Loren Coleman | |
---|---|
Born | Norfolk, Virginia, United States | July 12, 1947
Nationality | American |
Subject | Cryptozoology, Forteana, folklore, psychology |
Years active | 1960–present |
Notable works | Mysterious America The Copycat Effect |
Website | |
www |
Loren Coleman (born July 12, 1947) is an American cryptozoologist who has written over 40 books on a number of topics, including the pseudoscience and subculture of cryptozoology. [1]
This section of a biography of a living person needs additional citations for verification .(July 2021) |
Coleman was born in Norfolk, Virginia, and grew up in Decatur, Illinois. [2] He was the oldest of four children. [2] His father was a firefighter and his mother a homemaker. [2] He graduated in 1965 from MacArthur High School. [3] He studied anthropology and zoology at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale, [4] .
Coleman writes on popular culture, animal mysteries, folklore, and cryptozoology. An editor of the Skeptical Inquirer said, "among monster hunters, Loren's one of the more reputable, but I'm not convinced that what cryptozoologists seek is actually out there." [2] He has appeared on television and radio interviews about cryptids. [5] He has written articles and books on cryptozoology and other Fortean topics. [4]
Coleman has carried out fieldwork throughout North America regarding sightings, trace evidence, and Native peoples' traditions of Sasquatch and other possible cryptids. He has written on Yeti and Bigfoot expedition sponsor Tom Slick [6] and appeared on NPR discussing the death of Grover Krantz. [7]
Paraview Press introduced a series of books, "Loren Coleman Presents" in 2004. [8] Coleman wrote introductions to volumes in the series.
Coleman contributed to the exhibition "Cryptozoology: Out of Time Place Scale," shown at Bates College Museum of Art (June 24 - October 8, 2006) and at the H & R Block Artspace at the Kansas City Art Institute (October 28 - December 20, 2006).[ citation needed ] Coleman is also a contributor/coauthor of the 2006 Bates exhibition catalogue and book, Cryptozoology: Out of Time Place Scale. [9] He also wrote the essay "Cryptids" for Alexis Rockman.[ citation needed ]
Coleman established a Cryptozoology Museum in 2003 in Portland, Maine. [4] [10] The first downtown location for the museum opened in November 2009, occupying the rear of The Green Hand Bookshop, a Portland general used bookshop specializing in science fiction, fantasy, and other forms of Gothic fiction. [11] On October 30, 2011, two years after moving onto Congress Street, it re-opened in a much larger space around the corner at 11 Avon Street, although it was still located in the Trelawny Building. [12] The museum then moved again in the summer of 2016, opening in July on Thompson's Point, where it resides now. [13]
Artwork by University of Southern Maine students, Coleman's former workplace, were installed in 2019. [14]
Justin Mullis criticized Coleman's assumption about a 1955 incident in which an Indiana woman was pulled underwater by something she did not see. Coleman claimed it was caused by a half human, half fish creature called a "merbeing". Mullis pointed to Coleman's reference to The Creature from the Black Lagoon as an example of "how cryptozoologists think about science fiction and its relationship to the natural world". [15]
"Coleman has clearly used a scene from the film to prematurely solve an unexplained event, ignoring more plausible explanations, such as the possibility that Mrs. Johnson was attacked by a large fish or turtle or caught her leg on a submerged log. He also ignores the fact that Johnson’s story appeared at the same time the Black Lagoon trilogy of films was being released in theaters." [15]
Science writer Sharon A. Hill disagrees [16] with Coleman's assertions that cryptozoology is "scientific and skeptically minded". [17] Hill criticized Coleman's Cryptomundo website, saying that members "show blatant disdain for scientists and investigators critical of their claims". [16]
In reviewing a book by Grover Krantz, Skeptical Inquirer editor Robert Boston said of Coleman and Jerome Clark's book Creatures of the Outer Edge, "Clark and Coleman are every bit as gullible as Krantz, but at least they know how to spin a monster yarn so that the reader gets an occasional chill". [18]
Coleman has a master's degree in psychiatric social work and was a consultant for the Maine Youth Suicide Program [2] for nearly a decade. A specific concern continues to be cases of murder-suicide among the young as well as the possibility of clusters (e.g., teen suicides, school shootings, workplace violence, and domestic terrorism) and the influence of media coverage, [19] leading to his writing the books Suicide Clusters [20] and The Copycat Effect. [21] [22] He has been called on for statements in the aftermath of school shootings and how best to respond to the problem, mostly by the Canadian media. [23] [24] [25]
Bigfoot, also commonly referred to as Sasquatch, is a large and hairy human-like mythical creature alleged by some to inhabit forests in North America, particularly in the Pacific Northwest, despite scientific consensus. Bigfoot is an icon within the pseudoscience of cryptozoology, and an enduring topic within popular culture.
Cryptozoology is a pseudoscience and subculture that searches for and studies unknown, legendary, or extinct animals whose present existence is disputed or unsubstantiated, particularly those popular in folklore, such as Bigfoot, the Loch Ness Monster, Yeti, the chupacabra, the Jersey Devil, or the Mokele-mbembe. Cryptozoologists refer to these entities as cryptids, a term coined by the subculture. Because it does not follow the scientific method, cryptozoology is considered a pseudoscience by mainstream science: it is neither a branch of zoology nor of folklore studies. It was originally founded in the 1950s by zoologists Bernard Heuvelmans and Ivan T. Sanderson.
Karl Shuker is a British zoologist, cryptozoologist and author. He lives in the Midlands, England, where he works as a zoological consultant and writer. A columnist in Fortean Times and contributor to various magazines, Shuker is also the editor-in-chief of the Journal of Cryptozoology, which began in November 2012.
Thomas Baker Slick Jr. was a San Antonio, Texas-based inventor, businessman, adventurer, and heir to an oil business. Slick's father, Thomas Baker Slick Sr., a.k.a. "The King of the Wildcatters", had made a fortune during the Oklahoma oil boom of the 1910s. He was notable for discovering Oklahoma's then-largest oil field, the Cushing Oil Field.
Ivan Terence Sanderson was a British biologist and writer born in Edinburgh, Scotland, who became a naturalized citizen of the United States. Sanderson wrote on nature and travel, and was a frequent guest on television talk shows and variety shows of the 1950s and '60s, displaying and discussing exotic animals.
Jon-Erik Beckjord was an American paranormal investigator, photographer, and cryptozoologist interested in UFOs, crop circles, the Loch Ness Monster, and Bigfoot. Throughout his life, he owned three separate, small-scale museums that featured displays, mostly photographs, of alleged UFO, Nessie, and Bigfoot sightings. He made guest appearances on national radio and television shows, but was criticized by skeptics and fellow cryptozoologists alike for not providing substantive evidence to back up his claims of the existence of paranormal beings.
Raymond L. Wallace was an American amateur Bigfoot hoaxer.
Nicholas Redfern is a British best-selling author, journalist, cryptozoologist and ufologist.
J. Richard Greenwell was a cryptozoologist and explorer. He participated in expeditions to look for mysterious creatures or cryptids. He was the secretary for the International Society for Cryptozoology from its inception to his death.
Roy P. Mackal was a University of Chicago biologist best known to the general public for his interest in cryptozoology.
The giant penguin is a creature allegedly seen in Florida during the 1940s and is at least partly documented as a hoax. This legend has no scientific merit, despite there having been giant penguins that became extinct millions of years ago.
The Bridgewater Triangle is an area of about 200 square miles (520 km2) within southeastern Massachusetts in the United States, claimed to be a site of alleged paranormal phenomena, ranging from UFOs to poltergeists, and other spectral phenomena, various bigfoot-like sightings, giant snakes and thunderbirds. The term was coined by New England based cryptozoologist Loren Coleman.
The Secret Saturdays is an American animated television series created by Canadian cartoonist Jay Stephens for Cartoon Network. It debuted on October 3, 2008, in the United States. The series follows the adventures of the Saturdays, a family of cryptozoologists that work to keep the truth about cryptids from getting out, to protect both the human race and the creatures themselves. The Saturdays travel the Earth searching for cryptids to study and battling twisted villains like the megalomaniac V. V. Argost. The series is influenced by 1960s-era Hanna-Barbera action series and is combined with Jay Stephens's own personal interest in cryptozoology. The show finished its run on January 30, 2010, but aired reruns on Boomerang from December 5, 2011, to June 1, 2014.
MonsterQuest is an American television series that originally aired from October 31, 2007 to March 24, 2010 on the History channel. Produced by Whitewolf Entertainment, the program deals with the search for various monsters of interest to the cryptozoology subculture and paranormal entities reportedly witnessed around the world. A spin-off show, MysteryQuest, which focuses on unsolved mysteries, premiered on September 16, 2009.
MonsterTalk is an audio podcast originally presented by the Skeptics Society's Skeptic magazine but broke ties in 2019. Since 2019 it has been an independent podcast under the "Monster House, LLC" banner. The show critically examines the science behind cryptozoological creatures, such as Bigfoot, the Loch Ness Monster, and werewolves. It is hosted by Blake Smith and Karen Stollznow, and produced by Blake Smith. In 2012, MonsterTalk was awarded the Parsec Award for the "Best Fact Behind the Fiction Podcast".
The Jacko hoax was a Canadian newspaper story about a gorilla supposedly caught near Yale, British Columbia in 1884. The story, titled "What is it?, A strange creature captured above Yale. A British Columbia Gorilla", appeared in the British Columbia newspaper the Daily Colonist on July 4, 1884. The original newspaper article describes "Jacko" as a gorilla and not a Sasquatch. However, the "Jacko" story has been used by Bigfoot advocates as evidence for the existence of Sasquatch. Many books about Bigfoot and cryptids have featured the event and cite the original newspaper article. In 2008 Michael Cremo discussed the story as possible proof for the existence of Sasquatch. The "Jacko" story was featured on the A&E television documentary series Ancient Mysteries about Bigfoot, season 4, episode 18 narrated by Leonard Nimoy. The story was also mentioned on the Bigfoot episode of the television series In Search Of..., season 1, episode 5, also narrated by Nimoy. The Jacko story was mentioned in a 1976 documentary called The Mysterious Monsters.
Peter Cyril Byrne was an Irish-American explorer, author, media personality, and cryptozoologist, probably best known as a Bigfoot investigator.
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