What is the Glastonbury Symposium?

Mell Turford interviews Andy Thomas, discussing how the Glastonbury Symposium has evolved from a small gathering centred on the crop circle mystery into a full conference that covers a wide range of unexplained phenomena. Andy emphasises the importance of critical thinking, creativity, and community, and highlights that this year the symposium is focusing on UAPs, artificial intelligence, astrobiology, astrology, plant medicine, and freedom of expression. Also find out more about the availability of tickets for the Glastonbury Symposium/where to get them and the process of selecting speakers.

Creators & Guests

Guest

Andy Thomas

Andy Thomas co MC of Glastonbury Symposium is also one of the UK’s best-known authors and lecturers on unexplained mysteries, global cover-ups and free expression, and is author of The New Heretics and the acclaimed books The Truth Agenda, Conspiracies and Christmas, among other titles. He also lectures on history and British folklore and speaks extensively in Britain and around the world at both ‘alternative’ and mainstream events. His books have been widely praised as the finest available overviews of their subjects.

What is Glastonbury Symposium Podcast?

Edited excerpts given @ Glastonbury Symposium. Full Talks will appear on the Main website's YouTube channel. This podcast is produced for Glastonbury Symposium by BroadcastMediaUK.com

Jingle 0:02
Welcome to the Glastonbury Symposium Podcast.

Mell 0:11
To find out more about Glastonbury Symposium, which is one of Britain's longest running and mostly acclaimed alternative conferences, I'm speaking with Andy Thomas is one of the most prolific lecturers and speaks in many countries. He's been an annual speaker at the Glastonbury symposium since 1994. And, and Andy's powerful presentations at the event are renowned, which I have to say Andrew is a master at using PowerPoint in a creative and entertaining way. He became co MC in 1999. And a role he continues to this day, and he's one of the core administrators for the symposium. So welcome, Andy.

Andy Thomas 0:46
Hello, very nice to be here.

Mell 0:47
So first off Andy, when when is the next Glastonbury symposium and in the style of an elevator pitch to new people? What basically is it?

Andy Thomas 0:57
So we're about to kick off for our 34th event, unbelievably, between 26th and 28th of July this year, and we call the Glastonbury symposium, but we appreciate that doesn't immediately tell people what we are. So we always had subtitles and our subtitle nowadays, is "expand your horizons", because we live in times where despite information being available everywhere, there is a lot of censorship, there is a lot of discouragement of questioning anything that is orthodoxy. And you know, we believe that that is not a good thing. And we also think that gathering with like minded individuals that are trying to look beyond the mainstream media is a very important thing to do. The internet is wonderful, here we are. But it's not enough in its own right to actually meet with people and see speakers standing on a stage actually talking at you in a real room with this is very powerful. So we're trying to make people look at the world around them. We look at unexplained mysteries, we look at freedom issues, we look at new science, health, you know, we get into mysticism and spirituality in a way that I hope will will kind of introduce people to it if they are new, but equally go into new depths. For those that know what we're about.

This is a very tall building Andy :-)

It is yeah, it's the Empire State Building.

Mell 2:22
So how did this symposium actually start? Where was the beginnings of it?

Andy Thomas 2:27
The spark for it was the crop circle mystery. So if you go back into 1990, we just had this wave of these very complex crop circles, because up to that point, this mystery had been around, but it had been generally simpler patterns. And then there was this burst of almost hieroglyphics shapes. So a very fine man called Roland Pargeter. A Glastonbury resident, as you might imagine, thought, we need to be talking more about this. And bear in mind that, you know, this was just before the internet really got going. So the only way to find out what was going on in the fields was to actually turn up and talk to people. And so it was a way of getting a load of people together. And the first one was a fairly small affair over the blue note, cafe in Glastonbury. But it was very vibrant people packed in there, everybody was excited about the crop circles, they wanted to know what was going on. And that's how it began. And then each year, it kept going. And then of course, people realize we need to see the crop circles in a wider context. And so then other, you know, different subjects got introduced, and people began to bring new things in there. And it gradually became a much bigger full conference, not just a talking shop, when people were discussing all kinds of ideas to indeed, expand our horizons. And we still cover crop circles, even now, we'll always make sure we go back to it, because whether you think they're alien, natural or manmade, it actually in a way doesn't matter. They make people think, and we still believe that they are worth discussing, and we still believe they're not explained. So here we are all these years on incredibly, yeah, 34 years on. And yeah, there's still a lot to discuss. We never get bored.

Mell 4:17
It's an incredible achievement to be going that long, and people continually are just discovering what it's all about. So, you mentioned that the crop circles. What are some of the other veried topics though? How varied is varied?

Andy Thomas 4:29
Just take this year for instance. So you know, if anybody wants to look at the website, you will see, we've got people speaking inevitably about UFOs or as we now must call them UAPs Unidentified Aerial Phenomena that is now the official designation, its not very different but that's the way it is. There's a lot of revelations going on about that. There is certainly more disclosure than there has been, especially after the congressional hearings last year. So we got a very good speaker called Alan Foster talking about that. I will also be talking about that in my presentation because I think that it's very important. We're going to be discussing artificial intelligence, which is huge. We've also got people talking about astrobiology, astrology, and also plant medicine, we've got people coming along to talk about, you know, all kinds of aspects of our health. Even cryptocurrency, we got Geoff Stray, very well known Glastonbury resident talking about Chartres Cathedral. And the very clear attempts to cover up the more mystical side of the labyrinth that is in that cathedral. So you know, the things like that, that that isn't just not spoken about enough in the wide, wider mainstream. So we've got all of that we have got, you know, people talking about freedom is so important to keep freedom of expression alive. And so we've got a lot of that, we've got Andrew Collins, fantastic, ancient mysteries researcher, he is wonderful. We have got Tanishka, she is an Australian lady who began as a comedian, and then then realize, actually, she had more serious things to say, but she's still very entertaining, she's going to be talking about the Holy Grail, and what that really means in today's world, and what it represents about kind of reclaiming, you know, our connection with the with the land. So that's very Glastonbury. But it's got a much wider importance to it, every avenue of inquiry, we cover. And if we don't cover it this year, we'll probably cover it next year, which is trying to reach out but to say, Look, these are things that are not being talked about enough in the mainstream, so we are going to talk about them, but in a wonderful environment in Glastonbury, which is, of course, a fantastic place, if you've never been there for historical, you know, quite magical. And we make it a magical experience, you know, we dress the room up with wonderful banners and paintings. And the idea is, when you go into the symposium, you're entering a different world, you're going into a different headspace. And I think that you know, something that's been very important for people coming over the years.

Mell 7:02
So what sort of people attend the symposium?

Andy Thomas 7:05
We get quite an international attendance. I mean, if you ever ask people we sometimes do, right, who's from whichever country, you find there's people from all over the world that are coming in as well, of course, as people here in Britain, they can be very varied. I mean, you've got your kind of standard mystical speakers, and therefore you've got mystical seekers coming into then hear what they've got to say, I say, standard, I don't mean that rudely. You've also got, of course, people coming who are more interested in the scientific aspect of things. And we've always tried to balance you know, areas of the unexplained with evidence, you know, we want people that can show look, there really is something to this, you've got people that are coming in more to hear, like, what's the latest science here and all this skeptic word, of course, dismiss this science. But we've long ago learn to dismiss the skeptics because that, you know, they are closed in a way that I do not believe is helpful in these times. So ya know, it's a real mix. And what's lovely is that that's the thing, when you are there, in an environment all together, you get to talk to people. And then you find that there's a very wide variety of people who are coming, and then you exchange your ideas, people have made incredible friendships there over the years, and you realise you are not alone. Because it's very easy, even online to think, well, you know, is it just me in my social circle that thinks like this, and then you turn up at the symposium, and you realise it is, and that is very encouraging, and that will often set people up for the year ahead. And they go from symposium to symposium, you know, buoyed up by what they've learned, and then we'll do it all over again the next year to get some more information. So it's very, very, but really, really wonderful bunch of people. And there's always new people coming in. So it's great to see fresh faces, and they soon realise the way it works. And, you know, they usually drawn in very quickly, themselves.

Mell 8:56
You mentioned about the making of friendships now, what else do you think people get from attending, actually attending the symposium?

Andy Thomas 9:03
I mean, there's something about Glastonbury itself, of course, I do think where the Glastonbury symposium happens is very important to it. So you've got everything going on in the hall. We've got a wonderful cafe with lovely whole food and things like that their stalls, where people are selling things and displaying things. So you know, some people just come in off the streets and come in and wander around just to see the environment, and then think, Oh, actually, I'm going to buy a ticket while I'm here because you can come in and see the stalls for him anyway. So you've got a lot of variety of experience there. But then if you are attending either the whole weekend or just a day or two there, you can also in between think, okay, I'm just gonna take a break and, oh, hey, there's Glastonbury. You go out the door and you got lots of wonderful cafes and you got the Tor up the road. You got the Chalice, Well, you got all of these places, literally on the doorstep. There's something about that whole experience. It enhances what we do. And we also reach out beyond the hall because on the Thursday, before, we also send a coach tour to see the crop circles of Wiltshire. You know that is another aspects, we try and get out there. And that's something that you can book separately from the main event. So it's more than just sitting on a chair watching somebody, like I said, you're in an environment that that's very beautiful. And, there's something about it, which just makes you feel really good about being alive, just by being there. And I know I'm biased, because I'm one of the organisers. But you know, we hear this from so many people every year. So yeah, it's an experience isn't just three days in a hall it, you know, people do come out of it feeling very changed often by what they've experienced. And then, indeed, you know, what they've heard,

Mell 10:49
if you can't travel this year, even because it's so close to attended, is there any way that you can access this online? And if so, can you do it just a bite size? Or do you have to enroll for the whole thing,

Andy Thomas 11:00
We now live in the modern world, for the last few years, we've been live streaming, because we recognize that there are people that would love to come and they're either there in another country or too far away in England just can't get down. So we do now live stream, most of the whole event, unless there's any reason why something wouldn't work. But mostly, you can literally just click first thing in the morning, and you're there. And it will be live streamed to you all throughout the whole weekend. Later on, we usually take highlights, and we'll put some of them up on YouTube. So you know, after a while, they do filter out but the only way really to experience it is to get a live streaming ticket. They're not expensive, we're trying to reach out and make it you know, as available to everyone as we can. And it's funny because those that say, oh goodness, I'd really love to be there or be there again, and now they can't get there for whatever reason they have all said but this is the nearest you can come to it, you see everything you see all the intros, you see what's going on there. And it's wonderful. So you know, even if you can't get there, or you want to find out what this is all about live streaming, and it's great and really will feel connected to it and everything that's going on there.

Mell 12:10
Now I know these kinds of events are up there always better if you go there in person. So where can people get hold of the last few tickets for this year, where's the best place they can head for

Andy Thomas 12:21
Basically, the website, if you go to Glastonburysymposium.co.uk In the UK, or you can also if you're outside the UK, just go to expandyourhorizons.com. Either way, you're gonna find us and all the information on the speakers, all the booking the tickets, it's all there on our website. And it's very easy, nice, easy ticket selection system. So you can come for the whole weekend, which obviously we'd love you all to, you can come for a day. But the weekend itself, we don't do online sales, but we do say because sometimes, you know, some people go out and you get a few spaces in the hall that you can try and come in for an individual lecture over the weekend. But that's a gamble. And if there's no seats left, obviously you won't get in, but you can do if you live in Glastonbury, for instance, and just wondering by thinking who's on at the moment, that is also a possibility. But obviously pre booking is really the way to do it. And the same with the streaming tickets, you can just get them all from the website. So yes, thats glastonburysymposium.co.uk

Mell 13:27
I have to ask, like, how do you find the speakers? Because they're all unique? They're, they're all specialists in their own field? How do you track them down?

Andy Thomas 13:36
Yeah, it's a lot of work. So I'm in the main speaker selector. So if somebody doesn't like to speak that you can blame me. But that said, we all pitch in ideas, sometimes we know the kind of thing we want, we always try as much as possible to get people with some kind of pedigree, you know, we've either seen them speak or somebody that we trust and respect to seem to speak, or we found them online. And, you know, because you can be a very good speaker to a camera. But not everybody is so good at addressing an audience of you know, 200 people or whatever in the room, plus all the other people watching on the streaming. So we always try to find people who are actually good at communicating ideas, and can hold an audience that's very, very important for us. So yeah, I mean, I spent a lot of time each year looking around trying to get what's what's the key thing here, you know, like, What haven't we covered? Like, for instance, this year, you know, we got a guy called Sam X, who's a brilliant sort of inspirer about cryptocurrency, but he's not necessarily trying to sell it to you, but he's saying this is what it is. This is what it does understand it, and we need that. Because certainly, you know, there's still a lot of confusion around what that is. So we thought, yeah, we've not covered that. Let's do that. So that's been been a very good thing to do. You know, you get personal recommendations, or somebody says, My God, I saw this speaker, you're gonna get this guy. So it's just constantly keeping your eyes and ears open and yeah, trying to keep The varied program, but always always trying to look beyond what is out there in the mainstream and you know, get people that are going to challenge your thinking, if you come out of there thinking, oh, yeah, well, I knew that we probably failed if you came out thinking, wow, I didn't know that. Oh, my God, I feel really strongly about this now. Well, then, hopefully, you know, we've achieved something. And that's what we're trying to do.

Mell 15:21
What's always amazed me when when I've gone along to them is the zeitgeist is picked up from the presenters. And none of them actually share notes that don't tell each other what they're talking about. But the seems to be a theme that sort of develops over the weekend.

Speaker 1 15:35
That is absolutely right. It's not planned. What I what I feel about that is that that does suggest that, you know, the Glastonbury symposium, it somehow it's heart is in the right place, and it does tune in to what's going on. Now, obviously, you're gonna get a bunch of people together, they're all going to know what's going on in the world and have similar concerns. But yeah, you're right, that there is a theme that will often emerge over the weekend that nobody knew was coming, because you don't always know exactly what the speaker is going to say when they get up on the stage. And it melds together. And I think that's really wonderful. And in my own presentation, I'm always on 930. On a Saturday morning, I always try to kind of encapsulate that. What is the now what matters to people now, and hopefully, you know, that that will often spin off to other speakers. But often, I'll find that the people who come on before me have already anticipated some of the same themes. So that's good, it means we're all tapping into something that we all feel strongly about. If you go the whole three days. And you come out Sunday evening after the final speaker, I mean that hopefully, you've really got an insight into what matters. And you've really been inspired to go out there and do something about it, or at least just to know now that you have a greater understanding of, you know, what is going on in the world. And we know, there's so much changing at the moment. There's so many challenges. And it's nice to get something that gives you an insight, real insight to that. Not the the Mad nonsense that we're hearing but all the electioneering going on at the moment, let's get beyond that. Let's get to what really matters. And I think the the Glastonbury symposium has always done that. And I'm not boasting. I mean, long before I became one of the key organisers, it's always had that from the very beginning. And, you know, I've been very honored to be a part of that for many long years now.

Mell 17:20
It's an incredible chance for people to get a different perspective on things that they think they know thoroughly. And then somebody goes, have you looked at it from this, this angle. And it's amazing that each speaker manages to open those doors and just makes you go away, giving it some more thought, instead of just accepting what's gone before.

Andy Thomas 17:40
I think the trouble is, we do live in an age of terrible censorship. I know that we've got the internet and everybody thinks she can find out everything, but it's actually getting harder. Because the mainstream companies have clamped down on anything that they now declare as conspiracy theory, or, you know, if they don't like the alternative, like Wikipedia, which now seems to be doing its best to pretend there is no alternative thinking, it means that these kinds of gatherings actually matter all the more, but you know, you'd like to think we'd live in a world where there really was real free expression. But that's the does seem to be getting clamped down on at the moment. So you know, we're not we're not people abdicating come along and shout your polemic, uh, you know, we wouldn't have anything to do with hatred or anything like that. But you know, if it's within reasonable boundaries, we want to hear things that, you know, are not being given the airtime that they should be in the mainstream. And, you know, we want to hear orthodoxy being challenged, where it needs to be challenged, but always with an aim of making people feel a bit better about the world, but just the very act of talking about these things. It offers hope, and come out of there, hopefully feeling Yeah, we can do something and inspire to, you know, do your bit. And we've always encouraged people to do that. You know, if you've just sat there for three days, and just come out and gone. Yeah, that was fun. And that's, that won't be disappointed. We want people to come out thinking yeah, right now I'm gonna do my own little bit here. Whatever small thing I can do, I'll do it. And we do hear from people that you know, this symposium and all the wonderful speakers that come they do seem to inspire that and that, of course, makes it worthwhile keeping doing every year. It's a lot of work the whole team, they will put incredible efforts into making this work. But it is worth it.

Mell 19:24
So to recap again, just you will have fired up somebody, somebody will be listening and going. I want to know more about this. Where's the best place for them to go again to look for tickets and to find out more about the symposium.

Andy Thomas 19:35
The basics is held in Glastonbury Town Hall wonderful venue bang in the middle of Glastonbury easy peasy to get to this year. It's 26th to 28th of July with crop cycle coach tour on the Thursday before on the 25th of July. Glastonburysymposium.co.uk is our main website. If you also want to check out expandyourhorizons.com it will go to the same website and there you will find all the booking details easy ticket ordering all online. They can also contact us we do have a phone number. Yes, we're not AI there is a real human being if you really need to speak to somebody good luck, Diana Brown, my colleague, so we're very accessible. All the speaker details, all the schedules, everything you need to know. It's all up on our website. So check it out. Glastonburysymposium.co.uk.

Mell 20:28
Thank you very much for your time there Andy. And I look forward as I always do to catching some of these because the speakers are always phenomenally good and varied than that. And that's what I love about Glastonbury symposium.

Andy Thomas 20:39
Well thank you and I look forward to seeing you there.

Speaker 2 20:42
And thanks to Andy Thomas, who's the co MC at Glastonbury symposium since 1999, and one of the core administrators for the symposium. Do remember, you can select the transcript to see everything that has been said, or to find website addresses. Whilst I have your attention. Do subscribe to this podcast, as there are plans to play extracts from the huge library of past presentations over the years and information of where you can find the full length videos, including slides of each presentation that will be featured

Jingle 21:16
The Glastonbury symposium podcast, where we select and play extracts from some of the many talks given at the Glastonbury symposium, which is the UK is longest running and leading alternative conference held annually in Somerset, UK. If you want to find out more about the Glastonbury symposium, then visit their website which can be found at Glastonburysymposium.co.uk. Whilst here, remember to subscribe so that you are notified when new episodes are released. Expand your horizons