Losing my UnCon Cherry
As this was my first UnCon and all the talks were in one hall I developed a rather foolhardy plan I was determined to try and see everything. Unfortunately due to the lack of any breaks in the
timetable this would have involved a feat of endurance with severe health consequence. Luckily I was up for the challenge and I had made sure the local hospital had a pair of sherpa buttocks on ice so I could be whisked straight from the venue to have my atrophied ass swapped for one with far more potential for enduring such things (if I was ever daft enough to try again).
================
Saturday
The Quest for Ectoplasm
So after a bit of organised chaos getting everyone in things kicked off with
Marina Warner’s talk on
ectoplasm. As usual she demonstrated her massive and in-depth knowledge of the field and the talk took us from ectoplasm to various concepts of the aether and back to ectoplasm again with a wealth of fascinating slides including numerous photographs of ectoplasm, classical paintings rendering aether and related concepts and numerous illustrations from the books of early scientists (including Newton).
She also had a great example of the strange sexual undercurrents that seem to have flowed around some of these kinds of seance and her reading of the description of a scientist constantly popping under the table to hold the knees of a young female medium helped add a suitable light note and raised numerous chuckles from the assembled Forteans.
She covered an awful lot of ground in fascinating detail and while she presented it well and it was easy to take on board I do wonder if it might have been better to relegate the parts on aether to her forthcoming book and then she could have concentrated on all the variations and varieties of ectoplasm.
My only other quibble was that she was a little quiet for the first slot of the day and we really needed someone to wake us up and start the day with a bang.
Discussion:
http://www.forteantimes.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=18574
Web:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luminiferous_aether
-----------
Starchild Skull Update
And this is exactly what we got with the shock and awe tactics of
Lloyd Pye and his
Starchild skull. Amply proving that most of “we British” can still learn a thing or too from our cousins on the other side of the pond - the deployment of large quantities of southern charmer and full-on American confidence lead to an impressive talk but one that left me with more than a few niggles.
Given the recent news of the new finds from
Flores presented his take on human evolution an where these mysterious creatures fit in building on his book “EVERYTHING YOU KNOW IS WRONG!!!!!”. Granted the title isn’t all block capitals and exclamations marks but it certainly had that feel and if one could devote your life to addressing all the wild theories on human evolution there are “out there” then my response (if written in a similar spirit) to his would probably be along the line of “YOU ARE TALKING OUT OF YOUR ARSE!!!”. Granted I could be dismissed as peddling an Establishment view point but his conclusion that the Flores find is a hominoid is, like a very shaky house of cards, based on a whole raft of dodgy assumptions, a massive misreading of the actually evidence available and a misrepresentation of the field of palaeoanthropology. It would be difficult to know where to start but his contention that we assign fossil finds to the hominid family tree purely on bipedalism is just wrong. Firstly it is done on the accretion of whole host of unique traits over time and bipedal hominoids have been well studied and published –
Oreopithecus (from the Miocene) and
Gigantopithecus (from the Plio-Pleistocene).
Anyway this was just a sideshow to the main event which was, of course, the
Starchild skull. With an array of quality pictures and new (and old) tests results he was able to present a fascinating look at his work in progress on the skull. Unfortunately he has rather shot himself in the foot by calling it the “Starchild” as it instantly means that academia will not touch it with a barge pole and it is costing him an awful lot to buy tests which, if it had gone a more conventional route, could have been done for free or cost by a spare (post)grad student (and he does still need considerable funds to get all the tests he needs if people want to help provide some funds). This all means that progress has been slow which is a real pity because, whatever you think of it, the skull is (in the older meanings) a prodigy, wonder or even monster and is certainly worthy of considerable study. Unfortunately again he misunderstands/misrepresents a range of things including the breadth of human variation and the variability in fossilisation. On the latter we know that both taphonomy (site formation processes) and diagenesis (the changes of bone into ‘rock’) can be startling different even across the same site and high levels of collagen, the mineralisation, the red stuff (presented as possible desiccated marrow) and the fibres while interesting may not be extremely unusual. So at the core of this is the gross morphology of the skull and it is fascinating. While most of the face (maxilla and zygomatic arches) is missing, which certainly contributes to its unusual look there is clearly something very odd with the skull. Its unclear what but although he has dealt with and dismissed the pathological explanation (hydrocephalus) I do wonder if there is a teratological one. As
Armand Marie Leroi has shown in his book “Mutants” (and accompanying documentary) the sheer variation of our mutations is dazzling and the shallow, close-set eyes and heart-shaped/folded in look to the skull remind me of the spectrum of morphologies that runs from the cyclops children to the two–faced (in the literal meaning) cows and pigs we have seen recently and the skull appears to be intermediate between the ‘normal’ configuration and a that of cyclops child. Anyway it is a fascinating find and does need to be studied as it may provide interesting information but the unusual path it has taken means this won’t be soon (unless he can find some more generous donors) and I’m unsure how the actual data will be interpreted – he clearly has a wider agenda based around the “Interventionist Theory” but he held back from actually stating any of this explicitly but the occasional statement that leaked out, like stating boldly that the Starchild may have been hundreds of years old and periodically regrows its teeth, lead to the occasional raised eyebrow and (at least from me) the thought “Whoa steady there fella!!”.
Book:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0595127495/
Discussion:
http://www.forteantimes.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=9204
http://www.forteantimes.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=15502
Web:
http://www.starchild-uk.com
------------
Louis XVII of France and Kaspar Hauser: New insights into two famous historical mysteries of disputed identity.
Possibly one of the best qualified Forteans for examining the teratological aspects of the Starchild was up next although
Jan Bondeson’s talk was on a couple of cases from his new book “The Great Pretenders” which touches on the most famous impostors from history:
Louis XVII and
Kasper Hauser. As anyone who has read his books will have guessed he delivered a funny and erudite discussion on these individuals and the constellations of weird individuals who seem to have involved themselves with the case. Although both of them are probably know to a lot of Fortean Jan Bondeson expanded on them throwing in new and obscure details to produce rounded and satisfying pictures of both characters and the strange events surrounding them.
The investigation into Louis produced many facts that will gladden Fortean hearts – the sheer number of claimants to the throne is fascinating as is the sheer number of Bourbon hearts (not a biscuit) that were around at one point (most of which went up in a spectacular bonfire) have made actually DNA testing various contenders or their remaining body parts a tricky but fascinating adventure leading to the dismissal of the wildest claimants and a potential validation of one preserved heart.
The story of Kasper Hauser is equally sad and through the depth of his research he has come up with theory on the identity of this strange young man – you want to know who he was? Buy the book I don’t think you’ll be sorry.
Book:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0393019691/
-------------
Space Babies, Cults & Contactees: Tales from British Ufology in the 50s & 60s
Also talking about mysterious individuals was
Andy Roberts who took us back in time to look at the abductee scene in Britain during the Fifties which has been rather overlooked due to the sheer dominance of the US on these fronts (ufological imperialism?). He span a fascinating tale of a variety of unusual people (slightly let down by AV problems which meant he couldn’t show us some fascinating video of some pretty strange activity) including the active role of the clergy in the whole scene before leading onto the story of
Mathew Applethwaite (??) “the Space Baby” illustrated with an excellent series of newspaper cuttings from the time.
The story of this young man’s conception was overshadowed by mysterious visits by tale Nordic visitors from Venus announcing their intent to visit. Although early appearances seem to have been projections later visits seem to have been physical bordering on the mundane as they eventually shed their silver suits and helmets and donned ordinary black suits and took to arriving and leaving by a black car. After some odd encounters including one which left footprints burnt on a newspaper and some burnt flesh in the sink they informed her that, although she was already pregnant, she would be having a part-Venusian baby (while her husband initially seemed awfully relaxed about this intergalactic infidelity he did later threaten to do them considerable violence). They also provided a series of predictions about the baby’s sex and weight at birth. And lo, as was predicted so it came to pass, and the baby was indeed a boy weighing exactly what they had predicted. Unfortunately in a story that must be familiar to an awful lot of people around the country the space-father was conspicuous by his absence after the birth although I would challenge the CSA to track down that errant father!!! While Andy Roberts was able to show the Space Baby’s birth certificate to prove it all (due to an oversight there was no column for “space father”) but, despite the other predictions saying he would grow up to be a leader of men, he (possibly like his alien father’s flying saucer) drops off the radar since then. Despite a resurgence of interest every now and again over the years he has proved rather elusive and difficult to track down.
Drawing things to a conclusion Andy draw an interesting parallel with more mythical elements specifically the whole story of Jesus which demonstrates one of the key principles of Forteanism – that everything is connected to everything else and that you can gain a much broader picture of things when you don’t just confine your investigation to imagined discrete categories like “ufology”, etc.
-----------------
The Rise of the Indian Rope Trick
Next up was
Dr. Peter Lamont displaying both his academic and stage magician sides by delivering a fantastic talk on the origins of the
Indian Rope Trick. Although I would imagine that he might have been slightly miffed by short feature on the origin of the Indian Rope Trick in the documentary “Magic” a week or so ago he didn’t show it and greatly expanded on the details by walking us through the story of his investigation into one of the most famous magic tricks around and its rather poorly understood origins in a hoax article published at the end of the nineteenth century. He looked at the history of the trick and people’s attempts to replicate it (including the full video of a clip shown in the documentary of a very poor effort by Karachi) and touched on wider areas of interest to Forteans including the way that the stories from people tend to get wilder and more detailed over time.
Equally interesting were his ‘gripes’ about events since publishing the book which included a number of people writing letters to newspapers saying that he is wrong as they had seen it done which really only goes to show that no matter how clear and definitive you can make the case (and within Forteana it can’t get clearer and more definitive than his studies) there will always be people who will not be prepared to accept your explanation even if you were to batter them around the head with your book and force it down their throats – ultimately you have to be content with the fact that you and the vast majority of people are confident that you have the answer. To finish he expanded on his other ‘gripe’ - that even when he has explained it and people have read his book (we assume) that he is still getting booked for appearances at book festivals, etc. which say things like “Magician Dr. Lamont will be performing the Indian Rope Trick”. He firmly put these rumours to bed once and for all by performing an Indian rope trick.
Book:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0316724300/
Discussion:
http://www.forteantimes.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=12455
---------------
Culture Shocks: Strange Experiences in Tribal Societies and their Challenge to Western Science
Following on the heels of this was a much anticipated talk by one of our leading researchers but as with things you invest with expectations
Paul Devereux both disappointed and exceeded them. The actual meat of the talk was a virtually dictionary definition of Forteanism and revolved around the presentation of data deemed damned by the anthropological community which seemed to show evidence of parapsychological phenomena observed by trained scientists living with native peoples who don’t treat this kind of activity as being particularly unusual.
Examples include an account of dreams received by one woman where the village’s “Big Mama” visited her and imparted information to her, information which “Big Mama”’s sons knew without her having to tell them, and this continued after “Big Mama” died. Another person (Grindel?) witnessed a funeral in which the dead body got up and joined in the celebrations of their life before being finally put to rest. Someone else studying in the Amazon witnessed a number of strange events but the oddest was when 6 out of 9 people under the influence of a hallucinogenic brew informed him that his wife’s father had died – a fact that was only confirmed two days later when the news arrived via jungle radio. While this kind of material has helped promote the discipline of Transpersonal Anthropology it is a very small and insular world and a lot of material is still hidden away.
This is prime Fortean fodder and had us salivating for more but it was bracketed by his discussion of how difficult it has been in recent years to get information published in ‘respectable’ channels. He initially told us about his experience with a machine called “The Octopus” (due to all the arms connecting to your head) which seemed to be able to produce repeatable remote viewing experiences but, despite their paranormal special earlier this year, he couldn’t get a sniff of interest from the New Scientist. At the end of the talk he went into details of how it has been impossible for him to find not only a publisher but also an agent who was willing to handle his idea for a book based on this damned anthropological data. While his contention that actually publishing things of this kind seems to be getting increasingly difficult in recent years (due to a rise in what? Post-911 rationalism/fundamentalism in a difficult world?), and if someone as widely respected as Devereux can’t get properly published what hope for the other researchers, it did rather eat into the time he had for the meat of the talk and he did say there were more tales he wanted to tell us if he had time. I suppose my dissatisfaction came from the feeling that it was two different (if related) talks squeezed into one but it may have just been my own enthusiasm to hear more of the verboten field reports.
Publish (even if through a less mainstream publishing house) and be damned I say!!
Discussion:
http://www.forteantimes.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=18573
------------
Weird America & Sumatra 2004 – The CFZ Annual Report
To bring the first day to a conclusion and in case our energy was flagging we were hit with a report on the activities of the
CFZ which bordered on the rabble rousing (if we’d been American or a more evangelic audience there would have been shouts of “Amen”, “yeah brother”, etc.) and often veered into full on sexual deviance. So just what we wanted although I’m unsure any eavesdropping Quakers might not have agreed.
Richard Freeman who took the stage to tell us about the recent results of their expedition to Sumatra in search of
orang pendek,
giant snakes and some kind of possible relic population of
big toothed cats, as well as informing us about his distaste for spicy food and how the lady’s love his beer belly. The first part of the journey literally covered a lot of the same ground that is familiar to us from earlier sightings of orang pendek reported in FT and they confirmed the strange nature of the area and then plunged further into the jungle and a hidden valley than any westerners and even most locals. Although the unusual wedge-shaped footprints they found couldn’t be cast they did collected a range of hair samples (although the results were disappointing). After a side trip to see
the world’s largest flower in bloom they went on to talk to the people who caught what was claimed to be the world’s largest snake but didn’t quite live up to that claims. Although it appears that a lot of the reports of them worshipping the snake as a god were cobblers the local hunters did report that they had seen larger specimens. Even more interesting were their claims that there was also a very l
arge horned snake lurking out in the forest somewhere (which is important as known horned snakes tend to be small) and after consultation with the locals they were able to produce an artist’s impression of what it might look like.
Richard Freeman then passed the mike over to his compatriot
Jon Downes who, ever the showman, turned things up to 11 with a talk about his journeys around the US and research into various aspects of cryptozoology and, like a good Fortean, other oddness he was interested in. Starting off with his visit to Texas’ swamps with
Chester Moore as his guide (see a previous FBI article) he detailed a whole range of wonderful animals including
giant turtles (of truly frightening proportions) and
Bigfoot evidence that was enough to overtone his scepticism about its existence. As well as covering a number of unusual big cat sightings he provided the actual solution to
Mad Gasser of Mattoon case and pointed to the very important point that sometimes when you visit a place you will find out that the locals actually have the answer to the mystery which lead seamlessly into his research into the
chupacabras in Puerto Rico and with a flourish (and a dash of dramatic tension) revealed what he thinks the
chupacabras actually is. This involves the tricky issue of the conflation of attacks with actual sightings of mystery beasts when in fact he is pretty sure that the attacks are actually from mongooses (mongeese?) brought into PR to deal with the rat problem while the mystery animal actually only attacks banana trees and is most probably some kind of porcupine-type creature (its appearance in the Americas possibly be relating to an idea that PR actually broke off from the African mainland and is different from the other Caribbean islands). The fusion of the attacks and sightings has lead monster hunters seriously down the wrong track and it may be with a clearer theory it may finally be possible to look in the right places.
They then laid out their exciting ideas for next years research which include not only an attempt to final prove the identity of the chupacabras but plans to bring a
Mongolian Death Worm to the next UnCon (although the veiled threats to flop their worms out on the table may be taken a number of ways- as it were). In a set of wide ranging questions it did emerge that one should take
Nick Redfern’s accounts of the
Glastonbury Gargoyle with a rather large pinch of salt. Things ended with a request for our help. If cryptozoology has truly come in from the cold then it certainly seems that the CFZ are well positioned to go mainstream and the next year or so looks to be a real blockbuster but they still need everyone’s help – if you can’t contribute money they also need people’s time to do dull but necessary tasks like proofreading, computer programming, etc. so if you are interested in being a part of this then now is the time to get involved.
Discussion:
http://www.forteantimes.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1010
http://www.forteantimes.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=12383
http://www.forteantimes.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=11514
Web:
http://www.cfz.org.uk
=================
Sunday
The Knights Templar and their ancient secrets
We kicked off Sunday with no complaints about it being possibly a little laid back as we start on the highest of gears with the
Reverend Lionle Fanthorpe. We were treated to some exclusive extracts from the book he (and
Mrs Fanthorpe) are working on looking at various aspects of the
Templars which sounds like it might help provide more information for the people wondering about the actual background behind “That Book” as well as taking us off into some strange and interesting territory. It seems a number of topics will be dealt with including a strange pre-Templar Watcher/Guide kind of organisation, Templar codes, where the Templar fleet went, etc.
He started on the area of Templar codes and how they were based on the Knight’s Tour on the chessboard and specifically Euler’s Knight’s Tour Magic Square as well as potential music codes at Rosslyn (some of these he is throwing out for people with more specialist knowledge in some areas to pick up and run with – he said you could get the Euler Magic Square from his website or by emailing him).
He moved on to the idea that there may be a mysterious group (or possible two) guiding human development and potentially mating with human women to produce great leaders. During questions he was quite happy to admit that the idea that this balancing could come about due to a more natural process that provides enough impetus for change but stops things from becoming complete anarchy and this was at east as good as his own.
He then moved on to the idea of certain mystical weapons being passed on to various leaders over time including some kind of spear/staff and a cauldron. He then wound things up by looking at the last days of the
Cathars and why they never accepted the generous terms of surrender they were given and the mysterious treasure they may have spirited away and sacrificed their life to protect which may (or may not) feed into the mystery of
Rennes Le Chateau. The book is still only about three quarters done but sounds like it should be interesting, insightful, controversial and thought-provoking hopefully in equal measures.
To end on a high note
Jon Downes returned with a guitar to accompany the Rev in his new song about the Templars and then they did a number from the album they produced a while back.
Web:
http://www.lionel-fanthorpe.com
------------
The Singing Pyramid
While still reeling from this entertainment we settled in for some potential pyramid-base crackpottery from
Alan Alford on “The Singing Pyramid” but were to be disappointed and pleased to find it was actually an interesting theory that the Great Pyramid at Giza may have been the ancient equivalent of a 150m tall Marshal amp. This rather takes the ideas of acoustic archaeology up by an order of magnitude on the scale front!!!
The resonant qualities of the King’s Chamber has been mentioned before but he examines all the contradictory evidence like the granite cladding and the granite gables in the roof and brings it together with the peculiar dimensions of the “air shafts” (which may be more like organ tubes) to suggest it may have been used to resonate with the sound of the earth and produce more of a moaning than singing representation of the act of creation – the production of infrasound may also had a kind of “shock and awe” effect.
The theory does make sense of a number of unusual aspects of the pyramid and some of the later tunnels that were dug which may have been used for inspection after an earthquake/impact may have broken it. It is an intriguing idea based on a lot of evidence and numbers (which he covers in more depth in his book) but is a bit difficult to square with the fact that there is no mention of it in any of the ancient texts (although he did provide some reasons why this might be so or they might have been overlooked) but it is perfectly testable and one of the other people investigating the acoustics of the King’s chamber is planning on reconstructing it – not as a computer simulation but life-size and in granite!! Even if I were a betting man I wouldn’t put any money on this but it certainly has potential.
Book:
http://www.eridu.co.uk
------------------
Sirens, Harpies and Bird-footed Women
Next up was
Gail Nina Anderson who warned us from the start that there wasn’t a conclusion but she did prove that its not necessarily arriving at your location which is best bit of some journeys unfortunately the journey is almost impossible to describe and while I don’t want to say “you had to be there”…….
She starts with the
Burney Relief a fascinating Babylonian clay plaque which may have come from a brothel and appears to represented Ishtar (r at least an aspect of her related to the Underworld) as a bird-footed goddess flanked by owls and standing on a pair of lions. We then went on a roller coaster ride-style tour of a whole range of female minor deities and mythical creatures (with lots of switchbacks and loops) including Lilith, vampires, sirens (both bird-like and fish-like), mermaids, sphinxes, Queen Victoria, Victory, Queen Victoria again, angels, angels of death and back to Ishtar with a PS involving the adverts from a bondage/fetish magazine. It touched on a range of topic but an overarching theme was a kind of idea of the fear/celebration of female power as signified by her being given a more sexy title: “The Queen of the Night”. As I said it is tricky to describe but certainly worth seeing.
Web:
http://www.thebritishmuseum.ac.uk/compass/ixbin/goto?id=OBJ12540
---------------
My Family and Other Ghosts
As
Peter Brookesmith’s talk on his family’s encounters with
ghosts over the generations started rolling my (relative) lack of interest ghosts, the Call of the Wild/Nature and just basic human frailty caused me to bail out and go for a wander and from reports I’ve had, although his analogy to fox hunting was interesting, I made the right choice on which one to miss.
----------------
Mussolini’s Mystic
Following on from this was
Gary Lachman’s talk on the Italian
Baron Julius Evola a Dadaist poet who became increasingly interested in mysticism who was at times a big influence of Mussolini and later far right groups who went on to commit terrible acts like the bombing of Bologna station in 1980.
Although Gary clearly knows what he is talking about and is very knowledgeable I certainly felt like I missed a lot of his talk. The talk was in essence a breakneck speed reading of what I believe is a forthcoming article in FT (it came in at around half an hour) accompanied by what appeared to be a random mix of his slides playing in a continuous loop on the screen behind him. Images include Il Duche, Hitler, some centurions, Atlantis the North pole, Frankenstein, some obscure fascists or Dadaist, Nosferatu, Tolkein, a range of art and most oddly a big winking George W. Bush.
As well as actually missing parts of his talk because I was distracted by the incongruous and/or synchronous images of the slide show (synchronous because occasional after spending a couple of loops wondering why Tolkein was in there he would get a mention just as he appeared on screen but it didn’t happen often enough to make it appear that rather than being due to pinpoint timing it seemed to be pure luck) I was left wondering if I’d missed a broader point and whether I wasn’t actually listening to a talk but watching some kind of artistic performance with a potential tip of the hat to the Dadaist movement.
I am looking forward to reading his article as it should give me an opportunity to fill in the gaps on what is an interesting topic with serious implications and if I lose track of the thread of his argument at least I can flick back and pick it up again.
-----------------
Skinwalker Ranch
Poor
Ian Simmons had to deliver his talk after two days of organising the talks and coordinating the questions and his voice was starting to show signs of strain – some much so that at some points I was expecting him to just have to stop but thankfully he didn’t and we got to sit back and let the weirdness flow over because
Skinwalker Ranch is a topic of such high strangeness that it is almost impossible to try an analyse it. As well as the core experiences at the ranch he dealt with two other locations in nearby states which seem to be similar areas where the fabric of reality seems to warn awfully thin.
As anyone who read his earlier article
[FT169:44-7] will know the sheer amount and breadth of experiences defies categorisation lurching from UFOs to cryptids, to poltergeists to balls of light with no pity for the poor researcher. Phenomena include invulnerable disappearing wolves, invisible velociraptors, portals vomiting large red eyed bigfoots and giving glimpses of stormy skies on clear day, flying cigarette boxes that steal trees, odd spheres of bubbling blue liquid that appear to have the ability to turn three dogs into some kind of butter, some trickster-like entity seemingly capable of hiding 4 bulls in a tiny metal trailer without opening it, voices from the air, rumblings from the earth, etc., etc. If one’s mind isn’t raised to and beyond its boggling point by that then it must surely be guaranteed 100% boggleproof (and we’d like to speak to you).
Such activity does seem to have attracted the attention of the military and more specifically an alleged independently funded non-governmental organisation
NIDS who bought Skinwalker Ranch and established monitoring stations which, while bringing in a lot of reports of odd goingson, don’t seem to have brought in anything too definitive and NIDS has failed to produce a comprehensive report and is it appears winding down operations leaving us not much better off than when they got involved.
If anyone is interested in starting a movement to storm their offices and/or the farm then count me in.
So what is going on? I have no idea although I do wonder if the reports of electro-magnetic anomalies may in some way be at the root of this and if so it could be at the root of some of the strangeness we encounter but in some ways I am more enamoured of the idea that it may in fact be some kind of Fortean field laboratory. I can see some other dimensional Denzil Dexter standing in what would be their equivalent of a lab coat with their other dimensional clipboard checking of the phenomena they are testing:
- tree-stealing flying box – “disappointing”
- invisible velociraptor – “has potential but needs more work – back to the labs”.
- dog butter – “approved. Schedule for release in Idaho Spring 2005 building to a major wave in the Fall. Investigate potential commercial applications”.
Discussion:
Skinwalker ranch
NIDS
----------------
LIVE ON STAGE - Earthling human life gone by 2610 - Falco the Temponaut - Synchronic Lines - Operation Triad - The Enemy of Human Kind - Dr Xavier Crement - School of Rock
And to round things off we had the Madness of King Ken which started off strongly with a minutes noise for John Peel and then took us on what felt like a strange guided tour of the inside of
Ken Campbell’s head. Jumping off from
Neil Oram’s Warp and the “Arsehole Trilogy” he weaves a path (initially involving a vast and varied use or variations of the word arsehole) through the fact that we are all arseholes, via the first film filmed outside (it was a Newfoundland one on sea hunting) and why you should never trust an Oram, taking in his theory about him having two different personalities on different sides of his face (Elsie the housewife on the left and the Spanking Squire on the right) and how he teaches this to business for a grand a day, stopping with a brief interlude about how his nose used to look like a naked woman washing her hair (and the amazing facial set dressing someone made to show it off at its best) before really launching off into mixing his documentary series on the brain and self with his investigations into the
Damanhur cult in the Italian Alps who are hollowing out a mountain into a huge temple the two strands intermixing and being brought together (metaphorically and physically) to examine the ideas about the nature of the Self and Qualia (best described as “you can build a machine to chew toffee but would it understand the Qualia of the experience?”) before plunging deeper into the cult’s beliefs about their time travelling abilities and how the world has really ended.
Web:
http://www.damanhur.org
==================
So at least as far as I’m concerned it was a great collection of talks covering the expected wide range of topics so good in fact that it was tricky to actually pick which one’s to miss so you could buy some books, eat go to the toilet, etc.. From a personal point of view Saturday’s card was so strong that it was impossible to pick one and while Sunday’s line up delivered many of the highlights of the conference I was grateful for the opportunity to finally take a break.
Next year if it is the same kind of timetable, venue and quality of talks I will be returning with my new mighty Sherpa buttocks, anti-deep vein thrombosis socks, incontinence pants and a swami skilled in the ancient and mysterious art of
Indian gluteal massages.