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Tag Archives: S.P.R
The Presence and the Press: Once Again Science Journalists Tell Us Ghosts Explained Away!
OK, I blog very rarely nowadays, but I thought I had best respond to all the press excitement caused by an article from Current Biology, which pretty much everyone (including the authors) seem to think explains away “ghosts”. You should … Continue reading
A 5 million dollar question: Is Life after Death real? The Immortality Project.
Today I should be working, but about the time I’m writing this my Becky is finally submitting her PhD thesis at Coventry University, entitled something like A Century of Apparitions: The Census of Hallucinations in the 21st Century. I have … Continue reading
Posted in atheism, Debunking myths, Paranormal, Religion, Science, Social commentary desecrated, Uninteresting to others whitterings about my life
Tagged Alister Hardy, Anthony Flew, Census of Hallucinations, John Martin Fischer, KPU Edinburgh, Life after death, Nancy Zingrone, Paranormal Review, Paranthropology, parapsychology, psychical research, Riverside, Roy Stenman, S.P.R, Society for Psychical Research, Stephen E Braude, Templeton Foundation, University of Riverside California
4 Comments
Why Everything We Think We Know About Ghosts Is (Probably!) Wrong
If you are interested in ghosts you may want to take a look. By kind permission of the editor, Dave Wood, my paper, with only the graph missing, follows. Continue reading
Posted in Debunking myths, Paranormal, Reviews and Past Events, Science, Uninteresting to others whitterings about my life
Tagged Alan Gauld, Anomalous experience, ANOMALY journal, apparitions, ASSAP, ASSAP 30, ASSAP conference, Edmund Gurney, Frederick Myers, ghosts, hauntings, parapsychology, poltergeists, psychical research, Rebecca Smith, RSPK, S.P.R
8 Comments
Seriously Strange – UK Paranormal/Parapsychology/Scepticism Event, September 2011
Anyway from 1981 to 2011 is thirty years, and ASSAP are putting together what looks to be a truly fantastic conference to be held this year at the University of Bath, on the 10-11th September. The anniversary conference is entitled Seriously Strange, and looks perfect for both the really hard core paranormal research types who are interested in ganzfeld experiments & Bem’s precognitive habituation, through the most ardent ghosthunter, and certainly given ASSAP’s always critical and sceptical approach Sceptics. Forteans will love it too, from what I can see of the line up. Continue reading
Psychic News closes down after 78 years — but why?
I am aware of the byzantine politics of the Spiritualist movement, and the complex theological, administrative and personality clashes which sometimes (always?) arise. In this the Spiritualist National Union is much like any other church, or much like any other organisation, be it poetry club or gardening society.
In those two factors, economic issues and doubtless some political manoeuvring we see the immediate reasons for the decline of Psychic News (a newspaper that as long term reader of this blog may recall once featured me on the front page!). It is a shame, but possibly to be expected. And yet… Continue reading
Posted in atheism, Paranormal, Religion, Social commentary desecrated
Tagged Charismatic Christian Churches, Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Chat magazine, Colin Fry, Derek Acorah, Derren Brown, Dr Chris French, Dr Richard Wiseman, Dr Susan Blackmore, European Journal of Parapsychology, falling advertising revenues, Fortean Times, ghosthunters, Ghosthunting TV shows, hands-on theological investigation., I'm with the Woolwich, ITN, James Randi, Jane Millichip, John Edwards, John Wesley, Journal of the Society for Psychical Research, JREF, Living TV, mediums, Most Haunted, New Atheists, New Religious Movements, New Sceptics, New Skeptics, Paranormal, Paranormal Magazine, paranormalisation' of our popular culture., Penn & Teller, Prof. Richard DAwkins, psychical research, psychics, Richard Dawkins, S.P.R, sceptics, skeptics, Skeptics in the Pub, Society for Psychical Research, Spirit & Destiny magazine, spiritualism, Spiritualist National Union, spiritualists, Susan Blackmore, teenage Wiccan wannabes, thoughts on spiritualists, Tony Stockwell, UK Skeptics, war and spiritualism, war and the psychic
7 Comments
How To See A Ghost – At Home!
“OK, I’m in a playful mood. Last week I ended with a promise – that we would create a “ghost” in the lab, or our own homes, and experiment with it. And that, dear reader, is exactly what we are going to do today… if you want to!
I will skip the philosophical stuff, and the discussion of the cases I referenced last time for now – Campermon wants science, and while I think we have been doing science from the start let’s play with something empirical. Let’s see a ghost! Continue reading
Posted in Paranormal, Science
Tagged Annalisa Ventola, apparitions, Charles Dexter Ward, Coventry University, Dean Radin, Derek Acorah, Dr Ian Hume, Dr. Raymond Moody, experimental parapsychology, Hallucinations, Hauntings and Poltergeists: Multidisciplinary Perspectives, Houran, how to manufacture a ghost, how to see a ghost, James Houran, Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, JSPR, Lange, let's see a ghost, necromanteum, Parapsychological Association, psychic medium, psychical research, psychomanteum, Public Parapsychology blogspot, punk science, Raymond Moody, Reunions, S.P.R, Simon Sherwood, Society for Psychical Research, Terhune
2 Comments
GSUK update
I wrote this update for Facebook fans of my little ghost research group, GSUK. I thought I may as well share it on my blog as well! We maintain a quiet but social forum, and are always delighted to welcome … Continue reading
Posted in Paranormal, Reviews and Past Events, Uninteresting to others whitterings about my life
Tagged Becky Smith, Chris Jensen Romer, Coventry University MSc Parapsychology, Ed Woods, Facebook updates, Ghosthunting, ghosthunting groups, GhostlyStayUK, ghosts, GSUK, MSc PArapsychology, online parapsychology masters degree, S.P.R, Society for Psychical Research
1 Comment
Age and Anomalous Experience
Please note all this is a work in progress: little more than a series of memo’s in which Becky and I are developing ideas we want to explore… OK last night I posted on a topic that interested me, and … Continue reading
Charting the Unknown: Ghosts, Memory & the Progress of Time
OK something mildly interesting tonight – very much a preliminary set of thoughts on something Becky and I are still working on. Before she started her PhD we undertook some simple research on reports of “paranormal experiences” together, using a novel new methodology which is actually quite close to that used by the SPR in the 1894 Census of Hallucinations. And something has already come up that I find fascinating! Continue reading
Posted in Debunking myths, Paranormal, Science, Uninteresting to others whitterings about my life
Tagged "paranormal" type experiences, apparitions, Axel Johnston, Becky Smith, Caroline Watt, Census of Hallucinations, Chris Jensen Romer, D.J.West, Dave Williams, Donald West, Emma Tudor, forgetting anomalous experiences, Hallucinations, Lynn Cinderey, memory and anomalous experiences, Miranda Cardew, Mrs Sidgwick, parasychology, Paul Tudor, Richard Wiseman, Rupert Scott-Ward, S.P.R, Science of Ghosts, Society for Psychical Research, spontaneous cases, SPR Report On the Census of Hallucinations, Thomas Nowell, Veridical Hallucinations, Yvette Nicole Hall, Zuul
8 Comments
"And sometimes he's so nameless" 
The Case Against “Paranormal Unity”; or why Ghost Hunters have become meaningless.
Those who know me probably know that I am a ghost hunter. What does that actually mean, in real terms? Do I wear a pith helmet and shorts, and carry an elephant gun, and like the big game hunters of … Continue reading →