13/06/2014

Please join us for the lecture "Music and the Paranormal" by Dr. Melvyn Willin on Friday, June 13th at 8 pm at OSLO10, Oslostrasse 10.

The lecture is part of the exhibition program of SOURCE AMNESIA. From seeing words to hearing voices, SOURCE AMNESIA displays text and sound works originating from subconscious processes and extrasensory perception.

Curated by Franziska Glozer, Margit Säde Lehni and Michael Zaugg.

There are a number of phenomena that baffle science by not obeying the laws that we have been led to believe are true. Brief mentions will be made of music as a possible agent in telepathy experiments and music that was claimed to have been heard when no physical source was available. In addition to this an unpublished experiment into past-life regression involving music phenomena will be outlined as well as research into the hearing of music at near death experiences. However, the main thrust of the talk will concentrate on the purported channelling of music from dead composers and performers. This will include the comments of historical characters such as Jesse Shepard, Florizel von Reuter, Charles Tweedale and Jelly d'Aranyi as well as details of interviews given to me by 20th and 21st Century composers and performers such as John Tavener and John Lill. So-called ‘musical mediums’ will be discussed with reference to the validity of their music and the claims attached to their works. The main person highlighted will be the English musical medium Rosemary Brown. If time permits further examples will be taken from the triple CD ‘Okkulte Stimmen – Mediale Musik’ and other audio examples from Dr. Melvyn Willin’s own collection.

Melvyn Willin was born in St Albans, Hertfordshire. He was educated at Francis Bacon Grammar School and then took degrees at several British universities including doctorates in musicology at Sheffield and history at Bristol. He was closely associated with Bob Morris at Edinburgh University for several years. In 1971 he started teaching the guitar and formed the world touring Essex Guitar Orchestra soon after. His other musical activities have included teaching in schools, colleges and a prison and he has published three guitar tutor books and other music arrangements. Willin devotes a large amount of his life to the study and lecturing of psychical research. He is the Honorary Archive Officer to the Society for Psychical Research and was the Events Officer and Editor of the Ghost Club Magazine. He frequently speaks at conferences and publishes articles in academic journals. In the last few years he has published several books including Music, Witchcraft and the Paranormal (Melrose Press, Ely) Ghosts caught on film, and Paranormal caught on film David & Charles, Exeter). He has also produced a triple CD collection of auditory anomalies in conjunction with the Frieburg Institute in Germany. Recent research includes Perrott-Warrick scholarships into the study of Near Death Experiences from the perspective of music; the efficacy of witchcraft spells in modern society and recently alleged paranormal demonstrations within the martial arts.