Speaker 1: We like to think we know the difference between fantasy
Speaker 1: and reality. Perhaps one evening we might find ourselves alone
Speaker 1: at home. Then we hear a noise or see something odd.
Speaker 1: Maybe it's a cupboard door left slightly ajar, a door
Speaker 1: that we could have sworn was closed before. Slowly we
Speaker 1: might begin to feel the creeping sense of fear that
Speaker 1: perhaps someone somewhere is watching us, that we aren't alone
Speaker 1: after all. Fear, it would seem, is a powerful primal emotion,
Speaker 1: so potent that it can even make us afraid of
Speaker 1: something that may not exist. But then again, just because
Speaker 1: we can't see something doesn't mean it isn't there. In
Speaker 1: a physiological sense, at least, most people would feel confident
Speaker 1: if asked to locate and identify the human heart, or
Speaker 1: indeed the brain. But if someone were to ask where
Speaker 1: exactly does consciousness preside, we might find the answer a
Speaker 1: little harder to come by. It is a question that
Speaker 1: has profound consequences, particularly if you're inclined to believe that
Speaker 1: the mind might also exist outside the body. You're listening
Speaker 1: to Unexplained And I'm Richard McClain Smith on one cold
Speaker 1: January evening in nineteen twenty four, a young woman named
Speaker 1: Doris was giving birth at the Royal Free Hospital in Hampstead, London.
Speaker 1: The attending obstatrician, Lady Florence Barrett, had made a successful
Speaker 1: to live free when things took a turn for the worse.
Speaker 1: Just as the baby was being born, Doris suffered a
Speaker 1: sudden heart attack from which she would not recover. As
Speaker 1: she lay dying, she grabbed Lady Barrett's hand. Don't let
Speaker 1: it get dark, she said, It's getting darker and darker.
Speaker 1: But then something extraordinary happened. An ecstatic smile played across
Speaker 1: Doris's face. What is it, inquired Lady Barrett. Father is here,
Speaker 1: she said, and so too my sister Vida. The sudden
Speaker 1: appearance of Vida was especially remarkable, considering she had died
Speaker 1: two weeks earlier and Doris had not yet been informed
Speaker 1: of her death. For the next hour, Doris continued to
Speaker 1: talk to Lady Barrett, but also with the spirits of
Speaker 1: her father and sister, who she believed had come to
Speaker 1: take her to the other side. A short time later,
Speaker 1: Doris passed away. When Lady Barrett returned home, she relayed
Speaker 1: the incredible story to her husband, Sir William Barrett. For
Speaker 1: Sir William, an eminent physicist and fellow of the Royal Society,
Speaker 1: it was an astonishing revelation, a revelation that was to
Speaker 1: mark a significant turning point in the research he had
Speaker 1: been conducting for the last fifty years, research into the
Speaker 1: possible existence of poltergeist's. The word poltergeist is derived from
Speaker 1: the German for a ghost that knocks. For some, they
Speaker 1: are believed to be malevolent spirits that can interact and
Speaker 1: communicate with our physical world. Sir William, however, had a
Speaker 1: different theory. Rather than being the mechanations of an evil spirit,
Speaker 1: he believed the reported effects of poltergeists were actually caused
Speaker 1: by as yet unknown powers of the mind. He believed
Speaker 1: this right up until Lady Barrett told him the tragic
Speaker 1: story about her patient Doris. Suddenly it had become clear.
Speaker 1: Could it be he thought that the poltergeist was a spirit?
Speaker 1: After all, that, unlike the spirit of Lady Barrett's patient had,
Speaker 1: for reasons perhaps linked to the manner of their death,
Speaker 1: not being collected by loved ones while waiting at death's door. Instead,
Speaker 1: they had become trapped forever, destined to exist in the
Speaker 1: horror of a disembodied limbo. For author and paranormal enthusiast
Speaker 1: Colin Wilson, his feet were firmly in the former camp.
Speaker 1: He believed the habit caused by so called poltergeists was
Speaker 1: in fact linked to the chemically charged process of puberty
Speaker 1: and adolescence, or at least he believed that until something
Speaker 1: extraordinary occurred that would change his mind as well. Just
Speaker 1: what exactly took place in a small West Yorkshire town
Speaker 1: between nineteen sixty six and nineteen seventy has never been
Speaker 1: fully accounted for. Often described as the most violent haunting
Speaker 1: in Europe, it is a mystery that remains to this
Speaker 1: day unexplained. Located on a Roman road part way between
Speaker 1: Leeds and Doncaster, the town of Pontefract has a rich
Speaker 1: and bloody history. For John Betchaman, it was home to
Speaker 1: the licorice fields, where his love and he did meet.
Speaker 1: For Shakespeare, the town's castle was the place of Richard
Speaker 1: the Second's brutal murder, hacked to death within the guilty
Speaker 1: closure of its walls, and some have even claimed Pontefract
Speaker 1: as the death place of Robin Hood. But for the
Speaker 1: Pritchard family of number thirty East drive. It will forever
Speaker 1: be associated with the terrifying events that began one swelteringly
Speaker 1: hot day in August nineteen sixty six. For Jeane and
Speaker 1: Joe Pritchard and their twelve year old daughter, Diane, the
Speaker 1: August Bank holiday weekend was a chance to relax after
Speaker 1: the recent move into their new home. For Jean and
Speaker 1: Joe's son, Philip, however, it was a chance to have
Speaker 1: some time to himself. Having fallen out with his father,
Speaker 1: Philip had elected to stay behind, but since he was
Speaker 1: only fifteen, it was arranged that his grandmother, Sarah would
Speaker 1: stay to look after him. After seeing the rest of
Speaker 1: the family off, Philip went to the garden to read,
Speaker 1: leaving his grandmother knitting inside the house. A few hours later,
Speaker 1: a large gust of wind tore through the living room,
Speaker 1: slamming the back door shut. A surprised Philip ran into
Speaker 1: the house to see if everything was all right. Sarah
Speaker 1: had assumed it to be the wind, but as Philip remarked,
Speaker 1: it couldn't have been more calm outside. Shortly after, Philip
Speaker 1: went to put the kettle on. When he returned ten
Speaker 1: minutes later, something strange had occurred. His grandmother still knitting
Speaker 1: on the sofa, had been too engrossed to notice the
Speaker 1: peculiar cloud of fine white dust floating around the room. Instinctively,
Speaker 1: they looked to the ceiling, thinking it might be some
Speaker 1: whitewash that had fallen from above. But then Philip noticed
Speaker 1: something incredibly strange. The dust seemed to be falling from
Speaker 1: waist height, as if it had materialized out of a
Speaker 1: Sarah noticed it too when she stood up from the sofa,
Speaker 1: it was as if she had poked her head above
Speaker 1: the clouds. Puzzled by the strange appearance of the dust,
Speaker 1: Sarah called on her other daughter, Marie Kelly, who lived
Speaker 1: in the house opposite. They returned to find the dust
Speaker 1: still falling in the living room, the furnishings now completely
Speaker 1: covered in a thick layer of the chalk like substance.
Speaker 1: Marie went to the kitchen to begin cleaning the mess,
Speaker 1: when she suddenly skidded across the floor. She looked down
Speaker 1: to find little pools of water all over the linoleum,
Speaker 1: but when she tried to mop one up, another puddle
Speaker 1: would seem to instantly appear in its place. Assuming it
Speaker 1: to be a leak coming up from under the house,
Speaker 1: Marie pulled up the lino, only to find the concrete
Speaker 1: underneath completely dry. A plumber was called to the house,
Speaker 1: but he too was unable to locate the cause of
Speaker 1: the flood. An hour later, the puddles mysteriously disappeared. What
Speaker 1: they didn't know at the time was that those strange,
Speaker 1: reoccurring puddles are considered a classic sign of a poltergeist.
Speaker 1: At about seven o'clock that evening, Philip came through from
Speaker 1: the kitchen. It's happening again, he said. When Sarah followed
Speaker 1: Philip into the kitchen, she found the counter covered in
Speaker 1: sugar and tea leaves. The dispenser was switching itself on
Speaker 1: and off as boiling water cascaded onto the surface top. Suddenly,
Speaker 1: an almighty crash came from out in the hallway. Clearly
Speaker 1: somebody was in the house. Philip and Sarah cautiously approached
Speaker 1: the door and slowly pulled it open, but the hallway
Speaker 1: was empty. Then the light was inexplicably turned on, revealing
Speaker 1: the sauce of the crash. At the bottom of the
Speaker 1: stairs was a plant pot that had been smashed on
Speaker 1: the floor. Then another banging started, this time coming from
Speaker 1: the kitchen. In terror, they ran back to find one
Speaker 1: of the cupboards shaking violently, as if somebody was trapped inside.
Speaker 1: In a fit of panic, Philip yanked it open, but
Speaker 1: it was empty. They ran again to get Marie. When
Speaker 1: they returned, all the cupboard doors were now shaking, the
Speaker 1: cutlery and plates rattling violently inside, and then it stopped.
Speaker 1: Marie's husband, Vic, although skeptical, suggested they speak to their neighbor,
Speaker 1: mister o'donald, who was thought to have experience dealing with
Speaker 1: such things. Despite the lateness of the hour, mister o'donald
Speaker 1: was more than happy to oblige. On returning to number thirty,
Speaker 1: they found the place to be exceptionally cold. However, after
Speaker 1: waiting for almost two hours, they found no sign of
Speaker 1: anything else untoward. But as three were exiting the house,
Speaker 1: a loud crash was heard from inside. Marie sweeched on
Speaker 1: the light to find that two paintings had been thrown
Speaker 1: to the floor, their glass frames completely shattered, and further
Speaker 1: down the hall lay another a broken frame. Marie turned
Speaker 1: it over and gasped it was a photo of Jean
Speaker 1: and Joe Pritchard on their wedding day. It had been
Speaker 1: slashed right across their faces. Are you always taking care
Speaker 1: of your family? Do you often take care of others
Speaker 1: and not yourself? Now it's time to take care of yourself,
Speaker 1: to make time for you you deserve it. Teledoc gives
Speaker 1: you access to a licensed therapist to help you get
Speaker 1: back to feeling your best to feeling like yourself again.
Speaker 1: With tele adoc, you can speak to a licensed therapist
Speaker 1: by phone or video. Therapy appointments are available seven days
Speaker 1: a week from seven am to nine pm local time.
Speaker 1: If you feel overwhelmed sometimes maybe you feel stressed or anxious,
Speaker 1: depressed or lonely, or you might be struggling with a
Speaker 1: personal or family issue, teledoc can help. Teledoc is committed
Speaker 1: to facilitating great therapeutic matches, so they make it easy
Speaker 1: to change counselors if needed. For free. Teledoc therapy is
Speaker 1: available through most insurance or employers. Download the app or
Speaker 1: visit teledoc dot com forward slash Unexplained podcast today to
Speaker 1: get started. That's teladoc dot com slash Unexplained Podcast. When
Speaker 1: the rest of the family returned two days later, they
Speaker 1: struggled to believe the accounts of Marie, Sarah, and Philip,
Speaker 1: and that appeared to be the end of the incident.
Speaker 1: Two years later, as the August Bank holiday came round again,
Speaker 1: Jean's mother, Sarah, couldn't help but be reminded of the
Speaker 1: events of nineteen sixty six. She started to hear noises again,
Speaker 1: a low thud at first, shortly followed by a familiar
Speaker 1: loud bang. She asked her daughter if she'd heard them too. Jean,
Speaker 1: who had spent most of the day redecorating, had little
Speaker 1: patience for her mother's nonsense and told her so in
Speaker 1: no uncertain terms. Seconds later, however, there was a tremendous crash.
Speaker 1: At the bottom of the stairs was Jean's bed pane.
Speaker 1: She picked it up and started carrying it back to
Speaker 1: her bedroom when they heard a second crash. Racing back
Speaker 1: to the landing, they found that three plants had been
Speaker 1: thrown and smashed from their pots. It would appear the
Speaker 1: poltergeist was back. That evening, Jean, unable to sleep, headed
Speaker 1: to the kitchen to get a drink, but when she
Speaker 1: walked into the hall, she froze in fear. A strip
Speaker 1: of wallpaper was moving on its own accord, and then
Speaker 1: the brushes she had been decorating with earlier were pulled
Speaker 1: into the air, and one after the other launched at
Speaker 1: her head. She scrambled back to the room, screaming for
Speaker 1: Joe to wake up. Joe and Jean rushed back to
Speaker 1: the hall, where Diana and Philip now stood, woken by
Speaker 1: Jean's screens. All around, more objects were pulled into the
Speaker 1: air and flung at the terrified family. Together, they fled
Speaker 1: to the safety of Joe and Jean's bedroom and the
Speaker 1: door shut. At this point, it might be reasonable to
Speaker 1: ask why the Pritchards didn't move, but they argued the
Speaker 1: event had brought out an innate territorial nature. This was
Speaker 1: their home and they weren't about to allow themselves to
Speaker 1: be bullied out of it. For the next few years,
Speaker 1: they endured a number of strange events, from loud bangs
Speaker 1: to severe drops in temperature, as well as the intermittent
Speaker 1: battles with flying objects. They had even given the poltergeist
Speaker 1: a name, calling him Fred. At one point, a local
Speaker 1: reverend was consulted, which seemed to act as a catalyst
Speaker 1: to a sinister turn of events. The reverend, mister Davy,
Speaker 1: was convinced there was something evil inside the house, something
Speaker 1: that later seemed to fix its attention on Diane. One night,
Speaker 1: after getting into bed, Diane felt a presence in her room. Suddenly,
Speaker 1: the covers were yanked from the bed and the mattress
Speaker 1: wrenched up from underneath, throwing her violently to the floor.
Speaker 1: Another time, a crucifix was flung across the room that
Speaker 1: stuck to Diane's back like a magnet. When it was
Speaker 1: finally pulled off, a red cross shaped mark could be
Speaker 1: seen on her back for the next few days. Perhaps
Speaker 1: the most terrifying event happened one night when Diane was
Speaker 1: making coffee. As the kettle boiled, the power was suddenly
Speaker 1: cut off. As Jean stumbled to find a torch, Diane
Speaker 1: let out a blood curdling screen. When Jean ran into
Speaker 1: the hall, she found Diane being dragged up the stairs
Speaker 1: by an unknown force, her cardigan stretched out behind her
Speaker 1: as if being pulled, and an invisible hand seemingly at
Speaker 1: her throat. When Diane was finally released, her neck was
Speaker 1: covered in finger marks. The events finally came to an
Speaker 1: end after a family friend alerted them to an old
Speaker 1: Scottish tradition many years ago. Superstitious crofters would hang garlic
Speaker 1: to ward off evil spirits. The Pritchards gave it a go,
Speaker 1: and sure enough it did the trick Fred had gone.
Speaker 1: Ten years later, local historian Tom Cuniff began to wander
Speaker 1: if the haunting might have something to do with the
Speaker 1: Pontefract Priory. The priory had been built to house a
Speaker 1: number of Cluniac monks before being dissolved by Henry the
Speaker 1: Eighth in fifteen thirty nine. The story gained credence when
Speaker 1: a neighbor of the family found a book in the
Speaker 1: town's library detailing the case of an unsavory Cluniac monk.
Speaker 1: The monk had been sentenced to hang for the rape
Speaker 1: and murder of a young girl during the time of
Speaker 1: Henry the Eighth. It was also believed that the monk
Speaker 1: had strangled his victim. After a little more research, Tom
Speaker 1: made an unnerving discovery. The Pritchard's house was built almost
Speaker 1: directly on top of where the old gallows would have stood.
Speaker 1: In truth, we will never know exactly what happened in
Speaker 1: those four years, but after a careful study of the records,
Speaker 1: it would appear that no monk had been executed in
Speaker 1: the area after all. Certainly, the debate as to what
Speaker 1: might explain the strange series of events remains wide open.
Speaker 1: A few years after the Pontefract haunting came to an end,
Speaker 1: a group of Canadian scientists, intrigued by poltergeist phenomena, carried
Speaker 1: out an extraordinary experiment that they hoped might settle the
Speaker 1: debate once and for all. The experiment, created by Canadian
Speaker 1: mathematician doctor George Owen and overseen by psychologist Joel Witten
Speaker 1: of the University of Toronto, took place in nineteen seventy
Speaker 1: two and has become known as the Philip Experiment. Together
Speaker 1: with the test group of individuals of extremely high IQ,
Speaker 1: including doctor Owen's wife, Iris Owen, a former chair person
Speaker 1: of MENSA Canada, the scientists claimed, under test conditions to
Speaker 1: have contacted a spirit known as Philip. The spirit was
Speaker 1: even captured on video, seemingly conversing with the group through
Speaker 1: knox on a table and at one point even moving
Speaker 1: the table around the room. The only thing was Philip
Speaker 1: didn't exist. A few months earlier, the group had been
Speaker 1: tasked with creating a fictitious individual with whom they might
Speaker 1: later try to contact. The group settled on a character
Speaker 1: that they named Philip Aylesford born in sixteen twenty four.
Speaker 1: Philip was given an entire backstory, including links to a
Speaker 1: young Charles the Second. It was also decided that Philip's
Speaker 1: life had come to a tragic end, committing suicide at
Speaker 1: the age of thirty after his girlfriend was accused of
Speaker 1: witchcraft and later burnt at the stake. Having sufficiently plotted
Speaker 1: out the story of Philip's life, the group began trying
Speaker 1: to contact his spirit. After a number of months, the
Speaker 1: experiment failed to yield any meaningful results. However, when they
Speaker 1: adopted a different approach, this time recreating the atmospheric setting
Speaker 1: of as seance, the results were staggering. Almost instantly, they
Speaker 1: experienced that the familiar knocking noises associated with poltergeist hauntings,
Speaker 1: followed by the table being rocked and pulled across the room.
Speaker 1: The group was utterly convinced. They believed that the sound
Speaker 1: and the movement of the table was the result of
Speaker 1: their collective minds trained in such a way as to
Speaker 1: effect the physical world around them. What they claimed to
Speaker 1: have discovered was nothing less than telekinesis. Unsurprisingly, their results
Speaker 1: met with skepticism from the scientific community. And despite claims
Speaker 1: to have replicated the results in studies across the world,
Speaker 1: an absolute proof has remained elusive. But perhaps it is
Speaker 1: something else entirely that is taking place, something unrelated to
Speaker 1: the spirits of the dead, real or otherwise. In his
Speaker 1: essay Mind and Matter, the celebrated Austrian physicist Erwin Schroedinger
Speaker 1: considered the relationship between our conscious minds and the physical world.
Speaker 1: He believed it was merely a convenience to imagine the
Speaker 1: world existing objectively on its own, that one way or another,
Speaker 1: it does not become manifest without a conscious mind to
Speaker 1: observe it. The inference being not that the material world
Speaker 1: might only exist as a figment of our imagination, but
Speaker 1: rather that our conscious minds might somehow create the physical
Speaker 1: world around us. As improbable as this may sound, the
Speaker 1: truth may be even stranger, as demonstrated by what is
Speaker 1: known as the double Slit experiment. Physicists have come to
Speaker 1: accept an extraordinary peculiarity in the way that subatomic particles behave.
Speaker 1: Thanks to the work of physicist Max Bourne, it is
Speaker 1: widely thought, in the mathematical sense, at least, that rather
Speaker 1: than occupying determined positions and outcomes. All particles exist merely
Speaker 1: as a collection of probabilities. The principle is known as superposition,
Speaker 1: and its implications are unfathomably profound. In short, it would
Speaker 1: seem that only when a particle is observed by the
Speaker 1: external world does it become fixed in any meaningful way,
Speaker 1: Perhaps like the eponymous planet of Stanislavlem's Solaris. We might
Speaker 1: imagine the universe as merely a giant mass of energy
Speaker 1: drawn into shape and form when witnessed by our conscious minds.
Speaker 1: The world we create an experience, seamlessly assembled before us,
Speaker 1: as if molded from some kind of subatomic putty. Is
Speaker 1: it inconceivable that, rather than being the disembodied energy of
Speaker 1: a malevolent spirit or the as yet untapped power of telekinesis,
Speaker 1: the Poltergeist phenomena is nothing less than our imaginations becoming manifest,
Speaker 1: a phenomena powered by the heightened sense of collective fear.
Speaker 1: With this in mind, you might start to wander just
Speaker 1: what terrors could we create next? As it might seem,
Speaker 1: it is not fear itself that we should be afraid of,
Speaker 1: but rather ourselves that we should fear. All elements have
Speaker 1: unexplained are produced by me Richard McClain smith. Please subscribe
Speaker 1: and rate the show on iTunes. Feel free to get
Speaker 1: in touch with any thoughts or ideas regarding the stories
Speaker 1: you've heard on the show. Perhaps you have an explanation
Speaker 1: of your own you'd like to share. You can reach
Speaker 1: us online at Unexplained podcast dot com or on Twitter
Speaker 1: at Unexplained Pod. Now. It's time to take care of yourself.
Speaker 1: To make time for you, Tell a doc gives you
Speaker 1: access to a licensed therapist to help you get back
Speaker 1: to feeling your best. Speak to a licensed therapist by
Speaker 1: phone or video anytime between seven am to nine pm
Speaker 1: local time, seven days a week. Teledoc Therapy is available
Speaker 1: through most insurance or employers. Download the app or visit
Speaker 1: teledoc dot com Forward slash Unexplained Podcast today to get started.
Speaker 1: That's teladoc dot com slash Unexplained Podcast