The Paracast Newsletter
February 20, 2022
www.theparacast.com
Former New York Times Reporter Ralph Blumenthal Talks About the Pentagon's UFO/UAP Probe, Abduction Researcher Dr. John Mack 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.
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 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! Use the coupon code ufo20 to receive a 20% discount on five-year or lifetime subscriptions. And PayPal now accepts cryptocurrencies, such as Bitcoin, in payment, so act now! For the easiest signup ever, please visit: https://www.theparacast.plus
This Week's Episode: A very special episode as Gene and guest cohost Tim Swartz present former New York Times reporter Ralph Blumenthal, co-author of the recent series of groundbreaking Times articles. coauthored with Helene Cooper and Leslie Kean, that revealed a secret Pentagon program to investigate UFOs and spurred serious discussions about the phenomenon by politicians, academics, and scientists. He is author of “The Believer: Alien Encounters, Hard Science, and the Passion of John Mack," about the Harvard psychiatrist who investigated possible UFO abductions. Blumenthal also led the Times metro team that won the Pulitzer Prize for breaking news coverage of the 1993 truck-bombing of the World Trade Center.
After The Paracast — Available exclusively for Paracast+ subscribers on February 20: Former New York Times reporter Ralph Blumenthal rejoins Gene and guest cohost Tim Swartz. Blumenthal is a co-author of the series of groundbreaking Times articles that revealed a secret Pentagon program to investigate UFOs. He talks about whether the new UFO probe will bring any breakthroughs in understanding the phenomenon, and also brings up his pet peeve about so-called skeptics that try to debunk sightings without doing any research. For more than 45 years, Blumenthal led an extensive and illustrious career at The New York Times as Texas correspondent and Southwest Bureau Chief (2003-8); arts and culture news reporter (1994-2003); investigative and crime reporter (1971-1994); foreign correspondent (West Germany, South Vietnam, Cambodia, 1968-1971); and metro and Westchester correspondent (1964-1968).
Reminder: Please don't forget to visit our famous Paracast Community Forums for the latest news/views/debates on all things paranormal: https://www.theparacast.com/forum/. Visit our new online shop for great branded merchandise at: https://www.theparacast.shop/, and check out our new YouTube channel at: https://www.youtube.com/c/TheOfficialParacastChannel
UFOs and the Havana Effect?
By Gene Steinberg
So it may have started in Cuba in 2016, or maybe not.
Now it’s not that the U.S. has been terribly friendly to Cuba over the decades since the arrival of the Castro brothers to run things over there. In any case, U.S. personnel present in Havana, including some CIA officers, were struck with a mysterious illness. They’d describe the onset of the symptoms with the sounds of “buzzing,” “grinding metal” and “piercing squeals.”
Symptoms included dizziness and fatigue and they’d last for months. According to published reports, one woman spoke of hearing a low hum and feeling an intense pressure on her skull when it all came down.
At first the media suggested that perhaps people within the Cuban government were pulling a nasty stunt, but since the U.S. was trying to be friendlier, that would surely be a curious way to reciprocate.
It might have ended there as a curious mystery. That is, until reports came from other parts of the world of similar symptoms affecting U.S. diplomats working overseas. One might have thought they were all victims of some sort of intelligence operation.
But why?
There is actually no final answer to what’s going on, although it has been suggested that microwaves may have been used to cause those symptoms, that these outbreaks are all due to some sort of intelligence operation, which would imply a potential act of war.
But would the Russians or Chinese really want to engage in such awful acts?
One question not likely to be asked is whether any of the people who came down with Havana Syndrome saw a UFO nearby before the onset of those symptoms. It sounds outrageous, and it’s not easily checked, unless others who have suffered similar effects report sightings.
But it’s not as if people haven’t been affected physically in proximity to a UFO. Consider the red face syndrome, where some suffer what appears to be a serious sunburn after a mysterious object passes overhead. They made a deal of this in the Steven Spielberg sci-fi classic, “Close Encounters of the Third Kind.”
One of the more notorious episodes of a UFO possibly making people sick is the Cash-Landrum sighting from 1980.
The episode has been covered many times, and I will thus keep my retelling short. Curt Collins, a prolific researcher who is one of our guest cohosts on The Paracast, has spent a number of years studying the case.
So on December 29, 1980, at around 9:00 P.M., three people, Betty Cash, Vickie Landrum and her seven-year-old grandson Colby Landrum, were returning from dinner. They were on their way home in Dayton Texas, motoring on a two-lane road, when they UFO appeared. At first it seemed to be nothing ore than a light flying above the trees in the dense forest. But it soon came close enough for them to see the diamond shape of the huge object.
Unlike most UFOs that are soundless and have no visible means of propulsion, this one emitted flame and plenty of heat. You’d almost think that perhaps it was some sort of conventional aircraft.
The heat effect was real. It made the car real hot, making the metal body almost impossible to touch. The lone physical affect to the car was evidently an imprint on the vinyl dashboard, which appeared in the wake of a hand pressing onto it.
The symptoms evidently appeared right away, all experienced nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, a feeling of weakness, and a burning sensation in their eyes. At the time, it appears they all felt they had sustained a severe sunburn.
Cash appeared to suffer worse from the encounter, as large blisters appeared on her skin. In an interview several years later, Cash claimed to have suffered from cancer due to the encounter with what she described as a “radioactive UFO.” The other two passengers, the Landrums, evidently fared a little better over the years, although the elder Landrum suffered from severe cataracts.
One of the causes was claimed to be ionizing radiation, but there was no final answer. And it’s fair to say that the later illnesses might have had perfectly natural causes.
Other UFO cases with possible physical effects include the Rendlesham Forest encounter in the UK in 1980, where one of the witnesses, John F. Burroughs, claimed to have suffered from heart problems in the wake of the sighting. He had to hire a lawyer to help persuade the VA to pay for his supposed injuries.
We discussed the Burroughs case on the March 1, 2015 episode of The Paracast, where Burroughs appeared with his lawyer, J. Patrick Frascogna. The other guest was Nick Pope, a former UK Ministry of Defence official, who had co-written a book, “Encounter in Rendlesham Forest,” about the case with Burroughs.
Now I’m not about to suggest that Havana Syndrome, and the illnesses suffered by Cash, the Landrums and Burroughs, are in any way related. Again, I’m not aware of any UFO reports that have been presented in connection with the former. That would require retracing the steps at the time the symptoms appeared, and, even then, it’s quite possible nobody was outside or, if they were, even looked up when the strange noises occurred.
Among the suggestions made for the Cash-Landrum and Rendlesham cases include possible test aircraft. Consider the former case, involving a strange aircraft that emitted fire and heat, all sounding quite conventional. Why it would fly above a two-lane road near a small town in Texas is anyone’s guess. It would hardly make sense unless someone got careless.
At least the U.S. government now appears to be concerned about possible human effects in connection with UFO sightings. It is mentioned in the recent press release from Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) announcing that the 2022 Pentagon budget, which includes funding for an office to investigate UAPs.
More obscure, however, are the possible concerns over the so-called “hitchhiker effect,” where a UFO encounter triggers curious and sometimes frightening effects, such as the appearance of poltergeists after a sighting.
But as I said, there doesn’t appear to be any evidence the Havana Syndrome has any UFO connection. But it’s something that probably hasn’t been discussed before and it might be something to look into. I doubt that’ll happen anytime soon, if ever.
Copyright 1999-2022 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 20, 2022
www.theparacast.com
Former New York Times Reporter Ralph Blumenthal Talks About the Pentagon's UFO/UAP Probe, Abduction Researcher Dr. John Mack 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.
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 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! Use the coupon code ufo20 to receive a 20% discount on five-year or lifetime subscriptions. And PayPal now accepts cryptocurrencies, such as Bitcoin, in payment, so act now! For the easiest signup ever, please visit: https://www.theparacast.plus
This Week's Episode: A very special episode as Gene and guest cohost Tim Swartz present former New York Times reporter Ralph Blumenthal, co-author of the recent series of groundbreaking Times articles. coauthored with Helene Cooper and Leslie Kean, that revealed a secret Pentagon program to investigate UFOs and spurred serious discussions about the phenomenon by politicians, academics, and scientists. He is author of “The Believer: Alien Encounters, Hard Science, and the Passion of John Mack," about the Harvard psychiatrist who investigated possible UFO abductions. Blumenthal also led the Times metro team that won the Pulitzer Prize for breaking news coverage of the 1993 truck-bombing of the World Trade Center.
After The Paracast — Available exclusively for Paracast+ subscribers on February 20: Former New York Times reporter Ralph Blumenthal rejoins Gene and guest cohost Tim Swartz. Blumenthal is a co-author of the series of groundbreaking Times articles that revealed a secret Pentagon program to investigate UFOs. He talks about whether the new UFO probe will bring any breakthroughs in understanding the phenomenon, and also brings up his pet peeve about so-called skeptics that try to debunk sightings without doing any research. For more than 45 years, Blumenthal led an extensive and illustrious career at The New York Times as Texas correspondent and Southwest Bureau Chief (2003-8); arts and culture news reporter (1994-2003); investigative and crime reporter (1971-1994); foreign correspondent (West Germany, South Vietnam, Cambodia, 1968-1971); and metro and Westchester correspondent (1964-1968).
Reminder: Please don't forget to visit our famous Paracast Community Forums for the latest news/views/debates on all things paranormal: https://www.theparacast.com/forum/. Visit our new online shop for great branded merchandise at: https://www.theparacast.shop/, and check out our new YouTube channel at: https://www.youtube.com/c/TheOfficialParacastChannel
UFOs and the Havana Effect?
By Gene Steinberg
So it may have started in Cuba in 2016, or maybe not.
Now it’s not that the U.S. has been terribly friendly to Cuba over the decades since the arrival of the Castro brothers to run things over there. In any case, U.S. personnel present in Havana, including some CIA officers, were struck with a mysterious illness. They’d describe the onset of the symptoms with the sounds of “buzzing,” “grinding metal” and “piercing squeals.”
Symptoms included dizziness and fatigue and they’d last for months. According to published reports, one woman spoke of hearing a low hum and feeling an intense pressure on her skull when it all came down.
At first the media suggested that perhaps people within the Cuban government were pulling a nasty stunt, but since the U.S. was trying to be friendlier, that would surely be a curious way to reciprocate.
It might have ended there as a curious mystery. That is, until reports came from other parts of the world of similar symptoms affecting U.S. diplomats working overseas. One might have thought they were all victims of some sort of intelligence operation.
But why?
There is actually no final answer to what’s going on, although it has been suggested that microwaves may have been used to cause those symptoms, that these outbreaks are all due to some sort of intelligence operation, which would imply a potential act of war.
But would the Russians or Chinese really want to engage in such awful acts?
One question not likely to be asked is whether any of the people who came down with Havana Syndrome saw a UFO nearby before the onset of those symptoms. It sounds outrageous, and it’s not easily checked, unless others who have suffered similar effects report sightings.
But it’s not as if people haven’t been affected physically in proximity to a UFO. Consider the red face syndrome, where some suffer what appears to be a serious sunburn after a mysterious object passes overhead. They made a deal of this in the Steven Spielberg sci-fi classic, “Close Encounters of the Third Kind.”
One of the more notorious episodes of a UFO possibly making people sick is the Cash-Landrum sighting from 1980.
The episode has been covered many times, and I will thus keep my retelling short. Curt Collins, a prolific researcher who is one of our guest cohosts on The Paracast, has spent a number of years studying the case.
So on December 29, 1980, at around 9:00 P.M., three people, Betty Cash, Vickie Landrum and her seven-year-old grandson Colby Landrum, were returning from dinner. They were on their way home in Dayton Texas, motoring on a two-lane road, when they UFO appeared. At first it seemed to be nothing ore than a light flying above the trees in the dense forest. But it soon came close enough for them to see the diamond shape of the huge object.
Unlike most UFOs that are soundless and have no visible means of propulsion, this one emitted flame and plenty of heat. You’d almost think that perhaps it was some sort of conventional aircraft.
The heat effect was real. It made the car real hot, making the metal body almost impossible to touch. The lone physical affect to the car was evidently an imprint on the vinyl dashboard, which appeared in the wake of a hand pressing onto it.
The symptoms evidently appeared right away, all experienced nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, a feeling of weakness, and a burning sensation in their eyes. At the time, it appears they all felt they had sustained a severe sunburn.
Cash appeared to suffer worse from the encounter, as large blisters appeared on her skin. In an interview several years later, Cash claimed to have suffered from cancer due to the encounter with what she described as a “radioactive UFO.” The other two passengers, the Landrums, evidently fared a little better over the years, although the elder Landrum suffered from severe cataracts.
One of the causes was claimed to be ionizing radiation, but there was no final answer. And it’s fair to say that the later illnesses might have had perfectly natural causes.
Other UFO cases with possible physical effects include the Rendlesham Forest encounter in the UK in 1980, where one of the witnesses, John F. Burroughs, claimed to have suffered from heart problems in the wake of the sighting. He had to hire a lawyer to help persuade the VA to pay for his supposed injuries.
We discussed the Burroughs case on the March 1, 2015 episode of The Paracast, where Burroughs appeared with his lawyer, J. Patrick Frascogna. The other guest was Nick Pope, a former UK Ministry of Defence official, who had co-written a book, “Encounter in Rendlesham Forest,” about the case with Burroughs.
Now I’m not about to suggest that Havana Syndrome, and the illnesses suffered by Cash, the Landrums and Burroughs, are in any way related. Again, I’m not aware of any UFO reports that have been presented in connection with the former. That would require retracing the steps at the time the symptoms appeared, and, even then, it’s quite possible nobody was outside or, if they were, even looked up when the strange noises occurred.
Among the suggestions made for the Cash-Landrum and Rendlesham cases include possible test aircraft. Consider the former case, involving a strange aircraft that emitted fire and heat, all sounding quite conventional. Why it would fly above a two-lane road near a small town in Texas is anyone’s guess. It would hardly make sense unless someone got careless.
At least the U.S. government now appears to be concerned about possible human effects in connection with UFO sightings. It is mentioned in the recent press release from Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) announcing that the 2022 Pentagon budget, which includes funding for an office to investigate UAPs.
More obscure, however, are the possible concerns over the so-called “hitchhiker effect,” where a UFO encounter triggers curious and sometimes frightening effects, such as the appearance of poltergeists after a sighting.
But as I said, there doesn’t appear to be any evidence the Havana Syndrome has any UFO connection. But it’s something that probably hasn’t been discussed before and it might be something to look into. I doubt that’ll happen anytime soon, if ever.
Copyright 1999-2022 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!