London Fortean Society

7.15pm Thursday 7 February 2019 This event is completely sold out. We hope we can host it again soon! Conway Hall , 25 Red Lion Square, London WC1R 4RL Tube: Holborn Directions Facebook event page We all know what a mermaid looks like: a woman with a fish’s tail. But tracing her family tree from ancient myth and image, through medieval symbol and Renaissance legend, romantic folktale and suggestive art, we find a shape-shifter whose cousins are birds, monkeys, seals and serpents, as well as fish; whose greatest significance may be simply her gender, showing in her mirror a reflection of how men, through history, have seen women. Sophia Kingshill  is the author of Mermaids (Little Toller, 2015), a cultural history of sirens, selkies and other sea women. She is co-author of The Fabled Coast (Random House, 2012) and The Lore of Scotland (Random House, 2009), with the late Jennifer Westwood. Her YA fantasy novel Between the Raven and the Dove was published by Accent Press i

Dr Matt Tompkins mixes storytelling and magical scientific demonstrations to explore how scientists, past and present, have approached the study of illusion.  7.45pm Thursday 31 January 2019 £4 / £2 concessions ( Advance tickets ) The Bell, 50 Middlesex Street, London E1 7EX. Train and Tube: Liverpool Street.  Tube: Aldgate, Aldgate East On Sunday November 18th 1877, at 3pm in the afternoon, Wilhelm Wundt, sometimes identified as the “Founder of Experimental Psychology”, joined hands with a group of academics and bore witness to a series of “miracles” in the presence of a visiting American spirit medium. Wundt was unconvinced by what he saw – but a number of his esteemed colleagues, including world-renowned physicist Johann Zöllner, believed that the events they had witnessed called for a complete revision of the fundamental laws of physics – a revision that could accommodate immortal fourth-dimensional spirit people.  The resulting debate was not itself immortali

Christmas should be stranger. Join London Fortean Society for an afternoon of talks on ghosts, UFO art, voodoo, the world's first amphibious baby and much more. There will be book sales, stalls pizza and beer to mark the darkening days before Yule. Saturday 1 December 2018 12pm-6pm £15 / £10 concessions ( advance tickets ) Black Magic Friday! All tickets £10 this weekend Backyard Bar and Kitchen , 231 Cambridge Heath Rd, London E2 0EL Train & Tube: Bethnal Green Tube: Whitechapel / Train: Cambridge Heath Speakers include: Cathi Unsworth - Who Put Bella in the Wych Elm? Sophia Kingshill - The Mermaid’s Tale David Clarke - In the Eye of the Beholder: UFO Artwork Susan Owens - The Appearance of Ghosts John Cussans - Bond's Black Ops: Graham Greene, Papa Doc and Loa OS 22 Thomas Morris -  Diagnosis: Unexplained Stall to be confirmed Who Put Bella in the Wych Elm? Cathi Unsworth is the author of six pop-cultural crime novels based on real-life unsolve

7.45pm Thursday 29 November 2018 £4 / £2 concessions This event has sold out! Thank you to everyone who  has booked, we shall attempt to rebook Ceri as early as possible for this fascinating talk.  The Bell , 50 Middlesex Street, London E1 7EX. Train and Tube: Liverpool Street. Tube: Aldgate, Aldgate East Post-medieval houses yield many mysterious finds. Old shoes up chimneybreasts; garments secreted away in roofs; mummified cats bricked up in walls. It is probable that these objects were deliberately concealed during the 18th and 19th centuries. though researchers do not know the beliefs or motivations behind this.  Dr Ceri Houlbrook, Researcher in Folklore and History at the University of Hertfordshire, explores the many educated guesses have been made, and how such objects are viewed and treated today, once the concealed is revealed 7.45pm Thursday 29 November 2018 £4 / £2 concessions  This event has sold out! Thank you to everyone who  has booked, we shall attempt t

Summer 1971, in the small north-eastern Market Town of Hexham in England. Two young boys are digging about in the garden when they discover a pair of strange heads, formed of an unknown substance. 7.15pm Wednesday 14 November 2018 £5 plus booking fee This event has sold out! Thank you to everyone who  has booked, we shall attempt to rebook Richard as early as possible for this fascinating talk.  Conway Hall , 25 Red Lion Square, London WC1R 4RL Tube: Holborn Directions Facebook event page After bringing the heads into their home, a series of peculiar events ensues: The heads seem to move themselves around the room and strange creatures are witnessed stalking the homes of anybody that houses the bizarre artefacts. Despite a number of prominent academics having attempted to identify their provenance, none could provide a definitive answer. Were they, as some believed, of a pagan, Celtic origin; ancient idols worshipped by an obsessive Cult of the Head? Or were they merely

Cyberpunk has unexpectedly occult roots; virtual and augmented reality enable the supernatural and the mythic within science fiction; and personal computing is built on 1960s psychedelic utopianism.  THE GLITCHED RAINBOW HEAD OF PHILIP K DICK by TORLEY on flickr Tuesday 6 November 2018 8pm (doors 7.45pm) £5 / £2 concessions  This event has sold out! Thank you to everyone who  has booked. The Miller , 96 Snowsfields, London Bridge, London SE1 3SS Tube & Rail: London Bridge Tube: Borough Event Facebook page Al Robertson will talk about how the weird pervades modern technology, as a jumping-off point for a discussion about how myth, magic and unreason might force themselves into the futures we’re all building. Al says "I’m a writer, poet and occasional musician. I’ve published two novels with Gollancz. My first book, Crashing Heaven  is about an accountant of the future, a psychotic virtual ventriloquist’s dummy and the sentient corporations who are perse

“ I immediately knew it was someone in spirit form, because I could see my favourite poster of Michael Jackson right through her body .” 7.15pm Tuesday 30 October 2018 £7 plus booking fee ( Advance tickets ) Conway Hall , 25 Red Lion Square, London WC1R 4RL Tube: Holborn Directions Facebook event page Halloween 2018 and the world is still haunted. Join the London Fortean Society for two talks on contemporary ghost story collecting from haunted homes to Senate House and beyond. Caron Lipman – Living with Ghosts How does it feel to live in a ‘haunted home’? How do you negotiate living in a home which might be ‘co-habited’ by the strangest form of stranger? Geographer Dr Caron Lipman decided to find out through a series of interviews with inhabitants of ‘haunted homes’ in England and Wales – all of whom had experienced some form of ‘uncanny’ event Caron will offer some examples and insights from her case studies, describing how such experiences are interpreted, how fa

7.15pm Saturday 20 October 2018 £20 / £15 concessions plus booking fee ( Advance tickets ) Conway Hall , 25 Red Lion Square, London WC1R 4RL Tube: Holborn Directions Facebook event page Join the presenters of The Skeptics Guide to the Universe  podcast for their one-off London show. Steven Novella , along with 'Skeptical Rogues' Bob Novella , Jay Novella and Evan Bernstein explain the tenets of skeptical thinking and debunk some of the biggest scientific myths, fallacies and conspiracy theories (anti-vaccines, homeopathy, UFO sightings, and many more.)  They'll help us try to make sense of what seems like an increasingly crazy world using powerful tools like science and philosophy.  In what promises to be a fascinating and entertaining evening, come and hear tips and tricks on how to see through the fake news and media manipulation in our increasingly confusing world. Copies of THE SKEPTICS’ GUIDE TO THE UNIVERSE book will be on sale at the event, which w

7.45pm Thursday 25 October 2018 This event has sold out! Thank you to everyone who  has booked, we shall attempt to rebook Helen as early as possible for this fascinating talk.    The Bell , 50 Middlesex Street, London E1 7EX. Train and Tube: Liverpool Street. Tube: Aldgate, Aldgate East Margaret Murray isn't angry, she's just disappointed. For the last 20 years or more, modern Witches have been involved in a project of historical revisionism. They’ve rejected the claims made by Margaret Murray, and borrowed by Gerald Gardner, that modern Witchcraft is a direct continuation from an archaic pan-European fertility cult. Instead, they follow the arguments of historians that Murray’s work was heavily flawed; for some her work provides a valuable foundation myth, while others prefer to reject it altogether in search of more realist histories. However, Murray’s arguments are also intricately woven into histories and practices of modern Witchcraft, and continue to be inte

Shortly after, something passed by the door, blocking out the light momentarily. Whatever it was, it stood on two legs and was large enough put the 7-foot door in the shade. Tuesday 2 October 2018  8pm (doors 7.45pm) £5 / £2 concessions  Advance tickets are now off sale - please pay on the door! Thank you! The Miller , 96 Snowsfields, London Bridge, London SE1 3SS Tube & Rail: London Bridge Tube: Borough Event Facebook page Richard Freeman is the Zoological Director of the  Centre for Fortean Zoology . A working cryptozoologist he has hunted creatures such as the Tasmanian wolf, the yeti, the giant anaconda, the orang-pendek, the Mongolian death worm and the almasty.  In this talk he will introducing the study of mystery animals and speaking about his latest expedition, tracking the almasty: relic hominins in the mountains of Tajikistan. The 7-foot door of the room was open an inch or two and starlight from the clear night was pouring in. At around 2.30 in the morni

7.45pm Thursday 27 September 2018 £4 / £2 concessions Tickets are off sale for this event now but we still have some spaces. Come and pay on the door! The Bell , 50 Middlesex Street, London E1 7EX. Train and Tube: Liverpool Street.  Tube: Aldgate, Aldgate East Jack Parsons Dials Up a Moon Child Vision by Marc-Anthony Macon Jack Parsons was an innovative, pioneering and daring rocket engineer before the Second World War. He also led the Pasadena, California lodge of the Ordo Templi Orientis , the occult movement headed by Aleister Crowley. At his home lived rocket scientists, occultists and science fiction writers – and, for a time, L Ron Hubbard, who took part in sex-magick rituals before he created Dianetics and Scientology.  Writer on unusual religions and London Fortean Society co-organiser Dr  David V Barrett explores the fascinating life and death of the charismatic maverick Jack Parsons – who also championed free love decades before the term polyamory was coi

Celebrate the ghosts and urban legends of the London Bridge, Borough and Bermondsey area as the London Fortean Society arrives for a series of talks at The Miller pub.  The Wheatsheaf on flickr by Dun.Can Tuesday 4 September 2018 8pm (doors 7.45pm) £5 / £2 concessions ( advance tickets ) The Miller , 96 Snowsfields, London Bridge, London SE1 3SS Tube & Rail: London Bridge Tube: Borough Event Facebook page Travis Elborough - London Bridge in America: The Tall Story of a Transatlantic Crossing  In 1968 the world’s largest antique went to America. But how do you transport a 130-year-old bridge 3,000 miles? And why did Robert P. McCulloch, a multimillionaire oil baron and chainsaw-manufacturing king, buy it? Why did he ship it to a waterless patch of the Arizonan desert? Did he even get the right bridge?  Join author Travis Elborough for the story of the man who bought London Bridge.  Ghosts of South London.  Poltergeists, shapeshifters, phantom Robin Reliants

O'Donnell 7.45pm Thursday 30 August 2018 This event has completely sold out! We're really sorry if you did not get a ticket and we shall attempt to run this popular talk again.  The Bell , 50 Middlesex Street, London E1 7EX. Train and Tube: Liverpool Street.  Tube: Aldgate, Aldgate East In 1934 Elliott O'Donnell, the world-famed prince of ghost hunters published Strange Cults and Secret Societies of Modern London. It tells strange stories behind many covert organisations including the Thirteen society, the Black Brothers, Chinese secret societies and black magic, the Mafia, the Tree cults, the Suicide Society, the Cult of Cruelty, The Goats and Sophienism.  Fr Alan Walker revisits O’Donnell’s classic book in the light of modern thinking about religious cults, moral panics and enthusiasm for the esoteric. Is his work fiction masquerading as fact, or should it be read more critically as a picture of contemporary fears and social experiments? 7.45pm Thursday 30

7.45pm Thursday 26 July 2018 £4 / £2 concessions We've taken the tickets off sale so we can print the guest list but we also have tickets on the door. We hope to see you later.   The Bell , 50 Middlesex Street, London E1 7EX. Train and Tube: Liverpool Street.  Tube: Aldgate, Aldgate East The world of fungi is a world of the weird and wonderful. From microscopic organisms to the largest living thing ever, the fungal kingdom has it all. Folklore beyond belief – bizarre tales of the devil, poisonings, witchcraft, enchantment and Santa Claus – is only matched by reality.  Author, frequent contributor to Fortean Times and founder of the our older cousin  Edinburgh Fortean Society , Gordon Rutter reveals some of the ways in which the world of the fortean has been enriched by fungi. 7.45pm Thursday 26 July 2018 £4 / £2 concessions  We've taken the tickets off sale so we can print the guest list but we also have tickets on the door. We hope to see you later.  The Bel

7.15pm Thursday 19 July 2018 £5 plus booking fee ( Advance tickets ) Conway Hall, 25 Red Lion Square, London WC1R 4RL Tube: Holborn Directions Facebook event page Awesome portrait of Cathi Unsworh by Etienne Gilfillan Cathi Unsworth is the author of six pop-cultural crime novels based on real-life unsolved or controversial cases. Her latest, 'That Old Black Magic' (Serpent’s Tail), interweaves the true stories of the Hagley Woods mystery of 1943 and the trial of Helen Duncan, the last woman to be prosecuted for witchcraft in the UK, in 1944. Real life characters mingle with the imagined in a secret history of spiritualists, stage magicians and spooks of all persuasions under the blackout of Britain’s bleakest hours. 7.15pm Thursday 19 July 2018 £5 plus booking fee ( Advance tickets ) Conway Hall, 25 Red Lion Square, London WC1R 4RL Tube: Holborn Directions Facebook event page

7.45pm Thursday 28 June 2018 We're really sorry, this event has been cancelled. We shall endevour to host this talk again later this year. Sorry again.   The Bell , 50 Middlesex Street, London E1 7EX. Train and Tube: Liverpool Street.  Tube: Aldgate, Aldgate East Crowd Of Faces by Dawn Hudson (Public Domain) The use of police super-recognisers in London has vastly increased suspect identification rates from CCTV in recent years. They perform exceptionally highly at familiar and unfamiliar face recognition, simultaneous face matching and spotting target faces in videos of large crowds. Non-police super-recognisers are also superior to most people at long-term face recognition, even when faces are heavily disguised.  Psychologist Dr Josh P Davis of the University of Greenwich explores his research on these very rare individuals and his work with the police and courts 7.45pm Thursday 28 June 2018 £4 / £2  We're really sorry, this event has been cancelled. We shal

7.15pm Tuesday 26 June 2018 £5 plus booking fee ( Advance tickets ) Conway Hall , 25 Red Lion Square, London WC1R 4RL Tube: Holborn Directions Facebook event page Did positive thinking and mental science help put Donald Trump in the White House? And are there any other hidden powers of the mind and thought at work in today's world politics? In Dark Star Rising: Magick and Power in the Age of Trump , historian and cultural critic Gary Lachman takes a close look at the various magical and esoteric ideas that are impacting political events across the globe. From New Thought and Chaos Magick to the far-right esotericism of Julius Evola and the Traditionalists, Lachman follows a trail of mystic clues that involve, among others, Norman Vincent Peale, domineering gurus and demagogues, Ayn Rand, Pepe the Frog, Rene Schwaller de Lubicz, synarchy, the Alt-Right, meme magic, and Vladimir Putin and his postmodern Rasputin. Come take a drop down the rabbit hole of occult politic

Join the London Fortean Society in London’s dark heart for a day of modern monsters and urban myth including Spring-heeled Jack, Cthulhu, Slender Man, subterranean London folklore, the Crying Boy and more. Our cityscapes are full of strange wonders, terrors and tales. Come hear of them. Saturday 30 June 2018 10am - 5pm £20 / £16 concessions ( Advance tickets ) Conway Hall , 25 Red Lion Square, London WC1R 4RL Tube: Holborn Directions Facebook event page 10am Scott Wood - Hidden Insult A"rude, irreverent piece of revenge folklore" 10.30am Gail Nina Anderson -The Vampire Rabbit of Newcastle  It "squats menacingly, complete with lurid claws and fangs." 11-11.10 Break 11.10-11.40 Tina Rath - The Hackney Bear  A " “giant great growling hairy thing”. 11.40-12.10 Antony Clayton – Subterranean London The "capital’s ancient ‘secret’ passages and tunnels and sightings of ghosts underground." 12.10-12.15 Break 12.15-1pm Jus