Hey everybody, it's Michael Shermer. It's time for another episode of the Michael

Shermer Show. This is the solo commentary, Shermer says. Episode number three,

these have turned out to be hugely popular, so I'm going to keep doing these once a week,

as long as I have something to say. And this one was triggered by an email I got from a

longtime friend of mine named Lon

Haldemand.

Those of you that, a few of you that are into cycling will recognize that name as the winner

of the first Great American bike race, later Race Across America,

1982 and 1983.

Here's Lon.

I wrote a book on this whole thing, the history of Race Across America, now completely outdated. But there he is. So there's a picture of Lon. I wrote a book on this whole thing. The history of race across America, now completely outdated.

But there he is. So there's a picture of Lon right there. Okay. And there's Lon and I riding in the race across America, just so you have an image to look at there. Anyway, I've known Long for a long time. And he went on to put on

transcontinental tours, called Pact Tours, for which his parents often helped, along with his

wife, Susan. And his parents, Ed and Mary Jane, Ed died a couple years ago, and Mary Jane just died a couple weeks ago.

So I got this email from Lon explaining what happened, just to everybody on his list.

And then he added a little paragraph for me because something weird happened here, so I will read you this.

And that's going to lead me talking about the theme of

this episode, which is strange, weird, anomalous experiences that people have and what they might

represent. Okay, here we go. So this was an email October 9th, 2025. Everything went as expected

with my mom's passing. She was very open and practical during the

past year, and she knew she had a good life without regrets. She was totally fine with leaving

this earth. During the past four years, Stephanie from Peru, who was on the Peru National

...