NOW ENROLLING
Something Ghostly
The Supernatural Function of Literature
October 31, 2026 @ 3 p.m. EDT
With Quentin S. Crisp
Fiction author, essayist, poet
This Halloween, Weirdosphere welcomes Quentin S. Crisp to speak about the supernatural as a literary subject-matter and about literature as potentially supernatural in itself. Crisp will compare the otherworldly atmosphere of supernatural horror to the Japanese aesthetic of yuugen and address the philosophical concept of intentionality as the basis of both language and literature, showing how the literature of supernatural horror employs the normal intentionality of language to ostend things outside of normal sensory experience.
Format
The event consists of one live Zoom session, approx. 1.5 hours long, delivered as a prepared talk with slides, followed by Q&A, plus a dedicated space on Weirdosphere where the presenter and participants can post thoughts, share links, and engage in discussion before and after the event. A recording of the event will be made available after the Zoom call and will remain available in the event space for all registrants.
Schedule
The event will be held on Saturday, Oct 31, at 3 p.m. EDT / 7 p.m. GMT / 8 p.m. CET, and will take place over Zoom via the Weirdosphere learning platform. A video recording of the session will be made available to registrants after the event concludes.
Please note: This event occurs one day before Daylight Savings Time ends in the United States. However, Daylight Savings Time will have already ended in the United Kingdom and Europe on Sun, Oct 25, at 01:00 UTC.
Cost
Enrollment is $12 for people registering on Weirdosphere for the first time. Enrolling in a course or event on Weirdosphere grants membership to Weirdosphere and discounts on future offerings.
Scroll to the bottom of the page to purchase.
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BACK BY POPULAR DEMAND!
MC101: Writing at the Wellspring
A Course in Daemonic Creativity
With Matt Cardin
Author, educator
Starts November 1, 2026
Presented by author, educator, and friend of Weird Studies Matt Cardin, MC101: Writing at the Wellspring is based on Cardin's book A Course in Demonic Creativity, as well as his new book Writing at the Wellspring: Tapping the Source of Your Inner Genius.
This course goes beyond the typical writing or creativity workshop. Across five self-paced modules Cardin guides students through the interconnectedness of creativity, nonduality, and the daemon muse.
Please Note: This course debuted in Fall 2024 and is being reopened for enrollment, FOR A LIMITED TIME, in Fall 2026, as self-paced. Registrants will receive access to five modules' worth of notes and suggested readings, discussion prompts and exercises, plus video recordings of all Cardin's lectures and office hours with the course's original cohort.
Through video lectures, readings, and exercises students will:
Delve into the concept and experience of creativity as an inner collaboration with a separate force or intelligence within the psyche
Spark the imagination and deepen an understanding of the self, the world, and how the reality that gives rise to both can tell us what we're here to do
Discover ways to understand and navigate the tension between the drive to create and what can sometimes feel like an opposite impulse toward total stillness and inactivity that can accompany spiritual insight
Examine the possibility of using writing and other creative work as a "monastic option" that makes a monastery of one's life and provides purpose and meaning in a time of apocalyptic cultural transformation
Practice effortless action or creative quietude as a way to align personal creativity with the creative current that animates the cosmos
Schedule
To capstone a period of self-directed learning, Cardin will host a live, interactive session, over Zoom, on Sunday, Dec 6, at 3 p.m. ET. The session will be recorded for those unable to attend live and will be added to the course materials for all registrants of the course.
Cost
Enrollment is $180 for people registering on Weirdosphere for the first time. Enrolling in a course or event on Weirdosphere grants membership to Weirdosphere and discounts on future offerings.
Scroll to the bottom of the page to purchase.
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STILL ENROLLING
ED102: Do Androids Dream of Reading Philip K. Dick?
Reading PKD's "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" as prophecy
With Erik Davis
Author, lecturer
Starts October 1, 2026
Erik Davis has been thinking and writing about the visionary Californian science fiction writer Philip K. Dick since he wrote about PKD for his Yale thesis in 1988. In his ED101 course, Davis led students through a prophetic reading of PKD’s The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch. With ED102, Davis returns to Weirdosphere with a series of lectures on PKD’s Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, perhaps best known as the novel that formed the basis for the Ridley Scott cult film Blade Runner.
Erik’s first lecture will present Dick’s work and life in the late 1960s and lay out some of the major themes of the novel, as well as a more general discussion on “prophetic reading.” Subsequent weeks will combine close readings of the novel with focused discussions sessions. Weekly readings will consist of roughly 60-page chunks, plus optional secondary texts.
We will explore a number of themes found in Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, one of Dick’s most explicitly ethical novels. We will look at how Dick presents the vexed human relationship to both animals and humanoid machines; the pharmacological control of personality and emotion; the mechanization of empathy; the ontology of entropy; and the transformations of the Christ figure in an age of immersive “social” media. We will be reading the novel not so much as fiction or science fiction but as a prophetic lens on today’s polycrisis, aspects of which resonate uncannily with Dick’s philosophical and visionary concerns.
Format
The course consists of five lectures from Davis, previously recorded at The Berkeley Alembic, and two live Q&A sessions with Davis, held over Zoom via the Weirdosphere learning platform.
Participants will read their own copies of Philip K. Dick’s Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? in digestible chunks and listen to the lectures associated with those chapters. Then, on Sundays Oct 11 and Oct 25, participants will interact in live Q&As with Davis to discuss the themes and prophetic nature of Dick’s novel. Participants are also encouraged to ask questions and contribute their own ideas to an evolving discussion in a course forum. A recording of each Q&A will be made available after the Zoom call and will be available in the course space for all registrants.
Schedule
Beginning on Oct 1, pre-recorded lectures will be made available for self-paced learning, along with a suggested reading schedule, in advance of two live discussions with Davis over Zoom.
Live Q&As will be held as follows:
- Sunday, Oct 11, 12 p.m. PT / 3 p.m. ET
- Sunday, Oct 25, 12 p.m. PT / 3 p.m. ET
Cost
Enrollment is $80 for people registering on Weirdosphere for the first time. Enrolling in a course or event on Weirdosphere grants membership to Weirdosphere and discounts on future offerings.
Scroll to the bottom of the page to purchase.
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On the very notion of a Weirdosphere
At a certain point, Phil Ford and J.F. Martel started to realize they weren't just two guys with a podcast (Weird Studies), but members of a community of thinkers, artists, and writers all drawn to the same chaotic, terrible, beautiful zone — the Weird. This community could be called the intellectual sphere of the weird, or, to coin a term, the intellectual Weirdosphere.
But how could such an imaginal entity manifest on the material plane, they asked? What institution could serve as a makeshift home to the Weird? Where would J.F., Phil, and their friends be able to establish the conversations they wanted to have?
This site to which fate has steered you—our community on Mighty Networks at Weirdosphere.mn.co—is home to all the conversations we ever wanted to have with our colleagues. And you are our colleague, even if we haven't yet met. Welcome to Weirdosphere.
