UFOs and Conspiracies Explored on The Paracast
Special Announcement: The Paracast is heard Sundays from 6:00 PM until 9:00 PM (Central Time) on the GCN radio network.
The Paracast Humbly Requests Your Donations: Although ads help cover a small part of our expenses, the income they produce is never enough, and we don't want to overwhelm the show with them, so we hope you'll be willing 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, right below our logo. Or just send your PayPal donation direct to sales (at) theparacast (dot) com.
You Can Now Order The Official Paracast T-Shirt: You asked, and we answered. We are now taking orders for The Official Paracast T-Shirt and a collection of other specially customized merchandise. To get your T-Shirt, just pay a visit to our new online store at Welcome to The Official Paracast Store to select your size and place your order. We now also offer a lineup of other premium merchandise featuring The Paracast logo.
Sunday, October 31, 2010: 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 hosts interview long-time researchers in the field, to shed light on the mysteries and complexities of our Universe and the secrets that surround us in our everyday lives.
Join us as we explore the realms of the known and unknown, and hear great stories of the history of the paranormal field in the 20th and 21st centuries.
This Week's Episode: Co-host Greg Bishop presents fringe culture chronicler (or certified “crackpot historian”) Adam Gorightly, who has been involved in writing and researching the paranormal since the 1980s.
Greg Bishop's Site: UFOMystic Greg Bishop
Adam Gorightly's Site: Adam Gorightly
Coming November 7: Co-host Christopher O’Brien presents veteran UFO researcher Ronald S. Regehr, MUFON’s Deputy Director of Research, who will recount over 50 years of on-site research into some of the major sightings of the 20th and 21st centuries.
Christopher O'Brien's Site: Home - Our Strange Planet
Reminder: Don't forget to visit our always-active Discussion Forums for the latest news/views/debates on all things paranormal (and note our new Internet address): The Paracast Community Forums.
Of Politics and Exopolitics
By Gene Steinberg
As most of you know, I find the concept of Exopolitics extremist, if you can regard anything in the UFO field as not extremist, which may be a stretch. While I’m sure the motives of many who are involved in this movement are quite sincere, aside from some who are in it for glory and profit, I have problems with the concept.
Yes, I grant that the possibility that UFOs are extraterrestrial is highly likely. The more we discover “Goldilocks” planets out there, worlds that have the proper conditions to support life similar to our own, the probability that they are here now, or have been here in the past, looms prominently. However, knowing that we are being visited doesn’t necessarily mean we know their motives. You know the old saw about alien logic and such.
Sure, there are some people who claim to have had direct contact with entities or beings from other worlds, but, even if genuine, that doesn’t mean that the information contained in the communications they report can be accepted as gospel. There’s no reason to assume that any message conveyed by advanced beings must necessarily be true; it is likely that information would be distilled to be acceptable to what they regard as primitive beings, or changed for reasons best known to themselves.
In other words, it’s highly presumptuous to claim that we fully understand the intent of such a species. They may even be here to exert control over our species or our planet to one degree or another, in which case they’d likely want to camouflage their true purpose. Consider the premise of the TV series “V,” where the visitors are here to conquer our planet, while pretending to be our friends.
On the other hand, hoping and dreaming about impending disclosure has a nice ring to it. It’s comforting to believe that Earthly governments truly have a handle on what’s really going on, but, for reasons of national security, the potential harm to the world economy and so forth and so on, that truth is being withheld.
It would be extremely unsettling to some if it turned out that the governments really don’t know how to cope with the presence of advanced creatures, with incredible, almost magical technology, freely flying across our skies without the ability to do anything about it. And don’t get me started about abductions. If humans are being kidnapped by such creatures, that ought to be regarded as a potential hostile act, if you assume such things aren’t being done with the approval of Earthly authorities.
What’s more, if those authorities are indeed countenancing such frightening behavior, it would represent a severe infringement on our rights as free citizens. They shouldn’t allowed to get away with it.
Of course, we really don’t know what’s true and what isn’t. That makes the very concept of Exopolitics a stretch, and it doesn’t stop some people from trying to take matters into their own hands in very peculiar ways.
Take Jeff Peckman, himself a controversial figure in UFO research, who is the prime mover behind an effort to create an Extraterrestrial Affairs Commission in Denver. Now it’s not unusual for someone to get a wacky proposal on the ballot in a city or state election. Why Denver would singled out for such an “honor” makes even less sense, and this movement has become little more than fodder for more chuckles and sneers on the part of the media when UFOs are brought up.
Now if this measure passes, and we’ll know for certain in just a few days, unless the election is really, really close, I suppose such an agency would have to be taken seriously. Or maybe the city officials will just set it up, set it aside, and get on with their business.
I certainly favor serious research to get to the bottom of the UFO mystery. But silly ballot initiatives and other efforts to bring about disclosure threaten to do precisely the reverse.
The Paracast Copyright 1999-2010 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!
Special Announcement: The Paracast is heard Sundays from 6:00 PM until 9:00 PM (Central Time) on the GCN radio network.
The Paracast Humbly Requests Your Donations: Although ads help cover a small part of our expenses, the income they produce is never enough, and we don't want to overwhelm the show with them, so we hope you'll be willing 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, right below our logo. Or just send your PayPal donation direct to sales (at) theparacast (dot) com.You Can Now Order The Official Paracast T-Shirt: You asked, and we answered. We are now taking orders for The Official Paracast T-Shirt and a collection of other specially customized merchandise. To get your T-Shirt, just pay a visit to our new online store at Welcome to The Official Paracast Store to select your size and place your order. We now also offer a lineup of other premium merchandise featuring The Paracast logo.
Sunday, October 31, 2010: 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 hosts interview long-time researchers in the field, to shed light on the mysteries and complexities of our Universe and the secrets that surround us in our everyday lives.
Join us as we explore the realms of the known and unknown, and hear great stories of the history of the paranormal field in the 20th and 21st centuries.
This Week's Episode: Co-host Greg Bishop presents fringe culture chronicler (or certified “crackpot historian”) Adam Gorightly, who has been involved in writing and researching the paranormal since the 1980s.
Greg Bishop's Site: UFOMystic Greg Bishop
Adam Gorightly's Site: Adam Gorightly
Coming November 7: Co-host Christopher O’Brien presents veteran UFO researcher Ronald S. Regehr, MUFON’s Deputy Director of Research, who will recount over 50 years of on-site research into some of the major sightings of the 20th and 21st centuries.
Christopher O'Brien's Site: Home - Our Strange Planet
Reminder: Don't forget to visit our always-active Discussion Forums for the latest news/views/debates on all things paranormal (and note our new Internet address): The Paracast Community Forums.
Of Politics and Exopolitics
By Gene Steinberg
As most of you know, I find the concept of Exopolitics extremist, if you can regard anything in the UFO field as not extremist, which may be a stretch. While I’m sure the motives of many who are involved in this movement are quite sincere, aside from some who are in it for glory and profit, I have problems with the concept.
Yes, I grant that the possibility that UFOs are extraterrestrial is highly likely. The more we discover “Goldilocks” planets out there, worlds that have the proper conditions to support life similar to our own, the probability that they are here now, or have been here in the past, looms prominently. However, knowing that we are being visited doesn’t necessarily mean we know their motives. You know the old saw about alien logic and such.
Sure, there are some people who claim to have had direct contact with entities or beings from other worlds, but, even if genuine, that doesn’t mean that the information contained in the communications they report can be accepted as gospel. There’s no reason to assume that any message conveyed by advanced beings must necessarily be true; it is likely that information would be distilled to be acceptable to what they regard as primitive beings, or changed for reasons best known to themselves.
In other words, it’s highly presumptuous to claim that we fully understand the intent of such a species. They may even be here to exert control over our species or our planet to one degree or another, in which case they’d likely want to camouflage their true purpose. Consider the premise of the TV series “V,” where the visitors are here to conquer our planet, while pretending to be our friends.
On the other hand, hoping and dreaming about impending disclosure has a nice ring to it. It’s comforting to believe that Earthly governments truly have a handle on what’s really going on, but, for reasons of national security, the potential harm to the world economy and so forth and so on, that truth is being withheld.
It would be extremely unsettling to some if it turned out that the governments really don’t know how to cope with the presence of advanced creatures, with incredible, almost magical technology, freely flying across our skies without the ability to do anything about it. And don’t get me started about abductions. If humans are being kidnapped by such creatures, that ought to be regarded as a potential hostile act, if you assume such things aren’t being done with the approval of Earthly authorities.
What’s more, if those authorities are indeed countenancing such frightening behavior, it would represent a severe infringement on our rights as free citizens. They shouldn’t allowed to get away with it.
Of course, we really don’t know what’s true and what isn’t. That makes the very concept of Exopolitics a stretch, and it doesn’t stop some people from trying to take matters into their own hands in very peculiar ways.
Take Jeff Peckman, himself a controversial figure in UFO research, who is the prime mover behind an effort to create an Extraterrestrial Affairs Commission in Denver. Now it’s not unusual for someone to get a wacky proposal on the ballot in a city or state election. Why Denver would singled out for such an “honor” makes even less sense, and this movement has become little more than fodder for more chuckles and sneers on the part of the media when UFOs are brought up.
Now if this measure passes, and we’ll know for certain in just a few days, unless the election is really, really close, I suppose such an agency would have to be taken seriously. Or maybe the city officials will just set it up, set it aside, and get on with their business.
I certainly favor serious research to get to the bottom of the UFO mystery. But silly ballot initiatives and other efforts to bring about disclosure threaten to do precisely the reverse.
The Paracast Copyright 1999-2010 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!