OLL LEWIS' FORTEAN FIVES: Andrew Gable

In Fortean Fives the great and the good of Forteana pick out five interesting events from the history of Forteana. If you want to submit your own Fortean 5s email them to Oll Lewis at fortean5s@gmail.com. Today’s Fortean Five are compiled by Andrew Gable, our CFZ-USA rep. for Pennsylvania and Maryland. You can read Andrew’s blog to keep up to date with Fortean events that have occurred in Pennsylvania here: http://masksofmesingw.blogspot.com/.

Take it away, Andrew:

1) The 'kissing bug' panic of summer, 1899. This panic swept the East Coast of the United States, beginning in Washington, DC that June. This was alluded to, but not truly summarized, in Charles Fort's Wild Talents (1932). People became convinced they were being bitten by an insect of some type and the bite usually produced pronounced swelling and in a few cases, even death. As befits a truly Fortean event, the panic encompassed a number of cult-like groups desiring to be bitten by the insects and apocalyptic visions from American ministers, etc. Most of the 'kissing bugs' proved to be common species of assassin bugs, although some of the cases refer to blister beetles, hornets, and even mundane flies. Similar cases persisted for a number of years, eventually dying off.

2) Gef the Talking Mongoose. This poltergeist case, which occurred in a farmhouse near Doarlish Cashen on the Isle of Man in the 1930s, was investigated by Harry Price. In the case, a spectral voice spoke to the family of John and Margaret Irving. It is notable in that a being, apparently cat- or weasel-like (it called itself a deformed mongoose) was seen. It may or may not have been a product of the daughter, Voirrey, supposedly a ventriloquist; Voirrey, though, denied that the Gef case was a hoax and in fact had a hostile, dismissive attitude toward the 'mongoose.'

3) The Bell Witch. The Bell Witch of Tennessee appeared to have a number of similarities to the Gef case. In 1819, the home of John Bell, near Adams, was afflicted by a similar spirit (apparently the ghost of a woman named Kate Batts), which spoke and attacked one of the daughters, Betsy Bell, on numerous occasions. The outbreak was preceded by a sighting in the Bell fields of a dark-coloured animal, which was described as similar to a rabbit-eared dog. The Bell Witch entity is remembered as the only ghost to supposedly kill a man - John Bell was struck ill and later poisoned, apparently at the hands of the 'witch.'

4) Montie the Monster. Montie was some sort of leaping, dark-coloured, lion-faced entity that killed rabbits and chickens, and roamed the area of Sheep's Hill Road, south of Pottstown, Pennsylvania, in 1945. Montie had been preceded, though, by a number of other entities in the same general area: something called the Dorlan Devil in 1937, a leaping man-beast near Lyndell in 1932, and others... all of which suggest that a monstrous creature was roaming rural Chester county in the WWII era. A nudist sex cult known as the Battle-Axes of the Lord was present in the neighbouring Free Love Valley, and an unsolved murder - and suicide - also occurred near Sheep's Hill. Was it a cryptozoological terror or a transmuted ghost?

5) The Thunderbirds of Pennsylvania. The fact that I attended college in the area these birds frequent (Clinton and Lycoming counties in north-central Pennsylvania) causes me to give them a bit more credence than I do other thunderbird reports. I have no doubt some sort of large bird could exist, apparently water-going and (usually) unseen by man, in the woods of that section of the state - truly wilderness for the most part. The fact that fossilized condors have been found in New York state strengthens the case for the birds.

OLL LEWIS'S FORTEAN FIVES: Richard Freeman

In Fortean Fives the great and the good of Forteana pick out Five interesting events from the history of Forteana. If you want to submit your own Fortean Five, email it to Oll Lewis at fortean5s@gmail.com. Today’s Fortean Five are compiled by Richard Freeman, a man who needs no introduction, making this paragraph redundant. What are you doing still reading this purply-coloured bit? Go forth and read Richard’s rather spiffing Fortean 5. Take it away, Richard....

THE KILLER SEA SERPENT OF PENSACOLA
One sunny morning, on 25th March 1962, a group of children were walking along a beach several miles from Pensacola, Florida. They came upon what they thought was the drowned body of a teenage boy. To their amazement, the youth was still alive, albeit barely. He was rushed to Pensacola Naval Base Hospital suffering from shock, exposure and exhaustion. He was identified as Edward Brian McCleary who had been missing since the previous morning along with four friends. When he was strong enough he spoke to the Director of Search and Rescue Units, E.E McGovern. His story was truly amazing; like something from a horror novel. McCleary claimed his companions had been killed by a sea serpent.

It began on the morning of 24th March 1962 when Edward, along with Eric Rule, Warren Sulley, Brad Rice and Larry Bill, set out to go diving at the wreck of the Massachusetts, several miles off the coast of Pensacola. As they rowed out on their 7-foot Air Force life raft, they found that the tide was stronger than they had anticipated. Storm clouds began to gather and the boys decided to turn back. Several of them swam behind the raft and pushed it. As the waves grew higher, swamping the raft, they swam to a 20-foot buoy and clambered onto its metal scaffolding.

In the violent storm that followed the raft was sucked under and the buoy was rocked by lashing winds and icy rain. Finally the maelstrom passed and a fog rolled in as the sea became mill-pool-calm. A foul smell akin to dead fish filled the air. A strange whining cry echoed through the dark. Then something as long as a telegraph pole reared up out of the water and plunged back in.
The boys panicked and jumped off the raft. Behind them they heard hissing and splashing. Suddenly Warren yelled out “Help me! It’s got Brad, its got Brad.”

Warren’s cries were abruptly cut short. The three remaining boys huddled together and tried to swim for shore. Then something grabbed Larry from below and dragged him under. Eric was becoming exhausted, and Edward tried to help him stay afloat but the sea, now turning choppy again, pulled them apart.

Then a monstrous reptilian beast reared up from the deep. It had a snake-like neck, gleaming green eyes and a gaping maw that fell down on Eric and dragged him under.

Swimming for his life and expecting to feel the sea dragon’s teeth in his flesh at any moment, Edward became exhausted and felt the tranquillity of death take over him. He recalled nothing further until he was in hospital. Unsurprisingly he suffered a breakdown afterwards. The police decided it would be better for them all if they kept the sea dragon out of their official report, but E. E. McGovern said to Edward “The sea has a lot of secrets. There are a lot of things we don’t know about. People don’t believe in these things because they are afraid to. Yes I believe you. But there’s not much else I can do.”

WENDIGO PSYCHOSIS
The Wendigo is known by many names. The beast itself is supposed to be a pallid, emaciated giant. Some say it has a skeleton and a heart of ice. The Wendigo is generally hairless save for a wild mane of white hair about the head. Its eyes are owl-like or sunken with glimmering points of light like indigo stars. The gaping lipless mouth is fringed with teeth like a forest of icicles. The beast is a personification of hunger and winter. It thirsts endlessly for human flesh and with each person it devours it gets larger so that its ravening appetite is never sated. It is constantly hungry and constantly searching for prey. Some say the Wendigo can fly or ‘walk on the winds’, travelling miles in search of its human prey.

Although a Canadian monster in the main, alleged sightings have been made far away from Canada.

But this dire spirit is doubly dangerous as it can also possess human beings. Once a person has tasted human flesh, they will kill again and again to satisfy their unnatural hunger. If a possessed person is caught early the process can be reversed and the spirit driven out by turning the victim on a spit above a fire. But if the possession has progressed too far there is only one course of action: to kill the victim. Those possessed were usually shot, strangled or beheaded. After death the body was generally burned in the belief that the cannibal’s heart of ice needed to be melted to ensure that it was dead.

So runs the folklore of the Wendigo. Yet like so many legendary creatures the Wendigo and its baleful influence seems to manifest in the real world. Cases of possession by the Wendigo - known as Wendigo Psychosis - are well attested, and could fill a hefty volume. These are just a tiny sample.

The best known case of Wendigo Psychosis occurred in Alberta in 1879. It gained notoriety in newspapers across Canada and the US. A plains Cree hunter called Swift Runner wandered into a Catholic mission in St Albert. He claimed that his whole family had starved during the harsh winter. The priests became suspicious when Swift Runner began to scream out in his sleep, plagued with nightmares. He also looked very fit and well nourished for a man who had supposedly almost starved to death. He told the priests that he was being tormented by a Wendigo.

The priests reported their suspicions to the police who took Swift Runner to his camp in the forest northeast of Edmonton. There they found the bones of his family. Every scrap of flesh had been gnawed from them and even the marrow sucked from the bones. He did not eat them out of desperation: there was plenty of food at the Hudson Bay Company post only 25 miles away; no distance at all, even in winter, for a Cree hunter; this was true Wendigo Psychosis, an overwhelming desire to eat human flesh. He told Father Hippolyte Leduc, “I am the least of men and I do not merit even being called a man.”

A contemporary photograph of Swift Runner shows a haunted-looking man staring blankly as snow swirls around him.

BATTLE WITH THE ALMASTYS
In the autumn of 1925 Major General Mikhail Topilsky and his scouting party were tracking down a group of anti-Soviet guerrillas operating in the Western Pamirs. The guerrillas were trying to shake them off by heading to Sinkiang via the Eastern Pamirs. On their way through the Vanch district, the Major and his men heard stories of man-like monsters in the mountains but dismissed them as folklore.

A little later on they came across what looked like tracks made by bare human feet in the permanent snowline. The band’s dog refused to follow the scent. They ran across the path and some 150 metres to a sheer cliff that no human could climb. At this point they found dung that contained dry berries.

Continuing their pursuit, the Major and his men caught up with the guerrillas in a cave. A glacier had been split apart by a stone cliff and the upper tongue of the glacier overhung it. The cave was in the stone cliff. The men surrounded the cave and put up a machine gun. One of the men tossed a grenade in the direction of the cave. Shortly after, one of the guerrillas ran out shouting at them to stop. He said that any more shooting would cause the ice to cave in.

The Major demanded that they surrender and the man asked for time to talk it over with his colleagues. He returned to the cave but soon after, an ominous hissing noise began. Fearing an attack the machine gunner opened fire.

Splinters of ice began to cascade down and fell upon the fugitives as they tried to escape from the mouth of the cave. Three of the men were killed by falling ice and two more by bullets. One man was wounded but survived. He turned out to be an Uzbek tea-house owner from Samarkand. When questioned he told a strange story.

Whilst they had been discussing the Major’s order of surrender they had been attacked by a group of hairy, man-like beasts howling inarticulately and wielding clubs. The creatures had clubbed one man to death and attacked the others. The survivor had been beaten on the shoulder. He had fled from the cave entrance with the monster in pursuit. The wildman had been killed in the hail of fire, and buried under the falling ice.

They cleared away the debris and found the creature dead with its club nearby. It had been shot three times. The team’s doctor made an examination of the body and it was clearly not a human, but it did not seem like an ape either.

Topilsky described it thus:

“The body belonged to a male creature 165-175 centimetres (5 feet 4 inches to five feet 5 inches) tall, elderly or even old, judging by the greyish colour of the hair in several places. The chest was covered with brownish hair and the belly with greyish hair. The hair was longer but sparser on the chest and close-cropped and thick on the belly. In general the hair was very thick, without any underfur. There was least hair on the buttocks, from which fact our doctor deduced the creatures sat like a human being. There was most hair on the hips. The knees were completely devoid of hair and had callous growths on them. The whole foot including the sole was quite hairless, and covered with a hard brown skin. The shoulders and arms were also covered with hair which got thinner near the hands and the palms had none at all, only callous skin.
The colour of the face was dark and the creature had neither beard of moustache. The back of the head was covered by thick, matted hair. The dead creature lay with its eyes open and its teeth bared. The eyes were dark and the teeth were large and even and shaped like human teeth. The forehead was slanting and the eyebrows were very powerful. The prominent cheekbones made the face resemble the Mongol type of face. The nose was flat, with a deeply sunk bridge. The ears were hairless and looked a little more pointed than a human being’s with a longer lobe. The lower jaw was very massive.

"The creature had a very powerful broad chest and well developed muscles. We didn’t find any anatomical differences between it and a man. The genetalia were like a man’s. The arms were of normal length, the hands were slightly wider and the feet much wider and shorter than a man’s.”

The last surviving rebel died two days later. Topilsky and his team thought of skinning the creature but it looked too much like a man. Instead they buried it were they found it. Fear of another cave-in stopped them investigating the cavern.

The group moved south, crossed a river and left the mountains. Later they met with local people known as the Baluchi who were amazed that the soldiers had come down from such a place inhabited by man-like monsters.

THE SLIT-MOUTHED WOMAN PANIC
Legend has it that centuries ago, during the Heian Period (794-1185), there was a beautiful woman who was the wife or concubine of a samurai. But the woman cheated on her lover and the enraged samurai slit open the sides of her mouth, leaving her with a gaping maw and telling her that “No one will find you beautiful now.”

She was supposed to have become a yokai and the story goes that she still wanders around on foggy nights to this day. Kuchisake-onna, ‘the slit mouthed woman’, is said to cover her mouth with a surgical mask. She approaches victims (usually children) and asks, “Do you think I am beautiful?” If they answer yes then she removes her mask and reveals the jagged tear that extends her lips all the way into her cheeks. She again asks, “Do you think I am beautiful?” If the victim answers either yes or no the Kuchisake-onna will attack them and slash open their mouths with a knife or scalpel so that the resulting wound resembles the mouth of the Kuchisake-onna. Reputedly, there are two ways of stopping her attacking. One is to answer her question by saying “you look normal to me” or by offering her a piece of candy.

The Kuchisake-onna has become one of the most well known urban legends in modern Japan. She seems to have stepped out of mythology and into the modern era in the 1970s. New stories of her origins emerged to fit in with the times. In 1979 rumours abounded in Japan that the slit-mouthed woman was hunting down children. The scare stories spread via playground lore and within one year had covered most of urban Japan. She has even travelled abroad: in 2004 a similar scare occurred in South Korea.

Kuchisake-onna even became the subject of a record. ‘Catch Kuchisake-onna’ was recorded by Pomâdo & Kometiô on King Records in August 1979 and featured a trio of girl singers wearing surgical masks. The single was not released, however, due to the fact that the advertising director of King Records had received a phone call from a woman claiming to be the Kuchisake-onna herself and accusing the company of trying to profit from her ‘distinct physical characteristics’! In 2005 the single was released as part of a CD from Teichiku Entertainment.

THE DRAGONS OF ALONG BAY
From July 1897 to 1904 marine creatures strongly resembling dragons were reported from Along Bay, Vietnam. The French gunboat Avalanche was the first to encounter them. A Lieutenant Lagresill described how he and his crew watched a pair of grey and black serpentine animals some sixty-five feet long. They sported saw-like crests running along the spine and blew jets of vapor from their nostrils. This last detail recalls the rain-bringing breath of Asian dragons. Revolving guns were fired at them from a range of six hundred yards but seemingly had no effect on the animals whatsoever. The Avalanche gave chase but was outpaced by the creatures.

Lieutenant Lagresill was laughed at by many of his fellow officers when he recounted his story a week later at a reception for the Governor General of Indo-China. He invited the naysayers to return to Along Bay with him. Lagresill was vindicated when the animals returned in front of a collection of officers, who watched them for thirty-five minutes from the deck of the Avalanche.

In his own words:

“Undoubtedly these animals, known and feared by the Annamites, must have provided the idea of the Dragon, which modified and amplified by legend, has been, if I may so term it heraldized into their national emblem.”

Admiral de la Bedolliere of the French Navy wanted to try and capture a specimen but a diplomatic crisis in China saw to it that his plan was never carried out.

Another one of these beasts was seen from the Vauban the following year. Jean Baptist, a marine guard, noted scaly skin and a snake like head.

The Charles-Hardouin was on passage from Nantes to Hong Kong when in December 1903 it ran into a latter-day sea dragon. The helmsman wrote:

'I think that the Taiwan embroidered the beast on Imperial and Annamite is just a stylized version of this animal.'

Later the same year a number of passengers on board the Gueydon observed the dragon.

On February 14th 1904, Lieutenant Peron saw the serpent of Along Bay from the steam launch Chateau-Renault. He observed the sixty-foot serpentine creature shoot jets of vapour from its nostrils.

A fortnight after Peron’s sighting another gunboat - the La Decidee - met with a monster that Lieutenant L’Eost and his crew estimated to be one hundred feet in length.

Finally, in May 1904 the Gueydon met again with the dragon off Along Bay. On this occasion, over one hundred people saw the creature.

OLL LEWIS'S FORTEAN FIVES: Dr Chris Clark

In Fortean Fives the great and the good of Forteana pick out five interesting events from the history of Forteana. If you want to submit your own Fortean 5s email it to Oll Lewis at fortean5s@gmail.com. Today’s Fortean Five is compiled by Dr Chris Clark. Chris will be familiar to you as an explorer and mainstay of CFZ expeditions and as an expedition coordinator. Take it away Chris:

Multiple Suns

The appearance of two suns in the sky sounds more than merely Fortean; rather something from the Book of Revelations, one of the signs and wonders that announce the Second Coming, a dire event that follows the opening of one of the seven seals. It is understandable then that in March this year the appearance of two suns over a part of China caused some Internet excitement.

This very rare effect involves the appearance of a second image of the sun, of very similar size and brightness, typically one or two degrees away, and commonly when the sun is just above the horizon. The image may be alongside the true sun or above it; sometimes there is more than one false sun (up to nine have been reported), and there have also been sightings of multiple images of the moon and even one of the planet Venus. Minnaert, in his book Light and Colour in the Open Air, doubted its reality in the early editions, but was forced to change his mind when drawings and photographs became available. Corliss, in the Rare Halos, Mirages, Anomalous Rainbows… Catalog cites a number of reports, most observed at sea, and involving altitudes of the sun and moon above the horizon as high as 25°.

It should be stressed that this does not refer to the ‘sun dogs’ or ‘mock suns’, caused by reflections of the sun from ice crystals. This is a fairly common effect (I have seen it twice) and easily identified: the sun dogs appear, usually as a pair with one on each side of the sun, as part of a bright ring at an angle of 22° around the sun.

Logically, if two suns are seen at one place, we might expect no sun to be visible at another, but this, if it happens, has never been reported. Presumably multiple images of the sun or moon must be the consequence of some abnormal refraction effect, of the sort that produces mirages, Fata Morgana, and the curious ‘looming’ effect that can make islands out at sea appear large and close when seen from the shore. Nevertheless it is extraordinarily hard to see how as many as nine clear and distinct images can be generated; perhaps the abrupt density changes associated with cold fronts, or the pattern of convection cells that can form in warm weather, may cause multiple paths. Certainly the experts consulted about the China sighting were baffled, and I know of not a single paper on the subject.

The Tunguska Event

In June 1908 a colossal explosion took place in a very remote region of Siberia. The exact power of the explosion, which blew down trees over an 80-square-mile area, is impossible to establish, but it seems to have been in the 5 to 30 megaton range. It must have taken months for the news to reach Moscow; the Tsarist government took no action, and it was not until 1927, when the chaos of World War I, the Bolshevik Revolution and the Civil War had died down, that an expedition was sent. Although the site was still devastated, with fallen trees pointing away from the site of the blast, there was no sign of any impact crater, and the damage seems to have been done by a massive airburst.

Many ideas, some of them rather wild, have been put forward to explain the nature of the blast: an antimatter meteorite; a quantum black hole; even an alien spaceship blowing up on landing! However, the discovery of tiny particles of iron with a high proportion of nickel in the soil and the fallen trees suggested a meteorite; the discovery of traces of iridium, a heavy metal very rare on earth but often found in meteors, strengthened this. Nevertheless, it was not obvious why a solid stone meteor should explode at high altitude instead of reaching the ground and forming a crater, and there were suggestions that a comet, or at least a fragment of one, could be responsible. Now that we understand that many asteroids are merely loose aggregations of pebbles held together by a weak gravitational attraction the meteor idea becomes more plausible; calculations show that even a solid stony object can be broken up by high pressures in the atmosphere before it reaches the ground. On the other hand, the observation of a bright column of light in the sky for ten minutes before the explosion suggests that a detached fragment of the object hit the Earth first: the Shoemaker-Levy comet that hit Jupiter was preceded by similar fragments pulled off by tidal stresses. The high metal concentration is also hard to square with a stony meteorite, and it may be that a comet, or the nucleus of one, is still a possibility.

It is worth noting one more thing: if the object had arrived five hours later it would have hit the outskirts of St Petersburg. And if it had impacted during one of the more fractious periods of the Cold War instead of 1908….

The Moving Coffins of Barbados

In 2007, on our way back from searching for giant anacondas in Guyana, the CFZ team made a stopover in Barbados. While we there we inspected the tomb of the Chase family in Christ Church graveyard, famous for its ‘creeping coffins’. In the early nineteenth century several members of the family were buried here. The first two burials, in 1807 and 1808, happened without incident. However, when the tomb, built out of large cemented blocks, was opened for a third burial in 1812 it was found that the two coffins, encased in lead, had been flung against the wall. There was no disturbance to the dust on the floor. The coffins were replaced and the third burial took place. The fourth burial, that of plantation owner Thomas Chase who had purchased the tomb for his family, was only a month later, but the same disorder was seen; from then on, whenever the vault was opened for another burial, the coffins were found in state of disarray. In 1819 the Governor of Barbados himself checked for secret entrances, placed seals on the vault and scattered sand on the floor to detect intrusion; yet when he checked nine months later the coffins had moved again, and there was no sign of footprints. After this the Governor ordered the tomb to be emptied and the coffins reburied: they have apparently been content to remain where they are ever since. It is hard to imagine any explanation, short of an elaborate conspiracy, to explain this one.

Ball Lightning

In the town of Khabarovsk (USSR), in the summer of 1978, a ball of orange light about 1.5 m diameter appeared over a local cinema and was observed for a full minute as it descended to the street, When it finally exploded it caused a crater 1.5 m across and 20-25 cm deep. The estimated energy release was about one billion Joules, or enough to completely evaporate half a ton of water. This is the most spectacular example of ball lightning so far observed, but very far from the only one. A paper published in 1993 gave examples of over 3200 distinct sightings.

The cause remains a complete mystery, though it engaged the interest of (among many others), the famous Russian physicist and Nobel Prize winner Peter Kapitza. The same paper mentions a discussion in a Soviet technical journal which produced 138 different explanations! Since most sightings are associated with thunderstorms, an explanation in terms of plasma physics has always been preferred (and I can certainly produce something that looks like ball lightning, though it presumably isn’t, in my microwave oven using nothing more than a candle). Since wiring was damaged up to 150 m from the explosion in the Khabarovsk case this would suggest an electromagnetic pulse, but there is no explanation of how the air can remain ionised for the long (10 – 60 seconds) duration of ball lightning, instead of the milliseconds typical of plasmas. Other causes suggested include antimatter, a fractal state of matter called an aerogel, and even the elusive Dirac magnetic monopole. The recent discovery of positron annihilation gamma radiation in the aftermath of violent lightning strikes suggests that antimatter can actually be created: so if you do see ball lightning, treat it with respect.

The Annemarie Schneider Poltergeist

The paranormal is a huge disappointment to those who, like me, would like to believe. Telepathy retreats ever further into a statistical limbo of analysis and meta-analysis (as Rutherford said “If your experiment needs statistics, you ought to have done a better experiment”). Psychokinesis scarcely ever occurs under properly controlled conditions; certainly I have never heard of anyone being barred from Las Vegas casinos for winning vast sums at the craps tables using their PK powers. Precognition seems to be as bogus as every other form of prophecy; Soal, who spent years investigating it, was reduced in the end to cheating out of sheer frustration. As for teleportation, which Charles Fort seems to have invented as a joke, there is not even bad evidence that anyone ever teleported or ever will.

Out of the vast pile of debris that constitutes the paranormal library, one phenomenon seems to remain standing: poltergeists. There are far too many accounts to even list, but one in particular stands out : the Rosenheim poltergeist or, since all the effects were associated with one adolescent girl (as they so often are), perhaps it should be called the Annemarie Schneider poltergeist. The events centred round the office of a Bavarian lawyer called Sigmund Adam. They began in 1967 with a series of telephone calls, at a rate sometimes of several per minute, apparently made from the office. The calls continued when all the telephones were locked, only Adam himself holding the key. There were a range of electrical problems, involving exploding light bulbs, blown fuses and lights that went on and off by themselves. The power company and the telephone company could find no problems with the equipment. Objects began to move, apparently of their own accord. When a paranormal investigator and two physicists were brought in they noted that the events only occurred when a young secretary, Annemarie Schneider, was present. Schneider apparently had just come out of a difficult relationship, and anyone who attended the talk ‘Sex and the Single Poltergeist’ at the last Unconvention will remember the link between poltergeist activity and sexual tensions in adolescents. The case became internationally famous: I remember reading about it in the British newspapers at the time. Despite the attention of journalists, police and investigators the effects continued, and did not end until Schneider herself left. It is worth noting that no-one claimed to have seen her faking anything. Unfortunately no illusionists or magicians seem to have checked on her, so the possibility of fraud by an attention-seeking neurotic remains, but it would be remarkable if a teenage girl could have replicated the sort of effects associated with skilled mediums who are allowed to set the terms under which they work.

OLL LEWIS' FORTEAN FIVES: J T Lindroos

In Fortean Fives the great and the good of Forteana pick out Five interesting events from the history of Forteana. If you want to submit your own Fortean Five email it to Oll Lewis at fortean5s@gmail.com. Today’s Fortean Five is complied by J.T. Lindroos. J.T. runs the Point Blank Press publishing house and is also a rather superb designer as you can see here: http://jtlindroos.posterous.com/ . Take it away J.T.


1. The Well to Hell
http://www.truthorfiction.com/rumors/d/drilltohellfacts.htm

The story went around in the early '90s how Russians had drilled a 14.5-mile borehole next to the border of Finland and cracked the Earth's shell direct into Hell. This tale has it all: from subterranean mysteries and hollow earth theories to theology, ultraterrestrials, Edgar Rice Burroughs with overtones from my favourite short story ever, Arthur Conan Doyle's When the World Screamed.

2. Philip K. Dick and the Pink Beam
http://www.scribd.com/doc/3230/Robert-Crumb-The-Religious-Experience-of-Philip-K-Dick
The wealth of brilliant writing that sprouted from this event alone would be enough to qualify it to the top 5. What makes it more significant is PKD's ability to speculate on the event itself, to consider all open options about its significance and its randomness, to make a valid case for opposing answers to the mystery, and to turn it loose on the world. Not to mention that it also resulted in a Robert Crumb comic book.

3. Dean Radin bends a spoon
http://www.deanradin.com/spoon.htm
A trivial incident that conceptually hits a nerve. Accidental, believable, unexplainable and unrepeatable.

4. The Great Thunderstorm of Widecombe-in-the-Moor
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Great_Thunderstorm,_Widecombe
Ever since I read the Tintin adventure Seven Crystal Balls, I've had a fascination with ball lightning. This 1638 event was so dramatic and the reaction to it so speculative that it is perfect as a representation of the narrow bridge between mystery and nature, and how they intermingle. That we still don't understand the phenomenon, that we haven't even got decent documentation of it, enforces the fact that the universe is much more mysterious than we often give it credit for.

5. Patterson-Gimlin film
http://www.bigfootencounters.com/files/mk_davis_pgf.gif
I don't want to hear another word about it, be it speculation or 'facts' or anecdotes. But it remains a fascinating piece of history; a question without an answer, yet one you can actually see for yourself. Singular and suffused with a sense of wonder.

OLL LEWIS' FORTEAN FIVES: Andrew May

In Fortean Fives the great and the good of Forteana pick out Five interesting events from the history of Forteana. If you want to submit your own Fortean Five email it to Oll Lewis at fortean5s@gmail.com. Todays Fortean Five is compiled by Andrew May, who writes the Forteana Blog and compiles our round-ups of international CFZ activities. Take it away, Andrew:

[1] The appearance of a young Uri Geller on the Dimbleby Talk-In (23 November 1973). The show was memorable not just for Geller's (at the time completely new) stage act, but for the fact that Professor John Taylor of King's College London, brought on as a sceptical scientist, was completely taken in by it all, and underwent a quasi-religious conversion in front of the TV cameras! A couple of years later I went to a lecture by Prof. Taylor on the paranormal, and he was still a complete believer in it.

[2] The premiere of Ray Santilli's Alien Autopsy film at the Museum of London (5 May 1995). To anyone with any experience of the field the footage was an obvious hoax, and yet it was lapped up by the public and the media because -- just at that moment -- it filled a desperate need created by a combination of the X-Files and pre-millennial tension. BUFORA staked its reputation on the film's authenticity... and when it was shown to be a hoax, British ufology died its much-publicized death!

[3] The death of Princess Diana (31 August 1997). I was tempted to write "the assassination of Princess Diana", but she wasn't assassinated -- she died in a road traffic accident. This inconvenient fact doesn't stop the conspiracy theorists, however... and also a surprisingly large number of "ordinary people" who refuse to believe that a famous person is capable of dying an accidental death! It's this refusal to believe the obvious that transforms the event from something mundane into something Fortean.

[4] The revelation of the Third Secret of Fatima (26 June 2000). This was a mystery that had been speculated on for a long time (the original vision occurred in 1917, and the "secret" was written down and sealed in 1944)... and it's the kind of mystery that is only interesting as long as it remains a mystery! The fun was spoiled in the year 2000 when Pope John Paul II authorized publication of the secret. Conspiracy theorists refuse to believe that the published version is the "true" secret, of course -- although personally I'm sure it is.

[5] The "Da Vinci Code trial" -- Baigent and Leigh, claimants, versus the Random House Group, defendant (trial started on 27 Feb 2006). There was a time when The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail was a book known only to Forteans and New Agers, but its popularity was boosted first by Dan Brown's blockbuster The Da Vinci Code, and then by Baigent and Leigh's lawsuit accusing The Da Vinci Code of plagiarism. During the trial it became clear that the judge, Justice Peter Smith, knew a lot more about HBHG than Dan Brown did (he'd actually read it from cover to cover, for example) and his final judgment is a more entertaining read than The Da Vinci Code (it even contains its own coded message... probably a first in English Law)!

Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.9

FORTEAN FIVES: Hunt Emerson

In Forean Fives the great and the good of Forteana pick out Five interesting events from the history of Forteana. If you want to submit your own Fortean Five email it to Oll Lewis at fortean5s@gmail.com . Today’s Fortean Five was compiled by Hunt Emerson. Hunt is the Fortean Times cartoonist and amongst other things, works for the Beano. Take it away, Hunt:

1. My very own UFO sighting sometime in the late 90s: I saw an unmarked wedge-shaped craft flying quite low over Handsworth, Birmingham, travelling south. Several years later I had confirmation of this from someone who wrote to FT reporting the same craft further south in England, at a time later that would account for its direction and speed of travel. I believe it was a stealth bomber, which in those days was a rare thing. Although explained, it was at the time a UFO and has entered "the literature" as such. I'm afraid I can't give a date for this.

2. I've always liked the story of the Voyage of Saint Brendan, across the North Atlantic in a leather boat with 8 monks, during which they encountered all manner of strange and interesting creatures.

3. I love the tale of the image of Christ that appeared as vague marks on a white painted wall in Mexico (?) and attracted crowds of supplicants and the prayerful, before being recognized as a Willie Nelson Concert poster that had been whitewashed over and then partially showed itself through the paint.

4. Similar story of the face of Christ (or possibly image of the BVM) that appeared on the door of a large refrigerator standing on a porch somewhere in the southern states of the USA, in the reflections of a porch light that was turned on in the evening. Again, it attracted crowds of worshippers, to the annoyance of the householder, who finally dealt with the phenomenon by moving the fridge.

5. Everybody's going to groan when I say this, but my fifth choice is Uri Geller. I stood two feet behind his left shoulder and watched him bend someone's door key. Now, I've no doubt that there's some accepted explanation for this trick, but I don't know what it is, and I saw it happen. With my own eyes. (Not that that's anything to go by....)