All language subtitles for The.UnXplained.Special.Presentation.S02E06.1080p.WEB.h264-EDITH_track3_[eng]

WILLIAM SHATNER:
Buried alive, in total darkness,

with no way to escape.

Invisible forces
with demonic intent

that control your mind and body.

And ordinary objects
with supernatural powers

that leave a trail
of death and destruction.

Fear. It's a universal emotion,

human emotion, that is often
essential to our very survival.

Our biological drive
to stay safe is designed

to help protect us from danger,

both real and imagined.

We might be startled
or even amused at times

by loud noises, dark places,
or confined spaces,

but what happens

when the stuff of nightmares
is not a dream,

but instead,
a terrifying reality?

Well, that is what
we'll try and find out.

♪ ♪

SHATNER:
All over the world,
various cultures

practice a period of mourning

between the time
of a person's death

and when they're
finally laid to rest.

This is a time to pay respects,

to process one's loss,

and in some cases,
to quell the fear

that the dearly departed
might still be alive,

and prematurely placed
six feet under.

MARK P. DONNELLY:
The fear of being buried alive
was a fairly common fear

up until 20th century
medical practices

meant fewer people were,
in fact, buried alive.

It was most common
in 18th and 19th century

Europe and America,

mostly due to
the medical practices

and the burial practices
at the time.

This was when medical diagnoses
could get things wrong,

and people were,
in fact, buried alive,

and stories of that
became sensationalized,

and therefore,
the panic would spread.

JOSEPH LAYCOCK:
In the 19th century,
the great fear

of being buried alive

was partly because
this was the age of cholera.

Cholera causes severe diarrhea,

which can deplete all
the electrolytes in your body

and, in extreme cases,
can induce a coma.

So, sometimes,
people appear dead,

and they're actually in
this sort of vegetative state,

and they can come out of it.

But if you bury them,

then you've buried them alive,
and that is a terrible death.

SHATNER:
Historically,
the thought of being trapped

in a wooden box,
beneath thousands of pounds

of dirt,
with no possibility of escape,

was so widespread, that this
fear was actually given a name.

It's called taphephobia.

Taphephobia
is the idea of simply just

the fear of being buried alive.

Edgar Allan Poe, who wrote
about premature burial

was terrified
of being buried alive.

Frédéric Chopin,
the composer, wanted to be

stabbed in the heart
and bled out to make sure

that he was dead when doctors
believed that he was.

And even George Washington was
so afraid of being buried alive

that he had written in his will
that his body had to remain

in bed for three days
after they thought he was dead

to make sure
that he didn't come back.

KEITH EGGENER:
It was estimated by the 1890s

that some two percent of people
being buried were buried alive.

Now, this is a gross
exaggeration, no doubt,

but it was believed at the time.

Enough so, that organizations

like the London Association

for the Prevention
of Premature Burial

was founded in 1896.

And they lobbied parliament
for greater diligence

on the part of doctors
to make sure that doctors

were verifying death.

SHATNER:
Despite doctors' best efforts,
it was simply difficult

at the time to determine whether
a person was alive or dead.

And so, in order
to ease people's minds,

authorities in Europe were
forced to take drastic measures.

Within this storied city, lies
the Vienna Central Cemetery,

the second largest cemetery
in the entire world.

In the heart of the cemetery
stands a small building

that today houses a museum.

But in the 19th century, it was
referred to as a Leichenhaus.

The Leichenhaus was
a kind of mortuary where

corpses were kept for a period,
typically about three days,

and watched over by attendants

to make sure that
a person was truly dead

and wouldn't be buried alive
in a state of coma or catalepsy.

SHATNER:
In modern times,
it may sound a little disturbing

to hear that doctors
once stabbed their patients

in order to determine
whether they were alive or dead.

But the truth is that
the hysteria

about being buried alive
was so prevalent

that an entire industry
sprang up to help calm

such fears by producing
bizarre contraptions

that were known
as safety coffins.

LAYCOCK:
If you were afraid
of being buried alive,

the solution
was the safety coffin.

And this began
very simply with a bell

tied to a string that went down
under the earth into the coffin.

And if you were buried alive,
and you woke up in a coffin,

you could pull that string,
the bell would ring,

and hopefully, somebody would
hear it and come dig you out.

And this tradition is where
we get the expression

"saved by the bell."

And if you had more money,

safety coffins
could get more elaborate.

They could add air tubes,
they could add windows,

so you would have some lights
inside the-the coffin.

And there were even cases
of people buried

with a key in their pocket,
so they could unlock the casket

from the inside,
if this happens.

EGGENER:
There were loads of patents

taken up
for these safety coffins.

And they would
include devices like

little flags
that could be raised.

Sometimes
safety coffins included

food or water,
they would have breathing tubes,

they might even
include periscopes.

One of the best-known ones,
really, belonged to

a doctor named Timothy Clark
from Vermont.

He came up with
his own safety coffin device.

He had a set of stone stairs
installed next to his grave

that could be opened up
by a concrete block

that was sitting beside it.

That way, anyone could
get down to rescue him

if he needed to be rescued.

But the real kicker
to the whole thing

was that he had
a glass window installed

directly over his face,
set into the stone.

However, he died in 1893,

and the doctors
did not make a mistake.

He really was dead.

SHATNER:
Safety coffins may seem like
a quaint fad from a bygone era

that has no relevance
in our world today.

But believe it or not, there
have been some recent cases

in which people appear to have
been mistakenly buried alive.

Being buried alive
is very, very rare, uh,

at least in our own time,

but it does still
occasionally happen.

As recently as 2018,
there was a case in Brazil

where a woman
woke up in her grave,

and is thought to have survived
for 11 days there.

TAYLOR:
Being buried alive
doesn't happen nearly as often

as it used to,
but if you think about it,

waking up in a coffin
would be probably one of

the most terrifying things
that could ever happen to you.

SHATNER:
The very idea that a small
mistake due to negligence

or misdiagnosis

could cause one
to be buried alive

is a terrifying thought.

But it's often what we can't see
that instills fear the most.

Like in the case
of an ancient predator

who still lurks
beneath the ocean's surface

with a frightening history
of hunting for human flesh.

SHATNER:
25-year-old Charles Vansant

is swimming
in the brisk Atlantic waters

off the coast
of this resort community...

...when he's suddenly attacked
by a massive shark.

Lifeguards pull Vansant
from the water

and see that his left thigh

has been stripped of its flesh

by a massive set
of razor-sharp jaws.

CAPUZZO:
The story is that
they had to almost

wrestle him away from the shark.

As they pulled him ashore with
the shark following him still,

his father, who was a doctor,
operated on him

or tried to save his life, but
he died of a flesh wound

to a bite on his thigh,
actually,

and, uh, loss of blood.

SHATNER:
The gory death
of Charles Vansant

was the first recorded fatal
shark attack in U.S. history.

And then, on July 6th,

a mere five days
after Vansant was killed,

there was another attack
along the Jersey Shore.

Charles Bruder,
who's a 27-year-old

Swiss native
who was in the Army,

went for a swim,
and 1,200 feet out,

in the middle of the day,
was attacked

and bitten by what
appeared to be about

an eight or nine foot
great white shark.

Severed his legs
and a part of his torso.

By the time
the lifeguards got out there,

there was hardly anything
to lift into the boat.

SHATNER:
This second deadly attack
was widely reported

in newspapers across the country

and set off a nationwide panic.

Many people believed
it was no longer safe

to swim in the ocean off
the coast of New Jersey,

and several beaches
were closed by the authorities.

The public reaction
was hysterical.

There were calls all the way up
to President Wilson.

Woodrow Wilson
had a cabinet meeting

and talked to the early men
who founded the Coast Guard

about eradicating all the sharks
on the east coast.

Bounties were given
by towns and cities

and anybody that could kill
any shark could get $100.

You had fisherman going out,
catching and killing sharks.

And it wasn't
just in New Jersey.

It was all up and down
the Eastern Seaboard

and even infiltrated
into the coastal states;

Texas, Louisiana,

and as far as the Pacific coast
of North America.

SHATNER:
Less than one week
after Charles Bruder was killed,

on July 12th,
three more people were attacked

by what many witnesses claimed
was an eight or nine-foot shark.

Curiously, all five
of these incidents took place

along a 50-mile stretch
off the coast of New Jersey.

Because of their proximity,

and the similarities
between eyewitness accounts,

many began to wonder
whether the horrific attacks

could have been the work
of a single killer shark.

The New Jersey attacks
are so strange

'cause sharks don't kill people
with any kind of regularity,

and nobody witnesses it

with any kind of regularity
when it happens.

But the concept of a rogue shark

that kills or injures one person

and that gets a taste
for human flesh

and goes after another
like a serial killer,

the Jersey Shore
may be the best evidence

we have
that that's ever happened.

SHATNER:
On July 14th, 1916,

two weeks after
the first fatal attack,

a taxidermist
named Michael Schleisser

caught a seven and a half-foot,
325 pound great white shark

off the northern end
of the Jersey Shore.

After cutting open its stomach,
authorities found what appeared

to be partially digested
human remains.

There are many
who believe that this

great white shark was
responsible for all five attacks

that took place,
four of which were fatal.

Fatal shark attacks on humans

are seldom
predatory for feeding.

So what was going on that would
cause a series of five attacks

over a 11-day period?

What was behind all of this?

People panicked.

No one wanted
to go in the ocean.

So, its effect on individuals,
citizens, was enormous.

And it was something that,
to this day,

still has an effect on us.

SHATNER:
The 1916 Jersey Shore attacks
helped to popularize

the notion of sharks
as deadly man-eaters.

More than 50 years later,
the killings inspired

the 1974 novel Jaws
by Peter Benchley,

which became the basis
of the blockbuster film

made by Steven Spielberg

that terrorized
generations of beachgoers.

But despite
their bad reputation,

the truth is that
sharks rarely kill humans.

According to statistics gathered

by the International Shark
Attack File, on average,

there are only five fatal shark
attacks worldwide per year.

So why does the belief
persist that some sharks

are a serious threat to humans?

NIALL McCANN:
Sharks, unsurprisingly,
have terrified people

forever because

sharks live an enormous amount
of their life out of sight.

Unlike terrestrial species
that we can see,

sharks live underwater,
and the only time

that we really interact
with sharks

is when they come to the
surface, and that tends to be

in antagonistic circumstances
with people.

Traditional island cultures

have had multiple deities
that have shark appearance,

and that comes from
an inherent fear

that we are at risk of sharks.

They have this power
of life or death over us.

TOK THOMPSON:
Sharks are apex predators.

The idea that sharks
can be celebrated in a culture

might seem a bit odd.
After all, they do kill people.

But there's a couple of things
to consider.

One is that they are recognized
as apex predators,

and this is something
that people often aspire to.

Also, the idea that
these are apex predators

and you'd better
understand them.

COLLIER:
Over the years, sharks,
especially white sharks,

have been portrayed as killers.

Unfortunately, people
are killed from time to time.

It has been postulated
that white shark's hunting

have similarities
into the tactics

utilized by serial killers.

Serial killers use what is
referred to as an anchor point,

which is where
they will sit and watch

and pick their victim.

White sharks do the same thing.

White sharks
like to hunt stealth,

where the intended victim
can't see them.

CORBIN MAXEY:
A lot of people often
look at sharks and think

that there's nothing going on,

but great whites
are intelligent animals.

We've watched
great whites attack seals.

And you'll find
the older great whites

will pick out specific
individuals, usually young ones.

It's very methodical.

So, it is 100% possible

that some sharks
like the taste of people.

SHATNER:
Are there certain sharks
that specifically

and methodically hunt people?

Some marine biologists
have suggested it's possible.

But if this theory is true,
then what's even more disturbing

is that a killer shark

may keep stalking people
for a very long, long time.

Great whites can live
to be 80-plus years old.

There's some accounts
of specimens being over 100.

They study their subjects
just like a serial killer.

They learn from their mistakes
just like a serial killer.

That's terrifying.

SHATNER:
Coming face to face
with a predator

like a great white shark would
be terrifying, to say the least.

Just imagining an encounter

with a dangerous creature
can trigger our primal fear

of being overtaken by something
much stronger than us.

Like in the case
of a powerful presence

that can possess the human soul.

SHATNER:
Anneliese Michel,
a 20-year-old student

at the University of Würzburg,

claims that she's hearing
disembodied voices...

...and seeing visions
of the Devil.

Before long,
her family comes to believe

that Anneliese suffers from

a condition
that defies understanding.

Demonic possession.

Anneliese Michel
was indeed tormented

by a possessing something.

She spoke in a horrendously
growly voice.

(indistinct, growly gibberish)

PICKNETT:
Her eyes seemed to go black,

and she had a great aversion

to holy statues,

which there were
a great many in the house

because they were
very pious Catholics.

And she was taken to a doctor,

who said she might be epileptic,

um, and she was taken
to a psychiatrist,

and nothing changed in her life.

In fact, she was getting
worse and worse.

BADER:
Her family believed from
the beginning she was possessed.

The Catholic Church
accepted that framework

and engaged in the exorcism.

Ultimately, Anneliese Michel
died of starvation

and dehydration over the course
of numerous exorcisms.

This was a case
where that belief

directly led to her death.

What we cannot say for certain
is what was really going on.

I can't say that she for sure

was not possessed
or for sure was.

SHATNER:
The story of Anneliese Michel

is perhaps the best-known case

of an alleged
demonic possession.

But what happened to her?

Was she actually
possessed by demons?

And if so, how does one identify

when a person's mind and body
have been taken over by Satan?

RICHARD GALLAGHER:
During the course of my career,

I've witnessed a number of cases
of possession in my life, but

I definitely started
as a skeptic.

I certainly never thought
I would see anything

sort of paranormal or diabolic.

A priest who, I guess,
knew I was Catholic--

I don't exactly know
how he got my name--

but he came to my office when I
was at Cornell medical college.

And he said, "Dr. Gallagher,
I'd like you to, uh,

"evaluate someone for me

who I think
has a demonic attack."

And I said "Well,
with all due respect, Father,

"you know, I'm an
academic psychiatrist,

and I'm pretty skeptical
of those sort of things."

And I remember
what he said to me, he said,

"You're the perfect man
for the job

because we want somebody
who's skeptical."

Of course, in the years since,
you know, 25-plus years,

I've seen so much
that I'm not a skeptic anymore.

There are very strict criteria

which clearly have to be present

to distinguish the case

from a psychiatric
or a medical disorder.

You have to see something
that is inexplicable

in terms of purely
materialist science.

Things that could not possibly

manifest in somebody who
doesn't have a diabolic attack.

The first case sent to me
was a woman who claimed

that she would be lying in bed,

and she would be pummeled
by invisible forces.

She and her husband
were convinced that

she was attacked by demons.

So, we did a number
of medical tests on her

because she had bruises
all over her body.

And at the end
of my evaluations--

and she was a very sane,
lovely woman--

I said to the priest,
"Look, this doesn't seem like

a medical or psychiatric case,
it doesn't seem possible."

SHATNER:
Mysterious bruises

inflicted by invisible forces?

While that may sound
like something

out of a Hollywood horror movie,

the truth is that
accounts of possession

have been recorded
for thousands of years.

Any scholar can tell you
cases of demonic possession

go all the way back
to the Bible.

When Jesus had to cast
the demon out of a man

into a herd of swine,

who then ran off of a cliff
and into the water.

Very famous story in the Bible.

And stories
of demonic possession,

they are not confined
to Christianity.

The idea of possession
is inherently tied to the idea

of Satan and demons,

and is an attempt by Satan
to take over your personality

to ultimately control you.

Satan's end game,
according to the Bible,

is to draw as many people
away from Christ as possible.

So, his endgame
is to get as many people

to move from God to him.

So, his ultimate role
is as a tempter.

The film The Exorcist
is believed to have really

brought attention
to the idea of possession,

but it's not that those ideas
started with The Exorcist.

Those ideas spread
with The Exorcist.

MONSIGNOR STEPHEN ROSSETTI:
The Exorcist was actually based
on a real case.

It was a 12-year-old boy
who was possessed, not a girl.

How did he get possessed?
Using a Ouija board for months.

Start doing something occult,

that creates an inner
vulnerability to evil.

You're using magic that
does not come from the Lord.

You might not know this,
but you're actually invoking

the powers of Satan,
whether you believe it or not.

GALLAGHER:
Most people who are possessed,

in a sense,
they've invited it in,

wittingly or unwittingly.

Possession is
the most dramatic attack

of a demon upon a human being.

And in a way...

...spiritual warfare should be
a concern of everybody.

That we're all
sort of in a battle

in our own souls
between goodness and evil.

It's frightening

to think that a person can be
controlled by an evil entity.

And while it's difficult
to determine

if possession is a spiritual
or a psychological phenomenon,

perhaps even more terrifying
is the biological aberration

that can turn the deceased
into the walking dead.

SHATNER:
In this small village,

Angelina Narcisse
was going about her day

when she was approached by a man

claiming to be her brother,
Clairvius.

It may sound like
a heartwarming tale of reunion,

but there was just one problem.

Clairvius Narcisse
had been dead and buried

for nearly 20 years.

DONNELLY:
Clairvius was a Haitian man
born in 1922.

In the year 1962,

he went to, uh, a hospital.

His symptoms
had been a severe fever,

fatigue, and he'd been
coughing up blood.

His heart stopped,
and he stopped breathing,

and was declared dead
and buried.

20 years later,
a man claiming to be Clairvius

showed up at his village
and approached his family.

In many respects,
his story did check out.

He beared a physical resemblance
to the deceased.

He went by a nickname
that was only known to him

and his sister when they
were very little kids.

And so, he was able
to relate certain details

of his former life
that seemed to add up.

SHATNER:
But if Clairvius Narcisse
died and was buried,

then how on Earth was he alive
and able to track down

his sister
almost 20 years later?

Well, according to Clairvius,

the reason he was not
lying dead in his grave

was that a voodoo priest
had transformed him

into a zombie.

In Haiti,
a zombie is an individual

who's had their soul
stolen by sorcery,

causing them to be sort of
flung into a perpetual, uh,

place of purgatory through
this incredible transition

of death, rebirth,
and return to the living,

induced by the folk poison
known as a pudzombie.

It was a plethora
of ingredients,

including various plants

and the toxin from a fish.

It selectively blocks
sodium channels and nerves,

bringing on paralysis
until the moment of death.

And yet, critically,
if you get through that,

you have nothing to worry about.

This fascinating poison

had made people
appear to be dead.

In Haitian folklore
specifically,

the zombie is-is not a villain,
but a victim.

In these cases,
people are turned into zombies

and forced to work on
sugarcane plantations in Haiti

and elsewhere in the Caribbean,
but primarily Haiti.

And this has been a legend
going back

many, many, many years,
centuries, in some cases.

Certainly since the slave trade.

And it was all considered
to be just sort of a legend

until 1980, when
Clairvius Narcisse emerged.

He told the story, it made
huge news, as you can imagine,

because this is
a first-person account

of somebody who's
a former zombie, right?

So, this is wild. This is crazy.

According to Clairvius, um,

he had been paralyzed
by a voodoo priest.

This was a result
of being drugged, um,

and this paste mixture
that he was forced to consume

kept him
in this deathlike toper.

Narcisse was buried,

and the priest then
dug him up from his grave

and enslaved him on a sugarcane
plantation for 20 years.

DAVIS:
From the Haitian point of view,
the fate of a zombie

is said to be to become
an indentured servant.

And losing your soul,
losing your identity,

your personal autonomy,

combined to make this
a fate worse than death.

SHATNER:
The story of Clairvius Narcisse
being buried and then revived

as an undead zombie
made headlines around the world.

Numerous experts investigated
the case in hopes

of shedding light
on what exactly took place.

The first question
on everyone's mind was whether

Clairvius had only appeared to
be dead because he was drugged

or if there was some truth
to the idea

that he actually died

and was then revived
by the power of voodoo.

What made the case of Narcisse
unique was one single thing.

He had been pronounced dead

in an American-directed
philanthropic institution,

the Schweitzer Hospital.

And his family members
had witnessed the death

and authenticated it
at the time.

So, all these lines of evidence

led scientists to go public
in the 1980s

saying they felt
they had found the first

medically verifiable instance
of zombification.

DONNELLY:
The doctors who had initially
declared Narcisse dead

were no longer at the hospital
20 years later when he returned.

However, many doctors
looked into, um, his case,

and did tests and proved
that it was, in fact, him.

Why the premature diagnosis

and why he was buried
prematurely is unknown,

and where he was
for 20 years is unknown,

but there are photos of him
sitting on his own gravestone.

SHATNER:
There are many theories as to
what caused Clairvius Narcisse

to be declared dead and then
seemingly brought back to life.

Ultimately, what happened to him
remains a mystery,

but many Haitians are convinced

that Clairvius did, in fact,

rise from the grave.

And for some,
his story is a reminder

that the distinction
between the living and the dead

may not be as clear-cut
as we commonly think.

DONNELLY:
When we imagine zombies
in the 21st century,

we tend to imagine
the dead rising

from the grave
to prey upon the living.

That is not the case
in Haitian voodoo practices.

Zombification in voodoo

was not something
that was done to the dead.

It was something
that was done to the living.

It was turning the living into

a fugue-like state,
a deathlike state,

um, but they were not
reanimated corpses.

DAVIS:
Narcisse never doubted
that he'd become a zombie.

In Haiti,
a zombie is a complete pariah,

who walks the edge between
life and death and will do so

for the rest of their existence.

And so, this idea
that a person could be

brought back to life
fills all of us with mystery

and trepidation and dread.

SHATNER:
The prospect that any of us
could become a reanimated

husk of our former selves
is a haunting image.

But just how one joins the ranks

of the walking dead
is debatable.

Is it a biological response?

A psychological phenomenon?

Or could there really be
something to the power

of a deadly curse?

SHATNER:
Just outside the city,
on a normal suburban street

in an ordinary neighborhood

is the home
of Greg and Dana Newkirk.

From the outside, their home
is not much different

from any other house
on the block.

-Get some fork action going on.
-Yeah.

SHATNER:
But inside, it contains
something quite extraordinary.

Because there is a room
in the basement that is filled

with a collection
of strange objects,

sent by people
from all over the world,

that are believed to be cursed.

Greg and I lead normal lives,
and we go about our life

the same way
that everyone else does.

We just happen to be caretakers
for very strange objects.

The way that we got started
collecting cursed objects

was complete accident.

It wasn't something
that we had set out to do.

Never would have imagined
myself doing this.

We were just interested
in-in general weirdness.

My wife and I investigate
all manner of high strangeness,

and we were both very interested
in the idea of cursed objects.

We slowly gained
a reputation as being

particularly good people
for this.

And so, anytime anyone had
a problem with an artifact,

they would come to us and say,

"I don't know
what to do with this.

"This thing
is affecting my life.

"Will you just
take it off my hands?

"It'd be easier
to just give it to you

and let you deal with it."

So, we built up this collection

of very bizarre things.

SHATNER:
Visitors to the Newkirk's home
are given ample warning

that the basement is filled
with objects that are cursed.

We have a lot of haunted robes.

SHATNER:
But curiously, every day,
the Newkirks receive requests

from people who are eager
to view their cursed collection.

JASON W. OCKER:
You'd think with cursed objects,

you want to avoid them,
but there is a draw to them.

When an object
is said to be cursed,

another word you could use
is "special." It's special.

If this chair is cursed,

it's different from
every other chair in the world.

And that makes it unique.
That makes it interesting.

And that draws our attention
every single time.

And the fact that
that specialness

is that it hurts people--

that appeals
to a certain macabre streak

that we all have
as human beings.

DANA:
People think of cursed objects
as being kind of fun and spooky.

But working with them,
it feels a lot less

about that and a lot more
about that kind of heavy

responsibility to keep
some of these objects with us

under lock and key and maybe
out of the wrong hands.

And maybe in a place
that's safer, not only

for everyone else,
but for them.

SHATNER:
The Newkirk's collection
includes several objects

that are considered to have
the power to inflict harm

on anyone who comes near them.

This is the cursed deer skull.

We drove down
to Nashville to pick up

from a woman who saw this
in an antique store and

took it back to her office
and almost immediately,

her employees
started getting sick.

One of her employees
was hit by a car.

And then the wall
that this was hanging on

actually fell down and took
half of the building with it.

DANA:
There are certain objects
specifically in our museum that,

without people knowing
why they feel

the way that they feel,

they will definitely have
heart palpitations, anxiety.

We've had people almost faint.
We've had people throw up.

We've had people dry heave.

People have very visceral,
physical reactions

to being around
some of the objects.

SHATNER:
Among the cursed objects
in the Newkirks' collection

is a deadly ring that is claimed
to kill anyone who wears it,

a Bible used during
a failed exorcism,

and a doll that is believed to
spread illness wherever it goes.

But of all the cursed objects
the Newkirks have come across,

there is one
that is so harrowing

they refused to keep it
in their collection.

It is an unsettling wooden
effigy known as the Crone.

DANA:
The Crone really is
the definition of

kind of a cursed object.

It is a carved statue
of a woman.

Someone at some point in time

took this object and attached
the noose and the nails.

It was given to us
by some hikers who found it

in the Catskills
off the beaten path in a cave.

They took it home
and initially started

to experience
really frightening things.

Their animals
were behaving strangely,

they were finding wet footprints
on the ground,

and they didn't know what to do.

Someone who we had
worked with previously

put them in contact with us,

and after, you know,
having some communication

with them, they-they sent
the Crone to us.

GREG:
People who would get near
the Crone,

they would be just
overwhelmed with anxiety.

This guy came
all the way from Canada

to come and see the Crone.

He begged us
to take it out of the box.

Almost immediately,

his eyes roll up
in the back of his head,

and he starts to bleed
from his mouth,

and he has a violent seizure

and he has to be taken out
by the paramedics.

And that's when Dana and I
looked at each other,

and we said, "We have to do
something about this."

SHATNER:
The Catskill Mountains.

October 2018.

After a string
of frightening incidents,

Greg and Dana Newkirk
are convinced

that a strange object
in their possession,

known as the Crone, is cursed.

So they've traveled
to this remote region

of Upstate New York to free
themselves of the evil object.

The Crone is one
of the objects that

does fall into that very small
category of objects

that we didn't feel like
we could handle.

It got to a point
where the Crone was just

too dangerous for even us
to take care of.

And what we wanted to do was

bring her back to the Catskills,
which is where she's from.

SHATNER:
To remove the Crone's curse,
the Newkirks' plan

was to return to the area
where it was originally found

by two hikers many years before.

At which point,
they would remove the nails

embedded in the Crone
in a cleansing ritual.

DANA:
We wanted to bring her back,

and every time a nail
was pulled out,

the intention was that
we were pulling

that curse out of the object.

We hiked into the woods
for miles,

and I set up a circle.

The idea of setting up a circle
was basically just to create

an energetic space
for containing this ritual.

And the whole time
we were doing this,

we were hearing footsteps...

...and strange sounds
that weren't animals

around our circle,

but we couldn't see anything.

GREG:
We were absolutely terrified,

but we start
performing the ritual.

I pull the nails out.

As soon as that happens,

we feel this almost
electric pop in the air.

When we were done, every coyote

on the mountain
just started howling.

And the ritual was finished,

and what we were looking at
was just a block of wood.

And we just kind of knew
that we had done

what we went there to do.

Scholars of religion have
long known the power of ritual,

that when a group of people
get together

and engage
in the same set of actions,

believing that there's a
supernatural origin behind them,

that brings people together.

And so, special movements
that you need to go through,

special sayings or songs
that you need to do,

it's incredibly powerful
phenomena

that can help rid us
of the devil

or whatever other force
has cursed us.

SHATNER:
Is it possible
that ritually cleansing

the Crone removed its curse?

Perhaps.

But of course,
it all depends on whether

you believe curses are real
in the first place.

Whether you believe
in cursed objects

or don't believe
in cursed objects,

they can still have
a power over you.

What that power is,

to what extent that is,
how it's kind of comes out,

who knows.

But they're still
powerful objects,

no matter how you look at it.

GREG:
For people who
don't believe in curses,

what I would say is keep
believing they're not real.

That's the best defense
you have against a curse,

is to not feed it.

So, what do you think?

Is there good reason we should
take heed of our primal fears

and follow intuition
when our heart starts to race

and we tremble
and thoughts turn to dread

and impending danger?

There are good reasons
for our body and mind

to protect us
from obvious risks,

but exactly why we've become
frightened of dark entities,

unseen evil, and unholy objects

may be better left unexplained.

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