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Your Paracast Newsletter — February 12, 2017


Gene Steinberg

Forum Super Hero
Staff member
THE PARACAST NEWSLETTER
February 12, 2017
www.theparacast.com


Micah Hanks Discusses Mystery Satellites and Other Celestial Phenomena 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.

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This Week's Episode: Researcher Micah Hanks, of The Gralien Report, returns to discuss strange objects in orbit around the Earth that were being seen during the golden age of Ufology. Researcher Donald E. Keyhoe believed some of these were “alien motherships”; Micah will look at how the discoverer of Pluto became involved in determining what these objects were, as well as the peculiar search for Earth’s second moon, and the continuing search for “moonlets” today. Over the years, mystery objects in Earth orbit have helped promote the belief in what is known as “The Black Knight Satellite,” a hypothetical alien probe that has monitored Earth for 13,000 years. Micah explains the scientific discoveries behind this modern legend, which have built onto a mythos over the years.

Chris O’Brien’s Site: Our Strange Planet

The Gralien Report: The Gralien Report - The Future Is Now

After The Paracast -- Available exclusively to Paracast+ subscribers on February 12: Gene and Chris focus on a wide selection of topics. So what about the wishing machine that Gene is testing? Do such devices have independent capabilities, or do they serve as focal points for the human consciousness to accomplish things? Chris delivers a quick update on the San Luis Valley Camera Project and on the apparent lack of progress of another UFO detection scheme, UFODATA. And what about the possibility that radiation might prevent humans from safely traveling to Mars with intense shielding? In addition to an update on future episodes of The Paracast, Gene explains why efforts to bring a psychic on the show to prove their mettle have yet to succeed. He also comes up with an innovative idea about a possible use for a matter transporter device.

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 the Good Old Days
By Gene Steinberg

I remember when I got my start in the UFO mess. In those days, my family lived in a Brooklyn tenement. After school, I would often take the subway on a 30-minute trip to check out the Samuel Weiser book store in lower Manhattan.

The lower level of the store had shelves upon shelves of paranormal books, and older UFO titles were offered for as little as $1.00 on closeout. That’s how I first accumulated a decent-sized library on the subject.

I shared my newfound knowledge about the strange an the unknown with a handful of friends. I virtually grew up with Ken Alpert, who lived just a few buildings away on Newport Street, at the corner of Hopkinson Avenue. We never shared a class at school, but we hung out together often. He was interested in the flying saucers too in those days, and his mom evidently shared our pursuits of the unknown. I even remember when she bought one of those original William Fuld ouija boards that came in a box that had the title, “Ouija the Mystifying Oracle.”

You can still buy those vintage ouija boards online.

Well, Ken’s mom was probably just having fun with us, but she took to the board with enthusiasm, so whenever she handled the planchette, there were always intriguing answers to be had to our questions. But nothing terribly mystical.

Now I was never quite sure whether she was just fooling with us, or she really believed some force was moving it for her. Regardless, we had a few weeks of enthusiastic encounters with the unknown before our interests faded. Or maybe she decided it was time for us to move on.

Ken and I stayed in touch over the years. Eventually he moved to the Atlanta area, where he got a sales job and lived a typical middle class existence. I’m not at all sure if he maintained an interest in UFOs over the decades, but I continued to send him magazines and other material.

I last heard from him in 2012.

Another friend, Larry Vodovoz, also shared my interest in UFOs, and one day he pointed to an oddly-shaped cloud formation and pronounced it a real flying saucer. For some months thereafter, he’d boast to his friends that he actually saw one of those things, and I just quietly tolerated his silliness.

One day I grew sick and tired of this trivial deception, and set him straight. “Larry, it was just a cloud. It was nothing strange.”

He seemed stunned by my attempt to bring him back into the real world. I think we drifted apart after that, but not because I shattered his illusion. His life took him in other directions.

Then there was Marty Salkind, who seemed to have more of a genuine interest in UFOs. He also acquired a small book library of his own, and we’d talk extensively about the subject.

On one occasion, he accompanied me on a trip to Washington, D.C. where we met two other friends, Allen Greenfield and Rick Hilberg.

It was 1965, and we had a busy schedule. First, we were to meet up with the legendary UFO author, Major Donald E. Keyhoe, near his home in Luray, Virginia. Keyhoe was director of NICAP at the time, which was regarded as one of the preeminent UFO clubs in the field. But it was mainly in the business of lobbying for UFO disclosure.

In any case, we met Keyhoe at a restaurant, and had a pleasant conversation about the state of the field over coffee and muffins. He was low-key and gracious, and was willing to accept (or tolerate) the presence of a small group of young enthusiasts.

The next day wasn’t quite as pleasant.

So our group strolled over to NICAP’s headquarters just off Dupont Circle in the nation’s capital. I didn’t consider until later a strange bit of trivia, that this small office suite wasn’t far from a key location depicted in the classic sci-fi movie, “The Day the Earth Stood Still,” where the alien visitor, Klaatu, was gunned down by the authorities.

Although Major Keyhoe headed the organization, it seems that he only showed up for brief periods, and the day-to-day operations were managed by Richard Hall, who occupied the position of executive secretary. He later became Assistant Director.

While Hall has attained a credible reputation over the years as a serious and dedicated UFO researcher, he had an irascible personality. In those days, after class, I worked part-time with Jim Moseley at Saucer News, when it was a real magazine with a paid staff. Well, Moseley and Hall were not exactly friends. One time Jim telephoned NICAP for a comment about a sighting, and was accused by Hall of taping the conversation.

Jim never owned a tape recorder; not then, not ever. So the two hung up on each other in mutual disgust.

Our little trip took place some time later. We arrived at NICAP headquarters, and one of us knocked on the door. As the door opened, Hall saw me, shook his finger and announced to all of us, “you’re not welcome here.”

So we left.

But we refused to take this affront sitting down. I had struck up a bit of a friendship with controversial UFO and sci-fi writer/editor Ray Palmer. In fact, I met some of my closest friends through the “Saucer Club News” section of Palmer’s newsstand magazine, Flying Saucers. So we called him up and explained our predicament.

Ray seemed sympathetic enough, but basically listened to our story without really giving us much in the way of useful advice.

A few months later, he published an editorial in his magazine, entitled, “No Investigations Can Actually Proceed,” his alteration of the NICAP acronym. He went on to explain how Hall’s unseemly behavior was hardly beneficial in advancing the cause of serious saucer research.

Over the next few months, Jim also wrote several articles on the subject, and repeatedly announced that “Hall Must Fall,” which appeared to be part of an informal movement to have him removed from NICAP for his unprofessional behavior.

I lost touch with Marty soon thereafter. Shortly before our friendship faded, he had been accepted into the bagel baker’s union in New York City, which would guarantee him a lifetime job, he said. Over the years, I often wondered if I’d one day find him plying his trade at a bagel bakery in the Big Apple. But I never heard from him again.

Eventually, Hall did leave NICAP, but after Keyhoe was ousted from the organization. I’d like to think it came about partly as a result of that unsavory episode, but probably not. Hall’s later activities included a stint as editor of the MUFON Journal and chairman of the Fund for U.F.O. Research.

I met him in the mid-1970s at a UFO convention in Arkansas. We talked briefly and buried the hatchet.

Years later, as host of The Paracast, I wanted to invite Hall on the show. But he was too old and too ill to accept the invitation. He died in 2009.

I remain friends with Greenfield and Hilberg, both of whom have appeared on The Paracast. I know Ken is still out there somewhere, and I’m sure I’ll hear from him before long, but I sometimes wonder about Marty.

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