Somewhere in the Skies - Somewhere in the Skies - Somewhere on the Stage

Episode Date: December 23, 2019

On episode 140 of SOMEWHERE IN THE SKIES, Ryan is the guest as Jim Perry, host of the Euphomet Podcast arrives in New York City to conduct one of the most personal interviews Ryan has ever taken part in. Recorded across Queens and Manhattan, the two discuss Ryan's experiences as a playwright and artist, his growing interest and initiation in to the harsh realms of the paranormal, and why he continues to look for answers somewhere in the skies. Originally broadcast on Euphomet, this deeply personal interview gives a rare glimpse into Ryan's life outside of the UFO world, his life in the theater, and his hopes of merging these worlds together. He also shares stories and experiences that have led him to where he is today. This is Somewhere in the Skies like you've never heard before. To watch the companion film to this interview, CLICK HERE Subscribe to Euphomet wherever you get your podcasts and visit the official website at: www.euphomet.com Additional background music, "Carol of the Bells" by Lindsey Stirling Patreon: www.patreon.com/somewhereskies YouTube Channel: CLICK HERE Official Store: CLICK HERE Order Ryan's Book by CLICKING HERE Twitter: @SomewhereSkies Instagram: @SomewhereSkiesPod Watch Mysteries Decoded for free at www.CWseed.com Opening Theme Song, "Ephemeral Reign" by Per Kiilstofte SOMEWHERE IN THE SKIES is part of the eOne podcast network. To learn more, CLICK HERE SOMEWHERE IN THE SKIES is sponsored by HelloFresh. To receive 50% off your first order, use promo code: SOMEWHERE at checkout by visiting www.HelloFresh.ca Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/somewhere-in-the-skies. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Terms apply. Hey y'all, Ryan Spreck here. As you all know, the Somewhere in the Skies podcast is always free to consume. But it isn't free to create. That's why I've started the Somewhere in the Sky's Patreon campaign. On a monthly basis, you give what you think the show is worth. You'll be helping the show continue, grow, and to be something truly communal. And remember, there are rewards for each level of contribution, and the list is only growing.

So please, help Somewhere in the Skies now by becoming a Patreon. To contribute and to learn more, visit www.com backslash SomewhereSkies. Thank you for your support. And now, on with the show. This is Somewhere in the Skies with Ryan's bread. Welcome to a very special episode of Somewhere in the Skies. This week, we did a podcast swap with former guest and podcast host, Jim Perry of the Euphamette podcast and web series. If you haven't subscribed to a show, I highly recommend doing it right now.

on your device or computer. He just featured an interview I conducted with him as my guest on his feed. So this week, I'm sharing the love over here at Somewhere in the Skies. While traveling the U.S. with filmmaker Carl Fyfer, Jim made a stop in New York City to interview me on his show. As we began to reminisce about his last appearance on episode 95 of Somewhere in the Skies, I began to open up about my curiosity and hunger to learn more not about UFOs. But the paranormal.

It was always a peripheral interest of mine, obviously having something to do with UFOs. Right? Maybe? I don't know. But the more I started digging and the more I started to open my eyes, my mind, and my heart, the more the paranormal became less peripheral and became an unescapable focus of my work, my life, and my relationship to the unknown. I invited Jim to a place that felt like a second home to me. the stage. The 13th Street Repetory Theater in Manhattan, to be exact. This was the first

theater in New York City where one of my plays came to life for the very first time. See, when I'm not hunting UFOs or talking about the unknown, I'm a playwright. Within the last few years, I've begun to merge my lives together and have started to write plays about the UFO topic. It's a marriage I haven't seen done before in either world, and one that I've been in a world. And one that is challenging and always evolving. In this interview, Jim pulls things out of me that may give you a whole new perspective on me as a UFO researcher, a podcast host, but maybe most importantly, as an individual struggling to make sense of the world around me, just like everyone else. This is a side of me I don't share often on the podcast or even in person, so I really hope you enjoy this

interview I took part in. Please be sure to check out the video companion piece. shot and directed by Carl Fyfer. It's titled Somewhere over on the planet weird YouTube channel. But most importantly, be sure to subscribe to you from that wherever you get your podcasts. But for now, I hope you enjoyed this

deeply personal conversation I had with Jim Perry. And I'm wishing all of you a very happy holiday season. Keep looking up and keep looking forward somewhere in the skies. It was nighttime. I was fishing.

Everyone always asked me why we're you fishing at night. I just, that's what I was doing. I have no answer for that, but that's what I was doing. I remember I was listening to Green Day. It was basket case, I think. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. There's got to be something to that. I just remember like the percussion coming in and that's when I saw like this reflection in the water. I looked up and what the hell is that? I look up and I see, I see, triangular formation. Not an object. I saw no structure.

I just saw lights. But they were floating over this body of water. My dad comes out and he sees the tail end of the thing is it's floating over the water towards Canada. And I could just tell. Like, he, you know when your parent is telling you the truth, you know, like, growing up, like when they're teaching you these life lessons or, uh, You know, they tell you not to worry about something, but you are worried. I could tell it was a moment where he wasn't quite sure what to say to me. I think looking back at it now, if I had had that same UFO experience now,

I would have taken something different from it. As a kid, I was just like, what the heck is that? Like, is it going to blow me up? Or, like, what's going on? I wasn't into UFOs when that happened. I didn't know anything about him. but now I'm so entrenched in it every day of my waking life that if I had that experience now, I think I would be bringing an entire whole new set of questions to it.

You know, I feel like I'd have more ideas of what it wasn't. And then to have your own protector, your father, see the same thing as you and not know what it was. and try to calm you down, say it's just a plane, it's just this. I wonder now what he would think. If we saw it both as adults, if he would have had a different story to tell me. He didn't talk about it forever. And I remember a few years ago,

we were at a bar in Syracuse, New York, where I live. I was visiting him, and he just, like, unloaded on me. all about what I was doing. Like, what's new in the world of UFOs? You know, trying to connect with his son some 20 years later. And I loved it. Like, I loved having that moment with him where I could tell him about this world

that I'd kind of been pulled to but also manifested, I think, too. And the communities that I found within that. And it was so cool to, like, explain to him what my life. was now. And I could just, I could tell he wanted to talk about that night. And I asked him, I said, do you remember any of that? He's like, oh yeah, yeah, of course. And I was like, what do you think it was? And he just, he looked at me and he was like, I have no idea. Like, I don't know what it was. I'm Jim Perry, and you are listening to Euphemat, a show about the unknown, and our relationship to it.

On this edition, a storyteller, redefining his own, carrying the anomalous experiences of others with him while spiraling into the unknown. UFOs, alien abductions, and something altogether more strange. Next, on Euphemat. The ceiling is seemingly at arm's reach down here.

The light fixtures above even swing as we pass below like some pie pan flying saucer prop from a 50s hoaxer, bouncing light from black-painted brick to the stage's wooden floor. I'm in a small theater in New York with playwright, author, podcaster, burgeoning TV UFO personality Ryan Sprague. He's brought me here to show me where it all started, the place where he aligned his seemingly disparate passions into personage, the place where he finds himself, where he finds his story,

true work. I'm very shy. I'm very shy. I'm very quiet. I'm a listener. When I was in high school, I did a play. And that was the first time that I got in front of an audience and, like, expressed myself and it changed my life. I wouldn't say it was good by any means, but I did it. And I caught the bug, you know, that whole cliche of catching the theater bug. And now we're here today. Yes. It's cool, making theater. It's in Midtown. It's all. Off off-off-Broadway, but... Off-off-off-off-Broadway, yeah.

Dude, oh my God, yeah. I mean, these are my theaters here. This is where my first ever play was produced. I'd been writing, I'd been struggling, and I actually got hired to write a play. I was commissioned. They gave me the topic of play about a serial killer. He said, we want you to write about Jack the Ripper.

And I was like, oh, that's pretty cool. wouldn't know where to begin. I'd never written a period piece. I'd never done like a British dialogue, anything like that before in my playwriting career. And I remember opening night. I was terrified the play had gone through so many different iterations and successes and failures in terms of development. And I had no idea what people were going to think about it. And I was really scared, You know, I just, it took over my life for most two years, learning about serial killers, what makes them tick, what makes them do the things they do. The psychology behind it is fascinating, and it was to me. And trying to bring that out on a live stage, I had no idea how it was going to play out, because people actually were murdered by Jack the Ripper, no matter how much we think it's cool or interesting that we don't know who it really was.

The play started, and the opening, it's like a Teblow. And it's a apartment, kind of like what we're seeing here today. And there's a window. It's very dark. All you see is the window being pried open from outside. A dark figure coming in, surveying the room, and then there's a knock on the door, and the figure goes and hides in another room. And I remember right when that happened, a guy in the front row, he stood up, he was like,

Fuck this. No, I'm leaving. And he literally got up and left the theater. So that was a moment where I was like, yes. Like, yes, I got someone to leave my play before it even started. You know, that could be a big problem for a lot of playwrights. But the fact that, like, it invoked a reaction from someone when the dialogue hadn't even started in the play yet, it was like, okay, all right, that's cool. Like, that's something I'm going to remember. the play goes on people laughed they felt really uncomfortable they loved moments they hated moments and clapped yay play done

and I remember being out in that lobby and just talking to people you know congratulations or I thought this blah blah blah and I remember there was a guy a younger gentleman and an older gentleman

and the younger guy had like almost like a nursing nurse like an RN outfit on and I was like that's like what brought you here was like oh I came with this the guy in the bathroom I was like oh okay like are you in like is he

a director or writer is like oh no he's a patient what and then he goes out and he tells me yeah he's a patient at the Bellevue psychiatric he heard about this play and they get one night a month where they can go out and do something and he wanted to come here so I had to come with him to see this play.

And that was a moment where I was like, what the fuck? Like, I'm writing kind of a parody of a horror-esque sort of film noir thing going on with Jack the Ripper. And like a dude from a psych ward had one night to come out on the town or whatever. And he came to see this play. I was speechless when the dude told me that. And I didn't know what to say. I didn't know how to take that. But I knew that I had either done something right

or something really wrong. Yeah. Through theater, Ryan meets his future mentor, famed writer Peter Robbins, author of seminal UFO works, including a landmark investigation into a 1980 encounter at a U.S. Air Force Base in England,

known widely as the Rendlesham Forest incident. With help from Robbins, Ryan is finally able to marry his passions in theater and UFO when he pins a play based off the event and Robin's investigation. Work on the play ignites Ryan's ambition to continue UFO research, and in no time he's following closer in his mentor's footsteps than ever, with boots on the ground, collecting stories from real experiencers. He starts work on his first UFO book, somewhere in the skies. I remember the first abductee I ever interviewed.

I was flying to Arizona to interview this woman. And the whole way there, I'm like, what am I doing? This is ridiculous. Like, I'm so on the fence about alien abduction. Like, it's just, I don't know. I'm going to be judgmental the minute I meet her and this, that. And I remember meeting her at a diner and her husband. was with her, which I wasn't expecting. I thought it was just going to be us. And the minute I met her,

and she hugged me, and we sat down and had a meal together, I was like, okay, this is actually normal. This is cool. She's not some, like, weird new agey person, like saying she's a star seed and all this. Again, you know, I'm not one to judge. But we sat there, we ate, and then we had to come face to face to the fact that I'm here for a reason. Like, I need to hear your story. And I just remember her diving into it. And the more she got into the details of what had happened to her, that she was taken from her bed at night and that she was put on this slab and that there were all these creatures around her. And she could remember, like, the temperature in the room. And she could see perspiration on these creatures' skin and, um, how scared she was. And,

I didn't know like how to react. So I'm just like nodding. Okay, okay. And then I could see her like trembling as she was telling it. And that was like the moment where I was like, okay, this is really, really affecting her. And then I saw her husband grab her hand and just squeezed it. And she started crying the more and more she got into the story. And that was, that was a moment. I'll never forget what happened to her. Recalling this memory of whatever it was, uh, affected her so deeply. And it almost meant more that her husband was there telling her you can do it. and comforting her and supporting her, that I'm like, you are like everyday people. And your wife is telling me she was abducted by aliens.

And you're like, you can do it. You can do it. That, uh, man, that was the reality. And I don't know. Did it actually happen? I don't know. But I left that night being like, who, what did I get myself into? I went there being like, this is going to be a cool story.

that I can maybe put in a book, people will be like, oh, yeah, alien abduction, cool. And I left being like, shit. Like, I have a responsibility to this woman. She never told this to anyone else. And she agreed to do it with me

because she trusted me. And that was the first story I recorded for my book. And from there, it had to live up to that level for me. of I need these people to trust me, and I need to trust them. It's sad to me that no one will believe them and that we can live in a world that claims, I should say a society that claims to be so open-minded and accepting.

And when you have these very stable people, genuine people coming forward, and just saying they saw a light in the sky, and someone tells them they were drunk or they misidentified something, that for me is just like, aren't we past this? So many people have seen UFOs. So many people have claimed these encounter experiences that no matter what it is, I'm not saying it's an alien from another planet, it could be anything. But the fact that these people are having these experiences and are willing to come forward to talk about it, And then to have nobody listen to them or to immediately, like, just brush it off, I don't blame people in many ways until you meet them. And you see, like, they have nothing to gain from this.

Like, the days of writing a book about an alien abduction and making tons of money, those are over. They're fucking over. It was a fad. And now you still have people telling those stories. Like, are they trying to, like, hold on tight to those last moment? of like, you know, prosperity, maybe. But for all those people who might be making up shit, there's 10 people behind them who are telling the truth.

And I honestly believe that is, but it's there. And it's staring us in the face. And we're trying to stare back. But I don't think we know how. And I don't think people are ready. I think we're on its timeline. So this was two years of, ago, I was speaking at a UFO conference, or not a UFO conference, more of like an esoteric

conference. You know, you had the ghost hunter there, you had the euphologist, you had the cryptozoologist, and it was cool. It was great. Like, I was learning stuff, I was experiencing new things, and they invited me out to Nova Scotia, which I'd never been to. Growing up pretty close to Canada, I just never made it that far. And part of our like initiation that weekend was to go on a ghost hunt, which I'd never done before my life. You know, I'd seen all the TV shows. I'd heard about, you know, what goes on at these things. And honestly, man, like I went in thinking, I'm just going to play the role. Like, it'll be cool. Like, we'll act like some crazy shit happened and have a good spook and go on with the weekend.

So we went to this historically haunted place in Nova Scotia called the Queens County Museum. It had a really long history of the indigenous people who had lived there for so long. And then, you know, the settlers that came in after that. So you just got endless, endless amounts of history in this place. So, yeah, we were kind of, you know, going, going, I was going into this museum. thinking nothing was going to happen that, you know, maybe someone's EMF reader was going to go off or a ghost spirit box is going to pick up a random word here and there and someone would interpret it as either dead ant or like some person coming back from the dead. And I was like, all right,

this will be fun. This would be fun. So I remember going throughout the museum and kind of just rolling my eyes and people are like, oh, they're going. Look at that up there. Like, there's something up there. I could see it. I could feel it. We're catching it on the camera, blah, blah, blah. And I just, I couldn't believe I was there, like, doing this.

I'm like, oh, man, this just seems so cheesy and corny to me. And it's funny because I'd been so entrenched in UFOs for so long that when someone told me they saw something in this guy, I'm like, yes, okay. I'd heard people say they were taken by air. aliens, but I couldn't accept for some reason that people were communicating with the dead. I don't know if it was a fear that it could actually happen or what it was if I was just overly skeptical about it, but I just found myself like rolling my eyes when someone was like, I caught something like this, that, this, that.

And I kind of like distanced myself in every room and looked at these people. I wouldn't say I looked down at them, but I kind of was like, fine. Like, if that's going to get them through the night and make them feel like something happened, cool. And I remember this one moment where we went into this room of the museum called the activity room, where, like, kids could go and play while the parents went through the museum and everything. And they had one of these spirit boxes in the room at the time. and for those who don't know, it's like this thing that catches radio frequencies

per second, even quicker, and you try to catch things on it, and maybe you get a word here and there, and supposedly it's a spirit that's communicating with you. And, you know, this is all new to me, so I'm like, okay, that's cool. So we go in the room, and it's pitch black, and we start catching on,

on the spirit box, the voice of a little girl. And I thought it was really interesting because, like, it wasn't catching a commercial from a radio show. It wasn't catching, like, lyrics from a song. It was the voice of a little girl, like, clear as day. And it sounded like she was crying. And it was constant on the spirit box, which, again, like, I didn't think was possible.

Like, again, you're flipping through these frequencies at, like, crazy rate. and we kept catching this girl, like, almost whimpering. And it kind of scared me at first. I'm like, that's a little freaky, but whatever. Like, anything can happen. And so our host is like, oh, this must be Lily, the little girl that haunts this room. Like, she comes here all the time, and she's scared of adults because they're so much taller than her.

Like, let's get down to her level. So we literally all crouched down to get down to the... this gross level. And I'm playing along. I'm like, okay. Like, I see where this is going. Let's like, I'll go with it. Like, Lily's here. Let's see what happens next. Yep, we're down on the ground. And immediately, when we all got done on the ground, it started going through the frequencies on the spirit box again. And it was a little girl giggling. And that really caught me off guard, you know, crying. She's scared. Sit down, giggle. She's happy. She's comfortable with us now. And it seemed to be a few minutes of just playfulness with whatever was coming through the spirit box. And again, I was very skeptical about everything going on. I was very on guard. And I think I didn't want it to be real. But it was there. Like this constant voice of a little girl. And I kind of just sat there.

and I took it in and I tried to take it in stride and then I remember we were sitting in silence just feeling the room out and I was sitting cross-legged on the ground and for a brief moment I felt a weight on my legs and they just like hit the ground like someone had hopped into my lap and I felt thinning I'm not kidding, I felt actual fingers on my neck, like someone was sitting in my lap and hugging me. And I just kind of shot back. And immediately, it felt like the fingers left. And the weight was lifted off my legs and something like ran out of the room. And I looked in the doorway of the room and my buddy Greg Bishop was standing in the doorway. And immediately, when I felt the weight lift and this cold rush leave the room, he, like, stepped aside in the doorway, like, someone had run past him.

And he looked over at me, and I'm, like, in the corner, white as a ghost. Like, something just left my lap. And he's in the doorway, like, something just passed me. And we made eye contact, like, what the fuck just happened? I just remember sitting there while everyone else kind of, was still trying to communicate with this Lily girl or whoever was in the room and I knew she was gone already

like whatever was in the room with us was gone and that was a moment that I felt it and it wasn't the spirit box it wasn't you know a cold spot it wasn't anything like that it was somebody sitting in my lap giving me a hug and then running out of the room

and I never felt anything like that before that or since then and I don't know what to make of it I don't know if it was a spirit if I had conjured this image in my head of this little girl in the room

and I made more of something that wasn't there but I I can't remember ever feeling so much in the moment except when I had my own UFO sighting as a kid and the world was so clear in that moment for me and I just remember getting up and leaving the room and everyone went on and did their things catching orbs and things going off on their devices

and I just got so overwhelmed with like emotion And, and I was scared, but I was also, like, happy. I don't know. I don't know what it was, but I had to leave the museum. And I just went out into the front parking lot by myself, and I kind of, like, caught my breath, and I didn't know what to do next. I was in another country, on an island, stuck there,

and I just had my fucking, like, paradigm shifted and I felt like I was 12 years old again. Like I wanted my mom. I wanted someone to tell me that didn't happen, but I just kind of, I don't know, I just stood up there for God knows how long until someone came out. I was like, you are right, man? Like, what's going on? And I just remember that whole weekend. I was more in tune with everything around me. That, that, that, that, ghost experience, like, if it was a ghost or whatever, it definitely changed my outlook on life. I've had a lot of, I don't know how you'd say it. I've lost a lot of people in my life way earlier than I ever anticipated.

And I had some moments in the past year and a half that in my personal life with family that just hits you out of nowhere and makes you realize like anything can happen at the drop of a dime and life can stop and those are the moments where I think it really puts into perspective that it seems so cliche but we're only here for a limited amount of time

why doubt things why close yourself off like see what's out there and it took almost losing someone in my life who means the world to me to really accept that and not just sit on my ass and wonder like get out there big shit out or don't but at least I could say I tried every person I talk to is one step closer for them of closure for them to at least get their story

out there, have someone listen, and have people, like, take that in. And that's what I love. I love telling stories. I love creating characters. That's why we're in this theater. Like, I love how people tick what they think, how it, you know, how that translates into what they do and how it changes their lives. And that's what plays are. And that's what's happening to these people. You know, whether a UFO fell in their lap or, you know, they felt the cold touch of a spirit or something, like, that's going to change them in so many different ways. I think breaking down those walls and letting the audience become a part of the play is where we're finally going to find some answers.

Like when we finally can look up at that UFO or whatever and be like, I get it, I get it. Like, come play with us. like do this together instead of like showing me yourself for half a second disappear for a blink of an eye and leave me wondering for the rest of my life you know let's do this together let's create together let's collaborate i mean it sounds like that experience was definitely removing that removing that wall from the stage yeah yeah yeah dude i mean that right there was the moment of like not only like breaking that fourth wall, but like grabbing the person in the front row,

like their collar and being like, I'm here. Like, I'm here. Thank you for listening to this edition of Euphemat. This podcast is only a part of the story. To see more, go watch this episode's video vignette exclusively on Planet Weird's YouTube channel or find it at euphemat.com. Carl Fifer, director of the popular web series Hellyer and past Euphemat feature, is traveling with me all season long and really realizing Euphamette cinematically. So don't miss

watching these short films. Subscribe to Ryan Sprague's podcast, somewhere in the skies, wherever you listen to podcasts. Make sure to join us on Facebook, our group, The Society of Euphamette, is where myself and listeners go to share their own experiences and talk about the show. Please join us on there. You can find us on Twitter and Instagram at Euphamette and me at it's Jim Perry. And I must thank all of our Patreon members. There's a season two, because of you. If you are not yet a member, we could always use your help, so please consider joining.

You'll get access to Euphimet the original series, brand new conversations, and more. Find it all at patreon.com slash euphamette. And of course, please remember to subscribe, rate, and review us on iTunes. This has been Euphomet. I'm Jim Perry, and until next time. Keep looking up. Somewhere in the skies is produced by third-kind productions in association with the Entertainment One podcast network.

To learn more, visit Entertainment One Podcast.com.