As a life long skeptic and agnostic, I enjoyed this article very much. Unfortunately, The Fortean Times may have lost some followers, but its crazy topics continue to be as popular as ever among a large segment of the population. Ignorance and lack of critical thinking continue to be a serious problem in our country. To see people who actually defend creationism and intelligent design instead of evolution, which is a solid scientific theory that offers tons of evidence, is truly sickening.

Comment by Oliver Bean from Virginia — May 11, 2007 @ 9:35 am

Charles Fort (one of the men who perfectly defines the term ‘Agnostic’ as in “one who believes nothing out of faith") never had ANYTHING to do with creationism (or any other ‘ism’, for that matter) He was a collector of anomalous data, one who claimed “no product of the human mind is worthy of belief, including my own” to paraphrase him.

I’ve never met a real ‘Fortean’ myself, unfortunately, and his fans certainly do contain some real wingnuts and oddballs, but to tarnish Fort’s reputation with unwarranted slander is uncalled for.

Comment by J.M. from Oregon — May 11, 2007 @ 7:38 pm

I thought Mikita Brottman’s article was brilliant and very insightful.

I’ve been a Fortean since 1959.  How on target Brottman did captured the death and dying that is occurring within the American branch of the Fortean movement?  Unfortunately, she got it totally correct.  Thank goodness some of us still want to keep trying to get something going, however.

FT’s UnCons are lively, full of healthy skepticism, good Forteanism, new topics, and young, middle-aged and elder people.  The guest speakers, from year to year, are a changing body of individuals reflective of the need for diversity and flexibility in the field.

INFO in the DC area has grown sadly inflexible.  I was very involved with INFO when it was founded, but the current version has rejected “outsiders” for a long time.  By “outsiders,” I merely mean those who live outside the Beltway who wish the INFO leadership would get over some of its need to keep such rigid control of everything. 

INFO has refused to self-examine how a small group of people (the leaders) feel it is more important to invite the same people every year .  They appear blind to the fact their audiences are graying and grow smaller at each FortFest or FortNight or FortWhatever.  They fail to realize they are ignoring the Fortean foundation it once courted.  Too bad. 

I meet many punk, tatooed, tribal Forteans who would rather save their money to go to one Fortean Times’ UnCon every five years instead of one INFO FortFest annually.

Great essay.

Loren Coleman
Author of the Fortean classic, Mysterious America, in a new Paraview Pocket Simon and Schuster edition for 2007.

Comment by Loren Coleman from Portland, Maine — May 12, 2007 @ 8:34 am

Just requesting a little correction:  the caption under the photo of the poorly attended FortFest reads “Hard evidence of the attendance level at the recent UnConvention”.  This suggests it was related to Fortean Times’ UnCon, which it wasn’t.  Could you fix please?

Comment by Alistair Strachan from London, UK — May 15, 2007 @ 5:45 am

Mikita Brottman’s article is a sad, yet accurate, portrait of the moribund body that is INFO. As a former INFO Board Member (1990-1993), I witnessed the destruction of a once vital organization. Soon after joining the board it became apparent to me that there was a struggle in progress for control of the organization. In short, a band of control-freak mutineers (led by Phyllis “Meadow” Benjamin) and some weak-kneed accomplices thought that they could do a better job running INFO than President Ray Manners who had presided over INFO’s best years. Skipping the sordid details brings us to June 1993 when three Board Members resigned from INFO (the President, the Vice-President and myself) rather than staying on to work at the mutineer’s direction. Our predictions for INFO’s future at the time were prescient, though hardly surprising given what we knew about the remaining Board Members. In relatively short order, INFO Journal subscriptions dropped precipitously (eventually publication ceased altogether), the organization burned up all its surplus capital built up under Ray Manners, and the mutineers fought amongst themselves until only a few remained. Phyllis “Meadow” Benjamin, INFO President-for-Life since 1993, can proudly look back on her one true accomplishment—she oversaw and guided the destruction of organized Forteanism in the U.S. One day I am sure that there will be a plaque in her honor at the CSICOP building in Buffalo, NY.

Comment by James Pontolillo from Virginia — June 27, 2007 @ 5:33 am