If you were lucky enough to participate in Phenomena Con the first go round, chances are you jumped at the chance for the second. This time, as with the last, Curiosity triumphed over fear. The three day conference ran from Friday night to Sunday night from September 18-20, focusing on talks in the evenings for audiences in the United States. Greg and Dana Newkirk, owners and creators of the Traveling Museum of the Paranormal and the Occult, learned many things from the last conference, making this experience smoother and even more inclusive than last time.
For those who didn’t have a chance to participate, Phenomena Con is the first ever online paranormal convention. When COVID-19 hit the United States, the Traveling Museum and many professional investigators and speakers lost chances to speak at conventions. For those used to the convention circuit, you know how important having a table and talks can be for the wallet. Greg and Dana Newkirk sprang to action and created an online streaming experience for fans of the paranormal and the occult. Thus, Phenomena Con was born. The first attempt was in May, and it was a huge success. For people who are unable to travel, are differently abled and have never been able to experience a convention, those with social anxiety, and those who are overwhelmed by a convention setting, this new method was an absolutely blessing. 8 hours of talks and you could do it from your room without pants or convention hall food? Sold. Even better, there’s a group chat where participants can share links, talk briefly, and ask questions during the conference. During the last convention, the group chat was clamoring for information on when the next could be held. I’ve made a ridiculous amount of friends from these subtle internet interactions.
The chief complaint of the last convention was after the talks were over, they were gone. This meant that international fans were up at odd hours to catch the information. The talks are of course, proprietary information and the bread and butter of many of the speakers. This time, videos were left up until the start of the next day’s talks, allowing participants to go back and take notes on items they’d missed, gave international viewers a chance to catch up, and still protected the topic so speakers don’t lose out on their livelihood when conventions move back into conference halls. With video views in the range of 600 and above during most of the livestreams, its a pretty fair guess that none of us would have been able to do that outside of a Hall H San Diego Comic Con.
Also knew this edition were after hours activities, such as a talk with the Hellier cast, a live podcast, and a game night.
The music and transitions were absolutely on point, and more than once the group chat featured comments like “man, I need this soundtrack,” “this beat slaps,” and other highlights of praise. I loved the fact that now during breaks instead of just brief clips of past museum activities and scenes from Hellier (I will always watch these, this is not a complaint), there were short films and documentary pieces. This included a piece called We Come in Peace on the Storm Area 51 attendees, Conspiracy Cruise, and a creepy film about the emotional toll of being an alien abductee Prefigured by Zeshaan Younas. Anthony Cistone played music from the show Hellier, which is somehow both comforting and unsettling in equal parts.
For the science minded, the academic and the truly curious, this weekend topped last Phenomena con. Viewers had time with folklorist and Slenderman aficionado, Dr. Andrea Kitta. Talks included Dr. Dean Radin, Dr. Eric Wargo and Dr. Kieran O’keefe. If your interests are more Psi and ESP based, or you want to know the science behind the afterlife, all were mind-blowingly good. Both Michelle Belanger and John E.L. Tenney returned from the first Phenomena Con, and as always they used their incredible amounts of knowledge and experience to blow minds. Shannon Taggart discussed her experiences in Spiritualism hotspot Lillydale, New York.
A surprise standout was Nathan Isaac from the upcoming Penny Royale podcast. Fans of Hellier will recognize Nick as the person who scared the hell out of the crew when they went to Somerset, Kentucky to investigate. Turns out, the weirdness of Somerset goes even further than even Hellier suspected and most of us watched with dropped jaws and minds blown as Nick spilled the tea. OH, and in the realm of spilling the tea Adam Berry was the sassisest ever in his talk about how to be a team player when being involved in a ghost investigation. He mentioned a few real life experiences, and while not able to say anything due to contracts, there’s a pretty big chance we’ll see Adam Berry and Amy Bruni on television again soon. I loved watching Amy Bruni call him out in the group chat. Amy returned from the first convention, completing her talk Sunday night.
What stood out about this conference was the increase in female speakers, all experts in their fields. More often than not, in occult and parapsychology circles there tends to be amplified male voices, so it was a blast to see representation in speakers. I am hoping for a BIPOC push for the next one (fingers crossed on a next one). Not only did we have Amy Bruni back, but we had Laura Tempest Zakroff teach a course on Sigils, Katie Fox show how to use tarot cards as a tool (and Hall and Oates), and Linda Godfrey break down the world of cryptids in the American midwest.
The only downside to the convention is how dangerous it is for a wallet. With so many amazing speakers, podcasts, books and Patreons to support it is possible go broke fairly quickly. As with the first Phenomena Con, Amazon rapidly sold out of the speakers’ books, and often rocketed them to the #1 spot on their particular subject. In short, great for the speakers but hell on the credit card. Still, I now have a huge wish list for anyone needing to find a birthday gift for me. I totally bought the sweatshirt.
