London Fortean Society

7.45pm Thursday 22 February 2018 £4 / £2 concessions ( Advance tickets ) The Bell , 50 Middlesex Street, London E1 7EX. Train and Tube: Liverpool Street. Tube: Aldgate, Aldgate East Facebook page This event has now sold out, we are sorry. We are currently arranging a new date for this fascinating talk for March/April. Richard Freeman, Zoological Director of the Centre for Fortean Zoology , is one  of the few professional cryptozoologists in the world, studying unknown or anomalous animals. A former zookeeper, he has worked with over 400 species of animal. He has taken expeditions across the globe in search of beasts like the orang-pedek, the Tasmanian wolf, the yeti, the giant anaconda, the Mongolian deathworm and the almasty. Tonight he introduces the science of cryptozoology and looks at some of the unknown animals or “cryptids” with which it is concerned, focusing on his three trips to Tasmania in search of the flesh-eating marsupial known as the thylacine or Tasmanian ...

£5 plus booking fee ( Advance tickets ) Tuesday 6 February 2018 7.30pm Conway Hall , 25 Red Lion Square, London WC1R 4RL Tube: Holborn Directions Facebook event page This event has now sold out, we are sorry. We are currently arranging a new date for this fascinating talk for February / March. Throughout history, people have believed in the power of magic not only to influence their own lives and communities but also their rulers. Furthermore, rulers and their advisers often lived in fear of magical attack. Francis Young examines the phenomenon of magic as a form of treason in England and Scotland between the fourteenth and seventeenth centuries, as well as the ways in which belief in the political power of magic echoes down to the present day. Francis Young obtained his PhD from Cambridge University and is a historian specialising in the history of supernatural beliefs. He is the author or editor of over a dozen books including Magic as a Political Crime in Medieval and E...

£5 plus booking fee ( Advance tickets ) Tuesday 30 January 2018 7.30pm Conway Hall, 25 Red Lion Square, London WC1R 4RL Tube: Holborn Directions Facebook event page Over the past 30 years the Rendlesham Forest incident has become one of the top ten UFO cases in the world as voted by UFO believers, and is now often described as the “British Roswell”. Here, skeptical investigator Ian Ridpath looks at the main points of the case and provides explanations for each in turn, correcting various misunderstandings, and pointing out how various unsubstantiated claims have passed uncontested into a body of unreliable knowledge that has taken on the status of a modern myth. For further information on Ian’s investigations, see his website . Ian Ridpath is a writer and broadcaster on astronomy and space with a particular interest in the way astronomical phenomena are misidentified as UFOs. He produced the first full explanation of the Rendlesham Forest UFO case back in 1984 and marvel...

7.45pm Thursday 25 January 2018 This event has now sold out, we are sorry. We are currently arranging a new date for this fascinating talk for February / March. The Bell , 50 Middlesex Street, London E1 7EX. Train and Tube: Liverpool Street. Tube: Aldgate, Aldgate East Facebook page   Image by Chesca Potter from Embracing the Darkness .  In 1984 Mrs Mary Whitehouse attacked the Robin of Sherwood TV series for its Pagan elements. Writer Kip Carpenter had deliberately introduced the transgressive power of myth into his groundbreaking series with Herne the Hunter. From Shakespeare onwards Herne has been re-imagined as a vengeful spirit, the leader of "the wild hunt", a shaman and the horned god of the greenwoods. Historian Dr John Callow , author of Embracing the Darkness: a cultural history of witchcraft , explores the roots of Herne's tale and how his legend has inspired generations of writers and artists to create a powerful figure for both the modern Paga...

£8 plus booking fee ( Advance tickets ) Saturday 9 December 2017 2-5pm Conway Hall, 25 Red Lion Square, London WC1R 4RL Tube: Holborn Directions Facebook event page   The Mysterium is a thoroughly modern exploration of the world’s most bizarre and enigmatic phenomena. Drawing on contemporary folklore, unsolved mysteries and unsettling oddities from the dark corners of the internet, three of its authors delves into some of the strangest and most enduring stories of our modern age.   Co-author David Bramwell ( The No9 Bus to Utopia / Haunted Moustache / The Odditorium ) introduces the afternoon with a brief look at three fascinating stories from the book:   Hikikomori Why are a million Japanese unable to leave their bedrooms? The Toynbee Tiler Who is the mysterious Toynbee Tiler, and why has he or she embedded the message ‘Resurrect Dead on Planet Jupiter’ in over 600 linoleum tiles across North and South America? And what does it have to do with David M...

7.45pm Thursday 30 November 2017 £4 / £2 concessions -  few tickets are available on the door. First come, first sold! The Bell , 50 Middlesex Street, London E1 7EX. Train and Tube: Liverpool Street. Tube: Aldgate, Aldgate East Facebook page It’s arguable that without the persecution of Helen Duncan, the Witchcraft Act would never have been repealed. Geraldine Beskin of the Atlantis Bookshop argues that Duncan was a truly remarkable spirit medium whose accuracy and extraordinary work ethic made her very famous, and that her ability to generate ectoplasm has never been surpassed. Her accuracy during World War II panicked the authorities, she says; throw in a Catholic plot and an Oxford Professor of Logic and the mists begin to clear about why she was pursued, attacked and lied about 7.45pm Thursday 30 November 2017 £4 / £2 concessions -  few tickets are available on the door. First come, first sold! The Bell , 50 Middlesex Street, London E1 7EX. Train and Tub...