The Rough Guide to Unexplained Phenomena: Mysteries and Curiosities of Science, Folklore and Superstition

by John Michell, Bob Rickard

This work is an exploration of the zone that lies between the known and unknown, a shadowy territory that's home to lake monsters, combusting people, teleporting frogs and man-eating trees. Taking a Fortean path between dogmatic scientists and credulous believers, the authors trace tales of wonder back to their sources, drawing from a huge archive of observations, opinions and discussions. As the third millennium begins many things are not yet known or understood about our world - as this guide shows, there are still many riddles to solve and wonders to experience.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Paranormal, Science, Reference

390 pages, Paperback

First published October 23, 2000

About the author

John Frederick Carden Michell was an English writer whose key sources of inspiration were Plato and Charles Fort. His 1969 volume The View Over Atlantis has been described as probably the most influential book in the history of the hippy/underground movement and one that had far-reaching effects on the study of strange phenomena: it "put ley lines on the map, re-enchanted the British landscape and made Glastonbury the capital of the New Age."

In some 40-odd titles over five decades he examined, often in pioneering style, such topics as sacred geometry, earth mysteries, geomancy, gematria, archaeoastronomy, metrology, euphonics, simulacra and sacred sites, as well as Fortean phenomena. An abiding preoccupation was the Shakespeare authorship question. His Who Wrote Shakespeare? (1996) was reckoned by The Washington Post "the best overview yet of the authorship question."

Reviews

[Kirsten · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is kind of a kick -- it's a huge compendium of just about every weird phenomenon you can think of: crop circles, poltergeists, rains of frogs and other animals, bleeding statues... Of course, nothing is as in-depth as one would like, which is occasionally frustrating, but my main quibbles concern the design of the book. For one thing, many of the black and white illustrations are actually reproduced in purple ink, which causes less contrast and makes them harder to see/understand. Additionally, a lot of the illustrations are blurry. I know to expect photos of Bigfoot or UFOs to be blurry, but even some of the reproductions of engravings and drawings seem blurred and are not as clear as they should be. Also, oftentimes there are photographs or drawings with captions, but the actual text does not go into more detail about these photos or the stories mentioned in the captions. For example, in the section on spontaneous human combustion, there is what would appear to be a rather good photograph (of course, it could be a fake) of a mostly-incinerated woman, supposedly a victim of SHC. Yet the text does not mention her case, although it describes several other similar incidents. It's the kind of shoddy scholarship that calls into question the validity of everything in the book. Also, there are no footnotes or endnotes and no bibliography, so it is difficult if not impossible to learn whether the stories cited are actual events or simply made up whole cloth. So, in any event, it's a good bathroom book, but don't take anything too seriously.

[TrumanCoyote · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fun compendium of things goofy. I would've preferred it if the authors had let their own theories intrude a bit less into the proceedings. Also, I couldn't help but feel that things were a bit selective and the wording leading at times; then too, although traditional scientists are frequently bozos, being "scientific" is somehow an exalted state.

Still, can't dislike anything with a sentence like: "We have another idea, equally preposterous and therefore no less worthy of consideration--" And the occasional drolleries of the text did not go unnoticed by this-here perennial wiseacre. :)

[Sean · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's a bit of fun. Not the best such book, but my eldest daughter found it interesting when looking at Nessie info after reading a school book based on the story. We then looked at other mythical creatures and it proved useful as a quick reference. If you want detail, you'll need to look elsewhere - more of an overview really.

[Dominic Wade · Rating 3 out of 5]

I mainly dipped into this book and have not read the whole thing. Some of the things are extremely bizarre and interesting, while others are rather disturbing.