FT303

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Fortean Times #303 (July 2013)

• Release date: 21 Jun 2013
• Cover price: £4.25
• US Edition is dated August 2013 with a cover price of $11.99 USA (CAN $13.25, AUS $12.95, NZ $17.30)
• Cover: Witch created by David Foxley, photography by Etienne Gilfillan
• Zinio version

Contents

• 56 Harryhausen's Mythological Monsters - The special effects pioneer who defined ancient myth for the modern age
• 36 The Uncanny Valley - Robots, sex dolls and vampire babies
• 04 Amazing Rubble Rescues - Cases of survival against the odds
• 06 Cryptids in the Museum - Creatures feature in new exhibition
• 22 Chairman Mao's Mango Mania - When the Cultural Revolution went fruity

Features

30 The Witch of Scrapfoggot Green (Cover Story)
Robert Halliday investigates a curious wartime haunting in an Essex village, involving poltergeist activity, missing geese and a vengeful witch back from beyond the grave. But were the phenomena real, imagined or invented?

36 The Uncanny Valley
From fairies and the Men in Black to Japanese robots and hyper-real sex dolls, we are surrounded by human-like simulacra. Ian Simmons explains why the science of robotics has provided a new model of how the not-quite-human creeps us out so much, and why that might be...

42 The Vril Seekers
How did a fictional force invented by a 19th-century English writer inspire a body of myth that takes in Nazi occultists, flying saucers, secret societies and free energy – and continues to flourish online in the 21st century? Theo Paijmans reveals the truth about the Vril Society.

48 Dr Phene's House of Mystery
Who was the mysterious Dr Phene and what secrets lurked behind the shuttered windows of his House of Mystery? Jan Bondeson tells the strange story of one of London’s forgotten eccentrics.

Reports

28 Blasts from the Past - No 45. Altered state: teleporting in Michigan

76 Fortean Traveller - No 87. Ettal: the Grail Church of Bavaria

Forum

55 Of Madness and Melancholy by SD Tucker

56 Harryhausen's Mythological Monsters by MJ Perez Cuervo

Strange Days

Rubble rescues; Pope's impromptu exorcism; Mao's mango mania; folk with four kidneys; legends come to life; the whistling ghost; uFO disclosure and much more.

• 14 Science
• 17 Alien Zoo
• 18 Ghostwatch
• 21 Classical Corner
• 23 Mythconceptions
• 24 Necrolog
• 25 Strange Deaths
• 26 The UFO Files

Regulars

Editorial

• 02

Reviews

• 59

Letters

• 71

It Happened to Me

• 74

Tales From The Vault

• 80

Reader Info

• 78

Masthead

• Editor - David Sutton
• Founding Editor - Bob Rickard
• Founding Editor - Paul Sieveking
• Art Director - Etienne Gilfillan
• Book Reviews Editor - Val Stevenson
• Resident Cartoonist - Hunt Emerson

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