Beach has undertaken an anomalistic analysis of the ways and means in which supernatural reports have changed over time–and by time, we mean centuries. The obvious problem is getting his hands on information/materials that can be used to compile a crude database, and to do that the good Doctor is calling on his readers for […]
Beach has put together an anthology of hauntings from the 1880s taking place on the island of Dundee, Scotland. This first tale from Blackness Quarry details appearances of a tall and elusive black spectre who, while terrorizing the island, was most likely a human interloper as demonstrated by his flight at the first sign of […]
Self-help books are everywhere, but do they have a foundation in science or perhaps they draw upon western mystical traditions? Dr. Beachcombing deconstructs these feel-good grimoires, revealing the cleverly hidden underpinnings authors are keeping under wraps. If you’re open-minded about all this, perhaps you should volunteer for a mixed precep experiment at your local university. […]
For our UK friends, Knotty Ash conjures up thoughts of comedian Ken Dodd, the town’s most famous son, but in 1891 a local wasn’t laughing when he witnessed a spooky midnight funeral procession, which he thought may have been “a ghastly repetition” of a burial from a bygone age. Meanwhile, Brent Swancer tells of Death […]
White as a ghost? Beach reminds us that there are other ways of spending our pale skinned free time–masquerading as a ghost, for instance. Unless of course you weren’t trying to impersonate a spook and just flat out frightened someone with your strangely white, even more strangely nude body. That’s the definition of a bad […]
Beach provides our readers with fodder for their next dinner party where sparkling conversation is an absolute necessity. The good Doctor posits that mystics and mysticism have risen throughout history, and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future, regardless of context, in much the same way that the human species gravitates towards satisfaction […]
We think Beach must be compiling a how-to-survive-anything-paranormal manual. First lesson, how to rescue yourself from a fairy wind, involves waiting for a twisting wind (the fae’s preferred mode of travel) to pass. Then, kick up the dirt from the ground into the wind, whilst blessing oneself like one learned in school (if one was […]
You know the old adage, “When all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail”? It’s central to an 18th century historian’s comeuppance, courtesy of the unwashed masses, for not examining his evidence from every conceivable angle. After you regain your composure, Fortean Ireland tackles Forteana In The Time Of Cholera. Epidemics aren’t […]
Scooby and the gang let those crotchety old men off easy, leaving justice to the authorities rather than the mob. Not so in the 19th century writes Dr. Beachcombing, relating the nigh-comical tales of retribution upon ghost impersonators. Whatever you do, don’t miss out on the vengeful crossdressers. Thank goodness we’re in the civilized 21st […]
The good doctor shares a rather entertaining story of a baboon unleashed on an unsuspecting community in Kent, UK in 1858. Seems the witnesses, of whom there were many, were of the mind that what they were seeing was the devil himself and gave no thought to the possibility of a primate having escaped from […]