The Paracast Newsletter
March 26, 2023
www.theparacast.com
Author and Podcaster Curry Stegen Discusses His Amazing Paranormal Journey 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 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! Use the coupon code ufo20 to receive a 20% discount on five-year or lifetime subscriptions. And PayPal now accepts cryptocurrencies, such as Bitcoin, in payment. And if you don't want to use PayPal, we now also offer a second payment option, from Stripe, which accepts major credit or debit cards, Apple Pay and Google Pay. For "qualified users," you can also take advantage of Pay Later options, so act now! For the easiest signup ever, please visit: https://www.theparacast.plus
This Week's Episode: Gene and cohost Tim Swartz introduce Curry Stegen. A retired Air Force Reserve Officer with over 25 years of service, he has been investigating and exploring the paranormal for close to 10 years now and got involved to discover for himself if there really is life after death. In the first year into his journey, he got his answer. He is the author of the new book, "Walking in the Shadows of Strangers." For over five years, he has hosted the Passion for the Paranormal Podcast. In his book, he documents his experiences at over 20 haunted locations across four states in the Western US. Several of his experiences in these locations were very compelling and even creepy and unsettling. Stegen has had many paranormal experiences, including witnessing unexplained shadows, seeing self-illuminating balls of light, hearing disembodied voices, phantom footsteps and knocks other noises, being touched, interactions through EMF/REM devices, capturing many different EVPs and feeling strong energy that was at sometimes validated by EVP.
After The Paracast — Available exclusively for Paracast+ subscribers on March 26: Author and podcaster Curry Stegen, tells Gene and cohost Tim Swartz about his amazing journey through the mysterious world of paranormal events. He explains how he got involved researching the unknown, and some of the phenomena he has encountered along the way. He has captured EVP audios of strange voices and presents one of them in this episode. Is it real, just your imagination — what? Stegen also talks about the ins and outs of paranormal research, detailing his visits to possible locations of strange phenomena. A retired Air Force Reserve Officer with over 25 years of service, he has been investigating and exploring the paranormal for close to 10 years now and got involved to discover for himself if there really is life after death. In the first year into his journey, he got his answer. He is the author of “Walking in the Shadows of Strangers,” and, for over five years, he has hosted the Passion for the Paranormal Podcast.
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, and check out our new YouTube channel at: https://www.youtube.com/c/TheOfficialParacastChannel.
Are We Just Bugs in the Matrix?
By Gene Steinberg
We are all exposed to imperfections. Even a personal computer or smartphone, which are supposed to be perfect or almost perfect, can be trouble-prone.
Indeed, I spent several decades writing about the facts and foibles of personal technology, beginning with my first Apple Macintosh computer in the late 1980s. But I had already been exposed to PCs (those were the days before Microsoft Windows became useful), and they had their share.
Every so often, when I wanted to get some work done, my computer put up a dreaded system bomb icon. It meant a restart was necessary, and I sometimes had to redo some of the work that I hadn’t yet saved.
Obviously, system errors weren’t heinous plots by the manufacturer to drive you crazy, although that was sometimes the result. It meant that computer programming was far from perfect, and it was never possible to fix them all. One developer told me years ago that bugs bore priority labels. The ones that could cause a system crash or a loss of data were dealt with first, and not always successfully. The rest went to the bottom of the list, and may persist for years.
I can list a few on my Apple iPhone, but why bother? Android smartphones have their own issues.
But the most catastrophic bugs inflict humans. Even if your religion of choice touts a goal of perfection, it’ll never be realized. Not even close. Very little is consistent.
So your family may live long, but you might face a terminal disease before middle age. While my grandfathers both hung out through their 80s, and my father just shy of his 79th birthday, my brother didn’t fare as well.
A prominent figure in the health care industry, he boasted once of planning to live forever in a health magazine, and explained how he’d accomplish that task. But that boast may have irritated someone or something. He died not much more than a year later, shy of his 62nd birthday.
To be fair, he had health issues, some heart related. But he was quite the character, and our world would be better off if he was granted another couple of decades.
But even if your lifespan is long, nature has designed your body to be extremely defective. Maybe your teeth will become cavity-ridden despite your best efforts to brush, floss, and visit your dentist regularly. Any of your organs might fail, or develop defects that might require regular treatment.
And don’t forget the need for eyeglasses.
I’ll be brief about the highly flawed behavior of humans. Some of it is excessive, leading to such things as crime sprees or waging wars against people who are not members of their tribes. The reasons might be manyfold, such as the desire for more property, more land, someone else’s natural resources, or just, well, because they are different.
In the first quarter of the 21st century, we have seen our share of calamities, and I will spare you the details that you already know.
At the same time, untold numbers of people claim to have been in touch with higher beings. Whether extraterrestrials or residents of the afterlife, they claim to be here to guide us through the upcoming catastrophe, or just to help us get our acts together.
Across time, there have been similar contacts with the same basic messaging. Humans have lost their way, we behave irresponsibly, and they are here to make us whole once again.
Only it never seems to happen. The diagnosis is clear and direct, but the solution never exists beyond the declaration that we ought to get our acts together.
So how do I relate any of this to computer imperfections or defects in any electronic or mechanical device?
Well, there is a theory that we are all living in a simulation, and our affairs are directed by some higher power. It could involve teams of programmers, or a supreme being that runs things. Maybe there are multiple universes.
You might imagine all this is something similar to a computer game, where you can enter, virtually, another world and fight or frolic with its inhabitants. In the end, if you figure out the obstacles, you are the supreme being and you can always turn the whole thing off, ending, for the moment, that interactive world.
But computer games aren’t perfect either. They are developed by teams of imperfect software engineers and contain defects that game gurus learn to sometimes exploit. Or perhaps the app doesn’t behave as it should because of those bugs.
So what’s the point? Well, since humans are so highly flawed, is that the result of bad programming? Are we just the bugs left in a computer program? Is there a fix other than to just put up with such mistery?
Will it some day be possible to enter a machine, and have it fix our rotting teeth, correct our nearsightedness or fix our erratic heartbeats or symptoms of chronic pain?
And what about our egos, narcissism, and hatred of others who differ from us?
But it’s not just humans who are bug-ridden. Consider our environment, and its share of defects. So we have violent storms of one sort or another, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, floods and other catastrophic events that damage people, property, and innocent animals. We can cope, but we can’t stop the destruction.
Now perhaps, as years go by, we’ll begin to sort things out. The chronic defects present among humans will be cured or prevented. People will learn to love and respect one another, and we’ll establish control over our environment before it’s too late to save our little planet.
And, no, I do not wish to get into any debates over climate change. Whatever you think might be the cause, it’s messy out there.
Or maybe the powers-that-be will run out of patience, hit the secure delete button and give it another try. Or maybe they get a kick out of watching us suffer. Or, even better, perhaps they hope that we can learn from our mistakes before they have to act.
And, no, you don’t want to hear about my defects. But at least cataract surgery has made my vision more perfect, so I no longer need corrective lenses. But it will hardly matter if and when there’s no world to see.
Then again, this all may be a bad dream from which we’ll someday awaken.
Copyright 1999-2023 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!
March 26, 2023
www.theparacast.com
Author and Podcaster Curry Stegen Discusses His Amazing Paranormal Journey 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 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! Use the coupon code ufo20 to receive a 20% discount on five-year or lifetime subscriptions. And PayPal now accepts cryptocurrencies, such as Bitcoin, in payment. And if you don't want to use PayPal, we now also offer a second payment option, from Stripe, which accepts major credit or debit cards, Apple Pay and Google Pay. For "qualified users," you can also take advantage of Pay Later options, so act now! For the easiest signup ever, please visit: https://www.theparacast.plus
This Week's Episode: Gene and cohost Tim Swartz introduce Curry Stegen. A retired Air Force Reserve Officer with over 25 years of service, he has been investigating and exploring the paranormal for close to 10 years now and got involved to discover for himself if there really is life after death. In the first year into his journey, he got his answer. He is the author of the new book, "Walking in the Shadows of Strangers." For over five years, he has hosted the Passion for the Paranormal Podcast. In his book, he documents his experiences at over 20 haunted locations across four states in the Western US. Several of his experiences in these locations were very compelling and even creepy and unsettling. Stegen has had many paranormal experiences, including witnessing unexplained shadows, seeing self-illuminating balls of light, hearing disembodied voices, phantom footsteps and knocks other noises, being touched, interactions through EMF/REM devices, capturing many different EVPs and feeling strong energy that was at sometimes validated by EVP.
After The Paracast — Available exclusively for Paracast+ subscribers on March 26: Author and podcaster Curry Stegen, tells Gene and cohost Tim Swartz about his amazing journey through the mysterious world of paranormal events. He explains how he got involved researching the unknown, and some of the phenomena he has encountered along the way. He has captured EVP audios of strange voices and presents one of them in this episode. Is it real, just your imagination — what? Stegen also talks about the ins and outs of paranormal research, detailing his visits to possible locations of strange phenomena. A retired Air Force Reserve Officer with over 25 years of service, he has been investigating and exploring the paranormal for close to 10 years now and got involved to discover for himself if there really is life after death. In the first year into his journey, he got his answer. He is the author of “Walking in the Shadows of Strangers,” and, for over five years, he has hosted the Passion for the Paranormal Podcast.
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, and check out our new YouTube channel at: https://www.youtube.com/c/TheOfficialParacastChannel.
Are We Just Bugs in the Matrix?
By Gene Steinberg
We are all exposed to imperfections. Even a personal computer or smartphone, which are supposed to be perfect or almost perfect, can be trouble-prone.
Indeed, I spent several decades writing about the facts and foibles of personal technology, beginning with my first Apple Macintosh computer in the late 1980s. But I had already been exposed to PCs (those were the days before Microsoft Windows became useful), and they had their share.
Every so often, when I wanted to get some work done, my computer put up a dreaded system bomb icon. It meant a restart was necessary, and I sometimes had to redo some of the work that I hadn’t yet saved.
Obviously, system errors weren’t heinous plots by the manufacturer to drive you crazy, although that was sometimes the result. It meant that computer programming was far from perfect, and it was never possible to fix them all. One developer told me years ago that bugs bore priority labels. The ones that could cause a system crash or a loss of data were dealt with first, and not always successfully. The rest went to the bottom of the list, and may persist for years.
I can list a few on my Apple iPhone, but why bother? Android smartphones have their own issues.
But the most catastrophic bugs inflict humans. Even if your religion of choice touts a goal of perfection, it’ll never be realized. Not even close. Very little is consistent.
So your family may live long, but you might face a terminal disease before middle age. While my grandfathers both hung out through their 80s, and my father just shy of his 79th birthday, my brother didn’t fare as well.
A prominent figure in the health care industry, he boasted once of planning to live forever in a health magazine, and explained how he’d accomplish that task. But that boast may have irritated someone or something. He died not much more than a year later, shy of his 62nd birthday.
To be fair, he had health issues, some heart related. But he was quite the character, and our world would be better off if he was granted another couple of decades.
But even if your lifespan is long, nature has designed your body to be extremely defective. Maybe your teeth will become cavity-ridden despite your best efforts to brush, floss, and visit your dentist regularly. Any of your organs might fail, or develop defects that might require regular treatment.
And don’t forget the need for eyeglasses.
I’ll be brief about the highly flawed behavior of humans. Some of it is excessive, leading to such things as crime sprees or waging wars against people who are not members of their tribes. The reasons might be manyfold, such as the desire for more property, more land, someone else’s natural resources, or just, well, because they are different.
In the first quarter of the 21st century, we have seen our share of calamities, and I will spare you the details that you already know.
At the same time, untold numbers of people claim to have been in touch with higher beings. Whether extraterrestrials or residents of the afterlife, they claim to be here to guide us through the upcoming catastrophe, or just to help us get our acts together.
Across time, there have been similar contacts with the same basic messaging. Humans have lost their way, we behave irresponsibly, and they are here to make us whole once again.
Only it never seems to happen. The diagnosis is clear and direct, but the solution never exists beyond the declaration that we ought to get our acts together.
So how do I relate any of this to computer imperfections or defects in any electronic or mechanical device?
Well, there is a theory that we are all living in a simulation, and our affairs are directed by some higher power. It could involve teams of programmers, or a supreme being that runs things. Maybe there are multiple universes.
You might imagine all this is something similar to a computer game, where you can enter, virtually, another world and fight or frolic with its inhabitants. In the end, if you figure out the obstacles, you are the supreme being and you can always turn the whole thing off, ending, for the moment, that interactive world.
But computer games aren’t perfect either. They are developed by teams of imperfect software engineers and contain defects that game gurus learn to sometimes exploit. Or perhaps the app doesn’t behave as it should because of those bugs.
So what’s the point? Well, since humans are so highly flawed, is that the result of bad programming? Are we just the bugs left in a computer program? Is there a fix other than to just put up with such mistery?
Will it some day be possible to enter a machine, and have it fix our rotting teeth, correct our nearsightedness or fix our erratic heartbeats or symptoms of chronic pain?
And what about our egos, narcissism, and hatred of others who differ from us?
But it’s not just humans who are bug-ridden. Consider our environment, and its share of defects. So we have violent storms of one sort or another, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, floods and other catastrophic events that damage people, property, and innocent animals. We can cope, but we can’t stop the destruction.
Now perhaps, as years go by, we’ll begin to sort things out. The chronic defects present among humans will be cured or prevented. People will learn to love and respect one another, and we’ll establish control over our environment before it’s too late to save our little planet.
And, no, I do not wish to get into any debates over climate change. Whatever you think might be the cause, it’s messy out there.
Or maybe the powers-that-be will run out of patience, hit the secure delete button and give it another try. Or maybe they get a kick out of watching us suffer. Or, even better, perhaps they hope that we can learn from our mistakes before they have to act.
And, no, you don’t want to hear about my defects. But at least cataract surgery has made my vision more perfect, so I no longer need corrective lenses. But it will hardly matter if and when there’s no world to see.
Then again, this all may be a bad dream from which we’ll someday awaken.
Copyright 1999-2023 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!