Paratopia with Jeff and Jer

Each week I listen to quite a number of podcasts on the paranormal.  It all started when I got my mp3 player and I was able to download podcasts and listen to them in the car on my way to work, home, school, ect. I thought I’d post every once in a while about some of the ones I listen to.

Paratopia.

I first found Paratopia through Jeremy Vaeni’s Culture of Contact podcast (which itself was superb in content). It is co-hosted by two prominent individuals in the paranormal field, Jeremy Vaeni and Jeff Ritzman. Why is it my favorite? It is my favorite because of the approach to the field of the paranormal and UFOs. They are involved in questioning, not only the phenomenon, but the area that is supposed to be studying the phenomenon. It’s really a healthy dose of applying critical thinking to the problems that beset the paranormal, particularly UFOlogy. One of the highlights of the program has been to provide the space for Emma Woods regarding David Jacobs and hypnosis. Majority of the UFOlogical community has yet to realize that part of their “worldview” on hypnosis has been dealt a heavy blow (if not death blow). The other aspect is the investigation into the various aspects of the paranormal itself, such as crop circles, ghosts, the “trickster” which they definitely try to delve deeper into the issue, rather than just take it for granted. Also to their credit is their sense of humor which I was attracted to with Vaeni’s Culture of Contact podcasts as well as the seriousness in the subject matter they take up.

While although the episodes are by subscription now or pay-per-episode (but for 4.95 a month it’s a great deal!) there is a plethora of free episodes (80 of them I think) that any one interested would get the sense and idea of the show. I think the show and the work that Paratopia is doing is heading into a different direction than most and making more headway into the field than other groups and paranormal investigative teams.

I am looking forward to this week’s Paratopia which will feature Kim Carlsberg and her new book (methinks).

Approaching the Paranormal II

My previous post brought up the question of how to approach the paranormal? In this second article, I will suggest an approach that I think the community might benefit from. 

A very simple definition of paranormal is an event or perception that is beyond normal explanation. Maybe more accurately it would be beyond contemporary explanations. After all, explanations of phenomenon change over the matter of time. This definition is broad and covers like an umbrella an entire slew of phenomenon that can not be explained, such as ghost sightings, poltergeist activity, demon possession, strange creature sightings unexplained by biology (cryptozoology), unidentified flying objects or unidentified submerged objects, alien abductions, missing time, and so forth. 

“The materialistic outlook on nature means no more than simply conceiving nature just as it exists, without any foreign admixture.” 

Thus says, Federick Engels (Marx and Engels, Vol. XIV, p. 651.) and I think this applies to all activity observed or perceived that can not be wholly explained by conventional means. This actually opens up a can of worms on the paranormal and our conceptions of it that may be regarded as absolutes. 

While natural phenomenon exists in the natural world, “paranormal phenomenon” suggests there is a phenomenon outside of that world. Why do we reach that conclusion?

My suggestion would be to consider the paranormal phenomenon as we do like other natural phenomenon, when we go to study it. Unlike metaphysics, which holds that nature is an accidental agglomeration of things isolated from each other, all phenomenon that is to be studied and analyzed should take into account other existing and surrounding phenomenon affecting it.

So while there is a limit to what we know and understand about the universe (limited by the speed of light and so forth) does not mean that all paranormal phenomenon can’t be realized in terms of relationships. For while the latter is true, the paranormal phenomena, in order to be observed, must in a sense “come down to earth”. It’s interaction involves the people living here and its movements and motion has been observed and felt and experienced.

Without the material world, how would we even know or witness events anyway and anyhow? So it reveals the interconnection and interrelationship that the phenomenon has a relationship and life with the natural world.

By way of introduction…

When I was little and finally had a separate room from that of my younger sibling, I had experiences that I couldn’t explain. They started at first to be fascinating but would later end in night terrors. I would often wake up in the dead of night and feel something “not right” and I would be breathing very fast, uncontrollably (hyperventilation). I would forget them the following morning, but later would remember them as the day wore on. I never told my parents about these experiences. At the time I did not associate these experiences with the paranormal or even UFOs, although as I grew older in childhood my interest in UFOs would grow.

 Most of this activity stopped when I became a teenager and then I started having sleep paralysis episodes accompanied with “shadow people” around the time before being honorably discharged from the U.S. Army.

I am currently married with two step-sons. Strange events still take place in my life, but I am not like a lightning rod of high-strangeness like some people seem to be.

The High-Strangeness Observer is exactly that. I am an observer of the field of high strangeness, events that don’t fall into the “normal” day routine.  I must admit that my interest in the field up to now has been a hobby. Yet with the start of this blog I feel like its more than just a hobby. I hope to be more pro-active in researching or investigating some of these types of things. Feel free to comment or drop me a line.