The Paracast Newsletter
February 18, 2024
www.theparacast.com
Folklorist Hercules Invictus Explores the Legends and Myths of Ancient Astronauts, Ancient Civilizations and More 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.
WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU HAVEN'T SIGNED UP FOR THE PARACAST+ YET? PLEASE SUBSCRIBE TO THE PARACAST+ SO YOU CAN SUPPORT THE SHOW AND ENJOY THE ULTIMATE PARACAST EXPERIENCE AT A SPECIAL LOW PRICE! We have another radio show and we’d love for you listen to it. So for a low subscription fee, you will receive access to an exclusive bonus podcast, After The Paracast, plus an enhanced version of The Paracast with the network ads removed, when you join The Paracast+. We also offer a special RSS feed for easy updates of the latest episodes on your device. Flash! Take advantage of our lowest rates ever! Act now! It's easier than ever to susbcribe! For the easiest signup ever, please visit: https://www.theparacast.plus
This Week's Episode: Gene and cohost Tim Swartz welcome back Hercules Invictus. A Lemnian Greek, he's a proud descendant of Argonauts and Amazons. He is openly Olympian in his spirituality and worldview, dedicated to living the Mythic Life and has been exploring the fringes of our reality throughout his entire earthly sojourn. In this episode, Hercules pontificates about folklore, about the possibility that beings from other planets were active in so-called Biblical times. That is, unless an ancient civilization, such as Atlantis, was the home for a race of advanced beings. For over four decades he has been sharing his Olympian Odyssey with others. Hercules also recruits Argonauts and Heraklidae to help him usher in a new Age of Heroes. In the paranormal realm, Hercules currently produces and hosts several podcasts, a YouTube channel. He has also written numerous articles these subjects, and is an active author who has published two e-books on Kindle and contributed to over twenty paranormal anthologies. Hercules frequently conducts Olympian Workshops and serves as a guest speaker on multiple platforms.
After The Paracast — Available exclusively for Paracast+ subscribers on February 18: Folklorist and paranormal researcher Hercules Invictus returns to share with Gene and cohost Tim Swartzhis views on such topics as cryptids and ghosts, such magical creatures as tulpas, and the origins of the ongoing myths and legends about possible gray aliens. Having relocated the heart of his Temenos to Northeastern New Jersey and the Greater New York Metropolitan Area, Hercules has been establishing his unique niche locally and contributing to his community's overall quality of life in any way he can. He also recruits Argonauts and Heraklidae to help him usher in a new Age of Heroes. In the paranormal realm, Hercules currently produces and hosts several podcasts, a YouTube channel. He has also written numerous articles these subjects, and is an active author who has published two e-books on Kindle and contributed to over twenty paranormal anthologies. Hercules frequently conducts Olympian Workshops and serves as a guest speaker on multiple platforms.
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. Visit our new online shop for great branded merchandise at: https://www.theparacast.shop.
Disclosure Going Nowhere
By Gene Steinberg
When the media’s “Old Gray Lady,” The New York Times, published an article December of 2017 about a secret UFO investigation project initiated by the Pentagon, disclosure advocates felt they were about to be vindicated. After all these years of clamoring for “the truth,” their feelings were understandably positive.
Here we had a major metropolitan newspaper, sadly one of the few left, that published a serious article about the enigma. There were no rants about people seeing spots in their eyes, or encountering little green men. This was serious business, and it deserved to be considered seriously.
A little over six years later, just what has changed?
All right, there may be more scientific interest in getting to the bottom of the UFO mystery. One can cite Harvard astronomer Dr. Avid Loeb as a key example in his investigation of the possible manufactured origins for some objects in and from space. But he’s not a Ufologist even though people in the field support his work.
And it’s not the first time credentialed scientists took UFOs seriously. A key example is what is known as the Invisible College, which dates back to the 1960s. The name was used by Dr. J. Allen Hynek, the former Air Force scientific consultant for Project Blue Book, who came to believe that the mystery was worth scientific investigation. He was accompanied by other academics including Dr. Jacques Vallée.
Did they develop any final conclusions? Not exactly, but they strongly hinted at possibilities that were far more nuanced and complicated than the common theory of being visited by extraterrestrials. They didn’t deliver a final solution — far from it — but Hynek and Vallée turned what was regarded as a strictly fringe subject into something serious.
Over the years, other scientists have, mostly quietly, looked into the matter. But they didn’t necessarily have the cachet of a Hynek or a Vallée. And, as you know, the latter is still at it.
But let’s segue to that Times article, because it revealed the existence of a secret Pentagon project to look into UAPs.
The project went through several incarnations — or musical chairs. Today it’s known by the awkward title of The All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office. Or AARO for short.
I won’t attempt to analyze the reasons for that name, other than the fact that it basically hides its focus on UAPs, even though that’s what they are studying.
While the AARO is still around, its original director, Dr. Sean Kirkpatrick has retired from the service. During his tenure, he continued to repeat the mantra about UAP reality that wasn’t dissimilar to Project Blue Book’s posture. In other words, there is no evidence that UAPs represent a visit by extraterrestrials or present a threat to national security.
That never seems to change even if there are reasons to be concerned about some of the actions of UAPs.
The present-day world of UFO research has also brought forth new personalities who have found ways to draw attention to themselves. While there’s nothing wrong with making a living, perhaps along with getting 15 minutes of fame, it’s not that they necessarily have helped make the topic more creditable. It’s not that they have produced any compelling new evidence either.
One example is Luis Elizondo. His bonafides in the military are certainly impressive, being a former U.S. Army Counterintelligence Special Agent and an employee of the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence.
But what put him on the radar was his alleged gig as a director of one of the original Pentagon UAP programs, the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program. While one of the instigators of the original Pentagon program, the late Senator Harry Reid, a former Senate Majority Leader, has vouched for Elizondo, others have disputed the claim about the positions he purportedly held. One of those is John Greenewald, Jr. He’s best known as being responsible for the Black Vault, an online repository of millions of documents related to UFOs and related subjects that were retrieved via Freedom of Information Act requests.
This is one of those topics I am loathe to touch with a ten — or even fifteen — foot poll. In the scheme of things, it probably doesn’t matter so much, other than to negatively reflect on Elizondo’s credibility. But he was evidently responsible for distributing three declassified videos showing UFOs observed by pilots from two U.S. Navy aircraft carriers, the USS Nimitz and the USS Theodore Roosevelt.
While Elizondo hasn’t exhibited a deep knowledge of UFO lore over the decades, he suggests that they might come from another dimension, employing hydrogen to, they say, “warp space time.” He also asserts that the U.S. government may be holding onto “exotic material” from UAPs.
But the claim that one or more governments might have physical evidence of UAPs is nothing new. It’s also nothing new that there’s never any evidence to prove it.
Another curious character that has gained some level of media attention is one David Grusch. He’s a former Air Force and intelligence officer who claimed to have guilty knowledge that the government had a secret UAP recovery program. What’s more, they were holding onto alien spacecraft and their dead pilots.
This all came forth after Grusch filed a whistleblower complaint with the Office of the Intelligence Community Inspector General (IGIC), about his desire to reveal classified information allegedly proving his claim with the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence.
There’s nothing new about such a claim, since others have, over the years, asserted that they possessed secret knowledge that the U.S. government had evidence confirming UAP/UFO reality.
Grusch first came to fame in an article published in Debrief in 2023, as reported by two of the journalists who wrote that original New York Times piece. Leslie Kean and Ralph Blumenthal. As regular listeners of The Paracast will recall, both have appeared on the show.
In retrospect, it appears that the article was rejected by such paper as the Times and the Washington Post.
So where do we go from here? Will Grusch have the chance to reveal the secret details about what he says the Pentagon truly knows about UAPs in a secure setting? He has offered to do so, in a sensitive compartmented information facility, affectionately known as a SCIF.
All well and good, but nobody seems to have offered to take him at his word and set up the SCIF to try to gather that information.
So is Grusch credible? Well, it didn’t help when it was revealed that he suffered from post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) as a result of his military service in Afghanistan. Cited incidents included drunkenness and suicidal comments.
But such symptoms are not unusual for combat veterans. Whether you agree with the wars in which they participated, they should be honored for their service and their sacrifices. Besides, it reportedly didn’t impact his ability to retain a security clearance.
Looking back at this little cast of characters, nothing has been proven so far. Both Elizondo and Grusch have security clearances and secure knowledge that such constraints prevent them from revealing. But do they truly have the goods on the reality of UAPs, or is this all overblown?
Sad to say, it doesn’t seem as if there’s going to be a solid revelation either way. If past is prologue, they will just fade away over time after their 15 minutes have expired. That’s the way it usually is.
Copyright 1999-2024 The Paracast Company. 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 18, 2024
www.theparacast.com
Folklorist Hercules Invictus Explores the Legends and Myths of Ancient Astronauts, Ancient Civilizations and More 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.
WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU HAVEN'T SIGNED UP FOR THE PARACAST+ YET? PLEASE SUBSCRIBE TO THE PARACAST+ SO YOU CAN SUPPORT THE SHOW AND ENJOY THE ULTIMATE PARACAST EXPERIENCE AT A SPECIAL LOW PRICE! We have another radio show and we’d love for you listen to it. So for a low subscription fee, you will receive access to an exclusive bonus podcast, After The Paracast, plus an enhanced version of The Paracast with the network ads removed, when you join The Paracast+. We also offer a special RSS feed for easy updates of the latest episodes on your device. Flash! Take advantage of our lowest rates ever! Act now! It's easier than ever to susbcribe! For the easiest signup ever, please visit: https://www.theparacast.plus
This Week's Episode: Gene and cohost Tim Swartz welcome back Hercules Invictus. A Lemnian Greek, he's a proud descendant of Argonauts and Amazons. He is openly Olympian in his spirituality and worldview, dedicated to living the Mythic Life and has been exploring the fringes of our reality throughout his entire earthly sojourn. In this episode, Hercules pontificates about folklore, about the possibility that beings from other planets were active in so-called Biblical times. That is, unless an ancient civilization, such as Atlantis, was the home for a race of advanced beings. For over four decades he has been sharing his Olympian Odyssey with others. Hercules also recruits Argonauts and Heraklidae to help him usher in a new Age of Heroes. In the paranormal realm, Hercules currently produces and hosts several podcasts, a YouTube channel. He has also written numerous articles these subjects, and is an active author who has published two e-books on Kindle and contributed to over twenty paranormal anthologies. Hercules frequently conducts Olympian Workshops and serves as a guest speaker on multiple platforms.
After The Paracast — Available exclusively for Paracast+ subscribers on February 18: Folklorist and paranormal researcher Hercules Invictus returns to share with Gene and cohost Tim Swartzhis views on such topics as cryptids and ghosts, such magical creatures as tulpas, and the origins of the ongoing myths and legends about possible gray aliens. Having relocated the heart of his Temenos to Northeastern New Jersey and the Greater New York Metropolitan Area, Hercules has been establishing his unique niche locally and contributing to his community's overall quality of life in any way he can. He also recruits Argonauts and Heraklidae to help him usher in a new Age of Heroes. In the paranormal realm, Hercules currently produces and hosts several podcasts, a YouTube channel. He has also written numerous articles these subjects, and is an active author who has published two e-books on Kindle and contributed to over twenty paranormal anthologies. Hercules frequently conducts Olympian Workshops and serves as a guest speaker on multiple platforms.
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. Visit our new online shop for great branded merchandise at: https://www.theparacast.shop.
Disclosure Going Nowhere
By Gene Steinberg
When the media’s “Old Gray Lady,” The New York Times, published an article December of 2017 about a secret UFO investigation project initiated by the Pentagon, disclosure advocates felt they were about to be vindicated. After all these years of clamoring for “the truth,” their feelings were understandably positive.
Here we had a major metropolitan newspaper, sadly one of the few left, that published a serious article about the enigma. There were no rants about people seeing spots in their eyes, or encountering little green men. This was serious business, and it deserved to be considered seriously.
A little over six years later, just what has changed?
All right, there may be more scientific interest in getting to the bottom of the UFO mystery. One can cite Harvard astronomer Dr. Avid Loeb as a key example in his investigation of the possible manufactured origins for some objects in and from space. But he’s not a Ufologist even though people in the field support his work.
And it’s not the first time credentialed scientists took UFOs seriously. A key example is what is known as the Invisible College, which dates back to the 1960s. The name was used by Dr. J. Allen Hynek, the former Air Force scientific consultant for Project Blue Book, who came to believe that the mystery was worth scientific investigation. He was accompanied by other academics including Dr. Jacques Vallée.
Did they develop any final conclusions? Not exactly, but they strongly hinted at possibilities that were far more nuanced and complicated than the common theory of being visited by extraterrestrials. They didn’t deliver a final solution — far from it — but Hynek and Vallée turned what was regarded as a strictly fringe subject into something serious.
Over the years, other scientists have, mostly quietly, looked into the matter. But they didn’t necessarily have the cachet of a Hynek or a Vallée. And, as you know, the latter is still at it.
But let’s segue to that Times article, because it revealed the existence of a secret Pentagon project to look into UAPs.
The project went through several incarnations — or musical chairs. Today it’s known by the awkward title of The All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office. Or AARO for short.
I won’t attempt to analyze the reasons for that name, other than the fact that it basically hides its focus on UAPs, even though that’s what they are studying.
While the AARO is still around, its original director, Dr. Sean Kirkpatrick has retired from the service. During his tenure, he continued to repeat the mantra about UAP reality that wasn’t dissimilar to Project Blue Book’s posture. In other words, there is no evidence that UAPs represent a visit by extraterrestrials or present a threat to national security.
That never seems to change even if there are reasons to be concerned about some of the actions of UAPs.
The present-day world of UFO research has also brought forth new personalities who have found ways to draw attention to themselves. While there’s nothing wrong with making a living, perhaps along with getting 15 minutes of fame, it’s not that they necessarily have helped make the topic more creditable. It’s not that they have produced any compelling new evidence either.
One example is Luis Elizondo. His bonafides in the military are certainly impressive, being a former U.S. Army Counterintelligence Special Agent and an employee of the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence.
But what put him on the radar was his alleged gig as a director of one of the original Pentagon UAP programs, the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program. While one of the instigators of the original Pentagon program, the late Senator Harry Reid, a former Senate Majority Leader, has vouched for Elizondo, others have disputed the claim about the positions he purportedly held. One of those is John Greenewald, Jr. He’s best known as being responsible for the Black Vault, an online repository of millions of documents related to UFOs and related subjects that were retrieved via Freedom of Information Act requests.
This is one of those topics I am loathe to touch with a ten — or even fifteen — foot poll. In the scheme of things, it probably doesn’t matter so much, other than to negatively reflect on Elizondo’s credibility. But he was evidently responsible for distributing three declassified videos showing UFOs observed by pilots from two U.S. Navy aircraft carriers, the USS Nimitz and the USS Theodore Roosevelt.
While Elizondo hasn’t exhibited a deep knowledge of UFO lore over the decades, he suggests that they might come from another dimension, employing hydrogen to, they say, “warp space time.” He also asserts that the U.S. government may be holding onto “exotic material” from UAPs.
But the claim that one or more governments might have physical evidence of UAPs is nothing new. It’s also nothing new that there’s never any evidence to prove it.
Another curious character that has gained some level of media attention is one David Grusch. He’s a former Air Force and intelligence officer who claimed to have guilty knowledge that the government had a secret UAP recovery program. What’s more, they were holding onto alien spacecraft and their dead pilots.
This all came forth after Grusch filed a whistleblower complaint with the Office of the Intelligence Community Inspector General (IGIC), about his desire to reveal classified information allegedly proving his claim with the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence.
There’s nothing new about such a claim, since others have, over the years, asserted that they possessed secret knowledge that the U.S. government had evidence confirming UAP/UFO reality.
Grusch first came to fame in an article published in Debrief in 2023, as reported by two of the journalists who wrote that original New York Times piece. Leslie Kean and Ralph Blumenthal. As regular listeners of The Paracast will recall, both have appeared on the show.
In retrospect, it appears that the article was rejected by such paper as the Times and the Washington Post.
So where do we go from here? Will Grusch have the chance to reveal the secret details about what he says the Pentagon truly knows about UAPs in a secure setting? He has offered to do so, in a sensitive compartmented information facility, affectionately known as a SCIF.
All well and good, but nobody seems to have offered to take him at his word and set up the SCIF to try to gather that information.
So is Grusch credible? Well, it didn’t help when it was revealed that he suffered from post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) as a result of his military service in Afghanistan. Cited incidents included drunkenness and suicidal comments.
But such symptoms are not unusual for combat veterans. Whether you agree with the wars in which they participated, they should be honored for their service and their sacrifices. Besides, it reportedly didn’t impact his ability to retain a security clearance.
Looking back at this little cast of characters, nothing has been proven so far. Both Elizondo and Grusch have security clearances and secure knowledge that such constraints prevent them from revealing. But do they truly have the goods on the reality of UAPs, or is this all overblown?
Sad to say, it doesn’t seem as if there’s going to be a solid revelation either way. If past is prologue, they will just fade away over time after their 15 minutes have expired. That’s the way it usually is.
Copyright 1999-2024 The Paracast Company. 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!