Following his sudden redundancy from financial services in the City as a wealth manager Charles Veitch began to question the meta-narratives of money, power and control. He subsequently launched himself head first into the emotionally charged world of conspiracism, looking for explanations as to who controls money, and therefore the world. Having gained notoriety and infamy from his anarchic videos on YouTube, and many appearances on BBC News, ITV, Russia Today, CNN, and Channel 4, he was selected by the BBC to go on a 10 day Conspiracy 9/11 Roadtrip through New York, Washington DC and Philadelphia, where he met experts from the FBI, CIA, and the designers of the Twin Towers. Luckily for Charles, hearing reasoned and evidenced logical explanations from people supposedly involved in the "inside job of 9/11", he very publicly changed his mind, amidst death-threats, hacked websites and a massive online cyber bullying campaign headed by Alex Jones, David Icke and their conspiracy theory followers.

Charles Veitch is a 33 yr old absurdist film-maker. He grew up internationally in an expat family in the oil-business. He was schooled in Edinburgh and has a MA (hons) Philosphy from the University of Edinburgh.

NOTE: due to scheduling difficulties this talk will not take place in our usual venue. The alternate venue will be posted as soon as it is confirmed so check back here for further updates.

UPDATE: We've managed to secure Cafe Muse inside the Manchester Museum for this talk. We'll be crossing the road to Kro Bar for drinks for any who wish to join us!

The Third Reich was a large, complex, modern state with a thriving mass media, diverse population, and fruitful trade and cultural links with the rest of the world. The ideology behind National Socialism drew upon well-established strands of nationalist and racialist thinking as well as centuries-old anti-Semitism, and the Nazi Party and its government used cutting-edge technology and techniques to give these ideas the broadest possible audience and appeal. All too often, this baffling web of networks, policies and overlapping interest groups, which changed constantly over the twelve years the Third Reich lasted, gets reduced to the ideas and actions of just one man. From the top of the ivory tower, to the very bottom of the bottom half of the internet, this talk will explore what Adolf Hitler means to all of us, and how our obsession with him is sucking the meaning out one of our most potent historical symbols: the Holocaust.

Victoria Stiles is a final-year PhD student at the University of Nottingham, as well as a member of Greater Manchester Skeptics. She is writing a thesis called "Reading the Enemy: German Publications on British Imperialism, 1933 - 1945" and occasionally blogs about her sources and what it means to "do" history at tattyjackets.blogspot.com.

Hydesville. 1848. Two sisters stumble across something otherworldly: an ability to communicate with the dearly departed. The Fox Sisters took their séance on tour and are the people most responsible for the Medium and Spiritualist craze that continues to this day.
What tricks and deceits did the Fox Sisters employ and what of the Ouija Board or Spirit Slates that came later? What about levitating objects and people? Mumler’s Spirit Photography? Ectoplasm? What of the last woman imprisoned for Witchcraft- if indeed she was?
Edinburgh Skeptics founder Ash Pryce brings a collection of tools and toys and will recreate elements of a Victorian style séance and reveal just how they did it. As a group you will take part in a theatrical experiment- just how convincing were those Victorian tricks and will they still convince today?

Featuring flying tables, Ouija Boards and ectoplasm, this popular show attracted regular full houses during the 2013 Edinburgh Fringe.

Ashley James Pryce (or simply Ash) returns to Manchester for the concluding part of his psychic trickery trilogy!

Whereas research into the historical origins of Christianity began in Germany in the nineteenth century, and revealed the Roman political origins of much of Christianity and the Bible, serious historical research into the origins of Islam is of much more recent date.
Guy Otten will present a talk outlining what recent scientific and scholarly research has to say about how Islam came about, and what reliable evidence there is for what was happening in the Middle east around the time of Islam’s foundations. He will summarise the evidence from the fields of history, linguistics, archaeology, textual analysis, numismatics, etc.
Whilst rejecting Islamophobia, the irrational fear of and prejudice against Islam and Muslims, he will explore the rational basis for criticism of Islam.
Guy Otten is Chair of Greater Manchester Humanists; he is a Member of the Board of Trustee of the British Humanist Association; he is a BHA accredited Humanist Celebrant; he is currently writing a book on the origins of Islam.