Speaker 1: Hello, It's Richard mc lean smith here. As we take
Speaker 1: a break between seasons, I thought i'd revisit some of
Speaker 1: my favorite episodes from the show, and where better to
Speaker 1: start than with our very first, the one that launched
Speaker 1: it all back in January twenty sixteen. I'd been toying
Speaker 1: with the idea for a while of creating a show
Speaker 1: that explored the strange and unexplained that everyone from skeptics
Speaker 1: to believers could enjoy. When I came across the story
Speaker 1: of Netta for Nario, it all clicked into place. Here
Speaker 1: was a story that had it all, the enigmatic, Netta herself,
Speaker 1: an ancient mystical landscape, the occult, and crucially, one of
Speaker 1: the most inexplicable mysteries ever featured on the show. Even
Speaker 1: after seven years of episodes, this is Unexplained Season one,
Speaker 1: Episode one, opening the gate. For many, our greatest fear
Speaker 1: is that we are ultimately alone, with no explanation as
Speaker 1: to why we are here. And I don't just mean
Speaker 1: in the metaphorical sense, I mean literally that the human
Speaker 1: race might exist alone as the sole sentient being in
Speaker 1: the entire universe. Perhaps, in a way to counter this fear,
Speaker 1: we tell stories so at the least we might share
Speaker 1: our experience of the world and in some way feel
Speaker 1: less alone. And sometimes these stories might involve beings or
Speaker 1: entities from other realms, or even from a time before time.
Speaker 1: There is certainly a strange comfort in contemplating things beyond
Speaker 1: our everyday practical experiences, the thought that there are things
Speaker 1: we don't yet know or understand, things unseen that might
Speaker 1: speak of something more. But I often think, what if
Speaker 1: these weren't just stories, What if we weren't in fact alone?
Speaker 1: Might that be altogether more terrifying? And what if all
Speaker 1: we needed to access these unseen worlds was some kind
Speaker 1: of gateway? What price might we pay for opening it?
Speaker 1: You're listening to Unexplained and I'm Richard Maclin Smith. In
Speaker 1: discussing the horror writer H. P. Lovecraft, the author Michelle
Speaker 1: Welbeck was struck by his utter materialism. You see, for Lovecraft,
Speaker 1: the ultimate horror is not to be found in the psyche.
Speaker 1: His monsters aren't manifestations of a suppressed, unconscious or malicious
Speaker 1: supernatural energies. His monsters were independently real, made of flesh
Speaker 1: and blood. That we can't see them doesn't render them
Speaker 1: figments of the imagination. It merely suggests that they are
Speaker 1: occupied of another dimension that we have not sufficiently evolved
Speaker 1: to see. Indeed, when Lovecraft writes that on completing the
Speaker 1: repugnant Necronomicon, its ill fated author Abdullah has read, was
Speaker 1: shortly after devoured in broad daylight in a market square
Speaker 1: and Damascus by invisible monsters. And if this all sounds
Speaker 1: a little far fetched, its worth bearing in mind. The
Speaker 1: Many World's theory, a leading theory of quantum mechanics widely
Speaker 1: accepted by some of the finest minds humanity has ever produced.
Speaker 1: Although the theory has many interpretations, it allows for the implication
Speaker 1: that we are, at any one time surrounded by an
Speaker 1: infinite amount of other dimensions, all stacked up and existing
Speaker 1: right on top of each other. It is a theory
Speaker 1: adopted by some eupologists to explain the sighting of UFOs
Speaker 1: and aliens. In answer to the question what possible technology
Speaker 1: could exist for them to travel across space to deifying
Speaker 1: all concepts of time and space expansion, they might merely reply,
Speaker 1: perhaps they don't come from outer space at all. The
Speaker 1: famous occultist Alista Crowley once claimed to have made contact
Speaker 1: with an unearthly being after completing a sacred ritual known
Speaker 1: as the Amalantra. Working with it, Crowley claimed to have
Speaker 1: invoked the spirit of an entity known as Lamb. Crowley
Speaker 1: made a drawing of the entity, which, with its large
Speaker 1: eyes and elongated forehead, bears a striking resemblance to the
Speaker 1: familiar gray alien of Law only. This drawing was made
Speaker 1: in nineteen eighteen, a good thirty years before such images
Speaker 1: entered the public consciousness. The much loved thinker and psychoonaut
Speaker 1: Terence McKenna frequently discussed his experiences of taking the drug
Speaker 1: dimethyl tript meine, also known as DMT. The hallucinogenic is
Speaker 1: believed to stimulate the piineal gland, a gland at the
Speaker 1: base of the brain that is considered responsible for near
Speaker 1: death experiences. It is also thought by some to be
Speaker 1: the location of the third eye, a sort of biological
Speaker 1: gateway into other dimensions or states of consciousness. On the
Speaker 1: experience of taking the drug, McKenna describes the sensation of
Speaker 1: being 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. Or 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 The island of Iona lies just off the
Speaker 1: western coast of Scotland. Measuring barely three and a half
Speaker 1: miles long. It is known for its white, sandy beaches
Speaker 1: and its wild and rugged beauty. It is also known
Speaker 1: as the final resting place of many ancient kings of Scotland,
Speaker 1: including Shakespeare's own Macbeth. Like many of the Scottish islands,
Speaker 1: it has a rich history of folklore, paganism, and even witchcraft.
Speaker 1: An island where the past seems forever to lurk in
Speaker 1: the shadows, it has often been described as a thin place,
Speaker 1: a place where heaven and Earth are thought to be
Speaker 1: separated by only the finest of vales. Back in the
Speaker 1: autumn of nineteen twenty nine, a beautiful, young occultist named
Speaker 1: Netafornario told her friends in London that she was planning
Speaker 1: a trip to the island Drawn by Iona's mystical past,
Speaker 1: she told them that she planned to make contact with
Speaker 1: the island's ancient spirits. Netta made it to the island,
Speaker 1: but what exactly she found there we will never know.
Speaker 1: For less than two months after her arrival, Netta would
Speaker 1: be found dead in the most mysterious of circumstances. It
Speaker 1: is a mystery that remains to this day unexplained. Nora
Speaker 1: Emily Fanario, known as Netta to her friends, was born
Speaker 1: in Cairo in eighteen ninety six. After the premature death
Speaker 1: of her mother, she was abandoned by her father and
Speaker 1: sent to live with her grandfather in London. Her childhood was,
Speaker 1: by all accounts, an unhappy one, characterised by a restlessness
Speaker 1: of spirit and a seemingly unrequited desire to belong. In
Speaker 1: nineteen twenty two, having tried to settle down in Italy,
Speaker 1: Netta returned to the UK to the town of Bishop
Speaker 1: Stafford in Hertfordshire. The town had recently developed a reputation
Speaker 1: as somewhat of an occultist hotspot, being as it was
Speaker 1: the location of the Grange, an institute run by Irish
Speaker 1: occultist and prominent freemason Theodore Moriarty. At some point, Netta
Speaker 1: was initiated into a secretive magical order known as the
Speaker 1: Alpha and Omega Temple, a branch of the Hermetic Order
Speaker 1: of the Golden Dawn that had remained loyal to its
Speaker 1: original founder, Samuel Mathers. Members of the Golden Dawn were
Speaker 1: devoted to the study of hermetic magic and other esoteric traditions,
Speaker 1: and countered among them the likes of the poet W. B.
Speaker 1: Yates and Alistair Crowley. Followers believed that beyond our world
Speaker 1: of the senses lay other worlds and entities that we
Speaker 1: might contact if only we had the requisite knowledge and training,
Speaker 1: and that in turn, with their knowledge, they would gain
Speaker 1: a better understanding and control of our own world. By
Speaker 1: nineteen twenty nine, Netta had moved again, relocating to Richmond
Speaker 1: in London. There is a photo of her taken around
Speaker 1: this time, showing a striking, dark haired young woman in
Speaker 1: a long, handmade silken tunic. In her eyes one might
Speaker 1: discern a certain sense of knowing, or perhaps the awareness
Speaker 1: of something beyond our everyday understanding of things. A few
Speaker 1: months after this photo was taken, Netta made her journey
Speaker 1: to the island. Upon arrival, to Iona, Netta took up
Speaker 1: lodgings with a woman named Missus McCray in the small
Speaker 1: village of Treymoor. Missus McCray, a lifelong resident of the island,
Speaker 1: was instantly smitten with her new lodger. Over the coming weeks,
Speaker 1: Netta would fascinate her host with knowledge of the occult
Speaker 1: and her mystical practices, and in return, Missus McCray would
Speaker 1: delight Netta with her own tales of mysterious happenings and
Speaker 1: Hebridean folklore. By day, Netta would roam the beaches and moorlands.
Speaker 1: Then at the coming of night, she would attempt to
Speaker 1: make contact with the spirits of the island, falling into
Speaker 1: lengthy trances in order to do so. Netta had confided
Speaker 1: in Missus McCray that shortly before her visit she had
Speaker 1: fallen into such a trance that had lasted over a week.
Speaker 1: She gave express instruction that should she again enter any
Speaker 1: such state, she should be left alone, and that no
Speaker 1: doctor should be called for. Before long, strange things began
Speaker 1: to occur. Netta began to speak of visions, things she
Speaker 1: had seen in the heavens, and of messages that she
Speaker 1: had received from the spirit world. Her host and fellow
Speaker 1: lodgers became increasingly concerned for her well being. Only that
Speaker 1: far away look in her eyes that had been at
Speaker 1: first so charming, now seemed instead to suggest a sort
Speaker 1: of madness, or maybe even something far worse. On the
Speaker 1: morning of Sunday, seventeenth of November nineteen twenty nine, Missus
Speaker 1: McCray found Netta unusually restless and agitated. She began packing
Speaker 1: up all her belongings while muttering to herself that certain
Speaker 1: people were disturbing her. Telepathically, she spoke of a mysterious
Speaker 1: ruddless boat that sailed across the sky and messages she
Speaker 1: had received from another world. She had decided to return
Speaker 1: to London without delay. Unfortunately, no boats operated on the
Speaker 1: island that day, and Netta was forced to change her plans.
Speaker 1: After finally calming down, she decided to stay after all,
Speaker 1: and promptly retired to her bed. The next morning, morning,
Speaker 1: Netta was nowhere to be found. As the hours wore
Speaker 1: on and she did not return, the people of the
Speaker 1: town became alarmed for her safety. They sent out a
Speaker 1: search party to scour the bays and inlets for any
Speaker 1: sign of the young woman. They searched the rocks and moorlands,
Speaker 1: becoming increasingly desperate as the short November day turned steadily
Speaker 1: to night. After a long and fruitless search, they returned
Speaker 1: reluctantly to their beds. The following day, the search was renewed,
Speaker 1: but again they found nothing. About two and a half
Speaker 1: miles away from Missus mc cray's cottage, by the side
Speaker 1: of Loch's Stanage, were the remains of an ancient village
Speaker 1: in which Netta had expressed interest in visiting. As dawn approached,
Speaker 1: two local men were searching the surrounds of the ruins
Speaker 1: when they made a shocking discovery. There, lying sprawled across
Speaker 1: the top of a small mound, naked except for a
Speaker 1: large black cloak, was the dead body of Netta. For Nario,
Speaker 1: a black and silver cross hung about her neck, and
Speaker 1: by her hand lay a small silver dagger. Underneath her body,
Speaker 1: a large cross had been carved into the turf, presumably
Speaker 1: with the same dagger. Her body was covered in unaccountable
Speaker 1: scratch marks. The soles of her feet were torn and
Speaker 1: had bled a great deal, while her heels remained unscathed.
Speaker 1: But perhaps strangest of all was the location of her body.
Speaker 1: Netta had been found lying on top of what is
Speaker 1: often known as a fairy mound. The fairy mount or
Speaker 1: fort is thought to be imbued with Druidic magic, and
Speaker 1: is considered to be a gateway between the realms of
Speaker 1: magic and our own human world. The precise cause of
Speaker 1: her death proved inconclusive, though was later recorded as death
Speaker 1: by exposure to the elements. She was thirty three years
Speaker 1: of age. Needless to say, there has been a great
Speaker 1: deal of speculation about the nature of Netta's death. Had
Speaker 1: she made her way to this remote spot in response
Speaker 1: to some mysterious urge. Had she attempted some sort of
Speaker 1: magical ritual and merely underestimated the 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 Netta 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 followed as a Saint Columba, who
Speaker 1: established a monastery on the island in five sixty three
Speaker 1: a d It was Columber's intention to rid the Kingdom
Speaker 1: of Scotland of its pagan past and replace it with
Speaker 1: the new face of Christianity. Further reports from the knight
Speaker 1: of Netta's death speak of strange blue lights coming from
Speaker 1: the location of her body, and a cloaked man seen
Speaker 1: close to the area. A number of letters of strange
Speaker 1: character were also believed to have been taken by the police,
Speaker 1: but were never later released. Had Netta somehow made contact
Speaker 1: with the fairy woman, had she somehow burst through into
Speaker 1: her world, but found herself unable or unwilling to return
Speaker 1: to our earthly realm, Perhaps a clue can be found
Speaker 1: in the writings of Fiona MacLeod. MacLeod was the pseudonym
Speaker 1: of William Sharp, a Scottish poet and fellow occultist whom
Speaker 1: Netta greatly admired. In an article titled Sharp relates a
Speaker 1: story for when he lived on the island as a child,
Speaker 1: he had traveled to his friend Elsie's house, only to
Speaker 1: be met by her distraught mother. She told him that
Speaker 1: Elsie had somehow made contact with a monk from the
Speaker 1: seventh century. She believed the monk had been hostile to Elsie,
Speaker 1: afraid of what he might do. Elsie was now hiding
Speaker 1: on the only part of the island that she felt safe.
Speaker 1: Her mother continued, the monks are still strong.
Speaker 2: Here, except where there is a path that no monk
Speaker 2: can go there. In the old days they burned a woman,
Speaker 2: but she was not a woman. She was one of
Speaker 2: the sorrows of the Sheen, a fairy. It's ill to
Speaker 2: any that brings harm to them, and that is why
Speaker 2: the monks are not strong by Stanagway.
Speaker 1: Was it solely a coincidence that this is where Netta's
Speaker 1: body was found. Netta's friend and fellow occultist, Dion Fortune,
Speaker 1: believed Netta to have had a deep knowledge of green rays,
Speaker 1: an elemental is also known as a fairy, and the
Speaker 1: green ray is supposedly the wavelength of energy in which
Speaker 1: their world operates. Fortune also believed that Netta had a
Speaker 1: strong pineal sensitivity. The supposed seat of the third eye
Speaker 1: our own gateway into other dimensions, this being the same
Speaker 1: gland so stimulated by d mt as to reveal clockwork.
Speaker 1: Elves to Terence McKenna. Perhaps it was also this gland
Speaker 1: that Crowley affected when conducting the amalantra working that revealed
Speaker 1: to him the strange entity he called Lamb. In truth,
Speaker 1: we will never know. The Friday after Netta was discovered,
Speaker 1: the Islanders laid her body to rest. They placed on
Speaker 1: top a rough tombstone etched with the letters M E.
Speaker 1: F for Marie, Emily for Nario. Finally, I want to
Speaker 1: just draw attention to an essay written by Netta that
Speaker 1: you can actually find online. The essay is an attempt
Speaker 1: by Netta to make clear to people the true meaning
Speaker 1: of an opera written by her favorite writer, Fiona MacLeod.
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. De Lure, an agent
Speaker 1: of unseen and fateful powers whose touch brings madness and
Speaker 1: death to mortals, has stolen the wife of the hero
Speaker 1: King Yokaid. In a desperate bid to be reunited with
Speaker 1: his queen, Yoch eight begs of Delure, my dreams, my dreams,
Speaker 1: give me my dreams, to which de Lure replies, there
Speaker 1: is no dream save this, the dream of death. At
Speaker 1: this point, Delure touches your cad and he is instantly
Speaker 1: removed from this world. As Netta notes, it is the
Speaker 1: moment implying that death itself is only a dream and
Speaker 1: that the ultimate reality for your aid lies in the
Speaker 1: other world, where all life is one life. Had Netta
Speaker 1: two come to the same realization that death was merely
Speaker 1: just a dream. This episode of Unexplained was produced by
Speaker 1: me Richard mclin smith. Unexplained, the book and audiobook, featuring
Speaker 1: stories that have never before been featured on the show,
Speaker 1: is now available to buy worldwide. You can purchase from Amazon, Barnes,
Speaker 1: and Noble Waterstones, among other bookstores. Please subscribe and rate
Speaker 1: the show wherever you listen to podcasts, and feel free
Speaker 1: to get in touch with any thoughts or ideas regarding
Speaker 1: the stories you've heard on the show. Perhaps you have
Speaker 1: an explanation of your own you'd like to share. You
Speaker 1: can reach us online at Unexplained podcast dot com, or
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