• NEW! LOWEST RATES EVER -- SUPPORT THE SHOW AND ENJOY THE VERY BEST PREMIUM PARACAST EXPERIENCE! Welcome to The Paracast+, eight years young! For a low subscription fee, you can download the ad-free version of The Paracast and the exclusive, member-only, After The Paracast bonus podcast, featuring color commentary, exclusive interviews, the continuation of interviews that began on the main episode of The Paracast. We also offer lifetime memberships! Flash! Take advantage of our lowest rates ever! Act now! It's easier than ever to susbcribe! You can sign up right here!

    Subscribe to The Paracast Newsletter!

Your Paracast Newsletter — November 12, 2017


Gene Steinberg

Forum Super Hero
Staff member
THE PARACAST NEWSLETTER
November 12, 2017
www.theparacast.com


MUFON Executive Director Jan C. Harzan Discusses the State of UFO Research and More 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 Chris present MUFON Executive Director Jan C. Harzan. He will discuss the state of UFO research, and what the organization has learned in its 48 years of existence; it was founded in 1969 as the Midwest UFO Network. He’ll also discuss concerns about MUFON’s policies and staff shakeups, and about the reasoning behind the controversial 2017 symposium that featured lectures on the alleged U.S. secret space program and some especially outrageous speakers. Harzan is a 37-year veteran at IBM, and holds a B.S. in Nuclear Engineering. He’s been Executive Director of MUFON since 2013.

Chris O’Brien’s Blog: Our Strange Planet

MUFON Home Page: http://www.mufon.com

After The Paracast -- Available exclusively to Paracast+ subscribers on November 12: Gene has a fascinating chat with Greg Bishop of “Radio Misterioso” about Tom Delonge and the crowdfunding project he’s involved in, To The Stars Academy of Arts & Science. Is Delonge being fed a bill of goods by people in authority? Is he a willing or unwilling tool? Greg presents his views about what’s really going on. The discussion moves to MUFON, its approach to UFO research, and Greg’s assessment of is relevance or lack thereof. He also gives a brief preview of a book he’s working on with Adam Gorightly, about the flying saucer contactee movement.

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

UFO Conferences and Being Politically Correct
By Gene Steinberg

A lot of people accuse me of dwelling too much in the past. Maybe that’s true, in part, but we should also try to use lessons learned to guide our conduct in the present and the future.

So in the mid-1960s, I helped my friend Jim Moseley, then editor and publisher of Saucer News, run his monthly meetings at a New York City hotel. Most of the time, he’d invite a guest speaker to address the estimated 50 to 100 regulars who showed up.

It wasn’t easy to find a compelling speaker for such a small group, and Jim kept a close watch on the budget. He didn’t mind breaking even or losing a few dollars, but he wanted to be practical. That also meant seeking a wider circle of guest lecturers, some of whom held views that didn’t quite fit with the mostly serious treatment of the subject in his magazine.

Yes, Jim, and his pal Gray Barker, perpetrated some notorious hoaxes over the years, such as the Straith letter, but he also published an issue of Saucer News that exposed contactee George Adamski. It’s a classic issue, and one you can find online, or linked via the jimmoseley.com memorial site that is run from our web server and managed by researcher Curtis Collins.

So guest lecturers included Albert K. Bender, the UFO figure credited with largely inventing the Men In Black legend with his reported personal experience with three of them. He had written a book, “Flying Saucers and the Three Men,” where he supposedly explained that his encounters were not with government officials, but extraterrestrials.

Barker lectured there from time to time, as did talk show legend Long John Nebel. Contactee Dr. Frank Stranges showed up on more than one occasion, as did Howard Menger, once referred to as the “Jersey Adamski.” I also delivered a lecture or two over the years.

What Jim brought to the table was a balance, and few of his readers complained about including fringe personalities on the roster. Some attracted quite a decent audience, and Jim didn’t alter his skeptical approach in Saucer News towards such individuals. For the most part, the so-called scientific researchers weren’t reluctant to deliver presentations.

I thought about this when Chris and I interviewed MUFON Executive Director Jan C. Harzan for this weekend’s episode.

About a third of the episode focused on MUFON’s recent organizational troubles, which resulted in the loss of some of its State Directors and other officials. Harzan was also asked about the recent controversial 2017 Symposium that focused on “The Case for a Secret Space Program.”

As most of you know, the secret space program is not just about launching spy satellites. It’s alleged that humans may have set up permanent colonies on the Moon and perhaps even on Mars. ET might play a part.

So despite the deemphasis of space exploration since the U.S. sent men to the lunar surface, maybe there is a “black project” in which such voyages continue in secret.

Is there any legitimate evidence to prove that contention?

In a Director’s Message posted at its site, Harzan wrote: “MUFON is not endorsing any particular view but will be providing an open forum for knowledgeable witnesses, researchers and scholars to present their evidence in support of the premise that one or more secret space programs exist. Our hope is that by creating an environment of open discussion that it will promote independent scientific investigation of the evidence presented…”

I can understand why some of you might argue that Harzan was merely trying to fill seats in order to increase interest in MUFON and its work. That would mean more memberships, and more funds with which to fuel ongoing research. So perhaps there’s some value in providing entertainment with the proper terms and conditions.

But it makes sense to be concerned about such practices. If the intention is to present the image of MUFON as a scientific research organization that is attempting to discover the solution to the UFO mystery, how does focusing on an alleged secret space program, and presenting lecturers that include an eccentric contactee and an alleged time traveler, guide that effort?

Does this approach make a difference to the public at large? Does the media simply regard it as little more than a bunch of eccentrics shouting at windmills? Or as yet another silly reality show?

I recall how the press treated the International UFO Congress a few years back. Despite the fact that UFO abductions were only described by a small number of guest speakers, one media outlet reported seized on it, claiming that the event was all about providing a place where such people could commiserate with each other.

In short, it was an effort to take what the reporter believed to be the most sensational aspect of the IUFOC, and make that the focus of the story.

As a practical matter, the management of the IUFOC shouldn’t have to manipulate its speaker roster because the media might get the wrong idea. Having a wide range of speakers ought to be a good thing, as it gives attendees a way to get a fuller understanding of the UFO phenomenon. Even if abductions, in the end, are not at all related to the presence of UFOs, that shouldn’t be a reason not to include them on the agenda.

It’s up to the media to do their jobs, but one hopes at least some will view UFOs as more than just entertainment. Clearly some reporters do. The coverage that Secretary Hillary Clinton received when she expressed an interest in UFOs in the course of several interviews, during the 2016 campaign, was mostly fair.

UFOs don’t receive a lot of coverage in the media these days, other than those reality shows, and the occasional local story about a sighting. In doing a quick Google search, I didn’t see a lot of press about that controversial MUFON symposium, even though Harzan says he was pleased with the coverage.

But not everyone was buying that claim.

Former MUFON Washington State Director James Clarkson wrote an article about it, entitled: “Science has left the building – The Historic MUFON 2017 Symposium and How the Show Must Go On.”

The approach is obvious. You can find the column at: Science has left the building – The Historic MUFON 2017 Symposium and How the Show Must Go On

A for me, yes I understand the desire for a UFO group to boost memberships. It takes money to pay salaries, rent, utilities and other expenses, and to actually fund research projects. But by focusing so much on the money, I wonder if MUFON is losing its way.

I like Harzan and I’m not questioning his dedication to the job he’s held for the past five years. But there are serious risks here, especially in our polarized society. My old friend Jim Moseley was able to get away with presenting extremist UFO figures at his monthly meetings, but he wasn’t running a scientific UFO research organization. He was just a magazine publisher.

I hope you can see the distinction.

Copyright 1999-2017 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!
 
Back
Top