Lancashire's Anomalous Phenomena Investigation Society
Speakers and Talks
Matthew Williams
UFOs, Crop Circles & Military Secrets: The Long and Mysterious Path to the Red Door
We are thrilled to welcome Matthew Williams to LAPIS 2025 for a long-awaited return. A good friend of LAPIS and a speaker at past conferences Matt has a lot of experiences to share.
His interest in UFOs started with a teenage sighting of a strange light at home in Wales but it has led him on an adventure to underground bunkers, secret bases, and even to The Red Door deep underground near MoD Corsham in Wiltshire.
Matthew has also had an involvement in Crop Circles, including a somewhat odd brush with the law. Creating crop circles became an art and somewhat a science, but what happened during the creation of the circles is even more weird than people think! Things that suggested that while the circle makers were very human, something very strange was also somehow involved …
Matthew has even been the catalyst for various LAPIS members finding themselves underground in Wiltshire!
Nowadays he spends a lot of his time exploring places that the vast majority of us would never dream of entering, documenting these places for our enjoyment and the enjoyment of generations to come.
Check out @TheSecretVault on YouTube for many videos of Matthew exploring underground and secret spaces…
Gayle Fidler
Gayle Fidler is a writer and researcher from North East England. Her main interests are folklore and the occult. Gayle writes both fiction and non- fiction. She is a contributor to Spooky Isles, the UK and Ireland’s leading independent, horror and paranormal online magazine. Gayle writes short fiction with a dark twist. She has been published with Leg Iron Books, Midnight Street Press and Twisted Fate Publishing. During her professional career for the NHS, Gayle has co-authored and been published in several academic journals.
In this talk, Gayle will explore the occult connections of creatives such as David Lynch, H.P. Lovecraft and Jack Parsons. Is there a secret code which connects ufology and the occult? Have artists been tuning into a mysterious force that influences their work? Is life stranger than art and are the owls really, not what they seem?
The Owls are Not What They Seem - Magic and Occult Musings
Andy Roberts
Flying Saucer Cults and Contactees of the 60s & 70s
We are delighted to welcome Andy Roberts back to LAPIS. He has an extensive knowledge of Ufology and while he may not share a belief in all things alien he respects those who do and has promised not to eat anyone.
He is a long-term friend of LAPIS and has spoken at conferences both in this century and the last. He was present at the infamous LAPIS conference of 1999 and wrote a review so scurrilous that we dare not publish it here (Ask us about it at the bar after the conference!)
In his talk Andy will examine the genesis of British flying saucer culture.
Did you know that the Findhorn community, formed 62 years ago and still going strong, began as a new age flying saucer cult? Or that a ‘space baby’ was born to a Birmingham woman in 1959? Were you at the only British flying saucer festival? Or perhaps you could speak Venusian like George King of the Aetherius Society?
These and many more bizarre topics will be explored in this fascinating, fully illustrated talk, as royalty, politicians, hippies, journalists and members of the public, battle it out in an attempt to explain the mysteries of the skies and of the human mind.
In today’s internet and image driven world of Ufology the fascinating history of the subject is sometimes forgotten. This talk will redress this and remind us that Ufology has always been amazing!
Stu Neville
Fifty Years of Fortean Television
Since the late 1960s, there has been a largely unbroken strand of television programmes concerning the weird, the rum and the downright uncanny. From the days of three channels to today's several hundred, there have been Fortean-themed shows from the famous (and notorious) to the deeply - and often rightfully - obscure and from the sublime to the ridiculous. In this month's talk, one of the Fortean Times Resident Couch Potatoes Stu Neville takes a not entirely reverent ramble through the last five decades of weirdness-themed telly.
Stu Neville is a lifelong Fortean and frequent contributor to the Fortean Times with a particular interest in the impact and influence the bizarre and paranormal has on popular and mainstream culture. He is also, with his partner Ruth Morris, one half of the FT's Couch Potatoes, reviewing the highlights and lowlights of Fortean television. When not pursuing the odd, Stu works for a training company supporting people with additional needs to thrive in the workplace.
Genevieve Gorrell
Are We Living in an MMRPG (Massively Multiplayer Role Playing Game)?
The findings of quantum physics and the difficulty we have explaining how consciousness could arise mechanistically are just two of the reasons to doubt that our reality is based on physical matter. A computer-programmed or algorithm-based reality may make more sense.
Gaming technology offers plausible possibilities regarding the
architecture of our reality. Such proposals better accommodate
anomalies that cannot be explained within the current mainstream philosophy in which the interactions of physical matter are presumed to be the basis for all phenomena. mainstream philosophy in which the interactions of physical matter are presumed to be the basis for all phenomena.
Ruth Morris
‘Bigfoot - Folklore, Footprints & a Whole Lotta Orbs!’
Ruth will attempt to pull together all of the strands from fur to footprints, folklore to photos, roars and a whole lotta orbs to try to make a coherent picture of what Bigfoot is, where he might be and why we’re so fascinated by the whole phenomenon.
Ruth Morris is a regular contributor to the Fortean Times and is one half of the publication’s resident couch potatoes aka TV critics. Ruth has a lifelong love of all things Fortean with a particular interest in unexplained kinetic energy, anomalous acoustics and the link between mental health & paranormal activity. Ruth has consulted on potential poltergeist cases and on research regarding near death experiences as well as providing a critical eye on several paranormal investigations. When not dabbling in high strangeness, Ruth works as a Lead Nurse at a Children & Young Adult’s hospice.
Ruth and her partner, Stu Neville (the other Couch Potato), have a huge love of all things squatchy and enjoy talking about Bigfoot whenever they get the opportunity.
John Billingsley
Talking Heads: Reflections on a Catpital Idea - Images of human heads in folklore
An air of mystery has always surrounded the crudely carved stone heads found at prehistoric sites, on churches and on farmhouses all over the British Isles.
The human head has featured as a powerful motif resurfacing in magical and liminal contexts in cultures all over the world from prehistory to the present day. John Billingsley considers its appearances and implications with particular reference to the British Isles.
John Billingsley was one of the founders of the Northern Earth Mysteries Group in 1979, and went on to edit their journal, Northern Earth, from 1991-2024. He is also co-founder of the Hidden Charms conference and Dreaming Valleys symposium. Today he is a writer and speaker on tradition and place, a director of The Folklore Centre in Todmorden, West Yorkshire, and leads guided walks featuring folklore and related themes in his home area of Calderdale.
Joanna Walpole
Haunted Chingle Hall - A Tours Guide's Experiences
We are delighted to announce Joanna Walpole as a speaker at LAPIS 2025.
We asked Joanna to tell us a little about herself and this is what she told us:
I’m a lifelong Civil Servant now happily retired but just as busy as before! I’m an ASSAP accredited Paranormal Investigator and was a Tour Guide in the 80s and 90s at Britain’s Most Haunted House….Chingle Hall in Goosnargh, Lancashire.
I’m currently a tour guide at Samlesbury Hall, near Blackburn also known for the notorious White Lady! I also enjoy my hobby of Scare Acting every Halloween at a Lancashire Scare Attraction!”
Chingle Hall, near Preston, Lancashire, dates from the 13th Century.
It is believed by many to be one of the most haunted houses in England, with reports of paranormal activity including unexplained noises, apparitions, and objects being moved. The property was previously open for public tours and overnight stays, attracting paranormal investigators but is now a private residence with no access to the public.
As someone who has spent several years working as a tour guide at the hall, Joanna knows it well and had a number of strange experiences during her time there. In her talk she will share her knowledge this notorious property along with the unique experiences she had during her time there. While it is no longer possible to visit ourselves, this is an opportunity to hear first hand evidence of the ghosts of Chingle.
