The Spectral Voyager Episode 4: The Cult of Unknown Tongues (Sample)
When it comes to possession, we’re used to hearing stories about the demonic variety. But there’s another side to it: those anointed by the Holy Spirit in religious movements such as Pentecostalism. This type of possession crescendos to ecstatic states, along with spastic movements, snake and fire handling, poison drinking, and faith healing. And in this rare case, a murder done in the name of God. This is the story of one of the most bizarre, depraved, & little-known acts of spirit possession ever committed: Appalachia’s first & only case of ritual sacrifice. Was spirit possession really to blame for the Unknown Tongue Cult murder? And as a chaser, Jake tells the tragic/comic story of George Went Hensley, the man responsible for popularizing snake handling at church. Can you guess how that one ends?
To listen to the full episode, and gain access to our other mini-series such as Manclan and Trickle Down, you can subscribe for just five bucks a month at: http://www.patreon.com/QAnonAnonymous
The Spectral Voyager theme composed by Nick Sena.
Additional music by Pontus Berghe, Jake Rockatansky, and Silvia Tarozzi.
Editing by Corey Klotz.
QAA’s website: http://qanonanonymous.com
These are some of the signs that will accompany believers.
They will cast out demons in my name.
They will speak in new tongues.
They will take snakes in their hands.
They will drink poison and not be hurt.
They will lay hands on the sick and make them well.
Literally.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Behind the cracking wallpaper of our reality, there exists another world that science has yet to explain.
In here dwell monsters and madness, and potentially, the answers to our most important questions.
In this world, gravity intensifies, time slows down, and your heart rate quickens.
I'm Jake Rakitansky.
And I'm Brad Abrahams.
And you're listening to The Spectral Voyager.
The Cult of Unknown Tongues.
We're on day 45 of 100 plus degrees temps here in Austin, and I'm starting to feel a
formless madness creep in.
A couple months ago, right before the total climactic oppression took hold, I was squandering another morning away with an Instagram doomscroll.
I came across a post by an acquaintance's account called At Stiff Vintage, a collector of rare and dark ephemerata from the past.
And actually, Jake, an owner of several mummlers.
Oh, which I want so bad.
They go for like $2,000 each.
Yeah, that's what I saw on eBay.
They're in the couple thousand dollar range, which is funny because if he was more impactful, they would be more expensive.
But it's like a couple grand will get you an OG mummler.
Yeah.
It was a black and white photo from the early 30s.
Center frame was a man in overalls with the head of unkempt hair being physically restrained by four men in suits standing in a doorway.
His eyes were closed and his mouth was agape in an awful sort of way.
One of the guys in a suit had his hand around the man's neck as some sort of a show of domination.
And there's the photo that I saw, Jake.
Yeah, I mean it looks like they're leading this guy to his execution, and I'm more inclined to think so because the other guy holding them has a length of rope in his hand.
Yeah, very, very ominous.
So, from the caption I learned that the man in the overalls was John H. Mills.
He and his cult were responsible for Appalachia's only case of ritual human sacrifice, perpetrated under so-called spirit possession.
The victim was, of all people, his mother.
Of course, I was captivated, and immediately tried to find out more.
I thought a true story as depraved as this one must have been exhaustively covered.
But no.
Aside from a few sparse contemporary articles and one podcast, all that was readily available were news clippings from 1933.
I was soon to find out why, as well as a hell of a lot more through some deep digging, help from friend of the pod Ali Metzi, and securing a last minute interview with someone as close as it gets to the murder.
When it comes to stories of possession, we're used to hearing about the demonic variety, perhaps paired with a sensationalist exorcism.
But there's another side to possession, that of those anointed by the Holy Spirit, in fundamentalist traditions such as Pentecostalism.
This type of possession crescendos to ecstatic states along with spastic movements, snake and fire handling, poison drinking, and faith healing.
And in this rare case, a murder done in the name of God.
The subject of religion is a minefield, and doubly so when dealing with a faith born out of a socio-economically depressed region that's already the butt of jokes and caricatures.
But as is our modus operandi, we wanted to go deeper than the usual vice-style piece on religious fundamentalism or a supercut of megachurch pastors.
So before we get into the story of the Cult of the Unknown Tongues and then a snake handling story from Jake, we're going to briefly dip into the bizarre but often misunderstood religious denomination they belong to.
Fruits of the Spirit Before starting on this episode, I must admit that this unreligious Jew knew next to nothing about Pentecostalism or the charismatic movement.
Yeah, me neither.
I'd seen only depictions in films and YouTube videos of unhinged, fanatical orgies of religious
expression.
You know, people wilding out in the name of God.
I was surprised to learn that there are over 600 million Pentecostals worldwide.
The name itself comes from a tract in the Bible where a group of Christians gathered
together in Jerusalem in preparation for the Jewish holiday of Pentecost, when they were
suddenly filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in tongues.
The tract from Mark 16-17 in our cold open further defined the denomination.
The faith's genesis was in 1901 in Kansas and then again in 1906 in California, with
a series of ecstatic tent revivals.
Unique and central to these revivals was that God could be expressed tangibly through filling oneself with the Holy Spirit, or in other words, possession, though many Christian denominations strongly dislike the concept.
As one devout Irishman put it, I mean, it's only Satan that possesses.
I mean, the Lord never ever does.
Very good, Jake.
Surprisingly good.
Also, what is this Jewish holiday of Pentecost?
That's like one that I don't know I've ever celebrated.
Yeah, it might be a very deep Old Testament cut.
Deep cut.
Okay, deep cut holiday.
So no hamantaschen, no matzo ball soup.
Just tongue speaking.
Okay, so one of the less fun ones.
Those possessed or anointed by the Holy Ghost are said to receive various spiritual gifts from on high that are called Fruits of the Spirit.
These include speaking in tongues, serpent and fire handling, poison drinking, casting out devils, prophecy, and healing by the laying on of hands.
Just manifesting one or two of these is considered quite powerful.
But the more gifts you receive, the more powerful you become.
The combo of strumming guitars, cymbals, and tambourines, hand clapping and foot stamping, and impassioned singing is the perfect cocktail for inducing a state of dissociation or trance.
This type of possession has been called a hysterical contagion, a term by social psychologists that denotes the spread of highly emotional behavior within a collective, in which the spread is rather rapid and resembles a geometric progression.
So for those of you who, you know, hopefully didn't grow up in this kind of surrounding or, you know, like us two Jewish hosts, I imagine that this is kind of like what you would see in the Steve Martin film, Leap of Faith.
I don't know if you've seen that movie, Brad.
I actually haven't.
I know of it, but I haven't actually watched it.
Yeah.
I mean, that's kind of the visual that I'm sort of imagining here as you're reading this.
You're going to see some visuals soon.
Oh, no.
You have been listening to a sample from The Spectral Voyager, a new miniseries from the folks at QAA, where we explore true tales from the edge of reality.
To listen to the full episode and gain access to our other miniseries, such as Man Clan and Trickle Down, you can subscribe for just five bucks a month at patreon.com slash QAnonAnonymous.
