The World’s Strangest Deaths

30 May 2013 - The World’s Strangest Deaths



'Death and the Lady' from the
excellent Gode Cookery


Hear how the mighty and the humble have suffered the most bizarre, embarrassing and amusing deaths at the hands of fickle fate. Historian and esoteric London expert Robert Stephenson takes us on a dance macabre for Corpus Christi.

Each LFS evening begins with the Fortmanteau, our monthly summary of strange news stories


7.30pm for 8pm start.
£3/£2 concessions
London Fortean Society meets at The Bell, 50 Middlesex Street, London E1 7EX. Train & Tube: Liverpool Street. Tube: Aldgate, Aldgate East

Rupert Sheldrake: The Science Delusion

25th April 2013 – The Science Delusion: Freeing the Spirit of Inquiry

This event has now SOLD OUT! Please contact us to join the waiting list for returns.

 

A Morphogenetic Field yesterday

The science delusion is the belief that science already understands the nature of reality, in principle, leaving only the details to be filled in. But recent research has revealed unexpected problems at the heart of physics, cosmology, biology, medicine and psychology.

Rupert Sheldrake turns the ten fundamental dogmas of science into questions, opening up startling new possibilities. Dr Rupert Sheldrake is a biologist and author of The Science Delusion.


Each LFS evening begins with the Fortmanteau, our monthly summary of strange news stories.


25 April 2013
The Bell, 50 Middlesex Street, London E1 7EX
£3/£2 concessions
8pm - 10.30pm
(talk 8-9pm)

Tubes and trains: Liverpool Street, Aldgate, Aldgate East. Many buses.

Fortean Art in London: Spring 2013

Art that interprets fortean phenomena is something we’ve always been fascinated in. Perhaps because it may be the nearest us humble forteans get to actually experiencing something paranormal. Artists often engage with the unseen and inexplicable in alluring and thought-provoking ways so we’re very pleased to see a number of art exhibitions in London that cover a variety of fortean themes. We’ve not had a chance to see any of these yet so below are the blurbs for each and most cost nothing but time and travel.

Channels

Susan Hillier’s Channels at Matt’s Gallery in Mile End (Wed-Sun until 14 April) is a “a vast audio-sculptural installation in which disembodied voices report on 'near-death' experiences."

"Hiller uses audio accounts in many languages from people who believe they have experienced death as the raw materials for her new work. Vivid stories of those who believe they have died and returned to tell the tale constitute a remarkable contemporary archive, whether the accounts are regarded as metaphors, misperceptions, myths, delusions or truth.”
 

Modern Witchcraft

Modern Witchcraft at the AST Gallery in North Lambeth (not far from Waterloo statio) is curated by
Juan Bolivar and contains "objects of superstition and antiquity from the Cuming Museum and Southwark Art Collection" which, lucky talismans that they are, kept them safe from the recent fire at the Cuming Museum and Southwark Library (another post on that soon hopefully). Monday to Saturday 1.30-5pm until 18 May.

Way further south is Beastly Hall, free with entry to Bexley Hall and Gardens (adults £7, under 16 £5) which includes the fantastic Peter Blake, Polly Morgan and Tessa Farmer.

Meet a carnival of unlikely monsters and unnatural beings in the new exhibition, Beastly Hall.  Featuring work by 28 internationally acclaimed artists including Damien Hirst, Peter Blake, Jake and Dino Chapman, Tessa Farmer, Laura Ford and Polly Morgan, the exhibition is a visual feast.
 

A typical evening with Ghost

Beastly Hall is on until 1 September.

Out in the west end and speaking of Polly Morgan-style taxidermy tableaux’s is Natalie Meyjes strange and small set-pieces on the theme of The Fairytale at Long & Ryle. They look fascinating. On until 26 April.

While we're on art and the paranormal, be sure to check out GHost and it's regular events it's art events exploring "the various roles ghosts play in contemporary culture by bringing artists, writers, curators, researchers and others together." It's run by LFS friend and speaker Sarah Sparkes.

Is you know of anything of fortean-arty interest, please let us know in the comments! Thanks.

 

The Lord was at Glastonbury: Somerset and the Jesus Voyage Story

28th March 2013 – The Lord was at Glastonbury: Somerset and the Jesus Voyage Story

At The Bell, 50 Middlesex Street, London E1 7EX

£3/£2 concessions

8pm - 10.30pm
(talk 8-9pm)

Anthropologist and archaeologist Paul Ashdown wrote the first comprehensive and scholarly account of the young Jesus visiting Britain. In this Good Friday Eve talk we shall meet a cast of characters including the first Grand Bard of Cornwall, the conqueror of Tibet and those eccentric clergymen who sought to prove the tale was actually true – and we look at the medieval background to the story and at Blake’s own mystical vision

Each LFS evening begins with the Fortmanteau, our monthly summary of strange news stories.

28 March 2013 
The Bell, 50 Middlesex Street, London E1 7EX
£3/£2 concessions
8pm - 10.30pm
(talk 8-9pm)

Tubes and trains: Liverpool Street, Aldgate, Aldgate East. Many buses.

Jack the Ripper: The Making of the Myth

28 February 2013 –8pm - 10.30pm
(inc. Q&A, talk ends approx. 9pm)

£3 / £2 concs


The Whitechapel Murderer has become for many the archetypal “lurker in the shadows” – bogeyman and arch supervillain, folklore filmstar and mainstay of the modern Halloween. Ripper author and researcher John Bennett examines how a very real killer became a universal icon of fear, via mass hysteria, urban legend, psychogeography and conspiracy. John is the author of Jack the Ripper: The Making of the Myth.

Each LFS evening begins with the Fortmanteau, our monthly summary of strange news stories, this month our Fortmanteu is from special guest Jude Monteque Cowan.         We meet the last Thursday of each month (usually) upstairs at fantastic pub The Bell, 50 Middlesex Street, London E1 7EX.   Tubes: Liverpool Street, Aldgate, Aldgate East.

Monsters of the Elder Time

31 January 2013 –8pm - 10.30pm

(inc. Q&A, talk ends approx. 9pm)
£3 / £2 concs

"Who wants my club?"

Why are people afraid of monsters? Easy: big teeth and claws. Why are people afraid of the past. Ah, now, that’s more difficult. But dragons haunt barrows and crumbling fortresses… giants step from old tombs to strike horror into their puny descendants… media culture has its monsters resurrected from Arctic ice… and even pop science is obsessed with ideas of ancient origins for the terrors of the imagination. Old = scary in meta-narrative, and has done so for three thousand years.

Award winning folklorist and Unconvention speaker Jeremy Harte ponders why.

Each LFS evening begins with the Fortmanteau, our monthly summary of strange news stories.   We meet the last Thursday of each month (usually) upstairs at The Bell, 50 Middlesex Street, London E1 7EX.

Tubes: Liverpool Street, Aldgate, Aldgate East.

The False Memory Archive

The False Memory Archive
29 November 2012 –8pm - 10.30pm
(inc. Q&A, talk ends approx. 9pm)
£3 / £2 concs

Artist Alasdair Hopwood guides us through a series of contributions submitted to his False Memory Archive created as part of his Wellcome Trust residency at the Anomalistic Psychology Research Unit, Goldsmiths College.
As The WITH Collective, Alasdair Hopwood has exhibited internationally in a number of galleries including Tate Britain, The Hayward Gallery, the ICA, K3 Zurich and the British Council, New Delhi

Each LFS evening begins with the Fortmanteau, our monthly summary of strange news stories.

We meet the last Thursday of each month (usually) upstairs at The Bell, 50 Middlesex Street, London E1 7EX.


Tubes: Liverpool Street, Aldgate, Aldgate East.