Myths and Legends of Prague

There are so many stories about Prague that you might be persuaded to think that some of them must be at least partly true, but I cannot promise anything of that sort. What I can promise is surprising and interesting tales that you are unlikely to have heard before.
This Wednesday (19th of February) at 18.30 I will be giving a lecture on the Myths and Legends of Prague at the office of Euro Resor (Kungsgatan 47, Uppsala).
This lecture is a part of the promotion of the trips I am arranging to The Magical Prague together with Euro Resor. Incidentally the 19th of February is actually the next to last day to register for the trip and there are not many places left. More about the trip here.

What can you expect from the lecture?
This is a sample:

The Founding Myth
The War of the Maidens
The Murdered Saint
At the Bridge
A Man of Clay
The Astronomical Clock
The Teleportation at Loretta
The Death of an Astronomer

For anyone interested to learn more about the myths and legends of Prague including about all the astrologers, alchemists and scoundrels in general, on location, the trips to Prague are planned for the 20th and 27th of March and are 6589:- all inclusive. We will also see a lot of the historical, romantic, and cultural side of Prague. In fact you will see all the things regular tourists sees, we just add a bit of magic to your trip. Visit Euro Resor to book your trip today and come to the lecture, or just come to the lecture.
More about the event here.

To become an expert

This Wednesday I happened to pass by a room where a lecture was held. I will not divulge who was talking to whom. Partly because I want to protect the innocent and partly because I don't know. What I did notice was that the woman giving the lecture just had one slide. At least all the times I was looking there was the same slide projected. Instead she used the white board to write some things and draw some curves.
What was important enough to be projected on the screen all the time was her name and that she had a diploma from some place and was certified by someone.
Perhaps I am beginning to be cynical but for me “certified” more and more mean “had-someone-print-a-page-whit-my-name-on-it”. Becoming an expert seems to be easy today, either just say that you are or pay someone else to say it for you.
I certainly don't know that the person I saw was a fake expert, I just get suspicious with people that point to their credentials in that way. A real expert should be able to show that they know their topic by talking about the topic.

Lecture

For anyone who is interested and somewhere around Stockholm on the 7th of Mars 2012 I will give a semi-public lecture. It is a part of a lecture series with the title ”Vetenskap och ovetenskap” (Science and non-science) arranged by Björn Fjæstad for Senioruniversitetet i Stockholm (Stockholm Senior University) together with Folkuniversitetet (The Peoples University).

Beside me a number of very talented and interesting people will be speaking. Anna Bäsén will be talking about alternative medicine (that is treatments that has either not been proven to work, or proven not to work) the week after me. After her Martin Rundkvist will be talking about pseudo archaeology. Martin has been speaking at the lecture series that I arrange for my church in Uppsala and the speaker that follow Martin will as well have been here. CJ Åkerberg will talk about conspiration theories in Uppsala the 12th of January and in Stockholm the 28th of Mars. Everyone mentioned above I know, some more than others. Than there are two more talks one about parapsychology and the other one about the radiation from mobile phones and the so called electro-sensitivity that some people suffer from; the suffering is real although the cause of it is disputed.

If I was older I would make sure to attend this lecture series myself. To attend you have to sign up for the lecture series and pay the fee of 500 crowns.

Mind over matter or just an illusion? My recent performance for UFO Sverige 25th October. Photo by Håkan Blomqvist.

I usually do not write about the performances and lectures that I do since I consider it to be something between me and the people that hire me.
About a week ago I did a lecture/show for UFO Sverige (a Swedish organization that studies UFO reports) and I have no problem quoting from what others have written about that event.
Unfortunately for international readers it is all in Swedish.

En av höjdpunkterna var när mentalisten/trollkarlen Per Johan Råsmark från Uppsala körde en nästan två timmar lång kombinerad show och föreläsning. Per Johan, som jag träffade på Missionskyrkan i Uppsala för en månad sedan då han bjudit in mig dit för att prata om ufo, visade sig kunna läsa tankar, böja skedar och få oss att välja de siffror och kuvert som han ville att vi skulle välja. Kul och lärorikt var det!

This was written by Clas Svahn in his report about the conference my lecture/show was a part of. Clas' blog for UFO Sverige can be found here.

Håkan Blomqvist also writes about the conference and my performance.

En fascinerande programpunkt var ett föreläsning/show av mentalisten/illusionisten Per Johan Råsmark. Han visade, med en kombination av psykologi och fingerfärdighet, att man kan lura vem som helst att man besitter magiska krafter, kan telepati, böja skedar med mera. Allt var förstås bluff men vi var många som undrade hur i alla världen det gick till. Onekligen mycket skickligt.

It is possible to read the entire blog entry from Håkan here.