2017 East Coast Paraconference - August 11, 12, 13

If you're looking for a good time with some fascinating speakers talking about the paranormal and some down-home Maritime hospitality, then I hope you'll join me, Greg Bishop, Micah Hanks, Ryan Sprague, Chris Styles, and all the other great speakers next weekend at the 3rd annual East Coast Paraconference in historic Liverpool, Nova Scotia. The irrepressible Tim Binnall will also be popping by for the third year in a row, so it's kind of like a "New Cabal" gathering..

My good friend Greg returns for the second straight year, and will be speaking, in the loosest of ways, about Roswell's 70th anniversary, and what it means for the study of UFOs (which he tells me will get into his intriguing co-creation hypothesis). Ryan is best known for his interest in and work on the subject of UFOs, and he will no doubt work the subject into his talk "Beyond the Bermuda Triangle: Visiting Other Mysterious Triangles Around the Globe." Micah will be wading into some truly thought-provoking ideas with his presentation on "Magic, Mysticism, and the Molecule." Chris will, of course, be offering an extensive presentation on the Shag Harbour UFO incident, which celebrates its 50th anniversary this October.

Historic Liverpool, Nova Scotia, home of privateers, rum-runners, and plenty of ghosts!

Other speakers will be tackling subjects such as the Oak Island mystery, consciousness and remote viewing, and psychic mediums. The local Crossed Over Paranormal Society, who conduct investigations along Nova Scotia's very haunted South Shore, will also be there, presenting some of the things they have discovered and experienced over the years. They will also be running the evening ghost walks and paranormal investigations, which are always great fun.

I'll be kicking things off with the keynote presentation on Friday evening, where I'll be talking about my experiences over the past few months shooting the first season of our television series Haunted. I'll also be giving folks an exclusive preview of some of the most interesting evidence we collected, as well as some of our scariest moments when we were filming.

You can find out more about this year's festivities here. Hope to see you there!

Paul Kimball

Aaron John Gulyas on View 902

In the debut episode of my View 902 Podcast last December, I chatted with my friend historian Aaron John Gulyas. We covered an eclectic range of subjects, including  the strange life and times of Albert K. Bender and his role in creating the Men In Black mythos (the subject of Aaron’s presentation at the 2016 East Coast Paraconference in Liverpool, Nova Scotia), why people gravitate towards the Extraterrestrial Hypothesis as the go-to explanation for UFOs, Ornette Coleman as a metaphor for consciousness, and some 19th century American history, including a debate over who really won the War of 1812. We also fielded a couple of questions from a message forum on The Paracast radio show, and conclude with a shocking revelation about President-elect Donald J. Trump.

Aaron is an historian, author, lecturer, and sci-fi nerd. He is an associate professor of history at Mott Community College in Flint, Michigan, and also serves as a faculty technology consultant for the college’s Center for Teaching and Learning. His books include The Chaos Conundrum: Essays on UFOs, Ghosts, and other High Strangeness in our Nonrational and Atemporal World, The Paranormal and the Paranoid: Conspiratorial Science Fiction Television, Extraterrestrials and the American Zeitgeist: Alien Contact Tales Since the 1950, and Conspiracy Theories: The Roots, Themes and Propagation of Paranoid Political and Cultural Narratives.

East Coast Paracon 2015

Just an FYI that I'll be speaking at the 2015 East Coast Paracon here in Nova Scotia this coming August. You can get the lowdown at their website. Whilst I was sorely tempted to talk about the Roswell slides, my actual presentation will be about my ghost investigating exploits from my 2009 TV series Ghost Cases, as recounted in my book The Other Side of Truth: The Paranormal, The Art of the Imagination, and The Human Condition.

Hope to see you there!

Paul Kimball