157 - Real Bigfoot & Dogman Encounters & UFO Coverups w/ Tony Merkel

Summary

Ninjas Are Butterflies

Episode 157 - Real Bigfoot & Dogman Encounters & UFO Coverups w/ Tony Merkel

Released: August 29, 2025

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Episode Overview

In this episode, hosts Josh Hooper and Andy DeNoon of Ninjas Are Butterflies welcome Tony Merkel, host of "The Confessionals" podcast, for a sprawling, funny, and at times chilling conversation. Tony shares firsthand and collected accounts of Bigfoot and Dogman encounters, discusses government involvement and cover-ups around UFOs, and dives into the spiritual and supernatural implications of modern paranormal phenomena. With a blend of humor, vulnerability, and curiosity, the hosts and Tony debate deception, the power of testimony, and how to discern truth in a world of wild stories—and wilder realities.

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Main Discussion Themes

Tony Merkel’s Origin Story in the Paranormal Podcast Space

• Background: Tony shares his journey from truck driver to paranormal podcast host. He describes a sense of calling and spiritual prompting to start "The Confessionals," leading to an unexpected partnership with Wes Germer of Sasquatch Chronicles.
• Quote: "I was driving my truck one day, and... I really felt the Holy Spirit. Tell me... you're gonna start a podcast, and you're gonna work alongside a guy named Wes Germer from Sasquatch Chronicles." (16:35)

The Evolution of The Confessionals

• The show began focused on Bigfoot but quickly expanded to all realms of the supernatural and unexplained.
• Tony discusses his internal struggle between authenticity and the responsibility to speak boldly about spiritual deception, especially as it relates to the UFO/alien phenomenon.
• Quote: “I felt really convicted that I needed to really start speaking my mind on certain things... especially the UFO stuff and the spiritual aspects of it.” (21:00)

Christian Perspective on Supernatural Phenomena

• Tony, as well as the hosts, reflect on how their journeys into strange topics have been guided by a sense of divine calling, despite the oddity of the subject matter.
• Discussion on how the supernatural realm is real and connected to Christian doctrine.
• Quote: “I really believe the supernatural realm needs exposure. And there's a hunger for people to understand that there's a spiritual world.” (88:24)

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Key Segments & Notable Stories

1. The Chris Bledsoe Saga: Spiritual Deception and CE5

(23:32–38:20)

• Topic: Tony runs down the story of Chris Bledsoe, who claims ongoing UFO contact and spiritual experiences with a female entity he believes is the Holy Spirit. Discussion centers around the potential for spiritual deception, especially when new age and government interest collide.
• Key Timestamp:
  • “He has a female deity that is in communication with him, identifying herself as the Holy Spirit.” (30:45)
  • “I just really think Chris just needs to return back to Christ. I don't think he's too far gone from that.” (37:24)
• Debate: The group discusses the dangers of miracles and supernatural signs being detached from Christ-centered theology.

2. Government Cover-Ups & UFO Disclosure

(44:42–52:44)

• Topic: Tony explains his access to insiders exploring the reality and origins of UFO phenomena—suggesting the government is gifted technology by interdimensional, potentially demonic, entities.
• Quote: “It’s being gifted in a way where they… allow you to shoot it down… It’s giving this perception… that we're in control, but it's just like it's being gifted to us.” (47:46)
• Perspective: He outlines a hierarchy of secrecy, with Congress getting bits and pieces but the shadowy organizations controlling the real truths.

3. Dogman Encounters: From Folklore to Firsthand Terror

(61:17–78:33)

• Dogman Origins: Tony traces the folklore and modern sightings of Dogman, relating several accounts, including patterns where children encounter less violent or even playful Dogman entities.
• Dogman Documentary Story (Episode 335, "Dog vs. Dogman")
  • Quote & Story (65:22–74:15): Tony recounts the gripping story of Kyle, who as a teenager had a terrifying, violent encounter with a massive, upright-walking doglike creature while coon hunting in Kentucky.
    • “When he comes around the tree, he realizes that Bo never came back for the fight, and what he was looking at was a dog that was so big that it was holding a coyote... And then it did something that he didn't expect. It stood up on its hind legs.” (69:33)
  • The incident led Tony to produce a documentary, returning to the site for evidence collection.

4. Bigfoot & Paranormal Experiences in the Field

(88:10–106:43)

• Sasquatch & The Missing Man: Tony shares how he and his team uncovered an active missing persons case while searching for evidence at a “Ground Zero” Bigfoot site; strange animal activity and unexplained growls, whistling, and tapping were experienced.
• Quote: “We had tapping, we had whistling. There was something out there that was curious… we heard that growl. It was so deep. And I felt it. Joel felt it.” (94:20)
• More Field Stories: Unexpected phenomena in East Kentucky and Tennessee: unseen charging creatures, animal prints, and bizarre “monkey” or “owl” sounds.

5. Dogman, Nephilim, and Spiritual Hybridity

(78:33–83:15)

• Theorizing on the Dogman’s origins, Tony speculates on links between Dogman, Nephilim, demonic spirits, and ancient biblical narratives. He draws connections from American folklore (Beast of Bray Road saying "Gadara") back to the New Testament accounts of the demoniac among the tombs.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Discernment & Deception:
  “At the end of the day… it doesn't matter what you worship—as long as you're not worshiping Christ, it doesn't matter to [the enemy].” – Tony Merkel (26:01)
• On Government Disclosure:
  “There’s darker parts... that do know what’s really going on and they're piecing it out to Congress people. What they know is probably just a tiny fraction of the truth.” – Tony Merkel (49:24)
• On Facing the Supernatural:
  “I thought I was gonna die. Like, this is everything I've wanted, and I don't want it now, you know?” – Tony Merkel, after a night encounter in the Tennessee woods (106:12)
• Biblical Caution:
  “Satan can appear as an angel of light, you know, for real... there are miracles that are performed not through Christ but through the enemy.” – Host 2 (38:22)

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• Tony Merkel’s Origin Story & Spiritual Calling: 15:30–23:11
• Chris Bledsoe & CE5 Phenomena: 23:32–38:20
• Government Cover-up and UFO Technology Theories: 44:42–52:44
• Dogman Encounters and Documentary: 61:17–78:33
• Dogman/Nephilim Theoretical Connections: 78:33–83:15
• Bigfoot Field Encounters: 88:10–106:43
• Discussion on Biblical Warriors (David), Slingshot Nation, and the Nature of Spiritual Warfare: 55:29–59:44

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Tone & Style

• Humorous & Outrageous: The hosts keep the tone light, often self-deprecating and prone to comic digressions, but the conversation remains respectful, even during debates.
• Casual Yet Sincere: Tony Merkel's openness about his faith and his journey gives the discussion depth, while the hosts' fascination with the material provides relatable curiosity.
• Absorbing & Immersive: Vivid storytelling, especially around field encounters at night, pulls listeners in with suspense and palpable fear.

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For Further Exploration

• Tony recommends following his work on YouTube ("The Confessionals Podcast").
• The hosts tease a Patreon-only post-show episode discussing Nephilim.
• Notable episodes and documentaries: “Sasquatch and the Missing Man,” “Exhibition Dogman” (available on merkelfilms.com).

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Summary for New Listeners

Even if you haven’t listened, this episode encapsulates everything Ninjas Are Butterflies is known for: paranormal mysteries, Christian discernment, wild firsthand accounts, and a barrage of jokes. Tony Merkel offers not just tales of strange creatures and government secrets but also a reflection on the very real spiritual battles underlying the curiosity and fear that draw so many to the world of the unexplained.

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For exclusive content, visit Patreon.com/ninjasarebutterflies.

Transcript

[Andy]

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[Host 2]

Lock your doors, people, because the government knows exactly what these aliens are and what their craft are. And they're. It's not good. I lose it always. It's really scary.

[Andy]

And the dog lives in the woods and he's hungry.

[Tony Merkel]

Bigfoot's real.

[Guest 2]

And we have a firsthand encounter. We're gonna tell you all about it.

[Tony Merkel]

This podcast is brought to you by Sunday. Cool.

[Andy]

Brought to you.

[Tony Merkel]

Empowered by this podcast is brought to you by Empowered by Sunday. Cool. Now watch this or listen.

[Host 2]

Yeah. Tony. Hey, Tony. What are you doing? Sick. Well, hey, welcome, Tony.

[Andy]

Tony Merkel in the house from the confessionals. Reminds me of the Usher song.

[Tony Merkel]

I. I'm not confessing. I've toyed with changing the name of this show for years. Really? Really?

[Host 2]

Yeah.

[Andy]

You can't.

[Tony Merkel]

I. I can't now. Yeah, yeah. But it's just been one of those things where I. I was driving a tractor trailer down the highway and I was like, what am I going to do with this show? What. How am I going to call it? So I'm like, I'm having people come on and tell their stories. They're sharing something intimate with me. They're confessing the confessionals. It's a great show. Yes. And ever since then, I was thinking, well, now everybody thinks I'm Catholic, so.

[Andy]

Catholic audience.

[Tony Merkel]

I mean, if you don't know what it is, you' I want to listen to a Catholic podcast.

[Andy]

Yeah.

[Tony Merkel]

Yeah.

[Host 2]

You were a truck driver before, right?

[Tony Merkel]

Yep. In Philly Air.

[Andy]

For how long?

[Tony Merkel]

Well, I started driving CDL when I was 21.

[Host 2]

Wow.

[Tony Merkel]

I just start. I think I started on school buses and I kind of went back and forth between that and straight trucks and I. I coached college basketball for a while. I took a break from driving and then I went back into driving and I went full bore tractor trailer and all that.

[Host 2]

Straight trucks or what's a straight truck?

[Tony Merkel]

Like a box truck.

[Host 2]

Okay.

[Tony Merkel]

Yeah, like 26, 28 foot. Yeah.

[Andy]

Come on.

[Tony Merkel]

Doesn't bend in the middle.

[Host 2]

Trucks out there?

[Tony Merkel]

Yeah.

[Host 2]

Now that I know of them, I see them everywhere.

[Tony Merkel]

They're just curved trucks.

[Andy]

I never spotted these before.

[Host 2]

Oh, man, I did miss it when.

[Tony Merkel]

I first got out of it, but now I'm just like, yeah, yeah, that's Cool.

[Host 2]

Well, hey, welcome. We're glad you're here. You just landed, like, an hour ago.

[Tony Merkel]

Yeah.

[Host 2]

All the way from Knoxville.

[Tony Merkel]

Knoxville, Tennessee.

[Andy]

Are you gonna be a blurrycon?

[Tony Merkel]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. We're doing a roundtable discussion on Nephilim, I think. Me, the Blurry Boys, and Troy Brewer.

[Host 2]

Dang.

[Andy]

Yeah, that's the pastor, right? In from Texas.

[Tony Merkel]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Andy]

It's so crazy because I was going through, like, my. The stuff that I like. Your. Like, save for all the podcast topics to go into. And I saw. I saved this one cowboy who witnessed a giant.

[Tony Merkel]

Giant.

[Andy]

And then I go up and I look him up on his name, and then it literally dropped that day, the blurry episode. I was like, no way.

[Tony Merkel]

Yeah.

[Host 2]

Oh, is that. The guy was just on.

[Tony Merkel]

Yeah.

[Host 2]

Okay. Yeah, yeah.

[Andy]

Super interesting story.

[Tony Merkel]

Yeah.

[Host 2]

I started listening because so recently I've been, like, walking or running in the morning, like, when it's still, like, really dark outside, and it's. My neighborhood's just. I don't know, has a vibe. It's really creepy. And I started listening to that episode, and I'm like, I can't do it. This is so scary. Just talking about, like, Nephilim and, like, just creepiest stuff.

[Tony Merkel]

Yeah, he's. He's seen a lot of stuff. He. Because so he goes around the world fighting human trafficking, and along with that comes some serious spiritual warfare. And so he's. He's been on the front lines of it, and it just seems like everywhere he goes, there's stuff happening around him. I mean, I was. I met him at NRB in Texas earlier this year, and he. I'm standing there talking to his son, who's like, yeah, we were. We were. I forget. Somewhere, I think off the coast out, like, in California or something, and we were walking this trail, and we saw these mermaids down in water. I was like, what? And then he's like, yeah, we got a video of it. Hey, dad. And he brings up, and I'm like, I'm looking at this video of, like, it looks like a human in the water, dips down, and this fishtail pops up and just gone. And I was just like, they filmed it. They filmed it. Yeah. Yeah. So I was like, that's a treat.

[Andy]

What, Merman can't swim anymore?

[Host 2]

Well, speaking of treats, Tony, would you like a song?

[Tony Merkel]

I would love a song.

[Andy]

We have a treat for you.

[Host 2]

We'll just come up with something real quick.

[Andy]

Yeah. I mean, we just. I feel inspired.

[Host 2]

Yeah.

[Andy]

Feel pretty good.

[Host 2]

All right.

[Guest 2]

You got a genre.

[Host 2]

Tony? You got a genre in mind?

[Tony Merkel]

Country.

[Host 2]

All right, Country.

[Andy]

Let's do it.

[Host 2]

Super country. All right.

[Guest 3]

When I was just a kid I pooped in the big pool I did it just for fun yeah, I thought.

[Host 2]

It would be cool I once prank.

[Guest 3]

Called my boss I said I was his wife Told him I'm a frog and I have been that my whole life I committed treason I know it was a crime Soul, government secrets Just in my downtime these are my confessions the truth is my profession Sharing my transgressions these are my confessions I committed tax fraud and blamed it on my dad he ended up in prison said it was real bad his cellmate's name was Sally A victim of assault he really beat him badly and it was all my fault these are my confessions the truth is my profession Sharing my transgressions these are my confess you all of this to get it off my chest and if I had more time I'd tell you all the rest these are my confessions the truth is my profession Sharing my transgressions these are my confessions Confessions confessions confessions confessions confessions confessions confessions confessions these are my confessions.

[Tony Merkel]

Love it.

[Host 2]

Feel free to use that for your podcast as your opening song.

[Tony Merkel]

Will do. Will do. Yep. Do I need to give credit, though? Nah. Okay, good, good.

[Andy]

Just royalties, just payments, Just speak check.

[Host 2]

Yep. That was a pretty good country song.

[Andy]

That was. I mean, if you look up country in the dictionary, you're gonna find that.

[Host 2]

Song that was dead on genre.

[Tony Merkel]

Absolutely.

[Guest 2]

Country's a little genre fluid right now.

[Tony Merkel]

Yeah, very. Yeah. Yeah.

[Host 2]

Beyonce and Post Malone.

[Guest 2]

Yeah.

[Host 2]

Singing country.

[Guest 2]

Come on.

[Host 2]

Why not ninjas? Yeah.

[Andy]

Why not ninjas?

[Tony Merkel]

Why not?

[Guest 2]

We don't discriminate here.

[Host 2]

Yeah. You know we do. We do discriminate towards Andrew. Me sometimes. Fair. But in this case, no. Okay. Tony, we have a question.

[Tony Merkel]

Oh, boy.

[Host 2]

And we're really glad you're here. And we're going to talk about some really cool stuff, really neat stuff, I think.

[Andy]

I can't wait to hear what he's got going on.

[Host 2]

Yeah. We might even talk about some spooky stuff. I'm down for it, but we got to get past this question first. So every week, Tony, we get a viewer that sends in a question, and it's really not fun.

[Andy]

But we have to do it.

[Host 2]

But we have to do it. It's our obligation. Tony. I'll just get on with it. Today's question, sent in by a viewer. Tony, is confession important?

[Tony Merkel]

I would say biblically, yes.

[Host 2]

Okay.

[Tony Merkel]

Podcasting? Yes.

[Andy]

Okay.

[Host 2]

It's a yes or no. We get we get what you're stepping in, and it stinks.

[Guest 2]

A little uncomfortable.

[Host 2]

Even if it's not true, Tony. Even if someone is coerced into this confession and they didn't even commit the crime.

[Andy]

Yep.

[Host 2]

You know how many people are locked away?

[Andy]

Falsely accused.

[Host 2]

Falsely accused.

[Tony Merkel]

And you're like, yep.

[Host 2]

Actually, he said it was biblical.

[Guest 2]

He's laughing about it.

[Andy]

Yeah. Innocent people going to jail.

[Host 2]

That's biblical, Tony.

[Andy]

Let me look it up in. Oh, I can't find it.

[Host 2]

It's not in there, Tony. It's not in there. Golly. I don't even know what to do. Do we move on?

[Andy]

I mean, we could just call it right now if we want, Tony. We could just call it.

[Tony Merkel]

I mean, that's enough.

[Host 2]

We've heard enough. Honestly, this is sick. I'm sick. I'm sick.

[Andy]

Don't get sick.

[Host 2]

It's a bummer you had to fly all the way out here.

[Tony Merkel]

I guess. I guess I gotta move on.

[Host 2]

Sorry, bud. All right, well, I guess that's the.

[Guest 3]

End of the show.

[Host 2]

Welcome to the show. Did I say ninja? I meant butterfly.

[Tony Merkel]

The butterfly is, no doubt one of God's most intellectual. Has to empty your mind. You were martial arts ninja.

[Andy]

Perfect.

[Guest 2]

Quick little bit of. Little bit of housekeeping. If your mustache doesn't get ripped by the mic at some point in the podcast. Yeah, you're a little too far.

[Tony Merkel]

No, it's fine. I usually eat the microphone, but I'm here for it.

[Host 2]

I wasn't sure one day we need to swap these out for cakes.

[Tony Merkel]

Yeah, just eat it.

[Andy]

Cake or microphone, It's a whole buzz.

[Host 2]

Oh, well, welcome again, Tony.

[Tony Merkel]

I appreciate you guys.

[Andy]

Like, you're here, man.

[Host 2]

Sorry for the gas.

[Andy]

It's been a long time.

[Tony Merkel]

Yeah.

[Andy]

I mean, almost a year.

[Tony Merkel]

Yeah. Yeah, it was blurry con.

[Host 2]

Oh, yeah. We were invited to blurrycon. I don't know what we're doing there, though.

[Andy]

I think we're just. I think they just want us to invite us just to just walk around, be the vibe. Yeah, set the vibes.

[Tony Merkel]

Just walk around, be the vibe.

[Andy]

Dude, we're Set the vibe. Be the vibe.

[Host 2]

I wonder if they'll have us do another song.

[Tony Merkel]

Yeah. You guys did last year, right?

[Andy]

We do. We do.

[Host 2]

People are so weirded out.

[Guest 2]

I screwed up, for one. People are there because, like, there are intelligent people coming out giving this, like, you know, full on, like, you know, keynote speeches. And then they're like, these are the guys from ninjas. And everyone's probably going, what wisdom are they about to convey? And then I don't have a monitor and I'm nervous, so I just start rushing the song and they can't hear the guitar. Like the whole thing is rushed.

[Host 2]

It worked.

[Andy]

I think it was great. I think we should do slam poetry this time.

[Tony Merkel]

Like Nephilim.

[Andy]

What about Nephil? Her, like, just like full on.

[Guest 2]

Let me get a drum kit and I'll just play like a beat for you to go on.

[Host 2]

So fun.

[Tony Merkel]

Yeah, I was. I always. I always feel like I'm kind of out of place at times because I was talking to Timothy Alvarino about this every time I go to these conferences and I. I share.

[Host 2]

Did someone just turn off the light?

[Tony Merkel]

Yeah, somebody just popped in here. Turn off lights.

[Host 2]

How would they do that?

[Tony Merkel]

I don't know.

[Andy]

What is happening?

[Tony Merkel]

Just open the door.

[Host 2]

Who did that? I thought I was having a nice guy.

[Tony Merkel]

He looked threatening. That's why I didn't care.

[Host 2]

I was probably my brother maybe.

[Tony Merkel]

I don't know.

[Host 2]

Maybe he tried to do the on air sign. Maybe he flipped it on.

[Tony Merkel]

I thought he was setting the vibe.

[Host 2]

I really thought I was dying. I'm like, am I passing out?

[Tony Merkel]

Josh, come back to us, Josh.

[Host 2]

Sorry, Tony, what were you saying?

[Tony Merkel]

No, I was just. I used to feel self conscious about it because people would say, you know, come to this conference and speak. And I'm like, I'm not a researcher. I'm just story time with Tony. Like, this is what we do, you know? And Timothy Albarino kind of just kind of made me feel feel more comfortable. He's like, that's your zone, though. Like, you know that there's actually a spot for that, so.

[Guest 2]

What a guy.

[Tony Merkel]

Yeah, I mean, that's me relaying the message to you guys too. There's. There's room for you guys as well.

[Andy]

Dude, there's al. That's then Albarino proverb, dude.

[Tony Merkel]

Yeah, yeah, there you go.

[Host 2]

Albarino. I love Albarino.

[Andy]

Is he gonna be there this year?

[Tony Merkel]

I. I don't know, actually.

[Host 2]

I think so.

[Andy]

That would be so fun.

[Host 2]

I don't know.

[Tony Merkel]

He was there last year, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Host 2]

We tried to talk to him at that. The after party, and we thought he was so cool.

[Andy]

We really tried.

[Host 2]

Approachable.

[Andy]

We tried to get him to jump in the pond with us.

[Tony Merkel]

He's like, no, it's freezing cold in.

[Andy]

The middle of a dark.

[Host 2]

Come on, Tim, please.

[Tony Merkel]

He just moved on. He's like, no, I don't know who these guys are.

[Host 2]

You guys can do it now.

[Andy]

Oh, Josh, you know what doesn't belong in their summer plans.

[Host 2]

Oh, I don't know. Maybe discovering that your family doesn't exist and that this is all a dream almost.

[Andy]

But really getting burned by your old wireless bill.

[Host 2]

Oh, yeah, that too.

[Andy]

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[Host 2]

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[Andy]

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[Host 2]

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[Andy]

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[Host 2]

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[Andy]

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[Host 2]

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[Andy]

You're my favorite fa.

[Host 2]

Favorite.

[Andy]

Here's my favorite.

[Host 2]

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[Andy]

You're my. No. Why would I say that?

[Host 2]

I don't know. I didn't know.

[Andy]

They're not our savior. They're great, but they're not our savior.

[Host 2]

But they are great.

[Andy]

But they have saved me a lot of money.

[Host 2]

Dot com. All right. Well, Tony, what got you into the confessionals? What got you into the paranormal space?

[Tony Merkel]

Yeah, you know, it's funny, my. The. On the way over here, we. We rented a car, a Turo car. And the. The guy who owns it, he's like, can you guys give me a ride back to. It's like, okay, yeah, sure.

[Host 2]

You know, that's so weird.

[Tony Merkel]

I know. And then. But he asked me that very question and then he found out I was from Philly. And he cut off that part of the conversation like, so you're an Eagles fan, huh? I was like, okay, I see where this is going. Cause he was Dallas Cowboys. But, yeah, I was. I was driving a tractor trailer in Philadelphia. And, you know, it was one of those things where you, like. I went to Bible College probably over 20 years ago now, and I didn't finish. And I always felt like there was a call on my life, but I knew it wasn't to be a pastor of a church. And I just kind of settled into life, tried a bunch of different things, very entrepreneurial, Failed at all the businesses I started, all of them, you know, So I got two of my guys over here that I employ. I think they're just counting down when this one's failing fail, too. But I. I was driving my truck one day, and I. I. For life of me, I can't remember exactly if I was praying or not, but, like, when you're driving truck, you just spend a lot of time with God, and you just. Like, sometimes you're not even, like, actively praying, but it's just the presence of the Holy Spirit is just with you, and sometimes it just pops messages to you, you know? And I really felt the Holy Spirit. Tell me. I was driving down Germantown pike and said, you're gonna start a podcast, and you're gonna work alongside a guy named Wes Germer from Sasquatch Chronicles. And I had listened to that podcast, but I didn't know who Wes was. I didn't. I never talked to him.

[Host 2]

Wow.

[Tony Merkel]

And probably about. It was about a month later, I. I went home that night and I told my wife, because I was kind of like, I'm still in the mode, you know, where if I feel that God's telling me something, I tell my wife and I tell my guys now. But, like, back then, it was just her. And I went home that night and told her, and I just said, you know, I'm just letting you know. So whenever it happens, you know, because, like, at that point, it's just like, I was at a point in my life where I really felt like when I. When God spoke to me, I really felt the Holy Spirit speaking to me. I was like, it's. It's not even a question if it's gonna happen, you know, But I was. I had zero desire to do this because I was Trucker Tony. That's what I was settled into. I just wanted to drive truck and love my wife. I didn't have any kids, but there was this emptiness in me. Just driving down the highway by yourself, I was like, I am meant for more. I just don't know what that is. And the idea of podcasting was like, nah. But a month goes by and I back my trailer in at the dock at work. It was about 8:30 at night, and Facebook messenger was ringing, and it was Wes Germer. And he was calling me, and so I answered.

[Andy]

You never reached out to him?

[Tony Merkel]

No.

[Andy]

Oh, man.

[Tony Merkel]

I had a Facebook group called Pennsylvania Sasquatch Research. I. I've. I was listening to these podcasts because I was into the Bigfoot topic, and I heard people saying, bigfoot in Pennsylvania. I was like, yeah, okay. And so I started this group thinking if I could find like, 20 people in Pennsylvania that I could learn from with Bigfoot. Right. And turned into. They were like. Like a thousand people were in there, and they were all asking me questions. I'm like, I don't know. Like, I've never seen the thing. You're saying you saw it, you know? Yeah, but I think he found me in there. But he. He called me and the first thing he says to me is like, hey, have I ever had you on the show to tell your Bigfoot encounter? Is like, I don't. I don't have a Bigfoot encounter, man. And he's like, oh, okay. And then he just shifts topics, and we just started talking for like 45 minutes. And in that first conversation, he goes, you know, I think you'd be a good podcaster. I was like, all right, you know, that's dope. Yeah. And so he's like, I'll help you start it. He's like, I'll tell you what, what to get and stuff, as far as equipment goes, and. And we were off and running, so.

[Host 2]

Dang.

[Tony Merkel]

Yeah.

[Host 2]

How long ago was that?

[Tony Merkel]

January 19, 2017. We dropped the first episode.

[Host 2]

Wow.

[Tony Merkel]

Every week since then, we put something out. Yeah.

[Host 2]

That's so awesome.

[Tony Merkel]

Yeah. So it's been. It's been a wild journey, and the. The show has kind of evolved over time. It really started out strong with experiences and people, you know, coming on and sharing, and I would talk to people, you know, from all walks of life. I mean, I. I didn't make it a secret that I was a Christian, but I. I would get emails from people that were witches to Satanists, and I'm like, that's a crazy story. Let's talk about it, you know, and the more I learned, though, the more I learned about everything as far as the. The depths of this. This realm, of supernatural realm, the more I. I couldn't help but connect some dots. And the more I started connecting dots, the more I was faced with this this decision because you're like, in the beginning and stuff, I didn't want to be fake, you know, And I was faced with a decision throughout the process of the show several times, where it's like, do you keep going down the path you're going and pretend you don't know certain things, or do you literally allow the information that's coming in, adjust the way you think, and also project a different message with the people on the show? And I really battled with that about a year or two ago when that transition started happening again, and I just was like, if I. I forget what verse it is in the Bible, but Paul. Paul talks about if you feel convicted about something, whether it's. It's right or wrong in the eyes of people, if you feel convicted about it, it's a sin if you do it. And that's why I was like, I felt really convicted that I needed to really start speaking my mind on certain things when it came, especially the UFO stuff and the spiritual aspects of it. I really just had this conviction that if I don't. If I don't follow this conviction, I'm not gonna be able to live with myself.

[Host 2]

Yeah.

[Tony Merkel]

And so I just kind of went into it, and God's blessed it. God's blessed it. I mean, it's been. It's been a. It's been a wild ride over the last eight, going on nine years.

[Andy]

So, yeah, you think about how many podcasts are out there, it's like, you could definitely see God's blessing that. And it's interesting. That's, like, such a weird and strange topic.

[Tony Merkel]

Yeah.

[Andy]

But God's like, go in this direction because we feel that blessing as well. Like, you know, like, we're like, wow, this is weird that God has this on this path, but we just gotta embrace it and just go for it. I think that's awesome.

[Tony Merkel]

Isn't it crazy? Because, like, I don't know how you guys felt, but when. When this started happening for me, I was like, I don't. I don't even know what I'm talking about. You know, I mean, like, I. He literally puts his call on my life, and all I cared was hearing people's Bigfoot stories. And. And he tells me, I'm gonna work with Wes. And Wes, in one of our first conversations, says, don't do what I did. Don't name your show after a specific thing. You should do everything. And so the confessionals, and we just do everything. But people are saying, you know, I. I had this. I don't know. Like this, this alien abduction UFO experience. And I was like, cool. Not interested. Like, I. Back then, I was like, I wasn't even interested in the UFO topic. I talked about it, but I was like, this isn't. This doesn't tickle, tickle me, you know? Yeah, but it was just like, I'm. I'm back there in 2017, seeing things unfold. And then in October, I think it was in 2017, it was when the first disclosure started happening, and I was like, wow, that's timely. And then when I look back and see what God has done, not just through the confessionals, but all these other platforms he's been raising up over the last eight to 10 years, it's like, clear that he's been raising up people for this time. That's how I truly feel about it. I don't think this is an accident that there are so many other podcasts out there that are touching on these topics in their own way as well. You know, like, there are people who are so smart and they're doing these deep dive research rabbit holes and sharing the information with the world. Like, we, I really feel like we just have all our own parts in this and it's all pouring back to the glory of God, which is just. It's been awesome to see over the last few years.

[Host 2]

Yeah, it's almost like what you said. It's like we're living in the times where stuff is going to start getting crazy. So it's like, yeah, kind of exposing it before it can just deceive the many. You know, so you said the alien deception and like, you feeling convicted, like, what was the, what was the conviction that you felt with the whole alien topic?

[Tony Merkel]

Yeah, so I'm not a genius with a lot of the topics, you know, but, you know, I can walk in a room and tell you it stinks, you know, and it's. I, I started seeing.

[Host 2]

What do you think about this room?

[Tony Merkel]

It's. It's a little musty, but it wasn't too bad.

[Host 2]

All right, cool. All right.

[Tony Merkel]

There's a lot of butts on this couch, you know.

[Host 2]

Yeah.

[Tony Merkel]

But, yeah, I just, I started seeing the, the spiritual aspect of it, where people were having these quote unquote, spiritual experiences with ufo and they are actually, they're actually having these experiences and you start hearing people's retelling of these experiences and they're, and they're coming from different perspectives as far as theology goes, Christian, non Christian. And it seems like, you know, I started seeing this whole CE5 stuff happening this is kind of more the current stuff that I've been really convicted on. I'd say probably in the last, since like fall of last year, I made a very specific decision. I was going to not be quiet about certain things. And it's, that's. And let me just say that's hard for me because I, I'm from Philly and I, I kind of get a little hot headed. But when it comes to this kind of stuff, I'm, I'm. I don't like debating people and I don't like controversy. But at the same time, like when you are insulting my God, like, I can't just sit here and let it happen and say, oh, well, that's your opinion, especially when you're building up a following. And so I started seeing people calling these UFOs in and having whole parties out on beaches and they're praying to the sky and thanking the sky for this thing to come in. And, and then you start learning that some of the details. And one gentleman starts saying that this entity that's been visiting him is actually the Holy Spirit, it's the ancient goddess Hathor. And he's got a bunch of people who are following him and it's. And, and even Christians are, because they get caught up in the nuance of like, you know, he has a background of.

[Host 2]

You're talking about Chris Bledsoe.

[Tony Merkel]

Yeah. I didn't know if you want me to say the name or not say.

[Host 2]

It because, I mean, I, I've, I've mentioned him before. I don't know if I've ever sent him by his name, but. Yeah. What he's talking about is crazy, deceptive.

[Tony Merkel]

Yeah. And the thing is, like, his experience, I've gone through the book and like I said, I'm not a student of his whole story, but I've gone through the book. I believe he's had these experiences. I don't think he's setting out to deceive the world. I think he is deceived.

[Host 2]

Yeah.

[Tony Merkel]

And I think that when you. So one of the things that sticks out in my head is I heard that he said that he was told that he was being watched since he was a child. Almost like the idea was that he was picked for this. He was special. And the reality is all of us are watched since we were children. Heiser talks about how, or talked about how since the day we're born, there's an enemy out there that's seeking our destruction. Are we gonna take that literal or not? Because if that's True. Then there's an enemy out there that's looking for every opportunity to dece. Deceive us and move us away from God. In the end. At the end of the day, like, I feel like we. We grew up in. With this. This mindset of, you know, Satan wants us to worship him, and that's the battle. I think the battle is taking our attention from Christ. Like, it doesn't matter. Yeah, like. Like at the end of the day, he doesn't care what you worship. You could worship a rock. As long as you're not worshiping Christ, it doesn't matter to him. It's all about. It's about our attention. And I think that people like Chris have been deceived and they have, dare I say, a cult following, and it's growing and they're passionate. You say something bad about him, like, I promise you, I'm not going to visit your comment section. I highly suggest you don't after this. So.

[Guest 2]

Yeah, I mean, we're used to it.

[Host 2]

Yeah. I mean, you do everything with discernment. Right. And like, his story, it's just. It just. It sounds so deceiving, like he is, in fact, being deceived. And you also have to question the government involved in his story as well. You know, like, the government is super interested in a story. It was like NASA.

[Andy]

I've never heard any of this.

[Guest 2]

Yeah, I'm learning right now.

[Host 2]

Do you want to kind of give like a little, like a spark notes version of.

[Tony Merkel]

Yeah, yeah. And I'm going to give a very spark notes version because there's a lot of detail in it that I always get backwards and stuff, and I'll get hammered for it. But essentially he, as an adult, had an experience where him and his son and I think his employees went out fishing on the beach one night, I think it was. And something happened. Maybe he. He went to go for a walk. He was suffering from, I believe, his Crohn's disease. And he went for a walk or went to use the bathroom or something. He had an experience, interaction with this. This UFO that essentially abducted him. But in the process of this, there's multiple witnesses. That's why I'm saying, like, I don't think this is not happening. Yeah, his son went to go look for his dad because his dad kind of just was gone. And his son saw something completely different than what his dad saw. So while his dad, I guess, was abducted, there were these beings that were in the woods or on a path that were standing there. And I think his son Was hiding in a bush or something away from them for hours. And this was an hour ordeal. And when he finally came back and he had no recollection that he was taken, the. The people were like, where were you? And they didn't know where his son was. And that started this whole progression of interactions with these beings.

[Host 2]

Like, they visited his house and, like, we're flying in his yard and, like, coming up inside his house at one point or something, they talked about, like, a shadow figure in his room or something.

[Tony Merkel]

Yeah, I mean, I think a lot of times with this stuff, you. It's. It's inevitable it will come into the house. I don't. Like, I mean, just with what I do with the conversations I have, I go through a lot of spiritual warfare. And we've had some weird things happen in our house. And, you know, for me, like, we just bathe that in prayer. My house is. Is oily, you know, no Diddy. Yeah, but it's like, I just. Anyway, so. So, yeah, I mean, it's. It's a very complex story, but essentially it comes to the point where he's interacting with this one entity. It's a female entity. And she. She has said that to him, that he. She is basically the Holy Spirit. And I think during a hypnosis session or a regression session is when it was revealed that she identified herself as Hathor. So, you know, people can say, well, you can't trust hypnotists and things like that, whatever. But the reality is, is that he has a female deity that is in communication with him, identifying herself as. As the Holy Spirit. And also, from what I understand, I'm connected with people who do, like, the deep dives, and they kind of talk back to me about it stuff. But from what I understand, he. Now I'm drawing a blank of what I was gonna say. No, you're good.

[Host 2]

But he was healed of his Crohn's disease. He was from this encounter.

[Tony Merkel]

Yeah.

[Host 2]

Yeah.

[Andy]

Really?

[Tony Merkel]

Yeah.

[Host 2]

But in, like. And he was given, like, prophecies about, like, what was gonna happen in the future. And, like. But now, I mean, he has this huge cold falling, and they do. They meet out on beaches and stuff, and he, like, he brings in these orbs. Like, what people? Yeah, like.

[Guest 2]

So my question would be if, like, as a non believer of what's going on there, if I were to go and witness, are there, like, people who say, like, this stuff isn't real, but then they show up and see it?

[Tony Merkel]

Yeah.

[Guest 2]

I don't know what to make.

[Tony Merkel]

It's Almost like on demand. I, I really, I've never gone. But from what I understand, it's like on demand. Like he can go out there and instantaneous, like, I don't want to say instantaneously, but over a period of time he's talking to this guy or he's praying or whatever, and these things do show up, these lights show up. And, you know, I think they, they believe that they're angels. And I would say, what kind of angels are we talking about here?

[Andy]

Wasn't that the book that you were reading? You had to stop?

[Host 2]

Yeah.

[Tony Merkel]

UFO God.

[Host 2]

Yeah, UFO God. Wow.

[Andy]

Yeah, very interesting.

[Tony Merkel]

And I think he talks about how these have to be good angels that can't be with the rebelled angels because the Rebel, he uses Jude 6, Jude 1 6, saying that they. That they're locked up. And so any interaction that he has is good angels because the bad angels are locked up. But I mean, if you continue to read and stuff it specifically, it defines which bad angels are locked up as the ones that transgressed and, you know, procreated with women. You know, like, it's a very specific thing. And so I think that, you know, it's just a dangerous. It's a dangerous world that we're now living in when it comes to this spiritual stuff. And yeah, yeah, I'm so confused how.

[Guest 2]

People can think that. Like, did Jesus not cast out demons? So, like, what's the response then?

[Tony Merkel]

I do not know.

[Guest 2]

And people are just like, oh, okay, there's a verse for it. And they just accept it.

[Host 2]

Yeah, yeah.

[Guest 2]

What the heck?

[Tony Merkel]

I was talking. I saw your face. I was like, he's. He's thinking.

[Host 2]

I was like, it's.

[Guest 2]

That's, it's that simple. How are people. The, the. The thing that I can't connect in the story is like, there are people out there all the time who are like, let's just say everything is fake. Like, even the people say, I don't believe they show up. They see the orb. Let's say all of it's made up and it's just some narrative. People either having fun or being weird. Why is Art. Why is NASA? Where did they come in? Like, why do they give a rip about this?

[Host 2]

Yeah, his story got out, right? And then he just started getting visits from like, politicians, government officials, NASA. And they've questioned him, they've done studies on him and they've witnessed him bring in these orbs. And so they have videos of this. Yeah, he posts almost daily on his Instagram about these orbs in his Yard.

[Tony Merkel]

And the thing is, like, he's not. He's not unique in this either. There's plenty of other people who are doing this. I mean, Steven Greer has CE5. Like, he takes people out and shows them and teaches them how to do this. Years ago, before I even heard of Chris or I've heard of Greer, but, you know, I was just starting this stuff. I had a guy in New York that said he could do similar things. And he sent me a video. He was in New York City. It was a clear, blue sky day. And he said, I'm going to make that one white cloud disappear. And within like a minute, it just dispersed into nothing. And, like, I was like, whoa. You know, like, I was like. I was like, I mean, okay, maybe there's an explanation to that, but at the same time, like, he literally just said that within a minute, it's gone.

[Andy]

Yeah.

[Tony Merkel]

I'm thinking to myself, all right, you know, so. But there's. There's a lot of people who, who do this stuff. And I just think that there needs to be an appropriate response. And I'm not saying I'm the one that should be the appropriate spot. I'm not an authority in anything. Yeah, I. I just kind of yell a lot and point. Point at things. I'm like, that's bad. Why go talk to somebody that's smarter than me? But that's bad. You know, so. But it's been going on for a long time. And, you know, we. We're living right now in a world where humanity's in this shift, and we could see it and we can't even deny it. Like, we're spiritual beings, and we've been created to worship an eternal God. And for generations, we've lived in a culture that has separated us from that desire through atheism. And so it's like. It's like when you. When you go on a fast for an entire week. After that week, all you want to do is gobble whatever you see. You want to eat it up. And that's where humanity is at right now. As far as I'm concerned. They're spiritually starving and they're eating whatever tastes good, whatever gives them immediate results, whatever feels good. Because we've been also conditioned over the last 20 years. Your truth is your truth. My truth is my truth. Do what feels good. So you're conditioned to just eat what tastes good. And the message of Christ is hard. It's easy, but it's hard. It seems so simple until you have to walk this out. You know, and it's like, it may not be the most flashy of things. You're not calling things out of the sky. You actually have to rely on, on Jesus Christ as your authority in your life and actually submit to something. But I think that's where we're at right now. And you're seeing with the Tick Tock stuff, the kids, I mean, the whole witch talk stuff is really, I mean, billions of views of kids diving into witchcraft on Tick tock. But there's, there's hope too, because I just heard that Wes Huff, which I'm only suggesting a matter of time. So he comes down here with you guys.

[Host 2]

That would be the hope.

[Andy]

Yeah, if we have time.

[Tony Merkel]

But he, he kind of told a story where I guess up in Canada there's a still like this local bookstore, and the owner said that there was kids coming in saying, do you have any one of those, those Bible things? And he's like, yeah, they're over here. And he's like, cool, thanks. All my friends are reading this thing and it's like that. There's this like youthful movement of fascination with the scripture that I hope is just purely divinely God inspired, you know, because it seems like these kids are reading the Bible. Like it's a Harry Potter book, but like, kids eat it up, man, because wait till you get to the part where David's Mighty Men pop up. That's, that's real cool. You know, so we need to start.

[Andy]

We just need to do a conspiracy video. Be like, have you guys heard of this ancient text? You barely could buy it on Amazon and just like, just gaslight people to read the Bible.

[Host 2]

Yeah, man, that's crazy. But yeah, I don't want to bash the Chris Bledsoe guy, but I do find his message pretty dangerous.

[Andy]

It's a very interesting story.

[Host 2]

Yeah.

[Tony Merkel]

Yeah.

[Host 2]

I mean, that's my personal opinion discernment. It's just.

[Andy]

Would you have them on?

[Host 2]

Would I. Yeah.

[Andy]

I mean, keep the orbs away.

[Tony Merkel]

So I, I, after I went through his book, I went through his book like a year ago, I, I was done with that. And I was like, I really think that Chris just needs to return back to Christ. I don't think he's too far gone from that. And that's honestly my hope is that at the end of the day, he sees the deception for what it is and just turns back to Christ. Because imagine the testimony that he would have and to share with his direct followers who follow him so closely. Like, I mean, it could, it could be such a Huge thing. The New age movement that has been around forever is something that was really new to me. And I feel like there's a lot of people who have went from new age and turned to the faith in Christ and their testimony is so powerful for those people.

[Host 2]

Yeah.

[Tony Merkel]

And I think Chris would have the same effect.

[Host 2]

Yeah. I mean, a verse that also sticks out a lot is how Satan can appear as an angel of light, you know, for real. And like, like there are. It talks about miracles that are performed and healings are performed, but it like was not through Christ, it was through the enemy. And it's like that just, it just stinks of that.

[Tony Merkel]

Yeah.

[Guest 2]

In my opinion, dude, like imagine like modern day, like you go into a church and let's just be real, most evangelical and I'll say Bible, biblically accurate churches. You're not witnessing anything supernatural, like, like tangible, nothing tangibly supernatural. Obviously God works in like the, not like the, you know, in that he's in the quiet voice and he's not like doing these grand things. So I'm not saying every church where grand things aren't happening is unbiblical just to set up the context. That was confusing anyways. But like if you go into these churches and, and not much is happening and you're a new believer and you go to go into a place and you see something like a staff turn into a serpent before your very eyes, you're going to immediately in your head go, they know something I don't, so I need to listen and follow. Right. But the reality is it could be Egypt's like sorcerers doing the thing on the stage. And so you think about the deception that can occur in evangelical spaces as well as, you know, the, the people who are just spiritual, they're much more susceptible. Susceptible because they're willing to accept anything. But like, it's scary for me thinking about people who don't have discernment, don't truly have the spirit of Christ, aren't seeking that spirit in humility.

[Andy]

First Christ has to be at the center. I mean, Matthew 7, it does the. You prophesied in my name, you cast out demons in my name. You perform many miracles in my name. It's like, but yet your heart was far from me. It's like, I think that's the, I think that's how it ends. But it's just like, it's one of those things. It's like those things can happen. That's literally what we're describing right there. Prophecy, miracles, all this stuff. And it's like, I mean, that doesn't mean anything at the end of the day if price is not at the center of it.

[Tony Merkel]

Yeah.

[Host 2]

You know, it's crazy. I'm reading a book right now. It's about the desert fathers. So like the early Christians, like 200 AD to 400 AD, these dudes in like Egypt, Syria, these Christian monks, they're like the first monks. They went and just lived in the desert, like in these caves, and they have all these writings and stuff, and their stories are insane. They said their biggest issue with living in these caves was constantly battling demons because they. They would get rid of every comfort in their life. So, like, fasting, some of them would just sleep one hour a night and just pray the rest of the day. And this one that I thought was so interesting is that this one monk, he came face to face with the devil in his cave. And the devil said, you beat me because you're so humble. And he immediately plugged his ears and ran away because it. But it's just like, even with like a good kind message, like, you're such a flattery person.

[Tony Merkel]

Yeah.

[Host 2]

That immediately becomes about self and it's receiving thing.

[Tony Merkel]

Sure.

[Andy]

Yeah. So, gosh, man.

[Host 2]

Yeah, the book's fascinating.

[Tony Merkel]

That's. That's. That's wild. And it's. It's all based off true.

[Host 2]

Oh, yeah.

[Tony Merkel]

Wow. That's wild.

[Host 2]

Yeah.

[Tony Merkel]

I mean, that really just kind of paints the. The supernatural realm in reality. That's one thing that I just. I don't know. I started. When I started the show, I was. I was nervous. I was like. I was like, people are gonna think I'm crazy for doing the show. And they did. Like, I. I was socially rejected a lot.

[Host 2]

Yeah.

[Tony Merkel]

But the more that time went on, the more I heard some of these wild experiences, like, I would say that's a wild experience, you know?

[Host 2]

Yeah.

[Tony Merkel]

The more you start seeing the similarities and the. You start connecting some dots, you're like, oh, that's. That's interesting. You know, that, you know, everybody wants to talk about these orbs coming out of the sky and, oh, there's an orb in my house. Okay. So now we're talking about somebody summoning an orb. But now there's an orb in the house. Okay. There's a cross over there. And then you start seeing how there's similarities where people have Bigfoot encounters especially the trend seems to be if you own the property and you're experiencing Bigfoot on the property, you often also experience these orb lights on the property. And so you start seeing like, the crossover. And I'm just like, man, this is getting deep. And I don't know if I should talk about it because, yeah, I tried to remain as normal as possible, but I kind of threw that out the window years ago. It's just like, whatever.

[Host 2]

Well, big red flag for me with Chris's story. Chris Bledsoe's story was his son was terrified of these things and, like, the shadow figures that were in his house and, like, running around his house. His son was, like, terrified and would, like, run out of the house, away from him. And Chris was just like, they're here to protect us. It's like, no, maybe just trust your child. If, like, I don't think every scary.

[Andy]

Movie in the world, I think God's.

[Host 2]

Gonna show up in the career room.

[Tony Merkel]

Like, you know, that is interesting because I do believe. I think that. That he even went as far as saying that his. His son believed they were demons. And it took some time, but he's gotten his son to see that they're angels and.

[Host 2]

Jeez, dude.

[Tony Merkel]

But there's people there. There's. And this is why you're bringing the government side of things and stuff. And it's just like. That alone tells me that there are not the government, but there are pieces of the government who have their fingers on this stuff for their own means, whether they're trying to pull strings for their own manipulation, or they're actually dabbling, which I do believe they're dabbling, definitely. And there's also people who have pointed to Chris and his thoughts where he didn't. He doesn't name this person in the book. But just knowing the associations and stuff, I'm pretty sure that Diana Pasulka is the one who told him that what he was experienced was angel beings. And. And she. She's been somebody who's been kind of being propped up and not saying that in that. In a negative way.

[Host 2]

Sure.

[Tony Merkel]

But it just seems like she's becoming a little bit of an authority on some things. And I. I just. I don't know. Like, I just. I. When. When you hear that, you start thinking, you. You would think she would know that there's a difference between good angels and bad angels and the complexities of this.

[Host 2]

Yeah.

[Tony Merkel]

Did she not just relay that properly to him or did she just not know that? It just. It's got a lot of questions, you know?

[Host 2]

Yeah.

[Tony Merkel]

So I don't know.

[Guest 2]

This is crazy because it's also, like, the era where, like, separation of church and state was a huge issue. However, the government is like, dabbling in what we would say is church affairs.

[Host 2]

So do you think the government. In your opinion, do you think the government knows exactly what this is and they're. They're hiding it, or do you think they don't exactly know what it is and they're trying to figure it out?

[Tony Merkel]

Yeah, so I think it's a little bit of both, depending on who you're talking to. I almost said I don't have an opinion because I'm Daddy government. I don't have an opinion.

[Host 2]

You know, we're all just joking. We're kidding, guys.

[Andy]

Comedy show.

[Tony Merkel]

We're just talking, so I'm gonna talk a little more. So I have a. I have an interview coming next Tuesday with Congressman Eric Burleson, and I. I had an opportunity to meet him. I was asked to do a culture war show with Tim Pool, and Eric was there, and I was like, oh, boy. You know, I was like, I don't know if I'm the right guy for this job, you know, because he's disclosure guy, and I'm, hey, things are really crazy guy. And I'm crazy too, apparently. So.

[Host 2]

Yeah.

[Tony Merkel]

But he.

[Host 2]

He really.

[Tony Merkel]

He and I had a great conversation on the way back to the airport, and we exchanged info, and it took a few months. We finally got him on. And I. Leading up to the interview, I was thinking, oh, man, like, how. How do I do this? Like, do I do this, like, journalistically, which is totally not me, or do I just go and just talk and see where it goes? And that's what I did. And we went there. Like, I. Like, he started off with the JFK stuff, and I was like, I don't want to talk about jfk. And so we all know who did it. Yeah. And so I asked him this question, and it was an honest question because there's a whole. There's a whole generation. And I'm gonna get back to the disclosure thing in a second, but there is a whole generation of people who are adults voting who were born after 9 11. Like, that's the. That's the world we're living in with some of these young adults. Right? So they don't even care about 9 11. And so I asked them that. I said, why should a whole world of people who weren't even alive when this happened care that our own government killed our president when we all know our own government killed our president before. Before you even tell us, you know?

[Host 2]

Yeah.

[Tony Merkel]

And he had a really good response for that. But I kind of steered into the disclosure stuff. And I brought up because I, I've been in communication with a group. I got to be careful how I say this. There's a. There's a group of people who are actively working on infiltrating certain organizations to uncover information as to what's really going on. And the top three guys are Christians. And I've met with all three. Well, I think all three were on the one call. And I met with the one guy in person. And according to him, he is purely convinced that what we're seeing going on here is interdimensional, which this closure is saying that. But he said this is fallen angel technology that's being. And what, what, what I found interesting was I, I, that was an assumption that I had. I was like, I think this is ancient tech from the fallen angels, all that stuff. But he said it's. It's being gifted to humanity. And he said that's what Diana, that.

[Host 2]

Was her theory too, is that it was gifted.

[Tony Merkel]

He. He said that it's. It's being gifted in a way where they, they allow you to shoot it down. They allow you to bring it in through psionics. It's like it, it's giving this perception, as far as I'm concerned with how he believes, like we're in control, that we're in control. But it's just like it's being gifted to us. And it kind of takes you right back to that Enoch, first book of Enoch, how like it was.

[Host 2]

We were.

[Tony Merkel]

It was t. They were teaching us how to do things we weren't meant to know how to do. Right. But. So, yeah, I think that the government, to get back to that. But through talking with Eric, he, I believe, is a very earnest person that I don't think he got into politics to peel back the onion layer of disclosure. He just found himself in that situation. And now that he's there, he's on this journey of discovery. But there's this weird thing happening right now where you have politicians who want to know the truth, but they're doing it in a way because I think they have to almost like, by the book. Like, I'm not going to assume anything here. You have to show me evidence before I know or before I believe. And I think that only takes you so far. But I think there's darker parts. The people who are feeding them information. I think those people or the ones they work for are the ones that do know what's really going on and they're piecing it out to the congress people. And so we're looking at the congress people, like, tell us what you know, and at the end of the day, what they know is probably just a tiny fraction of what the truth is.

[Host 2]

Yeah.

[Tony Merkel]

So.

[Host 2]

Well, that's scary.

[Guest 2]

It's also a crazy reality that congressmen are basically just one blip ahead of podcasters.

[Tony Merkel]

Right.

[Guest 2]

That's how I felt.

[Tony Merkel]

I was like, this is. Is. This is crazy. I was driving a truck, man. Like, I shouldn't be in this. These shoes.

[Host 2]

So funny. Yeah.

[Guest 2]

You imagine going back 20 years, be like, the people you're going to want to listen to.

[Host 2]

Yeah.

[Guest 2]

They're just dudes in their basements with MacBooks.

[Host 2]

Just hairy men.

[Tony Merkel]

Yeah.

[Host 2]

Oh, I had a question. I forget what I was going to ask.

[Tony Merkel]

I think.

[Host 2]

I think it had to do with the.

[Tony Merkel]

Go ahead, I'll save you until you remember. But I think it's just important to. For me, on my end of things, I think there's a lot of people who, you know, pursue this knowledge different ways. For me, I've noticed the trend is I just think out loud, you know, I'm okay being wrong. I'm okay being corrected. I tell my pastor that all the time, like, please tell me if I'm doing things. So he listens intently, you know. But I just. I think it takes. And maybe that's where. What my role is in all this. I do think it takes. People who don't mind being wrong understand they're not the smartest person in the room, always and is curious and just speaks what you're thinking. And I found out that I'm a verbal processor, so I naturally do that. Apparently I don't think in my head. I think by talking, which is good for podcasting, I guess.

[Host 2]

Yeah.

[Tony Merkel]

But I just kind of put things out there. I think openly, and I change my mind when I feel like I was wrong. I've done it several times throughout the years.

[Andy]

Yeah. That's the way to do it.

[Host 2]

So in regards to the government Deep state, whatever you want to call them, knowing what they're doing, who they're messing with, what do you think it just your opinion? Because it's. All of us have our own opinions, but, like, what do you think is the end goal of what they're trying to do?

[Tony Merkel]

I don't know if the end goal of what they're trying to do is actually whatever they think the end goal is, is actually what the.

[Host 2]

The.

[Tony Merkel]

The motive and goal is. I think that these people are human beings being used by dark entities.

[Host 2]

Yeah.

[Tony Merkel]

And I think at the end of the day. I just. I'm a very basic person, guys. I'm. Romans 10:9. Like, that's. That's. That's the foundation of my life. And so at the end of it, as somebody who is very aware of the war that's going on around me, spiritually, I think it's all pointing back to taking humanity away from their. Their gaze of. On Christ. Yeah. And so I think that there's a lot of different tactics to doing that. You know, you can do it through the disclosure and the spiritualism. You can do it through the pornography. You can do it through learned behavior of. My dad was abused by his dad. So my dad abused me, and so I abused my kid. And all that trauma points away from Christ because these kids cannot picture what a father. The father's love is. And so when I come to them and say, your heavenly Father loves you, he's like, dude, I don't even know what that means. Yeah, get away from me from that. So I think there's so many situations that are pushing people away from Christ, and I think this whole disclosure thing is just one piece of that. But I think behind it all is demonic forces that are manipulating people's minds and hearts. Yeah, that's what I think.

[Andy]

Demonic distraction.

[Tony Merkel]

Demonic distraction Deception.

[Andy]

That's your new podcast name. You just could figure it out.

[Tony Merkel]

See you later, Confessionals.

[Host 2]

Dang. Well, actually, I want to talk about. Yeah. Did you know that the we got.

[Tony Merkel]

Don't go anywhere.

[Host 2]

Time. Time is running out.

[Andy]

What are you talking about?

[Tony Merkel]

We have plenty of time.

[Host 2]

We don't. You don't. You don't.

[Andy]

We have plenty of time.

[Host 2]

You don't have plenty of time, Andy. They don't have plenty of time. Floridatur.com.

[Andy]

What is Florida tortoise.com?

[Host 2]

What do you mean? What does Florida torto.com.

[Andy]

Sorry, I don't know everything. Maybe I just need a refresher.

[Host 2]

What is that? How about ninjas are butterflies and the Bible's funny. He's going to on the road, baby. Jacksonville, Tampa, Orlando. We're hitting the road, doing a live show, and tickets are almost gone. The dates are almost here. It's in October. Go get your tickets.

[Andy]

Still not ringing a bell at all.

[Host 2]

You literally have 10 minutes to live. That's what I meant at the beginning, where you don't have enough time. There's not enough time.

[Andy]

Are you being serious?

[Host 2]

Why would I.

[Andy]

We're filming. Obviously. You're Bentley. You're pulling a joke.

[Host 2]

I called your family. They're fully aware you have 10 minutes. What's the last thing you want to say to him?

[Andy]

My family or them?

[Host 2]

Your family. They're watching. They're on the other side of this door. They're not allowed to come in. There's a deadly virus in here, and only you were affected because of your fatness.

[Andy]

I don't understand that medically at all.

[Host 2]

I don't. I don't get it either. That's why we're all being cautious with this and we don't want anyone else to get affected. I've been exposed. Andrew's been exposed, but affected. Affected. Yeah.

[Andy]

Well, I guess I just want to apologize for leaving you all too soon.

[Tony Merkel]

And.

[Andy]

I hope you could forgive me.

[Host 2]

Floridatura.com go get your tickets now, people.

[Andy]

Also, I committed a hit and run in 1983 in Wisconsin. Wait, 63 people? Just one after another.

[Host 2]

Oh.

[Andy]

I figured that just. There just needs to be some type of closure. Some families just.

[Host 2]

Yeah, okay. Chris Bledsoe mentioned his name about 20.

[Tony Merkel]

Times triggering that algorithm.

[Host 2]

It is a crazy story, though.

[Andy]

I'm gonna have to look him up a little bit, but not too much.

[Guest 2]

Let's.

[Host 2]

I mean, I was telling Tony, that was the guy that did the show with Sean Ryan, and he didn't air it.

[Andy]

Okay. Yeah. And then he definitely talked. As you were telling stories, I was like, I think I remember some of the stuff.

[Host 2]

But then you got all this pressure. Yeah, yeah.

[Tony Merkel]

And you're like, give me a. Give me a summary. I was like, oh, shoot.

[Host 2]

Yeah, that was probably a bad idea.

[Tony Merkel]

No, it's fine.

[Host 2]

It's fine.

[Guest 2]

David and Goliath, man. You really gonna let people defame. My God.

[Tony Merkel]

Yeah, I mean, so. Oh, my gosh, I'm so glad you said that. So the confessionals, the logo, six finger handprint, you know, Nephilim, and it's like we. I feel like I've established the enemy, and now we're coming out with, like, a. A brand that is like a companion to that. And we're going to call it Slingshot Nation. It's just like, it's going to be all geared towards, you know, we identified the enemy, and now we're identifying the weapon of choice. And it's just kind of like a very masculine. I'm trying to make it more of, like, a masculine type thing. And it's like, you know, Ephesians 6 kind of thing, you know, and, you know, we'll see how it goes and stuff. It's a slow rollout right now. I thought it'd be done by now.

[Guest 2]

What do you what do you think, like your conviction on what he was like, like biblically, like the word is ruddy or whatever? Or do you think it was like physical description or like. Because he's always depicted as like a six year old scrawny child. I, I don't, I don't.

[Tony Merkel]

You're talking about David.

[Guest 2]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Tony Merkel]

David.

[Guest 2]

Yeah. David was scrawny and red haired and.

[Tony Merkel]

Yeah. You know, years old. Yeah. I just picture him as a, A scrawny teenager. Yeah. Now that I think about him, he's just a skinny teenager that knew how to throw a stone, you know.

[Andy]

Yeah.

[Host 2]

Or five with a lisp.

[Andy]

Probably. Probably.

[Host 2]

This is. Seriously, you're in for it, Goliath.

[Tony Merkel]

I don't want your suit. I don't need that armor.

[Host 2]

I don't need that sword. It's too heavy.

[Andy]

Saul would be hilarious.

[Host 2]

Where's my sling fall with my fling?

[Andy]

He's just speaking in like tongue twisters.

[Guest 2]

I think, I think he was, I think it was like a little. I think it was an athlete. I think it was young. I think that's why he was looked on. But the word ruddy is like, can be translated like vibrant or full of life. So I just picture him being as like a hot tempered or a hot head and he just showed up kind of like Paul. He's like a very like Paul in the Old Testament, just very like ready to go. And he's like, why aren't you fighting? So kind of like God taking a skill set or personality that the enemy could corrupt quite easily. And he's like, no, I'm just take all of that passion. We're going to point it in the right direction. You're going to be that passionate after my own heart. But so I think, I think David might have been, you know, he's killing bears and lions like separate from the Goliath story.

[Tony Merkel]

Yeah.

[Guest 2]

So I think he's just this wild man in the woods.

[Host 2]

Yeah.

[Tony Merkel]

Yeah. I mean, who knows? That kind of even like matches up with how he, he enters the cave and he could have took his life and he didn't, you know, and it's just like that there.

[Andy]

You're right.

[Tony Merkel]

It seems like this is like this warrior athletic, you know, just this confidence, like inner confidence of who he is. And maybe you know, when you have somebody prophesy over you that you're going to be.

[Host 2]

Yeah.

[Tony Merkel]

One day you're like, oh, I am that.

[Guest 2]

You know, like had some.

[Tony Merkel]

I smell good.

[Andy]

I am that guy. I am that guy, pal.

[Tony Merkel]

Yeah.

[Host 2]

Oh God.

[Guest 2]

I don't keep doing that to you, this episode. The. You've seen the thing about his, his robe and what that culturally meant, like, what the practice was. No, when, when they would, when a king would defeat a king, he would cut part of his robe and attach it to his own. And so, like, you know, the Bible talks about like, like the throne of Israel fills the temple. Like, the point being, he is king of kings, conquered all. And so it was an Old Testament practice. And so when he takes the piece of cloth, he's like, your kingdom is already defeated, but your life is not mine. So it was a statement of like, it's pretty cool. I've been anointed. This is my kingdom. But it's in God's hands, in his timing.

[Tony Merkel]

See that? And that's the thing, like when you, when you start studying the scripture and you find the nuances behind it and all these little details. And in a. In one physical book that was written over 1500 years by over 40 authors, three different continents, three different languages, I'm like, you can't make this up. And I was just talking to this one guy, I think it was last week and stuff, kind of just generally laying out the gospel to him. And I was like, literally from beginning to end, this whole book that we're talking about points to one man. And I said, over 1500 years, the authors didn't know each other, you know, and hearing things like that, it just blows my mind because it's just like, it just lays this, like, context of things that. That's why when you read the scripture, the Holy Spirit can reveal things to you for the rest of your life.

[Host 2]

Yep.

[Tony Merkel]

You know, it's not just a storybook. Like, you memorize and you're good. I mean, you could literally memorize the whole Bible. And he's still revealing things to you as you go through your life. And it's just. It's magical. Yeah, it's magical in a good way.

[Andy]

It's the best.

[Host 2]

There's another story from that desert father's book where this monk, he was presented a little parchment or like a scroll of a passage from Leviticus. And the other monks are like, what is this? What's the interpretation of this? Or whatever. What does it mean? What does it say? And all he did was he grabbed it and he just started walking into the desert instead. He walked like 30 something miles into this desert and one monk followed him secretly just to see what he was doing and said that he just stood there and he started weeping and crying aloud, tearing his robe and stuff. And then, like, went face down and was saying, I need Moses to tell me what this scripture from Leviticus means. And all of a sudden, the monk who's far away could hear another voice talking to the monk. And then the monk just, like. And turned around and started walking back.

[Andy]

Oh, my goodness.

[Host 2]

I'm like, whoa. Did he just talk to Moses?

[Tony Merkel]

Speed dial.

[Host 2]

I got to go live in a cave.

[Tony Merkel]

There was a guy that went to college with that. We were probably 18 years old. And on. I think it was on spring break, he went and stayed with monks. He just isolated himself. And I was like, that seems so cool, but I'm never doing that, dude.

[Host 2]

It was a hardcore life these dudes had.

[Andy]

I can't imagine.

[Host 2]

Yeah, it's a great book. Everyone should read it.

[Tony Merkel]

What's it called again? I just so happen to have it right here.

[Andy]

Yeah, we're sponsored.

[Host 2]

The Saying of the Desert Fathers.

[Tony Merkel]

Okay.

[Host 2]

Yeah.

[Guest 2]

Forward by Josh Hooper.

[Host 2]

Very interesting book. Speaking of Desert Fathers, what about the Dogman?

[Tony Merkel]

Oh, shoot.

[Host 2]

Transition. You've done. You've done a film on the Dogman, right?

[Tony Merkel]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Host 2]

I want to hear all that you know, about the dog man.

[Tony Merkel]

Well, I can tell you what I think I know. Let's start with that.

[Host 2]

Let's do that.

[Tony Merkel]

So I. When I started the show, I was into the Bigfoot thing, and I was convinced that Bigfoot was a thing. I started out looking into it, thinking that it was this hairy primate of some kind that we just can't keep up with, and that's why I thought it was ridiculous. I was. I started that. That Facebook group, and I. I was like, on weekends, going in the woods, hiking the Appalachian Mountains, and I was like, I'm gonna find this thing. Like, it. If it's here, which I'm pretty sure it's here. It's not that hard. These people are just idiots, and I'm not that smart, you know? But it turns out it was a much more complex topic, and that turned into the dog man side of things, too. When I first heard about the Dogman stuff, when I first started the show, I. I didn't know what to think of it. I was like, it sounds like a werewolf. And I got chastised for it.

[Andy]

Like, it's not a werewolf.

[Tony Merkel]

It's the dog man. I was like, what's the difference, man? Like, you know, I don't know.

[Host 2]

It's good to fetch.

[Andy]

That's true. Not House Train, though.

[Host 2]

No.

[Tony Merkel]

But I started having people tell me their stories, and I did notice a pattern. Three different Times, I think it was three different times. Two girl or two times it was women, once it was a man. But all. Every time it was in the childhood of this person. It wasn't as an adult. Their stories were far less violent and terrifying when they encountered this thing as a child. And you hear people talk about how wild animals view human children differently than they view us as adults. But I forget the details of the two stories of the women, but it was in the sense that they literally had an interaction with something that treated them like. Like a puppy or something, you know, and, you know, I don't know what to make of that. I'm just like, well, there's another episode, you know, I don't know. And then years later, I had another guy who said that when he was a kid, he went to his friend's house and his friend said, hey, I want to introduce to my friend. And he's like, cool, where's he at? And he's like, get on your bike. We'll go into the woods. And they, they ride into the woods and they come up on this old cabin. And he said there was a bunch of, like, toys, like dog toys and kids toys on the front deck of this old cabin. And his friend gets off the bike and goes up and. And looks in the window. He goes, oh, good, he's here. And so he, he goes. And he goes to look inside the. The cabin. And he said there was an upright standing dog inside the cabin. And. And he said he got back on his bike, he rode away, he never went back. But again, that, that matches a pattern of this, like, this kid who thought this thing was his friend and must have had some kind of ongoing interaction with this. And, and, and that's as far as I can go on the friendly side of it, because that's all I've ever heard. And it's that it's, it's. It seems to be friendly to kids, but. And you can go into like, what is. What was that in that cabinet cabin? You know, like, you can go down the road of. Are we talking about people who are dabbling in black magic, transforming their body off even a spell that people are around them, perceive them a way that they actually aren't being seen. That's actually a ritual that apparently that happens where they'll wear the. The skin of a wolf and they'll do a ritual to turn into an upright standing dog. So is it like, are they actually turning into it or other people being. Seeing what's being projected? You know, I don't know.

[Andy]

Yeah.

[Tony Merkel]

I don't know how that works, but what really set off the dog man stuff for me was episode 335. I called it dog versus dog man. I should probably try to rename it because I think that's just a bad title, to be honest with you. It was such a. It's always. This is always the case for me. Whenever I have a story that is just out of this world, I'm like, ah, this was nuts. I never know how to describe it because it's so layered. It's like, what do I name this show?

[Host 2]

Yeah, yeah.

[Andy]

It's like, who let the dogs out?

[Tony Merkel]

Yeah.

[Andy]

That's not.

[Tony Merkel]

That's not. I feel like I've heard that before. But this guy Kyle, he. He contacted us and he wrote this email out of his experience. And the way he wrote it was so gripping. I literally was getting closer to the computer screen as I was reading. I was like, and then what happened next? You know, And I was just like, this is wild. And I couldn't wait to talk to him. And. And when. When we connected, he was extremely nervous in the first. Like, you wouldn't know it because I spent so much time editing this episode. We had to stop several times because he was just. He couldn't continue telling the story. And so we finally get it all done and get it out. And the story is that this kid, well, he was as a kid, 15 years old, going coon hunting in the Kentucky Daniel Boone National Forest. And he was with his grandfather. His grandfather was so old that he couldn't get out of the truck to go hunting with him with the coons. So they had radios and his grandfather stayed in the truck. They let the dogs go. Let the dogs out, who? And Kyle did. And so the dogs take off and they have a scent and he's tracking. And so you hear you. You listen. And I'm not a hunter, but I learned from him. You hear the dogs and you know how. The way the dogs are barking, you know, if they got a raccoon treat, if they're on the scent, you know.

[Host 2]

Can you do a quick.

[Tony Merkel]

I always wondered what it sounded like.

[Andy]

There you go.

[Tony Merkel]

And so they. They. They're on. They got a coon treed. And you can hear there's these coyotes coming in. And his grandfather could hear the coyotes. And his grandfather radioed into him and said, you better get to the dogs. There's two dogs. They had two hunting dogs before the coyotes do, or else there's gonna be a fight. And so the two Dogs, Jake and Bo. Jake was the older dog. In fact, Jake was a dog that the entire area knew he was the dog. And then Bo is a new dog that Jake. Jake was training. And they. You hear these coyotes come in and they start fighting his dogs. And Bo, the younger dog, he said you could hear Bo like. Yep. And then run away and leave Jake alone. And he said you could hear Jake fighting these. These coyotes. And the coyotes backed off. And then Jake just went back to treeing the raccoon. And then they came back in as a group. It was like, wasn't just one on one, 1v1, because they were coming in little bits at a time. He said they came in as a group and he could hear them really getting his dog. And so he's trying to get there, and all of a sudden he hears Jake come back. And the fight changes. These coyotes run off. He arrives on the scene. Jake is tree or. Yeah, Jake, who's treeing that raccoon, just. He said he was chopping down the tree with his barks, I guess. And he. He pats Jake on the head. And Bo, being a younger dog, isn't treeing this coon now. He. He's on the other side of the tree. And so he hears Bo on the other side. It sounds like he's eating a coyote. And so he goes around the tree to congratulate his young dog on a well done fight. And when he comes around the tree, he realizes that Bo never came back for the fight. And what he was looking at was a dog that was so big that it was holding a coyote by this rib cage in its mouth. Like his whole mouth is covering the body. And it was on all four. And he said, I've never seen this dog. Like, I've been in this. These woods my whole life. I know everybody around here. I have no idea where this dog came from, but he said it was the biggest dog he ever saw in his life. And I get the image. I haven't listened to the story in a long time, but I get the idea that it was maybe 10, 12ft away from him. He was close.

[Andy]

Yeah.

[Tony Merkel]

And I mean, to hear it eat.

[Guest 2]

You would have to be.

[Tony Merkel]

Yeah, yeah. And so when he sees this, he freezes. And this dog sees him and it stops chewing down on the coyote and it stares at him. And then it did something that he didn't expect. It stood up on his hind legs.

[Andy]

Dude, no, thank you.

[Tony Merkel]

So you Gotta understand, he's 15 years old. He's hunting a raccoon. So he doesn't have the firepower for this. Yeah, I imagine he probably had a.22. I don't know what the hunt raccoons with maybe a shotgun, a 12 gauge, I don't know. But this thing stands up on its hind legs. And I remember him saying, like, in that moment how he was trying to rationalize things. He's like this dog standing on his hind legs is leaning against the tree. For whatever reason, this dog standing on its hind legs is really big, and it's just leaning against this tree. And then the dog took a step forward towards him and he. I think, no, he. He kept his. His gun, but he took off running. And this thing took chase. And the way he describes this story, I swear it probably took like 15, 20 minutes for him to tell this part of the story that I think probably lasted maybe 20 seconds. Like, it was like it's burned into his memory, every detail of it. And he says he's running. And Jake, his veteran dog, interfered, and this thing just batted. Batted Jake away like he was just nothing. Just kind of tossed him and kept coming, coming after Kyle. And then Jake came back and I think bit him somewhere. I don't know if he knows exactly where he bit. He bit this creature, but he bit it. And the creature yelled and he said that this thing grabbed Jake and just hurled him through the woods. And you could hear Jake's body just crashing through trees. And he's like, my. My dog is done, and I'm done. And he. He's running and he trips over like a log or something, and he finds himself on his backside facing this thing. And I imagine it's coming in slower the way he tells the story, but it's on him. And he said it was so close to him that he could see down the back of his neck, he could see its throat. And he's like, I am done. And then out of nowhere, his dog again comes in and broadsides this thing and knocks this thing over and just viciously starts going after it. And he gets up and he starts running and he seriously hears this thing just tearing his dog to pieces. Oh, my God. Like. Like he can just hear it just ripping his dog apart. And he. I. I don't know if he actually says this or not, but my mind's eye. He hits a clearing of some kind maybe, but at some point, I think he said he. He fired shots in the air and he's calling for Jake. Come on, Jake. Come on. Jake's not coming. And he runs to the truck where his grandfather is. And his grandfather's like, what's going on? And he's like, just go. Just go. And so they're flying down this. This old logging road, and he's telling his grandfather what happened, and they get out of the woods. And after he's done telling his grandfather, his grandfather said to him, listen, if you're going to hunt these woods, you have to understand there are things about this woods that are not normal. And if you can't come to grips with that, you shouldn't be hunting these woods.

[Host 2]

Tell them now.

[Tony Merkel]

I know.

[Host 2]

Right?

[Tony Merkel]

I know. And. And so he said, tomorrow we're going to come back and we're going to look for Jake. And he said, granddad, like, there's no point. Jake is done. He's gone. And he said, if Jake did what you said he did for you, you owe it to him to come look for him. And so the next day, they went out in the morning, they look for Jake. They don't find him. They're out there all day long, and I guess right around sunset or whatever, they're leaving the woods and. Or no, they went back for lunch. I think that's what it was. They went back for lunch. But before they left, his grandfather left his coat on the side of the road. So hopefully, dog smells him and comes finding him. So they go out that evening, looking around, they can't find him. And they're going down the road, and right where the coat was is a dog standing there. And his grandfather's like, look, there's Beau. Bo came back. And so he gets out and he goes walking over to get Beau in the truck. And it wasn't Beau, it was Jake. He said, Jake survived it and like, he was torn to pieces. Like his ear was hanging off and just really bad shape. But they loaded him up in the truck and they took him home. And his grandmother was like the area veterinarian, you know, like, she's like the one that people brought their animals to, and she nursed him back to health and he survived. And he never was the same hunting dog after that, but he did go back, go go back out hunting. He just wasn't as good.

[Andy]

Just held back a little bit.

[Tony Merkel]

Yeah, just a little bit.

[Andy]

You know, he's looking over his shoulder.

[Tony Merkel]

Is that really a coyote?

[Andy]

Be more of a guide dog feel.

[Tony Merkel]

In my day, dogs. But that story was so gripping. I said to something to him that I. That I rarely said to people, and that was, if I came, would you show me where this happened? And he said, yeah. And I was like, all right. And so in. I think. I think it was October of 21. I think it was maybe 22. I. I got a group of guys together, just random. I didn't have people that I could. That I knew were videographers and things like that. But I just so happened, by accident, put together the right crew of guys. Like the one guy, he. He's jacked, and he's carrying around this heavy camera rig in the Danube National Forest. And not only that, but he used to work for Glenn Beck, and he actually knows cameras. I was like, oh, nice. Perfect. And we went out there for an entire week, and Kyle took us down this logging road. And the problem with that whole documentary, we called it Exhibition Dog man, because I'm really good at picking titles. We. We get down. We had a hike because the road was gated off, and we weren't expecting that. He said that he thought it should be open, we could just drive down. But we had a hike down, and it was like six miles that we had to hike into the woods. And we could only get. We only got as far as where his grandfather parked the truck, where then he went off into the woods because Kyle won't stay out there at night. And so I had. We would have to hike in, then hike Kyle back out, and then go hiking back in at night and then hike back out. And so it was just like a lot of hiking that week.

[Host 2]

Yeah.

[Tony Merkel]

But things have changed with Kyle. One, he's very busy, so it's hard to nail him down, but he said if we ever do come back up there, he would be willing to stay out at night for us. And so what we'll do is we'll hike into that location, camp there, and then go deeper into the woods the next day. And the mission is to find a dog man. But during this interaction, he said that his dog's collar got ripped off. And I asked him if his dog's collar was metal, and he said, yeah. And I said, so, theoretically, if we went out there, the metal detector, and we found your dog's collar, it would give substantial evidence to the story you're telling us. Things like. Yeah, actually they would. And so that's the goal. I mean, obviously, I want to find a dog man. Like, who doesn't?

[Host 2]

Right.

[Tony Merkel]

But the idea is to go find the collar. And. But that. That started me off on the dogman thing, and since then, that would have.

[Andy]

Ended it for me. That would have. That was your start. That would have been my end. You know, I would be like, cool, great story.

[Tony Merkel]

You know, it's called a rap. Part of that story is funny because I was driving to Kentucky to do this and I left at like 2 o' clock in the morning. And I remember driving through, I was still in Pennsylvania at the time, and I was driving through central Pennsylvania. There's a bunch of nothing. I'm driving through, like, these forests and I'm listening to Tim Pool and he's talking to a new guy on the scene that everybody knows now. His name is Shane Cashman. And Shane said, because Shane was coming on to start a paranormal podcast. And I was like, oh, this is cool. You know, I'm listening. And Shane said he interviewed a witch one day, as we all do. Yeah, Tuesday for me it is.

[Host 2]

Yeah, that's great.

[Tony Merkel]

But Shane said that he interviewed a lady who was in a school of mystery, which is where they teach witchcraft. And this lady told him that they were learning how to open portals. And I think it was the first time she ever saw a portal open. She said an upright walking dog came through. And I was like, I'm driving to Kentucky to hunt a dog man. And I'm like, I look in my backseat and I had 200 rounds of double OT buck. And I was like, I don't know if I have enough. I was like, I don't know what I'm getting myself into. And that's when on the way to shoot that documentary is when I was like, oh, I think, I think this might be falling in that category of more than just a physical thing. I think it's metaphysical. And since then there's been a lot of evidence that points to that in my mind. So sure, yeah. Dog man.

[Andy]

What would you say the origins of a dog man? The dog man is, ah, you know.

[Tony Merkel]

I, I, I think about that a lot. And I was actually thinking about that. I think it was this, this past Sunday actually, at church. No, you know, I wouldn't pass the preaching. You know, actually my manager, Derek was the one that preached this past Sunday and stuff. So I was, I was very engaged. Derek. I was not thinking about Dogman, but I was thinking like, you know, you talk about the, the Nephilim and the offspring of the Nephilim, which I think Doug Van Dorn makes the connection that in Mark 5, the tombs where the demoniac man was was tombs where the descendants of the buried Nephilim were buried.

[Host 2]

Whoa.

[Tony Merkel]

And so I start thinking about this idea of how, okay, where do demons come from? Obviously, like, I don't think it's a, it's a. It's a new thing people for. To understand where the newer thought process, the old, new thought processes of what demons are and stuff.

[Host 2]

Yeah.

[Tony Merkel]

But in. In Enoch, and there's biblical evidence for this as well, that they are dead spirits of the Nephilim. So is it possible that you have Nephilim offspring, these giant humans that practice bestiality and supernaturally. They're supernatural creations.

[Host 2]

Yeah.

[Tony Merkel]

And do they have the ability to also create supernaturally?

[Host 2]

Wow.

[Tony Merkel]

And what do you get when you have the mixture? Right. And then I start thinking, when. When these things die and they become demons, what do they look like? Like, do they. Do they retain the form of what they had in their physical bodies? You know, like, this is me thinking out loud, you know, but you start thinking about that stuff, and I'm just like. I don't know. Like, is. Is that a possibility that we're talking about, essentially demonic entities that retain the form that they once had? And I'll give you a story here that has to do with dog man that kind of points in this direction. So in 1936, the Beast of Bray Road. You ever hear the Beast of Bray Road? Piece of Bray Road? Yep. So I have not. It's on Wisconsin.

[Guest 2]

Talked about it.

[Host 2]

Have we?

[Tony Merkel]

Yeah. Elkhorn, Wisconsin. This. This community was terrorized by the Beast of Bray Road. Upright, walking, canine. And in 1936, one of the stories that came out was that there's a guy who's working a cemetery, and he was on the midnight shift, the graveyard shift at the graveyard, and he goes out doing his rounds, and he sees this dog digging up a grave. And, okay, it's weird, but what's really weird is when it stands up on its hind legs. And he said it just stood there, looked at him, and then went into the woods. And so he finished his night, came back the next night to do his rounds. And again, this dog is back digging up a grave, and he sees this thing. It stands up on its hind legs, and this time it spoke to him. And this is 1936. This man in 1936 recalls this. And he said. It said the word Gadara to him and then went into the woods. And there's a lot of people, and I'm one of them that thinks that there's a connection between this thing saying Gadara and the demoniac man, the Gadarean in from Gadara. And where was the. Where was he at? He was in the tombs where Doug Van Dorn says the offspring of the Nephilim are buried. And so why Is there in. In Wisconsin, a dogman entity thing, digging up graves, saying, Gadara, which. In Mark 5, we have a demoniac man that has legion, and they're all dwelling among these tombs.

[Host 2]

So what is Gadara?

[Tony Merkel]

So Gadara, it says Gadara.

[Host 2]

Right.

[Tony Merkel]

And in Mark 5, it depends on what the translation is. I can't pronounce the one. It's Gazarian, I think, is how it's pronounced. But then there's other translations that say Gadarean.

[Host 2]

Okay.

[Tony Merkel]

And. And from what I understand, that is from. Because the Gadareans from Gadara.

[Host 2]

I see.

[Tony Merkel]

And so you. So you have, like, this dog man. And if you. You have this dogman entity here in the States digging up a grave, and so almost like he's trying to find the tombs again. Oh, where maybe his descendants, or he's speaking his lineage. Yeah, essentially. Yeah.

[Host 2]

I'm sure you didn't say good dog, eh?

[Andy]

Yeah, good dog.

[Host 2]

Hey, good dog.

[Andy]

Aye, Such as a Canadian dog.

[Tony Merkel]

But that whole thing, that story that I just shared. And then you take Mark 5 and even Mark 4, and I think I'm gonna. I think I'm gonna preach on this, actually. Next time I preach, I'm probably gonna leave the dog man part out. Well, no, but when you take it all into. Into account, you have Jesus on one side of the Sea of Galilee, and he's doing his Jesus thing, and then he gets in the boat, and it even says that other people followed. So there were witnesses to what happened next, which was he fell asleep in the boat. The storm comes in. And what I find interesting here, there's several things. One, he's with his disciples. At least four of those guys were professional fishermen, and their territory was the Sea of Galilee. So I think it'd be kind of silly for us to think that they never fished and were in the boat during a storm. There was something different about this storm, that they were so terrified and scared that they were gonna die. They needed to wake up Jesus for him to do something.

[Andy]

And that alone, just waking up Jesus must have been terrifying. Like, I remember waking up to, like, my mom. Like, just like, can I go to my friend's house? And it'd be, like, so scared.

[Tony Merkel]

Like.

[Host 2]

What?

[Andy]

It's like, you know what? I don't even want to go.

[Tony Merkel]

It's the origins, man. Because even Jesus himself is like, what? But I mean, he curses the storm, the storm stops, and he continues to march forward. And I use the word march forward purposefully because I believe Jesus was strictly on a mission. And we look at the storm as like a separate incident, but I think the storm was the beginning of what we see in Mark 5, because he gets to the other side and he's already saying things to the demonized man from a distance with that, that, that there's this exchange that has happened, and he comes running up to him and, why are you here before the time? And that whole exchange that we've, we've talked about over and over again, and he casts this legion, which. Well, I think it's like at least 2000 pigs. Or not 2000 pigs. Like two. Because they said it said there's 2000 pigs. Cast the legion into the 2000 pigs. So I, I, maybe it's a stretch, but I say maybe there's at least 2,000 demons in this man.

[Guest 2]

Yeah, I thought allegiant was a thousand.

[Tony Merkel]

But, okay, but, but in Matthew, there was two people. So in Mark, there's one. In Matthew, there's two people. So maybe because it seems like Mark kind of Matthew's all about the detail. Mark's like, hey, here's the flashing miracle, right? So maybe, maybe, maybe it happened to both men. I don't know. But we know the pigs go off the cliff, but then what happens next? He doesn't, he doesn't preach. He doesn't keep going. He's like, all right, let's get back in the boat and go back to the other side. Like, he literally gets in the boat and goes the other side, handles business, and then goes back like he literally was. Jesus was going to the enemy's territory to handle business. They knew it, and he knew it. And I think that that storm was a supernatural storm. When you look in Job, one of the things that happens is the Satan actually uses the weather, a storm to collapse a building to kill his family. So, like, there's biblical precedent there to say that the enemy can use and manipulate weather for destruction. And I think that storm was a supernatural storm that was being used to keep the Messiah from approaching their banks, their enemy encampment.

[Host 2]

Wow.

[Tony Merkel]

And he was just marching on a mission because he's a soldier.

[Guest 2]

That's crazy.

[Host 2]

That's a really cool.

[Andy]

That's a. I love that connection.

[Host 2]

Yeah.

[Andy]

It's like Satan's the original cloud seeder. It's perfect.

[Host 2]

Yeah. That's rad. I really like that connection.

[Andy]

I love, I love when you can look at a whole story and it's so fluid like that. You're like, it. Yeah, that makes total sense. That's like, that's a complete possibility.

[Tony Merkel]

I think that's the first time I've talked about it publicly, so.

[Host 2]

Nice.

[Tony Merkel]

I'm glad it makes sense.

[Andy]

Ninjas of Butter's Life exclusive.

[Guest 2]

Yeah, we could just delete this section and then tell it ourselves.

[Host 2]

Guys, guys, I'm on to something here.

[Andy]

Got a great theory, but, I mean.

[Tony Merkel]

I, I, I really, like, I'm not, I'm not a scholar, I'm definitely not Heiser, but I, I listened to a lot of Heiser when I was driving truck. And I do operate with this supernatural worldview. And I do find that the more I read scripture today, the more I see things like that where it's just like, I don't really. And I know most people probably do, actually. We know the Bible wasn't written in chapters and verses, but we read it like that. But when you kind of remove that lens and you just start reading the stories, how, especially the Gospels, it's like they're laying out what happened and you take those chapters away and just read it as one story.

[Host 2]

There's like, specific way.

[Tony Merkel]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Host 2]

Oh, that's so rad.

[Andy]

I love it, love it.

[Host 2]

So cool.

[Andy]

Can we start talking about Bigfoot? Sorry.

[Host 2]

Oh, yeah.

[Andy]

I got a stroke for a second. But about Bigfoot, Is there a Bigfoot story that really sticks out to you? Like, I know those dogs, the one.

[Tony Merkel]

I had had experience with. No.

[Host 2]

Yeah.

[Andy]

Have you had it? Has there anything happened since you've started? Like, has there been?

[Tony Merkel]

Okay, yeah, tell us about that. Well, Exhibition Dogman launched me into this whole going out and doing stuff. And the guys that I do it with, we're very different. Like, I mean, we range from, like, I'm charismatic to Ward, who's reformed. And we're out here doing this thing and we all feel in our own ways that, like, God positions positioned us here to do these things. And goes back to what I was saying earlier. Like, I really believe the supernatural realm needs exposure. And there's a hunger for people to understand that there's a spiritual world. And we go out and we do stuff, some crazy stuff that people say is crazy to us. It just feels. It just feels. I don't want to say normal, but just like, meant to do. And we did a documentary out in Washington state called Sasquatch and the Missing Man. And we went to ground zero. Of the guy I mentioned earlier, Wes Germer. The way he got into the topic was him and his brother went out on the mountain after their dad passed away. Just kind of blow steam one night. They're just driving around and they found themselves on a logging road. And they pull off onto even more of a logging road. It's, like, overgrown and everything. And they're just sitting there and. And woody was debating whether he was actually gonna take his vehicle down this road. And he gets out and he gets back in. And Wes is like, dude, don't go down there. Like, let's just get out of here. And then they start hearing people, what they thought was people walking in on them on all directions, front, sides, and back. And it wasn't until. And they had guns in the car. So they get their guns, and they're like, did we stumble across a grow op? Like, we're not trying. We're not trying to have problems here. And it wasn't until whatever was behind the car growled that they realized, okay, this isn't people. And he said that the growl was so deep that they could feel it in the car. They could physically feel this growl vibrating in them. And they back the vehicle out, and they pull off down the road just a little bit. And woody pulls over. The. Their adrenaline is pumping. Like, Wes tells the story way better than me. Like, he's. He lived it. But at this moment, they pull over, and there's these bigfoot creatures that start coming out of the. Not just one many. And I think there's like four in total and all ranging in sizes. The one was in the tree next to them. They could see the silhouette of it. And one, the. The biggest one would, like, march across this. This logging road in an aggressive way. Like, it was, like, almost like trying to, like, strutted stuff like, like, yeah, you want some of this? You want some? Get out of your vehicle. I promise you, you won't. And another one dropped down on all four. And he said the way. And it's so hard for me to picture, but he said the way crossed the road was on all four. And it didn't walk with its arms and legs like you would think. It literally used its fingers and its toes to walk across the road. Yeah. And so, like, this story, they come out and they start. They start talking about this story. And they wanted to. To run in. They wanted to meet other people who. They're like, we can't be the only ones that saw this thing. They didn't even know it was bigfoot at the time. Like, they thought they ran into a monsters until they started looking into it. And like, oh, this was probably bigfoot. They went back up. They found footprints. And. And so he starts sasquatch chronicles. And I asked him I said it was like a flyer, because I was like, wes is not gonna have this. I was like, wes, would you let me come out there and shoot a documentary on your story on Ground Zero? Like, take me there. And he's like, for you, I'll do it. And so we did it, and we went out there and we documented this journey of going to Ground Zero, where this legendary, legendary story happened. And while we're out there, we. We uncovered the reason why it's Sasquatch and Missing man is because we actually uncovered a missing person case while we were out there.

[Host 2]

Whoa.

[Tony Merkel]

At Ground Zero, like, literally, like, maybe 200ft away from where it happened to Wes. We found this van that was parked there. The camp was set up, but not used. We found weed in the bomb, unused. Like, it was just gone. And like, we. The first day we were up there, and we're like, oh, that's weird. You know, when we leave it alone at the end of the week, it's still there, untouched. And we found Nikes up the trail going closer to where he was at, and they're like, fresh Nikes or some kind of sneaker. And. And so we're like, there's something on here. So we reported it, and we talked about it on his show. And the guy's ex. Fiance that was missing because we. He had a tag on his vehicle. We saw his name. I think it was John Guffey or Duffy. And his ex fiance heard us talking about it and reached out, and we got her connected with the whole situation. And I reached out to her a little while before, a little bit before we dropped the documentary, and I said, any updates on John? And she said, no, I took possession of the vehicle. But they did search the entire area, and they found four dead bodies out there. None of them were John. And. Yeah, and. And then, like, a week or two before we dropped the documentary, a report came out that in that area, they found the skull. A biker was riding a bike trail, and he found human remains and a human skull in it off the trail. And the police were like, oh, it's John. It's John. And I'm like, no, it's not. It can't be John. You. You. You searched that entire area, like, nearly a year before, and you haven't tested anything. You just kind of trying to write this one off. And. And so I say the whole story, because the last night we were there, we're getting back in the. And we had. The last night we were there, we had the most activity. Like, something was coming in on the RV that we drove up there, which I do not recommend driving an RV up a mountain logging road. Not smart. But we had tapping, we had whistling. There was something out there that was curious and. Or curious. So we go out.

[Andy]

Hungry's the right word.

[Tony Merkel]

Yeah, probably. And we're getting. And at this time, we only had one cameraman. And Ward got on the RV because he was going to shoot us getting on the rv. And we're getting on the rv, and me and Joel are the last ones to get on, and we hear that growl. And it was. I can tell you, it was so deep. And I felt it. Joel felt it. And it like, in the split second, you're like, it's right there. Like, that's how it felt like it was. It was right there.

[Andy]

Yeah.

[Tony Merkel]

And so we turn around and we don't see anything. And we walk back to the back of the rv and I'm like, it is right around the corner. It's here. And we go around the corner and we see absolutely nothing. We didn't see it, but we felt that growl. And it's not the only time that me and Joel had some really crazy stuff happen in the woods. Because one night we were in Tennessee, and It was about 2 o' clock in the morning. We got charged. It was. Can I tell this story?

[Host 2]

Oh, yeah.

[Tony Merkel]

I'm just telling stories now.

[Andy]

We're on the edge of our seats, man.

[Host 2]

What do you mean?

[Tony Merkel]

I'm sitting. Okay. So we were shooting another documentary. And the worst thing that happened that can happen is you set out to shoot a documentary, you invested money, and the documentary that you're shooting falls through. And so you invested all this money and you're like, what are we going to shoot? We can't do this documentary anymore. And so we. We find ourselves in West Kentucky. And I'm mad. I am so angry because I have the whole crew there. I'm like, what am I gonna do? I tell my wife what's going on. And about a couple hours later, she calls me and I'm like, what? And she's like, hey, now. She's like, I know this isn't a good time, but I know you're going through a lot of stuff. And we just got an email, and this guy is in East Kentucky, and he said that just last night he shot at a Dogman. And I was like, perfect. We're shooting a Dogman film. And I was like, boys, saddle up. We're going to East Kentucky. And we found ourselves at this guy's property. Investigating it. And then the next night, we found ourselves in this cave that goes like, miles into the earth.

[Host 2]

And I'm good.

[Guest 2]

I wouldn't do that.

[Tony Merkel]

To enter the cave. The. The opening was like, 15ft high, and the roofs were, like, 30ft high. And it just goes back for miles. And, and, and that whole trip was absolutely nothing to me because of what happened at the end. We find ourselves down in East Tennessee just trying to chase stories at this point.

[Andy]

Yeah.

[Tony Merkel]

And we go to. He's now passed away, Scott Carpenter. And we go to an area where he had. He developed a method where he would hike through the woods and he would have a GoPro on a gimbal facing backwards. So his thought was, these things hide. When I pass by, they peek out. And he had a lot of success with that. And one time, ask La Marzulli when he comes here about this, because he has the video.

[Host 2]

Okay.

[Tony Merkel]

Scott found a footage on his GoPro of this, like, bubble opening up off the trail as he walked through already and something manifesting in it. And. Yeah. And so we go to this area and we check it out, and we go to one last area, and that's where Scott's actually buried. And it's an area that actually he researched heavily, very heavily, and a lot of experiences. And so we're out there, we're going down these deep trails out in the woods. And earlier that day, I called a guy and told him we were going there. And so he scouted it for us. And he goes down there, and it had just rained, and there's like, this valley and a bunch of mud at the bottom. And he stops his motorcycle because he sees this giant canine print in the mud. And he took a picture of it and sent to me. He had a skull can next to it, and his skull cam just was, like, dwarfed by this canine print. And I was like, this is perfect. And so we go there and we're investigating, and we don't see a whole lot. So Joel and I, it's probably about 2, 3 o' clock in the morning. I'm fighting a respiratory infection, and we're just. We're tired. We're kind of deflated. Like, the trip didn't go the way we wanted it to. And I said to him, hey, man, you want to go out one more time? Like, we'll just go out and just for whatever. And so he goes, and we go down to that spot where we found the print, and we see these two trails going off. And so we went down one trail all the Way down to the river. Nothing. Go to the other trail and it's overgrown and like nothing big came through here. So we're going back to base camp and we see one trail that we never saw before. We go down that trail and we have this smell come in. And people talk about the Bigfoot smell.

[Host 2]

Yeah, yeah.

[Tony Merkel]

And I got sick to my stomach. And I don't know if it was from the smell or the mucus that I had been swallowing all day. And I squat down. I was doing this like, vlog thing where I was carrying a night vision camera on a handheld tripod. And so I squat down and I set it up and I'm just facing me and I'm squatted down and we're lights out. And so I can see myself on the screen, but that's all I can see. And then it's completely quiet. And we hear something bipedally walking in the woods behind the camera, like maybe 20, 30ft away. And I'm like, you hear that, man? And he's like, yeah, I hear that. And so I forget the logistics of how this whole thing played out. Like when we hit the lights, but I stood up and you see me from like torso down on the camera. And we have a shotgun microphone, so it's picking up the audio towards us. Great. You know, you guys know it's not meant to pick up the audio behind us.

[Host 2]

Yeah.

[Tony Merkel]

So we're standing there and I believe we hit the lights at this point, I can't remember, but all of a sudden we hear something running, like running at me. And it was just like boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. Just charging heavy and like. Joel yells. I pull out my. I had a 10 millimeter on my hip. I pulled out my 10 millimeter and I point. He. He must have hit the light at this point. But I. I look and it runs right up to the camera that I'm standing in front of, like 5ft in front of me. And I. I'm looking and there's absolutely nothing there. I see absolutely nothing. But we both heard this thing charge. And then we're standing there confused. And like 20 seconds goes by and all of a sudden we hear behind us in the woods, this loud, high pitched scream just is like. And my brother Jack and Ward were back at base camp and they heard him. They radio in and they're like, what are you guys doing? Like, they thought it was us messing around. And I'm like, it ain't us. And I pick up the camera, like we out. And as we're walking all of a sudden, and you hear us say it on camera, we're radioing back to Ward, and we're like, there's a bunch of monkeys going off around us. Because all of a sudden, after the screen, we hear this, like, a bunch of them. And I was like, in East Tennessee? Yeah. And I was like, what is going. So we book it, we get out of there. We get back to base camp. Some owls flew over us. It freaked us out a little bit. And it's always the owls, man. Dude, they became owls. You say what you think is jokes. We get back and we analyze the footage. Now. Now, Jack was there, and he can attest that he heard monkeys. I heard monkeys. When we listen back to the audio, you won the charge that I said happened. We caught that on audio. You hear it run up to the camera. You hear the scream. That scream. We pick up the camera and we're getting out of there. You hear Joel say over the radio, there's monkeys going off in the woods. But what you hear on audio sounds like owls. Yeah. And I was like, listen, I know barred owls can sound like monkeys. What I heard was. I. Was I in my head at that moment, maybe.

[Host 2]

So you both said monkeys, but we both.

[Tony Merkel]

Everybody heard monkeys, but on the audio, it's owls. And.

[Guest 2]

And if. If anyone watching is like a hunter, I want to know, because I. In the woods, you hear them, but it's typically, they talk to each other. So one will sound off, and then there's a period of silence, and then the next one, and it kind of slowly. That's been my experience hearing. So I would love to know if someone's heard, like, just for the argument's sake. I don't. I don't think the arguments there, but if somebody. If somebody has heard owls, like, in gang vocal, like.

[Host 2]

Oh, so they're all happening at the same time. Yeah.

[Guest 2]

Yeah. I've never heard that.

[Tony Merkel]

Yeah.

[Andy]

So where can they find this footage? What is the. The Dogman.

[Host 2]

So.

[Tony Merkel]

So we haven't released that documentary yet. The Sasquatch Missing man is right now only available on my OTT website, merkelfilms.com they can stream it there on demand. But that. That film, the. The punchline to that whole story is we decided we were going to shoot that documentary, reshoot it, and we were going to start out with that action and be like, how did we get here? You know?

[Guest 2]

Yeah.

[Tony Merkel]

And then this is me.

[Andy]

I bet you're probably wondering how I got it.

[Tony Merkel]

So we were gonna. We were gonna spend an entire week in that area, and this is a public hunting land. Okay? It's. It's tva. It's been that for forever. Just two weeks ago, I got a text message from my friend who found that. That giant canine print. He said, dude, and he sent me a picture. And on. On the picture, there's a gate going across this trail, going in there, and it says, federal property. No trespassing. Dude, what are we doing? And I'm like, are you kidding me?

[Host 2]

Does that not validate? Yes, just everything.

[Tony Merkel]

The government involvement. And here's the thing. I. I had. I had just talked about this on a recording that hasn't come out yet, but I had a guy, Stacy Brown, in the studio last week, and I told him that. And he said, you shouldn't have talked about it on the show. And I was like, you're absolutely right, because I. I'm over here. Like, I'm Tony. The podcast with the confessionals, they ain't listening to me. It's story time with Tony. Dude, I'm so angry about it because, like, I. I can't go in there unless I want to catch a felony.

[Host 2]

That's insane.

[Guest 2]

The owls flew over after listening to monkeys.

[Tony Merkel]

Yeah. Like, we. We were at base camp, and I think it was at least once, but I think it was twice. Owls, like, scooped down right over our heads.

[Guest 2]

The flying monkeys, Dude.

[Andy]

Dude.

[Host 2]

Yeah, I have a big fear of owls. I hate owls. They scare me so bad.

[Tony Merkel]

Really?

[Host 2]

I think they're evil.

[Tony Merkel]

I thought I saw an owl in here.

[Host 2]

Yeah, people send us owls.

[Andy]

There's one right over your shoulder, dude.

[Host 2]

Yeah, man.

[Andy]

That's a scary story.

[Guest 2]

That's crazy.

[Tony Merkel]

It was. It was terrifying in the moment, but after you get through it, like. Like when I picked up the camera to hike out of there, I thought I was gonna die. Like, I really. I was like, this is. Yeah, this is everything I've wanted, and I don't want it now, you know? But once I got out of there and I got, like, literally in the truck, we're out. I'm like, yo, when can we go back? And we went back. You know, it's crazy is we went back to shoot in Sasquatch and the Missing man, there's a reenactment of the scene. We shot the reenactment there because we could take the truck up the trail and have it in the remote woods and everything. So they were shooting. It was freezing outside. And since I didn't have anything to do, I wasn't an actor, and I was just kind of like, I don't know, the. The boss on the scene. I stayed in the truck with my truck running, nice, warm. And I called my parents. I'm like, hey, so what's going on? You know? And I start hearing like this, this loud clicking outside. And I'm like, what is that? And so I crack my window. And I don't know if this is an insect or what. It didn't sound like it. And I've had other people in the area hear this as well, and nobody seems to be able to identify it, but it sounded like the predator clicking.

[Host 2]

Oh my gosh.

[Tony Merkel]

And it was so loud. It was so loud that it clicks with the window open. And my parents are on the phone and my mom, my mom like, listen, I'm almost 40. My parents don't boss me around. My mom goes, put your window up right now. I was like, yes, mom. And I got out of the truck and I went and found the guys. And I was like, so what's up? I was like, I don't want to be down there by myself, you know?

[Host 2]

That is so crazy.

[Tony Merkel]

Yeah. So there's a lot of mysterious things out there in the world to be found still, and treasures to monsters and, and I just, for me, I like the adventure of it. And that's, that's why I do it. I really, I feel like I'm living out Indiana Jones stuff, you know, I just, I just enjoy it. So that's what I do.

[Andy]

That's amazing.

[Host 2]

There's no way I could handle that.

[Guest 2]

Dude, I hate that we did this podcast. I'm. I've been hunting a pig for the last year and I want, like yesterday I walked in the woods at 4am and just doing that in the pit. Shark. We actually jumped the pig and heard. I mean, it's. We knew it was a pig. We knew what we scared off. But even knowing what it is and being like meteor away from a 300 pound pig is terrifying. If I saw like, I don't want to go in the dark knowing there's, you know, something I can shoot and kill. I don't want to do it. So not a chance.

[Andy]

If we had Corey on this podcast, he would peed his pants.

[Host 2]

Oh, I know, dude. I was watching this morning around my neighborhood and there was a cat. And this cat was just staring at me. I was so afraid of this cat and I kept walking and it just started following me down the road. I'm like, get out of here. I scared. Running full speed. Look at my. And it was a cat.

[Andy]

I love that you didn't plan on running. It was just like, it turned into a rush.

[Guest 2]

You come back. Lily's just proud of you.

[Host 2]

Wow. So fast.

[Tony Merkel]

Oh, yeah, the cat. That's so.

[Andy]

Lock the door.

[Host 2]

Oh, man. Well, hey, Tony, thank you so much for coming on hearing us.

[Guest 2]

Where can. Where can everybody find all your stuff again?

[Tony Merkel]

I point people to YouTube these days. When I started the podcast in 2017, I didn't even mess with YouTube. I was like, YouTube's not gonna be around much longer. They're canceling Alex Jones. Like, they're gonna be. They're gonna be canceled. And so I didn't try with YouTube for the last time. I was audio only. I moved to Tennessee. I built. I went full time podcasting, just doing audio. And two years ago, we started doing YouTube for real. And we're. I think we're about to hit, like, 250 now. 200?

[Host 2]

Heck, yeah.

[Tony Merkel]

250 subscribers? Not 250, 000. No, I'm just kidding. I'm very proud. But no. So we've seen a lot of growth and success, and so I just point people to YouTube. Go to YouTube, and there you can find links for everything. But hit the subscribe button.

[Andy]

Please go subscribe.

[Tony Merkel]

Yeah, that's a good special podcast.

[Andy]

Very good stuff.

[Host 2]

All right. Do you have enough time to stick around for a little half episode right after this?

[Tony Merkel]

Yeah, of course.

[Host 2]

All right. Sick. Because I want to talk about something to do with Nephilims that you talk to somebody. It's a crazy story. So patreon.com forward/ninjas or butterflies or YouTube membership now.

[Andy]

Absolutely. Exclusive content discounts on merch. What's not to love?

[Host 2]

What's not to love? Hey, and go get your Ninja [e-mail] We got a new camo hat for whatever.

[Andy]

You're in the woods, sweets.

[Tony Merkel]

Do I get a truck with that?

[Host 2]

Yep.

[Tony Merkel]

Nice.

[Host 2]

Did you know, actually. Okay, let me just clear this up real quick. I said that in the video, but immediately after that, I'm like, you don't win a truck. This is my truck.

[Tony Merkel]

Not after hearing it.

[Host 2]

It's like, yeah, we've gotten people that are so mad at us. They're like, I thought I was gonna win a truck.

[Tony Merkel]

Sorry. But.

[Andy]

But no one's upset that they don't get a night with Andy.

[Host 2]

I know.

[Andy]

That's a rip off.

[Host 2]

So, no, you don't want a truck, but you do get a cool hat. So. Sundaycoolswag.com and if you need custom apparel, sundaycool.com.

[Andy]

Listen, we do hats, stickers, polos.

[Tony Merkel]

We do.

[Andy]

We have sweatpants. We have everything you could possibly want to put your branding on.

[Tony Merkel]

We got you.

[Host 2]

And put your body in.

[Andy]

Put your body in. Body on, baby.

[Guest 2]

Except for a truck.

[Tony Merkel]

Truck.

[Host 2]

Except for a truck. Because you. That's mine.

[Tony Merkel]

Yep.

[Host 2]

All right, guys, we love you.

[Andy]

We love you.

[Host 2]

We'll see you on Patreon.

[Tony Merkel]

What you're about to see may disturb you if any of you know what.

[Guest 2]

These multi decade UAP dolphins are.

[Tony Merkel]

Aliens. Bottle nose fish. Pigs. There's a massive police response dolphin style attack.

[Guest 2]

All right, thumbnail. Really quick. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Let's do. Let's do hands down, though, so I can do a lot of background.