Uncanny (BBC Programme / Podcast)

[GNC]

This week's was fairly simple, despite the complex emotions involved. Not sure we needed the djinn stuff, but it's background, glad the kid wasn't subjected to an exorcism at least. The little phenomenon that meant so much does sound like a classic case of a crisis creating the impossible to rescue him, like a mother lifting a car off her child or similar. But nobody touched the bolt...

Next week - new anecdotes from Britain's wackiest town! (in the early 80s)

 

[Cloudbusting]

This week's episode underwhelmed me to be honest. I think it's because after seeing the title I thought there may be more extraordinary events involved, and perhaps a vision or visitation? It could have quite easily been a case of telekinesis (if we're purely looking at paranormal explanations).

 

[CharmerKamelion]

Next week - new anecdotes from Britain's wackiest town! (in the early 80s)

Oooh! Where? Where? Is it.... Cromer?

 

[SimonBurchell]

Well, this episode only focuses on a single event, although I felt the parapsychologist/sceptic was clutching at straws. The worst thing with this series is that I have Linda Godfrey's book I Know What I Saw in my Kindle library, and now every time I see my Kindle library and glance at the title, I hear that damned theme song.

 

[GNC]

Oooh! Where? Where? Is it.... Cromer?

Clue: we've covered it before this series.

 

[CharmerKamelion]

Clue: we've covered it before this series.

Todmorden?

 

[GNC]

Todmorden?

Bingo!

 

[CharmerKamelion]

Todmorden. Wacky name, wacky town.

But is it wackier than Cromer?

There's only one way to find out....

 

[Paul_Exeter]

Whether the 'triggering agent' is internal or external (to the brain of the witness or witnesses) it is still something we don't currently understand within our range of rational science, and it is something it would be good to gain an understanding of. A simple malfunction within the brain which gets 'reformatted' into an hallucination the witness/sufferer can process is a fascinating idea that could explain a lot of things, but multiple witness sightings, or similar things being seen by different people at different times, or even weird stuff seemingly objective enough to be caught on cameras or radar etc, all seem to potentially mitigate against this notion as being the 'catch-all' answer to everything that gets reported.

I struggle with UFOs that are reportedly caught on radar as evidence for the ETH (extraterrestrial hypothesis). We have had radar-evading Stealth technology for decades now, so it is really feasible that an advanced species of alien visitors would neglect to camouflage their craft against what is a now rather dated 20th Century technology...?

 

[CharmerKamelion]

I struggle with UFOs that are reportedly caught on radar as evidence for the ETH (extraterrestrial hypothesis). We have had radar-evading Stealth technology for decades now, so it is really feasible that an advanced species of alien visitors would neglect to camouflage their craft against what is a now rather dated 20th Century technology...?

True enough. But I often like to wonder about how different ET science, tech, society, world view etc might be to ours. Just because our species has evolved to view the reality we live in in a certain way, all sorts of things that we take for granted as 'just how it is' might never have occurred to ETs. Such as : love, money, war, entertainment, fear, empathy, etc etc. The list goes on. And in that list could be caution, as in not wanting to be seen by humans. Obviously, the way most UFOs/UAPs are reported to act appears to us as if they are being cautious about not wanting to be seen, but that could just be the way we interpret that behaviour.

As an example of what I sometime wonder about, imagine an ET craft observing Adele at Glastonbury (well, we know they like to hang out around there!). "There appears to be one being standing on a platform making shrieking noises through a big hole in its face. And thousands more of the beings are standing around observing it. They seem to be expressing pleasure. And now the shrieking has stopped. The being is quiet but all the other beings are doing this strange thing with their upper limbs and producing all sorts of horrible noises through the holes in their faces. I have got no idea what all that is about".

 

[SimonBurchell]

Thanks for that! Just bought his book Distorsión on Kindle and will report back in due course!

I'm only about a fifth of the way through Distorsión by José Caravaca and it's a cracking read. It is well written and intelligent, with a never-ending parade of high strangeness. The mince pies in the Mince Pie Martians case ended up mistranslated into Spanish as meat pies, but that is a minor quibble. The book is reminiscent of Jacques Vallee at his best, and is fast becoming a favourite. Much more readable than Salvador Freixedo, who has similar views.

 

[Mythopoeika]

I struggle with UFOs that are reportedly caught on radar as evidence for the ETH (extraterrestrial hypothesis). We have had radar-evading Stealth technology for decades now, so it is really feasible that an advanced species of alien visitors would neglect to camouflage their craft against what is a now rather dated 20th Century technology...?

I'm wondering if they don't actually care that much about radar detection. They are most likely to have shielding technology, but it may be something they can turn on or off at will. Probably don't care because there is no chance of interception.

 

[Paul_Exeter]

I'm wondering if they don't actually care that much about radar detection. They are most likely to have shielding technology, but it may be something they can turn on or off at will. Probably don't care because there is no chance of interception.

I'm drawn to the idea that if we have been visited by a non-human intelligence they will have been self-replicating machines:

https://futurism.com/von-neumann-probe

Could certainly explain quite a few of the more reliable cases through the years and also the recent 'tic-tac' UAPs in the States

 

[Mythopoeika]

I'm drawn to the idea that if we have been visited by a non-human intelligence they will have been self-replicating machines:

https://futurism.com/von-neumann-probe

Could certainly explain quite a few of the more reliable cases through the years and also the recent 'tic-tac' UAPs in the States

Yes, I am fairly well convinced that they are likely to be machine intelligences, sent out by a great civilisation countless millennia ago.

 

[GNC]

Why do they have to be from outer space at all? There's no evidence anything could make that trip. In the Todmorden cases, it could be something far stranger (don't ask me what!).

 

[Mythopoeika]

Why do they have to be from outer space at all? There's no evidence anything could make that trip.

They don't.

 

[GNC]

Maybe we'll get a message from someone in the next episode, it would be good to know if any communication with... whatever had occurred.

 

[Marwood]

I listened to the Todmorden UFO whilst out running (I love a podcast whilst huffing and puffing through the countryside) and wondered if Adamski the DJ took his name from this story?
I did some research (google!) and am none the wiser!
But, during my research, I did find out that it's his (the DJ) birthday today. Happy 53rd birthday Adamski...and he's from Lymington.

 

[Mythopoeika]

I listened to the Todmorden UFO whilst out running (I love a podcast whilst huffing and puffing through the countryside) and wondered if Adamski the DJ took his name from this story?

Adam is his real name.

 

[JamesWhitehead]

Todmorden. Wacky name, wacky town.

My family-name derives from the Saddleworth-Todmorden area. Practically everyone up there is a Whitehead.

One Captain John Whitehead is said to have sown his seed widely, mainly outside the blanket.

Then, incestuous for generations?

At some point, one descended from the moors and mated with human-kind, with the consequence you see before you.

 

[Marwood]

Adam is his real name.

I can remember 'ski' being part of youth speak at the time (early 90s) ie "fancy a brewski".
Listened to the Brooklyn poltergeist ep today on my run. Had a backpack with a few turnips in (weird in itself I know) and running along an empty drove suddenly felt like a gentle push on the backpack (as if to say "speed up mate!"). Obviously my reaction was to turn round, nobody behind me...put it down to turnips shifting in the backpack

 

[Paul_Exeter]

I listened to the Todmorden UFO whilst out running (I love a podcast whilst huffing and puffing through the countryside) and wondered if Adamski the DJ took his name from this story?
I did some research (google!) and am none the wiser!
But, during my research, I did find out that it's his (the DJ) birthday today. Happy 53rd birthday Adamski...and he's from Lymington.

.I worked a couple of miles from Lymington from 1989-93 and a workmate went to school with Adamski. Is that your neck of the woods...?

 

[Paul_Exeter]

Why do they have to be from outer space at all? There's no evidence anything could make that trip. In the Todmorden cases, it could be something far stranger (don't ask me what!).

True. One prominent theory is that there is an 'intelligent other' that co-exists in some way with the human race and has done so for millennia. Some suggest that they hide on Earth itself, either deep underwater or under the ground. Others suggest that they inhabit a different dimension but are able to 'slip' in and out of ours, either bu chance, by design or if 'summoned' by occult practises. This 'other' manifests as the werewolves, yeti, Sasquatch, greys, ghosts, djinn etc. us humans seem to have encountered over the centuries. They also seem drawn to nature and as such the vast majority of incidents involving this 'other' take place outside of our cities.

 

[CharmerKamelion]

They also seem drawn to nature and as such the vast majority of incidents involving this 'other' take place outside of our cities.

And in Cromer.

 

[Marwood]

.I worked a couple of miles from Lymington from 1989-93 and a workmate went to school with Adamski. Is that your neck of the woods...?

Kind of... Hampshire/Wiltshire border, the New Forest being close enough for frequent visits, both work and pleasure.

 

[GNC]

I listened to the Todmorden UFO whilst out running (I love a podcast whilst huffing and puffing through the countryside) and wondered if Adamski the DJ took his name from this story?
I did some research (google!) and am none the wiser!
But, during my research, I did find out that it's his (the DJ) birthday today. Happy 53rd birthday Adamski...and he's from Lymington.

Don't forget George Adamski, the famous UFO contactee from the 1950s, who beat the Todmorden chap to the weirdness by 30 years or so.

 

[lordmongrove]

Uncanny episode 8
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m0012g94

 

[GNC]

Latest one promised a return to Todmorden, but you had to wait pretty much till the end for that, though it was interestingly diamond-shaped. Before it were some well-trodden tales from Wales and Zimbabwe, good to hear from witnesses first hand, but didn't really advance the matter in hand. The turn of the 19th century links were intriguing, mind you.

Next week - back to ghosts! I get the feeling Danny could devote his broadcasting life to this podcast.

 

[JudSawyer]

I didn't find it that interesting until we got to the bit at the end about Howarth in the early 1920s! The rest sounded explainable by stealth aircraft explanations, but what was it, 1911? This sighting sounds nothing like early 20th century aircraft, from a quick and superficial internet scan!

 

[lordmongrove]

Uncanny episode 9. I'm friends with both of the experts on this one.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m0012pcb