Speaker 1: This show is sponsored by Better Help Online Therapy. Visitbetterhelp
Speaker 1: dot com Forward slash Unexplained one zero because honestly, being
Speaker 1: a human can be exhausting. Welcome to Unexplained Extra with
Speaker 1: me Richard McClain Smith, where for the weeks in between episodes,
Speaker 1: we look at stories and ideas that, for one reason
Speaker 1: or other, didn't make it into the previous show. In
Speaker 1: the last episode, The Widening Gyre, we heard the remarkable
Speaker 1: story of the Hodgson family and the strange events that
Speaker 1: plagued them in their home at two hundred and eighty
Speaker 1: four Green Street in Endfield in the late nineteen seventies
Speaker 1: in what is commonly referred to as the Enfield Poltergeist.
Speaker 1: Their story is often cited as one of the most
Speaker 1: compelling examples of apparent poltergeist activity on record. Despite the
Speaker 1: story being told in three parts, there was so much
Speaker 1: that took place over the year or so that the
Speaker 1: incidents occurred, it simply wasn't possible to fit it all in.
Speaker 1: One element that would have been fun to include was
Speaker 1: Maurice Gross's Road of a Tests, in which he attempted
Speaker 1: to capture the voices of the debt on his tape recorder.
Speaker 1: On one occasion, while alone in the kitchen, Maurice sat
Speaker 1: down with the tape recorder and asked, if there is
Speaker 1: an entity here, will you please communicate by speaking directly
Speaker 1: into the microphone. When playing the tape back, it is
Speaker 1: said that the word no was heard in a clear
Speaker 1: whisper in quick response to the question. Another time, Guy
Speaker 1: Playfair had tried to do the same thing by leaving
Speaker 1: a tape recorder running in the main bedroom while the
Speaker 1: Hodgsons were downstairs listening back to the tape. Later, Guy
Speaker 1: reportedly heard what he believed could potentially have been a
Speaker 1: voice saying here I come and hello. Another element that
Speaker 1: I wasn't quite able to give too much attention to
Speaker 1: was the constant questioning between the two investigators as to
Speaker 1: whether their presence in the house was actually prolonging the
Speaker 1: disturbances rather than helping them to come to an end. Certainly,
Speaker 1: it seems both Guy and Morris felt genuine compassion and
Speaker 1: concern for the family, and despite their own personal interest
Speaker 1: in wanting to investigate the possibility of the paranormal, both
Speaker 1: wanted above all to help bring an end to the
Speaker 1: unusual activity. And though it's impossible to say whether the
Speaker 1: added attention they brought to it all made things worse
Speaker 1: or not. They would often find ways to show their
Speaker 1: support for the family whenever they could. In December nineteen
Speaker 1: seventy seven, just as things were really coming to a head,
Speaker 1: Guy invited twenty two year old Matthew Manning to the
Speaker 1: Hodgson's home to speak with the children about his own
Speaker 1: experience with apparent poltergeists. Those experiences first began in the
Speaker 1: nineteen sixties, when Manning was only a boy. By nineteen
Speaker 1: seventy seven, however, he was firmly established as the UK's
Speaker 1: most famous proponent of apparent psychic phenomena. In the summer
Speaker 1: of nineteen seventy four, bunkered down in a lab at
Speaker 1: the New Horizon's Research Foundation in Toronto, Canada, a nineteen
Speaker 1: year old Matthew Manning sits quietly on a chair as
Speaker 1: the men in white coats busy themselves around him. With
Speaker 1: everything ready, Doctor Joel Whitten, under the guidance of doctor
Speaker 1: George Owen, takes his place behind the computer monitor and
Speaker 1: after some final checks, turns his attention back to Matthew.
Speaker 1: Try not to be too nervous, he says, as he
Speaker 1: places the electro and cephalerm sense a strap around Matthew's head.
Speaker 1: Then picking up an ordinary household cylinder key from a
Speaker 1: nearby table, Witten places it in Matthew's hands, then steps
Speaker 1: back to join Owen behind the monitor. Now says Witten
Speaker 1: to Matthew, switch on your power. The young man with
Speaker 1: long dark hair and van Dyke beard closes his eyes
Speaker 1: and begins to focus. Just then a strange pattern emerges
Speaker 1: on the monitor, displaying a sudden spike of brainwave activity.
Speaker 1: Only it isn't like anything that Witten or Owen has
Speaker 1: ever seen before. In fact, only one other scientist who
Speaker 1: is present at the time has seen anything like it,
Speaker 1: when he'd been observing the brain function of a patient
Speaker 1: in the aftermath of a severe psychotropic drug overdose. The
Speaker 1: sudden spike of activity lasts for twenty seconds, after which
Speaker 1: Matthew opens his eyes and holds out his hand to
Speaker 1: reveal the key that is now ever so slightly bent
Speaker 1: in the middle at a fifteen degree angle. It was
Speaker 1: back in nineteen sixty seven that doctor George Owen was
Speaker 1: first introduced to Matthew Manning, or more precisely, to the
Speaker 1: Manning family. It was then that Matthew's father, Deryck, first
Speaker 1: became aware of objects seemingly moving of their own accord
Speaker 1: around the family's home in Shelford, in the southeast of England.
Speaker 1: It started early one morning in February nineteen sixty seven,
Speaker 1: when Derrick came downstairs to refuel the fire, only to
Speaker 1: find an old tankard of his lying in the middle
Speaker 1: of the living room. The tankard, which usually sat on
Speaker 1: a shelf at the far end of the room, had
Speaker 1: no reason to have ended up where it was unless
Speaker 1: someone had deliberately placed it there. After asking his wife,
Speaker 1: Valerie and their three children, eleven year old Matthew, eight
Speaker 1: year old Rosalind and six year old Steve if any
Speaker 1: of them had left it there, all claimed not to
Speaker 1: have a clue what he was talking about. When the
Speaker 1: tankard appeared on the floor three more times in the
Speaker 1: following week, Derrick had the instinctive feeling that something other
Speaker 1: worldly was taking place. This feeling only intensified when, over
Speaker 1: the next week or so, more items from furniture to
Speaker 1: ashtrays and vases were also found to have seemingly moved
Speaker 1: on their own accord. Strangely, the activity would always take
Speaker 1: place between seven and seven thirty am in the morning,
Speaker 1: when Derrick was often the only member of the family
Speaker 1: awake at the time. Not knowing who to speak to
Speaker 1: about it, Derek approached the local police, who suggested he
Speaker 1: contact doctor Owen. At the time, Owen was a lecturer
Speaker 1: on the subject of genetics at nearby Cambridge University, while
Speaker 1: also a member of the Cambridge Psychical Research Society. Recognizing
Speaker 1: what he thought to be the telltale science of potential
Speaker 1: poltergeist activity, Owen agreed to visit the Mannings to see
Speaker 1: it for himself one foggy morning. After driving up to
Speaker 1: the village of Shelford, Owen parted car some distance from
Speaker 1: the Mannings house. Then, making sure not to alert the
Speaker 1: family to his presence, he quietly made his way to
Speaker 1: the property at six thirty am. He positioned himself outside
Speaker 1: the living room window, then simply watched for any sign
Speaker 1: of movement inside. When forty five minutes had passed, having
Speaker 1: seen nothing untoward, Owen made his way to the front
Speaker 1: door and let himself into the house. By the time
Speaker 1: he'd reached the living room only seconds later, a number
Speaker 1: of objects inside it had moved. It took me a
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Speaker 1: before the family began hearing strange sounds throughout the house,
Speaker 1: from the occasional knocking on walls to high pitched pinging
Speaker 1: sounds like beads being thrown against glass. After spending more
Speaker 1: time with the family, doctor Owen came to the conclusion
Speaker 1: that one of the children were unwittingly responsible for the
Speaker 1: unusual act civity, and suggested to Derek and Valerie that
Speaker 1: they be removed from the house for a week to
Speaker 1: test out his theory. During that time, the strange events
Speaker 1: ceased completely. When the children returned, the unseen movement of
Speaker 1: random objects continued just as it had left off, with
Speaker 1: as many as eleven various items being found to have
Speaker 1: moved in the space of fifteen minutes in one room
Speaker 1: when apparently nobody was near them at the time. With
Speaker 1: Matthew being the oldest child and on the cusp of puberty,
Speaker 1: doctor Owen began to speculate that he was the true
Speaker 1: focus of the events, though things petered out for a time.
Speaker 1: In September nineteen sixty eight, Matthew was sent away to
Speaker 1: boarding school. It was there in a dormitory one night
Speaker 1: that a number of pupils were woken by a loud,
Speaker 1: clattering noise, realizing with horror that one of the bunk
Speaker 1: beds was shaking back and forth of its own accord.
Speaker 1: Within days, beds were being moved across the floor by
Speaker 1: apparently unseen forces, while lights would appear randomly on the
Speaker 1: dormitory walls at night that were warm to the touch,
Speaker 1: and soon objects were being thrown around the premises, with
Speaker 1: pupils claiming to be frequently showered by broken crockery and
Speaker 1: glass that appeared to materialize from out of nowhere. The
Speaker 1: only common denominator, it seemed, was that Michael was often
Speaker 1: nearby at the time. Things became so traumatic for some
Speaker 1: of Matthew's fellow pupils that his head teacher made arrangements
Speaker 1: to have him removed from the school. However, after being
Speaker 1: convinced that Matthew wasn't in control of the events, it
Speaker 1: was agreed to let him stay. As a compromise, Matthew
Speaker 1: was ordered to recite a banishment spell in his dormitory
Speaker 1: every night, but the peculiar activity continued unabated. Later, Matthew
Speaker 1: claimed to be sitting at his desk one morning planning
Speaker 1: to write an essay when he felt his hand suddenly
Speaker 1: taken over by an exterior force. He could only watch
Speaker 1: in amazement as his hand moved across the page, while
Speaker 1: word after word came flowing from his pen, none of
Speaker 1: which he said he was responsible for. These episodes of
Speaker 1: automatic writing soon extended to automatic drawing, in which Matthew,
Speaker 1: who had no demonstrable artistic skill prior to this, was
Speaker 1: seemingly able to churn out pieces of art in the
Speaker 1: style of such buried artists as Albrecht Dura and Pablo
Speaker 1: Picasso in a matter of minutes. A further development had
Speaker 1: Matthew one day claiming that a series of old fashioned
Speaker 1: cursive signet had just suddenly appeared on the ceiling and
Speaker 1: walls of his bedroom, apparently written by individuals who died
Speaker 1: hundreds of years before. In the following days, more signatures
Speaker 1: would mysteriously appear, with the number eventually totaling six hundred
Speaker 1: and sixteen, with so many bearing witness to Matthew's supposed
Speaker 1: unusual abilities. It wasn't long before he came to the
Speaker 1: attention of the wider paranormal community at only eighteen years
Speaker 1: of age. With the support of doctor Owen, Matthew was
Speaker 1: invited to write a book about all the extraordinary events
Speaker 1: of his young life so far, titled The Link and
Speaker 1: published in nineteen seventy four. It would eventually go on
Speaker 1: to become a best seller. As Manning's fame and popularity
Speaker 1: began to rise, he went on a national tour and
Speaker 1: volunteered to undertake hundreds of laboratory tests, many of which
Speaker 1: appeared to confirm that Manning was indeed able to exert
Speaker 1: invisible forces on the environment around him. Many others, however,
Speaker 1: maintain that Manning's exploits were simply the result of fraudulent behavior.
Speaker 1: For his part, Matthew Manning, who today can be found
Speaker 1: offering his services as a psychic healer, maintains that his
Speaker 1: abilities are very much genuine. If you enjoy Unexplained and
Speaker 1: would like to help supporters, you can now do so
Speaker 1: via Patreon. To receive access to add three episodes. Just
Speaker 1: go to patron dot com forward slash Unexplained Pod to
Speaker 1: sign up. Unexplained. The book and audiobook, featuring ten stories
Speaker 1: that have never before been covered on the show, is
Speaker 1: now available to buy worldwide. You can purchase through Amazon,
Speaker 1: Barnes and Noble, and Waterstones, among other bookstores. All elements
Speaker 1: have Unexplained, including the show's music, are produced by me
Speaker 1: Richard McClain smith. Please subscribe and rate the show wherever
Speaker 1: you listen to podcasts, and feel free to get in
Speaker 1: touch with any thoughts or ideas regarding the stories you've
Speaker 1: heard on the show. Perhaps you have an explanation of
Speaker 1: your own you'd like to share. You can reach us
Speaker 1: online at Unexplained podcast dot com or Twitter at Unexplained
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