Our interests cover the full range of Fortean subjects: strange encounters, unexplained events, unusual experiences, folklore, recurring local stories, historical cases and modern reports from ordinary people. Some may already be well known. Others may never have been recorded before.
Our aim is to build a large, searchable database of old and new cases from across Ireland and beyond. We want to preserve the details that are often lost: where something happened, when it happened, who experienced it, what was observed and whether similar events have been reported elsewhere.
Research, with a new set of tools
FI-X combines traditional research with experimental AI automation.
The experience and judgement behind the project come from human researchers. The site’s automated analysis does not.
The FI-X system reads the available case material, compares details, identifies possible connections and produces its own analysis. The conclusions shown on the site are generated by the system rather than written by us.
So far, we have not found ourselves disagreeing with it.
That does not mean every analysis should be treated as proven fact. It means the system is being used as another research tool: one capable of reviewing large volumes of material, spotting patterns and drawing attention to details that may deserve a closer look.
The original reports remain the important part. The analysis is an interpretation of the information available.
New and old at the same time
There is something deliberately contradictory about FI-X.
The subjects are old. The methods of collecting testimony, checking sources and comparing accounts are tried and tested. Human curiosity about strange events is older still.
The technology is new.
Some of what we are doing follows established research practice. Some of it is experimental. Some of it has been done for generations, while some of it has barely been tried at all.
That combination is the point.
We are not trying to replace careful investigation with automation. We are testing whether automation can help researchers organise evidence, compare cases and notice connections that might otherwise remain buried.
Help build the archive
A database like this can only become useful if people contribute to it.
You may know an old local story that was never properly recorded. You may have experienced something yourself. You may know of a case that appeared briefly in a newspaper, a community group or a family conversation and then disappeared.
We want to hear it.
Tell us what happened, where it happened, when it happened and what you remember. Include as much or as little information as you are comfortable sharing. Reports may be reviewed, compared with existing cases and, with permission, added to the FI-X archive.
Not every account will have an obvious explanation. Not every case will remain unexplained. The purpose is not to force an answer. It is to preserve the details, examine them carefully and make them available for future research.
Tell us your story
FI-X is building a record of unusual experiences, one report at a time.
Old cases, new cases, familiar subjects and entirely unexpected ones all belong in the same exchange of information.
Help us build it.
Tell us your story.