THE PARACAST NEWSLETTER
November 27, 2016
www.theparacast.com
Filmmaker Paul Kimball Catches Up with Gene and Chris 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 After The Paracast, plus a higher-quality version of The Paracast free of network ads, and chat rooms 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’ve just begun to add podcasts and videos from Paul Kimball’s “Other Side of Truth.” Check out our new lower rates, starting at just $4.99 per month, plus our “Lifetime” membership and special free eBook offers! For more information about our premium package, please visit: Introducing The Paracast+ | The Paracast — The Gold Standard of Paranormal Radio.
This Week's Episode: Paul Kimball returns to The Paracast to catch up with Gene and Chris. The discussion covers a wide range of topics that include an historical perspective of UFO research and UFO belief systems, along with the differing opinions of Paul and Chris on cattle mutilations. Paul will also begin a discussion on synchronicity. Politics are discussed, but briefly. Paul Andrew Kimball is a Canadian film and television producer, writer and director who resides in Halifax, Nova Scotia. His projects include several documentary films about UFOs and the “Other Side of Truth” paranormal podcast. This interview continues on this week’s episode of After The Paracast, an exclusive feature of The Paracast+.
Chris O’Brien’s Site: Our Strange Planet
Paul Kimball’s Site: Paul Kimball - The Other Side of Truth | Facebook
After The Paracast -- Available exclusively to Paracast+ subscribers on November 27: Paul Kimball joins Gene and Chris to continue the discussion began on the November 27, 2016 episode of The Paracast, as they return to the lack of proper training in UFO investigation, as Gene brings up the fact that MUFON appears to focus strictly on the event and not on the possible interactions and backgrounds of eyewitnesses. Paul discusses the fact that many UFO investigators are predisposed towards the ETH, the extraterrestrial hypothesis, which hurts their investigative process, because they’re looking to validate that belief. Paul and Chris also talk about the well-known shortcomings of TV reality shows that cover paranormal subjects, as Paul and Chris recount some of their war stories while taping such shows. There’s a brief political discussion, and what do these two mean when they refer to “centipede synchronicity”?
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.
I Admit It: Sightings No Longer Turn Me On!
By Gene Steinberg
This goes back a few decades: In the mid-1960s, I was employed as a full-time Managing Editor of Jim Moseley’s Saucer News. Well full-time when I didn’t have to go to class. My chores included writing brief summaries of newspaper reports of UFO sightings. Jim shared the duties, but soon admitted that he had grown bored from reading similar sighting reports over and over again.
Where do we go from there?
Now to be fair, some researchers have tried to separate sightings into such categories as size, color, the shape of the object or light, and the sort of creatures occasionally seen in and around them. Other researchers sought patterns, whether sightings increase over a given time period, and whether they seem to track specific locations around the planet.
But just as soon as a pattern appears to be discovered, the UFOs appear to go out of their way to change the rules. I remember when one flying saucer book author made a big deal of the alleged seven-year patterns between flaps or major outbreaks of sightings. Others pointed to five-year cycles, or a cycle in sync with the distance of Mars from the Earth in its orbit. When it was closer, sightings might increase. Yet another alleged pattern was connected to the “opposition,” in which Mars and the sun were on opposite sides of the Earth.
All of these theories depended on the force or beings behind the UFOs operating on a specific schedule or travel routine from which they’d never deviate. But if the visitors have no such plans, or use cycles that wouldn’t be apparent to Earth dwellers, the effort would not be terribly productive.
Which, of course, is precisely what actually occurred!
Besides, what would be proven by a confirmed cycle anyway? That UFOs are intelligently controlled? I suppose, but that doesn’t take you any closer to understanding the nature of that intelligence, or the motives behind the use of that pattern. Indeed, it may be more about trying to simplify the phenomenon in a way that makes its purpose, if there is a purpose, easier for us to understand. It’s more about us than about them.
Each and every year, there are thousands of new UFO cases to explore. While the vast majority, perhaps 90-95%, have conventional answers, there is always that small residue of sightings that aren’t subject to easy explanation, or any explanation. UFO skeptics will sometimes use the “insufficient information” excuse to claim that these sightings could be solved too, if only we had enough data. But that excuse first arose during the years when the Air Force Project Blue Book was still in operation.
Unfortunately for the debunkers, Blue Book had separate categories for “insufficient information” and “unexplained.” So there went that excuse.
In any case, such UFO groups as MUFON continue to gather sightings. The more interesting cases end up in their monthly magazine, whereas others merely become entries in a database. Year after year, sightings are collected. Sometimes they are divided into categories when there’s enough information. Once again, it’s about the size, color, shape, apparent speed, location, and other factors that can easily be entered into a database.
But after all is said and done, what exactly does it all mean anyway?
That takes us back to Jim Moseley’s pithy observation — or complaint — that he’d grown tired of endless sightings that didn’t really advance the cause of figuring out what’s behind the mystery.
You see, it would only take one genuine, honest-to-goodness flying saucer to demonstrate that there is a mystery that cries out for a solution. That the phenomenon persists year after year mainly confirms that UFOs are still being seen. It doesn’t actually take us any closer to a solution.
Now there is the forlorn hope that one sighting will contain a telltale tidbit of information that makes it all clear to everyone. In other words, it will present the ever-elusive smoking gun that provides the answer.
I suppose that may be possible, but after decades and perhaps hundreds of thousands of eyewitness reports, is it really possible that missing detail will magically appear? Yet researchers evidently still hope that, if they analyze a sufficient number of cases, some previously unknown pattern will reveal itself. Or there will be a piece of evidence that will make the purpose of the UFOs, and their reality, crystal clear even to the most devout skeptic.
Only it really doesn’t appear as if that miracle is ever going to happen.
The cynic in me recalls that a supposed definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and hoping for a different result. But I am not calling UFO researchers insane. The ones who are actually trying to figure out what’s going on are mostly sincere people dedicated to their work. Perhaps they are right. Perhaps enough analysis will reveal the clues that will help solve the enigma.
Indeed, I wonder if putting a supercomputer on the task would disclose patterns that humans have not been able to fathom. I suppose the effort is worth it, If enough sightings are compiled, and the programming allows for some measure of “fuzzy logic,” we might get a step closer to finding some real answers to the mystery of the ages.
At least it’s better than looking at sightings as just confirmation of an existing belief, that belief being that the saucers are spaceships from other planets.
So after all these years, is there anything new under the sun? Has the work of any researcher taken us closer to a solution? Perhaps the efforts of our own Chris O’Brien and others to set up a network of UFO detectors will help. If we catch them in the act, perhaps measurements could be taken to at least assess their impact on our environment. At least, it would demonstrate that something real is going on.
But unless new information is somehow found in that expanding collection of sightings, and I remain ever optimistic, forgive me if I consider the latest cases to be just more of the same.
Copyright 1999-2016 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!
November 27, 2016
www.theparacast.com
Filmmaker Paul Kimball Catches Up with Gene and Chris 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 After The Paracast, plus a higher-quality version of The Paracast free of network ads, and chat rooms 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’ve just begun to add podcasts and videos from Paul Kimball’s “Other Side of Truth.” Check out our new lower rates, starting at just $4.99 per month, plus our “Lifetime” membership and special free eBook offers! For more information about our premium package, please visit: Introducing The Paracast+ | The Paracast — The Gold Standard of Paranormal Radio.
This Week's Episode: Paul Kimball returns to The Paracast to catch up with Gene and Chris. The discussion covers a wide range of topics that include an historical perspective of UFO research and UFO belief systems, along with the differing opinions of Paul and Chris on cattle mutilations. Paul will also begin a discussion on synchronicity. Politics are discussed, but briefly. Paul Andrew Kimball is a Canadian film and television producer, writer and director who resides in Halifax, Nova Scotia. His projects include several documentary films about UFOs and the “Other Side of Truth” paranormal podcast. This interview continues on this week’s episode of After The Paracast, an exclusive feature of The Paracast+.
Chris O’Brien’s Site: Our Strange Planet
Paul Kimball’s Site: Paul Kimball - The Other Side of Truth | Facebook
After The Paracast -- Available exclusively to Paracast+ subscribers on November 27: Paul Kimball joins Gene and Chris to continue the discussion began on the November 27, 2016 episode of The Paracast, as they return to the lack of proper training in UFO investigation, as Gene brings up the fact that MUFON appears to focus strictly on the event and not on the possible interactions and backgrounds of eyewitnesses. Paul discusses the fact that many UFO investigators are predisposed towards the ETH, the extraterrestrial hypothesis, which hurts their investigative process, because they’re looking to validate that belief. Paul and Chris also talk about the well-known shortcomings of TV reality shows that cover paranormal subjects, as Paul and Chris recount some of their war stories while taping such shows. There’s a brief political discussion, and what do these two mean when they refer to “centipede synchronicity”?
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.
I Admit It: Sightings No Longer Turn Me On!
By Gene Steinberg
This goes back a few decades: In the mid-1960s, I was employed as a full-time Managing Editor of Jim Moseley’s Saucer News. Well full-time when I didn’t have to go to class. My chores included writing brief summaries of newspaper reports of UFO sightings. Jim shared the duties, but soon admitted that he had grown bored from reading similar sighting reports over and over again.
Where do we go from there?
Now to be fair, some researchers have tried to separate sightings into such categories as size, color, the shape of the object or light, and the sort of creatures occasionally seen in and around them. Other researchers sought patterns, whether sightings increase over a given time period, and whether they seem to track specific locations around the planet.
But just as soon as a pattern appears to be discovered, the UFOs appear to go out of their way to change the rules. I remember when one flying saucer book author made a big deal of the alleged seven-year patterns between flaps or major outbreaks of sightings. Others pointed to five-year cycles, or a cycle in sync with the distance of Mars from the Earth in its orbit. When it was closer, sightings might increase. Yet another alleged pattern was connected to the “opposition,” in which Mars and the sun were on opposite sides of the Earth.
All of these theories depended on the force or beings behind the UFOs operating on a specific schedule or travel routine from which they’d never deviate. But if the visitors have no such plans, or use cycles that wouldn’t be apparent to Earth dwellers, the effort would not be terribly productive.
Which, of course, is precisely what actually occurred!
Besides, what would be proven by a confirmed cycle anyway? That UFOs are intelligently controlled? I suppose, but that doesn’t take you any closer to understanding the nature of that intelligence, or the motives behind the use of that pattern. Indeed, it may be more about trying to simplify the phenomenon in a way that makes its purpose, if there is a purpose, easier for us to understand. It’s more about us than about them.
Each and every year, there are thousands of new UFO cases to explore. While the vast majority, perhaps 90-95%, have conventional answers, there is always that small residue of sightings that aren’t subject to easy explanation, or any explanation. UFO skeptics will sometimes use the “insufficient information” excuse to claim that these sightings could be solved too, if only we had enough data. But that excuse first arose during the years when the Air Force Project Blue Book was still in operation.
Unfortunately for the debunkers, Blue Book had separate categories for “insufficient information” and “unexplained.” So there went that excuse.
In any case, such UFO groups as MUFON continue to gather sightings. The more interesting cases end up in their monthly magazine, whereas others merely become entries in a database. Year after year, sightings are collected. Sometimes they are divided into categories when there’s enough information. Once again, it’s about the size, color, shape, apparent speed, location, and other factors that can easily be entered into a database.
But after all is said and done, what exactly does it all mean anyway?
That takes us back to Jim Moseley’s pithy observation — or complaint — that he’d grown tired of endless sightings that didn’t really advance the cause of figuring out what’s behind the mystery.
You see, it would only take one genuine, honest-to-goodness flying saucer to demonstrate that there is a mystery that cries out for a solution. That the phenomenon persists year after year mainly confirms that UFOs are still being seen. It doesn’t actually take us any closer to a solution.
Now there is the forlorn hope that one sighting will contain a telltale tidbit of information that makes it all clear to everyone. In other words, it will present the ever-elusive smoking gun that provides the answer.
I suppose that may be possible, but after decades and perhaps hundreds of thousands of eyewitness reports, is it really possible that missing detail will magically appear? Yet researchers evidently still hope that, if they analyze a sufficient number of cases, some previously unknown pattern will reveal itself. Or there will be a piece of evidence that will make the purpose of the UFOs, and their reality, crystal clear even to the most devout skeptic.
Only it really doesn’t appear as if that miracle is ever going to happen.
The cynic in me recalls that a supposed definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and hoping for a different result. But I am not calling UFO researchers insane. The ones who are actually trying to figure out what’s going on are mostly sincere people dedicated to their work. Perhaps they are right. Perhaps enough analysis will reveal the clues that will help solve the enigma.
Indeed, I wonder if putting a supercomputer on the task would disclose patterns that humans have not been able to fathom. I suppose the effort is worth it, If enough sightings are compiled, and the programming allows for some measure of “fuzzy logic,” we might get a step closer to finding some real answers to the mystery of the ages.
At least it’s better than looking at sightings as just confirmation of an existing belief, that belief being that the saucers are spaceships from other planets.
So after all these years, is there anything new under the sun? Has the work of any researcher taken us closer to a solution? Perhaps the efforts of our own Chris O’Brien and others to set up a network of UFO detectors will help. If we catch them in the act, perhaps measurements could be taken to at least assess their impact on our environment. At least, it would demonstrate that something real is going on.
But unless new information is somehow found in that expanding collection of sightings, and I remain ever optimistic, forgive me if I consider the latest cases to be just more of the same.
Copyright 1999-2016 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!
Last edited: