The Confessionals - RELOADED | 420: Hollywood Elites Seance

Episode Date: October 23, 2023

In Episode 420: Hollywood Elites Seance, we are delighted to welcome Joseph Granda, who boasts three decades of experience in the film industry, with a substantial part of that time immersed in the heart of Hollywood. Joseph regales us with his riveting encounters with the paranormal.Firstly, he recounts a harrowing incident involving a UFO that not only left his car windows shattered but also led to an unsettling visitation, possibly by the enigmatic Men in Black. Joseph then delves into his intriguing association with Hollywood's elite circles, taking us behind the scenes of a VIP-access-only seance party—an experience that is sure to captivate our audience.Lastly, Joseph shares a profound transformation in his life as he sought a purpose beyond material wealth. His journey led him to embrace Christianity, and he generously offers insights into the profound spiritual transformation that marked this chapter of his life.Become a member for AD FREE listening and EXTRA shows: theconfessionalspodcast.com/joinWatch The Shape of Shadows: https://www.merkel.media/stream-nowWatch Expedition Dogman: https://bit.ly/3CE6Kg0SPONSORSGET EMP Shield: empshield.com Coupon Code: "tony" for $50 off every item you purchase! Listen to this episode for more information! Link: bit.ly/3YaMD1NGET SIMPLISAFE TODAY: simplisafe.com/confessionalsGET Hello Fresh: hellofresh.com/confessionals60 Promo Code: "confessionals60" for 60% off plus free shipping!!!Get Emergency Food Supplies: www.preparewiththeconfessionals.comCONNECT WITH USWebsite: www.theconfessionalspodcast.comEmail: [e-mail] to the Newsletter: https://www.theconfessionalspodcast.com/the-newsletterSOCIAL MEDIASubscribe to our YouTube: https://bit.ly/2TlREaIDiscord: https://discord.gg/KDn4D2uw7hShow Instagram: theconfessionalspodcastTony's Instagram: tonymerkelofficialFacebook: www.facebook.com/TheConfessionalsPodcasTwitter: @TConfessionalsTony's Twitter: @tony_merkel

Merkel Media I guess it's time To go back in time Are you telling me You built a time machine Out of a Dolion Time

Is but a stubborn illusion I have a lot of memories Of the past People are time traveling within themselves Time travel Is possible This was all circulating

Around the base that a giant had to kill but no one was supposed to talk about it. Boney 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. A giant comes out of the cave and they're all frozen. And he starts running and firing at this giant. With a giant moves, he's got a spear in one hand and he's running really fast. And spears, Dan, holds him up like this.

somebody else shoot them in the face shoot them in the face they basically decapitated and I look over and there are two push and because I know I'm seeing a monster okay I reload it yep welcome to the show everybody you're listening to The Confessionals I'm your host Tony Merkel thanks for being here if you have 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 Confessionals podcast.com that's the Confessionals at the Confessionals podcast.com or go to the website, the confessionalspodcast.com, hit the contact section and you can reach for that way as well. Either it works for me, just get a hold of me. If you want more shows every week, go to the website, the confessionalspodcast.com, hit the join button and become a member because

when you become a member, you get access to every Thursday member show, plus the Tuesday shows at free. And when we do an overtime show, you get access to the overtime segment as well, all on the website and the Castos app. Thank you very much. advance for those who want to help support the show. That's again, the Confessionalspodcast.com, hit the join button and you can become a member today. All right, friends, listen, we are coming up on the release of the Dogman documentary. We have titled it Expedition Dogman through Legion of Legends. And if you want to get early VIP access to that, the VIP access, the income that we get from that will go towards helping us on the next journey, which we are planning right now. And oh my Lord,

If we can pull this off, it is going to be an epic location. I'm very excited about it if we can do it, but we have other plans in mind as well, obviously, as backup. But if you want to see the documentary first, if you want to be the first one in the world to see it, you've got to be a VIP. And in order to do that, you got to go to our website, www.murkul. That's it. No.com. Just www. www.merkel.media.

And there you can become a VIP for $25, and we will be releasing world premier VIP release on March 11, 2022 at 9 p.m. Eastern Standard Time. We will be dropping the expedition dogman right there on the website, www.m.merkel.media. And if you don't want to invest in the next trip, that is fine as well. we'll be premiering it for a world public premiere two weeks later on March 25th on the Confessionals YouTube channel at 9 p.m. Eastern Standard Time. If you want to just wait a couple weeks, you can go ahead and check it out on the YouTube channel, The Confessionals. Go ahead,

hit that subscribe button and the alarm bell button so you're alerted when we go live. Moving forward now, we have Joseph coming on the show today. And I got a great show for you guys because Joseph spent 30 years in the film industry. He's still in the film industry. He became a Christian while in the film industry. But before he became a Christian, he saw some pretty funky stuff. He went to a seance with Hollywood elites. He saw some pretty funky stuff.

And he comes on the show today to share some of these stories. And in the future, we're going to have them back on the show again because I have some connections with other people who are still working in the Hollywood industry, who have told me things that they've seen. And we're going to do maybe a roundtable think tank. kind of discussion with this group of people. But today we got Joseph Granda on the show. Let's get to it right now. All right. Today we got Joseph on the show. Joseph, what's going on, man? Hey, how are you? It's good to finally see other than that black and white photo of you on your,

on your podcast there. Yeah, you know, man, listen, we've been trying to do this for quite some time, and I've had to keep canceling on you, and I'm just so happy and thrilled that you didn't cancel on me and say, you know what, dude, get lost, you know, because like when, so my wife, I tell people, you know, my wife, she gets my email, she handles a lot of the scheduling and stuff. And when she got your email, she told me right away, she's like, you need to talk to this guy like yesterday. And so I was just like, cool. And then things were happening, COVID and everything. It just was killing me. But I'm really glad you're here, man, because you are a very unique person. So over the years, I, today I just put out episode 418. And, uh,

So I've been doing it for a while. But in that time frame, I at times, you know, kind of veer off into more conspiratorial talk on certain topics. And one thing that over the years I've really kind of put my stamp on is that I personally believe, I'm not telling anybody else what to believe, but I personally believe that the higher you go in politics, religion, Hollywood, and now even the sports industry, the closer they get and the more they're intertwined. and often with a satanic culture.

And I've said that over the years. And, you know, I get lots of people who agree with me on it. But over the years, I do get emails from people when I say things like that that's just like, you have no idea what you're talking about. You're just a dumb truck driver. You're clueless. And just to let you, hey, Larry, the guy who emailed me that. Let me just tell you something, buddy.

I'm not a dumb truck driver anymore. I'm just a dumb podcaster. So, but the great thing about having you on, man, is that you have, I think you said it was like 30 years of experience in Hollywood. I mean, you have a very large resume. And before we get into your experiences and then conversation about the culture in Hollywood and just see where this conversation goes, I want you to kind of open up and just let people know who you are, share your resume. And so they get a firm understanding as to who you are. Yeah, absolutely. You know, it's funny, people who usually push back on when you talk about the underbelly of Hollywood are usually the ones who are most involved in it.

You know, they go, well, that's not happening here, you know, as they're, you know, they're sacrificing like somebody's cat or whatever. Yeah, so I've been in the, in the, I hesitate calling an entertainment business because so much of it is just, I mean, if you just scroll through some of the movies on Netflix, it's all murder and. rape and stolen children. So I don't know how much entertainment is in, is in that. But with that said, I think because we live in America, people are free to express their art in any way they like. So, yeah, so I started out in New York City as a young man in my 20s. I studied with a very famous acting teacher. And I went on to do off-Broadway and Broadway. I've, I've, I've been in theater opposite Al Pacino and Christopher Walken. And from then I went on and I got a break in movies.

I started in a movie in the early 90s called Amongst Friends. That was a big hit. And that sort of was my pool into the Hollywood industry. And I got an agent and a lawyer and all that stuff. And then realized that sort of learned the business aspect of it. And as I grew older and continued to work pretty steadily, I mean, I have since been a screenwriter. I've sold screenplays.

I've had them made into movies. I've written and directed films. I have a reality show that I'm going to host. I can't really talk about it yet coming up. And I've got a new film that I'm putting together, which is called The Super Awesome, which is about a Christian farmer in his botanist wife, who have exhausted their efforts.

with medical pharmaceuticals. And when they turn to this washed-up scientist and his theories on cannabis, they have their faith called in the question. And it's based loosely on a real story about the healing powers of CBD for kids with extreme epilepsy. So if anybody's interested, they can look at that at super awesome film.com. That's what I'm currently working on right now. I just had a nice family film that came out last year, The Healing Garden. It's a movie that you can watch with your grandparents and grandkids or kids.

It's the edgiest thing in it is a fart joke. And if you can't handle a fart joke, then I'm going to pray for you. So actually, you know, this first story that I mentioned to you when I emailed you was in the early fall of 1996. And I had just moved to L.A. I had just finished a TV show, and I got a call from my agent from a director named PJ Peschi, who was doing a Western in New Mexico and saw me in something and said, I'd really like to have this guy for this part. And so, you know, my agent said, do you want to do it? And I thought, well, dressing up like a cowboy and shooting guns for three weeks, I'm all for that, especially getting paid for it.

So I had a roommate, a guy named Steve, and they were going to send me an airplane ticket to fly me out. And so instead I said, would you tell them to just give me the cash and I'll drive out? And so what I did was I took the cash and then I had my buddy. I said, listen, if you drive out there with me, I'll get you work as an extra because in the Screen Actage Girls, back then they were paying extras $100 a day, which it's probably more now. And so mind you, this is all pre-cell phone. This is all pre-GPS. So we had to get a map and figure out how we're going to get from Los Angeles to New Mexico.

And so I think we charted it out best we could. I remember we took off. We were taking our time. I remember the car that it was an old Ford Bronco, sort of OJJN. style. And I remember the first weird thing that happened was we got a flat tire and we didn't have a spare. And so we had to walk to the town. Where were we? I don't know. But it was a really weird experience. First, we had to take the tire off. We had to roll it up to this gas station to fix it. And the guy didn't speak a language that I had any idea what he was talking. And so we fixed

the car and we take off, but it took quite a while. So by now it's sunset and we're driving to New Mexico. And the thing about not having GPS or cell phones is you really have to pay attention where you're driving and you've got to look at that map and watch the road markings as they pass you. So I was in the passenger seat and Steve was driving. and we realized, and it was midnight at this point, and we realized that we have no idea where the hell we are and we're lost.

So we pull out this map that's got all kinds of graffiti on it by this point, and we finally figure out that if we go up a couple miles and then go north a couple miles, it'll put us back on the road that'll take us right into, the Santa Fe area, the location for this Western movie. It was called The Desperate Trail with Sam Elliott. So we finally find this marker and we make the left to go up. Now, this is a completely, I mean, we're in the middle of nowhere. There's no signs.

There's no lights leading the way. So it's only, it's this two-lane kind of dirt road that we, are that we're traveling on and so we're driving no big deal we're headed we're feel confident we're heading in the right way and as we're driving um we notice a light off in the distance on my side on the passenger side of of the car and don't think much of it i don't know we keep driving and yakking away but as we're moving um if you were to get at like a drone view of the car and this light, as we're moving forward,

it's moving towards us as if it was going to intersect with us. And it did move at a fast pace, but it moved at a steady pace. And so it got so close that the closer it got the slower that Steve drove, because it was so bright that we couldn't see, in front of us. Now, mind you, we're both thinking completely in real life and we're thinking logic and reason. So my first thought is we're on someone's private property and this is this is their

helicopter, you know? And so the light is so bright that I have to shield myself as I, you know, it's one of these kind, you got to roll the window down. I mean, it wasn't even electric, you know. That's how 1998 this experience was. So I roll the window down because I'm thinking, well, I'm just going to say, hey, we're lost. We don't want any problems. I don't know. It's also my first time in New Mexico. So I roll the window down and here's the problem is I'm expecting to hear, you know, helicopter.

There's no helicopter sound. But this is how I've always described it, is that. back then we had pagers so people could get a hold of you. And the pager had a setting that would vibrate. So just vibrate, you know? So if you took a vibrating pager and put it in an aluminum bowl, that's the sound this thing was making. Okay?

And so I look over at Steve and I go, dude, I don't know what that is, but that is not a helicopter. And so I roll my window back up because it was kind of windy. I roll my window up. And now what I'm about to tell you is the only reason I have ever told this story. Otherwise, it would just be a weird incident. And this is what set it off on a path that I would have never imagined. So I roll my window up.

I look over at Steve and I say, listen, I don't know what that is, but we got to get the hell out of here. And so at the very moment that he takes his foot off the brake and slams on the gas, at the moment that the car jumps forward, the light disappears and the whole passenger side window burst, it shatters into little pieces in my face. Wow. Like a really intense force. And Steve goes, oh, man, my window.

And I go, and I'm still thinking logically. So I go, your window, someone just shot a shotgun at us. Am I bleeding? And so we're still driving and I'm looking around and there's glass everywhere and we're really, really freaked out. Because we're thinking logically, someone, something, I don't know, a shotgun, burst through the window. You know, we're not out there thinking close encounters of the third kind. So we drive up to the road. We finally get to the road that we're looking for.

And it's a much more highway. You know, there's some lights. And so we come upon a gas station. And we pull right in there. Now, there's a state trooper there, New Mexico State Trooper. We don't even see this guy. But we get out of the car and he sees us and he realizes, here's these two young men, there's something wrong.

There's something wrong with these two young men. because we were really freaked out. We were like, I was still looking to see if I had pellets and if I was, if my adrenaline had taken over and I couldn't feel it. And so from nowhere, this state trooper comes over and he says, are you boys okay? And we were like, I took the road and then this thing. And then it's all shot at my window. And there's somebody shooting a shotgun at us.

And he goes, okay, calm down, calm down, calm down. Let me see. And so he, first he opens, we opened the car door and he looks inside with his flashlight and he says, listen, if, because it didn't go through the other window, if you were shot with a shotgun, there would, there would be pellets in here. And if it was just a single bullet, it would have gone through it and probably through the other side. And so he closes the door and the outside of the window, all the metal is bent in. What? All the metal. That's right. All the, all the metal where, you know, with the little trim and part of that, it's all bent in. And so it's

part of the door. And he's looking at it because we couldn't see it. He's showing us with his flashlight. It's all bent in. And he goes, okay, now slow down and tell me exactly what happened. And so I tell him what I've just told you. And he says, show me where you were driving on the map. So we show him where we're driving on the map. And he looks at the map and he looks back at us and he says, yep, those things happen out here. We're like, what? Like this happens out here? Now, here's something really interesting that I didn't think of until later. He goes, give me your names and where are you going? I said, well, here's, my name's Joseph Granda. This is Steve Paul Vecchio. And we're actors. we're going to work on the set of the desperate trail in New Mexico.

Takes our name down. Because we don't have cell phones. He takes the set, the name of the producer, you know, and where we're going and whatnot. And he just says, be careful. And he gave us a bag from his car to put over the window and some tape. And so we did that. We put tape over it. And just it was a really, really unnerving experience.

And so we drive into New Mexico. I go and I get fitted for, you know, cowboy clothes from the 1800s. And I meet the director. And, you know, I start shooting. The first day was like my first day learning how to ride a horse, which was interesting. And so the next day, I, I'm sitting in my chair on the set. And when you're an actor, there's a lot of sitting around and waiting, a tremendous

amount of, which is why lots of actors get in trouble because idle hands. So I'm sitting there. And the camera operator was a local guy, and he was a local Native American Indian. And I can't remember his name, but I do know that it was like, it was. like something feather strong, but he had like a genuine feather something in his name. That was his name. So I'm not making light of it. So I'm sitting in the chair and I see these two guys in suits.

And one of them had a tie on and the other one did it. It was still pretty hot. It was late August. And so they're talking to Chief Feather. strong and he points right over at me. And I'm like, I don't know. He must be mistaken. I don't know why he's pointing at me.

So these two guys come over and one of them's gotten again. It's pre-cell phone. So he's got like one of those like you would have a detective. Yeah. Pad. Like a little small pad that flips up. Yeah. So he was the guy in the tie and he didn't talk.

So the first guy come. and they ask me, is your name Joseph Granda? And I say, yeah, because I got nothing to hide. And he said, were you on highway such and such at about 1215 on August such and such? And did you have an incident? I was like, whoa, wait a minute, what? I've had an incident. And I said, yeah, somebody broke my window.

He goes, well, can you take us through? exactly what happened. And so, again, I tell him the exact story that I've just told all of you, all the way down to, now I realize that this highway, this, this, this, this highway patrolman has contacted whoever these guys are. Now, I wasn't smart enough to say, can you guys show me some ID? Can you, who are you? I was just like, I just started talking, you know, and I'm also, I was, I don't know,

I was 28. I don't know. I don't know what the math is. but I was like, you know, I was dressed like a cowboy, you know, and these guys come over. And so I tell them everything that I've just told you. And the one guy takes notes and then he asked me, did you, how did he phrase it? Did you sustain any injuries? Which is like weird to me, as opposed to like, did you get hurt?

Like, did you sustain any injuries? And I said, no, I mean, maybe. some scratches because the the window shattered into like little tiny beads almost. I mean, the force was that great. And he says, okay, well, thank you for your time. And they just turned and walked away. They just completely turned and walked away. And I was so sort of beside myself with like I didn't,

I wasn't sure what had just happened. So these guys go. And then this guy who was a camera operator, Chief Featherstrong, he comes over and he goes, hey, brother, what was that all about? And so again, I tell him the story to a T that I just told you. And he says, oh, yeah, those things happen out here because they come for the courts and the crystal in the mountains. Oh, my gosh. I'm like, okay. But I'm also thinking it's maybe some government thing.

that I mean, I don't know, maybe it was some advanced drone that they're now using all over the world. But so I tell him the story and he says, well, you should go and talk to my friend who runs the book and newsstand in town and tell him because he charts and knows all about all the UFO experience. So now this is the first time somebody has used the acronym UFO to me because I'm thinking completely logical and with reason. I'm like, UFO. He's like, oh, yeah, they fly around here all the time. That's what he said, because they come from. the quartz and the crystal in the mountains. I don't know anything about courts and crystals, you know,

other than a crazy actress I dated once who would wear it around her neck all the time and rub it. So, so, uh, he gives me the name of this guy and a couple days go by and I have a day off. And I'm like, I'm a little curious.

Now I'm curious. So I go into town to this, place and I don't remember the guy's name. We'll just call him Bob. And I say, hi, are you, Bob? My name is Joseph. And he drops what he's doing. And he goes, oh, she Featherstrong sent you, right?

I said, yeah. He goes, tell me, tell me what happened. So again, I tell him the exact story that I have just told all of you. You got to get tired of this point telling the story. All the way up to this point. Yeah. So, you know, so I tell him the story. And then he goes, sit down, sit down, sit down.

So I sit down on his desk and he says, can I ask you some questions? And I say, sure, of course, you know, ask me some questions. And he says, how long did the incident take? And so now I hear somebody say UFO an incident. So now I've been told I've had an incident, not an experience, which means that there was intention to it. I said, I said, I don't know, the whole thing was maybe 20 seconds from the time I rolled the window down to I rolled it back up and then it shattered in my face.

and he says, oh, it just felt like 20 seconds. But the both of you could have been gone for hours. I said, excuse me? He's like, oh, yeah, you could have been gone for hours. I'm like, no, it was like 20 seconds. He's like, oh, no, no, no, they can take you and port you right back into the same place and not know anything about it. I said, oh, well, okay, all right.

Now I think that he's a little nuts. He goes, do you mind if I ask you some more questions? I said, sure. He said, did you sleep okay the next that night? I go, I didn't sleep much at all because I was kind of jacked up. I go, I will tell you this, though, my friend left. He took off. He didn't want to stay.

He was really freaked out. He left. They asked me too. And where's your friend, Steve Polovecchio that was with you? I said, he left, man. He didn't want to stay. he was just weirded out. So this guy at the bookstore, Bob, he says, well, do you mind if I ask you some more questions?

I'm like, you know, just fire away, Bob. It's my day off. I got to play cowboy tomorrow. And so he says, do you have any, have your eyes felt extremely dry? I said, well, I am in the desert, so I don't know how to answer that. He goes, have you had, do you have any soreness in your throat or pain

in your nasal cavity or any bleeding from your ears? I was like, uh, no, Bob, as a matter of fact, I don't have any bleeding from my ears or my nose and my throat, my throat is not sore. And then he says to me, he takes this

long pause and he says, um, forgive me for asking this. But do you have any pain in your rectum. And I was like, what? Why would you ask me that? And he said, well, when they take you, I was like, first off, who are they? He goes, aliens are out here all the time. And when they take you, especially males, they will probe into your anus and into your prostate and remove samples so that they can breathe. I was like, okay, hold it right there so that

that they can grow you. He was going into this whole thing. Like they grow you on another planet and then they clone you and put you back. I mean, for all I know, I'm not me. I'm that clone that they made right now, which I'm okay with. What a privilege and honor it is to meet my first clone. Right. Right. So, so I said, no, Bob, there's no pain in my rectum for any reason. And so he goes on to sort of tell me, you know, about like why they go into the ear and why. why they go up into the nostril to get tissue samples. And he really got into it to the point where he was so specific and and so convicted in what he was asking me and telling me to the point that I started that it was real. I mean, he was telling me what was the truth to him.

And so much so that it really just, it troubled me. And I said, listen, I've got to go. and I bought like the paper and a water or something and I left. But so I'm driving back in my rental car to my hotel room. And as I'm driving, I start I start ruminating on everything that's happened to me and what Bob has just said. And I started thinking to myself, do I have any pain in my rectum?

Do I have pain in my butt? Do I have pain? And then I start, you know, checking my ears. And people were like, who were those guys in the suits? And so, I mean, the whole time I was there, I told the story. And then I sort of making light of it. And I tell it every now and then at dinner parties and whatnot. But in hindsight now, so many years later, I really think that it had to be that we drove through an area that is not normally traveled at,

12, 15 in the morning, and that there was some sort of military test going on. And they were like, oh, look, there's a truck. Let's see what we can do to it. I mean, that's the only thing that it could have been because there's no pain in my rectum. So it wasn't aliens. I love that reasoning. It's the only thing it could be because I don't have butt pain. So, okay, well, there's, okay, let me ask you this.

I'm going to work backwards based off of what you just were talking about. Obviously, you didn't have the pain, body pain, things like that that Bob was describing. All these years later, you've listened to my show clearly and you have some kind of interest in these types of topics. What are your thoughts then on the idea of abduction and extraterrestrial as far as how you define things? Because a lot of people define it differently and stuff. and I don't know if we're going to get into this at some point, but I know just, I know you're not going to have a me problem saying this. You're a Christian now. And so there's a theological perspective you got to, you got to consider when entering into this thought process. So what are your thoughts all these years

later as to what people are experiencing when they say, I was abducted. I remember this. And I had, I just talked to a guy last week that said he literally pulled a chip out of his chest. So it's, it's things like that. So what are your thoughts? Well, first off, yeah, I operate from a Christian worldview. So I have a very specific way of looking at the world that works better for me and brings me greater clarity. Now, with that said, I'm not the moral arbiter of the world or the creator. That job has been taken and taken fantastically. So I don't, I don't, I can't totally put aside that there is another universe

billions of miles away in the expansion of the universe where there's more life. I like to think that the exact world is taking place someplace else where the fall of Adam and Eve didn't happen. Oh, that'd be amazing. And so it's unfolding that way. But I feel like well, here's my theory on what aliens are,

because I think I've solved it, solved it. I believe that if there are aliens or things that are visiting us today, I believe that it is this race in the future, traveling back in time and observing the mistakes of this time, and just like any fallen human would do, they're doing experiments on the human race. Now, I don't know if, I mean, I'm not, I'm not a proponent of evolution outside of species. Because, I mean, you'd have to show me how a sponge becomes an orca.

But I know that, you know, recently, if you listen to people like Rogan stuff and out there, there's been this thing, which is a real thing called a framing psychosis. And they called it a mass framing psychosis. but it's really just framing psychosis. And I think that if you can get enough people to believe certain things and just a couple of them to see certain things, I think some of this comes involved in Sasquatch also, which I'm a fan of and have some pursuits, I think that the subconscious is an incredibly powerful thing

that can, aside from any psilocybin trip or whatever, can manifest things to you, I also think that we live in a very intense in the midst of a spiritual warfare between good and evil. And I think that any time that, you know, for lack of better words, they call them demons. I know they always have horns and are scary, but I always tell people, if you want to see the greatest lineup of demons, just watch the Academy Awards. because I think demons are probably very lovely and beautiful. But I think if you're taking that perspective of separating people from God, then you're going to have an evil force.

And what they're going to do is create things that people will believe and pull them farther away from the truth. So, and we'll get into it if you want. I've had the experience of being in a room with satanic forces that knew things about me that I'd never told anybody. Yeah, we're going to get in, is that the seance or is that something completely different? Yeah, it was a, it was a, it was a, it was the,

it was the weirdest experience I've ever had. And, and the only thing that, that, that shook the core of me of like, of being in the presence of something really, really, really bad. Wow. We're definitely going to get into that. And I think you don't have to go into a great detail if you don't want to. And maybe there isn't great detail. But after you tell that and talk about that, because I know that was BC before Christ,

maybe I'd be interested to hear what was it about your life or anything? Like, where were you in life when you decided to follow Christ being in the holiday industry? Yeah, no, I mean, I can wrap this all up right there and tell you how I got there by going through this story with you. Well, before we move into that story, I'm not done with your UFO here. Yeah, yeah, yeah. The guys who visited you,

good cop, bad cop, do you think that was like some kind of version of a more modern men and black type scenario? Yeah, I mean, that's the way I would describe it. I mean, it wasn't that sort of, the one guy had sunglasses on, they weren't Raybans, and the other guy had glasses on,

and they were both, I would say, mid-40s, early 40s. They were very polite. They were very professional. I assumed that if I had asked, they would have showed me some kind of... Now, I have talked to people since, and some people think that it was

um, um, Air Force and or Navy intelligence. Um, um, it could have been guys from DARPA. Um, I don't know.

I, I wish in hindsight I had asked for some identification or, they didn't seem threatening. They were very like, hey, how are you? We heard you had an incident, and I was like, I thought it was an experience, but okay, an incident.

You know, so, and I have asked around, I have some, my brother's been in the military his whole life. He's like, it was probably some research and development thing that happened to you.

And my brother's, what my brother says, listen, there's, there's things that, that they're, they've got that they're not going to let us know about them until they have to let us know about them.

You know, do you really think they're shooting those shooting satellites up in space every three weeks? Right. I would say the technology we have or the military has is far superior than the fearful bad nuke that they keep throwing in your face. Right. That's why I don't fear the nuclear war concept because I do believe that our technology is so far superior than what the,

I know nuclear bombs have progressed and gotten bigger, but the idea of the 1940s, the bomb dropping and, oh, my gosh, for a hundred years, we're going to fear this now. I don't think that's the case because I think we do have technology that's so far superior than the nuclear technology that that's ancient. And they just use that to get you scared and push you in a direction they want you to be in mentally on how you go the world. Well, I mean, look, when I was in kindergarten, we used to have drills where they would have us go underneath the desk in case of a nuclear bomb. bomb. Yeah, same. And now the government just puts, puts mask on kindergartens. You know, so it's the same fear factor, you know, a nuclear bomb or a cotton mask. Whoever thought that government could take over people by cotton and chemicals, how fast they would just give it up, you know, no offense, but I think those things should be of personal choice. No, I, hey, I get it.

I hear you. I just put out a statement the other day, and I'm going to butcher. it because I was sometimes I get in these frames of minds where this this concept and this idea comes to me and I just put it out there before I lose it kind of thing and uh they like I basically said the tyrannical environment that you find yourself in today um in the in the 1940s uh had to be hidden but today they just tell you what they're doing because they know you're too stupid to recognize the monster you're staring right into their eyes at like like it's like we can tell you exactly what we're going to do we can do it right in front of your face because you're just too dumb to do anything about it. And back in the 1940s and stuff, they had to hide it because they

knew that if it was recognized, it would be chopped off right there. I mean, that's why, that's why Hitler had, he had plans to take over Poland well in advance of the treaty that he supposedly had with Poland, we're like, well, we're not going to invade you and stuff. They were already planning the invasion of Poland, but they couldn't say anything publicly because they knew it would be chopped off right there. That's why the world, there was so many people in the world that thought Hitler was a good guy. They had no idea what was going on because they had a hide it. Now we have now he's Canadian.

Yeah, exactly. Okay. Stop right there. Okay. All right. Cancer culture. Just stop right there. We're going to move on to some scary stories now. But at one point about Hitler, remember this. Hitler was both a vegetarian and an artist. Amazing. That's what he started out as a painter. I'll tell you one thing. Since COVID, I've been vegetarian. And that makes me sad because I, like, I don't, it doesn't, it still tastes good to me, but I just don't, I like good.

I'm like, I don't want it. But when I see vegetables and fruits, I'm like, oh, yeah, give me that. Before we connected on this, on this recording, I ran out real quick and got a veggie cassidia. What is wrong with me? I'm the meat guy. And I'm about to move to Tennessee where there's amazing barbecue. And I'm like, can I have some fruit and veggies? Oh, it'll change. You're just visiting that world, my friend. I'm excited, man. I'm really excited to get down there. But, all right, listen. So, let's, let's bring it back because, I got to tell you this, and I think you'd be a good guest for this show whenever I pull it off. I think I'm going to start my own just, like, culture show where I just sit down with people

I want to talk to and to just have open, honest, interesting conversation. Because there's so many times that I just want to talk to somebody about stuff that's off topic of what my show is that I just feel like I'm almost feeling like I'm boxed in a little bit. So I think we're going to start another show, just plugging that out there to you and everybody else. Yeah, because God knows you have plenty of time there. my wife keeps saying the same thing she's like you keep stacking stuff on top of you i'm just like i don't know how else to do it i get me co-host it amazing amazing i would actually like a co-host because uh in that sense because i think it would be helpful for conversational sake um with with this show

i can't tell you many people reached out to me over the years like introducing themselves in email saying i want to co-host a show with you i'm like who are you again like why would i ever do that so yeah yeah well i mean it with the right person it It can be very captivating. But I think you have to have people to hosts that have a depth of knowledge and whatever they're talking about with a different approach. And I usually play The Bad Cop. If you look at my acting resume, I'm always just this.

I'm always killing somebody. Well, I'll tell you what. It's definitely a conversation to be had. and there's a lot of things you and I will be talking about moving forward. So let's make a transition here. I just want to make one more statement about this experience. And that is when you were telling. It was an incident, Tony.

Yes, the incident. When you were talking about this whole thing and how it happened, my first thought was did this thing, like, break this? Because you said it disappeared right away. Did it break the sound barrier, go so fast, speed of light, that was the outcome. but then when you describe the damage to the car, I was like, that seems very intentional.

And then that's when I started thinking, was this some kind of like weapon of some sort? So those are my calls. And my hearing was bad for the next two days. Listen, let me just put this, for lack of better description, the cherry on the top of this.

The actor that I was with that day killed himself five years later. Wow. Do you know why? I mean, he had some problems. I mean, he had drug and alcohol problems. problems. And that's, that's how he did it. But it seemed to be purposeful. I mean,

if that's, I don't think that has anything to do with the story. I don't know, unless he had pain in his rectum. Well, did you? I say that because if you knew him, he would laugh at that. Okay. I think I honor people by continuing to have a sense of humor in their honor. I totally understand. I totally agree. I almost, I almost said, well, did you ask him? But I was like, I better not say that. But I just said, so it is what it is. We were, you know what else is weird? we were never friends after that. Really? Yeah, we were roommates at the time he moved out and it was, he left.

I don't know. Maybe he was taken. I don't know. But, but it was, it was a moment that only in hindsight can I think that that was a moment where my friendship with him changed. Wow. Yeah, very weird. It is very weird.

All right. So let's move on to this next experience because it's like an evolution of your life, spiritually. I'm assuming this had a lot to do with it. So you're in Hollywood. If people just, like we said in the beginning stuff, like, I mean, you're entrenched in Hollywood. I mean, the other day you and I were talking to the phone and you had interactions. I'm not going to name drop because you don't want a name drop. But like, think that the A list top of the heap, you were socializing with those people. So you were entrenched in this culture. And I really want people to focus on that as you tell the story, that this is something that,

wasn't like you were, I mean, maybe you were in some kind of dark dungeon basement because that's all you could afford. But the fact is you, you were very much entrenched into Hollywood culture, the environment with what I would call the elites of Hollywood. And so the story that you're going to go into isn't coming from somebody who's just, oh, I was an extra in a movie once. That's not, that's not you. No. I mean, you know, that's just, here's the thing to know is that listen if you are a lawyer you work with all other lawyers and you end up dating other lawyers and and so if you're an actor in hollywood you end up dating actresses or or writers or so so it's not weird um to run into famous people and the best way uh when you're not a super famous

person is to just treat them like normal people which is what they they really want and so i will tell you this one i will say one thing I met most of the elite people in Hollywood in Alcoholics Anonymous. So I got sober 27 years ago because I was the guy you always wanted to have at your party. You just weren't sure if you wanted me in the house. Understood. With the chandelier and all that. Like, why is that guy swinging in his underwear?

So, you know, good time, Charlie. So my very first experience with elite hockey. Hollywood was at my very first AA meeting. When I walked into this place in Hollywood, it's still there. It's called the log cabin. And all they do is they hold ANAASA and all those other A meetings. I have since left that program many years ago because that program is there to get you sober, to make you a normal with the world and go out and have a normal productive life.

So I walk into this AA meeting and there's a guy mopping the floor. and I'm a very punctual person, so I'm early. And I look at him and it's Sir Anthony Hopkins and he's mopping the floor. Now, I say that because he has broken his sobriety many times in public. He's almost 40 years sober. So I look at him, he's completely baffled, and I go, what are you doing? And he goes, I'm mopping the floor. It keeps me sober.

It's my, and I think I'm 22, 23, it's time. And he says, it keeps my commitment. It keeps me sober. And I said, oh, this is my first meeting, you know, with probably alcohol still in my breath. And he says, oh, well, welcome and have some coffee. And I said, oh, I don't drink coffee. And he goes, oh, well, you will. And sure enough, I've been drinking coffee ever since.

So I go and I sit down and this is all going to lead to. to this sort of seance thing that I was brought to. I go and I sit down and Jonesy, the guitar player from the sex pistols walks in and he sits right next to me and I recognize

him immediately. And he looks at me and he goes, he says, you look like shit, man. And I go, yeah, it's my first meeting. And he goes, oh, I know exactly what you're thinking. And I said, what's that?

He says, you're thinking, how did I end up here with all these losers? And that's exactly what I was thinking. Wow. Like, what am I here? So I continued to go to AA, and the more I went, you know, living and working in Hollywood, I got invited to the ultimate, ultra-anonymous meetings where you had to really be invited, because when you went in there, you would see the most famous people on the plan at the time trying to get their life together, trying to get sober. And a lot of them in public have talked about it.

I'm not going to, I'm going to honor that anonymous bit to it. But really sort of, well, I'll tell you, one of them was all the time was Robert Downey because he talks about it. I mean, I would sit next to him and talk to him. And so I started meeting, it's weird that I met sort of the most. elite people of Hollywood in Alcoholics Anonymous, you know, and good for them. Unbeknownst to them, whether they liked it, knew it or not. They were in a Judeo-Christian program. So in one of these meetings, I meet an actress who, she's still alive and still works,

so I'm not going to mention her name, but she's an Oscar winner. And so we had a relationship together, boyfriend, girlfriend, girlfriend relationship. And she was very much on this spiritual search, as was I, for a long portion of my life, I was a very devout Buddhist. I've lived in Buddhist temples. I've spent 10 days in complete silence, hours of meditation, vegetarian food, all these things. And so what I was was I was a seeker. and because I had no no Christ-centered knowledge or or wanting to seek that,

when you're seeking anything as the spiritual but not religious forces in this world, it oftentimes gets pulled you, pulled you to the into the darkness. You know, I mean, I listen to your podcast all the time. I hear people talk and I go, oh, those are demons. Oh, yeah, those are demons, you know. Demonic forces are not. always these things flying around and dark. They're like very subtle sort of egging you on into certain directions. So, so, um, she starts talking to me about, um, psychics and channelers

and mediums. And so she sends me to this guy that I had seen a couple times. And his name is Hans Christian King. And I believe he's still alive. And so I went and saw this guy and I'd never met this guy in my life. I sit in the hotel room with him. And this is mid, this is about the same time. This is like 98, 96, 98. And I pay him, it was like 100 bucks back then. And he does this channeling.

He starts telling me about my family and where I was in a past life and what my future is. And he was right on some of them. It was very, very interesting. And again, I think that's, demonic evil forces can know what the past is and what the president is, but they don't know your future. And if you get into those conversations with people who they can rarely tell you specifically what the future is, because from my perspective, Yahweh, God is all in the past, all in the present, all in the future, all at once, which is what makes them omnipotent. And so I had that experience, and that sort of opened my eyes because it was a result.

And as a type A person, I want results. You know, I want to meditate and then come out of it as a unicorn or whatever, you know. And so she says, listen, I'm going to go to, I can't think. I just remember his first name was Brian. And he was a channeler that was going to channel spirits. And so she says to me, I want you to come to this event with me. I said, and she was hot, so I'd go anywhere with her. You know, and I'm sober.

I'm sober, like, I think I was sober about 18 months. And she says, so what you have to do is write a note to somebody who is in, how did she put it, who has passed, who has passed over. And write a note to them that you're going to be at this. address and that this person, Brian, is going to be there and that if they have a message for you, that they can bring it through

Brian. And I was like, okay, so my father's was, my father died in my early 20s, oddly enough of alcoholism. So, so I write this note to my old man and she says, put it someplace in your room

where his spirit can see it. I was like, okay, kind of hoping the old man doesn't show. up because he wasn't that much fun. But okay. So I write this note, Dear Dad, if you have a message for me, I'm going to be at this address, on this date. And there it is. And so I write it and I set on top of my TV in my living room and I leave it there for two weeks. And so I go with her to this event. It's at night. And I have a healthy skepticism of everything because that

That lets me investigate further rather than just blowing things off. And so she picks me up, and it was in the valley. So we drive to this very kind of modest house. And I'm expecting to have to pay $100, $200 for this thing, but it was just a suggested donation of whatever you would like. And so when I come into this room of, I want to say 30 people, and there's like really super famous elite producers, directors, and we're all sitting in folding chairs in this guy's big room at his house. And so he comes out in a sweater vest. I remember that.

He had a sweater vest on. and was very, you know, I worked with Keanu Reeves on a movie called The Walk in the Clouds, one of the kindest people I've ever met. Just a fantastic person in my experience with him. And the thing that makes him interesting to watch is that when you meet him, his energy is neither completely masculine nor completely feminine. He has this center of sort of androgyny. And if you take that into note next time you watch him, you'll realize what I mean. And that's what this guy had, this Brian guy. He was neither completely masculine nor completely feminine.

He had this opaque sort of presence. And so he comes out and he's very kind and he's talking about the spirit world and his assistant and on and on and on. And then he brings out photos of some of his. his channelings and events. And he says, sometimes we're fortunate enough to have the voices speak out loud for us. And so he's handing out photos, special photos that were done of, I didn't know this was a real thing of ectoplasm.

Have you heard of that? Yes. Right? So it comes out of the person's nose or their ear or sometimes in the mouth. And he was telling us that, so what this is is the spirits take this. this ectoplasm out of the person and they create a voice box with it so that they can speak to us. I was like, okay. I mean, you feel like you're in a Hollywood movie at this point.

Right. But I say, okay, great, whatever. And so he brings his assistant out and they lower the lights. It was very theatrical, which I'm sure is expected. Or I don't know if, I don't know. I don't know if that's necessary or what. But so they lower the lights and there's candles. It's a little creepy.

In hindsight, it's a little creepy. Because I realize now what they're doing is they're calling upon demonic forces to entertain you. And so here's what's really interesting that these people do. Including the guy, this Hans Anderson guy that I went and had a session, they pray. But you know what they never say? They never say in the name of Christ. they pray to God, I don't know what God they're praying to or whatever, but I realize that in hindsight. A lot of these mystics and channelers, they never evoked the name of Christ because I'm guessing

that shuts down their whole system. Right, exactly. I mean, like, that's kind of what I talk about on my show. Like, if you want to stop a situation, claim the name of Christ. Right. So he comes out and he says a prayer to God. And if you have messages for the people here and on and on and on. And so his assistant sits down, and it was this very sort of svelte woman in a black dress.

Lights go down, he says this prayer, and he starts sort of saying, is there anybody here with a such and such? And a woman raises her hand, and he starts telling about her grandmother and, oh, did you have a dog? And let me just say this. I've never met this guy in my life. I've never met him in my life. No one was in my house to read my message or anything. And so he goes on and on. He's like channeling these spirits.

And then the woman sitting in the chair lays her head back. And he goes, oh, we have someone here. I was like, oh, this is going to get good. And then she starts breathing heavy. And this mist comes out of her nose. and rises in the, it was, I saw it. Like you actually saw it.

I saw it. I was right. I was, I was sitting in the back, but I thought it was, wow. It was, it was not a Hollywood trick. If it was, if it was phenomenal. And so this mist comes out and it didn't move, but a voice was coming from this, this, I guess it was the ectoplasm making this voice box. And he talked to it.

it. And he channeled different people that were in this room and was apparently from their emotional reaction was spot on. Okay. So this is when it got weird for me because as I'm sitting there next to my girlfriend at the time, there is a black man sitting in the back of the group, kind of not with the group, but in a chair by himself in the back. And he keeps, you know, you can feel somebody looking at you before you even look at them. So that's how I thought and I looked at him. And he looked right at me and then every now and then I would look at him and he would look at me and nod his head. And I was like, wow, this is, this is really weird for me.

So this guy, Brian does this channeling thing and the mist sort of dissipates. And he continues to channel people and talk about, you know, I mean, he gets really specific about their dog rover is in is in this place and everything's okay and I mean he seemed very specific and by the way I only donated 10 bucks um I don't know what everybody else gave but but there were some wealthy people there judging by what you saw and heard I think you got your money's worth I got my money's worth I never went back mind you though but here's where it gets weird all right so he he he he he he he he He says, apparently this is very physically draining, and this guy, Brian, says, I'm very tired.

I'm going to have to bring a close to the session. Thank you for coming. You know, there's some juice and whatever for you to mingle or whatnot. So he ends this, this, this, this, this seance is what it was. I mean, it wasn't like tables shaking or, or stuff flying in the air. So it ends. And this, this, this, this guy. I sitting in the back, tall, handsome black man comes right up to me. I mean, he makes a beeline

right for me and he says, you have a father and spirit, don't you? And I said, I said, yeah. And he said, I'm a channeler also. And your father realized there was too many spirits trying to get into Tony or into Brian for a message. Don't use my name. Sorry about that. Sorry about that. Trying to get a message into Bryant and he came to me. That's why he was looking at me. I said, oh, really? I said, well, why don't you tell me?

He goes, well, first off, did your father have a very thick Latin accent? I've never met this guy in my life. I said, yeah, my father came to this country from Cuba. So now he's got my attention. All right? And so he says, because you put the note out, right? I said, I did. and, well, he wanted me to tell you that he's very proud of the changes that you've made.

I got sober. And, but because I was still had this sort of weak moral character, I would go along with whatever was around me. And so this, this woman I was dating also smoked. And so I started smoking with her, you know? Social smoking. That's, yeah. Because I'm just a sucker. And he said that, um, and,

And in my early 20s, I was a smoker. I was like a lucky strike, no filtered pack a day smoker. He said also that you shouldn't be smoking and running because I was also running three miles a day. Wow. You know, three to five miles a day. And that you should go and get your, and get a physical, get your lungs looked at. I was like, and it was, and then he talked about. Oh, and he said, he said, oh, the reason is not so much because you're smoking, but your father worked with lacquers?

Or I said, my father was a painting contractor. I said, yeah, he goes, and he feels like you may have been damaged. He says, because you would go to work with him, right? Absolutely. So every summer, as a kid, my dad took me to work with him. And I was around spraying lacquer and paints and all this. He says he feels that this is an opportunity for you to have your lungs looked at that they might have been damaged when you were a kid and the smoking doesn't help. And I'm I'm I'm I'm I'm flabbergasted.

And and and my girlfriend is looking at me like like is this real. Like this is you know, the whole time home was like that guy was spot on. My father's from Cuba and he was a painter and is that. So a couple weeks go by. and I go see a doctor. I go see a doctor. I had Screen Actors Guild insurance and in your 20s, you don't get sick very often. I only used it to go to psychotherapy and a few times to get a physical. And so I said to the doctor, I said, hey, listen, I'd like you to take an x-ray of my lungs and see if that.

He's like, oh, you're in your 20s, you're fine. I go, yeah, but, you know, it's paid for. I would just like, I'm curious. And so the doctor takes an x-ray of my lungs, and he calls me back. He goes, something really interesting. He goes, and he shows me a tiny little black spot on my lung. I go, what's that? He goes, well, that's a dead space on your lung.

Do you smoke? I said, yeah, I only smoke when I'm with my girlfriend a couple times. I used to be a heavy smoker. He goes, well, it could have been a damage, something that you inhaled when you were a kid. Did you ever huff gas? I said, no, but guess what? My father would take me to work, and he was spraying lacquer and stuff. He says, well, that spot could have been much bigger, but your lungs are one of the few organs that can completely rejuvenate and heal themselves.

He said, so I would, so that's probably what it was. And I definitely don't smoke anymore. And that was actually, that was the last time I smoked. And that was also the end of my relationship. Um, why? I don't know. Well, you know, most relationships like that in Hollywood are just passing through one way or another. Sure.

So just, but I didn't. What's that? They just get weird for her because of what she experienced with you? Uh, no, it got weird for me that, that, because then she moved into, then she wanted me to come to Scientology, which I did, briefly. That's going to be another episode right there, man. Yeah. So that's a whole different, that's a whole different ball of wax. So, you know, hot or not stay away from social Scientology.

Or just date him for 90 minutes. So I'm not recommending that as a Christian, but, you know, I was a secular person in Hollywood. And so the doctor says to me, what have you had a cough? I said, no. He said, well, what made you want to have me do this X-ray? And so I tell him the story I just told you. And he's like, you've got to be kidding. And I said, nope, two weeks ago.

I was at this seance. This white foam came out of this woman's nose and it talked to the room. And then this other guy came over and he told me to, he's like, wow, that's pretty amazing. I go, yeah. So it's really weird. So, so, so, I mean,

aside from experiences that I've had, so listen, I say this with no pride, but there's not a drug on this planet that I've not done. There was a girl from Brazil and some here. heroin. I did that. There was, you know, LSD I did for a week. I've gone to parties in San Francisco. And I went to a party in San Francisco once, drank, took LSD, and then I woke up, or I came to seated in the second row of a bullfight in Tijuana. And I turned to my friend. Yeah. And I said, please don't tell me that I drove. And they go, oh, no, Bob drove. Oh, I go, okay, cool. And then you think, well, I'm ever doing that again until you get to Disneyland on the way home.

and you drop acid again. Wow. And so, and listen, on that point, I think there's proper uses for things like psilocybin in healing people today. That's a whole other topic. So here's the point. What I was really looking for, aside from getting sober and trying to fill that space in me that was a constant pain from my childhood, that needed to be filled with something, and you can't fill that with just the love of someone else,

because feelings as a human and an individual are an ebb and flow. When my daughter is sad, I said, listen, just let yourself feel sad because I promise you this. A Buddhist monk told me this. You couldn't make yourself feel that way for the rest of the week. and he's right. So I always say, just lean into whatever it is your feeling and it's going to pass through you. But my point is that I was searching for a spiritual path.

And here's how I came to Christ because I think it's important because all of my experiences in the occult or UFOs or whatever led me to where I am today. I had a business. One of my partners was stealing from me. And I had to sue him and court and all this. And I sat around with my wife and we were both secular people. We had a one-month-old baby. And I said, is that really all there is? It's just money.

It's just money and stuff. And she says, you know, I don't know. But I said, we really need, we really need to be open to the truth, to the truth, whatever that is. And so in my neighborhood, I kept seeing these orange stickers that have an outline of a local mountain called the Flat Irons. And so I Google, I literally Google what the hell orange sticker Colorado. And it turns out it's our local church. And so I literally said to my wife, let's go see what the crazy Christians in our neighborhood are doing. Okay.

Awesome. So because I'm open. I'm listed. I've been to seances. I've been probed apparently by UFOs. I've lived with Buddhist monks. I've eaten with the Harry Krishna for a weekend. I've read the Torah.

I was on the search wanting to be. I thought I wanted to be awakened, but in hindsight, what I wanted to be was saved, saved from the world. And so we go to this church. It's called Flat-Ions Community Church. It's the biggest church in Colorado.

And we walk in and there's no crosses, there's no deacons or anything that my past experience would turn me off. And we lean in on the door. We came late on purpose because we were uncomfortable. It's interesting that I was uncomfortable coming into that place, but I wasn't uncomfortable with my window being blown out or with going into a demoni. experience, you know, I wasn't uncomfortable there, but I was uncomfortable walking into the church. And so we walk in and the band, I kid you not, is playing limelight from Rush. And so I look to my wife and I say, listen, this is either going to be really cool or they're going to talk spaceships 20 minutes in and we're out of here. And so we go in, we've got our infant and we sit down, we sit in the back, right?

Because I don't want to be, I don't want anybody to see me in a Christian church, right? God forbid. And so we sit in the back and this guy in a t-shirt and jeans comes up and he's kind of muscular. And I say to my wife, oh, that's probably the stage hand fixing the mic stuff. And let me tell you, this pastor, his name is Jim Bergen. He saved my life. He starts going into, he's talking about what is your target in life and what are you, using to hit it. And if you're not using Christ to hit that target, you're probably not going to hit it.

And it really resonated to me. And so I was able to initially hear the message of Christ in a way I have never heard it. It was, for lack of better description, it was casual, it was inviting, it was interesting, it was contemporary. And so for the next thing, nine weeks, we went every week. And as the same time we were going to this church every week, all week long, I was reading everything I could historically, theologically, psychologically, psychologically to disprove what I was being told. Because I didn't want to believe this. I didn't want to know that the answer to my salvation and to the progress of the goodness of my life has always been in front of me, even though I put a tree up every year in December.

And so I couldn't do it. I read everything you could think of, everything from Sam Harris to theological studies to the history and to Romans, Roman Josephus who wrote about Christ. And so we're driving back from church one day. And I look over to my wife and I said, I got to tell you, honey, I think we're Christians. And she said, I think you're right.

And so about five months later, we got baptized in that church. And I had gone out of the movie business. And I got on my knees after I got baptized that week. And I said to Christ, I will do anything that you want me to do. Listen, I'm a big fan of donuts. If you want me to open up donuts for Jesus here in Colorado, I will open up donuts for Jesus. But I'll tell you what happened to me. Everything from that point on started pushing me back into the entertainment industry with a new focus and a new purpose.

And that is simply to bring good, beautiful works that honor my creativity and the creator into the world. Because there's plenty of the demonic and the, and I'm, listen, it's a free country. If you want to make demonic stuff, that's your choice. But if you are out there searching for the darkness, I promise to you that you will find it. But if you are tired of the darkness and whatever that pain is, is that my experience was to leave the darkness and to move towards the light. And in my truth, in the truth, there is only one light. And for me, that's Christ. And even from that point, here's the thing that was interesting about becoming a Christian.

is that my life got so much better by thousandfold, so much better. However, my life got more difficult. And here's why. Because I couldn't live my life the way I used to without caring about other people, without understanding that there are people there who want to hurt children. And sometimes they just want to hurt them with cartoons. You know, so my life is more challenging, but better. And then the other great thing that happened to me was I got quarantined and came out a Calvinist.

And so what do you mean some of your- What's that? What do you mean you got quarantine? Because in today's perspective that people are saying, you mean like you had COVID or what? We got quarantine, you know, the quarantine, the COVID when they're like, oh, stay home. So this is a recent development in your life. Well, here's my point is we went to this very contemporary modern church, which I think is a very good place to start. Listen, my friends who inquire about my faith, I say, listen, don't read the Bible.

It'll mess you up. Read Genesis and read the gospel of John. And see how that works for you. You know, because if you just say, oh, you just need to read the Bible. Well, that's not it. And so while we were quarantined, we couldn't go to church. So I became more curious. You know, Kirkagarg said that the Gospels are 10,000 fathoms deep.

And so I had a very, a very sophomoric understanding at that point of my faith. And I wanted to know more about it. And so as we were quarantined, I started watching YouTube videos of a, actually of a pastor named Douglas Wilson. And most recently, I adapted his novel Ride Sally Ride into a screenplay that I hope to direct next year. So the joke is that we got quarantined and came out Calvinist because what I found was that there was so much depth in the Christian faith and such a deep history. And so my encouragement to anyone listening is that if you're really interested in the spirit world, I can confirm for you that it's a real thing. It's all around you. It wants you to be

involved in it. It either wants you to be in the darkness or in the light. If you're really interested in the spiritual realm, I would recommend that you listen to Dr. Michael Heiser. You can find him on the internet. He'll tell you flat out that there's a spiritual war going on. And my encouragement to anyone listening is that if you're suffering from alcoholism or drugs or bad relationships, just check it out. It can't hurt you any more than whatever it is that you're doing because where I'm at today, I think that I've been called to share this message in a free country. For now. For now. Yeah.

Yeah. No, I, listen, Joseph, that was for me on a personal level, okay? Because, I mean, there's a large audience here. Now everybody's Christian. There's people who hear people talk about their faith in Christ in Christ as Christians and they turn it off. They get to stain. But for me personally, hearing what you just shared, beautiful comes to mind. It's absolutely beautiful how it came around. And I share sentiment. in so many different ways with this where for me, like, I'm very, so I grew up in a Pentecostal church and I'm very much a hybrid when it comes to the theological perspectives. And I see, I see myself very differently. But when I came to Christ, and I talked about this on a member show recently, but, and I'll just go briefly over this, it wasn't responding to an altar call, getting on my knees and asking Jesus to come into my heart. I'm sitting at a funeral because my wife's uncle died. I'm at a point in my life where I'm trying to get better, but I did not want to do anything with God. Like I disdained, like actively avoiding God. Yeah. And I'm sitting in this church. I'm pissed off that

that I'm even sitting in a church because my friend was getting married that day and I wanted to just go to the wedding and tell her to come meet me there afterwards. I'm mad. And then her uncle, who is a pastor, gets up. He's Baptist pastor, and he starts preaching the gospel, and he wasn't supposed to. Like, he wasn't part of the service. He just got up and started doing it. And I was mad at him. Like, I could feel my blood pressure rising. My face is red. And remember, I said, I was at a point in my life where I'm looking around. I'm a truck driver. I'm looking around at everybody in my life. And I'm like, these guys have been in this industry for 30 years. The truckers are like the modern day sailors, cursing like a trucker, you know? And I started realizing that I was meaner than all these guys.

And I just didn't like that about myself. And I wanted to be just a nicer person, but I didn't want to do the whole God thing. And I'm sitting in this church, blood pressure rising. I can feel my face getting warm. And in that moment of anger towards the gospel is when the Holy Spirit spoke to my inner spirit. And it wasn't audible, but it was like a spirit voice. It's like speaking to me. And it just said, you don't need the change to come to me.

just come to me and I'll change you. And honestly, in that moment, I'm not a Calvinist. I do have reformed theological perspectives. I can tell you this. In that moment, I was sitting there and looking back, I believe I had a choice in the matter, but I can't imagine in that moment ever walking out of that church ignoring what I just experienced.

It was an instantaneous transformation in my life where I walked out of that church a completely different person, like instantaneously. It's not like that for everybody. I understand that. But my language cleared up. Over time, it's kind of come back a little bit. But my anger, my hate towards my neighbor, all of it's gone to the point that by a time I sat down in the car at this funeral with my wife afterwards, she's literally pressing herself up against the door looking at me saying, are you okay? because she's like, like, she's looking at her husband physically and there was something different about me, like something was gone. And, and, and, and, and I told her, I said, I'm fine. I just,

like, I had no idea what was just happening to me. I was like, this is crazy. This is crazy. This is crazy. And, um, I go to my friend's reception that night and my parents are there. And then after the reception's over, it's my wife, my mom, my dad. And I, I'm just like, I got to talk to my parents about this. My dad's on the board at his church, you know, and I'm just like, I got to tell, I got to tell him what's going on here because I'm coming off a very crazy roller coaster in my life where I almost divorced my wife. I was crazy. I was crazy. Yeah. I was in relationships with people I shouldn't have been involved in. And, um, and so like me and my wife are at a point where our marriage is healing, without God. It was healing. I'm falling in love with my wife. And, but I didn't want God.

And my parents were like, he just needs God still. And I finally told, I told him that. And I told him that. night what I experienced and I just start sobbing my wife is crying my mom's crying my dad's crying and like it it was a complete instant transformation for me and when I heard you sharing your experience I felt connection there because you didn't you didn't go and and go up to an altar call or anything like that you're literally driving home and you look at your wife you're like I think we're Christians and it was just like it was like this this transformation in your life and man, I just got preaching. I'm sorry. I get excited about this stuff.

Here's another thing to remember. And I think it's great that you're a person of faith in this space that you are in of talking to the occult and witches and all that stuff. Because I'm called to be completely fearless, absurdly happy, and constantly in trouble. And when I say that, constantly in trouble is because when I operate in the world and somebody asks me an honest question, I give them an honest answer. and then it's up to them, and a lot of times it rubs them the wrong way. But I'm not responsible how they feel. But my point is that just because you come, just because you come to salvation in Christ,

doesn't mean that you can't stop searching for dogman or Sasquatch. Because I tell you what, if Sasquatch is out there, here's something you've got to think about. If Sasquatch is out there, Sasquatch was on the arc. Yeah. Okay. So remember that. So Sasquatch, if he's out there, it's biblical.

So it's all biblical. It all goes back to the stories in the Bible. And listen, if you're, you don't have to change everything until everything changes you. You could just be who you are. So if you're curious about dog man, and why not be curious about Jonah and the whale? It wasn't a whale. It was a giant fish. But, you know, there's so much magic and spirit and challenges with the devil and stuff in the Bible.

But again, you know, I always say, read the gospel of John and read Genesis in the creation story. And so, you know, I used to think, oh, I couldn't do this. I couldn't do that. And I still have a salty tongue sometimes. But then you read the writings of the Apostle Paul. And he says shit all the time. I mean, the word is scubola, but it means the same thing. You're right.

You're right. You know, these weren't passive, wimpy people floating on air. No. Listen, listen, the reason that I couldn't be a Buddhist anymore is because, when I left that following that spiritual path, I felt like a fourth century Roman eunuch. I felt like I couldn't, I couldn't stand my ground.

Nothing irks me more than when Hollywood creates the image of Christ as this airy, fairy floating, love everybody, peaceful. Jesus was a warrior. Listen, that part of the Bible, when Jesus makes a whip in this, in the, in the grounds of the synagogue, and whips people.

He was there all afternoon whipping people. That area was 30 acres. That's what people, that was 30 acres that he roamed around yelling at. People get your stuff out of my, it's fascinating stories. If you also look into the history, people,

you know, it gets depicted in the Hollywood movies. He walks in this room and he's really kind of upset. He was a revolutionary. He walked in and he said, no, you're wrong. The same way we can call it our politicians and say, you are vipers. I don't trust you.

It's what he did. And that's why I am because I want to be a rebellious. I don't want to be in with the in crowd. Yeah. You know? I mean, that's how I feel too. And you just put words to what inner Tony feels. I always say that Jesus wasn't a hippie picking lilies with his friends.

I got this. It's actually a verse. from a Christian hip hop artist, The Truth. He says, Christian, Jesus wasn't a hippie picking lilies with his friends. He was a man's man and that's why men followed him. And it's right.

You got to think like culturally, and this is where Heiser really focuses on things, culturally, put yourself in the culture of that day. There's no man that's going to follow a pansy. It's not happening. Right. He was a revolutionary and he was a man's man.

He was the man. and that's why he had grown men dropped their families, everything that they were attached to, and follow him, because he was that revolutionary. And so this modern depiction of Jesus being this, this weak person, I disdain. Well, he was a lawbreaker back then. I mean, listen, the reason that he was called in to the Pharisees and the Sadducees, it wasn't because he's, healed the blind man because if you read in the gospel, what he does is he spits on mud, on dirt, and makes mud and wipes it on the guys eyes. Now, people go, oh, well, why would he why would he put mud on somebody's face to make them not blind? That wasn't the point. He knew they were watching, and guess what? It was the Sabbath. It was illegal to make clay. Because

clay is what homes were built for, and that was considered building houses. He knew they were watching, And he said, I'm going to spit on you. I'm going to make clay, I'm going to heal this guy. Take that. And the other thing they do is they always, yeah, you know, they always make him this wimpy sort of like, and they call him a carpenter. Well, let me tell you, if you look at the history of him, he was probably a stone mason person, which means he was very strong because those houses weren't built out of wood. To get wood back then, you had to float it down the river from wherever it was coming from.

So more likely, if you look at the translation, carpenter really means, masonry and and you know i mean a lot of things get lost in translation but yeah he was a badass exactly and so he'd be riding a motorcycle today yeah yeah i i just um i i just i'm really having fun with this conversation and uh i i know we veered away from maybe what we started out as but i just think it was this was really good conversation and i i know for a fact that there's me a lot of people that listen to this that gain a lot from the from from the first second to now and yeah and hey if there's anybody out there that wants to contact me and drop a line or they want to send me hate mail or whatever that's fine yeah send to him yeah you can go to josephgranda dot com and you can read my

my bio and stuff there or if you want if if you want to reach out to me or if you're upset with me i'm okay with that too. I'm my own man. It's cool. Yeah. Listen, you don't spend as much time doing what you were doing without getting used to people critiquing you. And so it is, it's just part of the process in which we live as people who, you know, create stuff for other people to consume. Everybody's going to critique something. Well, yeah. I mean, and when I, when people ask me about my faith and I tell them and they get upset, then I'm clearly over the target. Right. Well, Joseph, man. Yeah. You dropped your website. Is there anything else you to promote before we get out of here. No, but I am working on launching a podcast about Sasquatch, but not about sightings.

I want to talk about how this giant hairy hominid that's hidden from the world, what it means to people, what it means to the American psyche and popular culture. So I'm going to talk to authors and filmmakers that make movies about Sasquatch and business people who own businesses, because whether that creature is there or not, people have a fascination and a connection with it. And I'll just tell you briefly, my connection with Sasquatch comes from when I was 10 years old, my father walked out of the house and I never saw him again until he was found dead in a van in the Sequoia National Forest. And every boy needs a legend. And my legend was found for years and Saswatch of thinking like what if that was my father?

What if you just went off and he lived in the woods? And so I had this subconscious and psychological connection with this beast. I've never gone looking for him. But I mean, if you look over my shoulder, you'll see, you know, frame 352, and I've got my swag and stuff. And so that's what we're going to talk about. We're going to talk about everything but the sightings and what it means to you on a more personal level. So that'll be coming hopefully in the summer. And if you have something that you want to talk about.

talk about in that realm, go to my website, josephgranda.com, and you can email me and I'll hook you up. That's awesome. I can't wait until you launch. If you need anything for me, let me know. When it launches and stuff, let me know. I'll bring you on for five, ten minutes just to promote it. I'd let you know to check it out. Joseph, man, it's been a pleasure. I really appreciate the opportunity to be here today. And I love your show. Listen, before we get out of here, just remember this. I want to tease this out. And I also want to put pressure on her. Okay. There's a lot more to talk with you about Hollywood, the culture, all that stuff. We did an episode a long time ago, paranormal Hollywood, where we had a lady on the show,

and she was talking about her experiences. She works in the film industry. I've been talking to her recently. She's changed a lot since that episode. In that episode, she was very much entrenched in her career. And her mom, who's a Christian, she was like, I love my mom, but she can be a little crazy with the Christian stuff. And to hear her talk now, I talked to her a couple of times now the past couple months, we're recording this in February. She's leaving her career behind because these scales have been lifted off her eyes and she's seeing the industry for what it is. And she's realizing there's so much demonic stuff all around her that she's leaving her career. I talk to her about you, talk to you about her. And I'm going to try to get you two

on together for like a good conversation. And we'll, uh, we'll, we'll, we'll, we'll, we'll, that membership content for sure. Cool. Because we're going to go deep. We're going to go deep. So I'm looking forward to it. Joseph. Thank you very much, man. Yeah, my pleasure. Thank you. Well, that's the show. Everybody, I really hope you enjoyed it. And if you did enjoy it, please, please, please share the show with your friends. I don't care where or how you share the show. Just share the show. Anything you can do to get the show in front of other eyeballs and ear holes would be greatly, greatly appreciated because that is what keeps the show going, is you guys sharing the show and getting it in front of other people. Thank you very much, friends. And just,

like I said, in the beginning of the show, we are doing the Legion of Legends documentary expedition dogman. If you want to get in on that early VIP pass, you got to go to www. www.m.merkel. Media to get your VIP pass for March 11th at 9 p.m. Eastern Standard Time for the world VIP premiere. And if you don't want to get in on that action, that's fine. Two weeks later on Confessionals YouTube channel, we will be premiering it to the public. That's March 25th at 9 p.m. Eastern Standard Time on YouTube. Friends, I appreciate you. Thanks for being here. And until next week, stay safe. Take care and remember, the truth was such a free. But first, it'll piss you off. Bye. And nothing I seem to do is working out.

Who is spotting me? I feel like they're mocking me. Where is the God of me? I feel like I'm dried up. Harmony and all I want is Christ can bickering over the Bible while people are dying in front of them. And you wonder why people are running from. The guy that you say that is shunning them. I fell to myself.

They told me to look somewhere raised not. Up in the stars, up in the sky, up in the clouds like he's not around. So I empty myself with every distraction. Got driving my tires, a ball can't get any traction. Where is compassion? We following kings, but they only from Akron. Whoa, I just know that we're more than what they tell us We're over zealous when we protect what is precious

We get confused and those things start to propel us Into things we don't want to leave us helpless There's only one who gives us peace when we are restless I know that now