Episode 113. Seven "Coincidences" Through Modern Times
CONTACT US:Email: paranaughtica@gmail.com Twitter: @paranaughtica Gab: @paranaughticaFacebook: The Paranaughtica Podcast Contact Cricket: Website: www.theindividuale.com Twitter: @Individualethe Note: **IT IS NOT EDGAR BERGEN ON THE RADIO IN THE SIXTH STORY**Today, we are going to go through a crazy list of stories all about weird, strange, and uncanny “coincidences” through modern times. Some you may have heard, others maybe not, but this list is sure to keep your buttocks firmly gripped upon your seat. If your buttocks do not firmly grip upon your seat, whatever that seat may be, then there might be something wrong with your chakra and you should probably go talk to a spiritualist who specializes in palm-reading and dousing-rods to get you all cleared out.This is a great episode with a great list. Lists are fun. So, to make it easier for you, this is the list in order as I cover each story. Keep in mind that there are other stories in addition to the listed stories.Edgar Allan Poe book - “The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket”Twins Die On The Same Day, In The Same MannerTwins Killed By The Same Taxi With Almost Too Many SimilaritiesAuthor Predicts Titanic SinkingSeparated Identical Twins Live Nearly Identical LivesThe Miraculous Exploding Church IncidentBruce Lee Predicted His Son's Death Thank you all for tuning in and I hope to catch your ear on the next one!Please, don’t forget to Like, Share, and Subscribe....and give us 5-star reviews. CHECK YOUR LOCAL WATER TREATMENT LEVELS: EWG Tap Water Database Oh, to check out a small batch of Coops’ music, go to this this link — https://on.soundcloud.com/Q1XRaY9WSpzawV9r7 ***If you’d like to help out with a donation and you’re currently listening on Spotify, you can simply scroll down on my page and you’ll see a button to help us out with either a one-time donation or you can set up a monthly recurring donation. You can also go to the Facebook page where we have a link to Ko-Fi and Pay-Pal if you'd like to help out the show. We would greatly appreciate it! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Everything has been going fairly well for everyone out there and that life has not been beating you down too much.
Now, we can get into today's episode, which is all about a handful of weird coincidences through history.
Alright? Weird shit.
Weird shit happens all the time.
Some of these you may have heard, but that's okay because I'm going to tell them a little bit better than when you heard them last.
Alright? Alright?
Alright. This first one's an oldie.
It's certainly a good one.
One that I'm pretty sure everyone's heard.
But it's good, and it's very intriguing.
If you all have heard the narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket by Edgar Allan Poe, then you know what I'm talking about.
So that book was first published in 1838 and remains his only full-length novel.
Crazy, huh?
It tells the tale of a young man named Arthur Gordon Pym who stows away on a whaling ship, the Grampus, and becomes entangled in a series of perilous adventures.
The novel is a mix of maritime adventure, survival tale, and gothic horror, showcasing Poe's characteristic blend of the macabre and the mysterious.
Yeah, he was a big impact in my life too when I was really little.
Just the darkness that surrounded him and his death and all that really got me into all this.
Well, it just added into my interest in these dark and macabre things, right?
So, how does this story go?
There's a character, Pym.
Who secretly boards the Grampus with the help of his friend Augustus Bernard, who is the son of the ship's captain.
A mutiny erupts on the vessel, leading to violent confrontations.
After a series of betrayals and deaths, Pym and a small group regain control of the ship.
At some point, the Grampus is wrecked in a storm, leaving Pym, Augustus, and two other survivors adrift on the open sea.
And faced with starvation, the group draws lots, or straws, to decide who will be sacrificed for cannibalism.
Richard Parker, one of the sailors, is selected and killed to sustain the others.
Pym and another survivor, Dirk Peters, are rescued by the crew of the ship, Jane Guy.
Their journey continues to the Antarctic.
Where they encounter increasingly strange phenomena, including bizarre landscapes and hostile natives.
And the story concludes abruptly as Pym and Peters venture further into the Antarctic.
They encounter a mysterious shrouded figure and a white mist, leaving readers with an unresolved and enigmatic ending.
This sudden conclusion adds to the novel's mystique and reflects Poe's fascination with the unknown.
In 1884, a real-life maritime tragedy eerily mirrored the events of the narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket, and that would be the case of the Mignonette.
Is that how you pronounce it?
Mignonette? Mignonette?
The case of Mignonette.
So, there's a shipwreck.
Alright, so in July of 1884, the yacht, Mignonette, sank in the South Atlantic during a voyage from England to Australia.
Four crew members, Captain Tom Dudley, Edwin Stevens, Edmund Brooks, and a cabin boy named Richard Parker, were stranded in a lifeboat.
As the days passed, the crew faced extreme starvation, and after over two weeks adrift, Dudley and Stevens decided to kill Richard Parker, the youngest and weakest among them, for food.
Brooks, though, he did not partake in the killing, but he did eat the flesh.
Yeah, he was all about that meat.
You know what I mean?
Well, he needed to survive, honestly.
He needed to survive.
And so, these survivors, they were rescued by a passing ship, but their actions led to a controversial...
Legal trial in England.
The case, known as R v Dudley and Stevens, became a landmark in legal history for addressing the defense of necessity in murder cases.
Right? The necessity I needed to live.
There was no other choice.
It was either this or McDonald's.
What were my choices, honestly?
There was but one.
The court ultimately ruled against them, emphasizing that necessity could not justify taking an innocent life.
Yeah. Probably not.
I mean, fuck.
I guess, yeah, you just wait till one just dies of natural causes, right?
Or you get it in writing that he's like, dude, sacrifice me, kill me now, I don't care, you know?
So, let's move on to this next one.
Where twins die on the same day, in the same manner.
Alright, this shit's crazy.
In the early months of 2002, an extraordinary and tragic coincidence unfolded in Rahi, Finland?
I think that's how you pronounce it.
Two 70-year-old brothers met their untimely demise on the same day, in an astonishingly similar manner.
On the same stretch of road.
So, the first tragedy, the day began like any other, with the first of the twins setting out on his bicycle for what appeared to be a routine bike ride, and as he pedaled along the familiar stretch of road outside Roch,
fate took a grim turn.
A truck collided with the elderly cyclist, sending him through the air, leaving him dead.
The emergency responders arrived at the scene, but there was clearly nothing to be done.
The incident was treated as a tragic accident that left the town in shock.
In the second tragedy, just two hours later, the twin brother, being completely unaware of his sibling's death, embarked on his own bicycle journey.
And in an inexplicable twist of fate, He, too, was struck and killed by a truck on the exact same stretch of road, though about a mile apart from where his brother was killed.
The eerie similarities between the two accidents left the local community absolutely stunned and deeply unsettled.
Damn. Police investigated the circumstances surrounding the bizarre events, initially considering all possibilities, including premeditated suicide or perhaps a bit of foul play.
However, they found no evidence to suggest that either twin had planned such an ending to their life.
The second brother, in particular, had no way of knowing about his sibling's death when he set out for his own fateful ride.
Witnesses and family members confirmed that the two accidents were purely coincidental.
Twins killed by the same taxi with almost too many similarities.
In 1974, Bermuda was the setting for an uncanny and tragic series of events that seemed to defy all statistical probability.
Two twin brothers deeply bonded in life experienced deaths so eerily similar that the tale has puzzled and fascinated people ever since.
The story began in 1974 when one of the twins, while riding his moped scooter, was struck by a taxicab.
The accident was fatal, and the tragic loss deeply affected his surviving twin brother.
The exact details of the collision, such as the location, the taxi driver, and even the passenger inside the vehicle, Were noted, but did not initially stand out as being extraordinary.
Exactly one year later, the surviving twin was riding the very same moped scooter that had belonged to his now-deceased brother, and in a staggering twist of fate, the twin was struck and killed by the same taxi cab.
And to compound the improbability, The taxi was driven by the same taxi driver who had been involved in the first accident.
But even more chillingly, the taxi was carrying the same passenger as during the fatal collision a year prior.
The case quickly drew attention not only in Bermuda but around the world as details of the extraordinary coincidences became public.
While some questioned the authenticity of the events, contemporary reports and witnesses corroborated the bizarre sequence.
Investigators found no evidence of foul play or premeditation in either accident, concluding that it was a case of sheer chance.
The odds of such an event occurring are virtually incalculable, involving an alignment of time.
Place, individuals, and circumstances so precise that it seemed almost supernatural.
For many, the case highlighted the strange and often inexplicable nature of chance and synchronicity.
The story of the Bermuda twins remains a haunting example of the mysteries of fate.
It has been cited in discussions of statistical anomalies and synchronicity as well as the deep.
Almost mystical connections that some believe exist between twins.
And if that wasn't crazy enough, check out this next one at number 4. Author predicts Titanic sinking.
In 1898, American author Morgan Robertson published a novella titled Futility, or The Wreck of the Titan.
It was a fictional account of a massive luxury ocean liner called the Titan, which met a catastrophic end after colliding with an iceberg in the North Atlantic.
What seemed at the time to be a gripping maritime adventure would later gain an uncanny reputation as a prophetic tale when its plot bore striking similarities to the real-life tragedy of the RMS Titanic 14 years later.
Robertson's Titan was described as a marvel of modern engineering, a colossal ship hailed as unsinkable and built to carry thousands of passengers in opulent comfort.
During its maiden voyage in April, the Titan struck an iceberg in the North Atlantic and sank, resulting in a massive loss of life.
The disaster was exacerbated by the ship carrying only the bare legal minimum of lifeboats, far too few to accommodate the number of passengers aboard.
In an eerie real-life parallel, the RMS Titanic, a British passenger liner, was also lauded as the pinnacle of luxury and safety.
Built by the White Star Line, it was designed to be unsinkable.
And featuring advanced technology and grandeur unparalleled at the time.
And like the fictional Titan, the Titanic struck an iceberg in the North Atlantic during its maiden voyage in April of 1912, which led to its catastrophic sinking and the deaths of over 1,500 people.
The similarities between the Titan and the Titanic are extraordinary, and let's look at some of the most striking ones, okay?
The size.
The Titan was 243 meters long, while the Titanic measured only slightly longer at 268 meters.
Both ships were designed as enormous luxury liners of their era.
The speed.
Both vessels could travel at maximum speeds exceeding 20 knots, emphasizing their power and engineering prowess.
Just hold a fist up in the air when you say that word.
Prowess. There's also the unsinkable claims.
Both ships were described as unsinkable, a claim that would prove tragically ironic in both the fictional and real-life events.
Then there's the fatal iceberg collision, right?
Both the Titan and the Titanic met their ends after colliding with icebergs in the North Atlantic during April voyages.
The lifeboat shortage, right?
In both stories, the ships carried only the minimal number of lifeboats required by the law at that time, which proved insufficient for the vast numbers of passengers aboard.
Then there's the massive loss of life.
The wrecks of both ships resulted in devastating casualties, highlighting the perils of overconfidence in technology, right?
Overconfidence in technology.
People, people, overconfidence in technology.
Was this AI cancer curing bullshit?
Yeah, come on, people.
Come on.
The uncanny parallels between futility and the titanic disasters have led to widespread fascination and speculation.
While some view Robertson's work as an eerie coincidence, others have ascribed as a more mystical or predictive quality.
Robertson himself denied any clairvoyant intentions.
Asserting that his knowledge of maritime practices and engineering trends at the time informed the details of the story.
But, ladies and gentlemen, you make of it what you will.
And let's get into number five.
Separated, identical twins live nearly identical lives.
The case of the Jim twins.
In 1940, two identical twin boys were born in Ohio and separated just three weeks later.
Adopted by different families unaware of each other's existence, the twins grew up in separate towns and led seemingly unconnected lives.
Yet, their reunion nearly four decades later revealed a series of uncanny coincidences that astounded researchers and captured the world's imagination.
Shortly after their birth, the twins were adopted into two separate families who were not aware of the other.
Despite their identical genetics, the brothers would grow up in entirely different environments.
Their names, however, were the first of many striking coincidences.
Each adoptive family independently named their son James.
Over time, both boys became known simply as Jim.
Neither Jim knew he had a twin named Jim, and for 39 years, they lived parallel yet separate lives.
What makes this story so remarkable is not just the biological connection, but how their lives mirrored each other in ways that seemed almost impossible.
When the twins were reunited in 1979, they discovered a long list of astonishing similarities in their lives.
Such as career path.
Both gyms pursued careers in law enforcement.
One became a security guard, and the other worked as a sheriff's deputy.
Romantic choices.
Both men married women named Linda as their first wives.
After divorcing each respective Linda, each gym married again, and their second wives were both named Betty.
Next would be sons and naming traditions.
Both gyms had sons, and remarkably, each named his son James Allen, or Allen.
This similarity extended not just to their children's first names, but also to their middle names, adding another layer of intrigue.
How about their beloved pets?
At different times in their lives, both gyms had dogs.
And both gyms had named their dogs Toy.
Who named her dog Toy?
The repetition of this choice is one of the smaller yet more puzzling details in the twins' shared story, but who names her dog Toy?
The next one would be Hobbies and Interests.
The twins also discovered that they shared many of the same hobbies, preferences, and had the same habits.
Both were fond of woodworking.
Both enjoyed the same brand of cigarettes and beer, and both drove the same model of car.
I mean, how does that happen?
In 1979, at the age of 39, the two gyms were reunited through the help of a researcher studying twins separated at birth.
The meeting was very emotional and very surreal, to say the least.
As they sat down to compare notes about their lives, they uncovered coincidence after coincidence, each revelation more astonishing than the last.
For the brothers, it was not just a reunion, but a rediscovery of the lives they might have shared had they grown up together.
Despite their separation, they found that their lives had followed eerily similar paths, creating a profound bond that bridged the decades they had spent apart.
And there would be some psychological and scientific implications to this, because the case of the twin gyms became a landmark in the study of twins and human behavior.
Their reunion provided valuable insights into the nature vs.
nurture debate, highlighting the powerful role of genetics in shaping personalities, preferences, and even life choices.
Researchers noted that many of the gym's shared traits, such as their career choices, pet names, and hobbies, could be linked to genetic predispositions.
Their case suggested that DNA Might play a far more significant role in influencing behavior and preferences than previously understood.
There's also the limits of environment.
The twins' remarkably similar lives raised questions about the role of upbringing.
While the environments in which they were raised were vastly different, these external factors did not seem to override their genetic similarities.
The case inspired further research into twin studies, including the famous Minnesota Twin Study, which sought to understand the relative influence of genetics and environment on human development.
The Minnesota Twin Study yielded astonishing and sometimes bizarre findings that shed light on the interplay of genetics and environment in shaping human behavior, personality, and preferences.
And as part of the study, they found strange occurrences in the similarities between many separated twins, which included nearly identical life choices such as taking similar career paths, or sharing quirky habits such as toothpaste squeezing.
For example, one set of twins raised in different countries both squeezed toothpaste from the middle of the tube, a habit they maintained throughout their entire lives.
I mean, but, I mean, don't we all squeeze it from the middle until there's none left to squeeze and then you roll it up from the bottom and then get the rest out?
I mean, that's how I do it.
Another is genetic influence on personality.
So even when raised in homes with opposite political or religious ideologies, Identical twins often leaned toward the same personal beliefs as adults, suggesting a genetic predisposition to certain worldviews.
Some of the separated twins were found to have laughed at the same kinds of jokes and preferred similar comedic styles.
Some of them shared certain physical tics and unusual traits, such as having an identical posture when sitting or standing.
As well as having an identical gait as they walked or ran.
Some would even gesture with their hands in a similar fashion.
Some twins developed the same nervous tics, such as tapping their fingers or clicking their tongues, despite never having seen each other do these things.
The study found striking similarities in health-related traits and conditions such as mental illnesses, weight gain, and body type.
It was found that if one twin developed schizophrenia, the likelihood of the other twin also developing it was significantly higher despite entirely different environments.
Even when exposed to different diets and activity levels, identical twins often had remarkably similar body compositions, including their tendency to gain or lose weight.
In terms of unusual coincidences in the twins' lives, some twins exhibited coincidences that bordered on the supernatural.
And this is what we like right here, right?
For example, one pair of twins would actually take a vacation to the same obscure resort on the exact same weekend, which is when and where they actually reunited.
Another coincidence, Could be the purchase of identical items.
Some twins would find that they had bought the same make and model of a car.
Others would prefer the same clothing brands.
And others would even buy identical household items.
And when it came to creativity and preferences in the study, there was no shortage of similarities.
Even seemingly subjective traits like aesthetic preferences appear to have a genetic
Separated twins who became artists often gravitated toward the same medium and style, such as abstract painting or sculpture.
That's pretty crazy.
Yeah, I mean, there is a crazy connection with twins, man.
There is no doubt.
Scarred. This finding reinforced the idea that intelligence has a strong genetic component,
believe it or not.
There were even parallels in addictions.
Twins were more likely than fraternal twins to have similar smoking and drinking habits regardless of their upbringing.
Twins often developed the same compulsive behaviors such as collecting similar objects or engaging in identical rituals.
But now let's bring up the case of twins Gerald Levy and Mark Newman.
Separated as infants, twins Gerald Levy and Mark Newman grew up to share characteristics ranging from their experiences as firefighters to their tastes in beer.
Neither knew of the others' existence until a shared acquaintance brought them together.
Upon meeting for the first time, each saw his own reflection staring right back at him with dumbfounded expressions.
They had grown the same mustache and sideburns.
And each wore the same style of glasses.
As the brothers talked, they discovered that they had more than just looks in common.
Levy went to college and graduated with a degree in forestry.
Newman had planned to go to college to study the same subject, but decided to work for the city where he would trim trees.
Both had worked in supermarkets at one point or another, and Levy had a job installing sprinkler systems while Newman had a job installing.
calling fire alarms.
Both men were of the bachelor type who were attracted to similar looking women who were
In addition...
To me and volunteer firefighters, they both shared favorite pastimes like hunting, fishing, going to the beach, watching old John Wayne movies, watching pro wrestling, and eating Chinese food after a night of heavy drinking.
That's pretty standard.
Both men only drank Budweiser, which is arguably one of the worst beers ever to be brewed.
They would both hold the beer can with one pinky curled underneath.
And when they finished a good old brewski, they'd crush the can with their gripping hand.
But it doesn't end there.
They were both raised in the Jewish faith, but neither were particularly religious.
And in becoming acquainted, Gerald would observe that they both kept making the same remarks at the same time using the same hand gestures with their hands, which they both found quite spooky.
So that's pretty crazy.
I wonder where they are now.
I wonder where Gerald Levy and Mark Newman are right now.
Maybe they're here.
Maybe they're here.
Welcome to the show, everyone.
I'm just kidding.
Just kidding.
They're not here.
Alright, this next one.
Number six.
The Miraculous Exploding Church Incident.
The explosion of the West Side Baptist Church in Beatrice, Nebraska on March 1, 1950 is often cited as one of the most astonishing examples of coincidence.
Every Wednesday, at precisely 7.20pm, a total of 15 members of a choir would meet at the church for their scheduled practice.
However... Not a single choir member was present when the church was utterly destroyed at 7.25pm due to a massive explosion caused by a gas leak.
The blast knocked a nearby radio station off the air and shattered windows in surrounding homes.
The reasons for each person's absence that evening, though unrelated, created a perfect alignment of circumstances that saved all 15 lives.
A few hours before the explosion, Reverend Walter Klemple, one of the boisterous choir members, had gone in to start the furnace so the church was nice and cozy when everyone arrived.
The choir director, Laverne Paul, was responsible for organizing the rehearsals and leading the practice sessions, and she was pretty serious about keeping everything and everyone right on schedule.
Some say she was excessively strict about everyone being on time, 7.20pm.
By most accounts, this is fairly accurate.
Evidently, old Reverend Walter Klemple, bless his heart, had lit the furnace and then just walked out of the church thinking that all was well and that everyone would have a great time during the practice while being graced by the warmth of natural gas.
And what followed next was a series of very fortunate events that would inevitably save the lives of these fifteen people.
So how and why did all fifteen members of the choir inadvertently cheat what very well may have been certain death?
Keep in mind, all of these people always went to choir practice.
They wouldn't miss it for the life of them.
Let's start with the pianist, Marilyn Paul, one of Laverne's daughters.
It has been said by many that Marilyn was way ahead of her time and seemed to channel rock star Ray Manzarek, the famed keyboardist of one of Laurel Canyon's CIA-backed bands, The Doors.
Marilyn typically arrived early to practice before everyone else arrived like a boss.
However, on this particular evening, she had fallen into a deep sleep and Laverne was somehow unable.
To wake her up.
Now, I'd never been in such a deep sleep, but I just pictured Laverne grabbing Marilyn's shoulders as she laid there and started shaking her like a baby, yelling at her and shit.
Better get to that fucking practice.
You fucking better get in there.
The pastor of the church, Reverend Walter Klemke, would also usually arrive early to prepare, but on this particular day, he was held back because, on their way out of the door, His and his wife's daughter, Marilyn Ruth,
noticed that little Marilyn there had a little stain on her dress, which was completely unacceptable, and therefore her mother went to find her a new one.
This held them back substantially, as you can imagine.
Laverne Paul was too busy trying to wake her daughter up by shaking her like a rag doll to no avail.
By 7.15, they still weren't out the door.
Then there was Sadie and Roy Mathers, four and five of these fifteen, respectively.
Sadie and Roy Mathers, a married couple who were regular choir members, were delayed because Sadie was feeling unusually tired after preparing dinner, naturally.
Roy himself decided to do something different that day and help clean up the kitchen, which pushed back their departure time.
Then there's number six and seven.
Two high school girls, Lucille Jones and Dorothy Wood, would always go together.
On that evening, Lucille was transfixed by a radio program, that being Edgar Bergen, the most celebrated American ventriloquist of the times.
Can you imagine?
Oh, look here, mister.
I don't want to look here.
I've got a bad case of indigestion already just from looking at you.
Oh, you're not suffering from indigestion.
The girls were usually prompt, but Lucille uncharacteristically wanted to stay until 7.30pm so she could finish the program, something she never did.
But Dorothy apprehensively waited for her.
And there was Joyce Black.
Stenographer Joyce Black, who lived just down the street from the church, was simply feeling sluggish after a long day of housework.
She'd later say that she was just plain lazy.
I mean, it was pretty cold out and she was huddled up in a warm house.
But is that a good excuse for missing choir, Joyce?
Coming in at number 9 and 10, Herbert and Martha Klein.
They had gotten into their car and Herbert attempted to start it, but it wouldn't start.
They attempted to fix it, but it was of no use and they ultimately decided to head to the church on foot.
At number 11 was Herbert Kipf.
Herbert Kipf was a lathe operator, and after work, he found himself in a tiny pickle.
When he realized that he needed to work on getting an important letter written and brought to the post office to be dropped off because it needed to be sent immediately, knowing he'd be late, he decided that he would drop it off on his way to the church.
At number 12, it was Harvey Aul.
Machinist Harvey All was in charge of watching over his and his wife's two young boys as his wife was out at the moment.
Number thirteen, Miss Leonard Schuster and fourteen, Willard, her daughter.
Nobody names their daughter Willard, people don't do that.
Miss Schuster and her daughter, Willard.
We're over at her mother's house to help her prepare for one of those sweet-ass missionary meetings, you know, where they have sugar cookies, warm tap water, and threaded needles for embroidery and cross-stitching.
At number 15 was LaDonna Vandergift.
LaDonna Vandergift, a high school sophomore, was doing her homework and desperately wanted to solve a particularly difficult geometry problem before she headed to choir practice.
End. At exactly 7.25pm, a massive gas leak in the church's heating system caused an explosion that obliterated the building.
Had any of the 15 members been on time, they would almost certainly have perished in the blast.
Instead, by what many had called divine providence or sheer coincidence, every single member was running late for their own unique reasons.
Again, never happened before.
Bruce Lee predicting his son's death.
Lee predicting his son's death.
The eerie and tragic coincidence surrounding the deaths of both Bruce Lee and his son, Brandon Lee, is one of the most haunting and surreal in Hollywood history, particularly in the context of their respective film projects.
Both father and son were legendary figures in their own right, and their untimely deaths have remained the subject of much speculation and coholing.
However, beyond the obvious parallels in the manner of their deaths, both passing away while filming movies, there is an even more unsettling connection surrounding the specific circumstances in which they met their fates, particularly with regard to the films they were working on at the time.
Bruce Lee The legendary martial artist and actor was at the height of his career when he tragically died on July 20, 1973, at the age of 32. His death was sudden and mysterious, officially attributed to cerebral edema,
swelling of the brain, though some conspiracy theories and rumors about foul play or a curse on the Lee family have persisted.
At the time of his death, Lee was in the middle of filming his final movie.
Game of Death.
This film was a project that had already begun but was left incomplete due to Lee's death.
Game of Death is remembered as a notable film in Lee's legacy for its incredible martial arts choreography, but one of the most chilling aspects of the movie is a particular scene involving a prop gun.
In the film, there's a scene in which a character, played by Lee, encounters a situation involving a fake gun.
In this scene, the prop master explains to Lee's character how to handle the fake gun, explaining its usage for cinematic purposes.
Lee's character, dressed in a yellow jumpsuit and facing off against various opponents, deals with a gun prop loaded with dummy rounds.
The moment is a key scene in the movie, but it becomes tragically prophetic when viewed in hindsight.
Because then you fast forward to 1993, and Bruce Lee's son, Brandon Lee, who had followed in his father's footsteps to become an actor, was working on his final film, The Crow.
And man, The Crow was such a good movie.
It still is to this day.
I remember I just loved that movie.
I loved it so much.
I'm not sure why, but dude, Brandon Lee turns into a crow.
To avenge his own death.
Like, weird, crazy shit.
It's crazy.
It's a great movie.
It's a great movie.
Anyway, Brandon Lee had already begun to carve out his own path in Hollywood when he was cast as the lead in the film.
The film itself, which was based on the comic book series of the same name, was about a man who was resurrected after being killed, seeking revenge for his death and the death of his fiancée.
However, On March 31st, 1993, tragedy struck once again.
While filming a scene for The Crow, Brandon Lee was accidentally shot and killed on set.
The incident occurred when a prop gun that was supposed to be loaded with blanks was instead mistakenly loaded with a live round, or more accurately, a dummy cartridge.
A dummy cartridge that still had a projectile and a primer.
When the trigger was pulled, the round acted like a normal bullet, striking Brandon in the abdomen.
The precise cause of the incident was a tragic mix-up during the prop setup.
A dummy round, designed for film use, is typically a non-functional cartridge that doesn't contain gunpowder, But a bullet-like projectile for visual effect.
However, during the filming of The Crow, one of the dummy cartridges was improperly loaded into the gun.
This round still had a primer and a projectile in place, which meant that when the gun was fired, it functioned just like a regular live round.
The result was fatal for Brandon as the projectiles chuck him in the abdomen, causing significant internal damage.
He died shortly thereafter in the hospital at
the age of 28. So I was reading some reddit threads on my permanently banned reddit account about the weird things that surround Bruce Lee's death.
Which is really strange by the way because since that first account was banned, any account I make after that, I'm not sure.
Afterward gets banned?
So what the fuck is that about?
Anyway, I was reading some Reddit shit about the weird things about Bruce Lee's death, and from what I gathered after some cursory research, that there are a lot of people saying that he was being slowly poisoned because of how small he became towards the end of his life.
Yeah, I don't know about that.
That's what's going around.
It's saying, like, how did he...
Bruce Lee, how did he really die?
R slash Bruce Lee.
They slowly killed him because he was getting too small towards the end of his life.
That's a conspiracy theory that's going around.
Anyway, another thing about that, though, which is in the book Wrath of the Dragon, a lot of people wanted Bruce dead.
I mean, that is true.
They say that why he left Hong Kong in the first place was because the Triads wanted him dead, and you just don't play footsie with those guys, you know what I mean?
And why they think all these people wanted him dead is because they were jealous of his success and whatever else.
But that's going around as another conspiracy theory.
That's been around for quite a while.
I remember hearing that many years ago.
But now, let's examine the eerie and nearly impossible coincidence between Bruce Lee's death and Brandon Lee's death.
So, let's see here.
Both deaths occurred while they were filming movies, right?
So Bruce Lee died suddenly while still working on his final film, Game of Death, which was an incomplete project at the time of his death.
Similarly, Brandon Lee died while working on The Crow, which was also unfinished, and like his father, his death meant that the film had to be completed without him.
So, for those who didn't know that, that is what they did.
They also did with the Fast and Furious guy, whatever his name, I can't remember his name.
But they also did that with him.
And, I mean, they do it all the time these days.
Both were involved with prop guns in a tragic accident.
Right? So, in the game of Death, Bruce Lee's character interacts with a prop gun in a scene where a prop master explains its use.
While this scene is meant to be a cinematic element, it becomes hauntingly symbolic after the events that unfolded with his son.
So, people who haven't seen that movie, you should watch it.
It's a good one.
It's a classic.
In The Crow, Brandon Lee's death mirrored that very scene from his father's movie, as a prop gun was mistakenly loaded with a dangerous round, leading to a fatal accident.
This made the circumstances of his death shockingly similar to the concept depicted in Game of Death.
cause of death, being shot on set, was a rare and tragic event in both cases.
So Bruce Lee's death, while officially attributed to cerebral edema, has long been shrouded in mystery.
Some have speculated that his death was somehow connected to his intense physical regimen, or even to the pressures he faced as a rising star, doing all his own stunts.
Brandon Lee's death, however, was undeniably the result of a prop gun missile.
Or cold-blooded murder, in my opinion.
But, uh, yeah.
Yeah. And then this brings us to what's known as the curse of the Lee family.
Given the eerie nature of these parallels, rumors of a curse surrounding the Lee family have circulated for years.
Some have speculated that the family was haunted by bad luck.
Possibly sending from Bruce Lee's sudden and mysterious death and his son's even more tragic demise.
But then, Daily Mail published an article in 2022 about how Bruce Lee might have died from drinking too much water, which could have caused his brain to swell.
The doctors claiming this wrote in the Clinical Kidney Journal that Bruce Lee had hypnonatremia.
This is where sodium level in the blood needed for fluid balance is fatally low.
His risk factors were high water intake and cannabis use, which increases thirst.
This is real.
Previous causes of death theories included swelling on the brain and heat stroke.
Yeah. I don't know about that part.
But as it is, there are undoubtedly an unfathomable amount of weird coincidences that throughout history make us wonder and make us ponder.
They make us paranoid and want to rip out not only our own eyebrow and nose hairs, but those of the people that we don't even know who end up sitting across from us on the B or C train from the 116th Street Station and 8th Avenue line in New York.
But the weirdest part is that they are all thinking the same thing about you.
Coincidence? Sheer luck?
Or are we all being automated by something greater than us?
Using us as characters in a game for their own entertainment.
Who knows?
But what I do know is that this brings us to the end of this episode, and with that said, thank you all for tuning in and lending me your cauliflower ears, those beautiful things they are.
Please, like, share, and subscribe, and tell all of your friends and family to listen to the show.
Email them, text them, write them letters, send them a fax.
Or even send a messenger on horseback across the state.
Even across the country if you have to.
Leave nothing spared.
Get the word out that this podcast, the Paranautica Podcast, is about to overtake Joe Rogan.
Any day now.
Alright, everyone.
That'll be it.
Oh, uh, email me at paranautica at gmail dot com.
If you have a story that you've written and you want me to share it, please send it my way.
I'll share it and give you all the credit for it.
Email me.
Follow me over on Twitter.
At Paranautica.
I think I'm going to switch over to Gab, where you can also find me, at Paranautica.
I'm going to try not to be on Twitter so much, just it's become a pretty bad place.
I mean, I undoubtedly have contributed to that time or another, but man, it's getting pretty fucking toxic.
And it's just, it's become a real cult.
I believe it's become a cult.
It's weird.
I do not really enjoy it there anymore.
And I think I'm going to move over to Gab and other places and see what they have to offer.
But anyway, everyone, ladies and gentlemen, take care of yourselves.
Take care of each other.
It's all we have.
So until next time, don't forget to like, share, and subscribe.
