At the beginning of the 21st Century monsters still roam the remote, and sometimes not so remote, corners of our planet. It is our job to search for them. The Centre for Fortean Zoology [CFZ] is - we believe - the largest professional, scientific and full-time organisation in the world dedicated to cryptozoology - the study of unknown animals. Since 1992 the CFZ has carried out an unparalleled programme of research and investigation all over the world. Since 2009 we have been running the increasingly popular CFZ Blog Network, and although there has been an American branch of the CFZ for over ten years now, it is only now that it has a dedicated blog.

Wednesday 19 February 2014

THE PROBLEM OF ISOLATES

Zachary Mann's recent article has gotten me thinking.  At my time of life, not many things can do that.  I reply to Descartes, Non cogito, sed sum.  The matter upon which Zachary has managed to exercise my brain is, How come we have quite reasonable accounts of cryptids that are seen once, but once only?  Obviously, if a creature were seen, say, in 1980, but its like was never again beheld, the likelihood of a breeding population in some niche seems remote.

It is here I stray (as I have strayed before) into an area where many cryptozoologists refuse to tread: the possibility of a paranormal explanation for the existence of such animals.

Let me clarify what I mean by paranormal.  I do not mean something outside the laws of science as they exist, but rather outside the laws of science as we understand them.  In physics, the most astonishing advances have been made in modern times, showing the possibility of things that the scientists of my youth would have dismissed as impossible and which even the man in the street would have regarded as beyond the bounds of credibility.

Such animals, seen only once and nevermore, if they are not hoaxes or misperceptions, might have the following explanations:-

      (1) They might normally exist in different dimensions, in the 
            same space as ours but vibrating at a different rate. Rarely 
            the vibrations of that dimension and ours might coincide 
            or it might be possible to wander from one dimension into
            another in certain circumstances and that is how we manage
            to see an animal that has no earthly counterpart.

      (2) Scientists are now beginning to admit the possibility of
                  universes other than our own and New York physicist
            Michio Kaku has even suggested it might be possible at
            some future date to migrate from one to another.  However.
            what if such a possibility already exists and there are portals
            or wormholes that connect the universes?  Single unknown
            creatures might make their way through them.

      (3) A third possibility is less speculative.  How sure are we 
            about what goes on in certain laboratories under the 
            umbrella of genetic research?  The odd monstrous hybrid,
            produced there, may make its escape and be sighted.

     (4)  Further possibilities might include: animals breaking
            through the time barrier; animals perceived in another
            time by humans who can see through the time barrier; or 
            even animals decanted from UFOs.

All of this is, of course, mental meandering on my part; but I feel each of these possibilities merits consideration, as singular animals are sometimes reported once, but never again.

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