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Your Paracast Newsletter — August 6, 2017


Gene Steinberg

Forum Super Hero
Staff member
THE PARACAST NEWSLETTER
August 6, 2017
www.theparacast.com


A Former MUFON State Director Explains Why He Resigned on The Paracast

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This Week's Episode: Gene and guest co-host J. Randall Murphy present James E. Clarkson, the former Washington State Director of MUFON and a highly skilled UFO investigator. During this episode, the outspoken former law enforcement officer will explain, in detail, the reasons why he decided to leave MUFON, for the second time! He’ll also discuss his approach to investigating the UFO mystery, and about some of the cases he’s investigated over the years. For the last 30 years he has studied the mystery of UFOs with the same attention to detail that he applied to criminal investigations. His most recent book is the 2015 edition of “Tell My Story — June Crain, the Air Force and UFOs.”

Chris O’Brien’s Blog: Our Strange Planet

James E. Clarkson’s Blog: James Clarkson UFO Investigations - Researcher, Author, and Lecturer

Robert Powell’s Blog: scuonline

After The Paracast -- Available exclusively to Paracast+ subscribers on August 6: Gene and Chris present Robert Powell, MUFON’s former Director of Research, in this exclusive interview, where he explains why he left the organization and details his research and his research methods. He also reveals the problems he’s faced trying to get ahold of supposed alien implants to test. You’ll also learn his surprising reactions to reports of UFO abductions and whether it’s possible to reverse engineer alien technology. Would it even be possible for humans of the 21st century to recognize something built by a civilization hundreds or thousands of years ahead of us?

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. Check out our new YouTube channel at: The Official Paracast Channel

About Recognizing ET
By Gene Steinberg

As regular listeners know, I’ve long been skeptical of the so-called conventional wisdom about UFOs, that they are spaceships piloted by advanced alien beings from other planets. Instead, I’ve suggested that the UFO story is far more complicated, and that we are only beginning to understand where it may take us.

But at the core of my expectations of more complexity is the fundamental illogic of our sci-fi approach to the phenomenon. So it is believed by most people who follow UFOs that they are coming here in physical spaceships from other planets, no doubt expecting it to be roughly similar to, say, the Star Trek Enterprise.

The Star Trek lexicon takes us to the 23rd century and beyond, where humans have overcome their petty disputes — for the most part — and have formed a Federation with a number of other planetary civilizations around our galaxy. Since we’re talking of maybe a couple of hundred years in the future, we expect a level of scientific knowledge that may be far more advanced than ours, but still largely comprehensible to us.

It may be possible for some civilizations to cloak their spaceships so we cannot see them — and you wonder why that technology is confined to just one or two civilizations — but they are otherwise perfectly visible. Most of the technology onboard the Enterprise is recognizable for what it is; it’s just more advanced.

But now imagine a galactic civilization that is not 200 years ahead of us, but thousands of years. While it’s possible technology might stagnate, it’s reasonable to assume that extraterrestrial scientists to have made a steady stream of discoveries over the centuries.

Certainly sci-fi writers continue to attempt to imagine far-future societies, and the sort of inventions that might emerge in the normal course of events.

However, the UFOs we see don’t seem to have advanced much beyond our technology, let alone what what you see on a Star Trek show. This “one step beyond” phenomenon is part and parcel of the mystery, almost as if what we see is deliberately tailored to meet our expectations.

If we are being visited by one or more civilizations that are thousands of years ahead of us, would we even be capable of recognizing their means of transportation? What if they could travel through the universe at the speed of thought, or by using some sort of instantaneous matter transportation devices that span the stars? A stargate perhaps?

To us, these beings would be akin to gods.

I recall a critical scene in one of the lesser Trek movies, “Star Trek V: The Final Frontier.” That’s the one directed by William Shatner. Well, towards the end, the crew of the Enterprise, along with Spock’s half-brother, Sybok,” meet up with a creature believed to be God Almighty.

Well, the being wants to be taken aboard the Enterprise. In response, Captain Kirk asks, skeptically, “What does God need with a spaceship?”

In other words, why would the supreme being require a physical vessel to travel? Could He not will himself wherever He wanted to go? Well, of course, the creature is actually an evil alien.

Now let me say a few things about our alleged ability to reverse engineer alien technology.

This has been part and parcel of the Roswell myth, that our scientists and engineers have been tearing apart the components of a crashed spaceship for the past seven decades. Over the years, we have managed to unpack some of the lesser examples of ET’s technology, thus allowing us to invent or perfect such things as fiber optics and night vision goggles.

It doesn’t matter that there’s a clear history for the development of both. I suppose you can always suggest that those histories were altered by the authorities to shield the truth about their actual origins. That night vision goggles were developed in Nazi Germany before World War II is beside the point.

Now just imagine taking an Apple iPhone and dropping it somewhere in one of the more advanced countries — in 1817. Just to be sure their scientists would stand the ghost of a chance of figuring out what that little glass and metal rectangular box is designed to do, make sure it’s fully charged. That way, they could at least turn it on, even though there will be no cellular data networks to ping.

So how would the most advanced 19th century scientists fare in trying to guess what an iPhone can do? Well, if it’s switched on, they will see what’s stored on the device and all, and a random touch might reveal the possibilities of its touchscreen, at least until the battery ran out of juice.

But even if they managed to pick it apart, and I suppose jeweler’s implements might help, would they stand the remotest chance of figuring out what it’s made of? How it worked? How could they possibly reverse engineer microprocessors, integrated circuits, digital cameras and the other miraculous technology that is is contained in a smartphone?

Indeed, compared to the personal computers of even 10 years ago, an iPhone, or the equivalent from Samsung and other companies, is a supercomputer. Yes, a supercomputer in your pocket.

And now imagine someone in 2017 receiving a communications device that will not be invented until 2217. Even if we could figure out how to activate it, and I suppose it might require interfacing with the brain of its owner, how could we possibly understand its technology?

So it may well be that what we see flying around our skies is not what’s really there. Our visitors are presenting their transportation devices in that form solely for our benefit. It may be possible for them to morph it into any shape they want, or perhaps they are just sending projections, the better to mollify the primitive locales. There may be no grays or blond-haired god-like humans. Even if they retained physical forms that we could recognize, their appearance may have to be altered so as not to alarm us.

Assuming they care about first impressions, of course.

It reminds me of an important scene in the movie version of “Contact,” based on the Carl Sagan novel. The protagonist, a radio astronomer portrayed by Jodie Foster, meets ET, who appears to her in the form of her deceased father. The creature tells her that he (or it) is assuming that look because she couldn’t accept its true appearance.

So we wouldn’t have to be concerned that extraterrestrials may be the bug-eyed monsters depicted in some sci-fi films. Even if they are, they might just take on forms that wouldn’t alarm us. And their spaceships would be recognizable, to us, as spaceships, for the very same reasons.

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He hasn't been involved in the Trek world for years.

Right now, in fact, I haven't heard word about a fourth film in the new series after "Star Trek Beyond" kinda, sorta underperformed. It's still referred to as "Untitled Star Trek Sequel."

But Thor, I mean Chris Hemsworth, returns as Captain Kirk's dad. He's the one who died five minutes into the first film.
 
There are a number of reasonable counterpoints to the issues raised in this newsletter. Most of them have been covered inside the forum, but hopefully someday we'll get a chance to also cover them on one of the shows. Suffice it to say that in the meantime, If there's a common denominator, it's that we need to be more discerning about the assumptions and the claims people make.

Just the other day Coast To Coast With Noory featured Michael Horn, and last night I noticed a new video on the Bob White artifact on YouTube. One would think that both of these cases have been so thoroughly debunked that they would have just gone away and any serious presenter would be embarrassed to have either on their show.


At least the Paracast can be critical of ufology and other claims and tries to encourage new ways of looking at things. Personally, interstellar travel still seems to me to be the most reasonable explanation for alien visitation, but at the same time, it still doesn't hurt to ask the question, "What if it's not?", because that makes us think more about it than simply taking it for granted.
 
I think the ET hypothesis can just easily address the apparent illogic of the UFO phenomenon at least as easily as other hypotheses because we don't need to invent whole new physics or have to figure out how to make speculative physics real to explain it. Of course if we make the "ET Hypothesis" a straw man because we expect ETs to behave a certain way for these reasons and those reasons and we put constraints on them, then of course, the UFO phenomenon has proven that this narrow view of the ET hypothesis doesn't fit the phenomenon well.
 
I think the ET hypothesis can just easily address the apparent illogic of the UFO phenomenon at least as easily as other hypotheses because we don't need to invent whole new physics or have to figure out how to make speculative physics real to explain it. Of course if we make the "ET Hypothesis" a straw man because we expect ETs to behave a certain way for these reasons and those reasons and we put constraints on them, then of course, the UFO phenomenon has proven that this narrow view of the ET hypothesis doesn't fit the phenomenon well.
You absolutely hit the nail straight on the head there.
 
I think the ET hypothesis can just easily address the apparent illogic of the UFO phenomenon at least as easily as other hypotheses because we don't need to invent whole new physics or have to figure out how to make speculative physics real to explain it. Of course if we make the "ET Hypothesis" a straw man because we expect ETs to behave a certain way for these reasons and those reasons and we put constraints on them, then, of course, the UFO phenomenon has proven that this narrow view of the ET hypothesis doesn't fit the phenomenon well.

Nice post,
Agree with your comments which humanity only knows 10% of the Earth oceans and now the boffins are suggesting the Moon has large amounts of water. Who knows what's under the surface? micro or macro biological matter. Another point is the ET hypothesis is plausible with the eyewitness accounts such as black objects moving objects which able to move and disappear. Then the black matter , objects re-emerge with an ability to make noise and move surrounding environment. Using temperatures and force such as winds.
 
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