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Edinburgh Fortean Society 2021

gordonrutter

Within reason
Staff member
Joined
Aug 3, 2001
Messages
7,182
Online debut at 7.30pm on Tuesday the 12th of January

Steve Jones talking on:
Tales from the Haunted Bathrooms
Toilets and bathrooms are among the most haunted places in buildings. Steve will tell tales of the dead man in the gents, the phantom groper of Wakefield, his strange experience in Newark and others tales that may make you in need of a bathroom yourself!
Steve founded and runs the Wakefield Pagan Moot, organises the West Yorkshire Pagan Meetup, is the West Yorkshire representative for the CFZ and from 1998 to 2019 was the UKs only openly pagan magistrate. Steve’s interests include folklore, forteana, paganism and the paranormal. He has appeared on local and national TV and spoken at several fortean events.
Online at YouTube from 7.30pm
https://m.youtube.com/channel/UCX8Ez-brarHABUMKRQsT-lA...
 
Online debut at 7.30pm on Tuesday the 9th of February


Dr Jack Hunter will be talking on
Organicism and Psychical Research: Where Mushrooms and Mediums Meet
As much as parapsychologists have employed physics and technological metaphors to understand psychical phenomena (spiritual telegraph, waves, forces, and so on), other researchers have also drawn from organismic and biological models in their efforts to ‘matter the paranormal’ through the language of science. Historical examples include Franz Anton Mesmer’s (1784-1814) notion of ‘animal magnetism’ as a subtle fluid that flows through and connects all lifeforms, and which may be manipulated for all manner of therapeutic purposes. Biologist and psychical researcher Hans Driesch (1867-1941) offered a vitalist interpretation of parapsychological phenomena, and Rupert Sheldrake’s ‘New Science of Life’ (Sheldrake, 2009) is a more recent example of this trend. Even the term ‘ectoplasm’ – referring to a mysterious semi-physical substance exuded from the bodies of entranced mediums in Victorian séances – is derived from cellular biology and the research of the physiologist Charles Richet (1850-1935). Both organicist and mechanist interpretations of psychical phenomena are expressions of the same impulse to fit the paranormal into the established frameworks of the hard sciences. Drawing on examples from my own fieldwork with a mediumship development circle in Bristol, this presentation makes the case that an organismic framework might shed new light on the kind of spirit communication that takes place in mediumship development circles, where the paranormal is ‘mattered’ through the biology of the physical body.
Dr. Jack Hunter is an anthropologist exploring the borderlands of consciousness, religion, ecology and the paranormal. He is a tutor with the Sophia Centre for the Study of Cosmology in Culture, University of Wales Trinity Saint David, and teaches on the MA in Ecology and Spirituality and the MA in Cultural Astronomy and Astrology. He is also an Access to Higher Education lecturer in the Humanities and Social Sciences at Newtown College. He lives in the hills of Mid-Wales with his family.

https://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=http...WEnl0tPO_DpyIFMoQbL-DVcO8NsMhI7PKv_tFKbDq525w
 
Online debut at 7.30pm on Tuesday the 9th of February


Dr Jack Hunter will be talking on
Organicism and Psychical Research: Where Mushrooms and Mediums Meet
As much as parapsychologists have employed physics and technological metaphors to understand psychical phenomena (spiritual telegraph, waves, forces, and so on), other researchers have also drawn from organismic and biological models in their efforts to ‘matter the paranormal’ through the language of science. Historical examples include Franz Anton Mesmer’s (1784-1814) notion of ‘animal magnetism’ as a subtle fluid that flows through and connects all lifeforms, and which may be manipulated for all manner of therapeutic purposes. Biologist and psychical researcher Hans Driesch (1867-1941) offered a vitalist interpretation of parapsychological phenomena, and Rupert Sheldrake’s ‘New Science of Life’ (Sheldrake, 2009) is a more recent example of this trend. Even the term ‘ectoplasm’ – referring to a mysterious semi-physical substance exuded from the bodies of entranced mediums in Victorian séances – is derived from cellular biology and the research of the physiologist Charles Richet (1850-1935). Both organicist and mechanist interpretations of psychical phenomena are expressions of the same impulse to fit the paranormal into the established frameworks of the hard sciences. Drawing on examples from my own fieldwork with a mediumship development circle in Bristol, this presentation makes the case that an organismic framework might shed new light on the kind of spirit communication that takes place in mediumship development circles, where the paranormal is ‘mattered’ through the biology of the physical body.
Dr. Jack Hunter is an anthropologist exploring the borderlands of consciousness, religion, ecology and the paranormal. He is a tutor with the Sophia Centre for the Study of Cosmology in Culture, University of Wales Trinity Saint David, and teaches on the MA in Ecology and Spirituality and the MA in Cultural Astronomy and Astrology. He is also an Access to Higher Education lecturer in the Humanities and Social Sciences at Newtown College. He lives in the hills of Mid-Wales with his family.

https://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=https://m.youtube.com/channel/UCX8Ez-brarHABUMKRQsT-lA?fbclid=IwAR0dIoVUY_GY6iOMjLRQPMRk-RHc28v-aF4SHXMSN_YwyyGQ7yEkZ7IBZNE&h=AT1Q7pIHJEmksi1a0I5fsTuchakv7sKX_6TaExc9NsjFKpvh_B94Bl1D70w8u0swK2n85O-3PRNQgwB9w4AGO5BEPl0eZNnfbRsvRLTG8WqAK-UvPKc7KakKRthJYPHTJw&__tn__=q&c[0]=AT1hx-QAr9dzwTgnqD-UtFI_Ql57byMsp2k62-azxgRTnpvmyueWDTlVouXhWf7huVoPyAdc5gpJEIhoWYZwhxWEnl0tPO_DpyIFMoQbL-DVcO8NsMhI7PKv_tFKbDq525w
Direct link for Jack Hunter's talk
 
Next meeting of the Edinburgh Fortean Society will be live and the resultant video will be archived on the Youtube channel.

Tuesday the 9th of March, 7.30pm

In conjunction with the London Fortean Society Scott Wood will be talking on Urban Legends

People share urban legends a lot, be they tiny rumours or full blown horror stories, but where do these stories come from and what do they represent? Using three examples of urban legends Scott Wood considers ways of how urban legends are formed and their meaning with stories of the helpful terrorist, the dead body on public transport and the hidden insult. There may be swearing. Urban legends are pieces of cultural ephemera that are also narrative demonstrations of society’s concerns, prejudices and rational blind spots. Urban legends are our contemporary folklore - coarsely humorous, cruel, bigoted and endlessly fascinating. Scott is the author of London Urban Legends: The Corpse on the Tube and the co-founder of the London Fortean Society.

This talk will be presented live via Zoom and then archived on Youtube.

Join Zoom Meeting
https://ed-ac-uk.zoom.us/j/84586005454

Meeting ID: 845 8600 5454
Passcode: 1z6ripG1

Join by Skype for Business
https://ed-ac-uk.zoom.us/skype/84586005454
 
In conjunction with the London Fortean Society Scott Wood will be talking on Urban Legends

People share urban legends a lot, be they tiny rumours or full blown horror stories, but where do these stories come from and what do they represent? Using three examples of urban legends Scott Wood considers ways of how urban legends are formed and their meaning with stories of the helpful terrorist, the dead body on public transport and the hidden insult. There may be swearing. Urban legends are pieces of cultural ephemera that are also narrative demonstrations of society’s concerns, prejudices and rational blind spots. Urban legends are our contemporary folklore - coarsely humorous, cruel, bigoted and endlessly fascinating. Scott is the author of London Urban Legends: The Corpse on the Tube and the co-founder of the London Fortean Society.


Link to the recorded video on Youtube

 
The next Edinburgh Fortean Society meeting will be an online, live, social meeting on Tuesday the 13th of April at 7.30pm.

Come along and have a chat and find out about future plans and indulge your Fortean social life!

Topic: EdFort April Meeting
Time: Apr 13, 2021 07:30 PM London
Join Zoom Meeting https://ed-ac-uk.zoom.us/j/85819542771
Meeting ID: 858 1954 2771
Passcode: zj3uvfiN
Join by Skype for Business https://ed-ac-uk.zoom.us/skype/85819542771
 
The next Edinburgh Fortean Soceity event is online on the 11th of May at 19.30

Glen Vaudrey on
Zooforms
Zooform Phenomena are the most elusive, and least understood, mystery `animals`. Indeed, they are not animals at all, and are not even animate in the accepted terms of the word, but entities or apparitions which adopt, or seem to have (quasi) animal form. These arcane and contentious entities have plagued cryptozoology - the study of unknown animals - since its inception, and tend to be dismissed by mainstream science as thoroughly unworthy of consideration. But they continue to be seen, and Jonathan Downes - the Director of the Centre for Fortean Zoology - who first coined the term in 1990, maintains that many zooforms result from a synergy of complex psychosocial and sociological issues, and suggests that to classify all such phenomena as "paranormal" in origin is counterproductive, and for researchers to dismiss them out of hand is thoroughly unscientific.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCX8Ez-brarHABUMKRQsT-lA

Junes talk will be a live Zoom event.
 
The next Edinburgh Fortean Soceity event is online on the 11th of May at 19.30

Glen Vaudrey on
Zooforms
Zooform Phenomena are the most elusive, and least understood, mystery `animals`. Indeed, they are not animals at all, and are not even animate in the accepted terms of the word, but entities or apparitions which adopt, or seem to have (quasi) animal form. These arcane and contentious entities have plagued cryptozoology - the study of unknown animals - since its inception, and tend to be dismissed by mainstream science as thoroughly unworthy of consideration. But they continue to be seen, and Jonathan Downes - the Director of the Centre for Fortean Zoology - who first coined the term in 1990, maintains that many zooforms result from a synergy of complex psychosocial and sociological issues, and suggests that to classify all such phenomena as "paranormal" in origin is counterproductive, and for researchers to dismiss them out of hand is thoroughly unscientific.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCX8Ez-brarHABUMKRQsT-lA

Junes talk will be a live Zoom event.
I'm afraid this meeting has been cancelled. Sorry.
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The next meeting of the Edinburgh Fortean Society

Tuesday the 8th of June

7.30, live via Zoom

Mark Norman will be talking on

BEYOND THE HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES
Apparitions of spectral Black Dogs have been reported across the United Kingdom (and indeed the rest of the world) for nearly 1,000 years and yet, most people know very little about this motif outside of the pages of one of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's most loved Sherlock Holmes tales.

Drawing on his archive of over 1,000 sightings, reports and traditions relating to Black Dogs (the largest archive in the UK of this material), folklore author and researcher Mark Norman takes us through the different types of animal found in British folklore ad what their significance is.

Mark is the creator and host of The Folklore Podcast (a globally listened to podcast which has been downloaded over 1.25million times since its launch in 2015) and the curator of The Folklore Library and Archive (www.folklorelibrary.com) - a new large-scale project designed to protect and preserve folklore records for future research. He is the author of Black Dog Folklore (Troy Books, 2015), Telling the Bees and other Customs (The History Press, 2020), the forthcoming 'Dark Folklore' (The History Press, 2021) and 'The Folklore of Devon (University of Exeter Press, 2022) and contributing author to various books, magazines and websites.

Topic: Edinburgh Fortean Society - June Meeting
Time: Jun 8, 2021 07:30 PM London

Join Zoom Meeting
https://ed-ac-uk.zoom.us/j/84723981038

Meeting ID: 847 2398 1038
Passcode: pYHX4nEy

Join by Skype for Business
https://ed-ac-uk.zoom.us/skype/84723981038

The talk will be available on Youtube afterwards.
 
The next meeting of the Edinburgh Fortean Society

Tuesday the 8th of June

7.30, live via Zoom

Mark Norman will be talking on

BEYOND THE HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES
Apparitions of spectral Black Dogs have been reported across the United Kingdom (and indeed the rest of the world) for nearly 1,000 years and yet, most people know very little about this motif outside of the pages of one of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's most loved Sherlock Holmes tales.

Drawing on his archive of over 1,000 sightings, reports and traditions relating to Black Dogs (the largest archive in the UK of this material), folklore author and researcher Mark Norman takes us through the different types of animal found in British folklore ad what their significance is.

Mark is the creator and host of The Folklore Podcast (a globally listened to podcast which has been downloaded over 1.25million times since its launch in 2015) and the curator of The Folklore Library and Archive (www.folklorelibrary.com) - a new large-scale project designed to protect and preserve folklore records for future research. He is the author of Black Dog Folklore (Troy Books, 2015), Telling the Bees and other Customs (The History Press, 2020), the forthcoming 'Dark Folklore' (The History Press, 2021) and 'The Folklore of Devon (University of Exeter Press, 2022) and contributing author to various books, magazines and websites.

Topic: Edinburgh Fortean Society - June Meeting
Time: Jun 8, 2021 07:30 PM London

Join Zoom Meeting
https://ed-ac-uk.zoom.us/j/84723981038

Meeting ID: 847 2398 1038
Passcode: pYHX4nEy

Join by Skype for Business
https://ed-ac-uk.zoom.us/skype/84723981038

The talk will be available on Youtube afterwards.
My moms birthday :)
 
The next meeting of the Edinburgh Fortean Society

Tuesday the 8th of June

7.30, live via Zoom

Mark Norman will be talking on

BEYOND THE HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES
Apparitions of spectral Black Dogs have been reported across the United Kingdom (and indeed the rest of the world) for nearly 1,000 years and yet, most people know very little about this motif outside of the pages of one of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's most loved Sherlock Holmes tales.

Drawing on his archive of over 1,000 sightings, reports and traditions relating to Black Dogs (the largest archive in the UK of this material), folklore author and researcher Mark Norman takes us through the different types of animal found in British folklore ad what their significance is.

Mark is the creator and host of The Folklore Podcast (a globally listened to podcast which has been downloaded over 1.25million times since its launch in 2015) and the curator of The Folklore Library and Archive (www.folklorelibrary.com) - a new large-scale project designed to protect and preserve folklore records for future research. He is the author of Black Dog Folklore (Troy Books, 2015), Telling the Bees and other Customs (The History Press, 2020), the forthcoming 'Dark Folklore' (The History Press, 2021) and 'The Folklore of Devon (University of Exeter Press, 2022) and contributing author to various books, magazines and websites.

Topic: Edinburgh Fortean Society - June Meeting
Time: Jun 8, 2021 07:30 PM London

Join Zoom Meeting
https://ed-ac-uk.zoom.us/j/84723981038

Meeting ID: 847 2398 1038
Passcode: pYHX4nEy

Join by Skype for Business
https://ed-ac-uk.zoom.us/skype/84723981038

The talk will be available on Youtube afterwards.
Remember this talk is tonight, live via the zoom link.
 
The next meeting of the Edinburgh Fortean Society

Tuesday the 8th of June

7.30, live via Zoom

Mark Norman will be talking on

BEYOND THE HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES
Apparitions of spectral Black Dogs have been reported across the United Kingdom (and indeed the rest of the world) for nearly 1,000 years and yet, most people know very little about this motif outside of the pages of one of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's most loved Sherlock Holmes tales.

Drawing on his archive of over 1,000 sightings, reports and traditions relating to Black Dogs (the largest archive in the UK of this material), folklore author and researcher Mark Norman takes us through the different types of animal found in British folklore ad what their significance is.

Mark is the creator and host of The Folklore Podcast (a globally listened to podcast which has been downloaded over 1.25million times since its launch in 2015) and the curator of The Folklore Library and Archive (www.folklorelibrary.com) - a new large-scale project designed to protect and preserve folklore records for future research. He is the author of Black Dog Folklore (Troy Books, 2015), Telling the Bees and other Customs (The History Press, 2020), the forthcoming 'Dark Folklore' (The History Press, 2021) and 'The Folklore of Devon (University of Exeter Press, 2022) and contributing author to various books, magazines and websites.

Topic: Edinburgh Fortean Society - June Meeting
Time: Jun 8, 2021 07:30 PM London

Join Zoom Meeting
https://ed-ac-uk.zoom.us/j/84723981038

Meeting ID: 847 2398 1038
Passcode: pYHX4nEy

Join by Skype for Business
https://ed-ac-uk.zoom.us/skype/84723981038

The talk will be available on Youtube afterwards.
This talk is now available on Youtube

 
The next Edinburgh Fortean Society talk will be available from 7.30pm on the 13th of July

The Edinburgh Fortean Society Book Club

Do you fancy a good Fortean read? Don't know what book to go for next? Then let the Edinburgh Fortean Society recommend some of their favourite books.

Several EdFort members tell us about their favourite Fortean books and why they mean so much to them.

 
The next Edinburgh Fortean Society talk will be available from 7.30pm on the 13th of July

The Edinburgh Fortean Society Book Club

Do you fancy a good Fortean read? Don't know what book to go for next? Then let the Edinburgh Fortean Society recommend some of their favourite books.

Several EdFort members tell us about their favourite Fortean books and why they mean so much to them.

And here are all the books mentioned
Tony Healy and Paul Cropper
Out of the Shadows

Bernard Heuvelmans
On the Track of Unknown Animals
In the Wake of the Sea Serpents

Loren Coleman
Mysterious America

David Paulides
Missing 411 Series

Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson
The Illuminatus Trilogy

Jan Harald Brunvand
The Vanishing Hitch hiker

John Carreyrou
Bad Blood

Louise Huebner
Witchcraft for All

Charles Mackay
Extraordinary Delusions and the Madness of Crowds

Patrick Harpur
Daimonic Reality

Mike Dash
Borderlands

John Keel
The Mothman Prophecies

Dion Fortune
Psychic Self Defence

Archie E Roy
A Sense of Something Strange

David Hufford
The Terror That Comes in the Night

Colin Wilson
Poltergeists

Frank Podmore
Modern Spiritualism

Trevor Hall
The Strange Case of Edmund Guerney
The Spiritualists

Jim Schnabel
Dark White

George P Hansen
The Trickster and the Paranormal

Janet and Colin Bord
Alien Animals

Andrew Burnham
The Old Stones

Reader's Digest
Mysteries of the Unexplained

The History Press (Various Authors)
Paranormal... a series of guides to UK locations

Edmund Gurney, Frederic W H Myers and Frank Podmore
Phantasms of the Living

Ian Stevenson
20 Cases Suggestive of Reincarnation

Donnie Eichar
Dead Mountain

Gino Moretto
The Shroud – A Guide

Raymond Clemens
The Voynich Manuscript

Michael Baigent, Richard Leigh and Henry Lincoln
The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail

Charles Fort
The Books of Charles Fort

William Corliss
The Sourcebook Project

Graham Hancock
The Sign and The Seal
 
The next Edinburgh Fortean Society talk will be available online from 7.30pm on Tuesday the 10th of August

Scott Lyall will be speaking on
Planet Of The Mystery Apes: A Global Look At Unknown Primates
From the early 20th century on, stories of unknown primates have been a popular culture staple in English speaking countries, with the Yeti and Sasquatch getting media interest in the 1920s and Bigfoot in the 1950s. These creatures remain the best known examples of the phenomenon to this day. However, similar creatures have been reported from all around the world. In this talk, I’ll look at reports of these creatures globally, from the Almasty of Central Asia to the Yowie of Australia, and share some thoughts on what they represent.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCX8Ez-brarHABUMKRQsT-lA
 
The next Edinburgh Fortean Society talk will be available online from 7.30pm on Tuesday the 10th of August

Scott Lyall will be speaking on
Planet Of The Mystery Apes: A Global Look At Unknown Primates
From the early 20th century on, stories of unknown primates have been a popular culture staple in English speaking countries, with the Yeti and Sasquatch getting media interest in the 1920s and Bigfoot in the 1950s. These creatures remain the best known examples of the phenomenon to this day. However, similar creatures have been reported from all around the world. In this talk, I’ll look at reports of these creatures globally, from the Almasty of Central Asia to the Yowie of Australia, and share some thoughts on what they represent.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCX8Ez-brarHABUMKRQsT-lA
Direct link to the Planet of the Mystery Apes talk, this will go live at 7.30 pm tonight

 
That 'direct link' will come alive then?

How can we have a direct link to something which doesn't already exist...! :yellowc:

Edit: necessary exclamation mark added... :)
Yes the direct link will be live then.

it does exist but you’re not allowed to see it. It’s been uploaded to YouTube and that is the link for it there. At the moment it’s a private link so only those who are logged into the appropriate YouTube account can access it. At 7.30 the link automatically changes to a public one so anyone can access it.
 
So, it's like... Fortean....? :D

Thank you so much - is it interactive and possible to ask a question, or pre-recorded?
It’s Schrodingers video!

It is prerecorded but the speaker will be online at the time, I think, so if you type questions into the chat on YouTube they should get an answer straight away.

Some of the talks are live via Zoom and a recording is subsequently put up. Which option is down to what the speaker wants to do and availability.

Will need to work out what happens when we go back to irl meetings! Had over 3 000 views of our videos.
 
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