Twenty-first Century Ghosts

“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 far the experience of uncanny events challenges existing beliefs (or non-beliefs) in ghosts, and what these events reveal about the domestic interior.

Sarah Sparkes – The GHost in the story

“I immediately knew it was someone in spirit form, because I could see my favourite poster of Michael Jackson right through her body.”

Artist, curator and ghost enthusiast Sarah Sparkes talks about some of the fascinating, contemporary ghost stories she has collected and archived at London’s Senate House, Liverpool and Taiwan.

Sarah Sparkes leads the visual arts and creative research project GHost. She was recently awarded Arts Council funding for her project to archive Liverpool ghost stories. Her artwork The GHost Formula, 2016, commissioned by FACT (Foundation for Art and Creative Technology) recently toured to NTMoFA (National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts) as part of the exhibition No Such Thing As Gravity curated by Rob la Frenais. Sparkes has lectured widely on ghosts, GHost and the ghost hunter Harry Price.

The Ghost Tide exhibition, which she co-curated with Monika Bobinska is at Thames-side Studios Gallery in Woolwich from October 20 – November 3.

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

The Skeptics' Guide to the Universe Live

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 will followed by a signing.

'A fantastic compendium of skeptical thinking and the perfect primer for anyone who wants to separate fact from fiction.' 
Richard Wiseman, author 59 Seconds

'A terrific book for anyone who wants a better understanding about the world around them and an essential guide to navigating modern life. THE SKEPTICS' GUIDE TO THE UNIVERSE will help readers recognize pitfalls in reasoning, combat bad arguments and avoid superstitious thinking.' — Simon Singh, author of The Code Book and Fermat's Last Theorem

'Thorough, informative, and enlightening... If this book does not become required reading for us all, we may well see modern civilization unravel before our eyes.' 
Neil deGrasse Tyson, author of Astrophysics for People in a Hurry

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

Margaret Murray and Modern Witchcraft: good, bad, and speculative histories

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 interpreted as histories of Witchcraft are rewritten and shaped over time.

Anthropologist Dr Helen Cornish of Goldsmiths College shows how responses to Murray’s work since the turn of the millennium help us consider what counts as history (good, bad, speculative or otherwise) as well contemporary Witchcraft.

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

Seeking the Almas and Other Unknown Animals

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 morning Adam and I heard a deep, guttural vocalisation; the nearest phonetically that I can write this is ‘bub-ub-bub-bub.’

“Did you hear that?” I whispered.

Adam nodded solemnly. 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. It seemed to be walking along the veranda.

“Did you see that?” I asked

“Something is on the veranda,” said Adam.

Richard Freeman writing on his previous almasty expedition

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

Jack Parsons & Friends: Rockets, Magick, SF & Sex

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 coined.

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