Sometimes, you’re going about living your life, and a book, a person, or a sermon comes along and completely upends the way you think about something. For many of you, that might have been Tiger Lily’s recent article “Bigfoot is real — and more dangerous than you think,” a convincing case for the existence of the looming bipedal creature that stalks the forest.
For me, it was discovering the podcast “Haunted Cosmos.”
It is the brainchild of Ben Garrett and Brian Sauvé, two mustached Utahans with a proclivity for dark mysteries. I first encountered them as guests on the “Steve Deace Show.” Sauvé is the lead pastor of Refuge Church in Ogden, Utah, and Garrett is his congregant and friend. They’ve been hosting “Haunted Cosmos” since its debut episode in March 2023.
‘Christians should be the most interested people in the world.’
For a long time, I had mistakenly assumed that the podcasting industry was oversaturated, thinking there was no way someone could bring something truly original to the table. Well, I was wrong. These two have tapped into the fringe in a unique way, combining gripping storytelling with meticulous research.
Every episode of “Haunted Cosmos” begins with the same introduction:
“What if I told you that there’s another world — a world beyond sight, beyond senses, beyond the mere natural, but a world no less real, a world of phantasms come to life, a world haunted with the supernatural? And what if I told you that that world is no less real than the one you walk around in on your normal Monday and Tuesday? The thing is, if you keep your eyes open, you’ll see that other world blinking through the cracks.”
As Christians, we are accustomed to believe that the tangible world of mankind exists parallel to a largely invisible realm of both angelic and demonic spirits. Demons wreaking havoc on humans, some of whom are aware of their presence, while others — usually non-Christians — walk around heedless of their existence but afflicted nonetheless.
As for the vast and varied realm of pagan legends, myths, tales of old, and all things paranormal — these, we are accustomed to believe, are fundamentally unreal, a matter of mere superstition.
The hosts of “Haunted Cosmos” dare to take this world seriously by looking at the paranormal through a Christian lens.
Garrett and Sauvé pose the question: What if some truth is hidden within many of our legends and mythological creatures and ghost stories? What if the Mothman was a demon sent to terrorize cursed land? What if sea monsters are fallen angels lurking in the deep right now? What if Atlantis was a real city ruled by a demon god named Poseidon and his Nephilim sons?
And most importantly, what if the Bible contains evidence that corroborates the existence of these so-called “fictions”? What if scripture could offer some explanation regarding the vampire, the shapeshifting werewolf, the fae folk, and the Bermuda Triangle?
In any given episode, you could be instructed in history, theology, and, at times, Hebrew etymology. You’ll hear anecdotal evidence from people across the ages that will make your blood run cold. You’ll connect the dots from the death of a Native American chief in 1770s colonial America to a series of freak events in a 1966 small town in West Virginia to a verse in the deep reaches of the book of Numbers. You’ll hear the teachings of Paul shed light on an incident of “werewolfery” (yes, it’s a real thing) from Bedburg, Germany, in the 1500s. By the end of an episode, you’ll be picking your jaw up off the floor. At least, that’s been my experience.
The duo outline their intentions very clearly at the start: “In each episode, you’ll find us telling stories of high strangeness and then interrogating them, trying to figure out what they are, what’s going on, why it matters, and what we ought to do about it.”
What we ought to do about it never involves venturing into the depths of the forest in search of Bigfoot, like Joseph from Tiger Lily’s account; it never involves scouring haunted houses armed with EMF meters and thermometers; it never involves graveyard visits, mediums, ouija boards, or seeking evil out in any capacity.
Garrett and Sauvé never venture into physical places of evil, nor do they meddle in dark paraphernalia; in fact, they would strongly advise against these things.
Rather, they intellectually enter into dark places. That is to say, they take a good, long look at anything that fits the bill of what they call “high strangeness” — things “that can’t be explained away by brute nature, by moving atoms, colliding molecules, and crackling wavelengths of light and energy” — with the gospel as their torch in that darkness.
Some Christians might balk at this endeavor.
They might protest, “Aren’t we called to dwell on ‘whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable’ (Phil. 4:8)? Blood-sucking creatures of the night certainly don’t fit that description.”
Undoubtedly, we are called to dwell on the things outlined in Philippians 4:8.
And yet: “It is the glory of God to conceal things, but the glory of kings is to search it out” (Proverbs 25:2).
Garrett and Sauvé cite this scripture in their first episode. “Christians should be the most interested people in the world,” Garrett told Deace in the interview. Much of the inspiration that fueled “Haunted Cosmos,” he explained, came from “a gap in the church’s interest” in matters of myth, legend, and the paranormal.
Sauvé added:
You can tell a story of darkness really well with the craft turned up to 11 as best as you have in your strength to produce and … you’re not actually saying, ‘yay demons, yay Satan.’ When Tolkien told the story of Helm’s Deep and made you fear the Orcs crashing on the walls and the women huddled in the caves — and when he made you feel that, Tolkien wasn’t sinning; he wasn’t on the side of Sauron and the Orcs.
However, both men acknowledge that “there certainly is a danger in discussing the demonic,” but a greater danger is “not to know your enemy.”
I’m reminded of French poet and essayist Charles Baudelaire’s famous line: “The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn’t exist.” The rise in paganism we’re seeing in the West, the uptick in UFO/UAP sightings, and the fact that satanic trinkets can now be purchased from a Super Target shelf, makes me think that Christians would do well to tune in to matters of high strangeness — with restraint and discretion, of course.
When Deace asked them how they “stay on the narrow road while broadcasting such material,” the hosts answered:
Two things — one is the proper ordering of your loves. You should love God more than Bigfoot. You should be more interested in the Lord than Bigfoot … so if you care more about the haunted graveyard in your town than you do about your daily devotions and prayers, you’re doing a really bad job of that.
Number two is reformed confessionalism — submitting yourself to the reformed doctrinal work of your spiritual forefathers, like the Westminster Assembly … being able to say, ‘Yes and amen to all of this; this is the tradition that I’m a part of; this is the history and the faith and the religion that I adhere to.’ That provides you with a fence of orthodoxy, and within that fence, there’s a rich field that you can graze in.
Ultimately, every dark spirit, entity, or principality flees in terror before the Lord God Almighty, whom we serve and whom we belong to — and whose authority over such evils has been bestowed upon us.
“Haunted Cosmos” is an invitation to use our God-given ability to think critically and creatively about the embattled cosmos in which we dwell, to use our imaginations as we weigh dark phenomena against the light of God’s word, and to dare to wonder what we might not know about the powers that seek our destruction.