Speaker 1: Welcome to the Hidden Gin, a production of I Heart
Speaker 1: Radio and Grimm and Mild from Aaron Minkey. Some of
Speaker 1: you may know that I am an attorney by profession
Speaker 1: and spent most of my legal career doing immigration and
Speaker 1: civil rights work. Well you may not know is that
Speaker 1: my legal work eventually led to working briefly for about
Speaker 1: six years in national security policy. Now that's another story
Speaker 1: to tell, but suffice it to say that work connected
Speaker 1: me to experts across the field, military and defense folks,
Speaker 1: policy walks, and government and think tanks, homeland security officials, diplomats,
Speaker 1: social media executives, researchers, academics, commune and social workers. Let's
Speaker 1: just say it was a broad reaching and deeply interesting work. Now,
Speaker 1: many of these connections were virtual, which is pretty common
Speaker 1: these days. So I was excited at one point to
Speaker 1: be invited to present at a conference where I would
Speaker 1: meet some of these folks in person finally, and one
Speaker 1: of those people I was looking forward to meeting was
Speaker 1: a national security expert and former intelligence operative from another country,
Speaker 1: someone who was pretty well respected in industry circles by
Speaker 1: all indications online. He was a fairly serious guy with
Speaker 1: some intense experience in the field, and he was often
Speaker 1: called upon to testify in high level hearings on national
Speaker 1: security matters. I have been following him online for a
Speaker 1: few years and vice versa, and I was pleased when
Speaker 1: we met to find him to be pretty laid back
Speaker 1: and friendly, and on the first evening of the conference,
Speaker 1: as we mingled after dinner, I began gently asking this
Speaker 1: gentleman about something I had been curious about for a while.
Speaker 1: Years earlier, he had been involved in a controversy that
Speaker 1: involved a criminal proceeding, and it seemed to still haunt
Speaker 1: his social media mentions every so often. I remember I
Speaker 1: was holding a soda taking SIPs as he began telling
Speaker 1: me about what had happened and how he and his
Speaker 1: family had gotten through it. But nothing could have prepared
Speaker 1: me for what he was going to say. He told
Speaker 1: me that for a very long time, for years, he
Speaker 1: had a group of gin, his own gin that protected him.
Speaker 1: The details on how he got ahold of these gin
Speaker 1: and got them to do his bidding is fuzzy now,
Speaker 1: probably because I was trying to process a whole lot
Speaker 1: going on in my head. As I listened, he explained
Speaker 1: that on the day he was to testify in his
Speaker 1: highly publicized and controversial case. He was sequestered in a
Speaker 1: witness waiting room, but his GIN were able to show
Speaker 1: him what was happening in the court room, almost as
Speaker 1: if the walls between him and the room where the judge, jury,
Speaker 1: and lawyers were doing their duties had disappeared. The gin
Speaker 1: had lifted the veils of the material world in order
Speaker 1: to calm him down, to reassure him that they were
Speaker 1: with him. And so he sat in the witness room
Speaker 1: down multiple halls, able to see the proceedings before he
Speaker 1: was even called, and when the bailiff came to get him,
Speaker 1: he didn't need to be guided into the courtroom. He
Speaker 1: knew every turn down the hallway, and he knew who
Speaker 1: was who before he stepped in front of the judge.
Speaker 1: These jen he said, had been with him for a
Speaker 1: few years before all of this had gone down, and
Speaker 1: they protected his life after the trial too, But eventually
Speaker 1: he had dismissed them, no longer needing their services. Now,
Speaker 1: as I was standing there taking this in, you have
Speaker 1: to understand I had no reason not to believe this man. First,
Speaker 1: Why would he a professional with a solid reputation share
Speaker 1: a story that could so undermine him. Second, I had
Speaker 1: seen or heard nothing about him or from him, Otherwise
Speaker 1: that would make me wonder about the state of his
Speaker 1: mind or his credibility, and believe me I had asked around. Finally,
Speaker 1: I know I have my own inexplicable experiences and which
Speaker 1: I've been convinced a jin was at the root of
Speaker 1: my troubles. So if I believe that, why wouldn't I
Speaker 1: believe this guy? Where exactly do you draw the line
Speaker 1: on what Gin stories are too fantastical to be true?
Speaker 1: I mean, really, it's like being a little bit pregnant.
Speaker 1: You're either all in or not. Anyhow, it did get
Speaker 1: me thinking though about the very nature of gin. Up
Speaker 1: until that point, most of the firsthand stories I had
Speaker 1: heard from people who had Gin experiences were either outright
Speaker 1: frightening or at least kind of spooky. Even the stories
Speaker 1: of the far far past, like the gin that built
Speaker 1: Solomon's first temple, were only helpful to humans when they
Speaker 1: were being controlled against their will. But this man's story
Speaker 1: shifted my perception a little bit about the Gin, Putting
Speaker 1: aside the fact that it was a little problematic as
Speaker 1: a lawyer that they rendered the sequestration of a witness
Speaker 1: completely meaningless. These gin were protective of their human They
Speaker 1: were not just there to guard him physically, but to
Speaker 1: calm him down, to take care of his emotional and
Speaker 1: mental state. The question then becomes what to make up
Speaker 1: a gin. What we know is that while they may
Speaker 1: be everywhere surrounding us at this very moment, and that
Speaker 1: they're powerful and able to wreak all kinds of havoc
Speaker 1: on us if they want to, they mostly don't. They
Speaker 1: just go about their business while doing their best to
Speaker 1: steer clear of humans, and they don't even like human
Speaker 1: beings entering their space. So are they good? Are they evil?
Speaker 1: Are they our friends or our foes? If you recall
Speaker 1: the legend of King Solomon's Jinn's when they were eventually
Speaker 1: released from their bondage, they vow to be an enemy
Speaker 1: to mankind forever. But most scholars and experts say that
Speaker 1: you can't broadly label the gin as good or bad
Speaker 1: anymore than you can with people. According to a scholar
Speaker 1: of Arabic literature, so Nila Mubai, orthodox traditionalists say that
Speaker 1: people cannot understand the gin. We're either not capable of
Speaker 1: it or we're not meant to, but why not? It
Speaker 1: would seem they're not too much different than us. They
Speaker 1: feel anger, rage, happiness, lust, love, They have free will,
Speaker 1: they marry and have children, and they are countless stories
Speaker 1: of Gin studying alongside humans and earthly educational institutes, so
Speaker 1: it seems like they like to learn and grow just
Speaker 1: like us too. They live in families and tribes and societies,
Speaker 1: and their leaders governed peacefully, but will also wage war
Speaker 1: when necessary. The Gin characters found in Old Arab folklore
Speaker 1: are almost unnervingly human, facing the same kinds of troubles
Speaker 1: and issues we all do. I imagine Jin spouse is
Speaker 1: arguing over the bills, and Jin kids pouting over bedtime,
Speaker 1: and Jin grandparents spoiling their Jin grand babies. I think that,
Speaker 1: just like people, we tend not to hear about the
Speaker 1: silent majority of the Gin just living their lives. The
Speaker 1: stories we know about the Jin come from the opposite
Speaker 1: ends of the spectrum, the good ones, the helpers, or
Speaker 1: the very very bad ones. My name is Robbia Chadar,
Speaker 1: and I'll be your guide into the world of the
Speaker 1: hidden Gin. Welcome. While the universe may be full of Gin,
Speaker 1: most of them will live their lives completely unknown to us. Some, however,
Speaker 1: we know by name because of their power, or their
Speaker 1: stature in the Gin realm, or their impact on human lives.
Speaker 1: And one of the most famous of the ones that
Speaker 1: are named is a Jin whose life story reflects the
Speaker 1: complicated nature of these creatures. That Jin is King Schamharush,
Speaker 1: both demon and saint, feared and loved. The story of
Speaker 1: Chamharush is thousands of years old. He's one of the
Speaker 1: seven Jin kings who originally ruled the Jin kingdoms called
Speaker 1: alta Jar. The Flyer. King Chamharoush was known to be
Speaker 1: the fastest Jin, able to fly between physical places and dimensions,
Speaker 1: faster than any unit of measurement our feeble mortal minds
Speaker 1: could ever come up with. But there may be another
Speaker 1: reason he's called the flyer. It could be because of
Speaker 1: the speed of his vast communications network. King Chamharoush was
Speaker 1: way ahead of the social media and e messaging game,
Speaker 1: with a network that's been compared to a river with
Speaker 1: thousands of tributaries and each tributary branching into tens of
Speaker 1: thousands of smaller ones. The river itself a legion of
Speaker 1: Jin that report back to him, and each of these
Speaker 1: gin with the legion of their own, and those jin
Speaker 1: with allegiance of their own, all set up so that
Speaker 1: Schamharush not only knows what is happening in every part
Speaker 1: of the world, his world and ours, but he knows
Speaker 1: it virtually instantly. How's that for a grape vine. The
Speaker 1: name Shamharush itself means the usher a moniker he may
Speaker 1: have gotten because it's believed that while he might have
Speaker 1: been a king, he still did serve more powerful masters,
Speaker 1: and so the usher at King Shamharush stood guard at
Speaker 1: one of the entrances to Satan's palace and was directly
Speaker 1: in the service of the son of Satan, Prince Mora. Clearly,
Speaker 1: this king had allegiances to dark forces, I mean like
Speaker 1: he was tight with the worst of them, but it
Speaker 1: seems like he eventually saw the light. His legend predates
Speaker 1: Islam and Christianity, but it said that once Jesus came along,
Speaker 1: Shamharush apparently became a Christian, and six centuries later he
Speaker 1: met the prophet Mohammed, prompting him to then become a Muslim.
Speaker 1: Not only did he become a Muslim, though he became
Speaker 1: a GODDI a judge of Islamic law, presumably presiding over
Speaker 1: matters of religion in the Jinn world. That's what ultimately
Speaker 1: landed him the reputation of being a saint, long before
Speaker 1: he became a Christian or a Muslim, even before these
Speaker 1: religions existed. Actually, sham Haush was revered. We know this
Speaker 1: because almost two thousand four high up in the Atlas
Speaker 1: Mountains in Morocco, there stands a massive rock painted white
Speaker 1: with a green and white flag flying from its summit.
Speaker 1: It's not just any old rock. It's a shrine to
Speaker 1: King sham Haroush dating back thousands of years, and throughout
Speaker 1: the history of that shrine, seekers in need of help
Speaker 1: have flocked to it, making pilgrimages to ask the Jin's
Speaker 1: favor in granting their wishes, and they still do by
Speaker 1: the way. Eventually, though, when Islam did spread to the
Speaker 1: region about years ago, a mosque was installed next to
Speaker 1: the shrine. But the rock that forms a shrine is
Speaker 1: so big that it dwarfs the humble little mosque. The
Speaker 1: earth itself is hollowed out beneath the rock, and some
Speaker 1: say it's a zo liam that once held the remains
Speaker 1: of the Great Jin king himself. Now, it's not clear
Speaker 1: when or how cham Harous went from guarding Satan's palace
Speaker 1: to being venerated at a shrine, and it's also not
Speaker 1: clear if he's dead or alive. As I mentioned, some
Speaker 1: think the shrine is where the king is laid to rest,
Speaker 1: but others believe he's still very much alive and takes
Speaker 1: care of those who seek him out. One of the
Speaker 1: signs that he's still around is that food and water
Speaker 1: magically appear to pilgrims as they journey to his shrine,
Speaker 1: as befits his reputation for hospitality and benevolence. Cha Haroush's
Speaker 1: story is remarkable in that it means Gin, very much
Speaker 1: like humans, have a capacity for new beginnings. Even the
Speaker 1: most evil of them can turn their lives around. It's
Speaker 1: quite a redemption story, if you ask me, and it
Speaker 1: confirms the theory that Jin aren't fundamentally good or bad. Most,
Speaker 1: as I said earlier, just quietly stay in their lanes,
Speaker 1: living their lives and leaving us alone. But there are
Speaker 1: many stories of Gin entering our world when they want
Speaker 1: something from it. And no, I don't mean to haunt
Speaker 1: and possess and torture us. In fact, you'd be surprised
Speaker 1: at how ordinary their interests are. In the book Legends
Speaker 1: of the Fire Spirits, author Robert Lebling relays a contemporary
Speaker 1: story from a young Bangladeshi woman about her time as
Speaker 1: a college student at the University of Taka. The woman
Speaker 1: isn't named, but for the sake of the story will
Speaker 1: call her Maria. In the fall of Maria had moved
Speaker 1: out of the campus and into a dorm where she
Speaker 1: was assigned a roommate named Lucy. There is something, however,
Speaker 1: about Lucy that wasn't quite right. Lucy was beautiful in
Speaker 1: an extraordinary way. She had exceedingly bright eyes, a big,
Speaker 1: welcoming smile, a dimple and a mole on her left cheek,
Speaker 1: and she was tall with long, dark hair. Her beauty,
Speaker 1: said Maria, was unpaired. Allowed She wasn't just lovely on
Speaker 1: the outside, though she was incredibly kind, loving, amiable, and
Speaker 1: simply good. The two young women quickly became close friends,
Speaker 1: sharing secrets and confiding in each other, and said Maria,
Speaker 1: I could not but love her, and I am sure
Speaker 1: that she loved me the same. Over the course of
Speaker 1: the next few months, Maria noticed that Lucy would do
Speaker 1: inexplicable things like finished tasks and work faster than humanly possible.
Speaker 1: One night, Lucy went to visit another student and Maria
Speaker 1: waited up for her, knowing that she didn't have a
Speaker 1: key to the room. But eventually Maria got sleepy, so
Speaker 1: she decided she would just lock the dorm door and
Speaker 1: get up to open it when Lucy returned and knocked,
Speaker 1: so she fell asleep, but when she woke up a
Speaker 1: few hours later, she found Lucy in the room with her.
Speaker 1: Maria demanded to know how she got into the room,
Speaker 1: because she knew without a doubt that she had locked it,
Speaker 1: but Lucy assured her that no, the door was open
Speaker 1: when she got back. Maybe, she said, Maria was so
Speaker 1: drowsy that she imagined she had locked the door. Maria
Speaker 1: was sure that was not possible, and yet she had
Speaker 1: no other explanation for what had happened. The next day, though,
Speaker 1: everything became clear. It was Lucy's birthday on December thirteenth,
Speaker 1: so on the night of the summer twelve, Maria wanted
Speaker 1: to surprise her exactly at midnight with a necklace she
Speaker 1: had bought for her friend. As the clock approached twelve am,
Speaker 1: Lucy sat down in front of their shared dresser, brushing
Speaker 1: her hair, preparing for bed. Maria pulled out the gift
Speaker 1: and stood behind her roommate, wishing her a happy birthday.
Speaker 1: As she latched the necklace around Lucy's neck, Maria looked
Speaker 1: up into the mirror to see how the neck was
Speaker 1: looked on her friend, and to her shock and horror,
Speaker 1: the mirror held no reflection of Lucy at all. There
Speaker 1: was just a necklace suspended by itself an air Maria
Speaker 1: screamed and fainted, and when she came to, she was
Speaker 1: surrounded by other girls living in the dormitory who had
Speaker 1: heard scream. Lucy, however, was nowhere to be seen, and
Speaker 1: in fact, she would never be seen again. Maria was
Speaker 1: so shaken by all of this that she left school
Speaker 1: and returned home for a few months, not wanting to
Speaker 1: return to the university. Over time, though she felt guilt
Speaker 1: and regret, she remembered how wonderful Lucy was and what
Speaker 1: a great friend she had been, and realized that her
Speaker 1: terrified reaction had driven Lucy away because others told her
Speaker 1: that Lucy was probably a ginn who had taken human form.
Speaker 1: To study at the university, and it could have been that.
Speaker 1: After a few months with Maria, Lucy thought they were
Speaker 1: close enough to reveal her secret to her roommate, but
Speaker 1: instead it had backfired and Lucy had to quickly disappear.
Speaker 1: Maria eventually returned to the campus and was assigned a
Speaker 1: new roommate, a girl named Mini. Mini was like Lucy beautiful,
Speaker 1: although she didn't exactly look like her until she smiled.
Speaker 1: As smile that seemed oddly familiar, and that's when Maria
Speaker 1: noticed on Many's left cheek a dimple and a mole.
Speaker 1: Lucy story doesn't come as much of a surprise to me.
Speaker 1: I've actually heard firsthand accounts by people people I trust
Speaker 1: who are certain that some student or another they studied
Speaker 1: with years earlier was a gin. It seems to be
Speaker 1: a rather common theme the gin entering the human realm
Speaker 1: to study, though to be honest, I do have questions
Speaker 1: about their registration process, transcripts and finances, parent teacher conferences
Speaker 1: at all, but maybe I'm thinking too much into it.
Speaker 1: It may seem odd that the gin would want to
Speaker 1: go to human schools, but it's said that one of
Speaker 1: the ways a gin can increase their rank or power
Speaker 1: is through more knowledge. I mean, even we know that
Speaker 1: knowledge is power, and gaining knowledge is so important to
Speaker 1: some Gin. They not only enter our worlds to study
Speaker 1: alongside us, they also study the ancient texts of the
Speaker 1: past to grow ever more powerful. A legend relayed by
Speaker 1: the nineteenth century mystic Madame Helena Bolovatsky and her occult
Speaker 1: classic Isis Unveiled, tells of an ancient, petrified and buried
Speaker 1: city where the Jin pursue their studies. The city referred
Speaker 1: to is the three thousand, five hundred year old Ishmania,
Speaker 1: today known as Al Ashmunain, located in Middle Egypt and
Speaker 1: rumored to once be filled with the petrified bodies of men, women,
Speaker 1: and children. Ishmonia is found near the ruins of a
Speaker 1: vast and well known necropolis. This city of the dead
Speaker 1: is Hermopolis, which was once the opulent center of the
Speaker 1: cult of the pagan deity of Learning and Scribes, both
Speaker 1: known to the Greeks as Ermez. Archaeologists have uncovered a
Speaker 1: labyrinth of streets and catacombs and ruins related to the
Speaker 1: temple of both. But here the ground underneath your feet
Speaker 1: contains not only thousands of catacombs holding the mummified bodies
Speaker 1: of people and animals. According to Madame Blavatsky, there are
Speaker 1: also vast subterranean galleries filled with millions of manuscripts and scrolls,
Speaker 1: hidden archives holding the ancient writings of thought, the god
Speaker 1: believed to be the inventor of writing itself. And while
Speaker 1: the ruins stand lonely and unoccupied during the day, according
Speaker 1: to Madame Blavatsky, everything changes at night. For no amount
Speaker 1: of money would the Arabs go near it at night?
Speaker 1: They say, from the crevices of the desolate ruins, sunk
Speaker 1: deep in the unwatered sands of the desert stream, the
Speaker 1: rays of lights carried to and fro in the galleries
Speaker 1: by no human hands. The afrite Jin study the literature
Speaker 1: of the Andaluvian ages, and the Jin learns from the
Speaker 1: magic rolls the lesson of the following day. So yeah,
Speaker 1: the Gin definitely know the value of education and knowledge.
Speaker 1: These tales also provide us with a different and fascinating
Speaker 1: insight when it comes to how the Gin see themselves
Speaker 1: in relation to humans. And that's this. They may be
Speaker 1: so much more powerful than us in many ways, with
Speaker 1: supernatural abilities. We don't have, but we know things they don't.
Speaker 1: They may lift thousands of years more than us and
Speaker 1: witness events that we never could, and yet they lack
Speaker 1: something we have and they know it, which might be why,
Speaker 1: according to all of the Abrahamic faith traditions, at least
Speaker 1: mankind made of mere flesh and blood, is God's most
Speaker 1: superior creation. And that's not just me saying it, that's
Speaker 1: according to God himself. Human beings are superior to the angels,
Speaker 1: and yes to the Gin for sure. That could rub
Speaker 1: some gin the wrong way. And then, of course, remember,
Speaker 1: the Gin were here before us, thousands of years at
Speaker 1: least before then. We came along and took over the earth,
Speaker 1: God's new favorite children early on, though it might not
Speaker 1: have bothered them too much, because well before the advent
Speaker 1: of the Abrahamic religions, people not only believed in the Gin,
Speaker 1: but they worshiped them in ancient times. Scholars believe that
Speaker 1: the early divinities worshiped by the Sumerians, Babylonians, and Akkadians
Speaker 1: thousands of years ago were Gin deities, but the advent
Speaker 1: of monotheism turned people away from gin idolatry, further enraging
Speaker 1: them tolerating humans wasn't so bad as long as a
Speaker 1: Gin felt in some way superior to them, and then
Speaker 1: even that was taken away from them. According to the
Speaker 1: authors of the book The Vengeful Gin, here's a long
Speaker 1: history of perceived indignities and injustices the Gin have had
Speaker 1: to bear because of humans, and many of them have
Speaker 1: felt deeply wronged ever since we arrived on the scene
Speaker 1: and took it over. The Jin who once occupied this
Speaker 1: world now seek to reclaim it back from us, and
Speaker 1: if they can't have it back, they'll at least make
Speaker 1: our lives miserable for it. Some Jin get their kicks
Speaker 1: by playing harmless pranks on people, disappearing objects, moving things around,
Speaker 1: playing with our heads, nothing malicious, but sometimes a way
Speaker 1: to let a person know that they're around. But one
Speaker 1: of the ways they exert actual power over people, power
Speaker 1: that can be used to harm is through shape shifting,
Speaker 1: continuously deceiving our eyes while at the same time enticing
Speaker 1: us to them. There's a fascinating ancient story relaid by
Speaker 1: the scholar Amira al Zane in her book Islam, Arabs
Speaker 1: and the Intelligent World of the Gin that illustrates how
Speaker 1: the Gin go about their vengeance. In the story, a
Speaker 1: gin named Abu Hadraj recounts his days on earth to
Speaker 1: a man who was interrogating him about his life. Hadraj
Speaker 1: gains by explaining how the gin and mankind have been
Speaker 1: gifted different things. Man, he says, has the gift of stratagem,
Speaker 1: and the gin have the gift of power. I have
Speaker 1: suffered evil from men, and they from me. The children
Speaker 1: of Adam were evil to me, and I likewise treated them.
Speaker 1: Once I entered into their world, wanting to sleep with
Speaker 1: one of their maids, and I changed my shape into
Speaker 1: the form of a field rat, and the cats chased me.
Speaker 1: And when they got me, I shaped shifted into a
Speaker 1: striped serpent and slinked into a tree stump, but they
Speaker 1: uncovered me. I followed along the timbers plank, and while
Speaker 1: they were wondering where I was, I went to the Virgin,
Speaker 1: who was under a mosquito net. And when she saw me,
Speaker 1: the fear hit her that her family gathered around her
Speaker 1: from all sides and brought exorcists that called doctors, and
Speaker 1: they made every effort to revive her, but I did
Speaker 1: not respond. I clutched to her tightly, and when death
Speaker 1: hit her. I sought to replace her by another, then another,
Speaker 1: then another. Abu Hadraj killed the woman that he sought,
Speaker 1: the virgin. Yes, I know, it's always a virgin somehow.
Speaker 1: But he wasn't satisfied. His rage against mankind was so
Speaker 1: deep that he killed another, and another and another. The
Speaker 1: story ends in an interesting way, though the Jin confesses
Speaker 1: that he stopped killing young women when he saw the
Speaker 1: light of God and repented his sins, he says were
Speaker 1: now forgiven. This story was originally penned by the blind
Speaker 1: tenth century Syrian poet and philosopher Abu Almari, who wrote
Speaker 1: it in response to a topic of hot debate in
Speaker 1: that era, whether jin were good or evil, and whether
Speaker 1: they could make it to paradise after dying. The way
Speaker 1: that Almari wrote it, the jinn Abu Hadraj was telling
Speaker 1: his story from where he sat for eternity at the
Speaker 1: mouth of a cave in Paradise. So it seems the
Speaker 1: gin like man can find their way to heaven. A
Speaker 1: rather powerful redemption story. Given them many lives. This gin
Speaker 1: had taken lies of young women that apparently had done
Speaker 1: nothing to deserve the ire of this gin. But that's
Speaker 1: not always the case, though. While there are times a
Speaker 1: gin may choose their victim arbitrarily, more often than not
Speaker 1: there is some specific reason a gin will attack a person.
Speaker 1: Provoking them on purpose or not is one sure way
Speaker 1: to draw their vengeance. In traditional Arab culture, it was
Speaker 1: forbidden to casually cast a stone or a fruit pit
Speaker 1: into the open, or throw water out of a window,
Speaker 1: or drive stakes into the ground for fear of hurting
Speaker 1: a gin without meaning to, and particular care should be
Speaker 1: taken not to harm or encroach on places that the
Speaker 1: gin might live, like forests and caves and lakes. Pre
Speaker 1: modern Persian texts warned not to set wildfires or to
Speaker 1: throw waste into bodies of water or trash in the desert,
Speaker 1: because you might inadvertently be di throwing a gin's home
Speaker 1: and I can't help. But note it's also some great
Speaker 1: advice to keep the planet green and clean, so the
Speaker 1: next time you find yourself about to check some trash
Speaker 1: in the woods, you might want to rethink it. Just
Speaker 1: because you think no one can see you and no
Speaker 1: one lives there anyway doesn't mean it's true, and that's
Speaker 1: as good as any reason not to litter. You also
Speaker 1: never want to strike an animal, especially a black one,
Speaker 1: first because it's simply a terrible thing to do, but
Speaker 1: also because that could very well be agent in disguise,
Speaker 1: and doing something like that could very well turn and
Speaker 1: otherwise neutral Gin into your enemy, an enemy that is
Speaker 1: able to mentally and physically torment you, make you sick,
Speaker 1: possess you, even kill you. Although it's said that only
Speaker 1: the most evil of them go to those lengths. But
Speaker 1: perhaps one of the most frightening things that gin can
Speaker 1: do to humans is abduct them and carry them off
Speaker 1: into their own world. Stories of gin abductions stretched back
Speaker 1: to the Middle Ages, and there are a number of
Speaker 1: reasons people believe the abductions take place. Sometimes a gin
Speaker 1: will kidnap someone they've become obsessed with. Sometimes a person
Speaker 1: is dragged into their world to stand trial for an
Speaker 1: offense they committed against a gin. And sometimes the jin
Speaker 1: snatch up young children or babies, never to be seen again, unless,
Speaker 1: of course, they leave a change link a gin baby
Speaker 1: in exchange for a human baby. Not everyone disappears forever,
Speaker 1: though some return, and interestingly, the accounts of those who
Speaker 1: claim to have been kidnapped by gin in the centuries
Speaker 1: past are often very similar to moderate accounts of those
Speaker 1: claiming to have been abducted by aliens. The reason I
Speaker 1: think this is the most frightening possibility of all, and
Speaker 1: the worst thing a Jin could do to a human
Speaker 1: is because well, no one will ever know what happened
Speaker 1: to their loved one. A missing person, a missing child
Speaker 1: leaves open a gaping wound forever, a black hole of
Speaker 1: uncertainty and fear for those left behind death. In many ways,
Speaker 1: it's much easier to cope with now. The most common
Speaker 1: gin human relationship that most of us have heard about
Speaker 1: is the classic genie that grants three wishes scenario. Someone
Speaker 1: finds an object imprisoning a gin, and the gin bargains
Speaker 1: for their freedom or sometimes rewards it by granting a
Speaker 1: series of wishes. It might seem like a pretty innocuous
Speaker 1: set up, a straight deal, something that seems pretty appealing.
Speaker 1: In fact. I mean I know, as a kid, I
Speaker 1: rubbed plenty of old bottles hoping to gin would pop
Speaker 1: out and be under my command and control. What I
Speaker 1: didn't know is that in most cases the Gin are
Speaker 1: never under your command and control, not completely. Remember, they
Speaker 1: have free will, and they use that to outwit even
Speaker 1: their liberators. No story about a gin granting wishes ever
Speaker 1: ends happily. In the book The Vengeful Jin, the authors
Speaker 1: note that when asked to grant a wish, the Jin
Speaker 1: themselves will often warn the unsuspecting human that they may
Speaker 1: not be happy with the consequences of their wish. First
Speaker 1: of all, say the writers, the gin might be emerging
Speaker 1: from their captivity after thousands of years bitter, resentful, full
Speaker 1: of rage, rage against mankind for imprisoning them. And while
Speaker 1: they may or may not be essentially evil, their experience
Speaker 1: has made them so. That's why, no matter how carefully
Speaker 1: a wish is worded, a gin will find a way
Speaker 1: to outwit their liberator by granting the wish in a
Speaker 1: way that brings the person a lot of harm or pain. Oftentimes,
Speaker 1: in these stories, the person will regret their wishes and
Speaker 1: try to use the last of them to undo the
Speaker 1: earlier ones. Interestingly, a similar dynamic exists in Irish folklore
Speaker 1: with fairies, and as I've noted previously, many people consider
Speaker 1: fairies to be a kind of gin. A common theme
Speaker 1: in these stories is fairy brides who grant their human
Speaker 1: husbands all sorts of wishes, but with conditions. If any
Speaker 1: of these conditions are broken, even if it's years and
Speaker 1: decades later, everything will disappear into fairyland. The husband will
Speaker 1: not just lose everything he gained through his wishes, but
Speaker 1: he'll lose his fairy bride too. Another common theme in
Speaker 1: fairy stories is that they'll put arbitrary conditions on someone
Speaker 1: they've granted a wish to, for example, telling the human
Speaker 1: not to look back as they walk away, or not
Speaker 1: to look at whatever object they were granted until they
Speaker 1: get home. Of course, there's nothing like a restrictive condition
Speaker 1: that compels the human being to do exactly what they
Speaker 1: were told not to, and as soon as they break
Speaker 1: the condition, poof the prize disappears, Which brings us back
Speaker 1: to our original question, what to make of the gin?
Speaker 1: Are they our friends or our foes? Suffice it to
Speaker 1: say that, according to the experts, including the famed century
Speaker 1: theologian Ivantamia, the Jin are generally quote ignorant, untruthful, oppressive,
Speaker 1: and treacherous. There never ever to be trusted. They lie,
Speaker 1: make false promises, they break, are vindictive, and they are
Speaker 1: master deceivers. Their power may have limits, but in many
Speaker 1: ways we are no match for them. Even when we
Speaker 1: think we can control them, it's only for a matter
Speaker 1: of time. And remember time is on their side, not ours.
Speaker 1: If every ying has its yang, then the Jin are
Speaker 1: ours their fire to our earth, fighting for the same
Speaker 1: space on this planet. It seems in many ways we
Speaker 1: are and will forever be pitted against each other, both
Speaker 1: creatures wielding the most dangerous weapon of them all free will.
Speaker 1: Thanks for joining us this week. Next week we'll be
Speaker 1: bad to take you into another step into the world
Speaker 1: of the Gin. Until then, remember we are not alone.
Speaker 1: If you loved today's episode, I'm gonna ask you a
Speaker 1: big favor. Please stop my iTunes and leave me a
Speaker 1: rating and a review, even if it's just one short sentence.
Speaker 1: Not only is that how other listeners discover the podcast,
Speaker 1: but it's also what keeps the podcast going. And for
Speaker 1: every thousand reviews that I get on iTunes, I'll release
Speaker 1: another Patreon episode absolutely free. That's right, We're on Patreon,
Speaker 1: so if you're a Gin enthusiast, check out the Companion
Speaker 1: Patreon series at patreon dot com slash Hidden Jin. Again,
Speaker 1: that's patreon dot com slash Hidden Gin, and remember Jin
Speaker 1: is spelled d J I N N that's where you're
Speaker 1: gonna find an amazing series of interviews between me, scholars, experts, artist, historians,
Speaker 1: and every day lay people who have had extraordinary experiences
Speaker 1: with Jin and everybody can check out the first episode
Speaker 1: absolutely free. It's me and my husband sharing our Jen
Speaker 1: stories and it was a lot of fun. And if
Speaker 1: you have any Gin stories, well, I'd love to hear
Speaker 1: from you. Email me at the Hidden Gin at gmail
Speaker 1: dot com. Once again, it's The Hidden Gin Gin with
Speaker 1: a D at gmail dot com and you might just
Speaker 1: hear back from me, or you might hear your story
Speaker 1: on this show. And finally, don't forget to follow us
Speaker 1: on social media. We're on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram with
Speaker 1: the handle the Hidden Gin. There you can tweet, post, insta,
Speaker 1: dm me. I'd love to hear from all of you,
Speaker 1: and believe me, I read every single message. The Hidden
Speaker 1: Gin is a production of I Heart Radio and Grimm
Speaker 1: and Mild from Aaron Mankey. The podcast is written and
Speaker 1: hosted by Robbia Chaudry and produced by Miranda Hawkins and
Speaker 1: Trevor Young, with executive producers Aaron Mankey, Alex Williams, and
Speaker 1: Matt Frederick. Music for the show was provided by Smithsonian
Speaker 1: Folkways Recordings. Our theme song was created by Patrick Cortez.
Speaker 1: For more podcasts from I heart Radio, visit the I
Speaker 1: heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.