WEBVTT - Stuff to Blow Your Mind Live: Stranger Science 0:00:00.120 --> 0:00:03.440 Hey everybody, today, we've got a special treat for you. 0:00:03.560 --> 0:00:05.880 This is a live episode of Stuff to Blow Your Mind, 0:00:05.920 --> 0:00:09.480 recorded on Friday, October six that the Hudson Mercantile in 0:00:09.480 --> 0:00:12.639 New York. This was an event associated with New York 0:00:12.640 --> 0:00:14.360 Comic Con, not a part of the con, one of 0:00:14.360 --> 0:00:17.720 those adjacent happenings. We had a nice, friendly crowd come out. 0:00:17.720 --> 0:00:20.599 It was really good to see y'all. And uh so, 0:00:20.680 --> 0:00:28.680 without any further ado, here's the episode. Welcome to Stuff 0:00:28.720 --> 0:00:37.920 to Blow Your Mind from housetop work dot com. Hey everybody, 0:00:37.920 --> 0:00:43.680 how you doing? Hey, nice cozy crowd. Did everybody grab 0:00:43.760 --> 0:00:47.120 some some shirts or some buttons or shirts and buttons? 0:00:47.720 --> 0:00:51.360 Stuff is legit free. Yeah. In fact, we don't want 0:00:51.360 --> 0:00:54.000 to bring any of it back home, so grab more 0:00:54.000 --> 0:00:56.600 of it until there's none. You can't regift it for 0:00:56.720 --> 0:01:04.600 Christmas or Halloween. Car for Halloween. Yeah. So this is 0:01:04.600 --> 0:01:06.920 the Stuff to Blow your Own podcast. How many of 0:01:06.959 --> 0:01:11.280 you guys listen to this show? You know to expect Okay, cool, 0:01:11.319 --> 0:01:13.399 But who's a newbie here who's never heard us before? 0:01:14.280 --> 0:01:17.360 Get ready? The pressure is uncle I press you then, 0:01:18.080 --> 0:01:21.319 uh we're pretty weird. Um, we might make you uncomfortable. 0:01:21.959 --> 0:01:26.200 I hope you're who Who's Well, we'll get into this 0:01:26.360 --> 0:01:28.840 at the beginning. But yeah, so basically we're recording. This 0:01:28.880 --> 0:01:32.200 is gonna publish next week. Uh So we're gonna start 0:01:32.200 --> 0:01:34.920 the show like we normally do, and it's recording over there, 0:01:35.040 --> 0:01:39.080 and then we'll just proceed as normal and then hopefully 0:01:39.120 --> 0:01:44.639 afterwards we'll have a couple of minutes to hang out. Yeah, definitely, Okay, cool, 0:01:45.840 --> 0:01:48.240 all right, well let's kick it off. Hey, welcome to 0:01:48.280 --> 0:01:50.520 Stuff to Blow Your Mind. My name is Robert Lamb, 0:01:50.640 --> 0:01:53.360 and I'm Christian Saga and I'm Joe McCormick. So if 0:01:53.400 --> 0:01:55.560 you are not familiar with us, if you're one of 0:01:55.600 --> 0:01:57.520 those newbies out there who raised your hand, we are 0:01:57.560 --> 0:01:59.520 the hosts of the Stuff to Blow Your Mind podcast, 0:02:00.000 --> 0:02:02.320 which is a science podcast of the How Stuff Works 0:02:02.320 --> 0:02:04.880 office in Atlanta. The core of our show is science, 0:02:04.920 --> 0:02:07.720 but we take a pretty interdisciplinary approach, so we get 0:02:07.760 --> 0:02:13.399 into philosophy, religion, mythology, history, pop culture of course, and 0:02:13.440 --> 0:02:15.880 that's where we're going tonight. So, because we're here at 0:02:15.880 --> 0:02:17.520 the same time as New York Comic Con, how many 0:02:17.520 --> 0:02:19.400 of you are actually going to New York Comic Con? 0:02:20.960 --> 0:02:22.920 So a lot. Okay, we were worried. There was like 0:02:23.040 --> 0:02:26.200 confusion about whether or not you could come if you 0:02:26.240 --> 0:02:29.639 weren't a part of New York Comic Con. Yeah, were 0:02:29.639 --> 0:02:34.400 you confused? I was confused? All right, is anybody here 0:02:34.440 --> 0:02:40.960 in costume? No? Yeah? Okay, sort of okay, Um. So yeah, 0:02:41.000 --> 0:02:42.919 So we that we were doing this at the same 0:02:42.919 --> 0:02:44.480 times New York Comic Cons, So they were like, can 0:02:44.520 --> 0:02:47.240 you do something pop culture related? And we talked about 0:02:47.240 --> 0:02:50.919 it for a bit um and we decided, hey, how 0:02:50.960 --> 0:02:54.840 about the science of the show Stranger Things, because we 0:02:54.880 --> 0:02:58.919 have fans of Stranger Things out there. Yeah, let's dude, 0:02:59.080 --> 0:03:02.760 raise your hand if you have not seeing Stranger Things. Okay, Okay, 0:03:02.800 --> 0:03:07.919 we're gonna try. But we're gonna talk about how science 0:03:07.960 --> 0:03:11.280 relates to the show. We might drop a couple of things, 0:03:11.600 --> 0:03:14.360 because that's one of the really cool things about Stranger 0:03:14.400 --> 0:03:16.960 Things is that, you know, it's a fabulous show that's 0:03:17.000 --> 0:03:19.600 chock full of nostalgia, but they do a great job 0:03:19.919 --> 0:03:24.720 of bringing some science and some tantalizing pseudoscience, uh into 0:03:24.760 --> 0:03:28.480 the show, sometimes just as kind of window dressing, but 0:03:28.480 --> 0:03:32.680 but it adds to just the potency of the show. Yeah, 0:03:32.680 --> 0:03:36.480 we actually have a quote from a physics expert. Later 0:03:36.520 --> 0:03:40.720 on he spoke to them and basically said, those guys 0:03:40.720 --> 0:03:43.600 did their homework, so that that made it even more 0:03:43.640 --> 0:03:45.800 fun for us to cover this for an episode because 0:03:45.800 --> 0:03:48.480 there's a lot to dig into. Right. So season two 0:03:48.640 --> 0:03:51.200 is coming up. We're big fans of the show, so 0:03:51.400 --> 0:03:54.560 we're gonna talk about a few subjects related to plot 0:03:54.560 --> 0:03:57.280 points in the show. We're going to be talking about 0:03:57.280 --> 0:04:01.880 Parallel Universe, is government psychic research, and the real life 0:04:01.880 --> 0:04:04.160 figure in the history of twentieth century science who we 0:04:04.200 --> 0:04:07.480 think inspired. Is it fair to say he's the favorite 0:04:07.520 --> 0:04:10.360 character of all three of us? Dr Brenner. Oh yeah, 0:04:11.000 --> 0:04:15.280 played by the one and only Matthew Modine. Hey, do 0:04:15.320 --> 0:04:17.720 you guys remember when Matthew Modine used to follow us 0:04:17.720 --> 0:04:19.800 on Twitter? He did follow us on Twitter for like 0:04:19.800 --> 0:04:22.920 a week and a half and when that was like 0:04:22.960 --> 0:04:26.600 the highlight of our careers. Uh So, Matthew Modine followed us, 0:04:26.600 --> 0:04:28.479 and Robert and I did a high five, and then 0:04:28.520 --> 0:04:31.280 like maybe a month later he unfollowed us. And then 0:04:31.320 --> 0:04:33.640 a month after that, Stranger Things came out and we 0:04:33.640 --> 0:04:37.440 were like, what's going on here? We watched the show 0:04:37.560 --> 0:04:40.680 and we were like, wait a minute, Matthew Modine is 0:04:40.680 --> 0:04:43.200 playing John C. Lily in this and John C. Lily 0:04:43.240 --> 0:04:44.760 is one of our favorites, Like if you ever listened 0:04:44.760 --> 0:04:46.200 to the show, we bring him up pretty much every 0:04:46.240 --> 0:04:49.800 episode and we have a whole episode all about him. Yeah, yeah, 0:04:49.839 --> 0:04:52.000 we do. And some of you might be wondering who 0:04:52.040 --> 0:04:54.160 is John C. Lily? What does he look like? Well 0:04:54.160 --> 0:04:56.760 I'm gonna explain some of this, but also you all 0:04:56.760 --> 0:04:59.520 have tiny pocket computers in your possession. We will not 0:04:59.560 --> 0:05:01.680 be a finn did if you look up John C. 0:05:01.880 --> 0:05:04.320 Lily or if you need a refresher on what Doctor 0:05:04.320 --> 0:05:09.400 Brenner looks like, I will refresh you though. Uh. Doctor Brenner, 0:05:09.440 --> 0:05:13.720 of course, played by Matthew Mdeen. Silver hair, as you recall, glorious, 0:05:13.880 --> 0:05:18.680 glorious silver hair. Uh you know slim tank. Pardon his hair? 0:05:18.760 --> 0:05:22.600 Do you think it's natural? Oh? Yeah, silver, that's the 0:05:22.640 --> 0:05:28.560 actual color. Yeah. But Brenner, as he's uh presented in 0:05:28.600 --> 0:05:33.840 the show, he's obsessed with, I think, connecting with other minds. 0:05:33.839 --> 0:05:36.240 So for part of that show, it's connecting with human minds, 0:05:36.240 --> 0:05:38.719 and then it becomes more about connecting with these extra 0:05:38.720 --> 0:05:43.839 dimensional minds. Andy he initiates this contact with other people 0:05:44.000 --> 0:05:48.119 with extra dimensional beings through an isolation tank, a float 0:05:48.160 --> 0:05:51.240 tank and uh and and then uses that float tank 0:05:51.279 --> 0:05:55.440 to enhance Eleven's psychic powers. Okay, so give me the 0:05:55.480 --> 0:05:58.039 compare and contrast essay, how does that compare with the 0:05:58.120 --> 0:06:00.920 real John C. Lily? Okay, So for starters, John C. 0:06:01.080 --> 0:06:04.800 Lily invented the isolation tank. Everybody out there, if you've 0:06:04.839 --> 0:06:07.720 ever gone and floated somewhere, you can thank John C. 0:06:07.920 --> 0:06:10.960 Lily for bringing this into the world. In addition, he 0:06:11.000 --> 0:06:14.000 was a pioneer in the field of electronic brain and stimulation. 0:06:14.360 --> 0:06:16.960 He mapped the pain and pleasure pathways of the brain, 0:06:17.440 --> 0:06:21.720 and he founded an entire branch of science sixploring interspecies communication, 0:06:22.760 --> 0:06:25.919 mostly between humans and dolphins. He also got into a 0:06:25.920 --> 0:06:28.800 good bit of trouble with all that, but we'll touch 0:06:28.839 --> 0:06:31.680 on that a little bit later on. He also really 0:06:31.720 --> 0:06:34.160 dirty details, So you should you should listen to the 0:06:34.240 --> 0:06:36.479 episode that we did just right. We did an episode 0:06:36.600 --> 0:06:38.200 a year ago. I'll give you I'll give you a 0:06:38.240 --> 0:06:41.040 quick hint and then we'll just move on because we're 0:06:41.080 --> 0:06:42.920 not going to talk about this here. But it involves 0:06:43.000 --> 0:06:46.800 sexual relations with dolphins. And it's pretty great. Yeah, they're 0:06:47.200 --> 0:06:52.800 not really between Lily himself, but one of Lily at 0:06:52.839 --> 0:06:55.840 the time was too busy taking massive quantities that all 0:06:55.920 --> 0:06:58.120 us to be floating himself. He didn't have time for 0:06:58.160 --> 0:07:00.760 that stuff. Yeah, and and and using this experience to 0:07:00.800 --> 0:07:04.599 try and connect with the alien intelligence of dolphins. So 0:07:05.040 --> 0:07:08.599 we have these two, these two figures right and on 0:07:08.720 --> 0:07:12.240 again Brenner on the show is this, uh, you know, 0:07:12.360 --> 0:07:13.920 very well put together an old guy in the old 0:07:13.920 --> 0:07:17.400 fashioned suit. If you look up pictures of Lily, you 0:07:17.440 --> 0:07:20.080 will find images of a man and like an older 0:07:20.120 --> 0:07:24.040 man in brightly colored like loud shirts and sometimes the 0:07:24.160 --> 0:07:27.880 coon skin cap. He dresses up like he's like about 0:07:27.920 --> 0:07:30.200 to fight the Battle of the ALBUMO. Yeah. He he 0:07:30.400 --> 0:07:34.120 is dressed like you would expect a counter culture Timothy 0:07:34.200 --> 0:07:37.440 Leary esque figure to dress. And so you might say, well, 0:07:37.640 --> 0:07:40.960 Brenner doesn't look anything like that. What possible connection could 0:07:40.960 --> 0:07:42.880 there be? Well, I was looking at a two thousand 0:07:42.920 --> 0:07:46.800 sixteen interview with Observer dot Com, and Matthew Modine himself 0:07:46.880 --> 0:07:50.160 mentioned that the Duffer Brothers originally envisioned Brenner as quote, 0:07:50.200 --> 0:07:53.640 an unshaven man in jeans and plaid shirts. And then 0:07:53.680 --> 0:07:56.520 Modine worked with the Duffers to sort of flesh this 0:07:56.600 --> 0:07:59.680 out and change it. Uh. Modine says that he drew 0:07:59.720 --> 0:08:03.640 on elements from Anna Atome, Alfred Hitchcock, Carry Grant, and 0:08:03.720 --> 0:08:07.120 Lawrence Olivier and stuff to blow your mind. Well, he 0:08:07.240 --> 0:08:10.760 clearly clearly followed us on Twitter solely so that we 0:08:10.760 --> 0:08:12.360 could help him figure out how to dress for this 0:08:12.400 --> 0:08:17.280 TV show alleged. Allegedly, Uh, Matthew, are you here? No, 0:08:17.360 --> 0:08:19.720 I don't think he showed. Not yet. Well, hopefully by 0:08:19.720 --> 0:08:22.160 the help him in like him in might be late. Okay. 0:08:22.280 --> 0:08:26.160 The crazy part though, is that this this version of 0:08:26.160 --> 0:08:28.360 a lily S figure that we get on Stranger Things. 0:08:28.480 --> 0:08:32.160 He may not resemble that counterculture uh John C. Lily, 0:08:32.200 --> 0:08:35.920 but he definitely resembles the establishment John C. Lily that 0:08:36.000 --> 0:08:38.839 came before him. So there's like a John cy Lily 0:08:39.000 --> 0:08:42.120 arc where he first he's this buttoned up guy, and 0:08:42.120 --> 0:08:45.040 then later he becomes this cross between sort of like 0:08:45.080 --> 0:08:47.880 George Lucas in the seventies. And if you've ever seen 0:08:47.880 --> 0:08:51.800 the Mystery Science Theater episode Final Sacrifice, remember the old 0:08:51.840 --> 0:08:54.840 prospector Pepper Pepper. Yeah, yeah, he did kind of look 0:08:54.880 --> 0:08:57.600 like Pepper but when he was younger, he was just 0:08:57.679 --> 0:09:01.760 kind of this square looking but scary I will say, 0:09:01.840 --> 0:09:06.080 scary government scientists. Um, let me just take a minute 0:09:06.080 --> 0:09:09.680 to to roll through some of the uh, basically, the 0:09:09.679 --> 0:09:12.400 background of John C. Lily So. John C. Really earned 0:09:12.440 --> 0:09:15.840 his physics degree from cal Tech in ninety eight, his 0:09:15.960 --> 0:09:20.160 doctor in Medicine from the University of Pennsylvania nWo, and 0:09:20.200 --> 0:09:23.920 as a faculty member he studied biophysics and psychoanalysis at 0:09:23.920 --> 0:09:27.480 the University of Pennsylvania, and he was primarily interested in 0:09:27.520 --> 0:09:30.760 the physical structures of the brain and the seat of 0:09:30.760 --> 0:09:33.440 the conscious self. So even when he was before he 0:09:33.480 --> 0:09:37.760 got all um enlightened, uh, he was, he was still 0:09:37.880 --> 0:09:41.040 very interested in connecting with other minds. That was always 0:09:41.040 --> 0:09:44.280 this thing, whether it's physically or via the use of 0:09:44.400 --> 0:09:48.040 LSD later on. But despite the unorthodox nature of his research, 0:09:48.080 --> 0:09:51.040 he did do a fair amount of working for the man, right, Yes, 0:09:51.120 --> 0:09:54.199 a fair amount. Basically he wanted to pursue his own 0:09:54.200 --> 0:09:57.360 agenda and if the man was going to use him to, 0:09:57.760 --> 0:10:01.160 you know, to create ways to torment and and extract 0:10:01.240 --> 0:10:03.600 information from Cold World War spies, and he was on 0:10:03.600 --> 0:10:08.240 board until he started cutting up the brains of macaques 0:10:08.280 --> 0:10:10.840 and dolphins. Yeah. So he did this for about a 0:10:10.880 --> 0:10:15.160 decade working for the National Institutes of Mental Health or NIM. Uh. 0:10:15.200 --> 0:10:18.440 Did he make those really smart rats? Well, mostly he 0:10:18.440 --> 0:10:20.599 worked on maccaux uh. And he had he did a 0:10:20.679 --> 0:10:25.520 lot of invasive cortical visa section. So again, not already 0:10:25.520 --> 0:10:28.160 he's off to some kind of nefarious work. I think 0:10:28.160 --> 0:10:29.959 a lot of us would agree. He had a pretty 0:10:30.000 --> 0:10:34.160 high security clearance. J Edgar Hoover allegedly knew him by name, 0:10:34.960 --> 0:10:38.800 and his projects that he was involved with included reprogramming 0:10:38.840 --> 0:10:44.000 or brainwashing, sleep deprivation, and the operant control of animals 0:10:44.080 --> 0:10:48.400 via wires and planted in their brain. Yeah. So some 0:10:48.440 --> 0:10:52.240 pretty scary stuff. And according to de Graham Burnett's excellent 0:10:52.280 --> 0:10:56.160 O Ryan article A Mind and Water, Lily's unpublished paper 0:10:56.280 --> 0:11:00.280 Special Considerations of Modified Human Agents as reconnaiss sen and 0:11:00.360 --> 0:11:05.280 Intelligence Devices UH included this quote. Uh he wrote of 0:11:05.920 --> 0:11:11.040 quote A Coort Covort, he wrote a covert and relatively 0:11:11.160 --> 0:11:14.960 safe implantation of electrodes into the human brain for the 0:11:15.040 --> 0:11:19.000 quote push button control of the totality of motivation and 0:11:19.080 --> 0:11:21.959 of consciousness. So, but just to be clear here, he 0:11:22.040 --> 0:11:26.040 didn't put electrodes in the brain of eleven year old 0:11:26.040 --> 0:11:30.319 girls with shaped heads. Uh, there's no arts that he actually, 0:11:30.480 --> 0:11:32.440 you know, did any of this to human being, But 0:11:32.480 --> 0:11:34.760 he was he was up for it. If if I think, 0:11:34.800 --> 0:11:37.520 if he would have been given me okay, is like 0:11:37.600 --> 0:11:41.200 you feel like putting an implant in somebody's brain this weekend, Yeah, 0:11:41.559 --> 0:11:43.200 he would have been. He would have been game because 0:11:43.400 --> 0:11:45.360 you really get the impression that he was. He was 0:11:45.760 --> 0:11:48.880 all in on anything scary the government wanted him to 0:11:48.880 --> 0:11:51.960 do so long as it, you know, pursued his interest 0:11:52.000 --> 0:11:55.800 in connecting with other minds. This ended up leading him 0:11:55.800 --> 0:12:00.360 to conducting some experimentation with dolphins in Florida, and it 0:12:00.480 --> 0:12:03.240 was here where he began to have this empathic connection 0:12:03.280 --> 0:12:05.920 with dolphins. He began to like, he performed a vivisection 0:12:05.960 --> 0:12:08.640 on on a dolphin, and due to some of the 0:12:08.720 --> 0:12:12.120 quirks of dolphin physiology, you could not actually put the 0:12:12.120 --> 0:12:14.520 dolphin under for this, so it was like a live, 0:12:14.679 --> 0:12:18.640 conscious davisection of the dolphin's brain. And this this had 0:12:18.679 --> 0:12:21.160 a profound impact on Lily. He ended up going down 0:12:21.160 --> 0:12:25.240 this path um of promoting the welfare of dolphins, promoting 0:12:25.280 --> 0:12:29.120 the the higher intelligence of dolphins. So he really he 0:12:29.200 --> 0:12:32.000 really helped bring about a cultural shift in how we 0:12:32.400 --> 0:12:35.760 perceive this animal, that it's not just another dumb animal 0:12:35.760 --> 0:12:37.719 in the water, but it's something that we should we 0:12:37.760 --> 0:12:40.480 should value, that we should protect even and we wouldn't 0:12:40.520 --> 0:12:42.520 have we wouldn't have Flipper if it were not for 0:12:42.640 --> 0:12:45.439 John C. Lily. So actually, this is a good point. 0:12:45.760 --> 0:12:47.560 I probably should have brought this up earlier. But there 0:12:47.600 --> 0:12:51.200 are two movies that you've probably seen that are very 0:12:51.240 --> 0:12:54.720 heavily based on John C. Lily's life, the first of 0:12:54.760 --> 0:12:58.520 which is Altered States. Uh, and we'll talk more about 0:12:58.520 --> 0:13:00.280 that later when we get into the isolation to banks. 0:13:00.520 --> 0:13:02.880 But has anybody seen the film The Day of the 0:13:02.920 --> 0:13:08.560 Dolphin with George C. Scott? No one, Scotts all right, 0:13:08.760 --> 0:13:11.160 so this isn't you go find it. This is a 0:13:11.160 --> 0:13:13.679 movie where George C. Scott essentially plays John C. Lily 0:13:13.720 --> 0:13:17.040 and he teaches dolphins to talk and and to love 0:13:17.360 --> 0:13:19.880 and to love. Yeah, so like they call him fa 0:13:20.120 --> 0:13:23.640 he's their father and they say things like fall loves pa. Uh. 0:13:23.679 --> 0:13:26.160 It's great. Go watch it if you want to see 0:13:26.320 --> 0:13:29.920 George C. Scott just hanging out with dolphins. But the 0:13:29.920 --> 0:13:32.920 other thing that we wouldn't have without him. He didn't. 0:13:33.120 --> 0:13:35.160 He didn't influence this movie in terms of that it 0:13:35.200 --> 0:13:39.079 was about him. But the creature from the Black Lagoons, right, Yeah, 0:13:39.200 --> 0:13:43.800 the guy who played the creature worked on Flipper and 0:13:43.880 --> 0:13:46.959 worked with John C. Lily while he was down in Florida, 0:13:47.040 --> 0:13:49.280 So yeah we can. We can thank him for the creature. 0:13:49.360 --> 0:13:52.320 And I would argue that if if anyone ever gets 0:13:52.360 --> 0:13:54.880 around to actually remaking the creature from the Black Lagoon, 0:13:55.640 --> 0:13:59.240 they should. They should take inspiration from John C. Lily 0:13:59.360 --> 0:14:03.280 story and from Altered States and use that to bring 0:14:03.360 --> 0:14:05.520 us a proper creature film. Yeah, you get a creature 0:14:05.720 --> 0:14:09.360 from the lack Black Lagoon with LSD and isolation tanks 0:14:09.360 --> 0:14:11.800 and dolphins throwing some dolphins. I'm on board. Yeah, yeah, 0:14:11.840 --> 0:14:14.840 it'd be great Instead of like Tom Cruise running around, 0:14:14.840 --> 0:14:19.880 I want to just doing exposition for thirty minutes. Wait, 0:14:19.920 --> 0:14:22.960 so I have a question about y'all's predictions for Stranger Things. 0:14:23.000 --> 0:14:25.720 Do you think in upcoming seasons we're going to see 0:14:25.920 --> 0:14:29.920 Matthew Modine's character follow the same arc as John C. 0:14:30.080 --> 0:14:32.640 Lily throughout his life, So will he coming back? He'll 0:14:32.680 --> 0:14:37.760 come back in future seasons Hawaiian shirts, Beard long ponytail 0:14:37.920 --> 0:14:41.400 gained a significant amount of weight doing you know LSD 0:14:41.600 --> 0:14:43.720 orgies and stuff. Yeah, I hope, so, I hope by 0:14:43.760 --> 0:14:47.240 season four he is is wearing the coonskin hat and 0:14:47.240 --> 0:14:49.160 and helping the kids out. So I didn't think about this, 0:14:49.760 --> 0:14:55.560 but I mean, you know, this is a ending was 0:14:55.680 --> 0:14:58.240 left open. Let's put it that way. Maybe he's from 0:14:58.240 --> 0:15:01.920 a parallel universe, this other Matthew Modine. Oh my goodness, 0:15:01.960 --> 0:15:05.800 we could have multiple um doctor Brenners in one versions 0:15:05.840 --> 0:15:08.240 of Brenner and Lily together at once. I like it 0:15:08.400 --> 0:15:13.800 floating in a tank taking LSD. Thank So I want 0:15:13.800 --> 0:15:17.280 to shift now to explore a different element of stranger things, 0:15:17.320 --> 0:15:20.680 which is of course the government psychic research being conducted 0:15:20.880 --> 0:15:24.400 at Hawkins Laboratory, Hawkins National Lab. I think in the 0:15:24.440 --> 0:15:27.400 show that they say is being carried out by the 0:15:27.440 --> 0:15:29.880 Department of Energy. Uh so I want I'm gonna put 0:15:29.920 --> 0:15:32.160 you in a scenario. See if you can go into 0:15:32.160 --> 0:15:35.680 this place with your mind. Imagine you are a Defense 0:15:35.760 --> 0:15:39.840 Department analyst in about the spring of nineteen seventy and 0:15:39.920 --> 0:15:42.600 so you're just gonna be washed head to toe in 0:15:42.720 --> 0:15:46.480 cold war paranoia. You've heard these rumors about a secret 0:15:46.520 --> 0:15:50.240 electronic warfare device saimed at the American embassy in Moscow, 0:15:50.840 --> 0:15:53.800 And there are also these rumors about weird LSD mind 0:15:53.840 --> 0:15:56.720 control experiments going on over at c I A. You 0:15:56.800 --> 0:15:59.760 get the sense that we're in an age of unconventional 0:15:59.800 --> 0:16:03.160 war are fair, where these strange new technologies are going 0:16:03.200 --> 0:16:06.360 to change the balance of power across the globe and 0:16:06.400 --> 0:16:10.640 you don't want to fall behind. Sounds like right now, Yeah, 0:16:10.720 --> 0:16:13.600 except I guess a little less focused on like social media, 0:16:13.760 --> 0:16:17.280 and you know it's Facebook for drones and more on 0:16:17.560 --> 0:16:21.640 like controlling people's minds and killing people with electronics with 0:16:21.920 --> 0:16:25.240 electromagnetic beams. Well, the thing is in an age before 0:16:25.280 --> 0:16:28.080 social media, Like let me, social media is kind of 0:16:28.120 --> 0:16:32.240 this weird and sorcery that connects all of these minds together. 0:16:32.280 --> 0:16:34.160 And before you had that, you the only thing you 0:16:34.160 --> 0:16:39.240 had was the possibility, however distant of of psychic communication, right, 0:16:39.280 --> 0:16:41.360 I mean, why would we need to do psychic research 0:16:41.440 --> 0:16:45.040 now when you can just get in somebody's news feed? Yeah? Anyway, 0:16:45.080 --> 0:16:50.000 I mean sadly, I mean the research is it's remarkably 0:16:50.280 --> 0:16:53.400 cold alter someone's mind through I mean, not in a 0:16:53.400 --> 0:16:56.480 science fictional way, but in a very very scary real 0:16:56.520 --> 0:16:59.000 way that went to a scary place. Okay, now let's 0:16:59.000 --> 0:17:01.200 go back to the Cold War where it's fine. So 0:17:01.520 --> 0:17:04.280 you're this analyst in nineteen seventy. One of your superiors 0:17:04.280 --> 0:17:06.639 calls you in for a meeting in a secured room. 0:17:06.680 --> 0:17:10.320 There is a projector screen and somebody puts up. Somebody 0:17:10.320 --> 0:17:13.159 gets a film going, and a title card announces that 0:17:13.240 --> 0:17:16.840 the following experiment took place at the Oktomski Military Institute 0:17:16.840 --> 0:17:19.840 in Leningrad on March tenth of this year. Then you 0:17:19.880 --> 0:17:23.240 see a forty something woman, big bun of dark hair. 0:17:23.600 --> 0:17:26.359 She seated at a table, and next to her is 0:17:26.400 --> 0:17:29.840 a man identified as Ganadi Sergeyev, who is a military 0:17:29.960 --> 0:17:34.200 Soviet military physician, and seated uh so on the table 0:17:34.200 --> 0:17:36.320 in front of the woman. Somebody comes in and they 0:17:36.359 --> 0:17:40.679 set down a small jar containing a throbbing black lump. 0:17:41.520 --> 0:17:44.679 It's a frog's heart and it's still beating now. The 0:17:44.720 --> 0:17:48.399 film explains that the extracted amphibian heart has been placed 0:17:48.400 --> 0:17:50.840 in what's known as Ringer's solution. It's a solution of 0:17:50.880 --> 0:17:54.160 salts that can keep muscles pumping even after they've been 0:17:54.359 --> 0:17:58.040 separated from circulation. Uh, and from their electrical stimuli in 0:17:58.040 --> 0:17:59.479 the body. It's kind of like how if you if 0:17:59.480 --> 0:18:01.480 you ever seen the trick where you salt frog's legs, 0:18:01.560 --> 0:18:04.560 they'll start to twitch um. And it's known that the 0:18:04.640 --> 0:18:07.560 Ringer's solution can keep a frog's heart beating, usually for 0:18:07.600 --> 0:18:10.919 about an hour. The heart is connected by wires to 0:18:10.960 --> 0:18:13.960 an electro cardiogram and e KG and so is the 0:18:13.960 --> 0:18:17.479 woman seated at the table, and then Dr Sergeyev tells 0:18:17.520 --> 0:18:20.520 her to begin. So the woman puts her hands on 0:18:20.560 --> 0:18:24.040 the table and she glares at the beating frog heart, 0:18:24.520 --> 0:18:27.520 and her heart rate increases and her blood pressure increases. 0:18:27.560 --> 0:18:31.480 And the film also claims that quote heightened biological luminescence 0:18:31.600 --> 0:18:35.720 radiated from her eyes, which I can imagine that she 0:18:35.840 --> 0:18:38.560 was doing the like psychic powers thing, like holding her 0:18:38.560 --> 0:18:42.480 temples really heard and squinting, but you know, her eyes glowed, 0:18:42.960 --> 0:18:44.480 that's what they say. I mean, it's hard to tell 0:18:44.520 --> 0:18:48.560 in black and white, right, But anyway, after about seven 0:18:48.600 --> 0:18:51.600 minutes of this just staring at this throbbing black lump, 0:18:51.840 --> 0:18:56.600 the frog's heart abruptly seizes and stops beating. Then she 0:18:56.720 --> 0:19:00.479 does it with a second frog heart when yeah, so 0:19:00.520 --> 0:19:04.720 they bringing another. Somebody's got an ice cream scoop back there, 0:19:04.760 --> 0:19:10.600 and they're just going to town on the table. I 0:19:10.640 --> 0:19:12.840 think a melon baller would be more appropriate. I think 0:19:12.880 --> 0:19:16.119 you can really get him there with the Uh. Yeah, 0:19:16.200 --> 0:19:19.000 so she's I don't know what frogs did to her, 0:19:19.040 --> 0:19:21.600 but she's she's killing the hearts and I guess the 0:19:21.600 --> 0:19:24.919 frogs probably don't mind at this point. But next she 0:19:25.040 --> 0:19:29.920 turns her attention to what's identified as a skeptical doctor 0:19:30.240 --> 0:19:32.760 in the room, and he doesn't believe any of this, 0:19:32.880 --> 0:19:37.200 but she concentrates on raising his heart rate telekinetically, and 0:19:37.240 --> 0:19:39.760 this goes on for about five minutes before Dr Sergeyev, 0:19:39.880 --> 0:19:43.320 the attending physician he steps in, says the experiments becoming 0:19:43.320 --> 0:19:45.919 too dangerous and he calls it to a halt. This 0:19:45.960 --> 0:19:52.560 sounds like scanners. It's going to scan everyone in this room. Yeah. Um. 0:19:52.720 --> 0:19:55.919 It also sounds like such an obvious trick. It's such 0:19:55.960 --> 0:19:58.800 an obvious performance. It seems a little over the top. Right, 0:19:59.000 --> 0:20:03.480 we're bringing so buddy who doesn't believe, will show him anyway. 0:20:03.560 --> 0:20:07.679 This woman didn't explode. Yeah, this woman really existed. Her 0:20:07.760 --> 0:20:12.119 name was Nil Coolaghina, also sometimes mistakenly known as Nina Coolaghina. 0:20:12.440 --> 0:20:14.919 Her life was truly remarkable in some ways. Cool Agana 0:20:14.920 --> 0:20:18.159 was born in Leningrad in nine She enlisted in the 0:20:18.200 --> 0:20:20.200 Red Army along with the rest of her family when 0:20:20.240 --> 0:20:24.000 she was fourteen, and she served as a tank radio 0:20:24.119 --> 0:20:27.040 operator on the Eastern Front of World War Two and 0:20:27.160 --> 0:20:30.960 was awarded the Soviet Military merit metal. Can you just imagine, 0:20:31.000 --> 0:20:33.119 It's like when you were fourteen, were you ready to 0:20:33.160 --> 0:20:36.480 get in a tank and fight Nazis? It's like, it's Nazis. 0:20:36.960 --> 0:20:40.840 You know your fourteen get in the tank, let's go. Yes, 0:20:41.400 --> 0:20:45.080 that is exactly how much held. No, No, I can't 0:20:45.400 --> 0:20:48.720 Did she drive the tank psychically? I don't think so. 0:20:48.800 --> 0:20:51.320 I think she operated the radio, But she did believe 0:20:51.359 --> 0:20:53.800 that she'd been psychic since childhood, so who knows if 0:20:54.040 --> 0:20:57.000 it played into her military career. But she only killed 0:20:57.040 --> 0:21:01.560 the hearts of German frogs. I don't know the answer 0:21:01.560 --> 0:21:06.879 to that. Christian uh so anyway, Uh yeah, So she 0:21:06.880 --> 0:21:09.240 she's had this career and in the nineteen sixties, after 0:21:09.320 --> 0:21:11.560 the war's over, cool againa She makes a name for 0:21:11.560 --> 0:21:14.240 herself again when she shows up on Russian state TV 0:21:14.760 --> 0:21:18.080 performing these demonstrations of psycho kinesis. Where they'd like, have 0:21:18.119 --> 0:21:20.879 a big glass box it's all sealed off, and somebody 0:21:20.880 --> 0:21:23.080 put a salt shaker or something inside it, and she'd 0:21:23.119 --> 0:21:25.080 stare at it and then move it with her mind, 0:21:25.280 --> 0:21:28.720 or so they claimed. Uh, Now, everything I just described 0:21:28.720 --> 0:21:32.360 to you cool Aghina, the frog Heart tape, that's all real. Uh, 0:21:32.400 --> 0:21:34.959 it's at some point the Defense Department really did have 0:21:35.000 --> 0:21:38.679 analysts investigate this psychic kill tape. The question is, of course, 0:21:39.160 --> 0:21:42.280 what's going on in the film. Uh, if you're this 0:21:42.359 --> 0:21:46.120 hypothetical analyst in nineteen seventy, what do you do? Obviously, 0:21:46.160 --> 0:21:48.239 if if you're like me and I think like us, 0:21:48.280 --> 0:21:50.800 generally you assume, well, this is probably some kind of hoax. 0:21:50.840 --> 0:21:54.080 I mean, I'm not personally very keen on the existence 0:21:54.119 --> 0:21:58.000 of psychic powers. Either she's some kind of skilled illusionist 0:21:58.080 --> 0:22:01.200 hoaxing the Russians or the Russia and stage the whole 0:22:01.240 --> 0:22:03.679 thing as a hoax on us, trying to trick us 0:22:03.720 --> 0:22:07.320 into wasting money on parallel research. If that was the case, 0:22:07.720 --> 0:22:12.320 it worked, it worked. So yeah, if even if you 0:22:12.359 --> 0:22:14.520 are skeptical of what's going on, there are going to 0:22:14.560 --> 0:22:17.840 be people in the room with you who say, well, 0:22:18.200 --> 0:22:21.400 we can't be sure and we sure as hell can't 0:22:21.440 --> 0:22:26.879 allow us psychic assassin gap, So bring on the age 0:22:26.880 --> 0:22:30.399 of psychic research. Actually, the funny thing is some amount 0:22:30.440 --> 0:22:33.480 of paranormal research had already been being funded by the 0:22:33.520 --> 0:22:36.120