THE PARACAST NEWSLETTER
October 30, 2016
www.theparacast.com
Ghosts, UFOs and Other Things with Chris Rutkowski 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 new Paracast+ Video Channel, episode transcripts, Special Features and Classic Episodes. Check out our new “Lifetime” membership and special free eBook offers! For more information about our premium package, please visit: http://plus.theparacast.com/.
This Week's Episode: Gene and guest co-host Greg Bishop, of "Radio Misterioso," present noted Canadian UFO researcher Chris Rutkowski with a UFO sighting update. For Halloween, he'll also focus on "ghosts and UFOs," and where there are, in fact, actual differences, or if they are actually two manifestations of the same phenomenon. He'll also cover his articles on the dangers of UFO fandom, and what Canadians actually believe about UFOs. Says his bio: “Chris Rutkowski, BSc, MEd, is a Canadian science writer and educator, with a background in astronomy but with a passion for teaching science concepts to children and adults. Since the mid-1970s, he also has been studying reports of UFOs and writing about his investigations and research.”
Chris O’Brien’s Site: Our Strange Planet
Radio Misterioso: Radio Misterioso | In-depth conversations on the paranormal alternating with weird music. Live on Sundays (usually) 8-10 PM Pacific.
Chris Rutkowski’s Blog: Ufology Research
After The Paracast -- Available exclusively to Paracast+ subscribers on October 30: Gene and guest co-host Greg Bishop discuss Chris Rutkowski’s appearance on The Paracast. Gene is especially impressed with Rutkowski’s down-to-Earth view of the subject, avoiding extravagant claims. Gene and Greg also consider whether their more expansive view of paranormal mysteries has caused problems for them, as Greg explains what still interests him about UFOs. Gene brings up the “living in a bubble” nature of our society, where people focus strictly on ideas and information that reinforces their own belief systems, rather than go out and seek a variety of views and evidence. The discussion moves to conspiracy theories such as the Kennedy assassination and 9/11. The dynamic duo also consider the “one step beyond” phenomenon, where UFOs appear to represent technology only slightly more advanced than ours.
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.
UFOs and the “One Step Beyond” Phenomenon
By Gene Steinberg
If we consider the theory that UFOs are spaceships — something that most people who believe in flying saucers accept — you would assume they are highly advanced machines from some far-off place. It would seem most logical that they come from other star systems, meaning they are at least 100 years or more ahead of us in perfecting space travel.
It’s hard to say how far advanced, unless you date their arrival back to Biblical times, in which case they’d be thousands of years ahead of us. But that assumes their civilization hasn’t stagnated, or maybe they took control of spacecraft developed by an older civilization that is no longer around. Theories. Theories.
For the sake of argument, let’s ignore all those sightings of long ago as natural phenomena or something else unrelated to possible visits by spaceships. Let’s assume the beginning of the UFO mystery was in the late 1890s, when those infamous airships appeared. I’m not ignoring the ancient astronaut theory; I’m just not going to consider it right now.
But consider that the technology revealed in these airships didn’t appear to be that far advanced over what humans could do. Remember that the hot-air balloon was invented in 1783, and a steam-powered airship was constructed by French inventor Henri Gifford in 1852. So it’s not hard to imagine something a little more advanced flying around the skies in the latter part of that century.
Indeed a common episode involves a landed airship, from which the presumed pilot comes out to explain that he is perfecting this invention, and that it will be revealed to the world soon. Only that “soon” never seems to come.
So what’s going on here?
Now I suppose there could have been individual inventors, working on some sort of heavier-than-air craft, who were testing their machines. Perhaps they ran into problems taking a single invention and finding a way to build them in quantity.
Maybe there is, as some claim, a breakaway civilization consisting of people who choose to isolate themselves from our civilization and do their own thing. So perhaps they are ahead of us scientifically by perhaps a decade or two, and manage to do some, to us, amazing things with their flying machines. Would this explain a very curious facet of the UFO phenomenon?
I mean, when you read reports of UFOs, how advanced are they anyway?
So there were those nine shiny crescent-shaped objects observed by Kenneth Arnold in the state of Washington on June 24, 1947. A key factor that makes them unexplained is that Arnold estimated their speeds at roughly 1,200 miles per hour. This was faster than we could manage in 1947, but not that much faster. Or could it represent test flights of secret aircraft?
So a few months later, the sound barrier, or Mach 1, was broken. That meant a speed of 767.269 miles per hour. So what did Arnold observe? More important, was his speed estimate correct? But that’s something that has been analyzed repeatedly over the years. If the flying saucers were moving at a much slower speed, suggesting they might be test aircraft wouldn’t seem out of the question.
More to the point, even though Mach 1 was exceeded in public, that doesn’t mean that faster craft weren’t already undergoing tests behind the scenes.
Over the years, the UFOs have exhibited apparent pin-point feats of maneuverability that would trash a conventional aircraft. They also appear to fly much faster, and these flight characteristics are part of the evidence that we are being visited by something strange and unknown from outer space.
But are we seeing evidence of technology hundreds or thousands of years ahead of us, or just something that’s a few years or decades more advanced than our own technology?
More to the point, are we even seeing or recalling the real phenomenon? What may have been perceived as flying chariots a couple of thousands of years ago became airships in the late 19th century. In the 20th century, and up to the present day, we witness possible spaceships of a form that conforms to our sci-fi concept of such craft.
I suppose you can suggest that the spaceships we see are scout or shuttle craft, designed to navigate strictly within a planet’s atmosphere. They do not have to travel in space, and don’t require the hardware that enables star drive, or whatever propulsion system ET uses. So we wouldn’t expect UFOs to be terribly advanced beyond that of which we’re already capable.
But if UFOs represent technology many hundreds or thousands of years beyond our own, would that technology even be recognizable to us in any conventional sense? Is it at all possible that what we see is so alien that our minds struggle to make sense of it? Once the human consciousness becomes a factor in a sighting, consistency may go out the window. That might explain why there are so many shapes and sizes of UFOs, and the appearance of different types of aliens in connection with some sightings.
Sure, it’s certainly possible that we are a popular species — for whatever reason — and we are being visited by different races from different planets. Even if that were so, we have to assume all these aliens are at least on speaking terms with one another, so they aren’t involved in disputes over territory and the right to be seen, or to visit, the primitive natives. Who could guess?
I often mention the crucial alien interaction scene in the movie “Contact,” where the supposed being from another star system tells the protagonist, a radio astronomer, that he took the form of her late father because she could not accept his true appearance.
If that plays out in the real world, is it possible that we are seeing UFOs in ways that make their appearance understandable? Do the forces behind the UFOs deliberately alter their appearance for similar effect? Are we even seeing the true phenomenon? Can we?
The appearance of UFOs has changed as our technology has advanced. What will they look like 40 or 50 years from now? Can we even imagine?
What about the sci-fi version?
Remember that the “Star Trek” universe was conceived by screenwriters in the 1960s, and has only undergone modest changes since then to take advantage of higher shooting budgets and improved special effects. But it’s about what humans will be doing in the 23rd century, at least from our point of view. If humans are still around then, can we even imagine what they’ll be like, or the magic behind the technology they will have mastered?
And if UFOs truly represent advanced beings from other star systems, how could we possibly see or understand them for what they really are?
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!
October 30, 2016
www.theparacast.com
Ghosts, UFOs and Other Things with Chris Rutkowski 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 new Paracast+ Video Channel, episode transcripts, Special Features and Classic Episodes. Check out our new “Lifetime” membership and special free eBook offers! For more information about our premium package, please visit: http://plus.theparacast.com/.
This Week's Episode: Gene and guest co-host Greg Bishop, of "Radio Misterioso," present noted Canadian UFO researcher Chris Rutkowski with a UFO sighting update. For Halloween, he'll also focus on "ghosts and UFOs," and where there are, in fact, actual differences, or if they are actually two manifestations of the same phenomenon. He'll also cover his articles on the dangers of UFO fandom, and what Canadians actually believe about UFOs. Says his bio: “Chris Rutkowski, BSc, MEd, is a Canadian science writer and educator, with a background in astronomy but with a passion for teaching science concepts to children and adults. Since the mid-1970s, he also has been studying reports of UFOs and writing about his investigations and research.”
Chris O’Brien’s Site: Our Strange Planet
Radio Misterioso: Radio Misterioso | In-depth conversations on the paranormal alternating with weird music. Live on Sundays (usually) 8-10 PM Pacific.
Chris Rutkowski’s Blog: Ufology Research
After The Paracast -- Available exclusively to Paracast+ subscribers on October 30: Gene and guest co-host Greg Bishop discuss Chris Rutkowski’s appearance on The Paracast. Gene is especially impressed with Rutkowski’s down-to-Earth view of the subject, avoiding extravagant claims. Gene and Greg also consider whether their more expansive view of paranormal mysteries has caused problems for them, as Greg explains what still interests him about UFOs. Gene brings up the “living in a bubble” nature of our society, where people focus strictly on ideas and information that reinforces their own belief systems, rather than go out and seek a variety of views and evidence. The discussion moves to conspiracy theories such as the Kennedy assassination and 9/11. The dynamic duo also consider the “one step beyond” phenomenon, where UFOs appear to represent technology only slightly more advanced than ours.
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.
UFOs and the “One Step Beyond” Phenomenon
By Gene Steinberg
If we consider the theory that UFOs are spaceships — something that most people who believe in flying saucers accept — you would assume they are highly advanced machines from some far-off place. It would seem most logical that they come from other star systems, meaning they are at least 100 years or more ahead of us in perfecting space travel.
It’s hard to say how far advanced, unless you date their arrival back to Biblical times, in which case they’d be thousands of years ahead of us. But that assumes their civilization hasn’t stagnated, or maybe they took control of spacecraft developed by an older civilization that is no longer around. Theories. Theories.
For the sake of argument, let’s ignore all those sightings of long ago as natural phenomena or something else unrelated to possible visits by spaceships. Let’s assume the beginning of the UFO mystery was in the late 1890s, when those infamous airships appeared. I’m not ignoring the ancient astronaut theory; I’m just not going to consider it right now.
But consider that the technology revealed in these airships didn’t appear to be that far advanced over what humans could do. Remember that the hot-air balloon was invented in 1783, and a steam-powered airship was constructed by French inventor Henri Gifford in 1852. So it’s not hard to imagine something a little more advanced flying around the skies in the latter part of that century.
Indeed a common episode involves a landed airship, from which the presumed pilot comes out to explain that he is perfecting this invention, and that it will be revealed to the world soon. Only that “soon” never seems to come.
So what’s going on here?
Now I suppose there could have been individual inventors, working on some sort of heavier-than-air craft, who were testing their machines. Perhaps they ran into problems taking a single invention and finding a way to build them in quantity.
Maybe there is, as some claim, a breakaway civilization consisting of people who choose to isolate themselves from our civilization and do their own thing. So perhaps they are ahead of us scientifically by perhaps a decade or two, and manage to do some, to us, amazing things with their flying machines. Would this explain a very curious facet of the UFO phenomenon?
I mean, when you read reports of UFOs, how advanced are they anyway?
So there were those nine shiny crescent-shaped objects observed by Kenneth Arnold in the state of Washington on June 24, 1947. A key factor that makes them unexplained is that Arnold estimated their speeds at roughly 1,200 miles per hour. This was faster than we could manage in 1947, but not that much faster. Or could it represent test flights of secret aircraft?
So a few months later, the sound barrier, or Mach 1, was broken. That meant a speed of 767.269 miles per hour. So what did Arnold observe? More important, was his speed estimate correct? But that’s something that has been analyzed repeatedly over the years. If the flying saucers were moving at a much slower speed, suggesting they might be test aircraft wouldn’t seem out of the question.
More to the point, even though Mach 1 was exceeded in public, that doesn’t mean that faster craft weren’t already undergoing tests behind the scenes.
Over the years, the UFOs have exhibited apparent pin-point feats of maneuverability that would trash a conventional aircraft. They also appear to fly much faster, and these flight characteristics are part of the evidence that we are being visited by something strange and unknown from outer space.
But are we seeing evidence of technology hundreds or thousands of years ahead of us, or just something that’s a few years or decades more advanced than our own technology?
More to the point, are we even seeing or recalling the real phenomenon? What may have been perceived as flying chariots a couple of thousands of years ago became airships in the late 19th century. In the 20th century, and up to the present day, we witness possible spaceships of a form that conforms to our sci-fi concept of such craft.
I suppose you can suggest that the spaceships we see are scout or shuttle craft, designed to navigate strictly within a planet’s atmosphere. They do not have to travel in space, and don’t require the hardware that enables star drive, or whatever propulsion system ET uses. So we wouldn’t expect UFOs to be terribly advanced beyond that of which we’re already capable.
But if UFOs represent technology many hundreds or thousands of years beyond our own, would that technology even be recognizable to us in any conventional sense? Is it at all possible that what we see is so alien that our minds struggle to make sense of it? Once the human consciousness becomes a factor in a sighting, consistency may go out the window. That might explain why there are so many shapes and sizes of UFOs, and the appearance of different types of aliens in connection with some sightings.
Sure, it’s certainly possible that we are a popular species — for whatever reason — and we are being visited by different races from different planets. Even if that were so, we have to assume all these aliens are at least on speaking terms with one another, so they aren’t involved in disputes over territory and the right to be seen, or to visit, the primitive natives. Who could guess?
I often mention the crucial alien interaction scene in the movie “Contact,” where the supposed being from another star system tells the protagonist, a radio astronomer, that he took the form of her late father because she could not accept his true appearance.
If that plays out in the real world, is it possible that we are seeing UFOs in ways that make their appearance understandable? Do the forces behind the UFOs deliberately alter their appearance for similar effect? Are we even seeing the true phenomenon? Can we?
The appearance of UFOs has changed as our technology has advanced. What will they look like 40 or 50 years from now? Can we even imagine?
What about the sci-fi version?
Remember that the “Star Trek” universe was conceived by screenwriters in the 1960s, and has only undergone modest changes since then to take advantage of higher shooting budgets and improved special effects. But it’s about what humans will be doing in the 23rd century, at least from our point of view. If humans are still around then, can we even imagine what they’ll be like, or the magic behind the technology they will have mastered?
And if UFOs truly represent advanced beings from other star systems, how could we possibly see or understand them for what they really are?
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!
