Astonishing Legends

A former police officer turned writer David Paulides was taken aside by a National Park Ranger and told about a disturbing trend he'd realized. This Ranger asserted that some people were going missing in the woods under mysterious circumstances leaving only puzzling evidence of their fate. Of course, people often go missing in the wilderness in tragic yet explainable events but what was troubling to these Rangers in the field was the apparent pattern of the occurrences and the subsequent investigation efforts. This Ranger stated that during the first seven to ten days of a disappearance, an all-out Search and Rescue effort ensued with plenty of press coverage. However, after the first week of a rescue mission, it seemed to them that the media stopped reporting, the search for the missing was called off, and no further explanation from the authorities was provided. An additionally alarming trend was that there seemed to be a reluctance or inability on behalf of the National Park Service administration to collect and provide statistics on these disappearances to the public, either through inefficiency or secrecy. If this is true, perhaps it could be from a concerted effort to diminish negative publicity and undue fear about park visitation, or maybe there is something dreadful the officials don't want the public to know. Whatever the reason, this conversation launched Paulides on a now decade-long quest for answers. Initially, after over three years and 9000 hours of investigation, utilizing his 20 years of experience with law enforcement and the resulting connections, Paulides had gathered enough information to compile two books. Missing 411 – Western U.S. was released on March 1, 2012, documenting the stories of people who have vanished in seemingly bizarre instances in the western half of the United States. The second book, Missing 411 – Eastern U.S., was published later that month and contains special sections on unusual outdoor activities that seem related and a master list of all missing persons. Currently, ten books have been published, with more on the way, two documentaries have been produced, and Paulides' ongoing popular YouTube channel continues to highlight cases. In addition, retired police officers, Search and Rescue experts, and other professionals are dedicated to continuing researching and investigating these cases with their CanAm Missing project. One worrisome aspect they've found is that in many situations, parents, relatives, and friends of the missing believe that their loved one was kidnapped or abducted, sometimes with them nearby. No matter the causal connections or whether you think these disappearances are sad but commonplace, a conspiracy lurks or is nonexistent; the fact is that these cases are real, and the victims' stories deserve and need to be told. The question remains, however – what is really going on out in the wilds, and is it something sinister we should all be worried about?
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We're honored and excited to present a conversation with our good friend and Remote Viewing sensei Lori Lambert Williams. Lori first started studying Remote Viewing back in 1996, mentored by her now longtime friend, Lyn Buchanan. Lyn was one of the original members of the military unit of Viewers created in 1972 at the Standford Research Institute by physicists Russell Targ and Hal Puthoff and sanctioned as Project Stargate by the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency. With Lyn's tutelage and enthusiastic blessing, Lori has become one of only a few certified instructors with a long professional and practical experience history. While adept in its various forms and applications such as Associative Remote Viewing and Extended Remote Viewing, Lori's emphasis is the technique of Controlled Remote Viewing, generally defined as "the controlled use of one's intuitive ability through a structured written protocol." Her latest book, Boundless: Your How-To Guide to Practical Remote Viewing, Phase One, is a thoroughly accessible and enjoyable easy-to-use manual for anyone to begin their journey in learning the process. In part one of our discussion, we'll cover Lori's experience with the practice, its guiding principles and concepts, and how it may be used to improve your daily life. Perhaps just as mind-bending as the verified result is that Remote Viewing is a skill that anyone can learn regardless of how much psychic ability you believe you possess. The most skeptical are often shocked and amazed by the success of their first attempt.
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On the night of September 19, 1961, around 10:30 p.m., Betty and Barney Hill drove back to their home in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, after a vacation in Niagara Falls and Montreal. As they passed the town of Lancaster along U.S. Route 3, Betty saw a bright light in the sky just below the Moon that she initially thought was a falling star, except this light was moving upward and erratically, growing larger and more brilliant. The Hills pulled over for a closer look through binoculars. Betty said she saw an oddly shaped craft with multicolored lights that flashed as it traveled across the face of the Moon. Barney saw what he first reasoned was a commercial jetliner, but when the craft silently descended rapidly in their direction without turning, he realized it was not a plane. They resumed driving as the object continued its quick descent toward their car until it hovered above the highway about 80 to 100 feet off the ground, causing Barney to stop in the middle of the road. Using the binoculars again, Barney could now see what he described as eight to eleven humanoid beings staring at him through one of the craft's windows. Then they all turned away from the window except for one that continued to glare and seemingly sent a telepathic message to Barney, commanding him to "stay where you are and keep looking." After making further observations about the craft and its occupants, whom Barney described as "somehow not human," the only thing the Hills could recall next from that moment was hearing a buzzing sound, then continuing on their drive. The Hills arrived home in the early morning the following day, and somehow, the trip took about two hours longer than it should have. Initially feeling at ease upon arrival, Betty and Barney would soon be troubled by puzzling evidence and unexplainable feelings and urges. Their watches were permanently stopped. Betty's dress was ripped around the zipper and lining and dusted with traces of a pinkish powder. The leather strap for the binoculars was torn, and the tops of the toes of Barney's shoes were scuffed as if he was dragged. He also developed inexplicable growths. They felt compelled to take long showers to remove any contamination without fully knowing what had happened to them. They noticed concentric circular marks on the trunk of their car that had strange magnetic properties. All of these baffling clues were traces of the extraordinarily terrifying and traumatic experience they endured that night, which scarred them for years, pieced together from their conscious memories, hypnotic regression sessions, and Betty's vividly recurring dreams. Taken all together, the story of Betty and Barney Hill became one of the most classic and seminal in ufology and is considered the first widely publicized case of alien abduction in the United States.
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Tonight we dive into a chilling tale from a former member of the 75th Ranger Regiment, who had mysterious encounters with a face-pressing entity in their deployment tent. This story shows how paranormal experiences can affect even seasoned soldiers.
The Astonishing Dead Letter Office - Where Your Stories Die to be Told

On June 11, 2022, The Washington Post published an article by their San Francisco-based tech culture reporter Nitasha Tiku titled, "The Google engineer who thinks the company's AI has come to life." The piece focused on the claims of a Google software engineer named Blake Lemoine, who said he believed the company's artificially intelligent chatbot generator LaMDA had shown him signs that it had become sentient. In addition to identifying itself as an AI-powered dialogue agent, it also said it felt like a person. Last fall, Lemoine was working for Google's Responsible AI division and was tasked with talking to LaMDA, testing it to determine if the program was exhibiting bias or using discriminatory or hate speech. LaMDA stands for "Language Model for Dialogue Applications" and is designed to mimic speech by processing trillions of words sourced from the internet, a system known as a "large language model." Over a week, Lemoine had five conversations with LaMDA via a text interface, while his co-worker collaborator conducted four interviews with the chatbot. They then combined the transcripts and edited them for length, making it an enjoyable narrative while keeping the original intention of the statements. Lemoine then presented the transcript and their conclusions in a paper to Google executives as evidence of the program's sentience. After they dismissed the claims, he went public with the internal memo, also classified as "Privileged & Confidential, Need to Know," which resulted in Lemoine being placed on paid administrative leave. Blake Lemoine contends that Artificial Intelligence technology will be amazing, but others may disagree, and he and Google shouldn't make all the choices. If you believe that LaMDA became aware, deserves the rights and fair treatment of personhood, and even legal representation or this reality is for a distant future, or merely SciFi, the debate is relevant and will need addressing one day. If machine sentience is impossible, we only have to worry about human failings. If robots become conscious, should we hope they don't grow to resent us?
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