THE PARACAST NEWSLETTER
April 17, 2016
www.theparacast.com
The Paracast Explores UFOs, Conspiracy Theories and the New Age
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.
SUPPORT THE SHOW AND ENJOY A PREMIUM PARACAST EXPERIENCE! 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 After The Paracast, plus a higher-quality version of The Paracast free of network ads, and chat rooms when you sign up for The Paracast+. We also offer a special RSS feed for easy updates of the latest episodes, and we've launched The Paracast+ Video Channel. Check out our new “Lifetime” membership! For more information about our premium package, please visit: Introducing The Paracast+ | The Paracast — The Gold Standard of Paranormal Radio.
This Week's Episode: Gene and Chris present David G. Robertson, author of "UFOs, Conspiracy Theories and the New Age: Millennial Conspiracism." In this scholarly work, the author asks, “How-and why- were UFOs so prevalent in both conspiracy theories and the New Age milieu in the post-Cold War period? In this groundbreaking book, [the author] argues that UFOs symbolized an uncertainty about the boundaries between scientific knowledge and other ways of validating knowledge, and thus became part of a shared vocabulary.” The book focuses on Whitley Strieber, David Icke and David Wilcock. Yes, we know the hardcover edition of this book is extremely expensive. A low-cost paperback edition will be released in 2017.
Chris O’Brien’s Site: Our Strange Planet
David G. Robertson’s Blog: https://davidgrobertson.wordpress.com/
After The Paracast -- Available exclusively to Paracast+ subscribers on April 17: [PG-13]: Gene and Chris discuss the life and times of Albert K. Bender, a former UFO researcher who became famous — or infamous — because of his claimed meeting with the “Three Men in Black.” Talking about preserving the work of some of the older UFO researchers, Chris announced that he will post, exclusively for Paracast+ subscribers, excerpts of a book he wrote about Ray Stanford. It’s the result of spending hundreds of hours with telephone interviews over a five-year period. He moves on to oral traditions from indigenous cultures, and how it’s important to preserve such memories and record them for posterity. Chris goes on to recall when Stanford told him how the late contactee, George Adamski, faked his flying saucer photos.
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.
UFO Hoaxes Live Forever
By Gene Steinberg
Not so long ago, I received an email from someone claiming to represent the “George Adamski Foundation.” Supposedly the organization was designed to further the work, so to speak, of the notorious flying saucer contactee from the 1950s and 1960s.
As you might imagine, I get lots of emails each day. A lot of it is spam, and it is safely deposited out of my sight in a Junk folder, but a fair amount comes from listeners to The Paracast, and members of our forums. Unlike some radio show hosts, I make it a point to read each and every message, and I try to personally respond to most of them.
The letter writer wanted us to have a representative of the organization on The Paracast. In response, I pointed out that Adamski had been shown to be a fake decades ago, and suggested that he read Jim Moseley’s Saucer News “Adamski Expose Issue,” which was originally published in 1957. It’s presently posted over at www.jimmoseley.com, a site I established shortly after my dear friend died in 2012. It’s currently managed by UFO researcher Curtis Collins.
Well, Jim’s expose covered all the bases, including the ludicrous photos that Adamski claimed to depict spaceships from Venus and elsewhere. This series of articles was published at a time when astronomers didn’t exactly have a handle on the hostile conditions of the cloud-covered planet, where surface temperatures average 864 degrees Fahrenheit. Obviously, it’s inimical to life as we know it.
But some of the most critical pieces of evidence against this case consisted of statements from some of the alleged witnesses of Adamski’s 1952 contact in the desert, asserting they actually didn’t see anything unusual. Quoted as eyewitnesses in Adamski’s best-selling book, “Flying Saucers Have Landed,” this was damning testimony.
Not mentioned was the fact that Adamski had once self-published a book that attached a religious connection to his message advocating a utopian peace and brotherhood. As he later told one of his aides, as quoted in the Moseley’s expose, one sometimes had to go through the back door to present the truth.
What this meant, quite obviously, is that Adamski felt his message would seem more credible if it came from the mouth or mind of a handsome human visitor from another planet. Others concluded that Adamski was nothing more than a con man whose goal was to separate his followers from their money.
So what did that Adamski supporter conclude after supposedly reading that expose? Well, to him it was all about opinion. But when an alleged witness recants their testimony, that’s not an opinion, but a statement presented as fact. Besides, how does one account for the fact that at least some of Adamski’s space visitors allegedly came from a planet where humanoid life cannot survive? In short, science has only added to the evidence against these claims.
I brought these troubling facts to the attention of the follower, and did not receive a response. I do not expect any, but I would not be surprised to find him contacting other radio show hosts about presenting a representative of the George Adamski Foundation. I would also not be surprised if some of them actually did shows on the subject, hoping to pander to supporters of the late contactee.
I suppose we could have done a show on the subject, but I would regard it as a total waste of time. Why bother to resurrect a long-discredited contactee and allow someone to promote this curious organization? Sure, we’d ask the hard questions, and beat down the claims, but to what purpose?
How many people even care about George Adamski anymore? We encountered enough grief when we presented the American representative of another discredited contactee, Billy Meier.
In the crazy UFO field, however, a good UFO hoax or hoaxer will inevitably return. It almost reminds me of a funny reference to the Aztec UFO case by documentary filmmaker Paul Kimball on The Paracast. As with Dracula, you could drive a stake through the heart of a discredited case, only to have it come back to life.
Indeed, Scott Ramsey, one of the authors of “The Aztec UFO Incident,” found a mainstream book publisher to release a new version of the book. It’s a case that will never die, even though the supporting evidence is, at best, threadbare. I grant some of you may support the case, but it appears to have far less basis to it than the Roswell crash. I think Scott is perfectly sincere in his belief in Aztec, but, neighbors, I just don’t buy it.
Returning to Adamski: That foundation is certainly not the only Adamski supporter. In 2013, we presented British author and researcher Timothy Good. While his “meta” viewpoint on the subject seems credible enough, Chris and I were surprised to hear him defend the Adamski contacts. He even appeared to believe that those controversial photos are genuine. For those who haven’t looked at them, they depict a saucer-shaped craft with landing gear that appears to consist of nothing more than light bulbs.
You can Google other cases that have been exposed over the years, and you’ll find that some of them still have their supporters. No matter what serious researchers do, you cannot set these fanciful tales aside. They continue to be promoted for profit or just because some people can’t accept the sad truth that they believe in false gods, or whatever you want to call them.
While I am far from politically correct, when the more outrageous UFO cases continue to be promoted, they only serve as fodder for the skeptics to demonstrate that the entire foundation of UFO evidence is extremely shaky. It’s hard enough to convince mainstream scientists to take the subject seriously. Promoting questionable claims, and the researchers who tout them, doesn’t serve anyone’s interests in getting to the bottom of this mystery.
I suppose there may be some value, however, in viewing the claims, disproven and otherwise, as part of a study of the cultural impact of UFOs on our society. It does appear that we view this phenomenon under the influence of that culture, which only makes it all the more difficult to understand the underlying cause. Things may not be as they appear, but too much focus on claims shown to be false only makes it far more difficult to separate the signal from the noise.
Copyright 1999-2016 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!
April 17, 2016
www.theparacast.com
The Paracast Explores UFOs, Conspiracy Theories and the New Age
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.
SUPPORT THE SHOW AND ENJOY A PREMIUM PARACAST EXPERIENCE! 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 After The Paracast, plus a higher-quality version of The Paracast free of network ads, and chat rooms when you sign up for The Paracast+. We also offer a special RSS feed for easy updates of the latest episodes, and we've launched The Paracast+ Video Channel. Check out our new “Lifetime” membership! For more information about our premium package, please visit: Introducing The Paracast+ | The Paracast — The Gold Standard of Paranormal Radio.
This Week's Episode: Gene and Chris present David G. Robertson, author of "UFOs, Conspiracy Theories and the New Age: Millennial Conspiracism." In this scholarly work, the author asks, “How-and why- were UFOs so prevalent in both conspiracy theories and the New Age milieu in the post-Cold War period? In this groundbreaking book, [the author] argues that UFOs symbolized an uncertainty about the boundaries between scientific knowledge and other ways of validating knowledge, and thus became part of a shared vocabulary.” The book focuses on Whitley Strieber, David Icke and David Wilcock. Yes, we know the hardcover edition of this book is extremely expensive. A low-cost paperback edition will be released in 2017.
Chris O’Brien’s Site: Our Strange Planet
David G. Robertson’s Blog: https://davidgrobertson.wordpress.com/
After The Paracast -- Available exclusively to Paracast+ subscribers on April 17: [PG-13]: Gene and Chris discuss the life and times of Albert K. Bender, a former UFO researcher who became famous — or infamous — because of his claimed meeting with the “Three Men in Black.” Talking about preserving the work of some of the older UFO researchers, Chris announced that he will post, exclusively for Paracast+ subscribers, excerpts of a book he wrote about Ray Stanford. It’s the result of spending hundreds of hours with telephone interviews over a five-year period. He moves on to oral traditions from indigenous cultures, and how it’s important to preserve such memories and record them for posterity. Chris goes on to recall when Stanford told him how the late contactee, George Adamski, faked his flying saucer photos.
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.
UFO Hoaxes Live Forever
By Gene Steinberg
Not so long ago, I received an email from someone claiming to represent the “George Adamski Foundation.” Supposedly the organization was designed to further the work, so to speak, of the notorious flying saucer contactee from the 1950s and 1960s.
As you might imagine, I get lots of emails each day. A lot of it is spam, and it is safely deposited out of my sight in a Junk folder, but a fair amount comes from listeners to The Paracast, and members of our forums. Unlike some radio show hosts, I make it a point to read each and every message, and I try to personally respond to most of them.
The letter writer wanted us to have a representative of the organization on The Paracast. In response, I pointed out that Adamski had been shown to be a fake decades ago, and suggested that he read Jim Moseley’s Saucer News “Adamski Expose Issue,” which was originally published in 1957. It’s presently posted over at www.jimmoseley.com, a site I established shortly after my dear friend died in 2012. It’s currently managed by UFO researcher Curtis Collins.
Well, Jim’s expose covered all the bases, including the ludicrous photos that Adamski claimed to depict spaceships from Venus and elsewhere. This series of articles was published at a time when astronomers didn’t exactly have a handle on the hostile conditions of the cloud-covered planet, where surface temperatures average 864 degrees Fahrenheit. Obviously, it’s inimical to life as we know it.
But some of the most critical pieces of evidence against this case consisted of statements from some of the alleged witnesses of Adamski’s 1952 contact in the desert, asserting they actually didn’t see anything unusual. Quoted as eyewitnesses in Adamski’s best-selling book, “Flying Saucers Have Landed,” this was damning testimony.
Not mentioned was the fact that Adamski had once self-published a book that attached a religious connection to his message advocating a utopian peace and brotherhood. As he later told one of his aides, as quoted in the Moseley’s expose, one sometimes had to go through the back door to present the truth.
What this meant, quite obviously, is that Adamski felt his message would seem more credible if it came from the mouth or mind of a handsome human visitor from another planet. Others concluded that Adamski was nothing more than a con man whose goal was to separate his followers from their money.
So what did that Adamski supporter conclude after supposedly reading that expose? Well, to him it was all about opinion. But when an alleged witness recants their testimony, that’s not an opinion, but a statement presented as fact. Besides, how does one account for the fact that at least some of Adamski’s space visitors allegedly came from a planet where humanoid life cannot survive? In short, science has only added to the evidence against these claims.
I brought these troubling facts to the attention of the follower, and did not receive a response. I do not expect any, but I would not be surprised to find him contacting other radio show hosts about presenting a representative of the George Adamski Foundation. I would also not be surprised if some of them actually did shows on the subject, hoping to pander to supporters of the late contactee.
I suppose we could have done a show on the subject, but I would regard it as a total waste of time. Why bother to resurrect a long-discredited contactee and allow someone to promote this curious organization? Sure, we’d ask the hard questions, and beat down the claims, but to what purpose?
How many people even care about George Adamski anymore? We encountered enough grief when we presented the American representative of another discredited contactee, Billy Meier.
In the crazy UFO field, however, a good UFO hoax or hoaxer will inevitably return. It almost reminds me of a funny reference to the Aztec UFO case by documentary filmmaker Paul Kimball on The Paracast. As with Dracula, you could drive a stake through the heart of a discredited case, only to have it come back to life.
Indeed, Scott Ramsey, one of the authors of “The Aztec UFO Incident,” found a mainstream book publisher to release a new version of the book. It’s a case that will never die, even though the supporting evidence is, at best, threadbare. I grant some of you may support the case, but it appears to have far less basis to it than the Roswell crash. I think Scott is perfectly sincere in his belief in Aztec, but, neighbors, I just don’t buy it.
Returning to Adamski: That foundation is certainly not the only Adamski supporter. In 2013, we presented British author and researcher Timothy Good. While his “meta” viewpoint on the subject seems credible enough, Chris and I were surprised to hear him defend the Adamski contacts. He even appeared to believe that those controversial photos are genuine. For those who haven’t looked at them, they depict a saucer-shaped craft with landing gear that appears to consist of nothing more than light bulbs.
You can Google other cases that have been exposed over the years, and you’ll find that some of them still have their supporters. No matter what serious researchers do, you cannot set these fanciful tales aside. They continue to be promoted for profit or just because some people can’t accept the sad truth that they believe in false gods, or whatever you want to call them.
While I am far from politically correct, when the more outrageous UFO cases continue to be promoted, they only serve as fodder for the skeptics to demonstrate that the entire foundation of UFO evidence is extremely shaky. It’s hard enough to convince mainstream scientists to take the subject seriously. Promoting questionable claims, and the researchers who tout them, doesn’t serve anyone’s interests in getting to the bottom of this mystery.
I suppose there may be some value, however, in viewing the claims, disproven and otherwise, as part of a study of the cultural impact of UFOs on our society. It does appear that we view this phenomenon under the influence of that culture, which only makes it all the more difficult to understand the underlying cause. Things may not be as they appear, but too much focus on claims shown to be false only makes it far more difficult to separate the signal from the noise.
Copyright 1999-2016 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!