Speaker 1: School of Humans. A warning. This episode of Astray contains
Speaker 1: graphic subject matter, so please be aware. Solitude makes me
Speaker 1: appreciate human connection all the more. This is a quote
Speaker 1: from the nomad an adventurer Justin Alexander Schetler's August twentieth,
Speaker 1: twenty sixteen Instagram post. His last Instagram post. Justin, like
Speaker 1: many seekers called the India, was in search of something more,
Speaker 1: a higher meaning, deeper connection, a sense of purpose, enlightenment.
Speaker 1: But we don't know if he ever found it, because
Speaker 1: Justin vanished, swallowed by the Privati Valley, nicknamed the Valley
Speaker 1: of Death, that had taken many before him. For over
Speaker 1: two decades, around twenty one, foreigners drawn to the valley's lush,
Speaker 1: mountainous landscape in northern India have gone missing, some in
Speaker 1: search of a thrilling trek through the beautiful but at
Speaker 1: times volatile Himalayas, and seekers drawn to the valley where
Speaker 1: the Hindu god Shiva, with the power to destroy and
Speaker 1: restore worlds, meditated for three thousand years. This majestic valley
Speaker 1: is a shangri law for Westerners, not only because the
Speaker 1: hash runs deep here, literally growing wild along the rivers
Speaker 1: and roads, but It's also the home of the Rainbow Gathering,
Speaker 1: where hippies seek peace, harmony, love, light, and freedom, away
Speaker 1: from civilization and surrounded by nature. This sounds idyllic, magical even,
Speaker 1: but the valley also holds dark secrets and missing foreigners
Speaker 1: like Justin Alexander Schettler. But was Justin's last adventure meant
Speaker 1: to be a spiritual one? What was he seeking and more?
Speaker 1: Or was it worth the sacrifice? It's August twentieth, twenty sixteen.
Speaker 1: Justin's packing his weathered backpack. His chiseled frame is thinner
Speaker 1: than usual, and his back aches from an injury he
Speaker 1: got at nineteen that's been stressed from his high altitude
Speaker 1: cave dwelling. The past few weeks, he's been living in
Speaker 1: idealized life of a nomad, drinking Himalayan mountain water from rivers,
Speaker 1: scavenging edible plants, writing his journal by candlelight in a
Speaker 1: damp but sheltering cave. He's been traveling with little food.
Speaker 1: His only precious possessions are a bullhorn he found in
Speaker 1: the forest, which is a symbol of Shiva, a long
Speaker 1: and elegant griffin feather that looks like it was plucked
Speaker 1: from a mythical animal and an Indian ben surrey, a
Speaker 1: bamboo flute carved with intricate detail that he uses as
Speaker 1: a walking stick on his meandering tracks. Justin can live
Speaker 1: off of almost enough thing. That's something he used to
Speaker 1: impress Frenzy went camping with back in the States. He's
Speaker 1: a survivalist, even admits the at times severe conditions, so
Speaker 1: the Pravadi Valley two days before he found an abandoned
Speaker 1: black and brown speckled puppy in Kiera Gunga, an hour
Speaker 1: trek from his cave where he soaks his back in
Speaker 1: the hot springs that are thought to have sacred healing properties.
Speaker 1: The puppy was wet and shivering, so Justa nestled him
Speaker 1: under his shirt to keep him warm and took care
Speaker 1: of the teething pop until he found him a home. Now,
Speaker 1: Justin pack's oats, nuts, raisins, a sleeping pad and bag,
Speaker 1: some clothing, a wool blanket, rain cover, metal cup, machette,
Speaker 1: cameras and power banks. This is what he'll need for
Speaker 1: the next few days, which will consist of a strenuous
Speaker 1: three day track, then ten days meditating in spiritual retreat
Speaker 1: at Montalai Lake, a holy site that at thirteen thousand
Speaker 1: feet provides other worldly views with its barren all rock terrain.
Speaker 1: There's no vegetation or wood to burn at the lake,
Speaker 1: so like all of Justin's adventures, it's extreme. After the
Speaker 1: ten days, the trip will close with a three day
Speaker 1: trek back to civilization. This is not an easy journey.
Speaker 1: You have to earn the breathtaking views in spiritual magnitude
Speaker 1: of Montalai Lake, and though Justin is primed for a
Speaker 1: track like this, it's not one he'll do alone. A
Speaker 1: kilo of rice, sugar flower, some tea, tarp, tin, boxes
Speaker 1: of cigarettes, and matches all for him. Joining Justin on
Speaker 1: his holy pilgrimage will be sut Nayan Rawat. He's a Sadu,
Speaker 1: which is a Hindu holy man who has devoted his
Speaker 1: life to Lord Shiva and his spiritual practice even to
Speaker 1: the extreme. According to Justin, this sadu has cut his
Speaker 1: penis off in full renunciation of lust. I don't know
Speaker 1: how to casually drop that bomb, but I find it
Speaker 1: both unsettling and impressively dedicated. Okay, I'm out of my
Speaker 1: depth with this one, so I'm going to get Keta's expertise,
Speaker 1: What are your thoughts on that particular Sadu and his
Speaker 1: extreme behavior. I mean, that's crazy. He cut off his penis.
Speaker 1: I mean my first reaction would be how it's I mean,
Speaker 1: it sounds bloody, it sounds gory, and I'm just wondering
Speaker 1: how someone can manage to perform this medical operation upon himself.
Speaker 1: That's just my journalistic mind speaking. That's totally not where
Speaker 1: my head went. Wow, that's dedication. And then as a feminist,
Speaker 1: I would say, well, you know, he's taking responsibility for
Speaker 1: his feelings instead of blaming women for seducing or tempting men.
Speaker 1: If you look at Hindu my authology, there is this
Speaker 1: tale where sad or rishi called Vishwa Mitro was a
Speaker 1: great Sadu and he was praying and meditating so well
Speaker 1: and with such devotion that one of the gods up
Speaker 1: there called Indra. He got insecure and he felt like
Speaker 1: if he meditates so much, he would gain a lot
Speaker 1: in power. So this god gets insecure and he sends
Speaker 1: the celestial maiden called Menka down to us to seduce
Speaker 1: this Sadu. Menka, the celestial maiden sent down to earth
Speaker 1: by the god Indra does his bidding and seduces the
Speaker 1: Sadu Veshuamitra. But then she's cursed and caught in the
Speaker 1: middle of this envious god and now cursed Sado. Like
Speaker 1: most of these mythical tales, the woman is a casualty,
Speaker 1: which is why Ankita has some respect for a man
Speaker 1: who's taking control over his Colonel urges she will just
Speaker 1: assign the stars that she had to do, and you know,
Speaker 1: she was ordered by the Scott to do it, so
Speaker 1: she had to do it. But she gets cursed and
Speaker 1: she gets caught in the middle. So when I hear
Speaker 1: this story, I feel like, Okay, at least now men
Speaker 1: are taking responsibility for their own feelings and their own actions.
Speaker 1: Sadu is a general term for all holy men in India,
Speaker 1: but you'll also hear baba and naga used to describe
Speaker 1: rawat the Sadu justin befriended. Baba is a common term
Speaker 1: of address for Sadus, but Naga is more specific. So
Speaker 1: Nagas are seen as these warriors Sadus who would often
Speaker 1: be seen in these kummelas or fairs, and they're often naked,
Speaker 1: oh though sometimes when they are dealing with the public.
Speaker 1: They do wear some kind of clothes around their private paths,
Speaker 1: and they would often have ash smeared on their bodies
Speaker 1: or have breadlock. So this is just kind of a
Speaker 1: physical identification of Naga sados. There is a black and
Speaker 1: white photo of Satan Aayan Rawat posted on Justin's Instagram
Speaker 1: from August sixteenth. He wears a turban and baggy pants.
Speaker 1: His lanky frame is punk shuated with lemon sized growths
Speaker 1: on his elbows, wrists, ankles, and knees. The swelling lumps
Speaker 1: are unsettling to look at in the photo. I've heard
Speaker 1: stories about the magical powers of these bobbas. They can
Speaker 1: see into your soul and know your past and future.
Speaker 1: They can bless or curse. He spends his life sitting
Speaker 1: by a fire that never goes out. People visit and
Speaker 1: ask for blessings and often bring tobacco mal what he
Speaker 1: calls charis hashish, marijuana resin, and yes, sometimes a monetary donation.
Speaker 1: Some of these bobbas are reported to go months without food,
Speaker 1: living on pure life energy and hashish, and the photo
Speaker 1: Rowat smokes a pipe filled with chillum, a mix of
Speaker 1: hashish and tobacco. Since Lord Shivo is a big fan
Speaker 1: of marijuana. The drug is a dietary staple for some Sadus.
Speaker 1: Rowat shares his chillum with Justin, among others. He fed
Speaker 1: me once a day, which was often my only meal,
Speaker 1: milk tea chapati or cure, a delicious rice pudding made
Speaker 1: with fresh buffalo milk. They met when Justin was living
Speaker 1: in seclusion in the caves, and by all accounts, there
Speaker 1: was a friendly, almost nurturing relationship between them. But when
Speaker 1: the Sadu asked Justin to join him in a spiritual pilgrimage,
Speaker 1: Justin had some reservations. He speaks no English besides good
Speaker 1: and yoga, and I'm not totally sure why I was invited.
Speaker 1: Without words, he can't teach me any ancient doctrine or
Speaker 1: explain anything intellectual, but from what I understand, he wants
Speaker 1: to mentor me in the ways of the Sadu of Shiva,
Speaker 1: the first Yogi. He follows a strict spiritual routine that
Speaker 1: I know nothing about, and I am intensely curious. These
Speaker 1: babbas are said to have magical powers from decades of
Speaker 1: ancient yoga practice, but I don't know what to expect.
Speaker 1: Even with that small inkling of doubt, Justin stayed the course.
Speaker 1: But what he wrote on Instagram beside the black and
Speaker 1: white photo for what is what got me. They are
Speaker 1: holy men but wild and are even above the law
Speaker 1: in India police won't arrest them even for murder. To me,
Speaker 1: this shouted danger, but it was awarding. Justin didn't listen
Speaker 1: to or want to listen to. I asked Ikeata about this.
Speaker 1: Are all sados holy or their scam artists dotting those
Speaker 1: saffron robes? Yeah? I would definitely say that they're sadus
Speaker 1: who are shotstas and are duping people for their own benefit,
Speaker 1: either to get money out of them or to get
Speaker 1: access to places that they would otherwise not be allowed in.
Speaker 1: Do you think these people can be dangerous? Ultimately? Yeah,
Speaker 1: they can, especially if they're trusted completely and immediately without
Speaker 1: any kind of background checks. Justin's final blog entry from
Speaker 1: August nineteenth, twenty sixteen, is cryptic. I should return mid September,
Speaker 1: so if I'm not back by then, don't look for me.
Speaker 1: He signs off with a winking, smiling emoji, which makes
Speaker 1: me wonder did he know what he was getting himself
Speaker 1: into seeking a spiritual edge, or as someone who pushed
Speaker 1: his physical edge as a survivalist, accomplished adventurer and ninja
Speaker 1: who scales seven hundred foot structures. Did his quest for
Speaker 1: a spiritual extreme lead to the ultimate sacrifice his life?
Speaker 1: Above Justin's final blog post, there is a haunting video
Speaker 1: that doesn't match the rest of his entries. This is
Speaker 1: not one of the daring adventures Justin once captured. It's reflective.
Speaker 1: In the video, Justin is a solitary man, monk like
Speaker 1: walking barefoot through the mossy, dense forest, setting up camp
Speaker 1: in his cave, meditating. The spread wings of the hawkish
Speaker 1: bird tattooed on his chest looked like a symbol of freedom,
Speaker 1: the freedom Justin continuously sought out in his life. The
Speaker 1: music in the video matches the mood. It's eerie and rawat.
Speaker 1: The Sadu makes an appearance surrounded by billowing smoke. His
Speaker 1: shrewd gaze slowly meets the camera, then the video fades
Speaker 1: to black. On August twenty second, twenty sixteen, Justin Rawat
Speaker 1: an a porter the sadou hired, embarked on the strenuous
Speaker 1: track to Montalai Lake. The trio reached their destination, and
Speaker 1: on September third, three Indian hikers reported seeing them at
Speaker 1: the lake. When they approached them, Justin and the Sadou
Speaker 1: were arguing. Justin was exhausted and hungry. He said he
Speaker 1: wanted to descend, but he didn't leave with the hikers.
Speaker 1: By the end of September, Justin hadn't returned from his track,
Speaker 1: and because of his close relationship to his mother in
Speaker 1: a social media presence, people noticed upon hearing about Justin's disappearance.
Speaker 1: One of the last people to see him, a Russian
Speaker 1: man who had taken Justin's picture at the trailhead before
Speaker 1: he embarked on his spiritual track, messaged a French traveler,
Speaker 1: Christopher Lee, who was still in the valley and whom
Speaker 1: Justin had connected with online a year earlier. He asked
Speaker 1: Lee to check on the Sadu Rowatt, who Justin had
Speaker 1: embarked on his spiritual crusade with. Lee hiked to kier
Speaker 1: Gunga and found Rowatt sitting alone in his hut. India's
Speaker 1: famous for criminal sadis. And this isn't just now. This
Speaker 1: goes back and you can read about in eighteen hundreds,
Speaker 1: I mean, many of the old books that I've read
Speaker 1: on the India, they're like, oh, on the other the
Speaker 1: criminal sidos and they caught that's when I executed him,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. And this is like Costa
Speaker 1: Terminals dressing EPISODEOS. This is Michael Yon, a former Greenbrey
Speaker 1: and current combat correspondent with a thorough knowledge of India's
Speaker 1: topography and hidden dangers. He's often called on to navigate
Speaker 1: disappearances like Justin's. Oh, and this is his hobby. I'm
Speaker 1: the world's greatest cannibal hunter. That's my modest opinion. This
Speaker 1: is one of the most interesting things about jan which
Speaker 1: we'll get into later, But what we're talking about now
Speaker 1: is his proficiency for man hunting with Justin. First of all,
Speaker 1: people contacted me about him. You know, his mother and
Speaker 1: his best friend were looking for him, and so other
Speaker 1: people notice that. They're like, hey, Mike, you know they
Speaker 1: know me from my work correspondent work, right, and they're like, hey,
Speaker 1: you've talked sometimes about tracking people in India. So that
Speaker 1: some people sent it to me that checked it out
Speaker 1: and put that on his online diary. That started reading
Speaker 1: part of it, and I was like, he sounds like
Speaker 1: actually a cool guy actually, except he's got a weakness.
Speaker 1: He's seeking. While I relate to being a seeker, Yan
Speaker 1: sees it as a liability. And I get this. I mean,
Speaker 1: someone like Jan who has been forced to trust his
Speaker 1: instincts in combat a life or death situation, doesn't have
Speaker 1: the luxury of curiosity or trust for that matter. But
Speaker 1: like me, He also noticed Justin's hesitancy about joining Rowatt
Speaker 1: on this spiritual track. You could tell in the back
Speaker 1: of his mind that something didn't sit right with him.
Speaker 1: It's just like one sentence in there somewhere. I don't
Speaker 1: remember what it said, but I was like, you just
Speaker 1: set it to yourself. You didn't listen to it, and
Speaker 1: that little voice says, don't do it, and you're in India.
Speaker 1: You don't do it, You back off, you know what
Speaker 1: I mean. But he didn't. He pressed forward. And now
Speaker 1: Rowatt's that alone in his stone walled hut rome. A
Speaker 1: month ago, Justin had shot that eerie video of the Sadu.
Speaker 1: The French trekker Lee, who was sent to confront Rawat,
Speaker 1: asked him about Justin, to which Rawat replied, Justin is crazy.
Speaker 1: Then he ranted about Justin leaving him. After meeting some
Speaker 1: trekkers at the lake who he headed up the valley with.
Speaker 1: Lee didn't believe the Sadu, who he knew many were
Speaker 1: referred to as a business baba who was only out
Speaker 1: for money, not enlightenment. Lee immediately filed a police report.
Speaker 1: After studying Justin's blog and social media entries, Michael John
Speaker 1: came to the same conclusion, you need to go to
Speaker 1: that naga. Based on everything I'm reading, I would track
Speaker 1: his ass down. That's your guy. I don't know, obviously,
Speaker 1: I've never met him. It's just it's written right there
Speaker 1: in plain view, right, I mean, it's not in play.
Speaker 1: It's written for me in plain view. And they wanted
Speaker 1: to hire me. I'm like, I'm busy on some stuff,
Speaker 1: but I'll advise you as you're over there. So they
Speaker 1: went over there, and they rented a helicopter and got
Speaker 1: a bunch of men together and had it brought it
Speaker 1: drone out all kinds of stuff, and then they found
Speaker 1: his flute, the Indian ben surrey or bamboo flute that
Speaker 1: Justin had been using as a walking stick. I assume
Speaker 1: if he was as weak as those who saw him
Speaker 1: said he was, that he would be somewhat dependent on
Speaker 1: that walking stick to navigate the strenuous track to the
Speaker 1: lake or from it. So when the flute was found
Speaker 1: and he wasn't, that said something. I got a message
Speaker 1: like we found this, we found his flute and some
Speaker 1: other stuff. I was like, bag it up, man, and
Speaker 1: treat it like a crime scene. I know you're not
Speaker 1: FBI or something, but you haven't solved it yet, you
Speaker 1: know what I mean. You haven't solved it until you've
Speaker 1: got a body or something. And they got a little
Speaker 1: overconfident in that. Now. I was like, you're making a mistake.
Speaker 1: You need to gather all information at all times. Vacuum
Speaker 1: up everything and preserve everything. Photograph everything from ten different
Speaker 1: as this right when people are talking, get the recorder
Speaker 1: going because there's little clues. They're flying around here and
Speaker 1: you're not going to be able to figure a mountain tea.
Speaker 1: Listen to the recording ten times right, and long story short,
Speaker 1: the Indian government got involved because it started getting more
Speaker 1: pressed that Naga got arrested. At the valley's small police station,
Speaker 1: Rowatt sat in front of Susie Reebe, Justin's mom, who
Speaker 1: had flown to India October ninth to look for her son,
Speaker 1: who had been missing for over a month. Rowatt told
Speaker 1: Reebe a different story than he had told Lee the
Speaker 1: Frenchman who had reported him to the authorities. Rowatt was
Speaker 1: not a reliable source, which made him look guilty for
Speaker 1: either knowing more about Justin's disappearance than he let on
Speaker 1: or for murdering him. You may have read the story right.
Speaker 1: He ended up being hanged, so wow, that was the
Speaker 1: guy who called him to go get Jana speaking about Rowatt,
Speaker 1: but his account is different from other reports where Rowatt
Speaker 1: press umably hung himself with his doughtie the loose pants
Speaker 1: he wore. Media outlets paint Rowatt's death two different ways
Speaker 1: as a confession to his guilt or as a response
Speaker 1: to the immense shame he felt at being penned for
Speaker 1: Justin's murder. Either way, this tragedy is heartbreaking because, like
Speaker 1: Ryan chambers parents, Reeb doesn't have any answers round her
Speaker 1: son's disappearance. As we've seen, Justin's skated this line between
Speaker 1: adventure and harm effortlessly in his life. He conquered dangerous
Speaker 1: situations with an ease that's envious to many of us
Speaker 1: who only wish we could dare so greatly. But Justin
Speaker 1: is still human and susceptible to danger, which is something
Speaker 1: that unfortunately found him in India. Michael John, the Manhunter
Speaker 1: who helped with the investigation of Justin's disappearance, had a
Speaker 1: respect for Justin because he too is drawn to danger
Speaker 1: and as and tracking people who deeply understand what enlightenment
Speaker 1: means to them. What's the cost eating another human? Once
Speaker 1: you've tracked enough album, that's the easiest spotting a Catholic priest,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. Michael Johan is talking about
Speaker 1: his ability to spot and a gory or his fond
Speaker 1: nickname for them cannibals. He's not wrong the agory or
Speaker 1: sadus that engage in post mortem rituals, which includes cannibalism.
Speaker 1: Jan told me about a time when he was helping
Speaker 1: a former Israeli special Forces officer Egal Zor find a
Speaker 1: missing Israeli who had presumably drowned in the Ganges. But
Speaker 1: they came across a different body and someone who had
Speaker 1: their sights on it. Trigger warning. This is where it
Speaker 1: gets graphic. He had found this body and it's naked.
Speaker 1: Out of all the hundreds of bodies I've seen there.
Speaker 1: None were naked, and the ones that were close to naked,
Speaker 1: they were clearly in the river for a very long time,
Speaker 1: like there was almost like their hands would be missing.
Speaker 1: Always you would see hands and feet would first to
Speaker 1: be missing because the dogs would get the hands in
Speaker 1: the feet, and sometimes they would be headless. But this
Speaker 1: one looked really fresh, and it had no pubic hair.
Speaker 1: It was a male. It had no armpit hair, and
Speaker 1: it looked like the head was shaved partially, and it
Speaker 1: had a wire saw in the head right like somebody
Speaker 1: was cutting into the head with the wire saw. It
Speaker 1: looks like somebody has hacked out. It's abdomin. It's like
Speaker 1: really eviscerated. Like something's wrong here, I said, the goall
Speaker 1: that looks like a human sacrifice. The police are right there.
Speaker 1: The body's there. It looks like it's been murdered. It's
Speaker 1: got what appears to be confusions. I didn't see any
Speaker 1: knife marks on the forearms or anything like that. No
Speaker 1: bullet wounds. And this agory comes out now the gory's
Speaker 1: feet are in the river. They actually think that they
Speaker 1: can meditate beside the Godgas River and make a body
Speaker 1: come to them, So think how this plays into his
Speaker 1: potential psyche. He sees white Israeli dude swim out into
Speaker 1: the river and come back with a body. It's like, well,
Speaker 1: I'm praying for a body to come and there it is, right,
Speaker 1: and it's like, you know, pizza delivery here almost right,
Speaker 1: And the agory reaches down into the river. This body
Speaker 1: is naked, The guts are hanging out, intestines are hanging out.
Speaker 1: It looks like it's been hacked open, and not just slit,
Speaker 1: but like missing part of the ribs and stuff like
Speaker 1: a jack o lantern top is taken off, you know
Speaker 1: what I mean. And the top is missing and all
Speaker 1: the guts are exposed. You know, flies are landing on
Speaker 1: a body because you can see him in the photos.
Speaker 1: And he picks a stone from the river, from the
Speaker 1: gongs and he puts it on the pubic bone of
Speaker 1: the body, just above the penis right, and then he
Speaker 1: reaches down and he picks part of the force get
Speaker 1: off and eats it right in front of the police
Speaker 1: and gods, who are this? You know, former Special Forces
Speaker 1: officer in the IDF. He's like, then my adrenaline just went.
Speaker 1: You know, I've been in India many many times for
Speaker 1: many years, and I've never seen something like this. What
Speaker 1: was this man? What is he doing? And I was like, well,
Speaker 1: that's clearly an a gory. It doesn't take five months
Speaker 1: of study or six months of study the spot one
Speaker 1: I can teach you in like you two hours, right,
Speaker 1: and then the agory picked up a stick and everything,
Speaker 1: and he disappeared into the jungle. This story is so
Speaker 1: out there. When Yon first told it to me, I
Speaker 1: didn't believe him. But when he broke down the beliefs
Speaker 1: of the agory why they do what they do, it
Speaker 1: made more sense. They believe a God or the gods
Speaker 1: created everything, and God or the gods is perfect. Therefore
Speaker 1: everything is perfect in the world. Therefore, if you're disgusted
Speaker 1: by anything, you're disgusted by God, and you should seek
Speaker 1: to overcome everything that disgusted you, seek to overcome the
Speaker 1: emotion of disgust. You can see how seeking to overcome
Speaker 1: the emotion of disgust would lead to some pretty vile behavior, which,
Speaker 1: according to Jan it definitely does. I mean, they'll literally
Speaker 1: sleep with a dead dog for until the as a
Speaker 1: pillow as it rots day after day, week after week
Speaker 1: until it's gone maggots and everything, right, carrying it on
Speaker 1: their shoulder walking down the road, dead dog, right, you know,
Speaker 1: set it beside them whether they're eating. You know, they
Speaker 1: believe that, for instance, prostitutes and menstrual blood are bad, right,
Speaker 1: And so they don't like have sex with a menstruating
Speaker 1: prostitute on a corpse in a burning place or in
Speaker 1: a cemetery, right, like stacking disgust on top of disgust.
Speaker 1: And just so you know how to spot in the gory,
Speaker 1: they always carry a human skull to drink from or
Speaker 1: eat from, or they use it for begging for alms.
Speaker 1: They use a human femur as a horn beeB right,
Speaker 1: and and they use baby stalls and baby skins for
Speaker 1: a damaru drum. A damaru is those sorts of drums
Speaker 1: where it's got you know, you hold it in your
Speaker 1: hand and you can twist your wrist bing bing bing
Speaker 1: bing bing bing bing bing, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: Often they'll be wearing black. They'll have you know, dreadlocks typically,
Speaker 1: which a lot of people do, but they'll often be
Speaker 1: wearing a garland of bones, human bones. They've got a
Speaker 1: certain look. I know, all of this sounds pretty outrageous.
Speaker 1: And I'm sure, like I did, you're questioning it. I mean,
Speaker 1: rationalizing cannibalism isn't easy. But these Agory consider their post
Speaker 1: mortem rituals holy. They live among India's cremation sites, where
Speaker 1: Lord Shiva and kylie Ma, whom they worship, are said
Speaker 1: to dwell, their faces and bodies painted in ash. They
Speaker 1: collect the remains of the humans disposed there, using them
Speaker 1: in rituals to reach spiritual enlightenment. These rituals do include
Speaker 1: the taboo act of cannibalism, but they also ascribe to
Speaker 1: a combination of marijuana, alcohol, and meditation to bring them
Speaker 1: to a disconnected state of heightened awareness. There's no doubt
Speaker 1: that the agory practices are radical, but are they dangerous?
Speaker 1: Jan makes a correlation between the agory and those who
Speaker 1: have gone missing in India, as photos of missing people
Speaker 1: all over the place here, for like missing tourists and stuff.
Speaker 1: And it says even in the Lonely Planet guide book
Speaker 1: it said like two to three people go missing every
Speaker 1: three to four months Westerners and nobody it's hardly ever
Speaker 1: in the news, right, and it's like it's covered up
Speaker 1: or something like that. And I was like, Wow, this
Speaker 1: is so weird based on just other things that I
Speaker 1: was picking up. I was like, I wonder if they're
Speaker 1: related to some of these people that are missing. This
Speaker 1: is an extreme theory, but as you can tell, Jan
Speaker 1: is an extreme sort of guy. But if this theory
Speaker 1: is true, why besides the cannibalism factor, will the Agori
Speaker 1: want to go after Western Obviously Jan has an opinion
Speaker 1: on this too. You know, Shakti is the universal feminine
Speaker 1: energy in Hinduism, right, and a good analogy to shakti
Speaker 1: is just money. You can be born with shockti, you
Speaker 1: can earn it, lose it, it can be stolen from you.
Speaker 1: And they believe some people know how to make shakti
Speaker 1: better than others. And for instance, children they believe have
Speaker 1: a lot of shocked because they didn't use their shockdi
Speaker 1: yet because they're young. And they also believe that Caucasians
Speaker 1: have a lot of shocked because that explains partially why
Speaker 1: Caucasians are so rich and are able to travel around
Speaker 1: the world. Right, And so they would prefer to sacrifice
Speaker 1: somebody with shakti, a lot of shakti, because they'll get
Speaker 1: that shock ti. So they're not only robbing you for
Speaker 1: your watch. They're robbing you for your Shockti. We've spoken
Speaker 1: about the destabilizing dangers of India, or the idea that
Speaker 1: something ominous is lurking beneath the spiritual steak, waiting ready
Speaker 1: to pounce on an unsuspecting foreigner, sacrificing their mind or
Speaker 1: their body. If this threat were personified, it would be
Speaker 1: in a gory, or at least the kind of a
Speaker 1: gory that Michael jan has described. But I'll be honest,
Speaker 1: these stories felt like larger than life tales to me,
Speaker 1: so obviously I pulled a Kita end to ask if
Speaker 1: she believes these Agori pos as much of a threat
Speaker 1: to western tourist as Michael claims. And Qita has never
Speaker 1: reported on the Agori, but this is what she knows
Speaker 1: from her research and from colleagues you have. I would
Speaker 1: say that Agoris the minute you talk of them, you
Speaker 1: immediately think of people who practice tantrik with thea or
Speaker 1: knowledge of the tantra. I always assumed anything related to
Speaker 1: tantra was sexual, but in Keita clarifies what tantra VideA
Speaker 1: is for me. Very strong, possibly even dark powers, and
Speaker 1: worshiping God's like Kali or Shiva who are associated with
Speaker 1: very strong, almost reache like emotions, and therefore it is
Speaker 1: said that their powers are destructive. And therefore it is
Speaker 1: said that if you are in agory, and if you
Speaker 1: are trying to develop your powers, then you have to
Speaker 1: be very careful because not only can you destroy others,
Speaker 1: you can also destroy yourself. Do you think that these
Speaker 1: are gory have anything to do with people that have
Speaker 1: come missing in India? I would not make a correlation
Speaker 1: there concluding that because gorries a rituals around corpses, they're
Speaker 1: more likely to kill or come at other crimes. That's
Speaker 1: like watching a mystery movie and saying that the most
Speaker 1: dangerous looking person must be the murderer. But that is yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, at the end of the movie, it's usually
Speaker 1: the most innocent person, right, seemingly innocent. But since agory
Speaker 1: have to do with religion and ristuls and religious people
Speaker 1: are not supposed to cause harm, they're supposed to be
Speaker 1: holy and sacred. They are trusted more easily to take
Speaker 1: undue advantage of that trust and devotion, somebody may adopt
Speaker 1: the guys off in agorian indulgent crimes. So just because
Speaker 1: the egory worships something taboo in our culture doesn't necessarily
Speaker 1: make them dangerous to us. But Akita explains why it
Speaker 1: might be terrifying for a Westerner to witness one of
Speaker 1: the Agori's ritualistic acts. It's just an extension of the
Speaker 1: fear that comes with seeing something that is not seen
Speaker 1: commonly around you, or seeing something that you do not understand.
Speaker 1: I asked Keita to fact check Michael stat that two
Speaker 1: to three Westerners go missing every three to four months
Speaker 1: in India, which she couldn't find any specific data on,
Speaker 1: but she did say compared to the States, it's easy
Speaker 1: for Westerners to get visas in India, so the Indian
Speaker 1: government is and as concerned with tracking foreigners, which means
Speaker 1: it's a country where someone could easily fall off the grid.
Speaker 1: The American agory Gary Stephenson was one of those people.
Speaker 1: He disappeared in India by choice, but when Yan heard
Speaker 1: about him, Gary didn't have a choice. There was nothing
Speaker 1: stopping Jan from seeing for himself. This Texan turned Cannibal
Speaker 1: Michael Jan as a hero. Legitimately, he served our country
Speaker 1: in the military and then as a combat correspondent reporting
Speaker 1: from war zones in Iraq and Afghanistan. There is a
Speaker 1: moving picture he took of a US Army major cradling
Speaker 1: an Iraqi girl. She's so small she looks like a
Speaker 1: doll in his arms. His face is obscured by her
Speaker 1: wet hair, her fragile body wrapped in a blood soaked blank.
Speaker 1: Get this child. Farah died on the helicopter ride to
Speaker 1: the hospital. It was a car bomb that killed her,
Speaker 1: one of the many bombs Yan experienced at war, and
Speaker 1: Farah was one of the many children he saw die.
Speaker 1: This would do a number on anyone. He still has
Speaker 1: detailed nightmares bought suicide bombings, but he wakes up, puts
Speaker 1: his blinders on, and gets back to work. He's now
Speaker 1: focused on fighting the Chinese Communist Party. My point is
Speaker 1: Jan's trained military, an instinctive manhunter, and when he set
Speaker 1: his sights on tracking down Gary Stevenson or Gary the Cannibal,
Speaker 1: as Yan fondly calls him, there was no doubt he
Speaker 1: would find him. I was able to catch Yan on
Speaker 1: a car trip he was making through the Redwoods. So
Speaker 1: the audio isn't great, but Jan filled me in on
Speaker 1: my Gary, a seemingly normal, hippieish spiritual dude, ended up
Speaker 1: in India eating people. Dar he's more like walk feel hey,
Speaker 1: not all hit. These are nice guys, right, like Charles Manson,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. Gary Stephenson, a descendant of
Speaker 1: Robert Louis Stephenson, author of Treasure Island, grew up in
Speaker 1: Texas in the nineteen fifties and I'll leave it to
Speaker 1: beaver household. At two years old, he got polio, which
Speaker 1: left him with a shriveled leg that, according to Jan
Speaker 1: looked like bone with some skin attached to it. Throughout
Speaker 1: his life, Gary searched for a way to heal his leg,
Speaker 1: but he was constantly let down by different ideologies or methods.
Speaker 1: Gary was set on a spiritual path at fifteen when
Speaker 1: his mother gave him a copy of Autobiography of a
Speaker 1: Yogi by a param Hans Yoganand I read the Bible
Speaker 1: and the clans and autobiography, and they're all promising immortality.
Speaker 1: They're all promising miracle cures. They're all promising, you know,
Speaker 1: touched by the Guru and now you're heeled. And so
Speaker 1: they're all they're all promising the same stuff. One of
Speaker 1: the big things a religion that's gonna last, As to
Speaker 1: promise immortality. You don't promise emortality. We're not going to
Speaker 1: get a lot of people joined up. Gary was influenced
Speaker 1: by the spiritual truths delivered an autobiography of Yogi and
Speaker 1: some other themes as well, and the book Autobiography of Yogie.
Speaker 1: What does he do? Runs away? You know, the child
Speaker 1: runs away, rows up to Northern India, which is where Gary.
Speaker 1: Gary eventually ended up in Northern India. But when he
Speaker 1: ran away from home as a teen due to a
Speaker 1: toxic relationship with his father, he bounced around, living in
Speaker 1: hate Ashbury in the sixties, then Taylor Camp, a hippie
Speaker 1: refuge in Kawaii where people were naked more than not,
Speaker 1: and then a spiritual pilgrimage made by many seekers at
Speaker 1: the time. This is Hippieville nineteen sixties, right, This is
Speaker 1: Uru seeking run off from the hippie trail, who ran
Speaker 1: through Afghanistan, through Pakistan, India, Nepal and that was the
Speaker 1: big bickie trail, right, and then someone end up in Thailand.
Speaker 1: But through all of his travels, which centered mostly on
Speaker 1: California and why Gary kept coming back to India, He
Speaker 1: just kept going west west until he was east, right,
Speaker 1: and it was the same way. It's clear with this
Speaker 1: religious streams. It was like the frog in the water.
Speaker 1: Things clearly got more and more. This is normal, This
Speaker 1: is normal until you know he's finally eating people, I
Speaker 1: mean really eating people. Come on, it's straight up. You
Speaker 1: can go to you can go to Varnassi right now.
Speaker 1: And and I am like ninety percent certain that you
Speaker 1: could find somebody probably within the first twelve hours that
Speaker 1: knew him, because I've interviewed a lot of him, I've
Speaker 1: got him on video, and I've got him on audience.
Speaker 1: He was he was eating people right in front of people.
Speaker 1: It's like nobody, nobody's gonna stop you and varn Aussi
Speaker 1: from doing But that line, if you want to become
Speaker 1: if you want to become accountable, you can get on
Speaker 1: an airplane in Atlanta Airport right now, in forty eight
Speaker 1: hours from now, you can be eating people in Varnassi
Speaker 1: and nobody's gonna say, shit, you're insane. I'm not gonna
Speaker 1: do that. You're gonna do it. We're gonna You're gonna
Speaker 1: do it. I know you're gonna do it. You're gonna
Speaker 1: do it because you have to do it to make
Speaker 1: sure it's real. Okay, I go in deep for a story,
Speaker 1: but there is a definitive line here for me. But
Speaker 1: that tight rope I've spoken about with enlightenment, that thin
Speaker 1: line between healing and harm. I'd say that Gary crossed
Speaker 1: over in harm. But Michael sees the Agorian their rituals differently.
Speaker 1: I'll take you to India when this pandemic is over,
Speaker 1: and you will meet Agoye, and I guarantee you you're
Speaker 1: going to question yourself, is this guy really crazy? Or
Speaker 1: is this just his religion because this religion goes back
Speaker 1: at least six hundred years, right? And is it irrational?
Speaker 1: Is it irrational when you look I'm talking about not
Speaker 1: from power perspective as Americans, especially from the East Coast
Speaker 1: as I am from. So for me, it's completely radical
Speaker 1: and insane, right, But in the context of things I've
Speaker 1: seen around the world, is it insane? Nope, not even close.
Speaker 1: Think about it. Salmons are constant in Asia, been thousands
Speaker 1: of fanis. Nobody could ever possibly count the ball, right,
Speaker 1: And when it comes to people that starved, the death
Speaker 1: for people that die in survival famine situations one of
Speaker 1: the number one reasons why some people survive and some
Speaker 1: dope is they overcome tabs more quickly. You can have
Speaker 1: the biggest famine in the world. If there's two people left,
Speaker 1: the agory is going to be the one that's left standing.
Speaker 1: This is just my theory. I don't know where it
Speaker 1: came from. The ability to overcome discussed pretty much. You know,
Speaker 1: gives you an insurance policy against a lot of disasters.
Speaker 1: Jan formed a friendship with Gary, one where Yan had
Speaker 1: to continually look over his shoulder to make sure he
Speaker 1: wasn't going to be attacked, but ironically also one of respect.
Speaker 1: When Yan negotiated Gary's released from prison after he tried
Speaker 1: to stab a man and was charged with a visa violation.
Speaker 1: Oh and a woman's arm was found in his hut,
Speaker 1: though he wasn't charged for that. Gary offered to give
Speaker 1: up cannibalism for him, but at this point Jan doesn't
Speaker 1: know if that ever happened. After getting him out of
Speaker 1: jail in India, Jan brought Gary back to the States
Speaker 1: for a bit, but Gary was able to obtain another
Speaker 1: ten year India visa, so he flew back and yet
Speaker 1: again fell off the grid. On Jan's website, he has
Speaker 1: copies of Gary Stevenson's passport and license, along with photographs
Speaker 1: that prove that Gary the Cannibal was not just an
Speaker 1: urban legend, but a man as you've witnessed. Like Gary, Michael,
Speaker 1: Jan is a memorable character and his stories are intense
Speaker 1: and sensational, which is something I considered when deciding whether
Speaker 1: or not to add them to this episode, and something
Speaker 1: I confronted John about. I'll be honest with you, a
Speaker 1: lot of the stories with the Cannibals are so extreme.
Speaker 1: I just continuously want to ground it so that people
Speaker 1: can actually be on board and not be like, is
Speaker 1: this really real? Because it is. It's so out there, dude,
Speaker 1: Oh it's real. An hour after this conversation with Jan,
Speaker 1: I read about American movie star Army Hammer, who was
Speaker 1: called out by an X who said the actor told
Speaker 1: her he wanted to break her rib, then barbecue and
Speaker 1: eat it. Hammer allegedly asked another partner if he could
Speaker 1: cut off her toe and keep it as a souvenir.
Speaker 1: I told Yan I'd found his next cannibal to hunt down,
Speaker 1: but he declined and said even Gary the Cannibal would
Speaker 1: think Army Hammer was a creep. Apparently, there is a
Speaker 1: line in Cannibalism too, and the next episode of Astray,
Speaker 1: I'll be reporting on someone whose story has affected me
Speaker 1: more than any I've covered, and because of a connection
Speaker 1: I made while researching the story, one that's ultimately made
Speaker 1: me question this entire podcast, like I don't know, I
Speaker 1: just feel really fel torn about it and even writing
Speaker 1: his episodes really hard. I'll share that and more on
Speaker 1: the next episode of A Stray. Many of the logistical
Speaker 1: facts that I found around Justin Schtler Alexander's disappearance came
Speaker 1: from a thorough article that Harley Rustad wrote for Outside
Speaker 1: Magazine in twenty eighteen. Rustad will soon be releasing a
Speaker 1: book on this called Lost in the Valley of Death.
Speaker 1: Astray as a production of School of Humans and iHeartRadio.
Speaker 1: Today's episode of Astray, Justin Alexander Schettler was produced, written,
Speaker 1: and narrated by Me, Caroline Slaughter and Quita Ananda is
Speaker 1: my co producer, and Gabby Watts is our supervising producer.
Speaker 1: With special thanks to our voiceover Van Gunter. Astray was
Speaker 1: sound produced by Tune Welders, scored by Jason Shannon, and
Speaker 1: mix by Harper Harris. Executive producers are Elsie Crowley, Brian Lavin,
Speaker 1: and Brandon Barr, thanks for listening. School of Humans,