The great early 20th century skeptic of science Charles Fort spent a lifetime thumbing his nose at dogmatic scientific paradigms that claimed to explain the mysteries of the universe. During his lifetime, Fort documented hundreds of events (such as rainstorms of crabs and periwinkles) that science could not explain or for which it could only offer explanations that were as ludicrous as the events themselves. He called his collection of documented anomalies the "procession of the damned." They were events relegated to damnation, darkness, and invisibility because the fetishistically rational knowledge system of the day had no place for them. Now that science has grown into extreme complexity, it has begun to produce its own Fortean events. Below are some highlights from the next generation of the procession in the areas of biology and reproduction.

The National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences in Bungalore, India, has presented 10 recent cases of children with memories of previous lives who had congenital anomalies that corresponded to wounds each suffered in previous lives. One was born without an arm, and another with malformation of the spine; the remaining eight had birthmarks corresponding to gunshot wounds, knife wounds, burns, or injuries from vehicular accidents.

The Journal of Scientific Exploration has published three case histories of birth defects that were possibly due to cursing at pregnant mothers. Evidently, the shock inflicted on the mother was then passed on to the fetus through a "maternal impression" (a popular concept in the 17th and 18th centuries when the cursing/birth defects correlation was routinely suggested). In the two modern cases, no commonly recognized etiological factors for birth defects could be determined.

Scientists say the odds are 5 million to 1 (in fact, it just can’t happen!), but a black couple has successively given birth to three albino children. Dickson and Cynthia Unoarumhi have produced a Fortean slip that no one can explain.

Scientists from Appalachian State University have presented compelling data suggesting that most births occur in the moon’s third quarter, and that the 21st day of the lunar cycle is the busiest birthing day of the month. Those astrologers may be on to something.

Near Rostock, in Mecklenburg, a woman gave birth to fifteen living children at one time, all of whom remained alive.

The year 1722 was a fruitful year. Many women gave birth to triplets. At Ahorn, near Coburg, a woman gave birth to four boys, and at Corin on the Lossa another woman had four girls. At Petersburg, a poor woman gave birth to six living children. At Arozzo, near Florence, a woman childless during forty-seven years of married life gave birth in her eighty-sixth year to a son.

But the following story takes the medal! The sister of Emperor William of Bavaria, who was murdered in 1256, was Margaret, Duchess of Henneberg. Once upon a time a poor woman, carrying twins in her arms, asked her for assistance. But the Duchess drove her away, calling her a whore, saying that it was impossible to have two children at one time from one man. The poor woman called upon God to prove her innocence and prayed that He would cause Margaret to have as many children as there were days in a year; she then went away. At her next confinement the Duchess gave birth to 365 children, all living, each of which was about the size of a little chick, one-half boys and one-half girls; all were baptized by the Bishop of Utrecht, who named all the boys John and all the girls Elizabeth. But they all, as well as the mother, died the same day.