The Unexplained issue 5 - Black Holes, Spontaneous Human Combustion, UFO Technology, Sea Monstes, Kirlian Photography

 

Issue 5 cover

Issue five arrived with an iconic image of a sea monster attacking a ship to help publicise a new series of articles on the aquatic beasts. The issue contents starts with another in the series on black holes with Adrian Berry (1937-2016) taking over the writing duties to detail just how a black hole could be built. Berry was the fourth Viscount Camrose whose family owned the Daily Mail for nearly six decades. He was the newspaper's science correspondent from 1977 until 1997 and a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society and the British Interplanetary Society. The article is wildly speculative and covers how, in the not too distant future a fleet a craft could cross the galaxy to build an artificial black hole one light year from the sun. 

Only the legs of Mrs E.M. remain after she died on 29th January 1958. 

Just when you thought it was safe to go into a newsagent's again... The run of Bob Rickard's essays on spontaneous human combustion conclude and go out with a bang with even more nightmare imagery that acted as catnip to school kid thrill seekers. The above image impacted many including myself. Only the legs of the widow Mrs E M remain after she died on 29th January 1958 from either falling into a fire in the grate and burning or combusting of her own accord. 

The scorching of a slim lady.

The article lays out several possible theories for the phenomena. It is noted that a high proportion of recorded incidents involved individuals who perhaps had give up on life in some ways; alcoholics, the poverty stricken, the disabled and the elderly tired of life. The idea of a 'psychic suicide' where normally controlled reserves of physical and psychical energy are suddenly released by the depressed, lonely, deprived and frightened, was derived from this observation. 

Rickard favours the theory from Livingstone Gearhart proposed in the Fortean journal Pursuit in 1975 which observes a correlation between cases and peaks in geomagnetic flux. The article provided a handy series of charts between geomagnetic peaks and individual cases to help illustrate the idea. Over four decades later and this idea seems to now have fallen out of favour. 

An intriguing set of graphs that show the possible link between a high reading geomagnetic fields and specific cases of spontaneous human combustion

Janet and Colin Bord, who had previously tackled the subject of mysterious man beasts, return to report that the ocean depths may contain creatures as yet unknown to science in the article Monsters of the Deep. The text collates several historical accounts of sea monster sightings from the 16th century onwards.

A 1790s copy of a now lost original painting marking an encounter between a French ship and an underwater beast. 

Archbishop Magnus described "a sea serpent 200 feet long and 20 feet thick that would eat calves, lambs and hogs, and would even pluck men from boats... Magnus described the sea serpent as being black, having hair hanging from its neck (or mane), shining eyes, and putting its 'head on high like a pillar'. " (Monsters of the Deep by Janet and Colin Bord, The Unexplained issue 5, 1980, p.90.)

One of the sea monsters described by Archbishop Olaus Magnus and illustrated for his 1555 tome on the natural history of Scandinavia. 

The most recent case documented by the Bords dates from 25th July, 1966 when "trans-Atlantic rower Captain John Ridgway saw a monster just before midnight... His companion, Sergeant Chay Blyth, who has since become a world-famous yachtsman, was asleep. As Ridgway rowed he heard a swishing noise and a 35-foot long sea serpent outlined in phosphorescence, 'as if a string of neon lights were hanging from it', came swimming towards the boat. It dived underneath and did not reappear on the other side,"  (Monsters of the Deep by Janet and Colin Bord, The Unexplained issue 5, 1980, p.93.)

The bright glow surrounding this gold cross as attributed to the influence of the wearer's aura. Gold is alleged to be able to retain the aura. 

The above stunning image of a cross opens Reading Between the Lines, the final feature on Kirlian photography. Writer Brian Snellgrove discusses how Kirlian photography could possibly be utilised to detect the early stages of cancer and how disturbed auras may indicate stress and anxiety. He also examines the explanations for the Kirlian effect.
1) The effect is just the result of normal electrical discharge between the subject, film and machine.
2) The effect is a representation of the energy fields, aura or bioplasmic body that surround all living things.
3) The effect shows the energies of the soul.

Snellgrove concludes his investigation and the article by stating "there seems to be a flow of energy surrounding almost all living things. But what that energy is remains unknown." (Reading Between the Lines by Brian Snellgrove, The Unexplained issue 5, 1980, p.97.)

A Kirlian image of a slice of wholemeal bread.

In the intervening decades between the article first being published and the present Kirlian photography has been the subject of both parapsychological and scientific research with many paranormal claims thoroughly rejected by the scientific community. Russian experiments showed the variation in the intensity, length and colour of the corona were down to the moisture content on the surface of the subject. Oils, sweat and bacteria were also determining factors in the vividness of captured images. The validity of Kirlian imagery to help diagnose health issues has never been accepted by science, but the process has become embedded in popular culture despite this. The artwork for David Bowie's 1997 album Earthling reproduced several photos taken by Bowie himself before and after consuming cocaine. The after photo showed a distinct increase in the intensity of the aura. 

Two illustrations by Richard Burgess depicting UFOs encountered in 1973 (below) and 1962 (above).

The issue completes with Charles Bowen's latest UFO Casebook which features encounters from 1973 and 1962. The illustrations that accompany the article, rendered in a stylised pencil or wax crayon fashion, were produced by the magazine's designer, Richard Burgess, and are consistent throughout the entire run of the magazine. I always felt they were odd personally, but perhaps this partly due to the fact that the casebooks were my least favourite feature. 

The World's Mysterious Places number five was the statues of Easter Island. This is a topic that I don't think The Unexplained every tackled, but thankfully Arthur C Clarke and his 1994 TV series Mysterious Universe helped to fill the gap over a decade later. 

The Unexplained issue 4 - Black Madonnas, ESP, UFO technology, man-beasts, hypnosis.

Issue four cover

The cover star of issue four is a Black Madonna, a mysterious religious icon, which is the first new topic covered inside. The other debuting topic is on UFO technology whilst coverage of mysterious man-beasts comes to a close. 

A Black Madonna located in Einsiedeln, Sweden

Virgins With A Pagan Past was written by Richard Leigh (1943-2007) and Michael Baigent (1948-2014) and examines the 'unofficial' counterpart to the 'official' Virgin Mary. The origins of these depictions, where the skin tones are darker or blacker than the traditional imagery of the Virgin, are obscure or lost. What appears to have happened is that the material the faces of statues or paintings were made from became darker due to aging or environmental factors such as exposure to smoke from votive candle for example. Churches took pride in these unique icons and opted to preserve the change in colour rather than attempt restoration. Over time new statues or paintings adapted this darker colouring when they were made. Believers viewed the change of colour as a manifestation of the heightened spiritual powers of the effigies. They do not see them as Madonnas that became darker over time but as having transcended into Black Madonnas, made to change colour through the will of God. 

Leigh and Baigent were the co-authors (alongside Henry Lincoln) of the book Holy Blood, Holy Grail (1982) which proposed the theory that Jesus married Mary Magdalene and had several children. The descendants of these offspring moved to France where they integrated and married into nobility. The book became an international best seller even though it was criticised for a lack of basis in credible fact and would eventually inspire Dan Brown to pen his novel The Da Vinci Code (2003).  Leigh would later unsuccessfully attempt to sue Brown for plagiarism.  

Black Madonna in Tarragona Cathedral, Spain

Clues from Clairvoyance is the next instalment of articles about the topic of ESP and trots through the shades of clairvoyance from having a vague awareness to vivid revelations and how these incidents can lead to vital clues in some cases. Writer Roy Stemman noted the following which sums up the hit and miss nature of the phenomena.

"It has to be remembered that, for every impressive case reported in the press, there are probably a hundred or more where volunteered 'psychic' help only leads the police on a wild goose chase. Following the mysterious disappearance of schoolgirl Genette Tate in August 1978, for example, the Devon police received calls from other 200 mediums and people interested in psychic detection who believed their paranormal powers could produce useful clues."
(Clues from Clairvoyance by Roy Stemman, The Unexplained issue 4, 1980, p.66)

The next article, Spinning Through Space, is about UFO technology and outlines how UFOs might work and the kind of alien civilisations that could produce them. A highly speculative article which is underlined by the box out on why many UFOs are saucer shaped.

"The fact that most UFOs are disc-shaped rather than spherical can be explained as a design feature that allows spacecraft to operate at high speeds once they have entered the atmosphere of a planet; by flying with their edges into the wind, they can cut down the effect of air resistance almost to zero."
(Spinning Through Space by Tony Osman, The Unexplained issue 4, 1980, p.73.)

Box out offering theories on why UFOs are often saucer shaped

The final article on man-beasts sees Janet and Colin Bord present theories on just what these creatures are. It's a packed feature taking in various anomalies surrounding sightings and evidence such as some man-beasts having a lingering odour 'like a dead person', how some creatures seem impervious to bullets even when fired at short range and some bigfeet having the power to dematerialise. Theories included are also wide ranging from hoaxes to holograms, paranormal beasts to missing links. The article does not offer a satisfactory explanation or come down in favour of one theory above another. Instead it concludes by stating the issue is extraordinarily complex and deserves much more research. Sightings of bigfoot and associated hairy humanoids continue to this day and we seem no closer to solving the mystery, though I am puzzled in this era of everyone having a camera on their phone that there is so little convincing photographic or video evidence. 

When a series of articles on a topic came to a close a selection of further reading on the subject was included at the end of the text. Here several more books written by the Bords are included alongside tomes by Bernard Heuvelmans who was one of the founding fathers of cryptozoology. 

The man-beast captured in killed in 1917 on the border between Columbia and Venezuela. This is now considered to depict a species of spider monkey. 

The article on hypnosis again concentrated on past lives regression and in particular the case of Mrs Virginia Tighe (1923-1995), an American who, under hypnosis between November 1952 and October 1953, regressed over a hundred years to become an Irish woman named Bridey Murphy. Tighe was a Wisconsin native and had lived in Chicago since she was a child and had no Irish friends or relatives, but under hypnosis she talked with an Irish accent and a gave detailed account of living in Cork in the early 19th century. The claims were investigated and were the usual mixture of confirmed and unconfirmed details. When the case was reported it created a sensation with a book detailing the case released in 1956 and a film based on the book produced the same year. These had such a penetration on the public psyche that the case has now been absorbed into popular culture. In 2024 comedian Billy Crystal stated that his Apple TV series Before was inspired the case of Bridey Murphy. 

Hypnotist Morey Bernstein and Virginia Tighe

The World's Mysterious Place photo feature for the issue was a shot of the standing stones of Callanish on the Isle of Lewis. 

Callanish stones

The Unexplained issue 3 - Black Holes, Spontaneous Human Combustion, Hypnosis, Kirlian Photography

 

Issue 3 cover.

The cover of the third issue has no sample image from the inside contents. Instead we can admire the Kirlian bubble in all its glory for the first and last time. The reason for the blank space was the free gift with the issue, a set of Zener cards.

The cards were designed by the psychologist Karl Zenner (1903-1964) in the 1930s and consisted of five designs (circle, plus sign or cross, square, wavy lines, star) for the 25 cards in a pack. Zenner was a specialist in the study of conditioned response (Pavlov's dogs for example). They cards purpose was to test an individual's esp abilities in experiments conducted by parapsychologist J.B. Rhine (1895-1980) who wanted a set of images that would be free of established associations in the minds of his test subjects. In 1934 Rhine published a book, Extra Sensory Perception, which analysed over 90,000 tests he had conducted and this became a best seller. By 1937 Zener cards were commercially available and could be purchased in local newsagents. 

 The five symbols that make a pack of Zener cards.

Rhine's tests are not without controversy. The format of using cards was criticised as they could be easily manipulated in the way a stage magician can (being secretly marked for example). There was also issues with how the experiments were conducted with the potential for cards to be seen in the reflection in dividing screens, or cards to be read from slight indentations on the backs of cards. Subjects could see the person conducting the experiment and might have be able to detect facial expressions or changes in breathing. Rhine took these criticisms into account and adjusted his experiments accordingly, but was never able to achieve the impressive results of his initial set of experiments.

My now long-lost set of free cards from the issue would be taken out of storage for several years afterwards during the Christmas period in order to test drunken aunts and uncles for hidden abilities. I can safely report back no ESP was ever found in either my family or friends. In 1984, after seeing the film Ghostbusters which had a scene involving Zener cards, they were trotted out for one last round of tests before going back in the cupboard and never to be seen again. I reckon my mum did a spot of spring cleaning...

Illustration of a standard space-time chart.

The third issue began with Nigel Henbest's second article on black holes. Doorway To Beyond: Inside A Black Hole attempted to explain how the mysterious stellar objects could theoretically used as a means of instantaneous travel to other universes. Just the article summary blew my mind and the diagrams used to accompany the text really didn't help either! The main thing I couldn't get my head around was the fact that any astronaut and their vehicle would be crushed to a immeasurably small dot by the gravitational forces as it entered the black hole. What good would instant travel be if it killed you in the process? The article seemed to avoid this fact and instead concentrate on the juicy theory such as how black holes could even be time machines where journeys through them could result in the traveller emerging in the age of the dinosaurs or the far future!

Things considerably pick up with the second article on the phenomena of spontaneous human combustion, which discussed the demise of Mary Reeser, complete with an image of workmen shovelling up the charred remains! Mary Reeser was a 67 year old widow who died during the night of 1st July, 1951. The chair was sat in "burned down to its springs, there was a patch of soot on the ceiling above and a small circle of carpet charred around the chair, but a pile of papers nearby was unscorched." (The Destruction of Mary Reeser by Bob Rickard, The Unexplained Issue 3, 1980, p.47)

Dr Wilton Krogman, a forensic scientist who specialised in deaths by fire, investigated the scene and was at a lost to provide an adequate explanation for the event. "I cannot conceive of such complete cremation without more burning of the apartment itself. In fact the apartment and everything in it should have been consumed. Never have I seen a human skull shrunk by intense heat. The opposite has always been true; the skulls have been either abnormally swollen or have virtually exploded into hundreds of pieces." (Dr Wilton Krogman quoted in The Destruction of Mary Reeser by Bob Rickard, The Unexplained Issue 3, 1980, p.47) The last sentence was nothing short of a playground sensation with a heated debate on what the worst way to die - shrunken or exploded head? Kids intently inspected the photo to see if they could spot the shrunken bonce. 

Workmen clearing away the remains of Mary Reeser (shrunken skull not featured).

Krogman also provided details of how heat impacts on bones which supplied intriguing grisly details. A body burnt for over 8 hours at 2000 Fahrenheit showed no sign of becoming calcinated ashes, though a temperature of 3000 Fahrenheit can make bones melt and become pliable.  What the details of the Reeser case highlighted is the recurring effect found in many cases of SHC where the intense heat seems to be confined to a small area with nearby flammable objects untouched. Even more puzzling are the cases involving victims lying on a bed often leave light scorching to the mattress and those charred bodies found sitting on only slight singed chairs. The article describes several more cases, drawing from the writings and research of Charles Fort who suspected that SHC was connected to demonology. The third instalment on this topic, previewed in a short sentence at the end of the article,  tantalised a review of the theories of what caused such bizarre conflagrations.  

The most stimulating article of the issue was a totally new and compelling mystery to me in the form of Kirlian photography. 

Image of a whole leaf with Kirlian glow.

Same leaf with a portion cut away. The Kirlian glow still exists for the excised portion.

In 1939 Russian scientist Semyon Kirlain was repairing equipment a research lab in Ukraine when he moved his hand near a live electrode. There was a blinding flash of light and he received a minor shock as electricity sparked from the electrode to his hand. He wondered what would have if light sensitive paper was placed in the way of the spark and repeated the accident with the paper placed above his hand and in the path of the spark. When he developed the paper he was astonished to see emanations around the image of his fingertips. His research over four decades would lead some to declare that high voltage photography (now known as Kirlain photography) captured the aura given off by living things that mystics and clairvoyants claim to be able to see. One of Kirlain's experiments involved a leaf photographed whole and then with a section removed. In the photo with the cut leaf an image of the excised material appeared on the print. This phantom leaf seemed to confirm claims of clairvoyants that they can see phantom limbs on amputees.

Mr and Mrs Kirlian.

The hypnosis articles focussed on the phenomena of hypnotically regressed subjects recalling previous lives with discussion of several cases as well as giving an overview of the origins of modern hypnosis. This as a lead in to the next article in this series which presented the case of Bridey Murphy, possibly the most famous case of someone recalling past lives, which was also made into a Hollywood feature film. 

The UFO Casebook for the issue spotlighted a series of encounters, now called the Kaikoura Lights, which included footage documented by a New Zealand television news crew investigating the rash of sightings in 1978. I remember the incident created quite a buzz at the time with the incident (complete with wobbly close ups of lights in the sky) being featured on both the ITV and BBC news on New Year's Day 1979. More details and footage from 

Boxout from the UFO Casebook article which provides a possible explanation - sighting of the planets Venus or Jupiter.

The World's Mysterious Places 3 - The great serpent mound in Ohio.

The inside back cover was given to a full size of the Great Serpent Mound in Ohio in the latest entry into The World's Mysterious Places. Again no explanation of the place is given, but I now know that this 411 metre prehistoric structure built by Native American for unknown reasons. 

The Unexplained issue 2 - Hypnosis, Spontaneous Human Combustion, Black Holes, Man-Beasts and ESP

Issue two cover.

The second issue was bundled free with the first and featured a still from the infamous 1967 Bluff Creek Bigfoot cine film on the cover in a Kirlian glow. Three new topics were introduced starting with The Power of Suggestion, an introduction to hypnosis, penned by Brian Inglish who was one of the regular consultants for the magazine. 

Inglish (1916-1993) was better known to the public as a TV presenter and had been the host of All Our Yesterdays between 1962 and 1973. This was a review of the events of the 1930s with studio commentary and newsreel clips that was produced by Granada Television. Inglish, in his role as the editor of The Spectator, had also presented the weekly news review What The Papers Say. It was whilst working at The Spectator that Inglish developed his interest in the paranormal and this led to his first book on the subject, Natural and Supernatural (1978). He was a member of the Society for Psychical Research and claimed to have experienced precognitive dreams so he was perhaps ideally placed to discuss the topic of hypnotism.

An 18th century hypnotist projecting magnetism from his hands to induce healing in a patient. 

In his article Inglish struggles to define what hypnotism is and how it works stating from the start that there is no clear explanation.

"Hypnosis is generally defined as a trance, that is, an altered state of consciousness... Hypnosis appears to switch off some part of our minds that ordinarily monitors our behaviour, instructing us what to do in any given set of circumstances without thought on our part. We hand this control system over to the hypnotist, much as an airline pilot may hand over the controls of his aircraft to somebody on the ground." 
(The Power of Suggestion by Brian Inglish, The Unexplained issue 2, 1980, p.21.)

A hypnotist extracts a tooth after putting his patient into a trance.

He gives a general overview of the subject. He defines the use of hypnosis in medicine and how hypnotised subjects can touch red-hot metal without feeling pain or even a blister appearing. He also outlines how some individuals reveal hithero hidden talents under hypnosis such as drawing or singing. Inglish also introduces the subject of hypnotic regression where subjects recall events from past lives which he delves in to deeper in issue three. 

The first page of THAT article on spontaneous human combustion.

As mentioned previously I was unsure if I was going to spend fifty pence every week on the publication, but the next article dispelled any uncertainties in a flash and became playground contraband for the shocking and graphic images it presented. 

Spontaneous human combustion is very much a phenomena that still puzzles (Fortean Times have revisited the subject in a series of articles published this year) and still has the power to shock. Just what is it that reduces a person to charred remains in a short space of time, consuming flesh and bone, but leaves the surrounding area relatively untouched? Bob Rickard, a one time product design student at Birmingham Art College and the founder of Fortean Times, described several fascinating and horrific cases of spontaneous human combustion (SHC) in his feature Ashes to Ashes, but it was the eye popping photos that really hit home. Writer Stephen Brothersone described how the magazine became a shared experience for thrill seekers and formative Forteans.

"Issues were pored over in school, images passed around like some kind of 'hardness test', and woe betide any sensitive kids such as myself who turned their noses up at the ghosts, aliens and burned legs (oh, those burned legs). It may seem difficult to fathom now, but The Unexplained really was a bit of a shared cultural experience for people like me." 
(The Unexplained Magazine by Stephen Brotherstone, Scarred For Life Volume Three, Lonely Water Books, 2024)

All that remains of Dr. Bentley.

The image of the remnants of the a single lower leg, all consumed from the knee upwards, next to a charred hole in the floor greeted the readers of the box out entitled The Burning of Dr Bentley. This detailed the case of 93-year-old Dr J. Irving Bentley in December 1966.

"Don Gosnell entered the building's basement to read the meter... a 'light blue smoke of unusual odor' hung in the air. Scattering an unfamiliar heap in the corner with his boot, Gosnell found it was ashes. There had been no answer to his greeting on the way in, so he decided to look in on the old man. There was more strange smoke in the bedroom but no sign of Bentley. Gosnell peered into the bathroom and was confronted with a sight he will never forget. A large hole had burned through the floor to the basement... On the edge of the hole he saw '...a brown leg from the knee down, like that of a mannequin. I didn't look further!' Gosnell fled the building."
(Ashes to Ashes by Bob Rickard, The Unexplained issue 2, 1980, p.27)

An unnamed victim of spontaneous human combustion.

Even more bizarre was the fact that the fire had been contained to one small area in the bathroom and had not resulted in a full blown house fire. The bathtub, only a foot away, was only lightly scorched from what must have been tremendous heat. One explanation stated that Irving, a smoker, had dropped a lighted cigarette on his dressing gown and made his way to the bathroom to try and extinguish the fire. However we can plainly see the remains of a walking aid in the picture balanced over the hole. Irving had broken his hip six years previously and had no feeling in his left leg due to this. Surely a man with limited mobility would have not made such a slow journey, especially if on fire? With only a partial leg to go on as evidence the coroner declared that Dr Bentley had died of asphyxiation!

The article contains several more, equally gruesome, reports and ends before Rickard can start looking at the possible causes of SHC. 
 

Living up to its tagline The Unexplained next turned its attention to a mystery of space (and possibly time) with an article on black holes. I'd heard of this theoretical phenomena (hell, I'd even seen the Disney film named after the mystery in the cinema), but was still unsure of what the things were and what they did. Thankfully astronomer Nigel Henbest (born 1951) was on hand to try his best to educate me with a discussion on how stars become black holes. So far, so straight forward but I recall future articles on the subject get much more complicated which left me slightly befuddled on the topic. 

Next was the second part of Roy Stemman's examination of ESP which focussed on telepathy, the apparent communication from one mind to another without speech sometimes over great distances. Stemman offers several cases including one experiment where communication was carried out with one of the subjects submerged on the American submarine USS Nautilus and the other person on land. Stemman terms the phenomena 'mental radio' which I'd never heard of before and the text ends on the promise of the next article looking at 'Clairvoyance - mental television - can be used in crime detection'.

A still from the 1967 Patterson-Gimlin cine film of Bigfoot.

The issue wraps with the second instalment of Janet and Colin Bord's survey of mysterious man-beasts concentrated on sightings of bigfoot and posed the question of how can a primitive creature survive unseen in one of the most developed countries on Earth? The article was illustrated with frames from the 1967 Bluff Creek cine film (also known as the Patterson-Gimlin film) shot in Northern California by Roger Patterson and Robert Gimlin that shows a bigfoot casually strolling across a forest clearing. The makers went to their graves stating the film was genuine and debate still rages to this day of the authenticity. The Wikipedia entry on the subject has an in depth explanation of all aspects of the cine film, accusations of it being hoax and the controversy surrounding it. Read it here Patterson Gimlin film

Bigfoot hunter Rene Dahinden beside a statue of bigfoot based on descriptions of the creature. Dahinden is the one smoking a pipe...

The second in the photo series The World's Mysterious Places featured an aerial view of one of the lines of Nazca. I was familiar with these landmarks as they had featured in Arthur C Clarke's Mysterious World and this is just one of around three hundred different figures built more than 2,000 years ago. I often wondered why these geoglyphs had not eroded given their age and this is because the region has very little rain or wind to help wear the markings and materials away. 

The World's Mysterious Places 2 - The lines of Nazca.

After I had read both issues my mind was made up and I immediately started to pester my mum to place a regular order with the local newsagents (Ron Moore's it was known as, eventually closed and became a bathroom showroom and is now a large charity shop - so it goes). I counted the days until a new issue was waiting for me behind the counter... 

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.

Introduction - Welcome to the World of The Unexplained

 Interest in occult and paranormal topics had become more widespread in the 1960s and 1970s in the UK and the USA, fuelled in part by the rise of psychedelia and people searching for alternative beliefs and ways of living, especially among the younger generation. Scarred for Life author Stephen Brotherstone, writing on this cultural blossoming, noted

"Maybe it was the post-60s comedown. Maybe it was a rejection and reflection, of the cynicism of the time. Maybe it really was the dawning of the Age of Aquarius. Maybe it was related to the fact that we'd just put a man on the moon, and the idea of reaching out to the stars by the year 2000 seemed to be an entirely reasonable one." (The Great Paranormal Boom of the 1970s by Stephen Brotherstone, Scarred for Life Volume One: The 1970s, Lonely Water Books, 2017, p.663).

Whatever the reasons for the public's appetite for all things Fortean it was very quickly absorbed into popular culture with the media of the era reflecting this fascination. A highpoint of this mainstreaming came in 1977 with the release of Spielberg's film Close Encounters of the Third Kind and the publication by Usborne of the children's factual books The World of the Unknown (covering the topics Monsters, Ghosts and UFOs). This seemed to open the floodgates and it soon became the norm to be able to buy the latest mass market paperbacks on a range of Fortean subjects from petrol service stations and local newsagents up and down the land. The discerning fledgling Fortean could expand their horizons by reading a swathe of material this way.

The voracious public appetite for material about the unknown and uncanny continued unabated for several years. Arriving on the scene as the 1970s flowed into the 1980s was The Unexplained, a part work magazine published weekly between 1980 and 1983 by Orbis Publishing, that ran for 157 issues. The last edition was an index for all the previous issues. The magazine, which proved to be extremely popular, debuted in the same year as the TV series Arthur C Clarke's Mysterious World and covered many of the same topics such as UFOs, ghosts, the Bermuda Triangle, sea monsters, stone circles and contact with the dead. It also introduced readers to a wider variety of the unknown by covering lesser know phenomena as well as historical characters linked to occult or unknown.  

The team of editors and authors behind the magazine came with excellent pedigree. Editor Peter Brookesmith was a prolific writer and speaker on Fortean topics and editorial director Brian Innes (who was also a former member of the jazz band Temperance Seven) had previously worked on the publication Man, Myth and Magic in the 1970s. Dr J. Allen Hynek and Professor A. J. Ellison were consultants. Hynek had classified UFO incidents into close encounters of the first, second and third kind whilst Ellison was an active researcher into the paranormal and served as President of the Society of Psychical Research. Also on board as a consultant was Colin Wilson, who had written copiously on mysticism, the paranormal and true crime, and Brian Inglis who was an Irish journalist, historian and TV presenter who had written extensively on parapsychology and alternative medicine. Many of the contributors of articles were experts in their chosen field including Janet and Colin Bord (man-beasts, earth mysteries), Guy Lyon Playfair (parapsychology and the Enfield Poltergeist which he had helped to investigate) and Jenny Randles (UFOs) to name a few. Articles from the magazine were later reprinted in book form in the late 80s by several publishers under titles such as When the Impossible Happens (1984) and Out of This World: Mysteries of Mind, Space and Time (1989). 

The Unexplained launched in October 1980 with an extensive print and television publicity campaign. The voice over for the advert boomed that "So much in our universe just cannot be explained, but just cannot be ignored. Events and phenomena past and present defy so-called rational explanation. How much do we really know? Now, week by week, a new publication examines new evidence and explores the theories." My just turned thirteen year old enquiring mind was hooked. I had to track a copy of this new magazine down...

The Unexplained was responsible for one of the most memorable episodes of terror from my formative years which came in the form of a flexi-disc given away free with the premier issue. Breakthrough: An Amazing Experiment in Electronic Communication with the Dead introduced EVP (Electronic Voice Phenomena) with examples of captured voices. I recall playing the disc in the living room on my parents large wooden cabinet like record player with a growing sense of existential horror, the hairs on my neck bristling as voices from the beyond the grave spoke. A few nights of uneasy sleep followed as the disembodied voices would pepper my inner dialogue as I attempted to drift off. It wouldn't be the last time that the magazine would have such an impact on me...

Both sides of the disc can be listened to in the link below:

Electronic Voice Phenomenon are mysterious voices or sounds that are claimed to be recorded on electronic equipment. The technique is often used in ghost hunting and are interpreted as voices of spirits communicating through the devices. The counter argument is that the sounds are auditory pareidola (random noise interpreted by the listener as having a meaningful pattern), radio interference or recording artifacts. Listening to the static lashed, distorted and muffled voices on cold winter's night by myself all those years ago is still a vivid memory, and listening to it again recently gave me goosebumps.

The flexi-disc was actually a reissue of an obscure 1971 album entitled Breakthrough from writer Konstantin Raudive which was released to cross promote Raudive's book of the same name. The recordings narrator, Michael Smyth, owned the record label that issued the album. Thanks to being rescued from limbo by The Unexplained the record has gone on to have quite a cultural afterlife with samples being used by a diverse range of musicians and bands including Meat Beat Manifesto, Themselves and The Smiths on the end of their song Rubber Ring - "You are sleeping, you do not want to believe!".  

This blog will look at each issue of The Unexplained and detail the contents mixed with personal memories of reading them. I will also be commenting on the way some mysteries or phenomena have evolved or have even been solved (The Cottingley Fairies photos for example) in the years since the articles were first printed.

So come with me as I explore The Unexplained...