School of Humans. A warning. This episode of Astray contains graphic subject matter, so please be aware. Solitude makes me appreciate human connection all the more. This is a quote from the nomad an adventurer Justin Alexander Schetler's August twentieth, twenty sixteen Instagram post. His last Instagram post. Justin, like many seekers called the India, was in search of something more, a higher meaning, deeper connection, a sense of purpose, enlightenment. But we don't know if he ever found it, because Justin vanished, swallowed by the Privati Valley, nicknamed the Valley of Death, that had taken many before him. For over two decades, around twenty one, foreigners drawn to the valley's lush, mountainous landscape in northern India have gone missing, some in search of a thrilling trek through the beautiful but at times volatile Himalayas, and seekers drawn to the valley where the Hindu god Shiva, with the power to destroy and restore worlds, meditated for three thousand years. This majestic valley is a shangri law for Westerners, not only because the hash runs deep here, literally growing wild along the rivers and roads, but It's also the home of the Rainbow Gathering, where hippies seek peace, harmony, love, light, and freedom, away from civilization and surrounded by nature. This sounds idyllic, magical even, but the valley also holds dark secrets and missing foreigners like Justin Alexander Schettler. But was Justin's last adventure meant to be a spiritual one? What was he seeking and more? Or was it worth the sacrifice? It's August twentieth, twenty sixteen. Justin's packing his weathered backpack. His chiseled frame is thinner than usual, and his back aches from an injury he got at nineteen that's been stressed from his high altitude cave dwelling. The past few weeks, he's been living in idealized life of a nomad, drinking Himalayan mountain water from rivers, scavenging edible plants, writing his journal by candlelight in a damp but sheltering cave. He's been traveling with little food. His only precious possessions are a bullhorn he found in the forest, which is a symbol of Shiva, a long and elegant griffin feather that looks like it was plucked from a mythical animal and an Indian ben surrey, a bamboo flute carved with intricate detail that he uses as a walking stick on his meandering tracks. Justin can live off of almost enough thing. That's something he used to impress Frenzy went camping with back in the States. He's a survivalist, even admits the at times severe conditions, so the Pravadi Valley two days before he found an abandoned black and brown speckled puppy in Kiera Gunga, an hour trek from his cave where he soaks his back in the hot springs that are thought to have sacred healing properties. The puppy was wet and shivering, so Justa nestled him under his shirt to keep him warm and took care of the teething pop until he found him a home. Now, Justin pack's oats, nuts, raisins, a sleeping pad and bag, some clothing, a wool blanket, rain cover, metal cup, machette, cameras and power banks. This is what he'll need for the next few days, which will consist of a strenuous three day track, then ten days meditating in spiritual retreat at Montalai Lake, a holy site that at thirteen thousand feet provides other worldly views with its barren all rock terrain. There's no vegetation or wood to burn at the lake, so like all of Justin's adventures, it's extreme. After the ten days, the trip will close with a three day trek back to civilization. This is not an easy journey. You have to earn the breathtaking views in spiritual magnitude of Montalai Lake, and though Justin is primed for a track like this, it's not one he'll do alone. A kilo of rice, sugar flower, some tea, tarp, tin, boxes of cigarettes, and matches all for him. Joining Justin on his holy pilgrimage will be sut Nayan Rawat. He's a Sadu, which is a Hindu holy man who has devoted his life to Lord Shiva and his spiritual practice even to the extreme. According to Justin, this sadu has cut his penis off in full renunciation of lust. I don't know how to casually drop that bomb, but I find it both unsettling and impressively dedicated. Okay, I'm out of my depth with this one, so I'm going to get Keta's expertise, What are your thoughts on that particular Sadu and his extreme behavior. I mean, that's crazy. He cut off his penis. I mean my first reaction would be how it's I mean, it sounds bloody, it sounds gory, and I'm just wondering how someone can manage to perform this medical operation upon himself. That's just my journalistic mind speaking. That's totally not where my head went. Wow, that's dedication. And then as a feminist, I would say, well, you know, he's taking responsibility for his feelings instead of blaming women for seducing or tempting men. If you look at Hindu my authology, there is this tale where sad or rishi called Vishwa Mitro was a great Sadu and he was praying and meditating so well and with such devotion that one of the gods up there called Indra. He got insecure and he felt like if he meditates so much, he would gain a lot in power. So this god gets insecure and he sends the celestial maiden called Menka down to us to seduce this Sadu. Menka, the celestial maiden sent down to earth by the god Indra does his bidding and seduces the Sadu Veshuamitra. But then she's cursed and caught in the middle of this envious god and now cursed Sado. Like most of these mythical tales, the woman is a casualty, which is why Ankita has some respect for a man who's taking control over his Colonel urges she will just assign the stars that she had to do, and you know, she was ordered by the Scott to do it, so she had to do it. But she gets cursed and she gets caught in the middle. So when I hear this story, I feel like, Okay, at least now men are taking responsibility for their own feelings and their own actions. Sadu is a general term for all holy men in India, but you'll also hear baba and naga used to describe rawat the Sadu justin befriended. Baba is a common term of address for Sadus, but Naga is more specific. So Nagas are seen as these warriors Sadus who would often be seen in these kummelas or fairs, and they're often naked, oh though sometimes when they are dealing with the public. They do wear some kind of clothes around their private paths, and they would often have ash smeared on their bodies or have breadlock. So this is just kind of a physical identification of Naga sados. There is a black and white photo of Satan Aayan Rawat posted on Justin's Instagram from August sixteenth. He wears a turban and baggy pants. His lanky frame is punk shuated with lemon sized growths on his elbows, wrists, ankles, and knees. The swelling lumps are unsettling to look at in the photo. I've heard stories about the magical powers of these bobbas. They can see into your soul and know your past and future. They can bless or curse. He spends his life sitting by a fire that never goes out. People visit and ask for blessings and often bring tobacco mal what he calls charis hashish, marijuana resin, and yes, sometimes a monetary donation. Some of these bobbas are reported to go months without food, living on pure life energy and hashish, and the photo Rowat smokes a pipe filled with chillum, a mix of hashish and tobacco. Since Lord Shivo is a big fan of marijuana. The drug is a dietary staple for some Sadus. Rowat shares his chillum with Justin, among others. He fed me once a day, which was often my only meal, milk tea chapati or cure, a delicious rice pudding made with fresh buffalo milk. They met when Justin was living in seclusion in the caves, and by all accounts, there was a friendly, almost nurturing relationship between them. But when the Sadu asked Justin to join him in a spiritual pilgrimage, Justin had some reservations. He speaks no English besides good and yoga, and I'm not totally sure why I was invited. Without words, he can't teach me any ancient doctrine or explain anything intellectual, but from what I understand, he wants to mentor me in the ways of the Sadu of Shiva, the first Yogi. He follows a strict spiritual routine that I know nothing about, and I am intensely curious. These babbas are said to have magical powers from decades of ancient yoga practice, but I don't know what to expect. Even with that small inkling of doubt, Justin stayed the course. But what he wrote on Instagram beside the black and white photo for what is what got me. They are holy men but wild and are even above the law in India police won't arrest them even for murder. To me, this shouted danger, but it was awarding. Justin didn't listen to or want to listen to. I asked Ikeata about this. Are all sados holy or their scam artists dotting those saffron robes? Yeah? I would definitely say that they're sadus who are shotstas and are duping people for their own benefit, either to get money out of them or to get access to places that they would otherwise not be allowed in. Do you think these people can be dangerous? Ultimately? Yeah, they can, especially if they're trusted completely and immediately without any kind of background checks. Justin's final blog entry from August nineteenth, twenty sixteen, is cryptic. I should return mid September, so if I'm not back by then, don't look for me. He signs off with a winking, smiling emoji, which makes me wonder did he know what he was getting himself into seeking a spiritual edge, or as someone who pushed his physical edge as a survivalist, accomplished adventurer and ninja who scales seven hundred foot structures. Did his quest for a spiritual extreme lead to the ultimate sacrifice his life? Above Justin's final blog post, there is a haunting video that doesn't match the rest of his entries. This is not one of the daring adventures Justin once captured. It's reflective. In the video, Justin is a solitary man, monk like walking barefoot through the mossy, dense forest, setting up camp in his cave, meditating. The spread wings of the hawkish bird tattooed on his chest looked like a symbol of freedom, the freedom Justin continuously sought out in his life. The music in the video matches the mood. It's eerie and rawat. The Sadu makes an appearance surrounded by billowing smoke. His shrewd gaze slowly meets the camera, then the video fades to black. On August twenty second, twenty sixteen, Justin Rawat an a porter the sadou hired, embarked on the strenuous track to Montalai Lake. The trio reached their destination, and on September third, three Indian hikers reported seeing them at the lake. When they approached them, Justin and the Sadou were arguing. Justin was exhausted and hungry. He said he wanted to descend, but he didn't leave with the hikers. By the end of September, Justin hadn't returned from his track, and because of his close relationship to his mother in a social media presence, people noticed upon hearing about Justin's disappearance. One of the last people to see him, a Russian man who had taken Justin's picture at the trailhead before he embarked on his spiritual track, messaged a French traveler, Christopher Lee, who was still in the valley and whom Justin had connected with online a year earlier. He asked Lee to check on the Sadu Rowatt, who Justin had embarked on his spiritual crusade with. Lee hiked to kier Gunga and found Rowatt sitting alone in his hut. India's famous for criminal sadis. And this isn't just now. This goes back and you can read about in eighteen hundreds, I mean, many of the old books that I've read on the India, they're like, oh, on the other the criminal sidos and they caught that's when I executed him, you know what I mean. And this is like Costa Terminals dressing EPISODEOS. This is Michael Yon, a former Greenbrey and current combat correspondent with a thorough knowledge of India's topography and hidden dangers. He's often called on to navigate disappearances like Justin's. Oh, and this is his hobby. I'm the world's greatest cannibal hunter. That's my modest opinion. This is one of the most interesting things about jan which we'll get into later, But what we're talking about now is his proficiency for man hunting with Justin. First of all, people contacted me about him. You know, his mother and his best friend were looking for him, and so other people notice that. They're like, hey, Mike, you know they know me from my work correspondent work, right, and they're like, hey, you've talked sometimes about tracking people in India. So that some people sent it to me that checked it out and put that on his online diary. That started reading part of it, and I was like, he sounds like actually a cool guy actually, except he's got a weakness. He's seeking. While I relate to being a seeker, Yan sees it as a liability. And I get this. I mean, someone like Jan who has been forced to trust his instincts in combat a life or death situation, doesn't have the luxury of curiosity or trust for that matter. But like me, He also noticed Justin's hesitancy about joining Rowatt on this spiritual track. You could tell in the back of his mind that something didn't sit right with him. It's just like one sentence in there somewhere. I don't remember what it said, but I was like, you just set it to yourself. You didn't listen to it, and that little voice says, don't do it, and you're in India. You don't do it, You back off, you know what I mean. But he didn't. He pressed forward. And now Rowatt's that alone in his stone walled hut rome. A month ago, Justin had shot that eerie video of the Sadu. The French trekker Lee, who was sent to confront Rawat, asked him about Justin, to which Rawat replied, Justin is crazy. Then he ranted about Justin leaving him. After meeting some trekkers at the lake who he headed up the valley with. Lee didn't believe the Sadu, who he knew many were referred to as a business baba who was only out for money, not enlightenment. Lee immediately filed a police report. After studying Justin's blog and social media entries, Michael John came to the same conclusion, you need to go to that naga. Based on everything I'm reading, I would track his ass down. That's your guy. I don't know, obviously, I've never met him. It's just it's written right there in plain view, right, I mean, it's not in play. It's written for me in plain view. And they wanted to hire me. I'm like, I'm busy on some stuff, but I'll advise you as you're over there. So they went over there, and they rented a helicopter and got a bunch of men together and had it brought it drone out all kinds of stuff, and then they found his flute, the Indian ben surrey or bamboo flute that Justin had been using as a walking stick. I assume if he was as weak as those who saw him said he was, that he would be somewhat dependent on that walking stick to navigate the strenuous track to the lake or from it. So when the flute was found and he wasn't, that said something. I got a message like we found this, we found his flute and some other stuff. I was like, bag it up, man, and treat it like a crime scene. I know you're not FBI or something, but you haven't solved it yet, you know what I mean. You haven't solved it until you've got a body or something. And they got a little overconfident in that. Now. I was like, you're making a mistake. You need to gather all information at all times. Vacuum up everything and preserve everything. Photograph everything from ten different as this right when people are talking, get the recorder going because there's little clues. They're flying around here and you're not going to be able to figure a mountain tea. Listen to the recording ten times right, and long story short, the Indian government got involved because it started getting more pressed that Naga got arrested. At the valley's small police station, Rowatt sat in front of Susie Reebe, Justin's mom, who had flown to India October ninth to look for her son, who had been missing for over a month. Rowatt told Reebe a different story than he had told Lee the Frenchman who had reported him to the authorities. Rowatt was not a reliable source, which made him look guilty for either knowing more about Justin's disappearance than he let on or for murdering him. You may have read the story right. He ended up being hanged, so wow, that was the guy who called him to go get Jana speaking about Rowatt, but his account is different from other reports where Rowatt press umably hung himself with his doughtie the loose pants he wore. Media outlets paint Rowatt's death two different ways as a confession to his guilt or as a response to the immense shame he felt at being penned for Justin's murder. Either way, this tragedy is heartbreaking because, like Ryan chambers parents, Reeb doesn't have any answers round her son's disappearance. As we've seen, Justin's skated this line between adventure and harm effortlessly in his life. He conquered dangerous situations with an ease that's envious to many of us who only wish we could dare so greatly. But Justin is still human and susceptible to danger, which is something that unfortunately found him in India. Michael John, the Manhunter who helped with the investigation of Justin's disappearance, had a respect for Justin because he too is drawn to danger and as and tracking people who deeply understand what enlightenment means to them. What's the cost eating another human? Once you've tracked enough album, that's the easiest spotting a Catholic priest, you know what I mean. Michael Johan is talking about his ability to spot and a gory or his fond nickname for them cannibals. He's not wrong the agory or sadus that engage in post mortem rituals, which includes cannibalism. Jan told me about a time when he was helping a former Israeli special Forces officer Egal Zor find a missing Israeli who had presumably drowned in the Ganges. But they came across a different body and someone who had their sights on it. Trigger warning. This is where it gets graphic. He had found this body and it's naked. Out of all the hundreds of bodies I've seen there. None were naked, and the ones that were close to naked, they were clearly in the river for a very long time, like there was almost like their hands would be missing. Always you would see hands and feet would first to be missing because the dogs would get the hands in the feet, and sometimes they would be headless. But this one looked really fresh, and it had no pubic hair. It was a male. It had no armpit hair, and it looked like the head was shaved partially, and it had a wire saw in the head right like somebody was cutting into the head with the wire saw. It looks like somebody has hacked out. It's abdomin. It's like really eviscerated. Like something's wrong here, I said, the goall that looks like a human sacrifice. The police are right there. The body's there. It looks like it's been murdered. It's got what appears to be confusions. I didn't see any knife marks on the forearms or anything like that. No bullet wounds. And this agory comes out now the gory's feet are in the river. They actually think that they can meditate beside the Godgas River and make a body come to them, So think how this plays into his potential psyche. He sees white Israeli dude swim out into the river and come back with a body. It's like, well, I'm praying for a body to come and there it is, right, and it's like, you know, pizza delivery here almost right, And the agory reaches down into the river. This body is naked, The guts are hanging out, intestines are hanging out. It looks like it's been hacked open, and not just slit, but like missing part of the ribs and stuff like a jack o lantern top is taken off, you know what I mean. And the top is missing and all the guts are exposed. You know, flies are landing on a body because you can see him in the photos. And he picks a stone from the river, from the gongs and he puts it on the pubic bone of the body, just above the penis right, and then he reaches down and he picks part of the force get off and eats it right in front of the police and gods, who are this? You know, former Special Forces officer in the IDF. He's like, then my adrenaline just went. You know, I've been in India many many times for many years, and I've never seen something like this. What was this man? What is he doing? And I was like, well, that's clearly an a gory. It doesn't take five months of study or six months of study the spot one I can teach you in like you two hours, right, and then the agory picked up a stick and everything, and he disappeared into the jungle. This story is so out there. When Yon first told it to me, I didn't believe him. But when he broke down the beliefs of the agory why they do what they do, it made more sense. They believe a God or the gods created everything, and God or the gods is perfect. Therefore everything is perfect in the world. Therefore, if you're disgusted by anything, you're disgusted by God, and you should seek to overcome everything that disgusted you, seek to overcome the emotion of disgust. You can see how seeking to overcome the emotion of disgust would lead to some pretty vile behavior, which, according to Jan it definitely does. I mean, they'll literally sleep with a dead dog for until the as a pillow as it rots day after day, week after week until it's gone maggots and everything, right, carrying it on their shoulder walking down the road, dead dog, right, you know, set it beside them whether they're eating. You know, they believe that, for instance, prostitutes and menstrual blood are bad, right, And so they don't like have sex with a menstruating prostitute on a corpse in a burning place or in a cemetery, right, like stacking disgust on top of disgust. And just so you know how to spot in the gory, they always carry a human skull to drink from or eat from, or they use it for begging for alms. They use a human femur as a horn beeB right, and and they use baby stalls and baby skins for a damaru drum. A damaru is those sorts of drums where it's got you know, you hold it in your hand and you can twist your wrist bing bing bing bing bing bing bing bing, you know what I mean. Often they'll be wearing black. They'll have you know, dreadlocks typically, which a lot of people do, but they'll often be wearing a garland of bones, human bones. They've got a certain look. I know, all of this sounds pretty outrageous. And I'm sure, like I did, you're questioning it. I mean, rationalizing cannibalism isn't easy. But these Agory consider their post mortem rituals holy. They live among India's cremation sites, where Lord Shiva and kylie Ma, whom they worship, are said to dwell, their faces and bodies painted in ash. They collect the remains of the humans disposed there, using them in rituals to reach spiritual enlightenment. These rituals do include the taboo act of cannibalism, but they also ascribe to a combination of marijuana, alcohol, and meditation to bring them to a disconnected state of heightened awareness. There's no doubt that the agory practices are radical, but are they dangerous? Jan makes a correlation between the agory and those who have gone missing in India, as photos of missing people all over the place here, for like missing tourists and stuff. And it says even in the Lonely Planet guide book it said like two to three people go missing every three to four months Westerners and nobody it's hardly ever in the news, right, and it's like it's covered up or something like that. And I was like, Wow, this is so weird based on just other things that I was picking up. I was like, I wonder if they're related to some of these people that are missing. This is an extreme theory, but as you can tell, Jan is an extreme sort of guy. But if this theory is true, why besides the cannibalism factor, will the Agori want to go after Western Obviously Jan has an opinion on this too. You know, Shakti is the universal feminine energy in Hinduism, right, and a good analogy to shakti is just money. You can be born with shockti, you can earn it, lose it, it can be stolen from you. And they believe some people know how to make shakti better than others. And for instance, children they believe have a lot of shocked because they didn't use their shockdi yet because they're young. And they also believe that Caucasians have a lot of shocked because that explains partially why Caucasians are so rich and are able to travel around the world. Right, And so they would prefer to sacrifice somebody with shakti, a lot of shakti, because they'll get that shock ti. So they're not only robbing you for your watch. They're robbing you for your Shockti. We've spoken about the destabilizing dangers of India, or the idea that something ominous is lurking beneath the spiritual steak, waiting ready to pounce on an unsuspecting foreigner, sacrificing their mind or their body. If this threat were personified, it would be in a gory, or at least the kind of a gory that Michael jan has described. But I'll be honest, these stories felt like larger than life tales to me, so obviously I pulled a Kita end to ask if she believes these Agori pos as much of a threat to western tourist as Michael claims. And Qita has never reported on the Agori, but this is what she knows from her research and from colleagues you have. I would say that Agoris the minute you talk of them, you immediately think of people who practice tantrik with thea or knowledge of the tantra. I always assumed anything related to tantra was sexual, but in Keita clarifies what tantra VideA is for me. Very strong, possibly even dark powers, and worshiping God's like Kali or Shiva who are associated with very strong, almost reache like emotions, and therefore it is said that their powers are destructive. And therefore it is said that if you are in agory, and if you are trying to develop your powers, then you have to be very careful because not only can you destroy others, you can also destroy yourself. Do you think that these are gory have anything to do with people that have come missing in India? I would not make a correlation there concluding that because gorries a rituals around corpses, they're more likely to kill or come at other crimes. That's like watching a mystery movie and saying that the most dangerous looking person must be the murderer. But that is yeah, I mean, at the end of the movie, it's usually the most innocent person, right, seemingly innocent. But since agory have to do with religion and ristuls and religious people are not supposed to cause harm, they're supposed to be holy and sacred. They are trusted more easily to take undue advantage of that trust and devotion, somebody may adopt the guys off in agorian indulgent crimes. So just because the egory worships something taboo in our culture doesn't necessarily make them dangerous to us. But Akita explains why it might be terrifying for a Westerner to witness one of the Agori's ritualistic acts. It's just an extension of the fear that comes with seeing something that is not seen commonly around you, or seeing something that you do not understand. I asked Keita to fact check Michael stat that two to three Westerners go missing every three to four months in India, which she couldn't find any specific data on, but she did say compared to the States, it's easy for Westerners to get visas in India, so the Indian government is and as concerned with tracking foreigners, which means it's a country where someone could easily fall off the grid. The American agory Gary Stephenson was one of those people. He disappeared in India by choice, but when Yan heard about him, Gary didn't have a choice. There was nothing stopping Jan from seeing for himself. This Texan turned Cannibal Michael Jan as a hero. Legitimately, he served our country in the military and then as a combat correspondent reporting from war zones in Iraq and Afghanistan. There is a moving picture he took of a US Army major cradling an Iraqi girl. She's so small she looks like a doll in his arms. His face is obscured by her wet hair, her fragile body wrapped in a blood soaked blank. Get this child. Farah died on the helicopter ride to the hospital. It was a car bomb that killed her, one of the many bombs Yan experienced at war, and Farah was one of the many children he saw die. This would do a number on anyone. He still has detailed nightmares bought suicide bombings, but he wakes up, puts his blinders on, and gets back to work. He's now focused on fighting the Chinese Communist Party. My point is Jan's trained military, an instinctive manhunter, and when he set his sights on tracking down Gary Stevenson or Gary the Cannibal, as Yan fondly calls him, there was no doubt he would find him. I was able to catch Yan on a car trip he was making through the Redwoods. So the audio isn't great, but Jan filled me in on my Gary, a seemingly normal, hippieish spiritual dude, ended up in India eating people. Dar he's more like walk feel hey, not all hit. These are nice guys, right, like Charles Manson, you know what I mean. Gary Stephenson, a descendant of Robert Louis Stephenson, author of Treasure Island, grew up in Texas in the nineteen fifties and I'll leave it to beaver household. At two years old, he got polio, which left him with a shriveled leg that, according to Jan looked like bone with some skin attached to it. Throughout his life, Gary searched for a way to heal his leg, but he was constantly let down by different ideologies or methods. Gary was set on a spiritual path at fifteen when his mother gave him a copy of Autobiography of a Yogi by a param Hans Yoganand I read the Bible and the clans and autobiography, and they're all promising immortality. They're all promising miracle cures. They're all promising, you know, touched by the Guru and now you're heeled. And so they're all they're all promising the same stuff. One of the big things a religion that's gonna last, As to promise immortality. You don't promise emortality. We're not going to get a lot of people joined up. Gary was influenced by the spiritual truths delivered an autobiography of Yogi and some other themes as well, and the book Autobiography of Yogie. What does he do? Runs away? You know, the child runs away, rows up to Northern India, which is where Gary. Gary eventually ended up in Northern India. But when he ran away from home as a teen due to a toxic relationship with his father, he bounced around, living in hate Ashbury in the sixties, then Taylor Camp, a hippie refuge in Kawaii where people were naked more than not, and then a spiritual pilgrimage made by many seekers at the time. This is Hippieville nineteen sixties, right, This is Uru seeking run off from the hippie trail, who ran through Afghanistan, through Pakistan, India, Nepal and that was the big bickie trail, right, and then someone end up in Thailand. But through all of his travels, which centered mostly on California and why Gary kept coming back to India, He just kept going west west until he was east, right, and it was the same way. It's clear with this religious streams. It was like the frog in the water. Things clearly got more and more. This is normal, This is normal until you know he's finally eating people, I mean really eating people. Come on, it's straight up. You can go to you can go to Varnassi right now. And and I am like ninety percent certain that you could find somebody probably within the first twelve hours that knew him, because I've interviewed a lot of him, I've got him on video, and I've got him on audience. He was he was eating people right in front of people. It's like nobody, nobody's gonna stop you and varn Aussi from doing But that line, if you want to become if you want to become accountable, you can get on an airplane in Atlanta Airport right now, in forty eight hours from now, you can be eating people in Varnassi and nobody's gonna say, shit, you're insane. I'm not gonna do that. You're gonna do it. We're gonna You're gonna do it. I know you're gonna do it. You're gonna do it because you have to do it to make sure it's real. Okay, I go in deep for a story, but there is a definitive line here for me. But that tight rope I've spoken about with enlightenment, that thin line between healing and harm. I'd say that Gary crossed over in harm. But Michael sees the Agorian their rituals differently. I'll take you to India when this pandemic is over, and you will meet Agoye, and I guarantee you you're going to question yourself, is this guy really crazy? Or is this just his religion because this religion goes back at least six hundred years, right? And is it irrational? Is it irrational when you look I'm talking about not from power perspective as Americans, especially from the East Coast as I am from. So for me, it's completely radical and insane, right, But in the context of things I've seen around the world, is it insane? Nope, not even close. Think about it. Salmons are constant in Asia, been thousands of fanis. Nobody could ever possibly count the ball, right, And when it comes to people that starved, the death for people that die in survival famine situations one of the number one reasons why some people survive and some dope is they overcome tabs more quickly. You can have the biggest famine in the world. If there's two people left, the agory is going to be the one that's left standing. This is just my theory. I don't know where it came from. The ability to overcome discussed pretty much. You know, gives you an insurance policy against a lot of disasters. Jan formed a friendship with Gary, one where Yan had to continually look over his shoulder to make sure he wasn't going to be attacked, but ironically also one of respect. When Yan negotiated Gary's released from prison after he tried to stab a man and was charged with a visa violation. Oh and a woman's arm was found in his hut, though he wasn't charged for that. Gary offered to give up cannibalism for him, but at this point Jan doesn't know if that ever happened. After getting him out of jail in India, Jan brought Gary back to the States for a bit, but Gary was able to obtain another ten year India visa, so he flew back and yet again fell off the grid. On Jan's website, he has copies of Gary Stevenson's passport and license, along with photographs that prove that Gary the Cannibal was not just an urban legend, but a man as you've witnessed. Like Gary, Michael, Jan is a memorable character and his stories are intense and sensational, which is something I considered when deciding whether or not to add them to this episode, and something I confronted John about. I'll be honest with you, a lot of the stories with the Cannibals are so extreme. I just continuously want to ground it so that people can actually be on board and not be like, is this really real? Because it is. It's so out there, dude, Oh it's real. An hour after this conversation with Jan, I read about American movie star Army Hammer, who was called out by an X who said the actor told her he wanted to break her rib, then barbecue and eat it. Hammer allegedly asked another partner if he could cut off her toe and keep it as a souvenir. I told Yan I'd found his next cannibal to hunt down, but he declined and said even Gary the Cannibal would think Army Hammer was a creep. Apparently, there is a line in Cannibalism too, and the next episode of Astray, I'll be reporting on someone whose story has affected me more than any I've covered, and because of a connection I made while researching the story, one that's ultimately made me question this entire podcast, like I don't know, I just feel really fel torn about it and even writing his episodes really hard. I'll share that and more on the next episode of A Stray. Many of the logistical facts that I found around Justin Schtler Alexander's disappearance came from a thorough article that Harley Rustad wrote for Outside Magazine in twenty eighteen. Rustad will soon be releasing a book on this called Lost in the Valley of Death. Astray as a production of School of Humans and iHeartRadio. Today's episode of Astray, Justin Alexander Schettler was produced, written, and narrated by Me, Caroline Slaughter and Quita Ananda is my co producer, and Gabby Watts is our supervising producer. With special thanks to our voiceover Van Gunter. Astray was sound produced by Tune Welders, scored by Jason Shannon, and mix by Harper Harris. Executive producers are Elsie Crowley, Brian Lavin, and Brandon Barr, thanks for listening. School of Humans,

School of Humans. A warning. This episode of Astray contains graphic subject matter, so please be aware. Solitude makes me appreciate human connection all the more. This is a quote from the nomad an adventurer Justin Alexander Schetler's August twentieth, twenty sixteen Instagram post. His last Instagram post. Justin, like many seekers called the India, was in search of something more, a higher meaning, deeper connection, a sense of purpose, enlightenment. But we don't know if he ever found it, because Justin vanished, swallowed by the Privati Valley, nicknamed the Valley of Death, that had taken many before him. For over two decades, around twenty one, foreigners drawn to the valley's lush, mountainous landscape in northern India have gone missing, some in search of a thrilling trek through the beautiful but at times volatile Himalayas, and seekers drawn to the valley where the Hindu god Shiva, with the power to destroy and restore worlds, meditated for three thousand years. This majestic valley is a shangri law for Westerners, not only because the hash runs deep here, literally growing wild along the rivers and roads, but It's also the home of the Rainbow Gathering, where hippies seek peace, harmony, love, light, and freedom, away from civilization and surrounded by nature. This sounds idyllic, magical even, but the valley also holds dark secrets and missing foreigners like Justin Alexander Schettler. But was Justin's last adventure meant to be a spiritual one? What was he seeking and more? Or was it worth the sacrifice? It's August twentieth, twenty sixteen. Justin's packing his weathered backpack. His chiseled frame is thinner than usual, and his back aches from an injury he got at nineteen that's been stressed from his high altitude cave dwelling. The past few weeks, he's been living in idealized life of a nomad, drinking Himalayan mountain water from rivers, scavenging edible plants, writing his journal by candlelight in a damp but sheltering cave. He's been traveling with little food. His only precious possessions are a bullhorn he found in the forest, which is a symbol of Shiva, a long and elegant griffin feather that looks like it was plucked from a mythical animal and an Indian ben surrey, a bamboo flute carved with intricate detail that he uses as a walking stick on his meandering tracks. Justin can live off of almost enough thing. That's something he used to impress Frenzy went camping with back in the States. He's a survivalist, even admits the at times severe conditions, so the Pravadi Valley two days before he found an abandoned black and brown speckled puppy in Kiera Gunga, an hour trek from his cave where he soaks his back in the hot springs that are thought to have sacred healing properties. The puppy was wet and shivering, so Justa nestled him under his shirt to keep him warm and took care of the teething pop until he found him a home. Now, Justin pack's oats, nuts, raisins, a sleeping pad and bag, some clothing, a wool blanket, rain cover, metal cup, machette, cameras and power banks. This is what he'll need for the next few days, which will consist of a strenuous three day track, then ten days meditating in spiritual retreat at Montalai Lake, a holy site that at thirteen thousand feet provides other worldly views with its barren all rock terrain. There's no vegetation or wood to burn at the lake, so like all of Justin's adventures, it's extreme. After the ten days, the trip will close with a three day trek back to civilization. This is not an easy journey. You have to earn the breathtaking views in spiritual magnitude of Montalai Lake, and though Justin is primed for a track like this, it's not one he'll do alone. A kilo of rice, sugar flower, some tea, tarp, tin, boxes of cigarettes, and matches all for him. Joining Justin on his holy pilgrimage will be sut Nayan Rawat. He's a Sadu, which is a Hindu holy man who has devoted his life to Lord Shiva and his spiritual practice even to the extreme. According to Justin, this sadu has cut his penis off in full renunciation of lust. I don't know how to casually drop that bomb, but I find it both unsettling and impressively dedicated. Okay, I'm out of my depth with this one, so I'm going to get Keta's expertise, What are your thoughts on that particular Sadu and his extreme behavior. I mean, that's crazy. He cut off his penis. I mean my first reaction would be how it's I mean, it sounds bloody, it sounds gory, and I'm just wondering how someone can manage to perform this medical operation upon himself. That's just my journalistic mind speaking. That's totally not where my head went. Wow, that's dedication. And then as a feminist, I would say, well, you know, he's taking responsibility for his feelings instead of blaming women for seducing or tempting men. If you look at Hindu my authology, there is this tale where sad or rishi called Vishwa Mitro was a great Sadu and he was praying and meditating so well and with such devotion that one of the gods up there called Indra. He got insecure and he felt like if he meditates so much, he would gain a lot in power. So this god gets insecure and he sends the celestial maiden called Menka down to us to seduce this Sadu. Menka, the celestial maiden sent down to earth by the god Indra does his bidding and seduces the Sadu Veshuamitra. But then she's cursed and caught in the middle of this envious god and now cursed Sado. Like most of these mythical tales, the woman is a casualty, which is why Ankita has some respect for a man who's taking control over his Colonel urges she will just assign the stars that she had to do, and you know, she was ordered by the Scott to do it, so she had to do it. But she gets cursed and she gets caught in the middle. So when I hear this story, I feel like, Okay, at least now men are taking responsibility for their own feelings and their own actions. Sadu is a general term for all holy men in India, but you'll also hear baba and naga used to describe rawat the Sadu justin befriended. Baba is a common term of address for Sadus, but Naga is more specific. So Nagas are seen as these warriors Sadus who would often be seen in these kummelas or fairs, and they're often naked, oh though sometimes when they are dealing with the public. They do wear some kind of clothes around their private paths, and they would often have ash smeared on their bodies or have breadlock. So this is just kind of a physical identification of Naga sados. There is a black and white photo of Satan Aayan Rawat posted on Justin's Instagram from August sixteenth. He wears a turban and baggy pants. His lanky frame is punk shuated with lemon sized growths on his elbows, wrists, ankles, and knees. The swelling lumps are unsettling to look at in the photo. I've heard stories about the magical powers of these bobbas. They can see into your soul and know your past and future. They can bless or curse. He spends his life sitting by a fire that never goes out. People visit and ask for blessings and often bring tobacco mal what he calls charis hashish, marijuana resin, and yes, sometimes a monetary donation. Some of these bobbas are reported to go months without food, living on pure life energy and hashish, and the photo Rowat smokes a pipe filled with chillum, a mix of hashish and tobacco. Since Lord Shivo is a big fan of marijuana. The drug is a dietary staple for some Sadus. Rowat shares his chillum with Justin, among others. He fed me once a day, which was often my only meal, milk tea chapati or cure, a delicious rice pudding made with fresh buffalo milk. They met when Justin was living in seclusion in the caves, and by all accounts, there was a friendly, almost nurturing relationship between them. But when the Sadu asked Justin to join him in a spiritual pilgrimage, Justin had some reservations. He speaks no English besides good and yoga, and I'm not totally sure why I was invited. Without words, he can't teach me any ancient doctrine or explain anything intellectual, but from what I understand, he wants to mentor me in the ways of the Sadu of Shiva, the first Yogi. He follows a strict spiritual routine that I know nothing about, and I am intensely curious. These babbas are said to have magical powers from decades of ancient yoga practice, but I don't know what to expect. Even with that small inkling of doubt, Justin stayed the course. But what he wrote on Instagram beside the black and white photo for what is what got me. They are holy men but wild and are even above the law in India police won't arrest them even for murder. To me, this shouted danger, but it was awarding. Justin didn't listen to or want to listen to. I asked Ikeata about this. Are all sados holy or their scam artists dotting those saffron robes? Yeah? I would definitely say that they're sadus who are shotstas and are duping people for their own benefit, either to get money out of them or to get access to places that they would otherwise not be allowed in. Do you think these people can be dangerous? Ultimately? Yeah, they can, especially if they're trusted completely and immediately without any kind of background checks. Justin's final blog entry from August nineteenth, twenty sixteen, is cryptic. I should return mid September, so if I'm not back by then, don't look for me. He signs off with a winking, smiling emoji, which makes me wonder did he know what he was getting himself into seeking a spiritual edge, or as someone who pushed his physical edge as a survivalist, accomplished adventurer and ninja who scales seven hundred foot structures. Did his quest for a spiritual extreme lead to the ultimate sacrifice his life? Above Justin's final blog post, there is a haunting video that doesn't match the rest of his entries. This is not one of the daring adventures Justin once captured. It's reflective. In the video, Justin is a solitary man, monk like walking barefoot through the mossy, dense forest, setting up camp in his cave, meditating. The spread wings of the hawkish bird tattooed on his chest looked like a symbol of freedom, the freedom Justin continuously sought out in his life. The music in the video matches the mood. It's eerie and rawat. The Sadu makes an appearance surrounded by billowing smoke. His shrewd gaze slowly meets the camera, then the video fades to black. On August twenty second, twenty sixteen, Justin Rawat an a porter the sadou hired, embarked on the strenuous track to Montalai Lake. The trio reached their destination, and on September third, three Indian hikers reported seeing them at the lake. When they approached them, Justin and the Sadou were arguing. Justin was exhausted and hungry. He said he wanted to descend, but he didn't leave with the hikers. By the end of September, Justin hadn't returned from his track, and because of his close relationship to his mother in a social media presence, people noticed upon hearing about Justin's disappearance. One of the last people to see him, a Russian man who had taken Justin's picture at the trailhead before he embarked on his spiritual track, messaged a French traveler, Christopher Lee, who was still in the valley and whom Justin had connected with online a year earlier. He asked Lee to check on the Sadu Rowatt, who Justin had embarked on his spiritual crusade with. Lee hiked to kier Gunga and found Rowatt sitting alone in his hut. India's famous for criminal sadis. And this isn't just now. This goes back and you can read about in eighteen hundreds, I mean, many of the old books that I've read on the India, they're like, oh, on the other the criminal sidos and they caught that's when I executed him, you know what I mean. And this is like Costa Terminals dressing EPISODEOS. This is Michael Yon, a former Greenbrey and current combat correspondent with a thorough knowledge of India's topography and hidden dangers. He's often called on to navigate disappearances like Justin's. Oh, and this is his hobby. I'm the world's greatest cannibal hunter. That's my modest opinion. This is one of the most interesting things about jan which we'll get into later, But what we're talking about now is his proficiency for man hunting with Justin. First of all, people contacted me about him. You know, his mother and his best friend were looking for him, and so other people notice that. They're like, hey, Mike, you know they know me from my work correspondent work, right, and they're like, hey, you've talked sometimes about tracking people in India. So that some people sent it to me that checked it out and put that on his online diary. That started reading part of it, and I was like, he sounds like actually a cool guy actually, except he's got a weakness. He's seeking. While I relate to being a seeker, Yan sees it as a liability. And I get this. I mean, someone like Jan who has been forced to trust his instincts in combat a life or death situation, doesn't have the luxury of curiosity or trust for that matter. But like me, He also noticed Justin's hesitancy about joining Rowatt on this spiritual track. You could tell in the back of his mind that something didn't sit right with him. It's just like one sentence in there somewhere. I don't remember what it said, but I was like, you just set it to yourself. You didn't listen to it, and that little voice says, don't do it, and you're in India. You don't do it, You back off, you know what I mean. But he didn't. He pressed forward. And now Rowatt's that alone in his stone walled hut rome. A month ago, Justin had shot that eerie video of the Sadu. The French trekker Lee, who was sent to confront Rawat, asked him about Justin, to which Rawat replied, Justin is crazy. Then he ranted about Justin leaving him. After meeting some trekkers at the lake who he headed up the valley with. Lee didn't believe the Sadu, who he knew many were referred to as a business baba who was only out for money, not enlightenment. Lee immediately filed a police report. After studying Justin's blog and social media entries, Michael John came to the same conclusion, you need to go to that naga. Based on everything I'm reading, I would track his ass down. That's your guy. I don't know, obviously, I've never met him. It's just it's written right there in plain view, right, I mean, it's not in play. It's written for me in plain view. And they wanted to hire me. I'm like, I'm busy on some stuff, but I'll advise you as you're over there. So they went over there, and they rented a helicopter and got a bunch of men together and had it brought it drone out all kinds of stuff, and then they found his flute, the Indian ben surrey or bamboo flute that Justin had been using as a walking stick. I assume if he was as weak as those who saw him said he was, that he would be somewhat dependent on that walking stick to navigate the strenuous track to the lake or from it. So when the flute was found and he wasn't, that said something. I got a message like we found this, we found his flute and some other stuff. I was like, bag it up, man, and treat it like a crime scene. I know you're not FBI or something, but you haven't solved it yet, you know what I mean. You haven't solved it until you've got a body or something. And they got a little overconfident in that. Now. I was like, you're making a mistake. You need to gather all information at all times. Vacuum up everything and preserve everything. Photograph everything from ten different as this right when people are talking, get the recorder going because there's little clues. They're flying around here and you're not going to be able to figure a mountain tea. Listen to the recording ten times right, and long story short, the Indian government got involved because it started getting more pressed that Naga got arrested. At the valley's small police station, Rowatt sat in front of Susie Reebe, Justin's mom, who had flown to India October ninth to look for her son, who had been missing for over a month. Rowatt told Reebe a different story than he had told Lee the Frenchman who had reported him to the authorities. Rowatt was not a reliable source, which made him look guilty for either knowing more about Justin's disappearance than he let on or for murdering him. You may have read the story right. He ended up being hanged, so wow, that was the guy who called him to go get Jana speaking about Rowatt, but his account is different from other reports where Rowatt press umably hung himself with his doughtie the loose pants he wore. Media outlets paint Rowatt's death two different ways as a confession to his guilt or as a response to the immense shame he felt at being penned for Justin's murder. Either way, this tragedy is heartbreaking because, like Ryan chambers parents, Reeb doesn't have any answers round her son's disappearance. As we've seen, Justin's skated this line between adventure and harm effortlessly in his life. He conquered dangerous situations with an ease that's envious to many of us who only wish we could dare so greatly. But Justin is still human and susceptible to danger, which is something that unfortunately found him in India. Michael John, the Manhunter who helped with the investigation of Justin's disappearance, had a respect for Justin because he too is drawn to danger and as and tracking people who deeply understand what enlightenment means to them. What's the cost eating another human? Once you've tracked enough album, that's the easiest spotting a Catholic priest, you know what I mean. Michael Johan is talking about his ability to spot and a gory or his fond nickname for them cannibals. He's not wrong the agory or sadus that engage in post mortem rituals, which includes cannibalism. Jan told me about a time when he was helping a former Israeli special Forces officer Egal Zor find a missing Israeli who had presumably drowned in the Ganges. But they came across a different body and someone who had their sights on it. Trigger warning. This is where it gets graphic. He had found this body and it's naked. Out of all the hundreds of bodies I've seen there. None were naked, and the ones that were close to naked, they were clearly in the river for a very long time, like there was almost like their hands would be missing. Always you would see hands and feet would first to be missing because the dogs would get the hands in the feet, and sometimes they would be headless. But this one looked really fresh, and it had no pubic hair. It was a male. It had no armpit hair, and it looked like the head was shaved partially, and it had a wire saw in the head right like somebody was cutting into the head with the wire saw. It looks like somebody has hacked out. It's abdomin. It's like really eviscerated. Like something's wrong here, I said, the goall that looks like a human sacrifice. The police are right there. The body's there. It looks like it's been murdered. It's got what appears to be confusions. I didn't see any knife marks on the forearms or anything like that. No bullet wounds. And this agory comes out now the gory's feet are in the river. They actually think that they can meditate beside the Godgas River and make a body come to them, So think how this plays into his potential psyche. He sees white Israeli dude swim out into the river and come back with a body. It's like, well, I'm praying for a body to come and there it is, right, and it's like, you know, pizza delivery here almost right, And the agory reaches down into the river. This body is naked, The guts are hanging out, intestines are hanging out. It looks like it's been hacked open, and not just slit, but like missing part of the ribs and stuff like a jack o lantern top is taken off, you know what I mean. And the top is missing and all the guts are exposed. You know, flies are landing on a body because you can see him in the photos. And he picks a stone from the river, from the gongs and he puts it on the pubic bone of the body, just above the penis right, and then he reaches down and he picks part of the force get off and eats it right in front of the police and gods, who are this? You know, former Special Forces officer in the IDF. He's like, then my adrenaline just went. You know, I've been in India many many times for many years, and I've never seen something like this. What was this man? What is he doing? And I was like, well, that's clearly an a gory. It doesn't take five months of study or six months of study the spot one I can teach you in like you two hours, right, and then the agory picked up a stick and everything, and he disappeared into the jungle. This story is so out there. When Yon first told it to me, I didn't believe him. But when he broke down the beliefs of the agory why they do what they do, it made more sense. They believe a God or the gods created everything, and God or the gods is perfect. Therefore everything is perfect in the world. Therefore, if you're disgusted by anything, you're disgusted by God, and you should seek to overcome everything that disgusted you, seek to overcome the emotion of disgust. You can see how seeking to overcome the emotion of disgust would lead to some pretty vile behavior, which, according to Jan it definitely does. I mean, they'll literally sleep with a dead dog for until the as a pillow as it rots day after day, week after week until it's gone maggots and everything, right, carrying it on their shoulder walking down the road, dead dog, right, you know, set it beside them whether they're eating. You know, they believe that, for instance, prostitutes and menstrual blood are bad, right, And so they don't like have sex with a menstruating prostitute on a corpse in a burning place or in a cemetery, right, like stacking disgust on top of disgust. And just so you know how to spot in the gory, they always carry a human skull to drink from or eat from, or they use it for begging for alms. They use a human femur as a horn beeB right, and and they use baby stalls and baby skins for a damaru drum. A damaru is those sorts of drums where it's got you know, you hold it in your hand and you can twist your wrist bing bing bing bing bing bing bing bing, you know what I mean. Often they'll be wearing black. They'll have you know, dreadlocks typically, which a lot of people do, but they'll often be wearing a garland of bones, human bones. They've got a certain look. I know, all of this sounds pretty outrageous. And I'm sure, like I did, you're questioning it. I mean, rationalizing cannibalism isn't easy. But these Agory consider their post mortem rituals holy. They live among India's cremation sites, where Lord Shiva and kylie Ma, whom they worship, are said to dwell, their faces and bodies painted in ash. They collect the remains of the humans disposed there, using them in rituals to reach spiritual enlightenment. These rituals do include the taboo act of cannibalism, but they also ascribe to a combination of marijuana, alcohol, and meditation to bring them to a disconnected state of heightened awareness. There's no doubt that the agory practices are radical, but are they dangerous? Jan makes a correlation between the agory and those who have gone missing in India, as photos of missing people all over the place here, for like missing tourists and stuff. And it says even in the Lonely Planet guide book it said like two to three people go missing every three to four months Westerners and nobody it's hardly ever in the news, right, and it's like it's covered up or something like that. And I was like, Wow, this is so weird based on just other things that I was picking up. I was like, I wonder if they're related to some of these people that are missing. This is an extreme theory, but as you can tell, Jan is an extreme sort of guy. But if this theory is true, why besides the cannibalism factor, will the Agori want to go after Western Obviously Jan has an opinion on this too. You know, Shakti is the universal feminine energy in Hinduism, right, and a good analogy to shakti is just money. You can be born with shockti, you can earn it, lose it, it can be stolen from you. And they believe some people know how to make shakti better than others. And for instance, children they believe have a lot of shocked because they didn't use their shockdi yet because they're young. And they also believe that Caucasians have a lot of shocked because that explains partially why Caucasians are so rich and are able to travel around the world. Right, And so they would prefer to sacrifice somebody with shakti, a lot of shakti, because they'll get that shock ti. So they're not only robbing you for your watch. They're robbing you for your Shockti. We've spoken about the destabilizing dangers of India, or the idea that something ominous is lurking beneath the spiritual steak, waiting ready to pounce on an unsuspecting foreigner, sacrificing their mind or their body. If this threat were personified, it would be in a gory, or at least the kind of a gory that Michael jan has described. But I'll be honest, these stories felt like larger than life tales to me, so obviously I pulled a Kita end to ask if she believes these Agori pos as much of a threat to western tourist as Michael claims. And Qita has never reported on the Agori, but this is what she knows from her research and from colleagues you have. I would say that Agoris the minute you talk of them, you immediately think of people who practice tantrik with thea or knowledge of the tantra. I always assumed anything related to tantra was sexual, but in Keita clarifies what tantra VideA is for me. Very strong, possibly even dark powers, and worshiping God's like Kali or Shiva who are associated with very strong, almost reache like emotions, and therefore it is said that their powers are destructive. And therefore it is said that if you are in agory, and if you are trying to develop your powers, then you have to be very careful because not only can you destroy others, you can also destroy yourself. Do you think that these are gory have anything to do with people that have come missing in India? I would not make a correlation there concluding that because gorries a rituals around corpses, they're more likely to kill or come at other crimes. That's like watching a mystery movie and saying that the most dangerous looking person must be the murderer. But that is yeah, I mean, at the end of the movie, it's usually the most innocent person, right, seemingly innocent. But since agory have to do with religion and ristuls and religious people are not supposed to cause harm, they're supposed to be holy and sacred. They are trusted more easily to take undue advantage of that trust and devotion, somebody may adopt the guys off in agorian indulgent crimes. So just because the egory worships something taboo in our culture doesn't necessarily make them dangerous to us. But Akita explains why it might be terrifying for a Westerner to witness one of the Agori's ritualistic acts. It's just an extension of the fear that comes with seeing something that is not seen commonly around you, or seeing something that you do not understand. I asked Keita to fact check Michael stat that two to three Westerners go missing every three to four months in India, which she couldn't find any specific data on, but she did say compared to the States, it's easy for Westerners to get visas in India, so the Indian government is and as concerned with tracking foreigners, which means it's a country where someone could easily fall off the grid. The American agory Gary Stephenson was one of those people. He disappeared in India by choice, but when Yan heard about him, Gary didn't have a choice. There was nothing stopping Jan from seeing for himself. This Texan turned Cannibal Michael Jan as a hero. Legitimately, he served our country in the military and then as a combat correspondent reporting from war zones in Iraq and Afghanistan. There is a moving picture he took of a US Army major cradling an Iraqi girl. She's so small she looks like a doll in his arms. His face is obscured by her wet hair, her fragile body wrapped in a blood soaked blank. Get this child. Farah died on the helicopter ride to the hospital. It was a car bomb that killed her, one of the many bombs Yan experienced at war, and Farah was one of the many children he saw die. This would do a number on anyone. He still has detailed nightmares bought suicide bombings, but he wakes up, puts his blinders on, and gets back to work. He's now focused on fighting the Chinese Communist Party. My point is Jan's trained military, an instinctive manhunter, and when he set his sights on tracking down Gary Stevenson or Gary the Cannibal, as Yan fondly calls him, there was no doubt he would find him. I was able to catch Yan on a car trip he was making through the Redwoods. So the audio isn't great, but Jan filled me in on my Gary, a seemingly normal, hippieish spiritual dude, ended up in India eating people. Dar he's more like walk feel hey, not all hit. These are nice guys, right, like Charles Manson, you know what I mean. Gary Stephenson, a descendant of Robert Louis Stephenson, author of Treasure Island, grew up in Texas in the nineteen fifties and I'll leave it to beaver household. At two years old, he got polio, which left him with a shriveled leg that, according to Jan looked like bone with some skin attached to it. Throughout his life, Gary searched for a way to heal his leg, but he was constantly let down by different ideologies or methods. Gary was set on a spiritual path at fifteen when his mother gave him a copy of Autobiography of a Yogi by a param Hans Yoganand I read the Bible and the clans and autobiography, and they're all promising immortality. They're all promising miracle cures. They're all promising, you know, touched by the Guru and now you're heeled. And so they're all they're all promising the same stuff. One of the big things a religion that's gonna last, As to promise immortality. You don't promise emortality. We're not going to get a lot of people joined up. Gary was influenced by the spiritual truths delivered an autobiography of Yogi and some other themes as well, and the book Autobiography of Yogie. What does he do? Runs away? You know, the child runs away, rows up to Northern India, which is where Gary. Gary eventually ended up in Northern India. But when he ran away from home as a teen due to a toxic relationship with his father, he bounced around, living in hate Ashbury in the sixties, then Taylor Camp, a hippie refuge in Kawaii where people were naked more than not, and then a spiritual pilgrimage made by many seekers at the time. This is Hippieville nineteen sixties, right, This is Uru seeking run off from the hippie trail, who ran through Afghanistan, through Pakistan, India, Nepal and that was the big bickie trail, right, and then someone end up in Thailand. But through all of his travels, which centered mostly on California and why Gary kept coming back to India, He just kept going west west until he was east, right, and it was the same way. It's clear with this religious streams. It was like the frog in the water. Things clearly got more and more. This is normal, This is normal until you know he's finally eating people, I mean really eating people. Come on, it's straight up. You can go to you can go to Varnassi right now. And and I am like ninety percent certain that you could find somebody probably within the first twelve hours that knew him, because I've interviewed a lot of him, I've got him on video, and I've got him on audience. He was he was eating people right in front of people. It's like nobody, nobody's gonna stop you and varn Aussi from doing But that line, if you want to become if you want to become accountable, you can get on an airplane in Atlanta Airport right now, in forty eight hours from now, you can be eating people in Varnassi and nobody's gonna say, shit, you're insane. I'm not gonna do that. You're gonna do it. We're gonna You're gonna do it. I know you're gonna do it. You're gonna do it because you have to do it to make sure it's real. Okay, I go in deep for a story, but there is a definitive line here for me. But that tight rope I've spoken about with enlightenment, that thin line between healing and harm. I'd say that Gary crossed over in harm. But Michael sees the Agorian their rituals differently. I'll take you to India when this pandemic is over, and you will meet Agoye, and I guarantee you you're going to question yourself, is this guy really crazy? Or is this just his religion because this religion goes back at least six hundred years, right? And is it irrational? Is it irrational when you look I'm talking about not from power perspective as Americans, especially from the East Coast as I am from. So for me, it's completely radical and insane, right, But in the context of things I've seen around the world, is it insane? Nope, not even close. Think about it. Salmons are constant in Asia, been thousands of fanis. Nobody could ever possibly count the ball, right, And when it comes to people that starved, the death for people that die in survival famine situations one of the number one reasons why some people survive and some dope is they overcome tabs more quickly. You can have the biggest famine in the world. If there's two people left, the agory is going to be the one that's left standing. This is just my theory. I don't know where it came from. The ability to overcome discussed pretty much. You know, gives you an insurance policy against a lot of disasters. Jan formed a friendship with Gary, one where Yan had to continually look over his shoulder to make sure he wasn't going to be attacked, but ironically also one of respect. When Yan negotiated Gary's released from prison after he tried to stab a man and was charged with a visa violation. Oh and a woman's arm was found in his hut, though he wasn't charged for that. Gary offered to give up cannibalism for him, but at this point Jan doesn't know if that ever happened. After getting him out of jail in India, Jan brought Gary back to the States for a bit, but Gary was able to obtain another ten year India visa, so he flew back and yet again fell off the grid. On Jan's website, he has copies of Gary Stevenson's passport and license, along with photographs that prove that Gary the Cannibal was not just an urban legend, but a man as you've witnessed. Like Gary, Michael, Jan is a memorable character and his stories are intense and sensational, which is something I considered when deciding whether or not to add them to this episode, and something I confronted John about. I'll be honest with you, a lot of the stories with the Cannibals are so extreme. I just continuously want to ground it so that people can actually be on board and not be like, is this really real? Because it is. It's so out there, dude, Oh it's real. An hour after this conversation with Jan, I read about American movie star Army Hammer, who was called out by an X who said the actor told her he wanted to break her rib, then barbecue and eat it. Hammer allegedly asked another partner if he could cut off her toe and keep it as a souvenir. I told Yan I'd found his next cannibal to hunt down, but he declined and said even Gary the Cannibal would think Army Hammer was a creep. Apparently, there is a line in Cannibalism too, and the next episode of Astray, I'll be reporting on someone whose story has affected me more than any I've covered, and because of a connection I made while researching the story, one that's ultimately made me question this entire podcast, like I don't know, I just feel really fel torn about it and even writing his episodes really hard. I'll share that and more on the next episode of A Stray. Many of the logistical facts that I found around Justin Schtler Alexander's disappearance came from a thorough article that Harley Rustad wrote for Outside Magazine in twenty eighteen. Rustad will soon be releasing a book on this called Lost in the Valley of Death. Astray as a production of School of Humans and iHeartRadio. Today's episode of Astray, Justin Alexander Schettler was produced, written, and narrated by Me, Caroline Slaughter and Quita Ananda is my co producer, and Gabby Watts is our supervising producer. With special thanks to our voiceover Van Gunter. Astray was sound produced by Tune Welders, scored by Jason Shannon, and mix by Harper Harris. Executive producers are Elsie Crowley, Brian Lavin, and Brandon Barr, thanks for listening. School of Humans,