11.11.19. Charles Fort: Prophet of the Damned

On this episode of The Micah Hanks Program, we lead off with the latest update in the ongoing search for Amelia Earhart, as well as an unusual planetary appearance as one of Earth’s neighbors makes a rare transit across the sun. We also discuss moon rocks, mystery objects falling from the sky, and our study of deep space with probes like Voyager 1 and 2, which might eventually be discovered one day by other civilizations far beyond our solar system.

Then later in the program, we turn our attention to one of the most influential minds of the 20th century, Charles Fort. It was Fort’s The Book of the Damned–published one century ago this year–that ushered in a new era of thought in relation to anomalous phenomena in nature, sparking renewed interest and a wave of like-minded “heretics” that would follow in his footsteps. However, while Fort has been called “the man who invented the supernatural,” arguably his most prescient contributions of all had to do with his collection of data pertaining to aerial anomalies, which seemingly anticipated our coming to awareness of UFOs.

We examine Fort’s writings that dealt with these cultural predecessors to modern UFO reports, comparing the similarities and differences, and studying the way that the discussion has changed in relation to the topic since the “pre-UFO” era when Fort wrote his magnum opus on “Forteana.”

Below are links to stories featured in this week’s episode: