Yuriy Morozov Dies
Posted by: Loren Coleman on May 7th, 2007
Yuriy N. Morozov, 55, a well known Russian Fortean (anomalist) and leading authority on paleovisitology (the study of hypothetical ancient visitors to the Earth) died on April 29, 2007, in Moscow, Russia. Morozov’s death occurred after a short illness, according to his friend Vladimir Rubtsov, director of the Research Institute on Anomalous Phenomena (RIAP). [Rubtsov is himself famed for his studies of Tunguska (1972-2001) and his intriguing winged weirdies article in FSR1979, “A Flying ‘Man’ in Black in Russia.”]
Yuriy Morozov was an advocate for the linking of all studies of unexplained phenomena, anomalistics, under one tent. He addressed the question of anomalistics by asking other questions:
Does anomalistics exist at all? Yes, there is a multitude of investigations of so-called anomalous (in fact—not recognized by science) phenomena.
But do these investigations form a unified cognitive system? Do the ufologists and parapsychologists, cryptozoologists and “ghost hunters” realize that taken together, they belong to the “invisible college” of anomalists?
And what unites them (if at all), apart from an awareness that, in their various ways, they are pursuing investigations in fields “forbidden” from the standpoint of official science? I will not venture to propose quite definite answers to these questions. Nevertheless, it seems to me that a considerable part of formally dissimilar anomalous phenomena have some common features that stimulate the researchers to cooperate.
I would define this feature as follows: “elusive reality”. It is well known that people possessing paranormal abilities not infrequently turn out incapable of displaying these in the presence of skeptical investigators; poltergeists refuse to “rage” before video cameras; the only evidence of “alien abductions” is word of mouth; Nessie still remains a legend; the “Abominable Snowman” has never been caught.
In essence, classical science has a certain reason when it refuses to consider these subjects. Scientists are accustomed to “normal” phenomena of the physical world that may be instrumentally recorded and reproduced under given conditions. That is why they simply cannot recognize the existence of phenomena that are not so “yielding” to researchers. Yuriy N. Morozov, RIAP Bulletin, 2002, Vol. 8, No. 3-4 13
Born 1952 in Moscow, Russia, Yuriy Morozov was a professional folklorist, having graduated from Moscow University, and then continuing in the doctoral program there where he defended his Ph. D. thesis on the historicity of folklore. Morozov engaged in anomalistic and paleovisitological studies since the late 1960s.
According to Rubtsov, Morozov was apparently the first researcher, certainly the initial Russian one, who came to realize the fruitlessness of the controversy between “adherents” and “opponents” of paleovisits and proposed the only possible way out from this endless debate: building paleovisitology as a research direction aimed at studying this problem, not defending an a priori accepted solution.
Yuriy Morozov’s works had been published in scholarly periodicals, but only after perestroika was Morozov able to express his opinion on his anomalistic, Fortean, and paleovisitology interests in book form.
Yuriy Morozov was the author of many publications on these subjects in scholarly and popular-science periodicals. Morozov’s book Traces of Ancient Astronauts? (Moscow: Znanie Publishers, 1991) remains the best exposition of the problem of paleovisits in the Russian language, according to reviewer Vladimir Rubtsov.
Morozov lived in Moscow and continued his studies there until his death. In particular, he was actively participating in studying a zone in the north of Russia, where anomalous effects recorded visually and instrumentally have been accompanied by an extensive amount of folklore describing contacts with anomalous beings.
Dr. Morozov was a member of the Russia-based Scientific Council of the Research Institute on Anomalous Phenomena.
Our thoughts and condolences to his family and our Russian colleagues on the passing of one of their own.
About Loren Coleman
Loren Coleman is one of the world’s leading cryptozoologists, some say “the” leading living cryptozoologist. Certainly, he is acknowledged as the current living American researcher and writer who has most popularized cryptozoology in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.
Starting his fieldwork and investigations in 1960, after traveling and trekking extensively in pursuit of cryptozoological mysteries, Coleman began writing to share his experiences in 1969. An honorary member of Ivan T. Sanderson’s Society for the Investigation of the Unexplained in the 1970s, Coleman has been bestowed with similar honorary memberships of the North Idaho College Cryptozoology Club in 1983, and in subsequent years, that of the British Columbia Scientific Cryptozoology Club, CryptoSafari International, and other international organizations. He was also a Life Member and Benefactor of the International Society of Cryptozoology (now-defunct).
Loren Coleman’s daily blog, as a member of the Cryptomundo Team, served as an ongoing avenue of communication for the ever-growing body of cryptozoo news from 2005 through 2013. He returned as an infrequent contributor beginning Halloween week of 2015.
Coleman is the founder in 2003, and current director of the International Cryptozoology Museum in Portland, Maine.
Totally unaware of this gentleman, may he R.I.P.
This may be one of the key benefits of this site. Many of us are more interested in the animals than the history. But without people like this, our eyes would remain unopened on a variety of alleged – some highly plausible – animals.
Each one like this I read about, I wish we knew more, and hope that somehow they’ll be around to see it when we do.