Intermediate States: The Anomalist 13

by Nick Redfern, Theo Paijmans, Nick Redfern

Between official facts and public fantasies, there are INTERMEDIATE STATES. In a mix of the comic and the tragic, John Reppion searches for the truth behind an 1845 bridge collapse said to be caused when spectators rushed to see a clown in a tub drawn by six white geese in the river below. Cliff Willett wonders why UFO aliens would traverse deep space to borrow salt, sample our pizza, or offer us pancakes in his delightful examination of alien eating habits. Technology buffs in the afterlife? Mark Macy traces his involvement in our half-century long history of attempts to use technology to communicate directly with the dead - and them with us. Researcher Ulrich Magin tracks down the oft-repeated story of "the first ever sea serpent sighting" by the Assyrian King Sargon nearly three millennia ago and gets to the slimy truth of it all. As protosciences proliferate, David Hricenak makes the case for a new interdisciplinary field of study called bioanomalistics that overlaps with cryptozoology, UFOlogy, and parapsychology. Pennsylvania geologist Sharon Hill tackles the reports of anomalous lights, sounds, weather, and animal behavior that are said to occur before earthquakes, explains why science has been reluctant to accept them as useful precursors, and suggests a possible mechanism to explain such phenomena. Modern science may finally be shedding light on the paranormal. Biologist Dwight Smith and researcher Gary Mangiacopra look at how recent developments in neuroscience may help unravel the physical and physiological mechanisms that lead to out-of-body experiences. With an obvious passion for her subject, Victoria Alexander reviews the extreme ecstatic practices of medieval saints and mystics and finds a close relationship to the modern use of ayahuasca as a visionary tool. Researcher Theo Paijmans makes use of digital newspaper archives to get to the truth about the Black Flash - not the 1990s fictional comic book character from DC Comics but the phantomlike creature that plagued Provincetown in the 1930s and held its inhabitants in an ice-cold grip of fear. Bad sci-fi movies are a dime a dozen, but there's something special about The Flying Saucer. Nick Redfern wonders if there may not be some truth behind the claims of its star/director, who spread the word that the movie would feature footage of a real flying saucer over Alaska. The U.S. Air Force was certainly interested.

Genres: Nonfiction, Paranormal

196 pages, Paperback

First published October 29, 2007

About the author

Nick Redfern is a British best-selling author, Ufologist and Cryptozoologist who has been an active advocate of official disclosure, and has worked to uncover thousands of pages of previously-classified Royal Air Force, Air Ministry and Ministry of Defence files on UFOs dating from the Second World War from the Public Record Office.

He has has appeared on a variety of television programmes in the UK and works on the lecture circuit, both in the UK and overseas, and has appeared in internationally syndicated shows discussing the UFO phenomenon. He is also a regular on the History Channel programs Monster Quest and UFO Hunters as well as National Geographic Channels's Paranormal and the SyFY channel's Proof Positive.

Redfern now lives in Texas and is currently working as a full-time author and journalist specializing in a wide range of unsolved mysteries, including Bigfoot, the Loch Ness Monster, UFO sightings, government conspiracies, alien abductions and paranormal phenomena, and also works as a feature writer and contributing editor for Phenomena magazine and writes regularly for other magazines and websites.

In 2007 Universal Studios bought the rights to Redfern's book: "Three Men Seeking Monsters: Six Weeks in Pursuit of Werewolves, Lake Monster, Giant Cats, Ghostly Devil Dogs and Ape-Men" in the hopes of making a movie from it.

Reviews

[Anita Dalton · Rating 4 out of 5]

There were some definite winners in this collection. John Repion’s “Suspension of Disbelief” discussed the legend of a clown in a tub pulled by geese and how it supposedly caused the Yarmouth Bridge disaster of 1845. This research was right up my alley, investigating a small bit of history and determining if it is made of truth or fable. “The Black Flash of Cape Cod: True Heir of Spring-Heeled Jack” by Theo Paijams was entirely new to me. I had not before read of an entity similar to Springheeled Jack terrorizing New England as late as 1945. His research and speculation on who or what the creature may have been were interesting indeed, including the appendix to the article that outlined similar sightings across the United States. Loren Coleman, whose work in cryptozoology made him known to before reading him in this collection, penned “Between Worlds: The Three Nephites,” and while I like Coleman’s work in other places, this article was sort of doomed with me because I tend to find attempts to prove through history points of religious faith tiresome. Even so, it was still an interesting read. Read my entire review here.

[Isidore · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Anomalist is new to me: it's a Fortean journal not unlike Dark Lore. Both are superior to the alternatively facetious and dogmatic Fortean Times magazine.

The other Goodreads review of this issue, by Anita Dalton, reflects my own feelings so well, that I will simply recommend it to anyone seeking details about the book's contents, and its failures and successes.

Briefly, my picks are: John Reppion's investigation of folklore surrounding the Yarmouth Bridge collapse of 1845; Theo Paijman on a very obscure 'Spring-Heeled Jack' figure who leaped about Cape Cod prior to WWII (the appendix of similar cases is even more stimulating than the main article); Sharon Hill's diligent survey of odd pre-earthquake phenomena; and Victoria Alexander's attempt to relate Christian mysticism with South American use of the hallucinogen ayahuasca---disorganized and rambling, the essay is nevertheless full of entertaining and unfamiliar information and ideas.

The duds: Mark Macy on his modern version of spirit photography, a disappointingly slight contribution from Nick Redfern, and a surprisingly unsuccessful piece by the usually reliable Loren Coleman, who struggles to find something interestingly Fortean in wholly unconvincing Mormon legends.