The idea that John the Baptist was in truth John the Drowner, a man who facilitated life changing re-births by actually inducing near death experiences, got big laughs from the packed crowd.
Dr Rupert Sheldrake, aged 73, biologist, author and originator of the morphic resonance concept, was the guest speaker.
His dry wit combined with a fascinating range of life experiences, including halucingenics, made him the perfect guest for The Odditorium - a portal into the fringes of culture.
Sheldrake is a maverick; his morphic resonance concept is not accepted by the scientific community as a real phenomenon, which resulted in TEDx removing his talk from their youtube channel.
He is currently writing a book which includes the three areas he chose to focus on - meditation, pilgrimage and ritual.
Sheldrake highlighted the practical benefits of each and encouraged various ways of including them in our daily lives.
His examples tended to have an Anglican bias (his chosen church) which he balanced out by including his communion with psychedelic drugs.
The question/answer section to finish was most entertaining, especially when the host Dr David Bramwell asked Sheldrake if he would choose a Bowie or a Prince pilgrimage.
His answer is to be found on The Odditorium's podcast of this talk at oddpod.com
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