POLL: What Stance Should Forteans Take Toward Anomalous Phenomena?

[Carl Grove]

Hypothetical instances can be tricky things. Do we, as Forteans, really put forward hypotheses about having invisible fairies in our ears? No, we have accounts of happenings that are usually a lot more tangible, and often more disturbing. In most Fortean areas we are nowhere near coming up with falsifiable hypotheses, we are still in the initial stages of gathering and collating data and seeking patterns. Our culture too often tells us that we must have a theory, hence people leap to superficial conclusions (e.g. UFOs are alien craft), then the argument rages around this one hypothesis and tends to ignore all the other possibilities, often (as is the case with UFOs) for decades.