WEBVTT - Season 9 Episode 30: Come, Hear What We Have to Say 0:00:00.120 --> 0:00:04.240 Hello, and welcome to Unexplained with me your host Richard 0:00:04.360 --> 0:00:08.119 mclin smith, where each week we explore another true tale 0:00:08.160 --> 0:00:11.039 of high strangeness. If you're new here and you're a 0:00:11.039 --> 0:00:15.560 fan of expertly told atmospheric stories about the strange and unexplained, 0:00:15.960 --> 0:00:18.720 then you've come to the right place, and please subscribe 0:00:18.720 --> 0:00:21.480 to the show if you haven't already done so. I'm 0:00:21.560 --> 0:00:24.280 very excited to be taking Unexplained to the Edinburgh Fringe 0:00:24.360 --> 0:00:27.760 Festival this year. I'll be performing at the Space's Surgeon's 0:00:27.800 --> 0:00:30.840 Hall venue at ten o five pm every night from 0:00:30.880 --> 0:00:34.040 August seventh to the twenty ninth, except for the sixteenth 0:00:34.120 --> 0:00:36.920 and twenty third. You can get tickets at the Space 0:00:37.120 --> 0:00:41.800 UK dot com. Forward Slash shows Forward Slash twenty twenty six, 0:00:42.240 --> 0:00:46.640 Forward Slash Unexplained hyphen Live. For those watching on YouTube, 0:00:46.800 --> 0:00:49.720 you can find the link below. With all that out 0:00:49.720 --> 0:00:53.840 of the way, this is Unexplained, Season nine, Episode thirty, 0:00:54.760 --> 0:01:10.480 Come hear what we have to say, Part one. In 0:01:10.520 --> 0:01:14.440 the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, a new phenomenon 0:01:14.640 --> 0:01:19.800 sparked across the English speaking world. Spiritualism, the belief that 0:01:19.840 --> 0:01:24.360 something of the person remains after death and more crucially still, 0:01:24.880 --> 0:01:28.840 that we the living can communicate with them. To some 0:01:29.120 --> 0:01:32.319 it was seen as a social movement. Others considered it 0:01:32.360 --> 0:01:36.720 a religion, but either way it fundamentally altered the way 0:01:36.760 --> 0:01:40.800 in which Western society reflected on humanity's place in the 0:01:40.840 --> 0:01:46.640 material and immaterial world. The founding philosophies of spiritualism are 0:01:46.640 --> 0:01:50.880 commonly attributed to a pair of earlier eighteenth century theorists, 0:01:50.920 --> 0:01:56.560 a Manual Swedenborg and Franz Mesmer. Swedenborg, a Swedish polymath 0:01:56.880 --> 0:02:00.760 and expert in a wide array of natural and philosophical sciences, 0:02:01.280 --> 0:02:04.400 is perhaps best known for his book Heaven and Hell, 0:02:05.000 --> 0:02:09.480 in which he outlined his thoughts on the afterlife. For Swedenborg, 0:02:09.960 --> 0:02:14.079 when you die, you don't go straight to heaven or Hell. Instead, 0:02:14.360 --> 0:02:16.880 it was his belief that you first passed through and 0:02:16.960 --> 0:02:21.480 in between plates he called the world of spirits. This 0:02:21.520 --> 0:02:24.840 is where your true character is revealed to all, or 0:02:24.919 --> 0:02:28.440 rather your hidden drive, as he put it, not the 0:02:28.480 --> 0:02:31.680 facade perhaps that you project to the world, but your 0:02:31.720 --> 0:02:36.760 most natural moralistic impulses, which, in theory, has been solidified 0:02:36.800 --> 0:02:41.200 over time through the choices you made in life. For example, 0:02:41.760 --> 0:02:45.160 in life you might have pretended to be virtuous and polite, 0:02:45.639 --> 0:02:48.359 but all the while were in fact being driven by 0:02:48.440 --> 0:02:54.280 more selfish goals. Swedenborg called this hidden drive a person's 0:02:54.440 --> 0:02:58.280 ruling love. It was his belief that death strips away 0:02:58.320 --> 0:03:02.280 the body's ability to disguise, and rather than being judged 0:03:02.320 --> 0:03:05.720 by God for their worthiness to enter Heaven or be 0:03:05.800 --> 0:03:10.600 banished to Hell, individuals instead will have an instinctive feeling 0:03:10.680 --> 0:03:14.720 about where they prefer to be. In this way, as 0:03:14.760 --> 0:03:19.119 Swedenborg had it, those ruled by selfishness and greed will 0:03:19.240 --> 0:03:22.960 naturally gravitate to Hell, while those ruled by love for 0:03:23.040 --> 0:03:27.720 God and others will gravitate to heaven. According to Swedenborg, 0:03:28.000 --> 0:03:31.800 this choice is also partly driven by how an individual 0:03:31.919 --> 0:03:35.800 responds to the light of divine truth that illuminates all 0:03:35.840 --> 0:03:39.440 of Heaven when they first see it. Those he would 0:03:39.520 --> 0:03:42.960 label as good feel comforted and warmed by the light, 0:03:43.560 --> 0:03:46.880 but those he would describe as evil can't stand it 0:03:47.400 --> 0:03:53.280 and naturally prefer the murky light of Hell. In Swedenborg's interpretation, 0:03:53.840 --> 0:03:59.280 heaven is active and ordered, full of people with jobs, relationships, 0:03:59.320 --> 0:04:03.640 and marriages. Their happiness comes from being useful and connected 0:04:03.680 --> 0:04:08.600 to others. Hell, meanwhile, isn't all fire and brimstone, but 0:04:08.720 --> 0:04:12.640 simply a place full of selfish people, endlessly playing out 0:04:12.720 --> 0:04:16.760 the intractability of a whole society built on nothing but 0:04:16.880 --> 0:04:21.560 self interest. Swedenborg knew all this because he'd seen it 0:04:22.000 --> 0:04:26.400 in a vision. German doctor Franz Mesmer, on the other hand, 0:04:26.760 --> 0:04:31.400 had no fervent belief in the hereafter, but instead contributed 0:04:31.440 --> 0:04:35.680 his practice of Mesmerism or hypnosis as it is otherwise known, 0:04:36.279 --> 0:04:39.480 which he claimed could facilitate a ready state of communication 0:04:39.839 --> 0:04:44.680 with higher spiritual planes. Together, the work of these two 0:04:44.800 --> 0:04:49.680 men built the scaffolding upon which the following century's spiritualist 0:04:49.680 --> 0:05:02.640 obsession would be staged. Unlike most organic social trends, the 0:05:02.680 --> 0:05:06.440 birth of modern spiritualism can be pinpointed to a specific 0:05:06.560 --> 0:05:11.960 date and place, March thirty first, eighteen forty eight, in Hydesville, 0:05:12.240 --> 0:05:15.839 a small town in eastern upstate New York. It was 0:05:15.880 --> 0:05:19.120 there that two young girls named Kate and Margaret Fox 0:05:19.480 --> 0:05:21.839 claim to have made contact with the spirit of a 0:05:21.920 --> 0:05:25.120 murdered man, who apparently told the tale of his violent 0:05:25.320 --> 0:05:28.919 end through a sequence of rapping noises in response to 0:05:28.960 --> 0:05:32.920 the girl's yes or no questions. The story quickly spread 0:05:33.240 --> 0:05:37.440 and the Fox Sisters became a sensation for decades. They 0:05:37.480 --> 0:05:41.160 toured the US and abroad, putting on shows of mediumship 0:05:41.360 --> 0:05:46.839 to rapped audiences, and though controversy and suspicion stalked their careers, 0:05:47.160 --> 0:05:50.400 and despite a short and soon retracted admission that the 0:05:50.480 --> 0:05:54.000 rappings were actually the cracking of their toes, the Fox 0:05:54.040 --> 0:05:58.440 Sisters were heralded as pioneers of the movement. Adherents of 0:05:58.520 --> 0:06:04.440 spiritualism were widespread and often prestigious. Famous mediums, including the 0:06:04.480 --> 0:06:07.800 Fox Sisters, were hosted at the White House to perform 0:06:07.880 --> 0:06:11.000 seances for no less than the then President of the 0:06:11.080 --> 0:06:15.560 United States himself, Abraham Lincoln and his wife, Mary Todd. 0:06:16.520 --> 0:06:19.520 Both the President and his wife were deep in mourning 0:06:19.760 --> 0:06:23.240 over the loss of their son, and spiritualism offered a 0:06:23.279 --> 0:06:27.240 tenuous hope that perhaps their severance need not be total. 0:06:28.320 --> 0:06:32.279 That yearning for connection with the lost fueled the wholesale 0:06:32.320 --> 0:06:37.440 explosion of spiritualism in years marred by lethal conflict, the 0:06:37.480 --> 0:06:41.760 American Civil War drove thousands to consult mediums in a 0:06:41.839 --> 0:06:47.440 desperate attempt to reach their lost sons, brothers, husbands, and friends. 0:06:48.640 --> 0:06:51.560 Over in Europe, the carnage of the First World war 0:06:51.720 --> 0:06:55.479 had an equal effect. By the turn of the twentieth century, 0:06:55.880 --> 0:06:59.679 its claimed that over eight million people identified as followers 0:06:59.720 --> 0:07:04.679 of them movement. Various spiritualist societies either came into being 0:07:05.040 --> 0:07:08.680 or grew in stature in the post war years, attracting 0:07:08.720 --> 0:07:14.120 such luminaries as the biologist Alfred Russell Wallace, physicist William Crooks, 0:07:14.400 --> 0:07:20.680 famed inventor Thomas Edison, and Nobel laureate Pierre Curie. Perhaps 0:07:20.680 --> 0:07:23.920 the most famous pillar of rationality to be ured by 0:07:23.960 --> 0:07:28.720 the seance parlor was the writer Arthur Conan Doyle. After 0:07:28.800 --> 0:07:31.920 losing his son Kingsley to pneumonia in the final days 0:07:31.960 --> 0:07:35.640 of the First World War, Doyle threw himself zealously into 0:07:35.680 --> 0:07:41.400 spiritualist pursuits, an emotional obsession seemingly at odds with the calculated, 0:07:41.680 --> 0:07:47.080 grounded shrewdness of his most famous creation, Sherlock Holmes. These 0:07:47.200 --> 0:07:50.480 men and women of reason attempted to apply the scientific 0:07:50.560 --> 0:07:55.560 method to the practices of spiritualism, investigating the many supposed 0:07:55.680 --> 0:07:59.880 manifestations of connection with the other side, from table turning 0:08:00.320 --> 0:08:06.240 to inexplicable noises and seemingly impossible knowledge, and even the 0:08:06.280 --> 0:08:17.920 emanation of ectoplasm. It all seems rather quaint now looking 0:08:17.960 --> 0:08:22.280 back at those nineteenth century spiritualists caught a little off guard, 0:08:22.360 --> 0:08:25.680 perhaps by a world that began to change far more 0:08:25.800 --> 0:08:29.360 rapidly than it ever had done before, in which old 0:08:29.440 --> 0:08:34.880 grand narratives were fraying from the friction of exhilarating, terrifying modernity. 0:08:36.200 --> 0:08:40.679 Seen through this lens, spiritualism and mediumship could perhaps be 0:08:40.760 --> 0:08:45.720 dismissed as an archaic absurdity, a set of dusty eccentrics 0:08:46.000 --> 0:08:49.439 coming together to expunge their grief, or cling to the 0:08:49.559 --> 0:08:53.840 numinous like a life raft, as all previous beliefs seemed 0:08:53.840 --> 0:08:57.560 to be dissolving around them. For the most part, perhaps 0:08:57.840 --> 0:09:00.960 it was merely the stuff of fiction, of bad theater 0:09:01.200 --> 0:09:05.800 and hammi Christmas ghost stories. But even as modernity reigned 0:09:06.080 --> 0:09:11.840 and technology improved, the questions underpinning spiritualism never went away. 0:09:13.120 --> 0:09:15.960 Is there such a thing as the spirit? If so, 0:09:16.600 --> 0:09:19.600 where does it go when the body dies? And is 0:09:19.640 --> 0:09:24.200 it possible to bridge the divide? Thus, in the waning 0:09:24.280 --> 0:09:27.040 years of the twentieth century, in a world on the 0:09:27.120 --> 0:09:31.160 cusp of yet more radical change, a group of researchers 0:09:31.559 --> 0:09:37.040 decided to finally tackle the great enigma together they descended 0:09:37.080 --> 0:09:39.920 on a small village in the southeast of England, and 0:09:40.040 --> 0:09:42.800 over the next five years would commit to one of 0:09:42.840 --> 0:09:46.920 the most thorough and compelling studies of the boundary between 0:09:46.960 --> 0:09:52.600 our tangible, quantifiable world and whatever lies beyond it. Their 0:09:52.679 --> 0:09:57.319 experiences and the apparent evidence they collected has the potential 0:09:57.400 --> 0:10:02.800 to shake the most fundamental assumption of life and consciousness, namely, 0:10:03.000 --> 0:10:09.000 does it do we ever really end? You're listening to 0:10:09.120 --> 0:10:24.680 Unexplained and I'm Richard McLean Smith. It's October nineteen ninety 0:10:24.679 --> 0:10:28.520 three in Skull, a sleepy village in a southern corner 0:10:28.559 --> 0:10:32.240 of Norfolk in the southeast of England. Down in the 0:10:32.280 --> 0:10:36.120 cellar of Street Farmhouse, a room no larger than five 0:10:36.160 --> 0:10:40.920 feet by ten three people sit in darkness, huddled around 0:10:40.920 --> 0:10:45.800 a small circular table, while outside, a chill wind whistles 0:10:45.800 --> 0:10:50.320 across the low wide landscape. Robin Foy is the co 0:10:50.440 --> 0:10:53.360 owner of the property and the de facto leader of 0:10:53.400 --> 0:10:56.680 the group. Ordinarily, he would have been joined by his 0:10:56.760 --> 0:11:00.840 wife Sandra, but having endured an especially uncable visit to 0:11:00.880 --> 0:11:04.320 the dentist earlier that day, she has decided to retire 0:11:04.400 --> 0:11:08.520 to bed. Diana and Alan Bennett are the other two 0:11:08.600 --> 0:11:12.400 present that day. The Bennetts are a middle aged couple 0:11:12.640 --> 0:11:15.160 who live with their four children on a farm in 0:11:15.200 --> 0:11:20.000 the depths of the Norfolk countryside. All three were bands 0:11:20.000 --> 0:11:24.200 of soft fluorescent light around their wrists, providing just enough 0:11:24.280 --> 0:11:27.880 light to illuminate the strange metal cone on the table 0:11:27.960 --> 0:11:31.880 before them. It's a spirit trumpet, a device that is 0:11:31.920 --> 0:11:35.360 said to be able to amplify sounds coming from beyond 0:11:35.440 --> 0:11:39.680 the veil. Hidden in the darkness around them is also 0:11:39.720 --> 0:11:43.680 a tape recorder and two microphones angled toward the table. 0:11:44.960 --> 0:11:48.800 At Robin's nod, Diana hits record on the tape player, 0:11:49.160 --> 0:11:55.000 and then they begin Infinite Spirit. Robert in tones, creative 0:11:55.080 --> 0:11:58.520 Source of all things, be with us this evening and 0:11:58.600 --> 0:12:02.520 guide us in our work. His words evaporate into the 0:12:02.559 --> 0:12:07.199 silence as the group waits expectantly in the dark. Then 0:12:07.280 --> 0:12:12.040 a low, gravelly voice is heard emanating from Diana's mouth. 0:12:13.400 --> 0:12:19.199 I am manu, it says. Robin, and Allan lean forward, aghast, 0:12:19.520 --> 0:12:23.960 staring at Diana, who remains completely still with her eyes closed. 0:12:24.880 --> 0:12:29.400 Then the strange voice comes again. Robin and Allan listen 0:12:29.480 --> 0:12:40.120 in wonder as it begins to tell a story. The 0:12:40.200 --> 0:12:43.040 so called man, who claims to have once lived on 0:12:43.080 --> 0:12:47.760 earth in what is now South America. Now, however, he 0:12:47.880 --> 0:12:50.320 is part of a team of beings made up of 0:12:50.440 --> 0:12:54.120 many thousands of minds from all the realms of existence, 0:12:55.160 --> 0:12:58.400 and they want to help. We will work with you, 0:12:58.760 --> 0:13:03.040 continues the so called manu through Diana's body, to provide 0:13:03.200 --> 0:13:07.400 tangible evidence of these other realms and to pioneer important 0:13:07.440 --> 0:13:11.720 methods of communication between them. Then a heavy thud is 0:13:11.760 --> 0:13:14.440 heard from the table top, as if something had just 0:13:14.559 --> 0:13:17.960 landed on it, But in the low light cast by 0:13:18.000 --> 0:13:21.960 their luminescent wristbands, neither Robin nor Allan can make out 0:13:22.000 --> 0:13:25.839 what it is. We have brought you a gift, says 0:13:25.880 --> 0:13:30.160 the gravelly voice again, and with that Diana falls silent. 0:13:31.600 --> 0:13:35.199 When Diana finally comes round from whatever trance like state 0:13:35.360 --> 0:13:39.360 she had slipped into, a visibly shaken, Robin jumps up 0:13:39.400 --> 0:13:42.880 and turns on the lights. Then he stares in astonishment 0:13:42.920 --> 0:13:47.239 at the table. There lying on top of the unvarnished 0:13:47.240 --> 0:13:53.000 wood is a coin. It's a Churchill crown, says Robin, confused. 0:13:54.360 --> 0:13:58.240 Examining it closer, he sees it is in perfect mint condition. 0:13:59.400 --> 0:14:03.400 Diana and Allan seem equally astounded by its sudden appearance. 0:14:04.320 --> 0:14:07.000 Or three of them claimed to have never seen it before, 0:14:07.520 --> 0:14:10.440 and all agree that it wasn't on the table before 0:14:10.480 --> 0:14:16.360 the experiment began. Moments later, Sandra Foy, having been roused 0:14:16.360 --> 0:14:19.400 from sleep by all the commotion, appears at the top 0:14:19.440 --> 0:14:22.920 of the basement stairs. When Robin shows that the coin, 0:14:23.440 --> 0:14:27.840 she too is filled with unbridled joy. After weeks and 0:14:27.960 --> 0:14:32.160 months of spiritual experimentation, they finally have the physical evidence 0:14:32.200 --> 0:14:36.920 they've been chasing, an inexplicable object and an unknown voice 0:14:37.240 --> 0:14:49.720 caught on tape. But this was just the beginning. Sandra 0:14:49.840 --> 0:14:54.280 and Robin Foy had always been interested in spiritualism. In fact, 0:14:54.600 --> 0:14:57.440 the pair had even first met at a seance where 0:14:57.480 --> 0:15:01.440 a medium claiming to be channeling an enter calling itself 0:15:01.560 --> 0:15:05.080 Doctor Dunn, told them that in the future you will 0:15:05.120 --> 0:15:10.200 work in a new way, using energy, not ecdoplasm. When 0:15:10.200 --> 0:15:14.000 the couple later decided to begin trying to investigate spiritual 0:15:14.040 --> 0:15:18.800 matters together, this message became their guide. What the poise 0:15:18.920 --> 0:15:22.880 ultimately became interested in was a branch of spiritualism known 0:15:22.920 --> 0:15:28.680 as physical psychic phenomena. Unlike mental mediumship, which relies heavily 0:15:28.720 --> 0:15:33.160 on thoughts, images, and messages being supposedly sent to the living. 0:15:33.840 --> 0:15:38.400 Physical mediumship is a step beyond in which spiritual forces 0:15:38.560 --> 0:15:43.160 are instead said to manifest in ways that are more tangible, visible, 0:15:43.320 --> 0:15:49.480 or audible to onlookers. Seance goers experiencing physical mediumship, for example, 0:15:49.840 --> 0:15:53.640 may feel a phantom touch. Others may smell out of 0:15:53.720 --> 0:15:58.480 place odors like flowers or smoke, or hear sounds which 0:15:58.520 --> 0:16:02.640 can also be recorded on tape. For over a century, 0:16:03.000 --> 0:16:06.200 the most well known and extreme form of physical psychic 0:16:06.240 --> 0:16:12.160 phenomena was ectoplasm, a supposedly physical substance often thought to 0:16:12.200 --> 0:16:15.600 be a mixture of bodily fluids or plasma that is 0:16:15.640 --> 0:16:19.600 said to be catalyzed by spiritual energy and then apparently 0:16:19.680 --> 0:16:24.480 exuded by mediums during a seance. For the Poise, however, 0:16:24.880 --> 0:16:29.360 ectoplasm was really just a relic from spiritualism's somewhat more 0:16:29.520 --> 0:16:33.680 vaudevillian days. They were far more interested in what they 0:16:33.800 --> 0:16:38.440 termed creative energy. According to the poise, this was a 0:16:38.440 --> 0:16:42.480 blend of human spirit and earth energy, which they aimed 0:16:42.480 --> 0:16:46.720 to manipulate in various experiments in order to produce physical 0:16:46.760 --> 0:16:51.200 evidence of the spirit realm. The Pois knew well that 0:16:51.320 --> 0:16:54.040 in order to prove the existence of the spirit to 0:16:54.120 --> 0:16:57.840 the scientific community, they needed to provide evidence that could 0:16:57.880 --> 0:17:02.720 be held, weighed, and taken away whole for further examination. 0:17:04.000 --> 0:17:08.360 They wondered if creative energy could achieve this suitably applied 0:17:08.560 --> 0:17:11.520 in theory, it would allow for the physical manipulation of 0:17:11.560 --> 0:17:15.119 atoms and molecules, the very building blocks of what we 0:17:15.200 --> 0:17:19.199 call reality. It was a bold aim to combine the 0:17:19.320 --> 0:17:22.240 energies of the living and the spirit world to create 0:17:22.359 --> 0:17:26.560 something where nothing had been before, and it would require 0:17:26.720 --> 0:17:36.439 a laboratory. Having identified street farmhouse in the village of 0:17:36.520 --> 0:17:40.560 Skull as the perfect place to begin their investigations, the 0:17:40.640 --> 0:17:47.439 fois immediately began transforming the cellar into the ideal experimental space. First, 0:17:47.640 --> 0:17:51.119 the cellar was completely light proofed and then repainted a 0:17:51.240 --> 0:17:54.600 matte navy blue in colour in order to better see 0:17:54.640 --> 0:17:59.280 the spiritual energy, which the fois believed commonly appeared as 0:17:59.400 --> 0:18:03.880 inexplicab light. The only way into the room was through 0:18:03.880 --> 0:18:06.880 a door at the bottom of a creaky wooden staircase, 0:18:07.359 --> 0:18:11.560 which left no space for doubt about hidden figures or hoaxes. 0:18:11.600 --> 0:18:15.720 Breaking in all in all, it was a wholly controlled 0:18:15.840 --> 0:18:20.240 environment and by February nineteen ninety two it was ready 0:18:21.680 --> 0:18:25.320 having already established a spiritualist group of their own. The 0:18:25.400 --> 0:18:27.960 Foys then invited all the members to join them in 0:18:28.040 --> 0:18:32.639 Skull from that point on to continue their meetings. Among 0:18:32.720 --> 0:18:36.280 the members of the group was renowned local self described 0:18:36.359 --> 0:18:41.720 medium Stuart Alexander. Under Alexander's guidance, the group is said 0:18:41.760 --> 0:18:45.040 to have met repeatedly for seances at the Foy's new home, 0:18:45.680 --> 0:18:48.520 where wraps and loud clicks was said to have often 0:18:48.640 --> 0:18:52.760 been heard coming from the walls. A strange whistle was 0:18:52.840 --> 0:18:56.160 also said to have been heard on numerous occasions, while 0:18:56.240 --> 0:19:00.960 strange drops in temperature were frequently reported. As the group's 0:19:01.000 --> 0:19:06.320 notoriety spread, more curious spiritualists came to the farmhouse. At 0:19:06.359 --> 0:19:09.960 one time, twenty eight people crammed into the cellar to 0:19:10.080 --> 0:19:14.560 experience the activity for themselves. But by early spring, the 0:19:14.600 --> 0:19:19.040 spasm of activity was petering out, as one session after 0:19:19.080 --> 0:19:23.920 another continued without result, frustration began to settle over the group. 0:19:25.000 --> 0:19:29.760 Worse yet, tempers had begun to fray, a disastrous outcome 0:19:29.840 --> 0:19:33.159 for spiritualist pursuits, which are thought to rely heavily on 0:19:33.280 --> 0:19:39.760 positive harmony between participants. One night, Alexander even relayed an 0:19:39.760 --> 0:19:43.480 apparent message from the spirit realm, warning the group that 0:19:43.560 --> 0:19:48.600 their misaligned energies were barring contact with others in the realm. 0:19:49.359 --> 0:19:52.600 One by one, members began to fall away from the group, 0:19:53.119 --> 0:19:56.359 often citing the difficulty of making the weekly trek to 0:19:56.400 --> 0:19:59.720 the village. By the end of that summer in ninety 0:19:59.800 --> 0:20:03.640 nine two, Robin and Sandra were more or less conducting 0:20:03.680 --> 0:20:08.439 their studies alone, sitting together night after night in a 0:20:08.520 --> 0:20:13.919 lightless cellar, seemingly unable to conjure even the smallest spiritual phenomena. 0:20:14.920 --> 0:20:19.240 They had no luck, no data, and no evidence of 0:20:19.359 --> 0:20:33.719 any presence beyond their own. At some point, the Foys 0:20:33.760 --> 0:20:36.320 heard of a woman living in the nearby village of 0:20:36.359 --> 0:20:39.720 Diss who was looking for like minded people to begin 0:20:39.800 --> 0:20:44.200 a spiritualist circle with her. Mismy Salisbury was a French 0:20:44.240 --> 0:20:50.240 businesswoman working for a local engineering company. Bright and scientifically minded, 0:20:50.520 --> 0:20:53.720 but with a deep curiosity on the subject of spiritualism. 0:20:54.200 --> 0:20:57.320 She was the ideal candidate for the Foy's rigorous approach, 0:20:58.160 --> 0:21:01.320 so the couple got in touch and invited her to 0:21:01.400 --> 0:21:06.080 join them at the farmhouse on Monday, September twenty first, 0:21:06.240 --> 0:21:09.760 nineteen ninety two, Mimi arrived at the Foy's home for 0:21:09.800 --> 0:21:14.560 their first session together. Almost immediately, things began to pick 0:21:14.640 --> 0:21:18.320 up as they settled into the basement for that first session. 0:21:18.720 --> 0:21:22.400 A short time later, when Sandra started the audio recorder, 0:21:22.920 --> 0:21:26.720 it was with a greater optimism than she felt in months. 0:21:27.440 --> 0:21:31.000 The Foys believed that singing together helped to galvanize the 0:21:31.119 --> 0:21:34.720 energy required to perform, and so they began as they 0:21:34.720 --> 0:21:39.479 always did, by putting on a record. That evening's chosen 0:21:39.560 --> 0:21:43.320 music was Bring Me Sunshine by the comedy duo morcam 0:21:43.400 --> 0:21:47.240 and Wise. Then the three of them began to sing along. 0:21:48.400 --> 0:21:52.040 Almost as soon as the music started, Mimi, Robin and 0:21:52.119 --> 0:21:56.359 Sandra heard what sounded like the loud click of false teeth. 0:21:57.440 --> 0:22:00.840 It came from the air between them. It was the 0:22:00.880 --> 0:22:04.840 first significant result that the Foys had experienced in months, 0:22:05.359 --> 0:22:08.840 and they all couldn't help but laugh. Eric Morecambe was 0:22:08.880 --> 0:22:11.600 famous for his use of chattery teeth in his act, 0:22:12.080 --> 0:22:15.480 so perhaps they wondered this apparent spirit had a sense 0:22:15.520 --> 0:22:19.720 of humor. But over the next few days, more serious 0:22:19.720 --> 0:22:24.520 signals came through. The phenomena seemed to quickly focus on 0:22:24.640 --> 0:22:27.959 the Foy's bedroom, where loud bangs were said to have 0:22:28.000 --> 0:22:32.200 been heard coming from the wall and doors. Then, one night, 0:22:32.520 --> 0:22:34.960 the couple are said to have been jerked awake from 0:22:35.040 --> 0:22:39.359 sleep by a loud slap on their head board. Although 0:22:39.400 --> 0:22:42.959 a little unnerving, the group were keen to continue. However, 0:22:43.119 --> 0:22:46.040 each agreed that there was little more they could achieve 0:22:46.359 --> 0:22:50.840 with so few members, and so in order to expand 0:22:50.880 --> 0:22:54.240 their numbers, the Foys ran a week end retreat at 0:22:54.280 --> 0:22:57.240 the farmhouse for any one with an interest in the field. 0:22:58.359 --> 0:23:01.280 One of the first people they met was Ken Britton, 0:23:01.680 --> 0:23:05.040 who worked at the headquarters of the National Union of Spiritualists, 0:23:05.440 --> 0:23:09.080 as well as Ken's friend Burnett Head, a local post 0:23:09.080 --> 0:23:13.359 office employee. It wasn't long after that when Diana and 0:23:13.480 --> 0:23:16.840 Alan Bennett came across an advertisement for one of the 0:23:16.880 --> 0:23:21.120 Foy's retreats in their local newspaper. The Bennetts had been 0:23:21.160 --> 0:23:24.720 taking part in seances and apparently making contact with the 0:23:24.760 --> 0:23:29.240 spirits since they were young. Diana and Allan both reported 0:23:29.359 --> 0:23:35.280 strange events happening throughout their lives. However, when they mediated together, 0:23:35.680 --> 0:23:39.159 according to the couple, their ability to interact with the 0:23:39.200 --> 0:23:45.160 spirit realm intensified. Exponentially. The Foys thought they were perfect. 0:23:53.240 --> 0:23:58.040 On January fourth, nineteen ninety three, the Skull Experimental Group, 0:23:58.119 --> 0:24:00.679 as it would come to be known as, for the 0:24:00.720 --> 0:24:07.199 first time the atmosphere was one of untrammeled excitement. Unlike 0:24:07.240 --> 0:24:11.879 the Foy's previous group, riven by frustration, this new collective 0:24:12.359 --> 0:24:17.240 seemed to fill the Foy's farmhouse cellar with beautiful, harmonious energy. 0:24:18.280 --> 0:24:21.960 After a few initial sessions to settle in, these improved 0:24:22.080 --> 0:24:27.000 vibes began to reap dividends. On April twenty sixth, the 0:24:27.080 --> 0:24:30.359 aluminum Spirit trumpet was said to be knocked from the 0:24:30.400 --> 0:24:35.360 table by an invisible force. During the following session, the 0:24:35.400 --> 0:24:39.560 cellar echoed with loud raps and taps, and the temperature 0:24:39.640 --> 0:24:44.240 plummeted to what Robin Foyd described as an incredible coldness. 0:24:44.760 --> 0:24:48.919 Then the trumpet was again seemingly flung by an invisible force, 0:24:49.359 --> 0:24:53.320 right into Ken Britton's lap. The group made a habit 0:24:53.400 --> 0:24:56.720 of recording every session. When they played the tape back 0:24:56.760 --> 0:24:59.199 from this one, it was said to have been filled 0:24:59.240 --> 0:25:04.399 with white noise. The noise grew continuously louder until the 0:25:04.440 --> 0:25:08.800 precise second that the trumpet was thrown and then ceased entirely, 0:25:09.640 --> 0:25:12.640 almost as if some build up of energy had suddenly 0:25:12.720 --> 0:25:17.960 been discharged. Throughout the summer of nineteen ninety three, these 0:25:18.000 --> 0:25:22.800 strange incidents in the cellar continued, with new phenomena continuously 0:25:22.840 --> 0:25:26.720 added to the mix, with each session conducted in near 0:25:26.800 --> 0:25:30.119 darkness in order to better focus the energies. As the 0:25:30.160 --> 0:25:32.840 foise had it, It was said to have been especially 0:25:32.880 --> 0:25:37.639 thrilling when the lights began to appear. Records of the 0:25:37.680 --> 0:25:43.639 experiments reference uncanny illuminations that appeared faint at first, before 0:25:43.680 --> 0:25:48.720 growing brighter and brighter. Within weeks. What started as flashes 0:25:48.760 --> 0:25:53.359 of light had apparently coalesced into orbs of varying colours 0:25:53.359 --> 0:25:58.600 and luminosity. According to the group, these manifestations almost seemed 0:25:58.600 --> 0:26:01.639 to be intelligent at times, or at least under the 0:26:01.640 --> 0:26:06.320 guidance of something sentient. The group recorded how orbs would 0:26:06.320 --> 0:26:10.840 seem to respond to individuals, gliding closer when invited and 0:26:10.880 --> 0:26:15.159 moving away when asked, even changing direction as if in 0:26:15.240 --> 0:26:20.119 response to some authority. On occasion, a thick mist was 0:26:20.160 --> 0:26:23.960 said to appear. Members of the group also claimed to 0:26:24.000 --> 0:26:27.600 have been splashed with freezing water, and each reported their 0:26:27.640 --> 0:26:32.000 clothes and even their bodies being tugged by unseen hands. 0:26:33.280 --> 0:26:37.040 During this heady period, the group also began to experiment 0:26:37.119 --> 0:26:41.399 in earnest with trance communication, trying to speak directly to 0:26:41.480 --> 0:26:44.879 the spirit world through Sandra, who adopted the role of 0:26:45.000 --> 0:26:50.000 lead medium. However, Sandra quickly began to feel under too 0:26:50.119 --> 0:26:53.200 much pressure to perform, and so they asked the spirits 0:26:53.240 --> 0:26:57.080 to choose someone else to communicate through. It seems that 0:26:57.200 --> 0:27:01.199 whatever power was apparently present in the cellar it ultimately 0:27:01.240 --> 0:27:11.680 decided to use Diana and Alan Bennett as its conduits. 0:27:12.920 --> 0:27:17.280 The Bennetts were seen as the group's most seasoned spiritualist practitioners, 0:27:17.840 --> 0:27:21.879 but while Diana was familiar with trance mediumship, the method 0:27:22.000 --> 0:27:25.800 was new to Allan. At first, he appeared to fight 0:27:25.880 --> 0:27:29.560 against the incursion as he writhed and spluttered in the dark, 0:27:29.920 --> 0:27:34.320 seemingly rejecting whatever spirit was trying to communicate through him, 0:27:34.640 --> 0:27:39.640 until finally he seemed to relax into the role. Primarily, 0:27:40.160 --> 0:27:44.880 Diana and Allan were supposedly used as vessels for simple communications, 0:27:45.640 --> 0:27:50.280 but then in October nineteen ninety three, came something else 0:27:50.520 --> 0:27:57.159 entirely that strange, gravelly voice announcing itself as Manu Manu 0:27:57.200 --> 0:28:01.600 would ultimately declare himself the leader or gatekeeper, as the 0:28:01.640 --> 0:28:05.000 Skull Experiment Group would later put it, of a strange 0:28:05.080 --> 0:28:08.720 team of spirits made up of thousands of minds from 0:28:08.800 --> 0:28:13.000 all realms of existence. Together, they were determined to help 0:28:13.040 --> 0:28:16.800 the Skull Group prove the existence of these other realms. 0:28:17.560 --> 0:28:20.440 Over the coming months and years, the group would meet 0:28:20.480 --> 0:28:24.000 the rest of Manu's team. Not only that, but they 0:28:24.040 --> 0:28:28.240 would apparently work with them, converse with them, and together, 0:28:28.640 --> 0:28:31.680 from each side of the veil, the two groups would 0:28:31.680 --> 0:28:35.160 offer the world some of the most startling insights into 0:28:35.200 --> 0:28:43.160 the paranormal ever recorded. You'd be listening to part one 0:28:43.240 --> 0:28:48.760 of Unexplained, Season nine, episode thirty Come Hear what we 0:28:48.880 --> 0:28:52.040 have to say. The second and final part will be 0:28:52.080 --> 0:28:57.400 released next Friday, August fourteenth. This episode was written by 0:28:57.440 --> 0:29:02.160 Neil McRobert and Richard mclin Smith. Please remember to like 0:29:02.200 --> 0:29:05.040 and subscribe if you've enjoyed the show. Unexplained as an 0:29:05.040 --> 0:29:09.400 AV Club Productions podcast created by me Richard McLain Smith. 0:29:09.760 --> 0:29:12.479 All other elements of the podcast, including the music, are 0:29:12.520 --> 0:29:16.360 also produced by me. Unexplained. The book and audiobook is 0:29:16.400 --> 0:29:19.760 now available to buy worldwide. You can purchase from Amazon, 0:29:19.800 --> 0:29:23.520 Barnes and Noble, Waterstones and other bookstores. Be shorre to 0:29:23.600 --> 0:29:27.400 follow us on Instagram, TikTok and Facebook at Unexplained Podcast, 0:29:27.840 --> 0:29:32.560 and on X and Blue Sky at Unexplained Pod. Until 0:29:32.600 --> 0:29:35.640 next time, stay strange and dissonant.