Miguel Romero – Catching Up With Red Pill Junkie

One day, we’ll get Miguel to write a book. He’s certainly heading in that direction as evidenced by this recent conversation on a variety of far-reaching subjects. As a writer for The Daily Grail, he searches out and reports/ comments on the latest in the world of the paranormal, UFOs, and consciousness.

We wandered all over the map here, from possible reasons for UFO sighting “flaps,” the connections to other strange phenomena, how a close encounter changes the witness, and how Ufology might be able to connect the left and right brains with new methods of research. With this in mind, we also discussed what a really good 21st century UFO conference should look like.

We also talked about apport phenomena and his design for the cover of the upcoming contactee encyclopedia A Is For Adamski. Miguel also has a blog and his wonderful art for sale on t-shirts.

Above: One of RPJ’s t-shirt designs.

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Rosemary Ellen Guiley – Pan-Paranormal Issues

Rosemary Ellen Guiley thinks she “came out of the womb writing” and enjoys the process of producing books, which is probably the first time any author has told me this. Guiley is a highly-regarded paranormal researcher with 65 books to her name, that range from encyclopedias of saints and angels, to the divination technique of scrying, to witchcraft, and of course, UFOs. Her new book (co-written with Michael Brein) is entitled The Road to Strange: UFOs, Aliens and High Strangeness. The book features first person accounts of dramatic UFO encounters and includes not only the sighting accounts themselves, but more importantly, the witness’ impressions and emotions during and after, which I believe is very important. We talked about this aspect of emerging research, and how this might be changing UFO study.

We discussed the differences between male and female investigators, and how witnesses react to both. We also brought up the recent controversy over the Chicago mothman sightings and how investigators occasionally seem to enjoy fighting with each other more than the actual research they are supposedly doing. We also talked about her work with an abductee research group (FREE) and how the encounters seem to almost always transform the consciousness of the witness. We delved into the shadow people phenomenon and issues with ouija boards (which is the subject of at least two of her books) and the techniques used in scrying. There was some light debate and discussion on the extraterrestrial hypothesis, and Guiley’s idea that observed alien entities are most likely inter-dimensional beings.

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Posted in abductions, all around general weirdness, Authors, books, Fortean, Ghosts, occult, parapsychology, researchers, ufology, UFOs | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

Dean Radin – Can Science Examine Magic?

I have been following the work of Dr. Dean Radin for over 20 years. In that time, I have been privileged to interview him twice. His new book Real Magic will be released just after this show posts and for me, it is his best to date. Real Magic looks at the history of magic in western thought and practice, and suggests that we can legitimately examine issues and concepts formerly considered forbidden by science, such as manifesting thoughts, fulfilling wishes, and considering the relationship of consciousness to what we know as the physical world.

Radin almost became a concert violinist, but luckily for some of us, he decided to go into the sciences. We spoke about this artistic background and how it affects his research. As his career began to track into the study of parapsychology, Radin realized that there was (and still is) a great deal of prejudice in the academic and scientific communities surrounding the study of psychic phenomena and especially “magic,” although he senses that this is slowly changing. As he points out in the interview, if a system of inquiry does not explain everything in its world, then it is wrong or needs revision.

We discussed what might happen if magical effects were commonplace (he thinks it could  be more dangerous than the atomic bomb) and the idea that any other intelligence in the universe may be waiting for us to make some sort of telepathic contact before communicating with us at all. Radin also answered the question of “if we can control reality, why can’t I manifest gold and diamonds?” He also presented a model of the universe based on information and consciousness, and how to treat an individual who experiences psi functioning firsthand, and has their worldview turned upside down.

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Preston Dennett – The Life of a UFO Researcher

Preston Dennett has been looking at UFO cases and interviewing witnesses for almost 30 years. In that time, he has interviewed hundreds (and maybe even thousands) of witnesses, investigated OBEs and even had his own close encounters. We began (as one does) with his start in the field and his surprise at how many people he knew had seen flying unidentifieds in his local area near Los Angeles. Next we went back and forth on the “new disclosure” and how truthful and useful it might be. We both believe that the Navy is more involved with the subject than most people realize, and that this has been going on for many years.

I asked Preston why he believes the Extraterrestrial Hypothesis is the best theory for UFO origins, and he made a good case for his opinion, although we both agreed that no one theory explains the vast spectrum of evidence.

Preston has delved into many strange cases where a witness to a UFO also has other paranormal events crop up in their lives, such as haunting and poltergeist phenomena. He also described a very dramatic sighting he had with one repeat witness who seemed to be able to either call up objects or know where they would be beforehand.

This was an enjoyable couple of hours with a veteran, open-minded, boots-on-the-ground researcher. His new book is Undersea UFO Base: An In-Depth Investigation of USOs in the Santa Catalina Channel.

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Posted in abductions, all around general weirdness, bigfoot, contactees, researchers, sightings, ufology | Tagged , , | 5 Comments

Nick Redfern – The Slenderman Mysteries

Longtime friend Nick Redfern joined me to talk about his new volume, The Slenderman Mysteries: An Internet Urban Legend Comes to Life. We caught up a bit on recent news and then dove in. The “Slenderman” was the result of a 2009 internet contest to come up with the most frightening character imaginable. The idea escaped from the forum where it was born and took on a life of its own, eventually appearing in fan fiction, photo manipulations, artwork, and even a web series. Children and teens were especially taken with the image and began to believe the entity actually existed. This culminated in an infamous case where two girls attempted to murder one of their playmates in a bid to become minions of the Slenderman.

In the course of research for the book, Nick discovered that things resembling the entity had actually been reported in the area before it was even created. He cited a psychic who, when trying to solve an old murder case, described a tall thin man in a suit carrying a dead child, as well as a group of hunters who reported a sighting of something similar years before the meme took hold. We also discussed the possibility and history of manifested thoughtforms and tulpas, and how the legend may have literally come to life.

In the last 30 minutes, we discussed possible new directions for UFO study and conference presentations that would include many different viewpoints.

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Posted in all around general weirdness, Authors, current events, occult, parapsychology, ufology | Tagged , , | 8 Comments

Peter Robbins – Not As Much UFOs

Researcher Peter Robbins is perhaps best known for his book Left At East Gate, which was enveloped in a controversy that led to a painful process that ended in Robbins disowning the work. He has discussed the issues surrounding this extensively elsewhere.

In other news, his 95-year-old father Allan recently wrote his memoirs, which Peter sent to me as a present. After reading it, I knew we would have a great time discussing the book and the span of 20th-century history which it covered. We even took a few minutes to discuss the history of American comedy and other books written by non-famous people about the times in which they lived.

Since we couldn’t avoid it, we also discussed UFOs and Peter’s experiences while attending the UN hearings on the subject in 1978, as well as his interactions with Soviet reporters as they covered the famous Voronezh incident in 1989. Peter is working on a new collection of his extensive writings and has also embarked on a project about the life and possible suspicious death of the first U.S. Secretary of Defense James Forrestal. We also discussed Wilhelm Reich’s book Contact With Space, and the merits and problems with the extraterrestrial hypothesis.

Above: Peter and his dad. (Credit: Elise Skalwold)

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Posted in Authors, books, comedy, history, researchers, ufology, UFOs | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

Susan Demeter-St.Clair – If We Normalize the Sacred, Will The (UFO) Phenomenon Change?

This was another fun and informative conversation with a researcher who has actually applied some of the methods we have talked about on this show for awhile now. We spent the first part of the program discussing witness-centered anomalies study, and how to gather data which is essentially personal experience and not readily amenable to charts and graphs. Susan suggested that examining the symbolic and folkloric aspects in an extraordinary experience may be a fruitful start. She also believes that good research also comes from a sense of trust between the witness and the researcher. We wondered if looking too closely at the anomalous would cause it to change in basic ways and might remain just out of our grasp.

At my insistence, Susan listed some of her favorite writers and thinkers in the field, such as George Hansen and surprisingly enough, Jim Moseley. We ended with a short gerrymander on ancient pagan practices in Italy and how some of the places named in older texts may still be hotspots for paranormal activity and sightings of strange aerial objects.

Photo: Susan models the latest fashion in non-dogmatic strategy for dealing with trolls.

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Posted in new research, researchers, spirit, ufology | Tagged , , , , | 5 Comments

David Metcalfe – What Lies Beyond the Shining Saucer?

David Metcalfe is a researcher, writer and multimedia specialist focusing on the interrelationship of media, culture, and consciousness. We began the conversation with his deep study of the Santa Muerte belief and its role as an alternative to people who feel that their needs and lives are not in accord with traditional religions. There was a nice segue into the role of mediums of communication and its effect on the message and structure of belief. We also spent some time on the idea that a UFO encounter often permanently changes the mental state of the witness.

We examined the role of the researcher and how much they can be embedded with their subjects and still maintain sufficient objectivity, and whether they should. Then we discussed Metcalfe’s feeling that Jung’s philosophy of alchemy is limiting, because it leaves out important physical aspects of the alchemical process. We thought that this might be relevant to recent discussions of UFO “alloys” or artifacts.

David’s phone ran out of juice and we arranged to finish up at a later date. Of course, we went another hour. I asked about his statement he wrote to me that he “had no idea what lay beyond the shining saucer” in terms of an inspiration and catalyst for personal change. He told me about the work of Conan The Barbarian creator Robert E Howard and his claim that he channeled his story material, much like Richard Shaver. We spent much of the last hour on the motivational speaker/ guru Tony Robbins and his intriguing world, and ended with a few minutes on the legendary self-help book Psycho Cybernetics.

In all, a very fun and detailed 3 hours.

Image is original art by Dave.

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Posted in counterculture, film, new research, researchers, ufology | Tagged , , , | 6 Comments

Anti-Valentine’s Day Music Show with Courtney O’Hearn

My longtime friend Courtney is becoming our resident weird music guru. Just in time for the holiday, we present our “anti-Valentine’s Day” show, featuring murder ballads, breakup songs, songs of frustration and unrequited love, and pure bitching about the opposite sex from all sides of the fence, as well as “answer songs” which poke fun at more well-known hits. Just to show we weren’t complete killjoys and full of unrepentant bitterness, Courtney chose to end the show on a hopeful note.

As usual, we do not censor, and some of the lyrics are not meant for tender ears.

Harry Nilsson – You’re Breaking My Heart
Peter Cook – Bedazzled
Aaron Neville – Over You
Porter Wagoner – Lonelyville
Louvin Brothers – Knoxville Girl
Shirley Collins – The Oxford Girl
Roger Bailey – Did She Break Your Heart?
Joe Tex – Pneumonia
Gene Goza – These Spurs (Are Made For Ridin’)
Teddy & Darrel – These Boots Are Made for Walking
Hunx and His Punx – You Don’t Like Rock ‘n’ Roll
Roy Clark – Right Or Left At Oak Street
Jake Thackray – On Again
Josephine XV – I’m Happy They Took You Away, Ha-Haa!
Earth Girl Helen Brown – Story Of An Earth Girl
Red Ingle and the Natural Seven – (I Love You) For Seventy Mental Reasons
Bull Moose Jackson – Big Ten Inch
Barnes and Barnes – Pussy Whipped
B.A. Johnston – Everyone You Date After Me Is a Sack of Shit
Nora Keyes – Look At You, You’re Ugly
Betty Davis – Anti Love Song
Singing Sadie – Let’s Call ‘er Lil
Randy Newman – Pants
Ivor Cutler – Beautiful Cosmos

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Skylaire Alfvegren – What Is A “Fortean?”

My long-time friend, amazing author, and Fortean Skylaire Alfvegren joined me in a very informal talk about subjects of mutual interest. The interview occurred right around the time of the most devastating fires around Los Angeles and Southern California. We talked about the real definition of a “fortean,” and the fact that you need to have a strong sense of humor if you are going to last in the study of the weird. That led to a discussion of our comedy heroes.

Skylaire recounted a dramatic early morning UFO sighting at Edwards Air Force Base in 1988 when she and her mother were waiting to see a space shuttle landing. She wanted to talk a little politics and internet freedom (or the lack thereof) and our talk drifted into issues of staying pure in goals as a writer. As usual we covered a lot of topics, and hope you enjoy.

Photo: Skylaire at lunch with John Keel. Yes, I took that one.

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Posted in all around general weirdness, Authors, comedy, counterculture, Fortean | Tagged | 1 Comment

Joshua Cutchin – A Trip To Fairyland

Joshua Cutchin has recently completed a manuscript with the working title Thieves In The Night: Paranormal Child Abduction From the Faerie Faith to the UFO Era, due for publication in the next few months. For some reason, we started with a discussion of the recent documentary on Jim Carrey and his portrayal of Andy Kaufman, and this led into reflections about how we find meaning in life.

Then we began a recounting of his personal experiences on his vacation/ tour of traditional Irish faerie sites and what it was like to actually visit these legendary places. Josh informed us why he didn’t wear bright colors and brought food offerings at many of the locations. He pointed out the parallel between the history of reports of encounters with “the good people” (as they are sometimes referred to in Ireland) and bigfoot sightings, as well as unsolved disappearances. We also examined the cross-cultural similarities of paranormal “small folk” around the world. Joshua said that some of the most recent and rich reports have been coming from Newfoundland and Labrador in Canada.

(Pencil portrait by show friend and listener “Rei Toei.”)

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Posted in Authors, new research, occult | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Adam Gorightly – Flying Saucer Contactees In Depth

(cover design by Red Pill Junkie)

Gorightly and I are finishing up a detailed chronicle of UFO contact personalities and cults (entitled A Is For Adamski) which will be released in the next couple of months. It will be a comprehensive overview featuring many previously unpublished and little-seen photos and images. Since Gorightly was in town, we did a “pop-up” show (which are meant to be recorded and posted the same day.)

We started off discussing a little-known and fascinating artist named Paulina Peavy, who said she channeled an alien who helped her with her artwork (see above.) We played a few minutes of her January, 1958 appearance on the Long John Nebel radio show, where she went into a trance and channeled what she said were her spirit guides.

We also recalled the strange case of Karl Hunrath and Wilbur Wilkinson, who disappeared in 1953 after renting an aircraft from the Los Angeles area, after saying they were going to a remote location to meet up with space people. Gorightly then brought up a little-known character named Raymond Broshears, who was on the fringes of both UFO fandom and the JFK assassination, as well as a close associate of contactee Frank Stranges.

We ended with an examination of the 1965 John Reeves case, where the witness claimed that a robot came out of a flying saucer, took pictures of him, and left a paper with strange symbols on it, which was later quickly deciphered by government cryptographers to read: “Planet Mars- Are you coming home soon- We miss you very much- Why did you stay away too long.” The one-to-one relationship of the symbols to the English alphabet was a good clue that source of the message was a little closer to Earth than Reeves claimed.

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Posted in Authors, books, contactees, history, new research | Tagged , , , , , | 9 Comments

2017 Year In Review with Tim Binnall

In what has become a tradition, longtime RM friend Tim Binnall joined me for a year-in-review simulcast. Tim gathers and writes some of the news for the Coast To Coast website, so he’s been on top of all the weirdness all year. For example, we started off talking about a supposed picture of lost aviator Amelia Earhart that surfaced early last year, but turned out to be a misidentification.  The big MUFON scandal was next under the lens. The second hour was taken up with a discussion of the elephant in the room: the New York Times UFO article release, which is coming up on its one-month anniversary.

In the second 2 hours, we spoke about the hot-and-not conspiracy theories and why they have become so popular and even mainstream. Then, we recapped my trip to speak at Roswell for the 70th anniversary this last year. Tim told us about a possible break in the DB Cooper hijacking case, and we ended with a remembrance of Jim Marrs and other authors and researchers who left us in 2017. At the end of the show, I stumped Tim’s Alexa with a few questions that it was unable to answer.

Enjoy the nearly 4 HOUR show. I have inserted a short “beep” at the break between the two segments.

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Posted in all around general weirdness, Conspiracies, current events, Government, scandals, ufology, Year In Review | 3 Comments

Weird Holiday Music Special with Courtney O’Hearn

After our successful Halloween music show, Courtney and I planned this extravaganza. We both cannot take this holiday season seriously, and it shows in our selection of mostly disrespectful tunes. One is VERY disrespectful and very NSFW or mixed company (1:51:46 to 1:57:09.)

Enjoy and happy whatever you have!

Here’s the list:

Root Boy Slim and the Sex Change Band – Christmas at K-Mart
The Count – (All I Want For Christmas Is) My Two Front Teeth
The Residents – Santa Dog
Jeff St Pierre and Phillip Antoniades – Rubber Clause Is Coming To Town
Shittyflute – Frosty The Snowman
Portsmouth Sinfonia – Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy
Art Carney – Santa and the Doodle-Li-Boop
Stan Freberg – The Night Before Christmas
Paddy Roberts – Merry Christmas You Suckers
Homer and Jethro – Nuttin’ For Christmas
Actually Huizenga – Krampus Christmas
Mae West – Merry Christmas Baby
Jingle Cats – White Christmas in Hell (excerpt)
mojochronic – Rudolph (You Don’t Have To Put On The Red Light)
The Christmas Chids – Christmas Helmet
Yogi Yorgesson – Rusty Chevrolet
Lou Monte – Dominick The Italian Christmas Donkey Song
Robert Smiegel – Tingles the Christmas Tension
Heather Noel – Santa Came On A Nuclear Missile
Jack Blanchard – A Weird Little Christmas
GG Allin – The 12 Days of Christmas (Skip if easily offended!)
Tom Lehrer – Hanukkah in Santa Monica
The Monkees – Riu Riu Chiu
Shari Lewis and Lambchop – Some Things For Christmas

Courtney’s youtube holiday music channel is here.

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Dr. Diana Walsh Pasulka – American Cosmic

Dr. Diana Walsh-Pasulka has just finished what will likely be a groundbreaking book on the UFO subject, which will be released in the spring of 2018. American Cosmic tells the story of her journey from religious scholarship to a seat in the forefront of some of the most groundbreaking research and thought in the subject.

She has been embedded with a few researchers who believe that they have anomalous  artifacts that can be dissected to reveal secrets that have real-world applications in aeronautical research. This is of course along the same lines as the recent announcement in the New York Times by the members of the To The Stars group. Some of this research dovetails with a recent trip Diana took to the Vatican libraries and Observatory for documents pertaining to the phenomenon of levitating saints.

We spoke about a car trip in New Mexico, where she and a friend were blindfolded so they wouldn’t know where they were going, and then were shown one of these strange artifacts in situ. We also discussed the effect of technology and how it has taken the place of religion for many people, as well as the problem with UFO data mining. Dr. Pasulka also mentions an essay by philosopher Carl Rashcke entitled “UFOs: Ultraterrestrial Agents of Cultural Deconstruction” (which is not online, but I discussed in a post from 2009.)

In the last few minutes of the show. we spoke about the recent release of the newest Star Wars film and how it resonates with her work, as well as with all of us.

Errata: at 11:05 – Dr. Pasulka says “Post-industrial revolution.” She meant “Pre-industrial revolution.”

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Posted in Authors, books, current events, Intelligence, new research, researchers | Tagged , , , | 7 Comments

Paul Kimball and Dillon Garland: Producing a TV Show About Ghosts

After the successful run of the program Ghost Cases seven years ago, Paul Kimball was tapped to produce an entirely new series (Haunted) with the same co-host. Using what they learned in the last program, Paul and his ghost-hunting partner Holly Stevens use new tech to go even further in their quest to find the answers behind some baffling and startling occurrences. By proximity and default, Director of Photography Dillon Garland has also been subject to some unexplained phenomena.

Paul and Dillon joined me to talk about their adventures, their techniques, and their journey from interested skeptics to, if not “believers,” at least among those willing to consider that there are things that cannot be explained, only experienced. I shared some of these experiences with them on a paranormal investigation a few months ago, and we talked about some of the things that happened that evening. We also played and discussed one of the most eerie examples of an unexplained audio recording that I have ever heard.

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Richard Sarradet – Acting, Alchemy, and the Paranormal

As many of you may know, Rich and I have been friends for over 25 years. He recently went through a bout with cancer, and we thought a house visit while he recuperates was a good excuse for recording a show. What you may not know is that Rich was a working actor in Hollywood in the 1970s and ’80s, appearing on such shows as Lou Grant and as a recurring character on General Hospital. We talked about those experiences, and the mystical aspects of the acting profession.

I had just provided Richard with a copy of the seminal book Morning of the Magicians, and we segued into a short discussion of aspects of alchemy as they relate to the paranormal and UFOs, as suggested in the book. We also talked about the co-creation idea, and his model of how power and influence controls our perceptions. We also spent a long time recalling the work of the late abduction researcher Karla Turner and the strange goings-on around her rural Arkansas home when Richard visited in 1995. He also recalled a UFO sighting he had where a group of lights exhibited the classic “falling leaf” motion.

Note: There were a lot of strange noises picked up by the recorder during this session. This has never happened before. A group of owls made an appearance as well. Make of it what you will!

Best wishes to Richard for a speedy recovery.

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Posted in abductions, all around general weirdness, counterculture, occult, spirit, UFOs | Tagged , , , , | 18 Comments

Jeff Ritzmann – Calling Occupants

The last time Jeff Ritzmann was on the show, he briefly described how almost anyone could initiate their own paranormal (specifically UFO-related) encounter. I wanted him to get more specific, but we ran out of time. This time, he not only got into more detail, he spent much of the program warning those who might try to follow his guidelines that this exercise is not for the faint of heart, and more importantly, not for anyone who doesn’t want their lives completely upset, perhaps beyond repair.

This is because, in Jeff’s opinion and experience, the paranormal thrives in an atmosphere is liminality and chaos, and any serious explorer must meet it on it’s own territory. Jeff warned that anyone who wants to tread into this area must be prepared to lose their jobs, relationships with friends and loved ones, and perhaps their sanity. He was serious about this. Caveat emptor in the strongest terms!

We also talked about the recent Tom DeLonge announcement (which happened the day of our interview), paranoia and perception, and a strange symbol that appeared with no discernible source on a mirror in Jeff’s home, and what famed researcher of “alien writing,” the late Dr. Mario Pazzaglini had to say about it.

Image: Jeff’s amazing design for a Radio Misterioso t-shirt.

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Posted in abductions, all around general weirdness, occult, parapsychology, spirit | Tagged , , , | 8 Comments

Erica Lukes – Ufology: Egos, and Room For Improvement

Erica Lukes has had her own UFO experiences, been through the MUFON wringer as an official for the organization, and conducted original field research over many years, as well as hosting the UFO Classified interview program. On the day that the Tom DeLonge UFO venture announcement event took place, Erica and I talked about the implications of and concerns about the project, which is staffed almost exclusively by former intelligence personnel or those with close connections to the profession.

We then launched into a discussion of the most glaring problem in UFO study: giant egos. We agreed that the research and presentation of findings and sharing information should take precedence. We talked about the worth of a truly skeptical viewpoint and how a more inclusive attitude could very well provide a breakthrough. Perhaps the castoffs from the recent MUFON shakeup will surprise us in the near future.

Erica was in Los Angeles recently, and we recalled some of the locations we visited, including the world headquarters of the Aetherius Society. We also looked at the intersection between UFO study and other so-called “paranormal” pursuits. We ended with a list of Erica’s favorite books and researchers. We started and ended the show with strange music at Erica’s request.

Photo: Erica models the amazing “DO NOT ENGAGE” t-shirt.

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Posted in researchers, skepticism, ufology | Tagged , , | 3 Comments

Weird Halloween Music Special with Courtney O’Hearn

Courtney is a long-time friend who shares an interest in strange music, and we’ve been pushing each other to discover ever more wonderful and obscure sounds and ideas for many years. We gathered lists of our favorite out-there Halloween songs for this show, and I think we came up with some gems. From yodeling ghosts to folk songs about werewolves to the obligatory songs about the Devil, we ranged over a multitude of themes and a range of about 70 years of history. Enjoy!

Rusty Diamond – Skellykins
Allan Sherman – My Son The Vampire
The Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band – Look Out There’s a Monster Coming
Patsy Montana – The Yodeling Ghost
Bob Ridgley – The Way Out Mummy
Fran Allison – Punky Punkin
Micheal Hurley – The Werewolf
Zeke Manners & His Swing Billies – Mr. Ghost Goes To Town
Tiny Tim – People Are Strange
Don Hinson – Riboflavin-Flavored, Non-Carbonated, Polyunsaturated Blood
Vampires Of Dartmoore – Dance of the Vampires
Rod Willis – The Cat
The Surapon Alias Fox – Nang Maew Pee (The Ghost Of Cat)
The Deviants – Billy The Monster
Mick Farren – Bela Lugosi
Jack Blanchard – Dance of the Living Dead Chickens
Kongress – Eyes of the Witness
The Rattles – The Witch
Roky Erikson – Don’t Shake Me Lucifer
Tool – Die Eier Von Satan
Vulgar Deli – In League with Satan
Leslie Fish – Carmen Miranda’s Ghost
The Voluptuous Horror of Karen Black – I Believe in Halloween

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Kenn Thomas – The New JFK Files Release

Kenn Thomas was in town for the last few days, so we took an hour to make a short “pop-up” interview about the impending release on October 26th of the (supposedly) last secret government files on the JFK assassination. Kenn believes that there will be some new information on Lee Harvey Oswald’s suspected visit to Mexico City as part of his connection to the intel community. We also discussed a new letter from Uri Geller saying he will confirm some of the details if they are forthcoming, as he claims to have done some psychic spying in regards to the events surrounding the killing.

We also took the time to discuss Kenn’s new book Trumpocalypse Now! and his contention that the 45th President has used the idea of conspiracies as one of his tools for popularity. He also believes that the idea that Senator Ted Cruz’ father was connected with Oswald actually makes him a patriot rather than a villian (as Trump has suggested) since Kenn thinks they were trying to infiltrate pro-Castro groups, not join them as supporters.

We visited Marilyn Monroe’s grave and completed the last 5 minutes of the interview there, talking about an article by Nick Redfern concerning what she might have known about UFOs and Area 51.

Photo: Kenn also wanted to visit the grave of actor William Frawley, so I took him there.

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Susan Demeter St. Clair and Robert Brandstetter – Reframing the Debate II

Another in our occasional discussions of the book UFOs: Reframing the Debate was conducted at a park and in a pub in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. I was visiting for a few days and both Susan and Robert were amazing hosts and made sure I had no reason to be alone or bored.

We delved into the merits of the criticisms of the book and how our colleague Micah Hanks has called for renewed attention to altered states of consciousness and how this is important to the study of anomalistic experiences. We also talked about the difference between an unexpected, sudden experience and one that might be considered an “altered state.”

Continuing the witness-centered theme, we debated the merits of the internal vs. the external narrative of a weird encounter and how language and telling the story changes the initial experience. I was challenged to defend my co-creation hypothesis and how that might change with multiple witnesses. We also looked at the idea that strange encounters may either be encoded in the DNA across generations, or give individuals a propensity for this. We ended with a back-and-forth on liminal states and Susan shared some of her own.

This was a very fruitful discussion at the sort of high level that always excites me.

Apologies for the occasional quality issues in the first 43 minutes. I tried to filter out all the wind noise, because I felt this interview was too important to lose.

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Posted in all around general weirdness, Authors, influences, new research, occult, Radio Misterioso exclusive, sightings, ufology | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Royce Myers – The UFO Watchdog

When Royce Myers went to a UFO convention in the early 1990s, Mexican UFO promoter Jaime Maussan informed him that stars were parts of vast alien “motherships,” which were moving slowly across the sky every night. This (and other experiences) convinced him that some (or many) of those who are studying and promoting UFO study might not be looking at the subject with a logical mindset. He believes that the situation has gotten worse since then.

With that in mind Myers founded the UFO Watchdog site in 1998 to investigate and document abuses of trust and lapses of logic and sanity in the field. In 2003, Myers was sued for libel by UFO personality Sean David Morton. Nothing that Myers had published on his site was found to be untrue and Morton was ultimately ordered to pay Myers’ $16,000 in legal fees. We talked about this and the recent sentencing of Morton and his wife for attempting to defraud the IRS out of $4,800,000 and various private citizens of thousands more.

In the 1900s, Myers also investigated UFO sightings and cattle mutilations, and spoke  about some strange and inexplicable situations and reports he received. In the last half of the show, we also talked about other recent scandals and issues in the field, such as the Stan Romanek story and the Peruvian mummy controversy.

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Catching Up With Tim Binnall

Time to catch up with Tim Binnall of Binnall of America and a long time friend and supporter of this show. This program was recorded in early August, before fugitive and itinerant psychic and scam artist Sean David Morton was caught and jailed to await sentencing, after his relatively lengthy 61 days on the lam. We discussed that situation and moved on to the mysterious Armen Victorian, who was a peripheral, but noted personality in UFO circles in the 1990s. I recalled the strange phone call I received from him.

The late researcher and author Jim Marrs had a distinct influence on Tim’s entry into the field of conspiracy, the paranormal and other aspects of the strange. He was Tim’s first interview and opened this season of his podcast, which is one reason why Tim has decided to stop producing the show and move on to other projects (after Marrs’ recent untimely death.)

At the end, we spent a few minutes on the East Coast Paraconference.

Photo: Tim at the Aetherius Society world headquarters in Hollywood.

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Miles Lewis – The State of the Paranormal

My longtime friend Miles Lewis and I always have lots to talk about. This time, we started out with a story I read recently that dealt with people taking megadoses (meaning 1000x the normal amount) of LSD and how they might be short-circuiting their brains. With that out of the way, we discussed the new book on Gef, the Talking Mongoose and our recent trip to the Roswell 70th Anniversary festivities and conferences.

The talk roamed through a discussion of faked photos and the Stan Romanek drama before taking a detour into the subject of wishing machines. Then, Miles told me about his experience with a torturous mystery “hum” that plagued him for 26 days, and the community of people who hear various anomalous (and long-term) tones and hums.

I asked if he wanted to move on to the MUFON “death spiral” as he calls it. He also talked about his many years of experience with the organization at the local level and how this is sometimes very different than the public perception of the group. There was a bit of talk on the scandal of selling confidential results and records of abductee research.

For a bit of hope, we discussed how people can create new networks of detection, reporting, and study of UFOs.

Photo: Miles speaks at Roswell, 2017

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UFOs and Ghosthunting – Post Paraconference 2017

What do ghosts and UFOs have in common? That’s not a setup to a joke, as we found out at the third annual East Coast Paraconference, which took place in the lovely town of Liverpool, Nova Scotia over the weekend of August 11-13. Organizer Linda Rafuse gathered an eclectic group of researchers from a variety of paranormal disciplines to present their newest findings to a crowd of open-minded attendees.

Micah Hanks, Ryan Sprague, and myself represented the U.S. and Paul Kimball and Chris Styles appeared for the Canadian home team. Both nights of the conference featured a ghost hunt event at the local Queen’s County Museum (which also co-sponsored the event.) The first night was quite an active one, with a few different events that even shook my own paranormal neutrality. Some of the events are described here, including a possible contact with the spirit of Mac Tonnies, of all people.

On returning to Halifax and Paul’s production office, Paul, Micah, Ryan and I discussed the events of the weekend, the ghost events, and the similarities and differences between UFO research and other forms of paranormal study.

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James Clarkson – The End Of UFO Study as We Know It

This year during the Roswell festival, I was privileged to have dinner with James Clarkson and his wife Joanne. I found them charming and intelligent, and with a lot to say about the state of UFO research. Clarkson recently quit his post as Mutual UFO Network (MUFON) State Director for Washington. In this interview, we discussed what caused this break, and what might be done to reform the organization, if that is even possible at this point.

Clarkson believes that the board of directors is no longer dedicated to the “scientific study of UFOs of the benefit of mankind,” and has changed into primarily a moneymaking operation. He also recounted years of neglect of members who gave much time, effort and money to the cause, only to be ignored and unrecognized. Here is their 2015 tax filing referred to during the program. Clarkson also took the time to describe a completely crazy case that he was assigned to follow up due to bad filtering from headquarters, and a surreal visit to the JZ Knight/ Ramtha compound. Knight is part of the MUFON “Inner Circle” and may be its most generous supporter.

Clarkson also talked about his look to the future with a newer, smaller organization which he says will be based on the idea of “UFO investigation with integrity, discretion, and sensitivity.” We also took time to speak on his research into the amazing story of June Crain, who worked at Wright Patterson Air Force Base during the Roswell incident.

Photo: Sitting next to Clarkson at the 2009 UFO Crash Retrieval Conference (lower center.)

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Roswell Roundtable 2017

Two weeks ago, I gathered together a group of friends in our hotel room at Roswell, where the 70th anniversary festivities had just concluded. I was joined by Peter Robbins, Jack Brewer, Nick Redfern, Miles Lewis, and Adam Sayne to discuss the events of the weekend, and other UFO-type issues.

To start off with a bang, Nick described his run-in with a neo-nazi, for which I was present. There was a small debate about the Travis Walton incident, with some insight from Peter on the background of the episode. There was a discussion of the timeline of the Roswell events. Nick pointed out that the view of UFOs in 1947 was much different than we conceive of it now. Adam read contemporary man-on-the-street comments from the local paper that were gathered less than a week after the event. Peter described attending a United Nations presentation on the UFO subject in 1978, which featured speeches by Stanton Friedman, J.Allen Hynek, and Jacques Vallée.

We went around the room and those who had given presentations at the conventions offered a summary of their lectures, which led to a segment on government involvement, which is a specialty of Jack Brewer’s. Nick told about his interaction with Tom DeLonge and we ended with a critique of the concept of UFO disclosure.

Photo: Someone improved the elevator at the hotel.

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Posted in Authors, conferences, Government, history, Intelligence, Radio Misterioso exclusive, researchers, skepticism, ufology | Tagged , , , | 5 Comments

Paul Kimball – Returning to Old Haunts

Last Sunday, I wasn’t planning to to record a live show, mainly because I was all the way out in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada attending researcher/ writer/ filmmaker and friend Paul Kimball’s wedding. Since he wasn’t leaving on a honeymoon right away, Paul actually suggested that we do the show live from his office. He’s dropping back into the UFO biz a little bit, so we got him up to speed, although it appears that he is already well on the way.

Recently off a provincial election, where he came in a respectable second in a field of five candidates, and about to continue location shooting for his new ghost hunting show Haunted, Paul took the time to comment on the recent release of (so-called) “MJ-12” documents, the recent scandal at MUFON, as well as some of the more exciting, mysterious and even creepy occurrences on the set of the show. At the end, we also had time to discuss the subject of skepticism, the value of open sources, and not jumping to conclusions.

Photo – Paul and Mr. Blueberry, Oxford, Nova Scotia.

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Lon Strickler – MUFON Scandal, the Chicago Mothman, and Smelly Ghosts

During the upset in the ranks of MUFON a couple of weeks ago, I noticed that researcher Lon Strickler had taken the lead in exposing the strange and vicious racist comments of one of the organization’s inner circle. We started the show with a discussion of the issues surrounding this defining period.

Strickler is better known as an investigator and chronicler of all manner of strange crypto and paranormal phenomena though, and we launched into a discussion of the recent spate of “mothman”-like encounters in the Chicago area as Lon listed the particulars of many sightings. I didn’t know that there was a history of interest by the Federal authorities in Bigfoot sightings, but my guest recalled his own experience in 1981 when he saw the legendary “Sykesville Monster” and described an apparent rapid response team that took over the site after telling him to leave.

I also asked Lon about his interest in the Pennsylvania Powwow, which is a folk healing tradition that traces its origins to colonial America. We moved on to the bizarre 2002 disappearance of Todd Sees in rural Pennsylvania and Strickler’s theory that it is a UFO abduction which ended in death, and which may have been covered up by the local authorities.

We ended with an account of a ghost sighting in which Strickler was left with a cloying and persistent odor of honeysuckle on his body after a close encounter with an apparent spirit entity. The smell stayed with him for a week and drove his wife and co-workers away.

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Reframing the Debate Roundtable #1 – What Are We Reframing?

Susan Demeter-St.Clair, Miles Lewis, and Miguel “Red Pill Junkie” Romero joined me for the first in a series of discussions with the authors of this recently published book. For the first hour or so, we kicked around ideas and themes that are mentioned in the text. We agreed that none of us needed to be exactly in accord in order to move the subject forward, in fact the fact that many of the essays represent opposing views is exactly what should be happening.

Miguel asked an important question that showed how our point of view has changed throughout the history of the subject, and how we should be aware of shifting reference points when looking back at classic cases. Each of the guests discussed their essays in detail. Susan is studying the parapsychological aspects of UFO sightings and Miles advocates for a deep multidisciplinary approach, while Miguel essentially asks anyone involved in this subject to look at their own motivations as an opportunity for personal growth.

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Robbie Graham – Reframing the Debate

On Saturday, May 27th, a new book entitled UFOs: Reframing the Debate was released. Fourteen writers (including myself) are featured therein, with essays on everything from UFO study as a religion, to the changing definitions and methods of scientific inquiry, to capitalism and flying saucers, to UFOs as a path to personal enlightenment, and of course the all-important witnesses and their testimonies. Many of the authors featured in it have been (or will be) guests on this show.

Robbie and I recorded this interview partially as our personal statement on the project. He rarely speaks publicly about the subject, but opened up on the reasons for his interest, and a little about his first book Silver Screen Saucers. Robbie also describes his initial enchantment with the standard “alien” explanation and how he began to move away from this restrictive view.

We delve in to each essay in the book and why it is important for readers to digest all of the offerings, and not just the ones they agree with, since the entries were chosen specifically to reflect as wide a variety of viewpoints as possible. Robbie’s tagline for the book is perfect: “It is a slap in the face of Ufology, delivered with love.”

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Is “Arrival” The Perfect Alien Movie?

The film Arrival, based on the novella “Story of Your Life” by Ted Chiang has already achieved legendary status. Both the film and story explore ideas of time, language, communication, and alien life. Since these are themes dear to this show, we convened a panel of fans/ authors to discuss the film in depth. By a strange coincidence, all of my guests are featured in the upcoming essay collection entitled UFOs: Reframing the Debate, and this is the first time that they have all appeared together.

MJ Banias, Joshua Cutchin, Red Pill Junkie, and first time RM guest Ryan Sprague joined me to kick around themes and ideas presented by Denis Villeneuve’s film, and how they inform and comment on pop culture, its predecessors in film and TV, and even the UFO issue, or at least how we study it.

The conversation veered from the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis (which posits that your language determines your reality,) to the tricksterish aspects of the aliens in the film, and even to the varieties of how we experience inspiration. We also responded to listener comments during the program.

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Nick Redfern – Throwin’ More Rocks At Roswell

In 2005, Nick Redfern released Bodysnatchers in the Desert to a storm of shock, controversy, and whining. It took the Roswell story and turned it on its head be suggesting that the events of 1947 were caused by the failure of diabolical experiment in aerospace medicine using balloons, advanced aircraft, and unfortunate human test subjects.

Last week, the sequel to that book The Roswell UFO Conspiracy: Exposing A Shocking And Sinister Secret was released. The volume takes the information presented in the first title and provides more evidence to suggest that human experimentation and use of sinister Japanese and Nazi experiments on “endurance” was utilized and covered up by the U.S. in the years just after WWII.

Nick talked about his original sources for the story, how it would have been highly unlikely for them to have collaborated, and more supporting evidence that has come to light in the last 12 years.  We also discussed how the facts of what was reported, or at least has become part of the story (the indestructible metal, the hieroglyphs, and the debris field) may have become confused or conflated by witnesses and investigators over the years.

The final word may never be forthcoming on this “creation myth” of modern UFO lore, but as we discussed on the program: 1) We have to look at the possibilities of what was likely and at least consider that there may be a mundane (albeit distasteful) story behind the Roswell incident, and 2) The UFO research community has hung too much of their modern credibility on this case, and this may make it impossible to look at it objectively.

Photo: Nick in Roswell, 2007.

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Posted in alternate history, Conspiracies, forgotten history, Government, history, Intelligence, new research | Tagged , , , | 4 Comments

Susan Demeter-St. Clair – Witness-Centered Anomalies Study

Susan Demeter-St.Clair came to my attention by way of the forthcoming book wherein we are both featured authors. Demeter-St.Clair argues that the high-strange aspects of UFO (and other) encounters, in addition to perceived psychic phenomena are the path to a more rich understanding of this part of human experience.

Susan can trace her own weird experiences back to childhood, and we spoke about her sightings of little figures that resembled elves, and her later perceptions of a wolf entity that seemed to comfort her. The encounters ended when she became a teenager and then came flooding back in the form of an unequivocal UFO sighting when she was 23 years old. She feels that this background helps her when interviewing witnesses, since she can empathize with their plight and put people at ease so more of their story can be told. We both agreed that researchers need to engage with the phenomenon in some way for any progress to be made.

She lamented the ghost research community’s fixation on the “DPH” (Dead People Hypothesis) which she thinks is just as limiting as the ETH (ExtraTerrestrial Hypothesis) in the search for understanding and possible breakthroughs. We also talked about the late Jim Moseley and loss of his sense of humor in the UFO field. We also agreed that peer review in UFO study seems to consist mostly of online troll attacks.

Photo: Susan in Los Angeles at an exhibit on Alchemy.

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Mike Marinacci – California Jesus

Based on an interview I conducted with my longtime friend Mike Marinacci in early 2105, I was contacted by a representative from Ronin Press about him possibly writing a book consisting of the entries from his Caifia’s Children blog. Fast forward to 2017, and the wonderful California Jesus has just been released.

We spoke about this genesis and the weird characters who have arrived in California over the past couple of centuries to peddle their brands of Christianity, which have ranged from the simply strange to the downright frightening and even illegal. William Monéy, the man who published the first English language book in Los Angeles (with a Spanish translation alongside the text) also performed such stunts as having himself buried alive to prove his faith and religious authority. (He screamed immediately to be let out as the dirt fell on top of the box he was in.)

We also examined the birth of the modern Pentecostal movement in a small house near present-day downtown L.A., Bebe and Thomas Patten, upon whom later televangelists modeled their acts (Thomas berated parishoners for large donations and then said that the Almighty wanted him and his wife to have a big house and shiny new cars) and even the scandal-ridden life of Thomas Jeffers, who was involved with white supremacist groups, weird (for the time) sex scandals, and who spent his life in and out of jail cells.

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Podcasting Vs. Broadcasting

Due to negative comments about a recent show, I felt obligated to examine a few issues with this program. The gist of the comments were that Radio Misterioso was “unprofessional” and should beware of interviewing friends, so of course I had to get a couple of friends (Josh Cutchin and RPJ) on the program to discuss any merit to the criticism. The main point was that podcasting is not broadcasting, and that the audience for a podcast is interested in hearing a conversation rather than a formal interview. Josh pointed out that Radio Misterioso is a bit of an echo chamber, which is fair and which I shall remedy.

We moved on to a discussion of how to democratize UFO and anomalies study, and how the internet has become perhaps the most insidious echo chamber. We also discussed how a talk on Roswell could bring anything new to the table with some interesting suggestions from both guests. Echo chambers within echo chambers!

Photo: Cutchin and RPJ appear in public together.

Posted in new research, Radio Misterioso exclusive, ufology | Tagged , , , | 12 Comments

Paramania 2017

From April 6th to the 9th, a small group meet called “Paramania” was held in Los Angeles. Fans of Radio Misterioso and Tim Binnall’s Binnall of America podcasts gathered to listen to short presentations and tour the L.A. area. The motto of Paramania is “We promise nothing,” because there are no guarantees except that people will be able to meet and talk to each other and a few authors and researchers who may attend.

I hosted this years meeting and 15 people showed up from all areas of the country and even one (Red Pill Junkie) from Mexico. On the final evening, we gathered in listener Steve Ray’s hotel room to broadcast a live program. The participants discussed tulpas, the secret space program (with author Walter Bosley, who was with us) as well as online questions from the audience. One of the group (Zach Copley) had left for home already, but in a first for Radio Misterioso (and perhaps in podcasting) he listened to and then called in to the program from 30,000 feet using the wifi signal on the airplane.

There was drinking and revelry, but also some interesting and intelligent conversation, which is what happens when you get a group like this together. Please inquire at the RM Facebook page if you are interested in being added to the group list. Much filtering and editing was required to get this recording into a format that was acceptable, so please excuse any technical issues.

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MJ Banias – Paradigm Shift

I’ve been aware of MJ for a couple of years now, but on the occasion of the upcoming May release of UFOs – Reframing the Debate, a book in which we are both featured, we started to talk and decided an interview was inevitable.

F0r the first 20 minutes of the conversation, we actually discussed issues with my Co-creation hypothesis idea, and MJ pointed out some issues with my nascent theorizing. He correctly remarks that it attempts to bridge the gap between the ET hypothesis and the so-called Psycho-Social hypothesis of UFOs.

MJ is actually an investigator for MUFON in Canada and he discussed the value in talking to witnesses and the frustration he has with the organization, particularly the paperwork, which he sees as restrictive. We also delved into the idea that UFO study is philosophically different than other paranormal pursuits such as cryptozoology and ghost hunting in that the entities behind it (if there indeed are any) are in a different category. As he put it, “Aliens can take over the world, Bigfoot and ghosts cannot.”

Posted in new research, researchers, skepticism, ufology | Tagged , , , | 10 Comments

Jeff Ritzmann – Active Participation in the UFO Enigma

Ever since my conversation (with Jeremy Vaeni and Tyler Kokjohn) about the singular Project CORE, I knew that Jeff Ritzmann was someone that didn’t just complain about the state of research, but was actually taking active steps to delve into some of the more unhrealded and esoteric areas of UFO study. I was recently reminded about his new endeavour (Project Oculus) which attempts to document strange lights and other goings-on in his home.

We spoke about the aims of CORE (such as asking supposed abductees different questions than usual, for example “what was your life situation before and after your experience”) and the difficulty of describing your position on these subjects to most people once you get beyond a certain point in your studies. Jeff also discussed his concept of paranormal experiences occurring in “liminal” spaces and periods – Places and times that are transitions from one state to another. He believes the best way to stop unwanted encounters with strangeness is to make your life as routine and predictable as possible: The normal is anathema to the paranormal.

We also delved into Oculus and what he hopes to accomplish with the project. At the end of the program, Jeff described how to possibly create your own UFO sighting (or perhaps something similar) but warned that people should probably not try it.

 

Posted in abductions, new research, occult, researchers | Tagged , , , , , | 13 Comments

Chris O’Brien – Investigator’s POV

Chris may hold the record for most appearances on Radio Misterioso, dating back over 10 years. Since that first talk, we have become friends, mainly because he refuses to be pigeonholed as a researcher or in his opinions.

He described the UFO tours he conducts in the Sedona area, and although he guarantees nothing, says that about 1/5 of the tours actually result in apparent sightings of unexplained aerial phenomena. He described his approach to the tours and how he “deprograms” his audience about what they think UFOs might be.

We spoke about language, culture, and media and how it affects what people think they see and experience during a paranormal encounter. He also mentioned his theory that UFO activity seems to increase in this country during military drawdowns and when the party in the Oval Office changes. Also discussed: How we could possibly put ourselves in a state of mind to experience the paranormal, the futility of trying to explain where a researcher may be coming from, and a strange cattle mutilation that occurred close to a rancher’s home while he was watching a herd slowly circle something in a pasture. As always, a great “inside baseball”- type talk with an experienced researcher and author.

Photo: Chris grabs my drone out of the air near Sedona, AZ.

Posted in animal mutilations, Authors, new research, researchers, sightings | Tagged , | 8 Comments

David Weatherly – Manifested Thoughtforms and Other Important Stuff

David Weatherly is known as an investigator with a wide-range of interests and expertise. We met last year at the International UFO Conference and found that we had similar views on many paranormal topics. What I admired about him was that he seemed to have no set agenda and had no problem discussing any theory or idea. He is perhaps best known for his book The Black Eyed Children. It is because of this that we didn’t mention the subject at all. He also written other books on paranormal entities and publishes a Bigfoot studies journal called Woodknocks. His newest, Haunted Toys, was released last month.

We sat in a couple of comfy chairs in my room at this year’s conference and explored ideas about manifested thoughtforms (also known by their Tibetan name: tulpas) the Philip experiment, bigfoot as a physical being with paranormal abilities (something I hadn’t considered before) and his investigations of ghostly disturbances at the Ripley Museum in Florida. He is as thoughtful and non-dogmatic as they come in this field, and that is rare.

Photo: David at the Travis Walton phone booth near Heber, Arizona.

Posted in all around general weirdness, bigfoot, Fortean, Ghosts, occult | Tagged , , , | 5 Comments

Aaron Dabbah – Evolution Favors the Paranormal

My first and only (so far) in-studio interview at my new place (my desk at home) was with Aaron Dabbah (also known as “EsoterX.”) As I say somewhere in this program, his writing makes me feel like I am learning about something that I don’t want to. In this episode, we talked about folklore as an early warning system, skeptics vs. believers (who often have the same ego motivations for their opinions) and the “phantom clown” phenomenon considered as a chaotic trickster manifestation (such as the mudhead kachina pictured above.) Later in the program, we took an extended sidetrack into writers whom we admire. He lives in town, so we’ll be talking again soon.

The post title refers to Aaron’s contention that if we weren’t supposed to see paranormal things, then the ability should have been evolved out of our brains by now.

Posted in all around general weirdness, Fortean, Ghosts, skepticism | Tagged , , | 4 Comments

Alejandro Rojas – Let’s Talk About That UFO Video

On January 5th, writer Leslie Kean released a story at the Huffington Post about an infrared video of a seemingly mysterious object traveling through Chilean airspace on November 11, 2014. The images were captured by a camera mounted on a helicopter of the Chilean Navy. They gave the video to their official UFO investigative group (the CEFAA) to study and see if the object could be identified. They declared it unidentified and passed the story on to Kean.

On January 6th, using the information provided in the article, a preliminary analysis by  the skeptical group Metabunk guessed that the object was a passenger aircraft departing from the Benítez International Airport in Santiago. Being a licensed pilot, I took an immediate interest in this case. By January 7th, after going through all of their analysis points in detail, I found that I agreed with virtually all of their findings and said so at the RM facebook page. On January 17th, Kean magnanimously wrote a follow-up article that basically said she and the CEFAA were most likely in error.

Alejandro spoke about this saga, and how it is another lesson for the UFO community and interested parties. I offered my observations about the skeptical explanation, and we discussed how it became obvious very early on how the assumptions made by the Chilean authorities were wrong. Later, we asked who are the “authorities” we listen to and how we determine that they actually are authoritative.

In the last third of the program, we discussed the upcoming International UFO Congress, the speakers, and their subjects, some of which are surprisingly progressive for a major gathering.

Image credit: Metabunk.org

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BOA – Radio Misterioso Simulcast: Weird 2016 In Review

Old buddy Tim Binnall of Binnall Of America called and suggested we continue the growing tradition of our year-in-review shows. “Great idea!” I said. Among other subjects, we covered UFOs in the election and how the subject may be in a fallow period entering into the next administration (but due for a possible renaissance from within) the Creepy Clown Panic of the summer, and all the celebrities that seemed to have left us this past year. There was also some discussion about the Chilean UFO video story that had just broken the week before. That and a whole lot more. Enjoy and Happy New Year!

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Red Pill Junkie – Paranormal Overlap, UFO Study, and a Film Called “Arrival”

Ever since Josh Cutchin hipped me to the imminent arrival of Arrival, I’ve been waiting eagerly to see it. Radio Misterioso friend Red Pill Junkie and I had seen it within a few days of this show, so all the ideas were still fresh. We began with by looking at how anomalies and UFO research are changing for the better in many ways. The barriers between bigfoot researchers, cyrytozoologists, and those interested in psychic phenomena seem to be falling, even in the mainstream groups. We discussed the value of smaller groups and the need to work with people you may not agree with, but trust implicitly.

The themes in Arrival provide many helpful suggestions for UFO study. It points up how language creates our perceptions of time and reality, and how we are prisoners of our assumptions. We also discussed how an awareness of alternate perspectives may ultimately save us from ourselves. We ended with the concept that an idea has to be alive in people’s minds and evolve to continue to be useful.

The show is one long spoiler, so don’t listen if you haven’t seen the movie yet. As of this posting, the film has fallen out of wide release.

Photo: Me and RPJ find the UMMO symbol is universal.

Posted in film, new research | Tagged , , | 3 Comments

Weird Holiday Music with Joshua Cutchin

ufotreeThis year, I decided to have a partner on the holiday-themed wacky tunes show. Author and musician Josh Cutchin is an aficionado of strange music, and he brought along a nice crop of weirdness for the 2016 edition of this Radio Misterioso tradition. We started with Porky Pig (or someone who does a very credible impression) singing “Blue Christmas,” and it went downhill from there! We also featured three Yogi Yorgesson tracks, and a cover of “Please Daddy Don’t Get Drunk This Christmas” by John Denver. Merry Happy!

Songlist:

“Porky Pig” – Blue Christmas
Mark Pitta – Jingle Two Times
Mel Blanc – The Hat I Got For Christmas Is Too Big
Two Anti-Drug PSAs from Porky Pig and Foghorn Leghorn
Patrick Donohue – I Want To See A UFO For Christmas
Yogi Yorgesson – I Was Santa Claus at the Schoolhouse for the PTA
Yogi Yorgesson – I Just Go Nuts at Christmas
Yogi Yorgesson – Rusty Chevrolet
John Boy And Billy – Christmas Balls
Insane Star Wars Christmas Music Box
Robert Smigel – Tingles The Christmas Tension
John Bongiovi – R2-D2 We Wish You A Merry Christmas
Steve Martin/ Paul Simon – Silver Bells
Robert Earl Keene – Merry Christmas From The Family
Portsmouth Sinfonia – From the Nutcracker Suite Op. 71a
Bob Rivers – I Am Santa Claus
John Denver – Please Daddy Don’t Get Drunk This Christmas
Shari Lewis and Lambchop – Some Things For Christmas
Bob Rivers – Oh Christmas Tree
Mojochronic – Yuletide Zeppelin

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Wren Collier – Thinking About Thinking About

pisces-1907-jpglargeWren Collier has an amazing blog called Liminal Room where he addresses such ideas as alien anatomy, time and causality, and if an extra-human intelligence is capable of controlling us. These are weighty subjects which I believe go right to the heart of the anomalous, since the way he looks at them forces us to take a step back and look at how we look at things rather than assuming that we are separate from our environment.

In this mind-wringing episode, we had fun talking about how we see, understand, and process information. Wren is sharp and I had to keep up, which made this a lot of fun. We compared AI to ET and wondered if AI is going to go out of control and become our robot overlords. We also had a light debate about the individual capacity for learning. Wren talked extensively about a book called Amazon Beaming, which is the story of a professional photographer who was stranded in the Amazon with a tribe who apparently communicated in some sort of non-verbal language.

He will be back on the show.

Posted in abductions, new research, parapsychology, Radio Misterioso exclusive | Tagged , , | 4 Comments

Binnall, Gulyas, Kimball on a Rooftop at Midnight

timaaronpaulAfter the wonderful East Coast Paraconference, Paul Kimball put us up for one night in a haunted hotel in his hometown of Halifax, Nova Scotia. Before the event, he took us on a guided tour of the province, including a pilgrimage to the alleged UFO crash site in Shag Harbour. Sitting on the roof of our hotel, we discussed the events of that weekend and just about anything else that came to mind while we had a few beers and Tim tried to get a hookup on Tinder. We also talked about who can claim the title of “most influential ufologist,” praised the organizers of the conference for their non-dogmatic stance, and apparently annoyed some other guests of the hotel. Aaron also performed his soon-to-be-famous impressions of legendary UFO researcher and Men In Black originator Albert K. Bender.

Photo – Shag Harbour crash site visit with Tim, Aaron, and Paul.

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Josh Cutchin – The Brimstone Deceit

brimstone-deceitFollowing on the heels of his groundbreaking A Trojan Feast (about food encountered in UFO and other paranormal experiences) Joshua Cutchin has recently released his second book The Brimstone Deceit.

We started off with a little shop talk about writing books and how great it is to see something you have been working on for so long finally show up in reality. Josh told me the funny story of how he came up with the title and we jumped into a discussion about smells and UFOs and other weirdness. He says that sulfur compounds are some of the easiest smells for the human nose to detect, which seems not entirely coincidental when it is traditionally connected with negative encounters and evil. The smell connects many seemingly disparate phenomena (such as UFOs and Bigfoot.) Something definitely wants to be noticed. He also mentioned the phenomenon of witnesses who have a strange encounter and carry around a weird odor for the rest of their lives.

The part of the show were taken up with gushing about the movie Arrival and what it might be like (the show was recorded a couple of months before release.)

 

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