We humans can often take for granted that we are ultimately responsible for our actions,

that the choices we make are governed by nothing but our own free will.

And yet, studies have shown that the brain can enact certain decisions up to seven seconds

before we have even become aware that we are making them.

The notion of free will is explored by the philosopher John Gray in his groundbreaking book

Straw Dogs. A work of startling insight, it posits amongst many other profound notions

that the fallacy of free will is merely a concept that helps us make sense of the world.

That all our acts are in fact nothing but the end point in a series of long sequences

of unconscious responses. To accept that free will is little more than an illusion is

a little unnerving to say the least. For some, it could be seen as merely a fascinating

quirk of life. Perhaps the existence of the seven second delay merely the consequence

of a quantum process we are yet to fully understand. But for others, a lack of free will

might speak as something else entirely, something far more sinister.

For after all, if we aren't in control of our minds, then just who or what is.

You're listening to unexplained and I'm Richard McLean Smith.

The following story took place in England in 1974 and I must warn the listener that it

will contain some horrific and graphic details. Believed by some to be the most shocking

account of demonic possession ever to have occurred in the UK, the events that took place

one quiet Sunday morning in a small Yorkshire town have never been fully accounted for.

It is a chilling mystery that remains to this day unexplained.

For Britain, the 1970s was a time of extraordinary uncertainty.

As the government lurched from right to left, the country found itself struggling to adapt

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