Diana Walsh Pasulka – Encounters

Due to be released in November, Dr. Diana Walsh-Pasulka’s second book on the UFO subject is to me is a portrait of the UFO phenomenon as manifested personally among those who are interested in the subject. In this way, it is more of a teaching text than a narrative, as her first volume, American Cosmic was. It examines personal truths about the direct experiences of those who do not get on the news or attend UFO conventions, and how this can tell us more about these encounters on an individual level, where I believe the best understanding of this mystery lies. It also stands as a snapshot of where the subject stands right now; how it is seen and internalized by witnesses, how it is mediated by those with agendas or misunderstandings, and how it might be eventually accessible to all to help us evolve and survive.

Diana spent many months talking to the people she profiles in Encounters. The result is a deep dive into not just the UFO subject, but a real look at the mindsets and approaches to those interested in examining this mystery. Her portrait of space psychologist Iya Whiteley is particularly fascinating, and reveals how carefully listening to the reports and emotions of astronauts and pilots not only saved countless lives, but could also revise the database on UFO reports. The “overview effect” experienced by many astronauts is particularly useful in this regard.

We talked about the need of the humanities and the sciences to look at the UFO subject on equal terms, and the importance of the oral transmission of information, rather than the written word, which is widely used and respected, especially in the space program. And surprisingly, the use of the technique among “invisible college” scientists and academics.

We also discussed another of the researchers in the book, who looks at AI not so much as a threat, but a chance to engage in a learning dialogue with a vast intelligence, and her view that it is an alien intelligence from the future, helping us to evolve into our next incarnation as a human species.

We end with quote from “Tyler D,” character from her first book and his advice about the UFO subject, which was that “We are not meant to figure it out.”

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Thea Wirsching – The Occult and American History

I have known Thea Wirsching for a few months and my respect for her intellect and deep knowledge of tarot and astrology and their place in American History continues to amaze. Her advice and her singular project entitled the American Renaissance Tarot was one of the guides and inspirations for our own Ufology Tarot. She recently gave a fascinating lecture at the Philosophical Research Society about the esoteric roots of Edgar Allan Poe.

We talked about her path to her doctorate in English and her dissertation on the hermetic and the occult roots of American culture, particularly in the 19th century. In academia, she pointed out, “the occult is transgressive” and “conjures up the devil” for many, which made her degree more difficult to accomplish. She said that academics often “do not allow the subjects studied the dignity of their beliefs” and we talked about how this might be changing.

Thea mentioned the African American occultist Paschal Beverly Randolph and his influence on Aliester Crowley and that he quite possibly authored the first vampire novel. He was part of a very real and important brand of American hermeticism that influenced occult movements worldwide, and was disseminated through fiction and writers such as Melville, Hawthorne, Thoreau, Emerson, and Whitman and ended up in the teachings of Theosophy and the practice of Spiritualism (which itself was an American phenomenon which spread worldwide.) These authors and others, as well as significant figures from American history play important roles in the American Renaissance Tarot deck and book.

She emphasized that while U.S. history is filled with triumphs and horrors, that we must look at the negative as well as the positive in order to make peace with it and change for the better.

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Morgan Knudsen – Making the Paranormal Normal

Morgan Knudsen is on a mission to normalize what is commonly referred to as the “paranormal.” For over 20 years she has researched, experienced, and lectured and taught classes on hauntings and psychic functioning. She founded Entityseeker Paranormal Research & Teachings in 2003, co-hosts a podcast called Supernatural Circumstances, and has been featured on countless radio and television programs and has written two books: Teaching the Living, and The Gift of Instinct.

For this first RM show of 2023, we began with the inspiration of her great great grandfather Albert Durrant Watson, who was president of the Canadian Association of Psychical Research in the early 20th century. Morgan’s main goal is to let her audiences know that psychic events and abilities are normal and pervasive. She emphasized that, especially in this realm, we get and experience what we expect, adding, “If people could connect to this in a way that is beneficial, your life really does change.”

We spoke on how many paranormal events happen to people who don’t expect it or don’t care or just when they turn off equipment. Knudsen spoke about the “power of giving up,” adding, “As soon as you let go, you stop the resistance to what’s trying to happen.” She also surprised me with her take on the general reaction of her fellow Canadians towards these subjects, which tends to be conservative and almost dismissive.

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Chris Aubeck – A History of Alien Artifacts

Chris Aubeck’s previous book, co-authored with Jacques Vallée, was entitled Wonders in the Sky, published in 2010. It was a comprehensive examination of aerial phenomena reports from antiquity to the year 1879. His new title is Alien Artifacts: From Antiquity to  1880: The Forgotten Story of How We Came to Believe in Visitors From the Stars. The book describes the long and intricate history of ideas about extraterrestrial worlds and their inhabitants. The examples stretch back to ancient Greece and include the first speculations on the origins of the ancient alien theory, the first ideas of extraterrestrial craft, original accounts of what we would know today as flying saucer contactees, and even the racist origins of ideas about superior beings. Chris says he’s been told that his research is “like drawing back a curtain to reveal a long forgotten history of an obsession we thought was new.”

In his first appearance on the show in over 6 years, Chris described his research into the history of ideas about extraterrestrials in archives. libraries, and the internet, and how he has discovered that “we’ve read so much into it based on our expectations.” Many UFO stories in the 19th century and before were invented as fiction or to sell newspapers and other printed media, but many of them contain quite modern elements, such as ideas about alien artifacts and writing, and even elements of abduction stories. Aubeck says that this is not proof that UFO sightings and encounters are made up, but that we need to look at cultural contexts and antecedents for them to gain perspective. We also discussed the writings of 18th century Swedish mystic Emanuel Swedenborg, and his descriptions of people from other planets that contain many elements that would appear in 20th century UFO contactee literature. Another fascinating tangent was the strange (to us) theory beginning in the 19th century, that meteorites had arrived from other worlds carrying flora and fauna, sometimes still living.

(Song credit: “They’re Here” by Boots Walker)

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Clas Svahn – Archiving The Unexplained

Clas Svahn is a journalist by profession, and also the Chairman of the Archives For The Unexplained, located in Norrköping Sweden. The AFU is dedicated to collecting materials about UFOs, ufology, Forteana, cryptozoology, paranormal phenomena and folklore. It is a nonprofit foundation, and the collections comprise approximately 3.5 kilometers of shelf space in 15 different locations. The collections include over 55,000 books in various languages, 88,000 magazine issues representing 8,000 annual magazines, 650,000 newspaper clippings, 30,000 photographs, films, and tape, vinyl records, as well as memorabilia, scale models, paintings, paraphernalia, posters, clothes, toys, and other items.

Clas has written a book about the archives, entitled “Files of the Unexplained,” which is basically a tour of the archives and some of its rare and unusual holdings. We spoke about the beginnings of the archive, and how Svahn and his staff scour the globe for collections of books and other ephemera. He says he brings in about 2 tons of material every year. Svahn says he “doesn’t take no for an answer” when hunting down obscure material and has even retrieved material from dump sites after relatives told him they disposed of valuable collections. Amazingly, the AFU also holds records of the Scole experiment.

Svahn also told me that he spent a day with famous abductee Betty Hill and learned that she claimed to have seen a UFO crash years before her famous abduction and even to have picked up pieces of the craft.

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Jeff Kripal – The Superhumanities

To me, Jeff Kripal’s new book, The Superhumanities is a call to action and a radical reassessment of not just the humanities, but what it means to be human and the potential of what it could mean. You cannot skim this book. It is one of those rare volumes where every sentence and every word is essential. Kripal also eschews the language of the academy for a style that is accessible to any interested reader. Jack London said that good writing is clear thinking written out. Jeff Kripal’s writing and indeed this newest book is a prime example.

Jeff says that the word “Superhumanities” is a “nerdy expression” that he made up for a segment of the humanities with an accent of altered states of consciousness or altered states of knowledge that have produced extraordinary results in such areas as art, literature, philosophy and activism. These methods of perception and inspiration have been routinely ignored or even suppressed by academia and the sciences. He sees the reason that we hold on to outdated attitudes on the uncanny or paranormal are so “we can have our conclusions.” In other words, the worldviews of many of us (especially in academia, the sciences, or news media) is due to the desire to keep things out rather than challenge assumptions. When we talked about the role of science in looking at anomalies, Jeff came up with a great phrase: “Using science to look for the paranormal is like going to the north pole to find zebras.”

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Michael Masters – The Extratempestrial Model

Dr. Michael Masters is a professor of biological anthropology at Montana Tech in Butte, Montana. His 2019 book was Identified Flying Objects: A Multidisciplinary Scientific Approach to the UFO Phenomenon, which hypothesized that ‘UFOs’ and ‘Aliens’ are our human descendants returning from the future, and which we discussed on RM. His new book, The Extratempestrial Model, analyzes many cases of abduction and other types of contact, as well as other theories that attempt to understand the UFO enigma.

As usual with Mike, we ranged far and wide in our discussions, touching on such subjects as the (in)accessibility of the MUFON database, and the inscrutability of Terence McKenna, but we soon moved into the subject matter of his newest book. Mike argued that the famous “grandfather paradox” of time travel is not true if we use the idea of a “block time” reality, where everything exists simultaneously, and all seeming paradoxes are accounted for: “Everything you did before you left was already there.” He brought up the theoretic concept of “closed timelike curves” which would allow backwards time travel without violating the laws of Special Relativity.

We also touched on a few of the cases discussed in the book and how they apply to the extratempestrial model, such as the recurring contacts of Mike and Leo Dworshak, which they say began in 1932. Mike also theorized about certain points in time existing as “ports” for embarkation, just as they are in space.

In the end, we spoke on the conundrum of how academics and others reach a certain point in the study of UFOs where they cannot go back to all of their old models and denials of the phenomenon.

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Joshua Cutchin – The Ecology Of Souls

Joshua Cutchin’s new book Ecology of Souls: A New Mythology of Death & the Paranormal is a combination of “I knew that” and “How did I not know that?” for me. It seemed that rather than being a rare and ephemeral thing, that placing the UFO experience in the context of something eventually encountered by everyone, namely death, that the seemingly inexplicable is almost normalized.

The title came from a quote by Whitley Strieber’s late wife Anne, who said that the UFO and abduction experience “has something to do with what we call death.” Josh took that concept and unfolded it into a two-volume, encyclopedic work that will be a reference for years and probably decades to come.

We discussed the concept of “psychopomps” and how they are analogous to what we term as “aliens,” the prevalence of animals and beings with animal heads in abduction and close encounter reports, and the idea of the UFO itself as a symbol of transport, such as the boat that carries the souls across the river of death in many mythologies. The research into and writing about these ideas and many others Josh said were “an absolutely transformative experience in many ways with some of the most profound synchronicities I’ve ever had.”

 

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Paul Smith – Remote Viewing: Insight and History

I met remote viewing pioneer Paul Smith at the recent Archives of the Impossible conference in Houston, TX in March. We hit it off immediately and I suggested he come on RM.

Smith has been teaching remote viewing (RV) techniques to the public for longer than anyone in the business. He was recruited to the U.S. Army’s State Gate RV program in 1984 as one of the first class of students under the tutelage of famed psychic Ingo Swann. Paul said that there were no “psychic tests” used for choosing who would be tapped for training, and candidates were chosen for their scores on tests that included questions about their artistic interests and talent. The idea being that a developed right brain/ creative mind would be more apt to possess the characteristics needed. Smith recalled that the US Military was worried that the Soviet Union had spent about $220 million on psychic research before the Americans had even started, and that this was the impetus for Star Gate. The U.S. ended up investing only $25 million over 23 years.

We spoke about the history of Swann’s development of the program from the beginning, and how he “mixed art and science” in his techniques. Smith pointed out that the human mind is very fond of making sense of incomplete input and that the training “gives the left brain something to do that it’s good at,” namely categorizing and logging input and letting the right brain concentrate on receiving sensory impressions and shapes and forms.

We also discussed the history of the RV program and some of the personalities involved, such as Lyn Buchanan, Joe McMoneagle, Ed Dames, and a little-known early RV recruit named Tom McNear, whom Swann called his “best ever student.”

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Photo: Smith asks a question at the Archives Of The Impossible Conference on 3/5/22.

Outro music: “Sacrifice of a Hero” by Paladine.

 

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The Tarot Part of the Ufology Tarot

The interviews so far for our card project have concentrated on the Ufology” part of the process and philosophy of creating these images. In this interview, our resident tarot and occult expert and team member Susan Demeter joined Miguel Romero and I to discuss the symbology behind the artwork and how we are adapting the standard Rider-Waite-Smith deck to tell the story of Ufology and the phenomenon that it studies. We took particular time with the evolution of the “Strength” card, featuring researcher Anne Druffel, and why we chose the symbols for Key 8.

The Kickstarter campaign closes on November 30, so if you have been hesitating to join us, have a look and help out if you want to be one of the few who receive the first 22 cards and a discount on the rest of the deck when it is complete.

We will soon return you to our irregularly scheduled program!

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Introducing the UFOLOGY TAROT!

A small group has been working for over a year to bring a project to light, and it has finally appeared this week as the Ufology Tarot. This stems from an idea I had a few years ago to encode notable Ufologists, witnesses, and cases in a system of tarot in order to honor, examine, and especially connect them with directly with the user/ reader on a level that a simple book alone cannot hope to accomplish.

Joined by my friends Miguel Romero, Joshua Cutchin, Susan Demeter, and David Metcalfe, we met periodically and strategized, debated, and sought out history and sources of information, archetypes, and concepts to make these cards a reality.

In this program, David, Josh, Miguel and I discuss the genesis of the project and the ideas behind it. The program was recorded barely 3 hours after we launched the Kickstarter campaign on October 31st.

Please help us bring the first 22 cards (also known as the major arcana) to life! The 56 minor cards, with more deep dives into the history of the UFO subject, will be available through a separate funding campaign after the first phase completes in about 1 year.

THANK YOU! We are excited to finally share this project with all of you.

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Popup Show – Miguel Romero on “The Einstein of Consciousness”

Jacobo Grinberg-Zylberbaum (1946-??)

In 2019, I told my friend Miguel Romero about the little-known Mexican parapsychologist Dr. Jacobo Grinberg Zylberbaum, but we could find little about him online, except for a few sensationalized articles in Spanish. This year, a documentary on his life, work, and mysterious disappearance in 1994 at the age of 47 was released. Titled “The Secret of Dr. Grinberg,” it is currently making the rounds of the film festival circuit, seeking a distributor. Miguel wrote a review.

Miguel and I spoke about his work and life and the childhood trauma that shaped him, and as a young man, how he met an English spiritualist who made predictions which “shook him out of his materialism.” Grinberg also attended university in New York and experimented with LSD. He even became a colleague of Carlos Castaneda for awhile. In 1985, he attended a conference in Costa Rica with Jacques Vallee, John Keel, parapsychologist Andrija Puharich, and Spanish ufologist Salvador Freixedo, among others. He was referred to by some who knew him as the “Einstein of consciousness,” and developed a unified field theory of consciousness which he called “Syntergy.” We hope a new appreciation will be kindled and continue to grow for this little-known pioneer.

End music is a cover of “Planet Claire” by Spanish musician Aviador Dro.

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Popup Show – Susan Demeter – The Cosmic Witch


It was suggested that I restart the “popup” idea in order to get back to posting shows more often. These programs are about 30 minutes in length and posted within a day of the interview.

Susan‘s latest book is entitled Cosmic Witch, and we discussed the events, ideas, and research that led to its writing. Susan sees definite connections between parapsychology, ghost hunting, witchcraft and UFOs. Near the end of the program, we also talked about her latest blog post on the strange trans-solar object known as “Omuamua” and the possibility that it was artificial, as proposed by Harvard astronomer Avi Loeb.

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Joshua Cutchin and Timothy Renner – Paranormal Bigfoot II


Hello. Nice to see you again.

In this interview with Tim Renner and Joshua Cutchin, we talk about the information and revelations in the second (and final) volume of their “Where the Footprints End” project examining the case for a non-biological Bigfoot. Cutchin and Renner contend that there is far too much evidence that the creature is more ethereal than physical. Tim remarked that anomalous occurrences associated with sightings are fairly common, and often include UFOs, strange lights, and parapsychological phenomena, and which have been largely ignored by mainstream researchers, a term he has dubbed “weirdwashing.” This, both authors agree, is an apparent attempt to make the subject “respectable” and accepted by mainstream science.

Like UFO cases, Bigfoot sightings and encounters often vary in description between different witnesses. Josh pointed out that the image of the creature has changed in the last century, from more of a “wild man” (i.e. a human who lives outside the bounds of civilization) to a more savage portrayal since the mid-20th century, and this actually the opposite of what might be expected. We also talked about some of the stranger aspects Bigfoot/ human interaction such as curious (and often disturbing) reports of apparent mimicry of human speech and phases, the construction of glyphs made from sticks, structures which seem to serve no apparent purpose, and reports of UFOs sighted in the vicinity of Bigfoot activity, the instances of which Tim characterized as being “so many it’s ridiculous.”

The song at the end of the program is “Witch Tree Prophetess” By Tim Renner’s band Stonebreath.

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Joshua Cutchin and Timothy Renner – Paranormal Bigfoot

Josh Cutchin and Tim Renner have just released a book that is designed (and sure) to goose the Bigfoot research community out of its “flesh-and-blood-hypothesis” stupor (the theory that the creature is an undiscovered primate.)

In Where the Footprints End, they have gathered case after documented case of paranormal events associated with Bigfoot sightings, beginning with a dramatic incident  from 1973 where the creatures (TWO of them) were observed in close proximity to a large, lighted object that left a glowing circle on the ground and apparently gave one witness a vision of the end of the world.

We spoke on this case and many others where the idea of the phenomenon as simply an elusive animal is called into serious question. Based on their research, Renner and Cutchin believe parallels with hauntings and poltergeists are inescapable, as well as connections to the world of the dead. We also discussed the strange explanations given for cases of Bigfoot tracks that apparently stop suddenly in mid-stride (hence the name of the book.) Fascinating conversation that is sure to make you excited, upset, or both.

The end theme is by Tim Renner’s band Stone Breath.

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Stephen Finley – The Nation Of Islam as a UFO Religion

Religious studies scholar Dr. Stephen Finley (Louisiana State University) is almost singular in his academic study of the UFO origins of the belief system of the Nation of Islam (NOI.) In the late 1980s, Louis Farrakhan, the leader of the most popular offshoot of the group, announced that he had an encounter with space people on a mountaintop in Mexico, and was taken aboard what he referred to as the ”Mother Wheel,” where he claimed to have met with the deceased leaders of the religion and given the blessing and authority to lead the group into the future.

Dr. Finley joined me to discuss this episode and the tributaries of personalities and events that led to it, and how it has affected the history of the Nation of Islam ever since. We traced the origins of the African American experience that led to this belief system, and his claim that “you cannot make sense of the NOI without looking at it as a UFO religion.” Finley believes that his study “says something about who we are as a people” and that the very act of marginalizing the subject (especially among his fellow academicians) was what drew him to it in the first place.

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Kevin Day – Nimitz UFOs and Beyond


Kevin Day has been interviewed and scrutinized endlessly by the UFO community. He was the Aerial Defense Matter expert and radar operator on the guided missile cruiser Princeton in early November of 2004, when the so-called “Nimitz UFO encounters” occurred. He has also served as Air Intercept Controller Supervisor (AICS/TOPGUN), Anti-Air Warfare Coordinator (AAWC) and Operations Department Leading Chief Petty Officer. In this interview, Day first describes the events of that day, and how they affected those involved. As a radar and detection expert, his opinion is that “the Navy tech allowed us to see something that had been there for a long long time.” He describes his impressions and feelings during the main incident and more importantly, how they have affected his life and outlook in the years following his retirement from the Navy.

Day says that unnamed officials later visited him on his property and declared that he was “incredibly important in what’s about to happen,” implying some sort of scenario where UFOs and whatever operates them would become more well-known and accepted. Day makes no comment as to what these might be. He also reports some possible psychic effects from the incident.

We ended with an extended discussion of his UAP Expedition project, where Day and others such as physicist Kevin Knuth, entrepreneur Deep Prasad, and MIT scientist Rizwan Virk will attempt to attract and record any UFO activity they are able to capture in the area of the original sightings. We had a lot of tech problems for the first 1/3rd of the interview. I have inserted tones inserted at these points in the recording. Thanks to Dave Altman for arranging this interview.

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Shannon Taggart – Séance


Shannon Taggart is an artist and photographer based in Brooklyn, New York.  Her images have been exhibited and featured internationally, including in TIME, the New York Times Magazine, Discover, and Newsweek.

We talked about the release of her photography book Séance, which examines the history, issues, and impact of the Spiritualist movement, birthed in the 19th century and which survives to this day. There are literate and informative essays throughout, illustrated with rare and sometimes quite beautiful images and photographs from the history of Spiritualism and related areas of parapsychology, as well as her own stunning images of séances, psychic readings, and the objects associated with them.

We discussed her introduction to the world of the séance, and her eventual evolution into what she calls a “diplomat of spiritualism.” She also mentioned that some people (particularly urban sophisticates and some in the art world) seem to be interested in the paranormal, “but if you make it too real for them, they turn off.” She also gave us a fascinating insight into the phenomenon known as “ectoplasm,” and reports of the substance smelling like bodily fluids.

One of Shannon’s most interesting insights were her comparisons of photography and Spiritualism: “Through their dance with each other, [they] exposed each other’s limitations. We learned about photography’s complicated relationship with truth, and we learned about Spiritualism’s subjective truth.”

Purchase from the publisher.
Purchase from the U.S. distributor.

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Michael Masters – Neoteny and Time Travel and UFOs


Michael Masters earned his doctorate in Anthropology in 2009 and is on the faculty of Montana Technological University. His specialty is in biological anthropology and evolutionary biology, specifically the study of fossil hominid skulls to trace trends in evolution as well as studies of the eye socket to determine the causes and solutions to visual disorders.

In 2018, he released “Identified Flying Objects: A Multidisciplinary Scientific Approach to the UFO Phenomenon,” a study of evolutionary trends which may lead humans to eventually appear like what we now describe as the popular concept of “aliens,” which is known as neoteny (“the slowing or delaying of body development, compared to non-human primates, resulting in features such as a large head, a flat face, and relatively short arms.”)

The other main premise of his book is that if we eventually begin to look like aliens, there is the possibility that we may be returning from our own evolutionary future and appear as what we know as UFOs and their occupants. We discussed the theoretical possibility that backwards time travel is possible. Masters maintained that the events of the past half century may be very interesting to anyone traveling from the future because of all the rapid changes which have occurred.

Masters also believes that the embargo on UFO discussion may be “just about to pop” and that academics will “be their own disclosure.”

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Miguel Romero – A Visit To Mexico City


From March 10th to the 17th, I visited my friend Miguel Romero in Mexico City. At the suggestion of our friend David Metcalfe, we decided to conduct a live show from the condo where we were staying. Most of the program was a travelogue of the city and surrounding areas, Mexican history, comparative religions, and food. We spoke on our visit to the massive basilica of the Virgin of Guadalupe, the patron saint of Mexico and a true goddess figure in her own right. We discussed the ease with which Mexicans accept both their Catholic/ Spanish history as well as harboring an infinite amount of pride in their indigenous heritage. We also attended a wrestling match (aka Lucha Libre) which is very different from the American version.

We recalled a possible near robbery which we experienced while on a canal touring the infamous “Island of the Dolls,” and the ignorant bliss that was present in the country at the time with regard to the growing pandemic. Miguel suggested that we should “embrace living in a state of eternal surrealism.” He summed up his country as “a place where the fantastic goes hand in hand with daily life.”

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Whitley Strieber – A New World


I had the distinct pleasure of speaking with Whitley Strieber for the second time in as many months. The occasion was the release of his new book, entitled A New World. The work may be the most important in Strieber’s “visitors” saga to date: It outlines exactly who and what he has come to believe these entities are, as well as how they interact with us and their reasons for doing so, and how some people may be able to open their own lines of communication with them.

A couple of years ago, Whitley said he asked the Visitors to show themselves to more people, and that this book was their eventual answer. He said that they “communicate completely differently than us” without “an evolved language.” Strieber’s experiences led him to conclude that they lead an existence that is nearly unfathomable to us, but is frighteningly described as “like being in an empty house where nothing important or significant can ever happen, and you can’t get out,” and that this is why they need our thoughts and sensations of living in a physical world. This, he concludes, is why they seek the “Communion” described in his very first book on the subject. He also recounted his experience of an apparent implanted object in his ear and how he receives communication through it.

We ended with his wish that more scientific and academic people become aware of and engaged with the subject and the Visitors, and how this may already be happening.

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Susan Demeter St. Clair and Dr. Massimo Teodorani – Science Weds Spirit

Susan and Massimo are amazing people. Both have been on the program before; Susan talking about her private research in parapsychological and UFO topics, and Dr. Massimo on his theories of possible sentient plasmas, which he has studied worldwide, including the famous Hessdalen lights . Earlier this year, Susan moved to Italy and she and Massimo were married. They are now involved in projects combining spiritual and traditional modes of knowledge with the methods of science. This literal marriage of science and the humanities and arts is close to the ideals of a recurring theme on this show. I believe that both of them have a rare combination and balance of analytical and creative faculties which are important to an understanding of (presently) fringe subjects. Both have had experiences with the paranormal and it has shaped their methodologies.

My two favorite quotes from the interview will give some idea of why it was so enjoyable and interesting:

Massimo: “Humanity doesn’t need priests; it needs quantum leaps.”

Susan: “I want to provoke, invoke, and eventually measure the phenomena.”

Image: Susan doodled this figure during the interview.

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Deep Prasad – Contact and UAP Expeditions

Prasad and Michio Kaku

I’ll admit that I was not impressed with Deep Prasad when he burst on the UFO scene earlier this year. On Thanksgiving Day (in the U.S.) he tweeted a narrative about a very strange, vivid daytime experience he had with apparent non-human entities on February 1st. At that point, I realized his quick conversion from a quantum computing entrepreneur to UFO player was due to this dramatic life-changing experience. Deep had already agreed to an interview over a week before this tweet was posted.

Prasad’s drawing of his experience.

Our talk ranged from an explanation of the theories and applications of quantum computing (which are being pioneered by his company ReactiveQ), his feeling that the so-called “meta-materials” being touted around the internet as pieces of crashed UFOs may not be provable or useful, at least two other strange apparent “contact” episodes he has experienced, and the ideas behind the upcoming UAP Pattern Detection Expedition, which will attempt to attract and record evidence of UFO activity off the coast of Southern California in the same area as the famous Nimitz naval encounters of 2004.

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Posted in current events, Humanoids, researchers | Tagged , , , , | 10 Comments

Christopher White – A History of Alternate Dimensions


Vassar College Religious Studies professor Christopher White’s book Other Worlds is a history of the western world’s search for extra dimensions and how it affected science, the arts, literature, and spirituality. Beginning with the relatively well-known 1884 book Flatland by Edwin Abbott, Chris describes the rise of science in Victorian England and attempts by some thinkers of the period to reconcile these discoveries with traditional and entrenched religious ideas.

We moved on to Charles Edward Hinton and his elaborate system of cubes which he said would help anyone realize hidden truths about higher dimensions. We examined the late 19th century astrophysicist Karl Fredrich Zollner and his clash with other scientists regarding his belief that he had found a system of laws that reconciled science and spirituality and who also enthusiastically conducted seances. Chris also delved into the visual arts with Russian avant-garde painter and philosopher Kasmir Malevich as well as iconic author JRR Tolkien, who belived his dreams contained hidden truths regarding his Christian faith.

We ended with the advent of television and how it was regarded as an almost magical device when it was introduced and the observation that many scientists and science writers still use mystical ideas and language when writing for a popular audience, and conversely, how those involved in matters of spirit and faith routinely borrow from the language of science.

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2019 Halloween Music Special with Courtney O’Hearn


The tradition continues with more Halloween weirdness courtesy of the ear and research of my friend Courtney. This year, we had a few more long-form songs and another dramatic reading, as well as some detailed background on some of the tunes, and an unkindess of adaptations of Poe’s The Raven. Enjoy and have a scary and funny and weird Halloween – The Most Wonderful Time of the Year!

1 – Lonesome Wyatt and the Holy Spooks – Halloween Is Here (2013)
2 – Borrah Minevitch And His Harmonica Rascals – Ghost Walk (1933)
3 – Jack Turner – Nightmare (1955)
4 – The Zanies – Russian Roulette (1962)
5 – Merv Griffin – House of Horrors (1962)
6 – Bob McFadden – Transylvania Polka (1960)
7 – Gong – Witch’s Song/ I Am Your Pussy (1973)
8 – Prince Buster – Hard Man fe Dead (1967)
9 – C.W. McCall – Night Rider (1975)
10 – Sonny Richard’s “Panics” With Cindy & Misty – The Voodoo Walk (1962)
11 – The Bollock Brothers – Drac’s Back (1986)
12 – Casual Three – Invisible Thing (1968)
13 – Thurl Ravenscroft – Grim Grinning Ghosts (1969)
14 – Ross Brunetti – Three Witches (2006)
15 – Jack Blanchard & Misty Morgan – The Voice (1972)
16 – The Holly Twins – Okeefenokee (1962)
17 – Steve King and the Echelons – Satan is Her Name (1962)
18 – Frenchy – Ribcage Mambo (1998)
19 – David Byrne – Horses (The Ghost Song) (1999)
20 – A dramatic reading by Courtney of “Warren Zevon’s ‘Werewolves of London’” by James Joyce by Anthony Sams
21 – Spike Jones – Two Heads (1959)
23 – The Kirby Stone Four – Raven (1957)
24 – Buddy Morrow and His Orchestra – The Raven (1960)
25 – Lord Buckley – The Raven (1956)
26 – Stonewall Jackson – Never More Quote The Raven (1970)
27 – Alan Parsons – The Raven (1976)
28 – Electric Frankenstein – Coolest Little Monster (1995)

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Alan Stivelman – Witness Of Another World


Alan Stivelman has created a film that shows a new way to examine the UFO subject and more importantly, the witness. Witness of Another World tells the story of Juan Pérez, an Argentinian gaucho who in 1978 at the age of 12, saw something for which he had no concept or explanation, and which continued to disturb him for the next 40 years. Stivelman contacted Pérez and began to delve into his story and his life, in a simple effort to understand what had happened and more importantly, to attempt to help Pérez in some way. The film was the result.

In contrast with most UFO films and documentaries which treat the sighting or encounter as the main subject, Stivelman decided to concentrate on the experience of the witness and how his life was turned inside out. Pérez, who described his encounter as “neither beautiful nor ugly,” was ostracized from his family and community as a result of his experience. He experienced nightmares regularly and retreated to a remote farm to live alone with his issues.

In our interview (Miguel Romero joined me as co-host) Stivelman describes what happened to Pérez, with many glimpses of issues that were either too complicated or left out of the film in the interest of telling the story or for privacy concerns at the time. What emerges is a story of someone who was unwillingly transformed into a man with gifts normally associated with a shamanic individual. Stivelman (along with Jacques Vallée, who appears prominently in the film, and who investigated the case in 1980) spoke at length with Pérez, letting him tell his story in his way. What emerged was essentially interpreted as an initiatory experience by the indigenous Guaraní people of Argentina and Peru, whom Stivelman contacted and arranged for Pérez to visit. The encounter provided him with a perspective from his ancestral roots and transformed him into a person who is more at peace with his sighting and who he has become.

An in depth review by David Metcalfe.

And another by RPJ/ Miguel.

Watch/ order the film.

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Posted in abductions, film, new research | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

Whitley Strieber – A Life of Contact

Anyone who listens to this show knows the work of Whitley Strieber. His 1987 book Communion was a watershed document that made millions aware of the phenomenon of UFO abductions. It defined and codified the experiences for thousands of people, many of whom wrote to Strieber and his late wife Anne with their own stories. His influence can truly be described as “iconic.” To me, he is the best currently active artist dealing with this subject.

In this conversation, we discussed the beginnings of his experiences, indications of what came before, and the deep influence of his wife in framing and presenting his story. We also delved into the enigma of materials supposedly taken from UFO crashes, the brain physiology of abductees, how Anne has apparently communicated with him since her death, and the times that author William S. Burroughs visited Strieber’s famous cabin looking to make contact with the Visitors.

Commenting on the events of his life, Strieber says he has come to believe that “what we see here is another level of human beings who are in control of souls.” His next book is entitled A New World.

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Posted in abductions, Authors, books, Government, influences, occult, researchers | Tagged , , , , , | 6 Comments

Jeff Kripal – Meaning vs. Mechanism

Dr. Jeffrey J. Kripal holds the J. Newton Rayzor Chair in Philosophy and Religious Thought at Rice University. He is also the Associate Director of the Center for Theory and Research at the Esalen Institute. He has authored nine books on religion, popular culture and the paranormal, Including Kali’s Child, Authors of the Impossible, Mutants and Mystics, The Super Natural: A New Vision of the Unexplained (with Whitley Strieber), and most recently, The Flip: Epiphanies of Mind and the Future of Knowledge.

Kripal is currently at the forefront of a revolution in the conversation between the sciences and the humanities. These two modalities of human knowledge are in need of reconciliation, since, as Kripal says in this interview, “a phenomena that can’t be studied without the scientific method does not mean it can’t be studied.” Dr. Kripal also described his personal crucible which set him on a path to understanding and eventually to the study of religion. An early spiritual crisis and revelations about his Catholic background and fellow students at a seminary launched him into a search for meaning.

For too long, Kripal believes, the mechanism of the paranormal (i.e. causes, theories, and hard data collection) have taken center stage in our quest for answers. He sees the experience of the witness as a key to finding the bridge between science and spirit. We discussed the need for a study of the meaning of these narratives and how they change the witness or experiencer.

This was a very enjoyable interview and a great way to return from the Radio Misterioso hiatus. Enjoy!

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Posted in academics, myth, science, spirit | Tagged , , , , , | 8 Comments

Stanton Friedman – Recollections

Lifetime researcher Stanton T. Friedman passed away on May 13, 2019 after over 50 years of writing and lecturing. He was the public face of UFO study for those who knew little about the subject, and a mentor, inspiration, and guru for many inside the sometimes strange world of UFO conventions and gatherings, many of which he headlined. He earned the trust of those on many sides of the issue for his honesty and forthrightness, and was unfailingly thoughtful and polite to all, no matter what disagreements were present.

On February 18 of 2018, I recorded an interview with Friedman in an unused room at the International UFO Congress. In this conversation, he recalled his childhood and love of the Dodgers and Jackie Robinson, and his college and early career as a nuclear physicist for a variety of aerospace companies. He even described a job for McDonnell Douglas which he said assigned him to “figure out how flying saucers worked” but was unfortunately cancelled for budgetary reasons.

Friedman explained his philosophy that “technological progress comes from doing things differently in an unpredictable way,” and ended the interview with his observation that since (as he believed) extraterrestrial civilizations have been able to survive any growing pains to reach us, this strengthened his hope that the human race can do the same.

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Posted in Authors, history, researchers, science, ufology | Tagged , | 9 Comments

Dr. Kevin Knuth – Relativistic Space Travel

Dr. Kevin Knuth is an Associate Professor in the Department of Physics at the University at Albany. He is a former NASA research scientist having worked for four years at Ames Research Center in the Intelligent Systems Division designing artificial intelligence algorithms for astrophysical data analysis.

On March 19th Dr. Knuth gave a presentation at the first Anomalous Aerospace Phenomena Conference in Huntsville Alabama, sponsored by the Scientific Coalition for Ufology. I was there for the talk and knew immediately that he had to be on the show. Knuth’s paper, “Constraints on Societies Engaged in Relativistic Interstellar Travel,” used current relativistic theory to examine the issues faced by a race if they achieve near-light-speed travel.

Chart from Knuth’s lecture.

For anyone who can achieve this level of technology, Knuth says that many possibilities open up: At speeds approaching light, one could travel halfway across the galaxy in just about 110 days of experienced time on a ship, although, according to general relativity, the time experienced to those standing still would be so great that their civilization would have been dead for many thousands of years when upon return.

Knuth points out that, if a civilization became nomadic spacefarers, they would essentially live for millions of years in galactic time, but experience a normal lifespan of 60-70 years on their ships. We spoke about the implications of this scenario for the UFO subject. We also delved into the changing attitude of science toward UFOs and related subjects, and how this has changed with new discoveries about exoplanets and scientists who are beginning to look at data more than entrenched beliefs in a search for greater understanding.

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Posted in academics, science | Tagged , , | 4 Comments

Rich Hoffman – The Scientific Coalition for Ufology

Two weeks ago, I attended the very first Scientific Coalition for Ufology (SCU) conference in Huntsville, AL, just outside the gates of the historic Redstone Arsenal, one of the birthplaces of NASA. The SCU was formed in part to address the lack of sober, analytical methods in the civilian study of the UFO phenomenon.

The conference featured presenters such as Dr. Travis Taylor, who examined the possibility of an extraterrestrial invasion and how humans could react, Dr. Kevin Knuth on the possibilities of sub-light space travel, and detailed reports from the SCU on two recent famous cases (a video of an apparent anomalous object recorded by a Customs and Border Patrol aircraft in 2013, and the Nimitz carrier group incident from 2004.) The keynote was given by Luis Elizondo of the To The Stars Academy. We talked about these presentations and the mission of the SCU, which is gaining traction in the field.

One of the things that Rich said gave me hope: he stated that the SCU would remain small and would encourage cooperation from other small groups to work on differing aspects of the subject. This is all in an effort to lift the stigma that surrounds it and to get “serious people to take the subject seriously,” as one UFO researcher famously said.

Photo: Hoffman speaks at the conference.

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Posted in academics, current events, science, ufology, UFOs | Tagged , , , | 4 Comments

Paul and Jim Kimball – Ghost Investigation for the Rest of Us

Jim (seated) and Paul Kimball on the set of Haunted

I have known Paul Kimball and his brother for over a decade. In that time, I have worked with both of these talented guys on a few projects. The most popular of the programs from their production company is the ghost hunting series Haunted, which until recently, was airing exclusively in Eastern Canada. It has recently become available on Vimeo to the rest of the world.

The show is just the kind of ghost investigation program that I like: non-sensationalistic, thoughtful, and most importantly, the participants have fun while they engage in a serious examination of the locations, stories, and events that they encounter, some of which are definitely creepy.

Jim Kimball is the producer and technical director of Haunted, and has assumed an increasing role in front of the camera as well (#morejim.) He and his brother joined me to talk about their methodology, the logistics of producing a paranormal television series, as well as some of the strangest and most disturbing things they have encountered during production and sometimes afterwards, including the apparent temporary possession of cast member Holly Stevens and a continuing string of synchronicities.

Episodes available here.

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Posted in Ghosts, television | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

Eric Wargo – Time Loops and Retrocausality

Eric Wargo has written perhaps one of the most important popular science books in the last year. Time Loops proposes that future events can affect the past, and provides detailed descriptions of experimental findings that suggest (some would take it a step further and say “prove”) that this concept, called “retrocausality,” is poised to make over physics and other sciences with its implications.

Wargo proposes that dreams are the most basic way that we can experience a peek into the future, and we discussed the dreams and writings of Sigmund Freud as an early, well-documented and prime example of precognition, even though Wargo points out that Freud did not dare suggest that his (and his patients’) dreams foretold the future. When people apparently see events to come (such as the Titanic disaster and 9-11) in startling detail, Wargo says that there is ample evidence to suggest that what is experienced is not a sort of mental travel to the future, but a presentiment of our reaction when we learn about the event (such as reading or hearing about it in the news.)

Wargo also suggested that precognition could be a tool that the human brain has evolved as a defense/ survival mechanism. There were many exciting and indeed controversial issues raised (as indeed they are in his book.) We may be looking at one aspect of a shift in how science is conducted, and that may be the most exciting thing of all. As Wargo said, “anomalies are building up, and that’s when paradigm shifts occur.”

His blog is called The Nightshirt. Check it out.

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2018 Paranormal Year In Review with Tim Binnall

Binnall of America lives! This past Sunday, Tim and I continued the tradition and did a simulcast of our shows to examine and chew on all that has happened in the past 12 months.

We spoke about how the TTSA has, as Tim said, “sucked all the air out of ufology” with their announcements and media blitz. This seemed to be the “year of the UFO” as we had not one, but THREE pilot sightings in the news. Tim asked about aircraft and piloting issues as well as drones, all of which I can comment about with some authority, and how accurate the news coverage might have been.

Three towns in the U.S. have declared Bigfoot their official animal or mascot. We spoke on the rise of the subject in the public consciousness. Speaking of animals, there was a glut of raccoon stories this year. We mused that the masked bandits may take the place of the owl in UFO folklore.

Finally, we spoke of those who have left us in the past year, such as Art Bell, Robert O. Dean, and John Anthony West, all of whom I have had some personal interaction with over the years. At the end of the show, Tim predicted that 2019 will be the “year of the UFO.”

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Posted in all around general weirdness, bigfoot, current events, Radio Misterioso exclusive, Year In Review | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

2018 Weird Christmas Music Special with Courtney O’Hearn

The tradition continues! Courtney and I have scoured the history of Holiday music yet again to bring you the best of the strangest. Here’s the lineup for our 2018 extravaganza. Enjoy and have a great New Year!

1 – Billy May – “Rudolph, The Red-Nosed Reindeer Mambo”
2 – Franklin McCormack – “I like Christmas”
3 – Pearl Bailey – “Five Pound Box of Money”
4 – Johnny Cash – “Ringing the Bells for Jim”
5 – Red Sovine – “Billy’s Christmas Wish”
6 – Steve Martin, Paul Simon, and Billy Joel – “Silver Bells”
7 – Augie Rios – “Donde Está Santa Claus?”
8 – Cheech Marin – “Santa Claus and his Old Lady” (excerpt)
9 – Tiny Tim – “I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus”
10 – Cordell Jackson – “Beboppers’ Christmas”
11 – Patsy Raye & The Beatniks – “Beatnik’s Wish”
12 – Tony Rodelle Larson – “Cool Yule”
13 – The Mushroom Tabernacle Choir – “The 12 Drugs of Christmas”
14 – National Lampoon – “Gift Of The Nazis” Show Promo
15 – Frank Zappa – “Mormon Xmas Dance Report”
16 – Frank Zappa – “Mousie’s First Xmas”
17 – ActionAid Sweden – “Silent Night Goat Edition”
18 – Jackie Beat – “Menstral Krampus”
19 – Worm Quartet – “A Worm Quartet Christmas”
20 – New Order – “Ode to Joy”
21 – Peter Murphy and Tom Waits (impersonated by the band Porn Orchard) – “Christmas Sucks”
22 – Emerald Rose – “Santa Claus is Pagan Too”
23 – David Warin Solomons – “Io! Saturnalia (Hooray, it’s Saturnalia)”
24 – Paul and Storm – “Grandma’s Christmas Dinner”
25 – Guy Llama – “Timmy’s Christmas Bedtime Story”
26 – Fat Daddy Johnson – “Fat Daddy”
27 – Arlo Gurthrie – “Pause for Mr. Clause”
28 – Billy Nayer Show – “Must Be Santa”
29 – A Christmas message from Jack Blanchard read by Courtney
30 – Bounar – “Away in a Manger”
31 – UK Subs – “Hey Santa”

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David Perkins Pt. 2 – Cattle Mutilations as Gaia


Another visit to David Perkins’ home, another interview. Perkins has been studying the mutilation phenomenon longer than perhaps anyone in the world. Starting in the mid-1970s, he was performing field investigations and writing up his findings. Noted mutilation researcher and author Chris O’Brien considers David his mentor and guru in the field (and the next post will feature both of them together in conversation.)

This time, David decided to posit a premise that we could kick around: “The paranormal is a key to understanding consciousness and cattle mutilations are the key to understanding the paranormal.” We explored the permutations of this idea, and how science is beginning to recognize the role of the observer and the participation of consciousness in maps and conceptions of reality. In a wider sense, the Gaia hypothesis contends that the Earth can be seen as a conscious being, and David proposed that one of the ways that the planet is trying to wake us up to environmental damage is though an “unrecognized natural force” that may be behind the mutilation phenomenon. We also discussed mutilations and other aspects of the paranormal as “memeplexes” and how pervasive ideas begin, mutate, and propagate.

Always fun to kick around radical ideas with a seasoned researcher and deep thinker such as David Perkins, but as he says, don’t worry, because “everything I say is a provisional theory.”

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Posted in all around general weirdness, animal mutilations, influences, new research, spirit | 3 Comments

Massimo Teodorani – The Hyperspace of Consciousness

Dr. Massimo Teodorani is an astrophsyicist who uses his scientific expertise to examine issues of consciousness and its relation to the physical universe, as well as the implications of the observed properties of anomalous light phenomena (such as the Hessdalen lights) to the search for ways to create stable plasma states such as those found in fusion reactor research. He is involved in ongoing research about eruptive stars, extrasolar planets and SETI, and lectures regularly at the University of Bologna.

We spoke about his original deep interest in the UFO issue and how almost all the books he read on the subject were so useless to him that he burned them. He traveled to the Hessdalen Valley in Norway and observed the mysterious lights, discovering that they apparently exhibited complicated and evolving structures (one even assumed a rectangular shape.) He mentioned that some plasma phenomena seem to exhibit elements of conscious control, and that consciousness may be an element of structure in the observable universe. These issues are discussed at length in his (now sadly out of print) book The Hyperspace of Consciousness.

Dr. Teodorani is also interested in visionary states and how symbols and experiences from this realm seem to have encoded information that can be useful in practical ways. We spoke about this and ended with a discussion of flight and his music compositions. Teodorani is also an accomplished electronic musician who goes by the name of “Totemtag.”

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Posted in academics, new research, science, skepticism | Tagged , , , | 8 Comments

Chris Lambright II – More On Paul Bennewitz, Secret Laser Research, and The Socorro Incident

Chris Lambright has written one of the only other books (besides mine and one by Greg Valdez) that deals with aspects of the Paul Bennewitz saga, which deal with issues of UFO researchers and what the military will do to misdirect attention. For this second round with Chris, we went a little more into depth about this period in history, discussing what the mysterious objects that Bennewitz photographed might have been, and what the Air Force and others at Kirtland Air Force Base might have been testing. We also delved into the weird orange balls of light that multiple witnesses observed in the Bennewitz home, and the possible technology behind them.

We also went more into depth on the story of John Lear and his sudden appearance on the UFO scene in the mid 1980s, and his immediate impact on research. Chris pointed out his history with the CIA and their covert operations under cover of “Air America” during the Vietnam era in Laos and other countries.

Finally, we talked about his longstanding and detailed research into the famous Socorro incident as well as how some of these threads that reach back to the 1980s and ’90s can be found in the present activities of To The Stars Academy and those associated with it.

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Posted in Government, history, Intelligence, researchers | Tagged , , , , | 4 Comments

2018 Halloween Music Special with Courtney O’Hearn

The annual Radio Misterioso Halloween shows are turning into quite the extravaganza. Courtney “The Ear” O’Hearn once again helped choose the cream of the strange crop for this year’s show. We packed over 100 years of the creepy and unusual into over 2 hours of music and commentary. Enjoy and Happy Halloween!!

1 – !Action Pact! – Gothic Party Time – (1983)
2 – American Quartet – Skeleton Rag – (1911)
3 – Leslie Sarony – Ain’t it Grand to be Blooming Well Dead (1932)
4 – Phil Harris – The Thing (1950)
5 – Salty Holmes – The Ghost Song (1954)
6 – Griz Green – Jam At the Mortuary (ca.1958-60)
7 – The Revels – Dead Man’s Stroll (1959)
8 – Screamin’ Jay Hawkins – There’s Something Wrong With You (1958)
9 – The Vampires – Natasha (from LP “At The Monster’s Ball”) (1964)
10 – Sheldon Allman – Children’s Day at the Morgue (1961)
11 – The Denims – The Ghost In Your House Is Me (1966)
12 – Jim Friss and the Valiants – Serpents and Spiders (ca. 1963)
13 – Boomer & Travis – Foul Owl On The Prowl (1967)
14 – Hans Conried and Alice Pearce – Mostly Ghostly (from LP “Monster Rally”) (1959)
15 – King Horror – Frankenstein (1970)
16 – Desmond Dekker – Dracula (1964)
17 – Bobby Bare – Marie Laveau (1974)
18 – Albert DeSalvo/ Dick Levitan – Strangler in the Night (1967)
19 – Audience reactions to seeing “The Exorcist” (1973)
20 – Tommy Scott & Scotty Lee – Exorcism (1975)
21 – Annelise Michel – Sounds of an actual exorcism (1976)
22 – Tili Tili Bom (Russian lullaby) (2007?)
23 – Excerpts from “The Bad Seed” (1956)
24 – The Fibonaccis – Leroy (1987)
25 – Vincent Price – How To Cook A Small Boy (cut up re-edit) (ca. 1990s)
26 – The Centimeters – I Want A Dead One (1999)
27 – Beanpole – Pumpkin Pickin’ Time (2018)
28 – The Shaggs – It’s Halloween (1969)

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Mike Clelland: The Owl Man

Over the past few years, by design or just by his continuous delving into the connection between anomalous experiences with apparent nonhuman entities and a certain nocturnal avian, Mike Clelland has become informally known in UFO circles as “The Owl Man.” Mike was staying at the house for a few days and I didn’t want to pass up the opportunity to have him as an in-studio guest.

He was in town to give a lecture on ultralight backpacking (which was knows enough about to have written an authoritative book.) For the first 11 minutes, we actually talked about that subject as well as how to construct in igloo before getting into the subjects at hand. We opened with a few little-known facts about Kenneth Arnold (who had a pet owl and was a huge fan of Charles Fort, and experienced mysterious orbs floating around his home.)

He told me the little known issue that many, if not all abductees have a specific number that is special to them, and that is apparently “assigned” during their experiences. We talked about problems with abduction research, of which I am a little more critical than Mike, but then I am not in the middle of that world, and it was valuable to hear his perspective. Our mutual friend, the late Mac Tonnies, suggested that Mike visit as many researchers as possible and see how they differed in their approaches. Among people with unexplained experiences, this is rare.

Mike also discussed his own years of anguish while he tried to figure out what was happening to him, and how the ultimate answer to the enigma may simply be the reconciliation of the personal experience, even if there is no answer to be found for UFO researchers. Mike’s newest book is Stories From The Messengers.

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Posted in abductions, Authors, new research | Tagged , , | 10 Comments

Charles Topham: Psychic Questing and Apported Objects

Charles Topham has nothing to sell, no book to promote, not even a website. He simply has an interesting story with implications for all who look to the interactive relationship between human activity and consciousness and the vast subject we call “the paranormal.”

A few months ago, Miguel Romero (aka “Red Pill Junkie”) wrote to tell me about Charles, and his story of “psychic questing,” which is a concept that is virtually unknown outside of the UK. The basic story is that from the late 1970s to sometime in the mid-to-late 1990s, small, private groups in Britain began meeting to use seances, ouija boards, and other methods in order to locate hidden objects of apparent historical importance, such as swords, precious stones, and documents. The practice is intimately connected with the rich history of English magic and folklore.

Miguel served as co-interviewer as Charles described his interest in UFOs and other out-there subjects from an early age, including apparent communications with non-humans by radio (a’la contactee George Hunt Williamson.) In the early 1990s, he formed a group with a few friends and began their own questing sessions, eventually establishing contact with an apparent entity calling itself “Addie,” who self-described as a young teenage girl of the Victorian era.

Addie began “apporting” objects to the group which responded to the whims of questions from different members, such as photos, books, divination cards, and even precious stones. When I asked Charles early on if there was any chance of fraud, he said “I didn’t see you there,” which was his way of saying “From outside the confines of the group, of course.” We discussed these issues and the fact that hoaxing or faking is an intimate part of much of these phenomena, but does not explain all of it, a concept that is admittedly difficult for some to accept.

I choose to listen without making sharp judgments. Things just seem more interesting that way, and whatever your beliefs, we hope you find Charles’ story worth hearing.

Image above: A Egyptian divination card that Charles says was apported during one of their sessions with “Addie,” and which recently formed the nexus of a personal synchronicity.

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Posted in art, occult, parapsychology, Radio Misterioso exclusive | Tagged , | 31 Comments

Jeremy Corbell and George Knapp: Hunt For the Skinwalker

Jeremy Corbell’s upcoming film based on George Knapp’s groundbreaking book of the same name was the subject of our interview for this edition of Radio Misterioso. The film has generated a great deal of buzz because of the controversial subject.

We went into depth about the history of the property known as “Skinwalker Ranch” and the various owners, incidents, research and high strangeness that have been swirling around the location since the early 1990s. The takeaway from the years of research conducted at the site seems to indicate that there is no one theory or mechanism that can account for all the strange activity observed. From cattle mutilations, eerie lights, shadowy figures, and paraphysical animals, to events and activities that seemed to trigger the phenomena, Corbell and Knapp report that no data-driven report or columns of numbers could solve the puzzle.

My guests also took time to answer some of the rumors that they say have gotten out of hand, such as stories of human experimentation and the idea that anything physical was ever found that could be examined in a laboratory. We discussed the little-known debate between the scientists who were originally assigned to do the first systematic research at the property, and their regrets about roads not taken. We also spoke about the history of government-sponsored research in the area, as well as the new owner of the property and his efforts to continue the work started by former owner Robert Bigelow.

I believe that you will hear things in this interview that have not been discussed elsewhere or previously.

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Posted in all around general weirdness, animal mutilations, Authors, current events, Fortean, Intelligence, new research | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Weird (and Not as Weird) Music with Joshua Cutchin

I’ve been getting requests for another music show and Josh was in town last weekend, so we recorded this one on my phone. Dropped the music in after the fact. A very fun show with one of my favorite guests, and a fine musician to boot.

Tracklist:

Clara Rockmore “The Swan” (Theremin)
Grace Chang – The Habanera from Carmen (L’amour est un oiseau rebelle)
Maria Callas – Habanera from Carmen (excerpt)
Øystein Baadsvik – “Fnugg for Solo Tuba”
Sam Space and the Cadettes – “Take Me to Your Leader Cha Cha”
Jesse and the G-Runs – “Lady Madonna”
Kiyoko Itoh & The Happenings Four – “Lady Madonna”
Michyo Azusa – “Please Please Me”
MC Hawking – “E=MC Hawking”
Brute Force – “Tapeworm of Love”
Brute Force – “The King of Fuh”
Colin Hodgkinson – Kick Ass Bass solo
Bobby Zehm – “Sitar Picking’ Man
The Vandals – “Play That Country Tuba Cowboy”
Paul Anka – “Smells Like Teen Spirit

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Chris Lambright – X Descending, Paul Bennewitz, and the Air Force

I finally met Chris Lambright at one of the Dulce Base conferences in New Mexico this year. Chris has been a researcher since the late 1970s, and is one of those people who do some of the most interesting and important work in the background of the field, away from the celebrity status and TV shows, which is where I think some of the real insights can be found.

Chris has seen the infamous film from controversial UFO researcher Ray Stanford which is claimed to depict one of the clearest images ever captured of an unidentified flying object, and says that whatever it was bears a close resemblance to what a man named Paul Bennewitz was filming at Kirtland Air Force Base beginning in 1979. The Bennewitz story is the main subject of my 2006 book Project Beta. When there is new or overlooked information on the story, I am interested.

Chris says that tbe object in Stanford’s film closely resembles the work of scientist Leik Myrabo and his work in laser propulsion research, and says that Stanford received a visit from Myrabo, who looked at his evidence with interest before starting his project.

We also discussed the timeline of events in the Bennewitz story and how the picture presented in my book may need to be slightly revised based on Lambright’s findings as reported in his book X Descending. Chris is also one of the few people I have met who actually knew and spoke to Bennewitz . He also describes a strange interaction with infamous UFO researcher/ personality John Lear.

Some of the scientists Lambright has uncovered in his research have connections to recent developments in such projects as To The Stars. The interview will be continued!

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Posted in Authors, Government, influences, Intelligence, researchers, ufology | Tagged , , , , , | 5 Comments

Joshua Cutchin – Thieves In The Night

Joshua Cutchin‘s new book is his best yet, and deeply examines the ancient folklore surrounding children who are supposedly taken from their homes and parents by denizens of the “fairy realm.” Don’t make the mistake that he believes in a literal interpretation. He makes this clear in the first interview he gave for the book.

Throughout the interview, one of the themes (as in the book) is that there are very definite parallels between this phenomenon and the “hybrid” lore of UFO abduction literature. These comparisons have of course been made before, but Cutchin’s book also points out the similarities between fairy lore and Bigfoot encounters, as well as the recent focus on wilderness disappearances (think Missing 411.)

We spoke about the “changeling” lore, which holds that children are taken and replaced with a fairy child, which appears weak, sickly, or otherwise “strange” to the rest of the family. Josh pointed out that this tradition was often used as an excuse to ostracize those who were deemed strange or otherwise useless to the community, all too often resulting in cases of infanticide.

He hastens to add, however, that we “do the phenomenon a disservice” by reducing it to mundane explanations. The true nature of this tradition can be best approached by detailed and careful study, such as can be found in Cutchin’s new work, Thieves In The Night: A Brief History of Supernatural Child Abductions.

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Posted in abductions, books, forgotten history, Humanoids, new research, occult, researchers, spirit | Tagged , | 3 Comments

David Perkins – The Long View of Mutilations

David Perkins (AKA “Izzy”) is known to many as Chris O’Brien’s longtime research partner (and “mentor” as O’Brien also refers to him.) Perkins began his interest in the cattle and livestock mutilation mystery from the beginnings of the phenomenon (ca. 1975) in southern Colorado. In the over 40 years he has looked at this strange and at times horrifying issue, he has not come to any hard conclusions about what is going on, although he does have specific ideas about a nexus of all the issues connecting the disparate aspects of this puzzling conundrum.

At first, he thought it was some government program, because of all the helicopters that kept turning up in reports. He has never really considered the UFO/ alien explanation, since the facts he uncovered proved it was too narrow. During the program, we discussed  the concept of a “memeplex,” which is a group of ideas and beliefs that support and play off each other, and which can increase our understanding of how the problem has been compounded by weak explanations and an eagerness to reach a conclusion.

Perkins also considers the mutilation mystery as an example of an “ideoplastic” problem as he believes that it responds to expectations, culture, and researcher bias. He believes an  important path towards understanding can be achieved by thinking of it as a manifestation of “unrecognized forces of nature,” which combine in a way that indicates some sort of directed, conscious purpose that is as yet inscrutable to humans. He compares it to the Gaia hypothesis, in a way that makes Nature itself an active participant, as if we are being sent an undeniable message about how we treat and use domestic animals, and our complicity in the degradation of the environment.

We also talked about how the study of animal mutilations has driven many researchers off the deep end or forced them out of the field altogether, although Perkins concludes that his experience has been “one of the greatest educational experiences I could ever imagine.”

David contributed one of his own musical compositions for the outro music, recorded only two days before our interview, which took place on his backyard patio in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Photo: Perkins struggles with the ancient concept of a pay phone on a Santa Fe street corner.

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Posted in animal mutilations, bigfoot, influences, researchers | Tagged , , | 10 Comments

Chris O’Brien – Moving On

Chris was in Los Angeles last week after running video for the Contact In The Desert event over the previous weekend. I gave him a day to recover and then visited him where he was staying at a house on the cliffs with an amazing view of the Pacific Ocean. Since we were there and I had my recorder, I asked Chris if he wanted to talk about some of his new projects.

He announced his official departure from the Paracast program, which he has co-hosted for almost 10 years, as well as “Out There,” his new podcasting and television venture, and his San Luis Valley Camera Project, which will consist of an automated system to record and document unusual lights and other objects in a world-famous hotspot for aerial phenomena.

Chris announced that he has also received an agreement with researcher Ray Stanford to reveal his technical UFO data, ending years of speculation about the nature of the evidence that Stanford has collected, and if he would ever share it publicly.

A short, but rich conversation. Enjoy!

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Posted in new research, Radio Misterioso exclusive, researchers | Tagged , , | 23 Comments

Aaron Gulyas – Living the Saucer Life

In this short but info-rich interview, Aaron and I started with a discussion about his excellent podcast “The Saucer Life,” which is one promising direction that podcasting seems to be heading: short, informative, and easy to understand for those not familiar with the material. Aaron is a professor of history and has a strong interest in the social history of the UFO subject. It’s always fascinating to examine what kinds of people gather around the topic and why.

We delved into the period of the later 1980s and early 1990s, which Aaron calls the beginning of the “endless commercialization” of ufology. How does information get released by those (supposedly) in the know and how is it consumed, how is it used, and what myths are created and evolved? Along these lines, we recalled the early days of the Art Bell program and how that period laid a lot of the groundwork for the culture as we see it today.

Aaron does not recall ever having any sort of sighting of anything unidentified, but he mentioned that his sister remembers looking out of the window when she was four years old and seeing what looked like a big-headed entity, which bothers him a bit! We mulled over why the extraterrestrial hypothesis is popular and has been since the beginning of the modern era.

Finally, we discussed the intersection between the cultures of conspiracy and UFOs. Takeaway quote from Aaron: “Bad conspiracy writing answers every question.” I would argue that goes for Saucer writing as well.

Above: Aaron during the 2018 Esotericon in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

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Posted in academics, all around general weirdness, contactees, Government, history, Intelligence, pop up broadcast, ufology | Tagged , | 2 Comments

Shannon Taggart – Spiritualist Photography

Shannon Taggart is a professional photographer who also captures images of the ineffable world of spiritualism. A visit to the Spiritualist community of Lilydale in upstate New York and an incredibly specific psychic reading started her on a years-long quest to interface with and photograph the people of the town, their beliefs, and their practices.

The experiences and pictures she was getting surprised Taggart and blurred the lines between documentation, objectivity, and art. Unexpected lights, images, and “mistakes” in her photos called into question whether she was really just a chronicler of the rituals or was beginning to act as a participant and partner. For those used to photography as a form of pure representation, this interview may be either a revelation or an exercise in frustration. As Shannon said during the interview, “photography is a trickster medium.”

Before the show, Shannon described her frustration with explaining her attitude towards the paranormal and encapsulated a perfect approach with the phrase “I take this seriously, but not literally.” This should be a commandment to those who pursue an understanding of the unexplained.

We discussed the history and amazingly parallel development of photography and spiritualism: the first public seances were held less than a mile from the first Kodak facility in New York state within a few years of each other. Taggart also described her working method and how it allows for random events and results to enter the process – which may allow some effects that are meaningful to the subjects of her work. She recently attended a seminar which championed a return to the original methods of spirit photography, even the use of vintage equipment and rituals. She also described one Spiritualist who is using a movement tracker from an X-Box to achieve better results. She also described ectoplasm and her attempts to document this controversial phenomenon.

Finally, we discussed the crossover between her world and UFO study, and how a creative approach may be used in concert with a scientific mindset to explore new areas of research.

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Posted in art, new research, parapsychology, spirit | Tagged , , , , | 5 Comments

George Hansen – The Trickster, the Paranormal, and Liminality

George Hansen is an almost mythical figure amongst those who have a deep interest in the issues discussed on this show. His groundbreaking book The Trickster and the Paranormal is required reading for anyone who wishes to tackle these subjects in a meaningful way. What Hansen proposes is what we call “paranormal” is so fraught with forces and traditions that mean to derail and deceive us at every turn, that we cannot wade into this quagmire without realizing all aspects of the issues that await us. This is not because it is necessarily evil, but because the tradition of the Trickster archetype is present in all cultures (whether some want to admit it or not) and appears to provide a balance to the more structured aspects of culture and even our own psyches by introducing randomness and novelty.

In a wide-ranging talk, we discussed the trickster archetype, how it addresses inequality in cultures, and how excluded elements (such as the LGBT community) are often imbued with this influence. George tells us about his years of research in parapsychology and the history of such groups over the last century. He also talked about his friendship with author John Keel and his New York Fortean Society. He discussed the world of stage magic and how many magicians are not doctrinaire skeptics, and actually endorse some forms of psychic phenomena as currently unexplained. We also touched on how UFO study ignores the trickster at its peril.

There is so much more to unpack in this free-ranging and educational conversation from one of the true originals in the field.

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Posted in all around general weirdness, Authors, Fortean, Ghosts, influences, myth, parapsychology, ufology | Tagged , , , , | 11 Comments