Borderlands

Borderlands (1997) is a book Mike wrote towards the end of his 18-year association with Fortean Times. It covers all manner of strange phenomena and is one of the very few works in this field with claims to be both comprehensive and an informed, critical study of the evidence. The book benefits considerably from Mike’s long career with FT. It features some little-known but spectacular cases and its passages on witness psychology and the cultural source hypothesis are very up-to-date.

Readers of Mike’s history books may be surprised by Borderlands’ chatty, journalistic style, though the book is no less well researched and referenced than Thug or Batavia’s Graveyard. The book is organised in two parts. The first half reviews the most important evidence for religious phenomena, UFOs, mystery animals, earth mysteries and general Forteana, while the second critically interprets the evidence and suggests reasons why reports of strange phenomena are made. This structure was decided on in part because Mike was concerned that an overtly sceptical book on the subject which made its critical position clear from the outset would not sell.

Hilary Evans, the well-regarded author of books such as Visions • Apparitions • Alien Visitors, had this to say about Borderlands in a Fortean Times review:

‘Surrounding the world we more or less know and feel certain about, there lie areas where our knowledge is ambiguous and there are no certainties at all - areas peopled by demons and apparitions of the dead, aliens from beyond Earth and creatures unrecognised by naturalists. Things appear and disappear in ways which contradict our experience; anomalies occur which challenge our hard-won scientific principles. It can be pretty weird.

Dr Mike Dash has set out to give us a panoramic overview of these borderlands, touching briefly on clusters of phenomena that range from mystery animals to aberrations of behaviour, from otherworldly intrusions to innerworldly experiences. The sheer diversity of these phenomena means that they are usually considered individually or in narrow categories; but the author argues that "it is both pointless and dangerous to consider any strange phenomenon in isolation" (p442). Instead he asks us to consider what ghosts and demons have in common with cryptozoological observations, and whether alien abductions might be the same kind of phenomenon as near-death experiences.

Fundamental to any exploration of the borderlands is the question: Do these phenomena have any objective reality? To whit, do abductions really happen, do yetis really exist? As human experiences, the answer is clearly yes: but when the Virgin Mary, say, is seen by Bernadette, but not by those standing beside her, her encounter is clearly not real in the same sense that our everyday encounters are real. "To what extent are we, ourselves, the phenomenon?" Dash asks on page 45, and the question runs through the whole of his inquiry.

In the first half of the book he charts the terrain of the borderlands, inviting us to ponder a profusion of well chosen sample cases from vanishing restaurants to bedroom invaders. Then he asks us to contemplate the implications - how can showers of frogs or seemingly spontaneous combustion occur in the universe as we know it?

Often, of course, he can show that things might not be as we are told; but although this is a rationalising book, it is not a debunking book. Where things can be explained, they are explained: but not explained away. Our author displays on every page the same fair-minded balance that was Charles Fort's legacy to the world.
Considering out-of body experiences on page 98, for example, he sets out the alternative scenarios fairly and objectively. Human testimony is seen as infinitely fragile and nature as infinitely devious, but square pegs are not to be ignored just because they don't fit into the neatly rounded holes we have prepared for them.
Although described on the cover as "the ultimate exploration of the unknown", this book is certainly not that. Dash covers an astonishing amount of territory, but there are still many corners he leaves us to discover for ourselves - how could it be otherwise, when there are more than 2,000 years of strange experiences to be considered? Nor is his book ultimate in the sense of providing all the answers: at most, he offers three general conclusions - that we are wrong to try and cram borderland events into neat compartments; that we must not expect to find consistent explanations for phenomena which are invariably inconsistent and that we must expect to find more of the answers within ourselves than at first appears.

Clearly presented and lucidly argued, Borderlands is what all such books should be, both entertaining and instructive. The author does not simply ask us to marvel at the strangeness of things, he asks us to use our intelligence to consider their implications. If you're a newcomer to the borderlands you'll find this a challenging introduction to the enigmas that surround your everyday world: and even those to whom they are familiar will learn of new instances, and will be stimulated by perceptive insights and penetrating analysis.

Is there any more to this than fun and thrills ? Yes, Dash insists, because if only a tiny fraction of what is said to happen actually happens, sciences would have to be modified, histories rewritten. And because, even if all the rest never happened, the witnesses still thought them real, and we need to know why - what happens in the borderlands happens to people like you and me.’