Bob Freeman's Blog

I listened to Marco Visconti’s account of his contact with a Non-Human Intelligence this morning. You can listen to it HERE. Inspired by his account, I thought I would share a story from my own misadventures.

— .:. —

“I know how it feels ’cause I have slipped through
To the very depths of my soul…”
— Jones, Page, Plant, In the Light

In the late 1980s, my grandmother had moved into a trailer behind my parent’s house so they could look after her, leaving her house empty. The family asked me to move in, to look after the place, and I readily agreed. It was an old Colonial, its terraced porch long since removed. It was in dire need of renovation, but it suited my purposes just fine.

I had converted a second‑floor bedroom into a ritual chamber, of sorts — the very same room where, in 1974, I had discovered my great-grandmother’s copy of Manly Palmer Hall’s Unseen Forces. Now, more than a decade later, I was assuming the role of magician and dedicating a makeshift temple to unlocking the secrets of the universe in that place where the occult world was first introduced to me.

The “temple” had three doors, to the north, south, and west, with the north door leading outside, though as stated, the balcony was a distant memory. There was a single window facing east, tall but narrow, stretching nearly floor to ceiling, where dawn would spill across the cool, chipped linoleum floor. I had removed all the furniture and constructed an altar in the center of the room, facing the window. The four elemental weapons were laid out upon it: wand, dagger, cup, and pentacle; a hand-carved statue of a wizard my father had made for me stood in for Odin; and I had two framed photographs, one of Aleister Crowley and another of Leila Waddell there as well.

Within this temple I performed daily meditations and rituals on Wednesdays, the nights of Full and New Moons, and whatever “holy days” came along. I will admit that psychedelics were taken on a regular basis, rarely as indulgences, but as sacraments: psilocybin on occasion, due to scarcity, and LSD far more often.

I was reading voraciously at the time, regularly perusing Crowley, of course, but I remember being very invested in Donald Tyson’s New Magus and Gerald Schueler’s Advanced Guide to Enochian Magick and Enochian Physics, in those weeks preceding the “event”.

I was living in a state of deliberate permeability.

When my Knowledge and Conversation with the Holy Guardian Angel occurred, it did so without warning.

It was late evening and I had retired to my ritual space. Earlier in the evening, a friend had had a peculiar experience of bilocation, and that was on my mind as I sought to sink into a meditative state. As the night gave way to dawn, I was visited by a pure beam of transcendent light. I dare say that it did not illuminate the room so much as it inhabited the space. I felt it pass through me before I saw it, starting as pressure behind my eyes, and as a calming warmth between them, as my third eye was seemingly opening and shedding a tear.

There it was, a prescient light before me… and it spoke, but not with a voice, for there were no words, just a thunderous telepathic surge of emotion and comprehension on my part. I felt my whole body shiver with an ecstasy that words cannot give proper meaning to.

I was filled with hope, joy, and a fierce and radiant love, for lack of a better understanding, but beneath it, I could sense its message within every cell of my being. I was to remain curious and daring. I was to continue the work. But more than that, I felt a connecting tether to the land itself, and I felt the sanctity of it. I knew then, in my heart and soul, that this presence was bidding me to remain within the boundary of the old Miami Territory, the expanse of the Mississinewa, and I felt that river flowing through my veins. I felt this as a warning, that outside of this sacred space, there would be pain and suffering, but the land would look after me and those I cared about.

Then, I was left spent, in silence, laid out before my makeshift altar, renewed, recharged… and rewarded. The memory of that experience is ever-present, and I have never shared it in this detail until today.

— .:. —

Currently Reading / Tarot of the Unconscious by Aliza Einhorn (Weiser Books, 2026)

Currently Listening / Cricket Blue: Self-Titled EP (2014), Polypores: Music from Vayse, Volume 2 (2024)

Currently Watching / The Lowdown (created by Sterlin Harjo, FX, 2025)

All our backyards are haunted, filled with ghosts, spirits, elementals, and esoteric anomalies. We traverse these spaces, all too often, oblivious to the wonders that abound just beyond our perception.

An oft repeated phrase is that “the sleeper must awaken”. One should strive to rekindle the sense of wonderment so easily squashed once we reach adulthood… to dream while awake.

All our backyards are haunted, filled with ghosts, spirits, elementals, and esoteric anomalies. We traverse these spaces, all too often, oblivious to the wonders that abound just beyond our perception.

An oft repeated phrase is that “the sleeper must awaken”. One should strive to rekindle the sense of wonderment so easily squashed once we reach adulthood… to dream while awake.

I am proud to announce that, after years of development, The Occult Detective Roleplaying Game is, at long last, available on Amazon.

Written and designed by myself and Connor Landon Freeman, The Occult Detective Roleplaying Game is an immersive experience that draws on a synthesis between a lifetime of magical practice, research and investigation into the paranormal, tabletop gaming (as players, game masters, and designers), and a near obsessive love for the occult detective genre.

The Occult Detective Roleplaying Game blends investigative storytelling with supernatural intrigue, empowering players to take on the roles of occult detectives — figures who confront the unknown with equal parts intellect, intuition, and esoteric knowledge. The game’s Author–Protagonist structure emphasizes collaborative narrative, atmospheric tension, and character‑driven mystery.

The game draws inspiration from classic and contemporary occult literature, weaving together themes of forbidden knowledge, supernatural entities, and the eternal struggle between celestial and infernal forces. With its rich setting options—from antiquarian bookshops to decaying manors, from urban shadows to forgotten ruins — the system provides a flexible framework for campaigns of mystery, horror, and metaphysical exploration.

The only limit is your imagination.

The Occult Detective Roleplaying Game is available now, with Liber Monstrorum: The Book of Monsters and Occult Detective Case Files to follow.

Bordermen Games is a small press publisher whose previous work includes Fire and Ice: Miniatures Adventure Game, in collaboration with Frazetta Girls, Bakshi Productions, and Dynamite Entertainment.

The studio focuses on high‑quality design, evocative world‑building, and immersive player experiences.

I’ve been around long enough that a discernible pattern has taken shape, one that’s been teased for decades. Hell, from the very beginning, it’s just that we were too easily distracted. Each paranormal anomaly has been isolated and pored over — you’ve got Bigfoot over here, ghosts over there, UFOs flitting about like cosmic fireflies. Investigators and hobbyists catalog them, label them, and file them away in their separate drawers, because heaven forbid they cross-pollinate.

The truth hews closer to that of a unified presence when you look beyond these paranormal categories and stop seeing them as distinct. Occurrences of high strangeness are manifestations of a deeper, unified reality pressing against our own. What we experience is a symptom. Magicians have hinted at it. Physicists have circled around it. And those of us who’ve spent our nights in forgotten boneyards, shadowy forests, and neglected fraternal lodges have felt it.

The phenomena are not necessarily tangible in any real sense, but could possibly be described as extradimensional bleedthrough.

What if bigfoot is not a missing link but a being displaced?

Some ghosts are memories, some are praeternatural intelligences, while others appear to be akin to echoes caught between frequencies.

And UFOS, or UAPs as they are spoken of now, perhaps they’re not visitors from distant stars, but apertures — brief openings where the veil thins and something slips through?

We are labeling them as monsters, spirits, or aliens, when it more accurately feels like we are dealing with curious intersections. That’s why I look to magick to interact with all of these phenomena.

Magick is as much art as science, because it relies on both precision and intuition. You can calculate the geometry of a ritual circle, but if you don’t feel the current, if you don’t listen to the hum beneath the world, you’re just drawing shapes on the floor.

I think of ancient grimoires as field manuals written by people who didn’t have the vocabulary of quantum mechanics or multidimensional theory. They described what they saw, what they felt, and what they survived. And if you read between the lines you’ll see the same patterns that modern experiencers report.

It feels like we are on the cusp of something extraordinary.

The old boundaries between science and sorcery, between matter and spirit, between this world and the next, are beginning to blur.

The universe is larger, stranger, and far more interconnected than we ever dared imagine. And it is not alone, and neither are we.

The other is about to introduce itself.

Are you ready?

A trickster god is a mythological figure who uses deception, humor, and chaos to disrupt order, expose hidden truths, and challenge the boundaries between good and evil. Subjectively speaking.

If there ever was a living embodiment of the trickster, it was Robert Anton Wilson, a writer I first discovered from his co-authored Illuminatus! Trilogy, but subsequently consumed most of his works, such as Cosmic Trigger, Prometheus Rising, Quantum Psychology and I subscribed to Magical Blend specifically because he was a frequent contributor.

Today, I want to shine the light on my favorite of his works of fiction — Masks of the Illuminati.

Masks, generally regarded as one of his lesser works, much to my chagrin, is a labyrinthine tale that blends historical fiction with occult speculation, quantum philosophy, and outright absurdity. It prominently features a pair of historical figures, Albert Einstein and James Joyce, reimagined as initiates and pawns in a hidden war of secret societies, where the enigmatic Illuminati loom as both architects and illusions. And of course, into this mix enters none other than Aleister Crowley…

What makes Masks of the Illuminati so compelling, and, for some, so frustrating is its refusal to settle into a single genre. Wilson layers conspiracies within conspiracies, suggesting that meaning itself is mutable, though he would be appalled at my use of the word is.

RAW dances between philosophical discourse and surreal farce, often within the same paragraph. One moment you are contemplating relativity—not just as physics, but as a metaphysical principle—and the next you are plunged into cartoonish intrigue.

That’s the beauty of it.

Wilson gleefully seems less interested in telling a coherent story than in dismantling the reader’s confidence in coherence altogether. In this sense, the novel operates as both fiction and as a kind of thought experiment: what if all systems of knowledge —science, religion, and history —are merely masks, worn by a deeper, unknowable truth?

RAW’s prose is sharp, witty, and deliberately disorienting. He never ceases to challenge you, intellectually or psychologically, and for those with an interest in the art and science of magick, the novel holds a treasure trove of references.

It reminds one of a Conan Doyle mystery, with Joyce and Einstein fulfilling the Holmes and Watson roles, and Crowley that of a Moriarty-like figure, all seen through the eyes of Sir John Babcock.

Ultimately, Masks of the Illuminati is a mind-bending experience, filled with intellectual chaos and symbolic depth, with all the earmarks one appreciates in Wilson’s fiction, but in a more experimental vein. While I feel this turned off a lot of readers, for me, it was akin to an induced acid trip.

Electric Kool-Aid in literary form.

Robert Anton Wilson was a mad genius and it shines in this work. Allegorically, he offers you a mask and challenges you to wear it, to refuse it, or to simply contemplate the face that it might hide.

Hello, Sleuths. Hope you’re well. I thought I would apparate in and let you know about some upcoming events and releases as we slide out of the first quarter of 2026. Let’s handle them in order, as things stand right at this moment…

Right now, Shadows Over Somerset and Keepers of the Dead have been re-released in ebook form. Physical releases to come. More on that below.

March of the Magicians is a YouTube Reading Event all March long in which we read the writings of members of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn.. This year we are reading the works of Arthur Machen.

The 21st of March, my son, author Connor Landon Freeman, and I will be at the Bookworm Orchard booth for Spring Bazaar in Alexandria Indiana, at the Madison County Fairgrounds.

The 25th of April, Connor and I will both be featured at the Bookworm Orchard Signing Event and Grand Opening, located at the Boston Hill Center in Marion Indiana.

28th of April, to celebrate the 20th Anniversary of it’s original release, Shadows Over Somerset is back in print, in trade paperback and hardcover.

29th of April, as part of the 20th Anniversary celebration, Keepers of the Dead, sequel to Shadows, is back in print in trade paperback and hardcover.

The First of May, Beltane and Walpurgisnacht, at long last, The Occult Detective Roleplaying Game, written and designed by Connor and myself, will be released in hardcover.

On YouTube, thoughout May, it’s Horror Mayhem, where we delve into the depths of horror fiction all month long, with an emphasis on works of less than 250 pages.

The 16th of May, Kim, Connor, and I will be set up at Beyond the Veil, which means Attic Pages will have a table full of vintage books to peruse. This event is held at the Miami County Fairgrounds in Peru, Indiana.

The 5th of June, I will be attending the premiere of Brandon Wright’s documentary The Mississinewa Triangle. I make a brief appearance in the film and will be there in support of the filmmaker. The film is being shown at Streaper’s Entertainment in Peru, Indiana at 7 and 9pm.

While I won’t be there in person, June 12th 7 13th is Howard Days, in Cross Plains, Texas. This is an event that I have longed to attend since its inception. Someday, I will. This year, I was nominated for a Black Lotus Award for my series of YouTube videos focused on Kirowan & Conrad. It’s my second time being nominated, the first being an essay I wrote about King Kull seven or eight years back.. While, I have to expectation of winning, it was my hope that, by being nominated, Robert E. Howard’s Occult Detective fiction might reach a broader audience.

The 22nd of August, Kim, Connor, and I will make our return to the delightfully spooky Hannah House for their 3rd Annual Paranormal Festival down in Indianapolis, Indiana.

On YouTube, we celebrate Cimmerian September, where we read the works of Robert E. Howard all month long. This year, I plan to read Howard’s Steve Harrison stories.

On YouTube, it’s Occult Detective October, where we read Occult Detective tales all month long.

The 17th of October, Kim, Connor, and I will be back at the Miami County Fairgrounds for the 8th Annual Paraunity Convention.

And there you have it, my confirmed appearances for the remainder of the year. Keep an eye on this space as I am sure to be adding events as we press forward.

“Psychology destroys the mystery, this kind of magic quality.” — David Lynch

Magick is not merely a trick of the mind or a playful illusion conjured by human perception. It is a fundamental aspect of the universe itself—a language spoken through the archetypes that serve as the very blueprint of reality. These archetypes are not fleeting symbols born of psychology, but the living, breathing forces that underpin the fabric of all that is.

Imagine the universe as a vast, complex cathedral of cosmic energies, where each archetype is a divine architect—an essential being that shapes the ebb and flow of the world around us. These beings are the gods of magick and nature, not mere allegories or psychological projections, but real entities—powerful, autonomous forces that influence the course of events, the rise and fall of worlds, and the hidden currents that guide the unseen.

“Magic is real. And reality… it is magical.” — Aleister Crowley

Through magick, the practitioner seeks to attune themselves to these divine forces—invoking and working with them as preternatural intelligences by recognizing and collaborating with these fundamental energies that forge reality. The gods of magick are the primal energies of creation, destruction, transformation, and renewal—each archetype embodying a core principle that manifests across the cosmos.

To understand magick in this way is to realize that the universe is alive with intention and purpose. The archetypal beings are the custodians of this purpose, weaving the threads of fate and possibility. They are neither psychological illusions nor distant mythic relics; they are the backbone of existence itself—real, vital, and essential.

“Know that all of nature is but a magic theatre…” — The Upanishads

When one calls upon these beings, one is engaging with the very forces that carve the mountains, stir the oceans, and breathe life into the stars. Recognizing their reality empowers the magician to work with the universe’s true architects—those divine entities that sustain and energize the cosmic order. In this sacred dance, magick becomes a communion with the living gods of the universe, revealing the truth that beneath all illusion lies the unshakable foundation of archetypal power—alive, potent, and eternal.

You’ve heard the tale of my run-in with unnatural wolves in the haunted hinterlands of the Mississinewa. No? You can read it HERE. We’re coming up on the 40th anniversary of that night, which, gave birth to decades long research into shapeshifters in Indiana lore.

We were in the land of the Manitou, as later Miamis called it, that area along the Mississinewa where the spirit of the land was rooted.

Hoosiers like to joke and say, “there’s more than corn in Indiana.” Well, there certainly is…

This turned up a while back. I’ll just leave it there for you to chew on.

Have I really been at this 16 years? Without question, it has been a labor of love. For me, the Occult Detective genre, seen through the lens of fact and fiction, is an all-consuming passion. This year’s recipients are more than worthy of the acknowledgement.

These selections are based on media released in 2025. Obviously I couldn’t watch or read everything, so if you know of something that releases in 2026 that you think should be a contender for the 17th Annual Awards, or you have a release you would like me to review, please reach out to me at bob (at) occultdetective (dot) com or message me via my various social media accounts.