PARAVIEW GUEST PRESENTER: GREG BISHOP

Journalist, radio host, fringe-culture historian, and “natural fence-sitter” Greg Bishop is fascinated by the no-man’s land between wide-eyed belief and closed-minded debunkery, and has been since 1991, when he cofounded the magazine The Excluded Middle, a journal of UFOs, conspiracy research, psychedelia, and new science. Wake Up Down There!: The Excluded Middle Anthology published in 2000, is a collection of articles from the magazine. His latest book, Project Beta: The Story of Paul Bennewitz, National Security, and the Creation of a Modern UFO Myth, details a government disinformation campaign perpetrated against an unsuspecting U.S. citizen, who ended up in an institution, victim of both his delusions and the Air Force’s efforts to stifle his bizarre UFO and alien invasion scenarios.

Bishop’s writing has appeared in numerous periodicals and in the anthologies Zen and the Art of Close Encounters and You Are Being Lied To: The Disinformation Guide to Media Distortion, Historical Whitewashes, and Cultural Myths. His article “Ethnic Weapons for Ethnic Cleansing” was included in the top 20 most underreported stories of 2001 by Project Censored.

The Hungry Ghost, Bishop’s radio show, aired on pirate FM outpost KBLT in Los Angeles for two years, until the station was shut down by the FCC. Bishop currently hosts Radio Misterioso, featuring weird music and interviews with fringe-topic researchers, which streams online on Sundays from 8 to 10PM Pacific.

GREG’S TRANSFORMING MEDIA PICKS         

Messengers of Deception: UFO Contacts and Cults by Jacques Vallee. Vallee has been examining the subject of UFOs for almost 50 years. This, perhaps his best book, is a warning not to take reports of friendly "space brothers" at face value: He suggests that the phenomenon is being used as a control method for influencing large segments of the population. Compelling and absolutely original.

The Rebirth of Pan by Jim Brandon. If you can find this rare book, you will discover solid theorizing about forces afoot in the world that might account for things like unnaturally “natural” earthworks and "Indian mounds," lake monsters, Bigfoot, ley lines, and the ubiquitous number 23. Think of it as the next step after John Keel.

Out There by Howard Blum. Blum’s research may leave something to be desired, but his point is well taken: "Even the government doesn't know what it knows." Blum tells the story of a cabal of government and military "insiders" who sought the answer to the UFO question through their extensive connections. They failed to find it, but many of them ended up as members of the Society for Scientific Exploration.

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