WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.600 --> 00:00:05.400 You'll be away five seventeen. Do you want to report a UFO. We 2 00:00:05.719 --> 00:00:09.800 don't want to report every thirty one. Do you wish to report a UFO 3 00:00:09.919 --> 00:00:15.560 over hey, we want to one of those data areas thirty one. Do 4 00:00:15.599 --> 00:00:19.359 you wish to find a report of any kind of it? I wouldn't know 5 00:00:19.359 --> 00:00:25.359 what kind of report clouds time areas thirty one me neither. There were seven 6 00:00:25.359 --> 00:00:30.480 one golf. If it was actually a U above us to pass us, 7 00:00:30.519 --> 00:00:34.759 like thirty seconds ago, we were sending one top of golf negative, okay, 8 00:00:35.320 --> 00:00:39.960 OFFI the UFO. Yeah, it's murder ten nine o'clock. Yes, 9 00:00:40.000 --> 00:00:44.399 I'll just passed over God. I don't know what it was, but it's 10 00:00:44.439 --> 00:00:47.799 from at least to three thousand feet above us. See, I passed right 11 00:00:47.840 --> 00:00:54.640 over the top of us ninety one one. You just called up to me 12 00:00:54.719 --> 00:01:03.159 be four rest. They're after staying the airplanes and it is to to God 13 00:01:03.520 --> 00:01:07.760 more calm in on an unidentified object every liberty or call or calm on an 14 00:01:07.840 --> 00:01:19.280 unidentified flying object. A Welcome to UFO Chronicles a place where people share their 15 00:01:19.319 --> 00:01:25.640 experiences of the strange and unexplained. If you've had an encounter, I would 16 00:01:25.719 --> 00:01:30.799 like to be on the show, you can email me at UFO Chronicles at 17 00:01:30.000 --> 00:01:51.200 gmail dot com. Hello everyone, an, Welcome to the show. How 18 00:01:51.359 --> 00:01:55.840 are you all doing. I'm Nick Hunter and this is the UFO Chronicles Podcast. 19 00:01:56.200 --> 00:02:00.799 Tonight's guest is doctor Tony Sikoria, and night he'll be sharing his experience 20 00:02:00.959 --> 00:02:07.319 of being struck by lightning and suffering a near death experience. What followed after 21 00:02:07.439 --> 00:02:15.199 his return was he had developed a musical ability. Doctor Tony Sechoria is up 22 00:02:15.319 --> 00:02:17.319 next, but first, if you enjoy a show and you would like to 23 00:02:17.360 --> 00:02:22.199 help support the podcast on Patreon, you can do this for as little as 24 00:02:22.400 --> 00:02:27.159 one dollar a month, head on over to patreon dot com forward slash UFO 25 00:02:27.280 --> 00:02:30.319 Chronicles Podcast. You can also find a link in the description of this episode. 26 00:02:30.520 --> 00:02:52.400 Any help is very much appreciated. Now on the show, Hello, 27 00:02:52.800 --> 00:02:57.759 Dr Tony Sechoria, Welcome to the show. Thank you so much, Thank 28 00:02:57.800 --> 00:03:00.039 you for inviting me. It is great to have you with us today. 29 00:03:00.199 --> 00:03:05.280 And you're calling from the state of Maine. Yes, truly, the other 30 00:03:05.400 --> 00:03:08.599 side of the truly the other side they were exactly. Now, you had 31 00:03:08.879 --> 00:03:14.439 a near death experience back in the nineteen nineties. Would you like to start 32 00:03:14.439 --> 00:03:21.439 at the beginning, please sir, sure. This is August nineteen ninety four. 33 00:03:22.960 --> 00:03:29.400 And my wife's family had a lot of people in their family with birthdays 34 00:03:29.479 --> 00:03:36.960 in August, so they would have a communal birthday party and they would deal 35 00:03:37.039 --> 00:03:42.080 with all the birthdays on one particular day. And this was it. And 36 00:03:43.319 --> 00:03:52.080 they had rented a pavilion next to a lake called Sleepy Hollow Lake in Athens, 37 00:03:52.199 --> 00:03:55.800 New York, which is just south of the capital, Albany. And 38 00:03:58.960 --> 00:04:06.879 there were about twenty five twenty six people at this gathering. And the pavilion 39 00:04:06.919 --> 00:04:15.280 that they had rented was actually a two story structure. The ground level was 40 00:04:15.319 --> 00:04:20.600 where they have picnic tables and the activity areas and the parties up on the 41 00:04:20.720 --> 00:04:27.040 second floor. My job was that was given to me, was to run 42 00:04:27.120 --> 00:04:33.240 the barbecue. So I'm outside and we're right next to the lake, and 43 00:04:33.639 --> 00:04:38.839 early in the morning, it was a beautiful day, and I wasn't really 44 00:04:38.920 --> 00:04:44.839 paying attention to anything else, and I was busy with the barbecue. And 45 00:04:45.680 --> 00:04:49.399 somewhere around mid morning, I had the thought that I needed to call my 46 00:04:49.560 --> 00:04:56.480 mom check on her because she was not going to be there, and so 47 00:04:56.639 --> 00:05:00.360 I walked around. I got somebody to watch the barbecue, and I walked 48 00:05:00.360 --> 00:05:04.519 around the front of the building because there was a pay phone attached and that 49 00:05:04.680 --> 00:05:10.920 was right next to the stairs going up to the second floor, and then 50 00:05:10.959 --> 00:05:16.160 went over to the phone. I died of my mom's number, and she 51 00:05:16.279 --> 00:05:21.000 didn't answer, so I was getting ready to hang up. And what I 52 00:05:21.199 --> 00:05:26.680 was not aware of was set in the course of the morning. When I 53 00:05:26.839 --> 00:05:30.560 was out there, I had my back to the lake, and because I 54 00:05:30.680 --> 00:05:35.560 was concentrating on cooking, I wasn't paying attention to anything else. Apparently an 55 00:05:35.839 --> 00:05:43.600 ugly storm had blown up over the lake and under a lightning storm, and 56 00:05:44.000 --> 00:05:49.519 I was completely unaware of it till I'm standing there on a phone. And 57 00:05:51.079 --> 00:05:55.560 there's a reason your mother will always tell you to never talk on the phone 58 00:05:55.600 --> 00:06:00.600 in a lightning storm. And so I was, as I said, I 59 00:06:00.759 --> 00:06:02.680 was trying to call my mom and she didn't pick up. So I was 60 00:06:02.720 --> 00:06:08.519 getting ready to hang at the phone, and I had taken the receiver and 61 00:06:09.079 --> 00:06:14.040 I had pulled it away from my face and it was probably fixed to twelve 62 00:06:14.079 --> 00:06:17.800 inches away from my face, and all of a sudden I saw it was 63 00:06:17.839 --> 00:06:23.680 a big flash of light come out of the phone in this loud crack, 64 00:06:25.120 --> 00:06:30.160 and I saw a big flash and it hit me in the face and just 65 00:06:30.680 --> 00:06:34.319 threw me back like a rag doll, and it felt like had been kicked 66 00:06:34.360 --> 00:06:42.160 by a horse, and I went flying backwards. And then as I was 67 00:06:42.240 --> 00:06:48.240 going backwards, I had this very strange sensation of moving forward, and I 68 00:06:48.399 --> 00:06:55.319 remembered standing there, and I was absolutely bewildered, and I'm trying to make 69 00:06:55.439 --> 00:06:59.399 sense of what had just happened. And I knew exactly what had happened. 70 00:06:59.399 --> 00:07:03.399 I knew I'd been hit by lightning, and I knew I'd been thrown backwards. 71 00:07:04.439 --> 00:07:12.120 And now I don't understand why I'm standing here, and I didn't understand 72 00:07:12.199 --> 00:07:18.120 what that subtle sensation of moving forward was all about. So I'm standing at 73 00:07:18.160 --> 00:07:21.720 the bottom of the stairs and I look at the phone, and the phone 74 00:07:21.879 --> 00:07:30.000 is dangling, and my mind is just racing because nothing's making any sense. 75 00:07:30.680 --> 00:07:38.800 And I was completely aware of every millisecond of activity, and all of a 76 00:07:38.839 --> 00:07:42.759 sudden, I hear my mother in law screaming, and I look up and 77 00:07:42.879 --> 00:07:46.959 she's at the top of the stairs and she is coming down the stairs right 78 00:07:47.079 --> 00:07:53.079 at me, and I thought, what the hell is going on? And 79 00:07:53.759 --> 00:07:57.120 as she was coming down the stairs. She was looking after her left. 80 00:07:57.240 --> 00:08:01.040 She it was like I didn't even exist, and she got down to the 81 00:08:01.079 --> 00:08:05.120 bottomless air and sho was right in front of me, and she took off 82 00:08:05.199 --> 00:08:13.759 to her left, and I instinctively thought, okay, I'm to follow her 83 00:08:13.879 --> 00:08:18.240 because I don't know what the health's going on. And I took about three 84 00:08:18.360 --> 00:08:24.319 steps and all of a sudden, I was confronted with myself on the ground. 85 00:08:24.959 --> 00:08:31.120 And I remember walking over to my body, which is this lying there, 86 00:08:31.240 --> 00:08:39.039 and there's some incredible thought comes to my head and I said, oh 87 00:08:39.159 --> 00:08:43.519 shit, I'm dead. And it was really a shock to me, and 88 00:08:43.919 --> 00:08:50.159 no pun intended that. I always expected that there would be some sort of 89 00:08:50.240 --> 00:08:56.240 a signal when you died, you know, you'd have some bells or whistles 90 00:08:56.399 --> 00:09:03.080 or something. And there was absolutely nothing except that subtle sensation of moving forward, 91 00:09:03.440 --> 00:09:11.320 which I assumed was my spirit leaving my body. And so I'm standing 92 00:09:11.399 --> 00:09:16.720 there and I'm watching what's going on. And there was a mother and her 93 00:09:16.919 --> 00:09:22.080 daughter that were waiting to use the phone, and I guess the girl at 94 00:09:22.120 --> 00:09:28.639 the early teen, and she wanted to call some friends to come to the 95 00:09:28.360 --> 00:09:35.960 pavilion where they were at and her mom turns out to be a nurse, 96 00:09:37.480 --> 00:09:43.440 and so she's gonna she's starting to get down and do CPR. And I'm 97 00:09:45.039 --> 00:09:48.919 standing there and I'm calling out them, but nobody can hear me. Nobody 98 00:09:48.000 --> 00:09:54.559 can see me, but I can see and hear everything else. And I 99 00:09:54.639 --> 00:10:03.039 would just bewildered by all of that. And then the next most important thing 100 00:10:03.120 --> 00:10:09.840 that came to my head was whoever I am, I always am, and 101 00:10:09.000 --> 00:10:16.399 I realized that what was on the ground was just an empty costume of who 102 00:10:16.480 --> 00:10:24.960 I really was, and my spirit, which was standing there looking at all 103 00:10:24.039 --> 00:10:31.480 this was something that lived on forever and had nothing to do with the carcass 104 00:10:31.639 --> 00:10:37.600 on the ground other than it was a change of clothes. And at that 105 00:10:37.759 --> 00:10:41.519 point I thought, well, there's no point in just standing around here, 106 00:10:41.799 --> 00:10:48.600 and I had the feeling I should go check on my family. So I 107 00:10:50.120 --> 00:10:56.919 walked away from all of that activity on the ground, and they started walking 108 00:10:56.039 --> 00:11:03.480 up stairs because I was going to check on on the family, and out 109 00:11:03.519 --> 00:11:05.799 of habit, I always looked down at the ground when I'm walking upstairs so 110 00:11:05.879 --> 00:11:15.279 I don't fall on my face and embarrass myself. And as I got to 111 00:11:15.320 --> 00:11:20.840 about the third step, I looked down and I see that my legs are 112 00:11:20.919 --> 00:11:26.960 starting to dissolve, and I thought, oh, this is getting really weird. 113 00:11:28.720 --> 00:11:31.279 And by the time I got to the top of the stairs, I 114 00:11:31.399 --> 00:11:37.600 had lost all four and I was just this ball of energy out of nothing. 115 00:11:37.679 --> 00:11:43.559 I didn't have a better way to describe it. And the stairs go 116 00:11:43.759 --> 00:11:46.919 up to the left, and instead of following the stairs at that point, 117 00:11:48.039 --> 00:11:52.879 I just went through the wall. And when I went through the wall, 118 00:11:54.000 --> 00:12:01.240 it came out directly over my wife's head, and she was sitting a couch 119 00:12:01.279 --> 00:12:09.600 and she was tainting children's faces. And I made a specific note of who 120 00:12:09.679 --> 00:12:13.120 the kids were, where they were, how they were standing, in what 121 00:12:13.480 --> 00:12:20.120 order, and in how the furniture was arranged. And I'm not sure why 122 00:12:20.240 --> 00:12:22.639 I did, but that would turn out to be an important part of the 123 00:12:22.720 --> 00:12:30.960 story because later on we compared notes, I had it completely correct, and 124 00:12:31.519 --> 00:12:35.320 that was that was information that would actually come out a couple of years later, 125 00:12:35.480 --> 00:12:41.799 when we were we had been invited to be on a show call. 126 00:12:43.159 --> 00:12:46.960 It was from A and E Beyond and Back. I survived Beyond and Back 127 00:12:48.240 --> 00:12:52.240 with him of the show on TV in that they had interviewed us separately and 128 00:12:52.559 --> 00:12:58.639 one of the things that was quite notable to me was that I had given 129 00:12:58.720 --> 00:13:05.799 this specific reference about how everybody was standing in what order, et cetera, 130 00:13:07.759 --> 00:13:11.960 and it was all verified by what by my wife, and we had not 131 00:13:13.200 --> 00:13:18.639 talked about that previously, and so at this point, you know, I 132 00:13:18.919 --> 00:13:26.279 saw them and had this realization that everybody would be fine without me, and 133 00:13:26.279 --> 00:13:33.120 I just kept going. I was I was moving someplace, and I was 134 00:13:33.240 --> 00:13:37.120 going out of diagonal. I went through the room, and when I got 135 00:13:37.200 --> 00:13:43.759 outside of the roof, then things really changed and I was suddenly immersed in 136 00:13:43.879 --> 00:13:50.600 this river of bluish white light, and it was a river of energy, 137 00:13:52.759 --> 00:13:56.919 and it was the most unbelievable thing I've ever imagined. If you could imagine 138 00:13:58.120 --> 00:14:09.039 absolutely love and absolute peace in one stream of energy, that's what it was 139 00:14:09.240 --> 00:14:16.840 like. And I remember thinking, this is unbelievable. And I could actually 140 00:14:18.039 --> 00:14:24.240 see the energy coming from this blush white light, and they could see the 141 00:14:24.399 --> 00:14:30.440 waves of the waveform, which was pretty weird because it looked kind of like 142 00:14:30.559 --> 00:14:35.240 a sin wave. But it as I looked at it, I could see 143 00:14:35.320 --> 00:14:45.639 that it went through everything and made up everything, which was quite remarkable to 144 00:14:45.759 --> 00:14:52.840 me. And I remember thinking, this must be the God energy, and 145 00:14:54.159 --> 00:15:01.039 so my science brain starts to kick in. I had done a lot of 146 00:15:01.159 --> 00:15:09.320 research and I was an mdphd at the time. I still am, and 147 00:15:09.559 --> 00:15:15.759 I thought this is something I could measure. I'm trying to I'm imagining some 148 00:15:16.000 --> 00:15:22.480 experiments that I could do on this energy, which was magical thinking. But 149 00:15:22.759 --> 00:15:31.000 as I'm I'm looking at all of this and feeling it, and there's a 150 00:15:31.159 --> 00:15:35.279 sensation of movement. I'm going someplace. I had speed and direction. I 151 00:15:35.440 --> 00:15:39.360 had no idea where I was going, but I could tell I was going 152 00:15:39.480 --> 00:15:46.480 somewhat. And as I'm going along, I get this small section of time 153 00:15:48.320 --> 00:15:56.080 where I'm passing through a ring and there's this collage of the pictures of my 154 00:15:56.279 --> 00:16:06.120 life in high points, goal point. It's big things and in mundane things 155 00:16:06.159 --> 00:16:11.559 as well, and it was just it was just that it was a colosities 156 00:16:11.559 --> 00:16:17.200 of my life. And then I was just I looked at all the all 157 00:16:17.320 --> 00:16:22.720 the pictures, and there was no in depth discussion, and there was nobody 158 00:16:22.840 --> 00:16:27.480 that was that was talking to me about any of this. I'm just floating 159 00:16:27.559 --> 00:16:36.559 along in this river, and about this time I'm I'm coming to the realization 160 00:16:36.720 --> 00:16:42.000 that this is the greatest thing that could ever happened to anyone that I'm I'm 161 00:16:42.159 --> 00:16:51.200 experiencing what it's like to be in free form, of spiritual form, and 162 00:16:52.720 --> 00:17:00.679 I was absolutely amazed that the feeling of love and peace was so overwhelming, 163 00:17:02.320 --> 00:17:06.640 and I was excited wherever I was going it was. I was so excited 164 00:17:06.720 --> 00:17:11.079 to be going there. And right about the time that realization came to me, 165 00:17:12.759 --> 00:17:18.319 it was like somebody flipped the switch and I was back in my body, 166 00:17:18.400 --> 00:17:25.039 and I was so angry. I was I was yelling in my head, 167 00:17:25.559 --> 00:17:27.000 please don't make me do this. I don't want to go back, 168 00:17:29.480 --> 00:17:36.839 and I realized that it's not my choice, and I'm stuck back in this 169 00:17:37.039 --> 00:17:41.799 body and it hurt like hell. I felt like somebody had stuck a hot 170 00:17:41.880 --> 00:17:48.400 poker in my face. And one of my footwork came out. And as 171 00:17:48.480 --> 00:17:52.720 I was laying there, I realized, I'm still unconscious because I can't open 172 00:17:52.799 --> 00:18:00.680 my eyes. I'm you know, I completely incapacitated. But the lady who 173 00:18:00.799 --> 00:18:06.640 had been doing CPR had stopped and she was kneeling next to me, and 174 00:18:06.759 --> 00:18:11.759 after a few minutes, I was able to open my eyes and they wanted 175 00:18:11.880 --> 00:18:15.119 to What I wanted to do was to say thank you for saving my life. 176 00:18:17.759 --> 00:18:19.960 Unfortunately, the only thing that came out was it's okay, I'm a 177 00:18:21.079 --> 00:18:25.599 doctor, and she just kind of laughed and said, you weren't a minute 178 00:18:25.640 --> 00:18:30.240 ago. And I thought, okay, I'm just going to shut up because 179 00:18:30.359 --> 00:18:37.720 nothing's making any sense and I don't want to embarrass myself anymore. So they 180 00:18:37.799 --> 00:18:41.079 called the police, they called an ambulance, and I just poetly called them. 181 00:18:41.079 --> 00:18:45.799 There's no point to the hospital. You get hit by lightning, You're 182 00:18:45.799 --> 00:18:51.240 either alive or dead, there's not much in between. And really, I'm 183 00:18:51.279 --> 00:18:56.640 alive at this point, and that was really a stupid thing for me to 184 00:18:56.759 --> 00:19:00.480 do. I shaid, no better, but at the time I wasn't thinking 185 00:19:00.640 --> 00:19:07.759 very clearly, and I got my family to take me home to see my 186 00:19:10.200 --> 00:19:15.680 normal doctors. I had a partiology friend and a neurology friend that I would 187 00:19:15.720 --> 00:19:18.680 see, and I saw, you know, I called him on the way, 188 00:19:18.759 --> 00:19:22.880 told him what happened, and they met me at their office to them 189 00:19:22.559 --> 00:19:26.400 and so you know, they checked me out and said, well, you 190 00:19:26.480 --> 00:19:32.319 know, you're lucky as hell you're alive, and that's just the way it 191 00:19:32.480 --> 00:19:37.279 is. And I was bewildered, but you know, by by all of 192 00:19:37.359 --> 00:19:44.680 this stuff, and what the hell, how could this happen? And what 193 00:19:44.839 --> 00:19:51.160 did it mean? And I remember thinking about, you know, what's the 194 00:19:51.359 --> 00:20:00.720 probability of getting hit by lightning number one? And then the lightning well losing 195 00:20:00.000 --> 00:20:06.920 enough of its charge so that when it hits you, it doesn't turn you 196 00:20:07.039 --> 00:20:11.279 into a French shrine. And so it had gone through this building and lost 197 00:20:11.359 --> 00:20:18.920 some of the some of the current and just enough to stop my heart and 198 00:20:19.400 --> 00:20:26.559 make me dead but not cook me in the process. So at least at 199 00:20:26.599 --> 00:20:33.079 the time, I didn't think there was any irreversible damage. And I just 200 00:20:33.279 --> 00:20:37.440 kept I kept going and going, trying to get back to normal life. 201 00:20:38.480 --> 00:20:45.480 And I was out of work for about a week because my had My mind 202 00:20:45.680 --> 00:20:52.519 was really really cloudy in the first week, and I was having trouble remembering 203 00:20:52.640 --> 00:20:56.039 things. I could look at you and I would know, I know your 204 00:20:56.119 --> 00:21:03.559 name, and I know what to do. But Dame, if I could 205 00:21:03.599 --> 00:21:07.039 find that name and I knew that I knew what it was supposed to be, 206 00:21:07.160 --> 00:21:11.799 I just couldn't. I couldn't tell you what it was. And it 207 00:21:11.960 --> 00:21:18.160 was true with diseases as well. I could remember everything about something but the 208 00:21:18.279 --> 00:21:23.200 name of it escaped me, just like with people. And this lasted for 209 00:21:23.279 --> 00:21:29.400 about a week and then it seemed to go back to normal. And I 210 00:21:29.559 --> 00:21:33.920 was mystified by all of this, and it didn't make much sense to me, 211 00:21:34.880 --> 00:21:40.559 but it was just the way it was, and get used to it. 212 00:21:41.920 --> 00:21:45.200 So I went back to work. Within a couple of weeks of the 213 00:21:45.400 --> 00:21:52.720 lightning event, I start having this sensatiable desire to hear classical piano music. 214 00:21:53.599 --> 00:21:59.599 And I thought, well, that's that's a big departure for me. My 215 00:21:59.759 --> 00:22:03.119 mom. It made me take piano lessons when I was seven years old, 216 00:22:03.519 --> 00:22:08.599 and I did that for a year and out of threat of bodily harm, 217 00:22:11.359 --> 00:22:15.240 and then passed cast to the side because I had no real interest in it. 218 00:22:17.440 --> 00:22:19.000 So this was a big departure. I was a kid in a rock 219 00:22:19.039 --> 00:22:25.759 and roll and early wasn't much of anything else. And so now I've got 220 00:22:25.799 --> 00:22:30.440 this sensatiable desire and it was very strong, so much to the point that 221 00:22:30.440 --> 00:22:38.240 actually drove an hour away to Albany again, and I went to a music 222 00:22:38.319 --> 00:22:45.799 store and that would carry classical piano CD and when I walked in, it 223 00:22:45.920 --> 00:22:48.759 seemed like there was a CD that jumped off the shelf into my hands, 224 00:22:49.640 --> 00:22:56.480 and it was Vladimir Ashkenazi, a famous Russian pianist, playing his favorite chopan. 225 00:22:56.920 --> 00:23:04.759 And I listened intently to the music and just listened to it all day 226 00:23:04.839 --> 00:23:08.880 long, and I made my coworkers listen to it. I made my family 227 00:23:10.039 --> 00:23:15.480 listen to it. I was absolutely possessed by it. And within a couple 228 00:23:15.519 --> 00:23:18.559 of weeks, I realized that it's not going to be enough for me to 229 00:23:18.720 --> 00:23:23.119 listen to this music. I have to be able to play it. And 230 00:23:23.839 --> 00:23:26.960 I thought, well, it's going to be a real challenge since I don't 231 00:23:27.039 --> 00:23:34.279 have a piano and I don't know how to play. But the next day, 232 00:23:36.519 --> 00:23:41.240 one of our babysitters comes to the house and she says, I'm going 233 00:23:41.319 --> 00:23:44.519 to be moving and I have this old ILF white piano that I love, 234 00:23:45.480 --> 00:23:48.039 and I was wondering if I could stored in your house for a year or 235 00:23:48.079 --> 00:23:53.079 till I get settled. And so I thought, okay, all of a 236 00:23:53.160 --> 00:23:57.119 sudden, now I have a piano. And I went to the store and 237 00:23:57.240 --> 00:24:03.200 I bought some books on trying to teach yourself how to play piano, and 238 00:24:03.319 --> 00:24:08.519 I magically thought that I could do that, and that was a route Awakening 239 00:24:08.680 --> 00:24:18.720 as well. But undaunted, I ordered the music on the CD in the 240 00:24:18.799 --> 00:24:23.799 sheep form, and I started trying to teach myself how to play. And 241 00:24:23.880 --> 00:24:30.119 I would get up in a week hours of the morning and I would try 242 00:24:30.759 --> 00:24:34.799 to learn stuff. So I went to work, and then I would have 243 00:24:34.920 --> 00:24:40.880 to work. I would come back and start all over again. And I 244 00:24:41.039 --> 00:24:45.480 had ordered that music from the CD, and I was determined to learn a 245 00:24:45.559 --> 00:24:51.880 piece of music called the Fantasy and Promptu, which is a chopin favorite. 246 00:24:52.400 --> 00:24:56.759 I was trying to learn it and I could not understand for the life of 247 00:24:56.839 --> 00:25:03.000 me why somebody would write a piece of music and two hands don't wind up 248 00:25:03.279 --> 00:25:10.039 with each other. And my daughter's best friend, Jackie, was over at 249 00:25:10.079 --> 00:25:17.079 the house one day and her mom, Penny, had come by to pick 250 00:25:17.160 --> 00:25:25.039 her up. And Penny walk in, and Penny is accomplished and professionally trained 251 00:25:25.720 --> 00:25:32.720 by when, and she heard me wailing away on the piano, and she 252 00:25:32.920 --> 00:25:37.400 came in and said, what are you doing? And I said, well, 253 00:25:37.839 --> 00:25:40.359 I said, I can't. I'm trying to learn how to play this 254 00:25:40.480 --> 00:25:44.079 piece of music, but the hands don't wind up, and I don't understand, 255 00:25:44.839 --> 00:25:47.240 you know, why somebody would write a piece of music like that, 256 00:25:48.880 --> 00:25:52.640 and she said. She just looked at me and she said, they're not 257 00:25:52.839 --> 00:25:59.079 supposed to. That piece of music is what's called a poly rhythm. And 258 00:25:59.200 --> 00:26:03.480 I said, well, what's a polyrhythm? And she said, I'm not 259 00:26:03.599 --> 00:26:06.640 even going to try to explain this to you. She said you need to 260 00:26:06.680 --> 00:26:11.720 get a teacher. And she gave me the name of Sandy McCain, who 261 00:26:11.960 --> 00:26:15.599 was the head of the department of music at Hartwick College, which was a 262 00:26:15.680 --> 00:26:21.920 college in the town where I lived in noneaw To, New York. And 263 00:26:23.000 --> 00:26:30.680 she told me to call this waiting, so I did, and Sandy asked 264 00:26:30.720 --> 00:26:36.400 me to come by for no addition, and told me to bring three things 265 00:26:36.440 --> 00:26:40.799 that I was trying to learn how to play, and I did. I 266 00:26:40.920 --> 00:26:45.039 brought three things with me and she had me play through what I was able 267 00:26:45.119 --> 00:26:51.519 to and at that point she said, okay, I'll take you on to 268 00:26:51.640 --> 00:26:55.839 the student under one condition. She said, you were not allowed to play 269 00:26:55.920 --> 00:27:00.319 any of this again until I tell you that you can. And I said 270 00:27:00.359 --> 00:27:11.720 why, and she said, because you were already building terrible techniques and we 271 00:27:11.880 --> 00:27:15.640 need to start at the bottom and build you up, which is what we 272 00:27:15.720 --> 00:27:22.440 did. We started the very basic with scales and fingerings and all the stuff 273 00:27:22.519 --> 00:27:29.079 that you know students hate. At the very beginning, we started going through 274 00:27:29.119 --> 00:27:36.559 the process. And about a month after all of that happened, I have 275 00:27:37.000 --> 00:27:42.480 this incredible dream. And in the dream, the dream was like and had 276 00:27:42.519 --> 00:27:48.200 a body experience, and I remember I was walking out onto a stage, 277 00:27:51.279 --> 00:27:55.920 but it was weird because I was walking towards myself. I'm actually out on 278 00:27:56.000 --> 00:28:00.400 the front of the stage in a big concert hall, and I'm playing this 279 00:28:00.720 --> 00:28:07.400 music. And as I'm walking toward myself, I'm listening to the music, 280 00:28:08.519 --> 00:28:12.799 and I come to the realization that this is not somebody else's music, this 281 00:28:14.000 --> 00:28:21.279 is mine, and so I was paying attention to what was being played. 282 00:28:22.119 --> 00:28:29.000 And I walked up and I stood behind myself and was listening to the music, 283 00:28:30.799 --> 00:28:37.640 and the music had a loud, crashing ending, and it woke me 284 00:28:37.799 --> 00:28:41.200 up, and I remember sitting I woke up, and I sat up in 285 00:28:41.279 --> 00:28:47.119 the bed and I looked at the clock and it was three fifteen, and 286 00:28:47.799 --> 00:28:51.759 I got up and I went out to the piano and I tried to punk 287 00:28:51.839 --> 00:28:56.680 out some of the things that I was hearing, but I had no idea 288 00:28:56.720 --> 00:28:59.559 how to write anything down, and I couldn't. I didn't know how to 289 00:28:59.599 --> 00:29:00.839 play. So I said to help with this, and then went back to 290 00:29:00.960 --> 00:29:07.640 bed and got up with my usual time. And from that moment on, 291 00:29:08.000 --> 00:29:15.359 whenever I came near the piano or was having some quiet time, the music 292 00:29:15.799 --> 00:29:22.279 from the dream would start playing in my head. It was like it was 293 00:29:22.440 --> 00:29:30.000 downloaded into my head and it would just start playing, and it was very 294 00:29:30.079 --> 00:29:33.640 insistent. It was like a little two year old like Daddy played with me. 295 00:29:34.319 --> 00:29:41.279 And I learned very quickly that I had to honor that because it would 296 00:29:41.319 --> 00:29:45.519 become intrusive. It would start playing in my head when I was trying to 297 00:29:45.559 --> 00:29:51.599 do other things and trying to concentrate on other things, and I thought, 298 00:29:52.480 --> 00:30:00.039 this is kind of kind of strange stuff. But it just continued. It 299 00:30:00.160 --> 00:30:07.400 was like that on a constant basis, and I came to think that, 300 00:30:08.160 --> 00:30:12.640 you know, the only reason I survived this lightning strike was because of this 301 00:30:12.920 --> 00:30:19.680 music, and I became I became absolutely obsessed with the music and learning how 302 00:30:19.720 --> 00:30:26.279 to play. And they had talked to my piano teacher about it many times, 303 00:30:26.039 --> 00:30:33.200 and I would try to I would try to play bits and pieces of 304 00:30:33.319 --> 00:30:38.720 it, and I would write down as I learned how to play music. 305 00:30:38.839 --> 00:30:42.440 I would write down a measure or two and I would put it in a 306 00:30:42.559 --> 00:30:47.599 drawer someplace and think, well, I'll come back to this stuff at some 307 00:30:47.759 --> 00:30:52.440 point in my life. So I just continued on this pathway of me. 308 00:30:52.599 --> 00:30:56.640 I had lessons. I had two hours a week, and I would get 309 00:30:56.759 --> 00:31:02.720 up at four point thirty five o'clark and I would practice until I went to 310 00:31:02.799 --> 00:31:07.079 work at six po thirty and went to work and then did my twelve hours, 311 00:31:07.160 --> 00:31:12.240 and then I would come home and have dinner with the kids and put 312 00:31:12.319 --> 00:31:18.759 them to sleep, and then I went back to the piano and I would 313 00:31:18.799 --> 00:31:22.279 be there till twelve o'clock in the morning. I did this every day, 314 00:31:22.480 --> 00:31:30.559 was absolutely obsessed by it, and which didn't do anything for my married wife 315 00:31:32.039 --> 00:31:44.920 or my marriage. Rather, are you intrigued by paranormal talk radio you love 316 00:31:45.039 --> 00:31:49.480 the new Paranormal Radio app from talk stream Live. You'll find a great selection 317 00:31:49.599 --> 00:31:55.519 of talk shows covering UFOs, ghosts, strange phenomena, and much more. 318 00:31:55.920 --> 00:32:00.000 Download the Paranormal Radio app now and start listening to the very best paranormal talk 319 00:32:00.160 --> 00:32:06.039 entertainment, including the network you're listening to right now, The Paranormal Radio app 320 00:32:06.400 --> 00:32:15.960 free in Google Play and the iOS app Store. So I continued on this 321 00:32:16.160 --> 00:32:22.200 pathway and I had heard about a thing called a piano camp for an adult, 322 00:32:23.000 --> 00:32:29.559 and I decided I would start to go to this piano camp which was 323 00:32:30.559 --> 00:32:37.720 been in Vermont pauls Sonata, and it's an old convent and they had thirty 324 00:32:37.839 --> 00:32:43.000 different rooms. Each room has an old piano in it all of these. 325 00:32:43.599 --> 00:32:49.480 It had thirty people and would come together for a week, and every month 326 00:32:49.599 --> 00:32:53.079 there was a different camp. And by the month that I chose to go 327 00:32:53.240 --> 00:32:57.519 to with May, there was just an easy month for me to do it 328 00:32:57.599 --> 00:33:02.759 in and so every May I would go to this pianel camp. And I 329 00:33:02.920 --> 00:33:09.039 started in two thousand and two, now a number of years after the lightning, 330 00:33:09.160 --> 00:33:15.599 and I started actually taking the lessons in nineteen ninety eight, which was 331 00:33:15.559 --> 00:33:24.359 almost four years after the lightning stright. And one of the things that was 332 00:33:24.440 --> 00:33:31.680 always remarkable to me was that people would always be in wonderment because I was 333 00:33:31.839 --> 00:33:39.720 playing things at Dano Camp that were way above what people thought I should be 334 00:33:39.799 --> 00:33:46.160 able to do based on the number of years I've been playing in my age, 335 00:33:46.240 --> 00:33:52.839 et cetera. But undoing did I continued learning how to play, and 336 00:33:53.160 --> 00:33:57.960 at the end of the week at Dane Camp, he always had to have 337 00:33:58.079 --> 00:34:04.400 a concert where he would play something for everybody and monitor your progress. And 338 00:34:04.559 --> 00:34:10.039 so I kept doing this and fast forward to two thousand and six. One 339 00:34:10.079 --> 00:34:16.320 of the things that I had started doing right after the lightning event was I 340 00:34:16.480 --> 00:34:23.519 went to see a psychic medium, I member Linda Dickinson, and I was 341 00:34:24.079 --> 00:34:30.039 obsessed with trying to understand why this happened and what it all meant. And 342 00:34:30.159 --> 00:34:36.039 in two thousand and six, when I went to see her, and I 343 00:34:36.199 --> 00:34:39.639 sat down in front of her desk and she was quiet for a minute, 344 00:34:39.639 --> 00:34:43.800 and all of a sudden, she jumped up and says, tell me you're 345 00:34:43.880 --> 00:34:49.360 going to music camp this year. And I said, well, I was 346 00:34:49.440 --> 00:34:52.880 thinking about not, and she said, no, you have to go. 347 00:34:53.880 --> 00:35:00.559 And I said why and she said, if somebody you're going to meet that's 348 00:35:00.599 --> 00:35:04.480 gonna have a big part in your life. And I thought, okay, 349 00:35:05.000 --> 00:35:08.719 it's kind of weird, and so I decided, okay, I'll sign up, 350 00:35:08.960 --> 00:35:15.440 and I signed up for the music camp and I went this in May 351 00:35:15.519 --> 00:35:22.760 of two thousand and six, and the owner, her name's Polly Vanderwin and 352 00:35:23.079 --> 00:35:30.800 Polly had a sister, Erica, and Erica was the number one salesperson at 353 00:35:31.000 --> 00:35:37.599 Steinway in New York City, and Erica had had jumped ship and moved to 354 00:35:37.760 --> 00:35:44.079 Rosendorf for pianos, and she brought five pianos in the piano camp to play 355 00:35:44.159 --> 00:35:49.679 on. And I'm sure it was just a promotional thing to do, but 356 00:35:51.480 --> 00:35:57.360 she and I got to spend a fair amount of time that week talking about 357 00:35:58.440 --> 00:36:05.119 all it was blightening stuff, the music. And she was also a concert 358 00:36:05.239 --> 00:36:12.599 pianist, and she was amazed at the level that I was functioning at with 359 00:36:12.800 --> 00:36:16.599 the few years that I had under my belt. One of the things that 360 00:36:16.760 --> 00:36:21.000 she said to me was that he said, you know, this is an 361 00:36:21.039 --> 00:36:24.480 interesting story, but the only person that could tell it is Oliver Sack. 362 00:36:25.119 --> 00:36:29.679 The only thing I knew about Oliver Sacks was that he had written the book 363 00:36:29.760 --> 00:36:36.159 Awakenings, and he was a neurologist, and it was about it. But 364 00:36:36.360 --> 00:36:43.159 Oliver was one of the famous, the most famous and prolific neurologists in the 365 00:36:43.239 --> 00:36:47.519 world, and they had written numerous books. But at the time they you 366 00:36:47.639 --> 00:36:53.159 know, it was just a passing thought. I didn't really know the importance 367 00:36:53.239 --> 00:37:00.079 of that comment. And after the piano camp. I went home, and 368 00:37:01.000 --> 00:37:07.960 a month later I get a phone call from Oliver Sack and Oliver, you 369 00:37:07.039 --> 00:37:13.599 know, I've heard about this story from Erica, who he had known for 370 00:37:13.719 --> 00:37:17.400 some time, and he asked me if I would come down to New York 371 00:37:17.519 --> 00:37:23.880 City to be interviewed because he had a group of people who had similar things 372 00:37:24.000 --> 00:37:32.519 happened to them and had developed unusual abilities, and he wanted to essentially study 373 00:37:32.599 --> 00:37:37.440 me in this group of people. So in August of two thousand and six, 374 00:37:37.559 --> 00:37:43.360 I went to see Oliver in New York City and I got to spend 375 00:37:43.400 --> 00:37:46.599 the entire day with Oliver Sacks, which was a high point of my wife 376 00:37:47.440 --> 00:37:53.000 and certainly one of them. And literally got there early in the morning and 377 00:37:53.760 --> 00:38:00.480 was leaving late in the evening and I'm standing in the door saying, and 378 00:38:00.639 --> 00:38:06.440 he looked at me with his piercing eyes that he had, and he says, 379 00:38:06.559 --> 00:38:08.880 you know, the music from the dream went through an awful lot of 380 00:38:08.960 --> 00:38:14.519 trouble to get here. The least you can do is write it. And 381 00:38:14.679 --> 00:38:21.840 I thought, oh my god, I was so taken by what he said 382 00:38:21.920 --> 00:38:24.920 to me that I absolutely said to myself that I was going to do that, 383 00:38:27.760 --> 00:38:31.760 and so I drove home, which was about four hours from where he 384 00:38:31.880 --> 00:38:37.840 lived. When I got home the next day, I went to a store 385 00:38:37.920 --> 00:38:44.360 and I bought a computer program called Sibelius, which is essentially writing music for 386 00:38:44.519 --> 00:38:50.760 dummies. The way it worked is you kind of use an electric keyboard and 387 00:38:50.960 --> 00:38:54.599 whatever you played on the keyboard would show up on a page that the computer 388 00:38:54.679 --> 00:39:01.760 would generate, and it was music notation. So I started trying to write 389 00:39:01.840 --> 00:39:07.559 the music from the dream, and one of the interesting things about it was 390 00:39:07.639 --> 00:39:15.199 the music was always exactly the same, and I used it as an internal 391 00:39:15.320 --> 00:39:20.480 control. So when I would try to write something that I was hearing, 392 00:39:21.360 --> 00:39:24.360 I would as I wrote it, I could listen to it on a computer 393 00:39:25.280 --> 00:39:34.360 and it was either correct and exactly the way the dream was or not. 394 00:39:35.039 --> 00:39:37.760 And if it wasn't, then I had to figure out how to how to 395 00:39:38.039 --> 00:39:44.760 write what I was hearing, and sometimes it was difficult, and I would 396 00:39:44.960 --> 00:39:49.800 thankfully go to my piano teachirt and say, you know, I'm I'm hearing 397 00:39:49.920 --> 00:39:53.440 this, but I'm having trouble writing it. And she would try to teach 398 00:39:53.599 --> 00:39:59.960 me some of the things about about writing, and you know, she'd say, 399 00:40:00.760 --> 00:40:05.760 you know, this is the five over four passage and you would write 400 00:40:05.760 --> 00:40:13.360 it this way. And so I continued on this on this project, and 401 00:40:13.480 --> 00:40:16.920 I worked every single day. When I got home, I would start working 402 00:40:17.000 --> 00:40:22.440 on it as well as my other piano studies. And it took me about 403 00:40:22.559 --> 00:40:30.800 seven months and I was able to write it. And at that point I 404 00:40:30.760 --> 00:40:36.800 decided that I'm going to play this for my piano group, which was going 405 00:40:36.880 --> 00:40:42.880 to meet in May of two thousand and seven, and so that's what I 406 00:40:43.000 --> 00:40:49.280 did. I went, I took it to the piano piano camp and as 407 00:40:49.440 --> 00:40:52.559 my at the end of the week, we always had a concert, and 408 00:40:52.719 --> 00:40:55.159 that was the music that I was going to play at the concert was going 409 00:40:55.239 --> 00:41:02.239 to be what I affectionately called the White Mescenontou, which was actually a in 410 00:41:02.400 --> 00:41:08.800 terms of musicology, was it was a fantasy and not a sonata. But 411 00:41:09.760 --> 00:41:15.199 because it didn't follow the rules of sonata, so I wounded up having to 412 00:41:15.280 --> 00:41:21.159 call it Fantasia Opus one. But you could subtitle that he wanted, and 413 00:41:21.320 --> 00:41:24.320 so the subtitle with the Lightning Sonata. Again, I played it for the 414 00:41:24.360 --> 00:41:34.320 group. It was well received and the last day of piano camp, I 415 00:41:34.440 --> 00:41:37.880 got a call from Oliver Sen and all of a sudden you know, I'm 416 00:41:38.480 --> 00:41:45.159 I'm writing a book about all these people with different things that have happened to 417 00:41:45.280 --> 00:41:51.960 them, and I'd like to use you in my book. And I thought, 418 00:41:52.159 --> 00:41:55.480 okay, man, I don't have anything to hide. And he said, 419 00:41:55.519 --> 00:42:01.079 good because you're chapter one and it's coming out in the New Yorker magazine 420 00:42:01.639 --> 00:42:07.360 in July of this year. And I thought, oh, well, I 421 00:42:07.559 --> 00:42:14.559 wasn't expecting that. And but you know, I just went on about my 422 00:42:14.719 --> 00:42:19.920 business and my normal activity, and at that point that, you know, 423 00:42:20.079 --> 00:42:25.960 I didn't think much about it. But in July, when the New Yorker 424 00:42:27.119 --> 00:42:32.480 magazine came out, the phoney started ringing off the hook and one of the 425 00:42:32.599 --> 00:42:37.760 first calls I got was from a guy named Carlton Clay. And Carlton was 426 00:42:37.880 --> 00:42:43.880 the head of the music department at the State University of New York in Dando, 427 00:42:44.039 --> 00:42:46.760 which is where I lived. I had a big music department, and 428 00:42:50.000 --> 00:42:54.760 Carlton asked me if I would teach a class because he'd read this article in 429 00:42:54.880 --> 00:42:59.639 New York or he thought it was a and I said, sure, that 430 00:42:59.679 --> 00:43:04.320 would be interested to do. And a couple of weeks later he calls back 431 00:43:04.400 --> 00:43:07.760 and he goes, well, I'm getting awful lot of interest in this story, 432 00:43:07.480 --> 00:43:12.159 and he said, would you consider playing music for class as well? 433 00:43:13.559 --> 00:43:21.599 And I thought sure, And so I had committed myself to doing that and 434 00:43:21.800 --> 00:43:29.400 I can was just continuing with my progress and my studies and working full time. 435 00:43:30.280 --> 00:43:36.280 About a month later, Carlton calls again and says, geez, you 436 00:43:36.360 --> 00:43:40.480 would not believe the number of people I'm getting calls from about this music. 437 00:43:40.679 --> 00:43:49.960 And he said, would you consider doing a concert? And I said absolutely 438 00:43:50.039 --> 00:43:52.760 not. He said, I don't have the faintish idea how to do something 439 00:43:52.880 --> 00:43:59.800 like that, and I don't even know where to begin. And somehow he 440 00:44:00.039 --> 00:44:06.519 talked me into it, and I agreed to do a concert in January a 441 00:44:06.599 --> 00:44:09.920 few thousand and eight. And then I called my piano teacher and I said, 442 00:44:10.000 --> 00:44:16.280 gee, Sandy, I got once wagging into doing this and Carlton, 443 00:44:16.400 --> 00:44:21.920 who she also knew, and I explained to her what I was going to 444 00:44:22.000 --> 00:44:24.239 do, and I said, is there any way you could get me ready 445 00:44:24.559 --> 00:44:30.239 to do that? And she said yeah, she said, but it's going 446 00:44:30.320 --> 00:44:34.079 to take a huge effort. I can count on three or four hours a 447 00:44:34.280 --> 00:44:39.719 day and I'm like, oh my god. And I said, okay, 448 00:44:40.199 --> 00:44:45.320 Bill, and we started you know, she had to teach me everything from 449 00:44:45.039 --> 00:44:52.320 walking out onto the stage and talking to an audience and playing music and the 450 00:44:52.400 --> 00:44:59.199 whole the whole repertoire of how it should go. And we worked on this 451 00:45:00.800 --> 00:45:08.679 every day and then I guess it was about a month before the concert and 452 00:45:09.239 --> 00:45:15.000 Carlton called me again and said, and he says, I don't know how 453 00:45:15.039 --> 00:45:19.800 to tell you this, he said, but I'm getting a huge number of 454 00:45:19.960 --> 00:45:25.280 calls again. And he said, how would you feel about the television crew 455 00:45:25.920 --> 00:45:30.840 filming this? And I said what, I said, You've got to be 456 00:45:30.960 --> 00:45:34.880 kidding me. He says, no, he said, You've got the BBC 457 00:45:35.159 --> 00:45:42.880 one, Granada Media and German Television all want to have television for there when 458 00:45:43.119 --> 00:45:46.480 you do this concert. And I, oh, my god, I'll never 459 00:45:46.639 --> 00:45:54.639 survive this. And I talked to Sandy again, and you know, I 460 00:45:54.679 --> 00:46:00.119 said, okay, well we'll give it a try. And so, you 461 00:46:00.199 --> 00:46:05.599 know, the day comes in January twenty ninth, which was my birthday, 462 00:46:05.639 --> 00:46:09.119 and I thought it's kind of like a rebirth. And I remember going to 463 00:46:09.199 --> 00:46:15.480 the green room before the concert and I said, to God and angels and 464 00:46:15.599 --> 00:46:19.519 whoever was listening, I said, you guys went through an awful lot of 465 00:46:19.599 --> 00:46:24.199 trouble could get me to this point. Don't abandon me now and embarrasses both. 466 00:46:24.840 --> 00:46:31.079 Somehow I made it through the concert without making too many wandering error and 467 00:46:31.800 --> 00:46:37.480 it seemed to take a life of its own, and I started getting asked 468 00:46:37.559 --> 00:46:44.519 to perform music all over the place, in which I did and was interesting 469 00:46:44.639 --> 00:46:52.159 because invariably, whenever I would play some play at some venue, afterwards, 470 00:46:52.239 --> 00:46:57.440 people would come up and very quietly they would they would say, you know, 471 00:46:58.119 --> 00:47:04.039 something happened to me and they'd had a near death experience. But we 472 00:47:04.079 --> 00:47:08.880 were afraid to talk to anyone about it and look good reason and people would 473 00:47:08.880 --> 00:47:15.360 think you were crazy if you started talking about this sort of stuff, and 474 00:47:15.559 --> 00:47:20.599 even myself when it happened, I didn't. I didn't say much to anyone 475 00:47:20.719 --> 00:47:25.440 except my cross as friends and family, because at least in the in the 476 00:47:25.519 --> 00:47:31.480 mid night early to mid nineties, if you started talking about crazy stuff like 477 00:47:31.559 --> 00:47:36.480 that, somebody would call a state and say, this guy's crazy. You 478 00:47:36.599 --> 00:47:40.320 need to take his license away. So there was a real incentive to keep 479 00:47:40.360 --> 00:47:49.079 your mouth shut. And at this point I continued following the path that the 480 00:47:49.239 --> 00:47:54.679 music was dictating, and that's kind of where it has led me to where 481 00:47:54.719 --> 00:48:01.199 I am now, which is that the music continues about other pieces of music 482 00:48:01.320 --> 00:48:07.239 that have also come to me in a download fashion like the first piece did, 483 00:48:07.760 --> 00:48:15.119 and it's all sitting near in my head, waiting for me to get 484 00:48:15.159 --> 00:48:20.079 around to doing something with it. And you always, in part of my 485 00:48:20.239 --> 00:48:27.000 reading I read about the great composers, and in very way, they all 486 00:48:27.119 --> 00:48:30.800 would say similar things. Mozart was probably the most vocal about it, and 487 00:48:30.920 --> 00:48:37.119 he always said that the music came to him in a finished form, all 488 00:48:37.199 --> 00:48:43.760 he had to do was write it, and he wasn't alone. Beethoven would 489 00:48:43.840 --> 00:48:50.480 make remark like that. Brohms always quoted his muse, and even even the 490 00:48:50.559 --> 00:48:57.840 composers of in this age talk about music that they feel comes from some place. 491 00:48:58.480 --> 00:49:04.000 I've often wondered, you know what's happened in my brain? Oliver always 492 00:49:04.039 --> 00:49:09.719 said that he thought that the lightning had rewired part of my brain and allowed 493 00:49:09.800 --> 00:49:14.199 me to have access to parts of the brain that didn't know I had, 494 00:49:15.119 --> 00:49:20.320 and there may be some truth to that. One of the other groups of 495 00:49:20.480 --> 00:49:25.239 people that I got pumped in with was a group that Darryl Treefort was a 496 00:49:25.400 --> 00:49:34.559 physician who specialized in savants, and I had gotten womped into a group of 497 00:49:34.719 --> 00:49:39.440 people called sudden savants, where these are people who had some sort of injury 498 00:49:40.239 --> 00:49:45.199 to their brain and then developed from unusual ability that they didn't have before. 499 00:49:46.000 --> 00:49:52.639 And I came to the realization that if it can happen accidentally to people, 500 00:49:52.480 --> 00:49:57.960 then there should be a way to do it voluntarily. I don't think we 501 00:49:58.159 --> 00:50:02.800 have the science of an understanding to be able to do that at this point 502 00:50:02.840 --> 00:50:07.679 in time, So that's kind of where we are. Wow, that's absolutely 503 00:50:07.880 --> 00:50:14.519 fascinating. Such an interesting and beautiful story, Tony. You did your outlook 504 00:50:14.639 --> 00:50:19.559 on life change after your brush of death? Oh? Yeah, my outlookome 505 00:50:19.679 --> 00:50:23.960 life changed dramatically. Prior to the lightning, I was I was held bent 506 00:50:24.280 --> 00:50:34.880 on becoming an academic orthopedis. I was working on publishing papers. I was 507 00:50:35.400 --> 00:50:42.400 the chairman of a big spying meeting that met yearly, and I was I 508 00:50:42.559 --> 00:50:49.719 was being groomed to take over a spot in an academic department in Syracuse, 509 00:50:50.159 --> 00:50:55.920 New York. And suddenly know those things mattered anymore. And though I completely 510 00:50:57.159 --> 00:51:06.239 lost lost the drive that I that I had to go into academic medicine, 511 00:51:07.000 --> 00:51:14.280 and people became much more important. My interactions with people became much more important. 512 00:51:15.599 --> 00:51:22.559 So that was a fundamental shift. And I had grown up Catholic, 513 00:51:22.599 --> 00:51:32.000 and suddenly I realized that Catholicism did not answer any of the the experience that 514 00:51:32.159 --> 00:51:38.840 I had, which you know, did not believe in reincarnation and a lot 515 00:51:38.920 --> 00:51:44.320 of the things that I knew to be true and the things that I knew 516 00:51:45.039 --> 00:51:50.719 from the lightning experience that we don't die, our spirit was on. We 517 00:51:50.960 --> 00:51:54.960 just keep going through this process of you know, you're born and die, 518 00:51:55.840 --> 00:52:02.000 you go through this process of reincarnation, and you keep coming back and doing 519 00:52:02.119 --> 00:52:08.280 this again. And I spent years trying to understand why that happens and what 520 00:52:08.440 --> 00:52:15.559 it means, and what that come up with is that our spirits are always 521 00:52:15.880 --> 00:52:20.159 trying to get back to the source, to become one with the Source, 522 00:52:20.639 --> 00:52:24.559 whoever and whatever that is. But you have to go through a period of 523 00:52:25.400 --> 00:52:35.039 vor and enlightenment to be worthy to be able to do that, and apparently 524 00:52:35.159 --> 00:52:43.000 that takes a huge amount of time, although time is meaningless and really doesn't 525 00:52:43.079 --> 00:52:50.119 exist in that realm. It was clear to me that that was the way 526 00:52:50.239 --> 00:52:58.079 that was part of the understanding of what you went through and the whole point 527 00:52:58.239 --> 00:53:07.880 was to develop spiritually and progress toward being worthy of going back to the sort. 528 00:53:07.360 --> 00:53:14.039 And along that line, you know, as you go through through life, 529 00:53:14.599 --> 00:53:20.599 either choose a positive or negative pathway, and then negative pathway is serviced 530 00:53:20.639 --> 00:53:25.360 to sell you're more concerned about yourself than anyone else, and a positive pathway 531 00:53:27.039 --> 00:53:32.239 it's just the opposite, more concerned about other people than yourself, And the 532 00:53:32.400 --> 00:53:38.480 positive pathway is the pathway back to the source. And so you go through. 533 00:53:40.039 --> 00:53:46.880 You go through these experiences and hopefully you grow with each one and you 534 00:53:47.039 --> 00:53:53.360 go a correct pathway. But we all have something called free will, which 535 00:53:53.480 --> 00:54:00.519 means that you can screw it up as many times as you want, and 536 00:54:00.679 --> 00:54:04.159 you had the right to do that, but there's a price, and their 537 00:54:04.280 --> 00:54:08.639 prices, and you just keep coming back and doing this again, so you 538 00:54:08.800 --> 00:54:15.400 get a better understanding what it is you're doing here. So I have changed 539 00:54:15.440 --> 00:54:20.360 a lot of who I am because I wanted to. It was just a 540 00:54:20.480 --> 00:54:25.159 byproduct of everything I experienced. That makes sense, It makes absolute sense. 541 00:54:25.639 --> 00:54:30.599 So really, from when you had the accident in nineteen ninety four, it 542 00:54:30.840 --> 00:54:34.840 was a big transformation for you. Yes, yeah, it really was. 543 00:54:35.239 --> 00:54:37.760 You know, you were an academic. You were an orthopedic surgeon, and 544 00:54:37.880 --> 00:54:43.079 you would deal with a problem, wouldn't You wouldn't so much connect with patients. 545 00:54:43.159 --> 00:54:45.920 You would just try and solve the problem that they had. So now 546 00:54:46.039 --> 00:54:51.079 you were seeing people in a very different light. Yeah, you know, 547 00:54:51.239 --> 00:54:58.280 like people were there was there was a whole other aspect of people. You 548 00:54:58.320 --> 00:55:02.480 know, they weren't just somebody that fell down and broke something. They came 549 00:55:02.639 --> 00:55:07.320 with a huge family, they came with a past history, and all of 550 00:55:07.400 --> 00:55:14.760 those things became important to me Previously, I can't say that that was true. 551 00:55:14.920 --> 00:55:19.800 I'm sure in the case of a lot of people which have lifelong careers 552 00:55:19.880 --> 00:55:25.159 and professions, they kind of overlook what's really more important in life. Yeah. 553 00:55:25.639 --> 00:55:31.079 What about some of the after effects you had this light and accident. 554 00:55:31.159 --> 00:55:35.159 I mean you were in your early forties at the time. Yeah, I 555 00:55:35.320 --> 00:55:38.679 was forty two when it happened. That was the challenging of itself. Did 556 00:55:38.760 --> 00:55:44.639 you suffer from many effects from the lightning after? You know, I've often 557 00:55:45.440 --> 00:55:50.079 wondered one of the things that I've had trouble with is that I've had part 558 00:55:50.280 --> 00:55:55.800 arrhythmias for many years. I've often thought that that was a result of being 559 00:55:55.880 --> 00:55:59.920 electrocuted. They have no way to prove that one way or the other. 560 00:56:00.239 --> 00:56:06.559 It's always something that I've wondered about. But from a physical standpoint, you 561 00:56:06.639 --> 00:56:14.719 know, I've never really lost anything that I had. I've gained many things 562 00:56:15.760 --> 00:56:23.400 as a result of it. And I do believe that somehow the lightning gave 563 00:56:23.519 --> 00:56:29.440 me access to parts of my brain that I didn't know I had access to, 564 00:56:30.599 --> 00:56:35.280 and abilities that i had no idea I had access to, and I've 565 00:56:35.320 --> 00:56:40.760 come to believe that everybody has them, we just don't know how to access 566 00:56:40.840 --> 00:56:46.599 it. And one of the things that I learned from working doctor Treefort was 567 00:56:46.679 --> 00:56:52.320 that he had put me into the group of people that all had praised similar 568 00:56:52.440 --> 00:56:58.000 kinds of things. They had various injuries to their brain, either from illness, 569 00:56:58.320 --> 00:57:00.840 cancer, surgery, you name it. They get hit in the head 570 00:57:00.880 --> 00:57:08.159 with saying, but the one common healthy was there. They all developed unusual 571 00:57:08.239 --> 00:57:14.480 abilities that they didn't have before as a result of it. And so, 572 00:57:15.119 --> 00:57:20.000 you know, if it can happen to multiple people, there has to be 573 00:57:20.199 --> 00:57:24.679 some underlying principle that we don't understand. That's right. You often hear of 574 00:57:25.079 --> 00:57:30.159 stories which people have had an accident, usually to trauma to their head and 575 00:57:30.559 --> 00:57:36.800 they wake up the next day and they're speaking a different language completely that they 576 00:57:36.920 --> 00:57:40.559 had previously no knowledge of. The question is where is this from? Is 577 00:57:40.639 --> 00:57:45.559 it already inside us? We know we have this big brain that we use 578 00:57:45.079 --> 00:57:50.519 very very small sections of Do we contain all this information in our brain? 579 00:57:50.760 --> 00:57:53.679 But we just simply just don't have the password for it? In your case, 580 00:57:53.719 --> 00:57:58.280 you're obviously given this link to this side of you which you never had 581 00:57:58.360 --> 00:58:02.480 before. Yeah. I think I think there's two parts through it. I 582 00:58:02.639 --> 00:58:10.519 think one is that our brain has access to information that we don't understand. 583 00:58:12.280 --> 00:58:15.679 You know, people have done calculations and come to the realization that there's no 584 00:58:15.800 --> 00:58:22.880 way the brain could house all of this information, and it's just not big 585 00:58:22.960 --> 00:58:25.280 enough. We have to be the size of a building to be able to 586 00:58:25.920 --> 00:58:31.519 find that much information. And so the question then becomes what is memory and 587 00:58:31.679 --> 00:58:39.000 where it is that housed? And a lot of people have speculated that memory 588 00:58:39.159 --> 00:58:46.199 is actually contained in the fabric of the quantum universe, and that some people 589 00:58:46.360 --> 00:58:52.719 can access that information more freely than others, but we all should be able 590 00:58:52.800 --> 00:58:55.800 to. We just don't know how. It would make a lot more sense, 591 00:58:55.960 --> 00:59:00.400 Like some kind of central hard drive that is or in all this information. 592 00:59:00.840 --> 00:59:05.119 Yeah, those that are fortunately are able to access it, and it's 593 00:59:05.239 --> 00:59:09.320 very possible that we all can over possibly over time we've lost the knowledge to 594 00:59:09.400 --> 00:59:14.320 do this. You know, I truly believe that this music came to you 595 00:59:14.440 --> 00:59:17.159 in a dream. Personally? Do you feel where this information comes from? 596 00:59:17.360 --> 00:59:21.679 Do you think when when you passed over to the other side and you were 597 00:59:21.719 --> 00:59:27.039 traveling down this river of bluish white light of absolute love and peace, do 598 00:59:27.119 --> 00:59:30.239 you think it's possible that this music came from there? Yeah? I do 599 00:59:30.480 --> 00:59:36.519 think the music always feels like it comes from some place, and that my 600 00:59:36.800 --> 00:59:44.519 receiver part of the brain receives the information and brings it to me. I've 601 00:59:44.599 --> 00:59:50.480 often thought that there's the unconscious part of the brain, which we really don't 602 00:59:50.599 --> 00:59:54.280 understand, part of it at all is able to connect with some plates, 603 00:59:54.679 --> 01:00:04.079 and I've often wakened it to a frequency that music exists on, and that 604 01:00:04.519 --> 01:00:12.239 I'm able to connect to that frequency and hear the music that's there for coming 605 01:00:12.320 --> 01:00:19.360 to me. And I've had a number of instances where I've had whole pieces 606 01:00:19.400 --> 01:00:24.000 of music downloaded into my head, Like the first one was it just all 607 01:00:24.159 --> 01:00:31.280 comes at one time, but it's like it's in a file and that file 608 01:00:31.440 --> 01:00:37.119 is downloaded into my brain and now it's there, and at some point I 609 01:00:37.320 --> 01:00:43.800 get around to doing something with it, and it's it's already there, ready 610 01:00:43.880 --> 01:00:47.719 to go. It's just a matter of bringing it back up and putting it 611 01:00:47.840 --> 01:00:53.079 on the screen and start to do something with it. So it truly it 612 01:00:53.199 --> 01:01:00.519 feels like it's coming from a specific place and it comes in a specific form. 613 01:01:00.920 --> 01:01:05.480 Just I don't know when another way to crib it now. I have 614 01:01:05.679 --> 01:01:07.920 been listening to your music, you know, I do love piano music. 615 01:01:08.039 --> 01:01:13.800 We often play music in the house and piano music really calms my pets down, 616 01:01:14.039 --> 01:01:16.400 especially when there's a thunderstorm, is what we're going through this month. 617 01:01:16.599 --> 01:01:21.360 I've been playing the music your music, Tony is very powerful. Yeah, 618 01:01:21.800 --> 01:01:27.760 it certainly is, especially music that you really like. And they resonate with 619 01:01:28.079 --> 01:01:34.199 Oliver did an interesting experiment and he and the man who was the head of 620 01:01:34.280 --> 01:01:40.280 the BBC one at the time, a good friend, and they decided to 621 01:01:42.320 --> 01:01:47.920 do this experiment where they had functional MRI imaging done their brains are three different 622 01:01:49.000 --> 01:01:53.559 conditions. Music that they didn't like, music exactly like a little and music 623 01:01:53.679 --> 01:02:00.840 that they absolutely loved and resonated with, And so they put themselves through this 624 01:02:00.760 --> 01:02:08.440 experience, and they had the computer things set up so that if the brain 625 01:02:08.639 --> 01:02:15.559 reacted, it would turn red from the functional MRI image. And so they 626 01:02:15.719 --> 01:02:22.480 listened to music that they didn't really like, and the brain did absolutely nothing 627 01:02:22.559 --> 01:02:27.199 enough, there was no red area that came alive. And then they listened 628 01:02:27.239 --> 01:02:31.239 to music that they liked but we're not in love with, and the brain 629 01:02:31.519 --> 01:02:38.960 reacted to that by making different areas that the brain turned red, so it 630 01:02:39.079 --> 01:02:45.719 was spongy. And when they listened to music that they absolutely loved and resonated 631 01:02:45.840 --> 01:02:52.679 with, the entire brain from the lot wall turned red, which is really 632 01:02:52.760 --> 01:02:58.159 a departure from the way the brain normally treats things. The brain likes to 633 01:02:58.320 --> 01:03:04.679 segregate. Our vision is over here, and hearing is over there, as 634 01:03:04.760 --> 01:03:08.440 far us here, the leg is there, so everything has a has a 635 01:03:08.559 --> 01:03:16.440 point. For the brain to completely react to one stimulus and in a completely 636 01:03:16.599 --> 01:03:22.400 coordinated way, it's unlike what we normally expect the brain to do. And 637 01:03:22.559 --> 01:03:30.880 I think that it speaks too to what we experience when we absolutely love something, 638 01:03:31.360 --> 01:03:37.519 and that means that we are we resonate with whatever that is to the 639 01:03:37.599 --> 01:03:43.360 point that we completely become one of it. Wonderful. Now I will make 640 01:03:43.480 --> 01:03:49.880 your music available to our listeners. It's notes from an accidental pianist and composer. 641 01:03:50.440 --> 01:03:53.079 I will add all links in a description. I suggest people go and 642 01:03:53.440 --> 01:03:58.159 go and have a listen. It is remarkable. It's beautiful piece of music. 643 01:03:58.440 --> 01:04:00.960 And TONI I used I used to playing publicly. I do it when 644 01:04:01.000 --> 01:04:06.039 I'm asked to do it. I'll do a lecture concert where I'll be asked 645 01:04:06.119 --> 01:04:12.880 to talk about this experience and to play the music and talk about talk about 646 01:04:12.960 --> 01:04:16.880 the music. And it's always but that I continue to do those whenever I 647 01:04:17.000 --> 01:04:20.360 may have And you say, you still get these downloads and you're still writing 648 01:04:20.440 --> 01:04:25.920 this music and producing more. Yes, yeah, I still still write the 649 01:04:26.079 --> 01:04:30.880 music, and you know, there's it's expanded some. I did a bigger 650 01:04:31.000 --> 01:04:36.519 piece a few years ago for piano and orchestra that was a concerto, And 651 01:04:38.679 --> 01:04:43.719 there have been lots of smaller pieces that have come in my brain. And 652 01:04:44.320 --> 01:04:47.320 I've gotten to the boat where I can I can write things down. I 653 01:04:47.400 --> 01:04:51.480 may not write the whole thing down, but write enough of it so that 654 01:04:53.320 --> 01:04:59.320 when I sit down and play and music. It always takes me and connects 655 01:04:59.400 --> 01:05:03.920 me to the music and where it exists. Either it's in my head or 656 01:05:04.079 --> 01:05:10.599 it's in the quantum fabric. I'm not sure myself orre it comes from. 657 01:05:10.679 --> 01:05:15.199 But when they need to here, that's absolutely amazing. But you know, 658 01:05:15.320 --> 01:05:19.400 these accounts are just absolutely fascinating. It's also very reassuring when we lose loved 659 01:05:19.480 --> 01:05:25.320 ones. It's good to know that the next place that is accessed it is 660 01:05:25.360 --> 01:05:29.400 a beautiful place, that there is something more. If this was all that 661 01:05:29.559 --> 01:05:32.599 there was, it would be a said world, would indeed, And I 662 01:05:32.719 --> 01:05:36.639 think knowing that this isn't the end, that there is more, I think 663 01:05:36.760 --> 01:05:42.320 people can appreciate what we have here now and the lives that we're living, 664 01:05:42.840 --> 01:05:45.559 no matter how hard. It's all the big learning process. We're here to 665 01:05:45.719 --> 01:05:50.519 learn and grow really and then knowing something as there is something else for us, 666 01:05:50.840 --> 01:05:55.719 it's somewhat reassuring. I really appreciate you coming on sharing that all for 667 01:05:55.800 --> 01:06:00.679 our listeners. Absolutely, thank you for inviting me again. It's always a 668 01:06:00.760 --> 01:06:03.239 pleasure. Pleasure was all ours. Honestly, it was lovely to hear you 669 01:06:03.280 --> 01:06:06.960 were okay. We really appreciate it well. Thank you, it was great 670 01:06:08.000 --> 01:06:12.440 speaking to Take care and we will speak soon. Thanks Nick. You have 671 01:06:12.599 --> 01:06:15.360 a good week. Yep, you too, enjoyed the rest of your day. 672 01:06:15.559 --> 01:06:18.320 Thanks you too. Wonderful Bye for now. That is all for this 673 01:06:18.519 --> 01:06:24.920 episode. Keep updated and connected with the show on x, Facebook and Instagram. 674 01:06:25.320 --> 01:06:28.280 And if you have an encounter that I'd like to share on the podcast, 675 01:06:28.800 --> 01:06:32.679 you can email me at UFO Chronicles at gmail dot com, or you 676 01:06:32.760 --> 01:06:39.039 can reach out to me via the contact page on my website UFO Chronicles podcast 677 01:06:39.159 --> 01:06:43.320 dot com. A big fan is to Tony for sharing tonight and as always, 678 01:06:43.400 --> 01:06:46.480 thank you all for listening. I will be back next week. Till 679 01:06:46.559 --> 01:06:51.519 then, stay safe and keep watching the Skies. Goodbye.