Innholdsfortegnelse for 435 i Fortean Times

ICUMEN IN? Welcome to another packed issue, which we hope will lift your sagging spirits as we struggle through another damp, grey British summer. Perhaps we have once again failed to appease the Old Gods and have only ourselves to blame for the unseasonal weather: this month’s cover star – pioneering Egyptologist, archæologist, anthropologist and folklorist Margaret Murray – might have had a few ideas about this; after all, it was her theory of a widespread European witch-cult that helped give birth to modern Wicca and other forms of Pagan religion. Turn to p.30 for Brian J Robb’s account of Murray’s fascinating life and work. Or if you think an urgent word with Lord Summerisle might do the trick, then head to p.38, where we celebrate the 50th anniversary of…

HIT BY A METEORITE? A woman in Schirmeck, in Alsace, France, was having coffee with a friend on her terrace when she was hit by what is believed to be a meteorite, leaving her with bruises. “I heard a big ‘Poom’ coming from the roof next to us. In the second that followed, I felt a shock on the ribs. I thought it was an animal, a bat!” she said. Having realised it was not an animal, she “thought it was a piece of cement, the one we apply to the ridge tiles. But it didn’t have the colour.” She consulted a roofer, who said that it was not cement, but looked like a meteorite. She then took it to geologist Thierry Rebmann who said that the rock appeared to…

The world of strange phenomena is what makes the team at FORTEAN TIMES tick. In every issue we present an array of odd and interesting stories from across the globe, investigating modern-day mysteries and delving into historical curiosities. From cryptozoology and conspiracies to paranormal research and weird science, we deliver the news you won’t find anywhere else. And strange but true… an advert in FORTEAN TIMES probably costs a lot less than you would think. If you would you like to promote your business to over 14,000 likeminded and loyal FORTEAN TIMES subscribers, who have plenty of disposable income to boot, then email james.kellock@metropolis.co.uk for further details.…

Black swans ALAN MURDIE finds that pubs named after a certain waterfowl seem to be magnets for hauntings Being in the wrong place when a ghost is seen is nothing unusual for a ghost hunter, as I was personally reminded myself in April 2023. Regrettably, other commitments meant I missed this year’s Weird Weekend North conference held at Rixton with Glazebrook in Cheshire over the weekend of 1-2 April. While attending the 2022 event I stayed at the Black Swan hotel in the village and heard some intriguing stories of a recent haunting in the building from members of staff. So my regrets were all the greater and more vexing on discovering that during the course of this year’s conference a female apparition was spotted in the building by one…

The fourth of the Hidden Charms1 biennial conferences took place on 15 April 2023 in York’s wonderful National Centre for Early Music, with Brian Hoggard again curating an array of excellent speakers to present on objects and symbols used to protect people from supernatural harm. In front of a healthy audience of over 70 delegates, Brian opened with a re-appraisal of witch-bottles, in which he explored new evidence from beyond the UK and USA. He highlighted tensions between the related documentary evidence and archæological evidence. Examples included the former describing witch bottles being boiled, while none of the 300 or so bottles found to date show any obvious evidence of boiling or heating; and despite most bottles containing hair and nail parings, there is no mention of such items in…

REVENGE OF THE ORCAS [FT401:17, 412:21] The pod of orcas, or killer whales, who took to attacking small boats off the Atlantic coast of Spain and Portugal in 2020 have continued their assaults, sinking at least three boats, and now it is believed that their behaviour is being copied by other orcas in the area. The orcas use a specific technique to attack a boat; they approach from the stern and strike the rudder, continuing until the boat is disabled, after which they lose interest. German yachtsman Werner Schaufelberger, who experienced an orca attack on 4 May, said: “The little ones shook the rudder at the back while the big one repeatedly backed up and rammed the ship with full force from the side.” He believes the orcas are teaching…

FAIRY CENSUS 2 Dear reader, I write both to whine and to appeal. First the whine. My eyes are gummed up with fairy dust, I’m almost deaf from the beating of fey wings and my typing fingers have been elf-struck. How did I get myself in this state? Over the last three days I’ve spent some 40 hours getting the second Fairy Census ready for publication, dodging between a database, a Word document and a wretched, wretched Excel sheet. Long-time forteans will remember that the Fairy Census 1 (published in 2017; see FT362:30-37) included 500 fairy encounters gathered in from around the world, with detailed rubrics about age, place, chronology, the emotional state of witnesses and much, much more. Fairy Census 2 will offer more of the same. Highlights include…

In an era when the rubric is (rightly) that women are capable of anything, the evidence shows that it has always been the case. Take Margaret Murray, for example. She had advantages, certainly, being born into the wealthy middle-class during the 19th century British Empire’s domination of India, but she carved her own way through several careers and disciplines, taking in archæology (with a special focus on Egypt), history, folklore, and anthropology. She made her mark across these fields, while her investigations into folklore gave birth to her ‘witch-cult’ theory in religion and literature, which led to her being dubbed the ‘Grandmother of Wicca’. She was even an advisor on the 1957 British occult movie Night of the Demon, starring Dana Andrews and Peggy Cummins. Murray continued to investigate and…

Africa likes to keep its secrets. Esoteric speculations still swirl like sandstorms around the pyramids. Cryptozoological expeditions investigate rumours of mokele mbembe, a possible living dinosaur in the Congo (FT145:30-32), and Ninki Nanka, (FT208:36-39) a legendary West African ‘dragon’. And there’s the intriguing possibility that the Church of St Mary of Zion in Axum, Ethiopia, may hold the Ark of the Covenant (FT63:28, 153:51). Sometimes, however, the greatest mysteries are those the locals consider “completely ordinary”. The writer Geoffrey Gorer kept a diary of his three-month tour of West Africa in 1934 and recounted his experiences in Africa Dances: A Book About West African Negroes (Faber & Faber, 1935). Gorer travelled with a small group of Africans, which offered the opportunity “to see and learn many things which European travellers…

“The Megalithic Transport Network,” begins Martyn Stonehouse, “is part of a larger national rail system which links historical sites throughout Derbyshire and neighbouring counties…” The Megalithic Transport Network? That explains the sandwiches, chortle chortle. Suffice to say, if 1970s British Rail services had expanded to include dedicated branch lines to ancient stone circles, it would have given fresh impetus to a decade of jokes about the buffet car. Still, this delightful prospect has inspired Megalithic Transport Network Phases 1 & 2, a brace of excellent new albums from Chesterfield musician Martyn. Both collections employ towering modular synthesizers to depict the bustling platforms of busy stations at Bronze Age and Neolithic sites throughout the Peak District. “The inspiration came after visiting places like Arbor Low and Nine Ladies Stone Circle in…

I went to a furry convention once. It was for a book I was writing, and I met many adults dressed as foxes, cats and mostly… dogs. I particularly remember leaving the toilets just as one guy crawled toward the urinals in a leather dog suit. Sure, it was odd, but I’m an open-minded fellow. If it’s not hurting anyone, crawl on! Norwegian movie Good Boy! (digital platforms) cranks that approach for scares when the chronically disorganised Sigrid arrives late for her Tinder date. The quiet, handsome Christian is kind and understanding of her quirks. The date goes well, so she stays over. The following morning she meets his dog: only it’s a man in a dog suit called Frank. She’s repelled and storms out, but after watching YouTube videos…

HOW TO SUBSCRIBE ANNUAL SUB of 12 issues (inc p&p) UK£50.58; Europe£62; USA£70; Rest of World £70. Please see house ads in the latest issue for details of special offers. UK, EUROPE, NORTH AMERICA & REST OF WORLD Major credit cards accepted. Cheques or money orders should be in sterling, preferably drawn on a London bank and made payable to Diamond Publishing Limited. Mail to: Fortean Times, Diamond Publishing Limited, 2nd Floor, Saunders House, 52-53 The Mall, Ealing, W5 3AT. NB: This address should be used for orders and subscriptions only. Telephone payments and queries: +44 (0) 208 752 8195. E-mail payments and queries: hello@metropolis.co.uk HOW TO SUBMIT Fortean Times reserves all rights to reuse material submitted by FT readers and contributors in any medium or format. ILLUSTRATIONS Contact the…

FORTEAN TIMES is a monthly magazine of news, reviews and research on strange phenomena and experiences, curiosities, prodigies and portents. It was founded by Bob Rickard in 1973 to continue the work of Charles Fort (1874–1932). Born of Dutch stock in Albany, New York, Fort spent many years researching scientific literature in the New York Public Library and the British Museum Library. He marshalled his evidence and set forth his philosophy in The Book of the Damned (1919), New Lands (1923), Lo! (1931), and Wild Talents (1932). He was sceptical of dogmatic scientific explanations, observing that some scientists tended to argue according to their personal beliefs rather than the rules of evidence and that inconvenient data were ignored, suppressed, discredited or explained away. He criticised modern science for its reductionism,…

Stuart Plein, curator of rare books at West Virginia University Libraries, was sorting through new donations when he found a copy of James Clerk Maxwell’s An Elementary Treatise on Electricity that had clearly, at one point, been in the collection of the New Bedford Public Free Library. It did not have a “withdrawn” stamp to indicate that the library had disposed of it, so was likely to be extremely overdue. Plein contacted Jodi Goodman, the special collections librarian in New Bedford, who discovered that this particular volume had been borrowed from the library in 1904 and never returned, so Plein sent it back. “This came back in extremely good condition,” said library Director Olivia Melo. “Someone obviously kept this on a nice bookshelf because it was in such good shape…

PAUL DEVEREUX discovers puzzling pits in Bedfordshire and outsize handaxes in Kent HOLY HOLES? The Beatles may have told us about 4,000 holes in Blackburn, Lancashire, but now archæologists are telling us about 25 monumental Middle Stone Age (Mesolithic) holes that have been uncovered in Bedfordshire, England – and there may yet be more to be discovered. The holes or pits are at Linmere, near Houghton Regis, and measure 5m (16.4ft) wide and 1.85m (6ft) deep, each circular with steep sides, and some broadening out to form a wider base. They would have been major undertakings c.7,000-8,000 years ago. They are by far the greatest concentration of such features anywhere in England or Wales. But what were they for? So far, nobody can figure that out. They wouldn’t have been…

INCORRUPT NUN Four years after her death at the age of 95, the body of Sister Wilhelmina Lancaster, founder of the Benedictines of Mary, Queen of Apostles in Lancaster, Missouri, was exhumed in April in preparation for the relocation of her remains to a planned shrine in the abbey’s oratory. As she had been buried in a simple wooden coffin without being embalmed and the soil of Missouri is damp clay, the nuns expected to find just bones. However, on opening the coffin the current abbess, Mother Cecilia, said: “I thought I saw a completely full, intact foot and I said, ‘I didn’t just see that’, so, I looked again more carefully.” Instead of bones, inside the coffin Sister Wilhelmina’s body and habit were intact, as were her crucifix, rosary,…

TURN ON, DROP OUT The Tavistock brand has taken a bit of a shellacking recently. The London-based Tavistock Clinic’s treatment of children came under intense scrutiny during the ongoing furore over gender reassignment protocols for minors; some commentators suggested that gender dysphoria was more prevalent among the professionals working there than the young people. The ensuing fuss led to a lot of adverse publicity and forced the closure of the clinic. The press reports spoke of children being pressured into taking medication and an organisational culture that was anything but benevolent. Some of the things being reported were, as more than a few commentators pointed out, eerily reminiscent of the kind of mind control experiments that were allegedly the bread and butter of MK-Ultra, back in the bad old days…

SHADOWLANDS As a ufologist, you know you are getting near the truth when you receive threats that you should stop your research. This has its roots early in the history of ufology when Albert K Bender suddenly closed down his grandly named International Flying Saucer Bureau and suspended publishing its quarterly newsletter Space Review in 1953. A few years later he explained that three Men in Black had stopped him publishing the truth about UFOs (see FT341:24). Bender’s original MIB are sinister extraterrestrial silencers who telepathically told him to “Stop Publishing”. Some ufologists, like John Keel, have portrayed them as being weird-acting androids, ETs or people possessed (see this month’s Strange Statesmen, p.48, for more), whereas others regard them as flesh and blood Government agents trained to stop the truth…

In 2014, US Congressional candidate Timothy Ray Murray laid out his unique appeal to the voters of Oklahoma: “I, Timothy Ray Murray, am a human.” You might have thought this was a given, but according to Murray, his main opponent, Republican incumbent Frank Lucas, was actually a robot in disguise. “I will NEVER use [an] Artificial Intelligence look alike to voice what The Representative’s Office is doing nor own a robot look alike,” wrote Murray on his website, ironically using the stilted delivery of a typical AI-powered online bot. “The World knows the truth, and We must always share the truth.” Seemingly alone among viewers, Murray had witnessed Congressman Lucas being executed via televised hanging in Ukraine by the World Court for reasons unknown back in 2011, along with a…

SUBSCRIBE NOW AND NEVER MISS AN ISSUE OF THE GALAXY’S BEST JOURNAL OF STRANGE PHENOMENA For anyone with a sense of adventure, an enquiring mind and a love of the weird and wonderful… Every month, Fortean Times takes you on an incredible journey into the unknown where you’ll encounter some of the most fantastic phenomena on Earth… and sometimes beyond. GREAT REASONS TO SUBSCRIBE ⬤ SAVE ON THE COVER PRICE! ⬤ 13 Issues delivered to your door (postage included)* ⬤ 13 Issues included)* available on mobile/tablet to keep on your device** ⬤ Every issue delivered before it’s available to buy in shops ⬤ Enjoy 10% discount on all merchandise and books In our shop *Print and bundle subscribers ** Digital and bundle subscribers SUBSCRIBE NOW  ORDER ONLINE AT SHOP.FORTEANTIMES.COM/FT434P EMAIL…

Rectal phenomena Reading the article ‘Here’s sick in your eye’ [FT431:50] reminded me of a book entitled We Are Electric by Sally Adee. In this we read that Alexander von Humboldt inserted a silver wire connected to a galvanic pile into his rectum from which he experienced involuntary fæcal expulsions, abdominal cramps, and visual sensations. He then forced the wire in further and experienced a bright white light before his eyes (p. 61). Experimentation on criminals was allowed in 1803, so wires were placed in most parts of the bodies including the rectum in front of a packed audience (p. 49). James Wilkins  Southampton, Hampshire Chip wrapping Mythchaser [FT433:27] suggested two popular answers as to why fish and chips no longer come wrapped in newspaper. Potential hazards from ink were…

IT’S FINALLY HAPPENED… In January 2019, Hell froze over. The small town of Hell, Michigan, was caught in a polar vortex that descended on much of North America and, as a result, temperatures plunged to-26C (-14.8F) and the town froze. Its website, which offers people the opportunity to become “Mayor of Hell” for a day – for which you get horns, a T-shirt, mug, badge, wallet card, dirt from Hell and various other benefits – posted a message announcing, “Yes, Hell has frozen over,” adding that despite this, they had not had as much snow as in other winters. standard.co.uk, 21 Jan 2019. HIGHWAY TO HEL Poland’s 666 bus route to Hel will no longer be taking tourists to the seaside town on a beautiful peninsula north of Gdansk. PKS…

KARL SHUKER shares a pair of intriguing cryptozoological reports garnered online Amid all the fake news, trolling, and general Internet insanity, some extremely interesting and potentially significant cryptozoological reports periodically filter through to me online, but which have not been published in any hard-copy format (and hence safely preserved for the foreseeable future, as opposed to the all-too-ephemeral existence offered by the Web). So I always strive to document such reports formally to ensure their survival and accessibility for other researchers. Here, therefore, are two more that have come to my attention recently. BEARDED IN ITS AQUATIC DEN? After my AZ report concerning an apparent giant eel reputedly encountered by a deep sea diver off Vietnam in or around 1974 (FT427:21), American correspondent Susan Swiatek contacted me online in mid-June…

PHONE CALLS FROM THE DEAD Dr Imants Barušs, Professor of Psychology at King’s University College at Western University, Canada, has been awarded a $44,500 (£34,735) BIAL Foundation Grant for Scientific Research to investigate the phenomenon of after-death communication with mobile phones. “I’ve had an interest in the survival hypothesis – the hypothesis that consciousness can continue to exist, at least for a time, after the death of the physical body – since I was a child,” says Dr Barušs. He was prompted to investigate the subject after Wired magazine contacted him to comment on the increasing number of people claiming to have been phoned by the dead. Working with Durra Kadiragha, a Health Sciences student from Western University, Dr Barušs went on to complete a pilot study involving 21 participants…

MYSTIC MEG As a celebrity astrologer, Mystic Meg, who has died aged 80, achieved an unparalleled level of fame which only Russell Grant came close to matching. Mystic Meg’s fame peaked in the 1990s when she appeared as resident soothsayer on the televised National Lottery Saturday night draw, dramatically lit and emerging from a swirl of smoke, to make predictions about the week’s winner. Such was her fame at the time that a popular riposte to being asked a difficult question was “Who do you think I am, Mystic Meg?” Sun editor Victoria Newton, said: “When all the Spice Girls came to the office… all they wanted to do was meet Mystic Meg! You know you’re a true icon when the only personVictoria Beckham is interested in is you.” Born…

Summertime and the living is easy, as the song goes. And summer is also the prime time for UFO spotting. People tend to be outside enjoying the day and more likely to be looking up at clear skies than usual. Being on holiday, or just having a break, also means they probably have a camera or mobile phone to hand, so it’s no surprise to find that the summer months are when UFOs put on a show and people are able to capture evidence of their presence. This year is proving no exception to that trend. Indeed, over the weekend of 2-4 June in and around the Lancashire city of Preston many people witnessed aerial displays that they then reported excitedly online. A few seconds of video revealed an unusually…

Since its release in 1973, The Wicker Man has had an enduring fascination for audiences, commanding a devotion that most films can only dream of. Its unsettling imagery, haunting soundtrack and pagan outlook have made it a cult classic (see FT381:40-41). As the restored film has been enjoying screenings across the UK and is set for a gorgeous 50th anniversary collector’s edition rerelease in September, we present this previously unpublished interview in which Cathi Unsworth sat down with the film’s director, the late Robin Hardy, to talk about the film. The Wicker Man has had a pretty extraordinary afterlife… It is an extraordinary story. I suppose it seems even more extraordinary now to me because I don’t know what happens to other films, but I presume that on the whole…

Oxford’s Christ Church Cathedral dates from the 12th century and sits in the centre of St Aldgate’s, soaring imperiously above manicured lawns, ponds and a stunning wildflower meadow. It was in these grounds in 1856 that Lewis Carroll (at that time Charles Dodgson) in his capacity as scholar and teacher at Christ Church made the acquaintance of the new incumbent to the Deanery of the Cathedral, Henry Liddell, and his young family. It is said that Carroll’s most famous creation, Alice in Wonderland, was a tribute to Alice Liddell, the Dean’s youngest daughter, who on hearing the outline for his mercurial tale in 1862 urged him to write it down, thus beginning one of British publishing’s greatest success stories. However, we’re not at Christ Church for Alice; it’s the Dean,…

TV programmes about the weird, as has been noted before, have a tendency towards the dramatic and slightly breathy preface. The Unexplained Files (Quest) is no exception. “There are global phenomena the science cannot explain!” announces the voiceover. In tone and scope it has overtones of Fortean TV, though without the genial linkage of Lionel Fanthorpe, in that it doesn’t just go for the obvious, but also covers less well-known stuff. For example, S2E9, ‘Forbidden Land Of The Giants’, looks at seemingly giant human bones unearthed in Eastern Europe and the strange case of Overtoun Bridge and its suicidal effect on dogs (cue Steadicam footage of a run at and over the parapet, accompanied by barking; I didn’t say it was subtle). First to Georgia – the Caucasus one –…