This from Chip Coffee’s blog: (Chip was booked as a celeb at the event)
Sep 16, 2009 9:32 PM
TALA event canceled

It is with deep regret that I must inform everyone that the event scheduled for this weekend at the Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum in West Virginia will not be taking place.

I was scheduled to appear at the event and was informed today that the event will not happen.

Brent Fair and Odyssey Star Productions originally promoted/coordinated this event. It sickens me to think that this situation is turning into a repeat of the TapsCon debacle.

After all the money to produce the TALA event was siphoned from the Odyssey Star account, Bob and Summer Jennings tried desperately, against insurmountable odds, to insure that the event would go on as planned. Sadly, at the last minute, they were unable to reach agreements with the venue and the event was canceled.

Unfortunately, I have no information to offer regarding refunds to those who paid to attend this event.

If/when I do receive such information, I will post it immediately.

So it seems that Brent Fair has sucked the life out of another paranormal event. And, from what I read in the agreement when purchasing tickets is that no refunds would be given. Now this may not be the fault of the folks currently running Odyssey Star Productions, but I know I would never attend one of their events if they refuse to refund money since the flat out canceled it. I know they won’t see it that way, but if they can’t refund the money and are such poor business people that they allow Mr. Fair to embezzle all the funds then they shouldn’t be in business and need to be shut down.

One thing I see the paranormal community do is to make a lot of assumptions.  So often this has lead investigators down bad or wrong paths; paths that take away from finding the truth and often are hard to overcome once the assumption is made.  Orbs are a prime example of this.

When investigators first started noticing orbs in their pictures they were quick to jump to the assumption that they were paranormal in nature.  Why? Because they weren’t visible to those present when the picture was taken.  So, because of the lack of knowledge in photography and understanding what normal things could explain what they had photographed, investigators instead began assuming they were paranormal.  After all they weren’t there when the picture was taken, therefore they must be paranormal in nature.  This then lead to a lot of grasping at straws to explain what they might be instead of doing research and experiments into photography to see if they could duplicate the phenomena.  Now this wasn’t true with all investigators, but it was true with the community at large, and took a lot of repetitive debunking from investigators with experience in photography, as well as photographers who understood what the issues were.

This is what often happens in the paranormal community.  Some anomaly is captured and because the investigators cannot explain what they have captured they quickly jump to the assumption that it is paranormal in nature.  EVPs are the same way.  Just as there are plenty of worldly explanations for orbs, there are almost as many explanations for EVPs.  But investigators fail to see that fact.  Most will argue their assumption is valid because it coincided with some event that was taking place, “That’s a real orb because the temperature dropped at the same time,” or “That’s the voice of the dead because the answer is in response to a question we asked.”  Truth of the matter is that their arguments are still assumptions and coincidence is merely a justification for the assumption.

What I see a lot of; especially with EVPs, is that investigators get one hit out of thirty and they immediately jump to the assumption that the one coincidental hit constitutes proof of communication. Here’s an example from an investigator I know:
Investigator: Did you die in this place?
Response: {some odd noise}
Investigator: Would you like to communicate with us?
Response: {buried in background noise and open to a variety of interpretations} help me.
Investigator: How did you die?
Response: {some odd noise}
Investigator: Are you in this room with us?
Response: {fairly clear voice} I’m here where are you?
{Fourteen more questions are asked but no repsonses}
Investigator: Is there anything you’d like to say to us?
Response: {buried in background noise and open to a variety of interpretations} Go home.

Now when discussing this evidence with this investigator, he claimed that they had made contact with a spirit in that house. When asked why he thought so he replied, “Because there were several answers that were in direct response to the questions.”  When I pointed out that most of these answers were buried in background noise and highly subjective he then noted the one that was fairly clear, to which I noted it could easily be a stray radio signal.  He then fell back on the failed logic that many investigators often use, “The odds of that are so remote that it couldn’t have been that.”  I then pointed out that even that statement was an assumption since he didn’t know what the odds were, and also noted the facts about the possibility of RF contamination.  But even then he held with his assumptions and proclaimed it proof of communication with a spirit in that house.

Now whether or not what he had recorded was the voice of a spirit in that house I cannot say, since I will not jump to assumptions based on such weak evidence.  But many investigators will, and this is what will keep them chasing mirages that will prevent them from getting to the truth of the matter.  Just look at orbs as an example of that.  How much time and resources were wasted by investigators seeking out orb pictures, as well as the time and energy spent coming up with all the bogus rules that went along with the bogus evidence.  Even today there are those that assume that there are some real orbs out there even though there is a overwhelming amount of evidence to show the contrary.

Other examples of assumptions include sounds such as knocks, creaks, or other noises that coincide with evidence.  Many of these can be attributed to worldly explanations as well, yet investigators will often jump to the assumption that once again they are paranormal because, “What else would it be,” type reasoning.

If investigators are ever to find anything more than just recording anomalies then the assumptions will have to stop.  But I fear that this will never happen since it appears that most investigators are out for nothing more than convincing themselves or others who already believe.  They may claim to be doing it to further the field of paranormal investigation, and they may be sincere in stating those claims, but if that is the case then why do they jump to assumptions?  Why don’t they truly take the time to research the other possibilities?  Why do they turn a blind eye to clear evidence that shows results contrary to what they assume?  Until the day comes when investigators stop assuming and are truthful with themselves and evidence they collect they will never find any truth.  Making up theories or justifications to label a piece of evidence paranormal does nothing but hinder at getting at the truth since all those things do is to cover up the fact that what they have collected is nothing more than an unexplained anomaly that cannot labeled one way or the other.