VOICEOVER: The Black Tapes is in part an exploration of belief and the search for truth, and in part a profile of the founder of the Gottlieb Institute, professional skeptic Dr. Hermann Gottlieb. Our story is progressing in order, week by week. So, if you’re a first-time listener, welcome to the show! Go start at episode one. Don’t worry. I’ll wait.
(Familiar theme music fades in)
From CTC Studios and the WGBH Podcast Network, welcome to the Black Tapes Podcast. I’m Newt Geiszler.
(Theme music plays: acoustic guitar, church bells, a faraway female voice.)
NEWT: Welcome back.
(interlude music #1 plays)
NEWT (VO): Welcome to episode five. It’s been five months working on this project. In a way, it feels like no time at all. But sometimes, I feel like I’ve been at it my whole career--throwing rocks at Dr. Gottlieb’s window, hoping he’ll finally come out and tell me if ghosts are real.
He won’t, of course. But I think that Dr. G has been invigorated by our project too. The podcast seems to have awoken a fierce desire in him to solve the tapes.
This week, he takes us into the weird, wild world of the ouija board. First, we have an update from Mako on the Vanessa Gottlieb case.
Mako has been doing a lot of heavy lifting. She’s been speaking to Vanessa’s friends, family, the police on the original case, and witnesses from the gas station where she disappeared. This week, she took a different angle.
NEWT: So, how was your trip?
MAKO: Humid. I don’t know how people live in Florida. It’s like breathing in bog water.
NEWT: (laughs) Too true. So what did you find?
MAKO: I went to Homestead, Florida, which is near the Everglades. That’s where maybe-Vanessa’s postcard to her parents was postmarked. I interviewed the postmistress there, Alexandra Smoot. Don’t laugh, it’s her real name.
NEWT: Any relation to the unit of measurement?
MAKO: No, nerd. Ms. Smoot has been the postmistress in Homestead for 30 years. Her hair is huge. She’s very chatty. Not afraid to say what she thinks.
NEWT: Not always great, in a Floridian.
MAKO: Well, I showed her a picture of Vanessa and it didn’t jog her memory. At first. She said she might have known her, might not. I told her about Vanessa’s life. She looked thoughtful. Then she went in the back. She got this list out and started reading it to herself. I asked what it was.
SMOOT: ...List of safety deposit boxes. By last name. I think this picture does look familiar. I’ve got a feeling it’s one of these.
MAKO: Really?
SMOOT: Can I see it again sweetheart? Thanks.
(beat)
SMOOT: Alice Sunyaev.
MAKO: Who?
SMOOT: That’s her. Alice Sunyaev. I remember when she opened her box. She got a PO box too.
MAKO: In 2007?
SMOOT: No, no. Must have been the late 90s. ‘97, maybe even ‘96. She used to come by pretty regular, get her mail. Sometimes she’d look in her deposit box. That’s her private business, of course.
MAKO: So she’s a regular?
SMOOT: Used to be. We made small talk. But I haven’t seen her for a few years.
MAKO: When was the last time you saw her?
SMOOT: I couldn’t say. But it was a couple years. Maybe around the time that postcard was sent.
MAKO: Is she still paying for her boxes?
SMOOT: She paid in advance for both, according to this. She’s all set through 2020.
MAKO: Do you know if she lived nearby?
SMOOT: Nah, Alice didn’t tell me anything about herself that I can remember.
MAKO: I’m going to give you my number. Will you call us if you do remember anything else?
SMOOT: Certainly. And I’ll call if she comes back in to get her mail.
MAKO: (laughs politely) Thank you.
NEWT: Wow. That’s amazing.
MAKO: It’s pretty great. As far as I can tell, the police were never aware of Ms. Smoot.
NEWT: And you have the gas station interviews later this week, right?
MAKO: That’s right. Next week I’m going up to Acadia to interview the workers at the gas station where she was last seen.
NEWT: Great. Do we have any other updates?
MAKO: We’re still looking into the Nephi case. We don’t have any new leads on the Caravaggio painting, or Dan Penrose’s death--or rather, we have leads, but nothing substantial yet. I’m digging into them. We’ve also lost touch with the drummer, Tomás Hawking. He hasn’t been answering our calls, and his family does not know where he is.
NEWT: Sweet. Thanks Mako. You’re the best.
MAKO: I am!
NEWT (VO): We’ll have more on both of these threads later in this episode. But for now, we cross the river for a visit to the Gottlieb Institute.
(sound of button click, someone opening a container)
NEWT: So what have you got for us this week, Dr. G? A real VHS, huh?
HERMANN: (bemused) That’s right. I think you’ll be interested in what’s on it.
NEWT: And what’s on it?
HERMANN: Are you familiar with spirit boards? More commonly known as ouija boards?
NEWT: In theory. Is this a tape of you and your college buddies messing with one in a cabin?
HERMANN: Hardly.
NEWT: (teasing) Disappointing.
HERMANN: (amused) It’s actually a very interesting experiment. It was done at MIT in 1993.
NEWT (VO): Dr. Gottlieb started the tape. Let me describe the layout of the experiment. A group of six people sit around a circular table in a small room. We see it from a raised angle--the camera is mounted high in a corner, near the ceiling. On the table in the middle is a ouija board, the kind you’ve seen before: tan, alphabet, visibly large “yes” and “no,” with the little arrowhead that moves to give the “answers.” Or, the little arrowhead that you and your friends move, depending on your beliefs.
FEMALE VOICE: Hello. Is anyone there? If you are there, please speak with us. We would like to speak with you.
(click--video pauses)
HERMANN: The woman speaking is in charge of the experiment. The other five people are random volunteers.
NEWT: Why were they testing ouija boards at MIT?
HERMANN: They were testing... various phenomena. You’ll see.
(video resumes)
PROCTOR: Is someone there? If you are there, please tell us.
(sliding sound)
PROCTOR: Yes.
PARTICIPANT: Whoa.
PROCTOR: Hello. Will you tell us your name?
(sliding sound, stopping and starting as they spell the word)
PROCTOR: (reading) J... O... H... N. John. Is that your name?
(sliding sound)
PROCTOR: Yes.
(tape pauses)
NEWT: Okay. So I’m guessing you believe the volunteers were moving it themselves.
HERMANN: Yes.
NEWT: But why? What would be in it for them? It’s not like they were being paid more for positive results.
HERMANN: Have you ever heard of the ideomotor reflex?
NEWT: No. What’s that?
HERMANN: It’s a physiological phenomenon, wherein a thought or preconceived notion bring about an automatic muscular reaction. The action is so automatic that it seems the person did not do it of their own volition. And usually, the action is of such a small degree that the subject is not aware of it. It’s similar to our reflexive reaction to something like pain; but instead, the body reacts unconsciously to an idea. There has been a lot of research on the ideomotor reflex in connection with automatic writing, dowsing, and...
NEWT: ...and ouija boards. (sounding interested) Huh!
HERMANN: The people in this experiment aren’t doing it on purpose. But they are doing it. They are so focused on the task that they’ll move the planchette, no matter their intentions.
NEWT: The planchette is the arrow-thing in the middle?
HERMANN: Yes.
NEWT: Okay. I get what you’re saying, but I don’t think the effect explains how they spelled out a name.
HERMANN: It will make sense in the second part of the experiment.
(click--tape resumes)
NEWT: They’re all blindfolded...
HERMANN: Exactly. Watch what happens.
PROCTOR: John, we’d like to ask you some questions. John, are you still there?
(planchette slides across board)
PROCTOR: Yes.
NEWT: Hey. That wasn’t a yes. It went to “F.”
HERMANN: Keep watching.
PROCTOR: John, would you mind answering some questions?
(planchette slides)
PROCTOR: Yes.
NEWT: Why did she say yes? It didn’t go anywhere near “yes.”
HERMANN: She wants the test subjects to believe it’s working.
NEWT: (understanding) Oh... Of course.
HERMANN: She’s seeing if they spell things out when they have blindfolds, and can’t see what they’re spelling. Naturally, they don’t.
NEWT: Wow. Huh.
HERMANN: It goes on for a while. You get the gist. Now I’m going to show you the second day of the experiment.
(fast-forwarding sound)
(loud click as it stops)
NEWT: Same test, new subjects?
HERMANN: Same proctor, same test. New subjects. And...
NEWT: (looking at something) Oh. New board. It’s black.
HERMANN: Yes. I’m going to skip to the second part, with the blindfolds.
(video plays)
PROCTOR: Are you there, Isaac?
NEWT: Is Isaac their ghost?
HERMANN: Yes.
NEWT: Spooky.
(video continues)
PROCTOR: Isaac, would you like to continue speaking with us?
(planchette scrapes across board)
PROCTOR: Yes.
NEWT: Whoa. They actually moved it to “yes.”
HERMANN: They did.
NEWT (VO): Remember, the test subjects are blindfolded now. But unlike yesterday, the proctor isn’t lying. They actually did hit “yes.”
PROCTOR: Isaac, when did you die? Can you tell us when you died?
(planchette slides bit by bit on board as it spells...)
PROCTOR: 1... 9... 8... 8.
NEWT: Wow. They’re actually doing it.
PROCTOR: ...1988.
MAN: Oh my god. (sounding stricken) I know him. That was... that was a friend of mine. He died in 1988.
NEWT: Whoa. What are the odds of that?
PROCTOR: Where did you die, Isaac? Can you tell us where you died?
(planchette slides, quickly)
PROCTOR: No. Okay. Can you tell us how you died?
(pause)
PROCTOR: Isaac? Do you remember how you died?
(planchette slides, quickly, stopping and starting)
PROCTOR: M... U... R... D... E... R.
MAN: Professor. I need to stop this experiment. I can’t do this.
PROCTOR: Please, Edwin, don’t move. Isaac, do you know some--
(planchette slides abruptly)
PROCTOR: Okay, Isaac. Stop.
(planchette slides frantically)
PROCTOR: Isaac! Stop!
(sound of planchette sliding violently, cuts off abruptly)
(thump as planchette hits the floor)
(buzzing sound)
(pause)
PROCTOR: (stricken) Oh my god.
(tape ends)
NEWT: What the hell happened?
HERMANN: There was a short circuit and the lights went out.
NEWT: But the professor--the proctor, why did she say “oh my god”? Did she see something? It looked like she saw something.
HERMANN: It’s not clear.
NEWT: It looked like she was looking across the room from her. Right under the camera. Looking at something.
HERMANN: Yes. In the camera’s blind spot. So there’s nothing on the film.
NEWT: Did you ever interview her? The proctor?
HERMANN: Yes.
NEWT: What did she say?
HERMANN: Her report was... unreliable.
NEWT: What did she say.
HERMANN: (reluctant) She said she saw a shadow.
NEWT: A tall shadow?
HERMANN: Something like that.
NEWT: Sounds familiar.
HERMANN: Don’t make me say it, Newton.
NEWT: (laughs) Sure. Pareidolia. Okay. Still, that doesn’t answer how the test subjects spelled all that stuff out on the ouija board. They still had blindfolds on. How did they do that?
HERMANN: Well first of all, it wasn’t an ouija board.
NEWT: No?
HERMANN: No. The ouija board is a 19th century invention, mainly a salon and parlor trick. It was a form of entertainment. But after a while, some groups of people grew dissatisfied with the way their spirit board was being used as a silly game. According to legend, this group created another board for more serious communications.
NEWT: “Serious” communications? With...?
HERMANN: Demons. They called it the demon board.
NEWT: (intrigued) Sweet.
HERMANN: (slight laugh)
NEWT: How do you know about these, these Mirrorverse ouija boards? I’ve never heard of them.
HERMANN: My father had one.
NEWT: (startled) Your--father? Why did he have one?
HERMANN: His line of work was in... antiquities. He traveled around collecting rare items such as this, appraising them, and selling them.
NEWT: Wow. That sounds fascinating.
HERMANN: It was.
NEWT: You’ve never mentioned your father before.
HERMANN: We weren’t very close.
NEWT (VO): I was surprised when Dr. Gottlieb mentioned his father. I think it was the first time in the last five months where he volunteered a detail about his private life. And his father’s profession was extremely interesting. “Antiquities dealer.” How Indiana Jones was it? Or were they mostly occult objects like the demon board? Had this relationship with his father awoken his interest in the supernatural? But where his father participated in its economy, Hermann sought to debunk it. What was the story behind that? I wanted desperately to ask.
We set about tracking down the participants and researchers from the study. It was so long ago--22 years--that it took us a while. But we found them eventually--some of them.
Stay with us after the break.
-----------SPONSOR BREAK #1-----------
⏮ ⏯ ⏭
NEWT: Hello, is this Henry Lorentz?
LORENTZ: Speaking.
NEWT: Hi. This is Newt Geiszler from the GBH Podcast Network. We spoke via email.
LORENTZ: Oh. Hi.
NEWT: Is this a good time?
NEWT (VO): I was speaking to Henry Lorentz, who is a professor of psychology at UPenn. Twenty-two years ago, he was a grad student at MIT studying the ideomotor reflex and the subconscious. He spent the summer as a research assistant in the lab of Dr. Michelle Kaku. You heard from her earlier: she was the one administering the ouija test. Dr. Kaku died in 2000.
NEWT: So, you completed your graduate thesis under Dr. Kaku in the early 90’s, is that right?
LORENTZ: (sounding wary) That’s correct.
NEWT: Did you like working with her? Can you tell us about her?
LORENTZ: Yes, certainly. She was an exemplary scientist, very sharp. She always told us she didn’t have any time for nonsense, but if you needed her, she was there. She was caring under that lab coat exterior. Even a little arch. Her methods were exacting, but creative.
NEWT: Creative. Is that how the ouija board come into it?
LORENTZ: Yes, I believe it was Dr. Kaku’s idea. It’s not an uncommon way to test the ideomotor phenomenon.
NEWT: Do you remember why you started using the other board?
LORENTZ: What other board?
NEWT: On the second day of the experiment, Dr. Kaku used a different board for the test. It was black rather than tan. Do you remember that?
LORENTZ: The specifics of the board weren’t very important. We were testing the psychological effect.
NEWT: Okay. Do you remember the second day of the test, though?
LORENTZ: (wary) Yes. Things... got a bit out of hand.
NEWT: How so?
LORENTZ: There was a power outage. It caused some chaos. You say you saw the tape, right?
NEWT: I did. There was definitely chaos. At one point, Dr. Kaku looked up towards the camera and said “Oh my god.” Do you remember that?
LORENTZ: Like I said, the power went out.
NEWT: Yes, this was just before that. Before the lights go out, she looks up, and says “oh my god.” She definitely sees something.
LORENTZ: Are you working with that paranormal investigator? The one with the million dollar prize?
NEWT: Dr. Gottlieb? Yes.
LORENTZ: (stiffly) He already interviewed Dr. Kaku.
NEWT: Well we’re... reopening the case.
LORENTZ: I’m sorry. I just don’t know what I could add, really.
NEWT: Well, we sort of just wanted your corroboration on some details...
LORENTZ: (quickly) She had a brain tumor, you know.
NEWT: Sorry?
LORENTZ: Dr. Kaku. She was diagnosed with brain cancer a few years after that. They took the tumor out, but it came back. That’s what she died from. Brain cancer.
NEWT: That’s terrible. I’m sorry.
LORENTZ: No. Yes. It is. But what I’m saying is, it could have been affecting her vision for years.
NEWT: Affecting in what way? What did she see, Henry?
(beat)
LORENTZ: (unwillingly) She said she saw something... standing in the room.
NEWT: What did it look like?
LORENTZ: Dark.
NEWT: Tall?
LORENTZ: Yes.
NEWT: As high as the camera?
LORENTZ: Yes.
NEWT: How high would that have been?
LORENTZ: Eight feet. Maybe nine.
NEWT: Did anyone else say they saw this figure?
LORENTZ: (quietly) Yes.
NEWT: Who?
LORENTZ: One of the subjects. I don’t remember his name.
NEWT: Was it Edwin?
LORENTZ: I don’t remember.
NEWT (VO): It took some convincing, but Dr. Lorentz was willing to give us his old files and help us track down the list of test subjects. We sent some interns to help him go through the boxes. But it would take some time.
I was a little taken aback by his reluctance. Why was he so unwilling to revisit this case? It turned out Lorentz wasn’t the only one.
After some searching, he was able to get us in touch with the person who provided the demon board. Mako and I had to trace it down a line of buyers and collectors. It took quite a bit of digging. But finally, we found him.
MALE VOICE: You must be Mr. Geiszler.
NEWT: Please, call me Newt! You must be Rick.
FEINMAN: That’s me. Come on in.
NEWT (VO): Rick Feinman is a collector of talking boards. He’s an executive on the committee of the American Spirit Board Preservation Foundation. He was gracious enough to give me a tour of his private collection in Connecticut.
FEINMAN: This one is the Expirito--it’s also called the Revelator. It was made by the W.S. Reed Company in 1891.
NEWT: Neat!
FEINMAN: And this one (sound of box opening) is an early William Fuld design, dating back to 1902. Look at the bird’s eye maple top!
NEWT: Wow. That’s a beautiful grain.
FEINMAN: It is!
NEWT: I was wondering. Do you have anything older?
FEINMAN: Older than these? Hm... I have some 19th-century planchettes. Are you a practitioner, Mr. Geiszler?
NEWT: Me? No. I’m just doing research for one of our shows.
FEINMAN: Oh, of course.
NEWT: There’s actually a... specific board I’m interested in.
FEINMAN: Oh? Well if I don’t have one, I’m sure I can put you in touch with someone who does. Who’s the maker?
NEWT: The board I’m looking for is called a demon board. We’re trying to track down a specific one that was used in a particular experiment in the early 90s. We traced it back to you. You bought it a few years ago--is that right?
(beat)
NEWT: Mr. Feinman?
FEINMAN: Do you believe in talking boards, Mr. Geiszler? Have you ever used one?
NEWT: I’ve never used one, no. I take it you believe?
FEINMAN: I’m not just a collector. I’m a practitioner. You don’t get into this field just for the...
NEWT: ...Historical significance?
FEINMAN: No.
(beat)
NEWT: So... Could I see that board?
FEINMAN: (stiffly) It’s not for sale.
NEWT: No no, I’d just like to take some pictures.
FEINMAN: Why?
NEWT: Just... for the show.
FEINMAN: (reluctantly) ...Wait here a moment.
NEWT: Thanks.
NEWT (VO): Feinman disappeared for a while. It sounded like he went down into the cellar. He had gone from jovial to tense when I asked him about the demon board; when he came back with it, he seemed downright anxious.
FEINMAN: I believe this is what you’re looking for.
NEWT (VO): It was. If it wasn’t the same one from the tape, it was one very close to it. It was unlike any ouija board I’d seen before. It was black, maybe wood, but it was buffed so shiny that it looked like obsidian. The lettering was mother-of-pearl. There were symbols around the edges. I saw a moon and a sun, but the rest were unfamiliar to me.
NEWT: Do you have the planchette that goes with it?
FEINMAN: (strictly) I keep that in a separate area of the house.
NEWT: Oh. Um. Do you mind if I ask why?
FEINMAN: Mr. Geiszler, you can see that this looks like a regular talking board. It is not. With a regular talking board, we talk to the spirits of the deceased. It’s peaceful. Like a telephone line to our departed.
This board is not like that. It’s unique, and extremely powerful. This is the only one of its kind in the world. Rather than communication with the deceased, this board was made for communication with... something else.
NEWT: With what?
FEINMAN: Darkness. Malevolent spirits. Evil. This is the only one. You would not believe the obscene amounts of money people have offered me for it. But I would never sell it. I cannot allow this board to reenter the world. In the past, some people have used it the same way they would use a regular ouija board. I shudder to think what damage that did. No, it’s safer here, kept separate from its planchette.
NEWT: What sort of damage could it do?
FEINMAN: Are you a believer, young man?
NEWT: Um. Call me open-minded.
FEINMAN: (firmly) Spirits are real. Whether you believe or not. People who use a ouija board to talk to, say, the spirit of their dead parents? If they reach them, they find peace. But the people who have used this to try to contact their loved ones... Their lives are changed forever. They reach out, expecting to contact their mother or father. Instead, they find themselves speaking with an intelligent, powerful, ancient demon. Inviting him into our world, unwittingly. Did you know that demons are very adept at mimicry?
NEWT: Um... No, I didn’t know that.
FEINMAN: You don’t look convinced.
NEWT: Well...
FEINMAN: Do I seem unstable to you, young man?
NEWT: No.
FEINMAN: Do I seem like the kind of man who would keep this board and its planchette locked away for no good reason?
NEWT: It doesn’t work without the planchette?
FEINMAN: No. It has no power. This way, it’s safe.
(interlude music #1)
NEWT (VO): I brought the photos of the board back to Dr. G. He was a lot more interested than I expected.
HERMANN: This is a fascinating artifact. Look at this. Can you zoom in?
(click, click)
NEWT: There?
HERMANN: Yes. Look at that.
NEWT: The pentagram?
HERMANN: Yes. In two concentric circles.
NEWT: Huh. I don’t think that looks familiar to me. Have you seen it before?
HERMANN: I believe so. Could you send me these pictures?
NEWT: Of course.
HERMANN: I’d like to send them to a friend--someone who knows more about these particular symbols here.
NEWT: What are those?
HERMANN: It’s known as sacred geometry. They’re equations--the symbols are adapted from ancient Sumerian, and the equations themselves are from the middle ages. It’s a mathematical form of devil worship.
NEWT: Wow. That sounds fascinating.
HERMANN: It’s not my area of expertise. But it’s quite interesting. Very obscure.
NEWT: Neat. So you didn’t look at this board during your initial investigation?
HERMANN: I tried, but I couldn’t find the owner. I had a different theory--I thought the participants were coached.
NEWT: Were they?
HERMANN: None of them would admit to it.
NEWT: Did it seem like they were lying?
HERMANN: Frankly, no. Actually, I have something to show you.
(sound of a box being moved, items shifting)
HERMANN: I dug up my materials from my initial investigation, back in 1997.
NEWT: Wow. Throwback. Any Pearl Jam albums in there?
HERMANN: I don’t know what that is. But I do have a tape you’ll want to hear. It’s the testimony of Dr. Kaku.
NEWT: Oh, sweet. Hermann, you do know how to treat a guy.
HERMANN: (amused) Don’t get too excited. Like I told you before, her testimony was... unreliable at best.
NEWT: ...And at worst?
HERMANN: Distraught.
NEWT (VO): He wasn’t kidding. Here is an excerpt of Dr. Kaku’s tape. It was recorded in ‘97, seven years after the initial experiment.
DR. KAKU: (muttering) I’ve seen it every day since that day...
It’s tall. It’s tall, not shapeless--vague in some places, clear in others. This is the nature of memory. I study this. It should not have been like this in the moment. Yet it was. (breathing) It was vague in some places and photo sharp in others.
It was tall, so, tall, almost as high as the ceiling. Yes. And dark, its skin was pale but dark like it was dirty, like it was covered in a film of gray dirt. Its legs were stretched impossibly, impossibly long.
His eyes. I couldn’t see them. Not at first.
His hands. His hands were reaching for the man.
Then I saw him smile...
NEWT (VO): She goes on like that for a while. It’s my understanding she was quite ill at this point. Hallucination or not, the tape, as a whole, was... quite disturbing. This voice did not match up with the person Dr. Lorentz described, nor the lucid scientist I had watched on the other tape. She had... crumbled. Illness, or this experience, or both--they had done something terrible to her.
(beep--phone message)
LORENTZ: Hi, Mr. Geiszler, it’s Henry Lorentz again. We found the name of the man you were looking for, the witness from the experiment. It’s Edwin [beeped]. He was a nursing student at the time. His last address is [beeped].
NEWT (VO): After the break, we speak with Edwin, who asked that we leave his last name out. Suffice it to say, his memories were closer to Dr. Kaku’s than I was comfortable with.
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NEWT (VO): Edwin is now a nurse in Vermont. He didn’t want us to share any personal details about him, but he agreed to call us for a phone interview after a long shift at the hospital where he works.
NEWT: So, Edwin, you participated in that MIT study about the ideomotor reflex. Do you mind telling us a little about that experiment?
EDWIN: (hesitant) Um... yeah. Sure. It was based around the ouija boards. I think they tested a few groups each day. My group played with one in the morning, and it was all right. You know--alright for 50 bucks. In the afternoon, though, they brought out a different board. With that one, the experiment felt... different. I don’t know why.
NEWT: Could you tell us about that board? What was different about it?
EDWIN: Well, it was black. Like ebony. I don’t know what it was made of. It was beautiful, actually. The carving was very intricate. I remember thinking it was probably an antique. But when we used it, the group didn’t have that feeling like we did with the ouija board--sort of a dangerous thrill. The dark board had... I don’t know. A different feeling. A weird feeling. It kind of had a smell, actually.
NEWT: (surprised) A smell?
EDWIN: Yeah.
NEWT: Can you describe it?
EDWIN: It was sickly sweet, kind of chemical. Like gasoline, or maybe like a gas stove--like the smell the gas company puts in so you know there's a gas leak before it kills you. It was distracting. I think it made me a little lightheaded. That smell was still on my hands after the test was over.
NEWT: Huh.
EDWIN: It was horrible. Honestly. It’s upsetting, still, to think about that test. (upset) I wish I had never taken part in it.
NEWT: Was it because you thought you knew the spirit your group reached?
EDWIN: The spirit?
NEWT: Isaac--wasn’t that his name? You said he was a friend of yours. And then you asked Dr. Kaku to stop the experiment.
EDWIN: (upset) Oh... yes.
NEWT: Do you mind telling us how you knew Isaac?
EDWIN: He was my ex.
NEWT: (surprised, sensitive) Oh?
EDWIN: Yes. He did die in 1988. No one knew about us. When that test took place, in 1993, I was still in the closet. It was so frightening to hear his name like that, out of nowhere.
NEWT: That sounds really upsetting.
EDWIN: (quietly) It was. I was afraid it was a joke, or a trick. But it wasn’t. I could... feel him in there. His spirit.
NEWT: (also quiet) Really?
EDWIN: I thought so. For a moment. But then...
NEWT: Then what?
EDWIN: (sharper) Well, then we asked the spirit how it died. Isaac wasn’t murdered. He died in a car crash in New Jersey.
NEWT: Oh. So you don’t believe it was him?
EDWIN: ...You saw the video, right?
NEWT: Yes.
EDWIN: Did you see the report?
NEWT: Report? No. Was there a report?
EDWIN: (emphatically) Yes. Dr. Kaku took my testimony, she debriefed me. I told her what I saw. And I thought she saw it too, except...
NEWT: And what was it you saw?
EDWIN: I... Well, after we asked our last question, there was a strange sound. It was a buzzing, like a power surge. The sweet gas smell was overwhelming by then. Then the planchette went out of control--it scraped across the board and flew out of our hands. It was very startling.
Then, Dr. Kaku said “oh my god.” I yanked off my blindfold and whipped around right... right before the lights went out.
(pause)
NEWT: (quiet) What did you see?
EDWIN: (voice low, tight with fear) I don’t... that thing. It was just standing there, behind me... It was so close. It towered over me. And it was so dark. It was so dark I couldn’t see almost anything, like, any features, like, it was like the light just sucked right into it. But I could see its shape. It had two legs, like animal legs, like, like a deer or a moose. And its arms were long... so long. And it had hair... long, matted hair, covering its face. But I could still see its face.
NEWT: How?
EDWIN: I could see it through the hair. Because it was smiling. I could see its teeth.
NEWT: Oh.
EDWIN: And I could see its eyes. They were huge, horrible, dull white, like dead lightbulbs. But the... the thing was...
NEWT: (quiet) What?
EDWIN: Its eyes were... below its smile. Like its face was... was upside-down.
NEWT: (genuinely startled) Oh my god.
EDWIN: And then the lights went out. It was gone.
NEWT: How could you tell it was gone, in the dark?
EDWIN: (firmly) It was gone. I knew. I could feel it there, and then I could feel it wasn’t there. The sound stopped, and the smell. But I could never get that thing out of my head.
NEWT: Wow. That sounds... absolutely terrifying.
EDWIN: (low) There was something else.
NEWT: Something else?
EDWIN: Well, there was a moment, like I said, where I really thought it was Isaac. Where I thought Isaac was in there with us.
NEWT: Right.
EDWIN: Well (sounding very uncomfortable) right before we asked... before we asked the spirit how it died... I felt Isaac stroke my hair.
NEWT: What?
EDWIN: I felt him stroke my hair. I had long hair, back then. When we were together he used to... brush it back from my face.
NEWT: And you felt that? In there?
EDWIN: (upset) Yes.
NEWT: Can... Is there anything else you remember?
EDWIN: (upset) No, no... Not really. The whole experience, I just felt like I was in a trance, with that blindfold on, with that smell... I can still hear Dr. Kaku calling out those numbers. God, I haven’t thought so much about this in years.
NEWT: I know it’s difficult. I’m sorry.
EDWIN: (pulling himself together) But I think she was right.
NEWT: Dr. Kaku? Right about what?
EDWIN: Well, when she debriefed me, I told her about seeing... that thing. She said it was probably just my imagination. With the blindfold and the concentration, she said I had fallen into a self-hypnotic state. That made me see shapes in the darkness. She said it wasn’t unusual.
NEWT: She didn’t say she had seen anything?
EDWIN: No, no.
NEWT: Huh.
EDWIN: And none of it was real anyway.
NEWT: How do you mean?
EDWIN: Well, we only spelled real words when we were looking. With the blindfold on, we just spelled out nonsense.
NEWT: She--Dr. Kaku told you that you were spelling out nonsense?
EDWIN: Yes. It was the ideomotor effect. That’s what they were testing.
NEWT: Oh.
EDWIN: I wanted to put the whole thing behind me.
NEWT: ...Edwin, you knew they were filming those experiments, right?
EDWIN: Yes.
NEWT: Like I said, I saw the film. But the film shows that you... Well, when you were blindfolded, you actually did spell those things out.
EDWIN: (startled) What?
NEWT: Yes. The year, and the cause of death.
EDWIN: No. No, that’s impossible.
NEWT: My colleague believes you and the other participants may have been coached. That you were told what to spell...
EDWIN: (horrified) No, no, no, no. That’s not true.
NEWT: Not true, that you weren’t coached? Or...?
(pause)
NEWT: Edwin?
EDWIN: I have to go.
NEWT: Edwin--!
(dial tone)
(interlude music #3)
NEWT (VO): This interview left me with a lot of really troubling questions. Had Dr. Kaku taken Edwin’s testimony, lied to him, and destroyed the report? If she had, I understand why she did it--to protect him. But from what? What was it that they saw?
I found myself a bit shaken by Edwin’s testimony. I tried to imagine one of my ex-boyfriends reaching out to me via ouija board. I did not envy him one bit.
I went back to the video. I wanted to see how it matched up with Edwin’s story.
(audio from earlier plays)
PROCTOR: Isaac, when did you die? Can you tell us when you died?
(planchette slides bit by bit)
PROCTOR: 1... 9... 8... 8...1988.
EDWIN: Oh my god (sounding stricken). I know him. That was... that was a friend of mine. He died in 1988.
PROCTOR: Where did you die, Isaac? Can you tell us where you died?
(planchette slides)
PROCTOR: No.
(click as tape pauses)
NEWT (VO): (sounding grim) There. I saw it. Right after Dr. Kaku asks about where the spirit died, Edwin’s hair... moves. Like he said, it was long. It goes down to his shoulders. It moves to the side, just a bit. He smiles when it happens, like he’s remembering Isaac... But it’s completely unnatural. Honestly, I found it deeply unsettling. It was not like wind. It was like a hand. Like something was really there.
Up until now, I had mostly found Hermann’s tapes intriguing. They were fascinating little stories, full of never-ending questions. But this one, this one was disturbing. The week after that interview, I did not sleep well.
(interlude music #2)
NEWT (VO): Edwin’s description of the upside-down smile reminded me of our missing painting. We hadn’t had any developments on that case for a while--but that week, we got a surprising message.
NEWT: Mako, did you see this email?
MAKO: (distant) Which one?
NEWT: In the show inbox. It says it’s from Tomás Hawking.
MAKO: What? Seriously?
(sound of desk chair rolling over closer)
NEWT: Well, it could be a fake.
MAKO: What does he say?
NEWT: (reading) ...Doesn’t sound good. If it’s really him, I think he’s...
MAKO: (also reading) ...not doing so well. No.
NEWT (VO): Here’s what Tomás’s email said.
Dear Newt: I’m on the road. I’m sorry I’ve been hard to reach. The places I’ve been haven’t had reliable internet--and they haven’t been safe. Even now, I’m afraid someone could be listening.
I’m on the trail of the painting. I now firmly believe that Dan had it in his possession when he died, and that he was killed by it. Whoever has it now is in danger. I also believe the painting itself has...
I am traveling to Sicily and then to a monastery. I can’t explain why now. I will reach out when I know more.
NEWT: Sicily? A monastery? That’s crazy.
MAKO: Yeah.
NEWT: He believes “the painting itself has...” ...has what?
MAKO: And look, he doesn’t say Dan was killed for the painting, he says by the painting.
NEWT: God, what could that even mean?
MAKO: (...)
NEWT: I guess I’ll write him back and ask. We’ll see if he answers.
(interlude music #3)
NEWT (VO): Since our interview with Mr. and Mrs. Leland, a lot of you have been asking what Dr. G had to say, particularly about the missing five days. I also wanted to share with him what Mako had found in Florida. He was not impressed.
HERMANN: So this woman claims she saw Vanessa. In the last ten years.
NEWT: Yes.
HERMANN: (stiffly) Interesting.
NEWT: Sounds like you don’t buy it.
HERMANN: I really have no reason to. It’s her word alone, and she hasn’t seen Va--this woman in many years. It’s more than likely she’d misrecognize. It’s extremely common.
NEWT: So you think she just mistook the photo of Vanessa for this other woman, Alice Sunyaev. The one with the PO box.
HERMANN: What name was that?
NEWT: Alice Sunyaev? S-U-N-Y-A-E-V.
HERMANN: (...)
NEWT: Why? Does the name mean something to you?
HERMANN: I believe that was the name of Vanessa’s roommate in college.
NEWT: Oh. Really?
HERMANN: (uncomfortable) I believe so.
NEWT: Do you have her contact info? We’d love to reach out...
HERMANN: No, I don’t.
NEWT: Okay. (...) But, so, let’s say Postmistress Smoot isn’t mistaken. Is it possible Vanessa would have opened a PO box in Florida in the mid-90s under a fake name?
HERMANN: Anything is possible, certainly. But it seems unlikely. I’ve no idea why she would have.
NEWT: You can’t think of any reason?
HERMANN: (shortly) No.
NEWT: Okay. (...) Do you mind if I ask about one more thing?
HERMANN: No.
NEWT: It seems like you do. Mind.
HERMANN: Go ahead, Newton.
NEWT: I interviewed Mr. and Mrs. Leland.
HERMANN: (grimly) Did you.
NEWT: They said that after Vanessa went missing, you... also went missing, temporarily. Is it true you disappeared for five days?
HERMANN: ...Yes.
NEWT: What were you doing?
HERMANN: I was looking for my wife.
NEWT: Weren’t the police doing that?
HERMANN: Yes. But it was... insufficient. They didn’t know her. I did.
NEWT: You felt like you had insight they didn’t?
HERMANN: The police put out an APB. They did a cursory search of the highway. That was it.
NEWT: And? You felt like that wasn’t enough?
HERMANN: It wasn’t. They were passive because they thought I did it. They were wasting their time. I had to try, actually try, or nobody else would.
NEWT: ...And?
HERMANN: (quieter) And nothing. No sign.
(interlude music #3)
NEWT (VO): We had arranged to dig into our next black tape the following week with Dr. G--an exorcism. But before we could start, Mako and I got a call at the studio.
MAKO: Okay. Understood. Yes... Thank you.
(beep)
MAKO: Newt?
NEWT: What’s up?
MAKO: That was the Westfield Police Department.
NEWT: Hm?
MAKO: Tessa Hall has gone missing.
(outro music begins)
NEWT (VO): Next time: we return to Westfield to assist in the search for Tessa Hall. I’m Newt Geiszler. This is the Black Tapes Podcast.
(outro music fades out)
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