Dark Tourism, Therapy, Morality and More with Dr. Chad ScottDark Tourism, Therapy, Morality and More with Dr. Chad Scott
Retrieving Sanity
Keegan and Dr Chad Scott talk about how dark tourism, shadow work and stoic attitudes toward mortality connect with recovery and mental health. Their conversation links haunted sites, cemeteries and historic tragedies to empathy, purpose and stepping beyond comfort zones.
55:55•13 Apr 2026
Haunted Places, Personal Demons and Recovery with Dr Chad Scott
Episode Overview
- Approaching dark tourism sites with reverence and empathy can trigger deep self-reflection and support emotional healing.
- Jung’s idea of the shadow highlights the need to bring past traumas and insecurities into awareness instead of ignoring them.
- Experiences at places like Hiroshima can reshape a person’s sense of purpose toward speaking out against cruelty and helping others.
- Relying only on intellectual control during illness can feed anxiety; developing emotional resilience changes how crises are faced.
- Stepping beyond one’s comfort zone in small, safe ways can gradually expand life, rather than letting fear shrink it.
“"Nothing grows in a comfort zone except anxiety, depression, and just crappy things."”
How do people find strength in their journey to sobriety? This conversation between recovery-focused host Keegan and returning guest Dr Chad Scott takes a very unusual route: haunted houses, cemeteries, atomic bomb sites and a whole lot of Jungian shadow work. Dr Scott, a therapist, liver transplant survivor and author of *Beyond the Darkness: Transformative Journeys Through Dark Tourism*, talks about how visiting "dark" places has helped him face his own fears and trauma.
He explains Jung’s idea of the shadow as all the insecurities, traumas and "negative things" we carry, adding that places of suffering act like mirrors: "When we go to dark tourism spots, we can, you know, a mirror emerges and we see little pieces of ourself in those places." You’ll hear eerie but grounded stories from the Paris catacombs, the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum, America’s "most haunted" houses, and forgotten children’s graveyards.
Rather than chasing thrills, Dr Scott focuses on approaching these sites with reverence and empathy, arguing that they can be "just as healing as going to a religious site" if you don’t make it all about yourself. For anyone in addiction or mental health recovery, his contrast between his first health crisis and his later liver transplant really lands. The first time, he tried to think his way out through late-night research and spiralling anxiety.
Years later, shaped by dark tourism and stoic practice, he faced a liver transplant and even nine months of a possible terminal cancer diagnosis seeing it as an "adventure" instead of pure terror. Threaded through the episode are themes of comfort zones, meaning, and mortality.
As Dr Scott puts it, "Nothing grows in a comfort zone except anxiety, depression, and just crappy things." If you’ve been feeling stuck, anxious, or afraid of your own "personal demons", this conversation might nudge you to ask: what small step beyond your own campfire could help you heal next?
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