This Is Horror

TIH 177: Matt Cardin on Horror and Spirituality, Thomas Ligotti, and Alan Watts

  • November 16, 2017

  • 5 mins to read

In this podcast Matt Cardin talks about horror and spirituality, Thomas Ligotti, Alan Watts, and much more.

About Matt Cardin

Matt Cardin is a writer, editor, musician, and college professor and administrator living in North Texas. He is the author of the supernatural horror fiction collections Divinations of the Deep (2002) and Dark Awakenings (2010). He is also the author of the fiction collection To Rouse Leviathan (forthcoming from Hippocampus Press) and the editor of several academic nonfiction books, including Mummies around the World: An Encyclopedia of Mummies in Religion, History, and Popular Culture(2014), Ghosts, Spirits, and Psychics: The Paranormal from Alchemy to Zombies (2015), and Horror Literature through History: An Encyclopedia of the Stories That Speak to Our Deepest Fears (2017).

Show notes

  • [04:00] Life lessons growing up
  • [06:30] Stories that impacted Matt as a child
  • [09:00] College studies
  • [18:40] What to do after graduating university
  • [23:10]  Connection between horror, spirituality and religion
  • [29:20] Zen Christianity
  • [32:45] Divinations of the Deep
  • [51:50] What would you accept as evidence for the supernatural or existence of God? / Rationalisation and explaining
  • [54:50] Thomas Ligotti
  • [01:00:15] Born to Fear: Interviews with Thomas Ligotti—lessons learnt about Thomas Ligotti
  • [01:03:00] Life lessons via Thomas Ligotti
  • [01:04:40] Cult of positivity
  • [01:10:20] Navigating the lens in which we view the world
  • [01:13:40] Alan Watts

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