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Welcome weirdos. I'm Darren Marlar and this is Weird Darkness.
Here you'll find stories of the paranormal, supernatural, legends, lore, the strange and bizarre.
Crime, conspiracy, mysterious, macabre, unsolved and unexplained.
Coming up in this episode. In July of 1956, the SS Andrea Doria collided with another ship
and quickly sank to the bottom of the ocean. Today it is a tourist destination for brave
divers who not only want to see something hauntingly beautiful, but who also dare to investigate
a wreck that has been deemed by many to be cursed and for good reason.
Here a normal author and researcher, G. Michael Vacy, tells of a personal incident that took place recently
where he saw what could be described as a peripheral person. Movies like Sean of the Dead,
Night of the Living Dead, World War Z and TV shows like The Walking Dead have made the subject of
zombies a fairly popular topic over recent years and while we all know these undead creatures are
purely make believe. The idea of the zombie has been around for thousands of years and in the voodoo
culture they have found a way to make zombies a real horrifying thing.
Sir Clive Sinclair might have been a man ahead of his time. The late inventor created all
manner of strange and wonderful gadgets, most of which you've likely never heard of, but that doesn't mean
you can say they were failures. If the legends are to be believed, you'll want to avoid driving
down Nantux Lane in East Sussex unless you don't mind coming into contact with a vengeful ghost.
Where in the Bible do we see the story of fallen angels sleeping with women to produce a breed of
giants? Most would point to the book of Genesis, but in the unincluded book of Inak,
it tells a more detailed account, worthy of a horror movie. But first, some people collect
baseball cards, others coins, others Pokemon. There's no telling what someone might find enough of
an interest in to begin collecting. In collecting books is one of the most common, but when you're
collecting becomes a compulsion and you can't stop yourself, it can get out of hand. Just ask Thomas Phillips,
the man who was addicted to books to an extreme level. If you're new here, welcome to the show.
And if you're already a member of this weirdo family, please take a moment and invite someone else to listen.
Recommending Weird Darkness to others helps make it possible for me to keep doing the show.
And while you're listening, be sure to check out WeirdDarkness.com where you can find the show on Facebook
and Twitter. And you can also join the Weird Darkness Weirdos Facebook group. Now,
bolt your doors. Lock your windows. Turn off your lights and come with me into the Weird Darkness.
[Music]
Anyone who agrees with the old saying that you can't have too much of a good thing is never heard of
Thomas Phillips. This gentleman took what is normally a highly admirable pastime collecting books
and he turned it into a nightmare for everyone unfortunate enough to be around him. I'm not so
sure he enjoyed it much either. Phillips was born on July 2, 1792. He was the illegitimate only child
between Thomas Phillips, a well-to-do merchant, and a woman named Hannah Walton. Although Walton lived
until 1851, Thomas Jr. was raised exclusively by his father, and he had little if any contact with
his mother. Young Thomas was given a good education. His father was determined that,
despite the accident of his birth, he should become a proper gentleman. And the boy demonstrated his
passion for books from an early age. By the time he went to Oxford, he was a devoted and
aquarium, focusing on his own private studies rather than those imposed on him by the college. His father,
an ominous sign for the future, was already complaining about the remarkable sums that his son was
spending on books. By the time Thomas Sr. died in 1818, he had become so concerned about his progenies
unbridled biblial spending that he left his estate in trust. Thomas Jr. was able to access
only the income, which was, however, a quite generous 6,000 pounds a year. In 1819, Phillips married
Henrietta Molano, a charming and pretty girl loved good family, but relatively small dowry. It appears to
have been a love match, one that produced three daughters, and for some years, at least, was a happy
and stable union. During the first decade of his marriage, Thomas's intellectual pursuits were
successful and pleasantly normal. He was made a fellow of the Royal Society, and in 1821 became a
baronette. He threw himself into buying books with increasing exuberance. He also paid to have transcripts
made of various historical documents, which he often published with his own small private printing press.
He was equally fanatical about hoarding his own personal history. He never threw out any scrap of paper.
Household bills, drafts and copies of all his letters, receipts, memos, a unamette.
Every bed of documentation of his private life no matter how trivial was obsessively saved.
Phillips had quite possibly the best documented life in history.
Unfortunately, these pastimes began to control him, rather than the other way around.
He is increasingly headless spending, coupled with his refusal to take any sort of financial advice,
soon landed him hopelessly in debt. Beginning in 1822, he was obligated every few years to spend
long periods living on the continent to avoid his creditors. This did nothing to persuade him,
he traveled throughout Europe, scooping up every book and old manuscript he could lay his hands on.
No volume was safe from him. A number of booksellers who were foolish enough to lend
Phillips long lines of credit were, thanks to his generosity, eventually forced into bankruptcy.
It was all too much for Henrietta Phillips, worn out by years of living with a fanatic,
she consoled herself by becoming a drug addict. Dying at the age of only 37 and 1832.
Thomas almost immediately set out to find her replacement. Unlike his first marriage,
this time he was determined to marry for wealth. I am, he announced, grandly, for sale at £50,000.
All of his wife's money would of course be converted into books.
No one, except apparently Phillips, was surprised that there was not a flock of ladies eager to close
this sale. It took him 10 years before he was able to find a woman rich enough and brave enough to take him on.
One perspective, father-in-law accused him of behaving like a Smith-field cattle dealer.
In 1842 he had Elizabeth Mansel, the daughter of a wealthy clergyman. Fortunately,
she proved to be an amiable, forgiving, and self-sacrificing sort.
Any woman married to Thomas Phillips would have to be, if she wished to keep some measure of sanity.
One month after his remarriage, another wedding took place,
that was to have a great effect on Phillips life. His eldest daughter, Henrietta,
eloped with James Orchard Hellowell. Hellowell was a talented scholar, whom Phillips had hired
to help organize his by now massive collection of manuscripts. Although Phillips had found the
young man useful, he disapproved of him personally, particularly when it came out that Hellowell had stolen
manuscripts from Cambridge libraries. Besides, Hellowell didn't have a penny, and Phillips had been determined
that all his daughters should marry Rich Men. He was not a man accustomed to being thwarted
and being forced to accept this brilliant but unscrupulous and impacunious scamp as a son-in-law
sent him into a rage which never quite abated. From then on he considered Hellowell and Henrietta
as his greatest foes. By this time Phillips' state of middle hill had become little more than a massive
storage closet. His books and manuscripts were kept in large trunks which soon filled virtually
every corner of the mansion. He owned so many that they were virtually impossible for him to catalog.
Although he continually pressed gained his wife and daughters into assisting him with this task.
He himself completely lost track of what he owned or where anything was kept which sent visiting
scholars practically into fits of frustration. He was able to keep himself financially afloat
only through a rigid miserliness that he also imposed upon his family. He refused to spend money on
anything except books and if his wife and daughters suffered as a result well too bad.
Phillips simply could not stop buying. He was in his own word a "villaminiac" buying up huge quantities
of historical manuscripts whenever he could. Many of them were highly valuable, many of them were
out of rubbish. It seemed to matter little to him which they were. In his later years he became increasingly
absorbed in the problem of what should become of his fabulous collection of historic printed treasures
after his death. Although middle hill wasn't hailed on his daughter Henrietta, he was determined that
his heated sun and law should not get a single one of his precious manuscripts. It was for this reason
that in 1867 he bought Thurl Stain House in Sheltonham. This mansion was dilapitated and uncomfortable,
but all Phillips cared about was that it was large enough to house his collection. It took two years
before all his books and manuscripts could be transported to this new home. In the meantime, simply out of spite,
he deliberately let middle hill go to ruin. These state's beautiful trees were cut down and sold for
firewood. The land was allowed to become a dank wilderness. The house itself was left to rot.
If you could not keep the hollow wells from inheriting the house, he could see to it that it was an
inheritance not much worth having. Phillips was content with his new home. Drafty and Verman Ritten
though it was, but his wife, she complained. This left booked out of one wing and read it out of the
other. Most of the rooms were so crammed with trunks of books and papers that they were unusable for
any other purposes. The hallways were so jammed with his acquisitions that only one person at a time
could sneak their way through the corridors. The bedrooms contained little else than a bed and books.
Elizabeth's husband scarcely noticed her unhappiness. All he cared about was books.
I wish to have one copy of every book in the world, he once wrote, and if he came short of this
goal it certainly was not for lack of trying. He continued in this same pattern of running up debts
and corresponding with scholars across Europe until his death on February 6th 1872.
Elizabeth Phillips was left only a hundred pounds in her husband's will. Most of his lands were
settled on various tenants as well as a grandson. Theryl's day in house went to his youngest daughter
Catholic with instructions that not one book or a single piece of parchment was to be moved from the home.
The hallowels and all their descendants were barred from even entering the place. It was not until 1885
that Catherine's family was able to get legal approval to begin dispersing Phillips' life's work.
Selling such a vast collection was a job that took years to complete. The last of the estimated
60,000 manuscripts acquired by this greatest of literary hoarders was not sold until 1977.
As for Philos Betnoar, James Hallowell ironically came out quite well from his connection to the old
Bibliomaniac. After his father-in-law's death, Hallowell fixed up middle hill and found buyer.
The money from the sale made him a rich man for the rest of his life. He became a leading
Shakespearean scholar. He has given much of the credit for launching modern-day Shakespeare idolatry
and his biography of the bard is still considered one of the best books on the now legendary
dramatist. He himself became a noted Bibliophile. His collection was founded on items he had secretly stolen
from Phillips. Hallowell lived long enough to overcome his taudry early reputation, becoming a respected
even revered figure in literary circles. As a victory lap of sorts, eventually took on the grand
name, J.O. Hallowell Phillips. Oh, how old Thomas's ghost must have hated that.
Up next on Weird Darkness. The idea of the zombie has been around for thousands of years,
but in the voodoo culture they have found a way to make zombies a real horrifying thing.
But first, the wreck of the SS and Riedoria is a popular spot with divers,
but perhaps it shouldn't be. Saying as it is also cursed. That story is up next.
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Back in its day, the SS and Ria Doria was a source of pride for its native country of Italy.
Red Nginola, launched in 1951, he was a 697 foot luxury ocean liner that was decked out with all of the
frills, including three outdoor swimming pools. And was widely known for its numerous works of art,
such as paintings, tapestries, murals, and even a life-sized bronze statue of the ship's namesake,
the 16th century genesis, admiral, and Ria Doria. Such magnificent art was so ubiquitous on the
ship that it earned the vessel the nickname "The Floating Art Gallery." And at a time when Italy was
trying to rebuild in the aftermath of World War II, the SS and Ria Doria was a source of national pride
and symbol of renewal, being the largest, fastest, and most opulent in the entire country,
complete with the most stated-the-art technology and safety features available at the time.
However, there were dark days ahead for the venerable vessel, and it would go on to become one of
the biggest sea tragedies in the world, as well as a place rumored to hold dark forces and curses about it
to this day. On July 25, 1956, the Andrea Doria was on a routine run towards New York City,
along with 572 crew members and 1,134 passengers. By this point, the liner already had an admirable
service record, having made a hundred successful transatlantic crossings, and was under the command of Captain
Piero Calamé, a seasoned veteran of both World War I and World War II. So there wasn't at the time
any reason to think that this voyage would be any different. On this day, at around 1030 AM, the Andrea Doria
was being approached from the opposite direction by the Swedish liner, the Stockholm, and both
vessels were traveling a bit too fast and recklessly for the foggy conditions in such a heavily trafficked
ceiling, both trying to shave off time from their voyages to reach their destinations on time.
At some point, the two vessels became aware of each other on radar, but through some misunderstanding
or error, the Andrea Doria steered towards the incoming Stockholm rather than away from it,
sending them on a collision course. By the time they figured out the error, it was too late.
The Andrea Doria and the Stockholm collided practically head on, despite all efforts to evade the last second.
The Stockholm had been fitted with a robust icebreaker bow that easily shredded right through the other
vessel and mortally wounded it to leave a huge, gaping gash and mass of twisted metal.
The Andrea Doria began to list immediately, leaving half of its lifeboats underwater,
before the shocked crew and passengers had even had time to process what had happened.
Fortunately, the ship managed to stay afloat for 11 hours, which combined with the high traffic
of the area, high-tech safety features and top-of-the-line communication systems,
ensured that the rescue went as smoothly as could be expected. Nevertheless, 46 people met their
fate aboard the Andrea Doria that day, as well as five aboard the Stockholm, mostly killed on the
initial collision, and it would go on to become one of the most infamous maritime disasters of all time.
The Stockholm would survive the ordeal and go on to be repaired and put into operation,
but the Andrea Doria was lost, eventually going into death throws to slip beneath the waves and
come to rest in the murky depths in around 240 feet of water about 60 nautical miles from an tucket
on the border of the continental shelf, practically teetering on the edge of an abyss.
No official blame or cause of the collision was ever established, but the Andrea Doria would become
well known for other mysteries as well. In the years after its sinking, the Andrea Doria
became a very popular destination for divers, with its remote location, deep cold waters,
strong currents, and the promise of treasures and historical artifacts proving to be an irresistible
challenge for many, with anything found able to be kept due to the ship's location in international
waters, and the fact that the owner of the shipwreck has never enforced its salvage rights over the wreck.
The wreck has often been dubbed the Mount Everest of wreck diving, and this seductive
allure has drawn in divers from around the world, looking to feed their egos and their pocketbooks,
but the wreck is also gone on to be whispered about as a cursed place that swallows up all who would approach it.
The rumors stem from the fact that many who come here to investigate the wreck have been beset
with numerous technical issues, freak accidents or worse. Bad diving conditions and weather have
supposedly suddenly descended on the area during dives, and fault the equipment and getting stuck in the
deteriorating compartments of the ship itself have managed to cancel many dives, and it has even resulted
in death. Indeed, the Andrea Doria has a rather sinister reputation for taking lives,
with an estimated 18 people losing their lives here since 1956, while trying to explore the wreck.
On some occasions, people have just straight up vanished, such as expert diver Tom Prichert,
who mysteriously disappeared while trying to explore the Andrea Doria in 2015.
Such a high rate of deaths have caused speculation that there is some sort of sinister force
pervading the wreck. But most experts have explained it away as being merely the result of the
dangerous inherent to such a remote and difficult dive. Diver Steve Bialenda, who has had many excursions
out to the wreck, explains it this way. It's an inanimate object, it does nothing to you,
it's the diver, the equipment, what they do, and their health. It's not really any more dangerous than
any other wreck, it's just an inanimate object lying on the bottom of the ocean, but any dive
regardless of its depth or location can be dangerous. The wreck becomes dangerous because of its depth
and the attitude of the diver, and then factor in health issues, and then factor in that your dependent
upon equipment, you have to work your way in keeping your buoyancy so you're not touching the bottom
or the walls and everything. The wreck is falling apart, it's an underwater jug pile, and then
take that underwater junk pile and cover it with sea inemones, dirt, and marine growth.
So it's like an underwater garbage pill that you're diving into, it's eventually going to be
undyvil. The depths involved in the cold, dark conditions also mean that even expert
divers would be best equipment only have a small window within which to operate, with a typical
andriodoria dive only lasting around 15 minutes. During these four days they have to utilize
strobe lights on the moorings in order to help them find their way out, as well as hook lines
fastened to themselves. Many of the divers who have died here did so when their lines got tangled,
or when they got lost in the lab-rynth interior of the ship, or penicked and lost their mouthpieces.
There are a million things that can go wrong at a wreck like this, so it's likely that this is
just a dangerous wreck that has attracted stories of curses due to its rather tragic history.
Is it cursed? Who knows? It's likely just a large, unreachable wreck attracting a spooky
lure around it, but it is still a rather fascinating glimpse into history, and a wreck that has
become notoriously difficult to safely approach.
[Music]
Ision Voodoo is a religion unlike any other. And while zombies are not necessarily a mainstay
of Ision Voodoo, many practitioners believe that like many other Voodoo stories, these tales of
zombies are real, and there's even evidence to suggest that there is some truth to the Ision Zambi
mythology. The history of zombies existing in Haiti began when the first slaves were brought over
from Africa by French colonialists. The origins of the Ision Vise began as a manifestation of the
anxieties brought on by slavery and over generations that evolved into something much more.
The process of Zambi vacation begins when a book war selects a victim and it ministers the Ision
be powder to them. This administration can vary from ingestion to injection or even a bloatart.
Once the powder takes effect, the victim enters a state of death like paralysis in which they
are still conscious. After being pronounced dead, they then bear witness to their own burial.
To prevent esphyxiation, the book war must dig up the body within eight hours of the burial.
It is at this point that the zombie ritual begins. The book war starts by capturing the
Tibononge of the victim, which puts the "Grobinonge" and the body under his control.
It then keeps the Tibononge in a small clay jar or some other container,
wraps it in a piece of the person's clothes and stores it for safekeeping.
A day or two later, the book war revives there now, Zambi, using another powder mixture called
Zambi cucumber. This hallucinogenic concoction is used periodically to keep the victim in a
state of submissive confusion. The book war then easily controlled Zambi. It usually puts them to work
farming and laboring. Only when the book war dies or voluntarily relinquishes control,
and the zombie return to their place of burial to rest in peace. Distinct from the reanimated corpses
found in George A. Romero lore, like Night of the Living Dead, the Haitian Voodoo zombie is not
actively rotting, nor does it feel compelled to consume the flash or brains of the living.
Basically, in the Haitian Voodoo religion, a "bokor" or sorcerer can capture the soul of a
recently deceased person and reanimate their body. This mindless, soulless body is usually then given
menial tasks to perform for the bokor. During the Zambi vacation ritual, the bokor uses a complex
powder referred to as a "cute apoder" or "powder strike", made from a variety of ingredients
usually including a species of pufferfish, a marine toad, a "high-litchery frog" and human remains.
The inclusion of the pufferfish is particularly important because it produces a deadly neurotoxin called
tetrodotoxin. This toxin creates paralysis and death when the victims usually remain conscious
until right before the moment of death. Additionally, there have been documented cases where
people who have ingested tetrodotoxin appeared dead, but went on to make a for recovery.
The roots of the Zambi mythology began with the experiences of African slaves being transported to the
French colony of St. Dominga in modern Haiti. Life on the sugar plantations there wasn't good,
to say the least, and half of the slaves ended up being worked to death within a few years of their arrival,
which created a perpetual need for fresh bodies. So it's not surprising that within the Voodoo
religion a version of hell could be created that involved continuing this toil after death into eternity.
Enter the Zambi. Slaves brought with them the roots of Voodoo tradition,
the origins of which can be traced back to nearly 6,000 years ago in West Africa.
The French then forced them to convert to Christianity, causing the interesting combination of
Catholicism and pagan tradition that's associated with Voodoo today. The horrors of
slavery and the anxieties held by a group of people under constant threat of death were woven into the Voodoo
religion, including the Zambi belief itself. In 1980, a vacant-eyed man approached Angelina Narcissa
in a market, claiming to be her brother, Clare Vias Narcissa. The strange thing was that Angelina had buried
her brother Clare Vias in 1962. The man in front of her claimed to have been resurrected
by a witch doctor and was enslaved on a sugar plantation for the last 18 years. In 1962, Clare Vias
had checked into Albert Schweitzer Hospital in Desjardins Haiti, complaining of body eggs in a fever.
His condition rapidly deteriorated and within a few days he was declared dead by doctors.
According to Clare Vias, who were reappeared in 1980, he remembered the entire ordeal,
including the doctors pulling the sheet over his face. Except he was paralyzed, not dead. He was
awake as he was nailed into his coffin and buried. The Ravias was able to answer questions that
only he would know and his identity was confirmed by several family members. The purported reason
for this prolonged absence was due to a two-year enslavement as a zombie by a Bocore. However,
after the Bocore died, Clare Vias remained in hiding as he believed that his brother had sold him
to the Bocore over a land dispute. It was only after his brother's death that he decided to return.
In Vodu, it's believed that a person's soul is divided into two basic parts. The Tibonange,
or Little Good Angel, and the Grobonange, or Big Good Angel. The Grobonange is responsible for a
person's life force, and their bodily functions, while the Tibonange is responsible for a person's
consciousness and identity. It is believed that the Tibonange remains with the body for nine
days after death, at which point it is released to face God and account for its sins. Meanwhile,
the Grobonange remains on earth, where it haunts the places where its body lived until a proper burial
ritual has been performed. Allegedly, if you feed a zombie salt, it'll restore them to their original
sensibilities. They will then be compelled to promptly kill the Bocore who enslave them,
and really can you blame them? Once their revenge is complete, they will return to their place
of burial to enjoy their final death. One would be wrong to assume the zombies are a common occurrence
in the Voodoo religion. On the contrary, many Voodoo practitioners don't even believe that zombies are
literally real, many believe that they are simply folk tales or metaphors. However, others remain
steadfast in their belief that zombies do exist, and actively fear being turned into one. It is
in this way that the zombie mythology is used as a way to maintain social order within the Voodoo
religious community. To simply put, you really don't want to get on the wrong side of a Bocore.
The term "zombie" is possibly derived from the word "mizambi" - this Congo word literally means
"spirit of a dead person." However, others say the term "zombie" might instead be derived from the West
African word "jumbi" which means "shost" - it may very well be a combination of both.
Max Buvaw, who passed away in 2015 at the age of 79, had long been known as the most powerful and
famous Voodoo priest in all of Haiti. He was the head of Haiti's Hungan's or Voodoo priests,
and is credited with committing several amazing feats. One of his more concrete accomplishments
was talking down angry lynch mobs who blamed Hungan's for the 2010 cholera outbreak,
though many Voodoo priests were lynched before he was able to intercede. He also is credited with
stopping an American invasion of Haiti and bewitching former President Bill Clinton, who met with
Buvaw in 1975. In the West, however, he's best known for his role in helping Wade Davis
conduct the research that would appear in the book and later the movie, the serpent and the rainbow.
This book, which was later adapted into a movie, chronicles the experiences of ethno biologist Wade Davis
as he explored the truth behind Haiti's zombie mythology. After the strange case of Claire
Vias Narcissa made global headlines, Davis was sent to investigate. In Haiti, he met with a Voodoo
priest, Max Buvaw, who put in touch with a book or who frequently performed zombie vacation rituals.
Davis theorized that it was the use of some kind of chemical that resulted in Narcissa's apparent
resurrection and disoriented state. Davis observed the creation of the zombie powder,
which he came to believe was the chief agent responsible for the phenomena. When combined with
these psychological aspects of the ritual, he thought that this could easily be responsible for creating
the mental slave, otherwise known as a zombie. In the night of the living dead, the creatures
are never actually referred to as zombies. Instead, they are called "goals." The reason for this is that
the term zombie already referred to something else, the Haitian Voodoo zombie. Later, due to the obvious
similarities, the term started being applied to Romero's "goals." Since the 1600s, the Voodoo
religion has believed in zombies, though a romanticized version was eventually presented to the public
in the classic film White Zombie. The key point, though, is that unlike modern zombies, Voodoo zombies
aren't scary. Instead, people are way more scared of becoming a zombie than of running into one.
Coming up, the late Sir Clive St. Claire might have been a man ahead of his time, and he left behind
a legacy of strange and wonderful gadgets. Plus, where the book of Genesis only touches on the story
of fallen angels and giants, the book of Inak tells a deeper story worthy of a horror movie.
These stories are more when weird darkness returns.
On the day of his execution, a serial killer gets a psychiatric evaluation.
Evil is in that clinical diagnosis. He claims he is a demon.
He believes in demonic possession. And also claims that before their time is over.
Give me something to make me believe you.
Based on the novel from Messling Author Steve Dase, a new kind of horror.
He claims he's a demon. He's a master of the nipulator. By the time he's done with you,
you have your head soaked twist around you think you're the killer.
Do you believe in the devil?
We believe here today you will have committed three murders. It doesn't matter.
Why would I do that?
He believes.
What are we doing?
He is. My name is Nefarias.
Name is important.
You. They have power. And everyone know who we are.
Sean Patrick Flanary is Nefarias.
Opening April 14th. Visit WhoisNefarias.com.
This next story comes from paranormal author and researcher G. Michael Vacy.
Here's a story.
This last weekend I was out Dowling Earth Energy lines in and around Burna.
A number of very strange things happened to me.
Synquinicity's coincidences and so on.
I made an impromptu video about it, which is linked in the show notes.
But the strangest thing was that I saw some very weird people.
And I want to see if you may have met these people on the edge of reality as well.
When Dowling, you are engaged in working with the subconscious mind.
Reality becomes malleable. Synquinicity's and strange occurrences become a part of reality.
My video should explain.
The first one I encountered was an old lady. She was sitting on a fold-up chair by a hedge in a very strange place.
Basically just outside someone's back garden but hidden from playing view.
She saw me and gave me a weird smile as I was downcing.
She kept putting her hands under her hedge as if looking for something.
I walked past her and a couple of minutes later when I returned, she was gone and there was no trace of her.
A bit later as I doused in a Darrell, a saw an old gentleman.
He looked a bit like an off-duty Santa.
He stared at me and looked shocked when I stared back.
Again he had disappeared in a matter of minutes without a trace.
I mentioned this in the video and got a couple of emails from people who had also experienced seeing strange
people when downcing or involved in some other activity that involves heightened awareness.
They told me that these people are often older and have a habit of disappearing without a trace.
This is picked by interest. If you encountered people like this, if so, I liked the note.
I would put the black eyed kids, shadow people, and that sort of phenomena in this bucket of
liminal or peripheral entities. The same to exist in parallel with us, but in an alternate universe
that only is accessible to us in time is what our consciousness is raised.
Sir Clyde, the same player, inventor of the UK's first mass market home computer,
died at the age of 81. Pioneer of tiny portable devices, truly affordable computers and
novel electric forms of transportation, believes behind what some see as a checkered history of
hit-and-miss inventions. But Sir Clyde's contribution to British technology and by extension
the British economy is beyond dispute. An icon of home computing he created devices that were
enjoyed by millions. The majority of home would have been unable in the 1980s when his computers were launched
to purchase the expensive models on the market. Even St. Clair's so-called failures,
reveal an inventor who sought to solve everyday problems rather than a mass-y personal fortune.
In many were pressured. Inticipating electrified personal transportation,
St. Clair developed an electric car, then an electric bike, long before the Vogue they both
enjoyed today. These later inventions may have been a business failure, but they were a triumph of the will
and the imagination. St. Clair long ago secured his legacy as the father of the home computer,
but time is only now then decading his other creations. Now at last we have a chance to catch up.
St. Clair's earliest contribution to consumer electronics was the St. Clair executive,
the world's first pocket calculator, which went on sale in 1972. No match for today is calculators.
The executive nevertheless established St. Clair as a technological pioneer.
He subsequently shifted his attention to developing string of genuinely affordable home computers,
beginning with a launch of the spectrum ZX80 in 1980. At a time when computers were still regarded
as an exclusive technology affordable only to businesses and the wealthy, St. Clair's targeted the mass market,
with a price tag less than £100, 440 in today's money. This period of innovation
gave rise to the ZX Spectrum. The iconic home computer on which many people of a certain age
shot their first pixelated aliens. That device with its trademark rainbow sashes still fondly
remembered by millions of early computer users whose parents may have hoped they'd pursue some
explicitly educational experiences on the novel device. For St. Clair, the Spectrum's
resounding place in history has primarily a game's machine must have wrangled given his well-known
ambition to get computers to the masses as it means to expose them to technology he knew would
come to define the future. Still, placed in the general public's hands, the ZX Spectrum
did inspire a generation of software designers, including some of the leading lights in today's UK games
and tech industries. The beauty of these computers was in their ability to support all kinds of
creativity, including those who wanted to build games. Later in this career St. Clair was
regarded by many to have gone off the boil. He launched an unsuccessful bid to make the ZX81
the official BBC computer, not the Spectrum as many believe. He did it up to coming much more successful
than the BBC's choice, the BBC Micro. The BBC contract was awarded to Acorn, founded by
former St. Clair Research employee Chris Curry. The rivalry between St. Clair and Curry was
wonderfully, if, apocryphly, retold in BBC 4's Microman. The show was described as mostly true
by those present at the time, those in clear himself stated that it was a travesty of the truth. It just had
no bearing on the truth. It was terrible. The mockumentary style made Tang and Cheek references to
St. Clair's C5 electric car launched in 1985 with the promise of delivering a new power and
personal transport. The C5 recorded a "bizmle sales" with road users, understandably
navigating mixed traffic from a seat inches above the road. The show also references quantum leap,
St. Clair is a board of attempt to get into business computing, including a parody of Sir Clive's
exaggerated jumping in the QL computers TV advert. Microman reflects how some in the media turned on
St. Clair after his early computing triumphs, focusing on his subsequent inventions, which they
quickly deemed to be failures. But that perspective fails to recognize the hidden influence St. Clair's work
continued to have in the latter part of his career. The company that won the BBC contract,
a corn computer's limited, was itself an offshoot of St. Clair's vision and innovation. It went on
under the new name, advanced risk machines or ARM to create the central processing units CPUs that
drive most of the devices we use today. St. Clair also possessed starling prescience. Electring vehicles
are set to take over our roads in the next decade or two, but St. Clair's C5 manufactured in the mid-1980s
could have started the push towards electric cars decades ago. It wasn't to be. St. Clair was
soon added again, this time with the "Zyke" first released in 1992. In electric bike with a top speed
of 12 miles per hour, the "Zyke" also failed to excite customers. Yet this invention also appeared to
have anticipated future trends and personal transportation, given the proliferation of electric bicycles
and scooters on our streets today. St. Clair's drive was not necessarily to be the best,
but to be the most affordable. That's a business model that many technology companies still emulate.
All his inventions bear the hallmarks of products designed to solve everyday problems.
Many sought to place cutting-edge technology into ordinary people's hands.
Sir Clive's true legacy is the lasting impact of those central motivations.
Millions of people fondly remember St. Clair's early computers with more than retro nostalgia.
They were many people's first chance to experience computer power,
delivered by an investor who valued access over exclusivity. Despite criticism and even
derision in the media, St. Clair was never disheartened, following instead his own often quoted
and dearly simple advice. Don't give up, stick at it.
The Ethiopian Bible is the oldest and most complete Bible in existence. It's comprised of 88 books,
far surpassing the King James Version, which has only 66.
Before being translated into Greek and Aramaic, the Ethiopian Bible was written in the extinct Ethiopian
dialect known as Gaz, testing it as the oldest, holy scripture in the world.
800 years earlier before the King James Version had surfaced.
The missing texts of this book are not included in the conventional modern version of the Bible
we know today due to their challenging nature. Although their authors have been a testent and their work
revered by early Christians. What are the missing stories in the modern Bible that's found in
the Ethiopian Bible is the book of Enoc. Corrupted angels, the Nephilim, tremendous life spans,
a great dayluch, an ancient and advanced knowledge. These are just a few of the topics discussed
in the book of Enoc, comprising various tales narrated by Enoc himself. Enoc was the great, great grandfather
of Noah, the seventh generation of humans after Adam. Because of his rightfulness, he was chosen
by God to do his bidding and deliver his words, particularly after the earth became corrupt due to the
irresponsible deeds of a superior order of angels with striking human appearance, also referred to as
the Watchers. Enoc was the messenger of God and the one to receive his knowledgeable words and spread them
across the land. In the end, he was taken by God into his kingdom, thus escaping his earthly demise
that would sooner or later be upon him. He was 115. After he became the father of Methuselah,
Enoc walked faithfully with God 300 years, it had other sons and daughters, all together Enoc
left a total of 365 years. Enoc walked faithfully with God, then he was no more because God took him away.
By faith, Enoc was taken from this life so that he did not experience death. He could not be found
because God had taken him away, before he was taken. He was commended as one who pleased God.
The book of Enoc speaks of wicked angels who became fond of mortal women and had made it with them,
giving birth to the hybrid race of giant humanoids known throughout secular and biblical history as
the Neffelin. The book of Genesis also speaks of this but only briefly. Genesis 6 vs 1,
2 and 4 reads, "Now it came about when men began to multiply on the face of the land and daughters
were born to them that the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were beautiful and they took
wives for themselves, whoever they chose. The Neffelin were on the earth in those days and also
afterward when the sons of God came in to daughters of men and they bore children to them, those were the mighty
men who were of old men of one own."
While that description alone is enough to tell you what happened, the book of Enoc takes the story
further into detail. In the book of Enoc chapter 6 it says, "And it came to pass when the children of men
had multiplied that in those days were born unto them beautiful and cummedly daughters and the angels
the children of the heavens saw and lusted after them and said to one another, "Come let us choose us wives
from among the children of men and beget us children." And Samshasa, who was their leader, said unto them,
"I fear ye will not indeed agree to this deed and I alone shall have to pay the penalty the great
sin." And they all answered him and said, "Let us all swear in oath and all bind ourselves by mutual
implications, not to abandon this plan but to do this thing. Then swear they all together and bound themselves
by mutual implications upon it." And so the angels plunged from the heavens to take wives of their own
choosing, defying the creators' judgment. They numbered 200 and were led by their leaders.
When the angels descended upon the earth, they started offering gifts of knowledge to both mortal men
and women, thus to find the will of the creator of an unaltered race of humans with a will of their own.
In exchange, the angels demanded respect and adoration, but unaware they were of the chaos they had
instituted. And as a result, taught men to make swords and knives and shields and breastplates
and made don't to them the metals of the earth and the art of working them and bracelets and ornaments
and the use of antimodia and the beautifying of the eyelids and all kinds of costly stones
at all colouring tinctures. And there arose much godlessness and they committed fornication and they were
led astray and became corrupt in all their ways. Sanchaza taught in chatments and root cuttings,
emmerous the resolving of inchantments, baracqueal taught astrology, cook a bell the constellations,
as a keal the knowledge of the clouds, arachiel the signs of the earth, shamsiel the signs of the
sun and sari al the course of the moon and as men perished they cried and their cry went up to heaven.
All living creatures became impended in one way or another by the new order of things.
The angels didn't realize that humans were too unripe and gullible to be taught so much knowledge
at once. As a consequence, the earth became a redent from the blood of our creatures and all
living beings then became prone to divine cleansing. And all the others together with them took on to
themselves wives and each shows for himself one and they began to go in onto them and to defile themselves
with them and they taught them charms and inchantments and the cutting of roots and made them acquainted
with plants and they became pregnant and they bear great giants whose height was 3000 else who consumed
all the acquisitions of men and when men could no longer sustain them the giants turned against them
and devoured mankind and they began to sin against birds and beasts and reptiles and fish and to devour
one another's flesh and drink the blood then the earth made accusation against lawless ones.
The concept of the Neffelum was the first ordeal humans had to face as there was no way to overcome
the needs of those supersized humanoids intervening into the natural order of things had infuriated
the creator God so the watchers and all that had been corrupted were about to taste retribution.
And destroy all the spirits of their reprobate and the children of the watchers because they have
wronged mankind destroy all wrong from the face of the earth and let every evil work come to an end
and let the plant of righteousness and truth appear and it shall prove a blessing. The works of
righteousness and truth shall be planted in truth and joy forever more and cleanse the earth from
all oppression and from all righteousness and from all sin and from all godlessness and all the uncleanness
that is wrought upon the earth destroy from off the earth and the children of men shall become righteous
in all nations shall offer adoration and shall praise me and all shall worship me and the earth shall
be cleansed from all defilement and from all sin and from all punishment and from all torment and I will
never again send them upon it from generation to generation and forever. Needless to say that the global
demise took the form of a great flood and Noah who was informed of this through the ascribed words
of his forefather, Enoch and was allowed to perpetuate the human species as well as preserve countless
other wildlife. Then said the most high the holy and great one spake and said
"you're real to the son of Lemic" and said to him "Go to Noah and tell him in my name high die self
and reveal to him the end that is approaching that the whole earth will be destroyed and a day
loose is about to come upon the whole earth and it will destroy all that is on it and now it's
trucked him that he may escape and his seed may be preserved for all the generations of the world."
Although some may find this hard to believe the great flood had been scheduled long before
Noah came around. It was as great great grandfather that had spread the divine word about it.
The cataclysm was inevitable as prior to that moment in time inhabitants of the earth became
corrupted and could no longer live in peace. The book of Enoch tells many controversial stories of a
time in a way similar to what we experience today but with some major differences. Before the great
day eluge humans had tremendous lifespan, a fact attested by the Sumerian king lists and the Egyptian
Pharaoh's timeline. Although historians still consider this time frame in human history as
unproved and fictional, there are numerous accounts of speaking of those days when gods walked
among men, when mythological creatures were not just a figment of imagination and a hundred years of life
marked only the beginning of one's journey. Today it seems that our remote history is either not
allowed to surface because it would turn the instituted order to bits or because that cycle of human
history was never meant to be known for some really intriguing reason.
Up next on Weird Darkness, if the legends are to be believed, you'll want to
all the way driving down Nan-Tox Lane in East Sussex England. Unless you're looking for an encounter
with a vengeful ghost. There have been monsters among us lurking in the darkest corners of America
praying on children since the first settlers arrived on our shores. Leave always been with us,
stalking the innocent from the days of the original colonies to the gilded age,
the depression and beyond. These monsters are not the stuff of fiction. They are blood curdlingly
real and they still walk among us always looking for their next victim. In the chilling book,
suffer the children, Troy Taylor shines a light on the darkest tales of horror and hottanks
from American history and presents a terrifying collection of dark crimes perpetrated against our most
tender victims. Our children. His most disturbing book yet includes nightmares tales from the 19th
century when the good old days were never good. Like the monster of the Northwood, the Pocus
at Horror and the Girl in the Seller and continues into the modern day with accounts of the
collection of woods, America's first school massacre. Wineville chicken coop murders, babes of eagle wood,
Sussex and Dagnon, the Girl Scout can't massacre, the perfect murder of Bobby Franks and many more.
Be warned, this is not a book for the faint of heart. These are tales containing brutal,
agonizing and terrifying scenes of horror. Suffered the children, American horror's homicides and
hauntings, dead men do tell tale series book 15, My Troy Taylor. Here a free sample on the audiobooks page
at weirddarkness.com.
The village of Buckstead East Sussex England seems like a nice quiet location, but it has one
road that is rumored to be haunted by a witch. In fact stories of a ghostly female haunting man-tux
lane, they back almost 300 years. According to one version of the story, a woman named Nantuck lived
in the nearby village of Rotherfield sometime during the 18th century. She allegedly killed her husband
by poisoning him, and she soon left Rotherfield once the villagers began to piece together
her awful crime. She remained undetected for several days by hiding in haystacks and moving further away
from those who were looking for her. Her plan was to make it to Saint Margaret's church in Buckstead,
where they could provide a sanctuary for the fugitive. However, she never made it there.
Lawman and villagers finally found her on the road leading to Buckstead and a chase pursued into the
woods where they thought that she was trapped and unable to escape. But they couldn't find her,
and nobody ever saw her again. Well, at least not while she was alive. There are a few alternative
versions of the main story, which includes the local villagers chasing Nantuck, finding her,
torturing her and then killing her. After she was murdered, the mob of people told the rest of the
locals that she had simply vanished into the forest and that she was a witch. After death, she came back
to haught those who treated her so horribly. Another version of the story stated that the woman actually
made it to the church, but was found and put through trial by water. She was able to escape,
but her lifeless hanging body was located soon after in the woods. While many were convinced that
she had taken her own life, others believed that she was murdered. Whatever story you tend to believe,
the part that does not change is that the woman's ghost has been seen numerous times in the woods,
and along the road where she was last seen alive. It's referred to as Nantuck's Lane.
What's even creepier is that there is a bare patch of land in those woods where nothing grows.
Interestingly, that's the spot where she supposedly was last seen alive. And many people,
even today, still think that Nantuck was a witch. While nobody truly knows the entire story regarding
Nantuck's life and death, those who decided to take a stroll around the area in which she was last
seen alive may come face to face with her spirit.
Thanks for listening. If you like the show, please share it with someone you know who loves the
paranormal or strange stories, true crime, monsters, or unsolved mysteries like you do. You can email
me anytime with your questions or comments at Darren@weirdarkness.com. And you can find the show on Facebook
and Twitter, including the show's Weirdo's Facebook group on the contact social page at WeirdDarkness.com.
Also on the website, if you have a true paranormal or creepy tale to tell, click on "Tell your story"
or call the Dark Line "Tol-Free" at 1-877-277-5944. That's 1-877-277-15944.
All stories in Weird Darkness are purported to be true unless stated otherwise,
and you can find source links or links to the authors in the show notes.
The story of giants and fallen angels is from anime. The man who was addicted to books
is from strange company. The cursed remains of the SS and Riodoria is from Brent Swanson for Mysterious
Universe. Peripheral people was written by G-Michael Vacy. The disturbing truth behind Voodoo zombies
is by Christopher Myers for graveyard shift. The inventor of Weird contraptions is by Mike
Reddy for the conversation. And the witch of Nantuck's Lane is by Joss Lynn LeBlanc. Again,
you can find links to all of these stories in the show notes. Weird Darkness is a production and trademark
of Marlar House Productions. In other coming out of the dark, I'll leave you with a little light.
Proverbs 16 verse 16, "How much better to get wisdom than gold to choose understanding
rather than silver?" And a final thought, a great quote that we heard earlier that bears repeating
from the late Sir Clive's InClair. "Don't give up, stick at it."
On Darren Marlar, thanks for joining me in the Weird Darkness.
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