The Paracast Newsletter
April 21, 2024
www.theparacast.com
Discover the Secrets of the Real Inventor of Television and an Antigravity Pioneer with Author and Biographer Paul Schatzkin on the Paracast!
The Paracast is heard Sundays from 3:00 AM until 6:00 AM Central Time on the GCN Radio Network and affiliates around the USA, the Boost Radio Network, the IRN Internet Radio Network, and online across the globe via download and on-demand streaming.
WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU HAVEN'T SIGNED UP FOR THE PARACAST+ YET? PLEASE SUBSCRIBE TO THE PARACAST+ SO YOU CAN SUPPORT THE SHOW AND ENJOY THE ULTIMATE PARACAST EXPERIENCE AT A SPECIAL LOW PRICE! We have another radio show and we’d love for you listen to it. So for a low subscription fee, you will receive access to an exclusive bonus podcast, After The Paracast, plus an enhanced version of The Paracast with the network ads removed, when you join The Paracast+. We also offer a special RSS feed for easy updates of the latest episodes on your device. Flash! Take advantage of our lowest rates ever! Act now! It's easier than ever to susbcribe! For the easiest signup ever, please visit: https://www.theparacast.plus
This Week's Episode: Gene and cohost Tim Swartz introduce Paul Schatzkin, a biographer of obscure 20th century scientists. He has been described variously as a visionary, gadfly, serial entrepreneur, Internet pioneer, staunch McLuhanist, author, occasional bomb-thrower, guitarist and songwriter. His two books are: "The Boy Who Invented Television" about Philo T. Farnsworth and "The Man Who Mastered Gravity" about T. Townsend Brown. As to Farnsworth, he invented a thing called "the television" — which over the course of his lifetime (1906-1971) became the most ubiquitous appliance in the history of human civilization. Every video screen on the planet — including the one you are looking at now – can trace its origins to a sketch that 14-year-old Philo drew for his high school science teacher in 1922. Schatzkin’s second book — exploring the mysterious life of T. Townsend Brown (1895-1985) — is "the biography of a man whose story cannot be told." "The Man Who Mastered Gravity" is a tale that lives in the Venn diagram between science, science fiction and pseudo science, with elements of world history, international espionage, and cross-generational romance. He was also involved in the early creation of a UFO research organization, the National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena (NICAP), which was later placed under the direction of UFO field pioneer and disclosure advocate Major Donald E. Keyhoe.
After The Paracast — Available exclusively for Paracast+ subscribers on April 21: Author Paul Schatzkin reveals more incredible details about the lives of Philo T. Farnsworth, the true inventor of television and antigravity pioneer T. Townsend Brown. He'll tell Gene and cohost Tim Swartz, for example, how Brown became interested in the flying saucer enigma in the 1940s and his ultimate connection with creating National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena (NICAP). You'll learn more about Farnsworth's ongoing efforts to perfect a practical method of nuclear fusion. Schatzkin's biography of Farnsworth titled, "The Boy Who Invented Television,"and his biography about Brown is titled, "The Man Who Mastered Gravity." Taken together, these two books suggest that if advanced civilizations are gallivanting around the galaxy, then their vessels are propelled by the two technologies that Farnsworth and Brown came close to — fusion energy and gravity control — that remain tantalizingly out of reach of even 21st century humans. In addition to being a biographer of obscure 20th century scientists, Schatzkin has been described variously as a visionary, gadfly, serial entrepreneur, Internet pioneer, staunch McLuhanist, author, occasional bomb-thrower, guitarist and songwriter. He was born in New York City and raised in Springsteen Country (Monmouth County, NJ).
Reminder: Please don't forget to visit our famous Paracast Community Forums for the latest news/views/debates on all things paranormal: The Paracast Community Forums. Visit our new online shop for great branded merchandise at: https://www.theparacast.shop.
ET is Useless
By Gene Steinberg
A phrase that the late UFO writer/promoter Gray Barker used in some of his writings is apt, and I paraphrase: “Flying saucers are here to help us rather than to harm us.”
So far so good, in theory at least. What it means is that, assuming we are being visited by extraterrestrials and/or other so-called “higher beings,” their vibes are strictly positive. The people of planet Earth have despoiled this planet in many ways, from the environment to the constant tribal wars.
Wherever you look, there are serious problems. Millions of people are starving, millions of others are homeless. I can’t begin to list all the troubles that we confront, but the news of the day almost always seems depressing.
When it comes to finding solutions, the governments of the major developed countries are often floundering in finding sensible and workable answers. Even the systems that seem relatively efficient somehow manage to fail in significant ways.
I’ll avoid the politics, since it’s too polarizing. Many people simply live in different realities, as if we are separated by alternate dimensions even if we are in what appears to be the same place at the same time.
So let’s get back to the positive pronouncements of ET and its ilk. You can trace such proclamations through recorded history, and find similarities from the mouths of higher beings.
Some religions preach peace and love, but with a stick. If you fail to follow a righteous path, you will be condemned to suffer for all of eternity. But it doesn’t seem to help all that much since even the faithful aren’t listening. Or they listen and just pay lip service to the edicts.
Our cultures through the ages has depicted interactions with presumed advanced beings of one sort or another. While some of it is meant to be metaphorical rather than represent an accurate history, clearly humans are not alone.
When it comes to cultural memes, of course, even the classic sci-film from 1951, “The Day the Earth Stood Still” had some level of religious overtones.
So an almost god-like being from another planet (not clearly identified) arrives on Earth to address the President and provide a gift that would allow him (or her) to see the stars. In turn, when he begins to remove the object from his uniform, a nervous soldier shoots him.
That begins the long odyssey of that being, Klaatu, as he strives to understand irrational human behavior and convey a significant message to the powers that be.
The film is a loose adaptation of a short story, “Farewell to the Master,” by Harry Bates, originally published in the October 1940 edition of Astounding Science Fiction magazine.
Typical of Hollywood, the final script was substantially changed from the original story in many respects, made to reflect the early days of the Cold War and rampant paranoia about the possibilities of a nuclear war.
So Klaatu suffers through death and resurrection to convey his message to a group of scientists after he realizes the leaders of the governments of Earth would be unable to actually come together and listen.
His message: Earth must get its act together. The existence of nuclear power and nuclear weaponry represents a potential threat to the other planets. Thus humans must change their ways, become a part of the peaceful galactic federation. Or whatever it is.
But this is no simple request. The carrot has a stick, a warning to the people of Earth that if it fails to listen and to embrace peace and brotherhood, we’ll be taken out. And Klaatu’s superior power is clear in the way he creates a worldwide demonstration in which all forms of power are shut off, except where lives need to be protected (such as an airplane in flight). Such power, as one of the characters in the movie asks, really does exist.
Now the flying saucer contacts of the period were clearly paying attention — well sort of.
They evangelized the positive side of the message, that we must embrace love and peace and all that good stuff. Messages of that sort were said to come from benevolent space people, beings from other realms (the astral and other dimensions), and so on and so forth.
However, Klaatu’s threat of destruction was ignored. The possibility that ET would actually destroy Earth if we failed to listen was not regarded as politically correct.
While many of these contactees were (and are) clearly telling tall tales, some put their beliefs in the mouths of advanced beings for what they no doubt regard as the greater good. It’s not that people will believe a perfect ordinary person expressing such beliefs.
Yet at the same time, perfectly sane people worldwide have reported such close encounters. I don’t believe they are necessarily all bereft of their senses, crazy people in dire need of treatment. Something real appears to be happening to them.
But what about the message and its meaning?
Well, unlike Klaatu’s warning of the consequences of failing to pay attention, these advanced beings make empty pronouncements. Most of the experiencers don’t make much headway in convincing people to listen to them. Some may attract a group of followers who believe every word that is conveyed to them. But that doesn’t’ take it very far.
Little or nothing ever comes of it. Sometimes the excuse is given that “they” do not wish to interfere with humanity and humanity’s destiny. They are just trying to be helpful.
But the mere act of contacting humans is itself interference of the first order. People have been impacted, and the results aren’t always so positive. The experiencers may just be regarded as eccentric, but some lives are disrupted, as families break up and jobs are lost. Others might be regarded as mentally ill, forced to undergo appropriate corrective confinement and sometimes treatment.
That doesn’t sound terribly positive.
Now just as I can’t say that all of these experiencers are lying or crazy, I wouldn’t presume to understand alien (or advanced being) logic or motives. Perhaps they are prohibited from actually interfering in Earthly affairs, and are basically disobeying the rules to try to be a little helpful.
Maybe.
Or maybe ET is feckless, perfectly capable of spreading a positive message but otherwise unable to make much of a dent in convincing large numbers of people to pay attention.
And it’s hard to believe that’ll ever change.
Note: Big changes are in the works for The Paracast — now in its 19th year. It’s all for the better, and you’ll be able to learn about it real soon now.
Copyright 1999-2024 The Paracast Company. All Rights Reserved.
Privacy Policy: Your personal information is safe with us. We will positively never give out your name and/or e-mail address to anybody else, and that's a promise!
April 21, 2024
www.theparacast.com
Discover the Secrets of the Real Inventor of Television and an Antigravity Pioneer with Author and Biographer Paul Schatzkin on the Paracast!
The Paracast is heard Sundays from 3:00 AM until 6:00 AM Central Time on the GCN Radio Network and affiliates around the USA, the Boost Radio Network, the IRN Internet Radio Network, and online across the globe via download and on-demand streaming.
WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU HAVEN'T SIGNED UP FOR THE PARACAST+ YET? PLEASE SUBSCRIBE TO THE PARACAST+ SO YOU CAN SUPPORT THE SHOW AND ENJOY THE ULTIMATE PARACAST EXPERIENCE AT A SPECIAL LOW PRICE! We have another radio show and we’d love for you listen to it. So for a low subscription fee, you will receive access to an exclusive bonus podcast, After The Paracast, plus an enhanced version of The Paracast with the network ads removed, when you join The Paracast+. We also offer a special RSS feed for easy updates of the latest episodes on your device. Flash! Take advantage of our lowest rates ever! Act now! It's easier than ever to susbcribe! For the easiest signup ever, please visit: https://www.theparacast.plus
This Week's Episode: Gene and cohost Tim Swartz introduce Paul Schatzkin, a biographer of obscure 20th century scientists. He has been described variously as a visionary, gadfly, serial entrepreneur, Internet pioneer, staunch McLuhanist, author, occasional bomb-thrower, guitarist and songwriter. His two books are: "The Boy Who Invented Television" about Philo T. Farnsworth and "The Man Who Mastered Gravity" about T. Townsend Brown. As to Farnsworth, he invented a thing called "the television" — which over the course of his lifetime (1906-1971) became the most ubiquitous appliance in the history of human civilization. Every video screen on the planet — including the one you are looking at now – can trace its origins to a sketch that 14-year-old Philo drew for his high school science teacher in 1922. Schatzkin’s second book — exploring the mysterious life of T. Townsend Brown (1895-1985) — is "the biography of a man whose story cannot be told." "The Man Who Mastered Gravity" is a tale that lives in the Venn diagram between science, science fiction and pseudo science, with elements of world history, international espionage, and cross-generational romance. He was also involved in the early creation of a UFO research organization, the National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena (NICAP), which was later placed under the direction of UFO field pioneer and disclosure advocate Major Donald E. Keyhoe.
After The Paracast — Available exclusively for Paracast+ subscribers on April 21: Author Paul Schatzkin reveals more incredible details about the lives of Philo T. Farnsworth, the true inventor of television and antigravity pioneer T. Townsend Brown. He'll tell Gene and cohost Tim Swartz, for example, how Brown became interested in the flying saucer enigma in the 1940s and his ultimate connection with creating National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena (NICAP). You'll learn more about Farnsworth's ongoing efforts to perfect a practical method of nuclear fusion. Schatzkin's biography of Farnsworth titled, "The Boy Who Invented Television,"and his biography about Brown is titled, "The Man Who Mastered Gravity." Taken together, these two books suggest that if advanced civilizations are gallivanting around the galaxy, then their vessels are propelled by the two technologies that Farnsworth and Brown came close to — fusion energy and gravity control — that remain tantalizingly out of reach of even 21st century humans. In addition to being a biographer of obscure 20th century scientists, Schatzkin has been described variously as a visionary, gadfly, serial entrepreneur, Internet pioneer, staunch McLuhanist, author, occasional bomb-thrower, guitarist and songwriter. He was born in New York City and raised in Springsteen Country (Monmouth County, NJ).
Reminder: Please don't forget to visit our famous Paracast Community Forums for the latest news/views/debates on all things paranormal: The Paracast Community Forums. Visit our new online shop for great branded merchandise at: https://www.theparacast.shop.
ET is Useless
By Gene Steinberg
A phrase that the late UFO writer/promoter Gray Barker used in some of his writings is apt, and I paraphrase: “Flying saucers are here to help us rather than to harm us.”
So far so good, in theory at least. What it means is that, assuming we are being visited by extraterrestrials and/or other so-called “higher beings,” their vibes are strictly positive. The people of planet Earth have despoiled this planet in many ways, from the environment to the constant tribal wars.
Wherever you look, there are serious problems. Millions of people are starving, millions of others are homeless. I can’t begin to list all the troubles that we confront, but the news of the day almost always seems depressing.
When it comes to finding solutions, the governments of the major developed countries are often floundering in finding sensible and workable answers. Even the systems that seem relatively efficient somehow manage to fail in significant ways.
I’ll avoid the politics, since it’s too polarizing. Many people simply live in different realities, as if we are separated by alternate dimensions even if we are in what appears to be the same place at the same time.
So let’s get back to the positive pronouncements of ET and its ilk. You can trace such proclamations through recorded history, and find similarities from the mouths of higher beings.
Some religions preach peace and love, but with a stick. If you fail to follow a righteous path, you will be condemned to suffer for all of eternity. But it doesn’t seem to help all that much since even the faithful aren’t listening. Or they listen and just pay lip service to the edicts.
Our cultures through the ages has depicted interactions with presumed advanced beings of one sort or another. While some of it is meant to be metaphorical rather than represent an accurate history, clearly humans are not alone.
When it comes to cultural memes, of course, even the classic sci-film from 1951, “The Day the Earth Stood Still” had some level of religious overtones.
So an almost god-like being from another planet (not clearly identified) arrives on Earth to address the President and provide a gift that would allow him (or her) to see the stars. In turn, when he begins to remove the object from his uniform, a nervous soldier shoots him.
That begins the long odyssey of that being, Klaatu, as he strives to understand irrational human behavior and convey a significant message to the powers that be.
The film is a loose adaptation of a short story, “Farewell to the Master,” by Harry Bates, originally published in the October 1940 edition of Astounding Science Fiction magazine.
Typical of Hollywood, the final script was substantially changed from the original story in many respects, made to reflect the early days of the Cold War and rampant paranoia about the possibilities of a nuclear war.
So Klaatu suffers through death and resurrection to convey his message to a group of scientists after he realizes the leaders of the governments of Earth would be unable to actually come together and listen.
His message: Earth must get its act together. The existence of nuclear power and nuclear weaponry represents a potential threat to the other planets. Thus humans must change their ways, become a part of the peaceful galactic federation. Or whatever it is.
But this is no simple request. The carrot has a stick, a warning to the people of Earth that if it fails to listen and to embrace peace and brotherhood, we’ll be taken out. And Klaatu’s superior power is clear in the way he creates a worldwide demonstration in which all forms of power are shut off, except where lives need to be protected (such as an airplane in flight). Such power, as one of the characters in the movie asks, really does exist.
Now the flying saucer contacts of the period were clearly paying attention — well sort of.
They evangelized the positive side of the message, that we must embrace love and peace and all that good stuff. Messages of that sort were said to come from benevolent space people, beings from other realms (the astral and other dimensions), and so on and so forth.
However, Klaatu’s threat of destruction was ignored. The possibility that ET would actually destroy Earth if we failed to listen was not regarded as politically correct.
While many of these contactees were (and are) clearly telling tall tales, some put their beliefs in the mouths of advanced beings for what they no doubt regard as the greater good. It’s not that people will believe a perfect ordinary person expressing such beliefs.
Yet at the same time, perfectly sane people worldwide have reported such close encounters. I don’t believe they are necessarily all bereft of their senses, crazy people in dire need of treatment. Something real appears to be happening to them.
But what about the message and its meaning?
Well, unlike Klaatu’s warning of the consequences of failing to pay attention, these advanced beings make empty pronouncements. Most of the experiencers don’t make much headway in convincing people to listen to them. Some may attract a group of followers who believe every word that is conveyed to them. But that doesn’t’ take it very far.
Little or nothing ever comes of it. Sometimes the excuse is given that “they” do not wish to interfere with humanity and humanity’s destiny. They are just trying to be helpful.
But the mere act of contacting humans is itself interference of the first order. People have been impacted, and the results aren’t always so positive. The experiencers may just be regarded as eccentric, but some lives are disrupted, as families break up and jobs are lost. Others might be regarded as mentally ill, forced to undergo appropriate corrective confinement and sometimes treatment.
That doesn’t sound terribly positive.
Now just as I can’t say that all of these experiencers are lying or crazy, I wouldn’t presume to understand alien (or advanced being) logic or motives. Perhaps they are prohibited from actually interfering in Earthly affairs, and are basically disobeying the rules to try to be a little helpful.
Maybe.
Or maybe ET is feckless, perfectly capable of spreading a positive message but otherwise unable to make much of a dent in convincing large numbers of people to pay attention.
And it’s hard to believe that’ll ever change.
Note: Big changes are in the works for The Paracast — now in its 19th year. It’s all for the better, and you’ll be able to learn about it real soon now.
Copyright 1999-2024 The Paracast Company. All Rights Reserved.
Privacy Policy: Your personal information is safe with us. We will positively never give out your name and/or e-mail address to anybody else, and that's a promise!