THE PARACAST NEWSLETTER
January 24, 2016
www.theparacast.com
An Extended Review of the Possibilities of Synchronicity Featured 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: In the tradition of our recent episodes with Mike Clelland and Walter Bosley, we explore synchronicity even further with Dr. Kirby Surprise, author of "Synchronicity: The Art of Coincidence, Choice and Unlocking Your Mind." Is synchronicity due to some external force, or is it an ability that we all possess? How does it impact the world in which we live, and our own lives? According to his bio, "Dr. Kirby Surprise received his doctorate in counseling psychology from the Institute for Integral Studies. He works in an advanced outpatient program for the State of California where he assesses, diagnoses, and treats clients with psychotic and delusional disorders."
Chris O’Brien’s Site: Our Strange Planet
After The Paracast -- Available exclusively to Paracast+ subscribers on January 24: Gene and Chris talk about how governments bamboozle the public into giving up their freedoms. The focus moves to the political arena, the elections and the crazy and corrupt people running for high office. On both sides of the aisle. When it comes to synchronicity, if we are all generating our own realities? How does it integrate into the whole — do we share a universal consciousness? How does the reflective factor impact our perceptions, and studies, or paranormal events? How do the possibilities of alternate realities enter the picture? On to cattle mutilations, we again cover the possibility that some might be the result of dirty tricks by “Big Agriculture” to put smaller ranchers out of business. Other possibilities include the UFO/alien/occult connection and all its forms, governments conducting environmental tests, or the possibility that some of it is due to mun dane sca venger action.
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.
Filling Seats, Attracting Eyeballs
By Gene Steinberg
When it comes to UFO-related conferences, I got my feet wet back in the 1960s, as a friend/volunteer/staffer for Jim Moseley’s Saucer News. Every month, we’d invite someone to deliver a speech about UFOs and psychic phenomena at a hotel conference room in midtown. I should say a relatively run-down hotel conference room, since Jim ran those events on a tight budget.
Attendance ranged from a few dozen to a few hundred, depending on the guest. I even tried my hand as a guest lecturer on one occasion, and had a decent audience reaction. This came before I embarked on a radio career, so my presentation was a little ragged. Well, maybe more than a little.
In any case, by 1967, Jim decided to go all-out. He had become the “Permanent” Chairman of the National UFO Conference, and made it a major affair with thousands of attendees. He had never managed a business of more than a few people, and hence things quickly got out of hand. While Jim probably didn’t lose any money, he lamented later on that more than a few people got in without buying tickets.
I tried my hand at sponsoring a National UFO Conference in 1975, near Valley Forge, Pennsylvania. While the convention would have attracted a much larger audience had we taken it to Philadelphia, 25 miles away, our budget was too limited. My colleagues and I hoped the historic location might still attract a decent audience. In the end, after receiving a reasonable amount of publicity in the local media, we managed to persuade a couple of hundred to actually show up for the two-day event. All in all, we sustained a loss of $135. I didn’t think it was so bad, but I’ll never forget the sad look on my business partner’s face.
Unfortunately, I was too busy managing things to actually enjoy the proceedings. Some of our attendees even reported seeing a UFO, but my attention was drawn elsewhere due to my responsibilities.
I vowed never to do it again.
But I do admire the perseverance and dedication of those who choose to engage in such ventures. These days, some can be reasonably profitable, while others just manage to cover their costs.
The attendance level at one of these things, however, will never, ever, approach that of a Comic-Con.
Now in the old days, Moseley had a libertarian view in choosing guests. He did not pretend to be running a scientific UFO research organization, and thus often chose lecturers that had views with which he disagreed. There were a few wacky contactees in the mix. After all, they had followings who’d gladly buy tickets. It was very much about having a good time, and leaving as few seats empty as possible.
However, a UFO club that gives at least lip service to taking a scientific approach to the subject — and hoping to educate the public as to the nature of the phenomenon — ought to be at least somewhat circumspect about which guests to select to make presentations. Surely there are enough serious researchers who can attract crowds.
So I continue to wonder about the Mutual UFO Network, MUFON, and its annual symposiums. MUFON claims to be “the world’s oldest and largest UFO phenomenon investigative body.” It claims to apply the scientific method to its research.
At the very least, if one is to take that last claim seriously, you would expect that the lecturers hired to make presentations at their annual conferences and regional meetings would reflect that approach. It’s important to put its best face forward, particularly in an environment where UFOs are usually thought to be the stuff of entertainment, sensational fodder for TV reality shows.
Yet when I examined the lists of presenters at MUFON’s annual “Symposium” for 2015, there appeared to be somewhat of a disconnect. Sure, there are valid differences of opinion as to which viewpoints or investigative approaches will yield factual evidence. But one of the featured speakers, Jaime Maussan, is better known as an entertainer rather than a researche. I’m being charitable, but I was curious to see him listed as a featured speaker only a few months after the “Roswell Slides” debacle, of which he was a key participant, came crashing down. I suppose it might have made sense if he confessed, but still. And please don’t get me started about the roster for the 2014 symposium, which revealed a number of questionable choices.
One of MUFON’s state affiliates once scheduled the notorious Michael Horn, who has devoted his life to promoting contactee Billy Meier, to speak at one of their meetings. Well, at least until they came to their senses — and we mentioned our concerns on The Paracast.
It does appear that MUFON, these days, is more about promotion than about presenting scientific findings about UFOs. The lack of focus is especially evident at the organization’s site, which is massively cluttered. There are so many things to click that you might suffer from a case of vertigo browsing through it.
After 47 years, it doesn’t seem as if MUFON has actually demonstrated any reasonable level of progress in understanding the UFO mystery. It’s still mostly about the promise of spaceships and life from outer space.
I remain tolerant of people like Moseley, who died in 2012. He was more the entertainer than the researcher, and admitted perpetrating a few flying saucer pranks to keep the subject alive.
I’m also inclined to give some slack to other UFO event promoters, such as Open Minds, sponsor of the International UFO Congress. It doesn’t pretend to be a scientific research organization.
Still, the IUFOC has tightened up the rosters considerably over the years. Some might question the presence of Dr. David Jacobs at this year’s event, scheduled for mid-February. But the conference will also feature such luminaries as Nick Redfern, Nick Pope, Chris Rutkowski, Douglas Trumbull, Marc Dantonio and especially Jacque Vallee, who almost never attends or addresses UFO conferences.
Filling seats is important. Costs have to be covered. So I appreciate the dilemma of finding speakers who have a large following and can also deliver factual presentations with reasoned speculation. It’s a difficult litmus test, and I can see where there are legitimate gray areas.
So if IUFOC offers both entertainment and information, that’s all right. It’s not getting near as close to the extremes as another event, in Joshua Tree, CA, which touts its designation as the “Woodstock of UFOs.”
But MUFON claims to be engaged in scientific research, and thus they demand greater scrutiny. Unfortunately, they appear to be tone deaf to such concerns. And don’t get me started about the questionable first season of the “Hangar 1” reality TV show that claims to be based on MUFON’s files. For all intents and purposes, MUFO is a retail business rather than a scientific research body.
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!
January 24, 2016
www.theparacast.com
An Extended Review of the Possibilities of Synchronicity Featured 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: In the tradition of our recent episodes with Mike Clelland and Walter Bosley, we explore synchronicity even further with Dr. Kirby Surprise, author of "Synchronicity: The Art of Coincidence, Choice and Unlocking Your Mind." Is synchronicity due to some external force, or is it an ability that we all possess? How does it impact the world in which we live, and our own lives? According to his bio, "Dr. Kirby Surprise received his doctorate in counseling psychology from the Institute for Integral Studies. He works in an advanced outpatient program for the State of California where he assesses, diagnoses, and treats clients with psychotic and delusional disorders."
Chris O’Brien’s Site: Our Strange Planet
After The Paracast -- Available exclusively to Paracast+ subscribers on January 24: Gene and Chris talk about how governments bamboozle the public into giving up their freedoms. The focus moves to the political arena, the elections and the crazy and corrupt people running for high office. On both sides of the aisle. When it comes to synchronicity, if we are all generating our own realities? How does it integrate into the whole — do we share a universal consciousness? How does the reflective factor impact our perceptions, and studies, or paranormal events? How do the possibilities of alternate realities enter the picture? On to cattle mutilations, we again cover the possibility that some might be the result of dirty tricks by “Big Agriculture” to put smaller ranchers out of business. Other possibilities include the UFO/alien/occult connection and all its forms, governments conducting environmental tests, or the possibility that some of it is due to mun dane sca venger action.
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.
Filling Seats, Attracting Eyeballs
By Gene Steinberg
When it comes to UFO-related conferences, I got my feet wet back in the 1960s, as a friend/volunteer/staffer for Jim Moseley’s Saucer News. Every month, we’d invite someone to deliver a speech about UFOs and psychic phenomena at a hotel conference room in midtown. I should say a relatively run-down hotel conference room, since Jim ran those events on a tight budget.
Attendance ranged from a few dozen to a few hundred, depending on the guest. I even tried my hand as a guest lecturer on one occasion, and had a decent audience reaction. This came before I embarked on a radio career, so my presentation was a little ragged. Well, maybe more than a little.
In any case, by 1967, Jim decided to go all-out. He had become the “Permanent” Chairman of the National UFO Conference, and made it a major affair with thousands of attendees. He had never managed a business of more than a few people, and hence things quickly got out of hand. While Jim probably didn’t lose any money, he lamented later on that more than a few people got in without buying tickets.
I tried my hand at sponsoring a National UFO Conference in 1975, near Valley Forge, Pennsylvania. While the convention would have attracted a much larger audience had we taken it to Philadelphia, 25 miles away, our budget was too limited. My colleagues and I hoped the historic location might still attract a decent audience. In the end, after receiving a reasonable amount of publicity in the local media, we managed to persuade a couple of hundred to actually show up for the two-day event. All in all, we sustained a loss of $135. I didn’t think it was so bad, but I’ll never forget the sad look on my business partner’s face.
Unfortunately, I was too busy managing things to actually enjoy the proceedings. Some of our attendees even reported seeing a UFO, but my attention was drawn elsewhere due to my responsibilities.
I vowed never to do it again.
But I do admire the perseverance and dedication of those who choose to engage in such ventures. These days, some can be reasonably profitable, while others just manage to cover their costs.
The attendance level at one of these things, however, will never, ever, approach that of a Comic-Con.
Now in the old days, Moseley had a libertarian view in choosing guests. He did not pretend to be running a scientific UFO research organization, and thus often chose lecturers that had views with which he disagreed. There were a few wacky contactees in the mix. After all, they had followings who’d gladly buy tickets. It was very much about having a good time, and leaving as few seats empty as possible.
However, a UFO club that gives at least lip service to taking a scientific approach to the subject — and hoping to educate the public as to the nature of the phenomenon — ought to be at least somewhat circumspect about which guests to select to make presentations. Surely there are enough serious researchers who can attract crowds.
So I continue to wonder about the Mutual UFO Network, MUFON, and its annual symposiums. MUFON claims to be “the world’s oldest and largest UFO phenomenon investigative body.” It claims to apply the scientific method to its research.
At the very least, if one is to take that last claim seriously, you would expect that the lecturers hired to make presentations at their annual conferences and regional meetings would reflect that approach. It’s important to put its best face forward, particularly in an environment where UFOs are usually thought to be the stuff of entertainment, sensational fodder for TV reality shows.
Yet when I examined the lists of presenters at MUFON’s annual “Symposium” for 2015, there appeared to be somewhat of a disconnect. Sure, there are valid differences of opinion as to which viewpoints or investigative approaches will yield factual evidence. But one of the featured speakers, Jaime Maussan, is better known as an entertainer rather than a researche. I’m being charitable, but I was curious to see him listed as a featured speaker only a few months after the “Roswell Slides” debacle, of which he was a key participant, came crashing down. I suppose it might have made sense if he confessed, but still. And please don’t get me started about the roster for the 2014 symposium, which revealed a number of questionable choices.
One of MUFON’s state affiliates once scheduled the notorious Michael Horn, who has devoted his life to promoting contactee Billy Meier, to speak at one of their meetings. Well, at least until they came to their senses — and we mentioned our concerns on The Paracast.
It does appear that MUFON, these days, is more about promotion than about presenting scientific findings about UFOs. The lack of focus is especially evident at the organization’s site, which is massively cluttered. There are so many things to click that you might suffer from a case of vertigo browsing through it.
After 47 years, it doesn’t seem as if MUFON has actually demonstrated any reasonable level of progress in understanding the UFO mystery. It’s still mostly about the promise of spaceships and life from outer space.
I remain tolerant of people like Moseley, who died in 2012. He was more the entertainer than the researcher, and admitted perpetrating a few flying saucer pranks to keep the subject alive.
I’m also inclined to give some slack to other UFO event promoters, such as Open Minds, sponsor of the International UFO Congress. It doesn’t pretend to be a scientific research organization.
Still, the IUFOC has tightened up the rosters considerably over the years. Some might question the presence of Dr. David Jacobs at this year’s event, scheduled for mid-February. But the conference will also feature such luminaries as Nick Redfern, Nick Pope, Chris Rutkowski, Douglas Trumbull, Marc Dantonio and especially Jacque Vallee, who almost never attends or addresses UFO conferences.
Filling seats is important. Costs have to be covered. So I appreciate the dilemma of finding speakers who have a large following and can also deliver factual presentations with reasoned speculation. It’s a difficult litmus test, and I can see where there are legitimate gray areas.
So if IUFOC offers both entertainment and information, that’s all right. It’s not getting near as close to the extremes as another event, in Joshua Tree, CA, which touts its designation as the “Woodstock of UFOs.”
But MUFON claims to be engaged in scientific research, and thus they demand greater scrutiny. Unfortunately, they appear to be tone deaf to such concerns. And don’t get me started about the questionable first season of the “Hangar 1” reality TV show that claims to be based on MUFON’s files. For all intents and purposes, MUFO is a retail business rather than a scientific research body.
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!