London Fortean Society

The Demons of Cornhill Thursday 29 August 2013 7.30pm It’s the summer holiday: let’s go outside! Join London Fortean Society host Scott Wood on a walk from the Royal Exchange to our home at The Bell, Middlesex Street that takes in London lore, ghosts, revenants,  witchcraft, urban folklore and psycho-geography. We will explore London legends from the London Stone to the Demons of Cornhill and the ghost story of our own pub home: The Bell .   Scott is the host of the London Fortean Society, writes the monthly fortmanteu and it the author of Urban Legends of London: The Corpse on the Tube and Other Stories which is out November 2013. This is a walk and not a talk! Meet at 7.30pm by the Duke of Wellington statue outside the Royal Exchange at the start of Threadneedle Street and Cornhill . Nearest station is Bank . £3/£2 concessions.

Sadly Will Storr cannot make the 25 July as he is interviewing Carrie Fisher (and Mark Hamill) about Star Wars. Can't say we blame him.... Another day for Will and Neil but instead we are very excited to have the following talk: Professor Roger Luckhurst: The Telepathic WT Stead 25 July 2013 8pm-10pm £3 / £2 concessions The Bell , 50 Middlesex Street, London E1 7EX.  WT Stead and adoring friend William T Stead was a towering figure in late Victorian and Edwardian England, a journalist and proprietor who invented the campaigning tabloid expose at the Pall Mall Gazette and then set up the world famous Review of the Reviews in 1890. He was an ardent imperialist, a Liberal radical, a feminist, dissenting Christian, and bugbear of every Prime Minister from 1875 to his death on the Titanic in 1912. He was also obsessed with every aspect of the occult, from Spiritualism and Theosophy to the new-fangled science of psychical research. He claimed to have powers of telepathic co...

27 June 2013 - What we really talk about when we talk about UFOs 7.45pm for 8pm start. £3/£2 concessions It will be 66 years and three days since the first 'flying saucer' sighting. We have gathered a panel of UFO investigators and experts and asked them their ideas of the reality, meaning and significance of the UFO phenomena. Each will give a short presentation of their view of UFOs and then, after a trip to the bar, we open up the floor for a discussion on this perennially contentious issue. The panel will include: •Robert Moore: UFO co-ordinator for the Association for the Scientific Study of Anomalous Phenomena •John Rimmer of Magonia Magazine and blog and author of The Evidence for Alien Abduction •Matt Lyons: Chairman of the British UFO Research Association All are welcome. come and listen in or join the debate about UFOs ideas.  Each LFS evening begins with the Fortmanteau, our monthly summary of strange news stories 7.30pm for 8pm start. £3/£2...

30 May 2013 - The World’s Strangest Deaths  'Death and the Lady' from the excellent Gode Cookery  Hear how the mighty and the humble have suffered the most bizarre, embarrassing and amusing deaths at the hands of fickle fate. Historian and esoteric London expert Robert Stephenson takes us on a dance macabre for Corpus Christi . Each LFS evening begins with the Fortmanteau, our monthly summary of strange news stories 7.30pm for 8pm start. £3/£2 concessions London Fortean Society meets at The Bell , 50 Middlesex Street, London E1 7EX. Train & Tube: Liverpool Street. Tube: Aldgate, Aldgate East

25th April 2013 – The Science Delusion: Freeing the Spirit of Inquiry This event has now SOLD OUT! Please contact us  to join the waiting list for returns.   A Morphogenetic Field yesterday The science delusion is the belief that science already understands the nature of reality, in principle, leaving only the details to be filled in. But recent research has revealed unexpected problems at the heart of physics, cosmology, biology, medicine and psychology. Rupert Sheldrake turns the ten fundamental dogmas of science into questions, opening up startling new possibilities. Dr Rupert Sheldrake is a biologist and author of The Science Delusion. Each LFS evening begins with the Fortmanteau, our monthly summary of strange news stories. 25 April 2013 The Bell, 50 Middlesex Street, London E1 7EX £3/£2 concessions 8pm - 10.30pm (talk 8-9pm) Tubes and trains: Liverpool Street, Aldgate, Aldgate East. Many buses.

Art that interprets fortean phenomena is something we’ve always been fascinated in. Perhaps because it may be the nearest us humble forteans get to actually experiencing something paranormal. Artists often engage with the unseen and inexplicable in alluring and thought-provoking ways so we’re very pleased to see a number of art exhibitions in London that cover a variety of fortean themes. We’ve not had a chance to see any of these yet so below are the blurbs for each and most cost nothing but time and travel. Channels Susan Hillier’s Channels at Matt’s Gallery in Mile End (Wed-Sun until 14 April) is a “a vast audio-sculptural installation in which disembodied voices report on 'near-death' experiences." "Hiller uses audio accounts in many languages from people who believe they have experienced death as the raw materials for her new work. Vivid stories of those who believe they have died and returned to tell the tale constitute a remarkable contemporary archiv...

28th March 2013 – The Lord was at Glastonbury: Somerset and the Jesus Voyage Story At The Bell , 50 Middlesex Street, London E1 7EX £3/£2 concessions 8pm - 10.30pm (talk 8-9pm) Anthropologist and archaeologist Paul Ashdown wrote the first comprehensive and scholarly account of the young Jesus visiting Britain. In this Good Friday Eve talk we shall meet a cast of characters including the first Grand Bard of Cornwall, the conqueror of Tibet and those eccentric clergymen who sought to prove the tale was actually true – and we look at the medieval background to the story and at Blake’s own mystical vision Each LFS evening begins with the Fortmanteau, our monthly summary of strange news stories. 28 March 2013  The Bell , 50 Middlesex Street, London E1 7EX £3/£2 concessions 8pm - 10.30pm (talk 8-9pm) Tubes and trains: Liverpool Street, Aldgate, Aldgate East. Many buses.