Skip to main content

Electronic Ghost Voices

8pm Thursday 27 March 2014
£3 / £2 concessions

The Bell, 50 Middlesex Street, London E1 7EX.
Train & Tube: Liverpool Street. Tube: Aldgate, Aldgate East

Can we hear the voices of the dead via electronic devices? Psychologist Cal Cooper, author of Telephone Calls from the Dead, and Prof Chris French of the Anomalistic Psychology Research Unit, Goldsmiths College, London offer very different views of Electronic Voice Phenomena
All are welcome.




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

More details:

Many people, when asked, will say that at some point in their lives that they have experienced what they believe to be a ghost, or have had a psychic experience. However, will many people openly admit that they have experienced what they believe to be a 'phone call from the dead'? This question has been asked before, and was investigated back in 1979, in a book entitled ''Phone Calls from the Dead'', written by D. Scott Rogo and Raymond Bayless. For many years, this subject has remained dormant, until now, thirty years on.  New cases of anomalous telephone communication have been researched, new history has been considered, new findings are presented and alternative theories for how such events take place are discussed.''

Cal Cooper is a psychologist and a doctoral candidate based at the University of Northampton (UK), within the psychology division’s Centre for the Study of Anomalous Psychological Processes. He is a member of the Society for Psychical Research, the Parapsychological Association, and a Hope Studies Graduate Researcher (Hope Studies Central, University of Alberta). He is the author of Telephone Calls from the Dead and co-author of Conversations with Ghosts (with Dr Alex Tanous).


There are good reasons to believe that EVP is best explained in psychological rather than parapsychological terms. Whatever the truth of the matter, it is most certainly the case that the human tendency to see and hear meaningful stimuli in randomness accounts for the vast majority of cases of EVP. This point will be illustrated with visual and auditory examples of various kinds. And, yes, I will be playing Led Zep backwards again...

Professor Chris French is the Head of the Anomalistic Psychology Research Unit at Goldsmiths, University of London. He is a Fellow of the British Psychological Society and of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry, as well as being a Distinguished Supporter of the British Humanist Association and a member of the Scientific and Professional Advisory Board of the British False Memory Society. He has published over 100 articles and chapters covering a wide range of topics. He frequently appears on radio and television casting a sceptical eye over paranormal claims, as well as writing for the Guardian and The Skeptic magazine. His most recent books are Why Statues Weep: The Best of The Skeptic and Anomalistic Psychology. Follow him on Twitter: @chriscfrench


8pm Thursday 27 March 2014
£3/£2 concessions
London Fortean Society meets upstairs at the fantastic
Bell pub, 50 Middlesex Street, London E1 7EX.
Train & Tube: Liverpool Street. Tube: Aldgate, Aldgate East.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Art / Magic / Lore

Magical Art, Radical Folk Dance, Sacred Landscapes, and Women's Stories. Saturday 29 June 2024 Doors, coffee from 10.30 am Talks: 11 am - 6 pm (inc. breaks) £18 / £14 cons  Advance tickets Conway Hall , 25 Red Lion Square, London WC1R 4RL Tube: Holborn Directions London Fortean's Mailing List Facebook event Art, magic, and folklore cross over and over again making new forms of creativity and lore. Join us at Conway Hall on 29 June 2024, for talks and discussions on making new traditions, art and magic, lost woman artists, radical Morris Dance, and much more. Talks and performance timings: 10:30 There should be coffee 11:00 Doors 11:15 Thomas Sharp, Marc Spicer & Rosey Trickett: Circling the Square Mile 11:45 Break 12:00 Jennifer Higgie: A Journey into Women, Art, and the Spirit World 12:30 Amy Hale - “This current drew you”: Ithell Colquhoun’s erotic energies and sacred landscapes 13:00 Lunch 14:00 Site-Specific Performance: Aliki Karveli 14:30 Break 14:...
  *** TUBE STRIKE *** Although the tube strike has been called off, we'd already shifted the date of our next meeting at the Bell, Jeremy Harte speaking on Gypsies and the Supernatural , from Tuesday July 25 to Tuesday August 1 . Please note that we're sticking with this new date.

Haunted London: Ghosts of The British Museum and Bloomsbury

 London is an old and haunted City; join us for ghost stories of central London. Noah Angell on ghostly sightings at the British Museum, Roger Luckhurst discusses a cursed object in the Egyptian rooms of the British Museum and Sarah Sparkes presents the hauntings and other unexplained happenings of Senate House. Wednesday 10 April 2024 Doors, books stall, and drinks from 6.15 pm Talks 6.30 pm - 9.30 pm £15 / £12 Advance tickets Conway Hall , 25 Red Lion Square, London WC1R 4RL Tube: Holborn Directions London Fortean's Mailing List Facebook event page Noah Angell – Ghosts of the British Museum: A True Story of Colonial Loot and Restless Objects When artist and writer Noah Angell first heard murmurs of ghostly sightings at the British Museum he had to find out more. What started as a trickle soon became a landslide as staff old and new, from guards of formidable build to respected curators, brought forth testimonies of their inexplicable supernatural encounters. It became clear tha...