October 13, 2025 • 25 mins
In 1994, police entered a house that had been silent for years. What they found in a child's bedroom defied explanation. A grief-stricken mother. Evidence of something impossible. And a question no one can answer: was she alone in that house? The Olivia Mabel case will make you question the power of human thought... and what happens when love refuses to let go.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:31):
When grief becomes so overwhelmingthat your mind refuses to let go.
Something terrible can happen.
You might create something.
Something that looks like your child.
Sounds like your child,but is definitely not your child.
Once it's alive, you can't control it.
I'm Carol Ann.
Welcome to The InBetween.
(01:00):
I have to issue
a warning at the very top of this one.
This episode startsout on a very sad note,
and then just gets even darker after that.
However,
it is also exactly the kind of storyI had in mind when I started this channel.
Creepy as all get out.
So put on your big boyand big girl pants and hold on tight.
(01:21):
Because this journeytakes us on a roller coaster ride
through the crazydepths of the human mind.
We start in the early 80s,somewhere around Dallas.
Travis and OliviaMable are like the perfect couple.
They get married,had their son Aiden in 1983,
and within a couple of yearsdecide to leave behind the bird life
(01:42):
in favor of a place called FootlightsRanch, a 13 acre spread in Celina, Texas,
population a whopping 3000 or so peopleabout an hour north of Dallas.
Footlights ranch is a beautiful pieceof land that sits in quiet
contrast to the city, with widefields, little pond, and lots of woods.
(02:04):
In short, a little boy's dream.
That place felt like their own world,ideal for raising Aiden
and maybe adding more kids down the line.
But for now, Aiden is their pride and joy,
especially for Olivia, who dotes on himconstantly.
Travis works hard to keep things goingwhile Olivia handles the home front
(02:26):
and is very active in the community,and their church
life is about as good as it gets.
Fast forward to March 13th, 1990.
It's a normal afternoon
when seven year old Aiden asks Oliviaif you can play outside.
She says yes like usual.
Telling him to stay closeand be back for supper.
He takes off for the hoop.
(02:47):
Excited for another adventureand walks past, which is not a huge deal.
Aiden would spend hoursexploring those woods,
but by 5:30 p.m., dinner's getting cold.
Aiden still not home yetAs the evening light is fading,
Travis and Olivia grab flashlightsand head out to look for him,
calling his name as they scourthe property until they reach the pond.
(03:10):
Olivia's worldcomes crashing down around her
as she sees her little boyface down in the pond.
No foul play, just a tragic accidentconfirmed by responders
and noted on his deathcertificate as death by misadventure.
The community showersthe neighbors with support.
(03:31):
But for the marbles.
It's like the world is just stopped.
That pond, once a fun spot,now haunts them.
They bury their son.
But guilt and grief hit hard For Olivia.
It was like a dark cloud taking over.
She goes from cheerful and socialto a shell of herself,
(03:52):
skipping church, dodgingfriends, and shutting out family work.
Not a chance.
She barely left the house.
Travis tried to hold on,but the wait was too much.
By early 1991, they divorced
and he moved east for a fresh start.
Olivia stayed behind at the ranch, aloneon those 13 acres.
(04:15):
Neighbor caught a glimpse of her aroundSeptember of 1991,
looking worn out,but after that she vanished from sight.
Calls go unanswered.
Letters ignored. Doors stay locked.
Groceries come the delivery.
But the place looks abandoned.
Windows whitewashed, doors swollen shut.
(04:38):
Jump to February 27th, 1994.
Out of the blue, Selena Police get three
silent 911 calls just dead air.
Then hang ups tracing the calls to FootLight's ranch.
They send a patrol car.
The place is sealed tight.
Doors jammed, windows blocked.
(04:58):
Officersbust in and step straight into the past.
There's dust covering everything.
Cobwebs hang like a horror movie set,
and rooms look ransackedbut untouched for years.
They go through the whole house.
Room by room. Same story.
Until they get towhat used to be Aiden's bedroom.
(05:21):
This room is spotless.
No dust clothes, neatly folded,
toys lined up like he'll be backany minute to play with them again.
In the middle of the room,on a rocking chair, sits Olivia's
decomposing bodyin a nightgown and slippers.
Kind of looking like she's been gonea few months already.
(05:41):
In her hands is a weird stickfigure doll wrapped
in a piece of fabric that turns out to befrom one of Aiden's shirts.
In front of her is a makeshift altar,
a big trunk covered with a kid's bedsheetloaded with Aiden's photos.
His baseball glove. His shoes. Candles.
(06:02):
An urn of ashes and fresh flowers.
Across the front are yellow piecesof paper with characters written on them.
Characters that turn out to be Sanskrit.
Translating to mean.
To construct or to build.
Letters to Aiden.
Drawings of his little cherub face andrandom notes are scattered over the top.
(06:25):
One stands out.
My Aiden. I'm sorry.
I'm so sorry.
I should have never let it get like this.
I'm leaving.
I will not let you keep me.
You vile, evil creature.
Mommy's coming for you, Aiden.
My sweet Aiden. Mommy loves you.
(06:45):
Dated that very day.
February 27th, 1994.
Officer Francesca Santiagois the first officer on the scene.
She happens to have
a bit of a family historyand things of a less than normal nature.
So she keys in right away on the heavy,
angry feeling that the house exudes.
(07:07):
There are no signs of a break inexcept the door
that they broke down to get in.
Everything is locked inside and covered
with a perfect thick layer of dust.
Including the phone.
So who called 911?
Not that many peoplehad cell phones in 1994.
And how is the note dated that very day?
(07:30):
And how are therefresh flowers on the altar?
Who else was in that house?
Well,
maybe the question isn't who, but what.
Maybe doing nothingbut dwelling in the grief of her dead son
for literally years created a tulpa.
(07:50):
And better yet, judging by the Sanskritcharacters printed on the altar.
To construct or to build.
It looks like that's exactlywhat her intention was.
Toppers come from old Tibetan Buddhisttraditions that are centuries old.
They're basically entities you createwith your imaginations full force.
You focus hard on something likea mythical beast, or for Olivia, her son.
(08:16):
And it starts to feel real.
Not flesh and blood,but alive in its own way,
thriving on the belief of its creator.
It's like a supercharged versionof your imaginary friend
you had when you were little. Skeptical?
Fair enough.
Scientists and psychologists might call ita hallucination or even a mental break.
But the idea of Thomas is not new.
(08:38):
And lots of people have tried it.
Take Richard Freeman, a crypto zoologistand zookeeper in England.
In the 90s, inspired by Clark Ashton
Smith's spider god Atlach-Nacha.
He decided to make it a tulpa.
He wrote friends and roommatesin and built an altar in the basement,
and they hung a webpainted cloth on the wall for weeks.
(09:03):
They chanted and visualized.
A month later,Freeman goes downstairs alone and freezes.
A huge spider shadowis crawling along the wall.
Legs and body clear.
Not solid yet, but close.
Richard sneaks back upstairsbefore the shadow
finds outhe's there and slams the door behind him.
(09:24):
He tells everybody about the tulpa shadow.
Everybody panics and they run downstairsand tear it all down.
And and do their very bestto stop thinking about it.
And that must work,because they never saw it again.
Imagine the landlord's face.
If they'd kept it.
Then there's Alan Moore, the manbehind the legendary comics Watchmen
(09:45):
and V for vendetta.
In the 80s, he co-createdJohn Constantine, the chain smoking occult
trickster, spending so much time fixatedon the creation of fictional beings.
Alan might have accidentallymade a top bar
soon after launching the characterhe's eating at an outdoor
cafe in Londonwhen John Constantine walks by.
(10:09):
The exact versionthat Alan has in his head.
Constantine gives Alan a knowing nod,then vanishes around the corner,
and Stu freaked outto get up and follow it,
but he never sees it again.
John Keel tells a story in his bookThe Mothman Prophecies,
about a house in Greenwich Villagethat had been a happy place.
(10:31):
But when it was sold in the 70s,the new owners kept catching glimpses
of a dark figurewearing a big black hat and a cape.
Interesting.
Even moreso when you learn that the former owner
was one Walter Gibson,the famous magician.
Walter was the creator of The Shadow,a big black hat and cape
(10:53):
wearing mystical vigilantethat was the subject of countless
pulp magazine novellas, radio programsand even movies in the 1930s.
Gibson cranked out monthlyshadow novellas,
282 of them, 60
to 80 pages each in that house.
(11:14):
I think it's fair to saythat he was always thinking of the shadow.
Once Walter left,his creation evidently stayed behind.
That brings us to the mostwell known tulpa of all time.
Slender man.
Slender man didn't start out as a topper.
He started as just a creepy imagecreated by Eric Knudsen in June of 2009
(11:38):
for a Photoshop contest on a forumfor the something off a website.
But then it exploded.
Who knows why, but in a veritable instant,that picture was world wide.
Everyone was thinking about that figure,
which is exactly how tall boys are born.
And for a lot of people,Slenderman became very real.
(12:01):
So much so that in 2014, two
middle school girls stabbed their friendbecause they believed
Slenderman demanded a sacrifice for themto get into his mansion.
Thankfully, their friend survived.
But tulpamancy, the practiceof intentionally creating a sentient,
(12:22):
independent tulpa or thought formas they're also known, is alive and well.
Everyone just wants to createtheir perfect companion.
But be careful what you wish for.
Even with the best intentions,your tulpa can go rogue.
Just ask Alexandra David Neel.
Who? I've never heard of her either.
(12:43):
But as soon as you look at her history,you find out that she's one of those
women, like Rose from the Titanicafter she was rescued.
That makes the rest of us women think.
Why isn't my life like that?
Born in France in 1868, Alexandra
joined Madame BlavatskyTheosophical Society
when she was only 18and converted to Buddhism at 21.
(13:05):
She was an anarchist,an opera singer, and wrote 30 books.
She clocked in 18,000 miles
of hiking all through the Far East,and she was one of the first Western women
to enter Lhasa, Tibet's forbidden capital.
In 1924.
In her book Magic and Mystery in Tibet,she talks about how while she was studying
(13:30):
at the Khumbu monasteryfrom around 1918 to 1921,
she created her own tulpa,
jolly, portly friar,kind of like Friar Tuck.
Over months of visualization,the good Friar gained autonomy,
becoming visible to her companionsand supposedly interacting
(13:50):
independently of her,taking on a life of his own.
But over time he changed from the cheerfulcharacter Alexander
created to something more malevolentand threatening.
It took her six months to dissolve him.
Which brings us back to Olivia.
She had the alter, the doll, Sanskritwritings meaning to build or construct.
(14:15):
Sure sounds like she was trying tobring him back in some way, shape or form.
In her deep isolation,she might have tried
some version of tulpamancy,pouring her grief into remaking Aiden.
Buddhist teachingssay focused will can birth spirits.
Her letters suggest it worked.
(14:36):
Then things went south.
Maybe the negative energyof her heartbreak
created a negative energy entitythat broke loose and turned against her.
Maybe it killed her and made those calls
to bring people to the house,because it was running out of energy.
But whatever happened in that househappened to Olivia months prior.
(14:57):
Who made the 911 callswithout touching the phone?
Who wrote the note dated the same day,and who put fresh flowers on the altar?
But whatever was in that house with Oliviadidn't go away.
Ownership of the house eventually changed
hands to a man named Christopher Hagen.
(15:18):
Despite he himself hearing odd noises,feeling
cold spots, and having things move aroundthe house on him, he cleaned it out,
fixed it up, and then triedselling it for years with no takers.
Potential buyers would walk in the houseand feel a heavy oppression
and know their way right out again.
(15:38):
In 2005, Mr.
Hagen contacts a guy named Drew Navarro,
a paranormal investigatorwith lots of experience.
Navarro goes through the houseand feels what
he describes as an imposing force.
He finds it hard to breathe,and he can feel the energy in the house
shifting around like a kidthrowing a temper tantrum.
(16:01):
Very unpredictable and with a feelingof possessiveness like this is my house.
Navarro's final advice.
I don't know what this thing is,but I would avoid this place.
It needs some serious help.
Maybe the would be Aidenculpa is still there.
(16:21):
Even thoughwhat Olivia created is not really Aiden.
If top moment works like they say itdoes, then Olivia's fixation on her son
would probably infuse the topperwith every emotion,
expression, quirk like dislike and memorythat she could think of.
Maybe that entitywho may even believe it is Aiden
(16:44):
just trying to guardthe only home he's ever known.
A place that made him so happywith the tenacity
and fierceness of an angry seven yearold boy.
Now, as awesome as this story is,
it is not without its red fake flags.
(17:04):
And as much as I hate to admit it,there are quite a few.
while we have a death certificateand a police report for Aiden's death,
we do not have a police report, autopsyreport, or death certificate for Olivia.
And while absence of proofis not proof of absence,
circumstantially speaking,that's not a good start.
Also, there's nolocal media coverage of the event.
(17:27):
Selena Texaswas only about 3000 people at the time,
so you would think that somethinglike this
happening in their little communitywould have made the news somewhere.
Next.
There are some suspicious ties to anLA production company named ElfTree Media.
Apparently, members of the companyheard the story
and wrote a script aroundit called Thought Form.
(17:48):
In 2016,they started a Kickstarter campaign
to fund the production of the movie.
Sadly, they did not raise the funds neededand the movie was never produced.
But skeptics point outthat nothing was ever
heard about this case until just beforethat Kickstarter campaign was launched.
Meaning this whole thing could very wellbe a clever
(18:09):
marketing campaignto get their movie funded.
There is a website, OliviaMable.com,
that is currently the place to go to seeeverything related to the case,
and there is actually a voicemail from Joe
Morales at Elftree Mediaasking for more information.
Hi. My name is Joe.
(18:30):
I am on a show called Hi Dere.
And, I live out in Los Angeles,wrote a story with some friends
based on your website.
Anyway, if you have any more information,
could you, shoot usan email at us at entertheelftree.com.
That would be freaking rad.
Thanks again for doing well.
Could be real, or it could bea nice touch of realism to the story.
(18:54):
The identity of the owners of the websiteis private, which is really common,
and the phone number to callif you have any information that is posted
on the site is not to any lawenforcement agency,
but just a generic, untraceableGoogle number.
Also on the site are a couple more soundclips.
There's this one. What?
(19:15):
She was out of her mind.
That's all you need to know. Okay.
The boy is dead.
Simple as that.
Just stop.
Stop digging.
have no idea what the context is here.
Obviously, it sounds like someone closeto the investigation
who just wants this all think to be over,
but it's just so randomand in my opinion, sounds fake.
(19:39):
But then there's this audio.
J. Simpson's initial reaction.
Miss Maybelle
son, Aiden Maybelle, died on the propertyin 1990 from a drowning incident.
The documents and writings found atthe scene
were written in an unidentified languageand are currently being analyzed.
Let's go.
Miss Mabel was, discovereddeceased inside one of the rooms.
(20:00):
The body was foundupright in a rocking chair,
clutching a figure made of sticksand leaves.
Judging from initial reports.
Miss Mabel had been deada matter of months.
That is honestlyall we know at this point.
If you have any information,please do not hesitate to contact me.
This is interesting to me.
(20:20):
In my humble opinion, the one characterthat all actors fail to play
well is reporters and press conferencespeakers without fail.
They overact the part and soundsuper fake,
but this one actually sounds real to me.
However, and this is a big one.
That press conference clipis attributed to Sergeant Terry Goldscher,
(20:43):
supposedlythe lead investigator on the case,
but there are no records of this guyexisting outside of this story.
The same goes for OfficerFrancesca Santiago,
the first person on the sceneat the house, and for Drew Navarro,
the paranormal investigatorwho labeled the house as a problem.
None of them seem to exist.
(21:05):
Now, that being said,I don't think it's outside
the realm of possibilitythat none of these people and the missing
records don't show up anywherebecause, hey, it's a small town and b
they don't want the hasslethat would be associated with publishing
the information.
As far as the production company ties go.
(21:25):
Maybe they just found a really good
real creepy storyand wanted to make a movie around it.
That is possible,but even if we do discount
this entire event as fiction,that doesn't mean tulpas aren't real.
We talked earlier about the experienceof Alexandra David Neel.
(21:48):
Apparently she has witnessesto the existence of her Friar Tuck Tulpa.
And if that's not enough,maybe this will change your mind.
In 1972, a group calledthe Toronto Society for Psychical Research
conducted an interestingand well documented experiment.
They, in essence, createda fictional person named Philip
(22:10):
Aylesford,a knight from the 17th century England.
They spent a lot of timecreating an entire lifelong backstory
for this guy, and even had an artistrendering created of his face.
The guy was as real to them as could be.
The experimentpart was to see if they could now conjure
(22:32):
this fictional character into existence,and they did.
It took the better part
of a year of seance like gatherings,but they eventually manifested
something that could move the tablethey were using, knock on demand, Louder.
That's and even appear
as a misty, moving blob above their heads.
(22:54):
Their results were reportedly duplicatedby many such groups
to varying degrees of successall around the world.
Keep in mind that the group was nota bunch of loonies predisposed to see
ghosts around every corner, and includedprofessionals from all walks of life.
Now, the Toronto group was tryingto figure out whether or not ghosts
(23:15):
were real, or a manifestationof the minds of those involved.
Like a poltergeistis often attributed to a particular,
usually adolescent person somehowmanifesting strange events around them.
They were trying to conjure a ghost.
Not a tulpa.
But what's the differenceIn this experiment,
the process is exactly the same.
(23:37):
Create a character.
Focus on the character,and the character will eventually gain
enough energy to come to life,so to speak.
So if this story is real,
I am certainly not going to throw shade
on Olivia for doing whatevershe could think of to get her son back.
I have one child.
(23:57):
And if anything were to happen to him,I might just get on the phone to Stephen
King asking himto tell me where the pet cemetery is.
Anything to bring him back.
But as this cautionary tale reel
or fiction teaches usthat the power of our minds
is greater than we know,our thoughts can become real.
(24:20):
Either internally or even externally.
So never has a truer statement been spokenthan.
Be careful what you wish for,because you just might get it.
As the mother of
a single son,this one really hit home for me.
(24:41):
I can't, and don't want to,imagine the level of grief.
Maybe it's better to just leavethis one in the fiction category.
Just so that I put no more of my ownthought energy in that direction.
But if you are not yet donewith your journey through the dusty,
(25:01):
untrammeled cornersof this weird existence, click right here.
Maybe bring an extra pair of underwearjust in case.
Be careful out there.
And I will see youhere again, on The InBetween.
When grief becomes so overwhelmingthat your mind refuses to let go.
Something terrible can happen.
You might create something.
Something that looks like your child.
Sounds like your child,but is definitely not your child.
Once it's alive, you can't control it.
I'm Carol Ann.
Welcome to The InBetween.
(01:00):
I have to issue
a warning at the very top of this one.
This episode startsout on a very sad note,
and then just gets even darker after that.
However,
it is also exactly the kind of storyI had in mind when I started this channel.
Creepy as all get out.
So put on your big boyand big girl pants and hold on tight.
(01:21):
Because this journeytakes us on a roller coaster ride
through the crazydepths of the human mind.
We start in the early 80s,somewhere around Dallas.
Travis and OliviaMable are like the perfect couple.
They get married,had their son Aiden in 1983,
and within a couple of yearsdecide to leave behind the bird life
(01:42):
in favor of a place called FootlightsRanch, a 13 acre spread in Celina, Texas,
population a whopping 3000 or so peopleabout an hour north of Dallas.
Footlights ranch is a beautiful pieceof land that sits in quiet
contrast to the city, with widefields, little pond, and lots of woods.
(02:04):
In short, a little boy's dream.
That place felt like their own world,ideal for raising Aiden
and maybe adding more kids down the line.
But for now, Aiden is their pride and joy,
especially for Olivia, who dotes on himconstantly.
Travis works hard to keep things goingwhile Olivia handles the home front
(02:26):
and is very active in the community,and their church
life is about as good as it gets.
Fast forward to March 13th, 1990.
It's a normal afternoon
when seven year old Aiden asks Oliviaif you can play outside.
She says yes like usual.
Telling him to stay closeand be back for supper.
He takes off for the hoop.
(02:47):
Excited for another adventureand walks past, which is not a huge deal.
Aiden would spend hoursexploring those woods,
but by 5:30 p.m., dinner's getting cold.
Aiden still not home yetAs the evening light is fading,
Travis and Olivia grab flashlightsand head out to look for him,
calling his name as they scourthe property until they reach the pond.
(03:10):
Olivia's worldcomes crashing down around her
as she sees her little boyface down in the pond.
No foul play, just a tragic accidentconfirmed by responders
and noted on his deathcertificate as death by misadventure.
The community showersthe neighbors with support.
(03:31):
But for the marbles.
It's like the world is just stopped.
That pond, once a fun spot,now haunts them.
They bury their son.
But guilt and grief hit hard For Olivia.
It was like a dark cloud taking over.
She goes from cheerful and socialto a shell of herself,
(03:52):
skipping church, dodgingfriends, and shutting out family work.
Not a chance.
She barely left the house.
Travis tried to hold on,but the wait was too much.
By early 1991, they divorced
and he moved east for a fresh start.
Olivia stayed behind at the ranch, aloneon those 13 acres.
(04:15):
Neighbor caught a glimpse of her aroundSeptember of 1991,
looking worn out,but after that she vanished from sight.
Calls go unanswered.
Letters ignored. Doors stay locked.
Groceries come the delivery.
But the place looks abandoned.
Windows whitewashed, doors swollen shut.
(04:38):
Jump to February 27th, 1994.
Out of the blue, Selena Police get three
silent 911 calls just dead air.
Then hang ups tracing the calls to FootLight's ranch.
They send a patrol car.
The place is sealed tight.
Doors jammed, windows blocked.
(04:58):
Officersbust in and step straight into the past.
There's dust covering everything.
Cobwebs hang like a horror movie set,
and rooms look ransackedbut untouched for years.
They go through the whole house.
Room by room. Same story.
Until they get towhat used to be Aiden's bedroom.
(05:21):
This room is spotless.
No dust clothes, neatly folded,
toys lined up like he'll be backany minute to play with them again.
In the middle of the room,on a rocking chair, sits Olivia's
decomposing bodyin a nightgown and slippers.
Kind of looking like she's been gonea few months already.
(05:41):
In her hands is a weird stickfigure doll wrapped
in a piece of fabric that turns out to befrom one of Aiden's shirts.
In front of her is a makeshift altar,
a big trunk covered with a kid's bedsheetloaded with Aiden's photos.
His baseball glove. His shoes. Candles.
(06:02):
An urn of ashes and fresh flowers.
Across the front are yellow piecesof paper with characters written on them.
Characters that turn out to be Sanskrit.
Translating to mean.
To construct or to build.
Letters to Aiden.
Drawings of his little cherub face andrandom notes are scattered over the top.
(06:25):
One stands out.
My Aiden. I'm sorry.
I'm so sorry.
I should have never let it get like this.
I'm leaving.
I will not let you keep me.
You vile, evil creature.
Mommy's coming for you, Aiden.
My sweet Aiden. Mommy loves you.
(06:45):
Dated that very day.
February 27th, 1994.
Officer Francesca Santiagois the first officer on the scene.
She happens to have
a bit of a family historyand things of a less than normal nature.
So she keys in right away on the heavy,
angry feeling that the house exudes.
(07:07):
There are no signs of a break inexcept the door
that they broke down to get in.
Everything is locked inside and covered
with a perfect thick layer of dust.
Including the phone.
So who called 911?
Not that many peoplehad cell phones in 1994.
And how is the note dated that very day?
(07:30):
And how are therefresh flowers on the altar?
Who else was in that house?
Well,
maybe the question isn't who, but what.
Maybe doing nothingbut dwelling in the grief of her dead son
for literally years created a tulpa.
(07:50):
And better yet, judging by the Sanskritcharacters printed on the altar.
To construct or to build.
It looks like that's exactlywhat her intention was.
Toppers come from old Tibetan Buddhisttraditions that are centuries old.
They're basically entities you createwith your imaginations full force.
You focus hard on something likea mythical beast, or for Olivia, her son.
(08:16):
And it starts to feel real.
Not flesh and blood,but alive in its own way,
thriving on the belief of its creator.
It's like a supercharged versionof your imaginary friend
you had when you were little. Skeptical?
Fair enough.
Scientists and psychologists might call ita hallucination or even a mental break.
But the idea of Thomas is not new.
(08:38):
And lots of people have tried it.
Take Richard Freeman, a crypto zoologistand zookeeper in England.
In the 90s, inspired by Clark Ashton
Smith's spider god Atlach-Nacha.
He decided to make it a tulpa.
He wrote friends and roommatesin and built an altar in the basement,
and they hung a webpainted cloth on the wall for weeks.
(09:03):
They chanted and visualized.
A month later,Freeman goes downstairs alone and freezes.
A huge spider shadowis crawling along the wall.
Legs and body clear.
Not solid yet, but close.
Richard sneaks back upstairsbefore the shadow
finds outhe's there and slams the door behind him.
(09:24):
He tells everybody about the tulpa shadow.
Everybody panics and they run downstairsand tear it all down.
And and do their very bestto stop thinking about it.
And that must work,because they never saw it again.
Imagine the landlord's face.
If they'd kept it.
Then there's Alan Moore, the manbehind the legendary comics Watchmen
(09:45):
and V for vendetta.
In the 80s, he co-createdJohn Constantine, the chain smoking occult
trickster, spending so much time fixatedon the creation of fictional beings.
Alan might have accidentallymade a top bar
soon after launching the characterhe's eating at an outdoor
cafe in Londonwhen John Constantine walks by.
(10:09):
The exact versionthat Alan has in his head.
Constantine gives Alan a knowing nod,then vanishes around the corner,
and Stu freaked outto get up and follow it,
but he never sees it again.
John Keel tells a story in his bookThe Mothman Prophecies,
about a house in Greenwich Villagethat had been a happy place.
(10:31):
But when it was sold in the 70s,the new owners kept catching glimpses
of a dark figurewearing a big black hat and a cape.
Interesting.
Even moreso when you learn that the former owner
was one Walter Gibson,the famous magician.
Walter was the creator of The Shadow,a big black hat and cape
(10:53):
wearing mystical vigilantethat was the subject of countless
pulp magazine novellas, radio programsand even movies in the 1930s.
Gibson cranked out monthlyshadow novellas,
282 of them, 60
to 80 pages each in that house.
(11:14):
I think it's fair to saythat he was always thinking of the shadow.
Once Walter left,his creation evidently stayed behind.
That brings us to the mostwell known tulpa of all time.
Slender man.
Slender man didn't start out as a topper.
He started as just a creepy imagecreated by Eric Knudsen in June of 2009
(11:38):
for a Photoshop contest on a forumfor the something off a website.
But then it exploded.
Who knows why, but in a veritable instant,that picture was world wide.
Everyone was thinking about that figure,
which is exactly how tall boys are born.
And for a lot of people,Slenderman became very real.
(12:01):
So much so that in 2014, two
middle school girls stabbed their friendbecause they believed
Slenderman demanded a sacrifice for themto get into his mansion.
Thankfully, their friend survived.
But tulpamancy, the practiceof intentionally creating a sentient,
(12:22):
independent tulpa or thought formas they're also known, is alive and well.
Everyone just wants to createtheir perfect companion.
But be careful what you wish for.
Even with the best intentions,your tulpa can go rogue.
Just ask Alexandra David Neel.
Who? I've never heard of her either.
(12:43):
But as soon as you look at her history,you find out that she's one of those
women, like Rose from the Titanicafter she was rescued.
That makes the rest of us women think.
Why isn't my life like that?
Born in France in 1868, Alexandra
joined Madame BlavatskyTheosophical Society
when she was only 18and converted to Buddhism at 21.
(13:05):
She was an anarchist,an opera singer, and wrote 30 books.
She clocked in 18,000 miles
of hiking all through the Far East,and she was one of the first Western women
to enter Lhasa, Tibet's forbidden capital.
In 1924.
In her book Magic and Mystery in Tibet,she talks about how while she was studying
(13:30):
at the Khumbu monasteryfrom around 1918 to 1921,
she created her own tulpa,
jolly, portly friar,kind of like Friar Tuck.
Over months of visualization,the good Friar gained autonomy,
becoming visible to her companionsand supposedly interacting
(13:50):
independently of her,taking on a life of his own.
But over time he changed from the cheerfulcharacter Alexander
created to something more malevolentand threatening.
It took her six months to dissolve him.
Which brings us back to Olivia.
She had the alter, the doll, Sanskritwritings meaning to build or construct.
(14:15):
Sure sounds like she was trying tobring him back in some way, shape or form.
In her deep isolation,she might have tried
some version of tulpamancy,pouring her grief into remaking Aiden.
Buddhist teachingssay focused will can birth spirits.
Her letters suggest it worked.
(14:36):
Then things went south.
Maybe the negative energyof her heartbreak
created a negative energy entitythat broke loose and turned against her.
Maybe it killed her and made those calls
to bring people to the house,because it was running out of energy.
But whatever happened in that househappened to Olivia months prior.
(14:57):
Who made the 911 callswithout touching the phone?
Who wrote the note dated the same day,and who put fresh flowers on the altar?
But whatever was in that house with Oliviadidn't go away.
Ownership of the house eventually changed
hands to a man named Christopher Hagen.
(15:18):
Despite he himself hearing odd noises,feeling
cold spots, and having things move aroundthe house on him, he cleaned it out,
fixed it up, and then triedselling it for years with no takers.
Potential buyers would walk in the houseand feel a heavy oppression
and know their way right out again.
(15:38):
In 2005, Mr.
Hagen contacts a guy named Drew Navarro,
a paranormal investigatorwith lots of experience.
Navarro goes through the houseand feels what
he describes as an imposing force.
He finds it hard to breathe,and he can feel the energy in the house
shifting around like a kidthrowing a temper tantrum.
(16:01):
Very unpredictable and with a feelingof possessiveness like this is my house.
Navarro's final advice.
I don't know what this thing is,but I would avoid this place.
It needs some serious help.
Maybe the would be Aidenculpa is still there.
(16:21):
Even thoughwhat Olivia created is not really Aiden.
If top moment works like they say itdoes, then Olivia's fixation on her son
would probably infuse the topperwith every emotion,
expression, quirk like dislike and memorythat she could think of.
Maybe that entitywho may even believe it is Aiden
(16:44):
just trying to guardthe only home he's ever known.
A place that made him so happywith the tenacity
and fierceness of an angry seven yearold boy.
Now, as awesome as this story is,
it is not without its red fake flags.
(17:04):
And as much as I hate to admit it,there are quite a few.
while we have a death certificateand a police report for Aiden's death,
we do not have a police report, autopsyreport, or death certificate for Olivia.
And while absence of proofis not proof of absence,
circumstantially speaking,that's not a good start.
Also, there's nolocal media coverage of the event.
(17:27):
Selena Texaswas only about 3000 people at the time,
so you would think that somethinglike this
happening in their little communitywould have made the news somewhere.
Next.
There are some suspicious ties to anLA production company named ElfTree Media.
Apparently, members of the companyheard the story
and wrote a script aroundit called Thought Form.
(17:48):
In 2016,they started a Kickstarter campaign
to fund the production of the movie.
Sadly, they did not raise the funds neededand the movie was never produced.
But skeptics point outthat nothing was ever
heard about this case until just beforethat Kickstarter campaign was launched.
Meaning this whole thing could very wellbe a clever
(18:09):
marketing campaignto get their movie funded.
There is a website, OliviaMable.com,
that is currently the place to go to seeeverything related to the case,
and there is actually a voicemail from Joe
Morales at Elftree Mediaasking for more information.
Hi. My name is Joe.
(18:30):
I am on a show called Hi Dere.
And, I live out in Los Angeles,wrote a story with some friends
based on your website.
Anyway, if you have any more information,
could you, shoot usan email at us at entertheelftree.com.
That would be freaking rad.
Thanks again for doing well.
Could be real, or it could bea nice touch of realism to the story.
(18:54):
The identity of the owners of the websiteis private, which is really common,
and the phone number to callif you have any information that is posted
on the site is not to any lawenforcement agency,
but just a generic, untraceableGoogle number.
Also on the site are a couple more soundclips.
There's this one. What?
(19:15):
She was out of her mind.
That's all you need to know. Okay.
The boy is dead.
Simple as that.
Just stop.
Stop digging.
have no idea what the context is here.
Obviously, it sounds like someone closeto the investigation
who just wants this all think to be over,
but it's just so randomand in my opinion, sounds fake.
(19:39):
But then there's this audio.
J. Simpson's initial reaction.
Miss Maybelle
son, Aiden Maybelle, died on the propertyin 1990 from a drowning incident.
The documents and writings found atthe scene
were written in an unidentified languageand are currently being analyzed.
Let's go.
Miss Mabel was, discovereddeceased inside one of the rooms.
(20:00):
The body was foundupright in a rocking chair,
clutching a figure made of sticksand leaves.
Judging from initial reports.
Miss Mabel had been deada matter of months.
That is honestlyall we know at this point.
If you have any information,please do not hesitate to contact me.
This is interesting to me.
(20:20):
In my humble opinion, the one characterthat all actors fail to play
well is reporters and press conferencespeakers without fail.
They overact the part and soundsuper fake,
but this one actually sounds real to me.
However, and this is a big one.
That press conference clipis attributed to Sergeant Terry Goldscher,
(20:43):
supposedlythe lead investigator on the case,
but there are no records of this guyexisting outside of this story.
The same goes for OfficerFrancesca Santiago,
the first person on the sceneat the house, and for Drew Navarro,
the paranormal investigatorwho labeled the house as a problem.
None of them seem to exist.
(21:05):
Now, that being said,I don't think it's outside
the realm of possibilitythat none of these people and the missing
records don't show up anywherebecause, hey, it's a small town and b
they don't want the hasslethat would be associated with publishing
the information.
As far as the production company ties go.
(21:25):
Maybe they just found a really good
real creepy storyand wanted to make a movie around it.
That is possible,but even if we do discount
this entire event as fiction,that doesn't mean tulpas aren't real.
We talked earlier about the experienceof Alexandra David Neel.
(21:48):
Apparently she has witnessesto the existence of her Friar Tuck Tulpa.
And if that's not enough,maybe this will change your mind.
In 1972, a group calledthe Toronto Society for Psychical Research
conducted an interestingand well documented experiment.
They, in essence, createda fictional person named Philip
(22:10):
Aylesford,a knight from the 17th century England.
They spent a lot of timecreating an entire lifelong backstory
for this guy, and even had an artistrendering created of his face.
The guy was as real to them as could be.
The experimentpart was to see if they could now conjure
(22:32):
this fictional character into existence,and they did.
It took the better part
of a year of seance like gatherings,but they eventually manifested
something that could move the tablethey were using, knock on demand, Louder.
That's and even appear
as a misty, moving blob above their heads.
(22:54):
Their results were reportedly duplicatedby many such groups
to varying degrees of successall around the world.
Keep in mind that the group was nota bunch of loonies predisposed to see
ghosts around every corner, and includedprofessionals from all walks of life.
Now, the Toronto group was tryingto figure out whether or not ghosts
(23:15):
were real, or a manifestationof the minds of those involved.
Like a poltergeistis often attributed to a particular,
usually adolescent person somehowmanifesting strange events around them.
They were trying to conjure a ghost.
Not a tulpa.
But what's the differenceIn this experiment,
the process is exactly the same.
(23:37):
Create a character.
Focus on the character,and the character will eventually gain
enough energy to come to life,so to speak.
So if this story is real,
I am certainly not going to throw shade
on Olivia for doing whatevershe could think of to get her son back.
I have one child.
(23:57):
And if anything were to happen to him,I might just get on the phone to Stephen
King asking himto tell me where the pet cemetery is.
Anything to bring him back.
But as this cautionary tale reel
or fiction teaches usthat the power of our minds
is greater than we know,our thoughts can become real.
(24:20):
Either internally or even externally.
So never has a truer statement been spokenthan.
Be careful what you wish for,because you just might get it.
As the mother of
a single son,this one really hit home for me.
(24:41):
I can't, and don't want to,imagine the level of grief.
Maybe it's better to just leavethis one in the fiction category.
Just so that I put no more of my ownthought energy in that direction.
But if you are not yet donewith your journey through the dusty,
(25:01):
untrammeled cornersof this weird existence, click right here.
Maybe bring an extra pair of underwearjust in case.
Be careful out there.
And I will see youhere again, on The InBetween.
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