Despite his relatively young age, Joshua Cutchin has quickly carved a reputation as one of the most forward thinking paranormal writers of his generation. Ironically, that ‘forward-thinkingness’ comes from noticing patterns and gaps in the research left by previous researchers, and following those threads wherever they may lead him.
On this occasion, he felt inspired by what the late Anne Strieber once told her husband –famous author and experiencer Whitley Strieber– after scouring through hundreds of letters the two of them received upon the publication of his seminal book Communion:
Whitley, this has something to do with what humans call Death.
That monumental insight felt mostly into deaf ears, simply because the majority of UFO researchers are too preoccupied with trying to prove to the rest of the world those pesky lights in the sky are structured metal craft sent by an extraterrestrial intelligence, and by proxy the US government knows all about them. On the other side of the ideological fence are the debunkers, who love nothing more than to reassure to naïve UFO believers that every single piece of evidence uncovered so far can easily be explained as hoaxes or misidentifications of natural phenomena.
Josh chose the excluded middle road instead, taking a scholarly look into the folkloric and sociological links between paranormal phenomena and what different cultures associate with the experience of dying. The relationships he found were so rich and numerous, he had no choice but to cut the manuscript into two books –Volume I provides background information on ancient concepts of the soul, whereas Volume II focuses on UFOs and cryptids– which are being released simultaneously.
Ecology of Souls –a name inspired by the musings of psychedelic bard Terence McKenna– is nothing short of Josh’s ‘unified theory of weirdness’, and even though trying to make sense of all the things that go bump in the night may be nigh impossible, I’m confident that students of the paranormal will give him a lot of praise for trying, and that EoS Vol. I & II will become reference material for generations to come.
Because here’s a little disclosure for all you people out there who are still belatedly waiting for DeLonge and Elizondo to deliver the one piece of bullet-proof evidence which will forever shut the mouths of all the Mick West minions on Twitter: Regardless of whether you get to have your day in the sun and all your beliefs are publicly vindicated (doubtful but keep your fingers crossed) the one irrefutable truth is that each and every single one of you –along with Tom, Lue, Mick and yours truly– are one day going to die. No FOIA or unclassified document will change the fact that Death remains the one true undiscovered country we are all destined to inhabit one day, and visionaries like Joshua Cutchin are trying their best to charter its territory and catalog whatever wondrous creatures waiting for us across the veil may be out there –beings which could very well have mastered the ability to cross the unsurmountable gulf between our world, and theirs.
Ecology of Souls is available in two paperback volumes or a single Kindle eBook via Amazon.
