'This is all an elaborate hoax.'

Before his death, Roger Ebert wrote his wife a note. What he said in that note is etched into my mind. I've gone back to that sentence over and over again. Did Roger Ebert leave us a clue about our existence? Perhaps.

"That week before Roger passed away, I would see him and he would talk about having visited this other place. I thought he was hallucinating. I thought they were giving him too much medication. But the day before he passed away, he wrote me a note: 'This is all an elaborate hoax.' I asked him, 'What's a hoax?' And he was talking about this world, this place. He said it was all an illusion. I thought he was just confused. But he was not confused. He wasn't visiting heaven, not the way we think of heaven. He described it as a vastness that you can't even imagine. It was a place where the past, present, and future were happening all at once."
-Chaz Ebert, Roger Ebert's wife

What Roger Ebert described is more along the lines of what I've suspected for a long time – since the mid-80s, in fact. It's possible we are all existing in a computer program, and this is all a simulation. I can also clearly see how there would be a holographic universe, as described by other scientists and authors such as Michael Talbot.

I do NOT believe in a sky god or the bible. Overall, I'm not a big fan of religion. I do NOT believe that anything is truly paranormal; it's all normal, in fact. It's just that these things are currently unexplained by science.

I first founded Colorado Springs Paranormal Association (CSPA) in 2005, but, after all this time and so many cases, it would be more accurate to replace 'paranormal' with 'unexplained.' Most situations can be resolved if people look for mundane explanations first and foremost. However, we have come across situations we had no explanation for. There is an explanation out there, but we don't know what it is yet. Eventually, science will dissect and explain all of these intriguing situations.

My current stance is that there is nothing that cannot be explained by science, however small. There's magic and mystery all around us, but all of it can or will eventually be proven by science. If anything, the science behind all of this makes things even MORE magical and awe-inspiring, at least to me. We have a rover on the surface of Mars RIGHT NOW. We have seen sights in space that, if not for science and technology, we would've only been able to imagine. Can it get more amazing and breathtaking than that? The answer is NO.

If you've read about and studied material about the brain, consciousness, quantum physics, neuroscience, and a host of other related topics, you have likely entertained similar thoughts as the ones I've shared above. Like me, you may have suspected that everything is not as you or I have been taught to believe.

Ultimately, each of us may know the answers once we shuffle off this mortal coil. Or perhaps not. The key is that we must keep asking questions and searching for answers by continuing to utilize the tools and methods of science.