Table of Contents
Introduction: E=mc2 or Not? 1
Part 1 The Age of Unreason 16
Faith v. Facts 20
One Truth or Two? 22
Measuring a Circle: Who Made Us? 28
Beyond the Bible: Non-Christian Creationism 34
Bugs from Space 35
When Worlds Collide 36
The Hindu View 37
The Great Spirit: Native America 38
Top Gun Meets Saturday Night Fever 42
Part 2 Hot Chestnuts - UFOs 45
Loving the Alien 46
A Brief History of UFOs 57
Biblical UFOs 60
Hover - You're on Camera… 64
Mysterious Airships, November 1896 66
Cowboys, Aliens… and Zeppelins 68
The Los Angeles Invasion, February 1942 70
Tulagi, The Solomon Islands, 12 August 1942 72
Foo Fighters and Ghost Rockets, 1944-6 74
The Coming of the Pie Plates, June 1947 76
The Summer of 1947 79
UFDs - Unidentified Flying Doughnuts: The Strange Case of the Maury Island Affair, July 1947 80
Enter "The Men in Black" 82
Men in Black II 87
Facts and Fabrications: What Made New Mexico Famous 98
The Roswell Story 1: The Basic Chronology 100
The Roswell Story 2: Alien Autopsy 107
Quick! Get the Kodak! The McMinnville, Oregon, Photos 111
The UFO Collision Mystery 113
The Real X-Files 115
They're on the Ground! Face to Face with the Men From Space: The Anomalous Life of George Adamski 121
An Uncanny Epilogue… 128
Little Green Men… Evolving Aliens and Other Entities 130
The Zamora Sighting 133
UFOs and the Military: The "Official" Projects 135
Alien Abductions 140
Shooting Stars: Celebrities and UFOs 147
Robbie Williams 148
Dan Aykroyd 149
Dwight Schultz 150
Billy Ray Cyrus 150
Sammy Hagar 151
John Lennon 151
Elvis Presley 152
Jackie Gleason 152
Jimi Hendrix 153
Walter Cronkite 153
David Bowie 154
Digging Deeper: Close Encounters of the Dangerous Kind 156
Fliege Heti! The Nazis and UFOs 159
Dreamland: Area 51 164
Part 3 Beyond the Veil 167
Life after Death 168
Science v. Quackery 172
Near-Death Experiences 173
Heaven and Hell 187
Reported Experiences 189
Knocking on Heaven's Door: The Sixth Sense 195
Spiritualism: Not as Old as You Think… 201
The Fox Sisters 205
Henry Slade 206
Daniel Dunglas Home 209
Florence Cook 212
Is There Anybody There? A Night with the Spirits 220
How to Be a Medium 229
Spiritualists, Witchcraft and the Bible 233
TV Psychics: Most Not Haunted 237
Away with the Fairies: Houdini v. Holmes 241
Medium Rare: The Search for Real Psychics 251
Psychics and Mediums: What's the Difference? 252
The Psychic Barber 252
Rosemary the Celtic Lady™ 254
Doris Stokes 256
Michelle Whitedove 260
Psychics for Sale 262
'Everything from bowels to bereavement": Power, Politics, Personalities and Psychics 265
In the Arms of the Angels: Help from the Heavenly Host 280
Heavenly Mechanics 284
Back from the Dead: Ghosts and Other Restless Spirits 288
Part 4 Inexplicable Astronomy 300
Copy That, Capcom 301
Dark Matter 317
Mars or Bust? 319
The St Valentine's Day Marsacre… 324
"It's life, Jim, but not as we know it": A Quartet of Mystery Moons 326
Inner and Outer Limits 329
The Goldilocks Zone 335
Part 5 Bizarre Biology 339
Rubbernecks Rule, OK? 340
The Elusive Nessie 346
Van Gölü Canavari, the Lake Van Monster 350
Mokele-mbembe 351
"Champ", The Lake Champlain Monster 352
Ogopogo and Caddy 353
Big Pussy or Lurking Lynx? 354
Cheshire Cats 355
The Beast of Exmoor 357
Bigfoot and Yeti: Hairy Relatives? 358
Hidden Horrors: Mothman, the Tatzelwurm and the Goat Sucker 361
Part 6 Shiver Me Timbers! Maritime Mysteries 364
Deathly Drifters 365
The Mary Celeste 368
The Flying Dutchman 374
The Unsinkable Titanic 380
The Mummy Takes a Trip 384
Triangles in the Fog: Bermuda, Rhubarb and the Great Lakes 389
Vile Vortices 396
Don't Believe the Hype 398
Dead Horses in the Doldrums 402
Fo'c'sle Frighteners 407
The Octavius 410
The Pamir 415
The Port Pirie 417
The Mystery of the Marlborough 419
Death Ship: The Curious Case of the Ourang Medan 425
Brunei's Folly: The Cursed Great Eastern 431
Anatomy of a Classic: Ghost Boat - UB-65 438
The Dark Ocean 447
The Mystery of Eilean Mor 450
Vanishing Act: The Philadelphia Experiment 456
Part 7 Panic and Paranoia 469
Scared Witless 470
The Zombie Bug 473
SARS: The Conspiracy Virus 475
Folk Devils and Moral Panic: Satanic Abuse 480
Part 8 Combing the Fringe: Fun, Fort and Fine Entertainment - A Miscellany of Mysteries 485
Bizarre Archaeology 486
The Acámbaro Figures 490
The Riddle of the Dropa Stones 490
The Horned Human Skull 492
The Map of the Creator 493
The Aluminium Wedge of Aiud 494
The Los Lunas Decalogue Stone 494
The Piri Rcis Map 495
Giants of America 496
The Kensington Runestone 500
The Shroud of Turin: Christ or Leonardo? 502
Skullduggery 505
Bones of Contention (and Other Body Parts …) 514
Himmler's Holy Lance 525
The Holy Lance: A Chronology 533
The Holy Lance: More than One Destiny? 544
Urban Legend Goes Underground: A Victorian Railway Mystery 547
The Laughter of the Gods 553
Crystal Balls 556
Coincidence and Synchronicity 562
Citadel of Secrets: The Mystery of Edward Leedskalnin 568
Epilogue: Through the Revolving Door 574
Select Bibliography 578
Index 585
