Immortals among us

A seemingly universal human trait is the fear of death. To some extent we all find ways to deal with the reality that one day, the life we live now, will come to an end. Historically, man has created tales of afterlives and heavens/paradises as a means of coming to terms with the inevitability of death. Another interesting wrinkle in the equation is the idea of immortality. That someone can find a way to completely conquer death and therefore live forever. Within the paranormal/fortean realm, the concept of immortality takes on a few forms which I want to spend some time talking about today.

The Comte de Saint Germain

A few months back, Greg Bishop interviewed the enigmatic Red Pill Junkie (of The Daily Grail, Mysterious Universe, and Intrepid Magazine fame) on Radio Misterioso. During their enlightening conversation (part 1, part 2), which I recommend you give a listen, RPJ mentioned a particular book which he found to be worth reading. I didn’t remember hearing about the book before, so I promptly went to amazon and ordered it. The book is The Morning of the Magicians, which I came to learn is considered a classic work on esotericism from the mid-1960’s. Topics within the book include; the works of Charles Fort, the ‘teachings’ of Gurdjieff, Alchemy, Fulcanelli, and possible ancient advanced civilizations.  I haven’t completely finished the book yet as there is a ton of content to digest. However the authors discussion on Alchemy really grabbed my attention and sent me off on a variety of internet web searches. The searches ended with me learning of the bizarre personage known as: The Comte de Saint Germain.

St. Germain is widely believed to have been born in 1690. He claimed to be the son of Francis II Rákóczi, the Prince of Transylvania, although Francis’ will claimed that he only had one heir, a Leopold George who is said to have died at age four. Other more extreme theories hold that Germain was born around the time of Christ and was actually in attendance at the wedding where Jesus is said to have turned water into wine. Regardless, actual historical evidence exists of a person named St. Germain who was often in the company of the aristocracy of 18th century Europe and France. Germain arrived on the scene around 1742 and began courting favor with the rich and famous of the time period. By all accounts Germain was an odd character who seemed to have great deal of knowledge on a variety of topics. Here are some attributed characteristics and facts about St. Germain courtesy of Stephen Wagner from paranormal.about.com:

• He could play the violin like a virtuoso.
• He was an accomplished painter.
• Wherever he traveled, he set up an elaborate laboratory, presumably for his alchemy work.
• He seemed to be a man of great wealth, but was not known to have any bank accounts. (If it was due to his ability to transmute base metals into gold, he never performed the feat for observers.)
• He dined often with friends because he enjoyed their company, but was rarely seen to eat food in public. He subsisted, it was said, on a diet of oatmeal.
• He prescribed recipes for the removal of facial wrinkles and for dyeing hair.
• He loved jewels, and much of his clothing - including his shoes - were studded with them.
• He had perfected a technique for painting jewels.
• He claimed to be able to fuse several small diamonds into one large one. He also said he could make pearls grow to incredible sizes.
• He has been linked to several secret societies, including the Rosicrucians, Freemasons, Society of Asiatic Brothers, the Knights of Light, the Illuminati and Order of the Templars.

Another interesting story about St. Germain comes from a 1760 meeting between St. Germain and a Countess von Georgy. Wagner relates the following:

An anecdote from 1760 most likely gave rise to the notion that Saint-Germain could be immortal. In Paris that year, Countess von Georgy heard that a Count de Saint-Germain had arrived for a soiree at the home of Madame de Pompadour, mistress of King Louis XV of France. The elderly countess was curious because she had known a Count de Saint-Germain while in Venice in 1710. Upon meeting the count again, she was astonished to see that he hadn't appeared to age, and asked him if it was his father she knew in Venice.

"No, Madame," he replied, "but I myself was living in Venice at the end of the last and the beginning of this century; I had the honor to pay you court then."

"Forgive me, but that it impossible!" the perplexed countess said. "The Count de Saint-Germain I knew in those days was at least forty-five years old. And you, at the outside, are that age at present."

"Madame, I am very old," he said with a knowing smile.

"But then you must be nearly 100 years old," said the astonished countess.

"That is not impossible," the count told her matter-of-factly, then continued to convince the countess that he was indeed the same man she knew with the details of their previous meetings and of life in Venice 50 years earlier.

The official record of The Comte de Saint Germain comes to an end on 1784 with his death. The unofficial record of St. Germain was just beginning. If, as he alluded to Countess von Georgy, Germain was an immortal (or discovered the secret of immortality through alchemy) it should come as no surprise that Germain continued to be sighted long after his death. Although it was often under an assumed name. I suppose continuing to use the same name after you’ve “died’ could prove problematic.  Stephen Wagner tells of a few encounters with Germain, or persons who claimed to be him, after his “death”:

• In 1785 he was seen in Germany with Anton Mesmer, the pioneer hypnotist. (Some claim that it was Saint-Germain who gave Mesmer the basic ideas for hypnotism and personal magnetism.)
• Official records of Freemasonry show that they chose Saint-Germain as their representative for a convention in 1785.
• After the taking of the Bastille in the French Revolution in 1789, the Comtesse d'Adhémar said she had a lengthy conversation with Count de Saint-Germain. He allegedly told her of France's immediate future, as if he knew what was to come. In 1821, she wrote: "I have seen Saint-Germain again, each time to my amazement. I saw him when the queen [Antoinette] was murdered, on the 18th of Brumaire, on the day following the death of the Duke d'Enghien, in January, 1815, and on the eve of the murder of the Duke de Berry." The last time she saw him was in 1820 - and each time he looked to be a man no older than his mid-40s.

Wagner continues:

After 1821, Saint-Germain may have taken on another identity. In his memoirs, Albert Vandam wrote of meeting a man who bore a striking resemblance to Count de Saint-Germain, but who went by the name of Major Fraser. Vandam wrote:

"He called himself Major Fraser, lived alone and never alluded to his family. Moreover he was lavish with money, though the source of his fortune remained a mystery to everyone. He possessed a marvelous knowledge of all the countries in Europe at all periods. His memory was absolutely incredible and, curiously enough, he often gave his hearers to understand that he had acquired his learning elsewhere than from books. Many is the time he has told me, with a strange smile, that he was certain he had known Nero, had spoken with Dante, and so on."

Major Fraser disappeared without a trace.

Coming full circle back to The Morning of the Magicians, the famed occultist Madame Helena Blavatsky and others of her Theosophical Society claimed many contacts with the still living Comte de Saint Germain as late as the early 20th century. Blavatsky stated that Germain was hard at work helping the spiritual development of the West, which just so happens to have been Blavatsky’s stated goal. A sad final note to the tale of St. Germain is related by Stephen Wagner again. He notes:

The most recent appearance of a man claiming to be Saint-Germain was in 1972 in Paris when a man named Richard Chanfray announced he was the legendary count. He appeared on French television, and to prove his claim apparently turned lead into gold on a camp stove before the cameras. Chanfray later committed suicide in 1983

Who or what was/is Comte de Saint Germain? Could he have actually been an immortal? Could it be that he was just an exceptionally bright individual which has had their legend grow overtime? If he was actually an immortal, he should still be out there somewhere right now. If that is the case, surely he would be doing what I know I would do in his position; Google himself. Assuming he is, if you’re reading this and I’ve misspoke about your history, St Germain, please drop me a line I’d be happy to edit as needed!

Immortal Celebrities

Moving on from more likely candidates who may have achieved immortality, we will now take a look at some less than credible speculation courtesy of everyone’s favorite website; Above Top Secret! A thread I stumbled across entitled Celebrity vampires/Time Travel, reminded me about the strange doppelganger effect some folks have noticed between modern day celebrities and photos from antiquity. This thread collates a variety of the many immortal celebrity stories which have been making the rounds on the internet.

As seen in the photo above, the idea that Nicholas Cage may be immortal first came out in 2011. A Civil War era photo popped up on ebay with the seller claiming that the photo was proof that Cage is immortal, although the seller came at it from the Vampire angle. He was asking a substantial amount of money for the photo, which did eventually sell. Cage refuted the claims on the David Letterman show, because why not?

The thread brings to light some other examples that I wasn’t familiar with previously. Writing for Examiner, Tom Rose discussed the possibility that funnyman Zach Galifianakis too was an immortal, or had time traveled. Rose writes:

On Jan. 22, 2013, another man, Steven Canfield Crowley, posed the same question about the actor Zach Galifianakis after unearthing a tintype photograph from the 1880s which bears a striking resemblance to the comedian.

In a YouTube video, Crowley makes the same claim. What's going on here?

Again, the resemblance is startling. The unidentified man in the tintype is somewhat older, but the two men could literally be brothers. Does time travel work in reverse as well?

Other examples from the thread include; Jay-Z, Keanu Reeves, and Queen Latifah. I highly recommend you take the opportunity to check out the thread and follow the various links you’ll find there to examine the “evidence” for this phenomena yourself. How do we explain the resemblances between the celebrities and their historical doppelgangers? Coincidence? Over-active imagination? Immortality? While it’s fun to look at these photos and imagine “What if?”, I have to say that, at least for the moment, I’m going to say it’s unlikely that these photos show proof of immortality. But like everything else, who knows?

Immortality: Nature vs Science

Our journey through the world of immortality ends with an examination of the possible future scientific breakthroughs in immortality. Could it be that one day, and maybe not that far off, science could effectively “cure” death? Some scientists seem to be hard at work doing just that. A quick Google search for “science of immortality” reveals a plethora of recent scientific articles which deal with this very idea.

A somewhat related idea to this is the “promise” of immortality which is sought by the Transhumanist movement. Believing that they can potentially achieve immortality by transcending the human body by way of technology.  This is thought to be achievable by perhaps reconstructing human consciousness in a computer or digital construct. Interesting stuff to be sure, but I’m not quite as optimistic about this technologies arrival as one of it’s main proponents, Ray Kurzweil is.

Along these same lines, I have to wonder if it’s not possible that someone has already discovered the key to immortality. There seems to be a lot about some ancient civilizations which was lost to us. Could it be that they knew this secret and passed it down only to the initiated, many of whom would still be alive today? Alchemical traditions speak of the concept of the Philosopher’s Stone which could, along with transmuting lead into gold, grant eternal life.  It’s entirely likely that modern science/medicine is simply retreading well-worn ground.

Conclusions?

Where do we go from here? It’s hard to settle this issue with any finality.  It’s likely that as long as we age and die, we will probably always entertain the ideas of immortality. As is often the case our fantasies of living forever don’t deal with the day-to-day issues which might come along with immortality.,We would watching family and friends age and die, dealing with advances in knowledge and technology, etc. So long as we continue to fear death, I imagine we will continue to invent ways to deal with it. Whether this takes the form of building up legends of already extraordinary people, “seeing” modern celebrities in images from the past, or literally making advances to wipe out death, it will go on and on.

New writing gig

It's been a few days since my last post, so I wanted to take an opportunity to give you readers an update on what I've been up to. Never fear I have a few projects in the pipeline that will return us to your regularly scheduled Forteania postings that you've all come to love so much. As many of you are already aware, in addition to blogging here at Forteania I also write a column for Tim Binnall at his Binnall Of America website that's entitled Fortean Ramblings. Well you can add another url to your list of places to find my writing. As of Monday August 6, I began writing for Disinfo.com. My first (and so far only) post went live Monday evening in celebration of Charles Fort's birthday. What better way to celebrate not only my new gig at Disinfo, but also Fort's birthday? Below I'll give you a snippet of that post, but you should really follow the link below to check out the whole thing.

Happy Birthday Mr. Fort!

August 6, 2012 marks the 138th birthday of the great cataloger of the strange and unusual Charles Fort. Writing in the early 20th century, Fort would pen a total of seven books in his lifetime. Two early works, X and Y, were sadly never published as the author burned them during one of his many bouts of depression. Another title, The Outcast Manufacturers, was a fiction book that enjoyed some moderate success. The works that have made him rather famous (or infamous depending upon who you ask) are The Book of the Damned, New Lands, Lo!, and Wild Talents. Through the use of the New York Public library, Fort set about to dig up the data he felt that science had too long neglected. Almost right from the beginning Fort laid out his intentions pretty clearly. In his first work, The Book of the Damned, Fort wrote:

“A Procession of the damned. By the damned, I mean the excluded. We shall have a procession of data that Science has excluded”

Follow this link in order to read the whole thing. Also be sure to keep checking back on Disinfo for more of my writing. That's all I have for now, tonight should see normal posting resume here. Until then, Stay Classy internets!

Mac Tonnies

Two years ago tomorrow (or today depending upon when you read this) on October 18, 2009 Mac Tonnies passed away leaving behind many, many unfinished mysteries yet to be solved. Unfortunately I never had the chance to engage him in conversation, so I can only speak personally about what affect he has had on my views of the paranormal and assorted Fortean topics right before and since his untimely death.

It was about three years ago or so that I first started listening to Tim Binnall's Binnall of America podcast. At the time, as I have recounted on this blog and elsewhere in the past, I was a pretty hardcore ETH kind of guy. So people like Greg Bishop and Nick Redfern really got under my skin. After all they were espousing such, as far as I was concerned, almost heretical ideas that maybe just maybe the occupants of UFOs weren't the little Grey guys that I knew them to be. But perhaps worst of all was this Mac Tonnies fellow that I heard originally on Binnall of America. The episode in question was from about two years prior to when I heard it, back when Tim would occasionally spread the interviews over the course of multiple episodes.

The first part of Mac's interview was acceptable for me, I didn't really take any great umbrage with it. The interview focused on his book After the Martian Apocalypse which discusses the idea that perhaps there are more to some of the anomalous features on our sister planet Mars than meets the eye. Or that have been given their fair share of serious attention by NASA scientists. But as I was going to learn, Mac deftly maneuvered the sometimes fine line between Hoagland-esgue “every rock must be artificial” kind of rationale and the fundamentalist skepticism that seems to seep out of NASA in regards to the likelihood of there being ancient alien artifacts anywhere in our solar system. In “classic” Mac Tonnies fashion, he simply said that there just may be something worth investigating on this planet it may not be what we think it is, whether we are skeptic or believer, so why not go and find out?

Again, I was OK with this. Hell I wasn't even sure who this Hoagland character was that he was referring to anyway. And besides, I had long been fascinated by the apparent “pyramids” that were on Mars. So as far as I was concerned this Mac guy was pretty OK. That is until he did the unthinkable. In part two of this interview, Mac dared to offer a challenge to the “hallowed” ETH. His alternative theory? Some entity that he called a “Cryptoterrestrial” that, if you can believe it, made it's home right here on Earth with us! The occupants of UFOs were supposed to be an indigenous species? No way! I was absolutely not amenable to this idea at all. And yet at the same time I couldn't stop listening to this blasphemer. He was so eloquent and spoke with such knowledge. You could tell that he knew a lot about the topic. That he wasn't just completely coming out of left field with this “working hypothesis” as he referred to it as.

It wasn't long after this podcast that this Mac Tonnies character seemed to be popping up everywhere I turned around. He was on paranormal show, after paranormal show. And without fail, his Cryptoterrestrial Theory would inevitably come up. Each time he offered the same, deceptively tempting caveat to his theory; it was testable. Not unlike how he treated the Martian Anomalies arena, the reason the Cryptoterrestrial Theory grabbed Mac's imagination was that, you could actually go out and look for them. It would be a relatively easy theory to disprove. After all, the ETH hadn't gotten us any closer to “solving” the UFO enigma. So wasn't it time to try something new?

I couldn't believe that people were still having this kooky character own, it wasn't bad enough that he was daring to suggest that somehow the ETH had failed us, but to go on and offer an alternative I just couldn't handle it. It was far too much. But then Mac came onto Greg Bishop's Radio Misterioso radio program in July 2009 in order to talk more in depth about his Cryptoterrestrial Theory. The program, which you can still find to listen here and I encourage you to do so, allowed for Mac to make the case for his Cryptoterrestrial Theory. Slowly as the hour and forty minutes started slipping by, I found myself intrigued and I really began to question the long-standing assumptions that I had about what could be behind the UFO mystery. At around the half hour mark, Greg asks Mac if he could read a sample of his Cryptoterrestrial Book (which at the time Mac had been working on for the last couple of years). The following represents all of what was great about Mac Tonnies. And with the excerpt the final nail in the ETH-only coffin was hammered, at least as far as I was concerned:

Every few nights I get out my laser pointer and indulge my cats in a frenetic game of "chase." Cats are natural hunters, and they're effectively incapable of not looking at the quickly moving red dot that I project onto the carpet, walls, or any piece of furniture that happens to be in its path.

To my cats, the red dot possesses its own vitality. It exists as a distinct entity. While they may see me holding the pointer, they can't (or won't) be distracted by such things once the button is pressed and the living room is suddenly alive with luminous vermin. So they chase it. And chase it. And, if they get close enough, even take swipes at it -- in which case I make the dot "flee" or disappear in what seems like a concession of defeat (which, of course, only further arouses the cats' predatory curiosity).

All the while I'm controlling the red dot, I'm taking pains to make it behave like something intelligible. Just waving the pointer around the room wouldn't be any fun. So I make it "climb," "jump" and scuttle when cornered -- even though the laser's impervious to obstructions.

This sense of physicality seems to be the element that makes chasing the laser so engaging -- both for the cats and for me.

I can't help but be reminded of our continuing search for assumed extraterrestrial vehicles. UFO sightings demonstrate many of the same aspects of a typical feline laser hunt: mysterious disappearances, "impossible" maneuvers and a predilection for trickery -- the apparent desire to be seen despite (or because of) a technology presumed to be far in advance of our own. More than one UFO researcher has noted that UFOs behave more like projections or holograms than nuts-and-bolts craft . . . an observation that begs the nature of the intelligence doing the projecting.

According to astrophysicist Jacques Vallee, UFOs are part of a psychosocial conditioning system by which perceived "rewards" are doled out to reconcile for the dearth of irrefutable physical evidence. The phenomenon -- whatever its ultimate nature – obstinately denies itself, thus enabling the very game it's intent on playing with us.

We see that sudden spark of red light; we pounce. This time we'll catch it for sure.

I think it was this passage, perhaps more than anything else, that struck the exact right chord for me. Only it wasn't an immediate change. The “ETH-only” part of me held on for a few more months. It seemed that Mac was only getting bigger and more (well deserved) attention from the more “mainstream” paranormal community. On September 28, 2009 Mac made his appearance on Coast 2 Coast AM. As far as paranormal shows go you can't get any better than this. For the entire four hours, Mac waxed poetic on his Cryptoterrestrial Theory and his Martian Anomalies work as well. It was without a doubt one of the better C2C's in recent memory.

Sadly less than one month after this, Mac Tonnies passed away in his sleep. Still left unfinished, among so many other things, was the manuscript for what would be his last work The Cryptoterrestrials. Luckily for the world at large, his writing was able to be saved by his mother and we now have the privilege to read the work of this Fortean legend. The book was published in March of 2010 and it was only a few months later when I was able to finally pick it up. With the help of this book, along with a short list of other books by authors like Jacques Vallee and John Keel, I came to change all of my preconceived notions about UFOs and the paranormal in general.

I may never have had the pleasure of talking with Mac, or meeting him, but more so than most people that I have known/met in my life, he has inspired so much of my thinking. Mac may have been taken far sooner than seems fair, but at least he has left behind a legacy of great, original thinking. 

Listed below are just some of the shows Mac appeared on. Also be sure to check out his site and blog. Finally if you haven't read his books, The Cryptoterrestrials and After the Martian Apocalypse (which you all but have to get the ebook version of), I can't recommend them highly enough.

Radio Misterioso

The Paracast

Binnall of America part 1, part 2

Mac on Coast 2 Coast

Monkey or alien? You decide.

Don't know if you've seen this or not yet. But apparently a villiage in China mistook a lemur for an alien. From the article:

The "Alien" Visitor

This ape made a monkey of Chinese villagers who feared it was a visitor from another world.
Locals panicked when Mao Xiping, a housewife from the village of Gezhai, in Henan province, central China, found the scraggy simian stealing cucumbers from her flat.
She thought it was a harmless rabbit, until she noticed it had an 'alien face' and her neighbours agreed it was like nothing they had ever seen before.

Follow the link for the full story. Really I'm just glad that no one, lemur included, got hurt. On a related note I find the mention of the 'alien face' part to be extremely fascinating. Why did she think it had an 'alien face'? Was it because of cultural programming through TV shows and movies that have shown her what an alien is "supposed" to look like? Probably, but maybe it could be a Jungian archetype situation wherein the "big eyes" are naturally assumed to be ET? Your thoughts?

Book Review: Steve Volk's Fringe-ology

As mentioned previously, I finally finished reading Steve Volk's Fringe-ology. Volk is a journalist with the Philadelphia Magazine covering 'normal' news stories; such as crime, politics, and other assorted city stuff. Having experienced an unusual event in childhood (possibly a ghost or perhaps just a water pipe), Volk set out to research just what there might be behind paranormal events. UFOs, Ghosts, Psychic abilities, and even Lucid Dreaming all show up in this highly engaging book. Volk, who at all times tries to be open minded about the subjects, dives into these topics with some of the leading minds in the arenas.

Taking the reader along the journey with him, Volk brings up a major point that we certainly don't hear nearly as much as we should from either the True Believers or the Pseudo-Skeptics. Namely that at the end of the day we just don't know, and maybe that's OK. The book does an excellent job of introducing the subjects to those who may not be all that familiar with them. And I'll be honest with you, I actually learned a thing or two myself.

Launching from the 'I don't know' point, Volk asks the reader to realize that maybe we should be able to meet somewhere in the middle on these topics. For example, in the Remote Viewing section he talks to those that are studying the phenomenon and discovers that there is, statistically speaking, something to the phenomenon. But because it suffers from the “Paranormal Taint” (a term that Volk uses to describe mainstream sciences rejection of fringe topics simply on the basis that they are fringe) scientists aren't interested in exploring just what it could mean.

As a testament to his attempt to be an open minded journalist, Volk freely admits that he stayed away from the topic of Alien Abductions because of his own preconception that those who are experiencing the phenomena are simply making it up. While I would disagree with such a blanket statement, I respect that he is able to recognize that bias and wisely chooses not to say anything at all. And really for me that seems to be the best take away from the book. If these kinds of phenomena are occurring, by their very definition we would be unable to really currently understand them. But guess what? That's OK. Because we really don't know everything yet. And so Fringe-ology is designed to let the reader in on that little secret. Whether you are a True Believer or you are a Super Skeptic, guess what? You don't know what's going on behind some of this stuff.

So do yourself a favor and pick up this book. And while you read, even if just for a moment or two, try to let your biases go and just absorb the information for what it is. After all, you just may learn something new. In addition to the book, Steve Volk runs a blog where he talks about anything and everything. You can find that here. Also if you want to hear some interviews with him, Volk was on Open MindsRadio and Mysterious Universe a few weeks back. OK Forteans, that's all I have for tonight. I have to go finish the rest of the books on my (seemingly never-ending) reading list.

And once more here is the trailer for the book. Learn about the book from the author himself.

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?

Book that has a trailer?

As I am in the process of finishing Fringe-ology (expect a review within the week hopefully) I thought I would share this trailer from the book's website here.

Magazine article updates!

I've mentioned a number of times on this blog in the past that I had been working on an article for a UFO magazine. If published, it would be my first article in such a medium. Needless to say I was pretty excited to get it finished. In addition to writing the article I was requested to get some illustrations made, so I roped Ashley into doing those for me. Well last night (finally!) I was able to send off the article and illustrations, and at this point I am only waiting to hear back from the editor if it will indeed be published. If it does I will certainly let you guys know which one it is, also if this works out (and even if it doesn't) I have to say that the process has certainly been a learning experience.

Much like this blog and of course my article over at Binnall of America, I have been trying to both improve my writing skills (which I hope have gotten better) and perhaps learn a thing or two. Hopefully we will hear back, sooner rather than later about the article. If not, I will simply try again. Also I have recently taken the plunge back into the dreaded 'facebook'. You are more than welcome to friend me if you wish. I suppose that's about all I have for tonight.

Oh before I forget one last little thing, I'm just about half-way through reading Steve Volk's Fringe-ology (which I can't recommend highly enough) so expect a review here in the next couple of days. Until next time this is your friendly neighborhood Fortean Philosopher saying, stay classy Internet!

Next on my reading list!

Finally got the last two books that are on my current to read list.

Fringe-ology by Steve Volk

So it will definitely be a busy next couple of weeks for your friendly neighborhood Fortean Philosopher

For those that don't like to read

I'm excited to read the book first, but I was pretty happy that I stumbled upon this earlier tonight. For more information check out the movie's website.

NASA vs Dr. Mitchell

Government sues Apollo 14 astronaut over lunar camera

(Reuters) - The U.S. government has sued a former NASA astronaut to recover a camera used to explore the moon's surface during the 1971 Apollo 14 mission after seeing it slated for sale in a New York auction. Click here to read the whole story. 

Does anyone have any thoughts on this one or am I the only one confused by the whole thing?  RedPillJunkie over at the Daily Grail has an interesting take on this:

What bothers me about this story is not that the government is fighting Mitchell over the ownership of this camera; what *does* bother me is that NASA is learning about the whereabouts of this historic piece of equipment after. 40. Years! (Full Article here)

The whole thing just strikes me as so arbitrary. As RedPillJunkie points out, the fact that NASA wants it's property back is fine, but why have they waited so long? I  don't really know what to think about this whole thing. It's not as if Dr. Mitchell has been keeping a low profile for the last 40 years or so. On the contrary he is one of the few other Astronauts who are probably at least casually known to people. Especially those that have an interest in Fortean and paranormal things.

Dr. Mitchell cofounded the Institute of Noetic Sciences (IONS) in 1973 which according to its website:

is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit research, education, and membership organization whose mission is supporting individual and collective transformation through consciousness research, educational outreach, and engaging a global learning community in the realization of our human potential.

Basically this organizations researches all kinds of paranormal things. Psychic abilities, human potential, life after death, consciousness studies, etc. One of the few places left that I can think of that still takes a look at parapsychology from a scientific point of view. 

In addition to this Dr. Mitchell has been pretty vocal about his belief in the existence of Extraterrestrial life in many different mediums. But none of this really explains NASA's somewhat questionable behavior in this matter. Really I guess we don't know enough about the circumstances surrounding the lawsuit. Hopefully we will be able to learn more as time goes on. That's all for now, more to come later. Also be sure to let me know what you think about this whole lawsuit!

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.

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!'