The Paracast Newsletter
January 26, 2025
www.theparacast.com
UFO Culture, UFO Conspiracies, Current UFO Speculation Revealed by Author Charles Lear 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 present UFO author and researcher Charles Lear, who makes a return visit to The Paracast to talk about the recent UFO development reported on the NewsNation cable TV network. During an interview, alleged UFO whistleblower Jake Barber says that he was involved in the recovery of alien technology while working for a long-rumored secret UFO retrieval program. NewsNation released a video, supposedly of the recovery of an "egg-shaped UFO" being carried by a helicopter. What did it really show? There will also be a focus on various conspiracy theories. Lear is the author of the books "The Flying Saucer Investigators," and "Crashed Saucers and Malevolent Aliens." His main interests in the UFO subject are in the documented history the phenomenon has spawned and the people who investigate it. His other interests are geology and paleontology and his familiarity with science and its disciplines informs his approach to the UFO subject. In addition to his research, he also writes a blog for PodcastUFO.Lear has lived most of his life in New York City, where he made his living as a union stagehand and was involved in other aspects of theater as a playwright, producer, director and Shakespearean actor.
After The Paracast — Available exclusively to Paracast+ subscribers: The featured guest is Charles Lear, author of "The Flying Saucer Investigators," and "Crashed Saucers and Malevolent Aliens." Speaking with Gene and cohost Tim Swartz, Lear focuses on the myths and legends of possible crashed UFOs, possible malevolent acts by alleged space people, the ongoing circus atmosphere in the UFO field, and even dreams that enhance creativity or provide warnings about possible tragic events such as 9/11. Gene reveals a frightening feeling he felt when he and his family visited the World Trade Center a couple of months before the terrorist attack. Lear's main interests in the UFO subject are in the documented history the phenomenon has spawned and the people who investigate it. His other interests are geology and paleontology and his familiarity with science and its disciplines informs his approach to the UFO subject. In addition to his research, he also writes a blog for PodcastUFO. Lear has lived most of his life in New York City, where he made his living as a union stagehand and was involved in other aspects of theater as a playwright, producer, director and Shakespearean actor.
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.
Disclosure of the Mind
By Tim R. Swartz
Once again UFO whistleblowers are populating the airwaves with confessions of their alleged knowledge about the UFO mystery and the government cover-up behind it. The recent allegations were presented recently in an hour-long special on NewsNation, involving an airman in the U.S. Air Force named Jake Barber.
Interviewed by reporter Ross Coulthart, Barber says that he was recruited into Air Force Special Operations, known as “combat control.” He would eventually go on to work in a nonofficial capacity for the Defense Department and the intelligence community. Barber told Coulthart that in 2001 he was contracted as a helicopter pilot and was part of a team assigned to retrieve crashed aircraft at an undisclosed testing facility in the desert. Some of these aircraft, he said, “...were exotic in nature.”
By “exotic,” Barber means things not made by humans.
Barber describes the anomalous objects he recovered as egg-shaped and others as "eightgon," essentially, discs with what looked like eight delineated sections when looking down on them from the helicopter. During one of these recovery missions, Barber said he had one of the most “profound” experiences in his life.
“As I get closer to this site, I start feeling odd, I start feeling extremely emotional, and the closer I get, the more the emotion starts to overwhelm me,” he said.
“I feel this intense hybrid of sadness and happiness and beauty and song, and it was very disruptive to me. I felt like something connected with me. Something had tuned in to me and my soul and was providing me some sense of guidance and how profound what I was doing was. It was so overwhelming that I began to cry.”
Barber described it as a very feminine energy, like the spirit of God, but not in a masculine sense.
“It was like a frequency that I was connected with. And whatever that force was since that night, it has stayed with me. And as crazy as this sounds, it’s what’s guiding me now, and it’s what’s providing protection for me.”
The show continues with the revelation that the mission that night wasn’t the retrieval of something that accidentally crashed. Instead, he claims the UFO was summoned by a special team with special telepathic abilities that he called “The Psionics.”
Many people who aren’t familiar with the history surrounding the UFO phenomena probably checked out at this point and switched channels to watch Svengoolie instead. However, telepathic, or psychic incidents around UFO sightings are nothing new, with Jake Barber and his team of Psionics being the most recent addition to the mélange of weirdness surrounding UFOs.
The Aliens From Within
The belief that we aren’t the only intelligent creatures in the universe came long before the modern UFO era. As far back as the 19thcentury (and probably even earlier), shaman and spiritual mediums claimed to have received communications not only from the dearly departed, but also from beings saying they were extraterrestrials.
One documented case of a 19th century spiritualist who communicated with an extraterrestrial entity was Hélène Smith. Smith (real name Catherine-Elise Müller) reportedly communicated with "the great man Astané," who lived on Mars, through the services of another spirit named Esenale, who had lived on both Earth and Mars in previous incarnations.
On September 5, 1896, Hélène received a mental communication where she saw a strange landscape and some peculiar people.
“On the bridge there was a man of dark complexion (Astané), carrying in his hands an instrument somewhat resembling a carriage-lantern in appearance, which, being pressed, emitted flames, and which seemed to be a flying machine…He rises superior to the crowd, inasmuch as he alone possesses a flying-machine incomprehensible to us” – 1900, Des Indes à la Planete Mars ("From India to the Planet Mars") by Théodore Flournoy.
Mindful of the Space Brothers
After the original UFO flap of 1947-48, the first UFO contactees came forward, claiming not only face to face meetings with the friendly “space brothers,” but also telepathic communications. According to the contactees, this showed the superior mental abilities of the extraterrestrials as compared to us lowly, materialistic Earthlings.
During the 1950's and 60's, this method of communicating with UFO occupants (better known as channeling) became so popular that entities calling themselves “Ashtar,” “Agar,” and “Monka” were heard from daily, somewhere in the world.
Not every telepathic message turned out to be all sweetness and cosmic brotherhood. The contactee known as Michael X Barton said that for years, he received mental messages from visiting Venusians who invited him to meet with them for friendly tête-à-têtes on lonely hillsides. That is until one night when he went to a prearranged location, only to be met by several people wielding rifles who then proceeded to beat Michael to within an inch of his life.
That was the end of the telepathic messages from the space brothers, leaving Michael X to wonder just what in the hell happened to him.
A number of investigators have suspected that UFOs may be responsible for somehow controlling the minds of some witnesses and abductees. UFO literature is filled with cases in which observers have been subjected to continuous harassments following an encounter with a UFO. Some witnesses report strange, ghost-like activity in their homes. In other cases, weird, mechanical-sounding voices, purported to be “messages” from extraterrestrials, begin emanating from their phones, radios and televisions.
The pattern that emerges usually follows a close encounter with a UFO. The eyewitness goes through a period of anxiety, during which he is unable to consciously remember certain aspects of the incident. Within months, the personality of the observer actually changes. Eventually, it may change to the point where he finds it impossible to get along with co-workers, friends or even family. Personal tragedy seems to strike many of those who have had UFO experiences.
In some cases, the eyewitness discovers he has developed certain “gifts” or abilities. Though they may appear to be beneficial at first, too often this turns out not to be the case. Among these unusual abilities are powers of ESP, precognition, or psychokinesis. Shortly after this, he may begin slipping into a “trance,” during which time it appears as if an alien intelligence has “taken over” his body and is using his brain. There are hundreds of so-called “mental contactees” who claim to receive information and data of a highly advanced scientific and philosophical nature.
There is no doubt that this phenomenon is widespread and it is by no means limited to the United States. Cases of mind-altering UFOs seem to be occurring at an alarming rate. Ukrainian UFO researcher Anton A. Anfalow reports that after the fall of the former Soviet Union, dozens of UFO research groups sprung up in an attempt to finally investigate the thousands of UFO reports that had been suppressed by the government.
Because of their efforts, many prominent researchers soon found themselves being harassed and physically attacked by unknown assailants. These assailants would often act like muggers, but would then forego easier prey to target UFO investigators.
One such attack led to the murder of well-known Russian scientist and UFOlogist Dr. A. Zolotov. Dr. Zolotov was attacked by a knife-wielding stranger in the town of Tver. Russian authorities say that the attacks are being carried out by individuals suffering from a “type of mental illness where the person claims that voices from alien beings are ordering them to kill certain people.”
Because we are dealing with a truly unknown mystery, UFOs should always be approached with caution. Whether it’s physical contact or mental, the fact that UFOs are potentially dangerous has become apparent over the decades. If there is an actual non-human intelligence behind UFOs, we have to be aware not to anthropomorphize it, meaning we can’t expect it to think and act as we do.
If we claim that we are the most highly evolved and intelligent species on this planet, yet treat all other species with little regard and disdain, how can we expect other intelligent species to treat us any differently? Evil, good…these are words that we use for our own benefit. Can they be properly used when someone mindlessly kicks over an anthill or accidentally runs over a squirrel in the road?
We could be seen as nothing more than cockroaches running under a cosmic refrigerator when more intelligent species turns the light onto our planet.
Time to get out the bug spray.
Tim R. Swartz is an Indiana native and Emmy-Award winning television producer/videographer, and is the author of a number of popular books including The Lost Journals of Nikola Tesla, Gef the Talking Mongoose, and is a contributing writer for such books as, Brad Steiger's Real Monsters, Gruesome Critters, and Beasts from the Darkside, and Real Ghosts, Restless Spirits and Haunted Places. His most recent books, along with author Sean Casteel are Weird Time – Exploring the Mysteries of Time and Space, and Mimics - The Others Among Us.
As a photojournalist, Tim Swartz has traveled extensively and investigated paranormal phenomena and other unusual mysteries around the world. He has worked with major television networks both national and international.
Tim has appeared on the documentary “The Myth of Tesla,” as well as The History Channels programs "Ancient Aliens", "Evidence", "Ancient Aliens: Declassified", "The UnXplained", and the History Channel Latin America series "Contacto Extraterrestre".
His articles have been published in magazines such as Mysteries, FATE, Strange, Atlantis Rising, UFO Universe, Flying Saucer Review, Renaissance, and Unsolved UFO Reports.
Tim is also the co-producer and co-host of The Paracast with Gene Steinberg at: www.theparacast.com
His website is: www.weirdtimebook.com
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!
January 26, 2025
www.theparacast.com
UFO Culture, UFO Conspiracies, Current UFO Speculation Revealed by Author Charles Lear 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 present UFO author and researcher Charles Lear, who makes a return visit to The Paracast to talk about the recent UFO development reported on the NewsNation cable TV network. During an interview, alleged UFO whistleblower Jake Barber says that he was involved in the recovery of alien technology while working for a long-rumored secret UFO retrieval program. NewsNation released a video, supposedly of the recovery of an "egg-shaped UFO" being carried by a helicopter. What did it really show? There will also be a focus on various conspiracy theories. Lear is the author of the books "The Flying Saucer Investigators," and "Crashed Saucers and Malevolent Aliens." His main interests in the UFO subject are in the documented history the phenomenon has spawned and the people who investigate it. His other interests are geology and paleontology and his familiarity with science and its disciplines informs his approach to the UFO subject. In addition to his research, he also writes a blog for PodcastUFO.Lear has lived most of his life in New York City, where he made his living as a union stagehand and was involved in other aspects of theater as a playwright, producer, director and Shakespearean actor.
After The Paracast — Available exclusively to Paracast+ subscribers: The featured guest is Charles Lear, author of "The Flying Saucer Investigators," and "Crashed Saucers and Malevolent Aliens." Speaking with Gene and cohost Tim Swartz, Lear focuses on the myths and legends of possible crashed UFOs, possible malevolent acts by alleged space people, the ongoing circus atmosphere in the UFO field, and even dreams that enhance creativity or provide warnings about possible tragic events such as 9/11. Gene reveals a frightening feeling he felt when he and his family visited the World Trade Center a couple of months before the terrorist attack. Lear's main interests in the UFO subject are in the documented history the phenomenon has spawned and the people who investigate it. His other interests are geology and paleontology and his familiarity with science and its disciplines informs his approach to the UFO subject. In addition to his research, he also writes a blog for PodcastUFO. Lear has lived most of his life in New York City, where he made his living as a union stagehand and was involved in other aspects of theater as a playwright, producer, director and Shakespearean actor.
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.
Disclosure of the Mind
By Tim R. Swartz
Once again UFO whistleblowers are populating the airwaves with confessions of their alleged knowledge about the UFO mystery and the government cover-up behind it. The recent allegations were presented recently in an hour-long special on NewsNation, involving an airman in the U.S. Air Force named Jake Barber.
Interviewed by reporter Ross Coulthart, Barber says that he was recruited into Air Force Special Operations, known as “combat control.” He would eventually go on to work in a nonofficial capacity for the Defense Department and the intelligence community. Barber told Coulthart that in 2001 he was contracted as a helicopter pilot and was part of a team assigned to retrieve crashed aircraft at an undisclosed testing facility in the desert. Some of these aircraft, he said, “...were exotic in nature.”
By “exotic,” Barber means things not made by humans.
Barber describes the anomalous objects he recovered as egg-shaped and others as "eightgon," essentially, discs with what looked like eight delineated sections when looking down on them from the helicopter. During one of these recovery missions, Barber said he had one of the most “profound” experiences in his life.
“As I get closer to this site, I start feeling odd, I start feeling extremely emotional, and the closer I get, the more the emotion starts to overwhelm me,” he said.
“I feel this intense hybrid of sadness and happiness and beauty and song, and it was very disruptive to me. I felt like something connected with me. Something had tuned in to me and my soul and was providing me some sense of guidance and how profound what I was doing was. It was so overwhelming that I began to cry.”
Barber described it as a very feminine energy, like the spirit of God, but not in a masculine sense.
“It was like a frequency that I was connected with. And whatever that force was since that night, it has stayed with me. And as crazy as this sounds, it’s what’s guiding me now, and it’s what’s providing protection for me.”
The show continues with the revelation that the mission that night wasn’t the retrieval of something that accidentally crashed. Instead, he claims the UFO was summoned by a special team with special telepathic abilities that he called “The Psionics.”
Many people who aren’t familiar with the history surrounding the UFO phenomena probably checked out at this point and switched channels to watch Svengoolie instead. However, telepathic, or psychic incidents around UFO sightings are nothing new, with Jake Barber and his team of Psionics being the most recent addition to the mélange of weirdness surrounding UFOs.
The Aliens From Within
The belief that we aren’t the only intelligent creatures in the universe came long before the modern UFO era. As far back as the 19thcentury (and probably even earlier), shaman and spiritual mediums claimed to have received communications not only from the dearly departed, but also from beings saying they were extraterrestrials.
One documented case of a 19th century spiritualist who communicated with an extraterrestrial entity was Hélène Smith. Smith (real name Catherine-Elise Müller) reportedly communicated with "the great man Astané," who lived on Mars, through the services of another spirit named Esenale, who had lived on both Earth and Mars in previous incarnations.
On September 5, 1896, Hélène received a mental communication where she saw a strange landscape and some peculiar people.
“On the bridge there was a man of dark complexion (Astané), carrying in his hands an instrument somewhat resembling a carriage-lantern in appearance, which, being pressed, emitted flames, and which seemed to be a flying machine…He rises superior to the crowd, inasmuch as he alone possesses a flying-machine incomprehensible to us” – 1900, Des Indes à la Planete Mars ("From India to the Planet Mars") by Théodore Flournoy.
Mindful of the Space Brothers
After the original UFO flap of 1947-48, the first UFO contactees came forward, claiming not only face to face meetings with the friendly “space brothers,” but also telepathic communications. According to the contactees, this showed the superior mental abilities of the extraterrestrials as compared to us lowly, materialistic Earthlings.
During the 1950's and 60's, this method of communicating with UFO occupants (better known as channeling) became so popular that entities calling themselves “Ashtar,” “Agar,” and “Monka” were heard from daily, somewhere in the world.
Not every telepathic message turned out to be all sweetness and cosmic brotherhood. The contactee known as Michael X Barton said that for years, he received mental messages from visiting Venusians who invited him to meet with them for friendly tête-à-têtes on lonely hillsides. That is until one night when he went to a prearranged location, only to be met by several people wielding rifles who then proceeded to beat Michael to within an inch of his life.
That was the end of the telepathic messages from the space brothers, leaving Michael X to wonder just what in the hell happened to him.
A number of investigators have suspected that UFOs may be responsible for somehow controlling the minds of some witnesses and abductees. UFO literature is filled with cases in which observers have been subjected to continuous harassments following an encounter with a UFO. Some witnesses report strange, ghost-like activity in their homes. In other cases, weird, mechanical-sounding voices, purported to be “messages” from extraterrestrials, begin emanating from their phones, radios and televisions.
The pattern that emerges usually follows a close encounter with a UFO. The eyewitness goes through a period of anxiety, during which he is unable to consciously remember certain aspects of the incident. Within months, the personality of the observer actually changes. Eventually, it may change to the point where he finds it impossible to get along with co-workers, friends or even family. Personal tragedy seems to strike many of those who have had UFO experiences.
In some cases, the eyewitness discovers he has developed certain “gifts” or abilities. Though they may appear to be beneficial at first, too often this turns out not to be the case. Among these unusual abilities are powers of ESP, precognition, or psychokinesis. Shortly after this, he may begin slipping into a “trance,” during which time it appears as if an alien intelligence has “taken over” his body and is using his brain. There are hundreds of so-called “mental contactees” who claim to receive information and data of a highly advanced scientific and philosophical nature.
There is no doubt that this phenomenon is widespread and it is by no means limited to the United States. Cases of mind-altering UFOs seem to be occurring at an alarming rate. Ukrainian UFO researcher Anton A. Anfalow reports that after the fall of the former Soviet Union, dozens of UFO research groups sprung up in an attempt to finally investigate the thousands of UFO reports that had been suppressed by the government.
Because of their efforts, many prominent researchers soon found themselves being harassed and physically attacked by unknown assailants. These assailants would often act like muggers, but would then forego easier prey to target UFO investigators.
One such attack led to the murder of well-known Russian scientist and UFOlogist Dr. A. Zolotov. Dr. Zolotov was attacked by a knife-wielding stranger in the town of Tver. Russian authorities say that the attacks are being carried out by individuals suffering from a “type of mental illness where the person claims that voices from alien beings are ordering them to kill certain people.”
Because we are dealing with a truly unknown mystery, UFOs should always be approached with caution. Whether it’s physical contact or mental, the fact that UFOs are potentially dangerous has become apparent over the decades. If there is an actual non-human intelligence behind UFOs, we have to be aware not to anthropomorphize it, meaning we can’t expect it to think and act as we do.
If we claim that we are the most highly evolved and intelligent species on this planet, yet treat all other species with little regard and disdain, how can we expect other intelligent species to treat us any differently? Evil, good…these are words that we use for our own benefit. Can they be properly used when someone mindlessly kicks over an anthill or accidentally runs over a squirrel in the road?
We could be seen as nothing more than cockroaches running under a cosmic refrigerator when more intelligent species turns the light onto our planet.
Time to get out the bug spray.
• • •
Tim R. Swartz is an Indiana native and Emmy-Award winning television producer/videographer, and is the author of a number of popular books including The Lost Journals of Nikola Tesla, Gef the Talking Mongoose, and is a contributing writer for such books as, Brad Steiger's Real Monsters, Gruesome Critters, and Beasts from the Darkside, and Real Ghosts, Restless Spirits and Haunted Places. His most recent books, along with author Sean Casteel are Weird Time – Exploring the Mysteries of Time and Space, and Mimics - The Others Among Us.
As a photojournalist, Tim Swartz has traveled extensively and investigated paranormal phenomena and other unusual mysteries around the world. He has worked with major television networks both national and international.
Tim has appeared on the documentary “The Myth of Tesla,” as well as The History Channels programs "Ancient Aliens", "Evidence", "Ancient Aliens: Declassified", "The UnXplained", and the History Channel Latin America series "Contacto Extraterrestre".
His articles have been published in magazines such as Mysteries, FATE, Strange, Atlantis Rising, UFO Universe, Flying Saucer Review, Renaissance, and Unsolved UFO Reports.
Tim is also the co-producer and co-host of The Paracast with Gene Steinberg at: www.theparacast.com
His website is: www.weirdtimebook.com
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!