The Unexplained Issue 1 - UFOs, ESP and Mysterious Man-Beasts

The cover of issue 1

The first issue laid down the format of the magazine that would be consistent throughout the entire run. Each issue had a single cover image related to the contents bathed in a Kirlian glow, though I wouldn't find out what this strange aura was until a future issue enlightened me. Given the interest in UFOs at the time of publication the cover star of the premiere issue was a grainy photo of a saucer. Each issue was twenty pages long with between five and six articles. The layout of the magazine, designed by Richard Burgess, was neat and clear with large, colourful illustrations throughout. The magazine had a team of dedicated picture researchers sourcing the rare and obscure images that peppered the articles. Some articles had a box out which discussed an additional aspect of the topic under the spotlight. 

The introductory UFO article written by Hilary Evans.

The first article to appear in the magazine was an introduction to the topic of UFOs written by Hilary Evans (1929-2011) who outlined for and against the reality of flying saucers. Evans was a supporter of the Psycho Social Hypothesis of UFOs which defined them as culturally shaped visionary experiences. This is now the majority view of UK based UFO researchers as opposed to the Extraterrestrial Hypothesis (UFOs are from another planet) which is more prevalent in America. Evans, along with his wife Mary, founded the Mary Evans Picture Library in 1964 which still exists today. The library licences historical illustrations to publications, websites and other media. The library would supply many, many images to The Unexplained during its run. For more information visit https://www.maryevans.com/. In his article Evans came down firmly on the side of flying saucers existing. 

"Almost certainly, UFOs exist on both the physical and psychological level. Somehow we have got to recognise that, although they are real, they are not what they seem." (The UFO Paradox by Hilary Evans, The Unexplained issue 1, 1980, p.5).

The article that followed was the first of the recurring feature UFO Casebook, written by Charles Bowen who was the editor of the Flying Saucer Review up until 1982. The article detailed Dr J. Allen Hynek's definitions of the levels of encounter with UFOs and the following case reports helped to illustrate the three levels (first, second and third encounters of the close kind). The most interesting was the case of Patrolman Lonnie Zamora who on 24th April, 1964 observed humanoid figures next to a vertical oval shaped object on girderlike legs. When one of the humanoids seemed to spot him the object flew away leaving scorch marks and indentations in the soil where the girderlike legs had been. 

Patrolman Lonnie Zamora.

The cases were followed by UFO Photo File which presented several images of saucer sightings starting with some taken by Paul Villa in Albuquerque, New Mexico in April 1965. The photos seemed so blatantly faked to me at the time that I never bothered to fully read the accompanying text at the time. I was pleasantly surprised when I read the magazine in preparation for this blog that the article does dismiss the photographs as fake. 

Real or fake?

"Comparisons between the photographic images of the UFOs and surrounding objects revealed that the alleged UFOs were small objects seen at close range - not, as Villa had claimed, large ones at a distance." (UFO Photo File, The Unexplained issue 1, 1980, p.10.)

Too good to be true!

The phenomena of UFOs has never really piqued my interest and so I was not overly impressed with the amount of coverage the topic was given. However, I can now see that this would help to sell the magazine and hopefully pave the way for more esoteric subjects to be covered in future issues. If I was to become a regular reader then I would have to tolerate the flying saucer material in order to discover fresh mysteries.

The next article covered another big topic, one that was equally as popular in the 70s and 80s, with an examination of ESP (extra sensory perception). In Search of the Sixth Sense was written by Roy Stemman, born 1942 and still with us at the time of writing, who had a keen interest in the field and had authored several books on ESP and reincarnation. The article covered the history of research in the area and highlighted the work of Dr Joseph Banks Rhine (1895-1980) who had helped to establish parapsychology as an area of academic study and coined the term ESP. He commenced the first full-time investigation into ESP in 1927 by giving his test subjects guessing tasks using a pack of Zener cards. These packs contained 25 cards with five sets of symbols on them; star, circle, cross, wavy lines and rectangle. One subject would be in a separate room and focus on the symbol on a random card. In another room another subject would attempt to 'read' what the other person was focussing on and select one of the five symbols. 

A test subject selects one of the symbols on a Zener card.

"According to the laws of chance, a subject would get 5 out of 25 right if only guesswork was involved. Occasionally, luck might enable him to guess more than five correctly, but on other occasions he would do less well so that, in an extended series of tests, the results would even out. If, on the other hand, the subject had ESP abilities, the results would be above average. And that is precisely what Rhine found." 
(In Search of the Sixth Sense by Roy Stemman, The Unexplained issue 1, 1980, p.13.)

Left: An alleged yeti print found near the Menlung Base in the Himalayas in 1951. Right: Footprints found at 16,000 feet on Mount Everest in 1980.

The final article, Man Myth or Monster, was penned by husband and wife team Janet (born 1945) and Colin Bord (1931-2022) who surveyed sightings on man beasts from across the globe and introduced me to several terms for the creatures I had never encountered before; Maricoxi, Chemosit, Xueren, Hibagon and Chuchunna. Prior to this article I had heard of both the yeti and bigfoot, but had no idea such creatures had worldwide counterparts. The Bords presented cases from Russia, China, Japan, Australia and Africa to illustrate that man-beast sightings are a global phenomena. One particular terrifying encounter spotlighted took place in 1977 in the Taibai Mountains in Northern China when Pang Gensheng came face to face with a hairy man.

"It came closer and closer. I got scared and kept retreating until my back was against a stone cliff and I couldn't go any further... I raised my axe, ready to fight for my life. We stood like that, neither of us moving, for more than an hour. Then I groped for a stone and threw it at him. It hit him in the chest. He uttered several howls and rubbed the spot with his left hand. Then he turned and left and leaned against a tree, then walked away slowly towards the bottom of the gully. He kept making a mumbling sound." 
(Witness statement from Man, Myth or Monster? by Colin and Janet Bord, The Unexplained issue 1, 1980, p.17.)

Igor Bourtsev holding a cast of a footprint found in 1979 in Tadzhikistan (now called Tajikistan). The print is thought to have been made by an almas, a man-beast native to the area.

Many copies of The Unexplained ended up in binders sold by Orbis to help store issues safely. However, these are not the complete versions as the front and back cover were removed in most cases. This means that not only was the cover imagery was, but also several ongoing photo features, letter pages and one-off articles. When I began recollecting the magazine I avoided the bound versions and concentrated on acquiring single editions with the cover intact. Inside the back cover of issue one was the first photo feature - The World's Most Mysterious Places - which kicked off with a wonderfully moody shot of the pyramids of Giza (see below). Sadly there was no text accompanying the photos so you had to find out further information yourself if you wanted to know more - not easy when there was no Google or Wikipedia!  

The World's Mysterious Places 1 - The pyramids of Giza.

So issue one didn't exactly make me want me to rush out and place a regular order. Luckily the second edition was given away free with the first, and it was this issue, together with the bowel liquefying experience of the flexi-disc (see introduction) that would really make me into a regular reader.