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This is Dr. Joy Hardin Bradford from Therapy for Black Girls. You know that Amazon has millions of books, so you can find one that gives you just the reading feeling you're looking for. You know, like if you're looking for a relaxed feeling, like with a beach read, Amazon has got it covered. Or if you're looking for more of a terrified ah with evil twins or things lurking in the woods or something, Amazon's got you. I mean, even if you want an aw teen romance, Amazon has it covered too. Amazon books. That reading feeling awaits.
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Welcome to Erin Menke's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of iHeartRadio and Grim and Mild. Our world is full of the unexplainable, and if history is an open book, all of these amazing tales are right there on display, just waiting for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities. The rain can be cleansing, washing away everything from the dirt on our cars to the memories of a bad day. But a storm can erase a lot more. And if we're not careful, it can leave our minds even cloudier than the skies above. It was the summer of 1875 in Alberta, Canada, and Sir Cecil Edward Denny was on his way to a nice little hunting and fishing spot along the Oldman River. Denny had been a member of the Northwest Mounted Police, but today he was manning a small boat, looking for a place to unwind. He noticed in the early afternoon that dark clouds had started to form in the distance. Normally, a thunderstorm wouldn't be anything to worry about, but in this part of Canada where Denny was traveling, they could be devastating. The former Mountie just kept pressing forward. By the early afternoon, that storm that had seemed so far away was suddenly right above him. According to his own account of the event, there was a heavy wind with hail rain and perpetual lightning, followed by deafening peals of thunder seemingly right overhead as the elements beat down on him, filling the boat with water. He floated a little while longer until he reached a part of the shoreline where he could find refuge. He continued to paddle, and as he got closer to land, the storm began to subside. Just for a moment, but it was a long enough pause for Denny to hear something from within the nearby woods. Drums. There was a Native American encampment close by. He hitched the boat to some nearby trees and ventured into the forest, following the sound of the drums. Shelter was only feet away, and good thing, too, because the storm had now come back with a vengeance. He kept walking as the rain beat down on him. It wasn't long before he came to a clearing, and there it was. A Native American camp bustling with activity. They had fires to keep them warm, and people were moving about almost as though the storm wasn't affecting them at all. Denny was shocked because he knew that the indigenous tribes didn't like to stay outside during storms. They would hole up in their homes, avoiding the thunder, which they saw as the sound of the gods tossing boulders off the mountain. As Denny inched closer, he could make out more of the encampment. According to his writings, he noticed about 20 lodges and some horses, aside from the men, women and children also living there. Suddenly, a crack of lightning struck at his feet while a crash of thunder rattled his ears. The combination sent him flying backward. Lightning struck a tree only feet away. Denny looked over and saw that it had practically been split in two. A few minutes later, he slowly got to his feet. The sound of the thunder still rang in his ears, and as he stood, he looked out at the open clearing where the Native American camp had stood. And much to his amazement, it was gone. The lodges and fires had disappeared, the horses had vanished, and the sounds of beating drums had evaporated. Denny darted off in search of a higher vantage point. After all, the camp couldn't have just gotten up and walked away. He climbed to the top of a riverbank and looked down. Sure enough, there was nothing there. Cold and wet from the storm, Denny kept walking. He traveled another 15 miles until he reached a local fort at around midnight. By then, the rain had stopped. The following morning, Denny told the other men what he had seen. One of them just laughed at him. But he knew what he had witnessed was no figment of his imagination. Refusing to accept defeat, he set out that day with a Blackfoot interpreter to try and find the encampment. It took some time, but they eventually reached the location where Denny had first spotted it. There was nothing there. Well, not exactly nothing. There were some stones covered in grass and the remnants of an old camp that had existed a long time ago. The interpreter told Denny a story about how a group of Blackfeet had come to this spot and killed an entire tribe of Cree many years before. And if Denny had any doubts, the two old skulls in the dirt were all the evidence he needed. So had the rain washed everything away? Or had these just been the ghosts of the Kree, filling the night air with song? Denny didn't have the answers. All he had were clouds of confusion storming in his mind. This show is sponsored by BetterHelp. This month is all about gratitude. And along with all the people in our lives where very grateful for. There's another person we don't get to thank enough ourselves. It's sometimes hard to remind ourselves that we are trying our best to make sense of everything. And in this crazy world, that is not easy. So consider this a little reminder to say thank you to the people in your life, including you need help finding the courage or strength to do that. That's where therapy can be a big help. I know how important and helpful therapy can be when it comes to helping us see our lives with fresh eyes and to process it all better. And therapy isn't just for folks who have experienced major trauma. It can truly empower you to be the best version of yourself. If you're thinking of starting therapy, give BetterHelp a try. It's entirely online, designed to be convenient, flexible and suited to your schedule. Just fill out a brief questionnaire to get matched with the licensed therapist and switch therapists anytime for no additional charge. Let the gratitude flow with BetterHelp. Visit betterhelp.com curiosities today to get 10% off your first month. That's BetterHelp H E L P.com curiosities.
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This is Dr. Joy Hardin Bradford from Therapy for Black Girls. There are millions of books on Amazon, so there's a reading feeling for everyone. So if you're after that excited haha feeling like when you discover you have a lot in common with Vikings or something, Amazon has books for you. Or maybe you enjoy the sort of nervous haha that comes when the hero barely escapes the zombies. Or maybe you like the smug that comes when the villain gets what he deserves. You know Amazon has it all. Amazon Books that reading feeling awaits.
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Frederick had a dilemma. The Church of England had come to him with a tremendously important task. They wanted him to dig up the ruins of the thousand year old Glastonbury Abbey. As an architect and expert in medieval restoration, Frederick Bligh Bonn certainly was the right man for the job. But there was one problem. He couldn't start digging. At least not yet. For centuries, Glastonbury had been one of the most important Catholic churches in England. Not only home to hundreds of monks and worshippers, it also housed the tombs of three kings and a relic rumored to be a piece of the Cross of Jesus. In the 1500s, though, as Protestantism became the power of the land, Glastonbury became a target. Under the direction of Henry VIII, troops seized the abbey in 1539, executing the abbot and razing the buildings to the ground. Ever since then, the land and the ruins had belonged to private owners. Now, 400 years later, in 1907, the Church of England was finally on the precipice of getting the ruins back to excavate them. But it would take years of research before they could break ground. If they started digging just anywhere, they might damage the ruins. And besides, until the final deed was signed, poor Frederick would have to sit tight. He, however, was not of the waiting type. While he made his name in the practical world of architecture, he had other, more obscure interests. You see, he believed that he knew a way to start the excavation without ever lifting a single shovel. This is why, on November 7th of 1907, Frederick invited Captain John Allen Bartlett to his office. They were going to dig up the Abbey's past using a new method automatic writing. Because John wasn't just a good friend of Frederick's, he was a psychic medium who claimed that he could speak to ghosts. Automatic writing is a technique in which a living person channels the words of the dead. They hold a pen to a piece of paper and let the spirit take control, using the earthly arm to write out a message from beyond the grave. The instant John began writing in Frederick's office, it quickly became clear that the dead were clamoring to be heard. Dozens of voices came forward, but one rang through the loudest. This spirit claimed his name was Johannes Bryant, a Glastonbury monk who had lived from 1497 to 1530 over dozens of seances. John and Frederick got to know the boisterous cleric with a love of fishing and drinking of ale. Johannes told them about his life at the abbey, describing a detailed plan of the building that lay just beneath the soil. When Frederick was finally allowed to break ground at the ruins in 1908, the ghostly monk's words proved to be deadly accurate. Every chapel and cloister was exactly where Johannes said it would be. Frederick continued to excavate the Abbey over the next decade, winning praise and fame for his careful excavation. While he was credited as a shrewd researcher and archaeologist, what he didn't reveal was the source of his information about the Abbey. He knew both the Church of England and his intellectual colleagues looked down on the world of spiritualism and the esoteric. Even so, he couldn't suppress his love for the field. In a few short years, Frederick joined nearly every psychic association and secret society he could find. He was a Freemason and a theosophist. He joined the Society for Psychical Research and even England's first ghost hunting club. And soon enough, he couldn't keep his theories to himself. In 1919, he published a book called the Gate of Remembrance and brought his esoteric beliefs out into the harsh light of day. The Gate of Remembrance recounted exactly how Frederick had used seances and ghostly advice to excavate Glastonbury Abbey. It argued that beyond the grave a collective unconsciousness existed. He had merely tapped into that unconsciousness in the form of Johannes to learn about the abbey. His colleagues, though, weren't impressed. Other archaeologists quickly derided Frederick, claiming that he must have gotten his information about the abbey from ancient records, not a ghostly monk. Some even pointed to the seance transcripts as proof of the hoax, claiming the rudimentary Old English and Latin that Johannes spoke sounded more like an English schoolboy than a contemporary speaker. Because of all of this, the Church of England fired Frederick in 1921, and by 1926 he had fled to America to escape the damage to his reputation. He began a second career there as a psychic investigator and dedicated the rest of his life to proving that ghosts really existed. Frederick didn't seem to care much that his reputation as an architect and archaeologist was ruined, because until the day he died in 1945, Frederick never once gave up the ghost. I hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts or learn more about the show by visiting curiositiespodcast.com the show was created by me, Aaron Manke, in partnership with How Stuff Works. I make another award winning show called Lore, which is a podcast, book series and television show and you can learn all about it over@theworldoflore.com and until next time, stay curious.