WEBVTT - From the Vault: Fata Morgana 0:00:05.720 --> 0:00:07.520 Hey, are you welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind. 0:00:07.600 --> 0:00:10.640 My name is Robert Lamb and I'm Joe McCormick, and 0:00:10.720 --> 0:00:13.640 it's Saturday. Time for a vault episode, folks. This one 0:00:13.920 --> 0:00:17.680 is from March fourth, and this is the one we 0:00:17.720 --> 0:00:20.600 did on Fathom or Ghana. This is a type of 0:00:20.600 --> 0:00:24.760 optical phenomenon uh that has caused people to report all 0:00:24.840 --> 0:00:29.080 kinds of strange sites throughout the years, phantom islands, castles 0:00:29.080 --> 0:00:33.040 floating in the sky, and sea monsters and things. This 0:00:33.080 --> 0:00:35.120 one was a lot of fun. Yeah, that's probably one 0:00:35.120 --> 0:00:39.680 of my favorite episodes that we did. Okay, downloading into 0:00:39.680 --> 0:00:45.840 your Brain. Now welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind, 0:00:46.120 --> 0:00:55.560 production of My Heart Radio. Hey, welcome to Stuff to 0:00:55.560 --> 0:00:58.440 Blow your Mind. My name is Robert Lamb and I'm 0:00:58.520 --> 0:01:00.960 Joe McCormick. And you know, we just came off of 0:01:01.000 --> 0:01:04.280 doing a couple of episodes about the artistic convention of 0:01:04.319 --> 0:01:08.000 the halo and how that comes through in in various 0:01:08.000 --> 0:01:11.920 different religious concepts, and how it might be related to 0:01:12.520 --> 0:01:15.920 optical phenomena that are sometimes observed in the sky, like 0:01:15.920 --> 0:01:20.080 like solar halos or sun dogs, and jumping off of that, 0:01:20.160 --> 0:01:23.319 we wanted to hop over to explore another theme today 0:01:23.319 --> 0:01:25.839 that the sort of in the same wheelhouse, not quite halos, 0:01:25.920 --> 0:01:29.840 but an optical phenomenon that has some connection to legendary 0:01:29.880 --> 0:01:32.560 accounts and myths. And so I thought a great place 0:01:32.600 --> 0:01:34.800 to start today to get us in the mood would 0:01:34.840 --> 0:01:37.880 be a reading from the Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner 0:01:37.959 --> 0:01:41.000 by Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Now, I think this is going 0:01:41.040 --> 0:01:43.360 to be probably what would you guess, Rob, like the 0:01:43.440 --> 0:01:46.240 seventh time we've quoted this poem on the show, always 0:01:46.440 --> 0:01:49.160 introducing a different type of subject matter. It seems to 0:01:49.200 --> 0:01:51.480 go off in a lot of great directions. Well, you know, 0:01:51.520 --> 0:01:54.080 it's a it's a long work, and it it has 0:01:54.120 --> 0:01:56.200 a lot of cool things happening in it has a 0:01:56.200 --> 0:01:59.800 great story and just an infectious cadence. You know, it's 0:01:59.800 --> 0:02:03.040 just gets gets into your brain. Right. Uh So in 0:02:03.120 --> 0:02:05.200 this poem, the narrator here, I guess this is a 0:02:05.280 --> 0:02:08.520 narration within a narration. So this guy gets accosted by 0:02:08.639 --> 0:02:12.400 an ancient graybeard. He says, like, unhand me, graybeard loon. 0:02:12.560 --> 0:02:15.640 But then the graybeard loon starts telling his story and 0:02:15.639 --> 0:02:18.040 and his story is of course one of of terror 0:02:18.040 --> 0:02:20.560 and tragedy in the high sea is he He tells 0:02:20.639 --> 0:02:22.720 that he was once out on a ship and I 0:02:22.720 --> 0:02:26.040 think they've been sailing around in the south seas, and uh, 0:02:26.080 --> 0:02:29.200 he somehow brings a curse upon his ship and its 0:02:29.240 --> 0:02:32.240 crew by shooting an albatross out of the sky with 0:02:32.320 --> 0:02:35.760 an arrow. And after this their ship falls into unnatural 0:02:35.919 --> 0:02:39.080 duldrums in the equatorial regions. There are no winds for 0:02:39.160 --> 0:02:41.919 it to sail, so it's just sitting there in the water, 0:02:42.160 --> 0:02:44.160 and and the mariner and the rest of the crew 0:02:44.520 --> 0:02:48.400 are dying of thirst without fresh water. Yeah, And it's 0:02:48.440 --> 0:02:50.320 one thing that I guess worth noting about this. You know, 0:02:50.320 --> 0:02:52.720 we were talking about the ships at sea in these 0:02:52.800 --> 0:02:56.520 days and superstition among the um among the crew is 0:02:56.560 --> 0:03:01.680 that on one hand, absolutely the best science and navigation 0:03:01.800 --> 0:03:05.320 of the day was utilized to get where you're going 0:03:05.360 --> 0:03:08.240 and to survive on the open seas. But the crew 0:03:08.280 --> 0:03:11.119 was often held together by by also this this tenuous 0:03:11.160 --> 0:03:15.079 web of superstitions, and you you read about some of them, 0:03:15.080 --> 0:03:17.240 and at times it seems like it would not take 0:03:17.360 --> 0:03:20.920 much to shift things into the realm of of of 0:03:21.000 --> 0:03:24.240 you know, dire omens well sailing vessels really are at 0:03:24.280 --> 0:03:27.440 the at the mercy of forces beyond your control. Yeah, 0:03:27.480 --> 0:03:29.320 I mean there's a lot you can do to design 0:03:29.320 --> 0:03:31.800 a ship well and work hard to you know, do 0:03:31.880 --> 0:03:33.560 everything you can to get where you're going, but you're 0:03:33.560 --> 0:03:35.520 still at the mercy of the seas and the weather, 0:03:35.840 --> 0:03:38.000 and that can make it feel very much like you 0:03:38.040 --> 0:03:40.840 are a sinner in the hands of an angry god. Yeah, 0:03:41.000 --> 0:03:44.640 sailing beneath this uncertain sky and uh a top this 0:03:45.040 --> 0:03:48.680 just dark, unfathomable ocean. Right, So, in the context of 0:03:48.720 --> 0:03:50.320 the part of the poem we're about to read, so 0:03:50.360 --> 0:03:53.040 the curses already come upon them. They're out there diet 0:03:53.120 --> 0:03:55.280 you know. You get to the part about water, water everywhere, 0:03:55.320 --> 0:03:57.920 and not a drop to drink. They're all parched and thirsty, 0:03:58.080 --> 0:04:00.520 and the boat is just floating around in the oldrums. 0:04:00.520 --> 0:04:02.920 And then the mariners see something horrible. So I'm gonna 0:04:02.920 --> 0:04:05.280 read this first bit here and then Rob I I 0:04:05.320 --> 0:04:07.080 don't think I can do a sailor voice, but I 0:04:07.080 --> 0:04:10.360 hope you can hear the sailor voice for your part. Okay, 0:04:10.640 --> 0:04:19.320 So the mariner says, there past a weary time. Each 0:04:19.400 --> 0:04:23.400 throat was parched and glazed, each eye a weary time, 0:04:23.520 --> 0:04:28.200 A weary time how glazed each weary eye. When looking westward, 0:04:28.240 --> 0:04:32.040 I beheld something in the sky. At first it seemed 0:04:32.080 --> 0:04:35.039 a little speck, and then it seemed a mist. It 0:04:35.240 --> 0:04:38.640 moved and moved, and took at last a certain shape. 0:04:38.640 --> 0:04:42.320 I whist, A spec a mist A shape, I whist, 0:04:42.760 --> 0:04:45.760 And still it neared and neared, as if it dodged 0:04:45.800 --> 0:04:49.800 a water sprite. It plunged and tacked, and veered, with 0:04:49.880 --> 0:04:53.720 throats unslaked, with black lips baked. We could not laugh 0:04:53.839 --> 0:04:57.600 nor whale through utter drought. All dumb we stood. I 0:04:57.640 --> 0:05:01.320 bit my arm, I sucked the blood, and cried A sail, 0:05:01.760 --> 0:05:05.840 a sail. The western wave was all aflame. The day 0:05:06.040 --> 0:05:10.560 was well nigh done. Almost upon the western wave rested 0:05:10.600 --> 0:05:13.920 the broad bright sun. When that strange shape s dove 0:05:14.040 --> 0:05:17.760 suddenly betwixt us and the sun, and straight the sun 0:05:17.920 --> 0:05:21.800 was flecked with bars. Heaven's mother send us grace, as 0:05:21.839 --> 0:05:25.039 if through a dungeon grade. He peered with broad and 0:05:25.160 --> 0:05:29.400 burning face. Alas thought I, and my heart beat loud. 0:05:29.640 --> 0:05:33.960 How fast she nears and nears? Are those her sails 0:05:34.000 --> 0:05:41.080 that glance in the sun like restless Gossimir's rob I 0:05:41.160 --> 0:05:46.400 give that four hours? Why why thank you? Uh so? Yeah, 0:05:46.440 --> 0:05:49.800 so he sees something approaching. They see a weird, a 0:05:49.960 --> 0:05:53.760 spectral type of ship coming close. And when this phantom 0:05:53.800 --> 0:05:56.560 ship gets up close to them, they see the figures 0:05:56.600 --> 0:05:59.880 of death and life in death I think, represented as 0:05:59.880 --> 0:06:03.680 a skeleton and then like a pale naked body casting 0:06:03.839 --> 0:06:07.480 lots to claim the fate of the sailors. Creepy stuff. Yeah. 0:06:07.960 --> 0:06:11.520 Also a great couple's halloween cost him to keep in mind, right, 0:06:11.640 --> 0:06:14.480 death and life and death I call life and death. 0:06:16.480 --> 0:06:19.239 Uh So these passages from the rhyme of the ancient mariner. 0:06:19.480 --> 0:06:22.600 Uh It's not known for sure, but they may well 0:06:22.640 --> 0:06:27.160 have been influenced by the legend of the flying Dutchman, 0:06:27.800 --> 0:06:31.640 a set of related folk tales shared by the seafaring 0:06:31.680 --> 0:06:34.080 people of Europe at least as far back as the 0:06:34.120 --> 0:06:38.880 eighteenth century, probably earlier. And usually the way this legend 0:06:38.920 --> 0:06:42.680 goes is that there is some kind of spectral ship, 0:06:43.200 --> 0:06:46.719 a ghost vessel that's doomed to sail the globe in 0:06:46.720 --> 0:06:51.040 a terrible limbo, forever circling the seas and never allowed 0:06:51.080 --> 0:06:54.000 to come into port. Often it's regarded as an omen 0:06:54.080 --> 0:06:57.840 of disaster. If a sailor sees the flying Dutchman. He 0:06:57.880 --> 0:07:00.840 knows he's going to die in a shipwreck. Yeah, like 0:07:00.880 --> 0:07:02.960 this is one of the big ones, uh, you know, 0:07:03.120 --> 0:07:05.599 as opposed to you know, things like say killing I mean, 0:07:06.000 --> 0:07:08.440 I mean, certainly killing an albatross clearly can be a 0:07:08.800 --> 0:07:11.920 big deal, you know, not touching the horseshoe nailed to 0:07:11.960 --> 0:07:14.760 the mast, you know, things like that. But to see 0:07:14.800 --> 0:07:18.440 the flying Dutchman like all is lost. In some versions, 0:07:18.480 --> 0:07:21.280 even worse than seeing it is that sometimes the ship 0:07:21.360 --> 0:07:24.160 will come up next to you and the doomed crew 0:07:24.200 --> 0:07:26.520 will try to hand off letters for you to give 0:07:26.600 --> 0:07:28.640 to their loved ones, because you know, they can't call 0:07:28.760 --> 0:07:31.160 de port to send the letters themselves, and you are 0:07:31.200 --> 0:07:34.160 not supposed to accept these letters. You you say, sorry, 0:07:34.240 --> 0:07:36.800 I I can't, I can't do it. Oh man, that's 0:07:36.800 --> 0:07:39.280 so creepy that that totally holds up. Now. There are 0:07:39.320 --> 0:07:43.040 a number of popular stories explaining the origin of the 0:07:43.040 --> 0:07:46.200 Flying Dutchman. I think the belief itself goes back farther 0:07:46.360 --> 0:07:49.280 than any of these, like written versions of the stories. 0:07:49.320 --> 0:07:53.640 But in one version, there's a captain named Vanderdecken or 0:07:53.800 --> 0:07:57.520 sometimes just the Dutchman, who's on a sea voyage home 0:07:57.600 --> 0:08:00.760 from Batavia, which is in present day into Nisia around 0:08:00.800 --> 0:08:03.400 the area of Jakarta, but at the time would have 0:08:03.440 --> 0:08:08.080 been in the duchyst Indies. And he's traveling from Batavia 0:08:08.240 --> 0:08:11.240 trying to go back around the southern tip of Africa 0:08:11.360 --> 0:08:14.200 to a place called Table Bay. And so he's trying 0:08:14.240 --> 0:08:17.840 to round the Cape of Good Hope, but his ship 0:08:17.960 --> 0:08:21.960 falls under a terrible squall, and in defiance of God, 0:08:22.160 --> 0:08:25.320 he swears a brazen oath that he will round the 0:08:25.360 --> 0:08:28.280 Cape of Good Hope despite the storm, even if it 0:08:28.320 --> 0:08:32.679 takes him until Armageddon to do it. And as this 0:08:32.800 --> 0:08:37.079 oath leaves his lips, the ship sinks, but before it does, 0:08:37.160 --> 0:08:41.120 the devil hears Vanderdecken's promise and he holds him to it, 0:08:41.520 --> 0:08:44.240 and this turns the Dutchman and the ghost of his 0:08:44.360 --> 0:08:47.080 vessel into a kind of wraith of the seas, and 0:08:47.120 --> 0:08:51.080 they sail forever between life and death without rest until 0:08:51.240 --> 0:08:54.520 he can reach his destination. Uh This version is the 0:08:54.559 --> 0:08:57.000 subject of an opera by Wagner, and I think in 0:08:57.000 --> 0:09:00.880 that version he actually can go to land once every 0:09:00.960 --> 0:09:03.720 seven years so that he can try to find the 0:09:03.800 --> 0:09:08.400 true love that will break the curse. Presumably stop at 0:09:08.400 --> 0:09:12.400 White Castle or something that this sounds this sounds like 0:09:12.400 --> 0:09:15.079 a great setup for like a modern horror film, or 0:09:15.120 --> 0:09:16.920 maybe not a Morrow one modern one, but at least 0:09:16.960 --> 0:09:19.160 like a nineteen seventies film, you know, or like it 0:09:19.200 --> 0:09:20.920 could have been a hammer horror film. You could have 0:09:20.920 --> 0:09:24.640 have a Vanderdecken as your sort of Dracula s ghostly 0:09:25.120 --> 0:09:28.679 sailor chap that has come on shore to seduce a 0:09:29.040 --> 0:09:31.960 hapless woman that that has no idea that this attractive 0:09:31.960 --> 0:09:34.400 man is actually the captain of a damn ship. Oh. 0:09:34.440 --> 0:09:37.280 I mean, that's a great sort of variation on Dracula, right, 0:09:37.320 --> 0:09:41.040 the more seductive versions of Dracula, where where you know 0:09:41.160 --> 0:09:43.440 he he falls in love with a woman and he's like, 0:09:43.480 --> 0:09:45.520 you can be with me, you can we can live forever, 0:09:45.640 --> 0:09:48.720 but she doesn't realize that that involves being damned along 0:09:48.760 --> 0:09:51.959 with him. Yeah, should have been Christopher Lee. Yeah, he 0:09:52.000 --> 0:09:53.120 would have. He would have. He would have made a 0:09:53.120 --> 0:09:55.959 good vanderdeck and for sure. But the story that this 0:09:56.040 --> 0:09:58.440 version of the story was I think very strong around 0:09:58.480 --> 0:10:00.760 the area of the South Seas and the southern tip 0:10:00.800 --> 0:10:03.840 of Africa. But there's another common version that takes place 0:10:03.840 --> 0:10:06.439 in the North Sea, and this is a captain named 0:10:06.480 --> 0:10:10.880 Heir von Falconberg who sails without rest around the North 0:10:10.920 --> 0:10:13.880 Sea while playing dice with Satan for the possession of 0:10:13.880 --> 0:10:16.720 his soul. And the part about playing dice with the 0:10:16.760 --> 0:10:19.960 devil for for his soul that recalls very much what 0:10:20.040 --> 0:10:22.280 happens in the rhyme of the ancient mariner right after 0:10:22.320 --> 0:10:25.400 the part we read, because remember death and life and 0:10:25.480 --> 0:10:28.760 death are gambling for the souls of the crew. But 0:10:28.840 --> 0:10:30.880 there are a lot of other variations on this story 0:10:30.920 --> 0:10:33.600 with a good deal of elasticity. It is not known 0:10:33.679 --> 0:10:36.880 for sure exactly where the legend comes from. Originally. I 0:10:36.920 --> 0:10:39.600 think I've read some speculation that it could have to 0:10:39.640 --> 0:10:42.640 do with the Norse legend about a sailor who encounters 0:10:42.640 --> 0:10:46.320 a kind of uh damned limbo fate, But records of 0:10:46.320 --> 0:10:48.640 this story go at least as far back as the 0:10:48.720 --> 0:10:51.679 late seventeen hundreds. I found one early reference to it 0:10:52.040 --> 0:10:55.480 from the memoirs of a Scottish man named John McDonald 0:10:55.559 --> 0:10:59.160 who lived seventeen forty one to seventeen ninety six, and 0:10:59.200 --> 0:11:02.200 in writing about one of his sea voyages, he writes, quote, 0:11:02.440 --> 0:11:05.120 the weather was so stormy that the sailors said they 0:11:05.160 --> 0:11:08.760 saw the flying Dutchman. The common story is that this 0:11:08.880 --> 0:11:11.880 Dutchman came to the cape in distress of weather and 0:11:11.960 --> 0:11:14.120 wanted to get into harbor, but could not get a 0:11:14.120 --> 0:11:17.640 pilot to conduct her and was lost, and that ever since, 0:11:17.679 --> 0:11:21.440 in very bad weather her vision appears. Now in some 0:11:21.600 --> 0:11:24.000 versions of the story, I think the ship is even 0:11:24.120 --> 0:11:28.480 more spectral, even more of just a clear apparition, something 0:11:28.520 --> 0:11:31.240 that is on the horizon and with a kind of 0:11:31.240 --> 0:11:35.200 like ghostly silhouette, or even appears over the horizon. I 0:11:35.200 --> 0:11:38.760 think it's not exactly clear in the version of the 0:11:38.800 --> 0:11:41.880 Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner whether the ship is said 0:11:41.920 --> 0:11:44.360 to be approaching on the water or when they first 0:11:44.400 --> 0:11:46.920 see it it's above the water. He he does say 0:11:46.920 --> 0:11:49.959 that he looked and he beheld something in the sky 0:11:50.000 --> 0:11:52.000 that it first looked like it looks like a speck, 0:11:52.080 --> 0:11:55.640 and then later he realizes it's a ship coming toward them. Uh. 0:11:55.679 --> 0:11:57.080 And I guess there are a couple of ways you 0:11:57.080 --> 0:11:59.920 could read that. I know I've always read that as 0:12:00.040 --> 0:12:02.719 he originally saw the ship flying in the sky. I 0:12:02.760 --> 0:12:05.160 guess you could also read it as they see the 0:12:05.160 --> 0:12:07.480 ship on the water and what he's seeing is the 0:12:07.600 --> 0:12:10.920 sails poking up over the horizon and the sky. But 0:12:11.000 --> 0:12:13.160 either way, I think there are some versions where there's 0:12:13.160 --> 0:12:16.280 a kind of ghost ship that isn't necessarily even confined 0:12:16.360 --> 0:12:19.640 to the water like it flies. Yeah, yeah, that a 0:12:19.679 --> 0:12:23.040 true flying flying Dutchman. Yeah. And of course this is 0:12:23.040 --> 0:12:26.200 gonna lead us into what we're really talking about here today, 0:12:26.679 --> 0:12:30.760 a very particular type of of optical phenomena, uh that 0:12:30.960 --> 0:12:34.480 may be responsible at least in part for legends like this, 0:12:34.760 --> 0:12:37.560 though of course is always worth remembering that you know, 0:12:37.720 --> 0:12:40.080 anything like this, like the flying Dutchman for example, in 0:12:40.120 --> 0:12:43.280 all likelihood, we're dealing with the story that has multiple 0:12:43.320 --> 0:12:46.840 converging origins. To what extent they are based on things 0:12:46.840 --> 0:12:50.200 that people really saw. They were likely different things, you know, 0:12:50.320 --> 0:12:53.080 like somebody staring into a dark night on a ship, 0:12:53.440 --> 0:12:57.480 somebody seeing an optical phenomena on the horizon, or somebody 0:12:57.640 --> 0:12:59.800 you know, looking into the chaos of a storm and 0:13:00.160 --> 0:13:04.360 momentarily making out some shape in the flash of lightning. Right, 0:13:04.480 --> 0:13:08.920 But there are some well known optical phenomenon that fit 0:13:09.080 --> 0:13:11.920 with some of these accounts so closely that you have 0:13:12.040 --> 0:13:14.880 to assume at least some of these accounts probably are 0:13:14.920 --> 0:13:17.200 based on the thing we're gonna be talking about today, 0:13:17.559 --> 0:13:21.360 which is known as the Superior Mirage, or a variation 0:13:21.440 --> 0:13:25.480 of Superior mirage known as the Fata Morgana. Um. Now, 0:13:25.920 --> 0:13:28.120 one thing that will tie into this before we explain 0:13:28.240 --> 0:13:31.720 the Superior Mirage and the fatim Organa. Something I noticed 0:13:31.760 --> 0:13:34.160 that was kind of interesting about the flying Dutchman accounts. 0:13:34.440 --> 0:13:38.199 A lot of these accounts seemed concentrated towards the polar 0:13:38.240 --> 0:13:42.160 regions rather than the equatorial ones. The ghost ship usually 0:13:42.200 --> 0:13:45.400 seems to be sailing either the North Seas or the 0:13:45.440 --> 0:13:50.120 South Seas more so than anywhere in between. Yeah, quite interesting, 0:13:50.120 --> 0:13:52.720 So I keep keep that in mind as we proceed here. 0:13:52.960 --> 0:13:55.720 So yeah, basically from here we're gonna talk about the 0:13:55.760 --> 0:13:59.040 mirage itself and mirages in general. But then we'll get 0:13:59.040 --> 0:14:02.640 back into some more examples of various folk tales and 0:14:02.720 --> 0:14:07.720 myths that seem to be or perhaps are inspired by 0:14:08.040 --> 0:14:11.760 fatam Organa sightings. So let's start by talking about the 0:14:11.800 --> 0:14:15.000 mirage itself. A mirage in general is an optical effect 0:14:15.160 --> 0:14:17.760 that is sometimes seen at sea, or in the desert 0:14:17.960 --> 0:14:21.360 or over hot pavement, and in some cases these may 0:14:21.400 --> 0:14:23.520 take on the appearance of, say a pool of water. 0:14:24.160 --> 0:14:27.400 Or a mirror surface, and this can cause distant objects 0:14:27.440 --> 0:14:30.960 to appear inverted. Uh. Now, to be clear on the 0:14:31.040 --> 0:14:34.640 language here, you do find the word mirage sometimes used 0:14:34.680 --> 0:14:38.200 interchangeably with the notion all an illusion, right, and it 0:14:38.600 --> 0:14:42.080 is something that you're seeing but is not there. So 0:14:42.120 --> 0:14:45.120 in common language it's sometimes conflated with even like the 0:14:45.160 --> 0:14:47.880 idea of a hallucination. You know, somebody is just seeing 0:14:47.960 --> 0:14:50.320 something like it's real in their perception, but there is 0:14:50.360 --> 0:14:53.360 not an external reality to it, And that's not the 0:14:53.400 --> 0:14:56.880 case with the technical meaning of a mirage, right. And 0:14:56.920 --> 0:15:00.440 I feel like this is also Uh. This is also 0:15:00.560 --> 0:15:03.480 complicated because a lot of us grew up watching, especially 0:15:03.480 --> 0:15:07.800 cartoons that would occasionally have a mirage scene, and those 0:15:07.840 --> 0:15:09.600 would be a bit confusing because a lot of times 0:15:09.600 --> 0:15:11.080 I feel like they would play it up like just 0:15:11.160 --> 0:15:14.400 something magical that you're you only saw because you were 0:15:14.480 --> 0:15:16.720 you were thirsty and dying and you were also a 0:15:16.720 --> 0:15:19.560 cartoon dog. Right. Well, in cartoons, I feel like the 0:15:19.600 --> 0:15:22.680 mirage is always shown in the desert rather than say, 0:15:22.760 --> 0:15:25.520 over an ice sheet or on the seas. Uh. And 0:15:25.520 --> 0:15:28.320 and that over the desert you were probably looking at 0:15:28.320 --> 0:15:31.360 a particular type of mirage. The inferior mirage. Will get 0:15:31.360 --> 0:15:33.920 into more of the distinctions there in just a minute. 0:15:33.920 --> 0:15:36.960 But yeah, in the cartoons, it's always like, I don't 0:15:36.960 --> 0:15:39.720 know that you know, Daffy Duck is seeing a mirage 0:15:39.800 --> 0:15:41.880 in the desert and it's like an ice cream stand 0:15:42.040 --> 0:15:44.800 or something. It's some variation of the oasis in the 0:15:44.840 --> 0:15:48.680 desert yet, right, it's something very specific that gives the 0:15:48.720 --> 0:15:53.880 suggestion that you're seeing like a complicated, detailed hallucination, right, 0:15:54.200 --> 0:15:57.960 But in reality, the sort of mirage, the specific mirrage 0:15:58.000 --> 0:16:00.880 that we're talking about here, this is an optical effect 0:16:01.000 --> 0:16:03.760 that is visible to all. Like if there is a mirage, 0:16:04.000 --> 0:16:06.160 if you're in a party of say, you know, five 0:16:06.200 --> 0:16:08.960 people in the desert or on a ship wherever, if 0:16:09.000 --> 0:16:12.200 you see a mirage in the distance, everyone with you, 0:16:12.200 --> 0:16:14.960 you know, assuming they have the same site capacity that 0:16:15.040 --> 0:16:17.440 you have, they will be able to see the mirage 0:16:17.440 --> 0:16:21.560 as well, and assuming they're looking from the same place also, right, right, yeah, 0:16:21.600 --> 0:16:24.720 you gotta have the same vantage point for sure. Um, 0:16:24.760 --> 0:16:27.240 but you know, now that's not also not to say 0:16:27.240 --> 0:16:29.600 that you know, this could not be further distorted by 0:16:29.600 --> 0:16:32.760 the individual, either visually or in memory, but it is 0:16:32.800 --> 0:16:36.080 a thing that you could and be people can and 0:16:36.120 --> 0:16:39.640 do capture photographically or on you know, or with a 0:16:39.800 --> 0:16:42.320 like a video camera. So it is it is not 0:16:42.480 --> 0:16:44.800 something you're seeing that isn't there. It is an actual 0:16:45.240 --> 0:16:49.640 optical phenomena. Right. Uh. You you are seeing something that 0:16:49.840 --> 0:16:52.320 is really light coming into your eyes looking that way. 0:16:52.360 --> 0:16:54.880 It's not in your head though. What you're seeing is 0:16:55.000 --> 0:16:58.200 very distorted, so you're probably wanted. Okay, mirage. How does 0:16:58.240 --> 0:17:01.520 a mirage happen? It's you know, not caused by you know, um, 0:17:01.520 --> 0:17:03.640 you know, weird spirits and the you know, in the 0:17:03.720 --> 0:17:07.480 desert or on the seas well. Mirages in general occur 0:17:07.600 --> 0:17:11.439 when light passes through air of differing temperatures and the 0:17:11.560 --> 0:17:15.160 light is reflected or refracted a k A. Bent. And 0:17:15.200 --> 0:17:18.080 there are two types of mirages. We can divide them 0:17:18.160 --> 0:17:22.919 up generally into inferior mirages and superior mirages. This is 0:17:22.960 --> 0:17:25.840 not a about their quality. It's not like you know, 0:17:26.240 --> 0:17:30.240 discount mirages and bespoke mirrages. It has to do with 0:17:30.560 --> 0:17:34.040 where they fall in relation to the horizon. Right. So 0:17:34.080 --> 0:17:38.240 the inferior mirage is the kind that is being lampooned 0:17:38.240 --> 0:17:40.600 in the cartoons where a character isn't you know, daffy 0:17:40.680 --> 0:17:43.160 ducks in the desert and he thinks he sees an oasis. 0:17:43.520 --> 0:17:46.359 This is a very real thing that people often experience 0:17:46.400 --> 0:17:49.439 in desert climates. And this is the inferior mirage. Yes, 0:17:49.520 --> 0:17:52.720 so the inferior mirage again is your stereotypical oasis mirrage. 0:17:53.000 --> 0:17:56.159 It looks like a pool of blue water sometimes, you know, 0:17:56.160 --> 0:17:59.040 appears when you also look out across the desert or 0:17:59.080 --> 0:18:01.760 down the highway. You've probably seen one of these on 0:18:01.800 --> 0:18:04.800 your own drives or in movies, especially in movies that 0:18:04.840 --> 0:18:07.640 have a desert highway. This is this is like cat 0:18:07.680 --> 0:18:09.840 Neet two. Directors, they they got to have it, you know, 0:18:09.880 --> 0:18:11.680 so they'll they'll get a little bit of that mirrage 0:18:12.040 --> 0:18:14.840 in their in their shot. Right. And it's not only 0:18:14.920 --> 0:18:17.600 because the desert is hot and you're thirsty that it 0:18:17.600 --> 0:18:19.800 looks like there's water on the desert. There is a 0:18:19.840 --> 0:18:23.760 specific climate related reason that you're likely to see a 0:18:23.800 --> 0:18:27.040 mirage in the desert that looks like a pool of water. Yeah. 0:18:27.280 --> 0:18:29.879 These occur when a dense layer of cold air sits 0:18:29.960 --> 0:18:32.719 on or above line of sight with a layer of 0:18:33.040 --> 0:18:36.159 less dense, warmer air below line of sight. Now, um 0:18:36.960 --> 0:18:41.119 an example to pull from here is consider the desert highway. Okay, 0:18:41.119 --> 0:18:44.240 the sun beats down heats the asphalt, and the hot 0:18:44.280 --> 0:18:48.200 asphalt heats up the bottom portion of the air. Rays 0:18:48.280 --> 0:18:52.080 of light from above are refracted when they hit that 0:18:52.600 --> 0:18:56.280 refracted towards your eyes, resulting in the mirage. So the 0:18:56.400 --> 0:18:59.280 light of the blue sky above is bent back towards 0:18:59.280 --> 0:19:02.080 you from the low the horizon, and thus you have 0:19:02.160 --> 0:19:04.440 this you know, it's it's like a pool of water, 0:19:04.480 --> 0:19:07.040 but essentially like what seems like a pool of sky. Yeah, 0:19:07.080 --> 0:19:09.639 you're essentially seeing the blue light of the sky that 0:19:09.800 --> 0:19:13.399 is refracted as it changes from the cooler air above 0:19:13.760 --> 0:19:16.840 to this pocket of warmer air below, and it bends 0:19:16.880 --> 0:19:19.280 down and makes it look like part of the sky 0:19:19.560 --> 0:19:22.480 is just sitting on the ground. And when you see that, 0:19:22.480 --> 0:19:26.160 that blue sky looks a lot like water. Yeah. Now, 0:19:26.160 --> 0:19:30.240 the superior mirage works the opposite way. Warm air sits 0:19:30.280 --> 0:19:35.239 above line of side, cool layer beneath it, light bends down. Uh. 0:19:35.320 --> 0:19:38.399 The light is not traveling straight at us, but our 0:19:38.480 --> 0:19:41.320 visual process assumes that it is, so it makes it 0:19:41.359 --> 0:19:44.080 appear as if it is. Uh, it is above its 0:19:44.119 --> 0:19:47.720 actual position, such as above the horizon, hanging in the 0:19:47.760 --> 0:19:50.280 sky and so of course, in some cases this can 0:19:50.320 --> 0:19:54.240 cause objects that are actually past where you can see 0:19:54.480 --> 0:19:57.040 on the horizon, so they're you know, beyond the curve 0:19:57.080 --> 0:20:00.200 of the Earth from your vision, to appear as if 0:20:00.200 --> 0:20:03.240 they are popping up over the horizon. Yeah, they can 0:20:03.280 --> 0:20:06.280 make something that's that's actually just beyond the optical horizons, 0:20:06.280 --> 0:20:08.520 such as mountain tops, appear ahead of schedule. You can 0:20:08.520 --> 0:20:12.439 imagine how this would play into some of your expectations 0:20:12.480 --> 0:20:16.439 whilst whilst out on the open seas. Uh. It can 0:20:16.480 --> 0:20:19.879 also make objects appear closer or further away, larger or 0:20:19.920 --> 0:20:24.400 smaller than they actually are. Um, it's quite interesting. Uh. 0:20:24.480 --> 0:20:27.560 And and and for another example of this. Apparently, the 0:20:27.600 --> 0:20:31.600 most common example of a superior mirage, according to Christine 0:20:32.040 --> 0:20:35.359 Polam in two thousand eight speaking to Robert Siegel of NPR, 0:20:36.000 --> 0:20:39.240 is a sunrise or a sunset. Quote. The same phenomenon 0:20:39.280 --> 0:20:42.040 occurs to the Sun every day and makes it appear 0:20:42.080 --> 0:20:45.680 to be above the horizon when it's actually slightly below it. Oh, 0:20:45.720 --> 0:20:47.880 I think I've read that this is even more common, 0:20:47.920 --> 0:20:50.480 like in polar regions. This might be related to what's 0:20:50.520 --> 0:20:54.520 known as the Novaya Zimileia effect. Oh yeah, yeah, it's 0:20:54.600 --> 0:20:57.119 of course, the thing with the sunrise and sunset is 0:20:57.200 --> 0:21:00.959 since it happens every day, and you know, generally it's 0:21:01.000 --> 0:21:02.280 the kind of thing you see every day, it doesn't 0:21:02.280 --> 0:21:04.760 seem out of place. But where we get into these, 0:21:05.040 --> 0:21:10.040 you know, remarkable stories and legends arising from from sightings 0:21:10.080 --> 0:21:13.400 of of superior mirrages, it's because they occur. They don't 0:21:13.400 --> 0:21:16.040 occur every day. It's something you would see maybe with 0:21:16.160 --> 0:21:18.000 some frequency, depending on what part of the world and 0:21:18.000 --> 0:21:21.200 what the exactive environmental settings happen to be. But they 0:21:21.200 --> 0:21:23.320 have more mystery to them. They're not part of just 0:21:23.359 --> 0:21:28.600 the everyday movements of the sun or everyday atmospheric behavior. Yeah, 0:21:28.600 --> 0:21:33.240 the conditions have to be right, So superior mirages they 0:21:33.280 --> 0:21:36.200 require there to be a certain kind of pocket of 0:21:36.320 --> 0:21:39.920 warmer air sitting above a pocket of cooler air, which 0:21:39.960 --> 0:21:42.960 is not normally how the atmosphere works. Right, Usually the 0:21:43.119 --> 0:21:45.200 air up higher is going to be cooler, even though 0:21:45.240 --> 0:21:48.040 heat rises. Usually it's just farther away from the earth 0:21:48.040 --> 0:21:50.640 and it's going to be cooler. Now, if you're completely 0:21:50.640 --> 0:21:52.640 lost at this point, which I will, I will forgive 0:21:52.680 --> 0:21:55.080 you for for being so um, I will say a 0:21:55.119 --> 0:21:57.680 couple of resources you can turn to. How Stuff Works 0:21:57.680 --> 0:21:59.920 dot Com has an article about mirages, but also the 0:22:00.080 --> 0:22:03.520 University of British Columbia's Department of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences. 0:22:03.920 --> 0:22:06.520 They have a great page that I was looking at 0:22:06.560 --> 0:22:10.200 earlier with very helpful illustrations, included one of these for 0:22:10.280 --> 0:22:12.639 you to see here, Joe. But uh, just very well 0:22:12.680 --> 0:22:16.480 presented information about like light bending downward, that's your superior mirage, 0:22:16.600 --> 0:22:26.000 light bending upward, that's your inferior mirrage. Than now, the 0:22:26.119 --> 0:22:29.840 superior mirrage can actually get even more complicated than just 0:22:30.080 --> 0:22:34.080 making something appear above where it actually is, because of 0:22:34.119 --> 0:22:37.480 the bending of light through these pockets of air when 0:22:37.520 --> 0:22:40.160 there are very specific conditions. I think this is something 0:22:40.200 --> 0:22:43.520 that's usually called atmospheric ducting, Like when a certain kind 0:22:43.560 --> 0:22:47.080 of duct or column of atmospheric conditions and different temperature 0:22:47.119 --> 0:22:51.440 gradients in the atmospheric gases are created. This can lead 0:22:51.520 --> 0:22:55.199 to what's known as fata Morgana right. These occur when 0:22:55.240 --> 0:22:57.800 there are several layers of warm and cold air that 0:22:57.880 --> 0:23:00.399 cause what is actually a combination of superi area and 0:23:00.600 --> 0:23:05.520 inferior images. The uneven inversion causes the light to refract 0:23:05.560 --> 0:23:08.639 and ultimately bizarre ways, so you can wind up with 0:23:08.800 --> 0:23:13.280 multiple segmented reflections in there. So um, you know, it's 0:23:13.280 --> 0:23:15.720 here that we get into the you know, the confusing 0:23:15.880 --> 0:23:20.200 images that may be interpreted as floating walls or castles 0:23:20.240 --> 0:23:23.520 in the sky, or gigantic ships that are flying through 0:23:23.560 --> 0:23:26.960 the atmosphere above the horizon, that sort of thing. Now 0:23:27.119 --> 0:23:31.359 you might wonder where the name Fatim Morgana actually comes from, 0:23:31.400 --> 0:23:33.800 like why would an optical effect have a name like this? 0:23:34.000 --> 0:23:37.600 The name Fati Morgana actually comes from the character from 0:23:37.720 --> 0:23:42.040 our Thurian legend, usually known by her French name Morgan 0:23:42.119 --> 0:23:45.000 la Fay. In English, of course, Morgan la Fay is 0:23:45.040 --> 0:23:48.560 Morgan the Fairy. Though when I was writing about this, 0:23:48.640 --> 0:23:51.560 for some reason, I kept thinking back to our episodes 0:23:51.600 --> 0:23:54.000 of Invention where we were talking about Alice sky Blush 0:23:54.359 --> 0:23:58.080 and her first film, The Cabbage Fairy La Faye a shoe, 0:23:58.720 --> 0:24:01.600 So I kept thinking about Organ the cabbage Faery. But 0:24:01.680 --> 0:24:04.399 she she is not merely a cabbage fairy. She is 0:24:04.440 --> 0:24:08.640 a fairy, sometimes a fairy of of helpfulness and and medicine, 0:24:08.800 --> 0:24:12.480 and sometimes a fairy of lies and destruction. It always 0:24:12.520 --> 0:24:15.400 makes me think of the wonderful film ex caliber where 0:24:15.520 --> 0:24:19.640 Helen Mirren plays MORGANA do you remember seen it? Oh? 0:24:19.640 --> 0:24:21.760 It's pretty great, has a very shiny armor, a great 0:24:21.800 --> 0:24:25.920 cast John Boorman picture. He's got Nissan's in it. Oh really, yeah, 0:24:26.119 --> 0:24:28.119 this is John Boorman. Did he do it before or 0:24:28.160 --> 0:24:33.159 after Deliverance? That's a strange eighty one? So okay, I 0:24:33.200 --> 0:24:35.640 can't remember when Deliverance came out. It was seventies film, right, 0:24:36.200 --> 0:24:39.199 I think, so? Yeah, Well, maybe i'll check that one 0:24:39.200 --> 0:24:42.760 out soon. Yeah, Deliverance was seventy two. Okay, well, so 0:24:42.880 --> 0:24:48.320 Morgan suddenly I'm imagining Burt Reynolds is King Arthur, but 0:24:48.560 --> 0:24:51.640 Morgan la Faye is a character that exists in multiple 0:24:51.680 --> 0:24:56.120 stages throughout the evolution of the Arthurian legendary corpus uh As. 0:24:56.160 --> 0:24:59.120 You probably know that there are lots of different types 0:24:59.160 --> 0:25:02.040 of stories of Arthur and the character of Arthur and 0:25:02.040 --> 0:25:04.760 the stories about him and all the characters around him. 0:25:04.800 --> 0:25:08.560 They change a lot over the centuries as this story, 0:25:08.720 --> 0:25:12.040 uh As, the story is retold and retold, and so 0:25:12.280 --> 0:25:16.720 she is usually some kind of sorceress or witch or fairy. 0:25:16.760 --> 0:25:20.639 In earlier sources, it seems she's more often a sympathetic character, 0:25:20.720 --> 0:25:24.040 a kind of helper or a healer, sometimes a sister 0:25:24.320 --> 0:25:27.960 or half sister of King Arthur. In later stories, she's 0:25:28.000 --> 0:25:32.159 presented as more morally ambiguous, or even the vindictive and 0:25:32.320 --> 0:25:36.360 deceitful villainous of the plot, as in the fifteenth century 0:25:36.480 --> 0:25:40.040 Lamorte d'artour in by That one's by Thomas Mallory, Sir 0:25:40.080 --> 0:25:43.399 Thomas Mallory, uh, and that one is the source of 0:25:43.440 --> 0:25:46.760 a lot of the Arthurian stories that people know. But 0:25:46.960 --> 0:25:50.000 La fata Morgana is just the Italian for Morgan la 0:25:50.000 --> 0:25:53.080 Fay or Morgan the fairy. But you still might be wondering, 0:25:53.119 --> 0:25:56.800 Wait a minute, why is this type of complex superior 0:25:56.920 --> 0:26:03.200 mirage associated with a fairy or sorceress from Arthurian literature. Well, 0:26:03.359 --> 0:26:07.040 remember that fairies are tricksters first of all, and Morgan 0:26:07.160 --> 0:26:10.080 le Fay in these later tellings of the arthur saga, 0:26:10.560 --> 0:26:13.280 is known for her deceptions. But the connection appears to 0:26:13.359 --> 0:26:16.280 run even deeper than that. So I was reading about 0:26:16.280 --> 0:26:20.720 this in a article for Wired by Matt Simon, that is, 0:26:20.800 --> 0:26:23.040 in part, I think a review of a book by 0:26:23.080 --> 0:26:28.440 Marina Warner called Phantasmagoria, published in two thousand eight from 0:26:28.440 --> 0:26:32.320 Oxford University press, and Matt Simon is writing up a 0:26:32.880 --> 0:26:36.359 section from this book that is about the discovery of 0:26:36.440 --> 0:26:39.119 the Fatim Morgana, or at least an early documentation of 0:26:39.119 --> 0:26:42.240 the Fatim Morgana with a with a scientific point of view. 0:26:42.720 --> 0:26:46.160 So he tells the story of a Jesuit priest named 0:26:46.200 --> 0:26:50.560 Father Domenico Giardina, who lived in the seventeenth century on 0:26:50.600 --> 0:26:55.080 the island of Sicily. And so I'm about to describe 0:26:55.119 --> 0:26:59.160 some visions. I think there's some confusion about whether Giardina 0:26:59.440 --> 0:27:02.520 saw the visions himself or whether he was describing the 0:27:02.600 --> 0:27:05.320 visions of another person. But either way, one day in 0:27:05.359 --> 0:27:10.000 the sixteen forties, somebody, maybe Jardina, was gazing out across 0:27:10.160 --> 0:27:12.880 the Strait of Messina, which is the stretch of ocean 0:27:13.000 --> 0:27:19.320 between Sicily and mainland Italy. And according to Jardina's writings, uh, 0:27:19.359 --> 0:27:22.440 what was seen here was quote a city all floating 0:27:22.440 --> 0:27:26.040 in the air, and so measureless and so splendid, so 0:27:26.160 --> 0:27:29.800 adorned with magnificent buildings, all of which was found on 0:27:29.840 --> 0:27:34.040 a base of a luminous crystal. So, okay, that's impressive, 0:27:34.440 --> 0:27:37.439 but it didn't just remain that way. Jardina claims that 0:27:37.480 --> 0:27:40.960 the city transformed itself into a garden and then into 0:27:41.040 --> 0:27:43.919 a forest. And I can't help but notice the dangerous 0:27:43.960 --> 0:27:47.199 inversion that might imply the city, of course is the 0:27:47.240 --> 0:27:51.199 place of order and humanity, and it transforms into the woods, 0:27:51.240 --> 0:27:53.679 which is the place where the power of nature rules 0:27:53.720 --> 0:27:57.280 and travelers become lost. And in some of the classic 0:27:57.400 --> 0:28:00.520 Arthurian stories, I think that's a place you you really 0:28:00.520 --> 0:28:04.600 see this like civilization versus the woods distinction where the 0:28:04.600 --> 0:28:08.520 woods are just full of unaccountable magic that has power 0:28:08.600 --> 0:28:12.439 over you rather than you over it. Yeah. Absolutely, And uh. 0:28:12.640 --> 0:28:14.840 One thing I love about this is this is already 0:28:14.920 --> 0:28:18.199 hit on several different themes that we will find not 0:28:18.320 --> 0:28:22.119 only in you know, um, you know, tales from you know, 0:28:22.160 --> 0:28:24.640 elsewhere in Europe, but but tales from the other side 0:28:24.680 --> 0:28:27.399 of the world. Uh, and you know other you know, 0:28:27.400 --> 0:28:30.439 other other cultures seem to have possibly or in some 0:28:30.480 --> 0:28:35.080 cases possibly seen um optical phenomena of this nature and 0:28:35.160 --> 0:28:41.240 had some of the same interpretations. Uh So, anyway, Jardina's 0:28:41.280 --> 0:28:44.280 description goes on after that, even after it becomes a 0:28:44.320 --> 0:28:47.720 bunch of woods, there are more transformations and more chaos. 0:28:47.760 --> 0:28:51.520 He saw what looked like armies attacking towns and then 0:28:51.560 --> 0:28:55.800 eventually the entire scene just vanishes. And Jardina tried to 0:28:55.920 --> 0:29:00.760 explain this vision in terms of science other than magic. 0:29:00.880 --> 0:29:04.400 He he blamed salts in the region, which he wrote, 0:29:04.480 --> 0:29:07.560 quote rise up in hot weather in vapors from the 0:29:07.640 --> 0:29:11.320 sea to form clouds which then condensed in the cooler 0:29:11.400 --> 0:29:14.760 upper air to become a mobile specchio, which means a 0:29:14.880 --> 0:29:19.400 moving polyhedracal mirror. Now this is not correct, but as 0:29:19.400 --> 0:29:22.280 we've seen, this actually isn't very far off. It doesn't 0:29:22.320 --> 0:29:25.760 necessarily have to do with salts, but the effect probably 0:29:26.080 --> 0:29:30.400 was something like a superior mirage of the opposing shore 0:29:30.560 --> 0:29:35.040 and things on it, or a fata morgana even more complex, 0:29:35.200 --> 0:29:39.760 uh sort of shifting, quickly transforming mirage that was caused 0:29:39.840 --> 0:29:44.760 by the vertical arrangement of of gases of different temperatures 0:29:44.800 --> 0:29:47.960 and atmospheric ducting. Yeah, and you know, one of the 0:29:48.000 --> 0:29:50.600 interesting things about this I was reading from a source 0:29:50.640 --> 0:29:53.400 that i'll side later in the episode, and they were 0:29:53.400 --> 0:29:56.840 talking about how indeed we we didn't really um begin 0:29:56.880 --> 0:29:59.640 to understand what was going on with mirages like this, 0:29:59.720 --> 0:30:02.960 and the eighteenth and nineteenth century and even even a 0:30:03.080 --> 0:30:07.400 say Arab scientists who during the medieval period. Like that was, 0:30:07.600 --> 0:30:10.080 they knew more about optics than anyone else in the world. 0:30:10.760 --> 0:30:13.240 Even they were not able to to make sense of 0:30:13.280 --> 0:30:16.840 what they were experiencing when they too experienced uh you know, 0:30:16.920 --> 0:30:21.040 superior inferior mirages on the horizon. Yeah, exactly so. So 0:30:21.240 --> 0:30:24.440 this explanation is not correct, but I think it's surprising 0:30:24.480 --> 0:30:28.320 how close he got yea. So here here's the question, 0:30:28.520 --> 0:30:31.640 where does Morgan la fay come in? Right? Well, here 0:30:31.680 --> 0:30:35.920 I'm going to read from from Simon's article. According to Warner, 0:30:36.200 --> 0:30:40.680 the Norman's brought stories of Morgan's magic to Italy, particularly 0:30:40.800 --> 0:30:44.719 her penchant for luring sailors to an undersea palace with 0:30:44.920 --> 0:30:49.680 visions of castles in the air. Fata Morgana is particularly 0:30:49.720 --> 0:30:54.040 prevalent in southern Italy straight of Messina, where Father Giardina 0:30:54.160 --> 0:30:58.640 experienced his own vision, and then later Simon writes, and 0:30:58.680 --> 0:31:02.160 long before arthury legend it could have been the sightings 0:31:02.200 --> 0:31:05.600 of these phenomena gave rise to any number of woe 0:31:05.840 --> 0:31:10.800 something is appearing in the sky scenes in antiquity. Warner argues, So, 0:31:11.240 --> 0:31:13.800 I think the the idea of the fatim organa is 0:31:13.840 --> 0:31:17.080 that there is some equation of this optical phenomena of 0:31:17.400 --> 0:31:21.640 seeing things far away or over the horizon, appearing up 0:31:21.640 --> 0:31:24.320 in the air above the horizon, and in some cases 0:31:24.360 --> 0:31:30.200 even uh distorted, inverted and stacked upon themselves, forming bizarre 0:31:30.320 --> 0:31:33.440 visions that could look like castles in the sky, cities 0:31:33.480 --> 0:31:37.720 in the sky, uh, weird floating objects, ships sailing in 0:31:37.760 --> 0:31:41.440 the air, or among the clouds. And you might be tempted, 0:31:41.600 --> 0:31:43.680 reading accounts of things like this to think, well, okay, 0:31:43.680 --> 0:31:47.000 you know, it's either just creative the creative mind at work, 0:31:47.200 --> 0:31:50.360 or it is uh it is you know that these 0:31:50.400 --> 0:31:54.840 people's mythology or or legends that are then described. But 0:31:55.160 --> 0:31:58.600 the fatim organa gives us the opportunity to look to 0:31:58.920 --> 0:32:01.880 actual optical nomina as a is it possible or in 0:32:01.960 --> 0:32:05.720 some cases like it seems almost definite? Cause yes, though 0:32:05.760 --> 0:32:08.440 I guess somebody would not be could not be blamed 0:32:08.520 --> 0:32:10.720 too too much for thinking of it as a kind 0:32:10.760 --> 0:32:14.760 of deceptive fairy magic. Yeah, no, I think so, because ultimately, 0:32:14.800 --> 0:32:17.040 like we've said before, when you when you witness something 0:32:17.200 --> 0:32:20.440 that you cannot explain, a lot of times you have 0:32:20.480 --> 0:32:23.120 to go to the pre existing h narratives, the pre 0:32:23.160 --> 0:32:26.160 existing scripts uh to figure out what it might be, 0:32:26.320 --> 0:32:29.680 and that might be aliens, it might be um you know, 0:32:29.760 --> 0:32:32.120 fit that the fairy folk, it might be the gods 0:32:32.200 --> 0:32:34.600 or sea monsters, etcetera. It seems like the sea in 0:32:34.600 --> 0:32:36.760 particular is full of a lot of characters who want 0:32:36.760 --> 0:32:39.000 to lead you astray and get you into trouble with 0:32:39.080 --> 0:32:43.680 deceptive visions or invitations. You know, the sirens, the all 0:32:43.680 --> 0:32:46.120 those things. So I guess the woods too. I don't know, 0:32:46.160 --> 0:32:48.920 the woods in the sea have some things in common. Yeah, 0:32:48.920 --> 0:32:51.720 they're both wild realms and there you know, there's a 0:32:51.720 --> 0:32:56.120 plethora of of mythical creatures and beings and strange lights 0:32:56.160 --> 0:32:59.320 that will lead you astray. Now I came across what 0:32:59.480 --> 0:33:02.320 I thought was a pretty interesting hypothesis. I'm not sure 0:33:03.080 --> 0:33:05.520 how well supported it is, but at least in this 0:33:05.600 --> 0:33:09.560 one case, the fotom Organo mirage has been said to 0:33:09.680 --> 0:33:14.880 not just influence supernatural legends, it may possibly explain specific 0:33:14.960 --> 0:33:20.480 catastrophic navigational blunders in maritime history. And the main possibility 0:33:20.520 --> 0:33:23.720 that has been proposed here is the iceberg collision that 0:33:23.800 --> 0:33:29.120 sank the Titanic. Okay, so this hypothesis is covered in 0:33:29.360 --> 0:33:34.040 an April article for the New York Times by William J. Broad. 0:33:34.280 --> 0:33:38.520 In short, there's British historian named Tim Malton who was 0:33:38.640 --> 0:33:41.760 working with the help of somebody named Andrew T. Young, 0:33:41.880 --> 0:33:45.600 who's an astronomer and mirage specialist at San Diego State 0:33:45.680 --> 0:33:51.000 University and uh. With Young's help, Malton refined and put 0:33:51.080 --> 0:33:55.640 forward a hypothesis that could explain why the Titanics lookouts 0:33:56.160 --> 0:33:59.360 failed to spot the iceberg in time to avoid the collision, 0:33:59.800 --> 0:34:02.840 and end why a nearby ship failed to respond to 0:34:02.880 --> 0:34:07.600 a distress signal. Uh So, Malton claims that the conditions 0:34:07.640 --> 0:34:11.000 of the icy water in the North Atlantic on the 0:34:11.120 --> 0:34:14.279 night of the sinking of the Titanic were responsible for 0:34:14.480 --> 0:34:17.920 creating a kind of wall of water illusion that could 0:34:17.960 --> 0:34:23.239 have obscured the approaching iceberg from view. And Broad describes 0:34:23.280 --> 0:34:26.920 the fatim organa effect as follows quote. Most people know 0:34:27.000 --> 0:34:30.440 mirages as natural phenomena caused when hot air near the 0:34:30.480 --> 0:34:34.200 earth surface bends light rays upward. In a desert, the 0:34:34.239 --> 0:34:38.080 effect prompts lost travelers to mistake patches of blue sky 0:34:38.280 --> 0:34:41.480 for pools of water. But another kind of mirage occurs 0:34:41.520 --> 0:34:45.480 when cold air bends light rays downward. In that case, 0:34:45.520 --> 0:34:49.160 observers can see objects and settings far over the horizon. 0:34:49.560 --> 0:34:53.720 The images often undergo quick distortions, not unlike the wavy 0:34:53.760 --> 0:34:56.880 reflections in a fun house mirror. Okay, so this is 0:34:56.920 --> 0:35:00.000 in line with what we've been talking about, but broad 0:35:00.080 --> 0:35:02.560 on to say. In an interview, Mr Malton said he 0:35:02.640 --> 0:35:05.800 first learned the possibility of cold mirages when reading a 0:35:05.920 --> 0:35:10.400 nine British inquiry on the Titanic sinking. It suggested that 0:35:10.440 --> 0:35:13.880 the icy waters could have cooled the adjacent air and 0:35:14.000 --> 0:35:18.160 warped images that confused the Californian, a nearby ship that 0:35:18.239 --> 0:35:21.920 could have rushed to the Titanic's aid but instead did nothing. 0:35:22.520 --> 0:35:25.840 Fascinated Mr Malton, who sailed boats in his youth, dug 0:35:25.920 --> 0:35:29.880 into navigational records and found that both the Californian and 0:35:29.960 --> 0:35:33.440 the Titanic had moved into the icy Labrador current that 0:35:33.600 --> 0:35:38.319 night and had encountered conditions ideal for cold mirages. He 0:35:38.400 --> 0:35:42.360 then hunted through reams of official and unofficial testimony to 0:35:42.400 --> 0:35:45.439 see what people saw, or what they thought they saw. 0:35:45.960 --> 0:35:50.000 A drama of misperceptions ensues. Mr Malton's book shows how 0:35:50.040 --> 0:35:53.960 mirages could have created false horizons that hid the iceberg 0:35:54.080 --> 0:35:58.000 from the Titanic's lookouts by this theory, the intersection of 0:35:58.120 --> 0:36:01.799 dark sea and starry sky would have looked blurry, reducing 0:36:01.840 --> 0:36:04.920 the contrast with the looming iceberg. And then he goes 0:36:04.960 --> 0:36:07.400 on to site some of the testimony of the lookouts 0:36:07.440 --> 0:36:10.440 who were who were watching the horizon that night, and 0:36:10.440 --> 0:36:12.960 and so they put together this idea that superior mirages 0:36:13.000 --> 0:36:15.440 could have hidden the iceberg from site as they were 0:36:15.480 --> 0:36:18.240 approaching it by creating a kind of blur or haze 0:36:18.239 --> 0:36:22.280 along the horizon. And then also that that a type 0:36:22.320 --> 0:36:25.680 of superior mirage caused by the the icy currents in 0:36:25.719 --> 0:36:30.320 the cold water could have interfered with the Californians ability. 0:36:30.320 --> 0:36:32.280 I remember that was the other ship that was nearby 0:36:32.360 --> 0:36:35.840 that did not intervene, could have interfered with its ability 0:36:35.880 --> 0:36:39.239 to correctly assess what was going on with the Titanic. 0:36:39.520 --> 0:36:43.120 And this led to a series of misunderstandings that caused 0:36:43.120 --> 0:36:47.880 them not to help. That is interesting. Yeah, Now I 0:36:47.920 --> 0:36:51.160 don't know how much you know, the most relevant experts 0:36:51.200 --> 0:36:54.239 would put into this hypothesis. Today, I was trying to 0:36:54.280 --> 0:36:57.080 see if I could find criticisms of it, and I 0:36:57.120 --> 0:37:00.120 did find a series of papers in the journe An 0:37:00.120 --> 0:37:04.520 Old Weather from twenty nineteen by Mila's in Cova. The 0:37:04.600 --> 0:37:07.520 first one of the four part series is called Titanic's 0:37:07.560 --> 0:37:10.759 Mirage Part one, The Enigma of the Arctic High and 0:37:10.800 --> 0:37:14.240 a Cold Water Tongue of the Labrador Current. I didn't 0:37:14.239 --> 0:37:16.200 have time to get into this whole series in depth, 0:37:16.280 --> 0:37:18.040 but it looks from what I can tell like the 0:37:18.040 --> 0:37:22.239 author argues that maybe the mirage explanation is possible, but 0:37:22.480 --> 0:37:25.759 probably not the explanation that they think is most consistent 0:37:25.800 --> 0:37:29.520 with the facts, and other explanations for the haze over 0:37:29.600 --> 0:37:32.960 the water that night that would reduce visibility would include 0:37:33.000 --> 0:37:35.839 something that is more commonly known as sea smoke, which 0:37:35.880 --> 0:37:38.560 is just a kind of natural fog that forms when 0:37:38.640 --> 0:37:42.359 very cold air moves over warmer water. Yeah, and that, 0:37:42.400 --> 0:37:45.400 coupled with the fact that Billy Zane is chasing Leonardo 0:37:45.400 --> 0:37:49.520 DiCaprio around ship, that's probably distracting everybody. I mean, that's 0:37:49.520 --> 0:37:53.080 going to create a steamy fog of its own, right, Yeah, 0:37:57.719 --> 0:38:02.800 thank thank um. Yeah. I have an interesting historic tidbit 0:38:02.880 --> 0:38:05.160 here that I think you know that flows nicely out 0:38:05.160 --> 0:38:09.160 of the Titanic example. Uh, this one takes place uh 0:38:09.200 --> 0:38:11.560 well techno, technically it takes place on water as well, 0:38:11.600 --> 0:38:15.439 but on frozen water. Uh. And it concerns uh something 0:38:15.480 --> 0:38:17.960 that pops up as well, the idea of like phantom islands, 0:38:18.000 --> 0:38:21.120 phantom mountains. Uh, something in the distance that you know, 0:38:21.200 --> 0:38:25.640 looks like some sort of large geographical um occurrence, but 0:38:25.680 --> 0:38:28.080 then as you get closer it does not. And this 0:38:28.160 --> 0:38:31.880 particular tidbit concerns crocker Land. Have you ever been to 0:38:31.880 --> 0:38:35.319 crocker Land, Joe, I don't think so. Now for some reason, 0:38:35.360 --> 0:38:39.359 I'm thinking Betty crocker Land. Well, as it turns out, 0:38:39.440 --> 0:38:41.600 nobody has been to crocker Land, and uh. And here's 0:38:41.600 --> 0:38:45.160 the story. So it's nineteen six and Robert E. Perry 0:38:45.960 --> 0:38:48.960 Arctic explorers exploring the polar regions, and he makes an 0:38:49.000 --> 0:38:53.000 alarming sighting a range of mountain peaks rising above the 0:38:53.040 --> 0:38:56.520 ice cap some what looks like four hundred miles uh, 0:38:56.560 --> 0:38:59.799 you know, west of Greenland's northern tip. So he names 0:38:59.840 --> 0:39:02.640 this crocker Land, and it apparently goes from there. It 0:39:02.719 --> 0:39:05.920 ends up appearing on at least one published map, and 0:39:05.920 --> 0:39:10.000 then seven years later, Arctic explorer Donald B. McMillan he 0:39:10.120 --> 0:39:14.080 ventures into the same region in search of crocker Land. Um, 0:39:14.160 --> 0:39:16.520 you know, thinking that he's going to, you know, arrive 0:39:16.560 --> 0:39:20.720 there and further study it. And he initially sees these mountains, 0:39:20.760 --> 0:39:23.759 but then they slowly vanish as he draws closer, and 0:39:23.760 --> 0:39:26.040 as it turns out, there was nothing there at all 0:39:26.120 --> 0:39:31.040 but flat, featureless ice. And this is how he describes it. 0:39:31.120 --> 0:39:34.720 This is from his beliefs. Is from his autobiography quote. 0:39:34.960 --> 0:39:37.720 The day was exceptionally clear, not a cloud or trace 0:39:37.800 --> 0:39:41.399 of mist. If land could be seen now is our time. Yes, 0:39:41.480 --> 0:39:44.640 there it was. It could even be seen without a glass. 0:39:44.640 --> 0:39:50.360 Extending from southwest true to north northeast. Are powerful glasses, however, 0:39:50.640 --> 0:39:53.960 brought out more clearly the dark background in contrast with 0:39:54.000 --> 0:39:57.960 the white, the whole resembling hills, valleys and snow capped 0:39:58.000 --> 0:40:00.640 peaks to such a degree that, had we not been 0:40:00.719 --> 0:40:03.640 out on the frozen sea for a hundred and fifty miles, 0:40:03.680 --> 0:40:06.680 we would have staked our lives upon its reality. Our 0:40:06.760 --> 0:40:09.960 judgment then, as now is that this was a mirage 0:40:10.120 --> 0:40:12.600 or loom of the sea ice. Oh. I guess the 0:40:12.600 --> 0:40:16.640 thing that we haven't discussed yet but is related, is 0:40:16.680 --> 0:40:20.240 that there is another phenomenon called looming that can also 0:40:20.480 --> 0:40:25.120 cause illusions of this kind. Seeing different things like with 0:40:25.239 --> 0:40:28.120 relationship to the horizons, sort of appearing out of place 0:40:28.480 --> 0:40:33.040 that works by a different mechanism. Yeah. Now the next 0:40:33.080 --> 0:40:37.440 example I want to cover though, is almomst definitely an 0:40:37.440 --> 0:40:40.640 example of the Fata Morgana. Uh. And this is actually 0:40:40.640 --> 0:40:43.920 the one that that led me uh to uh to 0:40:43.960 --> 0:40:46.960 bring this up as a potential topic. Um, because I 0:40:46.960 --> 0:40:50.840 was researching the shan Haijing for our recent episode on 0:40:50.880 --> 0:40:54.920 the shan Haijing and h I ran across a Chinese 0:40:55.000 --> 0:40:57.840 connection to the Fata Morgana in an article from n 0:40:58.560 --> 0:41:01.759 nine by Edward H. Schaefer published in the Journal of 0:41:01.800 --> 0:41:05.880 the American Oriental Society titled Foos Sang and Beyond the 0:41:05.920 --> 0:41:11.600 Haunted Seas to Japan. Now. Edward H. Schaeffer lived nineteen 0:41:11.239 --> 0:41:15.759 thirt through ninete. He was an American historians, sinologist, and 0:41:15.880 --> 0:41:18.920 writer noted for his experience on the Tang dynasty, and 0:41:19.000 --> 0:41:22.279 he was a professor of Chinese at the University of California, 0:41:22.320 --> 0:41:25.080 Berkeley for thirty five years. He also did some key 0:41:25.160 --> 0:41:29.600 English translations. In this article, however, Schaefer is looking at 0:41:29.680 --> 0:41:33.120 various examples of a class of Chinese poem about travel, 0:41:33.400 --> 0:41:38.440 particularly about this very specific about saying goodbye to honored 0:41:38.480 --> 0:41:42.040 guests as they depart on a journey. I'm trying to 0:41:42.040 --> 0:41:44.840 think if there are any um like English poems that 0:41:44.920 --> 0:41:47.160 come to mind that have a similar theme. I don't know, 0:41:48.440 --> 0:41:50.800 not that I can think of at any rate. It 0:41:50.840 --> 0:41:54.040 was a popular motif at the time in China and 0:41:54.120 --> 0:41:57.320 a popular journey. Specific journey for these poems during the 0:41:57.560 --> 0:42:00.959 Tang dynasty, which which was six eight through nine oh seven, 0:42:01.320 --> 0:42:04.640 was a journey across the Sea of Japan, frequently taken 0:42:04.680 --> 0:42:08.400 by monks, diplomats, and others. So this was and is 0:42:08.480 --> 0:42:11.920 the puffing Sea, the bursting Sea, the domain of danger, 0:42:12.080 --> 0:42:16.480 for sure, but also of supernatural wonder. Now, as we've said, 0:42:16.520 --> 0:42:19.280 this can be said of basically any large body of water. 0:42:19.719 --> 0:42:23.480 This can be said of any seafaring civilization. Right anywhere 0:42:23.719 --> 0:42:27.359 people meet the ocean, you find these descriptions of the 0:42:27.440 --> 0:42:30.240 ocean as a as a potentially deadly place, a mysterious place. 0:42:30.239 --> 0:42:33.719 And we've developed rich myths and legends to account for it. Uh, 0:42:33.719 --> 0:42:37.799 you know, any time, you know, just across cultures. But 0:42:38.000 --> 0:42:40.560 Schaefer points out that there was really a lot of 0:42:40.600 --> 0:42:43.400 this talk regarding the Eastern Sea, and you'll find it 0:42:43.440 --> 0:42:46.239 in poems and in accounts of all sorts, including from 0:42:46.400 --> 0:42:50.320 very well traveled and well educated individuals, and he describes 0:42:50.360 --> 0:42:53.960 these sightings as being marked with quote greater awareness than 0:42:54.000 --> 0:42:58.160 ever before of the denizens of the oceanic world. So 0:42:58.200 --> 0:43:01.480 what are these denizens? Particular? Note here are the shin 0:43:01.880 --> 0:43:05.920 or clam monsters of the Eastern Sea. And uh, this 0:43:05.960 --> 0:43:09.839 is where we get shin jing, which is or um 0:43:09.920 --> 0:43:13.760 or high fish and low, which are terms for mirages 0:43:13.880 --> 0:43:17.200 in Mandarin. Oh wow, So if you were talking in 0:43:17.280 --> 0:43:21.280 Mandarin about a mirage, you're saying something that literally could 0:43:21.360 --> 0:43:25.200 mean something like clam monster. Uh yeah, yeah, Like the 0:43:24.920 --> 0:43:28.360 these terms are are all connected. Yeah. So while the 0:43:28.800 --> 0:43:31.840 pre Han genesis of the term shafer rights would seem 0:43:31.880 --> 0:43:34.560 to apply to real world clams, you know, the type 0:43:34.600 --> 0:43:38.279 of clams you might catch and eat and some culinary traditions, uh, 0:43:38.320 --> 0:43:42.040 it clearly evolved into a legend. And so this is 0:43:42.040 --> 0:43:46.480 what he writes. Quote. Beginning as an unassuming marine invertebrate, 0:43:46.760 --> 0:43:50.440 the shin was later imagined as a gaping, pearl producing clam, 0:43:50.560 --> 0:43:54.680 possibly to be identified with the giant clams of tropical seas, 0:43:55.000 --> 0:43:58.200 for instance, Tridactna. That's the genus of these if you've 0:43:58.239 --> 0:44:00.800 ever seen images of the giant real world giant clams, 0:44:00.840 --> 0:44:04.600 that's uh, that's the genus, he continues. Quote Finally, by 0:44:04.640 --> 0:44:07.920 early medieval times, it had become a monster lurking in 0:44:08.000 --> 0:44:12.160 submarine grottoes, and was sometimes endowed with the attributes of 0:44:12.200 --> 0:44:15.800 a dragon, or, more likely, under Indian influence, a naga. 0:44:16.320 --> 0:44:20.040 So it gets this gets like just super super super weird, 0:44:20.080 --> 0:44:23.560 and I love it. So these the shin were said. 0:44:23.640 --> 0:44:25.920 These giant clams in the ocean deep were said to 0:44:25.960 --> 0:44:30.120 exhale and belsh up bubbles and froth which that they could. 0:44:30.160 --> 0:44:34.880 They could then manifest into spectral castles and haunted palaces 0:44:34.920 --> 0:44:38.000 made of what Schaefer translates as a kind of plasma 0:44:38.200 --> 0:44:42.240 and later describes as being something between flesh and energy, 0:44:42.320 --> 0:44:47.600 like a kind of ectoplasm. Quote, dreamlike correscant with strange 0:44:47.719 --> 0:44:53.759 lights and prismatic hazes. These seemingly insubstantial confections or counterparts 0:44:53.800 --> 0:44:56.719 of the sea asle pin lay and also of the 0:44:56.760 --> 0:45:00.800 astral places of the high gods of Dalis m wow. 0:45:01.000 --> 0:45:05.560 All from clams. Huh, Well, giant clams, giant magical clams 0:45:05.600 --> 0:45:10.480 that breathe ectoplasm and use it to craft massive illusions 0:45:10.480 --> 0:45:13.920 in the sky. So he from here he goes on 0:45:14.000 --> 0:45:17.319 to share what I believe his translation, one of two 0:45:17.320 --> 0:45:21.840 translations he provides of a poem by Wang Chi uh 0:45:22.160 --> 0:45:26.000 rhapsody on the high House of the clam Monsters, and 0:45:26.040 --> 0:45:28.640 it's it's just glorious. Um. You can look up the 0:45:28.680 --> 0:45:31.399 Shaffer article. You can find it. Uh. I think it's 0:45:31.400 --> 0:45:33.600 on j store and you can access it for free, 0:45:33.600 --> 0:45:35.200 and you can you can read the full version of 0:45:35.200 --> 0:45:38.480 both poems. I just want to read the first part 0:45:38.840 --> 0:45:40.719 of the initial I think was supposed to be a 0:45:40.800 --> 0:45:46.239 more accurate translation. There in the peeing Bird's basin, shoreless 0:45:46.280 --> 0:45:50.920 and boundless are the clam monsters high houses crag crested. 0:45:51.200 --> 0:45:54.280 They do not rely on timber to knit their frames, 0:45:54.320 --> 0:45:57.480 but use their own fnast to fly and float them 0:45:57.960 --> 0:46:02.240 hidden away without present sign they blaze and splendor, hardly 0:46:02.320 --> 0:46:05.319 to be matched. Then one of them emitst waves and 0:46:05.400 --> 0:46:09.000 surges there as if it would stud the sky with them, 0:46:09.080 --> 0:46:14.520 forming semilacra. Mutating, it creates porches and railings, preferring to 0:46:14.560 --> 0:46:18.200 simulate the sun, which melts our cares so large that 0:46:18.280 --> 0:46:21.920 it would cover giant turtle Mountain with yet another island 0:46:22.360 --> 0:46:26.279 or dripped down on the shark men's houses and hanging streams. 0:46:26.800 --> 0:46:29.920 Then it is as if the fogs have used up 0:46:29.960 --> 0:46:33.920 their mistiness, the melting clouds have gone home, the moon 0:46:34.080 --> 0:46:38.880 sheds brilliance over a thousand lee vision is terminated only 0:46:38.920 --> 0:46:43.400 by the eight horizons. Wow, yeah, it's it's I love it. 0:46:43.400 --> 0:46:46.200 It's just so full of weird wonder and and again 0:46:46.280 --> 0:46:49.920 has has just start start? Comparisons can be made to 0:46:50.000 --> 0:46:52.400 those to the accounts of the Fata Morgana that you 0:46:52.440 --> 0:46:55.040 were reading earlier from you know, the other side of 0:46:55.040 --> 0:46:58.000 the world. But I love all the unexplained elements, the 0:46:58.320 --> 0:47:02.040 shark men's houses. Yeah, yeah, um, I may touch on 0:47:02.080 --> 0:47:03.600 the shark man in a bit, but yeah, there's just 0:47:03.600 --> 0:47:05.480 so much wonder. This feels like some sort of a 0:47:05.960 --> 0:47:09.560 just a it's a weird hallucinatory vision out of uh, 0:47:09.600 --> 0:47:11.799 you know that he might find something similar out of say, 0:47:11.840 --> 0:47:15.200 the weird fiction era in an American literature. Now I 0:47:15.239 --> 0:47:18.920 am kind of wondering how exactly some of these uh 0:47:19.080 --> 0:47:23.719 words are translated, because obviously, like so the words simulacras 0:47:23.840 --> 0:47:26.320 in there, and I understand what that means in context. 0:47:26.360 --> 0:47:30.080 I wonder if there's actually like a term in the 0:47:30.120 --> 0:47:34.200 original that is becoming exactly that word, or if there 0:47:34.400 --> 0:47:38.280 is something that's somehow the gist of something. Yeah, you know, offhand, 0:47:38.280 --> 0:47:40.440 I can't recall of Schaefer got into that. He it's 0:47:40.480 --> 0:47:44.000 a he. It's mostly related to these two translations that 0:47:44.040 --> 0:47:45.520 he gives, but he does get into some of the 0:47:45.560 --> 0:47:49.800 specific terminology. Um. But on top of that, Schaefer himself 0:47:49.880 --> 0:47:53.640 seemed to be in a pretty poetic in his own right. Um, 0:47:53.680 --> 0:47:56.640 you know, just as he's describing the text, there's some 0:47:56.680 --> 0:48:00.279 wonderful sections, Like he writes, in this literary vision, the 0:48:00.320 --> 0:48:03.360 clammy builders are not ordinary creatures at all, but alien 0:48:03.640 --> 0:48:07.840 and anonymous natural forces. Their amorphous bodies are unstable and 0:48:07.880 --> 0:48:12.800 perhaps illusory at least ectoplasmic or spectral. They have no gender. 0:48:12.840 --> 0:48:16.960 They dwell in the murky bnthos of the Sea of Whales, 0:48:17.320 --> 0:48:21.000 beyond the domains of the shark people. And uh and 0:48:21.120 --> 0:48:25.320 he actually he he provides a second translation in which 0:48:25.360 --> 0:48:29.799 he uses meter in English rhyme. Uh. And again I 0:48:29.880 --> 0:48:33.040 just have the first section here. Uh, but but he 0:48:33.080 --> 0:48:34.480 does the whole thing. I don't know, did Joe do 0:48:34.480 --> 0:48:36.200 you want to read this one? Oh? Sure I could. 0:48:36.239 --> 0:48:39.160 If you want juff, go for it. Where giant fish 0:48:39.200 --> 0:48:43.839 foul range above the seas, and craggy houses clammy monsters, 0:48:43.840 --> 0:48:48.680 weize they need no didar to build these halls. Extruded 0:48:48.800 --> 0:48:53.799 e cores fuse as roofs and walls. Abistle gloom eclipses 0:48:53.880 --> 0:48:57.520 them below, but spouted up at the shed a fiery glow. 0:48:58.160 --> 0:49:01.920 When one explodes up through the tossing spume, we hope 0:49:01.920 --> 0:49:05.960 a vault of spangled stars to bloom. Instead, it seems 0:49:05.960 --> 0:49:09.560 a shining golden dome to match the Sun, the god's 0:49:09.560 --> 0:49:13.279 immortal home. It makes the giant seamount seem a hill 0:49:13.719 --> 0:49:17.960 as vast cascades into the vortex spill. Then, when the 0:49:18.080 --> 0:49:22.239 upcast spray and froth degrade, and clouds beyond the far 0:49:22.320 --> 0:49:26.719 horizon fade, the lunar lantern sets the sky alight, and 0:49:26.760 --> 0:49:30.240 all the seven seas show clear and bright. The fishy 0:49:30.280 --> 0:49:34.399 people's shine. Their scales around the waves, now soothed, give 0:49:34.400 --> 0:49:38.560 out no further sound. A palace heaves and spouting rare 0:49:38.640 --> 0:49:43.160 perfumes and majesty above the ocean looms pierces the stubborn 0:49:43.280 --> 0:49:47.160 haze that round it lies and thrusts its mighty walls 0:49:47.200 --> 0:49:53.120 into the skies. Yeah, I I absolutely love it. Excellent again, 0:49:53.480 --> 0:49:57.640 giant clam spouting, uh, you know, bubbles and froth and 0:49:57.719 --> 0:50:01.840 exoplasm up into the sky and forming an otherworldly castle 0:50:01.960 --> 0:50:04.320 or city in the sky, and then you know it 0:50:04.800 --> 0:50:09.000 vanishes and uh. And Schaffer himself points to the connection 0:50:09.040 --> 0:50:12.560 here between these tales and the very real phenomenon of 0:50:12.600 --> 0:50:17.080 fatimorgana mirages, which are still seen today on the Eastern Sea. 0:50:17.239 --> 0:50:21.160 So you know these, uh, these strange castles are are 0:50:21.200 --> 0:50:23.680 still glimpsed out there. You know that these are this 0:50:23.760 --> 0:50:27.799 is an optical phenomenon that still occurs. What who are 0:50:27.840 --> 0:50:30.680 the shark people? Do you know something about shark? Mean? Yes, 0:50:30.719 --> 0:50:32.920 I look these up. These would be the jaw rin 0:50:33.200 --> 0:50:35.359 or the people of the flood dragons. So they were 0:50:35.360 --> 0:50:38.279 a kind of mir folk um or you know, or 0:50:38.280 --> 0:50:40.200 a shark person. I like how he describes them as 0:50:40.200 --> 0:50:43.279 the as as the shark people or fishy people if 0:50:43.320 --> 0:50:45.319 you will. Well, that makes them sound more like the 0:50:45.320 --> 0:50:48.319 subject of that Peter Benchley novel adapted to a made 0:50:48.360 --> 0:50:50.680 for TV movie that we talked about not too long ago. 0:50:50.760 --> 0:50:52.920 What was the one about like the shark human hybrid. 0:50:53.480 --> 0:50:55.600 Oh what was it? It wasn't beast. It had a 0:50:55.640 --> 0:50:58.160 similar one word name, because you know that you stick 0:50:58.200 --> 0:51:01.640 with what what works. Kim cot all in its right, Yeah, 0:51:01.800 --> 0:51:04.160 and Craig T. Nelson and a shark that I think 0:51:04.160 --> 0:51:07.360 in the book at least wasn't was a Nazi created 0:51:07.680 --> 0:51:10.359 mutant intelligent shark. I'm not sure if that translated into 0:51:10.400 --> 0:51:13.680 the TV adaptation or not, or if it had like 0:51:13.719 --> 0:51:17.120 big muscular arms or not. Oh, it's a mini series. 0:51:17.200 --> 0:51:21.160 It's called Creature Creature, Yes, but I I really want 0:51:21.200 --> 0:51:24.480 to see a film about um, about this giant clam 0:51:25.000 --> 0:51:27.200 um about the shin and uh, you know, I'm not 0:51:27.200 --> 0:51:29.799 sure that that it doesn't exist. Clearly, there's a lot 0:51:29.840 --> 0:51:34.840 of a wonderful and fantastic Chinese cinema out there, and um, 0:51:34.880 --> 0:51:36.799 I didn't really dive in enough. So anyone out there, 0:51:36.800 --> 0:51:39.120 if you're aware of a film that features even a 0:51:39.160 --> 0:51:44.879 cameo by a giant of fairy city spouting clam, let 0:51:44.880 --> 0:51:47.799 me know, all right, I have another example I want 0:51:47.800 --> 0:51:50.320 to turn to, and this one takes this to another 0:51:50.400 --> 0:51:55.719 continent entirely. This takes us to Africa, specifically, Southern Africa, okay, 0:51:55.960 --> 0:51:59.400 and this concerns the San people. So these are indigenous 0:51:59.440 --> 0:52:06.120 people's own, chiefly in Botswana, uh Namibia and southeastern Angola. 0:52:06.520 --> 0:52:09.239 Historically they would have been a hunter gatherer people and 0:52:09.239 --> 0:52:11.560 they've been referred to by several different names over time, 0:52:11.640 --> 0:52:15.920 and today are apparently not instantly identifiable by any physical features, 0:52:16.000 --> 0:52:19.479 language or culture. Um. But I was reading an article 0:52:19.520 --> 0:52:21.720 about this. This is a from the year two thousand 0:52:21.719 --> 0:52:27.120 by Helmett tributsch Uh title does mirage derived mythology give 0:52:27.760 --> 0:52:30.319 access to Sun rock Art? And this was published in 0:52:30.360 --> 0:52:35.160 the Southern African Archaeological Bulletin. In it, the author contemplates 0:52:35.160 --> 0:52:37.600 a link between the traditional rock art of the sun, 0:52:38.080 --> 0:52:41.759 their myths, and the superior mirages they would have observed 0:52:41.840 --> 0:52:44.439 in their environment that again, like all these can still 0:52:44.440 --> 0:52:48.040 be observed in those environments today. And the author points 0:52:48.040 --> 0:52:50.239 out that you know that that naturally the sort of 0:52:50.280 --> 0:52:53.040 mirage was seen throughout the world for thousands of years. 0:52:53.080 --> 0:52:55.560 He's the author who brings up, uh, you know, the 0:52:55.560 --> 0:52:59.120 the idea that even Arab Sciencests, who we're pretty much 0:52:59.160 --> 0:53:02.520 masters of six uh, during the medieval period, they weren't 0:53:02.520 --> 0:53:04.360 able to understand this so it wasn't until the eighteenth 0:53:04.360 --> 0:53:07.120 and nineteenth centuries that we we really were able to 0:53:07.160 --> 0:53:09.960 fully crack what's going on when we behold a superior mirage. 0:53:10.640 --> 0:53:13.799 But you know, everyone who had access to to these 0:53:13.840 --> 0:53:16.840 mirages would have probably had some thoughts about them, and 0:53:16.880 --> 0:53:20.560 you can imagine how they might have influenced one's worldview 0:53:20.560 --> 0:53:25.000 and magical thinking. So sun Rock art in particular depicts 0:53:25.080 --> 0:53:29.440 in some cases huge flying creatures, upside down creatures and 0:53:29.600 --> 0:53:34.320 double creatures, finned land creatures, as well as floating waters. 0:53:35.000 --> 0:53:39.480 Now there there have been a different ways of interpreting these, Uh, 0:53:39.520 --> 0:53:43.399 the author points out, so representations of mythic ideas art 0:53:43.440 --> 0:53:46.800 for art's sake, or and this is always interesting, altered 0:53:46.840 --> 0:53:51.400 states of consciousness or shamatic visions. But the Tributes presents 0:53:51.440 --> 0:53:54.600 a what he prefers to with a naturalistic interpretation in 0:53:54.920 --> 0:53:59.440 which the observation of superior mirages are a key factor. Um, 0:54:00.239 --> 0:54:02.279 of course, and we should drive home. Uh. You know, 0:54:02.320 --> 0:54:03.960 it's it seems like all of these could be in 0:54:04.040 --> 0:54:06.120 play at the same time, because certainly you could have 0:54:06.320 --> 0:54:12.359 hallucinations occurring whilst looking at or remembering or or contemplating 0:54:12.400 --> 0:54:15.799 the nature of things seen on the horizon, combine that 0:54:15.840 --> 0:54:18.960 with your own myth making, uh, and just creative thinking 0:54:19.000 --> 0:54:22.440 in general. Now, as for the specific things he's referring to, 0:54:22.640 --> 0:54:25.920 first of all, giant sky water snakes or rain animals 0:54:25.960 --> 0:54:29.839 above the horizon would have been linked to superior mirages 0:54:30.120 --> 0:54:34.600 that that were often observed in the lull before rainstorms. 0:54:34.640 --> 0:54:37.919 So these would have been interpreted as powerful entities responsible 0:54:37.960 --> 0:54:41.040 for rain that could then be called out to spiritually, 0:54:41.360 --> 0:54:44.360 like these were the masters of rain, the gods and 0:54:44.440 --> 0:54:47.959 monsters of rain and uh, and they're the ones who 0:54:48.320 --> 0:54:50.359 who you need favor from in order to you know, 0:54:50.440 --> 0:54:55.040 to have a wet and rich environment. And then there's 0:54:55.080 --> 0:54:59.319 this really fascinating concept of the underwater where souls and 0:54:59.360 --> 0:55:03.080 the sorcerer 's went to become stretched. Uh. And this 0:55:03.120 --> 0:55:07.759 may be linked to glimmering inferior mirages and stretched or 0:55:07.760 --> 0:55:13.799 elongated forms. Uh. These may derive from superior mirages. And yeah, 0:55:13.800 --> 0:55:16.080 you look at examples of this and it's like, you know, um, 0:55:16.120 --> 0:55:19.880 you know, clearly humanoid representations and some will be of 0:55:19.880 --> 0:55:22.200 what you might take to be normal size and others 0:55:22.200 --> 0:55:26.480 are greatly elongated. And uh, yeah, I'm particularly interested by 0:55:26.480 --> 0:55:29.879 this idea. Of the inverted world, and sorcerers who try 0:55:29.920 --> 0:55:34.040 to make contact with the inverted world by he points out, 0:55:34.160 --> 0:55:37.719 adopting an inverted arm position. Here's a quote from the 0:55:37.719 --> 0:55:41.719 paper quote, what would be more realistic than depicting inverted 0:55:41.760 --> 0:55:45.160 lions in a mirrage in such an environment the underwater 0:55:45.400 --> 0:55:49.319 of sun belief. It could even be that trance has 0:55:49.360 --> 0:55:52.480 developed as a way to imitate the inverted world, the 0:55:52.560 --> 0:55:55.960 world where everything is the other way around. The body 0:55:56.000 --> 0:55:59.560 does not preserve the upright position anymore. Food or liquid 0:55:59.600 --> 0:56:02.000 does not into the mouth but leaves It has depicted 0:56:02.000 --> 0:56:05.799 in many scenes where liquid, sometimes interpreted as blood, is 0:56:05.840 --> 0:56:09.480 streaming from the nose of animals and shamans. Maybe the 0:56:09.560 --> 0:56:13.400 crossed legs of painted antelopes and trans dancers and sound 0:56:13.680 --> 0:56:16.760 rock art may simply mean that they do not walk normally, 0:56:16.800 --> 0:56:20.279 but walk in an inverted way, that is backwards, as 0:56:20.320 --> 0:56:25.480 they should in the other world. That's really interesting. Yeah, 0:56:25.560 --> 0:56:28.360 and again this this connects with with some of what 0:56:28.440 --> 0:56:30.919 you were sharing earlier on again from the other side 0:56:30.920 --> 0:56:34.520 of the world, uh, you know, dealing with contemplations of 0:56:34.520 --> 0:56:39.480 fata morgana and superior and inferior mirages. So from from 0:56:39.520 --> 0:56:41.520 here really I mean, we don't even have to spend 0:56:41.600 --> 0:56:45.080 much time at all talking about the nature of unidentified 0:56:45.080 --> 0:56:48.279 flying objects in the sky um because you can see, 0:56:48.560 --> 0:56:50.319 I mean, it's all written on the wall here. I mean. 0:56:50.320 --> 0:56:54.120 The fotomorgana is sometimes used to explain UFO sightings, which 0:56:55.040 --> 0:56:57.600 which is just a natural direction to go into, especially 0:56:57.640 --> 0:57:01.440 when you consider modern sailing vessels, um and and modern 0:57:01.840 --> 0:57:05.920 vehicles and objects in generals often glinting with metallic details. 0:57:06.160 --> 0:57:10.480 You can imagine them seeing above the horizon as superior mirrages. 0:57:10.560 --> 0:57:14.919 And you know, if you consume enough UFO material, which 0:57:14.960 --> 0:57:18.000 I think everybody has at this point, that might be 0:57:18.080 --> 0:57:20.240 one of the first places, if not the first places 0:57:20.240 --> 0:57:22.920 that your mind goes well, yeah, I mean, I'd imagine 0:57:22.960 --> 0:57:28.440 that superior mirrages could explain all kinds of especially anomalous lights. Yeah, 0:57:29.040 --> 0:57:32.400 I've in particular, I've seen it linked to discussions of 0:57:32.680 --> 0:57:35.880 UFO sightings in Texas and also the so called men 0:57:35.920 --> 0:57:39.720 Men light in the Australian outback, and and I think, 0:57:39.760 --> 0:57:41.600 and I think you can you can find plenty of 0:57:41.600 --> 0:57:44.000 other examples of this as well. There are similar lights 0:57:44.040 --> 0:57:46.400 that can be found in the Middle East that have 0:57:46.440 --> 0:57:50.720 been linked to U two superior mirrages. So again we're 0:57:50.760 --> 0:57:52.680 dealing with something you can find around the world, and 0:57:52.720 --> 0:57:55.640 then we find all these interesting stories that are either 0:57:55.840 --> 0:58:00.800 directly linked to superior mirrages or could easily linked to them, 0:58:00.880 --> 0:58:03.600 at least at least in part. So it basically explains 0:58:03.640 --> 0:58:09.480 everything some bigfoot I don't know, I could an elongated humanoid. Um, 0:58:09.520 --> 0:58:11.640 you know that that could work. Oh, slender Man is 0:58:11.680 --> 0:58:14.360 a superior mirrage. Oh you know. I was just thinking 0:58:14.400 --> 0:58:19.040 about the San Rock illustrations and traditions about people walking backwards. 0:58:19.040 --> 0:58:21.919 That makes me think of the lesh she again? Oh 0:58:22.200 --> 0:58:24.440 did the less she walk backwards? Was that? I think 0:58:24.640 --> 0:58:27.320 you could confuse the leshy by walking backwards. I don't 0:58:27.320 --> 0:58:33.040 know that's right. Or you could put your clothes on backwards, right, yeah, yeah, 0:58:33.480 --> 0:58:39.200 the upside down, the the inverted world moving backwards. Um. Now, 0:58:39.440 --> 0:58:43.480 as I mentioned earlier on the superior mirages uh and 0:58:43.560 --> 0:58:47.280 the Fata Morgana, these are things that can and our photograph. 0:58:47.360 --> 0:58:49.280 They can be photographed. They are photographs. So if you 0:58:49.320 --> 0:58:51.840 do some image searches you can find some some really 0:58:52.080 --> 0:58:55.400 excellent examples of these. I remember seeing one in particular 0:58:55.520 --> 0:58:59.280 that instantly made me think of the gigantic spaceship from 0:58:59.320 --> 0:59:04.920 Independence Um. Now, Independence Day wasn't an actual movie, it 0:59:05.000 --> 0:59:09.160 was not a mirrage. But but the mirages that that 0:59:09.160 --> 0:59:11.520 that occur can be of that nature. You know. It's 0:59:11.560 --> 0:59:14.440 like there's something huge in the sky or on the horizon, 0:59:14.840 --> 0:59:18.680 and it does not confirm, confirm, conform to, uh to, 0:59:18.920 --> 0:59:21.280 to anything that would occur in the natural world that 0:59:21.320 --> 0:59:23.440 you you know of. You know, like you have to 0:59:23.520 --> 0:59:26.400 leap to the the unexplained if you're not aware of 0:59:26.440 --> 0:59:28.520 the sort of you know, the again, the optical phenomena 0:59:28.560 --> 0:59:32.200 that can take place, just some shimmering hulk. Yeah. So, 0:59:32.240 --> 0:59:34.480 on that note, we would obviously love to hear from 0:59:34.480 --> 0:59:36.640 anyone out there who has witnessed one of these, you know, 0:59:36.720 --> 0:59:40.120 because I don't think I have. I don't remember ever 0:59:40.200 --> 0:59:45.440 seeing a superior mirage, much much less Auto morgana um, 0:59:45.520 --> 0:59:48.360 unless I was just you know, barely noticing it, certainly. 0:59:48.800 --> 0:59:50.560 And that's the thing. A lot of these examples that 0:59:50.760 --> 0:59:54.200 you hear about, they're they're hard to ignore. Uh So, 0:59:54.360 --> 0:59:56.640 if you have experience with them, please right in and 0:59:56.720 --> 0:59:58.240 let us know, tell us all about it. Tell us 0:59:58.280 --> 1:00:00.200 about your experience with it, what was going through your mind? 1:00:00.240 --> 1:00:02.920 When you looked at it. Also, if you're familiar with 1:00:03.560 --> 1:00:06.400 any other of the you know, the many global traditions 1:00:06.840 --> 1:00:10.960 that either are directly linked to these optical phenomena or 1:00:11.040 --> 1:00:13.720 could easily be linked to them. We'd love to hear 1:00:13.720 --> 1:00:15.520 about it, and you know, we'll try and discuss it 1:00:16.040 --> 1:00:18.600 on an upcoming episode of Stuff to Blow Your Mind. 1:00:18.600 --> 1:00:22.120 Listener mail that's what publishes Monday's in the Stuff to 1:00:22.120 --> 1:00:25.760 Blow Your Mind podcast feed. On Wednesdays we have the Artifact. 1:00:25.840 --> 1:00:28.800 Tuesdays and Thursdays we have Core episodes, and on Fridays 1:00:28.840 --> 1:00:31.480 we have Weird House Cinema where we don't so much 1:00:31.520 --> 1:00:34.040 get into the science, but we talk about a weird 1:00:34.200 --> 1:00:37.240 movie of note. Huge thanks as always to our excellent 1:00:37.280 --> 1:00:39.960 audio producer Seth Nicholas Johnson. If you would like to 1:00:39.960 --> 1:00:42.240 get in touch with us with feedback on this episode 1:00:42.280 --> 1:00:44.280 or any other, to suggest a topic for the future, 1:00:44.480 --> 1:00:47.440 just to say hello, you can email us at contact 1:00:47.480 --> 1:00:57.360 at Stuff to Blow your Mind dot com. Stuff to 1:00:57.360 --> 1:01:00.160 Blow Your Mind It's production of My Heart Radio. More 1:01:00.200 --> 1:01:02.200 podcasts for my Heart Radio. This is the i Heart 1:01:02.240 --> 1:01:05.000 Radio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you're listening to your 1:01:05.000 --> 1:01:17.600 favorite shows