Paratopia ep# 48: The Jer shows some Binnall love

This holiday season, Paratopia welcomes Binnall of America’s Tim Binnall. Together, in an uncensored, informal chat, we roast exopolitics over an open fire for your listening pleasure. Aaaaaand some other stuff. Also for purposes of listening pleasure.

Things children see

From The Shadows has an interesting article about the things people saw/experienced when they were children. Mostly shadow people. It's very interesting to me because I can recall seeing a number of oddities before I turned ten (and some afterward).

In elementary and middle school, my friends and I would sit around in a circle, recalling the bizarre experiences we had when we were toddlers. Experiences that vanished the moment many of us inched towards puberty. From then on, it has been my belief that children have a view into the world we have become desensitized to as adults.

Most of us grow up and expect Hollywood to scare us. We forget there was a time when the world showed us just how scary and unknowable it really is. So, needless-to-say, I think this is a very interesting topic of the paranormal kind. Children do see things, and their parents either dismiss it as the work of an overactive imagination, or a very disturbed kid.

How people raise their kids is their business, but the day my five year old tells me there's a strange man in the closet... I'm moving.

Stanton Friedman @ BOA (Holiday Special)

Full Preview: We kick things off by finding out what Stan has been up to since last year's Holiday Special and he gives us a teaser of his upcoming book Science was Wrong. He talks about some of the "incorrect science" that is covered in the book such as the saga of Ignaz Semmelwies and the many previous false proclamations about the limitations of flight. This segues into Stan weighing in on Climate Gate.
Moving into UFO discussion, we get Stan's thoughts on Ufology pioneer Dick Hall's passing this past Summer. He also reflects on some of the disagreements that he had with Hall over the years and also shares an instance where Hall's criticism of Friedman's work on Shoot Them Down led to Stan improving the research into the book.

Peter Davenport @ BOA

One of the hardest working researchers in all of Ufology, Peter Davenport, returns to BoA:Audio for a discussion on the National UFO Reporting center and the world of Ufology. Peter will provide us with updates on his move to a decommissioned missile site in Washington state as well as what has been going on with the NUFORC since our last conversation three years ago. We'll revisit how he became director of the NUFORC in 1994, how the hotline has changed in the last 15 years, the pros and cons of both the emergence of the Internet as well as cell phones, his dealings with other UFO groups and the issues surrounding sharing of case reports, the woeful coverage of UFOs by the mainstream media, and some noteworthy trends and cases from the last few years. We'll also hear about Peter's 1997 meeting with government officials who were very interested in the information he's collected at the NUFORC. This re-telling of the fascinating event is a must-hear for any serious student of Ufology as it provides an amazing potential glimpse into the government's stance on UFOS.

Gizmodo explains the Norwegian Blue Light Phenom

Norwegian astronomer Knut Jørgen Røed Ødegaard says it's 99.9% safe to say that it's a rocket out of control, while some newspapers and TV channels are quoting Russian military sources, confirming that this is a failed Bulava missile launched from a nuclear submarine in the White Sea.

The Norwegian defense has confirmed that, even while they have not admitted the failure, the Russian Navy alerted them about the tests prior to the giant spiral appearing in the skies. And if that wasn't enough to convince everyone, here are two images of the missile trails being blown away by the wind, at dawn:

Check out the gallery here.

Norway Spiral (Update)

Firstly, can I just say I love NEW SCIENTIST. I wish I could write for that publication of 'bad-ass-scientific-awesome'. I'd be extremely happy. Um. Yeah. So... about that blue Norwegian Spiral.
Anyhoo...

This is what 'they' had to say about it:

It looked like a time-travelling vortex fit for Doctor Who, but a strange spiral observed in the skies above Norway on Wednesday morning was actually a failed Russian missile launch, says a Harvard astrophysicist who monitors space launches.

Gosh those Astrophysicists are sooo smart. If American Colleges weren't so expensive,
maybe I'd be one by now. Maybe.

Strange pic of the day!

A Jet stream @ Saturn's North pole that forms in the shape of a Hexagon. It never
changes. It's a freakin' hexagon! Like... how?

Cattle mutilations in Denver

Firstly, let me just say, I love cheeseburgers. I don't condone the crazy shit
that it takes to turn out my beef patty, because let's face it, Cows are living
things. So I prefer not to think about it, which probably makes me just as bad
as the men who sit there, day and night, pulverizing the poor beasts. So, yeah
even though I enjoy an occasional burger, this cattle mutilation phenomena just
doesn't sit well with me. At all. Something sinister is afoot. I just don't get
how the past few decades have seen no new answers to this mystery. Animals are
still found drained of blood, missing organs and it's just so sketchy and out-
of-place that to NOT consider it bizarre would be, well---bizarre.

It happens at night. Tongues are extracted. Sometimes it's the calfs that suffer.
The younger ones. I don't get it. I really don't. I could sit here and think about
it all day and still not be able to come up with one logical explanation for it.

72-year old Manuel Sanchez is no stranger to the cattle mutilations in Denver. They
happen on his ranch. You can watch the video of Sanchez explaining, in depth the
goings on at his place here.

As for the few who think this is the work of Extraterrestrials and UFO's, this is
not even remotely cool. It doesn't make me think, "Wow! They must be so, so
intelligent! Maybe they can cure cancer!" Instead, I'm thinking, "Once they
graduate from Cows, they better not come looking around my neighborhood."

Sinister.

Blue Spiral Mystery over Norway

Dear Diary,

Yesterday a vortex opened up and everybody saw it and no one knew what it really was.
Not even the military. Not sure if anything came out, but if I don't write in a few
days, that means something did, and it wasn't anything good.

Mac Tonnies remembered @ The Paracast

I meant to post this a while ago.

Mac Tonnies remembered.

Susan Kornacki @ Paratopia

Jeremy Vaeni and Jeff Ritzmann talk to Susan Kornacki. Here's a brief description of the show, courtesy of Paratopia.podbean.com.

The preeminent Emotional Intelligence expert Susan Kornacki begins by explaining emotional intelligence and why it’s important, but soon divulges how she became an expert in this field. She puts it all on the line by admitting publicly for the first time that she is an experiencer. What follows sounds like it could very well be a best-of episode of Paratopia:

–UFO vists at 3:00AM

–Ayahuasca journeys

–Experiences with “grays” changing over to experiences with “enlightened” human types wearing hooded cloaks.

–The connection between experiencers and spiritually advanced meditators.

Joshua P. Warren @ BOA

Tim Binnall does it again. Great interview.

We ease into our conversation by first talking about the genesis of Joshua's L.E.M.U.R. organization which dates back to the mid-1990's, well before the "paranormal group" boom of the last decade. He reflects on how the creation of the group was primarily based on necessity and actually generated quite a bit of controversy in his native North Carolina. We then move on to find out how Joshua first got interested in esoterica and he shares a truly amazing story of how his grandmother's brother literally vanished, out of nowhere, during the Great Depression. He also talks about his remarkably young start as a writer and how it led to his present career as one of the most prolific researchers in esoterica.

We move on to discuss Joshua's latest book: The Secret Wisdom of the Kulkulkan and he gives us a thumbnail look at what it covers. The thumbnail culminates with Joshua giving us his take on what he thinks the whole 2012 phenomenon is all about. This leads to some discussion on the commonalities between various esoteric phenomena and how there appears to be some kind of unified field theory of the paranormal that we are very close to figuring out. This turns into a discussion on how there does appear to be more blending of esoteric genres in the last few years and that perhaps the old method of specialization is beginning to subside.

Our conversation then turns towards Joshua's research into "pet ghosts," or what he likes to call "phantimals." Joshua explains why he began using the term "phantimals" and talks a little bit about some of the strange animal elements explored in his book Pet Ghosts, such as the apparent ability of some creatures to sense impending death. This segues into Joshua talking about the need for more studies of animals with regards to paranormal abilities, such as psychic skills. This leads to some speculation about whether or not such testing has been done in underground, "black" departments.