2024 UFO Festival Speakers (scroll down)

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Speaker Presentations:

There are two full days of Speaker presentations at the Exeter Town Hall. 

Each lecture us typically accompanied by an insightful audio/visual presentation.

Each presentation lasts approximately 60-75 minutes.

Peter's title and abstract for his talk:

JPL/NASA Moon and Mars Photos:

An Unappreciated Resource in the Battle for Disclosure 

Peter Robbins is an investigative writer, author, and lecturer whose writing and research are focused on the subject of truly anomalous UFOs and their implications for humanity. He has appeared as a guest on and been consultant to numerous radio shows, television programs and documentaries. For the past three years he’s hosted the radio program “Meanwhile, Here On Earth,” now on KUNX Digital Broadcasting. 

Conference venues have included Steve Bassett’s X-Conferences in Washington, D.C. and Virginia; International UFO Congresses in Phoenix Arizona and Laughlin Nevada; International MUFON Symposiums; MUFON state and regional affiliates around the country, live and on camera; The Scientific Bureau of Investigation UFO Symposium, Albany NY; Experiencers Speak Conferences, Portland Maine; Keynote speaker, National Conference of the UFO Organization of Japan, Tokyo; 6th World UFO Forum in Brazil; The Exobiology International Meeting, Segrate, Italy; Ozarks Mountain UFO Conference; McMinnville UFO Festival and Conference, McMinnville Oregon; Pine Bush New York UFO Festival and Conferences; Omega UFO Conferences, North Haven Connecticut, Crash/Retrieval UFO Conferences, Las Vegas NV; Gulf Coast UFO Conference, Gulf Breeze Florida; Charles Hickson’s Biloxi Mississippi UFO Conference; Fortean Research Center, Lincoln, Nebraska; Budd Hopkins’ Intruders Foundation conferences and seminars, New York City; cofounder, Travis Walton’s Fire In the Sky Conferences, Heber Arizona; cofounder, Exeter UFO Festival and Conference, Exeter, New Hampshire.

UK appearances have included a month-long, national book tour with presentations at the Royal College of Science and Technology, London, and the Universities of Hallam, Sheffield, Leeds, Yorkshire, Glasgow, and Cardiff; Summerhill School, Suffolk East Anglia; Quest International Conferences and East Midlands UFO Research (EMPHORA) Conference, Nottingham; Fortean Zoology Conference, Devon; Beyond Knowledge Conference,’ Liverpool; BUFORA (British UFO Research Association) conferences; Woodbridge Suffolk UFO conferences, and Outer Limits Magazine UFO Conference, Hull.

A longtime interest in the life and scientific discoveries of Dr. Wilhelm Reich led to the publication of a series of papers by Robbins and numerous speaking engagements both here and abroad. They include the International Conference on the Scientific Discoveries of Wilhelm Reich in Nice France; the American College of Orgonomy’s conferences in New York City and Princeton New Jersey, Orgone Biophysical Research Laboratory conferences in Ashland Oregon, Academy of Orgonomy conference in Karavomilos, Greece, the Italian Association of Orgonomy’s annual conference in Rome, and “Contact With Space” Conferences in Athens Greece.

Professional credits include Editorial Assistant on United Nations’ Secretary General's requested report “for the establishment of a UN-UFO Department,” 1978; Editorial assistant to Member of Parliament Brinsley Le Pour Trench on requested paper for The House of Lords 1980 Debate on UFOs; founding member, Budd Hopkins’ Intruders Foundation, IF Advisory Board member, and Executive Assistant to Mr. Hopkins; Event Coordinator, SCI FI Channel’s ‘Alien Abduction Phenomenon: A Symposium, organized to promote the release of the Steven Spielberg miniseries ‘Taken;’ writer, planner and commentator for the "Ultimate UFO" and “Ultimate Crop Circle” DVD sets. 

Robbins other accomplishments include: being made a member of the French Académie d'Ufologie in 2012 and invited speaker in Paris, Nice, Bordeaux and Toulouse France; testified at the 2013 Disclosure Hearings held at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C.; Associate Producer of the award-winning documentary “Travis: The True Story of Travis Walton;” writer, director and producer of the documentary, “The Extraordinary Life and Suspicious Death of James Forrestal;” in 2007-2010, he served as consultant to the City of Roswell New Mexico as well as their liaison to Gov. Richardson’s office on UFO-related matters; Coordinator of the City of Roswell’s annual UFO Conference 2008-2010; and founding member, Hollywood Disclosure Alliance.

TV appearances have included “Ancient Aliens,” the History Channel’s “Britain’s Roswell;” "Unsolved Mysteries;" "Good Day New York;" “The O’Reilly Factor,” FOX-NY; “The Real Roswell” on the Nat Geo Channel; SCI FI Channel documentary “UFO Invasion At Rendlesham;” “The Early Show,” CBS; “Cultural Odyssey:” Voice of America TV Chinese Branch; “The Geraldo Show,” NYC; "L'Odyssee De L'Etrange" (France); “The Nina Hagen Show” (Germany); "Network First: UFO" (UK); Lifetime Network and “Conspiracy”(Film One Production) Canada; "EXOCILIZATIONS," La Locale Television, Paris, as well as numerous BBC TV affiliates. 

Radio and podcast interviews include “The Unexplained” with Howard Hughes, London; “Coast To Coast AM” with hosts George Noory and George Knapp; "The Art Bell Show;” “21st Century Radio,” Baltimore; “Midnight In the Desert,” “The Richard Dolan Show;” "Sightings On the Radio with Jeff Rense,” LA; “The James Whale Show,” London; “The Alan Colmes Show, ” NYC; “The Paracast;” “”Where Did the Road Go?,” “The Jerry Pippin Show;” “Cold Cases, Hot Leads;” “Beyond the Paranormal;” CBS Providence RI;” BBC World Service "UFO's - Fact, Fiction or Fantasy?" Iran, and numerous BBC Radio affiliates. Peter’s articles and papers have been published in Open Minds magazine, FATE, Phenomena (UK) Outer Limits Magazine, (UK), UFO Data Magazine (UK), UFO Matrix (UK), UFO Magazine (both the UK & US publications), OUR-J Journal of UFO Studies (Japan), Phenomena Magazine (UK), UN-X Magazine, and numerous other publications and websites.

Peter Robbins was born in Queens, New York and studied art, design, and theater at the University of Bridgeport in Connecticut. He received his BFA in painting and film history from New York City’s School of Visual Arts (SVA) where he then taught painting for a dozen years. He was a member of the art faculties of St. Anns School in Brooklyn Heights, and the Oklahoma Council on the Arts summer programs in Bartlesville OK. Following his graduation from SVA, Peter worked as a deckhand aboard a Norwegian freighter, then traveled the world for a year. He was studio assistant to Abstract Expressionist painter Adolph Gottlieb, studio assistant to American naïve painter William Copley, and assistant to pioneer kinetic light sculptor Stanley Landsman. Robbins has been employed as a carpenter, loft renovation crew member, apartment painter*, art gallery assistant, band manager, copywriter, ad designer, ghostwriter, editor, website director (ufocity.com, 1998-2004), crisis intervention volunteer and shift supervisor for the New York City branch of Samaritans International, and as a gem courier bonded by Lloyds of London. 

He is an experienced New York City walking touring guide and an accomplished photographer. He received gold and platinum records for art direction assistance on the Blue Oyster Cult album, “Agents of Fortune.” Robbins is coauthor of the British bestseller, Left At East Gate and author of Deliberate Deception, and Halt in Woodbridge, all three books now out of print due to the many intentional falsehoods, confabulations, and exaggerations included in the account of his then-coauthor. Live and learn. 

He was House Manager for New York City’s Off-Broadway Mirror Repertory Company and is proud to have worked with some of this country’s (and the UK’s) finest actors including Academy Award winners Geraldine Page, F. Murray Abraham, Dane Lynn Redgrave, Anne Jackson, and Academy nominee Madeline Sherwood as well as Steven Weber, Juliet Mills, Glynnis O’Connor, Michael Moriarity, Maxwell Caulfield, Mason Adams, Tova Feldshua, James Rebhorn and Katharine Houghton.  Peter Robbins lives just outside of Ithaca New York in central New York State.

Topic: Title and abstract for Peter Robbin’s talk:

JPL/NASA Moon and Mars Photos:

An Unappreciated Resource in the Battle for Disclosure

For almost as long as human beings have been sending artificial satellites into space, we have been sending up artificial satellites which carry cameras. These invaluable tools now routinely capture the formation of galaxies as well as the surfaces of neighboring and distant planets, moons, and asteroids. We both learn from such photographs and appreciate them for their wonder and beauty. But among the countless images taken from spacecraft over the decades, there continue to be a percentage which NASA/JPL prefer we not dwell upon, those which seem to show the presence of intentional structures and other intelligent activity on the surfaces of the Moon, Mars, Mars’ moon Phobos, and the occasional asteroid. Not surprisingly and much in the manner that problematic UFO photos have been dismissed by officialdom since 1947, any seeming anomalies lurking on planetary or lunar surfaces are obviously a misinterpretation of some natural if unusual formation or feature and explainable in either photographic or scientific terms. Even in cases where the seeming anomaly remains unexplained. In this presentation, Peter Robbins turns, or returns our attention to this extremely important area of investigation. In this Photoshop-driven era, we establish the reliability of the images to be viewed, this as we appreciate that people instinctively like finding recognizable imagery in the randomness of nature, be it in the form of a cloud shaped like a lamb, or in the form of appears to be a city on Mars. Robbins along with others is convinced there are detectable alterations in a number of the JPL/NASA images that could only have been made prior to their public release. The implications for humanity represented by these images is obvious. Their place in the Disclosure process can be significantly enhanced if both their reality and authenticity can be brought to public attention in the best-documented and respectful form possible. They warrant nothing less. To paraphrase the late great ufologist and nuclear physicist Stanton T Friedman, the question is not, do such photographic anomalies represent actual buildings, construction activity, mining operations, towers, settlements, or bases of one kind or another. The question is, do any of them convincingly demonstrate such allegations? The answer to which is an overwhelming yes. The lecture is PowerPoint illustrated.

Valerie Lofaso is an Empathic Medium, a Reiki Master/Teacher, a paranormal investigator, and author of the Tangled Web of Friends young-adult paranormal fiction series. In the Tangled Web future, she plans to further explore the main character's Native American roots and “stories behind the ghost stories.” She is also developing additional works in the fantasy and paranormal genres, short stories, and is working on promoting a spiritually based sci-fi TV pilot. 

Though she has been an Empath her whole life, she has only come to understand what that means over the past fifteen years through research, investigating, and field work. She is co-founder of the KRI Center for Consciousness Studies which operated for ten years before closing in 2019; while there, she managed and facilitated events, lectures, and classes in all fringe subjects and founded her Empath Support Gathering which continues today. She is a member of the Seacoast Paranormal Research Group and co-host of Exeter-terrestrial TV show on Exeter (NH) public access.

In addition to reaching people through her writing and connecting with other Empaths, she is continually looking for opportunities to work with and learn more about all these strange things that happen in our world through paranormal investigations; clearings of homes, businesses, and land; doing in-person and online readings and energetic wellness sessions; and more. If you are experiencing strange activity – whether you think it’s paranormal, ET, cryptozoological, or something else – and would like Valerie and her team to help, please send her an email at the address below.

Valerie has been a lecturer at the Exeter UFO Festival in Exeter NH and has been heard on radio and podcasts such as Behind the Paranormal with Paul and Ben Eno, Spirit Radio the Paranormal Experience, Mack Maloney’s Military X-Files, The Paradigm Matrix, Mudpie Podcast, The Leak Project, and the I Want to Believe the Podcast.

She can be contacted through Facebook at Valerie Lofaso – Author & Empathic Medium or by email at ValerieLofaso@hotmail.com,

FaceBook www.FaceBook.com/ValerieLofaso,
Blog valerielofasowriter.wordpress.com/,
Twitter twitter.com/TangledWeb_JJSD,
Exeter Terrestrial on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIgQEjVWMTx-DD-wQ0E51Og  

Interested in the paranormal from a young age, Eric Mintel has lead Eric Mintel Investigates since 2016 seeking out strange stories to share with his audiences be they about ghosts, UFO’s, Bigfoot or Dog men. 

For more than 30 years Eric Mintel has been an acclaimed jazz musician with his group the Eric Mintel Quartet. But most nights he investigates the paranormal. Mintel was invited to perform twice at the White House, in 1998 at the request of President Clinton, and in 2011 for President Obama. He has also been invited to perform at the Kennedy Center on more than ten occasions, and at a special concert at the United Nations in 2010. He has toured and performed all over the country, in concert halls, high schools, libraries, elementary schools, churches, jazz clubs and many more venues. 

A consummate professional in front of the camera, he has also had stories written up on his paranormal activities by numerous newspapers and has been featured on radio stations and podcasts across the country and around the world. 

Fans of his music have eagerly followed him into the paranormal world. On many an investigation, Eric and his team have gotten ground-breaking footage and captured strange paranormal activity rarely seen before. 

Eric is also an experienced paranormal investigator and hosts the tv show, “Eric Mintel Investigates.” With a keen interest in the unexplained, Mintel's investigations have uncovered compelling evidence linking many mysterious occurrences, some of which shed light on previously undisclosed sightings and encounters. 

In his Exeter UFO Festival presentation,he delves into the UFO / Bigfoot connection and Dogman sightings, including video segments from recent investigations conducted with his team, some within very close proximity of these cryptids. 

On Saturday Evening (8/31) at the Exeter Congregational Church, Eric  will also be giving a solo piano concert for attendees. He’ll be performing songs from the Great American Song Book, classic jazz, originals, and Dave Brubeck.

“Eric Mintel Investigates” can be seen on YouTube. His websites are ericmintelquartet.com and ericmintelinvestigates.org

Title for the Sue Shipe's talk:

Preparation for the New World

This will be an experience-based workshop to enhance your intuition, increase your internal guidance, and help you prepare for the unknown New World that is unfolding. I will be introducing Angelic Guidance in a 52-week practice that will help to increase your natural gifts of seeing, intuition, hearing, smelling and feeling. These senses with which you were born can be enhanced to introduce you to exciting new revelations. There will be opportunities for questions and follow-up.

The New World, where we desire to peacefully integrate with the Others not of earth, is here, but are YOU ready? Many of you have already experienced unexplained events that you have forgotten, feared, and hoped would never happen again! Some of your experiences were pleasant; some may not have been. How will you integrate these experiences into your everyday life? What do they mean? Why are they happening? Who can you tell? 

Sue Shipe, PhD, also known as Moriah, is a lifelong Experiencer, educator, author, and founder of  the International Institute For Human Empowerment, Inc. Sue will guide you through this experiential workshop with readings from her book, “Experiencer’s Guide to the New World,” discussion about changes that are here and coming in the future, and activities so that you can do your own preparation.

"Sue was born in an isolated area of a lesser-known state in the United States. Hers is a story of connection, at first unrecognized, and of building trust with unseen Guidance. Of losing faith only to regain it with Experience. It is communication across boundaries of species, time, death of the body, and geographical location. It is learning about the connection of consciousness which is the sea in which All exist. It is realizing that consciousness-awareness is knowing the experience of life without a body."

(From Journey to Love from The New Message of Love. Copyright 2017 and 2023)

Sue Shipe, PhD, “Moriah”

www.thenewmessageoflove.com

www.humanempowerment.org

www.newworldempowerment.com

www.nyfibro.org

Katherine Brisendine is a UFO Researcher that grew up in the Lakes Region of New Hampshire. She’s had several UFO encounters of her own.  

Twenty-five years ago she started keeping a journal of the events, which lead to finding other reports from other people, and documenting those sightings as well. To date, her archive has over 2,900 reported UFO sightings in New Hampshire, going back to the 1700’s.  

She maintains huge catalogs; of testimonials, sketches, photographs, video, newspaper and magazine articles.   This archive began on paper and eventually was transferred to digital. She is currently working on having a dedicated website for reporting UFO’s in New Hampshire, where the public can research or submit information.

Here's an abstact of Kathy's UFO Festival presentation (with photograph slide show):

In the early years of the Exeter UFO Festival, you may remember the lady with the card table set up outside the town hall, listening to people tell their story while she wrote as fast as she could to document their event, or the green female alien in the silver dress dancing with Dean Merchant…that was me. 

Like most people, the first thought after a UFO sighting is did someone else see it, too. It is only natural to want to validate what was seen and my informational listings provide the most data collected in one area where people can check an event date and see who else observed it, too. It would be helpful in furthering the cause if there are other UFO researchers who want to contribute to this master list.

Generally speaking, when asked how many UFO events have happened in New Hampshire, most people can think of only two; the Hill Case in 1961 and the Exeter Case in 1965. They would be truly surprised to learn there are thousands.

I will discuss the history, in chronological order, of UFO sightings or events that have happened in New Hampshire.

Topic of Mike's talk: Greys in the Granite

...a closer look at the strange and mysterious happenings in the Granite State and surrounding New England areas.

Mike is the founder of Grey Skies. Mike is a New Hampshire native, born and bred. When not helping others with their experiences, you can often find him in the forests and mountains of the state camping and hiking. Mike hopes to combine his simple New England values with his own experiences to give people a positive new outlook on the phenomena...

Mike is a seasoned paranormal researcher and investigator. He has worked to change the stigma surrounding the abduction phenomena by promoting public awareness of the subject and by encouraging and supporting other experiencers. He was the initiating force behind the New Hampshire historical marker for Betty and Barney Hill’s UFO encounter. 

Mike has been interviewed in the past by newspapers, television, and radio about his involvement in the paranormal and UFO communities locally as well as internationally. 

Mike has become a trusted source for New Hampshire’s UFO history.

Mike is also the subject of Maine author, Nomar Slevik’s book “Granite Skies” which documents most of his experiences.

Mike’s experiences started around the age of three and have been ongoing ever since. The experiences have come in a variety of forms and demeanor. Dealing with his own experiences has led him to help other experiences overcome their trauma, as well as his own.

Topic: Greys in the Granite

Join us as we take a closer look at the strange and mysterious happenings in the Granite State and surrounding New England areas. Come explore New Hampshire’s long and fascinating history of UFOs and the unknown.

Title of Laird's talk: Ancient Symbolic Aspects of UFO Encounters 

Laird Scranton is the author of more than a dozen books and other writings on ancient cosmology and language. These include articles published in the University of Chicago’s Anthropology News academic journal, Temple University’s Encyclopedia of African Religion and the Encyclopedia Britannica. 

He is featured in John Anthony West’s Magical Egypt documentary series, and in Carmen Boulter’s documentary The Pyramid Code. 

Scranton is a frequent guest on a wide range of radio and podcast interview shows including Red Ice Radio in Europe, Art Bell’s Desert at Midnight, Coast-to-Coast Radio and Beyond Belief with George Noory, and Whitley Strieber's Dreamland show. He is also a frequent presenter at conferences whose focus is on ancient knowledge. These include Walter Cruttenden’s Conference on Precession and Ancient Knowledge (CPAK), the A.R.E.’s Ancient Mysteries Conference, Scotty Roberts and John Ward’s Minnesota based Paradigm Symposium (where we first met), the Fringe New Jersey Conference, and James Swager's Megalithic Odyssey Symposium, in Marlborough, England. Laird’s work is also featured in two books called Forbidden Science (2008) and Lost Secrets of the Gods (2014). He helped co-author Ed Nightingale’s book The Giza Template (2014). 

Laird’s books include:

--The Science of the Dogon, previously published under the title, Hidden Meanings 

--Sacred Symbols of the Dogon (2007)

--The Cosmological Origins of Myth and Symbol (2010)

--The Velikovsky Heresies (2012)

--China's Cosmological Prehistory (2014)

--Point of Origin (2015)

--The Mystery of Skara Brae (2016)

--Seeking the Primordial (2017)

--Decoding Maori Cosmology (2018)

--Ganesha: The Scientific Symbolism of a Hindu God (2019)

--Primal Wisdom of the Ancients (2020)

--Tracing Orkney's Origins (due late 2020)

--The Waters of Life (2023)

The title and abstract for Laird Scranton’s talk is: 

Ancient Symbolic Aspects of UFO Encounters 

A comparative study of ancient symbolic traditions surprisingly offers us unique insights into the underlying nature of UFO encounters. To a person who has a background in esoteric symbolism and language, these quickly become clear from hundreds of UFO case studies documented by John Mack and Budd Hopkins. The insights are a drawn from ancient traditions of Africa, from classic creation traditions of India such as Hinduism and Buddhism, from ancient Egyptian symbolic references, and from a range of other global ancient traditions.

Matthew Moniz is a scientist who for the last 30 years has worked in the fields of analytical chemistry, molecular biology, and genetic engineering, in labs in the Greater Boston and Cambridge area. 

He has specialized on analyzing samples from many famous UFO, crop formation, and paranormal cases over the last couple of decades, and has been the co-host/science advisor for the radio show. “Spooky Southcoast,” for the past seventeen years. 

Matthew is one of the Oddballs from the live TV show, “30 Odd Minutes,” as well as co-host of “Inner Space TV” with Thom Reed. Featured in many TV shows about UFOs, ghosts, and other unexplained things, he had been a guest on “Inside Edition” and “Ghost Adventurers” among others. 

Moniz has been featured in dozens of books dealing with the unexplained by authors such as Budd Hopkins, Peter Robbins, Tim Weisberg, Jeff Belanger. Among others. For the past twenty years he has also worked as a sound engineer and run the AV for many conferences, and is now the official AV engineer for all UFO events for the Roswell convention center.