CONVENSIONS - BUTLER PARANORMAL CONFERENCE

..JOE: Saturdays are usually the day that Tara is busy running around collecting research materials, proof reading new articles, or posting the many bulletins on her {-MYSPACE-} about changes and additions on this site as per new articles and events that VISIONS is participating and reporting on. This weekend (4-4-09) made us decide to add a newly featured, ongoing review column to the VISIONSMAGAZINEONLINE.com website: PARANORMAL CONVENTION COVERAGE.

..These stories and reports will be updated accounts and in-person reviews of upcoming conventions, conferences, and shows that we, ourselves will be attending: either setup with a {VISIONS} guest table (please stop by to say “Hi TARA”), or as reporters covering the event. YES, WE DO TRAVEL OUT TO BRING YOU THESE REVIEWS PERSONALLY.

..Our first report, we are very proud to say, was to cover this Saturday’s BUTLER PARANORMAL CONFERENCE 2009 that was held at the Tangelwood Senior Center on Austin Avenue in Lyndora, PA., BUTLER COUNTY. This one kinda covers it all in about 6 hours: U.F.O. experts from around Pennsylvania, a BIGFOOT crypto zoologist, an author on self help/ spiritual enlightenment, Pennsylvania local authors on the history of Pennsylvania haunted locations around the state, to a M.I.T graduated Paranormal Investigator / author backing up his findings with scientific methodology, speaker interviews, guests, numerous vendors, a few raffles being held, great coffee, and you could have even had your photo taken with “The Men in Black” - how cool is that!

..TARA: I prefer to deal with people {DIRECTLY}. I did notice at the show that Rosemary stayed alone at her table and we did {NOT} see her mingling with the guests or attendees at the conference, or even make an attempt to talk to us {we were hard to miss with Joe wearing his “WRITER” hat and us both displaying our “ONLINE PRESS” badges}. We could not find, nor were willing to go through her “Talent Manager” just to speak with her directly for an interview, so we “PASSED”. There were many more APPROACHABLE and GENEROUS people to speak to and work with at the show anyway…

..JOE: Show Promoter Dan Hageman, with this being his 2nd promoted show and is now planning a 3rd, welcomed Tara & I right away - busy as he was, in a very friendly manor, thanking us for taking out time on the weekend to cover his show. YOU ARE QUITE WELCOME AND IT WAS OUR PLEASURE, DAN! I do want to state for the record that this was a -CONFERENCE- as opposed to a -CONVENTION-: the difference being about every 20 minutes, the lights went down in this huge, single room… a speaker went on for anywhere between 70-80 minutes, talking about their specialty with a projected PowerPoint slideshow lecture, then a short Q & A session with the audience. The lights come up for a 15-20 minute intermission and we do it all over again with the next speaker.

..This procedure the 1st one like it that I {personally have experienced} over the years of going to (conventions) captures the attendee’s in speeches & lectures every hour that they {may not} have an interest in and {more importantly} kills the time that the vendors have to make sales (almost all have books to push) with only 15 minutes of room light! A much better scenario would be to have the speakers in a {different room} separated from the vendors – that would {perhaps} increase sales for the vendors and increase the time attendee’s have to chat with the speakers when their lecture is done – hence increasing {their sales}. You wouldn’t go to a shoe store to buy a hat, why would you sit through a U.F.O. speech if you are into ghosts?? Everything -DID RUN VERY SMOOTHLY- for the record and nobody really -seemed to mind- this setup at all. What do I know...

..**NOTE TO PROFESSIONAL SPEAKERS:
..PLEASE, PLEASE... get a 2nd person to operate the laptop presenting your projected PowerPoint presentations! That way, thoughts are not broken up or delayed & you will have a {MORE DIRECT} connection with the audience trying to absorb all of your information being presented – just a thought…

..GUEST OF NOTE: BRIAN SCHILL:

..JOE: Brian’s website is the INTERNATIONIAL PARAPSYCHOLOGY RESEARCH FOUNDATION: {www.iprfinc.com} and he is based out of Aliquippa, PA. which is about 45 minutes from our Monroeville, PA. office. His was definitely one of the most fascinating seminars presented as far as we are concerned as to presenting factual information to our readers here, and for me personally. He deals with the subject of investigation and writings of paranormal occurrences, activity, photographs and findings from a purely scientific perspective {keep in mind that he is a M.I.T grad in Theoretical Physics and teaches college level courses in the explanation of the paranormal}! The basic laws of physics, energy, and matter applied were very easy to understand, made perfect sense, and seemed incontrovertible.

..His “labor of love” is a -556- page manuscript entitled: STALKING DARKNESS, available here : {http://www.lulu.com/content/3865661}. He graciously gave us an autographed copy and Tara is reading through it as we speak. Look for more of Brian's writings here on VISIONS hopefully in the very near future.

..TARA: Although I may not agree with everything in the book, page -33- sums up his definition of the book’s purpose and we quote “For the reader to not only have an accurate understanding of the subjects and procedures that are utilized in paranormal investigation but also gain the ability to carry out an intelligent, logical, rational and scientifically based field investigation.”

..JOE: I asked a question regarding how “CONSCIOUSNESS” can and is possibly transferred / embedded in the body / brains electrical energy escaping after the body’s physical death, this electrical energy still “lives on” taking on another form of energy that could possibly be interpreted as a “GHOST IMAGE” of that particular person. This was a subject that Brian very briefly touched upon in the opening statements of his presentation {almost burying it}, and being that the idea was so estranged from his personal use of scientific methodology, I saw the opportunity for a very challenging question to pose to him after the lecture.

..Let’s face it… Energy is Energy. Electricity does {not know} that it is electricity or where it is going. Electricity has no {sex or personality}. BUT LET’S CONSIDER THIS: Like a laser beam or a glass fiber optic cable that {can} transmit actual digital data via light waves {energy}, could one’s own actual consciousness be considered to be some {form of} data embedded in the brain’s electrical discharges? Brian gave a direct and honest answer which is recorded on his YOUTUBE INTERVIEW. THANK YOU, Tara, for stepping in and shooting the video footage – GREAT JOB!

..GUEST OF NOTE: JOHN VENTRE

..TARA: The first lecture we heard was given by John Ventre, State Director of {MUFON} (Mutual UFO Network) for Pennsylvania and West Virginia. He is also the author of 2/21/2012-A Prophecy. He showed us a map depicting hot spots where sightings occurred on PowerPoint. I didn’t take notes since we do not currently feature UFO’s in our magazine. I have to say, I did personally enjoy his presentation. My knowledge is too limited in this area and if I did dedicate time to this topic, it would take away too much from the other {paranormal} topics at hand in the magazine waiting to be published online as of this writing.

..VENTRE OFFICIAL SITE: {http://www.johnventre.com/}

..GUEST OF NOTE: ROBERT SCHWARTZ

..TARA: Robert is a researcher and author of Your Soul’s Plan: “Discovering the Real Meaning of the Life You Planned Before You Were Born.” He was kind enough to grant us an {EXCLUSIVE} interview after his presentation which covered his book and own personal beliefs & theories. I warned him it would be some verbal jousting from our Asst. Editor / Writer Joseph Robert Jobe.

..Joe presented {his} truly more honest than most skeptic’s perspective and Robert told him how he viewed the situation and stood his ground. It was a very interesting debate and it’s viewable in our YOUTUBE Section in HD.

..I personally believe, as the Editor of Visionsmagazineonline.com that Robert’s material would be a great addition to the Alternative Belief’s Section. Robert’s beliefs did not match Joe’s agnostic approach in any form or fashion. Robert was up the challenge and we thank him and admire his entertaining of and honest response to Joe’s line of very direct questioning.

..ROBERT'S OFFICIAL SITE: {http://www.courageoussouls.com/}

..FREE BOOK CHAPTER DOWNLOAD: {http://www.yoursoulsplan.com/Your_Souls_Plan_Excerpt.pdf}

..MYSPACE: {http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=154843084}

..GUESTS OF NOTE: PATTY WILSON and SCOTT CROWNOVER

..TARA:: Patty gave a very lively and entertaining lecture which expounded upon her skills at historical research of Pennsylvania {supposedly} haunted locations. Patty is extremely active as an author and lecturer in our area and she was very nice and personable to us both. Scott gave us a slide show presentation of his photos taken during the day using his original technique of infrared filtered photography which he believes, during daylight conditions can reproduce images only seen in the infrared spectrum turning day into night. The most impressive EVP’s they both presented were from the Altoona Railroad Museum in Pennsylvania. A few of them were so, so very clear it was as if an actual person in the room was speaking the words. Truly, they presented some of the best EVP’s {as far as} clarity that we have ever heard – EVER!

..OFFICIAL SITE: {http://www.ghostsrus.com/}

..TARA / CLOSING THOUGHTS: We here at Visions would personally like to thank Dan for his enthusiasm and hospitality not only during the convention but prior to us even arriving at the event, and now as we put the finishing touches on this article days after the event for the little pieces we need to make it complete. It was not only beneficial to cover events like this in our Pittsburgh area, sadly that are few and far between, but it was good for {us} to get out there and meet not only some of our readership, but new friends that may - in time - become contributors to this online journal for our readers enjoyment and greater understanding of the paranormal. Would we do it again? Yes, and we look forward to Dan’s next event. Great way to spend a Saturday afternoon.

..PROMOTER DAN / CLOSING THOUGHTS: Thanks again for coming out to our event for the day. I hope you had a good day. Well the event this was another success, we are already planning next year’s event and our line up of guest speakers. As you pulling off an event like this takes a lot of work and I can't thank everyone enough for all the hard work they did for this year’s event. I am glad you got the chance to talk with Robert Schwartz, Brian Schill. Just as soon as we have next years date for the event we will let you know.

..For more info: or call Dan Hageman at 724-284-9734; or Brian Seech at 724-857-3157. {http://www.boru-ufo.com/} (or) {http://www.center-for-unexplained-events.350.com/}

The opinions, beliefs and practices presented within this article are- NOT- necessarily those of the Visionsmagazineonline.com editorial staff. However, we do believe in giving our readers diversity in the many subjects we put forth in front of you. The words in this article are those of the author. They are edited for content and clairification. The Author's methodology, procedures, and evidence presented here in this article are theirs and theirs alone. We are not endorsing nor condemning them for these practices. We are presenting you with information of what other people involved in paranormal investigations today are doing on a worldwide basis. The choice is yours.