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From the High Desert book cover

From the High Desert

A Cultural History of Art Bell

Thumbnail for October 27, 2015: Tish Owen

October 27, 2015: Tish Owen

Oct 27, 2015
2h 23m
0:00 / 0:00
Art Bell welcomes practicing witch Tish Owen of Nashville, Tennessee, for a conversation about witchcraft, spells, curses, and magical energy. Owen, a former Catholic turned pagan practitioner of 25 years, explains how spells, hexes, and curses differ in scope and intensity, and why karmic consequences make baneful magic a serious undertaking.

The discussion covers practical folk magic, including splitting storms with a buried axe head, the use of colored candles and protective salt lines, and the power behind focused intent. Art draws on his own experiments directing millions of listeners to influence weather patterns, finding common ground with Owen on the reality of collective willpower. Owen also shares a harrowing account of being held at gunpoint by park rangers during a ritual in a Nashville park.

The conversation turns to past-life regression, where Owen describes her work as a certified hypnotherapist conducting hundreds of successful sessions. She recounts a case where a woman discovered that her adoptive grandfather had been the drunk driver who killed her in a previous life. Owen and Art also discuss the Bell Witch legend of Adams, Tennessee, and the negative energy her shop experienced after filming an A&E documentary about the famous curse.

Key Moments

  1. Splitting storms with shared intent: Owen describes a folk-magic weather working where a group focuses on gently splitting a storm around them.

  2. Axe-head folk magic: Owen identifies the storm-splitting practice as old folk magic involving an axe head.

  3. Spells, hexes, and curses differ: Owen tells Art that hexes and curses are distinct categories rather than interchangeable terms.

  4. Held at gunpoint during ritual work: Owen says she has been held at gunpoint with shotguns because of her practice.