The Paracast Newsletter
July 23, 2023
www.theparacast.com
Paranormal Researcher Fred Andersson Reveals Incredible Occurrences Across Sweden 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.
WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU HAVEN'T SIGNED UP FOR THE PARACAST+ YET? PLEASE SUBSCRIBE TO THE PARACAST+ SO YOU CAN 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. And if you don't want to use PayPal, we now also offer a second payment option, from Stripe, which accepts major credit or debit cards, Apple Pay and Google Pay. For "qualified users," you can also take advantage of Pay Later options, so act now! For the easiest signup ever, please visit: https://www.theparacast.plus
This Week's Episode: Gene and cohost Tim Swartz present Fred Andersson, a renowned researcher, television freelancer, author, and podcaster in Sweden. With a focus on high strangeness, the paranormal, and UFOs, Fred has carved a niche for himself as an out-of-the-box thinker and explorer of the weird. He is the author of "Northern Lights: High Strangeness in Sweden," which is the first book written in English entirely devoted to the subject of high strangeness, UFOs, and other mysteries in Sweden. While Sweden is known as a secular, rational country where stories of the paranormal are considered something of the past, the truth is quite the opposite. The country has a long history of weirdness, unexplained observations, and eerie encounters, often connected to the countryside, desolate roads, and empty fields. From gnomes, elves, and trolls of the past to UFOs and aliens in modern times, are they perhaps all connected, just different perceptions of the same underlying phenomenon?
After The Paracast — Available exclusively for Paracast+ subscribers on July 23: UFO author/researcher Fred Andersson, author of "Northern Lights: High Strangeness in Sweden," to talk with Gene and cohost Tim Swartz about the Swedish government's skeptical attitude towards UFOs. It's compared to the way the U.S government deals with the mystery. He also talks about possible human effects, strange phenomena that follows a sighting, along with a unified paranormal theory encompassing a host of strange incidents. Another topic: Does paranormal phenomena exist separate from the people who witness such occurrences? There's also a pop culture discussion in which the current strikes of U.S. actors and screenwriters is discussed. With a focus on high strangeness, the paranormal, and UFOs, Fred has carved a niche for himself as an out-of-the-box thinker and explorer of the weird.
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. 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.
Do UFOs Exist Separate from the Witnesses?
By Gene Steinberg
You’ve heard this phrase before: "If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?”
The version of a Wikipedia page citing that phrase contains this statement: “Can we assume the unobserved world functions the same as the observed world?”
But I’m not about to engage in some obtuse philosophical thought experiment here. I prefer to deal with the real world, though nowadays it appears that one’s perception of what’s real and what’s “fake news” can be very inconsistent.
Now it’s fair to say that you can find a number of UFO sightings where one witness sees something, another doesn’t. Or they see something very different.
So I recall a case that occurred when I was maybe 16 or 17 years old. My friend Larry and I were strolling through our neighborhood in the East Flatbush area of Brooklyn, NY. All of a sudden, he pointed to something in the sky claiming he saw a strange flying object. The sky was cloudy, and when I looked up in the direction to which he pointed, all I saw were some circular cloud formations. Interesting, I suppose, if weather forecasting is your bag. It wasn’t mine; I was only interested in how the weather would affect me, particularly when run or snow was in the forecast.
Now maybe I was just trying to be the good friend, but when Larry went around boasting that he’d seen a flying saucer, I just went along with it, despite my doubts. In the scheme of things, it wasn’t a big deal, since he actually made no effort to have it investigated by the Air Force or a local saucer club.
But after a year or two, as my interest in UFOs took over more of my free time, I decided to be honest about that incident.
So one day I explained to Larry that all I saw that day were unusual cloud formations. There were no strange flying objects. He became silent, as we walked towards his home.
I never saw him again; he never returned my phone calls. When I asked our mutual friends about him, they said they rarely heard from him anyway.
This is a case where being a little too honest might have lost me a friend, but if Larry is out there, I suspect he might recall that event and its aftermath. I would be curious to hear his reaction, if he’s still around.
And, yes, I do hear from old friends decades after losing contact with them. Just recently, I got a Facebook message from Dennis Stamey, who had written a few articles for my magazine, Caveat Emptor, in the early 1970s.
As I recall, I had some questions about a few points in one of his submitted articles, so I wrote to him. Remember, those were the days before email and social networks, but I never heard from him again until early July of this year.
Turns out that he has written several books, one of which touches on our paranormal universe: “Mysterious Snipers, Slashers, and Animal Rippers: A History of Paranormal Assailants.” Two of his children are co-authors.
Now this is a subject we haven’t mentioned very often on The Paracast, so Tim Swartz and I invited him to appear on the show sometime in August of this year. I look forward to the episode and, in the meantime, I’ve been catching up with him over what’s happened for the past 50 years.
When it comes to UFOs, Dennis subscribes to a theory that the phenomenon is a manifestation of our collective unconscious. This is the theory presented by noted psychiatrist Carl Jung, as explained in his 1950’s book, “Flying Saucers : A Modern Myth of Things Seen in the Skies.”
Basically, he posited that flying saucers were manifestations of cultural archetypes, and did not, in fact, have an external reality.
This isn’t a unique view. My old friend, David Halperin, a retired religious scholar, subscribes to the same theory citing that original source. Fortean researcher Greg Bishop, an author and researcher who hosts the Radio Misterioso radio show, speaks of a co-creation theory. That means we all work together to produce the flying saucer myth.
Of course, the theory will fall down when one considers a sighting with physical effects, such as impressions in the ground in the wake of a UFO landing. If we are just creating images, how can they leave traces of their presence? The late Ted Phillips spent a number of years exploring such evidence, with a focus on the mysterious events reported in an area of Missouri that he called Marley Woods.
So if we’re just seeing things, how can it leave evidence behind?
What about radar/visual sightings? Can what appears to be a vision be detected on radar? What about photographs, videos?
This doesn’t mean that a collective unconscious isn’t involved. It may just be that the mental powers of billions of people can combine to produce phenomena that we not only see, but sometimes takes on physical characteristics.
Can humans truly concoct something that manifests itself as completely physical, meaning you can see it, touch it, detect it on instruments, and it leaves evidence of its presence when it lands?
Such behavior takes us to the fundamentals of reality. If we are creating the UFO myth, will it exist if nobody is there to see it? Does it depend on one’s physical presence to appear? Is it a manifestation of that thought experiment about silent falling trees?
Of course you can expand the concept of a collective unconscious to include interaction with an external force. Maybe co-creation means that both humans and that external force work together to deliver Fortean events.
But what is that external force anyway? Does it describe the operators of a simulation or universe-wide game in which we all participate? Is that what we consider God?
Indeed, do UFOs appear as they do a response to our cultural memes? Our expectations? If so, what are they trying to tell us?
Copyright 1999-2023 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!
July 23, 2023
www.theparacast.com
Paranormal Researcher Fred Andersson Reveals Incredible Occurrences Across Sweden 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.
WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU HAVEN'T SIGNED UP FOR THE PARACAST+ YET? PLEASE SUBSCRIBE TO THE PARACAST+ SO YOU CAN 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. And if you don't want to use PayPal, we now also offer a second payment option, from Stripe, which accepts major credit or debit cards, Apple Pay and Google Pay. For "qualified users," you can also take advantage of Pay Later options, so act now! For the easiest signup ever, please visit: https://www.theparacast.plus
This Week's Episode: Gene and cohost Tim Swartz present Fred Andersson, a renowned researcher, television freelancer, author, and podcaster in Sweden. With a focus on high strangeness, the paranormal, and UFOs, Fred has carved a niche for himself as an out-of-the-box thinker and explorer of the weird. He is the author of "Northern Lights: High Strangeness in Sweden," which is the first book written in English entirely devoted to the subject of high strangeness, UFOs, and other mysteries in Sweden. While Sweden is known as a secular, rational country where stories of the paranormal are considered something of the past, the truth is quite the opposite. The country has a long history of weirdness, unexplained observations, and eerie encounters, often connected to the countryside, desolate roads, and empty fields. From gnomes, elves, and trolls of the past to UFOs and aliens in modern times, are they perhaps all connected, just different perceptions of the same underlying phenomenon?
After The Paracast — Available exclusively for Paracast+ subscribers on July 23: UFO author/researcher Fred Andersson, author of "Northern Lights: High Strangeness in Sweden," to talk with Gene and cohost Tim Swartz about the Swedish government's skeptical attitude towards UFOs. It's compared to the way the U.S government deals with the mystery. He also talks about possible human effects, strange phenomena that follows a sighting, along with a unified paranormal theory encompassing a host of strange incidents. Another topic: Does paranormal phenomena exist separate from the people who witness such occurrences? There's also a pop culture discussion in which the current strikes of U.S. actors and screenwriters is discussed. With a focus on high strangeness, the paranormal, and UFOs, Fred has carved a niche for himself as an out-of-the-box thinker and explorer of the weird.
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. 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.
Do UFOs Exist Separate from the Witnesses?
By Gene Steinberg
You’ve heard this phrase before: "If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?”
The version of a Wikipedia page citing that phrase contains this statement: “Can we assume the unobserved world functions the same as the observed world?”
But I’m not about to engage in some obtuse philosophical thought experiment here. I prefer to deal with the real world, though nowadays it appears that one’s perception of what’s real and what’s “fake news” can be very inconsistent.
Now it’s fair to say that you can find a number of UFO sightings where one witness sees something, another doesn’t. Or they see something very different.
So I recall a case that occurred when I was maybe 16 or 17 years old. My friend Larry and I were strolling through our neighborhood in the East Flatbush area of Brooklyn, NY. All of a sudden, he pointed to something in the sky claiming he saw a strange flying object. The sky was cloudy, and when I looked up in the direction to which he pointed, all I saw were some circular cloud formations. Interesting, I suppose, if weather forecasting is your bag. It wasn’t mine; I was only interested in how the weather would affect me, particularly when run or snow was in the forecast.
Now maybe I was just trying to be the good friend, but when Larry went around boasting that he’d seen a flying saucer, I just went along with it, despite my doubts. In the scheme of things, it wasn’t a big deal, since he actually made no effort to have it investigated by the Air Force or a local saucer club.
But after a year or two, as my interest in UFOs took over more of my free time, I decided to be honest about that incident.
So one day I explained to Larry that all I saw that day were unusual cloud formations. There were no strange flying objects. He became silent, as we walked towards his home.
I never saw him again; he never returned my phone calls. When I asked our mutual friends about him, they said they rarely heard from him anyway.
This is a case where being a little too honest might have lost me a friend, but if Larry is out there, I suspect he might recall that event and its aftermath. I would be curious to hear his reaction, if he’s still around.
And, yes, I do hear from old friends decades after losing contact with them. Just recently, I got a Facebook message from Dennis Stamey, who had written a few articles for my magazine, Caveat Emptor, in the early 1970s.
As I recall, I had some questions about a few points in one of his submitted articles, so I wrote to him. Remember, those were the days before email and social networks, but I never heard from him again until early July of this year.
Turns out that he has written several books, one of which touches on our paranormal universe: “Mysterious Snipers, Slashers, and Animal Rippers: A History of Paranormal Assailants.” Two of his children are co-authors.
Now this is a subject we haven’t mentioned very often on The Paracast, so Tim Swartz and I invited him to appear on the show sometime in August of this year. I look forward to the episode and, in the meantime, I’ve been catching up with him over what’s happened for the past 50 years.
When it comes to UFOs, Dennis subscribes to a theory that the phenomenon is a manifestation of our collective unconscious. This is the theory presented by noted psychiatrist Carl Jung, as explained in his 1950’s book, “Flying Saucers : A Modern Myth of Things Seen in the Skies.”
Basically, he posited that flying saucers were manifestations of cultural archetypes, and did not, in fact, have an external reality.
This isn’t a unique view. My old friend, David Halperin, a retired religious scholar, subscribes to the same theory citing that original source. Fortean researcher Greg Bishop, an author and researcher who hosts the Radio Misterioso radio show, speaks of a co-creation theory. That means we all work together to produce the flying saucer myth.
Of course, the theory will fall down when one considers a sighting with physical effects, such as impressions in the ground in the wake of a UFO landing. If we are just creating images, how can they leave traces of their presence? The late Ted Phillips spent a number of years exploring such evidence, with a focus on the mysterious events reported in an area of Missouri that he called Marley Woods.
So if we’re just seeing things, how can it leave evidence behind?
What about radar/visual sightings? Can what appears to be a vision be detected on radar? What about photographs, videos?
This doesn’t mean that a collective unconscious isn’t involved. It may just be that the mental powers of billions of people can combine to produce phenomena that we not only see, but sometimes takes on physical characteristics.
Can humans truly concoct something that manifests itself as completely physical, meaning you can see it, touch it, detect it on instruments, and it leaves evidence of its presence when it lands?
Such behavior takes us to the fundamentals of reality. If we are creating the UFO myth, will it exist if nobody is there to see it? Does it depend on one’s physical presence to appear? Is it a manifestation of that thought experiment about silent falling trees?
Of course you can expand the concept of a collective unconscious to include interaction with an external force. Maybe co-creation means that both humans and that external force work together to deliver Fortean events.
But what is that external force anyway? Does it describe the operators of a simulation or universe-wide game in which we all participate? Is that what we consider God?
Indeed, do UFOs appear as they do a response to our cultural memes? Our expectations? If so, what are they trying to tell us?
Copyright 1999-2023 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!