THE PARACAST NEWSLETTER
March 3, 2012
The Paracast Presents Special Highlights from the International UFO Congress
Special Announcement: The Paracast is heard Sundays from 2:00 AM until 5:00 AM Central Time on the GCN Radio Network and affiliates around the USA, and online across the globe via download and on-demand streaming.
Please Consider a Donation to The Paracast: Although ads help cover a small part of our expenses, the income they produce is never enough. Also, we do not receive any revenue from the ads placed on the show by our network or local stations. So we hope you're able to help fill the gap if you can to help us cover increasing server costs and other expenses -- or perhaps provide a little extra cash for lunch. No contribution is too small (or too large
. We have a Donate link on our home page, below the logo and audio player. There's also a Donate link on our forums, at the bottom of the sidebar on the right. Or just send your PayPal donation direct to sales (at) theparacast (dot) com.
Attention U.S. Listeners: Help Us Bring The Paracast to Your City! In the summer of 2010, The Paracast joined the GCN radio network. This represented a huge step in bringing our show to a larger, mainstream audience. But we need your help to add additional affiliates to our growing network. Please ask one of your local talk stations if they are interested in carrying The Paracast. Feel free to contact us directly with the names of programming people we might be able to contact on your behalf. We can't do this alone, and if you succeed in convincing your local station to carry the show, we'll reward you with one of our special T-shirts, and other goodies. With your help, The Paracast can grow into one of the most popular paranormal shows on the planet!
Please Visit Our Brand New Online Store: You asked, and we answered. We are now taking orders for The Official Paracast T-Shirt and an expanded collection of other specially customized merchandise. To get your T-Shirt now featuring our brand new logo, just pay a visit to our online store at The Official Paracast Store to select your size and place your order. We also offer a complete lineup of other premium merchandise for your family, your friends and your business contacts.
Sunday, March 4, 2012: The Paracast covers a world beyond science, where UFOs, poltergeists and strange phenomena of all kinds have been reported by millions across the planet.
Set Up: The Paracast is a paranormal radio show that takes you on a journey to a world beyond science, where UFOs, poltergeists and strange phenomena of all kinds have been reported by millions. The Paracast seeks to shed light on the mysteries and complexities of our Universe and the secrets that surround us in our everyday lives.
Join long-time paranormal researcher Gene Steinberg, co-host Christopher O'Brien, and a panel of special guest experts and experiencers, as they explore the realms of the known and unknown. Listen each week to the great stories of the history of the paranormal field in the 20th and 21st centuries.
This Week's Episode: Direct from the International UFO Congress in Fountain Hills, AZ, Gene and Chris present special exclusive interviews with Bryce Zabel, a creator of the "Dark Skies" TV series and co-author of "After Disclosure," UFO abduction researcher Peter Robbins, co-author of "Left at East Gate: A First-Hand Account of the Rendlesham Forest UFO Incident, Its Cover-up, and Investigation," and Jennifer Stein, Executive Producer of the award winning UFO documentary, "The Disclosure Dialogues."
Christopher O'Brien's Site: Home - Our Strange Planet
Bryce Zabel's Site: Remembering the Post 9/11 Emmy Awards of 2001 (For What It's Worth)
Coming March 11: Gene and Chris explore ancient mysteries of advanced beings said to have visited our world in ancient times with Scott Alan Roberts, author of "The Rise and Fall of the Nephilim: The Untold Story of Fallen Angels, Giants on the Earth, and Their Extraterrestrial Origins." Real or fanciful? You listen, you decide!
Christopher O'Brien's Site: Home - Our Strange Planet
Scott Alan Roberts' Site: INTREPID Magazine | 651.468.8115
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. We recently completed a major update that makes our community easier to navigate, and social network friendly.
UFO Conference Follies
by Christopher O’Brien
For the second year in a row, I traveled to The Ft. McDowell Casino near Scottsdale, AZ to lurk about the International UFO Congress and EBE Awards Film Festival. Last year John Rao’s “Open Minds” (OM) group acquired and moved the long-running IUFOC conference from its perennial Laughlin, NV location to it’s new venue, and I was impressed by the speaker lineup at last year’s soiré. The “A-list” luminaries turned out in droves: Stanton T. Friedman, Richard Dolan, Leslie Kean, Nick Pope, Jim Marrs, John Alexander, A.J. Gevaerd and Nancy Talbot. The speaker’s list read like a who’s who of serious research talent, and there was genuine excitement swirling around the event.
I remember thinking at the time: maybe there’s hope for the soon-to-be outmoded “UFO conference” model. But, maybe not. The Internet has irrevocably impacted how the world seeks and finds information, and this especially holds true for the field of ufology, where the average age of conference attendees is somewhere in the mid 60s. It was gratifying to see standing room only crowds at last year’s event, and the transition seemed charmed.
So what the heck happened this year? Attendance seemed substantially down; there was little, if any, excitement permeating the event and the list of speakers seemed to have devolved into the realm of kool-aid makers serving “true believers,” and little known “one-trick pony” presenters. This included one poor guy (who never spoke at a conference before) who had an extremely difficult time stringing sentences together – even after long 20-30 second pauses! If I had been watching I’m sure I would have wondered why nobody came onstage to give the speaker a hand, or yank him off with a sheep herder’s cane. Yikes!
Yes, my friends, it appears that the lure of the almighty dollar has struck ufology yet again. OM obviously cut corners this year on the quality of presenters – opting instead to pander to a true-believer, “butts-in-the-chairs” approach that clearly failed to deliver the caliber of data that you in The Paracast community demand. In my estimation most (but not all) of this year’s line-up, i.e., Steven Greer, Stan (and Lisa?!) Romanek, Whitley Strieber, Lynne Kitei, Jaime Maussan and David Sereda, have little to offer the hungry UFO field that, in my estimation, lusts for out-of-the-box, creative thinkers not tied to foregone conclusions, self-aggrandizing grandstanding, or creating cults of personality.
When Dr. Bruce Maccabbee canceled (?) at the last minute, instead of tapping the resources of the quality talent present at the conference, Open Minds inexplicably opted to bring back, for a second year, the irrepressible Stan Romanek and (get this) they also added Stan’s wife to the podium. That’s right: Lisa Romanek, whose recently published book “From My Side of the Bed: Pulling Back the Covers on Extraterrestrial Contact, A Spouses Point of View,” continues touting the highly controversial (and in my mind, highly dubious) Stan Romanek case.
Several people during the conference asked me what I thought of Stan’s claims and my stock answer for years has been: “If a case appears to good to be true, it probably isn’t.” I’ve been monitoring the meandering claims of the Romanekian worshippers for years, and it would seem that Stan is steadily becoming the model for a new 21st century version of the “contactee” guru – America’s answer to that one-armed Swiss bandit, Billy Meier. Ouch, my fingers smart just from writing that last sentence!
OK, I know, putting on such an extravagant event is fraught with financial peril, and when the bucks are spent, the bottom line is always an issue. But where do you draw the line between kool-aid mixing crowd pleasers and the genuine researchers with quality data?
Not all was a bust. There were several noteworthy presenters this year, including UFO historian Antonio Huneeus, prolithic author/investigator Rosemary Ellen Guiley, media maven Bryce Zabel, Colin Andrews (who was the recipient of the IUFOC Lifetime Achievement Award), and courageous General Ricardo Bermúdez, director of Chile’s Committee of Studies of Anomalous Aerial Phenomenon (CEFAA), the Chilean government’s official organization for the study of unknown aerial phenomena.
Is there hope for the UFO conference model? As the century slowly progresses, the old guard checks out and the kids grow up, I seriously doubt that this mechanism for educating the public will continue to be viable. About the time you read this article, I will be participating in my first-ever virtual UFO/Paranormal conference (Alternative Universe Conference – $10 to stream) At 12 PM Eastern time, March 3, Greg Bishop (“Paranormal UFOs: The Human Element”), Walter Bosley (“The Hidden Landscape”), Andrew Colvin (“Men in Black: The Secret Terror Still Among Us”), William Michael Mott (“The Problem of Density Regarding Non-Human Encounters”) and myself (“UFOs, Abductions, Crop Circles, Miracles & Mutilations: What’s the Connection?”) will be presenting at the first-ever Alternate Universe: The i-Conference.
So is this an indication of the future paradigm in regards to presenting paranormal research to the public at large? Will this model attract a younger audience hungry for data and represent a new approach to the mysteries we cover here at The Paracast? Will the old timers login? Like much of what is happening in the world right now, only time will tell, but like many of us, I sense the future is impacting the paranormal field at faster-than-light speed.
The Paracast Copyright 1999-2012 Making The Impossible, Inc. 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 3, 2012
The Paracast Presents Special Highlights from the International UFO Congress
Special Announcement: The Paracast is heard Sundays from 2:00 AM until 5:00 AM Central Time on the GCN Radio Network and affiliates around the USA, and online across the globe via download and on-demand streaming.
Please Consider a Donation to The Paracast: Although ads help cover a small part of our expenses, the income they produce is never enough. Also, we do not receive any revenue from the ads placed on the show by our network or local stations. So we hope you're able to help fill the gap if you can to help us cover increasing server costs and other expenses -- or perhaps provide a little extra cash for lunch. No contribution is too small (or too large
. We have a Donate link on our home page, below the logo and audio player. There's also a Donate link on our forums, at the bottom of the sidebar on the right. Or just send your PayPal donation direct to sales (at) theparacast (dot) com.Attention U.S. Listeners: Help Us Bring The Paracast to Your City! In the summer of 2010, The Paracast joined the GCN radio network. This represented a huge step in bringing our show to a larger, mainstream audience. But we need your help to add additional affiliates to our growing network. Please ask one of your local talk stations if they are interested in carrying The Paracast. Feel free to contact us directly with the names of programming people we might be able to contact on your behalf. We can't do this alone, and if you succeed in convincing your local station to carry the show, we'll reward you with one of our special T-shirts, and other goodies. With your help, The Paracast can grow into one of the most popular paranormal shows on the planet!
Please Visit Our Brand New Online Store: You asked, and we answered. We are now taking orders for The Official Paracast T-Shirt and an expanded collection of other specially customized merchandise. To get your T-Shirt now featuring our brand new logo, just pay a visit to our online store at The Official Paracast Store to select your size and place your order. We also offer a complete lineup of other premium merchandise for your family, your friends and your business contacts.
Sunday, March 4, 2012: The Paracast covers a world beyond science, where UFOs, poltergeists and strange phenomena of all kinds have been reported by millions across the planet.
Set Up: The Paracast is a paranormal radio show that takes you on a journey to a world beyond science, where UFOs, poltergeists and strange phenomena of all kinds have been reported by millions. The Paracast seeks to shed light on the mysteries and complexities of our Universe and the secrets that surround us in our everyday lives.
Join long-time paranormal researcher Gene Steinberg, co-host Christopher O'Brien, and a panel of special guest experts and experiencers, as they explore the realms of the known and unknown. Listen each week to the great stories of the history of the paranormal field in the 20th and 21st centuries.
This Week's Episode: Direct from the International UFO Congress in Fountain Hills, AZ, Gene and Chris present special exclusive interviews with Bryce Zabel, a creator of the "Dark Skies" TV series and co-author of "After Disclosure," UFO abduction researcher Peter Robbins, co-author of "Left at East Gate: A First-Hand Account of the Rendlesham Forest UFO Incident, Its Cover-up, and Investigation," and Jennifer Stein, Executive Producer of the award winning UFO documentary, "The Disclosure Dialogues."
Christopher O'Brien's Site: Home - Our Strange Planet
Bryce Zabel's Site: Remembering the Post 9/11 Emmy Awards of 2001 (For What It's Worth)
Coming March 11: Gene and Chris explore ancient mysteries of advanced beings said to have visited our world in ancient times with Scott Alan Roberts, author of "The Rise and Fall of the Nephilim: The Untold Story of Fallen Angels, Giants on the Earth, and Their Extraterrestrial Origins." Real or fanciful? You listen, you decide!
Christopher O'Brien's Site: Home - Our Strange Planet
Scott Alan Roberts' Site: INTREPID Magazine | 651.468.8115
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. We recently completed a major update that makes our community easier to navigate, and social network friendly.
UFO Conference Follies
by Christopher O’Brien
For the second year in a row, I traveled to The Ft. McDowell Casino near Scottsdale, AZ to lurk about the International UFO Congress and EBE Awards Film Festival. Last year John Rao’s “Open Minds” (OM) group acquired and moved the long-running IUFOC conference from its perennial Laughlin, NV location to it’s new venue, and I was impressed by the speaker lineup at last year’s soiré. The “A-list” luminaries turned out in droves: Stanton T. Friedman, Richard Dolan, Leslie Kean, Nick Pope, Jim Marrs, John Alexander, A.J. Gevaerd and Nancy Talbot. The speaker’s list read like a who’s who of serious research talent, and there was genuine excitement swirling around the event.
I remember thinking at the time: maybe there’s hope for the soon-to-be outmoded “UFO conference” model. But, maybe not. The Internet has irrevocably impacted how the world seeks and finds information, and this especially holds true for the field of ufology, where the average age of conference attendees is somewhere in the mid 60s. It was gratifying to see standing room only crowds at last year’s event, and the transition seemed charmed.
So what the heck happened this year? Attendance seemed substantially down; there was little, if any, excitement permeating the event and the list of speakers seemed to have devolved into the realm of kool-aid makers serving “true believers,” and little known “one-trick pony” presenters. This included one poor guy (who never spoke at a conference before) who had an extremely difficult time stringing sentences together – even after long 20-30 second pauses! If I had been watching I’m sure I would have wondered why nobody came onstage to give the speaker a hand, or yank him off with a sheep herder’s cane. Yikes!
Yes, my friends, it appears that the lure of the almighty dollar has struck ufology yet again. OM obviously cut corners this year on the quality of presenters – opting instead to pander to a true-believer, “butts-in-the-chairs” approach that clearly failed to deliver the caliber of data that you in The Paracast community demand. In my estimation most (but not all) of this year’s line-up, i.e., Steven Greer, Stan (and Lisa?!) Romanek, Whitley Strieber, Lynne Kitei, Jaime Maussan and David Sereda, have little to offer the hungry UFO field that, in my estimation, lusts for out-of-the-box, creative thinkers not tied to foregone conclusions, self-aggrandizing grandstanding, or creating cults of personality.
When Dr. Bruce Maccabbee canceled (?) at the last minute, instead of tapping the resources of the quality talent present at the conference, Open Minds inexplicably opted to bring back, for a second year, the irrepressible Stan Romanek and (get this) they also added Stan’s wife to the podium. That’s right: Lisa Romanek, whose recently published book “From My Side of the Bed: Pulling Back the Covers on Extraterrestrial Contact, A Spouses Point of View,” continues touting the highly controversial (and in my mind, highly dubious) Stan Romanek case.
Several people during the conference asked me what I thought of Stan’s claims and my stock answer for years has been: “If a case appears to good to be true, it probably isn’t.” I’ve been monitoring the meandering claims of the Romanekian worshippers for years, and it would seem that Stan is steadily becoming the model for a new 21st century version of the “contactee” guru – America’s answer to that one-armed Swiss bandit, Billy Meier. Ouch, my fingers smart just from writing that last sentence!
OK, I know, putting on such an extravagant event is fraught with financial peril, and when the bucks are spent, the bottom line is always an issue. But where do you draw the line between kool-aid mixing crowd pleasers and the genuine researchers with quality data?
Not all was a bust. There were several noteworthy presenters this year, including UFO historian Antonio Huneeus, prolithic author/investigator Rosemary Ellen Guiley, media maven Bryce Zabel, Colin Andrews (who was the recipient of the IUFOC Lifetime Achievement Award), and courageous General Ricardo Bermúdez, director of Chile’s Committee of Studies of Anomalous Aerial Phenomenon (CEFAA), the Chilean government’s official organization for the study of unknown aerial phenomena.
Is there hope for the UFO conference model? As the century slowly progresses, the old guard checks out and the kids grow up, I seriously doubt that this mechanism for educating the public will continue to be viable. About the time you read this article, I will be participating in my first-ever virtual UFO/Paranormal conference (Alternative Universe Conference – $10 to stream) At 12 PM Eastern time, March 3, Greg Bishop (“Paranormal UFOs: The Human Element”), Walter Bosley (“The Hidden Landscape”), Andrew Colvin (“Men in Black: The Secret Terror Still Among Us”), William Michael Mott (“The Problem of Density Regarding Non-Human Encounters”) and myself (“UFOs, Abductions, Crop Circles, Miracles & Mutilations: What’s the Connection?”) will be presenting at the first-ever Alternate Universe: The i-Conference.
So is this an indication of the future paradigm in regards to presenting paranormal research to the public at large? Will this model attract a younger audience hungry for data and represent a new approach to the mysteries we cover here at The Paracast? Will the old timers login? Like much of what is happening in the world right now, only time will tell, but like many of us, I sense the future is impacting the paranormal field at faster-than-light speed.
The Paracast Copyright 1999-2012 Making The Impossible, Inc. 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!
