From the Archives: Scott Corrales – Chupacabras and Other Mysteries

No guest last Sunday, so we present a gem from the archives.

Many of you may be aware of my old show called The Hungry Ghost, which aired on pirate FM radio station KBLT from 1997 to 1999. On July 1st of 1998, I talked to hispanic researcher Scott Corrales, who had just published his book Chupacabras And Other Mysteries. Scott also wrote a few articles for my old magazine, so at that time I had already known him for a few years.

We talked about the history of the chupacabras, and how sightings had spread in an almost rumorlike way throughout Latin American countries. Scott spoke on the history of strangeness in Puerto Rico, including a thing called the “Moca Vampire,” which terrorized the countryside in the 1970s. We also discussed various theories about these goings-on and how the human mind might be connected to the paranormal.

Graduating from a print ‘zine in 2005, Scott now maintains the excellent site Inexplicata: The Journal of Hispanic Ufology.

The recording begins with the show in progress. I had to convert the interview from a cassette tape and it is unfortunately not complete, but 99% of the show is here. At the pirate station, the interviews were often an hour or less. Listeners must also excuse the audio levels throughout the program, as I was both inexperienced as an engineer and using jerry-rigged equipment to boot.

Posted in animal mutilations, archives, Fortean | Tagged , | 9 Comments

Dr. Barry Taff: The Entity and More

Dr. Taff is best known for his study of the “Entity” case of 1974, which was subsequently made into a 1982 feature film. Dr. Taff earned his doctorate in psychophysiology with a minor in biomedical engineering from UCLA. He also worked in the parapsychology lab at UCLA from 1969 through 1978 as a research associate where he studied precognition, ESP, and investigated reports of poltergeists and hauntings, and has continued over the last 40 years to log over 4000 cases. He also holds five medical patents.

A couple of months ago listener Ward suggested Dr. Taff as a guest which reminded me that I have wanted to talk to him for years. We started off with a history of the UCLA lab and Dr. Taff’s work there, including a study of his own apparent psychic abilities.

We also covered remote viewing, some of Taff’s more edgy ghost investigations and  various theories about the paranormal and ended with his history of UFO studies and experiences with early (1970s) abductions.

Dr, Taff has recently been stricken with severe cataracts and a fund has been set up to help him cover the considerable medical costs. If you want to help out, you can donate here.

Posted in abductions, Ghosts, parapsychology | 8 Comments

Richard Senate: Ghost Hunter

Richard Senate has been chasing ghosts and hauntings for 23 years. In that time, he has witnessed a laundry list of paranormal phenomena and developed a small list of theories about what might be causing the activity.

We began the interview with a short discussion of his adventure fiction. His newest collection of short stories is entitled, Thrilling Adventure Tales In The Age of Steam. We spent the next two hours in deep discussion about his countless ghost cases. From the poltergeist that manifested a dancing clown in a hallway to a phantom wound on a psychic that bled profusely but very quickly healed, a talk with Richard Senate is always full of strange and unsettling stories. Throughout the conversation, we kept coming back to possible theories that would make sense of some of the phenomena. Mr. Senate also busted a few myths about ghosts and related phenomena.

We ended with Mr. Senate’s plea for cooperation amongst paranormal researchers in order to advance what is seen as a hobby for amateurs into more of a scientific pursuit.

His newest ghost book is Silver Ghosts: Haunted Places and Phantom Encounters In Northern Nevada.

Posted in Ghosts | Tagged , , | 13 Comments

Bill Moore, Wayne Cowdrey and Arthur Vanick: Who Really Wrote the Book of Mormon?

Richard Senate had to postpone his appearance until next week, and I’m out of town, so here is a long-promised “lost” interview (from almost exactly six years ago) featuring Bill Moore and his co-authors discussing their 2005 book Who Really Wrote the Book of Mormon?: The Spalding Enigma. Cowdrey is actually a descendant of one of the founders of the Mormon Church, and the book was a expanded edition of a 1977 book by Vanick and Cowdrey.

Based on years of research (which was occasionally thwarted by persons unknown) the authors believe that the creation myth of the Mormon Church was based largely on an 1812 book called A Manuscript Found by an American Revolutionary War veteran named Solomon Spalding. They contend that church co-founder Sidney Rigdon borrowed or stole the manuscript from a printer in Pittsburgh after Spalding’s death. It contained the basic story of what Joseph Smith later claimed to have channeled for the Book Of Mormon.

In the book, the authors claim that they are not out to gut the Mormon Church; they were only interested in getting to the bottom of a story that had almost been forgotten, and found literally reams of documentary evidence to support it. Cowdrey himself says in the interview, “We care for the Mormon people, but we think that they’re living under a delusion.”

P.S. Bill Moore is not actually listed as an author, and he explained in the program that this was because he acted as editor and research associate. WARNING: UFOs were not mentioned in this program!

Posted in archives, books, Conspiracies, forgotten history, Radio Misterioso exclusive, researchers | 8 Comments

Richard Sarradet: Spirit and Spies

Richard was live in the studio for the second time on November 6th. We share a lot of history and a lot of it came out in the course of the show. He is one of those people in the background of UFO studies that keeps a low profile and has a lot of sharp insights.

We started with a discussion about our spiritual paths, or at least how it has affected how he look at the anomalous. This led into a discourse about how we may be co-creating our reality and more relevant to this program, how we may be more creative in our experiences with the paranormal than we think. There was also a long reminisce about our late friend and abduction researcher Karla Turner.

Richard and I have also shared some of the same experiences with intelligence people from various government agencies (or claiming to be) and this shaped our opinions about what may be going on with the UFO subject and how the conversation about it is controlled. The people who talked to us cautioned us to be careful about what we accepted as truth, but to listen to everything. Instead of frightening us into catatonia, this advice seemed liberating. We also bought up moon anomalies and possible censorship of photos.

This was a rare show with many insights that haven’t come out in other interviews. I must apologize for all the times I interrupted Richard as he jogged my memory and imagination, but he’s good at that.

Posted in Conspiracies, Government, spirit | Tagged , , , | 25 Comments

Halloween Show!

Surprise! There wasn’t supposed to be a show this Sunday (and there won’t be, at least not a live one) but I went into the station and put together a Halloween music program to post for my favorite holiday.

Listen and enjoy.

Image above from the independent release “bu!” by the Stealing Orchestra.

Posted in Music | 5 Comments

Mac Tonnies Two Years Gone

Some of Mac Tonnies’ best friends and people who continue to be influenced by him got together on the show on October 23rd to reminisce about his life, personality and work. Mac died in his sleep two years ago on the night of October 18th. He was well-known in the UFO community as a reluctant iconoclast and advanced thinker and theorist. He was  well-regarded as a fortean and transhumanist. He was also my friend.

Aaron Gulyas, Tony Morrill, Nick Redfern, Paul Kimball and Mike Clelland joined me for over two hours as we discussed how we met and/or were influenced by Mac and what his legacy might be. We all still miss him terribly and our thoughts go out to his family and other friends.

For more about Mac Tonnies, visit his archived blog, Posthuman Blues, or tribute sites Post Mac Blues and Macbots. His two most well-known books are After the Martian Apocalypse (out of print) and The Cryptoterrestrials. Our interview from July of 2009 can be heard here. Paul and Mac were live in the studio in May of 2006.

Posted in Authors, books, Fortean, researchers, UFOs | Tagged , | 32 Comments

Tony Morrill – Interview With A Listener

This week’s guest called in sick at the last minute, so I asked blogger and Radio Misterioso fan Tony Morrill if he would like to appear a week early. He will also be on the 23rd of October, along with A.J. Gulyas, Paul Kimball and Nick Redfern to talk about the legacy of our late friend Mac Tonnies. Walter was here as well.

We opened tonight’s show with a discussion of the favorite food of Bigfoot, which is apparently blueberry bagels, according to a recent report out of Michigan. Also discussed: The seminal book The Rebirth Of Pan, the influence of John Keel and his maverick outlook on weirdness, a recent study that projects what humans will look like in a few thousand years, the Mike Judge film Idiocracy, our first forays into fortean and UFO literature, paranormal TV shows, what types of paranormal experiences we would like to have and the nature of Bigfoot (paranormal or biological?)

Halfway through the show, outsider musician David Liebe Hart showed up unexpected-like and had me play two of his compositions. He must be psychic, or the synchronicity streams were flowing our way that night.

Posted in bigfoot, Music, UFOs | Tagged | 6 Comments

Bosley, Kimball and Redfern: UFO Researcher Deaths and Abductions

As mentioned in the preview post, Nick Redfern was in town this weekend. Walter Bosley showed up at the studio, and we got Paul Kimball working on the skype.  First off, we launched into a recap of recent UFO researcher deaths. We talked about British publisher and conference organizer Stuart Miller, and his even-handed and inquisitive attitude. Gabe Valdez was a friend and pioneering cattle mutilation researcher who passed on last month, and we spent a few minutes recalling his valuable contributions. We then moved on to reminisce about the late cantankerous UFO bookseller Bob Girard and his efforts to dissuade people from buying various books he had for sale.

There was some contention about the legacy of the work of the late Budd Hopkins. Paul believes that he was a belief-driven researcher whose work was dangerous to the mental health of some of the abductees he worked with. Nick and I differed on just how damaging he was, but we were all in agreement that the subject appears far too complicated to be reduced to supposed aliens taking people’s DNA and breeding hybrid children.

Near the end of the show, Walter brought up crop circles and we talked about the “hoaxers” who consider their work in the crops as art and sometimes feel that there are non-human forces at work while they make their patterns in the plants.

We ended with a song requested by Paul as a show of solidarity with the recent anti-greed protests in New York and other cities. We forgot to mention the death of Charles Hickson of the Pascagoula abduction. I will post an essay about him soon.

Photos: Nick deep underneath the Devil’s Gate dam in Pasadena, 10/2/11, Paul and I at a minor league baseball game last June.

Posted in abductions, animal mutilations, researchers, UFOs | Tagged , , , , , , | 43 Comments

Kimball and Redfern Tonight!

The stars aligned just right over the past 24 hours and Nick Redfern is in town. Today I’m taking him on my “Weird L.A.” tour and then we’ll be live in the studio for a 2 hour conversation with Paul Kimball. First up on the agenda will be a discussion of this year’s spate of deaths of UFO personalities and researchers. Then, anything is fair game. Send questions or talking points to greg@radiomisterioso.com.

Posted in upcoming shows | 5 Comments

Grant Cameron: “Disclosure” Has Already Happened

Grant Cameron has been looking for answers since his own dramatic sighting in 1975. After years of searching through documents in Presidential libraries, he only recently gave up. “You would think that they’d never heard of UFOs” he says.

This week, he sent me an untitled work in progress. The paper examines the genesis of the Area 51 story and concludes that the reason for the so-called “leaks” from the secret base in the early 1990s was that a group in the U.S. intelligence community was trying to get the truth of alien contact and ET technology into the public discussion. By selectively releasing stories ranging from nearly benign to totally paranoid, Cameron thinks that there is a plan to both frighten and desensitize the public so that when the reality of an alien presence is revealed, the dominant emotion will be relief that the wildest rumors were only that.

Grant and I have been in contact for many years, and have communicated with many of the same government people. During the program, we debated many of the finer points of evidence for government knowledge of the UFO subject. He has concluded that, based on the public statements of current and former intel personnel, that the U.S. Government is dealing with a non-human race which has arrived on Earth in “nuts and bolts” craft. I am not quite ready to make that leap, and I hope that our back-and-forth over the course of the show is enlightening. It was for me, even though I remain unconvinced of anything, especially when it involves the statements of spies and others tasked with keeping national secrets. A fun and lively interview.

Posted in Authors, Government, Intelligence, UFOs | Tagged , , , , , , | 19 Comments

Peter Robbins: Issues in Abduction Research

Peter Robbins makes his third appearance on the program, and on the heels of the untimely death of Budd Hopkins, we talk about his friendship with Hopkins and insights into working with people who claim abduction by non-human entities. We started with an in-depth examination of Robbins’ own sighting and subsequent repression of the troubling memory until he was reminded of it in the mid 1970s by his sister, who was there and had an apparent abduction experience.

While there are certainly many troubling issues in UFO abduction research, I do not personally have all the data and experience of someone like Peter Robbins to be able to come to a solid conclusion about the way it has been conducted in the last 30 years, although I have been occasionally critical of it in the past. Peter addressed some of the charges leveled at Hopkins concerning the treatment of apparent abductees, protocols for interviews and hypnosis sessions and guarding against bias from both the researcher and the subjects.

Peter brought up a new case he’s been working on involving a security guard at a prison in the southwest and his sighting of a massive (100-yard or more) black, disc-shaped object which silently appeared and then disappeared in the night sky. Peter has promised to ask the witness if he would appear on the program for a short interview.

We also discussed the problem of fundamentalist thinking and how it pervades the skeptical community, UFO researchers, religion and politics. This led to a segment about compassion and how we should conduct our lives to do the most good for others and ourselves.

The theme of the program is probably best summed up as: “As much as you can, withhold judgment for as long as possible and keep your emotions in check.”

Robbins’ paper that is referred to during the program, Politics, Religion and Human Nature: Practical Problems and on the Path Toward Official UFO Acknowledgment can be downloaded by clicking on the title.

Photo credit: ICAR.

Posted in abductions, Authors | Tagged , | 15 Comments

Upcoming Guests

As the Radio Misterioso site passes 100,000 hits (after counting started on June 25th of this year) the interview schedule is pretty busy for the next few weeks:

This Sunday (September 18th) we’ll talk to renowned UFO researcher Peter Robbins about his work with the late Budd Hopkins and try to clear up some misconceptions about Hopkins’ abduction research and his personal life. Robbins worked with Hopkins for over 20 years and has some insights which he will share for the first time.

On September 25th, Grant Cameron makes his first appearance on the show. Cameron’s site Presidential UFO catalogs his research into each administration’s UFO involvement from FDR to Obama. He has said that he wants to ask me some questions, so this should be a good one.

For October 9th, we welcome back ghost hunter Richard Senate to the program to talk about his recent research as well as his new collection of adventure fiction, entitled Steam.

Stay tuned and thank you for your continued support!

Posted in Guests, Site News | 4 Comments

Another Weird Music Show

No guest this week, and I liked how the music show went, so it’s posted for eternity.

Actually, there are only three 9/11-themed songs in this show, and we get them out of the way right at the beginning. Also on the menu: Country music with distorted guitar and sitar, music produced entirely with computer-generated voices in close harmony, a jazz cover of “Voodoo Chile” with a tuba taking the lead, a ska version of the Beatles, and the original recording of the Plan 9 From Outer Space theme before Ed Wood got ahold of it. We end with a few favorites from the Messer Chups.

Special thanks to Mr. Fab at Music For Maniacs for a couple of these gems!

Posted in Music | 3 Comments

Tim Binnall: Host To Host

Tim Binnall has become one of the leading lights in the paranormal radio podcast parade. He is known for his no-nonsense yet easygoing style and has interviewed such well-known UFO personalities as Jacques Vallee, Linda Howe and Stan Friedman.

Like many of us, his projects evolved out of a need to learn more from those we considered leading researchers and theorists. What better way than to ask them yourself? Binnall of America started as a fan site for Coast To Coast AM and quickly developed it’s own unique personality.

We began with a discussion on the sorry state of mainstream paranormal radio, and the twin disasters of the 2008 Bigfoot hoax and Sylvia Browne’s psychic prediction backtracking in 2006 which played out on Coast to Coast. I also mentioned my deep dislike of Sean Morton, and Tim called him and his ilk “Performance bullshit artists.”

We talked shop about interviews, problems with contemporary UFO study (a long segment), and then Tim launched into his negative assessment of Arizona Governor Fife Symington’s about face on the Phoenix Lights sightings of 1997. Paul Kimball suddenly called in to comment on Symington and entered into a debate with Tim as to whether the man was a “coward” or just an opportunist. Three callers later, we closed with a discussion about the nature of what exactly constitutes a “ufologist.”

This program was recorded on April 1st of 2007.

The photo above is from when Tim and Paul were visiting L.A. in 2008. (Tim is on the left and Paul is on the right. )

Posted in archives, UFOs | Tagged , , , | 4 Comments

Nick Redfern: The Real Men In Black

Nick was on the show again to talk about his new book, The Real Men In Black. The MIB have been a ufological bugaboo for over 50 years now, and the myth has changed little since it was introduced by ufologist Albert Bender in the mid 1950s. Are they real or imaginary? Nick says yes.

For the first 15 minutes we actually discussed the problems that authors face with publishers, self publishing, and selling ideas. We then dove into our subject with an examination of Bender and some little-known parts of his story, including Nick’s ideas about Bender’s psychological state during his MIB visitations. We continued with a few well-known and not a few less well-known encounters with Ufology’s shadowy silencers.

For most of the last hour of the program we discussed theories about where the MIB might come from, how they are perceived and how these two issues interact in legend and reality. At the end of the show I played a segment from a rare recording of Albert Bender describing his experiences.

The drawing above is Bender’s depiction of the entities which he said scared him right out of his UFO studies.

Posted in Authors, books, Conspiracies, Government | Tagged , , | 11 Comments

Barbara Harris: Strange History of the Integratron and Giant Rock

Barbara Harris is the president of the Morongo Basin Historical Society and an expert on the history of the Joshua Tree/ Yucca Valley/ Landers area of the California high desert.

Most people who listen to Radio Misterioso know about flying saucer contactee George Van Tassel and his famous Integratron. What many might not realize is that when Van Tassel moved his family from Los Angeles in the early 1950s, he didn’t just pick the desert at random. His friend Frank Critzer told him about the area and carved out an 800 square foot living space underneath one of the world’s largest freestanding granite boulders. In contrast to his reputation as a retiring hermit, Critzer also graded the roads and built an airstrip to encourage visitors. Critzer was accused of being a Nazi sympathizer (probably not true) and may have provided support to Japanese families hiding from arrest and internment camps during WWII. Barbara expanded on all of this, busted a quite a few myths and revealed much new information publicly for the first time during our interview, which lasted over two hours.

Posted in contactees, forgotten history, Radio Misterioso exclusive | Tagged , , | 10 Comments

Mike Clelland: Hidden Experience

Mike Clelland and I have talked by phone and skype a over the last couple of years, but we thought it might be time to talk publicly about our mutual interests. Mike has a fascinating site called Hidden Experience which he uses to examine his own strange experiences and discuss paranormal issues and synchronicities.

We started out with a report from and commentary on the Laughlin UFO conference. Mike returned from the 2010 meeting with a mixed bag of impressions and memories. While at the conference, he attended an abductee support meeting, which he described in detail.

We also spoke about conversations with our late friend Mac Tonnies. His analogy of a cat chasing a laser pointer and the comparison of humans seeing UFOs occupied us for a good while. This led to a conversation about Mac’s last book The Cryptoterrestrials and how it might affect UFO research.

Mike made the important point that many abduction researchers have agendas that ignore the variety of UFO encounter and abduction experiences. We went on to talk about the experience of the paranormal and how it changes lives.

This interview was recorded on March 7th of 2010.

No interview scheduled this week (8/7). Weird music will occur during your regularly scheduled program.

Posted in abductions, archives, conferences, UFOs | Tagged , , | 5 Comments

Walter Bosley and Richard Spence: Occult Murder from 1915?

About three years ago, Walter Bosley’s background in criminal investigation led him to a century-old series of unsolved deaths. As he looked into the unusual incidents, he noticed that the authorities of the time seemed to have little interest in pursuing any leads or making any real effort to solve the crimes, even though one of the victims was written up in newspapers as far away as Salt Lake City.

Empire Of The Wheel recounts Bosley’s increasing efforts to follow leads based on newspaper accounts, public records, and coroner reports from the autumn of 1915 in an effort to reconcile the unusual spate of unexplained deaths in the burgeoning town of San Bernardino, California. On the way, he and co-author Richard Spence discovered possible links to spiritualist groups, Masons, foreign spies, Aliester Crowley, and even a possible coverup by members of the local establishment at the time. Spence’s most recent book is Secret Agent 666: Aleister Crowley, British Intelligence and the Occult.

Perhaps the strangest and most startling revelation was that the infamous “Zodiac” serial killer of the 1960s may have been using elements of occult geology to plan his murders in the same way that an unnamed person or persons might have been doing at the turn of the 20th century in San Bernardino.

Bosley and Spence do not claim to have solved the mystery, but ask that the questions they raise be considered as hitherto unexamined motivations for the possible murder of at least seven people over a four-month period, which was highly unusual for the time.

Posted in Authors, books, Conspiracies, forgotten history | Tagged , , , , , | 22 Comments

Nick Redfern – Final Events: The U.S. Government and Demonic UFOs

Nick Redfern has been a very good friend for a very long time, and it was a pleasure to welcome him to the program once again to talk about one of his most controversial books.

In short, Final Events and the Secret Government Group on Demonic UFOs and the Afterlife is the story Nick uncovered about a secret U.S. Government group that has been around since the 1950s and who labor under the belief that all UFO and specifically “alien” phenomena are demonic in origin. They are committed to fighting this supposed evil influence over mankind, and if possible, to defeat it.

Nick describes the genesis of this group called the “Collins Elite” which began in the 1950s while background checks were being done on infamous rocket pioneer Jack Parsons and his connection to the “wickedest man in the world,” Aliester Crowley. The group became convinced that Parsons and his cohorts opened some sort of psychic doorway that ushered in the age of flying saucers.

Confused? Intrigued? You’ll be less of the first and more of the second after listening to this episode of Radio Misterioso, recorded on April 17th of 2011.

Note: Neither Nick nor I “believe” all of this wholeheartedly. As Nick says, it is an interesting story and one he wanted to tell after talking to a few individuals in the group.

The photo above was taken when Nick and I visited the grave of Paul Bennewitz in New Mexico.

Posted in Authors, books, Conspiracies, Government, Intelligence | Tagged , , , , , | 21 Comments