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Sabrina
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Corinne
Summer's here, and you can now get almost anything you need for your sunny days delivered with Uber Eats. What do we mean by almost? Well, you can't get a well groomed lawn delivered, but you can get a chicken parmesan delivered. A cabana, that's a no. But a banana, that's a yes. A nice tan. Sorry, nope. But a box fan. Happily, yes. A day of sunshine. No. A box of fine wines.
Sabrina
Yes.
Corinne
Uber Eats can definitely get you that. Get almost. Almost anything delivered with Uber Eats. Order now. Alcohol in select markets. Product availability may vary by Regency app details. Very spooky.
Listener
Hi.
Sabrina
Hey.
Listener
This is two girls, one ghost.
Sabrina
Two girls, one ghost. We are your ghostesses. That's Corinne.
Listener
Hello. I was like, oh, my God. Am I supposed to introduce myself today? No.
Sabrina
And I'm Sabrina. We have a spooky episode for you. We did research. We find weird, cool things on the Internet, in books, on TV shows. We research them and then surprise each other and tell each other.
Listener
Yeah, but I have a question for everyone first.
Sabrina
Okay.
Listener
Did anyone hex me? Just a quick, polite. I'm not mad. I just want to know because I think what has happened to me in the past two weeks.
Sabrina
You've got a lot going on.
Listener
There's something. Someone has something.
Sabrina
I would say it extends beyond the last two weeks. You've been going through it.
Listener
Yeah, but the last two weeks is, like, way worse. Way worse. Urgent care, 911, ambulance, emergency room visit. Noah having allergic reaction. Basically being pulled out of daycare. There's like, five more things. I, like, broke my toe. There's a million more things.
Sabrina
I'm curious to rewatch the episode with Aliza Kelly, what she said about this period of time.
Listener
I don't remember there being any blaring, like, oh, watch your back, Corinne.
Sabrina
No, but I think there was a lot of, like, transformation in your life of, like, the type of person you want to be. Like, the type of, like, person you want to be seen, like, publicly as.
Listener
Okay, well, maybe someone who's not injured, Someone whose child is.
Sabrina
Okay, I do remember. It was like May was supposed to be, like, the time where things pivoted into, like, a really good outlook for you.
Listener
Hmm. Okay.
Sabrina
We're close.
Listener
We're close. I mean, I just didn't know that everything would crumble right before we got to that period.
Sabrina
Yeah.
Listener
I thought I was already down, down, down, down. So if you hexed me, please stop. Just a polite request to knock it off to Unhex. Unhex. Yeah. And then if you have the power of unhexing, I'll take it. I'll take the energy.
Sabrina
Yeah.
Listener
Yeah.
Sabrina
Everyone who's listening, let's all manifest good energy towards Corinne and me while you're at it. You can give it to me, too. I could always use it. I feel like I'm permanently down here for the last, like, four years. But, yeah, just send some good energy, some unhexing healing waves this way.
Listener
Clearly, we should move the crystal jar down here. Cause I feel like we're missing out on the positive vibrations of all the crystals people have sent us.
Sabrina
I actually, when I was at my witchy class two weeks ago, I, like, had this buzzing in my hand, like, for so long, and I was like, what is this? Like, why am I. It was specifically my right hand, and it was just, like, so energetic that I was like, am I, like, trying to feel something? I don't know. So I went around the store because it's like a kind of, like, cool witchy apothecary store, as well as where you take clothes classes. And I just went around and I held a bunch of crystals to, like, see if anything, like, matched the vibration or kind of, like, calmed it. And I ended up getting, like, three or four crystals.
Listener
Oh, really?
Sabrina
Yeah.
Listener
Interesting.
Sabrina
Yeah, they. I have them with me.
Listener
Do you know what they're for?
Sabrina
Yeah, I have all four. Well, I mean, I couldn't. Not off the top of my mind, but a lot of.
Listener
Was there, like, anything, like, any clear message coming from crystals?
Sabrina
A lot of them were about, like, centering energy and finding, like, peace in, like, a chaos. And then a lot of them were also really creativity, because I was, like, writing. So I want to, you know, feed my creative bug.
Listener
Yeah. Nice. Oh, I love that.
Sabrina
But I felt like you. I had the, like, crim.
Listener
Buzz buzzing. Isn't it weird when it happens?
Sabrina
So weird.
Listener
It's kind of cool, though.
Sabrina
It's intense, and it. It wasn't stopping.
Listener
It makes me feel kind of like a superhero, where I'm like, I could. If I can harness this energy, I could, like, and, like, throw an energy blast at someone.
Sabrina
The Power.
Listener
Or, like, create a bubble, you know, like, that's the incredible. Well, you texted me and you're like, we need to put you in a bubble. I said I'd find a way to suffocate on it. Apparently, because of everything that's going on.
Sabrina
I feel, like, significantly higher up.
Listener
I know. You do.
Sabrina
This is the new chair.
Listener
That is the new chair, which is odd.
Sabrina
I feel like I'm wearing a booster seat. Remember when we went and saw Beetlejuice?
Listener
Yes.
Sabrina
And we've got the booster seats.
Listener
Oh, on Broadway. Okay. In my mind, I was like, wait a second. I couldn't go to the. The New Beetlejuice movie. When we went on, we got drinks and booster seats.
Sabrina
And we got drinks and booster seats. We thought on Broadway we were like, we're adult children. We were in the last row of the orchestra, and we were like, well, we're not gonna be blocking anyone and everyone's blocking us, so let's.
Listener
We got booster seats.
Sabrina
Yeah. And it was great.
Listener
And then we cried at intermission.
Sabrina
How?
Listener
The first act was so good. It's so emotional. My gosh. Well, I have a story for today. It is about a book, a book that nobody can read. It is one of the greatest literary enigmas of maybe the entire existence of humanity. The book is written in a language no one knows. It's seemingly impossible to decipher if it's some sort of code. And it has all of these strange illustrations in it that depict basically, like, flora and fauna that don't match anything that exists on Earth today. It has constellations that don't match anything in our galaxy. And it has these humanoid figures that aren't quite perfectly human.
Sabrina
An alien manuscript?
Listener
Potentially. Like, some alien came here and was journaling and dropped their journal.
Sabrina
Or it was their journal from their other planet and they left it behind.
Listener
Right, Exactly.
Sabrina
Cause is there anything Earth like on it?
Listener
It kind of feels like Avatar. Like, it feels like if you were shown something, you'd be like, that's a plant or that's a flower.
Sabrina
But that doesn't exist here.
Listener
It doesn't exist here.
Sabrina
This is so cool.
Listener
From World War II code breakers to cutting edge AI specialists, no one has been able to make a clear translation. Really? No one's been able to translate anything at all? Some believe it to be a long lost alchemical manuscript. Some people think it's hiding these forgotten remedies and secret knowledge reserved for the elite few. So very conspiracy theory.
Sabrina
Okay.
Listener
Others suspect it's an elaborate hoax crafted centuries ago. To mystify and mislead, which I'm on.
Sabrina
Board for that theory just because I respect whoever did that and put that much effort into it, if that is the case. Mad respect.
Listener
Mad respect. But also, like, how confusing for us now and then, there are a few who question whether its origins are entirely of this world. Could this be a journal left behind from another planet? This is the mystery of the Voynich manuscript.
Sabrina
Voynich sounds very Russian. Is it Russian?
Listener
The guy who found it more recently is from the Ukraine.
Sabrina
Okay.
Listener
So that region. The story starts in the 17th century, but for us, it starts in 1912, because Mika Hobdonk Voynich had intended to become a pharmacist when he was younger. But then when he was 20, he joined the first proletariat, which was this revolutionary organization run by a Ukrainian philosopher and activist. This is, like, literally feels like it's out of a movie. So he joined this essentially revolution, and he was part of a team that was set to break into the Warsaw Citadel, which was this giant prison in Poland that had been holding a lot of the people from this, like, revolutionary group. So he was, like, trying to break out his friends.
Sabrina
Okay.
Listener
He didn't succeed.
Sabrina
Oh, no.
Listener
In fact, he was caught. He was sentenced to hard labor in Serbia until he escaped in 1890.
Sabrina
Okay, so he didn't succeed at freeing all of his friends. He escaped.
Listener
He escaped. But, like, this whole thing, I'm like, what am I watching?
Sabrina
It's like a movie. Yeah, yeah.
Listener
And then he relocated to London, which is where he made a career pivot. He was no longer this revolutionary activist and protester. He was now moving into the world of antique books and becoming a rare book collector.
Sabrina
I would love to follow suit.
Listener
Right. So he got his citizenship in England, and he chose to Anglicize his name. So he was now going by Wilfred Michael Voynich. Wilfred Voynich operated a rare bookstore in Soho Square in London, and he would spend a lot of his time outside of the store and basically traveling the world trying to, like, change, track down rare books and antiquities.
Sabrina
It's like the perfect combination between archaeologists and professional antiquer.
Listener
Yeah, right. And, like, I feel like he kind of had the skill set already for someone to kind of go into, like, the weirdest, darkest corners of the world.
Sabrina
He was doing Nicolas Cage in All of Nicolas Cage.
Listener
I wrote that later on. I was like, this is national treasure. You can't tell me this is not a national treasure plot. It's so wild. Okay. So his pursuits in finding these forgotten texts in These rare books led him to Italy, to a 350-year-old estate called Villa Mondragon. Mondragon. Mondragoni. Which is not even Italian. But this village was just outside of Rome. And this village has existed for quite a few centuries, but it's always essentially been owned by the Vatican. So the Vatican ran this village in 1620, basically opened it a few centuries later as this university. So it's. It was a college. It was a Jesuit college. Kind of like if we took our college, lmu and made it its own little bubble and its own little village, and everyone there was basically. It was college town.
Sabrina
Yeah. Okay.
Listener
Run by the Vatican. For a few decades, it functioned as this Jesuit college. But then the Jesuits basically fell on some hard times and the college closed, and they had to sell off a bunch of their historical artifacts from the school. And that is when Wilfred went to purchase some of these rare books and sift through all of, like, the vintage finds that they were selling. It is thought that this is how he came into possession of what is now known as the Voynich manuscript. Although he kind of did go back on his story a few times. So at first he was like, this is where I went to find the book. But then he contradicted his story later on and said that he actually found it in a castle in Southern Europe. And people were like, okay, this doesn't discredit the story because he was a rare book collector, and if he has some, like, hookups and some places that he likes to sift through, you don't want to basically tell everyone where you're finding the coolest shit.
Sabrina
Sure, that. But also, like, did he go on one big trip and collect a bunch of books along this trip, and it's not until he's back home that he's really looking through them?
Listener
No, because he did say that this really stuck out. Okay. So it, like, his eyes went to this book.
Sabrina
That does seem a little sus to me. Cause I'm like, if it sticks out that that much, you know where you got it.
Listener
But he doesn't want other people to go. It's like when you're in antiquer and you have, like, this one golden antique store, and you're like, well, if I tell everyone, I'm never gonna find any of, like, the good furniture. It's all gonna be sifted through, I guess.
Sabrina
But if you got it from, like, an old mansion, then hypothetically it's been cleared out. Like it was an estate sale of sorts of.
Listener
Well, I don't know. Where he got it. That's the thing. We don't know if it's like this unending and awesome, could he create it?
Sabrina
Cause that would also be awesome.
Listener
Well, if some people have theorized that. But it's like kind of impossible too, based on carbon dating, which they did later on.
Sabrina
Okay, okay.
Listener
Yeah. And also, like, he had so much wealth, so he was spending like millions and millions of dollars collecting these items. And then what he was worth for these items was just. It was huge. So also, it's not like, you know, me going to like a goodwill and being like, this is a great coffee table. I'm not going to tell anyone about this Goodwill.
Sabrina
Right.
Listener
There's a lot of money and a lot of competition. It is national treasure. There's a lot of bad people.
Sabrina
I feel like when you have more money, you become more greedy.
Listener
Yeah. More secretive. Either way, Wilfred found himself in possession of this text that would rock the world of scholars, of linguists, of historians and code breakers for over a century.
Sabrina
Damn.
Listener
The Voynich manuscript is a 240 page vellum, which I looked up. Vellum. Cause I was like, what does that mean?
Sabrina
What does that mean? Yeah.
Listener
It's a medieval paper made from calfskin or animal membrane. So basically like they would just dry animal skin to write on. So it's a 240 page vellum book containing hundreds of hand drawn pictures of plants, animals, astrological symbols only the drawings are all slightly off. We know what they're depicting, but we do not know what they match because they don't match anything physically here on Earth.
Sabrina
That's so wild.
Listener
The botanical species are not from this planet. The astrological symbols do not align with what we know of our sky. The script is fanciful. It only contains 11 letters in total, each word contains two to 10 characters. There's no punctuation at all. It's like run on sentences the whole time. It's also written from left to right, which would make you think that it's like from the Western world.
Sabrina
Right.
Listener
Because in the Eastern they write right to left, but obviously maybe also not from this planet. And because there's no punctuation, it's also made it basically impossible for people to understand where something starts and where it ends. Because there's no sentence structure, which makes it harder to break a code if it is written in code. Also all of the letters, since There are only 11 letters in total, it has made people Wonder if these 11 letters are spelling an Alphabet, like spelling out a word, or if we take like Mandarin for Example, a lot of the symbols act as their own word. So it's so difficult.
Sabrina
And we're not language experts. And so, like. And the fact that language experts have studied this and it's not.
Listener
No one can figure it makes no sense.
Sabrina
I'm looking at pictures of this.
Listener
The text was written next to the hand drawn pictures. So it does look like someone is journaling and documenting all of the species that they're seeing looking up at the sky. It's like. It kind of reminds me of like Explorer's Journal.
Sabrina
Right, right.
Listener
Where, you know, like, perhaps they were talking about what they were doing today. But then there's a drawing of like a buffalo and a cotton plant and the Milky Way galaxy right across the sky. You know, like, we're. We're seeing all that in journals. And this is very, very similar. It just makes no sense.
Sabrina
These are wild.
Listener
Looking at these photos also, there are numerous pages missing and there's no way to know how many pages are missing. But, like, I don't think that would help. Like, it's rolling.
Sabrina
Also, it probably was because that was like, detailing his love life. Like, and he was just like, I can't. Yeah, I gotta rip these out before I leave this behind.
Listener
All of the. Dear Diary, he. Yeah, yeah, he got into journaling first. It was like, all about his adventures with plants and whatnot. And then it was like, oh, I met this special someone.
Sabrina
Yeah.
Listener
And then they ripped him out. Because that's. Sometimes it's embarrassing.
Sabrina
Maybe they broke up and, you know.
Listener
Yeah, you gotta rip it from your journal.
Sabrina
Yeah.
Listener
So the question remained, who the hell wrote this journal?
Sabrina
Right.
Listener
So Wilfred, he had a bookshop in London, but then he decided to open a second rare bookshop location in the United States, in New York City. And then a year after that, In October of 1915, he oversaw this exhibition at the Art Institute of Chicago, where he displayed many of his rare books. And this was the first time the Voynich manuscript basically was put on display and publicly spoken about. Whoa. And he declared, like, in his description of what it was, he essentially said, this is an unsolved cipher manuscript authored by Roger bacon in the 13th century.
Sabrina
Who's that?
Listener
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Sabrina
This is a criminal.
Listener
I'm treating it as such. Who is making us confused in the current century? You're under arrest. He could read, write and speak many, many languages. He published texts on alchemy and the origins of the uses of metals. And he was basically like one of the most brilliant minds of his time. And people are like, well, it would make sense that it would be him because this journal is essentially like everything he studied. And if he is studying grammar and language and stuff, it's like, did he just make one up himself?
Sabrina
But if he was such a well known person, scientist, mind back then, presumably they have a lot of his records, documents, and there would be some something that resembles this.
Listener
Right? This is such a one off, it doesn't really make sense.
Sabrina
Right.
Listener
So he was ahead of his time. He was a bit of a controversial figure when he was alive. The church actually viewed his work as black magic and sorcery. So they were like, you're a wizard and we hate you and we might try to kill you. And he was clearly brilliant because he was like, guess what, I'm gonna gaslight and manipulate you, Mr. Church. And so he joined the Catholic church as a friar and said, oh wait, no, I'm actually helping you because this is God's green earth and I'm helping you get closer to God by learning about his creations. And they were like, Whoa, you're right, Mr. Wizard. And then they made him Sir Fryer.
Sabrina
Bacon, related to Kevin Bacon.
Listener
Everyone is by what, six degrees?
Sabrina
Six degrees, yeah. Seven degrees of Kevin Bacon, something like that.
Listener
So it's thought that maybe perhaps Roger Bacon did author this text, either using some code that we've not been able to solve, or via his own language made up and spoken by only one person, which is him. But why would he do that? What is his motivation when he was trying to contribute so much already in the form of text and kind of like dodging people who were trying to stop him. Why would he go to such great lengths?
Sabrina
Well, who's to say? I mean, I feel like I refer to this all the time, but Project Lanulos, or Planet Lanulos.
Listener
Yeah, and I like how you said project, though it does make. Yeah, it's gonna be a project. It is a project and right to the planet.
Sabrina
Like, what if Indrid Cold was abducting people back then and sharing knowledge, giving information. And it makes me think of our listener Kin, who sent us the email where she was like on an alien spacecraft. They were walking her around these rooms that held different creatures and animals, some that she recognized, some that were so foreign and mysterious but belong to other planets.
Listener
Yes. It reminded me too of the book Down a dark hall where it's kind of like you're getting this download, you're getting this information from the astral plane. And then in a way it also kind of reminded me of mental illness where people can. Sure, you know, someone might be thinking that they're solving this like insane math equation and then they come out of their state and they look and it doesn't make any sense to them anymore. I don't know. But it does kind of seem more like Kin's experience could be right. Because if he was abducted and he was seeing or like somehow went to some other world, it would make sense that he was chronicling things like this. Although I will say I don't think he has any other journals that match this sort of like vibe. You know, he has a lot of bright.
Sabrina
Maybe he was very organized.
Listener
He organized, right.
Sabrina
So he kept everything about this in this manuscript.
Listener
Yeah, but if he was studying these things on Earth, don't you think he would have similar paintings and trauma? I agree. Okay, yeah. So anyway, why would he do it? What is his motivation? People don't really know.
Sabrina
Is there a handwriting analysis can you match? Granted, I know it's not the same letters, but like, is there a way for them to analyze his other documents and like stroke of the pen or maybe.
Listener
I don't think that anyone has done that. Or at least in the research that I did, I didn't see that anyone has done that.
Sabrina
I'm going to solve it.
Listener
The letters, do people have said that they resemble like Arabic letters? And one of the podcasts, I did a two part series on this conspiracy theories on Spotify, they compared it to Lord of the Rings, like elfish writing. Some people have thought maybe this also because he was being declared as a wizard and practicing black magic, that this could have been essentially like a attempt at a big old F. You I'm gonna make myself weirder and you fear me even more. But I don't think that that makes that much sense.
Sabrina
Right.
Listener
Or maybe it does, because Roger Bacon was also associated with something else a bit otherworldly. A brazen head or a necromantic head, which was an automated mechanical structure or sculpture made of brass and bronze and said to be possessed by dark evil spirits that could answer yes or no questions. So it's basically like our modern day Zoltar, where you go and you, like, put your hell, yeah, 50 cents in and get a fortune.
Sabrina
I think he was onto something.
Listener
Right, because how do you make stone speak and answer yes or no?
Sabrina
It's like a form of divination, right? Yeah.
Listener
Well, some people say that Roger Bacon certainly created this, but others say no, this is just a part of his lore. This thing didn't actually exist. It's just like, more reporting and rumors about this guy who, like, knows too much and has to be practicing the dark arts in order to do that.
Sabrina
He's a mystery.
Listener
Yeah, he is a mystery. So it is thought that perhaps he did experiment with some necromancy. And maybe he did have powers and abilities and knowledge beyond our comprehension. But apparently the reason why Roger Bacon is credited with creating the Voynich manuscript is because Wilfred, when he purchased the manuscript, he found a letter written in Latin tucked between the pages, which Roger definitely knew Latin. And it was written to a reverend declaring the book to have been purchased by the Emperor Rudolph ii, who was the Holy Roman Emperor, King of Hungary and Croatia, King of Bohemia and Archduke of Austria. That's way too many titles.
Sabrina
So many. Yeah.
Listener
And he believed that it had been authored by Roger Bacon. So it's basically like this person said that they got it from this king who's or emperor, and the emperor said that he thought it was from Roger Bacon. So it's like hearsay.
Sabrina
So the emperor bought it from Roger Bacon.
Listener
Or the emperor just said he thought it was authored by Roger Bacon.
Sabrina
Gotcha. Interesting.
Listener
Anyway, that's what the note said. So Wilfred Voynich was like, oh, my gosh, this was authored by Roger Bacon. I'm putting that up in the Art Institute of Chicago and declaring this done and permanent. So the manuscript then gained a ton of attention after this exhibition was publicized. And the intrigue of others fueled Wilfred Voynich to crack the code and unveil the mystery of his now most famous and most prized possession, to attempt to crack the code. Attempt? Yeah, attempt. It's still unsolved.
Sabrina
Yeah.
Listener
For the next 18 years, he enlisted book dealers, historians, linguists and philosophers to work on deciphering this text with him. So he wasn't being selfish, being like, this is my own thing, like, blah, blah, blah. He was. He was like, we got.
Sabrina
Let's figure it out. Yeah.
Listener
Yes. One philosopher, William Romaine Newbold, passed away before completing his research. But he declared an equation for solving the cipher before his passing. So he basically was like, oh, I've already decoded a bunch of passages. Here's what you have to do. You have to find the spot that seems to be the beginning. Then you log the shorthand characters, transcribe the order, translate into ordinary letters, double everyone but the first and last number, then divide into pairs, then change every letter which is in a pair to one of the letters in Latin and so on. And so it's like. Yeah, it's like a cipher for a cipher. Right. It's so freaking confusing. And a lot of people were like, wait, I don't understand. Yeah, but basically he was saying that this entire manuscript was written in shorthand. Which I was like, okay. I kind of actually get that because, you know, in courts, they use one of those, the steno machine, to transcribe anything. Have you seen those machines? And what they look like, there's like, I don't know, like, 10 keys. So you can't. You don't even have the full Alphabet. And you basically have to memorize this code if you're a transcriber. And that's how they keep up with all the words. So, like, it'll look like this. They'll punch in a bunch of letters and stuff, and it will equal, in the end words, which I don't understand how anyone can memorize. It's like another language. So I was like, okay, well, that makes sense. Maybe this was the og, like, steno machine coding whoever wrote this was doing. But apparently Newbold, despite saying he had translated a bunch of it, after he passed away, people were examining his equation, trying to do the cipher, and they declared it basically gibberish. They said, no, he made this up. He made huge leaps in logic. This was not actually no success here. Yeah, this wasn't working out. Okay, so, still unsolved, Wilfrid Voynich passed away. It's 1930. He has died. His wife inherits all of his estate and belongings. Ethel Voynich takes the manuscript and is like, I'm Gonna keep up with people studying it. Like this is. This cannot just die with Wilfred.
Sabrina
Yeah.
Listener
And so she invites a bunch of code breakers to come and crack the cipher, but still nothing. Copies are made of the manuscript so everyone can study it. It doesn't just have to be people who can visit where Ethel's located. The more eyes, the better. And in 1944, cryptographer William Friedman, a US government intelligence worker and code breaker, dove into the manuscript. And he had cracked the Japanese code machines during World War II. So, like, this guy could do things. And then his wife Elizabeth was a cryptanalyst who decoded thousands of messages for the US Government and has a movie made about her. So they were like this intense code breaking duo, the Code Breaker.
Sabrina
I wonder if I've seen it.
Listener
Yeah, there's like a few movies that have that sort of vibe. Similar historical figures, like, who have done those sort of things, but hers is the Code Breaker. Okay, clearly, like, I'm sure his wife also looked at this with him.
Sabrina
Right.
Listener
But he created a team who transcribed every line of the Voynich manuscript onto the IBM punch card to feed into the machine so that the computer could work out any math problems and basically lead to it being solved. If it was a cipher.
Sabrina
Gotcha. This is 1930s, okay.
Listener
Which is what they did in the.
Sabrina
Right.
Listener
In the wars.
Sabrina
But this is also, like 1930. Code breaking is very different than, like, AI and, you know, stuff that could be happening today.
Listener
AI still can't do it. There's a spoiler alert. So, yeah, the IBM machine didn't get it. Nothing. The machine did identify some repeated patterns, but no one could understand really, still what it meant. No one could read the Voynich manuscript. So now it's 1960. Ethel Voynich has now passed away, and her close friend and an employee of the Voynich's bookstore, Ann Nil. She inherited the book and the rest of the Voynich collection. She actually, like, in order to keep the bookstore going and basically keep herself out of poverty, she did have to sell off the majority of the collection. So that included the Voynich manuscript, which I'm sure was like the prized item people paid a lot for. So Peter Kraus is the guy who bought it. He tried to sell it for way too much money. No one wanted to buy it for how much he wanted to sell it for. So then he ended up taking it to the Vatican and going through their library looking for any sort of clues that match, which. This is where I was like, this is national treasure. This is like all of these people going on these adventures, he couldn't find anything within the Vatican, despite it supposedly being in possession originally from the Jesuits in the Vatican. He eventually donated it to the Beinecki Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Yale University. And then in 1972, Prescott Currier, a Navy captain who'd previously worked with Friedman, declared the Voynich manuscript unsolvable.
Sabrina
Why?
Listener
Because he said, it's written in a language that has been long gone. It has to be some dead language that is impossible to discover at this point. But that doesn't make sense to me because if it was a language, like, there wouldn't be, like, a code to break, be able to understand patterns.
Sabrina
This is reminding me so much of when I was in Amsterdam. I went to Bibliotheca Philosophica Hermetica, which is like the largest collection of texts around.
Listener
Was it exorcisms or something?
Sabrina
No, like alchemy, hermetica, mysticism, like religion and like grimoires and magical texts. It's called the. Or also the Ritman Library. I remember walking through it and there are so many visuals that kind of remind me of this. And I'm like, I'm curious because it's not a religious text. It's not. It's clearly not of anything weird. Aware of.
Listener
Yeah, it's Earth and space science.
Sabrina
Then I am curious if you compare to some of these manuscripts, if there's any similarities, like, look at. Look to astrology and look to space first.
Listener
Well, because there's all these, like, geometric patterns and constellations and whatnot in this book. And they don't match anything that we can see in our sky.
Sabrina
I don't know.
Listener
It's all weird.
Sabrina
It is weird.
Listener
Okay, so then a few years later, national security agent James R. Child that it had to be written by two different people in some sort of unknown North Germanic dialect. So people are just throwing any idea out there. So then a few years after that, cryptographer Mary Dempereau raised the question of the manuscript being a hoax. She said, is this intentionally unsolvable? British professor Gordon Rugg also noted that this could be actually a hoax, because not anywhere in the manuscript is there any area that would indicate that there was an error. So basically, it's like, how many times do you journal in ink, no less, and you don't make any errors that you have to scratch out and rewrite a word or, like, change what something looks like?
Sabrina
I understand that, but there are perfectionists and, like, there are pages clearly ripped out. So, like, maybe that doesn't make any mistake.
Listener
Could have been ripped out. Yeah, that's a good point. That's actually what triggered my mom to send me to therapy for OCD in high school, because I couldn't take notes. Because every time I made an error, I'd rip the page out and restart. So I would get like four sentences in and I was screwing up in class.
Sabrina
Yeah.
Listener
Any who mental illness in it. So Roger Bacon, he lived in the 1200s, the 13th century. Yale University in 2009 decided to have this manuscript carbon dated.
Sabrina
Love that.
Listener
So they sent it to the University of Arizona and it came back as being 571 to 605 years old, which means that it was likely written between year 1404 and 1438, which would be impossible for Roger Bacon to have been the scribe.
Sabrina
He lived before that.
Listener
He died in 1292. Okay, so 150 years before.
Sabrina
Right.
Listener
So while some people think that this could be a hoax, others question if it was written in an ancient language lost to time. And as years pass, we become further and further from ever being able to decipher it. Because it would make sense if it was written in code or a cipher in a language that is now dead. But it still doesn't answer, what are these things that are in the book?
Sabrina
Well, and also that totally just like, writes off Roger Bacon, like, he didn't write it. It's impossible he didn't write it for him too. But then I'm like, they can carbon date when these pages were written and whatnot, but can they do more analysis of, like, what animal this came from? Is there any, like, sediments or like, different qualities held within the vellum paper that could maybe prove whether it's from Earth or not?
Listener
That's a good point, because you should be able to also know what the dye from the ink was made from, and then that will tell you where in the world the ink was obtained.
Sabrina
There's also color and like, what, what was used for that. I'm no scientist, but Yale, you have more scientists to offer us. I'm here to workshop some ideas to help you find other scientists to do the actual work.
Listener
Well, a lot of people, because science has not solved it yet, have believed that this could be a result of autonomic writing. So basically, when people are in this sort of meditative state, it's sort of the down of Jharkhol version where they essentially become possessed. And it doesn't have to be just from a ghost that lives on Earth. It could be some sort of Alien species or something. But basically, like, whoever wrote this was a channel for someone else to write and draw.
Sabrina
Aliens.
Listener
Aliens, Right. It all comes back to aliens, and it always does.
Sabrina
Which could be us from the past, from the future.
Listener
We don't know.
Sabrina
We have no idea.
Listener
Others suggest that this was a lost work of the Cathars or another persecuted sect, hiding their knowledge and code to prevent their wisdom from being destroyed by religious authorities, which. This also kind of reminds me of ancient Egypt. And, like, some of the pictures and stuff that do kind of seem to be depicting an energy source and harnessing energy, but, like, we don't get it.
Sabrina
Yeah.
Listener
Or we do and we're refusing to accept it.
Sabrina
It's like almost like the more advanced we become, the dumber we've become.
Listener
Yeah. This is so conspiracy theorist of me. But, like, I do kind of believe in the sort of, like, resets, you know, 100%.
Sabrina
And I also think about, like, it goes back to the Mandela effect. Like, how does that come into play if we can forget or completely, like, misremember and generations of people can misremember the name of a book? Like, what else could be erased or changed and altered in our memories?
Listener
Well. And you're making me think of time slips now, because what if someone was in the 1400s, actually journeying somewhere, went through some sort of, like, little wormhole accidentally and was in some other version of Earth chronicling this.
Sabrina
Right.
Listener
And found their way back, but was, like, in this weird time slip, left their journal behind. Yeah. I don't know. I don't know.
Sabrina
This is the most conspiracy episode. I mean. Cause there's so much work that has been done to try to analyze and do a code break of this.
Listener
But there are no mind spurs for over a century.
Sabrina
Right. So maybe the answers are not logic. Maybe the answers are paranormal or supernatural or beyond us.
Listener
Right. And it is so wild, too, because it's not like it's just historians or just code breakers. Like, it's people from all over. All over.
Sabrina
Yeah.
Listener
Yeah. Anyone who has, like, the slightest bit of ability to potentially answer this is looking at it and no one can figure it out.
Sabrina
Damn.
Listener
Some people wonder if the Voynich manuscript was never meant to be read in a traditional sense, but rather is some type of encoded map, perhaps leading to an undiscovered relic or knowledge hidden somewhere on Earth.
Sabrina
Maybe I need to take my buzzing hand and go put it on top of the manuscript and just absorb all.
Listener
The energy and we take a journey to the center of the Earth.
Sabrina
Yes.
Listener
This Is inner Earth. Now we're talking about inner Earth conspiracies. Earth is hollow. Maybe. I don't know. Probably not.
Sabrina
Definitely not.
Listener
And then of course, there are the extraterrestrial theories. Some claim that the unknown plants and cosmic diagrams are evidence of knowledge brought to Earth from another world. And that this book is basically alien botany that we're being exposed to and record of some forgotten contact that happened in the 1400s.
Sabrina
Could it not also be like the version of James Cameron's Avatar? Like, is this not some, like, creative piece that someone just wrote back then?
Listener
Right. Well, because also in Avatar they made their own language.
Sabrina
Right. Same with, like, Game of Thrones was this and Lord of the Rings was.
Listener
Cameron and Token, were they just like living in the 1400s, doing this sort of shit and then they were reincarnated.
Sabrina
And now down a dark hall. Yeah.
Listener
Huh. Interesting.
Sabrina
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Listener
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Sabrina
I also love that Buffy is committed to always being chemical free, so they avoid the petroleum and harmful chemicals in favor of sustainable non toxic products that are as kind to the earth as they are to your skin.
Listener
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Sabrina
Ooh.
Listener
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Listener
So the Voynich Manuscript remains one of history's most fascinating mysteries. An unreadable book waiting for someone to unlock its secrets. Could it be an ancient code waiting for the right mind to break it? An elaborate hoax stretching centuries? Or is it something far stranger? A message not meant for us at all?
Sabrina
Or meant for us, but not yet.
Listener
Not yet.
Sabrina
One day someone will come along and they'll be like, I can decode it.
Listener
When you get taken to Lanulos.
Sabrina
Yeah.
Listener
You'll come back and you'll be like, oh, I know exactly what you guys are. Oh, I can read this.
Sabrina
And don't worry, it's partial tongue crazy.
Listener
Well, that's the thing is, like, if it was like, this paranormal thing where let's say that you suddenly were struck with the ability to read this, right, but you couldn't understand why you could read it or what these things were. It's another thing where I feel like people just be like, that makes no sense. Like, you're not to be believed.
Sabrina
Toss her in the loony bin. Yeah.
Listener
It's impossible. This text is impossible. The Voynich Manuscript Mystery.
Sabrina
Wow. That is wild.
Listener
Right?
Sabrina
I also feel like there's so many things like this in the world that exist that are confounding to us. Like, even, like, you brought up Egyptians and, like, hieroglyphs and some of their renderings and drawings of things that we don't know how to decipher.
Listener
Yeah. Well, and it's also interesting because I feel like a lot of those things, there's. There's a small sample, but with the Voynich manuscript, it is 240 pages.
Sabrina
It's a massive book. Yeah.
Listener
Right. So it's not like there's something etched off of a piece of stone and you're trying to figure out, like, the missing piece.
Sabrina
So this reminds me of House of Leaves, I want to say, is called. And I showed you this book. So someone, one of our listeners, recommended it, and I'll have to bring it one time, and I'll show everyone on YouTube the, like, visual of it. But it is. I think there's, like, lore with it where it was, like, passed around and never was, like, fully finished. But, like, there are some pages where, like, the book is written, like, spiraling around, and there are other pages where it looks like Morse code. Someone recently was like, thanks for the recommendation. I love this book. I'm like, how are you reading it? Because I need to know.
Listener
I need to know. I don't know if it was recommended as much as it was just talked about.
Sabrina
And I have it because I was like, I want to buy this. And I'm curious. And it just. I'm confused. I have a movie recommendation, then I have a listener email.
Listener
Okay.
Sabrina
This movie is so good. It's called Presence. It just came out. It's so good. It's paranormal.
Listener
What is it about?
Sabrina
But it's like a family drama and a paranormal thing kind of Haunting of Hill Housey. It's this family that moves into a new house and immediately like the young, the daughter, like starts to feel a presence. And she had recently lost a friend or to drugs or she died in her sleep or something like that. And that's all I'll say. It's a family drama.
Listener
Presence.
Sabrina
It's so good.
Listener
Presence or the presence.
Sabrina
Just presence. P R E S E N C E. Okay, well, there was nothing about the manuscript in our inbox.
Listener
Surprising no one solved it. None of our listeners solved it.
Sabrina
But I do have an email from our listener Millie, and it is called Religious Texts and Ghosts. Hi girls. This email is a response to your query in encounters 103. I'm very far behind, but I'm catching up. In this episode. Corinne pondered whether it's just a Bible or if it's any religious text that can be attacked or tampered with by spirits. And I am here to answer you from the eclectic witch point of view with my experiences with my ghost and my grimoire.
Listener
Oh so cool.
Sabrina
2019. It was a normal night in the north of England. Stormy, rainy, cold. Us northerners are very used to this. And us northerners who are open to spirits like myself are especially used to the cold. This was around Samhain, which is Halloween, for the benefit of non witches. And the veil between the worlds is its thinnest. This is a normal transition that witches and or sensitives prepare for, myself included. I was ready. My granddad had recently passed away from old age in his sleep and this would be the first sawyin since his passing. I was ready to say goodbye as I didn't get to in real life. And I was hoping that he'd be strong enough to cross over. I knew that my nanny had been waiting for him and had been waiting for him since 1998 when she passed away. So I wasn't sure if he would come through or if he had already passed on and was with her anyway. I had my rite all set up. The salt circle, the white candles, the offerings to the dead. I had blueberry muffins, as these were my granddad's favorite. And I had my Book of Shadows, a book I write my own rites and spells in, and my grimoire, which is a book of spells passed to me by my mom as a Wiccan tradition.
Listener
So cool.
Sabrina
Both were open in front of me on the collective rite communicating with spirits, Samhain. There was a short spell written in the grimoire that I was prepared to say at midnight when the veil dropped entirely, I was ready. My candles lit. The gods I wanted present had been called. My black cat familiar slept not too far away. Midnight came, and I prepared to call my granddad forth. I said the incantation and waited for his familiar tobacco smell. The candles blew out. I didn't panic. This was not out of the ordinary for necrotic rites. So I found my matches in the moonlight shining through the skylight, ready to light them again. But before I could, the grimoire in front of me started making a shuffling noise, as if someone was turning the pages. This was not part of the rite, but I didn't panic. I wondered if someone wanting my clairaudient help was trying to communicate. So I lit the candle again and made to light the other four when that spirit candle blew out. Granddad? I asked. No response. My heart started pounding. At this point, this was not normal, but I was still prepared as a witch doing a spiritual rite on Samhain. You can't not be. So again I lit the spirit candle, and again it blew out. Okay, I said out loud. Who are you? Can I help you move on so I can get back to what I want to be doing? To be honest, I was a little annoyed in this situation, and at once three things happened. One, the spirit candle sparked a light again, and the grimoire page was now open to that of exorcism. The light from the candle was now lighting my familiar's bright green eyes. He was staring at the grimoire from outside the salt circle and started yowling. Now, my cat, Jinx, is not a vocal cat. The only time we hear him is when we take him to the vet. And she spelled out vet because she can't say it out loud to the cat. But now he was hissing and yowling with anger. And three, my clairaudient ears heard loud and clear a laugh that seemed to say, you think you can get rid of me? I've always been stubborn So I was like, well, yeah, I'm gonna damn try, because now I'm really pissed at this intrusion. And like every good witch, I had my colored candles next to me in the salt circle just in case. I struck a black candle, the one used for exorcism, and used all of my will to keep it lit. This spirit was not going to tamper with this. Jinx is now pacing outside the salt circle as if giving me backup. I love having such a loyal familiar. And I started to recite the spell that the entity had chosen in my grimoire.
Listener
Really?
Sabrina
They seemed their own doom, and they messed with the wrong witch. I recited the words three times, as is lore in the Wicca I was raised in, and I said the final so mote it be. Jinx stopped prowling, the black candle snuffed itself out, and the white candles relit themselves, and I felt the entity leave. You messed with the wrong witch, bitch. Unfortunately, this little event meant that I didn't get to speak with my granddad. The veil in 2020 was too congested after the pandemic and he couldn't get through, so I couldn't then either. But my fingers are crossed for saw in 2021. I've moved back in with my parents, and my mom and I are planning a dumb supper to invite granddad and nanny. A dumb supper?
Listener
What is that?
Sabrina
What is that? I don't know. Jinx will be there too. The third witch to our coven. Thank you for reading. Basically, yes, other religious and belief texts can channel spirits like my grandma did in this experience. I love you both and your podcast so much. Millie from the uk.
Listener
Wow. Okay. Well, honestly, thank God for her history of being a witch and her family and being the most prepared you could possibly be in this situation.
Sabrina
Right.
Listener
Because that is really frightening. And to hear the voice, that's like, ha. Right. The challenge. Because in case you. You thought maybe you were just reading into the situation, you now have basically confirmation that, no, there's something that's trying to stop you.
Sabrina
Well, and I think that this also just proves that you can be a seasoned witch or spiritual practice or whatever you want to call it. And there are times where dark things are going to still come through and they're still going to tempt you and they're still going to try to taunt you or whatever it is. And I think that's why we have had such hesitance around Ouija boards and opening communication in certain ways, because you could be the most well practiced witch and still you never know. What's gonna come through?
Listener
I know. Spooky, scary.
Sabrina
Spooky scary.
Listener
Spooky scary skeletons.
Sabrina
I wanna do a Samhain ritual.
Listener
I was thinking about it when you were talking about it, and I was like, I don't think I ever could. Cause you have to stay up till midnight.
Sabrina
Yeah, I've done it.
Listener
I've stayed up till midnight.
Sabrina
You've stayed up past midnight for investigations.
Listener
Yeah, but that's. That was pre. Baby.
Sabrina
That's true. You're gonna have to do it again sometime soon because I'm taking you somewhere scary. We have to go to Waverly Hills.
Listener
I know, but not right now.
Sabrina
We gotta get the hex burn. We gotta get the hex first. Yeah.
Listener
Yeah.
Sabrina
Oh, actually, this makes me think. I was about to conclude, but what if someone took the Voynich manuscript into a witch salt circle ritual? What would happen? Is it a grimoire?
Listener
Like, would all the letters start to and suddenly it unveils what it's trying to say?
Sabrina
Or would it flip open to a page and, like, a spirit would come forth? I don't know.
Listener
I'm sure they haven't tried that. And they've tried a lot of things. And there's also so much focus on the text. And I'm like, what about the images?
Sabrina
Right? Because there was one image with, like, almost like human, like, bodies, like, coming.
Listener
Out of what kind of looks like a. A portal trap.
Sabrina
It's a portal. It's going to teach us how to teleport.
Listener
Done. CIA Hire us. You're fired.
Sabrina
We are hired.
Listener
We're hired.
Sabrina
You're going to feel extra safe with us watching your back anyway. Yes, if you have emails, anything spooky, paranormal. If you have grimoires you've passed down through generations, can you send us pictures? Email us at 2girls1ghost podcastmail.com.
Listener
You can follow us on social media, you can watch us on YouTube. And if you want all of the episodes ad free one week early and additional episodes, you can check out our.
Sabrina
Patreon, the March Patreon bonus episode. All I'll say is Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs.
Listener
Thank you to Jamie, who edits and produces our podcast, and thank you to all of you. We love you and we will see you on the other side.
Corinne
Very spooky.
Sabrina
Step into the world of power, loyalty and luck. I'm gonna make him an offer he can't refuse.
Corinne
With family.
Sabrina
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Two Girls One Ghost: Episode 314 - The Book No One Can Read: The Voynich Manuscript Mystery
Release Date: March 23, 2025
Introduction
In Episode 314 of Two Girls One Ghost, hosts Corinne Vien and Sabrina Deana-Roga delve into one of history's most perplexing enigmas: the Voynich Manuscript. This 240-page vellum document, adorned with mysterious illustrations and an undecipherable script, has baffled scholars, linguists, and cryptographers for centuries. Join Corinne and Sabrina as they explore the manuscript's mysterious origins, the myriad theories surrounding it, and the persistent attempts to unlock its secrets.
Overview of the Voynich Manuscript
Sabrina introduces listeners to the Voynich Manuscript, describing it as "one of the greatest literary enigmas of maybe the entire existence of humanity." The manuscript is famed for its unknown language, intricate illustrations of flora and fauna that don't match any known Earth species, and celestial diagrams that defy current astronomical understanding.
“It feels like if you were shown something, you'd be like, that's a plant or that's a flower. But that doesn't exist here.” – [06:43] Listener
Historical Context and Discovery
The manuscript's journey begins in the early 20th century with Wilfred Michael Voynich, a rare book collector from London. Formerly a revolutionary, Voynich pivoted to antiquarian pursuits after escaping imprisonment. His quest for rare texts led him to Italy's Villa Mondragoni, where he acquired the manuscript—though he later alternated his account of its discovery, enhancing its mystique.
“It is thought that this is the way he came into possession of what is now known as the Voynich manuscript.” – [10:39] Listener
Attempts to Decipher the Manuscript
For over a century, numerous experts have attempted to decode the Voynich Manuscript without success. Noteworthy endeavors include:
William Romaine Newbold's Theory: Before his untimely death, Newbold proposed a complex cipher system involving shorthand transcription and Latin letter substitution. However, his method was deemed ineffective by subsequent researchers.
“He was saying that this entire manuscript was written in shorthand.” – [26:03] Listener
William Friedman and Elizabeth Friedman: This renowned cryptographic duo employed IBM punch cards to analyze the manuscript’s patterns. Despite identifying repeated sequences, they ultimately concluded that the text remained unbreakable.
“He created a team who transcribed every line of the Voynich manuscript onto the IBM punch card to feed into the machine so that the computer could work out any math problems and basically lead to it being solved.” – [28:13] Listener
Theories Surrounding the Manuscript's Origin
Corinne and Sabrina explore various hypotheses about the manuscript's origins:
Authorship by Roger Bacon: Initially believed to be authored by the 13th-century friar, this theory was debunked by carbon dating, which places the manuscript's creation 150 years after Bacon's death.
“He was ahead of his time. He was a bit of a controversial figure when he was alive.” – [19:28] Sabrina
Alchemical Manuscript or Secret Knowledge: Some suggest the manuscript contains lost remedies or esoteric knowledge preserved by elite groups or persecuted sects like the Cathars.
“Others suspect it's an elaborate hoax crafted centuries ago.” – [07:23] Listener
Extraterrestrial or Paranormal Origins: The hosts entertain the possibility of alien authorship, suggesting the manuscript might be a journal left by extraterrestrial beings or the product of autonomic writing—where the writer channels another entity's knowledge.
“Well, the Voynich Manuscript remains one of history's most fascinating mysteries. An unreadable book waiting for someone to unlock its secrets.” – [40:48] Listener
Creative Fiction or Hoax: Some academics and conspiracy theorists argue that the manuscript is an elaborate creation intended to mystify and deceive.
“British professor Gordon Rugg also noted that this could be actually a hoax.” – [32:00]
Scientific Analysis and Challenges
Yale University's carbon dating placed the manuscript's creation between 1404 and 1438, ruling out earlier theories linking it to Roger Bacon. Further scientific inquiries could include:
Material Composition Analysis: Examining the ink and vellum for geographic and temporal markers.
“You should be able to also know what the dye from the ink was made from, and then that will tell you where in the world the ink was obtained.” – [34:48] Sabrina
Despite advancements in technology, even modern AI has yet to crack the manuscript's code, underscoring its perplexing nature.
“AI still can't do it. There's a spoiler alert. So, yeah, the IBM machine didn't get it.” – [29:19] Listener
Listener Engagement: Religious Texts and Ghosts
In a compelling listener email, Millie from the UK shares her personal experience with Wiccan rituals and spiritual encounters during Samhain. Her account highlights the intersection of religious texts, spiritual practices, and encounters with the supernatural, resonating with the episode's theme of unexplained mysteries.
“All of these people going on these adventures, he couldn't find anything within the Vatican, despite it supposedly being in possession originally from the Jesuits in the Vatican.” – [12:09] Listener
Concluding Thoughts
Corinne and Sabrina reflect on the enduring mystery of the Voynich Manuscript, contemplating whether its secrets lie beyond human comprehension or within undiscovered facets of our history and language. They invite listeners to ponder the possibility that some mysteries may remain unsolved, waiting for an unforeseen revelation or a paradigm shift in understanding.
“This Is inner Earth. Now we're talking about inner Earth conspiracies. Earth is hollow. Maybe. I don't know. Probably not.” – [37:01] Listener
“So the Voynich Manuscript Mystery.” – [41:45] Sabrina
Final Remarks
Despite exhaustive research and countless theories, the Voynich Manuscript continues to intrigue and mystify. Two Girls One Ghost leaves listeners with a sense of awe and curiosity, encouraging them to keep exploring the unknown and embracing the mysteries that linger at the edges of our understanding.
Join the Conversation
Have theories or insights about the Voynich Manuscript or other supernatural mysteries? Share your thoughts with Corinne and Sabrina at 2girls1ghost@podcastmail.com.
Follow Two Girls One Ghost on social media and subscribe on your favorite podcast platform to stay updated on the most haunted tales across America.