At the heart of Nick Redfern’s audacious declaration is an admonition for cryptozoologists to approach the topic at an oblique angle. Most famous cryptid sightings, like Nessie, go hand-in-hand with other anomalies, lending credence to his position of looking outside of the bounds of biology and zoology. One point Nick makes is every witness is level-headed, and credible, in the presence of these otherworldly critters. Surely something happened to them. Exactly what, is at issue. Dr. Charles Paxton, late of Edinburgh, is Testing How People Report Encounters With Mythical Creatures. The study remains in progress, as John Paul Breslin has no conclusions to share, but this is worth following once Doc and pals publish. Many thanks to Hayley Stevens for tweeting that link, and for sharing her own research on Britain’s Slenderman, touching upon the evolution of ghosts and monsters. Despite Slendy’s precociousness, being a mere 6 years old, he’s become entrenched in pop consciousness whereupon stories and anecdotes about him become real. Almost tulpa-esque. Hayley discovers the same goes for ghosts, and other things going bump in the night. (CS)

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