Most of the premonitions that we experience in our lifetimes are harmless: you think of an old friend, and they call you moments later, apparently unprompted. But what if you had a vision that something very particular and very terrible was going to happen?
The Premonitions Bureau is the true story of the psychiatrist John Barker, who established the titular initiative with the Evening Standard in the late 1960s. His aim? To collect subconscious forebodings from the public, with the aspiration of preventing otherwise unpredictable disasters. In the face of professional ruin, public humiliation and personal tragedy, Barker’s studies of ‘percipient’ individuals and their visions led him to chilling discoveries, not all of them explicable.
In this enthralling story of science, the supernatural and paranoia, Sam Knight (staff writer at The New Yorker) burrows into the strangest reaches of the human mind. Join Sam Knight at Foyles as he discusses The Premonitions Bureau with the author, journalist and social commentator Travis Elborough. The discussion will be followed by an audience Q&A and a book signing. Doors will open from 6:30pm.
Image credit – Olivia Arthur / Magnum Photos