Posts Tagged "skeptics"
Cork Skeptics, you rock!
Last week I visited Edinburgh to talk for the Edinburgh skeptics in the pub group and have a look around the ‘haunted city’. I have a blog post in the works about my trip so do check back for the details – it was an awesome few days.
However, what I wanted to write about was the talk I did for Cork Skeptics in the Pub (well, in the castle to be exact) while I was still in Scotland. It was all done via skype which is such a simple, effective yet overlooked idea that it blew my mind.
Patrick Fisher from the Victoria Skeptics (known as YYJ Skeptics as not to be confused with the other Victoria Skeptics…) was talking alongside myself and Ashley Pryce who helped form Edinburgh skeptics and writes for The 21st Floor.
We spoke about a variety of paranormal subjects between us for over an hour and then took questions from the audience who were in Cork.
It was a really fun experience, it was really well executed and planned and I wanted to write a brief blog to say thank you to Colm from Cork Skeptics, and all of those who worked alongside him (whose names I forget… sorry…) for making that talk happen.
I may be wrong, but it’s the first time I’ve ever heard of a ‘Skeptics in the Pub’ group using such a method to deliver a panel of speakers. I certainly hope it will not be the last.
Okay so I know Skype isn’t a new thing, and I’ve been aware of conference calls for a while… but this was so much more awesome!
Colm from Cork Skeptics in person with Me and Ash Pryce (top camera feed), Patrick Fisher (bottom right feed) and random audience members (bottom left feed).
p.s. read an interview I did for Ash Pryce for The 21st Floor here.
p.p.s check out the awesome artwork the Cork Skeptics have for their events! Jealous!
by the pricking of my thumbs…
Suddenly the countdown to Halloween is upon us and I’m vaguely aware of the fact that I’ve been planning for this month for a long time because of the various talks I have coming up. However this week is the week in which my first October talks take place and I’m all awash with excitement and pure terror.
I’ve planned for months to refresh my ‘skeptics in the pub’ talk to include newer content and to take feedback from past talks I’ve done and improve the whole thing. Yet, like always, I’ve left it to the last minute to actually implement the changes. I guess I must have known it would happen because I booked this whole week off of work so that I could ‘prep for halloween’ – it’s a good job my employers know about the paranormal research thing I do or they’d think I was a bit odd. Actually, they probably think that anyway but that’s swings and roundabouts…
On Wednesday I am travelling to Edinburgh as I am speaking for Edinburgh Skeptics in the Pub on Thursday – my talk is actually taking place inside the part of the vaults apparently, which has this ghost geek hugely excited. I’m then hanging around in Edinburgh until Saturday morning when I shall travel home again – there is a lot I want to see in the city and this is the perfect chance to do so.
While I am there though, I will be giving another talk on Friday, this time for the Cork Skeptics via the wonder of Skype. Along with Ashley Pryce and Patrick Fisher the talk will cover all sorts of weird and wonderful things that sit under the term ‘paranormal’. The coolest part though is that we’re doing it via Skype while the attendees are sitting in a castle. They have frickin ‘Skeptics in the Pub’ not in a pub but in a frickin castle! Also, check out the poster. Just…. just check it out >>
Then I’ll be back at work, but the Halloween fun doesn’t stop there – oh gosh no, gosh no indeed! For on the 27th I will be zooming across to Bristol to deliver a talk to the lovely Bristol Skeptics in the Pub people. It will be the second talk I’ve done for them. They were the second group I ever spoke for so I figure I do owe them a talk in which I actually make sense and don’t look like a deer caught in headlights…
Oddly enough, they’ve completely sold out of their tickets already which makes me wonder if there is another Hayley Stevens involved in paranormal research who they’re expecting. Awesomely, their talks take place in a theatre! A THEATRE!
Okay, I’m pretty sure it’s in the bar area or greenroom area or something, but still, a theatre… how haunted is that place going to be?!*
Someone will be live tweeting the event – I don’t know the hashtag yet, but if you check my twitter feed on October 27th I’ll be sure to tweet what the hashtag is so that you can follow it.
Then comes the talk that I am REALLY LOOKING FORWARDS TO which will be taking place in Westminster for Westminster Skeptics in the Pub on October 31st – the night of all nights for any self respecting ghost geek. There are people attending the talk who I am really looking forwards to meeting – in some cases for the first time, in other cases, for the second time.
I have been told that my talk may be made available online shortly after it is finished on the evening of Halloween. This includes my slides – so if you’re one of those lovely people I talk to who aren’t from the UK, or are but have never seen my talk and are always telling me to come and talk for you, this is a great chance to watch and hear my talk on Halloween! how fun is that?! The good thing is that my talk is always changing – the talk I did for Oxford Skeptics was different than the one I did for Birmingham Skeptics, which was different for Newcastle and so on… so even if you’ve seen my talk before, you might still find it interesting!**
I don’t know the technicalities of how that’s going to work, or even if it is definitely happening – but I was asked if it would be okay and I thought it was an awesome idea. When I do find out I will blog about the details.
So, yes. Today I have locked myself in my room and set myself the task of finishing off my slides and working out if I’m allowed to take the Ghostbox on a flight or not.
In other news, the winner of the first Free QED ticket was Alex Gray. The others winners will be drawn on October 31st.
*not very, I expect…
** or you could go to the pub
Ooh look! Interesting things!
Recently I was interviewed, amoung other things, about Project Barnum by the lovely Kylie Sturgess who I had the pleasure to meet briefly at QEDcon in Manchester earlier this year. Kylie is the host of the Token Skeptic Podcast and I can be heard on episode 79.
Also this week, the guys at Sceptici.ro released the interview they did with me during Denkfest in Zurich last month in which I talk about paranormal research, weird beliefs and more. I’ve embedded the video below and a transcribed (and translated) version will be available via their website here.
Watch their other interviews (including a two part interview with the Dr Eugenie Scott) here.
It’s just two weeks until I travel to Edinburgh to talk to Edinburgh Skeptics in the Pub. I’m hugely excited because in days gone by, when I used to be a Most Haunted fan and got spooked by my own shadow, Edinburgh was the one place I always wanted to visit because of its ghosts and folklore and I’M GOING! While there I hope to be able to visit some of the places that have always fascinated me, such as the Edinburgh vaults.
Following that I’ll be revisiting friends at Bristol Skeptics in the Pub on October 27th and then onto Westminster Skeptics in the Pub for Halloween.
For details of my upcoming October talks check out the ‘talks & things’ page on my website.
Apart from that, the only other thing I really have to say is please, please, please keep your donations coming in to me to go towards the cost of tickets to QEDcon next March for skeptics who are on low incomes and cannot afford to attend.
If you are interested in one of the free tickets I have already raised funds for (yay!) then please fill in your details below and you will be entered into a random name drawing in a couple of weeks time! This application round will close in one weeks time [October 13th at 22:00]
Don’t need a free ticket? Consider donating what you can to help others go. The next few people to donate over £10 win a Glow in the dark Placebo Band.
[contact-form] [contact-field label="Name" type="name" required="true" /] [contact-field label="Email" type="email" required="true" /] [contact-field label="Age" type="text" required="true" /] [contact-field label="Job title" type="text" required="true" /] [/contact-form]
Sally, we're not going to hang you…
Sally Morgan has mentioned on Twitter that the press coverage and reaction to the allegations that she cheated at one of her shows is akin to ‘a modern day witch hunt’.
I personally find this comparison to be distasteful and wonder how Sally can view herself as a victim of a ‘witch hunt’ when it she who brings it upon herself by refusing to provide evidence of her alleged abilities.
That is after all, all that those of us who are skeptical of her claims are asking; we want Sally to prove that she can do what she says she can do – and personal testimonies don’t count because those people can be potentially misled by trickery (whether Sally is aware she is using it or not.)
Being asked to prove that you can do what you claim you can do is in no way similar to being persecuted for being non-religious, poor, weird or for being considered as ‘cunning women’ or ‘witches’ by local people. People were hung for their non-crimes, and based on the word of eye-witnesses whose reliability wasn’t that credible.
Those of us who doubt Sally Morgan and her claims are not the bad people unless we persecute her for her beliefs and I truly hope that nobody is doing so. Having watched Sally Morgan on television though I know that she lumps those who doubt her abilities all together as cynics and bad people who she doesn’t have to respond to. That’s a bad assumption to make because as the person making huge claims she is the very person to has to answer to her critics. Turning a blind eye to valid criticism and questions helps her make a whole other point about herself…
So, there I was in Liverpool…
…and five or six people were stood in front of me, holding hands and going “ommmmmmm ommmmmmm ommmmmm”.
I was talking for the Merseyside Skeptics Society and I had started with a demo to make people understand the things I had experienced in the past that had turned me to skepticism – this time I had chosen to use the chanting séance demo and, to my surprise, people had actually volunteered to be ridiculed to help me make a point.
It was pretty awesome.
It was the fourth talk I have done for a ‘skeptics in the pub’ group and I am happy to tell you that it was the best group I have ever spoken for.
If you run a ‘skeptics in the pub’ group, or if you are thinking of setting one up I think you should go to Liverpool and attend one their talks or social events because what they do is almost magical and unlike any ‘skeptics in the pub’ I have attended or spoken at before.
The organisers had to deal with a huge mess up with the room they normally use, (it was double booked), and it was out of their control, but as I stood at the edge of the room I was going to have to talk in instead and watched them set everything up it was clear to see they were in control of the situation (or at least made it seem that way).
The talk itself was a joy to deliver because the audience were so friendly and chatty and they actually smiled. SMILED. There is nothing worse that looking out into a sea of blank faces.
Not only that but the people there were willing to get involved when I handed pieces of ghost equipment around – normally people seem a bit reluctant to touch the ouija board, but there were the Mersey skeptics, communicating with someone called ‘Treb3′ through the ouija board. It was fab.
They even laughed at my jokes and stuff.
The thing that also stood out for me was the time after the talk had finished. It was brilliant! Normally after a talk for a skeptics group everyone heads off to do their own thing and I’m on my way home by 10pm, but that wasn’t the case this time.
There was lots of good, fun chatter, someone brought out a very faulty wallet, I learnt about AJ’s obsession, I got to see Joe Nickell’s wooden nickel business card WHICH WAS AWESOME! There was also terrible humor (as expected), and lots of people coming up and saying hi. Basically, the evening felt as though my talk was a small part of a bigger social event and that is exactly what I think ‘skeptics in the pub’ events should be like. People felt at home there, that much was clear, and because of that I felt at home too.
There was no awkward ‘I’m the speaker’ feeling that is often obvious at such events. It was great (even learning about AJ’s obsession despite the fact that it got more and more disturbing…)
Basically, I can’t wait until the QED conference because the people who are behind the Merseyside Skeptics Society are also behind QED (as are the Manchester skeptics too) and, if last night was anything to go by, QED is going to be amazing.
Thank you to everyone who came along to my talk last night. Thank you for laughing and for joining in and for asking honest questions – I only hope I gave you the answers that you needed.
Thank you to the person wearing the ghost busters T-shirt. I saw it, I just didn’t get a chance to say so.
Thank you Marsh, Mike, AJ and Colin for making a talk so much fun.
Next year my talk is going to be going nearly bloody everywhere – check out the ‘talks and stuff’ page on this blog for information on where and when I’ll be talking. It could be a pub near you!
I support…
