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Conference
explores the unexplained - 20081102
Leader-Telegram staff
By Andrew Dowd
Phantom elephants wandering Brackett Avenue,
a ghost jogging near Vine Street, vanishing werewolves and other
mysterious reports from Eau Claire residents will be retold
at Saturday's 14th annual Unexplained Conference.
Started by Eau Claire native Chad Lewis, 34,
the conference gathers a group of Wisconsin authors to recall
their investigations into the paranormal.
"This year I decided to do it a little
bit different," Lewis said. "They're certainly a
little bit darker than most of my presentations, that's for
sure."
During his half-hour presentation, Lewis plans
on rattling off about 20 tales of ghost sightings and any
historical facts that could have inspired them. Most will
be related to a murder or tragic death, but he said he wants
to keep the stories focused on reports of ghost sightings
and not the grisly details of the deaths that supposedly inspired
them.
Linda Godfrey will use her half-hour of presentation
time to tell stories on strange creatures reported in Wisconsin.
She's been reporting sightings of a man-wolf
since she wrote an article about an account in 1992 while
working at a weekly newspaper in southeastern Wisconsin. She
has since written two books on her research. Godfrey's been
featured on 10 TV documentaries including an episode of the
History Channel's MonsterQuest entitled "American Werewolf."
"I do believe there is some unnaturally
behaving canine," she said.
An Eau Claire man reported seeing a different
creature during the afternoon in 2003 that had some wolf characteristics,
Godfrey said.
The man claimed to see a tall, heavyset creature
with oily black skin, large claws and the face of a wolf without
ears. When the man grabbed for a nearby baseball bat, the
creature turned and vanished.
Lewis' research partner, Terry Fisk, will
discuss different religions interpretation of the afterlife
and then review recent studies of near-death experiences,
psychic phenomenon and out-of-body experiences.
Paranormal investigators Noah Voss and Kevin
Nelson plan on an open question-and-answer session of their
research into phenomenon ranging from UFOs to bigfoot.
"Wherever the audience questions take
us, that's where we'll go," Voss said.
Voss, 30, of Sun Prairie has been investigating
strange phenomenon since he was 8 years old and visited a
friend's house to try and hear disembodied voices of ghosts
using a tape recorder.
In those decades, he said he's had a fair
amount of experiences that he could not fully explain.
Voss and Lewis both say research in the paranormal
continues to be popular through new cable TV documentaries
and series.
"This is what I do full time now,"
Lewis said.
Saturday's conference is intended for both
believers and skeptics alike, Lewis said, and to give people
something spooky to see around Halloween.
"They see the fun and adventure in it,
especially at this time of year," he said.
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