SPIRichard
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Experience The Sixth Sense - By Jason Day
On Friday 18th July 2008, members of the paranormal community converged on the Bretby Conference Centre in Burton-On-Trent, Derbyshire for Swadlincote Paranormal Investigation’s ‘Experience The Sixth Sense’ event.
The event began with the introduction of the special guests on the main stage at 6:40pm. Experience The Sixth Sense boasted the largest gathering of celebrities from the paranormal world under one roof at any time in the UK and as the guests took to the stage it was a veritable ‘who’s who’ of the paranormal. The guests were:
Phil Whyman (Paranormal Investigator)
Barrie John (Psychic Medium)
Angela McGhee (Psychic Medium)
Jacky Newcomb (Angel, Afterlife and NDE Expert)
Mark Webb (Paranormal Investigator)
Ian Lawman (Psychic Medium)
Richard Felix (Paranormal Investigator)
David Wells (Psychic Medium)
Once the guests were introduced there was a brief break in proceedings where attendees (including myself) could peruse over thirty vendor stalls situated around the main hall. A tour of the stalls revealed a representation of many facets of the paranormal community including reiki, mediums, tarot readers and merchandise such as crystals, jewellery, books and DVD’s. Many familiar names from the paranormal also had their own stalls including Barrie John, Richard Felix, Jacky Newcomb, reiki master Ken Russell and author Patricia Anne Farrar. The organisers of the event also donated a stall to the RSPCA free of charge.
Following the tour of the stalls (and a brief encounter with a Dalek who was also attending the event), it was time for the talks and workshops to begin.
Along with the main stage in the main hall, there were also talks and workshops held in two conference rooms on the first floor of the building. These talks/workshops involved one or more of the guests at different times of the evening in different rooms. This way the organisers were able to maximise the possibility of all the people attending seeing all of the guests participating at some point during the event.
One talk on the main stage involved Phil Whyman, Mark Webb and Angela McGhee. Phil and Mark debated mediumistic abilities with Angela and the difficulty mediums have in proving their ability to sceptics.
Another talk on the main stage consisted of psychic medium Ian Lawman discussing how he discovered his ability, medium ship and the paranormal. At one point during his talk Ian was challenged by a member of the audience. After a ‘heated debate’ the psychic bad boy Ian talked about how he encouraged scepticism and how he believes sceptics to be just as important as believers in the paranormal realm, mentioning in particular the work done by badpsychics.com.
Whilst other guests were giving talks in the other rooms and on the main stage, attendees were also given the opportunity to attend book signing sessions with David Wells during the event. Although the main focus of the mediums at the event was to talk about spirit and their own personal paranormal experiences rather than give readings, Ian Lawman did give an open session reading for in the region of 260 people during a talk in one of the conference rooms.
There was also a ‘semi-experimental’ session during David Wells’ talk on the main stage later in the evening. David’s talk focused mainly on reincarnation and past life regression. Along with discussing techniques with the audience David stressed the importance of not putting your mind, body and spirit into the hands of an unknown and possibly unqualified regression therapist. Very sound advice indeed.
During the event the guests themselves were very friendly and completely accessible to the attendees, taking the time to meet and chat with many of the people at the conference.
Around midnight, as the night, and the event, came to an end, I took the opportunity to discuss the evening with one of the event’s organisers, Simon Deacon from Swadlincote Paranormal Investigations. Simon told me:
“This is actually the second event we have held at Bretby Conference Centre. We were first approached by the centre to hold a psychic event in 2007 and the event was such a success that they contacted us for a second time resulting in this event.”
Simon also told me that the event has grown so much in stature and reputation since 2007 that guests now contact them asking if they can attend rather than the organisers contacting the guests. Simon then went on to explain to me that Swadlincote Paranormal only host one event per year as the organisation of such a thing is so time consuming. He also stressed that Swadlincote Paranormal Investigations do not want to become known as event organisers as they are first and foremost paranormal investigators. The twelve months it took to organise the 2008 Experience The Sixth Sense event definitely ate into the group’s paranormal investigation time, particularly in the last three months.
That said, Simon is already thinking about next year’s event and is even thinking of encompassing more of the paranormal community into it. Future events may include guest speakers from the fields of Cryptozoology and Ufology.
Before I left I said my goodbyes and thanked Simon and the Swadlincoate Paranormal Investigations team for inviting me to their event. It was a very well organised, informative and enjoyable evening and I would encourage anybody with an interest in the paranormal to attend next year. As for now, as Simon said to me during the interview:
“I’m looking forward to getting back to the nitty gritty stuff…doing what I like to do best.”
© Jason Day for Swadlincote Paranormal Investigations 2008
- Thanks to Jason for writing this report, I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I did. Richard.
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7/Aug/2008, 7:01 pm
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free spirit7
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Re: Experience The Sixth Sense - By Jason Day
that summed the event up perfectly im already looiin forward to nxt yr 
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7/Aug/2008, 8:09 pm
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spooks9
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Re: Experience The Sixth Sense - By Jason Day
Good report i am also looking forward to next year.
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8/Aug/2008, 11:05 am
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twistedlady
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Re: Experience The Sixth Sense - By Jason Day
yes me too and that silly person who challenged ian and angela well what can i say. i was also kicking myself as i missed ian doing his reading as i didnt hear the voice over the speaker very well. although i did get a piccy taken with him.
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4/Sep/2008, 9:26 pm
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