Fringe-ology (40 page)

Denise Gellene, “How UFOs Took Over a Town,”
Los Angeles
Times
, June 14, 2008, accessed October 30, 2010, http://articles.latimes.com/2008/jun/14/science/sci-ufo14

Sara Vanden Berge, Interview, April 2009.

Steve Allen, Interviews, September 2009, August 2010.

Weather data (hourly) obtained from Weather Warehouse, an online historical weather site, accessed October 30, 2010, http://weather-warehouse.com/

Angelia Joiner, Interview, August, September, and November 2009.

Glen Schulze and Robert Powell, “Special Research Report, Stephenville, Texas,” MUFON, (July 2008): 6–7, 33–34.

Angelia Joiner, “Possible U.F.O Sighting,”
Stephenville Empire-Tribune,
January 10, 2008.

Rick Sorrells, Interview, September 2009.

Angelia Joiner, “Dozens in Texas Town Report Seeing U.F.O.,”
Stephenville Empire-Tribune,
January 14, 2008.

Angelia Joiner, “Three Erath County Lawmen Observe ‘One Big Craft,' ”
The Stephenville Lights,
March 30, 2008, accessed November 1 2010, http://stephenvillelights.com/slnews_article005.html

Angelia Joiner, “Stephenville UFO Is Viewed by Former Protector of Texas Governors,”
The Stephenville Lights
, February 28, 2008, http://stephenvillelights.com/slnews_article004.html

Angelia Joiner, “All Eyes on the Skies,”
Stephenville
Empire-Tribune
, January 13, 2008.

Alejandro Rojas, Former Director of Public Education, MUFON, Interview, July 2009.

Robert Powell, Director of Research, MUFON, Interviews, July, August, and October 2009.

Jane Pratt, “UFO Reports Bring a Few Good-Natured Laughs,” Abilene
Reporter-News,
January 16, 2008, accessed November 1, 2010, http://www.reporternews.com/news/2008/Jan/16/ufo-reports-bring-a-few-good-natured-laughs/

Bill Radke, “A Sighting in Stephenville,” American Public Radio, January 26, 2008, November 1, 2010. http://weekendamerica.publicradio.org/display/web/2008/01/25/ufo/

July Danley, President/CEO Stephenville Chamber of Commerce, Interview, September 2009.

Treva Thompson, then-Marketing and Tourism Dir., Stephenville Chamber of Commerce, Interview, September 2009.

Craig Shelburne, “Jewel, Ty Murray, Live the Small Town Life,”
CMT News,
May 30, 2006.

Matt Copeland, Co-owner, Barefoot Athletics, Interview, September 2009.

Katy Copeland, Barefoot Athletics, Interview, September 2009.

Christopher O'Brien,
Secrets of the Mysterious Valley
(Adventures Unlimited Press, 2007): 322–38.

Jean Edwards, Interview, December 2009.

George Edwards, Interview, December 2009.

Bruce Maccabee, Interview, November 2009.

Brian Dunning, “The Rendlesham Forest UFO,”
Skeptoid
, January 6, 2009, accessed November 1, 2010, http://skeptoid.com/episodes/4135

Michael Shermer,
How We Believe
(Henry Holt, 2000): 172–73, 202–6.

Philip J. Klass, “Plasma Theory May Explain Many UFOs,”
Aviation Week and Space Technology
(August 22, 1966): 48.

Philip J. Klass, “Many UFOs Are Identified as Plasmas,”
Aviation Week and Space Technology
(October 3, 1966): 54.

Philip J. Klass,
UFOs Identified
(Random House, 1968).

Martin Shough, “A Social History of Ball Lightning,”
Magonia
(May 2003), accessed November 1, 2010, http://magonia.haaan.com/2010/balllightning/

M. Stenhoff,
Ball Lightning: An Unsolved Problem in Atmospheric Physics
(Springer, 1999).

Brian Dunning, “Ball Lightning,”
Skeptoid
, February 9, 2010, accessed November 1, 2010, http://skeptoid.com/episodes/4192

Philip J. Klass, “Spaceships or Mirages over Washington National Airport, 1952?” The Klass Files,
The Skeptics UFO Newsletter,
Skeptical Inquirer
, July 1, 1998, accessed November 1, 2010, http://www.csicop.org/specialarticles/show/klass_files_volume_52/

James E. McDonald, “Comments of a Researcher: Case 5. Washington National Airport,” July 19 and 26, 1952, accessed November 1, 2010, http://www.nicap.org/wnsmcd.htm

J. McDonald, “UFOs—An International Scientific Problem, Paper Presented at the Canadian Aeronautics and Space Institute Astronautics Symposium, Montreal, Canada,” March 12, 1968, accessed November 1, 2010, http://www.ufologie.net/htm/mcdonaldca.htm

Jerome Clark,
The UFO Book: Encyclopedia of the Extraterrestrial
(Visible Ink Press, 2007): 660–62.

J. Moseley, ed., “More About the Late Phil Klass,”
Saucer Smear
52, no. 9, October 20, 2005.

James Randi,
Flim-Flam!
(Prometheus Books, 1982):72–73.

Ronald D. Story,
The Encyclopedia of Extraterrestrial Encounters
(New American Library, 2001): 444–46, 624–26.

Larry King clip, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wSkXYmExOnA

Edward de Bono,
I Am Right, You Are Wrong
(Penguin, 1991): 22–30.

I. J. Good,
The Scientist Speculates
(Basic Books, 1963): 15.

David Jones, “Thoughts That Go Pop in the Night,”
The Age
, January 13, 1986.

W. Platt, “The Relation of the Scientific ‘Hunch' to Research,”
Journal of Chemical Education
(October 1931): 1969–2002.

Peter Hessler,
Oracle Bones
(HarperCollins, 2006): 138–47.

Michio Kaku, “Prof Michio Kaku on the Science Behind UFOs and Time Travel,”
Telegraph U.K.
, March 20, 2008, accessed November 1, 2010, http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/science-news/3337049/Prof-Michio-Kaku-on-the-science-behind-UFOs-and-time-travel.html

GERM books, UFO Awareness Day, Philadelphia, PA, July 2009.

Wade Goodwyn, “Air Force Alters Texas UFO Explanation,” National Public Radio, January 24, 2008, accessed October 26, 2010. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=18375952

Jeffrey Weiss, “Texas UFO Mystery Solved?”
Dallas Morning News,
January 24, 2008, accessed October 26, 2010, http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/localnews/stories/DN-ifos_24met.ART.North.Edition1.3787cf0.html

Angela Brown, “F–16s Were in Area Where UFO Reported,” January 23, 2008.

M. Jones, “Report Fuels Spy Plane Theories,” BBC News, June 14, 2006, accessed November 1, 2010, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/newsnight/5079044.stm

D. Thompson, “What Do the UFO Files Reveal?”
Telegraph U.K.,
August 5, 2010, accessed November 1, 2010, http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/ufo/7927676/What-do-the-UFO-files-reveal.html

J. Grimston, “Is That a Flying Saucer? No, It's a Stealth Bomber,”
Sunday Times
, March 22, 2009, accessed November 1, 2010, http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article5950460.ece

Wade Goodwyn, “Dozens Claim They Spotted UFO in Texas,” National Public Radio, January 16, 2008, accessed November 1, 2010, http://www.npr.org/player/v2/mediaPlayer.html?action=1&t=1&islist=false&id=18146244&m=18159586

Author's note:
See Gellene, “How UFOs” for Kinsel quote and
Times
quotes.

J. Gibson, “Dennis Kucinich's UFO Comments Prove He's Nuts,” Fox News, October 31, 2007, accessed November 1, 2010, http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,307117,00.html

M. M. Phillips, “What Kucinich Saw,”
Wall Street Journal
, January 2, 2008.

Dave Gilson, “Kucinich's UFO Sighting, What He Really Saw,”
Mother Jones
, January 4, 2008, accessed November 1, 2010, http://motherjones.com/mojo/2008/01/kucinichs-ufo-sighting-what-he-really-saw

Merrill Goozner, “Send the Editor into Space,”
Huffington Post
, January 2, 2008, accessed November 1, 2010, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/merrill-goozner/answer-send-the-editor-in_b_79224.html

Frank Burke, Interview September 2009.

Phil Patton, “UFO Myths: A Special Investigation into Stephenville and Other Major Sightings,”
Popular Mechanics
(March 2009), accessed November 2010, http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/aviation/ufo/4304170

Glen Schulze, Interview, October 2009.

“The Stephenville Lights: What Actually Happened,”
Skeptical Inquirer
33, no. 1 (January/February 2009), accessed October 26, 2010, http://www.csicop.org/si/show/stephenville_lights_what_actually_happened/

Billy Cox, “Multiple Sources Never Hurt,” De Void, blog,
Sarasota Herald-Tribune
, February 11, 2008, accessed October 26, 2010, http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20080211/BLOG32/76223561

Mark Murphy, Interview, September 2009.

CHAPTER 5: WAS THERE A GHOST IN MY HOUSE?

James Boswell,
The Life of Samuel Johnson
(Penguin Classics, 1979): 239.

Laura Spinney, “We Can Implant Entirely False Memories,”
Guardian
, December 4, 2003, accessed November 1, 2010, http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2003/dec/04/science.research1

S. J. Ceci, “Repeatedly Thinking About a Non-Event,”
Consciousness and Cognition
2 (1994): 388–407.

K. A. Braun, “Make My Memory: How Advertising Can Change Our Memories of the Past,”
Psychology and Marketing
19, no. 1 (January 2002): 23.

E. F. Loftus, “Planting a 30-Year Investigation of the Malleability of Memory,”
Learning and Memory
12 (2005): 361–66.

K. A. Wade, “A Picture Is Worth a Thousand Lies: Using False Photographs to create False Childhood Memories,”
Psychonomic Bulletin and Review
9 (2002): 597–603.

Jean Piaget,
Play, Dreams and Imitation in Childhood
(Norton, 1962): 188.

Author's note
: There are a number of resources, including some complicated technical papers, describing typical plumbing problems that can lead people to believe their house is haunted. Here is a short selection of more reader-friendly items and some YouTube videos that capture some common, plumbing-related noises. An aside: I sent these to my father, sister, and oldest brother, who are the living people with the greatest recall of the noises. They all thought the examples here were ridiculously unlike the noise in our house. All the online videos and resources here were accessed on October 26, 2010.

Plumbing Noises: http://www.factsfacts.com/MyHomeRepair/PipeNoises.htm

Waterhammer: A complex phenomenon with a simple solution, http://www.omega.com/techref/waterhammer.html

“Peculiar Pipes: Why That Clanging Noise May Have More to do With Porcelain than Poltergeists,” http://eisenmanagementgroup.wordpress.com/2009/05/26/peculiar-pipes-why-that-clanging-noise-may-have-more-to-do-with-porcelain-than-poltergeists/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6sdiEdwUO7A

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6HCv1YRB-dk&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0XchGnLiH_o&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Snp6CkA0eYA&feature=related

R. T. Carroll, “infrasound,”
Skeptic's Dictionary
, accessed October 26, 2010, http://www.skepdic.com/infrasound.html6.

Chris Arnot, “Ghost Buster,”
Guardian
, July 11 2000, accessed November 1, 2010, http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2000/jul/11/highereducation.chrisarnot

V. Tandy and T. Lawrence, “The Ghost in the Machine,” J
ournal of the Society for Psychical Research
62, no. 851 (April 1998): 360–64. Accessed November 1, 2010. http://www.psy.herts.ac.uk/ghost/ghost-in-machine.pdf

V. Tandy, “Something in the Cellar,”
Journal of the Society for Psychical Research
64.3, no. 860 (July 2000), accessed November 1, 2010, http://www.psy.herts.ac.uk/ghost/Something-in-the-Cellar.pdf

Mary Roach,
Spook
(Norton, 2005): 227–40.

J. J. Braithwaite and M. Townsend, “Good Vibrations: The Case for a Specific Effect of Infrasound in Instances of Anomalous Experience Has Yet to Be Empirically Demonstrated,”
Journal for the Society of Psychical Research
70, no. 885 (2006): 211–24.

“Infrasound Linked to Spooky Effects,” Associated Press, September 7, 2003, accessed October 26, 2010, http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3077192/

C. C. French et al., “The ‘Haunt' Project: An Attempt to Build a ‘Haunted' Room by Manipulating Complex Electromagnetic Fields and Infrasound,”
Cortex
45, no. 5 (2009): 619–29.

Hazel Muir, “Where Do Ghosts Come From?”
New Scientist
(October 2009), accessed October 26, 2010, http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20427321.200-where-do-ghosts-come-from.html

Sheryl C. Wilson and Theodore X. Barber, “The Fantasy-Prone Personality: Implications for Understanding Imagery, Hypnosis, and Parapsychological Phenomena,”
Imagery, Current Theory, Research and Application
(1983): 340–90.

Steven Novella, “The Fantasy Prone Personality,”
Neurologica Blog
, April 3, 2007, accessed October 26, 2010 http://theness.com/neurologicablog/?p=84

Joe Nickell, “A Study of Fantasy Proneness in the Thirteen Cases of Alleged Encounters in John Mack's Abduction,”
Skeptical Inquirer
20 no. 3 (May/June 1996), accessed November 1, 2010, http://www.csicop.org/si/show/study_of_fantasy_proneness_in_the_thirteen_cases_of_alleged_encounters_in_j/

Susan Clancy,
Abducted
(Harvard Univ. Press, 2005): 132–53.

Peter Hough, “Alien Abductions Revisited: Study Suggests Alien Abduction Experiences Not Simply Products of Fantasy-Proneness,”
Fortean Times
(February 2010), accessed November 1, 2010, http://www.forteantimes.com/features/fbi/2929/alien_abductions_revisited.html