THE PARACAST NEWSLETTER
August 16, 2015
www.theparacast.com
The Paracast Explores the Montauk Project and the Philadelphia Experiment
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+: We have another radio show, and for a low monthly or annual subscription fee, you will receive access to After The Paracast, plus a higher-quality version of The Paracast without, the network ads, and chat rooms. 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 http://store.theparacast.com/ 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: Legend has it that the Montauk Project involved a set of secret tests conducted at the Montauk Air Force Station in Montauk, New York. It was purportedly designed to develop psychological warfare techniques and exotic research. It is said to be related to the legend of the Philadelphia Experiment due to its supposed time travel connection, and there are even claims of a possible connection with extraterrestrials. Well, independent producer and director Christopher Garetano has reportedly spent more than 10 years probing this alleged conspiracy, and has released a documentary film, “Montauk Chronicles,” to present his findings. Was the Montauk Project real, or just a bunch of tall tales devised by a handful of people for reasons best known to themselves?
Chris O’Brien’s Site: Our Strange Planet
The Montauk Chronicles: Official Website of The Montauk Chronicles: A Christopher P. Garetano Film. A Study Of Fear, Lies, Paranoia, and The Truth.
After The Paracast -- Available exclusively to Paracast+ subscribers on August 16: Gene and Chris segue from talk about the fragility of human teeth to the implications of the Philadelphia Experiment and Montauk Project legends. The tale of the Philadelphia Experiment may have been an outgrowth of efforts during World War II to make ships invisible to radar. The Montauk Project is just another claim about government mind control experiments. Gene and Chris wonder whether any such claims are true, and what about the controversial experiments at a nearby installation, Plum Island? Gene also recalls his many encounters with the late Charles Berlitz when he helped supply information for “The Philadelphia Experiment,” a book that Berlitz coauthored with William Moore. Chris also provides an update on the progress made in setting up the San Luis Valley Camera Project.
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.
Revisiting Old Conspiracies
By Gene Steinberg
In 1975, I co-hosted a cable TV show, carried on a New York public access station, which covered UFOs and related mysteries.
But don’t assume that meant very much. In those days, it was fairly easy to get an unpaid gig on a cable TV system mostly because they had an FCC mandate to originate programming. The standards weren’t terribly high for a public access channel, although I think I did a credible job.
Only later did real cable TV networks – some owned by the same companies as the major broadcast networks – come into their own. Nowadays cable and broadcast shows are mostly the same, except the shows on the cable outlets tend to be somewhat more explicit in content.
The UFO show I hosted was sponsored by “Beyond Reality,” a newsstand magazine on the paranormal. On one segment, we featured Charles Berlitz, author of a best-selling book entitled “The Bermuda Triangle.” Berlitz, grandson of the founder of the Berlitz language schools, was a spry old man with a twinkle in his eye. We had a great time.
At the tail end of the conversation, Berlitz focused on the so-called Philadelphia Experiment, which involved an alleged project to make a battleship invisible back in 1943. He mentioned a curious episode connected with rumors of that alleged event, involving an annotated version of the 1950’s UFO book, “The Case for the UFO,” authored by M.K. Jessup.
I imagine most of you have heard about this curious affair, so I’ll be brief. It seemed that a character who called himself “Carlos Miguel Allende,” had taken a copy of the book, and scribbled loads of curious annotations that, in part, described the supposed events that formed the Philadelphia Experiment legend.
This whole episode would have been laughable except for where the annotated book went, to the Office of Naval Research (ONR) in Washington, D.C. It arrived in a manila envelope bearing the label “HAPPY EASTER.”
I would stop at this point, but that’s not the end of it.
The book’s annotations were written in different colors, as if to signify the participants. Evidently it was taken seriously enough that the Varo Corporation, a research firm, ran a limited print run of the annotated book. Thus came the Varo Edition.
So how was Berlitz involved? Well, he claimed on the show that the Varo Edition had more or less vanished and had never been located. Now maybe that’s what he thought, or he was just trying to hype the story. I suspect the latter, although I did tell him, during the interview, that I had a copy of a reprint of that book released by Gray Barker.
A few days later, I met Berlitz for lunch and handed him my copy. I didn’t ask for its return, since I didn’t attach very much importance to it, and, besides, Gray would surely have sent me another if I needed one.
Over the next few months, I had long talks with Berlitz about various and sundry matters, most particularly the Philadelphia Experiment, in connection with a book he and William Moore were writing on the subject. All I got out of the effort was free food, and a nice mention in the book, but I was happy to have made a new friend.
So why the long preamble?
Well, it seems that the Philadelphia Experiment, later made into both theatrical and TV movies, appears curiously connected to another legend in the world of the paranormal known as the Montauk Project.
Now the alleged activities at the former Montauk Air Force Station, located at the tip of Long Island, purportedly involved experiments into mind control, teleportation, time travel and even contact with alien beings. It’s an elaborate tale to be sure. Indeed, alleged faked Apollo Moon landings were also said to have been staged there.
The issue of the space-time continuum, and an alleged rip in time, is the hook that connects the Philadelphia Experiment to the Montauk Project.
In short, if you’re into conspiracy theories, and weren’t too concerned over whether any solid evidence exists, you’d be in your element.
Now the major figure behind the Montauk Project story is one Preston B. Nichols, who wrote several books on the subject with co-author Peter Moon. Yet another figure connected with both tales is the late Alfred Bielek, a curious character who occasionally turned up on such radio shows as Art Bell’s original “Coast to Coast AM” and claimed to have been involved in the Philadelphia Experiment as a crew member aboard the ship that allegedly turned invisible and jumped through time, the USS Eldridge, a Naval destroyer.
Now considering the fact that Bielek was reportedly born in 1927, this would appear to mean mean he joined the Navy and got himself assigned to the destroyer’s crew at the tender age of 16. That’s outrageous enough on the surface, but there’s more. You see, Bielek claimed he had inhabited someone else’s body at the time. Obviously it wasn’t reincarnation, since the two individuals were both alive, but don’t hold your breath for an explanation of how this all supposedly came about.
So are all these Montauk Project and Philadelphia Experiment stories true, partly true, or just poor efforts at sci-fi? To be fair, it was reported that the military did perform tests during World World II to make ships more difficult to detect by measuring instruments. That’s not the same as invisibility, of course, except for being invisible to hardware as opposed to one’s eyes.
As for the rest? Well, Allende was later unmasked as Carl Allen, a particularly wacky character who appeared to live in his self-created fantasy world. Too bad, though. Others profited from his sci-fi tale, the Philadelphia Experiment, but there’s no indication that he shared in the joy.
As to the Montauk Project, there’s no doubt the U.S. government was involved in questionable mind control projects in the years following the end of World War II. So the possibility of something fishy going on at Camp Hero, the more popular designation for the Montauk base, isn’t not at all unreasonable. But that doesn’t mean such things really happened.
So on this weekend’s episode of The Paracast, Chris and I talk to Christopher P. Garetano, producer, writer and director of a film that attempts to put the story together, the “Montauk Chronicles.” The reviews say that the documentary credibly presents the details of this conspiracy theory, focusing on three of the major proponents: Nichols, Bielek, and one Stewart Swerdlow.
It’s a complicated yarn that also involves the alleged murder of over 100,000 unwary test subjects, mostly runaway children.
The Montauk base was reportedly decommissioned in 1981. Unlike Roswell, NM, local inhabitants don’t seem particularly aware of what is alleged to have happened there decades ago.
I don’t pretend to know how much substance is behind the Montauk Project. Maybe it’s all about some misguided people who glommed onto this tale to gain recognition – or perhaps riches – for themselves. It does seem however, that none of the them became famous in any sense of the word.
To be fair, Garetano’s film doesn’t reach a final conclusion, but it presents a fascinating tale, with solid production values, about a curious legend on the fringes of the UFO field. If you want to know more about the film, please check: Official Website of The Montauk Chronicles: A Christopher P. Garetano Film. A Study Of Fear, Lies, Paranoia, and The 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!
August 16, 2015
www.theparacast.com
The Paracast Explores the Montauk Project and the Philadelphia Experiment
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+: We have another radio show, and for a low monthly or annual subscription fee, you will receive access to After The Paracast, plus a higher-quality version of The Paracast without, the network ads, and chat rooms. 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 http://store.theparacast.com/ 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: Legend has it that the Montauk Project involved a set of secret tests conducted at the Montauk Air Force Station in Montauk, New York. It was purportedly designed to develop psychological warfare techniques and exotic research. It is said to be related to the legend of the Philadelphia Experiment due to its supposed time travel connection, and there are even claims of a possible connection with extraterrestrials. Well, independent producer and director Christopher Garetano has reportedly spent more than 10 years probing this alleged conspiracy, and has released a documentary film, “Montauk Chronicles,” to present his findings. Was the Montauk Project real, or just a bunch of tall tales devised by a handful of people for reasons best known to themselves?
Chris O’Brien’s Site: Our Strange Planet
The Montauk Chronicles: Official Website of The Montauk Chronicles: A Christopher P. Garetano Film. A Study Of Fear, Lies, Paranoia, and The Truth.
After The Paracast -- Available exclusively to Paracast+ subscribers on August 16: Gene and Chris segue from talk about the fragility of human teeth to the implications of the Philadelphia Experiment and Montauk Project legends. The tale of the Philadelphia Experiment may have been an outgrowth of efforts during World War II to make ships invisible to radar. The Montauk Project is just another claim about government mind control experiments. Gene and Chris wonder whether any such claims are true, and what about the controversial experiments at a nearby installation, Plum Island? Gene also recalls his many encounters with the late Charles Berlitz when he helped supply information for “The Philadelphia Experiment,” a book that Berlitz coauthored with William Moore. Chris also provides an update on the progress made in setting up the San Luis Valley Camera Project.
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.
Revisiting Old Conspiracies
By Gene Steinberg
In 1975, I co-hosted a cable TV show, carried on a New York public access station, which covered UFOs and related mysteries.
But don’t assume that meant very much. In those days, it was fairly easy to get an unpaid gig on a cable TV system mostly because they had an FCC mandate to originate programming. The standards weren’t terribly high for a public access channel, although I think I did a credible job.
Only later did real cable TV networks – some owned by the same companies as the major broadcast networks – come into their own. Nowadays cable and broadcast shows are mostly the same, except the shows on the cable outlets tend to be somewhat more explicit in content.
The UFO show I hosted was sponsored by “Beyond Reality,” a newsstand magazine on the paranormal. On one segment, we featured Charles Berlitz, author of a best-selling book entitled “The Bermuda Triangle.” Berlitz, grandson of the founder of the Berlitz language schools, was a spry old man with a twinkle in his eye. We had a great time.
At the tail end of the conversation, Berlitz focused on the so-called Philadelphia Experiment, which involved an alleged project to make a battleship invisible back in 1943. He mentioned a curious episode connected with rumors of that alleged event, involving an annotated version of the 1950’s UFO book, “The Case for the UFO,” authored by M.K. Jessup.
I imagine most of you have heard about this curious affair, so I’ll be brief. It seemed that a character who called himself “Carlos Miguel Allende,” had taken a copy of the book, and scribbled loads of curious annotations that, in part, described the supposed events that formed the Philadelphia Experiment legend.
This whole episode would have been laughable except for where the annotated book went, to the Office of Naval Research (ONR) in Washington, D.C. It arrived in a manila envelope bearing the label “HAPPY EASTER.”
I would stop at this point, but that’s not the end of it.
The book’s annotations were written in different colors, as if to signify the participants. Evidently it was taken seriously enough that the Varo Corporation, a research firm, ran a limited print run of the annotated book. Thus came the Varo Edition.
So how was Berlitz involved? Well, he claimed on the show that the Varo Edition had more or less vanished and had never been located. Now maybe that’s what he thought, or he was just trying to hype the story. I suspect the latter, although I did tell him, during the interview, that I had a copy of a reprint of that book released by Gray Barker.
A few days later, I met Berlitz for lunch and handed him my copy. I didn’t ask for its return, since I didn’t attach very much importance to it, and, besides, Gray would surely have sent me another if I needed one.
Over the next few months, I had long talks with Berlitz about various and sundry matters, most particularly the Philadelphia Experiment, in connection with a book he and William Moore were writing on the subject. All I got out of the effort was free food, and a nice mention in the book, but I was happy to have made a new friend.
So why the long preamble?
Well, it seems that the Philadelphia Experiment, later made into both theatrical and TV movies, appears curiously connected to another legend in the world of the paranormal known as the Montauk Project.
Now the alleged activities at the former Montauk Air Force Station, located at the tip of Long Island, purportedly involved experiments into mind control, teleportation, time travel and even contact with alien beings. It’s an elaborate tale to be sure. Indeed, alleged faked Apollo Moon landings were also said to have been staged there.
The issue of the space-time continuum, and an alleged rip in time, is the hook that connects the Philadelphia Experiment to the Montauk Project.
In short, if you’re into conspiracy theories, and weren’t too concerned over whether any solid evidence exists, you’d be in your element.
Now the major figure behind the Montauk Project story is one Preston B. Nichols, who wrote several books on the subject with co-author Peter Moon. Yet another figure connected with both tales is the late Alfred Bielek, a curious character who occasionally turned up on such radio shows as Art Bell’s original “Coast to Coast AM” and claimed to have been involved in the Philadelphia Experiment as a crew member aboard the ship that allegedly turned invisible and jumped through time, the USS Eldridge, a Naval destroyer.
Now considering the fact that Bielek was reportedly born in 1927, this would appear to mean mean he joined the Navy and got himself assigned to the destroyer’s crew at the tender age of 16. That’s outrageous enough on the surface, but there’s more. You see, Bielek claimed he had inhabited someone else’s body at the time. Obviously it wasn’t reincarnation, since the two individuals were both alive, but don’t hold your breath for an explanation of how this all supposedly came about.
So are all these Montauk Project and Philadelphia Experiment stories true, partly true, or just poor efforts at sci-fi? To be fair, it was reported that the military did perform tests during World World II to make ships more difficult to detect by measuring instruments. That’s not the same as invisibility, of course, except for being invisible to hardware as opposed to one’s eyes.
As for the rest? Well, Allende was later unmasked as Carl Allen, a particularly wacky character who appeared to live in his self-created fantasy world. Too bad, though. Others profited from his sci-fi tale, the Philadelphia Experiment, but there’s no indication that he shared in the joy.
As to the Montauk Project, there’s no doubt the U.S. government was involved in questionable mind control projects in the years following the end of World War II. So the possibility of something fishy going on at Camp Hero, the more popular designation for the Montauk base, isn’t not at all unreasonable. But that doesn’t mean such things really happened.
So on this weekend’s episode of The Paracast, Chris and I talk to Christopher P. Garetano, producer, writer and director of a film that attempts to put the story together, the “Montauk Chronicles.” The reviews say that the documentary credibly presents the details of this conspiracy theory, focusing on three of the major proponents: Nichols, Bielek, and one Stewart Swerdlow.
It’s a complicated yarn that also involves the alleged murder of over 100,000 unwary test subjects, mostly runaway children.
The Montauk base was reportedly decommissioned in 1981. Unlike Roswell, NM, local inhabitants don’t seem particularly aware of what is alleged to have happened there decades ago.
I don’t pretend to know how much substance is behind the Montauk Project. Maybe it’s all about some misguided people who glommed onto this tale to gain recognition – or perhaps riches – for themselves. It does seem however, that none of the them became famous in any sense of the word.
To be fair, Garetano’s film doesn’t reach a final conclusion, but it presents a fascinating tale, with solid production values, about a curious legend on the fringes of the UFO field. If you want to know more about the film, please check: Official Website of The Montauk Chronicles: A Christopher P. Garetano Film. A Study Of Fear, Lies, Paranoia, and The 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!