Jan 05 2009

Binnall UFO 2

As you’ll recall, Greg made a post last week alerting you to a 2-part interview we did a couple of weeks ago for Tim Binnall’s Binnall of America show. Greg highlighted part-1, and here’s part-2, which is now available. Tim provides the data:

Nick Redfern & Greg Bishop (Part 2)
2008: The Year in Ufology (July to December)
1 Hour, 45 Minutes

It’s the second half of BoA:Audio’s look at 2008: The Year in Ufology with our special guests Nick Redfern & Greg Bishop (of UFO Mystic fame). This second installment covers the latter half of 2008, from July to December. We’ll dissect the Edgar Mitchell UFO “disclosure,” the Bigfoot Body hoax of mid-August, Blossom Goodchild’s UFO non-event, the election of Barack Obama and the subsequent UFO disclosure push, and the folding of Alien Worlds magazine. Plus, we remember Erik Beckjord and Monsignor Corrado Balducci, both of whom passed away this past year. Closing out the discussion, we also reflect on “what’s hot” and “what’s not” as 2008 comes to an end and what genres may be on the rise in 2009.

Full Preview: We begin our examination of the 2nd half of 2008 with one of the bigger UFO stories of the year, the Edgar Mitchell UFO “disclosure”, which (much like the UK UFO files story discussed in Part 1) seems to be a recurring UFO national news story. Nick begins by discussing the story, the UK origins of the program Mitchell had been speaking to, and Nick’s take on the media coverage of the “disclosure.” Greg then talks about the story, what the key issue behind it is, and why it may change the way Greg thinks of what the government knows about UFOs. We then speculate on whether or not the media coverge is a qualified endorsement of more “disclosure” related news.

Following that, we dissect perhaps esoterica’s biggest story of 2008: the Bigfoot body hoax from mid-August. Nick starts out by sharing his overall thoughts on the story, as a seasoned crytpo researcher. He compares the mania surrounding the Bigfoot hoax to the UK’s reaction to the “alien autopsy” and what made this Summer’s event different. He also explores the media’s misinformed coverage of the cryptozoology community and the true tragedies of the Bigfoot body hoax. Greg then joins in to give us his take on the event and talks about how, despite being an insanely impossible and hilarious story, it did invoke that small smidgen of hope that “this could be it.” He also provdes a fascinating perspective on what a hardcore conspiratorialist would think of the Bigfoot body hoax.

Up next, we discuss the passing of Erik Beckjord, one of esoterica’s truly colorful characters who passed away in 2008. Nick begins by talking about his initial meeting with Erik and his subsequent relationship with him. Greg then recounts Jim Moseley’s story (included in the Excluded Middle Anthology) about his interraction with Beckjord. Greg then shares a hilarious story about Erik accidentally taking Greg’s car keys at an early 1990’s UFO meeting in Southern California. Greg also recounts some of Erik’s Bigfoot museums in California.

Next we remember Monsignor Corrado Balducci, who passed away in late September. Binnall talks about his meeting with Monsignor Balducci at the X-Conference in 2005, the kind words Balducci imparted to Tim and the never before shared insights from Balducci on the nature of evil.

After that, we talk about the Blossom Goodchild UFO non-event, beginning with wondering why anyone, anywhere believes these UFO predictions anymore. binnall also goes on an extended rant about the “clean up Ufology” camp and how they are missing the key ingredient of hoaxers that cannot be “scrubbed” from Ufology: the true believers. Nick begins with discussion on this story and how prophecy has been a recurring theme in esoterica over the years. He also talks about how it is important to study the true source of the message, because it may be some kind of trickster at work. Greg then shares his take on the Blossom Goodchild story and how it became a rather big UFO story this past Autumn.

Moving on into November, we talk about the election of Barack Obama and his message of change being adopted by elements of the Exopolitics field in the form of a subsequent renewed disclosure push in the form of the Million Fax on Washington. Nick begins by reflecting on his thoughts on the election as a whole, Ufology notwithstanding. He then talks about how much he thinks the President truly knows about UFOs and makes his argument against UFO disclosure beginning in the Oval Office. Greg then joins in to share his thoughts on the election, in general, and to also argue that UFO disclosure and the office of the President are not co-dependent.

Looking at a less mainstream story, but big news in Ufology, we talk about the folding of Alien Worlds magazine. Nick stars by sharing his thoughts on Alien Worlds, what made it a promising periodicalreflecting on the UFO magazine boom in the UK in the 1990’s, and whether the folding of the magazine was a sign of the present economic crisis. Greg then joins in to talk about the quality of Alien Worlds and why he thinks it ended up not lasting too long. Wrapping up the year in Ufology for 2008, we talk about the bookend UFO endorsements, more notably of Robbie Williams in March, and then Keanu Reeves in December.

Closing the book on 2008, we look at what’s “hot” and what’s “not” as the year ends. Greg starts out by giving his take on the present state of affairs in esoterica today as 2009 begins. We also talk about what may be the breakout genre of esoterica in 2009. Then Nick gives his take on what are the growing esoteric genres as the year ends. Speaking in broad terms, we reflect on what we hope the UFO occupants really are.

Wrapping up our roundtable discussion, we reflect on the two truly big UFO stories of the year: binnall visiting Greg in LA and Nick visiting binnall in Boston. We also find out what’s comig up from Nick Redfern in 2009, including some intriguing new books. And, we find out what’s new from Greg, including some fascinating re-discovered interviews to be posted on the Radio Misterioso website.

This interview was recorded on 12.17.2008

This entry was posted on Monday, January 5th, 2009 at 3:02 am and is filed under Abductions, Alien Encounters, Audio, Author Interviews, Beliefs, Books, Breaking News, Close Encounters, Conspiracies, Contactees, Crash Sites, Evidence, Eyewitness Accounts, Government Projects, History, Media Appearances, Strange Creatures, The Redfern Files, UFO Sightings, UFOlogists, UFOlogy. You can follow responses via RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your site.
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