THE TELEPATHIC DOLPHINS by Fred P. Graham

Fred P. Graham writes up some dolphin/ESP experimentation by Patricia Hayes and Ann Phillips of the Arthur Ford Academy of Parapsychology and Research. Flipper's Sea School has changed hands multiple times and is currently known as the Dolphin Research Center. Meanwhile, the Arthur Ford Academy lives on as Delphi University, a school for mediumship and spiritual studies.

Graham also quotes Dr. John C. Lilly for some background on potential dolphin intellect, and helpfully defines the intuitive PSI SCAN, codeveloped by Phillips and Jan Clema, and utilized by one Bill Clema on dolphin Terce.

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

Courtesy Fate magazine, Volume 31 - Number 7, July 1978.

TRUE EXPERIENCES IN EXOTIC ESP edited by Martin Ebon

Editor Martin Ebon returns with another roundup of paranormal writings. This time, the theme is "exotic ESP," which basically means anything outside the good old USA and Europe - Ebon says as much in his introduction, while also making the point that it's all relative who's "exotic" to whom. By learning about these "exotic" (different) peoples and sharing their experiences, Ebon hopes we can find common ground in humanity while also working to pierce the veil of the unknown.

Ebon also name drops psychic surgeon fraud Tony Agpaoa, last seen here getting a (mercifully anonymized) excoriation from Warren Smith ... Ebon claims that it's "too soon" to tell whether the Americans flocking to the Philippines for Agpaoa's cures will get results, which is a bit odd since Smith was able to say "No," quite firmly just the next year of 1969, and the newspapers had records of Agpaoa's fraud in 1967!

This credulous reference by Ebon sets the tone for part of this volume, typical of midcentury paranormal work: "Proof of all these amazing feats is just around the corner!" Some chapters are straightforward descriptions of cultural practices, some detail parapsychological work happening right now with "exotic" peoples, and some recount supposed amazing events the authors themselves experienced, like the phantom pig of Montego Bay. 

We get another Aboriginal death curse, this time written up by one Nicholas Wainwright, as well as a Maori death curse, a Tahitian death curse, and several hair raising adventures such as walking on coals and dealing with the devil dancers of Sri Lanka (Ceylon). The phantom pig is joined by a chained donkey and a haunted terrier.

One of the most interesting chapters is titled "China's Psychic Heritage" by Chung Yu Wang (Wang Chongyou in the modern style), being a far ranging history of various beliefs and events. Wang was also a pioneer in Chinese geology and metallurgy, with a page at the Northern Mine Research Society. His wikipedia page doesn't mention his essay from this volume, which seems to be his only published work on the paranormal. True to Martin Ebon's cold warrior status, he introduces Wang's chapter by saying "below the tyrannic-materialistic veneer of today's Communist China lies an ancient tradition of supernatural experience, study, and philosophy" ... that's nice, Martin.

Wang cites a few ancient Chinese texts on the paranormal, explains feng shui among other traditions, and lists off various phenomena including phantom "mongooses" in northern China which he explicitly ties to that famous wag, Jef the talking mongoose. I put "mongoose" in quotes because some online have speculated that the true identity of these animals would be Siberian weasels, which are reportedly thick on the ground, albeit elusive, in northern China.

This is a pretty slim volume, under 130 pages, and Ebon's introduction doesn't quite tie it all together. Still, there are some interesting chapters here, and Ebon gives a blurb about every contributor at the end of the book.

See for yourself: this title is available to read and download at archive dot org.

Signet Books, 1968

PASSPORT TO THE UNKNOWN by John Macklin

When a man of such practical outlook and training as the doctor - a man who had once been as skeptical as any about occult matters thus becomes convinced ... it must surely mean something ...

So sayeth John Macklin! The man: Frederick Wood. The occult matters at hand: his past life regression that reveals his prior turn as a general in Pharaoh's armies, some 2,000 years ago! That dating puts him in a pretty rough time for the Ptolemaic dynasty, so it's probably just as well that it's all in the past.

The lovely crystalline cover welcomes us into another reliable roundup of Forteana, courtesy the indefatigable (and pseudonymous) John Macklin. The weakest story in the volume is the very first one, about a ghost who wakes up, and some people see him. Yeah. But we're off to the races after that, with a cursed train, a cursed orchid, a cursed diamond, a cursed u-boat, deathly foxes, an Apartheid assassination attempt, and much much more! Macklin's generous this time around, and we end up with 55 chapters of rapid fire thrills.

We even get a chapter on Betty and Barney Hill's UFO abduction, plus George King's contact with Venus. King founded the Aetherius Society, a UFO religion. These bits of UFO history are packed between haunted cellars and phantom footsteps, stories alternately either long forgotten or just totally made up by Macklin. Cursed train engine D326, for example, really existed and really did have a reputation for being jinxed!

The death train D326, looking not-so-threatening in North Wales

The deadly blue orchid of the very next chapter, though? Well, the internet has only a fragment of the true breadth of human knowledge out there in the world, but I'm drawing a blank trying to verify "Christofo Martena" and "Dr. Andermart" of the "Institute for Tropical Illnesses" of Rio de Janeiro ...

Macklin takes some liberties with the true stories as well, to spice them up. Like D326, German U-boat UB-65 had a real life reputation as a jinxed vessel - but comparing Macklin's version to a 1990 write-up by Commander Richard Compton-Hall of the Royal Navy (retired) hosted at the U.S. Naval Institute shows Macklin gilding the lily a fair bit compared to the possible true fate of UB-65. Macklin's version has UB-65 adrift as a sitting duck off the southern coast of Ireland, but mysteriously exploding before an America sub can fire upon it. The ghostly figure of the dead first-lieutenant appears on deck as the submarine sinks. Comptom-Hall's version plays out as realistic submarine warfare, with the American sub not even sure if it's in battle with one U-boat or two, and unsure which if either has sank. 

Complicating things further, wikipedia describes UB-65's fate using the "sitting duck" narrative (minus a ghost) but does not cite any sources for this! The wiki article does go on to finger one Hector Charles Bywater, British journalist, spy, and military writer, for promoting the haunted ship narrative. Further reading leads to Lost at Sea: Ghost Ships and Other Mysteries by Michael Goss and George Behe, which has a chapter on the legend of UB-65 that, while not mentioning Macklin, does trace the evolution of the "hoodoo curse" from Bywater down to writers like Raymond Lamont Brown publishing in Fate magazine during the '70s.

In analyzing UB-65's legend, Goss and Behe consider the fatalism of German submariners as WWI dragged on, as well as the propaganda value of a "cursed ship" as utilized by Britishers like Bywater.

As for Macklin, one can imagine him thumbing through the same archives trawled by Brad Steiger and co., selecting true tales to titillate and adding his own perfect little touch to each one, to titillate even further - or simply adapting a previously juiced up version of a once-true tale. It doesn't end there, though, as even the copy writers for this book got in on the action: the child's doll that "becomes a killer" on the back cover conjures up images of Chucky, but the actual story is about a family barely escaping certain death due to a premonition not to touch the doll, which lies next to unexploded ordinance on a beach! Keep your wits about you, anyways.

Macklin's tale of newspaperman Ed Sampson's premonition of Krakatoa's world beating eruption turns up online reprinted by the magazine Ireland's Own. Still shocking readers after all these years ...

Indeed, this title is almost 60 years old, and some things have changed less (or less faster) than expected: Macklin ends his chapter about the cursed Koh-i-Noor diamond wondering whether or not Charles will wear it at his coronation, as it supposedly brings bad luck to men. So many midcentury paranormal authors and ESP prognosticators who name checked him would never live to see Charles attain the throne, but Macklin personally may have been relieved to know that when the time did finally come, Charles went without the Koh-i-Noor, and in fact it's on display as part of the Crown of Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother, at the Tower of London. Crisis averted!

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

Ace Books, 1968

ARCHIVAL UPDATES: BEYOND BELIEF

Stefan Elg's Fortean collection Beyond Belief is now available to read and download at archive dot org! This marks the title's digital debut.

Courtesy Tower Books, 1970 (original pub. 1967).

SHAWN ROBBINS - THE AMAZING WOMAN WHO PREDICTS DISASTER by Ian Anderson

At last! The origin story as to why Shawn Robbins was the doom and gloom leader of ESP prognostication, especially where air travel was concerned! As noted before, part of it involves dream premonitions and a malfunction on a flight to Greenland that, Robbins believes, could have been fatal.

Here's how the article should look in the original magazine spread:

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

Courtesy Tim Beckley's Front Page Disasters magazine, Vol. 1 - Issue 1, October 1977.

COSMIC DEBRIS: "God Bless You, Shawn Robbins"

Introducing a new old player on the psychic scene: Shawn Robbins, who graced many an ad in Fate magazine with her piercing glare and lethal face card, as the kids say. Robbins was a particularly gloomy psychic, with her origin story involving a snapped fuel line on a dangerous flight across the Great White North, and one of her major claims to fame being her supposed prediction of the horrific, record setting 1977 Tenerife Airport Disaster.

For just $3 (and 50 cents postage) you can receive your own personalized horoscope and personality analysis from Shawn ... with all her terrible knowledge, can you afford not to?

From Fate magazine, Volume 32 - Number 2, February 1979.

ARCHIVAL UPDATES: ESP AND PSYCHIC POWER

Steven Tyler's ESP and Psychic Power is now available to read and download at archive dot org! This marks this title's digital debut and places it alongside Tyler's UFO reader Are the Invaders Coming?

After the main event, Tower Books includes their usual great spread of ads for other intriguing reads across various genres:

Courtesy Tower Books, 1970.