The Observer at Infinity: J.W. Dunne vs. the Volcano
“Mystery has its own mysteries, and there are gods above gods. We have ours, they have theirs. That is what’s …
Tag Archives: anomalies
Astral Projection for the Discriminating Dog
“The dog has seldom been successful in pulling man up to its level of sagacity, but man has frequently dragged …
A Few Good Anomalists: You Can’t Handle the Vacuous Truth
“I’m not a conspiracy theorist – I’m a conspiracy analyst” – Gore Vidal In logic, a “vacuous truth” is a …
Greeting the Unknown Guest: Party Crasher or Host?
“Man is so made that when anything fires his soul, impossibilities vanish” – Jean de La Fontaine Part and parcel …
I Was a Skeptic, But I’m All Better Now
“Doubt thou the stars are fire, Doubt that the sun doth move. Doubt truth to be a liar, but never …
A Zillion Years of Solitude: The Loneliness of the Anthropic Universe
“Life is full of misery, loneliness, and suffering – and it’s all over much too soon” – Woody Allen You’re …
The Best Dressed Anomalist on Radio
Joining Master of Strange Ceremonies, Seriah Azkath, on “Where Did the Road Go?”, we discuss some curious instances in the …
Wärndorfer and the Poltergeist of Lerchenfelderstrasse 158
“There are only two types of people in the world, those who can extrapolate from incomplete data…” – GrouchyRabbit.com Aren’t …
Radio Free EsoterX: Obscure Ghost Ships
Ahoy! With intrepid explorer of the fringe and gracious host of “Where did the Road Go?”, Seriah Azkath, we examine …
Fishy Phenomena: Unidentified Submarine Objects and Sea Serpents
“Although our intellect always longs for clarity and certainty, our nature often finds uncertainty fascinating” – Carl von Clausewitz Uncertainty …
Putting Down the Paranormal, or Sailing the Ship of Theseus until it Sinks
“I have an existential map. It has ‘You are here’ written all over it” – Stephen Wright People believe some …
For Whom the Phantom Bells Toll: Major Moor and the Sorites Paradox
“You have to have an idea of what you are going to do, but it should be a vague idea” …
Turtles to the Left of Me, Turtles to the Right: The Practopoietic Loop of Causation
“I believe nothing, I have shut myself away from the rocks and wisdoms of ages, and from the so-called great …
If It Weren’t for those Meddling Squids
“Squid experts have been debating for some time about whether the giant squid is a passive predator that just floats …
All Your Axioms are Postulates: Pseudoscience vs. Pseudometaphysics
“I believe there is no source of deception in the investigation of nature which can compare with a fixed belief …
The Enchanted Universe and Its Enemies
“To live is to suffer, to survive is to find some meaning in the suffering” – Friedrich Nietzsche Two nihilists …
Eternalism vs. Presentism: How Soon is Now?
“Yes, and imagine a world where there were no hypothetical situations” ― Jasper Fforde, First Among Sequels I have a …
Peter Plogojovitz: Barefoot Vampire or Shoeless Ghost?
“They went into my closets looking for skeletons, but thank God, all they found were shoes, beautiful shoes” – Imelda …
Captain Yount’s Mountain Rescue Dream Team
“Dreams are the touchstones of our characters” ― Henry David Thoreau Hartford, Connecticut’s Congregationalist pastor Horace Bushnell (1802-1876) was a …
Close Encounters of the Puritan Kind
“Puritanism: The haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy” ― H.L. Mencken We know that 17th Century New England …
What Dreams May Come from Herr Wesermann?
“New roads; new ruts” – Gilbert K. Chesterton Sigmund Freud once referred to dreams as the “royal road to the …
Release the Calamari: Hans Egede and the Greenland Kraken
“Exploring the unknown requires tolerating uncertainty” – Brian Greene On the internet, nobody can hear you scream. Unless you use …
If It Weren’t for Philo T. Farnsworth, We’d Still be Eating Frozen Radio Dinners
Veteran anomalist Seriah Azkath and I spend an hour discussing the vagaries of strange history, the War between the Pygmies …
The Ecstasy of Error: Green Cards in Magonia
“It is then that ceasing to take the natural, the spiritual view of the world and its waywardness, he takes …
Quantum Entangled Escargot: Sympathy for the Snail Telegraph
“We get wise by asking questions, and even if these are not answered, we get wise, for a well-packed question …
Lies, Damn Lies, and Anomalies: Fake News and Skeptical Schadenfreude
“Every science is made up entirely of anomalies rearranged to fit” – R. A. Lafferty Every Tom, Dick, and Harriet …
Outsourced Morality: The Conscience-Formed Phantom Drums for You
“Why should we be in such desperate haste to succeed, and in such desperate enterprises? If a man does not …
Prosecuting a Poltergeist: The Defamation Trial of the Curé of Cideville
“These days, there are angry ghosts all around us – dead from wars, sickness, starvation – and nobody cares. So …
EsoterX: Podcasts are the Retina of the Mind’s Eye
The inimitable Greg Bishop and I discuss folklore as an early warning system, skeptics vs. believers (who often have the …
I Left My Heart in the Vanished Kingdom of Chicora
“We shall not cease from exploration, and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started …
Where the Wild Things Are: Anomalies and the Poverty of Critical Thinking
“People tend to say ‘I like independent thinkers but they must think what I want them to think independently’” – …
Charlemagne: Frank Encounters with UFOs
“It has always been the prerogative of children and half-wits to point out that the emperor has no clothes. But …
Eternal Love and Other Supernatural Phenomena
“We have a love affair with the idea of the ‘natural,’ even though we, as a species, are about as …
Sympathetic Empiricism and the Palatine Lights
“Science and technology revolutionize our lives, but memory, tradition and myth frame our response” – Arthur M. Schlesinger How many …
Wooden Ships, Iron Men, and Occasional Sea Serpents
“Civilization is like a thin layer of ice upon a deep ocean of chaos and darkness” – Werner Herzog A …
Skepticism and the Post-Human Economy
“Do not let yourself be tainted with a barren skepticism” – Louis Pasteur I’ll take a true believer over a …
Perish, then Publish: Jacopo Alighieri and the 13 Missing Cantos
“Death is the great angel of writing. You must write because you are not going to live anymore” – Carlos …
The Headless Hitchhiker of St. Leonard’s Forest
“We live in a cult of the upgrade right now. There’s always something around the corner that will make whatever …
Our Xenomorph Who Art in Heaven
“I wonder if other dogs think poodles are members of a weird religious cult” – Rita Rudner That darned Enlightenment. …
No One Suspected the Hantu Batu: Sumatran Poltergeists Throwing Stones
“Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will make me go in a corner and cry by myself …
