This Paranormal Life - #029 Man Receives Emails From 1500s: Ghost In The Machine - Part 1

Episode Date: October 3, 2017

What if you checked your email one day, only to have received a message from another time, in another language? And the information it contained could only be known by someone alive 500 years ago?Well that's exactly what happened to Ken Webster in 1984. Tune in as we uncover one of the most little known world-changing books of the paranormal - The Vertical Plane. Right here on This Paranormal Life!Support us on Patreon.com/ThisParanormalLife to get access to weekly bonus episodes!Buy Official TPL Merch! - thisparanormallife.com/storeFollow us on Twitter, Instagram, and YouTubeJoin our Secret Society Facebook CommunityIntro music by www.purple-planet.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Does time travel already exist and time travelers live among us today? In an alternate dimension, are smartphones obsessed with us? Answers to these questions and more on this episode of This Paranormal Life. That's right, we're back on a Tuesday. Welcome to This Paranormal Life, the only podcast that's hosted by myself, Mr. Kit Greer, and Mr. Rory Pars, professional paranormal investigator, MD, PhD, all rolled into one. It's an MD, MD, PhD, MD, MD is how you pronounce it. That's right.

Yeah. On this podcast, every week we dissect a different paranormal claim or tale and find out if it's true or not using our deductive skills honed over frankly decades of paranormal research absolutely absolutely and one of the great things about this podcast that we try and do you know there's a lot of podcasts out there a lot of noise yeah and we like to cut through it because every week we get straight to the point that's right we start our podcast and we go straight to the point like So many of these podcasts, they ramble, they talk. Oh, how was your weekend? Oh, I never guessed this ghost I saw yesterday.

I did see that you were at the beach. Yeah, this weekend. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh man, it was so nice. Nice. Yeah, it was a weather like. Yeah, it was pretty good. Yeah, I saw you as well.

You were at the park. The park, exactly. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We're in the trench coat again, which is a weird vibe. Park run, but in the trench coat. In the trench coat. That's right. I like to, to i'm so good i just like to throw in a little wild right i would agree with that but you're only wearing the trench coat that's not that good mostly illegal somewhat good yeah i mean you could be good but you should still wear shoes

when you run and also not the trench coat i can't make this more clear were you just chasing children i would say so yeah straight to the point is what we do every week that's right well this week rory i've got a doozy for you i know i say that every week and frankly my words are not worth a penny this week i'm for real okay i don't know if you've heard anything or know anything about a little book called The Vertical Plane. Alright, I'm going to nip this right in the bud before we get started. Did you write this book?

No. Of course not. That would be weird. I know actually nothing about this book. Okay. So I'm excited to have this investigation forced upon me. Yeah, that's right. The Vertical Plane was actually, going back a few weeks,

this was a listener submission from a Mr. Rob C. at the email. He emailed into thisparanormallifepodcast at gmail.com with this, frankly frankly spicy hot take of a suggestion uh so thank you very much rob thank you for writing in this has been illuminating wow i will say that you have messaged me three times this week telling me how stressed you are over this episode that's right i'm literally I've witnessed a man slowly lose his mind. That's mostly the trench coat thing,

but also the podcast. I'm just waiting for you to go, do you think the book sounds cool, Rory? And I'm like, I guess it does sound cool. Well, you can meet the author tonight.

You did write it, of course. Brilliant. 3,000 strong to buy this book on Amazon eBooks. The Kindle edition of this episode will be available tonight. Okay, I'm just going to cut right to the chase, folks. I don't think a lot of the listeners at home will know about this book. I certainly didn't.

Until I wrote it. And now the doors have been opened. All I knew was that the author was handsome um cunning um had a hog at least a two-foot hog okay his name rhymes with shit because he is it shit queer You just insulted yourself so much by trying to find an alias. I didn't write it. It was shit queer. Like, I'm so obsessed with the author sounding cool that I'm so ready to denigrate myself.

Someone's freaking cooler than me. I mean, he's like, he could probably get with, like, loads of girls like me. But this book contains information so mind-blowing so mind-bending so face melting that if true it changes everything okay that's right if we use our abilities today as paranormal investigators to tear this puppy apart and we discover it's true we'll have changed the world live on this godforsaken podcast wow that's a big op and And yet, few know this story. The book was only printed for a short time in the UK, I think in 1989. And it's extremely rare today. That's worryingly close.

Secondhand copies regularly sell for hundreds of dollars. I think at the time of speaking, there's one copy available on Amazon UK for £600. This podcast does not make that kind of money. As such, I have not read this book but luckily this luckily small pockets of intrepid explorers of the paranormal have documented this book online and discuss it in forums to this day there's a very small but active community discussing this book that's what i was going to say if this is being passed down and purchased presumably by people who are paranormal investigators.

Yes, sir. Why hasn't this just been documented and turned into an e-book or photographed and scanned and uploaded online? Well, I think they would like it to be published again, but it's not going to be a bestseller. Right, okay. I think it was originally published by HarperCollins when they had an occult section. A wizard as a head? You're really tanking the stock price here, Lancelot. Are you sure you know what you're doing, Nobledore?

Shut up! Cast a spell, shuts the door on... Like, he has all these spells, but he can't generate money. Why are you still selling books? You're a wizard! Out ye! Important book. Very rare.

So it's a crazy story. I'm going to dive right in. It all begins in autumn 1984. We're in England, near the border of Wales, in a small town called Doddleston. And the author, Ken Webster, is living in a cottage with his friend Debbie and their friend Nicola.

Okay. Well, one day, Nicola needs to write something up. You know, we've all been there. You need to write up a letter. CV, screenplay, what have you. The only problem is it's 1984. You don't just open up your Wacbook Pro and send it by Bluetooth to your 3D printer.

Computers in 1984 are shitty as hell. Right, obviously. Just how shitty, you ask? I actually had to look this up. How shitty were computers in olden days? Very. Oh, okay. Just how shitty you ask. I actually had to look this up. How shitty were computers in olden days? Very. Oh, okay. The first CD-ROM was invented in 1984. People might remember, actually.

Do you know that really iconic Mac ad where, like, the girl runs... It was a Super Bowl ad, and the girl runs down the corridor of, like, all these people dressed in grey. Oh, the one that everyone takes the piss out of now. Right, yeah. right yeah and she smashed the sledgehammer through this giant screen and sets everyone free that was 1984 because they released first computer to ever have like a user interface basically the whole concept of using a mouse to click on things hadn't been invented until the year 1984 yeah yeah that's why all those people were slaves to the machine it was back-breaking labor just to send an email people yeah it was like the minds you sent them away and then come back like all exhausted come back with a rare disease yeah live

to about 25 but what they did have was the bbc micro i don't know if you've seen a picture of this before rory uh it's like it's kind like I'm going to paint a picture for the listeners at home It's kind of like if you've ever seen like the Commodore Right Those early video game systems And they were just like they look like typewriters But I guess you plugged a screen into them Even if I had seen the picture of it

What was that voice? Like I didn't explain the voice The BBC micro is now available at all good retailers It actually costs like basically a grand If you adjust for inflation it was super expensive and i'm sure you'll understand uh if you've seen the ads the bbc micro why would i understand even if i had seen there's nothing i could have seen in that ad that would justify the voice you just did to sell me it was the bbc micro it was the early days of pr they hadn't really worked out how to sell things yet yarr buy one or we'll kill you

yarr uh i'm gonna actually show you the ad here oh okay just to like set the scene right um guys at home if you want to see it this is you can just youtube bbc micro advert because this computer is going to crop up a lot during the story so it's worth like knowing what it looked like. Okay. Dory of Daphne who longs to be alone with her very own BBC Micro. See I don't think my voice is that far off. Dory of Daphne.

Yeah. I mean look at those graphics. So the ad is showing how a businessman can use a computer and then like a scientist can use a computer, and then a scientist can use a computer. And then the girl's upset she can't use it,

but the girl's also played by an old man. Yeah, this was like the Shakespeare days when no women were allowed in the house. And now there's some sort of poltergeist doorway. Poor Daphne. Which is actually, I did notice that. You're right, there was a flash of light at the end of the the ad and a poltergeist doorway that will become relevant this is a weird story already this is a very strange story i agree a haunted computer is what we're essentially talking about that's what i'm selling you on okay are you sold sir yeah is it true or false because if you want to buy it it's here

i bought a freaking job lot of these 35 for 10 000 pounds on ebay i need a return on investment fast so listeners if you want this podcast to survive nay if you want me to have house and home for the next few months please buy a surplus of bbc micros the warehouse is expensive it's full of rats and i need to sell them when people said the 80s was coming back i really bought it also if any y'all need a pager i have warehouse number two fully stacked ready to go also full of rats perm but no one a perm. If anyone wants curly hair. Okay, so I just wanted to set the scene for what this computer was. So, backtrack.

Nicola needed to type something up. No one really had computers back then. But luckily, Ken, the author of this story, he was a schoolteacher at this time. And he said, no worries, Nicola, we've got a bunch of these new BBC micros at the school. I'll borrow one for a while. Type up your stuff.

Nice. So we took it out, set it up in the kitchen. And before long, Nicola was smashing out scripts left, right, and center. Well, one day, they fire up the BBC micro. And before they can boot the word processor, which I think was called, this is kind of fun, it was called Edward. But like the word is like W-O-R-D. Oh, hey, that's great.

Which is quite cute. quite like editing words yeah word there's so many layers that's way better than microsoft word yeah god damn you slipped up nerd bitch more like bill hates creativity more like shill hates nice man more like little bitch not clever just true they're not all gonna be funny son of a bitch they're all gonna be funny yeah they boot they go to boot up the word processor but ken notices there's a new file on the disk it's titled kdn that's funny there shouldn't be anything on there he just it's like a new computer he took it from the school yeah but he types his command prompt i mean like back then it wasn't just a case of clicking on it you You've got to type it in, so he's like, open file. You've got to go matrix on that thing.

Yeah, you've got to, like, tap in. You've got to get, like, a cable. Jacked in the back of his head. Jacked it into the back. Yes, dude, back of your neck. Blood spurting. Hurts the first time. I am now Edward.

Ken is not here. Edward only. Are you okay, Ken? Control, alt, delete. Control. I am a stabbing robot. Edward only Are you okay Ken? Control Alt Delete Stab Control I am a stabbing robot So he types in

Open File KDN And there's this text The formatting is all off And there are capital letters In all the wrong places But he can still just about read it

It might be fun to like Hand it to you So you can see What the text looks like. They have the file? Oh, they have the file. The file is just a like, it's just like a text, like a dot TXT. Okay. And this is what's inside.

I'll pass it to you. Let me get a look at this. Let me investigate. What in God's name is this? 1984, baby. Okay. is this 1984 baby okay so the text reads true are the nightmares of a person that fears safe are the bodies of the silent world turn pretty flower turn towards the sun for you shall grow and so but the flower reaches too high and withers in the burning light get out you bricks pussycat pussycat went to london to seek fame and fortune faith must

not be lost for this shall be your redeemer what that's good right that was in the file yeah and he has no idea who wrote that nope he just like took this new computer took it back from who excuse who did he take the computer from uh he took this from the school right and the man who gave it to him at the school but i want to make clear this isn't the first time he's used the computer he's taken it home at this point okay and he knew there was nothing on it set up in the kitchen there's a new file on it that's what's inside okay so it wasn't the madman who gave him the computer hopefully not but we don't know yet we just don't know anything yet like the way you just read it is i guess i can read it okay first thoughts you think i'm ken i'm debbie for sure first thoughts man what like what usually you know these paranormal

stories have the grounds in something else but this is something i've never seen before tech mediated weirdness but is it beyond the realms of possibility that someone else just went onto the computer and typed out a bunch of stuff. Maybe this was pranking in 1980s. I don't know. Kind of weird that it's like poetry, but like, yeah, totally someone could have just lifted that from a poetry book. That was someone like,

I think whoever he lives with got back drunk that night and was like, maybe just like broken up with his girlfriend or something. And it's just like, you think I'm not emotional enough? I'm emotional enough. F*** you, girl. I don't think I'm not emotional enough? I'm emotional enough. F*** you, girl.

I don't think I'll be emotional right now. Oh, pussycat, pussycat. Flowers to the sun, baby. Blah, blah, blah. I love you. Redeemer, the end. And then he calls it. Oh, actually,

they should know that I don't mean this. I'll call the file kidding. Oh, it's too long. KDN. He'll know. Everyone will know uh good night and then he falls asleep nicolas left the building good night uh yeah yeah because the capital letters are in all the wrong places it does look like a drunk guy tried to write a love poem that's given

it a whole new flavor i have to say and also ended this podcast thanks for listening uh we wrapped up this story i guess that's what happened. I mean, I thought it was the devil, but no, that's actually way more believable. Because the next five bullet points are all about more drunken poems appearing on this laptop. That's basically all that happened.

The rest are actually not that cryptic. It's mostly about Larger. There's one mystery here. He found a bit sick on the corner of the keyboard. At one point, there's a crack in the screen. Another point, there was a bit sick on the corner of the keyboard um at one point there's a crack in the screen uh another point there was a five glass on the table looks like someone tried to open a beer on the side of his computer kind of scuffed it someone had also googled hot girls um total mystery don't know who did it the internet hadn't been invented at that point so i don't know what

they're trying to achieve i And Google the hangover curse. So we'll leave this one to you viewers. Can you... Because that's such a thing today, is people's embarrassing search histories. Yeah, totally. It must have been so funny back in the day of early internet, all these command prompts left on the screen.

Oh, yeah. It's like, Greg, did you... I feel like you were last on the computer here i mean it says uh server last accessed by greg at 904 and then it's just like you know big titty five you know because presumably yeah last file opened in my head it works like a text adventure in those days yeah so you get to the web page but then you have to be like remove clothing and then reply being like clothing is beyond your reach it's like oh okay i guess open the left door you need a key to open that door it's like rats yeah try and deliver pizza she said she wanted extra sausage approach

her it's such a weird text oh my god a porn text adventure that that for sure exists right you are a horny male you are at home alone we've been talking about um if we ever wanted to do extra episodes a month what that could be so if if there is absolutely a porn-based text adventure boom that's one episode right there that's a new podcast guys all right my dad wrote a porn-based text adventure yes here we go okay ken discovers this poem what the who wrote it ken talks to the guys um deb and nick and they they work out between them it wasn't them of course they would say that but they decided it wasn't them the computer has been sitting there all night and not to mention this is pre-internet, so there's no physical way of transferring information to that computer.

That's a good point. What about floppy Ds? Yeah, it does take a floppy D, yeah. But I mean, I guess... Are we still talking about the porn-based text adventure? Yeah, it does take a floppy disk. Right. Definitely possible.

Okay. And I think they're still entertaining that possibility. I'm just feeling out what we've floppy disk. Um, right. Definitely possible. Okay. And I think they're still entertaining that possibility. I'm just feeling out. Yeah, a hundred percent. They kind of just get on with things. They think it must be an anomaly. Could have been preloaded on the disk. They might've not seen it first time around.

Um, whatever. Gotcha. But the problem is they couldn't just forget about it because everything wasn't peachy grand. Other stuff was occurring in the house. Weird stuff. Occasionally they would walk into their kitchen or living room and items of food or trinkets would be stacked on top of each other. Trinkets? Yeah, just like little things around the house.

Are they goblins? What are they doing in this weird cave? Small items of silver and gold and stolen possessions from royalty. So weird. Yeah, you can imagine the conversation in the house. It's like Ken walks in and he's like, hey, Depp, is that your stuff? He's like, no, I thought you did that. Nicola, have you been stacking shit in the living room? He's like, no, I thought that was you.

Also, why would anyone? I don't think I've ever stacked anything really in my life. No. Aside from CDs or like trinkets is this because i just said the cd wrong was invented that year ken walks into the room there's a stack of cds like whoa whoa whoa jesus what the debbie get in here debbie get in here who did this who did this ghosts though ghosts though uh haven't you done this before? Only with trinkets. Normal trinkets. Maybe magazines. Hell, books.

But CDs? Debbie, grab your things. We're leaving. So this kept happening, and they figured someone they knew was pranking them, pranking the shit out of them. That someone was breaking into the house and trying to freak them out. Like, just kind of, I guess, like, some people leave, like, their front door open, and maybe, like, you just try to think what could be happening maybe someone was just darting in and doing it like some little shithead kids where kids go around and f**k with their

neighbors stack stuff i guess well a few days pass but one afternoon nicola boots up the micro once more and right away she sees a new file she opens it up right away and calls the others to see it's another text file but something's wrong it. It's in English, but it's old English, like pre-Shakespeare stuff. I write on behalf of many what strange words thou speak. Thou art goodly man who hath fanciful woman who dwell in mine home with lights which devil maketh was a great crime to have drive mine house lw oh that's it that's it no it is actually uh longer than that um but i this is a good uh point in the story to say that this book is long there's a lot of stuff ken basically describes about 16 to 18 months of his life living in this house with debbie yeah and a lot of stuff ken basically describes about 16 to 18 months of his life

living in this house with debbie yeah and a lot of stuff happens over the course of that so for the sake of this podcast um and you'll see most people do this online they kind of cut to the the biggest stuff that happened okay so so this book the book is a diary kept by him of the occurrences it's basically a uh a non-fiction um retelling of of all the events okay and he called it the vertical plane and it was released as uh inverted commas non-fiction gotcha yeah lw what could it mean who could it be all can deb and nickel and oh was someone was with them they figured someone was getting into the house somehow and typing up these files maybe a friend or a kid it had to be ken thought the prank was getting in bad taste at this point because that letter was kind of vaguely spooky and threatening it kind of mentions that they've

trespassed upon some house and that it's a great crime and everything of course but he was kind of curious and he wanted someone's opinion on it so he took a print of this to his friend peter who worked at a local university peter lw smith he didn't really connect a good friend of his great with computers and lock picking walks into peter's room stacks of trinkets from floor to ceiling dressed in all black silver balaclava why hello trespasser hey pete what's up man it was a great crime of you to intrude upon my room well now that you've said that peter was an expert in old english oh here we go of course he was uh and early modern english which i didn't realize but are two different things um i guess Ken thought he would find it interesting or at least funny.

So he thought he'd run it by him. But when he hands this text to Peter, his face is sullen. He wants to know where... He thinks he's been caught. That's why. Have you told anyone about this? Did you call the police? Don't.

If I, God forbid, took a poop in someone's house... Excuse. And then I'm like at my office and someone comes and goes rory and i turn around they're holding the poop my face would go white as a ghost because it would go white as it goes whether you're poop or not you're not gonna go oh poop in the house it's a very good point like even if i hadn't done it and i turned around and someone had poop in their hand, I'd be like, oh, Jesus. So it was you. That was a bad example. You're not going to look at the poop and go, shit, it's mine.

I don't recognize that son of a bitch anywhere. Or even go, yes, go on. You'd be completely blown away. All right, that was a terrible example. I know, i can imagine imagine the train of thought someone shows you a poop and in your head you're going play it cool play it cool you don't even look at it yes it is can i help you what the poop it isn't say I was. I love this character of like the suave guy who denies something so much and so. Smearly?

Yeah. Like some dude whose wife is murdered in the house while he's there. And then the detectives comes by and it's like, so what were you doing at the time? Oh, detective, it couldn't possibly have been me. Are you not sad that your wife was murdered? Well, I know it wasn't me, if that's what you're thinking, detective. I guess you could say I'm still in shock. Check the knives if you like, but not the one in the garden.

Shit. Give me a minute, detective. He pulls out the window. He runs away. Shitting his ear off. Such a confused criminal. Oh, detective. Is he horny? Like, I don't know.

All right, I feel like I got a grasp on Peter's character now. Okay. I can do any Peter voices if you want. Okay. So he's an expert and he these old dialects of English. And he wants to know where Ken's got this stuff from. Not only that, but he wants to take it home and study it. Cut to next time Ken sees Peter.

And he's freaked out, man. He says, this stuff is period correct. If someone's playing a prank on you, they're a scholarly prankster. What do you mean, periodly correct? I mean, how much does old English really vary? I'm glad you asked that question, Rory. Because it varies a shitload. Oh ye of little faith! Is that all English? You understand that? Uneducated twerp. Oh ye little bitch! That wasn't all English. Okay, you can't just say oh ye. You can't just put ye in front of him. F*** ye off!

Ye bitch! It turns out it varies a lot. I mean, I'm sure you've had that experience is what I think. F*** you off. You bitch. It turns out it varies a lot. I mean, I'm sure you've had that experience. I know I have. You know, I'm just an ordinary fellow.

I like drinking beer. I like drinking beer. I like education. I like a cold beer at the weekends. I like my woman in the back of a pickup truck, I guess.

Fried jeans. Not in a bad way. Not in a weird, abductee way. But in a... Tender window, jeans. Not in a bad way. Not in a weird, abductee way. Tender window shirt. Not in a weird way. I have sensitive eyes. Candy.

Sometimes I'm diabetic. Assault weapons. In the back of the truck. Not in a bad way. To protect me from the weirdos. But God forbid I will kill a man if he so much as cross me. Not in a weird way. Several passports on the dash. Not in a weird way. Several passports

on the dash. Not in a weird way. Just in a tax evasion way. I mean, you know, I'm just a down-to-earth guy. What can I say? Mattress in the back. Not in a weird way. I can sleep anywhere, you know. I slept for days. Not in a weird way. Swastika tattoo on my chest.

Not in a bad way, though. Just in just in the kind of you know yearning for the days of old kind of way white hood not a weird way i just uh hate a lot of people anyway god bless anyway you just be on your way now uh what i'm trying to say is um not a weird way i've tried to enjoy shakespeare okay and i failed well we both uh we we both read um merchant of venice presumably in in um secondary school that's about as deep as i really we started a book club um just the two of us ye book club it's great um yeah we we read that in school but yeah and i even struggled with that and that was with a professional guiding you through the book line by line yeah going all

right i know that bit's a bit opaque but this is what he really meant to say here and you were like jesus christ that's what he meant that's crazy i went to go see uh shit what one was it i went to go see like i don't know one of his other um plays in belfast not that long ago and i'll be honest i didn't get a goddamn word and i'm convinced that the only people in the audience who knew what was happening had like studied it this is like this was a visual stage adaptation and i couldn't tell you one plot line granted i was staring at my ipad granted i was watching season three of arrested development granted i had my earphones in granted i was staring at my ipad granted i was watching season three of arrested development granted i had my earphones in granted i was six beers deep but uh it's it's opaque stuff right

what freaking year was shakespeare man i'm gonna have to look this one up should we make guesses what do you guess oh man 14 i honestly have no idea. 14, 50? I think it might be kind of funny to out ourselves as idiots here. Yeah, literally no idea. 14, 12. No, later. 14, 98. Okay.

I'm going to go later. I'm going to say born in 1999. I think he had a lot to do with Y2K, actually. I'm gonna be so off. Okay, no, you're saying 1412? 1498. Why? I flipped. Your nose is bleeding.

Suspense is killing me. I think it might be older. I'm gonna go 1670. I just said I think it might be older. No, I was to go it anyway I'm going to be so wrong Ah shit We're both wrong Born 1564

Okay it wasn't too bad He died in 1616 Okay we were both in the middle of that You know that wasn't too bad Like to put it in perspective You know the kind of stuff he was writing like And that was contemporary popular stuff this was just before that right this was dated to before that i'm gonna read you a little bit of the because what i read you before

was kind of the translated stuff okay as translated by um peter peter i hath no kinfolk to find mine whiff was wretched with thy pestilence and the lord didst take her soul and her unbore son mine So it's like, you can pick out bits. Yeah. He says something about his wife dying and his kid dying. Dying with his son, but he's got a decent farm. He's got a decent farm, but then he said something about red stones. Like, it's very opaque. Right, okay.

And so this is why it needed to go to this Peter guy for translation. So needless to say, Ken, Nick, and Debbie didn't know what to make of it. But for fun, what Ken does is he gets his friend to draft a reply to this mysterious message in the kind of rough language they might understand. So, like, don't use any, like, slang, like modern slang. Just, like, play their little game. Yeah. a reply to this mysterious message in the kind of rough language they might understand so like don't use any like slang like modern slang just like play their little game yeah like use that kind of language go hardcore and their translation you know it worked out something like you know just basic questions like thank you for the for the message uh sorry for disturbing you uh what

do you want us to do uh did you live here thank you for not making us afraid there's a few other questions they're really going into it like they're buying okay they're going into yeah they're just like like don't stop touching our computer yeah because i mean this stranger i think a lot of people would have gone like you never come back i'm going to shoot you piss you off i've called ye police ye tasers and by this time Ken had had the bright idea to try and catch the hoaxer in the act this was kind of clever like set a little trap of a reply um but try and catch them so this meant borrowing another computer checking the disc for pre-loaded material before make sure it was wiped clean checking the house was secure and then leaving the computer in the

kitchen as before doors locked all the rest of it what's the trap they just did a bunch of things hmm it's like they were gonna trap him so they put the computer on the table they closed all the doors and they went to bed what is what not so much a trap as a honey trap without the trap it's just honey here's a free computer to mess with but i guess the idea was that they were leveling the playing field and they were trying they're just trying to eliminate some of the doubt here okay so use a new computer use a new computer right in case it was the weird curse computer so they leave the room for a while and do their thing but it's not long until they check back maybe a couple hours hours. There's already another file. It reads, and this is the translation,

It is helpful to hear of your time. The king is Henry the eighth. Mine charge house is a place of law, of schooling. I must need say, how is it there are many things of which I have no knowledge. If you cannot say why you're in my house, then I can no more help you than if my wits had gone 28 march 15 21 oh so it gives gives them a date yeah so it's as if this person is leaving messages from the past that are appearing on this computer in the present exactly dude oh some kind of inter-time dimensional thing going on. So this might be the next logical step that they do. But so stop me if this is where we're headed next.

Okay. Do they know about the origin of their house or the location that they're based in? Because, you know, if this was a town where, you know, there was a surrounding castle or old village, or maybe it had been built on land previously used in this farm for example then that would make a little bit of sense right yeah there is definitely an obvious way of testing the veracity of these claims and do not worry we will get there i would trust you more but you just checked your notes on an old bbc computer what do you have a problem with edward about it just looks really old and haunted i think it said boo just now but it still works it's also incredibly noisy i think the fan and that thing needs to be clean what it's beeping like a modem i can't hear you dude i can't hear you

over the modem i yeah i got that it's not even connected to the internet why does it need a modem i actually bought it off the guy who sold us the lombardi dolls yeah he's really deep in pocket he needs to move a bunch of these so this is crazy at this point the guys all think it's a hoax but something is pulling ken to right back i guess you just want to see how far you can take it like you know i don't know you live a boring life it's like we always talk about these stories nothing going on you know and also at this point you know they're not they're not being really haunted or anything nothing bad is happening to them it's just some cool messages you know if i was talking with a guy to the past i'd probably keep it going till like i got some weird threats or something it would be the kind of thing that you'd like show people on like a

night out you'd be like oh hey dude i forgot to tell you like and like over beers you'd be like what should i say to him next like yeah yeah look i'm getting these weird old english dms or something yeah i think you'd have to be pretty easily spooked to be like really really annoyed and upset about this so i kind of get where they're coming from so ken's asking them more questions and as they do um lw starts revealing more more about his life uh he signs off and one of the messages lucas oh so they're like getting to know a little bit more now they've got a name he writes in one message the writing machine is a wonderful thing somewhat unnatural i fancy unknown to myself it may be. I have seen you make lights on the box, and I'm cunning. Your merrymaking is loud, but it pleases me.

But there is not enough trust. I know not whence you came, nor whether you will go. And this freaks the guys out, because Lucas isn't just communicating with them, but this means he can see them. He's seen their computer, the, like, box with lights. Oh, I just assumed it meant he was writing on a box, like he had one as well. Yeah, but he says, I've seen you make lights with the box. Ugh.

He says, your merrymaking is loud and it pleases me. Well, how is he talking to them? We don't know yet. God damn. I know. Yeah, Ken and Debbie and stuff, they're like musicians as well. And he's heard, I think what he's saying there is that he's heard them like playing music in the house. They're merrymaking.

But the important thing is that as far as he's concerned, they're in his house. And he signs off this message, Lucas Wainman. Is that a real person? They try to check the town records like you say but of course the problem is that even if they find a name that just means that someone else could have looked that name up if someone was really going to these lengths of speaking like correct old english oh right they could just find a random name yeah you know that's a really good point actually um but as it happens they actually don't find the name lucas wayman. Well, they keep going back and forth and getting his messages translated.

And Ken is trying to explain more and more information about the modern world. He describes all sorts of technological advancements, electricity, cars, computers. And of course, Lucas does not understand any of it. On one occasion, they kind of discover something new because, you know, Ken's messing around. He's trying out new things. And because he's messaging him about these things and Ken sort of thinks ken's messing around he's trying out new things and because he's messaging him about these things and ken sort of thinks all right he's seen us and he's like seen us hang out in this room and he's seen me type on this thing so let's test it and he instead of typing a message he leaves a photo beside the computer he leaves a photo of a car right beside the computer and then lo and behold

hours later the photo's gone and there's a reply inside a text document which says what kind of wood is this it's like silk and they realize it's because he's never seen a photograph before so like that kind of plasticky paper oh not even the even the car. Not the car. I thought he was talking about the car. Not even getting started on the car. That's way too crazy. He does make some comment about, I think he does make some comment about the car. He's kind of like, where are the horses or something like that.

Right, right. Also, I love that, like he might be from the olden times, but there's still things that exist in that world that aren't made out of wood yeah yeah like it's not like they gave him an apple on the computer and he's like such sweet wood and deliciousness is this of course i come from the rock age yeah when everyone eats pebbles exactly like baskets that's not wood wait is that wood that's the worst something you could have given no try again like uh books oh shit no oh brooms sticks trees trees oh i don't know what's not made out of wood smaller trees fuck you look over i'm made of wood everything Everything's wood. I'm slowly sinking into the computer.

Becoming wood. I'm just snacking on a twig. What are you talking about, Rory? Doing your Peter voice. Everything is obviously made of wood, Rory. Care for a twig? They're great with this wood sauce. Wood sauce.

It's like sap, tree sap. At this point, Ken is no closer to understanding if these messages are hoaxes. Because whilst anyone could be sending fake messages from the past, they are sending and receiving messages too fast for someone to be breaking and entering the home every time. They've kind of ruled that out. Okay. That someone's literally running in and doing it and then running away again that doesn't really make sense anymore so throughout all these messages though all these responses and sent messages yes have they ever

been there and sat at the computer when one of those files appears or do they always have to leave and then come back i think they have been in the vicinity of it because they keep the computer in the kitchen it's like a live chat at this point yeah it is i have to i definitely have to um disclaimer again that there are no copies of this book to buy so i haven't read this book and there's no ebook available so i'm gathering this from reports from people who've read it right um but from what i gather they've stayed in the house um in like the living room kitchen uh so i think unless someone is jumping out from underneath the sofa and typing it up yeah they've ruled it out um again they've replaced the computer so there's nothing special about any one computer

these computers are so basic back then the only way on to that computer is through the floppy disk drive that's crazy but yet the messages keep arriving and then more and more new files lucas messages again with several details about the area he lives in where he studied etc so giving all these historical details as you said that should be fact checkable and all the while ken and his friends are reading these responses and trying to catch him on looking for inconsistencies about the language he uses i mean as an example of the language he uses i think peter as an example of the language he uses, I think Peter, you know,

he's working on the old English and stuff. He says, I think there were two instances of words that came from the 1600s, not the 1500s. He said dope and lit in two of the emails. I think he name dropped Kardashians, actually. What we're saying here is this is an unbelievable level of consistency right that it's all period correct apart from those two which are 50 years later and for all

we know you know could have been used at the time and undocumented or something like that right or he was like a trendsetter he brought them in and all the while they're trying to catch him out what they don't expect to happen Is it's Lucas who snaps first? He's told him where he studies where he lives etc And he says why do you tell such lies if you were alive you would know that no such college exists Why do you speak of a power of which I have no knowledge? That's when they were talking about electricity right it is you who makes me afraid and can realize, holy shit, this time we thought we were being hoaxed. Lucas thinks he's being hoaxed too.

So he's like trying to catch them out. Right. With references to like places that don't exist. If we think about this, if it were a hoax, he would be telling these lies and trying to get away with it. But rather, Lucas is like, what the hell? Like you guys are claiming to be from the same place I'm from and you don't know any of these places. You're just going along with it.

I get, well, here's, okay. So here's where I draw issue with this. Please. So the guys with the computer. Yes. They're experiencing this from a device within their conceivable world. Yes, sir. It's a computer that is in existence.

Yes. I'm assuming that Lucas is looking through some sort of wormhole in his living room and he's like i don't know if i believe you guys and you're not just trolling me yeah presumably it's i don't know what he could be doing yeah he's like you haven't been on penny coat lane yeah unless the way he's responding is like i don't know writing it on a piece of parchment and putting it in a drawer and then the letter disappears like sending up the fireplace yeah something like that unless he's doing that then i don't know how he thinks he's being tricked i guess the reason he is so convinced is because in these, however those are taking place, he's seen those guys in his house.

Okay. He's experienced... But... Yeah. Like, what? In human form? Or as, like, ghastly visions? Or... So, slowly and slowly, Ken, Debbie, and Nicola are realizing that not everything can be explained by a straightforward prank. It's becoming way too complicated. Someone go in.

Someone go in the laptop. What do you mean you mean someone go put your rest your face so i've got a laptop here what do you think so it's your face on it what go in what how can i make this more clear keep saying it but um what do you so what do you think is going to happen if i do that? If ye put y'all face on... That's very confusing dialect. Yeah. On the keyboard. On the BBC keyboard. That's not what I have, but sure. It's all the same.

It's all computers. Okay. You could go, like the photograph, go in, but it'll only take your head. You said go in again. It'll only take your head. That's not what I'm concerned about. And while he's waiting for a message, you can pop out and be like, Lucas! Okay.

It's me! And then show him your face. Yeah. And he'll be like, touching it, like what soft, silty wood is this? Can I tell you? Like he's never felt human hair before. And then you can show him the it's real i'm still stuck at the uh at the rest to go in yeah go in i mean saying it faster doesn't i said jesus you kept that one quiet an old english rifle Where'd you get that? You're Lucas, I think.

I'm assuming they don't. Okay, they don't go in. Oh, shit. Not yet. And in one of these messages, Lucas writes that he's seen Debbie in his own home. Ken reads this and doesn't know what he means right away, but Debbie kind of interrupts and goes... Like naked?

Sorry. Okay. Judging by the laugh, I can tell. No one was... That's not where you were headed. No one was going there. Yeah, all right. One track mind power strikes again.

Debbie's a guy, dude. Oh, that's fine. Can you imagine? Lucas was just trolling him. He's like, Ken, your girl was with me last night, though. She came to the crib after hours. Want wanted to see what was up 1560 style or whatever the wanted some of you old timey wood if you catch my drift one of some of this silky

wood gave her a piece of my floppy d how does he know what that is how does he know all right i don't think he's real when you start locking the windows but debbie says to ken you know i've had some weird dreams lately i dreamed i was in an old english house last night bring this up debbie bring this up on the day you know what's happening in this house i don't know she's living a weird life right now there's freaking food and trinkets are stacking themselves what do we mention it like your living room i guess yeah okay i'll let out but it's like yeah it's like my revelation of the freaking cat dream on this podcast yeah i kind of forgot it till it came up that's what i think okay that's a that's a good example you know she said she dreamed she was in an old english house hundreds of years ago she didn't really think much of it but she dreamed she walked through this house and was confronted by an old timey man

before she snapped awake she thought the messages were just getting to her and it was kind of seeping into her subconscious right that's what i'm thinking but lucas claims to have been visited by her so this is another like bizarre layer of like like physical computer there and then the layer of like these messages that are where are they coming from sir you have your hand raised yes i have a question did she fall asleep napping on the keyboard of the laptop? And did she go in? Did she go in? No. Did she go in?

I don't know what that means. I will say it faster. Did she go in? Oh, go in. Oh, sorry, I did. Sorry for roasting you that entire time. No, no, no. She go in.

Now that you said it slightly quicker, everything is settled. She did go in now that you said it's slightly quicker everything is settled she did go in if i describe this entire tale slightly faster maybe it'll make more said just think i'm a spitball in here i'm trying to piece this together i don't know why i'm like yeah i'm being so harsh on this point because yeah you're serving me and i'm just trying to roll with the punches fresh trays of poop kicking me in the balls look i'm just trying to roll with the punches. Fresh trays of poop. You're kicking me in the balls. Look, I'm just a paranormal investigator. I put A and B and X files together. All I can do is work with the little pieces of the paranormal puzzle that you've given me.

What you've given me is a wormhole to the olden days. So what are my logical thinkings? How are they getting to the olden days? Yeah. I mean, to be fair, yeah, there's any number of ways in which this could be happening this is uncharted territory guys and gals so guys and ghouls and i'll point out again that all throughout this time the house is experiencing weird physical activity again all the food and objects are in the house being stacked on one another from time to time. Like Scooby snacks.

Stacking massive sandwiches. Yeah. But what they do find is some weird relationship by which whenever they're regularly sending and receiving messages, it seems to keep the paranormal activity to a minimum. Okay. But in between those times, it starts to ramp up again. But it's all taken to another level

when one day Ken and Debbie enter the house and there's chalk all over the walls. It's starting to get out of control. There's chalk all over the walls in loopy patterns and they realize that it's handwriting, like old-timey handwriting. And it's signed off at the end, Lucas. And I've actually got a photo for you here. No!

Yes, sir. that's so cool this photo is actually because it was over a different part size this what's particular one i found is from the book it was printed in the book and it's of the ground and you can kind of see what's going on it looks near like elvish or something okay oh this is really cool man i forget how recent this is yeah yeah so um what i'm looking at here is i mean it's a pretty bare floor it looks almost concrete um and there is essentially like you've described elvish like old english writing just sprawled all over the floor um which is interesting has lewis written this in his house and it's appeared in the modern day house yeah yeah possibly sorry because in the same way that ken left the photo that appeared then in lucas's timeline right i guess his writing is appearing in ken's timeline

wouldn't he mention about his floor in the first bit? It was like old stony, old redstone floor. I'm glad you brought that up, actually. That was a kind of interesting point that Lucas... Said his floor was ye old portal at the beginning of the first email. Ye old Stargate, he mentioned. Did Lucas mention he lived in a DeLorean? I feel like that was an important part he should have illustrated. Have you seen ye old Matrix? Pick up the phone.

Yeah, Lucas mentions that he had, basically that he had a red stone floor of some kind. Yeah. And around this time, Ken and Debbie are doing renovations on the house. So I think what you're seeing there is the red stone. No. So between the photo disappearing,

Debbie visiting Lucas in the dream world and these chalk drawings it's like the two worlds are linked in some way or the veil that separates the two different timelines or dimensions is thinning somehow okay well the same day they receive a message to the bbc micro but it's different this time from an entirely new messenger i'm steven from the future ah shit it's going both ways now you shouldn't hello steven it's ye old lewis just let them talk just put it in the corner and let them talk we're out of this tell me steven have you seen silky wood my good man i have heard of your griffins, lions, and wondrous possessions, and it is too fantastic to understand.

And your people are unnatural, but I have no dread. You are a phantasm of great powers. I feel as though you are in the future. I ask, when this king ends his reign, who will be the next king? I will not give you my name, nor Lucas's true description and name. Signed, a friend. Nor Lucas's true description or name. You kind of gave the gig away there for Lucas, right?

I won't tell you who Steve is pretending. I mean, I won't tell you Lucas's real name. So Lucas isn't even his real name. That dastardly dog. The worm with the wormhole.ky worm what's he trying to hide the next morning debbie wakes and complains of another weird dream she's back in what must be lucas's house and he's there with what looks like his wife but they're arguing because lucas can see debbie but his wife thinks that he's lost his mind. She's just seeing an empty room.

And he's like, look, it's Debbie. And he's obviously just talking to like a blank wall or whatever. Well, to Debbie, it was only a dream, but the repercussions were greater than they thought. The next message they received on the micro was from Lucas's friend once more. You foolish scoundrel. You've brought ruin to my friend. I guarantee your death by my own name. Your charm of lights is to be avoided because now he sits in a shameful dungeon.

It turns out that word had gotten out in the 1500s about Lucas' communication with the future. And back then, it wasn't good news. People thought you were a witch or something. And so basically they threw him in a slammer lucas is being detained in his house at this point and he sends a message to ken deb and nicola he says i know not who betrayed me and accused me of witchcraft but i know that you are my true friends what can be done i cannot take your hand before sentence of death. I must hear your words before I bid farewell. You said your people's time is

1985. I thought your time was also 2109. Like your friend who brought the box of lights to me. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. I absolutely refuse this. This is where I stop.

I'm off. I'm out out I'm done No I'm done man No No he doesn't He doesn't mention this After 18 months Of contact

He doesn't then When he's locked up Say that someone From the future Brought him a magic box But he didn't Why Why does he think

he's being trolled if someone's already shown up and brought him a magic box from the future and he still thinks he still doesn't believe what's happening i mean i think the idea is he doesn't i think he didn't know they were from 1985 or he forgot he forgot i don't know he forgot when a wizard from the future shows up and hands him a computer also no he he remembers that bit he doesn't remember when these guys are from they know this is this is insane because what so now he has he's been given a magic box from the future i assume is a computer that can communicate with computers from his future sure then he gets a photograph and he's like what wooden silk is this he can't he's baffled by that he's got a computer he's got a future box this is a good time technology that we don't have

now yeah it was something i was going to get to later but to quell your disbelief sir at this point i would say f**k off kick over the table hit you in the dick uh lucas in the 1500s is not going to be able to type on a qwerty keyboard of course um i believe the way that it works for him is a bit like the way that debbie dreams and sees lucas's world right lucas either sees it in a dream or in some sort of altered state the way he experiences it is that he's speaking these messages oh because it's in his old english native tongue sort of yes so he's not like literally like typing it out like what did they what did he be what was he given from the future i don't know man we don't know that. Okay. Okay.

Continue onward, but know that... I think he's saying, but know. But know that I'm hesitantly going with you at this point, from this point onward. Not knowing what else to do, but needing to... It's going to get worse, isn't it? Absolutely it is. He pulled a rifle from his jacket from the year 3002 but ken needed to get to the bottom of this he thought to himself it's worth a shot he grabbed the keyboard and started typing a command on the bbc micro hack time time. Not far off. Calling 2109

question mark. What is that? I mean, he knows the computer has no online capabilities. What does he think is gonna happen? No, just tell me. Please just tell me. You'll have to find out next week. Oh no! I'll be real with you guys.

There's more to this story. And it gets weirder Deeper, more odd And it comes Like this story doesn't end in 1984 Like This The people

That wrote this story Are alive today And they have a lot to say about it There's more people involved And it gets crazy this sounds amazing so i was gonna i was gonna fit this into one episode but it got too big and too crazy so we're gonna have to come back next week hey that's exciting what an exciting second half to come back to we've laid the ground now and it's gonna be the payoff is gonna be

sweet absolutely i can't i'm really looking forward to it so i guess uh if you guys want to um follow us online and see what we're chatting about between now and next tuesday you can hit us up on the email with ideas at at this paranormal life podcast at gmail.com um no doubt we'll be posting memes about all this on at this power of life our twitter rory's at rory has powers absolutely i'm at kit greer g-r-i-e-r tweet us your theories i'm interested to see you know kits going for it i'm a little skeptical yeah we want to know where you guys come in on this one if you have any experience in um you know laptop futuristic teleportation portal devices. That would be great.

And granted, it's a little bit early because we haven't come to conclusions. We haven't got to the end of the story. But some of you guys might have read the book and might be able to chime in whether you think it's bullshit or not. We might run a poll this week. Oh, yeah, that would be great. That would be really awesome.

It's a good idea. So make sure and tune in next week. And thank you for listening to another episode of This Paranormal Life. Hashtag investigate.