‘Hellier’: A Syllabus

Hellier is a paranormal documentary series (produced by Planet Weird), in which a team of researchers — Greg and Dana Newkirk, Karl Pfeiffer, Connor Randall, and Tyler Strand — conduct a several-years-long investigation that begins with a strange case of Kentucky goblins (possibly aliens) and leads to a greater expansive discussion of synchronicity, the Mothman, and other strange phenomena.

As Cassandra Rose Clarke writes in her excellent discussion of the show:

“Hellier isn’t really about proving or disproving anything. It’s about following a trail. The trail starts with the doctor’s email but doesn’t track to a single line; rather, it fractals out, so that what started with an email about aliens ends with a ritual to the god Pan inside an Appalachian cave.”

Part of the trail that the team follows is research, including the reading of books and articles to expand their knowledge of the paranormal, the occult, and magic. One of the first things I wanted to do upon finishing the series was to gather together a list of all the books and media mentioned, so that I could explore them myself as an entry point into learning more about experiences of high strangeness.

Here is that list — combing works that were key to the series (such as The Mothman Prophecies and Secret Cypher of the Ufonaughts), while others were only mentioned…