The Paracast Newsletter
February 16, 2025
www.theparacast.com
Time Expansion, Cosmic Consciousness, Near Death Experiences, the Mysterious Sources of Creativity — All Explored by Author/Senior Lecturer Steve Taylor on The Paracast!
The Paracast is released every Sunday and available from our site, https://www.theparacast.com, your favorite podcast app, and the IRN Internet Radio Network. All episodes from 2022 and later now feature better audio and fewer ads. We are also re-releasing some of our most popular classic episodes.
WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU HAVEN'T SIGNED UP FOR THE PARACAST+ YET? PLEASE SUBSCRIBE TO THE PARACAST+ SO YOU CAN SUPPORT THE SHOW AND ENJOY THE ULTIMATE PARACAST EXPERIENCE AT A SPECIAL LOW PRICE! We have another radio show and we’d love for you listen to it. So for a low subscription fee, you will receive access to an exclusive bonus podcast, After The Paracast, plus a special version of The Paracast with all the ads removed, when you join The Paracast+. We also offer a special RSS feed for easy updates of the latest episodes on your device. Episodes for subscribers to The Paracast+ are now released 24 hours earlier. Flash! Take advantage of our lowest rates ever! Act now! It's easier than ever to susbcribe! For the easiest signup ever, please visit: https://www.theparacast.plus
This Week's Episode: Gene and cohost Tim Swartz feature author Steve Taylor, a senior lecturer in psychology at Leeds Beckett University, and the author of several best-selling books on psychology and spirituality. The main focus of this interview is his book, Time Expansion Experiences: A Psychology of Time Perception and the Illusion of Linear Time. The book’s main focus is time phenomena, including those involving Near Death Experiences, along with possible cosmic consciousness sources of creativity. He is a past chair of the Transpersonal Psychology Section of the British Psychological Society, and his previous books include The Adventure, Extraordinary Awakenings, The Clear Light, The Fall, Out of the Darkness, The Calm Center, The Leap and Spiritual Science. They have been published in more than 20 languages, and Taylor regularly appears in the media in the UK, including Radio 4’s Prayer for the Day and the BBC World Service. He also writes blog articles for Scientific American, The Conversation and for Psychology Today. Eckhart Tolle has described his work as “an important contribution to the shift in consciousness which is happening on our planet at present.” Taylor lives in Manchester, England, with his wife and three children and his website is: www.stevenmtaylor.com
After The Paracast — Available exclusively to Paracast+ subscribers: Author and senior lecturer Steve Taylor speaks with Gene and cohost Tim Swartz about his ongoing research for a book that covers the history and psychology of The Beatles. He reveals that one of John Lennon’s most popular songs came to him, reportedly, by channeling from an outside source. Gene retells his two experiences that, indirectly, involve Lennon. And what about reports of such psychic experiences as precognition? Taylor’s last book is Time Expansion Experiences: A Psychology of Time Perception and the Illusion of Linear Time. He is a past chair of the Transpersonal Psychology Section of the British Psychological Society, and his previous books include The Adventure, Extraordinary Awakenings, The Clear Light, The Fall, Out of the Darkness, The Calm Center, The Leap and Spiritual Science. They have been published in more than 20 languages, and Taylor regularly appears in the media in the UK, including Radio 4’s Prayer for the Day and the BBC World Service. He also writes blog articles for Scientific American, The Conversation and for Psychology Today. Eckhart Tolle has described his work as “an important contribution to the shift in consciousness which is happening on our planet at present.” Taylor lives in Manchester, England, with his wife and three children and his website is: www.stevenmtaylor.com
Reminder: Please don't forget to visit our famous Paracast Community Forums for the latest news/views/debates on all things paranormal: The Paracast Community Forums. And look for @theparacast on Bluesky Social, Facebook, Threads and X.
So Do Most People Have Paranormal Encounters?
By Gene Steinberg
I think of a question the late UFO author/lecturer, Stanton T. Friedman, would ask his audiences on a regular basis. During his lectures, he’d ask them if they ever saw a UFO. So lots of hands went up, but it was not as if he was tallying the exact numbers.
He’d then ask how many of them actually reported the experience to anybody, and most hands went down.
According to Stan, this response was repeated over and over again, predictably. People might experience something unusual and either take it in stride, become panicked, or perhaps somewhere in between. I believed him, because I observed it a few times while attending his lectures over the years.
But is such a thing something you should report to anyone?
I suppose that depends. Perhaps you might notify a family member or friend. But what if they aren’t the sort of people who’d give you a fair shake — or would be freaked out by that sort of revelation? Maybe it’s better to just shut up.
Well, so long as you don’t have any negative side effects. Regardless of the nature of the encounter, and the situations can get mighty dicey, you might have recurring nightmares. It may change your personality in different ways. For example, you might become a totally different person, constantly fearful and always in fear of something that might be lurking behind the door.
Or you might become what amounts to an evangelist, spreading the positive and fulfilling message of the Space Brothers to change our ways, give up the tools of war, and live in peace. Unfortunately the people who are most often contacted are just plain folks who have little or no influence on public attitudes. You might as well be tilting at windmills.
And, of course, there are those cases involving the so-called “hitchhiker effect,” where poltergeist and other paranormal events follow the witness, especially to their homes.
In any case, I doubt that we can know what percentage of the population of Earth has encountered the unknown. Even when there are polls, there’s no guarantee that people will be upfront about their personal experiences. Even when confidentiality is assured, why believe them? Not in this day and age where personal secrets are regularly disclosed online.
But sometimes one may find the details of paranormal events in surprising places.
So while searching for a new apartment — one where maintenance didn’t take two weeks to repair or replace a broken dryer — I inquired about a nearby rental. The lease management suggested a suitable unit, one close to the covered parking, meaning I’d have to walk less when carrying large packs of bottled water.
When I visited the office, the representative asked me what I did for a living. In response, she told me about the ghost in one of their offices. She even presented her smartphone with a photo of a shadowy figure behind her desk.
As soon as she offered the rental at a special reduced price, I, of course, said yes.
Six months later, I have seen no paranormal beings, or haven’t noticed any. I asked the lease person about the ghost in the office, but she says it hasn’t returned.
As regular listeners and readers of this column know, my encounters with the unknown have been sparse. Or maybe I wasn’t paying attention.
So when I co-sponsored a UFO convention in 1975 — my first and last effort at staging such an event — some of my cohorts told me of seeing a nighttime UFO. But I was busy collecting tickets and playing host. I didn’t have time to consider other possibilities.
Now this wasn’t a classic UFO case. It was little more about a strange light in the sky, but the witnesses were experienced at this sort of thing. One of them even did a stint in the U.S. Air Force, so they would not be easily fooled.
On another occasion, I was visiting a friend back in the late 1960s. He told me of a recent sighting, which resulted in a “hitchhiker effect,” where some sort of invisible entity followed him home and did some nasty stuff. Some of it was so sensational, I was asked not to disclose it without permission. I was asked to use discretion.
In my own life, I’ve told the story of those recurring nightmares that I suffered from between the ages of 8 and 10. While asleep, I would see a large dark object closing in on me, at which point I woke up in a cold sweat. For a couple of weeks during this period, I sensed the odor of burnt sulphur as I walked around the Brooklyn, NY neighborhood in which I resided. And we all know how that offensive odor sometimes triggers a paranormal experience.
In my late teens, I was walking with a friend around the neighborhood when he said he saw a UFO. I looked up in the sky and didn’t observe anything more sinister than a decorative cloud formation. Maybe I missed something?
Some months later, he brought up the subject again, at which point I apologized that I failed to see anything interesting other than those clouds. He suffered in silence, but soon stopped being my friend. I never saw him again.
There was the time in the early 1970s when, at 3:00 AM, my wife at the time, Geneva, awakened me to tell me she saw a “water elemental” in the corner of the room to my left. For some reason we had decided to sleep on a first floor mattress. that night There was a proper bed upstairs.
Not having my glasses or contacts on, I looked over at the corner to which she pointed and saw nothing. Or maybe their was a vague sense of a shadow. Half awake, I went back to sleep.
But when I asked her about it years later — long after we divorced — she denied knowledge of any such thing.
It doesn’t amount to much.
But as with most people, I suspect, I have had a few incidents of coincidences or synchronicity over the years. A notable example: I was working at a radio station in Charleston, SC when I did something that ran afoul of the warnings I had received when first beginning my stint there. Management told me not to do anything that would upset the powers-that-be in that city. But when my supervisor, the news director, asked me to dig up some news that day, I accidentally discovered a list of pending personnel promotions at the city manager’s office.
Being the proper journalist, I ran the story, and the news director delivered a more inclusive account soon thereafter. But the next day, after the politicians in charge complained about my “scoop,” I was out of a job. In other words, I found myself unemployed for being a proper journalist.
As I looked for a new gig, I signed up for unemployment. But the opportunities were sparse, until unemployment ran out. On the day when I received my final check, the general manager of a radio station near Philadelphia called and offered me a news director position at a big increase in salary.
Just in time.
I could go on, but I’m sure many of you can come up with even more coincidental or synchronous events in your lives.
Long and short, I am decidedly not a paranormal experiencer by the traditional sense of the phrase. At my advanced age, I do not expect that to change anytime soon or ever.
So there you are.
On the other hand, should I ever confront the unknown, I would probably welcome the encounter. Well so long as it has a positive outcome.
Copyright 1999-2025 The Paracast Company. All Rights Reserved.
Privacy Policy: Your personal information is safe with us. We will positively never give out your name and/or e-mail address to anybody else, and that's a promise!
February 16, 2025
www.theparacast.com
Time Expansion, Cosmic Consciousness, Near Death Experiences, the Mysterious Sources of Creativity — All Explored by Author/Senior Lecturer Steve Taylor on The Paracast!
The Paracast is released every Sunday and available from our site, https://www.theparacast.com, your favorite podcast app, and the IRN Internet Radio Network. All episodes from 2022 and later now feature better audio and fewer ads. We are also re-releasing some of our most popular classic episodes.
WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU HAVEN'T SIGNED UP FOR THE PARACAST+ YET? PLEASE SUBSCRIBE TO THE PARACAST+ SO YOU CAN SUPPORT THE SHOW AND ENJOY THE ULTIMATE PARACAST EXPERIENCE AT A SPECIAL LOW PRICE! We have another radio show and we’d love for you listen to it. So for a low subscription fee, you will receive access to an exclusive bonus podcast, After The Paracast, plus a special version of The Paracast with all the ads removed, when you join The Paracast+. We also offer a special RSS feed for easy updates of the latest episodes on your device. Episodes for subscribers to The Paracast+ are now released 24 hours earlier. Flash! Take advantage of our lowest rates ever! Act now! It's easier than ever to susbcribe! For the easiest signup ever, please visit: https://www.theparacast.plus
This Week's Episode: Gene and cohost Tim Swartz feature author Steve Taylor, a senior lecturer in psychology at Leeds Beckett University, and the author of several best-selling books on psychology and spirituality. The main focus of this interview is his book, Time Expansion Experiences: A Psychology of Time Perception and the Illusion of Linear Time. The book’s main focus is time phenomena, including those involving Near Death Experiences, along with possible cosmic consciousness sources of creativity. He is a past chair of the Transpersonal Psychology Section of the British Psychological Society, and his previous books include The Adventure, Extraordinary Awakenings, The Clear Light, The Fall, Out of the Darkness, The Calm Center, The Leap and Spiritual Science. They have been published in more than 20 languages, and Taylor regularly appears in the media in the UK, including Radio 4’s Prayer for the Day and the BBC World Service. He also writes blog articles for Scientific American, The Conversation and for Psychology Today. Eckhart Tolle has described his work as “an important contribution to the shift in consciousness which is happening on our planet at present.” Taylor lives in Manchester, England, with his wife and three children and his website is: www.stevenmtaylor.com
After The Paracast — Available exclusively to Paracast+ subscribers: Author and senior lecturer Steve Taylor speaks with Gene and cohost Tim Swartz about his ongoing research for a book that covers the history and psychology of The Beatles. He reveals that one of John Lennon’s most popular songs came to him, reportedly, by channeling from an outside source. Gene retells his two experiences that, indirectly, involve Lennon. And what about reports of such psychic experiences as precognition? Taylor’s last book is Time Expansion Experiences: A Psychology of Time Perception and the Illusion of Linear Time. He is a past chair of the Transpersonal Psychology Section of the British Psychological Society, and his previous books include The Adventure, Extraordinary Awakenings, The Clear Light, The Fall, Out of the Darkness, The Calm Center, The Leap and Spiritual Science. They have been published in more than 20 languages, and Taylor regularly appears in the media in the UK, including Radio 4’s Prayer for the Day and the BBC World Service. He also writes blog articles for Scientific American, The Conversation and for Psychology Today. Eckhart Tolle has described his work as “an important contribution to the shift in consciousness which is happening on our planet at present.” Taylor lives in Manchester, England, with his wife and three children and his website is: www.stevenmtaylor.com
Reminder: Please don't forget to visit our famous Paracast Community Forums for the latest news/views/debates on all things paranormal: The Paracast Community Forums. And look for @theparacast on Bluesky Social, Facebook, Threads and X.
So Do Most People Have Paranormal Encounters?
By Gene Steinberg
I think of a question the late UFO author/lecturer, Stanton T. Friedman, would ask his audiences on a regular basis. During his lectures, he’d ask them if they ever saw a UFO. So lots of hands went up, but it was not as if he was tallying the exact numbers.
He’d then ask how many of them actually reported the experience to anybody, and most hands went down.
According to Stan, this response was repeated over and over again, predictably. People might experience something unusual and either take it in stride, become panicked, or perhaps somewhere in between. I believed him, because I observed it a few times while attending his lectures over the years.
But is such a thing something you should report to anyone?
I suppose that depends. Perhaps you might notify a family member or friend. But what if they aren’t the sort of people who’d give you a fair shake — or would be freaked out by that sort of revelation? Maybe it’s better to just shut up.
Well, so long as you don’t have any negative side effects. Regardless of the nature of the encounter, and the situations can get mighty dicey, you might have recurring nightmares. It may change your personality in different ways. For example, you might become a totally different person, constantly fearful and always in fear of something that might be lurking behind the door.
Or you might become what amounts to an evangelist, spreading the positive and fulfilling message of the Space Brothers to change our ways, give up the tools of war, and live in peace. Unfortunately the people who are most often contacted are just plain folks who have little or no influence on public attitudes. You might as well be tilting at windmills.
And, of course, there are those cases involving the so-called “hitchhiker effect,” where poltergeist and other paranormal events follow the witness, especially to their homes.
In any case, I doubt that we can know what percentage of the population of Earth has encountered the unknown. Even when there are polls, there’s no guarantee that people will be upfront about their personal experiences. Even when confidentiality is assured, why believe them? Not in this day and age where personal secrets are regularly disclosed online.
But sometimes one may find the details of paranormal events in surprising places.
So while searching for a new apartment — one where maintenance didn’t take two weeks to repair or replace a broken dryer — I inquired about a nearby rental. The lease management suggested a suitable unit, one close to the covered parking, meaning I’d have to walk less when carrying large packs of bottled water.
When I visited the office, the representative asked me what I did for a living. In response, she told me about the ghost in one of their offices. She even presented her smartphone with a photo of a shadowy figure behind her desk.
As soon as she offered the rental at a special reduced price, I, of course, said yes.
Six months later, I have seen no paranormal beings, or haven’t noticed any. I asked the lease person about the ghost in the office, but she says it hasn’t returned.
As regular listeners and readers of this column know, my encounters with the unknown have been sparse. Or maybe I wasn’t paying attention.
So when I co-sponsored a UFO convention in 1975 — my first and last effort at staging such an event — some of my cohorts told me of seeing a nighttime UFO. But I was busy collecting tickets and playing host. I didn’t have time to consider other possibilities.
Now this wasn’t a classic UFO case. It was little more about a strange light in the sky, but the witnesses were experienced at this sort of thing. One of them even did a stint in the U.S. Air Force, so they would not be easily fooled.
On another occasion, I was visiting a friend back in the late 1960s. He told me of a recent sighting, which resulted in a “hitchhiker effect,” where some sort of invisible entity followed him home and did some nasty stuff. Some of it was so sensational, I was asked not to disclose it without permission. I was asked to use discretion.
In my own life, I’ve told the story of those recurring nightmares that I suffered from between the ages of 8 and 10. While asleep, I would see a large dark object closing in on me, at which point I woke up in a cold sweat. For a couple of weeks during this period, I sensed the odor of burnt sulphur as I walked around the Brooklyn, NY neighborhood in which I resided. And we all know how that offensive odor sometimes triggers a paranormal experience.
In my late teens, I was walking with a friend around the neighborhood when he said he saw a UFO. I looked up in the sky and didn’t observe anything more sinister than a decorative cloud formation. Maybe I missed something?
Some months later, he brought up the subject again, at which point I apologized that I failed to see anything interesting other than those clouds. He suffered in silence, but soon stopped being my friend. I never saw him again.
There was the time in the early 1970s when, at 3:00 AM, my wife at the time, Geneva, awakened me to tell me she saw a “water elemental” in the corner of the room to my left. For some reason we had decided to sleep on a first floor mattress. that night There was a proper bed upstairs.
Not having my glasses or contacts on, I looked over at the corner to which she pointed and saw nothing. Or maybe their was a vague sense of a shadow. Half awake, I went back to sleep.
But when I asked her about it years later — long after we divorced — she denied knowledge of any such thing.
It doesn’t amount to much.
But as with most people, I suspect, I have had a few incidents of coincidences or synchronicity over the years. A notable example: I was working at a radio station in Charleston, SC when I did something that ran afoul of the warnings I had received when first beginning my stint there. Management told me not to do anything that would upset the powers-that-be in that city. But when my supervisor, the news director, asked me to dig up some news that day, I accidentally discovered a list of pending personnel promotions at the city manager’s office.
Being the proper journalist, I ran the story, and the news director delivered a more inclusive account soon thereafter. But the next day, after the politicians in charge complained about my “scoop,” I was out of a job. In other words, I found myself unemployed for being a proper journalist.
As I looked for a new gig, I signed up for unemployment. But the opportunities were sparse, until unemployment ran out. On the day when I received my final check, the general manager of a radio station near Philadelphia called and offered me a news director position at a big increase in salary.
Just in time.
I could go on, but I’m sure many of you can come up with even more coincidental or synchronous events in your lives.
Long and short, I am decidedly not a paranormal experiencer by the traditional sense of the phrase. At my advanced age, I do not expect that to change anytime soon or ever.
So there you are.
On the other hand, should I ever confront the unknown, I would probably welcome the encounter. Well so long as it has a positive outcome.
Copyright 1999-2025 The Paracast Company. All Rights Reserved.
Privacy Policy: Your personal information is safe with us. We will positively never give out your name and/or e-mail address to anybody else, and that's a promise!