SPR Study Day 58 : Poltergeist Outbreaks, Then and Now. London – Halloween 2009

SPR Study Day 58 : Poltergeist Outbreaks, Then and Now

Oct 31 2009, All Day

‘Noisy spirits’ were disturbing the peace long before their naming as poltergeist effects (or even more recently as RSPK), and some unfortunate person was commonly identified as what we today would term the focus; he, or more usually she, would probably have been associated with witchcraft or demonic possession, and treated accordingly. Coming up to date, it may well turn out to be true that the raps on walls associated with these outbreaks are indeed not of this world, since acoustic analysis of paranormal raps has disclosed effects that have so far defied replication by human knuckles or other rapping mechanisms. An historic advance is in the making, and this Hallowe’en seems a good day for cementing the link between things that traditionally go bump in the night on the one hand and rigorous scientific inquiry on the other.

St Philip’s Church, Earls Court Rd, London W8, 10am-5pm.
Cost: Members £30 / Non-Members £35. / Students, Over 60s or Unwaged: £2 discount.
Tea, coffee and biscuits will be served, but bring your own lunch.
Advance booking is recommended, as space is limited.

More details and booking
www.spr.ac.uk/conference/STUDY_DAY_No_58_POLTERGEISTS.pdf

– post removed

I has here reproduced the SPR study day information on the forthcoming event, but having now rejoined the society i note one of the membership guidelines clearly states “Members of the SPR may not issue public notices or advertisements about purported SPR meetings or events either on behalf of the Society itself or in conjunction with other organisations (ref. Paranormal Review 23, July 2002), unless authorised to do so by the Council.” so I will not be publicizing or reviewing future events on the blog.

The relevant reference appears from a piece by John Poynton

“For this reason the SPR Council has requested members not to declare membership of the Society when issuing a personal statement of some kind, when advertising, or when promoting a personal publication.”

As a blog could be seen as constituting a personal publication, and although I always simply reproduce the SPR website text with a link to the website, I have decided to refrain from doing so in future.

cj x

UK Sceptics Newsletter

Hey chaps and chapesses, I have been meaning to share this for a while. The excellent UK Sceptics, whose forum is linked if you look on this blog have released a pdf newsletter which deserves a wider readership. You can download it here –

http://ukskeptics.com/newsletters/2009-1.pdf

It really is sound stuff- like me thy are methodological sceptics, not a priori sceptics. Briefly a methodological scepotic employs sceptisim and questioning as a way of answerin qustions, of investigating an issue – but does not presuppose an outcome to the enquiry. An a priori sceptic knows that certain things are bunk, and sets out to prove this, and reinforce their existing views.  Anyway the level of scholarship and the excellent common sense bodes well for the UK — so do have a look, and even if you are a “believer” in some religion or phenomena – we all are after all believers in some things, only if the claim the sun will rise tomorrow! – don’t be put off by the word sceptic. Have a look!

There are also details on the forthcoming Muncaster Conference, mentioned previously on this blog and my Facebook.

cj x