MAPS OF THE UNKNOWN: Scotland and Loch Ness

From Monster: A Tale of Loch Ness by Jeffrey Konvitz. Courtesy Ballantine Books, 1982.

COSMIC DEBRIS: UFO Sketches, Figures 3C and 3D

A final batch of witness sketches from UFOs: Interplanetary Visitors by Raymond E. Fowler. Courtesy Bantam Books, 1979 (original pub. 1974).

THE MYTH AND MYSTERY OF ATLANTIS by Warren Smith

Or: Warren Smith and the Deconstruction of Atlantis. Yet another eye catching decoupage piece by Smith, slotting in the relevant chapters and passages from the author's copious backlog. At this point in the Zebra Books/Warren Smith saga, half the appeal is seeing how Smith cobbles together a "new" text with minimal effort and maximum efficiency. A large amount of material comes from Smith's pseudonymously penned 1972 volume This Hollow Earth, including the entirety of Chapter 10, "Hitler's Dream of Atlantis Rising," which is a near word for word copy and paste job that simply replaces the words "Hollow Earth" with "Atlantis!" Further Hollow Earth material around Vril Power and the Shaver Mystery is threaded into other chapters.

Smith's recycling of the same material across multiple books reveals the debt that the supposed space age paranormal genre owes to the musty old Spiritualists and Helena Blavatsky's Theosophical Society. Here's the obligatory recycled chapter on Blavatsky, as well as some new filler made up of psychic predictions of destructive "Earth changes" and Atlantis rising, featuring readings from Edgar Cayce and a passel of '70s psychic celebrities. There's Chapter 11, a large block quote from Aleister Crowley on Atlantis that goes on for pages. Smith quotes his friend Brad Steiger from Atlantis Rising justifying these psychic reaches but it's hardly needed. Psychic and Contactee Ted Owens can call himself the "PK Man" to give it a scientific sounding gloss, but he's right at home alongside Smith's many apocryphal anecdotes including the 1882 SS Jesmond, an invented ship that supposedly landed on an Atlantean atoll finding mysterious ruins and artifacts. Nothing new under the sun, or under the seas.

Table of contents:

1.  Earth Changes: Is America the Atlantis of the Future? (5)

2.  Memories of an Atlantean Sea Kingdom (20)

3.  Is Genesis a History of Atlantis? (35)

4.  The Marvels of Atlantean Invention (48)

5.  Atlantis - Mystery of the Antediluvian World (60)

6.  Atlantean Lore From Ancient Records (72)

7.  Atlantis and the Secret Doctrine (84)

8.  The Myth and Mystery of Atlantean Tunnels (94)

9.  Was Atlantis Located on Another Planet? (107)

10. Hitler's Dream of Atlantis Rising (117)

11. Mysterious Cities in Old South America (126)

12. Aleister Crowley's Visions of Atlantis (138)

13. Quest for a Mighty Sea Kingdom (157)

14. Psychic Visions of a Lost World (165)

15. When Will We Find Atlantis? (177)

Zebra Books, 1975

MAPS OF THE UNKNOWN: The St. Augustine Monster

One of the earliest documented globsters, since identified as the remains of a sperm whale. From an article by Gary Mangiacopra, "Giant Octopus or Whale?" Featured in Fate, Volume 29 - Number 7, July 1976.

COSMIC DEBRIS: ESP Pyramid Ring

Another offering from the House of Collingwood, no mere dabblers in wearable pyramid power:

Meanwhile, the House of Collingwood, of Rhode Island, used to offer a pyramid pendant for a mere $10. “You can have the secrets of the universe in the palm of your hand,” the advert explained. “Put it round your neck. See if you don’t feel more energetic, more alert, more attractive, more truly alive.” But they were cautious people at the House of Collingwood. This pyramid pendant, which was, by the way, unisex, might make lovemaking far more enjoyable, might even help improve your telepathic powers, but if it didn’t, well, the House of Collingwood did offer their customers a money-back guarantee.

The ESP Pyramid Ring ups the ante with a secret decoder style gimmick wherein you look through the special "aura chamber" (presumably a translucent plastic lens) and see your friends' auras! 

From Fate, Volume 31 - Number 6, June 1978.

STRANGE POWERS OF PROPHECY by Brad Steiger

Steiger gives us a slim psychic cross section featuring heavyweights such as Nostradamus, Edgar Cayce, and Jeane Dixon, alongside other prophets lost to the years. There's multiple claims that California will fall into the sea, as well as vague threats of upcoming "hard times" and strife which must have seemed rather obvious in 1967. English psychic John Pendragon (born Lewis Thomas Haynes Ackermann) delivers some stilted, scattershot predictions. He seems somewhat confused when he claims that Japan will surprisingly ally with the USA in SE Asia despite "former enmity," as if it hadn't been 22 years since the end of WWII! Dying in 1970, Pendragon lived just long enough to see Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong survive their moonshot, against another of his predictions. 

A quick chapter on Helena Blavatksy foreshadows Steiger's partner Warren Smith and his heavy cut and paste reliance on her in his later Zebra volumes.

Popular Library, 1967

MAPS OF THE UNKNOWN: The Search For El Dorado

From an article by Jane M. Loy, "Quest For El Dorado." Featured in Fate, Volume 33 - Number 1, January 1980.

COSMIC DEBRIS: Pyramid Power Ice Tray!

From Fate, Volume 31 - Number 12, December 1978.

STRANGE ENCOUNTERS WITH GHOSTS by Brad Steiger

Yet another STRANGE entry in Brad Steiger's series of spooky Forteana for the Popular Library, and a transitional volume that bridges the Gothic atmosphere of "moss-covered crypts and mournful sighs floating up circular stairwells" with our own "jet-paced atomic age" of Bigfoots, UFOs, and sundry spectral fires. Modern readers would be entranced by Richard Burton's haunted experiences in the famed Tower House, and by Steiger's cutting edge updates on "ghostly" Bigfoots across America which include the Yeti of Fremont, Wisconsin, a monster who made his mark after an article in Argosy by Ivan T. Sanderson.

Per the modern focus, the longest chapters are devoted to Bigfoot, some recent UFO developments, and Spontaneous Human Combustion. Once again Garth Haslam's website for Anomaly Info proves invaluable, with a thorough rundown on frequently cited cases of SHC including several from this volume. Sadly, many prove less than spontaneous, including Maybelle Andrews' perfectly explicable combustion in a dance hall which was mangled beyond recognition through Fortean retellings.

Popular Library, 1972