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Your Paracast Newsletter — February 7, 2016


Gene Steinberg

Forum Super Hero
Staff member
THE PARACAST NEWSLETTER
February 7, 2016
www.theparacast.com

A UFO/Paranormal Unified Theory Discussed 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.

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This Week's Episode: 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).

Chris O’Brien’s Site: Our Strange Planet

Eric Ouelett’s Blog: Parasociology

After The Paracast -- Available exclusively to Paracast+ subscribers: Gene and Chris discuss the implications of a unified field theory for UFOs and paranormal events, and whether Eric Ouelett’s book, “Illuminations.” Although it’s a compelling concept for further investigation, Chris and Gene believe that Eric has opened the door to loads of possibilities, but that there are lapses, such as how cryptozoological events and cattle mutilations might apply, not to mention UFO cases that seem not to fit the mold? Chris also talks about the release of his latest musical projects, two albums, and the confirmation of the appearance of Whitey Strieber, after several years of effort, to appear on the next episode of The Paracast. There’s also a brief discussion about the recent passing of astronaut Dr. Edgar Mitchell.

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.

UFOs, the Paranormal and the Powers of the Mind

By Gene Steinberg

Editor’s Note: As I continue to recover from a nasty flu virus, this newsletter is being sent a little later than I planned.

It’s convenient — maybe simpler — to attribute UFOs to spaceships, ghosts to spirits of the dead, and cryptozoological creatures to lost or hidden races. We just have to look a little harder to figure out what they are, if they aren’t actually visitors from other dimensions. But isn’t that a convenient explanation, too, for UFOs?

As you see these explanations are really not so simple. They each posit a set of conditions that require a stretch into unknown realms.

So if you believe UFOs are spaceships, you must also accept that intelligent beings from other planets are coming here to visit us for reasons that we do not know. That’s certainly within the realm of possibility. The raw ingredients for life in the universe appear, based on our limited observations of other planets, to be abundant. We have discovered evidence of possible Earth-like planets out there — located in a sort of Goldilocks zone — that might harbor life as we know it.

So far so good. But it doesn’t necessarily mean that life has arisen on those planets, or that it has evolved sufficiently to be interested or capable of traveling off-planet.

Again, however, it remains a distinct and not unlikely possibility. We cannot, so far, prove it’s actually happened here, or that it is still happening. Possibilities, even plausible ones, do not constitute proof, even if UFOs do appear to possess metallic structures and exhibit intelligent control.

Ghosts? That’s out of my comfort zone, but every paranormal TV realty show, and loads of movies and TV shows, depict possible interactions with people who died but still retain a sort of presence that is sometimes detected by regular people. Or regular people with the right insights or inner sensitivity to see someone or something from the other side.

The discussion of possible life after death is certainly complicated. It is certainly comforting to believe that life continues after you leave this Earthly realm. Since matter is not destroyed, to believe one goes on in one form or another certainly helps to reduce one’s fear of death.

But it can also be used to incite terror, witness oppressed people being coerced into committing violent suicides, taking others with them, all on the false promise that they will awaken in a heavenly environment with 20 virgins at their beck and call. Or whatever.

Related to ghosts are poltergeists, which usually involve physical effects, without actually seeing a being performing said actions. A common theory is of a teenager, coming into puberty, manifesting their frustrations as physical actions upon objects

Of course, if people have the power to move objects with their own wills, even if they aren’t consciously aware of doing so, that creates all sorts intriguing possibilities about the powers possessed by the human mind. As I did some casual research into the possibilities, I noticed some online courses that supposedly allow you to learn how to handle your innate telekinetic powers.

What comes to mind when you explore the possibilities is spoon-bending, and most of you remember those TV shows in which stage magician Uri Geller exhibited his alleged psychic abilities. Understand I never believed in Geller for the moment, and it didn’t help that a few of his public demonstrations failed.

However, I recall a story once conveyed to me by a former girlfriend in the 1970s. We shared an interest in sci-fi, and attended one or two of the first Star Trek conventions, the ones that helped fuel resurgence in the series.

In any case, one day she recounted a curious story with perfect seriousness. She was watching Geller on her TV one day, when he performed one of his infamous spoon-bending routines. Well, she had a spoon in her hand, one I supposed she was using to mix a cup of tea. Well, upon competition of the demonstration, she noticed that her spoon had been severely bent.

There was no follow up. For as long as I knew her, the episode did not repeat itself. But she was convinced that under the right conditions, the human mind is capable of extraordinary power.

Now it’s easy to suggest she was just putting me on. But she did not seem to be that sort of person. She was aware of my interest in UFOs and the paranormal events, but she also knew that I tended to be skeptical of questionable claims. I never saw anything in her personality, before or after, to indicate she might make something of this sort up. Just call it a curiosity.

What would she say about it today? Good question. I lost touch wth her a few months later, and I have no idea where she is or what she might be doing nowadays.

When you consider the possible extraordinary power of the human mind, however, all sorts of fascinating possibilities present themselves. If you can move or bend objects, can you also create apparitions, or even UFOs, with a sufficient level of individual or collective mental energy?

I know that some of you would not hesitate to say yes. We can do all sorts of amazing things accidentally, or with the proper degree of training. However such abilities, if genuine, do not present themselves on a regular or predictable basis. That gives the skeptics reason to doubt their existence. A common excuse is that the skeptic’s negative energy may compete against their positive energy, thus diminishing their abilities.

So there’s an element of belief involved. Call it the power of positive thinking. The skeptics will suggest having a good attitude will help you do your best in a given situation, even one that’s stressful. But they do not for a moment believe that attitude could harness your innate psychic powers.

But that doesn’t mean some humans may be capable of calling upon amazing psychic powers to move objects, bend spoons, and cause strange objects or apparitions to appear.

As to that former girlfriend: I haven’t given her claim a second’s thought in 40 years. Maybe she was just pulling my leg after all, but that’s just too convenient an explanation.

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