Episode Transcript
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Third man syndrome, also sometimes calledthird man factor, is a phenomenon that
occurs in times of distress and crisis. It's the feeling that there's another person
or entity there alongside you, evenif you're all alone. People report feeling,
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hearing, or even seeing this quotethird man who acts as a voice
of comfort and support in an otherwisehorrifying time. It's always a man.
I don't know that it would haveto be that. I don't know now
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that I'm just described, but Ifeel like maybe people have told us stories
in the past that could fall inthis category. It's a People who experience
this say at times the third manliterally saved their lives. Christian, will
you do me a favorite and I'llkeep reading here? Will you see if
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you can find me somebody who knowsabout the third man phenomenon or has experienced
third man phenomenon, please eight sixtysix to Elliott eight six six two three
five five four six eight. Theterm third man syndrome comes from the TS
Eliot poem The Wasteland, inspired bythe real life experience of Ernest Shackleton,
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an Irish explorer who went on whohad a near death expedition to Antarctica after
their ship got trapped in ice,he and other crew members. Anyway,
it goes on and on about howthis third man saved their life, and
he wrote about it, and that'skind of what brought it on. So
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it's that encouragement to just keep going. Yes, and then he cites examples
from real people who you who haveexperienced third man syndrome. When I was
young, I had to have prettymajor surgeries due to a birth defect.
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I'm just reading about somebody who hasan example. I was feeling sick,
in pain, and frustrated about notbeing able to sleep or get out of
bed. When I rang the bellfor night nurses to help me to the
toilet, A smiling man dressed inall white would come straight away and help
me. He was so happy andpeaceful, with the biggest smile and a
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bright aura to him. He alwayscame straight to me as soon as the
bell rang. The next day,after the second night of his help,
I asked another nurse if he wouldbe on duty that night. The staff
seemed very confused even after my descriptionof him. She told me there weren't
any male staffers on duty these pasttwo nights, and none of the porters
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or other staff were in all whiteor would have been answering bells on the
ward. Okay, so it's notjust a voice. Well, in this
case, he saw a whole person. Yeah, who he claims helped him
to the bathroom when they were younger. I was on board when we're talking
about just the sense that you're hearingsupport from maybe not beyond, but support
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from another place. But that's awhole vision. Twice in my twenties,
different story, I fell asleep whiledriving on a highway. Just in the
nick of time. A voice fromthe back seat said my name in a
very commanding tone, waking me upso I could hit the brakes. I'm
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still very much alive. I'm seventysix years old, and I figure someone
up there likes me. So issomebody who just screamed. By the way,
that comes up where somebody your nameshouted, or they yell at you,
not yell at you like you've donesomething wrong, but to get your
attention. And so it's both recognizethat voice. No, no, no,
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there's a there's a woman and I'mparaphrasing, I can't find it in
here real quick. There's a womanwho says she and her boyfriend were in
college and they were driving back tosomewhere whatever and remembers hearing somebody yell,
lift your feet, lift your feet, and she lifted her feet like the
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car had been involved in some kindof like spin out or something. And
at the in the middle of allthis chaos, just started yelling at her,
lift your feet, lift your feet, and she lifted her feet because
she was being commanded to do so. And they ended up hitting a tree
and it crumpled the entire bottom ofthe dashboard up. It would have broken
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her, she would have lost bothher legs. Well, the way that
it crumpled up wasn't her boyfriend.Her boyfriend wasn't yelling lift her feet.
Wow, So it can be prettyspecific. Oh, very much, so
very much. So they talked toanother guy. Guy is on a train,
right. I don't think it's likean Excella or an Amtrak, but
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he's on a train going from Ato B. He's by himself. He's
traveling alone. There's nobody signed nextto him. It's evening time, and
he kind of just lays his headagainst the window and he said, he's
just laying there. He's awake.He's not asleep, but he's just kind
of resting his head against the window. And then at some moment somebody yelled
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at him, sit up, situp, and he moved his head so
he shot through the window of thetrain. What he said would have shot
him in the heady saved his life. Third man said or third man phenomenon,
whichever one you want to call itto. You read these and I
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guess i'll ask Diane, because you'vehad a moment or two to think about
it, don't you feel like overthe years, and it may be completely
unrelated to whatever we're discussing, butsomeone's called or written about a voice like
this, and because until now maybewe haven't had a named syndrome to attached
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to it. Yeah, we sortof maybe gently rib them like laughed it
all, or like I buy thisstuff. Then probably not, because then
we would have just said that aboutDiane. Oh, here you go,
you buy that. I think thatthere's like some so you're gonna tell me
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it's a guardian age, guardian angel, and that's what you think this is.
But this is different, you know, from which you're actually hearing like
a somebody shouting at you dude,there's another story in here. Guy got
lost driving bad storm. He gotlost driving. He's driving, he'd gotten
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off a highway, couldn't find hisway back to the highway, had no
idea where he was going right,and he goes this is like, I
don't know how many years ago.He's good, but I did have GPS
on my phone. So I gotlost and I was like, oh,
I just got to get back tothe highway. He's driving along, it's
pouring rain. He can't find anything. Finally, like horrible storms, no
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lights, nothing up on the lefthand side, he sees a house that's
got its lights on. He pullsup to the house. He goes through
the gate. He goes and knockson the door. They allow him to
come in. The person gives himdirections. He says, well, you
call my mom and tell my momthat if she doesn't see me or anything,
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that you saw me whatever, getsback in his car. She gave
him directions. He was actually onlya mile away from the from the from
the house and from the house.They called the mom. Right, He
gets home says to his mom,you know, oh, I went to
that house. Whatever. She's like, nobody called me. He drove back
by there, no house, explainthat one you who believes in it.
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Maybe since it was so dark,was it a guardian Was it a guardian
house? What a guardian angel?Maybe that may maybe it was an apartment
complex for guardian angels there, that'swhere they all live. He was disoriented.
He may have gone to the wrongplace. Mhm. Next, but
you were reminded to bring this upbecause of the Suzanne Summer story, right,
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And to me, that's very,very different. No, I was
just said that reminded me of this. It reminded me of this her.
Oh yeah, no, a hummingbirdlanding on a picture means the hummingbird was
tired. Her husband thinks he's beingcommunicated with through her. Yeah, no,
no, he's not hearing No,oh no, no, I'm not
tying the two together. I justsaid it reminded me. But for third
man syndrome, it has to bea human life form, whether in voice
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or in vision. I think so. Yeah. I am disabled and survived
the attacks on the twin towers.I was buried under the debris for fifteen
hours, but I was never alone. I kept hearing a voice that said
his name was Michael. When Iwas at my weakest. He would just
keep talking to me, and Iwould talk to him. When I was
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rescued, I found out there wasnever a man named Michael anywhere in the
area of the debris pile by me. I still wonder the voice that saved
me from becoming another death of thatterrible day. Who was that? Huh?
What are you asking me to explainthat? Yeah? From Facebook,
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Chelsea writes the end of the movie, this may be a spoiler the end
of the movie The Guardian or theSixth Stance. He was dead the whole
time. Oh. The Guardians withKevin Costner and Ashton Kutcher is a great
example of this. Has anyone sayingthat phone I don't know that movie that
I don't know? Says a drowningsailor being rescued by Ashton Kutcher's character Jake,
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asks where is he and then tellsof a man who had stayed with
him and helped him until help arrived. Wow, that is kind of what
you're describing. Yes, very muchso, I don't recall that movie at
all. I was driving north andthen I'll grab a bunch of these I
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got everybody on hold, don't goanywhere. I promise I'll get right to
you. I was driving north fromPortland to Seattle for a last minute appointment.
I was very tired and the rainyweather wasn't helping at all. I
was using my phone as GPS andit fell off the mounter dashboard holder and
onto the foot well below. Iwas on a major freeway, and in
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my tired state, started to scrambleto find the phone. I know it's
dumb, but I didn't know whereI was going. At this point,
I could barely see the road.I was looking down for the device.
All of a sudden, I feltmy steering wheel jerk to the left and
then to the right. I poppedup to see what was going on.
I narrowly missed hitting a road workerby a foot, swerving out and then
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back in the lane again. Ihad not moved the wheel. My grandmother
used to always say to me,don't dry faster than your angels can fly.
Hobe writes, Remember when Dale Juniorwrecked at Sonoma and he felt someone
grab him and pull him out,but no one was there. Number three.
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See, I knew it wasn't ahashtag, right, Thanks Hobi,
Well you're all laughing, and hehas replied to that message on x with
a link to the article and anothernote from Hobe himself that reads, praise
Dale. There is a spirit ora third man, I guess third man
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man, three man? Hi,elliot in the morning. Hey this thing?
Yeah? Hi, who's this?Hey? This is Joe from who
bridge has gone? Hey good?Yeah, I got go ahead. Got
two stories kind of related to thisone out on the Chesapeake Bay and a
storm. We were guided back bya gentleman in a very small gift that
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shouldn't have been able to survive thestorm, and none of the neighbors ever
knew who the guy was. Theboat was never recognized in the town.
So that's kind of my family storyabout that. That's, you know what,
like reading them is one thing hearingit that gives me that that that
kind of that kind of stands myhairs up a little bit. And you
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followed that boat, but that boatnever existed, Yeah dude, Yeah,
well no one in town had everI have ever heard of a gentleman that
looked like this, and no onerecognized the boat. And you know,
Chesapeake, Virginia is a rhythmall place. What's your other one? So the
other one is in King George County. We had a fire at our hunting
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property and my grandfather was trying toflag down the fire department because we were
about three acres inland. The uh. He was about to give up and
come back and try and rescue usfrom the fire. Something told him like,
hey, turn around to the endof the road, and the fire
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trucks were like waiting there, like, hey, where do we go?
Where do we go? And sohe that's the other one. Not as
good as the first one, butstill, dude, that's still pretty good.
Dude, that's still pretty good.Hey, I appreciate it. Thank
you, my friend, Thank you. Is it Hoby? No? Oh
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no, he gave you the bestexample. He said, Hi, Ellie
at the morning, I hope thatwhen when when third man syndrome, if
it's for Hoby, that the voicesays, Herbert gets your egg tie,
gotta grab that wheel. Dale Senior'scoming. Hi, who's this? This
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is Demetrious? Hey, what's up, Demetrius? Oh? Not that much
calling from King George. Another KingGeorge story. So my wife and I
my wife at the time, workednights and was driving home after closing and
root three is a four lane dividedhighway that runs through King George right,
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and the part of the part ofthe road that she was driving through has
a curve in it, and it'skind of it's kind of an optical illusion.
You really can't tell where cars arecoming from. She heard her grandmother
say, move over, Coal.Her name is Nicole, and her grandmother
always called her coal. She heardmove over, Coal, she moved over,
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and about a quarter of the monthdown the road, there was a
car coming in the same coming headon at her on the wrong side of
the road. Dude, come on, come on in the lane that she
was in. Yeah, just switchedfrump. Yeah, yeah, and listen.
Never heard of this before until yousaid it. Yeah, no,
and listen. There's part of methat wants to go cuckoo. But how
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are you supposed to argue that?Why Why would she have moved over?
Yeah? And why would she havesaid somebody told me to, like you
don't make that up crazy, becausemost he thank you, sir. If
I didn't hear it, you'd justbe like, man, dumb luck.
I moved over, Thank God.Why would you add the no? I
heard somebody say, Cole, moveover, Come on? Isn't that nuts
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got another car related one? Didyou see a seagull flying low? Yeah,
Mikey, that was me. Sofriends and fems and friends and fans
and family, don't mourn me fortoo long. Get on with life,
take care of things, be braveand proud and strong. I'll surely miss
you everyone about that, I willnot lie. But as long as you
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remember me, I didn't really die. That's a letter from Dale. It's
a much longer poem, but that'sthe and he wrote that in death.
I think it was a tribute.Oh because right below that is the Heaven
five hundred, which also sounds likeit's more of a eulogy. Hi Elliott
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the morning. Hey, Yeah,Hi, what you got? Hey?
This is tricking out in Pregicksbury.So I was in a car accident about
eight years ago or so, andI was notorious for never wearing a seat
about when I was younger. Right, So, we were getting a ride
home from a friend, my girlfriendat the time, and I and you
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were going fairly fast, but nothingout of the ordinary. We were coming
up on this real sharp s turnin my town and out of nowhere.
I had someone tell me in amale voice, I was only with two
females to put my seat belt on. About thirty three seconds after that,
we went off the road, jumpedover the road, and hit a tree
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on my side of the car goingseventy five miles an hour. Dude,
did you recognize the voice or itwas just the voice of a man.
It was just the voice of aman, So I'm not sure who it
is now I have I'm under theimpression to do with my grandfather had he
had taken his life when I wasyounger, so I don't really know his
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voice right, And I've been understandingby the way that comes up like there
was a there's a couple stories inhere that I was reading about where it's
somebody who was driving and not wearinga seatbelt and a voice there. There's
one that that I remember reading inhere where it was like, put on
your seatbelt and they didn't, andthe voice got stern with them and was
like do it now, and they'relike, okay, and put their seatbelt
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on within second major car accident.Come on, come on, it's crazy,
crazy, And remember what did welearn? Don't dive, don't dry
faster than angels can fly, andwhen the checkered flag. God damn it,
Tyler, Well, it's your fault. It's all of these stories about
motorsports. When the checkered flag drop, no dry eyes remained. It was
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a photo finish. As Jesus explained, he said, there are no losers
on this heavenly track. There wasa welcome home party for the man in
black. That's the Heaven five hundred. Herbert gets your neck, Todd,
Jesus is throwing a home coming forthe five hundred. What's that? What's
the lollipops? What was the stripclub? He liked, Oh, yeah,
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I think that's it. No,I think that's it. Lollipops.
Wasn't that it? Yeah? Indaytime? Yes, yeah, Herbert gets
your necktime. We're going to lollipopsin Heaven, in Heaven, right before
the homecoming for Dale Junior. It'sheaven, so they're bottomless. Yeah,
it is the Lollipop Gentleman's Club,and it does not do well on Google.
Refuse whatever is hold on? MamaWana? Oh yeah, she has
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a story. Sixteen years ago,I had major surgery. I had to
wait for my doctor. In betweenthe whole process, the nicest nurse sat
next to me. And talked tome till the doctor was ready. I
described her to my doctor because afterthe surgery, I wanted to thank her.
No one knew her. Wow,okay, two things. Number One,
she drinks a lot of Mama Wana. Come on for surgery. Let
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me have two shots before I gounder her right. And also was she
in the Dominican it could have justbeen like, hey, don't mention h
don't mention her line four Hi Elliottin the morning. Hello, Hi,
who's this? This is Heather fromI am doing great. Thank you?
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What can I do for you?Good? So I had an experience like
this once. I was driving homefrom vacation from like Myrtle Beach or something
with my husband late at night,headed down the road in uh Germantown,
and I fell asleep when we're inthe last light of our trips. Fell
asleep, and all of a sudden, I just hear a voice say get
up, and I shoot up andmy hand goes to the steering wheel.
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My husband started to nod off andwas crossing the centerline, and there was
a car coming towards us. AndI have no explanation for it and have
never had it happen again. Orheard of anybody else having something like this.
But it was clear as day.Get up and I shot up out
of that seat. What And Iwas just say, what, what is
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that? But I know what itis? Third man's phenomenon or third man
syndrome. Are there people who justI'm with you, like even if you
said I will right, so takeaway the voice. We're driving down the
road. I had dozed off.I by the luck of God, I
woke up just as my I like. For example, I can tell you
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this. I was when I workedat ninety three Q in Houston, right
was before I left to go topirate. Nobody cares I was working in
Houston. I was in the passengerseat Tom Mantwhistle, who insider he was
the one who would dress up asthe Tuki bird. E E tooky Tuki.
We'll take that post anyway. Idozed off. He was driving.
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We were coming back from an appearance. Right. I woke up just in
time as he started to doze offbehind the wheel. I never nobody said
to wake up. It wasn't likeland Or yelled at me to wake up,
or Dave Shay or anything. Nobodynobody said. I just woke up.
So I've always said, thank godI woke up at that moment.
Right now, I don't know ifanything would have happened, but I woke
up at that moment. But that'sdifferent. That's no. But I was
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gonna say, if I would haveheard a voice, that's one thing.
But I didn't hear a voice.I just luckily woke up. So in
that situation, no, but no, But that's what I'm saying, like
I don't have a third man thing, but that that woman, that's why
I believe she heard someone say wakeup. But what I was gonna say
is I believe and correct me ifI'm wrong. Haven't you here and there
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described your brother as your guardian?Angel? I don't think so, oh
oh never mind, that was thelook he gave. No, I don't.
I don't feel like I have Ohokay, okay, So that you
don't think it was him? No, No, I mean it may have
been Dale, like hey, we'regetting hey, wake up, we're meeting
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Hobie at lollipops. According to yell, if they never take their clothes off,
do you know how angry I wouldbe if I went to a strip
club and they never took their clothesoff. Do you know the bit that
I would throw y'all got dordi andchips because I'm getting ready to stop out
there? How good the food isanything there? Maybe it'll be become a
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keyboard warrior when you get home.Line five, Hi Elliott the morning?
Hey is this me? Yeah?Hi? Real quick? What can I
do for you? Hey? Yeah? I've got a combat related story.
So I was I racked two thousandand five and we were building multi level
building. We started getting shot outa little bit, and we were all
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croups down below the windows. Oneof my buddies and I were sharing returning
fire from a window, and wewere both crouched down and I heard something
and I felt somebody grabbed me onthe shoulder and say, hey, second
floor East window, second floor Eastwindow. So NATURALI I said, okay.
I waned up and I shot theunder barrel grenade launcher underneath the rifle.
It hit the window. The machinegun fire stopped, and after everything
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all settled, I looked at mybuddy, I said, hey, how
do you know where the machine gunwas? And he looked at me like
I had a certain body organ growingon my forehead, and he said dude,
I was gonna ask you the samething. And I talked to everybody
else afterwards after everything was all settled, and they said, no, we
had no idea what the machine gunwas. But I distinctly felt somebody grabbed
my shoulder and say, second flooreast window, So that's where I shot.
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And I'd probably say the lives ofprobably ten of us that were all
huddled up in the building. Ohmy god, dude, Oh my god.
At least at least it's not atleast it's not a driving story,
right, A little bit more entertaining. Maybe. No, that's a great
one. I mean, well,I mean, can you work Dale Earn
hard into it? No? No, did three come out of four?
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The only the only thing I cansay is that if you ate first,
your last, I don't know ifthat qualifies it. But no, you
know what I mean, Like that, that's amazing to me. That's amazing
to me. I talked to alot of other combat veterans and they and
they said they have experienced like somethinglike that, but never somebody grabbing their
shoulder and uh like screaming. Idon't know who it was. I couldn't
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distinguish the voice because it was justit was typical, you know, us
yelling at each other, trying toget trying to get done when we need
to get done. But uh,yeah, that was that was a pretty
weird story. It stays with mefor a while. That was all the
way back in two thousand and fivetoo, so it was a long time
ago. But I was gonna saytoo, like and listen, I can't
even pretend to put myself in themiddle of what you guys were in the
middle of. But your you're crouchdown, there's gunfire, people are trying
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to kill you, You're trying tofend them off. But for it to
be so clear that somebody would likegrab your shoulder and give you the exact
location, you know what I mean? Like that, it's got to be
so hectic and you got to bescared or at least full of adrenaline,
like I would be crapping myself,But for it to be that crystal clear
and accurate, Come on, what'sgoing on there? Yeah? No,
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it's it's it stuck with me,uh, to the moment, Like I
can still I can still smell thesmells, I can still hear the voice
and everything. I don't know whatit was. But uh, in the
little room that we were in,nobody everybody I talked to everybody. They
said, no, we had noidea where it was, but somebody did.
Wow, it's pretty great. Wow, that's nuts. That's nuts,
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dude. Great phone call. Iappreciate it. Thank you, my friend.
Yeah, of course later, brother. So many people have shared their
own tales. Isn't it crazy?Isn't it crazy? But does that make
you wonder because you're not You saidfor your car experience, it's not this.
No, Well, why haven't Iever gotten one of these? Have
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you ever been in a bad situation? And I don't mean when your car
spun on the way home from IronMaiden. I heard Bruce Dickinson. He
told me to run through the hills. No no, but maybe someone who
knows how to change a time.No no. But I'm trying to think,
like, I'm sure I don't recallanything where I hear a voice.
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But have you ever been in Idon't want to say a near death experience,
but like a very dangerous experience likethat falling asleep at the wheel.
Yeah, I've done that a coupleof times, and nobody has told you
to wake up. No, Ididn't hear a voice. I did wake
up at the fortunate time. Yeahno, but I'm saying that was me
with tom Ants. Don't look hisname up, by the way, but
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it's the same thing. Like Iwoke up again too, the but I
don't but nobody woke me, youknow what I mean. Like that's just
like, oh my god, Ican't believe how lucky or fortunate I was
a dangerous situation. Remember I toldyou I was like going to the funeral
home and I distinctly smelled my mom'sperfect. Okay, that's different, Diane,
I know, but that's thank you. That's not crazy. No,
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that's Suzanne Summers. Okay, butthank you for sharing it.