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 Curiosity's.

The book is a vulnerable state.

While we slumber any number of things can happen, we might not hear the pop of a pipe as it

fills the basement with water, or the subtle steps of a burglar hunting for whatever

is within reach.

Some of us might even raid the fridge in a half-conscious state, hunting for a snack that

will satisfy our midnight cravings.

And then there's Ansel.

He was a man with a complicated relationship with sleep.

In the late 19th century, Ansel worked as a carpenter and an evangelical preacher in Rhode

Island.

He had a wife and two adult daughters with families of their own.

He was well known around town, too, but not for his woodworking skills, or even his

sermons.

No, Ansel was prone to certain episodes, ones where he would briefly forget who or where

he was.

It was a form of temporary amnesia known as dissociative fugue, or sleepwalking.

Now some at the time might have called it somnambulism, which was a scary word.

Those who suffered often fell downstairs or hurt themselves due to their semi-consciousness.

...