Monday, August 10, 2009

TMCC Paranormal Conference

October 2008
My friend Rebecca had invited me to attend a paranormal conference hosted by Truckee Meadows Community College. As we are both interested in the paranormal, it was a definite YES. The conference was being held at the Cal-Neva Lodge, Lake Tahoe, Ca. It was an all day affair with speakers, dinner,and the opportunity to investigate. What more could a would be "ghost hunter" ask for?
The speakers began with Bill Brown, a local newscaster. He shared his experiences of a couple of investigations that he had covered. None of the equipment worked for him, so we were unable to see any of the footage that he had planned to show.
The women that lectured on photography, Anne and Sharon Leong, were very informative and quite entertaining. I went into this with no concept of the theory of light and now I have a bit of it.
Then came the medium.... I am very skeptical of mediums. Still am.
The last speaker , Janice Oberding, was definitely my favorite. She is an historian, as well as a ghost hunter. She shared the history of the lodge, of which I had no clue. The Cal-Neva Lodge had once been owned by Frank Sinatra. It was frequented by many stars of the times. Marilyn Monroe spent quite a bit of time there and it is rumoured that she had tried to commit suicide there two weeks before her death in California.
Then it was dinner....Yeahhh!
Now it was time to start our investigating. We were placed into groups of 15+ and sent to our first location. Our group went to Frank's cabin. Boy, was it small!! Due to the size of the group, five of us ended up in the closet. "Frank, are you in here? Give us a sign of your presence". I didn't think that Frank Sinatra would be hanging out in the closet and since we found no evidence saying otherwise, I have to assume this to be so.
Next, we went to room 101. Supposedly someone had committed suicide in this room. While it offered more space than the cabin, it proved uneventful as well. On to the showroom.
The medium, Vicky Gay, conducted a seance with the only results being experience by her. Need I say more?
Off to the tunnel. Back in the day, there was a tunnel that connected some of the cabins to the showroom. It is located beneath the casino floor and on this night, there was a wedding party in the room above us. We could hear people laughing and dancing and whatever else they were doing. My feeling was that it was a waste of time. There was no way that we would be able to pick up anything in the way of EVPs. I decided to step outside for a smoke. Guess what!?! I was wrong. I did pick up an EVP. Lesson learned... do the investigating anyway. I have concluded that if a "spirit" wants to communicate with you, they will! Regardless of the conditions.
That last location was Marilyn's cabin. Not much investigating but a good opportunity to hear more from Janice.
All in all, it was a lot of fun. My only complaint was the size of the groups. There was no way to know if a sound came from someone in the group or from someone who may have wanted to communicate.

For more W.I.G.S. go to:
hauntedwest.blogspot.com
www.myspace.com/w_i_g_s

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