Now with ACIQ and ARPS

In recognition of his achievements in photography, Dr Leo Ruickbie has been awarded Accredited in the Creative Industries Qualification (ACIQ) and Associate of the Royal Photographic Society (ARPS).

Lucky Charms in the First World War

Leo Ruickbie’s chapter ‘Lucky Charms in the First World War – Industrialized Magic’ is published in Katharina Rein’s anthology Magic: A Companion (Peter Lang, 2022).

Are Robots Haunted by Electric Ghosts?

Technology can already bring back the appearance of the dead, but as machine learning and quantum computing push the boundaries of the possible, will Web 3.0 create Heaven 2.0?

The First World War and the Paranormal

Dr Leo Ruickbie’s research project on the First World War and the paranormal resulted in 9 articles, 4 conference presentations, a website and a book, Angels in the Trenches.

On the Jury of the Fortean Film Festival

Leo Ruickbie Joins Judging Panel for the Fortean Film Festival This year’s Fortean Film Festival has seen a record number of entries with 162 logged so far and I’ll be joining a fantastic panel of experts to judge them. The festival features a wide range of categories and multiple opportunities for recognition. Judging will take…

Life After Death in the Express

Major UK Newspaper Interviews Dr Leo Ruickbie About His Bigelow Contest Win With the headline ‘It’s the real million-dollar question: Is there life after death?‘, the Daily Express devoted a double-page spread to my contest-winning essay on life after death. Journalist Jane Warren chose to feature my favourite case from my essay ‘The Ghost in…

Canberra Times Ponders Life After Death

Bigelow Contest Features in Australian Newspaper The Canberra Times has published an article by Jane Goodall on the Bigelow Institute for Consciousness Studies essay contest on the best evidence for life after death. Launched last year, the contest drew 1,300 hopefuls to apply to take part, with just one in six passing the rigorous requirements….

Secrets of the Raven Master

Following the disapearance of Merlina, Dr Leo Ruickbie interviewed Yeoman Warder Chris Skaife, the Tower of London’s Raven Master.

Bigelow Contest Awards in Las Vegas

Winners and runners-up in the Bigelow Essay Contest gathered in Las Vegas for an award ceremony at Bigelow Aerospace. Robert Bigelow, the founder of the Bigelow Institute for Consciousness Studies (BICS), and Colm Kelleher, its Director, handed out prizes totalling $1.8 million in front of a large audience on Saturday, 4 December 2021. Dr Jeffrey…

Fellow of the Royal Historical Society

Leo Ruickbie is Elected a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society At a meeting on 26 November 2021, the Council of the Royal Historical Society elected 95 Fellows, myself among them. Founded 1868, the RHS is a British learned society promoting historical research based at University College London. It is a great honour to join…

Bigelow Contest Winners Announced

The Bigelow Institute for Consciousness Studies has announced the prize winners for its contest to find the best evidence for life after death. And three people have found it. I had known for five days that I would get a phone call on Monday the 1st of November, the day of the announcement – five…

The $1,500,000 Question: Is There Life After Death?

Shook up the world of psychical research At the beginning of 2021, an American businessman shook up the world of psychical research by unexpectedly announcing an essay competition to present the best evidence for proof of life after death. Robert T. Bigelow, property developer and aerospace entrepreneur, offered $1.5 million in prize money to try…

Elves, Erlendur

Tribute Issue to Erlendur Haraldsson Bringing the Paranormal Review to an end seemed the sensible thing to do, after all, I always had to preface it as ‘the magazine of the Society for Psychical Research’. The simplest thing, then, was just to call it that. And now, along with the Journal of the SPR and…

Shortlisted for Food Photographer of the Year

My picture of a steaming hot pot photographed in Ha Long, Vietnam, is shortlisted for the Pink Lady Food Photographer of the Year 2021. The picture was taken during a meal at the end of the 2nd International Life Science and Parapsychology Studies Association Forum and Sixth Sense Mind Sport Competition in Ha Long in…

Photography Exhibition

My photograph ‘Ausgang’ has been chosen for an international photography exhibition in Rome this year. Produced by LoosenArt and taking place in the Millepiani Gallery, the exhibition is on the theme of ‘Language’. Shot in the Staatsoper Hamburg (Hamburg State Opera House) last year, the photograph captures a prophetic moment before the world went into…

Is There Life After Death? (2)

Call for Chapters Is There Life After Death? Vol. 2: Case Studies Edited by Dr Leo Ruickbie and Robert McLuhan for the Society for Psychical Research Rationale It is one of the fundamental questions that everyone will ask themselves, but in an age of global pandemics, with the increasing challenge to once universal religious certainties…

Phantasms of the Victorians

Funding Enables New Research Project The John Björkhem Memorial Foundation has awarded a research grant to enable the launch of my new project ‘Phantasms of the Victorians’. The project will analyse a largely unknown and unexamined case collection and a well-known but under-researched collection, both from the late Victorian Period, as means of advancing our…

26 Reasons Why the Evidence Has Been Ignored or Rejected

The Magazine of the Society for Psychical Research, 1 (2021) The global pandemic has re-focused attention on the ultimate questions. The new year has crept slowly out of its hole, only to be greeted with more of the same. A raven has forsaken the Tower of London prompting suspicions that the old prophecy is fulfilling…