We observe ten years of The Paracast with a special roundtable featuring two of our guest co-hosts over the years, Greg Bishop, of “Radio Misterioso,” film producer Paul Kimball, and long-time forum participant and moderator Goggs Mackay. We talk about the state of paranormal research, how our views have changed over the years when it comes to individual cases, such as Roswell, and the possible causes of the UFO phenomenon. The panel also discusses things that might be done to make research more productive; what about the evidence contained in those UFO databases, what about free and transparent evaluation of all the evidence? The discussion also includes the plight of the experiencer, how their lives have been impacted by their experience, and where UFO abductions may fit in. And what about “panic in the woods” and the “Oz Factor”? The discussion continues on this week’s episode of After The Paracast.

Gene and Chris present Peter Davenport, director of the National UFO Reporting Center, to join us for a UFO update. According to Davenport, “One of the issues I would like to discuss is the wild proliferation of sightings of clusters of red, orange, and yellow fireballs. It appears to be the most important facet to the current status of Ufology, and I strongly suspect that the overwhelming majority of those reports do not involve so-called ‘Chinese’ lanterns.” Davenport will also discuss his ongoing plans to develop a UFO detection system using “passive” radar. First proposed 22 years ago, Davenport suggests that recent advancements in personal computer technology make the plans more feasible than ever.

A very special episode featuring best-selling fact and fiction author Whitley Strieber. During this session, Whitley will discuss his new book, “The Super Natural,” co-authored with J. Newton Rayzor Professor of Religion at Rice University, Jeffery Kripal. According to the promotional notes, “[This] book looks at all kinds of ‘impossible’ things, from extra-dimensional beings to bilocation to bumps in the night. They contend that these phenomena are not impossible at all: rather, they are part of our natural world. ‘The Super Natural’ considers that the natural world is actually a ‘user natural world’ — and all we have to do to see this is to change the lenses through which we are looking at it and the languages through which we are presently limiting it.”

The Paracast explores cutting-edge theories about the paranormal with Eric Ouellet, author of “Illuminations: The UFO Experience as a Parapsychological Event.” In this book, Dr. Ouellet asks the compelling question, “What if UFO experiences are the result of large-scale, unconscious, psychic forces?” According to the promotional notes for the book: “In Illuminations, sociologist Eric Ouellet offers a novel approach to a phenomenon that has thus far resisted all other efforts to explain it, be it as extraterrestrial craft, time travelers, secret government projects, or natural phenomena.” The author is a professor of Defense Studies at the Royal Military College of Canada, and at the Canadian Forces College (Canada’s Joint Staff and War College). He has a Ph.D. in sociology from York University (Toronto, Canada).