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Speaker 1: Our world is full of the unexplainable, and if history

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Speaker 1: is an open book, all of these amazing tales are

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Speaker 1: right there on display, just waiting for us to explore.

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Speaker 1: Welcome to the cabinet of curiosities. We normally don't trust

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Speaker 1: someone who fell asleep on the job. If a waiter

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Speaker 1: decided to have a nap without taking our order, we

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Speaker 1: might find another place to eat. And long haul truckers

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Speaker 1: have been known on occasion to doze at the wheel,

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Speaker 1: putting themselves and those around them in immense danger. But

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Speaker 1: what happens when someone is having a crisis of faith,

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Speaker 1: when the world has become too overwhelming and they need

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Speaker 1: a reminder of why they believe what they believe in

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Speaker 1: the first place. A preacher should be able to step

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Speaker 1: in and guide that person, unless, of course, that preacher

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Speaker 1: also happens to not off. Stories of sleeping or trance

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Speaker 1: preachers originated in Germany during the sixteenth and seventeenth century. However,

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Speaker 1: sleeping preachers have existed all over the world, including Alabama,

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Speaker 1: southern France, and Iowa. One such man was a fellow

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Speaker 1: from Kentucky named Ed. Born one of six children, Ed

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Speaker 1: had always been a bit of a special boy. As

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Speaker 1: a child, he once claimed to have seen his dead grandfather.

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Speaker 1: Now ten years old, his family introduced him to the

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Speaker 1: church and it became his life. Over the next two years,

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Speaker 1: he read the Bible cover to cover twelve times. His

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Speaker 1: supernatural dealings only grew from there. One day, while reading

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Speaker 1: the Bible by himself, he was visited by a woman

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Speaker 1: with wings on her back, who asked him what he

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Speaker 1: wanted to do with his life. He gazed upon her

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Speaker 1: glowing figure and told her that he wanted to become

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Speaker 1: a missionary so that he could help others through faith.

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Speaker 1: The following day proved less inspiring. Ed wasn't a particularly

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Speaker 1: good student as a child, and a complaint from his

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Speaker 1: teacher had angered his father. Apparently he'd been having trouble

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Speaker 1: with his spelling. The boy sat in a chair all

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Speaker 1: night his father, calling out words, only to have Ed

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Speaker 1: fail each time. His father smacked him, sending his son

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Speaker 1: to the floor, and that's when Ed's guardian angel came back.

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Speaker 1: She told him to sleep and they would help him

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Speaker 1: get through it. Ed asked his father for a break

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Speaker 1: so he could rest his head. His father woke him

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Speaker 1: up a short while later, and miraculously his son knew

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Speaker 1: how to spell every word in the book. This set

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Speaker 1: Ed on a path of strange and inexplainable occurrences while

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Speaker 1: he slept. For example, he once diagnosed a cure for

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Speaker 1: his own back injury in his sleep, which his parents

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Speaker 1: administered to great success the following day. As he got older,

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Speaker 1: he needed to find work to help his family. He

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Speaker 1: started a business with his father selling insurance, but a

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Speaker 1: case of bad laryngitis took his voice away completely. After

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Speaker 1: a year spent at home recovering, his voice still had

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Speaker 1: it returned, so he sought the help of a hypnotist,

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Speaker 1: who said that he had a cure. As it turned out,

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Speaker 1: Ed's voice was just fine when he was in a

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Speaker 1: hypnotic trance. That is, it was after he awoke that

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Speaker 1: his voice disappeared again. He saw two other hypnotists who

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Speaker 1: believed they could help, and the third, al Lane, was

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Speaker 1: able to break through. While Lane had Ed in a trance,

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Speaker 1: Ed spoke as though someone else were there with him,

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Speaker 1: perhaps the woman with the wings from his childhood. He

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Speaker 1: referred to himself in the plural, saying things like we

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Speaker 1: and us. As the hypnotist had him described his situation

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Speaker 1: that hypnotist suggested the voice loss was psychosomatic, not physical,

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Speaker 1: and that a rush of blood in the voice box

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Speaker 1: would restore it. Ed or the entity controlling him, did

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Speaker 1: as told. His throat burned and his chest ached, but

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Speaker 1: after twenty minutes the treatment was done, and when Ed

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Speaker 1: awoke his voice had returned. Lane wondered how far his

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Speaker 1: subject's talents extend it and whether they could work on others.

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Speaker 1: Could Ed cure someone else while asleep under hypnosis? Lane

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Speaker 1: started by using himself as a guinea pig. He placed

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Speaker 1: Ed in a trance and asked him to diagnose and

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Speaker 1: prescribe cures to Lane's own health problems. Ed did the

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Speaker 1: same for as hypnotist as he had done for himself,

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Speaker 1: helping to put Lane on the path through recovery. Lane

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Speaker 1: saw potential in ed'sibilities, and Ed finally got his chance

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Speaker 1: to help people, just as he had told the angel

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Speaker 1: as a child. He gave free readings to locals, putting

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Speaker 1: himself into a hypnotic trance and diagnosing their ailments, and

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Speaker 1: news spread quickly about his feet, earning him coverage in

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Speaker 1: local newspapers. But all the hype weighed heavily on him.

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Speaker 1: He was worried that if one person died from his

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Speaker 1: suggested treatments, he might be labeled a murderer. He eventually

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Speaker 1: stopped and sought more traditional employment as a bookshop clerk,

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Speaker 1: then a photographer, but fate would one day bring him

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Speaker 1: back to his true calling. By l he was living

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Speaker 1: in Selma, Alabama and diagnosing more than just the sick.

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Speaker 1: Businessmen wanted insight into the stock market, Treasure hunters asked

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Speaker 1: him to locate lost gold, and gamblers wanted the inside

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Speaker 1: scoop on the latest horse races, but Ed wanted none

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Speaker 1: of that, opting only to help cure the sick. In

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Speaker 1: three though, he was convinced by Arthur Lamber's, a student,

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Speaker 1: to explore the possibility of reincarnation. While in a trance,

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Speaker 1: Ed told Lambours about his past lives, a holy, un

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Speaker 1: Christian thing to do, as he felt reincarnation went against

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Speaker 1: church teachings. Lambours, on the other hand, had gotten all

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Speaker 1: the proof he needed that astrology and reincarnation were as

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Speaker 1: real as the hair on his head. From there, Ed

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Speaker 1: traveled with Lambours to Ohio for deeper metaphysical studies, which

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Speaker 1: put him at odds with his Christian upbringing ed pivoted

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Speaker 1: back to work and healing, reconciling the metaphysical work with

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Speaker 1: his religion, and moving to Virginia Beach. In y eight,

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Speaker 1: he helped to open a hospital dedicated to the scientific

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Speaker 1: study of his hypnotic readings, and that hospital still exists

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Speaker 1: by the way outliving ed by nearly a century, and

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Speaker 1: it continues to help those seeking spiritual enlightenment and healing.

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Speaker 1: As a result, Ed or Edgar Casey, as history remembers him,

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Speaker 1: has been immortalized as a man of faith who never

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Speaker 1: let doubt or sickness stop him from helping as many

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Speaker 1: people as he could, and all he had to do

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Speaker 1: was take a little nap. When an animal is hurt

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Speaker 1: or dying, it tries to hide the pain so it

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Speaker 1: doesn't end up as food for something else. A broken

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Speaker 1: paw or a mangy coat might signify the animal as

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Speaker 1: in distress or weak, but it will never let another

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Speaker 1: creature see it if it can help it. Even our

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Speaker 1: own pets, no matter how much affection we show to them,

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Speaker 1: do their best to shield us from their ailments. But

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Speaker 1: sometimes the connection between human and animal is too strong

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Speaker 1: to hide, even though they might not be able to

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Speaker 1: communicate in words. Our pets can show us how much

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Speaker 1: we mean to them in other ways. At the turn

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Speaker 1: of the century, John Charles Thompson, Wyoming's Surveyor General, had

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Speaker 1: a colleague named Jim, and Jim was known all over

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Speaker 1: his owner's hometown of Cheyenne for being kind and loving.

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Speaker 1: He also had a funny affectation. Jim, it seems, could laugh.

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Speaker 1: He was known as the laughing Dog, and when he

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Speaker 1: would see someone he recognized, he would let out a

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Speaker 1: kind of audible chuckle. Jim the Collie was a beloved

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Speaker 1: member of Thompson's family, closer to John than almost anyone,

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Speaker 1: which made one fateful night in nineteen o five very

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Speaker 1: difficult for the Surveyor General. John had been walking with

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Speaker 1: a friend down in Denver, Colorado Street around seven thirty

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Speaker 1: pm when he came upon an animal lying in the

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Speaker 1: middle of the road. Thompson hurried over and noticed the

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Speaker 1: animal was a dog. Even stranger, it looked just like Jim.

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Speaker 1: The dog was hurt, but there was no doubt about it.

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Speaker 1: This was Jim. He was unable to stand and could

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Speaker 1: barely lift his head, but even in pain, Jim let

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Speaker 1: out his familiar laugh when he saw his beloved owner

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Speaker 1: hunched over him. General Thompson did his best to comfort

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Speaker 1: the dog, but whatever had hurt him had mortally wounded him.

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Speaker 1: John stroked his fur, told him goodbye, and it wasn't

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Speaker 1: long before Jim succumbed to his injuries. He passed away

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Speaker 1: there in the street, his best friend right by his side.

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Speaker 1: Thompson and his friend crossed the street and then looked

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Speaker 1: back at the dog, but it had disappeared. It hadn't

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Speaker 1: miraculously gotten up and walked away. It had vanished. John

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Speaker 1: wasn't sure what to think, but he left and headed

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Speaker 1: back to his hotel. The following day, a letter arrived

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Speaker 1: from his wife, and it bore the sad news that

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Speaker 1: his beloved colleague, Jim, had been involved in an accident

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Speaker 1: the previous night around seven thirty pm. Not in Denver, Colorado, though,

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Speaker 1: but back home in Cheyenne, Wyoming. The bond between a

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Speaker 1: person and their pets is unbreakable. Distance and time cannot

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Speaker 1: keep them apart. It seems Jim was proof of that.

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Speaker 1: John believed that the dog he had witnessed in the

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Speaker 1: street wasn't a look alike, but a real visit by

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Speaker 1: the dog's spirit, a fantasy, perhaps, but also maybe a

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Speaker 1: way for a faithful friend to say goodbye one last time.

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Speaker 1: I hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour of the Cabinet

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Speaker 1: of Curiosities. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, or learn

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Speaker 1: more about the show by visiting Curiosities podcast dot com.

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Speaker 1: The show was created by me Aaron Manky in partnership

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Speaker 1: with how Stuff Works. I make another award winning show

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Speaker 1: called Lore, which is a podcast, book series, and television show,

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Speaker 1: and you can learn all about it over at the

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Speaker 1: World of Lore dot com. And until next time, stay curious. Yeah,