1 00:00:01,680 --> 00:00:04,840 Speaker 1: Strange Arrivals is a production of I Heard Radio and 2 00:00:04,960 --> 00:00:08,680 Speaker 1: Grim and Mild from Aaron Mackey. For the best experience, 3 00:00:09,240 --> 00:00:21,160 Speaker 1: listen with headphones. It's around a year and a half 4 00:00:21,200 --> 00:00:24,919 Speaker 1: ago now. My kids at the time were six and eight, 5 00:00:25,520 --> 00:00:28,920 Speaker 1: and this was during the lockdown restrictions in the UK, 6 00:00:29,160 --> 00:00:33,120 Speaker 1: so no parents could go into school grounds. Coincidentally, at 7 00:00:33,120 --> 00:00:37,080 Speaker 1: the school did this exercise. It's an English language exercise 8 00:00:37,400 --> 00:00:42,080 Speaker 1: where schools will present some kind of intriguing mystery and 9 00:00:42,320 --> 00:00:44,879 Speaker 1: they will have the children view the mystery and then 10 00:00:44,880 --> 00:00:48,040 Speaker 1: write about it later. I think they did another one previously, 11 00:00:48,080 --> 00:00:51,000 Speaker 1: which was a detective story. So the kids would arrive 12 00:00:51,040 --> 00:00:53,159 Speaker 1: at school and they'd go into a classroom and there 13 00:00:53,159 --> 00:00:57,840 Speaker 1: would be police tape and upturned chair and maybe some 14 00:00:58,120 --> 00:01:00,480 Speaker 1: documents scattered on the floor or something like. They said 15 00:01:00,480 --> 00:01:03,720 Speaker 1: of this kind of crime scene. They'd take the Georgian in, 16 00:01:03,960 --> 00:01:06,160 Speaker 1: they'd let them view it in a kind of structured way, 17 00:01:06,520 --> 00:01:08,640 Speaker 1: and then they'd take them away and ask them to 18 00:01:08,680 --> 00:01:10,960 Speaker 1: write about what they had seen, and to try and 19 00:01:11,240 --> 00:01:13,720 Speaker 1: kind of infer from what they had seen what they 20 00:01:13,760 --> 00:01:16,360 Speaker 1: thought might ha happened. The thing that got me thinking 21 00:01:16,360 --> 00:01:19,520 Speaker 1: about the Aerial School was when they staged this crashed 22 00:01:19,600 --> 00:01:23,240 Speaker 1: u e volte because it was during the restrictions on Luvelent. 23 00:01:23,720 --> 00:01:25,960 Speaker 1: None of the parents, apart from the parents who were 24 00:01:26,040 --> 00:01:28,840 Speaker 1: in on the hoax, if you like, had seen the 25 00:01:28,880 --> 00:01:32,560 Speaker 1: actual crash. Side kind of fascinating because I couldn't verify 26 00:01:32,600 --> 00:01:35,600 Speaker 1: anything of what they were saying, and none of the 27 00:01:35,640 --> 00:01:37,880 Speaker 1: other parents could tell me about it because no one 28 00:01:37,880 --> 00:01:40,559 Speaker 1: else knew about it. It It was just something that school did. 29 00:01:41,160 --> 00:01:43,280 Speaker 1: It was all very confusing like that. All of the 30 00:01:43,319 --> 00:01:45,360 Speaker 1: stories that I got back from both of them, because 31 00:01:45,360 --> 00:01:48,000 Speaker 1: they were slightly different ages six and eight, I saw 32 00:01:48,040 --> 00:01:51,480 Speaker 1: like a variation in how they reported it back to me. 33 00:01:51,920 --> 00:01:54,520 Speaker 1: They had all of these stories about this device that 34 00:01:54,560 --> 00:01:57,559 Speaker 1: had crashed in the school grounds. There was talk about 35 00:01:57,880 --> 00:02:01,720 Speaker 1: green goop charred like wreck, like a trail where the 36 00:02:01,840 --> 00:02:05,280 Speaker 1: thing had come into the playground. The younger one, my daughter, 37 00:02:05,720 --> 00:02:08,360 Speaker 1: was talking about an alien. Apparently there was like a 38 00:02:08,440 --> 00:02:10,400 Speaker 1: ruler that there was an alien going around the school, 39 00:02:10,720 --> 00:02:13,320 Speaker 1: but she hadn't actually seen it. My son give a 40 00:02:13,440 --> 00:02:17,359 Speaker 1: much more kind of detailed description and drawing, But when 41 00:02:17,400 --> 00:02:19,639 Speaker 1: I talked to him and asked him to describe it, 42 00:02:19,720 --> 00:02:23,160 Speaker 1: I hadn't seen the actual photograph of the object. I'd 43 00:02:23,160 --> 00:02:26,280 Speaker 1: only found that picture afterwards, and it was interesting to 44 00:02:26,320 --> 00:02:28,440 Speaker 1: see what he got right about it and what he 45 00:02:29,120 --> 00:02:31,600 Speaker 1: didn't get right about it, But just got me thinking 46 00:02:31,639 --> 00:02:35,600 Speaker 1: about how children recall things, like how perceptive they are, 47 00:02:35,840 --> 00:02:39,120 Speaker 1: like my son's in articulate bride kid, but he still 48 00:02:39,200 --> 00:02:42,120 Speaker 1: got some things wrong about what he'd seen, and they 49 00:02:42,200 --> 00:02:44,679 Speaker 1: really just made me think, because I had heard about 50 00:02:44,720 --> 00:02:47,920 Speaker 1: the Aerial School story previously, and I would read something 51 00:02:47,960 --> 00:02:50,920 Speaker 1: about it every now and again, but there wasn't any 52 00:02:51,400 --> 00:02:55,080 Speaker 1: very good solution. There wasn't very many good arguments about 53 00:02:55,120 --> 00:02:58,480 Speaker 1: what it was. It just always seemed like too shrouded 54 00:02:58,480 --> 00:03:08,600 Speaker 1: in mystery. I'm Toby Ball and this is Strange Arrivals, 55 00:03:18,160 --> 00:03:30,600 Speaker 1: Episode three Puppets. In season two of Strange Arrivals, we 56 00:03:30,760 --> 00:03:35,000 Speaker 1: examined how UFO folklore is created through a process involving 57 00:03:35,080 --> 00:03:39,320 Speaker 1: competing explanations of a UFO event, and it seems to 58 00:03:39,360 --> 00:03:42,160 Speaker 1: me that the Aerial School encounter is currently in the 59 00:03:42,200 --> 00:03:46,360 Speaker 1: early phase of this dynamic. Though the encounter occurred thirty 60 00:03:46,440 --> 00:03:50,240 Speaker 1: years ago, the details are just now reaching a large audience, 61 00:03:50,760 --> 00:03:55,200 Speaker 1: mostly through James Fox's twenty twenty film The Phenomenon. They 62 00:03:55,200 --> 00:03:59,640 Speaker 1: were trying to communicate trying to tell us something. Randal 63 00:03:59,800 --> 00:04:05,200 Speaker 1: Nick since twenty two film Aerial Phenomenon. This journey is 64 00:04:05,280 --> 00:04:08,240 Speaker 1: literally to pick up to pieces and put them back 65 00:04:08,280 --> 00:04:12,160 Speaker 1: together in any number of podcasts. So as we look 66 00:04:12,160 --> 00:04:15,960 Speaker 1: at the aerial school students accounts of their encounter, keep 67 00:04:15,960 --> 00:04:19,720 Speaker 1: in mind that the process of proposing and evaluating alternative 68 00:04:19,800 --> 00:04:25,920 Speaker 1: explanations for what the student saw is just underway. Basically, 69 00:04:26,000 --> 00:04:28,000 Speaker 1: what we're trying to do is we're trying to establish 70 00:04:28,000 --> 00:04:31,040 Speaker 1: a standard of evidence for UFO cases so we can 71 00:04:31,080 --> 00:04:33,960 Speaker 1: find ones that stand up to scrutiny and separate out 72 00:04:34,000 --> 00:04:37,520 Speaker 1: the ones that don't. And this one was among the 73 00:04:37,600 --> 00:04:41,839 Speaker 1: vast majority of cases that are supported only by horrible, 74 00:04:41,920 --> 00:04:46,400 Speaker 1: horrible evidence and no decent evidence. I'm Brian Dudding. I'm 75 00:04:46,400 --> 00:04:49,400 Speaker 1: probably best known as the host of the Skeptoid podcast. 76 00:04:49,520 --> 00:04:53,520 Speaker 1: Since two thousand and six, you've heard Brian on each 77 00:04:53,520 --> 00:04:56,840 Speaker 1: of the first two seasons of Strange Arrivals on a 78 00:04:56,960 --> 00:05:00,560 Speaker 1: Skeptoid podcast. He has covered hundreds of cases of the 79 00:05:00,640 --> 00:05:07,680 Speaker 1: mysterious and allegedly paranormal. Generally, the conclusion from the scientists 80 00:05:07,720 --> 00:05:11,200 Speaker 1: in Africa is that this was one of a very 81 00:05:11,279 --> 00:05:15,479 Speaker 1: common phenomenon in African schools. Of mass hysteria. And you know, 82 00:05:15,520 --> 00:05:18,719 Speaker 1: mass hysteria is a very unfortunately named phenomenon because it 83 00:05:18,800 --> 00:05:21,880 Speaker 1: sounds like it means people running around screaming and waving 84 00:05:21,880 --> 00:05:26,120 Speaker 1: their arms and acting hysterically, but it's not. In a 85 00:05:26,200 --> 00:05:31,080 Speaker 1: twenty eleven article for the Malawi Medical journal Research Psychologists, 86 00:05:31,080 --> 00:05:35,520 Speaker 1: Demobili Kukota includes the aerial school incident in a list 87 00:05:35,560 --> 00:05:39,920 Speaker 1: of cases of mass hysteria in African schools. He defines 88 00:05:40,000 --> 00:05:44,599 Speaker 1: mass hysteria as quote, a situation in which various people 89 00:05:44,760 --> 00:05:49,440 Speaker 1: all suffer from similar, unexplained symptoms. He also talks about 90 00:05:49,560 --> 00:05:55,560 Speaker 1: hysterical contagion, which he writes quote consists of quick dissemination 91 00:05:55,760 --> 00:05:58,599 Speaker 1: within a collection of people of a symptom or a 92 00:05:58,680 --> 00:06:02,560 Speaker 1: set of symptoms which no physical explanation can be found. 93 00:06:03,600 --> 00:06:10,640 Speaker 1: The article lists cases that occurred in South Africa, Tanzania, Malawi, Zimbabwe, Zambia, 94 00:06:10,680 --> 00:06:14,359 Speaker 1: and Uganda, but there's a difference between the aerial encounter 95 00:06:14,600 --> 00:06:18,040 Speaker 1: and the others described in the article. The other occurrences 96 00:06:18,080 --> 00:06:22,080 Speaker 1: all involve either physical effects such as itching, fainting, or 97 00:06:22,160 --> 00:06:27,719 Speaker 1: uncontrolled laughing, or strong psychological effects such as aggression and hallucinations. 98 00:06:28,279 --> 00:06:33,719 Speaker 1: Here's an example, also from Zimbabwe. In two thousand and nine, 99 00:06:33,760 --> 00:06:38,120 Speaker 1: a suspected case of mass hysteria struck Namanua Primary School 100 00:06:38,279 --> 00:06:43,279 Speaker 1: in Massavingo, Zimbabwe, where pupils were reportedly screaming wildly and 101 00:06:43,400 --> 00:06:48,679 Speaker 1: complaining of visions of strange snakelike creatures and lions. Teachers 102 00:06:48,720 --> 00:06:52,599 Speaker 1: said on average six pupils were affected every day. Some 103 00:06:52,720 --> 00:06:56,320 Speaker 1: of the pupils would collapse, scream or tell of visions 104 00:06:56,400 --> 00:07:01,120 Speaker 1: of snakes, lions, hyenas and crocodiles. Well others would behave 105 00:07:01,240 --> 00:07:04,320 Speaker 1: as if they were in a trance. The development forced 106 00:07:04,360 --> 00:07:08,400 Speaker 1: the authorities to dispatch passers to conduct prayer sessions at 107 00:07:08,440 --> 00:07:13,120 Speaker 1: the school. A reverend involved with this effort blame the 108 00:07:13,200 --> 00:07:17,640 Speaker 1: hysteria on quote evil spirits and demons and reported that 109 00:07:17,720 --> 00:07:21,560 Speaker 1: all had returned to normal. In the case of the 110 00:07:21,640 --> 00:07:26,160 Speaker 1: aerial school, I'm not entirely convinced by the mass hysteria hypothesis. 111 00:07:26,680 --> 00:07:29,480 Speaker 1: It really stands out in the articles being quite different 112 00:07:29,520 --> 00:07:32,800 Speaker 1: from the other examples. The aerial students don't have the 113 00:07:32,880 --> 00:07:36,760 Speaker 1: same psychological or physical reactions as the children in the 114 00:07:36,800 --> 00:07:41,280 Speaker 1: other cases. But as we explored last episode, the way 115 00:07:41,280 --> 00:07:45,040 Speaker 1: that the investigation was conducted into what did happen was 116 00:07:45,160 --> 00:07:49,760 Speaker 1: not conducive to getting to the truth. They had some 117 00:07:50,360 --> 00:07:55,000 Speaker 1: very deeply motivated UFO writers come and do this group 118 00:07:55,120 --> 00:07:58,040 Speaker 1: story sharing among the kids and sort of form this 119 00:07:58,240 --> 00:08:01,000 Speaker 1: narrative as a group, and kind of why we have 120 00:08:01,280 --> 00:08:04,880 Speaker 1: these recorded stories. There's no worse way to collect evidence 121 00:08:04,880 --> 00:08:07,400 Speaker 1: than to do kind of a group story sharing session 122 00:08:07,760 --> 00:08:11,560 Speaker 1: where everyone starts bringing up their recollections and then the 123 00:08:11,680 --> 00:08:14,360 Speaker 1: UFO author was acting as sort of a moderator and 124 00:08:14,600 --> 00:08:17,360 Speaker 1: collecting the story and forming it as it went. That's 125 00:08:17,400 --> 00:08:20,640 Speaker 1: not how you collect evidence to find out what actually happened, 126 00:08:21,160 --> 00:08:24,760 Speaker 1: and so we're left really only with the UFO author's 127 00:08:25,040 --> 00:08:28,120 Speaker 1: sort of interpretations and their preferred version of what they 128 00:08:28,120 --> 00:08:32,400 Speaker 1: think happens to these kits. Dunning points out that who 129 00:08:32,640 --> 00:08:37,080 Speaker 1: is doing the investigation is also important. With any investigation, 130 00:08:37,480 --> 00:08:40,400 Speaker 1: the ideal is to have someone who is objective and 131 00:08:40,559 --> 00:08:44,800 Speaker 1: interested only in determining the facts of the incident. This was, 132 00:08:44,840 --> 00:08:49,400 Speaker 1: of course not the case at Aerial School of Cynthia Hind. 133 00:08:49,679 --> 00:08:53,640 Speaker 1: He says, you would do it by someone who is objective. 134 00:08:53,679 --> 00:08:56,480 Speaker 1: You certainly wouldn't do it by someone who's actively writing 135 00:08:56,520 --> 00:08:59,120 Speaker 1: a book about how aliens are visiting the Earth. So 136 00:08:59,160 --> 00:09:02,000 Speaker 1: I mean They had the worst possible person interviewing the kids, 137 00:09:02,440 --> 00:09:04,880 Speaker 1: and they did it in the worst possible way. So 138 00:09:05,040 --> 00:09:06,800 Speaker 1: I mean, really, there's no way to go back and 139 00:09:06,840 --> 00:09:10,920 Speaker 1: find out if anything did happen. Another issue that Dunning 140 00:09:10,960 --> 00:09:13,480 Speaker 1: seizes on is that most of the students on the 141 00:09:13,480 --> 00:09:17,079 Speaker 1: playground that day did not, in fact see anything unusual. 142 00:09:17,480 --> 00:09:20,480 Speaker 1: Only sixty three of the more than two hundred students 143 00:09:20,600 --> 00:09:25,240 Speaker 1: reported seeing the UFO or the strange beings. You never 144 00:09:25,360 --> 00:09:28,360 Speaker 1: hear about the vast majority of the kids in the 145 00:09:28,360 --> 00:09:33,000 Speaker 1: playground who said nothing happened, and who wouldn't say that, no, 146 00:09:33,240 --> 00:09:35,439 Speaker 1: there was no spaceship. I'm sorry, I'm not going to 147 00:09:35,520 --> 00:09:39,920 Speaker 1: go on board with that story. Finally, Dunning mentions that 148 00:09:40,000 --> 00:09:44,120 Speaker 1: some biases and misconceptions about Africa are sometimes used to 149 00:09:44,160 --> 00:09:48,199 Speaker 1: bolster the case. An element that's often reported is that 150 00:09:48,520 --> 00:09:52,520 Speaker 1: this is some rural African school and these were poor 151 00:09:52,559 --> 00:09:55,240 Speaker 1: African children in the middle of the country and they 152 00:09:55,240 --> 00:09:58,520 Speaker 1: had no prior knowledge of aliens or UFOs or anything 153 00:09:58,600 --> 00:10:01,120 Speaker 1: like that, and that woudn't be further from the truth 154 00:10:01,160 --> 00:10:05,800 Speaker 1: at all. Aerial School was, as we have seen, an 155 00:10:05,800 --> 00:10:10,400 Speaker 1: expensive private school that largely catered to wealthier Zimbabweans. Many 156 00:10:10,480 --> 00:10:15,160 Speaker 1: from Harari, which was a large modern African city, and 157 00:10:15,280 --> 00:10:18,240 Speaker 1: of course they'd seen all the movies with UFOs, and 158 00:10:18,320 --> 00:10:20,719 Speaker 1: it's been pointed out that that's why the drawings that 159 00:10:20,800 --> 00:10:23,559 Speaker 1: they made of the spaceship, why they all looked just 160 00:10:23,720 --> 00:10:27,960 Speaker 1: exactly like the stereotypical flying saucer with the footpads and 161 00:10:27,960 --> 00:10:30,200 Speaker 1: the little bump on top and the little aliens getting 162 00:10:30,240 --> 00:10:33,280 Speaker 1: out and standing on it. The pictures all look very stereotypical, 163 00:10:33,440 --> 00:10:35,679 Speaker 1: and that's because these kids had the same modern experience 164 00:10:35,679 --> 00:10:40,000 Speaker 1: as anyone else with UFOs and aliens in the media. 165 00:10:40,120 --> 00:10:43,320 Speaker 1: So if we agree with dunning strong misgivings about the 166 00:10:43,360 --> 00:10:46,960 Speaker 1: investigation and have doubts that the aerial students saw an 167 00:10:47,000 --> 00:10:53,320 Speaker 1: actual alien craft, what did they see? As I said before, 168 00:10:53,960 --> 00:10:57,760 Speaker 1: UFO researchers are still in the early stages of developing 169 00:10:57,840 --> 00:11:02,800 Speaker 1: alternative theories about what happened, But an especially interesting theory 170 00:11:03,080 --> 00:11:06,320 Speaker 1: has been put forward by researcher and writer Gideon Reid, 171 00:11:06,600 --> 00:11:09,280 Speaker 1: who you heard of the opening of this episode, and 172 00:11:09,440 --> 00:11:14,400 Speaker 1: it involves puppets. Trust me, it's more compelling than it sounds. 173 00:11:15,320 --> 00:11:21,960 Speaker 1: After the break, strange arrivals will return in a moment. 174 00:11:35,880 --> 00:11:39,920 Speaker 1: It's a very difficult encounter to kind of unpack, And 175 00:11:40,040 --> 00:11:43,320 Speaker 1: what I was trying to do was to look at 176 00:11:43,400 --> 00:11:45,920 Speaker 1: what the most spontaneous things were that are in the 177 00:11:45,960 --> 00:11:49,720 Speaker 1: testimony and try and see them as clearly as possible 178 00:11:49,920 --> 00:11:55,120 Speaker 1: through all of the confusion and possible outside bias from 179 00:11:55,160 --> 00:11:58,440 Speaker 1: the people that were interviewing the children, and to just 180 00:11:58,559 --> 00:12:01,520 Speaker 1: try and imagine in a way while they could have been, 181 00:12:01,559 --> 00:12:05,760 Speaker 1: and then to try and find a real world clausibility. 182 00:12:06,480 --> 00:12:11,000 Speaker 1: This is Gideon Read on his blog gideer one dot com. 183 00:12:11,000 --> 00:12:13,400 Speaker 1: He's put forth a theory about the truth behind the 184 00:12:13,440 --> 00:12:18,920 Speaker 1: aerial school encounter that is both unusual and compelling. So 185 00:12:19,200 --> 00:12:20,920 Speaker 1: you know, I'm not saying that I think that this 186 00:12:21,000 --> 00:12:24,040 Speaker 1: is definitely what happened, but I found it really interesting 187 00:12:24,040 --> 00:12:26,760 Speaker 1: that when I was researching this, it seemed like a 188 00:12:26,800 --> 00:12:30,800 Speaker 1: fairly novel idea that no one else had really gone 189 00:12:30,840 --> 00:12:32,880 Speaker 1: down the root of the same degree that I had. 190 00:12:34,320 --> 00:12:38,240 Speaker 1: Unlike Brian Dunning and Demobili Kakoda, Read starts with the 191 00:12:38,280 --> 00:12:42,280 Speaker 1: assumption that the students did in fact see something, that 192 00:12:42,400 --> 00:12:46,920 Speaker 1: this was not simply a case of mass hysteria. They 193 00:12:46,920 --> 00:12:52,040 Speaker 1: all seemed really bright, really articulate, really self possessed, really truthful. 194 00:12:52,440 --> 00:12:55,680 Speaker 1: There's nothing in what I could see of those entries 195 00:12:55,800 --> 00:12:59,640 Speaker 1: that indicates any kind of prank they're playing, and it 196 00:13:00,080 --> 00:13:02,199 Speaker 1: he just got me thinking, what is it that these 197 00:13:02,280 --> 00:13:07,000 Speaker 1: kids saw them? Because they obviously saw something, but I 198 00:13:07,040 --> 00:13:10,360 Speaker 1: think the narrative or the interpretation of what they had 199 00:13:10,400 --> 00:13:13,880 Speaker 1: seen has been affected by outside voices, if you like. 200 00:13:15,520 --> 00:13:18,480 Speaker 1: Reid was doing his research while England and the rest 201 00:13:18,520 --> 00:13:22,480 Speaker 1: of the world was under COVID restrictions. During this time, 202 00:13:22,720 --> 00:13:25,840 Speaker 1: he became interested in making puppets for his kids to 203 00:13:25,880 --> 00:13:29,240 Speaker 1: play with, so he was doing research into puppet making 204 00:13:29,520 --> 00:13:32,520 Speaker 1: and watching them engage in creative play with the puppets. 205 00:13:33,200 --> 00:13:35,920 Speaker 1: At the same time, he was also thinking about Aerial 206 00:13:36,080 --> 00:13:40,199 Speaker 1: school and what could explain what happened there. Just all 207 00:13:40,200 --> 00:13:42,720 Speaker 1: of a sudden, these two things kind of connected in 208 00:13:42,760 --> 00:13:44,680 Speaker 1: a funny kind of way, Like I was thinking about 209 00:13:44,760 --> 00:13:46,840 Speaker 1: aerial school in the background, I was thinking about the 210 00:13:46,880 --> 00:13:50,000 Speaker 1: hoax thing and my kids primary school. I was thinking 211 00:13:50,000 --> 00:13:51,760 Speaker 1: about in the back of my head, like what these 212 00:13:51,800 --> 00:13:54,360 Speaker 1: kids could have seen. And then I started to listen 213 00:13:54,960 --> 00:13:58,000 Speaker 1: more intently to the Georgian denities, and I thought, there 214 00:13:58,040 --> 00:14:02,760 Speaker 1: are things in the gaps they say that are intriguing, 215 00:14:02,760 --> 00:14:07,120 Speaker 1: and there are specific parts of the descriptions of what 216 00:14:07,200 --> 00:14:11,120 Speaker 1: they saw which just seemed completely spontaneous to come out 217 00:14:11,120 --> 00:14:14,280 Speaker 1: of nowhere, Like I think Emily mentions that they had 218 00:14:14,320 --> 00:14:18,920 Speaker 1: stiff necks. Salas said that she didn't see any facial 219 00:14:18,920 --> 00:14:22,800 Speaker 1: expression movement on the face. There are other kids talking about, 220 00:14:22,840 --> 00:14:24,600 Speaker 1: you know, the whole thing about the figures moving in 221 00:14:24,640 --> 00:14:29,359 Speaker 1: slow motion or having strange jerky movements, or appearing disappearing. 222 00:14:29,960 --> 00:14:32,640 Speaker 1: All of those things just seemed to kind of map 223 00:14:32,720 --> 00:14:35,560 Speaker 1: on to the idea that maybe what they had seen 224 00:14:35,760 --> 00:14:39,600 Speaker 1: from a distance, because from why you understand, the observation 225 00:14:39,680 --> 00:14:43,440 Speaker 1: that they made was from at least a hundred meters away. 226 00:14:43,520 --> 00:14:46,360 Speaker 1: So those things just all side to kind of map 227 00:14:46,400 --> 00:14:49,120 Speaker 1: on to the idea that what these children might have 228 00:14:49,160 --> 00:14:54,480 Speaker 1: seen were puppets. That was like my original hunch, this 229 00:14:54,560 --> 00:14:57,560 Speaker 1: is all fining good, But why would there be puppets 230 00:14:57,600 --> 00:15:00,720 Speaker 1: across the field from aerial school and why would the 231 00:15:00,800 --> 00:15:05,680 Speaker 1: kids confuse them for aliens? Well, to start off with, 232 00:15:06,120 --> 00:15:08,920 Speaker 1: it turns out that during that time there were puppet 233 00:15:08,960 --> 00:15:13,600 Speaker 1: programs cropping up in many places in Southern Africa. I 234 00:15:13,920 --> 00:15:18,600 Speaker 1: also came across Gary Friedman's work with Public Against Days 235 00:15:18,800 --> 00:15:21,920 Speaker 1: and the Southern African country. Is this kind of huge, 236 00:15:22,400 --> 00:15:26,320 Speaker 1: rich program of workshops that he put together, and he 237 00:15:26,400 --> 00:15:29,360 Speaker 1: had all these people kind of traveling around all Africa 238 00:15:29,520 --> 00:15:32,960 Speaker 1: doing these One must have been quite difficult shows to 239 00:15:33,000 --> 00:15:35,400 Speaker 1: do it just going to rural community is talking about 240 00:15:35,440 --> 00:15:40,640 Speaker 1: public health. Here's Gary Friedman talking about his program to 241 00:15:40,720 --> 00:15:46,640 Speaker 1: raise AIDS awareness in the documentary Puppets in Prison. Puppets 242 00:15:46,640 --> 00:15:49,680 Speaker 1: in Prison is a short slice of life encapsulating eight 243 00:15:49,720 --> 00:15:52,480 Speaker 1: weeks of working with these young people. Our group have 244 00:15:52,560 --> 00:15:55,560 Speaker 1: really opened themselves up and exposed parts of their lives 245 00:15:55,560 --> 00:15:58,720 Speaker 1: which are very intimate and personal to them. We've taken 246 00:15:58,760 --> 00:16:02,560 Speaker 1: these parts and these mesages and transform them into short performances. 247 00:16:04,440 --> 00:16:08,800 Speaker 1: Freedman's program provided workshops so that local people could create 248 00:16:08,840 --> 00:16:11,560 Speaker 1: their own puppets and put on a public health show 249 00:16:11,680 --> 00:16:15,720 Speaker 1: about the AIDS crisis. Across Southern Africa. A slew of 250 00:16:15,760 --> 00:16:19,200 Speaker 1: puppets were being made. You can find pictures on the internet. 251 00:16:19,720 --> 00:16:22,800 Speaker 1: Some are the size of hand puppets or slightly larger. 252 00:16:23,280 --> 00:16:27,400 Speaker 1: Some are simply enormous heads with distinct faces and unblinking 253 00:16:27,400 --> 00:16:30,480 Speaker 1: eyes that were worn by people both in programs and 254 00:16:30,600 --> 00:16:34,560 Speaker 1: in public to draw attention to the show. The puppets 255 00:16:34,600 --> 00:16:37,040 Speaker 1: that are put together. As far as I've been able 256 00:16:37,080 --> 00:16:41,200 Speaker 1: to kind of find out by research, they have just 257 00:16:41,240 --> 00:16:45,440 Speaker 1: like a number of similarities to some of the children's descriptions, 258 00:16:45,560 --> 00:16:48,520 Speaker 1: both how the children describe the figures that they saw 259 00:16:49,160 --> 00:16:52,680 Speaker 1: and the drawings that they made. As in a lot 260 00:16:52,680 --> 00:16:55,560 Speaker 1: of puppetry you get. Most puppets, it seems, are a 261 00:16:55,600 --> 00:16:59,200 Speaker 1: lot of puppets have large eyes, because eyes are how 262 00:16:59,440 --> 00:17:02,920 Speaker 1: characters get to communicate with the audiences. A lot of 263 00:17:02,920 --> 00:17:05,280 Speaker 1: the pub is that they happened to make just have 264 00:17:05,640 --> 00:17:09,920 Speaker 1: kind of large, compelling eyes and gray skin, and this 265 00:17:10,080 --> 00:17:14,159 Speaker 1: is consistent with the testimony of the aerial students. And 266 00:17:14,280 --> 00:17:17,800 Speaker 1: it was all black and they had big black eyes. 267 00:17:18,800 --> 00:17:22,080 Speaker 1: I only remember that his eyes were quite big. A 268 00:17:22,160 --> 00:17:26,600 Speaker 1: black man. He was just a black and he had 269 00:17:26,720 --> 00:17:32,440 Speaker 1: big eyes. He had a big head and big black eyes, 270 00:17:32,600 --> 00:17:35,960 Speaker 1: and it was raised in a black body. There was 271 00:17:36,000 --> 00:17:39,600 Speaker 1: a huge variation in how the children describe what they saw, 272 00:17:40,000 --> 00:17:44,480 Speaker 1: and it goes some short, potbellied creatures. It almost looked 273 00:17:44,520 --> 00:17:48,439 Speaker 1: like a real person, except it was really plump. It's 274 00:17:48,600 --> 00:17:52,399 Speaker 1: like a tall, thin stick figure. I don't know what 275 00:17:52,480 --> 00:17:54,640 Speaker 1: it was, but it was rat And all I saw 276 00:17:54,800 --> 00:17:59,440 Speaker 1: was like a long thing, and he was very, very 277 00:17:59,520 --> 00:18:02,480 Speaker 1: very thick, you know. I was simultaneously like looking at 278 00:18:02,480 --> 00:18:06,080 Speaker 1: the puppetry workshops. All of these descriptions kind of funnel 279 00:18:06,160 --> 00:18:09,399 Speaker 1: into or can be mapped onto this idea of a 280 00:18:09,400 --> 00:18:14,479 Speaker 1: puppetry workshop. It makes Gideon wonder, what is more likely 281 00:18:15,000 --> 00:18:18,080 Speaker 1: that a group of unusual looking aliens happened to land 282 00:18:18,119 --> 00:18:21,040 Speaker 1: in this field, or that's something that's certainly out of 283 00:18:21,040 --> 00:18:24,640 Speaker 1: the ordinary but definitely earthly, is what the students saw. 284 00:18:25,800 --> 00:18:29,560 Speaker 1: There are the things that I found really interesting. In particular, 285 00:18:29,600 --> 00:18:33,040 Speaker 1: I think Salma's drawing. It's fascinating because she said in 286 00:18:33,080 --> 00:18:35,360 Speaker 1: her interviews that this is the one of the kind 287 00:18:35,359 --> 00:18:38,639 Speaker 1: of disembodied head amongst the little grass and the trees, 288 00:18:38,960 --> 00:18:42,159 Speaker 1: and she said in subsequent interviews that that's exactly what 289 00:18:42,320 --> 00:18:44,879 Speaker 1: she saw. And I'm looking at that, and then I 290 00:18:45,040 --> 00:18:48,840 Speaker 1: come across one of the larger puppets that are rap made, 291 00:18:49,040 --> 00:18:52,320 Speaker 1: which I think Thomas Richiocano in his article which I 292 00:18:52,520 --> 00:18:56,679 Speaker 1: quote in my first post, he nicknames the Gray Giants 293 00:18:56,680 --> 00:18:59,639 Speaker 1: who wrote this brilliant article about a rap where he 294 00:18:59,720 --> 00:19:02,520 Speaker 1: wrote this britty and kind of literary description of these 295 00:19:02,600 --> 00:19:06,919 Speaker 1: teheet total puppets wandering around the streets, kind of staring 296 00:19:07,000 --> 00:19:09,159 Speaker 1: up a crowd in order for them to come and 297 00:19:09,200 --> 00:19:11,680 Speaker 1: see the show that a rap we're about to put on. 298 00:19:13,320 --> 00:19:18,280 Speaker 1: Here is part of that quote. Shoeless children in tattered clothes, 299 00:19:18,320 --> 00:19:23,480 Speaker 1: scattered helter skelter, running down compact, unpaved, and garbage stone streets. 300 00:19:24,080 --> 00:19:27,280 Speaker 1: Their screaming was a blend of fear and excitement, their 301 00:19:27,280 --> 00:19:30,720 Speaker 1: faces going from shock to beaming smiles as they turned 302 00:19:31,080 --> 00:19:35,360 Speaker 1: their runs, alternating between flight and leaps of playfulness. Infants 303 00:19:35,400 --> 00:19:40,439 Speaker 1: wailed in spasms of tears. Adults stood curious, amazed, and bemused. 304 00:19:41,080 --> 00:19:43,080 Speaker 1: All of the action on the street came to a 305 00:19:43,119 --> 00:19:45,920 Speaker 1: halt as an eight foot tall figure with an enormous, 306 00:19:46,000 --> 00:19:49,439 Speaker 1: cartoon like gray head shopped the grim reality of the 307 00:19:49,520 --> 00:19:53,600 Speaker 1: slum into surreal with a perfect equatorial blue sky as 308 00:19:53,600 --> 00:19:58,479 Speaker 1: a backdrop. So Richio gives a description of the public 309 00:19:58,520 --> 00:20:01,520 Speaker 1: reaction to this kind of puppet in a setting where 310 00:20:01,560 --> 00:20:04,280 Speaker 1: it is clear that what they are seeing is a puppet. 311 00:20:04,760 --> 00:20:08,160 Speaker 1: Despite this knowledge, there is a strong and varied reaction 312 00:20:08,400 --> 00:20:12,560 Speaker 1: from both children and adults. It's not hard to extrapolate 313 00:20:12,600 --> 00:20:15,640 Speaker 1: this to a group of children at a distance, not 314 00:20:15,760 --> 00:20:18,760 Speaker 1: knowing what they were looking at. Then add the UFO 315 00:20:18,880 --> 00:20:23,000 Speaker 1: reported over Southern Africa just two days before an adults 316 00:20:23,040 --> 00:20:26,240 Speaker 1: asking if what they saw were aliens, and you very 317 00:20:26,320 --> 00:20:29,000 Speaker 1: possibly end up with what we see with the aerial 318 00:20:29,080 --> 00:20:33,400 Speaker 1: school students. As Gideon said at the beginning of this segment, 319 00:20:33,960 --> 00:20:36,920 Speaker 1: he is not himself completely convinced that this theory is 320 00:20:36,920 --> 00:20:40,760 Speaker 1: one hundred percent correct. He's offering it for others to evaluate, 321 00:20:41,080 --> 00:20:43,400 Speaker 1: and he is aware that it may be affected by 322 00:20:43,400 --> 00:20:47,920 Speaker 1: his own biases. I really kind of tried to think 323 00:20:47,960 --> 00:20:51,320 Speaker 1: about how I might be kind of falling into a 324 00:20:51,359 --> 00:20:56,160 Speaker 1: trap of just, oh, delaying all of these coincidenial elements 325 00:20:56,200 --> 00:21:00,480 Speaker 1: of puppetry at this encounter. In a way, it fits 326 00:21:00,760 --> 00:21:04,640 Speaker 1: perhaps my bias, which is that I don't particularly think 327 00:21:04,680 --> 00:21:07,960 Speaker 1: that it's likely that they saw something that's out this world, 328 00:21:08,480 --> 00:21:11,719 Speaker 1: so very aware that what I might be doing is 329 00:21:12,080 --> 00:21:15,440 Speaker 1: kind of fitting things to a pattern that already exists. 330 00:21:15,720 --> 00:21:19,320 Speaker 1: But I think that that is something that is done 331 00:21:19,960 --> 00:21:24,960 Speaker 1: frequently suddenly in uphology, where people are looking at different 332 00:21:25,040 --> 00:21:29,160 Speaker 1: encounters around the world and saying, well, that's just like this, 333 00:21:29,200 --> 00:21:31,280 Speaker 1: and that's just like this, so they must be the 334 00:21:31,320 --> 00:21:35,840 Speaker 1: same thing. We saw this in the previous episode with 335 00:21:35,960 --> 00:21:40,919 Speaker 1: Cynthia Hind's predisposition to find UFOs and aliens, and we 336 00:21:40,960 --> 00:21:44,159 Speaker 1: saw when John Mac arrived and interviewed the students to 337 00:21:44,200 --> 00:21:48,359 Speaker 1: find that the aliens seemed to be communicating telepathically with them, 338 00:21:48,359 --> 00:21:51,399 Speaker 1: giving them a message that just happened to dovetail with 339 00:21:51,480 --> 00:21:55,919 Speaker 1: Max's own strongly held beliefs. Indeed, Mac had been at 340 00:21:55,960 --> 00:21:59,800 Speaker 1: the forefront of alien abduction research, and it theorized that 341 00:21:59,840 --> 00:22:03,160 Speaker 1: the phenomenon was also a called to humankind to evolve 342 00:22:03,200 --> 00:22:08,280 Speaker 1: spiritually and embrace environmentalism and peace, just as Mac had 343 00:22:08,400 --> 00:22:12,040 Speaker 1: in his own life. Not only that, but Mac had 344 00:22:12,040 --> 00:22:16,879 Speaker 1: developed a framework for abductions that literally transcended the boundaries 345 00:22:16,920 --> 00:22:32,440 Speaker 1: of reality next time on Strange Arrivals. Strange Arrivals is 346 00:22:32,480 --> 00:22:36,720 Speaker 1: a production of iHeartRadio and Grim and Mild from Aaron Manky. 347 00:22:36,760 --> 00:22:39,840 Speaker 1: This episode was written and hosted by Toby Ball and 348 00:22:39,960 --> 00:22:44,399 Speaker 1: produced by rima Il Kayali, Jesse Funk, and Nawami Griffin, 349 00:22:44,800 --> 00:22:49,600 Speaker 1: with executive producers Alexander Williams, Matt Frederick, and Aaron Mankey 350 00:22:49,880 --> 00:22:54,359 Speaker 1: and supervising producer Josh Thame, with voice acting by rima 351 00:22:54,440 --> 00:22:58,640 Speaker 1: Ilkayali and Zachary Volbel. Learn more about the show at 352 00:22:58,680 --> 00:23:02,760 Speaker 1: Grimm and mild dot com slash Strange Arrivals. And find 353 00:23:02,800 --> 00:23:08,120 Speaker 1: more podcasts from iHeartRadio by visiting the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, 354 00:23:08,400 --> 00:23:10,640 Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.