Fortean Times

Fortean Times chronicles the stranger side of life, delivering a heady mix of weird world news, up-to-date reports and features on every aspect of the unexplained: myths, monsters, ghosts and UFOs rub shoulders with ancient wonders and future science, while expert columnists bring you the latest on everything from cryptozoology to conspiracy theory. Open-minded, well informed and maintaining a healthy sense of humour, Fortean Times is the only place to go for a sensible look at our mad planet – it will change the way you see the world.

WEIRED CRIME

Fortean Times

EDITORIAL

HOUSE OF HORRORS • Covid-fearing German couple lock children in Spanish home for three and a half years

SIGNALS FROM SPACE • Is alien activity happening within our Solar System?

EXTRA! EXTRA! • FT’S FAVOURITE HEADLINES FROM AROUND THE WORLD

ANCIENT MYSTERIES • The Antikythera Mechanism and Indus Valley script

LATE AGAIN! • Our latest round-up of long-errant library books, including Uri Geller’s contribution to the genre

AZTEC DEATH WHISTLE • Researchers unleash the sound of terror

CLASSICAL CORNER • 311: HABEMUS PAPAM AMERICANUM

ARCHÆOLOGY • A MONTHLY EXCAVATION OF ODDITIES AND ANTIQUITIES

Crying wolf? • DAVID HAMBLING says that scientists are sceptical about claims of ‘de-extincting’ lost species

LOOKING FOR SOME DISCLOSURE • A declassified CIA memo and a weird Soviet UFO encounter

The ghostly monks of Bury St Edmunds • ALAN MURDIE recalls his boyhood entry into the world of ghosts via a series of local hauntings

THE ONLY WAY IS UP (NORTH)! • ROB GANDY reports from Weird Weekend North 2025

ALIEN ZOO • NEWS FROM THE CRYPTOZOOLOGICAL GARDEN

THE C NSPIRASPHERE • The arson attacks on properties linked to the Prime Minister quickly resulted in the arrest of three foreign nationals. Case closed? Not in the Conspirasphere says NOEL ROONEY.

FORTEAN FOLLOW-UPS • The oldie baton passes, a serial orphan impersonator is back in prison and a museum makes a grisly find…

MYTHCONCEPTIONS • 292: GARDENER’S BEST FRIEND

NECROLOG • This month, we pay a fond tribute to two longtime FT contributors who used words and images to explore strange phenomena and unusual experiences

Fairies, Folklore and Forteana • SIMON YOUNG FILES A NEW REPORT FROM THE INTERFACE OF STRANGE PHENOMENA AND FOLK BELIEF

They want to believe… • NIGEL WATSON asks why prominent military, political and scientific figures go public with UFO stories

Strangers in the night • JENNY RANDLES says that elements of the UFO mystery may be old phenomena in modern clothes

JAPANESE TOILET GHOSTS • Many cultures have traditions of toilet-adjacent spirits, but Japan boasts more than most. LAURA MAURO explores haunted toilets in Japanese culture, a tradition that stretches from classical folklore to postwar urban legends and contemporary films and computer games

BEYOND COTTINGLEY • The story of the Cottingley fairy photos hoax is well known, but the other fairy photographs collected by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle remain largely forgotten. ALAN MURDIE dusts off these fascinating images and asks whether their publication in 1928 ultimately did Doyle’s Spiritualist crusade more harm than good…

THE ZIZIANS HIGH STRANGENESS IN SILICON VALLEY • NOEL ROONEY concludes his two-part look at the Zizians with a deep dive into the Silicon Valley Rationalist background from which Jack LaSota and his followers emerged, a heady brew of technological hubris, apocalyptic predictions concerning the growth of AI and some alarmingly mad, quasi-religious transhumanist ideas…

RATIONALIST PHILOSOPHY A PRIMER

The wolves of Skinwalker Ranch • As US scientists claim to have...