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Speaker 1: now l L Flooring. These are the floors homes are

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Speaker 1: built on. The world of horror is littered with unnerving locations,

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Speaker 1: places that both draw from and have in turn seeped

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Speaker 1: into the public imagination. Perhaps the most symbolic of them

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Speaker 1: all being the forest, the archetypal liminal space of what

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Speaker 1: Joseph Campbell termed the hero journey. Not only is the

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Speaker 1: forest darkened mysterious, but it is of course profoundly symbolic,

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Speaker 1: being as it is a manifestation of our deep unconscious.

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Speaker 1: As we venture deeper into the forest, so too do

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Speaker 1: we journey deeper into ourselves in our quest to confront

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Speaker 1: our greatest fears, before with any luck, ultimately emerging victorious

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Speaker 1: and changed. But for all the creatures and the hidden

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Speaker 1: and unknowable fears we might discover along the way. The forest,

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Speaker 1: in a sense remains a space that is our own,

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Speaker 1: those fears within our own to decipher and overcome. Far

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Speaker 1: more chilling, therefore, are the places that, when entering, we

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Speaker 1: find ourselves crossing a threshold into a world that is

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Speaker 1: very much not our own, Places where no longer are

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Speaker 1: we at the whim of our darkest unconscious, but rather

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Speaker 1: that of somebody else's. God forbid you ever find yourself

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Speaker 1: checking into the Bates Motel, as found in Robert Box's Psycho,

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Speaker 1: or stumbling into the family home of leather Face, so

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Speaker 1: disturbingly depicted in Toby Hooper's mesmerizingly Deranged Texas Chainsaw Massacre.

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Speaker 1: What both stories have in common is a location so

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Speaker 1: inextricably linked to the bad guys as to be almost

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Speaker 1: inseparable from them. There is the sense that, even when empty,

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Speaker 1: the locations will somehow incubate the things that have happened inside.

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Speaker 1: Both stories, incidentally, were partly based on the life of

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Speaker 1: murderer Ed Gene, whose proclivity for manufacturing ornaments and furniture

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Speaker 1: from human bone and skin continues to shock the world

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Speaker 1: almost sixty years after the event. After Ghane's conviction, it

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Speaker 1: was decided that his house should be torn down. So

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Speaker 1: incapable were the local community from separating the location from

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Speaker 1: the events that had taken place inside, there was no

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Speaker 1: other option but to remove it entirely. A similar theme

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Speaker 1: emerges in many cases of alleged domestic supernatural disturbances, such

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Speaker 1: as those that took place at thirty East Drive in

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Speaker 1: Pontefract or at number two eight four Green Street in Enfield.

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Speaker 1: In these stories we find the recurring notion that any

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Speaker 1: new resident of the property is merely an invader occupying

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Speaker 1: a space that isn't theirs to occupy. At times, it

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Speaker 1: might seem that in some way or another, the property

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Speaker 1: has developed a soul all of its own. For many

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Speaker 1: there is one place in particular that continues to fascinate

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Speaker 1: like no other in the UK for its combination of mystery,

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Speaker 1: intrigue and atmospheric location. You couldn't concoct a better setting

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Speaker 1: the name burlesque in House you're listening to Unexplained and

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Speaker 1: Dime Richard McClane. The story of Bleskin House is inseparable

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Speaker 1: from that of his most infamous former resident, Alistair Crowley.

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Speaker 1: It was a very particular journey that brought Crowley to Bleskin,

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Speaker 1: and it begins a short time before midnight on the

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Speaker 1: twelfth of October eighteen seventy five, with his birth in

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Speaker 1: Royal Leamington, Spa, England. Crowley, who was christened Edward Alexander,

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Speaker 1: was the first of two children born to Edward and

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Speaker 1: Emily Crowley. Their second, a baby girl, would arrive five

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Speaker 1: years later, but would tragically die after only five hours

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Speaker 1: of life. The family was devoutly religious and belonged to

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Speaker 1: a Christian sect known as the Plymouth Brethren. The sect

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Speaker 1: were renowned for their belief in the literal truth of

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Speaker 1: the Bible and their puritanical attitude towards sin and the

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Speaker 1: dangers of temptation. It was into this deeply rigid and

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Speaker 1: conservative environment that Crowley was brought up, an environment which

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Speaker 1: many believed contributed to his utter rejection of all such

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Speaker 1: beliefs in later life. Owing to his share in the

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Speaker 1: lucrative family brewing business, Crowley's father, Edward, had been able

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Speaker 1: to take an earlier retirement, and as such divided most

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Speaker 1: of his time between his family and volunteering as a

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Speaker 1: traveling preacher for the sect. Despite the socially claustrophobic upbringing

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Speaker 1: and unhappy childhood, Crowley was utterly devoted to Edward. In

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Speaker 1: March eighteen eighty seven, Crowley was devastated when his father

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Speaker 1: died after a short battle with cancer. The young Alister

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Speaker 1: was only eleven years old, and the death would prove

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Speaker 1: to be a significant turning point in his life. Crowley's

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Speaker 1: sorrow at the loss of his father soon morphed into anger.

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Speaker 1: That Crowley began attacking the very thing that had made

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Speaker 1: his life such a misery, rejecting what he saw as

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Speaker 1: the zealous and authoritarian scourge of Christianity. In the years

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Speaker 1: that followed, it would seem that Crowley had developed a

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Speaker 1: pathological yearning to commit the sins he had so studiously

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Speaker 1: been warned against. He started to experiment sexually, dabbled with debauchery,

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Speaker 1: and took any opportunity to point out what he considered

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Speaker 1: to be the many inconsistencies in the Bible to anyone

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Speaker 1: who would listen. Crowley had the sense that he was

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Speaker 1: searching for something, but it wasn't until he arrived at

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Speaker 1: Cambridge University that the pieces began to shift into place.

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Speaker 1: At some point Crowley had become interested in the occult,

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Speaker 1: in particular the study of ritual magic, an enthusiasm that

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Speaker 1: was piqued after he read A. E. Waits's The Book

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Speaker 1: of Black Magic and Pacts. An acute interest in alchemy

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Speaker 1: brought him into contact with British chemist and occultist George

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Speaker 1: Cecil Jones, who in turn introduced Crowley to the Hermetic

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Speaker 1: Order of the Golden Dawn. The Order had been established

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Speaker 1: in eighteen eighty eight and was led by the charismatic

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Speaker 1: Samuel Liddell McGregor Mathis. Some of you may remember that

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Speaker 1: it was to Mathis that the Alpha and Omega group

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Speaker 1: had stayed faithful, the same group to which Netta Fornario

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Speaker 1: had belonged before her death under mysterious circumstances in nineteen

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Speaker 1: twenty nine. As we explored in Episode one, after graduation

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Speaker 1: and with the luxury of his family's brewing dynasty inheritance,

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Speaker 1: Crowley was able to untether himself from the usual constraints

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Speaker 1: of life. As such, he was free to throw himself

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Speaker 1: into his new and burgeoning obsession of ritual magic. A

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Speaker 1: year after leaving Cambridge, Crowley had moved into a luxury

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Speaker 1: London flat in Chancery Lane, and had hired fellow Golden

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Speaker 1: Dawn member Alan Bennett to become his personal magic tutor.

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Speaker 1: It was Bennett who formerly introduced Crowley to ceremonial magic

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Speaker 1: and the ritual use of drugs, but most importantly to

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Speaker 1: the rituals of the goetia, the practice of invoking what

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Speaker 1: are commonly known as angels and demons, in particular the

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Speaker 1: urs Goetia, as found in the opening section of the

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Speaker 1: seventeenth century Grimoire the Lesser Key of Solomon, a Grimoire

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Speaker 1: being another term for a book of magic spells. Maths

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Speaker 1: was impressed by Crowley's dedication and rapid rise through the

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Speaker 1: various grades of the Golden Dawn, and the two became

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Speaker 1: close friends, but Crowley was growing increasingly frustrated with the movement.

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Speaker 1: His frustration was in part due to the reticence that

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Speaker 1: some of the more established members had about Crowley's membership.

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Speaker 1: In what was quite a rarity for the time, Crowley

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Speaker 1: was openly bisexual, a state of affairs that many members

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Speaker 1: sadly found uncomfortable. But what irked Crowley more than anything

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Speaker 1: was what he considered to be the inherent phoniness of

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Speaker 1: the group, peopled as it was by many esteemed intellects

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Speaker 1: of the day, such as W. B. Yates and Brown Stoker,

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Speaker 1: Crowley felt that they were merely playing at magic and

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Speaker 1: treated the organization as a glorified salon. In what would

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Speaker 1: later become a feature of Crowley's life, he wanted more

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Speaker 1: and to go further than anyone had gone before. In

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Speaker 1: eighteen ninety eight, Maths introduced Crowley to a strange, nimistical

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Speaker 1: text called the Secret Book of abramelon Magic. The book,

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Speaker 1: which is said to date back to the fifteenth century,

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Speaker 1: recounts the story of an Egyptian carbalistic magician known as

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Speaker 1: Bremelm the Mage and his pupil, Abraham of Vorms in Germany.

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Speaker 1: As the story goes, Abraham found the Maide living in

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Speaker 1: the desert outside a Ratchi, an Egyptian town near the

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Speaker 1: River Nile. After agreeing to serve and fear the Lord

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Speaker 1: and to live and die in his most holy Law,

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Speaker 1: Abraham was instructed by Abramelin in the divine science and

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Speaker 1: true magic embedded within the two manuscripts. Abraham was warned

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Speaker 1: only to pass this knowledge on to those he knew

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Speaker 1: well and trusted, but now it was in the hands

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Speaker 1: of Alister Crowley. Crucially, the book describes an elaborate ritual

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Speaker 1: known as the Abramelin operation, designed to conjure up the

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Speaker 1: magician's guardian angel. It became clear to Crowley that this

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Speaker 1: was the next step that he must take in his

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Speaker 1: path to complete enlightenment. It is a path that many

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Speaker 1: believed to have led to fatal consequences. Not wanting to

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Speaker 1: leave anything to chance, the well heeled Crowley embarked on

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Speaker 1: a lengthy undertaking to find the ideal location for the operation.

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Speaker 1: As Crowley later wrote, the house must be in a

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Speaker 1: more or less secluded situation. There should be a door

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Speaker 1: opening to the north from the room of which you

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Speaker 1: make your oratory. Outside this door you construct a terrace

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Speaker 1: covered with fine river sand. This ends in a lodge

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Speaker 1: where the spirits may congregate. A year after searching, Crowley

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Speaker 1: had failed to find the perfect location. That was until

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Speaker 1: he found himself traveling into the highlands of Scotland along

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Speaker 1: the haunting shores of the Majestic Lochnets. A short time later,

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Speaker 1: Crowley arrived at a small grave side by the side

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Speaker 1: of the road overlooking the Loch. There perched a short

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Speaker 1: distance up the hill, overlooking the graveyard, he saw it

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Speaker 1: for the first time, the house that would forever become

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Speaker 1: synonymous with his name. Bleskin. The single floored mansion, located

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Speaker 1: on the eastern shore of Loch Ness, was built in

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Speaker 1: the late eighteenth century by a Colonel Archibald Fraser. It

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Speaker 1: is not clear what exactly brought Crowley to Bileskin, though

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Speaker 1: the filmmaker and crowley a ficionado, Kenneth Anger, has pointed

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Speaker 1: out that he may have been drawn to the name

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Speaker 1: and its similarity to Baal, the Canaan god of gods,

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Speaker 1: later remodeled as the lord of flies. In the Old Testament,

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Speaker 1: Bal is represented by the symbol of the bull, the

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Speaker 1: word ball from Balskin, being an ancient Scottish form of

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Speaker 1: the same animal. Others believe, however, that Crowley had in

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Speaker 1: some way been preternaturally drawn to the house. It was

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Speaker 1: head that a medieval church had once stood on the

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Speaker 1: same site. One morning, with the congregation inside, the church

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Speaker 1: mysteriously caught fire. As the congregation rushed to escape, they

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Speaker 1: found themselves inexplicably trapped inside. Unable to escape, they perished

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Speaker 1: as the church burnt steadily to the ground. Had something

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Speaker 1: of the event remained, something that Crowley was eager to

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Speaker 1: tap into. It is also said that the graveyard itself

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Speaker 1: was once a meeting point for witches. Reports of a

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Speaker 1: tunnel leading from the house to the grave site, which

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Speaker 1: some claim to have been used by Crowley to conduct

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Speaker 1: his own nighttime rituals, remain unsubstantiated. So convinced was Crowley

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Speaker 1: of the house's suitability that in August eighteen ninety nine,

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Speaker 1: he paid more than twice its value to secure the property.

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Speaker 1: A short time later, he relocated his possessions and began

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Speaker 1: preparing for the Great operation. Are you always taking care

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Speaker 1: of your family? Do you often take care of others

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Speaker 1: and not yourself? Now it's time to take care of yourself.

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Speaker 1: To make time for you. You deserve it. Teledoc gives

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Speaker 1: you access to a licensed therapist to help you get

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Speaker 1: back to feeling your best to feeling like yourself again.

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Speaker 1: With teledoc, you can speak to a licensed therapist by

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Speaker 1: phone or video. Therapy appointments are available seven days a

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Speaker 1: week from seven am to nine pm local time. If

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Speaker 1: you feel overwhelmed sometimes maybe you feel stressed or anxious,

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Speaker 1: to facilitating great therapeutic matches, so they make it easy

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Speaker 1: available through most insurance or employers. Download the app or

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Speaker 1: visit telldoc dot com forward slash Unexplained podcast today to

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Speaker 1: get started. That's teladoc dot com slash Unexplained podcast. It

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Speaker 1: is important at this point to draw the distinction between

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Speaker 1: what many see as Crowley's unhealthy obsession with black magic

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Speaker 1: and Satanism and what, in reality it was that Crowley

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Speaker 1: hoped to achieve. Whether there is a truth to it

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Speaker 1: or not, Crowley's intention and the sole purpose of the

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Speaker 1: ritual was to seek knowledge and conversation with his own

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Speaker 1: personal guardian angel. It is, by all accounts, a ritual

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Speaker 1: to invoke positive change, a force for good, but there

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Speaker 1: was one glaringly large catch. In order to do this,

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Speaker 1: Crowley would have to invoke and then bring under his

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Speaker 1: control the twelve Kings of Hell before beginning the ritual,

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Speaker 1: which required him to start in Easter. Crowley spent the

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Speaker 1: intervening months entertaining guests and readying the property in preparation

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Speaker 1: for the ceremony. The final stage was to cover the

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Speaker 1: outdoor terrace in a fine river sand. The reason was simple.

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Speaker 1: It was so Crowley could see the feat marks of

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Speaker 1: the spirits and demons he was about to invoke. The

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Speaker 1: ritual was to last six months and required the utmost conviction.

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Speaker 1: It would require him to live off little more than

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Speaker 1: bread and water, and to wait regularly at three a m.

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Speaker 1: To begin the invocations. Chastity had to be observed at

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Speaker 1: all times, and complete abstinence was paramount for the free

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Speaker 1: spirited Crowley. That in itself would have proved a tall order. However,

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Speaker 1: as the winter snow of eighteen ninety nine began to

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Speaker 1: thaw and with it past the season of death, new

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Speaker 1: life was bursting forth throughout the surrounding hills. Spring had

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Speaker 1: finally arrived, and Crowley's dedication had not faulted. The time

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Speaker 1: had come to begin the ritual. Crowley began by preparing

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Speaker 1: the talismans that were essential for the operation. The talismans,

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Speaker 1: which can be found at the back of the Book

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Speaker 1: of Abramelon, are a set of magic word squares required

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Speaker 1: to bring the twelve kings of Hell into order. Crowley

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Speaker 1: had moved to the brightest room in the house to

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Speaker 1: best complete the task. The room, located at the front

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Speaker 1: of the house, overlooked the terrace and down to the

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Speaker 1: dark and still lockness beyond. Crowley cut the squares from

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Speaker 1: the material vellum, and as a bright sun flooded the

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Speaker 1: room with light, he began to inscribe the squares with

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Speaker 1: Indian ink. When something strange happened. Despite the clear skies,

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Speaker 1: the room began to darken until the light had been

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Speaker 1: almost entirely extinguished. From this point on, Chrowley was required

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Speaker 1: to use a large array of candles to keep the

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Speaker 1: room alight even during the brightest times of day. With

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Speaker 1: everything in order, Chrowley embarked on his sixth month odyssey.

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Speaker 1: Almost immediately he received confirmation that he was on the

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Speaker 1: right path as he began to chant in the room.

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Speaker 1: Even with all its artificial light, it again began to darken,

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Speaker 1: while all around the lodge and terrace became peopled with

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Speaker 1: shadowy shapes, or, as Crowley writes, the demons and evil

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Speaker 1: forces had congregated round me so thickly that they were

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Speaker 1: shutting off the light a number of friends had declined

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Speaker 1: to visit Crowley, believing he was going too far meddling

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Speaker 1: with things he couldn't understand, let alone control. The grimoire

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Speaker 1: itself begins with the warning not to attempt any of

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Speaker 1: the magic contained. Within only a few weeks into the operation,

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Speaker 1: already there were ominous stirrings. One acquaintance, named Rossia, lasted

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Speaker 1: only two weeks before terror forced him to flee Crowley,

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Speaker 1: coming down to breakfast one day, only to be informed

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Speaker 1: that Russia had taken the first boat to in Vaness

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Speaker 1: that morning. At one point, Crowley returned to Boleskin one

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Speaker 1: afternoon to find a Catholic priest waiting for him in

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Speaker 1: his study. The priest informed him that the day before,

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Speaker 1: his lodge keeper, who had not touched alcohol for twenty years,

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Speaker 1: had come home raving drunk and attempted to murder his

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Speaker 1: wife and children. Already, it would seem that the ritual,

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Speaker 1: despite being a very personal pursuit, was provoking forces beyond

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Speaker 1: Crowley's control. Although it may not have been going well

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Speaker 1: for those around him, the ritual seemed to be working

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Speaker 1: for Crowley. But all that was about to change. Barely

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Speaker 1: two months in Crowley received a letter from Samuel Mathis

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Speaker 1: requesting Crowley's immediate assistance. In Crowley's absence, the Order of

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00:20:04,520 --> 00:20:08,080
Speaker 1: the Golden Dawn had fractured into two opposing schools of thought,

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Speaker 1: with Mather's believing he was in great danger of being

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Speaker 1: usurped despite only being part way through the ritual. Crowley

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Speaker 1: felt compelled to offer his assistance immediately. He packed his

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Speaker 1: bags and headed straight to London, and with that the

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Speaker 1: magic ritual was broken. It had been Crowley's intention to

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Speaker 1: return and complete the spell, but with one thing leading

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Speaker 1: to another in the summer of nineteen hundred, Crowley instead

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Speaker 1: moved to Mexico. The ritual remained incomplete. As Kenneth Anger notes,

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Speaker 1: if you invoke spirits to help you or teach you,

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Speaker 1: there is something that has to be done afterwards. They

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Speaker 1: must be banished. But Crowley never did that. It is

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Speaker 1: said that soon after a dark cloud appeared over the

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Speaker 1: house that failed to disperse for many months. Locals refused

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Speaker 1: to go by the house, instead preferring to travel the

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Speaker 1: entire circumference of the lock rather than pass it. As

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Speaker 1: for Crowley, there are some who believe that failure to

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Speaker 1: complete the ritual left him dangerously open to demonic possession,

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Speaker 1: that the twelve Kings of Hell may well have somehow

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Speaker 1: found their way inside him, using him for their own purpose.

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Speaker 1: Some consider what later became a Crowley to be directly

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Speaker 1: linked to this moment, and for those that came to

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Speaker 1: Boleskin after Crowley, it is hard to resist the temptation

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Speaker 1: to think that some strange gateway had indeed been opened

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Speaker 1: that has never since been closed. Sometime after nineteen thirteen,

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Speaker 1: the property came into the possession of Major Edward Grant.

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Speaker 1: Not a lot is known about Grant's period of ownership,

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Speaker 1: except that one morning, while his housekeeper, Anna McLaren, had

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Speaker 1: been working in the garden, the family dog had come

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Speaker 1: running up to her, playing with something in its mouth.

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Speaker 1: It looked like some kind of bone, but knowing there

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Speaker 1: was nothing of that sort in the house, missus McLaren

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00:22:11,520 --> 00:22:14,879
Speaker 1: grabbed it from the dog and threw it away. A

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Speaker 1: short time later, Anna called in on the Major, only

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Speaker 1: to make a horrific discovery. There, slumped in front of

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Speaker 1: a large bedroom mirror was the body of Major Grant,

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Speaker 1: lying next to a recently discharged shotgun. His head had

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Speaker 1: been completely removed by the blast. The dog had indeed

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Speaker 1: been chewing on a bone. It was a piece of

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Speaker 1: Major Grant's skull. In nineteen seventy, the house was bought

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Speaker 1: by Led Zeplin guitarist Jimmy Page. Page had for a

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00:22:47,560 --> 00:22:50,600
Speaker 1: long time been fascinated by the occult, and in particular

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00:22:50,760 --> 00:22:54,400
Speaker 1: the life of Alister Crowley. However, due to his rigorous

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00:22:54,400 --> 00:22:58,400
Speaker 1: touring schedule and other commitments, Page rarely visited the house

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Speaker 1: and had invited his friend Belcome Dent to look after

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Speaker 1: the property in his absence. Dent and his family moved

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Speaker 1: into the property soon after, and it wasn't long before

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Speaker 1: they realized something in the house wasn't quite right. Despite

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Speaker 1: Berleskin's reputation, Dent was a confirmed skeptic and had little

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Speaker 1: time for what he considered to be nothing but superstitious nonsense.

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Speaker 1: Before long, Dent and his family became plagued by a

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Speaker 1: series of inexplicable noises moving throughout the house. Doors would

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00:23:30,280 --> 00:23:33,600
Speaker 1: slam mysteriously all through the night, and carpets and rugs

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00:23:33,840 --> 00:23:38,919
Speaker 1: would be mischievously pulled up. Another regular occurrence was that

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00:23:38,920 --> 00:23:41,720
Speaker 1: the doors would suddenly spring open, as if someone was

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Speaker 1: running through them, even on a calm day. Dent recalls

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00:23:45,720 --> 00:23:48,480
Speaker 1: sitting in bed late at night when something outside the

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00:23:48,560 --> 00:23:52,639
Speaker 1: room began snuffling under the door. It sounded at first

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Speaker 1: like a dog, before growing in intensity, becoming louder and louder.

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00:23:58,520 --> 00:24:00,919
Speaker 1: He snapped on the light, only for the noise to

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Speaker 1: become even more intense. As the door began to rattle violently.

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Speaker 1: He had the sudden feeling that something huge and evil

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00:24:08,600 --> 00:24:11,439
Speaker 1: was trying to get in. Then as quickly as it

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Speaker 1: had begun, it stopped. Was this one of the twelve

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Speaker 1: Kings of Hell that Crowley had failed to banish, or

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Speaker 1: something else that had entered through a strange gateway he

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00:24:22,240 --> 00:24:26,320
Speaker 1: had failed to close. Dent later discovered that the room

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Speaker 1: he was in at the time had been the same

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Speaker 1: room that Crowley conducted his ritual. In nineteen ninety one,

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00:24:34,160 --> 00:24:36,920
Speaker 1: the house was sold again to a Ronald and Annette

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Speaker 1: mac gillivray, who stayed in the property event free for

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Speaker 1: almost ten years. Following the death of Ronald in two

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00:24:44,680 --> 00:24:47,159
Speaker 1: thousand and two, the house was again put up for

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Speaker 1: sail and was later bought by a Dutch family, who

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Speaker 1: also reported nothing unusual in all their time staying at

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Speaker 1: the house. The demons it would seem had finally taken leave,

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00:24:58,480 --> 00:25:06,000
Speaker 1: or had they. In December twenty fifteen, the owner's daughter

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00:25:06,119 --> 00:25:09,359
Speaker 1: and partner arrived at Bleskan House intent on staying for

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Speaker 1: the Christmas holidays. Shortly after one pm on Wednesday, the

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00:25:13,760 --> 00:25:16,840
Speaker 1: twenty third, the couple had left the house to get

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Speaker 1: some much needed supplies for the days ahead. At approximately

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Speaker 1: one forty pm, a motorist on the A eighty two

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Speaker 1: road on the opposite side of the lock reported seeing

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Speaker 1: flames and smoke coming from the direction of Bleskan House.

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Speaker 1: By the time the couple had returned, half the building

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Speaker 1: was on fire, with the flames rising over twenty feet

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Speaker 1: into the air. Multiple crews of firemen battled the blaze

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Speaker 1: until the early hours of the following day. By the

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Speaker 1: next morning, sixty percent of the house had been incinerated,

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Speaker 1: as it remains to this day. After an extensive investigation,

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Speaker 1: the fire was found not to have been started Deliverer.

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Speaker 1: The precise cause of the fire is a mystery that

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Speaker 1: remains to this day unexplained. For more on the story

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Speaker 1: is that greatly misunderstood Alice to Crowley, please listen out

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Speaker 1: of episode ten extra, where we'll be delving a little

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00:26:29,560 --> 00:26:32,359
Speaker 1: deeper into the beliefs and magic of the man once

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Speaker 1: described as the wicked as man in the world. As

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00:26:36,600 --> 00:26:39,800
Speaker 1: for Boleskian House, whether you care to believe all the

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00:26:39,880 --> 00:26:44,359
Speaker 1: stories or not, there will forever remain something compelling about

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00:26:44,400 --> 00:26:48,439
Speaker 1: this most beguiling of places. Whether that is because of

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00:26:48,480 --> 00:26:51,119
Speaker 1: what we have projected onto it or due to something

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00:26:51,240 --> 00:26:56,960
Speaker 1: perhaps a little more unearthly, is anyone's guess. In fact,

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00:26:57,200 --> 00:27:00,440
Speaker 1: there is something of this in all buildings, even those

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00:27:00,480 --> 00:27:04,840
Speaker 1: without such ominous connotations. We feel it in our fascination

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00:27:05,000 --> 00:27:09,199
Speaker 1: with ruined and abandoned places, because although they may be empty,

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00:27:09,480 --> 00:27:12,280
Speaker 1: it is impossible not to sense something of those that

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00:27:12,359 --> 00:27:16,280
Speaker 1: had come before, and perhaps in some way still remain.

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Speaker 1: I will leave you with a passage from Thomas Pinsion's

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Speaker 1: Gravity's Rainbow. In the novel, Pinsion writes of a place

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00:27:25,600 --> 00:27:29,400
Speaker 1: known as the Zone, a sort of liminal space metaphorically

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00:27:29,440 --> 00:27:34,560
Speaker 1: caught somewhere between life and death. The novel's protagonist Slowthrop,

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00:27:35,000 --> 00:27:37,439
Speaker 1: is traveling through the Zone in the aftermath of the

395
00:27:37,480 --> 00:27:41,200
Speaker 1: Second World War when he finds himself inside an abandoned factory,

396
00:27:42,000 --> 00:27:46,240
Speaker 1: once a throbbing heart of industry, now quiet and stilled.

397
00:27:49,560 --> 00:27:52,639
Speaker 1: Though found adrift and haunted, full of signs of recent

398
00:27:52,800 --> 00:27:56,800
Speaker 1: human tendency. This is not the legendary ship marries Celeste.

399
00:27:57,600 --> 00:28:01,640
Speaker 1: It isn't bounded so neatly. The tracks under foot run

400
00:28:01,680 --> 00:28:04,639
Speaker 1: away fore and aft into all of still to Europe,

401
00:28:05,280 --> 00:28:08,159
Speaker 1: and our flesh doesn't sweat and pimple here for the

402
00:28:08,200 --> 00:28:11,840
Speaker 1: domestic mysteries, the attic horror of what might have happened,

403
00:28:12,320 --> 00:28:15,720
Speaker 1: so much as for our knowledge of what likely did happen.

404
00:28:16,560 --> 00:28:19,800
Speaker 1: It was always easy in open and lonely places to

405
00:28:19,880 --> 00:28:23,439
Speaker 1: be visited by panic, wilderness fear. But these are the

406
00:28:23,560 --> 00:28:27,040
Speaker 1: urban phantods here that come to get you when you

407
00:28:27,080 --> 00:28:30,680
Speaker 1: are lost or isolate inside the way time is passing,

408
00:28:31,240 --> 00:28:34,880
Speaker 1: when there is no more history, no time traveling capsule

409
00:28:35,000 --> 00:28:37,919
Speaker 1: to find your way back to, only the lateness and

410
00:28:38,000 --> 00:28:41,120
Speaker 1: the absence that fill a great railway shed after the

411
00:28:41,200 --> 00:28:45,600
Speaker 1: capitol has been evacuated, and the goat God's city cousins

412
00:28:45,960 --> 00:28:48,840
Speaker 1: wait for you at the edges of the light, playing

413
00:28:48,840 --> 00:28:52,800
Speaker 1: the tunes they always played, but more audible now because

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00:28:52,840 --> 00:29:03,840
Speaker 1: everything else has gone away or fallen silent. All elements

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00:29:03,880 --> 00:29:07,280
Speaker 1: of Unexplained are produced by me Richard McClain smith. Please

416
00:29:07,320 --> 00:29:09,880
Speaker 1: subscribe and rate the show on iTunes. Feel free to

417
00:29:09,880 --> 00:29:12,280
Speaker 1: get in touch with any thoughts or ideas regarding the

418
00:29:12,320 --> 00:29:14,920
Speaker 1: stories you've heard on the show. Perhaps you have an

419
00:29:14,920 --> 00:29:17,640
Speaker 1: explanation of your own you'd like to share. You can

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00:29:17,640 --> 00:29:20,480
Speaker 1: reach us online at Unexplained podcast dot com or on

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00:29:20,520 --> 00:29:41,640
Speaker 1: Twitter at Unexplained Pod. Now. It's time to take care

422
00:29:41,680 --> 00:29:45,440
Speaker 1: of yourself. To make time for you, Tell a Doc

423
00:29:45,600 --> 00:29:48,560
Speaker 1: gives you access to a licensed therapist to help you

424
00:29:48,600 --> 00:29:51,960
Speaker 1: get back to feeling your best. Speak to a licensed

425
00:29:52,040 --> 00:29:56,080
Speaker 1: therapist by phone or video anytime between seven am to

426
00:29:56,200 --> 00:29:59,680
Speaker 1: nine pm local time, seven days a week. Tell a

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Speaker 1: Slash Unexplained Podcast