About the project

Mission, goals and principles

In modern society, there is a negative attitude towards witnesses of abnormal phenomena and people who are engaged in their study. They are considered at best fantasists or scammers, at worst they are attributed to various mental disorders. Because of this, most people who have inexplicable experiences from their point of view are afraid to talk about their experiences, so as not to look like madmen in the eyes of others.

However, events of a completely ordinary nature can be taken as paranormal phenomena. Any person can witness phenomena that, due to his knowledge and life experience, will seem inexplicable to him. At the same time, such events (in the terminology of the site – unexplained facts), in addition to doubts about their own adequacy, can pose a real threat, and a timely attempt to understand the causes can prevent negative consequences.

This can be achieved if everyone can openly and without fear share the experience of encountering anomalous phenomena (phenomena) and discuss their possible causes.

Our mission is to improve public opinion in relation to anomalous phenomena and their eyewitnesses.

Our goals within the stated mission:

• Creating a knowledge base about anomalous phenomena and their possible causes, based on the following principles:
  • consistency, which manifests itself both in the structure of the data and in the breadth of its coverage (science, culture, eyewitness accounts, etc.).);
  • objectivity: preference is given to those data that are supported by material evidence (photo and video materials) that reduce the possibility of subjective interpretation; data that does not have such support is marked accordingly;
  • openness: any visitor to the site can offer information that will expand or supplement our database.
• Organize knowledge sharing with other groups, organizations, and individuals.
• Using the accumulated knowledge to find explanations for anomalous phenomena.

Our principles:

• An approach to anomalous phenomena as modern myths, the causes of which can be identified and studied.
• Record all evidence of anomalous phenomena, regardless of the degree of apparent absurdity.
• Investigation of all evidence on a general basis, without excluding from consideration all versions of their origin (including deception – intentional or involuntary).
• The investigation of each evidence, regardless of the prevailing stereotypes and emotional coloring.
• Separation of the actual incident and the paranormal context attributed to it by eyewitnesses.
• Rational priority: an event can be considered abnormal only after all rational versions have been refuted.
• Priority of objective evidence (photos, videos, etc.) over subjective evidence (eyewitness accounts).
• Using knowledge about the history of the development of ideas about the paranormal to better understand the evidence of eyewitnesses.
• Non-commercial activity (eyewitnesses provide information free of charge, the information on the site is free for users)

History

Our story began back in 1998. It was then that the idea of a project that brings together enthusiasts of different professions to implement a rational approach to the study of unexplained facts arose. The impetus for this was the personal experience of UFO sightings by the founder and future coordinator of the project. In her search for an explanation, she encountered a large number of people who were also faced with the unknown and would like to understand what they witnessed.

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A sketch of the logo placed on the first notebook with notes

In the spring of 1999, the first project was organized, called "The FernFlower Archive". By 2003, the archive contained more than 850 observations of anomalous phenomena that occurred around the world. It was based on the stories of the interviewed eyewitnesses, and later materials from the media found by the project participants and their friends were added to them.

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The first digitized logo of the group

Since the second quarter of 2006, the archive has been duplicated electronically on a desktop computer. With the growth of the data volume and the spread of the Internet, it became clear that for further successful development, it is necessary to provide access to the archive from the global network.

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Fern Flower Electronic Archive logo

At the end of 2010, work began on the Internet project "Fern Flower Group". The project began its existence on the basis of the site fern-flower.ru, which was actively developed for six years, until the need for increasing hardware resources became obvious.

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Website Design fern-flower.ru, archive login page

In 2016, the project moved to a dedicated server and became available at fern-flower.org. Its concept has undergone significant changes: the accumulated information has been structured and systematized, a section "Statistics" has appeared with summary information on phenomena, facts and versions. The site's materials are now available in three languages: Russian, English and Spanish.

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First website design fern-flower.org with a New Year's logo

In 2017, the design of the site changed significantly: it began to meet modern requirements for the adaptability of the interface, the presentation of materials became more logical. In the same year, the section "Reviews" appeared, the purpose of which is to collect and analyze information on the history of changing ideas about phenomena in popular culture. There are channels in Telegram, which contain links to the materials published on the site for the convenience of tracking changes.

The site continues to develop both in technical terms and in terms of content content. If you want to participate in this process, then tell us about unexplained facts that you or your friends have witnessed, put forward versions, comment, point out errors and shortcomings, leaked fake news, offer your ideas for articles, experiments, expeditions and investigations. All this helps us to become better and move forward towards our goals.

Project Coordinator July N. - Send a message

The principle of working with information about paranormal phenomena is given inThe general methodology.

Site Rules

1. The project is not commercial. Our goal is not to make money. You can't place ads here.
2. All information from third-party resources published on the site is provided for informational purposes and is intended for personal use. The rights to it belong to the copyright holders indicated as the source by the active link.
3. The responsibility for the content of comments on published materials lies with their authors. The administration reserves the right to delete comments that are offensive, contain pornography, advertising, propaganda (political, religious, etc.) or otherwise violate the principles of the group.
4. The decisions of the administration are final and are not subject to discussion or appeal.

Partners and friends

1. Links to friendly resources are published in a special section "Friends of the site", displayed on each page of our resource. If you want to become a partner of the site and / or place your banner / link with us, please contact the project coordinator.
2. Banner of our site for placement on third-party resources: