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Transcript: 

First off, I want to give a huge shout out to Jim, who goes by @Hellhound911 on Twitter for the kind iTunes review and to reaching out to me @FabledPod on Twitter to let me know he listens. Listeners like him help the production of a show such as this all the more worthwhile. Also thank you to Ryan Simms (@RSimm_01 on Twitter) for listening and for the feedback on the episode lengths. This show started as a passion project of mine and the episodes have been only as long as I could stand to listen to myself talk. The episodes are getting incrementally longer as my comfort level increases so longer episodes should be coming down the pike soon. One last shout out to shnoobles for the great review on iTunes. If you haven’t yet, leave a review on iTunes and share this show with a friend; it’s the best way to keep this thing going and to build a great community of listeners. I’ve started a Facebook group as well and I’ll link it in the description of this episode. Thank you all so much for the support.

Now, on with the show...

Tulpas. Thoughtforms. Egregore. Our last episode covered the basics of what these were and outlined some topics that you may need to have a passing knowledge of for this episode. If you have not done so yet, please go back and listen to part one. It is worth it. We will all be here waiting when you return.

A photo of a group of children exists. In that photo, the seemingly-terrified children look toward the camera in what appears to be abject horror; some appear to be running, some soldiering on toward the cameraman, shoulders slumped and eyes downcast. In the background of this photo there is… something. A blur, or mist in the vague shape of a humanoid. The pale, featureless orb atop its neck where a head should be faces the camera and takes in the children before it. This entity is ushering the children along, but to what end? Who can tell? Below, the photo is captioned:

We didn't want to go, we didn't want to kill them, but its persistent silence and outstretched arms horrified and comforted us at the same time…

[Dated] 1983, photographer unknown, presumed dead.

The Slender Man has arrived. 

One day in 2014, 12 year olds Anissa and Morgan lured their friend Peyton into the woods. Once deep enough into the woods that they would not be disturbed or overheard, the two girls attacked Peyton, one holding her down while another stabbed her 19 times. It was a horrible, inexcusable crime and I am deeply sorry to the families of those affected. For our purposes, this is all the detail that needs to be discussed. The case has been documented in detail in many other places. Why would two children do this to a friend? According to the two attackers, this was an attempt to appease the Slender Man, to prove to the world that he was real, and the sacrifice of this little girl was going to be the key to doing just that. But Peyton survived the brutal and senseless assault. Mustering her strength and crawling out of the woods to the nearest road, she flagged down a bicyclist who contacted first responders. Luckily, Peyton made it through the ordeal and lived to assist police in finding her attackers. Anissa and Morgan were so convinced that the Slender Man was real that they were willing to take the life of another child to prove it. They are paying for their crimes, but the fact remains that they attempted to kill for a fictional creature. This is an extreme example concerning the validity of Slender Man’s existence. But many more people have claimed to have seen or even interacted with the creature. Most, like the aforementioned criminal act, can be disregarded as mental instability or overactive imaginations but is every case so easily discounted? Can it be possible that, much like Alexandra David-Neel’s portly monk, we have collectively created a thoughtform that has broken free from its creator? Can an internet myth really be responsible for mass suicides among Native American youth, attempted arsons, or multiple cases of attempted murder?

Slender Man may not be real, but the crimes committed in his name are. To the children perpetrating this heinous acts the creature is just as real as you or I, and who are we say for sure that the Slender Man didn’t actually play a role here? Logic tells us that this is the act of a disturbed mind attempting to rationalize the demons in her own head, but monsters like the eponymous “Shadow People” that resemble Slender Man have surfaced in the mythology of man across every culture for centuries, even occasionally bleeding into our pop culture. In 2008 a film called “The Recovered” was released direct to streaming which included an entity called “The Business Man” that resembled Slender Man down to the smallest details. The creators of the film are not on the record as to a particular source of inspiration for The Business Man but it resembles several myths and legends that we will get into on future episodes.

One part of the truth concerning Slender Man is this: we have the privilege of being able to pinpoint the myth being created. On June 10th, 2009, an internet forum called Something Awful decided to have a contest to see who could produce the best photoshopped paranormal image. A user known by the pseudonym Victor Surge added a menacing, tall, pale, and inhuman figure into the background of several photos that included groups of children. To really make his work stand out, he also added lines of text with the photos. One of the lines I read at the top of this episode. Its creepy stuff, but entirely fictional. None of the events in the photos took place and the images were altered to include the Slender Man in the background. From there, the legend took off and has permeated every dark corner of the internet in the intervening nine years. If the mystics discussed in the first part of this series are to be believed, could this be the trigger point for our collective conscience to create a tulpa in the form of Slender Man? Enough people are certainly focusing on him as a simple Google search yields 14.5 million results. And yet, even if Slender Man is just a myth, where does the idea for creatures like the Shadow People, the Business Man, and Slender Man come from? Is there, much like the myth of the dragon, an archetype that resides in our collective conscience that has allowed every culture on the planet to have a similar mythos concerning tall, humanoid creatures that seduce us to darkness? Or is there an observable force that calls to us? A force that lurks in our darkest forests, our deepest caves, our highest mountains, and our nearest closet? One thing is certain: reports of these creatures are not decreasing. Maybe it’s time we took them serious, before the Slender Man comes for us next.

Goodnight, dear listener.

Fabled is a podcast for fans of Unsolved Mysteries, Lore, Slender Man, mysteries, mystery, Pokemon, creepypasta, creepy pasta, horror stories, horror, paranormal, ghosts, legends, myths, and stories.