INFO Fortfest ~ June 29 & 30, 2019

INFO Fortfest!
Saturday & Sunday, June 29 & 30, 2019

A Conference that Celebrates the Mysterious, Anomalous & the Unknown! Open to the Public! Must Be 16 Years of Age.

This Year's Fortfest is Dedicated to the Memory and Work of Those Who Have Passed On ...
Stanton Friedman, Carl Feindt

Registration and Details right here at: fortfest.eventbrite.com

Patrick Huyghe from Anomalist Books will be here with his amazing Book Table!

YOU'VE READ EVERYTHING But Still have Questions? Call Sue at 571-262-1496 or email at susan.swiatek@gmail.com.

HOTEL: Country Inn & Suites by Radisson (near BWI Airport)
1717 West Nursery Rd / Linthicum Heights, MD 21090
Call 443-577-1036 and say "INFO Fortfest" to be added to our Discounted Block!! The sooner the better. You can cancel your room later, if plans change.
Beware: There are TWO Country Inns & Suites in the immediate area. So be careful.

FREE Hotel SHUTTLE to/from BWI Airport, AMTRAK and Light Rail. Just call the hotel. FREE HOT BREAKFAST! All rooms have mini-fridges, coffee machines, and FREE WI-FI. FREE PARKING.

>>> CAUTION: NO LECTURES ARE HELD AT THE HOTEL! <<< However, this year, Saturday Night's Fortfeast Dinner With the Speakers will be held at the hotel.

SATURDAY VENUE: The National Electronics Museum
1745 W Nursery Rd, Linthicum, MD 21090
410-765-0230

SUNDAY VENUE: Dave & Busters Emporium, Chesapeake Theater Room
7000 Arundel Mills Circle, Hanover, MD 21076
443-755-0113

Robert Damon Schneck

Musings of a Dedicated Fortean Historian (from the Chronicler of the Bye Bye Man)

Robert Damon Schneck is perhaps best known for the movie The Bye Bye Man (2017), which was based upon the story "The Bridge to Body Island" found in his book The President's Vampire. As these things sometimes go, the book has been re-released under the title The Bye Bye Man. The true-life tale involves three young college students who in 1990 spent a long Wisconsin winter playing with a Ouija board. Probably not a great idea, as they soon dredge up a "psychic serial killer" known as the Bye Bye Man who terrifies them out of their wits. But there is so much more to Schneck's Fortean historical research than this horror show. In Schneck's Mrs. Wakeman and the Antichrist, unusual real episodes from American history are proffered such as a "West Virginia town named after its resident poltergeist, who was obsessed with cutting everything into crescent shapes." In Schneck's own words, "These historically researched, scrupulously verified, and always shockingly true tales in this collection come from an America that lies beyond the skyscrapers, cornfields, and suburban strip malls where we make our homes – a place where monsters guard buried treasures, schoolgirls develop stigmata, and we never run out of strange things." Even colorful vans filled with evil clowns ... Schneck resides in New Jersey and has one of the most compelling dramatic voices you'll ever hear, so beware clicking on his audio files. You may never escape. Schneck has been a regular contributor to Fortean Times and Fate magazine. With article titles such as "You Don't Know Squatch" how can you go wrong? Hear a Schneck interview at: History vs. Hollywood.

Eric Wargo

Time Loops: Precognition, Retrocausation, and the Unconscious

Do future events affect current events? If I consciously make a choice, will that choice retroactively affect my past? These and other profound ideas are explored in the mind-blowing new book by author Eric Wargo. Time Loops: Precognition, Retrocausation, and the Unconscious takes the reader on a wild ride where time flows in both directions; where participants in psychology experiments respond to pictures they have yet to see; and cloud chamber photography captures particles apparently moving backward in time. I paraphrase famous author Jeffrey J. Kripal here: "Wargo's landmark study explores the principles that allow the future to affect the present, and the present to affect the past, without causing a paradox. It also deconstructs the powerful taboos that, for centuries, have kept mainstream science from taking phenomena like retrocausation and precognition seriously. We are four-dimensional creatures, and sometimes we are even caught in time loops – self-fulfilling prophecies where effects become their own causes." Very heady stuff. Wargo cleaves to a largely materialist view, rather than a woo-woo, spiritual interpretation of the unconscious. As another reviewer notes, "We are all, as is everything in the cosmos, comprised of atoms and subatomic particles and therefore materially bound to the bizarre mysteries of quantum physics too." Another reader found Wargo's precognitive anecdotes from famous literary and entertainment figures as one of the most "delightful aspects" of the book. Kripal summarizes his take thusly: "I consider Time Loops to be the most significant intellectual work on a paranormal topic in the last fifty years. Not only does Eric Wargo show us how strong the evidence for precognition is – already a major accomplishment. He gives us scientific, psychological and interpretive tools for thinking about these phenomena in strikingly original ways." Eric Wargo has a PhD in anthropology from Emory University and works as a science writer in Washington, DC. He writes about science fiction, consciousness and the paranormal in his popular blog, The Nightshirt.

Tim Binnall

Resurgence of the Flat Earthers: Why?

Tim Binnall is the founder of the paranormal think tank Binnall of America, an online coterie that features both an audio program and a talented staff of writers. As host and producer of the critically acclaimed podcast BoA:Audio, he has interviewed a vast array of researchers, spanning a wide spectrum of disciplines and ranging from bonafide esoteric icons to up-and-coming future players in the paranormal milieu. In this quest for knowledge, Tim has interviewed and bumped up against more than one passionate Flat Earth proponent. Why this idea has gained such a foothold in 2019 is anyone's guess, but Binnall will break it down for us. You may never again look at the curvature of the earth in the same way. A graduate of Syracuse University, Tim aims to maintain an outsider's perspective on the paranormal world and possesses a keen interest in the personalities and sociology of esoteric studies. A legendary personality for years, Binnall has been the emcee at Loren Coleman's International Cryptozoology Conference for the past four years, where this researcher (Sue) finally met up with him. He has written for Coast to Coast AM's After Dark magazine, made numerous radio and podcast appearances, and gone into the field to explore the mystifying Bridgewater Triangle in Massachusetts, the elusive Oak Island in Nova Scotia, Canada, and the haunted Whaley House in San Diego. Read more at: Binnall of America and Coast to Coast AM

Joshua Cutchin & Tim Renner

Where the Footprints End: Exploring Anomalies in Bigfoot Accounts

Joshua Cutchin has appeared on a wide variety of paranormal programs including Coast to Coast AM, Mysterious Universe, Binnall of America, Expanded Perspectives, Radio Misterioso, and the Gralien Report. He is the author of three books: 2015's A Trojan Feast: The Food and Drink Offerings of Aliens, Faeries, and Sasquatch (translated into Spanish as Banquete Troyano); 2016's The Brimstone Deceit: An In-Depth Examination of Supernatural Scents, Otherworldly Odors, & Monstrous Miasmas; and 2018's Thieves in the Night: A Brief History of Supernatural Child Abductions. All are published by Anomalist Books. Joshua is also a contributor to Robbie Graham's 2017 collection of ufological essays UFOs: Reframing the Debate, as well as David Weatherly's 2018 Sasquatch collection Wood Knocks: Vol. 3. He is a recurring roundtable guest on the Where Did the Road Go? podcast, and made his public speaking debut at the December 2015 MUFON Georgia meeting. Since then, Joshua has been invited to speak at the annual ParaMania un-conference, the Inter-National Fortean Organization's 2016 FortFest, 2019's X-Filers United! conference, and 2019's ConCarolinas. Additionally, Joshua holds Masters degrees in both Music Literature and Journalism. He is a published composer and maintains an active performance schedule as a jazz and rock tuba player, appearing on eight album recordings. He's truly a Renaissance Fortean! Join Cutchin and his friend Tim Renner as they ponder the age-old questions on how real is Sasquatch? Is that even the right question? Catch up with Cutchin on his blog site featuring "weird words and brass beats."

George Eberhart

Fortean Research in the Era of Fake News

George M. Eberhart is a librarian, editor, and bibliographer who is currently a senior editor of American Libraries magazine for the American Library Association in Chicago. A longtime student of anomalies of every type, he has written several book-length bibliographies on paranormal topics: A Geo-Bibliography of Anomalies (1980), Monsters: A Guide to Information on Unaccounted for Creatures (1983), and UFOs and the Extraterrestrial Contact Movement (1986, freely available online, volume 1 and volume 2). He has also compiled the two-volume encyclopedia, Mysterious Creatures: A Guide to Cryptozoology (ABC-CLIO, 2002, reprinted and revised in a paperback UK edition by the Centre for Fortean Zoology in 2013). Eberhart has also written for the journals Pursuit and INFO Journal, served as volunteer librarian for the J. Allen Hynek Center for UFO Studies from 1986 to 2012, a contributing editor (1986–1992) and production editor (1993–2012) for CUFOS's International UFO Reporter and Journal of UFO Studies, and as an indexer for Daniel Perez's Bigfoot Times since 2003. His opinions on UFOs were expressed in 2018 on the UAPSG–GEFAI blog. He also has edited several books published by the American Library Association, including five editions of The Whole Library Handbook (1991, 1995, 2000, 2006, 2013) and The Librarian's Book of Lists (2010). Eberhart has a bachelor's degree in journalism from Ohio State University (1974) and a master's degree in library science from the University of Chicago (1976). He lives in Chicago with Jennifer Henderson to whom he has been happily married for 37 years.

Justin Bamforth

Hot on the Trail of the Men-in-Black (and Other Non-Human Entities)

Justin Bamforth has been exploring various avenues of high strangeness and its interconnectedness – from the paranormal to UFOs, the Men-in-Black and other strange beings, and everything in between for close to two decades. He lectures on the subject, collaborates with other investigators on cases, and consults with people worldwide to better understand whatever it is we're dealing with. Or at least he attempts to. As fate would have it, Justin crossed paths with none other than Gary Sudbrink and was as intrigued as this investigator was (Sue). Fortfest attendees may recall that Sudbrink was a speaker in 2016, as we attempted to make sense of his otherworldly phone calls. Listen here. This case is included in Bamforth's 2018 book The Spectrum: Glimpses of the Paranormal and Encounters with the Strange. Justin currently resides in the Philadelphia metro area where he spends most of his nine-to-five in an equally bizarre world of its own – the world of advertising and marketing. He has been featured on such programs as Coast to Coast AM, Midnight in the Desert, Dr. J Radio Live, and several other podcasts. Justin is also the creator of Normal Paranormal where he invites you to make contact with him.

Maxim W. Furek

Sheppton Mine Mystery: The Myth, Miracle & Music

The Sheppton, Pennsylvania mine disaster and mystery began August 13, 1963 and soon gripped the world. Three miners were entombed over 300 feet underground after all three apparently survived a mine cave-in. Two were in one chamber and they reportedly heard the voice of the third man at one point, though he was never found. On August 27 a large borehole was finally drilled and a rescue was made; the rescue became a model for other mine rescues to follow. But what the men experienced while trapped became the real sensation, Maxim W. Furek assures us in his book, Sheppton: The Myth, Miracle & Music. Sheppton has been pronounced a "continuous, collective hallucination," an out-of-body experience, a miracle by Pope John XXIII, and proof of life after death. Fate magazine described Sheppton as "unmatched in the annals of psychic research." Some have suggested that Sheppton is entwined with the controversial Hollow Earth Theory. Subterranean Deros, anyone? The Associated Press called Sheppton "one of the most significant" news stories of the year. Pope John was canonized in 2014 as Vatican scholars cited the Sheppton miracle, noting the pontiff's image shone upon the cave wall throughout the ordeal. But a Pope was not the only visitor the men had; phantom cable men and alien Vulcan-like humanoids also made their appearances. Furek asserts that Sheppton, with connections to billionaire Howard Hughes and Swiss psychiatrist and author Elizabeth Kubler-Ross, remains PA's lasting forbidden legend. The incident is an astonishing, unique "one-off" event that has haunted this investigator (Sue) for many years. Furek has been interviewed on many paranormal radio & podcast programs; Midnight in the Desert, Exploring the Bizarre, Darkness On the Edge of Town, and Dark Sun Rising. Read more at Sheppton Myth.