MAPS OF THE UNKNOWN: Bermuda Triangle Deluxe

Click to embiggen

Giant sized map of the deadly Triangle, detailing specific cases within a strictly defined boundary - not always the case for the Triangle legend! They do still manage to sneak in a couple of edge cases though, like the C-124 Globemaster listed in March of 1950, which disappeared in the North Atlantic less than 500 miles west of Ireland ... and they get the date wrong to boot! It was in March of 1951, not 1950. The R7V-1 Super Constellation listed in October 1954 was also nowhere near the Triangle when it disappeared en route to the Azores from Maryland. Hey, them's the breaks for mystery mongering in and around the Triangle!

Too bad the little plane and boat icons aren't keyed to corresponding disappearances ...

From Saga magazine's Bermuda Triangle Special Report 1977, which was chock-a-block full of Triangle updates from luminaries such as Charles Berlitz and Ivan T. Sanderson.

"MONSTER" HUNTING by Ivan T. Sanderson

This piece about North American lake monsters by Ivan T. Sanderson spends a good amount of space on the Loch Ness Monster and Tim Dinsdale, for purposes of context and word count.

Otherwise, Sanderson plucks out some interesting midcentury monster sightings such as the Black River Monster of Lyons Falls, NY (nicknamed Lyonesse, natch), and the (relatively) giant lizard/frog/whatsit of New Hamburg, Ontario, estimated at 50 pounds of unknown ferocity. Big shots like Champ and the Lake Iliamna Monster round out the roster.

Dig the ads for a genuine imported switch blade and a PI badge right next to each other ... if the cops want to hassle you about your pocket knife, just flash your badge at 'em!

Also available to read and download at archive dot org.

Courtesy Saga magazine, Vol. 33 - No. 4, January 1967.

MAPS OF THE UNKNOWN: The Fierce Gods of San Agustin

Be careful on the road to San Agustin, traveler. This map is from Frank Volkmann's article "The Fierce Gods of San Agustin," detailing strange statues that you too can visit and see for yourself ... if you're brave enough!

Volkmann's article is available to read and download at archive dot org.

Courtesy Fate magazine, Volume 32 - Number 4, April 1979.

ON THE JOB IN THE DEADLY "DEVIL'S TRIANGLE" by Peter Michelmore

Live! Writer Peter Michelmore is on the scene with the Coast Guard as they investigate distress calls in the deadly Bermuda Triangle! Who will they find, and what will be left of them? 

All told, it's a quiet time out there, so Michelmore details superstitions that still bedevil even the Coast Guard's finest, and goes over a couple of close calls that could have become Triangle lore if things had gone a little differently. The spooky highpoint of Michelmore's ride is a sudden drop in oil pressure which inexplicably resets itself ... phew!

Detail of the article's main map, courtesy of Wide World

Michelmore namechecks Charles Berlitz and Lawrence David Kusche as the two extremes of Triangle writing and poopoos both, despite falling very neatly in line with Kusche when he says that the most important factor in the Triangle is "the human element." Some of it comes down to nitpicking over exact wording, as Michelmore wants to get across that the Triangle is a very dangerous place indeed even without any paranormal elements, and he feels that Triangle debunkers may overstate the lack of danger and the hard work that goes into the Coast Guard's patrol of these devilish waters.

And the secondary map, with less detail

This article is also available to read and download at archive dot org.

Courtesy Argosy magazine, Vol. 282 - No. 2, August 1975.

 

DISASTERS IN THE BERMUDA TRIANGLE by Eileen Sperber

Eileen Sperber gives the basic Triangle rundown, including testimony from skin diver and oceanographer Jim Thorne, a quote from Charles Berlitz, and a reference to John Wallace Spencer's "limbo of the lost." This article is also available to read and download at archive dot org. 

Courtesy Front Page Disasters magazine, Vol. 1 - Issue 1, October 1977.

MAPS OF THE UNKNOWN: Ancient Ceylon Revealed!

A map that rings through the ages, from The Children of Mu by James Churchward. Churchward claimed that ancient Mayans traveled across the world after Mu's destruction to settle on this island before it too submerged. His lost Ceylon ties into Lemuria and contemporary Sri Lankan nationalism.

Courtesy the Paperback Library, 1969 (original pub. 1931). 

PREDICTIONS FOR 1976 compiled and edited by Warren Smith

San Antonio: a huge tornado, fires and Mexican Americans and blacks taking over!

Australia and New Zealand will have a problem!

Watch Glenn Ford do it again!

The next President will be George Wallace!

Warren Smith returns with a roster of psychics, minus a few names here and there from last year. The biggest loss is gay witch Leo Martello, no longer here to make canny "predictions" about the CIA. Instead we have psychic sleuth Beverly C. Jaegers predicting that "the CIA will be blamed for everything from food shortages and coffee prices to small takeovers in Southern Hemisphere countries, with no basis in fact." She's the one with the big, bold idea that Australia and New Zealand will have "a problem," too, so nothing gets past her!

Dr. Gil E. Gilly also returns with another beefy chapter full of cheerful nonsense, and you gotta hand it to him for putting it all out there with "predictions" like these:

The mammoth economic growth we’ve witnessed by Japan is going to be surpassed by a physical growth, not in number but in size and stature. This will be shown to be caused by the atomic pollution of the waters and food they eat.  

I believe Gerald Ford is going to run for President with Rockefeller as his running mate. I don’t see him winning, but if he should he'll step down afterwards and Rockefeller will run the country. You know who I see winning? Wallace. Not that I want him to, but that’s who I see winning.

Gilly also says 1976 will be the year for aloe vera, "a Hawaiian plant that's a sure cure for baldness," and also goes into detail about a "Telecheck system" that will monitor seniors for their own safety. It seems like a third of the predictions in this book are technowonders like this, another third are safe "gimme" predictions like "trouble in the Middle East" and Glenn Ford becoming even more popular due to his massive talent and charisma, and the final third are nuclear war, race riots, plague, death, and so on. Gilly doesn't disappoint here with runaway plague and fungus, and a campaign in Zaire to "can and sell human meat!" On the plus side, "Dinah Shore will have her recipes manufactured and distributed on the frozen foods market," hopefully sans long pork!

Glenn Ford (1916-2006) in the epic Midway, 1976

Our pal Doc Anderson does his thing too and also says that he sees "George Wallace is destined to be the President of the United States" ... and that Doris Day will be offered several TV specials! Allene Cunningham says that George Wallace will present us an "amazing and sincere" program for how to clean up America ... I'm starting to have some questions about these psychics!

Allene Cunningham (1921-2016) on the job. I've got my eye on her!

There's a lot of talk of "earth changes" a la Edgar Cayce, and of Atlantis rising. Jackie O's marital status is debated, as is John Wayne's health and Dick Cavett's image as a family man - though Sharon Naccarato beileves that this won't have an effect on his standing. To think we missed out on Dick Cavett's blue era ...

Smith's Predictions series has always been a mix of big B-names in the psychic scene like Irene Hughes and Tenny Hale, and relative nobodies like the anonymous Aquarius, a doctor in the Midwest who wants to keep his ESP under wraps. Maybe the biggest name Smith scored for this year is "the PK Man" himself, Ted Owens, who, despite Smith's usual disclaimer against using these volumes for financial advice, tell us to sell all our stocks and bonds and basically keep cash in hand! 

Ted Owens (1920-1987)

Ted sees bad news all over, with UFOs "kicking the slats" off of Texas and Nevada, with Florida, California, and Illinois also facing some dark future. If only Nixon had listened to Ted:

Years ago I wrote fo President Nixon (excuse the expression) and offered to organize all the great psychics in the land. I’d get Geller, Dixon, Doc Anderson, Gypsy Markoff (Countess Amaya), Hurkos, and others in the psychic field together as one superpsychic team. We'd help guide the United States through times ahead. The government would put up salaries for these top psychics so they would not want. They could devote their energies and time to helping the United States. This superpsychic team would be invaluable to the United States! Now, each psychic is helping an individual here or there with psychic powers. But the total picture would be much better if the psychics banded together to become a powerful psychic force.

Psychic Mark Vito predicts women giving birth to starseeds in 1976, though he avoids that exact term. His brief entry is mostly focused on UFOs and starseeds, which makes sense given he was a contactee:

“My second contact occurred on March 19, 1975,” reported Mark. “I received the following message, which was given to me by mental projection: ‘United States founded by Higher Beings, extraterrestrials. Study the Great Seal of the United States on reverse side of dollar bill. Our messengers responsible for its design. We are the Flying Eagle. Thirteen of us responsible, as shown by the thirteen stars above Eagle. Washington, Adams, Franklin, Jefferson, Madison, a few of our coworkers. Divine Plan in operation. We bring you sweet tidings of great joy. This is the beginning of remarkable golden goodness. You have no idea of the magnitude of our work. The Great Seal of United States appears on our ships.'"

There's gotta be over a thousand predictions in this volume, although again many are safe bets and generic guesses. But for the out-there observations, of nuclear war and super-pills, of celebrity love and death, of President George Wallace and mass UFO disclosure, we'd have to wait for 1976 to pass us by to see ...

Predictions For 1976 is available to read and download at archive dot org.

Award Books, 1975