All language subtitles for The.UnXplained.S06E06.1080p.WEB.h264-EDITH.6

Shocking injuries...

that mirror the
Crucifixion of Jesus Christ.

A deadly disease

which begins with
uncontrollable laughter.

And harmful devices
implanted into the human body

by extraterrestrials.

Throughout history, tales
of inexplicable maladies

to both the body and the mind

have stirred morbid
curiosity and palpable fear.

From mysterious
wounds that appear

for no apparent reason

to a peculiar madness
that compels people

to dance themselves to death,

are these bizarre afflictions

merely fabrications of the mind?

Or could they arise

from unseen forces

that are beyond
our comprehension?

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

Every spring, billions of
Christians all over the world

gather to observe a solemn day
of reverence called Good Friday.

According to
Christian tradition,

Good Friday commemorates

the Crucifixion and
death of Jesus Christ.

This sacred practice
has been performed

for nearly 2,000 years

and involves attending mass,

the veneration of the cross,

and elaborate processions.

While Good Friday
is a somber occasion,

the Crucifixion
is a pivotal event

that is at the heart
of Christianity.

When you look at the spirituality

of the Christian faith,

the Crucifixion of Jesus is
not only a tragedy of death,

it’s a sign of the
sufferings of Jesus.

When we think of
the Crucifixion today,

we think of Jesus’ wounds
when he was crucified,

which includes the
holes in the hands,

in the feet, in the side,

we think of the crown of thorns.

So, there are lots of
different, types of wounds.

It reminds us of what
Jesus suffered for us.

The Crucifixion is
clearly a profound cornerstone

of the Christian faith.

But curiously, for centuries,

people have suffered from a
rare and disturbing condition

that is connected to
the death of Jesus Christ.

This bizarre affliction is known

as stigmata.

Stigmata occurs
when an individual

is marked in a physical way

that represents the wounds

that Christ suffered
on the cross.

Most commonly, stigmata happens

in what is referred to as
the five wounds of Christ,

which is two in the hands,

two in the feet,
and one on the side.

Since the Middle Ages,

there have been untold
thousands of cases.

In the strictest
terms, stigmata,

although they do
involve physical suffering,

are considered a
blessing, a privilege.

It’s almost as if the
stricken individual

is bearing a holy
or divine burden.

How can wounds
that mirror those of Jesus Christ

inexplicably appear
on ordinary people?

It seems to defy all logic.

But perhaps clues
about this phenomenon

can be found by examining

the first documented
instance of stigmata.

The first
recorded case of stigmata

occurred with St.
Francis of Assisi in 1224.

St. Francis went to the
mountains of La Verna

to meditate and to pray.

And then suddenly Francis
had a vision of a seraphim.

A seraphim is a
particular kind of angel,

a fiery angel with six wings.

And the seraphim held in
his possession the crucifix.

His wings were wrapped
around Jesus on the cross.

And from this crucifix,
this image of Jesus,

came forth these rays,

and these rays
penetrated Francis

in the form of stigmata.

Francis’ stigmata
was incredibly intense.

Nothing like this had
ever happened before.

And not only did he have wounds

that were openly
bleeding on his hands,

Francis was quite ill after
he received the stigmata,

and he died two years later.

Every day of those
two years, he did, in fact,

suffer with stigmata.

Accounts of
stigmata are both fascinating

and deeply unsettling.

For many Christians,

they are proof of divine
forces at work in our world.

But many experts are skeptical

and insist that stigmata

must have a
scientific explanation.

In terms
of stigmata-like symptoms,

there are some medical
conditions that have been

attributed to
spontaneous bleeding,

but it’s still very
much misunderstood.

One of them would
be hemathrodosis.

It’s known as bloody sweat

because when the body
is under extreme stress,

the sweat glands tend
to become more fragile

and can bleed spontaneously.

It typically manifests as
droplets of blood on the skin,

most commonly in the
forehead, the arms and the legs,

without any apparent
physical cause.

So there are instances
where conditions

have been attributed to
spontaneous bleeding.

But it can’t be
said that they are

the exact cause of stigmata.

When a
proposed stigmata occurs,

the Vatican typically will
do everything possible

to account for the healing

within standard
medical protocol.

The Vatican disputes, ignores,

or disproves vastly
greater numbers

of miraculous claims
than it actually validates.

And so, if the Vatican

is able to verify a stigmata,

they are considered miraculous.

Is it possible
that a genuine case of stigmata

is an actual miracle,
as the Vatican claims?

Many believe that
the best evidence

lies in the story of the most
famous case in modern history:

the Stigmata of Padre Pio.

Padre Pio was a Capuchin friar

who in 1918 celebrated mass

and immediately
afterwards started bleeding

from the hands and feet,

but there were certain
peculiarities about it.

It never scabbed over.

And it gave off a
very sweet perfume

which is known as
the odor of sanctity.

When Padre Pio
was suffering from his stigmata,

he said that the
pain was so extreme

that he thought he might die.

He was embarrassed by the blood

and embarrassed to be showing
these marks on a regular basis.

And he was always
trying to cover them

with the sleeves of his robe

so that people
wouldn’t see the blood.

The Vatican’s response
to great mystics in the Church

has often been to persecute
them, at least initially.

They did that with Padre Pio.

They were skeptical.

At one point, they thought
they were self-inflicted.

And so they, silenced him.

They basically shut
him away in a monastery.

But thousands of people
would go to attend his mass

and line up for
confession for days.

It
was not until long after

Padre Pio’s death in 1968

that the Vatican had relented

and saw him as a
genuine stigmatist.

He was finally canonized

and beautified by
Pope John Paul II.

This was at the beginning
of the 21st century.

Now thousands of pilgrims

come from all over
Italy and beyond

to venerate at his
tomb every month.

And so his memory

is something that is celebrated

by Catholics in every
part of the world.

When we
look at cases of stigmata,

it’s a very profound experience

for those people
who are suffering,

and we have photographs

of modern stigmatics
quite agonized

with the pain that they had.

It’s very fascinating.

Anything that could represent,

a true communion

with the essence of Jesus Christ

is going to be something
that people are interested in

and want to understand.

For the moment,

stigmata remains a controversial
and captivating affliction

that offers no easy answers.

But in 16th century France,

another condition emerged

that was no less baffling.

It was a disturbing phenomenon

which led hundreds of people

to dance themselves to death.

This historic
city built along the Rhine River

is known for its stunning
network of canals,

remarkable
medieval architecture,

and the famous
astronomical clock

of Strasbourg Cathedral.

But over 500 years
ago, in July of 1518,

this town was the site
of one of the strangest

maladies in human history.

It’s known as the
dancing plague,

and it started when a
townswoman named Frau Troffea

spontaneously burst into dance.

Frau Troffea was
said to have stepped

outside of her house
in the city of Strasbourg

and then began to dance.

And she danced for
hours and hours and hours.

And apparently, at first,

eyewitnesses thought
that she may have been

trying to irritate her husband,

or that this was
some kind of joke.

But then the dance
stretched into the evening

and then into the night.

She collapsed.

She got up the next day

and began again.

And at that point,
people realized

that a very strange phenomenon

was unfolding here.

Frau Troffea went
on hopping around and dancing

in the heat of the summer,
but she wasn’t enjoying it.

She was unfocused,
glassy-eyed, dissociated,

and just jerking
around and dancing.

And she actually couldn’t stop.

Frau Troffea reportedly

danced for a week straight.

The constant exertion
took a toll on her health,

and she was sent to a remote
monastery to recuperate.

But strangely, after
Frau left Strasbourg,

the dancing didn’t stop.

Within about
two or three weeks,

dozens more people
had been consumed

by this same urge
to dance and dance

for hours and days

in an altered state
of consciousness.

By the end of August,

perhaps 400 people
were all dancing.

In some cases, on
and off for weeks.

Their toenails fell off,
their feet were lacerated,

their shoes were full of blood.

And then some of
them dropped dead.

It was estimated 15
a day dropped dead,

maybe 400 in all over the
course of the two months.

It was a terrifying
and terrible thing.

What’s so remarkable
about these events of 1518

is that we have
copies of the memos

sent among the members

of the governing
circle of the city.

There are intense
debates within the city

as to what is causing
this outbreak of dancing.

And they make quite clear,

these people do not
want to be dancing.

They are absolutely involuntary.

What could
have possibly triggered

such a bizarre and
deadly affliction?

At the time, the
people of Strasbourg

began to suspect
that the dancing plague

was the work

of the devil.

This was something that
was seen as a form of possession.

So they started to look

at possible supernatural
explanations.

And the first thing
that they thought of

was this possibly
being instigated

by the devil himself.

And so they tried to purge

every kind of sin from the city.

It didn’t work.

When
banning sin failed,

the townspeople wondered
if the dancing plague

was not the work of the devil

but rather a Catholic saint

by the name of Vitus.

St. Vitus
is an important saint

in the late medieval
European church.

There was a very strong belief

that there were a
number of saints

who could both cure
you of a particular disease

and, if you were a sinner,

then they would punish
you by inflicting that disease.

St. Vitus was believed

to cause movement disorders,

including compulsive dancing.

So it made complete
sense to people at the time

that if anybody
was dancing wildly,

it’s because they’d
somehow offended St. Vitus.

So what they then do is
that they bundle people

into wagons and
take them to a shrine

dedicated to St. Vitus

located about 30 miles
north of Strasbourg.

Interestingly, they
put red shoes on them.

They cover the red shoes
in holy oil and holy water,

and they lead them
round the shrine in a circle.

And then, we are
told, most of the people

recovered their sanity.

So it seems that they cured it

by appealing to the
supernatural beliefs

of the people
who’d been afflicted.

Was the dancing
plague both caused and cured

by a higher power?

While it made sense to
people in medieval Europe,

in modern times
experts have proposed

a more scientific theory.

They claim that this
ghoulish dancing frenzy

was the result of mass
psychogenic illness,

or as it’s more commonly
known, mass hysteria.

Mass hysteria
is when a group of people

are experiencing the
same physical symptoms

without a definitive physical
cause of those symptoms.

For example, if you’re
in a social setting

whereby someone is
experiencing a symptom,

you can then believe that
that’s also happening to you.

There was an example
of a girls’ boarding school

in modern-day what’s
known as Tanzania now,

in the 1960s where
over a thousand girls

had an outbreak of
involuntary convulsions

and uncontrollable laughter.

There can be a host of
symptoms for mass hysteria.

However, there’s no
definitive scientific answer

for what causes groups to mimic
certain symptoms and behaviors.

Today the
most popular theory

for the 1518 dancing plague

is that this is an
example of mass hysteria,

but it’s not always the case

that unusual behavior is
mass psychogenic illness.

We’re talking about
several hundred people

dancing for days or
weeks, some of them dying.

Certainly, medieval
peoples had popular theories

that this was
direct intervention

from God, saints, or the devil.

And I think that partly
it’s because the events

just seemed inconceivable,
and so, ultimately,

we will never know what
drove this phenomenon.

Was the macabre dance of death

the product of mass hysteria?

Or were the townspeople
actually possessed by evil forces?

The truth behind this
mystery may be lost to history,

but there’s another
strange tale of torment

that has been
thoroughly investigated

by modern scientists.

It involves a bizarre
condition known

as the laughing death.

This
group of tropical islands

located in the
southwest Pacific Ocean

is one of the most
remote places on Earth.

During the 1970s,

it was discovered that a
local tribe, known as the Fore,

was afflicted by a
strange and deadly illness.

The Fore people lived
up in the mountains of this island.

There were probably
about 36,000 of them

that were spread out
across the mountain valleys

in northern, New Guinea.

They lived in 170
different hamlets

with people who spoke
six different languages.

When the Westerners
started to interact with the Fore,

missionaries and anthropologists
found an alarming number

of them were dying
of a strange disease

that nobody had
really seen before.

One of the symptoms
of this disease

is something that is known
as pathological laughter.

Inappropriate
laughter, giggling.

Major magazines and newspapers

called it laughing death.

At the time, experts
estimated that the laughing death

killed 200 Fore
people every year.

The Fore called
the illness kuru,

which translates to
"trembling" in their dialect.

The disease was
puzzling to scientists,

who could not
determine its cause,

and in 1981, Dr. Robert Klitzman

traveled to Papua New Guinea
to try and solve the mystery.

When I went there
for the first time,

I wasn’t sure what to expect.

But I learned many things.

Initially, it was called
the laughing death,

which is sort of a misnomer.

People did engage in
what seemed like laughter,

but it really was sort of
uncontrollable expressions

and movements that they had.

Kuru causes a
number of symptoms.

It is a neurological disease

somewhat similar to Parkinson’s
disease or Alzheimer’s.

The symptoms are loss of
muscle control over one’s body,

shaking, inability to walk,

and it has mental
symptoms as well.

So people may not be
able to control their emotions

or what they say.

The disease was
terrifying in many ways.

The symptoms usually, from
start to the person’s death,

take about a year.
It’s invariably fatal.

The Fore people
believed that the disease

was caused by sorcery.

So they believed that a
sorcerer would take something

that belonged to you
and wrap it around a stone

and bury it and
cast a spell on it.

And that may sound
ridiculous to some of us,

but they’d say,
"That’s just magic."

The world in which they
lived was this kind of a world.

Was kuru the
result of supernatural forces,

as locals believed?

It’s an intriguing notion,

but doctors eventually
suspected that the real culprit

was that the Fore participated
in the gruesome practice

of consuming human flesh.

When Western
anthropologists began to study

some of the communities of
Papua New Guinea in the 1930s,

they discovered
practice of a ritualistic,

religious-based
funerary cannibalism.

The Papua New Guineans
who engaged in cannibalism

saw the consumption of the brain

as a way of imbibing
that person’s lifeforce.

It was a devotional practice.

When they
practiced cannibalism, at one feast,

I calculated that there
were 56 people present.

53 of whom then
died of the disease.

So it was pretty devastating.

Now, every time someone died,
they would consume the brain.

I met people, for
instance, who would say,

"Well, I ate a foot"
or "I ate a hand,"

and they were still alive.

And so the
concentration of the kuru

was highest when they
would consume the brain.

Perhaps it’s not
surprising that eating human brains

is not good for your health,

but how did this practice
lead to the bizarre

laughing symptoms of kuru?

Kuru is caused by
something called a prion,

an infectious protein
that is in all of our brains.

And in roughly one out of
every million people or so,

it flips the wrong way.

And when it’s flipped,

it could lead to other proteins

flipping in our brain
and forming clumps

that could kill brain cells.

Kuru probably happened
because someone

in the Fore group had such
a protein flip the wrong way.

And that person was then
consumed by other people,

and that led to proteins
in their brains flipping.

And when they
died, they were eaten,

and the rest is history,
continued to spread.

The story of kuru is
as fascinating as it is disturbing.

But what’s even more unsettling
is that this type of disease

has harmed people not
just in Papua New Guinea

but all over the world.

Except we call it
mad cow disease.

In the 1980s,

British cattle became
stricken with mad cow disease

because farmers feed
them supplements,

and these supplements
are made up of dead cows

infected with prion disease.

And then people
would consume that.

Eventually, over the
course of 15, 16 years,

178 people in the UK died

from what became known
as mad cow disease.

Mad cow disease

or neurodegenerative
diseases such as kuru

can manifest upwards of
70 years after the ingestion

of some contaminated,
um, food or livestock.

And so it’s very unclear
as to whether or not

it can happen in the future.

The study of kuru is
important for many reasons.

One is, of course, the fact
that the symptoms in humans

from eating an infected
cow are basically

the same symptoms
that we saw with kuru.

So they provided
this unique glimpse

on what can cause a
disease that’s different

than what anyone
had thought before.

The fate of people
who fall victim

to the laughing death
gives a whole new meaning

to the phrase "You
are what you eat."

However, our next story

of inexplicable
suffering concerns

not what we choose to consume

but rather what might be
surgically inserted inside us

without our knowledge
because there are thousands

of individuals who claim

that they were the
unwilling recipient

of an alien implant.

A group of experts

from multiple universities

publish a controversial
study titled

Unusual Personal Experiences.

The report finds that,
according to national polls,

roughly 3.7 million
Americans claim

to have been abducted
by extraterrestrials,

a phenomenon that is referred to
as the UFO abduction syndrome.

But what’s even more startling
is that many respondents stated

that extraterrestrials
surgically operated on them

and implanted a foreign
object into their body.

People who report
having implants

have claimed all sorts
of physical symptoms.

These implants are not
something they want in them.

Some claim very bad
headaches from them,

some claim extreme
pain at the place

where the implant
was inserted in them.

Others will claim
incidents of problems

with their vision
or their hearing.

Most abductees
believe these objects

are used to track
them and find them

when they are abducted again.

Skeptics say

these are sometimes
shards of glass,

or little bits of metal that
have become embedded

for very earthbound,
natural reasons...

A result of an injury,
a self-inflicted wound.

But medical studies have
shown that those who believe

that they have these
alien implants inside them

are utterly convinced.

Beyond the pain
and terror caused by discovering

an alleged extraterrestrial
object lodged inside their body,

many so-called alien implantees

also suffer from an even
more disturbing symptom.

They claim these implants
have actually invaded their minds.

The most
compelling things about some of these

alien implant reports are
the fact that the people,

the hosts,

claim they’re hearing voices.

The earliest mentions
of alien implants

were as communications devices

for the creatures
that come in the night.

They’re getting messages,
and they would say,

"I feel as though there’s
another person inside of me."

Is it possible
that the remarkable claims

of supposed alien
implantees are true?

And if so, then what exactly
are these mysterious objects

that are being inserted
into people’s bodies?

Podiatrist Dr. Roger Leir

publishes a
controversial book titled

The Aliens and the Scalpel.

In his extraordinary
account, Dr. Leir reveals

that he has surgically
removed foreign objects

from several people’s bodies,

and he firmly
believes these objects

were extraterrestrial in origin.

Dr. Roger Leir, who
is now deceased,

claimed to have extracted

more than a dozen alien
implants from subjects.

He was one of very few
people with surgical training

who was willing to extract
such claimed objects.

He would
have patients coming in,

"Doc, Doc, my foot, there’s
something wrong with it."

When he X-rayed it, he would
see these strange objects in there,

and the patients
would tell the story

of encountering a
strange presence.

What Roger discovered is
that, in these alien implants,

the body not only did
not reject the object

but made it a part of the body.

No artificial object on
this planet acts like that.

In 2013,
Dr. Leir contacted

acclaimed documentary
filmmaker Jeremy Corbell.

The doctor wanted to give
Corbell unprecedented access

to film his 17th implant
removal surgery.

The resulting documentary

is aptly titled
Patient Seventeen.

Dr. Roger
Leir called me,

and first thing in my mind is,

I thought this was absolute

woo-woo, untangible,
ridiculous, ridiculous stuff.

But he says, "Look, I
would not have spent

"this much time
and effort and money

"and my blood,
sweat and tears on this

"if there wasn’t
something to it.

Just film a surgery."

So I brought my
camera, I went in.

And what really struck me

was, here’s a guy,

he’s about to get on
that operating table

and have his body cut open

to remove a foreign body,

and he doesn’t know what it is.

And I don’t know what he
was looking to find other than,

"Hey, maybe there’s an
implant made by an alien

that’s in my leg."

Because Patient 17 did
have abductive experiences.

After the
implant removal surgery,

Dr. Roger Leir wanted to give me

a kind of autonomy on
my investigative work

on what it is that he
cut out of this man’s leg

by sending it myself
to a national laboratory,

getting the raw data,
and then reporting that in.

When we got that analysis back,

the isotopic ratios,

which are kind of a
good measuring stick

or barometer for things that are

not terrestrially
found on Earth,

they were off the charts,

indicating that it
was non-terrestrial,

not forged here on Earth.

I can tell you that as a fact

that when you get a
sample that reads like that,

it’s worthy of
further investigation.

The more we
come aware of the presence

that there are
UFOs in our skies,

the more we realize
that it is quite likely

that there are millions
of people on this planet

walking around with
alien implants in their feet,

in their hands, have
no knowledge of it.

For what purpose? We don’t know.

Could millions of people

have been implanted
with alien devices

and not even know it?

Wow. It’s a fascinating theory.

But there’s a much older mystery

that’s no less intriguing.

It concerns an ancient nobleman

who attempted to heal
his numerous ailments

with the power

of magical stones.

Atop Salisbury Plain

stands arguably the most iconic
ancient structure in the world.

Stonehenge.

Constructed around 3100 BC,

this enigmatic monument

has captured our collective
imagination for centuries.

But what most
people don’t realize

is that this Stonehenge
landscape is also

a massive graveyard.

Throughout the area,

thousands of ancient
skeletons have been recovered.

And apparently
many of the deceased

suffered from
devastating afflictions.

The area around Stonehenge
is absolutely littered

with people who have
got all sorts of traumas,

from the mundane through to
some very serious conditions.

It’s very clear that
many of them had

physical injuries that had
gone on... broken arms,

all the usual range of things.

For example,

one of the skeletons
of those people,

on his left knee, the
kneecap is missing.

There was some kind of trauma.

The second thing
which is obviously

wrong with him is that
there is an abscess

on his jaw which must
have been excruciating in life.

Also, what we can see
from recent studies of DNA

is that around about the time
that Stonehenge was being built,

there was a plague
circulating in the area.

So we have to think
of the prehistoric past

that we’re talking about
around Stonehenge

as something which is
actually very dangerous.

People dying, people being hurt

through these
different illnesses

and plagues and diseases.

It’s easy to assume that
so many people buried near Stonehenge

suffered from numerous
ailments because

they simply lived
in ancient times

and did not receive
proper medical care.

But according to archaeologists,

the truth may be
far more intriguing.

In 2008, an important
discovery was announced

regarding Stonehenge.

There was a discovery
of a mass of skeletons

buried in the region,

and 50% of these
skeletons discovered

had come from somewhere else.

So what does this tell us?

They came here for something.

It’s possible that Stonehenge

could have been
used as a healing site,

a type of temple for healing.

Did ancient
people travel to Stonehenge

in order to be healed?

And if so, what made them think

that coming to this
mysterious monument

would cure them?

Some say the answer can be found

by examining the
stones themselves

and, more specifically,

what are known
as the bluestones.

Around Stonehenge,
the outer structure is made

from essentially local stones.

That’s the things we often see.

But inside Stonehenge,

we have these bluestones.

They’re called bluestones
because they do

have a kind of a
bluey-greeny color to them

and they also have
white spots inside them.

We’ve got a number of strands
of evidence which support the idea

that these stones were
being used for healing.

One of them is that we
know from scientific studies

that those stones come
from Southwest Wales,

in what we know
as the Preseli Hills.

It’s about 140 miles or so as
the crow flies from Stonehenge.

The stones in the Preseli Hills

must have been considered
special in some way.

Because we can trace back
through folklore accounts

of people using water in
association with the stones

to help promote healing.

And so Stonehenge was
a place of healing, I’m sure.

We shouldn’t, though,
compare it to a modern hospital.

Because medical
science back then

was much more to do with belief.

It was much more
to do with faith.

Stonehenge was
all about using belief,

using the power
of the bluestones

as the means by which health
care was dished out, as it were.

For some,
the idea that ancient people

constructed a massive
stone monument

for mystical healing purposes
may sound far-fetched.

But the profound truth is that,

for thousands of years,

human beings have
journeyed far and wide

in search of miracle cures,

and millions of people
continue to do so today.

If you want to make
sense of Stonehenge

as a healing place, think
of Lourdes in France,

where people still
come even today

looking for a cure
from the Virgin Mary.

Now, you imagine
in the Bronze Age,

you would come to
Stonehenge to touch the stones,

to say a prayer.

It was the last hope

that they can cure
whatever ailment it is

that’s killing them.

These ancient
cultures, particularly in Britain,

were immersed in the traditions

of believing in the
power of nature.

And certainly something
as majestic as these stones

would be something
that could have an energy

that could
potentially help them.

It’s fascinating
to think that 5,000 years ago

the ancient people of Britain

may have gone to
Stonehenge as a last resort

to heal afflictions
they didn’t understand.

And curiously, there’s
a bizarre malady

occurring in Portugal

that even modern
scientists can’t comprehend.

Only, this condition
doesn’t harm the living,

but rather the dead.

While there
are many bizarre afflictions

which attack the living
that are utterly confounding,

surprisingly, in this
historic and picturesque city,

the same can also be said

for the deceased.

There’s a law in Portugal

that people who are buried

must essentially be
exhumed after a few years,

when they’ve decomposed,
and whatever remains

is crushed down into a box

and then placed into a wall.

The reason for that

is that there’s a
shortage of space

in cemeteries in Portugal.

Here’s the weird thing:

half the bodies brought
up have not decomposed.

Many of them have, in
effect, come up mummified.

Now, that’s odd because Portugal
is a fairly warm, hot country.

You’d expect bodies
to decompose faster.

So why the bodies are
remaining mummified

and refusing to decompose
is something of a mystery.

What could possibly
cause so many dead bodies

to be turned into mummies?

It’s a disturbing conundrum,

and, in fact, this phenomenon
isn’t limited to Lisbon.

Throughout Portugal,
families are unfortunately

discovering that the remains
of their loved ones are being...

abnormally preserved.

The fact that bodies
are not decomposing

in Portugal is
distressing for the people

who are having to dig them up

and then answer the question,

"Well, now what do
we do with them?"

If you can’t crush them
up and put them in a box,

because they refuse to
decompose, what do you do?

Put them back in
the ground again?

So this really is a
hugely traumatic event

for families who’d lost sons,
fathers, mothers, and daughters.

For now,
the people of Portugal

continue to worry
about the remains

of their dearly departed.

But if history is
any indication,

human beings will keep
looking upon bizarre afflictions

with both fascination and dread,

as we have for centuries.

In the 19th century,

millions of people
flocked to freak shows

to ogle people with all
sorts of bizarre afflictions.

And I think the same
mentality is still there

in human beings to some extent.

We think, "How can
these people possibly live

with these extraordinary
things wrong with them?

How can they bear it?"

And then most of all, we think,

"Awfully glad it’s not us."

There’s a
mixture of fear and titillation

around our fascination
with bizarre ailments.

We’re worried about
what might happen to us

and at the same
time we’re relieved

that it hasn’t or hasn’t yet.

So we like to dip our
toe into circumstances

that remind us of our mortality,

of our fragility,

of what could happen
to us but hasn’t.

Perhaps what’s so unsettling

about strange tales of torment

is that it’s unclear
how, when, or why

inexplicable afflictions strike.

From harrowing
accounts of stigmata

to the disturbing
dance of death,

these maladies serve
as a chilling reminder

that we could be vulnerable

to enigmatic and harmful forces

that we don’t fully understand.

And at any moment,

we might fall victim
to troubling conditions

that remain... unexplained.

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