Instructors:

• Instructor Elliott Van Dusen

Course Description:

Canada has produced some of the most enduring and evidentially complex cases in the study of anomalous phenomena. These accounts include alleged unidentified aerial phenomena, hauntings and poltergeist activity, psychokinesis experiments, and reports of unknown aquatic creatures. Although they are often presented as folklore or popular mystery, each case also contains witnesses, documents, physical claims, competing interpretations, and questions of evidence that can be examined systematically.

This eight-week course applies a forensic anomalistic approach to eight Canadian cases: the Shag Harbour UFO Incident, the Falcon Lake Incident, the Firespook of Caledonia Mills, the Great Amherst Mystery, the Baldoon Mystery, Ogopogo, the Philip Experiment, and Cadborosaurus with the Naden Harbour carcass. Students will reconstruct each case from the available record, distinguish contemporaneous evidence from later retellings, assess witness and source reliability, consider normal and anomalous hypotheses, and identify what the evidence can and cannot support.

The course does not begin with the assumption that a case is either paranormal or explained. Its emphasis is disciplined retrospective analysis: chronology, provenance, corroboration, alternative explanations, evidential limitations, and the historical and cultural conditions that shaped how each case was reported and remembered. Note that PARAPSYCH100 – Introduction to Parapsychology is recommended but not required.

Course Objectives:

By the end of this course, students will be able to:

• Explain the purpose and limitations of forensic anomalistic retrospective analysis.
• Construct a reliable chronology from primary, secondary, and later narrative sources.
• Differentiate contemporaneous documentation from folklore, embellishment, and retrospective testimony.
• Assess witness evidence using corroboration, consistency, proximity, motive, and source provenance.
• Evaluate documentary, photographic, medical, environmental, and physical evidence within its proper context.
• Develop and compare conventional, psychological, sociocultural, deceptive, and anomalistic hypotheses.
• Recognize how media coverage, investigators, community traditions, and cultural expectations influence a case narrative.
• Communicate balanced conclusions that distinguish established facts, reasonable inferences, unresolved questions, and speculation.

Course Outline: 

Week 1: The Shag Harbour UFO Incident

• The October 1967 sighting and reported impact near Shag Harbour, Nova Scotia
• Witness chronology, RCMP response, search activity, and official documentation
• Terminology, record provenance, and the distinction between documented events and later claims
• Competing maritime, astronomical, aerospace, misidentification, and anomalistic hypotheses
• Case conclusion: what is established, disputed, and unresolved

Week 2: The Falcon Lake Incident

• Stefan Michalak’s 1967 encounter account at Falcon Lake, Manitoba
• Timeline reconstruction and development of the narrative
• Medical findings, alleged burns, clothing, site materials, and radioactive claims
• Witness reliability, investigative records, and alternative explanations
• Comparison with Shag Harbour as a Canadian UAP evidence problem

Week 3: The Firespook of Caledonia Mills

• The 1922–1923 Antigonish County fire outbreak and associated disturbances
• Household, community, police, media, and investigator accounts
• Fire-setting, environmental, psychological, social, and psychokinetic hypotheses
• The role of expectation and publicity in the escalation of anomalous claims
• Assessing evidential gaps in a historical case

Week 4: The Great Amherst Mystery

• Esther Cox and the reported 1878–1879 disturbances in Amherst, Nova Scotia
• Walter Hubbell’s narrative and the problems of dependence on a dominant source
• Reported raps, movement of objects, fires, inscriptions, and witness testimony
• Trauma, dissociation, fraud, recurrent spontaneous psychokinesis, and mixed-cause models
• Midterm case analysis

Week 5: The Baldoon Mystery

• The reported 1829–1830 disturbances affecting the McDonald family in Upper Canada
• Oral tradition, later publication, and reconstruction of an early Canadian case
• Reported projectiles, fires, animal symbolism, and the role of the alleged curse
• Folklore, community conflict, deception, haunting, and poltergeist interpretations
• How evidential standards change when contemporaneous records are limited

Week 6: Ogopogo

• Indigenous traditions and settler-era reports associated with Okanagan Lake
• Respectful separation of Indigenous cultural narratives from later cryptid mythology
• Eyewitness reports, photographs, film, environmental conditions, and identification problems
• Known animals, wave effects, floating debris, perceptual error, and unknown-animal hypotheses
• Standards for evaluating recurring reports without a confirmed specimen

Week 7: The Philip Experiment

• The Toronto Society for Psychical Research experiment and the creation of Philip Aylesford
• Experimental design, group expectations, table movement, rapping, and séance conditions
• Ideomotor action, social reinforcement, experimenter effects, and psychokinesis hypotheses
• Replication, controls, documentation, and the limits of inference
• The significance of the experiment for séance and macro-PK research

Week 8: Cadborosaurus and the Naden Harbour Carcass

• The Cadborosaurus tradition and reported sightings along the Pacific coast
• The 1937 Naden Harbour carcass, photographs, descriptions, and specimen-history questions
• Provenance, chain of custody, comparative anatomy, decomposition, and misidentification
• Cryptozoological interpretation versus zoological and taphonomic alternatives
• Comparative review of all eight cases and final examination

Grading:

• Discussion Questions: 40%
• Mid-term Examination: 30%
• Final Examination: 30%
• Grading Scale: A+ (90-100), A (80-84), A- (85-89), B+ (77-79), B (73-76), B- (70-72), C+ (65-69), C (60-64), C- (55-59), D (50-54), F (0-49)

Technical Requirements:

• Stable internet connection
• Access to Zoom for live lectures (recordings available)
• Moodle for course materials and assignments

Tuition:

Payable through PayPal’s secure online payment system.
Supports CAPRI’s non-profit mission.

Withdrawals and Terminations:

Refer to CAPRI’s policies on voluntary withdrawals, terminations, and appeals.

Admissions:

Complete the CAPRI student enrollment admissions form below.