THE PARACAST NEWSLETTER
May 24, 2015
www.theparacast.com
Tim Beckley, aka “Mr. UFO,” Returns to 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.
Announcing The Paracast+: You asked for it! For a low monthly or annual subscription fee, you will receive access to a higher-quality ad-free version of The Paracast, chat rooms, and don’t miss our exclusive After The Paracast podcast, featuring politically incorrect color commentary, and other exclusive content. NEW! We’ve added an RSS feed for fast updates of the latest episodes, and The Paracast+ video channel is coming soon. For more information about our premium package, please visit: Introducing The Paracast+ | The Paracast — The Gold Standard of Paranormal Radio.
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 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.
About The Paracast: 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 and acclaimed field investigator 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: From the early 1960s, Tim Beckley has been a fixture in the UFO field. In addition to editing such newsstand publications as “UFO Universe,” Beckley’s publishing company, Inner Light — Global Communications, has published over 200 books. Beckley hosts a podcast, “Unraveling the Secrets,” and runs a YouTube channel, “Mr. UFO’s Secret Files.” Beckley will discuss how his opinions have changed concerning the origins of UFOs, what really might have happened at Roswell, and how he believes the UFO intelligence are trying to communicate with us in “strange ways,” including coincidences and synchronicities.
Available exclusively to Paracast+ subscribers on May 24: Gene and Chris discuss an offhand suggestion from Tim Beckley as to whether ET uses the Internet to monitor what we Earthlings are up to. But, more seriously, if our broadcasts are being monitored by aliens, what impression to they have of us? Are they able to know when we’re just presenting drama rather than serious material? That brings to mind the sci-fi sendup cult movie, “Galaxy Quest,” which depicted a race of naive aliens who believed that a TV sci-fi show, patterned after “Star Trek,” was fact and based their entire civilization around what they presumed to be sacred documents. That discussion fuels talk about pop culture. Chris also brings you up to date on the San Luis Valley Camera Project.
Chris O’Brien’s Site: Our Strange Planet
Tim Beckley’s Site: Conspiracy Journal - Unfair and Unbalanced!
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.
Open Sourcing UFO Research
By Gene Steinberg
In the world of computers, there are basically two kinds of software. One is published by an individual or company that protects their apps with copyrights, trademarks and patents. Thus they can, in theory, set the term son how it’s used. The is also open source which, shorn of the fine details, means anyone can use it, share it, and even modify it.
But the focus is this discussion is not to debate the merits of software. It’s to consider how the open source might apply to our sadly broken efforts at UFO research.
Now by sadly broken, I mean the fact that, after nearly seven decades, precious little progress has been made towards solving the UFO mystery. Some merely give up. The government must know, so therefore all we have to do is persuade them somehow to reveal the truth. But these so-called disclosure efforts have come for naught. Even when we uncover documents via various Freedom of Information requests, there’s still no evidence of a significant hidden truth that’s being kept secret from us.
One of the originators of the “Disclosure” movement was Major Donald Keyhoe, author of several best-selling books about flying saucers beginning in the 1950s. In such works as “Flying Saucers: Top Secret,” Keyhoe maintained that there was a group of individuals within the government, perhaps consisting of military and civilian officials, who were part of a “Silence Group.” They knew the truth that, Keyhoe claimed, Earth was being visited by extraterrestrials and it was high time we were told the truth.
The names have changed, but the main focus of the more recent Disclosure movements have been the same. By and large, they believe in the extraterrestrial hypothesis (ETH), and those who allegedly know the secret must somehow be persuaded, by hearings in the halls of Congress, or direct public pressure, to reveal their secrets.
Except that hearings were previously held in the late 1960s, which resulted in the failed Condon Report that whitewashed UFO reality. Other than that partial success, the efforts of Disclosure advocates have failed. Since many are doing it for the right reasons – that the people are entitled to be properly informed, even if the news isn’t always pleasant – I won’t criticize them personally. But what is the label given to those who try the same thing over and over again and expect different results?
Is there no better way?
Meantime, as the recent Slidegate episode clearly indicates, there is no central body to contact to evaluate possible UFO evidence. There are different organizations that hope to serve a clearinghouse function of one sort or another, such as MUFON and NARCAP, but the efforts are scattered. Different organizations have their own leadership, different policies to evaluate and store data, and different usually copyrighted publications or web blogs in which to publish information.
When a case reaches one organization, the full details of the investigation might be published, or may be limited to a line item in a database. There is no organized method to collect everything from different sources and freely distribute that data to all investigators, without restriction, so they have a fair crack at the information.
Indeed, one of the key criticisms of the efforts of billionaire hotel magnate and aerospace entrepreneur Robert Bigelow to amass UFO information, is the fact that he appears to want to keep the results of those investigations within his organization. Sharing evidently is not on his agenda.
Now I am not going to speculate on the motives for his approach. He’s entitled to do what he wants with his money, although it doesn’t serve the interests of the wider group of UFO researchers.
But we recently saw an attempt by an ad hoc group of independent UFO researchers, with widely different viewpoints, to come together to get some real work done. When the first hints about what became Slidegate were published, many wondered if a pair of prominent Roswell researchers had actually been presented with a smoking gun to demonstrate that at least one alien creature was recovered in the Roswell crash.
Alas, they never made a provable connection to Roswell. The evidence consisted of a pair of slides that were evidently traced to the late 1940s, and thus within the Roswell timeframe, but that’s as far as it went. Efforts to identify the people who took those pictures were based on loose speculation without any direct evidence that it was so.
As most of you know, the two slides depicted a body that was later confirmed to be the mummified remains of a two-year-old boy. Now let’s forget about whether or not the promoters of that BeWitness event in Mexico City, where the slides were featured, should be arrested, or at least forced to refund the fees paid to attend the event or to watch it on pay-per-view. While what was depicted in those slides may have been obvious to most people who saw them, the work of the Roswell Slides Research Group really brought it home.
Using a high resolution image of the slide that depicted blurred writing on a placard adjacent to the body, they were able to clean up the image sufficiently to reveal most of the contents. Once the truth was out there, it wasn’t pretty.
While I don’t know if the RSRG will ever work on another UFO matter, perhaps it can serve as a template for future research efforts. This little group consisted of believers, debunkers, and some in-between. While they might debate their views vigorously, they were able to set aside their differences to seek out the facts about Slidegate, and deliver results that have been widely praised.
The results were open source. You didn’t have to buy a magazine, or subscribe to a blog. The evidence, and the methodology, were all posted for anyone to evaluate, to criticize, to duplicate.
How would UFO research fare if there was such a body of people who would fairly look at evidence without any precondition and freely post the process, the evidence, and the conclusions? There wouldn’t be books to sell, paid lectures to give, just solid evidence for everyone to evaluate. Without the back-biting that pollutes UFO research, would things, at last, change for the better?
If the truth about UFOs is really out there, is that the best way to discover that truth?
Copyright 1999-2015 The Paracast LLC. 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!
May 24, 2015
www.theparacast.com
Tim Beckley, aka “Mr. UFO,” Returns to 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.
Announcing The Paracast+: You asked for it! For a low monthly or annual subscription fee, you will receive access to a higher-quality ad-free version of The Paracast, chat rooms, and don’t miss our exclusive After The Paracast podcast, featuring politically incorrect color commentary, and other exclusive content. NEW! We’ve added an RSS feed for fast updates of the latest episodes, and The Paracast+ video channel is coming soon. For more information about our premium package, please visit: Introducing The Paracast+ | The Paracast — The Gold Standard of Paranormal Radio.
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 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.
About The Paracast: 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 and acclaimed field investigator 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: From the early 1960s, Tim Beckley has been a fixture in the UFO field. In addition to editing such newsstand publications as “UFO Universe,” Beckley’s publishing company, Inner Light — Global Communications, has published over 200 books. Beckley hosts a podcast, “Unraveling the Secrets,” and runs a YouTube channel, “Mr. UFO’s Secret Files.” Beckley will discuss how his opinions have changed concerning the origins of UFOs, what really might have happened at Roswell, and how he believes the UFO intelligence are trying to communicate with us in “strange ways,” including coincidences and synchronicities.
Available exclusively to Paracast+ subscribers on May 24: Gene and Chris discuss an offhand suggestion from Tim Beckley as to whether ET uses the Internet to monitor what we Earthlings are up to. But, more seriously, if our broadcasts are being monitored by aliens, what impression to they have of us? Are they able to know when we’re just presenting drama rather than serious material? That brings to mind the sci-fi sendup cult movie, “Galaxy Quest,” which depicted a race of naive aliens who believed that a TV sci-fi show, patterned after “Star Trek,” was fact and based their entire civilization around what they presumed to be sacred documents. That discussion fuels talk about pop culture. Chris also brings you up to date on the San Luis Valley Camera Project.
Chris O’Brien’s Site: Our Strange Planet
Tim Beckley’s Site: Conspiracy Journal - Unfair and Unbalanced!
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.
Open Sourcing UFO Research
By Gene Steinberg
In the world of computers, there are basically two kinds of software. One is published by an individual or company that protects their apps with copyrights, trademarks and patents. Thus they can, in theory, set the term son how it’s used. The is also open source which, shorn of the fine details, means anyone can use it, share it, and even modify it.
But the focus is this discussion is not to debate the merits of software. It’s to consider how the open source might apply to our sadly broken efforts at UFO research.
Now by sadly broken, I mean the fact that, after nearly seven decades, precious little progress has been made towards solving the UFO mystery. Some merely give up. The government must know, so therefore all we have to do is persuade them somehow to reveal the truth. But these so-called disclosure efforts have come for naught. Even when we uncover documents via various Freedom of Information requests, there’s still no evidence of a significant hidden truth that’s being kept secret from us.
One of the originators of the “Disclosure” movement was Major Donald Keyhoe, author of several best-selling books about flying saucers beginning in the 1950s. In such works as “Flying Saucers: Top Secret,” Keyhoe maintained that there was a group of individuals within the government, perhaps consisting of military and civilian officials, who were part of a “Silence Group.” They knew the truth that, Keyhoe claimed, Earth was being visited by extraterrestrials and it was high time we were told the truth.
The names have changed, but the main focus of the more recent Disclosure movements have been the same. By and large, they believe in the extraterrestrial hypothesis (ETH), and those who allegedly know the secret must somehow be persuaded, by hearings in the halls of Congress, or direct public pressure, to reveal their secrets.
Except that hearings were previously held in the late 1960s, which resulted in the failed Condon Report that whitewashed UFO reality. Other than that partial success, the efforts of Disclosure advocates have failed. Since many are doing it for the right reasons – that the people are entitled to be properly informed, even if the news isn’t always pleasant – I won’t criticize them personally. But what is the label given to those who try the same thing over and over again and expect different results?
Is there no better way?
Meantime, as the recent Slidegate episode clearly indicates, there is no central body to contact to evaluate possible UFO evidence. There are different organizations that hope to serve a clearinghouse function of one sort or another, such as MUFON and NARCAP, but the efforts are scattered. Different organizations have their own leadership, different policies to evaluate and store data, and different usually copyrighted publications or web blogs in which to publish information.
When a case reaches one organization, the full details of the investigation might be published, or may be limited to a line item in a database. There is no organized method to collect everything from different sources and freely distribute that data to all investigators, without restriction, so they have a fair crack at the information.
Indeed, one of the key criticisms of the efforts of billionaire hotel magnate and aerospace entrepreneur Robert Bigelow to amass UFO information, is the fact that he appears to want to keep the results of those investigations within his organization. Sharing evidently is not on his agenda.
Now I am not going to speculate on the motives for his approach. He’s entitled to do what he wants with his money, although it doesn’t serve the interests of the wider group of UFO researchers.
But we recently saw an attempt by an ad hoc group of independent UFO researchers, with widely different viewpoints, to come together to get some real work done. When the first hints about what became Slidegate were published, many wondered if a pair of prominent Roswell researchers had actually been presented with a smoking gun to demonstrate that at least one alien creature was recovered in the Roswell crash.
Alas, they never made a provable connection to Roswell. The evidence consisted of a pair of slides that were evidently traced to the late 1940s, and thus within the Roswell timeframe, but that’s as far as it went. Efforts to identify the people who took those pictures were based on loose speculation without any direct evidence that it was so.
As most of you know, the two slides depicted a body that was later confirmed to be the mummified remains of a two-year-old boy. Now let’s forget about whether or not the promoters of that BeWitness event in Mexico City, where the slides were featured, should be arrested, or at least forced to refund the fees paid to attend the event or to watch it on pay-per-view. While what was depicted in those slides may have been obvious to most people who saw them, the work of the Roswell Slides Research Group really brought it home.
Using a high resolution image of the slide that depicted blurred writing on a placard adjacent to the body, they were able to clean up the image sufficiently to reveal most of the contents. Once the truth was out there, it wasn’t pretty.
While I don’t know if the RSRG will ever work on another UFO matter, perhaps it can serve as a template for future research efforts. This little group consisted of believers, debunkers, and some in-between. While they might debate their views vigorously, they were able to set aside their differences to seek out the facts about Slidegate, and deliver results that have been widely praised.
The results were open source. You didn’t have to buy a magazine, or subscribe to a blog. The evidence, and the methodology, were all posted for anyone to evaluate, to criticize, to duplicate.
How would UFO research fare if there was such a body of people who would fairly look at evidence without any precondition and freely post the process, the evidence, and the conclusions? There wouldn’t be books to sell, paid lectures to give, just solid evidence for everyone to evaluate. Without the back-biting that pollutes UFO research, would things, at last, change for the better?
If the truth about UFOs is really out there, is that the best way to discover that truth?
Copyright 1999-2015 The Paracast LLC. 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!