Your Paracast Newsletter
THE PARACAST NEWSLETTER
August 29, 2009
A UFO Skeptic Confronts Your Paracast Hosts
The Paracast Humbly Requests Your Donations: Although ads help cover a small part of our expenses, the income they produce is never enough, and we don't want to overwhelm the show with them, so we hope you'll be willing 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. Or just send your contribution to sales theparacast com.
You Can Now Order The Official Paracast T-Shirt: You asked, and we answered. We are now taking orders for The Official Paracast T-Shirt. It's just $14.95 plus shipping in your choice of sizes. To get yours, just pay a visit to our new online store at at 301 Moved Permanently to select your size and place your order. Yes, they are now shipping, and those of you who placed advance orders will receive them shortly.
Flash Notice: Sunday, August 30, 2009: The Paracast, with Gene Steinberg and David Biedny, 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 hosts interview long-time researchers in the field, to shed light on the mysteries and complexities of our Universe and the secrets that surround us in our everyday lives.
Join Gene and David as they explore the realms of the known and unknown, and hear great stories of the history of the paranormal field in the 20th and 21st centuries.
This Week's Episode: Karl Mamer, of The Conspiracy Skeptic, confronts Gene and David with his disbelief in the strange and unknown. You'll also hear a reality check from long-time researcher Jim Delittoso with regard to his comments about a photo allegedly featuring former Vice President Dick Cheney observing a UFO at a secret military base.
Kal Mamer's Site: The Conspiracy Skeptic Podcast
Coming September 6: Veteran paranormal researcher Curt Sutherly, author of "UFO Mysteries: A Reporter Seeks the Truth," discusses the progression of UFO evidence and belief systems. He'll also tell a few anecdotes about his longtime friendship with our co-host, Gene Steinberg.
Note: Archives of previous episodes are available for free download direct from the site or via a Podcast directory, such as Apple iTunes.
Reminder: Don't forget to visit our active Discussion Forums for the latest news/views/debates on all things paranormal (and note our new Internet address): 301 Moved Permanently
Deconstructing Conventional Wisdom All Over Again
If you accept the possibility that UFOs are real, then the question you might be asked most often is what planet do they come from, followed by whether they're here to help us or harm us.
Now, wait a minute! Aren't we taking this just a little too far?
UFO stands for "Unidentified Flying Object." The meaning is obvious and applies to anything that is flying around that cannot be explained. If there is an explanation, it becomes an IFO, or "Identified Flying Object."
It's fair to say that the vast majority of UFOs have conventional explanations, most often misidentification of conventional objects. Only a small percentage fit into the "Other" or "Unexplained" category, and that's the area on which we'll focus.
Being unidentified shouldn't immediately translate into spaceships, although that's what is happening most of the time. Sure, I can understand the logical process. You have strange things in the sky exhibiting evidence of intelligent control, and since they're not ours, they have to be sent here by ET. That may indeed be true, but we have no evidence to take us from here to there. Demonstrating apparent intelligent control is not evidence of origin and purpose.
Sure, there are folks who claim to have been in contact with ET; others who have been abducted by them in the stealth of night, abruptly taken from their homes and forced to undergo what are sometimes weird experiments aboard some sort of alien craft. While I tend to be highly skeptical of the former, the latter may be based on some core fact.
However, this doesn't mean all contacts with physical entities of presumed extraterrestrial origin are tall tales. In a few instances, the contactee may indeed have had some sort of weird encounter, one that they may not even fully comprehend. In some cases, the experience is couched in science fiction terms that we all understand to make it more palatable. In other cases, they haven't a clue what happened and they're as mystified as anyone. In the end, though, the forces of ego or the urgings of the contactee's followers may conspire to fabricate subsequent events in order to continue to spread the joy. And, in many cases, provide an ongoing source of material from which to give lectures, write books; in short, earn a living.
What makes this entire mess all the more difficult to understand is that the UFO phenomenon itself seems to fashion itself in accordance with the knowledge and expectations of the witness. In another time, the visitors may have arrived in chariots from heaven. But the people of the 20th and 21st centuries have been steeped in science fiction from early on. Those unexplained things in the sky must be solid transport mechanisms that cross the divide between star systems or dimensions or perhaps a little of both.
It's fair to say that we truly don't know what's really happening. At the same time we don't know what dire secrets our Earthly governments might possess about such matters, and we certainly aren't ready to offer courses in Exopolitics, or other silly movements that lack a basis in reality.
In the end, it may well be that the forces behind UFOs are destined to remain not just unknown but unknowable. Perhaps they represent a force that we aren't meant to understand. That may not be what you want to hear, but it may well be what's really going on.
Peace,
Gene Steinberg
Co-Host, "The Paracast"
The Paracast Copyright © 1999-2009 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!
THE PARACAST NEWSLETTER
August 29, 2009
A UFO Skeptic Confronts Your Paracast Hosts
The Paracast Humbly Requests Your Donations: Although ads help cover a small part of our expenses, the income they produce is never enough, and we don't want to overwhelm the show with them, so we hope you'll be willing 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. Or just send your contribution to sales theparacast com.You Can Now Order The Official Paracast T-Shirt: You asked, and we answered. We are now taking orders for The Official Paracast T-Shirt. It's just $14.95 plus shipping in your choice of sizes. To get yours, just pay a visit to our new online store at at 301 Moved Permanently to select your size and place your order. Yes, they are now shipping, and those of you who placed advance orders will receive them shortly.
Flash Notice: Sunday, August 30, 2009: The Paracast, with Gene Steinberg and David Biedny, 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 hosts interview long-time researchers in the field, to shed light on the mysteries and complexities of our Universe and the secrets that surround us in our everyday lives.
Join Gene and David as they explore the realms of the known and unknown, and hear great stories of the history of the paranormal field in the 20th and 21st centuries.
This Week's Episode: Karl Mamer, of The Conspiracy Skeptic, confronts Gene and David with his disbelief in the strange and unknown. You'll also hear a reality check from long-time researcher Jim Delittoso with regard to his comments about a photo allegedly featuring former Vice President Dick Cheney observing a UFO at a secret military base.
Kal Mamer's Site: The Conspiracy Skeptic Podcast
Coming September 6: Veteran paranormal researcher Curt Sutherly, author of "UFO Mysteries: A Reporter Seeks the Truth," discusses the progression of UFO evidence and belief systems. He'll also tell a few anecdotes about his longtime friendship with our co-host, Gene Steinberg.
Note: Archives of previous episodes are available for free download direct from the site or via a Podcast directory, such as Apple iTunes.
Reminder: Don't forget to visit our active Discussion Forums for the latest news/views/debates on all things paranormal (and note our new Internet address): 301 Moved Permanently
Deconstructing Conventional Wisdom All Over Again
If you accept the possibility that UFOs are real, then the question you might be asked most often is what planet do they come from, followed by whether they're here to help us or harm us.
Now, wait a minute! Aren't we taking this just a little too far?
UFO stands for "Unidentified Flying Object." The meaning is obvious and applies to anything that is flying around that cannot be explained. If there is an explanation, it becomes an IFO, or "Identified Flying Object."
It's fair to say that the vast majority of UFOs have conventional explanations, most often misidentification of conventional objects. Only a small percentage fit into the "Other" or "Unexplained" category, and that's the area on which we'll focus.
Being unidentified shouldn't immediately translate into spaceships, although that's what is happening most of the time. Sure, I can understand the logical process. You have strange things in the sky exhibiting evidence of intelligent control, and since they're not ours, they have to be sent here by ET. That may indeed be true, but we have no evidence to take us from here to there. Demonstrating apparent intelligent control is not evidence of origin and purpose.
Sure, there are folks who claim to have been in contact with ET; others who have been abducted by them in the stealth of night, abruptly taken from their homes and forced to undergo what are sometimes weird experiments aboard some sort of alien craft. While I tend to be highly skeptical of the former, the latter may be based on some core fact.
However, this doesn't mean all contacts with physical entities of presumed extraterrestrial origin are tall tales. In a few instances, the contactee may indeed have had some sort of weird encounter, one that they may not even fully comprehend. In some cases, the experience is couched in science fiction terms that we all understand to make it more palatable. In other cases, they haven't a clue what happened and they're as mystified as anyone. In the end, though, the forces of ego or the urgings of the contactee's followers may conspire to fabricate subsequent events in order to continue to spread the joy. And, in many cases, provide an ongoing source of material from which to give lectures, write books; in short, earn a living.
What makes this entire mess all the more difficult to understand is that the UFO phenomenon itself seems to fashion itself in accordance with the knowledge and expectations of the witness. In another time, the visitors may have arrived in chariots from heaven. But the people of the 20th and 21st centuries have been steeped in science fiction from early on. Those unexplained things in the sky must be solid transport mechanisms that cross the divide between star systems or dimensions or perhaps a little of both.
It's fair to say that we truly don't know what's really happening. At the same time we don't know what dire secrets our Earthly governments might possess about such matters, and we certainly aren't ready to offer courses in Exopolitics, or other silly movements that lack a basis in reality.
In the end, it may well be that the forces behind UFOs are destined to remain not just unknown but unknowable. Perhaps they represent a force that we aren't meant to understand. That may not be what you want to hear, but it may well be what's really going on.
Peace,
Gene Steinberg
Co-Host, "The Paracast"
The Paracast Copyright © 1999-2009 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!