The Paracast Newsletter
February 28, 2021
www.theparacast.com
The Paracast Observes its 15th Anniversary with Veteran Researchers Tim "Mr. UFO" Beckley and Jerome Clark!
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 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! For a limited time, you can save up to 40% on your subscription. Long-term susbcribers will receive a free coupon code for the James Fox UFO documentary "The Phenomenon," which includes 3 hours of extras, while supplies last. So act now! For the easiest signup ever, please visit: Choose Your Membership Upgrade
This Week's Episode: After 15 years, The Paracast is still here, as Gene and Randall present a special episode featuring veteran UFO researchers and authors Tim "Mr. UFO" Beckley and Jerome Clark. The discussion takes us way back to the early days of the UFO field, and how they became lifelong friends in the pages of Ray Palmer's Flying Saucers magazine. Topics include the reasons why people interested in sci-fi often reject UFO believers, and the concept of "event anomalies," and "experience anomalies" to describe the sort of encounters people report. Beckley boasts that he has had "so many careers that even his own girlfriend doesn't know what he does for a living." He has published hundreds of books covering paranormal topics. Clark is best known as author of the sprawling "UFO Encyclopedia." He has also written numerous articles covering "Fortean" topics, and also worked with the late Dr. J. Allen Hynek at the Center for UFO Studies, and as an editor for Fate magazine.
J. Randall Murphy's Ufology Society International: Ufology Society International (USI) - Explore the UFO Phenomenon
Tim Beckley's "Conspiracy Journal": Conspiracy Journal - Unfair and Unbalanced!
After The Paracast -- Available exclusively for Paracast+ subscribers on February 28: Our 15th anniversary episode continues with UFO historian Jerome Clark, author of the "UFO Encyclopedia" and other works. During this discussion, Jerry talks at length about what he regards as the two different forms of paranormal encounters. One is the "event anomaly," which involves seeing physical objects, possibly spaceships. The other is the "experience anomaly," involving episodes of high strangeness that include UFO abductions, sightings of Bigfoot and ghosts and other strange encounters. The latter, he says, exist outside of our "consensus reality." In his "other life," Jerry is also a songwriter whose songs have been recorded or performed by such musicians as Emmylou Harris, Mary Chapin Carpenter, and Tom T. Hall.
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 Experiences
By Gene Steinberg
It certainly appears to be the case that, if you see a strange light or metallic object in the sky, there must be some reality to it. It’s not, after all, as if you are just seeing things that aren’t there.
True, there are apt to be different explanations for what you saw.
So it’s not necessarily a spaceship from another planet. It may be an airplane, a star, a nearby planet. There are lots of answers, and most UFO sightings do have conventional explanations.
It’s those exceptions, which may only account for a small percentage of the total, that add up to a mystery that remains unexplained.
And when the sighting is accompanied by additional evidence, it’s a sure thing, right?
So what about seeing what appears to be the same UFO visually and on radar? Now we’re talking! And what if the object appears to land and leave some sort of trace evidence, such as large impressions in the ground.
A photo or video? Well, if the object is clearly defined — and there aren’t many of those — don’t you have ironclad evidence that something strange is afoot?
Yet the problem is that there really aren’t all that many UFO photos that pass scrutiny. In the early days of the UFO field, some people would engage in mischief, tossing models or crude constructions in the air, or suspending them on thin ropes while camera shutters clicked or video cameras whirred.
Nowadays, you can create really authentic looking movie-grade special effects on an inexpensive laptop computer, and even a tablet such as an iPad. With a little creativity and talent, it may require an expert to discern the anomalies that separate CGI from reality.
It has come to the point where I barely pay attention to alleged photographic or video evidence of UFOs anymore. There’s just too much fakery out there. Indeed, The Paracast once ran an episode featuring someone who managed an apparently profitable enterprise posting fake UFO videos on YouTube. For obvious reasons, the offender shall not be named.
Now when it come to UFOs, a number of witnesses are regarded as skilled observers, such as pilots, military or civilian and police officers.
But what if the UFO experience is more involved than just seeing something strange? What if possible alien beings are seen in connection with that sighting?
One notable example occurred in Socorro, NM way back on April 24, 1964. The witness met the description of a skilled observer, a police officer, one Lonnie Zamora. He reported not just a shiny landed object, but two people or entities beside the craft.
While some effort has been made to find a conventional explanation, such as a possible hoax, a landed lunar module or other test aircraft, it’s still regarded as an unknown. The Socorro UFO has been the subject of books, articles, and film and TV documentary coverage.
Whatever you think of the cause, it surely appeared to be something real.
But what if the beings stop and have a conversation with the witness? What if they invite — or force — witnesses to come aboard their craft, perhaps to undergo sometimes painful physical examinations? Is there a point where what we assume is a real experience amounts to something else?
Veteran UFO historian Jerome Clark, best known as the author of the sprawling multivolume “UFO Encyclopedia,” writes of two types of UFO and/or paranormal encounters. One is the “event anomaly,” the classic UFO sighting where one or more people see something strange but clearly solid and possibly metallic, sometimes engaging in amazing pinpoint maneuvers.
The other, impossibly strange, is the “experience anomaly,” which may also be a genuine encounter of some sort, but it is not something you can ever prove with physical evidence. It may be a UFO, a UFO abduction, Bigfoot or perhaps even a ghost. It is part and parcel of our life experiences, but it involves phenomena that we do not yet understand.
Maybe it’s something that we’ll never understand, but nonetheless is as real to us as any demonstrably physical encounter.
UFO sightings of possibly physical objects are one thing, but when we are dealing with encounters that appear to be outside or beyond what we regard as physical, how, then, can we make sense of it?
Is it fair to just say that things sometimes just happen that we do not and may not ever understand? How can that reflect our day-to-day reality where we rely on our senses to inform us whether what we see is actually there?
Now Paracast co-host J. Randall Murphy speaks about the possibility that all or most UFOs are real visitors from outer space, but what we see may at times be the result of manipulation by the entities who are responsible for UFOs.
So perhaps they are using a form of advanced holography — think about Star Trek’s “Holodeck” — to generate images that may appear perfectly solid to us. Maybe you can even touch one of those UFOs, smell them, hear them, but they aren’t really there. They represent technology way beyond our finest movie special effects.
The question, of course, is why? What purpose does it serve for ET to play around with our senses in this fashion? Are they doing it to determine how we’d react to the presence of visitors from other planets, to see if we are truly ready to meet them “in the flesh?”
Could it be that humanity isn’t ready to see them as they are, and thus they use technology to disguise themselves? What’s the point? Psychological experiments? Treating “primitive” Earthlings as playthings for young ETs or military trainees to learn how to deal with the other species they might encounter in their travels?
Even if they tell us who they are and why they are here, why believe them? How can we presume to understand alien logic or motivations?
Or maybe we are all living in an artificially-generated reality, thus subject to the wills of beings who not only don’t care about us, but may not even be sane in any way that we’d understand. But if it’s all just a highly-advanced video game, one can only hope we’re not on the losing side.
Copyright 1999-2021 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 28, 2021
www.theparacast.com
The Paracast Observes its 15th Anniversary with Veteran Researchers Tim "Mr. UFO" Beckley and Jerome Clark!
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 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! For a limited time, you can save up to 40% on your subscription. Long-term susbcribers will receive a free coupon code for the James Fox UFO documentary "The Phenomenon," which includes 3 hours of extras, while supplies last. So act now! For the easiest signup ever, please visit: Choose Your Membership Upgrade
This Week's Episode: After 15 years, The Paracast is still here, as Gene and Randall present a special episode featuring veteran UFO researchers and authors Tim "Mr. UFO" Beckley and Jerome Clark. The discussion takes us way back to the early days of the UFO field, and how they became lifelong friends in the pages of Ray Palmer's Flying Saucers magazine. Topics include the reasons why people interested in sci-fi often reject UFO believers, and the concept of "event anomalies," and "experience anomalies" to describe the sort of encounters people report. Beckley boasts that he has had "so many careers that even his own girlfriend doesn't know what he does for a living." He has published hundreds of books covering paranormal topics. Clark is best known as author of the sprawling "UFO Encyclopedia." He has also written numerous articles covering "Fortean" topics, and also worked with the late Dr. J. Allen Hynek at the Center for UFO Studies, and as an editor for Fate magazine.
J. Randall Murphy's Ufology Society International: Ufology Society International (USI) - Explore the UFO Phenomenon
Tim Beckley's "Conspiracy Journal": Conspiracy Journal - Unfair and Unbalanced!
After The Paracast -- Available exclusively for Paracast+ subscribers on February 28: Our 15th anniversary episode continues with UFO historian Jerome Clark, author of the "UFO Encyclopedia" and other works. During this discussion, Jerry talks at length about what he regards as the two different forms of paranormal encounters. One is the "event anomaly," which involves seeing physical objects, possibly spaceships. The other is the "experience anomaly," involving episodes of high strangeness that include UFO abductions, sightings of Bigfoot and ghosts and other strange encounters. The latter, he says, exist outside of our "consensus reality." In his "other life," Jerry is also a songwriter whose songs have been recorded or performed by such musicians as Emmylou Harris, Mary Chapin Carpenter, and Tom T. Hall.
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 Experiences
By Gene Steinberg
It certainly appears to be the case that, if you see a strange light or metallic object in the sky, there must be some reality to it. It’s not, after all, as if you are just seeing things that aren’t there.
True, there are apt to be different explanations for what you saw.
So it’s not necessarily a spaceship from another planet. It may be an airplane, a star, a nearby planet. There are lots of answers, and most UFO sightings do have conventional explanations.
It’s those exceptions, which may only account for a small percentage of the total, that add up to a mystery that remains unexplained.
And when the sighting is accompanied by additional evidence, it’s a sure thing, right?
So what about seeing what appears to be the same UFO visually and on radar? Now we’re talking! And what if the object appears to land and leave some sort of trace evidence, such as large impressions in the ground.
A photo or video? Well, if the object is clearly defined — and there aren’t many of those — don’t you have ironclad evidence that something strange is afoot?
Yet the problem is that there really aren’t all that many UFO photos that pass scrutiny. In the early days of the UFO field, some people would engage in mischief, tossing models or crude constructions in the air, or suspending them on thin ropes while camera shutters clicked or video cameras whirred.
Nowadays, you can create really authentic looking movie-grade special effects on an inexpensive laptop computer, and even a tablet such as an iPad. With a little creativity and talent, it may require an expert to discern the anomalies that separate CGI from reality.
It has come to the point where I barely pay attention to alleged photographic or video evidence of UFOs anymore. There’s just too much fakery out there. Indeed, The Paracast once ran an episode featuring someone who managed an apparently profitable enterprise posting fake UFO videos on YouTube. For obvious reasons, the offender shall not be named.
Now when it come to UFOs, a number of witnesses are regarded as skilled observers, such as pilots, military or civilian and police officers.
But what if the UFO experience is more involved than just seeing something strange? What if possible alien beings are seen in connection with that sighting?
One notable example occurred in Socorro, NM way back on April 24, 1964. The witness met the description of a skilled observer, a police officer, one Lonnie Zamora. He reported not just a shiny landed object, but two people or entities beside the craft.
While some effort has been made to find a conventional explanation, such as a possible hoax, a landed lunar module or other test aircraft, it’s still regarded as an unknown. The Socorro UFO has been the subject of books, articles, and film and TV documentary coverage.
Whatever you think of the cause, it surely appeared to be something real.
But what if the beings stop and have a conversation with the witness? What if they invite — or force — witnesses to come aboard their craft, perhaps to undergo sometimes painful physical examinations? Is there a point where what we assume is a real experience amounts to something else?
Veteran UFO historian Jerome Clark, best known as the author of the sprawling multivolume “UFO Encyclopedia,” writes of two types of UFO and/or paranormal encounters. One is the “event anomaly,” the classic UFO sighting where one or more people see something strange but clearly solid and possibly metallic, sometimes engaging in amazing pinpoint maneuvers.
The other, impossibly strange, is the “experience anomaly,” which may also be a genuine encounter of some sort, but it is not something you can ever prove with physical evidence. It may be a UFO, a UFO abduction, Bigfoot or perhaps even a ghost. It is part and parcel of our life experiences, but it involves phenomena that we do not yet understand.
Maybe it’s something that we’ll never understand, but nonetheless is as real to us as any demonstrably physical encounter.
UFO sightings of possibly physical objects are one thing, but when we are dealing with encounters that appear to be outside or beyond what we regard as physical, how, then, can we make sense of it?
Is it fair to just say that things sometimes just happen that we do not and may not ever understand? How can that reflect our day-to-day reality where we rely on our senses to inform us whether what we see is actually there?
Now Paracast co-host J. Randall Murphy speaks about the possibility that all or most UFOs are real visitors from outer space, but what we see may at times be the result of manipulation by the entities who are responsible for UFOs.
So perhaps they are using a form of advanced holography — think about Star Trek’s “Holodeck” — to generate images that may appear perfectly solid to us. Maybe you can even touch one of those UFOs, smell them, hear them, but they aren’t really there. They represent technology way beyond our finest movie special effects.
The question, of course, is why? What purpose does it serve for ET to play around with our senses in this fashion? Are they doing it to determine how we’d react to the presence of visitors from other planets, to see if we are truly ready to meet them “in the flesh?”
Could it be that humanity isn’t ready to see them as they are, and thus they use technology to disguise themselves? What’s the point? Psychological experiments? Treating “primitive” Earthlings as playthings for young ETs or military trainees to learn how to deal with the other species they might encounter in their travels?
Even if they tell us who they are and why they are here, why believe them? How can we presume to understand alien logic or motivations?
Or maybe we are all living in an artificially-generated reality, thus subject to the wills of beings who not only don’t care about us, but may not even be sane in any way that we’d understand. But if it’s all just a highly-advanced video game, one can only hope we’re not on the losing side.
Copyright 1999-2021 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!