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Conversation Lesson

Dan: A-rone!

Aaron: What’s going down man?

Dan: Talking about Houdini today.

Aaron: Houdini, huh?

Dan: Houdini.

Aaron: The magician?

Dan: You know how Houdini died?

Aaron: I heard he was punched in the stomach.

Dan: Yeah.

Aaron: Have you ever been punched in the stomach?

Dan: Oh yeah.

Aaron: By whom?

Dan: I’ve never asked to be punched in the stomach.

Aaron: Well, most people don’t ask to be punched in the stomach.

Dan: I think Houdini did.

Aaron: Yeah that’s right.

Dan: Somebody….he said, “Punch me in the stomach.”

Aaron: But I think he got punched when he wasn’t ready for it.

Dan: Right, the guy was trying to take him out.

Aaron: Yeah. And he did.

Dan: Is that is a sucker punch? I guess that is a sucker punch.

Aaron: That is a sucker punch if the intention was to do damage.

Dan: Right. You sound very certain of that.

Aaron: I do. I do sound certain.

Dan: Sounds like you’ve done some sucker punch reffing.

Aaron: Sucker punch. Have you ever been sucker punched?

Dan: Yeah, sure. You’ve never been punched?

Aaron: No, I’ve been sucker punched. I got punched once by a kid, when I was a kid.

Dan: Once?

Aaron: Yeah. It was kind of crazy ‘cause I had a big stick in my hand. I didn’t hit him. I didn’t hit him.

Dan: Good for you.

Aaron: Yeah, I had some restraint, even as a youngster.

Dan: Even at that age.

Aaron: Even as a youngster.

Dan: Your Bodhisattva ways.

Aaron: I had a very large stick in my hand.

Dan: You got sucker punched. You had a large stick in hand. And then what’d you do? You hit your self in the head with it?

Aaron: No. I went to swing and hit him and then I just heard this voice in my head that says, “Don’t do that.” And I stopped. I mean, and then I just.

Dan: Did you turn around and your mother was there?

Aaron: No. But I got in trouble anyway. I didn’t know why I got in trouble.

Dan: You got in trouble?

Aaron: I got in trouble, yeah.

Dan: That’s bogus.

Aaron: Yeah, it’s ridiculous. Anyway.

Dan: How old were you?

Aaron: I was probably fourth grade so that put me at 10 years old maybe. Yeah, 18.

Dan: A little slow.

Aaron: 18

Dan: Just a big kid.

Aaron: But yeah, Houdini died of a

Dan: Ruptured spleen. Was that it? Or did you just make that up?

Aaron: Something like that. No.

Dan: You made it up.

Aaron: I could have made it up yeah. Ruptured spleen. Why not?

Dan: Houdini. Yeah I don’t really like escape artists.

Aaron: You don’t like them huh?

Dan: No, I feel like they’re just showoffs.

Aaron: What’s the famous one today? That guy that … What’s the guy? The famous new magician? David Blaine that’s the one.

Dan: No, but who’s the guy who, Chris Angel.

Aaron: That’s another one yeah. There’s two of them yeah.

Dan: Right. Yeah I guess David Blaine’s like that too. He’s done underwater…

Aaron: A lot of stunts like that. But anyway, yeah Houdini tried to … Well he did a lot of things with the dead, I guess. While he was alive and then he tried to contact his wife I guess, when he was dead.

Dan: And apparently he used to be a scammer himself.

Aaron: Well, I’m sure there’s a bit of scammery to some of the performances that place with magicians. You’re trying to create illusions in people’s minds. I guess there’s….

Dan: Right, but at the same time you’re not really claiming to do supernatural magic. But apparently he did. He did fake seances in his earlier life.

Aaron: Now for those who do not know what a seance is, how would you describe a seance?

Dan: Sit down, communication with the dead.

Aaron: Have you ever taken part in a seance?

Dan: I don’t really know.

Aaron: You’ve done something. Otherwise you would have said no.

Dan: Yeah, I guess I have. I guess quite a, yeah. Alright, I got a story for you.

Aaron: Okay.

Dan: In my youth, I had a girlfriend in Brazil. Her place was robbed. In the morning, my wallet was 50% lighter, which is very odd. You’d think if it was a robber they would have taken the whole thing. But somebody took, I don’t remember if it was 50, some percentage of it. A substantial amount of money.

Aaron: It all wasn’t there.

Dan: My girlfriend at the time took us to this psychic. And the psychic said that I stole the money.

Aaron: From yourself?

Dan: Yes. Luckily I didn’t pay for the psychic. And my girlfriend didn’t buy it either.

But that seemed a little unlikely.

Aaron: A little fishy.

Dan: So unlikely that I would have robbed myself.

Aaron: Yeah that doesn’t add up, does it? No.

Dan: But yeah, that was one seance that I’ve sat in on. Which, I didn’t really believe. Actually I’ve been to a couple seances. None of them really left me convinced.

Aaron: Oh that there was contact with the dead? Actual contact.

Dan: Yeah. I believe it’s possible.

Aaron: I’m open to the fact that that is possible, sure. I mean there’s maybe no scientific evidence for it. But as one of those sayings in the lesson. You should be open to possibilities.

Dan: Right.

Aaron: Even if science doesn’t prove it.

Dan: You ever been in a seance?

Aaron: No. But I think I fooled around a little bit when I was a teenager with the Ouija board and some of my friends. Those are just for fun and kicks and grins or whatever. Didn’t contact any dead people.

Dan: Did anybody try to pretend likeAaron: Oh sure. What else you gonna do? Otherwise you’ll sit there all night just with your hands.

Dan: Holding hands on it.

Aaron: You gotta move it a little bit right? Just to have some fun.

Dan: No, but did any of you pretend like you were the ghost and try to fool your friends intoAaron:

Yeah, I think that’s the whole point of it.

Dan: Is that the whole point? I don’t know. I’ve never done it.

Aaron: But anyway, no nothing serious about that. Have you seen a ghost? Have you ever seen or interacted with ghosts or spirits?

Dan: No, no, no. What about you?

Aaron: No, no.

Dan: I believe it’s possible.

Aaron: It could very well be.

Dan: That should be the title to this month’s story. Could Very Well Be.

Aaron: Could Very Well Be. But it ain’t.

Dan: Well the Houdini story, that was the real deal. It was all about fakers. The transplant story, that’s a little bit more out there.

Aaron: Yeah, no that one is very curious. If it were just one instance. Let’s say a guy gets a heart transplant and he falls in love with the woman that was in love with the guy who he got the heart from. That’s just one instance of it. It could just be coincidence. But you have 70 recorded instances.

Dan: 70 supposed instances.

Aaron: Instances of this. Yeah, that seems like a high number. There might be something to it.

Dan: Yeah. Now they’re finding out that the bacteria in our body, in our guts, can affect our mental states. Something that people would have thought was crazy decades ago.

Aaron: Yeah, sure.

Dan: So who knows. Maybe there is some way that an organ can transfer something.

Aaron: Do you ingest lots of bacteria every day?

Dan: We all do.

Aaron: Yeah, well I’m asking you specifically. Do you, Daniel K. Douglass…

Dan: You roll around in mud a lot.

Aaron: …Do you eat lots of bacteria?

Dan: You dirty… What do you really want to say Aaron? Rude. How dare you!

Aaron: I think you’re full of bacteria, that’s what I think.

Dan: Did your mother ever make you wash your mouth out with soap?

Aaron: Once. Yes, when I was four years old.

Dan: Uh-huh, you were swearing at four.

Aaron: I said some very bad words and she put a bar of soap on my tongue. And that was the last time I did it around her.

Dan: It was just a dab though. She didn’t scrub away?

Aaron: No, she didn’t scrub away. She just made me put the soap on my tongue.

Dan: For how long?

Aaron: I don’t know, five minutes maybe. Something like that.

Dan: I thought you were going to say a second.

Aaron: It was a horrible experience. But it worked. I never swore around her after that.

Dan: You ever do that with your kids?

Aaron: No, no, no. I don’t need to.

Dan: Too busy swearing at them?

Aaron: Yeah, that’s right. I’m the one swearing. I would be quite the hypocrite if I were to do that.

Dan: Transplants. You ever know anybody who’s gotten a new organ?

Aaron: No, not personally, no. How about you?

Dan: No. But one day, I hope.

Aaron: You hope?

Dan: That by the time we’re in need of organs we’ll be able to clone.

Aaron: Yeah, well that’s the thing. We wouldn’t have to actually receive a transplant from another person, we can actually grow a new kidney, a new heart. Whatever we need.

Dan: We can grow our own. And maybe that will bring something weird to our consciousness. A cloned organ.

Aaron: Yeah, it could be like double Dan or double Aaron. It’s like an extra dose of yourself. That could be quite dangerous, actually.

Dan: Is that what you stay up at night worrying about?

Aaron: I worry about that. I worry if I get a heart transplant from my own heart it.

Dan: That’s a sign that somebody’s life is good that you can worry about that.

Aaron: Life is pretty good. It’s pretty good.

Dan: Life is good. And we have time to research and tell these crazy stories.

Aaron: That’s right.

Dan: Part of me felt like, well that’s kind of silly.

Aaron: What?

Dan: Are these people really inheriting something from their donor? The organ transplant people.

Aaron: Right.

Dan: But you know, it’s possible.

Aaron: Well you have to remember that everything is interconnected with our bodies and minds. And if you introduce a new energy, a new form of life that comes from a different form, who’s to say that that doesn’t on some very subtle level influence the way your energy is flowing in your body and the way your brain comes up with different desires and fears and thoughts, who knows.

Dan: What if you needed a new heart and the only available donor was Charles Manson?

Aaron: Okay, some mass murderer?

Dan: Yeah, some serial killer evil, evil person. And he just died and the doctor said, “We got a heart. But it’s Charles Manson, the notorious serial killer.”?

Aaron: Yeah, but isn’t he like 80 years old or something? I don’t know if I’d want an 80-year-old heart.

Dan: He’s really healthy. He’s been working out the whole time. Would you take that? Or they said there’s probably another one coming in a couple weeks.

Aaron: But I might die before I get it.

Dan: Yeah.

Aaron: I don’t know Dan. That’s a tough call.

Dan: Now you got a new thing to worry about.

Aaron: Actually, had I not researched this story and knew about the connection, I might take it. And then you can look at is as, okay, I’ll take his heart and now I’m going to do something good with that heart.

Dan: What about the house?

Aaron: The house? What do you mean?

Dan: Yeah, Charles Manson’s house? Or a house where something horrible had happened.

Aaron: Oh like living in the house with something?

Dan: Yeah, would you feel something is left behind? Or would you feel like, wow, this is a really good deal? I can get this house cheap.

Aaron: Very cheap. I wouldn’t want to live in someone’s house where something terrible happened.

Dan: Even if it was 50% off?

Aaron: Yeah. Come on, there’s a million houses in the world. I don’t need to live in that house.

Dan: Even if it was a dollar. It was like a mansion overlooking the ocean for a dollar. But there was a cult where everyone was wiped out.

Aaron: Yeah. I don’t think I’d want to do that, no.

Dan: A dollar.

Aaron: How about you? Would you take it?

Dan: Oh yeah.

Aaron: Oh really?

Dan: Ocean view, for sure. The ocean, that cancels out any bad juju.

Aaron: Alright, I’ll come visit you in the daytime, but not the night.

Dan: That definitely cancels out bad juju.

Aaron: I don’t know.

Dan: And the voyager, The Voyager Golden Records, that was a great story.

Aaron: Yeah, that was pretty cool. I wonder who the group of people was that actually got to make those selections and choose the-

Dan: Carl Sagan, was-

Aaron: Only one person?

Dan: Well he was the head of a team.

Aaron: Oh, he was the head of a team. Okay.

Dan: Yeah and the voice of his son appears on it saying, “Nice to meet you.

Greetings from children of the earth.” In English. That’s the only greeting in English.

Aaron: Oh that’s it huh?

Dan: And that’s his son. He really monopolizes his family. He had his son on there. And then he got to choose, coordinate the whole thing. And he had the brainwaves of his soon-to-be wife contemplating the human experience.

Aaron: Wow.

Dan: And he probably got to choose a lot of the music.

Aaron: How about that.

Dan: That would have been a hard decision to make. How do you include? How do you choose?

Aaron: And then how do you decide what’sDan: And where do the Beatles record company get off worrying about aliens listening to music for free?

Aaron: I don’t know. That sounds insane to me.

Dan: Yeah.

Aaron: They don’t want aliens listening for free. Now we have to charge aliens, we have to charge them in the universal currency.

Dan: Yeah, a billion years from now, there might beAaron: A billion years from now. Copyright violations. Aliens, that’s their first experience with human life. They get criminalized.

Dan: But the way they really thought about how to communicate with a species that … Obviously they’re not going to understand our language.

Aaron: Well we don’t know anything. We have no idea what it is or what it could be.

Dan: Like even how to play a record. So they have this record. This made out of gold that’s supposed to last in space where there’s not any friction or anything wearing it down. Even I think, it’s just interstellar radiation, which would take billions of years to do anything to it. It’s going to exist. But how are they going to know what to do with it? So they engrave these images on the record showing a circular record with a needle next to it. It also comes with some kind of stylus made with some kind of super durable material. And then a side-view of the record and the stylus on it. The next hurdle is how do you teach the aliens what speed that it’s supposed to revolve around?

Aaron: But doesn’t that seem like a little bit condescending in the sense that they’re assuming that the aliens won’t know how to do that? Maybe the aliens are so far intelligent, so much more intelligent than we can possible imagine, they’ll look at that and be like, “A record? Jeez, okay let’s play this, come on.”

Dan: Maybe it would be so rudimentary that they wouldn’t be able to … There’s stuff from the ancient Egyptians that we look at that we don’t know.

Aaron: Yeah, I suppose.

Dan: That maybe had some important use.

Aaron: But we’re humans. We may be pretty dumb compared to other forms of life.

Dan: Yeah. But listen to how they did the timing. Apparently hydrogen is the most common element in the universe.

Aaron: Yeah.

Dan: So they thought that, that … So they had a picture of hydrogen in two different states. And apparently it’s a universal constant. The amount of time it takes between shifting from one state to the other state. Something like some billionth of a second. So they used that as a time marker to say this many intervals of transitioning from this form of hydrogen to the other form of hydrogen is the speed at which it revolves.

Aaron: Oh, at which this needs to turn in order to hear the sound.

Dan: Yeah, and this is all done in a symbol-like way.

Aaron: Wow. A lot of thought went into that, huh?

Dan: Yeah. Which also could, I mean this could be like fish people telepathic fish people with no eyeballs. No eyeballs, no ears.

Aaron: Or it could be some form of alien that eats gold. And they’re just like, “Wow what a feast.” And they just eat it.

Dan: Yeah, it’s like the rarest delicacy. They’d be like, “Whoa, it’s a whole plate of it.”

Aaron: It’s just food.

Dan: But they figure the sound was something that is going to exist all over the universe and that aliens will evolve differently. But it may be something that would benefit creatures evolving in different states to be able to react to sound.

Aaron: Yeah, it’s pretty far out man. I wonder how long it’s going to be before someone actually finds that or some species actually finds it.

Dan: Yeah, or never. It’s just a message to ourself.

Aaron: It could just float in space, like forever. Wow. I assume there are no Deep English lessons on that gold… I guess that’s the question. Maybe if that had been created, let’s say last year. Would they have put Deep English lessons on it?

Dan: Yeah well, we should send our own.

Aaron: We should make our own.

Dan: We should make a little Kickstarter.

Aaron: Deep English space probe.

Dan: Teach English.

Aaron: Spreading English.

Dan: Across the galaxy.

Aaron: Across the galaxy.

Dan: Alright, we should get started on that plan right now.

Aaron: Yeah, let’s do it.

Dan: Alright, my friend.

Aaron: Okay, well I guess we’ll be talking soon.

Dan: Fare thee well.

Aaron: Alright, take care.