Speaker 1: You're listening to the third and final part of Unexplained,
Speaker 1: Season seven, episode twenty three, The Box. After finally making
Speaker 1: contact with Kevin, Jason agrees to meet with him the
Speaker 1: next day. Jason tells Kevin about how the Dibbot Box
Speaker 1: has been affecting his life and what he's done to
Speaker 1: stop it. He explains, much to Kevin's surprise, that the
Speaker 1: Box has become somewhat of an Internet sensation, racking up
Speaker 1: over one hundred and forty thousand hits on its original
Speaker 1: eBay listing. For his part, Kevin says the last year
Speaker 1: hadn't been going too well for him either. What hadn't
Speaker 1: been mentioned in his eBay listing, he says, was that
Speaker 1: not only had his mother had a stroke the day
Speaker 1: she touched the box, but on that same day, the
Speaker 1: FBI had inexplicably carried out a raid on his store.
Speaker 1: A number of agents and police officers had descended on
Speaker 1: ADDIE's Market, bizarrely confiscating all electrical items with a memory
Speaker 1: chip inside. The articles were apparently returned to Kevin a
Speaker 1: few months later, with no explanation for the raid and
Speaker 1: no arrests being made. When the landlord got wind of
Speaker 1: the incident, Kevin was asked to close down the business.
Speaker 1: He'd been struggling to find work ever since. Thankfully, he says,
Speaker 1: after he got rid of the box, his mother made
Speaker 1: a significant recovery from her stroke, but something of the
Speaker 1: box had remained. Those strange visions and dreams had never
Speaker 1: truly left him. Jason isn't sure what to make of it. All.
Speaker 1: The story of the FBI raid sounds completely Fantasticstle, but
Speaker 1: he can't argue with the strange visions since he himself
Speaker 1: knows them only too well. That afternoon, Kevin takes Jason
Speaker 1: to see ADDIE's Market, his old store, and the Jewish
Speaker 1: cemetery where the box's original owner was apparently buried. They
Speaker 1: attempt to find the house where Kevin first bought the item,
Speaker 1: but by then the day has got away from them
Speaker 1: and Jason has to leave to catch his flight home.
Speaker 1: He makes one final request of Kevin that you make
Speaker 1: an effort to track down the family who sold him
Speaker 1: the box. Kevin says he'll do his best. The next
Speaker 1: few months in Jason's family home are mercifully event free.
Speaker 1: One late September morning, Jason tracks a bad smell in
Speaker 1: his car to underneath the driver's seat, where he finds
Speaker 1: the putrid carcass of a mouse. A few days later,
Speaker 1: Jason and his children come back from school to find
Speaker 1: the house wreaking of excrement. The water from one of
Speaker 1: the toilets has been completely sucked away, leaving a clear
Speaker 1: channel to the city's sewer system. On the phone to
Speaker 1: the public water and sewer works, Jason catches a glimpse
Speaker 1: of his bloodshot eyes in the mirror and notices the
Speaker 1: hives have broken out again all over his body. When
Speaker 1: he coughs, his mouth is filled with that familiar repellent
Speaker 1: metallic taste. Or is it blood? He wonders. Either way,
Speaker 1: he feels with a terrible certainty that the thing is back.
Speaker 1: Clearly paranormal researcher Steve Mars's appeasement spell, if it had
Speaker 1: worked at all, is beginning to wear off. Like Kevin
Speaker 1: said in his eBay listings, also hesitant to sell the
Speaker 1: box or destroy it, believing that something more substantial was
Speaker 1: needed to rid him of its curse. This time, he
Speaker 1: seeks the advice of his friend Tracy, a devoted follower
Speaker 1: of Wiccan magic, who had also contacted him early on
Speaker 1: offering to help. Jason awakes early the next morning, careful
Speaker 1: not to disturb his wife and children, He picks up
Speaker 1: the Dibbot box from the spare room and carries it
Speaker 1: to a property next door, an apartment that he and
Speaker 1: his wife had bought earlier in the year that were
Speaker 1: still being renovated. In the basement is a small door
Speaker 1: leading to a pitch black crawl space that in turn
Speaker 1: leads to a hidden room. Jason, carrying sea salt, some herbs,
Speaker 1: and a purple candle, as per Tracy's instructions, pushes the
Speaker 1: box through the crawl space and into the other room.
Speaker 1: Switching on the flashlight, he lights up the makeshift altar
Speaker 1: he'd constructed earlier from plywod and cinder blocks and slides
Speaker 1: the box beside it, placing the candle on the other side.
Speaker 1: Taking the seasot, he creates a square with a circle
Speaker 1: inside it on the top of the altar, followed by
Speaker 1: a cross to mark the four points of a compass.
Speaker 1: He then sprinkles basil into the four corners and puts
Speaker 1: some sage in the middle. The candle is placed on
Speaker 1: top and the flashlight switched off. Bathed in darkness, Jason
Speaker 1: composes himself for a moment before striking the match and
Speaker 1: lighting the candle. In the dim glow of the flame,
Speaker 1: he burns dried sage above the altar and waves it
Speaker 1: around three times in a circular motion. As he makes
Speaker 1: these movements and inhales the scented smoke, he solemnly uttered
Speaker 1: the words as instructed by Tracy, Beloved Hecty, defender of
Speaker 1: the weak, protector of those who fear the might of
Speaker 1: the wicked, for whom each step into the dark is
Speaker 1: filled with dread. I pray to you. I ask your favor, Hecaty,
Speaker 1: who knows well of all things we mortals must fear,
Speaker 1: Who knows well our best to drive away all ill
Speaker 1: I ask your blessing Goddess, preserve my home and my
Speaker 1: family from evil God as well against all that would
Speaker 1: do as harm. Goddess, hold back the dangers of the dark.
Speaker 1: Grant me wisdom and courage that I may face my
Speaker 1: fears and my foes with open eyes. The flame of
Speaker 1: the candle flares as Jason moves it to the side
Speaker 1: and lifts the box onto the altar, placing it over
Speaker 1: the basle salt and sage. All the while spring the
Speaker 1: words you will be contained, You will be contained, You
Speaker 1: will be contained. A gust of wind blows through the basement,
Speaker 1: and all is still. Jason crawls out of the room,
Speaker 1: takes one last look at the box, then nails the
Speaker 1: door shut. After completing a ritual bath of herbs and
Speaker 1: salt water, Jason returns to the basement for the second
Speaker 1: part of the spell, lit by two candles. This time,
Speaker 1: he pours the salt in a circle around himself, careful
Speaker 1: not to step over the salt. He lights more sticks
Speaker 1: of sage and circles the salt perimeter three times, invoking
Speaker 1: the goddess Hecate once again. Using a burnt stick of sage,
Speaker 1: he writes on a piece of paper words designed to
Speaker 1: supposedly banish the apparent demon. All blocks are now removed.
Speaker 1: All blocks are now removed. All blocks are now removed.
Speaker 1: Then he wraps the paper around the sage and lights
Speaker 1: the whole bundle. Once it's burned out, he makes another
Speaker 1: three circular movements with one of the candles, closes its
Speaker 1: eyes and blows out the flame. Jason returns to his
Speaker 1: house for a second ritual bath, stepping into the hot
Speaker 1: herb scented water and allowing the peppery basil fragrance to
Speaker 1: flow into his lungs. Jason immediately feels lighter, but as
Speaker 1: he lets his body sink down, a searing pain grips
Speaker 1: his stomach. In agony, he heaves himself out of the
Speaker 1: tub and collapses to the floor. Now on his hands
Speaker 1: and knees, he begins to wretch. The pain, growing in intensity,
Speaker 1: is moving from its stomach up into his throat. Jason
Speaker 1: begins to choke and struggle for air. Then, as if
Speaker 1: wrenched out from within him, a final heave ejects a
Speaker 1: dark mucus like slime from its mouth. With the pain
Speaker 1: subsiding at last, Jason slumps back against the bathtub, exhausted. Later,
Speaker 1: inspired by the materials used to build the Ark of
Speaker 1: the Covenant as detailed in the biblical Book of Exodus,
Speaker 1: Jason has the box formally interred, binding it in a
Speaker 1: gold plated arc made of acacia wood, because one can
Speaker 1: never be too careful. After the ritual, there are no
Speaker 1: more terrifying occurrencies for Jason, but the question of the
Speaker 1: Dibbuk Box's provenance still remains. It's been a few months
Speaker 1: since Jason saw Kevin when they last spoke, Kevin agreed
Speaker 1: to try and track down the woman who'd originally sold
Speaker 1: him the box, the granddaughter of its first owner, Havela.
Speaker 1: Kevin's silence since then was becoming more suspicious by the day.
Speaker 1: It hasn't escaped Jason's attention that their failure to locate
Speaker 1: the original point of sale that afternoon in Portland was
Speaker 1: more than a little convenient. In fact, Jason is beginning
Speaker 1: to question Kevin's entire account. When he finally gets back
Speaker 1: in touch, what he has to say is more than
Speaker 1: worth the weight. As Kevin explains to Jason, he managed
Speaker 1: to track down the family after all, and drove out
Speaker 1: to see them at the first opportunity. After apparently ringing
Speaker 1: on the front door, he was met by the familiar
Speaker 1: face of a former classmate who was also, as it happened,
Speaker 1: another granddaughter of Haveler's. She knew of the box, he said,
Speaker 1: although it soon became evident that it was just a
Speaker 1: joke to her. As Kevin continued to explain, he tried
Speaker 1: to tell the woman about everything that had happened in
Speaker 1: the last year, but he could see that she wasn't interested.
Speaker 1: After wrapping things up. He just turned to leave when
Speaker 1: another voice called him back. It chose you, Kevin said.
Speaker 1: He turned to find a frail, elderly woman standing in
Speaker 1: the doorway beside his old classmate. She was pointing a lean,
Speaker 1: skeletal finger at him. Who chose me, replied Kevin. The
Speaker 1: dibucks from the demonic side, she said. Ka Vin's old
Speaker 1: classmate introduced the woman as her aunt, Sophie, and together
Speaker 1: they invited Kevin inside, according to Kevin, as the granddaughter
Speaker 1: made tea, Kevin and Sophie pulled up chairs on a
Speaker 1: patio in the back garden. After a moment of quiet,
Speaker 1: Sophie turned to Kevin and apologized profusely for everything from
Speaker 1: the events of the Second World War to obscure and
Speaker 1: damaging stock market fluctuations, as well as most other atrocities
Speaker 1: that had occurred in the last seventy years. They were
Speaker 1: sorry for all of it, she said, As Sophie had
Speaker 1: apparently explained to Kevin, it all started many years ago
Speaker 1: in Poland with the seance. It was Havila's idea, she said,
Speaker 1: born from the daily anti Semitic terrors confronting Polish Jews
Speaker 1: in the late nineteen thirties, terrors that grew dark and
Speaker 1: more monstrous with each passing day, and had at some
Speaker 1: point resulted in the death of Havela's children and husband.
Speaker 1: The Jewish population of Poland suffered the greatest losses as
Speaker 1: a result of the Holocaust and anti Semitic policies. Even
Speaker 1: leaving aside the myriad and quotidian forms of discrimination, it
Speaker 1: has been estimated that the population of Polish Jews in
Speaker 1: nineteen thirty nine was roughly three and a half million.
Speaker 1: Of these, an estimated three million were murdered during the Holocaust.
Speaker 1: Determined to fight back, Havela invited a number of friends
Speaker 1: to her home one night, including Sophie's mother. When the
Speaker 1: women arrived, they found a table covered in a weija
Speaker 1: cloth which bore the words yes and no, as well
Speaker 1: as the digits not to nine and all the letters
Speaker 1: of the alphabet. Aveala then explained that she'd called them
Speaker 1: all there in the hope of summoning spirits that might
Speaker 1: protect them and their community from the ever encroaching dangers
Speaker 1: of fascism. Late that night in nineteen thirty eight, as
Speaker 1: Kevin continued to explain to Jason Avaler and her friends,
Speaker 1: succeeded in summoning forth a number of spirits of indeterminate
Speaker 1: place and form. Over the following weeks, the friends continued
Speaker 1: to meet and seek guidance from these spirits, but it
Speaker 1: wasn't long before they began to fear what they'd beckoned
Speaker 1: into their world. The spirits were growing restless, demanding to
Speaker 1: be unleashed so that they might better serve their purpose,
Speaker 1: but something in their tone alarmed the women, so they
Speaker 1: hashed a plan banish them for good. In the early
Speaker 1: hours of November ninth, nineteen thirty eight, Avaler and her
Speaker 1: friends sat around the table one final time. Sitting on
Speaker 1: the wija cloth was a small wooden box that looked
Speaker 1: distinctly like a Jewish wine cabinet, which they planned to
Speaker 1: lure the spirits into and keep locked inside forever. But
Speaker 1: something went wrong and the spirits escaped. It was Sophie's
Speaker 1: mother's belief that this night had led to every subsequent
Speaker 1: misery to befall humanity ever since. According to Sophie, the
Speaker 1: original box had been destroyed during the war. The box
Speaker 1: bought by Kevin had been made by Havela some time
Speaker 1: later in Portland in an attempt to recapture the malignant entities,
Speaker 1: and that, according to Kevin, is where the box comes from.
Speaker 1: Jason isn't quite sure what to think. It's an incredible story,
Speaker 1: and he can't argue with the reality of his own
Speaker 1: horrific experiences. However, much like the way he feels about
Speaker 1: Kevin's own supposedly unsettling experiences, something just doesn't add up
Speaker 1: for Jason. One thing in particular hasn't sat right with him,
Speaker 1: Kevin's insistence that a completely unexplained FBI rate occurred the
Speaker 1: exact same day that his mother was shown the box
Speaker 1: and suffered a stroke. Then one morning, Jason comes across
Speaker 1: an old article in the Portland Oregonian News on July eighth,
Speaker 1: nineteen ninety eight. The paper reported on a series of
Speaker 1: police stinks that had taken place across Portland the week before.
Speaker 1: At the time, as detailed in the article, a number
Speaker 1: of small stores in the area had been running a
Speaker 1: racket selling stolen items. One of these stores just so
Speaker 1: happened to be ADDIE's Market before it was taken over
Speaker 1: by Kevin. Could the raid that Kevin described have been genuine?
Speaker 1: After all? A follow up operation, perhaps, albeit some years later,
Speaker 1: and If this unlikely story was true, why not the
Speaker 1: rest of it? Certainly stranger things have happened. I originally
Speaker 1: came across the story of the Dibbot Box after watching
Speaker 1: Sam Raimis The Possession. Surprised to learn that the film
Speaker 1: was based on a true story, I soon found my
Speaker 1: way to a website set up by Jason Haxton the
Speaker 1: detailed about it. A few days later, as I was
Speaker 1: deep into reading a book he'd written about his apparent
Speaker 1: experiences called The Dibbuk Box. It's fair to say I'd
Speaker 1: become a little obsessed when I had the opportunity to
Speaker 1: write my own book of unexplained stories. Jason was one
Speaker 1: of the first people I wanted to talk to, having
Speaker 1: already watched some videos of him online. Jason came across
Speaker 1: on Skype exactly as I'd expected him to, bright, affable
Speaker 1: and engaging, and full of what I now know to
Speaker 1: be a distinct welcoming Midwestern charm. In short, he's everything
Speaker 1: you'd expect from a curator of an osteopathic museum for
Speaker 1: an academic institution. We talk for almost two hours as
Speaker 1: he sits in his office surrounded by a number of
Speaker 1: wholesome family portraits. I soon get the impression that Jason
Speaker 1: isn't somebody easily sucked in by superstition, and that his
Speaker 1: open minded interest in the box is rooted in genuine
Speaker 1: curiosity rather than any sensationalist obsession with the paranormal, which
Speaker 1: of course only makes his testimony more astounding. And Yet,
Speaker 1: as many followers of this story will know, back in
Speaker 1: twenty twenty one, Kevin Manis finally came clean. He had
Speaker 1: made the whole thing up. There has never been such
Speaker 1: a thing as dibbuk boxes. The idea Manis said was
Speaker 1: a complete fabrication of his and the box itself was
Speaker 1: most likely nothing more than a wooden mini bar. As
Speaker 1: Jason noted in his book, He's more than happy to
Speaker 1: admit that even if the box didn't have any genuine
Speaker 1: supernatural properties, he experienced something that was at times terrifying,
Speaker 1: something that has claimed by others who came into contact
Speaker 1: with it, had a tangible physiological effect on him. It
Speaker 1: puts me in mind of another crazy story that occurred
Speaker 1: back in the early sixties. One Wednesday night in June
Speaker 1: nineteen sixty two, US news outlets reported a curious outbreak
Speaker 1: afflicting the workers of a textile mill in the town
Speaker 1: of Strongsville, Ohio. In total, sixty two people were struck
Speaker 1: down by a mystery illness caused by apparent insect bites.
Speaker 1: As one worker recounted, quote, the small insect attacks the skin.
Speaker 1: The bites leave a wound similar to a gnat bite.
Speaker 1: In about twenty minutes, the victim is struck with severe nausea.
Speaker 1: Yet no insect or other cause for the incident was
Speaker 1: ever found. According to sociologist Alan Kerkhoff, the reason for
Speaker 1: this was that there was no insect. Instead, it is
Speaker 1: his belief that the ailments were due to the effect
Speaker 1: of mass psychogenic illness, or mp I. What differentiates mp
Speaker 1: I from the broader and better known phenomena of mass
Speaker 1: hysteria is that MPI results in genuine physical symptoms, an
Speaker 1: effect shared with another peculiar phenomenon now being taken increasingly
Speaker 1: seriously by the medical community. Physician Walter Kennedy first coined
Speaker 1: the term no se bow in nineteen sixty one, drawing
Speaker 1: on Harvard researcher Walter Cannon's nineteen forty studies regarding the
Speaker 1: power of suggestibility in the practice of voodoo and no
Speaker 1: cibo is quote a harmless substance or treatment that, when
Speaker 1: taken by or administered to a patient, is associated with
Speaker 1: harmful side effects due to negative expectations or the psychological
Speaker 1: condition of the patient. A counterpoint to the more commonly
Speaker 1: known placebo effect. No cebot demonstrates how the power of
Speaker 1: the psyche alone can cause negative effects on the body
Speaker 1: if it can be sufficiently convinced that its being harmed.
Speaker 1: One recent extraordinary example of the no sebo effect was
Speaker 1: demonstrated in a twenty seventeen study led by doctor Peter
Speaker 1: Sever of Imperial College London. It examined the apparent negative
Speaker 1: side effects of taking statins, a drug frequently prescribed to
Speaker 1: over fifties to reduce cholesterol. Statins were under scrutiny from
Speaker 1: concerned health care professional They became worried when a number
Speaker 1: of users reported alarming side effects after taking them. What
Speaker 1: doctor Sever's study revealed was that these side effects, which
Speaker 1: mostly involved muscle related aches and pains, were indeed real,
Speaker 1: only they had nothing to do with the drug itself.
Speaker 1: According to his findings, patients only suffered from the side
Speaker 1: effects when they already had negative expectations of taking the medicine. Essentially,
Speaker 1: their symptoms had been completely imagined into being. As sever noted,
Speaker 1: this is not a case of people making up symptoms
Speaker 1: or that the symptoms are all in their heads. Patients
Speaker 1: can experience very real pain as a result of the
Speaker 1: nocebo effect and the expectation that drugs will cause harm.
Speaker 1: What our study shows is that it's the expectation of
Speaker 1: harm that is likely causing the increase in muscle pain
Speaker 1: and weakness, rather than the drugs themselves causing them. It's
Speaker 1: important to note that just because we might be able
Speaker 1: to imagine negative biological symptoms into being, it doesn't mean
Speaker 1: we can equally imagine negative physiological issues away, like cancerous cells,
Speaker 1: for example. But the question remains, if the body is
Speaker 1: capable of inflicting physical harm on itself due to an
Speaker 1: illusory danger, what might the limits of self affliction be.
Speaker 1: Could it be that all the ailments affecting the various
Speaker 1: owners of the Tibbot box, the hallucinations, red stinging eyes,
Speaker 1: the burns, and choking fits were in a sense the
Speaker 1: result of a spirit, after all, the spirit of mind.
Speaker 1: What of the belief alone in a malevolent spirit catalyzed
Speaker 1: by the box's mythology its vague connections to Jewish mysticism
Speaker 1: and a deep cultural fear of the demonic, led to Jason, Joseph,
Speaker 1: and possibly even Kevin bringing something into being that truly
Speaker 1: did endanger them. A fanciful notion, perhaps, Yet, most of
Speaker 1: our daily lives are affected by illusory and abstract ideas
Speaker 1: that have physical, real world consequences. The term hyperstition was
Speaker 1: coined in the nineteen nineties by a group of philosophers
Speaker 1: working at Warwick University, known collectively as the Cybernetic Culture
Speaker 1: Research Unit. To learn more about the group, you can
Speaker 1: check out their now dormant website CCRU dot net or
Speaker 1: listened to Unexplained season six, episode twenty eight. The Noah
Speaker 1: sphere distinct from superstition, which implies a false belief. Hyperstitions,
Speaker 1: although broadly much more complex, are essentially beliefs that, like
Speaker 1: an occult thought form or a tulpa, can quote by
Speaker 1: their very existence, as ideas function causally to bring about
Speaker 1: their own reality. Once a hyperstition is collectively accepted as
Speaker 1: a fixed reality, we can become trapped by it, since
Speaker 1: we no longer have real truths from which to draw on,
Speaker 1: only the truth as we think it. To be more profoundly,
Speaker 1: they demonstrate how our entire lives can be dictated by
Speaker 1: systems that exist only because we believe them to exist. Consider,
Speaker 1: for example, the way the stock market works, or the
Speaker 1: abstract and relative nature of something's worth. In general, we
Speaker 1: can argue that when stock is first floated on a
Speaker 1: financial market, there is an initial transaction of real money,
Speaker 1: which the company who shares are being floated receives. For
Speaker 1: the individual or company that has bought those shares, however,
Speaker 1: they now possess something that has no intrinsic value. It
Speaker 1: is essentially an illusion of worth. The value will increase
Speaker 1: or decrease depending on demand, but what drives that demand
Speaker 1: is often little more than faith in the future success
Speaker 1: of the company. If you want to trade a share
Speaker 1: for hard cash you can actually spend it requires others
Speaker 1: to also believe in the illusion of its worth. Essentially
Speaker 1: the entire existence of the stock market. This hyperstition that
Speaker 1: underpins much of the global economy only survives as long
Speaker 1: as there are enough people around to believe in it.
Speaker 1: If tomorrow, for example, everybody decided they no longer thought
Speaker 1: it was real, the shares in circulation would effectively vanish
Speaker 1: without any immediately visible impact on the bank account of
Speaker 1: the business they nominally represent. Or in other words, if
Speaker 1: enough people believe in a world that allows for ancient
Speaker 1: demonic entities, and having fostered that belief, speculate too that
Speaker 1: such a box exists that houses one of those entities.
Speaker 1: Regardless of what you believe, you may want to think
Speaker 1: twice before you open it. This episode was written by
Speaker 1: Richard mcclinsmith. Unexplained as an Avy Club Productions podcast created
Speaker 1: by Richard mcclinsmith. All other elements of the podcast, including
Speaker 1: the music, are also produced by me Richard mcclin smith. Unexplained.
Speaker 1: The book and audiobook, with stories never before featured on
Speaker 1: the show, is now available to buy worldwide. You can
Speaker 1: purchase from Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Waterstones and other bookstores.
Speaker 1: Please subscribe to and rate the show wherever you get
Speaker 1: your podcasts, and feel free to get in touch with
Speaker 1: any thoughts or ideas regarding the stories you've heard on
Speaker 1: the show. Perhaps you have an explanation of your own
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Speaker 1: Unexplained podcast dot com and reach us online through Twitter
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