I was contacted through my breakfast cereal

One might ask themselves, “How does a grown man end up wasting his time making the best damn magazine on the planet for little to no money?” Oddly enough, I got here by being a weird old grown man with a paranormal radio show.

I met Mark, one of our cohorts, on my radio show, Radio Wasteland. Most of our guests were more into fringe theories and government conspiracies—Mark happened to be on for radio dramas.

I didn’t know it at the time, but that planted the seed for me to return to the artsy-fartsy ways of my youth.

I’d started the radio show at the beginning of the resurgence of paranormal interest. Back when the worst thing going around was chemtrails. It was fun. I was interested.

The issue is, the scene has gone batshit. It really made me start thinking about what I was spending my time doing. You can only spend so many hours having some jackass yell at you about how the Earth is obviously flat before you have to examine your life.

So I started to dive into fiction. It’s all I really wanted anyway. My love of the paranormal and conspiracy stuff wasn’t because I thought I was solving some hidden secret or answering a divine call; it was because it tickled my imagination.

Now enough time has gone by that I’m beginning to love the mysteries of the world again—the little things that might lurk around the corner.

There is a point here. Just last night, I heard of two couples who are each on the brink of divorce because one of them has gone conspiracy crazy. I was asked if I knew of a book, or a therapist, or anything to help these people. I did not.

All I can offer is advice: unplug yourself for a little while and see if you’re happier. See if you can reestablish that fun, exciting connection you originally had. At the beginning, everything is fun—and this doesn’t have to be your life’s passion. It can be one of many interests.

But most of all, I would give the same advice that I’d give anybody about anything: “Do you want to be right, or do you want to be happy?” Most choices in our lives aren’t about picking between right and wrong or good and bad—they’re about picking between two bads, or two goods, or two rights, or two wrongs. That’s why people make such a big deal out of others’ choices. That’s why your character is based on your choices.