WEBVTT - S04 Episode 9 Extra: Forewarning Signs 0:00:10.400 --> 0:00:15.400 Welcome to Unexplained Extra with me Richard McClean smith, where 0:00:15.400 --> 0:00:18.040 for the weeks in between episodes, we look at stories 0:00:18.079 --> 0:00:20.960 and ideas that, for one reason or other, didn't make 0:00:21.000 --> 0:00:25.240 it into the previous show. In last week's episode, Darkness 0:00:25.360 --> 0:00:28.920 in Sight, we explored the harrowing tragedy which has since 0:00:28.960 --> 0:00:32.239 become known as the abbe Van disaster, in which one 0:00:32.320 --> 0:00:35.839 hundred and sixteen children and twenty eight adults were killed 0:00:36.000 --> 0:00:40.400 by a collapsed spoiled heap in nineteen sixty six. A 0:00:40.479 --> 0:00:43.720 tribunal set up in the immediate aftermath of the tragedy 0:00:44.200 --> 0:00:47.360 established that the National Coal Board, who were responsible for 0:00:47.400 --> 0:00:50.360 the spoil tip, had been given consistent warnings of the 0:00:50.479 --> 0:00:55.320 dangers it posed, would routinely ignored them. It was only 0:00:55.320 --> 0:00:58.280 a few weeks after the spoiled collapse that other fore 0:00:58.280 --> 0:01:01.720 warnings of a slightly more bizarre nature began to emerge. 0:01:03.280 --> 0:01:06.880 In a series of extraordinary proclamations, people from up and 0:01:06.959 --> 0:01:10.480 down the country claimed to have experienced visions of the disaster, 0:01:10.959 --> 0:01:14.040 most often in their dreams, in the days leading up 0:01:14.040 --> 0:01:18.200 to it. Two children killed in the landslide, ten year 0:01:18.240 --> 0:01:21.400 old errold May Jones and eight year old Paul Davies 0:01:21.840 --> 0:01:26.120 are also said to have foreseen the event. These stories 0:01:26.120 --> 0:01:29.400 were brought to light by radical psychiatrist doctor John Barker 0:01:29.840 --> 0:01:33.880 during an unusual experiment which he conducted shortly after the tragedy. 0:01:35.440 --> 0:01:38.800 At the time, Barker had been researching a book about 0:01:38.800 --> 0:01:42.840 the apparent phenomenon of what he called psychic death, in 0:01:42.920 --> 0:01:45.800 which victims of it were thought to have literally scared 0:01:45.840 --> 0:01:50.080 themselves to death. Barker had heard reports that one of 0:01:50.120 --> 0:01:53.920 the young victims from Abavan had been completely unharmed by 0:01:53.920 --> 0:01:57.280 the spoil, only to die from shock a short time later. 0:01:58.400 --> 0:02:01.240 It was while visiting the village to investigate this story 0:02:01.680 --> 0:02:05.080 only days after the event, that Barker first learned at 0:02:05.120 --> 0:02:10.960 the strange rumors of portents and premonitions. Haunted and moved 0:02:11.040 --> 0:02:15.720 by what he saw in Abervan, Barker had a curious idea. 0:02:16.280 --> 0:02:19.440 If premonition were possible, he thought, might there be a 0:02:19.440 --> 0:02:22.600 way to harness its power to prevent such a terrible 0:02:22.680 --> 0:02:26.760 tragedy from occurring in future. It was an idea that 0:02:26.800 --> 0:02:30.600 some belief may have contributed to Barker's own premature death 0:02:31.000 --> 0:02:41.880 only a few years later. Born in nineteen twenty two, 0:02:42.200 --> 0:02:45.600 As a child, John Charles Barker was a dedicated and 0:02:45.720 --> 0:02:50.280 straight laced student, making his way to Cambridge University before 0:02:50.360 --> 0:02:53.400 qualifying as a Doctor of Medicine in nineteen forty eight. 0:02:54.880 --> 0:02:57.959 Barker would go on to establish himself as a highly 0:02:58.000 --> 0:03:03.440 credible and innovative psychist, being mostly celebrated for his pioneering 0:03:03.440 --> 0:03:08.160 work on aversion therapy. However, it was a career in which, 0:03:08.200 --> 0:03:11.200 by his own admission, he was often torn between a 0:03:11.280 --> 0:03:17.360 conscious rationalism and a fascination with the supernatural. Writing in 0:03:17.400 --> 0:03:21.640 his nineteen sixty eight book Scared to Death, Barker believed 0:03:21.639 --> 0:03:25.200 this conflict first arose after learning of the peculiar occult 0:03:25.240 --> 0:03:28.560 happenings that his father claimed to have experienced while fighting 0:03:28.560 --> 0:03:32.080 in the First World War. Knowing his father to be 0:03:32.160 --> 0:03:35.720 a usually matter of fact individual, these stories had always 0:03:35.760 --> 0:03:41.200 stuck with him. Sometime later, Barker became convinced that he 0:03:41.360 --> 0:03:45.320 possessed a mild extrasensory perception of his own, in which 0:03:45.320 --> 0:03:49.200 he was able to sense impending disaster. It was his 0:03:49.280 --> 0:03:52.720 fascination with the potential for ESP that drew him to 0:03:52.760 --> 0:03:56.640 the concept of psychic death, believing some as yet unknown 0:03:56.640 --> 0:04:01.760 effect of ESP might be responsible for it, though he 0:04:01.800 --> 0:04:04.560 believed he had seen similar in patience of his own. 0:04:05.000 --> 0:04:08.680 Barker's interest in the idea intensified after reading of a 0:04:08.680 --> 0:04:12.400 peculiar case published in the British Medical Journal in nineteen 0:04:12.440 --> 0:04:16.400 sixty five. The case involved a forty three year old 0:04:16.400 --> 0:04:20.760 woman who had undergone an operation for a minor gynecological problem. 0:04:21.480 --> 0:04:25.680 With the operation successfully completed, the patient, who had no 0:04:25.800 --> 0:04:30.320 other underlying issues, regained consciousness, only to die an hour 0:04:30.400 --> 0:04:33.960 later after suffering a rare hemorrhage brought on by shock. 0:04:35.200 --> 0:04:38.520 As it transpired when the patient was five years old, 0:04:39.000 --> 0:04:41.279 she had been told by a fortune teller that she 0:04:41.320 --> 0:04:45.160 would die at the age of forty three the night 0:04:45.200 --> 0:04:49.039 before her surgery. She had subsequently insisted to her sister 0:04:49.480 --> 0:04:54.000 that she would not be surviving the operation. Thinking this 0:04:54.160 --> 0:04:57.640 might be a case of psychic death, Barker exchanged a 0:04:57.680 --> 0:05:01.680 series of letters through the British Medical with the patient's doctors. 0:05:02.760 --> 0:05:05.560 The letters, in turn brought Barker to the attention of 0:05:05.600 --> 0:05:09.320 Peter Fairley, who was science correspondent of the London paper 0:05:09.600 --> 0:05:14.280 Evening Standard at the time. Fairley was intrigued by Barker's 0:05:14.279 --> 0:05:18.000 position as a medical professional with an interest in the supernatural, 0:05:18.400 --> 0:05:21.800 and the pair Julie became acquainted, and it was to 0:05:21.880 --> 0:05:25.320 Fairley who Barker turned in nineteen sixty six when he 0:05:25.360 --> 0:05:29.000 had his brain way regarding the potential power of premonitions. 0:05:37.360 --> 0:05:40.440 Having learned of rumors that the Abberfan disaster had been 0:05:40.520 --> 0:05:44.440 foreseen by a number of its local residents, Barker realized, 0:05:44.720 --> 0:05:48.000 given the scale and emotional resonance of the tragedy, that 0:05:48.080 --> 0:05:50.400 it would be a perfect case study around which to 0:05:50.440 --> 0:05:53.919 see if anyone else had sensed it too, And so 0:05:54.080 --> 0:05:57.480 it was that on twenty eighth of October nineteen sixty six, 0:05:58.080 --> 0:06:01.200 an appeal was launched on behalf of Barker by Fairly 0:06:01.440 --> 0:06:04.479 in the Evening Standard, asking for anyone to get in 0:06:04.520 --> 0:06:07.599 touch who believed that they had experienced a premonition of 0:06:07.640 --> 0:06:13.360 the Abervan disaster. Within two weeks, Barker had received seventy 0:06:13.400 --> 0:06:20.080 six replies. Out of those, sixteen were discarded immediately. The rest, 0:06:20.240 --> 0:06:23.520 which were mostly taken from dreams, were assessed for their 0:06:23.560 --> 0:06:28.640 credibility according to the criteria established by parapsychologist G. W. 0:06:28.839 --> 0:06:33.640 Lambert the previous year, which included, most fundamentally that the 0:06:33.680 --> 0:06:37.520 premonition had been reported to a credible witness before the 0:06:37.600 --> 0:06:41.440 event took place, that the time interval between the dream 0:06:41.520 --> 0:06:44.800 and the event should be short, and that the four 0:06:44.880 --> 0:06:48.000 seen event should be something that would have been completely 0:06:48.040 --> 0:06:52.680 improbable to the seer at the time. In total, Doctor 0:06:52.720 --> 0:06:56.520 Barker found thirty five accounts to be worth noting, including 0:06:56.560 --> 0:07:00.800 those of Errol May Jones, Carolyne Miller, and Mary Hennessy 0:07:01.000 --> 0:07:06.240 mentioned in the previous episode. The Abovan experiment convinced Barker 0:07:06.480 --> 0:07:10.000 that premonition was a real phenomena and one that I 0:07:10.160 --> 0:07:14.160 managed properly could ultimately be used to save people from 0:07:14.240 --> 0:07:20.840 similar disasters in future. In January nineteen sixty seven, Barker 0:07:20.840 --> 0:07:25.800 announced the launch of his Premonition's Bureau, a public repository 0:07:26.000 --> 0:07:30.440 for the nation's precognitive dreams, in which anyone who felt 0:07:30.440 --> 0:07:33.720 they had experienced a premonition was encouraged to call or 0:07:33.760 --> 0:07:39.160 write in and tell him about it. Within two days, 0:07:39.200 --> 0:07:43.680 Barker received twenty different warnings of impending disaster, but it 0:07:43.720 --> 0:07:46.440 wasn't until a few months later that he received what 0:07:46.520 --> 0:07:51.360 appeared to be a genuine hit. It came from Alan Henscher, 0:07:51.840 --> 0:07:55.160 a forty four year old telephone operator from Essex who 0:07:55.160 --> 0:07:58.360 had been one of the original dreamers from the Abavan experiment. 0:07:59.600 --> 0:08:02.480 Hench claim to have experienced a vision of a plane 0:08:02.480 --> 0:08:06.440 crash over mountains, killing around one hundred and twenty four people. 0:08:07.440 --> 0:08:12.400 The corps was received on March twenty first. The following month, 0:08:13.000 --> 0:08:16.480 a Swiss Globe Air flight en route from Bangkok to 0:08:16.560 --> 0:08:20.480 Basel crashed into a hill in Cyprus while attempting an 0:08:20.520 --> 0:08:25.400 emergency landing. One hundred and twenty six people were killed. 0:08:28.280 --> 0:08:31.080 Are you always taking care of your family? Do you 0:08:31.120 --> 0:08:34.240 often take care of others and not yourself. Now it's 0:08:34.240 --> 0:08:37.760 time to take care of yourself, to make time for you. 0:08:37.760 --> 0:08:41.199 You deserve it. Teledoc gives you access to a licensed 0:08:41.240 --> 0:08:44.040 therapist to help you get back to feeling your best 0:08:44.320 --> 0:08:48.319 to feeling like yourself again. With teledoc, you can speak 0:08:48.320 --> 0:08:52.079 to a licensed therapist by phone or video. Therapy appointments 0:08:52.120 --> 0:08:55.000 are available seven days a week from seven am to 0:08:55.120 --> 0:08:59.480 nine pm local time. If you feel overwhelmed sometimes, maybe 0:08:59.520 --> 0:09:03.600 you feel stressed or anxious, depressed or lonely, or you 0:09:03.679 --> 0:09:07.200 might be struggling with a personal or family issue, teledoc 0:09:07.280 --> 0:09:11.920 can help. TELEDOC is committed to facilitating great therapeutic matches, 0:09:12.200 --> 0:09:14.800 so they make it easy to change counselors if needed. 0:09:15.000 --> 0:09:19.880 For free. Teledoc Therapy is available through most insurance or employers. 0:09:20.640 --> 0:09:24.160 Download the app or visit teledoc dot com forward slash 0:09:24.280 --> 0:09:30.840 Unexplained podcast today to get started. That's teladoc dot com 0:09:30.880 --> 0:09:41.480 slash Unexplained Podcast. Over the next eighteen months, Barker's Premonitions 0:09:41.480 --> 0:09:46.280 Bureau received countless accounts of potential premonitions, with varying degrees 0:09:46.320 --> 0:09:50.199 of accuracy. Alan Hensher would go on to become one 0:09:50.240 --> 0:09:54.440 of its most frequent and seemingly accurate contributors, along with 0:09:54.559 --> 0:10:00.080 one other, Lorna Middleton. Middleton, who was born in Massachusetts 0:10:00.120 --> 0:10:02.920 but later moved to North London, had also been one 0:10:02.920 --> 0:10:07.120 of the original participants of the Abervan experiment. Recounting in 0:10:07.160 --> 0:10:10.360 her own book Prediction or Premonition a few years later. 0:10:11.040 --> 0:10:13.960 Middleton had been suffering a restless night on the eve 0:10:14.000 --> 0:10:17.040 of the cold disaster, before waking at six a m 0:10:17.240 --> 0:10:21.160 with a choking sensation, convinced that the walls were caving 0:10:21.160 --> 0:10:25.600 in on her. However, it was her prediction of the 0:10:25.640 --> 0:10:29.480 assassination of Robert Kennedy in June nineteen sixty seven that 0:10:29.679 --> 0:10:35.319 most impressed doctor Barker. Middleton's apparent premonition began in March 0:10:35.520 --> 0:10:39.080 nineteen sixty seven with the constant appearance of the word 0:10:39.400 --> 0:10:43.720 assassination in her dreams and thoughts, believing it to have 0:10:43.840 --> 0:10:48.360 something to do with Robert Kennedy. But when doctor Martin 0:10:48.440 --> 0:10:53.079 Luther King Junior was assassinated three weeks later, Middleton assumed 0:10:53.080 --> 0:10:57.559 it was his death that she had in fact been foreseeing. However, 0:10:57.760 --> 0:11:01.960 a week later, Middleton again became preoccupied with the notion 0:11:02.000 --> 0:11:06.760 of assassination. On June the fourth, she wrote to doctor 0:11:06.760 --> 0:11:11.560 Barker declaring simply that she had sensed another assassination and 0:11:11.679 --> 0:11:16.400 again in America. In the early hours of the following day, 0:11:17.080 --> 0:11:22.000 Robert Kennedy was assassinated at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles. 0:11:28.800 --> 0:11:31.600 Back in the early hours of April twenty first, nineteen 0:11:31.679 --> 0:11:35.960 sixty seven, Alan Henscher called Barker, warning him to check 0:11:36.000 --> 0:11:40.760 his gas supply immediately. The previous day, Henscher had had 0:11:40.760 --> 0:11:44.439 a vision involving a dark colored car, which he interpreted 0:11:44.520 --> 0:11:49.120 as a sign of imminent danger to doctor Barker. Fortunately 0:11:49.160 --> 0:11:52.160 for Barker, there was no gas apply to his home. 0:11:53.559 --> 0:11:56.760 Henscher paused on the other end of the line and 0:11:56.840 --> 0:12:01.560 then asked, do you have a dark colored car? Barker 0:12:01.600 --> 0:12:05.600 thought for a moment before realizing he did. It was 0:12:05.679 --> 0:12:10.800 dark green. Hensher ended the call by telling Barker to 0:12:10.800 --> 0:12:16.120 look after himself. The morning after Hensha's phone call, Barker 0:12:16.200 --> 0:12:19.880 was sufficiently unsettled by his leading seer's premonition that he 0:12:19.960 --> 0:12:22.880 made note of it in a short memo, declaring that, 0:12:23.480 --> 0:12:26.240 having recently written a book on people who were scared 0:12:26.280 --> 0:12:29.360 to death, I am perhaps beginning to feel what that 0:12:29.400 --> 0:12:33.040 would be like. And as noted in a recent New 0:12:33.120 --> 0:12:37.800 Yorker article about Barker's life written by staff writer Sam Knight, 0:12:38.600 --> 0:12:45.000 the premonitions didn't end there. The following year, Hensher repeated 0:12:45.000 --> 0:12:48.200 his concern to Barker that his life was in danger, 0:12:49.320 --> 0:12:53.880 and then in February, Lorna Middleton also experienced a vision 0:12:53.880 --> 0:12:57.760 of Barker involving her deceased parents, which she took to 0:12:57.800 --> 0:13:03.160 be an ominous message concerning the doctor. A few weeks later, 0:13:03.520 --> 0:13:06.880 a fire broke out at Shelton Hospital in Shrewsbury, where 0:13:06.920 --> 0:13:10.800 doctor Barker worked. Though Barker wasn't present at the time, 0:13:11.160 --> 0:13:16.640 twenty four patients were killed. In late July, not long 0:13:16.720 --> 0:13:21.360 after her apparent successful premonition regarding Robert Kennedy, Middleton had 0:13:21.400 --> 0:13:26.280 another dream involving her deceased parents. She informed the premonition's 0:13:26.320 --> 0:13:31.680 bureau about it the following day. Three weeks later, the 0:13:31.760 --> 0:13:35.080 forty four year old John Barker was rushed to hospital 0:13:35.360 --> 0:13:39.680 having collapsed at his home. Barker, who had suffered a 0:13:39.720 --> 0:13:44.120 massive and inoperable brain hemorrhage, was pronounced dead soon after. 0:13:45.679 --> 0:13:49.360 According to New Yorker writer Sam Knight, the same day 0:13:49.400 --> 0:13:53.680 that Barker died, Lorna Middleton snapped awake in the early morning, 0:13:54.600 --> 0:14:06.440 gasping for breath and crying out for help. If you 0:14:06.559 --> 0:14:09.640 enjoy listening to Unexplained and would like to help support us, 0:14:10.080 --> 0:14:13.240 you can now go to Unexplained podcast dot com forward 0:14:13.280 --> 0:14:17.880 slash support. All donations, no matter how large or small, 0:14:18.160 --> 0:14:23.800 are massively appreciate. All elements of Unexplained are produced by 0:14:23.840 --> 0:14:27.800 me Richard McClain smith. Please subscribe and rate the show 0:14:27.840 --> 0:14:30.600 on iTunes, and feel free to get in touch with 0:14:30.640 --> 0:14:33.400 any thoughts or ideas regarding the stories you've heard on 0:14:33.440 --> 0:14:36.840 the show. Perhaps you have an explanation of your own 0:14:36.880 --> 0:14:40.720 you'd like to share. You can reach us online at 0:14:40.800 --> 0:14:45.880 Unexplained podcast dot com, or Twitter at Unexplained Pod and 0:14:46.080 --> 0:16:54.320 Facebook at Facebook dot com. Forward slash Unexplained Now. It's 0:16:54.360 --> 0:16:57.600 time to take care of yourself. To make time for you. 0:16:58.480 --> 0:17:01.359 Tele a doc gives you access to a licensed therapist 0:17:01.680 --> 0:17:04.720 to help you get back to feeling your best. Speak 0:17:04.760 --> 0:17:08.679 to a licensed therapist by phone or video anytime between 0:17:08.720 --> 0:17:12.400 seven am to nine pm local time, seven days a week. 0:17:13.000 --> 0:17:17.800 Teledoc Therapy is available through most insurance or employers. Download 0:17:17.840 --> 0:17:21.520 the app or visit teledoc dot com. Forward slash Unexplained 0:17:21.560 --> 0:17:26.400 Podcast Today to get started. That's t e LA DC 0:17:26.800 --> 0:17:29.240 dot com Slash Unexplained Podcast