144: Azalea Festival 2024

Weird things happened in the weird weird weird. Yo, yo, yo yo. We did it, y'all. That is the energy I wish to see every time, every time we do it, just every time, the whole time, every time, the whole time. It's just not sustainable. It's are you sure? No, you're not sure? You're not suout that it's sustainable. I'm you are? No, I don't, I don't know. Okay, gotcha, what are we talking about today, Alex, I got some exciting, exciting stuff to talk about. We do finally something current in

our lives. The Azalea Fest, yes, yes, yes, yes, which, for those of you who don't know, is like an annual It's annual, right, yes, it's an annual Wilmington festival. This is the seventy seventh annual Azalea Fest that, to my understanding, I haven't done any research. I've just lived here for twenty six years. Basically celebrates the blooming of the azaleas, and there's very little to do with the azaleas. At the actual I didn't see a single Now keep in mind, Nick, keep

in mind, where we were was just the street fair, right. Oh, there are many aspects to the Azalea Festival around town. One of the major aspects of the azale Festival is the garden Party. The garden party takes place at aale at excuse me, early gardens, and this is a big who's who of the business world in Wilmington. So basically you have to to be somebody or have some business to get a ticket. They're in the garden doing tight business deals. No, they're in the garden getting loaded. Oh

that's yes. And then from there the garden party ends and people go on their way, mostly to the beach bars and the boats and the what have used and continue the party. The cops were out too, did John notice? Yes, there were speed traps everywhere. Yes, especially the drunk driving you know, well ever does have that, Like there's there's a lot of speed traps on weekends when the bar scenes. Oh yeah, I do not speed at night. Yeah yeah, here in town. You know what I

will say is, I've never seen one in my entire life. What speed trap like a like a dui checkpoint multiple I've never seen one. I'm not saying I'm out here, no, here in town. Really, yeah, I saw them and the Grays Creek and stuff. I mean maybe, but I'm saying I see speed traps here all the time. I saw one like two days ago. Damn, I mean I used to. Just to be clear, though, speed trap and a DUI checkpoint or two different things.

What is a do UI checkpoint? A DUI checkpoint is where they stop every car. Okay, I don't. I haven't seen many of those. I have I have seen one, but not many of those. Right. Speed trap is where CoP's just sitting out waiting to get you. I see them all the time. Yeah, I see them all the time. They're blowing our money. Man. So guys, this is the speed trap episode. So anyway, anyway, I'm sorry. So Azali Fest is this big thing

and there's a bunch of concerts. There's an Azalea Fest. Princess, there's like a whole procession the at princess gets escorted around. Yes, that's who they like. Well, there was it escorted by police. Yes, bro, it was like a presidential Yes, that is what we did. Determine on full disclosure. I think it was last week's episode that it is not like a bloodline thing, and it's like a U pageant thing. Okay, she's not an actual princes. Yeah, full disclosure, I broke it down.

I knew a girl that was the Zellian Princess. She's very nice, nice, she's a nice girl. She deserved it. And I think she was also Miss North Carolina. Wow, double dipping, and miss uh she was Miss Wilmington and then from Miss Anyway, Oh, triple dipping. I'm I'm way too involved in the pageant scene. Unfortunately. Have you ever competed in one? You know? Interestingly enough, I have not competed. But my uncle is the only ever mister Sammy Seahawks or mister U n c W.

Mister U n c W. Yeah. Yeah, So this was like back when he was in college and there was a missus UNCW pageant. This was like in the seventies or the eighties. I don't know, no, probably seventies, sixties, seventies. I have no clue. So your uncle's a mister I see. Yeah, he's a cool guy. Yeah. I don't think you'll have met him. You will meet him at the wedding.

But anyway, there was a bunch of stuff going on about uh this and that, and he was just like, well, why isn't there a mister U and C w pageant, so him and his buddies petitioned the school. The school said, okay, fine, then won it. Andy, Yeah, he won it. That's crooked. Sounds like some ship that somebody else. I know he rigged the ballots man. No, No, I think it was an honest vote. But I don't know. If there were many contestants I have known he was in their pockets. He was, I'm just

look, look, I'm just gonna be honest with you. I won't take this slander. Okay, Okay, I won't sit by and let you trash my name. Her uncle is an honest man. Yeah, okay. Cool. Anyway, so that's the festival, Nick, What were we doing at Yeah? It was so awesome. It was so amazing. Uh So you Ryan, how did the whole like how it fell together? Yeah? How did it come together? Okay? Because for those of you that don't know, Chris Senior did a UFO of God like booth booth at the Azalea Fest.

There's like hundreds of tents, you know, like Alex said, the street fair downtown and it's like literally hundreds of tents and you know, it kind of was reminiscent of a carnival to me, I mean there was like tons of fried food booths. But anyway, so last October Dad came to town. I can't I think he just wanted to come and hang out and do the river Fest and they had heard about it, and I was like, okay, cool. Never really been to any serious unc I mean not

un see Wellington Festival. Now during the summer there's a farmer's market like pretty much every Saturday. So I've been to lots of those and it's the same thing, but way smaller. She was like, oh, this is pretty cool. October came around Riverfest. It was like a legit festival, and Dad was like, I want to go. I want to go. And they came and stayed and we went to it and we saw a lot of booths and Dad was like, dude, I should get a booth at the

next Riverfest in October, you know, a year from now. I was like, no, no, no, no, I'll do you one better. There's a bigger festival every April, the Azalia Fest. You should get a booth there. Oh here's my idea. Yeah, dude, I didn't know that he did. He had no idea about the Alia Festival. And I had never been to one, but I knew it was the biggest one. So I was just like, let's do one there and the river Fest,

which we just got confirmation. Herbert booked for the river Fest in October, October fifth through sixth, So back in October he started like applying for the it's like a permit or whatever to like have a tent, and we had been planning and planning and Dad was like, son, I want you and the boys. I want you and the BSS boys to come out here with me. And we were like, okay, cool, And I mean the rest is history. Yeah, yeah, so it it did happen already.

It was so it was like an indescribable weekend. Yeah, Like it was life changing for all of us. I feel it absolutely was. Yeah, And I mean we got to meet so many of the omis and like we had skywatching sessions. I'm I'm just kind of foreshadowing some of the stuff that we're going to talk about, but I mean, wow, it was

such a profound weekend. It was insane. Alex went there on Friday because it was Friday, Saturday, Sunday, you guys had you and Jenny and Emily had somewhere to be for Friday and Saturday, but y'all came on Sunday. I didn't make it on Friday, but Alex did, So Alex, what happened on Friday? So Friday, I had a long day at work.

I got off actually later than I wanted to, and ran home, changed my clothes, and like hit the road, headed straight downtown, lucked out with my buddy, got a parking space, and ran down to the booth like I was speed walking, pushing people out of the way, Not really, but kind of. And I get there and it was pretty chill. Friday is generally chill day. It starts around six pm, so I wasn't as late as I thought I was gonna. Well when did you get there? Six or six thirty? Oh? Okay, cool? But I

saw pictures from like hours before six. I think it technically started Thursday, but our booth was for Friday through Sunday. Okay, Yeah, I started seeing like pictures of the omis there was with Chrismis coming through. Yeah, there were some early birds for sure. Yeah there was early birds, but like technically on the website, it didn't start until the evening. Oh yeah, so uh, every day I show up and I'm trying to remember who I met for I'm gonna forget people, but I'm sorry. Yeah, we

should say that, like we we all met dozen so many people. Yeah, dozens of omies like in the discord. But other than that, we met like that. Hundred people passed through. Yeah, on Saturday, passed through like as in came to the tent, to the Yeah, to the tent specifically, there were thousands of thousands of people passed through, but like, yeah, just straight up to the tent, like, oh my god,

I traveled here to see you right right, you know. So the first person I met on Friday, his name was Gabe, and Gabe came back over to that he had been there earlier, but I wasn't there. Then he came back over and your dad was talking to another couple. And your dad is very impressive, CHRISR. When when just to be clear, I'm talking about Ryan's dad. Very impressive when he does this kind of thing

because he takes so much time with each person. Like, you know, I've helped somebody out unrelated to the project with their book signing, and it was that it was just that sign the book move on next like get through the line, but your dad will sit there and have a conversation, and I mean, you know, it is kind of the nature of the thing, like everybody has their story, who's interested in it, and anyway gives

like everybody the time of day and writes some message. Everybody gets something different, you know, very heartfelt message in the book when he signs it. So anyway, he's talking to somebody. And I met Gabe, and Gabe was like twenty two and I'm gonna tell his story and basically fell down,

like you know, feeling kind of lost. I feel like there's a lot of twenty two year old males out there that are feeling generally lost in their place in the world and fell down a Carl Jung rabbit hole and studying I'm saying that right, right, Ryan, Yeah, studying Carl Jung found your dad on a podcast and became a big fan of your dad. Had no clue that went on Carl Jung podcast. Really yeah, me and Jenny actually which one. Oh, I think it's called Speaking of Yung oh twos years

ago. That's cool. So anyway, that's that's his whole thing, probably, how Yeah, And he was telling me about the stages. Does that ring about stages of life or like stage the hero's journey? Oh, yeah, the Hero's journey, that's what it. So he was like telling me where he was in the Hero's Journey. And then he found your dad and started studying your dad. Came all the way from Tampa, Florida to see your dad. And so I'm sitting there at the tent like, yoh,

what's up man, Like you're about my age whatever. We start chopping it up and I'm like, you know about our show, right, and he's like no, which is so cool to me because I'm like, dude, you're gonna love this. Yeah, yeah, wait till I tell you right.

So we talked about the show a little bit and then we just kind of went back and forth and he ended up hanging out at the booth for like the whole weekend, pretty much the whole weekend, but like that night, I mean he was coming to say goodbye and ended up staying there like another two hours. He was with his mom, came all the way from Tampa. They were so cool. Oh dude, such cool people. They were the coolest. Big shout out, Gabe. Yeah, we got to

meet his mom. His mom is so that they're they're both sweet. Yes, the relationship is BEAUTI full, like you know exactly how you would want a mother's son relationship. Oh totally. They're like they're like they seem like best friends. Yeah you know. Yeah, So I hope he's listening to the show Gabe. That got to be for five minutes as I was arriving,

he had to fly away, so I didn't. Unfortunately I didn't get the opportunity, and his uber was there on the block and he still just wanted to talk to us and like did not want to get in the uber. That was cool. Yea. So Friday night kind of continues to move. I met I met another couple and I remember his name is Sean, and I cannot remember her name. And anyway, she had a hitchhiker. She was there all weekend. She was really bummed because she walked up after

we had seen orbs. So so anyway, let me back up. We're hanging out. There's a couple of people with the tent, and the orbs start popping off just like across the street and above the building from the tent right, and I mean there's tons of light pollution people walking back and forth. You've got junk people stumbling up and down the street, and here go the orbs, just for the people at the tent that were there to see them. And it was so cool. And then this couple pulls up later

and she's bummed because she missed it. And then anyways started talking Chris. I started talking to him, and that was that was pretty cool. And there was other people there. I'm just like trying to recall and it's it might hit me later, but that was kind of that was Friday had a first semi skywatching in the city event. Yeah. Yeah, And and like just a little bit of foreshadowing. I mean there were orbs every night, Yeah, there were, and there were like there was a crowd of people

kind of with Chris, kind of like constant. Yeah with Chris. Everybody was hanging out at our tent. Oh yeah yeah, if they were here for us. Yeah. Meanwhile, there was chatter of a SkyWatch on Sunday night, right because Gorilla Style I had been organizing one in the discord the week of saying, Hey, if the weather's good, we're gonna SkyWatch on Sunday night. Some people were asking questions, is there gonna be a SkyWatch? Is there gonna be a SkyWatch? So oh, And I was totally

like, you're coming out Sunday, right, Oh. They're like yeah, yeah, yeah, or if they didn't know, they're like, no, it's Sunday. Yep. Yeah. I said that to like every person that I got a chance to talk to, like, you're coming on Sunday. And some of them knew, some of them didn't. But so yeah. Then then Saturday we went, and I mean we got there pretty much like right when it opened up, and it was literally like twelve hours straight of

just one after another, like people walking up. Dude, we had there were onmis that like would spot each other in the crowd, like wearing like a hat or a shirt or something, and they would like link up and

then they were like best friends for the entire weekend. And the coolest that the probably the coolest example of that was Corey and Chess and Chester shout out Corey and Chester shout out Corey and Yes, And she told me the story that he was in the middle of the street, Chester was looking on his phone on the map, trying to get to the corner and we were on and she just kind of looked at him and was like, are you here for Chris? And he's like yeah, and she's like so am I let's

go. Yeah, and that then they were like friends for the rest of the time. Oh yeah, like instant best friends. Yeah. And it should also be said it was so weird in a good way, like meeting all of these lovely, amazing people, because like it was like you just knew him already. It was like you were already friends within like a sentence

or two of meeting someone. I just had this like the whole time, had this overwhelming like calm and love and positivity, and I just felt so greatful to be there and be interacting with everybody, Like one of the most emotional weekends of my life just flooded with gratitude. It was just so cool. But and it's amazing too, because like they've heard hundreds of hours of our show, so it's like it's expected they would feel like they know us.

But that's what I told somebody, Yeah, but it wasn't expected that I would feel like I know them exactly. It was. It was it was the reverse was true, which equally yeah, which is not expected, which which is really weird to say. And you might not understand what we're saying, but it really did feel like when we were meeting people and they were showing up, we were just hanging out. Dude. Well, man,

I had a thought. I had a thought after the weekend was over, because I was thinking about that exact kind of weird phenomenon of like, why do I feel like I know these people? Like I met Chester and Corey. They were some of the first people I met, and like, I mean, I instantly felt so comfortable with them and felt like I was just hanging out with a couple of my friends. Uh, which was bizarre to me. Yeah, very bizarre. I don't know these people, dude.

They were from like across the They were each from like a complete hours and hours and hours away. I didn't catch Wherechesters from but Texas. Yeah, but were they both from Texas? There? No, Florida. Yeah, from Florida. She actually lives like ten minutes or less away from my sister. Yeah, that's right, that's right, they're talking about meeting up. Yeah, a lot of Texas boys came out, yes, and Florida, bro, and dude, California, Yeah, California, Germany, Germany.

Bro. Yeah, some of the game all the way from Germany. Shout out. But I had, yeah, shout out, Stephan, you you are a real one. Stephan, you brought me Horry bo. Yeah, he was handing out Harry Bow. Yeah. But anyway, I had the thought I was thinking about, like just how like cool it is to like meet these people and just feel this instant connection and whatever. And I

was like, why why does it feel that way? And I think, at least for me specific lee, I felt so comfortable and like gratified towards these people because in my head, I'm thinking, these people are supporting my friend and his family, and like these these people are showing up here. It's just like so many years of the opposite, so many years of seeing like the Bledsoe family really go through it and like not be supported and be ridiculed and like all this stuff, and now here I am standing in the

middle of the street in Wilmington, surrounded by BSS hats and shirts. It was pretty trippy to see that. It really was so trippy. Yeah, and yeah, that's maybe maybe that's why for me, I don't know that I had a feeling that like maybe maybe it's because of that. Uh, but I appreciate that, but I mean they're there to support you too. Yeah, I mean, yes, absolutely for sure. And and I had

I had, people were just so nice. I think the I think my favorite compliment that I received over the weekend was that Zeke and Brent, remember Brent with the test and everything. Yeah, Brent. They they told me that I'm the Sam wise Gamgee of the show. We've kind of made jokes about that in private there we're like Samon Frodo and he's freaking come on, Hey, you can't take offense to that. You haven't seen it, that's true. You don't know, but I know who that character is. Yeah,

but you don't know what happens. You don't know. If you did, he's really Aragorn. If we're Sam and Frodo, one's that One's Dude's highest highest. It's the best guy you could have gotten. You're fucking king, the alpha with the sword and just the badass. Yeah, you're the king, bro. Yeah, you're air Goorn. Bro. Well, if we're Sam and Froudo, you are certainly Aragorn. Yes, Okay, Can I talk about how this affected me? Sure? I didn't really think I'd

be called a king today? No, no, no, no no. So kind of going off of what you said, Nick, I feel like every time I open up to somebody and explain what I do the podcast, you know that's what I mean, and I feel like you have to tell them, and then I'm like immediately on defense because I'm getting ready to defend myself against whatever they're gonna say. So I like, you know, not

that people always say negative things. A lot of people, especially because I don't tell everybody, a lot of people are like, Okay, that's cool, write no follow up. But I tell people, I mean even my own family, right, you tell them and then you're immediately on the defense. And it was just so it was so comforting being around all of these people who just get it and who are fans and who know about the show and who loved the show and just get it, and so there was no

defense. It was all just being yourself and being like everybody super nice to each other, super loving. People were getting other people drinks like that part

of it was just so wild. And then to see that, like, and I told many people this, but it's like it's so easy for us, or at least for me, I can speak, for me to just come in here, put our head down, do the work, crank out the content, stay focused on the mission, light and positivity into the mic in this little room, and put it on the internet and forget it right.

Yeah, But then to see the real life effect that what we do and all of the hours we put in and have on on strangers essentially not strangers anymore, not the people that showed up, but everybody else out there. You know that we don't know the effect that we've had on people's lives. Is that's real, you know, that's not that's not fake Internet stuff.

That's that's that's like real. And to hear that and to see people walking around with the merchandise to just further support that message is just like I can't even I don't have the words or the feelings to describe like how that makes me feel, you know what I mean that it's just so moving. That really hit me. When I met Corey, she was one of the first that I met, because you know, I came to last day and Corey had been there at least Saturday, right all day. Corey moo in

the discord. Yeah, just very awesome individual. Oh yeah, she's the best. And she was really spunky. I really appreciated her energy. You know, she's fun to be around. And and it really hit me because I saw she was one of the first people that on Sunday and she had the I Believe You shirt and then the classic BSS hat, not this one, but the other one, and I was like, oh my god,

like that's what I wear. Yeah, that's what we have on our website, but I've never seen anybody else other than my close family and friends. And then to meet her and then everyone else showing up and people with the hats and there were so many hoodies. Yeah, and look, I'm I know we're talking about merchandise. It's not about selling merchandise. It's about meeting people in real life who are wearing our symbol that we've never seen on a

stranger before. That's what it's about. Yeah. Yeah, it was mind blowing. Yeah, yeah, it was overwhelming in a great way because, like you know, we've talked about the fact that the best thing to come from this show is the way that it helps people. We talk about it all the time. It's the most gratifying thing about doing this. But just like Alex said, like, oh my gosh, like hearing people who came

to see us from all over the country, from in the world. Yeah, like tell us the way that what we do helps them, Like I I was. It was so emotional. It was so emotional and gratifying and amazing. I just wanted to and also like exhausting. I've never done anything like that, Like, like I'll just be completely candid and honest like it was. It was very exhausting. And I already have like like a touchy

kind of social battery. Like you know, I'm very much like if I'm in like a high social situation and I have to kind of like be on or whatever even for like a couple hours, I have to like recoup, and it's draining to me. Uh But like I was not about to stop because the positive like greatly outweighed any quote unquote negative. Like it wasn't oh no, my body's tired and like I'm meeting a lot of people, Oh no, Like the positives were so much more powerful, you know, And

yeah, I just couldn't be more thankful to meet everybody. And I got I got to like treat a few omis to lunch. Like we just were like me and Casey were talking like, let's go get something to eat. And we were hanging out with Corey and Chester and Stepan, and I was like, y'all just come with us, y'all hungry, and they just came

with us and we had a blast. It was really awesome. Like and then, you know, the other really cool thing is usually when I have somebody that's like really pumped to show me like a crazy ORB video or like some something kind of adjacent to that or whatever, it's like us, It's like it's like our kind of circle, right, it's you and your family, it's Alex, it's like it's friends, me known, our whole lives who yeah, who have been like into this subject for a long time.

But then it's like hearing other people's experiences and seeing like pictures that other people have gotten and oh my gosh, Like Corey had this amazing, amazing story about like this this photo that's been in her family for like generations and all this stuff. I don't remember the exact details, so Corey, I'm sorry, but the gist of it was that this photo, this like old photo, had been in their family for generations and it was taken on some sort

of like indigenous land, that I don't. I don't think. I don't think their family like owned it, but I think it was just somewhere that they spent time. Maybe it was like a vacation thing. I'm not entirely certain, but it's indigenous land and there was a fire, they were like doing a fire, and she had she and or her family had heard that there are like ghosts, spirits of Indigenous folk that kind of like occupy that

land. And she showed me this photo that was taken in there, that passed down in their family of a fire, like a bonfire, and She's telling me all this and whatever, and I'm like listening, and I'm like, well, where's this going. This is cool, all this stuff, And then I can tell she's like getting ready to show me a photo, so I'm thinking, like, what is this going to be? And I can also tell that she's like really trying to explain it so that I get

it. And when she showed it to me, I instantly saw what it was like supposed to be what she was trying to show me. It was like it couldn't it could not have been a more perfect silhouette of a person running with like a hatchet in their hands. Oh, dad, I didn't see this like a straight up like hatchet or like Tom, I'm I'm gonna message her and ask her if she'll send me this. Dude. It even

had a face. Wow, this is like an old film photo. Like she she took a picture of it with her phone and and like you know, it was so clear cut. And then every everyone had stories. Everyone had stories about experiences or things that they've seen and and and like god, it was so cool. So then, yeah, we just had such an incredible day, met so many amazing people we got to meet. Big shout

out to Pia and Jack. Yes, they came all the way from I think San Diego right by a small time by it, all the way from there, and they are just like the Oh my god. They were so sweet, so nice, so supportive and had like stories of their own. And there was actually a story. I'm gonna have to find it, so y'all give me a minute, but there was a story about something that Pia experienced at the Azalea Festival that she wanted me to share on the show.

Well, while you're looking for that, I'll catch up a little bit. So we're still getting into Friday Night and meanwhile, I'm in Charlotte, which is basically four hours away, and I'm at a wedding. And I was happy to be at the wedding. I wasn't like regretting going, but a part of me was like, dang, I wish I could be there. The whole time, I was really feeling fomo but deep down inside, to be honest with you, guys, I haven't told you all this, but

I knew that I was not meant to be there. But the y'all would first, because you know, this isn't the first rodeo for me. I mean since the Dad's documentary came out when I was fifteen, and I really have met a lot of people in person who who have heard our story. Now. Granted, AZEA Festival was the best experience of my life and it was beyond anything I've experienced, but in my head, I was like,

this isn't my first rodeo. I want them to have an experience. It's so I'm getting these pictures on the discord and on text, and I'm like, oh my god, I'm missing out. And you know, I'm enjoying the wedding, but I'm like looking at my phone every twenty minutes, like waiting to see pictures and updates, and I'm texting like what's going on, You're you know, tell me what's going on. I'm like really dying to see and really wishing to be there, but also like a part of me

was like this is right, you know. And I start getting all these texts from you guys on Saturday, and I think like the second it got dark each day, it was like boom orbs are here, and you guys are you know, sending me pictures, sending me videos whatever? And yes, So anyway, did you end up finding it? Yes? I did, Nick? Can I interrupt you? Please? Please? So, Nick, do you remember the two gentlemen that came from Texas? I do names? Was Mike, Yeah, I don't, I don't. Oh yeah yeah

and his brother Mike and his brother. Yeah, I'm sorry, we met hard. Gosh were they the coolest? Twenty two hours from Texas? Yeah, to come here and they were just stoked, like I had such a blast talking to them. Yeah, and I'm pretty sure it's Mike. If it's not Mike, you please let me know it's not Mike. Anyway. No, he was telling me a story when they left at the butt crack of dawn to leave Texas and they're driving out of their driveway and this hawk

swoops down in front of the car. And this same thing happened to me and your dad Ryan on the way to the Heart and your dad goes, Dad is big into hawk symbolism, and your dad goes, that's a good omen. Today's gonna be a good day. And I was like, I completely agree. So I told him that. When he told me the story, I was like, that's awesome. It's a blessing for your trip, but you're gonna have a great time whatever. And so the day moves on.

Still broad daylight, because this is gonna transition into your story, Nick, So broad daylight, I'm hanging out at the tent talking to some other people and I look up and right above his head is this hawk circling. And I ran over to him and tapped him on the shoulder and said look, and he looks up and it's like, oh my gosh. What I didn't know is what's going on on the other side of the tent at the same exact time. And that's nixt story. So Pia's story, by the

way, just a side note, there were like massive hawks. Every day there were They were like flying around the tent like downtown. That's not usual. Yeah, thousands upon thousands of people around like that's not normal. All right, So I'm going to share this story. Thank you so much, Pia for allowing us to share this story with everybody. It's really truly inspiring and incredible. So this is what Pia sent in the discord. Shared to the discord, she says, before I begin, I want to share my

history with my religion and lif and my life. I'm half Asian, half white, and I was raised by a Buddhist. I was raised Buddhist by my mother, though not strictly, and Catholic by my father. I was baptized and received Communion, but I had no real belief in either religion. I have a disability called CMT disease and will never forget crying out to the stars, to God, to whoever was listening, to please heal me and make my life easier. After doing this for a while, I lost all

hope in God. I had both hips replaced when I was eight years old and was in a body cast for seven months. I lost so much blood I almost died. I asked myself, if there was a God, why was this happening to me. My parents were both abusive to me, and although my father was a member of the Catholic Church, he was a bad person behind closed doors. In fact, he was only doing it for his new wife, not for himself. My home was very non spiritual, unloving

and neglectful. And now we move on to what happened on Saturday. Now onto my story from Saturday. She says, Towards the end of the day, I had a chance to speak to Chris. He gave me a big hug, and when he looked into my eyes, it was like he could see the real me. It's very rare that someone looks me in the eyes and sees my soul. He told me, you shouldn't be in this much

pain at such a young age. I tried very hard to hold back tears, because even though he didn't know me or my life, he completely understood. He's had his own traumas, lost his heartaches and pain. And we had a little more personal talk, and then he hugged me tightly and asked the angels to please heal me. I closed my eyes and believed with my whole heart that it would happen. As soon as he said this, we heard people exclaiming, look above us, there are two hawks circling. This

got Chris and my attention. With his arm still around me, he looked at me with a big smile, as if he knew it would happen. The hawks circled a few times above us, and then all of a sudden, two orbs appeared behind them. In the daytime, they came in and out of visibility. They were bright and seemingly white. They appeared multiple times in and out. Oh, I read it again. I couldn't believe it, she says. I could never explain in words how profound it was,

but it was an event that completely changed my life. On our way to the car, I saw so many animals come to say hello. There were just tons of them. Most animals would just run at the sight of people. Kiddies came out to say hello. The cutest squirrel sat and stared at us. We saw about five squirrels coming out of the trees just to watch and stare. We saw geese watching us. I feel very blessed and appreciative

of Chris's prayer for me. In fact, days later, I've been impressed by how much less pain I've been in, even at the beach, which is on Sunday night when we had our big SkyWatch with a huge group that day. Yes, yes, even at the beach, was able to stand for about forty to fifty minutes. She is in a wheelchair. For the audience, I was able to stand for about forty to fifty minutes. My maximum is usually about ten to fifteen minutes. I saw her, and then

she finishes it with I can feel a change within. I saw her walk over to the ocean and touch the water because heart her husband Jack, her from the West coast. They had never been to the East coast and touched the water. And I saw her and in my head I said, and she can be okay. And I was like, just let her be, you know, cause I was kind of helping Jack tender her a little bit,

you know. Yeah, And she walked right over there and she touched the ocean, and even in my mind, I was like, that's incredible, It is so incredible. They were so amazing and inspiring to meet, and like I feel changed having met them, like such amazing, incredible people and like god, what a story. Oh God, it and and she she she did add one more thing in a message that she wanted to include. She says, I would like the audience to know that I was very

much a non believer and did not believe in the afterlife before this. That's how profound this has been for me. When I say my life has changed, I really meant meant it. That's incredible. They were such wonderful people, man. Because she was in the wheelchair. Dad had her and and you know, like Chris Junior's son is in a wheelchair. Yeah, and it's it's just it's just a part of our life when we're very accustomed to

it and dealing with it. And it's not about that. But my point is Dad had her sitting under his tent, like like just just sit in the shade, you know, And she sat with us and her husband the whole time, Saturday and Sunday. Yeah. So I get back and I see them, and remember I'm the one last to the festival. I mean, I showed up the third day and they're under the tent, and I had no clue who they were, but I just thought they look like such

nice people. And I sat down and I talked to them. One on one for quite a while, and I just felt this deep well of sadness in particularly Jack. And of course, I mean I was asking Jack questions and listening to him and getting to know a lot more about him, and I didn't pry into Pea, but I just felt this well of sadness, like they have really been through something. Just shut the hell up and listen, you know. And it's like you never know where anyone's coming from,

you never know what they've been through, you never know there's suffering. Just listen, you know. And it was just such an incredible sequence of events there, And I mean, I can't see the future, but I just know incredible things are coming their way and and honestly everybody's way. That was there. So a thousand and Pia, you you had an extremely important moment with a little boy that you I think made very very happy, and I

think you might have changed his life a little bit. I mean, her and Vincent interacting like they were, they were like talking about their wheelchairs and he was telling her like, you know, they were just talking about the difficulties of it, and you could tell, you know, he's kind of a reserved kid A lot of the time, he doesn't you know, doesn't

doesn't look people in the eye. Sometimes he's not very like talkative a whole lot, but like in crowds, yeah, especially Yeah, but gosh, I just he just lit up like a light bulb and they just connected immediately. It was like it was like he had found himself a best friend, like immediately, gosh, man, that that was very wholesome. Oh, that moved me. That it was just so incredible and inspiring. And that's that's the nature of this. You know, you guys have seen us on

camera for three years. You haven't seen the reality of what it's like on our side. And it's it's it's a lot of that, it's a lot of meeting people who, let me just put it this way, the people who tend to see the phenomenon are on the brink from pain and from suffering. And I think it's people like Pia and Jack and us and whoever who have been through so much who I don't know how to say this in the right way, who have been through so much that like we need intervention,

We we need to see you know. That's that's when we see. It's not just anybody that goes out there and is like, all right, if you're real, show me like, no, no, it comes with suffering, yea, or after suffering. Except for the sorry, Nick, I'm sure yours is more profound, I was gonna say, except for the drunk dude that wandered out of the wedding and joined our sky watching and saw orbs and then can continued to deny their existence. That was funny. There's definitely

exceptions to the rule. No, no, you don't have to have suffered to see that's not the point, of course. You know, Dad will tell you he's had thousands upon thousands of messages in the last seventeen years, and he said ninety nine percent of everybody he's ever had a message from that started seeing orbs or whatever. Dad will say, Okay, what's going on

in your life? And then they go into X and Y and Z, and it turns out, you know, my sister died from cancer, or my husband just died, or I'm been in a car crash and I can't walk anymore. Just a laundry list of problems that people are going through. And we have realized over time that there's a connection to trauma and suffering and it's I mean, I mean read the book like Dad was praying to God, like you got to kill me now because I can't deal with this anymore,

or you got to save me this one or the other. I can't do it. And that's when they came, you know, absolutely, we got an opportunity to meet and speak to another incredible person there named Paul, who just had another of so many incredibly inspiring stories. I could have listened to him all day. I think his story needs to be shared. It is. I think it's extremely important, and I really hope that it gets

told at length. And but the cliff notes of it are essentially that, Yeah, he found himself in just a horrible, horrible place in life, really really bad on drugs and homeless and for five years, for five years separated completely from his family, his children, everyone. I mean, he was completely alone and on the street and like you know, strung out.

And he described this, this stunning experience, years before he knew the name crisp So or anything about this phenomenon in any way whatsoever, told this incredible story of just a really extremely dark night that he had where he was really like oding like he was and thought that he wasn't going to make it, and he saw all he could do was look at the doorknob in the room, and there was a light kind of like glinting off of it, and

everything else in the room was going dark. He thought he was dying. The only thing that he could do was look at that light in the doorknob, and it moved closer to him and got bigger and eventually became a woman dressed in Egyptian clothing. No, no, no, all right, sorry, no, correct, the doorknob became the demon, and the demon that he was feeding with his negative actions. You're right, and the demon was

is basically growing stronger because of what he was doing. Full disclosure. I did not have the opportunity to hear his story, So please where we're gonna fill you in because I do think there's a lot of similarity. He has a lot of stories and there's a lot of similarities. Sorry to cut you

off, Nick. So the demon feeding off of his energy and then he kind of comes to a little bit and sees a woman in the room, still still not really having control of his body, but it's lightning up and the woman is dressed in Egyptian clothing and not not a hallucination, not like a fog, like a bona fide woman. And he's seeing this walking back and forth in front of his bed, and she's going, we're in a

spiritual war, and this is how I find you. You're feet. You are feeding the demon with your negative actions and this is all telepathic of course, right, Yeah, he never saw our face. You know, this is you're feeding the demon with your negative actions. You know, you basically need to get it together. Yeah, and then and then he kind of like snapped out of all of it, not to mention he was he did describe to me he had been seeing orbs following right, yes, right following

it he called him drones. He didn't know what they were, Yeah, he was. Yeah, he said he was like texting his son like there was a drone that like, well, he continues to call him drones to yah, right, right, because that's comfortable to him. Yeah, But he told me he was like, I know what it is now after learning about you guys, But I like to say drones because it's what I'm familiar with and comfortable with. But I know they're not drunk, right, And

I get that. I totally respect that, Like it's just it's it's a it's a it's like I said in the first episode, he's like trauma bonded to that terminology, you know, Like and so basically there's another story and I don't really want to tell it because I don't really think I'm going to do it justice and I'd like almost kind of want to save it if that makes sense. Yeah, yeah, And but basically ends up ends up repairing

his life, becoming a father again to his son who's also there. Both great dudes, Like, and he was actually texting me his son, Paul was texting me like, Hey, we're coming from Miami. What do we need to bring? But I'm like, kid, bring a jacket. But

we're still talking right now. Actually, No becomes a father again and is trying to explain this right, And then your dad's book comes out and they get to read together about the suffering that your family went through until you know, intervention essentially from the orbs from above, and they found common ground. They found you know, he can relate to his father now because of the book, and now they're big fans of the show. Yeah. Yeah.

The father straight up said that like reading Chris's book, reading UFO of God gave him the strength and the perspective to be able to explain it to his son. That's amazing, amazing, Like, are you kidding? That's what this is all about. Family, And you know what I want to say right now is that this is happening and is going to happen all over the world. I believe that what the the awakening is about, the great Awakening, the age of Aquarius, which I believe we are in now. I

think we are in the Age of Aquarius now. I think that this is going to happen to many people around the world, and they're going to begin to have these intense spiritual awakenings and and we'll see things. And I think that that's where we come in, is to help people understand that it's nothing to be afraid of. You. No, it's not only for us. No, we just were traumatized ahead of everybody. Yeah, that's that's the

best thing that can come out of it. It's it's going to ramp way up people like Paul, And I'm telling you, man, like, there's there's gonna be a lot of this, I think. I think, I think rapidly around the world, people are going to start seeing more of the phenomenon and more signs and over the next few years, and this is only the beginning. Oh. Absolutely, absolutely, it's just a different animal when you're hearing this stuff in person. Yeah, you know, it is shocking.

Oh man, it's shocking. It's overwhelming. But it's just like it's just reaffirming that. I'm just very glad. It's like Alex said, it's like we sit here, you know, every week now. Used to be every other weekend, three times, you know, three episodes a night, but now it's every week. We sit here and we talk to the camera. There's nobody in the room but us three, and we put it out on the internet and we're shadow man. We have no clue how many people

are really actually listening. And for three years we're grinding. We're grinding, we're grinding, and we're the three of us are just like, we believe in this mission. Let's do it no matter what. It's not about this, it's not about that. It's about telling the story, telling the message. We keep doing it and then boom, we're face to face with seventy to one hundred people who are like, you've changed my life, dude, I'm seeing this and and this is happening to me in this It's like,

oh my god, Like there are real people out there. Yeah yeah, not just YouTube comments, real people hugging me and laughing with me and crying with me, and we're sharing these magnificent moments and we're looking at the sky together and we're all enjoy and wonder at the heavens. It's like, oh my god, dude, like there is no going back. No, not at all, not at all. Yeah, it was I gotta tell y'all. Getting asked to sign a book is crazy. Someone asked me, and

I think it was Skippy. He shout out, shout out. He was the first and he was like, are you sign my book? I said why, I'm just a dude, Like, come on, man, Skippy really cool. Skippy his lovely wife got off work. Yeah, Katie. They gosh, like, they are so cool. Casey and I got a chance to hang out with them for a while and talk about just like life and they're so incredible, wonderful. Shout out Jenny Ree. We got to meet Jenny Ree Anthony Anthony so cool. We talked about D and D for

a while, Oh my gosh. And then I got to FaceTime with her daughter Emmy, which and just talk about Stephen universe because we're this ten year old girl, well eleven. Now she just had her eleventh birthday. Happy birthday, Happy birthday, Emmy. Yes, happy birthday, birthday. And also it was Jenny's Jenny Reeve's birthday. The day that she was on Saturday. Was it Saturday or Sunday? I think it was Saturday. I think

Sunday. You sure, yeah, because they came right back out to the thing right right, yes, yeah, So God, that was so cool because you were there, Ryan, you were there. Let's let's go ahead and just do this real quick. Let's get this out of the way. Okay, now, now this is the people that were pictured here. I don't want anybody being like, oh I was there and I didn't get shouted out. All right, we're gonna do a rolling shout out. We got Corey, we got Stephan, we got Kyle, we got Zeke, we

got Jenny, Daniel, April, another Jenny. There were multiple Daniels and multiple Jenny's. Oh yeah, there were three Jenny's. My really popular name James Joel Pia. And then there were some individuals who are photoed here that I did not get to meet or have the opportunity to talk to more than like five seconds, and I cannot remember their names. Shout out Adam Saturday, dude, Yeah, Adam. Oh. And I also want to give a big shout out not pictured to Collette and her husband Jesse. Jesse,

Me and Olivia talked to them for quite some time on Sunday. Super awesome people, super beautiful family. They've done a great job, and I just want to give a shout out here that they've really kind of opened me and ABA's eyes to some things and gave us more confidence with some things we were wrestling with when it comes to like starting a family. So that I don't want to be super like, you know, forward about it, but thank you very much for that. Yeah, they were awesome people call it and

Jesse and their daughters Matilda and Georgia. Yeah, yeah, go ahead with the names, right. Yeah. And there's there's many people, I mean, dude, that was a photo of about we had seventy people on the beach. So let's get to that. But before we get to that, I wanted to finish a thought I had earlier cause I don't feel like it was complete enough, I wanted to talk a little bit more about the suffering. I'm not trying to wish suffering on people. I'm not saying that you

should want to suffer to see the phenomenon. That is not what this is about. What I'm trying to say is I think that the people who have suffered the most are the ones that the miracles occur around the most. Right, Like, I want to make it very clear, I'm not promoting suffering. I'm not saying, oh, you know, out there and get trauma's hizhed so you start seeing. It's not a prerequisite. No, it's not

the point. But something I have noticed in my life is people who have been through profound suffering and profound trauma, you look at them in the eyes and you can see the deepest kindness. Oh yeah, people always I get this comment on the internet all the time, and I've had people tell me in person, your dad just has this twinkle in his eye. He's just so nice. It's like you read earlier. You know, he looked at Pa and he said, you shouldn't be in this much pain at such a

young age. You know, he has suffered, He has felt physical pain to the brink of wanting to literally die Crohn's disease in rheumatoid he he understood her, you know, and it's like that's my point is, you know, to come from so much misery and so much pain, but then the phenomenon occurs. It's like God's showing you, like, don't give up, Like there's a reason for all of this, you know, just keep going and just be positive. And I wanted to say something. Let me think

who it was. I think it was whose book was it? Then I signed it was Samara shout out Samura. Samara Samura was this amazing individual and yeah, and she's just such a wonderful, lovely person and she wanted us all to sign her book. And now I was asked by quite a few people to sign their book. And one thing I do when I'm when I'm typically signing books, is I don't read it. Everybody else wrote, like my siblings or you guys or whoever. I just I open it, I

find a spot, and I sign it. And I wanted to be personal. I read a couple of things, you know, like here and there. I might glance over it and I'm oh, you know, read what my brother wrote? But that's typically not what I do. So I signed Samura's book like towards the end of the day. Now she is a student in my sister's vocal and holistic program, Emily Halloway Voice I think it's called. So she came a long way to meet us. But also it was

a really deal to Emily because she was her first prototype student. She was the first one who signed up for a prototype course. Yeah. So they didn't know that, yeah wow. And she came all the way from Burbank, California. And she so she flew out Tuesday, the same day my sister did. So the festival ended Sunday, but she was in town for

two more days basically. So she was like, yeah, I don't want to be you know, a problem, but if you guys, you know, aren't busy tomorrow night, Monday evening, maybe we could do dinner or something. I was like, oh no, no, we'll hang out. I'll see you tomorrow. It wasn't like bye, thank you for it. I was like, no, no, I'm gonna I want to see you tomorrow. Like, just link it up with Emily, We'll go to dinner. She comes over at five, Jenny gets off work. So she shows

up right at five. She didn't leave till twelve thirty in the morning. Like, we just hung out and we had such a great time. And me as the brother. My sister lives in Florida, so she's staying with me in North Carolina. So I'm like, look, this is a big deal for her. She flew all the way from California to see us too. It's a big deal for Emily to meet her student, but it's a

big deal for Samma because she flew all they here. I like, you just come and you just freaking stay and we're just gonna hang out and we're gonna vibe, you know. Yeah. And something she told me that night was she said she just had a lot of nice things to say. And she said, Ryan, every member of your family that signed my book said stay positive. And I was like, oh, I didn't know that, so I didn't read what they wrote. And I was like, well,

that makes sense. That's how my dad raised us, you know. Yeah, But I say that to say that my dad has learned that at the end of all this, at the end of all this suffering and trial and struggle. I mean, you've read his book. I mean he held his wife in his arms as she was dying, taking her last breath. You know, he's lived through hell. And he told me in private about a year ago. He said, Son, my secret to all of this the thing that if I did not do this, I would not have survived.

He said, I never stopped visualizing a positive outcome in my mind. That's what it's all about. He said, It's always about visualizing a positive outcome. And you know, God will take care of the rest. Like it's that's what it's all about. And I just wanted to say that about the suffering thing. I wanted to leave that a better place. But let's get to Sunday. So we've we've talked about most of the people that came. I mean, Sunday was incredible. I got there nine am, got up

at five o'clock. Wait real quick, sorry, before we move on to that. One last experience somebody shared with me. It's a super quick one. Did you know that Stefan had missing time experiences the whole weekend? He told me. He oh yeah, oh straight up. You want to know another cool thing about Stephan. Stephan is the gentleman that flew all the way from Germany and it's never been to North America before in his life. Dude, I've been to the town he's from, really, Cologne. That's cool.

I've been there. I brought my grandmother a little teapot from there. That's so cool. It's a really really cool place. It's it's the most uh, it's like the biggest cathedral in Europe. I think, oh wow, yeah, like the three wise men are buried there. But anyway, very cool place. It's it's it's a very famous European cathedral called Kolner Dome in Cologne. And he's from a small city, right. Germany has like the main cities and then like the little cities around it. But it's different

there, you know. But anyway, I thought that was really cool. I've actually been to the place he's from, you know. Yeah. But he told me that he's really into this stuff, and he's listened to other paranormal or supernatural focused podcasts and he was just he said he listened to one for a while that was about like the Irish Faye and the fairies, because that's a big topic in the spiritual world. Yeah, and he listened to

another one. I can't remember what it was about. And he said, when he listened to these other shows, Uh, he had weird Poultergeist activity in his house and he started listening to our show and it all went away. Wow, he stopped having weird stuff happened in his house and he stopped listening to those shows. Wow. He did not tell me that that is so wild. I don't know. Yeah, and then like the missing time stuff is so wide, tell me about I've never heard any of that.

Oh dude, I mean there were multiple, but the one that I remember right now is like he was staring at it. He was staying at an airbnb, and he like walked outside very early in the morning and he was standing there for what he thought was like maybe ten minutes or so and went inside and it had been like two hours at least an hour. He had it on the flight home. I was going to say, on the plane, he messaged us in discord and said that he had missing time on the

plane. He had had missing time experiences like leading up right up to like right before the Azalea fes, like multiple strange missing time experiences. And the funny thing is like he was he acted like it was the most normal thing ever, Like he was. He was not surprised by it, like at all. I was just like, whoa, what do you mean, Like what do you think that is? And he was just like I don't know, but it seemed like the guy it would take a lot to surprise him.

Yeah. Yeah, Like I feel like I could jump out and just like try to scare him and he'd just be like, hey, yeah, so cool. Yeah, such an amazing guy. Honor to meet you, Stefan. I cannot forget will H and Heather. Yes, well they were not in the pictures, but they were there as well. They were also at the heart Yeah, shout out and will H and I was playing and making sand castles with his little son, and it was it was really cool.

That's awesome. Stefan was cool. I had the honor. I'm so lucky that my wife was born in Germany and my mother in law is German, so I know, like literally a I don't know like one percent of the German language, just because I like to be like, what does this mean? So I can tell it your uncle, you know. So when he was about to leave to go home for the night Sunday night, I said to bist Mina Freud wound Ish haptish leb, and he said, oh,

so sweet. It means you are my friend and I have love for you, you know, I just because I tell her cousins and uncles and aunts when I'm leaving. So that was cool for me, Like, yes, I can say the line, say it one more time to bist Mina Freud. I mean, I don't. I can't pronounce it that great, But no, I know I'm not trying to I'm not trying to make fun of you. And I learned this through hard experience because I said, how do I say I love you to her cousin. Oh, it's it's ish

liba dish. And I told her cousin that and she started blushing and they're like, no, no, no, no, no, that means like a romantic. I was like, oh, oh, that's embarrassing. And you know, so I had to learn how to say it in the friendly way, which is ish haptish leb, I have love for you. You know. I would go around just saying that, and they don't know English

to correct me. You know, it's a pretty funny moment. So I had to learn to say it in the friendly platonic way, and that was cool for me, man like because because because Germany is very special to me, you know, because I have family there. So I was really happy to spend time with Stephan. I felt a connection with him. That's cool. You know. The way he speaks his English is like how her family speaks. So I was very comfortable with him, and it was cool for

me. But anyway, so Sunday, oh my god. So yeah, so Sunday was crazy. So I was in Charlotte. We get up at five in the morning, rush three and a half four hour drive to Wilmington, and I get there like nine, like literally, like festival starts. I'm running to the tent like parked at the parking deck across downtown. And I get there and there's already people there, you know, and a part of me was like, oh my god, I'm so tired. I haven't

been here all weekend. I just want to get to the tent and nobody be there but my parents and my siblings, so that I have a moment to see my family. Nope, I get there and there's three or four people there, and I'm like, we're in it now. And immediately that went away. Yeah, and I felt great, and I felt like,

oh, Captain Skippy Daniel, he was there. I was very excited to see Daniel because Daniel and I have probably played like hundreds of hours of video games together since we did the Valheim Server and played other games, and I just had such a connection with him. I was like, yes, Daniel's gonna be here. And I get there and there's other people there, and it just immediately was like like just the best day. I mean, y'all

were there, you know, and we just hung out all day. And Dad said, Dad told me that at least forty or fifty people were turned away at the booth because there was a line so long that he, you know exactly what Alex said. Dad spent so much time with each person one on one that there were forty or fifty people who got tired of waiting, yeah, and left. And he was like, but that's okay, that's what this is about. You know. It's great, you know, but like that's how busy it was. Yeah. So me and I know,

at one point Nick did it too. Me. Junior would go out. Me and Junior would go out and play like clet crowd control with people on line and just like engage people on line to kind of keep like, you know, to make it feel like they weren't waiting, you know what I mean. We had a great time. We were trying to talk to people that were waiting. Yeah. Yeah, me and Nick we love doing that because then we're like, you heard about our show. But no, it

was so cool to see Junior too. Oh yeah, definitely. Junior was having a blast and it was just so cool to see that happen. And I know you feel that way too, Ryan. Oh dude, it was. It was immaculate, the vibes, the the energy and the fun of it. I you know, I didn't even know. God the other Daniel took a bus from Maryland. He did twelve hours with no plan of anywhere to stay. He was just like oh and he shot out Daniel. Daniel Deshai has been a fan. He has been watching our show since episode zero.

I got his number. Yeah, he's coming. He might come to Wilmington soon too. Episode zero. He's heard you on a podcas before when you were saying like, I'm thinking about starting a podcast. That must have been because I announced it there right, so I don't I don't know, that's crazy. He was cool man since episode zero. He won our first ever giveaway. He brought the little baggy that's right, he had the original

bag of crystals that we gave away three years. Casey saw that little bag and almost cried because she was like Jenny and I went to the store and picked out the confetti and picked out the crystals and picked out the little ball. My gosh, I was trying to think about what our first giveaway was. In his hands, he showed it to us. I saw it, wow yo, and he was dripped out and like it was like a rony kinchin like button up anime shirt. Dude. He was so cool, so

cool, he was very cool. I had to get his number, and I wish I had more time with him, but he came so late in the day. But you know, he told me he might come to Wilmington suit. That's another thing that you just reminded me of, something that was so incredibly wholesome and none of us expected. Is like you said, with Daniel, and even with Stephan flying from Germany, he didn't know anybody, and several others they they didn't have a ride figured out, and people stepped

up and they just started carpooling and becoming friends. And at the end of the night Sunday night, when we were all saying goodbye and and I was like, yo, Daniel, you ever come to Wilmington. I got his number. He was like, yeah, man, I'm actually gonna probably be coming to Wilmington soon. I was like, for real, He said, yeah, I think I'm gonna come see Zeke. Zeke gave him the ride and they just they just they became friends and he's hung out like the entire

time at the beach. Oh yeah, during the had dinner together watch and the next thing you know, he's like, I might be a Wilmington soon. As Zeke. I was like, call me, dude, I want to see you guys. Can I get involved? Yeah? I want to party? Yeah? Can I be invited? Yeah? No. It was just awesome, man, Like people really hit it off. It was it was it was magic. Yeah, and so so sorry finally sky Watch.

Yeah, so blown through Sunday. I'm not going to go into every moment the whole day, but every time I spoke to somebody, I was like, you stand through tonight, you stand in town tonight. And when people be like yeah, I was like, oh you coming tonight, you come into the SkyWatch. I probably told one hundred people you come into the SkyWatch to night. You're coming to the Skywall tonight. Some people were like,

yeah, oh my god, dude, that's why I came. Some people were like, no, I didn't know about it, you know, because I intentionally wanted it to be a gorilla thing, and that blasted out to the internet and we ended up having seventy people on the beach. Dude, we don't even have enough time to tell the magnitude of what happened. I mean, where do we begin. Seventy people show up, and now you guys ran a little late, and that's only because we had to tear down

the booth, We had to figure out the rides. You guys had to go all the way home, switch cars, come all the way back, twenty twenty five minutes out and we had the I mean, yeah, we're late, right, yeah, yeah, So you guys showed up about thirty minutes or so after everybody got there. But dude, so I left downtown. We literally rushed down Marcus Street, hit RV's on the way. I don't usually eat stuff like that, but I was like, dude, we just need to get there as fast as possible. And I've had like a

couple of bites to eat all day. Let's just get the easiest thing, dude, I'm telling you. We got there like seven forty or seven forty five, which was the set time. And when I got there, fifty people were in the parking lot and I pulled in and they all cheered, what that's amazing, And dude, it was surreal. And I parked and it was just like, oh my god, this is happening. Like I didn't expect a crowd to be standing here in the parking lot. I didn't

know what to expect. Yeah, yeah, yeah, you know. And we started going out there and setting up, and the vibes were so high, and I wanted to share this moment with Corey that that really just showed me that people really listen. Yeah, they really listen to what you say. And and Corey, dude, you know you said she's your age, right, or like two muths older than you, So yeah, just turned

thirty basically. Yeah, So I mean she's she's our age, yeah, you know, and she's he's pretty, like pretty, I would say, like, God, I don't I mean this in a good way. She's she's petite. She was, you know, short, and you know it's tiny. Yeah, he's really tiny, and it's really you know, it's wholesome. And she was carrying this big ass chair and I was just like, hey, you know, let me carry that for you. And she's

like no, no, no, I got it. And I was like, no, no, please, like I'd like to carry it for you. And she's like it's okay, I don't need help. And I was like, well, you know, I insist, and she she let me carry it. She was like, okay, here, you can carry it. And I had it and I was walking down the access pier and we were talking and she was just like, you know, I usually don't allow

people to help me, Like I don't allow people to help me. And I literally I just pat her on the back and I said, you know, sometimes you just got to be vulnerable. It's a very special skill. It's like a valuable skill. And she was like, I know, you're probably right. Cut to yesterday or the day before, she posted in the discord, and this probably went over y'alls because y'all weren't present for that conversation, but she said, you got to hear this. It's she just reflected

my words at me like a mirror. Oh damn, I don't know how to search based on name. Anyway, she said, thank you for showing me your angry side and being vulnerable with the omies. She reflected at me what I said at her, and I was like, damn, you really just use my own words against me. Didn't because on Sunday I was so tired and I went to meet her. But I was like, look, I'm gonna be honest with you. I have not eaten all day. I've got to go eat. Would you like to come meet with us. I

cannot do this any longer unless I go eat. And I was like faint and I was falling out, and she was like, dude, I got it. And she was making jokes about me being angry and you know whatever, and and and then I said that, you know, sometimes you got to be vulnerable. And then she said it back to me, and that just cleared. I was like, you know, they really listen that, you know people I don't know. Man. For me, it was just

this funny moment. I can't describe it. But anyway, we get out there and everybody's high spirits and just you know excited and whispers, and I kept going around telling everybody. When I would say are you coming out tonight and they say yeah, I'd be like, it's gonna be a good night. I said it the whole day, it's gonna be a good night. I feel like it's gonna be a good night. And Dad put out the word eight thirty right right, Mom and Dad show up before it gets too

dark. There are sixty five people there because Jennifer, I thought, well it was eight. I think he changed it to eight because I didn't know until like said, eight thirty is when the orbits a I got you the time to get there ended up being seven forty five got but Dad was like eight thirties when it's going to start. And Jennifer, whose boyfriend was Brent, the one you were talking about earlier who said your Sam Wise, Jennifer

was just also very kind, oh and just a very special individual. She was very You just spoke to her and you could feel this powerful friendliness, you know. And Emily had her or maybe Jenny had her count the crowd or maybe she just did it. I don't know, but she kind of sixty five people. I was like, Okay, I want a picture before

it gets too dark. So I literally yelled at sixty five people, line up, I want a photo, and they all got together in a line, and I think Jennifer or my wife or somebody snapped a photo of us. And just at this point the excitement was building. And then right as it gets about dark, we start to see a couple of orbs. But I mean, you guys were there at eight thirty. You know what happened

next? A lot, yeah, a lot. It was pretty much like two hours straight of just orb after orb after orb, some of them doing really spectacular things. There were a couple of orbs that the whole crowd would be watching for a minute, and then like it would like flash like extremely extremely bright, so bright that everyone like would audibly gasp like or even yell like, oh my god, did you see that? Everybody's yelling did you see that? Oh my god? Like and then like looking at some of

the footage. We were looking at some of the footage with your dad right before we came in here to record this from that night, like with the night vision psionic camera, And there were so many orbs in the sky, so many more orbs than you could even focus on. There were so many that you'd be watching one or two or a little cluster of them, and then just out of view there are so many more, flashing and moving and

doing weird stuff. And then, dude, some things that I've never seen before is you know, when you're skywatching and you're looking for the orbs and you're seeing them, it's so obvious what is an orb? What is a satellite? What is a plane? It starts to Once you're out there for a while, like a good half hour or so, it becomes very clear what's what. But then dude, they started playing games with us. We'd be looking at what we all are like, that's a plane. People are

audibly saying like, oh, that's a plane. Whatever. We're watching it. It's flashing like the red and green or red and white like a normal plain wood or whatever. And then suddenly like it would become one bigger brighter light that is like orange, and it's like change direction, change direction.

I oh my gosh. We were all watching one over that was like over the city that was a bright like orange yellowish orange light and it started moving out over the ocean and then it starts blinking like a plane, and so everybody started saying like, oh, it's a plane, it's a plane.

Whatever. Everybody starts looking away from that at other things. And then I heard I think think it was Jennifer who was like, no, look, everybody look, and so Jenny, your wife, and then Casey they looked and they saw it completely like about faced, turned completely around and just started going the opposite direction back the way that it came and was again a single

bright yellow light. Yeah. Like it was like there were orbs like trying to make us think that they were planes and then switching in front of our eyes into something else. Oh dude, not to mention there were ones constantly blinking over the ocean. Oh yeah, Maulten and a clouds above the ocean and then they would shoot down to the ocean and they would blink and then they would split up and blink into multiple We have, you know, crazy

video from it. We post that posted some of those on Instagram. Yeah, one one was blinking like right over the horizon and blinking like red, and you know, everybody's thinking like what is that? Is it an orb? Is it a boat? Is it? What it's like moving? And so that was weird. And then it shoots into the sky. Yeah, like what one orb came off the ocean, went up into the sky over our head, and it was dim over our head, and then it got so bright that all seventy people screamed, oh yeah, oh my god,

and erupted into clap. Yeah, called it clapter. Yeah, erupted into clapter, just started clapping, and dude, listen, and my whole life, I have seen one orb brighter than that. Of all the orbs, I have seen one brighter thing. It was bright. It was. It was shocking, Yes, it was. It was a miracle everyone. It

was unbelievable. It was. It was profound, dude. There were like clusters of like two or three orbs that would be going in a direction and then would start like twirling around each other like they were chasing each other. Yeah. Some of the craziest stuff I've ever seen in my life. Me too, dude. Like honestly, like that night humbled me. Like I

say it on the show. Sometimes it's like, oh, you know, you get used to it and then every now and the phenomenon will come in and shake you up and be like, Okay, you're not used to it again. Yeah, that night was that For me, I think it was intentional, like especially with all the look at me on a plane and then like you know, it's like you think you know what it is. That was the lesson. It was like you think you know what we are,

but right, but you don't. Yeah, I just I feel like I feel like that happened because listen, this is the biggest crowd that we have ever skywatched with in one moment, seventy plus people and everybody there with their hearts and minds together, you know, putting their will up to the universe, saying please show me a sign, you know, and Dad's leading them in prayer, and it was just just miracles happen. And my mind keeps going towards what would happen if there was a thousand people, It would be

unbelievable. And I don't know, man, I just feel like so many lives were changed that night. I mean, there was an energy there that we just we could describe it all day and it doesn't do it justice. I mean, we all felt that weekend will live in my heart forever as one of the coolest things I've ever done. Sunday was like definitely one of the very best days of my life. And Jennifer, not my wife, not Jenny Ree, but the other Jennifer, Jennifer and Brent also Emily's student.

Yes, she told me something that night on the beach, and she said, she said, I started my spiritual awakening in January. And I was like, huh, like you mean like this January, like four months ago January. And she's heard like pretty much every episode of our show, and she is very in deep and she was just so calm. And so you meet a lo lot of people who start to go through like an awakening, and unfortunately, you know, it's just like some people, they they're

like going crazy with Oh my god, I'm realizing so many things. It's normal, it happens. She was just like, I don't know, I just felt such a way about her that was very good. I can't put it into words or quantify it. And she told me, she said, you guys have changed my life listening to your show and the information that I've learned from you guys has taught me so many things and led me into so

many areas of research. I just I cannot thank you enough. Basically, something like I don't remember if she said, you guys are changing the world or it was something to the effect of like, you're having an impact far beyond what you can fathom. Yeah, And a lot of people said that, oh yeah, you guys are impacting me in the world, far beyond what you can fathom. And they said that, and I was like, you know, I just I hear you saying that, but I just I

don't understand. But anyway, incredible day and incredible weekend. And it was the night before the eclipse. It was and we could go on and on, but I wanted to show this. James shout out, James rocksh We're gonna link up with him. He lives two hours away. Yes, And I met another guy with James who didn't come with him, came separate, but they realized they lived like twenty minutes away from each other. I hit it off, Brady. Yeah, very cool guys. We're gonna link up

with them eventually and invite the mount SkyWatch. But James brought us this wood round, so cool? Is that upright? Yep? It's also a North Carolina pine Yeah, oh sweet, it's a North Carolina pine tree. And he said that other woods would probably have done better and not cracked but the fact that it was a North Carolina pine. I love it. The crack gives it a character. See if you look at the bark on the side of the tree, doesn't it look familiar. Oh yeah, yeah it does.

It's like Fayetteville pine trees. It is. But I grew up around these trees. I'm familiar with him. He didn't tell us the name of his friend who made this, but he had his friend make this, and he just touched higher, just touch higher. He delivered this to a and it is It's just this is incredible, incredible. Yeah, this is a treasure. I really want to find a place for it in our new studio so that we can just see it all the time. This is like a

sacred treasure to us. I mean, this is so kind. I mean, and like, I'm just so humbled that people would would think so well of us to do something like this for us. And thank you so much, thank you, James, Yeah, thank you. It's just unbelievable. Man. And the last thing that I want to say is I think that this there was no coincidence that you know. On on the episode with Chris Junior, we talked about what happened Easter weekend and that was one week before

the Azalia festival. And and Dad has he's been living with me for a while, so we've pretty much been together every day in the last month. And he's been telling me for a week now, it's like, Son, this Easter week things are changing, things are changing, We're in a new phase with the phenomenon. Every time he tells me that the intensity ramps up and how they interact with us and how they choose to show up and you know, I mean, I think we all saw that in effect this weekend.

And he keeps telling me, he's like, Son, that eclipse has mark change. It's Aquarius, like the shift is happening, like we are shifting now, like it's happening. And it was marked by the eclipse. The day of the eclipse, Junior saw a UFO in the daytime during the

eclipse. And then last night, which was Wednesday, because we're recording this today, Thursday the eleventh, three days after the eclipse, we walked out of my front out of my garage at my new house that my dad, my brother, and our buddy Derek, who you guys will be hearing from soon. He was supposed to be tonight's episode, but we had to do his aliafest. The four of us walked outside and we saw the craziest ORB. Oh yeah, and I put it on my Instagram story. I'll probably

end up posting it later. It won't be on my story by the time this comes out, But it's just genuinely one of the craziest orbs I've ever seen. It looks kind of like our schedul it kind of does it kind of does. I didn't think of it. There are like multiple times, especially when you were slowing it down and going frame by frame, there was a couple of times I was like, that looks a lot like the sigil.

Yeah, that's weird. It was like a triangle and it was like yellow, and then there were multiple times that kind of looked dark in the middle. That's weird, man, I didn't think about that. Yeah, that's and it's over our new studio. I know. Yeah, true, true at the house. But I'm just saying, you know, crazy times ahead, Wonderful things are happening, magical things, and I just I just

think we're incredibly blessed and like there's no turning back, man. I mean, even if for those seventy people that came from all over the world just to hang out with us that one night. We'll do it for them absolutely forever. Absolutely. I feel so blessed and honored to have met every single person that I met. I love each and every one of you with my whole heart. And the people that weren't able to make it, I love you too. If you were listening to this, I love you and thank

you so much. And I hope I do get to meet you all one day. That would be so cool. I remember two more names that I had to shout out, Gabatomic Particles in our discord and Justin Strubel. Oh yeah, shout out to those wonderful individuals. They are some very cool people that we met at the Azalea Festival. And Justin Strubel is a visionary artist and you guys should check out Jay Underscore Strubel Underscore Art Underscore on Instagram and

you will not be freaking disappointed. And if there was anybody that we missed with the shout out, we are so sorry. We did not have everybody pictured because people came and went at different times and I was, you know, going based on the pictures we had, and there were a lot more people than that who showed up. I mean that, you know, there were seventy people gathered on the beach. There was at least double or more than that that we saw in and out of the tents. Oh yeah,

it's impossible to name everybody. Shout out Chris Tucker, who brought us the hot sauce and the peppers and was the one who sent us the three D printed. Yes, it was so cool to meet you guys. So cool. Shout out Chris Tucker. Love the Rush Hour movies, They're great, Uh, Alex. Any closing thoughts, I hate, I hate going last. Stay positive? How do I follow up? Stay positive? That's good? Yeah, that's it, all right, all right, thank you all.

We love you by my guys. Weird things happen in the backyard of Leftsoe House. Ship. Look got so weird coming clutter you like, smirring on the inside of it. No one knows. Man, Come right over now A side not a happy