Kent Paranormal Weekend

Conference season is a favorite of mine. I love going to events because I get to meet the researchers and authors I grew up watching on television and reading their books. I also get to hang out with some of the friends I have made like Ken Gerhard, Nick Redfern, Stan Gordon, and Ron Murphy. It is always a good time so needless to say I was excited as the first conference of the year was coming up.

I live just 15 minutes outside of Kent, Ohio. Kent is a college town, housing the fairly well-known Kent State University. Kent is also known in the paranormal circles for being a haunted hotspot. I was glancing through some of my ghost books before the event and when discussing haunted areas in Ohio, Kent took up a good portion of nearly every Ohio focused chapter.

The conference, simply called the Kent Paranormal Weekend, was held at the infamously haunted Kent Stage - a theater that supposedly boasts several ghosts. I was surprised to find out about it because before this year, I had never heard of the event, despite this being its third year.

Some of the speakers on this year's lineup included Nick Redfern (author of dozens of books about nearly every weird topic under the sun), Jeff Belanger (incredibly awesome ghost researcher that always has a smile on his face), Jim Harold (host of one of the best podcasts on the strange: The Paranormal Podcast), the Ohio Bigfoot Hunters (local group of like-minded individuals who are very nice), and the Haunted Housewives (two lovely ladies who spend their time ghost hunting and leading ghost walks).

I had a great time. I was wondering if I would go to many of the talks simply because I am slightly less interested in ghosts, which was the main topic of discussion, but I did attend quite a few of the talks and panel discussions and found them quite enjoyable.

I was also extremely excited to meet Jim Harold and Jeff Belanger for the first time. I love Jim's podcasts and have looked up to Jeff as a researcher for a long time. I wasn't disappointed. Jeff and Jim couldn't have been nicer. We talked quite a bit throughout the weekend about ghosts, cryptids, and pretty much anything weird and I feel like I came out of it with quite a bit of newfound knowledge.

I also have to give a shoutout to the people at the Kent Stage for hosting such a fantastic conference and running it so smoothly. I will definitely be attending next year and would recommend it to anyone else in the area!

My Journey Around America

Vacation time is always one of my favorite events of the year, three years ago I went to Maine and got to visit the International Cryptozoology Museum. I always try to incorporate my paranormal interests and my recent trip was no exception.
I had the privilege of visiting three of the most historically important cities in America; New Orleans, Gettysburg, and Washington DC (all three of which are considered to be "the most haunted city on Earth" according to all the postcards and tourist traps).

On my visit to New Orleans, I visited a vampire boutique (where I purchased a guide to the paranormal aspects of the city), a handful of voodoo shops, and a witchcraft store (where I got a copy of Psychic Self Defense by Dion Fortune). We also visited the Audubon Zoo which had an excellent exhibit on the Rougarou (a Cajun version of the werewolf. The term is derived from the French Loup-Garu) and Bigfoot's three-toed cousin, the Honey Island Swamp Monster. Needless to say, I got suckered into purchasing a Rougarou T-shirt.

My Gettysburg trip was fairly brief because it was a short stop on the way to visit some friends who live in Harrisburg, PA. We visited a Civil War museum, saw some of the statues and monuments, and went to numerous ghost shops. Gettysburg, interestingly, has no less than five different ghost stores as well as a handful of Wiccan, fortune teller, and other paranormal related venues (and an excellent comic book store). Needless to say, if you are looking for ghost-hunting equipment or a ghost-hunting team to join, you should probably move to Gettysburg.

When we visited Washington DC, we didn't do anything paranormal focused but we did visit a handful of monuments, the National Zoo, and the Smithsonian Natural History Museum (which, unfortunately, did not have any of their prehistoric animal exhibits available to the public due to revisions in the exhibits). The Museum did have a couple sections that were of interest to cryptozoologists, though. They had a neat display about the coelacanth and giant squid, a fascinating exhibit about the thylacine (aka. Tasmanian tiger/wolf), and a stuffed okapi.

Overall I had a wonderful time. Next year we might venture to Florida, so I might go looking for the infamous Skunk Ape!

My sister and I with the terrifying Rougarou at New Orleans' Audubon Zoo

Spiritualism

Spiritualism is the name for the rise in occult studies and attempt to contact the spirit world during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The beliefs were spread by various groups, both serious and fraudulent, that were very abundant during these times. The movement has been associated with the modern obsession with the occult and psychics. Many connected to the spiritualist movement turned out to be frauds but there were some genuinely believing groups. The movement is also considered to be the rise of psychics and fortune-tellers.

The roots of the movement can be traced to Kate and Margaret Fox, sisters who claimed that spirits were communicating with them through a series of knocks and taps but were later shown to be frauds. After the Fox sisters went public with their claim, many followed. Spiritualism was extremely popular among minorities, mainly because of their belief in equality for all. Spiritualism also claimed to be the middle grounds between religion and science, and because of this, spiritualism was demonized by most religious orthodoxies. During World War I, spiritualism gain many supporters in Europe, mainly because spiritualism supported the belief of spirits of the dead lingering. Over time, spiritualism gained a more political standing and was further frowned upon.

Spiritualism’s most popular idea was that through the right equipment and ritual, you could contact the dead. Contact was done through things such as seances, specific boxes used for communication, discussions through mediums, channeling, and automatic writing. The two best known people who were active in the spiritualist movement, either against or for, were Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Harry Houdini.

Spiritualism is still popular today. Psychics, frauds, and ghost hunters are quite common. As many as 41% of people in the United States believe in a form of psychic abilities and as many as 35% of people in the U.S. believe in ghosts and spirits. There are many television shows that focus on the ‘adventures’ of those who appear to search for the unknown.

Sources

The Encyclopedia of Ghosts and Spirits by Rosemary Ellen Guiley

Foundations of Parapsychology by Hoyt L. Edge, Robert L. Morris, John Palmer, and Joseph H. Rush