I find cultural attitudes toward anomalous phenomena as intriguing as the phenomena themselves. I think many Fortean mysteries (e.g., ESP, ghosts, UFO's, abductions, "Bigfoot" and other "Hairy Hominids," "Nessie" and other Lake Monsters, etc.) do involve genuine, fascinating scientific or even cosmological puzzles--but also reflect social and cultural attitudes, tensions, and conflicts, as well. I have a basically "open-minded hard science" approach to things like UFO's, abductions, "Hairy Hominids," and "Lake Monsters," tending to favor extraterrestrial and unknown-animals explanations for whatever defies a more mundane explanation--but I'm also still open to parapsychological, "paraphysical," or "metaphysical" explanations as well, for the more truly weird and bizarre cases. However, if "psychic" or "metaphysical" explanations don't seem to be really called for, but something rather unusual was still seen, I would still favor a "nuts and bolts" ETH ufology and a "flesh and blood, fur and feathers" cryptozoology in preference to occultist approaches. I think the modern "mainstream" scientific world-picture is mostly correct so far as it stands, but also quite incomplete--with paranormal and "Fortean" phenomena pointing to some of its gaps and omissions. In my own outlook and orientation, I personally very much straddle the "Two Cultures" of "mainstream"
academic, scholarly, scientific, and literary "high culture" on the one hand, and of parapsychology and Forteanism on the other.〔("Introducing myself to fort-@yahoogroups.com" )〕