0:10

In March two thousand seven, the

0:13

much celebrated writer and film director

0:15

JJ Abrams gave a ted

0:18

talk entitled The Mystery

0:20

Box. In it, he

0:22

outlined the notion of unseen

0:24

mystery as one of his fundamental

0:27

principles of storytelling. In

0:29

order to demonstrate the point, Abrams

0:32

brought along a gift he received from

0:34

a relative back when he was fourteen

0:36

years old, Tannon's

0:38

Magic Mystery Box. The

0:41

box was rather plain, looking like

0:44

a regular brown cardboard box with

0:46

a large black question mark printed

0:48

on the front of it. The

0:51

idea was that although you couldn't see

0:53

what was inside it, the makers

0:55

of the box promised to anyone who

0:57

might buy it that it contained the equivalent

1:00

of fifty dollars worth of magic for

1:02

the price of only fifteen dollars.

1:05

To a fourteen year old kid like Abrams,

1:08

it was an exhilarating gift. Just

1:11

what incredible things might it contain

1:14

that could possibly equate to fifty

1:16

dollars worth of magic? Only

1:19

in all that time Abrams

1:21

had never opened it, as

1:24

he astutely realized, the real

1:26

magic had nothing to do with what was

1:28

actually inside the box, but

1:31

rather in the wandering of what

1:33

might be in the thirty

1:35

six years since the box had been gifted

1:38

to him, it had come to symbolize

1:40

something far more valuable than

1:42

anything that could be inside.

1:44

To Abrams, whose show Lost

1:47

has been described as one of the greatest

1:49

mystery dramas of all time, the

1:52

box was a powerful reminder of

1:54

the infinite potential of story and

1:56

how mystery is the key to

1:59

imagination. With that

2:01

in mind, before we go any further,

2:04

let's try a little experiment. A

2:06

stranger approaches you in the street brandishing

2:09

a suitcase. They say to

2:12

you, what I have in this suitcase

2:14

will change your life.

2:16

Do you want to know what it is? You

2:20

want to know what's in the case, don't you? Would

2:23

you ask them to open it? Or not? Now

2:26

hold on to that thought. We'll come

2:28

back to it later. The

2:32

best mysteries are the boxes

2:34

with lids that remain closed the longest,

2:37

or, like a Chinese box, the ones

2:39

that open only to reveal another

2:42

deeper mystery inside. In

2:45

the context of story, at least, as

2:47

the huge success of Abrams's

2:50

Enigmatic Lost demonstrates,

2:53

perhaps it's better not to open

2:55

the box at all, since the

2:57

revelation of what's inside rarely

3:00

up to expectation. What

3:09

I find most fascinating about

3:11

Abrams's notion of unseen

3:13

mystery is not so much the tease

3:16

of needing to know what's inside the box,

3:18

but how by withholding

3:21

the truth of what it is, like

3:23

some sort of infinity loop, it

3:25

enables us to continually reimagine

3:28

the possibilities. The

3:30

infinite possibility of story is

3:32

not limited to the world of fiction. Some

3:36

interpretations of quantum mechanical

3:38

theories, such as superposition

3:41

and wavefunction collapse, first

3:43

introduced by pioneering physicist

3:46

Werner Heisenberg, suggests

3:48

that subatomic particles and

3:50

by extension, all matter,

3:53

effectively exist as a set of

3:55

infinite possibilities, becoming

3:58

fixed or collapsing into

4:00

a singular state only

4:02

once they are observed or measured.

4:06

For a truly mind bending introduction

4:08

to this phenomena, seek out Professor

4:11

Jim Alkalilly's explanation

4:13

of the double slit experiment, presented

4:16

as part of a lecture for the Royal Institution

4:19

in twenty thirteen. Another

4:22

famous depiction of this strange phenomena

4:25

is Irwin Schrodinger's nineteen thirty

4:27

five thought experiment. Schrodinger's

4:30

Cat, perhaps the most famous

4:32

mystery box of the mall. The

4:35

experiment invites you to imagine

4:37

a box or steel chamber,

4:40

as Schrodinger has it, that contains

4:42

a flask of poison and a hammer

4:45

linked to a Geiger counter tracking

4:47

the potential decay of a radioactive

4:49

substance. A

4:51

cat is placed inside the box, which

4:54

is then sealed, with no way

4:56

for the observer to see what is occurring

4:59

inside. If the

5:01

counter records a single

5:03

atom of decay from the radioactive

5:06

substance, the hammer will

5:08

fall and release a poison, killing

5:11

the cat. However,

5:13

because we can't actually see inside

5:15

the box, it could be said that,

5:18

regardless of what has happened, the

5:20

cat exists in a state of superposition,

5:24

being simultaneously alive and

5:27

dead at the same time. Only

5:30

when we look inside the box, in

5:32

other words, empirically measure

5:35

what has occurred, does the cat's

5:37

actual state become known. It's

5:41

an idea with quite extraordinary

5:43

implications, even horrifying,

5:45

perhaps, the notion of the material

5:48

world as something unfixed

5:50

and indeterminate, only

5:52

settling into place once it has

5:55

been observed. After

5:57

all, is there any knowing who

5:59

or what might constitute

6:01

the observer? Indeed,

6:04

if we allow ourselves to stretch the analogy

6:07

further, wouldn't the true horror

6:09

be in discovering that, having opened

6:11

the box, it isn't us

6:13

who are observing the cat, but

6:16

the cat who's observing us.

6:21

So we're back with the stranger

6:23

in the street brandishing their

6:25

mysterious suitcase. Did

6:28

you decide to open it to

6:30

see the thing inside that will change

6:32

your life? You did?

6:36

Notice that I never said anything

6:38

about it changing your life for

6:40

the better. You're

6:42

listening to Unexplained, and

6:44

I'm Richard McLean Smith.

6:55

All of the events that I'm about to set

6:57

forth in this listing are accurate

6:59

and may be verified with the copies

7:02

of hospital records and sworn

7:04

AffA davits that I'm including

7:06

as part of the sale posted

7:09

in June two thousand and three by

7:12

a then thirty eight year old Kevin

7:14

Manis a furniture and antique

7:17

seller from Portland, Oregon. This

7:19

certainly wasn't your average eBay

7:21

listing. Then again,

7:24

the article for sale was not

7:26

your typical eBay item.

7:29

This was something else entirely.

7:32

The story, according to Kevin,

7:35

begins back in September

7:38

two thousand and one. Kevin

7:40

is the owner of ADDIE's Market, a

7:43

small, used and restored furniture

7:45

business he set up earlier in the

7:47

year. His main area

7:50

of expertise is furniture

7:52

recovery and restoration, but

7:54

what he enjoys more than anything is

7:56

hunting for new and interesting pieces

7:59

to work with. On weekends,

8:02

it's common to find Kevin cruising

8:04

around the Portland suburbs visiting

8:07

yard sales and personal property

8:09

auctions, much like the one

8:11

he is approaching now that's

8:14

September. One weekend, Kevin

8:16

parks his pick up in front of a

8:19

modest sixties low rise

8:21

house. There he

8:23

finds the usual group of curious

8:25

onlookers and amateur collectors

8:27

poking around the bits and pieces that

8:30

are stacked up on the lawn. A

8:33

cursory glance reveals most of the

8:35

items to be old and dated, suggesting

8:38

to Kevin that their owner has recently

8:40

passed away. Although

8:42

a little morbid, it's this kind of sale

8:45

that Kevin relishes, since

8:47

it's often when people die that the

8:49

most interesting items become available.

8:53

Peculiar objects kept

8:55

and treasured for years, once

8:57

loaded with personal meaning, now

9:00

stripped of all but their original

9:02

purpose. After

9:04

purchasing Lock twenty nine, a

9:07

good mix of household furniture. It's

9:09

only when Kevin is loading the items

9:12

onto his truck that he notices

9:14

one particular piece for the first

9:16

time, A peculiar

9:18

little cabinet unlike anything

9:21

else in the sale. Roughly

9:23

a foot wide and just over sixteen

9:26

inches tall, it's made from

9:28

a richly colored, if slightly scuffed,

9:31

mahogany and adorned on the

9:33

front with two bunches of grapes

9:36

shaped from brass. Kevin

9:38

recognizes it as a wine cabinet

9:41

common in Jewish households, often

9:44

used as a ceremonial piece for

9:46

a number of Jewish rituals. I

9:49

see you bought the dibbook box. Kevin

9:52

turns to find a young woman standing

9:55

behind him. Dibbock

9:57

box, he asks.

10:06

The box, the woman explains,

10:08

was one of only three items that

10:11

her grandmother, Havela, brought to America

10:14

when she arrived from Europe after the

10:16

Second World War. According

10:18

to Kevin, Avela was born in

10:21

Poland, where she'd lived before

10:23

the German army invaded in nineteen

10:25

thirty nine, after which she

10:28

was sent to a concentration camp, where

10:30

she lost contact with her entire

10:32

family. After

10:34

managing to escape, she made

10:36

her way to Spain, where it's

10:38

thought she purchased the strange box.

10:42

Aveala would never see her family

10:44

again, but thanks to the sanctuary

10:47

offered by the United States,

10:49

she was able to build a new life, a

10:52

new home, and a new family

10:55

before passing away at the age

10:57

of one hundred and three.

11:00

Moved by her story, Kevin

11:02

no longer sees the item as just

11:04

a piece for him to sell, but as

11:06

something with great history and weight.

11:10

Without hesitating, he offers it

11:12

back to the woman. Her response

11:15

is unexpected, No,

11:17

I don't want anything to do with it. Please,

11:21

it's yours now. Kevin

11:24

is a little alarmed, but agrees

11:26

to take it. Why

11:28

is it called a dibbook box? He asks.

11:32

The woman tells him that ever since

11:34

she was young, her grandmother kept

11:37

the box in her sewing room, closed

11:40

and out at the reach of the small,

11:42

prying hands of children. Whenever

11:45

the woman asked what was in it, her

11:47

grandmother would spit through her fingers

11:50

three times and say it was a

11:52

dibbuk, insisting the

11:54

cabinet should never be opened under

11:57

any circumstances. As

11:59

for what a dibuok is exactly, the

12:02

woman isn't able to say, do

12:05

you want to open it with me, Kevin jokes.

12:09

The woman's face darkens again.

12:13

No, she says. Kevin

12:17

looks back to the quaint little box.

12:20

Are you sure you don't want to keep it? He

12:22

asks? You bought

12:24

it, We don't want it, says

12:26

the woman, before turning away

12:29

and walking back to the house, leaving

12:31

a amused and stunned Kevin to

12:34

finish loading up the rest of his goods.

12:38

After arriving back at his furniture

12:40

shop, Kevin takes his new purchases

12:43

down to the basement for logging. Later

12:46

that afternoon, with

12:48

a few more errands to run, he heads

12:50

out again, leaving his assistant

12:53

Jane, in charge until his return.

12:57

With business a little slow on the shop

12:59

floor, Jane takes the opportunity

13:02

to make a start on the new items. As

13:05

she descends into the cold darkness

13:07

of the basement, she feels

13:10

a profound sense of unease. A

13:13

moment later, almost without

13:15

realizing, she finds herself

13:18

staring at a funny looking cabinet

13:20

with two bunches of metal grapes

13:22

on its doors. That sense

13:25

of unease now unmistakable

13:28

as the feeling of being watched.

13:32

A ringing phone snaps her out of

13:34

it, running back

13:36

up to the shop floor. Jane

13:38

answers the call, but there

13:41

is only silence at the other end.

13:44

A loud crash comes from

13:47

somewhere below.

13:55

Hello, says Jane, stepping

13:58

down into the basement. Moving

14:01

further in, she sees with some relief

14:03

the cause of the disturbance. A

14:06

phosphorescent light bulb has blown,

14:09

scattering shards of milky white

14:11

glass across the floor. Jane

14:14

finds a broom and cleans up

14:16

the mess. As she brushes

14:19

the broken glass, rattles

14:21

and scuffs against the floor. The

14:23

broom's bristles swish, but

14:26

through the suscration, Jane

14:28

is certain she can hear something

14:31

else. She stops

14:33

for a moment and strains to listen.

14:36

It sounds like somebody is

14:38

whispering to her. It's

14:41

quiet at first, like tiny

14:44

licks of wind whipping at her

14:46

ears, getting louder

14:48

and louder until she can almost

14:50

pick out whole words and their

14:52

dark, unmistakable tone

14:55

of malice. Smash,

14:59

another light ball blows, raining

15:01

glass all over the floor and

15:03

plunging the basement into complete

15:06

darkness. Jane drops

15:08

the broom and runs straight for the

15:10

exit, but the basement

15:12

gate has somehow swung shut

15:15

and locked itself, trapping

15:17

her underground. She

15:19

pulls and rattles the bars, screaming

15:22

for help. Kevin

15:26

is a few blocks away when he picks

15:28

up the phone to find a frantic Jane

15:30

on the other end. Does someone

15:33

hear? She keeps saying someone

15:35

smashing the place up. Before

15:38

Kevin can make any sense of it, the

15:41

line goes dead. When

15:43

he returns to the shop, Kevin

15:45

finds it completely silent, with

15:48

no light coming from the floor below,

15:51

and when he calls out for Jane, he

15:53

gets no response. Grabbing

15:57

a torch from under the counter, he

15:59

races down to the basement, only

16:01

to find the gate locked shut.

16:04

He fumbles for the key and hurriedly

16:07

jams it into the lock. With

16:09

one turn, the gate swings

16:11

open. Kevin

16:13

flicks the light switch, but the room

16:16

remains dark. He

16:18

switches on the torch, unleashing

16:20

a bright beam of light into the space,

16:23

then takes a step forward. Just

16:26

then he's hit by an unexpected

16:29

and pungent odor, sickly

16:31

sweet like cat urine.

16:33

He thinks glass

16:36

cracks under his feet. Moving

16:38

the torch about, is shocked to see

16:40

that every light bulb in the room has

16:43

blown out. The

16:45

light catches something crouched

16:47

on the floor at the far end

16:49

of the room. Kevin

16:51

freezes as it starts to

16:53

move. It's Jane,

16:57

stuff you, says Jane, pushing

17:00

asked him a stunt.

17:02

Kevin is still standing downstairs

17:04

in the dark when he hears the shop's

17:06

bell ring, followed by the

17:08

slamming of the front door. Jane

17:12

never returns to work at ADDIE's Market,

17:15

believing that Kevin had played a hideous

17:17

prank on her. For

17:19

Kevin's part, he could be forgiven

17:22

for thinking Jane herself might have had

17:24

something to do with it. It

17:26

certainly doesn't occur to either of them

17:28

that perhaps the small mahogany

17:31

cabinet was to blame. It's

17:43

a month later and Kevin

17:45

is finally getting round to fixing

17:47

up the so called Dibbuk box. He

17:50

thinks it'll make the perfect present for

17:53

his mother Ida's upcoming birthday.

17:56

He pulls it out from the back of the basement

17:59

and places it on his worktop. He's

18:02

just about to unlock the clasp when

18:04

he remembers the warning of the seller's

18:06

grandmother never

18:09

open it. With

18:12

a shrug, He flicks back the

18:14

clip and pulls open the

18:16

doors. As

18:18

he does, something unexpected

18:21

occurs. A small drawer

18:23

at the bottom opens simultaneously.

18:27

Inside it are two old

18:29

pennies and two locks of hair.

18:33

Kevin pulls the drawer open further, and

18:35

the doors follow suit, as if

18:37

the box itself were offering

18:39

its contents to him.

18:42

Looking inside the cabinet, Kevin

18:44

is confused. On the

18:47

inner side of the door, he finds a

18:49

cup and brackets for holding wine

18:51

bottles, as he'd anticipated, but

18:54

he didn't expect to find the other

18:56

bizarre objects inside.

18:59

He stuck with the pieces in the drawer,

19:02

he takes out the two pennies first,

19:05

one is from nineteen twenty five

19:08

and the other from nineteen twenty

19:10

eight. Next, he takes

19:12

out the wine cup that appears to

19:14

be made of gold and places

19:17

it on the side next to the pennies.

19:20

In the main box, he finds

19:22

a dried rosebud and a

19:24

ghoulish looking cast iron candlestick

19:27

with four octopus like

19:30

tentacles curling around the

19:32

base. Then he

19:34

picks up the strands of hair and

19:37

examines them closely. One

19:39

lock is curly tangled

19:42

and reddish blonde in color, the

19:44

other much darker, almost

19:47

black, and straight. Both

19:50

are undoubtedly human Kevin

19:54

also finds an oddly shaped granite

19:56

statue with the Hebraic Shalom

20:00

meaning peace, engraved in copper

20:02

on its front. The entire

20:05

thing is like nothing he's seen

20:07

before. With

20:10

all the pieces removed, Kevin

20:12

gently starts rubbing lemon oil into

20:14

the wood when he notices something

20:16

else written in Hebrew across

20:19

the back of the cabinet. Unable

20:21

to read Hebrew, however, Kevin

20:24

simply finishes the oiling, then

20:26

returns the items to the box and

20:29

carefully closes its doors.

20:32

A few days later, Kevin's mother,

20:34

Ida arrives at ADDIE's Market

20:37

to find Kevin waiting for her with

20:39

his newly restored gift.

20:42

Happy Birthday, Mum, He says,

20:45

what do you think? Ida

20:47

smiles politely, not quite

20:49

sure what to make of the peculiar item,

20:52

as Kevin places it on a table, then

20:55

heads downstairs to finish off

20:57

a few jobs before they can go

20:59

for lunch. Ida

21:01

takes a seat and feels a small

21:04

breeze rushed through the shop. When

21:07

she looks up, she finds, to

21:09

her astonishment that the doors

21:11

of the box have opened. With

21:14

the overwhelming urge to touch it,

21:17

she rises from her chair and

21:19

takes a step toward it. When

21:22

she places her hand on it, she is

21:24

gripped by an extraordinary feeling of

21:26

power, as if she's just been

21:28

plugged into the manes. In

21:31

a panic, she tries to pull away,

21:33

but she can't move. The

21:36

left side of her mouth begins

21:38

to sag. When Kevin

21:40

returns, he finds his mother

21:43

completely unresponsive, with

21:45

tears streaming down her face.

21:55

Ida was apparently found to have suffered

21:57

a stroke, resulting in the partial

21:59

para of her left sight and

22:01

a loss of speech. After

22:04

being treated at the local hospital, she

22:06

is settled onto a ward with

22:09

Kevin by her side. Unable

22:11

to talk, she picks up a pad

22:13

of paper and a pen from the bedside

22:15

table. She scribbles something

22:18

down, then rips off the top

22:20

sheet and hands it to him. It

22:23

says no gift.

22:26

Kevin is confused. Does

22:28

she mean he didn't get her a birthday present?

22:31

He rubs her hand and reassures

22:34

her that he did. He gave her

22:36

the wine box. Ida

22:38

becomes agitated and shakes

22:40

her head. She scribbles furiously

22:43

on the pad again, then turns

22:45

it round to reveal the words hate

22:48

gift. With

22:50

Ida not wanting the box, Kevin

22:53

offers it first to his sister. She

22:55

returns it a week later, complaining

22:58

that the doors won't stay shut,

23:00

so he gives it to his brother and sister

23:03

in law, who also return it

23:05

days later. Upset by

23:07

the strange cat urine like

23:09

odor it seems to exude, Kevin

23:14

takes it back to the shop, where

23:16

a middle aged couple take a shine

23:18

to it and duly take it off

23:20

his hands, only to return

23:22

it. The following day, Kevin

23:25

finds it waiting for him on the doorstep

23:27

of the shop, with an odd note

23:30

taped to it that reads this

23:32

box as an old darkness

23:35

about it. In the

23:37

end, he decides to take it home

23:40

and keep it for himself.

23:49

Kevin is walking through an enchanted

23:51

autumnal scene alongside

23:54

an old friend, but as

23:56

they walk through the burnt orange and

23:58

browns of a forest path way, something

24:02

begins to shift out of place. He

24:05

turns to his friend, whose

24:07

face is now morphing and twisting

24:09

into a grotesque mask, until

24:12

it is replaced entirely by

24:14

the gruesome features of an almost

24:17

inhuman looking elderly lady,

24:20

her dark, sunken eyes exuding

24:22

what he takes to be a deep,

24:25

primordial and unfathomable

24:27

evil. Then suddenly

24:30

she sets upon him with startling

24:32

ferocity, beating and tearing

24:35

at his skin. Kevin

24:37

wakes with a scream. Sweat

24:40

drips from his forehead as its heart

24:42

thumps audibly in his chest. He

24:45

hurriedly switches on his bedside

24:47

light. When he looks

24:49

down, he finds that its body

24:52

is covered in welts and bruises.

24:56

That was only the first night.

25:01

Soon, Kevin becomes

25:03

convinced that something is stalking

25:05

him in his house. Sometimes,

25:08

when he senses movement in the corner

25:11

of his eye, he looks up to

25:13

see black, wispy shapes seemingly

25:16

retreating into the shadows.

25:25

Afraid of what others might think, As

25:27

he explained in his eBay listing,

25:30

Kevin keeps his nightmares and visions

25:32

to himself for the next eighteen

25:35

months. At some

25:37

point, Kevin's sister and brother

25:39

come to stay with him, along with his

25:42

brother's wife. One

25:44

morning, over breakfast, Kevin's

25:46

sister complains of a hellish nightmare

25:49

she had the previous night, involving

25:51

a fearsome elderly lady. Kevin's

25:55

sister in law stops eating and

25:57

looks nervously at the others,

26:00

as she explains, she had

26:03

the exact same dream too.

26:07

In fact, according to Kevin, all

26:09

four of them apparently had it, and

26:12

that wasn't the first time together.

26:15

They realized the nightmares occurred

26:18

whenever they'd each been looking after

26:20

the Dibbuk box. Although

26:23

Kevin is unwilling to believe the old

26:25

wine cabinet has anything to do with it,

26:28

he puts it away in a storage space behind

26:30

the house for some peace of mind.

26:33

Later that night, through the fogginess

26:36

of sleep, Kevin hears

26:38

a distant siren. It's

26:41

the smoke alarm in the storage unit.

26:44

Fearing the place is burning down, Kevin

26:47

races to the unit, only to

26:49

find there is no fire, just

26:52

the potent stench of cat urine.

26:56

After going back to bed, Kevin

26:58

wakes again at four point thirty with

27:01

the sensation that someone

27:03

is breathing on his neck. Looking

27:06

up suddenly, he claimed that

27:08

he then saw a large humanoid

27:11

shadow disappearing into

27:13

the hallway. Kevin

27:16

had had enough. As

27:20

Kevin explained in his eBay listing,

27:23

he wasn't religious or superstitious

27:25

in the slightest so to think

27:27

this harmless box might have

27:29

some kind of spiritual power was

27:31

a nonsense to him. Yet

27:34

how many of us, despite inner

27:36

certainty and our better judgment,

27:39

will still avoid walking under a ladder,

27:42

or will feel a little tightening of the chest

27:44

when a black cat walks across

27:46

our path. The easiest

27:49

solution for Kevin was to throw

27:51

the box away or burn it, but

27:53

he just can't shake the thought what

27:57

if? What if

27:59

the box was cur What

28:01

if destroying it would unleash

28:03

the curse indefinitely upon himself

28:06

and all his loved ones? Would

28:08

he want to carry that burden for

28:11

the rest of his life? And

28:13

so instead of destroying

28:16

it, he listed it on eBay

28:19

so someone else could take it off

28:21

his hands. You've

28:25

been listening to Unexplained Season

28:27

seven, episode twenty three.

28:30

The Box, Part one of three,

28:33

Part two will be released next Friday,

28:36

June seventh. This

28:39

episode was written by Richard McClain

28:42

smith. Unexplained as an Avy

28:44

Club Productions podcast created

28:46

by Richard McClain Smith. All

28:49

other elements of the podcast, including the

28:51

music, were also produced by me

28:53

Richard McClean smith. Unexplained.

28:56

The book and audiobook with stories

28:58

never before featured on the show. Show is

29:00

now available to buy worldwide. You

29:03

can purchase from Amazon, Barnes

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29:16

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29:19

you have an explanation of your own you'd like to

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share. You can find out more at

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29:26

and reach us online through Twitter at

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at Facebook dot com. Forward slash

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