THE PARACAST NEWSLETTER
December 6, 2015
www.theparacast.com
Food, Drink, and the Paranormal Explored on The Paracast
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.
A PREMIUM PARACAST EXPERIENCE! We have another radio show, and for a low 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 when you sign up for The Paracast+. NEW! We’ve added an RSS feed for fast updates of the latest episodes and we give free ebooks for long-term subscriptions. A Paracast+ video channel is coming soon. 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 Joshua Cutchin, author of “A Trojan Feast: The Food and Drink Offerings of Aliens, Faeries, and Sasquatch. Says the publisher: “Accept food from faeries, and you’ll never escape their realm, according to European folklore. Accept food from Sasquatch and you will forever be trapped in the spirit world, according to indigenous North American tales. And today, abductees—at least those who have returned—often report being offered strange beverages from their captors. Are these similarities mere coincidence, or is something more at play?” Joshua is an author and musician.
Chris O’Brien’s Site: Our Strange Planet
Joshua Cutchin’s Blog: Joshua Cutchin: Weird Words & Brass Beats
After The Paracast -- Available exclusively to Paracast+ subscribers on December 6: Gene and Chris talk about the news media and whether we can really believe some of the more provocative stories about major events of the day. Focusing on the appearance of author Joshua Cutchin on The Paracast, our intrepid duo remark on how complicated paranormal mysteries really are. They talk briefly about the head-scratcher UFO cases, reciting his experiences in the San Luis Valley over the years. The discussion moves to the curious Joe Simonton “pancake” incident in Eagle River, WI in 1961 and moves on to the “trickster archetype” developing, becoming self aware, and having their own agenda that is always a step ahead of us, using a “buffer zone.”. The more you know, the more you don’t know, but you keep on searching in the hope that you’ll gain a better understanding of such phenomena. Chris also offers an update on the San Luis Val ley 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.
Lunch with the Aliens
By Gene Steinberg
When you talk to someone interested in UFOs, it’s not always likely that they will be interested in other strange mysteries. It may be all about UFOs, with the usual theory being that they are visitors from other planets. To many, ghosts, Sasquatch and other strange phenomena, might as well be from another universe. They are unrelated, even if they are worth further explanation.
But when you look deeper, you might find that many of these mysteries have things in common. Take the main topic of this week’s episode, which focuses on Joshua Cutchin’s book, A Trojan Feast: The Food and Drink Offerings of Aliens, Faeries, and Sasquatch.”
You may come to realize, if you haven’t already, that seemingly different phenomena may be connected. It’s about food. So, in summarizing the book, the people at Anomalist Books, the publisher, warn you about accepting and consuming edibles from mysterious entities, lest you find yourself under their control, and maybe you’ll never be able to return home.
Now we often admonish our children not to take food from strangers. But the reason is not that they may get caught up and transported into some mysterious realm that they cannot leave. It’s about the practical issues of whether that food might contain poison of some sort, and it’s good advice.
But adults might prefer to believe they are more savvy than that, and they won’t partake of a drink or solid food unless they are absolutely certain it’s safe to eat. Well let me amend that. Before you go to a restaurant, even the fast food place down the street, maybe it’s a good idea to consult their food inspection report if one is accessible in your city. You never know what’s in that cheeseburger, aside from the usual ingredients, such as ground beef, cheese and maybe mustard, ketchup, lettuce, tomato and onions.
But I digress.
Perhaps our visitors, be they spiritual creatures, faeries, hairy monsters, or gray aliens, are putting hallucinogenic substances in the food and beverages they hand you, thus causing all sorts of physical effects. Maybe you’ll dream of events that never happened; that is, if you get out of there alive.
Of course, if you actually decided to partake of food and drink from strange beings, and you disappeared, how would the people who knew you, friends, family, coworkers, discover what you did? Would they infer what might have happened to you on the occasion of your absence? What a curious happenstance, what a strange contradiction!
Now when I first heard about Joshua’s book, my first thought was of a curious UFO contact case that occurred on April 18, 1961 in Eagle River Wisconsin.
As the story goes, one Joe Simonton, a chicken farmer, happened upon a disc-shaped aircraft that came down vertically and landed on his farm. It was roughly 12 feet in height and 30 feet in diameter. Upon landing, Simonton saw a hatch open, and when he, bravely I’d think, came up to the vessel, he spied three dark-skinned human-like beings inside.
They appeared to be about five feet tall, weighing 125 pounds, which seems a little on the heavy side, and wore dark blue or black knit uniforms with a turtleneck top and helmet-style caps. Simonton described his visitors as clean shaven and “Italian-looking.”
Please don’t get me started.
He noticed they had a silvery jug with two handles and the impression was somehow conveyed, perhaps telepathically, that they wanted him to fill the jug with water. In exchange, they gave him three edibles that appeared to be pancakes of some sort. They were roughly three inches and diameter, and perforated with small holes.
Now Simonton didn’t consider whether his visitors might not have the same food preferences as he did, or even whether the food was safe to eat. But when he tried it, he announced that “it tasted like cardboard.”
But at least he didn’t suffer any ill effects.
Now the rest of the story is fairly detailed, but I’ll just cover the highlights. Simonton brought the pancakes to a local UFO enthusiast, who, in turn, sent them on to Major Donald Keyhoe’s UFO group, NICAP. Evidently the prospects of testing alien foodstuffs didn’t appeal to them, and they opted not to test it.
However they were tested. You see, the Air Force sent a civilian investigator, none other than Dr. J. Allen Hynek, to check it all out. In turn, one of the pancakes was analyzed by a committee at Northwestern University, where Hynek worked, and the Air Force’s Technical Intelligence Center. The results reportedly indicated that they were made up of pretty conventional ingredients, such as flour, sugar and grease. A rumor that the wheat used in the pancakes was of an “unknown type” was never confirmed.
That’s pretty much where it stands after all these years, except for a curious story credited to none other than Ray Palmer, the controversial editor and publisher of Flying Saucers and a fellow Wisconsin resident. His conclusion was that someone in Eagle River hypnotized Simonton, and made him believe he actually encountered a flying saucer and its crew. This was supposedly done in a failed effort to attract attention to the small town and make it a tourist attraction.
No, Palmer was not a neighbor. He lived in Amherst, a town about 113 miles distant. But he was notorious for occasionally poking his head, uninvited, into various matters with a paranormal slant.
Now even if the Simonton case was in any way genuine, it’s clear that his consumption of alien food had no adverse effects. He didn’t report any episodes of missing time, nor was he unaccounted for over an extended period.
On the other hand, the story does have its resemblance to some of those cases in the 1890s that involved the pilots of airships exchanging pleasantries, and sometimes food and drink, with the locals.
I’m not about the jump to any final conclusions about such events, except that Joe Simonton was not the only farmer to have claimed to be in contact with unworldly beings. I wouldn’t dispute Palmer’s contention, however, that the whole affair was designed to attract attention, though I don’t buy the hypnosis angle.
Indeed, some mighty strange things have occurred in the UFO field over the years. The possibility of alien pancakes is no more outlandish than other stories I’ve heard about. But the fact that edibles have been part and parcel of the world of the paranormal does give me a moment of pause.
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!
December 6, 2015
www.theparacast.com
Food, Drink, and the Paranormal Explored on The Paracast
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.
A PREMIUM PARACAST EXPERIENCE! We have another radio show, and for a low 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 when you sign up for The Paracast+. NEW! We’ve added an RSS feed for fast updates of the latest episodes and we give free ebooks for long-term subscriptions. A Paracast+ video channel is coming soon. 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 Joshua Cutchin, author of “A Trojan Feast: The Food and Drink Offerings of Aliens, Faeries, and Sasquatch. Says the publisher: “Accept food from faeries, and you’ll never escape their realm, according to European folklore. Accept food from Sasquatch and you will forever be trapped in the spirit world, according to indigenous North American tales. And today, abductees—at least those who have returned—often report being offered strange beverages from their captors. Are these similarities mere coincidence, or is something more at play?” Joshua is an author and musician.
Chris O’Brien’s Site: Our Strange Planet
Joshua Cutchin’s Blog: Joshua Cutchin: Weird Words & Brass Beats
After The Paracast -- Available exclusively to Paracast+ subscribers on December 6: Gene and Chris talk about the news media and whether we can really believe some of the more provocative stories about major events of the day. Focusing on the appearance of author Joshua Cutchin on The Paracast, our intrepid duo remark on how complicated paranormal mysteries really are. They talk briefly about the head-scratcher UFO cases, reciting his experiences in the San Luis Valley over the years. The discussion moves to the curious Joe Simonton “pancake” incident in Eagle River, WI in 1961 and moves on to the “trickster archetype” developing, becoming self aware, and having their own agenda that is always a step ahead of us, using a “buffer zone.”. The more you know, the more you don’t know, but you keep on searching in the hope that you’ll gain a better understanding of such phenomena. Chris also offers an update on the San Luis Val ley 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.
Lunch with the Aliens
By Gene Steinberg
When you talk to someone interested in UFOs, it’s not always likely that they will be interested in other strange mysteries. It may be all about UFOs, with the usual theory being that they are visitors from other planets. To many, ghosts, Sasquatch and other strange phenomena, might as well be from another universe. They are unrelated, even if they are worth further explanation.
But when you look deeper, you might find that many of these mysteries have things in common. Take the main topic of this week’s episode, which focuses on Joshua Cutchin’s book, A Trojan Feast: The Food and Drink Offerings of Aliens, Faeries, and Sasquatch.”
You may come to realize, if you haven’t already, that seemingly different phenomena may be connected. It’s about food. So, in summarizing the book, the people at Anomalist Books, the publisher, warn you about accepting and consuming edibles from mysterious entities, lest you find yourself under their control, and maybe you’ll never be able to return home.
Now we often admonish our children not to take food from strangers. But the reason is not that they may get caught up and transported into some mysterious realm that they cannot leave. It’s about the practical issues of whether that food might contain poison of some sort, and it’s good advice.
But adults might prefer to believe they are more savvy than that, and they won’t partake of a drink or solid food unless they are absolutely certain it’s safe to eat. Well let me amend that. Before you go to a restaurant, even the fast food place down the street, maybe it’s a good idea to consult their food inspection report if one is accessible in your city. You never know what’s in that cheeseburger, aside from the usual ingredients, such as ground beef, cheese and maybe mustard, ketchup, lettuce, tomato and onions.
But I digress.
Perhaps our visitors, be they spiritual creatures, faeries, hairy monsters, or gray aliens, are putting hallucinogenic substances in the food and beverages they hand you, thus causing all sorts of physical effects. Maybe you’ll dream of events that never happened; that is, if you get out of there alive.
Of course, if you actually decided to partake of food and drink from strange beings, and you disappeared, how would the people who knew you, friends, family, coworkers, discover what you did? Would they infer what might have happened to you on the occasion of your absence? What a curious happenstance, what a strange contradiction!
Now when I first heard about Joshua’s book, my first thought was of a curious UFO contact case that occurred on April 18, 1961 in Eagle River Wisconsin.
As the story goes, one Joe Simonton, a chicken farmer, happened upon a disc-shaped aircraft that came down vertically and landed on his farm. It was roughly 12 feet in height and 30 feet in diameter. Upon landing, Simonton saw a hatch open, and when he, bravely I’d think, came up to the vessel, he spied three dark-skinned human-like beings inside.
They appeared to be about five feet tall, weighing 125 pounds, which seems a little on the heavy side, and wore dark blue or black knit uniforms with a turtleneck top and helmet-style caps. Simonton described his visitors as clean shaven and “Italian-looking.”
Please don’t get me started.
He noticed they had a silvery jug with two handles and the impression was somehow conveyed, perhaps telepathically, that they wanted him to fill the jug with water. In exchange, they gave him three edibles that appeared to be pancakes of some sort. They were roughly three inches and diameter, and perforated with small holes.
Now Simonton didn’t consider whether his visitors might not have the same food preferences as he did, or even whether the food was safe to eat. But when he tried it, he announced that “it tasted like cardboard.”
But at least he didn’t suffer any ill effects.
Now the rest of the story is fairly detailed, but I’ll just cover the highlights. Simonton brought the pancakes to a local UFO enthusiast, who, in turn, sent them on to Major Donald Keyhoe’s UFO group, NICAP. Evidently the prospects of testing alien foodstuffs didn’t appeal to them, and they opted not to test it.
However they were tested. You see, the Air Force sent a civilian investigator, none other than Dr. J. Allen Hynek, to check it all out. In turn, one of the pancakes was analyzed by a committee at Northwestern University, where Hynek worked, and the Air Force’s Technical Intelligence Center. The results reportedly indicated that they were made up of pretty conventional ingredients, such as flour, sugar and grease. A rumor that the wheat used in the pancakes was of an “unknown type” was never confirmed.
That’s pretty much where it stands after all these years, except for a curious story credited to none other than Ray Palmer, the controversial editor and publisher of Flying Saucers and a fellow Wisconsin resident. His conclusion was that someone in Eagle River hypnotized Simonton, and made him believe he actually encountered a flying saucer and its crew. This was supposedly done in a failed effort to attract attention to the small town and make it a tourist attraction.
No, Palmer was not a neighbor. He lived in Amherst, a town about 113 miles distant. But he was notorious for occasionally poking his head, uninvited, into various matters with a paranormal slant.
Now even if the Simonton case was in any way genuine, it’s clear that his consumption of alien food had no adverse effects. He didn’t report any episodes of missing time, nor was he unaccounted for over an extended period.
On the other hand, the story does have its resemblance to some of those cases in the 1890s that involved the pilots of airships exchanging pleasantries, and sometimes food and drink, with the locals.
I’m not about the jump to any final conclusions about such events, except that Joe Simonton was not the only farmer to have claimed to be in contact with unworldly beings. I wouldn’t dispute Palmer’s contention, however, that the whole affair was designed to attract attention, though I don’t buy the hypnosis angle.
Indeed, some mighty strange things have occurred in the UFO field over the years. The possibility of alien pancakes is no more outlandish than other stories I’ve heard about. But the fact that edibles have been part and parcel of the world of the paranormal does give me a moment of pause.
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!
