The Paracast Newsletter
September 12, 2021
www.theparacast.com
UFO Author/Playwright Ryan Sprague Dicusses UFO Pop Culture and the State of the Field 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 THE ULTIMATE PARACAST EXPERIENCE AT A SPECIAL LOW PRICE! 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 an enhanced version of The Paracast with the network ads removed, when you join The Paracast+. We also offer a special RSS feed for easy updates of the latest episodes on your device. Flash! For a limited time, you can save up to 40% on your subscription. Long-term subscribers will receive free Amazon gift cards for five-year or lifetime subscriptions. And PayPal now accepts cryptocurrencies, such as Bitcoin, in payment, so act now! For the easiest signup ever, please visit: https://www.theparacast.plus
This Week's Episode: Gene and special guest cohost Tim Swartz feature UFO author and playwright Ryan Sprague. Ryan is a lead investigator and co-host of the CW television series, Mysteries Decoded and is a regular on the Travel Channel series, Mysteries at the Museum, and will be a regular on the upcoming season of Ancient Aliens, on the History Channel. He is the author of Somewhere in the Skies: A Human Approach to the UFO Phenomenon and is also the creator and host of the Somewhere in the Skies podcast. His UFO research finds him interviewing witnesses in all walks of life about UFO sightings and claimed close encounters. During this episode, Ryan will focus on the state of UFO research. There will also be a pop culture segment about famous musical artists who are interested in the subject.
Ryan Sprague: https://www.somewhereintheskies.com/
After The Paracast — Available exclusively for Paracast+ subscribers on September 12: UFO author/playwright Ryan Sprague hangs with Gene and special guest cohost Tim Swartz for a special session that focuses on such topics as Ryan's personal beliefs about UFOs. Are they extraterrestrial visitors, a manifestation of the collective unconscious, a matter of cultural co-creation? Ryan also talks about confessing a belief in extraterrestrial UFOs to a Catholic priest and that priest's very fascinating response. Ryan is a familiar presence on UFO and paranormal reality shows, is a lead investigator and co-host of the CW television series, Mysteries Decoded and is a regular on the Travel Channel series, Mysteries at the Museum, and will be a regular on the upcoming season of Ancient Aliens, on the History Channel.
Reminder: Please don't forget to visit our famous Paracast Community Forums for the latest news/views/debates on all things paranormal: https://www.theparacast.com/forum/. Visit our new online shop for great branded merchandise at: https://www.theparacast.shop/, and check out our new YouTube channel at: https://www.youtube.com/c/TheOfficialParacastChannel
Asking the Wrong Questions
By Gene Steinberg
It does seem very impressive that a number of present or former government officials have come out in favor of getting to the bottom of the UFO mystery. Among this illustrious crew are two recent heads of the CIA, Robert James Woolsey Jr. who led the agency under President Bill Clinton from 1993-1995, and John Owen Brennan, who had the job from 2013-2017 under President Barack Obama.
They aren’t the first. That honor went to Roscoe H. Hillenkoetter, who was the CIA’s first head, having held that position from 1947-1950 under President Harry Truman. He also became part of UFO history because he served on the Board of Governors of a UFO group, NICAP, from 1957 until 1962. His main viewpoint on the subject was quoted in a New York Times report, “Behind the scenes, high-ranking Air Force officers are soberly concerned about UFOs. But through official secrecy and ridicule, many citizens are led to believe the unknown flying objects are nonsense.”
Interesting that the current serious interest in the subject also originated in stories from The New York Times.
But before you get the impression that only government officials serving in Democratic administrations take UFO seriously, consider Senator Marco Rubio, a Republican conservative from Florida, and former Congressman John Lee Ratcliffe, a Republican conservative from Texas, who served as Director of National Intelligence from 2020 to early 2021 under President Donald Trump.
Both Rubio and Ratcliffe have been vocal in wanting the subject to be taken seriously, and the former was instrumental in the creation of the Pentagon UAP Task Force, whose first status report was released to mixed reviews in June of this year.
You can find positive statements across the political spectrum, which means, in essence, that UFOs are one of the few topics that are essentially non-partisan. The consistency of the statements from the people named above is also striking.
But it raises some serious questions.
You see, one of the shibboleths of the UFO movement is that the U.S. government knows the secret behind the phenomenon and that it is keeping that secret from the public. Lobbyist Stephen Bassett calls it a “Truth Embargo,” whereas the late UFO investigator and lecturer, Stanton T. Friedman, spoke of a “Cosmic Watergate.”
Years ago, Major Donald Keyhoe, who wrote several UFO books and also headed up NICAP, wrote about a “Silence Group,” people within the government who knew that we were being visited by extraterrestrials but chose not to reveal the secret. While he kept predicting — or hoping — that the truth would break through, it never happened.
Or at least the truth he expected.
Even the current UFO — or UAP — efforts in the government claim, or pretend, that it’s all something new. It’s implied that it was never studied by them before, ignoring a history of over 74 years of outright denial that there was anything unknown involved. Well at least according to the unclassified version of the Pentagon UAP Task Force report.
Consider this paragraph: “Limited data and inconsistency in reporting are key challenges to evaluating UAP. No standardized reporting mechanism existed until the Navy established one in March 2019. The Air Force subsequently adopted that mechanism in November 2020, but it remains limited to USG reporting. The UAPTF regularly heard anecdotally during its research about other observations that occurred but which were never captured in formal or informal reporting by those observers.”
Really? So what about Project Blue Book, which was allegedly formed to catalog and investigate UFO sightings, and was shuttered in 1969? Are we to pretend it never existed, or are the suspicions of some UFO investigators over the years correct, that it was never meant to seriously evaluate the phenomenon, that it was mainly a public relations stunt to mollify the public with claims that there was really nothing to it?
You wouldn’t get that impression if you read the 1956 book, “The Report on Unidentified Flying Objects,” from Captain Edward J. Ruppelt, who actually headed up Project Blue Book for a time. He claimed that they indeed took the subject seriously, and did their level best to find out what was really going on.
Regardless, if there was even a semblance of serious attention devoted to UFOs over the years, wouldn’t top intelligence officials, and perhaps members of Congress who had high-level security clearances, know about it? Why would it be necessary for three former CIA directors to wonder what was going on?
If the Roswell UFO crash truly involved a wrecked spaceship from another planet, wouldn’t the first head of the CIA know the fine details? Yet Hillenkoetter’s statement, quoted above, makes it appear that he is as mystified as anyone. Consider that he first took over what was then called the Central Intelligence Group in September, 1947, two months after Roswell occurred.
With such an episode fresh in the minds of the authorities, you’d think that Hillenkoetter and his key staff would be at or near the top of the list of people who had the “need to know” on that event. If a spaceship had been transported to a military installation somewhere, you’d think he’d receive regular reports on what the scientists and engineers examining the craft had learned.
Consider that the presence of extraterrestrials in our skies would amount to perhaps the most significant of occurrences in human history. Top intelligence and military officials would have to know about it, right?
And even if Hillenkoetter wasn’t read in, what about his successors? What about Woolsey and Brennan and the others who occupied the DCI position over the decades? How would the secret of the saucers be kept from them? Why would it be kept from them?
Now some might suggest they do know — as did Hillenkoetter — but were either ordered, or chose, to keep it a secret and let a gradual disclosure process play out. That would imply the positive statements were meant to point us in a direction rather than reveal what they really know.
Or maybe it is true that the authorities never took UFOs seriously over the decades. There was no Silence Group or Truth Embargo or Cosmic Watergate. But maybe things are poised to change at long last.
Do you believe any of this? Really?
Copyright 1999-2021 The Paracast Company. 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 12, 2021
www.theparacast.com
UFO Author/Playwright Ryan Sprague Dicusses UFO Pop Culture and the State of the Field 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 THE ULTIMATE PARACAST EXPERIENCE AT A SPECIAL LOW PRICE! 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 an enhanced version of The Paracast with the network ads removed, when you join The Paracast+. We also offer a special RSS feed for easy updates of the latest episodes on your device. Flash! For a limited time, you can save up to 40% on your subscription. Long-term subscribers will receive free Amazon gift cards for five-year or lifetime subscriptions. And PayPal now accepts cryptocurrencies, such as Bitcoin, in payment, so act now! For the easiest signup ever, please visit: https://www.theparacast.plus
This Week's Episode: Gene and special guest cohost Tim Swartz feature UFO author and playwright Ryan Sprague. Ryan is a lead investigator and co-host of the CW television series, Mysteries Decoded and is a regular on the Travel Channel series, Mysteries at the Museum, and will be a regular on the upcoming season of Ancient Aliens, on the History Channel. He is the author of Somewhere in the Skies: A Human Approach to the UFO Phenomenon and is also the creator and host of the Somewhere in the Skies podcast. His UFO research finds him interviewing witnesses in all walks of life about UFO sightings and claimed close encounters. During this episode, Ryan will focus on the state of UFO research. There will also be a pop culture segment about famous musical artists who are interested in the subject.
Ryan Sprague: https://www.somewhereintheskies.com/
After The Paracast — Available exclusively for Paracast+ subscribers on September 12: UFO author/playwright Ryan Sprague hangs with Gene and special guest cohost Tim Swartz for a special session that focuses on such topics as Ryan's personal beliefs about UFOs. Are they extraterrestrial visitors, a manifestation of the collective unconscious, a matter of cultural co-creation? Ryan also talks about confessing a belief in extraterrestrial UFOs to a Catholic priest and that priest's very fascinating response. Ryan is a familiar presence on UFO and paranormal reality shows, is a lead investigator and co-host of the CW television series, Mysteries Decoded and is a regular on the Travel Channel series, Mysteries at the Museum, and will be a regular on the upcoming season of Ancient Aliens, on the History Channel.
Reminder: Please don't forget to visit our famous Paracast Community Forums for the latest news/views/debates on all things paranormal: https://www.theparacast.com/forum/. Visit our new online shop for great branded merchandise at: https://www.theparacast.shop/, and check out our new YouTube channel at: https://www.youtube.com/c/TheOfficialParacastChannel
Asking the Wrong Questions
By Gene Steinberg
It does seem very impressive that a number of present or former government officials have come out in favor of getting to the bottom of the UFO mystery. Among this illustrious crew are two recent heads of the CIA, Robert James Woolsey Jr. who led the agency under President Bill Clinton from 1993-1995, and John Owen Brennan, who had the job from 2013-2017 under President Barack Obama.
They aren’t the first. That honor went to Roscoe H. Hillenkoetter, who was the CIA’s first head, having held that position from 1947-1950 under President Harry Truman. He also became part of UFO history because he served on the Board of Governors of a UFO group, NICAP, from 1957 until 1962. His main viewpoint on the subject was quoted in a New York Times report, “Behind the scenes, high-ranking Air Force officers are soberly concerned about UFOs. But through official secrecy and ridicule, many citizens are led to believe the unknown flying objects are nonsense.”
Interesting that the current serious interest in the subject also originated in stories from The New York Times.
But before you get the impression that only government officials serving in Democratic administrations take UFO seriously, consider Senator Marco Rubio, a Republican conservative from Florida, and former Congressman John Lee Ratcliffe, a Republican conservative from Texas, who served as Director of National Intelligence from 2020 to early 2021 under President Donald Trump.
Both Rubio and Ratcliffe have been vocal in wanting the subject to be taken seriously, and the former was instrumental in the creation of the Pentagon UAP Task Force, whose first status report was released to mixed reviews in June of this year.
You can find positive statements across the political spectrum, which means, in essence, that UFOs are one of the few topics that are essentially non-partisan. The consistency of the statements from the people named above is also striking.
But it raises some serious questions.
You see, one of the shibboleths of the UFO movement is that the U.S. government knows the secret behind the phenomenon and that it is keeping that secret from the public. Lobbyist Stephen Bassett calls it a “Truth Embargo,” whereas the late UFO investigator and lecturer, Stanton T. Friedman, spoke of a “Cosmic Watergate.”
Years ago, Major Donald Keyhoe, who wrote several UFO books and also headed up NICAP, wrote about a “Silence Group,” people within the government who knew that we were being visited by extraterrestrials but chose not to reveal the secret. While he kept predicting — or hoping — that the truth would break through, it never happened.
Or at least the truth he expected.
Even the current UFO — or UAP — efforts in the government claim, or pretend, that it’s all something new. It’s implied that it was never studied by them before, ignoring a history of over 74 years of outright denial that there was anything unknown involved. Well at least according to the unclassified version of the Pentagon UAP Task Force report.
Consider this paragraph: “Limited data and inconsistency in reporting are key challenges to evaluating UAP. No standardized reporting mechanism existed until the Navy established one in March 2019. The Air Force subsequently adopted that mechanism in November 2020, but it remains limited to USG reporting. The UAPTF regularly heard anecdotally during its research about other observations that occurred but which were never captured in formal or informal reporting by those observers.”
Really? So what about Project Blue Book, which was allegedly formed to catalog and investigate UFO sightings, and was shuttered in 1969? Are we to pretend it never existed, or are the suspicions of some UFO investigators over the years correct, that it was never meant to seriously evaluate the phenomenon, that it was mainly a public relations stunt to mollify the public with claims that there was really nothing to it?
You wouldn’t get that impression if you read the 1956 book, “The Report on Unidentified Flying Objects,” from Captain Edward J. Ruppelt, who actually headed up Project Blue Book for a time. He claimed that they indeed took the subject seriously, and did their level best to find out what was really going on.
Regardless, if there was even a semblance of serious attention devoted to UFOs over the years, wouldn’t top intelligence officials, and perhaps members of Congress who had high-level security clearances, know about it? Why would it be necessary for three former CIA directors to wonder what was going on?
If the Roswell UFO crash truly involved a wrecked spaceship from another planet, wouldn’t the first head of the CIA know the fine details? Yet Hillenkoetter’s statement, quoted above, makes it appear that he is as mystified as anyone. Consider that he first took over what was then called the Central Intelligence Group in September, 1947, two months after Roswell occurred.
With such an episode fresh in the minds of the authorities, you’d think that Hillenkoetter and his key staff would be at or near the top of the list of people who had the “need to know” on that event. If a spaceship had been transported to a military installation somewhere, you’d think he’d receive regular reports on what the scientists and engineers examining the craft had learned.
Consider that the presence of extraterrestrials in our skies would amount to perhaps the most significant of occurrences in human history. Top intelligence and military officials would have to know about it, right?
And even if Hillenkoetter wasn’t read in, what about his successors? What about Woolsey and Brennan and the others who occupied the DCI position over the decades? How would the secret of the saucers be kept from them? Why would it be kept from them?
Now some might suggest they do know — as did Hillenkoetter — but were either ordered, or chose, to keep it a secret and let a gradual disclosure process play out. That would imply the positive statements were meant to point us in a direction rather than reveal what they really know.
Or maybe it is true that the authorities never took UFOs seriously over the decades. There was no Silence Group or Truth Embargo or Cosmic Watergate. But maybe things are poised to change at long last.
Do you believe any of this? Really?
Copyright 1999-2021 The Paracast Company. 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!