WEBVTT - S02 Episode 2: Time Out of Joint 0:00:00.080 --> 0:00:03.000 There's nothing better than feeling comfortable in your own shoes, 0:00:03.279 --> 0:00:05.240 and that doesn't mean flopping down on the couch with 0:00:05.280 --> 0:00:08.640 bunny slippers. Maybe you're a parent raising a little rock star, 0:00:09.119 --> 0:00:11.959 or a tech nomad working from anywhere and jumping from 0:00:11.960 --> 0:00:14.920 one thing to the next. Whoever you are, all Birds 0:00:14.960 --> 0:00:17.360 wants you to be comfortable in your actual shoes too. 0:00:17.720 --> 0:00:21.279 They're wool runners, pipers, and loungers are designed for a 0:00:21.400 --> 0:00:23.480 level of coziness that makes you feel like you can 0:00:23.520 --> 0:00:26.479 do anything. 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It has long been accepted that time as 0:01:12.920 --> 0:01:15.160 we know it, or at the very least in the 0:01:15.240 --> 0:01:20.399 sense that we experience it, is not what it seems, or, 0:01:20.440 --> 0:01:23.640 as Albert Einstein put it, the past, the present, and 0:01:23.720 --> 0:01:29.839 the future is but a stubborn, persistent illusion. It would 0:01:29.840 --> 0:01:33.000 seem that we have long been mesmerized by the notion 0:01:33.040 --> 0:01:36.200 of traveling through time, whether it be to write a 0:01:36.280 --> 0:01:41.600 past wrong or merely to escape our present reality. But 0:01:41.720 --> 0:01:45.600 it wasn't until Einstein's special relativity introduced us to the 0:01:45.600 --> 0:01:49.640 tantalizing concept of space, time, and the fourth dimension that 0:01:49.680 --> 0:01:54.919 such notions were given mathematical credibility. No longer was time 0:01:55.120 --> 0:01:58.960 a mere subjective unit of measurement, but suddenly we were 0:01:58.960 --> 0:02:02.320 invited to imagine it as a space within which we 0:02:02.400 --> 0:02:06.440 might move, a theory that, as the earlier quote suggests, 0:02:06.800 --> 0:02:11.960 did away entirely with any notion of past, present, and future. Or, 0:02:12.000 --> 0:02:16.360 to be clearer, as physicist Max Tegmark notes, time is 0:02:16.400 --> 0:02:20.360 not an illusion, but the flow of time is for 0:02:20.480 --> 0:02:23.400 much in the way that matter may appear differently from 0:02:23.440 --> 0:02:27.320 one observer to the next, So two, according to Einstein, 0:02:27.800 --> 0:02:32.920 does time. Incidentally, although the concept of space time is 0:02:32.960 --> 0:02:37.480 often linked with Einstein, it was actually his teacher Hermann Minkowski, 0:02:37.840 --> 0:02:40.639 who first proposed the idea back in nineteen oh eight 0:02:40.960 --> 0:02:46.480 in a paper titled Space and Time. Remarkably, author Edgar 0:02:46.520 --> 0:02:48.880 Allan Poe is believed to have come to the same 0:02:48.919 --> 0:02:53.400 realization himself as far back as eighteen forty eight, writing 0:02:53.440 --> 0:02:59.480 in an essay titled Eureka, that space and duration are one. Certainly, 0:02:59.600 --> 0:03:02.280 it is an area that has been well explored in fiction. 0:03:04.080 --> 0:03:08.560 The oddly Unsettling nineteen seventies television show Sapphire and Steele 0:03:09.080 --> 0:03:13.000 and Joan Lindsay's Haunting and Mesmeric Picnic at Hanging Rock 0:03:13.560 --> 0:03:16.480 are two of my favorite accounts of one such temporal 0:03:16.520 --> 0:03:21.520 corruption that is equal parts fascinating and terrifying. The notion 0:03:22.120 --> 0:03:27.680 of the time slip you're listening to unexplained and I'm 0:03:28.000 --> 0:03:38.600 Richard McClean smith. To paranormal researchers, the fabled time slip 0:03:38.880 --> 0:03:42.680 is considered to be the rarest of all documented paranormal experience, 0:03:43.800 --> 0:03:46.720 the most well known account of such an event being 0:03:46.760 --> 0:03:50.600 the Mobile jur Dan incident. The event is alleged to 0:03:50.640 --> 0:03:54.440 have occurred on Saturday August tenth, nineteen o one, at 0:03:54.440 --> 0:03:57.720 the Palace of Versailles. In France, when two British women 0:03:58.080 --> 0:04:00.640 visiting the palace on a day trip claimed to have 0:04:00.680 --> 0:04:05.160 found themselves inexplicably transported back to the late eighteenth century, 0:04:05.400 --> 0:04:08.960 to be surrounded by Pallace courtiers and even at one 0:04:08.960 --> 0:04:14.680 point crossing paths with Mary Antoinette. The women, Charlotte Mobiley 0:04:14.880 --> 0:04:18.680 and Eleanor Jourdan, were both well educated and had no 0:04:18.760 --> 0:04:22.120 obvious reason to fabricate the events, and published a book 0:04:22.120 --> 0:04:25.680 of their account in nineteen eleven, which was predictably met 0:04:25.800 --> 0:04:30.680 with much ridicule. There are two accounts of alleged time 0:04:30.680 --> 0:04:33.839 slips that took place in Britain in the nineteen fifties. 0:04:35.040 --> 0:04:38.440 The writer and longtime member of the Society of Psychical 0:04:38.480 --> 0:04:42.719 Research Andrew McKenzie documented both the events in his nineteen 0:04:42.800 --> 0:04:47.680 ninety seven book Adventures in Time. For McKenzie, the accounts 0:04:47.720 --> 0:04:50.560 were nothing less than two of the most convincing that 0:04:50.600 --> 0:04:54.800 he had ever come across, mysteries that remained to this 0:04:54.880 --> 0:05:07.000 day unexplained. On Monday, January the second, nineteen fifty as 0:05:07.040 --> 0:05:10.680 the new decade entered its third day, so too did 0:05:10.680 --> 0:05:15.320 the New Year's celebrations, as is customary in Scotland. In 0:05:15.400 --> 0:05:17.839 a small house in the town of Brecon in the 0:05:17.880 --> 0:05:21.520 eastern County of Angus. A cocktail party is coming to 0:05:21.560 --> 0:05:26.040 an end. Sensing that the party was beginning to wind down, 0:05:26.520 --> 0:05:29.960 one of the guests, fifty five year old Miss Elizabeth Smith, 0:05:30.360 --> 0:05:33.440 decided to call it a night. It was, after all, 0:05:33.640 --> 0:05:36.920 getting late, and Elizabeth wasn't much relishing the ten mile 0:05:37.040 --> 0:05:41.440 drive back to her house in Leatham. After saying good 0:05:41.480 --> 0:05:44.679 bye to her friends, she collected her small terrier dog 0:05:44.920 --> 0:05:48.039 that she had brought with her, and together they climbed 0:05:48.080 --> 0:05:52.600 into her car in preparation for the journey home. It 0:05:52.720 --> 0:05:55.760 had been a relatively mild winter, but the last few 0:05:55.839 --> 0:05:58.719 days had seen a light dusting of snow along much 0:05:58.720 --> 0:06:02.160 of the East Coast, snow that by nightfall on the 0:06:02.240 --> 0:06:08.719 second had turned steadily to ice. Undeterred, Elizabeth switched on 0:06:08.760 --> 0:06:12.479 the engine and pulled off into the night. A short 0:06:12.520 --> 0:06:15.800 time later, not more than two miles outside of Brecon, 0:06:16.400 --> 0:06:19.920 Elizabeth lost control of the car, spun off the road 0:06:20.320 --> 0:06:26.560 and plummeted straight into a ditch. Miraculously, neither Elizabeth nor 0:06:26.640 --> 0:06:30.560 her small canine companion were harmed, but the car was 0:06:30.600 --> 0:06:35.200 completely written off. Relieved and more than a little dazed, 0:06:35.600 --> 0:06:39.800 but the temperature outside steadily dropping, Elizabeth knew she had 0:06:39.839 --> 0:06:43.560 only two options, returned to her friend's home or strike 0:06:43.640 --> 0:06:47.680 out on the eight mile journey back to leathm Deciding 0:06:47.680 --> 0:06:51.240 on the latter, Elizabeth gathered her things and, together with 0:06:51.279 --> 0:06:54.080 her dog, she set out on the long walk home. 0:06:55.279 --> 0:06:58.720 At first, Elizabeth was at ease taking the deserted country 0:06:58.800 --> 0:07:02.200 lane back towards her village. She felt safe with her 0:07:02.200 --> 0:07:06.240 dog by her side, cheerily keeping her company. But it 0:07:06.320 --> 0:07:09.400 was hard to ignore the strange sense of foreboding that 0:07:09.560 --> 0:07:12.040 is wont to arise when you are out in the wilderness, 0:07:12.400 --> 0:07:15.080 with no light to be seen, and even the moon 0:07:15.280 --> 0:07:19.880 declines to reveal itself. Such was the thickness of cloud 0:07:20.280 --> 0:07:22.760 it was difficult even to make out the contours of 0:07:22.800 --> 0:07:26.840 the surrounding fields save for the dark silhouettes of hedgerows 0:07:26.920 --> 0:07:32.480 and trees dotted about like thick, formless shadows. It wasn't 0:07:32.520 --> 0:07:35.560 long before the eerie quietude of the night started to 0:07:35.600 --> 0:07:39.800 gnaw away at her nerves, so much so that Elizabeth 0:07:39.960 --> 0:07:42.920 neglected to take the well trodden shortcut through the field. 0:07:43.640 --> 0:07:46.320 Better to stick to the open country, she thought, than 0:07:46.440 --> 0:07:49.440 venture nearer to the ominous looking woodlands to her left. 0:07:51.320 --> 0:07:54.640 With the temperature dropping even further, Elizabeth and her little 0:07:54.680 --> 0:08:00.320 dog plowed on gallantly towards their destination. Roughly too miles 0:08:00.320 --> 0:08:04.360 from leatherm Elizabeth's dog began to tire, leaving Smith with 0:08:04.440 --> 0:08:06.920 little choice but to pick him up and carry him 0:08:07.040 --> 0:08:12.360 on her shoulders. Less than half a mile later, Smith 0:08:12.600 --> 0:08:15.000 was hugely relieved when she was able to make out 0:08:15.040 --> 0:08:18.600 the distant rise of Dunichen Hill, a clear sign that 0:08:18.680 --> 0:08:22.920 she was almost home. And so it was with little 0:08:22.920 --> 0:08:26.480 surprise when she saw a few small lights in the distance. 0:08:27.520 --> 0:08:32.360 Only there was something odd about them. Firstly, it was strange, 0:08:32.400 --> 0:08:35.320 she thought, why so many lights would be on when 0:08:35.320 --> 0:08:38.800 it was almost two o'clock in the morning. But what 0:08:39.000 --> 0:08:42.960 was perhaps even more unusual was that the lights, unless 0:08:43.000 --> 0:08:48.920 she was mistaken, appeared to be moving. A short time later, 0:08:49.480 --> 0:08:52.720 not only had the number of lights increased dramatically, but 0:08:52.840 --> 0:08:56.040 she soon realized with some surprise that each of the 0:08:56.120 --> 0:08:58.960 lights were being held aloft in the air by strange, 0:08:59.040 --> 0:09:06.079 shadowy figures. The lights were in fact flaming torches being 0:09:06.120 --> 0:09:10.079 held aloft by men wearing dark tunics with roll collars 0:09:10.080 --> 0:09:14.280 and tights. What was also odd was the manner in 0:09:14.320 --> 0:09:18.000 which they were moving. Rather than walking straight across the field, 0:09:18.320 --> 0:09:21.200 they seemed to be skirting in a semicircle around the 0:09:21.240 --> 0:09:26.480 bottom of it. But then the figures disappeared, only to 0:09:26.520 --> 0:09:29.160 be replaced by another set of men in the field 0:09:29.200 --> 0:09:31.720 to her left, who were this time close enough for 0:09:31.760 --> 0:09:35.120 her to notice that the torches seemed to be strangely 0:09:35.200 --> 0:09:40.680 red in color. At this point, Elizabeth's dog, sensing the 0:09:40.679 --> 0:09:45.959 peculiarity of the occasion, began to bark, much to Elizabeth's alarm. 0:09:45.960 --> 0:09:49.520 Trying to ignore the strange men, she hurried on towards home. 0:09:50.160 --> 0:09:58.440 But the most extraordinary vision was yet to come. Not 0:09:58.600 --> 0:10:02.000 long after, a third set of men appeared, even closer 0:10:02.000 --> 0:10:05.280 than the previous groups. She could see them clearly now 0:10:05.400 --> 0:10:08.640 as they made their way through the field, just like before, 0:10:09.000 --> 0:10:13.600 with their burning torches held aloft. But they weren't merely 0:10:13.640 --> 0:10:17.280 marching as she had first thought. This group seemed to 0:10:17.320 --> 0:10:21.080 be moving much more diligently and with purpose throughout the field. 0:10:22.360 --> 0:10:25.319 Elizabeth wondered why it was that they would stop from 0:10:25.360 --> 0:10:28.320 time to time, bringing the torches close to the ground, 0:10:29.160 --> 0:10:32.880 and that was when she saw them. The bloodied corpses 0:10:33.200 --> 0:10:36.840 of the dead. It was as if she had wandered 0:10:36.840 --> 0:10:40.800 into the aftermath of some great and ancient battle. The 0:10:40.840 --> 0:10:45.760 field was littered with them. The men with torches were 0:10:45.800 --> 0:10:49.280 clearly scouring the ground to see if anyone was left alive, 0:10:50.160 --> 0:10:52.800 turning the bodies over in the darkness to check for 0:10:52.880 --> 0:10:57.280 signs of life. Smith and her dog eventually made it 0:10:57.400 --> 0:11:01.319 home safe and sound, but unsurprisingly, the ghosts of those 0:11:01.360 --> 0:11:06.240 dead never truly left her. However, it wasn't until a 0:11:06.280 --> 0:11:09.839 further twenty years later that Smith's account of the extraordinary 0:11:09.840 --> 0:11:14.319 event was formerly recorded. The task was taken up by 0:11:14.360 --> 0:11:17.680 fifty four year old doctor James mc carg, a much 0:11:17.720 --> 0:11:21.840 respected and well loved psychologist and contemporary of Andrew McKenzie 0:11:22.040 --> 0:11:27.360 at the Society for Psychical Research. In the intervening years, 0:11:27.360 --> 0:11:29.920 Smith had come to the realization that what she had 0:11:29.960 --> 0:11:33.240 seen had indeed something to do with an ancient battle 0:11:33.600 --> 0:11:36.200 once fought on the very land she had walked across. 0:11:37.360 --> 0:11:41.400 After spending some considerable time interviewing Smith, mac carg was 0:11:41.480 --> 0:11:44.200 left with little doubt that she had somehow slipped back 0:11:44.240 --> 0:11:47.160 in time and witnessed the aftermath of a brutal and 0:11:47.200 --> 0:11:52.120 bloody battle known as the Battle of Necton's Mere. The 0:11:52.160 --> 0:11:54.880 battle occurred in six hundred and eighty five, a d 0:11:55.480 --> 0:11:59.000 between the Picks, an enigmatic tribal people from what is 0:11:59.040 --> 0:12:02.240 now the north and east of Scotland, and the Northumbrians. 0:12:03.640 --> 0:12:07.959 Fifty years previously, the Kingdom of Northumbria, led by King Edwin, 0:12:08.360 --> 0:12:10.880 had risen to become the most powerful in all of 0:12:10.880 --> 0:12:13.760 the British isles, but by the end of the seventh 0:12:13.760 --> 0:12:18.160 century the kingdom had diminished considerably, thanks largely to the 0:12:18.240 --> 0:12:21.000 disastrous defeat they suffered at the hands of the Picks 0:12:21.280 --> 0:12:27.320 at the Battle of Necton's Mere. McCarg found Smith, who 0:12:27.320 --> 0:12:29.680 at one time had been the president of her local 0:12:29.800 --> 0:12:34.800 women's rural Institute, to be an extremely credible witness, concluding 0:12:35.080 --> 0:12:37.760 that her recollections of the Knight's events were at the 0:12:37.880 --> 0:12:42.000 very least genuine to her, and a few elements of 0:12:42.000 --> 0:12:47.480 the story stood out. In particular, Smith's insistence that the 0:12:47.559 --> 0:12:51.520 torches had been read was puzzling at first, until Andrew 0:12:51.600 --> 0:12:54.400 McKenzie later made a discovery that was believed to have 0:12:54.440 --> 0:12:57.880 not been known by Smith at the time. He discovered 0:12:58.000 --> 0:13:00.800 that torches of that era were often made from the 0:13:00.840 --> 0:13:04.240 resinous roots of Scott's fir, which in their natural state 0:13:04.600 --> 0:13:10.120 do indeed have a distinctive red color. Macag was especially 0:13:10.160 --> 0:13:13.080 intrigued by Smith's description of the movement of the men 0:13:13.440 --> 0:13:16.040 who seemed to be walking in a curve around the field, 0:13:17.160 --> 0:13:20.199 and so it was with some surprise when he discovered 0:13:20.280 --> 0:13:23.280 that back in the seventh century, the field had in 0:13:23.320 --> 0:13:26.080 fact been a small lock that had later been drained 0:13:26.160 --> 0:13:30.960 and turned into farmland. His startling conclusion was that perhaps 0:13:31.040 --> 0:13:34.200 the apparitions had merely been walking around the lock to 0:13:34.280 --> 0:13:38.720 get to their fallen comrades. This revelation, he believed, was 0:13:38.840 --> 0:13:42.520 ultimate proof of Smith's story, since it demonstrated that the 0:13:42.559 --> 0:13:45.560 apparitions must have come from a time before the lock 0:13:45.840 --> 0:13:52.440 had been drained. Are you always taking care of your family? 0:13:52.760 --> 0:13:55.120 Do you often take care of others and not yourself? 0:13:55.760 --> 0:13:58.400 Now it's time to take care of yourself. To make 0:13:58.480 --> 0:14:02.480 time for you, serve it. Teledoc gives you access to 0:14:02.520 --> 0:14:05.440 a licensed therapist to help you get back to feeling 0:14:05.440 --> 0:14:09.720 your best to feeling like yourself again. With teledoc, you 0:14:09.800 --> 0:14:12.559 can speak to a licensed therapist by phone or video. 0:14:13.040 --> 0:14:16.360 Therapy appointments are available seven days a week. From seven 0:14:16.400 --> 0:14:20.160 am to nine pm local time. If you feel overwhelmed 0:14:20.240 --> 0:14:24.800 sometimes maybe you feel stressed or anxious, depressed or lonely, 0:14:25.360 --> 0:14:28.120 or you might be struggling with a personal or family issue, 0:14:28.520 --> 0:14:33.840 teledoc can help. Teledoc is committed to facilitating great therapeutic matches, 0:14:34.160 --> 0:14:36.720 so they make it easy to change counselors if needed. 0:14:36.920 --> 0:14:41.800 For free teledoc therapy is available through most insurance or employers. 0:14:42.560 --> 0:14:46.120 Download the app or visit teledoc dot com forward slash 0:14:46.200 --> 0:14:52.760 Unexplained podcast today to get started. That's teladoc dot com 0:14:52.800 --> 0:15:00.960 slash Unexplained podcast. Our Second Tale take place only seven 0:15:01.040 --> 0:15:04.200 years later in the County of Suffolk, in the southeast 0:15:04.240 --> 0:15:08.040 of England. It is the birthplace of the Infamous, which 0:15:08.040 --> 0:15:11.880 find a General Matthew Hopkins, whose reign of terror in 0:15:11.880 --> 0:15:15.760 the sixteen forties resulted in many local women being murdered 0:15:16.000 --> 0:15:21.880 due to egregious accusations of witchcraft. Nowadays, however, it is 0:15:21.920 --> 0:15:26.560 perhaps better known for its tranquil wetlands and rich arable soil. 0:15:27.760 --> 0:15:30.400 It is a county that echoes with bird song and 0:15:30.520 --> 0:15:33.800 the music of Raye Fawn Williams, a place where the 0:15:33.800 --> 0:15:36.760 earth is as dark and rich as the sky is wide, 0:15:37.720 --> 0:15:41.280 a place perhaps best summed up by W. G. Seaboard's 0:15:41.400 --> 0:15:46.280 exquisite travelog The Rings of Saturn. And so it is 0:15:46.320 --> 0:15:50.240 to that place that we now travel. It is Sunday 0:15:50.240 --> 0:15:56.640 morning in October nineteen fifty seven. Up above the skylarks ascend, chirrup, whistle, 0:15:56.680 --> 0:16:00.400 and shake as below them, three young boys, uipped with 0:16:00.400 --> 0:16:03.280 a map and a compass are steadily making their way 0:16:03.560 --> 0:16:08.400 across the countryside. They are taking part in an orienteering 0:16:08.400 --> 0:16:13.400 exercise organized by the Royal Navy Cadets. The boys, who 0:16:13.480 --> 0:16:17.160 are all fifteen and brand new recruits, are William Lange 0:16:17.320 --> 0:16:21.760 from Perthshire in Scotland, Bray Baker from London, and Michael 0:16:21.800 --> 0:16:26.640 Crowley from the County of Worcestershire. Today their task is 0:16:26.640 --> 0:16:30.520 to locate a specific waypoint, record their findings and then 0:16:30.560 --> 0:16:35.120 returned to base camp to report back to their superiors. Finally, 0:16:35.240 --> 0:16:38.600 after a few miles of trekking, the boys were excitedly 0:16:38.640 --> 0:16:43.320 homing in on their mysterious destination. They had been coming 0:16:43.360 --> 0:16:46.160 up a slight rise when they first heard the sound 0:16:46.400 --> 0:16:50.440 of church bells. As they approached the top of the hill, 0:16:50.600 --> 0:16:53.760 they noticed smoke rising from chimneys and the spire of 0:16:53.800 --> 0:16:58.040 a church towering prominently above a small village. As they 0:16:58.040 --> 0:17:00.400 finally made it over the hill, the rest of the 0:17:00.440 --> 0:17:04.480 small community was revealed to them below, and with the 0:17:04.520 --> 0:17:06.879 boys in agreement that this was indeed where they were 0:17:06.920 --> 0:17:10.479 supposed to be, they continued their journey down into the village. 0:17:11.480 --> 0:17:16.280 But as they got nearer, something very peculiar happened. Part 0:17:16.320 --> 0:17:19.360 Way into the village was a small stream that flowed 0:17:19.520 --> 0:17:23.760 over the road. As they approached it, they became aware 0:17:23.880 --> 0:17:28.320 that something wasn't quite right. It was Michael who noticed 0:17:28.359 --> 0:17:34.919 it first, the silence. Only moments ago, the church bells 0:17:34.920 --> 0:17:37.479 had been ringing and the sound of bird's song had 0:17:37.560 --> 0:17:40.800 filled the air, But now, as they entered the village, 0:17:41.240 --> 0:17:44.879 the place was eerily silent, save for the gentle trickling 0:17:45.160 --> 0:17:49.439 of the stream. As they carried on over the ford, 0:17:49.920 --> 0:17:53.880 William noted that even the ducks seemed unmoved by their arrival, 0:17:54.920 --> 0:17:58.040 and as for any sign of people, the place was 0:17:58.080 --> 0:18:02.159 completely deserted. It was then that they noticed the trees. 0:18:03.560 --> 0:18:06.240 Only a few minutes earlier, they were surrounded by a 0:18:06.280 --> 0:18:10.720 countryside decorated with the reddish golden browns of autumnal leaves, 0:18:11.640 --> 0:18:13.840 but the leaves on the trees in the village were 0:18:13.880 --> 0:18:18.600 anything but. Here, the leaves appeared to be vibrantly green, 0:18:19.280 --> 0:18:23.960 almost as if it were springtime. As the boys walked on, 0:18:24.520 --> 0:18:28.800 a strange picture was beginning to emerge. All of the 0:18:28.880 --> 0:18:32.320 houses looked as if they were from another age, hand 0:18:32.359 --> 0:18:37.360 built and slightly crooked in design. Some were timber framed, 0:18:37.800 --> 0:18:43.600 and others looked positively medieval. Looking around, they saw no 0:18:43.640 --> 0:18:46.600 sign of street lights or even aerials on the houses. 0:18:47.440 --> 0:18:50.480 There was also no smoke coming from the chimneys as 0:18:50.480 --> 0:18:54.400 they had seen before entering the village, and absolutely no 0:18:54.480 --> 0:18:57.359 sign of the church that had been so visible from 0:18:57.400 --> 0:19:02.400 the hill. What's more, the wind had completely dropped, with 0:19:02.440 --> 0:19:06.040 not even the leaves rustling in the trees, and there 0:19:06.119 --> 0:19:12.199 was no sign of anybody anywhere. The boys made their 0:19:12.200 --> 0:19:14.760 way over to a building with a green door and 0:19:14.840 --> 0:19:18.160 a large front window split into smaller panes that had 0:19:18.160 --> 0:19:22.280 not been washed in some time. They pressed their noses 0:19:22.320 --> 0:19:27.879 to the glass. Just like the rest of the village, 0:19:28.080 --> 0:19:31.760 the shop was deserted, but at the back of the room, 0:19:31.800 --> 0:19:35.680 hanging on meat hooks were the skinned carcasses of three 0:19:36.040 --> 0:19:40.440 large cows. The meat green and moldy, having long ago 0:19:40.560 --> 0:19:45.080 turned putrid. Unnerved by what they had seen, and somewhat 0:19:45.080 --> 0:19:48.320 in a daze, the boys soon found themselves staring through 0:19:48.359 --> 0:19:51.840 the window of another building, but again found no sign 0:19:51.880 --> 0:19:56.600 of life inside, the rooms completely emptied of all furniture. 0:19:58.560 --> 0:20:01.439 Ray and Michael suggested did knocking on some of the doors, 0:20:01.880 --> 0:20:06.200 but William refused to move. Ever since entering the village, 0:20:06.400 --> 0:20:09.879 a strange feeling had fallen over him. It was an 0:20:09.920 --> 0:20:14.800 overwhelming sense of sadness and the unmistakable sensation that they 0:20:14.800 --> 0:20:20.760 were being watched by unseen and unfriendly eyes. The three 0:20:20.760 --> 0:20:23.679 boys hurriedly made their way back up the track to 0:20:23.720 --> 0:20:27.199 the top of the hill. Finally satisfied that they had 0:20:27.200 --> 0:20:30.760 reached a safe distance, the boys turned back and were 0:20:30.800 --> 0:20:33.480 amazed to find the village just as they had seen 0:20:33.520 --> 0:20:37.400 it before. The smoke was again rising from the chimneys, 0:20:37.760 --> 0:20:42.040 and the church spire stood tall and proud. The autumnal 0:20:42.080 --> 0:20:45.760 colors had returned to the trees, and once more the 0:20:45.840 --> 0:20:48.720 sound of the bells and bird song could be heard 0:20:49.000 --> 0:20:54.199 all around a short time later, the boys returned to 0:20:54.240 --> 0:20:58.120 base camp and relayed their experiences to their skeptical superiors. 0:20:59.280 --> 0:21:03.560 Despite their baffling description, the petty officers confirmed the boys 0:21:03.600 --> 0:21:08.160 had indeed reached their designated waypoint. What they had supposedly 0:21:08.160 --> 0:21:13.520 seen was the picturesque village of Cursey. It wasn't until 0:21:13.600 --> 0:21:17.440 thirty years later that Michael Crowley and William Lange, who 0:21:17.480 --> 0:21:21.600 by then were both living in Australia, contacted McKenzie and 0:21:21.720 --> 0:21:27.760 relayed their extraordinary story. A few years later, McKenzie revisited 0:21:27.800 --> 0:21:31.080 the village with Lange, and together they retraced just what 0:21:31.240 --> 0:21:35.720 exactly had occurred that day, Much like doctor mc hark 0:21:35.760 --> 0:21:39.960 had been with Miss Smith in Scotland. McKenzie was impressed 0:21:40.000 --> 0:21:43.399 by Lange's sincerity and the detail of his description of 0:21:43.440 --> 0:21:48.240 the events. McKenzie ultimately came to the conclusion that what 0:21:48.359 --> 0:21:51.639 the boys had experienced was not the Cursey of nineteen 0:21:51.680 --> 0:21:54.960 fifty seven, but rather the village as it had been 0:21:55.240 --> 0:22:00.160 in the fourteen twenties in the aftermath of the Great Plague. 0:22:04.560 --> 0:22:07.399 Is it really possible that both the young Cadets and 0:22:07.520 --> 0:22:11.200 Elizabeth Smith, and anyone else for that matter, could slip 0:22:11.280 --> 0:22:16.600 unwittingly into another time? Perhaps not in the manner suggested 0:22:16.680 --> 0:22:20.320 by McKenzie, but in two thousand and eleven, one man 0:22:20.600 --> 0:22:23.240 was to make a remarkable claim that we might all, 0:22:23.280 --> 0:22:26.679 in a sense be slipping in and out of time constantly. 0:22:28.040 --> 0:22:30.960 In March of that year, a paper was published in 0:22:31.000 --> 0:22:35.600 the Journal of Personality and Psychology titled Feeling the Future 0:22:36.000 --> 0:22:42.120 Experimental Evidence for Anomalous Retroactive Influences on Cognition and Effect. 0:22:43.440 --> 0:22:46.800 It had been written by a brilliant but controversial social 0:22:46.800 --> 0:22:51.840 psychologist of Cornell University in the States called Professor Daryl Bemm. 0:22:53.200 --> 0:22:56.440 The paper was extraordinary from its opening line to its 0:22:56.480 --> 0:23:01.080 mind boggling conclusion. After all, it isn't often that a 0:23:01.119 --> 0:23:04.399 paper published in an elite journal begins with a definition 0:23:04.440 --> 0:23:08.399 of PSI, which he described as the anomalous processes of 0:23:08.520 --> 0:23:12.920 information or energy transfer that are currently unexplained in terms 0:23:12.920 --> 0:23:17.080 of known physical or biological mechanisms. It is even more 0:23:17.119 --> 0:23:19.560 of a rarity that a paper would then go on 0:23:19.640 --> 0:23:25.240 to prove that such phenomena, an area most associated with telepathy, clairvoyance, 0:23:25.520 --> 0:23:31.960 and psychokinesis, might actually be real. The paper presented the 0:23:31.960 --> 0:23:36.200 results from a number of experiments involving over one thousand volunteers. 0:23:37.160 --> 0:23:40.199 One such test was to have the volunteers study a 0:23:40.240 --> 0:23:42.560 list of words, from which they would later be asked 0:23:42.640 --> 0:23:45.520 to try and recall as many of the words as possible. 0:23:46.880 --> 0:23:50.400 Having completed this part of the experiment, the volunteers were 0:23:50.400 --> 0:23:53.000 then given random words from the list that they were 0:23:53.040 --> 0:23:59.440 then asked to type out as a counterintuitive act of reinforcement. Incredibly, 0:23:59.680 --> 0:24:03.480 ben results seemed to suggest a direct correlation between the 0:24:03.520 --> 0:24:06.280 words that the students had been able to recall and 0:24:06.359 --> 0:24:08.800 the words that they were later asked to type out. 0:24:09.680 --> 0:24:12.639 In essence, Bem had turned the notion of cause and 0:24:12.680 --> 0:24:18.439 effect completely on its head. In another test, volunteers were 0:24:18.440 --> 0:24:22.000 shown two curtain graphics on a computer screen, behind one 0:24:22.000 --> 0:24:26.640 of which was a highly stimulant, erotic image. The volunteers 0:24:26.720 --> 0:24:30.439 were then tasked with selecting correctly which curtain hid the 0:24:30.480 --> 0:24:35.760 image completely. Random guesses would return a roughly fifty percent 0:24:35.920 --> 0:24:40.720 success rate, but amazingly, Professor Bem recorded a fifty three 0:24:40.760 --> 0:24:45.159 point one success rate. The difference may sound minimal, but 0:24:45.320 --> 0:24:50.680 in statistical terms, it is dramatically significant. What Bem's paper 0:24:50.760 --> 0:24:53.600 seemed to be saying was that everything we thought we 0:24:53.680 --> 0:24:59.840 knew about the unidirectional nature of time was a fallacy. 0:25:00.200 --> 0:25:04.639 Before long, however, there were suspicious rumblings amongst the scientific community. 0:25:05.880 --> 0:25:10.040 Questions were asked about the validity of Bem's methodology and 0:25:10.119 --> 0:25:13.000 the lack of any other findings that might link with 0:25:13.119 --> 0:25:19.080 Bem's extraordinary claims, and ultimately, what distinguishes scientific theory from 0:25:19.119 --> 0:25:24.920 fact is the reproducibility of the results. In two thousand 0:25:24.920 --> 0:25:30.000 and twelve, psychologists Stuart Ritchie, Richard Wiseman, and Chris French 0:25:30.400 --> 0:25:35.200 of the Universities of Edinburgh, Hertfordshire and Goldsmith's respectively made 0:25:35.240 --> 0:25:40.760 an unsuccessful attempt to replicate Professor Bem's findings. Their attempts 0:25:40.840 --> 0:25:43.960 were repeated in the same year by Jeff Gallick of 0:25:44.080 --> 0:25:49.400 Carnegie Mellon University, who also failed to replicate Professor Bem's results. 0:25:50.920 --> 0:25:53.680 It remains to be seen whether Bem's findings will gain 0:25:53.720 --> 0:25:59.200 a wider credibility. For what its worth, Bem stands resolutely 0:25:59.359 --> 0:26:11.160 by his fine one perhaps more rational, but in some 0:26:11.200 --> 0:26:14.720 ways no less extraordinary. Explanation for the bizarre accounts of 0:26:14.760 --> 0:26:18.840 Elizabeth Smith and the Three Cadets is a phenomenon known 0:26:18.880 --> 0:26:23.399 as derealization. The experience is thought to be brought on 0:26:23.680 --> 0:26:27.520 by a dysfunction in the occipital or temporal lobe of 0:26:27.560 --> 0:26:31.760 the brain. The condition can often leave sufferers with a 0:26:31.800 --> 0:26:36.720 sense of disassociation from the external world, whereby familiar places 0:26:37.119 --> 0:26:42.399 suddenly become alien and surreal. Regardless of whether such a 0:26:42.440 --> 0:26:46.359 condition had afflicted Smith or the young boys, the suggestion 0:26:46.600 --> 0:26:50.199 brings to mind an intriguing concept that I believe strikes 0:26:50.240 --> 0:26:52.840 at the heart of our fascination with the notion of 0:26:52.880 --> 0:26:58.320 traveling back in time. The term horntology was coined by 0:26:58.320 --> 0:27:02.000 French philosopher Jacques Reader in his nineteen ninety three book 0:27:02.440 --> 0:27:05.680 Specters of Mars, The State of the Debt, the Work 0:27:05.720 --> 0:27:09.920 of Mourning, and the New International. The word is a 0:27:10.000 --> 0:27:15.000 portmanteau of the words haunting and ontology, the philosophical study 0:27:15.160 --> 0:27:19.159 of the nature of being. For Derida, the term is 0:27:19.240 --> 0:27:23.639 essentially a play on the temporality of ideas, or more precisely, 0:27:24.080 --> 0:27:28.639 the impossibility of eradicating knowledge or ideas, in this case, 0:27:28.840 --> 0:27:32.439 as they would pertain to Marxist philosophy. Once they have 0:27:32.520 --> 0:27:37.280 been conceived, from the moment they exist, they remain forever 0:27:37.560 --> 0:27:41.400 a part of our collective knowledge, haunting our perception of 0:27:41.400 --> 0:27:46.320 both the past and the future. The implication being that 0:27:46.359 --> 0:27:49.840 only by returning to a time before the idea could 0:27:49.880 --> 0:27:55.280 we hope to imagine an alternate future unshaped by that idea. 0:27:55.400 --> 0:27:58.359 And it is this that I believe most resonates with 0:27:58.440 --> 0:28:02.439 us when fantasizing about the possibility of traveling back in time. 0:28:03.760 --> 0:28:06.479 Not the fantasy that we might exist in a different 0:28:06.560 --> 0:28:10.280