DISCUSSION FORUM 8th June 2016

Themes for discussion

(1)  The perennial problem of how to distinguish sitter telepathy from communications ostensibly coming from the dead has been aired in recent Journals, and has been brought into sharp focus in the letter from Charles Tart citing Rosalind Heywood’s account of telepathic prompting. If members know of cases where living person influences seem unlikely to have operated, other members would probably be pleased to hear about them and see how they stand up to criticism.

(2)   In the Paranormal Review, the Hamilton sittings raise the same problem, with the addition of questions raised by photographs of ‘teleplasm.’ Assuming that some materialisation is genuine, is it subject to the same telepathic influences as communications? In the light of reports we have on mediums such as D D Home, Eusapia Palladino, Indridi Indridisson, Kathleen Goligher, Eva C/Marthe Béraud, Kluski and Helen Duncan, do any of their phenomena support survival? We may also ask why photographs of materialisations usually look like fakes, and why researchers place such damaging material on record.

Arrangements

Tea, coffee and biscuits will be available from 6 p.m., and discussion will run from 6.40 to 8.20, with further time until 9 p.m. for people attending to talk among themselves over refreshments, including any that they might wish to bring with them.  For those who prefer, dinner is available in the pub over the road, which can be accessed via a pedestrian crossing close by.

Directions

The nearest underground station is West Kensington (District Line), which is about a five-minute walk away. Turn right on leaving the station, cross West Cromwell Road, then follow North End Road until Vernon Street, which is the last turning on the left before Olympia, Vernon Mews being on the corner.  Alternative stations are Barons Court and Hammersmith (both stations on Piccadilly and District Lines).

(Buses 28 and 391 from West Kensington station will stop at the top of North End Road, while buses 9, 10 and 27 from High Street Kensington will stop opposite Olympia in Hammersmith Road, also close to the top of North End Road. All of these buses also run bakc to Olympia from Hammersmith.