Charles Fort, Father Of All Things Fortean. And The Crazy Things He Used To Say.

My cousin Mort, the Shriner.

A dangerous lush, to be sure.

They don't seem so crazy anymore. One of his thoughts was "I believe we are owned. We are somebody's property." (aliens?) Over the years I have come to believe that we are owned by TPTB by illusion but as to who really owns us...haven't quite got my head around that one yet.

reply to post by corpusInitium

Over the years I have come to believe that we are owned by TPTB by illusion but as to who really owns us...haven't quite got my head around that one yet.

The only thing that owns you is YOU.

reply to post by timewalker


With all due respect, I understand what you say but wouldn't the animals in the pet store think the same thing?
We share this planet with a technological race superior to us known as the greys. I have seen their aircraft up close as a child. (within 100 feet!) and I don't think they give any thought to what we may or may not want. Just my opinion based on personal research and experience.

reply to post by corpusInitium
Thank you. I do respect your thoughts and opinions as well.

My opinion of the animals would be, no, while they have survival mechanisms, they do not have the ability to reason beyond our own level. If they did, we would not be having this conversation right now. We would be mineralized bone material in the earth.

There are forces Above "technology".

I have seen things myself that would probably go right through any craft, this might or might not be technology too. I lean towards NO.

The grey's do not own you either, no more than you own a fish in the sea. Only in your mind. Think beyond the physical.

In my opinion, If they wanted to enslave us they would have done so by now.

This is based on my own experience and intuitions. With a huge dash of research.

Girls at the front--and they are discussing their usual not very profound subjects.

The alarm--the enemy is advancing.

Command to the poltergeist girls to concentrate--
and under their chairs they stick their wads of chewing gum.

A regiment bursts into flames, and the soldiers are torches.
Horses snort smoke from the combustion of their entrails.

Reinforcements are smashed under cliffs that are teleported from the Rocky Mountains.

The snatch of Niagara Falls--it pours upon t he battlefield.

The little poltergeist girls reach for their wads of chewing gum.

This guy is my hero right now for sure. I just can't believe the stuff that came out from behind this dude's walrus 'stache.

reply to post by Frater210


Frater, I, too would like to thank you very much for this thread.

I feel it's important... as everyone involved in our areas of interest should have the pleasure of reading - and more importantly, digesting - what our Charlie had to say.

Things like this:

It is not possible to define.

Nothing has ever been finally found out.

Because there is nothing final to find out.

(The Book of the Damned, p. 14)

And this:

To think is to conceive incompletely, because all thought relates only to the local. We metaphysicians, of course, like to have the notion that we think of the unthinkable.

(Wild Talents, p. 33)

You might want to check out the League of Western Fortean Intermediatists and the Charles Fort Institute sites and of course Strange Magazine as well.

I've been into Forteana for a long, long time, even before I knew what it was called. And then I found Mr. Fort. Whoa, indeed! I was involved in the International Fortean Organization for a good while as well, but sadly it has now become a mere shell of what it had been.

One fascinating place to check out is William Corliss' Science Frontiers project. I swear this guy is the reincarnation of Charlie, as while not being a gifted writer, he is a doggedly determined collector and publisher of High Strangeness, just as Fort was and it's really excellent material.

Thanks again and may the search continue...

Peace,
Pixel

reply to post by PixelDuster


You said it right there, Pixel. I am definitely in it for the 'High Strangeness'. I burn it like fuel and I am sure yourself and so many other ATSers do as well.

Thank you for the links. I would not have known to look for them for who knows how long so I am grateful for those.
And, It is just generally nice to have you around.

Thanks, PixelDuster.

I am so happy to have this book. I just can't help but keep reading it. It has a pull on me for sure.

Here is another one. I really love this because I feel such a close affinity with Fort now, as I have come to the same conclusion myself, as I am sure have many others.

Belief in God-
In Nothing-in Einstein-a matter of fashion-

Or that best college professors are mannequins, who doll up in the latest proper things to believe, and guide
their young customers modishly .

Fashions often revert, but to be popular they modify.
It could be that a re-dressed doctrine of witchcraft will be the proper acceptance.

Come unto me, And maybe I'll make you stylish.

It is quite possible to touch up beliefs that are now cosidered dowdy, and restore them to fashionableness.

I conceive of nothing, in religion, science, or philosophy, that is more than the proper thing to wear for a
while.

It really blows my mind the way his clarity snaps in and out of focus as one reads. He was one of the best writers of his time, I believe, I can only hope to be even a little as good as he was someday.

reply to post by Frater210


I do indeed "burn it like fuel" ... it's all just way too fascinating.

Truly my pleasure in providing the readers here at our cyberhome with some quality linkage... I grow so weary of wackos... be sure to see the blog at the CFI site, some really good people on there, each with their own blog as well.

I have lots more but I wouldn't want to clog up the works unless you think it'd be good...

Oh, dear, okay, here's two favorites to get your motor hummin'
Center for Fortean Zoology and the Society for Scientific Exploration. Back when I had disposable cash I was a member for some time at SSE and would do it again... I like to read myself to sleep with words on paper, you see, but the site has tons of pdfs.

And gosh... Frater, thank you, I'm really not used to such kindness!

Peace,
Pixel

reply to post by PixelDuster


Well, folks have been very kind to me since I logged on so I am eager to be kind back.

I would love it if you would unleash the links. Anything that will enrich the thread and therefore the minds of the folks hanging around is more than welcome.

“Damn the particle,

but there is salvation for the aggregate

A gust of wind is wild and free,

but there are handcuffs on the storm”.

I felt the need to repost this one and really draw it out,. As I was saying, the clarity of these buggers kind of jumps out at you unexpectedly, and I sort of had a revelation.

What Fort is saying here could be applied to People as individuals (or particles) or People as the aggregate, Us.

And it seems to me to possibly be a powerful statement about the potential of human beings to cooperate on a very, very high level.

Originally posted by Frater210

“Damn the particle,

but there is salvation for the aggregate

A gust of wind is wild and free,

but there are handcuffs on the storm”.

Again, that's poetry...

Originally posted by Frater210
reply to post by PixelDuster

 

I would love it if you would unleash the links. Anything that will enrich the thread and therefore the minds of the folks hanging around is more than welcome.

"Every science is a mutilated octopus. If its tentacles were not clipped to stumps, it would feel its way into disturbing contacts."
-- Charles Fort

Sorry it took so long, Frater. Life does that sometimes...

These are links to places that I have found either interesting enough or useful enough to include in my blog's link list and at the L.O.W.F.I site, which I run for my friends.

I really hope I don't get in trouble with the authorities (i.e. mods (or readers)) for posting... as it's obviously a rather long list.

Should provide quite a few hours of reading, though!

Here goes... in no particular order...

Boundary Institute
International Society of Cryptozoology
The Appalachian Fortean Society
The Edinburgh Fortean Society
American Society for Psychical Research
American Association of Electronic Voice Phenomena
National UFO Reporting Center
The J. Allen Hynek Center for UFO Studies (CUFOS)
The Library of Exploratory Science
Association for the Scientific Study of Anomalous Phenomena
Center for Parapsychological Studies
Koestler Parapsychology Unit, University of Edinburgh
The Rhine Research Center
The Fortean Picture Library
Mr. X, consulting resologist
American Monsters
Ancient Canal Builders in America
Animal Forteana
Ann Druffel
Anomaly Magazine
Anomaly Radio
Antipodes Map
“There’s Something in the Woods…”
Big Fat Furry Texan
BioFortean Review
Black-Eyed Children
Cabinet of Wonders
Circa71
Cryptomundo
Cult Hopping and Moon Battery
Dprogram.net
Dr. Bruce Maccabee, Ph.D.
Dr. Karl P. N. Shuker
Forgetomori
Fortean Historical Archive
Fortean Websites Made By Children
From the Shadows
Further: Strange Attractor & beyond
Great Fortean Books
Holger Isenberg’s Mars News
Intangible Materiality
Internet Sacred Text Archive
John Anthony West
John Anthony West’s PhoenixFire
Just Weird, by Modern Mechanix
Keith Laney
Kryptid’s Keep
Laboratory for Comparative Planetology Archive
Life On Mars – The Peculiar Rocks Of Mars [archived]
LPI’s Lunar Orbiter Photo Gallery
Lt. Col. Thomas E. Bearden, Ph.D. (retd.)
Lunar Explorer Italia
Macbot
Magonia
Mangani’s Bigfoot Maps
Martian Lifeforms Image Gallery
Martian Spiders
Menagerie of Mystery
Mike Frizzell’s The Enigma Project
Moon Base Clavius
My Paranormal Life
NASA Scam
National Aviation Reporting Center on Anomalous Phenomena
Octopus Confessional
Odd Things
Order of Melchizedek
Paranormalia
ParaScience
Pastlives Paranormal & Pagans
Pegasus Research Consortium / The Living Moon
Pliny the Elder’s A Natural History
Poland’s INFRA Service
QVS Data – Earthquakes, Volcanoes, Solar
Radio Reference
Reality Zone
Rochester Paranormal
Ropens
Saucer Smear
Shadows on the Wind
ShukerNature
Shults Laboratories
Skylaire Alfvegren
Soviet Space Image Catalog
Steamshovel Press
Still On The Track
Strange Tales & Incredible Travels
Subversive Element
The Anomalist
The Debris Field
The Emoluments of Mars
The Excluded Middle
The Gralien Report
The Heavy Stuff
The Hidden Mission Forum
The Iron Skeptic
The Moon Pages – Facts Are The Only Truth
The Obscure Animal Compendium Companion Blog
The Orange Orb
The Paranormal Pastor
The TRUE Report On Flying Saucers, 1967
The Unexplained Mysteries
True Planets
Twilight Language
UFO Mary
UFO Proletariat
UFO Watchdog
UFOlogisToons
UFOMystic
Uncanny Canada
Uncanny UK
Untamed Dimensions
Western Conspiracies
What Really Happened
Who Forted?
Women Of Esoterica
World of Mystery



Peace,
Pixel

reply to post by PixelDuster


Holy Moses, PixelDuster. I don't know what to say. And in fact cannot pick my jaw up off the ground.

Thank you so much. I have very quickly become a very serious fan of Charles Fort so I will be transferring this all somehow to a link list of my own so I can make my way through it all. Hoo.

Thank you so much.

F210.

reply to post by Frater210


My pleasure, Frater210!

I see my edit window is oddly still up, but if I mess with it I'll surely ruin it.

Frater, in your case, might I suggest that your first stop be Mr. X's site. You'll dig the heck out of it. Guaranteed.
I sometimes wonder whatever became of him.

A note about the Fortean Picture Library... it is sadly not useful at all for surfers, really, but I included it because it's great for filmmakers and authors and there may be some about. You have to pay to see anything, you see, so for the average Joe it is rather limited titillation to be sure. It's run by Janet and Colin Bord, two of the earliest Forteans still with us and it is the largest collection of our sort of pics in the world.

None of the others are like that... anyway...

You'll find some real gems scattered throughout with sufficient perusal... especially in the seriously serious sites (as Charlie found out!) - like my favorite ever cryptid report at herpetologist Chad Arment's very serious BioFortean Review, which contains the only eyewitness report that I have ever seen online... of a large bipedal reptile... running in front of a car... in modern-day Wyoming!

So glad I could help in some small way... enjoy...!

Peace,
Pixel

I read Fort's books many years ago and have the Steinmeyer collected works.

One of my favorite quotes:

"There is something wrong with everything popular." -- New Lands

Enjoying this thread... noticed my pal PixelDuster posted some great links, and I just wanted to direct people to an essay I wrote about Fort for Hustler magazine. Thought it could be of some use to folks interested in him. Also, I founded the League of Fortean Intermediatists (www.forteanswest.com), and we're always looking for personal reports of high strangeness.

Dogma be Damned
www.skylaire.com...

Thanks!

My favorite bit of Fort:

Some time in the year 1867, a fishing smack sailed from Boston. One of the sailors was a Portuguese, who called himself “James Brown.” Two of the crew were missing, and were searched for. The captain went into the hold. He held up his lantern, and saw the body of one of the men, in the clutches of “Brown,” who was sucking blood from it. Near by was the body of the other sailor. It was bloodless. “Brown” was tried, convicted, and sentenced to be hanged, but President Johnson commuted the sentence to life imprisonment. In October, 1892, the vampire was transferred from the Ohio Penitentiary to the National Asylum, Washington D.C., and his story was re-told in the newspapers. See The Brooklyn Eagle, Nov. 4, 1892.

James Brown, godfather of soul-sucking? (Didn't realize he was Portuguese, either…)

reply to post by JoshNorton

James Brown, godfather of soul-sucking? (Didn't realize he was Portuguese, either…)

Hey, JoshNorton.

That is one of my faves as well, thanks for putting it up. The James Brown spin is hilarious.