THE PARACAST NEWSLETTER
December 14, 2014
www.theparacast.com
The Paracast Explores the Trickster’s Influence on the Paranormal
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+: You asked for it! For a low monthly or annual subscription fee, you will receive access to a higher-quality ad-free version of The Paracast, chat rooms, the all-new After The Paracast podcast, and other exclusive content. 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 The Official Paracast Store 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: Gene and Chris present cutting-edge theorist George Hansen, author of a trendsetting work, The Trickster and the Paranormal, a book that was instrumental in influencing Chris O'Brien's research and thinking process for his 2009 book "Stalking the Tricksters: Shapeshifters, Skinwalkers, Dark Adepts and 2012." Hansen has been a longtime paranormal researcher in academia, science and elsewhere. As he states at his site, "The paranormal encompasses everything from levitating monks to ESP, from spirits to cattle mutilations—an incredible and unsavory hodgepodge. The mix seems incoherent. But the trickster makes sense of it."
Chris O’Brien’s Site: Our Strange Planet
George Hansen’s Site: http://www.tricksterbook/
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.
About Paranormal Trickery
By Gene Steinberg
A common perception about UFOs is that it’s a physical phenomenon. There are physical spaceships, with physical beings — though some suggest they are actually robots or another form of artificial intelligence — that are visiting us for reasons best known to themselves. When it comes to ghosts and similar apparitions, it’s mostly about restless spirits of the dead lingering on the fringes of our reality due to unfinished business or to convey a warning.
That represents a possible reality. Now welcome to the crazy world of fakery.
So the UFO field has been rife with hoaxes over the years. Nowadays, the most common symptom is a fake photo or video. You’ll find lots of them on YouTube, and some people, who shall not be named, clearly profit from posting them. They have little regard to whether the material is real or fake. It’s all about entertainment, and that’s often true with certain TV reality shows on these subjects.
In the early days, people threw frisbees into the air, launched balloons, or perhaps used model planes and even the covers of garbage cans to make it seem as if they captured a genuine UFO on film. My old friend Jim Moseley, and his pal Gray Barker, were responsible for the infamous “Lost Creek” flying saucer video that some people may have even believed, though I can’t imagine why.
I knew of Jim’s complicity in this hoax early on, but if I didn’t know, I would have suspected. It was a pathetic fake when it came to delivering a credible illusion.
So Jim fancied himself Ufology’s “court jester,” and was known to pull other stunts. He and Gray very nearly got into hot water with the authorities once when they actually got ahold of some genuine government stationery from a friend and decided to have a little fun. One night, intoxicated with beer and more powerful alcoholic beverages, they committed words to paper and actually mailed a series of faked government letters to contactee George Adamski, Coral Lorenzen, the head of an early UFO club, APRO, and several others.
Now Adamski was clearly smart enough to take advantage of the situation, though I suspect he always knew, in his heart of hearts, that it was a fake. The letter he received, purporting to be from one R.E. Straith of a mythical “Cultural Exchange Committee” of the State Department, claimed that the government actually supported Adamski’s claims of meetings with blond humans from Venus and other planets.
Unfortunately, Gray had a very distinctive writing style, and anyone who knew him reasonably well would immediately recognize the source of such letters. Unfortunately, the FBI got involved in investigating who might have purloined that stationery, a potential crime. They asked Adamski to stop using the letter in his public appearances, but he refused. Gray was also contacted as part of the investigation. Fortunately no criminal charges were filed. No doubt the FBI didn’t want to touch the crazy UFO field with a ten foot pole, although there is evidence of some FBI involvement in investigating certain cases in the early days.
Shortly after Barker’s death in 1984, Jim revealed the true story about their ongoing practical jokes in the UFO field.
On a few occasions, I asked Jim why he and Gray pulled these stunts. I knew Jim was actually quite serious in his interest in UFOs, and would go out and investigate cases that he felt had the potential of being genuine. We had long and involved discussions about the possible reality behind the phenomenon, and when I questioned him about his motives for fakery, he said he just wanted to keep the saucer mystery alive. So when the number of presumably genuine sightings were at a low ebb, and subscription renewals for his magazine, “Saucer News,” weren’t quite hitting the mark, he decided to stir the pot a little.
While people have played hoaxes in the UFO field over the years, few were as dedicated as Jim and Gray. But he wasn’t the only one who made the extra effort to keep the mystery going.
In the very early days, there was Ray Palmer, the controversial sci-fi editor who brought the Shaver Mystery to the world in the 1940s. In passing, Shaver was a sci-fi writer who claimed genuine encounters with beings who resided in caverns within the Earth known as deros and teros.
Now Palmer was also a smart journalist who knew a good story when he saw one. When Kenneth Arnold had his original UFO sighting on June 24, 1947, Palmer was quick to get in touch. Indeed, Palmer recruited Arnold to play the role of investigative reporter and check out the infamous Maury Island case in Washington state. That's the controversial episode where two military men died in a plane crash while flying to their base with some metal fragments that may or may not have fallen from a UFO.
The entire Maury Island story was replete with evidence of wiretapping, and the possible presence of military disinformation people. In his classic UFO book, “The Report on Unidentified Flying Objects,” author Edward Ruppelt referred to Palmer as the “Chicago publisher,” and characterized Maury Island as the dirtiest hoax in UFO history. And clearly a deadly one in light of those two fatalities, though they appeared to be the result of a tragic accident; it wasn’t someone’s nasty prank.
Now a book co-written by Arnold and Palmer, “The Coming of the Saucers,” conveyed the strong impression that the plane crash was deliberate. Worse, when Arnold was about the leave in his small private plane, he had a near-accident. But few would believe that he’d was anything more than a serious individual who happened to get caught up in a crazy mess where things just went astray in an unfortunate way.
Through the years, UFO investigators have wondered about the hoaxes, and possible indications of government involvement. There has long been talk of disinformation, deliberate efforts by the authorities, or perhaps just the occasional rogue individual, to confuse matters even further.
Some researchers who have probed possible disinformation, Men in Black stories, and other reports of possible trickery in the field, have speculated about possibly organized attempts to stir confusion. It has even been speculated by some that these curious events may represent some manifestation of trickster presence in the UFO field.
While hoaxes are often easily explained, even if the motives are questionable, I do wonder whether we might be deliberately manipulated to approach these subjects in certain ways. Do the UFOs themselves, as most of you believe, truly represent physical aircraft of unknown origin? Or we see UFOs as they really are, or as we believe or expect them to be? Is there some underlying phenomenon behind UFOs and other paranormal mysteries that is deliberately altering what we see and hear to serve some mysterious goal?
When someone says you have to see it to believe it, is that a true statement when it comes to the paranormal? Or maybe, as with the magician, it’s all happening behind the curtain.
Copyright 1999-2014 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!
December 14, 2014
www.theparacast.com
The Paracast Explores the Trickster’s Influence on the Paranormal
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+: You asked for it! For a low monthly or annual subscription fee, you will receive access to a higher-quality ad-free version of The Paracast, chat rooms, the all-new After The Paracast podcast, and other exclusive content. 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 The Official Paracast Store 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: Gene and Chris present cutting-edge theorist George Hansen, author of a trendsetting work, The Trickster and the Paranormal, a book that was instrumental in influencing Chris O'Brien's research and thinking process for his 2009 book "Stalking the Tricksters: Shapeshifters, Skinwalkers, Dark Adepts and 2012." Hansen has been a longtime paranormal researcher in academia, science and elsewhere. As he states at his site, "The paranormal encompasses everything from levitating monks to ESP, from spirits to cattle mutilations—an incredible and unsavory hodgepodge. The mix seems incoherent. But the trickster makes sense of it."
Chris O’Brien’s Site: Our Strange Planet
George Hansen’s Site: http://www.tricksterbook/
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.
About Paranormal Trickery
By Gene Steinberg
A common perception about UFOs is that it’s a physical phenomenon. There are physical spaceships, with physical beings — though some suggest they are actually robots or another form of artificial intelligence — that are visiting us for reasons best known to themselves. When it comes to ghosts and similar apparitions, it’s mostly about restless spirits of the dead lingering on the fringes of our reality due to unfinished business or to convey a warning.
That represents a possible reality. Now welcome to the crazy world of fakery.
So the UFO field has been rife with hoaxes over the years. Nowadays, the most common symptom is a fake photo or video. You’ll find lots of them on YouTube, and some people, who shall not be named, clearly profit from posting them. They have little regard to whether the material is real or fake. It’s all about entertainment, and that’s often true with certain TV reality shows on these subjects.
In the early days, people threw frisbees into the air, launched balloons, or perhaps used model planes and even the covers of garbage cans to make it seem as if they captured a genuine UFO on film. My old friend Jim Moseley, and his pal Gray Barker, were responsible for the infamous “Lost Creek” flying saucer video that some people may have even believed, though I can’t imagine why.
I knew of Jim’s complicity in this hoax early on, but if I didn’t know, I would have suspected. It was a pathetic fake when it came to delivering a credible illusion.
So Jim fancied himself Ufology’s “court jester,” and was known to pull other stunts. He and Gray very nearly got into hot water with the authorities once when they actually got ahold of some genuine government stationery from a friend and decided to have a little fun. One night, intoxicated with beer and more powerful alcoholic beverages, they committed words to paper and actually mailed a series of faked government letters to contactee George Adamski, Coral Lorenzen, the head of an early UFO club, APRO, and several others.
Now Adamski was clearly smart enough to take advantage of the situation, though I suspect he always knew, in his heart of hearts, that it was a fake. The letter he received, purporting to be from one R.E. Straith of a mythical “Cultural Exchange Committee” of the State Department, claimed that the government actually supported Adamski’s claims of meetings with blond humans from Venus and other planets.
Unfortunately, Gray had a very distinctive writing style, and anyone who knew him reasonably well would immediately recognize the source of such letters. Unfortunately, the FBI got involved in investigating who might have purloined that stationery, a potential crime. They asked Adamski to stop using the letter in his public appearances, but he refused. Gray was also contacted as part of the investigation. Fortunately no criminal charges were filed. No doubt the FBI didn’t want to touch the crazy UFO field with a ten foot pole, although there is evidence of some FBI involvement in investigating certain cases in the early days.
Shortly after Barker’s death in 1984, Jim revealed the true story about their ongoing practical jokes in the UFO field.
On a few occasions, I asked Jim why he and Gray pulled these stunts. I knew Jim was actually quite serious in his interest in UFOs, and would go out and investigate cases that he felt had the potential of being genuine. We had long and involved discussions about the possible reality behind the phenomenon, and when I questioned him about his motives for fakery, he said he just wanted to keep the saucer mystery alive. So when the number of presumably genuine sightings were at a low ebb, and subscription renewals for his magazine, “Saucer News,” weren’t quite hitting the mark, he decided to stir the pot a little.
While people have played hoaxes in the UFO field over the years, few were as dedicated as Jim and Gray. But he wasn’t the only one who made the extra effort to keep the mystery going.
In the very early days, there was Ray Palmer, the controversial sci-fi editor who brought the Shaver Mystery to the world in the 1940s. In passing, Shaver was a sci-fi writer who claimed genuine encounters with beings who resided in caverns within the Earth known as deros and teros.
Now Palmer was also a smart journalist who knew a good story when he saw one. When Kenneth Arnold had his original UFO sighting on June 24, 1947, Palmer was quick to get in touch. Indeed, Palmer recruited Arnold to play the role of investigative reporter and check out the infamous Maury Island case in Washington state. That's the controversial episode where two military men died in a plane crash while flying to their base with some metal fragments that may or may not have fallen from a UFO.
The entire Maury Island story was replete with evidence of wiretapping, and the possible presence of military disinformation people. In his classic UFO book, “The Report on Unidentified Flying Objects,” author Edward Ruppelt referred to Palmer as the “Chicago publisher,” and characterized Maury Island as the dirtiest hoax in UFO history. And clearly a deadly one in light of those two fatalities, though they appeared to be the result of a tragic accident; it wasn’t someone’s nasty prank.
Now a book co-written by Arnold and Palmer, “The Coming of the Saucers,” conveyed the strong impression that the plane crash was deliberate. Worse, when Arnold was about the leave in his small private plane, he had a near-accident. But few would believe that he’d was anything more than a serious individual who happened to get caught up in a crazy mess where things just went astray in an unfortunate way.
Through the years, UFO investigators have wondered about the hoaxes, and possible indications of government involvement. There has long been talk of disinformation, deliberate efforts by the authorities, or perhaps just the occasional rogue individual, to confuse matters even further.
Some researchers who have probed possible disinformation, Men in Black stories, and other reports of possible trickery in the field, have speculated about possibly organized attempts to stir confusion. It has even been speculated by some that these curious events may represent some manifestation of trickster presence in the UFO field.
While hoaxes are often easily explained, even if the motives are questionable, I do wonder whether we might be deliberately manipulated to approach these subjects in certain ways. Do the UFOs themselves, as most of you believe, truly represent physical aircraft of unknown origin? Or we see UFOs as they really are, or as we believe or expect them to be? Is there some underlying phenomenon behind UFOs and other paranormal mysteries that is deliberately altering what we see and hear to serve some mysterious goal?
When someone says you have to see it to believe it, is that a true statement when it comes to the paranormal? Or maybe, as with the magician, it’s all happening behind the curtain.
Copyright 1999-2014 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!