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Seeing Red · Aaron Mahnke's Cabinet of Curiosities

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  Speaker 1: Our world is full of the unexplainable, and if history
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  Speaker 1: is an open book, all of these amazing tales are
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  Speaker 1: right there on display, just waiting for us to explore.
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  Speaker 1: Welcome to the Cabinet of curiosities. The human spirit is
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  Speaker 1: rarely satisfied. There's always another goal, another milestone to reach.
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  Speaker 1: Scientists with their eyes to the sky don't see a
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  Speaker 1: final victory. They see an endless horizon of possibilities. In
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  Speaker 1: the nineteen seventies and eighties, the United States and the
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  Speaker 1: Soviet Union were in competition, sending small craft and rovers
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  Speaker 1: towards Mars to learn everything they could about a potentially
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  Speaker 1: brand new world. But our fascination with the right planet
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  Speaker 1: didn't start there. Since the late nineteenth century, when it
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  Speaker 1: was discovered that there were trenches on Mars, possibly man made,
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  Speaker 1: we've wondered whether we're truly alone in the universe. Perhaps not. H. G.
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  Speaker 1: Wells famously wrote about a Martian invasion in his eight
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  Speaker 1: nine classic War of the Worlds, and our obsession with
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  Speaker 1: what could be up there hasn't debated. Nikola Tesla once
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  Speaker 1: claimed that Martians were even communicating with him via signals
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  Speaker 1: they sent to Earth. Dr Hugh Mansfield. Robinson also thought
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  Speaker 1: Martians were communicating with him. In the nineteen twenties, Robinson
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  Speaker 1: had surrounded himself with as much literature as he could
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  Speaker 1: find about mars Wells story was his favorite, but science
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  Speaker 1: fiction soon turned to science fact when Robinson began receiving transmissions,
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  Speaker 1: though unlike Tesla, he wasn't getting them over the air
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  Speaker 1: to some kind of receiver. Robinson was the receiver. He
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  Speaker 1: had claimed to have made telepathic contact with the Martian race,
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  Speaker 1: specifically their princess Umaruru. She him all about her people,
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  Speaker 1: how their lives were not unlike those of humans on Earth.
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  Speaker 1: They drove cars and lived in houses. They weren't planning
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  Speaker 1: on a takeover of our planets either, They simply wished
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  Speaker 1: to exist peacefully on their own. Martian males were said
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  Speaker 1: to be eight feet tall, while the women came in
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  Speaker 1: at about a foot or two shorter. They had big
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  Speaker 1: ears and a lot of hair on their heads. Physical
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  Speaker 1: attributes vary depending on the class of Martian, the wealthier
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  Speaker 1: ones being much better looking than those in the lower casts.
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  Speaker 1: But Robinson's mental conversations could only go one way. Umaru
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  Speaker 1: U could beam her words at him, but not hear
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  Speaker 1: his in return. That's when Robinson came up with a
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  Speaker 1: way for him to talk to her. He called it
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  Speaker 1: a psycho motor meter, a device of his own making
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  Speaker 1: that facilitated two way communication between Earth and Mars. Robinson
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  Speaker 1: allegedly even traveled to Mars using astral projection, helped along
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  Speaker 1: on his journey by the Martian Princess. His stories about
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  Speaker 1: his communication with Mars did not go unnoticed, nor were
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  Speaker 1: they widely accepted. A scientist studying psychic phenomena and paranormal
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  Speaker 1: medium both met with Robinson and asked him to walk
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  Speaker 1: them through what he'd learned from Mars. He showed the
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  Speaker 1: men the Martian alphabet that he had transcribed, which looked
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  Speaker 1: something like a child might draw. He also sang a
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  Speaker 1: song that umaru U had taught him. It was comprised
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  Speaker 1: of bizarre shrieks and klucks, but it was only a
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  Speaker 1: small taste of a culture he desperately wanted to learn
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  Speaker 1: more about. Robinson's ultimate goal was to get a message
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  Speaker 1: to all of Mars, not just to the princess. Using
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  Speaker 1: modern technology of the time, he planned on beaming a
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  Speaker 1: message over radio waves to the whole Martian population. In
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  Speaker 1: ninety six, Mars's orbit had placed it relatively close to Earth,
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  Speaker 1: the perfect time for Robinson to put his plan in motion.
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  Speaker 1: With the help of a telegraph operator, he transmitted the
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  Speaker 1: message love to Mars from Earth O pesti nipitiya secomba.
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  Speaker 1: Those last three words didn't make any sense to anyone
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  Speaker 1: else in the room other than Robinson. Presumably they were
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  Speaker 1: part of the Martian language he had picked up in
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  Speaker 1: his talks with the princess. For two years, nothing happened.
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  Speaker 1: The Martians sent back no response, but Robinson continued to
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  Speaker 1: beam telegraphs towards the stars. His next message read comga
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  Speaker 1: mar or God is love in Martian. When he failed
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  Speaker 1: to get a reply the second time, he blamed Earth's
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  Speaker 1: primitive technology. So he returned to communicating via telepathy, which
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  Speaker 1: inspired him to start his own school, devoted to teaching
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  Speaker 1: students how to converse using the power of the mind.
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  Speaker 1: The College of Telepathy opened to no fanfare. His reputation
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  Speaker 1: in the community had plummeted, which resulted in only two
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  Speaker 1: students registering to attend his new school, one of which
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  Speaker 1: was a dog named Nell. Robinson grew more reclusive as
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  Speaker 1: the years went on, especially after aiming to have spoken
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  Speaker 1: to the spirit of Cleopatra, who is now also living
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  Speaker 1: on Mars. His legacy has been mostly forgotten today, but
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  Speaker 1: it's worth remembering the man who believed when no one
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  Speaker 1: else would, that there might be life on another planet.
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  Speaker 1: One we're only now just getting to know, and now
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  Speaker 1: that technology has advanced, we might not need to beam
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  Speaker 1: a message to whatever might be living on Mars. We
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  Speaker 1: could just send it along with the next rover, or
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  Speaker 1: eventually even take it there ourselves. Some people just seem
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  Speaker 1: to have a cloud that follows them wherever they go.
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  Speaker 1: No matter how hard they try, bad news isn't far behind.
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  Speaker 1: Roy Sullivan knew all about trying to get out from
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  Speaker 1: under a cloud. Born in Virginia in nineteen twelve, Roy had,
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  Speaker 1: depending on how you look at it, either an extremely
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  Speaker 1: lucky life or maybe the luckiest of all. He was
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  Speaker 1: one of eleven children, fourth in line, and didn't care
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  Speaker 1: much for school, but he loved the outdoors. When he
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  Speaker 1: was twenty four, he got a job as a ranger
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  Speaker 1: and Shannandoah National Park, which had only been established one
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  Speaker 1: year prior. His job of monitoring activity in the park
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  Speaker 1: was uneventful for the first several years until he had
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  Speaker 1: been stationed in a fire tower looking out over an
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  Speaker 1: area of the park known as Miller's Head when he
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  Speaker 1: found himself in the middle of a thunderstorm. As the
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  Speaker 1: rain pounded against the tower and the thunder rattled its frame,
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  Speaker 1: lightning struck. There was no lightning rod attached to the tower,
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  Speaker 1: but that didn't stop the bolts from hitting it over
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  Speaker 1: six times, causing a fire to spread. Roy ran and
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  Speaker 1: as he retreated from the flames, another bolt struck, this
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  Speaker 1: time in his leg. A strip of flesh roughly half
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  Speaker 1: an inch wide, ran the length of his leg all
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  Speaker 1: the way down to his big toe, which lost its
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  Speaker 1: nail in the blast. As it has often been said,
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  Speaker 1: lightning never strikes in the same place twice. That's not
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  Speaker 1: entirely true, though, While rare, lightning has definitely been known
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  Speaker 1: to hit an area more than once, and nobody knew
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  Speaker 1: more about that than Roy Sullivan. He'd serve as a
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  Speaker 1: park ranger for another twenty seven years before his luck
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  Speaker 1: would be tested again, this time in July of nineteen
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  Speaker 1: sixty nine. However, he wasn't high up in a fire
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  Speaker 1: tower like he'd been back in nineteen forty two. He
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  Speaker 1: was much lower to the ground driving in his truck. Normally,
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  Speaker 1: a vehicle absorbs the blast from a lightning strike and
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  Speaker 1: protects the driver from being zapped, but Roy had been
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  Speaker 1: driving with his window down when the lightning hit a
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  Speaker 1: tree before bouncing into his truck through the open window.
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  Speaker 1: Roy was knocked out and his hair was set on
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  Speaker 1: fire while the car rolled to the edge of a
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  Speaker 1: cliff and then stopped a close call in more ways
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  Speaker 1: than one. A year later, Roy wasn't even in the
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  Speaker 1: park when he was struck by lightning for a third time.
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  Speaker 1: He was in his front yard. A blast arct off
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  Speaker 1: a nearby transformer and burned his shoulder. In nineteen seventy two,
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  Speaker 1: he was in a ranger station when another storm resulted
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  Speaker 1: in a lightning strike that set his hair on fire
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  Speaker 1: once again. He tried putting it out in the bathroom sink,
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  Speaker 1: but couldn't fit his head under the tap. Instead, he
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  Speaker 1: wrapped his sine scalp in a wet towel and waited
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  Speaker 1: for the storm to pass before getting help. Roy started
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  Speaker 1: to think that something was after him, that he was
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  Speaker 1: being targeted by some unknown entity that was out to
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  Speaker 1: get him. From that point forward, he never drove during
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  Speaker 1: a storm, especially with the window open. He'd pulled off
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  Speaker 1: to the side and wait for it to finish before
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  Speaker 1: continuing on. He avoided crowds, worried he might attract a
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  Speaker 1: bolt of lightning no matter where he went, and he
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  Speaker 1: never left home without a full container of water to
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  Speaker 1: put out hair fires. But for all his precautions, he
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  Speaker 1: couldn't escape fate. In August of nineteen seventy three, he
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  Speaker 1: noticed a storm moving in over the park. He got
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  Speaker 1: into his truck to drive away, terrified of the dark
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  Speaker 1: cloud he swore was following him. He waited. After several minutes,
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  Speaker 1: it's seen the cloud had passed. When he got out
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  Speaker 1: to check, though, it was like someone was playing a
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  Speaker 1: lifelong practical joke on him. Lightning hit his left side
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  Speaker 1: and blew his shoe right off before jumping to his
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  Speaker 1: right leg. He managed to make it to his truck
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  Speaker 1: for his emergency water, which he used to put out
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  Speaker 1: the fire atop his head. Again, things were quiet again
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  Speaker 1: for a few years until nineteen seventy six when Roy
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  Speaker 1: hurt his ankle, but that didn't keep him out of
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  Speaker 1: the park. During a routine patrol, Roy watched the cloud
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  Speaker 1: follow him as he retreated for safety. He didn't make
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  Speaker 1: it in time, though, lightning struck him and set what
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  Speaker 1: was left of his hair on fire. Then, in nineteen
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  Speaker 1: seventy seven, Roy broke the Guinness World Record. He was
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  Speaker 1: fishing in the middle of a pond when a final
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  Speaker 1: strike hit him on top of his head and burn
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  Speaker 1: him all the way down to his chest and stomach.
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  Speaker 1: But it wasn't the only thing threatening his life that day.
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  Speaker 1: A bear had wandered over to take fish that Roy
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  Speaker 1: had caught. Still conscious, after the strike, Roy grabbed a
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  Speaker 1: large tree branch off the ground and smacked the bear
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  Speaker 1: with it, sending it back into the woods without its meal.
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  Speaker 1: Roy Sullivan sounds like some kind of superhero, a man
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  Speaker 1: capable of surviving seven lightning strikes and stopping a bear attack.
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  Speaker 1: But like many heroes, roy superpower came at a high cost.
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  Speaker 1: Those who knew him eventually stopped spending time with him,
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  Speaker 1: afraid that they too might be caught by a stray
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  Speaker 1: bolt from above. The rest of his life was pretty lonely,
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  Speaker 1: and he passed away. And while death and lightning share
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  Speaker 1: some common traits, both usually come out of nowhere and
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  Speaker 1: happened when we least expect it. There is one major
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  Speaker 1: difference that Roy must have been thankful for. Death at
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  Speaker 1: least is the sort of lightning that only strikes once.
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  Speaker 1: I hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour of the Cabinet
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  Speaker 1: of Curiosities. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, or learn
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  Speaker 1: more about the show by visiting Curiosities podcast dot com.
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  Speaker 1: The show was created by me Aaron Manky in partnership
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  Speaker 1: with how Stuff Works. I make another award winning show
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  Speaker 1: called Lore, which is a podcast, book series, and television show,
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  Speaker 1: and you can learn all about it over at the
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  Speaker 1: World of Lore dot com. And until next time, stay curious,
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  Speaker 1: Ye