The first day of the weird 09 paranormal conference could not have been in a better location than that of Warminster in the mystical county that is Wiltshire. With its ancient stone circles residing in tranquil and magical landscapes, many ghostly tales and hauntings and lastly the history of the UFO flap in Warminster that drew attention from the world in the 1970s.
With the sun shining and a promise of clear skies for the annual sky watch on Cradle Hill that evening the day’s lectures kicked off with a witness to the Warminster UFO flap, Kevin Goodman.
Kevin Goodman
Unfortunately due to a McDonald’s sausage and egg McMuffin on a quick pit stop on the way up, we were unfashionably late. (Sorry Kevin). We know from having seen Kevin’s lectures before on Warminster, for those in the audience that had not seen him previously they would not be disappointed as Kevin is a resounding expert on the Warminster phenomena. Since the tender age of 17 Kevin witnessed the Warminster UFO flap and strongly believes that “something strange and unexplained did actually happen in the area”.
Nick Pope
Nick began his talk on the latest government disclosures in the news again as the MoD have now released the 4th batch of UFO reports to the National Archives. The MoD began to release its files pro actively to demonstrate “open government” back in December 2007 following in the steps of The French. Combined with more UFO FOI requests from the public than that of any other information requested it seems the media no longer treats UFO reports as a “fringe subject” and is taken a bit more seriously. One account that Nick did mention was that of the police helicopter being buzzed by a UFO over The Bristol channel. Nick expressed a comment on this as “I don’t know what UFOs don’t like about police helicopters?” Well that’s easy because no one terrestrial likes police helicopters either!
After a quick caffeine fix it was time for an unusual lecture by Hayley Stevens.
Hayley Stevens
Hayley delivered an interesting and a more rational approach to all things paranormal focusing on what people may in reality be really seeing in supposed ghost pictures as indeed the mind can play tricks. As well as visual tricks of the brain, Hayley also talked about “new house effect “ where people can experience what appears to be haunting in their new home due to unfamiliarity with acoustics that could otherwise be miss interoperated as ghostly bumps in night.
Following a hearty ham and cheese omelette back at the hotel the afternoon’s first lecture was that of our friend Brian Allan.
Brian Allan
Having seen Brian before we knew that we would not be disappointed. Brian revealed his new findings on the 'The Rosslyn Frequency', as he believes a portal is hidden within the chapel linking this world to another. Brian has researched the possibility of the portal being opened with musical notes that are depicted within the chapels beautiful but mysteriously encoded masonry that adorns the chapels ceiling.
Peter McCue
With anticipation and excitement in the air of what the evenings sky watch would bring the last lecture of the day was Dr Peter McCue, a retired clinical psychologist. Peter explored some rather spine chilling ghost stories, past and present and the underlying physical and psychological experiences the “victims had encountered” and more disturbingly why these ghostly manifestations had arisen after spirits of dead being disturbed in their slumber by the livings alterations to old houses and areas of land.
For details of the sky watch see our Reports section! But now, onto Sunday’s lectures…
Joe McGonagle
Joe’s lecture focussed on the way the MoD used to handle UFO cases from the 1950s to more recently and he presents files from the National Archives showing how little resources the MoD had available to investigate reports. Examples of such reports were delta shaped craft appearing on radar off the south east coast of England and also massive 4 mile diameter craft also showing on radar, then appearing to be 2 or 3 smaller but still massive unidentified craft. The bottom line from the MoD was these were of ‘no defence significance’.
Nick Redfern
Nick’s main topic at Weird 09 is the Men In Black. What/who are they? Where are they from? And what do they want? He elaborates that there are more than one type of these MIB, some can be traced to be FBI agents but others are more mysterious. For example there are files that show that George Adamski was visited several times by FBI agents but in cases like witnesses to the Chupacabra phenomenon in Puerto Rico people have been visited by strange MIB that seem very out of the ordinary. An interesting lecture indeed.
Paul Devereux
Paul’s lecture is filled with folklore of Great Britain and Ireland. He talks about the paths once used to carry the dead to their resting place and methods used to ensure they stay there! He talks about fairy paths and fairy trees in Ireland and how it is bad luck to have a property built on these paths and he mentions some cases where families have had severe problems due to living in one of these properties. It was a fascinating lecture and I will never look at an old footpath in the same way again!
Mike Oram
Mike is a fascinating person. He tells of his life long experiences as a contactee, he talks about symbols given to him by an alien race which incidentally match symbols found on secret pictures of a crashed alien craft from the 60s and if all this is not enough he also talks about his abduction experience outside of Area 51 Nevada, by US military! Mike is a genuinely nice guy and is spreading his ‘space brothers’ message of love and raising our vibrational frequencies as he reports a dimension shift is coming which his space brothers are helping us prepare for.
Malcolm Robinson
The last speaker of the weekend is Malcolm Robinson. Malcolm has years of experience of investigating the paranormal and has a wealth of knowledge on the subject. In his lecture he presents some terrific photographic evidence of ghostly apparitions. They are surprisingly clear and can’t be put down to camera or lighting errors. The one I found most surprising was the picture showing the New York city sky line including the two towers, but this was taken in 2008! I’ll be sleeping with the light on tonight…
On the whole it was a fantastic weekend and the speakers were all brilliant. Also worth a mention are the stands set up outside the main theatre where speakers and other members of the ufo community were able to sell literature related to their areas of experience. We snapped up both of Brian Allan's dvds and signed up for a subscription of Steve Gerrard's (ex SUFOG founder) UFONEWS magazine. We also picked up a copy of Mike Oram's symbols and are planning on borrowing our friend Dave (BUFOG chairman)'s copy of Mike's book when he's finished reading it :)
We can definitely say it was one of the best conference weekends we have been to and we met and spoke with a lot of interesting people who we can’t wait to meet again. Roll on Weird ‘10!
ps. Forgot to mention the announcer of all the lectures Ross Hemsworth. Presenter of tv show 'Now THATS weird', director of UFO Congress in Laughlin Nevada and well known investigator of anomalous phenomena, this guy knows a *lot* on the ufo subject. Note to self 'pick his brains some time' (not literally...)
