Upcoming Events

The 18th European Skeptics Congress will be held in Ghent from 29 August-1 September.

The theme is "The Joy of Skepticism."

Speakers include Chris French in the session on Anomalistic Psychology and Edzard Ernst in the one on the never-ending struggle against quackery.

https://www.esc2019.be/

Courtesy of the SPR Facebook page - here are details of the Society for Scientific Exploration's 2019 conference, to held 5-8 June at Broomfield, Colorado. The theme is "Consilience", which apparently means "the principle that evidence from unrelated sources, especially science and the humanities, can converge and produce unified conclusions" (though that definition doesn't leave me much the wiser).
https://www.scientificexploration.org/conferences/2019

I think "eclectic" is the polite word for the subject matter of the presentations, which range from mainstream parapsychology through homeopathy and the I Ching, all the way to the authorship of Shakespeare. I've never really understood why people should want to lump fringe theories in conventional fields, with the study of anomalous phenomena (except when sceptics due it for the purpose of ridicule).

More details, including abstracts, are available here:
https://www.scientificexploration.org/do...E_Full.pdf

Courtesy of the SPR Facebook page - as part of its 20th birthday celebrations the Edinburgh Fortean Society is holding a one-day conference on 13 July:
http://www.gordonrutter.com/edfort-at-20/

The speakers are:-
Jan Bondeson – Talking Dogs of Germany
Richard Freeman – Death by Cryptid
Alison Rutter – Earth Hounds
Innes Smith – Paranormal Investigating – what’s the F****** point!?!? (F is for Fortean)
Caroline Watt – Investigating the Impossible: The work of the Koestler Parapsychology Unit
Richard Wiseman – Explaining the Unexplained: Magic, Mystery and Mayhem

Here are the abstracts of presented papers for the forthcoming 62nd Annual Convention of the Parapsychological Association, to be held in Paris, 4-6 July 2019:
https://www.parapsych.org/articles/37/48...ts_of.aspx

Multi award-winning stand-up comedian, screenwriter and actor Ricky Gervais will be presented with this year’s Richard Dawkins Award. The RD Foundation campaigns to remove the influence of religion in science education and public policy, and to eliminate the stigma that surrounds atheism and non-belief.

...

The event that follows will be an unscripted conversation between Gervais and Dawkins, in which everything is on the table and nothing is sacred. They will be joined by host, best-selling author and professor of psychology, Richard Wiseman.

Venue: Limehouse, East London. Tickets available for just £38.50.   (I think we may all need to club together and send just one representative.)

https://www.skeptic.org.uk/news/gd/

I hadn't actually realised Ricky Gervais was a campaigner for atheism. Here he is in conversation with Piers Morgan on the subject:



And if anyone finds that a bit humourless, here's Frankie Boyle explaining why he doesn't like "celebrity atheists":

I hadn't actually realised Ricky Gervais was a campaigner for atheism.

I can't imagine you've seen a lot of his stand-up, then 

I can't imagine you've seen a lot of his stand-up, then 

I haven't seen any of it. I hope his stand-up material is funnier than the stuff in that YouTube video!

Courtesy of the SPR Facebook page - Edinburgh Skeptics will present a free talk by Caroline Watt entitled "From Seance to Science: The Koestler Parapsychology Unit" on 15 August as part of their contribution to the Edinburgh Fringe:
https://www.edinburghskeptics.co.uk/even...ology-unit

43rd SPR International Annual Conference

Holiday Inn, Leicester, 2 p.m. Friday 20th to 2 p.m. Sunday 22nd September 2019

FIRST NOTICE AND CALL FOR PAPERS

https://www.spr.ac.uk/news/43rd-spr-inte...conference

A provisional programme for the 43rd International SPR Conference is available here:
https://www.spr.ac.uk/sites/spr.ac.uk/fi...203(1).pdf

The keynote speakers will be:
Michael Nahm, on "A Historical Study Concerning Apports."
Steve Taylor, on "Awakening Experiences."
Paul H. Smith, on "A Brief Introduction to Remote Viewing: An overview of remote viewing – its history, applications, results, and the science behind it."
Chris Robinson, on "What My Psychic Experiences Have Taught me."