In Research Of

Listener Justin Mullis hipped us to some groovy 1970s additional context behind the Season 1 episode In Search Of: Dracula. Much of it is based on an unmentioned book, In Search of Dracula by Raymond McNally and Radu Florescu. We also correct a mistake about the source of the idea that the fictional vampire Dracula might have been Vlad Dracula (aka Vlad Tepes). Mentioned in this addendum: Emily Gerard's 1885 article Transylvanian Superstitions and 1888 book The Land Beyond the Forest: Facts, Figures, and Fancies from Transylvania. According to researcher Jim Steinmeyer, Stoker never read about Vlad from Gerard.. Stoker got his Vlad references (and mistaken ideas about the meaning of "dracula") from William Wilkinson's 1820 book An Account of the Principalities of Wallachia and Moldavia: With Various Political Observations Relating to Them. Scholar Hans Corneel de Roos thinks Stoker is offering contradictory background info on Dracula to give him historical context but not tie him historically to any particular person. McNally and Florescu's theory was challenged by Elizabeth Miller which led to a consensus that Dracula is not Vlad Dracula. But the idea is embedded in popular culture now. 1975 documentary (with Christopher Lee) based on In Search of Dracula by Florescu and McNally. Dan Curtis & Richard Matheson teamed up to make a version of Dracula with Jack Palance. The Jack Palance version of Dracula inspired the look of Marvel Comics' Morbius.

Watch this ISO episode on YouTube Was Dracula, the Bram Stoker novel, based on a real person in the form of Vlad Dracula? Jeb and Blake discuss. Discussed in this episode: Update 1/28/2020: Listener Justin Mullis spotted an error which has led to a correction in this audio and will lead to some additional material in another IRO content drop shortly. -B Bram Stoker's Dracula the novel John William Polidori's The Vampyre Varney the Vampire, a penny dreadful Carmilla by Joseph Le Fanu Dan Simmons Children of the Night vampire book Todd Browning's Dracula & Freaks Copola's movie Bram Stoker's Dracula Hammer's The Horror of Dracula (1958) Hellsing, vampire anime Shadow of the Vampire (2000) fictionalized story of the making of Nosferatu (sort of) Remastered Nosferatu (English, Scored, and free via YouTube) Dracula (in the novel) goes to The Scholomance to become a vampire. What's a Lich? Why did Hammer set most of its Dracula movies in Germany? It seems likely to be budget related, perhaps having sets ready? You'd have to ask script writer Jimmy Sangster to be sure, but I did uncover this passage in a book titled "Dracula Goes to the Movies," by Lyndon Joslin: "Due to the budget constraints of this version, Dracula doesn't take a sea voyage to London, not even via footage pirated from another film. Instead, he takes a hearse to the town of Karlstadt, wherever that may be. There is a Karlstadt in Germany, but in order to get there from Klausenburg in central Transylvania, Dracula would have to travel across modern-day Hungary and Austria. The movie depicts the trip as a mere overnighter, so Karlstadt is evidently a fictional town somewhere in Transylvania. There's a border crossing guard in the story, so Karlstadt must be in a neighboring 'state,' province or district. (The border crossing, we're told, is in 'Ingstadt,' itself apparently a fictional town and therefore not much help here.) Karlstadt here compares with the 'Carlsbruck' seen in the same year (1958) in Hammer's The Revenge of Frankenstein, and with the Karlstaad seen in 1964's The Evil of Frankenstein. The creation of a generic German archetypal town is what goes on here, comparable to Universal's having set part of its Frankenstein series in the never-land town of Visaria. It's ironic that in this, the first British adaptation of Dracula, the Count doesn't go to London, or even to England. In Hammer's series, he doesn't turn up in England until Taste the Blood of Dracula in 1970. Still, Horror of Dracula is so very British that articles have been written about it by reviewers who didn't notice that it isn't London Dracula invades. Seems the undertaker's address in the movie - on 'Friederickstrasse' - would've provided a clue." (Joslin, 2017) Castle Ambras - home of weird paintings and "cabinet of curiosities" Lot's Wife geological formations Stoker was going to create his character, and then ran into a history discussing Dracula, and used that as the backstory. Also added the vampire bat aspects. Much of this may come from Emily Gerard's The Land Beyond the Forest. He basically lifts a number of ideas and text from her. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emily_Gerard She was a travel writer and novelist. Radu Florescu (obituary) co-author In Search of Dracula Vampire lore around the world varies in what the vampires do, and how they are created. The Order of the Dragon Ceahlău Massif The story of Budu http://www.ceah laupark.ro/en/legends/ The show calls it a megalith, but it is actually two rock outcrops, one for Budu, one for Ana Bran Castle The Hardy Boys (and Nancy Drew) meet Dracula (part 1 and part 2) takes place in "Dracula's Castle" which I'm pretty sure features exterior shots of Bran Castle. This episode features Lorne Greene (Battlestar Galactica and Bonanza) and also singer/songwriter/actor Paul Williams (The Phantom of the Paradise, Rainbow Connection) The story about what was found in the church seems to be completely wrong. From Wiki on Vlad Dracula: "According to popular tradition (which was first recorded in the late 19th century), Vlad was buried in the Monastery of Snagov. However, the excavations carried out by Dinu V. Rosetti in 1933 found no tomb below the supposed "unmarked tombstone" of Vlad in the monastery church. Rosetti reported: "Under the tombstone attributed to Vlad there was no tomb. Only many bones and jaws of horses." I think I solved this one. (-B): In October 1974, the AP released a news story about Dracula's grave and the island. The story tells that Rosetti investigated then immediately follows with the legends around the remains of Vlad. I'm betting this is the source because it closely matches the episode narrative and would have been easy to find or perhaps remember when this episode was made. "The grave, said to be Dracula's, was discovered by Romania's eminent archaeologist Dinu Rosetti in 1931 after he followed up a folklore story known only to neighboring villagers across the lake." (see attached PDF for full

Watch this ISO episode on YouTube Jeb and Blake fail to find Amelia Earhart. So they've got that in common with the folks profiled in this week's episode. Discussed in this Episode: Amelia Earhart, pioneering woman pilot Husband and publisher George Putnam Navigator Fred Noonan AutoGyros/GyroCopters and how they are different from helicopters. Propaganda film Flight for Freedom (DVD) which fictionalizes the story of Earhart as spy. The Lockheed Electra Model 10 The Searchers: Joseph Gervais, the obsessive guy who believed an innocent New Jersey housewife was secretly Amelia. I'm not linking to his stupid book or to the woman he stalked and harassed, though she did pass in 1982. Even when she died, he tried to get to see the body. No. No, no, no, no. Elgen Long - aviator and author of Amelia Earhart: The Mystery Solved Fred Goerner, author of The Search for Amelia Earhart Nimoy Fashion!

Watch this ISO episode on YouTube Blake, Jeb, and guest Ken Hite talk about the search for Nazi Plunder - lost treasure and art following WWII. Thanks to Ken Hite for joining us on this episode. You can find a huge archive of Ken's excellent podcast (with Robin Laws) titled Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff. Highly recommended! Ken's also a prolific author and game designer and if you like this episode and weird war history, you might especially enjoy his Osprey (fiction) book on Nazi Occultism. Also, if you enjoy vampires and Jason Bourne-style spy action, you should check out Night's Black Agents. Discussed in this Episode: About this rocket Jeb was asking about: It appears to say ПО РEЙXCTAГУ "Po Ree-stah-gu" Also, it appears to be a BM-XY launch system (not sure what values go in X or Y). Apparently, like the Brits called the V weapons "buzz bombs" because of their peculiar sounds, the Germans called this Russian rig "Stalin's Organ" because of its sounds. Per Ken, it translates into either "On to the Reichstag!" or possibly "to the Reichstag" like a package address." Walter Horn - a "monuments man" Martin Bohrman - a Nazi. Hitler's secretary and confidant. Jeb, haunted by WORLD AT WAR series intro. Austria's Lake Toplitz (pronounced To-Plitz-Say) was a treasure dump - found in 1957 In Florence - Rudolpho Siviero continues the hunt... Rodolfo Siviero ( 1911 - 1983 ) Nimoy Fashion Alert Austrian fire-men (and treasure hunters) search a lake.

Wherein Jeb and Blake discuss the 13th episode of In Search Of... and fail to learn any ESP. Watch this ISO episode on YouTube. Notes: Edgar Mitchell (Wikipedia) Mitchell's Institute of Noetic Science Phenomena by Annie Jacobson (history of Gov't research into Psi) Zener Cards Nimoy Fashion Alert: One possible explanation of JJ's "psychic" powers is that he may have seen the images from the lens reflection. Joseph (JB) Rhine mentioned as creator of the experimenter. I know this is just a TV demo but a big problem w/ these tests is controlling for stuff like that might give away the card selection. Duke article on Rhine, including how he got involved in the Exorcist case and missing persons. SPR article on Rhine. Discussion of Rhine's motivations as being religious in style, but scientific in content. David Ossman (Firesign Theater) on Spoonbending from Lawrence Kennedy, an excerpt from Dr. Firesign's Follies. Robert Monroe of the "Monroe Institute" - home of the waterbed farm lab. The American Society for Psychical Research. UC Davis' Dr. Charles Tart David Zink (from the Tiwanaku finale of the episode) Night Gallery Commentary: Percy Rodriguez (samples of his voice power) - wikipedia entry An article discussing Rod Serling & Jack Laird on Night Gallery The Sixth Sense TV show that was inserted into Night Gallery feed on syndication Also Mentioned: Jason King - the character (and TV Show) that inspired Austin Power's fashion sense. His show was a spin-off from the series that first featured him, Department S.

Watch this ISO episode on YouTube The In Search Of show profiles the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) and Jeb is not impressed. Blake & Jeb both relate Roswell/Black-Helicopter experiences near the VLA. Unmarked Helicopters (song by Soul Coughing) Green Bank West Virginia (radio free zone) William Proxmire (senator who killed funding of SETI) The novel Contact was written by Carl Sagan, but the novel was based on a screenplay by Sagan and Ann Druyan. Nimoy Fashion - what the heck color is his blazer? No, seriously! What color is this?

Jeb and Blake join Leonard Nimoy and a group of St. Louis clairvoyants as we go in research of psychic detectives. Watch this episode of ISO on YouTube. A quick thanks to Shane Gower for his helpful blog post from 2015 about this episode. 1970s Famous psychic Peter Hurkos is featured during the introduction. Hurkos was vouched for by Andrija Puharich, after being challenged by James Randi. Puharich was a major figure in Ancient Aliens, Remote Viewing, and New Age culture in the US. "Psychic Detective" has changed meaning over the 20th century from detectives who investigated the paranormal into detectives who were themselves paranormal. IMDB and Wikipedia say that Sylvia Browne is in this episode. Jeb and I could find zero evidence to support that assertion. She appeared neither on-screen, nor in the credits. Furthermore, the episode took place in St. Louis and involved local psychic investigators but Browne had left Missouri for California in 1964 according to her obituary: "She eventually began giving readings to others and, 10 years after moving to California in 1964, she formed the Nirvana Foundation for Psychic Research." Irene Hughes makes an appearance, already a media figure when this was shot Phyllis Deggendorf is said to attend George Washington University which is in Washington D.C. - but actually it is Washington University in St. Louis. Articles about the Sally Lucas murder case discussed in the episode: Body of Sally Lucas Found (Sep 1971) Details on Sally Lucas' Murderer's trial (Anthony Damico) Damico found Guilty St. Louis Magazine article on Bevy Jaegers Details on the Criminal Trial of Anthony Damico (no mention of Psychics) Nimoy Fashion Alert: First Sweater Sighting!

Sharon Hill (Scientifical Americans) joins Jeb and Blake to talk about the Atlantis episode of In Search Of... Watch original In Search Of episode on YouTube. This is a kind of a disjointed mess of an ISO episode, so our notes are kind of all over the place as well. But here's a bunch of highlights and additional reading from our own prep notes for the show: We'll be covering Easter Island in a terrific upcoming episode, but it has nothing to do with Atlantis. Olmec heads don't weigh anything like what is claimed. The Tiwankau text about "long before the Pyramids" stuff comes from nazi-sympathizer Arthur Posnansky whose "15,000 years ago" dating has been picked up by many alt-archaeology researchers. Thera/Santorini is a beautiful place that suffered a devastating disaster ( 1642–1540 BCE ). When not being called "Atlantis" it spends a lot of time as photographs in Greek restaurants. Antikythera Mechanism is from within 200 - 50 BCE. Plato wrote the Atlantis story more than 100 - 200 years before the device was even made. It has nothing to do with Atlantis. Dr. Maxine Asher is a controversial choice for "subject matter expert." Her views may not have been known by the ISO producers? Weird ramblings about Catholics, Jews, 12 Noahs, Psychic Powers, and academic fraud are just some of her career highlights. The Piri Reis map appears again. It does not show Antarctica. Nor Atlantis. The Edgar Cayce people make an appearance. Their group is called the Association for Research and Enlightenment (ARE). The Bimini "Wall" or "Road" is discussed. It looks manmade but was created by natural processes. Other geological features that look manmade include The Giant's Causeway. We talk a bit about Peter Tompkins and mentioned: The Secret Life of Plants Secrets of the Bermuda Triangle Oldest reference I found saying that Peter Tompkins might have been the voice in that weird call was from this 2003 post by "Gian." This comports closely to words written on The Quester Files site - by Gian Quasar, whom I presume is the same author. (Note: Blake and Jeb are both highly skeptical that Tompkins is the voice.) The Mochica artifacts (and the troubling assertion that their art represents proof of a post-Atlantis diaspora) are presented. There is no evidence that this is true, and Jeb is suspicious that some of those artifacts shown are forgeries. Nimoy Fashion Alert:

[Note: Sadly, one side of the recording was lost due to massive Skype issues and some portions of this episode had to be reconstructed. This is why there are places where the audio sounds quite different. This appears to be the only episode of the season where this happened, but my apologies for the audio sounding inconsistent. -Blake] Jeb and Blake discuss "Martians" - wherein the In Search Of team examines the possibility that the planet Mars once had (or still contains) life on its harsh surface. The Viking missions as well as many Mars-related pop-culture topics are discussed. Watch the ISO episode on YouTube. A lot of the material in this episode dealt with the Viking program. The surprisingly lengthy introduction to our solar system embedded in the 1953 film War of the Worlds. A Trip to the Moon (1902) - colorized, restored, 720p Space 1889 - The early "Steam Punk" roleplaying game William Graves Hoyt's book Lowell and Mars Missing from this episode (but expected) Italian astronomer: Giovanni Schiaparelli The Difference Engine - by Gibson & Sterling (What if Babbage's Difference Engine had worked?) Fantastic Planet - French Animated Film The Silurian Hypothesis - Jeb mentions as an aside, lots to read there. Face on Mars & Cydonia (1976) Pyramids of Mars Doctor Who (1975) Pareidolia phenomena (Face on Mars is literally part of the article) Tonight Tonight Smashing Pumpkins Panspermia (directed and accidental) (I couldn't help but think about the Errol Otis' view of the Myconoids in D&D when looking at A Trip To The Moon. -B) Dr. Gerald A. Soffen (February 7, 1926 – November 22, 2000) was a Viking project scientist and Mars geologist. Harold P. Klein (April 1, 1921 - July 15, 2001) was a chemist and microbiologist. Leslie Orgel (January 12, 1927 - October 27, 2007) was a chemist interested in life origins.

Jeb and Blake discuss the ISO episode The Mummy's Curse, and the strange and interesting facts behind the legend of "King Tut's Curse." Watch this ISO Episode on YouTube Reference Books: The Mummy's Curse Spooky Archaeology TV Listing Feb 11, 1977: Photo mentioned by Jeb of Evelyn Beauchamp with Carter. (Left to Right) Arthur Mace (Metropolitan Museum) Richard Bethell (Carter's secretary) Arthur Callender Lady Evelyn Leonora Almina Beauchamp née Herbert Howard Carter George Herbert (5th Earl of Carnarvon) Alfred Lucas (chemist for Egyptian government) Harry Burton (photographer) See several of his photos colorized here. Dan Aykroyd used ASPR for Ghost Busters research Carter's "Saqqara Incident" described in The National: "Such was Carter's ascendancy in Egypt, where he soon cut his teeth as an archaeologist under the guidance of Sir William Flinders Petrie, that he was appointed chief inspector of antiquities for Upper Egypt in 1899. Carter was a surprising choice for the role given his limited archaeological experience and lack of formal qualifications, but he resigned six years later after French tourists clashed with Egyptian monument guards at the sacred site of Saqqara. "Loyal to his men and forever obstinate, Carter defended their actions and refused to apologise," Archaeology Magazine said of the incident in a story printed in 2005. Carter had accused the tourists of behaving rowdily and sided with the Egyptian workers. Ultimately, the incident prompted the Englishman to step down and spend time in self-imposed exile." MonsterTalk episode on the curse: The Call of Tuthulhu The "Dramatization" text we discussed (which appears to be added in later during syndication): I think it is safe to deduce from the palm tree that this graveyard is not in England. Nimoy's fashion is a light blue turtleneck and (probably) blue blazer. Most of the curse victims are indeed tied to the curse. (22 deaths "associated" with the curse at time of this show) The suicide was a real thing, Lovecraft commented on a newspaper article about it. However, there is a longitudinal study showing people lived longer if they went into the tomb. Unlucky Mummy - 1889, Bertram Fletcher Robinson, 1904. We briefly discuss the films of Kenneth Anger. (To be clear, these are experimental movies he was making. I'm not recommending his work, but the "play" scenes in this episode definitely reminded me of some of his work.) The actual history of the music for the film Lucifer Rising is quite convoluted but involves Mick Jagger, Jimmy Page, and convicted murderer Bobby Beausoleil, According to Time, Tut's penis is detached but not missing. Steve Martin's song about King Tut.

Jeb Card and Blake Smith are joined by "spooky geologist" Sharon Hill to talk about this classic season one episode of In Search Of... that considers various methods to predict earthquakes, and what we might expect if a large quake hits the San Francisco area. Watch this episode of In Search Of... on YouTube. Nimoy Fashion - once again speaking to us from a Los Angeles rooftop. Around the 9 min mark, we mistakenly say the Bay of Fundy is in Newfoundland. Nope - it's between Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. (Does everything in Canada have to have "new" in its name??) Thanks to Stephanie J. Lahey for this correction! 1964 Alaska Earthquake (Wikipedia) 2011 Earthquake/Tsunami (Disturbing Footage) 1936 Hollywood Movie about San Francisco Earthquake Tallest tsunami ever recorded. VLBI - Very Long Baseline Interferometry Quasars for VLBI type research (NY Times) 1989 Double-Decker Collapse (Wikipedia) Clips from 2015 San Andreas starring The Rock Listener Darren Bennett advises us that the 1982 "Syzygy" disaster referenced in the show as The Jupiter Effect. It was written by John Gribbin, a science writer who has apparently subsequently regretted it. (He's still alive and still writing science books - but tried to distance himself from his own book in a July 1980 issue of New Scientist.)

Jeb Card and Blake Smith discuss the In Search Of episode: KILLER BEES. Will aggressive Africanized honey bees destroy the world? Is every problem a metaphor for colonialism? Tune in and find out! Watch episode on YouTube I've attached some relevant articles from the time, one on bees and one on ISO. Also, I've set the episode to "Explicit" because of all the sexy, sexy bee talk. Radioactive Wasps (Correction: Location was at HANFORD not HANSON site - corrected here, but I'm not cutting out my joke about Hanson. -B) Jeb mentioned Japanese Giant Wasps - those are described here. (They're wasps, only giant - and from Japan. That's good marketing in the name.) Jeb was right to bring this beastie up in conjunction with bees. From the Wikipedia article: In Japan, beekeepers often prefer European honey bees because they are more productive than the endemic Japanese honey bees.[citation needed] However, it can be difficult to maintain a captive hive of European honey bees, as the giant hornets are devastating to the bee hives.[citation needed] Once a Japanese giant hornet has located a hive of European honey bees, it leaves pheromone markers around it that quickly attract nest-mates to converge on the hive. An individual hornet can kill forty European honey bees per minute, while a group of 30 hornets can destroy an entire hive containing 30,000 bees in less than four hours.[4] The hornets kill and dismember the bees, returning to their nest with the bee thoraxes, which they feed to their larvae, leaving heads and limbs behind. The honey and bee larvae are also taken to feed the hornet larvae. Another correction - I think I called them "hornet killers" or something similarly stupid, but I was talking about the very large American "Cicada Killer" wasps. But that's not what Jeb was talking about (see above). The Cicada Killer is big enough to - you guessed it - kill a cicada. They're not as insanely beefy as the Japanese hornets, but they're big beefy units. Frequently on-screen expert Dr. Norman Gary is a Bee Wrangler for Hollywood, working on Candyman, X-Files, etc. Dr. Gary playing clarinet covered in bees.

Lots of discussion as Jeb and Blake tackle a favorite topic of theirs... Bigfoot. Does a mysterious creature, part-ape, and part-man, lurk in the Pacific Northwest? Watch the Episode on YouTube The episode opens with the Ape Canyon re-enactment. If you'd like to read Beck's extended narrative, it is available online. His extended comments include a lot of descriptions of the spiritual aspect of these creatures and sound quite a lot like John Keel's ultraterrestrials. (IMHO -Blake) Other topics for further reading: Ape Canyon Gigantopithecus Bernard Heuvelmans (perhaps first to connect Yeti and Giganto) Carleton Coon (Connected Yeti and Giganto in English) legacy tarnished by terrible racist theories of white supremacy. Also firmly believed in Bigfoot. John Napier Grover Krantz Peter Byrne (Irish birth / Tom Slick / Four Horsemen - Byrne, Green, Dahinden, Krantz) Tom Slick Bossberg "Cripplefoot" Tracks Jacko hoax mentioned Cranial hair and brow-ridges experiment mentioned in the show / Mankind Quarterly, 1973 [Yet another racism warning - Mankind Quarterly is a notorious journal for people making the case for a "scientific" basis for white supremacy. Guess what? Race is a social construct. ] You need to check out this very comprehensive article on Grover Krantz from his Alma Mater, Berkley. You should also definitely check out Brian Regal's book Searching for Sasquatch. He covers the rich and fascinating history of early Bigfoot research including the ties to the CIA, fabulous stories and really interesting characters. More on Sheriff Bill Closner (Facebook Page) Skamania County and its ties to Bigfoot FBI documents released about Bigfoot hair research (related to Peter Byrnes) We mentioned Ray Wallace's famous hoax tracks (aka the Jerry Crew case). Also mentioned Bigfoot: The Life and Times of a Legend /> Tweed and Salmon, in lovely Los Angeles

Episode on YouTube Is there a mysterious force causing the disappearance of ships and airplanes in the area between Miami, Bermuda and the Bahamas? Or just a mixture of innumeracy and a desire for the numinous? Show Notes: Larry Kusche's The Bermuda Triangle Mystery - Solved Who was the voice on the creepy radio broadcast? Bermuda Triangle movie based on Berlitz's book. Not covered in detail, but some additional info on collier ships in the triangle: Proteus (58 lives lost) the eponymous exemplar of the Proteus Class "collier" coal-carrier. disappeared in the BT in 1941. sister of the Cyclops (306 lives lost) and the Nereus (61 lives lost) All three lost in the Bermuda triangle carrying large loads of ore in ships that could only travel 15 Knots and, at least in one case, were known to be overloaded. Reminds me of the Edmund Fitzgerald. If you are in a big ship, overloaded with ore, and hit a big storm the structural stresses are incredible and any kind of flooding would be catastrophic. However, the story of the Cyclops - which is outside the scope of this episode - has a lot of other lore around it with suspicions of mutiny and other factors. Marine Sulfer Queen (Yikes! This ship was a death trap!) Definitely sunk in 1963 - but may have exploded first. Frequently on fire, completely unsafe. Just reading about it freaks me out. Going to sea with a ship so routinely afire that they stopped sounding the alarms!? -Blake The Case of the Bermuda Triangle (1977) - British documentary Nimoy Fashion:

In Ancient Aviators, ISO looks into the possibility that ancient cultures either had the power of flight or were aware of it from exposure to extraterrestrial cultures. The specifics of how are a little vague, but we return to our litany of archaeological sites for evidence that this might be the case. Episode on YouTube Sample TV Listing for the episode: VCRs (VHS) really started to come into early adoption by the general public around 1977. Betamax appeared in 1975, VHS in 1977 - and the format wars took some time to play out. (This is a common behavior for new, disruptive tech and has repeated for CDs, DVDs, BluRay and now the higher resolution successors. More on this if I ever finish my book. -WBS) JVC Ad from 1977: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pjXh-tNLqHQ Swept-wing (not true delta-style) airplane design from 1936 adaptation of H.G. Wells' Things to Come French Mirage Delta-Winged aircraft. An example of the Ica Stones. Museum website mentioned in show (Spanish). Report on 2014 damage to Nazca Lines by Greenpeace. News report on 2018 damage to Nazca Lines by truck driver. Maria Reiche, Lady of the Lines, who spent years studying and popularizing Nazca site.

Explicit Tag - this episode contains strong language. We are joined by Dr. Ken Feder to discuss Mystery Hill (aka America's Stonehenge) and the idea that this New Hampshire set of stone structures might have been built by ancient Phoenicians or medieval Europeans. (It wasn't.) Episode on YouTube Weirdly topical, as we prepared this episode the Mystery Hill site was vandalized with #QAnon themed graffiti, carved into the stonework. (Image source: Union Leader) Vandalism spells #WWG1WGA - "where we go one, we go all" a well known QAnon motto. Show Notes: Episode opens with visual revisit of Bimini (see Atlantis in previous episodes). Brief discussion of Nominative Determinism around the current owners of the site having the last name Stone. Re: Stonehenge Battle of the beanfield (Hippies vs Thatcher era police) Spinal Tap perform Stonehenge Foamhenge (and related: The Dinosaur Kingdom featuring dinosaurs vs civil war soldiers) Hans Holzer wrote and produced (and starred in) this episode. A prolific writer about ghosts and the paranormal, he also wrote extensively about alt-archaeology. He billed himself as "Dr. Hans Holzer" but his degree appears to have come from a British diploma mill. You can read a posthumous critique of Holzer's work here by Dr. Joe Nickell, noted skeptic. Barry Fell was a zoologist turned amateur "archaeologist." His work on pre-Columbian North America is wildly unscientific and brutally criticized by actual archaeologists. Much ado is made of the tale of Bjarni Herjolfsson (but the timeline and story are muddled). There is a painful amount of euro-centric "moundbuilder myth" pseudo-archaeology in this episode. This is the idea that the mound builders could not have been the Native Americans that the colonists encountered but must have been some other (read that as "white") lost civilization. The simple stone site of Mystery Hill is compared to the ancient site of Knossos. Visually, there is not much similarity. Legitimate excavations at Mystery Hill were conducted by Gary Vescelius (obit). Vescelius, Gary S. 1956 Excavations at Pattee's Caves. Bulletin of the Eastern States Archaeological Federation 15:13–14. While registered as a student at Michigan, Vescelius conducted archaeological research that is still cited. This took place in the area of Pattee's Caves near Salem, New Hampshire. Patee's Caves are also known as "Mystery Hill" and "The American Stonehenge" because of claims that some three thousand years ago ancient Europeans settled in the area and created megalithic structures and astronomical alignments (Feder 1999: 113–122; Fell 2004 [1976]: 81–91). To test these claims, Vescelius was hired by The Early Sites Foundation, an organization that controlled Pattee's Caves. He excavated chambers purported to be ancient and demonstrated that the buildings were constructed and used in the first half of the nineteenth century (Feder 1999: 117–118; Vescelius n.d., 1956a, 1956b, 1982–1983). Although Vescelius no doubt displeased his employers, it is greatly to his credit that he tackled a controversial problem regarding transoceanic contacts and reported his findings frankly. He retained his interest in debunking claims of early European colonization until the end of his life (Vescelius 1980a; 1982–1983). Discount Info for Ken's Archaeological Oddities book. Code is RLFANDF30 if you order off the publisher's site and use the coupon code.

Can plants talk? Can Leonard Nimoy make this topic interesting? The answer to both questions will be discussed in this episode where we look at the first episode of In Search Of... which considers the question of plant communication. Episode on YouTube Show Links: Marcel Vogel - thought plants have feelings. Research chemist, San Jose, CA. Uses machines and the mind's "inner eye." Vogel was deeply interested in "crystal energy" and involved with the UFO work of Billy Meier. Meier's "UFO" images were the basis of the "I Want To Believe" poster in the X-Files. Conjuring Science by Christopher Toumey Does music affect plant growth and health?http://www.dovesong.com/positive_music/plant_experiments.asp https://s3.wp.wsu.edu/uploads/sites/403/2015/03/bad-science.pdf Myth Busters did an ep on this too: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mZGDbA9HER4 - they found it plausible. (I'm still very skeptical - Blake) Plant Talk research: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jagadish_Chandra_Bose Radiolab episode on talking plants: https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/radiolab/articles/smarty-plants Kendall Johnson obituary. Cleve Baxter - Polygraph and CIA Interesting story on tree cooperation that we cut mostly because of a terrible pun. It is difficult to say when these episodes "first aired" because the listings are all over the place.

This is the pilot episode of In Research Of, the show where we watch the original TV show IN SEARCH OF… and consider some of the explanations that the producers chose not to present. In our inaugural episode, we watch the TV Special In Search of Ancient Astronauts, a repackaged cut of a German documentary about Eric Von Daniken's book Chariots of the Gods. We want to thank Rachel and Chris Lackey for the theme music. They host the excellent show Rachel Watches Star Trek. Also, we want to credit Jason Colavito for his excellent research into this and many adjacent topics around the Ancient Astronauts and Ancient Aliens tropes of the past fifty years, including his book: The Cult of Alien Gods: H. P. Lovecraft and Extraterrestrial Pop Culture (Seriously - check out this link to Jason's article. He gives some great contemporary detail on the impact of this TV special such as "... within 48 hours of the program's broadcast, Bantam Books had sold 250,000 new copies of Chariots of the Gods." Amazing.) Oh - so as Jeb mentions, EVD is directly mentioned in the brainstorming session with Lucas, Spielberg, and Kasdan! You can check that out here. Walter Conkrite's UFO's Friend, Foe or Fantasy UFO documentary Show Notes: Dr. Harold P. Klein worked for NASA and was a major figure in the Viking mission. The Baghdad Battery - no reason to believe this was ever used as a battery. More likely a scroll container. (Featured on Episode 16 - season 3 - of Mythbusters) Star Trek Into Darkness (you can watch the clip here) Mesoamerican Sites/Artifacts Discussed: Olmec Heads Tula Teotihuacan Chichen Itza Tiwanaku Piri Reis map Wernher Von Braun Stonehenge How did the ancients move stones? Theme music (updated!) is by Rachel Lackey & Greig Johnson. Keywords Ancient Aliens, Ancient Astronauts, Eric Von Daniken, Skeptic, Archaeology, Science, Rod Serling