Case of the missing feet!

Fort was a famous chronicler of all things strange and I can't help but feel like this would be right up his alley.

Human foot washes up on beach near Vancouver for 11th time in four years

For the eleventh time in four years, a human foot washed ashore near Vancouver - baffling investigators who are at a loss to explain the grisly trend.

The foot, which was inside a running shoe, turned up along the British Columbia coast late Tuesday, according to police.
The body part, which was still attached to the lower part of the leg, was spotted by a passerby near the Vancouver's False Creek.
Police have no theories as to how the foot ended up in the water - but have not suggested that foul play is suspected.
Since 2007, nearly a dozen feet encased in shoes have appeared on beaches in the area, including a few over the border in Washington state.

Follow this link for the full article, although honestly there isn't much more information availiable at the link because as noted in the article the police are completely baffled. My favorite part? The police “have not suggested that foul play is suspected.”


Personally I have no idea what to make of this story. And to be completely honest it's pretty disturbing. Your thoughts?

Cryptozoology meeting

Continuing on last nights theme of aquatic monsters, there was more cryptozoological news today from the Zoological Society of London. On July 12th they hosted a meeting entitled “Cryptozoology: science or pseudoscience?” This meeting apparently had a very large turnout for people who were interested in learning how cryptozoology could and should be considered as a part of biology and / or zoology. Follow the link to read more from one of the speakers that presented at the meeting. 

It has always seemed that Cryptozoology has been in a better position to be taken seriously by 'mainstream' science more so than any other Fortean topic. This is true for a number of reasons. One we have a precedence of finding weird or unusual creatures that were once thought to not exist. The Mountain Gorilla was once the stuff of legends, the Coelacanth was believed to have been extinct until oops it was found by some fishermen in 1944, and more recently evidence has (no pun intended) surfaced to prove the existence of giant squids. 

Looking good for something that's supposed to be extinct, right?

 It's probably for this reason that many cryptozoologists rarely like to delve into the more esoteric or paranormal aspects of mysterious creatures. Stories of Bigfoot vanishing right in front of witnesses eyes crop more often than not, as do sightings of said creatures in the vicinity of UFO flaps or waves. I can't really blame them of course. Everyone wants to be taken seriously and cryptozoology has a better chance than say ufology, assuming of course that what they are searching for is in fact a physical phenomena.

Maybe there is a physical aspect to the phenomena or maybe it's more paranormal in nature, who knows? It is nice to see that some aspects of the Fortean are being taken seriously by someone. I just hope that people don't fall into the same trap that befalls many ufologists. Where the researcher believes that they know the answer (ie that Bigfoot is a flesh and blood creature) instead of just letting the evidence lead to whatever the real answer maybe.

The Mad Gasser!

For the next few days of posts I will be diving into the underbelly of the Fortean to find some really quirky creatures that have always fascinated me. First up tonight will be the Mad Gasser of Mattoon. A classic case of media induced mass hysteria or an actual Fortean creature? You be the judge.

On the night of August 31, 1944 a Mattoon, Illinois man woke up feeling quite ill and went to the restroom to throw up. He came back into his bedroom and asked his wife if she had left the gas on. She replied that she hadn't, and upon trying to move found herself unable to move.

September 1^st of that same year Mrs. Bert Kearney was awakened by a sickly, sweet odor in her bedroom. When the smell began to increase, Mrs. Kearney found that she was becoming more and more paralyzed. Her husband was on his way home around and hour or so later, as he pulled onto their street, he saw a strange man at the window. He would later describe him as a tall man wearing a dark clothing with a tight cap on his head. Mr. Kearney gave chase but the man escaped.

After this, many people from around the town reported to the police that they were also suffering from strange odors that would come into their bedrooms that was accompanied by paralysis from anywhere up to ninety minutes. The town soon turned to a full panic mode, many of the town's residents were angry that the police seemed unable (or unwilling) to deal with the 'Gasser'. Of course by this point, most of the police force was convinced (by the lack of substantial evidence) that the residents were suffering from mass hysteria rather than from the attacks of a Phantom Gasser.

One final visit from the Gasser would occur on the evening of September the 13^th. A witness reported seeing a women that was dressed in man's clothing, spray gas through her bedroom window. The next morning the lady and her son found a pair of high-heeled shoe prints outside of the window. All in all its a very strange story and I suggest that if you are interested in learning more you should pick up Jerome Clark's Unexplained!, which is where I first read about the story.

Hysteria or an actual attack? Personally I don't really know what to make of this story. On the surface it makes for a really cool, albeit bizarre, tale from the annals of the Fortean. It's possible, like my dad always used to say, that there is a kernel of truth at the heart of every myth. So maybe some burglar had really bad cologne on. Or some bizarre creature from the Nth dimension came to attack the residents of a small town in Illinois. Who knows? Your thoughts?

And now for something completely different

A good friend of mine, Scott Southall, has started a photography project to send you a Polaroid of a beautiful women's smile. What could be better? Scott and I have known each other for a number of years now and I owe him a quite a lot (he's the one that helped Ashley and I get together and he also got me started on Twitter, so if you follow me there you can blame him for it). So I thought I would give a him a plug and ask for you guys to help support this very worthy project. And like I said you will not be walking away empty handed as you will receive a picture of a pretty girl for your troubles. So follow the link below to check out the site for more information and a video.

Lizard Man Strikes Again!

Not too sure how I didn't hear about this one sooner: (found via The Anomalist)

New Lizard Man Scuttlebutt In South Carolina

On Ida Lane in rural Lee County, they’re struggling to explain what took place Monday morning.
“I ran into the house and told my wife to call the police because something happened to the car,” explained Leon Marshall.
“The tooth marks went completely through the fender,” added his wife Ada.
Early that morning the Marshall’s woke up to find their car mauled by something.
“That’s metal! And it just bent it up. Like it was a piece of tissue paper,” said Ada.
The question is by what?
“We have no idea. No idea. No idea what-so-ever.”

Visit the link for the full news article.

The best thing about this is that I don't live all that far from Lee County. Perhaps this is a chance for yours truly to do some actual in the field research. Which will hopefully turn out better than Messie.

-Tony

It's all about belief

Earlier today on his Twitter account, Greg Bishop posed an interesting question:

spacebrother To disclosure advocates (and others): Would you trust what is disclosed by the government if it's what you want to hear?

My response was fairly straight forward, and if you have been at Forteania long enough you probably know what I said. I replied:

@spacebrother I think so because I don't think disclosure advocates want the "truth" so much as a confirmation of their belief system

The problem with Disclosure, and other issues in the realm of the Fortean (and in life for that matter) are our belief systems. What tends to happen is that people are more likely to accept only those things that fit easily into their world views (reality tunnels) or whatever belief system that they hold. Or in some cases they will interpret the data coming into their brains through their belief systems. As an example, I over heard two co-workers talking about an experience that one of them had had the previous weekend during a church service. A woman was at the front of the congregation singing a hymn, and the entire congregation was really 'feeling the spirit' as my co-worker put it. Suddenly the woman who was singing let out a loud scream. Evidently she had felt a hand being place on her cheek. The interesting part is that all of the congregation was able to clearly make a hand print upon the woman's cheek, immediately following the event. Now of course for those that had witnessed this event, it was truly a miracle. Perhaps it was even a sign from God.

I'm not arguing as to what may or may not have occurred in this case. I wasn't there so I can't say for sure. What we can take away from this story however, is that people interpret events based on their world views. Since this phantom hand print appeared during a church service, then it was obviously the work of God or perhaps angels or what have you. But if it had occurred during say, a séance? What then? Well in this case it might have been further proof of the medium's contact with the 'other side'. This gets us back to the True Believer vs Pseudo-skeptic issue that I have brought up time after time on this blog. Both sides of the eternal debate are so wrapped up in their beliefs that they have a difficult time entertaining the other person's point of view.

Disclosure is another obvious example of this within the Fortean arena. The Disclosure movement will not stop demanding the 'Truth' from the government until it is released. The problem is they have a very specific idea of just what exactly this 'Truth' is. But that doesn't necessarily translate to what may or may not exist in reality. It seems that unless the 'Government' hands over the alien spaceship that crashed at Roswell, or whatever particular part of the modern UFO that the Disclosure person believes in, they will not be satisfied. This would seem to be because they are not looking for some objective 'Truth' that is grounded in our consensus 'reality' (we just can't get away from this damn word), rather they are looking for a confirmation of their beliefs.

I am not intending on picking on the Disclosure movement. Really we are all guilty of this to one degree or another, we all have a belief system to some degree or another. Now, how much we let it dictate our actions and/or opinions is another matter entirely. Like anything else, perhaps just by recognizing that we have this kind of hindrance to gaining new insight, we can move past it in order to try and learn things. I don't mean to invalidate beliefs, unless they turn out to be incorrect of course, we are entitled to believe whatever we wish.

If you prefer to think that the government has already solved the UFO problem, which I admit is a pretty comforting position to be in (it removes the mystery), then by all means knock yourself out. Personally I would like to refrain from coming down on one side or another. It's part of my life philosophy, which I am in the process of developing because we should never stop growing and learning. I simply try to assimilate as much data as possible on a given topic and then come to a tentative position on the issue. If I later learn something that invalidates my previous opinion I discard it and make a new one. I'm not perfect, so it doesn't always work out. After all I'm only human. But I try a little bit more each day to challenge myself.

I would urge each of you to do the same. Try and be as open minded as possible about whatever is coming into your reality tunnel. The next time a phantom hand print appears on someone, don't be so quick to conclude what caused it (whether religious, paranormal, or perhaps scientific) rather just file it away until you have more data on it. It's hard for us to admit sometimes that we just really don't know a lot about what's going on out there in the world. But it's at least intellectually honest to do so. Until next time, watch out for those handsy spirits!

Something a little positive for a change

Here is a something a little different to start off the day at Forteania. Take a few minutes to watch the video and reflect on some of the decisions that you may make throughout the day. We have a very beautiful planet, lets just hope it stays that way for years to come.

Thursday's Adventures in Twitterland

I took the day off from work because I was 'sick', so Ashley and I decided to go back to our local Barnes & Noble store. The last time that we went there it resulted in our failed search for Messie the Lake Murray monster, which you can read about here in case you missed it. While there I decided to look for two books that I need to read so I can remove them from my reading list. As I mentioned on my Twitter account, I am finishing up Ivan T. Sanderson's Invisible Residents. And since I am so close to finishing it I thought I would go ahead and pick up one or both of the books I want to read next. One is Steve Volk's Fringe-ology, the other was DMT The Spirit Molecule by Rick Strassman MD, recommended to me by Greg Bishop. 

 

The first book I went to look for was Fringe-ology, because so far DMT The Spirit Molecule has always been in the same exact spot (the new age section go figure). So I found a customer service person and asked her to look up Fringe-ology, after a few minutes of searching for it in the computer she was sad to tell me that they (once again) didn't have it in stock. That makes the third time in as many weeks that this Barnes & Noble has still not gotten this book in. So I did what any rational adult would do in this case, I bitched about it on Twitter.

@countduckula

Also why the hell isn't there a single book store in my area that carries Steve Volk's 'Fringe-ology'? The one time I don't want an ebook

I don't mind ebooks, you see? But for one reason or another I really wanted 'Fringe-ology' in a physical copy. But no, nobody wants to help

Well after griping a bit about that I decided that I would locate the Strassman book. Luckily I was able to find it and so with that I sat down and began to listen to some music while I looked at some random Tumblr's. Of course looking at the Strassman DMT book reminded me of a story that Daily Grail had linked on their site. They had linked to a YouTube video where Alex Jones, surprisingly, went off on a rant about ….... DMT! (Yeah like you couldn't see where this was going). As I hadn't gotten a chance to watch the video I was pretty excited, Alex Jones is always good for a laugh. Not because I don't at least entertain as possible some of the things that he rants and raves about, its just that I have a hard time buying into the whole NWO/Illuminati thing (sometimes). Unfortunately for me however the original YouTube video that the guys over at the Daily Grail had put up had been removed by user. Since I still had Twitter up and running, I figured, “What the hell? Why not put the call out to someone in the Twitterverse”.

@countduckula

Speaking of research into psychedelics, evidently Alex Jones had a little rant about them the other day. Unfortunately I missed the video

And now it seems to have been removed from YouTube, can anyone direct me to the video so I may watch his latest shenanigans?

About the time that I put that call out to Twitter, I notice that Steve Volk had responded to my tweets

about my inability to find his book! Which I thought was pretty cool of him all things considered. So we talked for a few minutes on Twitter about his book, publicity, and the hardships of tracking it down. Eventually he wished me luck in locating the book and hoped that I would enjoy it. It was at this time that someone from Twitter (HolyGhostTrance) replied with the a copy of the YouTube video of Alex Jones's DMT rant. Here is that video for you to enjoy as well. 

After all of this had occurred it was time for us to pack up so I could head to class. On the way out we ended up buying the DMT book and also William Gibson's Neuromancer. So that brings us to the end of my Twitter Thursday adventure. I was able to locate one of the two books that are on my 'To read' list. And had a wonderful day spent out with Ashley (and not at work). If there is a moral to this story I suppose it is best summed up in this tweet.

@countduckula

Apparently if you wish to find something on the Internet, all you have to do is ask Twitter

That's all I have for tonight Twitter, I have to go finish Invisible Residents so that I can start on DMT The Spirit Molecule. Until next time, have a great night!

Look! Up in the sky! It's a bird, it's a plane, it's ..... a city?

Never fear dear readers, my apparent funk from last night has finally lifted. Today is a normal day for your friendly neighborhood Fortean Philosopher. And as is often my habit, I scanned news sites today hoping to find more modern occurrences of Fortean phenomena to share with you, because I figure that the phenomena didn't just go away with the passing of Charles  Fort. And I am happy to report that I was able to do just that.

As reported earlier today by the Daily Mail, an apparition of a city appeared over the Xin'an River in Huanshan City in East China. Here is a little blurb from the article along with some photos, follow the link for the whole article and the accompanying video as well.

Residents in a Chinese city have been stunned after a giant mirage of a 'ghost city' towered across the skyline.

The apparition appeared earlier this month after heavy rainfall and humid conditions along the Xin'an River in Huanshan City in East China.

Tall buildings, mountains and trees appeared to rise up through the ghostly mist that had descended over the river at dusk. There is usually nothing buy sky across the horizon.

Link to the article.

Look out below!

This phenomena should be familiar to my fellow Forteans out there. Charles Fort in his book New Lands published in 1925. The book mostly dealt with Fort's expansion of his 'Sargasso Sea' theory and his theory behind anomalous falls ( i.e. fish falling, blood, giant blocks of ice, etc) that basically there were 'obviously' floating islands in the sky. His evidence for this were stories not unlike the one from China. Where people have, for centuries, reported sightings of cities in the skies. Often many of the cities didn't match the descriptions of any towns nearby, leading one to question just where they were originating from.

It almost goes without saying at this point that if you found this article interesting (and I highly recommend you go read more and check out the cool videos that are posted up at the Daily Mail site) then you should definitely read Fort's books. For my review on Fort's work, you can check this post. Until next readers, watch out for falling cityscapes.

Lazy Sunday take 2

Today was yet another lazy Sunday for your friendly neighborhood Fortean philosopher. I got a late start to the day, waking around 11:30 am, and had to get ready to take Ashley to work. We were able to spend about an hour together before she actually had to to go in, so after stopping at Sonic for some drinks (her a root beer with some vanilla flavor, and me with a Sonic Oreo Blast) we headed to the shopping area where she works. 

Our first stop was to the Best Buy, where I purchased the kick-ass net book that I am still typing on at this moment (First mentioned in this post). We were hoping to find some cases for some of our electronic equipment; above mentioned net book, and Ashley's drawing tablet for her laptop. Unfortunately we had no such luck. The next store we went to is one I can never seem to get away from. Pet Smart. For whatever reason Ashley, and I assume most women as well, seem to be drawn to pet stores. While inside I was witness to some PG-13 actions by two lizards. (see picture below)

It's hard to see but those lizards are totally making out!

After this it was time for Ashley to go to work. When I dropped her I off, I made my way to my regular haunt for these Sunday afternoons where I don't really have anything better to do. Panera Bread. Great place, great food, and for the most part they leave you alone even if you sit all day without actually ordering anything to eat. So for a while I did my usual thing of browsing my favorite sites (check this post for my recommended daily visits). 

I finished with those sites fairly quickly, mostly because (unlike this dumb guy) they post the majority of their stuff Monday through Saturday (you know like smart people). So I moved onto funny YouTube videos. I can't remember what spurred this on exactly, but I would like to share with you the best one of the bunch. It's from the musical comedy group The Lonely Island, here is the video.

Seriously do yourself a favor and check that video out, it's hilarious. Anyway this led me to start searching on ATS (Above Top Secret) for videos. They have a somewhat decent media section and so I was hoping to find something interesting. Or at the very least, entertaining. I was definitely not wrong. What I stumbled upon was a really cool crowd-sourced film called Zenith.

It tells the story of 'Dumb' Jack, a failed neurosurgeon from the year 2040. In this dystopian world all people have been genetically engineered to constantly be in a happy state, but because of this they have become so numb that they now seek out ways to inflict pain. After dropping out of medical school, Jack finds his niche as a drug dealer. Literally selling people old prescription drugs that are no longer made so that they can feel the pain caused by the side effects of the drugs. All of this changes for Jack when he stumbles upon tapes made by his father that warn of an all reaching group called Zenith. Unless this group could be stopped, the world would end up in exactly the state that Jack lives in.

It's an excellent movie and I literally just got finished watching it. The best thing about it is that the producers have given it out for free, as a torrent download. Follow this link here in order to obtain the film for yourself.  I highly recommend you check it out, especially if you enjoy Science Fiction. Well that about raps up my second lazy Sunday, regular posting will resume tomorrow night. Until then enjoy the music video and check out the movie.

Turn on, tune in, drop out!

A few months back I read two very fascinating books on the subject of psychedelics; Inner paths to Outer Space by Rick Strassman (and others) and Supernatural by Graham Hancock. Both books bring to the table the idea that through the use of psychedelics, humans beings are able to access other realms of 'reality' (there's that loaded word again) and perhaps gain new insights. Some years ago studies had actually been performed in the United States on the therapeutic uses of psychedelics for the treatment of all manner of conditions. But like most reactionary institutions these substances, especially LSD, where outlawed in the United States. And so they have been until recently. (The notably exception to this being Dr. Rick Strassman's work with DMT in the early 90's).

Over the last few weeks news articles have been appearing on a variety of websites indicating that the taboo on the use of psychedelics, or the sometimes preferred term of entheogens, is perhaps being lifted. And that we may soon see medical research again head down this path. I for one am quite excited about this prospect. On the medical side, the research that was done seems to indicate that the substances have the capability of; helping alcoholics stop drinking, helping terminally ill patients deal with anxiety, or helping people with OCD handle their compulsions.

All of these are great and reason enough, I think at least, for the US to allow research back into to the medicinal benefits of these substances. However this is not the only reason that I find these substances fascinating. No there is a much more Fortean reason for that. During his research with DMT, Dr. Rick Strassman had participants that were reporting what sound similar to alien abduction experiences. The participants would often report being taken to white rooms in order to be examined by alien beings. The examinations would some times end with some sort of insight being given to the individual. This is really fascinating, but as with most of these topics we are left with more questions than answers.

If, as Dr. Strassman speculates, we produce DMT internally; can the alien abduction phenomena be written off simply as yet another function of the human body? I don't know the answer to that unfortunately, but let's play a little 'What if?' game for just a moment. Suppose that the alien 'Other' that interacts with us from time to time is aware that we have DMT inside our bodies. And they know that DMT can cause humans to have psychedelic experiences. So what if when they wish to interact with us, and in order to keep the experience just outside the realm of 'reality', they induce the DMT experience and then use this to do whatever it is they are doing to us? I don't know if this is the case or not, but I do think that it can make for some interesting speculation. Obviously this couldn't explain all abduction events, as some have physical traces. Unless of course the 'Others' use a combination of physical and psychedelic tools to interact with us for their own purposes.

To learn more about some of the research that has been done into these topics I highly recommend checking out the two books I mentioned earlier; Inner paths to Outer Space and Supernatural. Both are extremely fascinating books that I think you would enjoy. Also to read more about some of the recent murmurings about psychedelic research follow this links for recent news articles on the topic.

The Economist; LSD: Acid Tests, Mother Jones; Geeky stats about Magic Mushrooms, WebMD; Magic Mushrooms show promise as therapeutic tool

Well thats all for now readers, until next time this is your friendly neighborhood Fortean Philosopher saying, 'Don't have a bad trip!'

Disclosure.....of the Bigfoot kind?

Loren Coleman over at Cryptomundo (which is a great cryptozoology blog you should all be checking by the way) has an interesting post that came up earlier. Here is a little snippet about it, follow the link below to learn a more.

For Immediate Release

*********** MEDIA ADVISORY**********

Potentially the Most Convincing Evidence of Bigfoot Since the Patterson Film of 1967

We have an full upper body impression including half of its face On the passenger side window of a pickup truck

And on the drivers side window, the Nostrils, Nose and Lips of a Bigfoot

Who: World Media – Please RSVP to SangerParanormal@aol.com
We will contact you to confirm your attendance

What: No, it’s not a Bigfoot in a Freezer and we are not affiliated with those guys in any way. This evidence was captured during an expedition in the High Sierra’s of California during the Memorial Day weekend of 2011.

For more on the press release follow this link here. Personally I'm happy about two specific items in relation to this story. First as they went out of their way to mention that this isn't another 'Bigfoot in a Freezer' we can all rest assured this isn't a hoax. Second since the press conference is scheduled for June 23^rd we only have two days left until we discover that this was in fact a hoax. More Fortean goodness coming later.

For more thoughts and opinions on this be sure to also check out Who Forted?'s take on these shenanigans.

Obsession or Passion? (and is there really any difference?)

In my younger days as a Fortean philosopher, the only thing that seemed to be able to occupy my mind was reading or talking about aliens, UFOs, or ghosts. I was an ardent reader, but you would have been hard pressed to find a non-paranormal book in my hands at any given time. By the time that I was in high school, this trend didn't show any signs of stopping.

It had gotten to a point where my mother was afraid that I was obsessed with the paranormal, something she thought was quite detrimental to me.  Her biggest concern was the kind of people that I had begun hanging around with. They weren't criminals or anything like that, however they did like to cut class and smoke pot. Also they were, or at least considered themselves to be, Satanists and pagans. My mother was concerned that my interest in the paranormal had led me to associate with these people. Sadly nothing could be farther from the truth. In fact the paranormal never came up while I was hanging out with this group of people (I guess even then I was Closet Anomalist).

Nothing could convince my Mom that my interest (obsession) with the paranormal would not somehow end up with me truly becoming one of 'those' kids. So reacting as only parents can react, my mother  took all of my paranormal books away from me. Maybe I was obsessed because, and I guess I should feel embarrassed by this but strangely I don't, I actually cried when she took my books away from me. It was as though she was taking my identity or my foundation away. I suppose in high school, kids are trying to figure out who they are. Or at least they are beginning that process, because the same thing is said of college.

So there I was at the tender age of 14, crying because my world was literally shattering around me. No longer did I have the books that I could turn to in order to read about paranormal things, nor did I have those cool alien figures I showed off here. Luckily I still had the Internet, so I could at least stay up to date with some of the happenings in the paranormal world. But it felt so strange not having that aspect in my life. Because at that time in my life really all I had were my books on the subject. I walked around like a shadow of my former self.

Of course as time moved on I quit hanging around those kids, not so much because the 'influence' of the books were gone but because like most kids my taste in friends changed. And besides just because I didn't have the books didn't mean that I had quite thinking about the paranormal, quite the contrary actually. All during this time I was still running the PSA with my friends and brother; where each weekend we would go off looking for Bigfoot in the woods near our home, or looking for Chupacabra in the sewer systems below our subdivision.

Eventually my Mom would give me back my books, although she probably still thought that I was obsessed. Unfortunately I don't disagree with her too much. As a kid I definitely was obsessed. Not longer after I got the books back, I moved out and went to school for awhile. Eventually I dropped out and had to start life in the 'real world'. So there wasn't much time for Fortean stuff. In fact I was out of the 'field' for quite a few years as a matter of fact. I (un)fortunately missed out on the 'CARET' Drones fiasco and the equally amazing (simply because of its sheer audacity for story-telling) the 'Project Serpo' document releases.

It wouldn't be until about 2008 or so that I really picked back up on the paranormal. I've been at it ever since, but with a huge distinction from when I was a child. Unlike my younger days, now I spend time doing other things. Don't get me wrong, nothing fascinates me more than Fortean topics. But I take more time now to make sure that I have other hobbies as well. It's like my dad used to say 'everything is fine in moderation'. I think that's what happens to a lot of the personalities in this topic, they let the subject get to them too much.
Really it is OK to take a break every now and then and do something else. Hell as a perfect example, I was off Twitter and this blog for the majority of the day because I was busy playing The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D. That is just one of my other hobbies. I do think Fortean topics are important and likely could hold the answers for some of the questions that we have as a species, but you know sometimes its OK to just play a game. So if there is a moral of this story I suppose it would be this; don't spend all day everyday reading this or any other paranormal blog. Go outside for a walk, watch a movie with friends/family, or hell just go out for a beer every now and then.

Well that's all I have for you tonight, until next time this is Tony Morrill the Fortean Philosopher saying, “ Take a break from the Fortean!”

Alright! My first NSFW post! Have I made it?

So I was browsing around Above Top Secret (still checking out the great thread that I mentioned in this post) when I came across this awesome news story. Here is the accompanying picture with a little blurb (follow the link for more of the story)

FACING sub-zero temperatures, with no protection from the elements, a female diver frolicks naked with beluga whales in a bizarre experiment designed to tame the shy creatures.

Diver Natalia Avseenko, 36, agreed to participate in the experiment designed by Russian scientists who believe belugas dislike artificial materials such as clothing and diving suits.

Read more: http://www.news.com.au/features/environment/naked-russian-diver-natalia-avseenko-tries-to-tame-rare-beluga-whales/story-e6frflp0-1226077079511#ixzz1PflB3YmX

All I have to say is that it wouldn't take much more than a naked Russian lady to calm me down either. Normal Fortean goodies coming later (hopefully!)

Older and hopefully wiser

I was a pretty young child when I got interested in Fortean topics; although at the time I had never really heard that word. That story has already been told here and here. When I first began to read about aliens, UFOs, ghosts, and Bigfoot; I was hooked. I mean who wouldn't be right? The thing is at that young age (I was around 8 or 9 I think) I was positive that I was going to prove the existence of these things, scientifically, to the world. That's right, yours truly was going to go down in history as the guy that brought the reality of the paranormal to the average Joe on the street.

I know, its pretty funny even to me now as I am typing it. But keep in mind I was, like most kids I guess, kind of naïve about well life in general I suppose. Certainly I was naïve about Fortean topics. In order to 'solve' the problem of the paranormal; my friend at the time (again I was about 8 or so) Billy and myself created the PSA or Paranormal Society of America. The aim of this organization was to scientifically investigate claims of the paranormal. Soon we would recruit our younger brothers and the four of us proceeded to 'investigate' paranormal activity. We never really saw anything, nor for that matter did we ever really investigate anything, but we had a blast doing it. And through it I was slowly introduced to many of the concepts that I kept for years. Concepts that I have discussed many times, mostly about the ETH.

What's funny about all this, well OK there is a lot funny about this but I mean in a hindsight sort of way, is that I still have our 'Case Files' in my paranormal notebook (which I may share with you guys one day). My hope was that each PSA investigator was going to have their own notebook. Of course eventually the PSA kind of faded away as most things in childhood do. But still I held out the goal, I guess, or maybe desire to one day somehow 'prove' the paranormal. In a lot of ways I suppose that I was looking for some kind of validation. As I have recounted on this blog previously; when I was younger, other kids would often make fun of me for my interests in these paranormal topics. So, my reasoning went as a child, if I could prove the paranormal to these people they would have to apologize  to me.

But as I got older I began to start questioning that motivation. It definitely seemed like a selfish perspective to take. I mean my interest in the paranormal lead me to really think about life in really cool and exciting ways, so why couldn't I just share that with people? Why did it have to be in an 'I told you so' kind of way? That didn't really seem to work out too well either though, as I quickly discovered that people pretty much have accepted into their reality tunnel as much as they are willing to. The more that I tried to talk with people about these topics, especially about UFOs for some reason, the more they would act like the kids did back in elementary school.

This brings me to where I am at in this stage of my life. I have come to the conclusion, at least temporarily because as a Fortean I am always ready to cast this ideal aside for a better one, that I will just learn what I can from people that are older/wiser in these topics than I am and to share what  I learn with whoever is willing to listen. It seems that if there is some kind of 'point' to studying Fortean phenomena; it's simply to allow us the chance to evolve. At least on an individual basis. I know for sure that my life has never been the same since the day that I picked up my first UFO book. I think it's definitely for the better as well.

So for the foreseeable future the best that I can hope for is to continue having a conversation with those that are teaching me things. Greg Bishop has mentioned on his show Radio Misterioso more than once, that he does the show so that he can learn something. Because he wants to talk to the guests and if other people like it then thats great. I really like that philosophy a lot, so I freely admit that I have taken it and adapted it to my own life.

Besides, who knows maybe one of these days you will see me on the news having finally 'proven' a paranormal event. And if not, well hell you'll be able to find me here at Forteania. That's all for tonight, thanks for listening guys and gals.

                                    Fortean Philosopher
                                            Tony

Messie Investigation (with pictures!)

As stated earlier today in another post here at Forteania, your friendly neighborhood Fortean Philosopher got out of his armchair in order to do some honest to goodness on the scene investigation. The Barnes & Noble that I was at earlier when I posted on here at Forteania,  was only about 15 minutes away from the home of Messie at Lake Murray. And as promised we headed to the lake in order to see if we could capture some footage of the creature.

Of course first we went to Chili's to have some lunch, I mean you can't hunt for cryptids on an empty stomach right? So after that little detour we headed straight for the lake. Upon arrival we found that the electric company that maintains the dam at Lake Murray charges $3 dollars for parking. That wasn't a huge deal, but it kind of bummed me out that we couldn't just park for free. Oh well. Once we finally found a parking spot, the damn place was packed. You would think it was like the middle of summer and 100 degrees outside or something. 

Not Pictured: Messie

There were plenty of people out enjoying the lake, unlike Ashley and I who were not exactly properly attired for this expedition. Still we trudged through for you loyal readers who were sitting on the edges of your seats in anticipation. We next happened upon a placard that explained some of the history of Lake Murray.

Front of the placard

Back of placard

 We made it about 100 ft down the walk path of the dam, you know where people can run or ride bikes, when we were overcome by the tremendous heat. I mean it was unbearably hot. We were able to take one last photo. You know just in case we could catch Messie. Because sometimes that's how ghost photos work someone will try to take one last photo and then later they will say, "I didn't see the form when I took the photo, but later when the photo was developed it was there!". 

Still no Messie, I did find an Ashley however

So with that we decided to turn around and call it a day. Unfortunately we found no Messie, we did see a lot of boats and jet skis. Although today I was able to, if only for a few hours, stop being an 'armchair' investigator to an honest to goodness field investigator. That's all for now loyal readers. Until next time this is your friendly neighborhood Fortean Field Investigator Tony saying have a great night. 

Local lake monster?

I am at my local Barnes & Noble today in order to enjoy a lazy Sunday before the work week begins again. When I got here I started looking around for Steve Volk's new Fringe-ology, which I was directed to by the awesome guys and gals over at Who Forted? Anyway they unfortunately didn't have the book in stock (they could order it for me and it will be here in a week![Or I could get the ebook and have it instantly but I digress]) so as I went wondering around to find a place to play on my netbook I stumbled upon this little gem of a book, Weird Carolinas written by Roger Manly. 

The book is exactly what it sounds like it would be, a collection of crazy, bizarre, and strange stories from both North and South Carolina. It is in the same Weird US series as stuff like Weird California by Greg Bishop. It seems like it would be nice little reference to have handy. Well while I was flipping through the book I decided to take a look at the cryptid section. I thought I had a pretty good handle on most of the bizarre beasts that were supposed to have been seen in South Carolina. Boy was I wrong. Below I present to you the story of the Lake Murray Monster; Messie.

First sighted in 1933 (for those paying attention at home this was the same year that the modern Nessie mythos had taken the world by storm) by Gilbert Little of Ballentine, SC, the creature gained some notoriety when it attacked Buddy and Shirley Browning, who had been out fishing on the lake with a friend in 1980. Here is their account in their own words:

Buddy Browning: "We noticed something coming out of the water at us. It attacked our boat! It wasn't an illusion, it wasn't an eel or sturgeon. It was unlike anything I ever saw before, and I have been fishing Lake Murray for over 20 years. We never did ever figure out what it was. It was not an alligator. No! I know alligator when I see it!

"It was very aggressive. It came towards the boat like it wanted us to leave. Whenever we came up to near where it was nesting or doing whatever it was doing, it just came up to us. It could've been mating. It was basically on top of the water where you could see it quite well. And leave is exactly what we did.

"I'm not sure if it was a sturgeon, though. I've never seen it since.I did come back that day. Kord and I came on back over here to the house and got the shotgun. We was going to go back after it and claim it! But we never did see it again."

Shirley Browning: "It tried to climb into the boat. Buddy beat it off with a paddle."

After this the creature seems to have popped up every now and then. Evidently it was at such a frequent enough rate that South Carolina's Fish Wildlife and Parks Department opened up a file that was maintained by local biologist Lance Harper. Although Harper never claimed to have seen the monster firsthand, he says that he has no reason not to believe those that say they did. (I'm working on getting in touch with him for an interview so check back later for more on him). Sightings still seem to come in on occasion but nothing quite like what happened to the Browning's.

Like most Fortean things, we are left wondering if they really happened at all or not. Lake Murray has a long history in this area, (one of the training planes for the Doolittle Raiders' was lost many years ago in the middle of the lake, more here.) The interesting thing for me is that as I am typing this I'm about 15 minutes from Lake Murray. So obviously I will be heading over there, not necessarily expecting to see anything but hell you never know right? Be sure to check out my Twitter as I will be posting pictures there from the expedition and check back here tonight for a full report. Until then this is your friendly neighborhood Closet Anomalist saying, 'Remember it's not safe to go in the water!'

Quick someone get David Icke!

On my way to class tonight I discovered that my school is likely being infiltrated by the same Shape-shifting Reptilian Aliens that David Icke has been warning us about for years. See the Picture below if you don't believe me!

Alright I'm kidding, no harm intended Mr. Icke. Anyways a real post is coming later tonight, this is just something to hold you over until then. 

p.s. For what its worth I have a few of David Icke's books. They are interesting if nothing else, although I believe about 0% of them.

Psychic couldn't foresee bad tip?

It may come as no surprise to readers of this blog that I have some interest in supposed psychic abilities. Whether it's telepathy, psychokinesis, or communicating with the dead. Also I don't think its a terrible idea for the police to use psychic tips or sources. However that should definitely come with some reservation. This story below exemplifies why.

Texas officials check report of bodies

[Updated at 8:30 p.m. ET] Officials have conflicting information about a report that bodies had been found on a property in Texas, a federal official told CNN.

Earlier, a federal official said at least 20 bodies had been found at a home in Hardin, Texas.
According to Capt. Rex Evans of the Liberty County Sheriff's Office, the office "received a call indicating there was a crime scene here."
"Investigators have responded to the scene," Evans said. "We have found some circumstances that have raised some questions. And we have requested a search warrant. As soon as that warrant arrives here at the scene we will further our investigation."

Follow the link above for more info on the story. But according to the report, the tip came from a local psychic. But perhaps in this case they could have waited for another more 'reliable' tip to come in.

As with last night this will also be shorter post, school is kicking my ass more than I thought it would. Be sure to let me know what you all think about this. Until tomorrow night this is your friendly neighborhood Closet Anomalist saying have a great one!

News follow up

I related in last nights early post, that after weeks of procrastinating I was finally able to complete the article that I will be submitting to a UFO magazine (to be named once confirmation has been received that the article is being published for sure). For many reasons I had put off completing the article, some legitimate others not so much. Either way yesterday around 2 in the afternoon I had finally completed the damn thing. Once it was done I wanted someone to read over it, you know to make sure that I didn't sound like a complete imbecile (which is something I suspect when or if I ever re-read previous posts here at Forteania or my column Fortean Ramblings over at Binnall of America).

My girlfriend, who is my unofficial editor, was at work so that ruled her out. My brother has an extremely bizarre sleep schedule and likely wouldn't be awake for another few hours and I really wanted to get the rough draft sent in the event that the magazine editor decided that they no longer wanted to use my article. Then I thought about a friend of mine who is very supportive in all of my writing exploits (he even listened to every episode of my very short lived podcast I did with another friend). I texted him to see if he too was at work or at home. His response was that he would be out of town for the remainder of the day. At this point I was so desperate for anyone to read my article that I actually contemplated running out into the streets and flagging down cars just to have someone read the damn thing.

Luckily for me it is unbearably hot outside right now where I live, so that option never left the planning stages. Instead I thought, 'Fuck it I will just send the article anyway'. Kind of a lay it all on the line scenario. Plus I had already decided that if, for whatever reason, the magazine didn't want the article I would just sell it to another magazine. So with all of this in mind I emailed the editor my rough draft of the article and spent the rest of the day not thinking about the email at all.....




I wish. As soon as I sent the email, I immediately regretted the decision and wanted to call it back. Unfortunately I'm unaware of any way to So the rest of the afternoon was spent with me secretly checking my phone for an email response. Even though I knew it was unlikely that he would have gotten back to me so quickly. I managed to more or less go about a normal daily routine. Posted up a couple of things up here, watched a movie or two, and read some more of Wake Up Down There: The Excluded Middle Anthology. Finally I went to bed pretty late. When I woke up just a few short hours later (I have a terrible sleep cycle, if I'm lucky I will get 4 or 5 hours of sleep a night) and there was an email waiting for me on the phone.

I checked and, as you could probably guess, it was from the magazine editor. With much trepidation I slowly opened the email, took a deep breath and slowly began to scan the message. Immediately I breathed a huge sigh of relief, he liked the article a lot and thought it was really good. I was ecstatic. Now the only thing that stands between me and being a published writer are a few illustrations that my girlfriend (remember she is also my editor) is working on for the article. Once she has these completed, I will send everything to the editor and hopefully not too long after you will be able to pick up a magazine from the newsstands that has an article written by yours truly.


OK well thats all for now readers, I will return in a little while with some more posting (and likely more photos, because photos are fun). Until then remember “Just because you're paranoid, doesn't mean they aren't out to get you”