LYS Podcast Episode 5

-Intro Music-

'''AMANDA MORRISON’S NARRATION/VOICE OVER (AM V/O)''': Last episode, we spoke with a woman named Harriet Evanson. She’d written a thesis that contained a phrase connected to Doctor Weylen Taylor. She led us to a video that featured the voice of a man with a very familiar voice. It was Patient 80. Earlier we received an audio fire from an anonymous source. That file was simply titled “Patient 80”. Another avenue of our investigation led us to a strange set of numbers. Which in turn, led us to a website, which visited, sent a message, and received a response. That response is next. You’re listening to the Leap Year Society. I’m Amanda Morrison. Stay with us. Our visit to the website, “bolchesterdeep.com”, resulted in us filling out a series of online forms and receiving a kind of stock response via email. That email included a second link, where we were asked to submit some additional personal information. Mitch and I entered our responses and waited. After a few hours, Mitch received a response. I didn’t.

MITCH SORENSON (MS): I guess you’re just not ‘special’.

AM: Ha!

MS: Yeah, when it comes to weird online cults, I suppose some of us have that magical something. And some of us don’t.

AM: Could your ‘magical self’ please describe what happened?

MS: Of course, so I received the following response.

AM: Via email.

MS: Via text actually, from a burner phone number I used to sign up.

AM: A…a burner phone?

MS: Come one, you’re never watched The Wire?

AM: That was a long time ago.

MS: Hmm, doesn’t mean it isn’t awesome. A burner phone is something you buy for cheap, it’s pay-as-you-go, and you remain anonymous.

AM: I get it. What was the response?

MS: It was a picture…of a photograph.

AM: Of?

MS: It was a crowd of people at some sporting event or something, you know, maybe a music festival.

AM: That’s it?

MS: Well what, isn’t that enough?

AM: Go on!

MS: I stared at the photograph for days! Hours reverse image searching the photo itself and then every single face in it separately.

AM: That must have taken forever!

MS: I’m dedicated.

AM: What else?

MS: I counted all the faces, all the hats. I tried to find a code somewhere in the geography of the picture, but I couldn’t come up with anything!

AM: So there was nothing.

MS: Well…it just took me a while to figure it out.

AM: What?

MS: I recognized one of the people in the photograph!

AM: Who was it?

MS: It was Roman Trent.

AM: The actor?

MS: Yeah.

AM: That’s weird.

MS: Oh, it gets weirder. He was holding up a phone!

AM: So?

MS: So I thought about what they might be looking for.

AM: And?

MS: And, I had no idea…at first. But then, I called the number.

AM: What number?

MS: The numbers corresponding with the letters in Roman Trent’s name. 766-268-7368.

AM: What?

MS: Ok. Well to be honest, I tried a whole other bunch of stuff first, but eventually ended up trying the letters of his name as a phone number.

AM: What happened?

MS: Answering machine.

AM: What did it say?

MS: It said “you’ve reached the correct number” and then it gave me a phone number and a date.

AM: That’s strange.

MS: Yeah!

AM: So, when’s the date?

MS: It’s tomorrow.

AM V/O: We’ll get back to the strange message Mitch received soon, but right now we’re diving back into those recordings we received via an anonymous email, the recordings titled “Patient 80”.

-Recording-

WEYLEN TAYLOR (WT): Good morning. (Pause) Hello?

PATIENT 80: Good morning.

WT: How are you feeling today?

80: I’m fine.

WT: You didn’t seem fine, the last time we saw you.

80: When was that?

WT: You were upset at the treatment schedule.

80: That me?

WT: It was.

80: Did I make a fuss?

WT: You were…worried.

80: I’m sorry.

WT: It’s fine. Can you tell me what you remember about the last time we spoke? You were talking about your feelings about your participation in sleep deprivation therapy.

80: We were? I’m not sure that I remember…

WT: Do you recall what happened after?

80: No, what happened?

WT: You sent two men, both highly competent security guards, to the hospital.

80: Did I?

WT: Yes.

80: Please tell them that I’m sorry.

WT: How are you feeling?

80: Didn’t you already ask me that?

WT: Yes.

80: Are you testing me, War Machine?

WT: Where did you hear that name?

80: You’re first name is Weylen.

WT: Where did you hear that?

80: It’s your name.

WT: You have no way of knowing that without speaking to one of the staff!

80: But you don’t let me see any of the staff, Weylen.

WT: Wait a second, who told you my name? Where did you hear my nickname?

80: War Machine?

WT: Yes.

80: I don’t remember exactly. I feel like it was a long time ago, but I’m not sure. Things get…fuzzy, blurry.

WT: This isn’t funny. Whoever put you up to this, this isn’t funny.

80: It’s not supposed to be funny, Doctor. It’s supposed to be scary. How are you feeling today?

-End of Recording-

AM V/O: That’s the end of that section of the recording. Last episode, Mitch informed me that we’d been invited to visit Dr. Taylor’s lab at the university. It took a bit of back and forth but we finally made our way up there to check it out. Yvette, the head of the Psychology Department, took us over to the lab where Dr. Taylor had been working at the time of his disappearance.

''-At Berkeley University-''

YVETTE: Have either of you been on campus before?

MS: First time.

AM: I actually took a photography class up here when I was in high school.

Y: It’s changed a lot.

AM: What do you remember about Dr. Taylor’s disappearance?

Y: Like I said on the phone, it took us by surprise. There was no warning, no strange behaviour, at least, no stranger than normal.

AM: What do you mean?

Y: Dr. Taylor was eccentric. Everybody wanted to take part in his experiments.

MS: Why was that?

Y: There were rumours.

MS: What kind of rumours?

Y: Well, we don’t really like to talk about that stuff…but he had a kind of “Timothy Leary” thing going on.

AM: LSD?

Y: I’m sure he wasn’t experimenting with drugs…but you know gossip can spread.

AM: Sure.

Y: His deal allowed, or I suppose ‘allows’ a great deal of freedom. He teaches two classes and in exchange, he publishes a paper a year, a book every two, and we give him access to this old building.

AM: He taught here?

Y: No, this is just his research area.

AM: Oh.

Y: Yeah. This structure wouldn’t be appropriate for any kind of instruction situation.

''Long pause as they walk.''

Y: It’s strictly a private laboratory setup. Feel free to look around. Don’t worry about locking up; the door will lock on its own.

MS: Thanks:

Y: Good luck.

AM: (incredulous, questioning) LSD?

AM V/O: Dr. Taylor’s lab was set up kind of like a recording studio. Two beds in a large space, along with a bunch of desks and mess stacks of all kinds of paper work. One stand-out feature was four enormous floor-to-ceiling bookcases that entirely made up the back wall. It was impressive. There was a kind of control room setup adjacent to the large room with the beds. It had a large, thick glass wall and a control panel of some kind. It was all very…Area 51. Mitch and I were surprised at the level of access we’d been allowed, so we took advantage by taking as many photographs as possible. We were unable to access any computer equipment, but just standing there in the ‘World of Dr. Weylen Taylor’ in real life was…interesting. Looking at all of the diodes and science fiction-looking equipment felt…it kind of felt dangerous. It took us a long time to go through all of the pictures we’d taken of Dr. Taylor’s lab. We ended up taking a few hundred photographs. We agreed that we would clear anything we wanted to talk about on this show with the university. We discovered a few things in those pictures; not exactly secret society related, but definitely secret society adjacent. The first was a first was a group of pages that had been ripped from a variety of books and clipped together. They all referenced high priests of the era that wrote about an ancient group of angels or demons, depending on the article. The ancient group was referred to as “The Unknown” or at least once on each page. I’ve asked Mitch to read a paragraph from one of the pages.

-Paragraph-

MS: (Reading from the pages) The Heliopolitan Priest spoke about them in a kind of ‘sideways’ manner. There were references to the ‘Unknown’ deep in the early work of Dr. Vin Parmander. The well-known cultural anthropologist wrote that “the fifth dynasty was in ascendancy when The Unknown met for the first time in the modern era beneath the blood moon. Their influence on the world of Man was absolute. The high priests of that dynasty would eventually take the lead, recording references to the Cult of Osiris, the most important religious operation of the time. It’s possible that a reference to The Unknown was found in an inscription in the Tomb of Eunice.”

AM V/O: So, there were articles in Dr. Taylor’s lab that referenced ancient high priests talking about something called The Unknown. But what does this have to do with the Leap Year Society and/or the missing scientist, Dr. Weylen Taylor? Well, we brought up those pages from Dr. Taylor’s lab because Colin found The Unknown mentioned somewhere else as well. It was a blog.

''-Phone Call with Colin-''

COLIN ORRY (CO): It’s called “Silver Cord Road”.

AM: What is it?

CO: It’s a blog about astral projection and other conspiracy type stuff.

AM: And you found The Unknown mentioned there?

CO: Yeah, but there’s really not much. It’s just a defunct link. The Unknown are listed with various other mythological groups and orders. The link is called “Reign of Emperor Korei: The Unknown”.

AM: That’s interesting, I suppose. But, is that the only reason we care about this blog?

CO: Nope.

AM: What else is there?

CO: There’s this.

AM V/O: Colin pointed me to two things. The first was a blog posting relating to Walking Hypnagogia, with a link to an article on Dr. Weylen Taylor. The second was a link to an archived blog posting. It was pretty clear why this blog was of an interest. The blog’s owner and principal writer, a man named Lane Kelly, had compiled a list of reported incidents of astral projection. This appears to be the main subject of the blog. Unlike most conspiracy, paranormal and supernatural blogger Youtube personalities, Lane Kelly only included cases studied in scientific environments. They are double-blind, peer reviewed experiments, but they all include people who had, or have no agenda related to self-promotion or selling some kind of book or product. These cases may not be actual cases of astral projection or possession. I, for one, have a hard time believing astral projection and possession actually exist. But it’s clear that Lane Kelly is doing his best to look at these phenomena in a very scientific manner.

CO: So what do you think of the blog?

AM: Well, I have to say some of these cases are extremely interesting.

CO: Yeah. Did you read that post about the woman from Las Vegas?

AM: Is that the one where she describes the inside of that man’s house in Providence?

CO: Yeah, it’s crazy, she passed a polygraph. She never physically left the State of Nevada.

AM: Allegedly…

CO: Buzzkill! She even referenced that term “Stepping” that Harriet Evanson mentioned.

AM: Right. And doesn’t Lane Kelly also reference that term in relation to Weylen Taylor?

CO: Correct.

AM: We’re starting to see quite a bit of overlap with some of this stuff.

CO: Speaking of overlap, did you see the link to draft of an unfinished post I just found?

AM: No, when did you send it?

CO: About a minute ago.

AM: Let me check. Got it! What am I looking at?

CO: It’s an unfinished work in progress post.

AM: It’s…huge!

CO: Yeah. It’s some kind of log; a record of an experiment or similar.

AM: It looks like a diary.

CO: It does. Take a look down near the bottom.

AM: Wow.

CO: Yeah, I thought you’d find that part interesting.

AM V/O: There, near the bottom of the log, were three images, all of them featuring something very familiar: the illustration of the symbol. We’ll take a closer look at that experiment diary, or whatever it is, but first I thought we should get some additional information on Lane Kelly. I figured the best way to do that was to speak with the man himself. So, I called the number on his website.

-Phone Call-

LANE KELLY’S VOICEMAIL: Hello, you’ve reached Silver Cord Road. Please leave me a message and I’ll get back to you if I’m still on this plane of existence.

AM V/O: I left a message, but after a couple of days when I still hadn’t heard back, Mitch and I tracked down a couple of Lane Kelly’s friends. One of them, Sarah Hickman, agreed to speak with me.

-Phone Call-

AM: Hello, Sarah?

SARAH HICKMAN (SH): Hi.

AM: Thanks for taking the time out to speak with me today.

SH: Sure.

AM: Great. So, could we start with a quick introduction, a few words about how you met Lane Kelly?

SH: Oh, um…ok. Um, my name is Sarah Hickman and I’m a dental hygienist from Michigan.

AM: Sarah, how do you know Lane Kelly?

SH: Well, I did do his teeth.

AM: You met him at work?

SH: Yeah, Lane comes in twice a year to see Doctor Chen and we always get to talking about UFOs and alien stuff. Lane is a real hoot about that kind of thing.

AM: Great! So, like my producer mentioned on the phone, we’re looking into some of the things that Lane was interested in, some of the stuff he posts about on his blog.

SH: Astral projecting?

AM: Yeah, that’s right! Did he ever speak to you about that? (Long pause)… Sarah?

SH: I don’t want to talk about…

AM: Why not?

SH: You don’t know what happened, do you.

AM: What do you mean, what happened?

SH: To Lane!

AM: No, we were hoping you would be able to put us in touch with Lane after this interview.

SH: That could be kind of hard.

AM: Why’s that?

SH: Because Lane Kelly is in a coma.

AM: Really?

SH: Yeah and there’s more.

AM: What is it?

SH: His doctor believes his coma may have been self-induced and that it happened while he was experimenting with that stuff.

AM: What stuff?

SH: Astral projection.

AM V/O: You’ve been listening to the Leap Year Society. I’m Amanda Morrison. Thank you for listening.

END

---

NOTES Korei listed on the Silver Cord Road blog was the 7th Emperor of Japan term “Silver Cord” is known as the sutratma or life thread of the antahkarana, refers to a life-giving linkage from the higher self (atma) down to the physical body.
 * Emperor
 * The