Speaker 1: For many, our greatest fear is that we are ultimately alone,
Speaker 1: with no explanation as to why we are here. And
Speaker 1: I don't just mean in the metaphorical sense, I mean
Speaker 1: literally that the human race might exist alone as the
Speaker 1: soul sentient being in the entire universe. Perhaps, in a
Speaker 1: way to counter this fear, we tell stories, so at
Speaker 1: the least we might share our experience of the world
Speaker 1: and in some way feel less alone. And sometimes these
Speaker 1: stories might involve beings or entities from other realms, or
Speaker 1: even from a time before time. There is certainly a
Speaker 1: strange comfort in contemplating things beyond our everyday practical experiences,
Speaker 1: the thought that there are things we don't yet know
Speaker 1: or understand, things unseen that might speak of something more.
Speaker 1: But I often think, what if these weren't just stories,
Speaker 1: What if we weren't in fact alone? Might that be
Speaker 1: altogether more terrifying? And what if all we needed to
Speaker 1: access these unseen worlds was some kind of gateway? What
Speaker 1: price might we pay for opening it? You're listening to Unexplained,
Speaker 1: and I'm Richard McClain smith in discussing the horror writer H. P. Lovecraft,
Speaker 1: The author Michel Welbeck was struck by his utter materialism.
Speaker 1: You see, for Lovecraft, the ultimate horror is not to
Speaker 1: be found in the psyche. His monsters aren't manifestations of
Speaker 1: a suppressed, unconscious or malicious supernatural energies. His monsters were
Speaker 1: independently real, made of flesh and blood. That we can't
Speaker 1: see them doesn't render them figments of the imagination. It
Speaker 1: merely suggests that they are occupants of another dimension that
Speaker 1: we have not sufficiently evolved to see. Indeed, when Lovecraft
Speaker 1: writes that on completing the repugnant Necronomicon, its ill fated
Speaker 1: author abdulal has read was shortly after devoured in broad
Speaker 1: daylight in a market square in Damascus by invisible monsters.
Speaker 1: And if this all sounds a little far fetched, it's
Speaker 1: worth bearing in mind. The many worlds theory, a leading
Speaker 1: theory of quantum mechanics widely accepted by some of the
Speaker 1: finest minds humanity has ever produced. Although the theory has
Speaker 1: many interpretations, it allows for the implication that we are,
Speaker 1: at any one time surrounded by an infinite amount of
Speaker 1: other dimensions, all stacked up and existing right on top
Speaker 1: of each other. It is a theory adopted by some
Speaker 1: ufologists to explain the sighting of UFOs and aliens. In
Speaker 1: answer to the question what possible technology could exist for
Speaker 1: them to travel across space, defying all concepts of time
Speaker 1: and space expansion, they might merely reply, perhaps they don't
Speaker 1: come from outer space at all. The famous occultist Alister
Speaker 1: Crowley once claimed to have made contact with an unearthly
Speaker 1: being after completing a sacred ritual known as the Amalantra.
Speaker 1: Working with it, Crowley claimed to have invoked the spirit
Speaker 1: of an entity known as Lamb. Crowley made a drawing
Speaker 1: of the entity, which, with its large eyes and elongated forehead,
Speaker 1: bears a striking resemblance to the familiar gray alien of
Speaker 1: Law only. This drawing was made in nineteen eighteen, a
Speaker 1: good thirty years before such images entered the public consciousness.
Speaker 1: The much loved thinker and psychonaut Terence mc kenna frequently
Speaker 1: discussed his experiences of taking the drug dimethyl trip to mean,
Speaker 1: also known as d MT. The hallucinogenic is believed to
Speaker 1: stimulate the pineal gland, a gland at the base of
Speaker 1: the brain that has considered responsible for near death experiences.
Speaker 1: It is also thought by some to be the location
Speaker 1: of the third eye a sort of biological gateway into
Speaker 1: other dimensions or states of consciousness. On the experience of
Speaker 1: taking the drug, mc kenna describes the sensation of being
Speaker 1: propelled through an unknowable space into a place beyond time,
Speaker 1: only to be greeted by strange looking entities who had
Speaker 1: been waiting for him all long. He called these beings
Speaker 1: clockwork elves. It is an experience that has been shared
Speaker 1: by many uses of the drug. Yet for all these
Speaker 1: different examples, might these entities in fact be the same thing?
Speaker 1: Perhaps over the years we have just labeled them in
Speaker 1: different ways, sometimes angels, sometimes demons, sprites and aliens, and
Speaker 1: maybe even fairies. The island of Iona lies just off
Speaker 1: the western coast of Scotland. Measuring barely three and a
Speaker 1: half miles long. It is known for its white, sandy
Speaker 1: beaches and its wild and rugged beauty. It is also
Speaker 1: known as the final resting place of many ancient kings
Speaker 1: of Scotland, including Shakespeare's own Macbeth. Like many of the
Speaker 1: Scottish islands, it has a rich history of folklore, paganism,
Speaker 1: and even witchcraft. An island where the past seems forever
Speaker 1: to lurk in the shadows. It has often been described
Speaker 1: as a thin place, a place where heaven and Earth
Speaker 1: are thought to be separated by the finest of vales.
Speaker 1: Back in the autumn of nineteen twenty nine, a beautiful
Speaker 1: young occultist named Netta Funario told her friends in London
Speaker 1: that she was planning a trip to the island. Drawn
Speaker 1: by Iona's mystical past, she told them that she planned
Speaker 1: to make contact with the island's ancient spirits. Netta made
Speaker 1: it to the island, but what exactly she found there
Speaker 1: we will never know. For less than two months after
Speaker 1: her arrival, Netta would be found dead in the most
Speaker 1: mysterious of circumstances. It is a mystery that remains to
Speaker 1: this day unexplained. Norah Emily Fernario, known as Netta to
Speaker 1: her friends, was born in Cairo in eighteen ninety six.
Speaker 1: After the premature death of her mother, she was abandoned
Speaker 1: by her father and sent to live with her grandfather
Speaker 1: in London. Her childhood was, by all accounts, an unhappy one,
Speaker 1: characterized by a restlessness of spirit and a seemingly unrequited
Speaker 1: desire to belong. In nineteen twenty two, having tried to
Speaker 1: settle down in Italy, Netta returned to the UK to
Speaker 1: the town of Bishop's Dorford in Hertfordshire. The town had
Speaker 1: recently developed a reputation as somewhat of an occultist hotspot,
Speaker 1: being as it was the location of the Grange, an
Speaker 1: institute run by Irish occultist and prominent freemason Theodore Moriarty.
Speaker 1: At some point, Netta was initiated into a secretive magical
Speaker 1: order known as the Alpha and Omega Temple, a branch
Speaker 1: of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn that had
Speaker 1: remained loyal to its original founder, Samuel Mathers. Members of
Speaker 1: the Golden Dawn were devoted to the study of hermetic
Speaker 1: magic and other esoteric traditions, encountered among them the like
Speaker 1: to the poet W. B. Yates and Alice to Crowley.
Speaker 1: Followers believed that beyond our world of the senses lay
Speaker 1: other worlds and entities that we might contact if only
Speaker 1: we had the requisite knowledge and training, and that in turn,
Speaker 1: with their knowledge, they would gain a better understanding and
Speaker 1: control of our own world. By nineteen twenty nine, Netta
Speaker 1: had moved again, relocating to Richmond in London. There is
Speaker 1: a photo of her taken around this time, showing a striking,
Speaker 1: dark haired young woman in a long, handmade silken tunic.
Speaker 1: In her eyes, one might discern a certain sense of knowing,
Speaker 1: or perhaps the awareness of something beyond our everyday understanding
Speaker 1: of things. A few months after this photo was taken,
Speaker 1: Netta made her journey to the island. Are you always
Speaker 1: taking care of your family? Do you take care of
Speaker 1: others and not yourself? Now it's time to take care
Speaker 1: of yourself, to make time for you. You deserve it.
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Speaker 1: you get back to feeling your best, to feeling like
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Speaker 1: get started. That's teladoc dot com slash Unexplained podcast. Upon
Speaker 1: arrival to Iona, Netta took up lodgings with a woman
Speaker 1: named Missus McCrae in the small village of Traymore. Missus McCray,
Speaker 1: a lifelong resident of the island, was instantly smitten with
Speaker 1: her new lodger. Over the coming weeks, Netta would fascinate
Speaker 1: her host with knowledge of the occult and her mystical practices,
Speaker 1: and in return, Missus mc cray would delight Netta with
Speaker 1: her own tales of mysterious happenings and Hebridean folklore. By day,
Speaker 1: Netta would roam the beaches and moorlands. Then, at the
Speaker 1: coming of night, she would attempt to make contact with
Speaker 1: the spirits of the island, falling into lengthy trances in
Speaker 1: order to do so. Netta had confided in Missus McCray
Speaker 1: that shortly before her visit she had fallen into such
Speaker 1: a trance that had lasted over a week. She gave
Speaker 1: express instruction that should she again into any such state,
Speaker 1: she should be left alone and that no doctor should
Speaker 1: be called for. Before long, strange things began to occur.
Speaker 1: Netta began to speak of visions, things she had seen
Speaker 1: in the heavens, and of messages that she had received
Speaker 1: from the spirit world. Her host and fellow lodgers became
Speaker 1: increasingly concerned for her well being. Suddenly, that far away
Speaker 1: look in her eyes that had been at first so charming,
Speaker 1: now seemed instead to suggest a sort of madness, or
Speaker 1: maybe even something far worse. On the morning of Sunday,
Speaker 1: seventeenth of November nineteen twenty nine, Missus McCray found Netta
Speaker 1: unusually restless and agitated. She began packing up all her
Speaker 1: belongings while uttering to herself that certain people were disturbing her. Telepathically,
Speaker 1: she spoke of a mysterious rudderless boat that sailed across
Speaker 1: the sky and messages she had received from another world.
Speaker 1: She had decided to return to London without delay. Unfortunately,
Speaker 1: no boats operated on the island that day, and Netta
Speaker 1: was forced to change her plans. After finally calming down,
Speaker 1: she decided to stay after all and promptly retired to
Speaker 1: her bed. The next morning, Netta was nowhere to be
Speaker 1: found as the hours wore on and she did not return.
Speaker 1: The people of the town became alarmed for her safety.
Speaker 1: They sent out a search party to scour the bays
Speaker 1: and inlets for any sign of the young woman. They
Speaker 1: searched the rocks and moorlands, becoming increasingly desperate as the
Speaker 1: short November day turned steadily to night. After a long
Speaker 1: and fruitless search, they returned reluctantly to their beds. The
Speaker 1: following day, the search was renewed, but again they found nothing.
Speaker 1: About two and a half miles away from missus mccraye's cottage,
Speaker 1: by the side of Loch Stanag where the remains of
Speaker 1: an ancient village in which Netta had expressed interest in visiting.
Speaker 1: As dawn approached, two local men were searching the surrounds
Speaker 1: of the ruins when they made a shocking discovery. There,
Speaker 1: lying sprawled across the top of a small mound, naked
Speaker 1: except for a large black cloak, was the dead body
Speaker 1: of Netta Fernario. A black and silver cross hung about
Speaker 1: her neck, and by her hand lay a small silver dagger.
Speaker 1: Underneath her body, a large cross had been carved into
Speaker 1: the turf, presumably with the same dagger. Her body was
Speaker 1: covered in unaccountable scratch marks. The soles of her feet
Speaker 1: were torn and had bled a great deal, while her
Speaker 1: heels remained unscathed. But perhaps strangest of all was the
Speaker 1: location of her body. Netta had been found lying on
Speaker 1: top of what is often known as a fairymount. The
Speaker 1: fairymount or fort is thought to be imbued with Druidic magic,
Speaker 1: and is considered to be a gateway between the realms
Speaker 1: of magic and our own human world. The precise cause
Speaker 1: of her death proved inconclusive, though was later recorded as
Speaker 1: death by exposure to the elements. She was thirty three
Speaker 1: years of age. Needless to say, there has been a
Speaker 1: great deal of speculation about the nature of Netta's death.
Speaker 1: Had she made her way to this remote spot in
Speaker 1: response to some mysterious urge. Had she attempted some sort
Speaker 1: of magical ritual and merely underestimated chill of the night?
Speaker 1: Or was it something else entirely? Had Netta in fact
Speaker 1: achieved what she had set out to do and opened
Speaker 1: a door to another world, a world that perhaps she
Speaker 1: had not been entirely ready to discover. It has been
Speaker 1: suggested that the precise reason Nehta had traveled to Iona
Speaker 1: was to perform a ritual to bring peace to a
Speaker 1: fairy woman who had long ago been burned alive by monks.
Speaker 1: The monks had been follow as a saint, Columber, who
Speaker 1: established a monastery on the island in five to sixty
Speaker 1: three a d. It was Columber's intention to rid the
Speaker 1: Kingdom of Scotland of its pagan past and to replace
Speaker 1: it with the new face of Christianity. Further reports from
Speaker 1: the knight of Netta's death speak of strange blue lights
Speaker 1: coming from the location of her body, and a cloaked
Speaker 1: man seen close to the area. A number of letters
Speaker 1: of strange character were also believed to have been taken
Speaker 1: by the police, but are never later released. Had Netta
Speaker 1: somehow made contact with the fairy woman, had she somehow
Speaker 1: burst through into her world, but found herself unable or
Speaker 1: unwilling to return to our earthly realm, Perhaps a clue
Speaker 1: can be found in the writings of Fiona McLeod. McLeod
Speaker 1: was the pseudonym of William Sharp, a Scottish poet and
Speaker 1: fellow occultist whom Netta greatly admired. In an article titled
Speaker 1: Iona Sharp relates a story for when he lived on
Speaker 1: the island as a child. He had traveled to his
Speaker 1: friend Elsie's house, only to be met by her distraught mother.
Speaker 1: She told him that Elsie had somehow made contact with
Speaker 1: a monk from the seventh century. She believed the monk
Speaker 1: had been hostile to Elsie. Afraid of what he might do,
Speaker 1: Elsie was now hiding on the only part of the
Speaker 1: island as she felt safe. Her mother continued, the monks
Speaker 1: are still strong here, except by Stanning whether it's a
Speaker 1: path that no monk can go there. In the old
Speaker 1: days they burned to women, but she was not a woman.
Speaker 1: She was one of the sorrows of the shin a fairy.
Speaker 1: It's ill to any that brings harm to them, and
Speaker 1: that is why the monks are not strong by stanagway,
Speaker 1: was it solely a coincidence that this is where Nedda's
Speaker 1: body was found. Netta's friend and fellow occultist Deon Fortune,
Speaker 1: believed Netta to have had a deep knowledge of green
Speaker 1: ray elementals. An elemental is also known as a fairy,
Speaker 1: and the green ray is supposedly the wavelength of energy
Speaker 1: in which their world operates. Fortune also believed that Netta
Speaker 1: had a strong pineal sensitivity, the supposed seat of the
Speaker 1: third eye, our own gateway into other dimensions, This being
Speaker 1: the same gland so stimulated by DM t As to
Speaker 1: reveal clockwork elves to Terence McKenna. Perhaps it was also
Speaker 1: this gland that Crowley affected when conducting the amalantra working
Speaker 1: that revealed to him the strange entity he called Lamb.
Speaker 1: In truth, we will never know. The Friday after Netta
Speaker 1: was discovered, the Islanders laid her body to rest. They
Speaker 1: placed on top a rough tombstone edged with the letters
Speaker 1: M E F for Marie Emily Fornario. Finally, I wanted
Speaker 1: to just draw attention to an essay written by Netta
Speaker 1: that you can actually find online. The essay is an
Speaker 1: attempt by Netta to make clear to people the true
Speaker 1: meaning of an opera written by her favorite writer, Fiona McLeod.
Speaker 1: The opera, called The Immortal Hour, tells the story of
Speaker 1: an immortal race of fairies who are feared by humans
Speaker 1: for the interference they can bring to mortal lives. Reading
Speaker 1: the essay, I was struck by one part in particular
Speaker 1: concerning the finale of the opera. Delua, an agent of
Speaker 1: unseen and fateful powers, whose touch brings madness and death
Speaker 1: to mortals, has stolen the wife of the hero King Yokaid.
Speaker 1: In a desperate bid to be reunited with his queen,
Speaker 1: Yokid begs of Delua, my dreams, my dreams, give me
Speaker 1: my dreams, to which Delua replies, there is no dream
Speaker 1: save this, the dream of death. At this point, Delua
Speaker 1: touches yock Aid and he is instantly removed from this world.
Speaker 1: As Netta notes, it is the moment implying that death
Speaker 1: itself is only a dream and that the ultimate reality
Speaker 1: for Yokaid lies in the other world, where all life
Speaker 1: is one life. Had Neta two come to the same
Speaker 1: realization that death was merely just a dream. This episode
Speaker 1: of Unexplained was produced by me Richard McClane smith. Unexplained
Speaker 1: is on Twitter at Unexplained Pod, and you can find
Speaker 1: out more about me and the show at Unexplained podcast
Speaker 1: dot com. Now it's time to take care of yourself.
Speaker 1: To make time for you, Tell a doc gives you
Speaker 1: access to a licensed therapist to help you get back
Speaker 1: to feeling your best. Speak to a licensed therapist by
Speaker 1: phone or video anytime between seven am to nine pm
Speaker 1: local time, seven days a week. Teledoc Therapy is available
Speaker 1: through most insurance or employers. Download the app, or visit
Speaker 1: teledoc dot com Forward slash Unexplained podcast Today to get started.
Speaker 1: That's teladoc dot com slash Unexplained Podcast