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20,000 Winks · 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. We normally don't trust
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  Speaker 1: someone who fell asleep on the job. If a waiter
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  Speaker 1: decided to have a nap without taking our order, we
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  Speaker 1: might find another place to eat. And long haul truckers
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  Speaker 1: have been known on occasion to doze at the wheel,
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  Speaker 1: putting themselves and those around them in immense danger. But
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  Speaker 1: what happens when someone is having a crisis of faith,
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  Speaker 1: when the world has become too overwhelming and they need
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  Speaker 1: a reminder of why they believe what they believe in
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  Speaker 1: the first place. A preacher should be able to step
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  Speaker 1: in and guide that person, unless, of course, that preacher
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  Speaker 1: also happens to not off. Stories of sleeping or trance
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  Speaker 1: preachers originated in Germany during the sixteenth and seventeenth century. However,
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  Speaker 1: sleeping preachers have existed all over the world, including Alabama,
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  Speaker 1: southern France, and Iowa. One such man was a fellow
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  Speaker 1: from Kentucky named Ed. Born one of six children, Ed
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  Speaker 1: had always been a bit of a special boy. As
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  Speaker 1: a child, he once claimed to have seen his dead grandfather.
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  Speaker 1: Now ten years old, his family introduced him to the
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  Speaker 1: church and it became his life. Over the next two years,
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  Speaker 1: he read the Bible cover to cover twelve times. His
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  Speaker 1: supernatural dealings only grew from there. One day, while reading
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  Speaker 1: the Bible by himself, he was visited by a woman
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  Speaker 1: with wings on her back, who asked him what he
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  Speaker 1: wanted to do with his life. He gazed upon her
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  Speaker 1: glowing figure and told her that he wanted to become
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  Speaker 1: a missionary so that he could help others through faith.
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  Speaker 1: The following day proved less inspiring. Ed wasn't a particularly
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  Speaker 1: good student as a child, and a complaint from his
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  Speaker 1: teacher had angered his father. Apparently he'd been having trouble
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  Speaker 1: with his spelling. The boy sat in a chair all
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  Speaker 1: night his father, calling out words, only to have Ed
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  Speaker 1: fail each time. His father smacked him, sending his son
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  Speaker 1: to the floor, and that's when Ed's guardian angel came back.
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  Speaker 1: She told him to sleep and they would help him
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  Speaker 1: get through it. Ed asked his father for a break
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  Speaker 1: so he could rest his head. His father woke him
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  Speaker 1: up a short while later, and miraculously his son knew
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  Speaker 1: how to spell every word in the book. This set
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  Speaker 1: Ed on a path of strange and inexplainable occurrences while
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  Speaker 1: he slept. For example, he once diagnosed a cure for
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  Speaker 1: his own back injury in his sleep, which his parents
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  Speaker 1: administered to great success the following day. As he got older,
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  Speaker 1: he needed to find work to help his family. He
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  Speaker 1: started a business with his father selling insurance, but a
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  Speaker 1: case of bad laryngitis took his voice away completely. After
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  Speaker 1: a year spent at home recovering, his voice still had
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  Speaker 1: it returned, so he sought the help of a hypnotist,
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  Speaker 1: who said that he had a cure. As it turned out,
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  Speaker 1: Ed's voice was just fine when he was in a
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  Speaker 1: hypnotic trance. That is, it was after he awoke that
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  Speaker 1: his voice disappeared again. He saw two other hypnotists who
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  Speaker 1: believed they could help, and the third, al Lane, was
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  Speaker 1: able to break through. While Lane had Ed in a trance,
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  Speaker 1: Ed spoke as though someone else were there with him,
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  Speaker 1: perhaps the woman with the wings from his childhood. He
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  Speaker 1: referred to himself in the plural, saying things like we
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  Speaker 1: and us. As the hypnotist had him described his situation
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  Speaker 1: that hypnotist suggested the voice loss was psychosomatic, not physical,
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  Speaker 1: and that a rush of blood in the voice box
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  Speaker 1: would restore it. Ed or the entity controlling him, did
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  Speaker 1: as told. His throat burned and his chest ached, but
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  Speaker 1: after twenty minutes the treatment was done, and when Ed
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  Speaker 1: awoke his voice had returned. Lane wondered how far his
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  Speaker 1: subject's talents extend it and whether they could work on others.
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  Speaker 1: Could Ed cure someone else while asleep under hypnosis? Lane
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  Speaker 1: started by using himself as a guinea pig. He placed
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  Speaker 1: Ed in a trance and asked him to diagnose and
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  Speaker 1: prescribe cures to Lane's own health problems. Ed did the
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  Speaker 1: same for as hypnotist as he had done for himself,
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  Speaker 1: helping to put Lane on the path through recovery. Lane
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  Speaker 1: saw potential in ed'sibilities, and Ed finally got his chance
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  Speaker 1: to help people, just as he had told the angel
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  Speaker 1: as a child. He gave free readings to locals, putting
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  Speaker 1: himself into a hypnotic trance and diagnosing their ailments, and
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  Speaker 1: news spread quickly about his feet, earning him coverage in
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  Speaker 1: local newspapers. But all the hype weighed heavily on him.
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  Speaker 1: He was worried that if one person died from his
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  Speaker 1: suggested treatments, he might be labeled a murderer. He eventually
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  Speaker 1: stopped and sought more traditional employment as a bookshop clerk,
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  Speaker 1: then a photographer, but fate would one day bring him
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  Speaker 1: back to his true calling. By l he was living
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  Speaker 1: in Selma, Alabama and diagnosing more than just the sick.
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  Speaker 1: Businessmen wanted insight into the stock market, Treasure hunters asked
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  Speaker 1: him to locate lost gold, and gamblers wanted the inside
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  Speaker 1: scoop on the latest horse races, but Ed wanted none
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  Speaker 1: of that, opting only to help cure the sick. In
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  Speaker 1: three though, he was convinced by Arthur Lamber's, a student,
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  Speaker 1: to explore the possibility of reincarnation. While in a trance,
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  Speaker 1: Ed told Lambours about his past lives, a holy, un
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  Speaker 1: Christian thing to do, as he felt reincarnation went against
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  Speaker 1: church teachings. Lambours, on the other hand, had gotten all
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  Speaker 1: the proof he needed that astrology and reincarnation were as
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  Speaker 1: real as the hair on his head. From there, Ed
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  Speaker 1: traveled with Lambours to Ohio for deeper metaphysical studies, which
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  Speaker 1: put him at odds with his Christian upbringing ed pivoted
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  Speaker 1: back to work and healing, reconciling the metaphysical work with
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  Speaker 1: his religion, and moving to Virginia Beach. In y eight,
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  Speaker 1: he helped to open a hospital dedicated to the scientific
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  Speaker 1: study of his hypnotic readings, and that hospital still exists
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  Speaker 1: by the way outliving ed by nearly a century, and
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  Speaker 1: it continues to help those seeking spiritual enlightenment and healing.
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  Speaker 1: As a result, Ed or Edgar Casey, as history remembers him,
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  Speaker 1: has been immortalized as a man of faith who never
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  Speaker 1: let doubt or sickness stop him from helping as many
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  Speaker 1: people as he could, and all he had to do
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  Speaker 1: was take a little nap. When an animal is hurt
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  Speaker 1: or dying, it tries to hide the pain so it
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  Speaker 1: doesn't end up as food for something else. A broken
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  Speaker 1: paw or a mangy coat might signify the animal as
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  Speaker 1: in distress or weak, but it will never let another
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  Speaker 1: creature see it if it can help it. Even our
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  Speaker 1: own pets, no matter how much affection we show to them,
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  Speaker 1: do their best to shield us from their ailments. But
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  Speaker 1: sometimes the connection between human and animal is too strong
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  Speaker 1: to hide, even though they might not be able to
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  Speaker 1: communicate in words. Our pets can show us how much
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  Speaker 1: we mean to them in other ways. At the turn
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  Speaker 1: of the century, John Charles Thompson, Wyoming's Surveyor General, had
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  Speaker 1: a colleague named Jim, and Jim was known all over
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  Speaker 1: his owner's hometown of Cheyenne for being kind and loving.
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  Speaker 1: He also had a funny affectation. Jim, it seems, could laugh.
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  Speaker 1: He was known as the laughing Dog, and when he
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  Speaker 1: would see someone he recognized, he would let out a
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  Speaker 1: kind of audible chuckle. Jim the Collie was a beloved
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  Speaker 1: member of Thompson's family, closer to John than almost anyone,
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  Speaker 1: which made one fateful night in nineteen o five very
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  Speaker 1: difficult for the Surveyor General. John had been walking with
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  Speaker 1: a friend down in Denver, Colorado Street around seven thirty
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  Speaker 1: pm when he came upon an animal lying in the
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  Speaker 1: middle of the road. Thompson hurried over and noticed the
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  Speaker 1: animal was a dog. Even stranger, it looked just like Jim.
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  Speaker 1: The dog was hurt, but there was no doubt about it.
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  Speaker 1: This was Jim. He was unable to stand and could
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  Speaker 1: barely lift his head, but even in pain, Jim let
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  Speaker 1: out his familiar laugh when he saw his beloved owner
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  Speaker 1: hunched over him. General Thompson did his best to comfort
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  Speaker 1: the dog, but whatever had hurt him had mortally wounded him.
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  Speaker 1: John stroked his fur, told him goodbye, and it wasn't
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  Speaker 1: long before Jim succumbed to his injuries. He passed away
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  Speaker 1: there in the street, his best friend right by his side.
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  Speaker 1: Thompson and his friend crossed the street and then looked
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  Speaker 1: back at the dog, but it had disappeared. It hadn't
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  Speaker 1: miraculously gotten up and walked away. It had vanished. John
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  Speaker 1: wasn't sure what to think, but he left and headed
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  Speaker 1: back to his hotel. The following day, a letter arrived
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  Speaker 1: from his wife, and it bore the sad news that
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  Speaker 1: his beloved colleague, Jim, had been involved in an accident
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  Speaker 1: the previous night around seven thirty pm. Not in Denver, Colorado, though,
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  Speaker 1: but back home in Cheyenne, Wyoming. The bond between a
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  Speaker 1: person and their pets is unbreakable. Distance and time cannot
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  Speaker 1: keep them apart. It seems Jim was proof of that.
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  Speaker 1: John believed that the dog he had witnessed in the
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  Speaker 1: street wasn't a look alike, but a real visit by
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  Speaker 1: the dog's spirit, a fantasy, perhaps, but also maybe a
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  Speaker 1: way for a faithful friend to say goodbye one last time.
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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. Yeah,