The Teem
MATT CARDIN (Teeming Brain founder and editor) is a writer and college teacher living in Central Texas. He has a master’s degree in religion and a lifetime of involvement in the study of world religion and philosophy. Since the 1990s he has focused his research and writing on the intersection of religion and spirituality with supernatural horror. He is the author of Divinations of the Deep (print edition 2002; ebook 2011), which launched the New Century Macabre fiction imprint for Ash-Tree Press; Dark Awakenings (2010), praised by Publishers Weekly as a “thinking-man’s book of the macabre” with “unusual philosophic depth”; and Daemonic Creativity: A Guide to the Inner Genius (forthcoming), which he developed from his blog Demon Muse, where an abridged version titled A Course in Demonic Creativity is presently available for free download. He has appeared as a panel expert at The World Fantasy Convention, The World Horror Convention, MythosCon, and ArmadilloCon, and has been a guest on Darkness Radio, Spiritually Raw, the Mancow Muller Show, and other podcasts and radio shows to talk about his experiences with sleep paralysis and nocturnal assault, and to discuss their implications for our collective understanding of creativity, psychology, and reality. In 2008 he was a guest of honor at MoCon III: The Intersection of Art, Spirituality, and Gender. He is also a long-time pianist, keyboardist, and composer. Former careers include high school teacher, piano salesman, corporate communications specialist, media producer for a large state university, and video director for country music legend Glen Campbell. His author site is MattCardin.com.
RICHARD GAVIN writes “Echoes from Hades” for The Teeming Brain. He is an author of numinous horror fiction in the tradition of Arthur Machen, Algernon Blackwood, and H. P. Lovecraft. He has also published criticism and essays on Nightside arcana. His tales are widely anthologized and have been collected in the books Charnel Wine, Omens, The Darkly Splendid Realm, and At Fear’s Altar. He has been praised by Publishers Weekly and described by S. T. Joshi as “one of the bright new stars of contemporary weird fiction.” Richard lives in Ontario, Canada with his beloved wife and their brood. He is online at www.RichardGavin.net.
T.E. GRAU writes “The Extinction Papers” for The Teeming Brain. He is an author of Weird, Lovecraftian, and Dark Fiction whose work has been published in numerous anthologies, including Dead But Dreaming 2, The Aklonomicon, Urban Cthulhu: Nightmare Cities, Horror for the Holidays, Dark Fusions: Where Monsters Lurk, Suction Cup Dreams: An Octopus Anthology, and Mark of the Beast. In addition to fiction writing, he is an essayist and contributor to We Love Monsters and the Esoteric Order of Dagon Amateur Press Association (edited by S. T. Joshi), and he serves as Fiction Editor of Strange Aeons magazine. He is also a columnist for The Horrifically Horrifying Horror Blog. He lives in Los Angeles with his wife (writer, editor, and artist Ives Hovanessian), daughter, and bunny named Cthulhu. He often blogs about beautiful and terrifying things at The Cosmicomicon. His first collection of short fiction will be published in 2013.
RYAN HURD writes “Visions, Dreams, and Visitations” for The Teeming Brain. He is is founder of DreamStudies.org, a website dedicated to sleep, dreams, and consciousness research. He is also a frequent contributor to Business Insider and Reality Sandwich. His books include Lucid Immersion Guidebook: A Holistic Blueprint for Lucid Dreaming (2012) and Sleep Paralysis: A Guide to Hypnagogic Visions and Visitors of the Night (2011). As an educator, Ryan has presented to a wide range of audiences, including invited lectures at Stanford University, the Institute of Buddhist Studies, and the Rhine Institute. As a qualitative researcher, he has presented and published papers on sleep paralysis, lucid nightmares, and the application of dreaming for uncovering researcher bias and novelty. He has a MA in Consciousness Studies from John F. Kennedy University, as well as a bachelor’s degree with a specialization in archaeology, and is a board member of the International Association for the Study of Dreams. Other professional memberships include the American Anthropological Association and the Society for the Anthropology of Consciousness.
DAVID METCALFE writes “De Umbris Idearum” for The Teeming Brain. He is an independent researcher, cultural historian, and artist who digs deep into the interstices of creativity, consciousness, narrative, and culture. His work explores how storytelling affects our day-to-day experiences and self perceptions. He is the Books Editor for The Revealer, the online journal for NYU’s Center for Religion and Media, and he regularly contribute articles and reviews to Modern Mythology.net, Evolutionary Landscapes, Reality Sandwich, and Alarm Magazine. He also co-hosts an online study group, The Art of Transformations, for the International Alchemy Guild. With XNet Information Systems he helped develop the first TEDxNaperville event, and in collaboration with Planetshifter.com Magazine he co-developed the initial launch of the Open Myth Source initiative (sponsored by Red Wheel/Weiser) to foster conversation and collaboration with academics, business leaders, philosophers, artists, musicians, and the community at large, thus reactivating the traditions of myth and storytelling to develop sustainable philosophies for the 21st century. His current independent work revolves around anomalous and transpersonal experiences as they are codified, cultivated, and encultured through narrative, art, corporate governance, and popular culture. As an artist his interests include the use of mediumship, OBE, past life regression, incubation, lucid dreaming, and NDE to influence the creative process. His various Internet projects and presences include The Eyeless Owl and Liminal Analytics.
DR. BARRY E. TAFF writes “Aliens Above, Ghosts Below” for The Teeming Brain. He holds a doctorate in psychophysiology with a minor in biomedical engineering, and is a world-renowned parapsychologist who worked out of UCLA’s former parapsychology laboratory from 1969 through 1978 as a research associate. He is the author of the book Aliens Above, Ghosts Below: Explorations of the Unknown (2010). During his 43-year career, Dr. Taff has investigated more than 4,500 cases of ghosts, hauntings, and poltergeists, and has conducted extensive studies in telepathy and precognition, which led to the development of the initial protocols and methodologies for what was later termed “remote viewing.” He has appeared on numerous television and radio programs and has consulted for government, business, and law enforcement, including the CIA, Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI), National Security Agency (NSA), Defense Language Institute (DLI), Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the FBI, Interpol, LAPD, California Highway Patrol, Santa Barbara Sheriff’s Department, and the Westminster Police Department. He has served as a technical advisor or script doctor on the films Logan’s Run, Demon Seed, Altered States, Poltergeist, and The Entity. In the 1970s he was lead researcher on the paranormal disturbance case that was fictionalized in the Entity book and movie, where he was represented by the character “Gene Kraft.”
STUART YOUNG writes “Sparking Neurones” for The Teeming Brain. He is a British Fantasy Award-winning author with three published short story collections: Spare Parts, Shards of Dreams and The Mask Behind the Face. His stories have appeared in various magazines and anthologies, including Estronomicon, Catastrophia, Alt-Dead, Alt-Zombie, Darker Minds and The Mammoth Book of Future Cops. He used to write a comics column, Words and Pictures, for the award-winning website The Alien Online, but there is no truth to the rumor that the site only shut down because the editor suffered a mental collapse after attempting to edit Stuart’s manuscripts. He keeps a blog at http://stuyoung.blogspot.co.uk.
