London Fortean Society

 In partnership with Conway Hall. Tuesday 10 November 2020 7.30pm (BST) Please register for this event at the following booking link: Book Now .   Conway Hall is a charity and we politely ask you to add a donation of at least £5 when registering. Facebook event page .  Do you believe that aliens built the pyramids? Do you imagine cavemen going out to club a bear while cavewomen stayed home with the kids? Did you learn in school that the Greeks invented civilisation? When you see the image of apes evolving into man, do you stop to question the idea that it represents a progression to the ultimate goal of contemporary Western civilisation?  These are all myths about the ancient world perpetuated by the media, uninformed pseudo-scientists, and sometimes outright racists. The way we teach history tends to focus a model of humanity that’s reinforcing 1950’s white gender roles and reproducing capitalist patriarchy. Stacy Hackner  will discuss a few ways in w...

In partnership with Conway Hall. Monday 19 October 2020 7.30pm (BST) Please register for this event at the following booking link: Book Now .   Conway Hall is a charity and we politely ask you to add a donation of at least £5 when registering.  Facebook event page .  Lisa Morton investigates the eerie history of our conversations with the dead, from necromancy in Homer’s Odyssey to the emergence of Spiritualism – when Victorians were entranced by mediums and the seance was born. Among our cast are the Fox sisters, teenagers surrounded by ‘spirit rappings’; Daniel Dunglas Home, the ‘greatest medium of all time’; Houdini and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, whose unlikely friendship was forged, then riven, by the afterlife; and Helen Duncan, the medium whose trial in 1944 for witchcraft proved more popular to the public than news about the war. Her book, Calling the Spirits: A History of Seances, also considers Ouija boards, modern psychics and paranormal investigations, and i...

In partnership with Conway Hall. Vaughn Scribner: Merpeople: A Human History Tuesday 6 October 2020 7.30pm (BST) Please register for this event at the following booking link: Book Now .   Conway Hall is a charity and we politely ask you to add a donation of at least £5 when registering.  Facebook event page .  People have been fascinated by merpeople since ancient times. From the sirens of Homer’s Odyssey to Hans Christian Andersen’s The Little Mermaid and the film Splash (1984), myths, stories and legends of half-human, half-fish creatures abound. In modern times ‘mermaiding’ has gained popularity among cosplayers throughout the world. In his book Merpeople: A Human History , Vaughn Scribner traces the long history of mermaids and mermen, taking in a wide variety of sources and striking images. From film to philosophy, church halls to coffee houses, ancient myth to modern science, Scribner shows that mermaids and tritons are – and always have been – everywhere. I...