LYS Podcast 6

-Intro Music-

AMANDA MORRISON’S NARRATION/VOICE OVER (AM V/O): When we left you last episode, we just learned that Lane Kelly, the owner and principal writer of a blog entitled Silver Cord Road, was in a coma, and that there was some evidence that coma may have been self-inflicted. I told you that we’d been taking a look at Lane Kelly’s unfinished work-in-progress post from Silver Cord Road. A blog post that Colin dug up, something that appears to be an unpublished experimental diary of sorts. Near the bottom of the long post were three images of the now familiar Leap Year Society symbol. There was no text to explain their inclusion there, but it definitely made everything feel connected somehow. I’ve asked my friend and producing partner, Mitch to read part of what we’re going to refer to as ‘Lane Kelly’s Diary’ from this point forward.

-Lane Kelly’s Diary-

MITCH SORENSEN (MS): (Reading from the diary) “Although I’ve continued to ignore their attempts at communication, they’ve sent another missive in the form of coded telephone message. I believe they are the same people who’ve started following me, but I can’t be sure. Whoever they are, they’re after access to my experiments, I’m sure of it. They want to know if I’ve been successful tracking the others, “The Unknown”. I’m going to have to find a way to curtail their interest if I’m to continue my research in peace. I’ve agreed to an in-person meeting with whoever has been sending me coded messages. Hopefully, this will put an end to their continuous concern with me and my work. I feel like I am so close. Soon, I’m going to be able to stay longer. Soon I’ll be able to enter that place unencumbered with the burden of close-looped conscious thought.”

AM V/O: You’re listening to the Leap Year Society. I’m Amanda Morrison. Stay with us.

-End of Intro-

AM V/O: So, who or what was Lane Kelly referring to? Who was it that he believed wanted access to his experiments? And what were his experiments exactly? Were they related to Doctor Weylen Taylor’s work somehow? Was there somebody or some group of people obsessed with Lane Kelly’s research, or had he simply become paranoid? It took a bit of work, but we were eventually able to track down somebody with first-hand knowledge of the situation involving Lane Kelly and his current whereabouts. We found his sister, Brenda Harrison. After we explained what we were doing with the podcast, that we were in no way going to be making fun of her brother, she agreed to speak with us about what happened.

-Interview with Brenda Harrison-

BRENDA HARRISON (BH): It was horrible, seeing him just lying there like that with all those tubes and machines. It didn’t feel right at first. It took a long time to sink in.

AM V/O: That’s Brenda Harrison. She’s about five feet tall with long, dark hair. She’s soft-spoken, but there’s a strength and determination behind her eyes. It was clear, immediately, that she really cared about her brother.

AM: Could you tell us more about what happened with your brother, Lane? How he ended up in a coma? Please, take your time and feel free to take a break whenever you want.

BH: It was that stuff he was into, the psychic stuff. That’s what happened.

AM: Astral projection.

BH: Yes. He believed that human beings are capable of leaving our bodies and…

AM: And what?

BH: Entering another place…maybe even other people.

AM: He believed that he could enter somebody else’s body?

BH: I can’t remember the rules or specifics required for that particular outcome, but yes, he definitely believed it was possible.

AM: Do you believe it’s possible?

BH: No. But that doesn’t mean my brother is crazy. He’s really smart.

AM: I’m sure he is.

BH: I mean, like super smart. Like Rhodes Scholar MIT smart and for some reason, he decided to throw away a mid-six-figure a year job in Silicon Valley to start a blog dedicated to astral projection.

AM: That’s an interesting choice for sure.

BH: It was a ridiculous choice! But I love my brother and no matter what, I was going to support him. Even as he started his Silver Cord Road research project, even when he started to get paranoid, but…but then he started experimenting on himself.

AM: What kind of experiments?

BH: Taking drugs, staying awake for days, listening to white noise and that weird tonal music.

AM: Are you aware of how he ended up in a coma?

BH: Pentobarbital.

AM: So his coma was self-induced. Brenda?

BH: Probably. Yes. Well…there is the possibility that somebody else administered the drugs. That somebody did this to him for some reason.

AM: But you don’t believe that it was somebody else, do you?

BH: No. I believe my brother put himself into a coma.

AM: Why?

BH: Because he wanted to enter what he referred to as the “In-between Place”.

AM V/O: Brenda Harrison clearly cares a lot about her brother. She gave us some update on his condition. No change, he’s still unresponsive. On the Glasgow Coma Scale, he rated a 3. She told us that the doctors told her that there was no way of knowing if he’d suffered any cognitive impairment until he wakes up. At one point in our earlier conversation, Brenda Harrison indicated that she believed her brother had become paranoid. I asked her about this.

AM: Could you explain what you meant when told me your brother had become paranoid?

BH: Sure. So, after a while, Lane started to believe that he had uncovered evidence that there was another…level, another world within our world.

AM: Ok.

BH: I know how it sounds.

AM: It sounds interesting.

BH: Right, well his behaviour had been erratic. He was convinced people were following him at one point. This increasing paranoia and this obsession with uncovering proof of something supernatural; it was all he could talk about near the end. I mean, before the coma.

AM: Is there anything else you can think of that might help shed light on your brother’s state of mind before he slipped into the coma?

BH: I don’t think so.

AM: I hope everything works out with your brother.

BH: Thank you.

AM V/O: While we continue to examine and research the contents of Lane Kelly’s blog, we were also examining and researching something else: the photographs we had taken in Dr. Taylor’s lab. Mitch and I had taken hundreds of pictures and a lot of the material we photographed was dense with text. I’ve learned a lot about all kinds of things from this material, including possible scientific explanations for both astral projection and demonic possession. One of the photographs Mitch had taken featured a section of what appeared to be a transcript. It looked like somebody had transcribed a recording of an interview of some kind. At first, it appeared to be a doctor/patient interview. But, upon further examination, it looked like it was a conversation between colleagues. The participant’s names were written free-hand at the top of the typed transcript. The participants were listed as Dr. W. Taylor and somebody called Dr. C. Winnington. We looked up Dr. Winnington and discovered a reference to a Doctor Connie Winnington, working at the University around the same time as

Dr. Taylor. Mitch and I are going to read the transcripts for you now. I’ll be reading the part of Dr. Connie Winnington, Mitch the part of Dr. Weylen Taylor.

AM/CW: ‘Why does lack of oversight matter’, are you serious, Weylen?

MS/WT: I’m deadly serious, this is important work.

AM/CW: It’s not even pseudoscience, it’s more like…

MS/WT: Science Fiction?

AM/CW: …would be too kind. It’s just fiction, and it’s the worst kind! It’s dangerous fiction.

MS/WT: This is a very real phenomenon and I think part of you recognizes this. That’s why you haven’t shut us down.

AM/CW: I haven’t shut you down because I’m sleeping with you. And I’d rather not deal with the political ramifications.

MS/WT: That’s very funny, Connie.

AM/CW: You actually reference one of your subjects, describing what you call…what did you call it?

MS/WT: Don’t.

AM/CW: Oh right, here it is. “Once again the subject mentioned visiting The Bridge. Need to focus attention on discovering the nature of this bridge. Could it be the same bridge or conscious transition state mentioned by Patient 76 and Patient 59?”

MS/WT: You don’t have to read the material in that tone.

AM/CW: I’m sorry, but one of your patients almost sleepwalked into a bus last week.

MS/WT: I understand how all of this looks to you, but you don’t see their faces, you don’t hear their voices. Something happens to my subjects. I’m convinced that they really do believe that they are going someplace else or passing through something else.

AM/CW: I appreciate your passion, I do, but I just don’t think funding a search for “a bridge between worlds” is healthy for the university.

MS/WT: You’re pulling my funding?

AM/CW: No. I’m asking you to simply switch your focus just a little. You can keep doing whatever it is you’re doing, but couldn’t you also simultaneously focus on helping people fall asleep without medication? Can’t you give me something to take to the board to keep them off my back?

MS/WT: Yes. I can and I will.

AM V/O: We were able to get in touch with one of the participants in that conversation: Dr. Connie Winnington. She recently left the University for New Zealand. She told us that she kind of remembered that conversation and that it most likely took place three weeks or so before Dr. Taylor disappeared. She went on to say that, although she was certainly worried about Dr. Taylor, she didn’t believe that she had anything helpful to add to the discussion. According to Dr. Winnington, the conversation Mitch and I just read for you, that had been recorded and then transcribed, had taken place just a few weeks before Dr. Taylor disappeared. Right around the same time, halfway across the country, Lane Kelly was about to…allegedly put himself into a coma. Two people: one scientist and one blogger, both looking into some kind of sleep-related phenomena, go missing or enter a coma, right around the same time. Coincidence? Maybe, but I don’t know. I felt like there might be something more going on. I’m sure, by now, you’re wondering what happened with the date and the phone number Mitch had received via a mysterious set of clues. Well, the date was today so of course we called the number from what Mitch referred to as her burner phone.

-Cut to Amanda and Mitch-

AM: Ready?

MS: Ready.

Mitch dials and ringing is heard.

Female Voice: Hello?

MS: Hello? This is Miranda. To whom am I speaking?

Female Voice: Just a moment please.

Silence.

AM: I think they put us on hold.

MS: Yeah.

A cell phone message notification is heard.

MS: That was weird.

AM: Yeah.

AM V/O: At that moment, just after whoever had answered the phone had hung up, Mitch received a text message.

MS: Unknown number.

AM: What does it say?

MS: It says “thank you for your interest; we’ll be in touch very soon.”

AM: That’s really weird.

MS: Yeah. Super interesting! Do you think these people could actually be The Leap Year Society?

AM: I have no idea!

AM V/O: We’ll get back to Dr. Taylor, Lane Kelly, and Mitch’s strange message, but right now we’re diving back into those recordings we received earlier via anonymous email. The recordings titled “Patient 80.” Again, the first voice you’ll hear on the recording belongs to Dr. Weylen Taylor. The other voice is Patient 80.

-Recording-

WEYLEN TAYLOR: Could you please describe the experience that led you to come to us for treatment?

PATIENT 80: I’d rather not talk about that.

WT: I understand, but it might help figure out a way to help you feel more…balanced moving forward. Take your time.

80: I don’t want to go back there.

WT: How are you feeling?

80: I miss my dog.

WT: I understand. Your visitor has returned. Did you know she would be returning?

80: She told me she would come back, but I wasn’t sure if she was telling the truth.

WT: Did she tell you why? (Pause) Did she tell you why?

80: She told me that we’re going to get out of here…that she’s going to get us out.

AM V/O: We’ll continue to explore those recordings of Dr. Weylen Taylor and Patient 80, but Mitch found something else, something related to Dr. Taylor.

MS: I think he may have had another lab.

AM: What do you mean?

MS: What I mean…ok, take a look at the exorcism video featuring Patient 80.

Mitch plays the video in the background.

AM: Ok, what am I looking for?

MS: There.

AM: What?

MS: Take a look at the wall behind the shadow of whoever is standing at the foot of the bed!

AM: Ok?

MS: Now look at these photos of Dr. Taylor’s lab.

AM: It’s the same picture.

MS: Yeah, but look here.

AM: I don’t get it.

MS: What’s missing?

AM: Two of the bookcases!

MS: Exactly! And look at the distance between the recognizable wall and the bed!

AM: It’s too far away.

MS: The dimensions are different, but…

AM: …It’s the same lab.

AM V/O: It looked like that exorcism video may have been taken in Dr. Taylor’s lab; the same place we visited, but in the video, the bed was located in a large alcove that appeared to be hidden by two of the four enormous bookcases that covered the wall floor to ceiling. Mitch and I decided immediately that we were going to have to go back to the University to look for that secret room. But before we do that: an update on Mitch and The Leap Year Society.

AM: Ok, just describe exactly what happened.

MS: Right, ok so I was at the grocery store shopping when I received a text message.

AM: And what did it say?

MS: Well, it was just a picture and an address.

AM: What was the picture?

MS: The symbol we’re associating with The Leap Year Society.

AM: What happened next?

MS: Well, I went to the address.

AM: And where was it?

MS: It was a beautiful, old church in a quiet, residential neighbourhood.

AM: Could you describe what happened when you got there?

MS: Ok, so I parked in the lot which was empty.

AM: And how were you feeling at this point?

MS: It was the middle of the day, so I wasn’t really freaked out. I was intensely curious for sure, but not scared really, you know? So I stepped through the doors and it took a moment for my eyes to adjust, but eventually I could see clearly and there were two people sitting together on the first pew. So I approached and I faced them and I asked if they were the people who’d sent me those messages and they told me they were and then they asked if I was Miranda.

AM: The fake name you gave them.

MS: Right.

AM: What did you tell them?

MS: I told them that I was and they asked if I was interested in hearing what they had to say. They asked if I was interested in learning about a secret society.

AM V/O: You’ve been listening to The Leap Year Society. I’m Amanda Morrison. Thank you for listening. (Rest of outro)

END

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NOTES


 * Patient 80 has a female visitor. Is this a visitor in the real world or one of the “Others” whose voices 80 has been hearing - the “passenger” referenced in Episode 4?