EtE Conference Schedule

There are still a couple of places left for the conference should you be free and wish to go! Also here are the details of speakers and the conference schedule for your perusal.

EXPLORING THE EXTRAORDINARY 2nd Conference
University of York, UK
Friday, 24th September – Saturday 25th September, 2010

Friday 24th September

9.00-9.45 Registration
10.00-10.10 Introduction


Session 1: Extraordinary experiences and bereavement

10.10-10.40 ‘Extraordinary encounters with love and light: Psycho-spiritual transformation through bereavement, death bed phenomena and near death experiences’
Josefine Speyer & Dr Mary Murray
10.40-11.10 ‘“Whisper of the bones, echoes from an embodied life”: Communiqué as a process of emotional, psychological and spiritual growth and education’
Michele Knight

11.10-11.30 Coffee break

Session 2: Religion and Spirituality

11.30-12.00 ‘Mystical experience in a new religious movement: A case study’
Alice Herron
12.00-12.30 ‘Inner knowing and spiritual knowledge: An investigation into the construction of religion and unstructured spirituality’
Dr Jenny Hallam & Candice Sunney

12.30-2.00 Lunch break

Session 3: Theory, experience and meaning

2.00-2.30 ‘The importance of extraordinary experiences for the adoption of heterodox beliefs’
Dr Gerhard Mayer & René Gründer
2.30-3.00 ‘And then what? How to assimilate extraordinary experiences, and why’
Keith Beasley

3.00-3.30 Coffee break

Keynote Lecture

3.30-4.30 ‘“I know what I saw”: Extraordinary experiences with UFOs’
Dr David Clarke

Closing Remarks – Dr Madeleine Castro

7.00 Dinner


Saturday, 25th September, 2010


Session 4: Embodiment, ethics and extraordinary experiences

10.00-10.30 ‘'Waking the entranced: Reassessing Spiritualist mediumship through a comparison of Spiritualist and shamanic spirit possession practices’
David Gordon Wilson
10.30-11.00 ‘Therapeutic emotional labour, relational dynamics and ethics in the work of mediums and psychic practitioners’
Sarah Metcalfe

11.00-11.30 Coffee break


Session 5: Spirit mediumship in the UK

11.30-12.00 ‘Talking with the spirits: An experiential exploration of contemporary trance physical mediumship’
Jack Hunter
12.00-12.30 ‘The Awakening Letters: Exploring the mediumship of Lady Cynthia Sandys’
Dr Fiona Bowie

12.45-2.00 Lunch break


Session 6: Experiencing spirit

2.00-2.30 ‘Discerning spirit: Phenomenological art’
Ann Davies
2.30-3.00 ‘The journey in and out of “the extraordinary”: Long-term research with mediums in Los Angeles and Brazil’
Dr Yves Marton

3.00-3.30 Coffee break


Session 7: Incorporating interdisciplinary perspectives

3.30-4.00 ‘Anthropology and parapsychology: Still hostile sisters in science?’
Dr David Luke
4.00-4.30 ‘The psychical and the mystical: Is there a connection?’
Dr Paul Marshall

4.30-5.30 General discussion