Fate is defined as the development of events beyond a person's control.
Whether you believe in fate or not, there are certainly events
that are out of our control that we are powerless to avoid.
As always, viewer discretion is advised.
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Paragliding is the simplest, most accessible and least expensive form of aviation.
It looks a little bit like parachuting, except instead of using a parachute for drag,
a wing or canopy is used that can exploit sources of lift to be free flying.
The pilot sits in a harness that is attached to the wing by suspension lines
and launches off the ground using a running start.
And despite not using an engine, the canopy acts like the airfoil of an airplane wing
so flights can last for hours and cover hundreds of kilometers.
A skilled pilot uses the natural flow of air to climb thousands of meters in the air
and can reach top speeds of 75 kilometers (46.6 mi) an hour.
All of this movement is controlled using a set of hand controls on the suspension lines
that allow the pilot to manipulate the shape of the wing for different effects.
Paragliders also have a set of instruments
either attached to them or to the glider itself to help navigate their flights.
First is something called a variometer, which helped indicate whether air was rising or sinking.
They'll also typically have a radio for ground contact and then a GPS for navigation.
When paragliders first learn to fly, ideally, you want minimal winds
an area where the ground is mostly flat and a wide open space, free of obstacles.
But as paragliders get more experienced, they can navigate around obstacles
and flying in stronger, turbulent winds without issue.
In fact, there are even paragliding competitions featuring several different types of events.
These consist mainly of acrobatic, performative stunts or cross-country speed competitions.
Since 1992, the paragliding world games have been held yearly and the competition is more or less a race.
Individuals have to fly around a course as fast as possible,
ensuring they navigate through way points to complete the full distance
and the person who completes the course in the shortest amount of time is the winner.
In 2007, one of the best paragliders in the world at the time was Ewa Wiśnierska.
Ewa was both an instructor and a member of the German national team
and at the time, she was at the top of her game.
She had won the games the year prior and was looking to repeat
so in February of that year, she traveled to Australia for training.
That day, around 200 of the world's best paragliders were all preparing for the games
and scheduled for routine training.
As you might imagine, weather conditions are crucial for a successful flight
and so all the participants receive a weather briefing before beginning training each day.
That day, the weather was decent, but there was a storm cell
that had been building since early morning.
It was on the edge of their training zone, so it wasn't enough to call anything off,
just something that the paragliders should be aware of.
However, there is a phenomenon known as "cloud suck"
that can be extremely dangerous for free flying because it's hard to tell where it's occurring
and once you're in it, it's generally already too late.
This is where there's a massive updraft underneath cloud formations.
These could be so strong that paragliders are unable to descend once they're caught in the updraft
even if they've got their wing controls in a formation that would otherwise cause a rapid descent.
Unfortunately, that day after launching, Ewa was caught in one of these updrafts
on the edge of the storm system and began a rapid uncontrolled descent.
All of a sudden, she was rising at over 70 kilometers (43.5 mi) an hour, despite her best efforts to descend.
Completely out of control, she rose higher and higher
until she noticed that ice was forming on her glasses and her instruments.
This was because she had risen to 10,000 meters or almost 33,000 ft,
which is the cruising altitude of most commercial flights.
At this altitude, it's extremely cold and the air is very thin.
Soon enough, you had lost consciousness due to the lack of oxygen.
About 40 minutes later, she woke up again and miraculously, she was still flying.
Now covered in ice, she was 60 kilometers (37.3 mi) from where she first got sucked up into the storm.
Although she was still at a height of 6,900 meters or 22,000 feet,
the action was sufficient to regain consciousness.
When she came to, she was dazed from hypoxia and shivering violently from the cold
and she was still on the edge of the storm cell.
The first thing she did was continue to fly straight to get well clear of any updrafts
and then finally, when she was confident that she was okay, she found a farm field to land in.
It would take several minutes of just lying on the ground
collecting herself and warming up before her team contacted her by radio.
It was then that she was finally able to communicate what had happened.
Although she was bruised from the hail in the storm and frost bitten, she had managed to survive.
It's thought that had it not been for the cold at altitude,
she might have died due to a lack of oxygen.
But because the cold slowed her metabolism, she needed less oxygen while she was unconscious.
Not to mention the fact that she had somehow managed to stay in the air without controlling the glider.
In fact, in that same storm, another man who was practicing was caught in an updraft as well.
He was unfortunately struck by lightning and his body wouldn't be recovered until the following day.
In 1997, a man was driving out in the middle of nowhere
when the brakes in his car suddenly failed.
Not realizing it initially, he went to hit the brakes and noticed nothing was happening
and then just moments later, his car was totaled in a ditch.
In the crash, he was pretty badly injured. He got a pretty sizable gash in his head,
his arm was broken and he was pretty sure he had also broken some ribs.
Back in 1997, cellphones weren't really a common thing yet
and he was 10 miles (16.1 km) from the nearest town.
It was also not a very populated area and to make things worse, it was nighttime.
This made the chances of a car coming by to help him really slim.
Deciding that he might need medical attention more urgently than he realized,
he decided to try to walk down the road and hopefully stumble on somebody's house.
So despite being in a ton of pain with no other options,
he started walking down the pitch-black road.
And this wasn't any ordinary dark night.
It was overcast, so there were no stars and there wasn't any moonlight
or light pollution from nearby towns.
In fact, it was so dark that if not for the sound of his feet on the asphalt,
he wouldn't have even been sure if he was on the road.
After walking for what felt like forever in the shape he was in and bleeding from the gash in his head,
he heard the call of a coyote not far behind him.
And then another and another,
and the next thing he knew there must have been at least 15 coyotes somewhere in the forest around him.
Not only did it sound like they were following him,
but it also sounded like they were in a frenzy, knowing that he was wounded.
Now, under normal circumstances, the chances of a coyote attack are extremely low
and even if they did attack, coyotes are on average smaller than an adult golden retriever.
The chance of them taking down a full-grown adult is extremely low as well
but he was in no shape to defend himself, especially against a big group.
Even just lifting his arms is immensely painful.
Not knowing whether to run or walk,
he tried to stay calm and keep up a constant pace and to not seem panicked
but inside, he was exploding with anxiety, not knowing how far the next house was.
All the while, he could hear the coyotes getting closer and closer
until they seemed to be less than a hundred feet away.
Finally, he saw light off in the distance, but not wanting to seem like prey,
he tried to keep up a steady pace, hoping they wouldn't run after him before he reached the house.
Thankfully, he managed to get to the door
and then immediately started pounding on the door, practically begging for help.
Soon enough, an old man opened the door, firearm in hand and pointed,
demanding to know why the man was banging on his door in the middle of the night.
Almost in tears, the man explained what had happened and that coyotes were chasing him.
All he needed was to use the man's phone to call for help.
The old man relented and let the man in and then grabbed a flashlight
and shined in the forest where the man had come from
and was horrified to see what looked to be 25 to 30 coyotes right on the edge of the forest.
In recollecting the events of that night, the man acknowledges that he has no idea
what would've happened if he had passed out on the road or if the house was just a mile further.
The so-called Dark Ages were a period in European history between the 15th and 14th centuries
that was thought to have little scientific and cultural development in comparison to other time periods.
Obviously, the world is a big place and much was going on outside of this area
but in Europe, these 900 years were between the fall of the Roman empire and the Renaissance.
Two periods associated with massive technological and cultural advancements.
The term dark ages is thought to have originated with a 14th century Italian scholar
who was discouraged by the literature from that time period.
This term was picked up and expanded on by scholars in the Renaissance era
and was an idea that was generally accepted until modern historians
thoroughly examined and dispelled this notion.
After scrutinizing the available works from that era, it was clear that there was still significant
international trade, writing and scientific discovery going on.
And one of the main places where this work was done at the time was in monasteries.
So the term Dark Ages is at best a misnomer and at worst, a complete myth.
One early example of these places where much of this work was done
was in modern-day Herford, Germany, in the Petersberg Citadel.
The city itself was first mentioned all the way back in 1742
and the oldest surviving building from this city is St Peter's church.
The first evidence for it is from 1060, but it may have existed long before then.
20 years after this first mention, the church unfortunately burned down
but it would be rebuilt between 1103 and 1147.
When it was rebuilt, it was constructed as a massive stone structure
that was 75 meters or 246 feet long with three large aisles running its length.
Although its two large towers were not replaced,
it was rebuilt with multiple floors to hold congregations, meetings and other events.
In the basement, as was typical of the time period, was latrine and below that was a large septic tank.
Something we don't often think about but I'm sure we can all agree on
is just how nice modern plumbing is.
Not only do we have on-demand clean, hot and cold water,
but sewage is also simply whisked away with a flush.
With pre-modern plumbing, everything was kind of like an outhouse.
If you were lucky, you lived in a castle or some other building that was near a river.
The latrines then conveniently dropped in the water source and were washed away downstream.
Otherwise, large buildings were simply built over a large hole
and the waste just dropped in from the latrine.
Sometimes, these were cleaned if they were conveniently built
and other times, this would just be decades of waste.
As you might imagine, this might create a strong odor in whatever building had a large septic tank.
Again, if you were lucky, there was a window but other times,
the floor would be covered with herbs or flowers to try to combat the smell.
They would also use lime plaster on the walls, which offered an antibacterial effect.
In any case, in 1184, the region was ruled under a man named King Heinrich VI.
At the time, there were several political conflicts between nobles of the area
and some of the religious leaders of the Roman Catholic church.
That year, there was a particularly bad land dispute
and it got so bad that King Heinrich called for a meeting between all the different leaders.
This wasn't necessarily uncommon. Ideally, things could be settled without something so formal
but occasionally, there did need to be a proper meeting.
The two men at the crux of the issue were a man named Conrad I
and another man named Ludwig III.
Along with each of these men, all of the associated nobles and interested parties
were invited for the sit-down, along with some mediators.
All in all, this ended up being a group of over a hundred individuals.
The meeting spot they decided on was the newly constructed St. Peter's church
because it was one of the only buildings in that area that was capable of hosting that many people.
Then, in July of that year, King Henrich VI, Conrad I and Ludwig III
all gathered in Herford to settle the dispute.
All the men entered the building and sat down in the upper meeting room
and as they did, the floor collapsed.
Over a hundred men plummeted right through the main floor, through the latrines
and then into the septic tank down below into the pool of murky water and waste.
Many of the men died immediately on impact or from falling debris
and many of them who didn't die on impact then drowned in the waste water.
Supposedly, as many as 60 individuals died in the incident
and this doesn't include any of the individuals who were wounded
and then had open cuts that later got infected.
In a time before antibiotics, this was almost certainly fatal.
It's unknown exactly how the dispute was settled, but Ludwig III survived while Conrad did not.
Maybe the only good fortune on that day was that King Heinrich
had been able to hold onto an iron railing along the wall,
preventing him from falling into the pit below.
On April 11th, 1963, a pair of twin girls were born in Aden, Yemen, named June and Jennifer.
Although originally from Barbados, the family relocated to the UK shortly after their birth.
And at first, everything seemed to be completely normal with the twins.
The birth had gone normally and throughout their infancy,
there were no abnormalities with June or Jennifer.
But when the girls started talking, their parents realized something was different about them.
Their speech was a bit delayed compared to other kids their age
and they seem to be unusually inseparable from one another.
Not long after their parents noticed this,
the twins seemed to develop a private language only they could understand
and not only did they seem to talk in this weird language,
they slowly stopped communicating with anyone else.
This was exacerbated by severe bullying in school
and caused the twins to become even more removed and dependent on one another.
By the time June and Jennifer were teenagers,
the language they spoke to one another was completely unintelligible to anyone else.
They also refused to communicate with anyone else outside their family or even read or write in school.
When out in public, they also pretended to be one another
and would frequently perfectly mirror each other's behavior.
Their parents obviously grew increasingly concerned by this behavior
and decided to separate the girls by sending them to different boarding schools.
The hope was that this would help them become independent and branch out
but unfortunately, this did the exact opposite.
Each of the girls was almost completely unresponsive following their separation.
At one point, it took two people to get June out of bed
and when they finally did, she was propped up against a wall and just stood there lifelessly.
After realizing that the experiment was a failure,
the twins were reunited and became even more withdrawn in private.
They no longer spoke to their parents except by letter and spent most of their time in their rooms
playing with dolls and creating fantasy scenarios.
During this time, they occasionally shared some of these with their younger sister
who is now the only person in the family they spoke to.
And despite their early language difficulty, they developed a passion for creative writing
and wrote several novels that they attempted to get published.
One of these would actually get published in their late teens
but by then, the girls began to get tired of being isolated in their bedrooms.
Soon after, they started experimenting with drugs and alcohol and went on a five-week crime spree
which culminated in them getting arrested and charged with arson in 1981.
This led them getting admitted to a high security psychiatric hospital known as Broadmoor,
indefinitely under the Mental Health Act of 1983.
Unfortunately for the twins, the hospital was much less lenient than their family or school had been.
They initially tried to stay completely silent, but as they became increasingly miserable in the hospital,
they started talking in hopes of getting released.
They were also treated with various psychiatric medications during this time
that impacted their ability to continue to write creatively.
Finally, 12 years into their stay at Broadmoor,
the twins were scheduled to be moved to a lower security psychiatric hospital.
But on the day of their transfer, Jennifer arrived at the new facility unresponsive.
Shortly after that, she was pronounced dead due to inflammation of the heart at just 29 years old.
And even more shocking, June started talking normally as if she had been the whole time.
And all of this might remain a complete mystery
If not for an investigative journalist named Marjorie Wallace.
In the early 1980s, shortly before their original sentencing,
Marjorie heard about their story and reached out to June and Jennifer's parents.
Eventually, they arranged for Marjorie to come visit the family's home
and it was there that she discovered the twins had a rich and vibrant private life.
She was shown their room and their writing
and grew sympathetic to girls that the world had otherwise dismissed as odd .
Before they were officially committed to Broadmoor hospital, she visited them in prison
and slowly, they started to open up to her.
In particular, she found that they were really interested in talking about their writing.
And over time, the three of them became more comfortable
and spent much of their meetings joking and laughing.
But simultaneously, she learned that they each kept a dark secret.
She had been allowed to go through their old diaries
and discovered that they each had serious disdain for one another.
In June's diaries, she described Jennifer as being a dark shadow over her life.
And in Jennifer's diaries, Jennifer described the two of them as fatal enemies.
Over the years, these sentiments seemed to grow into a fear of one another
but June seemed to be much more fearful of Jennifer than the other way around.
Days before they were due to be moved from the high-security hospital to the lower security one,
Marjorie went in to meet with the twins like she normally did
but randomly during their meeting, Jennifer blurted out that she would have to go.
She explained that they decided that it would be Jennifer
and they had concluded that one of them need to go for the other to live.
Rather than dismiss this claim, Marjorie was frightened by their explanation
because it seemed completely serious.
Marjorie expressed this fear to doctors, but they reassured her that they would be closely supervised.
Then, on the morning they were due to be transferred,
Jennifer complained that she wasn't feeling well.
On the ride over, she rested her head on June's shoulder and slipped into a coma.
When they arrived, she was unresponsive and shortly after that, she passed away.
The official cause of death was swelling of the heart and doctors at the new clinic
think it was due to the medication she was given during her stay at Broadmoor.
But this was obviously weird because June was given the same medication and was in perfect health on arrival.
Following Jennifer's death, according to Marjorie, June didn't seem to be mourning.
It almost seemed as though she was like a new person.
The two of them sat down and talked like they had never talked before.
According to June, Jennifer's passing would allow her to be free
and now, she would live for the both of them.
Marjorie asked why they had gone silent from a young age
and June said that they had made a pact not to speak to anyone except for each other.
And June now lives in the UK, close to her family, leading a seemingly normal life.
She also wrote a poem for Jennifer's tombstone that reads:
"We once were two We two made one
We no more two Through life be one
Rest in peace."
Hello everyone. If you've been following the channel for a while,
you may recognize one of the stories in today's video.
I'm thinking of remastering some of the older videos to bring their quality up to the current standard.
But if I do include them as part of a newer video as I did with this one,
I'll always include just one old story and the rest will be ones I haven't covered before
so you still get fresh content.
As always, thank you all for watching and hopefully, I will see you in the next one.