By Dale Faulken

LONDON (Reuter) - Vampire hunters, Ufologists and experts on the sexual aspects of ancient British fertility religions met Sunday to debate whether people really landed on the moon and whether alien abductions are real.

The 1,200 delegates also sat through lectures on mermaids, reincarnation, ghosts and the evolution of the vampire at the ``Unconvention'' sponsored by the Fortean Times, Britain's journal of strange phenomena.

``It's nice to meet our readers and have a forum for cross-disciplinary discussion,'' said Fortean co-editor Paul Sieveking.

Now in its 23nd year, the Fortean Times is dedicated to the work of Charles Fort, a U.S. philosopher who said most scientists tended to formulate theories according to their own beliefs rather than the rules of evidence and that inconvenient data was ignored.

``The Fortean attitude can be applied to virtually anything -- which is one of temporary acceptance rather than committed belief,'' Sieveking said.

Some delegates argued that the U.S. National Aeronautic and Space Administration (NASA) had ``faked'' still and television photographs of the U.S. moon landings and, by implication, the moon landings themselves.

``There is no proof (of the U.S. Apollo moon landings) other than what NASA tells us,'' said David Percy, a professional photographer, who told delegates that close scrutiny of photographs taken by astronauts on the moon ``indicated'' they may have been manufactured on film sets on Earth.

``I was a sceptic but now I do believe there was a cover-up,'' said one photographer after listening to Percy's lecture.

Delegates also watched film footage supposed to show the autopsy of a six-fingered and toed alien visitor in 1947.

``I can't believe 1,000 people are sitting in silence watching this rubbish,'' said one sceptic who left the lecture hall half way through the presentation.

Many of the delegates bought T-shirts with the alien's pre-autopsy head embossed on the front.

Members of the Raelian Movement, who handed out leaflets to all delegates as they entered the ``Unconvention'' doors, hope to build an ``embassy'' for extraterrestrials, who would otherwise ``not have any official channels to use to establish contact'' with Earthlings.

For six pounds ($9), the Raelians will reveal what a journalist named Rael was told by a UFO alleged to have contacted him nearly 23 years ago.

Fortean's Sieveking said he ``reserved judgment'' as to the validity of any of the arguments put forward at the ``Unconvention'' this weekend.

``We like to sit on the fence,'' he said.

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