click to enlarge

The 2008 conference had yet another great line up and was once again held at the YMCA in St Annes although this was the final year when it would be held in the conference hall upstairs. The weather was quite cool which meant that coats and hats were the order of the day at our annual post conference drunken beach party. How we missed the long hot summer nights of the middle years of this decade!

Janet Walkey was once again master of ceremonies and the speaker line up saw some old friends as well as the new face of bigfoot expert Paul Vella speaking at his first LAPIS conference - but hopefully not his last!

We'll post some piccies of the event shortly!

This was our great line up of speakers... 

Mike Hallowell

Mike is a full-time writer and paranormal researcher. He takes care of scary business by investigating ghosts, poltergeists, UFO sightings and anything that scares the bejabbers out of most people. He says that earning a living by visiting haunted pubs and castles is as good as it gets!

He will talk about the incredible South Shields Poltergeist case. This is the true story of one of the world’s most terrifying cases of poltergeist infestation where one invisible entity went on a mission to cause terror.

In December 2005, a South Tyneside family were attacked by a violent poltergeist. Now, for the first time, one of the researchers who confronted it will tell the full shocking story. This may well be the most terrifying account of a supernatural encounter that you will ever hear and definitely one that you will never forget.

Malcolm Robinson

Malcolm is a premier league UFO & paranormal researcher and founder of the Scottish research group, Strange Phenomena Investigations (SPI). He will present a lecture on his life's research looking into the weird and the wonderful.

Malcolm will discuss some of the cases that took him off the sceptical fence and forced him to look more closely at the paranormal. He will share with the audience tales of first hand ghostly encounters, including a number of his own incredible ghostly tales. He will also discuss some of his research at Loch Ness looking for 'Nessie' and also his research into UFO sightings in Scotland.

And yes, he is the proud keeper of Bob Taylor’s famous trousers and may even whip them out at the conference!

Matthew Williams

Matthew is a controversial figure in the world of ufology. He is the only man in Britain to be convicted of making crop circles when he was fined £100 in November 2000 after admitting damaging a farmer's crops near Marlborough, Wiltshire.

Since then, he has created many amazing and complex circles, some in front of TV cameras. So why have we asked a circle maker to speak at a LAPIS conference? The reason is that incredibly, whilst in the fields creating the circles, he has encountered strange paranormal phenomena in and around these formations .

Paul Vella

Paul is an independent Forensic Computer Expert Witness by trade, specialising in criminal defence cases, but he also runs the world's most popular Bigfoot related web site - www.bigfootresearch.com.

He has made several trips to the relevant areas of the United States over the years gathering evidence and is widely regarded as the most credible authority on the subject to be found this side of the Atlantic.

A natural sceptic, Paul errs on the side of caution when it comes to Bigfoot evidence and reports, but as someone who works with forensic evidence on a daily basis, he says that some of the evidence for the existence of Bigfoot is compelling but he will reserve judgement until he has seen one for himself. 

click to enlarge

This year saw another great line up but unusually for a LAPIS June conference the weather was quite cool. There would be no late night drunken beach party after this one unlike the previous two years where shorts and t-shirts were very much the order of the day.

This year was the first time that our new head honcho, Janet Walkey, was master of ceremonies after the emigration of Rob Whitehead to County Durham during the previous April. Janet did an excellent job once we’d figured out how to lower the microphone and she'll be hosting all our conferences from now on!

Here’s a review of the conference by the rising star of the paranormal world, the amazing and very youthful Sam Willey of Alienationsam...

LAPIS Conference 2007 - Event Report

Posted on June 17th 2007

Written by Sam Willey 

On Saturday June 16 2007 I attended the Lancashire Anomalous Phenomena Investigation Society (LAPIS) UFO conference which took place in St. Anne’s Lancashire, England. The event began at 10:30am with Janet Walkey giving her opening address to the good turnout of UFO enthusiasts from all parts of the country. Janet gave the opening address which would usually have been the job of the chairman Rob Whitehead however Rob recently moved to County Durham and had to leave his group responsibilities behind. At any rate the conference got under way and the first speaker was announced.

Alan Murdie who has written for Foretean Times Magazine and is the former chairman of the Ghost Club organization was first to lecture. His talk entitled “UFO’s and the gateway to the magical mind” firstly detailed an interesting UFO case from Columbia, South America. This well known UFO case took place in July 1969 and apparently involved a Columbian farmer who chased a strange ball of light only to meet his death a day later. The main point of his lecture was light ball UFO’s that thousands have reported. Mr. Murdie gave his opinion on what he thinks these lights may be stating that they could be strange mystical creatures or spirits instead of the widely believed extraterrestrial hypothesis. Murdie went out of his way to really dismiss the Roswell 1947 alleged UFO crash calling the event a “folk story” and “a good story but nothing more” to the disagreement of myself and many others in the audience. With the disagreements aside Murdie made a good point regarding our mind and how we see things, he said that he believes there is something within that makes us all see things as being strange. For example he showed a ghost photograph and said if you expect to see a ghost you will no matter if there is an explanation present. Though I had strong disagreements with many points of Alan Murdie’s lecture it was still extremely well presented and one of the best of the day.

During a break between the first and second lecture I noticed that Larry Warren due to speak at the end of the conference had arrived at the venue. I walked over and shook Larry’s hand and to my surprise Larry said “Have we met before” I thought for a moment then replied saying that I didn’t think so. I had a file full of information with me at the event and I presented the April 2007 issue of UFO Magazine were I had wrote an article about the Rendlesham Forest Incident which Larry was a witness to back in 1980. As soon as I opened the magazine and showed him Larry realized that it was actually UFO Magazine were he had seen me previously. It turns out that Larry has read my work before and thinks I am doing well thus far in this field. Larry believes it is excellent to see that younger people are getting into this subject so early on in life and told me it is what this subject needs, new people to carry on with the research.

After my first conversation with Larry Warren the next lecture was ready to go and this second speaker was Joe McGonagle who was presenting reports from airline pilots. Joe presented some intriguing information which was direct from official ministry of defence documents which he had obtained from the national archives. The main theme of the reports was grey delta shaped objects reportedly flying beneath aircraft these objects had been tracked on radar. Many technical problems occurred through his lecture, the talk had to stop for a break at one point, but with that aside the content which was the main point of the lecture was excellent and very interesting to say the least. It was most interesting to find out that the MOD think an unknown grey object picked up on radar flying right below aircraft is no risk to the security of the United Kingdom.

This second lecture of the day was followed by a lunch break and during this time I had a chat with fellow researchers and experiencers. I had a chat with Satcha Christie who writes for UFO Data magazine on a number of occasions and found her to be a truly great person with many amazing experiences to talk about. During the lunch break I also had a brief talk with Joe McGonagle about his lecture and then sat down and interviewed a young UFO enthusiast like myself called Alex Devereaux who was a witness to a UFO and missing time experience known as the High Bentham Incident which LAPIS investigated back in 2005. Alex was one of four family members who, whilst returning home from a restaurant saw a strange bright light. They did not realize until taking the exact same route they took the evening of the encounter a few days after that up to one hour of missing time was present. Not only did Alex agree to an interview about the event but he also showed me some interesting UFO video footage taken in 2005.

After the one hour lunch break I returned to the conference hall and the third speaker of the day Jon Downes was ready to begin his lecture. Jon Downes is the founder and chairman of the Centre for Forten Zoology which promotes research into mysterious animals. Downes has personally searched for lake monsters at Loch Ness in Scotland and has searched for monsters in many other countries around the world. Jon presented some information about Loch Ness and eels but the main point of his lecture was co-operation between all subject matters. Jon Downes believes that there should be greater information sharing network between researchers of all subjects including UFO’s, Ghosts and Zoology as he believes they could all be connected and we can get further working together.

The final lecture of the day was from Larry Warren who like I mentioned previously I talked to Larry on a number of occasions throughout the day. Larry’s lecture was obviously focused on Rendlesham however he also mentioned the conspiracy theories behind the 9/11 terror attacks. Larry attended a 9/11 truth movement conference in Liverpool and was no impressed by the theories calling it “selective information” and his reasons behind not believing the theories was simply because he lost friends in the attacks. Larry does not believe that a half-minded president such as George Bush could pull off the largest mass murder in American history. After 25 years of being in the public spotlight about his Rendlesham Forest experience Larry finds it hard to talk about the events and told me that the last time he did he felt physically sick which is understandable after going over the event over and over again over the past 25 years. I would like to thank Larry for also giving me a quick mention during his lecture I hope the new researchers can live up to everything the older researchers have contributed to the subject.

In conclusion I enjoyed the event and enjoyed meeting with other researchers, I would like to personally thank the LAPIS events organizer Janet Walkey for putting on a great conference and I look forward to the next LAPIS event.

 Here’s some piccies - apologies for the poor quality as they are either video screen captures or taken while the photographer was too drunk to adjust the settings on the camera!

1/4  Janet Walkey introduces the speakers.

   

click to enlarge

Our 2006 conference was held during the world cup (before England got knocked out!) which meant, in line with other conferences of the time, we suffered a much reduced attendance.

It was, nevertheless, a memorable occasion for the group due to the unexpected appearance of LAPIS members from yesteryear including the great Joseph Dormer who had led the group for the first 10 years of its existence and was master of ceremonies at our conferences in 1989 and 1994. Master of ceremonies for 2006 was once again our former head honcho, Rob Whitehead.

To mark his reappearance, Joseph kindly agreed to write a review of the conference which is reproduced below...

REVIEW OF THE 2006 LAPIS CONFERENCE

BY JOSEPH DORMER

When you've been away from ufology for as long as I have, it's funny how you begin to miss the mythology of it all: the lunatic claims of captured aliens, the transparent hoaxes, the crazy theories, the gossip. . .as well as the serious stuff, of course, where there's always the possibility of finding your notion of reality turned on its head. The LAPIS conference had it all: it was if I'd never been away. There was Philip Mantle, first on stage, with his courageous - some might say `brazen' - volte face on the old Alien Autopsy lark. Phil now believes that the film is a fake. (Well I never, after a!l that!)

For anyone still unfamiliar with this case: some time in the early nineties, Ray Santilli, a video trader who had already acquired a reputation as a serial hoaxer, purportedly bought some reels of film off someone from the other side of the Pond. Apparently taken just after the Roswell crash, the footage showed what was claimed to be dead aliens, though most people thought they looked like special-effect dummies. There was some sort of structure bearing `alien hieroglyphics', in which the discerning eye was able to make out the words VIDEO TV. (Hands up those who noticed that what Philip showed us was an improved version of the original?). Insignia on the film that was passed off as US military security coding quickly disappeared after it was shown to be bogus. When experts offered to examine the film, old Rat Face told them that ...er, this was actually only a copy - the real film was in the hands of a wealthy collector who, unfortunately, had requested anonymity.

How Philip ever came to give any credence to a case that had FAKE HA HA written all over it has always been an issue more contentious than the authenticity of the film itself. I recall Philip giving his first talk on the Santilli film at another LAPIS conference. There he was able to persuade only one per cent of the audience - four people on a show of hands - to suspend their critical faculties long enough to believe that the Santilli footage was authentic. Yet these same men and women, at this same conference, listen openmouthed to tales of alien dolphins commuting daily from Sirius.

As he was up there on the podium, giving us the latest damning evidence against the Santilli footage, it felt a bit like being presented with the latest, most accurate measurements of chimneys to show that Santa could not have descended them. What we really wanted was an investigation into Philip. (it's the sort of thing John Rimmer does quite well - how about it, John?)

After a brief demonstration by Philip on how to parry intrusive questions, Mike Hallowell introduced us to the world of imaginary childhood friends. Mike showed us a slide of himself as a child with his imaginary friend, Maureen. You could not actually see Maureen because she was imaginary, naturally. Yet `imaginary' requires some sort of qualification here. ICFs, it would seem, inhabit a sort of twilight realm, a shadowy timeless world of dreams and make-believe which occasionally impinges on the real world, at least sufficiently for the ICFs to actually play games with real balls, spooking out any watching adults. Mike had collected reports from all over the world and was into looking for patterns in the data - something I could relate to. Refreshingly, there was no accompanying belief system to take on board, though Mike suggested that they could be like tulpas (a plausible hypothesis assuming you believe in tulpas). These are autonomous creations of the mind capable of impinging on external reality. Then, what is external reality? (But I digress.)

After lunch it was the turn of Richard Freeman, a professional cryptozoologist. (I hadn't known there was any such animal!) Richard roams the world in search of strange beasts: creatures unknown to science, missing evolutionary links, giant serpents, river monsters, creatures alluded to in the footnotes of Fortean mythology... What a way to earn a living! Richard rubbed his nose and launched into a litany of utterly spell-binding encounters ...then rubbed his nose again. It was a mannerism that unfortunately caused me to miss parts of the talk because it too was utterly fascinating, hypnotic almost. I found myself counting the seconds between rubs, then taking an average. These minor distractions notwithstanding, the guy was nothing short of brilliant. His enthusiasm, the passion he had for his subject was irrepressible and infectious. Our host and resident clown, Rob Whitehead, played a cruel trick though, bringing the speaker a pint of ale then taking it away before he could sup it (apparently whenever he was asked what visual aids he needed, Richard always answered: a pint, please!)

The final speaker was John Rimmer, editor of Magonia, still going strong after all these years - the journal, that is (though John too looks in not bad shape). His chosen subject -'demolition target' would perhaps be more apt - was the famous Warminster UFO flap. John carefully, tentatively, thoughtfully, skillfully placed the sticks of dynamite in position, then blew the whole thing up. Arthur Shuttlewood, the local reporter who became embroiled in the UFO scene, was the real focus of the flap, we learned: it was he who, by the sheer power of his charisma and personal belief, caused people to perceive UFOs where there were only clouds and stars: there were no UFOs. Hmm.

After the conference, some of us bought wine and beers and met up on the sand hills. Philip drifted along too, exchanged a few memories of Harry Harris, then headed back to the hotel. Snatches of conversation about the Philip Phenomenon wafted on the breeze: `People say he's for real, but I don't buy it'... `It's the anthropomorphic argument again, he's just too humanlooking, he has to be fake'... `Anyway, I think he ought to be examined by experts'.
As dusk descended and the mellowness of our mood suffused the day's events with a golden glow, we reminisced about those unforgettable moments of conferences past and pondered on the road ahead for ufology and for LAPIS. `Per scrutationem ad veritatem', as we used to say in BAFUFOS - or was it BUFOS (or SHUFOS or SHUPOO or BUMPOO, or something like that). It means: Onward, through Investigation, to the Truth. 

click to enlarge

This was our first conference at the new venue of the YMCA in St Annes which we continue to use to this day. The speakers were Peter Grego, Andy Roberts, Marcus Allen and Russ Kellett. The master of ceremonies was once again our former head honcho, Rob Whitehead.

Below is a review of the conference by Stuart Miller editor of the now defunct  Alien Worlds Magazine ...

God forbid I should ever be on time, so of course I wasn't. I was maybe 5 - 10minutes late and walked in on the first speaker, Peter Grego, who was talking about Transient Lunar Phenomena. That's about things, lights etc that are seen on or near the moon. It is a scientifically recognised happening and even the grumpy old trout of British astronomy, Sir Patrick Moore has seen one. So that makes it all alright then. The subject matter might be interesting but I'm afraid this speaker was not. He went on for far too long and then wouldn't sit down after he had finished.

He even spent time on the ridiculous hallucinations people have about seeing a rabbit or whatever on the moon or some other shapes. I know this is a popular pastime among those with sad lives but I have never been able to discern any recognisable shape there at all and what's more, I wonder why people would even choose to attempt to do so? Oh I know. Because it's there.

The audience listening to him were stars. They were polite and tried to pay attention but despite their best efforts, he managed to loose them more than once. He could have been better prepared. I did wonder afterwards whether the talk he delivered was what the organisers expected.

Next up was Andy Roberts speaking about Flying Saucer cults and the contactee movements of the 50s and 60s. This was a breadth of fresh air compared to the previous speaker. Here was a man who was prepared, his video/slide show was professionally set up and he rattled off his speech at us at a fair old rate. That was possibly through a little bit of nerves but I certainly didn't mind and had no trouble following what he was saying at all. As he began to relax in front of the audience of about 100 souls, he even injected various personal comments and observations. He announced that he and Dave Clarke were working on a history of Ufology which should be published in autumn next year. That gives me a little bit of time to write a book on the same subject and get it out there before theirs (in joke). He covered George King and the Aetherius Society, Phillip Rogers, Cynthia Appleton, Molly Thompson and one or two others.

Watching Andy speak was extremely interesting. The first thing that struck me was that this man clearly loves the subject he was speaking about and he spoke with a passion and intensity that you couldn't help but notice. Watching him in front of that particular audience was also interesting. Here was a bloke who is a known sceptic, stood before a room full of believers. He was listened to with interest, so much so that even the one time that he tried to bait the audience by announcing, "That there are no such things as aliens" there wasn't a response, though not through lack of attentiveness or interest. People simply wanted to hear what he had to say.

The other challenging thing that the audience had to get their heads round was Andy's attitude towards the subject. He subjectively objectifies it. He loves the subject, regardless of the veracity of a report or not, purely for its cultural context and impact. He's not emotionally involved with it in the same way that an ordinary Ufologist would be which is a clear pointer and explanation for his countless battles on various message boards. His is simply a different mind set which the audience accepted without a murmur. They did themselves proud.

Marcus Allen, the editor of the UK version of Nexus magazine spoke next on the moon landing hoax perpetuated on mankind by NASA. I couldn't help feeling that this subject is now passé, that the public have had their fun with it and that it was time to move on. Not so Marcus. It was however patently clear that he had given this talk numerous times before and yet he still spoke with a passion about it and above all, was, I thought, extremely professional as well. This guy knew how to speak to an audience and indeed, how to manipulate them as well. I do not intend that remark in a cynical sense.

If you are going to have to listen to a talk on this subject, then Marcus is unquestionably the man for it. He steered clear of what I considered the worst clichés and dealt intelligently with all the points he brought up. Because time was running out, the organisers had to cut his talk short although he had spoken for well over an hour by then. And yet, I would have been prepared to listen for longer.

There was a brief question and answer session later and unusually for me, I stuck my hand up to ask one. I wondered how he explained the seismological equipment that is on the moon's surface and that is even to this day, transmitting information back to earth. I might be flattering myself but I thought I detected a slight chink in the otherwise confident delivery so far, as he replied that he wasn't saying that no one had ever been there; just not the 13 astronauts that NASA claimed to have sent. He then immediately deflected the question by dragging in the laser issue and had fun debunking that. I hadn't asked about that and the seismological question went unsatisfactorily unanswered.

I also think he made a mistake when he said at one point that there were no pictures of Armstrong on the moon because Aldrin had refused to take any of him. That is ridiculous and indeed, later he showed us a picture of the two of them on the surface together.

I enjoyed his talk regardless of how I felt about the subject matter. He does raise questions, interesting ones, but nevertheless one still can't help feeling that this subject has had its day.

Finally, Russ Kellett spoke. Clearly a popular man with a following, and a man of the people as well. I had to leave about half an hour into Russ's talk but, except for a brief period at the beginning when he was getting into his stride, he held my attention well. The difference between Russ's talk and the previous speakers was that Russ was speaking from personal experience about the strange and anomalous events that have happened to him. This was interspersed with some of the infamous video footage of his that he has taken. It was interesting to look at, no question, but what you were looking at was indeterminable. You can though see why folk like to listen to him. There is a slight fragility there which makes his talk a very human experience. You're watching an ordinary person speak, not a robot and it's almost like a one to one conversation. I would like to have listened to the end.

Conference organisation could perhaps have been a little tighter. It's easier said than done, I know, and one always runs the risk of spoiling people's enjoyment if one martials the whole thing along as if it were some military exercise. But the first speaker had too long and the others not long enough.

An enjoyable experience, definitely, and one that threatens to turn into a two day affair next year. It was also a pleasure to finally get to meet Joe McGonagle and Dave Clarke at last. Make the effort next year if it's within reachable distance for you. It will be worth it.

After a gap of 2 years we thought it was about time we should put on another conference. This time it was more of a "get together" than a proper conference as we held it in a room of a hotel owned by a couple of group members. The Hotel is now under the personal supervision of Alan French, the unflappable former manager of a hotel which appeared on the hit BBC1 show "Hotel on Sea"!

No flyer exists for this one but the speakers were Jon Downes (cryptozoology), Larry Warren (Rendlesham Forest), David Boyle (life, the universe & everything!) and our good friend Russell Callaghan (latest UFO footage).

A good time was had by all and the master of ceremonies was once again our former head honcho, Rob Whitehead. Everyone had a good knees-up after lectures concluded and Jon Downes fondly remembers the excellent northern comedian and the attention of a certain LAPIS member afterwards!

We've got some pictures somewhere - we'll post them if we find 'em!

UPDATE - We found some! Apologies for the poor quality which is due to the pictures being screen captures from video footage. By the way, the reason that Christmas decorations are up is because in November a lot of Blackpool hotels host “Turkey & Tinsel” weeks for the old folks. We can’t understand it ourselves as one dose of Christmas is more than enough for us!

click to enlarge 

click to enlarge

The 2001 conference was held at the University of Central Lancashire and Rob Whitehead was once again master of ceremonies.

Unfortunately, no flyer exists in our archives but the speakers on the day were Georgina Bruni who spoke about the Rendlesham Forest incident (which got interesting when Larry Warren turned up!), Jon Downes who spoke about the chupacabra, Jose Escamilla who discussed fake UFO footage, Richard Freeman who discussed snakes and dragons, Nick Redfern who spoke about UFOs during WWII and finally Matthew Williams who discussed his recent conviction for making a crop circle.

Speaker Richard Freeman recorded the events of his hectic day ...

Unfortunately I was double booked for the Lancashire Aerial Phenomena Research Society conference in Lytham Saint Anne's and the Pagan Federation convention at Nottingham University.The hotel at Lytham was plush and splendid but I had an early call to get a train down to Nottingham.

My old mate Lionel Fanthorpe was also lecturing at the Pagan Fed do (despite being a vicar). He talked about his favourite Fortean mysteries (including the Mongolian deathworm) and answered questions on his oddest experiences (including talking to me about a mutual admiration for lady wrestlers, in the driving rain in the middle of the night in a wood whilst making a documentary about Nostradamus. Don`t ask.) and how he first became a vicar.

I also met a beautiful girl running a store at the con. She was a pagan, liked Dr who, was a Fortean, and collected comics! She also had a husband. If my luck with women were petrol I wouldn`t have enough to power an ant`s moped round a penny! 

I lectured about my hunt for 60 foot snakes in Thailand and then leapt on the train to get back to Lytham and give exactly the same talk to LAPIS. One might be wondering what a cryptozoologist was doing lecturing at a UFO conference. Well, those of you who have read my account of the trip in the expeditions part of this website will know about the Naga fireballs. These are red balls of light that shoot up from the Mekong river around the 13th of October and are believed to be the breath of the Naga. These were sufficiently like earthlights to get me on at the conference. The fact that they were almost certainly flares I did not mention until the actual talk (they were paying me and putting me up in a nice hotel after all).

Jon lectured on the chupacabra - an entity that like the Naga has less to do with extraterrestrials than Eskimos have to do with the Belgian Congo. But the key here was Keelian Ufology which in my opinion is the only real ufology (apart from new prototype military craft).

The best part of the LAPIS con was the party afterwards. In this drunken maelstrom I met such met such characters as Gordie Dave, Rob "The Bastard" Whitehead, and Jose Escamilla of "Rods" fame. Nick Redfern also introduced me to his wife to be, Dana, a beautiful Texan girl he had met whilst lecturing in Las Vegas. Now if only I could meet a gothic amazon whilst lecturing in Yorkshire.
 
Nick, Dana, Jon and I had an extra night in the hotel. It was a much more sedate affair and we watched the "top 100 TV characters" a show that unsurprisingly listed the top 100 TV characters as voted for by the viewing public. To my joy The Doctor (Doctor Who)was voted in at number 5, soundly thrashing Mr Spock.. Come morning Jon and myself headed back to Exeter and Nick and his new love returned to Texas. 

click to enlarge

The last UFO conference of the millennium and our last conference at the Lowther Pavilion. The master of ceremonies on the day was our former head honcho, Rob Whitehead. Lionel Fanthorpe was unable to attend and was replaced by Jim Peters who spoke about how UFOs can seriously damage your health (and also met his future wife, Tracie Austin, at the conference)!

The year was particularly memorable for Jose Escamilla's "rods", the lager fuelled on-stage performance of Jon Downes and the raucous party back at the Edenfield Hotel afterwards.

Here is Andy Robert's recollection of it...

TAKING LA-PIS

By

Andy Roberts

This piece of scurrilous fortean journalism first appeared in issue four of The Armchair Ufologist by Andy Roberts

First sight I saw was Jon Downes trying to flog his pathetic wares from behind a desk which was clearly out of proportion to his size. He regaled me with tales of the goings on at the hotel on the previous night......clearly I had missed something as observing ufologists in their social interactions is far more interesting than any stupid stories they hawk round the conference circuit.

Jon gives a new meaning to the phrase 'largeing it' and is clearly ufology's answer to Blackadder's Bishop of Bath & Wells. But who has the drawings? All say in a breathy voice "Dear boy, I don't give a flying fuck what you think of me" and rightly so Jon. Great guy, and the only other person in UFOlogy besides Neil Nixon who you can have a cracking conversation about music with. He knows his stuff. Surely by now there should be some form of test whereby if you don't know who, say Mighty Baby are, you aren't allowed to be a UFOlogist?

Straight into Jon and Nigel Wright's lecture. This was based on their book Rising of the Moon, a Keelesque romp through various 'paranormal' and UFOlogical events in the south west a couple of years ago. Fascinating I'm sure, but it seemed to me like they'd just stitched any old cobblers together and made an adventure story out of it. Whats more the only visual aid present was the arrival on stage of a four pack of Stella.

Apparently Jon had been asked if he needed any visual aids and he (in jest) requested said four pack, The audience gasped at the sheer audacity of the man. Jon just drunk his breakfast and rambled on. Somewhere on the front row you could see a hunched figure in a parka cringing. A thought bubble appeared above his head saying "preposterous, that would never happen at a YUFOS conference and the fat bastard would have to wear a suit anyway", yes it was Graham Birdsall, well out of his natural habitat at someone else's UFO event. Bet he didn't pay for the ticket!"

"But what's this? Lurking at the end of the foyer, looking ever so slightly nervous, was Tim Matthews. Tim had to make an appearance because well, because, that's what he does, just so people don't forget him. All you need to know is he was handing out leaflets for some rally or other and acting furtive with Downes - who would have to be in very deep cover indeed for anyone not to spot him.

Luckily I caught them flagrantly giving Nazi salutes and I sincerely hope someone uses this as proof that they were there and I had a camera.

After dinner we all decanted into the piano room for a few hours of the most bizarre UFOlogical post gig 'fun' I have been present at, and I've been at a few. Simple Beatles songs soon gave way to rock standards belted out by a man who I spoke to much but know only as Dave from geordieland, aided and abetted by a freeflowing permutation of Jon Downes, Nigel Wright, Sir Malcolm of Robinson, and many others including Miss Bott on backing vocals. Louie Louie, Stand By Me, all the UFOlogical classics were trotted out and then it was into Irish rebel songs such as the touching version of The Armagh Sniper delivered by Jon (bar bill for the night £65.00) Downes, now doing a passable imitation of Citizen Caned......the most responsible of us such as Posh UFOlogist, Nick Redfern, merely looked on in disbelief........Matthew Williams skulked in an earnest fashion and then went off to ring his mummy.......we were joined again by the Hull people one of whom was well oiled and confided to all and sundry that he was a bouncer, and kept showing parts of his anatomy whilst questioning the availability of leeches for it. Clearly I was missing the UFOlogical context he was getting at here and his friends eventually took him away.

click to enlarge

It's perhaps best to ignore Jon Downes' frequent and desperate pleas to Irene Bott for something called 'executive relief'. Thankfully Irene is far too expensive for Jon to merit even a look of disdain. Just because he's a media whore and arts editor of the Planet on Sunday (didn't Clark Kent work for them?) it doesn't mean to say he can get away with this sort of behaviour.

So, that was LAPIS 1999, it was good and you should have been there. LAPIS also hold the distinction of holding the last UFO conference this millennium (depending, of course on when you believe the next millennium starts).    

click to enlarge

It was in 1998 that Sam Wright (now of UK Probe International) made his final appearance as master of ceremonies.

There were some changes to the flyer in this year. Al Bielek was too ill to make the journey across the Atlantic and was replaced with Paul Tice who spoke about ancient religions and mysteries. Tim Rifat was unable to attend due to unforeseen circumstances and was replaced by Marcus Allen who spoke about the alleged fake moon landings. Ed Sherwood bowed out early on and was replaced by David Morgan-Brown who spoke on the Native Indian way of life.

The most memorable moment of the conference was a statement made by Michael John Howard who said that "the human race is descended from dolphins from Sirius." Quite the most extraordinary claim ever made at a LAPIS conference and one that will never be forgotten (or repeated)! 

This was the year that saw two LAPIS conferences.

We start with our conference on 17th May 1997 held at the Keirby Park Hotel, Burnley.
 
Unfortunately, no image of the flyer exists in our archive but the speakers were Eric Morris, George Wingfield, Dr Rauni-Leena Luukarem Kilde, Tim Rifat and Busty Taylor. The master of ceremonies was Sam Wright (now of UK Probe International).

Below is a review of the conference by Andy Roberts of Flying Saucery ...
 
“The Blackpool group LAPIS who put on such an excellent show last November in Lytham brought their roadshow to Burnley on May 17th and presented 'A Day Of Strange Phenomena'. The usual suspects were lurking everywhere, stalls bowed under the weight of ufological tat and there was much gossip to be hoovered up. Eric Morris has returned from the shadows over the past few years and has now left his job as a nurse to devote his full time energies to the Alien Research Counselling Centre (ARCC). Say the C's soft as in 'centre' and oo-er missus Eric could have chosen his acronym a bit more carefully! Serious guy is Eric. Told us some great stories. His favourite word is 'strange' and he seemed to be in a competition to see just how many times he could use this adjective in the course of his talk.

Eric example: Woman relates story of being taken into a 'strange' barn-like thingy in a field ...... sees a 'tramp' and a 'tart' across the other side of a pool of green stuff. Tramp & tart start having sex, woman is aroused by this and shortly finds herself in a threesome with the T & T. And she enjoyed it. I ask you, whatever next. If the ufological experience is to be demeaned by people's enjoyment of sex then it's time things changed. Immediately. Aliens? Incubi and sucubi? Or just sexual repression made manifest in a 'olly good fantasy. Let's face it pilgrims, we've all had dreams like that, haven't we?

Eric is very sincere and obviously puts a great deal of time and money into the subject, being genuinely concerned about the plight which his informants find themselves in. But I worry about just what he is dealing with, what he is unlocking from people's psyches and what he's going to do when someone freaks out on him. But hey, he's a nurse and no doubt trained to handle all manner of psychic disorder. That's a relief. And then he said he can so many cases he couldn't cope with them all so he started using regression hypnosis to "make things easier". On who Eric, on who?

Rule one in the Big Boys Book Of Being A Good Human is that under no circumstances do you mess with someone's mind and unfortunately, glamorous as it is, hypnotic regression does just that. It might seem a good thing to do at the time, it might get results', the client may even want to be regressed, it might even get the media interested in you. But we have a duty not to do this sort of thing. A duty which doesn't need writing into UFO group rules and constitutions. Just something everyone should know. BUFORA has had a ban on using hypnotic regression for a long time now and it was decided to continue with at an N.I.C. meeting earlier this year. It's moves like this which make BUFORA the excellent Organisation it can be. It will lead to less investigators and less 'good' cases as the fame freaks and glamour grabbers go elsewhere so they can hypnotise and impress. Let'em.

Back to Eric and his case.

Look at it another way. Somewhere on the Cheshire/Wales border, if Eric is to be believed, is a very confused and frightened woman who has fessed up her inner-mosts to Eric. Eric listens and thinks. And then, on a bright May Saturday over a hundred people were 'entertained' by listening to the intimate details of someone's inner experiences life. Many of them perhaps even thought it had all happened in the objective world of the physical. I just thought it was tabloid ufology and didn't in anyway further our knowledge of the Close Encounter Experience.

There's a fine line to be drawn between research and investigation and entertainment and titillation. Despite Eric's protestations of confidentiality does that woman know that her story is now his story? And that it will soon be part of UFO history'? Eric presented no evidence that the woman's experiences were anything other than psychic in the literal sense, and no attempt to explain them in those terms other than to tell us that the woman wasn't promiscuous (!). How does he know, what does it matter anyway? In fact throughout the whole orq tale I was strongly reminded of the comprehensive diagram shown in the first episode of Father Ted, and I reproduce it here for your instruction and consideration.

Oh yeah, and she'd been shown scenes of the destruction of earth and one particular horrible one of a horse being ripped to shreds. Two years later she was taken to an adult creche on board this flying barn thingy and shown the evidence of alien tramp/human rumpy pumpy. An ickle baby. All say Ahhhhhhhhh. And if that's not conclusive evidence of alien intervention in the affairs of mankind then I'm a banana.

During this tour de farce I had a dizzy spell and suddenly thought I was in an episode of Coronation Street being served by Roy in the cafe - but it was only Eric after all. Worse still I realised that 'veteran' (i.e. bloody old and boring) ufologist Arthur Tomlinson who was in the audience looks like Norris, and Judith Jafar (you can't keep the secret about fieldmice conferences for ever Judith - the world needs to know. Now. Before it's too late) bears more than a passing resemblance to Alma! Oh my God.

After that the whole day took a tumble. Grumpy old George Wingfield (as Don Brennan of course) took the stage next. Crop circles? Pshaw, thing of the past boyo. George is right at the pointy sharp end and he was telling us about Flying Triangles - or as he's 'humorously' dubbed hem - UIFTS. In one of those very special moments ufology sees all too frequently George reinvented the whole history of Flying Triangles in his own image, missed out totally the north and midland waves of the 70s and 80s, and 'forgot' to mention they were known as the Silent Vulcan at that time. Using the work of Omar Fowler as 'evidence' (and isn't it funny that both Omar and George are both chums and on the Flying Teapot Review consultants list) George proceeded to give us the history of FTs according to him and his chums.

Oh George, george, george. In his ever so public-school manner George 'compared' the FTs to known aircraft and concluded they weren't them and indeed it was our old friends the allens' piloting them. Sorry ....... the aliens. George read out numerous eye witness accounts and demonstrated a touching faith in the literalness of people's narratives. i.e. if they said they saw X then they sure as shit saw X and not Y from a different angle or even B with some unusual lights or maybe they'd never even seen X in the first place.

The flaws of perception and cultural analysis are not really George's strong point at all. Realising the audience had heard all this before from people who actually knew what they were talking about George quickly fell back on that old ufological trick of defining himself by his enemies. Tim Matthews was one ("Tim are you here, before I insult you?"). Tim wasn't, so George waved a copy of Stealth, Lies and Videotape around in a disdainful fashion and poured scorn on it. Just because he didn't agree. He then proceeded to get Tim M completely wrong by suggesting he thinks all FTs are flying out of Warton. He doesn't. God we were impressed. Well into a rant by then he rounded on Matthews and 'others' for their motives' in the subject and suggested they may have 'sponsors', hinting heavily that of course they were all paid tools of government disnformation. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Too much time in the crop circles George baby.

But wait. The fragile limits of my world view were to be severely tested when George told us the tale of the 'missing file'. He'd once had a file called 'UFO' which in the 80s he stored on a mainframe at Warwick university and which contained some information about IBM in relation to UFOs (I think this was how he told it). The mainframe was an IBM one and lo, when George went to retrieve his file it was 'lost'. The Lovecraftian obviousness of what was going on should stagger us all.

George paused, the air heavy with inference. IBM had, of course, stolen his file, having an inbuilt program to detect anything to do with UFO's/ The computer hadn't just eaten it or anything like that which happens to us normal folk. Nosireebob. But, George continued, FTs have been conclusively proved to be taking an interest in nuclear power stations. And he finally, but somewhat shyly, conceded that they "could be ET craft". Well, yes they could. Why these people - and you see them all the time at UFO cons, can't just come straight out and say at the beginning of their lecture that they believe wholeheartedly in ETs, have done since they were a puppy, and that their lecture will illustrate the proof of this, I just don't know. Other than, of course, the fact that there is a fundamental contradiction inherent in the juxtaposition of 'proof and extraterrestrials'.

So George went off to fettle his Whippet (true, I saw him coming out of the lift with one - unless it was an alien with a particularly effective cloaking device). Dr Rauni-Leena Luukarem Kilde (Ivy Tilsley) next. 'Different' ufology, benevolent aliens, love as the central power of the universe, governments unable to face the change that is sure to come etc. etc. Course, Rauni-loobi is being harassed by 'them', microwave beams are aimed at her (shut the bloody microwave door then Rauni), she has had all her thoughts sucked out of her at a UFOcon by some dude with a belt device, and had to change rooms three times at the conference hotel for unspecified but presumably paranoiac reasons.

Hard core - you know the score. I didn't see Tim Rifiat's lecture on Remote Viewing but I did 'see' it. And I know what you're doing now as well, so stop it! 'Busty' Taylor last. I thought everyone had long since got over the schoolboy humour inherent in Busty's nickname, but the compere made it new for us each time he referred to him as 'Buster', conjuring up visions of a Beano cartoon strip based on 'Buster' Taylor and the adventures he has pulling on his joystick aloft the crop circles of England. Nice bloke actually, entertaining speaker, seemed genuinely interested in crop circles but not concerned about making money from them. In fact he's become financially poorer from his pursuit of the mystery.

And that dear reader if I may digress a while, is the mark of someone who's serious about the subject. Simple fact: If you're making money you're invariably a charlatan. If you're loosing money due to your interests it's a safe bet that whatever your beliefs you hold them sincerely. Or am I wrong readers? Busty's seen it all and photographed most of it. He's even come upon people shagging in crop-circles. Accidentally, and in his 'Plane, of course. He believes most circles are hoaxed, but that the simple designs represent a real phenomenon. Fair enough, so far so good. But his logic seemed less than rigorous on this as he'd already showed us one of massive complexity which had allegedly formed in 35 minutes and was thus not a hoax. When pushed he 'admitted' he thought they were caused by ETs and that maybe even the old ring barrows ("which look just like a UFO") were done thusly because the ancients were copying what they saw in the sky. He wouldn't be drawn too much on the subject of hoaxers, saying he was going to reveal 'all' at a meeting later this summer. Why not now, a few of us cheerily taunted - chicken or what? At this a somewhat haughty George Wingfield turned his steely gaze on us mere insects and left us in no doubt who he thought, nay knew, who the hoaxers were - Jim Schnabel, Chris Kenworthy, Rob Irving, Wessex Sceptics, he snapped. Old news George, old news. Even Busty agreed. He was going to unveil someone else.

Not now, but soon. We wait. Actually old Busty really doesn't like hoaxers and even said he would 'fight' (a technical croppy term apparently) anyone he found hoaxing a circle. That really would be the last straw. I share the belief about most if not all crop circles being hoaxed but where the are good examples of a complex circle which has been aborted or made wrongly? They surely can't get them all right. Equally, why has no team of hoaxers taken a video of them doing the dirty deed, to whip out when the corn maniacs are proclaiming it to genuine? Answers please. End of day - all went home rejoicing.”

Our second conference of the year was our usual two day November gathering at the Lowther Pavilion in Lytham with Sam Wright (now of UK Probe International) master of ceremonies.

Unfortunately, we've also lost the flyer for this one but the speakers were Dr Brian O'Leary (former NASA astronaut who spoke on free energy), Bill Holden (USAF sergeant who met aliens), Dea Martin (an aura reader), David Percy (TV producer who spoke on the Mars, Avebury & Stonehenge connection) and Simon Lewis of the Morecambe UFO group who spoke on transient lunar phenomena.

The main memory of this year was the bizarre sight of former NASA astronaut Brian O'Leary and his Lapis Pig. Every time he quoted scoffers of his alternative energy ideas he would launch into a ventriloquist act with his hand thrust firmly up his blue muppet. Lytham, nor Sesame Street, has seen anything quite like it since!

We also recall Bill Holden arriving a couple of days before the conference and entertaining us all in a Lytham pub with stories of his meetings with aliens and showing us a model alien head.  The locals looked on in fascination and the ever resourceful super salesman Sam managed to flog them a few tickets!

Not surprisingly, with a former NASA astronaut on the speakers list, we recorded our highest ever attendance this year and filled the 400 seat auditorium.

Happy days!

click to enlarge

This year saw the first of our conferences at the Lowther Pavilion, a 400+ seat auditorium which would be our conference home for the rest of the decade. Master of ceremonies on the day was Sam Wright (now of UK Probe International).

This was also the year we invited our first international speakers. We had met quite a few likely candidates in late 1995 when six members of LAPIS travelled to the US to attend the week long 5th International UFO Congress in Nevada. 

The 1996 flyer originally named Jordan Maxwell as a speaker but he dropped out and was subsequently replaced by Michael Lindemann who spoke on conspiracy related matters. We extended the invitation to Jordan again in 1998 which he accepted and travelled to give a couple of memorable lectures.

In addition to the advertised line up there were 3 bonus speakers.

• Marcus Allen - who spoke first on Saturday talking about Nexus magazine articles.
• Simon Lewis (from the Morecambe group) - who spoke on Sunday about strange shaped craft which had been seen in the Morecambe Bay area.
• Doris Sims (wife of Derrel) - who spoke on Sunday about handwriting analysis and how it can be applied as a tool in abduction cases.

This was quite an amazing conference for us. We had a TV crew in attendance recording an interview with Nick Pope but who also took an interest in other proceedings. We nearly filled the 400 seat Pavilion due to the fortunate line up of speakers talking about the en vogue topics of the day (alien implants / the autopsy footage). A memorable year!  

It was also the year when head honcho Janet Walkey attended the conference as delegates and were so impressed they joined the group and have been with us ever since! 

Finally, it was the year when Joseph Dormer stormed the stage and famously called Harry Harris a "shit stain on the underpants of ufology". A golden moment which will be recorded in the annals of British ufology forever! 

click to enlarge

After a gap of 5 years we held our third conference, and our first two dayer, over the August bank holiday weekend. The master of ceremonies was once again the great Joseph Dormer.

This was the year when the conference nearly didn't happen. Originally the conference was due to be held at the Station Pub - a ghastly keg emporium on Dickson Road, Blackpool. The landlord shafted us at the last minute when he decided to hold a disco for visiting chavs rather than host our conference.

After much ringing around, the excellent Park House Hotel agreed to step in at very short notice. We soon realised that the venue change was actually a blessing in disguise. The hotel was a far better venue than the seedy back street keghouse and the group agreed never again to listen to John, our webmaster, whenever a venue was suggested for a conference! 

The conference was notable for two events. The first being the slightly paranoid Albert Budden demanding that bodyguards be posted around the stage when he gave his lecture on the alleged link between electricity power lines and UFO sightings. Apparently, this was incase Norweb had smuggled hitmen in to the audience.

The second event came as a consequence of Albert's paranoia. On a blazing hot August bank holiday (quite rare in Blackpool) he also insisted that the fire doors, open for ventilation, be closed lest the hitmen should launch a surprise pincer movement. This raised the temperature in the room considerably and also that of a member of the audience who, at the end of the lecture in an attempt to get some air and light, tugged the drawn curtains a little too vigorously and managed to bring the whole canopy down!

A Fawlty Towers half hour followed as a ladder was passed through the audience so that a 50 year old Spanish housekeeper could climb and nail the curtains back up while at the same time complaining about blokes trying to look up her skirt - she should be so lucky!

click to enlarge

LAPIS was called FUFOIG back in the distant days of the late 1980s. We have also been called BUFOS (Blackpool UFO Society) and at one time considered the name Fylde Aerial Research Team but thought better of it!

What a line-up for a small room above a restaurant overlooking Blackpool's North Pier and all for the grand ticket price of £1.75!!

This was the 2nd conference that LAPIS ever held - sadly details of the first one are lost in the mists of time. It was also the first conference that John, our webmaster and longest serving member, attended having joined LAPIS just three months earlier.

The master of ceremonies on the day was the great Joseph Dormer, much missed and now a coastal resident on the other side of the country, in sunny Scarborough.

As well as the amazing price of the tickets, notice the start time! Much more civilised than the 10am starts of most modern day conferences and the conference continued into the evening. LAPIS recently attended the CFZ's weird weekend and particularly enjoyed the sessions on Saturday when lectures eventually finished at 11.15pm!

A strange coincidence on the day was that our former head honcho, Rob Whitehead, was working in the restaurant bar at the time but was oblivious to the conference and would not find out about LAPIS for another 8 years...how history might have been different!