May 18, 2026 • 14 mins
Guest Host Richard Syrett and Author Maxim W. Furek discuss cults, weaponized religion, the current political landscape and the doomsday clock.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Now here's a highlight from Coast to coast AM on iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
Maxim Furick is here and his new book is Paranormal Apocalypse.
Is this how it ends? We were talking about cults,
and I think a lot of that same manipulation not
only exists in the cult with cult leaders like Jim Jones.
(00:25):
You mentioned Charlie Manson, Adolf Hitler. We could add someone
like that to the list, but I mean it seems
to be what about weaponized religion?
Speaker 3 (00:39):
Yeah, you know, that really gets into the political and
it gets into what's happening today. You know, we have
that what's so called religious right tends to be conservative,
it tends to be lockstep with church and state. And
it's alarming because it's a great way to go and
(01:01):
mobilize people again utilizing the Bible and Christianity and all
of that that all of that would that represents and
and it's it's my understanding that on the fourth of
July is going to be a massive uh get together
at the White House, you know with this religious right.
(01:22):
And uh so, you're absolutely right. It's it's utilizing religion,
it's weaponizing religion, and and and it's wrong on so
many different levels, you know, because you know, it's you know,
it's not just Christianity, that's one. There's so many religions
out there, and we have to take a look at
all of them. And one thing that I think that
(01:43):
we sorely miss, you know, I look at the Judeo
Christian Islamic tradition. You know, we're just so well connected
and and uh and and tight, despite the fact that
there's so much anti Semitism and so much uh, you know,
is a phobia uh you know, uh, you know in
our culture. But yeah, I think that the u that's
(02:07):
one thing that I write about in Paranormal Apocalypse. We
are afraid and we are kept in fear because of
religious organizations. If you don't do what we say, you're
going to be punished, you know. If you don't do
what we say, you're damned. And if you don't do
what we say, you're a bad, evil person. So you know,
(02:27):
we've heard these messages before, and you know, and again
we need to be uh, we need to be aware,
and we need to uh use rational thought uh to
look at you know, the the truth and the non truth.
So I think we're in some really frightening times, just
with how we're being manipulated. And you know, this use
(02:50):
of of religion as a weapon is one really good example.
It's I don't know how how somebody like me, a liberal,
progressive liberal like me, deals with something like this, because
it's just like it's almost attacking me, you know, And
I'm a person of faith, and but you know, this
is this is something that we need to be afraid of.
(03:12):
But you know, we're supposed to have a divide between
church and state, and there's none of that going on
here in the United States of America. So yeah, I'm
I'm apprehensive about what's happening and what's right around the corner.
Speaker 2 (03:25):
What fast fascinates you about the doomsday clock? First of all,
let me, as I say that, let me just back
up a minute. When did the doomsday clock first sort
of enter public consciousness? We hear constantly now, but the
doomsday clock, we're ninety seconds to midnight? When did that start?
Speaker 3 (03:42):
I believe if I you know, again, I wrote the book.
I'm trying to remember that exact chapter, but I think
after nineteen forty five, when we when we bombed Hiroshima
and now Nagasaki, Oppenheimer and some other scientists got together
to take a look at you know, we realized that
we had the possible, the potential to destroy the world.
(04:04):
You know, we didn't play play it right. And they
had a thing called a theoretical clock, called the doomsday clock,
to see how close we were to doomsday. So, you know,
Oppenheimer was one of those people. But they but now
with all of the other countries that have the bomb,
you know, uh, you know, not just the United States, China, Russia,
(04:25):
but you know, Pakistan and India. We believe Israel and
Taiwan have the bomb. You know, we don't know that's
on the on the download, but so many of these
countries have the nuclear bomb. That again, if anything were
to happen, if the wrong people were to have the code,
and if the wrong people were to go and press
the buttons, you know, we we could be uh you know,
(04:48):
in in in trouble. Uh. You know, I don't think
the fear of the doomsday clock is as immediate as
is the fear of econo it collapse. There's more people
that are concerned about not having enough money. And then
of course we're being squeezed by you know, the high
prices by the terriffs. By all of that, I mean
(05:10):
we you know, twenty six is a really frightening time
because I mean, we're being kept unsettled, off balance, We're
kept on chaos, kept in chaos. And this is another
strategy for control, not just fear. Don't just make them afraid,
but make them crazy. And this is what's happening. I mean,
(05:34):
I don't know Richard, how you're looking at it, but
I'm just thinking that we are being manipulated in so
many different ways, and there is a need to be
concerned and not frightened, but be concerned and aware because
you know, I think that there's you know, some bad
times around the corner unless we find a way too,
(05:55):
unless we have a counterpoint, counter weight to what's happened.
And this is all you mentioned, all politically driven.
Speaker 2 (06:04):
Well, you mentioned the end of the Second World War
and the Cold War, and if we go back, well
we're talking now eighty years ago with the end of
the Second World War, then you had the Cold War.
People forget or weren't around, but for example, in nineteen
sixty two, the missiles of October crisis, where I've spoken
(06:28):
to people who were around at that time and they
were listening to the radio. They were in their cars,
they were driving somewhere. They literally thought World War III
was about to happen at any moment. And one person
described how they were listening to the radio and it
got so tense. And again, this was the Soviets in
Cuba and this standoff between the United States and Cuba,
(06:49):
and they pulled their car over. And this couple, this
was in Los Angeles, they were hugging, they embraced because
they thought, this is the end. It's going to happen
right now in our cars. And then throughout the Cold
War period, this fear of nuclear conflagration, and then we
had after the fall of the Soviet Union. There wasn't
(07:13):
much time to catch our breath because then we had
y two K, and then there was nine to eleven,
and then there was then there was stars, anxiety and fear.
Speaker 3 (07:23):
Yeah exactly. I mean, and that's and then you roll
it out, you lay it out as as it was.
And I mean, again, which door do you open? The
door of anxiety and fear, of the door of therapy.
I know with me, let's say the COVID virus of
of twenty twenty and twenty twenty one. I remember when
(07:43):
the walls were closing and with me, what I did
was I finished my book, somebody Else's Dream. It was
a rock biography, and you know, again I just immersed
myself in the book and finished that book. But that
became my therapy. But the one thing that the pandemic
did for me was and I was in Florida at
(08:04):
the time, but it helped me to find my center.
You know, what's important to me. What do I need
to do to keep from going crazy? You know, because
again there were a lot of people dying. This COVID
virus was politicized. I was in Florida, which was the
hot bed for you know, you know, take your side,
(08:26):
you know, either get the shot or don't get your shot.
I was there leaving for Pennsylvania on ninety five. There
had to be at least forty Florida State troopers there
turning away tourists from New York and New Jersey, tourists
coming down from upstate to go into Florida, turning them back.
(08:48):
This was in twenty twenty, and I mean I saw that.
So this was just crazy stuff.
Speaker 1 (08:54):
You know.
Speaker 3 (08:54):
We didn't know how to play it, how to work
at and again, you know we talk about, you know,
religion being weaponized. Well here's a virus that was weaponized
and rather than taking a shot and being inoculated, so
you could, you know, keep your neighbors safe. You know,
(09:16):
the message was that you have a choice, that it's
not about individual responsibility to a society, but it's an
individual choice, freedom of choice, and I disagree with that completely.
And look at what's happening with measles right now. You know,
we have the most case outbreaks of measles in on
(09:37):
so many stays that we've ever had. You know, we
had that under control, but now because the moms have
the right to either have their kids inoculated or not,
we have a problem on our hands. So again I
contend that there's some of these I mean, I'm all
for for individual freedom, but there's also such a thing
as individual responsibility for the good of the order, what
(10:00):
we need to do for our society, and that does
not seem to be in play currently.
Speaker 2 (10:09):
What are films like The Last Man on Earth and
I am legend I understand about human fear.
Speaker 3 (10:18):
Yeah, Richard Matheson, you know, wrote it, and Vincent Price
played in it. But the Last Man on Earth was
a black and white American Italian sci fi film apocalyptic film,
and Vincent Price played doctor Robert Morgan, and the plague
came and turned these turned everybody into vampires, including his wife.
(10:41):
So Robert Morgan went around with a stake and he
was killing all these these vampire creatures. But right at
the end, what's interesting is he's in a church and
the zombies, the vampires are coming towards him and he
they stick a spear in his side and he's dying
Christ Like, they're up on the altar, and he calls
(11:03):
out to these zombies, he calls them freaks. And what
he's doing, he's taking a stand. He's letting them know
that he's a man. He's proud to be a man,
and even as he's dying, he's a man in their freaks.
So it's just a wonderful one of the best. You know,
if you haven't seen it, check it out. But it's
called The Last Man on Earth Vincent Price, and it
(11:23):
sort of encapsulates something beyond this. I mean, what's that
mean to be a human?
Speaker 2 (11:30):
You know?
Speaker 3 (11:30):
And you know, I mean take not we are different
than animals because we have more DNA and more is better.
More DNA means we have more cognition and we have
more spirituality. So that's what drives, That's what defines human
beings as opposed to vampires and mutants and freaks. And
Robert Morgan and The Last Man on Earth was able
(11:52):
to articulate that. And and I make a big point
of that in pan Apocalypse Again. I my theory of
everything being everything, you know, pop culture helps us to
define and you know, embrace the unknown, you know, I e.
The Apocalypse. So this is a movie that is really
(12:12):
well done and it still stands up after I think
it was from nineteen sixty nine, I believe, but a
great motion picture and I think it's one of Vincent
Price's best Last Men on Earth? Right?
Speaker 2 (12:25):
Why do post apocalyptic stories often become spiritual stories?
Speaker 3 (12:33):
Because where do where do we go for for comfort?
You know, we go to or organize religion. We go
to organized religions like Christianity that promises, you know, with
the Second Coming that you know that that Christ will
come and you know those who have been saved, those
(12:54):
have been converted will go, and you know, and and
and go and and and and uh reap the rewards
of of of their faith and so so that's pretty
much what the uh so many of these religions preach.
You know, if you're if you follow the rules and
if you're good and you know, do what you need
(13:15):
to do, you know you will reap the rewards at
the end, and if not, you'll be punished. I mean,
it's a very uh clear, it's black and white. It's
you know, there's no shades of gray. It's just it's
either one way or the other. You're either good or bad.
You're either going to be saved or you're going to
be doomed. So that's uh what it is. But you know,
it's some religions have used this again, have weaponized this,
(13:40):
and again a lot of them have have have weaponized
that to use that fear as a way of controlling
their their followers. And it's and a lot of times
it's not about faith and but it's about fear.
Speaker 1 (13:55):
Listen to more Coast to Coast a M every weeknight
at one a m. Eastern to go to Coast to
Coast a M dot com for more
Now here's a highlight from Coast to coast AM on iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
Maxim Furick is here and his new book is Paranormal Apocalypse.
Is this how it ends? We were talking about cults,
and I think a lot of that same manipulation not
only exists in the cult with cult leaders like Jim Jones.
(00:25):
You mentioned Charlie Manson, Adolf Hitler. We could add someone
like that to the list, but I mean it seems
to be what about weaponized religion?
Speaker 3 (00:39):
Yeah, you know, that really gets into the political and
it gets into what's happening today. You know, we have
that what's so called religious right tends to be conservative,
it tends to be lockstep with church and state. And
it's alarming because it's a great way to go and
(01:01):
mobilize people again utilizing the Bible and Christianity and all
of that that all of that would that represents and
and it's it's my understanding that on the fourth of
July is going to be a massive uh get together
at the White House, you know with this religious right.
(01:22):
And uh so, you're absolutely right. It's it's utilizing religion,
it's weaponizing religion, and and and it's wrong on so
many different levels, you know, because you know, it's you know,
it's not just Christianity, that's one. There's so many religions
out there, and we have to take a look at
all of them. And one thing that I think that
(01:43):
we sorely miss, you know, I look at the Judeo
Christian Islamic tradition. You know, we're just so well connected
and and uh and and tight, despite the fact that
there's so much anti Semitism and so much uh, you know,
is a phobia uh you know, uh, you know in
our culture. But yeah, I think that the u that's
(02:07):
one thing that I write about in Paranormal Apocalypse. We
are afraid and we are kept in fear because of
religious organizations. If you don't do what we say, you're
going to be punished, you know. If you don't do
what we say, you're damned. And if you don't do
what we say, you're a bad, evil person. So you know,
(02:27):
we've heard these messages before, and you know, and again
we need to be uh, we need to be aware,
and we need to uh use rational thought uh to
look at you know, the the truth and the non truth.
So I think we're in some really frightening times, just
with how we're being manipulated. And you know, this use
(02:50):
of of religion as a weapon is one really good example.
It's I don't know how how somebody like me, a liberal,
progressive liberal like me, deals with something like this, because
it's just like it's almost attacking me, you know, And
I'm a person of faith, and but you know, this
is this is something that we need to be afraid of.
(03:12):
But you know, we're supposed to have a divide between
church and state, and there's none of that going on
here in the United States of America. So yeah, I'm
I'm apprehensive about what's happening and what's right around the corner.
Speaker 2 (03:25):
What fast fascinates you about the doomsday clock? First of all,
let me, as I say that, let me just back
up a minute. When did the doomsday clock first sort
of enter public consciousness? We hear constantly now, but the
doomsday clock, we're ninety seconds to midnight? When did that start?
Speaker 3 (03:42):
I believe if I you know, again, I wrote the book.
I'm trying to remember that exact chapter, but I think
after nineteen forty five, when we when we bombed Hiroshima
and now Nagasaki, Oppenheimer and some other scientists got together
to take a look at you know, we realized that
we had the possible, the potential to destroy the world.
(04:04):
You know, we didn't play play it right. And they
had a thing called a theoretical clock, called the doomsday clock,
to see how close we were to doomsday. So, you know,
Oppenheimer was one of those people. But they but now
with all of the other countries that have the bomb,
you know, uh, you know, not just the United States, China, Russia,
(04:25):
but you know, Pakistan and India. We believe Israel and
Taiwan have the bomb. You know, we don't know that's
on the on the download, but so many of these
countries have the nuclear bomb. That again, if anything were
to happen, if the wrong people were to have the code,
and if the wrong people were to go and press
the buttons, you know, we we could be uh you know,
(04:48):
in in in trouble. Uh. You know, I don't think
the fear of the doomsday clock is as immediate as
is the fear of econo it collapse. There's more people
that are concerned about not having enough money. And then
of course we're being squeezed by you know, the high
prices by the terriffs. By all of that, I mean
(05:10):
we you know, twenty six is a really frightening time
because I mean, we're being kept unsettled, off balance, We're
kept on chaos, kept in chaos. And this is another
strategy for control, not just fear. Don't just make them afraid,
but make them crazy. And this is what's happening. I mean,
(05:34):
I don't know Richard, how you're looking at it, but
I'm just thinking that we are being manipulated in so
many different ways, and there is a need to be
concerned and not frightened, but be concerned and aware because
you know, I think that there's you know, some bad
times around the corner unless we find a way too,
(05:55):
unless we have a counterpoint, counter weight to what's happened.
And this is all you mentioned, all politically driven.
Speaker 2 (06:04):
Well, you mentioned the end of the Second World War
and the Cold War, and if we go back, well
we're talking now eighty years ago with the end of
the Second World War, then you had the Cold War.
People forget or weren't around, but for example, in nineteen
sixty two, the missiles of October crisis, where I've spoken
(06:28):
to people who were around at that time and they
were listening to the radio. They were in their cars,
they were driving somewhere. They literally thought World War III
was about to happen at any moment. And one person
described how they were listening to the radio and it
got so tense. And again, this was the Soviets in
Cuba and this standoff between the United States and Cuba,
(06:49):
and they pulled their car over. And this couple, this
was in Los Angeles, they were hugging, they embraced because
they thought, this is the end. It's going to happen
right now in our cars. And then throughout the Cold
War period, this fear of nuclear conflagration, and then we
had after the fall of the Soviet Union. There wasn't
(07:13):
much time to catch our breath because then we had
y two K, and then there was nine to eleven,
and then there was then there was stars, anxiety and fear.
Speaker 3 (07:23):
Yeah exactly. I mean, and that's and then you roll
it out, you lay it out as as it was.
And I mean, again, which door do you open? The
door of anxiety and fear, of the door of therapy.
I know with me, let's say the COVID virus of
of twenty twenty and twenty twenty one. I remember when
(07:43):
the walls were closing and with me, what I did
was I finished my book, somebody Else's Dream. It was
a rock biography, and you know, again I just immersed
myself in the book and finished that book. But that
became my therapy. But the one thing that the pandemic
did for me was and I was in Florida at
(08:04):
the time, but it helped me to find my center.
You know, what's important to me. What do I need
to do to keep from going crazy? You know, because
again there were a lot of people dying. This COVID
virus was politicized. I was in Florida, which was the
hot bed for you know, you know, take your side,
(08:26):
you know, either get the shot or don't get your shot.
I was there leaving for Pennsylvania on ninety five. There
had to be at least forty Florida State troopers there
turning away tourists from New York and New Jersey, tourists
coming down from upstate to go into Florida, turning them back.
(08:48):
This was in twenty twenty, and I mean I saw that.
So this was just crazy stuff.
Speaker 1 (08:54):
You know.
Speaker 3 (08:54):
We didn't know how to play it, how to work
at and again, you know we talk about, you know,
religion being weaponized. Well here's a virus that was weaponized
and rather than taking a shot and being inoculated, so
you could, you know, keep your neighbors safe. You know,
(09:16):
the message was that you have a choice, that it's
not about individual responsibility to a society, but it's an
individual choice, freedom of choice, and I disagree with that completely.
And look at what's happening with measles right now. You know,
we have the most case outbreaks of measles in on
(09:37):
so many stays that we've ever had. You know, we
had that under control, but now because the moms have
the right to either have their kids inoculated or not,
we have a problem on our hands. So again I
contend that there's some of these I mean, I'm all
for for individual freedom, but there's also such a thing
as individual responsibility for the good of the order, what
(10:00):
we need to do for our society, and that does
not seem to be in play currently.
Speaker 2 (10:09):
What are films like The Last Man on Earth and
I am legend I understand about human fear.
Speaker 3 (10:18):
Yeah, Richard Matheson, you know, wrote it, and Vincent Price
played in it. But the Last Man on Earth was
a black and white American Italian sci fi film apocalyptic film,
and Vincent Price played doctor Robert Morgan, and the plague
came and turned these turned everybody into vampires, including his wife.
(10:41):
So Robert Morgan went around with a stake and he
was killing all these these vampire creatures. But right at
the end, what's interesting is he's in a church and
the zombies, the vampires are coming towards him and he
they stick a spear in his side and he's dying
Christ Like, they're up on the altar, and he calls
(11:03):
out to these zombies, he calls them freaks. And what
he's doing, he's taking a stand. He's letting them know
that he's a man. He's proud to be a man,
and even as he's dying, he's a man in their freaks.
So it's just a wonderful one of the best. You know,
if you haven't seen it, check it out. But it's
called The Last Man on Earth Vincent Price, and it
(11:23):
sort of encapsulates something beyond this. I mean, what's that
mean to be a human?
Speaker 2 (11:30):
You know?
Speaker 3 (11:30):
And you know, I mean take not we are different
than animals because we have more DNA and more is better.
More DNA means we have more cognition and we have
more spirituality. So that's what drives, That's what defines human
beings as opposed to vampires and mutants and freaks. And
Robert Morgan and The Last Man on Earth was able
(11:52):
to articulate that. And and I make a big point
of that in pan Apocalypse Again. I my theory of
everything being everything, you know, pop culture helps us to
define and you know, embrace the unknown, you know, I e.
The Apocalypse. So this is a movie that is really
(12:12):
well done and it still stands up after I think
it was from nineteen sixty nine, I believe, but a
great motion picture and I think it's one of Vincent
Price's best Last Men on Earth? Right?
Speaker 2 (12:25):
Why do post apocalyptic stories often become spiritual stories?
Speaker 3 (12:33):
Because where do where do we go for for comfort?
You know, we go to or organize religion. We go
to organized religions like Christianity that promises, you know, with
the Second Coming that you know that that Christ will
come and you know those who have been saved, those
(12:54):
have been converted will go, and you know, and and
and go and and and and uh reap the rewards
of of of their faith and so so that's pretty
much what the uh so many of these religions preach.
You know, if you're if you follow the rules and
if you're good and you know, do what you need
(13:15):
to do, you know you will reap the rewards at
the end, and if not, you'll be punished. I mean,
it's a very uh clear, it's black and white. It's
you know, there's no shades of gray. It's just it's
either one way or the other. You're either good or bad.
You're either going to be saved or you're going to
be doomed. So that's uh what it is. But you know,
it's some religions have used this again, have weaponized this,
(13:40):
and again a lot of them have have have weaponized
that to use that fear as a way of controlling
their their followers. And it's and a lot of times
it's not about faith and but it's about fear.
Speaker 1 (13:55):
Listen to more Coast to Coast a M every weeknight
at one a m. Eastern to go to Coast to
Coast a M dot com for more
The Best of Coast to Coast AM News
Host
George Noory
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