0:00

Yah. Welcome

0:04

to the Hidden Gin, a production of

0:06

I Heart Radio and Grimm and Mild

0:08

from Aaron Minkey. Before

0:30

we begin this week, a gentle word

0:32

of warning. There are references

0:35

to sexual assault in this episode, so

0:37

please proceed with care. Decades

0:41

ago, I knew a family that lived in my

0:43

mother's town that had three young daughters.

0:46

The lady of the house was a close friend

0:49

of my mother's, and so, in other words,

0:51

she was kind of an auntie to us, and every so

0:53

often Auntie would drop bif for a visit, bringing

0:55

boxes of homemade sweets or a platter

0:57

of rice or some little treat to share over

1:00

a cup of hot gi and oftentimes

1:02

whatever her daughters would come with her. The

1:04

eldest was maybe around twenty and the

1:06

youngest was an early teen. For

1:09

years, though I never met the third daughter,

1:12

the middle one. Once in

1:14

a while Auntie would mention her name, she

1:16

would ask my mother for prayers, say

1:18

something in passing about her doing better or

1:21

worse. One day, after

1:23

she left, my mother sat shaking her head,

1:25

looking deeply sad about whatever

1:27

Auntie had shared with her, and I asked,

1:29

what's wrong. My mother

1:31

took a deep sigh and responded she

1:34

thinks her daughter has a gin. That's

1:37

when I finally learned that the third daughter, the one I

1:39

never saw, had an entire host

1:42

of what her parents understood to be symptoms

1:44

of either the evil Eye or gin possession,

1:46

or a combination of the two. But

1:49

my mother explained to me it was just

1:51

as possible that the daughter had mental health

1:54

or medical issues if she did,

1:56

though, Auntie wasn't prepared to accept

1:58

it and seek professional advice. Instead,

2:01

she saw it help elsewhere, soliciting

2:03

prayers and charms from spiritual

2:06

healers, hoping something would drive

2:08

away the demons that caused a young girl to

2:10

lash out, that kept her tongue

2:12

tied and frustrated, that kept

2:14

her afflicted, suffering, and isolated

2:16

from the rest of the world. But

2:18

nothing worked. My

2:21

mother tried to counsel her to take the girl to see a

2:23

doctor, or a psychologist, or even a psychiatrist,

2:25

but the advice didn't land. Auntie

2:28

was convinced that someone had put a curse on her

2:30

daughter, a curse for a gin

2:32

to torment her. At

2:35

some point, maybe a few years after I first

2:37

got to know Aunty, I finally met that third

2:39

daughter. She was sweet

2:41

and kind, shy and mostly quiet,

2:44

But though when she did speak, her words were

2:46

halting and repetitive. I

2:49

didn't get a sense that she was haunted or tormented

2:51

by anything. But one

2:53

thing was painfully clear to me and to anyone

2:55

else who might be familiar with the condition. The

2:58

young woman was tistic. So

3:02

what happens when developmental or mental

3:04

health issues, physical disabilities, disease,

3:07

chronic illness, emotional disregulation,

3:09

or any one of hundreds of physiological

3:12

and psychological conditions that human

3:14

beings experience is understood

3:17

through the lens of the supernatural. How

3:19

do you know whether you're suffering from a treatable

3:21

condition or you've been struck by a gin? Is

3:24

the affliction in the psyche or in the soul?

3:28

While the lines have been blurred throughout history, and

3:30

today we'll explore what it looks like over

3:32

the centuries when medicine, psychology,

3:34

and the supernatural cross paths. I'm

3:38

Robbia Audrey, and I'll be your guide into

3:40

the ancient world of the hidden gin. Welcome

3:55

stars are the celestial doubles

3:58

of human beings. Jin milliars

4:00

are their underground doubles, and

4:02

the leaves of the trees of paradise are

4:04

their doubles in paradise. When

4:07

human beings are sick, the jin double

4:09

is sick with the same sickness. His

4:11

star pales, and the leaf of

4:13

the tree of Paradise yellows and

4:15

curls. At the hour of death,

4:18

the jin dies first, the

4:20

star falls from the sky as a shooting star,

4:23

and the leaf detaches from the Tree

4:25

of Paradise. That

4:30

is from a collection of

4:32

cosmology collected in Marrakesh, Morocco

4:35

that documented, among other things, the

4:38

belief that the human condition exists

4:40

in several planes at once, and

4:42

whatever it goes through, whatever it experiences,

4:46

is experienced by corresponding entities

4:48

linked intimately to each of us. For

4:51

every person a leaf on the tree

4:53

of Paradise, a star in the heavens,

4:56

and a gin in the underworld. The

4:59

gin will live, get sick, and die

5:01

with us. But what about

5:03

the gin who actually make us sick? According

5:06

to a book titled The Gin and Human

5:08

Sickness, an entire host of

5:10

conditions can and are attributed

5:13

to Gin, including depression, anxiety,

5:15

epilepsy, personality disorders,

5:18

psychiatric breaks with reality. Now,

5:21

the movements of the Gin in and upon

5:23

the human body can't really be tracked.

5:25

Because the dinner created as smokeless

5:27

fire and energy that cannot be contained,

5:30

they're able to move with our bloodstream itself.

5:36

They say. There are two ways in which gin physically

5:38

afflict human beings. They can

5:40

either strike a person or possess

5:43

a person. Striking a

5:45

person could mean sudden paralysis or blindness,

5:47

or any other physical condition that just appears

5:49

out of nowhere, or even a more literal

5:52

strike, like suddenly you lost all your hearing

5:54

in one ear. Maybe it was because the gin

5:56

slapped you on that side of the head. But

5:59

you must be asking yourself why would any

6:01

gin be bothered enough to strike a person. More

6:04

often than not, it's because the gin was offended

6:06

or disrespected, knowingly or

6:08

unknowingly. Urinating

6:10

the wrong spot, let's say, in a shadowy

6:13

corner a gin called home could

6:15

incurage. Wrath or wearing

6:17

the wrong color and the wrong place the wrong time

6:20

might anger a gin, and you might

6:22

really peeve one off if you disrespect

6:24

it by rejecting the existence of gin

6:26

altogether. Sometimes,

6:29

though, the affliction is actually a way

6:31

to connect a gin to a person, a

6:34

means of establishing first contact, you

6:36

could say, and shaking that contact

6:39

isn't always easy, but

6:41

for thousands of years there have been healers and magicians

6:43

to help take care of such bothersome

6:45

attachments. It seems

6:48

that the idea that illness stems from and therefore

6:50

requires spiritual or supernatural

6:53

interventions, is as old as

6:55

history itself. Unto

6:58

the side of the water, or have drawn nigh,

7:01

casting a woeful fever upon his body.

7:05

A bane of evil had settled on his body,

7:07

and evil disease on his body. They

7:09

have cast an evil plague

7:11

had settled on his body, Evil

7:14

venom on his body. They have cast an

7:16

evil curse had settled on his body.

7:20

Evil and sin on his body. They

7:22

have cast venom and wickedness

7:24

have settled upon him.

7:28

This priestly Assyrian chant,

7:30

as thousands of years old, a

7:33

litany of the many ways evil spirits

7:35

attacked some poor soul. And

7:37

the doctors of ancient times were in

7:39

fact the healers and the magicians,

7:42

and the priests, sometimes indistinguishable

7:45

between any of them.

7:47

They were the ones who were called upon to help heal

7:49

the sick. With little space between

7:51

medicine, religion, and magic, these

7:55

healer magicians were regarded by society

7:57

as honored warriors waging

7:59

war against un seen forces on the battlefield

8:01

of the human body. They wielded

8:03

an array of tools. Each instrument

8:06

specialized to deal with whatever demon

8:08

was causing the sickness, and also

8:10

used chance, spells and rituals to

8:13

drive away the forces of illness.

8:15

But how did they know which demon it was and

8:18

what tools to use, Well,

8:20

it's pretty simple. It all depended

8:23

on which part of the body was ailing. The

8:26

symptoms of whatever ailment a person was

8:28

struck with themselves gave rise

8:30

to the diagnosis. For

8:32

example, a painful throat pointed

8:35

to Utuku, the demon jin, who

8:37

well lived to attack human throats

8:40

fevers. You're dealing with a suku

8:43

skin disease. The demon Rabisu

8:46

was the culprit. The ancient

8:48

Greeks likewise, believed both that

8:50

evil spirits could cause every matter of

8:52

sickness, but also that there were

8:55

gods you could turn to for healing, so

8:57

it kind of balanced it out. And

8:59

sometimes times the evil spirits themselves began

9:01

to be worshiped as gods as a way to appease

9:04

them through rituals of praise

9:06

and even blood sacrifice. For

9:09

example, there's the demigod al

9:11

Maharik. He was a fierce,

9:13

angry and ancient pre Islamic

9:16

god that was worshiped in parts of the Middle East.

9:19

His name means the one who burns,

9:21

and he lords over a crimson throne

9:23

read as flames. Al

9:25

Moharak was known to be a god of the underworld,

9:28

and much like his Babylonian counterpart, the

9:31

god Nergill, he was a deity

9:33

of disease, but al Moharak

9:35

didn't just attack one person. His

9:38

wrath was more efficient.

9:40

You could say Al Moharak

9:42

sent plagues to sickened entire regions,

9:45

and later his legend morphed into him

9:47

being the Jin of plagues and pestilence.

9:51

According to Ottoman mystics, the Jin

9:53

afflicted humans with the plague and other

9:55

epidemics by piercing them

9:57

with the tip of a disease ridden spear

9:59

or arrow. Treatises

10:02

written in the fifteenth and sixteenth century

10:04

also share that sometimes these plagues

10:07

are spread by the direct command of Satan

10:09

himself, who directs his legions

10:11

of Gin to go rampaging against hapless

10:14

humans. But according

10:16

to the same treatises, there is a

10:18

way to protect yourself if

10:20

the plague is a war on man said

10:22

by Satan, man can fight back

10:25

by invoking a powerful name of God

10:27

against the disease. A

10:29

famous Turkish historian scholar by the

10:31

name of Tasco Prosiati prescribed

10:34

the following for protection against the plague

10:37

carrying gin. Repeat

10:39

Albaki, a name of God

10:41

that means the everlasting a hundred

10:43

and thirty six times a day, and no

10:46

such jin could touch you. Tesco

10:49

Prosati wrote about a story in which a group

10:51

of students living in Kaskar, a

10:53

city on the Silk Road bordering Afghanistan,

10:56

saw frightening shadows on a wall. The

10:59

shadows were of figures carrying arrows,

11:01

but was more frightening was that there was nothing

11:04

in the room to actually cast the shadows,

11:06

which could only mean one thing. The

11:09

figures were gin and

11:11

the tips of the arrows they carried were poisoned

11:13

with plague. The students were

11:16

told to write down the powerful names of God

11:18

on pieces of paper as a talisman

11:20

to protect themselves. According

11:22

to the story, those who followed instructions were

11:24

saved and those who didn't perished.

11:29

Hundreds of similar prayerful invocations

11:31

are prescribed throughout Islamic Plague

11:33

treatises from that time, and

11:36

likewise Christian and Jewish writings reflect

11:38

the same ideas and even language.

11:40

Take for example, Psalm nine, a

11:43

prayer that reads, you

11:46

who live in the shelter of the Most High, who

11:48

abide in the shadow of the Almighty, will

11:50

say to the Lord, my refuge and

11:52

my fortress, my God, and whom I trust.

11:55

For he will deliver you from the snare of the fowler

11:58

and from the deadly pestilence. He

12:00

will cover you with his opinions, and under

12:02

his wings you will find refuge. His

12:04

faithfulness is a shield and buckler.

12:07

You will not fear the terror of night, or

12:09

the arrow that flies by day,

12:11

or the pestilence that stalks and darkness,

12:14

or the destruction that wastes at

12:16

noonday. While

12:19

Muslims, Christians, and Jews have always

12:21

had much in common to discuss and interfect

12:23

gatherings, having a shared belief

12:26

in dark, evil forces that shoot arrows

12:28

of disease probably comes as

12:30

a surprise to many of us on

12:43

the subject of physical ailments. If there's every

12:45

convenient time to blame a gin, it's

12:47

when the issue is well a deeply

12:49

personal one. In

12:52

two thousand and eighteen, a medical

12:54

journal published a piece by a doctor from

12:56

the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology

12:59

at the Health Medical Center in Dubai

13:02

entitled quote Infertility

13:04

Caused by Gin. This

13:06

same doctor, Dr Amira Bajirova,

13:08

had previously written an article for the Archives

13:11

of Sexual Reproductive and Health titled

13:13

quote infertility caused by decreased

13:16

oxygen utilization and GIN.

13:19

Now, I was as surprised as you define

13:21

such pieces in recent medical journals,

13:23

But such is the power of spiritual

13:26

belief. Now that thesis

13:28

of these pieces is that evil gin take

13:30

no greater pleasure than they do in wrecking

13:32

marriages through all kinds

13:35

of means, like causing and medie

13:37

between spouses over finances, disputes

13:40

over family issues, lessening

13:42

their attraction for each other, or

13:44

just making them irritable and hateful to each other.

13:48

But if none of that works, they can take more direct

13:50

action to like causing sexual

13:52

disorders, miscarriages, impotence,

13:55

premature ejaculation, early menopause,

13:58

and yes, infertility. Sometimes

14:01

the gin might do it on their own, but more often

14:03

than not they cause these problems

14:05

because someone, a rival or

14:07

enemy, has summoned them with black

14:09

magic to destroy the happy life

14:11

of a couple that they want to harm.

14:14

The articles come complete with very official

14:16

looking charts and lists dozens of sexual

14:19

and reproductive disorders that might be

14:21

inflicted by the gin or could

14:23

be actual symptoms of being possessed by

14:25

one. And there are a number of very

14:27

interesting cases presented in these pieces,

14:30

like the one in which a patient suffering from

14:32

polycystic ovaries failed to follow

14:34

the doctor's instructions and then disappeared

14:37

for a couple of years. She then

14:39

returned to the doctor after a frightening

14:41

experience. She was standing

14:43

in front of a mirror one night applying lipstick

14:45

when suddenly a bright red patch

14:47

appeared in her clothing below her

14:49

pelvis. She was bleeding

14:52

heavily, and it wasn't clear whether

14:54

it was menstrual blood or not. Whatever

14:56

it was, it shocked her into returning for medical

14:58

treatment. The case summary

15:01

in the article concludes, and a quote

15:04

mirror attracts the gin. The gin

15:06

is circulating in the body, settles

15:08

in the womb and opens the uterine vessels,

15:10

causing abnormal bleeding. The

15:13

doctor also had a theory behind male

15:15

impotence and other sexual dysfunction. This

15:18

happens apparently when a female gin. Well,

15:21

the doctor conceded that maybe a male gin too

15:24

was sexually attracted to a human male

15:27

and messed with his system so he could neither

15:29

find satisfaction or give

15:31

satisfaction to another human partner.

15:34

Talk about being possessive anyhow.

15:37

If that caught your ear, don't worry. We'll be getting

15:40

into the phenomena of human gen relationships

15:42

in a later episode. But spoiler

15:44

alert, the relationships aren't always voluntary.

15:49

Getting back to the connection between evil forces

15:51

and sexual and reproductive issues, we

15:54

have to keep this in mind. One

15:56

effective way to lessen the stigma of these

15:58

conditions and lesson the personal

16:00

blame some might ascribe themselves,

16:03

maybe to find an external cause when

16:06

it's black magic, the evil eye, or a wicked

16:08

gin. It affords a bit of protection

16:11

to those who might otherwise be mistreated by

16:13

their partners or families or society

16:15

for failing to fulfill their obligation to

16:18

go forth and multiply. It's

16:21

ironic, actually, that such proscriptions

16:23

might just be a compassionate way

16:25

of letting people off the hook, including

16:28

medical and health professionals. All

16:30

faults and deficiencies get attributed to the gin,

16:33

freeing people of accountability, blame and

16:35

shame. At the same time,

16:37

though, it also keeps alive a thriving source

16:39

of income for the people and institutions

16:42

who claim to be able to heal the things

16:44

that science cannot, and

16:46

it opens the doors for criminals and

16:48

predators who prey on the vulnerable.

16:51

A two thousand twelve article in the Pakistani newspaper

16:54

Dawn reported the arrest of a

16:56

faith healer promising to free

16:59

a young girl of gin, but

17:01

instead the girl's mother caught the man

17:03

in the act of raping her daughter. Thankfully

17:07

he was arrested, but catching such culprits

17:09

isn't always so cut and dry

17:12

in South Asia, and maybe it happens

17:14

in other parts of the world, but at least I can personally

17:17

vouch for this region. While there are doctors

17:19

and clinics, of course, that can treat infertility,

17:22

what happens when a wife unable to produce

17:24

any children gets repeatedly

17:26

checked out and the medical professionals

17:28

say she's just fine. Well,

17:32

thanks to misologyny and the patriarchy

17:34

getting the way of good judgment. Oftentimes

17:36

no one thinks to check the husband's reproductive

17:38

health, because well, that would be unthinkable.

17:42

So the only remaining explanation then

17:44

is supernatural, a curse

17:46

that woman is suffering from, or maybe a gin.

17:50

And so there have been countless stories of women,

17:52

once humiliated for being barren

17:54

and unable to conceive, miraculously

17:57

becoming pregnant after being left alone

17:59

for treatment with some fraudulent holy

18:01

man who claimed that he could drive out the gin

18:03

preventing conception. Imagine

18:06

then the situation these women face finally

18:09

pregnant to the great joy of their families, but

18:12

not through some mysterious spiritual healing.

18:15

Instead, because they're the victims of sexual

18:17

assault by these fake religious healers,

18:20

these women are left to hold this terrible

18:22

secret, a secret they undoubtedly share

18:25

with dozens of other victims, the

18:27

secret that more often than not, you don't

18:29

have to fear the supernatural, because

18:31

the worst monsters are usually human.

18:44

A two thou five article in the Journal of the Royal

18:46

Society of Medicine presented the case of a

18:48

twenty five year old Iraqi woman living

18:50

in the UK with no history of any

18:53

psychological or psychiatric disorders,

18:55

who began to slowly but surely withdraw

18:57

from life. Over time,

19:00

you stopped being in the company of other people, stopped

19:02

communicating and eventually even

19:04

stopped eating. Doctors

19:06

diagnosed with severe depression and subjected

19:09

her to electroshock therapy,

19:11

which did nothing for the patient but further

19:13

confirmed her family suspicion that

19:15

they were dealing with something else here. They

19:18

secretly believe that their daughter was under the influence

19:21

or possessed by a jin. Without

19:24

telling the medical professionals involved, They

19:26

ferried the young woman off to see a faith healer,

19:28

who assured them that he could cure her with

19:31

prayer and ritual. After

19:33

all, faith is often the last resort

19:35

of the desperate. The healer

19:37

put his patient through a few sessions of spiritual

19:39

therapy, and miraculously, her appetite

19:42

returned, as did her previous

19:44

emotional health. She

19:46

reported that she wasn't sure what had happened to

19:48

her, that she was fully aware of her condition, but

19:51

she just couldn't bring herself to do anything

19:53

to come out of it, even though of

19:55

her own admission, she wasn't

19:57

particularly feeling sad or depressed about

19:59

anything at all. According

20:01

to the article, even five years later,

20:04

she was still doing fine without any

20:06

medications or any other treatment

20:08

since the spiritual healing. But

20:11

of course, not all such stories have happy

20:13

endings. For some, the spiritual

20:16

healing itself becomes a private hell.

20:27

People have long both feared madness

20:30

and been in awe of it. The

20:32

ancient Greeks thought some madness to be

20:34

sacred, opening divine portals

20:36

and the power of prophecy. And

20:39

then there's a dark side of madness,

20:41

the one that's not caused by gods or saints,

20:43

but by demons, or

20:46

sometimes by something in between,

20:48

like Lyssa, known to the Greeks

20:51

as both the goddess and demon

20:53

of rage and frenzy. In

20:55

the Greek tragedy The Madness of Heracles,

20:58

Heracles, the son of Zeus, stands

21:00

before his father's altar, ready

21:02

to purify himself, when suddenly

21:05

Lissa strikes him with madness. Heracles

21:09

spun around, his eyes, rolling in his

21:11

head, mouth foaming, and mounted

21:13

an imaginary chariot. He

21:15

bellowed maniacal laughter as he drew

21:18

his bow and took aim at his own children.

21:21

He didn't know they were his children, though in

21:24

his madness he believed they were the children

21:26

of an enemy. Heracules

21:28

terrified children tried to save themselves.

21:31

One child hid behind his mother, another

21:34

behind a temple pillar, and the third

21:36

one under an altar, but it

21:39

didn't deter Heracles. He

21:41

killed all three of his children and his

21:43

own wife before finally being

21:45

struck by a rock that put him in a deep

21:47

slumber. Greek

21:50

mythology is full of madness caused

21:52

by demons or curses, leading to

21:54

murder, suicide, infanticide,

21:57

and other unthinkable acts

21:59

such evil You see can madness

22:01

be? And the line between

22:03

madness and evil forces is

22:06

just as straight. In the Arabian tradition,

22:08

both predating and after the seventh century,

22:10

when Islam emerged as a religion in the region,

22:14

a mad person is called much new

22:17

and madness itself is called janine. Both

22:20

of these words have the same three letter origin

22:22

as jin, those letters in the English

22:25

alphabet being j and and much

22:28

noon januin jin. They're

22:31

not only related. Much noon literally

22:33

means possessed by a jin, whether

22:35

or not that person is actually possessed. So

22:38

how do the jin drive a person mad? Well,

22:41

they have a few tricks up their sleeves. First

22:44

is the insiduous was swassa, the

22:46

whisperings, am

22:48

I good enough? Am I pretty enough? Is

22:51

my husband cheating on me? Are my friends

22:53

talking about me? Did my brother

22:55

steal from me? Is that woman following

22:58

me? Are my children safe?

23:01

Will my parents die? Those

23:04

doubts and negative thoughts that you can't get rid

23:06

of, that continuous, persistent stream

23:08

of anxious questions and insecurities

23:11

that circulates in your mind constantly.

23:14

It may well be a jin whispering to

23:16

you in your very own voice.

23:19

Maybe it's even your caree, that constant

23:22

companion jin that's born with you and for you,

23:24

and dies with you too. The

23:26

Gin know that if they're at it long enough, it can

23:29

lead people, if not to shear madness,

23:31

then to depression, panic attacks,

23:34

resentment and anger, and even

23:36

suicidal ideation. And

23:38

if that doesn't work, they'll try to drive you mad

23:40

with their music. It's not really

23:42

music, though, it's more of a sound, not unlike

23:45

a siren song, but a bit more

23:47

creative. It can sound like a

23:49

constant buzzing of flies

23:51

or bees, or the incessant shirp

23:54

of a bird. It could be the sound

23:56

of wind or a far off

23:58

whale, or never ending murmurs,

24:01

or maybe the faint beating of drums for hours

24:04

and days, both when you wake

24:06

and sleep. It could just

24:08

be a sound repeated over and over,

24:10

like it was reported by an ancient poet who

24:13

described it as zizizema,

24:15

zizimma, zizizimma. Before

24:22

the advent of modern psychiatry and psychology,

24:25

this was all understood to be symptoms

24:27

of external malevolent forces.

24:30

But even in the modern era, it can be hard

24:32

for many to draw lines between the natural and

24:34

the supernatural, to know when

24:36

to take a loved one to a psychiatrist and

24:38

when to take them to a spiritual healer, and

24:41

in some places there are almost no options

24:44

but to choose the latter. In

24:47

the small town of boya Umer in the

24:49

heart of Morocco, there stands a mausoleum

24:51

dedicated to a sixteenth century

24:53

saint. The town itself was named

24:55

after this particular

24:58

saint was known to cure those suffering and

25:00

what we today understand to be psychiatric

25:02

disorders, but before modern

25:04

medicine was generally considered madness

25:06

caused by gin, and this

25:08

mausoleum, a shrine for that saint, became

25:11

a place of hope for the loved ones of those

25:13

who were thought to be touched by madness,

25:16

but a place of despair for the

25:18

afflicted themselves. Families

25:21

came from near and far to leave their sick children,

25:23

siblings, elders at the shrine in

25:25

the hopes that the healers working there and

25:28

the power of the shrine itself would

25:30

cure their loved ones. Whether

25:32

the families were driven by love or fear,

25:35

guilt or faith, their patronage

25:37

brought a steady stream of revenue to the shrine,

25:39

which charged a monthly housing fee for their

25:42

patients and made nearly a million dollars

25:44

a year from their services. The

25:47

healers there claimed they could heal through

25:49

their own power derived from the deceased

25:51

saint himself, that they had

25:53

power over the gin that were either afflicting to

25:55

patients, or by employing

25:57

the gin that were already in their control

26:00

to battle the ones that were not in

26:02

their control. People

26:04

passing by would hear howling and screams,

26:07

sobs and cries for mercy, all

26:09

which was chalked up to the torment of the gin who

26:12

were being exercised from their victims, except

26:15

that's probably not what it was. Not

26:18

too many years ago, reports began emerging

26:20

of the torture these patients, treated

26:22

more like animals. Faced Human

26:25

rights activists raised allegations that patients

26:27

at the shrine were often shackled and beaten,

26:30

even starved, and that place

26:32

must be shut down. So

26:34

serious and systematic was the situation

26:37

that a report was even presented to

26:39

the u N Working Group on arbitrary detention.

26:42

One story detailed the horror faced

26:45

by a young man from Tangiers who had

26:47

a drug addiction and had been left

26:49

at buyah Omer in two thousand and six by

26:51

his brother. He was robbed and

26:53

beaten, deprived of food and water,

26:56

but was finally saved by the same brother came

26:58

to see him a year lay here for

27:01

a year, he said he lived in hell.

27:04

As these tales emerged, medical professionals

27:07

and human rights groups demanded the government

27:09

shut the shrine down, putting the

27:11

authorities between a rock and a hard place. After

27:14

all, the shrine was part and parcel of

27:16

their cultural heritage, as

27:18

were the beliefs around gin and spiritual

27:21

healing. Others counter protested,

27:23

insisting the shrine remained open not

27:26

only because of its historic importance,

27:28

but also because they simply didn't know what to do with

27:30

their loved ones, where to take them, how to

27:32

help heal them. But the government

27:35

conducted a review of the shrine operations and

27:37

in two thousand and fifteen shut it down,

27:40

much to the relief of activists and health

27:42

professionals. It didn't just shut

27:44

down the shrine, though, The government allocated

27:47

millions of dollars for the patients that would

27:49

be escaping the shrine, recruited

27:51

mental health professionals, and bought dozens

27:53

of ambulances to transport the ill

27:56

and the story itself prompted both national

27:58

and international conversations about

28:01

mental health, abuse of power, human

28:03

rights, tradition, and faith,

28:05

but also about gin. After

28:08

all, the government could shut down the shrine, but they

28:11

couldn't shut down the healers who claimed

28:13

powers derived from the saint, and

28:16

they couldn't shut down the Gin themselves,

28:18

because as long as they're a gin, there

28:21

will always be people who promise they can

28:23

save you from them.

28:32

They say, there's sometimes a fine line

28:35

between a gift and a curse, and such

28:37

is the case with madness too, because

28:40

while it has often been thought to be a result

28:42

of evil or dark forces, there's

28:44

a place on the spectrum that has long been considered

28:47

a portal to enlightenment. In

28:50

the Sufi tradition, you are lucky to be known

28:52

as much hub, meaning

28:54

an unruly friend of God, a

28:56

person touched with madness that connected them

28:58

to the divine, opened them up

29:00

to secrets, gave them the ability to see

29:03

and understand, and no things the rest of

29:05

us aren't capable of. These

29:07

people would be forgiven in an otherwise orthodox

29:09

society for exhibiting bizarre behavior

29:12

and speech, like running around naked, babbling

29:14

in tongues, dancing and frenetic

29:17

ecstasy, and breaking all

29:19

kinds of religious and social norms.

29:22

And yes, the sacred madness was attributed

29:24

to Gin good Gin, that is,

29:27

pious Jin, who possessed the bodies of pious

29:29

men and women and opened up the reality

29:32

of God to them, connecting them

29:34

through the madness to an unseen holy

29:36

realm. The awe

29:38

that these unruly friends inspired

29:41

in sufis may seem odd, but

29:43

then behold the Western regard for genius.

29:46

The German philosopher Arthur Scopenhauer

29:48

once said genius lives only

29:50

one story above madness, and

29:53

well before that, Aristotle told us

29:55

no great mind has ever existed without

29:58

a touch of madness. Indeed,

30:00

many of the celebrated geniuses of Western

30:03

art, literature, science, and philosophy

30:05

suffered from some psychiatric or psychological

30:08

disorder. Many many studies

30:10

have been done correlating the two phenomena and

30:12

making a strong case for the relationship

30:15

between madness and art. One

30:17

study found that of famous

30:20

poets experienced psychopathology,

30:22

and another study found quote a

30:25

very high percentage of the writers and artists,

30:27

thirty eight percent had been treated for

30:29

a mood disorder. Of those

30:31

treated, three forts have been given antidepressants,

30:34

lithium, or have been hospitalized.

30:37

There are researchers who dismissed the idea

30:39

that madness and genius are correlated, citing

30:42

poorly designed studies and conflation and

30:44

an entire host of undermining factors.

30:47

But then the famous Lord Byron

30:50

once said about himself, we of

30:52

the craft are all crazy.

30:54

Some are affected by gayety, others by

30:56

melancholy, but all are

30:59

more or less touched. Byron

31:02

spoke from personal experience. Both

31:04

he and his contemporary Percy Shelley,

31:07

were aflicted with wide ranging mood

31:09

swings, from deep sadness and

31:11

apathy to fits of uncontrollable

31:13

rage, common signs of manic

31:16

depressive disorder. Van

31:18

Go suffered mental illness for many years

31:20

of his life, leading him to both slice

31:22

off his ear and shoot himself

31:24

in the chest. Nicola,

31:26

Tesla, Nietici, Isaac

31:29

Newton, Edgar Allan Poe,

31:31

Virginia Wolf, Wolfgang Amadeus.

31:34

The list of mad geniuses goes on

31:36

and on, and

31:38

just like the Sufis gave a pass to their

31:41

unruly friends of God, so

31:43

has the West not just tolerated,

31:45

but celebrated its own unruly

31:47

creatives, understanding on some

31:49

level that these two forces go hand

31:52

in hand. What, however,

31:54

does any of this have to do with gin Well,

31:57

you'd be surprised to know the etymology

31:59

of the word genius, in case

32:01

you didn't make the connection from how the word

32:03

sounds. Some scholars say

32:06

and may have its roots in the Arabic word

32:08

ginia and the Arabic word

32:11

jin, which makes perfect

32:13

sense when you learn that the entire concept

32:16

of genius dates back to ancient Rome,

32:18

because the Romans believed that we

32:20

are all born with genius. Actually,

32:23

to be more precise, they believe

32:25

that we are all born with a genius,

32:28

a genius that was originally thought to be

32:30

a guiding spirit. That each one of us

32:32

was born with a supernatural

32:35

entity that's separate from us, but

32:37

lives with us, inside of

32:39

us, inspiring us. I

32:41

don't know sounds kind of like

32:44

a Jin to me. Thanks

32:48

for joining us this week. Next week

32:50

we'll be back to take you another step into

32:52

the world of the Hidden Gin. Until

32:55

then, remember we are

32:57

not alone.

33:03

If you loved today's episode, I'm gonna

33:06

ask you a big favor. Please stop my iTunes

33:08

and leave me a rating and a review,

33:11

even if it's just one short sentence. Not

33:13

only is that how other listeners discover the

33:15

podcast, but it's also what keeps the

33:17

podcast going. And for every

33:19

thousand reviews that I get on iTunes,

33:22

I'll release another Patreon episode

33:24

absolutely free. That's right, We're

33:26

on Patreon, so if you're a Jin enthusiast,

33:29

check out the Companion Patreon series

33:31

at patreon dot com slash Hidden

33:34

Jin. Again, that's patreon

33:36

dot com slash Hidden Gin, and remember Jin

33:38

is spelled d j I n N. That's

33:40

where you're gonna find an amazing series

33:43

of interviews between me, scholars,

33:45

experts, artist, historians, and every

33:47

day lay people who have had extraordinary

33:50

experiences with Jin and

33:52

everybody can check out the first episode absolutely

33:54

free. It's me and my husband sharing our

33:57

Jin stories and it was a lot of fun.

34:00

And if you have any Gin stories, well I'd love

34:02

to hear from you. Email me at

34:04

the Hidden Gin at gmail dot com.

34:06

Once again, it's the Hidden Gin Gin

34:09

with a D at gmail dot com and

34:11

you might just hear back from me, or you

34:13

might hear your story on this show. And

34:16

finally, don't forget to follow us on social media.

34:18

We're on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram

34:21

with the handle the Hidden Gin. There

34:23

you can tweet, post, insta,

34:26

dm me. I'd love to hear from all of

34:28

you, and believe me, I read every single

34:30

message. The

34:34

Hidden Gin is a production of I Heart

34:36

Radio and Grimm and Mild from Aaron

34:38

Mankey. The podcast is written

34:41

and hosted by Robbia Chaudry and

34:43

produced by Miranda Hawkins and Trevor

34:45

Young, with executive producers

34:47

Aaron Mankey, Alex Williams, and

34:50

Matt Frederick. Music

34:52

for the show was provided by Smith Sony

34:54

and Folkways Recordings. Our

34:56

theme song was created by Patrick Cortez.

34:59

For more podcasts from I Heart Radio,

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Podcasts, or wherever you get your

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podcasts. H