WEBVTT - Season 09 Episode 02: Too Cold Always 0:00:10.720 --> 0:00:14.320 One of the most continually surprising aspects of spiritual belief 0:00:14.720 --> 0:00:18.160 is just how many common features are shared by religions 0:00:18.360 --> 0:00:24.600 separated by vast distances language and cultural mores. Before it 0:00:24.680 --> 0:00:28.920 was possible for the average person to engage in intercontinental travel, 0:00:29.200 --> 0:00:33.479 and well before the advent of instant communication, faith was 0:00:33.560 --> 0:00:38.400 restricted to whatever was passed down within one's own immediate environment. 0:00:39.360 --> 0:00:43.360 And yet, despite some obvious differences, there are certain aspects 0:00:43.360 --> 0:00:46.440 which are shared by virtually all of the world's religions. 0:00:47.440 --> 0:00:51.440 Each employees designated sites of worship, whether it be something 0:00:51.560 --> 0:00:55.160 rudimentary like a tree or an altar stone, to more 0:00:55.200 --> 0:00:59.960 sophisticated structures like synagogues and mosques. Many have a fit 0:01:00.000 --> 0:01:04.120 bigger who stands for the ultimate personification of good, as 0:01:04.120 --> 0:01:07.440 well as a corresponding evil force that must be fought 0:01:07.480 --> 0:01:12.319 against or resisted in order to achieve salvation, and each 0:01:12.440 --> 0:01:17.480 of Buddhism, Hinduism, Sikhism, and the Abrahamic traditions at least 0:01:18.040 --> 0:01:21.960 involve the story of a messianic figure with special fealty 0:01:22.120 --> 0:01:28.800 to whatever supreme being the respective religions advocate worshiping. Perhaps 0:01:28.840 --> 0:01:32.480 one of the most insidious common features shared by every 0:01:32.600 --> 0:01:35.920 major religion is the idea that we are vulnerable to 0:01:36.000 --> 0:01:41.280 possession by evil. From the sukimono of Japanese Shinto to 0:01:41.400 --> 0:01:45.480 the jin of Islam, the notion of the malevolent, otherworldly 0:01:45.640 --> 0:01:49.680 papeteer has been present in our understanding of the universe 0:01:49.760 --> 0:01:55.280 for millennia. Very often these are supposed phantoms motivated by 0:01:55.400 --> 0:01:58.640 vengeance or a will to power, who seek to conduct 0:01:58.760 --> 0:02:04.080 their business using people as their vessels. Like parasites, they 0:02:04.120 --> 0:02:07.480 feed on the negative emotions of their host and use 0:02:07.600 --> 0:02:11.480 up all of their resources until their charges life force 0:02:11.639 --> 0:02:15.200 is spent, or else they seek to compel their host 0:02:15.480 --> 0:02:19.720 to commit a terrible sin, thereby condemning their soul to 0:02:19.800 --> 0:02:25.079 damnation for all eternity. In Christianity, the most well known 0:02:25.120 --> 0:02:30.320 biblical example of demonic possession features in Mark five, Matthew eight, 0:02:30.760 --> 0:02:35.040 and Lucate of the New Testament, where Jesus is depicted 0:02:35.200 --> 0:02:39.840 forcing a collective malignant entity calling itself Legion, from the 0:02:39.840 --> 0:02:42.440 body of a man and into a herd of pigs. 0:02:43.200 --> 0:02:51.240 It is a troubling story. Then Jesus asked him, what 0:02:51.440 --> 0:02:55.720 is your name? My name is Legion, he replied, for 0:02:55.840 --> 0:03:00.000 we are many, And he begged Jesus again and again 0:03:00.440 --> 0:03:04.399 not to send them out. A large herd of pigs 0:03:04.560 --> 0:03:09.240 was seen feeding on a nearby hillside, so the demons 0:03:09.280 --> 0:03:13.560 begged Jesus send us among the pigs, allow us to 0:03:13.639 --> 0:03:18.280 go into them. He gave them permission, and the impure 0:03:18.360 --> 0:03:23.080 spirits came out and went into the pigs. Moments later, 0:03:23.520 --> 0:03:28.280 the herd, about two thousand in number, rushed straight down 0:03:28.320 --> 0:03:31.960 the steep bank and into a nearby lake, where they 0:03:32.040 --> 0:03:54.440 all drown. For many who are religiously minded, the Universes 0:03:54.560 --> 0:03:59.000 dictated by a Venetian style dualism, in which the forces 0:03:59.040 --> 0:04:03.720 of light and dark, good versus evil are continually in battle. 0:04:04.640 --> 0:04:09.720 For them, religion offers a safeguard against this darkness. The 0:04:09.800 --> 0:04:13.080 great fear, however, is that should they at any point 0:04:13.320 --> 0:04:17.680 let their guard down, evil is always lurking, ready to 0:04:17.800 --> 0:04:22.719 pounce and worm its way inside them. In Maori culture, 0:04:23.040 --> 0:04:27.039 this belief is a little more nuanced. The idea of 0:04:27.080 --> 0:04:31.400 possession doesn't take the form of a demon invading the body. Rather, 0:04:31.800 --> 0:04:37.000 it's understood through something called marcutu, a kind of spiritual pollution, 0:04:37.720 --> 0:04:40.560 a curse that seeps into the world when the balance 0:04:40.640 --> 0:04:46.080 between people, ancestors and the land is broken. It isn't 0:04:46.120 --> 0:04:49.800 about good and evil in a dualistic sense. It's about 0:04:49.920 --> 0:04:54.800 harmony and disruption. To be afflicted by marcutu is to 0:04:54.839 --> 0:04:59.320 be caught in a web of unseen forces, ancestral wrongs, 0:04:59.720 --> 0:05:03.320 broke can tarpou, the sacred laws that keep the world 0:05:03.400 --> 0:05:10.640 in spiritual balance, and the lingering residue of guilt or shame. Traditionally, 0:05:10.880 --> 0:05:16.120 a tohunga, a ritual expert, would lift the markutu with karakia, 0:05:16.520 --> 0:05:21.200 incantations and chants and water to help restore order to 0:05:21.279 --> 0:05:26.320 the world. It's a ritual of reconciliation, not combat, meant 0:05:26.360 --> 0:05:29.880 to heal a relationship with the unseen world, rather than 0:05:29.920 --> 0:05:34.160 to drive out an evil being. It's a powerful idea, 0:05:34.360 --> 0:05:37.719 to say the least. In the case of one family 0:05:37.920 --> 0:05:41.320 living on the outskirts of Wellington, New Zealand, it was 0:05:41.360 --> 0:05:44.440 one that for a brief period in October two thousand 0:05:44.480 --> 0:05:50.400 and seven, became terrifyingly real. You're listening to Unexplained and 0:05:50.480 --> 0:06:03.520 I'm Richard McLean Smith. One unusually stormy evening on Saturday 0:06:03.640 --> 0:06:07.360 sixth of October two thousand and seven, twenty two year 0:06:07.400 --> 0:06:10.560 ould Janet Moses was slumped in an arm chair in 0:06:10.640 --> 0:06:14.520 the front bar of the Palliser Hotel. The suburb of 0:06:14.600 --> 0:06:19.200 Wainoia Marta was sleepy and close knit, and family engagements 0:06:19.279 --> 0:06:23.000 like this one were a regular occurrence. Though she'd been 0:06:23.040 --> 0:06:26.280 feeling tired, Janet felt it was important to make an 0:06:26.279 --> 0:06:30.839 appearance because her beloved sister was finally turning twenty one. 0:06:31.560 --> 0:06:34.400 To Janet, the age gap of a year may as 0:06:34.400 --> 0:06:38.119 well have been decades. Unlike her sister, who was still 0:06:38.160 --> 0:06:42.880 relatively carefree and unburdened by the adult world, Janet was 0:06:42.960 --> 0:06:45.839 more or less a single mother to two young girls. 0:06:46.480 --> 0:06:49.359 Her long term partner, Shane, who she'd been with for 0:06:49.440 --> 0:06:53.720 nine years, was almost never at home. Janet had even 0:06:53.760 --> 0:06:57.440 heard whispers about a possible infidelity, but she felt so 0:06:57.600 --> 0:07:00.159 tired of it all she couldn't find the strength to 0:07:00.200 --> 0:07:03.919 confront him about it. On this night, however, she tried 0:07:03.920 --> 0:07:06.679 to put on a show for her sister. The whole 0:07:06.720 --> 0:07:09.520 family was in attendance, and they would notice if she 0:07:09.600 --> 0:07:14.280 was feeling down. They did everything together, often eating and 0:07:14.320 --> 0:07:18.040 spending time together. They even had their own sports team, 0:07:18.080 --> 0:07:21.640 with the family emblem of a white lion emblazoned on 0:07:21.680 --> 0:07:25.920 their crest, Janet sipped at her glass of beer and 0:07:25.960 --> 0:07:30.240 eventually allowed it to go flat and warm. She couldn't 0:07:30.240 --> 0:07:34.239 stop thinking about her maternal grandmother, who'd recently passed away, 0:07:35.000 --> 0:07:37.080 how much she would have loved to have been there 0:07:37.200 --> 0:07:42.840 with everyone that night. Nearby, Janet's uncle John was concerned. 0:07:43.880 --> 0:07:47.440 He'd spotted Janet from across the room staring blankly at 0:07:47.480 --> 0:07:51.080 the wall. When he asked her what was wrong, Janet 0:07:51.120 --> 0:07:54.400 explained that she wasn't feeling great and asked John if 0:07:54.440 --> 0:07:57.480 he'd seen her aunt, Glennis anywhere, who'd promised to give 0:07:57.520 --> 0:08:01.400 her a lift home. When Glennis eventually caught up with her, 0:08:01.640 --> 0:08:04.880 she was shocked at just how drawn out Janet looked. 0:08:05.560 --> 0:08:07.880 She could have passed for a woman in her fifties, 0:08:07.920 --> 0:08:11.480 she thought, instead of the dynamic young woman of twenty 0:08:11.520 --> 0:08:15.400 two she knew her to be. Without a second thought, 0:08:15.720 --> 0:08:18.880 Glennis suggested that Janet and her kids crash at her 0:08:18.920 --> 0:08:21.320 house for the night, where she could keep an eye 0:08:21.320 --> 0:08:24.480 on her and help with the kids while Janet tried 0:08:24.520 --> 0:08:28.680 to get some rest. With any luck, she thought Janet 0:08:28.720 --> 0:08:31.320 would be back to her usual self in no time. 0:08:43.400 --> 0:08:46.960 The following morning, Glennis awoke to what seemed like the 0:08:47.000 --> 0:08:51.200 distant sound of chattering on the street outside her bedroom window. 0:08:52.400 --> 0:08:55.640 When she checked on Janet's girls next door, she found 0:08:55.679 --> 0:08:58.840 them snoring under the first rays of sun that were 0:08:58.880 --> 0:09:02.120 now streaming through the curtains. But when she went into 0:09:02.200 --> 0:09:06.000 Janet's bedroom, she was puzzled to find the bed neatly made, 0:09:06.400 --> 0:09:09.200 with no sign of her niece having slept in it 0:09:09.320 --> 0:09:15.160 at all. Janet, she called out, there was only a 0:09:15.160 --> 0:09:19.880 deafening silence in reply. At the front of the house, 0:09:20.160 --> 0:09:23.280 the main door gaped open, the thin mesh of the 0:09:23.320 --> 0:09:28.280 screen door drawn across the frame. She reached out, unhooked it, 0:09:28.800 --> 0:09:31.480 and stepped out onto the lawn of her front garden 0:09:31.880 --> 0:09:34.720 into the balmy heat of what was shaping up to 0:09:34.720 --> 0:09:38.559 be a scorching day. When Glennis walked to the edge 0:09:38.600 --> 0:09:41.520 of her pathway, she saw a figure in a billowing 0:09:41.600 --> 0:09:46.280 white robe up ahead in the middle distance. It was Janet, 0:09:46.520 --> 0:09:50.640 still wearing her pajamas, walking confusedly up the middle of 0:09:50.679 --> 0:09:54.880 the road in bare feet. As Glennis drew closer to her, 0:09:55.240 --> 0:09:59.880 she could hear her muttering something under her breath. What's that, 0:10:00.440 --> 0:10:06.440 Glennis asked softly. Janet's facial expression didn't change, and she 0:10:06.480 --> 0:10:11.240 seemed not to notice Glennis at all. Instead, her eyes 0:10:11.320 --> 0:10:14.480 remained fixed on the hills that rose above the estate 0:10:14.840 --> 0:10:18.920 as she continued muttering the same apparent phrase over and 0:10:19.120 --> 0:10:26.040 over again. It sounded like a prayer. Janet, please come inside. 0:10:26.640 --> 0:10:30.960 You're going to hurt yourself out here. Just then Janet 0:10:30.960 --> 0:10:35.920 stopped and fixed Glennys with a blank stare. To Glennis, 0:10:36.160 --> 0:10:39.840 it seemed as though her irises had disappeared, leaving her 0:10:39.880 --> 0:10:46.280 eyes appearing almost entirely all consumingly black. The young woman 0:10:46.440 --> 0:10:49.720 opened her mouth to speak, but the words that Janet 0:10:49.760 --> 0:10:52.439 croaked out did not seem to be coming from her 0:10:52.480 --> 0:10:57.560 own vocal chords at all. They're coming, she said to 0:10:57.600 --> 0:11:01.360 her aunt, with a gaze that seemed then to Glennis 0:11:01.400 --> 0:11:13.200 to be not of this world. They're coming. It was 0:11:13.360 --> 0:11:17.000 just after one pm when Glennis arrived with Janet and 0:11:17.080 --> 0:11:20.880 the girls in tow. Uncle John had been expecting them, 0:11:21.160 --> 0:11:24.240 and not just because Sunday was normally when the family 0:11:24.320 --> 0:11:28.439 sat down for their weekly meeting. Glennis had phoned John 0:11:28.600 --> 0:11:32.320 first thing and explained everything that was going on. He 0:11:32.320 --> 0:11:35.920 couldn't help feeling that his poor young niece had finally 0:11:36.000 --> 0:11:38.760 been driven to the brink by the demands of parenting 0:11:39.080 --> 0:11:43.440 and her bad relationship, John resolved to sort it out 0:11:43.480 --> 0:11:47.439 once and for all. Since his mother had died, he'd 0:11:47.480 --> 0:11:50.280 taken on his role as head of the family with Gusto, 0:11:50.640 --> 0:11:53.480 and it both heartened and terrified him to be looked 0:11:53.559 --> 0:11:58.360 upon with so much responsibility. By then, other family members 0:11:58.400 --> 0:12:01.400 had already arrived and were all around the living room 0:12:01.520 --> 0:12:05.240 drinking coffee. Over the course of the next few hours, 0:12:05.400 --> 0:12:08.559 members of Janet's family took it in turns to reassure 0:12:08.559 --> 0:12:11.920 her that they loved her, perhaps hoping that that might 0:12:11.960 --> 0:12:14.920 be enough to bring her out of her stupor. All 0:12:14.960 --> 0:12:19.480 the while, despite the heat, Janet simply sat stock still 0:12:19.520 --> 0:12:23.439 in her jacket and remained silently staring at the ground. 0:12:24.640 --> 0:12:28.280 When the family meeting was over, Glennis took Janet to 0:12:28.360 --> 0:12:31.400 convalesce at the former home of her grandmother, where her 0:12:31.400 --> 0:12:34.559 mother now lived, who was waiting for her. When she arrived, 0:12:35.880 --> 0:12:39.640 Janet seemed exhausted. A bed was set up for her 0:12:39.679 --> 0:12:42.959 in a spare room next to a large stone statue 0:12:42.960 --> 0:12:46.640 of a lion. The lion had been acquired a few 0:12:46.640 --> 0:12:49.640 weeks before by her sister from the grounds at the 0:12:49.679 --> 0:12:54.480 Gray Town hotel located about an hour's drive away. Because 0:12:54.520 --> 0:12:57.600 the lion was seen as a natural talisman of the family, 0:12:58.120 --> 0:13:00.680 her sister thought it would bring good ffe fortune to 0:13:00.760 --> 0:13:04.960 their house. It was around one o'clock the following morning 0:13:05.360 --> 0:13:08.680 when a horrific scream ripped through the silence of the house. 0:13:09.600 --> 0:13:13.120 Janet's mother rushed into Janet's room to find her daughter 0:13:13.280 --> 0:13:16.480 in hysterics, claiming that the spirit of the statue was 0:13:16.520 --> 0:13:20.720 tormenting her and scratching her from the inside out. She 0:13:20.800 --> 0:13:23.440 was sweating so much from her forehead it looked as 0:13:23.480 --> 0:13:27.400 though she'd just come out of the shower. Janet's mother 0:13:27.520 --> 0:13:30.000 did her best to calm her down and soothed her 0:13:30.040 --> 0:13:33.439 back to sleep, but the following day her mood seemed 0:13:33.480 --> 0:13:37.640 to have grown worse. Things only deteriorated further from there. 0:13:39.000 --> 0:13:42.160 It wasn't clear who said it first, but soon the 0:13:42.240 --> 0:13:46.240 family began to wonder if Janet was succumbing to mark utu. 0:13:47.640 --> 0:13:50.440 Barely able to lift herself from bed with an ever 0:13:50.480 --> 0:13:54.040 growing sense of paranoia, it was clear that Janet was 0:13:54.080 --> 0:13:57.360 in severe trouble and it was time to seek help. 0:14:04.280 --> 0:14:06.960 It was early on the morning of Monday, eighth of 0:14:06.960 --> 0:14:11.560 October when Timmy Rahi arrived at Janet's mother's home. In 0:14:11.679 --> 0:14:14.400 his back was a leather bound copy of the Bible 0:14:14.559 --> 0:14:18.480 and a bottle of holy water. Timmy was renowned within 0:14:18.520 --> 0:14:23.000 the local married community as a cowmatur or spiritual adviser, 0:14:23.280 --> 0:14:25.880 and had even worked as a cultural attache to New 0:14:25.960 --> 0:14:31.240 Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark on matters pertaining to native spirituality. 0:14:32.600 --> 0:14:37.000 From Timmy's perspective, human beings were composed of both physical 0:14:37.120 --> 0:14:40.560 and spiritual elements, and it was his belief that the 0:14:40.600 --> 0:14:45.000 spiritual was vulnerable to influence from both good and bad 0:14:45.280 --> 0:14:51.120 other worldly beings. On his arrival, John quickly ushered Timmy 0:14:51.160 --> 0:14:55.040 into the house where countless other members of Janet's extended 0:14:55.080 --> 0:14:58.160 family were also gathered, and in the middle of them 0:14:58.160 --> 0:15:03.680 all was a completely unresponsive Janet. Timmy couldn't help being 0:15:03.760 --> 0:15:08.080 deeply concerned by Janet's exhausted state and the distant look 0:15:08.120 --> 0:15:11.360 in her eyes, though he couldn't be sure what was 0:15:11.440 --> 0:15:16.240 wrong exactly. After reciting some prayers but getting nothing in response, 0:15:16.560 --> 0:15:19.760 he suggested the best option would be to conduct the 0:15:19.840 --> 0:15:24.960 mark Utu lifting as ceremony to rid any potentially disruptive 0:15:25.120 --> 0:15:29.680 energies in case things got worse. At this stage, it 0:15:29.800 --> 0:15:33.760 merely involved blessing Janet with water and saying special cohens 0:15:34.160 --> 0:15:38.320 paradoxical riddles designed to break patterns of thought over her 0:15:38.360 --> 0:15:41.960 prone body in an effort to ward off the perceived evil. 0:15:42.920 --> 0:15:48.800 But as the afternoon progressed, something strange occurred. Timmy claimed 0:15:48.800 --> 0:15:52.200 to have a vision of three claws ripping into Janet. 0:15:52.880 --> 0:15:55.520 It was the stone Lion from the hotel, he said. 0:15:56.400 --> 0:16:00.600 The implication was clear. It wasn't a negative, essays that 0:16:00.720 --> 0:16:05.560 Janet was struggling with some kind of malignant demonic entity 0:16:05.800 --> 0:16:09.800 had got into her. As it turned out, the stone 0:16:09.840 --> 0:16:13.480 and statue was actually part of a pair. The way 0:16:13.600 --> 0:16:16.240 Timmy saw it, the pair had been together for over 0:16:16.280 --> 0:16:20.000 one hundred years, so when Janet's sister stole one of them, 0:16:20.200 --> 0:16:23.640 the other's protective spirits had become angry and placed a 0:16:23.720 --> 0:16:28.240 curse on Janet's family. A shudder of fear passed between 0:16:28.280 --> 0:16:32.480 all those present. Were they all in danger nowt they wondered, 0:16:33.640 --> 0:16:37.720 Not wanting to take any chances, Janet's uncle John immediately 0:16:37.760 --> 0:16:40.800 sprang into action and ordered the statue to be taken 0:16:40.840 --> 0:16:45.280 back to the hotel without delay, the statue was dragged 0:16:45.280 --> 0:16:47.560 from the house and placed in the back of a 0:16:47.600 --> 0:16:51.640 truck and driven away from the house at speed. A 0:16:51.640 --> 0:16:55.880 convoy of eight further vehicles containing nearly forty members of 0:16:55.960 --> 0:16:59.960 Janet's family, many who'd called off sick from work a school, 0:17:00.080 --> 0:17:04.560 art the statue back to the Gray Town Hotel. Inside 0:17:04.600 --> 0:17:09.520 one of the cars, Janet became restless, seeming to suddenly 0:17:09.600 --> 0:17:13.320 snap out of her otherwise placid state. She began to 0:17:13.400 --> 0:17:16.760 spit and rail at the people around her, and even 0:17:16.800 --> 0:17:19.959 threatened to kill her paternal grandmother when she tried to 0:17:19.960 --> 0:17:24.200 calm her down. With no time to spare, the family 0:17:24.320 --> 0:17:28.960 finally arrived at the hotel, Several people jumped out and 0:17:29.080 --> 0:17:31.960 hurriedly pulled the heavy stone lion from the back of 0:17:32.000 --> 0:17:35.040 the truck, then dragged it back to the exact spot 0:17:35.280 --> 0:17:39.000 from where it had been taken. Once back in place, 0:17:39.320 --> 0:17:43.080 the relief among them all was palpable to be sure 0:17:43.119 --> 0:17:46.240 it had done the trick. Timmy Rahi conducted a short 0:17:46.359 --> 0:17:56.760 service to formalize the statue's return and pray for forgiveness. 0:17:58.080 --> 0:18:02.359 Back at Janet's mother's house, the family had dinner together, then, 0:18:02.640 --> 0:18:06.200 on the advice of Timmy Rahi, now hopeful that all 0:18:06.240 --> 0:18:09.680 would soon return to normal. Janet was ordered to try 0:18:09.680 --> 0:18:15.400 and get some rest, but Rahi was unsettled despite everything, 0:18:15.800 --> 0:18:19.760 Returning the statue had not fixed the problem. As he 0:18:19.800 --> 0:18:24.000 explained to John, the lion's return had only removed two 0:18:24.040 --> 0:18:27.080 of the claws from his vision. He could still see 0:18:27.119 --> 0:18:31.680 one clinging on to Janet. The mark utu was still there, 0:18:32.000 --> 0:18:36.480 and it was now somehow linked to Janet's partner Shane. 0:18:36.680 --> 0:18:40.840 On Wednesday, tenth of October, the family gathered again at 0:18:40.920 --> 0:18:44.879 Janet's mother's home. Though he didn't know exactly how it 0:18:45.000 --> 0:18:49.679 was done, Uncle John decided to continue the markutu lifting. 0:18:50.520 --> 0:18:55.000 He began by ordering the family to surround Janet. Just 0:18:55.080 --> 0:18:58.840 then someone pointed out the bone necklace around her neck, 0:18:59.400 --> 0:19:02.720 a gift for Shane. It was promptly cut off and 0:19:02.880 --> 0:19:08.600 thrown away. Then together, under John's guidance, the family began 0:19:08.680 --> 0:19:12.000 to chant blessings as they passed around a cup of water, 0:19:12.480 --> 0:19:15.919 taking it in turns to sip from it. They began 0:19:16.000 --> 0:19:19.679 to stomp in unison as though they might somehow stamp 0:19:19.760 --> 0:19:25.359 the markoutu out of her. Outside, unsettled neighbors listened with 0:19:25.440 --> 0:19:29.639 increasing concern to the deafening sounds of chanting and stomping 0:19:29.920 --> 0:19:34.639 coming from inside the property. While inside, as the temperature 0:19:34.760 --> 0:19:39.320 rose ever higher, hitting forty degrees celsius, the family took 0:19:39.359 --> 0:19:42.760 to splashing themselves with cupfuls of water to help cool 0:19:42.840 --> 0:19:46.439 down as they continued to stamp and shout for the 0:19:46.520 --> 0:19:53.000 Markoutu to leave Janet. At some point, Janet's paternal relatives 0:19:53.080 --> 0:19:55.800 began to wonder if she might be better off going 0:19:55.800 --> 0:20:00.960 to hospital, but their concerns were waved away. Instead, with 0:20:01.160 --> 0:20:04.800 nothing seeming to work, Janet was poured into the shower, 0:20:04.880 --> 0:20:08.720 fully clothed and sprayed with cold water, in the belief 0:20:08.960 --> 0:20:12.240 that subjecting her to cold temperatures would make the mark 0:20:12.400 --> 0:20:17.119 utu that still clung to her uncomfortable. When this also 0:20:17.200 --> 0:20:20.120 didn't work, Janet was led back to the living room, 0:20:20.359 --> 0:20:34.960 where the lifting continued with ever more gusto. By Thursday, 0:20:35.160 --> 0:20:39.240 eleventh of October, the heat which enveloped Wellington had become 0:20:39.359 --> 0:20:44.480 virtually unbearable. That morning, Janet's mother, along with some younger 0:20:44.520 --> 0:20:47.440 members of the family, arrived at the house where Janet 0:20:47.480 --> 0:20:51.240 was being kept. What they found there shocked them to 0:20:51.320 --> 0:20:55.639 the core. Numerous members of the family sat about in 0:20:55.760 --> 0:20:59.400 various states of lucidity. Clearly having been up all night, 0:21:00.480 --> 0:21:04.000 Uncle John hadn't changed his clothes for days, and he 0:21:04.119 --> 0:21:09.840 was babbling incoherently about something evil in Janet's eyes, while 0:21:09.880 --> 0:21:15.240 all about the house was completely flooded. Worst of all, Janet, 0:21:15.320 --> 0:21:19.520 who veered from restless sleep to lugubrious bouts of wakefulness, 0:21:19.800 --> 0:21:22.200 was no better than the last time her mother had 0:21:22.240 --> 0:21:27.280 seen her. With her mother's arrival and Janet seemingly subdued 0:21:27.320 --> 0:21:30.439 for the moment, John took the opportunity to try and 0:21:30.560 --> 0:21:34.200 get some rest, but no sooner had he closed his eyes, 0:21:34.720 --> 0:21:42.320 Janet started screaming, They're coming. She growled, They're coming. Several 0:21:42.400 --> 0:21:46.240 family members shot up and began shadow boxing around her, 0:21:46.600 --> 0:21:51.200 as if they were fighting off invisible entities. At some point, 0:21:51.520 --> 0:21:54.720 John noticed that some of the children had begun to 0:21:54.800 --> 0:21:59.760 act strangely too. Some were staring blankly off into the distance, 0:22:00.080 --> 0:22:04.080 seemingly in a trance, while others seemed to be muttering 0:22:04.160 --> 0:22:09.320 incoherently to themselves. It was the thing they'd feared the most, 0:22:09.920 --> 0:22:15.240 the Markkutu was spreading hurriedly. The children were all made 0:22:15.240 --> 0:22:18.159 to vomit in order to purge any evil that was 0:22:18.200 --> 0:22:22.000 thought to be inside them. Anything solid that came up 0:22:22.320 --> 0:22:25.119 was swiftly stamped on by the others in an effort 0:22:25.240 --> 0:22:30.000 to obliterate any evil spirit that it might contain. From 0:22:30.000 --> 0:22:33.639 that point on, everyone was banned from looking Janet in 0:22:33.680 --> 0:22:38.000 the eyes lest they also succumbed to the malignant curse. 0:22:45.240 --> 0:22:49.480 At some point, perhaps growing increasingly terrified by the ritual's 0:22:49.520 --> 0:22:53.960 inability to expunge the mark Utu from Janet, the family 0:22:54.160 --> 0:22:58.560 decided to take things up a notch, believing the purifying 0:22:58.640 --> 0:23:02.840 qualities of water held the key to her salvation. Janet 0:23:02.920 --> 0:23:06.440 was held down while water was poured into her eyes 0:23:06.520 --> 0:23:09.760 and her mouth in the hope it might finally purge 0:23:09.800 --> 0:23:13.520 the evil from her. When she closed her eyes to 0:23:13.600 --> 0:23:17.679 shield them from the deluge, others reached out and pride 0:23:17.720 --> 0:23:21.440 them open. Some believed when they did so they could 0:23:21.480 --> 0:23:26.560 see the demons swimming about inside them. When Janet closed 0:23:26.600 --> 0:23:29.959 her mouth, unable to hold any more water in her throat, 0:23:30.359 --> 0:23:34.520 again came the frantic hands to pull her mouth apart. 0:23:35.240 --> 0:23:39.119 As Janet's eyes grew progressively scratched and red, and she 0:23:39.160 --> 0:23:42.760 struggled for breath under the onslaught the young woman grew 0:23:42.840 --> 0:23:48.240 increasingly distressed. Clearly the family thought it was finally working. 0:23:49.040 --> 0:23:53.000 Janet's struggling, they reasoned, was simply her struggling to free 0:23:53.040 --> 0:23:58.320 herself from the demon possessing her, and so, despite her 0:23:58.359 --> 0:24:03.480 increasingly desperate protestantatients, the family held firm and continued the treatment. 0:24:04.440 --> 0:24:08.840 When Janet's jaw locked, nobody present understood that she was 0:24:08.880 --> 0:24:15.280 in fact drowning. Moments later, she was unresponsive, with no 0:24:15.400 --> 0:24:18.639 desire to call the authorities and no one on hand 0:24:18.960 --> 0:24:23.600 able to perform CPR. It was sometime around eight a m. 0:24:23.800 --> 0:24:29.560 On Friday, October twelfth when Janet's heart stopped beating, and 0:24:29.680 --> 0:24:35.520 yet even then the markouto lifting was not complete. Janet 0:24:35.640 --> 0:24:39.160 now dead, it seemed to many present that whatever had 0:24:39.200 --> 0:24:42.640 been stalking her had somehow wormed its way into her 0:24:42.680 --> 0:24:46.919 fourteen year old niece. She too, was held down and 0:24:47.040 --> 0:24:51.080 dowsed with water. Fingers clawed at her eyes to keep 0:24:51.119 --> 0:24:56.040 them open, as the supposedly purifying liquid was repeatedly thrown 0:24:56.080 --> 0:25:00.800 onto her face, until eventually she passed out. Just then 0:25:01.200 --> 0:25:05.120 a neighbor appeared at the front door. He told everyone 0:25:05.280 --> 0:25:10.000 to stop immediately. He claimed he'd received a message in 0:25:10.080 --> 0:25:14.560 a dream from Janet's deceased grandmother that the demon was 0:25:14.600 --> 0:25:18.600 now gone, and that with Janet's death, the evil had 0:25:18.640 --> 0:25:23.200 been dispersed. He said that the grandmother's spirit was angry 0:25:23.359 --> 0:25:26.800 that the younger family members had been subjected to all 0:25:26.840 --> 0:25:31.080 the madness. Then he blessed Janet's body and advised that 0:25:31.160 --> 0:25:44.000 the emergency services be called the lifting was over. In 0:25:44.040 --> 0:25:47.919 the days following Janet Moses's death, numerous members of her 0:25:47.960 --> 0:25:51.840 family were taken into custody and quizzed about their involvement. 0:25:53.000 --> 0:25:56.639 In the end, nine people were charged with manslaughter and 0:25:56.760 --> 0:26:01.040 cruelty to a child. No intoxicants were found in any 0:26:01.080 --> 0:26:04.840 of the participants of the ritual, while several experts in 0:26:05.000 --> 0:26:08.280 Maori culture testified that they had never heard of an 0:26:08.320 --> 0:26:13.520 exorcism being conducted with water. As it turned out, the 0:26:13.600 --> 0:26:17.919 lion ornaments that had apparently been revealed to spiritual adviser 0:26:18.000 --> 0:26:21.199 Timmy Rahi in a vision to be over one hundred 0:26:21.280 --> 0:26:26.600 years old were in fact nothing of the sort. Instead, 0:26:26.960 --> 0:26:31.600 they were simply mundane objects purchased recently from an everyday 0:26:31.680 --> 0:26:37.159 garden center. In June two thousand and nine, five of 0:26:37.240 --> 0:26:41.879 the nine family members were found guilty of manslaughter, including 0:26:42.000 --> 0:26:47.200 Janet's uncle John and four of her aunts. However, not 0:26:47.359 --> 0:26:51.159 one received a jail sentence, but were instead sentenced to 0:26:51.240 --> 0:26:56.160 community service and to undertake cultural sensitivity training, which may 0:26:56.200 --> 0:27:00.320 seem odd given the severity of the crime, because here's 0:27:00.320 --> 0:27:04.240 the thing, whether or not Janet was ever truly possessed, 0:27:04.560 --> 0:27:08.080 there is absolutely no denying that her family were only 0:27:08.119 --> 0:27:11.800 acting with the very best of intentions according to how 0:27:11.880 --> 0:27:16.800 they saw the world, despite their abstract beliefs, leading to 0:27:16.880 --> 0:27:21.080 the very real physical consequence of Janet's death. It feels 0:27:21.119 --> 0:27:24.960 almost cruel to condemn them for it, given the sincerity, 0:27:25.400 --> 0:27:30.000 even purity, of their conviction. It is perhaps a little 0:27:30.040 --> 0:27:34.040 hollow given the tragic consequences of their actions, But this 0:27:34.119 --> 0:27:39.080 single detail raises some vital and uncomfortable notions about the 0:27:39.119 --> 0:27:50.119 world we share with each other. In China Meaval's novel 0:27:50.359 --> 0:27:54.240 The City and the City, the plot unfolds effectively in 0:27:54.320 --> 0:27:59.080 two locations, the cities of Betzel and ol Coma, that, 0:27:59.200 --> 0:28:03.560 in a remarkable and brilliant conceit, in fact occupy the 0:28:03.680 --> 0:28:08.959 same physical space. Their inhabitants have been conditioned from birth 0:28:09.240 --> 0:28:14.119 to unsee and unhear one another, thereby enabling them to 0:28:14.160 --> 0:28:20.080 live side by side despite inhabiting entirely separate perceptual realities. 0:28:21.240 --> 0:28:25.199 Each population moves through the same streets and buildings, but 0:28:25.400 --> 0:28:31.520 perceives only its own city's architecture, people, and culture. Mentally 0:28:31.520 --> 0:28:36.679 erasing anything belonging to the other. To notice or acknowledge 0:28:36.720 --> 0:28:41.080 the other side is a crime called breach, punishable by 0:28:41.120 --> 0:28:48.080 a mysterious quasi supernatural force. Mieval uses this strange surreal 0:28:48.200 --> 0:28:53.400 set up to explore how societies construct and maintain invisible 0:28:53.480 --> 0:28:59.840 boundaries political, cultural, psychological, and how they allow people to 0:29:00.080 --> 0:29:04.800 coexist in the same reality while living entirely separate lives. 0:29:05.880 --> 0:29:09.400 But crucially, for the most part, those who have to 0:29:09.480 --> 0:29:12.440 live in this reality do not do so out of 0:29:12.520 --> 0:29:17.320 animosity or hatred to the others outside. It is simply 0:29:17.360 --> 0:29:23.160 a consequence of their innocently and organically acquired beliefs. And 0:29:23.280 --> 0:29:27.040 that is a complicated truth at the center of all this, 0:29:27.640 --> 0:29:32.400 and one that bears repeating that whatever others may believe, 0:29:32.880 --> 0:29:35.680 and however wrong we might think those beliefs to be, 0:29:36.600 --> 0:29:40.640 it is often not hatred or a calculated rejection of 0:29:40.800 --> 0:29:45.920 our beliefs that drives them. Janet Moses' family did what 0:29:45.960 --> 0:29:49.160 they thought was right. They believed they were trying to 0:29:49.280 --> 0:29:53.440 save her, and yes, that ill informed belief killed her. 0:29:54.280 --> 0:29:57.440 But here's the thing. It might be easy for some 0:29:57.680 --> 0:30:01.840 to look at Janet's family and see some things strange, alien, 0:30:01.920 --> 0:30:07.400 even a relic perhaps of less enlightened and more superstitious times. 0:30:08.160 --> 0:30:12.440 But the truth is we all live like this. Each 0:30:12.480 --> 0:30:16.480 of us are court inside abstract systems of belief, be 0:30:16.600 --> 0:30:21.480