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Global.EDU. We've

1:08

all heard of the butterfly effect.

1:10

That idea that one tiny

1:13

insignificant action can ripple out

1:15

into massive, unpredicted consequences. Like

1:17

how Gavrillo-Princeip, stopping to eat

1:19

a sandwich, allowed him to

1:21

assassinate the Archduke Franz Ferdinand,

1:23

thus starting World War I.

1:25

And sure, that's a famous one,

1:28

but there are countless more examples. Like

1:30

the fact that a simple cup of

1:32

coffee led to one of the bloodiest

1:35

moments in history. There are few routines

1:37

more sacred than our morning cup

1:39

of Joe, right? In fact, sacred

1:41

is more on the nose than

1:43

you might think. You see, the

1:46

first coffee was imbibed by Muslimistics

1:48

known as Sufis, who, during the

1:50

Ottoman Empire, drank the stuff ceremonially

1:52

while chanting the name of God.

1:54

Soon, the beverage began to travel,

1:57

and so naturally people needed a

1:59

place to buy it. world's first

2:01

coffee shop was called Kiva

2:03

Han, and it opened in

2:05

roughly 1475 in Constantinople Turkey,

2:07

what is now Istanbul. Other

2:09

sources say numerous cafes popped

2:12

up in Cairo, Aleppo, and

2:14

Constantinople alike. Whatever the case,

2:16

early coffee shops serve the

2:18

same role in society as

2:20

they do today. They were

2:22

places to socialize and to

2:24

share intellectual discourse, to discuss

2:26

politics and current events. And

2:28

because coffee was cheap, these

2:30

watering holes allowed people of

2:32

all classes to mingle and

2:35

converse about the world around

2:37

them. Flash forward to pre-revolution

2:39

France, coffee shops still served

2:41

as intellectual hubs, and thus

2:43

provided a space for French

2:45

revolutionaries to gather, discuss injustice,

2:47

plot, and ultimately enact one

2:49

of the most violent revolutions

2:51

in world history. In short,

2:53

Some anonymous caffeinated Sufi was

2:56

the flap of a butterfly's

2:58

wing that led to the

3:00

French Revolution hundreds of years

3:02

later. Time is funny like

3:04

that. History is one great

3:06

big Rube Goldberg machine, each

3:08

moment a link in an

3:10

endless chain of cause and

3:12

effect. And if stories from

3:14

history teach us anything, it's

3:17

that time is more entangled

3:19

than we could ever have

3:21

imagined. I'm Aaron Mankey. And

3:23

this is lore. Imagine that

3:25

I were to hand you three

3:27

photographs. The first depicts a child.

3:29

The second, an adult. And the

3:31

third, an old man. Now, place

3:33

them in order in order in

3:36

order in order in order in

3:38

order in order in order in

3:40

order in order in order in

3:42

order in order in your mind.

3:44

I'm willing to bet that you

3:46

line them up left to right,

3:48

starting with the child at the

3:50

far left, then the adult, followed

3:53

by the old man. When we

3:55

think about the movement of time,

3:57

and they seem pretty straightforward, literally.

3:59

Except here's the thing. It turns

4:01

out the way people conceptualize time

4:03

actually varies from culture to culture,

4:05

and a lot of it has

4:07

to do with the language that

4:10

we speak. As English speakers, most

4:12

of us conceive of time as

4:14

a horizontal line, a line that

4:16

yes moves from left to right.

4:18

Why? Because that's the direction that

4:20

we read in. Plop those same

4:22

three photographs in front of a

4:24

Hebrew speaker though and they'll probably

4:27

arrange them in the opposite direction

4:29

from right to left just like

4:31

the Hebrew language. People who speak

4:33

Mandarin which is read vertically from

4:35

top to bottom often envision time

4:37

as a vertical line where the

4:39

past is up and the future

4:41

is down. Pretty wild, right? And

4:44

to spin your head even more,

4:46

consider that in English we kind

4:48

of conceive of time in two

4:50

directions. Left to right for sure,

4:52

but also back to front. The

4:54

future is ahead of us, the

4:56

past is behind us, and this

4:58

is visible in our language too.

5:01

We're running behind if we're late,

5:03

and we're looking forward to something

5:05

in the future. Heck, in Swedish,

5:07

the word for future, Framtid, literally

5:09

translates as front time. But get

5:11

ready for a real-time warp, because,

5:13

surprise, surprise, not all cultures see

5:15

it that way. Speakers of Imara,

5:18

an Andean language, use a word

5:20

for the future that means behind

5:22

time. After all, we can't see

5:24

the future, so it must be

5:26

at our backs, while we can

5:28

see the past, as if it

5:30

were right in front of us.

5:32

And honestly, that makes a lot

5:35

of sense. Now, as someone who

5:37

studies folklore and oral tradition, I

5:39

have to wonder, what about cultures

5:41

without a written language? How do

5:43

spoken cultures order time if they

5:45

can't link it with a direction

5:47

in which they read? Well, ask

5:49

the speakers of Cook Tire, an

5:52

aboriginal Australian language. When handed those

5:54

same three photographs, they won't orient

5:56

them from left to right, right

5:58

to left, or even up and

6:00

down. No, they'll arrange those cards

6:02

differently, depending on what which cardinal

6:04

direction they are currently facing, moving

6:06

from east to west. It's best

6:09

understood by this quote from Lyra

6:11

Boroditski, author of a seriously fascinating

6:13

paper called How Language Shapes Thought.

6:15

Here's what it says. When they

6:17

were seated facing south, the cards

6:19

went left to right. When they

6:21

faced north, the cards went right

6:23

to left. When they faced east,

6:26

the cards came toward the body,

6:28

and so on. We never told

6:30

anyone which direction they were facing.

6:32

The Cook Tire knew that already.

6:34

Meanwhile, speakers of Yupno, an indigenous

6:36

language from Papua New Guinea, conceive

6:38

of time in topographical terms, uphill

6:40

and downhill, representing the valley in

6:43

which the Yupno people live. Oh,

6:45

and don't forget, this is all

6:47

just how we perceive and experience

6:49

time. which doesn't necessarily have anything

6:51

to do with how time actually

6:53

works. In fact, physicists aren't so

6:55

sure that distinct categories of past,

6:57

present, and future even exist at

7:00

all. And hey, if you aren't

7:02

ready to take my word for

7:04

it, how about Albert Einstein? He

7:06

said, and I quote, the past,

7:08

present, and future are only illusions,

7:10

even if stubborn ones. So, time

7:12

isn't linear. Well, then what the

7:14

heck does it look like? Well,

7:17

many physicists believe in a concept

7:19

called block time, in which time

7:21

functions like a landscape, where all

7:23

past, present, and future events are

7:25

hanging out together. It's a weird

7:27

concept to try to wrap your

7:29

brain around, so if it's not

7:31

making sense to you, don't feel

7:34

bad. I was in the same

7:36

boat until I heard this particular

7:38

analogy. Imagine an old movie shot

7:40

on film. The whole story is

7:42

there. Developed on that strip of

7:44

film, all existing at once coiled

7:46

up on the real coiled up

7:48

on the real. But the projector

7:51

can only see one frame at

7:53

a time, moving along in a

7:55

straight line. According to some theorists,

7:57

time works a little like that.

7:59

It's all happening at once. It's

8:01

all developed, but we can only

8:03

see one frame at a time.

8:05

Now, I know what you're thinking.

8:08

If time... is a film strip

8:10

shouldn't it be possible to rewind

8:12

and fast forward? Well, if a

8:14

handful of former Vatican priests are

8:16

to be believed, all you need

8:18

is the right VCR, which not

8:20

only exists, but happens to be

8:22

sitting snug in the Vatican Archives.

8:25

It's called The Chronovizer, and it

8:27

was supposedly created by a Benedictine

8:29

monk named Father Pellegrino or Nettie.

8:31

Allegedly, he worked with a scientific

8:33

team that included the architect of

8:35

the Adam bomb and Rico Ferme

8:37

and former Nazi scientist Werner von

8:39

Braun. Although there's not even the

8:42

slightest bit of evidence to support

8:44

this, we'll just have to take

8:46

the priest's word for it. Using

8:48

antennae, metal, and cathode rays, the

8:50

chronoviser was designed to pick up

8:52

echoes from the past, the way

8:54

that a TV can pick up

8:56

channels and display them on a

8:59

screen. And according to these Vatican

9:01

priests, the thing worked. Erneti claimed

9:03

to have watched Cicero speaking to

9:05

the Roman Senate. He saw the

9:07

destruction of Sodom and Gamora, but

9:09

Erneti's boldest chronovisor claim that he

9:11

had watched the crucifixion of Christ,

9:13

which he even snapped a photo

9:16

of, and then published in an

9:18

Italian magazine in 1972. Granted, the

9:20

photo looked suspiciously identical to a

9:22

cheap Jesus statue hanging in an

9:24

umbrian church, but, you know, who

9:26

am I to judge. Years later,

9:28

in 1994, as Rennetti lay on

9:30

his deathbed, his conscience seemed to

9:33

get the best of him, and

9:35

he admitted that it was all

9:37

a hoax. Well, sort of. You

9:39

see, in some accounts he conceded

9:41

that there was never a chronoviser,

9:43

and that he had made the

9:45

whole thing up to draw more

9:47

people to the Catholic Church. But

9:50

other accounts claimed that he only

9:52

admitted to faking the photo, as

9:54

well as a transcription of an

9:56

ancient speech, but swore that the

9:58

chronoviser itself was real. and they

10:00

claim any confessions Erneti may have

10:02

made were only done under pressure

10:04

from the church. Why would they

10:07

want to keep it hidden? Well,

10:09

you'll have to ask Pope Pius

10:11

the 12th. After all, he's the

10:13

one who supposedly hid the chronovisor

10:15

deep within the Vatican Archives, desperate

10:17

to keep such a powerful weapon

10:19

from falling into the wrong hands.

10:21

The concept is seductive, the ability

10:24

to travel through time. Countless sci-fi

10:26

stories have explored the idea, but

10:28

that's unfortunately all they are. stories.

10:30

Not to be a kill joy

10:32

here, but physicists tend to agree

10:34

that time travel isn't actually possible.

10:36

There are a bunch of reasons

10:38

why. A big one being that

10:41

the amount of energy needed to

10:43

build a time machine would be

10:45

more energy than there exists in

10:47

the entire universe. Bummer. And yet,

10:49

that leaves us with a pretty

10:51

big mystery. How do we explain

10:53

something that numerous regular everyday people

10:56

have claimed to experience? The concept

10:58

of a time slip. Now, we

11:00

aren't talking about Marty McFly and

11:02

the Delorian here. Time slips aren't

11:04

facilitated by a machine. In fact,

11:06

they aren't actually on purpose. Instead,

11:08

this is the kind of time

11:10

traveling that happens randomly and without

11:13

warning. Totally bewildering an unwitting victim.

11:15

Take the experience of a middle-age

11:17

woman named Miss E.F. Smith from

11:19

rural Scotland. On January 2nd of

11:21

1950, Miss Smith was walking home

11:23

from a friend's cocktail party. Her

11:25

little dog in tow. She hadn't

11:27

intended to walk, mind you. After

11:30

all, she lived 10 miles away

11:32

in the town of Latham, and

11:34

it was late at night. But

11:36

when icy rain caused her car

11:38

to slide into a ditch, she

11:40

was forced to abandon it and

11:42

start trudging along on foot. Shivering

11:44

against the cold, Miss Smith marched

11:47

down country roads. She passed acres

11:49

of farmland and silent hills. And

11:51

finally, almost eight miles later, at

11:53

2 o'clock in the morning, she

11:55

reached the outskirts of Latham. And

11:57

there... She saw them. It was

11:59

a group of people and they

12:01

were carrying flaming red. torches. They

12:04

wore strange garments, tunics with tight

12:06

pants underneath, and antiquated rolled headgear.

12:08

But the most jarring part would

12:10

have to be the bodies. The

12:12

ground was strewn with corpses. Corpses

12:14

that the torch-bearing people were sorting

12:16

through, one by one. They were obviously

12:19

looking for their own dead, Miss Smith

12:21

would later report. The one I was

12:23

watching would bend down and turn a

12:25

body over and if he didn't like

12:28

the look of it he just turned

12:30

it back on its face and went

12:32

on to the next one. Smith's little

12:35

dog began to growl but just

12:37

as she arrived at the town

12:39

the figures disappeared and that

12:41

was that they were simply gone.

12:43

So who exactly were those

12:45

people and more importantly who

12:47

were the dead? Well, both Smith

12:49

herself and investigators from the Society

12:51

for Psychical Research came to the

12:53

same conclusion. Miss E.F. Smith must

12:56

have witnessed the aftermath of an

12:58

event known as the Battle of

13:00

Necton Smir, a battle, I might

13:02

add, that took place in the

13:04

year 685. That's right. It seems that

13:06

Miss Smith had slipped nearly 1,300

13:08

years back in time. The garments

13:10

she'd seen, along with the red-handled

13:12

torches torches, roughly matched how ancient

13:14

Pictish warriors, would have looked during

13:17

Necton Smir. The battle was an

13:19

absolute slaughter, which would explain the

13:21

bodies. Plus, many have long believed

13:24

it had indeed taken place on

13:26

the outskirts of Latham. In short,

13:28

all signs pointed to time travel.

13:31

At least it did. Until 2006,

13:33

when new research revealed that the

13:35

battle had likely taken place in

13:38

an entirely different location, which leaves

13:40

a chilling question. If it wasn't

13:42

the battle of Necton Smir that

13:45

Miss Smith had witnessed, what on

13:47

earth was it? Yes, it's true that she

13:49

was alone and exhausted, and she would

13:51

have seen this all through dark rain,

13:53

and she was probably a little drunk

13:55

too. Maybe Miss Smith had only thought

13:58

that she had spotted those figures. But

14:00

it's a lot harder to dismiss

14:02

what happened just seven years later

14:04

to three 15-year-old Royal Navy cadets

14:06

in Suffolk, England. One Sunday morning

14:09

in October of 1957, William Lang,

14:11

Michael Crowley, and Ray Barker were

14:13

sent out on a map reading

14:15

exercise. They were tasked with navigating

14:17

across four or five miles of

14:20

countryside to reach a small town

14:22

called Curzy, a picturesque Little Village,

14:24

regularly drawing a bustle of tourists

14:26

to its quaint postcard perfect streets.

14:28

As they approached, the cadets could

14:31

hear the church bells ringing and

14:33

glimpse the steeple through the trees.

14:35

And yet when they finally entered

14:37

the town, something was off. The

14:39

village was utterly deserted. No tourists,

14:41

no residents in the streets, no

14:44

open businesses. The only store they

14:46

found was a filthy, cobweb-ridden butcher

14:48

shop in which rotting carcasses of

14:50

oxen had been hung, now green

14:52

with age, as if abandoned weeks

14:55

before. As if abandoned weeks before.

14:57

Not only that, but there was

14:59

no sound anywhere in the town,

15:01

no birds or engines, and most

15:03

notably, no church bells. In fact,

15:06

the church they had seen from

15:08

afar was no longer there. But

15:10

the strangest part of all, there

15:12

was not a single sign of

15:14

modernity. No cars, no telephone wires,

15:17

no TV aerials. The architecture of

15:19

the houses looked almost medieval, and

15:21

when the boys peered through windows,

15:23

they found the rooms barren and

15:25

empty, devoid people. and furniture. And

15:28

while it had been autumn when

15:30

the cadets set out that morning,

15:32

the leaves on the trees in

15:34

town were a bright spring green.

15:36

The boys, as you can expect,

15:38

were freaked out. One later recalled

15:41

and I quote, the place felt

15:43

quite evil and hostile to us.

15:45

Oh, and as if it weren't

15:47

already creepy enough, the young cadets

15:49

were also struck with the terrifying

15:52

certain sensation that they were being

15:54

watched. After about half an hour

15:56

of exploring, these three cadets fled,

15:58

returning to base to report their

16:00

exposure. to their superiors, who of

16:03

course dismissed them and laughed it

16:05

off. But paranormal investigators have a

16:07

different opinion. It's believed that the

16:09

three teenagers had slipped back in

16:11

time to the mid-15th century. And

16:14

there's compelling evidence for it too.

16:16

For one, the large church tower

16:18

in town would not be completed

16:20

until the late 1400s. And the

16:22

butcher shop they saw? That same

16:25

spot in modern Curzy, while currently

16:27

a private residence, had been a

16:29

butcher shop in the past. Then

16:31

there was the lack of furniture,

16:33

which would have been common in

16:35

the 15th century as the average

16:38

country cottage dweller couldn't afford much

16:40

with residents keeping their belongings in

16:42

baskets or boxes instead. But of

16:44

course there's one final detail in

16:46

need of explanation. Who was it

16:49

that the boys felt watching them?

16:51

Well, according to some theories, the

16:53

answer is simple. The eerie watchers

16:55

were none other. Then the people

16:57

of bustling modern day Curzy. Factor

17:00

fiction... One thing is clear. Time

17:02

slips into the past are a

17:04

perplexing situation, and honestly it's difficult

17:06

to know exactly what to make

17:08

of it all. But history tells

17:11

us that there's something even more

17:13

terrifying than tumbling into the past,

17:15

the glimpse of a future, that

17:17

you're powerless to change. Leslie

17:35

had decided that a quiet Saturday

17:37

morning was in order. As a

17:39

housewife in 1974, she would have

17:41

been on her feet much of

17:43

the week, cleaning and cooking and

17:45

keeping up the home. But finally,

17:47

it was time to relax. And

17:50

so that morning, she settled in

17:52

to watch a movie being shown

17:54

on TV. Just as she got

17:56

comfortable, though, the screen went blank

17:58

and the broadcast was interrupted by

18:00

an emergency bulletin. It was horrible

18:02

news too. The anchor reported that

18:04

a massive explosion had just taken

18:06

place at the Nipro Chemical Plant

18:09

in Flixboro, England, just 25 miles

18:11

away from the town of Grimsby,

18:13

where Leslie lived. According to the

18:15

news flash, a pipe at the

18:17

plant had failed, causing a chemical

18:19

leak and igniting a massive cloud

18:21

of vapor. The explosion was like

18:23

a bomb going off. It shattered

18:25

the plant's windows and cracked the

18:28

foundations of nearby buildings. Out of

18:30

the 72 employees on shift at

18:32

the chemical plant that day, 28

18:34

had been killed, with another 36

18:36

badly injured. Off-site, 53 more people

18:38

had been wounded due to their

18:40

proximity to the building, and Leslie

18:42

watched in horror as the dead

18:44

were numbered and the culpable chemicals

18:47

named. And then, the news flash

18:49

ended and her movie resumed as

18:51

normal. Later that day, Two friends

18:53

joined Leslie for lunch, and as

18:55

they chatted and caught up, she

18:57

realized that neither of her guests

18:59

had heard about the explosion yet.

19:01

She told them the tragic story,

19:03

just as the news flash had

19:05

reported it. Come nightfall, Leslie and

19:08

her husband sat down to watch

19:10

the evening news. Naturally, the anchors

19:12

discussed the Flicksboro disaster, but there

19:14

was something odd about the reports.

19:16

You see, the evening news gave

19:18

the time of the disaster, as

19:20

just before 5 p. Leslie was

19:22

confused. After all, hadn't she seen

19:24

the bulletin that morning? Her husband

19:27

teased her about getting the time

19:29

wrong, while Leslie assumed that it

19:31

had been the evening news anchors

19:33

who were mistaken. But either way,

19:35

the couple went to bed and

19:37

nearly forgot about the whole discrepancy.

19:39

And they might have, if not

19:41

for the next morning's papers. There,

19:43

the reporters also asserted that the

19:46

explosion had taken place at 4.53

19:48

in the afternoon. Frankly, Leslie called

19:50

her friends who had been over

19:52

for lunch long before 4.53 p.m.

19:54

Had they remembered her telling them

19:56

about the explosion? or was she

19:58

losing her mind? Much to her

20:00

relief both friends affirmed that yes,

20:02

Leslie had absolutely told them about

20:04

the disaster at lunchtime, numbers, and

20:07

details included. In fact, they were

20:09

so adamant about this that both

20:11

would later sign official statements insisting

20:13

as much. Leslie was not going

20:15

mad, but what she had experienced

20:17

was much, much worse. She had

20:19

known about a horrifying event hours

20:21

before it had taken place. When

20:23

I realized what had happened, she

20:26

later told the Grimsby Evening Telegraph,

20:28

I felt cold and started shaking.

20:30

I kept thinking, if only I'd

20:32

known, I could have warned the

20:34

factory that something was going to

20:36

happen, I might have been able

20:38

to save the 28 people who

20:40

lost their lives. The story of

20:42

Leslie Brennan, or Leslie Castleton in

20:45

some reports, is certainly a strange

20:47

one. Was it a time slip,

20:49

second sight, or something else? I

20:51

imagine conspiracy theorists might interpret the

20:53

story as sinister evidence that the

20:55

explosion was planned and that the

20:57

broadcast was pre-recorded. But if that's

20:59

the case, why would Leslie have

21:01

been the only one to see

21:04

it? Some researchers believe that Leslie

21:06

experienced a premonition, one that manifested

21:08

itself in the form of a

21:10

news announcement to make it easier

21:12

for her to accept and comprehend.

21:14

You know, Cosmic Powers dumbing down

21:16

a message into a format that

21:18

a 70s housewife might understand, TV,

21:20

which feels a little patronizing, if

21:22

you ask me. Others claim that

21:25

the Flicksboro case is evidence of

21:27

something called time television. And yes,

21:29

it's exactly what it sounds like.

21:31

It's the idea that electromagnetic pictures

21:33

from the future may have the

21:35

ability to manifest on certain television

21:37

sets in the present. Honestly, it

21:39

sounds a bit like the chronovizer.

21:41

which might be good news for

21:44

all you time travel nerds hoping

21:46

to stumble into a time slip

21:48

of your own. After all, it

21:50

means you won't have to break

21:52

into the Vatican for a glimpse

21:54

at the past or the future.

21:56

Just kick back, relax, and turn

21:58

on those Saturday morning cartoons. Time

22:00

is a strange creature. Time is

22:03

a strange creature. Some moments seem

22:05

to slip through our fingers before

22:07

we're ready to let go, like

22:09

our wedding day or a particularly

22:11

joyful vacation. Other moments, though, seem

22:13

to drag their feet. teasing out

22:15

our most awkward or miserable experiences.

22:17

And if the stories we've heard

22:19

today are true, sometimes time can

22:21

stop altogether. It's called the Stone

22:24

Tape Theory, which claims that certain

22:26

events, especially intense or traumatic ones,

22:28

can leave such a strong impression

22:30

on the environment that they are

22:32

essentially recorded into the place where

22:34

they happened. Events like, say, the

22:36

Battle of Anactinsmere, or the Flicksboro

22:38

Explosion. This theory is used to

22:40

explain certain hauntings too. Ghosts who

22:43

appeared in places where awful violence

22:45

has occurred. And in that vein,

22:47

timeslips can also fall under the

22:49

stone tape umbrella. It's called that

22:51

by the way because, according to

22:53

the theory, rocks are especially good

22:55

at recording past events. The past,

22:57

literally written in stone. Now, you

22:59

might be wondering why, if this

23:02

is a thing, we aren't all

23:04

stumbling through creepy hologram apparitions of

23:06

the past every time we visit

23:08

places like, say, Gettysburg or Wounded

23:10

Knee. Well, according to the Randalls

23:12

and Huff Encyclopedia of the Unexpected,

23:14

for most of the time, nothing

23:16

is there. Then, certain conditions, such

23:18

as electromagnetic energies in the atmosphere

23:20

or the arrival of someone with

23:23

developed psychic powers, could act as

23:25

the trigger... which sets the recording

23:27

off. And they might be onto

23:29

something there, especially that last bit

23:31

about certain people having a knack

23:33

for picking up these recordings. You

23:35

see, the Flicksboro Explosion wasn't the

23:37

last premonition Leslie from Grimsby would

23:39

experience. In fact, it wasn't even

23:42

the last explosion she would predict.

23:44

One morning in June of 1980,

23:46

she was walking to a friend's

23:48

house when she suddenly had an

23:50

invasive thought about how awful it

23:52

would be if there was a

23:54

gas explosion. She was shaken, but

23:56

she didn't mention it to her

23:58

friend. Several hours later, though, a

24:01

house on that very street was

24:03

destroyed by... You guessed it. A

24:05

gas explosion. Now that's what I

24:07

would call. A blast? A blast.

24:09

A blast? from the past. Time

24:11

is tricky in more ways than

24:13

one. Time is tricky in more

24:15

ways than one. I hope today's

24:17

tour through these bits of folklore

24:20

and real-world events has left you

24:22

thinking about time in a very

24:24

different way. Be it factory disasters

24:26

or ancient battles, some moments in

24:28

time, simply feel more cursed than

24:30

others. But if the legends are

24:32

to be believed, it isn't just

24:34

dark events that come with a

24:36

curse. Sometimes the evil hides in

24:38

the very hour of the day,

24:41

and we've put together one last

24:43

story to show you what I

24:45

mean. Stick around through this brief

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canceled canceled. Many

30:08

people refer to 3 a.m. as

30:10

the Devil's Hour, or the witching

30:12

hour. But have you ever wondered

30:14

why the seemingly random spot on

30:16

the clock earned such a sinister

30:18

reputation? Well, some claim that the

30:20

answer lies in the Bible. According

30:22

to the Gospels of Matthew, Mark,

30:24

and Luke, Jesus died during, quote,

30:27

the ninth hour, which, in modern

30:29

timekeeping terms, is 3 p. According

30:31

to legend, because of this, Satan

30:33

decided to seize the opposite hour

30:35

for himself, that is 3 a.m.

30:37

And because of that, there is

30:39

a veritable bounty of superstitions surrounding

30:41

the so-called devil's hour. It's said

30:43

to be when the devil is

30:45

most powerful, as well as at

30:48

time when witches rule the night.

30:50

Some believe that if you wake

30:52

up suddenly at 3 a.m. It

30:54

means the devil has paid you

30:56

a visit. And honestly, there might

30:58

be something to that. In terms

31:00

of sleep science, most people are

31:02

in their deepest part of their

31:04

rem cycle at 3am. And being

31:06

woken up by a noise at

31:08

that point can be especially jarring

31:11

and disorienting, leading to the terrifying

31:13

phenomenon known as sleep paralysis. It

31:15

makes sense that such an experience

31:17

might lead people to believe that

31:19

they were being beset upon by

31:21

the devil. In 2017, a YouTube

31:23

trend called the 3am challenge encouraged

31:25

people to perform specific actions at

31:27

that hour, claiming that they would

31:29

encounter paranormal activity if they did.

31:31

The actions themselves were simple, things

31:34

like playing with a fidget spinner

31:36

or talking to their phone's virtual

31:38

assistant, interactions that the devil's hour

31:40

would allegedly transform into something haunted

31:42

and sinister. Some people point to

31:44

the Amityville horror murders taking place

31:46

at 3 a.m. as proof of

31:48

its evil nature. Movies like the

31:50

conjuring and the exorcism of Emily

31:52

Rose also rely on this trope

31:55

as an extra boost of horror.

31:57

But if witches, the devil... Sleep

31:59

paralysis and terrible murders aren't enough

32:01

for you. If you live in

32:03

certain parts of New Mexico, the

32:05

Devil's Hour comes with yet another

32:07

threat to worry about. Her name

32:09

is La Mala Ora, which means

32:11

the bad hour. She usually takes

32:13

the form of an elderly woman

32:15

with a demonic face and appears

32:18

to humans at, you guessed it,

32:20

3 a.m. She said to wander

32:22

lonely areas of the countryside and

32:24

manifest at crossroads attacking late night

32:26

travelers. And trust me, you don't

32:28

want to catch a glimpse of

32:30

this lady, because if you do,

32:32

it means one of your loved

32:34

ones will soon die. The most

32:36

common story told about La Mala-ora

32:38

concerns a woman who goes to

32:41

visit her friend late at night

32:43

while her husband is away on

32:45

a business trip. She drives down

32:47

the black starless highway and eventually

32:49

reaches a crossroads. There to the

32:51

woman's terror, a figure appears right

32:53

in the center of the road.

32:55

A figure that looks a lot

32:57

like an old woman. The driver

32:59

slams on her brakes and the

33:02

crown vanishes, only to reappear next

33:04

to the car window, complete with

33:06

demonic red eyes and razor-sharp teeth.

33:08

With her heartbeat thudding, the driver

33:10

speeds away, but the figure keeps

33:12

up with her, scratching her clawed

33:14

hands against the glass of the

33:16

window. Eventually the woman begins to

33:18

outpace the demon, but in her

33:20

rear-view mirror she sees it growing

33:22

larger and larger, until the creature

33:25

is the size of a tree.

33:27

At last the figure disappears in

33:29

the distance and the woman arrives

33:31

at her friend's house terrified and

33:33

panting. She tells her friend what

33:35

she had seen, but rather than

33:37

ease her nerves, her fear only

33:39

grows when her friend relays the

33:41

legend of La Mala-ora and what

33:43

such an encounter means. The next

33:45

day, the still-shaken woman and her

33:48

friend drive back to the woman's

33:50

house and are greeted by the

33:52

police who deliver tragic news. Her

33:54

husband, they say, was shot and

33:56

killed on his business trip. at

33:58

the exact same hour the woman

34:00

had seen La Mala Ora. La

34:02

Mala Ora doesn't always appear in

34:04

human shape though. Sometimes she arrives

34:06

in the form of a large

34:09

sheep's fleece, which you would think

34:11

would be the preferable option, if

34:13

not for one small detail. It's

34:15

said that whoever sees this particular

34:17

version of La Mala-ora will permanently

34:19

go insane. But perhaps no one

34:21

describes the malevolent power of the

34:23

dreadful devil's hour, better than the

34:25

master of the marvelous and macabre

34:27

himself, author Ray Bradbury. In his

34:29

classic novels, Something Wicked This Way

34:32

comes, Bradbury has the following to

34:34

say. Oh God, he writes, midnight's

34:36

not bad. You wake and go

34:38

back to sleep. One or two's

34:40

not bad. You toss, but sleep

34:42

again. Five or six in the

34:44

morning, there's hope. For dawns, just

34:46

under the horizon. But three now.

34:48

Christ. Three a.m. Doctors say the

34:50

body's at low tide then. The

34:52

soul is out. The blood moves

34:55

slow. You're the nearest to dead

34:57

you'll ever be save dying. Sleep

34:59

is a patch of death, but

35:01

three in the morn, full wide-eyed

35:03

staring is living death. This

35:19

episode of Laura was produced by me,

35:21

Aaron Mankey, and was written by Genero's

35:23

Nethercott with research by Cassandra DeAlba and

35:25

music by Chad Lawson. Just like you,

35:28

I'm not a fan of ads, but

35:30

I'm grateful they keep the lights on

35:32

here at Lore HQ. That said, if

35:34

you want to avoid them, I've got

35:37

a solution for you. I make a

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35:52

storytelling and a great way to support

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this show and the team behind it.

35:57

Of course, Lore is much more than

35:59

just a podcast. There's the book series.

36:01

available in bookstores and online, and two

36:03

seasons of the lore television show on

36:06

Amazon Prime. Learn more over at lore

36:08

podcast.com. And you can also follow this

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Just search for lore podcast, all one

36:15

word, and then click that follow button.

36:17

And when you do, say hi. I

36:19

like it when people say hi. And

36:21

as always, thanks for listening. Hi,

36:58

I'm I'm Chris Gatherd and I'm very excited to

37:00

tell you about Beautiful to tell a podcast where

37:02

I talk to random people on the phone. I

37:04

tweet out a phone number, thousands of people

37:06

try to call, I we talk to one of

37:08

them, they stay anonymous, I can't hang up, that's

37:10

all the rules, to I never know what's going

37:12

to happen. We get serious ones, up, I've talked

37:14

with meth dealers on their way to prison,

37:16

I've talked to people who happen. shootings, know what's going to

37:18

ones, I talked to a guy with a goose

37:21

rules. We somebody who dresses up as a pirate

37:23

on the to a I never know what's going to

37:25

happen, to it's a great show, to today, survived Anonymous.

37:26

anonymous.