Dictionary of Paranormal Terms - F

Face on Mars
A 1,500 ft tall structure photographed in the Cydonia Region of Mars in 1976 by NASA's Viking Orbiter. The images showed a structure which resembled a humanoid face, as well as a number of pyramid shaped objects on the surface of the planet. In recent years newer NASA Orbiters have returned images showing the 'face on Mars' to be a natural rock formation - however many people remain unconvinced. Both the original pictures and the Cydonia Region itself are still under some considerable debate.

Faces of Belmez
A case that started in August 1971, when Maria Gomez Pereira discovered a strange expressionistic image of a man's face that had appeared on her kitchen floor. A few days later she had the floor ripped out and relaid, only to find that the face reappeared in exactly the same place within a week. Before she got the chance to rip out the floor a second time, the slab was removed and preserved by local authorities. Investigations into the site on which the house was built, revealed that the site had once been a graveyard. It was decided that the floor of the house should be excavated to see what lay beneath. After digging down some nine feet, human remains were found, which were soon removed. It was decided that the excavation had been successful, and a new floor was soon installed. Bizarrely, after just two weeks, a variety of new faces had appeared on the new floor. Over the coming months, the Faces of Belmez attracted a huge amount of attention, but nobody was able to explain why the faces kept returning.

Feral Children
Children who have been nurtured in the wild by animals are known as 'Feral Children'. The term also refers to children who were raised in a non-human or sub-human environment, and therefore failed to learn how to communicate in a fully human manner.There have been over 40 well documented cases of feral children in the last few hundred years. The first really famous example, was 'Wild Peter', who was only 12 years old when he was captured in Hanover in 1724. He was described as being a 'naked, brownish, black-haired creature', and would climb trees and live off plants. He never mastered speech, and it took a long time for him to even attempt to eat anything other than plant material. He spent 68 years in society, but never managed to learn to say anything other than 'Peter' and 'King George.'

Flying Saucer
Another term meaning Unidentified Flying Object. The phrase was coined following an interview with American Pilot Kenneth Arnold, who reported the first modern sighting of a UFO in the Cascade Mountains in 1947.

Foo Fighters
Small luminous balls of light spotted on numerous occassions by pilots during the second world war. These strange coloured balls of light were witnessed both over Europe and the Pacific, and are a prime example of the UFO phenomenon.

Forte, Charles
The first person to research and document reports of paranormal phenomena in a concise and coherent way. Charles Forte was born in 1874 and died in 1932. He spent much of his days in the New York City public library and British museum where he'd search through newspapers, magazines and other publications for reports of mysterious phenomena. Forte himself did not found any paranormal society, he was concerned that had he done so, he'd attract all manner of crack pots. It wasn't until after his death that the Fortean Society was founded, and much more recently, the 'Fortean Times' magazine.

Fortean, Forteana
Word meaning 'relating to paranormal phenomena'. It is named after Charles Forte, the man who first accomplished the documentation of paranormal occurances in a concise and coherent way.

Dowsing Rod
See Divining Rod.