NIC: Welcome back. Where to start? In a lot of ways it feels like a long time since I sat in this chair, in this studio. For some of you, I'm sure it's felt like forever. Sorry about that. Similar to what happened at the end of our last season, it's taken me awhile to get back into the swing of things. Physically, I was a mess when I finally stepped out of the woods that night. I was dehydrated, exhausted, terrified and cold, not to mention mentally and emotionally destroyed. Dramatic, I know. But it really was tough sledding there for a while. But I'm back now, and ready to continue exploring the possibility that something uniquely strange is happening up here in the Pacific Northwest.
This season, I'm determined to find out, if there is something happening up here, exactly what that something might be. Is there some kind of natural or unnatural force able to influence or manipulate this part of the world? Is there any truth to Professor Adams' claims that Tanis isn't necessarily a place but might manifest as something else? A person? Or a thing? And what about his belief that Tanis moves around every four hundred years?
But before I start asking or re-asking those questions, I suppose I should do my best to briefly catch everybody up on where we are so far and how we ended up here.
The first season of Tanis began with my connecting Professor Adams referencing the relatively unknown myth of Tanis and a short story featured in the inaugural and only issue of a magazine called Strange Worlds, a short story allegedly written by famous rocket scientist and infamous occultist Jack Parsons, titled, "Where is Tanis?" From that point, I just kept following the mystery, believing or suspecting that it would eventually reveal itself as nothing more than a complex conspiracy, or myth or fiction built upon decades, perhaps even centuries, of countless misunderstandings, manipulations, and assumptions.
But that's not what happened. Instead, I stumbled upon something else entirely. With help from my information specialist friend, Meerkatnip, and my would-be drinking buddy, Geoff van Sant, I continued to dig into the mystery of Tanis. Along the way, I did my best to question and examine the motives of Cameron Ellis, the TeslaNova corporation, the Cult of Tanis, Parzavella Communications, and the enigmatic Nathaniel Carter, who believed he was somebody or something known as "The Navigator."
Speaking of Nathaniel Carter, his body was found in the woods that night. He'd been mauled beyond recognition. Paul, and several other members of the Cult of Tanis, were arrested. Apparently, there was forensic evidence linking them to the scene.
As far as what happened with Mike the geologist at the end of last season, well, his wife said he's fine, and there's no way he was out in the woods that night. She claims they were together all evening long, watching something on Netflix. Mike refused our request for an interview.
When I left you last time, I was in the woods. I'd just met Paul from the Cult of Tanis and I was in a bit of a state, to say the least. He referred to me as The Navigator, which came as quite a surprise, considering we'd all been operating under the assumption that Nathaniel Carter was the one they called The Navigator.
As we move forward, I'm going to do my best to clear up what happened that night as I possibly can, but right now I'm going to back up a little. There were others in the woods with me that night: Veronika Pilman, for example. And Veronika was different that night. Not herself. She told me that this time, I was The Runner and she was The Witness. She spoke about how the world was going to be reborn, how Tanis was some kind of cosmic environmental cleansing or something. I lost Veronika in the group of eccentric fringe scientists that call themselves The Grackles when that thing came out of the woods, when it attacked Nathaniel Carter, throwing him across the clearing. I ran as fast as I could from the strange and suddenly violent scene. By the time I'd stopped running, I was completely alone.
I've been unable to get in touch with Veronika Pilman, which is, as you know if you're a regular Tanis listener, definitely not her real name. They haven't found her body, which leaves hope, I suppose. Although, based on everything that happened in the woods, I'm not convinced that I'm going to be hearing from Veronika Pilman again any time soon.
And then there's the question of my friend, Geoff van Sant. He'd been lured into the woods thinking he was there to meet me and now he was missing. I've scoured the area of the woods where Geoff and I found a strange plane in that tree. There's nothing there. No Geoff, and no plane. I went to his house and knocked, called the police, spoke with his neighbors, but so far there's absolutely nothing on Geoff van Sant or his whereabouts.
Last season, MK had been shaken by the death of her friend, Clark, and I spoke out loud for the first time in at least a decade about something terrifying that happened to me as a child. These things, and the intense situation surrounding the myth of Tanis, brought MK and I close together. Some of you have been wondering about a personal relationship between the two of us. Well, I've spoken with MK and we both agree this podcast is about the myth of Tanis, about the possibility that something potentially otherworldly, or at least something that feels otherworldly, might actually exist and could be trying to communicate with us somehow. We agreed that muddying the waters of this investigation with the romantic lives of two people, or lack of romantic lives thereof, would add nothing to the conversation, so I'll say, for the record: MK and I are two people who've grown to care about each other a great deal and one of us still pays the other in BitCoin for certain, strictly informationally-based services.
Meerkatnip had been in Los Angeles researching a project when everything went down at the end of last season, but she's back. Geoff and Veronika are missing, Nathaniel Carter is dead, and Cult of Tanis Paul is in jail for his murder. Clearly, a lot happened in the woods. But there were also a few things that I'm not fully convinced actually did happen. For example: did I see Sam Reynolds and Morgan Miller? It seems impossible now. Where would they have been? I do remember speaking with them, but I also remember them trying to kill me. I'm not sure I can explain everything that went on out there: the Poeticon Astronomicon, the Voynich Manuscript, star maps leading me through the woods, promising, or at the very least, indicating that something special was meant to happen on that specific night. And then there was that endless, slimy thing in the culvert, and the strange, looming shadow-things, the cabin, the Blur, the dark, cryptic words of John Correman and August Wick. It all feels impossible now, otherworldly, somehow.
But what if there was another factor? What if something else had been operating out there, in those woods? What if I'd been drugged? Veronika and Nathaniel Carter were acting very strange, and they could have easily sprayed something into the air, or, I remember them giving me water at some point. I don't know. It certainly wasn't my intention to leave you hanging like that at the end of last season. It's just that it's taken me awhile to parse a few things, to try and bring what happened out there in the woods into some kind of perspective. I feel like I've done some of that work now, but there's still so much to do. I'm afraid we're going to have to do some of it together, you and me and my psychiatrist.
[Advertisements.]
NIC: That was the end of my session. I'll have more from my work with my doctor as we move through this new season. But right now, I had a meeting with Cameron Ellis. After some back-and-forth, he'd agreed to allow me to continue recording him for this podcast.
NIC: I was wary. The last time I'd worked in The Breach for Cameron Ellis, during what they referred to as their "Phase One Program," I'd begun losing time, acting... strangely. I told him that I'd have to be able to quit, to leave at the first sign of anything I felt was... damaging in that way. He told me that that would be fine.
It was a compelling offer. Not the apartment, or the car, or the money, it was, just like last time, the opportunity to get closer to Cameron Ellis and TeslaNova that was appealing. For better or worse, I still believe that Ellis was my best shot. There's nobody else with his level of access who appears to be willing to share information. Whether or not that information is accurate, well, I suppose that's up to me to figure out. Me, and a good friend.
NIC: So, I was most likely going to go back to work in The Breach. But this time, I was going in with my eyes wide open. I told Ellis that I was unwilling to give up recording. Partly as a way of documenting my exploration for the show, but also as a way of recording myself, gauging the effects of the area on my mental, physical, and emotional states, doing my best to protect myself from... overexposure.
Before I re-enter those woods, there's something that I'd like to address. It's something that happened a week or so after we aired the last episode of season two. Five people experienced and unidentified illness, believed to be spread by touch. According to Oregon Live, a 54-year-old caregiver in North Bend discovered a bunch of people trying to tear the roof off her vehicle and called the police. The police attended the scene, but they found nothing. When the caregiver called back with the same report, they took her to the hospital, suspecting hallucinations. Just after leaving the hospital, one of the deputies who had been called to the scene began experiencing similar symptoms and returned to the hospital. Soon after, the same thing happened to the other deputy, followed by the caregiver's 78-year-old patient. A hazmat team was deployed to both incident sites but they were unable to find a common contaminant, and blood tests didn't reveal anything unusual. Police spokesperson Patrick Downing suggested that initial reports pointed to fentanyl patches, but that explanation was quickly ruled out. There were no possible contaminants found anywhere.
So, why am I sharing this strange and interesting story? Well, aside from the fact that it happened up here in the Pacific Northwest in Little Rock, a small town near the Capital State Forest, pretty close to Olympia, Washington, there's another factor: Frances Manners. Who is Frances Manners? I'll let MK explain.
NIC: Of course it was in my inbox. It was kind of nice, getting back into the swing of things. Meerkatnip sending me material, teasing me about my lack of understanding her world. Things felt almost... normal. Or, whatever normal had become since I stumbled upon the myth of Tanis all those months ago.
Someone had taken a video of Frances Manners and posted it. She was incoherent, speaking in tongues. I spoke with some of our other producers here at PRA and we've decided not to play her breakdown for you. There is one section, however, that we are going to share. It's very brief, but you'll see why we felt it was relevant and important to share it.
[Advertisements]
NIC: Eld Fen. The familiar name of the Cult of Tanis' central figure. MK looked into the veracity of that recording, and though it's impossible to say with one hundred percent certainty, the time stamp and digital signature appear to validate the recording. As far as MK and her resources can tell, that recording is authentic.
So, Frances Manners visited the woods outside of DuPont, Washington, the location of the original Fort Nisqually, and connected with a caregiver in Oregon. But why? I was able to track down a friend and former colleague of Frances Manners who might have the answer.
NIC: (voiceover) Mary Martindale is in her late thirties. She's been friends with Frances Manners for decades. They had a falling out when Manners started behaving like, what Mary referred to as, "a snake oil lady." Mary's sister went broke when Frances pulled her into a pyramid scheme. Mary said that, a few months ago, she let Frances back into her life.
NIC: Since that conversation with Mary, we’ve been trying to get in touch with Frances Manners. She reportedly quit selling her executive success system and moved to California to live with her brother. We’ve been unable to track him down, but we’re going to keep looking.
I was in my office, digging, or, re-digging through all the John Correman/August Wick stuff, looking for clues or connections I may have missed, when I received an email. The message was from somebody calling themselves, “Eld Fennel.” Someone had a sense of humor. They also had something else. A video. It was attached to the message from Eld Fennel. The subject line was two words: “Still here.” There was nothing in the body of the message.
I double-clicked the video and it started to play. It was grainy, and a bit dark, but you could make out a figure walking through the woods from behind. The figure walks toward what appears to be a cliff, and then slowly turns to face the camera. The figure doesn’t move for the duration of the video. Three hours. The figure in the video was a man. The man staring into the camera in the middle of the woods was Geoff van Sant.
It’s Tanis. I’m Nic Silver. We’ll be back again in two weeks. Until then, keep looking.
SITE NOTE: Thank you to the wonderful Melissa for providing this Transcript!
This season, I'm determined to find out, if there is something happening up here, exactly what that something might be. Is there some kind of natural or unnatural force able to influence or manipulate this part of the world? Is there any truth to Professor Adams' claims that Tanis isn't necessarily a place but might manifest as something else? A person? Or a thing? And what about his belief that Tanis moves around every four hundred years?
But before I start asking or re-asking those questions, I suppose I should do my best to briefly catch everybody up on where we are so far and how we ended up here.
The first season of Tanis began with my connecting Professor Adams referencing the relatively unknown myth of Tanis and a short story featured in the inaugural and only issue of a magazine called Strange Worlds, a short story allegedly written by famous rocket scientist and infamous occultist Jack Parsons, titled, "Where is Tanis?" From that point, I just kept following the mystery, believing or suspecting that it would eventually reveal itself as nothing more than a complex conspiracy, or myth or fiction built upon decades, perhaps even centuries, of countless misunderstandings, manipulations, and assumptions.
But that's not what happened. Instead, I stumbled upon something else entirely. With help from my information specialist friend, Meerkatnip, and my would-be drinking buddy, Geoff van Sant, I continued to dig into the mystery of Tanis. Along the way, I did my best to question and examine the motives of Cameron Ellis, the TeslaNova corporation, the Cult of Tanis, Parzavella Communications, and the enigmatic Nathaniel Carter, who believed he was somebody or something known as "The Navigator."
Speaking of Nathaniel Carter, his body was found in the woods that night. He'd been mauled beyond recognition. Paul, and several other members of the Cult of Tanis, were arrested. Apparently, there was forensic evidence linking them to the scene.
As far as what happened with Mike the geologist at the end of last season, well, his wife said he's fine, and there's no way he was out in the woods that night. She claims they were together all evening long, watching something on Netflix. Mike refused our request for an interview.
When I left you last time, I was in the woods. I'd just met Paul from the Cult of Tanis and I was in a bit of a state, to say the least. He referred to me as The Navigator, which came as quite a surprise, considering we'd all been operating under the assumption that Nathaniel Carter was the one they called The Navigator.
As we move forward, I'm going to do my best to clear up what happened that night as I possibly can, but right now I'm going to back up a little. There were others in the woods with me that night: Veronika Pilman, for example. And Veronika was different that night. Not herself. She told me that this time, I was The Runner and she was The Witness. She spoke about how the world was going to be reborn, how Tanis was some kind of cosmic environmental cleansing or something. I lost Veronika in the group of eccentric fringe scientists that call themselves The Grackles when that thing came out of the woods, when it attacked Nathaniel Carter, throwing him across the clearing. I ran as fast as I could from the strange and suddenly violent scene. By the time I'd stopped running, I was completely alone.
I've been unable to get in touch with Veronika Pilman, which is, as you know if you're a regular Tanis listener, definitely not her real name. They haven't found her body, which leaves hope, I suppose. Although, based on everything that happened in the woods, I'm not convinced that I'm going to be hearing from Veronika Pilman again any time soon.
And then there's the question of my friend, Geoff van Sant. He'd been lured into the woods thinking he was there to meet me and now he was missing. I've scoured the area of the woods where Geoff and I found a strange plane in that tree. There's nothing there. No Geoff, and no plane. I went to his house and knocked, called the police, spoke with his neighbors, but so far there's absolutely nothing on Geoff van Sant or his whereabouts.
Last season, MK had been shaken by the death of her friend, Clark, and I spoke out loud for the first time in at least a decade about something terrifying that happened to me as a child. These things, and the intense situation surrounding the myth of Tanis, brought MK and I close together. Some of you have been wondering about a personal relationship between the two of us. Well, I've spoken with MK and we both agree this podcast is about the myth of Tanis, about the possibility that something potentially otherworldly, or at least something that feels otherworldly, might actually exist and could be trying to communicate with us somehow. We agreed that muddying the waters of this investigation with the romantic lives of two people, or lack of romantic lives thereof, would add nothing to the conversation, so I'll say, for the record: MK and I are two people who've grown to care about each other a great deal and one of us still pays the other in BitCoin for certain, strictly informationally-based services.
Meerkatnip had been in Los Angeles researching a project when everything went down at the end of last season, but she's back. Geoff and Veronika are missing, Nathaniel Carter is dead, and Cult of Tanis Paul is in jail for his murder. Clearly, a lot happened in the woods. But there were also a few things that I'm not fully convinced actually did happen. For example: did I see Sam Reynolds and Morgan Miller? It seems impossible now. Where would they have been? I do remember speaking with them, but I also remember them trying to kill me. I'm not sure I can explain everything that went on out there: the Poeticon Astronomicon, the Voynich Manuscript, star maps leading me through the woods, promising, or at the very least, indicating that something special was meant to happen on that specific night. And then there was that endless, slimy thing in the culvert, and the strange, looming shadow-things, the cabin, the Blur, the dark, cryptic words of John Correman and August Wick. It all feels impossible now, otherworldly, somehow.
But what if there was another factor? What if something else had been operating out there, in those woods? What if I'd been drugged? Veronika and Nathaniel Carter were acting very strange, and they could have easily sprayed something into the air, or, I remember them giving me water at some point. I don't know. It certainly wasn't my intention to leave you hanging like that at the end of last season. It's just that it's taken me awhile to parse a few things, to try and bring what happened out there in the woods into some kind of perspective. I feel like I've done some of that work now, but there's still so much to do. I'm afraid we're going to have to do some of it together, you and me and my psychiatrist.
[Advertisements.]
- DR. BERNIER: How are you feeling?
- NIC: That's a... complicated question.
- DR. BERNIER: Okay... First word that came to mind?
- NIC: Fine.
- DR. BERNIER: Which means...
- NIC: It means it's a complicated question.
- DR. BERNIER: [sighing] Right.
- NIC: Yeah.
- DR. BERNIER: Have you given any more though to... the voice in the darkness?
- NIC: We've been over that.
- DR. BERNIER: Well, not the voice in the darkness that you experienced when you were abducted as a child. The voice you heard that night in the woods.
- NIC: ...What makes you think they're different?
- DR. BERNIER: Was it the same voice, Nic?
- NIC: I feel like we've been over this so many times already.
- DR. BERNIER: I understand, but I feel like there might be something there, something you've forgotten.
- NIC: I'm sure there is something I've forgotten. I mean, I've listened to the recordings from my hypnosis sessions and I understand why you'd feel like this voice in the darkness is important, but frankly, I'm a little freaked out by how... freaked out I sound on those recordings.
- DR. BERNIER: You did appear to be experiencing something. Something significant.
- NIC: I'm sorry, I just don't remember that part of my dream, or whatever it was - or - is.
- DR. BERNIER: Well, we don't have to start now, we can reschedule... again. [sighing]
- NIC: I - it's fine, I just feel kind of ridiculous.
- DR. BERNIER: What do you mean?
- NIC: I mean... I don't know what it feels like exactly but I imagine there are people who go through traumatic events and this isn't to say that I'm equating my experience to people's extreme trauma, because I'm not. Not at all. But it's - it's just that... [sighing]
- DR. BERNIER: Hm, okay.
- NIC: Well, uh, maybe there's a better example. Let's say you experienced a kind of large-scope life event, like getting sober after decades of drinking or drugs. Or being abducted by aliens, or experiencing a white light on your deathbed.
- DR. BERNIER: O...kay?
- NIC: I mean -
- DR. BERNIER: Wouldn't it be difficult to share those experiences with someone who hasn't shared them.
- NIC: Exactly.
- DR. BERNIER: Difficult, but not impossible. [pause] Nic?
- NIC: I remember things about that night as flashes... maybe... even out-of-sequence.
- DR. BERNIER: What kinds of things?
- NIC: Dark shapes moving among the trees, faces, sounds, and smells.
- DR. BERNIER: Okay. Well, we've been through your experiences that right up to the point where you meet the man named Paul. [pause] Nic? Okay, maybe we should stop for today; our time is almost -
- NIC: Paul... Paul was smiling, and he lead me towards a large fire. But it wasn't a fire. It was... something else.
- DR. BERNIER: What was it?
- NIC: It was a totem.
- DR. BERNIER: A totem?
- NIC: Yeah... a rock, it w- it was tall and covered in engravings or scratches... I can't quite remember. And there was somebody else there.
- DR. BERNIER: Who else was there, Nic?
- NIC: I can't remember, exactly. It was...
- DR. BERNIER: Can you - can you try to remember?
- NIC: It was something behind the others.
- DR. BERNIER: Okay, what kind of something?
- NIC: It was something... dark. Something large.
- DR. BERNIER: And... how did you feel at this point?
- NIC: Scared.
- DR. BERNIER: Did you feel like this... something was going to hurt you?
- NIC: No. Not me.
- DR. BERNIER: Who?
- NIC: Them.
- DR. BERNIER: Paul and the others?
- NIC: ...Yes.
- DR. BERNIER: What made you feel like the dark thing was going to hurt them?
- NIC: Because...it told me.
NIC: That was the end of my session. I'll have more from my work with my doctor as we move through this new season. But right now, I had a meeting with Cameron Ellis. After some back-and-forth, he'd agreed to allow me to continue recording him for this podcast.
- ELLIS: Thanks for coming.
- NIC: What's... what's up?
- ELLIS: Well, I'd like to continue our working relationship.
- NIC: Okay, uh, what does that mean, exactly?
- ELLIS: It means an employment situation.
- NIC: Does the government know what's going on up here?
- ELLIS: Yes. I believe you've raised this concern before.
- NIC: What about the crows and the squirrels an the fluke worms, the strange flora?
- ELLIS: Everything we do is properly sanctioned.
- NIC: What, uh... what kind of employment situation? Am I gonna be tossing a bag I'm not allowed to open over the side of a bridge on a dark country road somewhere?
- ELLIS: No.
- NIC: Are you sure?
- ELLIS: You're not going to be getting instructions via an envelope slipped into your pocket by a stranger in a crowd. It's... similar to last time. You'll have your own private residence, a car, full-time assistant, if you'd like one. I understand you opted out of that arrangement last time. You'd be paid a significant salary, paid via direct deposit with all the governmental deductions taken care of. This is on the level, Nic. We want you to come and work for us again.
- NIC: I'm not sure I'm ready to go back into the woods quite yet. And also, last time, I wasn't exactly granted access to much of anything.
- ELLIS: You'll be working out of Pacifica Station.
- NIC: With Alice Gellar?
- ELLIS: Who?
- NIC: Alice G-Gellar.
- ELLIS: I'm afraid I don't know anybody named Alice Gellar.
- NIC: I met her just outside Pacifica Station. She said she was working there.
- ELLIS: I'm sorry, Nic, but that's not possible.
- NIC: I... definitely met her. Near the payphone. Her voice is on my recorder, it was on the show. She was absolutely there.
- ELLIS: Well, if there was somebody out there, they were unauthorized.
- NIC: She seemed authorized.
- ELLIS: I'm not sure what to tell you.
- NIC: This kinda reminds me of something I've been thinking a lot about lately.
- ELLIS: What is it?
- NIC: The wall.
- ELLIS: What about it?
- NIC: What's going on behind it?
- ELLIS: What do you mean, exactly?
- NIC: I mean, if that walled area is so dangerous that we can only spend twenty-two minutes in there, what's happening to everyone else on the other side? Do... they have to leave every twenty-two minutes? [pause] Ellis?
- ELLIS: ...There's nobody on the other side of the wall.
- NIC: What? I thought it was some kind of international consortium, or something.
- ELLIS: It is.
- NIC: But there's nobody there, behind the wall.
- ELLIS: There are very few people cleared for access.
- NIC: Why didn't you tell me this before? H - how many do you mean when you say "very few?"
- ELLIS: Very few.
- NIC: Okay, myself, Marcus Corey...
- ELLIS: Yes.
- NIC: Anyone else?
- ELLIS: I'm afraid I'm not able to discuss those particulars. I hope you understand?
- NIC: Tara Reynolds, Veronika Pilman...
- ELLIS: I'm sorry, Nic, I can't discuss it.
- NIC: But I'd be working in Pacifica Station.
- ELLIS: Yes.
- NIC: What about the walking around, and the blood and urine tests?
- ELLIS: Still part of it. But you'll have more... access. Which is, I believe, something you felt you were lacking.
- NIC: You've been listening to the podcast?
- ELLIS: I try to keep up. It's great during my commute.
- NIC: I'll have to be able to continue recording, even inside the area you refer to as, "The Breach."
- ELLIS: I'd advise against it, but if you insist.
- NIC: And even within the walled section.
- ELLIS: ...Yes.
NIC: I was wary. The last time I'd worked in The Breach for Cameron Ellis, during what they referred to as their "Phase One Program," I'd begun losing time, acting... strangely. I told him that I'd have to be able to quit, to leave at the first sign of anything I felt was... damaging in that way. He told me that that would be fine.
It was a compelling offer. Not the apartment, or the car, or the money, it was, just like last time, the opportunity to get closer to Cameron Ellis and TeslaNova that was appealing. For better or worse, I still believe that Ellis was my best shot. There's nobody else with his level of access who appears to be willing to share information. Whether or not that information is accurate, well, I suppose that's up to me to figure out. Me, and a good friend.
- MK: I don't think you should take it.
- NIC: No?
- MK: No, you can't trust these fuckers.
- NIC: But I'd have my own assistant.
- MK: Oh, so you're the funny one now.
- NIC: Turning off the tap of information after all that's happened... I dunno, I just feel like... I feel like I need to know something.
- MK: Nic, if you go to work there, you need to make the rules.
- NIC: I told Ellis the same thing.
- MK: Remember, you got all... weird? Good side effects and bad?
- NIC: Yeah, I remember.
- MK: You've already decided.
- NIC: Kinda.
- MK: [sighing] You can't trust these fuckers.
- NIC: You already said that.
- MK: It bears repeating.
- NIC: Thanks.
- MK: TeslaNova again... Shit.
- NIC: Yeah
NIC: So, I was most likely going to go back to work in The Breach. But this time, I was going in with my eyes wide open. I told Ellis that I was unwilling to give up recording. Partly as a way of documenting my exploration for the show, but also as a way of recording myself, gauging the effects of the area on my mental, physical, and emotional states, doing my best to protect myself from... overexposure.
Before I re-enter those woods, there's something that I'd like to address. It's something that happened a week or so after we aired the last episode of season two. Five people experienced and unidentified illness, believed to be spread by touch. According to Oregon Live, a 54-year-old caregiver in North Bend discovered a bunch of people trying to tear the roof off her vehicle and called the police. The police attended the scene, but they found nothing. When the caregiver called back with the same report, they took her to the hospital, suspecting hallucinations. Just after leaving the hospital, one of the deputies who had been called to the scene began experiencing similar symptoms and returned to the hospital. Soon after, the same thing happened to the other deputy, followed by the caregiver's 78-year-old patient. A hazmat team was deployed to both incident sites but they were unable to find a common contaminant, and blood tests didn't reveal anything unusual. Police spokesperson Patrick Downing suggested that initial reports pointed to fentanyl patches, but that explanation was quickly ruled out. There were no possible contaminants found anywhere.
So, why am I sharing this strange and interesting story? Well, aside from the fact that it happened up here in the Pacific Northwest in Little Rock, a small town near the Capital State Forest, pretty close to Olympia, Washington, there's another factor: Frances Manners. Who is Frances Manners? I'll let MK explain.
- MK: Frances Manners is a con artist; by all accounts, a terrible human being.
- NIC: Why is that?
- MK: She runs a scam, a pyramid scheme in the wellness industry.
- NIC: What kind of scam?
- MK: She's kind of a... guru? Although cult leader is more accurate, I think?
- NIC: What's she selling?
- MK: So hers is a personal success coaching pyramid system, crossed with an energy-type healing program. Like all pyramid schemes, it's not really about sales or results, it's about getting people to pay to become healers themselves, and then to move up levels, and each level gets to wear a different colored ribbon.
- NIC: Really?
- MK: Yeah, it's nuts. These people get hooked into her bullshit and then spend their life's savings.
- NIC: And they tell four friends, and so on... and so on -
- MK: Yeah, exactly. So pyramid scheme with a capital scheme, and each level pays the level above for courses and seminars, most of which take credit cards and are conveniently available online.
- NIC: These things are terrible.
- MK: Yeah.
- NIC: I agree that that this kind of thing is an epidemic, but what does that have to do with what happened in northern Oregon?
- MK: Patient Zero wasn't Patient Zero.
- NIC: What do you mean?
- MK: The caregiver at the center of that weirdness wasn't the first person to exhibit those symptoms.
- NIC: Frances Manners?
- MK: Bingo.
- NIC: What happened?
- MK: The caregiver - We still can't say her name, right?
- NIC: Right.
- MK: Okay, so the caregiver was in contact with Frances Manners just before the hallucination situation.
- NIC: Okay but wouldn't the police have checked all of this out?
- MK: Yeah they would have but Frances Manners is legally not allowed within twenty feet of the caregiver.
- NIC: Why is that?
- MK: Restraining order.
- NIC: Why the restraining order?
- MK: The caregiver's family was tired of having their relative give away money to Manners, so they had the court step in. It's not the first time, either: Manners has been sued in four states over the past six years.
- NIC: She sounds wonderful.
- MK: Yeah, she's a piece of work.
- NIC: So, nobody knew Manners had contact with the caregiver first.
- MK: No, she was back in DuPont by the time she began exhibiting symptoms.
- NIC: Wait, she's from DuPont?
- MK: Yep.
- NIC: The original site of Fort Nisqually.
- MK: Tanis central. And there's more.
- NIC: I think I know what you're going to say.
- MK: Do you think I'm gonna say that she was fucking around out in the woods right before she went down to meet the caregiver in Oregon?
- NIC: Something like that, yeah.
- MK: Then you would be right.
- NIC: So how did you find out about Manners' connection to all of this?
- MK: Uh, internet.
- NIC: Of course. The darknet.
- MK: If I found it on the darknet, I wouldn't say "internet."
- NIC: Sorry.
- MK: It's okay, it's only been a year and a half. You're gonna get it eventually.
- NIC: [laughing] What did you find, exactly?
- MK: It was on a WebMD-kinda site, where you can pay for crowdsourced medical advice.
- NIC: I've heard of these sites, I think there was something on Reply All or This American Life about one of those.
- MK: Yeah. Well, she uploaded her symptoms and there was a forum discussion. I wouldn't have found it if it wasn't for the video.
- NIC: What video?
- MK: Well... technically it's a video but the picture is just black; it's basically just an audio recording.
- NIC: What's on the audio recording?
- MK: Just play it. It's in your inbox.
NIC: Of course it was in my inbox. It was kind of nice, getting back into the swing of things. Meerkatnip sending me material, teasing me about my lack of understanding her world. Things felt almost... normal. Or, whatever normal had become since I stumbled upon the myth of Tanis all those months ago.
Someone had taken a video of Frances Manners and posted it. She was incoherent, speaking in tongues. I spoke with some of our other producers here at PRA and we've decided not to play her breakdown for you. There is one section, however, that we are going to share. It's very brief, but you'll see why we felt it was relevant and important to share it.
- FRANCES: [garbled recording sounds, screaming] ...Eld Fen…
[Advertisements]
NIC: Eld Fen. The familiar name of the Cult of Tanis' central figure. MK looked into the veracity of that recording, and though it's impossible to say with one hundred percent certainty, the time stamp and digital signature appear to validate the recording. As far as MK and her resources can tell, that recording is authentic.
So, Frances Manners visited the woods outside of DuPont, Washington, the location of the original Fort Nisqually, and connected with a caregiver in Oregon. But why? I was able to track down a friend and former colleague of Frances Manners who might have the answer.
- MARY: Hello?
- NIC: Hi, Mary, it's Nic Silver.
- MARY: How are you?
- NIC: I'm good! Is this a good time?
- MARY: Works for me.
- NIC: Okay, great.
NIC: (voiceover) Mary Martindale is in her late thirties. She's been friends with Frances Manners for decades. They had a falling out when Manners started behaving like, what Mary referred to as, "a snake oil lady." Mary's sister went broke when Frances pulled her into a pyramid scheme. Mary said that, a few months ago, she let Frances back into her life.
- NIC: So can you explain what happened, what changed with Frances that made you reconsider spending time with her?
- MARY: Sure, well, she'd changed.
- NIC: What do you mean, she'd changed?
- MARY: She was no longer full of shit. Sorry, can I swear?
- NIC: Yeah, sure.
- MARY: She was back to her regular self. While she was selling all her self-help nonsense, she was false. She always spoke in cliches, like she was selling something. But after she found her... place, she became normal again.
- NIC: Her place?
- MARY: Yeah, her place in the woods.
- NIC: Could you tell me about her place in the woods? [pause] Mary?
- MARY: I could, but I don't know if I should.
- NIC: What do you mean?
- MARY: It's... a sacred place.
- NIC: You've been there?
- MARY: ...I followed her.
- NIC: You followed her?
- MARY: Yes.
- NIC: Okay, can you tell me about that?
- MARY: I've spent my life understanding that when we die, we rot in the ground, and there's nothing magical or paranormal about the earth. Don't get me wrong, I love this world. It's beautiful, and perfect in a natural way, but I was a believer in science, and science alone.
- NIC: ...was.
- MARY: I... saw something.
- NIC: What did you see?
- MARY: ...I should back up a little bit.
- NIC: Okay.
- MARY: So, I met Frances at the grocery store. She'd been pushing her "philosophy" on all of us for a long time. Most of her friends, myself included, remained connected on social media, but that was it. She was... You have to understand, she wouldn't talk about anything other than selling us her performance system. Personal executive success.
- NIC: Right.
- MARY: But that day at the grocery store? She was different.
- NIC: What do you mean, different?
- MARY: I mean, she was her old self again, but better. No bullshit. She didn't try to sell me anything. And when she asked how I was, I could tell that she really wanted to know. She looked thinner, younger, her eyes were clear, she was charismatic. I asked her what her secret was, and she didn't tell me about her system or anything like that.
- NIC: No? What did -
- MARY: No.
- NIC: What did she tell you?
- MARY: She told me that... she'd found a place. [pause] I asked her what kind of place but she was in a hurry and left. I called her a few times after that but she never returned my calls. So, one day while I was walking my dog in the park, I saw Frances parking nearby, so... I followed her.
- NIC: Followed her where?
- MARY: Into the woods.
- NIC: And where did she go, in the woods?
- MARY: She went to… a place.
- NIC: Could you describe her place?
- MARY: It was… a clearing. There were some things hanging from the trees: a bunch of old Christmas decorations, some old records. It’s the kind of place that looks trashy; if you saw it in a magazine or something you’d think it was a place for drug addicts or the homeless, but…
- NIC: But…?
- MARY: But it wasn’t. It was… special.
- NIC: What do you mean, special?
- MARY: I mean, it just felt different. You probably wouldn’t understand.
- NIC: I think you might be surprised.
- MARY: Okay, well, it was… kind of scary in there. I wasn’t really cold, but my body was shivering, as if I was being electrocuted slowly at a low voltage or something. There were low chimes coming from the things hanging from the trees. I felt… anxious, worried about those sounds.
- NIC: And what was Frances doing?
- MARY: Well, that’s when it gets weird.
- NIC: What do you mean?
- MARY: Well, she was talking… to herself.
- NIC: Talking to herself - that doesn’t sound all that unusual.
- MARY: No, you don’t understand.
- NIC: Okay?
- MARY: She was talking to herself. Literally. Like, there was another Frances sitting on the log directly across from her.
- NIC: Did you… talk to her? Or them?
- MARY: No. But I think she - they - knew I was there.
- NIC: She saw you.
- MARY: No. I mean, I don’t think so, not exactly. It was just a feeling. I was going to talk to her, or them, but the sounds from the things in the trees, it started to hurt, and then I heard something.
- NIC: What did you hear?
- MARY: Something… was coming.
- NIC: Something like what?
- MARY: Something bad. I could hear it moving through the trees. Frances - both of her - stood up and turned to face an opening in the trees. I couldn’t handle it! I ran, and ran, and ran.
- NIC: Did you bring up what happened? Later, with Frances?
- MARY: No.
- NIC: Why not?
- MARY: Well, I was going to. I went right over to her place to confront her, to ask about what I’d seen, but…
- NIC: But what?
- MARY: She’d changed back.
- NIC: What do you mean?
- MARY: She was back to her old self, trying once again to hard-sell her self-improvement system. She was on her way to Oregon.
- NIC: And you didn’t bring up the woods or the fact that you’d seen two of her.
- MARY: Well, when I thought about it, it just sounded silly. I must have been mistaken. Maybe the weird sounds from the trees, and… I don’t know.
- NIC: You didn’t trust your eyes, what you’d seen.
- MARY: Yes. Back in “the real world,” it didn’t seem possible that I’d seen two of her. I’m still not positive.
- NIC: And that’s when Frances went to Oregon.
- MARY: Yes, and when she came back from Oregon, Frances was different.
- NIC: Back to the charismatic and confident Frances?
- MARY: No. She wasn’t like anything I’d seen before. She was screaming, hallucinating, violent, crazy! She spent the night at the police station.
- NIC: Could you show me the place in the woods? The place where you saw Frances?
- MARY: ...No.
- NIC: No?
- MARY: No. I’m not going back there.
- NIC: Okay. Could you maybe draw me a map?
- MARY: I’m sorry, but there’s no way I could ever find it. It was a long way into the woods, and all of those paths look the same.
- NIC: I understand.
- MARY: Good luck.
NIC: Since that conversation with Mary, we’ve been trying to get in touch with Frances Manners. She reportedly quit selling her executive success system and moved to California to live with her brother. We’ve been unable to track him down, but we’re going to keep looking.
I was in my office, digging, or, re-digging through all the John Correman/August Wick stuff, looking for clues or connections I may have missed, when I received an email. The message was from somebody calling themselves, “Eld Fennel.” Someone had a sense of humor. They also had something else. A video. It was attached to the message from Eld Fennel. The subject line was two words: “Still here.” There was nothing in the body of the message.
I double-clicked the video and it started to play. It was grainy, and a bit dark, but you could make out a figure walking through the woods from behind. The figure walks toward what appears to be a cliff, and then slowly turns to face the camera. The figure doesn’t move for the duration of the video. Three hours. The figure in the video was a man. The man staring into the camera in the middle of the woods was Geoff van Sant.
It’s Tanis. I’m Nic Silver. We’ll be back again in two weeks. Until then, keep looking.
SITE NOTE: Thank you to the wonderful Melissa for providing this Transcript!