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Anomalistics is the use of scientific methods to evaluate anomalies (phenomena that fall outside current understanding), with the aim of finding a rational explanation.[1] The term itself was coined in 1973 by Drew University anthropologist Roger W. Wescott, who defined it as being the "serious and systematic study of all phenomena that fail to fit the picture of reality provided for us by common sense or by the established sciences."[2][3]
Wescott credited journalist and researcher Charles Fort as being the creator of anomalistics as a field of research, and he named biologist Ivan T. Sanderson and Sourcebook Project compiler William R. Corliss as being instrumental in expanding anomalistics to introduce a more conventional perspective into the field.[2][4]
Henry Bauer, emeritus professor of science studies at Virginia Tech, writes that anomalistics is "a politically correct term for the study of bizarre claims",[5] while David J. Hess of the Department of Science and Technology Studies at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute describes it as being "the scientific study of anomalies defined as claims of phenomena not generally accepted by the bulk of the scientific community."[1]
Anomalistics covers several sub-disciplines, including ufology, cryptozoology, and parapsychology. Researchers involved in the field have included ufologist J. Allen Hynek and cryptozoologist Bernard Heuvelmans, and parapsychologist John Hayes.[6][7][8]
- ^ a b Hess David J. (1997) "Science Studies: an advanced introduction" New York University Press, ISBN 0-8147-3564-9
- ^ a b Wescott, Roger W. (1975), "Anomalistics: The Outline of an Emerging Field of Investigation", in M. Maruyama & A. Harkins (ed.), Cultures Beyond the Earth, New York: Vintage Books, pp. 22–25, ISBN 0-394-71602-7
- ^ Clark, Jerome (May 1993). Encyclopedia of strange and unexplained physical phenomena. Gale Research Inc. p. 7. ISBN 978-0-8103-8843-7.
- ^ Clark, Jerome (1993) "Encyclopedia of Strange and Unexplained Physical Phenomena", Thomson Gale, ISBN 0-8103-8843-X
- ^ Bauer, Henry (2000) Science Or Pseudoscience: Magnetic Healing, Psychic Phenomena and Other Heterodoxies, University of Illinois Press, ISBN 0-252-02601-2
- ^ Clark, Jerome (1998). The UFO book: Encyclopedia of the Extraterrestrial. Detroit, Michigan: Visible Ink Press. ISBN 1-57859-029-9.
- ^ Science, 5 November 1999: Vol. 286. no. 5442, p. 1079.
- ^ Science, 14 May 2010, Vol. 328. no. 5980, p.854.