The Book of the Damned: The Original Classic of Paranormal Exploration

This book contains all four of Charles Fort's books: `The Book of the Damned'; `New Lands'; `Lo!'; and `Wild Talents'. `By the damned', wrote Charles Fort, `I mean the excluded. We shall have a procession of data that Science excluded.' And in these four books (or processions) we have a feat of recorded events of bizarre, strange and inexplicable anomalies for which science could not fully account. And what are these recorded events? They include frogs falling from the sky during storms, monsters, teleportation, poltergeists, and floating islands. They include people who disappear; people who reappear; and people who spontaneously combust. This is an engrossing compilation of miscellaneous attention-grabbing events, approached with both belief and scepticism, and blended with scholarship and humour. How to read this massive book? I'm pleased that I took Jim Steinmeyer's advice to read `Lo!' (the third book) first. By the time I got (back) to `Book of the Damned', I was totally engrossed. Fort's writing is humorous, cynical and witty. In Fort's view, it is not possible for humans to fully know or define the universe. I especially like his statement that: `There is something wrong with everything that is popular.' Whether or not this is always true, popularity certainly does not guarantee `truth'. The collection of oddities compiled by Charles Fort is fascinating and it is possible to simply enjoy the descriptions without wondering about how and why these events took place. Fort's floating `Sargasso Seas' in the sky as a means of sucking in and dropping of frogs (and other objects) is as good as any other explanation for frogs falling from skies during storms. The fact that we can't explain all events doesn't mean that we shouldn't look for explanations to examine, accept or reject. Now that I have read Fort's writings, I am keen to read more about Fort himself. Jennifer Cameron-Smith

This book is probably the definitive book on Fortean phenomenon. Charles Fort, as you may know, is considered the father of the unusual, covering what would now be considered cryptozoology, UFOlogy, and several other genre covering the wierd and unexplainable. If you only bought one Charles Fort book, this would be it.

Charles Fort spent 27 years of his life searching library archives for credible reports of anomalous phenomena. The Book of The Damned is a product of this exhaustive research. Apart from the massive quantity of data he uncovered for this book, he also adds his humor, wit, speculation, and genius. The end result is a book that will, in all probability, redefine the reader's conception of reality. This book is a must read for the curious intellectual!

Why read Charles Fort's The Book of the Damned? Answer: It will teach you to think outside your box, your commonly held and usually unconscious assumptions about `what is true'. The point of reading the book is to experience the process of feeling the challenges to your unconscious assumptions about the nature of reality. Fort never intended for anyone to take his `explanations'/'theories' he offers to explain the long list of damned facts he presents. He knows they are preposterous. The point isn't the `answers' the point is the process of thinking outside of your box. He wants you to challenge your assumptions and to imagine `what if'. Those reviewers who take Fort's `theories'/ `explanations' as being a serious attempt to explain those damned facts he lists, are utterly mistaken. Fort didn't want to substitute one set of nonsense for another set. He only wants you to learn to realize that you live with previously unconscious sets of beliefs about what is real and true. Please - please don't give in to the folly of actually thinking that his explanations were meant to explain anything. If you do, then you miss the whole point of Fort's book. Fort wants you to challenge your expectations and assumptions. Fort is having great fun in getting you to experience the unexplained and the unknown. The point is the experience, the process of thinking new thoughts and new ideas. Fort is about questions not answers. If you want to learn to think outside of the box you have been living in - read this book and enjoy the experience of having your box exploded!

This is not a new book, but was written sometime around the turn of century and has been considered a classic on most 'required reading' lists. A spoof on the awe in which society holds the Holy Writs of the scientific community, the author marshalled an impressive army of established, documented facts for which the official scientific explanations are simply absurd. A 'must read' for anyone who believes science teaches The Truth -- or for anyone who suspects otherwise.