RENDLESHAM: tHE MoviE Bringing Britain's Roswell to the the WorlD’s WeirDest neWs stories cinema screen muslims discovered america • changeling children • monster moustache

THE WORLD OF STRANGE PHENOMENA WWW.FORTEANTiMES.cOM THE WORLD OF STRANGE PHENOMENA WWW.FORTEANTiMES.cOM FORTEAN TiMES 324

FT324 February 2015 £4.25 seeing fairies NicHOLA S ROERicH OCCULT AND THE SEARcH theAGlost ENThistory of

FOR fis SHAMBHALA OF THE • RENDLESHAM:

THE EAST MO ViE

• Nicholas RoERich GHOST aNd thE sEaRch foR iN

THE thE hiddEN kiNgdom MiLKiNG of shambhala MAcHiNE • MUSLiMS "i'm not a conspiracy DiScO theorist, but..." VERED why are we still so AMERicA sceptical about conspiracies?

ghost in the (milking) machine a poltergeist outbreak on an FEBRUAR australian farm Y 2015

Fortean Times 324

strange days

Another combusting Indian baby, return of Planet X, djinn on the increase, Muslims discovered America, changeling children, Turin Shroud update, Katie Melua’s spider inside her and other unwanted guests – plus much more. CONTENTS 05 THE CONSPIRASPHERE 16 GHOSTWATCH 12 SCIENCE 21 ALIEN ZOO the world of strange phenomena 14 ARCHAEOLOGY 23 MYTHCONCEPTIONS 15 CLASSICAL CORNER 26 THE UFO FILES

features

COVER STORY 28 NICHOLAS ROERICH: SEEKER OF SHAMBHALA GARY LACHMAN delves into the many lives of Nicholas Roerich – artist, explorer, archæologist and guru – and his extraordinary campaign to start a political and spiritual

MUSEUM revolution based on the ancient myths of a mysterious hidden kingdom in northern Asia ROERICH S 36 I’M NOT A CONPSIRACY THEORIST, BUT... NICHOLA 28 SEEKER OF SHAMBHALA Why do mainstream media and academic research The many lives of Nicholas Roerich continue to promote scepticism about conspiracy theories in a world where we know that conspiracies take place on a regular basis? MATTHEW DENTITH argues that we are all conspiracy theorists now – whether we like it or not.

40 GHOST IN THE (MILKING) MACHINE There were odd goings-on down on Wilkinson’s farm in Tarcutta, New South Wales, back in 1949. PAUL CROPPER and TONY HEALY investigate the strange case of the haunted cowshed… one that baffled agricultural experts, scientists, magicians and the Australian Prime Minister. reports

46 NEIL JORDAN: SEARCHING IN DREAMS An interview with the director 48 DICTIONARY OF THE DAMNED No 59. Refl ections on forteanism

GES 66 IF YOU GO DOWN TO THE WOODS TODAY... STEVENS IMA Bringing the Rendlesham Forest Incident to the screen TY

GETTY MAR 76 STORIES FROM THE ILLUSTRATED POLICE NEWS 36 I’M NOT A CONSPIRACY THEORIST, BUT... 21 FAREWELL, FRANK AND LOUIE No 37. The murder of a fortune-teller? Why are we sceptical about conspiracies? A remarkable two-faced cat passes on forum

53 Stoned in Suffolk by Peter McCue 54 Charles Fort’s notes liberated by Bob Rickard regulars GES IMA 02 EDITORIAL 75 IT HAPPENED TO ME GETTY 66 IF YOU GO DOWN TO THE WOODS TODAY 12 WORLD’S LONGEST MOUSTACHE 57 REVIEWS 79 PHENOMENOMIX Putting the Rendlesham Incident on film The winner by more than a whisker 71 LETTERS 80 STRANGE DEATHS

COVER: NICHOLAS ROERICH MUSEUM/ETIENNE GILFILLAN FT324 1 www.forteantimes.com Fortean Times

editor dAVid SUttoN ([email protected]) foUNdiNg editorS bob rickArd ([email protected]) pAUl SieVekiNg ([email protected]) Art director etieNNe gilfillAN ([email protected]) editorial book reViewS editor VAl SteVeNSoN ([email protected]) reSideNt cArtooNiSt HUNt emerSoN Conspiracy central SUbScriptioN eNqUirieS ANd bAck iSSUeS www.subsinfo.co.uk [email protected]

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FinAncE DiREcTOR BRETT REYNOLDS ExEcUTivE DiREcTOR KERIN O’CONNOR But to the simple fact that conspiracies Why fortean? cHiEF ExEcUTivE jAMES TYE – and, indeed, attempts to cover them up – cOMPAnY FOUnDER FELIX DENNIS Everything you always wanted to happen, we should add a not unrelated one: Member of the Audit Bureau of Circulations. know about Fortean Times but Circulation 17,024 (jan-Dec 2011) that we exist in a cultural climate in which were too paranoid to ask! Printed in the UK. ISSN: 0308 5899 distrust of the political mainstream has © Fortean Times: jANUARY 2015 reached heights (or should that be depths?) SEE PAGE 78

2 FT324 www.forteantimes.com

a digest of the worldwide weird strangedays Second burning Indian baby

Spontaneous infant combustion, Munchausen syndrome by proxy or dodgy building materials?

An Indian Dalit (‘untouchable’) a three-year-old daughter, woman whose baby boy allegedly Narmadha, were driven out ‘spontaneously combusted’ has of their village in Villipuram had a second child go up in district, 200km (124 miles) south flames. Rajeshwari Karnan, then of Chennai, after news of their 23, was put under heavy public first burning baby became public. scrutiny in 2013 after her first Neighbours suspected them of son, Rahul (pictured at right, deliberately setting fire to the with Rajeshwari), burst into baby, and the father’s family also flames four times, leaving the kicked them out after Rahul went infant with burns to his head, up in flames for the third time. chest and thighs. The fires started While doctors raised concerns happening when he was just nine that Rahul could have been the days old and continued for over victim of abuse, possibly a case of two months. While doctors carried Munchausen syndrome by proxy, out numerous tests, they were there was reportedly no evidence never able to prove whether or of damage to his internal not it was spontaneous human organs, and his father, Dalit combustion [FT307:18]. farm labourer Karnan Perumal, A theory to account for SHC insisted that he and his wife put forward in 2011 postulated would never be “crazy [enough] that a disordered metabolism to burn our own baby”. Another could lead to ketosis (the explanation suggested for the excessive formation in the body burned children was the building of ketone or acetone bodies, material used in the family’s due to incomplete oxidation village. Several homes burned of fats). Highly inflammable to the ground in 2004 because of acetone could then gather in highly flammable phosphorous the fatty tissues and be ignited used in the buildings, a fact by a static spark from fabric or confirmed by local fire officials. hair-combing [FT283:9]. However, Mumbai Mirror, 18 Aug 2013;

india tests showed that acetone levels Times of India, The Hindu, 19 Jan; in Rahul’s blood were negligible, news.com.au, 20 Jan 2015.

rcroft and moreover there was “no ba / feasible amount” of methane • There was a similar case in g or ethanol gas emission to China in 1990, when a four-year- than account for the fires, according na old boy called Tong Tangjiang to the head of the pædiatrics and had five per cent burns on caught fire and was rushed department at Kilpauk Medical his feet. Tests were run and the Her first son, to hospital in the southern College in Chennai, south India, baby was due to be monitored by province of Hunan, where he where the child was treated. The surveillance cameras for a month Rahul, burst spontaneously ignited four times mysterious fires stopped after while he was in the neonatal in two hours. His mother said doctors advised the parents to intensive care unit of Kilpauk into flames he had set fire to a mattress keep Rahul hydrated, in an air- Medical College. Rajeshwari and narrowly missed setting his conditioned environment, and to said she found him on fire after four times grandmother’s hair on fire when dress him in cotton clothes. returning from the bathroom. “I she got too close. The child was This year, Rajeshwari once had gone to use the bathroom only completely comfortable again turned up in hospital with which is just behind the house. doused him with water and when naked [FT55:25]. another burned baby boy, who When I was coming back, I heard rushed to the local hospital,” she For a discussion of the various reportedly caught fire on 15 my baby screaming and ran in said. theories put forward to account January when he was six days old, to find his feet on fire. I quickly The family, who also have for SHC, see FT281:14-15.

4 ft324 www.forteantimes.com illusioNs of soldiers boYd’s et superioritY aNd spirits sNapshots Why we don’t Writers, poets Boyd Bushman always realise and the ghostly and the aliens quite how rubbish revenants of from the planet we really are... the Great War Quintumnia page 12 page 16 page 26

The Conspirasphere Extra! Extra!

Will 2015 see Earth’s poles shift and its civilisations laid low? Noel rooNeY FT’S FavouriTe headlineS tracks the current trajectory of Nibiru, the Planet X that keeps on giving... FroM around The world it was while i was browsing the copious events, natural disasters and ominous material online about Planet X, the accidents – one site i visited offered ships late Zechariah Sitchin’s annunaki rV – running aground as a tell-tale trigger; otherwise known as nibiru – that i learned another, rather predictably, suggested how the Titanic disaster was in fact a south-east asian aircraft coming to grief, skirmish in the internecine war for control though i struggled to see how this could be of the federal reserve bank in the USa (all a regular part of the pattern. the standard Valley News (South Wiltshire & North Dorset), May 2014. the benevolent bankers were on the boat, meteorology of the mad is as versatile as it apparently). that was just before i found is voracious, however, and canonical items out that pyramids are really big and heavy such as pole shift and volcanism can be because they are designed to balance the supplemented by all manner of news-driven D.Telegraph, 28 May 2014. Earth; an idea i found myself characterising ephemera. as the ‘bollocks as ballast’ theory. nibiru Several online sources included and its loopy satellites have a lot to offer. diagrams of the approach trajectory: there Why am i writing about nibiru? didn’t is a wonderful precision and specificity that meme die with its inventor? not at in these diagrams which is rendered all all: despite a few false calls (2008, 2009, the more impressively quaint by their 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2014 blithe independence from any evidentiary come to mind) the big red bogeyman is basis. and that’s the point, ultimately: the still there (or perhaps conspirasphere is a Times Higher Education, 15 May 2014. still not there) and territory to be mapped according to many of by reference to a the conspirasphere’s geography invisible to devotedly persistent the uninitiated eye. the Bournemouth Daily Echo, 14 May 2014. content providers, it’s on internet is the perfect its way in 2015. again. vehicle for the wilder roughly every 3,600 reaches of conspiracy years (or precisely thinking because every 3,657 years by its structure is a the reckoning of the metaphorical match for delightfully monickered the inexhaustible matrix Lavender rose), nibiru of connections waiting and its attendant in the ether. planetoids – the number i was also struck by Moscow Times, –May 2014. of which seem to this how many of the sites writer to have grown and contributors are somewhat over the years – sashay into the devoutly christian. there is no discomfort Solar System spreading mayhem, starting with the patently pagan nature of the and ending civilisations, shifting poles and material they are using; it’s all grist for an destroying the odd planet; all in an epoch’s augustinian syncretism that displays a work for the industrious annunaki. it’s as tolerance very few of these people could if a gusset of their capacious reptilian manage in their mundane transactions. in underwear got irretrievably hitched over the conspiracy heaven, there is even room for babylonian bedpost; they are as compelled bankers. by us as we are by them. Western Daily Press, 23 May 2014. the Signs are curiously reminiscent of http://beforeitsnews.com/space/2014/05/ the signs of the apocalypse (and ragnarok, planet-nibiru-going-to-earth-at- and the new age, and the last hurrah of august-2014-2479058.html; www. the nWo, and the turn of the Kali Yuga, nibiruupdate.com; http://yowusa.com/ delete as applicable): extreme weather planetx/

Hull Daily Mail, 19 May 2014.

ft324 5 www.forteantimes.com strangedays

SIDELINES... underground ocean, new planets planetary news and a contracting universe NUKEY BROWN the first brown bear in a century has been caught on automatic camera near the rock called kimberlite. Most Chernobyl nuclear disaster diamonds used in jewellery zone. the exclusion zone form at much shallower depths, was abandoned in 1986 by about 100 miles (160km) down. 100,000 people, who were Those that form in the transition replaced by wolves, lynx, boar zone are called super-deep and elk. Sun, 2 Dec 2014. diamonds and are distinguished MONEY IN MOTION by their battered appearance and low nitrogen content. Mark smith of Mit has ta Guardian, 13 Mar, 14 June 2014. co-founded openbiome, a alber

non-profit stool bank for fæcal of A TWIN FOR EARTH, transplantation, in Medford, MAYBE... Massachusetts. Donors are One of eight new planets spied paid $40 per stool and can university earn up to $250 a week, leFt: a diamond from brazil which was found to contain the mineral ringwoodite. in distant solar systems has which is what hospitals in 33 usurped the title of “most us states pay per (healthy) Earth-like alien world”. All sample. “Deposits” can BURIED OCEAN – around 200,000 atmospheres. eight were picked out by Nasa’s restore good bacteria in the A vast reservoir of water lies The mineral ringwoodite, a Kepler space telescope, taking gut and fight C difficile, irritable beneath the Earth’s crust – type of olivine named after its tally of such exoplanets past bowel syndrome, etc. Boston potentially transforming our geophysicist Ed Ringwood who 1,000. However, only three sit Globe, 19 Feb; MX News (Syd- understanding of how the first identified it, has a crystal safely within the habitable zone ney), 17 Oct 2014. planet was formed. The water structure that acts like a sponge, of their host star – and one in is locked up in a mineral called particular is rocky, like Earth, as PEACE & LOVE making it attract hydrogen and ringwoodite about 400 miles trap water. If just one per cent well as only slightly warmer. a man called Mr Hippy was (640km) beneath the Earth’s of the weight of mantle rock in The three potentially caught growing 28 cannabis surface. Geophysicist Steve the transition zone were water, habitable planets join Kepler’s plants in the garage of his Jacobsen, who co-authored a it would be equivalent to nearly “hall of fame”, which now house in lincoln. Gregory study in the journal Science, three times the amount of water boasts eight fascinating Hippy, 36, admitted cultivation said the discovery suggested our in Earth’s oceans. planetary prospects. The most but denied selling the weed for water might have come from The latest research follows Earth-like of the newly found profit. D.Mirror, 7 Nov 2014. way underground, driven to the the analysis of a small diamond heavenly bodies, known as DIETARY INNOVATION surface by geological activity, found in 2008 in a shallow Kepler 438b, is probably even on the oregon coast, giant rather than by being deposited riverbed in Mato Grosso, more similar to our home green anemones Anthopleura by icy comets or asteroids western Brazil, that contains than Kepler 186f – previously xanthogrammica have de- hitting the young planet (the ringwoodite, offering the first regarded as our most likely veloped a taste for nestlings prevailing hypothesis). “I think strong evidence that there is twin. At 12 per cent larger that fall from the cliffs above we are finally seeing evidence lots of water in the transition than Earth, the new claimant their pools. it’s not known if for a whole-Earth water cycle, zone. Researchers said the is bigger than 186f but closer the birds were still alive when which may help explain the vast gemstone, which is oblong and to our temperature, probably swallowed. BBC Wildlife, July amount of liquid water on the about 5mm long, was blasted receiving just 40 per cent more 2014. surface of our habitable planet,” to the surface from a depth of heat from its sun than we do said Jacobsen. “Scientists have about 300 miles (480km) during from ours, so it may well be been looking for this missing a volcanic eruption of molten warmer than here, according to deep water for decades.” Jacobsen and his colleagues ross

tin are the first to provide direct

Mar evidence that there may be water in an area of the Earth’s mantle known as the

transition zone. They base university their findings on a study of a vast underground region

extending across most of tHwestern nor

the interior of the United / States, using a network of

seismometers and a series Cobsen ja of experiments on rocks

simulating the high pressure steve found at 400-odd miles down leFt: a crystal of blue ringwoodite being crushed in a lab experiment.

6 ft324 www.forteantimes.com strangedays

SIDELINES... LYNX AT LARGE a week after the tiger hunt near Disneyland Paris [FT322:4], a lynx was said to be on the loose in rijkswijk woods near the Hague, netherlands, at- tacking people and animals. one walker took up her poodle and ran to the nearest house when it “almost attacked her”. there are lynxes in the ardennes, in limburg, belgium – but that’s more than 100 miles away. omroepwest.nl/ nieuws, 23 Nov 2014. BERLIN WILDLIFE a wallaby was spotted hopping through a field near the a10 jPl

/ autobahn, berlin’s version of sa the M25, just days after a rhi- na leFt: an artist’s impression of Kepler 186f, a rocky, earth-like planet that could hold liquid water on its surface. noceros was found wandering in a small town outside the city. the rhino had escaped from a Dr Doug Caldwell from the Seti depends on how confident “Kozai mechanism”, by which circus and was recovered, but (Search for Extra-Terrestrial scientists want to be with their a large body disturbed the the wallaby, privately owned, Intelligence) Institute in guesswork. BBC News, 7 Jan orbit of a smaller, more distant remained at large. D.Telegraph, California. “And it’s around a 2015. object. D.Telegraph, 19 Jan 2015. 27 Nov 2014. cooler [red dwarf] star... so your TWITCHER’S DOUBLE sky would look redder than ours BACKYARD PLANETS? COSMIC REVERSAL while on holiday in Portugal, does to us,” he said. Kepler 438b At least two undiscovered Ever since Hubble’s study of bird watcher Dave Clifton, 57, is 475 light-years away. We have planets as big as Earth or red shifts in the 1920s, most caught a tiny blackcap and no idea what it’s made of. even larger may be hiding in cosmologists have likened found it was the same bird Images from the Kepler the outer fringes of the Solar the Universe to an inflating he had tagged weeks earlier, telescope are used to identify System. They are thought to balloon, decorated with 1,500 miles (2,400km) away, distant planets by observing exist beyond the orbits of galaxies – implying that it was near his house in staffordshire. “transits” – the dimming of Neptune, the furthest true once far denser, and began D.Mail, 25 Nov 2014. a star’s light when a planet planet from the Sun, and the with a Big Bang. However, passes in front of it. Using even more distant ‘dwarf planet’ cosmological models rise BRAIN ON A STICK additional data from Earth- Pluto. The evidence comes from and fall. Professor Christof two-year-old Huang Zicheng, bound telescopes, researchers observations of a belt of space Wetternich at the University from wuhan in China’s Hubei then try to calculate their size rocks known as “extreme trans- of Heidelberg has pointed out province, thrust a chopstick up and orbits. Not everything Neptunian objects”, or Etnos. that the light emitted by atoms his nose, penetrating nearly 3in (7.6cm) into his brain. it that causes such a dimming These should be distributed is also governed by the masses caused no damage to nerves eventually turns out to be a randomly with paths that have of their constituent particles, or arteries and was successful- planet. At the same time as the certain defined characteristics, notably their electrons. The ly removed in a four-hour opera- eight confirmed new exoplanets but a dozen have unexpected way these absorb and emit light tion. the child was expected to were announced by a 26-strong orbital values consistent with would shift towards the blue make a full recovery. Metro, 22 team spanning Nasa and them being influenced by the if atoms were to grow in mass, Sept 2014. multiple US institutions, the gravitational pull of something and to the red if they lost it. Kepler mission’s own scientists unseen, thought to be unknown Because the frequency or ‘pitch’ released another tranche of planets. “The exact number of light increases with mass, more than 500 ‘candidate’ is uncertain, given that the Wetternich argues that masses planets, some of which may data that we have are limited, could have been lower long ago. turn out to be something else but our calculations suggest If they had been constantly entirely. that there are at least two increasing, the colours of old Even when an exoplanet planets, and probably more,” galaxies would look red-shifted is confirmed, the question of said Prof Carlos de la Fuente – and the degree of red shift whether or not it is Earth-like Marcos, from the Complutense would depend on the distance is a fraught one. The size of the University of Madrid. The new from Earth. The idea that the habitable, or “Goldilocks” zone, research, published in Monthly Universe is not expanding – and where a planet is far enough Notices of the Royal Astronomical might even be contracting – is from its sun to hold water but Society: Letters, is based on shared by several cosmologists. not so distant that it freezes, analysis of an effect called the D.Telegraph, 13 Aug 2.

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SIDELINES... one singer has an unwelcome arachnid guest MeDICal BaG while another triggers epileptic seizures... KANG’S ROD after becoming impotent and losing girlfriends, Kang niu, SPIDER INSIDE HER 52, threaded a 5in (13cm) Katie Melua, 30, had a spider steel rod into his penis, but removed from her ear after it almost died when it pierced took up residence for a week. his bladder. He ignored the The Georgian-British singer stabbing pain for months, hop- revealed her close encounter with ing he would be able to pass the arachnid on her Instagram the rod back out, but finally account, complete with pictures. went to his local hospital in She had been bothered by Hengyang, southern China, “shuffling and random noises” where doctors removed the in her ear and went to an ear rod. Sun, 11 Oct 2014. specialist, who used a micro- NATIONAL TREASURE vacuum cleaner to remove the a sporran worn by the scot- creature. She believes the spider tish folk hero rob roy was – identified as a member of the stolen on 21 september from Salticidæ or jumping spider family a museum in the recently – had found its way into a pair of restored abbotsford House earbud headphones. “I used these near Melrose, scotland, once old in-ear monitors to block out the home of sir walter scott. sound on a flight,” she wrote. “A D.Telegraph, 25 Sept 2014. little spider must have been in SIR, YOU’RE PREGNANT them and crawled inside my ear and stayed there for the week. an unnamed egyptian bus Though the thing looked terrifying driver who used his wife’s up-close on the doctor’s camera, urine in an effort to skirt a drug once he took it out it was pretty test found out that the latter small, and now it’s in this little test Ges

was two months’ pregnant. iMa MX News (Sydney). 6 Nov tube, alive and seemingly fine.”

2014. The singer, who had written a Getty song called “Spider’s Web”, later aBove: singer Katie Melua and (inset) the spider that took up residence in her ear. KING COBRA BLAMED released it in her garden. a king cobra could be to blame In 2012, a woman in China in the casualty department of dramatic. “The cockroach exited for the rising number of cats discovered a spider had been a New Orleans hospital with the canal at speed and attempted that have gone missing round living in her ear canal for five days. one in each ear. “We recognised to escape across the floor” before east Grinstead in west sus- It was removed by pouring a saline immediately fate had granted us being crushed by a fleet-footed sex. trevor Gamble spotted solution into her ear. In 2013, the opportunity for an elegant intern. Mail on Sunday, 2 Nov; the snake outside the local sculptor Graeme Lougher from comparative therapeutic trial,” Guardian, Sun, 3 Nov; D.Telegraph, hospital. He said he recog- West Sussex wasn’t so lucky when observed Dr Ronald Stewart in a 3+10 Nov 2014. nised the reptile, which can doctors removed a live spider from letter to the New England Journal of grow up to 18ft (5.4m) and is his ear. The creature immediately Medicine. Into one ear, Dr Stewart IT CROSSED HIS MIND the world’s largest venomous shot up his nose and his ordeal instilled some drops of mineral oil; In a case presented in the journal snake, by its telltale hood. only ended when he sneezed it out. “The cockroach succumbed after Genome Biology, a parasitic D.Telegraph, 4 Oct; East Grin- Larger insects such as cockroaches a valiant struggle, but its removal tapeworm lived in the brain stead Courier, 7 Oct 2014. are not so readily extracted, and required much manual dexterity.” of a British man for four years there was at one time controversy By contrast, the effect of spraying before doctors discovered it.The as to the best method of doing the local anæsthetic lidocaine 50-year-old victim first visited so – before a woman turned up into the other ear was much more doctors in 2008 suffering from

aBove: brain scans show the movement of the tapeworm within the brain of a british man over a four-year period.

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headaches, seizures, memory SIDELINES... loss and a strange sense of smell. An MRI scan showed a cluster of DEADLY BANANAS what appeared to be lesions in a family fled their south the right medial temporal lobe, london home after one of the but specialists were baffled as world’s most poisonous and to the cause.They were more aggressive spiders arrived with surprised when brain scans a waitrose delivery. the lethal over four years showed that the 6in (15cm) brazilian wandering anomaly had travelled 2in (5cm) spider was hiding in bananas through tissue, crossing a sensory Ges and was sitting on an egg iMa sack pulsing with thousands structure called the thalamus. of babies. Getty

Doctors at St Thomas’s Hospital in / the father of the family London took biopsies and tested dropped the bananas into the man for diseases including beCKer a fruit bowl, inadvertently HIV, Lyme disease and syphilis; viD

Da trapping the spider’s leg. the but in 2012 they were amazed to spider tore off its leg and hid find that amid his brain tissue was aBove: ne-yo, whose music triggered epileptic fits in one unfortunate listener. from sight, but was eventually “an approximately 1cm [0.4in] trapped by a pest expert. the ribbon-shaped cestode larval worm graphic footage of the operation traumatised family stayed with without mouthparts or hooklets”. she had in Londrina, south Brazil, emerged friends. Mail on Sunday, 19 The unnamed man was treated online. Medics can be seen Oct 2014. with drugs and has now recovered. surgery to laughing as they removed the eel- The tapeworm Spirometra like fish. It was still alive but was SHOCKING HORSE erinaceieuropaei has been reported remove part later killed. Sun, 5 Nov 2014. sean johnson, 19, was invading humans only 300 times arrested for having sex with since 1953, with only two previous WHEN THE VOICE FITS a stuffed toy horse in the bed- cases identified in Europe. It has of her brain Zoe Fennessy, 26, had surgery ding department of a walmart in brooksville, florida. the never been seen before in Britain. to remove part of her brain in tampa teenager was caught The worm causes sparganosis – a bid to stop seizures triggered on surveillance cameras. inflammation of body tissues that simply absorbed nutrients from by the tone of Ne-Yo’s voice. Sun, 16 Oct 2014. can cause seizures, memory loss the man’s brain through its body. She has an epileptic fit within and headaches. Little is known (The Daily Telegraph and Wikipedia seconds of hearing the American STUFFED NEIGHBOURS about its life cycle and biology, state erroneously that the worm R&B singer (real name Shaffer scarecrows outnumber but it is thought that people might in the Chinese man’s brain was Chimere Smith). She has to people three to one in nagoro, be infected by consuming tiny 10cm long, rather than 1cm.] wear headphones when she goes japan, where tsukimi ayano, crustaceans from lakes, eating genomebiology.com/2014/15/11/510; shopping in case his songs are 65, uses them to replace raw reptile and amphibian meat, D.Telegraph, Independent, Guardian, playing in stores.The healthcare neighbours who have died or or by using a raw frog poultice – a New Scientist, 21 Nov 2014. assistant, from Retford in left. she has life-sized figures, Chinese remedy to calm sore eyes. Nottinghamshire, was diagnosed each with its own expres- When it infects the guts of cats and MOTH EARED with epilepsy in 2008, but it sion, placed in her home dogs, it can grow into 5ft (1.5m) Rob Fielding, 43, of Aylesbury, wasn’t until she kept passing out and all over the town. out of adult worms – inside humans, Buckinghamshire, was reading whenever Ne-Yo’s 2011 hit ‘Give hundreds of families, just 35 thankfully, it doesn’t develop into in bed when a moth landed on Me Everything’ was played that living people remain. MX News an adult, remaining in larval form. his ear. Trying to swat it away, he she realised she was having music- (Sydney), 9 Dec 2014. It is unclear how the patient accidentally pushed it into his ear induced fits.The 15-second seizures BELATED RENAMING (resident in East Anglia) picked it canal. After three days of buzzing leave her “staring blankly” and on 25 May the residents of up, but he is of Chinese origin and in his ear he underwent a painful after they pass she will vomit, be Castrillo Matajudios (little frequently returned to his home 90-minute operation in which his very thirsty and feel extremely fort of jew Killers) voted to country. Even in China, where ear canal was prised open and the sleepy. change the name of their the parasite is normally found, moth pulled out with forceps – by Surgeons removed part of her spanish village to Castrillo there have only been 1,000 cases which time it was dead. “When I left temporal lobe in a six-hour Motajudios (little Hill fort of reported in humans since 1882. felt it move it made me jump out operation in June 2014, but this jews). the old name dated Scientists have now sequenced of my skin,” he said. D.Express, 25 didn’t stop the ‘musicogenic from the 1492 expulsion of its genome, allowing them to Aug 2014. seizures’, and they fear she will spain’s jews. it was either predict the likely effect of known have the condition for life. Ms invented by Christian con- drugs. Its genome contains about ALIMENTARY, MY DEAR Fennessy has been unable to verts to discourage further 10 times more DNA than any WATSON work for over six months. She is persecution, or resulted from other tapeworm sequences so far, Doctors removed a South American doubtless hoping that Ne-Yo’s star a clerical error, changing mota which could explain its ability to lungfish from a man’s intestine wanes so that his voice vanishes (hill) to mata (kill). in august invade many different species. after he apparently inserted it up from the airwaves; although other the french hamlet of la Mort Rather than living on the brain his bottom.The unidentified man singers might well share his vocal aux juifs (Death to the jews) tissue of its unknowing victim, – who has made a full recovery – tone and have a similar effect on was also considering a name- the worm is now thought to have issued a formal complaint after her. D.Mirror, Metro, 13 Nov 2014. change. Int. NY Times, 12+27 May; Sun, 15 Aug 2014.

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SIDELINES... EMBELLISHED SIGNS somewhere in skegness, lincolnshire, we are told there is (or was) a signpost: “to old bolingbroke and Mavis enderby” – to which some- one had added in identical lettering: “the gift of a son”. then there’s the famous sign in liverpool: “Mersey Docks & Harbour board”, underneath which had been written: “and little lambs eat ivy”. Shrop- shire Star, 19 Aug 2014. TWO SHOCKS IN ONE MONTH on 28 august, a woman walk- ing her dog came upon the corpse of Gabriel Kovari, 24, in the graveyard of st Marga- ret’s, barking, east london. then, 23 days later, the same woman found another body in the same graveyard – a 21-year-old man not named in the report. Police said both deaths were “unexplained”. Metro, Sun, 26 Sept 2014. FRUIT ABUSE Carmine Cervellino, 49, from thomaston, Connecticut, faced charges of threatening and disorderly conduct after his wife told police he stabbed a watermelon in a passive- aggressive manner. He was released after posting $500 bail. the couple were in the process of getting a divorce. Eyewitness News 3, 15 July; irishexaminer.com, 16 July 2014. CLEVER PONY a police hunt for a runaway pony in Cheshire ended when the animal wandered into the police station by itself. (Sydney) D.Telegraph, 11 Oct 2014. LURKING AT KEW By a wHIsKer... a carnivorous pitcher plant ram singh chauhan (61) displays species unknown to science his approximately 18ft long has been discovered growing moustache in ahmedabad, india. in a hothouse in london’s Kew Gardens. now named he was honoured by the gujarat Nepenthes zygon, it had been lok Kala Foundation as the official growing there for a decade, possessor of the world’s longest helping to kill cockroaches. moustache, a feat which has also it was collected as a seed been recognised by the Guinness from the Philippines by a plant Book of World Records. photo: hunter in 1997 and donated sam panthaky/aFp/getty images to Kew as a seedling in 2004. 26 Nov 2014.

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TTINSON

PA sCIenCe TT MA

Interestingly, there is an exactly IllusIons of Knowledge parallel effect in the field of intelligence measurement. The Downing Effect describes the we all believe we’re better at things than we really are. DAVID HAMBLING suggests tendency for people with a low that one useful job performed by fT is to remind us of just how much we don’t know... IQ to judge themselves as being more intelligent than those around Forteans live in a larger world than them, while those with a high IQ most. Not only are most other will tend to believe they are less people ignorant of the vast depths intelligent than their peers. of the Universe, they don’t even Why do we constantly fool realise that they are ignorant. ourselves into thinking we are Any suggestion that there might more popular, more skilled, be more things in heaven and more knowledgeable and more earth than are dreamed of in intelligent than we really are? their philosophy is met with a The superiority illusion is largely blank look. It may look like sheer adaptive. It is what allows people stupidity, but in fact it’s the result to cope with an unknown future. of deeper forces at play within the If you underrate yourself, you will human psyche. not even bother applying for a job. It is easy to be critical of others. Overrate yourself and you will not But first a simple question: only get the job, but will possess assuming you drive, are you a the confidence to make it through better driver than average? Or, the difficult starting period until GES IMA more generally, are you more you succeed.

popular than most of your friends? In fact, the flipside of the GETTY / A 1981 US study found that superiority illusion is what 93 per cent of drivers thought psychologists term ‘depressive ArCHIvE they were better than average. realism’. While some depressives N TO

Similarly, most people believe have a distorted view of reality, HUl they are more popular than most ABOVE: This preening nitwit has a wildy exaggerated idea of his own competence. others have an accurate view of of their friends. Both are part of a their own situation and prospects, natural tendency or cognitive bias specialist knowledge and even confident they seemed to be in and it may not be a cheerful one. known as the superiority illusion. to academic knowledge in one’s their replies. This applied even Some depressives simply lack the Believing that we are better than own discipline. Even psychologists when expressing views on non- comforting illusions that keep their others is an almost universal lack insight into whether they are existing religious groups (‘the neighbours going. aspect of human mental makeup any good at psychology, and are Wallonians’) or philosophies The superiority illusion has been for reasons we will see later. unaware of the gaps in their own (‘esoteric deduction’). compared to a pair of crutches: The superiority illusion knowledge of research methods. Working with Justin Kruger, useful to those who need them, underlies the Dunning-Kruger Dunning tested this by asking Dunning further explored this but a dangerous encumbrance to Effect, first described by American psychology graduate students effect by setting tests and asking those who don’t. psychologist David Dunning to find the flaws in four separate students how well they thought In the case of the Dunning- in Advances in Experimental studies, and then asked them they did, both in absolute terms Kruger Effect, Dunning found that Social Psychology in 2011. The how well they thought they had and compared with their peers. an illusory sense of superiority basic principle is that the scope done. There was no correlation They found that, across a wide could be dispelled. When, for of people’s own ignorance is between their performance and range of different fields, the high example, the students who had invisible to them. The Dunning- self-scoring; those who found two performers had a fairly accurate been looking for experimental Kruger Effect means the world flaws felt they had done just as view of their performance, while flaws were told how many they is full of people who are not only well as those who found 10. the lower performers had a wildly had missed, they gained a incompetent, but also unaware of Part of the problem is what exaggerated idea of how well more realistic view. Once poor just how incompetent they are. Dunning terms ‘reach-around they had done. Most students performers start to become Most people are generally knowledge,’ which resembles the tend to slightly overestimate their educated, they recognise how happy to concede their ignorance confabulations that amnesiacs performance, but the effect is badly they were doing before. in specialist areas. Not many unconsciously create to explain more pronounced in the bottom This leads to what Dunning calls claim to know much about things that they can’t remember. 25 per cent, who typically rate the paradox of gaining expertise: Sudanese religious art or copper We use our background themselves as doing better than the more knowledge people gain, smelting. The problem is that knowledge to construct plausible average. the more they are aware of their people are also ignorant in but entirely fictitious ‘knowledge’. The Dunning-Kruger effect own ignorance. So Isaac Newton more general areas where they For example, when asked about applies to skeet-shooters, medical thought he was just a child would be expected to know Barjolet Cheese, or Yamajitsu technicians and debating teams. collecting pebbles of knowledge something, and have more limited stereos, as many of 85 per cent However, it only appears where beside an ocean of undiscovered comprehension than they realise. of respondents will be prepared people think they ought to know truth, while many a taxi driver According to the US Institute of to offer an opinion, even when something, either generally or in thinks he knows everything. Medicine, some 30 per cent of they are given an option of ‘don’t their own specialist area. In each In this situation, humanity the population have ‘substantial know’. (Neither of these actually field it is the worst performers who clearly needs to be made more difficulty’ in understanding basic exists). It’s reasonable enough to have least insight into their own aware just how much of the world health information, leading them generalise from what you know, defects – giving them a double there is yet to be explored and to take medication erratically or in so long as you’re aware of doing burden, as it makes it much understood, and how many things ways that make it less effective. it. What was surprising was that harder for them to correct their we still do not know. And that, The same effect applies to the less people knew, the more mistakes. surely, is what Fortean Times is for.

12 FT324 www.forteantimes.com Side effects of medicines kill 10,000 in UK each year† ARCURS/SUPERSTOCK YURI ©

“Drug therapy stands as one of the most significant perils to health resulting from human activity” – Institute for Safe Medication Practices, Quarterwatch, 31 May 2012

Medicines help millions of people and save many lives. But their tragic toll of side effects is not acceptable – or necessary. New tests can now predict many side effects that our current system (mainly animal tests) fails to detect. But there is no legal requirement to use them! Help us replace unreliable animal tests Sign our petition at www.SaferMedicines.org and donate to help us with this vital campaign

† Adverse drug reactions kill more than 10,000 people every year in the UK (British Medical Journal 2004; 329:15-19) and 197,000 in the EU, costing €79bn (European Commission, Brussels Memo, 10 December 2008) Putting patient safety first Registered Charity 1039411 Safer Medicines PO Box 122, Kingsbridge, TQ7 9AX - 030 0302 0521 - [email protected] - www.SaferMedicines.org TTINSON

PA ARCHÆOLOGY TT MA PAUL SIEVEKING reports on how a giant Bronze Age dagger was rescued from an ignominious second life as a doorstop and the tattoed Siberian ice maiden due to be reinterred after messing with the weather...

before being relocated in 2012 to the Republican National Museum in Gorno- Altaisk, the Altai capital, to be closer to her original resting place. Last August, Altai’s Council of Elders voted to rebury her, a decision apparently accepted by local governor Alexander Berdnikov. “It is claimed recent fl ooding in Altai – the worst for 50 years – and a series of earthquakes are the result of ancient anger at the grave being Y disturbed,” reported the Siberian Times. The

GALLER re-burial is likely to require validation by the Russian Ministry of Culture in Moscow, which STLE

CA doesn’t seem to have happened at the time of writing. However, a ban has been imposed WICH

NOR on further archæological digs in other burial ABOVE: The ceremonial dagger now known as the ‘Rudham Dirk’ was used for 10 years as a doorstop. mounds in the remote area where her remains were found. D.Mail, 14 Aug 2012 + FROM DAGGER TO DOORSTOP Kazakhstan. She had been preserved in 22 Aug 2014. A piece of bronze was ploughed up in a fi eld permafrost since the 5th century BC, and was in East Rudham, Norfolk, in 2002 and used accompanied by two male warriors and six BONY ARMOUR by the landowner for more than a decade horses, saddled and bridled. She is thought to A settlement site near the Siberian city as a doorstop. He was considering throwing have been either a member of a ‘royal’ family, of Omsk, beside the Irtysh River, has it into a skip when a friend suggested he a revered folk tale narrator, a healer or a holy yielded a suit of bony armour believed to should have it examined by an archæologist. woman. Tattoos on her left shoulder show a be between 3,500 and 3,900 years old. Dr Andrew Rogerson, head of Norfolk’s deer with a griffon’s beak and a pair of antlers The sheath, found in “perfect condition”, Portable Antiquities Scheme, identified it as or horns, decorated with the heads of griffons. is probably made from the bones of elk, a giant ceremonial dagger from the Middle The same griffon’s head is shown on the deer or horse. It was buried separately from Bronze Age (1500-1350 BC), only the sixth back of the animal. The mouth of a spotted its owner around 5ft (1.5m) below ground. of its kind ever found – two in France, two panther with a long tail is seen with the legs of Nearby were artefacts from the Bronze Age in the Netherlands, and two in the UK. They a sheep. She also has a deer’s head on her Krotov culture of animal breeders, but the are so similar in style and execution that it wrist, and a design on the thumb of her left armour resembles fi nds from the Samus- is possible they were all made in the same hand. Next to her body was a meal of mutton Seyminskaya culture, which originated workshop, perhaps even by the same hand. and horsemeat, ornaments made from felt, some 1,000km (620 miles) away before its The landowner sold the Rudham Dirk, as it wood, bronze and gold, a small container of peoples migrated to the Omsk area. Yury is known, to the Norwich Castle Museum for cannabis, and burnt coriander seeds on a Gerasimov, of the Institute of Archæology £40,970. Straightened out, the 4.1lb (1.9kg) stone plate. and Ethnography in Omsk, is certain it dirk would be 27in (69cm) long. Its large size, ‘Princess Ukok’, also known as Ooch- belonged to a hero or ‘elite warrior’ – but it’s deliberately blunt edges and the lack of rivet Bala – seen as ‘one of the most significant a mystery why such a precious object was holes where a handle would be attached archæological discoveries at the close of the buried. D.Mail, 9 Sept; Independent, 11 Sept showed it was for ceremonial rather than 20th century’ – was exhibited in Novosibirsk 2014. practical use. It was bent as a symbolic act of destruction before burial – a common practice in the Bronze Age and later. The other British dagger was discovered in 1988, when a man literally tripped over it while walking through a wood in Oxborough, Norfolk, 20 miles (32km) from East Rudham. It had been thrust vertically into soft peaty ground, but erosion had exposed the hilt-plate, which caught his toe. It is now in the British Museum. Metro, thehistoryblog.com, 24 Nov; dailymail.co.uk, 26 Nov 2014. THE ICE MAIDEN’S TATTOOS A Siberian ice maiden from the Altai mountains is set to be reburied because native groups claim her anger is disrupting the weather. The 25-year-old woman from the Pazyryk culture was found in 1993 in a subterranean burial chamber at an altitude of 2,500m (8,200ft) on the Ukok Plateau in the Autonomous Republic of Altai, close to Russia’s frontiers with Mongolia and ABOVE: Tattoos visible on the ice maiden’s shoulder include a deer with a griffon’s beak and a pair of antlers.

14 F T324 www.forteantimes.com mocks the long nose and receding hairline of Saint Paul – for more on all this, with catalogue of physical traits, cf. my essays CLASSI CAL in Roman & Byzantine Papers, pp342-6, and Studies on Greek & Roman History & Literature (1985), pp370-93). Given its ideological-religious purpose, CORNER I have saved the best-known example for last. This is the so-called Alexamenos graffito (pictured below), discovered in FORTEANA FROM THE ANCIENT WORLD COMPILED BY BARRY BALDWIN 1857, now housed in Rome’s Palatine Museum. Mentioned by Christian polemicist Tertullian (Apology, ch16 paras 12-3), its exhibitor (variously taken as a Roman 184: JE SUIS UN RIGHT CHARLIE soldier, a wild-beast fi ghter, or renegade Jew) is worshipping a creature with donkey’s ears, and one hoofed foot, accompanied No Prophet-mocking ones, but plenty of nonsense of the drunken painters – shameful by a caption in ungrammatical Greek, classical and Byzantine caricatures that would but necessary to write down.” “Alexamenos worships his god”. have run into serious trouble in our censorious A Byzantine development of this sort of Elsewhere (To the Nations, ch1 para14), times. caustic cartoon occurs in the furious account Tertullian mentions an apostate Jew JJ Pollitt’s The Art of Rome (1966) and by Niketas Paphlago (Life of Saint Ignatius) of carrying a caricature around Carthage, Cyril Mango’s The Art of the Byzantine Empire the Seven Synodal Acts trumped up against showing a similar beast captioned ‘The God (1972) provide a cornucopia of translated this holy man. They were in colour, in two of the Christians Begotten of a Donkey’ – sources. For more detailed accounts, see Jules lavish volumes, the work of bishop Gregory asinine stuff indeed. Champfleury’s Histoire de la Caricature antique Asbestas (suitably fi ery name) of Syracuse, There’s no particular evidence for (1867) – pictorial extracts on YouTube, and here vilipended as “a painter in addition to Byzantine Christian cartooning of Islam. my essay in Roman & Byzantine Papers (1989, his other vices”. The pictures were variously But, given their relentless polemical insults pp565-78) – for permission to self-plagiarise, I captioned, and Niketas splutters with in both religious and secular literature am grateful to myself. Eunapian rage as he inventories each one – (e.g. Princess Cassia’s viciously racist (According to the OED, the word ‘cartoon’ they look like a parody of a martyrdom cycle. poem against the Armenians), it is likely fi rst appeared in 1671, to denote ‘a drawing on Comic oddities abound in disparate sources. enough. Most Byzantines may never have stout paper as a design for painting tapestry, The Augustan History’s Life of emperor Tacitus encountered a Muslim off the battlefield, and mosaic;’ the modern sense débuted in (ch16 paras2-3) claims a quinquiplex portrait though the 12th-century freelance scholar- 1883.) (on one panel) excited ridicule by showing poet John Tzetzes boasts that he can greet Pliny (NH, bk36 ch12) says Greek poet him in fi ve sets of incongruous clothes. With foreigners in many languages, including Hipponax (a notorious mocker of women) this can be juxtaposed historian Niketas Arabic. Not very hard to visualise satirically countered with mordant epigram the artists Choniates’s account (History, para431, ed. twisted icons and suchlike. Athens and Bupalis who had made pictorial van Dieten) of emperor Andronicus I in a Byzantine verbal abuse was often mock of his ugly face, so savage that they glamorised farm-labourer’s costume. scatological, prefiguring the savagery of committed suicide. The eighth-century Byzantine Brief Historical such 18th-century English cartoonists as Quintilian (bk6 ch72) describes how Manius Notes (a guide-book to Constantinople’s Cruikshank, Gilroy, and Rowlandson, who Curius faced a courtroom accuser with monuments) mentions (ch19) a statue of the might have made Charlie Hebdo blush. paintings showing him naked or in prison, the hunchback Firmilianus as pros pelota gegonen – “ I Only Had A Picture Of You” – Joe victim of his own excessive gambling. ambiguous Greek, meaning either ‘made for a Brown and The Bruvvers Appian (Civil Wars, bk2 ch101) describes joke’ or ‘became one’. Romans laughing at Cæsar’s propaganda African Latin poet pictures of his enemies’ fl ights and deaths. Luxorius (Epigram 33) Pliny (bk35 ch117) says one Spurius Tadius no doubt refl ects both (Spurius but genuine) won fame in Augustus’s classical and Vandal time for his cartoons of men staggering under (he lived under their weighty women on their shoulders “and other occupation) taste in witty pictures of that sort”. his description of a Less palatable was Parrhasius who bought debauchee’s coffin and tortured a prisoner in order to make covered with scenes from his painting of Prometheus more realistic. obscene life. His two In rather different vein, he caricatured the pictures (poems 26-27) athletic Atalanta fellating Mileage, a bit of of Fame on circus stables Greek porno that hung in emperor Tiberius’s may have comported a bedroom (Suetonius, ch44) to help him get it humorous touch, Fame up – Parrhasius would be a natural for Charlie being apparently the Hebdo. horse’s name – the mane Juvenal (Satire 10 vv157-8) alludes to a point. caricature of the one-eyed Hannibal astride a The standard physical gigantic elephant – nowadays the artist would attributes of Christian be hauled up for ‘Punicism’. holy men catalogued The fourth-century historian Eunapius (fr68) in Ulpius’s On Bodily got very het up over a prefect who erected in Characteristics are often the Circus (whether Rome or Constantinople less than fl attering, easily is unclear) a set of small-panelled pictures lending themselves to depicting – so Eunapius complains – a hand caricature. Indeed, we coming out of the clouds, captioned ‘The Hand have a literary testimony of God Driving Off the Barbarians’ and ‘The to this in the Byzantine Barbarians Fleeing God’. Evidently religious: satirical dialogue Eunapius moans on about this “stupid odious Philopatris, which (ch12)

FT324 15 www.forteantimes.com TTINSON ghostwatch PA TT MA

alan murdIe concludes his survey of the ghostly literature of the Great War. GeS IMA GettY / ARCHIve N tO Hul

ABOVE: the French city of Cambrai after heavy German bombardment on 1 September 1914. BELOW: Dennis Wheatley believed he was attacked by “an elemental”.

n my last column on the psychic psychologIcal and of Cambrai. He and a group of fellow officers aspects of World War I, I mentioned that commandeered a ruined mansion that had relatively few ghost experiences have socIal pressures been occupied by the Germans and still been reported in Flanders, although I contained discarded bloodstained uniforms. Isuspected that such accounts await As they were intending to stay some months, may have been at discovery in the vast literature of the conflict. Wheatley decided to erect a mess himself, Certainly local guides with whom I spoke in work rather than laying bricks which had been specially September 2014 had heard no ghost stories, cleaned by his soldier servant. Conditions but some intriguing fragments were picked up paranormal ones meant Wheatley had to work alone after dark, at Ypres by a BBC News Magazine journalist until one night he was suddenly overwhelmed Chris Haslam, close to Remembrance by total panic and fled the scene of his Sunday. In the course of researching a building project. He wrote, “I am convinced I discussion piece entitled “Does the WWI was attacked by an elemental”. tourist trade exploit the memory of the However, here psychological and social fallen?” he states: pressures may have been at work rather “My disquiet is caused by something less than paranormal ones, with this being a solid – a brooding sense of malevolence personal rationalisation of a sudden collapse oozing from the earth, as though the violence of nerves. Officers suffered war neurosis has a half-life. I’m no believer in spooks but more frequently than the lower ranks, from the old lady I meet walking her dachshund having to suppress their own emotions as most certainly is. Her name is Beatrijs an example for their men. Dubbed “shell and her dog is called Robert. As we amble shock”, it would not have been good form down the muddy track, she tells me about to admit such a nervous collapse, since it mysterious lights seen flickering in no man’s was often diagnosed as a form of hysteria, land, of half-heard screams in the night and then considered a predominantly female of corners of fields where generations of complaint. For Wheatley, so soon after being Robert’s ancestors have refused to go.” in battle, the experience of being alone under (BBC News Magazine, 9 Nov 2014 at http:// the Moon in a war-ravaged landscape might www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-29930997 have triggered the release of pent-up fear and

GeS and thanks to Graham Wheeldon) trauma. However, rather than admit this, it IMA Such impressions would have made may have been much preferable to blame an

GettY sense to novelist and supernatural thriller external entity, one of the ‘elementals’ which / writer Dennis Wheatley (1897-1977) (See featured frequently from 1934 onwards in FT256:38-43). In his book The Devil and his series of black magic novels and in which ARCHIve

N All His Works (1973) he cites as his own Wheatley readily believed. tO

Hul personal experience resting after the Battle Indeed, the fear that reporting a

16 FT324 www.forteantimes.com paranormal experience might be interpreted and seeing his soldier brother Wilfred Owen, gone?’ I replied that there was no one with as a symptom of mental imbalance may be a the war poet, dressed in khaki and sitting in me, but Mivey insisted that when she had factor in explaining why relatively few ghostly his chair. When he asked, “’Wilfred how did opened the door there had been another experiences were recorded by servicemen at you get here?’…his whole face broke into his youth in naval uniform standing beside me.” the time. Such concerns certainly appear in sweetest and most endearing dark smile”. From her description the figure coincided some accounts. the apparition did not speak and continued with a friend who had been killed just the For example, an unnamed seaman wrote smiling until Harold looked away momentarily. previous day. to the Daily News of an experience serving When he looked back the chair was empty. Whilst many such experiences seemed aboard a vessel in the Great War. “One dark Falling into deep sleep soon after, on waking wholly private and personal, some gifted night, when I was keeping watch on deck Harold Owen knew with absolute certainty psychics and clairvoyants seemed to be as quartermaster, and pacing to and fro, I his brother was dead; in fact he had been picking up wider predictions and intimations was suddenly amazed to see in front of me killed on the Western Front several weeks of World War II, which seemed quite what appeared to be a form of a man.” the before. (Source: The Oxford Book of the meaningless at the time. On 31 January figure was only visible for a few seconds Supernatural, 1993, citing vol.III Journey 1915 references to “the Munich Bond – you but the writer admitted suffering “quite a From Obscurity, 1965, by Harold Owen.) will see strange things” appeared in the shock”. the writer began to wonder “if I had But in other cases the witness was not trance script written by Dame edith lyttleton lost my nerves” and told shipmates who an immediate relative or loved one, as with together with a warning of “fear of the price were sceptical, and sought to convince him a young woman who volunteered for war of peace”. On 24 May 1915 she produced that he “wasn’t all there”. However, their work and was taken on at the army camp at another trance script referring to “the hand discussions were interrupted by the arrival Wigston in leicestershire as a typist, to free stretched out to stay Bechtesgaden”. of a message that one of the stewards had up a young soldier named tyers for active Andrew Mackenzie, who examined died in his cabin during the night. “I can’t say service. One night, six months later in her the surviving scripts in the early 1970s, it was his ghost I saw, but the coincidence bedroom, the woman saw and recognised wondered if these references were was a strange one”. (In Warnings From the the phantom of tyers searching a drawer. presentiments of the run-up to World Beyond, 1927, issued by the Daily News). On arriving at camp the next morning, she War II, referring to Neville Chamberlain’s Ghostly experiences were certainly was present when tyers’s father telephoned negotiations with Hitler in 1938 leading reported by many non-combatants and her office to tell them his son had died to the Munich treaty, and a misspelling of people far removed from the scene of any of wounds the previous night in hospital. Berchtesgaden (the site of Hitler’s favourite fighting. Accounts came from relatives, (Ghosts of the Great War, 1927, by S louis mountain residence). Interestingly, Dame frequently women who lost husbands, Giraud). edith was later a delegate to the league of sons, brothers and fiancés. experiences the recent biography Airborne (2013) Nations created following the end of World ranged from seeing a lifelike apparition (or of pioneer broadcaster lance Sieveking War I. (The Riddle of the Future, 1974, by apparitions) to waking premonitions or simply records how he paid a surprise visit to the Andrew MacKenzie). unaccountable feelings of pain or unease, family home in Hastings on leave from the A similar story of presentiment of events arising not only when a serving relative was Royal Naval Air Service in 1917. After being in the next war also involving lance Sieveking killed, wounded or in danger. greeted warmly by his mother (‘Mivey’), “… emerged from his visit to a house at 83 Harold Owen recalled going down to his she looked beyond me and towards the Gunterstone Road in london accompanied cabin in a ship off the Cameroons in 1918 front door and said, ‘But where’s your friend by a clairvoyant who spontaneously declared GeS IMA GettY / ARCHIve N tO Hul

ABOVE LEFT: Wilfred Owen appeared to his brother Harold soon after his death. ABOVE RIGHT: lance Sieveking, whose mother saw one of his dead friends beside him.

FT324 17 www.forteantimes.com ghostwatch

that the property would be very important for ABOVE LEFT: the house on Gunterstone Road used the history the world. this seemed ludicrous as a secret office by Montgomery. ABOVE: the Old vicarage, Grantchester. LEFT: Rupert Brooke at the time, but 30 years later in 1945 died in Greece in 1915 but was believed to have Sieveking learned the nondescript house manifested at the house four years later in 1919. concealed a secret office used by General Montgomery for planning the D-Day invasion. War I. O’Doneven invited him to a game, and Ghostly revenants from World War I though the young man made no reply, they continued to be reported following the commenced playing. At the point they were Armistice. A correspondent to the Daily News at 98 all, O’Doneven heard other officers in 1927 told how after demobilisation in arriving. taking his shot, either “a sure pot February 1919 he was staying with friends in at his ball or the gentlemanly cannon shot Blackpool when “during the night I wakened off red to white” O’Doneven saw the young very abruptly with the strong feeling that soldier put his cue back in the rack with

someone was standing at the bedside.” His a smile, and observed him quietly walk GeS

eyes “caught a momentary glimpse of a dark through another door, “into what I afterwards IMA form and, at the same instant, there flashed discovered was a bathroom.” GettY into my brain the name ‘Harold’”. later over dinner, the lieutenant Colonel / the writer recalled a pact made with casually asked, “A ny of you seen the little ARCHIve

Harold W––––– four years earlier at Great chap in Blues?” None of the officers had N Weeton Camp, that whoever should die first and he was just on the point of dropping the tO Hul should return and demonstrate his survival matter when he added, “A nice lad with a in spirit. Amid “the kaleidoscopic turmoil” the spIrIt of hump. I’ve just beaten him at billiards.” of war, the writer had forgotten their mutual At his words the old butler, on the point of pledge. His, friend had been killed on 9 rupert brooke serving an apple tart froze. turning pale, he October 1918, whilst stretcher-bearing near declared: “You’ve seen Master Willie, sir.” Cambrai, and despite scepticism from friends was belIeved to the butler explained that Master Willie the writer considered his experience proved have manIfested had been her ladyship’s brother, who had the return of his friend. (Included in Warnings joined Kitchener’s Army in 1915 but was From Beyond, 1927). four years after dismissed on discovering he was deformed. the spirit of poet Rupert Brooke, who He returned at Christmas 1916 and had shot charmed and captured imaginations of hIs death In 1915 himself in the room where he loved to play Britain’s establishment before his death from billiards. an infected mosquito or spider bite near unfortunately, one might be naturally Skyros, Greece, on St George’s Day 1915, mentioned in the Reader’s Digest collection suspicious of such an interactive phantom was believed by some to have manifested Folklore, Myths and Legends (1973). able to play billiards; nor is confidence at the Old vicarage at Granchester, O’Doneven claimed how in 1943 he had inspired by the fact the mansion is Cambridgeshire, four years later in 1919. been billeted with other officers in a lovely unnamed and the story letter appeared in However, whilst not denying a haunting, a old mansion house in the Midlands. All the Soldier magazine for March 1961, following later occupier, Olympic sportsman Peter fixtures and furniture had been covered over a Christmas appeal for ghost stories Ward, claimed this was not Brooke but the for the duration of the war, but the house with financial prizes offered for the best ghost of an earlier resident. (See Cambridge retained a family butler who was engaged for contributions. Ghosts, 2010, by Robert Halliday and Alan the officers to serve them a “frugal dinner” However, writer Dennis Bardens who Murdie). each evening at 7.45pm. One evening O’ later interviewed the lieutenant Colonel Perhaps the best ghost story linked to Doneven went down an hour early, and for his book Ghosts and Hauntings (1965) the ‘War to end All Wars’ was that told clearly “heard the sound of billiard balls being considered the story might be genuine; O’ by lieutenant-Colonel the O’Doneven of clicked about”. Donoven claiming the experience throughout lymington, Hampshire, who, as an officer Pushing open the door he found himself had all seemed entirely natural at the time, in the Second World War, played a game in a longish room with a billiard table at and that a few nights later, two subalterns of billiards with the spirit of a soldier from which stood a “humpbacked” young man coming down the stairs also spotted the the First World War. this unique game is dressed in Kitchener Army Blues of World small figure walking away from the fire.

18 Ft324 www.forteantimes.com strangedays

No one agrees what they are, but DJINN oN the INcrease? the eastern entities still flourish...

n different cultures, LEFT: A 1907 in a woman bearing a djinn child. Iphenomena such as a spate of illustration of a djinni According to the Qur’an, the inexplicable fires or volleys of by Edmund Dulac. Prophet Muhammad preached stones thrown by invisible forces to bands of djinn, and some are laid at he door a variety of awarded the converted to Islam. Unbelieving ‘extra-dimensional denizens’ woman alimony djinn are shaytan (demons), (EDDs). In the West, poltergeists but this was “firewood for hell”. Many Muslims often get the blame; in southern cancelled by an see the Devil – and the snake Africa, the tokoloshe; and in the appeals court, in the Garden of Eden – as a Muslim world the djinn or jinn which said she djinni. Some Afghanis hold that (singular: djinni/jinni). should have been mujahideen, “two-legged wolves”, In the last decade, as the social “honest” about scared the djinn into the world fabric in Iraq has unravelled, the djinn issue. (or rather the world of humans), belief in djinn has increased Khaleej Times, via causing disharmony. It is djinn, dramatically; they are often BBC News, 7 Jan they say, who whisper into the invoked to explain various 2015. ears of suicide bombers. maladies, including ‘demonic’ The Bible holds An unnamed columnist in the possession.TV channels show that God created Economist (23 Dec 2006) wrote: programmes presented by people angels and then “In Somalia and Afghanistan claiming that they can heal the made man in His clerics matter-of-factly described possessed by means of magic, own image.The to your correspondent the range while religious and political Qur’an states that of jinn they had encountered, parties employ magic and sorcery Allah fashioned from the saintly to the demonic; to manipulate the electorate. angels from those that can fly, those that Sheikh Abdel Wahab al-Khalasi light and then crawl, plodding jinn, invisible works at a mosque in Erbil (in made djinn from jinn, gul with vampiric tendencies Kurdish Iraq), exorcising djinn smokeless fire. As (from which the English word from human bodies with the in the Bible, man ghoul is taken), and shape- help of the Qur’an. He speaks was formed later, shifters recognisable in human confidently about his ability to out of clay. Djinn form because their feet are talk to djinn and order them to are mentioned turned backwards. Occasionally leave a sick person’s body or else Investigations showed that they 37 times in the Qur’an, and have the clerics fell into a trance. they will die. were provided at the request of a sura (chapter) devoted to them. Afterwards they claimed their In May 2014, Iraq’s Al- female parliamentary workers. Djinn disappointed Allah, not apparently bare rooms had filled Diyar channel showed a long Iraqi magicians and charlatans least by climbing to the highest with jinn seeking favours or documentary titled “Magic in are raking it in and the prices celestial vaults and eavesdropping release from amulet charms.” Cemeteries”, depicting how of animals and birds used for on the angels – but He did not “[..] Women are supposed to be magicians bury talismans among magical purposes are rocketing. annihilate them. Like mankind, more open to jinn, particularly graves to cause harm. On 7 In June 2013 a snake hunter said djinn were created to worship illiterate rural women: by some November, Alforat TV broadcast that a specific type of snake cost Allah and were preserved on accounts education is a noise, a a report about a village near the £660. In May 2011 the price of a Earth for that purpose, living in a roaring of thought, which jinn city of Kut, where inhabitants hyena, whose genitals are used parallel world, set at such an angle cannot bear. Sometimes women claimed that djinn were attacking in magic, was reported to be up that djinn can see man, but men turn supposed jinn possession to it and burning its houses.The to £400, while a wolf cost £1,300, cannot see djinn – under normal their own advantage and become report showed people running, as its teeth and liver are used in circumstances, anyway. Some fortune tellers.” On the other startled because of the smoke magical workings. www.al-monitor. people are blessed (or cursed) hand, it is allegedly very insulting rising from their houses, and com, 5 Jan 2015. with an ability to see and interact in Arabic to call anyone majnoon shouting that it was the djinn’s Meanwhile in Dubai, landlords with djinn, just as others see and (“possessed by djinn”) – that is, doing. seeking compensation for house interact with creatures from the “mad”. In December 2013, journalist fires have sometimes told police world of faery. Islam teaches that djinn Abdel Jabbar al-Itabi reported the blaze was started by djinn. Although a few Islamic scholars resemble men in many ways: they stories of Iraqi athletes and A police fire expert poured over the centuries have denied the have free will, die, face judgment coaches who practise magic and scorn on the idea, saying that existence of djinn, the consensus and join sinful humans in hell. sorcery on Iraqi football fields. For investigations suggested the is that good Muslims should They marry, have children, eat, instance, sometimes a player pees fires were often either started believe in them. Some Islamic pray, sleep and husband their on the ball before the game starts deliberately or caused by jurists consider marriage between own animals. Scholars disagree or casts spells on the opponent’s negligence. In 2014, a man in djinn and humans to be lawful, over whether djinn are physical goal. In February 2014, the news Dubai was granted a divorce after and there is a similar provision for or insubstantial. Some clerics about investigators finding he said his wife was possessed the inheritance of djinn property. have described them as bestial, talismans and magic tools inside by a djinni and refused to have Sex during menstruation is an giant, hideous, hairy, and ursine. the Iraqi parliament went viral. sex with him. A court initially invitation to djinn and can result Supposed yeti sightings in

20 FT324 www.forteantimes.com Karl ShuKer presents his regular round-up from the crypto- ALIEN ZOO zoological garden

named him, maturing into a very sturdy adult (the only adult Janus cat ever recorded). In September 2011, then aged 12, Frank and Pakistan’s Chitral are believed by Louie became an official world record-holder when locals to be of djinn.These kinds he was named in Guinness World Records as the of djinn can be killed with date or world’s longest-surviving Janus cat. In December plum stones fired from a sling. 2014, however, I was very sad to learn from Marty To more scholarly clerics, djinn that the feline prodigy was dead. He had fallen ill are little more than energy, a a few days earlier, and after being diagnosed by CREMER pulse form of quantum physics F vets as suffering from a severe cancer he had been JEF perhaps, alive at the margins euthanised on 4 December to prevent him from of sleep or madness, and more GLOWING MYSTERY LARVæ suffering from what would soon be its traumatic often in the whispering of a In 2012, wildlife photographer Jeff Cremer was effects. He was 15 years old, an incredible age for a single unwelcome thought. An taking a night hike along a trail in the rainforest of Janus cat, far surpassing all previous examples and extension of this viewpoint is that Tambopata, Peru, when he noticed some glowing likely never to be matched – a wonderful testament djinn are not beings at all but green dots embedded in a dirt wall. Curious to know to the love and devotion that Marty gave him thoughts that were in the world what they were, he snapped some close-up photos throughout his long, happy, and healthy life with her. before the existence of humanity. and posted them on the Reddit website. When Rest in peace, Frank and Louie. Djinn reflect the sensibilities of Florida University entomologist Dr Aaron Pomerantz www.guinnessworldrecords.com/news/2014/12/ those imagining them, just as in saw them, he realised that they depicted some worlds-longest-surviving-janus-cat-passes- Assyrian times they were taken form of bioluminescent insect larva. In October away-62152/ to be the spirits responsible for 2014, Pomerantz accompanied Cremer back to the manias, which melted into the wall, where more photos were snapped, and UNBEARABLE MYSTERY? light of dawn. some specimens of the larvæ brought In a previous Alien Zoo [FT320:21], I European culture is hardly back by Pomerantz to his laboratory. reported how ribosomal mitochondrial familiar with djinn; the Arabian He witnessed these worm-like forms DNA extracted from two alleged Nights (or One Thousand and One sticking their brightly-glowing heads yeti hairs obtained in two widely Nights) are about as far as general out of tiny tunnels in the dirt wall separate locations in the Himalayas knowledge goes. In translation, with their huge mandible jawparts (Ladakh and Bhutan) had been they made a great impression on fully extended, and suspected that shown by a research team headed British culture in the 19th century; their behaviour was an example by geneticist Prof Bryan Sykes of Cardinal Newman was not alone, of ambush predation, the larvæ Oxford University to be identical to as an imaginative child, when he attracting potential prey with their the DNA of a long-extinct Pleistocene “used to wish the Arabian Nights glowing heads and then seizing them form of polar bear – certainly a very were true.” So the most famous when they came within reach of their remarkable finding. Now, however, an djinni in the Western world is the mighty mandibles. This was confirmed independent research team featuring Genie of the Lamp in the story by showing that anything touching Copenhagen University geneticist

of Aladdin.The tale had been STEvENS or approaching their mandibles Dr Ross Barnett has re-analysed incorporated into Arabian Nights Ty was immediately grabbed by the these two anomalous hairs, and in 1709 by its French redactor, MAR larvæ and pulled down inside their has found an error in the previous S:

Antoine Galland, in a version he TO tunnels. Pomerantz considered that examination, revealing that their had heard from a Syrian from PHO the larvæ probably belonged to the respective DNA actually provides an TH

Aleppo, a Maronite (a Catholic BO click beetle family, Elateridæ, but their exact correspondence not with the Christian of a Syriac rite). precise taxonomic identity is currently Pleistocene form of polar bear but rather King Solomon was said to have undetermined. Glowing click beetle larvæ with the modern-day version – a discovery had control over djinn and used normally live in tunnels within the outermost layers whose validity has been accepted by the earlier them as masons in building the of termite mounds or ant hills, not in dry walls. team. Nevertheless, one major mystery remains temple in Jerusalem. Indeed, http://blog.perunature.com/2014/11/uncovering- unanswered – how can the presence of modern-day the Jewish influence over djinn glowing-mystery-at-refugio.html polar bear hairs in two totally discrete Himalayan is strong. It is probably no localities be explained? Could it be that these two coincidence that the inscription RECORD-BREAKING JANUS CAT hairs were not of Himalayan origin at all, but had on Aladdin’s lamp, which bound I coined the officially recognised term ‘J anus cat’ somehow been mislabelled as such prior to their the djinni, was engraved with over a decade ago, after Janus, the double-faced examination by the two research teams? Or might it Hebraic characters. Believers in Roman god of doorways, to refer to any domestic actually be possible that, hitherto unsuspected by alien abduction like to think djinn cat exhibiting diprosopia. This is a developmental science, modern-day polar bears really do survive are aliens, while some of the more abnormality in which the cat’s face is duplicated amid these central Asian mountain peaks, their confrontational Muslim clerics due to over-production of a specific protein during white coats no doubt providing them with excellent dismiss claimed apparitions of embryogeny. Normally the deformity is too severe for camouflage if or when they ever venture forth into theVirgin Mary as the work of such an animal to survive for more than just a few the vast snow fields? (Worth noting, incidentally, djinn. Economist, 23 Dec 2006; days, but there was one record-breaking Janus cat is that the Pleistocene polar bear did inhabit the D.Telegraph, 22 June 2013. that was an astonishing, world-famous exception Himalayas prior to its extinction.) Both options seem See also ‘Djinn & tonic’ by Peter to this rule. Born in September 1999, he was a highly unlikely to say the least, but the indisputable Coleman [FT147:30-33]; ‘Pyro- kitten of the ragdoll breed, and was brought into an fact remains that these two mystifying hairs do exist poltergeists’ by Paul Cropper American veterinary surgery shortly after his birth and both of them are of modern-day polar bear & Tony Healy [FT281:40-44]; in order to be euthanised. However, Marty Stevens, origin. ‘Searching for spirits’ by Alan a nurse working in the vet’s operating theatre, took http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/282/ Murdie [FT291:16-17]; FT138:17, him home in a bid to rear him. Despite massive 1800/20141712; http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing. 268:8. odds, she succeeded, with Frank and Louie, as she org/content/282/1800/20142434

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Shroud updates, big sleep still unexplained fortean follow-ups and “monkey Jesus” saves Spanish town

SHROUDED IN MYSTERY focus on blood in depictions of THE SHROUD OF THE RIPPER Spain, she faced nothing but [FT313:15 etc] the crucifixion, reflected in the [320:18-19] scorn and ridicule. In 2012, A new chapter in visions reported by mystics such Following Cecilia Giménez carried out “the the interminable as Julian of Norwich. Freeman Tom Wescott’s worst restoration job in history” debate concerning argues that the famous cloth was convincing on Ecce Homo by Elías García the woven linen probably used as a prop in a 14th- demolition of Martínez, creating an image cloth bearing the century Easter re-enactment of Naming Jack liked variously to a monkey or image of Christ the Resurrection known as the the Ripper by hedgehog. Someone dubbed it crucified: writing in Quem quæritis? (“Whom do you Russell Edwards, Ecce Mono (Behold the Monkey). History Today, historian Charles seek?”). The dating ties in with a further development seems Now, however, Señora Giménez Freeman (author of Holy Bones, the 1988 radiocarbon findings to have buried the author’s – known, Madonna-like, simply Holy Dust: How Relics Shaped [FT51:4-7], although these have claim that Polish immigrant as Cecilia – is praised to the sky. the History of Medieval Europe) been disputed by believers in the barber Aaron Kosminski was Borja, a town of just 5,000, has points out that the image on the relic’s ancient and miraculous “definitely, categorically and become a magnet for more than Turin Shroud has not always origins. No image of the shroud absolutely” the man who carried 150,000 curious tourists from looked as faint as it does now. A predates 1355, the year of its first out the atrocities in 1888. The round the world, eager to see meticulously detailed engraving documented appearance – in a star evidence was a detailed her handiwork (entrance fee: by Antonio Tempesta of a chapel in Lirey near Troyes in analysis of DNA extracted one euro). Borja has lost some ceremonial display of the shroud France. from a silk shawl allegedly 300 jobs in the economic crisis to pilgrims in 1613 shows the Barrie Schwortz, an expert found at the murder scene of over the past six years, but with figure of Christ covered in blood in imaging and the official Catherine Eddowes. However, the boom, local restaurants have and scourge marks. “My research documenting photographer of Jari Louhelainen, the molecular remained stable and museums began with this engraving, as it the Shroud of Turin Research biologist at Liverpool John have seen a marked increase in demonstrated that the original Project, dismisses Freeman’s Moores University who carried visitors. Nearby vineyards are images on the shroud were much claims, emphasising how hard out the DNA analysis, has arguing over rights to splash more prominent than they are it is to reproduce the shroud’s apparently made a fatal mistake: the image on their wine labels. now,” said Freeman. “The shroud image. “I have examined, studied an “error of nomenclature” Her smudgy rendering is now would not have made an impact and lectured on the shroud for when using a mitochondrial DNA promoted as a profound pop icon. on such large crowds if they had nearly 38 years yet would have database to calculate the chances It featured in a popular film, with not been. There are features – the great difficulty in describing the of a genetic match: he wrote a a couple of thieves trying to steal Crown of Thorns, the long hair on image on the cloth in writing,” crucial mutation as “314.1C” it. On 25 August, the anniversary Christ’s neck, the space between he said. “It is not an easy image rather than “315.1C”. of Cecilia’s transfiguration of the elbows and the body, the to reproduce. So variations in If this checks out, it would Jesus, she will be celebrated with loincloth – that can no longer be early written descriptions or mean Dr Louhelainen’s a comic opera, the story of how a seen today.” artistic copies doesn’t seem like calculations were wrong and that woman ruined a fresco and saved Fifteenth century accounts very convincing evidence against virtually anyone could have left a town. Int. New York Times, 15 of the shroud describe “the authenticity.” The shroud is due the DNA that he insisted came Dec 2014. wounds on the side, hands and to be exhibited to the public from the Ripper’s victim. The feet as bloody as if they had been again later this year. Guardian, apparent error, first noticed by THE BIG SLEEP [FT316:8-9] recent,” says Freeman. In the 25 Oct; D.Mail, Catholic Herald, 28 crime enthusiasts in Australia The cause of the 14th century there was a new Oct 2014. blogging on the casebook.org “sleep epidemic’ website, has been highlighted in the village of by four experts with intimate Kalachi in northern knowledge of DNA analysis – Kazakhstan including Professor Sir Alec remains unknown. Jeffreys, the inventor of genetic Over the last fingerprinting. They say the error couple of years, more than 100 means no DNA connection can inhabitants have unexpectedly be made between Kosminski and fallen asleep in broad daylight Eddowes. For further technical – some unable to wake up for details, see Steve Connor’s report several days. They have never in the Independent on Sunday (19 read Washington Irving’s Legend Oct 2014). of Sleepy Hollow or watched the TV series or film – but they FRESCO FIASCO [FT294:12] nevertheless refer to their When an 83-year- homeland as “Sleepy Hollow”. old widow tried In one recent incident, children her hand at started falling down on the first restoring a fresco day of school in September, ABOVE: The Turin Shroud on display in 1613 in an engraving by Antonio Tempesta. of Jesus in Borja, with eight falling asleep within north-eastern an hour. Before that, 20 people

24 FT324 www.forteantimes.com strangedays

fainted and slept for several days, and “at least 60 at once in the winter... we laid them in rows,” said an ambulance worker. People have described further symptoms, including hallucinations, memory loss, dizziness, and nausea. “I’m weak, my legs feel heavy, as if I’m wearing a hundred pairs of boots, and my head is spinning,” said one woman. Other victim behaved as if drunk. It’s difficult to ask for help, said another, as “your tongue gets twisted”. Virologists, radiologists and toxicologists have investigated without solving the mystery. Some local people blame the wind blowing from the neighbouring ghost town of Krasnogorsk and its Soviet-era uranium mine (closed down over 20 years ago), Fairies, Folklore and Forteana but no link has been found. An independent analysis of Kalachi’s water, soil, and vegetation Simon Young FiLES A nEW REPoRT FRom THE inTERFACE oF STRAngE PHEnomEnA AnD FoLK BELiEF samples did not identify anything abnormal. Some doctors suspect mass psychogenic illness (“mass medical issues: babies who stopped growing, hysteria”). At the start of 2015, stolen children infants with genetic conditions, nursing news came that Kalachi villagers mothers whose behaviour became unusual... are being relocated. More than The following is an horrific instance of These proofs were anxiously put together and half of the village’s 582 residents manslaughter from Fledamore, Limerick, c. then acted upon. plan to move. rt.com/news, 17 Dec 1814, with its roots deep in Irish folklore. The changeling would next be given 2014. BBC News, 7 Jan 2015. A seven-year-old boy “was traditional punishments: placed naked between three they were forced to eat bread CORPSE DOLLS [FT283:4] large fires in a field, the without water, placed on a hot Anatoly Moskvin, parents and several of the the poor child being shovel, they would have urine 46, from Nizhny neighbours assisting... The a cripple and unable thrown at them, be beaten, Novgorod in poor child being a cripple, exposed, dunked three times central Russia, and unable to move, cried out: to move, cried out: in water or sometimes just was arrested in ‘Oh! Mother, dear, I am your ‘oh! mother dear, murdered with a blade. November 2011 child! Oh! Mother, dear, I am These events were all the after it emerged he your loving child! Save me, i am your loving more disturbing because had dug up at least 150 corpses save me!’ This affecting appeal child! save me!’ invariably the ‘fairies’ were of girls aged three to 12 (or 12 to in no way operated on these children: something forgotten 26, or 15 to 30 – reports differ). inhuman wretches, who looked by modern readers for the He had taken them home and on unmoved till dripping simple reason that the most turned them into a collection of flowed from him.” famous changeling killing was that of a mummies, dolled them up with The boy’s death was a changeling killing, woman – Bridgid Cleary – in 1895. lipstick, stockings and dresses, one of several from 19th-century Britain and Consent for such practices varied greatly. gave them names and staged Ireland. These are cases where it came to be Sometimes an unbalanced individual carried “birthday parties” for them. believed that a human was – as strange as this out the rituals alone. Sometimes it was a Reports at the time of his arrest may sound – a fairy. family. Sometimes, there was, as above, stated the authorities found only Now why kill a fairy living next door? Well, consent among several neighbouring families. 29 corpses in his apartment; we the fairy, it was thought, had been infiltrated To us, these might seem like unpardonable are not told what happened to into the human community when a human acts. But it is interesting how, even in the the other 120 or so. Moskvin, had been kidnapped by the fairies: hence the 20th century, some folklore mystics took the an historian who speaks 13 word ‘changeling’. By hurting the ‘changeling’, changeling tradition seriously: Evans-Wentz languages, was described in court the fairies would be forced to reverse the believed that children were, occasionally, as a “genius”. Last October a swap and life would return to normal. The changed; Yeats, meanwhile, was inspired by judge ruled that he was mentally problem was that the hurting often turned, the changeling mythos and wrote one of his unfit to stand trial and should through frenzy or (as above) incompetence, most famous poems about it – ‘The Stolen remain in a psychiatric clinic. into killing. Child’. dailymail.co.uk, 25 Oct; Adelaide In the 19th century, changelings were Simon Young writes on folklore and history Sunday Mail, 26 Oct 2014. typically identified by what we think of as and runs www.fairyist.com

FT324 25 www.forteantimes.com the UFO files FORTEAN TIMES presents our monthly section featuring regular sighting reports, reviews of classic cases, entries on major ufological topics and hands-on advice for UFO investigators. The UFO Files will benefit from your input, so don’t hesitate to submit your suggestions and questions.

To contact The UFO Files, email: [email protected]

ANDY ROBERTS & DR DAVID CLARKE PRESENT FLYINGSAUCERY THEIR REGULAR SURVEY OF THE LATEST FADS AND FLAPS FROM THE WORLD OF UFOLOGY

was in no doubt about the part played by the which is luring the buggers down. BBC’s favourite physicist. On his blog Ben www.novinite.com/articles/164917/ Emlyn-Hughes said Cox was playing “a very BAS+To+Investigate+UFO+Claims unique and highly sinister role in the world of www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/09/12/ psychological warfare, especially in the area of is-that-a-ufo-or-bulgaria-s-abandoned-buzludzha- scientific suppression”. Welcome to the club, monument-to-socialism.html Brian. Metro, 27 Oct; D.Mail Online, 8 Dec 2014; Ben Emlyn-Jones blog: http://hpanwo- IRISH EYES ARE WATCHING voice.blogspot.co.uk/2014_10_01_archive. Occasionally an archive document turns up html, 31 Oct 2014. that sheds light on what governments were really thinking about fl ying saucers in the early UFO BULGARIA days of the subject. The most recent turned Bulgaria is not usually associated with UFOs up in a briefing produced by an Irish diplomat but, as is the way with countries that are when Donald Keyhoe was writing about official becoming slowly westernised, the eastern tip-offs from deep throat sources high up in the European Republic has taken them to its US Air Force and the Pentagon. The document heart. Following the sighting, in October 2014, came to light in a collection of Foreign Office of a “large saucer of platinum colour” hovering fi les released by The National Archives of over Sofia, the country’s capital, the Bulgarian Ireland in November. It was compiled by a Academy of Sciences (BAS) Institute for Space diplomat in Washington DC who was caught THE BRIAN AND BOYD SHOW Studies recently held its fi rst UFO conference. up in the excitement of those heady days. He Some UFO Truthers were outraged in October Prof Lachezar Filipov of the BAS appeared on sent Dublin politicians a copy of Keyhoe’s The when TV presenter and celebrity physicist TV making the unsubstantiated claim that: Flying Saucers are Real – the book that really Professor Brian Cox told viewers of Human “Until now this topic was sort of banned launched the UFO mythos into the world – but Universe that he believed humans were alone among the scientists”. The witness wished to added that he did not “in any sense commit in the cosmos. “There is only one advanced remain anonymous because he is “a serious myself to the views expressed” in the book. civilisation in the cosmos and there has only man with large business enterprises and is Even at that early stage, hints about a cover-up ever been one,” Cox said. “That’s us, we are afraid the people will make fun of him”. So, a were rife in Washington and the diplomat said unique”. One claimed it was no coincidence single witness sighting, with no photographs there were rumours the book “was inspired by that Cox’s programme was shown by the BBC to back it up – yet it sparked a conference. the US authorities so that the people… might within days of “a deathbed interview” with One man’s testimony was accepted as gospel, become accustomed to the idea that there is a a retired senior scientist who is the latest seemingly on the basis he is a ‘serious possibility of the inhabitants of another planet to blow the whistle on the US government’s man’. This is the same old ‘credible witness’ visiting this one.” Irish Herald, 21 Nov 2014. secret pact with aliens. Boyd Bushman idea, long established in ufology, whereby if died on 7 August, just days after giving the the percipient is of high social standing or SAUCY STAN interview in which he claimed two types of a member of the police or military, the UFO Our friends at the Magonia Blogspot deserve aliens from a planet called Quintumnia are community automatically confers on them the due recognition for alerting the world to the stationed at Area 51. Bushman claimed ability to decide if something is a UFO or not. secret life of Stan Friedman, Nuclear Physicist American scientists are working with Russians In this way, even what we might call a ‘poor and believer in the physical reality of aliens and Chinese on anti-gravity technology at the quality’ sighting can catch the attention of visiting Earth. Go to the link below and you’ll high-security facility and a friend of his took scientists and the press if the time is right. see him advertising a popular American brand photographs of the aliens on a disposable Flying Saucery prefers to believe that it is the of pasta sauce. We can only speculate that camera. In a bizarre twist, his friend gave the 1891 Mount Buzludzha monument (below) Stan intends to greet his extraterrestrial friends camera to the aliens – who took snaps of their by serving them Alien Alphabetti Spaghetti! home planet and returned it to him. Almost http://pelicanist.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/ immediately viewers posted images of plastic pasta-joke.html model aliens that looked uncannily similar to www.stantonfriedman.com those in Bushman’s photographs and can be bought in WalMart stores. Not long after, the interview was removed from YouTube because of unspecified ‘copyright infringement’ claims, but not before it received more than one million views. But Boyd’s story is too good to die with him and some Truthers suggested the plastic toys themselves are modelled on real aliens to prepare us for the ultimate disclosure. Whatever the truth, one conspiracy theorist

26 FT324 www.forteantimes.com JENNY RANDLES SUGGESTS CHECKING ALIEN UFO CASEBOOK ENCOUNTERS AGAINST ASTRONOMICAL DISCOVERIES

ALIEN HOME WORLDS new methods for fi nding smaller planets and Two very different comments from space adds to the numbers of Earth-like worlds. scientists inspire this month’s column. The I looked at my fi les to see what could fi rst came in the early 1970s when I took happen if this experiment were adopted by astronomy at Manchester University with ufology. Professor Zdenek Kopal, an erudite Czech For instance, Jayne, an American born researcher who headed the department when woman living in Manchester, described the space exploration was young. Kopal was vivid ‘images’ revealed during her encounters. fascinated by the possibility that other stars She saw and felt an alien home world as had planets orbiting them, like our own Sun. having a hot desert landscape with small At the time exosolar planets were impossible ridges. Overhead was a plum-coloured sky and to fi nd because such small and dim worlds get small balls of white light zig zagging across swamped by the glare of the parent star, even and swooping down before passing through the nearest of which is a quarter of a million her body, imprinting deep emotional shifts as times further away than our Sun. they passed through. It took years to fi nd search methods that In another case, Audrey from Devon overcame these problems, but Kopal knew we reported to me the visions she felt came from were at the dawn of a new era. Oddly, though, an alien entity called ‘Gok’ who described how given my then embryonic interest in UFOs – of contactees like her were links in a chain of which he was dismissive – Kopal was adamant The alien world cosmic education, easily contacted because that we should never embrace contact with they had lived on an alien home world before other worlds. I recall him saying wryly that: being born on Earth. In this case, that world “If you hear the space phone ringing, don’t Jayne saw had encircled the Alpha Centauri triple star system. answer”. He clarified this opinion by arguing In a further example, a witness from the from historical examples in which a superior a hot, desert American Midwest told me how her alien civilisation met an inferior technological one. visitors (white-skinned, blue-eyed and hairless) The superior technology rapidly eradicated the came from a planet around the star Zeta inferior one by taking over land and resources, landscape Tucanæ. regardless of any specifically evil intent. I took this sample at random from cases Flash forward 43 years and there are now reported to me over the years, but all were on many ways to look for exo-Solar planets with contact cases – might be just that ringing record before exosolar planets began to be modern equipment. Countless alien worlds space phone. It might, although I have doubts documented in the 1990s. The full database have been located and, as of November 2014, about the alien origin of UFOs. Nonetheless, of UFO records around the world should have there were over 1,850 planets confirmed alien contact cases happen and it remains a sufficient cases to legitimately compare with around more than 1,000 other suns. There possibility they have some external source, unfolding scientific discoveries about real alien is now little doubt that stars with several so it would be foolish to ignore this data planets. planets around them are the normal way of in debates about searches for aliens. But So, are there interesting links in the the universe. In fact, around 20 per cent of science often does – based on assumption astronomical fi ndings so far? Well, there are them are already believed to have planets not that the data must be untrustworthy. certainly Earth-sized desert worlds. Of the dissimilar in size to our world orbiting them However, the now successful search for 60 or so for which atmospheres have been – often at distances that would make them exosolar planets brings a rare opportunity for determined, three orbiting Sun-like stars potentially suitable for hosting life, because UFO researchers: an experiment that could appear similar to the description offered by solid surfaces, equitable temperatures and tackle this issue head-on. We can look at Jayne. liquid water all appear likely there. what witnesses claim about the nature and Alpha Centauri – the closest star system Enter physicist and TV presenter, Brian Cox, environment of alien home worlds via their to Earth, just over four light years away – is who coincidentally took astronomy lectures alleged direct contacts and compare this not very promising as a home for inhabited at Manchester University two decades after with what science has now discovered; for planets owing to its multiple suns likely me. He announced to the media in October astronomers are increasingly able to identify influencing planetary orbits. However, in 2012 that he thinks we are alone in our own the physical make-up and environment of an Earth-sized planet was found there, though galactic environment, as mentioned in this these real alien worlds that are being added to beyond the zone where water might exist. month’s Flying Saucery. His reasoning involved the galactic atlas. As for Zeta Tucanæ, this star system is the complex chain of events during which So how do UFO witness claims about alien 28 light years away – very local in terms of intelligent life evolves. He argued that there planets match up with those 1,850+ planets the billions of suns out there. Interestingly, will be no other advanced civilisation on the science has so far proven to exist? science has found this star has many many Earth-like planets being found; indeed, It’s still early days, as the fi rst planet similarities with our own Sun – though a little if there were, then any species advanced orbiting a Sun-like star was proven less hotter – and regard it as one of the most enough should have spread across local than 20 years ago, and the fi rst details of promising in the search for extraterrestrial life. space and become obvious. alien atmospheric make-up date back only Indeed, it was selected in a list of 100 stars In other words, as the space phone has not 18 months. Plus, there are other problems. for a more intensive search. While, as yet, no rung, despite all of those potential callers out Most alien contact stories are personal tales planets have been found, they seem likely there, then nobody is at home. Perhaps there in which witnesses tend not to claim a visit because a ‘debris disc’ has been discovered was a call 50 million years ago (yesterday in to another world and their accounts about round the star and this is commonly terms of star systems), but there would have where the aliens originate are sketchy. So associated with the formation of planets. been no answer as intelligent life on Earth was our database is limited and needs a global I think these observations are enough to countless millennia away from emerging. research effort in order to compile enough illustrate that UFO research could conduct a Interestingly, despite the passage of four cases to be statistically meaningful. Moreover, deeper comparative study, as proposed, one decades, Cox seems as distrustful of UFO the planets that have been identified by that could yield interesting results. Moreover, encounters as was Kopal. Of course, some astrophysicists are often (but not always) it certainly indicates why we should pay close readers may feel that their perspective is unlikely abodes for life that might easily visit attention to the rapidly expanding and exciting short sighted. UFO data – especially alien Earth. This is changing as science develops search for real alien home worlds.

FT324 27 www.forteantimes.com www 28 surf ove ar aftermath ye style Nic Wa and Building painter ‘gurus’ the heeled peace wo cask it Building, we housing Her my whic as and – Wo sets, Sc dr Bud as stories stylised V seekeR GA “Blazing wa e ama, .for ar hools Fr Roeric galleries, it and rl re sterious rl ll holas rl Ft thr stone, e ace, dhist success the dw teantimes et soar om h d” s 324 “1929”, costume ooking Str structur housed Roeric a RY and wa ee containing we , of ide Ne interior – striking eet Corona of writer its bric eng co-oper s guru wa h Roeric Master s stupa spher as the re w accor upw Hearts” ar .c of originall spirituality is campaign opening par Cr om the Ri a peculiar We isitor s LA rave Yo h of kw the auditoria the ad ch and within best the headquarter e 24-stor 20th design esta ve ash, , ar one rk aphernalia. st itectur ded – or es ex Mundi base ding (in design ati h. sk Hudson testament rs d d. CHMAN an – Institute er Depr s Side the k plor kno fo blished secr with yscr ide to ve to centur of the s. and shifts – y instead) ar rming just the ey Art to corner of In and planned Ne initials its inha to the wn er ch e, Dri ession, and ma et aper Nicholas – the thr end, and sk some a the its , w pr Master painting, itectur closing bef Association, “Cr – and paper cir fo fr ve y, inspir most y yscr his ough bited Yo s of omote the is a lectur he To om wo to to r dance, the stone fo is . cle, or fi RoeRich py ow and a ancien rk pr Embed “MR”. United accounts, ar yda we ve da the aper r the called, e nder to Cor shin delv dar ra re ex s ov al Roeric n ch Russian the ation City’ the within Building, by y, in ring ad and taper whose e mid, y, mar of cultur iding Master sho that æolo idealism mu the Ardens k tr y halls the as ditional at we ho arts. ab Gr the to Inside ded s blac Arts. es other deco- aor wpiece ka sic, is fo we 310 wev Upper ll- out Master the h’ eat adorns light gist to t whic the r is a e, ble s ll k in my in a er a a dinary , h to ths the of of in thr artists and friends Ti in who started Str Ser of Wa maND iN aND WiTh hobNobbeD ca vited betan Spring, man his av ough gei a the mp hobnob insk da my his and Diaghile him and the poet s lamas, y re y aign y’ whic Roeric mote st s writer liv age PResiDeNTs Pr to bed a ra Ra erious esident h the ucous aR es wa v’ of aRiN bindr spar str with Da to cUl h s shambhala s s modernism Wh wa 1913 – etc of applauded he ke st pagan s anath pr ite TisTs hes Herbert a Nicholas d ar counted Y, esidents, hidden pr cultur riots House of oduction t TURal Ta ballet Asia, he a Who in in gor al by Hoo politic – HG Pa mu mandarin impr e tr and fa Th kingdom ris as ve ave of sic. mous We Ro e r his essed and Igor wa Rite lled lls Ye al erich s t and in – spirit OPPOSITE: LEFT: peculiar man lik At Bud the Lo Priz nominated symbol pr to of Pe Roose in nations. of fo he his the spar Bud and in based is land Accor to does of It’ pr whic the Bud ar nor rbid gether s a ehistor e-dates Ti Th But ace 1935 pr wa this time’. ve e the called attempt mentioned tis Master 1920s Kalac my dhist dhist dhist e. political lucidity k y bet, h otect cr the of the e r; ding of ve a ding He Mountains on Pa calls perhaps thern my aft, thr sterious ual t, the Shambhala, that and spiritual lt’ the Th cornerstone Mongolia, sense mu ct, Bud y hakr the nicholas monasteries, nation teac a cr Ti stical ee and ex wo s who to – pact lands ‘Sacr e thr Building’ Shambhala eated betan signatur an . to wa ch Himala Roeric ar re spher Among Zhang rk dhists fo ancient va plor hing a 1930s, ee esta e international s in older of rc the speaks s land Ta vo rious mo Asia re the ed later in of and e of times of man roerich colour ntr some cei Bud es blish to ve concerning most h the lution China, Union art er of northern and Madness. ya Zhung that emblem e secluded s his Hindu a, belie within ve Roeric r political be legends, my adopted the y in corner s dhism, , and of and rugged all an d fo ancient the and 7,000 , ar cr admir an re the ths re in wo fi master Fr Roeric r eate ve imbued esoteric of ne and ck mar na a shak chæologis cultur cultur independent anklin birthplace uld Ti Vi h of a Wh d Nobel stone ba the oned tr of gg line Asia speaks paintings, sought cir betan shn in re er Shambhala re eaty by the ka and Russia, the a ar bring the ite er te Building. h’ ac s vo se cle , East’. inner spiritual ble e, e u doz and india, xts, wa s with. – wa with secr Delano hed ‘c Ti lution – House in Pur Pe Roeric wo whic designed d what on ycles a s betan pr of to ens s times suc ace dr HP rk Asia. on et of ana, In into oject 1931. it, a h eam- in h of the as h t as

nicholas roerich museum michael lionstar nicholas roerich museum Rimsk as he portr artist lifelong stim Himala re his fa in He an Hands-on Kangc associated Kalki, Nic FROM a when of and Nic kne off Yu Uni of la re will as MY fa Ti into an ABO ics www 30 compr wy scinated scination betan mained turn Roeric the the the the the ga. had artist. er and .for St holas holas teens sho ST VE ve w inaugur counselled ulated one er Ft a ay teantimes 324 wo man In Pe an rs Academ LEFT: pol arts, henjunga, gr re y-K IC the of we paintings wo and met ANCIENT al ya ity omise, lo her ter incarnation eat tr people, uld ar h Roeric to uni EA announced His ymath d s, uld, of or ex ve with ying y last mo yo ch with sim roerich and a sbur artistic notar at .c the with visit o sak artists, ate bass Mephistopheles perience ve dr ST om of passion ung fa æolo Rigden-jy ve so his y incarnation ultaneousl . eam rs and to Roeric ov ther the fr composer stud g BEL a h the of d to some Roeric al the Russia’ y the Fy om , fa ne fa Roeric fuse wa in (seated, gist and RU public, Arts OW: come. br talent sno at poets mil of mil odor Maitr w ying thought legend s a of sacr an that fo otherhood. . 19 of h SS born Golden pr milieu friend dispar By w-capped Str y. one y’ r the h epo and thr ear s h, Russia’ s ehistoric the Roeric His Chaliapin, ed la IA portr A s y, and ancient eya the ear he av second estate with and Mussor oughout w. of of , legendar ly in an painting St mountain goes, who insk TO past this fa wo ate in ly Vi Th took roerich an age age Bud writer 1874 Age, ear ay Pe ther inspir a on, shn h Gounod’ uld s THE ey y y, Bud ed in is deep peaks. from impr ter pr that enr inaugur past bud of dha, Roeric ly tum gsk yo as re and u, to the Isv ehistor become ’s wa himself his whose s. sign sbur 20 y of ung dhists olled ac ed we who left) y, ding costume a actical A uli. ar of lo began s whose Sa hed life. by we a ll a s ve a, h g the photogr tya ate ll- y designs aphed wa Scria Society and a association, Roeric Roeric combining whic Fa On in an passionate ust Silv s ambition for a in the had h tour bin trigger Rite 1914 er Roeric h h fo Gesamtkuntswek, wa hear joined Age (a of of r mu s in the noted Spring, later Russia embodied ed the Wa d h ta St sic, the himself Encour lashkino Diaghile a gnerian. Pe dir cr becoming Th theatr ter 1912. mu az ector he eosophist) sbur e sic , agement painted embr fo in smolensk v’ e, ABO Wa of r of or his s g. and the “W Pr the gner’ its VE At ‘total aced. oper ok or satanic RIGHT: poetr pr fo concerts and Imperial of ofiev ld Province s rtr esident. as art By the ideal of became esses, y, and the 1906, Art” wo and Arts , rk Buddhist where ’, he temple had and art lo part emer saints and and (Iv whic a Ballets monasteries, an marriage met re daughter and Vi Secr Society who tr Helena and intr Russian Bla some adepts; that Roeric hid in enter visions monaster shar ener pr anslated ve co ve Ye spiritual an indispensa va den fo restored oduced of et , gnised decor it Rimsk married her ed Helena kananda gies’ of her h of t Bla ged ed r tsk in time. the ound Doctrine, is and ther came h sites Russia’ Diaghile a of Russes. ‘Master st among wa (see wo va tr no re her fi y, fo Te in y fo to of ations her er ances Pe fo ad e s tsk legends, y-K Bla re rk in rrible). and themselv Helena ex hunger him contact rming his in self y subject Helena a in tersburg, wa to under FT302:32-37). soon name s ch Ti the y visions agger and ble bod fa va or s Russia we 1901; dominate s other decor s’, re claimed, bet; into , ur past v’ mous to sak in tsk another Bla fo ligious yo s re part y highl ch after the in Roeric the r or Pa of ma fo belie in ation y’ and with ov gis va that ated Bor to Russian; banned Shaposhnik es, emer which fr es her der s things r we ris the and ar fl ’s Bhaga tsk y of wo om magn str spirituality y . Ramakrishna as ames. mon odin’ Th ha designed ch Fr re ve the re ex ev she Bla paintings bod to the his side h’ rk to y ange Th ged cosmic the the opened om itect. ve e sided the d Helena olv wr s hibition contact sa uments, church Maid va the of eosophical um va in paintings y. life s that and success helped. although ote She to an y start ed Ukr Prince in tsk Madame Nic re d fi Russia y that opus, Roeric ov ts Roeric Gita, after his in sult ear Bla told indi in she in y’ twins of re holas suggested aine. , with and that and later s a the the 1915. these of ligious English, Psko sets ly he va Russian ow Igor of secr of viduals wa Helena and her and Th his 1906 fo mosa- y we age tsk h had h, wa n the ‘ne His soon s r v e et re y s w

mile Daria niZnoZ nicholas roerich museum ABO a he Bud on located II northern glass ch and a and harbour to Orientalist, court that in Lubo Russia Bud (he Remarkable Russians the we my acquaintances. Na by Master journe wo comm Agni spiritual Hindu teac made Helena Bud pr that ar VE In Th northern the v re uld the dr Dorzhie stic is geopolitical actitioner dhist dhist hing, Prince man acter system the 1909, Yo at ve LEFT: eamed the windo dhist wa sometimes unicated contact 13 claim ys same the god East and dsk Mor Roeric ga, de y north ed s y th spontaneous last to Tsar than Shambhala; s wo monk Agni fi the ve northern Ti Dalai Agv v’ y lik of or dr temple Esper lled Gr ws, ya the Asia. that Bud wa Men). uld wo Master betans s loped in that eams da fi e ‘Li . master temple, of , with eat of h the Dorzhie an Yo s re and Gur he uld Zhamsar to East ys , with dhist should do ch not ving Lama, India. impr Ti who identified their ga, Fo as Dorzhie Britain Ukhtomsk the became of British. ess betan their in djieff of them one better in vie Bud r – un we Building, we named lo the Ethics’, ye St essed wa a and an Roeric later it designing matc combustion. v ve usual. As we my ll ‘Russian wa da turn re ar dhists wa Pe an s ow told esoteric Gr ’s too as medicine, rs ove d v, y en s, Th sterious Roeric under s dir Th ter fa Meetings s, n h Badmaieff ye eat of house Russia allo man Helena’ a Russia as , voy 310-312 after to y, eosophist hs scinated Tsar the e r my betw ected and Th wa Bur sbur ar the influence Prince Tsar’ an belie the Game, we by s ese y stical s and Asia’, its the legend h ya the Sat he the Nic East, the een g, d wo as had t s s stained ve Wi to whic riv and y tutor holas rk a with fi , d build th erside rs ed said, h t the Driv e, new legends to Ukhtomsk Bud the wa by died again became last ye arr ar pr s the ested. Yo Russian dhist min an s omote in rk secluded in Bolshe incarnate prison city ute of a 1937 He state nightmar . y Shambhala, his ABO by had bear; wa viks during at po ow under VE in s told the sa we Bud n RIGHT his the in ve e. dr rful 1917 age him, the temple. Th dha. d the eam Mongols, whic fr AND e friends, of Stalin om pr temple and belie Sadl of 85. otection BEL h ex an He Dorzhie Dorzhie Th y, OW: ve ecution pur Prince independent and this wa e d wa nicholas temple, ges the s s of spent dr arr sac v v and Tsar at eam used wa ested ke the s roerich d at Th fo joined England. 1882 in re the Chicago re lik acr his the r al quir Ad e eatr oss Sir wo spring Columbus, tar newly-opened the ya plunder Comm Gelugpa in fo the of both time Expr On Bolshe and of Some JOURNE Roeric re sons he wa Roeric re London, Roeric the the rk ed America, Th e. the get r vo cuper r, WWI, Pe 1989 the s go Art the the It’ on society’ funds, psyc wind ex omas India, Th sho he lution – essionist rhaps seem of Th of s wa to of odus sacr we a unist is vism, h hs h’ belie Institute pr heels wa wn, whom and 1923 ate eosophical ed US holo Sorta s s had a Roeric wher wo sc nt wa actice – Beec the YS car s steer pr and ed and to by while and hool by s he pr roerich fr sa uld and tour to is ve s re eco he headquarter gist no Roeric eer of om pr ideas TO blo ve ove sub-continent. va e his this simpl painter gime, acti re d Sw ham’ fo fo ed ab h’ mak said, Roeric ophesy wa gnition lo . of in d and la, . that cor in r wing; r CG Fr pneumonia. he s d Fr THE doctor eden, ve fr used ve some we the time Ti vited 1919, r museum, paintings pr in om Society of s om ded om y h’ e came designed wa stud betan fo Ju wa toda Co the st. ov kne sense. s Fi humankind” time Lud h r WE autumn in ng wo Fi s during the the wher the idential s ve nland, he , time In similar the designed him the re who y Roeric “the nland, w an y s www rk re nt and ST wig of 1920 -consecr shar Bud y had wo as catastr being nY while whic y y Bolshe vo Since .for had e Gar tr to fr But the Roeric mo suggested case, c, a sets rs distortion lution. his ave the teantimes om Meidner the to dhism. ed ex 1920 been centr visions. hs t the the in fo h den ve this tw of Ft in hibit he, wo lled sets r this wa with 1929. ophe fo 324 viks d ated – o the h’ r to to rk e .c y 31 s om , –

nicholas roerich museum museum roerich s nichola

ABOVE: roerich (right) with wife helena (second from right) and son George in the altai, august 1926. BELOW: in ulan Bator, mongolia, march 1927.

the Chicago Opera. by a secret ‘King of the World’. Although The Roerichs settled in New York where The esoTeRic very different in character, Agharti and they began the work that would result in Shambhala have often been conflated: while the Master Building. Roerich was feted Shambhala is a land of peace and harmony, in Manhattan. Charming, impressive and siDe of his Agharti is generally characterised as a rather enigmatic at turns – he accentuated his evil place, a totalitarian realm in which Mongol-like features with a Fu-Manchu WoRkWas The the omnipotent King of the World rules moustache and beard and had taken to via secret agents and surveillance systems. Eastern garb – he began to gather followers. Ossendowski did not immediately reject Two of them, Louis Horch, a successful iNaUGURaTioN these tales of a hidden world because he broker, and his wife Nettie, fi nanced much had already encountered an extraordinary of Roerich’s work for the next decade and ofa NeWaGe of individual who for a time was dictator of a half. Horch was convinced Roerich was a Mongolia. Roman Ungern von Sternberg, a true teacher and prophet and, after clearing White Russian ex-lieutenant general, had his debts, funded the fi rst phase of his world shambhala set himself up as an independent warlord, culture campaign. Later, on the site of his own and his raids on both White and Red Russian mansion, Horch broke ground for the Master supply trains were so violent that he had Building. earned the nickname of the ‘Bloody Baron’. Roerich told Horch that his cultural Ungern von Sternberg believed he was activities were the exoteric, outer face of the reincarnation of Genghis Khan and he his work; the inner, esoteric side was its practised a severe Buddhism that included true raison d’etre. This, Horch and the others gratuitous violence and a fi erce hatred learned, was the inauguration of a new age, of Communists and Jews. After a brief that of the Maitreya Buddha and Shambhala. association with the Japanese, he formed an Roerich’s inner circle received special rings ‘Order of Military Buddhists’ and succeeded and secret esoteric names and were taught in capturing Ulan Bator. He was eventually Agni Yoga methods of meditation. defeated by the Soviets and it is said that before his execution he chewed the Cross of St THE SEARCH FOR SHAMBHALA George medal earned for his bravery, rather Among the many activities that Horch than let it fall into enemy hands. funded was Roerich’s fi rst attempt to discover Roerich, although peace-loving, had Shambhala – or, failing that, to create it. grander plans.The ostensible aim of the But, as we’ve seen, Roerich was not the fi rst First Roerich Asian Expedition (1925-1929) – Russian to envision an independent Buddhist which trekked through the Punjab, Kashmir, state. In Beasts, Men and Gods the Polish Ladakh, the Karakoram and Altai Mountains, museum writer and traveller Ferdinand Ossendowski Mongolia, and the Gobi Desert en route to tells of his adventures in Mongolia as he fl ed Tibet – was to provide inspiration for his roerich the chaos of the Russian Civil War and rise painting, and ethnographic and artistic s of the Bolsheviks. Ossendowski learned of a materials for his sons. But Roerich’s real aim mysterious subterranean city, Agharti, ruled was to spread the word about Shambhala. nichola

32 Ft324 www.forteantimes.com nicholas roerich museum trigger Lama’ it northern since. the 1995 Dalai authorities “thr re incarnation 1923, link initiating can whic tak Lama, Roeric LAMA In belie another to the of containing wa to and ha mor of ne is exilis Lama, str Lama. and Pa ove ABO second wo sides better Ti ve w Reader mak the re nc Th ange s en r va ‘wish-g Pa VE e oughout a the is bet, with turn age. h uld hen a ve e re at or secular en ses small Lama s Roeric into aim nc consider some Th disag Heart LEFT: h’ Gedhun who e S cei d, the international re in the stone ‘stone Gr s star contact embolden hen while ro kno AND Lama e on Asia the the turn, wa mor s the Shambhala, ve of ail ‘pr ra ute office a ne inter had White age and bo re , wa of associate the s d of wn nting h Lama blac the his perhaps fr main otecti ro w legends. re e a said ement x a to fr to belie CO Maitr the Asia s agment ed he Choek is immediate piece le. of fl turn age has with str in Chintamani ested om corrupt with ex Earth, Stone unite. ed of India, k of MMIS the belie six Th Dalai to gem’ the ange conference pedition stone”. meteorite. re ve Bud Roeric the ve not the Ti of equal eya of with my e ha turned by the of yi Sirius. spiritual with bet custod d in We Shambhala. (Signs while Roeric curr ve to Th Rigden-jy dhists Dalai Roeric ve re been hea , that of the pac sterious SA Nyiman, the and Lama Roeric and Pa d, st, its taining e in the importance h Ti re In ent the aim ve RS Pa kage. could nc Chintamani ma speaks Chinese but 1923 betan ac the of sour y’ to a theme Pa that the seen Pa dedicated h Lama ns’ Dalai Th acr nc hen h part hed Pa Chintamani), has legendar in head Ti y painted rt wa h’ ris is the hen then is, decor ha ce, start oss of bet, epo wa s nc Wi if its of s said a legend, in Earth cir ve Roeric of alc hen and s this thin thus magnetic , October culates the been a of ations, to hem to man y part stone stone, the the it fr lapis h 1933. y om y roerich ABO So So articles Game ove Mosco his negati his tr Himala re a side Russian the by influence American notwithstanding, Pa VE possible ave cor viets viet ct, the rtur re libr str LEFT: Roeric ls ds mar Bruges ve w. had angest Bolshe support; ar should ya, es and an supporting national . In Mother y ks But and, to So fl whic started, and ear h , London, ag Britain. ab Lhasa, 1932. viet wa viks. spot no ly re out ne his art h of he s w UFO ad among xt agent. on whose Britain the re he on the A collection, Bolshe also this the whic his to Th Roeric mar wa ne World. re his sighting. Banner a e fa w s wa time Wh alised Ti But ex h ks So other confusing: itiner scinating consider vism phase betan nted wa pedition ite viets h ab Sk ex betw had of s etch confiscated out his Russians, under actl wo ar we Pe But to of thangka. we y written ace nder plans re een Bolshe (from re ed y wa the Altai- re perhaps he fl trie whic al hangs Roeric British s ew the making wa s Gr wa the needed ve and vism an ys h eat Both s ‘Banners from a h the of when, Stalin, wa to Mosco British Madame China, he Mongolia announced re Tw Educational in speaking ab with re inter ga mar quir the tew out Urumc cr s o had to eate months est inter ay east ks ed the w. after “unite and, Roeric letter and abov to animals we wher fo Shambhala onl aims. police, Th suspected to Th spots Roeric USSR sp Kamr Lama Roeric ag bac Shambhala we fo ab Roeric ’ re Bla a hi to est and British. series r r the y. gr re Wh cr out trie eosophist eir re re American that e re y a that Anatol help the ke later va Commissioner s eat ed, oss but them. summer fo Bud e h minding allo con fr fr After ong on en d USSR supplies tsk to ving a immediatel h’ h’ the ), h sud ur Lunac So eeing om his re he and ‘northern the Oriental we , died s s 1924. we had the avo the vinced dhism -month we y. He Roeric viets vo Pa plan, party y y denl him had the Th and the re re a we bor Lunac d wo included lution. id fo ss, planet, – British also that told Ti meeting ey har and tents to e ignor unsur possibl them r BEL re entering uld hid y dw Pa and of material der in bet the the Russians eb se with wa h Roeric head ve dela ksy escorted Fe told OW: he nc the being ve so one indled; wa row den Shambhala, har y: . ha ited, y er Th ed. of fo and Master that It der e hen of fo hear ra ad did should his Comm s told ed y ve r y So a of Deleg sk the ne e to them s www of r with l in Dorzhie Master shelter; Fi in vised intelligence h ation”. Comm we months Dalai a permission Ti south an y, viet to countr Roeric we his ve Lama men. Sikkim, of the nall d wa Mosco .for listened de Khotan, his British. the the bet. re into ates s’ wa r of American stw teantimes gr the unism plans s that vo lea came. Consul coldest task y ra the fello y wo eat it. Lama s Ft Ap unist- So of tee Th ’ the ar Th v’ fr had ymen of 324 h’ ised ve pac India. fo secr he w rk s viet om d the s Dalai peals ey the r is .c w 33 fo y the of re ing to om k et r al nicholas roerich museum THE PLAN Roerich took another shot at Shambhala a decade later, this time with backing from the US government. In 1929, he met Henry Wallace, a Washington politician, Freemason and devotee of the occult, as well as a successful agriculturalist. Roerich had recovered from the fi rst ‘Shambolic’ mission, and was vigorously promoting his Peace Pact, mentioned earlier. Wallace was enthused. He became a passionate supporter and lobbied strenuously for the idea; it was his support that led to FDR’s approval (other backers included Albert Einstein and Bernard Shaw). Another idea of Wallace’s, said to stem from Roerich, was the use of the verso of the Great Seal, with its Masonic all-seeing eye museum in a pyramid, on the back of the US dollar. Wallace told the Treasury Secretary Henry Morgenthau that Novus Ordo Seclorum could roerich s be read as FDR’s catchphrase “New Deal.” Only later did Morgenthau realise that Wallace had a different ‘New Age’ in mind. nichola Wallace entered Roerich’s inner circle and was told about ‘the Plan’, the codename with monks about Rigden-jyepo and the TOP: opening ceremony of the new quarters of for Shambhala. It soon became clear that imminent ‘War of Shambhala’, and perhaps the roerich museum, new York, october 1929. his agricultural expertise and position as showing them the Chintamnai stone. Reports roerich is second from right, louis horch second Agricultural Secretary could be useful. say he was convincing and that many from left. In 1934 Wallace suggested to FDR that monks believed him. It was clear he had Roerich head a mission to Mongolia to something more than grass in mind. In Inner THE END OF THE MASTER collect samples of drought-resistant grasses. Mongolia, Soviet suspicions were aroused By this time, Horch had gained control of America had entered the Dust Bowl, the by the American-supported Russian mystic much of Roerich’s work, as well as the Master agricultural crisis following the Depression, spreading rumours about a coming New Age. Building, appropriating them in return for and needed to develop methods of dry-land Roerich’s remarks about the return of the the unpaid loans. He also testified against farming. Roerich, who had by this time Panchen Lama and the advent of Shambhala Roerich in a legal battle between his former settled in India, would lead a botanical seemed to suggest that the US was backing guru and the US government for tax evasion. expedition and gather helpful specimens. a holy war against Communist rule. When Roerich’s appeal was denied and the $50,000 Roerich’s reputation as a possible Soviet reports of Roerich’s activities fi rst reached he owed had to be paid. Roerich wisely agent, as well as a mystic, prejudiced Wallace, he dismissed them and continued remained in India for the rest of his life; he Wallace’s colleagues against the idea, but to support ‘the Plan’, but when Louis Horch, died in Naggar, Himachal Pradesh, at the site he was persuasive, and with two government who had recently fi led suit against Roerich of his Urusvati Himalayan Research Institute, botanists in tow, Roerich headed into a for $200,000 in unpaid loans, told Wallace in 1947. He continued to meet world-famous northern Asia even more unstable than a that Roerich was assuring Mongolians of fi gures, among them Gandhi and Jawaharlal decade earlier. Things, however, quickly fell US support for an uprising, he tried to reel Nehru, both of whom were Theosophists. apart. Roerich’s ideas about the expedition his guru in.That ‘the Plan’ would require Wallace would later regret his association were not those of the botanists, and his own a revolution had escaped Wallace. Roerich with the modern day Rigden-jyepo. When personal escort of armed White Russian ignored Wallace’s messages and continued to running for vice-president on FDR’s bid for Cossacks did not help. While he did collect recruit disaffected Buddhists until Wallace, a third term, copies of Wallace’s letters to some grasses, Roerich spent more time realising his mistake, terminated the mission. Roerich – headed “Dear Guru” – got into visiting Buddhist monasteries, speaking Soon after Wallace broke with his guru. the wrong hands and the Democrats were only saved by a sex scandal involving their Republican opponent Wendell Wilkie. Both parties agreed to keep their secrets secret. But in 1948 Wallace, inspired by Roerich’s assurance that he would one day hold the office, ran as an independent candidate for the presidency. The ‘Guru Letters’ emerged again and hit the papers. Wallace now called Roerich a “disgruntled ex-employee” and “tax-evader”, but his reputation as a mystic and the tone of the letters, asking Roerich for advice on political matters, scuppered Wallace’s already slim chances. Roerich’s plan to initiate the return of Rigden-jyepo, incarnate Maitreya, and inaugurate the age of Shambhala were pipe dreams; it’s said that when the Panchen museum Lama heard of Roerich’s scheme he said he would have nothing to do with it. But however roerich faulty his politics, Roerich’s vision was a vital s ingredient in his art, which remains powerful and transformative. Intrepid tourists can nichola see some of Roerich’s fantastic works in the ABOVE: Tibet. Himalayas, 1933. FACING PAGE, TOP: Himalayas (The Pink Mountains), 1933. wonderful Nicholas Roerich Museum at 319

34 Ft324 www.forteantimes.com museum roerich s nichola West 107th Street, a few blocks north of the Master Building. Few who do realise that along with the spiritual inspiration for Roerich’s mesmerising canvases was a real ambition to redraw the map of Asia. FT

With thanks to Daniel Entin and Gvido Trepsa of the Nicholas Roerich Museum

Nicholas Roerich Museum, 319 West 107th Street, New York, NY 10025 www.roerich.org Admission is free, and the Museum is open 12-5 Tue-Fri, 2-5 Sat-Sun and is closed Mondays.

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY GARY LACHMAN was a founding member of Blondie and has written articles for Ft on everything from hypnagogia to rudolf steiner. his latest book is Revolutionaries of the Soul: Refl ections on Magicians, Philosophers and Occultists (Quest Books, 2014).

SOURCES

tenzin Gyato, The Kalachakra Tanta (london: Wisdom Publications, 1985) Gary lachman, Politics and the Occult (Wheaton: Quest Books, 2008) Karl meyer and sharen Brysac, Tournament of Shadows (london: little, Brown & co., 2001) nicholas roerich, Altai-Himalaya (Kempton, il: museum adventures unlimited Press, 2001) nicholas roerich, The Heart of Asia (Kathmandu:

roerich Pilgrims Publishing, 2008) s nicholas roerich, Shambhala: In Search of the New Era (rochester: inner traditions, 1990) nichola andrei Znamenski, Red Shambhala: Magic, Prophecy ABOVE: roerich in naggar, india, 1936. and Geo-Politics in the Heart of Asia (Wheaton: Quest Books, 2011)

Ft324 35 www.forteantimes.com AFP / getty imAges O silence himself poison. ask ra mor the ra to also it he hermeticall Ser fo agent, lethal pr ab painful. fo fo po FT218:4-5). the fo 36 www r rmer rmer rmer wa dion dioacti omoting we out kill Po Death accused .for Litvinenk vice successor poison wh e an Ft s lonium-210 teantimes r on accessible 324 tr Pr a dose uclide Wh wa in y Russian colleagues friends ob , him. Refining ansported and human about Despite as the esident vity by Russia. s vious a li into va Litvinenk n the polonium-210. ra being y – .c the y polonium-210 ving Fo assassins om , 1 re 200 dioacti o is rious sealed s combined do No re to ra to surr Russian so Litvinenk being poison, Fe gular Vladimir to being is ign or He re times in the in ve die. co difficult xin. der fo in an conspir mains , eptitiousl vo getting ex mber ex ve container had Intelligence r o KGB a lv On nspir – al un did ile tea, pensi wa not-particular administer ra Po the it in ed Fe with Security usual met cons dion in his ba took o’ s 2006, lonium-210 not that Litvinenk Putin’ and ac – is der in that poisoned s amount access London, ve as tr teapot y slo deathbed, y a sis tw the ac uclide, use al , theories thr ch one its slipped we conspir and meant ea Ale w yo o s Security “I’m oice fa y ? Ser Ser of rise ee ll and high a u ed to of xander th m highl ct ch re as (see ha his theorie o, Ma we with vice vice the a ly his quir is of eaper to Putin ve a ac media eks no y y to tthe – ed to , w bu – s and whe in w Th th conspiracy is best eo a Dentith eo ther just ac e wo ademic bi piracy rld ry ex we t…” g wher no wh plana off ackno quest rist, ar re ich e gue er se we wledge ar s s ti kno ch that io th t on co n w e we it nt that or inue ar a no e co and assassins Mosco be particular offer Ad that – claim kno at wa whic question, we Putin’ a wa conspir participant of Litvinenk his Litvinenk to not LEFT: to in wa con all to centr t. the po con All One flowers y s vo tr nspir kno mu w, the the tr s of min ac h s we ve cates or A s ains vince that of it behest the w. pr ga rd co al ke discr w option ator re nient picture onl r der re re ute this ve er Lo by ab outside d gime tr omo then, o, o’ sult ly best all nspir the Litvinenk y ndon, of acie bac ed ave had s s him out editing in the it the tr possibility gr sounds y who long dupe this of y seems aces of is by his of happened. ipping k lled, ex a is the used to wo Kr and the that Ale the 23 to te significant a Putin’ planation? s whic acted particular ow and ac be emlin. conspir rl xander of in the death Nov the and Univ Russian ta d lik man sc o n certain to Litvinenk plotted the a sp y that pr h wa death ember . ca e fa ke s Russian get ersity Another in y ev ep conspir otr theoris opponents the y b s lse substance Ho Litvinenk thriller; And of ac secr en other a Putin in to acted plac ticism media Ale y. willing wev theor flag that state stuff College or 2007. by to whic London After et. gi o that ac xander the Pr a er ve critics wa is wo conspir o his Th death y of ra y but, as h e , esident. n is platf that this theory s either planes ts uld Hospital as nge the e could he all, a what death a pinned killed big fr sho a as wa of is orm om – of ac we w s y ges imA getty / ARCHiVe N tO HUL ABOVE: Karl Popper (left) argued that conspiracy theories were irrational. Alex Jones (centre) and David icke (right) continue to provide evidence that he was probably right.

spare no expense when it came to murdering theories of Hofstadter and Popper are, when are already suspicious of, then we are going to his rivals. you think about them carefully… well, kind confirm our pejorative take. Whatever the case, you cannot help but be a of weird. After all, both writers admit that Instead, we should focus our attention conspiracy theorist when it comes to the death conspiracies occur, and that it is sometimes on the category of conspiratorial activity in of Alexander Litvinenko: there is no sensible rational to theorise about them. So, why, general – actions taken by plotters in secret alternative. then, should we be sceptical of ‘conspiracy towards some end – and ask whether there is a theories’? substantial amount of conspiratorial activity Politics anD Paranoia Popper and Hofstadter’s interest was in that is a) well-evidenced and b) the subject The term “conspiracy theory” is typically claims of political conspiracies, which they of conspiracy theories. Criminal conspiracies taken to be pejorative and to refer to a thought of as both rare and seldom successful. are routinely prosecuted through the courts, species of irrational belief or system of They wrote at a time when trust in authority for example. If you are historically literate, beliefs. Conspiracy theories are frowned was high and public knowledge about then you will be aware that history is littered upon in public discourse, despite the fact that political malfeasance was low. Their views are with examples of theories about conspiracies, we know conspiracies occur. Why are we so understandable (even if we still think them some of which were warranted. If you consider sceptical of theories about conspiracies? weird) given the context in which they wrote. yourself to be politically literate, then you In part it’s because we keep being told To them, talk of conspiracy theories was to might even claim that a large amount of – by people who should know better – that be frowned upon because if the public came contemporary politicking takes place in a conspiracy theories are bunk. Most of the to believe such theories, its trust in authority conspiratorial mode, whether it be selling academic literature on the irrationality of would be damaged. However, here and now, a policy to the public, working out when to belief in conspiracy theories stems from with our access to official information and stage a leadership coup or getting rid of your the work of Sir Karl Popper or Richard the work of organisations like WikiLeaks, the enemies. Hofstadter. Popper, in the The Open Society trusting attitudes of Popper and Hofstadter and Its Enemies (1969), characterises belief in seem particularly askew; irrational, even. the Moscow trials conspiracy theories as prima facie evidence Our trust in political authority has been When is a conspiracy theory not a conspiracy of irrationality because conspiracy theorists rightly challenged by our knowledge of theory? are the kind of people who think history what members of influential organisations When it’s not a conspiracy theory according is the result of successive and successful routinely do. Some of the processes they to the accepted wisdom. conspiracies. Given that this is not obviously follow look conspiratorial, and some of the Take, for example, the Moscow Trials of the the case, the conspiracy theory of society, as conspiracy theories that governments have 1930s. Joseph Stalin, then leader of the USSR, Popper dubs it, is obviously false; and thus pooh-poohed have turned out to be warranted was obsessed with the idea that his rival-in- belief in conspiracy theories is necessarily by the evidence. exile Leon Trotksy was conspiring to return irrational as well. So, why are we are still so sceptical of to Russia and depose him.When the security Richard Hofstadter, in his The Paranoid conspiracy theories, given what we now know? police told Stalin there was no evidence of a Style in American Politics (1965), classifies conspiracy by Trotsky and his sympathisers, belief in conspiracy theories as being like weirD theorists Stalin told them to ensure there would be. – but not exactly like – paranoia.This is not Another reason for our scepticism about Thus, over several months, evidence was intended as a clinical diagnosis. Rather, conspiracy theories might be because we fabricated and people were “persuaded” to Hofstadter seeks to provide an explanation are all familiar with the existence of weird testify in a series of trials that Trotsky was a as to why we are suspicious of belief in conspiracy theorists. From David Icke and threat because he was conspiring against the conspiracy theories generally by showing his alien, shape-shifting reptiles to Alex USSR. how they resemble paranoid ideation. If we Jones and his ideas about the true powers The Moscow Trials were public, and thus consider paranoid ideation to be irrational, behind the White House, there are an awful concerned citizens (admittedly mostly then belief in conspiracy theories should, by lot of writers and media pundits who bring outside of the USSR) pored over the details. analogy, be irrational as well. into disrepute the wider class of beliefs we John Dewey, a philosopher, educationalist Popper and Hofstadter are the grand old might call ‘conspiracy theories’. However, and Trotskyite, formed the Commission of men of academic debate about conspiracy this should not be a reason for thinking Inquiry into the Charges Made against Leon theories, and it is fair to say that they have set that belief in conspiracy theories itself is Trotsky in the Moscow Trials (or “The Dewey the terms: conspiracy theories are typically suspicious or irrational. It would be rather Commission”).The result of the commission thought of as being irrational.Versions of their like characterising theism solely with respect was a report that included the claim that the theories can be seen in the contemporary to the beliefs of religious fanatics, or atheism verdicts in the Moscow Trials were a sham – work of Cass Sunstein, Daniel Pipes, David solely with those of Richard Dawkins. If we the result of a conspiracy by senior members Aaronovitch and Mark Fenster.Yet the start our analysis with respect to beliefs we of the Communist Party. Stalin and his cronies

Ft324 37 www.forteantimes.com BOtH PHOtOs: AFP / getty imAges theor Tr Commission conspir admitted ex Russia. lar in Nikita when a coining the theory Wh eXPre the counter Intelligence theor conspir enjo metaph wher wa non-conspir the definition, it go trials time? the America the points turned conspir thesis pooh-poohed sometimes with their Sometimes, ex ABO 38 www campaign a otsk ve istent) planation or Th Wh s gel en .for mistak term De Mosco futur VE: not ye rnments der e their Ft e y y citiz we teantimes y at Th de 324 ab y people wey in it d: to aBs mor Krusc when put out stalin ac ac ac right: ysical irr Stalin ed a sympathiser ar re bating to is wa later out a e). to trusted the y, y conspir y term enr that w ss ational e e unwitting conspir is irr that Commission’ al fr to pr fo theories rd theorists, go even re ac to Tr Ho we of .c though, the fi of ee Agenc an and it’ he turned tr rw y, ational om ove of of by be s fer Stalin ve tr y turns talk rst ionisM ials and call the disinf s a wev whic that and to v, ap theor and the conspir ar aw the the rnments an if va the a certain tr Stalin’ place. onl ac ac the the d sud mak ac it conspir otsky a De that ab kw lidity the his er official y y Commission’ that by US out Mosco fa gener h fa conspir USSR y was y had out ormation go s to y (CIA), , by out citiz ex t ne wey denl while ar wo ir to theor after ct e to cr De terms. the ve Char ac , s and belie (perusing that d istence s w Tr of and onies theories called pr the to is of wa uld assur be the claims conspir wey rnments question, enr y ac all oF y Commission leader otsk w this? member oblem a but theor be the theories y ac nted need Stalin’ the the y the fo les belief y: onl conspir Tr ve thus pr Centr y. is Th theor y Commission’ und ances wa we y a if (inad the also ials ove ve not y in, theor Fo UK. y of conspir At is conspir we to y a we s the e tend rr ex whic rd re via of with belie rt ab re is copy a s then guilty conspir against in the re al anted. is useful y. a re one s by icts plaining death re the the (non- Britain ac ve wo port fa the that ble out alleged conspir of y turn So that them cia not ser h to the y r rtentl at talk ve time, of uld acy wa ac De , whic cases in ar into USSR, cr theor kind a wa d the the ve wa Behind just y azy e, to s e wey s what ha of s and s by ac h y in of ve y. y the Moscow concerned, might of that Expr initial As hob its had lik manner secr ar bac Cold the art. wo set eclectic. of write cultur think the ABO senal va the One e rk ow fa up k bies, Th pur USSR, eti no Ja the VE: lorising essionism er r Wa in n no of all CIA be is Tr the fr ck success ve s of idea poses merits. the in ial) the ve onts r. wa Abstr a who latter y Some and son tempting, funding the secr Abstr superior the ls to with in s their 1940s, work that Abstr in Po American to put sp 1937; de of art act eti Cold – inter of Wh their wa lloc y pr ve act whic sho came of some ve mo art on in them Expr omote of s lop act CIA ic Jackson k which wing to Wa Expr simpl long est gr then, ve almost h wa artistic h spar ove Expr oup the its it courtesy ments it essionists r. of agents led lik s art wa rs Ho essionists wa hour the wa that being ri e y their to “long ed eas, of Po va essionism. time, part s, some and s wev s ev sa endea llock wo gr garnering engaging the ls, to funded s, America er y we fo funding ey appr er ha of cultur rk drink particular of that leash”: yo conspir and r member themselv re and , -suited ve the the of ne. it’ the vo we mu eciated s Abstr no painter collect ur other in e. Th har clear re Ho CIA. pur CIA ator? wa in ch s – critical the this It e fo wev and d, a s pose s mor ly ’s CIA act Us es r on s er Abstr e , act destr damaged On the part conspir the of acclaim bought in of anal it of the wa and theories not it the might theories undenia suspicious necessaril So to of that huge theories, what Expr in older Expr Abstr need gener what theorists theories compete, ev expressionists allo is ents Ale viet this its the conspir be the Th Th rr 11 CIA desir necessaril long not the ysing anted. conspir of essionism essionism oye e e own based ra we not ar act ws all Eur xander Abstr Abstr September be 9/ case art ex stor of its ac mifications. e by inher Long bl y in pr d leash: should ab collide, think ed us Expr amples we including be lik the 11 opean y cultur the 11 right. atorial to y ex cultur y critic). the omoted the y the (lik out also to the nef ends act act an upon e acies ab September of belie amples to co kind entl Pe Litvinenk Da Leash Tw y ex essionism. e right wa right ab out the ex do it the arious: at sho Expr Expr conspir Th sinister all re ntagon be most and al amine vid as in nsPir s we will of ex out Th ample y ve ev themselv that 2001, sulted when is y of promoted political Abstr ws ar initial pr sinister tak To the its planations the ’v It institutions. idence e speaking, quarter Ic lik – that mu essionist essionist So senal thing wa e-eminence turn we secr e long that sho also ke en ro time the y ac e viet look the in CIA o, a st (unless ck mor of 2001? rs do act le the in and their It y terr w seriousl success eti the Wa ha ac y out secr . conspir leash, demonstr in a in we theories in es wider just and the Th with nations. that aff ov allo ed s conspir Expr agents e ve ve conspir long shington, Ne orist the Ale and the erseas Mosco need art mo than e consider to Y with air et ow at that mainstr acti been we yo ar turns benefit w conspir re Although be ve x essionism after patr Cold – s mo success y, n of of leash categor being e, Yo u ac attac d spect Jo with the vity) conspir not ment art who no that ac ar we conspir happen ac Abstr thus, Abstr Americans w by y ates ve rk one nes. onage out e y theories Tr y. 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ABOVE: the destruction of the twin towers: terrorist attack or false fl ag operation? “Whatever you believe about 9/11, it is likely that you believe a conspiracy theory”.

According to most commentators, the terrorist about the cause of the destruction of the AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY organisation Al Qaeda planned and carried Twin Towers was a conspiracy theory. It was out the attack. However a small but vocal set only when Al Qaeda claimed responsibility MATTHEW RX DENTITH of conspiracy theorists, most commonly known for it that one of the conspiracy theories was is a New Zealand-based as the “9/11 Truthers”, claims that, variously, considered most plausible. Prior to that point, philosopher, the author the real culprits were either a foreign nation people had their suspicions, but they were of The Philosophy of operating under a false fl ag, or that the attack still suspicions based on the likelihood of one Conspiracy Theories was carried out on the orders of elements conspiracy theory being more plausible than (Palgrave macmillan) and within the government of the USA. some other. co-host of The Podcaster’s Whatever you believe about 9/11, it is likely Guide to the Conspiracy. When not studying that you believe a conspiracy theory. Either Al conclUsion conspiracy theories he likes to listen to they Qaeda operatives worked in secret to attack Why are we so sceptical about conspiracy might Be giants. mainland America, or some other organisation theories? Why are we so concerned to avoid the let the blame fall on Al Qaeda. No matter label that we often say: “I’m not a conspiracy BIBLIOGRAPHY which theory you believe, it turns out you are theorist, but…”? a 9/11 conspiracy theorist.What matters here, Conspiracies occur, and no one seems to David Aaronvitch, Voodoo Histories: The Role of then, is the evidence you use to justify your deny that. Conspiracy theories sometimes the Conspiracy Theory in Shaping Modern History, choice of conspiracy theory, and this is the turn out to be warranted, although many deny Jonathan Cape, 2009. general rule for the appraisal of a conspiracy this by saying: “Ah, but then it’s not really a L Basham, “A fterthoughts on Conspiracy theory: theory: any given conspiracy theory is only as conspiracy theory, is it?” Our suspicion about Resilience and Ubiquity”, Conspiracy Theories: The good as the evidence that supports it. If we are conspiracy theories looks to be, to paraphrase Philosophical Debate, ed. D Coady, Ashgate, 2006. going to be sceptical of conspiracy theories, the philosopher Charles Pigden, a modern m Fenster, Conspiracy Theories: Secrecy and Power then let that scepticism be based upon superstition; or, as Lee Basham puts it, a mark in American Culture, University of minnesota Press, arguments as to why particular conspiracy of a kind of civil religion.We have been told 2008. theories are, evidentially, good or bad ones. that conspiracy theories are bunk, and so we Richard Hofstadter, The Paranoid Style in American After all, sometimes our only choice is between treat them as such. Some conspiracy theorists, Politics, and Other Essays, Knopf, 1965. competing conspiracy theories. like David Icke and Alex Jones, would argue CR Pigden, “Conspiracy theories and the Conventional Some will undoubtedly argue that their that this is because the people who keep Wisdom”, Episteme 4(2), 2007, pp 219-232. telling us this are the ones with the most to acceptance of the Al Qaeda theory for the Daniel Pipes, Conspiracy: How the Paranoid style events of 9/11 is not a conspiracy theory gain. After all, in a world where conspirators Flourishes and Where it Comes From, Free Press, because it is now part of orthodox history. can hide behind the line “It’s just a conspiracy 1997. However, that gets us back to the metaphysical theory!” much conspiratorial activity will Karl R Popper, The Open Society and Its Enemies, trap: when is a conspiracy theory not a likely go unchecked. Still, even if you do not Routledge Kegan Paul, 1969. conspiracy theory? For example, in the believe we live in a totally conspiratorial CR sunstein and A Vermeule, “Conspiracy theories: moments between the attacks on NewYork world, it’s clear that sometimes the only Causes and Cures”, Journal of Political Philosophy on 11 September and Al Qaeda claiming rational choice is to believe in conspiracy 17(2), 2009, pp202-227. responsibility for the atrocity, every theory theories. FT

Ft324 39 www.forteantimes.com A GHOST IN THE (MILKING) MACHINE

There were odd goings-on down on Wilkinson’s farm in Tarcutta, New South Wales, back in 1949. PAUL CROPPER and TONY HEALY investigate the strange case of the haunted cowshed… one that baffled agricultural experts, scientists, magicians and the Australian Prime Minister.

uring this remarkable episode The disc-shaped, brass-and-Bakelite plates a milking machine belonging to A MYSTERIOUS weighed 13 ounces (368g), were about one dairy farmer Laurence Wilkinson and a half inches thick and three inches Dmalfunctioned in a weird and FORCE HAD long (3.8 x 7cm).To exit the shed they would dramatic way, its metal pulsator have had to dip downwards to clear the plates repeatedly, inexplicably vanishing sloping edge of the roof; then, to reach the and landing up to 250 yards (230m) from the CAUSEDTHE area where they commonly landed, they milking shed. would have had to swoop upwards to clear Other objects were seen to levitate.The a stockyard fence. On landing, they either phenomenon, which persisted for 11 months, PLATESTO FLY buried themselves in the ground or tore two- was observed and documented by Alexander foot-long, one-inch-deep (60 x 2.5 cm) scars Portors, an engineer of 30 years’ experience, OUTOFTHE SHED in the earth. who was very familiar with the machine in Another strange aspect was that the question. phenomenon happened regardless of The story broke on 19 January 1949, when AT HIGH SPEED how fast or how slowly the machine was the Wagga Wagga Advertiser learned that Portors had asked the newly established Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) for assistance. When interviewed by the Advertiser, Mr Portors said the phenomenon began on 10 January 1949 and had occurred almost every day thereafter. It involved a common fi ve- stand milking machine that had operated normally for several years until, inexplicably, its pulsator plates started to vanish. It always happened so fast that none of the witnesses, not even those who were looking directly at the plates at the critical moment, actually saw them disappear from the machine or exit the shed: one moment they were there, the next they were gone. As most of them were later found on a stony ridge to the north, it was assumed that some mysterious force had caused them to fl y out of the shed at phenomenal speed.

40 FT324 www.forteantimes.com ABOVE: The milking shed and sorroundings. BELOW LEFT: Dairy farmer Laurence Wilkinson. BELOW RIGHT: Mr Wilkinson’s 15-year-old son Robin. operating, and occurred even when the power was off and it was being turned by hand. Equally strangely, the ‘flight’ of the plates was absolutely silent. Because they couldn’t normally be removed unless the machine was stationary, and then only by manipulating them in a certain way, the plates’ behaviour seemed to defy explanation. Portors claimed that he “could get signatures from 20 adults, sensible men who have seen the phenomenon to swear to it”, and several of them did indeed step forward. Roy Donahue, who owned a similar milking machine, said: “It is impossible, but I saw it happen”. Another, Clem Gorman, said: “I saw it, but I wish to God I had not seen it. It is frightening.There’s no reason... why this should happen, and I’m a mechanical man... it disturbs me greatly.” Mr Wilkinson’s 15-year-old son Robin was on the property throughout most of the episode. On one occasion, three Tarcutta residents watched him touch one of the plates with a short iron rod.The plate In desperation, the fl ummoxed farmer pump was blowing instead of sucking.That suddenly fl ew from the machine, and at the bolted down the steel bar that kept the idea was quickly scotched by an indignant same time the rod was wrenched from his plates in position – but they still fl ew off. He Portors, who pointed out that if such was hand and embedded in the concrete fl oor. also experimented by cutting the fi bre faces the case the phenomenon would hardly be The plate was found about 200 yards (180m) off the brass plates and substituting leather, noiseless: “I have been in engineering since away, embedded in a mud heap and emitting but they were then thrown further than 1917 and I know that the milking plant is an odour “like that of a burning arc lamp, ever. After 10 days of weirdness, he decided without any fault.The machine is perfect.” but [it] was cold when we picked it up.” A the machine was simply too dangerous slight blue haze hung about the spot. to use and abandoned it. Despite being A BOFFIN’S BRUSH-OFF On 18 January, a technician from the handicapped by, as the Advertiser put it, “a CSIRO’s response to Alexander Portors’s company that sold the machine arrived to maimed hand”, he resorted to milking his appeal was also rather disappointing. examine it, and found it worked perfectly. 100 cows manually. Without deigning to leave his office in The plates behaved themselves for a few days In spite of the technician’s report and Canberra, one of the organisation’s officers, after that, but if Mr Wilkinson thought his without bothering to visit Tarcutta to see for DT Dickson, suggested that the machine troubles were over he was badly mistaken: on himself, LC Thurston, the President of the be inspected by a dairy expert (which had, the night of Saturday 22 January, they again Dairymens Association, suggested the plates of course, already been done) and by an fl ew off “with terrific force”. might have been fl ung away because the electrical engineer, who should then send

FT324 41 www.forteantimes.com ABOVE: The extravagent and barely disguised homoeroticism of Interdan in us 1994 fi lm version.

ABOVE: “Flung to glory”: the fl ight of the discs, as shown in the Sunday Herald, 4 December 1949. BELOW: Australian Prime Minister Ben Chifley was asked to intercede.

their reports to CSIRO headquarters in We’d love to report that the PM, a former Melbourne. Mr Dickson also told journalists engine driver, donned his overalls and sped that a 60,000-volt power line that passed close down to the farm to sort things out, but in fact to the property could have something to do he didn’t budge from his desk in Canberra. with the phenomenon: “High tension wires He did, however, communicate with the sometimes become awry and remarkable town clerk of Tarcutta to “gain the closest things occur.” impression of the reason why” the plates were Portors was furious.The line in question, he fl ying, and then contacted “high scientists” pointed out, carried only 33,000 volts and was at CSIRO headquarters in Melbourne. located 11 miles away. “These people in the Predictably, however, the “high scientists” cities,” he seethed, “are apt to think everyone ducked the issue again.The matter, they in the country is a nitwit.” He insisted that said, was not one for scientists, but for the a force strong enough to hurl metal plates manufacturers of the milking machine. long distances faster than the eye could see As the boffins knew very well that the obviously warranted official investigation. At manufacturers had already found the no time did he suggest poltergeist activity; he machine to be faultless, Portors and Wilkinson believed, rather, that the plates were hurled found this second round of butt-covering by power that was built up by the machine in particularly galling.The president of some way. If scientists could detect the source Kyeamba Shire, Councillor A O’Brian, shared of the unknown power, he said, the discovery their frustration: “It seems... they won’t send a could be of great value to the country. reaction to the [CSIRO] attitude is one of scientist down here until someone is killed or “There’s a build-up of power there... [it] is complete disgust... as luck would have it, the seriously injured,” he said. only exerted for a fraction of a second, but discs so far have not struck anyone. If they did So the exhausted Wilkinson was left to cope the plate picks up tremendous speed, and the it would mean serious bodily harm, perhaps with the weirdness and run his farm as best momentum carries it on... it is noiseless, too. death.” he could. I’ve watched for a plate leaving the machine, but could not sight it. It’s just so fast you can’t BEN CHIFLEY LENDS A HAND... MR DOWSETT’S SOLUTION see it. Dairy farmers from all around [have After the inaction of CSIRO and the What would a good polt event be without a come to see] and it has just fl ung the plates to Dairymen’s Association chief, Portors must confirmed sceptic making a fl ying visit to the glory. They’ve all been... amazed.” have been heartened (albeit briefly) by site and attempting to debunk it? CSIRO’s suggestions were, he said, “just the response of the Federal Member for On 29 January Chartered Engineer JH side-stepping... what we need here is a Hume, Mr Fuller, who, on about 28 January, Dowsett wrote to the Wagga Wagga Advertiser scientist... but if the experts do not hurry personally requested the Prime Minister, Ben to say that local residents “may now sleep up there will be little or nothing to see. My Chifley, to intercede. soundly... for the mystery has been solved”.

42 FT324 www.forteantimes.com ABOVE: The milking shed at the centre of the strange phenomena still stands, and is seen here in a photograph from 2010.

He and one or two companions had visited object was thrown a great distance. Several the Wilkinson property the previous Tuesday “THEWHOLE – including the one that landed in the water and satisfied themselves that young Robin tank that same morning – had been found Wilkinson was hoaxing the whole thing. But quite close to the machine. how they came to that conclusion is far from SITUATION IS But Dowsett had made up his mind. Plates adequately explained. found some distance from the dairy, he told They arrived some time before the evening FANTASTICAND the Advertiser, “have been thrown or placed in milking, examined the machine, which position... the whole situation is fantastic and appeared to be working properly and, using utter rot.” In conclusion, he pointed the fi nger a compass and other devices, found nothing IS UTTER ROT...” of blame straight at young Robin: “I suggest unusual about the magnetic deviation and the that no further trouble will be experienced... pull of gravity. The brass pulsator plates were, after the termination of the present school unsurprisingly, found to be non-magnetic. with milking was outstanding; his movements holidays.” They were told that during the morning the were keenly observed.” In that and in several other respects, master plate had fl own off and dived into a The engineer then states, rather oddly, that: Dowsett was wrong. 6ft (1.8m) tall water tank. Dowsett found that “We were all rather puzzled, but had by this implausible. “Remarkable,” he commented time formed our opinions, so we packed up... MYSTERY UNSOLVED sarcastically, but not unreasonably, “how and started on our journey homewards.” Far from fi nishing when Robin returned to someone knew to look into this tank to fi nd They’d driven only 400 yards (365m) when school at the end of January, the weird events the plate, as they cannot be observed when in someone (with, apparently, a particularly loud continued for the next 10 months, including actual fl ight.” voice) called them back. On their return they a period of three weeks when he was 87 miles He saw that Mr Wilkinson had taken the were told a pulsator plate had attempted to (140km) away in Albury. precaution of covering most of the machinery fl y but had been immediately replaced so By early October, the phenomenon was with wire netting and checked that everything that milking could continue.The machine affecting not only the milking machine, but was properly grounded. During all this, he had resumed working normally. Dowsett also the diesel engine that drove it and an noted, there were two children present: “a boy didn’t say where the plate was found, but auxiliary engine. “All the moveable parts and a girl, both between about ... nine to 12 implies that it was inside the wire netting. of both engines and milking machines, and years.” The boy, in fact, was 15-year-old Robin, He thought this suspicious: if the mysterious also the separator”, wrote WA Breaden, who proceeded to round up the cows and help force was really strong enough to hurl objects Secretary of the Tarcutta and district Progress his father attach them to the machine, which 200 yards (180m), he suggested, then surely Association, “have been fl ung away.” began to work perfectly. it could “drive a plate through wire netting.” Mr Wilkinson said that one part of the But Dowsett was keeping a sharp eye on That doesn’t sound entirely unreasonable, milking machine, weighing 2.5lb (1.1kg) was the lad who “was quite a power in his actions until we remember that Dowsett knew full found 250 yards (230m) from the shed. On one about the dairy, and his eagerness to assist well that Mr Wilkinson had not claimed every occasion, a cast-iron axle weighing 65lb (30kg)

FT324 43 www.forteantimes.com was lifted 2ft (60cm) off the ground with what suspect...Wilkinson himself would have had authentication of the phenomena reported. I he described as “a terrific bang”. the opportunity of interfering with the plant... was far less inclined to wipe the whole thing... A Sydney Morning Herald journalist who it is quite possible that a psychiatrist might In my opinion it would have taken a whole visited the farm in November wrote that: “in get to the bottom of the matter...” coterie of professional magicians... to have an effort to stop the machine from fl ying to Pretty damning stuff – until we consider brought off the tricks”. bits, Mr Wilkinson had tied every moving part this: Chester Gray revealed later that he had to the walls and rafters with bits of chain, not been in full agreement with his colleague. THEY SAW LOTS wire and rope... yet parts of the machine, both Unlike Morse, Gray was very favourably When one reads their compelling testimony, moving and stationary, continue to fl y about, impressed by the eyewitnesses: “We had it is easy to see why Gray found it hard to twisting the heavy dog chains that secure sworn declarations [from] four people... dismiss the eyewitnesses as hoaxers or dupes. them as if they were soft copper wire.” who made them at considerable hazard In November 1949 a Sydney Morning Herald to their reputations... we cross-examined journalist interviewed Alexander Portors, THEY SAW NOTHING [them and other witnesses]... without in any two other engineers who had visited the dairy Given what we know of the notoriously way shaking them, or revealing noticeable repeatedly over the course of 11 months, and contrary nature of polts, we weren’t surprised fl aws or inconsistencies... accordingly these eight other eyewitnesses. to learn that whenever Wilkinson and Portors statements constitute unusually powerful As well as witnessing many disappearances managed to persuade experts to examine it, of pulsator plates, Portors had watched an the machine worked fl awlessly. empty grease tin lift from the top of the When dairy inspectors from the NSW THE BOYTOLD machine’s vacuum pump and “rise slowly in Department of Agriculture inspected the the air... spinning as it rose. It cleared a 6ft machine, they, like the technician from the [1.8m] foot wooden partition with 18 inches company who sold the machine, could fi nd HIM: “NOTMUCH [46cm] to spare, then turned and fell with no fault with it. Public Works Department terrific force to the ground about 18 inches engineers also drew a blank. HAPPENSWHEN from where I stood. A peculiar thing about In November, when CSIRO fi nally bowed to it was that it seemed much bigger than it pressure and sent out a couple of scientists, really was – as big as a football. I suppose that the polt again kept a low profile. In the I’MAWAY” was because it was spinning diagonally. We presence of Roger Morse and Chester Gray, were so astonished we thought we’d see what both Electrical and Mechanical engineers, happened to an empty 50-cigarette tin. We the machine worked perfectly, and Morse, put it on... the vacuum pump. A minute or two the senior of the two, duly reported that later it also rose over the 6ft partition.” they “were satisfied the occurrences are not Another mechanical engineer, RV related to any new source of energy. It does Donahue, and his daughterVeronica not appear, therefore, that any scientific witnessed those amazing events.Veronica investigation, such as this organisation, with told the journalist that she was standing its present far from unlimited resources, beside her father and Mr and Mrs Portors, could undertake, would be of any value in “when I saw the grease tin rise in the air explaining the happenings.” and crash at my feet with a loud bang. I got a Morse seems to have been intent on coming terrible fright.” to a negative conclusion. He dismissed the Donahue also witnessed the sudden testimony of the eyewitnesses with the odd disappearance of several pulsator plates: remark that they could all have been fooled “One moment they were there, the next “by a simple form of conjuring... or by some moment they were gone.” form of hypnotism,” and then took a couple of One day, Edward Brown helped Portors nasty, gratuitous swipes at the long-suffering examine the plates, and “made sure they Wilkinsons: “Although the boy has been a were fi xed fi rmly on... then started up the engine. Suddenly the master pulsator fl ew off... we had a look at the other pulsators and found two of them were missing.” A radio and electrical engineer, Mr R Mumford, provided the journalist with some particularly interesting observations: “When I fi rst heard about the strange events... I didn’t believe them, but thought I’d go and see for myself.” He visited the dairy about 20 times, sometimes spending entire weekends there. “I was with the party who saw the grease tin and cigarette tin rise in the air, but there were many other remarkable experiences. I once kept the master pulsator block... under observation for four hours. Suddenly I became aware it had gone. We found it later 50 yards away in the paddock. “One Sunday... I saw the lid of a cream can lift itself off the creamery shelf, rush through the air and strike the opposite wall. No one was present... but myself. Mr Wilkinson’s boy was in the cottage 100 yards away [our italics]. “It’s impossible to explain these things by any known law. I’ve thought of magnetic deflection and electrical interference, and at one time I made a lot of... tests with TOP: Robin Wilkinson, pictured in the Sunday Herald, 4 December 1949. ABOVE: The milking shed interior. instruments I brought to the farm for the

44 FT324 www.forteantimes.com purpose, but all... proved nothing. It’s the Mr. Wilkinson and his wife information about associated with poltergeist activity during biggest mystery I’ve ever experienced.” what transpired, allegedly, in the seven years or several other notable episodes it may be so following my previous visit [our italics].” significant that the only time pulsator plates MAGIC MOMENTS While Gray “was particularly impressed disappeared completely was during a severe The Herald also reported the fi ndings of by the simple, unreserved words of Mrs storm on 25 January 1949.Three of them someone who had interviewed young Robin Wilkinson,” he found her husband “very disappeared that night and the remaining Wilkinson.The man in question was a stage secretive about certain important aspects.” two vanished three days later. Although magician – a member of the Magic Circle Sceptics might fi nd his reticence significant, the Wilkinsons searched “until they were of London. “When I went to [the] dairy”, he but perhaps the farmer was just sick to death footsore” they never found a trace of them. stated, “I had two things to settle in my mind. of scientists and media attention. Or perhaps, It is interesting to note that although other Was the rampaging milking machine in a after belatedly accepting that something people suggested something supernatural state of neglect and disrepair? And was there paranormal really was lurking about the farm, was going on at his farm, Laurence Wilkinson any loophole for trickery? The answer to the he was reluctant to talk for fear of stirring it strongly resisted the notion. Like his stoutest fi rst question was patently ‘No’”. up. supporter, Alexander Portors, he clung to the Nor could he believe Mr Wilkinson was a Despite Wilkinson’s reticence, Gray did not idea that the phenomena, though extremely hoaxer: the farmer “is too stolid and hard- “despair of obtaining further cooperation” weird, were the result of some undiscovered working... to want to play tricks on himself. and believed the strange phenomena to be natural force. The continued disintegration of his machine genuinely paranormal. Declaring that “the As we know, Portors thought that the has imposed a tremendous physical strain main lines of the story are now fairly clear,” force – if only the government could harness upon him and reduced his nervous system to he resolved to write a full account of his it – would be a great boon for mankind. a wreck.” investigations for the London-based Society Given his engineering background and The man then focused his attention for Psychical Research (SPR). apparent unfamiliarity with poltergeist on young Robin, “a strong, healthy boy It would have been very interesting lore, his materialist “take” on the situation of 15, obviously interested in machinery, to learn what he was referring to when was not unreasonable.The episode had, always doing odd jobs in the dairy”.While he alluded to events that “transpired, after all, occurred just four years after the the sceptical Mr Dowsett had thought it allegedly, in the seven years after [1949]”. general public was made rudely aware of the suspicious that the boy was “the indefatigable Unfortunately, however, as the SPR has no awesome, almost incomprehensible power of retriever of missing engine parts”, this record of receiving his report, it seems that, the atom. investigator, noting that the lad was miles for some reason or other, he never got around To us, however, it is pretty clear that for from the farm when some phenomena to sending it. some reason or other a poltergeist really did occurred, was “convinced Robin intentionally decide to raise Merry Hell in the Wilkinsons’ was not responsible for these strange goings- ROBIN’S END cow shed. FT on.” As we didn’t become aware of the Tarcutta “Yet,” he continued, “it was the boy... who mystery until 2010, we have been able to AUTHOR BIOGRAPHIES gave me a clue. He said, in answer to my locate only one member of the Wilkinson question: ‘Not much happens when I’m away.’ family. Although she was at the farm PAUL CROPPER and “Nearly all poltergeist phenomena occurs during parts of 1949, the lady, who requests TONY HEALY have in the presence of a human agent, usually an anonymity, was then very young and has investigated all adolescent boy or girl... I think it reasonable forgotten most of what transpired – it was manner of strange that the absurd happenings at Wilkinson’s “just a part of life”. phenomena both farm are of poltergeist origin and that the She did, however, tell us that although in Australia and human agent... is Mr. Wilkinson’s son.” she visited Robin Wilkinson regularly in elsewhere since later years, they never once talked about the the mid-1970s. they are the co-authors of Out GONE BUT NOT FORGOTTEN strange events of 1949. Robin, she said, was of the Shadows: Mystery Animals of Australia As we can fi nd no newspaper articles never chatty – he often “clammed up”. He (1994) and The Yowie (2006). about the “haunted cow shed” dated later lived in Junee and died there in 2002. than January 1950, it seems likely the polt A good feature of the Wilkinson case is SOURCES activity eased off as the New Year began. that it involved plenty of eyewitnesses, but, One document in our fi le, however, hints that because of its location, not too many. In some Wagga Wagga Advertiser, 19, 20, 21, 22, 29 Jan and strange events occurred occasionally until at other cases, excessive numbers of sightseers 1 Feb 1949. Canberra Times, 19, 20, 24, 25 and 29 least 1956. have made it difficult to decide whether or Jan 1949. Sydney Morning Herald, 20 and 21 Jan, 4 and 7 Dec 1949. Adelaide Advertiser, 20 Jan 1949. As mentioned above, one of the CSIRO not hoaxing was involved. West Australian, 20 Jan 1949. Mercury (Hobart), 29 scientists, Chester M Gray, was never After one brief visit to the property, Jan 1949. Psychic News, 14 Jan and 25 Jun 1950. completely happy with the negative report Mr Dowsett asserted that the phenomena Two Worlds, 3 Jun 1950. lodged by his colleague Roger Morse after were being faked, but there is very little, their visit to Tarcutta in November 1949. So if anything, to suggest he was right. He National Archives of Australia fi le: “Dairy research, machinery and equipment, report on incidents at it is very interesting that, when he retired in seemed to think that the mere fact that he Tarcutta”. Date range: 1949–1975. Series A 9778, 1971 after a long and distinguished career, was suspicious of young Robin was enough Item D4/20/44E. (The fi le contains, among many he “decided to follow up the investigation, to to prove that the entire series of events was other documents, Roger N Morse’s report, dated 8 the extent that this was possible after so long “utter rot”. Roger Morse of the CSIRO, after Nov 1949, and correspondence from and to Chester a time.” a similarly brief visit, also suggested hoaxing Gray dating from 2 Feb 1973 to 28 Feb 1975). Consequently, between 1973 and 1975 and implied Mr Wilkinson was responsible. Paul Cropper, interviews with Tarcutta residents Bill he corresponded with senior officers But three other professional engineers and Belling and Ted Brown, Oct 2009, and interview with at CSIRO, the National Library and the many knowledgeable locals, who spent Wilkinson family member, 1 Sept 2010. Australian Archives, seeking copies of all a great deal more time on the site than relevant documents, particularly statutory either Dowsett or Morse, and who’d actually This article was extracted declarations of eyewitnesses, as well as copies witnessed the phenomena, stoutly defended and adapted from of several photographs he’d taken on the the Wilkinsons. Australian Poltergeist farm. One would expect that if hoaxing was by Tony Healy and Paul In one letter he gives a brief account of involved a highly trained conjurer would be Cropper, published by Xou his return visit to the site in January 1975: able to detect it.Yet the stage magician who Pty Ltd and available from “I... found, against all expectations, that the visited in October 1949 concluded that no Amazon in print and Kindle principal dramatis personae were still going such hoaxing had occurred. versions. strong... with Mr Breaden I... obtained from Because stormy weather has been

FT324 45 www.forteantimes.com NEILJORDAN SEARCHING IN DREAMS

ANGELINE B ADAMS and REMCO VAN STRATEN discuss fantasy and fi lm-making with writer/director Neil Jordan at a 20th annniversary screening of his Interview with the Vampire

We’re ushered into the blood-red cave that is Screen 4 of Belfast’s Strand Arts Centre, the only survivor in a city that once boasted myriad neighbourhood cinemas. “I wish I had a cinema like this within walking distance in Dublin,” Neil Jordan confides. The occasion is the 20th anniversary screening of Interview with the Vampire. It’ll be shown in 35mm, not digital. Jordan prefers it this way.

When did you last see Interview? Oh, it was a long, long, loooooooong time ago!

Your fi rst fi lm work was as creative consultant on John Boorman’s Excalibur. Were you already interested in the fantastic earlier, in your writing career? No, not really. It came from making movies. GES Fantastic things always suit movies, it seems IMA to me. And I probably got it from the area where I grew up; I grew up in Sligo, was GETTY born in Sligo. But I’ve also written several I suppose Cú Chulainn’s is not as magical a novels involving the fantastic as well – “IT’S SOMETHING story, really; it’s not about the Otherworld. I fantasy, folklore and mythology. mean, it’s not about Christianity either – it’s a pre-Christian story. It’s more like the Iliad And when you work with someone else’s THAT COMES and those Greek epics. The thing is, with stories? the Arthurian legends, you have various Whenever I work with someone else’s renditions of them since the 13th century, stories it’s always because they’ve had those FROM GROWING from Le Morte d’Arthur onwards, and they elements in them. Angela Carter, Graham have a different position within English Greene, Moira Buffini, Anne Rice... I’ve UPINAN ORAL literature. always been attracted to a book, or a story, or a piece of imagination that had that Do you relate to writers like Yeats, who strange kind of existence, both in this world CULTURE” formed a bridge between ancient history, and some other world. mythology, and modern Ireland? Yes, absolutely. That’s the reason I’ve done Do you fi nd that you can then further For instance, with the popularity of Game so many movies that have dealt with fairy influence them? of Thrones, fi lmed around Belfast, where is tales, with fantasy, horror and ghost stories Yes, I choose the stories that then stimulate our epic Cú Chulainn movie? and things like that. But it’s something that my soul in some way, and then I respond to I don’t know why they haven’t made comes from growing up very much in an oral them, and I change them often. But I choose movies of it. There’s no big fi ction about culture, with that kind of storytelling and something that has that resonance. Cú Chulainn either, apart from the Táin Bó that kind of culture – superstition was never Cúailnge. If it’s ever referred to, it’s in terms very far from the surface. Compared to the many adaptations of King of satire, like in Flann O’Brien. The entire Anglo-Irish literary revival Arthur, not much has been done in fi lm and was driven by people collecting folk tales, TV with our Irish mythology. Also, as a character, Cú Chulainn may not like An Cumann Le Béaloideas Éire (The I know, there’s not really much, is there? be as enigmatic as King Arthur. Folklore of Ireland Society), Lady Gregory,

46 FT324 www.forteantimes.com in terms of the cinema of the time it was quite unusual, because it was seen as quite daring. The script was quite – it wasn’t for little children, it wasn’t for adults, it was a horror movie, it was an erotic movie, with a young girl growing up, so it crossed all these boundaries. I was very lucky to get to make it, and it would be very difficult to at present.

Is there a deeper truth to fairy tales? I think what you fi nd with fairy tales is that they’re stories that go beyond character, that go straight to some rather mythic, archetypal thing. And they get there very easily, while if you write a story yourself it’s often very difficult to get there. That’s the advantage, the function of fairy tales.

Does that let you communicate a message? It’s not a message, really. Fairy tales come Yeats of course, and Douglas Hyde. There fully formed, and they strike deeper than was the exploration of the Irish folk culture the realistic level, the realistic surface that at the very birth of the Anglo-Irish literary people are used to. That’s why I use fairy revival and the Celtic Twilight. tales so much.

So it’s been identity-forming for you? What attracted you to directing Interview Yeah. I think it forms every Irish writer with the Va mpire? in many ways, like Seamus Heaney, Flann It was the fact that vampires had never O’Brien. But less so at present, because been taken seriously, and Anne Rice said: fi ction has become more realistic. “Okay, if there is this creature that lives forever and has no pity, and lives on blood – And more urban? Have rural settings and what would it be like to be that creature?” mythology lost their influence on Irish I don’t think anybody had ever really asked storytelling? that question in a piece of fi ction before. I Well, you do see them used in comic verse know Bram Stoker didn’t, as he presented and by various playwrights like Brian Dracula as this outside force. Friel, and in a lot of the poetry. But there And the other thing was that it was a are cities now, aren’t there, and there’s really intense and exhaustive exploration violent crime, and thrilling things that of some kind of guilt that she had, and I felt contemporary fi ction loves, and those are that was extraordinary. She places these the things to write about. (He sighs.) vampire fi gures in this realm in which they can question all sorts of different aspects of Though in your realistic fi lms, like human life, our presumption of our moral Breakfast on Pluto and The Butcher Boy, responsibility, what it would be like to live you put elements of fantasy, escapism, and forever, and sexuality, because she decided also use the idea of dreams a lot, like in In with Angela Carter? to write from the point of view of this Dreams. I did. She had written a collection of undead creature. It allowed her to ask all Hmmm, yeah. I do love to. And I’ve done stories, The Bloody Chamber, with her these interesting questions, and I wanted to that more in fi lms than in the books I’ve own specific treatment of classic fairy make a movie about it. written because fi lms are almost perfect for tales. Among them Little Red Riding Hood, exploring dreams and dream images. And Bluebeard and several other tales from the Your work has that recurring motif of I tend to be a very image-centric person. canon of fairy tales. characters questioning themselves and When I write a script I basically close my I got together with her, and we decided their world. eyes and daydream. So it’s that kind of to try to construct a story in which other I suppose I do return to the same things thing that leads to what I do. stories could appear. So we used the conceit in the movies I’ve made. I varied from of the grandmother telling stories to the the very realistic fi lms like The Brave One, And your movie Ondine of course, while not little girl and within those stories, you Angel, The Crying Game and between the a fantastical movie, has... have stories within stories. So, that way fantastic things, things that have to do with It’s a fairy tale, basically, yes. With Ondine we managed to make a journey through a otherworldly things, like my last movie I really wanted to make a specifically Irish significant amount of archetypal fairy tales, Byzantium, like Ondine and The End of the fairy tale, so I took the story of the selkie all within a reworking of the story of Little Affair – so I go from one to the other. But and all the legends of seals and people Red Riding Hood. I do like stories that question the realistic going backwards and forwards, and tried to explanations of the world. situate it in the modern world. Did that give you freedom? I regard stories as a series of questions, It was a wonderful opportunity to create or rather as the possibility of asking a But the fantasy is underpinned by reality. every kind of crazed image one ever had, series of questions about everything – like That was the intention. you know, put every kind of obsessive “why are we here?” or (chuckles) “what am I image from your fantasies and dreams on doing in this room at this moment?” Reality Fantasy archetypes are most obvious in The the screen. always surprises you, and I like to come up Company of Wolves. You wrote it together And that was a delightful thing to do, and with stories that ask those questions. FT

FT324 47 www.forteantimes.com The Fortean Times Random Dictionary of the Damned compiled by the Hierophant’s Apprentice

No 59: REFLECTIONS ON FORTEANISM

“I have taken the stand that nobody can be which he clearly suspected were factiti- always wrong, but it does seem to me that ous. By association, one presumes, he had I have approximated so highly that I am comparatively little to say about hauntings, nothing short of a negative genius,” wrote and not a lot to offer on what’s now called Charles Fort in Wild Talents. In Lo!, he had cryptozoology, which had not in his day said: “I believe nothing. I have shut myself become a cottage industry or branch of away from the rocks and wisdoms of ages, tourism. and from the so-called great teachers of all These subjects feature unblushingly time, and perhaps because of that isolation in the pages of the distinguished organ I am given to bizarre hospitalities… I you hold in your hands, however: almost believe nothing of my own that I have anything that’s not supposed to happen ever written.” Putting these two remarks sits side by side with the staple oddities side by side leaves one in much the same that Fort reported (or of which he reported place as when trying to pick the bones reports): such as spontaneous human com- out of the old riddle: “This sentence is a bustion, weird weather, giants and fairies, lie.” Fort is famously slippery about his poltergeist attacks, and absolutely not own convictions – except perhaps when excluding that fortean archetype, falls of ranting at astronomers in New Lands, but fish (finned or shelled, but not yet tinned, even that extended exercise in selective as far as we know) from an allegedly clear prejudice may have been a pose, another blue sky. This evolution outward from Fort’s mask designed to provoke. Perhaps we do original core of ‘damned data’ is scarcely catch a glimpse of the uncamouflaged Fort surprising. In any case Fort’s interests, as in that book, when he remarks: “The ideal published, were in a sense arbitrary and state is meekness, or humility, or the semi- accidental, in the sense that one measures invalid state of the old.Year after year I am a circle beginning anywhere: his data becoming nobler and nobler. If I can live could initially have been mined from or, to be decrepit enough, I shall be a saint.”Yet even then he cannot had he had world enough and time, led him to, any of the bricolage resist booby-trapping his precept. of phenomena that gather under the umbrella of ‘forteana’ today We raise the question of Fort’s evasiveness – which some might – although monstrous births and strange deaths, unless lassoed call modesty – less to launch an inevitably fruitless excavation of by some strange synchronicity, seem unlikely candidates for his ‘what Fort really thought’ than, by way of introduction to these attention. reflections, to raise the question of what relation forteans and Fort displayed no interest, and modern forteans evince hardly forteana today bear to the Master’s interests and outlook.There any either, in the claims of healers and alternative medicine.This were reputedly anomalous phenomena that he refused to go near makes a rare contrast with organized scepticism, which can hardly – perhaps most notably the manifestations of the séance room, get enough of the stuff to gnash over and denounce. Forteans seem illan gilf etienne ABOVE: forteans, not ‘skeptics’, in the pub: “inappropriate earnestness tends not to be their most obvious vice. forteans seem implicitly to realise that there is something inherently a bit comical about wondering about the things that they wonder at.” a scene from the UnCon 2011 pub quiz and cabaret.

little interested, too, in astrology, which a certain brand of sceptic abductors are in cahoots with the Zionist Illuminati’). For forteans, also loves to fetishise. But then one could argue that alternative the weirdness of any given alleged anomaly is only enhanced by medicine is just that: the only ‘anomaly’ in its various branches is the attempts, reasoned or otherwise, to deal with it. Or tame it, that it works (when it does), and – if one discounts placebo effects if you prefer. Particularly strained ‘explanations’ from persons – not according to the conventions of Western medical science. with more amour propre, not to say bloated self-importance, than Besides, most species of alternative medicine are systematised in a Maine Coon only add to the pleasure of the whole. Hence the one way or another: they have an internal logic and consistency, ‘Journal of Strange Phenomena’, as FT used to style itself, enter- often accrued over centuries. Likewise astrology, which honest tains (the word, from Latin, means literally ‘to hold between’) modern practitioners are careful to distinguish from fortune treatments of said strange phenomena that range from merciless telling or scrying the future, speaking soberly of ‘potentials of the debunking to swivel-eyed absurdity (copiously footnoted, of course, moment’ and so on: if it makes any difference. And it can hardly be either way: one must at least look respectable). And in that sense denied that a sizzling case of spontaneous human combustion does the spirit of Fort lives on. rather outshine the intricacies of acupuncture when it comes to Forteanism, one might conclude, is a kind of intellectual instant weird-appeal. spectator sport – dogging at Paranormal Park, as it were. Like all This is a crucial point. Many a po-faced thing has been said generalisations, this one isn’t entirely true. Individual fortean about Fort and his works, but it’s not often enough said (or perhaps researchers may be tireless in pursuit of what they conclude recognised) that he was also an entertainer. Perhaps primarily so, is the truth behind a reported anomaly, and defensive of their which would explain a lot.This Dictionary has pointed more than conclusions, wherever on the belief/disbelief spectrum they may once at Fort’s occasional elasticity with known facts in the service lie. But that they choose to publish in fortean contexts rather of hyping a sense of mystery. But he is rarely dull, and no slouch than (say) the Skeptical Inquirer or Nexus indicates a tolerance at raising a smile.Whereas in perusing both hardline debunker/ of the whole gamut of anomalies and an interest in the variety denialist writings and the effusions of true believers one soon of responses to them.This makes for an overall picture that is notices that there is not much lightness of heart at these opposing somewhat Anglican in character – hieratic, scented and colourful ends of the anomalistic spectrum. Fort and forteans have their at one end, severe and austere at the other, but largely polyphonic quirks and foibles, but inappropriate earnestness tends not to be throughout, acknowledging the same communion, but perhaps a their most obvious vice. Forteans seem implicitly to realise that bit thin on theology these days. there is something inherently a bit comical about wondering about This makes it possible to stand outside the orthodoxies of both the things that they wonder at. For the fortean, the never-ending belief and scepticism when contemplating fortean phenomena. stream of theories as to (for instance) how the ancient Egyptians It’s not necessary to vote on such a proposition as, for instance, built pyramids, or how to account for encounters with fairies, or ‘Zachariah Sitchin is a fraud’.That large numbers of people appear what made anyone ever think there was a reptile pootling around to have thought Sitchin was the real scholarly deal, on the other in Loch Ness, exude the faint aroma of a knobbly-knee contest at a hand, becomes fair game; and scrutinising his appeal to such folk holiday camp. But with no more mockery involved than you’d have may naturally drive, or draw, an analysis of what he wrote, and found at Butlin’s in 1954.There is an element in the fortean outlook why it is such utter tosh.Which is a rather different thing from that is charmed by forays into supposedly final explanations – declaring that Sitchin and all his ilk should be denounced, and his forteans know that, as with No 88 buses on Notting Hill Gate, if effusions anathematised, lest the civilised world descend into the they wait long enough another three will trundle up in a bunch— Chaos and Cold Night of irrational supersition. and treat them as part of the wondrousness of the phenomenon That is the scarcely unspoken fear of the militant wing of itself. scepticism: as George Hansen pointed out many years ago (see: This shouldn’t be taken to mean that forteans would prefer www.tricksterbook.com/ArticlesOnline/CSICOPoverview.pdf; not to be bothered with explanations – far from it. It’s part of the and also FT148:40-44 and FT149:42-46), this kind of soi-disant fun that any proffered explanation may flop toward the narrowly scepticism is full of semi-apocalyptic proselytising zeal; and we super-rational (‘alien abduction experiences are the byproduct of would add that it is scientistic, not scientific, to boot. As we’ve said sleep paralysis’) or collapse into the shamelessly barking (‘alien many times before, science is a fine and awe-inspiring enterprise ges ima getty / entUrier av iCk tr Pa ABOVE: Waiting for the end. “there was certainly a high tide of irrationality and absurdity in the run-up to the so-called ‘end of the mayan calendar’ in 2012, just as there had been in the final years of the last millennium; and the excitement seemed quite widespread.” an apocalyptic scene from Bugarach.

that may boast of extraordinary achievements, but no sane scientist fiendish humour. This was also a golden age for satire, let’s not would pretend that it can explain everything in human experience, forget. And the survival among the mass of people of all manner or should even try. It is scientism to claim that it does or could and of superstition, strange beliefs and pagan practices continued anyway ought to, and that what is not ‘scientifically’ verifiable regardless. Quite often these traditions were channels and should be industriously disregarded. Possibly even censored. repositories of wisdom, arrived at over generations, and accrued As for the militants’ fear – what with all these people taking by officially ‘uneducated’ people. It’s not beyond the capacity poltergeists and telepathy and whatnot seriously – that civilisation of the apparently irrational to be an expression of intelligence. is about to drown in a flood of loopiness, experience powerfully This is as true now, if in different ways, as it was before literacy suggests otherwise.There was certainly a high tide of irrationality became general. Such lore tends, however, to body forth in and absurdity in the run-up to the so-called ‘end of the Mayan symbols and metaphors rather than in abstract language.That calendar’ in 2012, just as there had been in the final years of the being so, ambiguity is intrinsic to this oblique, quasi-poetic way of last millennium; and the excitement seemed quite widespread. But articulating experience. in neither case did any distress at the failure of prophecy result All this seems to have passed militant scepticism by, and in an outbreak of general woe, madness or even the weeniest of one can’t help wondering if some of its more dour and strident riots.Those of us who had hoped for parades of flagellants down exponents have much acquaintance with cultural history, or Fifth Avenue were sorely disappointed.While on the face of it this have even bothered to look at anything that might be called art, would suggest that, actually, not many people had expected very never mind at the devious ways in which art operates.This kind much from either apocalypse, it might equally well suggest that of sceptic seems to recoil from ambiguity, and the sad fact is that people in general are not entirely stupid and are (a) quite capable the Enlightenment ideal of striving for logic and reasonableness of admitting they were wrong to have worried so (if they did), and/ – while accepting the rôle of the seemingly unreasonable – has or (b) able to compartmentalise the speculative bits (shall we call become warped into a dogmatic rejection of (almost) everything them) of life away from the daily grind, in which being rational but what is material and therefore dissectable. Such a position is is merely a sensible strategy for survival. Most of us, after all, at odds with human experience, but it’s defensible – as long as it probably read the astrology columns in magazines, maybe even give stays within its own self-set bounds. If the strict materialist doesn’t them some passing credence, but take no practical notice of them accept the existence or importance of the non-material or the whatever. liminal, then he or she should, strictly, have little or nothing to say Besides: people have always been prone to ‘believe in’ weird about it or about those whom it enchants. But that’s not the way the stuff, and civilisation marches onward and upward regardless. It world works either. can convincingly be argued that the kind of calm, lofty, urbane Not that one doesn’t sympathise, to an extent. If fortean reasonableness that was deemed a cardinal virtue during the phenomena are ‘damned’, and thus excluded from mainstream English and Scottish Enlightenments – also known as the Age discourse, then it’s not a great step to wondering if that exclusion of Reason – of the late 17th and 18th centuries was a desperate isn’t inspired by some ulterior, even malign motive. Fort himself reaching for peace and sanity after two centuries of civil uproar, was ever so slightly prone to paranoid conspiracy thinking (see most of it based in religious differences, and accompanied by DoD17: FT223:51–53), but it’s now a mainstream preoccupation. no shortage of gratuitous bloodshed. Men of the Enlightenment About a third of US citizens think that 9/11 was an inside job, for disdained ‘enthusiasms’ as not merely infra dig, but potentially instance.That tells us more about the suspicion and contempt dangerous, for they had seen where they might lead. Logic, reason, with which the powers-that-be are held (and about a widespread disinterestedness, control of passion, politeness – these are indeed sense of helplessness), than it does about 9/11, and one can see why virtues, and to them we owe the technological conveniences and debunkers become determined to demolish this kind of fantasy. store of scientific knowledge we have today. But control of passion At the same time conspiracies are classic fortean territory: and the is not the same as lack of passion.The arts, and indeed the politics, weirder the better. This example, ‘explaining’ that both the atom of the period hardly lack fervent conviction, rage, outrage, or bomb and the subsequent nuclear power industry was a Jewish hoax (there is much more detail at www.sciforums.com/showthread. ufology, which has taken on board its phantom ET spacecraft php?t=65869) is irresistible in its creepy crankiness: virtually every other fortean phenomenon, from telepathy to telekinesis to ‘alternative’ healing. And True Believing ufologists The pilot of the B-29 they said dropped the so-called atom bomb don’t engage even with sympathetic sceptics from the broader on Hiroshima is a known Hollywood insider and his B-29 crew ranks of the field. For example: Stanton Friedman has smugly was totally segregated on an island with the pilot Commander insisted, over four decades or so of proclaiming “Flying Saucers are Tibbits [sic] fully in charge of security and everything. He had full Real!”, that the ‘aliens’ who ‘abducted’ Betty & Barney Hill were autonomy and discretion. I believe his crew of talmudic cowards ‘proven’ to have been natives of a planet orbiting Zeta Reticuli. was near 200 aircraft when they sortie’d on Hiroshima then later His authority was the star model, based on Betty Hill’s sketch of an on Nagasaki. Another brilliant example of the secrecy and security alien star map, laboriously produced by Marjory Fish. Using the shroud of compartmentalization over the whole hoax. Why would this latest available data from the HIPPARCOS satellite, Brett Holman dumbass put his mother’s name on an instrument of utter genocide more than somewhat demolished the ‘Fish model’ (and with it if it were not that his mother gloats without end at jewish [sic] hoax Friedman’s case) in 2008 in these very pages (FT242:50-52). Publicly accomplishments and mass murder that she would be pleased to figure challenged several times since, by UFO believers and debunkers prominently on the nose of that beast of destruction and mass murder. alike, to modify his stance, Friedman has ignored them all and was How can anyone believe such a mess of contradictions when it is still peddling his favourite factoid as recently as May 2014 (see: obvious they would have been nuts not to exploit the means they had www.theufochronicles.com/2014/05/UFO-BOOK-REVIEW-the- at their disposal under those circumstances.They pulled it off while intellectual-bankruptcy-of.html). everyone on earth was in a state of shock and would have believed There are many other instances of such intransigence within anything the jews [sic] said just to stop the ignited gasoline showers? ufology: consider the sacred status among believers of such thoroughly debunked cases as Roswell, Rendlesham, the Trent Like the imaginings of 9/11 ‘Truthers’, this is alternate history photos, Levelland 1957, the 1976 Iran encounter, the 1989 Linda – except that it’s not intended to be speculative, but to be taken as Cortile abduction, or Phoenix 1997, among others. It is as if no fact, happening now. This sets it apart from the mediæval vision of sooner is a claim made than, within the ranks of the devoted, it “an enchanted world in which the boundaries of the imagination becomes logically and politically unassailable – it is Grade 1 Listed, and factuality are constantly shifting” as Carrolly Erickson subsumed into the general mythology, and as an article of faith may described it (see DoD52: FT306:46-49), and in which unicorns are not be contradicted.Thus, with UFOs as with conspiracies, what as real as rabbits (well, aren’t they?). Conspiracists don’t move starts as subversion of conventional thinking – a piece of damned seamlessly from one realm of reality to another: they inhabit a data – becomes, on the other side of the rationalist boundary, a rigid wholly different one from the rest of us.Their world’s intricate but structure in its own right.This transmutation isn’t limited to these imaginary nature, however, places it in a kind of limbo, inextricable fields by any means.The concept of leys as ‘energy lines’ is rigidly from the official (or real) world but apart from it.The boundaries locked into a certain corner of thinking about earth mysteries, as is of conspiracy enthusiasts do constantly shift, indeed may be utterly the Otherworldly origin of crop circles. blurred – but internally, as it were. So much so that notions of Among the best evidence for life (of some sort) after death, it has ‘the truth’ may overlay one another rather than lie side-by-side as long been held, are the Cross-Correspondences, a series of psychic alternative hypotheses: research published in 2011 by Michael J communications of considerable volume and complexity that were Wood and others showed that those who believed Princess Diana vouchsafed to various mediums over roughly three decades from the faked her own demise tended simultaneously to believe she was early 1900s. In Christopher M Moreman’s words: “What seemed at murdered; and that “the more participants believed that Osama first to be unconnected ramblings were soon discovered to contain Bin Laden was already dead when US special forces raided his complex patterns and hidden messages. Slowly, the workings of an compound in Pakistan, the more they believed he is still alive.” (See experiment from the other side were pieced together.” Moreman http://images.derstandard.at/2012/02/22/Dead%20and%20Alive. wondered (see Journal of the Society for Psychical Research, 67, 225- pdf). 242, 2003) if similar connections – “complex patterns and hidden This places conspiracy theory in fortean territory twice over: messages” – might not be perceived among any texts of reasonable there is the standard binary, or option, of true/not true (and length. He designed an appropriate experiment, and found that: variously believed or disputed), and the more radical one of an “In a short period of time, the investigators were able to track over autonomous Weltanschauung that self-consciously distinguishes 30 correspondences of varying strengths. Some coincidences were itself from consensus reality. One of the signs of this distinction quite startling, leading some of the investigators to wonder if the is its intellectual obduracy. It is impossible (we’ve tried) to argue pseudo-scripts were truly random.” And concluded: “It may well a conspiracist out of a given interpretation of events.This is one be that the cross-correspondences do not represent the strongest sign of the True Believer everywhere, including the debunking evidence of anything more than man’s ability to find order in zealot, of course. It’s most obvious among conspiracy mongers chaos.” He noted too: “One must bear in mind that the disparity in because conspiracy theory, as a whole, is like a sponge: it soaks size between these pseudo-scripts and the sometimes very lengthy up everything and anything, as it must, because nothing we’re cross-correspondence scripts would only make it more difficult to ‘officially’ told is true. Its nearest relation among forteana is find randomly occurring correspondences in the smaller scripts.” One is reminded of those who have discovered various ‘Bible Codes’ that purport to reveal unexpected prophecies in the Torah, only to find that others using the same decrypting techniques on War and Peace and Moby Dick produced similar startling results. One solemn volume promoting the Bible Code had its system turned upon its own text (see www.nmsr.org/biblecod.htm), which exercise provided this revelation: “The Bible Code is a silly, dumb, fake, false, evil, nasty, dismal fraud and snake-oil hoax.” Such Oops! ges moments ought to be game-changing.They aren’t.The reputations ima of both the Cross-Correspondences and Biblical ‘codes’ remain getty

/ immaculate among adherents, and suffer no lack of defenders. P af Amid such inflexibility at either end of the anomalists’ / see-saw, forteans appear to be fanatics of the extreme centre, kamm and certainly score highest on any index of merriment. Zealots s of another kind might rejoin that that makes forteans mere

niChola trivialisers, possibly even Janus-faced besides. But such traits may ABOVE: “a bout a third of Us citizens think that 9/11 was an inside job”. imbue forteans and forteana with a particular kind of virtue. How can this be? We shall see. FT

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the Recreation Ranger, Nigel Turner, told me that he wasn’t aware of any of the Stoned in Suffolk forestry workers having such experiences there.The RFI put Rendlesham Forest on the map, and it has become a magnet for DR PETER McCUE goes down to the woods and finds that strange lights and people interested in witnessing unusual supposed alien craft aren’t the only weird things in Rendlesham Forest... phenomena.There’s even an official ‘UFO Trail’ (see FT204:78-79). Of course, it’s not hard to imagine that people’s stones before they hit the ground. experiences in the forest, particularly Dr PEtEr McCUE is a former clinical psychologist with a long- They would apparently land at night, could be influenced by factors standing interest in anomalous without bouncing, although if they such as expectation, suggestion, and phenomena. He has written a were picked up and then dropped, imagination.With the possible exception book about paranormal and UFO they would bounce as normal. An of the teenage girl, the witnesses I’ve hot spots. He lives in Scotland. elongated stone landed on its end cited had an interest in anomalous in his presence. And, one evening, phenomena, and had visited the forest heo Paijmans discusses a 19th a stone landed on the roof of his repeatedly because of it. However, century poltergeist-type case parked car in the forest, without their experiences with stones can’t be T from France (FT317: 28-29). It rolling off. convincingly explained away in purely involved the materialisation of Standing alone at the end of psychological terms. Regarding possible stones that would fall on people, usually a forest track one night, Parish trickery, it’s worth noting that none of causing little or no pain, or simply hit asked, out loud: “Are you from them had been consistently present each the ground.The phenomena are said another dimension?” A stone then time a stone fell. For example, Peter to have spanned 67 days, between fell down beside him. He asked Parish reports having experienced it on December 1842 and February 1843. whether a stone could be dropped his own, and Brenda Butler told me that Paijmans suggests that this “may well on the track in front of him, where it has happened in his absence. In itself, be the longest lasting manifestation of he was shining his torch beam. that doesn’t entirely rule out trickery, but mysteriously materialising and falling That duly happened; and when he I rather doubt whether the incidents are stones on record.” However, there have asked whether a stone could be attributable to hoaxing, not least because been reports, from Rendlesham Forest, dropped on the road behind him, the perpetrator(s) would have had to Suffolk, involving the falling of hot or one obligingly fell there! He informed spend a considerable amount of time warm stones. 1 These manifestations me that on perhaps two or three carrying out the pranks. Equally, I think have been less dramatic, and less intense, occasions he’d been among quite densely it’s unlikely that the informants conspired than those reported in the French case, spaced trees in the eastern part of the to lie to me about these events. but may have occurred over a much forest when a stone had landed near Without reliable comparative data, it’s longer period. Indeed, they may be him. However, there was no preceding hard to know whether the Rendlesham ongoing. I first heard about them in 2007. sound of something falling through the area has seen a disproportionate amount In late December 1980, the area was branches. But another of my informants, of paranormal activity. If a randomly the setting for the so-called Rendlesham Don Ramkin, referred to hearing “a selected locality with a similar size and Forest Incident (RFI), which involved clattering through the tree branches” population were studied, perhaps just as UFO sightings by United States Air before the landing of stones, although many strange phenomena would come to Force personnel (see FT204:32-39). he may have been referring to different light. Even if an unusually high number However, anomalous phenomena, incidents. At one point, Parish was on a of paranormal incidents have occurred such as sightings of strange lights, track when a stone landed on the ground in the forest, it doesn’t necessarily mean had allegedly occurred in the locality between his legs. He was wearing a that there’s something intrinsically prior to the RFI (see FT204:40-42); and rucksack, so it’s hard to see how the stone strange about the locality. It could be witnesses have reported a wide array could have come from above. REFERENCES more to do with the witnesses – it’s of anomalous experiences in the forest John Hanson and Dawn Holloway, 1 Peter A conceivable that they’ve unwittingly since then. Brenda Butler, a co-author who have co-authored a series of books McCue, Zones of generated phenomena themselves, of the first book about the RFI, 2 has on British UFO cases, informed me Strangeness: An perhaps via a ‘group mind’ effect. If they been a frequent visitor to the forest over that they, too, had witnessed incidents Examination of changed the venue – for example, if they Paranormal and the years. She informs me that she’s involving hot or warm stones in UFO Hot Spots, started visiting a forest elsewhere – it’s witnessed numerous strange phenomena Rendlesham Forest. A teenage girl (now Bloomington, Indiana, conceivable that it would take over as a there, including incidents in which hot in her 20s) told me of an occasion when AuthorHouse, 2012, paranormal hotspot. Another possibility or warm stones have dropped down she was with her mother and their dog chapter 9. is that some sort of independent, external beside her. Similarly, Peter Parish, in the forest. A stone rolled along the 2 Brenda Butler, intelligence has been orchestrating a friend of Butler’s, described to me ground near them. Her mother picked it Dot Street and phenomena in the forest. If so, there incidents in which very warm stones had up, and it was burning hot. Jenny Randles, Sky might be no permanent link between Crash, London, landed beside him in the forest.This had Intriguing as they are, these Grafton Books, 1986 it and the locality. At any time of its happened both during the day and at anomalous stone-falling incidents in (originally published choosing, it could decide to wrap up its night, in warm weather. The stones were Rendlesham Forest may have been by Neville Spearman, operations in Rendlesham Forest and always smooth. He’d sometimes seen the relatively infrequent. Several years ago, 1984). direct its attentions elsewhere. Ft

FT324 53 www.forteantimes.com forum FORTEAN ARCHIVES

Charles Fort’s notes liberated at last!

Too often we learn too late of valuable fortean collections being sold or disposed of. For once, says BOB RICKARD, here is some good news.

LEFT: John H Reed. I elsewhere hail as one of the unsung BOB RICKARD founded Fortean Times in 1973 and was its co- BELOW: An heroes of forteana because he spent 15 editor for nearly 30 years. Lately, exceedingly rare years transcribing all of the estimated he’s been concerned with both the image of Charles 60,000 tiny squares of paper on which Fort – from the early years of fortean activity and Fort wrote (often on both sides). 3 the future of fortean archiving. Morning Avalanche, Lubbock, Texas, 5 Shortly after Fort died in May 1932, Feb 1932, the year Thayer managed to convince Fort’s wife recent and widely-distributed he died – standing Anna to let him look after the note-filled news release from the World beside a display of boxes. Five years later, in September Institute for Scientific some of his notes 1937, when Thayer launched The Fortean A in their shoeboxes. Exploration (WISE, founded Society Magazine – its title changed to OPPOSITE PAGE, in 2011) – not to be confused with the Doubt in 1944 – he planned to devote CENTRE: An ancient Society for Scientific Exploration (SSE, Xerox image of two to three pages each issue to his own founded in 1982) – announced that its both sides of one transcription of Fort’s notes. He kept chairman, Dr John H Reed, had rescued of Fort’s tiny paper up with these instalments for the 61 “transcriptions of Charles Fort’s 60,000 notes. This form issues he published until his death in hand-written notes”. 1 allowed Fort to 1959, despite them presenting daunting rearrange them by I thought readers might be interested subject or by date difficulties. In his introduction,Thayer to have the background to this This is a when he needed groaned: “They were written in pencil remarkable event, which is important to. over a period of 26 years, in a code not just because it is a tangible relic OPPOSITE PAGE, known only to the author [..] The letters, of Fort’s own lengthy endeavours, but motherlode of TOP RIGHT: An numbers and symbols were wretchedly because Fort had used only a small example of the formed and many of the tiny scraps of percentage of the unpublished card cabinet paper are misfiled and disarranged.” used by Pabst to notes as references house his record At the end of his 27-year slog – the in his four books, as anomaly reports cards. His had 54 chronological sequence constantly he himself declared.2 drawers. swapping between Box A and Boxes 1 The complete set, OPPOSITE PAGE, to 3 and back again, not to mention any therefore, constitutes preserved in the bowels of the New TOP LEFT: During dips into the 32 boxes of “memoranda” – a motherlode of York Public Library (NYPL).They were Dr Reed’s rescue Thayer had only reached the early 1860s. unpublished acquired by Tiffany Thayer after Fort’s he had to decant Thayer guarded the notes assiduously, Pabst’s record anomaly death in 1932 and placed with NYPL cards from the rendering them inaccessible, even to reports. by Thayer’s widow shortly after Thayer cabinet into boxes forteans, until his widow passed them to As many died in 1959. Since then, few people for transporting. In the NewYork Public Library. forteans may have ever visited them; the only two this sample, the Since 1959, Fort’s notes were again know, Fort’s I know of in modern times being the markers indicate virtually entombed, this time in the drawer numbers original Canadian Mr X and the American Carl Special Collections Department notes J Pabst, both of whose pilgrimages have (SCD) in conservation boxes. Dr Reed were been productive in different ways. Our explained the reasons: firstly, the special immediate story concerns Carl, whom ‘restricted hours’ imposed by the SCD made access difficult for visitors to the city, who might have to stay over several days; secondly, the SCD forbade the use of any recording method other than paper and pencil; thirdly, the notes have not been conveniently organised, so anyone researching a particular subject would have to spend weeks plodding through the entire collection. Enter Carl Pabst. He was born in 1941 and had lived in Bridgeport, Connecticut, all his life, dying there in 2004 after contracting Parkinson’s and succumbing to pneumonia. Sometime in the early 1970s, he joined Ivan Sanderson’s Society for the

SSINGILL Investigation of the Unexplained (SITU) MA

Y and became fascinated by the story of KA

54 FT324 www.forteantimes.com forum FORTEAN ARCHIVES

NOTES 1 WISE Journal, vol 3, no 2 (Oct 2014): http://wisewiki.org/ dl93. 2 Damon Knight, Charles Fort: Prophet of the Unexplained, (1970) p216. 3 – The figure of ‘60,000’ traditionally put to Fort’s notes is difficult to verify at this remove. In 1919, shortly after the publication of Book of the Damned,

the Chicago Daily REED News published a H letter from Fort in JOHN which he owns up to REED destroying his first precious contents remained in Carl’s H collection of 25,000 upstairs study.

JOHN notes. Beginning over Dr Reed had known of Carl’s again, he gathered endeavour, as he too had been a “40,000 notes arranged under member of SITU in those early days. 1,300 headings”. We However, Reed says he didn’t realise know he went on to that Carl had transcribed all of the collect many more. notes until “around 2010, when I How many notes was visiting Carl’s relative and saw were used in his the card catalogue, and looked in four books? I’ve not counted, but Damon several random drawers all filled with Knight writes that he thousands of 3x5s”. Subsequently, went through them on several occasions, Reed tried to all making file cards purchase Carl’s archive, “but the and ended up with relative, for whatever reason, would 1,200. I’m sure more research can be not sell”. Fearing that it risked being done on this subject. lost or destroyed, Dr Reed requested 4 Carl Pabst, – “in late 2013, and repeated in early ‘Translating Charles 2014” – Carl’s relatives and their SSINGILL Fort’s Notes’, Pursuit, legal representatives to inform him MA

Y vol 6, no 2 (1973), if they planned to sell the house or KA p46. Carl’s collection, “especially the card Charles Fort and his myriad of notes. observed from letters found in Pabst’s 5 - Carl Pabst, private catalogue”. For Pabst, the NYPL was within reach; correspondence, the transcription was letters acquired by In July 2014, Dr Reed had been John H Reed on 29 his home was half an hour’s walk from not complete until 1987. In a letter to July 2014. attending conferences around the US Fairfield station, where he could catch a colleague Carl stated that he was and Europe, and then discovered that 6 Carl’s a train into Grand Central Station, just “the only person in the world who transcriptions the house had been sold four months over an hour away, and then walk the had a complete set of Charles Fort’s appeared in Pursuit earlier. Fearing the worst, he tracked three blocks to the Library. notes outside the NewYork Public from vol 12 no 1 down the new owners, who had no idea Beginning sometime in 1972, Carl Library”. 5 (1979) until its last of the importance or significance of made daily trips into New York for the Pabst did not go public until issue, vol 21 no 1 Carl’s legacy. To his immense relief, (1988). next 15 years, copying each note – “now 1979, when the first chunk of his Reed learned that although they 7 www.wisewiki.org . discoloured and crumbling” – carefully transcriptions was published in intended to dispose of the cards and preserving Fort’s own system of symbols Pursuit. Dr Reed notes: “Carl began at keep the cabinet, they had not yet done and abbreviations. Back home, he’d the year 1800, Fort’s preferred starting so. Reed promptly rushed to Bridgeport type each handwritten note onto its date; when Carl’s last instalment and, on 29 July – “at the 11th hour” – own 3x5in index card and file it in the appeared in 1988, a decade later, he purchased the complete archive and 65 54-drawer card cabinet that he had had only reached the year 1860.” 6 notebooks packed with clippings and purchased for this purpose. Concurrently, Carl also re-typed correspondence. The first glimpse we have of this each record onto a page of paper, Dr Reed – who had, in 2007, managed project is in the January 1973 issue of which, on completion, formed a pile to rescue the huge SITU archive “from SITU’s journal Pursuit, 4 in which Pabst four feet (1.2m) high. His hope was a warehouse where it had been stored presents a short note on the difficulties to sell this to a publisher, mainly to for almost 20 years” – says that WISE of transcribing Fort’s scribbles. He adds: fund his medical treatment, but much plans to digitise Fort’s notes and make “It isn’t possible to just sit down and to his disappointment he was not them available online, alongside the read [them], they require translation. offered what he considered enough. entire set of 89 issues of Pursuit which I expect to spend two years on this After Carl died in late 2004, the house are already available on the WISE project.” The task was more difficult passed to a relative who also lived wiki.7 We forteans owe him our sincere than Carl had anticipated; as Dr Reed there, and the card cabinet with its thanks. FT

FT324 55 www.forteantimes.com SEcrEt NEW WAyS tO StOp thE WEb WAtchiNg yOu

ON SALE NOW! Order your print or digital Magbook at magbooks.com SEND REVIEW COPIES OF BOOKS TO: BOOK REVIEWS, FORTEAN TIMES, PO BOX 71602, LONDON E17 0QD, UK. Thisreviewsmonth’s books, films and games China’s New Age makeover Beneath the sacred knowledge of the ancients lies the legacy of an earlier (and unidentified) Golden Age culture whose legacy was China’s civilisation

a close parallel between the found on megaliths through Chinese ‘well-field’ system of “Scranton alludes Europe. traditional rural agriculture and frequently to the Underlying his various the Dogon, who divide the land expositions is Scranton’s belief into grids of eight, while a ninth primal ‘earlier that “the sacred knowledge of the houses a smithy. For reasons ancients is the legacy of an earlier underpinned by their mythology, culture’ but never culture [which] gave primitive each Dogon field is assigned identifies it” humanity the tools they needed to one of the traditional ‘eight to found the first civilisations”. China’s grains’ and the preferred method I understand the profound Cosmological of ploughing was to criss-cross, fascination with a Golden Age; also in a grid pattern magically Fusang tree, a giant tree that a psychical nostalgia powers Prehistory associated with ‘weaving’. grows from the earth to the many forms of artistic and ritual Laird Scranton Scranton, then, explores the root heavens, having a huge whirlpool expression. We are not free of it Inner Traditions 2014 words and symbols in the Dogon, at its base. From its branches 10 today as, for example, our science Pb, 183pp, illus, bib, ind, $16.95, ISBN 9781620553299 Egyptian and Chinese languages suns roost overnight, until a great fiction and fantasy can show the FORTEAN TIMES BOOKSHOP PRICE £18.00 which are derived from common hero kills nine of them. In China, ancient past as populated by On the face of it, Scranton spins agricultural practices and shows the mulberry tree is regarded as numinous types, from aliens and some interesting hypotheses, how they relate to their respective a “spirit tree”, closely associated elves to spirits and heroes. In relating cosmogony to more down- myths. It is as though cosmogony with the Fusang, and the juice this cosmogony, god-like tutelary to-earth cultural usages such as itself forms a type of mnemonic of its fruits allowed the gods to entities lived among mankind land ownership, language, ground for both everyday practices and live in the air. Scranton has fun bringing harmony to every aspect plans, mulberry trees, mandalas, important rituals. with various Chinese, Egyptian, of life as they sought to lift each amulets and even magic squares – Since prehistory, Chinese Sanskrit and Dogon words which chosen race out of their ignorance. and his chapters on these employ agriculture has employed the seem to associate with each other, Some New Age writers and symbolism, numerology, ancient ‘well-field’ system. Imagine a 3x3 mythologically and symbolically historians of magical traditions units of measurement, and square, the central square housing to reveal layers of meaning. have described this interpretation prehistoric linguistics. a well and the eight surrounding So he continues, forging of history in terms of a decline His earlier studies of the sacred squares forming individual plots correspondences between the – a reversal of ‘progress’; that symbols and creation myths of for crops. Scranton notes that the earth (square), the heavens after the Golden Age there was the Dogon of West Africa and nine-square grid forms the basis (circle), the primal ‘waters’/ a ‘Fall’, since when we have not their counterparts in Egypt, not just of the written characters Creation (spiral) … adding yet matched the ‘first culture’ in India and Tibet have brought for (animal) pound, field and Buddhist stupas and nomad yurts, science or spirituality; and that him to consider, in this book, the well, but also the magic-number the Yijing, and systems that magic is sometimes an attempt to traditions of early and prehistoric talismans still widely used today, use zodiacal animals. A curious recover that earlier state. Whether China. For the Chinese – or rather and even the ground-plans of omission here – which would not those hero-teachers came from the accretion of tribes, clans, temples, palaces and cities. And have been out of place – is any space, the future or superior states and cultures that coalesce further, he declares, wherever reference to Isaac Newton Vail, an spiritual realms, we have to ask: as ‘China’ – he goes back to the we find “an imperative to align American Quaker (d. 1912),who where did they get their advanced ancient symbols of animals and ritual structures to the cardinal developed a phenomenology knowledge or technology from? glyphs said to date from the points” we’ll find an ancient placing the biblical “waters of While Scranton alludes, time of Fu Xi and Nu Wa, the cosmology that defines it. In this the firmament” in the upper frequently, to the primal “earlier primogeniture gods and culture case the well-field system, along atmosphere, where it appears as culture” that bequeathed such heroes of the Chinese, sometimes with methods of flood control and a reflective layer of ice crystals. bright gifts, he never defines depicted as half-human, half- the recurring importance of the The late Donald Cyr (editor of or identifies it; nor is it clear snake. In particular, he relies on number nine, is credited to Da Stonehenge Viewpoint) called the whether he means that each dongba, “the last known surviving Yu (Yu the Great), a legendary tree-like reflection of great rivers of his exemplar cultures had hieroglyphic language” used emperor believed to have lived in the sky Fusang, and argued that their own ‘first teachers’, or by the Bon priests of the Nakhi before 2100 BC. various optical phenomena – such whether they all benefited people of southwest China. In another chapter, Scranton as sun-dogs (parhelia) and pillars For example, Scranton draws deconstructs the legend of the of light – gave rise to symbols Continued on p58

FT324 57 www.forteantimes.com reviews BOOKS

Continued from p57 has even been co-opted by Justin Bieber for a music video. As a Pleasingly sad from a single glorious starting visual style it posits an æsthetic of point, as many cosmologies the late 19th century extrapolated A Victorian æsthetic, without redemption, maintain (deferring to gods or to encompass alternative versions aliens). Does the similarity of of modern tech and a dress sense replaces folkloric authenticity the symbols and phonetics of that fuses high Victorian garb with different cultures automatically clockwork cyborg accessorising, mean they have a common origin? top hats, corsets, cogs and ray bric-a-brac, and consumer goods: Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar! guns. In Clockwork Rhetoric, Prof bells that sing, ornaments that And when Scranton describes Brummett and his contributors nod, and mechanical nightingales. this ancient transmission as attempt to interrogate Steampunk For all the dreamy background revealing “sophisticated scientific to explore the æsthetics for of palaces, talking toys and understanding of matter and hidden meanings in terms of race, dancing flowers, Andersen is as energy”, he is over-reaching. class and gender, as well as their Victorian as Dickens. He loves In a way, he doesn’t need such relation to the machine, the exotic innocent sweethearts and the problematic hypothetical leaps. and its articulation in the media. æstheticisation of death; he is at With Fort’s comment about the There are a number of home in the tradition of pleasing power of steam, present since problems. Firstly, most of the The Fairy Tales of sadness, which nowadays only man began boiling water or steampunks are utterly oblivious children understand. He has a observed geysers, but not applied to these hidden meanings; they Hans Christian fine note of sarcasm, and can give until “steam engine time” in just like dressing up. The result Andersen withering moral judgements. The mind, perhaps all it needs, long is a palpable sense of straining princess is told “You were all ago, is an intelligent, perceptive as the authors attempt to justify Ed Noel Daniel too ready to kiss a swineherd for and able person who, in a their readings of implicit subtexts Taschen 2013 a tinkling toy. You are properly moment of inspiration, sees a in the genre’s articulation, Hb, 320pp, illus, £24.99, ISBN 978-3836526753 punished” – and there is no way to start fire or make a wheel. which are utterly missing in FORTEAN TIMES BOOKSHOP PRICE £22.49 redemption. In explaining or teaching the the intentions of most of their ‘He will be a great writer’, said He has a fascination with fire, concept they could only use the subjects, who would be likely to the good fairy. ‘In fact he will be candlelight and brightness, which language and ideas of the time… greet the suggestion that they the only Danish author known to reaches its purest expression a language that might well have are critiquing or colluding with anyone outside his own country. in ‘The Little Match Girl’. Like been primitive, but also rich in colonialism, for example, with Millions will read his works. They many children, he knows the symbolism and meaning. The incredulity. Secondly, they have a will be loved for generations’. She trembling awareness that lovely mythological refinements would very partial grasp of Steampunk waved her wand and smirked. things may break or burn. That accrue over the millennia. I hope itself. Their experience of the What could go wrong now? ‘Yes, is a particularly middle-class Scranton will explore and explain æsthetic is almost entirely said the cruel one, ‘and he’ll write sensibility – it would take a this further. American, with the only children’s fairy stories’. Hans sledgehammer to break most Bob Rickard international aspects considered Christian Andersen knew destiny things in the peasant home – but being those easily available in when it spoke. He laid aside an then Andersen, who was raised Fortean Times Verdict the US, Guy Ritchie’s Sherlock unfinished novel and got on with amidst story-telling poverty, was INTEESTINg BuT (SO FAR) Holmes films, Doctor Who and ‘The Steadfast Tin Soldier’. indifferent to the canon of ethnic INCONCLuSIvE 7 Japanese anime. It completely The young man from Odense folktales. Authenticity is for the Clockwork Rhetoric ignores the British variant, which was driven by ambition. Hatched doctors and the nationalists. The is more closely aligned with goth in ugliness, he knew that only real folk take an imagination The Language and Style of than the US version (indeed UK Steampunk literary genius could carry him honed by fairytales in the long steampunk has been unkindly into high society, that bright river winter darkness, and then let it Ed: Barry Brummett derided as ‘an excuse for goths to where ‘the great swans swam all fly. University Press of Mississippi 2014 wear brown’), and overlaps with around him and stroked him with And now Taschen have Hb, 210pp, notes, ind, $60.00, ISBN 9781628460919 the ‘Chap’ æsthetic of moustache their bills’. The stories began prepared this gilded nightingale- FORTEAN TIMES BOOKSHOP PRICE £58.80 fetishism, tea and cricket. They coming in 1835 and carried on cage of a book, decorated You know a subcultural would, I am sure, have been very until 1872. Sometimes the lead elaborately with the work of 22 style has gone exercised by the UK steampunk character is a bemused child, illustrators from all countries mainstream when ‘sport’ of Tea Duelling, for sometimes a resourceful young and periods, plus introduction, professors from mid- example, had they been aware man making his way in the world: biographies and other apparatus. western universities of it. both are Andersen. It is surprising It’s not clear whether it’s for start publishing expensive Even from a US perspective how many of these stories – ‘The adults or children, but then that’s cultural studies volumes on it, Prof Brummett and colleagues Tinderbox’, ‘The Flying Trunk’, true of the author as well. If it and so it is with steampunk. Over totally miss one of the very ‘The Emperor’s New Clothes’ – sends either back to the actual, the last few years, steampunk significant root strands of begin with adventurers who arrive unadorned Andersen, it will have has gone from a minor genre steampunk: Maker culture and in the city. Write about what you done its task. of sci-fi with its roots in Jules the overlapping Burners. I first know! Instead of the forests and Jeremy Harte Verne and HG Wells and more encountered steampunk in the cottages of the folktale world, we recent inspiration from Michael flesh at US Maker Faires around have noisy gutters and streets, Fortean Times Verdict Moorcock, KW Jeter and William 2009, where it seemed primarily views over the chimneytops, THE INNER MINd OF A uNIquE Gibson to a visual æsthetic that to be about building serious retro- parlours stuffed with middle-class MyTHOLOgIST REvEALEd 9 has become a cinematic cliché. It tech and just dressing up to show

58 FT324 www.forteantimes.com reviews BOOKS

it off. This encompassed beautiful walnut and brass computer casemods, typewriter-styled It’s kiss-and-tell time wooden laptops and a postal service involving messengers A 500-page exercise in self-justification (with some admittedly with cleft sticks. High profile steampunks like Obtanium Works amusing goss) does not advance ancient Egyptian scholarship do not get a look-in. You would have thought one of the authors would have noticed their full-size their skulduggery – at times in to contemporary Egyptology. It Victorian house-come-Zeppelin- excruciating detail. is certainly curious how many of gondola on wheels, containing a While the book does include the narratives involve Bauval as camera obscura, The Neverwas a whistle-stop tour of early a player. It is also tediously clear Haul. When I saw it, it arrived explorations of the Giza complex, from the copious documentation pulled by a traction engine the it focuses on events in the later that Bauval wants to position creators had rebuilt, accompanied 20th and early 21st centuries; himself on the side of the by elegant women on stilts. in particular, the attempt by the goodies, and show how he has This and other pieces of serious ARE to prove Cayce’s prophecies been wronged by practically steampunk tech have been a about an Atlantean hall of records every other actor in the rather major presence at Burning Man Secret Chamber existing under the Sphinx, and intimate drama played out in over in recent years, but none of this the extent to which Hawass 500 pages of what one might be gets a look-in here, and indeed Revisited collaborated (from the tone of forgiven for seeing as gossip. neither does the more edgy and The quest for the Lost Knowledge the book, one might perhaps This book is not unique; there transgressive take on it embodied of Ancient Egypt use the term ‘conspired’) with is a small body of literature by the likes of the Boiler Bar Robert Bauval an apparently shadowy group already in the canon of kiss- Burlesque show. As far as we get Bear and Co 2014 of Caycean devotees to allow and-tell Egyptology, and likely is an analysis of cog cufflinks on Pb, 528pp, illus, bib, ind, £16.99, ISBN 9781591431923 them access to the monuments, more on the way. While these Etsy. This suggests a poor grasp FORTEAN TIMES BOOKSHOP PRICE £15.29 while excluding other genuine books ostensibly give lay readers of the steampunk æsthetic, and researchers (such as Robert a feeling they are in the know indeed the essays struggle to This book originally appeared Bauval) and generally making about what happens behind the make incisive points about the back in 1999 with a different life mysterious and difficult for scenes in modern archæology, culture at all. The usual cult subtitle (The Quest for the Hall everybody. they are ultimately written for a studies faves of Walter Benjamin of Records), but Bauval has Why is this important? Well, in smaller audience of friends and and Jean Baudrillard get wheeled substantially rewritten and the bigger picture of archæology, colleagues – and enemies – who out, but to little practical effect, updated it for this new edition. it isn’t. While it’s scurrilously actually have an opinion about and the nadir is reached with Its principal characters are the entertaining to hear how Hawass who should have said or done an essay on steampunk in same: Zahi Hawass, Egyptology’s used to run things in Egypt, what and to whom. Doctor Who that spends a large erstwhile Indiana Jones; Edgar before the government got shot Robert Bauval writes plenty proportion of its time recounting Cayce and the organisations of him after the ‘revolution’, it of consistently interesting and the plot of three episodes and founded by his followers; Rudolf doesn’t advance our knowledge of well-argued books and articles on manages a level of analysis less Gantenbrink, the German ancient Egypt or the true purpose ancient history, and some of his incisive than most fan sites. engineer who designed a robot of the pyramids and the broader theories about the significance I have an equivocal attitude to explore the small shafts in the Giza complex. And while one can of pyramids in ancient Egypt are to cultural studies: when it’s Great Pyramid; and of course, the sympathise with Bauval to some every bit as plausible as anything good, it can provide a riveting coterie of alternative researchers extent (after all, if one group of that orthodox Egyptology has analysis of contemporary who have focused on the Giza speculative researchers can be come up with. But this book is culture; but an awful lot of it is complex, including Bauval allowed in, why not another?) it’s unlikely to win him any new banal observations of partially himself. hard to see how, some years after adherents to his theories; if understood cultures dressed up It belongs to a rather niche most of the events, it is worth the anything, it just might put off in academic language. It can area of gonzo scholarship which effort of such a huge book on the readers from his more worthwhile embody all the compromised is perhaps best characterised as subject. material. unthinkingly superior attitudes kiss-and-tell archæology. While the In fact, some (clearly Noel Rooney of colonial anthropology, but as title promises a book about the jaundiced) readers might see it is looking at street style or secrets of these most enigmatic the whole thing as an outsize Fortean Times Verdict TV programmes, no one calls monuments, it turns out to be exercise in self-justification by a SETTLINg SCORES MAKES FOR the researchers on it. Look as about the people who have gone man who sees himself as central uNCONvINCINg SCHOLARSHIP 5 I might, for all their talk of looking for those secrets, and who historical points of divergence are, in fact, largely responsible To order any of these titles – or any other book in print – contact the and rhetorical function, none of for the idea that such secrets the authors here appears to have are there to be found. Bauval FORTEAN TIMES BOOKSHOP spoken to a steampunk. clearly has an axe to grind; he Ian Simmons feels that Hawass and the ARE Telephone: 08430600031 Fax: 01326 569555 Email: [email protected] (the Association for Research Address: Fortean Times Bookshop, PO Box 60, Helston TR13 0TP. Fortean Times Verdict and Enlightenment) have been We accept all major credit and debit cards including Switch & Amex. Cheques or postal orders should be made payable to the FT Bookshop. delivery is 7–10 days, subject to ACAdEMIC gLOSS ON PEOPLE Up To Something, and it is his WHO juST LIKE dRESSINg uP 6 duty to tell the world about availability. Postage & packing is free within the uK.

FT324 59 www.forteantimes.com reviews BOOKS

you are the No go the bogeyman Placebo Making your Mind Matter When you add rumours of black magic (and possibly black Joe Dispenza Hay House 2014 ops) to a violently divided society, an occult panic ensues… Pb, 345pp, £12.99, ISBN 9781781802571 FORTEAN TIMES BOOKSHOP PRICE £11.69

witchcraft and Satanism were An added ingredient in the Dispanza, a neurologist, conflated without a murmur. development of the scare was provides a history of the Loyalist newspapers began the involvement of British Army ‘placebo’ effect – how to hint at witchcraft and devil intelligence operatives, who an innocuous medicine worship within the Catholic used these rumours, pre-existing can produce positive community: the Shankill Road- ghost lore and local legend for results if the patient believes in based WDA News suggesting that psy-ops purposes, creating black its efficacy – and the trials have Catholic teens had tried to contact magic sites in deserted houses, to generally confirmed the effect’s the spirits of dead IRA men. give the impression that rituals reality. But this study offers Black Magic and Jenkins observes that the black had been conducted there. This more, being an account of how magic scare wasn’t the only way in amplified the panic, which was Dispenza recovered from spinal Bogeymen which a belief in the supernatural widely reported in the media – injuries and, the main thrust as Fear, Rumour and Popular Belief became assimilated with the both the mainstream Northern far as the publisher is concerned, in the North of Ireland 1972–74 ‘Troubles’. Ireland press, and in Loyalist and a motivational thesis suggesting Richard Jenkins He examines local lore such as Republican papers. that a range of modern afflictions the ‘Crying Stairs’ at Divis Flats, Colin Wallace, former British (including addictions, obesity, low Cork University Press 2014 Hb, 304pp, notes, bib, ind, £35.00, ISBN 9781782050964 West Belfast, where residents told Army ‘Information Policy Unit’ self-esteem, etc) could respond FORTEAN TIMES BOOKSHOP PRICE £31.50 of ghostly cries and moans being intelligence operative and to a sound method of tricking heard at the site of a booby trap subsequent ‘whistleblower’, ourselves. In this thoroughly researched explosion in which three British agreed to be interviewed by Otto Minyak book, Professor Richard Jenkins, soldiers had been killed. Jenkins Jenkins for this book. He recalls who was brought up in Northern links these cries with banshee lore, doing his homework diligently, Fortean Times Verdict Ireland, examines a ‘black magic’ and other contemporary iterations researching ceremonial magicians’ THINK yOuRSELF BETTER WITH A scare that took place there in the of the legend, apparently confined rituals and paraphernalia. Thus, PLACEBO 9 early 1970s. Whilst it has affinities to the Catholic community. The wooden knives with Hebrew with similar ‘occult panics’ that large numbers of violent deaths letters inscribed on the handles History that Time occurred on the mainland around during this period were seen were left at certain sites, together Forgot the same time (ably recounted as the reason banshees had with candles and chalk circles 100 Front Pages and the Stories by Bill Ellis in his article for ‘The reappeared; in one case, it was decorated with ‘magic’ symbols. Behind Them Highgate Cemetery Vampire said that a team of Provisional When asked what had been the Haynes 2014 Hunt’, in Folklore vol. 104, 1993, IRA men had “seen off” a intention behind all this, Wallace Hb, 207pp, illus, £20.00, ISBN 9780857337276 pp13–39), the NI panic took on banshee that was bothering the admitted, oddly: “I don’t think FORTEAN TIMES BOOKSHOP PRICE £20.00 certain unique characteristics, on local community. Another such there was any clearly defined account of the ‘Troubles’, which legend was the “ghost patrol” at policy.” It seems that the Army’s An unprepossessing were reaching a peak at this time. Narrow Water, South Down, where aim was simply to fuel the panic cover hides goodies Jenkins pinpoints the a British military convoy had in what was already a highly from a century of beginning of the scare with the been blown up by the IRA. After charged atmosphere. In doing so, the Mirror, including murder of 10-year-old Brian the event, locals spoke of being British intelligence operations Colonel Barker, a cross- McDermott in September 1973; flagged down by phantom soldiers. encouraged further ‘ostension,’ dressing fascist whom Radclyffe to some, the boy’s mutilated body Were these genuine ghosts? Or when thrill-seeking young Hall described elsewhere as “a indicated a ‘ritualistic’ element to had it been a British psy-ops people began to experiment with pervert of the most undesirable the killing. operation, with soldiers setting occultism, and to create their own type”. The Mirror’s coverage does This horrific crime was linked up roadblocks along the road, and ritual sites. Local newspapers not convey quite how unusual in the local press to the discovery, masquerading as ghosts popping fed this trend, claiming that she was – she organised practice one month earlier, of supposed up from behind the hedges? youngsters were seeking a form of brawls for fellow female fascists. ‘black magic’ ceremonies on the It was rumoured in the Ardoyne escapism from the ‘Troubles’ by A flavour of the rest: “Man who Copeland Islands, north of County that stories of a ‘black man’ – “dabbling in the occult”, no doubt never went out for 25 years had Down. The evidence was vague perhaps the Devil himself – who inspired by the Dennis Wheatley hair 5ft 8in long” and “Madness (symbols drawn in sand, sheep’s roamed the district at night novels and Hammer horror films village is praying: lift the curse of carcases), but it was enough to had been disseminated by the that were as popular in Northern our father’s sins”. Forteana shares start the panic. Rumours and British, as a means to keep young Ireland during this period as they pages with now-dead but strangely stories in the press began to people off the streets after dark. were on the mainland. familiar pols and celebs. Fun. appear; sacrificed animals, houses The rise and fall of the ‘black Chris Josiffe Val Stevenson with weird symbols on the walls, man’ rumours coincided with covens, and Satanists seeking to the arrival and departure of Fortean Times Verdict Fortean Times Verdict kidnap and sacrifice children. In the Parachute Regiment in the THE NORN IRON TROuBLES, BLACK ALL OuR yESTERdAyS, ANd vERy this pre-Pagan Federation period, Ardoyne. MAgIC ANd A LITTLE LOCAL PANIC 8 Odd THEy WERE TOO… 9

60 FT324 www.forteantimes.com reviews BookS

We leaf through a selection of ALSo RECEIVED recent fortean books...

The Self-Actualizing Cosmos discomfort, don’t go alone, don’t lie or ramp Ervin Laszlo up the drama, etc) and the pitfalls of being Inner Traditions 2014 in the media spotlight. There much here also Pb, 199pp, refs, ind, $14.95, ISBN 9781620552766 about good equipment, good methods – even, should you choose to start a group, on Laszlo – a Nobel-nominated author, praised choosing and registering a name. There is a by the likes of Stanislav Grof – tackles the sample investigation questionnaire and even mysteries of paradoxical and anomalous a chart of types of ‘orbs’ caused by flash- phenomena with a mash-up of astrophysics, reflection off dust and bugs. quantum physics, chemistry, biology, anthro- pology, parapsychology, thanatology and How to Bag a Jabberwocky consciousness. Far from the Universe (or our Major Jack Union existence, whichever is more inclusive) being Book Guild Publishing 2012 “mindless, purposeless and directionless”, Hb, 138pp, illus, £12.99, ISBN 9781846247538 he argues that it is on a journey to self-real- isation. He defines his ‘A kasha Hypothesis’ Another fictional ‘guide book’ in the style (conceived by Hindu philosophers long before of the recent How to Goblin-proof your Lobsang Rampa) as a plane of “nonlocal Chicken Coop, has much fun with classic interconnectedness”, which sounds very for- fortean and cryptozoological material. It tean. Brings bang up-to-date the classic hippy presents the monster-hunting adventures phenomenology of Fritjof Capra et al. of a retired Victorian secret agent whose mother was a high-class brothel madam The House Where Evil Lurks and whose father (the “Unknown hero of Brandon Callahan Kabul”) defended Queen and country against Llewellyn 2014 frightful beasts and even Martians. After Pb, 250pp, $15.99, ISBN 9780738740669 each chapter describing the form and habits of 15 monsters – from Air-Krackens and “A fter coming face to face with evil, one Bandersnatches to Vampires and Yetis – is a man’s soul is scarred forever,” froths the personal account of the Major’s engagement ) blurb. That man is the author, who tries to with them. Pure whimsy, which might amuse convince you that this “is a true account some. of one of the most deadly hauntings ever recorded”. Callahan claims to have battled The 100 Best British Ghost Stories the cannibalistic murderer who ran a funeral Gillian Bennett home in a town he doesn’t name “outside Amberley Publishing 2012 Jefferson City”, Missouri, and doesn’t say Pb, pp192, refs, illus, £14.99. ISBN: 9781445606941 when, or even reference the newsclippings he cites. His characters begin their sen- Folklorist Gillian Bennett’s book Urban tences with “Dude” and end them with “I shit Legends is one of the field’s classics. This you not!”, while an EVP voice from a recorder, selection of tales of “ghosts, poltergeists, not to be outdone, growls “You’re fucked!” boggarts and black dogs” spanning four Trees died for this rubbish? centuries is drawn from her own collection of British oral traditions and deserves equal Paranormal Unwrapped recognition. She presents them in chronological Shannon Sylvia & Katie Boyd order so that we may observe “the way ghost-lore Schiffer Books 2012 changes over time”. It’s another gem from that Pb, 128pp, £10.50 / $16.99, ISBN 9780764341250 star of local history publishing, Amberley.

The authors (a “famous ghost hunter” and Ghosts, Spirits and Hauntings an “international demonologist” who survived Eds Michael Pye & Kirsten DAlley childhoods in homes tormented with ghosts, New Page Books 2011 poltergeists and other paranormal phenom- Pb, 220pp, illus, notes, ind, £13.99, ISBN 9781601631749 ena before branching out into investigating cryptids, UFOs, crop circles and hauntings) Essentially an anthology of 10 original essays do not come across as swivel-eyed loons. on theries abut hauntings, their type and Their advice to would-be investigators is relation to folklore and parapsychology, with practical, especially about mental and contributions from Loyd Auerbach, Nick physical preparation for investigations (eg. Refern, Andrew Nichols, Bob Curran and don’t use drugs, pay attention to feelings of Raymond Buckland, among others. reviews FILM & DVD

SEND REVIEW COPIES OF DVDS, BLU-RAYS AND GAMES TO: FORTEAN TIMES, PO BOX 71602, LONDON E17 0QD.

waters of the aviation industry, specifically the health risks posed to passengers and crew and the efforts of the powers that be to cover up any evidence of a prob- lem. In films of this type there’s always a crusading journalist, and in this case it’s Helen Eastman (Georgina Sutcliffe), a former big league reporter reduced to work- ing for a local rag in Sussex after a scoop in the Middle East goes hor- rifically wrong.When her boyfriend Joe, an air traffic controller, is suspended after a near-miss on his watch, she sniffs a story and along with cub reporter Natasha (Rita Ramnani) starts ferreting away after the truth (and some column inches). Naturally, this brings her to the attention of airline mogul Charles Jaspar (Nicholas Day), one of whose planes caused the inci- It Follows nal monologues and a cast made someone slowly walking toward the dent, and his CEO Ben Tyrell (Mark Dir David Robert Mitchell, US 2014 up of young actors – especially heroine. Plotwise, he may drop the Dymond), who begins to suspect his On UK release from 27 February given the film’s backdrop of high ball occasionally; I have a few ques- boss may be putting profit before schools and teen hangouts.The tions surrounding the backstory safety. An interesting fact about the early work of John Carpenter could of “it”, but these are small doubts During the course of her inves- horror genre is that its target also be cited as an influence, with that are forgiven once the film gets tigation Eastman encounters the audience is females aged 16 to 24; the slow, stalker-ish movements into gear and its everyday world widow (Leah Bracknell) of a pilot hit that demographic and you’ve of the antagonist, accompanied becomes the source of a creeping (Stephen Tompkinson) whose struck gold. It Follows could be no by an electronic soundtrack (the fear that you just can’t shake. death was, he believed, caused better targeted at that -audience if outfit behind which, Disasterpiece, Is “it” a metaphor for the rise of by toxic organophosphates seep- it had laser sights attached. should be applauded for a highly STDs amongst teenagers? Perhaps; ing into the air circulating inside Jay (Maika Monroe) has a seem- originally film score). but in It Follows Mitchell has also the aircraft. It transpires that the ingly innocent sexual encounter Most credit, though, goes to delivered a genuinely original source of the problem is oil leaks with Hugh (Jake Weary) only to be Mitchell who has penned and horror film – a rare enough thing – in the engine, an issue known to drugged by her new lover. Waking directed a story that creates an and in doing so has created a new the airline and its engineers but up, she finds herself tied to a intense nightmare from something monster to occupy our own per- one ignored because of the costs wheelchair while Hugh explains seemingly very ordinary – and a sonal darkness. involved. She also hears from con- why he has taken this unexpected film that becomes increasingly Mark McConnell cerned hospital staff that abnor- action. “It” has been following him; terrifying to watch.There’s no malities reported after routine and now he has had sex with Jay, monster, no dripping blood, no Fortean Times Verdict procedures all involve aircrew. it will follow her. It doesn’t run; it masked murderer; there is only a Tristan Loraine was himself an creepIng Fear conjureD walks. It will look like someone she person, someone you know, slowly, FroM the eVeryDay worLD 8 airline captain until 2006 when knows or someone she loves, but methodically, walking toward you, he lost his medical certificate to only she will be able to see it. If it coming to take your life by simply fly because of the contaminated touches her, she’s dead. Released touching you. It’s that simple, and A Dark Reflection recycled air he was exposed to on from her capture, Jay begins to see it is devastatingly effective. Other commercial aircraft – the same visions of something slowly stalk- horror directors should take note Dir Tristan Loraine, UK 2015 air breathed by us whenever we On UK release from 27 February ing her, and with the help of her of how Mitchell creates an atmos- travel by air. Since retraining at close friends decides to destroy the phere without using visuals to fool the National Film and Television “it” that now follows her. an audience. Some people get into directing School, Loraine has directed a This simple premise is executed The cast is good, too, with Maiki because they are great techni- number of documentaries about effectively, creating an above aver- Monroe, the lead, showing us why cians, some because they have a aviation, including 2007’s Welcome age horror film that, while not she’s a rising star. Her mixture of great eye, some because they are to Toxic Airlines, an exposé of this perfect, resonates and stays with allure and vulnerability is judged frustrated actors.Then there is a alarming issue. you after you’ve left the cinema. perfectly, allowing the viewer to select band who become directors Unusually for a mainstream fea- Director David Robert Mitchell has actually care about the film’s young because they have something to ture, A Dark Reflection is a co-oper- clearly been influenced by other heroine – no mean feat in a horror say. In this latter category is Tristan ative production funded in part by films but manages to put his own movie these days. Mitchell’s direc- Loraine, the director and producer a number of aviation organisations, spin on things you’ve seen before, tion frequently breathes new life of A Dark Reflection, a conspiracy including unions, support groups creating something fresher, darker into a tried, tested and often tired thriller that might facetiously be and, indeed, airline employees and more unnerving.There’s genre; witness the 360-degree pans described as inhabiting the space themselves. I understand that film shades of The Virgin Suicides here during which we, the audience, between All the President’s Men industry bodies also helped get – languid dialogue, dreamy inter- can see, way off in the distance, and Watchdog. It charts the murky the project off the ground (if you’ll

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pardon the pun). Given all this, you might expect the film to be a some- what amateurish, patchwork affair, but I’m happy to report that it looks The Reverend’s Review anything but, having the gloss of a major production.The aerial pho- FT’s resident man of the cloth reVerenD peter LawS dons tography of Sussex is stunning, and his dog collar and faces the flicks that Church forgot! most of the other footage seems to (www.theflicksthatchurchforgot.com; @revpeterlaws) have been shot on actual locations, including Jordan for the arresting opening sequence. VINCENT PRICE IN SIX success of Usher, Corman To be honest, the script and some GoThIC TALES chose to film the relatively slight of the acting were less impres- Dir Roger Corman, US 1960-1964 story The Pit and the Pendulum sive, and this is where the limited Arrow Films, £84.99 (Blu-ray) (no doubt encouraged by the means of the production begins poster potential of a huge to show. The main problem is that Now don’t get me wrong. I’m a swinging blade slicing into a the characters are merely ciphers fan of Boris Karloff, I enjoy Bela man’s stomach). Yet Richard rather than fully drawn human Lugosi and I’ve got a particular Matheson’s inventive script pulls beings; hardly uncommon in movie soft spot for Lon Chaney Jr. (that together a new framing tale making, but less forgivable when sad, mopey face gets me every that’s absorbing and spooky – the movie in question is based on time). But if you’re asking me and it has a killer final image. fact. Aside from Crusading Jour- who’s the outstanding American Keen to experiment with nalist and Cub Reporter we also horror actor, it’s Mr Vincent the series, Corman replaced have, among others, Bad Rich Man, Price. Maybe it’s the variety Price with Ray Milland for The Conflicted Slightly Less Rich Man, of his output, or his earnest Premature Burial (not included in film of the set feels like a literal Sinister Head of Security and Gruff approach to horror; perhaps this set). Then, Price was back breath of fresh air, after all the But Kindly Editor. The film also it’s his fun, spooky elegance, with the anthology horror Tales studio-based antics of the previ- borrows heavily from the iconogra- or just that wonderful voice… of Terror, where he takes on not ous five. The Tomb of Ligeia was phy of its predecessors: newsrooms, Whatever it is, Price is the sort one but three of Poe’s stories. shot in England using real loca- oak-panelled drawing rooms, even of actor that makes you smile Corman, (who has admitted that tions, including Stonehenge. It’s a Deep Throat-approved dimly lit the second his name flicks up he gets bored easily) opted for a creepy too, with widower Price car park. As a consequence, it’s on the opening credits. Imagine comedy vibe for the middle story. (in funky sunglasses) discover- hard to escape the feeling that the treat then, of seeing that It was a vibe he expanded to ing that his dead wife isn’t too you’ve seen it all before. happen no less than six times feature length for the next film: thrilled about him ‘moving on’. Having said that, I admired in Arrow Video’s new boxset The Raven. It’s a bonkers detour Once again, Arrow delivers the low-key Britishness of it all. It Vincent Price in Six Gothic Tales. in the cycle, full of duelling magi- some delicious prints and enjoy- might be a bit clunky, but there’s It contains almost a week’s cians and amusing, if dated, able extras, although I suspect something admirable about its worth of Edgar Allen Poe films visual effects. Corman’s Poe cycle won’t be to refusal to chuck in car chases, produced and directed by king The fifth entry may be named everybody’s tastes. The relent- sex scenes, torture, skydiving or of the B-Movies, Roger Corman. after Poe’s poem The Haunted less studio-based approach other such Hollywood fripperies. I First up is The Fall of the House Palace, but it moves far more (up until the final movie) feels also liked the fact that the story is of Usher, in which a bleached into the territory of HP Lovecraft, claustrophobic and at times too almost entirely driven by female blonde Price winces at the loud taking much of its plot from his stagey. Perhaps this is why I characters, which is something all noises in his crumbling house. novella The Case of Charles prefer Price in Theatre of Blood too rare outside of films involving It’s a rich, sumptuous production Dexter Ward. With an intense and the Phibes movies, which bonnets and stately homes. It also with the actor in fine, paranoid opening and a nice sense of have a sense of scale and reality generates considerable tension all form as he struggles to cope menace throughout, it’s a wel- to them. Also, I confess that I the way through to an unexpected with his family curse. After the come change of pace. The final struggle with The Raven, scratch- but satisfying finale. ing my head at its bizarre tone; I In the end, the film is a tribute have friends who adore this film, to Tristan Loraine’s desire to get though, so what do I know?. his story told in a format that will Still, if you’ve a taste for the expose the scandalous issue at its very distinctive cocktail of Poe/ heart to the widest possible audi- Price/Corman, then Arrow have ence. I think it’s fair to say that served up a gothic feast for the Loraine isn’t a born film director senses. (Note: If you’re looking but a man who through sheer hard for Corman and Price’s fabulous work and force of will turned him- version of Masque of the Red self into one because he believes, Death it is sadly not present in rightly in my view, that he has this collection.) something to say which we all need to hear. Daniel King Fortean Times Verdict the corMan/prIce poe cycLe Fortean Times Verdict oFFerS up a gothIc FeaSt 8 a buMpy FLIght but a SaFe LanDIng 6

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The Walking Dead: last season. More of his backstory is Season Four explored here, as is his unquench- able hatred of Rick and his group ShoRTS Dir various, US 2014 and his determination to extermi- Entertainment One, £19.99 DVD, £24.99 Blu-ray nate them. But, before all this, a It’s very much a case of unfinished virus infects the prison, the focus of the babaDook business in Season Four of The Walk- the opening episodes, and leads to a Icon Home Entertainment, £15.99 (Blu-ray), £12.99 (DVD) ing Dead. For a start, there are loose reckoning between Rick and Carol and bloody ends to be tied, left over (Melissa McBride) after she changes This film from Australian writer/director Jennifer from David Morrisey’s Governor- irrevocably in order to survive. Kent is undoubtedly one of the best horror dominated Season Three. The mid-season finale is well movies of recent years, its potentially wider You know Rick’s hope of leading worth the wait, the showdown appeal beyond the usual genre fans demon- a quiet life with his growing family between Rick’s group and the one strated by a premiere at Sundance last year and of survivors isn’t destined for suc- now manipulated and led by the a positive reception from the mainstream press. cess. He has relinquished his role Governor involving a tank, armfuls Amelia (Essie Davis) is a tired and lonely of leader, along with his gun and of firearms and a series regular or widow, haunted by the death of her husband, the violence that goes along with two who don’t walk away from all working long shifts as a hospital orderly and it, intent on showing his son Carl the ensuing carnage.The prison is struggling to bring up her difficult seven-year-old son, Samuel (Noah the right way: tending the garden overrun with the undead and the Wiseman). Samuel, for his part, is an imaginative boy, obsessed of their prison-cum-fortress – while group riven and scattered. with magic tricks and terrified by the idea that a monster is going to zombies roam beyond the fences – The second half of the season get into their house – a fear that leads him to start creating his own home-made weapons to protect his mother. His increasingly difficult instead of cultivating outbursts of presents some standout individual behaviour – screaming fits, convulsions and breaking his cousin’s unfettered savagery in his offspring episodes: ‘Still’, in which Daryl and nose – see him thrown out of school and pushing an already in order to survive. The theme that Beth bond with each other over stressed Amelia to her limit. Increasingly alienated from friends came to the fore in Season Three – moonshine and pyromania, and ‘The and family, mother and child retreat into their tatty, too-big Victorian man’s inhumanity to man – is devel- Grove’ in which the new Carol, now house where a mysterious storybook entitled Mister Babadook turns oped more broadly here, and the the antithesis of Rick, has to deal up on the shelf and casts a disturbing spell on both of them: disturb- greatest threats come from other, with the disturbed nature of Lizzie ing events soon suggest that the bat-like Babadook is more than uninfected survivors rather than the and her dangerous fascination with just a grim fairytale… but is this a real haunting, a poltergeist incur- zombies. the walkers. sion, or some form of folie à deux? Kent, building slowly from subtle Multiple storylines spin out and The introduction of gun-toting unease to all-out terror, keeps things provocatively ambiguous for entire episodes are more frequently Abraham, his militaristic girlfriend the most part; it’s hard to tell, at times, whether we’re watching a lat- divided between the travails of just Rosita and the gnomic odd-bod ter-day Exorcist (William Friedkin said he’d “never seen anything more a few of the protagonists, eventually scientist Eugene, who, Abraham terrifying”) or Repulsion if Mia Farrow had a kid, and the film refer- circling back to the main plotline explains, can save the world if only ences a wider range of fantastic cinema – from Melies to Nightmare of Andrew Lincoln’s Rick Grimes they can get him alive to Washing- on Elm Street, via German Expressionism of Caligari and Nosferatu and his struggle to retain a sense of ton, goes on to provide the core – in exploring its own possibilities. humanity and morality in an appall- storyline for the first half of Season It’s not perfect – the Babadook’s leap from pop-up picture book to ing post-apocalyptic world. What Five. screen presence is problematic, both visually (too much Tim Burton Season Four manages to do better Some gave up on The Walking feyness to terrify) and metaphorically – but the film’s strengths than any previous ones is to show Dead during Season Two when are undeniable: a script that makes you care for the two central how people are irrevocably changed show creator Frank Darabont characters; direction and cinematography that create not just chills in the face of such a living night- walked from the enterprise and but a palpable sense of emotional suffering; and incredibly strong mare.The weak become strong, or the extended sojourn on the farm performances from Davis and Wiseman that anchor the whole thing perish; the strong move beyond the tried the patience of even the most in a devastating, entirely recognisable emotional reality. Horror often pale into outright barbarism, pre- die-hard fans. But then we got the prides itself on transgression and taboo-breaking – usually just a pared to do the unthinkable in the extended horn-locking of the two post hoc justification for a mash-up of blood and tits – but Kent’s face of the unthinkable. alpha males, Rick and the Governor, film, despite the occasional lapse, is certainly brave in even airing the really taboo topic of parent-on-child violence and getting us suffi- All roads lead to Terminus, the with lashings of human nastiness ciently under the skins of mother and son to understand what’s hap- mysterious destination mentioned in Season Three.This is surpassed pened to them and to care about the outcome. David Sutton 8/10 in a radio broadcast the group by Season Four, with even stronger pick up, promising sanctuary for writing and a telling awareness on any remaining survivors. All those the writers’ part not to let situations the VISItor unresolved threads left over from outstay their welcome. Eureka!, £15.99 (Dual Format Edition) last season are intertwined in the It’s good to report that Season Another creepy kid and more references to The Terminus arc: Michonne heading Five, airing on UK television Exorcist – not to mention The Omen and other out alone on horseback to try and right now, has picked up superbly 1970s hits – but The Vistor (1979) is as far from track down the Governor, who disap- where this one left off. When the The Babadook as it’s possible to get. Confirming peared after the savage showdown true nature of Terminus is finally Italian genre movie-making as la gazza ladra of at the end of the previous series; the revealed, I can promise you that it’s film, Giuulio Paradisi shamelessly plunders Ameri- Governor himself, meeting up with well worth the wait. can cinema to give us (I kid you not) John Huston, a woman and her daughter among Nick Cirkovic Sam Peckinpah, Glenn Ford, Mel Ferrer, Shelley a band of other survivors, creating Winters and a bemused looking young Lance Hen- for himself the persona of ‘Brian’, Fortean Times Verdict rikson in a completely bonkers religio-SF-horror epic to which words far removed from the psychotic Four SeaSonS In, anD twD cannot possibly do justice. Just see it – or, maybe, don’t. DS 5/10 one-eyed monster we all knew from IS StILL waLkIng taLL 8

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inteRView danieL siMPson, diReCtoR of the RendLeshaM ufo inCident if you go down to the woods today...

The Rendlesham UFO Incident is a new film that uses Britain’s most famous UFO case – often described as the ‘British Roswell’ – as the basis for a spooky contemporary tale of three metal detectorists who find more than they bargained for deep in the Suffolk woods. DAVID SUTTON spoke to writer and director DANIEL SIMPSON about bringing the Rendlesham mythos to the big screen 35 years on...

It’s surprising, given its high profile in the UFO literature and public consciousness, that no one has made a film based on the 1980 Rendlesham Forest Incident (RFI) before. What gave you the idea of doing one, and how did you get it off the ground?

I’d always wanted to make a UFO film since becoming interested in the subject as a child. Close Encounters of the Third Kind, and later Fire in the Sky fuelled this interest when I began making films at a very early age. It wasn’t until I moved to Suffolk, however, that I found out about Rendlesham and the famous UFO incident. The fact that it was a 10-minute drive away was incredibly exciting as I was looking for a new film project and had already considered doing make the film, during which I did approach Larry and tell him I those December days in Suffolk. an ‘earthy’ UFO film a couple of often had a set of keys from was sort of doing something but Even those who were actually years earlier – a film about the the Forestry Commission, so I he probably thought I was some there can’t agree on what really mysterious objects people film had free range over the place to kind of nutter and didn’t pay much happened, and then you have on their mobile phones, rather endlessly explore. Then about attention. Anyway, I had a photo the believers and sceptics than one that tries to offer an a year in, I read Left at East taken of us both outside the fighting it out over whether explanation of what might be Gate [Larry Warren’s account of building and it’s been in a frame anything happened at all. Does flying them. As soon as I went the Rendlesham Incident] and on my office wall ever since. this present a problem for any to the forest and drove around it changed my perception of He was the exact person I had fictional take on the case? Is Bentwaters my imagination everything – I was suddenly a expected to meet from reading there a risk that those with started to run riot. The locations full-on believer! I realised I wanted his book – a genuine and honest passionate beliefs in particular were excellent and were just to further sculpt the film to reflect guy. versions of events might reject screaming out to be filmed. I’d some of the reports in the book. So another two years went by anything that doesn’t tally with also wanted to make a film about I knew that even though our film where we continued to shoot, their own interpretation? treasure hunters, so I married wasn’t the story of the actual and edit. Then in 2014, just as the two ideas and pitched it to events of the RFI, I had to respect we had finished the film, there We never set out to make a producers Laurie Cook and Jason any parts that we had decided was another RFI conference in film based on what happened Newmark in London; they decided to use. I also knew that at some Woodbridge that I again attended. in 1980. If we had done, I’d to do it, right there and then. point I would come face to face I sat at the back and said hello probably still be trying to write with USAF witnesses. to Larry, who wouldn’t have the script and fighting to raise There’s an extensive literature recognised me from the first the money to make it. We had on Rendlesham, ranging from And did you? time. This time, more than the to find a concept that would witness accounts and MoD files first, I really wanted to reveal that make for a contemporary angle, to a great many subsequent In 2012, halfway through the we had made a film, but again to hook into the original event. books and TV documentaries. production, and after reading Left we were waiting for a kind of Of course, there are going to be What sort of research did you do at East Gate, I went on my own to official type announcement. Jim disgruntled people out there who into the history of the case? a RFI conference in Woodbridge. Pennsiston and Charles Halt were will say that this film is nothing Larry Warren and Peter Robbins both contacted by the producers to do with the original story, and Endless amounts! Reading on were both there and I desperately to obtain permission to use the there are those who will be angry the Internet most of all, coupled wanted to tell them about the ‘Halt tape’ and a drawing, but I’ve because we didn’t suggest that it with the luxury of being able to film, but because it wasn’t yet never spoken to either. was a lighthouse that caused the go to the forest on a regular clear how the film’s marketing incidents. You can’t please all the basis. This continued throughout would work, I was advised against Obviously, there’s disagreement people all of the time! One thing the several years it took to it at the time. Having said that, I about what went on during the film does state clearly though

66 FT324 www.forteantimes.com reviews FILM & DVD

is this: that what was seen in Were you inspired by any other 1980 was of extraterrestrial origin films? and that there was a subsequent cover-up. I’ve always been inspired by the greats: directors like Polanski, The two male characters, Gus Kurosawa and Tarkovsky. It was, and Jake, seem to embody the however, The Blair Witch Project believer/sceptic divide. Was that that inspired certain aspects your way of acknowledging, as of the film. Like the work of the well as dramatising, the above? above directors, it has a purity to it that we wanted to achieve. Yes absolutely. Most people look Recent ‘found footage’ films to the rational explanation when were becoming increasingly slick confronted with the unknown, and and being shot with expensive this was the way Gus operated. cameras with prime lenses. We It’s also the key to creating absolutely wanted our film to conflict on screen. look like it had been made by to its look and feel. What was it straight into production without amateurs – therefore the script, The Gus character offers like shooting in the area that the a solid screenplay. Casting was the camerawork, the sound and some well-known ‘sceptical’ original events took place? all about finding the right three the editing had to respect this explanations for some of what actors who were not known to idea. For example, when we came the characters see and hear It was a real buzz. We were the public through any other to do the sound mix in London, – the “animals going crazy” at Bentwaters on numerous productions. They were judged we purposely left in all the bad and screaming sounds are occasions and at all hours of on their talents to improvise bits you would normally take muntjac deer; weird lights and the day and night. Sometimes, mainly, and whether or not they out. The whole film was carefully sonic booms are the military when I was on my own, or with would be able to handle the designed in this way in terms of testing advanced tech – do you just one of the actors we would unorthodox method of filming we both visual and sound elements. find these, and other theories get into some of the old disused were about to take up with them. involving Orford Lighthouse or buildings and explore them with After many improvised tests we Two of your producers, Jason misidentified planets convincing? a torch, filming as we went. This went straight into filming. We Newmark and Laurie Cook, experience was both fascinating had a rough screenplay and we have been involved with a These theories are ridiculous and and at times scary. Ultimately, allowed the actors to go off into number of previous indie British are an insult to intelligent people. I was always searching for new the forest and film themselves horror movies, like Creep and We all know that lighthouses do evidence about the case, and – but they were never told what Severance. Was their input a big not fly into forests. You only have looking for doors that led to the story was or what to expect help with a project such as this? to listen to the Halt tape to know sub-level structures. Filming in from a scene. They were only that it was neither of the above. Rendlesham Forest was always a given rough guidelines to the A massive help throughout. They thrill, especially over three weeks scene so that the results would really know their subject and were The three characters are treasure of night filming. I also filmed seem natural and un-scripted. very passionate about keeping to hunters – two metal detectorists inside MoD Woodbridge, but none They were also given a GPS our original goals with the film. and a film-maker – rather than of that footage made it into the and issued with markers that Laurie Cook was on set with me UFO nuts. What was the basis of finished edit, except for shots they had to find. We would drop the whole time and we exchanged that decision? through the fence. them in the middle of the forest about 50,000 emails throughout at night and let them find their the years it took to make the film. It was just too fake a concept This is a ‘found footage’ movie way around in the dark as they to have UFO hunters go to a – why did you decide to take it filmed themselves. Sometimes What do you think happened at well-known UFO location and see in this direction and how did it we would ambush them and Rendlesham in December 1980? UFOs. This is probably the way affect the rest of the film-making scare the living hell out of them. Hollywood would have done it, process, from scripting and This all amounted to around 100 I believe that a craft of but we wanted something more casting to shooting and editing? hours of footage by the end of extraterrestrial origin landed in believable. There’s also this the production, and all the time Rendlesham Forest and was seen parallel in the film where both the Personally I would have preferred we were filming and editing and by multiple witnesses including treasure hunters and the unseen to make the film as a non-‘found re-writing and re-filming, gradually Larry Warren and Lt Col Charles aliens are looking for something footage’ film but the producers crafting the footage into a story Halt. Other than that, I have no that has been lost beneath the wanted it to be of that genre, and trying to introduce visual answers to what it was doing there ground. Something precious. It which was very much in fashion effects along the way. or whence it came. I also believe also transpires that the treasure back then, in 2010 when we that somewhere there exists film hunters do find something of started. It was a great challenge, It makes for an interesting and photographic evidence that great value – but it’s not what and I can honestly say that it’s mixture of generic elements we was taken at the time – but we will they’ve been looking for. much harder than the usual don’t often see – an odd mix of never get to see it. technique of shooting. But typically lo-fi hand-held style and The film’s locations – a very doing it this way was also very really quite impressive visual The Rendlesham UFO Incident is eerie-looking RAF Bentwaters, for exciting because it gave us a effects. Was that something you at selected UK cinemas from 6 instance – are absolutely crucial legitimate reason for ploughing were consciously aiming for? Feb and on DVD on 9 Feb 2015.

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Alien skeleton including lucid dreams. I have Simulacra corner quite severe asthma and the times Re: the ‘alien’ found under fl oor- I have had the bad dreams I have boards [FT322:8]: I’m pretty sure been having particular problems it’s just a rat or mouse skeleton with asthma and have woken up with the skull rotated 180° so that suffocating – clogged with unex- it’s looking backwards – you can pelled carbon dioxide. I would see the rodent’s teeth at the ‘back’ love to hear readers’ thoughts on of the head. this, and from anyone else who Tim Clegg has noticed a link between asthma Marlow, Buckinghamshire and dreams or visions. Alice Hepple The sweet little alien skeleton Derby lookalike is probably a rat – or maybe a mouse – albeit with its Flat feet head turned around, a hunched back and its front legs missing. Re the Mythchaser about fl at feet But, apart from missing limbs, it [FT322:19] preventing would-be really does make a great ‘Mini-me’ recruits from joining the military: for Geiger’s creation. Simulacra according to my 95-year-old Corner would have been a better neighbour, you certainly couldn’t place for the photo. join the Army during World War II Kate Parsons with fl at feet – a friend of his was By email turned down for such a condition. Also, according to wisegeek.org, Editor’s note: Thanks to Mike the military regulations in the US Diamond and Jez Vause, who Simon Woolley came upon this Google Earth image in southern Canada, specifically indicate that a person also pointed out the alien’s and thought it resembled a Native American listening to an iPod. with fl at feet does not meet the rodent identity, which I really We are always glad to receive pictures of spontaneous forms and fi gures, standards of physical require- should have noticed myself. or any curious images. Send them to the PO box above (with a stamped ad- ments to serve in the military if dressed envelope or international reply coupon) or to sieveking@forteanti- the condition causes the person Closing the wood mes.com – and please tell us your postal address. persistent and severe physical pain, or he/she needs to wear cor- There is no mystery about the rective footwear. sign stating that Dumble Woods – is really a lamb, representing is a waste of time, since no way are Nicola Maasdam in Derbyshire will be closed for both the Paschal Lamb of an actu- they going to look at any evidence, By email one day a year [FT322:69].This al Jewish Passover meal and also scientific or otherwise, that might is a common practice used by Jesus as the Lamb of God.We are bring down their whole house of Quoting from Einstein: His Life and landowners in order to prevent more used to such symbolic lambs cards. I am a scientist and pas- Universe by Walter Isaacson (page members of the public claiming in Christian art being shown in an sionate about it. In common with 58): “[Einstein] was so eager to be a ‘right of way’ through uninter- idealised form but in this case, I most readers of Fortean Times I a Swiss citizen that he put aside rupted use, usually for a period suggest, the artist has illustrated love living with uncertainty, the his antimilitary sentiments and of 20 years.The upper part of the the lamb more realistically as absolute fascination with all that presented himself, as required, for sign (partly obscured by leaves) stripped and cooked for the table, we are yet to discover, the wonder military service. He was rejected clearly refers to this. thus creating the dog-like appear- of existence and its endless pos- for having sweaty feet (‘hyperidro- George Brown ance. It seems to me to be a shock- sibilities. sis ped’), fl at feet (‘pes planus’), By email ing but brilliant way of hinting, in To those trapped in certainty I and varicose veins (‘varicosis’). a deceptively simple image, at the offer this quotation (I forget from The Swiss Army was, apparently, Editor’s note: Thanks to Carl sacrifice of Christ that is to come. where): “You only need to fi nd quite discriminating, and so his Ashton-Lomax, Joel Conn and Daniel Kitto one white crow to show that all military service book was stamped Martin Jenkins for making the Norwich, Norfolk crows aren’t black”. ‘unfit’.” same point. Kevin New Andrew May Trapped in certainty Devon Crewkerne, Somerset Sacrificial lamb Re DavidV Barrett’s Forum piece Asthma and dreams Then there was the Noel Coward I suspect that the supposed ‘dog’ on skeptics/sceptics [FT322:52]: ei- lyric “Don’t take our Charlie for on a plate depicted in Lincoln ther people are comfortable living I have been reading your report on the Army”: “He couldn’t do route Cathedral’s stained glass window with uncertainty or they are not. the link between carbon dioxide marches / on account of his fallen of the Last Supper – reproduced in Richard Dawkins and his friends and Near-Death Experiences arches”. Ted Harrison’s Fortean Traveller are comfortable in their certainty. (NDEs). I have never had an NDE, James Wright article on the building [FT322:75] Any attempt at debate with them but I do have very vivid dreams, Westcliff-on-Sea, Essex

FT324 71 www.forteantimes.com letters

Fort fans on two-headed dolphin,” , 13 being used to defeat a spiritual tion in the form of satanic rituals. Aug 2014). evil of indeterminate nature. The name ‘Nine Travellers’ is also Reading David Stephen Calonne’s In such reports of cetacean There are interesting synchro- interesting as the quest to charge new (2014) biography of Henry weirdness, there seems to be a nicities between these events up the Green Stone after its discov- Miller (one of my A-List writers), recent trend towards congenital and the Dr Who episodes called ery was called the Nine Lights as I was reminded (pp96-7) that the and genetic factors. I believe ‘The Key to Time’, which ran from it involved visiting nine particular latter, always keen on all things that reports of a bicephalous September 1978 to February megalithic sites with the Stone.The occult and paranormal, joined humpback whale calf, found 1979, shortly before the first fourth quest is called ‘The Androids the Fortean Society in about on a Californian beach in 2013, psychic messages relating to the of Tara’, followed by ‘The Power of 1945, and in a mixture of boast also generated some doubt. green Meonia Stone in October Kroll’ on the third moon of Delta and complaint exclaimed in Big In October 2012, the ITV quiz 1979. ‘The Key to Time’ of the Magna, while the sixth was ‘The Sur and the Oranges of Hierony- programme The Chase asked Dr Who series was a powerful Armageddon Factor’ located on the mus Bosch (p167): “People are what kind of creature a whalphin and legendary artefact that the planet Atrious. constantly supplying me with was.The correct answer was, of Guardians of Time used to main- The Key of Time appears to have startling facts, amazing events, course, a cross between a whale tain control over universal chaos. been a transdimensional crystalline incredible experiences – as if I and a dolphin. Has anyone ever The artefact itself was split into cube comprising six segments. Like were another Charles Fort.” seen such a hybrid? six pieces and the Doctor had to the Green Stone itself, its power had Apropos this, there is a lengthy Nick Warren engage in quests to assemble the been diluted by being transferred discussion in Authors of the Pinner, Middlesex pieces.This is remarkably similar to different locations, that of the Impossible: The Paranormal and to the Green Stone, which not Green Stone having been placed at the Sacred (Chicago, 2012), pp93- Dr Who and the only held a supernatural power each of nine megalithic sites when 141, by Jeffrey Kripal who in an but was also regarded as being it had first arrived in the British on-line interview remarks that he Green Stone the Philosopher’s Stone. Like Dr Isles at the end of the megalithic was tipped off to Fort by folklor- Who, the Parasearch team was culture. ist David Hufford, picked up a While reading the excellent later instructed by a paranormal Jenny Randles mooted the link copy of The Book of the Damned, article ‘Doctor Who: Forteana in source (that manifested itself on between fiction and reality – which and “was immediately hooked”. Time and Space’ [FT:318:34-39], several occasions as a White Lady she termed ‘psychic parallelism’ Almost a case of the Roman I noted the absence of any link or Guardian) to engage in psychic – through synchronicity, when she proverb FORT-es Fortuna Iuvat. between the Dr Who programmes quests to discover other stones, recognised how Stephen Donald- Barry Baldwin and psychic questing, particularly amongst them a red stone known son’s fictional Chronicles of Thomas Calgary, Alberta that relating to the Green Stone as the ‘Eye of Fire’.These stones Covenant seemed to mirror the Affair from 1979. In that year were considered to represent the real-life accounts of the experiences Cetacean weirdness a number of psychics began to Sephirot of the Kabbalah. and even some of the personali- receive psychic messages relating The Fourth Doctor is visited ties involved in ‘The Green Stone’ You report that a bicephalous to a mysterious green talismanic by a White Guardian who is Affair. It seems that at times the (two-headed) dolphin found on stone of power, said to have been told that he must recover all six ocean of imagery within the collec- a beach in western Turkey on 4 hidden after the failure of the pieces in order to restore balance tive unconsciousness can meld into August 2014 is to be studied by as- Gunpowder Plot in 1605 and to the Universe, although he is one and appear instantaneously as sociate professor of marine biol- allegedly owned by the Catholic warned of the opposition from both works of fiction and as real-life ogy Mehmet Gokoglu at Akdeniz Mary Queen of Scots.The Stone, a Black Guardian. Again, those events. (See The Green Stone, 1983, University, Antalya [FT321:22]. according to a wealth of psychic engaged in the quest for both the by Martin Keatman and Graham In fact, Prof Gokoglu appears to information given to the research- Green Stone and the Eye of Fire Phillips). have been denied direct access to ers who were investigating these were opposed by dark spiritual Clive Potter the remains, and only allowed to messages, originated at the time forces, frequently using humans Leicester study photographs (“Doubts cast of the demise of the megalithic as agents in an attempt to stop culture in the British Isles and them. Foundation rite was derived from Egypt at the The Doctor is recruited by the time of the pharaoh Akhen- White Guardian to recover the In our family when we build a house, aten, before finding its way to six fragments, first in ‘The Ribos we always put a horse-skull in the the British Isles and having at Operation’ where he is taken to north corner of the foundations. one time been possessed by the the planet Ribos.Then in ‘The Back in 1960 when this house [in Knights Templar. Pirate Planet’ he is taken to the Swallowcliffe,Wiltshire] was built, Acting on psychic messages planet Zanak to continue his I had no skull and I was a long way and pursuing historical leads, quest.Then interestingly we have from my natal Pembrokeshire. the Parasearch team were first the third quest in ‘The Stones However, I did find a horse tooth in led to a bridge in the Black of Blood’, which is set on Earth. the lab and thought that would do. Country where a short sword The Doctor, Romana and K9 find It was a very short ceremony and was discovered, which then led themselves by an ancient stone the Irish labourers all took off their them to finding a 17th-century circle called the Nine Travellers. caps and crossed themselves. No one casket containing the Green This stone circle was actually the seemed surprised. Stone by the River Severn Rollright Stones in Oxfordshire. Why did I do it and what does it in Worcestershire. Again, During the Green Stone quest the mean? I don’t know. One can make OR

YL following psychic messages, Parasearch team was led to the up any stories but I did it anyway. TA the Stone was charged up at Rollright Stones and discovered Patrick F James UL

PA various megalithic sites before evidence of its human opposi- Swallowcliffe, Wiltshire

72 FT324 www.forteantimes.com letters

The Comics Code unlike modern times, when sharing to understand why some people husbands returned home. It’s very I’ve re-read ‘A ttack of the Poison- one’s thoughts on blogs, social felt compelled to defend violent possible that these same women ous Mushroom Growth’ by R Guffey media, talk shows and via counsel- comics, while others felt compelled became touchy about sexism in [FT320:28-35] a few times and ling is as normal as breathing. The to ban them, it’s first and foremost comics for the same reason that cannot decide if he is trying to outward appearance of normality necessary to understand how Dr Wertham became touchy about convince us that the introduction was rigidly prioritised by advertis- wholly this society had been dis- violence: because they were a of the Comics Code is a case of ers, employers and government, torted by violence. The same could reminder of how far they’d fallen, mass hysteria, moral panic or just and so troubled adults had little be said of the censorship debate in society’s eyes. Not just society’s a conspiracy, of sorts. choice but to look for an ‘outsider’ in modern American society as eyes, but the eyes of their own “Mass hysteria” is a term that’s to blame for their ills. Seen this well, although its violence stems children, too. If anything, this story usually applied to cases where way, the public’s excessive reac- from different sources. illustrates how disempowered there is no rational or physical tion to violent imagery seems Perhaps, then, the Comics Code groups often go to extreme lengths cause for a group’s behaviour, inevitable, rather than conspirato- could be viewed as the product of to control the small part of society aside from people feeding off rial. If it weren’t for Dr Wertham, a moral panic of sorts? Again, the that they are ‘allowed’ to influence. of one another’s fantasies; for then someone else would surely answer is conclusively ‘no’. The That isn’t fortean, though – it’s instance, the numerous faint- have made the same criticisms term “moral panic” usually refers Sociology 101. ing spells that FT has covered. that he did. to situations where society is ex- When one considers the context This was clearly not true of crime Dr Wertham’s German origins cessively worried about a fictional of 1950s American society, the comics, many of which reflected are important to this story, but not enemy (non-existent Satanic cults Comics Code comes across more some of society’s worst fears right for the reason Guffey seems to being the classic example). The as a trial-and-error process in which back at it. Meanwhile, the only suggest (i.e. that Wertham was a events that were being recreated one generation tried to find a solu- “conspiratorial” force that I could closet fascist). Modern historians in comic books were clearly much tion to the problems like violence, discern at work here seems to be estimate that an estimated 1.4 more real. The only moral element inequality, war and crime. The kids the conscious misrepresentation million German women that I can discern in of the Fifties who witnessed their of the comic book genre by Dr were raped by Allied this article comes comics being burned only had Wertham. He does seem to have troops during capitula- from its author, who to wait another decade to start picked out the most offensive tion, and another 2 seems to be judging implementing their own solution to comics that he could find and million Germans a long-gone society those problems, vis-à-vis the peace held them up as examples of the went missing or died by the standards of a movement. Perhaps all those years medium as a whole. As a result, during their relocation modern one. of watching their parents coping (or he got the support of a govern- from Prussia immedi- I find it odd that failing to cope) with the problems ment which was trying to distract ately after it. Many of Guffey doesn’t of inequality and war was what people from bigger problems… Wertham’s country- respond to any of the prompted the Sixties generation to when is it not, though? Intelligent men and women were criticisms made of the come to a more subtle, approach- and thought-provoking comic imprisoned and worked controversial comics able answer to the same problems. books were undoubtedly censored to death, as revenge for having that he is describing in his article. Perhaps if it had been allowed to alongside the sensationalist ones, started the war. The Germans who One comic book cover shows a internalise the misdemeanours but only because they contained managed to survive this period melting face, which seems like a of the preceding generation by storylines that paralleled very real, were starved, diseased, crippled, clear reference to napalm, which reading crime comics that merely disturbing world events that people and mentally ill. I have no doubt was first used during WWII; or reflected problems instead of wanted to forget about. that Wertham’s family and friends to nuclear warfare, which was resolving them, then that genera- In the 1950s, the memories of would have regaled him with horror used infamously used by America tional self-analysis would never those events would have been very stories about their lives during against Japanese civilians; or to have happened. fresh in the minds of Americans, and after WWII. Meanwhile, the the many burn victims of the Blitz Or maybe the more subversive having touched 16 million of their American press would have been and other bombing attacks. comic book authors simply found lives in a very physical, real way. regaling him with horror stories The comics shown in the Ladies’ other ways to keep on influencing The depravities of the Holocaust, about what had happened in the Home Journal, on the other hand, young readers without resorting to WWII and the capitulation which concentration camps set up by depict a female – her features so gore. The Comics Code may even inspired comic books writers were Germans. It goes without saying sexualised that she almost seems have inadvertently helped steer the all real events – not tricks of the that Wertham would have been alien – being restrained and inject- kids of the 1950s toward a more imagination, as Guffey seems to a bit touchy on the subject of ed by two men. From a Freudian sensitive and intelligent path by suggest. Having witnessed and violence. He was in all likelihood perspective, this could hardly be a showing them the divisive effects participated in them, much of the riddled with overwhelming feelings clearer allusion to rape. Seeing the of violence, whether real and Western world would have been of guilt, disgust, and fear of social female form reduced to a sexual imagined. All I know for sure is this: suffering from a form of collective breakdown. And as strongly as the piece of furniture would have upset video games in which players can PTSD. In fact, the rise in juvenile subject of violence affected him, readers of these magazines for re-enact scenes of torture, rape delinquency was probably caused so it must have affected many many other reasons, too. For one and murder have been freely avail- by the fact that many parents were other Americans with European thing, many women had held able for over two decades now, and actively trying to bury their traumas, friends and family, as well as those skilled jobs during WWII, due to the America still hasn’t experienced a since no other outlet for it was with loved ones serving overseas. shortage of men, only to be uncer- second Summer of Love. offered by the society they lived in. None of this excuses reactionary emoniously shunted back into the A Elliott But then, the 1950s were totally censorship, of course, but in order kitchens and boudoirs when their Berlin, Germany

FT324 73 www.forteantimes.com letters

Know your onions of how he lost his Frankenstein with living creatures eye. Knowing how and implanting his “evil” to make The facts behind weird new stories tabloid editors oper- some bizarre menagerie for future are often as interesting as the ate, it would not be cryptozoologists to study? What stories themselves. As a simple a surprise if having about Tyrannosaurus rex and the example of such hidden layers, I found a successful dinosaurs, and other prehistoric remember an FT Sideline about formula with one oddities stomping around before a Norwegian man who had been black-eyed bogey- man existed? Did Satan engineer fined for calling a policeman an man, the possibility them too? Does that mean that onion.This sounds strange – unless of combining black apart from the occasional cryptid, you know that ‘onion’ (løk) is a eyes, ghosts and lost Satan also created everything that slang word for ‘prick’. (I am de- children appeared is brutish and nasty in the animal liberately translating it as ‘prick’, to be a sure-fire win- world or that bites and stings or is since it’s only mildly offensive. ner. Expect to see possibly harmful to mankind? By Still, most people would avoid killer black-eyed the same logic, venomous snakes using it on a policeman.) In fact, ghost spiders from and spiders, poisonous toads and this particular use of ‘onion’ is con- hell thrown into the even stinging nettles have been fined to the city of Bergen and its mix some time very deliberately engineered by Satan environs. Most other Norwegians soon! and contaminated with his “evil” would be unaware of its sexual Mark Graham in order to afflict mankind, so too connotations, which probably ex- Huddersfield, West parasitic organisms and mosqui- plains why your clipper bothered Yorkshire toes. Furthermore, skunks are to submit it at all. definitely satanic in origin, given A related slang term is ‘nappe Black-Eyed Kids their awful stink, and Great White løken’ (‘tugging the onion’) – no [FT322:26-32] is a Sharks and other man-eating prizes for guessing the meaning. I real phenomenon animals are obviously possessed once tricked a guy I know at NRK but to turn it into by demonic entities and in urgent (Norwegian State Broadcasting) a paranormal one need of exorcism. into saying ‘nappe løken’ live on is a joke, right? Finally, supposedly glowing air on Norway’s most popular Google “Black red eyes (i.e. eye shine) is nothing radio programme. Like most Eye Contacts”: you can be a BEK to “Hairy cousins?” [FT308:8], ear- unusual in animals seen at night, inland Norwegians he didn’t know yourself. Would you like your full lier drafts of a so-called study into given the reflective capabilities the meaning, but he was quickly eye blacked out or just the partial Bigfoot DNA claimed that some of the tapetum lucidum in the informed by his listeners. He pupil? So many fashion choices! of the DNA possibly came from eyes of nocturnal animals. Also, was not very pleased, but at this Fashion contact lenses are big “angels”, which was not only con- animals that exude a powerful time the NRK had stopped using business judging by the large sidered ludicrous by other Bigfoot stink is nothing new (e.g. skunks); my services anyway, so it didn’t number of companies offering researchers at the time but the even dogs love to roll about in matter. them. I’m guessing especially author refused to release her data, something dead or rotting in order Nils Erik Grande with younger people, hence the explain her methodology or reveal to hide their scent, let alone the By email descriptive ‘Kids’. where she might have acquired wet fur smell of some cryptid like Mark Fossey “angel” DNA to make compari- Skunk Ape that lives in a smelly Black-Eyed Ghosts By email sons in the first place. Indeed, if swamp and doesn’t bathe. And are “angel” DNA existed, this would we to assume that the sulphurous I wonder if one possible influence Sacre bleu! imply that instead of possessing smell of smelly farts is a sign of on the spate of lurid headlines in ethereal bodies, angels must have demonic possession? the British tabloid media about A few years ago in Istanbul I very corporeal bodies, more akin David Keyworth Black-Eyed Ghost Children snapped this digital photo (above) to extraterrestrials. Leaving aside Maryborough, Australia [FT322:31] might be convicted inside the Hagia Sophia.The ultra- the obvious phantasmagorical gangland murderer Dale Cregan. violet at the top of the minbar still nonsense in accepting the biblical Editor’s note: I think this is case Cregan, sentenced to whole-life startles me, and makes me won- account of the Flood as literal fact, of a sledgehammer employed to imprisonment in June 2013 for der: was the minbar (surely one of to say that Classical sculptures crack a nut. I never expected any- four killings including those of the largest in the world) built so of monstrous beasts offer proof one – or at least any FT reader – two female police officers, sports that the ‘natural’ ultraviolet glow of their existence is nonsensi- to take seriously the speculations an obsidian glass eye, which lends would envelop the speaker, a sort cal, given that the more likely of Patrick Heron (summarised by an even more sinister aspect to his of Muslim noon blue apples? Or is explanation is that they are simply Greg May in his letter “Devilish already menacing appearance. Re- it a revenant of some kind? Or just misinterpretations or misrepre- critters”), any more than David ports of Cregan’s crimes, attempts marsh gas? I will let you decide. sentations of existing wildlife. Icke’s ‘revelations’ about giant to escape the authorities, arrest, John Eastman Creationists are very supportive lizards ruling the world. How- conviction and subsequent antics By email of cryptozoology because of their ever, the contemplation of such behind bars have been regular tab- mistaken belief that finding a liv- metaphysical flapdoodle is one loid headline fodder for the past Satanic Intervention ing cryptid or prehistoric species is of the primary – and pleasur- couple of years. Such articles are somehow proof that evolution does able – tasks of this publication. I invariably accompanied by photos I think the comments about not occur. am reminded of Ken Campbell’s of the “one-eyed killer” and his Bigfoot and giants in “Devilish Why would so-called Satan (or ‘science-fictional’ way of seeing eerie obsidian appendage, to- critters” [FT318:72] are rather rather some vindictive extrater- the world – replacing ‘believing’ gether with varying lurid accounts far-fetched. Firstly, referring back restrial) waste his time playing with ‘supposing’.

74 FT324 www.forteantimes.com Have you had strange experiences that you cannot explain? We are always interested in reading of odd events and occurrences. CONTACT US BY POST: FORTEAN TIMES, BOX 2409, LONDON, NW5 4NP it happened to me… OR E-MAIL TO [email protected] Or post your message on the www.forteantimes.com message board.

First-hand accounts from Fortean Times readers and browsers of www.forteantimes.com

Friendly Nocturnal bangs half-smile I recently had a strange experience whilst in bed. I must explain that I have a 25 per In the early 2000s I was living in a small cent hearing loss and suffer from tinnitus studio flat in an old house in the east as well, normally a roaring sound like end of Newcastle-upon-Tyne. There was a wind in the trees. Whether this is a factor short period of time when I would awake I cannot say. One evening I had gone to with the strong feeling that a woman and bed at the usual time, around 10pm. It is her two children were sitting on the end quite common for me to read in bed for up of my bed watching me. It continued for a to an hour but more often 20 minutes or few weeks, always around 6am, but I saw so. I put my book down and turned off the nothing and would eventually just go back light and believe I might have fallen asleep to sleep. or at least was just dropping off. I was still Then one day I was quite upset and sitting up with a couple of pillows behind had gone home to be miserable about it. me. All of a sudden there was a tremen- On trying to sleep I found I couldn’t, and dous bang on my left-hand side as though started to get the distinct feeling not all a large-calibre pistol had been discharged was right in the room. The next thing I close by. I have discharged black powder remember I was sitting bolt upright in bed blanks in a solid barrelled replica of an old with no recall of sitting up and without the 1850 Navy Colt revolver in the past, and ability to move. A woman dressed in Victo- this mystery bang was just as loud in a rian-era clothes appeared through the wall confined space. across from me and seemed to float over I have no recollection of dreaming be- the floor towards me. I remember feeling forehand; what struck me was the intensity panicked but amazed. I tried to speak and of the noise – it was so real. I got out of although I could hear myself I could not bed looked out the double-glazed window hear any audible sound coming from me; to see if someone had thrown a loud fire- it was like screaming but with no sound. cracker into my back garden, even though The woman had a firm but friendly half- I am certain that the bang was within the smile and came up very close to my face. confines of the bedroom. My wife was She stayed there looking at me for what asleep in the front bedroom and I asked seemed like hours. Eventually she turned her in the morning if she had heard a loud and left the same way she had arrived. bang in the night. She hadn’t. I had never Suddenly I could move again and the experienced this before and not since atmosphere felt normal. I felt no menace although my left ear’s inner workings have from her; in fact after she had gone I slept given me the occasional balance problems like a log – but I did put the light on! and the doctor told me a long while ago I I told some people over the com- may have a mild form of Menier’s disease, ing weeks and most thought me crazy. which may worsen with age. I decided it However, when my brother-in-law heard had to be a malfunction of my inner ear or the story he admitted that while he and perhaps an unrecalled dream. my sister had stayed in my flat some months “A woman dressed in A week or two later I got a taxi out of Brecon previously he had awoken in the night to see a town as was normal on a Saturday after the woman of the same description sitting on the Victorian-era clothes weekly shopping. My usual taxi driver also has end of the bed staring at him. He put the cover hearing problems but he suffers no tinnitus as I over his head and went back to sleep. He hadn’t appeared through the do. I had never mentioned my experience to him. told me as I lived alone and he didn’t want to In conversation he suddenly said the other night scare me. wall and seemed to he was in bed and he was suddenly startled by a A month or so later, a friend of mine who lived float towards me” loud bang like a pistol shot. He began describ- in the flat above called a plumber out. As soon ing how intense it was and was puzzled how it as he entered the building he told her he was had not woken his wife. I told him how I had had also a psychic and that a girl fitting her descrip- tion to me and passed on the card he had left. a similar experience recently. I don’t know if he tion had seen a female ghost in the building. My I called the number on it (it was Spanish) and I believed me or not. He had never experienced it friend denied it, but the plumber chatted away got what I understand to be the Spanish mes- before. This strange synchronicity makes it the to her whilst plumbing about how a girl who had sage for “You have dialled an incorrect number”. more incredible. been researching her real grandfather had seen I still have the card and absolutely no one Maybe it is something that can happen par- this ghost and that time was not how most peo- believes me when I tell this story. I am a writer of ticularly to deaf people – I don’t know. My father ple thought it to be. He went on to say that there short stories with a lifelong interest in forteana, was very deaf but I never remember him telling of was a message for the girl and that she should plus my Masters degree was based on a book any such incident. I was both intrigued and a little explore automatic writing and psychic abilities. of ghost stories, so perhaps they feel I am spin- spooked. Has any other reader had similar experi- After the plumber left it suddenly clicked in my ning a tale for effect. But this experience was ences or is there an invisible entity going around friend’s head whom he had been talking about, quite real and completely changed the way I look trying to scare deaf people by firing a phantom as my project at the time had indeed been at reality. gun near their ear? research on my grandfather; also, my friend and Heather Jane Tanner Roderick Williams I looked very similar. She relayed all this informa- By email Talgarth, Brecon

FT324 75 www.forteantimes.com STRANGE AND SENSATIONAL

immediately concluded that these strange at a cigar. He shouted “Hullo! Good evening, JAN BONDESON presents more Germans were good tenants. countryman! A nice night, eh?” but the lodger sensational stories and startling In the coming months, de Swart kept a looked quite unlike his usual jovial self, merely close eye on his weird lodgers. In spite of replying “Yes, but I am going off to sleep. Good- Victorian images from the the vast difference in age, they seemed to night!” be on good terms with each other, and never This was the last Willem de Swart ever "worst newspaper in England" quarrelled. Fritz was a very idle fellow, who saw of the mysterious Fritz Briesenick. The never showed any inclination to work. He next day, he received a postcard saying that – the Illustrated Police News. seemed to be entirely dependent on his wife the Briesenicks had gone away, but that they for money. Augusta was very coy about her would return soon. But there was the matter line of business, until one day, de Swart saw of a very unpleasant smell emanating from 37. THE MURDER OF A an advertisement in a German newspaper Mrs Briesenick’s room. When de Swart broke published in London, where Mrs Briesenick open the door, he could see a half-naked corpse FORTUNE-TELLER? claimed to be a distinguished fortune-teller, lying on the bed. When the police arrived, the with access to life’s hidden mysteries. When hysterical de Swart was running about gabbling In early January 1899, the Dutchman Willem challenged, Fritz freely admitted that his inarticulately. Screaming “Mein Gott!” he de Swart, owner of a lodging-house at No 8 wife worked as a masseuse and fortune-teller; opened the bedroom door, before running away. Whitfield Street near Tottenham Court Road, she had several wealthy clients, one of them Two doctors arrived; they believed death had London, was dismayed to find that without a famous German actress. De Swart did not been the result of suffocation, and that the consulting him, his wife had let two first-floor approve of fortune-telling in his respectable blackening of the dead woman’s face had been rooms to a German couple named Fritz and house, but the regular rent payments made caused by blows. Willem de Swart, his wife, Augusta Briesenick. His qualms were not eased sure he did not press this point any further. and another lodger named Ghood all identified when he found that the two Germans appeared In March, Mrs Briesenick seemed intent the deceased as Frau Augusta Briesenick. At to be very queer characters. Fritz was a tall on changing her career. She put another the first session of the coroner’s inquest, it was and good-looking youth, who said he was 25 advertisement in the newspaper, seeking a suspected that Fritz Briesenick had murdered years old, although he looked even younger. He post as house-keeper. Fritz continued to lounge his wife, before escaping. introduced himself as an unemployed baker, about, smoking his expensive cigars, but the Giving evidence at the second session of but was well dressed and smoked expensive idle young German did not look as jaunty and the inquest, the servant Minnie Gransow cigars. His ‘wife’ said she was 36 years old; carefree as before. In the late evening of 2 testified that she had also seen the body of although flashily dressed, she looked much March, Willem de Swart was returning home the deceased, and that she was certain it was older. But when Mrs Briesenick pulled out a after having enjoyed a few pints at the local not Augusta Briesenick. The corpse in the large purse filled with gold sovereigns, to pay pub. Looking up at the first-floor window of bedroom was that of a tall, stout woman; Frau the rent in advance, the money-loving landlord his house, he saw Fritz standing there, puffing Briesenick had been short and thin. Moreover, Augusta Briesenick’s hair had looked very strange indeed: in the front, she wore a false fringe of greyish brown, in the middle her hair was bright red, and at the back, it was dyed jet black. The hair of the corpse exhibited no such peculiarities. Accordingly, the coroner had the body exhumed, to be inspected by a number of people who had known Augusta Briesenick. The de Swarts and Ghood changed their minds; they were now fully satisfied that the deceased was not the Augusta Briesenick they had known. Instead, the police found evidence that the corpse in the bedroom was the Swiss housemaid Sophie Richard, who had ‘got into the family way’ and consulted the sinister Frau Briesenick, whose bag of tricks apparently included performing abortions. Changing their minds, the doctors thought there might have been some mishap during the abortion, although they still favoured the idea that death had been the result of suffocation. Later, to confound things further, it was claimed that the corpse’s intestines had contained traces of a certain chemical used as an abortifacient. As the witnesses and doctors were dithering, the London detectives found evidence that SENSATIONAL STORIES FROM

LEFT: The discovery of the body in the bedroom at 8 Whitfield Street, from IPN, 18 March 1899. OPPOSITE: A view of Whitfield Street; No 8 is one of many houses that no longer stand.

the Briesenicks had absconded back to the Fatherland, presumably to Berlin. And sure enough, the Berlin detectives saw two queer-looking individuals disembarking from a train: a flashily dressed, middle-aged woman and a tall, indolent cove smoking a cigar. They were both arrested, and taken to the main police station. Since the German detectives had ways of making people talk, the young cigar-smoker was soon singing like a bird. His real name was Fritz Metz, and he had been apprentice to the wealthy Berlin baker and confectioner Adolf Briesenick. After the baker’s femme fatale of a wife had seduced him, they had stolen Briesenick’s money, and set off to London to start a new career as international criminals. The wicked Frau Briesenick had performed abortions, swindled people by telling their fortunes, and robbed a famous German actress who had employed her as a masseuse. When Fritz Metz and Augusta Briesenick were tried in November 1899, the craven Metz turned Kaiser’s evidence against his former partner in crime. He was duly acquitted, whereas Augusta Briesenick would have been severely dealt with, had she not “become insane and unable to plead”, as Lloyd’s Weekly Newspaper expressed it. She was duly detained in a lunatic asylum. It is a pity these extraordinary scenes were but rudimentarily summarised in the newspapers of the time: we will never know whether the straitjacketed Augusta Briesenick screamed “Burn in hell, you Schweinhund” at the coward Metz, or whether the latter, emerging from the court unscathed, took a welcome puff at his cigar before exclaiming: “Well, that was a damned close thing!” Did this strange character continue his life of crime, was he killed in the Great War, or did he live to fight another day, after Hitler had made Germany a country fit for scoundrels to live in? reader info Why Fortean? how to subscribe ANNUAL SUB of 12 issues (inc p&p) UK £39.98; EC £47.50; USA $89.99 ortean Times is a monthly of all apparent phenomena, coined ($161.98 for 24 issues); Rest of World £55. 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We dictum “One measures a circle record, FT is also a forum for reserve the right to edit submissions. beginning anywhere” expresses the discussion of observations Books, periodicals, DVDs and other material for review instead his philosophy of Continuity and ideas, however absurd or Send to: Fortean Times, PO BOX 71602, London E17 0QD, UK. in which everything is in an unpopular, and maintains a position Caveat intermediate and transient state of benevolent scepticism towards FT aims to present the widest range of interpretations to stimulate between extremes. both the orthodox and unorthodox. discussion and welcomes helpful criticism. The opinions of contributors He had ideas of the Universe-as- FT toes no party line. are not necessarily those of the editors. FT can take no responsibility for organism and the transient nature submissions, but will take all reasonable care of material in its possession. 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We occasionally use material that has been placed in the public domain. It is not always Special Correspondents possible to identify the copyright holder. If you claim credit for something we’ve published, we’ll be pleased to make acknowledgement. AUSTRALIA Graham Cordon (SA), Tony Healy (ACT), John Palazzi (NSW), Len Watson (Qld). CANADA Brian Chapman (BC), Graham Conway (BC), CYBERSPACE Richard Alexander, John F Callahan, Hugh Henry, Steve Scanlon, Janet Wilson. ENGLAND Gail-Nina Anderson, Louise Bath, James Beckett, Claire Blamey, Peter Christie, Mat Coward, Kate Eccles, Paul Farthing, George Featherston, Paul Gallagher, Alan Gardiner, Keith George, Anne Hardwick, Richard Clippers wanted! Lowke, Alexis Lykiard, Diana Lyons, Dave Malin, Nick Maloret, Valerie Martin, Tom Ruffles, Meryl Santis, Paul Screeton, Gary Stocker, Roman Suchyj, Frank Thomas, Paul Thomas, Nick Warren, Owen Whiteoak, Bobby Zodiac. FRANCE Michel Meurger. GERMANY Ulrich Magin. Regular clipsters have provided the HOLLAND Robin Pascoe. IRELAND Andy Conlon, Pat Corcoran, Andrew Munro. ISRAEL lifeblood of Fortean Times since it Zvi Ron. NEW ZEALAND Peter Hassall. ROMANIA Iosif Boczor. SCOTLAND Roger Musson. began in 1973. One of the delights SWEDEN Sven Rosén. THAILAND Chris Williams. USA Loren Coleman (ME), Jim Conlan for the editors is receiving packets of clips from Borneo or Brazil, Saudi Arabia (CT), Myron Hoyt (ME), Greg May (FL), Dolores Phelps (TX), Jim Riecken (NY), Joseph Trainor or Siberia. We invite you to join in the (MA), Jeffrey Vallance (CA), Gary Yates (UT). WALES Janet & Colin Bord. fun and send in anything weird, from trade journals, local newspapers, extracts from obscure tomes, or Fort Sorters (who classify clippings placed in the Archives for Fortean Research) library newspaper archives. Phil Baker, Rachel Carthy, Chris Josiffe, Mark Pilkington, Bob Rickard, Paul Sieveking, Ian To minimise the time spent on preparing clippings for a Simmons. Fort Sort, we ask that you cut them out and not fold them too small. Mark each clip (on the front, where possible) with Clipping Credits for FT324 the source, date and your name, so that we can credit you Richard Alexander, Gerard Apps, Louise Bath, James Beckett, Peter Christie, Pat Corcoran, in the listing (right) when we use the material. For UK local Graham Cordon, Mat Coward, Kate Eccles, JD Evans, David Gamon, Alan Gardiner, and overseas clips, please give the town of publication. For foreign language clips, we appreciate brief translations. To Keith George, Steven Gill, Anne Hardwick, Tony Healy, Hugh Henry, Nigel Herwin, Kevin avoid confusion over day and month, please write the date Hubbard, Colin Ings, Rosalind Johnson, Andy Lapham, Richard Lowke, Diana Lyons, in this form: 1 FEB 2015. If you send photocopies, copy on John Macmillan, Dave Malin, Nick Maloret, Tom Mason, Greg May, John Palazzi, Zvi Ron, one side of the paper only. Tom Ruffles, Matt Salusbury, Steve Scanlon, Tony Smith, Gary Stocker, Frank Thomas, Mail to: Fortean Times, PO Box 2409, London NW5 4NP, UK Jebadiah Valentine, Nicholas Warren, Len Watson, Owen Whiteoak, Paul Whyte, Janet E-mail: [email protected] Wilson, Bobby Zodiac, Zebbie Zubbeh. or post on the FT website at www.forteantimes.co.uk, where there is a contributor’s guide.

78 FT324 www.forteantimes.com sdsdsvdsvs COMING Strange deathS NEXT UNUSUAL WAYS OF SHUFFLING OFF THIS MORTAL COIL

Alan Catterall, 54, was burned alive A man of 47 choked to death on a on 23 December 2010 after his glass eye after putting it in his mouth MONTH daughter’s fiancé accidentally trapped in Indian River, Florida. Sun, 18 Oct him in an industrial oven that reached 2014. temperatures of 536˚F (280˚C). He had gone into the oven – at Pyranha Scores of mourners at a wake in north- Mouldings in Runcorn, Cheshire – to fix eastern Mozambique fell sick and died a fault when Mark Francis, 36, who was after drinking contaminated pombe, a operating it, switched on the machine without traditional beer made from millet or corn flour. realising that his prospective father-in-law was Authorities believe the drink was poisoned with still working inside. crocodile bile during the course of the funeral. After the doors closed and locked Foul play, or misadventure? D.Telegraph, 12 Jan automatically, Mr Catterall, a production 2015. supervisor, tried in vain to escape using a crowbar, and in the noisy factory his cries for A print boss in Wickford, Essex, was killed help went unheard. No one realised he was when he fell and slashed his neck on a metre- trapped until smoke started seeping out 10 long paper guillotine blade. Alan Dinsdale, 56, minutes later. He died of shock after suffering was installing the newly sharpened device severe burns in the oven, which was used to when he slipped in oil. Sun, 23 Aug 2014. larger than life manufacture plastic kayaks. Pyranha Mouldings THE FAT BOy OF pECKHAM AND Ltd was on trial accused on corporate A two-year-old American boy accidentally shot manslaughter. D.Telegraph, Times, D.Mail, 21 and killed his mother after he reached into her OTHER ODD TALES OF OBESITy Nov 2014. purse, unzipped a pocket, found her gun and shot her in the head while the family were out Oscar Otero Aguilar, 21, accidentally shot shopping in a Wal-Mart store in Hayden, Ohio. himself in the head while posing for a ‘selfie’ Veronica Rutledge, 29, who had a concealed with a loaded gun. He was drinking at home weapons permit, was reported to have been with two housemates in Mexico City when the shopping in the electronics aisle with her son incident took place. He died on the way to and three nieces. She died at the scene. About hospital. D.Telegraph, 5 Aug 2014. a third of American children live in homes containing guns. Of these, 43 per cent contain A sheep breeder was killed on 17 March 2014 at least one unlocked firearm. At least 100 when he climbed into a grain silo and his children were shot dead across the US in bootlace became snared by a rotating auger 2013. D.Telegraph, 31 Dec 2014, 1 Jan 2015. (giant screw). Jim Sharp, 66, of Lauder in the Scottish Borders, was pulled the length of the Brendan McBride, 19, bled to death after auger and suffered multiple injuries as first his getting his arm trapped in the metal hatch of lace and then his overalls became trapped. The a textile bank in Great Horton, West Yorkshire, father of two was self-employed with no staff. owned by Save the Mothers Trust. He slipped the amazing dr falk Metro, Sun, 5 Dec 2014. after standing on a plastic container while THE LIFE AND TIMES OF THE trying to reach in and take clothes. Sun, 17 More than half the 57 people killed on Mount Aug 2014. BAAL SHEM TOV OF LONDON Ontake, the Japanese volcano, whenSTRANGEit erupted DEATHS last September died while taking picturesAlan Catterall, A54,crocodilewas burnedkilled Jacquesalive van der Sandt, 29, of the explosion on their smartphoneson 23 December. They 2010on after3 Decemberhis daughterwhile’she was retrieving golf were found still clutching their devicesfiancé –accimanydentallyballstrappefromd ahimdamincalledan Lake Panic at Skukuza + containing pictures of ash clouds taken in industrial oven thatGolfreachCourseed tempein KrugerraturesNational Park, South overweight ghosts, their final seconds. Medical experts said Africa. The crocodile attacked him at about they suffered injuries from rocksofand536˚Fdebris(280˚C).10pmHe whilehad gonehe wasintostanding at waist height in killer kangaroos, travelling at up to 190mph (300km/h)the ovenas they– at Pyranhathe waterMouldinand reachinggs in below the surface to tried to flee the sudden explosion.RuncornSix people, Cheshire feel– toforfixgolfa faultballs whenon the bottom of the dam. cretan curisities were still missing. On 12 NovemberMark, picturesFrancis, 36, whoRangerswassubsequentlyoperating it,killed the 13ft (3.9m) anD Much More… of dramatic ash clouds taken byswitchevictim Izumid on the machicrocodilene withoutafterrealia two-hoursing search. About 280 Noguchi, 59, were released by histhatwidowhis prospectivepeoplefather-in-lawwere attackwas stilled worldwide by crocodiles Hiromi in tribute to him. D.Mail, 13 Nov 2014. during 2014, according to CrocBITE, a website working inside. After the doors closed that tallies global crocodile attacks. National A wild boar caused the death of anda motoristlocked automaticallyPost (Toronto),, Mr Catterall,4 Dec 2014. FORTEAN on the M4 near Swindon on 5 January. The unnamed 47-year-old man, from Wootton A man died after a wingnut flew off a lorry, Bassett, Wiltshire, was killed when his Seat smashed his car’s window and hit his head Ibiza collided with animal before hitting a lorry. near Reichertshofen, Germany. Sun, 16 Oct TIMES Wild boar were hunted to extinction in Britain at 2014. least 300 years ago, but have been making a comeback in the last few decades; they have virtually no natural predators. A fully-grown THE FORTEAN TIMES male can weigh up to 200kg (440lb), and the BOOK OF STRANGE animals often stray onto roads. In 2013 there were 43 road accidents involving wild boar in DEATHS VOL 2 325 the Forest of Dean, which for the first time was ON SALE NOW FROM more than those involving deer. D.Telegraph, 7 WH SMITH AND AMAZON.CO.UK Jan 2015. TO ORDER DIRECT CALL 0844 844 0053 ON SALE 5 MAR 2015 WhWhyNyNotot BeBe AWAWriter?riter?

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