WEBVTT - The Creepypasta Experiments 0:00:03.040 --> 0:00:05.840 Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind from how Stuff 0:00:05.840 --> 0:00:15.320 Works dot com. Hey, welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind. 0:00:15.360 --> 0:00:18.120 My name is Robert Lamb and I'm Christian Sager. This 0:00:18.160 --> 0:00:22.280 week we are rerunning one of our favorite and one 0:00:22.520 --> 0:00:27.400 of our audiences most beloved episodes for the Halloween season, 0:00:27.800 --> 0:00:32.200 the first of our Creepy Pasta Experiment episodes. Yeah, Creepy 0:00:32.240 --> 0:00:37.400 Pasta a little strange nuggets of often unattributed horror fiction 0:00:38.120 --> 0:00:40.640 on the Internet. We take them apart, we look at 0:00:40.640 --> 0:00:42.720 some science that ties into them, and just discuss what 0:00:42.760 --> 0:00:45.599 creepy pasta is in general. Yeah, we'll get into it. 0:00:45.640 --> 0:00:48.959 Throughout the episode. We introduce you to what creepy pastas are, 0:00:49.040 --> 0:00:51.080 and then we take a couple of them. We look 0:00:51.120 --> 0:00:53.199 at the science behind them, a couple of things we 0:00:53.240 --> 0:00:55.800 wanted to let you know beforehand. There is actually a 0:00:56.040 --> 0:00:59.000 second Creepy Pasta episode if you like this one and 0:00:59.040 --> 0:01:01.720 you want to hear more. We have one about Jeff 0:01:01.760 --> 0:01:05.080 the Killer, and we are going to be recording a 0:01:05.240 --> 0:01:08.560 third one for the October Halloween season sometime in the 0:01:08.600 --> 0:01:10.920 next few weeks, so hopefully you will see that from 0:01:11.000 --> 0:01:13.600 us soon. Yeah, and the stories we cover in it, 0:01:13.720 --> 0:01:16.680 the pastas we cover in it our TBD. So if 0:01:16.720 --> 0:01:20.520 there's one that's just really really just grinding away your 0:01:20.560 --> 0:01:22.960 mind that you want us to to tease apart, let 0:01:23.040 --> 0:01:25.080 us know and maybe we'll cover it. Yeah. Absolutely, I 0:01:25.160 --> 0:01:27.920 just read two new ones today and I'm already the 0:01:28.000 --> 0:01:30.320 gears are going. I'm already thinking about how we can 0:01:30.360 --> 0:01:32.679 take these apart. But please let us know you got 0:01:32.680 --> 0:01:34.839 one that you think is perfect for the show. Send 0:01:34.880 --> 0:01:38.240 us an email, write us on social media. All right, 0:01:38.280 --> 0:01:44.480 without further ado, creepy pasta. Today we're talking about creepy pasta, 0:01:44.600 --> 0:01:48.000 which imagined there are three different responses out there. Some 0:01:48.000 --> 0:01:50.800 people were probably going to creepy pasta, Love creepy pasta, 0:01:50.840 --> 0:01:53.920 other people are going creepypasta, what are you doing covering that? 0:01:53.960 --> 0:01:56.480 And other people are just flat up asking what the 0:01:56.560 --> 0:02:00.400 hell is creepy creepy pasta? L dente? Yeah, it has 0:02:00.400 --> 0:02:02.480 it the texture or that is it posta that shaped 0:02:02.520 --> 0:02:05.200 like little ghosts. That's what entered my mind when I 0:02:05.240 --> 0:02:09.800 first started hearing about it a few years back. But what, 0:02:10.360 --> 0:02:14.359 let's explain what creepy pasta is for everyone who's not familiar, right, Okay, 0:02:14.400 --> 0:02:18.360 so I'm only recently familiar with this uh phenomenon, but 0:02:18.440 --> 0:02:22.799 apparently around two thousand six h a a sort of 0:02:23.680 --> 0:02:27.800 fad I guess meme started up on the Internet called 0:02:27.880 --> 0:02:30.679 copy pasta, and I think it originated on four Chan 0:02:31.280 --> 0:02:35.080 and then splintered off into several different genres in different areas. 0:02:35.400 --> 0:02:40.080 The basic idea, though, is that you're creating uh content 0:02:40.240 --> 0:02:43.440 that's like copy and pasted into an email or maybe 0:02:43.440 --> 0:02:45.480 on a blog or something like that. Right, It's something 0:02:45.480 --> 0:02:48.440 that's like easily accessible and share able. Yeah, and it's 0:02:48.680 --> 0:02:51.919 I think the two most ubiquitous examples of this. First 0:02:51.960 --> 0:02:56.480 of all, emails from your grandma your uncle, like some 0:02:56.520 --> 0:03:00.560 sort of ridiculous story about you know, somebody's putting disease 0:03:00.600 --> 0:03:05.560 needles into convenience store machines, you know, or or watch 0:03:05.600 --> 0:03:08.760 out for hoodlums throwing eggs at your car, or people 0:03:08.760 --> 0:03:10.880 turning their lights on and off. You know. There's always 0:03:10.880 --> 0:03:13.640 some sort of like oh it's gang activity or or 0:03:13.720 --> 0:03:15.800 some sort of weird horror going on in your daily 0:03:15.800 --> 0:03:18.760 life where you could possibly believe it, but if you 0:03:18.800 --> 0:03:21.639 actually research it, you'll see, oh, this is just a 0:03:22.360 --> 0:03:24.840 the same couple of paragraphs that then copy and pasted 0:03:25.280 --> 0:03:28.000 throughout the history of the Internet, and we just keep 0:03:28.000 --> 0:03:31.640 following for it again and again. And creepy pasta is 0:03:31.680 --> 0:03:35.240 sort of the horror iteration of copy pasta, and that 0:03:35.360 --> 0:03:39.360 it pretends to be like an urban legend or like 0:03:39.400 --> 0:03:44.040 a pseudo real life event that happened, but it's told 0:03:44.080 --> 0:03:46.520 as a horror story. Yeah, and I think some of 0:03:46.560 --> 0:03:50.480 the you can definitely see some creepy pasta in the 0:03:50.760 --> 0:03:53.800 copy pasta that you you see some of those emails, 0:03:53.800 --> 0:03:56.280 you know, where it's ultimately you're talking about some sort 0:03:56.280 --> 0:04:01.200 of folkloric modern folkloric horror theme. Um, it's wrapped in 0:04:01.360 --> 0:04:04.680 enough reality or pseudo reality that you buy into it. Yeah. 0:04:04.680 --> 0:04:08.040 They all sort of play off of these authentic aesthetics 0:04:08.320 --> 0:04:11.240 using like they mimic things like documents of real life. 0:04:11.240 --> 0:04:14.040 It's almost like the found footage of pros. Like, uh, 0:04:14.120 --> 0:04:19.520 there's diary entries, witness statements. Sometimes there's image and video files. 0:04:19.600 --> 0:04:22.360 And as we're going to talk about today, many of 0:04:22.400 --> 0:04:27.000 them take the shape of scientific reports or like lab analysis. 0:04:27.920 --> 0:04:30.240 And so what we thought we would do today is 0:04:30.320 --> 0:04:35.359 look at some of the most popular scientific based creepy 0:04:35.400 --> 0:04:40.760 pastas and then look at the the the plausibility and 0:04:40.800 --> 0:04:45.120 the real life connections of the science that they pose it. Yeah, 0:04:45.120 --> 0:04:48.720 and I want to definitely imagine some big quotation marks 0:04:48.760 --> 0:04:52.320 around scientifically based there. Yeah. Oh yeah, but as we'll 0:04:52.360 --> 0:04:56.479 get into yeah, yeah, I mean there's some there's some 0:04:56.640 --> 0:04:59.920 very loose stuff when they just say a stimulating gas 0:05:00.240 --> 0:05:03.240 was presented, right, there's no, they don't name the gas, 0:05:03.279 --> 0:05:05.919 they don't give any methodology or anything. But some of 0:05:05.920 --> 0:05:08.039 them are better than others, and well we'll get into 0:05:08.080 --> 0:05:10.880 that as well. It's um one thing to keep in 0:05:10.920 --> 0:05:13.880 mind with coffee pasta two and I'm especially creepy pasta. 0:05:14.040 --> 0:05:16.960 Are the different ways that you come across it online, Like, 0:05:17.000 --> 0:05:20.320 they are definite creepy pasta destinations for people who love 0:05:20.760 --> 0:05:22.839 reading it and creating it. And they're just kind of 0:05:22.839 --> 0:05:25.280 wikis for this. And we'll have some links to these 0:05:25.279 --> 0:05:27.360 stories on the landing page for this episode, stuff about 0:05:27.360 --> 0:05:29.159 yournd ut com, so you can explore that on your own. 0:05:29.560 --> 0:05:31.920 But you'll also see stuff showing up on social media 0:05:32.440 --> 0:05:35.279 or you're doing like we encountered this, but a plenty 0:05:35.279 --> 0:05:37.120 of times you're doing some research, you're trying to find 0:05:37.160 --> 0:05:40.640 out about certain actual experiments, and then you run across 0:05:40.640 --> 0:05:43.400 some creepy posta and for a split second you're like, 0:05:43.440 --> 0:05:47.000 what is this experiment they're talking about? Oh, it's creep Yeah, 0:05:47.040 --> 0:05:49.919 it is kind of perfect. And especially researching this particular 0:05:49.960 --> 0:05:53.359 episode was difficult because when you're trying to research the 0:05:53.440 --> 0:05:57.080 actual scientific basis for some of these stories, you end 0:05:57.160 --> 0:06:01.599 up finding either fake article or or the actual story 0:06:01.640 --> 0:06:04.440 itself popping up in a lot of your searches. I've 0:06:04.440 --> 0:06:08.200 also seen like wiki questions and message boards, you see 0:06:08.200 --> 0:06:09.800 this kind of stuff popping up there where someone will 0:06:09.800 --> 0:06:13.800 have yeah, people have a legitimate question, and somebody will 0:06:13.839 --> 0:06:15.880 decide to throw a slip a little pop there there, 0:06:15.960 --> 0:06:21.040 you know, Like I've I've seen medical question sites, um, 0:06:21.040 --> 0:06:23.400 where someone will be talking. I think I was writing 0:06:23.440 --> 0:06:26.360 something that had to do with the about about prostates 0:06:26.640 --> 0:06:30.960 prostate exams, and I ran across this message board where 0:06:31.320 --> 0:06:33.520 somebody was asking, Hey, what can I expect when I 0:06:33.560 --> 0:06:36.239 go in there? And then somebody had this ridiculous story 0:06:36.520 --> 0:06:40.000 that they shared, and then another individual point it responded 0:06:39.960 --> 0:06:42.000 and said, oh, this is pasta here's an example of 0:06:42.000 --> 0:06:45.560 where it was previously uh rolled out. I think that's 0:06:45.560 --> 0:06:49.200 where I first discovered the term copy pop. Yeah, I 0:06:49.200 --> 0:06:53.320 mean like in today's age of like, uh, what we 0:06:53.440 --> 0:06:59.360 are often told in our daily jobs is user generated content, right, 0:06:59.400 --> 0:07:03.200 where like the user is commenting or creating something on 0:07:03.279 --> 0:07:05.520 their own. This is the perfect kind of thing to 0:07:05.560 --> 0:07:08.440 slip in there, right, Like in an Amazon review, you 0:07:08.440 --> 0:07:11.400 could drop in some creepy pasta related to whatever item 0:07:11.480 --> 0:07:14.320 it is that's a that's on sale, and you give 0:07:14.320 --> 0:07:16.360 it a five star review, but let people know that 0:07:16.400 --> 0:07:18.560 it was haunted or something when you got in the mail. Yeah, 0:07:18.600 --> 0:07:22.240 it's kind of like the creepy mold that grows uh on, 0:07:22.600 --> 0:07:24.920 you know, on the structures of the Internet and throughout 0:07:24.960 --> 0:07:27.360 the systems of the Internet, and some of it is 0:07:27.400 --> 0:07:32.360 just merely mold and sometimes but sometimes it's exquisite and 0:07:32.400 --> 0:07:34.600 it's fun to look at and feel. But I think 0:07:34.720 --> 0:07:39.080 so um, people who maybe aren't familiar with the creepy 0:07:39.120 --> 0:07:44.520 pasta genre, you might actually know. The most famous of 0:07:44.520 --> 0:07:49.320 the creepy pasta characters or stories is the slender Man one. Uh. 0:07:49.320 --> 0:07:51.640 And I don't know a ton about slender Man other 0:07:51.720 --> 0:07:55.600 than what I've read about him outside of the creepy 0:07:55.640 --> 0:07:58.960 pastas he appears in, but basically the ideas that he's 0:07:59.000 --> 0:08:02.520 kind of like a he's a horror story character, right, 0:08:02.560 --> 0:08:05.480 He's just as much as like Jason Vorhees or Freddy Krueger, 0:08:05.800 --> 0:08:10.920 but he's kind of like in a elongated, skinny, scary 0:08:11.000 --> 0:08:14.240 looking man and like a suit. Yeah, you see. To 0:08:14.760 --> 0:08:17.040 like the reason one of the reasons Slenderman is such 0:08:17.160 --> 0:08:21.400 a nice example of copy pasta is that he's kind 0:08:21.400 --> 0:08:25.360 of collectively assembled. He's an amalgam of pop culture influences 0:08:25.480 --> 0:08:28.880 and and ultimately the final forums very amorphous too, because 0:08:29.720 --> 0:08:31.640 because a lot of it is about his depictions and 0:08:31.720 --> 0:08:35.520 individual pieces of creepy pasta or especially in imagery and 0:08:35.559 --> 0:08:40.200 these various photoshop contests that have contributed to to the myth. Right, Yeah, 0:08:40.240 --> 0:08:41.640 that's one of the ones where there's a lot of 0:08:41.720 --> 0:08:45.440 visual accompaniment, Like a lot of a lot of slender 0:08:45.440 --> 0:08:48.520 Man revolves around the pictures that people have created that 0:08:48.559 --> 0:08:51.079 are just terrifying. Yeah, and there's no real consensus on 0:08:51.400 --> 0:08:54.040 like exactly what the story is, Like nobody said this 0:08:54.160 --> 0:08:58.000 is what slender Man is slender Man, and that helps 0:08:58.040 --> 0:09:00.880 to make it mysterious and and weird. I mean, that's 0:09:00.880 --> 0:09:04.680 one of the reasons that Lovecraft's mythos continues to resonate 0:09:05.000 --> 0:09:08.000 is that there's individuals have come along and tried to 0:09:08.080 --> 0:09:12.360 create a boiler plate uh uh, you know, mythos for him, 0:09:12.400 --> 0:09:16.920 but ultimately his mythos is shrouded in mystery and contradictions. Absolutely, 0:09:17.040 --> 0:09:21.960 and so included in that And I'd be remiss if 0:09:22.080 --> 0:09:24.679 we'd or we'd be remiss if we didn't include this 0:09:25.200 --> 0:09:27.640 is that. You may have also heard in the news 0:09:27.760 --> 0:09:32.760 that there was an inspired violent assault by two twelve 0:09:32.880 --> 0:09:36.400 year old girls against another twelve year old girl. They 0:09:36.400 --> 0:09:41.280 were trying to murder her in inspiration they were inspired 0:09:41.400 --> 0:09:46.080 by slender Man. Uh and um, you know. To clarify, 0:09:46.200 --> 0:09:48.960 like the owners of Creepy pasta dot com, many of 0:09:48.960 --> 0:09:50.920 the people who were involved in this community, they all 0:09:51.360 --> 0:09:54.400 you know released a state statements basically saying like they 0:09:54.440 --> 0:09:56.120 this was not their intention, They didn't want to be 0:09:56.120 --> 0:09:57.840 connected this at all. It was more just kind of 0:09:57.840 --> 0:10:00.440 a fun pop culture thing for them to have a 0:10:00.480 --> 0:10:05.920 community around. But these girls somehow took it internally and 0:10:06.080 --> 0:10:08.760 uh and ended up almost killing their friend. Luckily, she 0:10:08.920 --> 0:10:11.920 escaped and was I think she was had like seventeen 0:10:12.000 --> 0:10:14.480 or nineteen times or something like that. She was found 0:10:14.480 --> 0:10:16.120 by somebody on the Southern Road and was able to 0:10:16.160 --> 0:10:18.120 get medical care. Well, I mean it just speaks to 0:10:18.160 --> 0:10:22.079 the power of storytelling. This to the power of folklore 0:10:22.120 --> 0:10:23.679 and the power of the power of symbols, you know. 0:10:23.760 --> 0:10:28.080 I mean, anybody can create a story, and oftentimes the 0:10:28.160 --> 0:10:30.160 story is not going to be that good, but you're 0:10:30.200 --> 0:10:33.080 playing with powerful elements when you start playing with with 0:10:33.280 --> 0:10:36.839 established tropes and it's established symbols, established symbols of fear, 0:10:37.320 --> 0:10:41.360 and uh, even you know, a very amateur creator can 0:10:41.760 --> 0:10:44.720 end up creating something that strongly resonates. And I mean 0:10:44.760 --> 0:10:48.240 that's the beauty of something like Creepy Pasta. It is. 0:10:48.440 --> 0:10:50.320 And and I also, like, I think that it would 0:10:50.360 --> 0:10:54.160 be really like off the mark to say that, like, oh, 0:10:54.280 --> 0:10:56.800 it's because of slender Man that this happened, you know, 0:10:56.840 --> 0:10:59.040 I mean clearly like there was something going on with 0:10:59.080 --> 0:11:02.560 these girls anyway. Is uh. That's like the argument that 0:11:02.640 --> 0:11:05.760 like Ozzy Osbourne influenced teenagers to kill each other in 0:11:05.760 --> 0:11:07.880 the eighties or something, you know. Just I don't buy 0:11:07.880 --> 0:11:10.320 into it, but I think it's important that we let 0:11:10.320 --> 0:11:13.320 the audience know about that. Um, Creepy Pasta really kind 0:11:13.360 --> 0:11:17.080 of hit its height in because the New York Times 0:11:17.120 --> 0:11:21.360 actually covered it and did an article on it. Um. 0:11:21.400 --> 0:11:25.160 But you know, a lot of it resembles what we 0:11:25.160 --> 0:11:28.520 we refer to as weird fiction, right, yeah, you still. 0:11:28.559 --> 0:11:31.319 I mean it kind of runs the gamut because on 0:11:31.480 --> 0:11:34.560 one end of the spectrum you have creepy pasta that 0:11:34.800 --> 0:11:39.000 reads like a either either like a Wikipedia article or 0:11:39.080 --> 0:11:41.960 pro or a poorly written Wikipedia article, where it's just 0:11:42.080 --> 0:11:46.680 very factual, very grounded in this subjective reporting style. And 0:11:46.720 --> 0:11:48.839 then on the other hand, stuff that is aspiring more 0:11:48.880 --> 0:11:52.680 and more to resemble weird fiction, you know, something with 0:11:52.720 --> 0:11:56.200 more of a narrative flow. Yeah. Absolutely. I mean, as 0:11:56.240 --> 0:11:59.600 a both a fan of horror pros and somebody who 0:11:59.600 --> 0:12:03.520 writes or pros, I guess my personal literary criticism here 0:12:03.600 --> 0:12:06.600 is just that the best of these always ends up 0:12:06.640 --> 0:12:08.920 still reading kind of like a Wikipedia entry, right. So, 0:12:08.960 --> 0:12:13.040 there's no there's no craft to the prose necessarily that 0:12:13.080 --> 0:12:16.360 you would find in something that's designed for literature. It's 0:12:16.400 --> 0:12:20.280 mostly just a summary of the plot. Um. However, it 0:12:20.320 --> 0:12:24.080 can be done artfully. Um is so in such a 0:12:24.120 --> 0:12:27.600 way to make it seem like it was a real thing. Right. Uh. 0:12:27.640 --> 0:12:31.360 If it's done as such, then it can have a 0:12:31.400 --> 0:12:35.600 pretty sustaining dread that goes along with it. Um. So 0:12:35.640 --> 0:12:38.199 there are some of these that I like better than others, uh, 0:12:38.280 --> 0:12:42.640 like any kind of you know, um medium or storytelling. 0:12:43.120 --> 0:12:45.760 But uh, I have to say, and I want to 0:12:45.800 --> 0:12:47.760 warn our listeners if you if you haven't read any 0:12:47.760 --> 0:12:50.640 of these yet, A lot of the grammar and spelling 0:12:50.880 --> 0:12:54.439 is just horrible in these, Like they need a proof 0:12:54.480 --> 0:12:57.320 reader to just go over reach these. Although I guess 0:12:57.360 --> 0:13:00.880 that that could potentially be part of the charm, right, 0:13:01.000 --> 0:13:03.920 is that like it's been written by somebody who hasn't 0:13:03.960 --> 0:13:06.880 taken the time to proof read and go back and 0:13:06.920 --> 0:13:10.560 fix errors, and therefore it seems more authentic. Sometimes when 0:13:10.600 --> 0:13:15.199 you've been horrified by your participation in a frightening paranormal experiment, 0:13:15.240 --> 0:13:18.959 you know you're less a less attentive to grammar. That's 0:13:18.720 --> 0:13:22.600 that's possible for sure. Uh. I do want to say 0:13:22.600 --> 0:13:24.040 one more thing. I want to throw a plug out 0:13:24.080 --> 0:13:26.679 there for our colleagues. So a lot of people don't 0:13:26.679 --> 0:13:30.040 know this, but our how stuff works colleagues, including our 0:13:30.080 --> 0:13:33.760 producer Noel who's on the board right now, Lauren Vogelbaum 0:13:33.960 --> 0:13:38.800 from Forward Thinking, and Ben Bolan and Matt Frederick from 0:13:38.800 --> 0:13:41.400 Stuff they don't want you to know, all got together 0:13:41.559 --> 0:13:45.000 and put together what I would call a Creepy pasta 0:13:45.160 --> 0:13:48.959 audio play. It's called See You Next Time, and they 0:13:49.000 --> 0:13:51.520 did it for the Atlanta Fringe Festival, and it's about 0:13:51.559 --> 0:13:54.360 like a thirty minute MP three that you can go 0:13:54.400 --> 0:13:57.000 and download from their site. So if you're into that 0:13:57.080 --> 0:13:58.480 kind of thing, like if you're like a Welcome to 0:13:58.559 --> 0:14:01.480 night Vale kind of person, go download that and check 0:14:01.480 --> 0:14:05.400 it out, because it's all how stuff works, characters and personalities. 0:14:05.480 --> 0:14:08.559 In fact, Joe and I both make very minor appearances 0:14:08.679 --> 0:14:11.160 in the story, just as like kind of extras, but 0:14:11.960 --> 0:14:13.720 really well done, and it was like one of my 0:14:13.800 --> 0:14:17.000 favorite horror stories from this past year. Cool. Yeah, we'll 0:14:17.040 --> 0:14:20.240 include a link to that on landing page for this episode. Um. 0:14:20.280 --> 0:14:24.360 In terms of back to the Creepy Pasta though the like, 0:14:24.440 --> 0:14:28.600 I find that the ones that are instantly uh grounded 0:14:28.880 --> 0:14:31.560 in more of a traditional storytelling, like you know what 0:14:31.920 --> 0:14:34.400 the narrator is saying. What I have to relate to 0:14:34.400 --> 0:14:37.640 you about this experiment is to bind you instantly know 0:14:37.720 --> 0:14:40.760 you're reading the story, but I guess the the and 0:14:40.760 --> 0:14:42.960 then to your point, if it reads entirely like a 0:14:43.000 --> 0:14:45.880 Wikipedia piece, then it's it runs the risk of just 0:14:45.920 --> 0:14:49.400 being completely dry. Um, you can still be engaging. But 0:14:49.720 --> 0:14:52.480 I think the probably the sweet spot is if you 0:14:52.560 --> 0:14:57.560 can have it start dry and seemingly factual and objective, 0:14:57.880 --> 0:15:01.560 and then have it morph into something uh that that 0:15:01.560 --> 0:15:06.280 that is more elegantly written, and then maybe steer back 0:15:06.280 --> 0:15:09.680 out of it. Yeah it builds. Yeah. Yeah. I think 0:15:09.720 --> 0:15:12.080 another thing that that is key with these as well 0:15:12.160 --> 0:15:15.440 is the format. So like the mimicking of a of 0:15:15.480 --> 0:15:19.680 a particular kind of format, uh to create the authenticity 0:15:19.720 --> 0:15:23.800 type thing, like like ones that mimic actual Wikipedia entries 0:15:24.360 --> 0:15:28.080 are kind of using that format to their advantage, right, 0:15:28.080 --> 0:15:30.880 Whereas like if it's just a chain of prose that 0:15:30.880 --> 0:15:33.320 shows up a night email sent to me by my 0:15:33.440 --> 0:15:36.840 weird aunt, then I'm less likely to go, oh, this 0:15:37.080 --> 0:15:40.120 could potentially be a thing. Yeah uh. And And another 0:15:40.160 --> 0:15:42.920 thing too that's probably worth noting is that, like part 0:15:42.960 --> 0:15:45.960 of our job for the podcast and other things is 0:15:46.000 --> 0:15:51.360 to evaluate sources and evaluate validity of things, and so inherently, 0:15:51.400 --> 0:15:53.720 I think for for people like us reading these things 0:15:53.720 --> 0:15:57.000 were automatically like wait a minute, I need some more evidence, 0:15:57.040 --> 0:16:00.320 I need more information, where the sources cited. One of 0:16:00.360 --> 0:16:05.280 the early examples of just just recording folklore that I 0:16:05.360 --> 0:16:08.640 think has some potential ties into creepy PASTA is a 0:16:08.680 --> 0:16:13.000 book called Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio by Lousy 0:16:13.200 --> 0:16:18.800 Z from eighteenth century China. Uh, each of these tales 0:16:19.120 --> 0:16:22.520 that that the author relates, they all they all start 0:16:22.560 --> 0:16:24.040 the same, and they all kind of end the same. 0:16:24.080 --> 0:16:27.760 Where he's saying, I knew this particular individual and and 0:16:27.840 --> 0:16:31.280 he works over in this province and works in this office, 0:16:31.840 --> 0:16:35.640 and he told me this story about this encounter he had. 0:16:35.720 --> 0:16:38.840 And then the encounter might be seeing a strange like 0:16:39.400 --> 0:16:42.800 pen dragon, or seeing or encountering a horrifying ghost, or 0:16:42.800 --> 0:16:47.360 having some sort of mildly body hilarious encounter. And then 0:16:47.360 --> 0:16:50.800 it will end again with him firmly tucking it back 0:16:50.800 --> 0:16:54.240 into reality by saying, and this particular acquaintance of mine 0:16:54.560 --> 0:16:57.000 he continued to have a great career in this province, 0:16:57.040 --> 0:16:59.160 and I still hear from some time to time. Yeah. 0:17:00.160 --> 0:17:03.360 The idea I think they're maybe is conscious or not 0:17:03.560 --> 0:17:06.359 was sort of taking the oral tradition of folklore and 0:17:06.440 --> 0:17:09.160 translating it into pros And yeah, I think you see 0:17:09.400 --> 0:17:11.560 that with a lot of early weird fiction as well, 0:17:11.680 --> 0:17:16.000 like Arthur Makin you mentioned Lovecraft earlier, Uh, to an 0:17:16.040 --> 0:17:19.439 extent like Algernon Blackwood, things like that. Yeah, you have 0:17:19.520 --> 0:17:21.960 to sort of you have this nugget of of the 0:17:21.960 --> 0:17:25.320 fantastic and you need to tuck it in firmly into 0:17:25.320 --> 0:17:29.159 the bed of of our our informational system really, and 0:17:29.160 --> 0:17:32.600 in this case it's the the Internet. Yeah. Absolutely, they're 0:17:32.680 --> 0:17:36.120 using the medium to its advantage. So okay, so we're 0:17:36.119 --> 0:17:42.760 gonna talk about three particular creepy pasta science experiments and 0:17:42.760 --> 0:17:45.200 we'll we'll we'll give you the premise, we'll lay it 0:17:45.240 --> 0:17:47.679 down for you. It's going to be a very shorthand 0:17:47.760 --> 0:17:49.600 version of it, and then you know, if you want 0:17:49.640 --> 0:17:51.680 to go read them on the on your own, uh, 0:17:51.720 --> 0:17:54.440 and then we will take a look at these science 0:17:54.480 --> 0:17:57.280 behind these Yeah. All right, Well, let's kick it off 0:17:57.359 --> 0:18:00.920 with probably the more famous of the three, the one, 0:18:01.080 --> 0:18:02.919 the one that seems to have to hit up there 0:18:02.960 --> 0:18:04.800 at the top of the list on most of these 0:18:04.800 --> 0:18:08.919 Grepposta sites, the Russian sleep experiment. Right, So, okay, the 0:18:09.000 --> 0:18:10.879 premise of this I'm gonna try to go through this 0:18:10.920 --> 0:18:13.359 pretty quickly. Premise of this story is that in the 0:18:13.440 --> 0:18:17.560 late nineteen forties, there was a Russian researcher or it 0:18:17.600 --> 0:18:20.720 was a research team I believe, who kept five people 0:18:20.760 --> 0:18:24.520 awake for fifteen days using what's only referred to as 0:18:24.800 --> 0:18:27.960 an experimental gas based stimulants. So we have no idea 0:18:28.000 --> 0:18:32.280 whatever this chemical was. The research team kept them in 0:18:32.280 --> 0:18:35.960 a sealed environment and monitored their oxygen intake. I don't 0:18:36.000 --> 0:18:39.120 know how, It's never explained in the story, but basically 0:18:39.160 --> 0:18:42.280 because this gas was potentially I think it was toxic 0:18:42.320 --> 0:18:47.800 and high concentrations, as the story goes, uh. Because they 0:18:47.800 --> 0:18:51.360 didn't have video equipment at the time, they watched these 0:18:51.440 --> 0:18:56.080 uh participants through portholes and they listened listened in with microphones. 0:18:56.440 --> 0:18:58.879 But basically the chamber there and was stocked up with 0:18:59.000 --> 0:19:01.440 you know, the things that they would need, like books 0:19:01.440 --> 0:19:04.520 and cots, running water, a toilet. They had enough dried 0:19:04.560 --> 0:19:06.920 food in there for a month. Uh. And they were 0:19:06.960 --> 0:19:10.439 all political prisoners that were deemed enemy of the state, 0:19:10.800 --> 0:19:14.400 enemies of the state during World War two. But they 0:19:14.400 --> 0:19:17.080 were falsely told before they went in, Hey, if you 0:19:17.119 --> 0:19:19.880 do this experiment and you can manage to sleep not 0:19:20.000 --> 0:19:23.679 sleep for thirty days straight, then we will free you 0:19:23.920 --> 0:19:27.200 and we'll forgive your actions. Uh. So the story goes 0:19:27.240 --> 0:19:31.520 like this. First five days, these people are fine. After 0:19:31.960 --> 0:19:34.760 about day four, though, their conversations start to get a 0:19:34.760 --> 0:19:38.399 little dark. They start getting paranoid of one another. By 0:19:38.520 --> 0:19:42.119 day nine, one of them starts screaming and running up 0:19:42.119 --> 0:19:45.160 and down the length of the chamber, and he screams 0:19:45.200 --> 0:19:48.159 so loud that he physically tears the vocal cords his 0:19:48.280 --> 0:19:52.400 vocal cords. The others begin to just start whispering into 0:19:52.440 --> 0:19:56.160 the microphones, uh, not even acknowledging that the other guy 0:19:56.240 --> 0:19:59.800 is screaming. Then a second one starts screaming and running around. 0:20:00.240 --> 0:20:02.840 These two take the books that are in the room, 0:20:02.960 --> 0:20:05.560 rip their pages out, cover them with their own feces, 0:20:05.600 --> 0:20:09.239 and paste them up over the porthole windows. Uh. So 0:20:09.359 --> 0:20:12.000 the studio we're in right now actually has a porthole windows. 0:20:12.359 --> 0:20:14.240 I was actually just thinking, this is this is like 0:20:14.280 --> 0:20:17.000 what happens when you try to record four podcast episodes. 0:20:17.040 --> 0:20:21.280 And yeah, absolutely, I begin the screaming and running around. Uh. 0:20:21.880 --> 0:20:26.240 Day twelve, all the sounds stop, uh, and the oxygen 0:20:26.320 --> 0:20:30.760 consumption rate rises to what is uh, you know, understood 0:20:30.800 --> 0:20:35.960 as heavy exercise levels for the five people. On day fourteen, 0:20:36.040 --> 0:20:38.399 they use the intercom and they try to you know, 0:20:38.480 --> 0:20:41.240 contact them and figure out what's going on inside this room. 0:20:41.600 --> 0:20:44.160 They get one response, which is we no longer want 0:20:44.200 --> 0:20:47.560 to be freed. On day fifteen, they're finally like, all right, 0:20:47.600 --> 0:20:49.760 we're going in there. They open up this chamber and 0:20:49.760 --> 0:20:52.480 they send soldiers in. They find that one of the 0:20:52.520 --> 0:20:55.520 guys is dead. The rest of them are all crazy. 0:20:55.920 --> 0:21:00.080 They've eaten themselves, ripped their own skin off, removed some 0:21:00.119 --> 0:21:03.960 of their own organs from their bodies, very like gory 0:21:04.000 --> 0:21:07.159 body horror type stuff. Uh. They really wanted to go 0:21:07.440 --> 0:21:09.560 to stay in the chamber, like they were addicted to 0:21:09.600 --> 0:21:12.439 this gas. One of them the minute they take him 0:21:12.440 --> 0:21:15.119 out of the chamber, he bleeds to death immediately, and 0:21:15.160 --> 0:21:18.800 they find when they're trying to resuscitate him he's utterly 0:21:18.880 --> 0:21:23.240 resistant to morphine. One assaults and kills one of the soldier. 0:21:23.240 --> 0:21:25.160 I think there's like another thing about, like another one 0:21:25.200 --> 0:21:28.040 like biting a soldier's leg and taking a chunk out 0:21:28.080 --> 0:21:30.400 of it and then like some more padding. That's like 0:21:30.960 --> 0:21:33.760 all of the soldiers committed suicide within five days or 0:21:33.800 --> 0:21:37.919 something like that. Uh, And then this part didn't make 0:21:37.960 --> 0:21:40.119 sense to me even in then like narrative of the story. 0:21:40.200 --> 0:21:44.600 But they they sowed the skin back onto one of 0:21:44.600 --> 0:21:51.280 these victims, Yeah, to try to save him, I guess. Uh. 0:21:51.320 --> 0:21:53.359 And they tried it with one of the others, the 0:21:53.400 --> 0:21:56.440 other survivors, but they just kept laughing so much during 0:21:56.440 --> 0:22:01.440 the surgery process that they couldn't pull it off. So Uh, 0:22:01.480 --> 0:22:03.639 it ends up with them being put back in the 0:22:03.720 --> 0:22:06.399 chamber because there's some higher up who says, you know, 0:22:06.440 --> 0:22:08.200 we gotta figure out what's going on. Say, put these 0:22:08.200 --> 0:22:11.159 guys back in the chamber. Uh. They turn up the gas, 0:22:11.880 --> 0:22:15.960 their brain waves start fluctuating between normal and then flatlining 0:22:16.000 --> 0:22:19.199 as if they're dead. They try putting three of the 0:22:19.320 --> 0:22:21.840 researchers in there with him, but one of the researchers 0:22:21.880 --> 0:22:25.480 grabs a gun and shoots his commander and then shoots 0:22:25.560 --> 0:22:29.000 the captives right before he kills the last captive. The 0:22:29.040 --> 0:22:33.000 captive says this, we are you. We are the madness 0:22:33.040 --> 0:22:35.960