Fortean shelfies

 

Following on from last week's instalment What does fortean mean? I thought I'd post a couple of "shelfies" featuring books that fit my wider definition of the word. The one above contains newer books (what I think of as "newer" anyway, i.e. post-1990), while the one below shows books I've acquired second-hand - some of them genuine "retro-forteana" dating back to the 1950s or even earlier.

Although these are what I think of as my "fortean" books, they don't include everything I own that might fit the definition. For example, I've amassed a vast collection of fiction, much of which (as pointed out in the previous post) could easily be considered fortean. I also have numerous science books (many of them acquired as review copies for Fortean Times, or as research for my own writing) which are "fringy" enough to class as borderline forteana. But just two of them managed to squeeze into the picture above, both by my colleague Brian Clegg: How to Build a Time Machine and Extra-Sensory.

Another near-fortean topic that I have a whole shelf of books about is Buddhism (again many of them review copies, having spent 10 years as a book reviewer for the Buddhist Society). But I tend not to think of Buddhism as a fortean subject - unlike "alternative" religions, New Age beliefs and holistic therapies, all of which are quite well represented above. Amongst the latter is Scent Therapy by Raje Airey - who of the 10 or so authors featured here that I know personally, is the one I've known longest - since I went to school with her!

Looking at the picture above, I was surprised to see how biased my book-buying habits seem to be towards British authors. I honestly hadn't been aware of that until now. But certainly on subjects like UFOs, I do prefer the more methodical, less sensational approach of researchers like Jenny Randles, Nigel Watson, David Clarke and Mark Pilkington - with How UFOs Conquered the World and Mirage Men (book and DVD) by the latter two probably being my all-time favourite takes on the subject.

Turning to the older books pictured below, you'll spot quite a few classic UFO titles there - plus one oddity I was particularly pleased to find in a second-hand bookshop: The House of Lords UFO Debate (1979). Another rarity, which I've written about previously on this blog, is The Riddle of the Flying Saucers by Gerald Heard. Dating from 1950, it's the oldest of my UFO books - though not the oldest on this shelf, that honour going to Paranormal Cognition from 1944.

Another book I was pleased to get hold of was Damon Knight's biography of Charles Fort (with the brilliant subtitle "Prophet of the Unexplained", which sadly isn't shown on the spine). I bought this from a UK bookseller, but it's actually stamped "Miami Public Library" inside, so I'm not sure how and when it crossed the Atlantic. Another ex-library book - and a particularly battered and much-read copy it is too - is Three Men Seeking Monsters by Nick Redfern. In this case the library in question is much closer to home, on the Isle of Portland - specifically, the library of Portland Prison. The inmates there obviously include some very discerning readers!

Chinese Alchemy

In a second-hand shop a few years ago I picked up a large-format book called Ritual and Magic, which consists of material recycled from Peter Brookesmith’s partwork The Unexplained from the 1980s. It’s really very good, and full of things I’ve never seen mentioned elsewhere. Here’s an example from the very first page of the first chapter:

“Sexual symbolism was in common use among alchemists and some of them interpreted such symbolic phrases as the marriage of the Red King and the White Queen not only chemically but also sexually. Some went so far as to attempt to manufacture the philosopher’s stone – the mysterious substance that would transmute base metal into gold – from human semen. Thus 18th century German records tell of an alchemical group that engaged in experiments of this sort. The leader of the group, an officer of high rank in the Austrian army, collected the raw materials for this curious research by paying soldiers to masturbate. The soldiers under the officer’s command were so enthusiastic to supplement their meagre pay that they neglected their military duties in almost incessant masturbation.”

The idea of collecting semen for use in the transmutation of metals seems a bit far-fetched, to say the least. But there was another side to alchemy, which was concerned with the prolonging of human life rather than the production of gold. In this context, the use of semen – as the basis for an elixir of life – makes a lot more sense. Enough sense for a work of fiction, anyway.

There’s just one problem with the scenario. Without going into gratuitous detail, if the secret of eternal youth simply involved the consumption of human semen, someone would have noticed by now. So there has to be some gimmick that makes the elixir of life really difficult to synthesize in practice.

Something else that’s been on my list of potential story ideas for ages is Chinese five-element theory. The topic has fascinated me ever since I first came across it in the 1990s – particularly as it relates to the interaction between different personality types (as illustrated in simplistic form in the accompanying picture). I produced my Zen Dynamics website more than 12 years ago, but I always thought the five-element cycle would make a good framework for a story as well.

Chinese element theory comes from Taoism, and the Chinese form of alchemy also comes from Taoism... so things were coming together. Taoism even makes a big deal about semen (see Wikipedia if you don’t believe me)... but it’s all about the retention of semen, not its collection. Needless to say, semen retention doesn’t have the same narrative potential that semen collection does. The great thing about fiction, however, is that you don’t have to tell the truth – in fact the whole point is that you’re supposed to make things up. So I made up my own form of Chinese Alchemy.

Chinese Alchemy (ISBN 978-1-611529-69-2) is available in Kindle format from Amazon.com and Amazon UK, and in other ebook formats direct from the publisher JMS Books – and hopefully from other retailers as well. Here is the blurb:

The secret of eternal youth is known to few, and attained by even fewer. It involves the preparation of an elixir, made from the sperm of five copulating couples, under conditions that make the undertaking all but impossible. The couples must represent specific physical and personality types, and ethical constraints rule out all the more obvious approaches to the task. Horny young bisexual Kelvin stumbles across the secret and decides to embark on the quest that has defeated so many before him. A fast-moving romp with a bizarre cast of characters, ranging from students and professors to porn stars and Satanists.

Scalar Wave Secrets

I first heard the term “scalar wave” in 1996 or 97, when I was working as a scientific adviser in a government office in London (in the same building as Nick Pope, as I mentioned in a previous post). Part of my job description was “technology watch” -- which entailed sifting though endless reports of alleged scientific breakthroughs deciding which of them might have genuine military significance and which were crackpot fantasies. I filed scalar waves in the latter category.

According to its enthusiasts, a scalar wave is a longitudinal electrodynamic wave that travels freely through space... something the textbooks unequivocally state to be impossible. Even in the 1990s, however, there was a thriving subculture that associated scalar waves with all manner of advanced technology, mind control and conspiracy theories. Since then, scalar waves have broken into the world of New Age mysticism and alternative therapy, and if you’re so inclined you can purchase scalar wave pendants and scalar wave bracelets that may or may not boost your spiritual well-being.

There’s an article by myself in the latest issue of Edge Science exploring all the various incarnations of scalar waves. When I originally proposed the article to the magazine’s editor, Patrick Huyghe, I was under the impression scalar waves were nothing but pseudoscientific mumbo-jumbo, mixed in with post-Cold War paranoia and New Age woo. But with prompting from Patrick and an anonymous reviewer, I looked more deeply into the recent history of the subject and found tantalizing hints that there might be genuine undiscovered science in there that the textbooks are turning a blind eye to.

You can download and read the full issue (and make a donation if you want to) by clicking here. The magazine also includes an interesting article by Guy Lyon Playfair on the phenomenon of Twin Telepathy.

An important discovery about animal magnetism

Animal magnetism, in its original sense, had nothing to do with attraction between the sexes. It referred to an invisible form of life-energy (analogous to many similar concepts such as prana, qi, orgone and Odic force), postulated by a German physician named Franz Mesmer (1734 - 1815). Mesmer developed a number of healing techniques based on the theory of animal magnetism... one of which is still in use under the less controversial name of hypnotherapy!

Animal magnetism is a pet subject of one of the characters in Werner Herzog's 1977 film Stroszek. Herr Scheitz (seen on the left talking to two bemused farmers) is an elderly eccentric who walks around testing people and objects with an ordinary multimeter. This is what Scheitz (who is played by an actor named Clemens Scheitz!) has to say about the subject: "I have managed to make an exciting discovery. Animal magnetism, as described by Mesmer, can now be measured by me, which was previously impossible. Even as a child I knew that one day I would succeed in measuring this animal magnetism... Animal Magnetism is now called hypnosis, perhaps not quite rightly so. The fact that it can be measured is also indicated in Schopenhauer's book On the Fourfold Root of the Principle of Sufficient Reason."

Arthur Schopenhauer (1788 - 1860) was one of the most highbrow philosophers of the nineteenth century, so it comes as no surprise to learn that his doctoral dissertation, On the Fourfold Root of the Principle of Sufficient Reason, does not, in fact, have anything to say on the subject of Animal Magnetism. However, one of Schopenhauer's later works, On the Will in Nature (1836) really does contain a chapter entitled "Animal Magnetism and Magic"!

Stroszek can be found in a boxed set of Herzog's early work, together with two other films that feature the acting talents of Clemens Scheitz: The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser (1974) and Heart of Glass (1976). In the latter film, Scheitz and most of the other actors played their parts entirely under hypnosis!

The story of Kaspar Hauser will be familiar to most Forteans, as it is featured in countless books of "strange phenomena" (including Charles Fort's own Lo!), as well as many fictional works proposing a variety of supernatural or alien origins for Hauser. Herzog's film is almost unique in that it takes Hauser's story exactly at face value... and so do all the characters in the film (in reality, Hauser was surrounded by people who didn't believe his story). If you haven’t seen the film, this may sound rather self-defeating, but in fact it serves to put the whole focus of attention on the strangeness of Hauser's own personality. At the end of the film, after Hauser's autopsy, it is Clemens Scheitz who has the last word: "Today is a day to remember... deformities discovered in Kaspar Hauser's brain and liver! Finally we have got an explanation for this strange man!"

[Thanks to Keith Shaw for bringing these films to my attention.]