The Confessionals - 418: Expedition Dogman

Episode Date: February 22, 2022

In Episode 418: Expedition Dogman, Tony is joined by his documentary film team from Legion Of Legends to discuss the upcoming release of Expedition Dogman! The team discusses their opinions about what they thought dogman was going in to this experience, and how some of those opinions changed once the journey was over. The crew went deep into the Daniel Boone National Forest hunting the dogman, guided by Kyle from Episode 335: Dog vs Dogman. They found mysterious prints, saw things they will never be able to unsee, and chased the unknown into the dark night of the forest. Expedition Dogman was their first documentary together, but it won't be their last. There is something about putting yourself out in the wilderness that makes you more aware of your vulnerabilities, and through that the Legion Of Legends team created an unbreakable bond.  Become a VIP for early access to the "Expedition Dogman" premiere at merkel.media!VIP Premiere: 3/11/22 exclusively on merkel.media Public Premiere: 3/25/22 on The Confessionals YouTubeBecome a member for AD FREE listening and EXTRA shows: theconfessionalspodcast.com/join MAILING ADDRESS:STE 36188 Glocker Way,Pottstown, PA 19465 SPONSORSGET Surfshark: surfshark.deals/confessionals GET Cerebral: getcerebral.com/tony GET SIMPLISAFE TODAY: simplisafe.com/confessionals GET Hello Fresh: hellofresh.com/confessionals16 Promo Code: "confessionals16" for 16 FREE MEALS!!! Get Emergency Food Supplies: www.preparewiththeconfessionals.com Get Beard Oil: bit.ly/2FbOhN5 CONNECT WITH US Website: www.theconfessionalspodcast.com Email: [e-mail] Subscribe to the Newsletter: https://www.theconfessionalspodcast.com/the-newsletter SOCIAL MEDIA Subscribe to our YouTube: https://bit.ly/2TlREaI TikTok: @theconfessionals Discord: https://discord.gg/KDn4D2uw7h Show Instagram: theconfessionalspodcast Tony's Instagram: tonymerkelofficial Facebook: www.facebook.com/TheConfessionalsPodcas Twitter: @TConfessionals Tony's Twitter: @tony_merkel

Merkel Media Hey everybody Remember that episode 335 Dog versus Dogman where we had that guy Kyle come on the show and he shared his most dramatic story

we probably ever had on the show about being attacked by a dog man remember how I said I was going to go to Kentucky and hunt that dog man in October last year and how me and a team of guys went into the Daniel Boone

National Forest looking for this creature remember how I said I was going to make that documentary Well, guess what? Now the time has come. The documentary is here. So listen closely because you don't want to miss the details right now. If you want to be one of the world's first viewers of this legendary documentary, you got to go to merkle.com. That's not merkle.com. It's merkle.com. It's merkle. Dot media. Put that in your URL. It will take you to Merkel Media's website. And there you can register on the website to be a VIP viewer. on March 11th, 2022. You'll be able to log into your account on that day

and watch Expedition Dogman live with hundreds, thousands, millions of viewers and myself and my team. And then afterwards, we are going to go ahead and go live with a live Q&A where people can actually call into the show. They can ask questions live on the show. They can ask questions in the chat that will be available. They can chat back and forth on the show. the website during the documentary premiere with other viewers.

Lots of cool options for this VIP premiere on Merkel. Dot Media. So if you want to get that early access and be one of the first people in the world to watch this documentary, the only way to do it is on Merkel. Dot Media. Register to be a VIP and get that early access on. Also, if you don't want that early access, you can wait until, March 25th where we actually do a public premiere right there on the Confessionals YouTube

channel. So if you don't want to be part of the early hype, that's okay. You just have to wait a couple weeks and you can watch it live on YouTube. March 25th at 9 p.m. Eastern Standard Time. Every showing March 11th and March 25th will premiere at 9 p.m. Eastern Standard Time. I hope you guys are excited because I'm super excited. And for the next two hours, You're going to listen to me, talk with my team of guys that I took to Kentucky to hunt the dogman, and we're going to talk about our experience down there, priming you guys for this legendary documentary. Oh, and also go to YouTube right now. The Confessionals YouTube channel, hit subscribe and watch the official, the official trailer for Expedition Dogman.

Okay, now let's get to the show. This was all circulating around the base that a giant had to kill, but no one was supposed to talk. Talk about it. I saw three long, boning fingers, reach up underneath the door, curl up to grab it, and then disappear. When he came over to me, dude, he slithered over to me. And this giant comes out of the cave and they're all frozen. And he starts running and firing up this giant.

But the giant moves, he's got a spear in one hand and he's running really fast. Spears, Dan, holds him up like this. Somebody else, shoot him in the face, shoot him in the face. They basically decapitated. Got sparser, got sparser, got sparser, when he got about it. Feel something pulling at my leg. And I look over and there are two small gray entities pulling it. And they're literally, I'm getting pulled off the bed.

I reached my hand into this bush and I touch air. Couldn't breathe and I couldn't move because I know I'm seeing. a monster. Yep. Welcome to the show, everybody. You're listening to The Confessionals. I'm your host, Tony Merkel. Thanks for being here. If you've a crazy wild experience, you want to share with me on the show, go ahead and shoot me an email. My email address is The Confessionals at the Confessionalspodcast.com. That's The Confessionals at the Confessionalspodcast.com. Or go to the website, the Confessionalspodcast.com. Hit the contact section. You can reach me

that way as well. Either it works for me, just get a hold of me. If you want more shows on a weekly basis, we drop member shows every Thursday. you get the Tuesday shows ad free. And when we do the overtime shows, you have access to the overtime segments as well when you're a member, all on the website and the casso sap. So if that interests you, go to the website, the confessionalspodcast.com, hit the join button and become a member today. Now, we got a different show today, friends.

We are just going to get right into it. Fellas, I know I told you before we started to have your mics muted. I think it might be a little inconvenient. so let's just go ahead and unmute your microphones. I'm a little, I get a little pet peevy when it comes to audio quality and stuff. Jack can attest to that, but I think today we're just going to do the best we can because I would want the conversation to be free flowing. So we got a very interesting, I would say interesting show.

We're actually making this an announcement show because a lot of people have been for a long time asking me, actually, since, you know what, I was having people ask me. me when the Dogman documentary was coming out before we went to Kentucky to hunt the dogman. So I was, I've been having a lot of people ask me, well, today we're announcing that we are actually dropping the Dogman documentary. We have a date now, two dates actually. So let's just get the business out of the way. And then we're going to get the crew of guys here because I have my whole team of guys here. And you know what? Let me just introduce him here. We got Jack Merkel, young Merck, my younger brother. We got Christian Roper.

we got Joel Thomas and Ward Hiney. Guys, I appreciate you hopping on here and recording with me. We're actually recording this at 9.30 at night on Monday. This is going to be releasing in just a few hours. But we're dropping the Dogman documentary. I thought today would be a great day to talk about our journey, where we're going with Legion of Legends and just general conversation and stuff. So I want to let everybody know up front what the deal is. On March 11th, 2020, we are going to be dropping a VIP premiere. That means it's only available to people who are VIPs, and that's going to be available on Merkel.

Dot Media. That is the website, friends. I know a lot of people when I tell them Merkel, well, I don't tell a whole lot of people about Merkel. Dot Media until now, but whenever I was talking to potential clients and stuff, because I totally transformed that website in the last 24 hours. But when I was talking to potential clients and stuff, I would say Merkel.

Dotmedia. Like, dot com. I'm like, no, it's just Merkel. dot media. So like the media part is like the dot com, I guess. So if people go to merkle. They'll see the whole website there and you can get access to the VIP premiere on March 11th. You got to just sign up. It's $25 for the premiere. And every everything that we earn from the VIP premieres, we are going to be reinvesting it into the next journey. We've discussed this before and stuff. And so, well, we can talk about it a little bit later and stuff. But it got

pricey. It got price. I couldn't believe it. I was like, wow, you know, when I was talking about doing Kentucky, I was like, oh, you know, just drive down there a few bucks for gas, put up some hammocks in the woods, hunt dog, man, go home for dinner, you know, it's going to be great. And I was like, holy crap, the cost were mounting up. And what the crazy thing was, is that we had that whole, I had that whole other thing scheduled for later that week. And I got cabins for that. And then I was like, eh, I'm going home. I think I still had to pay for it, but I was just like, I missed my family. I just wanted to go home. So, uh, anyways, getting distracted. Jack, keep me on target, man, if I, uh, if I go off to track too much. Uh, so listen, friends,

let's just cut down to it. March 11th is the VIP premiere. If you want to be a, be a VIP and gain access to this special premiere, you want to go to Merkel.com media and become a VIP. It's It's $25 one-time feed, not recurring, nothing like that. It's just $25. And then on the 11th, all you got to do is go to merkle. Dot Media and you'll have access to watching the premiere live with us. That's where we're going to be broadcasting it right there on the website, Merkel.comedia, on the watch page.

The page is actually called Watch Expedition Dogman, which is what we called it. Now, for the rest of the people, the public, we are premiering on March 25th, the Confessionals YouTube channel. So if you don't want to be a premiere and you want to wait to two weeks and miss all the hype, just go to the YouTube channel, hit subscribe, the Confessionals, and we'll be premiering it there on March 25th. Now, the times for both of these dates will be 9 p.m. It's a Friday each day. We're going to do 9 p.m. each day. I figure that's enough time for people to get kids to bed and things like that, at least for the East Coast people. The West Coast people are like, well, I'm eating dinner that time, but I guess I'll skip dinner.

So, fellas, so how are you guys doing? Everybody's doing good. It's been a little while since we all were together talking and stuff about this. Now, I think what we'll do is, first off, I want to just say something here to Christian. So Christian is the one who cut the documentary. I guess that's the right terminology cutting. In my turns, I'm just like, he produced it. He made it.

He pushed the buttons and turned the knobs. But we have a documentary that Christian put a lot of time into. But Christian, how was this whole process for you, man? I mean, like, we were out there doing our thing. But I know for you going into this, you had some skeptical opinions. And I'm sure you shared on documentary and stuff as well. But I mean, the process from, you know, committing to doing this with me to today, has your thoughts and opinions changed it at all? Absolutely. I think when I first got into documentary filmmaking, it was from a completely different area, a different genre of filmmaking. You guys are aware, but a lot of people don't know. I spent the last, about three years of my life, tracking down pirate legends of all things and working with TV shows and documentaries in that.

And then Tony gives me a call one day and says, how would you to come help me look for a werewolf? And so it was a little bit out there for me. And at this point in my life, there is really nothing I won't say yes to if I feel like I can't get an interesting story out of it. And so my mind was completely unbiased. I wanted to go in. I wanted to see what this eyewitness was made of in terms of credibility, what the land was like, to chase on tangential stories of. Kentucky and we surely came across those.

And when we got there, we didn't know what would happen. We didn't know the structure. We didn't know who would take charge in this way, but everything really meshed perfectly. And we went in with a little bit of an idea of what story we wanted on the way out. And I'm not sure I'm sure even that the story is ever going to have a definite answer with anything that we look into. These topics are always evolving. And this one even after we left, there were multiple developments that kept adding on to the uniqueness of this story. But yeah, it's been a really fun ride, very different. I went a complete skeptic. And I'm sure we'll

talk about this a little bit, but that second day that we were there, that encounter that we had. It's one of those things that I've thought about most days since. And I'm glad that I got to share that experience with Joel. And it's one of those things that really make you think. And in my relationship with Kyle now, we've become pretty good friends since, I can say without a doubt, this is maybe the most intriguing project I've ever worked on because I was able to to find some answers for myself, but ultimately it came away with more questions. And as a documentary filmmaker, that's something that really bothers you. And so it's a good thing to say that this project will always bother me for the rest of my life, really. I mean, good. And, you know, I feel like

we really hit out of the park on this first one. And part of me felt like, oh, man, are we, are we, doing that whole classic you hit the home run first at back kind of thing and then you suck the rest of the nine innings kind of thing you know because i was worried about that i was thinking like man this is so good that you know are we going to have like we have a bar that's setting really high and is this going to be something we can replicate as far as maybe you know the entertainment value the all that you know and uh what when we were talking earlier this year when we had our meeting about the future of Legion of Legends, which we'll get into. I just felt like the places we were discussing going, especially the second place we're planning on going next to,

let's just put it generically out west. That I think people are going to absolutely love. And then the recent development that I told you guys in the chat thread that if that happens with the other podcast guy, um, You know, like that that could be huge. And so the fact that we have just those two lined up for this year, hopefully, I think Legion of Legends is off to a really good start. And I'll just tell you, and this is more for the audience than anything, I cannot believe that, and I keep saying it this way,

I accidentally found the perfect team. Because like I, the team was, a lot more people than what we had down there. The team was completely different. And then just through different things happening, guys dropped off. And I'm literally left. Joel, when did I ask you to come? Like at what, that was like, what, two weeks or so?

Yeah, I think it was like two or three weeks before you reached out to me and said, hey, man, I don't know if you'd want to. And I was like, hell yeah. So I was ready to go. I'm always ready for something like that. So, yeah, no, it was very kind of last minute. And you were kind of tentative when you asked me to, I don't know if this would be up your alley.

And I'm just like, you know, where are you going to be? So, yeah. Yeah. Because I mean, because like, I didn't want to invite anybody that I didn't feel comfortable with, you know? And, and I was like, well, Well, I mean, I know he's really into talking about the global cabal and conspiracy and raging against the, raging against dystopia. But, you know, I was like, I don't know if hunting monsters is up his alley, really, you know? And then I saw your tattoo on your arm with the alien on the back. I was like, okay, yeah, he's, yeah, he's, he's, he's about that life. But I mean, it just like, like two, three weeks before we had to be in Kentucky, I'm. I'm like, oh my gosh, am I going to have anybody coming with me, you know, outside the camera guys?

And I was like, I might, I might be in a little, having a little issue here, you know? And so I just, I was very nervous. And then when we go down and stuff, I mean, I had met Christian in Houston back in 2019. Ward, or not, not Ward, Joel, you and I spent a day together recording for the show. And Ward, you and I probably spent about a day talking on the phone together sometimes, you know, mostly my fault. A little bit of a chatty guy, but hey, podcasts are here. So I was, I had experience with everybody, but I was just like a week with these guys.

I just don't know if we're going to have the chemistry or not. So I went into a very open-minded where I was just like, we're going to really try to do this and we're going to see how it goes. But I think it was like within the first day, I was like, oh, yeah, we're finding a groove here the second day. I was like, these are my guys. And then I wasn't sure if you guys were feeling the same way until we got, you know, chatting about things down there. And then when we had our meeting on Zoom and stuff, and everybody was just like, yep, if you want to, if you want to do more of these, let's do it. So, I mean, all that to say, you know, with what Christian was saying about

going in as a skeptic and this being, you know, a very unique project for him, he's got a lot more coming his way because he, he, he, uh, hitched his boat to me. So, you know, we're going to have some fun. But Ward, we were going into this and Christian said he was a skeptic. Now, my brother, Jack, is here and I don't know how much he's going to talk because he actually wasn't on the trip, you know, but he was one of the guys that bailed on me and decided he wasn't, he wasn't willing to come on this journey. I think he was a little scared. People who want to, anybody who wants to probe that idea, you can email Jack, at the Confessionals Jack at email.com. So go ahead and email Jack

at the Confessionals Jack at Gmail.com and ask him why he bailed on this whole journey. But, yes, Jack, that's why I asked you for your email before we started. So,

but Christian is going in as a skeptic. Jack is my in-house skeptic. I mean, Jack is interested in the top. topics. He likes talking about. He likes going on the journeys, all that stuff. But Jack will tell you he does not believe in Bigfoot. He does not believe in Dogman. Is that right, Jack? Or am I putting words in your mouth? No, you're right. Okay. That's what I thought. And so, like, I, you know, Christian kind of became my Jack for the week with the skepticism. But, you know, Ward, you were a little skeptical too,

but in a different sense. Like, I think you, you believed that people were experiencing something, but you didn't seem to feel like what they're experiencing might be what traditionally is thought as a dog man, a physical creature, but more of a darker route, right? Yeah. So I had some experience with the product I was working on in just strangeness. And I know that at least in my limited experience. experience, it seems like whatever it is that you go looking for is never quite what finds you. But in both of these projects so far, we've had something that you struggle to explain later in terms of, you know, just physical linear cause and effect that we're all used to.

So, yeah, I mean, going into it, I had. I had this interest in the strangeness that surrounds Kentucky and Appalachia that I've been pursuing for a while. And I think, I still suspect that there's something connected to all of that that's at play here. But, I mean, the benefit of that theory is that it's so vague, it can accommodate almost anything that happens. So, um, but the reason for that is because so much strange stuff happens that's not readily identifiable. So yeah, I thought that maybe, uh, one of my hypotheses for what might explain these people's encounters, um, particularly after meeting Kyle and his, just, uh, his credibility is really difficult to dismiss. And, um, so,

after meeting him and I've heard other stories that I find the people credible, I think that they are describing what they perceive to have experienced accurately. But I think that that perception could be caused by something other than literally a physical material creature that's running around in the woods. Yeah, that is something that I was. kind of introduced to shortly before I went to Kentucky. I mean, obviously, throughout the years of the show, I had growing opinions on how all this stuff works. And when I first started the show, cryptids were physical in my mind. Actually, I lie. I was transitioning my mindset because I was

really exploring this whole Nephilim angle and I started thinking of the possibilities, but I really wasn't talking a whole lot about it publicly. And as the show went on, and my brain just kind of changed on a lot of things, I started feeling that cryptids could, there could be something more to it. But then when I was doing, having a conversation with Josh Turner from Paranormal Roundtable on this show, and he was talking about the idea of metaphysical dog man, for whatever reason, He didn't introduce like new concepts to me, but the way he said it just kind of like made things click in my brain. And I was like, oh, that kind of really lays out a path for me to really kind of sift through mentally. And I'll tell you guys, I'm driving to Kentucky and it's

4 a.m. in the morning. And I'm approaching like somewhere between Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and Pittsburgh. Now, I'm coming from the Philly area, and I had to drive straight across the state and then down through West Virginia, just so I would avoid Maryland. So just in case I got pulled over by a cop, I'm not breaking in gun laws. And so I'm going a long way. So I turned like a, I think it was probably supposed to be like a 10-hour ride to like a 4-hour, or 14-hour ride. And I'm somewhere out there in the middle of nowhere. And I'm listening to, I know some of you guys know who I'm talking about. He has a YouTube channel, Tim Poole. And he typically covers culture, politics, things like that. And it was, you know, beginning of October. And they were doing,

you know, their usual thing, but they were also talking about, you know, spooky things. And they had one of their in-house guys, Shane Cashman on. And I actually was on Shane's show. So Shane started a show through Tim Poole's media company. And I went down in November of last year to their studio and recorded with them. And I got to know Shane, he's a great guy. But Shane, my introduction to Shane was this story. So I forget how they got on this topic, but Shane talked about how through his research with paranormal stuff, he came across a woman they was talking with that was, she was

in a school of mystery. Now, people who maybe don't know what a school mystery is, think Harry Potter, I guess, only less theatrical. It's literally, they have schools that they teach you how to do witchcraft. And a lot of these schools are very secretive. It's not like they have websites. It's very kind of low key. I don't know if hers was low key or not. But you can go online. You can find, there's one really well-known one that is online. Anyways, I don't want to go crazy. So back to the story. Shane is talking about how he met this woman. He was talking with her. And she was describing to him what it was like in this school of mystery, what they're learning.

And she said that now we're going to Kentucky to hunt a dog man. And she said to me, or not to me, to Shane, that when they were in class, one of the classes was that they were learning how to open portals. And she described how when they would open these portals, things would. come through from the other side. And one of the things that she describes seeing was an upright walking dog coming through the portal. And I was like, I was like, I'm going to hunt this thing. You know, like, I'm like, I'm breaking my neck, looking in the back seat at my gun. I'm like, I think I need like a ghostbuster gun right now. This 12 gauge is not going to do the trick,

you know? And so I was a little, uh, I was a little wigged out, you know, early morning. And that, but that, but that little story that he shared really kind of, um, kind of put my brain in a different, in a different lane for this whole trip. Uh, because it, I, I, by a time I reached Kentucky, I felt like I'm looking, I was looking at dog man in like, like, like, 10 different ways, you know, and so I came into a room of guys who, uh, had all their own perspectives on this thing. Christian was a skeptic. Uh, Ward was more occultic in nature. And Joel, what was your assumptions about Dogman?

If they're the same, I don't know. But what did you go into this whole experience thinking Dogman was? Probably somewhere in between, you know, maybe your earlier thoughts and how Ward thought. Just my experience with demonic entities, I know they can manifest in a lot of different ways. And I think that that's definitely a huge possibility for sure. I know we had a long conversation on a podcast, one not a podcast, but it was us talking before we left to go on the trip. And I remember we were talking about he had been doing some research about lycanthropy. And he was talking about how that, correct me if I'm wrong word, but, you know, they would put on furs and essentially, you know, put themselves in a state of mind to where if someone came across them,

They would project the image of looking like a werewolf or something like that of that nature. I guess in conjunction with the spirit world to create that, probably strength and everything else too. But say if, you know, if me and Ward were going through the woods and somebody had, you know, done this ritual, we would perceive it as being, you know, a were a warwolf or a dog man, whereas in actuality it was a human. I like that concept when he brought it up. I thought that was really interesting, and it's definitely something I think happens. But I am of the mind that there is actual cryptids.

I'm kind of along the thought of it being Nephlin hybrids. I mean, that's just my personal opinion. But again, I think it's such a wide scope of what they could be. And I think there's different, people have different encounters. And I think those encounters could be different things. I don't think there are necessarily one particular thing. And I think, you know, what Christian and I witnessed in the woods that day was something that, I don't know if I could put it in that category of either of those. Yeah. So Jack, let me ask you. I asked the three other guys, okay, and I want to

to ask you, even though you weren't there and stuff, you are going to be going on with us on these future trips. And just to let people know, I throw Jack under the bus because he's my younger brother, but he had a very good reason as to why he couldn't go. I mean, we sprung a family vacation on everybody in August. He had already bought tickets to go on a two, like a two-week vacation in Hawaii, I think in November. And so like he owns his own business. And, and he just couldn't afford another week off of work in such a short period of time. And so there's no hard feelings between me and Young Merck. But so, Jack, I know you're a skeptic.

I know, and I appreciate that. And I like that. I don't want to be in the woods with people who are going to be just, you know, hearing a chipmunk break a stick and they're like, what was that? Like, I don't want that, you know? And so I appreciate the fact that I have a cast of guys of all for you that are very level-headed with this stuff. I'm probably the most, like, crazy as far as that stuff goes. It's just like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, you know, like jumping.

But so, Jack, given that you're a skeptic, you don't believe that these things exist. Do you, what do you think people are experiencing then? Do you think that it's on a spiritual level or what? I mean, just kind of throw your opinions out there right now as far as how you stand on, not just dogman, but the cryptic or the cryptid, you know, topics. Yeah, I mean, honestly, to go along with kind of a ward and even Joel have been saying, it does seem to me like that has a lot more credence in my mind. But that's also just kind of, you know, the way that I see a lot of things is a little bit more along

the maybe spiritual lens or something like that. So I would assume at least that there's credibility to everybody's experiences because you're seeing something, you're feeling something, you're involved in this situation. So I assume that they're seeing what's going on. But I don't really have any set thoughts on what exactly everybody's seeing because there's so many different accounts. Everybody see something slightly different. I've never thought that people would make up all of their stories.

But at the same time, I just, I've never seen anything. there's never been documentation so uh that's kind of why i like this i want to go out and and see what we can you know maybe drum up in the woods or wherever else we go there's been documentation you just choose not to believe it but that's another story so yeah it depends i guess i mean it depends on what you you think documentation is like what what credible uh sources would be you know, I mean, I, I want to see some, I don't know, maybe in my mind the things that were not credible are actually credible. So, I mean, I think you kind of fall in line with the type that basically you're going to have to see it with your own eyes to believe it. Because if you really wanted to

look at, look around, there's plenty of things that point to the fact that there's documentation. Like, I mean, there's, there's professor, doctorate level people who spend their entire lives looking at this, like really well-respected people. You know, so there's plenty of out there. It's just, you know, it's about threshold level of belief here. And so, I mean, some people, you know, they have a very high threshold where it's just like, I got to see it to believe it, because if I don't see it, I ain't believe in it. And that's you, man, because we were out in the woods. We freaking heard a Bigfoot howl. And you know you heard it. I'm like, what else could that have been, bro? What else could that have

been. You don't even know. When I ask you that question, you're like, I have no idea what that could have been. Well, it was Bigfoot. Definitely not. What? You know, like, tell the people, Jack. Tell the people. You heard it. But you still, you, you don't know. You don't know what it was. You have no idea what it was, but it couldn't have been Bigfoot. I mean, there's a lot of other things that could have been, though. We were in the woods. Jack, we, I've been in the woods a ton. Listen, listen, listen, I've been in the woods a ton in my life. You've been in the woods a ton of your life. Here's the thing.

I've heard that how before. Every time I've heard that, it was on a recording and the people were saying, Bigfoot. I've never heard that vocalization equated to anything outside of Bigfoot. So I don't know what to tell you, bro. Anyways, on that note, we got to take a commercial break. No, seriously, we do, though. But I want to remind everybody halfway through this show and stuff, I'm having a great conversation with the guys.

I love talking to Jack, and he gets me riled up. Well, actually, just his presence gets me riled up. I love him, though. He's a great. He's like literally Jack's like my, one of my, he is my best friend and he's one of my only friends. So, I mean, I can't go too hard on him or else I'll be lonely. You move away.

Yeah, I know. I'm moving to Tennessee. So anyways, just to remind everybody, the V.I. Premiere is on March 11th this year, and that is going to be accessible on Merkel.com. Not merkle.com. It's Merkel.com. Put that in your browser. Merkel.com. It'll take you to the website, and you can sign up to be a VIP. It's $25 a ticket. And when the 11th comes of March, just go to the website and you'll have access to the documentary Live Premiere. You'll just have to make sure you're signed in. If you're logged out, just remember your email and password, and you can sign in.

for everybody else who does not want to, you know, get the early access hype going, that's fine. We're going to be premiering it on YouTube on March 25th live at 9 p.m. both days, 9 p.m. So on the 11th show up at 9 p.m. on the website and you'll have access to it. We're going to go live on the website. We're going to drop the documentary. And then afterwards, we're going to, God willing, technology workout fine. we're going to do a live Q&A, probably through Zoom, and be able to answer your questions. And hopefully I can have my phone lines open so people can call in, ask questions,

and we're going to have a live chat box on the website so people can be chatting in there with other people and asking questions through the chat. Maybe Jack will monitor to the chat and stuff because I know if it's my job, it's not going to happen. So hopefully Jack can hold down the fort on that end. But it's going to be a great time on the 11th, kind of, really premiering this work that we did that we really had a great time doing. I literally, I'm telling you, like, I really feel like we have a really cool product here. And the next few trips that we're planning, I think are going to be home run grand slam trips if we can pull them off.

The one place, legally, we can't just go there. I don't think. I think we need to make sure we have permission. Unless you guys are cool with getting arrested, then, you know, I'm down. Let's roll, you know. so let's have some fun. But, you know, I can tell him Ward's face. He's not down with that.

So I'm kidding. I'm kidding. Anyways. Talking to the guy that carries the rifle. It's a week in prison for you. It's. So I can imagine how this goes down. So if we actually did something like that, Ward, like the cops show up and we're just

like tosses. the AR to me. It's like here. So anyways, we got a lot of great trips planned everybody. But first off, we need to show you the Dogman experience, which is going to be called Expedition Dogman. And it's going to be a VIP premiere on Merkel.com on March 11th at 9 p.m. Go ahead and get your tickets today. Now, on to the business of the business. Friends, let's talk about a great sponsor we have coming up here. and it's a new sponsor, Start Mail. We, let me ask you guys this.

You guys are here and usually I don't have an audience when it comes to commercials. And this, let me ask this question directly to Joel because I know this is right up his alley. Joel, do you think that your free Gmail account is a secure email service of complete, utter privacy? Absolutely not. Oh, well, I would say, I would. say I agree with you, my friend. And so do our friends over at StartMail. And that's why they have offered people a very secure service when it comes to email providing. And a lot of people, you know, I don't like, I don't think this way. I know Joel doesn't think this way. But I think

that it's just like normal people, people who don't think about this crazy stuff all the time. I think that they, they're like, oh, I deleted my email. It's cool. It's, it's gone forever. It's, you know, you know, no harm, no foul. You know, prove it kind of thing, you know, like it's gone, prove it. It's never gone because they collect all this stuff. They save everything, especially Gmail does this. And so, like, if you're going to want privacy in your life, you got to make sure that you're covering yourself on the digital end of things when it comes to your email servers,

and that's where Startmail comes in. And what's great about Start Mail is they also offer encryption, even if the person you're sending the email to does not have encryption. You can encrypt the email on your end, which is a great thing for everybody, really. And also, what I would say is that they own their own servers. So that means that when censorship comes, let's rewind here. Recently in the news, some government, I can't remember who was talking about monitoring bank accounts of their citizens to make sure that they get everybody who was participating in something. I don't know. It escapes me. But I would say that monitoring you online is becoming very popular. And you want

a company who's going to fight for your security in that sense and also own their own servers so that they can't be shut down. We experienced that about a year ago with the social media platform parlor. And they got shut down because they didn't. own their own servers. They ran their servers through Amazon. And so Amazon said, no more. And they were gone. They were deleted. Not with Start Mail. Start Mail owns their own servers. You don't have to worry about it. And they're not in this country. So they're not having to kneel down to the Patriot Act. All that said, friends, you definitely need to start thinking about your security online when it comes to your email providers. If you have a free email service, it's not because it's just very kind of them.

It's because you're the product. They're taking your data and they're selling it. Every information that you put out there, it's theirs, and they're taking it, and they're selling it. So make sure you're secured online. And right now, start securing your email privacy with StartMail. Sign up today, and you'll get 50% off your first year. Go to startmail.com slash confessions. That's StartMail with a T, S-T-A-R-T-Mail.com slash confessions for 50% off your first year, startmail.com slash confessions. And guys, last thing before I get off this topic, because it actually kind of went a little longer than I imagine. But I will say that my experience with StartMail has been very smooth.

The interface is incredibly easy to use. I think like 90% of the people out there use Gmail or have a Gmail account. They're familiar with that setup. StartMail, very similar. And what I love about it is you don't have to really look around for that encryption thing. A lot of, like, I really enjoy the encryption option. It's just a little toggle switch right on the top right hand corner to the screen. You hit that toggle switch encrypted.

It's absolutely great. So everybody should go ahead and check it out. If you're looking to secure your email service, check out startmail.com slash confessionals. All right, guys, back to the fun stuff. Listen, we were just talking a little bit before we went off here because Jack brought it up, that Ward had these different thoughts and opinions going into this journey that really kind of enlightened all of us. and Ward, if you could, I don't know if you can go into great detail or anything, but the, I think Joel mentioned it. When you brought up down there in Kentucky about how, like,

there was this ritual that you had read about and the putting on the skin, like, if you could kind of talk about that, because I think it's a very fascinating line of thought. Yeah. Okay. So this is, this is pretty crazy. And anyone could clip this. it's going to sound crazy. But are any of you guys familiar with Kenneth Grant? I'm going to say yes. All right. So Kenneth Grant was Alistair Crowley's personal secretary who wrote a lot of books about

Crowley's experiences. One of the things that he wrote detailed Crowley's travels in America, which probably coincidentally, right, took him through Kentucky. And Grant talks about Crowley's theory that the Edina and the Hopewell cultures, the mound builder cultures, had opened a portal, like you were talking about, Tony, having this lady talking about things coming through the portals. Crowley theorized that the Adina and the Hopewell cultures had done this. and that could be a possible like underlying explanation or reason for why the area with all of these mounds that the adina left is so active with the high strangeness stuff. So given that, I also came across in sort of researching this. I was looking for what sort of occult symbolism,

we might be looking for if, in fact, my hypothesis about people doing these lecanthropy rituals was possibly what's going on. I came across a book by, I can't remember the guy's name, but he's like a professor at Harvard, I think, who engages in lycanthropy rituals. So he's written an entire book about how he pursued becoming the werewolf. and in the book he does he does not claim that he physically transforms into a werewolf although he hints that there have been physical changes brought on by this ritual working but he describes several different rituals one of which to the goddess hakate or ecate

the Greek feminine divine that's related to just the phenomenon and divine in general worshipped by wikins and witches of all sorts. But Hiccate's symbols are sort of things that you would

see. So the thing that you do a ritual invoking Akate and then something comes across your path, one of those things is the black dog, which is real similar to the dogman stuff, right? And so given this theory that this area is in some way,

I don't know if you want to think of it as one of Keel's window areas or that the veil is thinner or that whatever these things are, more active here because of the ritual history of the place that goes back, you know, time out of mind outside of what we have recorded history. it seemed plausible to me that someone could be tapping into that, pulling that kind of thing through and having a greater effect maybe than they would somewhere else. So do you think that, and this is a question for anybody that wants to take it, do you think that there really is legitimacy?

Because like you mentioned about Kenneth Grant and the tie to Kentucky, do you guys think that this area Kentucky, West Virginia, and Ward, I actually know that you have an opinion on this, but do you think that there is a real legitimacy to some of these legends that are coming out of this area being tied together maybe?

I know the Hellier crew had their own thing going and, you know, Ward, like you mentioned it earlier, but you didn't drop the name, dude, drop the name, promote what you're doing. Like you're working on your own, video series, I guess, is what TV show? I don't know if TV shows the right terminology or not.

It's a docu-series, yeah. Docky series, that's what it would be. So, like, I mean, and that's based out of West Virginia, but it seems like there's this whole mysterious tie to this area. Quite honestly, it's part of the reason why I'm planning to move to Tennessee because I want to be closer to it, so I have more access to it. But there's just this whole thing. And Ward, even earlier before we started recording, you mentioned about the podcast Penny Royal and I guess season two. So if you can kind of, maybe Ward, you lead in on this. And if anybody else has any thoughts and stuff, please chime in. But Ward, what are your thoughts on the general area and if there's legitimacy to it? But also, you mentioned about Penny Royal and I guess the occultic angle or something like

that. I couldn't remember what you were saying. Yeah. So I grew up in southern West Virginia. I didn't realize growing up there is just kind of accepted or taken for granted, I guess. It does feel weird now going back, but at the time, of course, it didn't. But I think that there's something related to the mental health crisis and opioid epidemic that's more than just material. cause and effect. I think that there is something spiritual to that. And I think that it hits Appalachia particularly hard not only because of being post-industrial post-cole mining boom, but also because there's some thing, principality would be the term in my faith tradition we would use for it. There's some, you know, spiritual power here that is dark and influencing people.

And I think that the causality flows both ways. I don't want to come across as if I'm saying, you know, everyone that has a mental health issue is a demon behind on their shoulder or that the other way around, that it's entirely just brain chemistry. I think there's an interrelated causality going on there. And so one of the, when you start looking into just high strangeness in the area, it all ends up connecting in weird ways. So the thing that we're, the thread that we're pulling on in Dark Holler, which is my docket series I've been working on, I think is attached to the same web that Hellyer is pulling on that Nathan Isaac and the guy. guys of Penny Royal are pulling on. I think that there's a, though we can't see it, we're all sort of touching ends of the, like blind men in the room with the elephant

touching ends of it that we can't, um, that seems separate until there's these weird, uh, synchronistic things that happen that cross over. So, uh, one of those things with the, um, with the dog man thing that was interesting was, uh, The one of the characters or the people in the docu series had engaged in worship of Lilith, which is a night goddess, divine feminine figure. And Hiccate is very closely related. And in fact, she named Hikate to me as one of her, one of the things that she had interacted with. And then to find, when started researching this dogman thing that Hickett, Katte worship is, you know, linked to this likeanthropy stuff.

It was, I don't know, it was an interesting attachment. And then going back and looking at footage and finding places where, like, maybe a dog shows up. And it would be, a dog is just a dog until there's, you know, some network of meaning behind it. So, yeah, I guess the overall contention that I'm trying to make is that nothing, I don't think anything's an accident. And if that's the case, then it either has meaning or it doesn't. And so you get into this weird, like, nearly schizophrenic kind of looking at synchronicities and being like, ah, well, that's something. So I don't know if any of that makes sense or helps or whatever, but that's my stab at attempting to ask, answer what you're asking.

Beautiful. Beautiful. So, Joel, do you have any comments on anything like that? Yeah, just to kind of piggyback on Ward a little bit. I mean, I'm probably going to go more conspiracy road a little bit. But I do think there's a lot of, especially in national parks, people that have done research in national parks. I mean, there's been a lot of reports of portals and a lot of government activity when it comes to entities that move in and out of these portals, almost. like a control

uh over the portals if that makes any sense so um i think there's a lot of that going on to uh in combination with what words talking about so i would agree right i think that that's quite possible if if that reality is there i think there are people within i mean we know we have documented church committee 70s like we know that the intelligence agencies looked into this kind of stuff And that there are people like Michael Aquino is a real guy. So, you know, I agree.

I think that the state, you know, the military industrial complex has probably got fingers in in this if it's if it is part of the reality we're living. I find it fascinating how governments worldwide, not just our government, but are so anti-religion, but yet are so intertwined with. religion at the same time. Their own form of religion, if that makes any sense, too. A different kind of entity they're worshipping without going too deep into that. But I think when we start getting into these places, like you said, pulling the thread, we got into that, you know, national part. And the deeper you get into these places, the more you're going to run across. And words, you said it perfectly at the beginning of this show, you go in their, looking for one thing and you're going to find something. It might not be what you went in there

looking for. And I know Christian can attest to that with me running across something that we have absolutely no idea what that was. Yeah. So on that topic and stuff, we're going to keep it general because I don't want to spoil it for people. But with that, let's just talk about how that event on day two. What you guys, what you guys experienced? Because Joel and Christian, you guys experienced it together. Joel, you experienced it first and then Christian experienced it with you the second time, back to back. What, and we'll start with Christian here. What was, when you got, you went through that experience and then immediately after, okay, so like not like a day or two or a week, immediately after that experience, we're standing there, we're talking about.

you and Joel are relaying to everybody what you experienced and what you saw. In that moment, you and Joel actually walked off. And this is looking back, I'm like, what was I thinking? Like, why did we ever give the blessing to this? Like something just bizarre, crazy happened. And I'm like, yeah, go head off by yourselves in that direction. See if you can circle around and cut it off and send it back this way. We'll be ready for it, guys.

Go ahead. You know, like, I'm thinking myself, what was I thinking? But the fact is, in that moment, I think the adrenaline took over. We're like, we're here for a reason. Let's go and see what we can figure out. And you guys went off alone to circle around this hillside to see if you could cut off whatever that thing was and send it back our way. In that moment, Christian, what were your thoughts about everything? Because you're going into this as a skeptic. You saw something bizarre and crazy. Where were you, what were you feeling in those moments where you're like, were you confused, excited, convinced. What was going through your mind, man? The first few seconds were

confusion. It's something between reality and what my eyes were seeing. There was no connection there. And then I noticed cues from Joel, we had seen it independently. And we had seen this at two different levels from two different distances, and we confirmed it later. And Those first few seconds, I mean, one second even, my mind said, this isn't real, this isn't real. And then I see Joel give cues that he's seeing it too. And then the fighter flight response kind of goes away, and I have nothing but adrenaline. And we're there in Kentucky, and you guys can attest to how difficult that terrain was to hike really.

That first day, I think the first five minutes of walking, we were exhausted and we had no clue what we were in for. When we did our pre-production meetings, we thought, you know, we can drive to the spot,

get out. In Kentucky, everything went wrong. It was a beast that week. But then the adrenaline hits, I was unarmed the entire week. But I had maybe the best

defense of all when you're hunting the paranormal and that was a camera. Nothing ever shows itself to a camera, so I felt pretty safe. Joel was armed and I don't think any of us were thinking, none of us expected that to happen. We didn't even expect to

go that route that day. We didn't expect to end up at that spot. Just by chance we stopped there, really to take a break. it happened in a moment where we weren't even expecting anything and we walk and strange stuff started happening then too and my mind it was just it felt like I was a cinematographer in a conflict zone if you aren't sure what's going to be around the next corner it wasn't anything

it certainly wasn't anything that intense but it surely has to feel something like that where every corner you don't know if the most unbelievable sight is going to be in front of you you don't know where the next sound is going to come from you don't know where the next image that really burns your mind is going to come from

and so I was two feet behind him with his shotgun and hoping that we didn't run across it but also the back of my mind I was really really hoping to continue the good luck or bad luck that we had just had right then it was just weird one of those things to where

either you wish the answers would have been a lot more clear in that moment or you wish you would have never seen it at all. But when it falls in the middle, you constantly think about it. And it just bothers you. Does it still bother you today? Yeah, I think so. There was a feeling that I had. And just doing what I do, like, for example, earlier in the year, I was swimming in Florida. And we were swimming very close to sharks. and I've also been very close to alligator all these different animals

and none of those being in close proximity ever gave me like this primal fear that it's just it's genetic in all humans and none of the experiences that I've ever been and gave me that really that fight or flight response and that, I mean, I was, I don't even think I told you guys this, but when in the week after, I was shooting another project.

And I was at a friend's house shooting this project. And that's when Ward sent the video. He had found a video of something similar. And he sent that. And I saw the preview for three or four seconds. and it was exactly what we had seen. And I start tearing up and I get really shaky. And my friend, she's like, what's going on?

I couldn't explain how it felt to know that someone else saw the exact same thing. Now, I can attest to what that was. Maybe that was completely explainable. But to see it again in, in a different context and a different state. That was really kind of an intense anxiety-filled moment for me. Yeah. You know, your description of how you felt, how did you say, dang it, I'm going to forget.

Like you said you felt like you were in a conflict zone filming or something like that. Like, that was something that, like, very descriptive, very descriptive. And taking me back to that moment as somebody who didn't see what you guys saw, I felt like that just because all of a sudden, the seriousness of the environment just went to 10, man. Like, me and Kyle were up that hillside. So the reason why we were back there is because we were looking for the water tank out in the woods that the government put in to feed the animals because we thought it'd be a good spot to bait for a dog man. And so me and Kyle are going up that hill, and that's when you guys call us.

You're like, come back, come back, come back. I'm like, what is going on? And when that happened, like, everything just elevated. It was just like, like, we were deep into the Daniel Boone, like deep into the Daniel Boone. And for the most of that hike, we were just trotting along. It was a daytime hike, getting familiar with the land. And, you know, we're just talking. And it was just, it was good, you know?

And then all of a sudden, the environment changed. And it got real serious. And then we go back at night to that location and crazy things happened that night with Joel and Ward. And like, should I tell the story? I'll tell the story. And then we'll go. Actually, no. I'll tell the story.

I'll tell the story. But I don't want to get too sidetrack because my brain goes everywhere. I'm a little stupid. Is that VIP knowledge only? Maybe we should make a VIP only Maybe we'll do VIP, that's what we'll do. What a night. Let's just put it.

Hey, I'll say this without you giving away. I just remember when that was going down and it was dark. And I just remember Ward walking up to me holding an yard leaning into me. He's like, I'll really feel good about it. right now. Not only that, but that one rule that Dark Waters game was.

Tony somehow. He was laughing about that the whole time. He was like the one rule he told us not to do. Oh, listen, man. Like, listen, I marched at a beat of my own drum. Anybody can attest to this. You tell me what to do. You tell me to do something.

I'm going to tell you not. Don't tell me how to live my life. And so I'm going in when I got to go in. So listen, we'll make that VIP. That was a funny story now that we can look back on it and stuff. And now we're all safe at home. But Joel, in the moment of this bizarre experience and stuff. And like kind of like where I let Christian take over, we're all together.

You're relaying that information to us and stuff. like what was going through your mind. I mean, and I'll let you finish. Answer this question, but I'll tell you what, because I already know how you're going to answer this. Your response to the environment in which we found ourselves in after that event, cemented in my mind that if we needed somebody to hang off a cliff, you were going to be the guy to do it. Yeah, when it went down up, I mean, I was ready to go. So I'm going to chase anything. down. It's just my personality. I will say this, man, Christian is a beast because I remember getting ready. Let's go. And he's like, I'm good. Anywhere you want to go. I mean, it might have been

the adrenaline talking. I don't know. But he even told me later on that night when we were hanging out talking, he's like, listen, man, as long as you got the weapons, I'll be right behind you and I'll film whatever you run up on. So it was pretty good. But yeah, he rolled right out with. me and I was ready to go. I mean, I just have a personality that I want to see it. I want to run into it. I feel like if I'm going to die, man, what a way to go. You know what I mean? Like, I'm okay with that. I'm okay with that ending of my life. Like, he got killed by a dog man. Like, hey, that's cool. Like, Jack, Jack's going to be over here saying prove it. But yeah, I will say the incident happened because I was in front,

I was actually by myself, so I was in front of Christian. What do you think, Christian? About 20 feet maybe, I was ahead of you? Probably 20. 15. Okay. And it happened to me first. Close enough to see your hands.

Right, right. Happened to me first. You know, I whipped around to see if anybody was there and Christian was. was and then it happens again. And that's when, you know, we started yelling for you guys. And then, you know, we were like, we're going to chase it down. So, Chris and I took off. We had some other wild stuff happen.

I want to say this, you know, during when that happened, and I'm sure it'll be in the documentary. And this isn't giving anything away, but Kyle broke down at that moment. If you guys remember, like he actually was shaking. He was on the on the path. I know that Tony had to console him. And I'll say this, man, there was something in that area that was heavy. I mean, I've, you know, in my experience with, you know, entities and things, I know when something's heavy. And I can tell you right now, it was heavy in that place.

And anytime we went around that area, it was heavy. That night when Ward and I had our experience, it was heavy. You know, when Christian and I took off, when we were a long way away from you guys, too, we got pretty deep out there by ourselves, and it was heavy. And there's definitely, you know, whether it's metaphysical or physical or a combination of both, I mean, there's something or a lot of somethings in those woods. And we definitely, we definitely made contact for sure. I think there's a lot in those woods and not just in Kentucky, but in that region.

I think there's a lot in those woods. And I would just say that when we went out there, we went to that specific location, we almost skipped that location, if you remember. We almost went the other direction. And it just makes me wonder what would have happened if we skipped that location. when we've had any kind of action that we had, it's just, it was so random how it happened and the time it happened, just perfect timing. Whatever, what you guys saw, I don't think, I don't think it was expecting anybody to

be back there. We were way back there. So originally, when we went down there, Kyle said, you know, first week up October, they open that gate. We can just drive right back there, right up to location, and we're good to go. While we get down there, the gates locked, we're debating, do we get bolt cutters and things like that? We wind up hiking in, which took way longer than we expected.

And we're hiking all around. We finally get to an area that we wanted to be at. It's like two, three hours later. And, you know, it's just the odds of that all coming together when we were planning on driving in. That affects the timeline. all that stuff. And then I just feel like whatever that was was like not happy we were there. It didn't expect us. And it didn't retreat because when we went out at night, it was still there.

And I mean, as far as I think and I'm concerned. And what me, Christian, I can't remember. It's been so long since we filmed. Did I talk about on the documentary what me and Kyle were seeing when you guys went off? Yeah. I feel like I forgot to talk about that, or did I? Yeah. So there are two kind of separate incidents going on. And when Joel and I got back, we had some odd occurrences on the way back. And then when we kind of got back to where we were, you were freaked out because we were so in the moment that we left

without even radios. We couldn't communicate back and forth. We didn't know what was going on with you guys. And part of it, part of what really solidified my trust in Kyle's storytelling and solidified the idea in my mind that he experienced something, whether he retells it as it exactly happened. I don't know, but he definitely believes that something happened is when he experienced what I would not describe as anything other than a PTSD episode right after that. And I remember coming back.

Yeah. And we've got a little stuff out there of Joel investigating later. And we heard, we had several different mediums of what we thought may be evidence after that. You were seeing things. Joel was hearing things. it was just a strange place and that was not even the original place that we were going to go to at night right and yeah like we were we were planning on we were planning on being somewhere totally different and it's just so random uh what i was referring to was uh and i'm just going to i'm just going to tell

this detail because i honestly don't know if even made it in the documentary because i don't think i talked about it because i might have forgot uh but um when you guys went off and did your thing, you know, hunting the dog man alone with no radios. It was so stupid. Like, we got, we got to be more organized next time with this stuff, guys. We got to have a little bit more of, I don't know, discipline. But, you know, I'm back there with Kyle. And like you said, Kyle really took it hard.

And you could tell he was going through a PTSD. When he kind of started calming down and relaxing, him and I are standing there. And at this time, Christian and Joel, they're gone. We don't know where they're at. We're hoping, you know, we either see him again or we hear gunshots so we know where to run, like something. At this point, Ward goes off on his own, but he was in within vision of myself and Kyle, and he's going up the hillside of where you guys saw it kind of on the opposite side and angle, kind of like circling in.

And during that time, me and Kyle are staying there. And if you guys remember, there was like all that like down trees. Like I don't know if it was multiple trees or one big tree, but it's just like a lot of like fallen trees in that area. We saw, Kyle saw it first and I saw it myself. But Kyle saw, he called it, I shine. And it was, but, but I don't, I don't define it that way. Because there was like, we weren't shining lights. It was broad daylight.

It was a sunny day. we were standing there and it was just one light, but it was, it was like, it was like somebody was, it was in this brush and they had an LED flashlight and they were turning it on, shining it at us. And then, uh, they would turn it off. And like when I, like, I literally walked over to it, couldn't see anything. But when we were standing there looking, it was like they, they turned it on for a little bit, then it would go away. There's no breeze, no wind blowing. So it's not like leaves are blocking out the light or anything. It's just, it's on and then it's off. And then it's on and then it's off. And it's not moving around nothing. There was there's like you guys can attest

of this. Did you guys see any trash out there? It's not like there was a, there's some kind of balloon flickering in the trees or something like that, like I didn't see any trash out there. I went over to the location where we were seeing this. I didn't see anything. Like I'm standing right there. I'm like, what was making that? I have no idea. So that's something that we saw while while Joel and Christian are off hunting the dog man and wards off by himself on the hillside with this they are hunting the dog, man. And we're down there looking at, you know, these lights in the forest in the broad day. Like, you think about lights in the forest. Like, night time, lights come in, you know, though this was broad daylight. Like, this just bright light in the forest. Broad daylight. It was very

bizarre. Um, so yeah. I, Jack, you got any thoughts? Because I, I have no idea how I got on the, I think, that's right. I wanted to share because, uh, I'm not sure if it made it to the documentary and stuff. So, um, all right. So let's, uh, let's, let's kind of change pace here and stuff. We kind of really teased this documentary and stuff. Uh, but I do want to make one note based off of what we were talking about earlier, uh, with, you know, the, the conversation with Ward here. Um, there is, uh, so Bill Schnoblin, I had him on the show. Uh, he claims to, like, he was a, like a satanic, uh, priest, wizard. witch, whatever. And he says that when you reach a certain level, you choose whether you want to

become like going to vampirism or a werewolf. And he said that he met a man years ago that told him if you ever got to that level that he should choose vampire because becoming a werewolf is one the most excruciating painful things you would ever go through. And so like there's that occultic tie to this whole this whole topic right there is what people are experiencing kind of along those lines now being the going the vampire route bill says that like he I think he was he was at least for months he was just only eating wafers in human blood so like he would actually I believe if I remember correctly he would actually have like women come over to his home and he would bite down their neck kind of thing and drink their blood as like as like a ritual,

but also eating these like wafers or something. That's all he consumed. And it was like this whole process of becoming a vampire. So I just don't know what the process would have been for the whole werewolf angle. But, you know, with what word described the stuff, maybe there's some kind of tie in there. I don't know. But all that said, guys, I kind of talked about in the beginning about how much I appreciate you guys and how this kind of all came together. But let's talk about just kind of in general, you know, this is more like a, this part right here. Let's just make it a brainstorming session, just like a, almost like a like what I call Jack when I was talking on the phone, a dream session. Yeah. Like, like, so, you know, I don't, I don't really play

games and hide who I am and stuff. I'm pretty much am who I am. And I, I dream. I'm 36 years old. have dreams in my life and I talk about them and I I I like I'm like a little kid. You know, like kids are like one day I'm going to be a police officer. Like that's, that's still me. I, I dream about, you know, what I plan on doing with life. With Legion of Legends, it started out as literally a vlog that me and Jack were planning on doing where we're just going to go out in the woods, you know, with our two cameras and shoot video and see what happens, you know, and chop it up, make it entertaining and put it on YouTube. And so that was the original plan.

We have a couple of videos out like that. I'm telling everybody now that what that was, that kind of format, the audience needs to understand that's no longer Legion of Legends. Me and Jack are going to have to come up with a different name for that. We'll figure it out. We are not going to bastardize Legion of Legends with what we need to. Because what we did in Kentucky is on such a high high. level professional professionalism that doing any other little thing like that, I just don't like

the idea of it. So Legion of Legends is now officially documentaries based off of legends we've heard about from the confessionals where us five guys go out and we hunt these things down. Going into Kentucky, I wasn't sure if this five man crew here was going to be the crew moving forward. I didn't know if they would want to. I didn't know if we'd all get along. I was hoping nobody would argue because I just didn't know. But the chemistry went so well that we all committed to working together more and pursuing this. I want the audience to know that this is not something that we're just taking lightly. We are really trying to do this on a professional level, on a big level, as much as we can. And that's why we're doing the VIP because,

is when I initially committed to doing this, I had no idea what the cost was going to be. And neither did my wife. She had no idea when she said. But I think when it was all set and done, I spent at least $5,000 on this trip because of all the different things I had to do. And so moving forward, we want to produce a really high level quality product for everybody to enjoy and consume. But also so that there's actual, value there so that we can afford to go on the next trips. So moving forward, guys, this is the crew. And I guess we kind of discussed this a little bit before, but I'll just kind of lay it

out there for the audience to know, Christian is extremely good at seeing the storyline of what we're doing as we're doing it. I don't know Christian how you got like that. Is that just like a natural gift or is that something you had to work on or just from doing stuff so much? You kind of picked that up or what? A little bit of everything. I think award definitely has that as well. You can see how things start to tie together.

This documentary itself is quite airy. This is one where you will feel like you're there with us. really when we got to Kentucky we knew that this would be somewhere between above a YouTube video but below you know having $50,000 to research go out get everything you want you know we've this is very much um you spend a lot on it but in terms of film this is very much a micro budget documentary we were able to still do a lot with that um so it's a very much a really cool feeling and I think we can expand upon it. We can improve on efficiency in the future. We can improve on the way that we tell stories. But I think the way I got into it is just research.

I've always loved to study people and stories. And I just love where they take you. I love to be, I know you guys came in with preconceived notions of what you'd find, what it, what it was, I really just came with a camera and that was the extension of my own curiosity. Gotcha. So, you know, all right, so Christian just kind of like downplayed himself, I feel. What's up? Well, I do want to say Christian's work is fantastic. And it was very helpful being down there, having seen some of the stuff that you had done, um, Previously, Christian, I knew that if I, you know, if we got good footage, you're going to make it good. And I don't think that, I mean, it was very much micro-budget.

That's true. But I don't think that anything in this genre is out there approaching this production quality. Like, it's, everything that I've seen from the trailers and previews that we've seen looks really, really good. and I think I would as I sit here thinking about it, I would put it up against anything that's out there in this genre for sure. So go ahead, Jack. I was just going to say, as a bystandard,

someone who is on the outside of this project in particular, seeing the trailer, I was extremely jealous that I wasn't there. Not only did I hear all of your stories, apart from what we've already shared on the podcast. Seeing that, I was like, I cannot imagine what I'm going to see from the actual documentary. And then, you know, it's just, it looks so good.

It's ridiculous. So, yeah, kudos to you guys, honestly. I mean, like, go ahead. One of the rules that we broke that week and one that I wanted to break is one that TV is afraid to, and that it's to acknowledge that really none of us were crew. We didn't make that distinction. We were all investigators,

whether we were carrying a camera or carrying a microphone or not. We were all investigators. And so it's very, just like I said, airy. You know, you've got the feel of being there because we aren't afraid to show, I wasn't afraid to show Ward filming. Ward was not afraid to show me filming so it gives you the feeling of literally being there. It reminds me of a lot of

I mean even going back to like the kind of conflict zone cinematography that goes on. A lot of that is very rule breaking. You're just there with a camera. You don't really have a set job. There's not a beat, that's what you call in the industry, kind of

theme that you're looking to get out of it. We were there following the story. Some of us were carrying equipment. Some of us were carrying guns. And that's really what came out of it. It's not pulled in any way in any direction. Documentaries, even if they try to be completely in the middle, oftentimes because they are produced by humans and they are produced by selective editing, you can always have a choice of what direction you want to take that. But this is very much, you know, we go and we follow this story. And it's, it's, it's, interesting to finally put, a lot of people have heard this story and imagine what the scenario would look like. And I know all of us when we showed up, we had no, it was completely different

than what any of us were expecting. And unfortunately, we've all, we wanted to put a face to Kyle, but his face is blurred and covered in all of our shots. But other than that, you can really see the environment that he was dealing with and really feel like you're there. It's a, it's a really good film for a person who believes in, in what ifs. That's, that's beautifully said, really is. That's the show, everybody. Just wrapped it up. But no, you're absolutely right. And, you know, just to let everybody know, yeah, you're right. We blurt out the face of Kyle, because he, per his request and stuff. But it is Kyle. You hear his voice. But I want to just kind of just kind of lay this out for everybody so that everybody understands what what christian was saying

this was this is very much uh different than what we've seen on tv because it's not like we have all specific roles and that's something i kind of started trying to define and stuff when we when we after especially after this trip and stuff like okay so we got this guy what's what what title we're going to get this guy and it's just like you know what we're everything guys you know like i don't know how to do a camera so i'm not a cameraman but but you two do know how to do a camera camera camera me, Joel and Jack, we're everything, guys. What do you need and stuff? Joel, go jump off the cliff and if you need help, I'll go down next and I'll try to help. But Joel can go first, you know? And so, but like, you know, and Jack is the last one because I need somebody to tell the tail and raise my kids. You know, so like I, you know, like Jack is the, if something happens to me and my wife, Jack is the one that's supposed to take care of my kids. So he needs to stay breathing. But, you know, It's really just a very organic feel. I do want to kind of give, again, circle back to you, you two, Christian and Ward, because I think the audience deserves to know this. You guys have,

listen, I didn't go on Craigslist and say, I need a local film guy. You guys have professional experiences that you bring to the table. This is not just like, oh, we lucked into having something that turned out to look kind of professional. We have two guys on this crew. who have extensive experiences working professionally in these different fields. Christian is doing his own thing with treasure hunting, but you've been featured on TV and stuff. Oak Island, you were on Oak Island, and different channels like that. And you're working on different things. I'll just leave it at that because I don't know if I can say anymore.

But you're working on other things, Christian, and you're very professional in what you do. Ward, you have a history of filming. You still do this, correct me if I'm wrong, but that's what you do for a living still, right, full time. Yeah. Yeah. So, I mean, like, like this is what you do. And, you know, I think you said, I think it was what, 2012 or something, that back in the day, you, you actually filmed for Glenn Beck at the Blaze. I mean, so like this isn't like, word says, yes, I'm a professional because I went to tech school and I got a, a, a credit in film. Like, you actually did this on a, on a very professional level. So like, we're really lucky to have you two out in the field with us. Because if it was. for YouTube being out there with us, I would be literally out there with my Sony and Panasonic holding it on a tripod, walking around with crappy microphones and just being like, I guess this is how it's going to work, you know? And so like, that's, we'll save that for me and Jack on our solo missions, okay? But Legion of Legends, YouTube really brought something to a table that

made me feel comfortable saying Legion of Legends is no longer what I was thinking it was going to be with me and Jack, it's something totally different. Like, I went, this trip took me from thinking that we were going to make this Legion of Legends just like I was thinking to, oh, this is a professional documentary. And that's when, like, my verbiage started changing. I started calling this, this is a documentary. And like, after we came back from the trip and everybody's saying, when's the document, or when's the dogman video coming out?

I'm like, it's a documentary. Every time somebody said, when's the video coming? It's a documentary. It's not a video. This is not it. This is not anything that you ever saw me come out with on YouTube. This is something totally on another level. And I just want people to understand that this is, this is for real. And so I just wanted to kind of really spend some time talking about YouTube because I really do believe that if it

wasn't for YouTube being on this team, we would just be three goofballs with the cameras walking around in the woods, bumping in the trees in the dark. I mean, it just, I think that's what would happen. So I just, I really wanted to kind of give you guys respect on that. And those cameras may not have audio. Yeah. Oh, gosh. Anybody who doesn't know what that reference is, when we heard that Bigfoot howl,

it turns out we had a broken microphone on the one camera we had running because I had turned mine off because I was doing an EVP session with a K2. So, yeah, sucked. But anyways, this is the team. And guys, moving forward, I'm really excited about the journeys. We have, if we had things set in stone on the journeys that we're planning and stuff, I would, we would talk about them more.

But I don't want to give things away, especially if it doesn't wind up turning out. Before we get out of here, though, I want to, one, make sure before I forget, everybody shout out, everything you want to shout out and stuff. Jack, you're nothing, so don't worry about it. But, well, Jack doesn't do anything on social media. Like, he just hangs out with me. Like, we already shouted out Jack's email. That's basically what he has to shout out.

out. I mean, he doesn't even like touching social media. So, but I love you, man. So, like, I want to just touch on this too. And this is another thing that has to be vague. But because I've talked about this several times publicly on recordings that haven't been aired yet, I talked about it on my Christmas Eve show, I talked about the new story that I came across. And you guys have a behind the scenes look at it. Nobody else. else does. It's just you guys and very few people out there that the stories pertain to that I've had on the show in the past. I've sent them some audio. But we are, I'm working on this new podcast. It's going to be a while, guys, because I'm literally in the middle. I just sold my

house last week and I'm trying to buy a house in Tennessee, not having great luck. So I might be homeless in two months. So just, just be patient. But with that, with that said, oh, that reminds me another thing I want to talk about too. But this story, this story that I'm working on, you guys have access to. It's bizarre. I have a very hard time debunking it because of certain very specific details that have been presented that I have been presented that I have. physically, like, I personally physically have possession of things that prove certain dates that that back up this whole thing. I just wanted to bring that up because I've been teasing it a little bit. Whenever it comes up in my show, I mean, I'm talking to somebody and it comes up. I just want

you guys to either nod your heads or just say, yes, the story's real. I'm not blowing smoke. And it is bizarre, right? Yeah. It's wild. Yeah. So, I think it's working. Go ahead. I think it also appeals to multiple demographics and multiple levels of belief.

For example, like, I'm typically, there are certain things that I 100% believe in, and there are things that I just want to say. This is one of those stories you can follow along independently if you're into kind of the psychology behind it, you would like it. Or if you are 100% just looking for a kind of a sci-fi story to follow, very intriguing. I think it would appeal to a lot of people. Yeah. I think so too. And I'm right now trying, I'm still trying to get that guy in South Africa to talk to me. I don't think it's going to happen. But I found some people all over the world that I think tie into this specific story, but there's just so many different paths and angles to go down with thought process. I think that this thing involves a lot of people in this world. I know it involves

some people that I've had on the show before, before this story was presented to me, because the parallels of the stories are way too accurate to say that it's nothing, it's unrelated. So I just wanted to bring that up. I made a note here. I wanted to bring that up before I ended recording with you guys because you four are guys who could back me up saying the story's crazy, it's real, he's working on it, be patient. So last but not least before we give shoutouts and drop your information and everything, guys. I also want to, I mentioned a couple of times here that I am moving to Tennessee. That said, one, if there ever is a Tuesday or Thursday that a show doesn't drop, just know that I'm probably moving or I'm stuck in traffic.

because I went to Tennessee to look at a house or something like that. It's a 10-hour drive. But that said, this moved to Tennessee. I'm excited about being near Kentucky and the mysteriousness. Tennessee has his own mysteriousness, the whole area. Very excited about that. But also with what we're doing, and like I mentioned earlier about how I'm a dreamer, I dream big, and I just, I come very short of saying, I manifest things through my thinking. I don't really jive with that thought process. If you do, it's cool. It's just not really how I think.

But I'm a huge dreamer. And I do think that through my dreaming of life and getting excited about it, I do tend to make things happen because I don't know. I take action on things. That said, moving to Tennessee, one of my goals is to make this whole thing bigger. Merkle Media, podcasts, podcasting, documentaries, shooting video, all that stuff. And ultimately, what I would love to do is have a commercial building facility where I have multiple recording studios that I can even open up to public for people who want to have a podcast

but they don't have recording space, but also video shooting studios, special effects studios, and really take the documentary stuff to another level where the audio is out through the roof, the video shootings through the roof. We can do, you know, different things like, you know, we're shooting video out in the field, but then we also have like this special effects studio where we can do cool stuff as well. That's the kind of the angle that I'm looking for long term. And I really want to do this so big that when I go to Tennessee and I'm doing this, it becomes like irresistible for other content creators. And what I would like to do. do is turn the area that I that I moved to in Tennessee. I'm not going to drop the area right now.

I'm sure people will figure out eventually. But what I would like to do is turn that area, that city, into what L.A. was for Joe Rogan. So Joe Rogan had his podcast where all his friends were there. They could swing through the studio. They put on a show. It was honky door. They all hung out at the comedy club. It was just like, it was just a hangout session all the time. I kind of want this city to turn into that for us as the paranormal, the conspiratorial type community, the treasure hunting community, like just the mysterious side of life, all these podcasts. Like, I'm connected to all these different podcasts and stuff, and I would love to see what I, if I could build something, that phrase of, if you build it, they will come.

Like, I just, if I can build something so attractive that the other people in the community are just like, I just, I got to go. I got to freaking get down there. and just be a part of this. And so that's a little bit of the mind of Tony, you know, late at night. I'm thinking about things and I'm dreaming about life and stuff. That's kind of where my brain is right now. I'm really, really dreaming big with Merkel Media, the confessionals, my other podcast, Hammer Lane Legends that I do with me and my dad. If you have not checked that show out, check it out, especially last week's show and this coming, or no, yeah, last week's show and tomorrow's show.

you definitely want to check those out if you are just please go check it out. But the confessionals, Hammer Lane Legends, I produce other people's podcasts. Some of them I can't talk about because they prefer to be, you know, a separate thing, a separate entity, just me working behind the scenes. But I can talk about macroaggressions with Charlie Robinson. All these different podcasts I work with, I want to do these documentaries. It's just I'm really trying to go big. I spent the better part of five years in a tractor trailer building.

a podcast and just having all this time to dream about life and dreaming where this could possibly go and why not, you know, why can't, why not me? And I've gotten this far. I want to go to the next level now. And so those are the goals, those are the dreams. And part of the documentaries is I would like to get them so big that all four of you have no choice but to quit your jobs and come down to Tennessee and work with me full time on making documentaries. I think that would be amazing, don't you? It'd be great. So, listen, guys, let's do around, around here in the circle, drop your social media, what you guys are doing right now, what you want people to follow. Jack, we'll start with you. Drop all your stuff. All my stuff. That's why I did it, bro.

Tell them to follow you on Instagram. Yeah, you can go to, I don't even know what my Instagram is, so Tony will put it in the description. Listen, listen, let me tell. let me tell you guys something. Jack is the youngest. Like, I think he's the youngest. I think he's younger than Christian. But like, I mean, dude, like, are you, you're a millennial, right? I think so, yeah. Yeah, yeah. And you, like, barely know how to use social media. It's just crazy, man. It's crazy. I hate it. All right. Anyways, I like everybody, you know, I see everybody's posts. So I like them. There you go. There you go. So, all right, you guys can follow Jack on social media, on Instagram.

I'll put it in the description, and you can also email them and tell them your thoughts. All right. Christian, you're up, man. You can find me on Instagram and Twitter at

Christian B. Roper, a lot more active on Instagram. And currently finishing a documentary series about a pirate treasure legend in Texas called Sunkin Silver. That'll be out soon.

I can't wait. Yeah. a couple other things in development. To be announced, hopefully soon, but I'm excited about it. And I can't wait to see what you've been working on. You've been talking to me about that for years, actually, since we met each other. So I'm really excited to see that thing finally come to fruition. Joel, man, you got a lot of stuff been going on.

Talk about it. Yeah, probably the best place to find me is Instagram. If you go to the link tree there, you can go. to everywhere else. I've got a lot going on right now on a lot of different social media sites. So you can get there. Just finished the new album. I'm pretty excited about that. I know we've got some plans, Tony, next month for the drop and have some other podcasters involved. We're going to talk conspiracies and talk to music too, which would be pretty cool.

We will get with everybody a date on that once Tony gets settled and his new day. Funny enough, Ward and I will be shooting the first music video this weekend for the project, and we'll be shooting a second music video a week or two after that. So we are both in Ohio, so it just kind of works out really well for us to get that going. So yeah, at Van underscore Tesla underscore you can get access to everything I got going on. I got a lot of videos, a lot of things I'm putting out. Yeah, that's Van Tesla. We had you on the show. We're talking music and everything else in between.

And I'll just, you know, you hit on it. I would like to do it before we get out of the studio just because it would look better for the video purposes of everything because I don't know what my studio is going to look like when I first move. But what we're planning on doing is like a collaboration with me, you, and other podcasters on your YouTube channel. and we're just going to, it's basically like an album release party. We're going to play some music, have great conversation.

So tell people what the YouTube channel is so they can go follow it now so they don't miss it. Yeah, it's just going to be YouTube.com slash van Tesla One. So it's all together. You can catch it there. Start following me there. I've got some videos up now. Ward and I will have the first music video up pretty soon because I just dropped the first single off the album called Joel Somme. So it's going to be a pretty exciting project. Definitely with you, Tony and other

podcatchers, we'll get a great conglomerate of different minds of different subjects when it comes to conspiracies and everything else. So I think it'll be a lot of fun. Absolutely. Ward, last but not least. What's up, man? Yeah, you can find my docu-series. It's coming out. It's touches on demon possession and exorcism and high strangeness and generational curses and craziness. Coming out, hopefully, first episode of the next few weeks, you can find that at Dark Haller Film on Instagram and Facebook and darkhallerfilm.com as a website. And yeah, I think that's pretty much it.

Awesome, man. I appreciate all you guys being here pulling the old. overtime hours here with me. Just to everybody know, you can go ahead and follow Legion of Legends on Instagram. Legion underscore of underscore Legends. Follow the confessionals. You can follow me, Tony Merkel official on Instagram. I'm very active on Instagram, so go ahead and follow me there.

And friends, last but not least, before we get out of here, the VIP premiere of Expedition Dogman is March 11th at 9 p.m. Eastern Standard Time right on Merle. Merkel. Media, not dot com. Merkel. Dot media. Just go to Merkel. Dot media. Sign up to become a VIP.

It's $25 one-time fee, and you'll have instant access to the private pages where we will be broadcasting live Expedition Dogman on March 11th at 9 p.m. Easter standard time. And for everybody else who does not want to jumpstart on the viewing, you can see the documentary on March 25th on the Confessionals YouTube channel at 9 p.m. Eastern Standard Time. Friends, thank you very much for tuning in. We really do appreciate you being here. Every penny that we earn from this VIP premiere is going to be going right back into Legion of

Legends for the next trip so that we can go and kill monsters. It's going to be amazing. It's going to be great. So I just made like half the people that just turned it off. They're like, oh, he's going to kill it. I'm done. I'm not doing it. Anyways, we really do appreciate you guys tuning in and listening to the conversation. Hopefully you guys gained a lot out of it and it tickled your ears. And until next week, friends, stay safe. Take care and remember the truth will set you free, but first it'll piss you off. Bye. My fantasies always consisted of making it big. My soul was nothing more than a bargaining chip. Marketing is what they tell you to do and what you're willing to give larkin to the fullest extent. I don't wait. I shoot first like high on a roadie and

People don't understand me like reading anokian Stretch thin Like pulling in accordion My heart ain't primordium All these historians telling us lies Sitting aside Everything is medicalized Politicians selling the ride

A bedemad die Where the relevance lies They're dressing alike Reptillions My Resilions is brilliant I'm here to lead the rebellion On helion salient alien with no melanin I'm a Yeti ain't hiding

From Armaged hiding We ain't the same