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Humans have been drawn to the paranormal for ages, both out of curiosity and to prove it to be a hoax. Anyone religious is more into the phenomenon as instating the existence of God itself is nodding to the presence of the supernatural. The very divine forces have been called the evaders of such forces beyond science.
It still must be hard for a child caught in a warzone with no one to call his or her own to believe in miracles and that everything that has befallen him or her is for the greater good. Many, like this child, have known helplessness and loss to the point of giving up every form of hope or rational or irrational explanation and concluding that everything is arbitrary.
To this, Arsh, an expert at the Indian Paranormal Podcast, says, “We are all part of a huge web. Our destinies are interlinked in ways beyond our comprehension. What’s supposed to happen, happens. It may or may not make sense in one lifetime, but it all adds up.”
Giving into the idea of the remnants of the dead and that they are around us has been tantalizing. But then everyone reaches a point where they are too calm to care, and the rest, though a handful, delve into the depths themselves or buy what is being told by those who have investigated it.
Arsh and Host Rahul have been successfully running the podcast since April 2023. It was launched under the Eight App and has been rated 8.7 on IMDB. It is ranked amongst the top horror podcasts in the world. The podcast still ranks first in India with 59.6K subscribers and 14.7 million plays.
In the podcast, the two discuss several entities and their characteristics. Arsh has been an RJ most of his life but entered this field when life started to test him way too much. As he says, it is the path that chose him, and he is now living the life of an Aghorpanth.
It wouldn’t be wrong to call him an exorcist as well. Though he entered the realm as an investigator and spiritual believer, he has helped thousands over the years understand and tackle such anomalies. In his journey, he has been to the remotest corners of India and lived with several preachers to learn what he speaks of in the series.
“Up until now, I have never wanted to be seen. I am not sure if this will change. We started this as a conversation between an expert and a skeptic. Rahul is the skeptic; I am someone who has seen and heard things that leave me sleepless on most nights as ‘they’ are awake,” says Arsh.
A very secular podcast
The most striking thing is that the two bring up creatures from all religions. Never before has there been such representation. There are also instances when religions intertwine. Arsh has been getting a lot of attention for what he is doing. But do souls or spirits have faith?
“Religion is more about lifestyle. There is good and evil in all of them, and one is used to the rituals based on what one is born into. So, after they depart, they come to respond along the lines of how they were raised,” explains the expert.
The list of presences, from Shakchunni to Djinn, is so long and interesting that it could make a very good book or at least a horror glossary or dictionary. He claims to have lived it all, known it all and heard it all.
“I indeed have lived in Mosques or Mazaars, Temples, Churches, and more. I have learned what I know in these places. I am still learning,” he claims.
Good and evil
Well then, it is often said that unfulfilled wishes make a soul stay back. People fear such things to death. But how come they stay back if it is a Fakir or Saint?
“We are still unable to explain soul through science. Investigators like to call it energies. The basic nature of a soul while it is alive in a body determines its nature, also whatever happens to it that makes it stay. As for the divine spirits, they are bound to the service of mankind. The living come to their shrines and keep them engaged in being the messenger to God or solving their problems, so they remain,” reasons the investigator.
Oh! But we have a book called, ‘Beyond Good and Evil’.
“Yes, all actions and reactions are predestined. There is no good and evil. But there is Karma. There is a universal balance. You pay for what you do. You receive as much as you lose,” says Arsh.
All this seems very much scripted, I said once on a midnight call when he finished a ‘healing’ and got back.
“Everything is attached to one’s will and belief. The weak-willed often wobble in both faith and fruition. The strong remain unaffected whether they have any form of belief or not. It also depends on everyone’s kismet,” he concludes.