Podcasts · Religion & Spirituality · Society & Culture

Back from the Borderline

Mollie Adler

300 episodes · Explicit

Back from the Borderline explores how human beings construct, inherit, interpret and sometimes misunderstand the ideas and beliefs through which they experience reality. Through depth psychology, religious history, Western esotericism and philosophy, I investigate how we come to believe what we believe, who influences those beliefs and how they affect the way we understand ourselves and the world.

More about the show

A lot of my work comes back to the relationship between consciousness, belief and power.

How do institutions influence what people consider true, and why do we sometimes defend explanations we’ve never seriously questioned? Following these questions has taken me into some pretty unexpected territory, from early Christianity and the Western occult tradition to Jungian psychology, artificial intelligence and anomalous experiences. I’m also drawn to the ways spiritual teachings change as they’re passed between generations, and how institutions can preserve extraordinary wisdom while sometimes interfering with the very spiritual development they were meant to encourage.

You’ll find conversations with scholars and independent researchers here, alongside long-form essays where I spend time with historical sources and competing interpretations. Some of the ideas I explore are controversial. Others have been debated for centuries, although most of us were never taught much about them. I don’t assume an institution is correct because it has authority, or that an unconventional theory is true because someone claims it was suppressed. I’m willing to reconsider my own conclusions as I learn, and I hope you’ll feel encouraged to do the same.

I started this podcast years ago while trying to understand my own mind. Those early investigations into psychological suffering gradually led me toward the philosophical and religious traditions through which people have understood consciousness and human experience for centuries. There’s quite an archive here now, and I’ve kept much of it available, including episodes that reflect ideas I’ve since reconsidered.

If you’re new, you can start wherever you like. There’s no need to go all the way back to the first episode.

Even the title has taken on a different meaning over the years. Back from the Borderline now speaks to the boundaries I keep finding myself investigating, between psychology and theology, science and spiritual experience, accepted knowledge and ideas that have been pushed aside. I hope this can be a place where we explore those questions together, develop our own judgment and consider how what we learn might change the way we live.

You can explore the full podcast archive, House of Cards, my ongoing Tarot series, and MOODS, my reflective intelligence app, at backfromtheborderline.com. Patreon members can also connect their membership to Spotify to listen to the complete archive there.

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Episodes page 2 of 6

  1. why everyone is hot and no one is happy: bodies as product, desire as labor (pt 2)

    · 1 h 09 min · Explicit

    Dating right now feels exhausting for a reason. Everyone is optimizing themselves (bodies, faces, profiles, vibes) and still walking away from relationships feeling disconnected or quietly resentful. This is part two…

  2. Sex in the Third Person: Why You Leave Your Body to Watch Yourself Perform

    · 23 min · Explicit

    If you have ever felt like you were watching yourself perform intimacy from a camera lens installed in the ceiling, this is the episode you've been waiting for. Together, we’ll be diagnosing a very specific, silent…

  3. why everyone is hot and no one is happy: the men women want (part 1)

    · 57 min · Explicit

    Modern dating is currently stuck in a strange paralysis. Everyone looks better than ever, but actual desire is missing. Men are told to become sculpted superheroes to win affection. Women are told they should want…

  4. The Voice You’re Using Isn’t Yours

    · 23 min · Explicit

    Most people move through their day assuming the voice in their head belongs to them. The commentary that explains our reactions, the phrases that seem to pop in our minds when we’re about to speak. Even the language we…

  5. The Cool Girl Myth and Trend Culture as Self Abandonment

    · 1 h 10 min · Explicit

    Trend culture these days moves faster than any of us can keep up with. What was framed as essential a few months ago is quickly recoded as dated or embarrassing, replaced by a new “aesthetic.” For many of us, this…

  6. the cassandra curse: feeling “crazy” when you’re actually right

    · 22 min · Explicit

    For the highly sensitive, intuitive, and intense people among us, our greatest gift is often the source of our deepest interpersonal suffering. We pick up on invisible tells and subconscious subtext that others miss.…

  7. why you can’t relax: the 5 survival spells running your life

    · 1 h 07 min · Explicit

    These five “survival spells” once kept you safe. Now they’re quietly running your life. Many adults live with a constant undercurrent of tension. Rest feels conditional. Even moments of safety carry a sense of…

  8. why you’re obsessed with people who can’t love you back

    · 1 h 08 min · Explicit

    This episode examines limerence not as a personality flaw or a trendy attachment term, but as a learned psychological strategy that begins in childhood. Rather than treating obsession as irrational, we explore how it…

  9. nick fuentes and the cult of irony

    · 40 min · Explicit

    This preview of a Patreon-exclusive episode breaks down exactly how Nick Fuentes functions as a media figure and why his influence persists despite bans, persistent backlash, and public condemnation. Rather than…

  10. when you’re done being the good daughter

    · 1 h 09 min · Explicit

    This episode examines what happens when the instinct to please, fix, and perform finally breaks down. It’s an archetypal investigation into three roles that often define women’s emotional lives: the Good Child who…

  11. how to ACTUALLY stop giving a f**k about what people think of you

    · 23 min · Explicit

    This is what it actually takes to stop caring what people think. For real this time. Every person who grew up managing the reactions of parents, partners, and strangers online knows the courtroom that forms in your…

  12. how AI is rewiring the human psyche

    · 1 h 27 min · Explicit

    AI isn’t abstract anymore. It’s showing up in the deepest parts of our lives People are using it at the exact moments they used to reach for a journal, a friend, or a distraction. That’s the territory we step into in…

  13. the female market, part 2: the cost of freedom

    · 33 min · Explicit

    This is part two of our investigation into the market built around women’s bodies and the systems that keep that market running. Be sure to listen to part one first if you haven’t already. In that first installment, we…

  14. the female market, part 1: the price of desire

    · 1 h 28 min · Explicit

    This is a two-part investigation into the market built around women’s bodies and the systems that keep that market running. From there, the episode follows the environments that feed this system, from the hostess world…

  15. the occult truth about heartbreak

    · 19 min

    What if your heartbreak was an initiation? This episode explores heartbreak as an occult process that remakes you from the insight out. We examine limerence (that obsessive, addictive infatuation), the ancient Greek…

  16. the holy grail and the lost wisdom of the west

    · 1 h 15 min

    For centuries, the Holy Grail has been treated as a Christian relic or a medieval myth. But the Grail is far older than this, and its meaning was never meant to be lost. In this episode, we will follow the lineage of…

  17. how we all became a little satanic

    · 40 min · Explicit

    The popular image of Satanism belongs to horror movies, pentagrams, and black candles, but the real influence sits in work culture and the chase for personal. A promotion. A streak of discipline that borders on…

  18. digital scapegoats and the ritual of outrage

    · 1 h 10 min · Explicit

    One single mistake online can set off a collective judgment that moves faster than thought itself. A name starts to trend and a crowd quickly forms around it. The event feels public, but it somehow reaches into private…

  19. the unhappy woman: against the cult of calm

    · 23 min · Explicit

    Your unhappiness is sacred data. The woman who refuses to smile has been treated as a problem for millennia. Ancient Greeks blamed her wandering womb. Victorians diagnosed her with hysteria. The 1950s prescribed…

  20. the age of AI slop and the birth of a new renaissance

    · 1 h 17 min · Explicit

    AI is changing how culture gets made, and it's happening fast. Text, images, and ideas... all produced faster than anyone can actually think about them. The internet feels somehow overfed and undernourished all at…

  21. the magician who invented the modern world: john dee and the lost birth of science

    · 36 min

    John Dee built the blueprint for modern intelligence long before the word “scientist” even existed. He mapped stars while designing encryption systems and spoke to what he called angels through a black “scrying” mirror…

  22. the IFS takedown: my unfiltered response to the psych industry’s victory lap

    · 1 h 26 min · Explicit

    When New York Magazine dropped its viral feature “The Therapy That Can Break You,” in The Cut on October 30th, 2025, the internet exploded with hot takes. Psychiatrists and psychoanalysts flooded X (Twitter) with posts…

  23. the world isn't real (and why that might actually be a good thing)

    · 34 min · Explicit

    For thousands of years, philosophers, mystics, and scientists have whispered the same unsettling possibility: what if reality itself is a mirage? From Plato’s cave to The Matrix, from Hindu sages describing maya to…

  24. dark enlightenment: the forbidden philosophy behind the tech elite

    · 1 h 29 min · Explicit

    It’s a strange and somewhat terrifying timeline we’re living through. Peter Thiel has begun giving lectures about the Antichrist, while Sam Altman is actively tweeting about the development of AI erotica. However,…

  25. when stillness feels dangerous (hypervigilance as a religion)

    · 27 min · Explicit

    We live in bodies that don’t know how to rest. Even when the room is quiet, our nerves stay braced for impact. Always ready to defend, explain, and perform to survive. Most of us try to convince ourselves that this is…

  26. enchantment in the age of disenchantment w/ dr. teddy hamstra

    · 1 h 52 min · Explicit

    Modern life teaches us to doubt what we can’t measure. Yet, across history, people have witnessed things that refuse to fit the frame - mystical encounters, strange lights, and divine voices. Moments of impossible…

  27. trauma fossils: when survival becomes a ghost in the soul

    · 34 min · Explicit

    It’s possible that some part of you still wakes each day prepared for impact. You snap in anger before you even understand why. A small comment feels like an ambush. You can sense distance forming long before anyone…

  28. the hidden AI system monitoring your emotional state

    · 48 min · Explicit

    You're talking to ChatGPT like you always do. Maybe asking it to help you work through something personal or just having a casual conversation with a bit of warmth in your tone. Behind the scenes, without telling you,…

  29. the alchemy of sleep and how your roots decide what you dream

    · 23 min · Explicit

    Most people chase their dreams by focusing purely on the mind. They track every symbol and obsess over dream dictionary interpretations. The deeper story, though, sits in the last place we thought to look. Deep in our…

  30. aleister crowley: the man, the myth, the shadow

    · 2 h 00 min · Explicit

    Aleister Crowley is one of the most mythologized figures in modern history. He’s been called a prophet, a fraud, a genius, a junkie, a saint, and a monster. His face shows up on a Beatles album cover, his words show up…

  31. ufo disclosure bombshell [part 2]: why masculine thinking is killing disclosure

    · 38 min · Explicit

    We’ve been going in circles on this stuff for a long time now. Despite decades of witness testimony, leaked documents, and official acknowledgments, UFO / UAP disclosure remains trapped in the same analytical…

  32. why i hope we're living in a simulation

    · 1 h 01 min · Explicit

    You've heard the simulation hypothesis before. That cold, depressing idea that we're probably just code running on some alien computer, meaningless NPCs in someone else's game. Most people hear this and…

  33. the ufo disclosure bombshell [part 1]: human trafficking in black programs exposed

    · 38 min · Explicit

    Alleged leaked text messages between a Senate Intelligence Committee staffer and a military whistleblower have been circulating through UFO research communities, revealing something far more disturbing than typical…

  34. occult statecraft: how demons, magicians, and intelligence agencies shaped the modern world

    · 1 h 34 min · Explicit

    WARNING: This episode will permanently alter how you view government institutions, scientific establishments, and the people who actually run this country. Once you understand these connections, you cannot unknow them.…

  35. everything we now call "drugs" used to be how humans touched god

    · 36 min · Explicit

    Your ancestors knew something about consciousness that we've systematically forgotten, and there are powerful reasons why this knowledge was buried. I'm going to share research that will fundamentally change how you…

  36. anomalies, intuition, and the edge of what we know with jeffrey mishlove, PhD

    · 1 h 32 min · Explicit

    He’s the only person to ever receive a doctoral degree in parapsychology from an accredited university (UC Berkeley, 1980). He hosted the original Thinking Allowed series on PBS from 1986 to 2002 and now continues that…

  37. the forgotten codes of love i'll teach my daughter [part 2]

    · 46 min · Explicit

    While Part 1 revealed the exoteric truths of relationship patterns, Part 2 unlocks the esoteric mysteries that have been hidden in plain sight for centuries. This is premium content exclusively for my Patreon…

  38. the forgotten codes of love i'll teach my daughter [part 1]

    · 1 h 39 min · Explicit

    You've been dating the same person in different bodies your entire life. It's time to stop settling for scraps of affection and start demanding the devotion you were born to receive. The charming player who makes you…

  39. your pain is real but your suffering is a story

    · 20 min · Explicit

    Your shoulders and jaw have been tight for months. Shit, maybe for your entire life. You wake up already thinking about the thing that might go wrong in your relationship, the conversation that could turn ugly and get…

  40. why medieval witches and modern alien experiencers are describing the same thing

    · 1 h 11 min · Explicit

    Everything you believe about witch trials, UFO encounters, and alien abduction experiences might be fundamentally wrong. These seemingly unrelated phenomena describe the same mysterious intelligence that has been…

  41. when magick went underground

    · 13 min

    You possessed knowledge as a child that you were systematically taught to abandon. You perceived realities that adults insisted did not exist. Every civilization except ours developed sophisticated frameworks for…

  42. religious trauma and the silent toll on female emotional development (a roundtable with stephanie ann and alyssa grenfell)

    · 1 h 32 min · Explicit

    This episode brings together two former members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Stephanie Ann and Alyssa Grenfell) for a direct conversation about the psychological, emotional, and ritual structures…

  43. the 1000-year-old tibetan secret that makes western psychology look like child's play

    · 31 min

    Discover the ancient Tibetan practice of Chöd that's revolutionizing how we approach inner work, trauma healing, and shadow integration. While Western psychology teaches you to fight your demons, this 1000-year-old…

  44. selective spiritual technophobia: why mystics and scientists are both getting AI wrong

    · 1 h 51 min · Explicit

    Why are so many spiritual teachers and thinkers panicking about AI? Some are calling it demonic, while others say it’s the Antichrist, but almost no one is asking the deeper questions about how AI actually reflects the…

  45. why shadow work is making you worse

    · 20 min

    You've been doing everything right. Journaling about your triggers. Embracing your darkness. Loving your inner demons. Yet somehow your anxiety is worse, your patterns are stronger, and you're more fragmented than when…

  46. meme magic, hot mess eras, and digital disappearance with aiden arata

    · 43 min · Explicit

    If you’ve spent any time on Instagram’s weird, wonderful and niche corners, chances are high that you’ve seen one of Aiden Arata’s memes. Her work moves past the usual surface-level social media irony and plunges into…

  47. the death of the people-pleaser: how self-abandonment becomes a survival strategy

    · 49 min

    This episode is a deep dive into the psychological, spiritual, and mythic roots of people-pleasing and why this pattern exists in the first place. We explore how early childhood conditioning teaches us that love must…

  48. TDC_21: the secret sauce to awakening? paradox.

    · 18 min · Explicit

    There are some episodes that meet you where you are. This is not one of those. This episode is for those standing at the threshold where healing is no longer purely about “symptom relief” and starts becoming a deeper…

  49. cutting the cord, keeping the thread: how to stop repeating your parents’ coping mechanisms in adult life

    · 26 min · Explicit

    Family dynamics shape us long after we’ve left home, but not always in ways we can see. This episode examines what happens when we internalize the unresolved patterns of our caregivers and carry them into adulthood as…

  50. why age gap relationships aren’t normal: grooming, power, and emotional maturity

    · 1 h 23 min · Explicit

    Age-gap relationships have been romanticized, normalized, and quietly accepted across pop culture, media, and even personal memory. But at what cost? In this episode, I take you into the psychological and emotional…

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