THE PARACAST NEWSLETTER
February 14, 2016
www.theparacast.com
Whitley Strieber Discusses “The Super Natural” 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.
SUPPORT THE SHOW AND ENJOY 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. We’ve just launched The Paracast+ Video Channel. 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: A very special episode featuring best-selling fact and fiction author Whitley Strieber. During this session, Whitley will discuss his new book, “The Super Natural,” co-authored with J. Newton Rayzor Professor of Religion at Rice University, Jeffery Kripal. According to the promotional notes, “ book looks at all kinds of ‘impossible’ things, from extra-dimensional beings to bilocation to bumps in the night. They contend that these phenomena are not impossible at all: rather, they are part of our natural world. ‘The Super Natural’ considers that the natural world is actually a ‘user natural world’ — and all we have to do to see this is to change the lenses through which we are looking at it and the languages through which we are presently limiting it.”
Chris O’Brien’s Site: Our Strange Planet
Whitley Strieber’s Unknown Country: alternative news, science, culture, religion, ufos, alien encounters | unknowncountry | the edge of the world
After The Paracast -- Available exclusively to Paracast+ subscribers on February 14: Gene and Chris talk at length about Whitley Strieber’s first appearance on The Paracast. Have we learned anything new about the “visitors” that have abducted him over the years? Their plan? Or is that just another way of looking at possible space beings? At the end of the day, is all this just cotton candy? It feels great going down, but you are left feeling unsatisfied. Gene and Chris also discuss researcher Scott Ramsey’s continuing efforts to prove that a flying saucer really did crash near Aztec, NM in 1948, as he releases a new expanded edition of his book, ‘The Aztec UFO Incident.” Also on the table is yet another Roswell book from Thomas J. Carey and Donald R. Schmitt, “The Children of Roswell.” Or does that reflect the equivalent of the title of a bad movie sequel? Gene and Chris discuss the latest odyssey of fraudster Sean David Morton a s he’s indicted on numerous tax evasion charges. Chris also promotes his February 21st, 2016 appearance before the the MUFON affiliate in Portland, OR.
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.
Aztec Again?
By Gene Steinberg
During the early days of The Paracast, UFO researcher Scott Ramsey appeared on several episodes to discuss his long studies into an alleged UFO crash in Aztec, NM in March 1948. In the course of these segments, Ramsey detailed some of the evidence he felt demonstrated that this incident was indeed a potential second Roswell.
During those interviews, Ramsey said he was working on a book that would blow the lid off a case that got its start in a 1950 book, “Behind the Flying Saucers,” from Variety gossip columnist Frank Scully.
Over the years, the Aztec affair almost always had far less credibility than Roswell. A key reason is that the essence of the tale reportedly originated with two alleged confidence men, thus tarnishing efforts to look into the case seriously.
Now Ramsey boasted of spending upwards of $500 thousand to get the facts behind the case, and the evidence was finally assembled in a 2012 self-published book, “The Aztec Incident: Recovery at Hart Canyon.” Ramsey shared author credits with his wife, Suzanne, Dr. Frank Thayer, a retired university professor, and Frank Warren.
Even Stanton Friedman, who is an Aztec supporter, got in the act as author of the book’s preface.
I read the book, and wrote several articles about it here. We featured Ramsey twice more on The Paracast to discuss the case. In one of those appearances, Ramsey debated Aztec with researcher Kevin D. Randle, who insists it was nothing more than a hoax.
The debate results were somewhat mixed. Ramsey had the facts at his beck and call, and thus had an advantage over Randle. But Randle, in turn, continued to remind the listener that the actual facts behind an alleged UFO crash at Aztec were threadbare at best.
Indeed, I came away with a similar impression from the book. A lot of added government documents weren’t totally relevant, and came across as padding. Unlike Roswell, direct witnesses were lacking. The testimony largely inferred that something happened, although a few claimed to have actually seen a strange metallic craft. Unlike Roswell, there were no newspaper headlines of the day announcing the crash of some sort of flying object. It appears that no local legends about it precede the Scully book, which seems mighty peculiar if the purported event actually occurred as claimed.
Ramsey give reasons why this must be so, and one was that the isolated location of the crash made it likely it would not have been discovered, giving the authorities time to secret the wreckage away without attracting any undue attention. But that only strains credibility. In a small town, if one person sees or hears something, the entire town will soon know about it.
Indeed, for all intents and purposes, the existence of a crash at Aztec is mostly tied directly to the controversial claims in Scully’s book.
The last I heard from Ramsey, he said that he and Suzanne were considering revising and expanding the book with new information. Last December I received a press release from a major book publisher touting, “New Evidence and Witnesses!”
This, then, was the expanded second edition of the book, published by New Page Books, which has a number of UFO and other offbeat titles in its catalog. At the very least, I would expect that the rookie mistakes in the original book would be fixed, and I looked forward to checking out the new material.
It also bears a modified subtitle, and thus becomes: “The Aztec UFO Incident: The Case, Evidence, and Elaborate Cover-up of One of the Most Perplexing Crashes in History.”
Understand that I could have just sat down and reread the book, hoping I’d remember enough of the original to easily recognize the new material. The new edition promises to reveal “the names of scientists who worked on the craft after its recovery.”
Instead, I wanted to make sure I wasn’t going to read essentially the same book with some extra spit and polish. So I wrote to Ramsey and asked him to explain what had changed. He promised that his new site would contain a “brief update as to what is new.”
It hasn’t quite worked out that way. The new site, www.theaztecincident.com, offered a standard Amazon except, but the contents of the site otherwise consisted a single page that, as of the time this column was written, didn’t make any effort to explain what is new to those who read the original edition.
In response, Ramsey told me that there are 122 pages of new material. Most of the illustrations from the original edition have been removed. For a 320-page book, that appears to be significant, and I look forward to giving it its due.
In the meantime, Whitley Strieber mentioned, during his appearance on this weekend’s episode of The Paracast, that he featured the Ramseys on his online radio show, “Dreamland.” Strieber pronounced himself extremely impressed with the facts in the case. While I wouldn’t depend on any single opinion to commit to reading the book again, my curiosity has been whetted.
Not so with Randle. So far as I can determine, Randle hasn’t written anything about the new and expanded edition in his blog, “A Different Perspective.” When I asked why, he said he had no further comment. So clearly he remains unimpressed. He has long regarded the Aztec episode as a hoax, no doubt a hoax perpetrated by the two men who inspired Scully to write the original book about the case.
I wouldn’t presume to make a judgment one way or the other. I have no skin in this game. But it would be real helpful to know of one significant new fact I should check into. That would be a helpful starting point before I begin to read the book.
Meantime, I’m not an avid fan of Roswell either, although I grant it far more credibility. Alas, when you’re trying to take apart a story that is now so old, with the original witnesses long gone, the chances of actually finding out anything new are little to none.
Beyond such blatant silliness as lost slides in an attic, one can only hope that there is evidence somewhere about Roswell that will blow the lid in the case. That would be nice, but I’m not terribly hopeful.
As to Aztec, Ramsey promises a more descriptive letter about the changes shortly, and I do wish he'd provide similar information on the site. Some bullet points would be extremely helpful for starters. Meantime, I will put the revised edition somewhere on my reading list.
Copyright 1999-2016 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!
February 14, 2016
www.theparacast.com
Whitley Strieber Discusses “The Super Natural” 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.
SUPPORT THE SHOW AND ENJOY 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. We’ve just launched The Paracast+ Video Channel. 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: A very special episode featuring best-selling fact and fiction author Whitley Strieber. During this session, Whitley will discuss his new book, “The Super Natural,” co-authored with J. Newton Rayzor Professor of Religion at Rice University, Jeffery Kripal. According to the promotional notes, “ book looks at all kinds of ‘impossible’ things, from extra-dimensional beings to bilocation to bumps in the night. They contend that these phenomena are not impossible at all: rather, they are part of our natural world. ‘The Super Natural’ considers that the natural world is actually a ‘user natural world’ — and all we have to do to see this is to change the lenses through which we are looking at it and the languages through which we are presently limiting it.”
Chris O’Brien’s Site: Our Strange Planet
Whitley Strieber’s Unknown Country: alternative news, science, culture, religion, ufos, alien encounters | unknowncountry | the edge of the world
After The Paracast -- Available exclusively to Paracast+ subscribers on February 14: Gene and Chris talk at length about Whitley Strieber’s first appearance on The Paracast. Have we learned anything new about the “visitors” that have abducted him over the years? Their plan? Or is that just another way of looking at possible space beings? At the end of the day, is all this just cotton candy? It feels great going down, but you are left feeling unsatisfied. Gene and Chris also discuss researcher Scott Ramsey’s continuing efforts to prove that a flying saucer really did crash near Aztec, NM in 1948, as he releases a new expanded edition of his book, ‘The Aztec UFO Incident.” Also on the table is yet another Roswell book from Thomas J. Carey and Donald R. Schmitt, “The Children of Roswell.” Or does that reflect the equivalent of the title of a bad movie sequel? Gene and Chris discuss the latest odyssey of fraudster Sean David Morton a s he’s indicted on numerous tax evasion charges. Chris also promotes his February 21st, 2016 appearance before the the MUFON affiliate in Portland, OR.
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.
Aztec Again?
By Gene Steinberg
During the early days of The Paracast, UFO researcher Scott Ramsey appeared on several episodes to discuss his long studies into an alleged UFO crash in Aztec, NM in March 1948. In the course of these segments, Ramsey detailed some of the evidence he felt demonstrated that this incident was indeed a potential second Roswell.
During those interviews, Ramsey said he was working on a book that would blow the lid off a case that got its start in a 1950 book, “Behind the Flying Saucers,” from Variety gossip columnist Frank Scully.
Over the years, the Aztec affair almost always had far less credibility than Roswell. A key reason is that the essence of the tale reportedly originated with two alleged confidence men, thus tarnishing efforts to look into the case seriously.
Now Ramsey boasted of spending upwards of $500 thousand to get the facts behind the case, and the evidence was finally assembled in a 2012 self-published book, “The Aztec Incident: Recovery at Hart Canyon.” Ramsey shared author credits with his wife, Suzanne, Dr. Frank Thayer, a retired university professor, and Frank Warren.
Even Stanton Friedman, who is an Aztec supporter, got in the act as author of the book’s preface.
I read the book, and wrote several articles about it here. We featured Ramsey twice more on The Paracast to discuss the case. In one of those appearances, Ramsey debated Aztec with researcher Kevin D. Randle, who insists it was nothing more than a hoax.
The debate results were somewhat mixed. Ramsey had the facts at his beck and call, and thus had an advantage over Randle. But Randle, in turn, continued to remind the listener that the actual facts behind an alleged UFO crash at Aztec were threadbare at best.
Indeed, I came away with a similar impression from the book. A lot of added government documents weren’t totally relevant, and came across as padding. Unlike Roswell, direct witnesses were lacking. The testimony largely inferred that something happened, although a few claimed to have actually seen a strange metallic craft. Unlike Roswell, there were no newspaper headlines of the day announcing the crash of some sort of flying object. It appears that no local legends about it precede the Scully book, which seems mighty peculiar if the purported event actually occurred as claimed.
Ramsey give reasons why this must be so, and one was that the isolated location of the crash made it likely it would not have been discovered, giving the authorities time to secret the wreckage away without attracting any undue attention. But that only strains credibility. In a small town, if one person sees or hears something, the entire town will soon know about it.
Indeed, for all intents and purposes, the existence of a crash at Aztec is mostly tied directly to the controversial claims in Scully’s book.
The last I heard from Ramsey, he said that he and Suzanne were considering revising and expanding the book with new information. Last December I received a press release from a major book publisher touting, “New Evidence and Witnesses!”
This, then, was the expanded second edition of the book, published by New Page Books, which has a number of UFO and other offbeat titles in its catalog. At the very least, I would expect that the rookie mistakes in the original book would be fixed, and I looked forward to checking out the new material.
It also bears a modified subtitle, and thus becomes: “The Aztec UFO Incident: The Case, Evidence, and Elaborate Cover-up of One of the Most Perplexing Crashes in History.”
Understand that I could have just sat down and reread the book, hoping I’d remember enough of the original to easily recognize the new material. The new edition promises to reveal “the names of scientists who worked on the craft after its recovery.”
Instead, I wanted to make sure I wasn’t going to read essentially the same book with some extra spit and polish. So I wrote to Ramsey and asked him to explain what had changed. He promised that his new site would contain a “brief update as to what is new.”
It hasn’t quite worked out that way. The new site, www.theaztecincident.com, offered a standard Amazon except, but the contents of the site otherwise consisted a single page that, as of the time this column was written, didn’t make any effort to explain what is new to those who read the original edition.
In response, Ramsey told me that there are 122 pages of new material. Most of the illustrations from the original edition have been removed. For a 320-page book, that appears to be significant, and I look forward to giving it its due.
In the meantime, Whitley Strieber mentioned, during his appearance on this weekend’s episode of The Paracast, that he featured the Ramseys on his online radio show, “Dreamland.” Strieber pronounced himself extremely impressed with the facts in the case. While I wouldn’t depend on any single opinion to commit to reading the book again, my curiosity has been whetted.
Not so with Randle. So far as I can determine, Randle hasn’t written anything about the new and expanded edition in his blog, “A Different Perspective.” When I asked why, he said he had no further comment. So clearly he remains unimpressed. He has long regarded the Aztec episode as a hoax, no doubt a hoax perpetrated by the two men who inspired Scully to write the original book about the case.
I wouldn’t presume to make a judgment one way or the other. I have no skin in this game. But it would be real helpful to know of one significant new fact I should check into. That would be a helpful starting point before I begin to read the book.
Meantime, I’m not an avid fan of Roswell either, although I grant it far more credibility. Alas, when you’re trying to take apart a story that is now so old, with the original witnesses long gone, the chances of actually finding out anything new are little to none.
Beyond such blatant silliness as lost slides in an attic, one can only hope that there is evidence somewhere about Roswell that will blow the lid in the case. That would be nice, but I’m not terribly hopeful.
As to Aztec, Ramsey promises a more descriptive letter about the changes shortly, and I do wish he'd provide similar information on the site. Some bullet points would be extremely helpful for starters. Meantime, I will put the revised edition somewhere on my reading list.
Copyright 1999-2016 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!