It’s surprising to hear a paranormal investigator talk about how much she loves physicists. Jackie Milligan, Co-Founder of the Central Texas Paranormal Conference (which runs Oct. 6 - 7), loves modern technology, scoffs at people who think every house more than 20 years old is haunted by demonic spirits, and never expects to see a kid’s head spin around in circles before vomiting epic quantities of pea soup. As an open-minded sort who invites skeptics to her events, she was more than happy to tell the Austin Post what goes on behind the scenes at a paranormal conference.
Milligan is one of many entrepreneurs who see Austin as a growing “third coast” city. With the majority of paranormal conferences on the East Coast and a handful on the West Coast, she said there was a surprisingly strong pent-up demand for something in the middle. “Between South by Southwest, Austin City Limits and the growing local film industry, Austin is really growing and getting a lot of attention. People want to visit here.”
That was a little surprising, since Austin isn’t exactly known as a hotbed of paranormal activity. Milligan acknowledged that other than the Driskill Hotel, the Governor's Mansion and a few historic downtown bars that used to be anything from private homes to brothels, Austin doesn’t have a reputation for supernatural activity. Luckily, the conference isn’t a TAPS (The Atlantic Paranormal Society, seen on shows like Ghost Hunters) investigation. It’s really a chance for people interested in the paranormal to swap notes on experiences, share stories of their own investigations and spend a couple nights partying in a town known for good music and open minds.
The Driskill reportedly has ghost issues.
This Isn't TV. A Real Investigation, No One Gets Thrown Against a Wall
“It’s not what people expect,” said Milligan. “A lot of the TV shows are dramatically enhanced for your viewing pleasure. People run around and act insane. In reality, a lot of paranormal investigations are really kind of boring - until you start reviewing the evidence.”
In addition to panels hosted by Britt Griffith and Kris Williams of SyFy’s Ghost Hunters, Friday night parties and discussions about the most modern ghost-hunting techniques, the Central Texas Paranormal Conference will host three paranormal investigations during the weekend. Since paranormal investigators find Austin a little quiet, two of the investigations will include day trips to nearby sites.
Ghost Hunters Kris Williams and Britt Griffith.
“It’s kind of crazy. The TAPS guys brought us a lot of respectability. If I walked up to a building owner and told them I’d like to just walk around all day, maybe hang out with a dozen friends for a few hours, they’d tell me I was crazy. When I tell them I want to do a paranormal investigation, they open their doors to us and welcome us right in.”
Once those doors are open, investigations mostly consist of walking around the property, talking about the history of the place, recounting why people think it’s haunted, then sitting down with their equipment and quietly waiting. It’s a bit like curated indoor camping with a spooky edge.
“People are really easily spooked,” said Milligan. “They’ll be terrified of everything. It’s kind of embarrassing at the time, but when you’re reviewing the evidence later, if you hear a child’s voice on the recording and there weren’t any children there or a direct answer to a question you just asked and the voice doesn’t belong to anyone who was with you in the room, that’s when it gets really exciting.”
Popular culture dictates a lot of the expectations people have who are new to investigations of the ghostly realms. Milligan said in the Victorian era, they expected ethereal transparent apparitions. In the 1960’s, people would make reel-to-reel recordings and play them backwards in search of supernatural messages.
“Now, six out of ten times I’m leading an investigation full of people who’ve never been to a haunted location before, someone is going to start acting like a demon is trying to possess them every time they walk through a doorway. They’ll say they feel hot breath on their neck or something suddenly growing in their ear. It doesn’t matter that no one has ever encountered anything like it at that location before, nothing is showing up on any of our equipment, and no one is else is is having a similar experience. They’re sure a demon is trying to latch on and go home with them.”
Milligan said she’s excited by scientific research indicating that people are experiencing something more than the power of suggestion. “We love physicists. Some of them are asking if quantum physics could explain these phenomena. Maybe we’re hearing something from an alternate dimension. Maybe we’re hearing something from across time or space. Or maybe it’s something more mundane. I’ve read some about infrasound and how it can cause your eyeballs to vibrate and make you think you’re seeing something in your peripheral vision. I’m right there with everyone who is investigating who really just wants to know what’s going on.”
Edgar Allen Poe, HP Lovecraft, Fritz Lang and others at a seance
The Real World Has More Women and Beer Than You See on TV
In an increasingly secular age, Milligan says people attracted to the paranormal are mostly looking for answers to familiar age-old questions. “Does it make any difference what I do, what I say, how I treat people? What’s going to happen after I’m gone? My grandma passed away last year. Does some part of her still exist?”
People come to paranormal conferences to hear validation of their own experiences, share techniques they’ve learned and see people in person they only know over the Internet or via other conferences. “Most of the people who come to our event are into some level of ghost hunting. They either belong to an organized ghost hunting group or they’ll go to haunted hotels with friends and family to do their own investigations.”
Unlike horror fandom, which is predominantly male, Milligan said about ⅔ of the people she meets at paranormal conventions are women. “We get a lot of single women. The men are mostly part of couples or members of an existing ghost hunting group.” Some of the East Coast conventions are starting to mix horror and the paranormal to appeal to a broader audience.
Friday night at the Central Texas Paranormal Conference is just for meeting and partying with fellow paranormal investigators. “It’s nice to unwind with people who have shared your experiences and don’t think you’re crazy,” said Milligan. On Saturday and Sunday, once they’re done with the investigations and reviewing their evidence, people like to kick back with a few drinks and talk about the experience they just shared. “On TV, they’re always trying to build up the dramatic tension. In reality, we’re pretty relaxed about it all.”
This year’s conference also includes a seance, a vendor room full of everything from T-shirts to custom ghost-hunting equipment, and a few lighthearted horror themed panels, like “Zombie Rights: Are They People Or Things?”
The 2012 Central Texas Paranormal Conference takes place October 6-7 at the Ben Hur Shrine on Anderson and MoPac.
