Seriously Strange - [THE Paranormal Event of the Year]

This year is ASSAP's 30th anniversary and this should be a great event.  As an officer of ASSAP I'll be there, probably lurking near a bar somewhere and it would be great to see as many people as possible.

Sounds good, I might come and join you Ian :)

Dr Ciaran O’Keefe – Parnormal TV
Biography: Dr. Ciarán O’Keeffe provides a sceptical voice to various ‘paranormal’ shows (e.g. Living's Most Haunted, and Jane Goldman Investigates). An Applied Psychologist operating on the fringe of science, he's been involved in many unusual projects: the physiological effects of infrasound; ghost investigation of Hampton Court; an exorcism ‘training day'; qualifying as a “Demonologist”(!); and lie detecting for the movie Spy Game.

He is currently employed as a Research Associate with Université de Toulouse (Le Mirail) which, aside from researching Parapsychology & Investigative Psychology, primarily involves translating/editing psychology articles (French/English) and being Editorial Assistant for the Revue Européenne de Psychologie Appliquée (European Review of Applied Psychology), a leading international bilingual scientific journal. His paranormal research has focussed on testing mediums and psychics in the laboratory and also field-work examining haunting experiences. Additional research has included psychic criminology and ‘Christian’ parapsychology (i.e. exorcism, possession, miracles and stigmata). Aside from academic research, which he has published and presented at numerous conferences, more recently he has participated in various documentaries with National Geographic and Discovery examining the use of psychics in criminal investigations and the role of infrasound in understanding haunting experiences and provided accounts of his daily activities in order to inform the lead in a popular ITV paranormal drama about the afterlife.

Paul Devereux – Earth Mysteries
Biography: Paul Devereux is managing editor of the academic publication, Time & Mind – The Journal of Archaeology, Consciousness and Culture (www.bergjournals.com/timeandmind), a research affiliate with the Royal College of Art, a Senior Research Fellow of the International Consciousness Research Laboratories (ICRL), Princeton, and the Director of the Dragon Project Trust.

He has written a great many articles for general publications and a string of peer-reviewed papers. He is author of  27 books, dealing variously with the anthropologies of consciousness, archaeoacoustics and other aspects of ancient sites, landscapes and lifeways, as well as anomalous geophysical phenomena and parasychology. He lectures worldwide.

Mark Pilkington – Mirage Men
Biography: Mark Pilkington is a writer, publisher, curator and musician with a  particular interest in the fringes of knowledge, culture and belief. He was written two books, Mirage Men (2010) and Far Out: 101 Strange Tales from Science's Outer Edge (2007), the latter collecting articles written for the Guardian newspaper. His writing has been published in numerous magazines and anthologies, including The Anomalist, Celeste, FHM, Fortean Times, Frieze, Sight and Sound, The Wire, the Time Out Book of London Walks Vol.2 and London Noir. Mark also runs Strange Attractor Press and edits its acclaimed anthology, Strange Attractor Journal.

Alan Murdie – Hauntings
Biography: Alan Murdie LL.B, Barrister is chairman of the Ghost Club (founded in Cambridge in the 19thcentury) and a member of the Society for Psychical Research, chairing its Spontaneous Cases Committee. He has personally investigated numerous cases of alleged haunting in Britain and abroad, and has written and broadcast extensively on paranormal topics. The author of ten books, including four on haunted cities in the UK, he also writes a monthly column devoted to ghosts for the magazine Fortean Times.

Dr Hugh Pincott – Consciousness
Biography: Dr Hugh Pincott is a chartered chemist by training and worked for 24 years in the oil and petroleum chemicals industry. Latterly he is a data processing quality manager, working under contract for several prestigious companies. Hugh's paranormal career spans 4 decades, and he was once Honorary Secretary and Treasurer of the Society for Psychical Research.

A founder member of ASSAP, Dr Pincott was on its Executive from 1981 to 2010, holding various positions including General Secretary, Chairman and National Research Co-ordinator. He is currently Vice-President.

Hugh's research interests focus on altered states of consciousness, including mediumship and hypnosis. He led the 1980s team that undertook research into "past lives", with intriguing results. Currently Dr Pincott is an active member of ASSAP's Plymouth Group, which is working to drive similar studies forward.

Paul Vella – UFOs or Bigfoot
Biography: Paul is an independent Forensic Computer Expert Witness by profession, specialising in criminal defence cases, but he also managed one of the world's most popular bigfoot websites www.bigfootforums.com until last year and co-hosts 'The Bigfoot Show' podcast. He's made several trips to the United States over the years gathering evidence and is widely regarded as the most credible authority on the subject to be found this side of the Atlantic. A natural sceptic, Paul errs on the side of caution when it comes to Bigfoot evidence and reports, but as someone who works with forensic evidence on a daily basis, he says that some of the evidence for the existence of Bigfoot is compelling but he will reserve judgement until he has seen one for himself.

Chris Jenson Romer – Ghost Hunting
Biography: Chris Jensen Romer has been involved in  research in to the paranormal  since 1987 when he had a strange apparitional experience at Thetford, Norfolk. Seeking answers he joined the Society for Psychical Research and has since been involved in a number of local groups, conducting a number of investigations and making a number of media appearances. He currently works as a writer for the roleplaying games market, and maintains a blog on Poltergeist phenomena at http://polterwotsit.wordpress.com/. His major interests include attempting to bridge the gap between local ghost groups and the parapsychological community, and exploring the limitations of current models of apparitional experience. In this talk he intends to discuss how assumptions inherent in the pioneering research of the late 19th century may have led ghost research in to a blind alley, and explores possible alternative ways to investigate hauntings. 

John Fraser – Ghost Hunting
Biography: Johns first investigations into the unexplained were in the 1980s whjen he joined when he joined a brand new orgainisation called 'ASSAP' a few months after it formed. Amongst other things he assisted Hugh Pincott and others in hypnotic regression experiments which provided very interesting results.

John moved on to the Ghost Club after swapping theories with Peter Underwood on the legendary 'Sandwood Bay' haunting, where he served for a number of years as Vice Chair (Investigations).

He is currently serving on the Council and the 'Spontaneous Cases Committee' of the Society For Psychical Research, and has recently published a book 'Ghost Hunting a Survivors' Guide' which looks behind the justifications for that age old fascinating endevour to explain the strange phenomina known as 'Ghosts' .

Outside of the paranormal John is also interested in politics having stood as a Parliamentary Candidate and assisted in various international roles for the Liberal Democrat party in the past.

Dr Simon Sherwood – Black Dogs
Biography: Simon Sherwood is a Senior Lecturer in Psychology at the University of Northampton where he specialises in teaching and supervising undergraduate and postgraduate research in parapsychology and the psychology of anomalous experiences.

He completed the Summer Study Program (SSP) in parapsychology at the Rhine Research Center in 1994 and gained a PhD in Psychology from the University of Edinburgh under the supervision of Professor Robert Morris at the Koestler Parapsychology Unit in 2001.

He has conducted surveys into hypnagogic/hypnopompic and sleep-related experiences and anomalous beliefs, carried out experimental Ganzfeld and dream ESP research, and collected reports of apparitions of Black Dogs. He has also been involved with the investigation of allegedly haunted locations.

Val Hope – History of ASSAP
Biography: Val missed out on the birth pangs of ASSAP in those heady days of 1980 and 1981, when a bunch of revolutionaries in the SPR wanted to do things differently and found themselves blocked. Still a student in 1981, she clipped an article from an issue of Psychic News announcing the formation of a new research body that planned to break down barriers between fields of study. Finding herself at a loose end in late 1982, she dug out the clipping and joined up. She was quickly spotted as someone with too much time on her hands and living close to the hub of activity in North London. Her first active engagement was stuffing newsletters into envelopes at the home of Dennis Bury in Crouch End, together with Alan Cleaver and David Salt. And then came that fateful meeting at BP in the City, with Hugh Pincott and Maurice Townsend, among others. From there it snowballed. Initially she found herself organizing ASSAP conferences, but her main role was editor of ASSAP News for 12 years, plundering her own life for copy. Now living a quiet life in Croydon, away from the ASSAP hustle and bustle, she still takes the odd photo of the ASSAP Blogger, but is content to sit back and watch everyone else do the work.

Trystan Swale – Crop Circles
Biography: A critical thinker with far too much time on his hands, Trystan Swale immersed himself in the world of paranormal and Fortean investigations for the best part of half a decade. For his efforts he emerged with headaches, lots of enemies and a sideline in hoaxing. He is the founder of the Righteous Indignation skeptical podcast and remains dedicated to solving the mysterious case of the Wye Valley Duckman.

Dr Hannah Gilbert – Ghosts and Mediumship
Biography: Hannah Gilbert has a BA (Hons) in Anthropology from Durham University, and was awarded a PhD in Sociology at the University of York in 2010. Her doctoral project looked at experiences and representations of the spirit world in British spirit mediumship.

She is currently writing a book about death, emotion and representations and experiences of the dead. In 2007, she and her colleagues in the Anomalous Experiences Research Unit (AERU) at York created Exploring the Extraordinary, an interdisciplinary researcher network whose third annual conference is due to take place in York in September 2011.

For more information please visit etenetwork.weebly.com

Ann Winsper – EVP
Biography: Ann is an independent researcher who describes herself as a Psychical Phenomenologist, to reflect her research interests in how witnesses describe and interpret their apparent paranormal experiences. She graduated from Liverpool John Moore's University in 2010 with a BSc (Hons.) in Applied Psychology. As well as being a member of ASSAP, Ann is an Associate member of the Parapsychological Association and a member of the Society for Psychical Research. Ann's recent work includes a study of reported time slip experiences, a survey of paranormal experiences, and an analysis of how paranormal experiences are interpreted and assimilated. Currently she is extending the work she did for her dissertation, looking at the effects of belief on response bias.

Cal Cooper – Phonecalls From The Dead
Biography: Cal Cooper has a long standing interest in the history of haunted locations and the investigation of spontaneous cases. In 2009 he received the Eileen J. Garrett Scholarship from the Parapsychology Foundation and is the current student representative of the Parapsychological Association along side Evrard Renaud. He graduated from The University of Northampton with a BSc (Hons) in Psychology. Cal has written on numerous topics concerning parapsychology and has been involved in many projects including investigating purportedly haunted locations, Ganzfeld research and exploring new methods of testing the sense of being stared at. He is involved in the media now and then as a representative for parapsychology. Currently, Cal is based at Sheffield Hallam University reading for an Master of Research (Mres) in Psychology.

Jack Hunter – Mediumship
Biography: Jack Hunter has a degree in archaeology and anthropology from the University of Bristol. His undergraduate dissertation took the form of an experiential investigation into contemporary trance and physical mediumship at a private home-circle in Bristol. He is currently conducting research on contemporary Spiritualism for his MLitt/PhD in Social Anthropology at the University of Bristol.

David Taylor – Werewolves
Biography: David is Chair of Parasearch which he founded in 1986 to investigate anomalous experiences in the Midlands. He is Editor of the Unitarian Society for Psychical Studies journal and is Central England Co-ordinator for The Ghost Club. He is also on the the Editorial Board for ASSAP as well as being an ASSAP Approved Investigator. In 2009 he was awarded the Michael Bentine Memorial Shield by ASSAP. He is also member of the Society for Psychical Research, The Alister Hardy Society and the Churches Fellowship for Psychical & Spiritual Studies. David has appeared on television and radio relating to the paranormal and has lectured to a variety of organisations, including the National Trust, ASSAP, The Ghost Club and the Fortean Times UnConvention. He is author of two books on hauntings and apparitions and his research has appeared in a variety of books. In his presentation David will talk about the famous Hexham heads case and his research for a book on the subject.

Dr Sean O’Callaghan – Vampires
Biography: Sean O'Callaghan gained his PhD in Theology from the University of Liverpool. His PhD examined the interaction between Missiology and Christology in nineteenth and twentieth century British Theology. Sean continued to apply his PhD research to his interest in New Religious Movements and the emergence of new spiritualities and has written articles on several esoteric and occultic movements. He co-moderated a web forum discussing esoteric issues for several years as well. He has written a book on world religions for Lion which was published in 2010. He is currently a visiting lecturer at the University of Lancaster, where he teaches on aspects of occulture and the relationship between religion and popular culture.

As you can see above ASSAP is lucky enough to have an amazing collection of speakers covering a varied and diverse number of subjects.  This should be a really good event.

Speaker News - Additional Speaker Announced
ASSAP member Stephen Volk (writer of BBC's GhostWatch with Michael Parkinson and creator of ITV's Afterlife) will be speaking at the evening event! For anyone who remembers the massive controversy around GhostWatch this will be a fascinating talk.

Accommodation News - Book Now
En suite accommodation at the University is limited so don't miss out on these rooms. Book today.
Booking is directly with the University. Contact them on http://www.haatbath.co.uk/hospitality/beds/summer.html or 01225 386622

Ticketing Information
You will receive an e-ticket and your name will be on the door. We will be handing out special wristbands so you can re-enter easily.

Timetabling and other information
A full timetable and full conference information will be sent to you soon. Existing members of ASSAP should have already received the programme. New members of ASSAP should receive this soon.

The Gala Dinner and Dance at Seriously Strange is an optional extra, but you will need to act fast if you want to join in the evening fun! If you book your Gala Dinner tickets in the next week you will get a big discount. See attached flyer.

Only £15.99 (down from £25) if you book by next Thursday, 25th September.

What will be going on at the Gala Dinner?
- Set three-course meal with coffee and mints (vegetarian option available)
- After-dinner speaker Stephen Volk (writer of BBC1's GhostWatch and ITV1's Afterlife)
- We will have a Seriously Strange Speaker on each table where possible
- Disco until late - but also comfortable, quieter chill-out areas
- Economical bar, with wine from £8.95 per bottle
- We will be making the Big Announcement on Saturday, so the Gala Dinner will be the ideal opportunity to talk about the Big Change ahead of giving your views on Sunday
- Relaxed fun with like-minded people

What do you need to do now?
- Act fast to get your ticket - we must receive payment by 25/8/11 for the discount to apply
- Send cheques with Names and Dietary Requirements payable to 'ASSAP' c/o Luna Orbis, Bossiney Road, Tintagel, PL34 0AH. Be sure to email assapevents@assap.org to let us know your cheque has been sent just in case something goes wrong
- OR you can pay by PayPal OR we can take the money directly from your bank by DD on request (50p charge for either)

Other questions you might have now
Q - I have not booked accommodation. Should I have?
A - We emailed with details a week or two ago, let us know if you are having problems
Q - Should I have all the final information yet?
A - No, this will be with you soon though
Q - Should I have received a physical ticket?
A - No, but your name will be on the door if you have booked

Don't forget to act fast. We are subsidising this Gala Dinner by hundreds of pounds so everyone who books early can get a cheap ticket.

Great weekend had by all I think.  Well done everyone involved and thank you to everyone to attended.

Hi Ian, it was indeed a fantastic weekend, my head is still spinning from all the information! Was great to meet yourself and the other members that make ASSAP work so well and also having the opportunity to talk one on one with some of the speakers and a lot of other great people who attended. I look forward to the next one :)
All the best
Keeth

Looks like there was a series of videos made about the conference:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QpqnsT7IN1s&feature=related

A review of the conference also appeared on the Psychologist website:

http://www.thepsychologist.org.uk/blog/blogpost.cfm?threadid=2135&catid=...