London Fortean Society

  Tuesday 30 August 2022 – 7.30 for 8pm – £5/£3 The stupendous Crystal Palace Dinosaurs and their surrounding geological illustrations and landscapes combine historical gravitas and spectacle. In 1854 the public encountered 37 life-like sculptures of extinct animals unlike anything seen before, populating a “walk through geological time” in vistas of lost, ancient worlds. These were the works and vision of the artist Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins, geologist David Ansted, with questionable input from the Victorian celebrity anatomist and palaeontologist Richard Owen. Dr Ellinor Michel of the Natural History Museum and Friends of Crystal Palace Dinosaurs will bring highlights from the first book on these beauties in over a quarter century, co-authored with Mark Witton, renowned palaeoartist and palaeontologist from University of Portsmouth . Their new work has uncovered surprises about this Grade 1-listed, Heritage-At-Risk site and underscores the risks to its future.  Tickets £5/£3 h

  Tuesday 26 July 2022, 7.30 for 8pm. £5/£3 -  Advance Booking    There are many reasons why people entertain conspiracy beliefs and an increasing body of research exploring the underlying factors: social influences, common fears, social disconnection and dissatisfaction, generalised mistrust of government and individual traits. In the age of Covid it is especially relevant to understand vaccine hesitancy and vaccine denialism – people have died, friendships have broken down; clearly this is a topic where a great deal of passion is expressed. Psychologist Dr Anna Stone of the University of East London recalls watching the first moon landing on TV, so it came as a shock to her to read that a large proportion of the population of the US believes the moon landing