Topic: Fortian Times

The host selects Charles Fort’s "Book of the Damned" as his number one pick, noting that despite its age, it remains the most original and provocative work in the field. They discuss Jeffrey Kripal’s claim that Fort "invented postmodernism" by predicting the end of the scientific era. They also lament the decline of the "Fortean Times" magazine, which they feel has moved away from Fort’s original spirit of challenging the materialist context.

The conversation shifts to the decline of organized Fortean societies and the compartmentalization of paranormal research. Arnold advocates for an open-minded scientific methodology that avoids immediate denial or debunking of "pyrophenomena." He emphasizes that fire remains one of humanity's least understood tools and calls for honest curiosity in investigating anomalies that currently reside on the "to-be-solved" shelf.

Greg Carlwood asks about the trend of "history hoaxes" and "phantom time," where the timeline of human history is allegedly manipulated. White responds by arguing that our fundamental understanding of time as linear and metronomic is a Northwest European error. He suggests that anomalies in history often emerge because we do not have a correct model of time, which traditional cultures view as cyclical or stacked.