeps into the story.

To close out our series on Hate Powered Lovecraft we're to check out the Lurking Fear right behind you! This was a serialized story exploring HP's disdain for the Dutch (which is kind of refreshing) and how little he understood about lighting.

We're now going to dive into the only novel Lovecraft ever got published within his lifetime, The Shadow Over Innsmouth. Its maybe his most complete story and definitely one of his most racist. You're not worrying enough about fish-frog people!

We're going to start with maybe the most cancelled author, H. P. Lovecraft. The stories are fun it's ok to like them! He's one of the most impactful figures in modern horror fiction. As long as you understand that the guy kinda sucks.