Fortean Times

Fortean Times chronicles the stranger side of life, delivering a heady mix of weird world news, up-to-date reports and features on every aspect of the unexplained: myths, monsters, ghosts and UFOs rub shoulders with ancient wonders and future science, while expert columnists bring you the latest on everything from cryptozoology to conspiracy theory. Open-minded, well informed and maintaining a healthy sense of humour, Fortean Times is the only place to go for a sensible look at our mad planet – it will change the way you see the world.

Fortean Times

EDITORIAL

WHEN PROPHECY FAILS FAILS • Seminal study of fringe belief based on “lies, omissions and manipulation”

MEDICAL BAG • FT’s doctors advise: don’t eat snake bladders, live frogs, magnets or 3kg of cola bottles…

SIDELINES

RACCOON RUCKUS • Masked trash pandas get drunk, smoke drugs and wreak havoc

LIGHTS IN THE SKY • Mysterious pillars seen across the UK while ELVEs return to Italy

CLASSICAL CORNER • 319: BYZANTINE BODS

ARCHÆOLOGY • A MONTHLY EXCAVATION OF ODDITIES AND ANTIQUITIES

WOULD I LIE TO YOU? • ALAN MURDIE attended the Folklore Society’s 19th Legendary Weekend in Carlisle… or so he says

The ghosts inside you • DAVID HAMBLING investigates cases in which your cells are not necessarily your own…

OUTSIDE THE BOX • Do plants talk to animals? Have aliens hidden tiny technology all over the Earth? Will sperm racing help us focus on male fertility?

The not-so-quick and the dead • ALAN MURDIE asks whether elderly people see more ghosts – or is it just the meds talking?

THE CONSPIRASPHERE • What’s the connection between mysterious fogs, weird crystals and missing Soviet-era nukes? Turns out it’s those pesky Russian drones again! NOEL ROONEY joins the dots.

STRANGE CONTINENT • ULRICH MAGIN presents his regular round-up of the weirdest news from across Europe

SMELL-O-RAMA-RAMA • A collection of peculiar pongs and offensive odours from around the world – and beyond

MYTHCONCEPTIONS

RESURRECTIONS: AWAKE, FAKE OR MISTAKE?

In the days of the comet • NIGEL WATSON gives us the lowdown on 3I/Atlas according to remote viewers and energy healers

CRAZY JACK’S VIVIONS JOHN COWPER POWYS AND A GLASTONBURY ROMANCE • The guilt-ridden son of a Victorian vicar, John Cowper Powys went on to channel his mystical impulses, poetic insights and sexual obsessions into a series of visionary novels. STEVE MARSHALL explores the life and work of one of Britain’s weirdest and most wonderful writers.

A Glastonbury Romance

A MINI-SEARCH FOR THE MIRACULOUS • In 1983, during a summer-long European “mini-search for the miraculous”, GARY LACHMAN visited Stonehenge, Chartres Cathedral and other locations. This extract from his new book finds him at the site of Gurdjieff’s Institute for the Harmonious Development of Man, dowsing in Glastonbury, hitchhiking to Cornwall to visit megalithic sites and meeting his favourite writer.

THE LEGENDS OF THE VICTOR HOTEL • As well as long-abandoned mining towns, Colorado’s gold rushes left plenty of myths in their wake – including ghost stories. DR KAREN STOLLZNOW dared to stay in the Victor Hotel’s Room 301 as she went in search of the truth behind Cripple Creek’s most famous haunting.

From chickens to legends • EMMA HOLAHAN celebrates the feathered folklore of the Ditchingham Chicken Roundabout – a legend born on a bypass

Sea cow survivors? • Did Steller’s sea cow, supposedly extinct since 1768, survive off the Kamchatka Peninsula, where it was seen by Captain Cook, asks ULRICH MAGIN

The ghastling

Black magic and psychic detectives • From Edward Bulwer-Lytton to Dion Fortune, via Haggard, Machen, Le Fanu and even Crowley, Roger...