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Your Paracast Newsletter — July 31, 2022


Gene Steinberg

Forum Super Hero
Staff member
The Paracast Newsletter
July 31, 2022
www.theparacast.com

Explore Out-of-Place Animals, Bigfoot and Pop Culture Issues with Investigator Michael Mayes 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.

THIS IS IMPORTANT SO DON'T MISS OUT! YOU CAN SUPPORT THE PARACAST 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, that accepts major credit or debit cards, Apple Pay and Google Pay. For "qualified users," you can now 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 guest cohost Tim Swartz present Texas-based cryptozoologist Michael Mayes, who has investigated sightings of both out-of-place known animals and those that may, or may not, exist for the past 15 years. The discussion will focus on such topics as the way pop cultural influences have made it more difficult to seriously study Big Foot. Mayes has appeared on numerous podcasts and radio programs and on the television show "The Lowe Files" on the A&E network. Michael blogs at the Texas Cryptid Hunter and is author of the illustrated children's book, "Patty: A Sasquatch Story," "Shadow Cats: The Black Panthers of North America," and his most recent book: "Valley of the Apes: The Search for Sasquatch in Area X." He is also a sitting board member for the North American Wood Ape Conservancy, one of the major organizations that examines such phenomena.

After The Paracast — Available exclusively for Paracast+ subscribers on July 31: Investigator Michael Mayes returns to talk with Gene and guest cohost Tim Swartz about his research into cryptids. He talks of ongoing attempts to elicit sounds from the strange creatures in the woods, and the occasional successes. And what about reports that some of them have allegedly lusted after human females? Mayes has explored cases involving strange creatures — or out-of-place creatures — for over 15 years. He is one of the board members of the North American Wood Ape Conservancy, a key research source for ongoing Bigfoot studies. He has appeared on numerous podcasts and radio programs and on the television show “The Lowe Files” on the A&E network. Michael blogs at the Texas Cryptid Hunter and is author of the illustrated children’s book, “Patty: A Sasquatch Story,” “Shadow Cats: The Black Panthers of North America,” and his most recent book: “Valley of the Apes: The Search for Sasquatch in Area X.”

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Is There Any Value in Reporting Your UFO Sightings?
By Gene Steinberg

When it comes to the UFO mess — I was going to say conundrum, but decided to be fully open about it — it seems we are fated to remain confused. The number of people who have seen strange things in the sky is incalculable. Tens of thousands of cases have been reported. But far more people have seen things and haven’t bothered.

I’ll go with what the late Stan Friedman used to say about asking people about it at his lectures. He’d want them to raise their hands if they believed they’ve ever seen a UFO. I can’t cite precise numbers, but a fair number would do just that.

He then asked how many actually reported that sighting, and as you might imagine, it was very few.

The reasons make sense. People don’t want to seem to be crazy folk, or they don’t really know the right place to call, or maybe they don’t believe it’ll make any difference.

In fact, I’d be very inclined to accept the latter, that the sighting would become yet another statistic that wouldn’t really count towards resolving the mystery. How many similar cases do you need before you have enough evidence that something really strange is going on?

Now I suppose it’s always possible that the next UFO sighting will deliver something significant that will help solve the mystery. But when you look over the thousands of cases already recorded, you have to wonder: What’s the difference between case number five and case number 500,005? If the basic facts are the same, where do you go next?

I suppose it’s promising that the U.S. government has taken it seriously enough to follow through with the latest version of several investigation programs. Evidence is being collected, and evidence is being evaluated, but it’s largely focused on recent military sightings. No effort is being made to explore the implications of UFO reports dating back over 75 years, as if they don’t exist.

Or at least they aren’t saying so.

And we are, of course, regularly reminded that there is no evidence that UFOs represent visitors from another planet? But there is also no evidence that a terrestrial government is engaging in tests that produce such sightings? What constitutes evidence anyway?

The fact that what they call UAPs appear to be engaging in maneuvers that exceed the capabilities of known Earthly technology raises all sorts of questions. Would more research really confirm that the Russians, or Chinese, or Iranians are engaged in testing new generations of drones or other aircraft with which to get a leg up on their perceived enemies?

If it were true that Russia had perfected aircraft of some sort that eluded the maneuvering capabilities of those from other countries, you’d think they’d become of significant part of their arsenal in the stalled conflict in Ukraine. Indeed, the evidence in that country indicates that Russia is behind the curve technologically, one key reason why the war has gone on for months.

Then again, it’s not that the Pentagon would readily admit to a possible offworld origin for UAPs. Even if they knew it to be so, the implications would be vast and they’d have to devise a proper way to consider revealing such a revelation. But by keeping this possibility in the abstract — that they really have no evidence that this is so — they can escape the consequences.

But this doesn’t mean that they really know any such thing, although that is widely suspected by some in the UFO field. The essential theory is that such a thing couldn’t be going on without the authorities being fully aware of it. They have been exposed to too many sightings, too much evidence, not to suspect that something really strange is afoot.

Besides, as science discovers more and more evidence of possible life-bearing worlds out there, isn’t it perfectly logical that one or more of them has spawned an advanced civilization that has perfected some sort of travel across the stars?

So at least there’s a possibility that they might decide to look us up.

Possibility doesn’t mean reality, of course. We can theorize how interstellar travel might be done. Warp drive, the method used in such sci-fi fare as Star Trek, is certainly being studied by physicists, which doesn’t, of course, mean that a workable version can be devised. But it surely made for a good plot device, allowing starships to travel from star to star in a matter of hours, thus focusing more on the interactions among aliens than the actual trip.

Other theories talk of creating virtual cities in space, designed to allow for travel at near-light speeds for decades or centuries. People who joined the crew would be prepared to live out their lives and plan for their descendants to arrive at the final destination. They’d also be one-way trips, meaning that the crew that arrives there would never return to Earth. Besides, after all that time, their families and friends would be long gone, not to mention the civilization that existed when they left.

Another scheme, also widely used in sci-fi fare, would place the crew in a form of suspended animation, remaining in stasis for long periods until they actually reached their destination. To them, minutes or hours would pass. Have breakfast, go to sleep, and awaken for lunch 2,500 years later. Sure, they could return, but what would they return to?

Consider the Rip Van Winkle story, or that of the sci-fi character, Buck Rogers, first introduced in 1929 and featured in comic strips, movies and even TV. The basic plot tells of the protagonist succumbing to a strange gas in a cave, awakening 500 years later into a strange of frightening future.

So if UFOs are truly advanced aircraft from somewhere else, from where do they originate? Could it be humans traveling from some future time to check things out or fix problems that impacted their civilization? If they are visitors from other planets, it hardly matters, at least for the sake of argument, whether their home world exists in this universe or another. The fact would be that they are here.

These are concepts, so far, that would certainly be credible to government researchers, unless, of course, they have already discovered the truth via actual physical contact with our visitors.

But the more exotic theories, such as interacting with a subconscious force or universal consciousness, would be difficult or impossible to convey to government bureaucrats. Besides, what would they tell us anyway if there’s something to tell?

Meantime, if you see a UFO, you have to wonder: Would it make any difference telling anyone outside of family or friends about things they already must know about? It’s so easy to say that you should report your sighting as soon as possible, but if there are no unique elements to describe, the real question is — why bother?

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