THE PARACAST NEWSLETTER
May 27, 2018
www.theparacast.com
"Engaging the Anomalous" with Dr. Jack Hunter 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.
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 an exclusive podcast, After The Paracast, plus a higher-quality version of The Paracast free of network ads, 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 also feature selected podcasts and videos from Paul Kimball’s “Other Side of Truth,” and we are now offering special access to the first two episodes of the ghost haunting show he cohosts, "Haunted." 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 cohost Goggs Mackay present Dr. Jack Hunter, an anthropologist and author of “Engaging the Anomalous: Collected Essays on Anthropology, the Paranormal, Mediumship, and Extraordinary Experience.” In this book, Dr. Hunter poses serious questions about consciousness, experience, spirits, mediumship, psi, the nature of reality, and how best to investigate and understand them. In this discussion, Dr. Hunter will present stories of personal experiences, encounters with mediums, and float a wide variety of suggestions as to how various paranormal phenomena might somehow be connected, and that includes the UFO mystery. Dr. Hunter is the founder and editor of a free online journal, Paranthropology.
Chris O’Brien’s Blog: Our Strange Planet
Paranthropology Magazine: http://(www.paranthropology.co.uk/
After The Paracast -- Available exclusively for Paracast+ subscribers on May 27: Gene and guest cohost Goggs Mackay have a chat about pop culture before moving on to Goggs’ brief encounters with “the royals.” While in the British Navy, he briefly met Princes Harry and William and had a five-minute chat with Prince Charles. Goggs also goes on to describe the fad involving people talking to plants in response to a question whether Prince Charles was doing the same thing. After Goggs explains how plants might communicate with one another, Gene wonders whether Gaia, Planet Earth, may dispatch entities to us in dreams to warn us about nuclear testing, the dangers of nuclear war, and damage to our environment. These are the messages often conveyed through channeling and UFO contacts. There’s also a brief discussion about the recent news that Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., after having spent several hours meeting with Sirhan Sirhan, the man convinced of killing his father, evidently believes he have been innocent all along, or perhaps there was a second gunman.
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
Talking to Whom?
By Gene Steinberg
The saga of the UFO contactees can be both entertaining and confusing. We have this group of people, in large part relatively unknown outside of their own circles of family and friends, who suddenly begin to claim that they have met up with ET. Or perhaps they go into trances and allegedly communicate on some subconscious level with higher beings, some of whom may also come from other planets.
I recall one person who used to post widely on Facebook, claiming to offer audio presentations of channelings from the “Star Beings” of Zeta Reticuli. I would often toss in a skeptical comment, reminding people that it’s a binary star system and that orbiting planets had yet to be discovered. I would sometimes ask how she knew where the beings came from, or is that what they told her, or whoever the channeler was?
Indeed, that’s the question that is rarely answered in such cases? If the communications are genuine, or the percipient believes that they are, how do they know the source? Why believe them? How can such people possibly know if someone or something is deceiving them?
Now I’ve met a few of the most notorious UFO contactees over the years. Most were personable and seemed sincere. But their claims were outrageous. In the early days, they were talking about humans from Venus, Mars and sometimes Saturn. Once astronomers had an inking of the hostile surface conditions of these planets, it appeared obvious that human-like beings could not possibly survive there without taking extraordinary measures to survive.
Perhaps the simplest, relatively speaking, would be Mars, and the 1990 sci-fi thriller, “Total Recall,” depicts a sensible solution, a huge dome with a tightly controlled environment. The movie, however, avoided the well-known fact that the gravity on Mars is a fraction of that of Earth. Would every step people make result in jumping sky high, would they grow accustomed to the differences, or was there an unmentioned artificial gravity scheme of some sort?
No doubt, the producers of that film didn’t care.
In any case, it made sense that the contactees were just making it all up. They were unfortunate people who sought attention, perhaps a measure of fame and fortune.
From time to time, I considered the possibility that some of these people had one or more genuine paranormal encounters, but couched it in sci-fi terms to make it more accessible to the masses. So George Adamski claimed to have met up with a tall blond-haired man wearing a silvery uniform, perhaps reminiscent of the character Klaatu in the sci-fi classic, “The Day the Earth Stood Still.”
If there was anything genuine about the encounter, perhaps the visitors appeared in that form in order to make their presence easier to accept. Or he deliberately massaged the details of the original experience. But all those photos Adamski touted as evidence of his contacts were obvious fakes, easily explained as models.
Channelers? Well, if the experience is in their heads, are they products of the imagination, or was there an interaction with some other force? Is that force engaged in deception, or is the experiencer making an effort to understand something that’s largely incomprehensible?
What about the UFO abductee, someone supposedly kidnapped and taken aboard what appears to be an interstellar spaceship? Whether the beings they describe are human, or humanoids, with large heads, huge penetrating eyes and tiny emaciated bodies, are they what they appear to be?
I suppose you can ask the same question about UFOs? When you see mysterious flying ships in various shapes and sizes, are you seeing a solid craft, or just an image of some sort? To what degree are the eyewitnesses adapting the real phenomenon to better understand what’s going on?
Or is the force behind the phenomenon manipulating us to better accept its presence in the image of popular culture?
Consider the common messages conveyed by these aliens or higher beings. Humans are evil, despoiling the environment, engaged in warlike behavior, testing nuclear weapons. We must follow the straight and narrow or risk destroying the natural balance, making our world inhospitable.
In “The Day the Earth Stood Still,” Klaatu’s message was more graphic. Either we get our acts together, or the space people will destroy us in the interests of galactic peace.
Even if there is something genuine behind communications with such beings, why should they care one whit about what happens to our planet? If they aren’t from here, what difference does it make? I suppose if we did end up destroying Earth, that could alter the balance of the solar system, but that would only mean something if our visitors came from a nearby planet?
Is that even possible?
What if the warning is closer to home?
On this weekend’s episode of After The Paracast, cohost Goggs Mackay and I ruminated about plants communicating with one another about critical climate conditions that might threaten their survival.
What about Planet Earth — Gaia herself? Is our planet — or any planet for that matter — a sentient being with the power to ultimately act in its own interests to protect itself/herself?
What if those dire warnings dispatched to contactees, channelers and others who claim to be in contact with the “other” actually emerge from Earth itself? We understand the basics, but end up interpreting such messages in ways we can understand. After all, how many people believe we can talk to a planet anyway?
Now there have been suggestions that UFOs themselves are sentient beings. The concept is not unknown in the sci-fi world. Take the cult sci-fi TV show, “Farscape,” in which spaceships were living beings with the power to fly through space. The ships were referred to as Leviathans, having the same characteristics as traditional spacecraft except for their native intelligence and ability to adapt to the needs of the crew.
Is the Earth itself a living spaceship, perhaps developed by advanced aliens eons ago? Did it really evolve over a period of over 4.5 billion years, or is that a mistaken theory?
Now maybe I’m just shooting from the hip, dropping random thoughts in order to spur a discussion. Or maybe, just maybe, there’s some level of authenticity to such theories.
Copyright 1999-2018 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!
May 27, 2018
www.theparacast.com
"Engaging the Anomalous" with Dr. Jack Hunter 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.
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 an exclusive podcast, After The Paracast, plus a higher-quality version of The Paracast free of network ads, 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 also feature selected podcasts and videos from Paul Kimball’s “Other Side of Truth,” and we are now offering special access to the first two episodes of the ghost haunting show he cohosts, "Haunted." 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 cohost Goggs Mackay present Dr. Jack Hunter, an anthropologist and author of “Engaging the Anomalous: Collected Essays on Anthropology, the Paranormal, Mediumship, and Extraordinary Experience.” In this book, Dr. Hunter poses serious questions about consciousness, experience, spirits, mediumship, psi, the nature of reality, and how best to investigate and understand them. In this discussion, Dr. Hunter will present stories of personal experiences, encounters with mediums, and float a wide variety of suggestions as to how various paranormal phenomena might somehow be connected, and that includes the UFO mystery. Dr. Hunter is the founder and editor of a free online journal, Paranthropology.
Chris O’Brien’s Blog: Our Strange Planet
Paranthropology Magazine: http://(www.paranthropology.co.uk/
After The Paracast -- Available exclusively for Paracast+ subscribers on May 27: Gene and guest cohost Goggs Mackay have a chat about pop culture before moving on to Goggs’ brief encounters with “the royals.” While in the British Navy, he briefly met Princes Harry and William and had a five-minute chat with Prince Charles. Goggs also goes on to describe the fad involving people talking to plants in response to a question whether Prince Charles was doing the same thing. After Goggs explains how plants might communicate with one another, Gene wonders whether Gaia, Planet Earth, may dispatch entities to us in dreams to warn us about nuclear testing, the dangers of nuclear war, and damage to our environment. These are the messages often conveyed through channeling and UFO contacts. There’s also a brief discussion about the recent news that Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., after having spent several hours meeting with Sirhan Sirhan, the man convinced of killing his father, evidently believes he have been innocent all along, or perhaps there was a second gunman.
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
Talking to Whom?
By Gene Steinberg
The saga of the UFO contactees can be both entertaining and confusing. We have this group of people, in large part relatively unknown outside of their own circles of family and friends, who suddenly begin to claim that they have met up with ET. Or perhaps they go into trances and allegedly communicate on some subconscious level with higher beings, some of whom may also come from other planets.
I recall one person who used to post widely on Facebook, claiming to offer audio presentations of channelings from the “Star Beings” of Zeta Reticuli. I would often toss in a skeptical comment, reminding people that it’s a binary star system and that orbiting planets had yet to be discovered. I would sometimes ask how she knew where the beings came from, or is that what they told her, or whoever the channeler was?
Indeed, that’s the question that is rarely answered in such cases? If the communications are genuine, or the percipient believes that they are, how do they know the source? Why believe them? How can such people possibly know if someone or something is deceiving them?
Now I’ve met a few of the most notorious UFO contactees over the years. Most were personable and seemed sincere. But their claims were outrageous. In the early days, they were talking about humans from Venus, Mars and sometimes Saturn. Once astronomers had an inking of the hostile surface conditions of these planets, it appeared obvious that human-like beings could not possibly survive there without taking extraordinary measures to survive.
Perhaps the simplest, relatively speaking, would be Mars, and the 1990 sci-fi thriller, “Total Recall,” depicts a sensible solution, a huge dome with a tightly controlled environment. The movie, however, avoided the well-known fact that the gravity on Mars is a fraction of that of Earth. Would every step people make result in jumping sky high, would they grow accustomed to the differences, or was there an unmentioned artificial gravity scheme of some sort?
No doubt, the producers of that film didn’t care.
In any case, it made sense that the contactees were just making it all up. They were unfortunate people who sought attention, perhaps a measure of fame and fortune.
From time to time, I considered the possibility that some of these people had one or more genuine paranormal encounters, but couched it in sci-fi terms to make it more accessible to the masses. So George Adamski claimed to have met up with a tall blond-haired man wearing a silvery uniform, perhaps reminiscent of the character Klaatu in the sci-fi classic, “The Day the Earth Stood Still.”
If there was anything genuine about the encounter, perhaps the visitors appeared in that form in order to make their presence easier to accept. Or he deliberately massaged the details of the original experience. But all those photos Adamski touted as evidence of his contacts were obvious fakes, easily explained as models.
Channelers? Well, if the experience is in their heads, are they products of the imagination, or was there an interaction with some other force? Is that force engaged in deception, or is the experiencer making an effort to understand something that’s largely incomprehensible?
What about the UFO abductee, someone supposedly kidnapped and taken aboard what appears to be an interstellar spaceship? Whether the beings they describe are human, or humanoids, with large heads, huge penetrating eyes and tiny emaciated bodies, are they what they appear to be?
I suppose you can ask the same question about UFOs? When you see mysterious flying ships in various shapes and sizes, are you seeing a solid craft, or just an image of some sort? To what degree are the eyewitnesses adapting the real phenomenon to better understand what’s going on?
Or is the force behind the phenomenon manipulating us to better accept its presence in the image of popular culture?
Consider the common messages conveyed by these aliens or higher beings. Humans are evil, despoiling the environment, engaged in warlike behavior, testing nuclear weapons. We must follow the straight and narrow or risk destroying the natural balance, making our world inhospitable.
In “The Day the Earth Stood Still,” Klaatu’s message was more graphic. Either we get our acts together, or the space people will destroy us in the interests of galactic peace.
Even if there is something genuine behind communications with such beings, why should they care one whit about what happens to our planet? If they aren’t from here, what difference does it make? I suppose if we did end up destroying Earth, that could alter the balance of the solar system, but that would only mean something if our visitors came from a nearby planet?
Is that even possible?
What if the warning is closer to home?
On this weekend’s episode of After The Paracast, cohost Goggs Mackay and I ruminated about plants communicating with one another about critical climate conditions that might threaten their survival.
What about Planet Earth — Gaia herself? Is our planet — or any planet for that matter — a sentient being with the power to ultimately act in its own interests to protect itself/herself?
What if those dire warnings dispatched to contactees, channelers and others who claim to be in contact with the “other” actually emerge from Earth itself? We understand the basics, but end up interpreting such messages in ways we can understand. After all, how many people believe we can talk to a planet anyway?
Now there have been suggestions that UFOs themselves are sentient beings. The concept is not unknown in the sci-fi world. Take the cult sci-fi TV show, “Farscape,” in which spaceships were living beings with the power to fly through space. The ships were referred to as Leviathans, having the same characteristics as traditional spacecraft except for their native intelligence and ability to adapt to the needs of the crew.
Is the Earth itself a living spaceship, perhaps developed by advanced aliens eons ago? Did it really evolve over a period of over 4.5 billion years, or is that a mistaken theory?
Now maybe I’m just shooting from the hip, dropping random thoughts in order to spur a discussion. Or maybe, just maybe, there’s some level of authenticity to such theories.
Copyright 1999-2018 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!