003: The Invitation
Pleasing Terrors
Mike Brown
4.9 ā¢ 1.3K Ratings
šļø 24 August 2016
ā±ļø 26 minutes
šļø Recording | iTunes | RSS
š§¾ļø Download transcript
Summary
Wear garlic around your neck. Carry a wooden stake. Hang a crucifix on the wall, and never, ever, open the door for Dracula.
The superstitions that were meant to protect our ancestors from vampires taught them the most important lesson of all: never invite a monster inside. Yet with the birth of Spiritualism in the 19th century came a rise in the belief that the dead harbor secret knowledge from the living, and inviting a monstrous spirit into your home became easier than ever. Ā Ā
The Ouija board, printed with letters and numbers, has entranced generations as a gateway between this world and the next. Groups gather around the board, hands touching the planchette, and hope to make contact with lost loved ones or benevolent guides with insight that only comes from beyond the grave.
But when you open the door into the darkness, you can't control what may come slinking through. Murder, madness, and possession have haunted Ouija board users since its inception, but where does this evil really come from? Ā Ā
The spirit world? Or our own minds?Ā
Episode Highlights:Ā
- Vampire lore and superstitionĀ
- Usage and origins of the ouija board: Spiritualists & talking boardsĀ
- Pearl Curran and Emily Grant Hutchings: Spiritualist secretariesĀ
- 1920s California madnessĀ
- Manipulated into murder by spiritsĀ
- Modern Ouija board possessionsĀ
- The ZoZo demonĀ
- The ExorcistĀ
- The ideomotor effectĀ
Resources:Ā
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Some stories were never supposed to be told. |
| 0:14.0 | Stories that exist in the twilight between science and the |
| 0:19.2 | supernatural, between history and horror, stories that speak of terrifying things, stories that you want to hear, |
| 0:30.9 | stories that you need to hear, stories that will sink their teeth in and never let you go. |
| 0:39.0 | My name is Mike Brown, and this is pleasing terrors. is We all know the rules for dealing with vampires. |
| 0:54.0 | You can probably name half a dozen of them without trying too hard. |
| 0:58.0 | Vampires hate garlic and holy symbols. |
| 1:02.0 | They can be drowned in running water. |
| 1:04.9 | They can't be seen in a mirror, and they will die if exposed to the sun. |
| 1:10.6 | These rules originate with Eastern European folk tales that are the ancestors of the |
| 1:16.0 | tropes that most of us have become familiar with through movies, television, and novels. |
| 1:23.0 | But the specific rule that concerns us in this episode |
| 1:26.6 | may be the most important rule of all. |
| 1:29.8 | According to tradition, a vampire cannot enter a home unless it is invited. |
| 1:35.0 | I'm not sure as to the exact origin of this particular prohibition, |
| 1:40.0 | but it was probably invented as a way of providing people with some sense of comfort in the sanctity of their homes at a time when they actually feared they might be attacked by a vampire. |
| 1:52.0 | Or perhaps it was a form of supernatural victim shaming, suggesting |
| 1:56.8 | that if someone was attacked by a vampire, then they must have brought it upon themselves. |
| 2:01.5 | Still, one would think that this would be must have brought it upon themselves. |
| 2:02.6 | Still, one would think that this would be an easy rule to follow. |
| 2:07.6 | Even in a more primitive time, with so much still unknown, |
| 2:12.1 | one thing that they had figured out was that you should never, under |
... |
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