Page:Beyond Fantasy Fiction Volume 1 Issue 1 (1953-07).djvu/5

—Rejecting or repressing either one means serious psychological trouble.

—Facing only one or the other incessantly creates unbearable strain. We all need vacations from both.

Through the medium of dreams and impulses, we know fantasy well as the interpreter of reality. We rely less on nature myths than our ancestors did—but, as in the case of the Kraken, don't get the idea that science has all the answers, or that all nature myths are primitive nonsense.

When I was at Ilagan, 200 miles north of Manila, we had ghastly problems with a military bridge over the swiftest river I've ever seen. The Filipinos explained that the beautiful witch of the river caused our drownings and theirs—she took men as her husbands and released them, dead, seven days later. She could be seen, they said, tailing religious processions.

We watched one. The last woman in the parade had her face concealed. When we closed in, she ducked between several nipa huts. We searched the huts; they were empty and nobody was in sight between us and the murderous river.

Later, one of our men who'd been missing for seven days was found drowned only a mile from our bridge . . . although the river flowed at a turbulent ten miles an hour or more.

While I was in the Pacific, I kept wondering about one thing especially. The only time I'd held still for palmistry was in 1938, when the amateur who did it predicted that I'd get married, have a son, go to a Pacific isle without my family—and marry a native woman.

I did marry, have a son, go to a Pacific isle without my family. Watching the prediction come true point by point, I was resigned to the final clause. It never came even remotely close to happening. Was the reading wrong or was I? Some celestial accountant may be having trouble with his books.

No doubt there are scientific explanations for all our encounters with the occult.

But would they be as entertaining as the ones you'll find in BEYOND?

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