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well my name is Micah Hanks and I go by

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Mike to Hanks I'm known for my website

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to graylien Report and so some people

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call me the gray alien to test

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certainly not what I actually go by you

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know it's been a long life long quest I

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think for me and people say quest and

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that's an overused term these days I you

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know our urine for the days when people

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actually had to trudge up and down

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mountains and you know go down into

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caves you know Forge the fields and

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literally you know live the adventure of

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sustenance and trying to strive to

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thrive these days in this technological

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culture we've lost a lot but by the same

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token we've also gained there's always

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with all things good with the bad

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for me the adventure began if we want to

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call it that and at an early age and I

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continue to pursue the same sorts of

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things that really interested me you

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know when I was just a you know kid in

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grade school the UFO phenomena of course

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is was you know interpreted by my young

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mind then was an extraterrestrial

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presence in our midst

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something that came from another planet

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something that traversed the cosmos and

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lands in our space-time reality and

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visits the little mud ball we call terra

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firma or planet earth and and today it's

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something very different and while I'm

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still in pursuit of a phenomena that

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I've spent all my life looking for there

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is a fundamental change in my

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philosophical perception of of what this

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phenomena is my mother many who would

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say there's nothing to it well you

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you're wasting what intelligence you

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have studying things that there is

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really no scientific merit to study I

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always maintain that really

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fundamentally all phenomena begin as

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unexplained phenomena and if we remember

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that all phenomena begin as the

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unexplained and that science seeks to

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disprove to separate the wheat from the

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proverbial chaff and to find exactly

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what we can prove to be you through

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rigorous scientific methodology

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fundamental laws and constants

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observable in our universe those things

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are what we're all really trying to find

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and trying to understand and for me

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that's what it has become it has become

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a fundamental

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reshaping of my understanding of the

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things that have intrigued me since

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childhood in which today I realized

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truly I think that I think on a

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universal scale are some of the most

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important that issues that we address as

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humanity and as a civilization those

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specifically are UFOs and not alien

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spaceships from another world merely

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unidentified flying objects the

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political the geopolitical you know

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socio-cultural and of course also the

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national security issues that are all

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concomitant with the study of purported

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objects of possibly terrestrial origin

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possibly something else and certainly

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what appeared to be at times exotic the

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technology unknown sources of course but

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something that appears to be a highly

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advanced exotic technology all of these

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kinds of things taken into consideration

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show that there's far more to the world

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around us than what we think that we

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know and they do certainly merit further

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scientific and serious study and that's

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where I am today a couple of the

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projects that we have going on right now

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and I say we because you know there's

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myself and I do have you know close

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colleagues and associates that work with

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me but also a number of members in

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academia who unfortunately because of

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their position I've said this often and

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people often heard me say it because of

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their position in academia they are not

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able to be says forthcoming with their

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own personal identities but it shows

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that people on all levels of society and

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all levels of influence and all levels

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really truly have knowledge you know in

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our culture I have maintained and

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possessed at times an interest in what

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we would deem today the unexplained so

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some of the projects that I've been

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working on deal with natural phenomena

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what I perceive as being natural

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phenomena one location Brown Mountain

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North Carolina which is actually close

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to a larger protected wilderness area

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called the Linville Gorge purported

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earth lights that occur in there and

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have since very least the 1860s probably

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presumably if it's natural phenomena

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since much earlier times that are

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anecdotal legends about would have

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become known as the Brown Mountain

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lights that state that Native American

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legends

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predate the settlers you know the

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European settlers who inhabited that

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region and who told about these kinds of

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things but really the problem is is that

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when we look at this skeptically there

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is no verifiable data that arrives

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before the 1860s there is you know

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substantive that seems to suggest that

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there is indeed a phenomenon at Brown

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Mountain what what is described are

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lights you know self-contained luminous

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orbs of light that appear and that

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sometimes behave extremely erratically

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sometimes actually move through the air

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at high speed by all accounts they are

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really properly termed as UFOs they are

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under the defied flying objects but they

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may be something more akin to another

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little known scientific phenomenon that

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many study and that is a plasmas or ball

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lightning so that's something that's

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very interesting to me in addition to

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you know a number of cases of

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individuals who have gone missing some

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in relation to some UFO type activity

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what some perceive as such you know

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today at the paradigm symposium I gave a

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lecture that was about the disappearance

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of a man named Frederick Valenta CH and

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there have been a number of sceptical

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articles that address this case and I've

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tried to address it it's just as

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skeptically and yet I find that there

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are key elements to the case I think

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that can be drawn from discussion about

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it with people who knew the man who went

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missing Frederick Valenta CH and yet

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those individuals were never interviewed

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by skeptics who have claimed that the

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case is now closed they say another UFO

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cold case closed well I would beg to

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differ I don't know that we can say that

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that is a cold case closed and although

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it's a case that is you know several

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decades old it took place in October of

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1978 we still don't know definitively

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what happened to Frederick Valenta CH

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there are many questions and it's not

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really fair either to he or to those who

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knew him to say that the case is closed

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and yet I see so many people especially

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of the modern skeptical ilk who do that

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I'm very much to my course skeptic and I

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really challenge and criticize the

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skeptics out there in the community who

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would also say that they can leap to a

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supposition or to a kind of speculative

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you know end and say that this case

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despite the fact that we don't have a

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conclusive idea really of what he where

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he went what happened to Valenta CH but

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this is a case closed so while that's an

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old case both of these really Brown

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Mountain man the Valenta CH

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disappearance are both older cases I

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think that as time goes on and we try to

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attempt to apply

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reasonable skepticism and a scientific

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methodology to these cases that we do

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learn things over time and this idea

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that we have to look only at recent

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cases there can be plenty learned from

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looking at old cases but it requires a

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think at times a different approach to

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thought in a different way of orienting

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ourselves and our minds around how we

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approach the study of this phenomena you

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know there there's a spiritual side to

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all this there maybe not everyone feels

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spiritual I always have you know I'm a

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person who tries to be led by rational

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thinking and I'm into the very heart and

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core I am a rationalist but I also am

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brave enough to admit and humble enough

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to realize that we don't have all the

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answers and there's a lot about this

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universe that we don't fully understand

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there's a lot that we don't know the

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first problem is when we presume to know

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again in the absence of evidence in the

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absence of answers and so again this is

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why I have so often advocated this

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perspective from what I call the middle

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ground in fact I do a podcast available

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on iTunes called middle theory and this

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although the name was drafted by my

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co-host Christopher McCollum the the

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concept of middle theory is that when we

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become so ideologically extreme either

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for or against right or left belief

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skepticism whatever it is day night

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death life you know you become biased

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and you become beholden to an ideology

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that is innately going to be skewed one

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way or another you know we really need

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to be able to come to the center and so

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when it comes to you know espousing this

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middle-of-the-road view it's interesting

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because that is I think an entirely

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rational view but there's a spiritual

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component to understanding that hey and

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from the middle sometimes we can look

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and see in all directions and still not

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have the answer there are things that

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exist beyond what humans can fully

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conceive one day we will I think that

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through the advancement of science and

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knowledge and technologies that are yet

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to come that we may not have even

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conceived today that we will probably

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fully master things that would seem

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literally the lightness of magic to us

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today but in the meantime in the interim

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we have to face the fact that

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some things that we will may be able to

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perceive although peripherally but that

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we will never fully understand

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and hence always say that really we have

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to balance and the meditation if you

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want to call it that that came to me

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this morning was that you know we must

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be critical but we must be open minded

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also but fundamentally we must be

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brilliant because only by being

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brilliant and striving to be that will

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we be able to illuminate the darkness

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that separates us from the unexplained

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now all things as we said at the outset

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when we begin through the scientific

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process all things all observable

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phenomena begin as unexplained phenomena

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but we can't continue to call them

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unexplained and we can't continue to

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deny what appears to be observable and

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yet as yet unexplained and again it's

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that brilliance of rational skepticism

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but also the inclusive attitude of

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open-mindedness that really will bring

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us to a better chance at the very least

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every least that the out says a better

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chance I hope to be able to begin to

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understand it to bridge that gap

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darkness between where we are now what

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we can perceive and what we now call the

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unexplained it won't always be there but

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we've got to be able to apply proper

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methodology to get from point A to point

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B and end result it will be knowledge

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and I'm an advocate of knowledge I

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believe in knowledge I also believe in

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human ability to learn but we have to I

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think find innovative and more careful

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ways to think about certain things maybe

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things that we would call unexplained

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than what we've done in the past and

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that that would be what I would leave

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with people any websites or anything

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that I've got right now you know if

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people want to see online they can

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simply go to a triple W Micah Hanks calm

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there's also the graylien report which

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is a weekly podcast I do which is

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graylien report calm we also have a

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subscriber area for that and then of

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course middle theory calm which is a

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news and current events podcast that

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also you know deals with some conspiracy

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subjects but I think again in a

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reasonable rational way you know again

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let's let's ground ourselves in the

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middle so that we don't become beholden