FT277


Two stories with ghostly interest appearing in recent editions of Fortean Times deserve further comment.

The commemoration of Stan Gooch (1932–2010) in FT272:38–47 mentioned the collective vision of a prehistoric man occurr­ing at a Coventry séance held in the late 1950s, perhaps symbolic of his theories of Neanderthal inheritance that occupied his mind in later years. Describing this manifest­ation in his classic book The Paranormal (1978), Gooch stated: “This was a crouching ape-like shape, which became clearer as the moments passed. I guess it approximated to most people’s idea of what an ancient cave man would look like. Yet one could not make out too much detail – the eyes were hidden, for example.