THE PARACAST NEWSLETTER
June 23, 2012
What Does the Government Know About Strange Relics and Other Mysteries?
Special Announcement: The Paracast is heard Sundays from 2:00 AM until 5:00 AM Central Time on the GCN Radio Network and affiliates around the USA, and online across the globe via download and on-demand streaming.
Here's Why We're Requesting a Donation to The Paracast: Although ads help cover a small part of our expenses, the income they produce is never enough. Also, we do not receive any revenue from the ads placed on the show by our network or local stations. So we hope you're able to help fill the gap if you can to help us cover increasing server costs and other expenses -- or perhaps provide a little extra cash for lunch. No contribution is too small (or too large
. We have a Donate link on our home page, below the logo and audio player. There's also a Donate link on our forums, at the bottom of the sidebar on the right. Or just send your PayPal donation direct to sales (at) theparacast (dot) com.
Attention U.S. Listeners: Help Us Bring The Paracast to Your City! In the summer of 2010, The Paracast joined the GCN radio network. This represented a huge step in bringing our show to a larger, mainstream audience. But we need your help to add additional affiliates to our growing network. Please ask one of your local talk stations if they are interested in carrying The Paracast. Feel free to contact us directly with the names of programming people we might be able to contact on your behalf. We can't do this alone, and if you succeed in convincing your local station to carry the show, we'll reward you with one of our special T-shirts, and other goodies. With your help, The Paracast can grow into one of the most popular paranormal shows on the planet!
Please Visit Our Brand New Online Store: You asked, and we answered. We are now taking orders for The Official Paracast T-Shirt and an expanded collection of other specially customized merchandise. To get your T-Shirt now featuring our brand new logo, just pay a visit to our online store at The Official Paracast Store to select your size and place your order. We also offer a complete lineup of other premium merchandise for your family, your friends and your business contacts.
Sunday, June 24, 2012: The Paracast covers a world beyond science, where UFOs, poltergeists and strange phenomena of all kinds have been reported by millions across the planet.
Set Up: The Paracast is a paranormal radio show that takes you on a journey to a world beyond science, where UFOs, poltergeists and strange phenomena of all kinds have been reported by millions. The Paracast seeks to shed light on the mysteries and complexities of our Universe and the secrets that surround us in our everyday lives.
Join long-time paranormal researcher Gene Steinberg, co-host and acclaimed field investigator Christopher O'Brien, and a panel of special guest experts and experiencers, as they explore the realms of the known and unknown. Listen each week to the great stories of the history of the paranormal field in the 20th and 21st centuries.
This Week's Episode: On the anniversary of the fabled sighting of nine disc shaped objects by Kenneth Arnold in 1947, Nick Redfern returns to discuss his new book: "The Pyramids and the Pentagon: The Government's Top Secret Pursuit of Mystical Relics, Ancient Astronauts, and Lost Civilizations." Explore ancient artifacts, the faces on Mars, crop circles and other mysteries the Pentagon may or may not know about.
Christopher O'Brien's Site: Our Strange Planet
Nick Redfern's Blog: Nick Redfern's World of Whatever...
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. We recently completed a major update that makes our community easier to navigate, and social network friendly.
The Many Shapes of ET
By Gene Steinberg
If you are a fan of sci-fi, you’ll note that extraterrestrials have taken on all sorts of shapes and sizes – and some are even invisible. Where the aliens mean us harm, authors and movie-makers usually want them to be ugly, since their acts are terrifying, though I suppose evil human-like aliens might be an even more frightening concept.
Now in the popcorn flick “Independence Day,” we are invaded by giant locust-like beings who take their entire civilization in a huge mother ship from planet to planet to plunder natural resources, including the local populace, and move on. Again ugly creatures are doing ugly deeds.
The cable TV show, “Falling Skies,” depicts two types of beings. One seems to resemble large crustaceans, while taller creatures, perhaps their masters, are humanoid in shape. The aliens in “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” are largely derived from the reports of “grays” seen in connection with actual reports of UFO encounters, and they appear benevolent.
In the “Star Trek” universe, most of the intelligent species depicted were human-like, often with thick protrusions on their heads, or oddly-shaped ears to make them seem alien. Some are shape shifters, able to assume any convenient form in order to seem more acceptable to us. Yes, more bizarre aliens were depicted from time to time, but the budget limitations of the original TV series made it far more convenient to just put a little makeup on an actor and declare him or her an alien.
In the movie version of Carl Sagan’s “Contact” the protagonist portrayed by Jodie Foster meets ET in the form of her late father. The being she encounters believes that it will be more acceptable to humans that way. This raises the possibility that the beings seen in connection with flying saucer reports may also present themselves in more traditional forms, in keeping with popular culture perhaps. So they are grays of short stature, or tall humans with Nordic features. But it’s not their true shape.
With the growing number of potential Earth-like planets discovered in the galaxy, scientists are no doubt wondering what sort of life forms might arise. Would they take on a human or near-human form? What about insects, since they seem to be the forms of life have managed to live long and prosper even in very extreme conditions. Certainly some of the beings reported in UFO cases have, while somewhat human, assumed some insect-like characteristics.
Obviously, until there is a 100% provable case of ET contact, it’s hard to know what we might be up against. Now when I say “100% provable,” I mean a close encounter that believers and skeptics alike would be forced to agree is genuine. While there are loads of contact cases to investigate, it’s hard to know whether the creatures seen in or about those UFOs are presenting themselves in their true form. Or even that we are able to perceive them in their true form.
Now consider the dilemma of possible alien visitors who pay us a visit. Would they even want to communicate with the local populace? Would they, as in the “Star Trek” universe, have some sort of code of ethics that prevents them from interfering with the local populace, and if they do make contact, present themselves as members of the indigenous population? Even if they did contact humans, would they even reveal their true motives for being here, or just tell us what they think we want to hear, or what they deem appropriate.
Certainly it’s a mistake to assume that an advanced species is necessarily benevolent, even if they chose to portray themselves as peaceful. Would it make sense for an alien to tell an Earthling, “We are here to conquer you, so prepare to surrender”? More than likely, they’d pretend to be friendly, and merely communicate with us to gather intelligence, or even tissue samples. How would you know? Yes, I realize that there are people who claim to have met friendly aliens, who convey expressions of love and peace. But why should we believe such creatures?
It may even be that some aliens wouldn’t have any interest in visiting another world in person. They would simply send image projections, while experiencing everything in a sort of virtual reality. We can see those projections, perhaps even touch and smell the holographic image. Consider the “Star Trek” “holodeck” concept, about a computer program that generated a simulated reality that was so close to the real thing, you couldn’t tell the difference. In fact, one “Star Trek” series, “Voyager,” featured a ship’s medical officer that was himself a hologram, because they didn’t have a physical one available.
Under such conditions, your senses would tell you that you are seeing something that is absolutely real, even though it is nothing more than a simulation. It may also be possible that the UFOs that are seen are actually holographic projections designed to divert our attention from the real activities of the aliens, whatever they may be. Here they are using their own variations of a traditional magician’s misdirection techniques. Again, how could we possibly know?
Sure, I’d love to meet up with an extraterrestrial that looked very much like us, and could communicate in English. It would be comforting, regardless of their true motivations. But don’t assume for a moment that even some of the intelligent beings that may exist in our universe look like us. The forms intelligent life might take could very much represent sheer chance, some form of genetic manipulation or, perhaps, even what we have come to regard as divine intervention. Right now, we are all just shooting from our hips, since final answers are still impossible to come by.
The Paracast Copyright 1999-2012 Making The Impossible, Inc. 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!
June 23, 2012
What Does the Government Know About Strange Relics and Other Mysteries?
Special Announcement: The Paracast is heard Sundays from 2:00 AM until 5:00 AM Central Time on the GCN Radio Network and affiliates around the USA, and online across the globe via download and on-demand streaming.
Here's Why We're Requesting a Donation to The Paracast: Although ads help cover a small part of our expenses, the income they produce is never enough. Also, we do not receive any revenue from the ads placed on the show by our network or local stations. So we hope you're able to help fill the gap if you can to help us cover increasing server costs and other expenses -- or perhaps provide a little extra cash for lunch. No contribution is too small (or too large
. We have a Donate link on our home page, below the logo and audio player. There's also a Donate link on our forums, at the bottom of the sidebar on the right. Or just send your PayPal donation direct to sales (at) theparacast (dot) com.Attention U.S. Listeners: Help Us Bring The Paracast to Your City! In the summer of 2010, The Paracast joined the GCN radio network. This represented a huge step in bringing our show to a larger, mainstream audience. But we need your help to add additional affiliates to our growing network. Please ask one of your local talk stations if they are interested in carrying The Paracast. Feel free to contact us directly with the names of programming people we might be able to contact on your behalf. We can't do this alone, and if you succeed in convincing your local station to carry the show, we'll reward you with one of our special T-shirts, and other goodies. With your help, The Paracast can grow into one of the most popular paranormal shows on the planet!
Please Visit Our Brand New Online Store: You asked, and we answered. We are now taking orders for The Official Paracast T-Shirt and an expanded collection of other specially customized merchandise. To get your T-Shirt now featuring our brand new logo, just pay a visit to our online store at The Official Paracast Store to select your size and place your order. We also offer a complete lineup of other premium merchandise for your family, your friends and your business contacts.
Sunday, June 24, 2012: The Paracast covers a world beyond science, where UFOs, poltergeists and strange phenomena of all kinds have been reported by millions across the planet.
Set Up: The Paracast is a paranormal radio show that takes you on a journey to a world beyond science, where UFOs, poltergeists and strange phenomena of all kinds have been reported by millions. The Paracast seeks to shed light on the mysteries and complexities of our Universe and the secrets that surround us in our everyday lives.
Join long-time paranormal researcher Gene Steinberg, co-host and acclaimed field investigator Christopher O'Brien, and a panel of special guest experts and experiencers, as they explore the realms of the known and unknown. Listen each week to the great stories of the history of the paranormal field in the 20th and 21st centuries.
This Week's Episode: On the anniversary of the fabled sighting of nine disc shaped objects by Kenneth Arnold in 1947, Nick Redfern returns to discuss his new book: "The Pyramids and the Pentagon: The Government's Top Secret Pursuit of Mystical Relics, Ancient Astronauts, and Lost Civilizations." Explore ancient artifacts, the faces on Mars, crop circles and other mysteries the Pentagon may or may not know about.
Christopher O'Brien's Site: Our Strange Planet
Nick Redfern's Blog: Nick Redfern's World of Whatever...
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. We recently completed a major update that makes our community easier to navigate, and social network friendly.
The Many Shapes of ET
By Gene Steinberg
If you are a fan of sci-fi, you’ll note that extraterrestrials have taken on all sorts of shapes and sizes – and some are even invisible. Where the aliens mean us harm, authors and movie-makers usually want them to be ugly, since their acts are terrifying, though I suppose evil human-like aliens might be an even more frightening concept.
Now in the popcorn flick “Independence Day,” we are invaded by giant locust-like beings who take their entire civilization in a huge mother ship from planet to planet to plunder natural resources, including the local populace, and move on. Again ugly creatures are doing ugly deeds.
The cable TV show, “Falling Skies,” depicts two types of beings. One seems to resemble large crustaceans, while taller creatures, perhaps their masters, are humanoid in shape. The aliens in “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” are largely derived from the reports of “grays” seen in connection with actual reports of UFO encounters, and they appear benevolent.
In the “Star Trek” universe, most of the intelligent species depicted were human-like, often with thick protrusions on their heads, or oddly-shaped ears to make them seem alien. Some are shape shifters, able to assume any convenient form in order to seem more acceptable to us. Yes, more bizarre aliens were depicted from time to time, but the budget limitations of the original TV series made it far more convenient to just put a little makeup on an actor and declare him or her an alien.
In the movie version of Carl Sagan’s “Contact” the protagonist portrayed by Jodie Foster meets ET in the form of her late father. The being she encounters believes that it will be more acceptable to humans that way. This raises the possibility that the beings seen in connection with flying saucer reports may also present themselves in more traditional forms, in keeping with popular culture perhaps. So they are grays of short stature, or tall humans with Nordic features. But it’s not their true shape.
With the growing number of potential Earth-like planets discovered in the galaxy, scientists are no doubt wondering what sort of life forms might arise. Would they take on a human or near-human form? What about insects, since they seem to be the forms of life have managed to live long and prosper even in very extreme conditions. Certainly some of the beings reported in UFO cases have, while somewhat human, assumed some insect-like characteristics.
Obviously, until there is a 100% provable case of ET contact, it’s hard to know what we might be up against. Now when I say “100% provable,” I mean a close encounter that believers and skeptics alike would be forced to agree is genuine. While there are loads of contact cases to investigate, it’s hard to know whether the creatures seen in or about those UFOs are presenting themselves in their true form. Or even that we are able to perceive them in their true form.
Now consider the dilemma of possible alien visitors who pay us a visit. Would they even want to communicate with the local populace? Would they, as in the “Star Trek” universe, have some sort of code of ethics that prevents them from interfering with the local populace, and if they do make contact, present themselves as members of the indigenous population? Even if they did contact humans, would they even reveal their true motives for being here, or just tell us what they think we want to hear, or what they deem appropriate.
Certainly it’s a mistake to assume that an advanced species is necessarily benevolent, even if they chose to portray themselves as peaceful. Would it make sense for an alien to tell an Earthling, “We are here to conquer you, so prepare to surrender”? More than likely, they’d pretend to be friendly, and merely communicate with us to gather intelligence, or even tissue samples. How would you know? Yes, I realize that there are people who claim to have met friendly aliens, who convey expressions of love and peace. But why should we believe such creatures?
It may even be that some aliens wouldn’t have any interest in visiting another world in person. They would simply send image projections, while experiencing everything in a sort of virtual reality. We can see those projections, perhaps even touch and smell the holographic image. Consider the “Star Trek” “holodeck” concept, about a computer program that generated a simulated reality that was so close to the real thing, you couldn’t tell the difference. In fact, one “Star Trek” series, “Voyager,” featured a ship’s medical officer that was himself a hologram, because they didn’t have a physical one available.
Under such conditions, your senses would tell you that you are seeing something that is absolutely real, even though it is nothing more than a simulation. It may also be possible that the UFOs that are seen are actually holographic projections designed to divert our attention from the real activities of the aliens, whatever they may be. Here they are using their own variations of a traditional magician’s misdirection techniques. Again, how could we possibly know?
Sure, I’d love to meet up with an extraterrestrial that looked very much like us, and could communicate in English. It would be comforting, regardless of their true motivations. But don’t assume for a moment that even some of the intelligent beings that may exist in our universe look like us. The forms intelligent life might take could very much represent sheer chance, some form of genetic manipulation or, perhaps, even what we have come to regard as divine intervention. Right now, we are all just shooting from our hips, since final answers are still impossible to come by.
The Paracast Copyright 1999-2012 Making The Impossible, Inc. 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!
