Hi, and welcome. If you are looking for a story a dose of
the stranger than fiction side of the world we live in, then you've come
to the right place. There are a lot of stories here to choose from,
and to Day's is a new story. When a partner in a technology
company realizes the company's true purpose has been shadowed by a dark motivation to change
the world, he calls on me. They call me the Ghost. I'm
a dark operative on the dark Web, taking on the mysterious and outrageous jobs
that no one else will or can. This is one of my adventures.
Today's story is a story about our world, and as we got deeper into
this mystery, we found ourselves entangled in a dangerous game of manipulation and mind
control. Take a listen and enjoy. When I first got this request,
it was at a time when the team and I were discussing all the strange
things that we've seen in all the bizarre stuff that's happened on our jobs,
and we were just talking about how we wondered what could possibly come next,
and then boom, this request comes in. I get a request from a
man who's a partner in a virtual reality company which I'll call Mindscape. The
two partners are Tyler Davis and Ethan Johnson, and I was contacted by Tyler.
Now, this is a company that I know about. I can't give
you its real name because some of you probably know about it too. It
seemed like an innocent enough thing that was moving along with the times, a
great company, and actually have a copy of their goals and mission statements.
So let me read that to you quick. Okay, it's pretty clear.
It says at Mindscape, our mission is to provide our customers with the most
innovative and immersive virtual reality experience is possible. We believe that technology has the
power to transport people to new worlds and allow them to explore the depths of
their imagination through our cutting edge software and hardware. We strive to create a
safe and inclusive environment for all users and to constantly push the boundaries of what
is possible in the realm of virtual reality. And then they had this little
tagline sort of thing that says, join us on a journey into the unknown
and experience the limitless possibilities of the human mind. And they also were interested
in expanding into the medical market. I mean this all sounds great. And
the other neat thing was there were two guys that built this company right,
and they built it from the ground up. They started out in one of
their parents' basements, that kind of story. They really wanted to be a
part of the tech world, and they found their interest in virtual reality.
Eventually, Mindscape was borne through the dreams of these founders and it was on
its way. Pretty cool, you know what they had going on in their
vision. There would be no need for you know, the goggles or things
like that to experience VR. Even watching a movie would be a different and
more real experience. And that all sounds really fun. But if it all
were good, I wouldn't have gotten this request. In it, Tyler tells
me that he definitely suspects that his partner is up to something more vicious and
completely off track with what their entire purposes. He is looking for my assistance
and expertise in helping him uncover the truth and to stop these activities as he
believes them to be harmful. His partner seems to be having secret meetings,
disappearing, and he's also noticed odd behavior and some of his employees as well.
Tyler was getting afraid that Ethan was becoming dangerous. Well, I mean,
this could be something big. If someone takes VR too far, it
could end up catastrophic. Really, but we don't know yet what all is
going on. So we agree to go to Silicon Valley to talk with Tyler.
So, just in case you don't know, Silicon Valley, it's a
region in the southern part of San Francisco in the Bay Area in California.
It's home to many of the world's largest high tech corporations and thousands of startup
companies like Mindscape. And that's where we went, and I took Harley and
Rider with me. By the way, as we make our way through sandfran
you know, we're passing by the large tech company buildings with sleek glass and
futuristic designs typical in the area. However, Tyler's building is different. It's
an unassuming brick building with a small faded sign that reads Mindscape. The building
is located in a less busy part of Silicon Valley with a few trees,
you know, and there's a small park nearby. The coffee shop where we
meet Tyler is located across the street and down a block for Mindscape. Now
it's a cozy place with dim lighting, wooden tables. You know, you
get it. We get there, we can see Tyler. He's sitting at
this small table near the window, looking out at his own building, and
he has this troubled expression on his face. When we approach him and introduce
ourselves and ask to sit down, he seems nervous and on edge, but
he waves us to our seats a bit anxiously, so we sit down and
we're just watching Tyler. You know, he's nervously fiddling with this coffee cup,
and then he finally looks up to us and he starts to speak,
telling us that he reached out to us because he desperately needs our help.
And he's talking and barely above a whisper, and I can understand why.
I know why we're not at the office, but we're still close enough that
he's nervous. He tells us that there's definitely something strange going on at Mindscape,
and it's something that he could not handle on his own, and he
didn't feel like anyone else would have the capacity to believe him or help even
if they did. He ended up getting my contact information from one of his
peers that works at another tech company, a pretty big one that I most
definitely think you know about. This seems to make sense to me, and
I tell him that, okay, we're willing to listen. Doesn't mean we're
going to automatically take this job. We need to see what it is.
Well, Tyler takes a deep breath and he begins to tell us about what's
going on. He runs his hand through his hair, and he could see
his frustration and distress just in the way he was talking and acting. And
Tyler made it clear, you know, this isn't a power grap you know,
one partner getting more glory. There was something else going on and it
wasn't good, and Ethan, his partner, had to be stopped. Tyler
downs the rest of his coffee and sets the glass aside, folding his arms
and leaning forward on the table. After a heavy sigh, he begins to
tell us what he thinks, while at the same time acknowledging how crazy his
suspicions probably sound. Tyler feels that instead of offering temporary experiences of virtual reality,
you know, for enjoyment or medical purposes, as they had initially intended,
Tyler believes that Ethan is exploring a much more permanent form of VR,
one that could have serious implications for users. His eyes get very wide and
he continues even grips the edge of the table, and he tells us that
where Ethan is headed is unnatural and unsafe. That they started the company with
the intention of enhancing people's lives, but Ethan's ideas appear to be going off
track. He tells us that Ethan has been experimenting with these brain computer interfaces,
and maybe even more than that. He found out all of this in
one of their labs, but then after he saw it all and made comments,
a whole setup just disappeared. It was something that he knows he wasn't
meant to see. Okay, so does this guy a proof? Well,
no, not really. If this is going on, then Ethan has really
been great at hiding it, at least for the most part. So we
need to get to someone. We need to get someone on the inside.
They need to be sent in with Tyler. So let me fast forward here
a little bit. But basically, we get organized and it will be Scarlet
that goes in. Tyler arranges the whole thing and will present her as a
potential investor in this capacity, she'll be looking to get a tour of the
facility, so we have a security badge for her setup. We get her
all ready and she's ready to go in. At this point, we've gotten
everything packed up from the warehouse and we have it all in Silicon Valley,
so all that's already happened and everything is where we need it. We get
ourselves set up in a suite at a hotel nearby, and when it's time,
Scarlett does herself up in a wonderful suit, you know, very unlike
how we dress every day. She puts her hair up, she has her
little padfolio. She's ready to go. Tyler and Scarlet meat and then they
head over to the company's office building. She takes notice of everything that's going
on and how things are. The office itself is pretty plain, but it
is bright with the windows and modern has open workspaces and glass walled conference rooms.
She just takes in the scene, trying to appear impressed and interested.
Tyler leads her around, you know, introducing her to a few people,
showing her workstations, talking about latest projects, just so it doesn't look suspicious.
Now Throughout the tour, Scarlett is making mental notes on the layout of
the office, the types of equipment and software being used, and any unusual
or suspicious activity that she can observe. She also tries to engage Tyler and
the other employees in conversation, get people talking, asking probing questions, and
trying to extract any useful information that she can. And she's great at this
stuff. She can always hold her own. Before she leaves, though,
Ethan joins them. Apparently he got wind that they had a visitor who was
with Tyler, an investor, and so basically he was just curious. This
visit wasn't on any schedule, but Tyler did a great job of explaining it
all. Scarlett finds Ethan to be evasive and quick once he feels as though
the visit is legit, because you have to remember, Tyler's been on him
for a little while, and Ethan's getting a little paranoid a little bit.
But anyway, after he meets Scarlett, he accepts it and he moves on
well. Tyler tells Scarlett that he can tell by Ethan's behavior that he's definitely
distracted. It's one of those times, and so they decide they need to
follow Ethan. What is he up to find out where he's going, and
you know, they can't just be right behind him. They have to give
him some space so he doesn't notice. But they observe Ethan walk past the
elevators and over to the staircase. So they wait a few minutes and they
hear him going down. There are only a few flights up, so nothing
looks particularly strange here, you know, people take the stairs and offices all
the time for exercise. But anyway, then they get to the bottom.
They've waited a few minutes, and then they go down, but Ethan isn't
there. He's disappeared. Well, Tyler was besides himself, and he's looking
pretty defeated and helpless, and he said, Ethan disappears like that all of
the time. Scarlett looks around, and she too is a bit confused.
She sees no sign of Ethan either. She turns to Tyler, but he
doesn't have any new revelations and he just tells her that he doesn't know,
and he doesn't understand. They do go out and look for him in the
lobby. I mean they look everywhere, but they can't find him. He
was there once second and on the move, then he was just gone.
Scarlett asked about security cameras, but there aren't a ton in the office,
only in key areas front and back, entrances, the lobby, the cube
farm, things like that. However, they do have those cameras on the
outside. Scarlett and Tyler go back to his office and he brings up those
feeds and everything looked fine except for finding Ethan. They don't find him entering
that lobby after they followed him. They don't see him leave at that time,
so where did he go? And Tyler just tells Scarlett it's like that
all the time. He just disappears. Scarlett knows she's not getting able to
figure this all out in one office visit, which, let's face it,
it's never that easy. We need to dig more. The next night.
It's time for more of us to go in, and we need to do
it when people aren't there working. We now know the layout of the building
and some other things that Scarlett was able to bring back to us, So
we're feeling pretty good, mostly just curious. We need more information on all
of this, okay, so let's get to it. For this job.
Harley is back at home base. I have Scarlett, Rider Jagger and Frankie.
Now, Scarlett's already been in once and we don't want anyone to have
the chance to recognize her, So she's going to stay back at the hotel
and be our on site backup. I'll be taking Rider, Jagger and Frankie
with me. We get everything ready and then we make contact with Tyler about
the entire plan. He tells us he crawled that camera footage of the lobby
from when Scarlett was there, and he says he finally did see Ethan leave
around seven. Where he was the rest of the day though, and where
he went when Scarlett was there, he still doesn't know. Tyler was very
anxious and eager. He really wanted to dig into this whole thing. He
wanted to come with us, but there was no way he could. We
needed to go in alone and scope everything out and be as stealth as possible.
We can't have someone with us that is jumpy and anxious and disturbed,
as Tyler was at the time. Not a good idea, but you really
have to hand it to the guy for trying to get help here, because
Ethan is someone that he's known a long time. Tyler doesn't want to think
anything bad of him and certainly not anything bad about the company. But that
said, his curiosity had been pushed to that point. So it ends up
being the next day we go over how this could all go down, and
long story short, Tyler makes arrangements for us to enter through the back entrance,
no problem. They do have some guards, but they're out front and
this back area is usually fenced in and more of sort of an employee break
area. Remember this isn't a full on, big corporate success quite yet.
There's no big bad corporate building like there are so many of in Silicon Valley.
All he had to do is mess with the alarms and then we had
access. Tyler also has access to all of the records of who's coming and
going with the badges, and then he also has a badge that was kind
of like a skeleton key. It gets into everything. Both he and Ethan
have them. Tyler is able to show that no one should be in the
office when we go in, and then his skeleton badge will help us on
the inside get everywhere we need to go, so pretty much easy peasy on
getting in, and then once on the inside we get with Scarlet and get
our connection going so that we will have all eyes on us should anything go
wrong. We have these bead necklaces that we all put on, and they
have these little cameras in the main bead. They are going to transmit the
audio and video feeds wirelessly to the monitors and systems and laptops, both in
the hotel with Scarlet and Tyler and back at the warehouse to Harley. It's
all done in real time and it all will be recorded. Okay, Well,
first, before we can get to the good stuff we are there to
find, we have to clear the place right at least know if there are
any work stragglers hanging around that somehow aren't using their badges. As we moved
through the office, you know, it looks different at night. It really
was fairly sparse, I guess you'd say in terms of decor. There are
cubicles and offices with some personal touches right along others that were completely plain.
There were some photos on the wall, mostly out reception and mostly of Ethan
and Tyler at various events, but nothing really that gives them much insight into
what's going on with the company itself or the employees. The main work area
is large. It's an open space filled with desks and computers, and as
we moved through the office, we notice a few doors leading to other rooms,
you know, break rooms, conference rooms. The place isn't all that
big, but it's big enough. As we clear all the working spaces,
really there was nothing obviously suspicious or threatening. But you know, we also
didn't see any hidden bookcases or things where Ethan could just duck behind. No
magic wands. Nothing all right well with no one else, and we go
back down the stairwell to see if there was anything Scarlet and Tyler missed.
And we're looking around but we don't find anything. But I mean, something
has to be there, you know, Scarlet wasn't in there all that long.
So I break out my scanner. Now, the scanners that we brought
to this job have this new prototype technology that only a few select people have
access to, so we were lucky. They're amazing and they're going to help
us see things that we can't see with our eyes. It's just a handheld
device that emits a series of ultrasonic waves which are then able to penetrate through
solid objects and return information about the internal structure of the object back to our
systems and to Scarlet as well. When we examine the stairwell, we notice
a strange irregularity in the data as waves penetrate through the stairs, and after
further analysis, we all realize there's a hidden chamber behind those stairs, or
so it seems. Scarlet and Tyler, along with Harley, they were able
to confirm this by analyzing the video feed from our cameras, so that is
something. Now we need to figure out how to open this hidden chamber.
Rider literally gets down on her hands and knees. She starts feeling her way
around and sometimes it's like that, you know, you really just need to
get in there. Jagger and Frankie go up the stairs a bit and they
start looking at the railings, I mean, every inch of it all to
find whatever is going to get us in. So, all right, we're
crawling this pretty small area and then Rider notices this very tiny button on the
underside of the second step, and you know, Rider, she's so clever.
She just looks up at me and smiles, and I know that smile.
I mean, this thing was hidden pretty good. You'd never think that
a little blue duck was a button like that under a stair unless you were
seriously looking for it, and who looks under stairwell stairs anyway, right,
We call Frankie and Jagger back and we all stand on that bottom landing.
We're ready to jump on the stairs of the floor moves, but it could
just be part of the floor or maybe the wall. We really have no
idea what's about to happen, but we have to do it. We're all
good and Rider pushes that little blue button. This activates a hidden mechanism that
causes the entire section of stairs to rise up surprisingly quiet and fast. Really
helps explain how Ethan could have escaped that stairwell that day. It would only
taken him really literally about thirty seconds. And so this is a great find.
But we have no idea what's in there or down there. We have
to check it out, though, So down we go. We see another
blue button to the right, off to the side. It's the same blue
color, but it's a lot bigger. So we press it and it shuts
the stairs hatched door behind us. As we descend down into this dark space,
all we have for light o our head lamps and our flashlights in our
hands. We get down there and it's just another room, but it's small
and nothing's in it. But then I notice this almost impersonable seam in the
metal wall that's there. We feel around, and sure enough we find a
lever, and after we pull that, one of the metal sheets opens,
revealing a gap, well a door. So we go through that, not
sure what we're going to find on the other side. We have our lights
and we start exploring. We find this maze of small tunnels and rooms.
The walls are lined with wires and cables and pipes. There are strange machines
just humming quietly and blinking in the darkness. The air is thick and musty,
and we can sense the faint scent of something organic. It kind of
smelled like sweat mixed with copper, And I know that sounds strange, but
I don't really know how else to describe it. Eventually, we see some
new lights up ahead, some blue lighting. We turn off our headlamps and
flashlights and let the lights of what's ahead take over. In that next room,
and as our eyes adjust, we see row upon row of these capsules
lining the walls. It sort of reminded me of the Matrix in a way,
just so you could picture it, only it's underground. And obviously a
little bit different. Everything was pretty dark and everything was pretty quiet. We
start to walk toward these capsules. They were emitting this soft royal blue glow
from underneath each one of them, and when we looked a little bit closer,
we saw that the blue light was also illuminating these strange symbols that were
etched on stones on the side of these capsules. The symbols are unfamiliar at
first, but they seemed to pulsate with this energy all on their own,
almost as if they are alive. We didn't know what was going on with
these capsules, but you could definitely feel the vibrations they were putting out,
i mean, through the floor, through the air. We moved in closer,
and it's then that we saw that each capsule had a person in it,
each one hooked up to a network of wires and tubes that disappeared into
the walls behind them. Their eyes were all closed and looking at them,
you know, they just seemed to be in a deep sleep. We did
find some empty ones a little farther down. But what was going on,
I mean, it was both eerie and fascinating at the same time. There
was definitely something happening here under this business, beneath the surface of everyday life.
It made us instantly wonder what the heck ethan was up to, and
more importantly, what was inspiring this crazy display. Before we do too much,
we make sure that all of our video and audio is being sent okay
to Scarlet and Harley, and then we wait for their scans and analysis of
what might be going on here. They have more at their fingertips where they
are. But you know, Scarlet, with their archeology background and curator background,
she notices one of the symbols, and she saw one of them on
the side of the capsules, and she asks us to look around and get
images of each of the different symbols on the capsules. How many were there?
Well, it turned out there were only four different ones, so each
capsule would then have one of the four. When she looked at them all
together, Harley knew exactly what they were. She tells us that these symbols
look to be a representation of the ancient concept of the Four Humors. And
you know, once Scarlett started talking about the Four Humors, we all started
to remember the little bits and pieces that we did know about them. But
she fills us in on the whole story. If each capsule only has one
symbol on them, could it be that the people inside those capsules represent the
respective humor on the symbol. Well, absolutely so. Let me give you
guys some background here. The four humors. Okay, it's an ancient medical
theory and life theory that dates back to the ancient Greeks. According to this
theory, the human body was composed of four distinct humors or fluids, blood,
phlegm, yellow bile, and black bile. Yeah, not all that
fun and exciting to think about, but it is what it is. Each
of these humors was associated with a specific element and a particular personality trait.
People who were dominated by the blood humor, for instance, were thought to
be sanguine or optimistic, outgoing and sociable. Flem associated with the element of
water, and it was believed to be cold and moist, and people who
were dominated by the phlegm humor were thought to be calm and introverted. Yellow
bile would be the people thought to be choleric or irritable, but yet ambitious
and passionate. And then finally, black bile, people who were thought to
be melancholic or depressive, introspective, and artistic, So each is a combination
of a few things. The four humors theory was also used to explain not
only personality traits, but also illnesses and diseases. It was believed that an
imbalance of the humors could lead to illness, and that treatments should be tailored
to restore the balance of the humors in the body. Okay, so why
are these symbols here though at all? Could these four humors be useful if
someone was trying to affect humanity? I mean, that's how we need to
try to think of this. What would these kinds of people look like.
Let's see how this could make sense. Blood or sanguine could be someone in
entertainment or maybe a charismatic leader. Yellow bile or choleric. It could be
a ruthless enforcer or leader. Black bile or melancholic. It could be creative
or an intellectual anker, even as spiritual guide or healer. And then flam
or phlegmatic could be a worker or laborer for instance, maybe a caretaker or
nurturer for others. So that's kind of how the world would look. You'd
have these four kinds of people. Okay, well we know that much,
but now we need to dive in even more and find out what all of
this means in this situation and what exactly is happening down in this chamber.
We spend the rest of that first break in session gathering data, analyzing,
and looking for clues. We have Tyler on the outside at the hotel with
Scarlet, and he's watching for any badge engagement, you know, if anyone's
showing up. Ideally, we're going to be out of there before anybody does
show up. And so I started out by investigating each and every capsule to
see if they're exactly the same or if any of them have been tampered with
or manipulated in different ways. Then I move on to start to hack the
computer system that's down there. It's clearly associated with this underground facility. I
need to extract the readings. Frankie and Jagger they start investigating and analyzing any
and all of the other electronic components that are in the works down there.
We need to understand how this whole thing works so that we can stop it.
And then finally Writer starts going through the surrounding office spaces the other areas
were only a few and anything else down there to locate any records or documents
related to this facility or any direct link to the manager of it. Now,
because I was working around the capsules and I was the one studying the
symbols and what was going on with them, it also led me to study
and get pictures of the images and engravings on the walls. Everything's engraved in
stone, you know, all the sayings and everything that they had and things
like that. They appear to be from a very long time ago. I
mean, it's not something that would have been done today. We're not engraving
on old stone walls, you know, if we have something to say or
state and we make a plaque or something. Right. But the weird thing
was, the more I was around those symbols, I started to feel different.
I realized I was somehow getting affected, and towards the end of that
night, I started to feel cloudy in the head. I couldn't bring up
thoughts like I could when I had arrived, and like I normally can.
I didn't know what it was and I didn't want any more of it.
Ryder kept close to me after I mentioned it, and as soon as we
had everything that we could get. Four that night it was time to pack
it up, which was at about four in the morning. It was a
very weird thing though, because on the way back to the hotel, I
literally couldn't even get any words out. But the farther I got away from
the building, and as I got settled back in the hotel, those feelings
started to dissipate. So it hadn't taken hold of me yet, and the
idea came to us, you know, maybe we could get those that were
in the capsules right then out of the state they were in as well.
That would be the goal. Okay, Well, after we left Mindscape,
we're all back at the hotel, except for Harley of course, remember she's
online. Back at the warehouse, we start to go over the data we
collected. We have the schematics of the capsules that need to be examined closely.
We have all the information on the electronic components and what's going on there.
We need to understand how it all works. And then we have all
the documents that we have images of at this point, how do they connect
everything and how do we connect Ethan and his purpose to any of this?
And so the studies began and this went on all through that morning, all
through the next day. We did end up fitting in food and a nap
the next evening before we were back at it all. So we did find
food and rest. But let me explain to you what we discovered during the
time we were going over everything. I mean, all the information was there
for us. We just had to decipher it and put it all together.
And we did have Tyler there too, and that helped a lot, and
we finally did come to a conclusion as best we could anyway, of what
was going on. So it would appear Ethan and Tyler's company, Mindscape,
they were developing this new kind of VR technology that would use brain wave monitoring
to enhance the user's experience. As part of how they were going to do
this, they worked diligently and in the end they discovered that by manipulating certain
brain wave patterns, they could induce specific emotions and sensations in the user,
including visuals and sound and feeling. This created a much more vivid and immersive
experience than what we have now with VR because it was a true trick of
the brain. The biggest thing they were working on is how to seamlessly get
someone in that state and then bring them back out of it. Clearly,
that would be something that they would have to know how to do, and
they were working on perfecting that. And here comes the BCI, the Brain
computer interface if you didn't know what that is. It's a technology that allows
direct communication between the brain and a computer or other electronic device. And this
communication is achieved by measuring and analyzing brain activity, and they would do this
through electrodes placed on the scalp for instance. BCI technology has the potential to
be used for a wide range of applications, from helping people you know,
with disabilities, to improving cognitive abilities, as well as enhancing virtual reality experiences.
And here comes Ethan and Tyler. Right, it's very cool stuff.
We learned they could create virtual roller coasters or things like haunted houses that would
feel and seem incredibly real because well, the mind is being tricked. It's
pretty amazing and all was good, but there was always that issue where the
process left some in this kind of state when they were done. So one
of the things that they were working on as of late, or supposed to
be working on, was how to ensure the users of their VR experience that
they will be fully clear of all of it when they're done. There were
some that came out fine, but others they did stay in this kind of
state, Like I said, somewhere in between reality and the VR they just
experienced, and that would not be quite so awesome. Well okay, so
over time Ethan starts to see this as an opportunity instead of seeing it as
the problem that it is. He's all over the idea that people can stay
in this kind of state. What we don't know is which came first.
Did the chamber get to him or did his big ego and greed get the
best of him and then he found the chamber. This does matter according to
what we found, but either way, when Tyler realizes that Ethan was becoming
increasingly obsessed with the power of this technology, he started watching him more closely,
and he found him conducting these little experiments to manipulate people's behavior outside of
the VR experience that they were volunteering to test, and so on and so
on. Originally, Tyler just thought that Ethan was losing interest in the company,
but now his only focus is what damage is Ethan doing, and it's
not like people would volunteer for this exactly. They would volunteer to test VR
and would have no idea that they might not know their own reality when they
were done. But sadly to say, that was Ethan's new goal, basically
hijacking people through their brains for his own agenda. According to Ethan's journals,
he began using the technology to create completely artificial realities that people would become trapped
in for hours or even days at a time. He believed that he could
create a better world free from the flaws and imperfections of the real one,
and thus his plan was to involuntarily recruit people to his cause. Involuntarily,
guys. But how he was thinking was, hey, this is for the
betterment of mankind. Okay, so we get all of that, and so
then we need to tie in the chamber, all right, with the timing
and how the journals and writings played out along with the data. This is
how we figured it all went down. So, first of all, in
his mind, Ethan was on the edge of the greatest invention of all time,
and of course he'd be in charge of it all and all of us.
So you know, there were a lot of fantastical things going on there.
He was getting drunk on the power he thought he would have in the
future. I mean, the guy would have been great enough right with the
technology he was already inventing, but this took him basically to an insane place.
You never know what all people get in their mind and the power it
can have over them. You don't see it sometimes. Well, we know
that somehow Ethan finds this chamber. In his files, we found some scandaled
blueprints of the building, and that was a find, and it was something
Tyler never saw. I mean, this building is old, clearly not a
part of the new and modern Silicon Valley that it is today. In those
blueprints we see the lower chamber. We learned that the building that they are
in was originally, way way back in the day, a type of hospital
or small sanitarium in the ways of old Okay. The theory of the four
humors. It was widely accepted in medicine, and many physicians believed that an
imbalance in these humors was the cause of disease. This underground area could have
been a research facility where physicians were studying the four humors and experimenting with different
treatments to restore balance to the body, you know, trying to help the
people that were actually at the facility in the building above. Hence the permanently
laid and engraved symbolism of the four humors that was down there. As research
became more modernized, though, and it was advancing, this idea would lose
its popularity and rationale, of course, and the bottom chamber would eventually be
closed up and forgotten, the buildings eventually abandoned, and then time passes and
here we are. Happens all the time, but not quite like this now.
When Ethan stumbles upon this situation, a dark room with symbols and writings
and information on the perfect world, he becomes obsessed with it. What can
he do with this? He starts coming up with theories and methods. His
obsession beats any ideas he might have had about talking to Tyler, and the
rest is history. He takes the space, supports his own idea, fills
it with the technology that it needs to get his job done. It's as
simple as that. I mean, this guy had pretty much everything at his
fingertips. This is what Ethan is working on, and this is why he
keeps disappearing, and you might be wondering, though, why would someone do
all of this? Why would he divert over to even care about any of
this when he's working on his VR and that was exciting enough. Well,
it is a trap for us humans to get sucked into something, even if
it is irrational. We all know this, especially when it supports one's own
off the wall and egotistical thoughts. I mean, those things always love company.
But the whole idea of the Four Humors seems pretty out there. It's
a theory so old and in our modern culture doesn't have a place. So
what exactly happened? While according to legend and old writings, it could be
said that the world was originally created with only four types of people based on
the four humors, and that it was in balance and harmony, but over
time, as people began to mix and intermingle, this balance was disrupted and
the world became more chaotic, more unpredictable. Ethan in this whole predicament could
believe that he is the one who can bring back that balance by using his
technology to create a world with only the four types of people, each one
in their own separate bubble, that is perfectly tailored to their unique needs and
personalities. And in his mind he might have been thinking that by putting people
through this, he can eliminate conflict in the world, increase productivity, and
ultimately create a utopian society. But this would never fly, not really,
and he was seriously off track, going mad. I'd imagine something else that
we learned, and I guess you'd say confirmed about that chamber was what Harley
and Scarlet were also able to dig up. These symbols, when combined with
the different inscriptions and things that were around, they all have meaning and a
little bit of power behind them. So essentially, when I was in that
chamber and working so closely with everything like that, I was being affected,
even though I wasn't sure what all of it meant. But if you're someone
like Ethan who got down there and started studying it all and getting a little
more obsessed with the whole idea, you would support it. You'd be willing
to accept whatever powers it wanted to influence on you, and you'd also be
more open and receptive to the whole idea of it. In the first place,
it's pretty creepy. One's interests and excitement or obsession. This would cloud
any normal judgment. And Ethan he's a curious soul and he was ambitious,
and this is what made him successful in the first place. But when he
stumbles on this chamber, he somehow becomes fascinated with the four humors, and
that's combining with his interest in the effects of his VR. He sees potential
power here and he loses all of what he was so effectively in his search
for control. He lost all control of himself, something that can happen to
any one of us. As he began to spend more time down there,
he unknowingly fell under the influence of these symbols and inscriptions, which started to
warp his perception of reality and his own sense of morality. As a result,
he became convinced that the world would be a better place if everyone was
simply reprogrammed to fit into one of the four humors, and he started to
develop his mind control technology to achieve this end pretty scary. By the time
we were done with all of our research, things were starting to make sense
to us and to Tyler, and he was actually a bit relieved, you
to know that maybe, just maybe, all of these crazy ideas weren't all
Ethan's fault. Looking back, he can see signs though, the coffee cups
Tyler has with the word humor on them, the four pictures or posters that
are in his office, and they're framed they include traits of the Four,
and the list goes on. It all made sense now, It's just never
gonna work. This was just Ethan's twisted world view. In reality, we
would have a world devoid of diversity and individuality. This should never happen.
And although you might get what you want or need out of an organized group
like that, you know, maybe like slave labor, okay, those in
that group that have no idea what life means or have any idea about their
own individual wants or desires, you might as well have robots, or at
least the people would be like robots. The whole thing was out of control.
If people are kept and put in states like this, there's no contribution
to society, no growth for them or society or us as humans. All
you'd really have if this idea took over the world. For example, okay,
is those not in the four and the worker bees, who are not
a good plan. So we were armed with our knowledge and it was time
to use it. The next night, we're gonna go and again, we're
gonna go break into the Mindscape building a second time. This time though,
we're gonna bring Tyler with us. You know, now he's calmed down a
little bit. He feels a little better knowing that we had figured out so
much and put all of this together, so now he could actually be an
a set instead of a liability. We get into the building the same way,
and our job is at that point to disable everything that Ethan has going
on, and then there will be, you know, the confrontation, because
Tyler has called Ethan in for an after hour's meeting and he agreed. So
that was the plan. And we got back down in the chamber and now
we know more about what we're dealing with, so we're more ready to handle
this whole thing. And we had to admit. I mean, Ethan's capsules
they were a marvel of modern technology, but the secret of their effectiveness lay
in those ancient symbols etched on their surfaces. It's wrong and it just cannot
be in today's world. Each capsule had that one unique symbol on it,
carefully chosen to resonate with the individual hooked up to it. It's kind of
like an identifier to categorize the humans. Right, we now know this,
but how did it all work? We figure figured it out, and so
I thought you guys might find it interesting too. Okay, the process was
pretty simple. So first the victim could be you, it could have venue,
would be sedated and then hooked up to a series of these neural interfaces
that connected them to the capsule's central processor. Once that connection was established,
the system would start sending pulses of energy to the victim's brain, slowly reprogramming
their neural pathways to align with Ethan's twisted view. The underlighting was a royal
blue and it was actually also an important part of the whole process. It
helped through some thermal heating and vibrations to soothe the victim's thoughts and mind processes,
and it helped put them in this receptive state of mind, opening their
mind. Really when if they were there and they knew what was going on,
I'm sure their minds would be very closed. This would be an order
to to get them ready for the programming. Now, once the victim had
been fully reprogrammed, they would then be disconnected from the system and allowed to
very slowly wake up or come to in the capsule. And this was a
very important step because it gave the brain time to fully process and integrate the
new programming. I mean, you're one person and now you've been reprogrammed.
There's a lot to organize in your mind to accept all of this and work
with it. After a few hours, then the victim would be removed from
the capsule, disoriented but fully committed to Ethan's cause. In one of the
four we had to take down the electronic systems contributing to this, and it
wasn't all that difficult really. We had we did have to change the systems
for the capsules that already had people in them, but we had figured that
out as well. What we did was we reprogrammed them to slowly wean the
individuals off the programming that they were already subjected to. Hope that made sense.
Basically, these victims were all still in the process. They weren't done
yet, if you will, so we get going. We want to reverse
it. And then we had the symbols and the inscriptions that seemed to be
full of this pulsing energy all around us. We had to deal with all
of that. I mean, somehow back in time or however this room was
set up. These symbols and carvings had been imbued with a kind of energy
that would allow them to manipulate the mind of anyone who comes in contact with
them. And right now they had Ethan as their main target. And you
know, this could even be something otherworldly. That's a play down there.
We're not exactly sure, but we don't have time to track all of that
down. We're just there to stop it. We end up covering up all
these symbols and things with steel plates so that there will be no more available
interaction. We didn't want to destroy them, because that's not what we do.
We were there for a reason. They were there for a reason,
their part of history, and they can stay there as long as they're not
being used actively for anything evil or bad. It's not our job to take
everything apart and kill it or destroy it. But it was our job to
stop what was happening. We get what we need done done. And now
Tyler is on the main floor awaiting Ethan's arrival, and when he gets there,
he tells them that hey, all right, the gig is up.
And he needs to come down with us and discuss what's been going on.
And surprisingly Ethan is willing to go with Tyler, probably though, just to
protect his stuff, right. And sure enough, when he gets down there,
he demands He starts demanding to know what exactly is going on. I
mean, his capsules aren't working right. He can see that all the images
and symbols and things have been covered. There's not a lot of that humming
of equipment. I walk up to him straight away and I just tell him
flat out that the mind control experiment that he's been running is over. And
he looked at me, like, who are you? And then he looks
to all of us, and then he goes into this panic. He has
desperation in his voice. I mean, the guy is scrambling. He can
see that we've basically taken down his operation, so he starts pleading for his
cause. He was saying things like, you know, we just don't understand,
and that this is something bigger than all of us, and it was
meant to be. He went on to tell us that the Four Humors had
given him purpose and a vision for the future. And then of course he
tries to tell us why it's all a good thing and why the world should
be this way and all of that stuff. And we're just standing there looking
at each other in this dark space. But then all of a sudden,
Ethan takes off. He starts running through that small maze that's down there,
away from the capsule area. I mean, we know where he's going.
He's going for the main power supply that's down there. Something he's set up
far and away from what he is doing. Surely he thought he was smarter,
you know, than anyone that would find out about what it is.
It was his fail safe, but we already had found everything. So Frankie
and Jagger they follow him and it's not long before they're bringing him back,
each gripping one of his arms. I mean he's resisting, he's yelling at
Tyler. The guy is not happy. We as a team have to remember
though, that a big part of this is that he is also affected,
kind of like I was, but you know way more, and we know
that the human factor at play here is that, you know, some people,
they just can't help it. They want more than they have, They
can't settle with the fact that they might be successful in what they're doing.
Now some people just can't stand it and they have to have more, you
know, more money, more genius, more power, And you know,
that's definitely a part of what Ethan is naturally. But the other part of
what Ethan is at the moment is that he's been affected the spell, if
you will, of the Four Humors. So everything's exaggerated and he will fight
for it till the end. But for that we have a special capsule that
we have arranged for him in particular to hopefully undo that part of the damage
that's been done to him. He can't see it. He thinks that he's
some kind of all powerful, ancient character brought to life that Ken and should
control people's thoughts for the overall betterment of mankind. It's almost a kind of
a witchery. We need to get him inside this special capsule so that we
can start what we were calling the undoing process. And his needed quite a
bit. You know, we reprogrammed the other capsules, but he was a
special case. He was at the core of all of it, and he
had to really be dug out to get everything out of there. So we
kind of set his up a little bit differently, and you know, of
course he's resistant to doing any of this, but this was a major to
do. We had to get it done, and it was a difficult task
to get him into that capsule. We knew it was going to be this
way, so we were ready for that. Part of our setup that evening
was for Jagger two incorporate those wrist and leg straps as well as a headstrap
to hold him down inside that capsule. I mean, not a pretty sight,
guys, and it's not fun for us to do that kind of thing,
but it had to be done. He had to be disconnected from this
ancient source of energy, and his mind needed to be cleared. The guy
was way too far gone, so far gone that we couldn't even sedate him
to get him in there. He had to be aware and actively using his
mind at the time, So kicking and screaming, you know, like a
small toddler, Jagger and Frankie get him into the capsule. While they hold
him down. Rider and I are in there getting him into his straps.
Tyler's there telling him over and over again that this is for the best and
that we're trying to help you. But you know how that goes right?
Ethan sounds finally get a bit muffled. As we close the lid, we
actually physically removed the symbol from that capsule because we want nothing of the four
to have any way to get to Ethan. During this process, as these
wriggling around and the lights are glowing and things are happening inside that capsule,
we start to see this type of steam or something start to escape from the
lid, seeping out of the type seam. As the steam or smoke continues
to seep out of this capsule, it starts to coalesce and take shape,
and four apparitions begin to form in the air, each one representing a different
humor. We did not expect that, and it was quite the sight.
The first one is this fiery red with this fierce expression on its face,
representing the humor of choleric. The second one was a pale yellow. It
had a melancholy expression, representing the humor of melancholy. The third one was
a bright and sunny yellow and had a smile on its face, represented the
humor of sanguine. And the fourth was a dull and heavy gray with a
somber expression, representing the humor of phlegmatic. The operations hover in the air
above the capsule. They're looking down at Ethan as he struggles and writhes inside.
They seem to be emanating a strange energy, and as they do,
the symbols and sayings etched into the walls, they start to get affected.
I mean, we covered them, but each of our steel plate covers they
start to blow and pop off. So we have these little plates flying through
the air and they're being pulled off the wall with force. Both Rider and
Frankie got hit more than once. I mean we're ducking and dodging the symbols
and things underneath. They start to glow brighter and brighter, more than we
saw before. It's as if the very air okay, is charged with this
powerful force. I mean, we can feel the hairs on the back of
our neck standing on end. Things seemed after a bit to start to die
down a little bit, but that's when we noticed that one of the symbols
had locked in on Rider. She was facing the wall and looking into this
stone etching it was a symbol for the humor of choleric. Her face was
turning beat red and she was stiff, but her eyes were wide open.
It was as if the symbol had a hold on Rider through her eyeballs.
Frankie walked up to her, immediately covered her eyes and pulled her away.
He set her down on the floor in the corner in more of a dark
area until she could start to shake it off, you know, whatever this
energy was trying to do to her. And then there we were right in
the big confrontation. However, the main person they were looking for, Ethan,
he was locked in the capsule still, and I have to say they
were kind of mad about it because of the bit of violence though that started
and the fact that they tried to lock in Rider. We all pulled together
and we had to get into we call this sort of collective consciousness or collective
resistance. We do this as a group in certain instances, and it takes
an extreme amount of concentration. But this thing has to play out and we
cannot get sucked in by any of it. We do need protection. And
then there we are, okay, watching in awe as these apparitions are hovering
over Ethan's capsule and they're taking turns, and what they're doing is they're sucking
this dark energy right out of him, and you can see it happening It's
almost like you know when someone pulls a ghost out of somebody, you know,
you see that in movies. It kind of looked like that, only
very dark. They know that Ethan is no longer their guy. We have
taken him from them, and it's as if they're unraveling the very fabric of
his being, tearing away layer after layer, until all that was left was
this scared and confused man looking up at us from inside the capsule. We
watch all of this happen, and I mean, it's happening all around us.
But then it's as though as soon as they sucked everything out of Ethan,
they themselves started sucking up into nothing. The glow on the etchings and
inscriptions it starts to die off, and the apparitions they actually start to fade.
Cracks start to form in the walls. I mean, everything's kind of
shaking. These cracks are cutting through the symbols and the inscriptions and just the
walls in general. And then finally, with one last pretty loud, screeching,
hissing sound, we watch as the apparitions get pulled in and sucked up
into those cracks, and then they all sealed back up. And it was
lights out, and with that, I mean, you could just feel the
energy leave that room. You could feel it. There was nothing else there
anymore, just us mere humans. And that was that. I mean,
the big question was how did Ethan come out after all of this. We
hear him tapping on the top of his capsule, you know, it's see
through. He can see us, and he wants out, and that was
a test, right letting him out. We hit him very hard so that
everything would be erased and that hopefully he'd be up moving around fairly quickly.
But he was slow to rise. He still seemed to be coming too in
a way. But he starts looking around and you can see surprise on his
face and it was if everything that he had done was a dream that you
know, he remembered it. Then again, he didn't. He remembered working
on mind escape, but that seemed very far away, and that night everything
was done earlier. Okay, so by that point it's only about two in
the morning. Ethan's awake, but he's still kind of out of it.
So we decide that we need to clean everything up just right then and go
back to the hotel and get some sleep while we can. So everyone knocks
out. You know, Tyler, though he takes the hit, he shows
up at the office at eight am, so that everything seems pretty normal,
check on things. But Ethan he sleeps the entire all of that, the
rest of that morning, all the next day. By the time he wakes
up, he's starving, he wants coffee, he wants out of the hotel
room. We were able to hook up with Tyler and we all get some
food in the little town at a tucked away place and we start discussing everything.
Ethan is surprised by everything that happened. He remembers it in a way,
but now that he's back to his logical self, he can't even imagine
how he jumped over that line to do all of that. And you know,
we hear that all the time, like with criminals. You know,
they'll be talking after they do this big crime and you can see it on
their face. They're thinking to themselves, I have no idea why I did
that? How could I go that far? What was I thinking? And
that's kind of what Ethan was like at the time. Everything will have to
be dealt with. You know, that chamber needs to be sealed off forever.
Their company needs to reboot their research, and they need to clear all
the minds of those that Ethan has tested and affected. It will be a
long process for them, but all we can do, you know, is
wish them the best of luck. I mean, they had a long road
ahead of them, but this is where we leave them. We got them
out of the situation, we stopped what was going on, and now it
was up to them to go about their regular lives and fix what they could.
You know, I never follow jobs after the job. I guess I
can't say never, but it's definitely not my practice. Sometimes we even want
to stay and be involved, but that's just not what we do. It's
time to move on. You have to wonder how many of these near fails
happen in our world every day. And we see some things like that that
come to us, you know, through media or somewhere, but we do
hear about things. There are a ton of these little things that pop off
and happen every day that we don't know about, that we never hear about.
And the people that we know are just see every day. I mean,
who's to say where their head is at. If people can pop off
in their minds and take another life, for instance, unexpectedly, then this
situation is really not that unbelievable. I mean, there will always be the
nonbelievers out there. That's okay with me. These stories have a point.
You know, everything in our world really does if you choose to look at
it. Here, we need to know that we should always be aware of
others actions as well as our own. I mean, to run completely wild
could disrupt or destroy a lot of things. And when we look at our
true selves, I doubt most of us have real goals of destroying ourselves or
others. I mean, be mindful and be aware, That's what I say.
And you know, it's kind of a scary thought. How do any
of us know that the world that we think we've created for ourselves, and
the people that we know, and the places we go, the work that
we do, how do we not know for sure that that wasn't created for
us? If we were all put into certain realities directed to us, we
would never know. And I guess I'll just leave it at that. That
was the job. We went in, we got it done, and we
got out. And guess what, They'll continue, just like the rest of
the world, more jobs to do, more things, happening, so I'll
be talking to you guys again. I hope you enjoyed listening to the story
today. It's just a small piece of everything. I have more stories,
so make sure you check back and thank you for listening today. I always
appreciate you taking the time to be here with me. Until next time,
and I will talk to you all soon