As the world memorializes the one hundredth anniversary of the loss of the “unsinkable” RMS Titanic, let us take a moment to remember the man who memorialized the tragedy before it happened.

His name was Morgan Robertson. He was an author with a passion for the sea. In a 1905 review of his work, THE NEW YORK TIMES referred to Mr. Robertson admiringly as the “Kipling of the Sea,” meaning he did for the water what Rudyard Kipling did for the wilderness in THE JUNGLE BOOK.

In 1898, Mr. Robertson was an up-and-coming writer when he first published FUTILITY, a short novel about a giant ocean liner with a grim destiny. That vessel’s name? Titan. In Robertson’s story, published 14 years before the Titanic sank, the Titan also struck an iceberg on a fateful April night. Though the description of the shipwreck doesn’t amount to more than a couple pages, the similarities to the Titanic were striking, including the rough length of the ship, which was 800 feet vs. the Titanic’s 890 feet, as well as the passenger count of 3000.

Were the similarities purely coincidental? Or did the author claim to possess uncanny abilities?

Mr. Robertson himself explained his process best, and he did so quite eerily. In an interview published on September 11, 1904 in the NEW YORK TIMES, Mr. Robertson describes his creative process:

“Over night I think hard on a story. I go to bed full of it. In the morning I try to take as long a time as possible to wake up — to remain in a state half way between, neither truly sleeping nor really waking. In such an intermediate and indeterminate condition, what I take to be the same thing in me that the psychologists call ‘subliminal consciousness’ gets in touch with the matter of the story as my brain fully awake would never get in touch with it. I do not believe in haunting spirits, lingering ghosts of the dead, holding communication with the living, but I am convinced that in the particular state of mind I’m talking about I do somehow, by some sort of telepathic process, catch something from living non-present persons whose minds are busy with the same idea.”

Based on this description, it’s safe to assume Mr. Robertson deemed himself an accidental psychic, not a precognitive fortune teller with the ability to foretell events, but a “telepathic,” long-distance mind reader. With spiritualism as popular then as it is now, THE NEW YORK TIMES asked him if he was referring at all to a haunted realm of advisorial phantoms. He replied:

“I only say that my own experience of this curious subconscious, so-called telepathic source of information, or rather of feelings of which one has had no experience, extends only to what may well be credited to such as are our contemporaries of the flesh.”

Notably, when Mr. Robertson was writing FUTILITY in the late 1890s, the White Star Line had not yet begun construction on the Titanic. Nor were the ships even designed yet. As to whether or not ships’ designers were thinking of the ships yet, and hence providing Mr. Robertson with the “telepathic” foothold to predict a disaster, no one can know.

In 1912, the publisher hastily repackaged the book and retitled it “FUTILITY, OR THE WRECK OF THE TITAN.” In the wake of the real-life tragedy, the book was a sudden hit, and the biggest success of Mr. Robertson’s career. Mr. Robertson died just a few years later on March 24, 1915.

The March 1950 Hottel Memo released by the FBI

Reports have appeared via mainstream news sources such as ABC News, CBS News, and HUFFINGTON POST.

Dear Internet: Maybe don’t be so abuzz about this one.

According to the little-known and poorly edited INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS TIMES (which, strangely, offers the most in-depth reporting on the case), it can all be traced back to a hoax originally published in Kansas City’s WYANDOTTE ECHO newspaper. Specifically, the January 6, 1950 issue, according to older sources.

However, no one seems to present the actual article itself. Often, when researching mysterious events, this suggests either A.) there was no actual article, or B.) the long-lost article differs from people’s descriptions of it over time. More accurately, reports about the article seem to rely on descriptions of descriptions of descriptions . . .

To recap: Was this a real-life x-file investigated by the FBI? Probably not. Do we know the full true story yet? Not yet. Extensive searching turns up no WYANDOTTE ECHO archives for 1950 (only 1930 – 1937 and 2004 – 2011), but let’s keep looking.

Meanwhile, back in 2011, enjoy an authentic Unidentified Flying Object below!

Oh, yeah. And before that, a gentleman murdered his family there.

Behold the actual real estate ad.

If YOU had a million dollars, would you choose a house with an (alleged) haunted history? Or would you prefer something a little less horrific?

By now you’ve probably heard (and heard and heard) about today’s “ghost sightings” over at Google. For two days only, Google is hosting a free version of the original Pac-Man game.

Yes, behold hungry-hungry Pac-Man versus those rainbow-colored wraiths Blinky, Pinky, Inky, and Clyde!

Free 30th-Anniversary Pac-Man at Google!

Here are a few secrets for all of you ‘core gamers:

To play Pac-Man, click the “INSERT COIN” button. Easy peasy. To play Ms. Pac-Man Co-Op Mode, double-click the “INSERT COIN” button, and use the W-A-S-D keys to navigate.

Google’s Pac-Man is also compatible with iPhone OS! That means you can chomp your ghosts on the go, via iPhone, iPod Touch, and glorious iPad. Alas, the only thing missing is sound.

Of course, this wouldn’t be THE FEARSEEKER FILES without a horrific twist. So here it is: A few years back, a Pac-Man crop circle was discovered in the UK at lat: 51.4001846313, long: -0.985098004341.

Aliens (or hoaxers) are gamers too. IS IT REAL?

The ocean depths beg to differ. Deep Sea News describes many errors in the Fox News report.

Surely, we all agree on one key point: Something icky scampered its way out of the ocean — and into our hearts.

Hello, World!

[ORIGINAL_POST] Not to be outdone by this week’s release of ALIENS VS PREDATOR (x360/PS3), the British National Archives just declassified its fifth collection of government files about UFO sightings. Call it the latest installment of “Aliens Vs Humans.”

Like the previous collections, there is much to be ooh-ed and aah-ed at here, especially if you are a fan of hastily drawn primary evidence from alleged UFO witnesses or official-looking letters with tantalizingly blacked-out details.

Eyes to the skies files, people. If you find anything good, post about it below.