Charting the Imaginal with Glennie F. Sewell

The AP Strange Show

This week on the show, Glennie F. Sewell joins AP to discuss his work in paranormal investigation and his academic efforts toward synthesizing lived paranormal experiences and their relation to the imaginal realities with which they interact. He recently led a workshop to discuss these concepts at the 2025 Paranormal Research Symposium in Gettysburg, PA. AP attended the workshop and even had a paranormal event occur in the middle of it! (A description of said event can be found in the episode "Road Trippin' with Tim Binnall.) Glennie's presentation of anomalous activity as a liminal bridge to the imaginal realms are well worth considering, and made him a natural welcome guest on this show.

He discusses these concepts and his methodology in approaching stories he sources directly from consenting participants, finding commonalities in lived experiences and analyzing the narratives of what we consider "paranormal". In so doing he pulls upon threads such as choices of words used in the telling to find deeper meaning in what are often transformative or perception altering tales. He and AP discuss the limitations of language to describe the greater reality, and the difficulties inherent in discernment around cultural inborn assumptions.

Glennie currently holds an MFA from Goddard College and is the author of an unpublished novel, Guardians of Forever: Earth Gone. He is currently teaching World Literature online and working toward a PhD in Transformative Studies at the California Institute of Integral Studies. He is also the co-founder of the Messenger Guardians Institute and Messenger Guardians Paranormal Investigation Studies, based out of Vermont. You can follow his work with MGPIS on YouTube here: https://www.youtube.com/@messengerguardiansparanorm8606