Unexplained

Supernatural Stories for Uncertain Times

Richard MacLean Smith

Scepter 2018 Hb, 342pp, illus, £16.99, ISBN 9781473671126

Unexplained, podcaster Richard MacLean Smith’s first work of non-fiction, is a fascinating collection of 10 essays exploring strange phenomena. Fortean Times readers may be familiar with his podcast, also entitled Unexplained (and reviewed in FT 365:68). In the already quite literary audio version, with his austere voice accompanied by at times dread-inducing drone music – listening to it is comparable to sitting around a campfire with a master storyteller – MacLean Smith weaves an engrossing narrative concerning a mysterious, usually paranormal, event.

Unexplained episodes are generally superbly researched, and all conclude with MacLean Smith’s placing these strange events within specific social, historical, psychological, or philosophical contexts. He follows the same format in the essays in this volume. What, for example, does the possible reincarnation of a World War II pilot as a young boy in a small English village tell us about identity? What does an alleged cursed object

– in this instance the infamous “Dybbuk Box” – teach us about the nocebo effect, wherein the “psyche... can cause negative effects on the body if it can be sufficiently convinced that it is coming under harm”? What do the events at Rendlesham say about the likelihood of intelligent extraterrestrial life or an alleged instance of demonic possession about free will? The perplexing confusion concerning the identity of the ‘Somerton Man’ about individuality? A collective close encounter with a UFO and its extraterrestrial occupants – the ‘Ariel School Mystery’ – about human perception? The strange demise of Elisa Lam at the Cecil Hotel in Los Angeles about the influence of an environment on human activity? The events at Skywalker Ranch about the nature of reality? Slenderman about the social impact of the Internet? A haunting about the experience of linear time and the potential for immortality suggested by the non-linear time implied by higher dimensions?

Unlike the podcast, the prose format of the essays allows MacLean Smith the opportunity to ruminate at length, unencumbered by the (admittedly self-imposed) time constraints of his podcast, and to provide a more complete investigation of these unexplained events. His prose voice proves just as compelling as his spoken one; think of these as extended versions of stories that might have appeared on his show. This text-based Unexplained is a thoroughly engrossing, page-turning, late night read. Here’s hoping MacLean Smith continues to indulge us with his distinctive literary pen.

Eric Hoffman

★★★★ ★