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Your Paracast Newsletter — June 12, 2022


Gene Steinberg

Forum Super Hero
Staff member
The Paracast Newsletter
June 12, 2022
www.theparacast.com

Author/Historian Charles Lear Talks About the Always Fascinating Early Days of UFO Research on The Paracast!

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This Week's Episode: Gene and guest cohost Curt Collins present Charles Lear, author of “The Flying Saucer Investigators.” The book is a whirl of history, about the people involved in the mystery of the flying saucers, mostly the investigators, but also the witnesses, some of whom were profoundly affected. The period covered is what has been called “The Golden Age of Flying Saucers,” which begins in 1947, after the sighting that year by businessman pilot Kenneth Arnold, and ends in 1969, with the termination of the U.S. Air Force’s investigation, which existed for most of its duration as “Project Blue Book. Lear’s main interests in the UFO subject are in the documented history the phenomenon has spawned and the people who investigate it, as this book reflects. Charles’ other interests are geology and paleontology and his familiarity with science and its disciplines informs his approach to the UFO subject. He also writes a UFO blog for Podcast UFO.

After The Paracast — Available exclusively for Paracast+ subscribers on June 12: A very special episode in which Gene and author/historian Charles Lear talk with guest cohost Curt Collinsabout his recent article about the curious case of researcher Bill Moore and his impact on the field. Moore was one of the original Roswell authors, as coauthor of the book, “The Roswell Incident” with Charles Berlitz, and, years later, admitted to engaging in government UFO disinformation. Lear has lived most of his life in New York City, where he made his living as a union stagehand and was involved in other aspects of theatre as a playwright, producer, director and Shakespearean actor. He writes a UFO blog for Podcast UFO, and his book, “The Flying Saucer Investigators,” is a whirl of history, about the people involved in the mystery of the flying saucers in the early days starting in 1947, mostly the investigators, but also the witnesses, some of whom were profoundly affected.

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NASA Echos Pentagon UAP Party Line
By Gene Steinberg

Way back when, government flying saucer investigation was mainly the province of the Air Force in the U.S., with what became Project Blue Book handling the chores. Until it wasn’t, after the Condon Report put a damper on the possibility of UFO reality.

To be fair, the report did have some positive evidence about sightings that defied explanation. But the final conclusions ignored those niggling facts. So it gave the Air Force the excuse it needed to shutter Project Blue Book.

That, however, didn’t stop people from having sightings. While it seemed activity had ebbed for a while, I cannot forget the goings on in 1973, when there seemed to be more sightings than ever.

In any case, there was the occasional sputter from the Air Force about UFOs, where they’d attribute the Roswell crash in 1947 to a Mogull test balloon that did not, however, fly on the day in question. They also wrote about crash test dummies being involved, even though they weren’t invented until two years later. Perhaps they meant time traveling crash test dummies.

But when it comes to UFO investigation, the government couldn’t stay away forever. In a 2017 article for The New York Times, a new Pentagon UAP study was revealed, one that was funded with a paltry $22 million grant. The money went to a private contractor, Robert Bigelow, and his National Institute for Discovery Science (NIDS) organization.

In passing, Bigelow made his fortune from a low-end hotel chain, Budget Suites, and had evidently used his free time and some of his money to fund paranormal research. When it came to the government’s investigation, NIDS even contracted with a civilian UFO club, MUFON, for some of its research. It sure seems embarrassing that an organization pledging to fight UFO secrecy and reveal the truth, is taking money from what some regard as the opposition.

In any case, the ongoing Pentagon UAP studies have gone through several generations of musical chairs, and on Tuesday May 17, 2022, a 90-minute Congressional hearing on the matter was held. Unlike other such gatherings, it wasn’t dominated by partisan bickering on the part of would-be performance artists. The participants were dead serious.

But they made it clear that, so far at least, there’s no evidence that the UAP has an offworld origin. So no spaceships, although they continue not to dismiss that possibility.

Unsaid was precisely what evidence would be required to prove UAPs are spaceships. Would it mean physical trace evidence revealing alloys or other materials that could not have been manufactured on Earth? Would it require a captured or crashed spaceship, such as the one described in the Roswell legend?

If Roswell involved a crashed saucer, as many believe, it would mean that such evidence has been here for nearly 75 years. So why would the Pentagon tell us they had no such evidence?

In any case, NASA, the agency in charge of space exploration, has decided to get into the act.

Recently, NASA head Bill Nelson, a former U.S. Senator from Florida, indicated he wanted to get to the bottom of the mystery. In June, the agency announced it was setting up a UAP study team that would begin operations in the fall. Their stated goal was to examine “observations of events in the sky that cannot be identified as aircraft or known natural phenomena – from a scientific perspective.”

Right at the outset, however, the agency repeated the Pentagon assertion, that “there is no evidence UAPs are extra-terrestrial in origin.”

But it’s not as if NASA is unconcerned about the possibility of extraterrestrial life.

Towards the end of its UAP press release, it states:

“Although unrelated to this new study, NASA has an active astrobiology program that focuses on the origins, evolution, and distribution of life beyond Earth. From studying water on Mars to probing promising ‘oceans worlds,’ such as Titan and Europa, NASA’s science missions are working together with a goal to find signs of life beyond Earth.”

Now those hoping for imminent UFO disclosure are surely disappointed. The above paragraph provides an escape valve, that they aren’t looking for ET; they are trying to find out what those sightings are all about.

Nowhere are they disputing the possibility that we are being visited, but, as with the Pentagon UAP study, it’s still not at all clear what sort of evidence they require. I suspect if they don’t have it already, the requirements would be rigorous. It also gives them the excuse that, if it is ever revealed that the ET hypothesis is correct, they can simply state that they never dismissed the possibility. They just needed proof.

For now, they can couch UAP investigations under the fabric of studies to determine if other nations are testing advanced weapons and aircraft, or that some unknown but conventional phenomenon is behind some of those sightings.

The national security umbrella is sensible, and it avoids inviting the more extreme elements of the UFO field into the debate.

On the other hand, I wonder why NASA is getting involved, since there’s already a government UAP study, one under the aegis of the Pentagon. Is it to better handle civilian cases, to siphon such inquiries from military agencies so as to free them from coping with public reports?

There’s a fly in the ointment, however.

NASA’s stated mission is space exploration, not looking after potential national security threats or unknown Earthly phenomena. Despite the disclaimer, it sure seems strange it would get involved in such an endeavor without a wider, unstated motive.

And here’s the obvious wacky theory:

If the U.S. had solid evidence of spaceships, how would they exploit advanced technology? Who’d be responsible, particularly if we had the ability to fly a captured spaceship? Would it become part of our space exploration program, while hiding the true origin of the test aircraft? I suppose NASA could always make the excuse that some sightings are simply tests of possible contenders for future space voyages.

Now some of you suggest I focus too much on pop culture. But don’t forget that one of the most popular sci-fi TV shows, “Stargate SG-1,” was about a secret government agency using advanced technology — the stargate and spaceships — to explore other planets and deal with potential and existing threats to Planet Earth. The military/civilian byplay became a common plot device.

But, no, I don’t think we are running a secret space program at a subterranean base beneath Cheyenne Mountain or a similar location. That would be going much much too far into the world of fantasy.

In any case, I await word of the possible findings from NASA’s UAP project, but I expect very little to come of it.

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