Does this signal a transition from the magazine’s usual fare of cutting-edge science, advanced technology and cool gadgets into the arcane world of myths, legends and other intangibles?

Not at all, says editor and publisher Alan Duggan. He explains: “Writer Michael Shermer, a refreshingly outspoken American sceptic, examines these apparitions from a scientific point of view – which in our opinion is the only perspective that makes sense. You may think you have seen a ghost, interacted with aliens or communicated with an unseen being, but your brain is fooling you. Although these so-called ‘supernatural’ phenomena can be highly entertaining, there is a rational explanation for all of them.”

How about accounts of sensed presences and out-of-body experiences? Surely they have some basis in fact? Says Duggan: “Put it down to hallucinations, chemical activity in the brain or simply tricks of memory. As Dr Schermer explains, our brains are capable of generating extraordinary experiences that are not real.”