Forteana

Forteana

TYPEClassification / research tradition

FIELDAnomalistics

ORIGINUnited States; named for writer Charles Fort

FIRST REPORTED1919 (publication of The Book of the Damned)

ALSO KNOWN ASFortean phenomena

STATUSAn active informal research and publishing tradition; not a recognised scientific discipline

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Forteana refers to anomalous phenomena — reported events or data that fall outside currently accepted scientific explanation — in the tradition established by American writer Charles Fort (1874–1932), after whom the term is named. The Vault uses "Forteana" as its broadest umbrella category, covering unexplained phenomena that don't share a single specific claimed mechanism — distinct from more mechanism-specific categories such as Cryptozoology or Parapsychology — reflecting the same broad, cross-disciplinary spirit in which Fort originally collected his material. For Fort's own biography, see Charles Fort; for the specific 1931–1959 organisation founded to promote his work, see Fortean Society.

Origin of the term

Fort spent much of his adult life compiling reports of anomalous events from mainstream scientific and news sources — accounts he referred to as "the damned," data effectively excluded from consideration by orthodox science. This material formed the basis of The Book of the Damned (1919) and three further books published over the following thirteen years. Admirers of Fort's work and method came to describe themselves as "Forteans," and the phenomena he catalogued as "Forteana" — terms that entered wider circulation well beyond Fort's own lifetime.

Organisations and publications in the tradition

The Fortean Society, founded in 1931, was the first organisation built specifically around Fort's work; see that article for its full history, founding membership, and 1959 dissolution. Fort's influence considerably outlasted the Society itself, inspiring a range of later successor organisations and publications. Fortean Times, first published in November 1973 by British Fortean Bob Rickard, remains the most prominent ongoing publication in the tradition, combining humour, scepticism and genuine research into subjects generally overlooked by mainstream science and media. Other organisations and publications in the same lineage include the International Fortean Organization (INFO) and its INFO Journal, the Society for the Investigation of the Unexplained (SITU) and its magazine Pursuit, the Society for Scientific Exploration, Strange magazine, The Anomalist, and William Corliss's Sourcebook Project — a separate, large-scale effort continuing Fort's original method of compiling anomalous reports from mainstream scientific literature.

The related term "anomalistics" — the interdisciplinary study of scientific anomalies more broadly — was coined by anthropologist Roger W. Wescott in 1973, and is often used alongside "Fortean" to describe the same general field, particularly within its more academically-oriented wing; see Anomalistic Psychology for the Vault's coverage of the closely related discipline focused specifically on psychological explanations for paranormal experience.

What "Fortean" actually means

There is no settled definition of what qualifies as "Fortean." The term is used across a genuinely wide spectrum — from purists dedicated specifically to Fort's own methods and interests, to individuals with active, open belief in paranormal phenomena generally, a position Fort himself would very likely not have shared; see Charles Fort § Fort's actual position for the fuller account of his own studied scepticism. Most broadly, self-described Forteans share an interest in unexplained phenomena across a wide range of fields, generally paired with the same agnostic scepticism Fort himself modelled — curious about anomalous claims without necessarily endorsing any specific supernatural explanation for them.

VAULT ASSESSMENT

CLASSIFICATION

Named research tradition / classification for anomalous phenomena generally

EARLIEST REPORT

1919 (The Book of the Damned)

MODERN REPORTS

1931–present (Fortean Society onward); ongoing via Fortean Times and related publications

EVIDENCE

Thousands of individually compiled anomaly reports drawn from mainstream scientific and news sources by Fort and later Forteans; the tradition is explicitly concerned with cataloguing anomalies rather than asserting a single unifying supernatural explanation for them

INVESTIGATIONS

Charles Fort; Fortean Society; Bob Rickard; William Corliss; Roger W. Wescott (coined "anomalistics")

ASSESSMENT

Forteana is best understood not as a claim to be tested, but as a named tradition and sensibility: a sustained, sceptically-curious interest in phenomena mainstream science has set aside, more concerned with challenging dogmatic certainty in either direction than with proving any specific anomaly genuine. Fort's own studied agnosticism sits in some tension with how later, more credulous strands of "Fortean" culture have sometimes used his name and legacy.

STATUS

N/A — this page documents a named research tradition, not a single paranormal claim under evaluation

See also

• Charles Fort
• Fortean Society
• Cryptid
• Anomalistic Psychology
• Cryptozoology
• Parapsychology

External links

• Wikipedia — Charles Fort
• Wikipedia — Fortean Society
• The Public Domain Review — Strange Gods: Charles Fort's Book of the Damned