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
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DISCLOSURE DAY ARRIVES • Well, sort of… but the UFO file release has proved disappointing
EXTRA! EXTRA! • FT’S FAVOURITE HEADLINES FROM AROUND THE WORLD
FANTASIST ISLAND • A philological fraud and the self-proclaimed King of Switzerland
SIDELINES
BELIEF AND BEYOND • An End Times sect gets raided and a biblical monster rises…
LOST AND FOUND • Objects reunited with their owners and spotted in unlikely places
THE CONSPIRASPHERE • NOEL ROONEY finds more names to add to the ‘missing scientists’ list, notes the passing of Alex Jones’s Infowars and wonders why tech billionaires are naming their data centres after demons
CLASSICAL CORNER • FORTEANA FROM THE ANCIENT WORLD COMPILED BY BARRY BALDWIN
WEIRD WEEKEND NORTH AT 10 • ROB GANDY celebrates a decade of WWN
The Claudia delusion • DAVID HAMBLING thinks Richard Dawkins is mistaken about AI consciousness… for now at least
SEEING THINGS • Satellite photos reveal simulacra on a grand scale, while more modest images prove equally surprising and AI hallucinates a melted demon
Edinburgh’s haunted hardware store • ALAN MURDIE hears tales of strange phenomena in a shop that’s a paradise for poltergeists
THE SARAJEVO SAFARI • New investigations suggest that rumours of a deadly human ‘trophy hunt’ may be more than just a myth
FORTEAN FOLLOW-UPS • Mystery drones, killer bears and yet more names added to the missing scientists conspiracy list…
MYTHCONCEPTIONS
NECROLOG • This month we say goodbye to the mathematician who found hidden codes in the Torah and the New Age prophet whose suicide shocked the Disclosure community
FAIRIES, FOLKLORE AND FORTEANA • SIMON YOUNG FILES A NEW REPORT FROM THE INTERFACE OF STRANGE PHENOMENA AND FOLK BELIEF
Flights of fantasy • NIGEL WATSON ponders the links between aerospace fantasies, angelic beings and evil aliens
THE NOT-SO PSYCHIC WORLD OF ANIMAL PUNDITS • Will this year’sWorld Cup produce a new crop of furred and feathered forecasters as well as scintillating soccer? KATE CHERRELL celebrates the chequered careers and dubious predictive powers of animal oracles, from Paul the Psychic Octopus to Mystic Marcus the micropig.
A TIME-BASED APPROACH TO LIFE AFTER DEATH • Is death an illusion? Can personal immortality be proved? ANTHONY PEAKE has been exploring Near-Death Experiences, neuroscience and quantum physics to come up with a paradigm-bending hypothesis in which at the moment of our death our consciousness is looped back to our birth in an eternal return…
METEORITES AND MESSAGES FROM MARS • In the final instalment of a three-part series, NIGEL WATSON re-opens his files on the spaceships that fell to Earth in the 19th century. Reports of meteorites were hardly uncommon, but from the 1860s newspapers began to claim that a number of these were crashing to Earth, and on closer investigation were found to have strange markings, mysterious hieroglyphics and even internal chambers containing the dead bodies of ‘Martians’…
Empty grounds • How can a football ground be entirely empty, yet still feel charged with the noise, energy and memory of the crowd, asks PAUL...