The "memetic contagion" in the metropolitan folklore of Danilo Arona

A multifaceted author whose interests range from film criticism to fiction to non-fiction dedicated to alternative realities, Danilo Arona has become the singer of a particular and very personal declination of horror and weird that has its roots in the Italian context. In his essay "Media Possession", Arona wonders if it is possible that certain media, especially audiovisual ones, are capable of provoking in predisposed subjects a temporary cancellation of conscience whose place is taken by "something else", in a nutshell what in other places, times and cultures would have been called possession.

The kidnappings of the Fairies and the mystery of the "Missing 411"

Every year dozens of people suddenly disappear in US National Parks, in unexplained situations and without leaving any trace; Detective David Paulides, who for decades has been studying these mysterious cases he defined as "Missing 411", has identified some recurring patterns which, analyzed with an eye to ancient traditions (both European and Native American), bring us back to the folklore beliefs concerning the "water-babies" and other feral entities residing in the "invisible world", to which it is sometimes believed that the human being, willy-nilly, is able to access, sometimes never to return to our world.

Charles Fort and the restlessness of the extraordinary

Critic of science that he defined as "exclusionist", that is, inclined to accept only data that confirmed accepted theories and reject data that cast doubt on them, Charles Fort proceeded, in the manner of the ancient collators of "wonders", to collect and analyze all the so-called anomalies, those "damned facts" that had no place in scientific models, influencing to a certain extent the whole sphere of the "alternative reality" of the twentieth century, such as ufology, space archeology and cryptozoology.

The "Great Game" by Jacques Bergier

"Lover of the Unusual and Scribe of Miracles" (as his visiting card stated), co-author with Louis Pauwels of the cult book "The morning of the wizards", explorer of infinite spaces, cosmonaut of inner space, scientist, agent secret, visionary, alchemist: all the faces of Jacques Bergier in his autobiography, "I'm not a legend", just published in Italian by Bietti publisher.

β€œI remember Lemuria!”: The Shaver Mystery, a myth for the atomic age

Brought to the fore by the pulp magazine "Amazing Stories", directed by Ray Palmer, in the 40s of the last century, the "Mystery Shaver" is still remembered today as one of the most controversial and influential chapters of the vein - halfway between occultism and science fiction - of the so-called β€œAlternative Reality”.

"Underground" civilizations in myth, occultism and "alternative reality"

Simultaneously with the publication of our article on "Underworld Civilizations in Fantastic Literature" appeared in Cosmic Dimension, we have drawn up here a brief excursus on the same topos in the sacred traditions, in the esoteric sphere and in the "alternative reality" of the twentieth century