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Astonishing Legends

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As we continue with Part Two of our discussion with Richard Hatem of Ken Webster's book, The Vertical Plane, we find that "The Mystery of the Dodleston Messages" has become even more fantastical and bizarre.  As unimaginable as it would be to ostensibly communicate with a living person from hundreds of years ago, Ken and his friends now find themselves on something of a "Party Line" via their computer with beings or perhaps some form of intelligence from a distant future or existence.  Identifying itself as "2109," this individual or agency soon warns that Ken's meddling with the construct of space-time by continuing to communicate with Lukas, now known as "Tomas," could irreparably damage the fabric of our reality.  However, this 2109 and company don't appear to be very professional in conducting their lording over timelines.  Often petulant and annoyingly cryptic, 2109 teases to provide advanced knowledge yet lacks the wisdom or adroitness in controlling its faculties.  It also appears another agent of 2109 was working to confound their authority by providing Tomas the means to communicate into the future in the first place.  Who are the ghosts, the living, and the beings residing in the margins between the two?  If 2109 is telling the truth and a form of time travel is possible, this raises many interesting, often asked questions and even more concerns.  For instance, are there numerous, perhaps an infinite number of parallel timelines where versions of yourself exist, and what would happen if you were to interact with one negatively?  As unlikely as this may seem, even more disturbing is the thought that there may be semi-omniscient entities who might be fumbling with the levers of control over them.  Whether you believe The Vertical Plane to be factual or merely an entertaining new genre of "Science Non-fiction," the age-old adage holds fast – it's usually good practice not to talk to strangers. Visit our website for a lot more information on this episode.

The Vertical Plane Part 2

Live Post Mortem discussion on The Vertical Plane Part 1 with Scott, Forrest and Richard Hatem  this Thursday on Fireside! Go to https://firesidechat.com/scottphilbrook now and request access!

Special Live show on Fireside This Week!

Many of us enjoy a good ghost story. Many of us enjoy Science Fiction. But how many stories do you know that start off as one and evolve into the other? What's become known as "The mystery of the Dodleston messages" is precisely just such a case. And if the story is accurate, it comes with some of the most incredible, baffling, and mind-bending implications we've ever encountered. Towards the end of summer in 1984, teacher and musician Ken Webster was renovating his 16th-century home named "Meadow Cottage" when the strange activity began. Located in the village of Dodleston, four miles southwest of the town of Chester in northwest England near the border with Wales, life was taking its usual somnambulistic pace while dusted with the discomfort and drudgery of living in a small, historical residence during construction. But one day, while Webster's lodger friend Nicola helped to decorate, the pair noticed tiny, six-toed footprints going up the wall that would reappear even after repainting. Then, it seemed a poltergeist repeatedly stacked their pantry goods in a playful yet orderly fashion. Clearly to them, some acquaintance was having a laugh at their expense. But a bigger mystery unfolded after Webster brought home a BBC brand word processor from his school so Nicola could write comedy sketches. Ken Webster, Nicola, and Ken's girlfriend Debbie noticed that someone was leaving at first cryptic messages on the microcomputer, but seemingly written in the style of 16th-century English. Before long, the epistler, or as the trio first thought, merry prankster, had identified himself as "Lukas" and was wondering what all these strange but decent folks were doing in his farmhouse, mucking about. Through leaving text documents back and forth, an ongoing conversation and friendship developed. Lukas claimed to be the original owner of the cottage. Not only that, he said he was currently living under the reign of King Henry VIII and his queen of the moment, Catherine Parr, making Lukas' lifetime the 1540s of England. But as unbelievable as this more than 400-year-old correspondence appeared, the situation would become even more bizarre as Lukas, Ken, and his friends would find themselves embroiled in royal Tudor intrigue with trying to save Lukas' life. Complicating this otherworldly drama was the emergence of mysterious correspondents who claimed to be manipulating this portal through time. As relatively mundane as Lukas' messages often were, these new entities professed to be from the future, or perhaps a possible future, and warned that messing with the paradoxes of time travel could lead to terrible consequences with alternate timelines. Ken Webster documented this series of mind-blowing events in his book, The Vertical Plane, published in 1989. Tonight, we're joined once again by our great friend and paranormal oracle, Richard Hatem. Rich made us aware of this story by generously gifting us Webster's book, years before its now princely sum of over $500 for a used, out-of-print copy on Amazon. Part One of our series on this unimaginable occurrence will focus on how Webster and his friends got to know this true "Renaissance Man" and leading up to the possibility that there are overlords of time who can dabble in our destinies. Visit our website for a lot more information on this episode.

The Vertical Plane Part 1

Now that we've covered the story essentials of the strange case of Mary Lurancy Vennum, known as "The Watseka Wonder," it's time to take a look at the possible causes and mechanics of this apparent miracle. Suppose Lurancy's possession was merely the imaginative prank of an attention-seeking impressionable teenager. How then did she know intimate, inscrutable details of her possessor Mary Roff and that of her family, when Mary had died over ten years before she was born and the Roff family were vague acquaintances? It's perhaps possible that this naive fourteen-year-old had mastered the manipulation techniques employed by experienced Mentalists and charlatan psychic mediums to fool desperate parents, but how likely is that? In Part Two of our series, we consider the investigation of a noted psychical researcher at the time, Dr. Richard Hodgson, who interviewed witnesses and studied case notes about thirteen years after the significant events in light of contemporary hypotheses. In a historical line between 1877 and 1908, we then look at the analysis of a psychology journalist, H. Addington Bruce, through the lens of his evolved understanding of that field 30 years later. In the greater context surrounding this case are the history of psychical research and a brief overview of some of the prominent figures involved in the Spiritist movement. We then round out the series with a more modern-day interpretation and our own conclusions. Even saddled with an antiquated title like The Watseka Wonder and recognizing the significant advancements in the field of abnormal psychology, this case remains wonderous indeed. Visit our website for a lot more information on this episode. 

The Watseka Wonder - Part 2

An apartment complex hosts a big Halloween party with themed rooms and costumed partygoers. By the end of the night, one of the party’s hosts is murdered. And the partygoers are the main suspects in the eyes of the police: was it the guy in the devil mask, the guy dressed as Jesus, the bank robber, the construction worker? As a complex investigation winds its way through forensic evidence, witness testimony, DNA, and even a psychic, the police zero in on one suspect in particular -- but why? From Campside Media and Wondery, the makers of Chameleon and the Shrink Next Door, comes SUSPECT. Matthew Shaer and Eric Benson (Over My Dead Body) return to the scene of the crime to uncover what happened, and speak with everyone about a party that still haunts them a decade later. It’s a series about cutting-edge science and mislaid justice, race and policing, and the kinds of weighty choices that cops and prosecutors make every day. Choices that, once made, are difficult to reverse. Suspect 

Suspect Trailer

We often wonder when was the first time a now well-known phenomenon first occurred or was recorded. In the instance of spiritual possession, at least in the United States, we may have an answer in the case known as “The Watseka Wonder.” Indeed, if such a condition exists, it’s likely people have been claiming or appearing to be possessed by a supernatural force since human beings existed. However, many cite the Watseka story as the first well-documented example of a person appearing to have been taken over by a deceased human spirit. This historical incident also benefits from the thorough documentation from a credible source. At the time, a physician and Spiritist, Dr. E. Winchester Stevens, treated his patient experiencing the possession and wrote about the bizarre events soon after they occurred in a book he titled, The Watseka Wonder. Stevens’ report details the story of Mary Lurancy Vennum, who began to suffer from cataleptic-like seizures at the age between thirteen and fourteen years old. On July 11, 1877, the first attack happened where Lurancy passed out on the floor and remained unconscious for five hours. The “fit,” as it was called back then, happened the next day as well, except that this time while in something of a trance, she spoke of being in heaven and in the company of various spirits. She described some of these spirits as angels and claimed to talk to a departed sister and a brother who died when Lurancy was just 3. Her episodes occurred in greater frequency by January of the following year, some lasting from an hour to eight hours and as many as twelve times per day. Her religiously orthodox parents and the numerous doctors that examined her feared she had become insane, and the only option left was to have her committed to an asylum. However, a respected, casual acquaintance of the Vennum family, Asa B. Roff, became intrigued by Lurancy’s condition and instead convinced her parents to let Dr. E. W. Stevens treat the girl using Spiritist methods. To everyone’s astonishment, Lurancy then started to behave like she was inhabited by the soul of Roff’s daughter Mary. Mary Roff had passed away more than a decade before Lurancy was born. Join us tonight for Part 1 of our series, where we cover the circumstances of perhaps America’s first acknowledged case of “spirit infestation,” known as “The Watseka Wonder.” Visit our website for a lot more information on this episode.

The Watseka Wonder Part 1

One question we often receive is, do we think the US Government will ever disclose the existence of UFOs? We believe the answer is, they've already begun. Since the groundbreaking, front-page article appeared in the December 17, 2017 edition of the New York Times with a title exclaiming "Real UFOs," the world has seen drips and drops of Pentagon-authenticated video clips and statements publically disseminated and officially validated. Add to this the testimonies of some of the most credible sources willing to come forward, such as Luis "Lue" Elizondo, former director of the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program or AATIP at the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence in the Pentagon, Christopher Mellon, former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Intelligence, and retired veteran US Navy fighter pilot Commander David Fravor. The claims become hard to dismiss as goofball flights of fancy. On June 25, 2021, the release of a report titled Preliminary Assessment: Unidentified Aerial Phenomena by the Office of the Director Of National Intelligence was considered anemic by many who wanted FULL disclosure of what the government knows. However, it was another official admission that these encounters are certified and remain a mystery to our military. At least on the surface. And what is known currently by the general public above this surface owes a great deal to the efforts of our guest tonight, a field researcher and documentarian Jeremy Kenyon Lockyer Corbell. Jeremy's pursuit and publication of unclassified video from Naval electronic warfare targeting systems like the now-famous "Tic Tac" clip have stirred public imagination and debate. They may have even spurred congressional inquiry resulting in that preliminary report and future disclosures. But we owe our access to Jeremy to the facilitation from a long-time listener and now friend Adam. Adam and Jeremy became friends while investigating a cattle mutilation near Adam's storage property in the Texas panhandle region. Tonight, we'll discuss Jeremy's journey to becoming a clearinghouse for genuine UFO footage, his documentary work on the subjects of Bob Lazar and Skinwalker Ranch, and he and Adam's findings from their cattle mutilation case, and all the implications thereof. One curious and ironic conclusion when trying to connect all the dots is that the specific governmental disclosure on alien life, their motivations, abductions, and cattle mutilations seem like it could be another matter altogether. Visit our website for a lot more information on this episode.

Disclosure with Jeremy Corbell

Here's a question: What makes a haunted house spooky if you've never been there?  How scary can a haunted house be if no one has repeatedly investigated it?  In other words, what is more frightening, the honest anecdotes about experienced paranormal activity in a haunted location or the unverified legends and lore of a place that send the frights of our imagination into overdrive?  And what makes a house haunted?  Is it the house or land itself, the activities and energy of its inhabitants, or a reciprocal combination of both?  These are questions that would be apropos for tonight's subject, a house known as the Wilbur-Hahn manor in Spokane, Washington.  The craftsman-style mansion came to life in September of 1916, when the heiress to the Hecla Silver Mine fortune, Sarah Smith, married playboy Ralston T. "Jack" Wilbur.  Jack Wilbur had used Sarah's money to hire an eminent architect to build a three-story, seventeen-room house in Spokane's historied and tony South Hill neighborhood.  For the princely sum of $75,000, the estate, sitting on nearly four acres of land, flaunted imported marble, gold-leaf carvings, and mahogany paneling inlaid with mother of pearl brought from China.  However, the newly minted Mrs. Wilbur didn't fancy the home, and with this and other tumults in the marriage, Smith, and Wilbur divorced in 1918.  The following notorious couple to occupy the house was Rudolph A. Hahn and his second wife Sylvia, thirty-two years his junior.  Hahn purchased the manor in 1924 and spent $50,000 on additions, like a swimming pool and lavish gardens with fountains and statues, along with rumored secret panels and tunnels.  Obtaining a doctor's license through a correspondence course, Hahn made a fortune performing electroshock therapy and illegal medical procedures for Spokane's well-heeled.  The money, which some believe Hahn had stashed on the property, fueled his love of wild parties, fast cars, boats, and racehorses, much to the neighbors' dismay.  But the excess and extravagant lifestyle of this real-life "Great Gatsby" would eventually lead to his bizarre murder in a seedy hotel downtown known as The New Madison Hotel.  Perhaps it was the raucous, illicit activities and extreme emotions witnessed by the estate that imprinted somehow.  Reports of arguing phantom voices or boisterous laughter, vanishing bloodstains, shadow figures, the apparition of a woman at the top of the stairs, and even screams and mysterious noises heard by passersby are forever bound to the house.  The lesson of such an infamous place as the Wilbur-Hahn manor is that no matter how private any owners are, they cannot curb the spirits or the legend of a haunted mansion, and spooky is as spooky does. Visit our website for a whole lot more information on this website, and seriously, we're talking a LOT more. 

The Mad Doctor of Spokane

It's much more comfortable for most of us to think of paranormal subjects as having their origins beginning only in recent history – an amusing byproduct of mid-twentieth century foolishness or the internet age.  Much easier to dismiss then.  Many people, persuaded by an uninformed media, believe UFOs only started appearing to the public after pilot Kenneth Arnold's famous sighting while flying near Mt. Rainier on June 24, 1947, or the incident in Roswell, NM, just fourteen days later.  Similarly, many people believe the Bigfoot or Sasquatch phenomenon only began in 1958 in Bluff Creek, California, after the family of Ray Wallace claimed he started it all by leaving large, fake footprints made with wooden carvings as a prank.  It's uncomfortable to consider that these unnerving intrusions into our comfortable reality had occurred for maybe hundreds, if not thousands, or even hundreds of thousands of years before our sophisticated logic matured.  However, researchers who study paranormal phenomena know that reports of these things, especially Bigfoot, go back far beyond written history.  Unfortunately, yet not surprisingly, there seems to be an air of ethnocentrism and hubris when it comes to western scientists giving credence to the indigenous oral traditions of encounters with these massive, hairy ape-like beasts.  Yet, it stands to reason that if any of these beings truly existed, their origins likely go back further than the birth of Rock and Roll.  So, how far back do the sightings of Bigfoot and Sasquatch go?  Here's a hint: it's a lot more ancient and global than you probably imagined.  To help us explore this enigma, we're fortunate to have our dear friend, researcher, science enthusiast, author, and fellow podcaster Micah Hanks join us for a roundtable discussion.  We'll hear about his latest research into the earliest known writings and oral histories of the cryptic cousin creature we've come to know and love. Visit our website for a whole lot more information on this website, and seriously, we're talking a LOT more.

Sasquatch - The Search for Manlike Monsters in History

Our goal in covering the story of the Perron family's experience while living for a decade at the Arnold Estate, the inspiration for the motion picture, The Conjuring, was to uncover the real story behind the persistent hauntings. What we discovered once again was the actual truths at the heart of this, and other famous cases are as murky and nebulous as the spirits that do the haunting. The question that remains is, what is truth and what is real when it comes to supernatural activity? Skeptical researcher and writer Kenny Biddle investigated the historical people that the Perrons thought may have been the entities that lingered in their home. He found inconsistencies between the records of the lives and deaths of named locals and their claimed involvement with the farmhouse. But the attempt to cast doubt on the Perron story by focusing on historical inaccuracies is to go at the problem in an understandably linear, causal fashion, perhaps not one taken by a paranormal investigator. This leads us to the question, can the supernatural be analyzed with earthly rational thinking?  For example, does a person have to die in the same place that their ghost supposedly haunts (if one even believes in ghosts), or can they move about freely? Can spirits visit only some individuals or occupants, or would they have to haunt everyone in the same space equally? Can spirits identify as something they're not, or do they have to tell the truth about who or what they are? What are the rules for something so mysterious? While many of us would like to apply standard logic to understanding the numen world, those that have experienced it might tell you no ordinary rationale matters. Despite the "facts," what they have witnessed was real and true enough. Visit our website for a whole lot more information on this website, and seriously, we're talking a LOT more.

The True Story behind the Conjuring Part 2

Whether you're a fan of horror films or not, you've probably heard of the 2013 motion picture, "The Conjuring." This film, starring Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, struck such a chord with viewers that it spawned a franchise of related films like The Conjuring sequels, The Nun, Annabelle, and The Curse of La Llorona. But the initial movie was inspired by real-life events, the roughly decade-long hauntings of the Perron family that started the moment they moved into the Arnold Estate in 1970, now called "The Farm on Round Top Road" in Harrisville, Rhode Island. The colonial farmhouse, built circa 1736, would be home to 9 generations of families, including the Perrons. It seems some of the residents would never be able to leave, and some new and terrifying entities would make an unwelcome appearance during the Perron occupancy. While a few of the spirits were viciously malevolent, some were benevolent, and Andrea Perron, the eldest daughter, comprehensively chronicled the entire experience in a three-volume set of books titled House of Darkness House of Light: The True Story. While Andrea loved the cinematic adaptation of her family's story in the film, she also realizes that a movie has its own set of rules for narrative compression. Its purpose is to entertain efficiently, and therefore was only "one percent of one percent of what actually happened at the farm." Also, the famous paranormal investigative couple, Ed and Lorraine Warren were only a lesser element to the overall story. So what were some of the more frightening yet fascinating occurrences that happened to the Perrons at clearly one of the most active haunted houses still in existence that most of us have never heard? Join us tonight for part one of our examination of the true story behind "The Conjuring."  Visit our website for a whole lot more information on this website, and seriously, we're talking a LOT more.

The True Story behind the Conjuring Part 1

Many of us have taken an adventurous expedition to check out some local, notorious spot to see if we could witness or sense some evidence of a past famous or infamous incident. Most of the time, one only returns with a minor anecdote or pictures of an ordinary location bereft of anything noteworthy. The more realistic purpose is not so much to find a ghoulish memento but to imagine what it must've been like to have been there when it happened. But what if such an outing starts with strange coincidences and ends with the adventurers enduring a paranormal event seemingly unrelated to the original incident? This is the sort of tale we'll hear from our good friend, graphic designer, and illustrator Tommy Beaver about the time some friends went to check out the scene of a horrific crime that happened in Summerfield, North Carolina, almost 13 miles northwest of Greensboro. On June 3, 1985, the incident in question occurred when at the end of a murder spree and police pursuit, Fritz Klenner and his first cousin, lover, and accomplice, Susie Newsome Lynch, ended their standoff detonating a bomb in their Chevrolet Blazer. Klenner and Lynch had blown themselves up along with Lynch's already deceased two sons who were in the vehicle rather than face arrest. The site of this shocking finale was what the friends were hoping to explore, but their souvenir was an unsettling experience they'll never forget. Strangely, a mysterious white horse suddenly appeared to encounter the group, except that this creature may not have been a horse at all. Many people have claimed to see a spectral white horse, and the ancient Britons believed a sacred white horse was one's ride to the afterlife. Yet these friends may forever wonder, as will we, what was the connection of this beast to the tragedy if there is one? And if this wasn't a horse as we know it, what sort of monster haunts the location of one of North Carolina's most ghastly crimes? Visit our website for a whole lot more information on this website, and seriously, we're talking a LOT more.

The Phantom Horse of Greensboro

So, as we close out our three-part series on Crop Circles, what have we all learned so far? Well, we've learned that Crop Circles are not just another fad from the 1980s and 90s. Generations of farmers going back at least to the turn of the last century have found them, and probably long before that if written accounts are accurate. They may have been the template or the inspiration for Standing Stone formations such as Stonehenge and rock paintings like the Gwion Gwion, often found in the sacred sites of our earliest ancestors. And they continue to be discovered to this day. While hoaxers have gotten more sophisticated with their designs and prodigious with their efforts over the years, simple logic and reason would suggest they couldn't have made all the now thousands that have been found all over the world. And many of these showing no signs of human touch. It applies especially to the massive and intricate patterns discovered within hours or less of their creation. Even more perplexing is the claim by many hoaxers that they felt strangely compelled to create their formations as if they had no choice. Some circle makers revealed a mysterious fog had shrouded their activities or aided by a sudden clearing of the weather or an alteration of perception by onlookers. And if an unknown entity made just one Crop Circle, then isn't the phenomenon genuine? But what is the point of all this effort and secrecy? If they are merely human-made decorations, they serve to nourish us the way all art does. Suppose they are messages from an otherworldly source. In that case, they contain a level of cleverness in their multiple layers of meaning functioning all at once, as we would expect from higher intellect. They speak to us with a mesmerizing beauty, using elements of Sacred Geometry that have always captured our imagination, with their deeper meaning residing in our unconscious. Each circle may have a particular message, with all of them combined to form an instructive narrative, and the key to unlocking this enigma may be in the circles themselves. If this is a new form of language or communication, then perhaps one clear and simple message is that the researchers, the hoaxers, the curious, and the clueless; our minds, bodies, and spirits are all connected along with the earth. Maybe it's the result of global human consciousness, an unseen intelligence, or a combination of both. Whatever the force behind Crop Circles, could it be that something tells us we need to evolve our awareness and understanding to take better care of all of it before we lose our way for good?   Visit our website for a whole lot more information on this website, and seriously, we're talking a LOT more.

Crop Circles Part 3

As we dive deeper into exploring the phenomenon of Crop Circles, it seems that the story of its research takes on the shape of other histories of paranormal investigation.  Misinformation and misdirection from government and military agencies, hoaxes complicating genuinely anomalous evidence, and the phenomena itself presenting an ever-moving target for those that seek the truth are akin to the serious study of UFOs, for example.  And curiously, for being thought of by many as just prankish art installations in grain stalks, Crop Circles come with a Grab Bag of High Strangeness too.  For tonight's Part Two in our series, we first cover inexplicable occurrences associated with some circle formations.  We'll focus on one surveillance experiment in a crop circle dubbed "Operation White Crow" with bizarre and unsettling effects for Colin Andrews, Pat Delgado, Busty Taylor, Dr. Terence Meaden, and others.  Then we look at what appeared to be an attempt by the British military to discredit Andrews and other "cereologists" called "Operation Blackbird" that ironically may have generated its own enigmatic results and the question of why would they bother?  And lastly, we'll begin to examine the mindset and role of the hoaxer and the symbiosis they may participate in with earnest researchers, one that hoaxers may not realize they share as they do their part to keep the mystery alive. Visit our website for a whole lot more information on this website, and seriously, we're talking a LOT more.

Crop Circles Part 2

Scott and Forrest have been called the 'Click and Clack of esoterica' by their listeners. Their mission is to take a look at legendary strange and unusual events from throughout history and interview people who've had close encounters with the unexplained. They strive to bring you everything that's entertaining about those stories and remind you that it's ok to laugh at scary stories sometimes. Put your headphones on, settle in for your commute and get ready to experience a show like nothing you've ever heard before. Show schedule is generally 3 weeks on and 1 week off.

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Astonishing Legends

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