FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

DARKNESS EVENTS FLOATS NEW CONCEPT IN PARANORMAL CONFERENCES

New Event On Haunted Ship Offers First Ever Paranormal Science Fair

     LONG BEACH, CALIFORNIA—As anyone who has investigated the paranormal can tell you, we can learn a lot from ghosts. But in these times of modern technology, we’re learning more about them, and a new event on a very haunted ship aims to further education and innovation in the field.

     The Queen Mary, anchored off the coast of Long Beach, has become a go-to destination for those looking to experience the paranormal.

     While the ship has been the site for several paranormal conferences in recent years, Darkness Events and radio host Dave Schrader are offering a new angle for people looking to visit a famous haunted landmark and learn from some of the most influential names in the field. Their upcoming conference is more than some famous ghost hunters talking at a notoriously eerie location–it is the first paranormal science fair, looking at some of the newest technologies moving the field forward and inviting new investigators to bring their inventions and ideas for a chance to win the money to make concept become reality. 

       From September 10-13, Darkness Events will conduct daily workshops and lectures to educate people about ghosts, the paranormal ideas shaking up the field and the new advances in equipment the heavy-hitters are using.

     Darkness Event’s Psience Fair offers patrons a complete package for those looking to investigate and learn. The world of paranormal science comes together with paranormal personalities, as speakers from both sides of the field present their ideas on ghosts and how to document them. Speakers include Chris Fleming of the Biography Channel program “Dead Famous” and Unknown Magazine; Jeff Belanger, author of books such as “The Encyclopedia of Haunted Places” and director of Ghostvillage.com, the web’s most popular ghost site; Patrick Burns of TruTV’s “Haunting Evidence;” Bill Chappell, creator of the Ovilus and Paranormal Puck, as featured on A&E’s “Paranormal State” and The Travel Channel’s “Ghost Adventures;” Gary Galka, creator of the Mel-Meter, and Paul Bradford of CreepyHollowGear.com, considered one of the ‘MacGyvers’ of the paranormal investigation field.

     Darkness Events is also excited to report Robert Bess will appear at the event.  Bess, best known for the infamous 2 Mile Lock Experiment, will look to reproduce the paranormal results he was able to get on national television. 

     Unlike other conferences, the Psience Fair not only invites attendees to bring their own equipment to investigate the Queen Mary, but looks to reward people who are moving the field forward. Part of the conference will be an actual science fair where up-and-coming ghost hunters can test and share the tools they are creating and using in the field. More than $3,000 will be awarded in grant money to those investigators who truly have something new to offer.

     Tickets range from $75 for single-day access to the lectures to $199 for the complete package, which includes two full nights of investigating the very haunted ship. For more information or to purchase tickets, please visit www.darknessevents.com.

ABOUT DAVE SCHRADER: Dave has had an active interest in the paranormal since early in his childhood, when he was visited by the spirit of his deceased grandmother. Continued activity and experiences has kept this passion alive. Dave is the host of Darkness Radio, one of the most successful radio programs on the paranormal, and has appeared on television programs such as A&E‘s “Paranormal State.”

ABOUT DARKNESS RADIO/DARKNESS EVENTS: “The Darkness on the Edge of Town” radio program is one of the world’s leading paranormal talk shows. Airing Saturday and Sunday nights on KTLK-FM in Minnesota, “Darkness Radio” features the top names in the field along with weekly segments such as paranormal news, book review and “tech talk” for paranormal enthusiasts. The program, which began in 2006, also streams and podcasts each episode through its website, www.darknessradio.com.

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For more information or to schedule an interview with Dave Schrader, contact ParaRelations at (781) 799-2883, or via email at balzano@para-relations.com. Also, visit the trip-specific website at http://www.darknessradio.com/TRIPS/PSIence/index.htm.

JUNE 30, 2009

PARANORMAL IN THE PANHANDLE

Eastern Panhandle Paranormal Conference Coming to Martinsburg on August 29

     MARTINSBURG, WEST VIRGINIA—It’s going to be Ghost Time at the Apollo.

     On August 29, the world of the paranormal will descend upon The Apollo Civic Theater in Martinsburg as APG Conferences produces the inaugural Eastern Panhandle Paranormal Conference. Some of the top names in the field, as well as a number of local paranormal authorities, will be on hand to share their knowledge with others who have in interest in all things supernatural.

     “Our goal is to bring paranormal exposure to areas that have not had an opportunity to meet others with an interest in the supernatural,” said Anthony Atha, founder of APG Conferences LLC.

     The event will be an all-day affair, with doors opening at 9 a.m. Shawn Kelly of Pittsburgh Paranormal Society will open the conference at 10 a.m. with his presentation, “Do Spirits Exist?” Sharon Kincaid of Southern Atlantic Paranormal will then discuss techniques on “Improving the Study of the Paranormal.” She’ll be followed by Vince Wilson, one of the paranormal field’s most technologically-savvy minds, who will discuss applied science in ghost hunting.

     After a lunch break, Rie Sadler of Eastern Paranormal Research will discuss historic haunts of the Old Line State, and she’ll be followed by presentations from Joey Ward of West Georgia Paranormal Research Society and Russ Noratel the Baltimore Society of Paranormal Research. Susan Sheppard, a psychic medium who has been featured on such television programs as ABC Family’s “Scariest Places on Earth,” will then take the stage, followed by a lecture entitled “The Re-Haunting of Gettysburg,” by John Sabol, the “Ghost Excavator” seen recently on A&E’s “Paranormal State.”

      Later that evening, the event will conclude with a Victorian Séance and Message Circle led by Sheppard.

     Tickets are just $25 for basic admission, and an additional $35 for admission to the séance/message circle. VIP packages can be purchased for $70, which includes both basic and séance admission, as well as guaranteed seating in the first three rows of the Apollo. Vendor tables are also available for $50, with one basic admission included.

     For more information or to purchase tickets, please visit www.eppc.eventbrite.com.

ABOUT APG CONFERENCES LLC: Founded by Rev. Anthony Atha, APG Conferences LLC is committed to bringing the best social conferences to those with an interest in the paranormal. APG has already produced conferences such as the Morgantown Paranormal Conference and the Western Pennsylvania Paranormal Conference, and looks to expand with events in Maryland, Ohio and other states in near future.

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For interview requests with any of the participants or to cover the conference for your news media outlet, please contact Anthony Atha at (202) 280-2556 or visit APGconferences.com.

this article originally appeared at the Ghostvillage News section at www.ghostvillage.com/news

Ghosts do not discriminate. The mass of haunting that go documented, especially in this time of local paranormal investigators, are found inside the home where a family suffers through things they cannot explain. In an era where evidence gained through investigation motivates many of the teams out there, the purity of a residence is the best testing ground for the science of ghost hunting. Is there a need then for paranormal landmarks, those national and international locations most people in the paranormal community can rattle off by memory?

Anyone who has ever been to a famously haunted location knows it is hard to gain any evidence that cannot be disputed. Groups walk around behind each other creating orb photos with their flashes and EVPs with their constant chatter about how great it is to finally be at Waverly Hills. Many are not even open to investigators. People can name the DeFeo children by heart, but they have never been there. They know the genealogy of the families but have never stepped foot in Dudley Town. They will never have the funds to travel to the Queen Mary or Eastern State Penitentiary, but they know of them, and go to chat rooms to discuss them.

That may be why they are needed. Haunted landmarks are the common denominator for the paranormal world. Ghost hunting is still considered deviant behavior, but reading about ghosts and watching the paranormal media is not. Someone who would never investigate a house can visit the Lizzie Borden Bed and Breakfast can escape for the night, touch the paranormal for a brief time, and then go back to their normal life. There is no commitment so they can drop in, like someone visiting a Web site about ghosts, and allow that small indulgence to satisfy their curiosity.

The same is true for people who make an investment in the paranormal. There is no better place to meet other people of a like mind, especially from different parts of the country, than to show up at a landmark and get a conversation started. These locations become touchstones for people, something in common to begin a conversation about other locations you have investigated. They also become concrete hauntings for people, something others can relate to. Someone way have investigated two dozen houses, but it becomes more relatable when they can say they have been to the Winchester House. Others now know where you are coming from, and the weight of the back story becomes part of your paranormal resume. They carry these locations as part of their personality, often fighting to keep them open when they become endangered.

Perhaps the most important social aspect of haunted landmarks is their exposure to the world. Trends come and go and our national attention span is unpredictable. These buildings remind the world that ghosts may exist. They contain the constant paranormal motifs that people apply to ghosts (the abandoned military base, the haunted asylum, the place of a famous murder), so they keep these ideas, and the idea of what a ghost is, fresh in people’s minds. Jeff Belanger is famous for saying a building is usually haunted by the most famous person associated with it. These landmarks become the most famous person, and the details surrounding them become a remembered narrative to ghost hunters and casual paranormal consumers alike.

In the coming months there will be more conferences and events making the pages of Ghostvillage News. Organizers and promoters have caught on to the power of these landmarks to draw people in, so many are choosing to hold events at famously haunted locations. We will offer as many as we can to you, so try and take advantage. They offer a unique look into those places you have only read about before while presenting you with some quality speakers.

Our draw to our ghost landmarks continue to help define the paranormal, and that may be truest reason why they are needed. They cay something about who we are as people, and if a society can be revealed through its ghosts, they represent our need to connect to something bigger, especially in a field asking the big questions.

this article originally appeared on the Ghostvillage News page at www.ghostvillage.com/news

In any field it is hard to remain relevant generationally. Influence is passed from age to age in stories, like a father telling his son about a man who once was great. Very rarely do they look at the same person and say he defined each of their times, and when it happens, the figure takes on a timeless quality. If it is hard to catch the spotlight, it is harder to remain there for decades, with each person learning a fresh lesson from a new lesson taught. Dr. Hans Holzer has beyond influential. He remained relevant.

After sixty years at the forefront of the paranormal, Dr. Hans Holzer passed away this Sunday, April 26, 2009, at the age of 89. He was born in Austria in 1920, but moved to New York in 1938, shortly before the darkest days of World War II. While so much of his early life was influenced by his time in Europe, he became a New Yorker at heart and stayed there until his death, often using the city as a base of operations for his investigations. His education might have seemed like a mixed bag to someone looking in from the outside, but it helped him carve out the name he would carry with him into a profession many people with his degree of education frowned upon.

Over the next half century he worked on some of the most recognizable cases in the paranormal world, including the case in Amityville. Authoring more than 130 books on the supernatural, he was prolific and also delved into plays, screenplays, and works of fiction. “He was so comfortable with the audience, speaking to them as if they were all old friends,” remembers fellow paranormal writer and research Brad Steiger, “He exuded a natural charm. He seemed genuinely happy in his work, and he maintained a high-level of enthusiasm for investigating the unknown throughout his life.”

Holzer was the transition from the old giants of the paranormal community to the new, but in many ways his work never went out of style, even with the advent of technology he sometimes frowned upon. His work was about documentation and observation and getting your hands dirty, but he believed spirituality and the human’s ability to communicate were as essential a tool as a piece of equipment. With these ideas he laid the foundation many investigators build on today, and to know about ghosts usually means having read at least one of his books.

Dr. Holzer had the unique ability to have one foot planted in the past, reaching back to the giants like Harry Price, and still be able to communicate with the newer generation. Over the past sixty years, there have been few who have managed the public face of the paranormal better. He was not only a mentor to those in the field, be became the funnel through which the general public learned about the work of paranormal investigators.

Part of Holzer’s appeal lay in his approach to the paranormal. His career spans shifting ideas, often conflicting with one another, on ghost hunting. From parlor room chic to outside the lines to the scientific movement of today, his methods remained rooted in a genuine place and transcend trend. A mix of research, investigation, and psychic evaluation his techniques have proven to be almost a necessity for modern investigators. Even if his ideas were in conflict with a person’s belief, and those ideas were strong and specific enough to cause conflict, the ghost hunter still referenced his words.

In an interview with Jeff Belanger of Ghostvillage, Dr. Holzer once said, ““Fear is the absence of information. Fear is created by not understanding something. You bring on the fear.” His passing marks a transition for all who knew him and all who found comfort or influence in his words. We understand more having been touched by him and his work, and even in his passing he has taken a bit of the fear away.

The medical world describes it simply as “sleep paralysis.”  Our body shuts down during REM sleep to keep us from
acting out our dreams and hurting ourselves unknowingly; there are occasions when we awaken too soon from a dream and the paralysis lingers. There’s nothing more to it than that–or is there?

One out of every five people on Earth experiences sleep paralysis with a menacing presence once or many times in
their lives. Often , they keep it to themselves for fear of being labeled as paranoid or delusional. A normal and very
frightening human experience is often though to be a psychotic event, commonly misdiagnosed as schizophrenia if
the victim continues to insist that their experience was real.

Three hundred years ago, sleep paralysis and all of its ghosts and demonic visions were common knowledge in the West, often sought as a means of enlightenment. Today, we believe we are enlightened enough to know that these things don’t exist.

And yet one in five people…

What began as an exploration by filmmakers Paul Taitt, Andrew Barnes and the Soul Smack production company
quickly became a thought-provoking view into one of the most misunderstood human afflictions. What was supposed to be a movie about people suffering from a little-understood medical condition blossomed into an odyssey touching upon some of the most basic human fears.

Your Worst Nightmare: Supernatural Assault is a documentary told through the stories of those who suffer from terrifying nocturnal attacks, and those who look to explain them. From the campuses of Harvard and Penn State University to the bedrooms of the victims, Your Worst Nightmare resonates with those searching for an answer and those still too frightened to ask the question.

The medical world had a clear explanation for sleep paralysis, but Soul Smack discovered more.

Something might just be waiting for you to fall asleep.