Joshua Cutchin on UFOs, Paranormal Encounters & The Inverted Path

Summary

Author Joshua Cutchin discusses his new book The Inverted Path, which explores why people across the paranormal spectrum report getting mysteriously lost or physically stopped during encounters. He links the old folklore of being 'pixie-led' by fairies to UFOs stalling cars, Bigfoot witnesses losing their way, and people becoming trapped behind invisible walls. Cutchin argues that disorientation and supernatural stopping are two sides of the same coin, and that electromagnetism alone cannot explain them.

Key takeaways

• 1Cutchin's new book is 'The Inverted Path: Supernatural Disorientation and Interruptions in Travel', with cover art by Sam Shearon.
• 2Folklorist Dr. Simon Young divides pixie-led accounts into 'wandering' experiences and 'field-crossing' experiences, in which exits vanish and people are trapped for hours.
• 3Turning an article of clothing inside out was the most common folk remedy for breaking the pixie-led spell, which inspired the book's 'inversion' theme.
• 4Dermot MacManus's book 'The Middle Kingdom' tells of an 18-year-old caretaker in County Mayo trapped atop a fairy fort by an invisible wall while search parties nearby could not see or hear her.
• 5Cutchin argues electromagnetism cannot explain UFO cases involving ships becalmed at sea, steering taken over (1954), brake failure (1972), or cars restarting on their own; he also cites the ejection seat failure in the 1976 Tehran UFO incident.
• 6Linda Zimmerman's book 'Animal Reactions to UFOs' describes a 1971 New Zealand case in which a rider, his horse, and his dogs were all frozen in place while a UFO passed.
• 7Michel Meurger and Claude Gagnon's 'Lake Monster Traditions' notes that French-Canadian monster lakes often have 'mini Bermuda Triangle' spots where compasses malfunction.
• 8A Wikipedia article now names Cutchin's death-and-UFOs idea the 'thanatological UFO hypothesis'.
• 9Cutchin suggests dissociation, rather than trauma itself, makes some people more prone to anomalous experiences.

Glossary terms

Source

Transcript excerpt

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Excerpt from Somewhere in the Skies, Aug 24, 2026. Rights remain with the original creators. Hear the full episode at the source.