John B. Wells

[ItsOver]

In the last half hour with Whitley Streiber last night, I heard longtime frequent and annoying caller Bill from West Hartford, Conn. called in yet again and of course started off introducing himself as an amateur astronomer and athiest. Then he proceeded to ask several long questions that Whitley said were questions that were not answerable...

Hahahaha.... .   Bill was on "Ground Zero" again this week, too.  You can pretty much count on him popping-up there about once a week.  How can some callers claim to have called in for years before finally getting on the air when Bill is on multiple times a week on several shows?  Clyde started clashing with again and told him nobody cared he was atheist and possibly an amateur astronomer which really pissed him off. 

[Pragmier]

How can some callers claim to have called in for years before finally getting on the air when Bill is on multiple times a week on several shows? 

I've wondered about that myself.

[ItsOver]

      The Rashomon effect seems to be contagious as well, each individual's memory fitting their ideal. It's frighteningly common in political discussions, the "good old days" revisionism. Recently,I had a relative of mine insist that Dukakis was leading Bush by 20+ points in the national polls in mid-October 1988. This is wrong. Dukakis did lead by 15 points or so in July, 1988 which was in the immediate aftermath of the Dem Convention, where poll boosts are common and often viewed with skepticism.


          So my uncle was remembering something factual, but was errant in the chronology. And of course, that's extremely significant because it completely changes his narrative. Yes, Bush trailed by nearly 20 points, but it wasn't three weeks before the election.

Reminds me of when Art had a fascinating tale about having a memory of Nelson Mandela passing away.  He could swear that he recalled the event happening but realized it wasn't true.  I think Art recalled Mandela dying in prison.  Of course, maybe I'm just having a false memory of Art telling the story.     Art could take the smallest, seemingly minor trivia and turn it into an intriguing story that would draw you in and cause you to relate.  Noory, of course, is the exact opposite.  He can take a potentially interesting topic and trash it "Beeyond Beeleef." 

[ItsOver]

I've wondered about that myself.

Which brings us back to the question of wondering about paid callers.  Bill is enough of a predictable clown that I can't help but wonder. 

[PB the Deplorable]

...  he proceeded to ask several long questions that Whitley said were questions that were not answerable...

Isn't Hoagie usually consulted for those?

[Scully]

Conservative estimates are about 3% of the population will experience psychosis in their lives.




...To really be psychosis there is also some level of delusion but again that is not necessarily any easier to ascertain. Sometimes people "gaslight" themselves and that really isn't delusion.

Is it possible that most of the U.S. population who are at some point certifiably psychotic listen to and call into C2C? 


Seriously, Onan, thanks for the info.  It explains a lot.


Would you please explain, though, how people who "gaslight" themselves aren't delusional.  Are you suggesting they know they're scaring themselves -- like, say Whitley?


I usually think Streiber is mad as a hatter, but last night (probably because George wasn't there doing his whole schtick), he sounded more believable.

[mombird3]

I heard the last segment about 20 minutes with Whitley, that caller who's grandson had been visited by aliens was interesting. There is something about Whitley that when he gets into the interview he becomes interesting and it was better than I originally thought.
Are some people having a wild imagination?

[McPhallus]

He IS a good storyteller.  The problem with him is that he tries to pass off his stories as truth, and he has some credibility problems.

I heard the last segment about 20 minutes with Whitley, that caller who's grandson had been visited by aliens was interesting. There is something about Whitley that when he gets into the interview he becomes interesting and it was better than I originally thought.
Are some people having a wild imagination?

[VtaGeezer]

Tuned in last night thinking it might be interesting to hear Whit Streiber, one of the few non-self-published real authors who still appear on C2C, tangle with the Great Downer.  Alas, I was just in time to hear Wells going on yet again about the coming armed uprising by his beloved rightwing cranks against the gun-grabbing Godless commie Kenyan muzzie demon twice elected to usurping the WH. Click.  Timothy McVeigh would have been a great fan of Wells'.

[onan]

Is it possible that most of the U.S. population who are at some point certifiably psychotic listen to and call into C2C?   

I actually think calling into c2c should be a qualifier in the dsm coming out

Would you please explain, though, how people who "gaslight" themselves aren't delusional.  Are you suggesting they know they're scaring themselves -- like, say Whitley?

It really isn't anything odious or sinister. Some emotionally unstable people make their symptoms out to be much more "serious" than they really are.


I can't count the number of people that have had some level of pareidolia and are convinced it is an hallucination. One patient in particular kept telling me she was seeing a face in the wood grain of her closet door. It wasn't until I made the trip to her house and looked at the door with her and then explained I too could see a face that she understand it wasn't something not there.

[Scully]

I actually think calling into c2c should be a qualifier in the dsm coming out



It really isn't anything odious or sinister. Some emotionally unstable people make their symptoms out to be much more "serious" than they really are.


I can't count the number of people that have had some level of pareidolia and are convinced it is an hallucination. One patient in particular kept telling me she was seeing a face in the wood grain of her closet door. It wasn't until I made the trip to her house and looked at the door with her and then explained I too could see a face that she understand it wasn't something not there.

Thank you, Onan.  I understand, and when I understand I (sometimes) feel better. 


And I love your suggested qualifier for the next dsm. I really did LOL!  :

[Juan]

I worked in a few TV newsrooms overnight.  The number of calls we'd get from nuts (I don't have the qualifications to make a diagnosis) was amazing.  I'd take calls from people sighting UFOs, people thinking of committing suicide, one man who thought that he had started the war in Rwanda, a woman who saw blood seeping through the wall of her house, people who just rambled in a stream-of-consciousness way, etc.  I think these people are simply up at night.

[GeorgieForPresident2216]

I worked in a few TV newsrooms overnight.  The number of calls we'd get from nuts (I don't have the qualifications to make a diagnosis) was amazing.  I'd take calls from people sighting UFOs, people thinking of committing suicide, one man who thought that he had started the war in Rwanda, a woman who saw blood seeping through the wall of her house, people who just rambled in a stream-of-consciousness way, etc.  I think these people are simply up at night.

You've hit the nail on the head.  This is why Coast exists.  I've believed it since the Art Bell days.  The people up at night are less likely to be well adapted, educated, or have stable lives (not saying that about everybody up at night.. not even the majority, but professionals with steady jobs and families mostly sleep at night).  Without religion to govern their lives anymore, the government has to do something to keep them occupied. 

After all, desire, jealousy, etc. starts with thought, leads to obsession, leads to action, and can lead to violence or other types of civil disorder.  Christianity taught us that if we even had an inappropriate thought we would have to pay for it eventually.  Society used this for many hundreds of years to keep the populace in check.  You see what happened in the former Soviet Union in the absence of religion... The KGB and the police state (yes, lack of religion wasn't the only factor in that but I think it was an important one).  So, with the decline of religion, I figure the government really liked how Art Bell would scare the pants of people and keep them believing in some sort of karma. 

Coast to Coast wasn't meant to cater to smart, educated people, and with Noory and Wells.. mission accomplished.

Anyway, not sure you all wanted to hear from me but that's been my pet belief for many years.

[onan]

You've hit the nail on the head.  This is why Coast exists.  I've believed it since the Art Bell days.  The people up at night are less likely to be well adapted, educated, or have stable lives (not saying that about everybody up at night.. not even the majority, but professionals with steady jobs and families mostly sleep at night).  Without religion to govern their lives anymore, the government has to do something to keep them occupied. 

After all, desire, jealousy, etc. starts with thought, leads to obsession, leads to action, and can lead to violence or other types of civil disorder.  Christianity taught us that if we even had an inappropriate thought we would have to pay for it eventually.  Society used this for many hundreds of years to keep the populace in check.  You see what happened in the former Soviet Union in the absence of religion... The KGB and the police state (yes, lack of religion wasn't the only factor in that but I think it was an important one).  So, with the decline of religion, I figure the government really liked how Art Bell would scare the pants of people and keep them believing in some sort of karma. 

Coast to Coast wasn't meant to cater to smart, educated people, and with Noory and Wells.. mission accomplished.

Anyway, not sure you all wanted to hear from me but that's been my pet belief for many years.

Your pet belief is wrong. In the 50's we had 25 times the hospital beds for the mentally ill than we do now. We had long term hospitalization for the mentally ill. Now we have mostly for profit hospitals that have little room for those without insurance and most mentally ill do not have insurance. Those that do mostly have medicaid and that only covers approximately 60 percent of treatment on a good day in the right hospital... on bad days hospitals will do cartwheels to place a medicaid patient anywhere but in one of their beds. State systems are overloaded and are reducing their beds for the mentally ill.


It is kind of ironic that the religious right has more interest in less taxes than it does compassion for the people they really don't want to look at, much less be bothered with.

[stevesh]

It is kind of ironic that the religious right has more interest in less taxes than it does compassion for the people they really don't want to look at, much less be bothered with.

Not sure where that came from. Isn't it true that the rage in the mental health 'industry' in the '70s was deinstitutionalization, driven by the idea (proposed by those I would consider the opposite of the religious right) that the civil rights of the mentally ill were being violated ? No agenda here, I'm asking.

[Rico999]

I like Whitely Streiber.  Sure, at times he comes on as a bit pretentious, but to me he's Old School Coast and  many years ago, guests like him really got me to plug into "Dreamland" and the whole paranormal milieu.   If what he is telling us is true, then what most of us regard as "reality," will need an overhaul if disclosure comes out of the cold.

Kudos, too, to Wells for a pretty fair interview job.  He's not yet a real polished interviewer, but that's not a bad thing, IMO, as long as he's making a serious effort to connect with the guest and have a real conversation.  Somehow, this has eluded the regular host of the program since he assumed the mic, but that's obvious and has been well documented in this forum and many others.

Wells weakness is his habit of going into a diatribe about his personal worldview, which is on the paranoid far-far-far "right" side (for lack of a better description).   I'm not bitching about his opinion, hell no -- he's entitled to it, even if I don't necessarily agree -- but when it's injected completely out of context to an interview is what I object to.  Wells does this too often as far as I'm concerned.

Has anyone ever written or emailed this guy and received a reply?  Just curious....

ALSO:  For those interested in the hologram concept, about 20 years ago the late Michael Talbot wrote this fascinating book called "The Holographic Universe."  I spotted it on a bookshelf way back in the day and got the hard copy edition and have reread it a number of times.   It'll definitely pique your interest in going further down the rabbit hole if that kind of thing's your bag.  He also wrote a book, "Beyond the Quantum," which is just about as good.  Check 'em out.

[GeorgieForPresident2216]

No argument here.  I think fundamentalist Christians seem to have missed the fundamental tenets of Christianity somewhere along the way.  It seems they rely on hard and fast rules rather than a personal sense of reason and compassion.  However, I was not trying to make a religious statement so much as one about the workings of society.  I guess I was talking more about those who are less well adjusted and slightly unstable than the truly mentally ill.  Religion has been used to pacify people and maintain public order for a very long time.  As that sense of religious fear wains, why not put out a cheap program to preoccupy and instill a belief in karma, after-death life reviews, spirits and aliens that are watching over you, etc? -- especially if they are not willing to spend the money to treat people or address systemic issues.

As to Wells -- I did think that was a pretty good interview and I do think at least he is taking some advice and improving.  He's gotten rid of the condescending British accent -- even catching himself a couple of times, and I think his 6 degrees of rambling has gotten a little better (ie/ he can link anything to his so-called world order Koolaide in six easy steps, though he usually loses me about 10 minutes in when I forget who the original guest was and what they were supposed to be talking about).  I'm no fan of his but glad to see him making the effort.

[onan]

Not sure where that came from. Isn't it true that the rage in the mental health 'industry' in the '70s was deinstitutionalization, driven by the idea (proposed by those I would consider the opposite of the religious right) that the civil rights of the mentally ill were being violated ? No agenda here, I'm asking.

Granted it is a condensed frustration with both governmental types, policy wonks, and those thinking all taxes are bad.
I want to be clear here. Mental health treatment in the 50's in many instances was atrocious. And significant advances in therapy and medicines do allow many to function with normal lives today that in the 50's would have been impossible. But the drastic cuts to mental health in the late 70's up to this day are the reason we have so much homelessness. Our jails and prisons have become housing for many of the chronic mentally ill.
Mental health treatment used to have a large amount of support through churches. And I think religion could be a strong foundation for the mentally ill now. The problem is (as I understand it) state run facilities have a problem due to separation of church and state. I have little doubt that churches have the potential for much more compassion than state institutions, but I doubt that will happen.

[Scully]

Has anyone ever written or emailed this guy and received a reply?  Just curious....

Yes I have. His message pretty well tells what to expect from him in future -- no changes planned.  :


-----Original Message-----
From: "<Name omitted to protect the guilty>
Sent 3/23/2013 7:09:22 PM
To: johnb@coasttocoastam.com
Subject: Doomsday again


You are just Joy and Sunshine to look forward to every time you're on.   
 
My radio sits unused on Saturday nights these days. You must have some
really sick people who want to listen to your topics -- if there are such people.



----- Original Message -----
From: john wells 
To: xxxxxxx
Sent: Saturday, March 23, 2013 10:54 PM
Subject: Re: Doomsday again

Enjoy your comic book. It has pictures!
Seriously, if you don't want to know the things that mainstream media won't tell you,
then my slot on the program is probably not for you.

JOHN B WELLS
www.caravantomidnight.com

[BobGrau]

Comic book?

Yes John, some of us can process words and images at the same time!

[onan]

Enjoy your comic book. It has pictures!
Seriously, if you don't want to know the things that mainstream media won't tell you,
then my slot on the program is probably not for you.

Sometimes what the mainstream media "won't" tell you is not worth hearing.


But thankfully, we have a guy that, from on high, has the instincts to guide those seeking the essential truth. And what is most important is that information can be heard at two in the morning on a very late sunday night early monday morning. When as we all know is the time most people of good sense are listening.


What a bloviated gas bag.

[Mind Flayer Monk]

Enjoy your comic book. It has pictures!
Seriously, if you don't want to know the things that mainstream media won't tell you,
then my slot on the program is probably not for you.

JOHN B WELLS

I imagine Wells has a giant comic book collection. He just seems like the type of guy that would have a bunch of them.

[PB the Deplorable]

I imagine Wells has a giant comic book collection. He just seems like the type of guy that would have a bunch of them.

I wonder if Ian took his collection of comic books and true crime paperbacks with him to the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism

[Yorkshire pud]

Yes I have. His message pretty well tells what to expect from him in future -- no changes planned.  :


-----Original Message-----
From: "<Name omitted to protect the guilty>
Sent 3/23/2013 7:09:22 PM
To: johnb@coasttocoastam.com
Subject: Doomsday again


You are just Joy and Sunshine to look forward to every time you're on.   
 
My radio sits unused on Saturday nights these days. You must have some
really sick people who want to listen to your topics -- if there are such people.



----- Original Message -----
From: john wells 
To: xxxxxxx
Sent: Saturday, March 23, 2013 10:54 PM
Subject: Re: Doomsday again

Enjoy your comic book. It has pictures!
Seriously, if you don't want to know the things that mainstream media won't tell you,
then my slot on the program is probably not for you.

JOHN B WELLS
www.caravantomidnight.com

If I received the e mail you sent; you'd have been fortunate to get such a polite reply as he sent you. What was your motivation to be so rude and then you berate his reply? Are you really surprised?

[McPhallus]

Scully is likely on the list of cranks and nutcases who regularly complain in such a silly manner, and are therefore most likely ignored.

If I received the e mail you sent; you'd have been fortunate to get such a polite reply as he sent you. What was your motivation to be so rude and then you berate his reply? Are you really surprised?

[Eddie Coyle]

 
            I'm disappointed Wells didn't call it the lamestream media. That's a clever neologism that cuts like a knife.

[NowhereInTime]

I wonder if Ian took his collection of comic books and true crime paperbacks with him to the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism

PB you're a talented, funny person and your Eye Pad bits are priceless.  I don't agree with your politics or your opinion of Ian but your wit and humor are obvious to anyone who reads your posts. Why don't you do a Political Cartoon book or Paranormal satire book that puts your humor together in a readily consumable form? (Hah! Just thinking of "Jorch's Eye Pad Vol 1" makes me laugh out loud!) I think it would be something if you had a book higher on the NY Times Best Seller list than Ian. At least maybe you make a couple of bucks instead of all the free milk you give us!

[RedMichael]

Truth be told, he probably doesn't reply to nice e-mails.

[Yorkshire pud]

Truth be told, he probably doesn't reply to nice e-mails.

I can only relate my own experiences: I've almost never had less than a polite, friendly and frequently more helpful and productive than anticipated reply from a letter, phone call or e mail when my initial contact has been polite and friendly...Sometimes the person I'm approaching might not be who I should be approaching, but because I was polite, they've put me in touch with the right person.  I know politeness, civility and good manners are so last century, but it does work with most I find.

[WOTR]

I can only relate my own experiences: I've almost never had less than a polite, friendly and frequently more helpful and productive than anticipated reply from a letter, phone call or e mail when my initial contact has been polite and friendly...

In most cases I agree.  I spend the day in a position where I am constantly writing nice emails and making polite calls (usually.)  However, when asking Noory to kindly refrain from giving so called doctors a platform to dispense dangerous advice fails and requesting that Wells kindly walk over to the nearest bridge and heave himself over the handrail fails you sometimes have to be a little less polite.

No, I do not consider his response unreasonable (he even started the second sentance with the word "seriously" which leads me to believe that he might have a sense of humour.)  Good for him- but he still sucks just a little more than Noory- even if he is semi-human.