About An Evening with the Permanents
Presented by paranormal researchers Neil McNeill, Michael
White, Casey Goodwin, Jay Verburg and Ben Robison
Every building has a story to be told. Those with a ghostly presence just speak louder than others. In 1920, the Old Wheeler Hotel was built with a commanding view of Nehalem Bay in the Northern Oregon coastal town of Wheeler. Over the years, the town, once a hub for the bustling timber industry, adapted and changed due to the economics of a developing region. Throughout those changes the hotel stood in the center, molding its identity and role to fit the town’s needs. Join some of the Pacific Northwest’s preeminent paranormal researchers for a discussion about hunting ghosts and their upcoming documentary, The Permanents: A Paranormal Case Study, showcasing the storied activity of the paranormal “permanent residents” of the Old Wheeler Hotel on the Oregon Coast.
About the Speakers:
As a teenager, Casey Goodwin was drawn to the mysterious
and the obscure, spending long evenings exploring abandoned homes with sordid
pasts and other notorious locations near his home in Southern California. After
relocating to Oregon in 1994, his interest in unexplained phenomenon continued
to flourish, which led Casey to co-found Oregon Paranormal in 2009. The express
purpose of the organization is to conduct paranormal explorations in the
Pacific Northwest, utilizing data collection and analysis, historical research,
documentation, education, and collaborative efforts with like-minded teams and
independent researchers. Through his work, carried out with both sensitivity
and respect, Casey has helped many families and individuals struggling to
comprehend the often incomprehensible.
Michael White does not believe in ghosts in the
traditional sense. He suspects most reported activity is simply a case of
misperceptions of events, misunderstandings of natural occurrences, and
contributions from the living (including recurrent spontaneous psychokinesis,
telepathy, hypnagogic experiences, and other psychic phenomenon.)
Michael utilizes his skills in surveillance and intelligence
analysis, honed during 21 years serving in the military, to scrutinize data
obtained in paranormal investigations and during paranormal experiments to
identify which factors are explainable and which must remain unexplained.
Michael has been interested in strange phenomenon since age 7, after
experiencing his first unexplained event. He has been seriously researching the
paranormal since 2004. Michael is the founder of Paranormal Research & Investigations.
Neil McNeill has worked in the fields of
parapsychology, paranormal field investigation, and paranormal education for
over 25 years. He is a consultant for television, film, and print media;
regularly lectures for paranormal conferences and professional organizations;
and is often a featured guest for local, regional, and national news and radio
programs.
In 2012, Neil produced Dark & Stormy Nights: Parapsychology
for Ghost Hunters, an educational DVD based on his popular and long-running
college courses. He also co-chaired the paranormal education panel with Lloyd
Auerbach at the 2014 International Convention of the Parapsychological
Association.
Neil is based near Seattle and is a member of the Rhine Research
Center, the Parapsychological Association, and the Seattle Consciousness
Education & Research Society, founded by Dr. Vernon Neppe. Neil co-founded
the annual Port Gamble Ghost Conference, serves as the director of Paranormal
Studies Institute, and co-directs the ParaPsi College.
Jay Verburg began his unexpected paranormal
journey as one of the two greenhorn miners on SYFY’'s Ghost Mine. With a
passion for the Old West, he has been casually exploring ghost towns and
abandoned locations, striving to discover historically rich areas for the past
15 years. Fascination with history and the gold that still runs through the
mountains of Eastern Oregon unexpectedly landed him in the small town of
Sumpter. It was there he found himself not only working as a hard rock miner
but witnessing events that led him to an entirely new journey — paranormal
research. Research of history and the paranormal have led Jay to some of the
greatest location throughout Oregon, Washington, Idaho, California, Utah, and
Colorado.
Jay currently travels the U.S., speaking about paranormal research
and revealing how history can lead to the discovery of many rumored haunts. Jay
works closely with like-minded individuals and investigative groups such as
A.S.E.P., the Paranormal Studies Institute, Paranormal Research & Investigations
of Washington, and Oregon Paranormal. As Director of Historical Research for
Oregon Paranormal, Jay focuses on studying energy and the pursuit of awareness
surrounding the existence of intelligence beyond death. As a featured
investigator on the internet network Dark Zone, Jay often reveals behind the
scenes videos while working on his latest joint project, The Permanents
– A documentary focusing on the paranormal “permanent residents” of the Old
Wheeler Hotel on the Oregon Coast.
Ben Robison was born in the Pacific Northwest
during the late 70’s. He grew up exposed to ghosts, UFOs, and Bigfoot. Whether
it was the home he lived in that was haunted, the many shared stories of aliens
his father spoke of, or seeing firsthand what he believes was a Sasquatch up in
the Olympic Peninsula, it would seem Ben had anything but a regular upbringing.
As a result of this, the things that aren’t so regular are what intrigue Ben.
Like so many others, Ben experienced something so profound and
unimaginable that he was left with only one option…to look at it closer. That’s
why he founded the Autonomous Studies of the Enigmatic & Paranormal. Being
a tech-head by trade, he coupled this with his practical/sensible way of
thinking, which in turn gave Ben a logical method towards investigating
paranormal events. We all have questions, and Ben’s aim is to try to offer some
answers by taking a scientific approach with a healthy dose of skepticism with
regards to his research of the paranormal and enigmatic.
