Fortean Times 350 strange days Santa Muertre, insect stowaways, fairy music, Golden Yeti awards, EmDrive updates, penis-picking preacher, gay ghost hunters, time travel tales, weeping Virgin, amazing art world CONTENTS discoveries, Florida monster sighting – and much more. 05 THE CONSPIRASPHERE 16 GHOSTWATCH 12 ARCHAEOLOGY 21 ALIEN ZOO the world of strange phenomena 13 CLASSICAL CORNER 23 MYTHCONCEPTIONS 14 SCIENCE 26 THE UFO FILES features COVER STORY 30 NOSEWITNESS: THE SMELL OF HIGH STRANGENESS Research into strange phenomena has concentrated on visual and audio data, but witness accounts of everything from UFO encounters to monster sightings often contain references to supernatural scents and paranormal pongs. JOSHUA CUTCHIN argues that it’s time we took olfactory evidence for forteana seriously… 38 THE BLACK TIDE: WAS FREUD AFRAID OF THE OCCULT? DIKARA / AFP / GETTY IMAGES KO Psychoanalysis was meant to shine a wholly materialistic light on the mysteries of the human mind and banish ISHARA S. the supernatural forever. But, asks GARY LACHMAN, 30 SUPERNATURAL SMELLS was Sigmund Freud secretly troubled by the strange Sniffing the olfactory evidence for strange phenomena phenomena he publicly disavowed? 42 FORESEEING A DISASTER? FORGOTTEN DREAMS OF ABERFAN In October 1966 the village school of Aberfan in South Wales was buried under a mountain of coal waste, with the loss of 144 lives. Many people claimed to have dreamed of the tragedy before it happened, and now ALAN MURDIE opens a long-forgotten fi le of terrifying premonitions. forum 55 Is Donald Trump an alien? by Simon Wilson 56 The explorer and the dancing devils by Ben Radford GETTY IMAGES 42 ABERFAN FORESEEN? 55 IS THE PRESIDENT AN ALIEN? Prophetic dreams of the Welsh disaster Donald Trump and the ET doomsday reports 28 BLASTS FROM THE PAST No 66. Weirdness on wheels 52 BUILDING A FORTEAN LIBRARY No 18. Underground literature 76 TALES FROM THE ILLUSTRATED POLICE NEWS No 54. Marian, the Giant Amazon Queen regulars PIZZOLI / AFP / GETTY IMAGES TO 02 EDITORIAL 78 READER INFO ALBER 8RELIGIOUS ROUND-UP 16 WHO YOU GONNA CALL? 59 REVIEWS 79 PHENOMENOMIX Mad preachers and bad omens The Gay Ghost Hunting Club of Ohio 71 LETTERS 80 STRANGE DEATHS COVER IMAGE: DAVID NEWTON FT350 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 Smells like teen spirits SUbScriptioN eNqUirieS ANd bAck iSSUeS www.subsinfo.co.uk [email protected] WEiRd WhiffS snowflakes” and so on. FORTEAN TIMES is produced for Dennis Publishing by Wild Talents Ltd. Postal address: Fortean Times, A flick through some old copies of FT yields a Forteans display as wide a range of political PO BOX 71602, London E17 0QD. wide variety of stories concerning anomalous opinion as anyone else, and we allow our You can manage your existing subscription through smells: a couple driven from their home by contributors complete freedom of expression in http://www.subsinfo.co.uk/ – this should be your first port mysterious fumes (FT8:11); the odour of sanctity their work, certainly not “leaning on them”(as of call if you have any queries about your subscription. surrounding an incorrupt corpse (FT29:9); another correspondent suggested) to ensure Change your address, renew your subscription or report problems a sulphurous cloud causing nosebleeds and that some imaginary FT party line is maintained. UK subscriptions: 0844 844 0049 sore throats (FT53:14); the nauseating niffs SD Tucker, self-confessed “grovelling capitalist USA & Canada subscriptions: (+1) 800-428-3003 (toll free) attributed toVirginia’s maniacal gasser in the lickspittle”, is clear that his his ongoing Strange Fax (+1) 757-428-6253 email [email protected] Other overseas subscriptions: +44 (0)1795 592 909 early 1930s (FT131:32); or an overpowering Statesmen series in these pages is meant to offer Fax: +44 (0)1795 414 555 scent of maple syrup “comic explorations of spreading across NewYork weird things, ideas and LicEnSinG & SYndicATion Fortean times IS AvAILABLE FOR City (FT205:21). As well events centring around INTERNATIONAL LICENSINg AND SYNDICATION – CONTACT: as constituting mysteries politicians worldwide”, Syndication Senior Manager ANj DOSAj-HALAI TEL: +44- (0) 20 7907 6132 in their own right, these not propaganda or [email protected] paranormal pongs also political advice.The series Licensing Manager CARLOTTA SERANTONI TEL: +44- (0) 20 7907 6550 appear to accompany all has drawn praise from [email protected] kinds of other fortean most readers, and angry Licensing & Syndication Assistant NICOLE ADAMS TEL: +44- (0) 20 7907 6134 phenomena, from alien responses from a few. Mr [email protected] encounters (Adamskian Tucker sums up his, and YoU cAn REAch fT on ThE inTERnET Space Brothers smell our, position perfectly in www.forteantimes.com nice, sneaky Greys not so this month’s letters pages: much) to sweet-smelling “Please don’t read these © Copyright Dennis Publishing Limited spectres and memorably articles thinking I’m telling malodorous Sasquatches. you which side to back pUbliSHed bY prodUctioN execUtiVe Smell might be a constant or vote for on any given lAwreNce brookeS deNNiS pUbliSHiNg, 020 7907 6062 presence in forteana, but issue… surely no one reads 30 cleveland Street lawrence_brookes@ it’s also an elusive one, FT looking to find serious london w1t 4Jd, Uk dennis.co.uk notoriously unamenable political guidance?” tel: 020 7907 6000 AdVertiSiNg director SteVe NicolAoU to easy description or pUbliSHer 020 7907 6633 categorisation, impossible ERRATA dHArmeSH miStrY steve_nicolaou@ to capture as physical "Bewitching top notes of lily, rose FT347:39+41: In Paul 020 7907 6100 dennis.co.uk evidence, disappearing on and gardenia, with base notes of Sieveking’s extensive circUlAtioN mANAger SAleS execUtiVe wet earth and putrefaction" JAmeS mANgAN brAdleY beAVer the breeze and leaving only summary of creepy clown james.mangan@ 020 7907 6701 memories. It’s a subject sightings, he inadvertently seymour.co.uk bradley_beaver@ ripe for further exploration, so we’re pleased quoted a passage from Benjamin Radford’s latest export circUlAtioN dennis.co.uk to present a taster of Joshua Cutchin’s new book Bad Clowns without acknowledgement. mANAger SAleS execUtiVe gerAldiNe grobler imogeN williAmS book The Brimstone Deceit, which attempts to We’d like to apologise to Ben for this inadvertent geraldine.grobler@ 020 7907 6247 do for supernatural scents what his earlier A plagiarism: the problem arose because news seymour.co.uk imogen_williams@ Trojan Feast (see FT332:42-47) did for fortean reports used in Paul’s summary themselves made dennis.co.uk foodstuffs.Turn to page 30 for an introductory extensive use of Ben’s excellent book (see our PRinTEd BY WILLIAM gIBBONS & SONS LTD sniff. review, FT349:61). For more from Mr Radford, diSTRiBUTion turn to this issue’s Forum section for a little distributed in UK, ireland and worldwide oRdER, oRdER! known fortean episode in the life of a celebrated by Seymour Distribution Ltd. 2 East Poultry Avenue, London EC1A 9PT Politics has been a subject hard to avoid in American explorer. Tel: 020 7429 4000 / Fax: 020 7429 4001 recent months, whether here in Europe or Queries on overseas availability should be emailed to [email protected] across the pond in the USA, and divisiveness FT348:24: Martin Jenkins of London pointed out Speciality store distribution by Worldwide Magazine has followed in its wake – even entering the that the magazine cover shown here is certainly Distribution Ltd, Tel: 0121 788 3112 Fax: 0121 788 1272 hallowed halls of Fortean Towers. We’d just not French, as described in the caption. “If you STAndARd SUBScRiPTion RATES 12 issues: UK £39.98; EU £47.50 like to say that FT is not, and never has been a look carefully it says, ‘Raport UFO Romania’, and political organ of any persuasion; but we take then helpfully translates this as ‘Romanian UFO fortean Times (USPS 023-226) is published every four weeks by Dennis Publishing Ltd, 30 Cleveland Street, London, W1P 4JD, United Kingdom. weirdness where we find it, and – as usual, but Report’. So, presumably Romanian, not French.” The US annual subscription price is $89.99. more so – there’s been no shortage of the stuff Airfreight and mailing in the USA is by Agent named Air Business, C/O Worldnet Shipping USA Inc., 149-35 177th Street, Jamaica, emanating from the world of politics. New York, 11434. What seems to have changed is that the sort of daVid r SUTToN Periodical postage paid at Jamaica, NY 11431, USA. combative responses one finds below the line on US Postmaster: Send address changes to: Fortean Times, 3330 Pacific Avenue, Suite 500, Virginia Beach, VA, 23451-2983, USA. newspaper websites have been finding their way bob rickard PaUL SiEVEkiNG REST OF THE WORLD £55; US $89.99 ($161.98 for 24 issues) onto fortean message boards and in a growing dEnniS PUBLiShinG LiMiTEd number of angry emails and furious letters GRoUP cfo/coo BRETT REYNOLDS denouncing FT for (variously): making digs at ExEcUTivE diREcToR KERIN O’CONNOR chiEf ExEcUTivE jAMES TYE Donald Trump; not being nice aboutVladimir Why fortean? coMPAnY foUndER FELIX DENNIS Putin; publishing anti-Russian propaganda at Everything you always wanted to the behest of our publishers;