CFI Blogs

A Fortean at the Fringe II

Richard Wiseman Unbound

www.richardwiseman.com

Edinburgh International Book Festival

http://www.edbookfest.co.uk/

The Fringe Festival is not the only one taking place in Edinburgh a the moment, there is also the Festival itself and then there is the Edinburgh International Book Festival. These later two events differ from the Fringe in that events here are one off rather than a series of performances. This particular event was indeed a one off. In 2010 the Book Festival experimented with a series of free events (always a good thing) featuring one author for two hours. The particular one I found myself at was that of psychologist and skeptic Richard Wiseman.
Wiseman has a new book out which is a must read for all Forteans - Paranormality. You may disagree with some of the conclusions but the journey is worth it. This particular show however was not specifically about the book, it was more in the nature of an autobiographical journey showing how various aspects of Wiseman's life impinge on his views on the paranormal. Starting off as a magician he became interested in optical illusions, studied psychology at London, Phd at Edinburgh and ultimately professor of the public understanding of psychology at Hertfordshire University. So we were treated to a few magic tricks and descriptions of experiments through the course of a very enjoyable evening. An entertaining speaker.

Edinburgh Secret Society

http://edinburghsecretsociety.wordpress.com/

A Fortean at the Fringe

For a number of years I have been reviewing vaguely Fortean shows for Fortean Times at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.  The reviews have been up at the Fortean Times website so here's a chance to see them at this website as well, here is the first instalment from the 2011 Fringe.

How to Survive a Zombie Apocalypse: The End is Nigh

After Dark Entertainment

http://howtosurviveazombieapocalypse.co.uk/

At Zoo Southside

http://www.zoofestival.co.uk/

This is the third time visit to the Edinburgh Fringe for How to Survive a Zombie Apocalypse.
A one hour interactive seminar training the audience to survive the oncoming Zombie Apocalypse. As the publicity says this is the last time this show will be at Edinburgh. But it's also the third time here. Can there be anything new to teach us about how to survive? The answer is yes. Each version of the show has been different and each thoroughly watchable and entertaining.

Dr Dale Seslick leads us through scenarios on which the audience vote - get the answer right and you survive, get it wrong and you're worm food. But like all good zombie movies its a team effort so ultimately each nights audience is in competition not with themselves but with other audiences - the scores are placed online and the night I was there, well lets just say compared to others we're doing well.

Most of you will be aware that the 12th and 13th of November are the dates of the Fortean Times UnConvention in London.   It's a full weekend of interesting talks and there are some tickets left - it's likely there will be some on the door as well but they will be more expensive.   So you still have time to buy.  But if you can't make it I'll be taking photographs and they'll be appearing here in due course.   More tech savvy Stew Smith will also be offering live tweets so you need to folllow @CharlesHoyFort and he's using the hashtag #ftuncon

Whether you're there or not have a good weekend.

The latest entry in the Fortean property portfolio is hopefully a little bit more acheivable! 

Previous entries, whilst they may be desirable residences, have been out of the reach of many of us (if you think their prices were peanuts then please contact the CFI, you could fund a lot of exciting projects!).  But courtesy of my good friend Loren Coleman of Cryptomundo and the International Cryptozoology Museum we have something that we can all indulge in:-

Of particular apeal for those interested in conspiracy theories we have the Texas School Book Depository of Dallas- the very location from which it is alleged Lee Harvey Oswald fired the shots that killed JFK.  And it's an absolute bargain at only $95.  And it's only 3 1/4" tall!  Ok it's a replica but still...

The signage at the top is as it was on the 22nd of November 1963.  Please note for those worried about the misspelling of Chevrolet there is another image of this model which has it spelled correctly - presumably the above image is a preproduction model?  And a quick update from Loren who contacted the manufacturers - the incorrect spelling is the only version available.

The buliding can be bought at http://www.replicabuildings.com/proddetail.php?prod=268 and when Loren was having a wander around he found some other buildings which may be of interest:-

The Dakota of Rosemary's Baby and John Lennon murder fame

Just a quick heads up before I get back into the habit of blogging!

During the month of August the Edinburgh Festival, the Edinburgh Book Festival and the Edinburgh Fringe Festival all take place and a quick perusal of the relevant programmes seems to offer much of Fortean interest.

I will be covering all three of these for Fortean Times and reviews of relevant shows will appear there - I will also try and include some more in depth material here.

Keep watching the blog - material will be appearing and thanks for your support and patience.

The latest entry into the Fortean Property Portfolio is a 321 acre woodland just outside Edinburgh.  Yester Woods is being sold for offers over £450 000 by CKD Galbraith of Edinburgh.  Spectacular location, full hunting, shooting and fishing rights and there's the ruins of a fifteenth century castle.  And more importantly there's an underground chamber from the 13th century. 

This is a second attempt at a sale as the original was for the woodlands and a 14 bedroom house, no one was interested at £15 million so the woodlands are going by themselves. The rest of the property is going for £8 million, so if you buy both you have quite a bargain compared to the original asking price!

But what is of interest to Forteans?  Well it's the thirteenth century chamber.  This is believed to have been built by Sir Hugo de Giffard (after whom the local village of Gifford was named), and Sir Hugo was a Black Magican and was know in his time as the Wizard of Yester.  When I say the chamber was built by Sir Hugo he did have a little bit of help.  From Goblins.  They were loaned to him by his friend and master, the Devil.  The chamber was subsequently known as Goblin Ha(ll)'.  Goblin Ha' is the name of the local pub as well but whilst you're guaranteed to see spirits in the pub the story of the real Goblin Ha' is a bit better.  It's hoped that the area will be bought by someone who is sympathetic to the Ha' but Scotland's right to roam does allow a level of access to the public.

The full schedule for the sale can be found here and if a CFI Blog reader does buy it I'd love an invite to the Ha' warming party!

Mike Dash is well known to regular readers of this site - he is our most prolific blogger after all.  Mike has also authored a number of excellent books and articles.

Recently some of his work has been recognised with an award - a Cliopatra Award for blogging.

The relevant citation from http://hnn.us/blogs/entries/135179.html reads

Best Post: Mike Dash, "The Emperor's Electric Chair," A Blast from the Past, 9 September.

The judges felt that "The Emperor's Electric Chair" wove together a
variety of themes, including colonialism, modernity, and the challenges
of unreliable sources into what was an engagingly told, entertaining,
and ultimately important historical tale.

The post in question can be seen at http://allkindsofhistory.wordpress.com/2010/09/09/the-emperors-electric-... and it's first public appearance was on this very site http://blogs.forteana.org/node/123

Well done Mike.

The latest item in the Fortean property portfolio is based in Sicily and was once the porperty of the self confessed wickedest man alive - Aleister Crowley.

For a mere £1.2 million it could be yours.

Near Cefalu it could best be described as a fixer upper.  It has been abandoned for years and has been overgrown.

Crowley moved there in 1923 after he was kicked out of Italy.  Whilst Crowley lived there it was the scene of many an orgy and Crowley decorated it himself.  That is he painted erotic frescoes which included men, women, devils, satyrs and serpents.  Despite the ravages of time some of these are still extant.  

The photographs are from Frater Kybernetes at http://www.inventati.org/amprodias/thelema/photo.htm

If you are wanting to buy it I suggest you hurry up.  Not because people are falling over themselves to buy it just it's in the process of falling over itself so if you wait too long it will be gone forever...

Ok folks - a new era for the CFI blogs - we have enabled comments so we can get discussions going on soem of the topics posted about.  At the end of the blog entry there is a section labelled "add new comment" click it and comment away!

Off topic comments will be removed so keep it relevant to the post.  If you want to conact the CFI just hit the "contact us" button at the left hand side of your screen.

Enjoy!

A quick plug for Fortean Times UnConvention 2010

The weekend of 23rd adn 24th of October, the following talk and speakers are on offer

I guess Fortean jobs are like buses - wait for ages with nothing and then they all come along together.

In case you've missed it the internet is currently set to explode over the news of this one.  The following version of the report comes from Reuters, most other versions add no extra details.

Scientist's to Look for China's Bigfoot

BEIJING
(Reuters) - A group of Chinese scientists and explorers is looking for
international help to mount a new search for the country's answer to
Bigfoot, known locally as the "Yeren," or "wild man."

Over the years, more than 400 people have claimed sightings of the half-man, half-ape Yeren in a
remote, mountainous area of the central province of Hubei, state news
agency Xinhua said on Saturday.

Expeditions in the 1970s and 1980s yielded hair, a footprint, excrement and a
sleeping nest suspected of belonging to the Yeren, but there has been no
conclusive proof, the report added.

Witnesses describe a creature that walks upright, is more than 2 meters (6 ft 7
in) tall and with grey, red or black hair all over its body, Xinhua
said.

Now the Hubei Wild Man Research Association is looking for volunteers from around the world to
join them on another expedition to look for the Yeren.

"We want the team members to be devoted, as there will be a lot a hard work
in the process," Luo Baosheng, vice president of the group, told
Xinhua.

Ok, I've posted a number of Fortean relevant properties on this blog but I hear you asking how can you possibly afford them?  Well you could get a Fortean themed job, for example

Psychology: Postgraduate Research Assistant

Applications are invited for a 33 month part-time (20 hours per week) Postgraduate Research Assistant to
contribute to a Perrott-Warrick-funded project that has been awarded to Dr
Caroline Watt to investigate psychology of precognitive dream experiences. The
post will be based with Dr Watt in the Koestler Parapsychology Unit, Department
of Psychology within the School of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences
at the University of Edinburgh

The ideal candidate will have a good first degree in Psychology or a related subject, possess experience of
conducting studies in parapsychology/anomalistic psychology and have experience
in recruiting study participants.   The candidate should possess excellent time
management skills, first-rate oral and written communication and interpersonal
skills.  In addition they should have solid IT skills, including experience of
statistical packages and manipulating large datasets.

Interviews will be held on 1 November 2010. The start date is 1 January 2011.  The appointment will
be made on a fixed-term basis until 31 September 2013.

Salary Scale:
£25,001 - £28,983 (pro-rata)

Further details at

http://www.jobs.ed.ac.uk/vacancies/index.cfm?fuseaction=vacancies.detail&vacancy_ref=3013411

or if you don't fancy that there's always  Germany

http://www.igpp.de/english/eap/download/hiwi-ausschreibung-sept2010.pdf

The latest house for the Fortean looking to extend their property portfolio is the allegedly haunted Wymering Manor at Portsmouth, UK.

It's being sold at auction by Andrews and Robertson on the 21st of September with a guide price of £375, 000.

For this you get a seventeenth century building with ten bedrooms and four reception rooms.  For the past 40 or so years it has been used as a Youth Hostel.  It has its own chapel and basement and apparently 20 different spooks!  CHartered surveyor Jeremy Lamb, quoted in The Daily Mail, said

"This is a property of some renown for being haunted, so there is a fair
chance a future owner may use it as a guest house because of the novelty
factor attached to it.  It's certainly a unique selling point and not often that we offer a haunted house.  When
I surveyed it, the security guards told me they feel there is something
'fairly spooky' going on in the house and, though they patrol it on a
24-hour basis because it attracts lots of people who are intrigued by
its levels of paranormal activity, they refuse to work alone there at
night".

The full lot details can be viewed here and if you're succesful we'd love an invite!

Just a quick request - are you a web designer who would like to help out the CFI?  We're looking for someone to help us out on a redesign of the blogs pages and a few other web based pieces.

If you have the relevnat skills and are interested please drop a line charlesfortinstitute@gmail.com

Thanks

Gordon

I've recently returned from a holiday to Loch Ness.  Staying in the old Abbey at Fort Augustus no less.  I had a marvellous time, thank you for asking and no I didn't see the monster except, well - more of that later!  Whilst I was there I had the chance to chat to two men who have devoted considerable parts of their lives to Loch Ness and the reality - or otherwise - of its most famous inhabitant.

First up was Dick Raynor.

Nothing to do with the CFI but I'm currently in the process of writing a book on ghost photographs and I thought I'd give the opportunity to all our readers to get a ghost photograph they have taken published.  You'll get full credit in the book and a free copy as well.  I've got most of the pictures I need but there are some spaces left.  If you're interested you can email the pictures to me

I can't promise to use every picture but before I use anything I'll be in touch.

Thanks

Gordon

Ok folks it's here - a fully fledged Fortean Events page. And there will be a permannet link at the top of all the CFI blogs pages as well.

It's a page rather than a blog entry so it will always be in the same place - bookmark it or use your favourite RSS feed to see when it changes.  Once an event has happened it will be removed and new events will be added when I become aware of them.  

Each event will have the date, what it is and who organises it along with an indication of the location and a link to the parent organisation so you can get the full details. 

Any events you know of pass the details on and we'll put them up.

I hope you find it useful and please contribute - the more information it has on the more useful it will be.

I like going to lectures and listening to things of interest to
those of a Fortean mindset.  But I don't always know when things
are on and I sometimes hear about events after they have finished
which is most frustrating.

To try to help this get around this problem I would like to start
posting a list of forthcoming events - perhaps even have it as a
separate, static pag.  But I need your help - let me know of
things that are happening and I can add them to the list.  You
can email me any events at info@forteana.org.

To help kick off here are a few events of interest

London College of Spirituality

Cheating the Ferryman

July 9th 19.00 - 21.00

Bloomsbury Baptist Church, London, UK

Lecture by Anthony Peake

http://www.meetup.com/londonspirituality

Edinburgh Fortean Society

A History of Spirit Photography

July 13^th 20.30 - 22.30

The Bongo Club, Edinburgh, UK

Lecture by Gordon Rutter

http://www.edinburghforteansociety.org.uk

Society for Psychological Research

An Update on the
Forbidden Science

July 13^th
18.35 - 20.00

We've already brought you news of the Cottingley Fairies house and the House on Haunted Hill being for sale but here's a real biggie.  As reported by a number of news outlets the Amityville House is for sale.

Yep, that's the one.   Long Island, New York, the Lutzes, films, books, law suits, DeFeo murders etc.  Amityville, the house on the hill as the song says. 

For a mere (!)  $1.15 million it could be yours.  See if you can stay longer than the Lutzes!

So as an eccentric  Fortean billionaire you're on the way to building up a nice property portfolio - Amityville, Cottingley and the House on Haunted Hill (ok it was only a film but the real house is awsome). 

So what property is next?  And will I be able to afford it?  Or someone could buy it and donate it to the Charles Fort Institute as our headquarters - now that would be cool!

Orbs.  Love them or hate them there's no getting away from them.  Particularly if you're using a compact digital camera and firing the flash during your photography.

For those who have been out of the loop orbs are light coloured (generally) circular patches on photographs.  Many claim that these are spirits or the first manifestation of a ghost lacking sufficient energy to fully manifest.  When these images have been blown up it is claimed that faces can be seen inside.  Further claims relate to size, distance from camera and orbs allegedly interacting with individuals.  And there are others who claim that orbs are dust particles, water vapour, insects etc. close to the camera and illuminated by the on camera flash, this gives an out of focus highly reflective image.  And the arguments have continued with each side firmly entrenched.  With 35 years of experience of photography and a similar length of interest in Fortean matters I tend to the latter, mechanistic explanation, although as a good Fortean I admit the possibility that orbs may be spirit based but as yet I have seen no evidence to support this latter supposition.

And along comes Steve Parsons of Parascience.

Steve is a ghosthunter and a great fan of the scientific method, as part of this he is currently studying for a PhD in the effects of infrasound and its possible importance in haunted locations.

Ok it's Easter. I have a Cabinet of Curiosities and one of my prized items in it is a Veil of Veronica.
Those two things together seem like a good enough reason to talk about the Veil.

For those who don't know the Veil of Veronica is supposedly a piece of cloth that was used to wipe the
face of Jesus on his way to his crucifixion. The piece of cloth was then imprinted with the likeness of Jesus. This would make it a first class relic (in the absence of a body of Jesus anything relating to the Passion is a first class relic). The Veronica (as it is commonly known) is an example of acheiropoieta – an image not made by human hand. The Veronica is also know as the Sudarim and the word Veronica can be translated as "true image".

The tale of the imprinting is not in the Biblical Gospel stories but it is represented on the 6th of the
Stations of the Cross. The Veronica is said to be able to cure thirst, blindness and death.

On the 15th of Feb UK Tabloid newspaper The Sun published the following story

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/2853270/A-pale-young-woman-app...

A quick precis is that Company boss Kevin Horkin took the photo at Gwrych Castle in Abergele, North
Wales, but only saw the ghostly figure when he downloaded his pictures later.

The castle, built in 1819, has been derelict since 1985

And today in a follow up story
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/2855132/Is-Countess-the-ghost-...

they ask if the ghost is in fact Winifred, Countess of Dundonald.

Whitby Museum have one, Walsall Museum do and so do I and that’s about it as far as I know.  Does anyone else have one?  And is there any conclusive proof that they were actually used as described?
For those who don’t know a hand of glory is the hand of an executed criminal which has been turned into a candle.  When the candle is placed in a house all the occupants will remain asleep whilst the candle burns.  Cue the burglars who come in and make away with everything.  At least that’s one version of the story – variants include it petrifies whoever it is handed to and it has the power to open all locked doors.
Supposedly the use of the Hand of Glory dates from 1440 although the name does not crop up until the 18th century where it appears to have been borrowed from an old description of Mandragora root.  If you’ve not been to Whitby, Walsall or my house you may not have seen one – possibly the easiest one to see is in the good version of the film The Wicker Man – that’s the one with Edward Woodward and Christopher Lee just in case there is any doubt.
Lets have a look at these three Hands of Glory.  The Walsall one is unusual in that it is actually an entire arm.  

Many of us are aware of the subject and theories of Sacred Geometry, ley lines etc and hot on the heels of a new book on the subject (Prehistoric Geometry in Britain: The Discoveries of Tom Brooks) comes startling research from Matt Parker.

Parker, of my alma mater Queen Mary College, University of London, decided to apply the techniques used by Brooks.  As the title of this piece suggests he applied them to the ancient and mystical locations of Woolworths.

“We know so little about the ancient Woolworth stores, but we do still know their locations” explains Parker, “so I thought that if we analysed the sites we could learn more about what life was like in 2008 and how these people went about buying cheap kitchen accessories and discount CDs.”

And aligning to an accuaracy of 0.05% (between 30 and 40 feet off) Parker was able to discern several stores lining up to produce equilateral traingleswith other stores present on lines continued from the triangles.  For 173.8 miles.  Further work yielded more triangles and points of intersection.

Parker concluded that “these incredibly precise geometric patterns mean that the people who founded the Woolworths Empire must have used these store locations as a form of ‘landmark satnav’ to help hunters find their nearest source of cheap sweets that can be purchased in whatever mix they chose to pick". 

I've lived in Edinburgh for something like 15 years now and it truly is a beautiful and amazing city.  My most recent book, Paranormal Edinburgh, looks at the Fortean side of Edinburgh.  Here is one of my favourite stories from the book.

An intersting report surfaces via the Irish Times.  Recent supposed appearances of the Blessed Virgin Mary (BVM) have been following the pattern made famous at Fatima - namely word gets around, lots of people turn up and then they claim to see the sun dancing around in the sky.  October the 31st saw 10 000 people attending and an earlier appearance on the 11th of October also saw large numbers.  At both gatherings people claimed to see the sun shimmering, changing colour and dancing in the sky.

Joe Coleman, described as a local visionary, has predicted that the BVM will put in another appearance this Saturday - the 5th of December.  Police have previously asked people to keep away and perhaps some of the locals feel the same way too - as a precaution the pubs are closed and Knock becomes dry.

So what is the problem?  Well people are quite naturally looking at the sun attempting to get their own view of a miracle.  Some are then presenting themselves to University Hospital Galloway with vision problems.  Dr Eamonn O'Donoghue, consultant opthalmologist reports that they have witnessed five recent cases of solar retinopathy (damage to the retina from prolonged exposure to the sun - i.e. from staring at it).  This might not seem like a tidal wave of vision problems but the hospital would normally be suprised if they were presented with one case per year. 

From the Irish Times

“These people came in because they have had a significant reduction
in their vision and they could very well be a smaller representative
sample,” Dr O’Donoghue said, adding that two of those who had presented
to the hospital had also reported that other members of their families
had suffered visual damage.

Just a quick update to let you know that the CFI now has it's own Facebook page

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=168799436477&ref=ts

The blog page and the main website at www.forteana.org areof course still the main areas to keep you aware of what is happening but the Facebook page is a more informal location and gives you a chance to comment as well.

This is just one of many changes and projects that we are working on at the moment, so watch any of these spaces!

From Bob's recent post on indexing the impossible to imaging the impossible - ghost photography.

Earlier on this year I was co-organiser, along with Richard Wiseman and Caroline Watt, of a one day event for the Edinburgn International Science Festival - The Science of Hauntings.  Along with the other other invited speakers on the day I gave a talk on the history of spirit photography - two of my passions combined in a very logical way - photography and organised spiritualism were born at round about the same time and consequently their history is intertwined.  From the desire to talk to the dead their soon arose the need for photographs of spirits (initialy photography was used to take photographs of the recently departed but this was a step beyond that).  From the earliest spirit photographs of William Mumler and others through to the latest orbs the subject is still rich in controversy and unwritten histories.  Over forthcoming blogs I will concentrate on different aspects of this story.  If anyone can't wait and they're in London at Halloween then come along to the British Library where I will be delivering an illustrated lecture on just this topic from 14.30 to 16.00.

http://www.bl.uk/whatson/events/event95734.html

And if anyone would like to fund me in a PhD study of this topic just let me know - I'm champing at the bit!

The Ghost that came back for its photographs

This is a story from my recent book Paranormal Newcastle and whilst this story is in the book the relevant pictures are not, so here they are.

From left to right we have

Mr Dickinson, a photographer on whom a ghostly client called
The Photographic shop and studio of Mr Dickinson
The Portrait of Mr Thompson which not even the grave would keep him from collecting
Warning in W T Steads book for those about to read the ghost stories within

Here is the relevant section from the book to give you a taste

For those who failed to purchase the Cottingley Fairy Cottage blogged about on these very pages another home is for the sale.  The house that was used for the filiming of the original House on Haunted Hill is up for grabs at a mere $15 million.  It was also used in Blade Runner.

Good luck.

Frank
Lloyd Wright's Ennis House, a Los Feliz hilltop masterpiece composed of
patterned and smooth concrete blocks that has been mightily threatened
by man and Mother Nature, is being offered for sale at $15 million by
the private foundation that has been restoring it.

Eric Lloyd Wright, the architect's grandson and a member of the
nonprofit Ennis House Foundation's board, said that, given harsh
economic realities, private ownership would be the best way to save the
house and honor his grandfather's intentions.