Yes it’s time for Skeptic vodcast number 4… which features a Darwinian adventure you can’t afford to miss.

Dany

dany@skeptic.org

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Advance orders are now be taken for delivery for Xmas 2009 at the special price of £9.99 within the UK and £11.99 elsewhere  (post free in both instances). The RRP for the book will be £11.99. Register with no commitment by calling 020 7841 1959 or by emailing matthew@philosophersnet.com

Wendy M Grossman, Chris French & Simon Hoggart (eds.). (2009). Why Statues Weep: The Best of the Skeptic. London: Philosophy Press.

The perfect Xmas present?

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Randi kindly allowed our small group into his Vauxhall hotel room, where we filmed the interview prior to his departure to visit the Magic Circle. He was a very gracious and accommodating host.

In the 52 minute interview, Randi discusses his Canadian education, walking out of an English Literature exam, truancy, magic and his 22 jailbreaks, Uri Geller, Project Alpha and fooling scientists, exposing Peter Popoff and miracle healing, thinking critically and independently, mortality, heart bypass surgery and medical science.

The resulting film has now been released to accompany the print version of the interview. It forms part of the Media Archive but has been split into six parts, starting here (from http://youtube.com/theskepticmag).

Please comment, subscribe and circulate this as widely as possible. Most of all, enjoy.

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Letters of Support

Dave Gorman

Nick Cohen

Dr Evan Harris M.P.

Simon Singh (Introduced by Prof Brian Cox)

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Try to guess the explanations for the failure, before clicking that link.

Details of the experimental protocol and its development, if you’re interested, are here:
http://forums.randi.org/showthread.php?t=118952

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He said: “Some of these tours claim Edinburgh is the most haunted city in Europe, but it doesn’t even register as the most haunted in Britain. York has more alleged ghost ‘sightings’.

“However, regardless of the number of sightings, once you put these things under the microscope, they just don’t stand up to scrutiny.

“When I was out doing the ghost tours, I was presenting stories as fact, when most of the time they had several interpretations and on many occasions had no historical basis whatsoever.

“With a bit of research, I was able to discover that the truth was often more exciting than the myths.”

Mr Pryce e-mailed his ideas to Dr French, head of the University of London’s Anomalistic Psychology Research Unit, who suggested that a good way to gauge the popularity of such tours would be to set up an Edinburgh chapter of the growing Skeptics in the Pub phenomenon.

Dr French said: “Skeptics in the Pub has been going for about ten years in London, but in the last 18 months it’s grown from a hard core of around 30 people to a group of over 200 who meet over a pint to hear regular presentations and discuss alternative explanations for supernatural phenomena.

“There are now Skeptics groups springing up all over England, but to the best of my knowledge no one’s tried a walking tour before.”

Dr French was among the 30 people who attended the first Edinburgh Skeptics meeting at Nicol Edwards pub on Niddry Street last week – billed as “Edinburgh’s most haunted pub”.

He believes the popularity of the inaugural meeting is a testament to the potential market for Mr Pryce’s tours.

However, Mr Pryce hasn’t got the city’s ghost tour operators rattling in their ghostly chains just yet.

Ian McKain, manager of Auld Reekie Tours, said: “We’re not worried in the slightest! What we do is intended to be tongue-in-cheek and is supposed to be entertaining.

“Alex Pryce has tried to set up tours in the city before with little success – probably because he takes life too seriously.”

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A reminder of tomorrow evening’s event at the Dana Centre, for which you are asked to pre-book. Full details at:

http://www.danacentre.org.uk/events/2008/11/25/455

Speakers
Chris French, psychologist, Goldsmiths College, London
Ray Tallis, neurologist and philosopher, (formerly) University of Manchester
Henrik Ehrsson, neuroscientist, Karolinska Institute, Sweden
Nigel Wright, who has had an out-of-body experience

Facilitator: Narender Ramnani, Royal Holloway, University of London

Unless you have had an out-of-body experience, you cannot imagine what it really feels like, say people who have journeyed through one. Others dismiss it as a figment of imagination. Yet this curious phenomenon has been recognised for centuries and has fascinated believers and sceptics alike. Scientists have found it hard to study these events.

So what are the out-of-body experiences that around 1 in 10 people claim to have had? They are usually described as the sensation that you are floating above your body, your mind somehow disconnected from your physical self. They can be triggered by trauma or impending death, alcohol or drugs. They can be intensely spiritual and produce a whole host of profound emotions from fear to serenity.

Theologians, philosophers and psychologists continue to debate out-of-body experiences. What is actually going on in the brain is still unclear. Henrik Ehrsson recently conducted virtual-reality experiments at University College London to induce the illusion in volunteers. His results suggest that the brain circuits responsible for processing of visual and tactile sensory information may become disconnected.

Our speakers this evening – a philosopher, a psychologist and a neuroscientist – will discuss this strange state of mind, and we will hear from someone who has had an out-of-body experience following major surgery.

Can the mind really become disassociated from the physical brain? Or are out-of-body experiences hallucinations? What do you think?

Event organised by:
The European Dana Alliance for the Brain, the British Neuroscience Association and Art and Mind

Cheers,

Chris French

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