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Your Paracast Newsletter — February 21, 2021


Gene Steinberg

Forum Super Hero
Staff member
The Paracast Newsletter
February 21, 2021
www.theparacast.com


Australian UFO Researcher Sheryl Gottschall Reveals Sightings, Abductions and Near-Death Experiences 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: Gene and Randall present paranormal researcher Sheryl Gottschall, president of Australia’s UFO Research Queensland (UFORQ), one of the oldest research organizations exploring the phenomenon. Starting in the the mid-1970s, she started exploring the field of near death experiences which deepened over the next decade. Sheryl was introduced to the UFO subject in 1980 by her father-in-law who had seen contactee George Adamski speak at Brisbane City Hall in the 1960s. As a child she would watch the stars at night and wonder if life existed elsewhere in the universe, and she read as many books about the 1950s and 1960s contactees as she could find. During the 1990s she became interested in alien abduction and attended a 1992 event in Brisbane featuring abduction researcher, Budd Hopkins. During this interview, Sheryl will focus on her interest in UFOs and also possible near-death experiences.

J. Randall Murphy's Ufology Society International: Ufology Society International (USI) - Explore the UFO Phenomenon

After The Paracast -- Available exclusively for Paracast+ subscribers on February 21: We are rejoined by UFO researcher Sheryl Gottschall, President of Australia's UFO Research Queensland (UFORQ). During this segment, Sheryl talks about such matters as MIB in Australia and the Pine Gap UFO. She also discusses her ongoing interest in UFO abductions. She says that many of the witnesses she spoke with during the 1990s sought hypnosis for their missing time experiences, but she was dissatisfied with the hypnosis techniques used to recall their memories. She wanted to understand hypnosis more deeply, so she completed a course in hypnosis in 2000, and has worked as a professional clinical hypnotherapist since. She explains to Gene and Randall her concerns about the limitations of hypnotic regression and why she doesn't recommend its use to recover lost memories, such as those involving episodes of possible missing time.

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. Check out our new YouTube channel at: https://www.youtube.com/c/TheOfficialParacastChannel

UFOs and Rock and Roll

By Gene Steinberg

I didn’t consider it at the time, but people with a creative bent, such as acting, singing, painting and other pursuits, may just have a greater sensitivity towards encountering paranormal events. Now I say “may” because I’ve not done a proper survey to confirm this impression.

That said, I first considered the artistic connection to UFOs back in the 1960s when I bought a copy of a Jimi Hendrix album, “Axis Bold as Love.” The implications of the lyrics for “Up From the Skies,” might be debatable, and I wasn’t a Hendrix fan, but it was enough to attract me to buy a copy.

I later considered artists and the paranormal again when one of the contributing writers for our magazine, Caveat Emptor, wrote a piece dissecting lyrics from popular tracks of the day. His attempts to find such connections floundered because, frankly, he got some of those lyrics dead wrong. I asked for a revision before I could accept it for publication, and never heard from him again.

So much for trying to be a responsible editor.

In any case, it’s fair to say that a proper evaluation of such possibilities would require far more attention to detail than I can offer, meaning it would involve making a statistical survey of a wide spectrum of artists and comparing it to the general population at large.

Just being a writer wouldn’t count, because a writer can write about a variety of topics having nothing to do with believing in the paranormal. Consider articles by UFO debunkers; they are writers too, as are reviewers of local restaurants, personal computers and washing machines.

But it’s still fun to look at areas where popular artists have made no secret of their interest in the paranormal, and especially UFOs.

So I recall one late night interview featuring 1960’s rocker Tommy James, speaking briefly of his interest in the flying saucers. And from the liner notes for the European version “The Tommy James History,” a two-record compilation of his songs, released in 1970:

“The favourite hobby of TOMMY JAMES is nowadays his interest for flying saucers, or, as they are called in America, UFOs. As he was some time ago in Miami he saw there a flying object with a tail of fire moving a zigzag course in the sky. From this day on he notes down all observations in this field and discusses with his friends the possibilities of extraterrestrial life. He even plans to write a book on these strange phenomenons and he will travel in the near future to Brasil since most UFOs have been observed over there.”

The UFO book from James never arrived, although he did write a book, “Me, the Mob, and the Music: One Helluva Ride with Tommy James & The Shondells,” where he revealed that the record company with which he signed was actually a front for organized crime.

Then there’s that telltale lyric from John Lennon’s recording of “Nobody Told Me” from the posthumous “Milk and Honey” album: “There's UFO's over New York and I ain't too surprised.”

And that’s because he and his one-time mistress, May Pang, actually claimed to have seen a UFO on August 23, 1974 from their New York City apartment.

One of the more obvious UFO connections is contained in the title of a lesser recording from the Carpenters from 1977, “Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft,” with lyrics to match.

The song was written by a rock band from Canada, Klaatu, named after the lead character in the classic sci-fi film, “The Day the Earth Stood Still.”

Wikipedia quotes a member of the band, John Woloschuk, a composer of the song, about its inspiration:

“The idea for this track was suggested by an actual event that is described in The Flying Saucer Reader, a book by Jay David published in 1967. In March 1953 an organization known as the International Flying Saucer Bureau [run by Albert K. Bender] sent a bulletin to all its members urging them to participate in an experiment termed “World Contact Day,” whereby, at a predetermined date and time, they would attempt to collectively send out a telepathic message to visitors from outer space. The message began with the words..."Calling occupants of interplanetary craft!”

And let’s not forget the Foo Fighters, formed in 1994 by ex-Nirvana drummer Dave Grohl. The band’s record label? Roswell.

And Sammy Hagar, for a brief time the lead singer of the rock band, Van Halen, who claimed that a dream about being contacted by aliens was based on a genuine possible abduction experience. But it’s not that Hagar was taken seriously. After all, wasn’t he just another stoned-out rock singer?

The story is recounted in his book, “Red: My Uncensored Life in Rock.” And, despite the possible UFO connection, I really have no interest in reading it, though I admit I might interview him if given the opportunity just to get some clarification on the matter.

Now I don’t know how many of you have a serious interest in the rock band The Troggs, best known for their 1960s hit, “Wild Thing,” but there’s that curious 2002 book from their frontman, Reg Presley, entitled: “Wild Things They Don't Tell Us - Aliens, Alchemy, Government Denials - The Truth is in Here!”

I would have loved to have interviewed Presley to gain a further insight into the book and its background. Alas I did not hear about it until some years later, shortly after Presley’s 2013 death.

Considering its source, the book’s intro conveys a surprisingly logical approach:

“Had someone told me 12 years ago that I wold be writing a book about crop circles, UFOs or anything verging on the paranormal, I would have told them they had more chance of Tony Blair voting Conservative at the next election. However, after 12 years of intensive research into these and other phenomena, I have no alternative but to believe that humanity is on the brink of one of the greatest discoveries of all time. That is a very profound statement to make, and I would not make it if I did not feel I had the evidence to back it up.”

All right, I do have some qualms about some of the people he names as sources of material in the book, such as Ray Santilli and Philip Corso, but at least we cannot blame him for composing his band’s hit record, “Wild Thing,” which was written by Chip Taylor, brother of actor Jon Voight.

I only mention the composer because Taylor was also co-owner of a New York-based recording studio where my wife, Barbara, did some demo recordings in the 1980s.

In any case, people take show business people seriously about lots of things, including politics and even the paranormal. So it’s fitting to mention a few examples of where they’ve embraced our little corner of the world.

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