Ghosts, Aliens, and Hades | Encounters With the Spiritual Realm

Christ's Descent Into Hades part 1: https://nathanajacobs.substack.com/p/hell-hades-and-christs-descent-part

Christ's Descent Into Hades part 2: https://nathanajacobs.substack.com/p/hell-hades-and-christs-descent-part-370

Documentary with Michael Heiser: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ThmF7OErkxY Dr. Jacobs takes a last look at Halloween topics. He'll cover classic questions like the origins of Halloween (are you a devil worshiper if you go trick-or-treating?), walk through what the church fathers said about where souls go after death (where exactly is Hades?), and examine some interesting parallels between alien encounters and the spiritual realm. He also discusses practical questions about haunted houses and spiritual encounters. Plus, you'll get a preview of the upcoming series on the problem of evil.

All the links: 

X: https://x.com/NathanJacobsPod

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0hSskUtCwDT40uFbqTk3QS

Apple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-nathan-jacobs-podcast

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thenathanjacobspodcast

Substack: https://nathanajacobs.substack.com/

Website: https://www.nathanajacobs.com/

Academia: https://vanderbilt.academia.edu/NathanAJacobs

(00:00:00) Intro 

(00:02:22) Is Halloween a pagan holiday? Am I a devil worshiper for celebrating it? 

(00:09:56) A genetic fallacy in the very question 

(00:13:39) Defining “ghost”

(00:16:16) Josephus and Philo of Alexandria on Hades 

(00:20:09) Reading Biblical text literally — the thief on the cross (St John Chrysostom) 

(00:24:41) How the church fathers read the Garden of Eden (Saint Basil of Caesarea and the Cappadocians) 

(00:26:39) Where is Hades? Where is Paradise? (Saint Gregory of Nyssa and Saint Macrina) 

(00:32:46) The Gospel of Nicodemus dialogue between the Devil and Hades 

(00:34:24) The anthropomorphism of Hades 

(00:37:31) Are all encounters with spirits demonic? 

(00:41:58) Practical advice related to contact with spirits 

(00:50:09) Participation of divine energies 

(00:56:51) Relics and holy places 

(01:00:39) Haunted houses 

(01:09:22) The quest for re-mythologized world & the problem of divine hiddenness 

(01:21:31) Live & dead options and cognitive minorities 

(01:26:03) A materialist belief in aliens can be… like an intelligent design argument? 

(01:29:17) The new alien religions

(01:31:39) Spiritual patterns in alien interactions

(01:34:01) Are aliens just spiritual entities? 

(01:41:45) Vampires and Christian symbols then and now

(01:51:38) Hollywood portrayal of demonic possession

(02:00:13) Is demonic possession always oppressive? 

(02:04:18) Are women possessed more often than men? 

(02:05:10) Why does God allow demonic possession?