Psychic abilities. Eerie events. Ghosts and aliens. Since the beginning of time, people have wondered about the supernatural: What is real and what isn't? Can you communicate with the other side? How do you explain phenomena that defies science and logic? This special edition tackles these unsettling questions in powerful and unexpected ways. Explore matters of the mind that seem to go well beyond just what can be seen. Reconsider classic unexplained phenomena like English crop circles, the Bermuda Triangle, and the sailing stones of Death Valley. Revisit the classic strange, supernatural creatures that help reveal and reflect our fears. Revel in the ongoing questions about extraterrestrial life, the mysterious kidnapping of Betty and Barney Hill, and the recent sightings by Navy pilots of strange crafts off the East Coast. Brought vividly to you with photographs and artist renderings, let this special edition take you beyond the normal and the known.
MYSTERIES OF THE UNKNOWN • Inside the World of the Strange and Unexplained
Matters of the Mind • Nineteenth-century spiritualist beliefs gave rise to psychics, mediums, séances, paranormal Cold War tactics, and, of course, skeptics
HARRY HOUDINI: VICTORIAN GHOSTBUSTER • Throughout his life, the famous escape artist was fascinated by spiritualism and the afterlife. Then came his debunking period
OUIJA: ADVICE FROM THE OTHER SIDE • Harmless recreation or dangerous fraud? Americans debated the authenticity of a popular board game
CARL JUNG: BEYOND SCIENCE • A pioneer of psychiatry paved the way for the New Age movement
CURSE OF THE BAMBINO • It may seem easy to blame a curse on the trade of one player—but 86 years of losses are hard to chalk up to coincidence
TRIPLE PLAY • More great baseball curses, from the Chicago Cubs and a smelly goat to the New York Giants and “Captain Eddie”
THE FATHER OF ESP • J.B. Rhine explored telepathy, clairvoyance, and other phenomena at Duke University
What Are Zener Cards? • J.B. Rhine used these colorful cards to prove ESP exists
THE PSYCHIC COLD WAR • In an international battle of the minds, who would emerge the winner?
The Real Manchurian Candidates • Hypnotized assassins sound like science fiction, but in the psychic Cold War, both sides tried to produce such secret operatives
FIRESTARTERS AND MATCHLESS MAYHEM • Human tissue that heats on its own? People who can use their brain waves to ignite matter?
Hot off the Presses • News accounts of spontaneous human combustion are not unheard of—or credible
UNLOCKING THE MYSTERY OF QIGONG • Medicine meets philosophy and martial arts in this ancient practice
MIND OVER METAL • Psychokinesis has long fascinated humanity. Is it really possible to think a fork out of shape?
MODERN PSYCHICS AND EVENTS • Psychics and mediums claim to peer into the future and grasp realms most of us can barely imagine
Unexplained Phenomena • How does an entire battalion of soldiers, an airplane, or even a cargo ship disappear? Science dismisses the paranormal, but many such events remain unexplained
RETURNING FROM THE LAND OF THE DEAD • For hundreds of years, people have reported visiting “the other side”
Point, Counterpoint • A famous doctor maintained that there was life after life. Was he right?
VANISHED INTO SMOKE • In 1915, an English regiment was dispatched to battle. The men climbed a hill, and then were gone
Captain Courageous • The men from Sandringham were valiantly led by a 54-year-old land agent
INTO THIN AIR • How does an entire airplane take off into the wild blue yonder … and never return?
NOW YOU SEE IT… • Amelia Earhart’s may be the most famous flight disappearance, but it was by no...
