Skip to content
THE PUBLIC RESEARCH LIBRARY

Explore the records. Follow the sources.

Browse UFO case files, paranormal reports, historical texts and research dossiers. These are accounts and leads for investigation—not proof of an extraordinary explanation.

To combine details, compare matches and investigate connections across the collection, create an account and search Anomaly Graph.

Not sure where to begin? Our research guides explain how to follow sources, compare accounts and turn matches into a useful investigation.

53,266 published records with substantive text · Page 1,075 of 1,110

Archive case record

The 1695 comet and Mexican astronomical response

1695 · Mexico City and New Spain

A comet observed in 1695 provides a late-seventeenth-century New Spanish comparison case after the better-known Sigüenza–Kino debate. The episode may reveal whether Mexican scholars increasingly used mathematical astronomy, whether sermons retained portent lan

Read record →
Archive case record

The Gospel of Mary: Karen L. King’s Reconstruction and Interpretation

2003 · Egyptian manuscript tradition; Berlin and Paris witnesses

Karen L. King’s 2003 study presented a major English-language interpretation of the Gospel of Mary, a fragmentary second-century Christian text preserved chiefly in the Berlin Codex, with additional leaves from Oxyrhynchus. The dialogue depicts Mary receiving

Read record →
Archive case record

The Fatima Apparitions and the Three Secrets

1917; documentation and publication through 1946 · Fátima, Portugal

Between May and October 1917, Lucia dos Santos and her cousins Francisco and Jacinta Marto reported Marian apparitions at Cova da Iria near Fátima. The episode generated ecclesiastical inquiry, pilgrimage traditions and later written accounts of the “three sec

Read record →
Archive case record

USS Hornet paranormal investigation reports

2010 onward · Alameda, California, United States

The preserved aircraft carrier USS Hornet has been the setting for ghost tours, television investigations, and reported apparitions or unexplained sounds. Accounts commonly focus on the ship’s wartime history, sick bay, berthing areas, and alleged figures seen

Read record →
Archive case record

Shackleton’s Last Voyage

1923 · South Atlantic and Antarctic waters

Shackleton’s Last Voyage records the 1921–1922 expedition of the Quest, during which Ernest Shackleton died at South Georgia. The expedition’s changing objectives, rough seas and the leader’s death contributed to the continuing legendary image of Shackleton an

Read record →
Archive case record

The Muziris Papyrus

2nd century CE copy or document; transaction concerning earlier Roman–Indian trade · Egypt, with Muziris identified in southern India

The Muziris Papyrus is a fragmentary Greek documentary text concerning a large cargo, customs obligations, financing, and transport between the Roman Egyptian world and the Indian port known as Muziris. It is significant for comparing literary descriptions of

Read record →
Archive case record

The Chosŏn Dynasty Royal Dream Records

1392–1910; relevant early entries fall before 1800 · Joseon Korea

The Annals of the Joseon Dynasty preserve numerous entries in which kings, officials, and court ritualists discuss dreams, ominous signs, ancestral appearances, and interpretations affecting policy or ceremony. They provide a large comparative archive for stud

Read record →
Archive case record

Arbatel de magia veterum

1575 · Basel, Switzerland

AI-recalled lead: Arbatel de magia veterum is a concise Latin magical text printed at Basel in 1575 and organized around spiritual intelligences, planetary governors, moral conduct and practical aphorisms. Unlike more elaborate grimoires, it presents magic wit

Read record →
Archive case record

The 2019 Norwegian Fireball Event

2019 · Southern Norway

A bright 2019 Norwegian fireball generated widespread observations, videos and searches for possible meteorites. The event is relevant to folklore research because sudden sky-fire reports often acquire local narratives, online speculation and retrospective lin

Read record →
Archive case record

Seacliff Lunatic Asylum ghost accounts

1900–1946 institutional period · Seacliff, Otago

Seacliff Lunatic Asylum was New Zealand’s major psychiatric institution during the early twentieth century and later became associated with stories of unsettling presences, voices, and activity in surviving buildings and grounds. It offers a strong comparative

Read record →
Archive case record

Hollywood Stone

1860s · Hollywood, Maryland, United States

The Hollywood Stone is a nineteenth-century Maryland object associated with claims that an inscription demonstrated an ancient Old World presence in North America. It belongs to the broader family of American inscribed stones whose contexts were reported by an

Read record →
Archive case record

The Yuki-onna Tradition

Japanese oral tradition recorded in nineteenth-century folklore collections · Japan, especially Tōhoku, Niigata and mountainous northern regions

Yuki-onna legends describe a woman or female apparition encountered in snowstorms, often associated with death, seduction, freezing or conditional mercy. Some accounts include concealment of a nonhuman identity, marriage to a human and later revelation, making

Read record →
Archive case record

The Book of Mediums (Le Livre des Médiums)

1861 · Paris

Published in Paris in 1861, Allan Kardec’s Le Livre des Médiums offered classifications of mediums, séance procedures, alleged spirit phenomena, and advice on evaluating communications. It matters comparatively because it shows how nineteenth-century Spiritism

Read record →
Archive case record

2014 Oosterhout triangular-light report

2014 · Oosterhout, North Brabant

A reported triangular or unusual-light observation from Oosterhout in the Netherlands was circulated in Dutch UFO-reporting contexts during 2014. It is a potentially useful micro-case for examining how shape descriptions, night-time lights and online case publ

Read record →
Archive case record

PGM XII: The Spell of the Seven Vowels

Roman imperial period · Egypt, Greek Magical Papyri

The seven-vowel sequence, represented through repeated alpha, epsilon, eta, iota, omicron, upsilon, and omega forms, appears in Greek magical materials as a potent vocal or written element. PGM XII includes a notable presentation associated with cosmological a

Read record →
Archive case record

Houdini’s Posthumous Communication Test

1926–1936 · New York City and other United States locations

Before his death in 1926, Harry Houdini reportedly arranged a private code intended to authenticate any communication from him after death. His widow, Bess Houdini, participated in séances and publicized a final attempt in the 1930s, while repeatedly concludin

Read record →
Archive case record

The Grande Hotel du Louvre and Casablanca hotel-haunting claims

Late twentieth-century local-story circulation · Casablanca

The Hôtel du Louvre in Casablanca is an identifiable historic hotel that appears in Moroccan urban-memory and travel writing, including occasional claims about unsettling rooms and nocturnal disturbances. It may be useful for comparing hotel haunting motifs in

Read record →
Archive case record

Keg Mansion haunting tradition

Built 1867; haunting stories mainly twentieth century onward · Toronto, Ontario

Keg Mansion, originally Euclid Hall, is a nineteenth-century Toronto residence later converted into a restaurant and associated with reports of apparitions, footsteps and other disturbances. The building’s ownership and architectural history are identifiable,

Read record →
Archive case record

The 1946 Portland, Oregon Ghost-Aircraft Reports

1946 · Portland, Oregon

Portland and Oregon newspapers carried postwar reports of unidentified aircraft or lights during the period immediately preceding the 1947 flying-saucer wave. The reports are potentially valuable for tracking how “mystery aircraft” language persisted before Ke

Read record →
Archive case record

The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and Hong Xiuquan’s visions

1837–1864 · Guangxi, Nanjing, and central China

Hong Xiuquan’s visions and subsequent identification with a Christian-influenced heavenly mission generated the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, which controlled large areas of China from 1851 until its defeat in 1864. The movement combined biblical reinterpretation,

Read record →
Archive case record

The Kaliai and Bainings Spirit-Possession Traditions in New Britain

1990–2009 ethnographic literature · New Britain, Papua New Guinea

Ethnographic studies of New Britain document spirit beliefs, initiation, ritual performance, possession-like states, and changing relations between customary practice and Christianity. These materials can help compare visionary and mediumistic accounts without

Read record →
Archive case record

Santa Muerte devotion and the expansion of a Mexican folk saint tradition

2012–2017 scholarship and fieldwork · Mexico City, Mexico, and transnational Mexican diaspora communities

Santa Muerte is a contemporary Mexican devotional figure represented as a skeletal female saint and invoked for protection, health, justice or other petitions. The tradition became a major subject of ethnography and religious-studies work during the 2010s, inc

Read record →
Archive case record

The Daoist Scripture of the Yellow Court

c. 3rd–4th centuries, with later recensions · China

The Huangting jing is a Daoist meditation scripture describing internal divine beings, bodily landscapes, breath practices, and ritualized visualization. It became influential in Shangqing and related traditions and circulated in multiple textual forms, includ

Read record →
Archive case record

The Creery Children Telepathy Tests

1881–1882 · Rochford, Essex, England

The Society for Psychical Research investigated the Creery children in experiments involving alleged thought-transference, including concealed targets and guessing procedures. Early reports treated the results as promising, but suspicions of cueing and cheatin

Read record →
Archive case record

The Book of the Two Wise Men (Kitāb al-Istamākhīs)

Medieval Arabic astral-magic tradition · Islamic Middle East; later Arabic and Latin circulation

Kitāb al-Istamākhīs is a title associated with Arabic astral-magic literature and with teachings attributed to ancient sages or “two wise men.” It appears in the wider textual environment that links planetary images, ritual timing, substances, and occult corre

Read record →
Archive case record

The whale-island episode in Navigatio Sancti Brendani

Late 9th–10th century text · Latin monastic literary world; Atlantic voyage setting

Navigatio Sancti Brendani describes Saint Brendan and his companions landing on what they mistake for an island, only to discover that it is a huge living sea creature, commonly identified in later tradition as Jasconius. The episode is a specific Latin voyage

Read record →
Archive case record

The 1909 Cardiff and Welsh Airship Reports

1909 · Cardiff and other parts of Wales

Several Welsh reports during the 1909 airship scare described lights or a dirigible-like craft moving over towns and countryside. Cardiff and other localities appeared in contemporary newspaper coverage, which linked the reports to the broader British fear of

Read record →
Archive case record

The Byland Abbey Ghost Stories

fourteenth century manuscript tradition · Byland Abbey, North Yorkshire

A Middle English manuscript associated with Byland Abbey preserves a cluster of short ghost and revenant narratives, including dead persons returning, threatening households, or being identified through clerical knowledge. The texts are especially valuable bec

Read record →
Archive case record

Tokoloshe reports in South African newspapers and community discourse

1990–2009 · KwaZulu-Natal and other South African provinces

The tokoloshe is a South African supernatural figure appearing in Zulu and related traditions and in modern reports about nocturnal attacks, disturbed households, shortened beds, illness, and alleged witchcraft. Newspapers, court reporting, church testimony, a

Read record →
Archive case record

The Epic of Askia Mohammed and Songhai traditions

16th-century reign; traditions preserved in chronicles and oral histories · Songhai Empire, especially Gao and Timbuktu

Traditions surrounding Askia Mohammed, the Songhai ruler who came to power in 1493, combine court history, Islamic legitimacy, pilgrimage narratives, oral memory, and later chronicle writing. The Tarikh al-Sudan and Tarikh al-Fattash provide important document

Read record →
Archive case record

The 1871 total solar eclipse in India

12 December 1871 · India, including eclipse-path observing stations

The total solar eclipse of 12 December 1871 was observed from parts of India by professional and expeditionary astronomers. Reports concerning the corona, prominences, shadow bands, and rapidly changing sky appearance offer a controlled historical comparison f

Read record →
Archive case record

Ashanti

1923 · Ashanti, Gold Coast

R. S. Rattray's Ashanti documents religious institutions, priests, shrine practices, dreams, omens and forms of divination in the Gold Coast. It is relevant to altered-state comparison because it places visionary or message-like experiences within public ritua

Read record →
Archive case record

The Lizzie Borden house haunting tradition

1892 murders; haunting claims later · Fall River, Massachusetts, United States

The Fall River house associated with the 1892 murders of Andrew and Abby Borden later became a site for ghost tours, overnight investigations, and reported apparitions or sounds. Lizzie Borden’s acquittal and the unresolved public fascination provide a documen

Read record →
Archive case record

The Sea Peoples in Egyptian records

Late Bronze Age, especially c. 1177 BCE · Eastern Mediterranean and Egypt

Egyptian inscriptions at Medinet Habu and related records describe conflicts involving groups conventionally called the Sea Peoples during the reign of Ramesses III. The inscriptions depict raids, migration, naval combat, and captured populations, but they do

Read record →
Archive case record

The Black and Red Ware Tradition of South India

Neolithic, Iron Age, and early historic contexts; dates vary by region · Peninsular India, especially Tamil Nadu and the Deccan

Black-and-Red Ware appears across multiple South Asian regions and periods, including Neolithic, Iron Age, and early historic contexts. It matters because ceramic resemblance has sometimes been used to propose cultural links, technological transmission, or pop

Read record →
Archive case record

Cuban Palo and the El Pañuelo human-remains controversy

2010 onward · Cuba and Cuban diaspora

Palo traditions, including Palo Monte and Palo Mayombe, use consecrated ritual objects such as nganga or prendas and have been repeatedly drawn into controversies involving cemetery disturbance, human remains, and sensational crime reporting. Contemporary Cuba

Read record →
Archive case record

Tom Navy movement on Tanna

Late 1940s–1950s · Tanna, New Hebrides (now Vanuatu)

The Tom Navy movement on Tanna is associated with a prophetic figure or symbolic persona promising change connected with the sea, foreign power and the return or arrival of desirable goods. It belongs to the postwar period in which Tannese communities reworked

Read record →
Archive case record

Lemegeton Clavicula Salomonis

seventeenth-century manuscripts; printed 1904 · England and continental Europe

The Lemegeton is a composite magical compilation conventionally divided into the Ars Goetia, Ars Theurgia-Goetia, Ars Paulina, and Ars Almadel. Its manuscript witnesses date mainly from the seventeenth century, while the familiar nineteenth- and twentieth-cent

Read record →
Archive case record

Gulf Breeze sightings and photographs

November 1987–1988 · Gulf Breeze, Florida, on Pensacola Bay

Ed Walters reported repeated encounters with unusual craft around Gulf Breeze and published photographs that became central to a regional wave of sightings. Some accounts included close approaches or apparent beings, while other witnesses described lights or s

Read record →
Archive case record

Ninki Nanka Reports in Gambian and Senegambian Folklore

1970s–1980s documentation and popular retellings · The Gambia and Senegambia

Ninki Nanka is a West African dragon-like or serpent-like being documented in Gambian and wider Senegambian folklore. Late twentieth-century books, tourism materials and children’s retellings sometimes presented it as a hidden animal, while ethnographic interp

Read record →
Archive case record

The Ghost of Cock Lane's later nineteenth-century reception

Nineteenth-century retrospectives of the 1762 case · Cock Lane, London

The Cock Lane ghost was an eighteenth-century London episode involving alleged spirit rapping and a dead woman known as Fanny. Although the event predates this scope, nineteenth-century spiritualist writers repeatedly revived it as a precedent for modern séanc

Read record →
Archive case record

Socorro police officer encounter

24 April 1964 · Socorro, New Mexico

Socorro police officer Lonnie Zamora reported seeing a bright object descend near a remote area, where he said he observed a small craft and two figures before it departed. Investigators documented scorched vegetation, impressions and witness testimony, and th

Read record →
Archive case record

Kisar Island rock art and Wallacean exchange

2017 · Kisar Island, Maluku

Rock shelters on Kisar Island yielded paintings and archaeological deposits showing that small islands in Wallacea supported complex human activity during the Late Pleistocene and early Holocene. The site matters for comparing maritime dispersal, symbolic trad

Read record →
Archive case record

1953 Everest expedition Yeti-track observations

1953 · Mount Everest region, Nepal

Accounts surrounding Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay’s 1953 Everest expedition mention tracks or local reports associated with the Yeti. The episode matters because it shows how mountaineering narratives incorporated Sherpa testimony, prior expedition lore a

Read record →