Speaker 1: Please be aware the following episode contained some adult themes.
Speaker 1: You're listening to unexplained with me, Richard McClean smith, We
Speaker 1: are the Witchcraft, Part three. The man introduced himself as
Speaker 1: Captain Hubbard, though Jack could call him Ron, he said,
Speaker 1: flashing a wide wolfish grin as he buttoned up his shirt.
Speaker 1: Ron had just been showing some of the other guests
Speaker 1: his battle scars when Jack walked into the kitchen. It
Speaker 1: was the squeals of delight coming from the small crowd
Speaker 1: surrounding the enigmatic guest that had first drawn Jack's attention,
Speaker 1: as Ron repeated for his host, those scars just below
Speaker 1: his ribs were from the arrows he had taken after
Speaker 1: being attacked by a local tribe while journeying through the
Speaker 1: South American jungle. Ron, it turned out, was quite the explorer,
Speaker 1: as he went on to reveal having once come face
Speaker 1: to face with a polar bear whilst sailing round the
Speaker 1: Aleutian Islands of Alaska. He had apparently lassued the excitable
Speaker 1: creature after it leaped onto the ship from a nearby
Speaker 1: ice flow. Only after it had succeeded in chasing half
Speaker 1: the crew off the vessel, had Ron finally been able
Speaker 1: to bring it down. Jack could only laugh at the
Speaker 1: audacity of it all that evening, as the party continued
Speaker 1: late into the night, Hubbard entertained all with the extraordinary
Speaker 1: tales of his daring adventures. For Jack, like many of
Speaker 1: those who had been fortunate to escape the fighting, it
Speaker 1: was Hubbard's war stories that excited the most, and Ron
Speaker 1: was only too happy to oblige, telling the guests about
Speaker 1: the one time he commanded anti submarine vessels off the
Speaker 1: coast of Californy and had sunk at least two Japanese submarines.
Speaker 1: Though he wasn't at liberty to divulge much about his
Speaker 1: counter intelligence work, the thirty four year old naval officer
Speaker 1: was able to reveal that he was currently on medical
Speaker 1: leave due to injuries sustained whilst escaping the island of
Speaker 1: Java on a raft he had built himself, including being
Speaker 1: shot and breaking his foot. In truth, there had been
Speaker 1: no sunken submarines or lassud polar bears, much less a
Speaker 1: courageous escape from Java, but Hubbard was never one to
Speaker 1: let the truth get in the way of a good story.
Speaker 1: Though some were less taken by Hubbard's incredible yarns. Whether
Speaker 1: he truly believed the tales or not, Jack recognized a
Speaker 1: kindred spirit that night. As a prolific author of science
Speaker 1: fiction and fantasy stories writing under the name l. Ron Hubbard,
Speaker 1: Jack was well acquainted with his work. Hubbard's stories centered
Speaker 1: on supercharged men with extraordinary powers of the mind, which
Speaker 1: reminded Jack of the teachings of Thelama and Alister Crowley's
Speaker 1: concept of magic as the mastery of will. Meeting the
Speaker 1: magnetic Ron in person only cemented parsons suspicions that Hubbard
Speaker 1: was a man of innate magical prowess. Ron, in return,
Speaker 1: was pleased to finally meet the refined rocket scientist that
Speaker 1: he had heard so much about, and was only too
Speaker 1: happy to take Jack up on his offer to see
Speaker 1: out the rest of his leave at one zero zero
Speaker 1: three Orange Grove Avenue. A few days later, Ron duly
Speaker 1: returned to the house, driving an old, beat up packard
Speaker 1: and towing a small trailer behind with all his worldly possessions,
Speaker 1: ready to join the many new inhabitants of the Agape Lodge.
Speaker 1: It was September nineteen forty five, and the occupants had
Speaker 1: much changed in the last few years. Things had much
Speaker 1: changed for two by the beginning of nineteen forty three,
Speaker 1: as global war intensified and the business of rocket science
Speaker 1: was swept up in the USA's burgeoning military industrial complex.
Speaker 1: Jack's position at both air Jet and as a founding
Speaker 1: member of the Gausit Rocket research team was becoming untenable.
Speaker 1: Five and a half thousand miles away, an extraordinary discovery
Speaker 1: was about to come to light that would change the
Speaker 1: industry forever and usher a final end to Jack's involvement
Speaker 1: with the Gausit team. Inside the imposing Trent House, a
Speaker 1: vast country home overlooking some eight hundred acres of parkland
Speaker 1: on the northern edge of London, fifty or so German
Speaker 1: army generals and high ranking officers were living out their
Speaker 1: days as British prisoners of war in extreme comfort. Unlike
Speaker 1: many of their compatriots, due to their military status, these
Speaker 1: prisoners had not not only been put up in a
Speaker 1: stately home, but had also been granted servants, as well
Speaker 1: as access to entertainment, fine wine, and expensive food. So
Speaker 1: surprised were they by their treatment, the prisoners often wrote
Speaker 1: home to boast of their luck and laugh at the
Speaker 1: weakness and stupidity of the British government for allowing them
Speaker 1: such luxuries. What they didn't know, however, was that every
Speaker 1: word that the prisoners uttered was being recorded, thanks to
Speaker 1: a vast network of microphones that had been rigged up
Speaker 1: throughout the house, hidden in everything from lampshades to the
Speaker 1: underside of a billiard's table, threaded below carpets and into
Speaker 1: the walls. In a secret room, a group of Jewish
Speaker 1: Germans who had been forced to flee their home country
Speaker 1: sat carefully listening to everything. One overheard conversation caused some confusion,
Speaker 1: at first, having something to do with the secret weapons
Speaker 1: manufacturing facility in the industrial town of Pina Munda in
Speaker 1: northern Germany. One general was recorded discussing a weapon the
Speaker 1: likes of which couldn't possibly exist, a fourteen meter high
Speaker 1: rocket that could travel at three and a half thousand
Speaker 1: miles per hour and deliver a ton of explosives over
Speaker 1: a distance of more than two hundred kilometers. He claimed
Speaker 1: that such a rocket would be ready to launch at
Speaker 1: the United Kingdom within months. It was known as the
Speaker 1: V two. When the British Royal Air Force carried out
Speaker 1: a covert reki to the region a few days later,
Speaker 1: they were shocked to discover it was all true. Back
Speaker 1: in Pasadena at Caltech, when news arrived from US intelligence
Speaker 1: of the German rocket program. The scientists were utterly stunned,
Speaker 1: and the US government equally so. Finally understanding the rocket's
Speaker 1: potential as a war machine, the United States military tasked
Speaker 1: the Gaust team with developing an equivalent rocket of their own,
Speaker 1: offering three million dollars if they could do it within
Speaker 1: a year, and in that moment everything changed. The group
Speaker 1: was substantially reorganized, adopting a far more professional approach, starting
Speaker 1: with the changing of its name to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
Speaker 1: Though Jack would continue to conduct experiments for the newly
Speaker 1: formed j p L and his company, Aerojet. With so
Speaker 1: much money and new personnel entering the business, not to
Speaker 1: mention the concerns over his style of work and his
Speaker 1: private life, he was fast becoming surplus to requirements. When
Speaker 1: the Navy up to their JATO order to twenty thousand,
Speaker 1: it was clear to Andy Hayley, who had been drafted
Speaker 1: in to manage the company, that the business of rockets
Speaker 1: was fast outgrowing them. In the autumn of nineteen forty four,
Speaker 1: Haley convinced the wealthy General Hire and Rubber Company to
Speaker 1: step in and take over on the one cond that
Speaker 1: Jack Parsons and Ed Foreman be removed from the business.
Speaker 1: Having started the company along with Frank Malina, Martin Summerfield
Speaker 1: and Theodore von Carmen less than a decade ago at
Speaker 1: a cost of two hundred and fifty dollars each, both
Speaker 1: Parsons and Foremen were persuaded to sell their shares in
Speaker 1: the company for eleven thousand dollars. By the turn of
Speaker 1: nineteen forty five, at the age of thirty and thirty two, respectively,
Speaker 1: Jack and Ed's rocketing career was over. Within fifteen years,
Speaker 1: those shares would be worth ninety million dollars in today's money.
Speaker 1: Although Jack was doubtless upset by the manner in which
Speaker 1: it had all come to an end, he remained resolute
Speaker 1: that together he and Ed would continue their work in
Speaker 1: one capacity or another. But more importantly, he now had
Speaker 1: more time to dedicate to his magic. With the sale
Speaker 1: of his shares, Jack promptly bought the lodge house, which
Speaker 1: he had only been renting up till then, and in
Speaker 1: which much had changed over the last few years. Two
Speaker 1: In early nineteen forty three, Parson's wife Helen, together with
Speaker 1: the head of the Agape Lodge, Wilfred Smith, had borne
Speaker 1: a son. However, both had been forced to leave the
Speaker 1: home after Alister Crowley decided to remove Smith as head
Speaker 1: of the organization due to his concerns that the members
Speaker 1: of the lodge cared more about sexual gratification than the
Speaker 1: true teachings of Thelama. It was Crowley's hope that Jack
Speaker 1: would take over and restore the group's focus, and for
Speaker 1: a time it worked. Although a reluctant leader, not wanting
Speaker 1: to betray his friend Smith, Jack soon embraced his new role,
Speaker 1: converting his bedroom into the house temple and leading the
Speaker 1: Gnostic Mass with his lover Betty by his side in
Speaker 1: place of Regina Carl who i had also left the
Speaker 1: house having been left heartbroken by Smith and Helen's relationship.
Speaker 1: A house resident and senior member of the Agape Lodge,
Speaker 1: Jane Wolfe, soon grew concerned, however, that Parson's interests were
Speaker 1: not entirely in the group's best interests. For the rebellious
Speaker 1: anti authoritarian Jack, as much as he was sympathetic to
Speaker 1: the philosophy of Thelama, for him It had always been
Speaker 1: about the magic, the things that Alice to Crowley claimed
Speaker 1: to have conjured up with the ancient spells. All the
Speaker 1: ritual and the gathering of knowledge was merely a means
Speaker 1: to an end. But for the impatient Jack, the end
Speaker 1: was taking too long. Soon he was consulting the feigned
Speaker 1: Lesser Key of Solomon and the ars Goetier, searching for clues.
Speaker 1: As Wolfe had suspected, he was dabbling in black magic.
Speaker 1: But Jack couldn't operate alone. Concerned what his fellow Thelamites,
Speaker 1: would think, one night, he turned to the ever faithful Ed,
Speaker 1: who was then staying at the lodge, to assist him.
Speaker 1: Although Ed kept only a passing interest in Jack's esoteric fixations,
Speaker 1: he was more than happy to help him out, even
Speaker 1: if he did find the whole thing a little silly.
Speaker 1: That night, in Jack's bedroom, the pair chalked out cymbals
Speaker 1: on the floor under the flickering light of candles, before
Speaker 1: Jack instructed Ed on how to take the pyote. Ed
Speaker 1: then sat back and listened to Jack as he read
Speaker 1: from the old books, chanting strange incantations into the air.
Speaker 1: After a few hours, however, when nothing had occurred, the
Speaker 1: pair decided to call it a night, but as Ed
Speaker 1: made his way back to his bedroom, the whole house
Speaker 1: began to shake in terror. Foreman ran to his room,
Speaker 1: only to be confronted with the ific cacophony of shrieking
Speaker 1: voices coming from outside his window. Uncovering his ears, he
Speaker 1: pulled back the curtain to find three terrifying entities floating outside,
Speaker 1: their grotesque faces contorted and mouths wide open. In a scream,
Speaker 1: Ed bolted from the room and ran into two residents
Speaker 1: talking quietly amongst themselves. Neither had heard the screams, but
Speaker 1: both recognized the entities that Ed said he had seen.
Speaker 1: They were screaming banshees, they said, a warning of a
Speaker 1: coming death. By nineteen forty five, only Jack, the twenty
Speaker 1: year old Betty, and Jane Wolfe remained at the property
Speaker 1: as genuine followers of Thelema, with Wolfe soon to follow
Speaker 1: Carl In moving out. When Carl died unexpectedly early in
Speaker 1: the new year, something of the old order had irrevocably shifted.
Speaker 1: May the United States government and its allies celebrated victory
Speaker 1: in Europe with the fall of Berlin and the subsequent
Speaker 1: surrender of the German Army War was coming to an end,
Speaker 1: and whether it was the coming of Horace or not,
Speaker 1: a new age was undoubtedly dawning. Such was the air
Speaker 1: of secrecy that surrounded the Manhattan Project. Even those like
Speaker 1: Jack and most of his former colleagues at Caltech had
Speaker 1: not quite been prepared for the power that was soon
Speaker 1: to be unleashed over the sands of the New Mexico Desert.
Speaker 1: In nineteen oh four, Alister Crowley had received word from
Speaker 1: his guardian angel that Horace would deliver a war engine
Speaker 1: with which the peoples will be smited and none shall
Speaker 1: be left standing, and from the ashes something new will arise.
Speaker 1: On July sixteenth, nineteen forty five, that engine was delivered,
Speaker 1: with the force of almost nineteen thousand tons of t
Speaker 1: n T. We knew the world would not be the same.
Speaker 1: A few people laughed, a few people cried, most people
Speaker 1: were silent. I remembered the line from the Hindu scripture
Speaker 1: the bag of ad Ghita. Vishnu is trying to persuade
Speaker 1: the prince that he should do his duty, and to
Speaker 1: impress him takes on his multi armed form, who says,
Speaker 1: now I am become death, the destroyer of worlds the
Speaker 1: atomic age had arrived. When it was revealed the following
Speaker 1: month that the Japanese city of Hiroshima had been wiped
Speaker 1: out by one single bomb, it was more clear than
Speaker 1: ever to Jack that if the Age of Horace was
Speaker 1: upon us, it was being dominated by its more destructive
Speaker 1: masculine urges and was leading the world toward catastrophe. A
Speaker 1: new force would be required to neutralize it, and a
Speaker 1: strong ally was needed to help invoke it. But Jack
Speaker 1: wouldn't be able to rely on Ed this time, who
Speaker 1: had been left traumatized by their last experiment. Grady McMurty,
Speaker 1: whose letter of distress to Alister Crowley had resulted in
Speaker 1: Smith's ousting as the Agape Lodge leader, returned from military
Speaker 1: service to find things little changed on Orange Grove Avenue.
Speaker 1: Having met Crowley in person during his travels through Europe,
Speaker 1: Crowley had once again asked him to keep a close
Speaker 1: eye on proceedings at the lodge. If Crowley had been
Speaker 1: hoping for greater order, would be sorely disappointed. Without full
Speaker 1: time employment, Jack decided to rent a number of rooms
Speaker 1: out to keep a steady income. He placed an ad
Speaker 1: in a local paper requesting applicants must not believe in God,
Speaker 1: and that only bohemians, musicians, atheists, anarchists, and artists need apply.
Speaker 1: Although a few ot O members answered Jack's request, most
Speaker 1: of the residents that Jack and Betty hand picked were
Speaker 1: chosen for what they would bring to the social mix.
Speaker 1: By the time Ron Hubbard turned up to stay, some
Speaker 1: twenty people had moved in, such as scientist Robert Kornock,
Speaker 1: who had assisted on the Manhattan Project, and future leading
Speaker 1: journalist Nis and Himmel, as well as a number of
Speaker 1: fortune tellers and enigmatic socialites. All were enamored with Jack,
Speaker 1: and all were intent on taking complete advantage of each
Speaker 1: other's company. Jack enjoyed theirs, too, but none more so
Speaker 1: than Hubbard's, who continued to impress Parsons with his raw
Speaker 1: magical capabilities. As Jack instructed Ron on the finer teachings
Speaker 1: of Thelama, Ron in turn shared his own ideas about
Speaker 1: how to rescue the human race from self destruction. It
Speaker 1: quickly became clear that Hubbard might well be the magical
Speaker 1: partner that Parsons had been looking for. One morning in September,
Speaker 1: Robert Kornock walked into Jack's room and found Hubbard in
Speaker 1: bed with Betty. As practitioners of Thelama, Jack, who continued
Speaker 1: to experiment with other partners, had encouraged Betty to do
Speaker 1: the same. In a way, they saw it as testament
Speaker 1: to their love that they could transcend the petty jealousies
Speaker 1: of conventional relationships and still find their way to each
Speaker 1: other by the end of the day. That was until
Speaker 1: she met Hubbard. Although it had all been obvious to
Speaker 1: many of the residents, Jack had not seen it coming.
Speaker 1: Hubbard left the house a few weeks later and booked
Speaker 1: himself into a hospital, claiming to be suffering from terrible
Speaker 1: pains caused by his war injuries. It was in fact
Speaker 1: a stomach ulcer, which he was intent on fully exploiting
Speaker 1: in the hope of being granted a pension from the Navy.
Speaker 1: Despite Hubbard now having gone, Betty no longer came to
Speaker 1: Jack's bed, and watching her pine for the absent writer
Speaker 1: only served to intensify his heartache. Late one night, lodge
Speaker 1: resident Alva Rodger's was woken by a strange, ominous noise
Speaker 1: that sounded like death. Stepping into the hall, he could
Speaker 1: see that Jack's door was slightly ajar with the flickering
Speaker 1: of candle light coming from within. Having never had the
Speaker 1: chance to see inside Jack's room and worried for its occupant,
Speaker 1: Roger's tiptoed across the hall and peered inside. The room
Speaker 1: was painted black and covered in bizarre cymbals. Thick and
Speaker 1: sweet incense filled the air, and in the middle of it, all,
Speaker 1: robed in black, with his arms stretched out, stood Jack
Speaker 1: at the altar of the gnostic Mass. At his feet
Speaker 1: was a large pentagram that he had drawn on the floor.
Speaker 1: As Rogers continued to gorp, he realized that the groaning
Speaker 1: was in fact chanting, indecipherable words that Jack repeated over
Speaker 1: and over again. A few days later, a strange atmosphere
Speaker 1: had descended over the lodge, with Rogers noticing a number
Speaker 1: of OTO members variously rushing about the house in great distress.
Speaker 1: Jane Wolf, who visited at the time, was prompted to
Speaker 1: write to Crowley, deeply concerned that there was something strange
Speaker 1: going on. Although it wasn't clear what Jack had apparently summoned,
Speaker 1: Some suspected a demon, others an elemental Whatever had occurred
Speaker 1: had changed him for the better. When Hubbard returned in
Speaker 1: early December, Jack welcomed him with open arms, making no
Speaker 1: effort to stand in his and Betty's way. What's more,
Speaker 1: he had finally realized what he had to do. Are
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Speaker 1: Slash Unexplained Podcast. Crowley's Thelema dictates that the final stage
Speaker 1: for the a depth involves the crossing of an abyss,
Speaker 1: inside which presides Coronson. Similar to the serpent in the
Speaker 1: Garden of Eden. Coronson is the metaphysical contrary of the
Speaker 1: whole process of magic, intent on trapping the traveler in
Speaker 1: a meaningless world of illusion. Yet, if the adept can
Speaker 1: successfully negotiate the abyss, they will find Babylon waiting to
Speaker 1: embrace them on the other side. The Book of Revelation
Speaker 1: declared Babylon the mother of harlots and abominations of the Earth,
Speaker 1: a female personification of evil and depravity. To Crowley, however,
Speaker 1: she represented the counterpart to his beast, a passive, lustful receiver,
Speaker 1: subduing the strength of whomever she lies with, completing oneness.
Speaker 1: To Parsons, she was much more like the sword wielding
Speaker 1: Virgin of the Gnostic Mass. Parsons considered Babylon to be
Speaker 1: anything but passive. As poet and cultural theorist Amy Ireland
Speaker 1: puts it, Parsons saw the purpose of Babylon not as
Speaker 1: the nullifier of the masculine world, but its conqueror, destined
Speaker 1: to bring an end to his world. She was the
Speaker 1: flame of life and power of darkness, who will feed
Speaker 1: upon the death of men beautiful horrible. This was whom
Speaker 1: Jack needed to summon, and he would need Hubbard's help
Speaker 1: to do so. Inspired by the sixteenth century magician and
Speaker 1: adviser to Queen Elizabeth, the First, Doctor John D. Parsons
Speaker 1: devised a plan for a magical working that would combine
Speaker 1: Crowley's own magic with D's Inochian magic. Sometime during the
Speaker 1: fifteen eighties, D, along with his seer Edward Kelly, undertook
Speaker 1: a series of scrying sessions, whereby they claimed to have
Speaker 1: made contact with angelic entities. Over the course of nearly
Speaker 1: a decade, the pair received communication of a secret magical language,
Speaker 1: which was delivered to them in a sea series of
Speaker 1: mystical tables comprising what D considered to be the Real
Speaker 1: Book of Enoch, a fabled text said to hold the
Speaker 1: secrets of the true reality of things. Since Crowley had
Speaker 1: written often of his success in using Anochian magic, it
Speaker 1: was through D's tablets that Parsons hoped to invoke the
Speaker 1: Goddess Babylon on January fourth, nineteen forty six, as Prokofiev's
Speaker 1: Violin Concerto Number two played gently in the background. Parsons
Speaker 1: and Hubbard prepared the magical squares, comprised of four twelve
Speaker 1: by thirteen tables of Anchian symbols, and consumed piote. By
Speaker 1: nine PM, as the slightest sliver of a waxing crescent
Speaker 1: moon rose high into the sky, the pair were ready
Speaker 1: to begin the Babylon working. Parsons picked his first square
Speaker 1: from the Inochian tablets, and starting at the upper right
Speaker 1: hand point, drew a pentagram in the air with the
Speaker 1: magic dagger, followed by the invocation of the bornless One.
Speaker 1: I invoke the bornless one, that dist create the earth
Speaker 1: and heavens, that dist create the night and day, that
Speaker 1: dist create the darkness and the light. The process continued
Speaker 1: long into the evening, with each invocation of the square
Speaker 1: culminating in the fertilizing of the parchment bearing the relevant symbol,
Speaker 1: by ritual masturbation, and finally banishment. The working lasted for
Speaker 1: eleven days in total, during which a number of strange
Speaker 1: occurrences took place. On the tenth, Jack was awoken in
Speaker 1: the night by the sound of nine loud knocks and
Speaker 1: the smashing of a lamp thrown violently to the floor.
Speaker 1: Four days later, the power in the house inexplicably cut out.
Speaker 1: As Hubbard prepared candles to continue the operation, he was
Speaker 1: struck forcibly on his right arm by something unseen, knocking
Speaker 1: a candle from his hand. Jack found him wincing in pain,
Speaker 1: staring up at a mysterious brownish yellow light that seemed
Speaker 1: to hang seven feet in the air. According to Hubbard,
Speaker 1: his arm remained paralyzed for the rest of the night.
Speaker 1: By January fifteenth, however, despite the peculiar events and Hubbard's
Speaker 1: insistence that he had seen various manifestations about the house,
Speaker 1: the Goddess Babylon had failed to materialize. Three days later,
Speaker 1: a disconsolate Jack made his way into the Mahave Desert,
Speaker 1: accompanied by Hubbard, looking for guidance on how to proceed.
Speaker 1: Jack had a favorite spot underneath the confluence of two
Speaker 1: vast power lines, where he would often sit and practice
Speaker 1: his magic. That morning, as Jack sat tuning into the
Speaker 1: electric hum of the wires while the pink light of
Speaker 1: the desert sun rose above the horizon, he was struck
Speaker 1: by a profound sense of certainty. Turning to Hubbard, he declared,
Speaker 1: it is done. Just before New Year, at the lodge,
Speaker 1: Parsons had been talking on the phone in his dressing
Speaker 1: gown when he spied a stranger wandering around the house.
Speaker 1: The red haired woman, who had recently been demobilized by
Speaker 1: the Navy, had come looking for the mad scientist that
Speaker 1: a friend had told her was living there. Jack disappeared
Speaker 1: to get dressed, returning a few moments later to find
Speaker 1: the woman playing records in a small alcove off the
Speaker 1: main hall. The pair regarded each other for a moment
Speaker 1: before Jack abruptly left. When he returned from his elatery
Speaker 1: trip to the desert, that same woman was waiting for
Speaker 1: him at the house. The woman was twenty three year
Speaker 1: old Marjorie Cameron, also known as Candy. Born in Belleplaine, Iowa.
Speaker 1: Cameron was a talented artist who had moved to Los
Speaker 1: Angeles hoping to further her work. Unbeknownst to her at
Speaker 1: the time, to Parsons, she was the missing link to
Speaker 1: completing the Babylon working the elemental he had been trying
Speaker 1: to summon back in December. With Cameron, Parsons hoped to
Speaker 1: conceive the very goddess he had been trying to deliver
Speaker 1: to Earth. The pair spent the best part of the
Speaker 1: next two weeks in bed together, before Cameron traveled to
Speaker 1: New York to break up with a recent boyfriend, returning
Speaker 1: in March to move in with Jack. In the meantime,
Speaker 1: Parsons had returned to the Mahave Desert, where on the
Speaker 1: last night of February he claimed to have received communication
Speaker 1: from the goddess Babylon herself. He recorded the message in
Speaker 1: a text called Liber forty nine that confirmed he would
Speaker 1: indeed father a magical child, but not before, as the
Speaker 1: messenger dictated, she shall absorb thee and thou shalt become
Speaker 1: living flame. Back in England, Alicer Crowley, who refused to
Speaker 1: recognize the legitimacy of Liber forty nine, was growing deeply
Speaker 1: concerned about Jack's new ventures. Having always believed in Parson's
Speaker 1: potential and keen to take advantage of his wealth, he
Speaker 1: made a last ditch effort to deter him from his
Speaker 1: chosen path, but Parson's mind was made up with a
Speaker 1: goddess to conceive Jack would require more money, and Julie
Speaker 1: began to seek employment. Hubbard had a better idea, however,
Speaker 1: suggesting that the both of them pull their money and
Speaker 1: talent together and go into business. Hubbard's first idea was
Speaker 1: to purchase three yachts in Miami and sail them back
Speaker 1: to California, where they could sell them on at a
Speaker 1: vast profit. Trusting his friend, Jack thought nothing of pouring
Speaker 1: most of his five figured savings into the venture, to
Speaker 1: which Hubbard contributed around a thousand dollars. In late April,
Speaker 1: Hubbard and Betty headed to Miami with ten thousand dollars
Speaker 1: to buy the yachts. By June, Parsons had yet to
Speaker 1: hear back from them. Fearing he had been swindled, he
Speaker 1: traveled to Florida to confront the pair, finding that they
Speaker 1: had indeed purchased three yachts, two of which he was
Speaker 1: able to locate, but the third of which the pair
Speaker 1: had used to evade him. That night, Parsons returned to
Speaker 1: his hotel room, drew a magic circle on the floor
Speaker 1: around him, and invoked the demon bartswal Spirit of Mars.
Speaker 1: At about the same time, a few miles off the coast,
Speaker 1: thick gray clouds were beginning to converge around a two
Speaker 1: masted schooner being piloted by a plump, red headed man
Speaker 1: and his young girlfriend. Within minutes, a squall swept across
Speaker 1: the sea, forcing the pair back to land, where they
Speaker 1: were immediately arrested by the US Coast Guard. It was
Speaker 1: the last time that Parsons and Hubbard would ever speak
Speaker 1: in August, although he hoped his fellow followers of Thelma
Speaker 1: would be on hand to help usher in the new
Speaker 1: aon he had started. Jack had been deeply embarrassed by
Speaker 1: Hubbard's betrayal and formally resigned from the OTO not long after.
Speaker 1: He and Cameron left ten zero three Orange Grove Avenue
Speaker 1: for good. In October, the couple were married, and though
Speaker 1: Parsons was convinced that Babylon would manifest, she remained elusive.
Speaker 1: In need again of work, Jack took a break from
Speaker 1: magic and focused instead on re establishing his career for
Speaker 1: the next few years, drifting from one consultancy job to another.
Speaker 1: He was hampered in nineteen forty eight after losing his
Speaker 1: National security clearance. At first, he assumed it was down
Speaker 1: to his involvement with the ODO, but it was another
Speaker 1: witch hunt that had done for him. Though Parsons did
Speaker 1: indeed have an FBI file full of references to his
Speaker 1: involvement in a shadowy sex cult. His clearance had in
Speaker 1: fact been revoked due to his apparent fraternizing with communists.
Speaker 1: Unlike many of his contemporaries, Parsons was lucky only to
Speaker 1: lose his security clearance, which was later reinstated then revoked
Speaker 1: again after he was caught stealing plans from the Hughes
Speaker 1: Aircraft Company, where he had recently been working. Inspired by
Speaker 1: his friend Herbert Rosenfeldt, Jack had been hoping to reignite
Speaker 1: his career in rocketry in the newly formed state of
Speaker 1: Israel before he was caught trying to pass the plans
Speaker 1: off to Rosenfeldt. In September nineteen fifty one, Jack and Cameron,
Speaker 1: who had been living alone in Mexico, moved into ten
Speaker 1: seventy one and a half South Orange Grove Avenue, barely
Speaker 1: a stone's throw from the former a Gape Lodge. Their
Speaker 1: apartments were located above a large laundry room on the
Speaker 1: ground floor, which Jack promptly turned into a working lab.
Speaker 1: Since getting married, Jack and Cameron's relationship had not been
Speaker 1: quite as harmonious as might have once been promised, but
Speaker 1: they were now determined to make it work. Having settled
Speaker 1: again in Pasadena and Reinvigorated by Cameron's return, it wasn't
Speaker 1: long before Jack was once again dabbling in his sacred magic,
Speaker 1: and soon he and Cameron were establishing their bohemian reputations,
Speaker 1: hosting parties long into the night. But when Jack's security
Speaker 1: clearance is formally revoked in January, he and Cameron make
Speaker 1: plans to take an extended leave from the States. By June,
Speaker 1: the couple had wrapped up their various affairs and moved
Speaker 1: into four to four, a royal terrace with Jack's mother, Ruth,
Speaker 1: with the intention of traveling on to Mexico soon after.
Speaker 1: On the morning of the seventeenth, with the couple's luggage
Speaker 1: lining the corridors of the house, Jack receives a request
Speaker 1: to mix a quick explosive device for a movie special
Speaker 1: effects company he had been working for. Grateful for the
Speaker 1: extra cash, Jack headed over to the lab at ten
Speaker 1: seventy one and a half South Orange Grove and got
Speaker 1: to work. In the meantime, Cameron headed out to the
Speaker 1: local grocery store to get some last minute supplies for
Speaker 1: the journey. Cameron had just exited the store when she
Speaker 1: heard two huge explosions coming from the direction of Orange
Speaker 1: Grove Avenue that were followed by a black plume of
Speaker 1: smoke rising into the air at ten seventy one and
Speaker 1: a half south Orange Grove. Lodgers Gregg Gancy and Martin
Speaker 1: for Shog had both been upstairs when the explosion tore
Speaker 1: through the house. Racing to the laundry room, they found
Speaker 1: themselves staring straight out into the open air, the three
Speaker 1: opposite walls having been completely obliterated. Dust clouds and smoke
Speaker 1: were lifting into the sky as reams of shredded paper
Speaker 1: covered in strange symbols flapped about the room, and just
Speaker 1: audible from somewhere amidst the rubble, the pained groans of
Speaker 1: a man spotting a pool of blood under an upturned
Speaker 1: bath tub. Gregg pulled it from the wall and gasped
Speaker 1: in horror. Jack's right arm had been completely torn off
Speaker 1: and his leg bones shattered to pieces. One half of
Speaker 1: his face had been ripped apart, revealing his jaw and teeth,
Speaker 1: and out of the other side an eye. Desperately pleading
Speaker 1: with Gregg for help. By the time Cameron makes it
Speaker 1: to the hospital, it is too late. The thirty seven
Speaker 1: year old Jack Parsons is already dead. Later that evening,
Speaker 1: Jack's mother, Ruth, is informed of her only son's death.
Speaker 1: Driven to a state of mania by the news, a
Speaker 1: friend is despatched to fetch her some sedatives. After successfully
Speaker 1: calming Ruth down, the friend heads to the kitchen to
Speaker 1: fetch her a glass of water. By the time she returns,
Speaker 1: Ruth is slumped in a chair and rapidly losing consciousness,
Speaker 1: the empty bottle of pills on the floor beside her.
Speaker 1: By nine p m. She too will be dead. A
Speaker 1: number of theories will emerge as to the cause of
Speaker 1: Jack Parson's death, with one friend declaring, like all great alchemists,
Speaker 1: he had been attempting to create a homunculus when something
Speaker 1: went terribly wrong. A more sober account suggests that Parsons,
Speaker 1: who had often trod a reckless line with his handling
Speaker 1: of chemicals, had been mixing fulminate of mercury in a
Speaker 1: coffee tin when he had dropped it, causing a catastrophic explosion.
Speaker 1: Cameron will later allege that the explosion had been caused
Speaker 1: by something under the floor, suggesting Parsons, who as a
Speaker 1: fresh faced twenty three year old, had acted as an
Speaker 1: expert witness in an lapd corruption case may have been assassinated,
Speaker 1: although Jack would not live to see it. On July twentieth,
Speaker 1: nineteen sixty nine, the dream that had started it all
Speaker 1: off was finally realized when Nassa's Apollo eleven lunar module,
Speaker 1: powered by rockets developed at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory using
Speaker 1: techniques invented by Parsons, touched down on the Moon, and
Speaker 1: in nineteen seventy two, the International Astronomical Union named a
Speaker 1: crater on the dark side of the Moon in honor
Speaker 1: of the often forgotten genius of rocket science and what
Speaker 1: then of Babylon. Though Jack himself had given up hope
Speaker 1: that the intended results of his working would ever come
Speaker 1: to be writing in an essay titled Black Circuit Code
Speaker 1: for the Numbers to Come, Cultural theorist Amy Ireland makes
Speaker 1: a startling observation. Back in nineteen forty eight, Parsons had
Speaker 1: carried out a ritual known as the Oath of the Abyss.
Speaker 1: In a subsequent two paced document he wrote, he declared
Speaker 1: that Babylon the Scarlet Woman will manifest seven years later
Speaker 1: and bring his work to fruition in nineteen fifty five,
Speaker 1: precisely seven years later, computer scientists John McCarthy, Marvin Minsky,
Speaker 1: and Nathaniel Rochester began making plans for a conference to
Speaker 1: discuss the future of thinking machines. The team's subsequent proposal,
Speaker 1: delivered on September the second, nineteen fifty five, marked the
Speaker 1: first formal introduction of a brand new field of computational study.
Speaker 1: They called it artificial intelligence. If you enjoy listening to
Speaker 1: Unexplained and would like to help supporters, you can now
Speaker 1: go to Unexplained podcast dot com forward slash support. All donations,
Speaker 1: no matter how large or small, are massively appreciated. All
Speaker 1: elements of Unexplained are produced by me, Richard McClain Smith.
Speaker 1: Please subscribe and rate the show iTunes. Feel free to
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Speaker 1: stories you've heard on the show. Perhaps you have an
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Speaker 1: Twitter at Unexplained Pod. Hello, it's Jamie from my dad
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