WEBVTT - S04 Episode 18: The Dark Ascending 0:00:00.040 --> 0:00:02.760 Membership, peace, apply after free trial, cancel anytime. Can I 0:00:02.800 --> 0:00:04.920 be real with you for a second. That goal you 0:00:05.000 --> 0:00:08.280 have to exercise and eat better? You really can do it, 0:00:08.440 --> 0:00:11.200 but nobody is going to do it for you. Nobody 0:00:11.320 --> 0:00:13.280 is going to push you out of bed to work out, 0:00:13.680 --> 0:00:16.239 Nobody is going to make you eat better. But here's 0:00:16.239 --> 0:00:19.800 the thing. Nobody has to because you can do it 0:00:19.960 --> 0:00:22.440 if you have the right tools and a community that 0:00:22.520 --> 0:00:26.120 cares about helping you get results. And that's us beach Body. 0:00:26.320 --> 0:00:28.760 Two and a half million people each doing the Beach 0:00:28.800 --> 0:00:31.960 Body program that fits our own goals. 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Here's al Go to beachbody 0:00:57.000 --> 0:00:59.880 dot com to claim your free membership and start feeling great. 0:01:00.360 --> 0:01:14.920 Ambling across the South downs a large stretch of chalk hills, 0:01:15.280 --> 0:01:18.200 valleys and woodland just to the north of the south 0:01:18.240 --> 0:01:22.080 coast of England, you might chance upon a peculiar collection 0:01:22.160 --> 0:01:26.160 of beech trees perched atop a prominent spot on its 0:01:26.200 --> 0:01:31.959 northern edge. The trees, first planted by local landowner Charles 0:01:32.000 --> 0:01:36.399 Goring in seventeen sixty but later replaced after being destroyed 0:01:36.400 --> 0:01:40.120 by a hurricane in nineteen eighty seven, marked the spot 0:01:40.280 --> 0:01:43.720 of an ancient circular structure believed to date back to 0:01:43.800 --> 0:01:49.720 the Bronze Age, known today as Chanctonbury Ring. The original 0:01:49.760 --> 0:01:54.000 purpose of the site remains unknown, with suggestions ranging from 0:01:54.040 --> 0:01:57.640 the mundane, such as it having been first used as 0:01:57.680 --> 0:02:01.760 little more than a livestock enclosure, to the sublime, with 0:02:01.880 --> 0:02:05.080 others believing instead that it may well have been some 0:02:05.200 --> 0:02:10.400 kind of religious or mystical shrine. Some, however, have claimed 0:02:10.440 --> 0:02:13.320 it to have been used for an altogether different purpose, 0:02:14.040 --> 0:02:17.680 and that the ring had in fact been created by 0:02:17.680 --> 0:02:21.760 the devil. A worthy feature, you might say, for an 0:02:21.800 --> 0:02:24.960 area of England long thought to have hosted more than 0:02:25.000 --> 0:02:29.720 its fair share of unexplained phenomena. Some have put the 0:02:29.720 --> 0:02:33.200 bizarre activity that seems to plague this quiet part of 0:02:33.280 --> 0:02:36.840 the countryside in the County of Sussex to a curse 0:02:37.240 --> 0:02:40.520 placed on the local village of Clapham by a disgruntled 0:02:40.520 --> 0:02:44.000 resident back in twelve eighty eight, after losing a legal 0:02:44.040 --> 0:02:49.040 case against a local parson. Robert the Falconer, was said 0:02:49.040 --> 0:02:53.200 to have damned the accursed village and all its meager holdings, 0:02:53.240 --> 0:02:56.359 stating that the priesthood of a false god would soon 0:02:56.440 --> 0:03:00.880 come to know its fate. Others, however, argue it had 0:03:00.919 --> 0:03:04.760 begun a long time before, with chancton Berry believed to 0:03:04.800 --> 0:03:07.960 be the site of an otherworldly power, being thought to 0:03:08.040 --> 0:03:11.240 have once been the location of a former Druidic temple 0:03:11.840 --> 0:03:16.760 used for ancient and mysterious rituals. Back in the nineteen twenties, 0:03:17.040 --> 0:03:21.280 local resident and famed occultist Victor Neuburg, along with his 0:03:21.400 --> 0:03:25.240 cohort and sometime lover Alister Crowley, was said to have 0:03:25.320 --> 0:03:30.400 taken a keen interest in the area. According to local law, 0:03:30.840 --> 0:03:33.079 if one were to venture to the ring at midnight 0:03:33.280 --> 0:03:37.320 on a Midsummer's Eve and walk its circumference twelve times, 0:03:37.880 --> 0:03:41.920 the midnight drew, it would appear, or even the devil themselves. 0:03:43.760 --> 0:03:47.880 Other local tales speak of a white bearded Saxon soldier 0:03:48.280 --> 0:03:50.520 believed to have been killed at the Battle of Hastings 0:03:50.560 --> 0:03:54.480 in ten sixty six, seen scrabbling about the floor looking 0:03:54.480 --> 0:03:58.760 for something, while some report the sightings of hazy lights 0:03:58.760 --> 0:04:02.960 and strange apparitions seen in the area at night, with 0:04:03.040 --> 0:04:05.920 some suggesting that they might have something to do with 0:04:06.040 --> 0:04:10.680 a nearby plague pit. Perhaps the most romantic of all 0:04:10.720 --> 0:04:13.560 the ghost stories that shroud the area is that of 0:04:13.640 --> 0:04:18.440 the ghost of Prince Agasicles Cionisus, a famed astrologer from 0:04:18.520 --> 0:04:23.159 Carrier in western Anatolia. As legend goes, it was in 0:04:23.160 --> 0:04:27.200 the early seventeenth century that the prince began using Chanctonbury 0:04:27.279 --> 0:04:31.599 Ring to observe the stars, when one night, after writing 0:04:31.600 --> 0:04:36.679 the words zapelli ubi kakidie bury me wherever I have fallen, 0:04:37.120 --> 0:04:40.719 he fell down dead. It is said that to this 0:04:40.800 --> 0:04:45.120 day the astrologer can still be seen wandering the ring 0:04:45.160 --> 0:04:50.360 of trees at night. You're listening to Unexplained and I'm 0:04:50.560 --> 0:05:01.000 Richard McClane smith. It was the more of all Hallow's 0:05:01.040 --> 0:05:05.120 Eve back in nineteen seventy eight, when Reverend Harry Snelling 0:05:05.520 --> 0:05:07.880 made his way to the town of Goring in West 0:05:07.960 --> 0:05:13.040 Sussex for a routine dental operation. Riding the bus into town, 0:05:13.560 --> 0:05:17.680 the sixty five year old recently retired vicar chatted amiably 0:05:17.800 --> 0:05:21.520 with his former parishioners before arriving at the dentist just 0:05:21.720 --> 0:05:26.599 in time for his appointment later that afternoon. Having arrived 0:05:26.600 --> 0:05:29.720 in Findon, four miles from the town of Stenning, where 0:05:29.720 --> 0:05:33.360 he lived, Snelling called his wife from a phone box 0:05:33.680 --> 0:05:37.400 and asked if she could pick him up. However, since 0:05:37.440 --> 0:05:40.400 their car had broken down recently and was still in 0:05:40.440 --> 0:05:43.760 need of servicing, Snelling had no other choice but to 0:05:43.800 --> 0:05:48.120 make the journey on foot. A short time later, with 0:05:48.240 --> 0:05:52.279 dusk descending, Snelling was seen heading off the main road 0:05:52.880 --> 0:05:55.839 and striking out across the downs in the direction of 0:05:55.880 --> 0:06:01.600 his home. As evening turned to night, Snelling's wife waited 0:06:01.640 --> 0:06:06.400 anxiously for her husband's return, but Harry never made it home. 0:06:08.279 --> 0:06:12.320 The next day, after he was reported missing, twenty five 0:06:12.360 --> 0:06:16.360 police officers from the surrounding area were immediately dispatched to 0:06:16.360 --> 0:06:20.320 search for him, focusing their attention on the most likely 0:06:20.400 --> 0:06:23.320 route he would have taken to get home. For the 0:06:23.320 --> 0:06:26.719 best part of a week, the police, assisted by search 0:06:26.800 --> 0:06:30.400 dog teams, a raft of volunteers and even a light 0:06:30.440 --> 0:06:34.120 air craft tried desperately to find any sign of the man, 0:06:34.640 --> 0:06:38.680 but in the end found nothing. A few days later, 0:06:39.040 --> 0:06:43.160 the search was called off, With no reason to suspect 0:06:43.200 --> 0:06:47.480 anything otherwise. It was assumed that Snelling had either tragically 0:06:47.640 --> 0:06:51.000 ended his own life or had collapsed and died somewhere 0:06:51.360 --> 0:06:54.840 and was yet to be found. At the time of 0:06:54.880 --> 0:06:59.400 the reverend's disappearance, Charles Walker worked as a sales assistant 0:06:59.400 --> 0:07:02.680 in Worthing, just five miles south of where the retired 0:07:02.680 --> 0:07:07.120 clergyman was last seen alive. In his spare time, however, 0:07:07.720 --> 0:07:10.960 Walker had become somewhat of an expert on the peculiar 0:07:11.040 --> 0:07:15.320 history of his local area, collecting and documenting evidence that 0:07:15.480 --> 0:07:19.120 seemed to suggest that something very sinister had been brewing 0:07:19.160 --> 0:07:23.720 there for quite some time. Could it be he thought 0:07:23.760 --> 0:07:26.520 that there was a little more to the Reverend's disappearance 0:07:26.840 --> 0:07:36.920 than first met the eye. Having always been fascinated by 0:07:36.920 --> 0:07:40.360 the possibility of the paranormal, it was back in April 0:07:40.440 --> 0:07:44.679 nineteen seventy two that Charles Walker's interest was really piqued. 0:07:45.520 --> 0:07:49.840 It was then that the region's numerous apparent mysterious happenings 0:07:50.240 --> 0:07:55.320 were given a thoroughly modernized slant. Three friends from Walker's 0:07:55.320 --> 0:07:59.480 hometown had ventured up towards Chanctonbury Ring late one night 0:08:00.080 --> 0:08:03.040 when they noticed a soft light flickering from within it. 0:08:04.280 --> 0:08:06.920 Having assumed it to be nothing more than a bonfire, 0:08:07.520 --> 0:08:09.840 they were surprised to find when they arrived at the 0:08:09.880 --> 0:08:14.360 trees moments later, that the light had gone out and 0:08:14.440 --> 0:08:18.240 there was no sign of anyone else around. It was 0:08:18.280 --> 0:08:22.040 only then, as one of the group later recounted, that 0:08:22.120 --> 0:08:25.280 a sudden wush from above drew their attention to the 0:08:25.360 --> 0:08:28.720 dim red glow of some kind of object that was 0:08:28.800 --> 0:08:32.720 hovering just above the tree tops in front of them. 0:08:32.760 --> 0:08:36.000 A moment later, they watched it as it shot up 0:08:36.040 --> 0:08:41.040 into the sky, though its possible significance to the wider 0:08:41.120 --> 0:08:44.720 story was not yet apparent to Walker. It was around 0:08:44.760 --> 0:08:49.360 the same time that local police officer Peter Goldsmith disappeared. 0:08:50.400 --> 0:08:53.800 It was in June of that year that Goldsmith, who 0:08:53.880 --> 0:08:58.679 like Harry Snelling, also lived in Stenning, left work after 0:08:58.720 --> 0:09:01.679 completing his shift for the day, but never made it 0:09:01.720 --> 0:09:06.320 back home. It wasn't until six months later that a 0:09:06.320 --> 0:09:09.920 local farmer, helping to coordinate a hunting party at a 0:09:10.000 --> 0:09:14.880 nearby farm just west of Stenning discovered Goldsmith's dead body 0:09:15.240 --> 0:09:18.400 hidden under a thick growth of brambles at the edge 0:09:18.400 --> 0:09:22.360 of the farm land. The body was found curled up 0:09:22.360 --> 0:09:26.040 on its left side, as if Goldsmith had merely gone 0:09:26.040 --> 0:09:29.880 to sleep. A bottle of brown liquid was also found 0:09:29.920 --> 0:09:33.640 next to the body. While curiously clutched in the hand, 0:09:34.200 --> 0:09:37.480 police found what was described as some kind of metal 0:09:37.520 --> 0:09:42.079 disk like a token. With many assuming the liquid had 0:09:42.080 --> 0:09:45.560 been some kind of poison the coroner was stumped when 0:09:45.559 --> 0:09:48.240 it was in fact found not to have been poisonous 0:09:48.280 --> 0:09:52.640 at all. With no definitive cause of death, there was 0:09:52.679 --> 0:09:55.760 no choice but to record an open verdict, with some 0:09:55.880 --> 0:10:00.880 form of suicide thought to be most likely. However, many 0:10:00.920 --> 0:10:04.400 were left wondering not only how search teams had failed 0:10:04.400 --> 0:10:09.920 to spot Goldsmith's body despite investigating that area extensively, but 0:10:10.080 --> 0:10:13.200 also how on earth he managed to place himself under 0:10:13.240 --> 0:10:16.880 such a thick, impenetrable mesh of brambles, which had to 0:10:16.920 --> 0:10:20.920 be cut away in order to extract the body. Though 0:10:20.960 --> 0:10:23.360 brambles can grow up to three inches in a day, 0:10:23.960 --> 0:10:26.920 the extent to which the body had been hidden was 0:10:27.040 --> 0:10:37.440 something of a surprise. Over the next few years, Walker, 0:10:37.720 --> 0:10:41.679 having joined a local paranormal research group, continued to keep 0:10:41.679 --> 0:10:44.960 an ear out for any peculiar activity, but what he 0:10:45.000 --> 0:10:49.240 craved most was to experience something himself, and he wouldn't 0:10:49.280 --> 0:10:53.720 have long to wait. It was in August nineteen seventy four, 0:10:54.240 --> 0:10:58.280 but Walker, then in his early twenties, along with three others, 0:10:58.720 --> 0:11:03.280 made a late night research trip to Chanctonbury Ring. Walker 0:11:03.600 --> 0:11:06.920 would later claim that it was sometime around eleven PM 0:11:07.360 --> 0:11:11.000 when one of the group, William Lincoln, stepped into the 0:11:11.040 --> 0:11:14.360 center of the ring, only to be suddenly snatched up 0:11:14.400 --> 0:11:18.200 by an invisible force and thrust five feet into the air, 0:11:19.600 --> 0:11:21.880 and there he would stay for the best part of 0:11:21.880 --> 0:11:25.679 a minute, seemingly levitating in mid air as he screamed 0:11:25.679 --> 0:11:30.040 to be released, before finally being sent sprawling to the ground. 0:11:32.080 --> 0:11:35.640 It wasn't long after that that the dogs started to 0:11:35.679 --> 0:11:41.240 go missing. The reports began appearing in local papers in 0:11:41.360 --> 0:11:45.240 spring of nineteen seventy five, though many believe it had 0:11:45.280 --> 0:11:49.959 been happening for some time. The first to be reported 0:11:50.400 --> 0:11:53.040 was a three year old and well trained chow dog 0:11:53.240 --> 0:11:56.400 that was walking with its family in Clapham Wood, just 0:11:56.559 --> 0:11:59.640 to the north of Clapham Village in an area known 0:11:59.679 --> 0:12:03.360 as the Chestnuts, when it suddenly bolted off into the trees, 0:12:03.920 --> 0:12:08.440 never to return. Only a week later, a two year 0:12:08.440 --> 0:12:12.600 old Collie, an intelligent working farm dog, was being walked 0:12:12.720 --> 0:12:16.160 near the same spot when it too shot off into 0:12:16.200 --> 0:12:20.880 the undergrowth, never to be seen again. Not long after, 0:12:21.440 --> 0:12:25.240 a golden labrador, while walking in the same woods, became 0:12:25.280 --> 0:12:29.280 distracted by something unseen in the trees, before darting off 0:12:29.320 --> 0:12:33.920 in search of it. The dog's companions, alerted to its 0:12:33.920 --> 0:12:37.839 location by the sound of its desperate whimpers, were devastated 0:12:38.040 --> 0:12:41.199 to find it in some distress and unable to walk. 0:12:42.360 --> 0:12:45.400 After it was later found to have somehow been paralyzed. 0:12:45.920 --> 0:12:51.400 The dog was unfortunately put down, and soon more people 0:12:51.480 --> 0:12:54.439 came forward to report their own experiences walking with their 0:12:54.480 --> 0:12:58.520 dogs at the same location, describing how they or their 0:12:58.559 --> 0:13:03.200 dog had clearly out an uneasy, ominous atmosphere in those woods. 0:13:05.200 --> 0:13:08.640 Back at his home in Worthing, Charles Walker, as ever, 0:13:09.000 --> 0:13:12.480 followed the stories with a keen interest, keeping copies of 0:13:12.559 --> 0:13:17.480 the articles for future reference. A few months later, a 0:13:17.640 --> 0:13:24.800 body was found in the woods. Are you always taking 0:13:24.840 --> 0:13:27.240 care of your family? Do you often take care of 0:13:27.280 --> 0:13:30.319 others and not yourself. Now it's time to take care 0:13:30.360 --> 0:13:33.760 of yourself, to make time for you. You deserve it. 0:13:34.280 --> 0:13:37.360 Tele adoc gives you access to a licensed therapist to 0:13:37.400 --> 0:13:40.080 help you get back to feeling your best to feeling 0:13:40.120 --> 0:13:43.760 like yourself again. With teledoc, you can speak to a 0:13:43.800 --> 0:13:48.000 licensed therapist by phone or video. Therapy appointments are available 0:13:48.120 --> 0:13:50.920 seven days a week from seven am to nine pm 0:13:50.960 --> 0:13:55.199 local time. 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Sixty six year old Leon Foster had been 0:14:35.120 --> 0:14:38.760 missing for three weeks when a couple outlooking for a 0:14:38.800 --> 0:14:42.720 horse that had escaped a nearby paddock noticed a pair 0:14:42.760 --> 0:14:47.520 of boots sticking out from the undergrowth. When police arrived 0:14:47.600 --> 0:14:50.440 soon after, they found it to be the body of 0:14:50.560 --> 0:14:56.000 Leon Foster. Straw discovered under and around his body, and 0:14:56.120 --> 0:14:59.600 the remains of a makeshift shelter tied around the trunk 0:14:59.600 --> 0:15:02.800 of a near by tree, suggested that he'd been living 0:15:02.800 --> 0:15:06.280 in the woods for some time, with most assuming that 0:15:06.320 --> 0:15:12.360 he'd simply died of hunger or exposure while living outside. However, 0:15:12.960 --> 0:15:16.480 with the coroner once again unable to ascertain a precise 0:15:16.560 --> 0:15:21.360 cause of death, an open verdict was recorded. It was 0:15:21.400 --> 0:15:25.200 around this time that Walker began to wander if all 0:15:25.240 --> 0:15:30.160 these mysterious incidences, from the disappearances to the UFO sightings, 0:15:30.560 --> 0:15:35.160 not to mention the area's apparent supernatural history stretching back centuries, 0:15:36.040 --> 0:15:41.640 might somehow be linked. Over the next few years, drawing 0:15:41.640 --> 0:15:45.520 on the various reports of peculiar activity and the litany 0:15:45.560 --> 0:15:49.760 of local folklore claiming that Chanctonbury Ring and the surrounding 0:15:49.800 --> 0:15:54.080 area was somehow a focal point of occult activity, he 0:15:54.160 --> 0:15:57.240 wondered if it might be possible that perhaps an occult 0:15:57.360 --> 0:16:03.360 organization was using the area for various purposes. In October 0:16:03.480 --> 0:16:07.480 nineteen seventy eight, Walker wrote to the local paper asking 0:16:07.480 --> 0:16:10.240 its readers for any information they might have on such 0:16:10.240 --> 0:16:15.920 a group. Within days, he was inundated with replies from 0:16:15.920 --> 0:16:20.360 the mundane to the outlandish, none of it, however warranted. 0:16:20.400 --> 0:16:26.080 Following up, Deflated, Walker had resigned himself to having found 0:16:26.160 --> 0:16:30.800 nothing useful when one night in early November, having just 0:16:30.880 --> 0:16:36.520 settled down to watch TV, his phone rang. Answering the call, 0:16:37.480 --> 0:16:40.680 Walker was greeted by an assertive sounding man with a 0:16:40.760 --> 0:16:45.320 low voice and an RP accent. Though the man wouldn't 0:16:45.320 --> 0:16:49.600 identify himself, he claimed to have the information that Walker 0:16:49.720 --> 0:16:52.960 was looking for, and suggested the pair of them meet 0:16:53.080 --> 0:16:57.640 up to discuss it further. Though Walker couldn't say exactly why. 0:16:57.640 --> 0:17:01.280 It was, Unlike all of the other sponders to his request, 0:17:01.880 --> 0:17:07.520 something about this caller seemed genuine. Walker Julie agreed to 0:17:07.520 --> 0:17:10.240 meet up with him, assuming they would set a date 0:17:10.400 --> 0:17:14.359 to meet, either at his home or somewhere neutral. But 0:17:14.520 --> 0:17:19.480 the man had something else in mind. Tonight, he said, 0:17:20.040 --> 0:17:24.679 at nine pm. Walker looked at the clock on his wall, 0:17:25.080 --> 0:17:29.800 the hands now pointing to eight thirty. I'll be waiting 0:17:29.800 --> 0:17:33.720 for you in Clapham Woods, by the crossroads and the chestnuts, 0:17:33.720 --> 0:17:44.720 he said, and then he hung up. It was pitch 0:17:44.800 --> 0:17:48.680 black when Walker arrived twenty minutes later at the top 0:17:48.720 --> 0:17:53.080 of tip Nor Lane, a small rise overlooking the forest beyond. 0:17:54.280 --> 0:17:57.560 Making his way toward the entrance road, he noticed the 0:17:57.600 --> 0:18:02.840 car park to the woods was completely empty, with only 0:18:02.880 --> 0:18:05.800 the sound of an occasional car passing along the road 0:18:05.840 --> 0:18:09.840 behind him. Walker pushed on through a gate and into 0:18:09.880 --> 0:18:14.720 the trees behind. With the gentle roar of distant traffic 0:18:14.920 --> 0:18:18.440 having disappeared altogether and only the sound of his own 0:18:18.480 --> 0:18:23.800 footsteps for company, Walker pressed on toward the crossroads, anxiously 0:18:23.880 --> 0:18:28.640 listening out for any hint of someone else approaching. Arriving 0:18:28.640 --> 0:18:31.880 at the meeting point at nine on the dot, Walker 0:18:32.000 --> 0:18:35.560 called out for a response, but heard nothing in return. 0:18:37.080 --> 0:18:43.040 The place was deserted. Only then did Walker realize his 0:18:43.160 --> 0:18:46.640 hands were shaking, but not from the cold night air. 0:18:48.160 --> 0:18:51.359 Lighting a cigarette to calm his nerves, Walker began to 0:18:51.400 --> 0:18:54.520 pace up and down, trying to keep warm as he waited. 0:18:55.520 --> 0:18:58.760 By the end of a second cigarette, Walker was beginning 0:18:58.800 --> 0:19:01.760 to suspect that it had nothing but a practical joke, 0:19:02.640 --> 0:19:05.080 But just as he started to make his way back out, 0:19:05.880 --> 0:19:09.600 he heard someone whisper out from behind some nearby trees. 0:19:11.080 --> 0:19:14.840 Don't attempt to look for me, the voice said, for 0:19:14.920 --> 0:19:18.000 your safety and mine, It is imperative you do not 0:19:18.160 --> 0:19:24.360 see who I am. Walker froze, immediately recognizing it as 0:19:24.359 --> 0:19:28.800 the man he had spoken to earlier. After Walker agreed 0:19:28.840 --> 0:19:31.680 to keep looking the way he was facing, the man 0:19:32.119 --> 0:19:36.760 began to talk. I am an initiate of the Friends 0:19:36.800 --> 0:19:42.160 of her Cartie, named after the Greek goddess of magic, witchcraft, 0:19:42.320 --> 0:19:46.199 and the Night. We are the group you've been looking for, 0:19:46.440 --> 0:19:49.600 he said, and it would be in your best interests 0:19:49.920 --> 0:19:55.879 to stop looking. Unperturbed, Walker asked the man if the 0:19:55.920 --> 0:20:00.240 group had anything to do with the recent disappearances, out 0:20:00.280 --> 0:20:03.800 going into too much detail. The man replied that their 0:20:03.920 --> 0:20:08.439 rituals occasionally required a blood sacrifice, if that was the 0:20:08.480 --> 0:20:14.240 answer he was looking for. And so it continued as 0:20:14.240 --> 0:20:18.440 the increasingly nervous Walker listened carefully as the man explained 0:20:19.119 --> 0:20:21.560 how the group had been operating in that area for 0:20:21.600 --> 0:20:24.919 at least ten years because the atmosphere of the woods, 0:20:25.119 --> 0:20:29.720 as he described it, was perfect for their purposes. But 0:20:29.840 --> 0:20:33.520 when Walker inquired as to what that purpose was exactly, 0:20:34.280 --> 0:20:39.119 the man fell silent. He then explained to Walker that 0:20:39.240 --> 0:20:42.880 they had friends in very high places, before warning him 0:20:42.880 --> 0:20:45.880 again to back off and that they would stop at 0:20:45.920 --> 0:20:50.560 nothing to ensure the safety of their cult. Then there 0:20:50.640 --> 0:20:56.359 was another silence. When Walker called out moments later, it 0:20:56.400 --> 0:21:00.600 was clear he was once again alone. Worrying out of 0:21:00.640 --> 0:21:04.400 the forest, Walker was relieved to finally make it back home. 0:21:06.440 --> 0:21:10.960 A few days later, while cycling home from work, Walker 0:21:11.119 --> 0:21:15.080 heard a car pull up close behind him. He barely 0:21:15.119 --> 0:21:18.399 felt the bump before finding himself sprawled on his back 0:21:18.640 --> 0:21:21.960 in the middle of the road, watching aghast as the 0:21:22.000 --> 0:21:25.160 car sped off into the distance before he could make 0:21:25.240 --> 0:21:35.160 note of its details. After lying low for the next 0:21:35.200 --> 0:21:38.800 six months, in the spring of the following year, Walker 0:21:38.840 --> 0:21:42.800 renewed his search for evidence of the Friends of Hikart's activities. 0:21:43.920 --> 0:21:47.440 One morning, whilst walking through the grounds of the Church 0:21:47.440 --> 0:21:50.639 of Saint Mary the Virgin, just south of Clapham Woods, 0:21:51.400 --> 0:21:54.280 Walker was distracted by the sight of the town's manor 0:21:54.280 --> 0:21:58.879 house next door, but more specifically by the medieval barn 0:21:59.000 --> 0:22:02.720 that still stood on it grounds. The house had been 0:22:02.840 --> 0:22:06.080 occupied for some time, but seeing that the barn door 0:22:06.200 --> 0:22:11.760 was open, Walker began to wander. Quickly, checking that no 0:22:11.800 --> 0:22:16.280 one was around, Walker leaped over the church wall scooted 0:22:16.359 --> 0:22:21.120 up the driveway and ducked into the barn. Looking up, 0:22:21.480 --> 0:22:24.119 he gasped at the sight of a bizarre mural on 0:22:24.160 --> 0:22:29.199 the wall, about three foot high in size. It was 0:22:29.240 --> 0:22:34.280 apparently composed primarily of a demonic looking entity with a huge, 0:22:34.320 --> 0:22:40.320 horned head, scaly body, and forked tail. In its hands, 0:22:40.720 --> 0:22:44.560 it held a sword and chalice, ancient symbols of fertility, 0:22:45.320 --> 0:22:48.440 and behind it a bank of flames licked up from 0:22:48.440 --> 0:22:54.159 the ground. Hearing a sound outside, Walker looked out to 0:22:54.200 --> 0:22:58.240 see a man running toward him. In panic, he bolted 0:22:58.280 --> 0:23:01.640 away as the man gave chase, before managing to lose 0:23:01.720 --> 0:23:06.480 him in the woods. Over the next few years, Charles 0:23:06.520 --> 0:23:10.120 Walker continued hunting for evidence not only of the apparent 0:23:10.160 --> 0:23:13.879 occult group's existence, but also of their connection to the 0:23:13.960 --> 0:23:17.000 many strange events that had taken place in the area 0:23:17.200 --> 0:23:21.040 over the last few years, but the group and its 0:23:21.080 --> 0:23:28.960 members remained elusive. In August nineteen eighty one, officers at 0:23:28.960 --> 0:23:32.639 Worthing Police station received a package with a battered and 0:23:32.680 --> 0:23:37.360 disheveled wallet inside, along with a crudely drawn map of 0:23:37.400 --> 0:23:41.200 some woods located on the Sussex Downs, about a mile 0:23:41.320 --> 0:23:45.600 to the northwest of Stenning. Examining the bank cards in 0:23:45.640 --> 0:23:50.320 the wallet, police found the name Harry Snelling embossed on 0:23:50.359 --> 0:23:54.679 the front of them. As an accompanying letter explained the 0:23:54.800 --> 0:23:58.479 center of the package. A tourist from Canada named Michael 0:23:58.560 --> 0:24:02.040 Rain had found a human skeleton while walking across the 0:24:02.080 --> 0:24:05.080 Downs the previous week, which he believed to be the 0:24:05.119 --> 0:24:09.560 remains of Reverend Snelling. Since he had an important flight 0:24:09.600 --> 0:24:12.159 to catch, Worried that he would be dragged into a 0:24:12.240 --> 0:24:17.040 lengthy police investigation, Rain decided instead to send the wallet 0:24:17.040 --> 0:24:20.360 as evidence of his find and a map to explain 0:24:20.400 --> 0:24:25.560 where the remains could be located. Following the instructions, later 0:24:25.640 --> 0:24:29.120 that day, police found the skeleton at the north edge 0:24:29.119 --> 0:24:33.000 of some woodland close to a property known as Whiston House. 0:24:34.760 --> 0:24:37.159 Not only were they surprised to find that the bones, 0:24:37.720 --> 0:24:41.880 despite having supposedly been there for almost three years, had 0:24:41.880 --> 0:24:46.679 not been much obscured by surrounding vegetation, but also that 0:24:46.760 --> 0:24:49.840 the area in which they were found had been thoroughly 0:24:49.880 --> 0:25:01.400 searched numerous times before. It was long after the discovery 0:25:01.440 --> 0:25:05.600 of Snelling's remains that others began to notice the suspicious 0:25:05.680 --> 0:25:09.159 number of unexplained deaths and other events that seemed to 0:25:09.200 --> 0:25:13.200 be plaguing this quiet, unassuming area of the English countryside. 0:25:15.119 --> 0:25:20.240 Writing in the paranormal magazine, unexplained that year Toy Newton, 0:25:20.800 --> 0:25:24.800 without any reference to the Friends of Hikati, made his 0:25:24.840 --> 0:25:29.719 own effort to document the bizarre collection of events. A 0:25:29.760 --> 0:25:33.600 few months later, he received a curious letter from a reader. 0:25:35.080 --> 0:25:40.040 Dear Sirs, it began in your article on Clapham Woods. 0:25:40.640 --> 0:25:43.399 You ask of the mysterious events a link to a 0:25:43.440 --> 0:25:47.840 black coven. I can tell you they are, but it's 0:25:47.960 --> 0:25:52.920 much more than that. They are called the Friends of Hikati, 0:25:53.680 --> 0:25:56.480 and they meet in the woods and the barn up 0:25:56.520 --> 0:26:00.880 by the church and make ritual sacrifices. At the time 0:26:00.920 --> 0:26:06.200 of Orion. The Archer people get headaches and strange feelings 0:26:06.200 --> 0:26:10.200 at Clapham because the place is building up vibrations so 0:26:10.240 --> 0:26:14.240 they can get the force that they want. Sometimes this 0:26:14.400 --> 0:26:18.960 strange force has even started fires, but everything is hushed up. 0:26:20.200 --> 0:26:24.560 They can make people do what they want. I can't 0:26:24.560 --> 0:26:28.440 sign my name, but be warned they are much more 0:26:28.440 --> 0:26:39.440 powerful than a black coven, unexplained. The book and audiobook, 0:26:39.800 --> 0:26:42.560 featuring ten stories that have never before been covered on 0:26:42.600 --> 0:26:46.160 the show, is now available to buy worldwide, who can 0:26:46.200 --> 0:26:50.640 purchase through Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Waterstones, among other bookstores. 0:26:51.480 --> 0:26:55.120 All elements of Unexplained, including the show's music, are produced 0:26:55.160 --> 0:26:58.680 by me Richard McClain smith. Please subscribe and rate the show. 0:26:58.760 --> 0:27:01.399 Where have you listened to podcast? And feel free to 0:27:01.400 --> 0:27:04.000 get in touch with any thoughts or ideas regarding the 0:27:04.040 --> 0:27:06.719 stories you've heard on the show. Perhaps you have an 0:27:06.720 --> 0:27:09.280 explanation of your own you'd like to share. You can 0:27:09.280 --> 0:27:13.199 reach us online at Unexplained podcast dot com, or Twitter 0:27:13.520 --> 0:27:18.159 at Unexplained Pod and Facebook at Facebook dot com. 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