THE PARACAST NEWSLETTER
July 2, 2017
www.theparacast.com
The Paracast Explores the Amazing Life of Dr. J. Allen Hynek
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 we’d love for you listen to it. So for a low subscription fee, you will receive access to After The Paracast, plus a higher-quality version of The Paracast free of network ads, and chat rooms when you sign up for The Paracast+. We also offer a special RSS feed for easy updates of the latest episodes, the Paracast+ Video Channel, episode transcripts, Special Features, Classic Episodes and there’s more to come! We’ve just begun to add podcasts and videos from Paul Kimball’s “Other Side of Truth.” Check out our new lower rates, starting at just $1.49 per week, plus our “Lifetime” membership and special free print and eBook book offers! For more information about our premium package, please visit: https://plus.theparacast.com/.
This Week's Episode: Gene and guest co-host Curt Collins present Mark O’Connell, author of “The Close Encounters Man: How One Man Made the World Believe in UFOs,” a biography of Dr. J. Allen Hynek. You’ll learn about the amazing personal history of a scientist who, at first, tried hard to dismiss the possibility that UFOs were real, but eventually discovered, by the weight of the evidence, that there was something real behind this phenomenon. During this episode, Gene will discuss the time he introduced Dr. Hynek to best-seeing author Charles Berlitz. And just how much money did Dr. Hynek receive for the work he did on Steven Spielberg’s sci-fi classic, “Close Encounters of the Third Kind?”
Chris O’Brien’s Blog: Our Strange Planet
Curt Collins’ Blog: Blue Blurry Lines
Mark O’Connell’s Blog: High Strangeness
After The Paracast -- Available exclusively to Paracast+ subscribers on July 2: Gene is joined by special guests Greg Bishop of “Radio Misterioso” and filmmaker Paul Kimball for a wide-ranging discussion. It starts with the trials and tribulations of book publishing and print-on-demand books, as Greg and Paul offer their own insights. There’s also a response to the question posed in Mark O’Connell’s biography on Dr. J. Allen Hynek, whether he really made the world believe in UFOs. MUFON’s recent scandals are also on the agenda, along with a question: How much money does it take for MUFON to shed its principles?
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: The Official Paracast Channel
Is the Day of the UFO Group Gone?
By Gene Steinberg
Over the years, a number of organizations have arisen to supposedly investigate and report on unidentified flying objects. They range from clubs consisting of a handful of teenagers on a quest for discovery — or to meet some friends — to full-blown organizations with offices and a paid staff.
I suppose I once fit into the former category. An overweight kid from Brooklyn (I lost the extra weight by the time I was 18 and never looked back!), I didn’t have too many close friends. There were two who professed an interest in flying saucers. One, Ken Alpert, lived just down the street from me, until my family moved to larger quarters when I was in my early teens. The other friend, Marty Salkind, cemented our friendship one day when he displayed a copy of “The Case for the UFO” by M.K. Jessup. Right then and there, I knew he was one of us.
In order to get the word out about our little club, I sent an announcement to the Flying Saucer Club News section of Ray Palmer’s Flying Saucers magazine. In those days, it was the best way for small UFO groups to publicize their activities, and I made several new friends along the way, including Jerome Clark, Allen Greenfield and Rick Hilberg.
One friend lived in New Jersey, and he had his own club that he offered to merge with mine. Well, I took trains and buses to get to his home, and we spent a pleasant afternoon talking about the saucers and setting things up for this new combined organization.
It didn’t work out so well. Out of the blue, my supposed friend turned on me and decided to go out on his own. I never understood why. Perhaps it was an ego issue, that he didn’t want to cede control, or attention, to somebody else.
Regardless, we went our separate ways, and he sent a notice to his few dozen members about his great march towards independence.
I won’t embarrass him by mentioning his name. Even if he is still among the living, one’s youthful follies shouldn’t follow you throughout your life. After all, this was just about a hobby.
Days after my 18th birthday, Ken Alpert and I went to sci-fi convention in Washington, D.C. There we met a printer from New York who quoted me a great rate to print our little magazine, “UFO Reporter.” So it was time to retire the mimeograph machine and deliver a professional publication.
But we didn’t add up the financials so carefully. I was losing money fast, and my parents weren’t very happy about it. So one day I offered to turn over my few hundred subscribers to Jim Moseley, and he’d fulfill their remaining subscriptions through Saucer News. I even got myself a part-time job at his tiny Fifth Avenue office, the better to help finance my education and set aside a small sum for travel and savings.
So I had, in my own modest way, experienced the usual lifecycle of a hobbyist club. Whether it was about flying saucers, sci-fi, or a ton of other subjects, it often starts with a few people coming together. There’s an effort to expand the membership. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t, and along the way you have to deal with personalities that, for many reasons, don’t quite mesh with your own.
Such conflicts can result in arguments, and they may be severe enough to result in a breakup. Some will go their separate ways, some will just give up, while others will form their own clubs and move on.
In keeping with this age-old tradition, MUFON started off by splitting off from the Aerial Phenomena Research Organization (APRO). MUFON’s original founders included Walter H. Andrus and John Schuessler; they created the Midwest UFO Network in May of 1969. They switched from “Midwest” to “Mutual” a few years later, to better convey the image of a group that had expended to a national, or global, audience.
Since I wasn’t there, I won’t consider what made these people decide to go out on their own. But my own encounters with APRO’s international director, Coral Lorenzen, weren’t very pleasant. She came across, to me at least, as crusty and vindictive for several reasons, and I was not alone. Let’s leave it there, because APRO did a lot of good work over the years.
You see, they actually engaged in investigating UFOs, not just collecting reports, which takes us to MUFON.
Most of you have heard about the latest dustups involving MUFON. After some protest, a State Director was at least partly discharged after posting racist comments in a Facebook post. I won’t repeat his name — you probably know who — because he doesn’t deserve the publicity.
Unfortunately, it doesn’t appear as if he has totally severed his ties to MUFON, evidently because he’s part of the group’s Inner Circle. To become a member, you must buy access by contributing $5,000 annually.
Four directors of MUFON, Clifford Clift, David MacDonald, John Schuessler and, at present, Jan C. Harzan, are Inner Circle members. Does that mean they all bought their way to the leadership of the organization? Not Schuessler, who was there at the beginning, but what about the rest?
Shouldn’t attaining a leadership position in MUFON depend on one’s abilities and commitment to the cause of UFO research? Why should it depend on one’s ability to send generous annual donations? To be fair, even if these people didn’t secure their positions as the result of how much money they donated, the optics are bad.
I’m not saying that they weren’t capable of doing their jobs. All but Schuessler have been interviewed on The Paracast, and they were personable and knowledgeable. But the odds seem curious. There are 13 members of the Inner Circle, and four have led MUFON.
Oh, and by the way, the individual who made those hate-filled comments is still listed. I obviously have no way of knowing how much money he gave MUFON over the years. But what sort of message does the group convey in accepting that money? Isn’t MUFON is large enough to sustain itself without accepting funding from people who evince questionable behavior?
But I’m not about to tell MUFON how to organize its finances. I’m more interested in the end result, and I am concerned when one of its annual symposiums focuses not on UFO research, but on the alleged secret space program, featuring speakers who occupy the fringes of UFO research.
MUFON claims to be engaged in the scientific research of UFOs. Over the years, it has certainly collected a huge number of sightings. But when does research actually begin? I am also troubled about Jan Harzan’s statement, on a recent Paracast appearance, that he was rooting for the ET answer.
So is it time for some people at MUFON to split from the organization and try again? Is such an organizational structure even conducive to doing productive UFO research, or is it more about helping a group live long and prosper?
Copyright 1999-2017 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!
July 2, 2017
www.theparacast.com
The Paracast Explores the Amazing Life of Dr. J. Allen Hynek
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 we’d love for you listen to it. So for a low subscription fee, you will receive access to After The Paracast, plus a higher-quality version of The Paracast free of network ads, and chat rooms when you sign up for The Paracast+. We also offer a special RSS feed for easy updates of the latest episodes, the Paracast+ Video Channel, episode transcripts, Special Features, Classic Episodes and there’s more to come! We’ve just begun to add podcasts and videos from Paul Kimball’s “Other Side of Truth.” Check out our new lower rates, starting at just $1.49 per week, plus our “Lifetime” membership and special free print and eBook book offers! For more information about our premium package, please visit: https://plus.theparacast.com/.
This Week's Episode: Gene and guest co-host Curt Collins present Mark O’Connell, author of “The Close Encounters Man: How One Man Made the World Believe in UFOs,” a biography of Dr. J. Allen Hynek. You’ll learn about the amazing personal history of a scientist who, at first, tried hard to dismiss the possibility that UFOs were real, but eventually discovered, by the weight of the evidence, that there was something real behind this phenomenon. During this episode, Gene will discuss the time he introduced Dr. Hynek to best-seeing author Charles Berlitz. And just how much money did Dr. Hynek receive for the work he did on Steven Spielberg’s sci-fi classic, “Close Encounters of the Third Kind?”
Chris O’Brien’s Blog: Our Strange Planet
Curt Collins’ Blog: Blue Blurry Lines
Mark O’Connell’s Blog: High Strangeness
After The Paracast -- Available exclusively to Paracast+ subscribers on July 2: Gene is joined by special guests Greg Bishop of “Radio Misterioso” and filmmaker Paul Kimball for a wide-ranging discussion. It starts with the trials and tribulations of book publishing and print-on-demand books, as Greg and Paul offer their own insights. There’s also a response to the question posed in Mark O’Connell’s biography on Dr. J. Allen Hynek, whether he really made the world believe in UFOs. MUFON’s recent scandals are also on the agenda, along with a question: How much money does it take for MUFON to shed its principles?
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: The Official Paracast Channel
Is the Day of the UFO Group Gone?
By Gene Steinberg
Over the years, a number of organizations have arisen to supposedly investigate and report on unidentified flying objects. They range from clubs consisting of a handful of teenagers on a quest for discovery — or to meet some friends — to full-blown organizations with offices and a paid staff.
I suppose I once fit into the former category. An overweight kid from Brooklyn (I lost the extra weight by the time I was 18 and never looked back!), I didn’t have too many close friends. There were two who professed an interest in flying saucers. One, Ken Alpert, lived just down the street from me, until my family moved to larger quarters when I was in my early teens. The other friend, Marty Salkind, cemented our friendship one day when he displayed a copy of “The Case for the UFO” by M.K. Jessup. Right then and there, I knew he was one of us.
In order to get the word out about our little club, I sent an announcement to the Flying Saucer Club News section of Ray Palmer’s Flying Saucers magazine. In those days, it was the best way for small UFO groups to publicize their activities, and I made several new friends along the way, including Jerome Clark, Allen Greenfield and Rick Hilberg.
One friend lived in New Jersey, and he had his own club that he offered to merge with mine. Well, I took trains and buses to get to his home, and we spent a pleasant afternoon talking about the saucers and setting things up for this new combined organization.
It didn’t work out so well. Out of the blue, my supposed friend turned on me and decided to go out on his own. I never understood why. Perhaps it was an ego issue, that he didn’t want to cede control, or attention, to somebody else.
Regardless, we went our separate ways, and he sent a notice to his few dozen members about his great march towards independence.
I won’t embarrass him by mentioning his name. Even if he is still among the living, one’s youthful follies shouldn’t follow you throughout your life. After all, this was just about a hobby.
Days after my 18th birthday, Ken Alpert and I went to sci-fi convention in Washington, D.C. There we met a printer from New York who quoted me a great rate to print our little magazine, “UFO Reporter.” So it was time to retire the mimeograph machine and deliver a professional publication.
But we didn’t add up the financials so carefully. I was losing money fast, and my parents weren’t very happy about it. So one day I offered to turn over my few hundred subscribers to Jim Moseley, and he’d fulfill their remaining subscriptions through Saucer News. I even got myself a part-time job at his tiny Fifth Avenue office, the better to help finance my education and set aside a small sum for travel and savings.
So I had, in my own modest way, experienced the usual lifecycle of a hobbyist club. Whether it was about flying saucers, sci-fi, or a ton of other subjects, it often starts with a few people coming together. There’s an effort to expand the membership. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t, and along the way you have to deal with personalities that, for many reasons, don’t quite mesh with your own.
Such conflicts can result in arguments, and they may be severe enough to result in a breakup. Some will go their separate ways, some will just give up, while others will form their own clubs and move on.
In keeping with this age-old tradition, MUFON started off by splitting off from the Aerial Phenomena Research Organization (APRO). MUFON’s original founders included Walter H. Andrus and John Schuessler; they created the Midwest UFO Network in May of 1969. They switched from “Midwest” to “Mutual” a few years later, to better convey the image of a group that had expended to a national, or global, audience.
Since I wasn’t there, I won’t consider what made these people decide to go out on their own. But my own encounters with APRO’s international director, Coral Lorenzen, weren’t very pleasant. She came across, to me at least, as crusty and vindictive for several reasons, and I was not alone. Let’s leave it there, because APRO did a lot of good work over the years.
You see, they actually engaged in investigating UFOs, not just collecting reports, which takes us to MUFON.
Most of you have heard about the latest dustups involving MUFON. After some protest, a State Director was at least partly discharged after posting racist comments in a Facebook post. I won’t repeat his name — you probably know who — because he doesn’t deserve the publicity.
Unfortunately, it doesn’t appear as if he has totally severed his ties to MUFON, evidently because he’s part of the group’s Inner Circle. To become a member, you must buy access by contributing $5,000 annually.
Four directors of MUFON, Clifford Clift, David MacDonald, John Schuessler and, at present, Jan C. Harzan, are Inner Circle members. Does that mean they all bought their way to the leadership of the organization? Not Schuessler, who was there at the beginning, but what about the rest?
Shouldn’t attaining a leadership position in MUFON depend on one’s abilities and commitment to the cause of UFO research? Why should it depend on one’s ability to send generous annual donations? To be fair, even if these people didn’t secure their positions as the result of how much money they donated, the optics are bad.
I’m not saying that they weren’t capable of doing their jobs. All but Schuessler have been interviewed on The Paracast, and they were personable and knowledgeable. But the odds seem curious. There are 13 members of the Inner Circle, and four have led MUFON.
Oh, and by the way, the individual who made those hate-filled comments is still listed. I obviously have no way of knowing how much money he gave MUFON over the years. But what sort of message does the group convey in accepting that money? Isn’t MUFON is large enough to sustain itself without accepting funding from people who evince questionable behavior?
But I’m not about to tell MUFON how to organize its finances. I’m more interested in the end result, and I am concerned when one of its annual symposiums focuses not on UFO research, but on the alleged secret space program, featuring speakers who occupy the fringes of UFO research.
MUFON claims to be engaged in the scientific research of UFOs. Over the years, it has certainly collected a huge number of sightings. But when does research actually begin? I am also troubled about Jan Harzan’s statement, on a recent Paracast appearance, that he was rooting for the ET answer.
So is it time for some people at MUFON to split from the organization and try again? Is such an organizational structure even conducive to doing productive UFO research, or is it more about helping a group live long and prosper?
Copyright 1999-2017 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!