Becoming a public figure in the paranormal field comes with few satisfactions in terms of ‘fame’ or money. The one thing it does bring is the chance to interact with some of the most interesting people you will ever meet in your life; such is the case of my friend Mike Clelland—who is still the #1 search result whenever you type “Owls” and “UFOs” on your search engine— whom I’ve had the pleasure of knowing the last 15 years, ever since I began reading his blog Hidden Experience and became instantly hooked.
From that fortuitous finding I’ve been lucky to chat with Mike both privately and on recorded interviews a few times—including one for our Daily Grail Youtube channel. The last one happened last month, when Mike invited me to be a guest for his revived Hidden Experience podcast, which has included in the past some of the most illustrious names in the UFO field, like Dr. Leo Sprinkle, Brad Steiger or Richard Dolan. I cannot tell you how many nights I spent in the 2010’s listening to those conversations while I was all alone working on a crappy little office, or stuck in traffic.
On this occasion, Mike wanted to specifically focus on the UFOlogy Tarot cards I completed in 2022, which I was more than happy to oblige seeing how Mike was a huge inspiration for me when I first decided to attempt a second career as a digital illustrator, as well as for some of the graphic material which ended up on the cards themselves. In fact, I think I’d never had the chance to tell Mike up until this interview how the little white owl perching on the shoulder of Dr. Sprinkle on The Chariot card—the one that is devoted to the subject of alien abductions—was a direct homage to him.
There were quite a few surprises during the interview. One of them was that, unbeknownst to me when we first scheduled the interview, Mike had chosen to record the episode on his birthday (August 22nd) which made the conversation even more special to me.
Another surprise happened during the Patreon-exclusive segment of the podcast—which you can listen to if you join for free— when I decided to pull out my Tarot deck and invited Mike to ask a question to see what kind of card would appear as an answer. I also played along and asked a question of my own; the results (which you’ll find out if you listen to the podcast) might be as interesting to you as they were for me…
All in all, this was a most pleasurable conversation in which I shared a few things about the creative process of the Tarot project which I don’t think I’d ever mentioned in other interviews. As a fellow artist, I knew fully well how Mike would be more than open to my opinions on how artists are more like ‘conduits’ to a powerful and mysterious creative energy than the true originators of their work. Also, how art can be employed as a form of spiritual/meditative practice when you are rewarded with the ‘flow state’ in which you lose sight of time—and even yourself!—when you are totally committed to the artistic process, which is many ways it is more important than the end result; something AI bros will never be able to grasp.
Enjoy!
PS: If you’re not tired to listen to Mike’s voice and mine, you might also get a kick out of another recent podcast roundtable at Where Did the Road Go? where Seriah invited me to discuss the fiction books of both Mike and also Josh Cutchin, which were published last year. Both of these novels explore paranormal topics in a similar fashion, and both are highly recommended additions to your Fortean library.
