THE PARACAST NEWSLETTER
September 1, 2013
The Paracast Explores Unsolved Murders with Possible Occult Aspects
The Paracast is heard Sundays from 2:00 AM until 5:00 AM Central Time on the GCN Radio Network and affiliates around the USA, and online across the globe via download and on-demand streaming.
Why It's Important for You to Donate to The Paracast: Although ads help cover a small part of our expenses, the income they produce is never enough to pay your humble hosts decent wages. Also, we do not receive any revenue from the ads placed on the show by our network or local stations. So we hope you're able 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 and utility bills. No contribution is too small (or too large
. It’s easy to send a donation. We have aDonate link on our home page, below the logo and audio player. There's also a Donate link on our forums, at the bottom of the sidebar on the right. Or just send your PayPal donation direct to sales (at) theparacast (dot) com. And if you’ve had a problem getting to our Donate screen, please try again. We just fixed a serious PayPal access problem, and it should wor k properly now.
Attention U.S. Listeners: Help Us Bring The Paracast to Your City! In the summer of 2010, The Paracast joined the GCN radio network. This represented a huge step in bringing our show to a larger, mainstream audience. But we need your help to add additional affiliates to our growing network. Please ask one of your local talk stations if they are interested in carrying The Paracast. Feel free to contact us directly with the names of programming people we might be able to contact on your behalf. We can't do this alone, and if you succeed in convincing your local station to carry the show, we'll reward you with one of our special T-shirts, and other goodies. With your help, The Paracast can grow into one of the most popular paranormal shows on the planet!
Please Visit Our Online Store: You asked, and we answered. We are now taking orders for The Official Paracast T-Shirt and an expanded collection of other specially customized merchandise. To get your T-Shirt now featuring our brand new logo, just pay a visit to our online store at The Official Paracast Store to select your size and place your order. We also offer a complete lineup of other premium merchandise for your family, your friends and your business contacts.
About The Paracast: 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 is a paranormal radio show that takes you on a journey to a world beyond science, where UFOs, poltergeists and strange phenomena of all kinds have been reported by millions. The Paracast seeks to shed light on the mysteries and complexities of our Universe and the secrets that surround us in our everyday lives.
Join long-time paranormal researcher Gene Steinberg, co-host and acclaimed field investigator Christopher O'Brien, and a panel of special guest experts and experiencers, as they explore the realms of the known and unknown. Listen each week to the great stories of the history of the paranormal field in the 20th and 21st centuries.
This Week's Episode: Gene and Chris welcome former Air Force Office of Special Investigations agent and FBI counterintelligence specialist Walter Bosley, who has engaged in a lengthy research project involving a series of strange and frightening deaths, possibly murders, that occurred in the San Bernardino Valley in 1915. Bosley's recent book, "Empire of the Wheel II: Friends From Sonora," covers such topics as "the unexpected fingerprints of a group of aviators who allegedly built secret airships in California before the Civil War and may have been responsible for the widely reported but mostly forgotten Great Airship Mystery of 1897." And what about a possible connection to Butch and Sundance?
Chris O'Brien's Site: http://www.ourstrangeplanet.com
Walter Bosley’s Site: Empire of the Wheel
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. We recently completed a major update that makes our community easier to navigate, and social network friendly.
Making a Living from Paranormal Research
By Gene Steinberg
The other day, an upcoming guest on The Paracast was asked, in our forums, whether he had something to sell. Well, yes, he had a book to promote, and that book was the primary topic of the planned discussion.
Unfortunately, the question bore the implication that the author in question wrote the book not to uncover a compelling case that might have occult aspects to it, but simply to earn some money, facts be damned!
You have to wonder why people in this field are suspect if they dare insist on being paid for their work. Sure, it is well known that some people do seek fame and fortune by writing books, making videos, and embarking on lecture tours without regard to whether their work has any merit or not.
It’s also true that actually making a living from these fields is difficult if not impossible for most. At best, writers and lecturers have a day job, and simply use the fees they receive from such activities to cover some of their expenses. All right, nothing wrong with that so long, once again, as they are not just making up stories, and making up stories isn’t objectionable either, so long as your work is labeled as fiction.
It is really unfortunate that, in this curious arena at least, the mere suggestion of actually taking home a paycheck has a stench to it. Worse, some of the people who are suspicious of commercial intent are quite comfortable financially. So it’s not as if they are willing to forego payment for their services, so why object because someone involved in researching and writing about the paranormal has the same needs?
After all, we all have to eat!
Of course, it’s not that certain characters haven’t attached an unsavory aura to the honorable right of payment for one’s services. They do make up stories, and a very few even become somewhat well off as the result.
But in the real world, most of the people who are involved in this field are quite a bit less than well paid. Without mentioning names, several of the most famous personalities in this field lived their final days at the edge of poverty. If they were in it solely for the money, they made the wrong decision.
This seems to go against how our society treats the rich and the famous. If your favorite movie star takes home $50 million dollars for a blockbuster movie, you celebrate their success. An athlete? A talk show host? Do you begrudge Bill Gates and Warren Buffet because they have tens of billions of dollars in the bank? All right, both plan to give much of their wealth away through their philanthropic activities before they leave this plane of existence, but still!
Certainly scientists receive living wages in most cases, although one might criticize them for focusing on getting lucrative grants for a specific field of study, and sometimes you do wonder whether that focus taints their work. But you can question anyone’s motives, and I suppose the world of the paranormal is a fringe area to most people. So we suspect participants even more, especially if they are well compensated for their efforts.
Consider, for example, a UFO or paranormal conference. Participants may have to travel long distances to be there, and, in addition to plane fare, there are hotel bills, cab or car rental fees, and the cost of having a few meals. Some have to take a break from their regular jobs to attend, and it’s not that they always receive vacation pay.
So we shouldn’t begrudge the conference organizers for charging fees to attend, and for using most of those fees to pay honorariums to lecturers, the lecture facilities, and maybe even some publicity. Besides, it doesn’t hurt to have a little left over for their time and trouble.
In short, we need to separate one’s need to survive from the worth of their work in this field. If you think they are lying for pay, they should be rightly criticized. But if they do good work and just happen to earn a little money because of what they do, that’s fine with me.
I hope you will agree.
In saying that, it’s also true that many of the people who actually hope to become wealthy from paranormal research are usually disappointed. Even those who write large numbers of books may only earn small fees or advances from their publishers. You think of million dollar advances, but in the real world, it’s more like $2,000 to $4,000 for months or years of work.
Lecture fees may cover expenses and little more. And forget about actually sponsoring a paranormal conference.
Sure, I suppose some of the people who are running those annual conferences do manage to earn profits to some degree. But I was there when some of the largest events in this field were being held, and in almost every case, the convention sponsors came out behind. During the 1960s, my late friend, Jim Moseley, held a number of well-attended UFO meetings in New York. One of them got national publicity and attracted thousands of people. At the end of the day, he ended up barely breaking even, after months of long days and late nights to set things up.
In the mid-1970s, I took a stab at hosting a UFO conference in Valley Forge, PA. I felt that this would be a great historic location for such an event, and my business partner and I invested a fairly decent sum for facilities, lecturers, and publicity. We even bought radio ads at some local stations. When the last person left the final session, we counted cash on hand, and found that we lost about $100.
Well, it was fun, and some people did far worse than we did. But I also vowed never, ever to do it again, and I’ve kept that promise. That said, there are some listeners who have suggested that we set up a Paracast Conference of some sort, and I haven’t said no -- at least not yet.
The long and short of it is that, if you hope to lie and cheat and become rich and famous from paranormal research, go find another line of work. It seldom happens. Even those who pursue an honest take to the subject shouldn’t rush to quit their day jobs.
Copyright 1999-2013 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!
September 1, 2013
The Paracast Explores Unsolved Murders with Possible Occult Aspects
The Paracast is heard Sundays from 2:00 AM until 5:00 AM Central Time on the GCN Radio Network and affiliates around the USA, and online across the globe via download and on-demand streaming.
Why It's Important for You to Donate to The Paracast: Although ads help cover a small part of our expenses, the income they produce is never enough to pay your humble hosts decent wages. Also, we do not receive any revenue from the ads placed on the show by our network or local stations. So we hope you're able 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 and utility bills. No contribution is too small (or too large
. It’s easy to send a donation. We have aDonate link on our home page, below the logo and audio player. There's also a Donate link on our forums, at the bottom of the sidebar on the right. Or just send your PayPal donation direct to sales (at) theparacast (dot) com. And if you’ve had a problem getting to our Donate screen, please try again. We just fixed a serious PayPal access problem, and it should wor k properly now.Attention U.S. Listeners: Help Us Bring The Paracast to Your City! In the summer of 2010, The Paracast joined the GCN radio network. This represented a huge step in bringing our show to a larger, mainstream audience. But we need your help to add additional affiliates to our growing network. Please ask one of your local talk stations if they are interested in carrying The Paracast. Feel free to contact us directly with the names of programming people we might be able to contact on your behalf. We can't do this alone, and if you succeed in convincing your local station to carry the show, we'll reward you with one of our special T-shirts, and other goodies. With your help, The Paracast can grow into one of the most popular paranormal shows on the planet!
Please Visit Our Online Store: You asked, and we answered. We are now taking orders for The Official Paracast T-Shirt and an expanded collection of other specially customized merchandise. To get your T-Shirt now featuring our brand new logo, just pay a visit to our online store at The Official Paracast Store to select your size and place your order. We also offer a complete lineup of other premium merchandise for your family, your friends and your business contacts.
About The Paracast: 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 is a paranormal radio show that takes you on a journey to a world beyond science, where UFOs, poltergeists and strange phenomena of all kinds have been reported by millions. The Paracast seeks to shed light on the mysteries and complexities of our Universe and the secrets that surround us in our everyday lives.
Join long-time paranormal researcher Gene Steinberg, co-host and acclaimed field investigator Christopher O'Brien, and a panel of special guest experts and experiencers, as they explore the realms of the known and unknown. Listen each week to the great stories of the history of the paranormal field in the 20th and 21st centuries.
This Week's Episode: Gene and Chris welcome former Air Force Office of Special Investigations agent and FBI counterintelligence specialist Walter Bosley, who has engaged in a lengthy research project involving a series of strange and frightening deaths, possibly murders, that occurred in the San Bernardino Valley in 1915. Bosley's recent book, "Empire of the Wheel II: Friends From Sonora," covers such topics as "the unexpected fingerprints of a group of aviators who allegedly built secret airships in California before the Civil War and may have been responsible for the widely reported but mostly forgotten Great Airship Mystery of 1897." And what about a possible connection to Butch and Sundance?
Chris O'Brien's Site: http://www.ourstrangeplanet.com
Walter Bosley’s Site: Empire of the Wheel
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. We recently completed a major update that makes our community easier to navigate, and social network friendly.
Making a Living from Paranormal Research
By Gene Steinberg
The other day, an upcoming guest on The Paracast was asked, in our forums, whether he had something to sell. Well, yes, he had a book to promote, and that book was the primary topic of the planned discussion.
Unfortunately, the question bore the implication that the author in question wrote the book not to uncover a compelling case that might have occult aspects to it, but simply to earn some money, facts be damned!
You have to wonder why people in this field are suspect if they dare insist on being paid for their work. Sure, it is well known that some people do seek fame and fortune by writing books, making videos, and embarking on lecture tours without regard to whether their work has any merit or not.
It’s also true that actually making a living from these fields is difficult if not impossible for most. At best, writers and lecturers have a day job, and simply use the fees they receive from such activities to cover some of their expenses. All right, nothing wrong with that so long, once again, as they are not just making up stories, and making up stories isn’t objectionable either, so long as your work is labeled as fiction.
It is really unfortunate that, in this curious arena at least, the mere suggestion of actually taking home a paycheck has a stench to it. Worse, some of the people who are suspicious of commercial intent are quite comfortable financially. So it’s not as if they are willing to forego payment for their services, so why object because someone involved in researching and writing about the paranormal has the same needs?
After all, we all have to eat!
Of course, it’s not that certain characters haven’t attached an unsavory aura to the honorable right of payment for one’s services. They do make up stories, and a very few even become somewhat well off as the result.
But in the real world, most of the people who are involved in this field are quite a bit less than well paid. Without mentioning names, several of the most famous personalities in this field lived their final days at the edge of poverty. If they were in it solely for the money, they made the wrong decision.
This seems to go against how our society treats the rich and the famous. If your favorite movie star takes home $50 million dollars for a blockbuster movie, you celebrate their success. An athlete? A talk show host? Do you begrudge Bill Gates and Warren Buffet because they have tens of billions of dollars in the bank? All right, both plan to give much of their wealth away through their philanthropic activities before they leave this plane of existence, but still!
Certainly scientists receive living wages in most cases, although one might criticize them for focusing on getting lucrative grants for a specific field of study, and sometimes you do wonder whether that focus taints their work. But you can question anyone’s motives, and I suppose the world of the paranormal is a fringe area to most people. So we suspect participants even more, especially if they are well compensated for their efforts.
Consider, for example, a UFO or paranormal conference. Participants may have to travel long distances to be there, and, in addition to plane fare, there are hotel bills, cab or car rental fees, and the cost of having a few meals. Some have to take a break from their regular jobs to attend, and it’s not that they always receive vacation pay.
So we shouldn’t begrudge the conference organizers for charging fees to attend, and for using most of those fees to pay honorariums to lecturers, the lecture facilities, and maybe even some publicity. Besides, it doesn’t hurt to have a little left over for their time and trouble.
In short, we need to separate one’s need to survive from the worth of their work in this field. If you think they are lying for pay, they should be rightly criticized. But if they do good work and just happen to earn a little money because of what they do, that’s fine with me.
I hope you will agree.
In saying that, it’s also true that many of the people who actually hope to become wealthy from paranormal research are usually disappointed. Even those who write large numbers of books may only earn small fees or advances from their publishers. You think of million dollar advances, but in the real world, it’s more like $2,000 to $4,000 for months or years of work.
Lecture fees may cover expenses and little more. And forget about actually sponsoring a paranormal conference.
Sure, I suppose some of the people who are running those annual conferences do manage to earn profits to some degree. But I was there when some of the largest events in this field were being held, and in almost every case, the convention sponsors came out behind. During the 1960s, my late friend, Jim Moseley, held a number of well-attended UFO meetings in New York. One of them got national publicity and attracted thousands of people. At the end of the day, he ended up barely breaking even, after months of long days and late nights to set things up.
In the mid-1970s, I took a stab at hosting a UFO conference in Valley Forge, PA. I felt that this would be a great historic location for such an event, and my business partner and I invested a fairly decent sum for facilities, lecturers, and publicity. We even bought radio ads at some local stations. When the last person left the final session, we counted cash on hand, and found that we lost about $100.
Well, it was fun, and some people did far worse than we did. But I also vowed never, ever to do it again, and I’ve kept that promise. That said, there are some listeners who have suggested that we set up a Paracast Conference of some sort, and I haven’t said no -- at least not yet.
The long and short of it is that, if you hope to lie and cheat and become rich and famous from paranormal research, go find another line of work. It seldom happens. Even those who pursue an honest take to the subject shouldn’t rush to quit their day jobs.
Copyright 1999-2013 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!
