Ghost conference to be held in Jacksonville, IL

The State-Journal Register: Ghost conference to be held in Jacksonville

JACKSONVILLE — Troy Taylor used to tell reporters that his mother’s death and subsequent haunting at the age of 12 was what pushed him into the business of hunting ghosts.

“But then I told that story in front of a group of people I was talking to, and my mom was there and got really upset,” Taylor said. “So I stopped using that reason.”

In reality, Taylor just likes it.

To that end, he has been organizing ghost hunter conferences for 15 years, mostly in central Illinois. This year’s will be Friday and Saturday in the McGaw Fine Arts Building at Illinois College.

Organizers expect about 150 people to convene in Jacksonville this weekend to attend the annual Haunted America Midwest Conference, presented by the American Ghost Society.

Laura Richter, of the ghost society, said Jacksonville was chosen because some people think it is “one of the most haunted places in the prairie.”

The conference will feature lectures, workshops on ghosts and ghost hunting, late-night paranormal investigations and a tour of allegedly haunted locations in Jacksonville.

“We do a lot of ghost hunts there, and Illinois College has so many ghost stories dating back to the Civil War era,” Taylor said.

Taylor said attendees take the conference seriously.

“There aren’t people in costumes or anything. We keep it as down to earth as a ghost conference can be,” Taylor said. “

Along with conference host Taylor, speakers will include Patrick Burns of TruTV’s “Haunting Evidence;” purported psychic and author Tiffany Smith Johnson, who has starred on TV shows like A&E’s “Psychic Kids” and TLC’s “Ghost Intervention; author and radio host Rosemary Ellen Guiley; and paranormal journalist April Slaughter.

Tickets are no longer available online, but may be purchased at the door for $60.

For more information, visit www.americanspookshows.com/midwest.html.