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October 8, 2017 — Paul Kimball


every dictionary

I don't think "dictionaries" establish the basis for scientific inquiry. Instead, it seems to me that scientific inquiry actually drives the invention of new words as a result of thinking about reality in ways that are beyond the usual cultural usage of words that dictionaries preserve. Thus, there might actually be such a thing that the culture typically calls "hauntings" that might be real, objective events, just not exactly what the general public thinks.

paranormal fiction plot

To me, this comes across as patronizing to Thomas's reasonable speculation. But, hey, what's new, right? It just seems to me that you often use rhetorical tactics to try to squelch any possible conjecture that doesn't fit your view of how the universe works. Boo hoo.

But what if “our consciousness” participates in another realm, a sea of consciousness, populated by all of the sources of consciousness in the universe (perhaps even very rudimentary forms)? We might find that some universal field, perhaps the hypothesized field of quantum vacuum energy, acts as a “carrier signal” for thought/consciousness, conveying information that only appears as a stochastic background in terms of energy and momentum, but is in fact encoded with a signal by the two-way “consciousness radio” of the brain – a kind of “frequency modulation” in this analogy, that we haven’t yet learned to tune in to with our technology.

Yeah, something like that! Maybe, or not . . . :D

What if the vacuum energy field is itself composed of nested structures orders of magnitude below this world of Standard Model particles?
 
I don't think "dictionaries" establish the basis for scientific inquiry.
Actually, they pretty much do. Science is based on the scientific method, and the scientific method is based on the formulation of hypotheses, and hypotheses are based on propositions relevant to what's being investigated. Therefore in order for hypotheses to be relevant, their propositions need to be as accurate as possible, and there are entire dictionaries dedicated to scientific terminology.
Saying "instead" implies that the initial point you made above is accurate when on closer examination it's actually not well supported. So let's just forget about "instead" and see about the next part.
it seems to me that scientific inquiry actually drives the invention of new words as a result of thinking about reality in ways that are beyond the usual cultural usage of words that dictionaries preserve. Thus, there might actually be such a thing that the culture typically calls "hauntings" that might be real, objective events, just not exactly what the general public thinks.
Great point, and you're essentially saying the same thing I am. We've got this loaded term "haunted", and therefore as a proposition for a hypothesis it's a poor choice unless the hypothesis specifically intends to promote the concept of afterlives and the spirits of dead people. If not, then another term would be better, which is why I pointed out the term PSI as a possible candidate. Parapsychologists also associate ψ with the paranormal, deriving the relationship from the "psy" sound in parapsychology.
To me, this comes across as patronizing to Thomas's reasonable speculation. But, hey, what's new, right? It just seems to me that you often use rhetorical tactics to try to squelch any possible conjecture that doesn't fit your view of how the universe works. Boo hoo.
That's just you reading your own biases and interpretations into it. It's fairly common for people to generally assume the worst about people and then read that into them. I try to avoid that. So if I say I think something is very imaginative and would make a good plot device. That's what I mean.
Yeah, something like that! Maybe, or not . . . :D What if the vacuum energy field is itself composed of nested structures orders of magnitude below this world of Standard Model particles?
Or maybe if the spin on the neutron flux was modulated, it would collapse the wave function causing a psychic projection of the experiencer's consciousness to manifest itself in our spacetime dimension? Now all we need is a quantum harmonic resonator!
 
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Now this is left field:eek: in some questions and I was listening to my favourite former NASA Rocket Scientist (a real one) ;) Dr Brandenburg on the Space Show discussing his theories and the good banter with the host :cool: who would a great guest for the Paracast Show.

Dr Brandenburg "GEM Unification Theory" Scientific Paper http://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ijass.s.2014020601.14.pdf

The electrical phenomena and its odd interaction with humans (Ghosts, Shadows effects and UFO) and other researching anti-gravity experiments , Nuclear facilities there increase the activity going by historical eyewitness accounts detecting odd USO at high speed and fighter pilots during war time or some red flag operations. It would be interesting for Paul and his Crew to do a experiment near Nuclear facilities within reason of course or power stations. If they get similar electrical phenomena? Also doing the experiments with Walters Bosley and his great work in ley lines as well.

Where their many reports ( UFOs , Ghost , Shadow People sighting during and after areas ) the Japanese flooding and its meltdown due to the tsunami ? Also other parts of the impact area?


Could batteries of cameras, sound systems and higher population use of electricity at night or thunderstorms or be an increase this type of interaction?

Also could this be the result of what is created from other intelligence life forms replicating some higher advance formulation of Dr Brandenburg "GEM Theory"?

Could the electrical and gravity be A.I. already in formula surrounding the Earth as humans unable to recognise its forms of communication ?Differences between gravitational and electromagnetic radiation
 
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Now this is left field:eek: and listening to my favourite former NASA Rocket Scientist (a real one) ;) Dr Brandenburg on the Space Show and the host :cool: would a great guest for the Paracast Show.
Is this the same Brandenburg who:
The level of bamboozling going on with Brandenburg appears to be of such sophistication that it exceeds most people's ability to detect that it is bamboozling. I couldn't decipher half the math in the paper if I had a year to do it. All I know is that for it to work it requires invoking an unsubstantiated hidden dimension. The inference is then that if the math works then there must be a hidden dimension, but that logic is faulty. We could probably develop a formula for a cheese ball that if as large as the Moon would equal the same mass as the Moon, but that doesn't mean the Moon is made of cheese.
 
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Is looking at the questionable side of things considered "not nice" ?
Baby and the bathwater Randall. Brandenburg was the first to suggest a nuclear event occurred 500 million years ago plus other facts about Mars that were not recognized by the mainstream Mars science community but now are considered.
 
Exactly. If we stick to how virtually every dictionary defines ghosts and hauntings ( dead people in some afterlife ), then that situation can only be a psychological interpretation. Therefore using "Ghost" or "Haunting" in a title cannot help but reinforce that nonsensical interpretation. I find that a bit ironic considering the criticism on the show about other people reinforcing nonsensical beliefs.
Yeah I’ve never understood how people get from “a tchotchke just fell off the mantle” to “our dead grandmother must be communicating with us from the Great Beyond.”

It seems reasonable to assume that whatever’s going on, it’s more likely to be connected with the living than the dead.

Fabulously imaginative! You could build an entertaining paranormal fiction plot around that idea.
Thanks! I was thinking that it might be a neat idea to try out on Paul’s show, but the idea of biofeedback experiments in a haunted house to run psi experiments did remind me of a Cronenberg film =)

I really do love it when legitimate scientific tests are run in weird situations, though, and I think that exploring the connection between the witnesses and the phenomenon is a valid starting point. It would be exciting and new to see paranormal researchers wearing portable EEGs while investigating a haunted house – or even better, taking active brain scans in a haunted house, to look for interactions or synchronicities between the human brain and the haunting phenomenon.

After all, we already are the “sensing equipment” when we walk around in an allegedly haunted location – why not step it up and take hard empirical data from our bodies and brains, and see if those measurements correlate with any of the external events? Maybe we’d find something unexpected, which is often how progress is made in new directions.

Thus, there might actually be such a thing that the culture typically calls "hauntings" that might be real, objective events, just not exactly what the general public thinks.
That’s definitely the impression I got from listening to Dr. Barry Taff’s interviews in the 90s. His team experienced very tangible and sometimes terrifying events, and they got some hard scientific data along the way. As a matter of fact I remember him saying that Geiger counters would go quiet during an event – I’d love to see if that’s a common feature of paranormal experiences.

To me, this comes across as patronizing to Thomas's reasonable speculation.
It’s alright, I didn’t take it that way – the thought of running weird psi experiments in a haunted house and ending up with a telekinetic freak does sound like a damn fun movie =D

Yeah, something like that! Maybe, or not . . .
Indeed – and that’s what experiments are for, to sift the “maybe’s” from the “not’s” ;

What if the vacuum energy field is itself composed of nested structures orders of magnitude below this world of Standard Model particles?
I’ve been studying some papers on this subject lately, and honestly I have deep reservations about the vacuum fluctuations model now. It turns out that a relativistic treatment of dipole interactions predicts the Casimir force precisely, with no vacuum fluctuations. But there does appear to be a universal field of energy of some kind, “dark energy.” But frankly I don’t expect that to hold up under closer scrutiny as an explanatory model, either. But you never know until you know for a fact.

And the idea that consciousness is a universal field has a lot of support in Eastern mystical traditions. Like when Buddha said that “all is bodhimind.” I don’t know what “bodhi” is, but “mind” is pretty unambivalent.

Is this the same Brandenburg who:
Exposing PseudoAstronomy Podcast - Shownotes Episode 86
John Brandenburg | Exposing PseudoAstronomy
The level of bamboozling going on with Brandenburg appears to be of such sophistication that it exceeds most people's ability to detect that it is bamboozling. I couldn't decipher half the math in the paper if I had a year to do it. All I know is that for it to work it requires invoking an unsubstantiated hidden dimension.
This happens fairly often actually – a scientist with professional facility in one area, steps way out of his specialty to advocate some crazy idea(s), and people believe him because he has proven capabilities in his specialty. But it’s a logical fallacy to assume that capability in one area implies capability in a different area.

The whole “nukes on Mars” thing is the worst kind of “science,” imo. To go from “hey look at these interesting isotopes on Mars” to “omg this is evidence of nuclear fission bombs and therefore proof of advanced civilization in Mars’ distant past” is just embarrassing.

And I listened to him talk about his Poynting vector gravity idea on American Antigravity recently, and instead of actually explaining how his ideas works, physically, he mixed a lot of common knowledge with a bunch of crazy claims that bore no relation to one another. If he actually has experimental evidence supporting his claims, then why is publishing a book about the idea instead of publishing an academic paper in a reputable journal? Because it’s BS, that’s why.

If Brandenberg is going to be hailed as the one true scientist in ufology, then we’re in serious trouble.

Baby and the bathwater Randall. Brandenburg was the first to suggest a nuclear event occurred 500 million years ago plus other facts about Mars that were not recognized by the mainstream Mars science community but now are considered.
Chris I don’t know of a single reputable Mars scientist who supports Brandenburg’s nuclear bomb hypothesis, do you? It’s my understanding that we have a scientifically consistent model of Mars’ history that includes a major impact within 100M years after its formation which ripped the atmosphere away, and that the anomalous Xenon isotope ratio can be handily explained by that impact event combined with the slow decay of a common and unstable iodine isotope into xenon-129 over billions of years. Also if there had been a civilization on Mars 500M years ago, there would be abundant visual evidence of it today because Mars is a dead planet with a very thin atmosphere and very little in the way of erosion (sort of like our Moon).
 
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Baby and the bathwater Randall. Brandenburg was the first to suggest a nuclear event occurred 500 million years ago plus other facts about Mars that were not recognized by the mainstream Mars science community but now are considered.

I can tell you with some confidence that his theory is not considered, and doesn't even make sense on the face of it.

For one, his claim that planet-buster nukes could rip away Mars' atmosphere, not leave craters, but somehow leave radioactive elements for 500M years in the same atmosphere that was just ripped away into space... defies logic.
aeb52ba70229bf015bf88a1a66b8bca0

See any craters at those spots? I don't.

Secondly, his evidence of a Martian civilization is basically the Mars face and the pyramids... which aren't a face and aren't pyramids.

Thirdly, even if life did arise on mars... it did so 3.8BYA. The 'Amazonian period' - the geological period that Mars is in now - started 3 BYA. It wasn't warm and wet 500 MYA. So if somebody nuked it, they nuked a dead planet. And somehow left no craters.

Fourthly, the Trinitite isn't Trinitite at all. It's likely formed the same way it gets formed on Earth - it's common name is 'Volcanic Glass.' Mars has the biggest volcano in the solar system - Olympus Mons. It seems way more likely that it was formed from volcanic activity that we see evidence of than it was by alien activity that we see no evidence of. Besides, it isn't localized to that area - the entire northern region of Mars (the same one flattened by volcanic activity) is littered with it.

Fifthly, the Xenon-129 isn't directly evidence of an atomic explosion. It's Iodine-129 that is left after a blast. It decays into Xenon-129 with a half-life of something like 16M years. Which means that not a lot of Iodine-129 would be remaining after 500MY... but some would. There's none there. Furthermore, there's lots of reasons why Xenon-129 would be there geologically. For one, the lack of plate tectonics:
Another model by Musselwhite, Drake, and Swindle from 1990 suggests that the iodine originally incorporated into Mars was outgassed after formation into an atmosphere, but iodine was incorporated into the crust while xenon, being a noble gas, just stayed in the atmosphere. Then, lots of impacts happened in the first 500 million years, eroding Mars' atmosphere significantly including ALL the isotopes of xenon, mostly evenly. Meanwhile, the iodine-129 in the crust is decaying into xenon-129 and very slowly outgassed. As opposed to Earth, where it would be recycled and buried in the mantle due to plate tectonics. And, ¡voilà!, Mars' atmosphere is enriched with xenon-129. No nuclear holocaust needed, and this fits with everything else we know about how the planets work and it's supported by the ratio of argon-40 to krypton-40. The only small issue for this is the timing given the fairly short half-life of iodine-129.
Dr. John Brandenburg – Plasma physicist gives inside look at outsourced UFO research |325|

Sixthly, he has yet to put forward anything to an actual peer-reviewed science journal of any kind.

There's a great article from somebody that was there when he did his thing a couple years ago:
John Brandenburg | Exposing PseudoAstronomy

I suggest any interested parties check out these two links.

The TL;DR version of this is that his story doesn't pan out.
 
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Baby and the bathwater Randall. Brandenburg was the first to suggest a nuclear event occurred 500 million years ago plus other facts about Mars that were not recognized by the mainstream Mars science community but now are considered.
Fair enough. But I suppose we could say the same for Hoagland and how many others?
 
Anyone who takes any of these devices seriously as "ghost hunting" or "ghost detecting" instruments should have their heads examined. But that's not the point. They can, and should, be viewed as devices with which "ghosts" (whatever those are) can interact with us. We could just as easily use a wind-up talking doll, or an old video game, or whatever. The R.E.M.-Pod looks cool, so it gets the nod (along with other things, because, well, it's television), but the principle remains the same regardless of the device. They don't "detect" ghosts, but they may provide the means with which the "ghosts" can interact with us, for their own purposes and in their own way.
 
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And here's one other little tidbit, for what it's worth (those who think this is all "impossible" should just skip on ahead) - Mac's favourite band, contrary to what many people think, wasn't The Smiths (they were a close second).

It was R.E.M.
 
Paul,
Agree something is happening and whatever it is . ;) The interaction with humans and the devices can't be ignored. Electric charge

Also on Dr. Brandenburg , the comment "lets be nice "was referring to the use of ridicule tone something mainstream science is famous for chaps. All are theories and theories are open to debates and can be changed with new discoveries. Also we only got robotic craft on the surface of Mars not humans yet, so early days.
 
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And here's one other little tidbit, for what it's worth (those who think this is all "impossible" should just skip on ahead) - Mac's favourite band, contrary to what many people think, wasn't The Smiths (they were a close second). It was R.E.M.

For all the "agnosticism" you claim to have, you are without any question promoting the idea of communication with invisible dead people via the show's content, promotion, labeling, and suggestion. You even name the person! So although the clip might be fun for some people on an entertainment level, it's only practical value is to promote your show, which by extension is promoting magical thinking and nonsense. Here's what the makers of REM pod had to say:

-------------

The temperature circuit also has an Auto and Manual Baseline adjustment. Make sure the REM-POD-EMT
has at least ten minutes to adjust to the surrounding Ambient Temperature prior to use. If the
temperature in the room rises or drops gradually and "sticks" on one degree (one tone), you can push
the ATDD ZERO button located on the top of the Pod to correct for this.
Or, if the sound remains on for
more than ten seconds, the device will automatically mute the sound until it senses the next ± 1
degree temperature change.​

If the light is staying on you will need to contact the manufacturer at DAS 1-888-344-0111.
They can assist you further as it is under warranty.

--------------

If you wanted to convince someone with a modicum of objective skepticism you'd need to have done things quite differently.

1. You need an independent person who understands what's going on and is actually reasonably objective ( rather than simply critical of anyone who disagrees with you ) to validate the events.
2. Your assumption that the device is without any fault or working as designed isn't fully substantiated. For example:

a. There's no indication that the device was properly calibrated before use.
b. There's no testing with a secondary calibrated unit to see if it gave the same results.
b. No effort was made with a separate temperature sensor to determine if the temperature there was actually falling.
c. No effort was made to determine mundane reasons for the temperature falling.

d. No sensible reason is given why a drop in temperature should be associated with invisible dead people.
e. The unit has not been verified by the manufacturer to be free of defects, and the retailer I contacted suggested it should be returned.

Also, there are tiny control buttons on the side of the unit that could easy be activated accidentally ( or otherwise ) to cause the reaction we see when it was removed from the mannequin. Lastly, if you claim to have the respect you say you do for skepticism then you'll appreciate these comments rather than launch another personal attack.
 
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Anyone who takes any of these devices seriously as "ghost hunting" or "ghost detecting" instruments should have their heads examined. But that's not the point. They can, and should, be viewed as devices with which "ghosts" (whatever those are) can interact with us. We could just as easily use a wind-up talking doll, or an old video game, or whatever. The R.E.M.-Pod looks cool, so it gets the nod (along with other things, because, well, it's television), but the principle remains the same regardless of the device. They don't "detect" ghosts, but they may provide the means with which the "ghosts" can interact with us, for their own purposes and in their own way.
You're contradicting yourself. On one hand you say anyone who uses devices like the REM Pod as ghost hunting instruments should have their head examined, but that's exactly what you're doing, and you're even naming specific invisible dead people who you think the device enables communication with. Sorry Paul, but you can't have it both ways and maintain a rational and coherent perspective.
 
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