Do you boo-lieve? Paranormal convention coming to Greene
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Interested in the paranormal? You can get the lowdown on ghosts, UFOs, Bigfoot, cryptoids and all sorts of eerie and peculiar sightings at Greene County’s first-ever Haunted Conference on May 18 at the EQT Rec Center.
Five of the region’s most experienced and well-known paranormal investigators will give presentations from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. as part of the Southwestern Pennsylvania Haunted Con. The all-day event will then move at 6:30 p.m. to the allegedly haunted Hartley Inn in Carmichaels for a doubleheader including “Paranormal Pies and Pastries,” an investigation of ghostly goings on accompanied by an all-you-can-eat dessert buffet.
Tickets for HauntedCon and Paranormal Pastries are $20 and $25 respectively and available at eventbrite.com, or at the door until sold out.
“We’re excited to have a great lineup of investigators as speakers, a good selection of around 20 quality vendors and Paranormal Pastries all in one day,” said Kevin Paul, one of the presenters. “The goal of SWPA HauntedCon is to jump start paranormal tourism in Greene County, and this is a good start.”
Last May, Paul and co-author Rosemary Ellen Guiley released a book titled “Haunted Hills and Hollows: What Lurks in Greene County Pennsylvania.” After getting some local media coverage, the book was featured in an article published in the Observer-Reporter and picked up by the Associated Press. A month later, in June, the book attained bestseller status on Amazon, according to Paul.
At SWPA HauntedCon, Paul will discuss a new, currently untitled book co-authored with Guiley that again focuses on Greene County paranormal experiences. Paul expects the book to be released by the end of July.
Steve Hummel from Archive of the Afterlife: The National Museum of the Paranormal in Moundsville, W.Va., will discuss how he first got into the realm of the paranormal and some of the things in his museum’s collection.
“I like to leave a lot of my presentation open to Q&A because it’s better to respond to what people want to hear rather than just telling them things in a talk,” Hummel said.
Some of the items in his museum collection, located at 1600 Third St. in Moundsville, include the electrocution cap worn by prisoners executed in the West Virginia electric chair, a haunted ventriloquist doll called Charley, a haunted portrait of a women named Annie and an embalming table, circa 1930s.
Another presenter will be Stan Gordon of Greensburg, who became interested in UFOs and other strange incidents in 1959 at the age of 10. With 60 years of research experience including the purported UFO crash-recovery incident near Kecksburg on Dec. 9, 1965, Gordon said he has never personally seen a UFO or Bigfoot. However, since he established a sightings hotline in 1969, he said he’s seen a lot of physical evidence of Bigfoot and made casts of footprints of the alleged creature.
“Last year saw a significant surge in Bigfoot activity,” he said. “People actually sent me photos and videos and outdoorsmen and hunters reported hearing strange sounds they didn’t recognize. People in Southwestern Pa., including several in Greene County, have reported Bigfoot sightings, some even during the day.”
Over the years, Gordon has come to think that there may be more to Bigfoot sightings than meets the eye and that they may be interdimensional beings, something he’ll discuss in his talk.
“Some of the people who’ve reported sightings are very credible and include policemen, teachers and scientists,” Gordon said. “I also received dozens of reports last year about UFO sightings and Thunderbirds, flying creatures with 10- to 20-foot wingspans.”
“At HauntedCon, I plan to discuss things most people never heard about before,” he said.
From Fenwick, W.Va., Dave Spinks has been investigating paranormal claims by people for over 30 years. He said he had his first Bigfoot sighting at age 13 while he and his grandfather were fishing along the Gauley River. He also claims that one night his other grandfather visited him in a dream from his home 30 miles away the night before he died. It wasn’t until the following morning he learned his grandfather had died that same evening.
A retired federal law enforcement officer with eight years in the Air Force, Spinks has authored two books – “West Virginia Bigfoot” and “Real West Virginia Hauntings.” The latter is a compilation of case files he’s investigated as well as local lore.
“In my presentation, I’ll discuss paranormal activity in West Virginia including ghosts, monsters, UFOs, you name it,” he said.
Visiting from Leavittsburg, Ohio, husband and wife presenters Joey and Tonya Madia will give two PowerPoint presentations that include slides of ghostly images, orbs and sketches of interdimensional beings they’ve reportedly seen both separately and together in travels to New Jersey, West Virginia and North Carolina.
The afternoon presentation is titled “Ghostesses, Portals and MIBs (Men in Black): Our Haunted Life So Far.” In the evening at the Hartley Inn, they will present “The Art and Craft of Modern Investigation.”
In addition to being a self-described psychic medium, Tonya is licensed in Reiki and is a massage therapist and a certified yoga instructor. Joey is an author, editor and co-author with his wife of a book titled “Watch Out for the Hallway: Our Two Year Investigation of the Most Haunted Library in North Carolina.” Tonya also authored a book available on Amazon titled “Living the Intuitive Life: Cultivating Extraordinary Awareness.”
“Along with Tonya being a medium, we also do a lot of investigating with electronic measuring equipment as well as a lot of historic research and interview people who’ve lived in the haunted sites,” Joey said. “We also consider quantum physics and synchronicity (coincidence) as factors in our researches.”
Joey claims that his family lives in a haunted house where they see ghosts (an older man, a boy and a women probably in her 30s), hear phantom footsteps and see things move and get misplaced, only to reappear later.
According to Joey, the couple has presented their research at libraries, museums and paranormal events and have attended the Mothman Festival in Point Pleasant, W.Va. In October 2020, they are scheduled to be presenters at the Fright Fest in Fort Wayne, Ind.
Following their presentation, those who attend the presentation at the Hartley Inn will also enjoy a dessert buffet of pies, cakes, cookies, gobs, cupcakes, cream logs and more prepared by the inn.
For additional information, visit the SWPA HauntedCon Facebook page or contact Kevin Paul, 724-255-0464 or hauntedgc@yahoo.com.
For additional information on speakers visit their respective websites:
Dave Spinks: https://www.davespinksparanormalinvestigator.com/
Steve Hummel: contact info stevesgymandfitness@yahoo.com or visit the Archive of the Afterlife https://archive-afterlife.weebly.com/
Stan Gordon: http://www.stangordon.info/wp/
Rosemary Ellen Guiley: https://visionarylivingpublishing.com/writer/rosemary-ellen-guiley/