Porter: 0:05

Welcome to Transacting Value, where we talk about practical applications for personal values when dealing with each other and even within ourselves. Where we foster a podcast listening experience that lets you hear the power of a value system for managing burnout, establishing boundaries and finding belonging. My name is Josh Porthouse, I'm your host and we are your people. This is why values still hold value. This is Transacting Value.

Ben Austin: 0:32

One of the parallels I draw a lot on my show is the parallel between the alien phenomenon and the spiritual phenomenon Because, again, it is belief, faith and hope that drives them to believe that this really happened.

Porter: 0:52

Alrighty folks, welcome back to Transacting Value, where we're encouraging dialogue from different perspectives to unite over shared values. Our theme for season four is intrinsic values, so what your character is doing when you look yourself in the mirror. Now, if you're new to the podcast, welcome. And if you're a continuing listener, well, welcome back. Today we're talking our December core values of faith, hope and love with the host of a weekly podcast called UFO. No, ben Austin. We're going to dive into all sorts of cool stuff. Guys, I'm really excited for this conversation. So, without further ado, I'm Porter, I'm your host, and this is Transacting Value. Ben, what's up, man? How you doing Good dude, how are you?

Ben Austin: 1:31

Thanks so much for having me on. I'm so excited.

Porter: 1:35

I see that For everybody who's new to the show, Ben and I are actually on a video call, but since we're only putting out the audio, in case you haven't picked up on Ben's charisma and personality and cosmic energy here, let's take a quick second, Ben. Just a quick couple of questions before we dive into this man who are you, where are you from? What are the things that shaped your perspective?

Ben Austin: 1:55

Oh well, I'm a stoner dude from the LC Valley who's super into UFOs and aliens that I went into this super crazy believer in everything and I've come out the other side so far. Now in my show I'm a little bit more skeptical. Some people go in and they find more belief. But for me I found a lot of shenanigans taking place in the UFO community and so that kind of led me to be more of a detective than I thought I was going to be. I thought I was just kind of going to read stories and reinforce my own belief. But now it's like now I got to get to the bottom of it all and so I've really become like a champion for the truth as opposed to just stories, and that's what I want to get to. And in that endeavor I've talked to so many people with so many perspectives on this phenomenon and everything that surrounds it. That man dude I just don't know what to believe. I just don't know what to believe. So my whole thing about my show is I want to believe in everything but I'm a skeptic. So I basically just have people on to kind of try and convince me and then I'm throwing my questions at them and that's really what it is, so it's very exploratory, really fun. We go through a number of topics. It's great stuff. I talked to Arc Turi and Starseeds. I talked to gurus that claim that they're channeling the golden ones from the cosmic beings. I talked to people who say they're galactic ambassadors for the Galactic Federation, and then I talked to skeptics like myself. It's been a fascinating journey, but I just love talking to people and I would imagine, much like yourself, you're just trying to, as you say, find common values with strangers.

Porter: 3:37

I think we might be two halves of a very similar coin. Maybe different mineral makeup will get to that, but I think two halves of the same coin, man like. What you're focusing on is why would any alien race even care to show up and entertain humanity with their presence, to whatever extent that applies, and I'm trying to figure out what does humanity have in common and what do we have to offer and how do we communicate it? I'm a little bit more, I guess, terrestrial in my interest than maybe what your show revolves around, so to speak. But if you're talking about championing truth, for example, how do you do that when, arguably, all of it's made up because none of it's proven? What is the truth you're looking for here?

Ben Austin: 4:19

That is such a great question and that's really what lies at the core of this is well, what does truth really look like? And that brings into the question that I bring up a lot on my show, which is the nature of reality. It's as simple as this. We talk a lot about, especially these days. You hear oh, somebody's truth, is this, somebody's truth, is that? So now there's all these individual truths running around instead of a universal truth. So again it comes down to the nature of reality. In the realm of the UFO world you have people that claim that they are having these experiences that, while it is very hard to believe, some of it is incredibly compelling, incredibly compelling. It might not have a lot of physical evidence, but there is some very compelling evidence that leans towards this potentially happening, like the Travis Walton case, a very famous movie that came out in the early nineties called Fire in the Sky great movie, but that's based on a true story, quote unquote. But in that case the guy went missing for five days. Legitimately, they really thought that he was dead for five days. There was a murder investigation and then he just showed back up and clearly signs of being held hostage somewhere, but nobody knew where he was, and his friends that saw him said he was taken by a craft, and there was seven other people that claim that. So, anyways, very compelling stuff. But then you have other people that are far more out there, like I said, that are claimed that they're channeling things, and that's a little bit harder to pin. But coming down to your question, which is how do you find truth in a realm full of personal stories that nobody can quantify? And again, to me, it allows me to simply have the conversation, whether we come down, whether at the end of the conversation we discover any truth or not, that might not happen, but what we do have is a great conversation again about the nature reality, and I think that's really fun because what it does is, when we start bringing in the nature reality, it gets people to admit yeah, you're right, I'm not in this reality you call reality I'm experienced my own reality. So now we're getting to their truth, what their truth is, you know what I mean.

Porter: 6:35

Well, sure, but essentially people are only going to be able to come up with ideas and communicate them based on how they perceive whatever happens around them. Anyways, right. I think, as individuals left to our own devices. Maybe it gets a little carried away sometimes and a little bit less grounded towards some sort of social acceptance, but like it's ultimately people trying to figure out their place and what they have to offer and how to contribute to themselves growing or learning or experiencing and interpreting, or other people doing those things. And that's what I'm saying, man, I think what we, you and I, have together is essentially two halves of this same coin, just a little bit differently anchored, and obviously our themes are a little different. But, like matter of fact, just recently so for everybody listening, we're actually recording this now in July. Where are we? At August, but we had an episode I think it was late July you were covering, like the Montauk project, for example. Oh, yeah, so for people listening, not to get too moved away from transacting value, but for clarity, the Montauk project was essentially I'm going to call it a conspiracy, could be a theory, use whatever words you like it's concept for a project where the government was essentially trying to make psychic warriors out of kids Rears. Yeah, psychic warriors. Yeah, you can look more into it and you can find out more. And, frankly, you can find out more on Ben's show also, so you can check it out Absolutely.

Ben Austin: 7:56

We do a really good breakdown yeah.

Porter: 7:59

The point I'm getting at is these aren't all science fiction authors, people coming up with these, right, like these aren't all people that are just high on drugs. These aren't all people that are just I don't know discredited deviants from some social norm or societal norm, right, like some of these people that have these accounts or that have these untold stories are numbered out untold, unfounded by some accounts stories. I mean, there's military service members in the middle of the ocean, there's Bermuda Triangle stories. All of these types of themes are all sort of rooted in the same unidentified flying object. I'm trying to make sense of something. I don't know how to explain concepts, right? Yeah, so let's reel this back then more towards that direction. The point of this show is for the two of us to figure out, okay, well, how can we more articulate or better articulate what we do have to offer from humanity's perspective, right? And then there's a person in the opinion that's pick a position where you might be in life, lonely, depressed, broken down, shell of your former self, kind of reliving glory days type person. Maybe you're super successful, let's just say stereotypically on Wall Street and maybe lost touch with who you are as a person, right, for whatever reason searching for your role and who you are, not your job and your skill set. This is the softer side of humanity. I think let's take it from that perspective, ben. This is a segment of the show called developing character. Developing character. Now this is two questions for anybody new to the show and Ben, entirely as vulnerable as you want to be, the answers are up to you, but these are about your value systems and maybe even how they've changed over time, and we'll use this to springboard into the rest of the talk. So my first question about your values what were some of your values growing up?

Ben Austin: 9:42

Yeah, I was actually raised in a very Christian home. That was basically like your standard Christian I don't even know how to describe it like not Baptist, like I don't know if you're milk toast Christian, I don't know how to explain it anyways, but very just, stereotypical and pretty strict growing up type of thing. Homeschool for a little bit, so that's probably why I'm a weirdo. But no, it was all about connection to God, connection to a higher power. It was all about exploring that faith and it was very restricted to that. I kind of went. As soon as I broke away from that, I kind of went crazy. But now I found my own value system that incorporates all of that. I went. So I was hardcore Christian when I was younger. Then I went hardcore atheist for a while, then I went agnostic and now I'm somewhere in the middle where I want to believe in everything, but I just don't know what to believe. But I would say definitely the values are. Respect is very high on my list. You know. I respect everybody that comes on my show, regardless of their beliefs. I have a lot of respect for everybody, humanity. You know, the one thing that I've gained since leaving that Christian setting is just the idea of embracing all religions, all faiths and just taking people, not necessarily at their word, but simply just as they are. Take them as they are and to try not to dissect them too much like prejudgment. Yeah, I try not to do that. I try not to prejudge. It's very difficult as a human because that's what we do, but that's what I try not to do. I try not to prejudge too much and just go into things. So my value system is I value other people's perspectives so highly that I'm willing to listen to potential bullshit just to gain that perspective. But then my other value system is I call it as I see it. So if you're feeding me bullshit, at some point I'm going to call out the spoon you know what I mean and I'm going to be like hey man, you're spoon feeding me some bullshit here, let's clean it up, you know? As opposed to just going along with it, I like to ask the harder questions, to pin people down on their what their beliefs are. Because what I found a lot of times in my show is when you start asking deep enough questions and people do not have these deep values based upon their supposed belief systems that they're telling you, it falls apart and, like layer two, they all of a sudden they can't go that deep because they're used to talking to people that only reinforce their beliefs. They don't push against them and I'm not like a contrarian. I am a contrarian but I'm not like a. I don't push hard. You know. What I do is I push with intelligent, inquisitive questions. They get down to a deeper layer of the phenomenon that they're talking about.

Porter: 12:29

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Ben Austin: 13:33

What I do is I push with intelligent, inquisitive questions that get down to a deeper layer of the phenomenon that they're talking about.

Porter: 13:43

That's the human condition, isn't it? You've got, on one hand, people, just us as humans, regular people, qualify that how you will, in whatever setting. But people where, like you said, we're predisposed to recognize patterns for safety, for security, for belonging, for food, for survival, for pick a reason, but predisposed to identify patterns right, and those patterns, more often than not, are going to get attached to whatever we see, in most cases, for most people, before anything else, hearing or taste or whatever other catalyst. So to see something that matches a pattern that you've tied to some other fact or point or reaction is the same theory, I think, the same principle. At least I'm not a doctor but I'm an adult, so I'm pretty sure it's the same principle. If you hear something right, like on a radio show, for example, or on a podcast or whatever, as you listen into things in a conversation, in eavesdropping or any other number of settings where you hear something, and so you react a certain way, not because what you thought you heard is true, but what you thought you heard might be true, and so you react based on your pattern of responses. I think in considering this condition, that's one side of the spectrum where the other is okay. But if you're surrounded with acceptance and agreements, more often than not and there's a, don't get me wrong there's a totally valid argument to surrounding yourself with the people you want to grow into and you know, as an entrepreneur, as a podcaster, getting to know other podcasters and other entrepreneurs there's a point of validity there. But if that's all you have and you start lacking counterpoints and lacking balance and lacking resistance, even in our value systems, even as people will crumble, you'll feel out of alignment, you'll get burned out, you'll feel like you don't have anything to contribute, you'll lose touch with who knows, your family, your sense of self, any other number of things to help us spiritually cope with physical realities and demands.

Ben Austin: 15:36

Well, there's a fine line between enabling and empowering. When you get around like-minded people this is a great example with drug addicts or faith-based people Is this you can go to a meeting with faith-based people where they encourage and enable your belief and value system and structure of life. That builds for you, it helps you, it builds you up, as you had said. But then you have the other opposite of you go to a trap house, a crack house. They're going to encourage and enable and build you up in all the wrong ways. So you can, however you want, it's just reinforcing, whether good or bad. You're going to find a group that will help reinforce whatever belief you have. So what tends to happen is you have these vacuums that are formed in every ideology you can imagine. Obviously, everybody sees that these days and UFO topic is no different you have a community of people that are open and willing, which a lot of times is very positive, very hopeful, very upbeat. It's based around love and things, which is phenomenal. But they just sit around a group and be like, oh my God, that's the greatest story ever. It's so pretty and that's kind of where it ends. There's no deeper questions as to well, what does that really mean? What is that? It clearly means you're a star seed. It clearly means you're a galactic ambassador. It clearly means this, and I'm not saying that's not the truth, but what if it's not? A lot of times these things involve hypnotic regression, which is, I think, one of the biggest forms of leading people to a conclusion that may not be their own. You know what I mean. So a lot of times in these abduction scenarios you have believers in the phenomenon interviewing people who claim they had an experience with the phenomenon. So they reinforce and not only that, they build up a larger scenario than what may have been there. And that's where a lot of these big, grandiose stories come from is a group of people that are educated in the phenomenon, whether it's real or not, that come in and not only encourage these people that, yes, this happened, but here's what else happened that you didn't even realize happened. And then now it feeds into that, enabling this whole. I mean, you know, again, not to say it's not real or not, but there's a lot of this that happens with past life regression, the idea of the star seeds and stuff. People come in saying I think I'm an alien, and then you have a person go, you know what you might just be, let's put you in my little room and I'll guide you to this conclusion. And then they literally guide them through this whole process and at the end of it they're like oh my God, not only am I an alien, I was in Egypt when the humanity was being formed and I was there. I saw the gods. You know, I've been on spaceships, I've been to Jupiter. And again, I'm not saying none of that's true, but, as you had pointed out earlier, you can't prove any of it. So where does the truth lie in that? Well, that becomes their truth. It's not the truth, it's their truth. And now, in order to have a conversation with somebody who is in that truth and there's no refuting it, even though there's no evidence to support it the only way to have a conversation with that person without being a dick is to simply say the nature of my reality that I live in every day. I've never seen that, I've never experienced that, but your reality that you're in. And so then I start to get deeper into the chemical makeup of the body. The fact that they found DMT is produced from the pineal gland, high psychedelic drug right, that's taking people. If you listen to accounts, it's taking people to another reality where they're meeting beings a ton of these people that take DMT dimethyltryptamine, by the way, that's what that means, and I'm not encouraging drug use, just so you know. But I'm just saying that this is endogenously produced in the body and they found all kinds of things can trigger this, including hypnosis. So it's like are they having a DMT trip where they're experiencing a reality, they're coming back with this experience and they think it's real, or are they actually experiencing aliens?

Porter: 19:50

Well, okay, before we get, I guess, not carried away, just to a point that I can't further the conversation. Those are topics that I'm just not familiar with, prepared to talk about, so, like I don't have any way to contribute, you know what I mean. So, as a counterpoint to what you brought up, though, about, well, this is a reality that somebody else is experiencing, or this is a reality that I'm experiencing, right, let's call it subjective reality, I guess on an individual basis. I think is totally accurate and it's totally fine. But when you start bringing that or pushing that, or or even promoting to a certain degree, I think, anyways, any more than just communicating for the sake of a shared experience and consciousness of just being humans and living, once it gets past that point, okay, now there has to be some sort of enforced threshold in the society just for it to be stable and function. Now everybody has to get out of control. Yeah, it's just to maintain some semblance of order, because I think chaos is the natural state of things.

Ben Austin: 20:51

That's how cult leaders are formed is when you have this taking place and you don't have people that are putting checks and balances in. Oh right, right yeah.

Porter: 21:00

And so to say that I don't know what's. An easy example somebody crossing the street, somebody driving slows down until they move out of the way. Okay, because we've mutually agreed that if you're in the road I won't run you over and I've got the power in the car. But I respect your authority in the moment. You know, yeah, as agency in the moment, like, okay, cool, all the way up to whatever crimes that the city or the town or whoever says these are crimes, we all agree that you are now illegal, Anybody who infringes on those things. Well then you deal with the repercussions and everybody says, oh well, that's a good deal, yeah, I won't do them. Then, Okay, right, those are like the underpinnings of a stable society. I think a lot of those things, though you could also reel back on an individual basis, on a singular person perspective, and say, like you just brought up, I don't know exactly what's true, I don't know exactly what's false either, but I don't know exactly what's true for sure. All right, folks sit tight and we'll be right back on Transacting Value. Are you a marketer, brand strategist, CEO or podcast fan at work, seeing the benefit and profitability that podcast advertising can bring to your business? Noticing that billion-dollar valuation that advertising through a podcast can convey? Or maybe you're just missing out on the millions of listeners to audio podcasts and wondering how do I reach that market segment? Recapitalize your wealth-generating strategy with Add Value through SDYT Media. Turn your business marketing gaps into added value. We'll work with your marketing team to highlight your brand's values, vision, mission and social governance with your product or service in a custom-designed audio-only, podcast-ready advertisement, written and recorded in-house with our decentralized team. Don't just think of adding value. Work with SDYT Media to transact it. Here's some of our work featured in Season 4 of the podcast Transacting Value, and visit Transacting Value Podcastscom to read along in the transcripts too. To work with SDYT Media Add Value and email thesdytmediacow at gmailcom. Today I don't know exactly what's true. I don't know exactly what's false either, but I don't know exactly what's true for sure. This is what I choose to believe. Okay, cool, Not to dive into too much of this, but if you're in some position of authority a teacher in school, for example well, that may not be the place for you to bring that stuff up, because the rest of society's agreed this is the objective learning environment, not the subjective learning environment. Okay, Well then you abide by it or you deal with repercussions. It is what it is, that's just right. It is what it is that's just atoning for the decisions we make as people. So I think, when it comes to subjective realities like we brought up earlier and what did you actually experience, Brother? I'm not in your head, I don't know- Exactly but. I can tell you one thing for sure your body did not disappear. That's it. Yes, exactly, yeah, yeah, that's all I got. Like you look like on the side of the sidewalk, like you've been doing drugs or you've been sleeping there for days or whatever, and maybe you have and maybe your mind hasn't been, but all I know is what I see right and I can only communicate what I see. So for somebody to get and there's tact involved here and some bearing right, but for somebody to get offended and say that's not true, you don't know me, you're right, I just know what I see. That's all I'm saying.

Ben Austin: 24:34

Like I'm not judging you and that's all we can do as humans. I mean and that's what I really have. You know, that's what I continuously tell these people is like look in my reality, I haven't experienced any of this, so how can you expect me to get on the same level as you, being that I've never experienced any of this? I'm willing to hear the story, but when they start saying this is true, this is real, you need to get on board with this it's like, well, I don't see it that way. Yeah, no, and but what it comes down to is this. I mean, the real crux of the thing is this is, you know, we had talked a bit about this before we went live, but you know the idea that there's a lot of hope involved in the UFO community. There's a lot of hope that this is real Because, as you had said, there's virtually no evidence to prove or disprove any of it. So it does just become all about personal experiences, and so, like I said, my whole thing is like, when the personal experiences are about empowering and loving, you know, and bringing people positivity, it's hard to argue against that. But then I've had other people that are so fear based they think the world's going to end in 2025. And that's it. That's what they believe, and so that's a little bit harder to get down on. For me, it's I liken it very much to religion and spirituality in the way that there's a lot of faith and there's a lot of hope involved with the UFO topic. It's the faith that these beings are out there watching over humanity. They're oh no, a nuclear war won't happen. The aliens won't allow it. There's that kind of talk, there's the that they shut down nukes and stuff, and there's a lot of faith involved in that and so and so and underground. Yeah, sure, yes, exactly yeah. And I've been told by people that, oh well, you don't have enough faith and I say, well, maybe that's true, but you don't have enough evidence, and that's definitely true.

Porter: 26:30

And it goes both ways. I actually have enough faith to not believe what you're saying, but to believe what I'm saying. There you go, yeah, yeah, I we may have equal parts of faith, just in two different things. You know, that's right, that's right. That's the mutual respect you brought up earlier. You know there's a cool point you brought up too that I want to make sure we don't miss. You said I wish I could rewind this because I'd rather just try to quote you, but I'm going to probably butcher this. You said something about the effect of and this may have even been before we recorded but why would aliens even care? What makes us think that they would even be interested? I mean, are we actually that interesting? And more. I mean, think about it like this If the regular people, blue collar workers, let's say middle class blue collar workers around the United States alone, just for a sample demographic, then you've got more intellectual people, the professors, the book writers, the authors, the philosophers of our time and the more trade-skilly type people of our time, right, If we just say that's our sort of bookends and middle average points, well, who's representing that into space? I'll tell you this this is kind of cool. The last time you and I spoke, I don't know, a month ago or a couple weeks ago or something, I had yet talked to anybody on the show you know about space, except for you, or space themes even. However, in the last few weeks, I had a conversation with an astrophysicist out of the UK who studies and specializes in exoplanets, in the search for extraterrestrial life or, well, excuse me, extraterrestrial intelligence specifically. And whenever this conversation airs he also airs in December, so all around the same time. Yeah, for the same. Yeah, valued reasons. Anyway, he said, to that point, everybody asks what, if there is life out there, how can there not be? What we should do about it and how we should prepare and all of these other considerations. And then he said what if there's not the amount of responsibility that we have to be the only conscious beings in the universe, what are we doing with it to help ourselves? He said, what are we doing with it to take care of each other or to love ourselves, the amount of responsibility that comes with that? And I think what's really cool about that theory or that counterpoint is it brings an entirely different at least for me appreciation for these spiritual type considerations, like values and like character. Right, because they're not physical changes. I'm not not going to the launder room and washing my values once a week, yeah, you know. Like they may change as I grow. That's not what I mean. But like physically, what I'm wearing my shirt, my clothes, whatever that physical stuff, material things, survival considerations, let's call it. Those are all physical things and my spiritual sense of self. Here's a question for you why is it that when you say that something spiritual, generally most people and maybe it's a western culturalism, I don't know, but generally most people move to you say spiritual, it must be religious. But then if you say patriotic and people say human spirit, it's not religious anymore? Yeah, you know what I mean. It's a weird sort of dichotomy, but it's all that's the spiritual stuff. It doesn't have to be religious. I think religion is what allows us to articulate our faith in the spiritualisms and our emotions and behaviors, or what allow us to act them out. But I mean, ultimately you've got physical and spiritual senses of self. Times eight billion people, yeah. So is it really that farfetched to think that somebody's spiritual expression or experience as they're growing and living through life is not the same as yours?

Ben Austin: 30:17

Well, I've had numerous Christians on my show and I asked them the same thing, which is this how do you quantify your belief in aliens with your belief in God? And I've had atheists that believe in aliens, which blows my mind. And I've had Christians that don't believe in aliens, which also, and equally, blows my mind. And the reason why is this? And you really highlighted it. It's the same phenomenon of spirituality, aliens. It's the same phenomenon. It is a personal experience. This is the way I told the Christian and I'm not saying that in the derogatory way, I'm just labeling people, point of reference. Yeah, so I told them. I said look, man, the way you describe your Christianity, the parallels between that and an abduction scenario are uncanny. And he's like what do you mean? And I said well, look, when you have somebody who's abducted by aliens, the most time they say they were alone. They were kind of in a weird place mentally, physically, spiritually, whatever the case may be, they had an interaction with these cosmic beings that imbued them with a message of hope, love, faith, whatever it was that they imbued. Generally, it's something about the climate, something about getting rid of nukes, you know something about eating more granola, but they come back with an absolute drive. They're compelled to spread this message. How is a Christian any different than when they have a spiritual awakening from God, the Holy Spirit that they felt, they experienced 100% to them. It's real and they feel compelled to pass that message along. There is no difference. So one of the parallels I draw a lot on my show is the parallel between the alien phenomenon and the spiritual phenomenon, because again, it is belief, faith and hope that drives them to believe that this really happened. It's hope that I mean you can mention a number of big names in UFO Whitley Streber talks about. He's got a book called Communion where he talks about being abducted by aliens and they fiddled with him and then they gave him a message that humanity's got to do better, quit destroying the earth, get rid of nukes, all this stuff and he was compelled to pass that along to the point where he wrote books and he has a following and all. How is that different than a spiritual leader?

Porter: 32:46

Alrighty folks, sit tight and we'll be right back on Transacting Value. Alrighty folks, here at Transacting Value, we write and produce all the material for our podcast in-house game perspective alongside you, our listeners, and exchange vulnerability and dialogue with our contributors every Monday morning. But for distribution, buzz brought the platform to use. You want to know how popular you are in Europe or how Apple is a preferred platform to stream your interviews? Buzz brought can do that. You want to stream on multiple players through an RSS or custom feed, or even have references and resources to take your podcast's professionalism, authenticity and presence to a wider audience. Buzz brought can do that too. Here's how Start with some gear that you already have in a quiet space. If you want to upgrade, buzz brought us tons of guides to help you find the right equipment at the right price. Buzz brought gets your show listed in every major podcast platform. You'll get a great looking podcast website, audio players that you can drop into other websites, detailed analytics to see how people are listening, tools to promote your episodes and more. Podcasting isn't hard when you have the right partners. The team at Buzz brought is passionate about helping you succeed. Join over a hundred thousand podcasters already using Buzz brought to get their message out to the world Plus. Following the link in the show notes let's buzz brought know we sent you gets you a $20 credit if you sign up for a paid plan and help support our show. You want more value for your values.

Ben Austin: 34:16

Buzz brought can do that too. And then you know they gave him a message that humanity's got to do better quit destroying the earth, get rid of nukes, you know all this stuff. And he was compelled to pass that along to the point where he wrote books and he has a following and all. How is that different than a spiritual leader?

Porter: 34:33

Well, I mean, you could say the same thing about exorcisms in the Catholic Church, historically, absolutely, I don't understand really any of it. And I was raised Roman Catholic. Oh, ok, I went to a Roman Catholic elementary school. I went to a Southern Baptist high school, I guess. Elementary and middle school I went to a Southern Baptist, predominantly Southern Baptist high school and then I went to a Catholic college, university and then I joined the Marine Corps Infantry. In my entire world I mean, I was in my entire world shifted, but that's neither here nor there, you know. But being able to experience life from any number of perspectives, I mean, look at it like this In the last couple of minutes we've got, I'm pretty sure it was even Anthony Bourdain, as he was traveling around and doing his show, that he was talking about developing a deeper appreciation for life and for humanity based on the physical experiences he was having around the world. Right, having whatever, getting drunk on cheap grain alcohol with random nationality locals in the random nation streets, dancing fireside on the beach or watching other people do it I don't expect that he danced that often, but you know, all of these other physical experiences that deepened his spiritual appreciation for his life experience and then trying to communicate that beauty and that wonder to other people as they watched his show and the risk of sounding too campy, experiencing parts unknown, right, yeah, yeah, and so I think, all things considered, it's reciprocal If you can experience physical things. I mean here's a cool point. So I've moved coast to coast in the United States just by virtue of being in the military and for any veterans listening, they were all PCS moves and I did them all myself. So you have options the government will pack up your stuff and move it for you, sort of as a courtesy of moving you or you can do it yourself, and so I've always just done it myself because then I can road trip. So I've moved coast to coast, east to west coast now four times and yeah, you haul truck, and the first couple trips was a bunch of cans of dip and energy drinks, and now I've got some podcasts and some other you know things to account for not having those vices. But the point being, aside from finding ways to cope with boredom as you're driving, just coping skills, coping mechanisms in general. Right, I was driving through the Natchez Trace in New Mexico, coming from California, driving to the east coast to North Carolina, camp Lejeune, if anybody listening is familiar. So I'm driving through New Mexico, I don't remember exactly. Somewhere around over 7000 feet, I think. I passed the sign, and this is in the winter, not that that has much bearing except the road was icy and nobody else was on it this is the middle of the night and it was just me and my you haul in my headlights and I came around this bend. I wish I could remember a mile marker. If I could, I would and I'd share it. But I came around just past this bend at a mile marker. Then I started this climb and I got to the peak of the road. At that point in the winter, a low lying fog, headset. And when I got to the top I pulled off on the what shoulder of the road there was and I laid on the hood of the U-Haul leaning against the windshield and watched a meteor shower above the clouds. Oh, wow, cool, right. But the amount of enthusiasm you just brought up is about as close as it's going to get, because I can't show you what I saw.

Ben Austin: 37:53

Yeah, sure, of course.

Porter: 37:54

I really don't know how to communicate it any differently to do it any more justice either. So you know, having those types of moments to, like I said, deepen your appreciation for humanity and what really we do have available to us to experience life and the flip side sometimes you get depressed, bipolar disorders for example, you get lonely and you experience futility and hopelessness and despair and all these things and regret, and all of them have their place. But I think there's a threshold. If you get sucked into those moments, just like the good ones, you lose touch, and if you get sucked into the bad ones, you lose touch. They have their place, I think, because of all the depressive states I've been in, or lonely times I've experienced, or sad and resentful and regretful and angry and pick, any emotion that I've experienced, it's given me, for a few number of therapeutic reasons and outlets. It's given me an opportunity to identify the gratitude and appreciation and consideration and respect and livelihood and gifts that we actually do have, as opposed to dwelling on the ones I don't have anymore. You know, and it really just depends on how you look at it. I think when it comes to UFOs and these experiences you were talking about as well, brother, you're not there anymore. Now you're back in Manhattan or, you know, now you're back in Milwaukee or wherever you are. So let's style it down a little bit. We still have these thresholds we talked about. Remember that, steve, come on. But you can write a book, you can tell stories, you can make a movie especially now, make a podcast, talk about it all you want. Use it to educate and entertain people on other ways to perceive or experience life and build appreciation and gratitude. But don't dwell on what you had and try to say everybody else should have it. Well, you don't have it. How are you going to give it?

Ben Austin: 39:46

to me.

Porter: 39:47

Yeah, what are you sharing here? You know, and I think it ultimately comes down to perspective, and you brought it up Well, the last time we talked now I think it was, but I'm pretty sure the words you said were humanity will prevail. Yeah, and I don't necessarily think now, in hindsight, that's physical us, I think it's just the human spirit, like we can figure this out. We're pretty resilient as a species, as a race. We can do this, not that it's necessarily a challenge, us versus them kind of thing. Like makes for great movies, but I don't buy that as legit. Yeah, I think it's a little bit more of. You know, these are the things that are causing us, or giving us opportunities to learn appreciation, to learn how to communicate more effectively, to learn how to respect each other's opinions. The astrophysicist his name is Ian. He said do you know how astrophysicists are identifying if there's any intelligent life on these exoplanets?

Ben Austin: 40:40

I don't, I mean not specifically Radio. Oh, yes, through radio signals, yes, they're trying to determine if there's technology on the planet. Right, well, that's why it's intelligent life.

Porter: 40:51

Like they're able to communicate.

Ben Austin: 40:52

Yeah, exactly yeah.

Porter: 40:54

And then over over radio waves and so like. If you think about it, the first thing any alien race is going to identify is you and I yeah, Before anybody else you know. So, shameless plug, make our podcast popular. But, like there's all sorts of other things that we have in the world that we're dwelling on and it's not effectively communicating what we could be grateful for, Absolutely.

Ben Austin: 41:17

It's splitting humanity up as opposed to bringing us together. You know, that's why I have a hard time arguing against things. Like you know, I can argue all day the semantics of you know whether it's real or not. But the whole galactic Federation idea that there's alien races out there looking after humanity the hard part is when you start to argue against it. You're arguing against the positive, hopeful message that comes along with it. Sure, and that's where I, instead of like arguing that's not real, you're a liar, you know instead I just like to hear the perspective, because generally, what people get out of it and that's what I love about the feedback and I'm sure you get feedback from your show too what I love about the feedback is everybody takes a little something different out of the message. So I've taken my ego out of it of thinking, well, what I get out of this conversation is clearly what everybody else is going to get out of it. I've really just kind of detached ownership of the conversation too, because when I talk to my listeners, I've had conversations where I get done and I go my God, that was the most boring piece of shit I've ever done in this show and then when I get one listener that will say you know what I so desperately needed, that message of positivity. You know, thank you so much. And I wasn't even like wow, you got that. I didn't get that, yeah, you know, but that's because it's not for me. It's not for me, I'm in it, I'm a part of that, but whatever anybody else gains out of it, that's what's great. And so what I've done is like we had a great conversation with a biologist last night, dr Lisa Thompson, and she believes she's a star seed, she helps people unlock their memories, past lives and all, but yet she's a biologist, he's a scientist Interesting. And so I asked the question of how does your science brain mesh with your clearly non-science brain, like, how does that work? And she's just like well, I think that science hasn't caught up yet, to what I know.

Porter: 43:21

Alrighty, folks, sit tight and we'll be right back on Transacting Value, the growth of each generation, no matter the temptation at Huff and Cluck or Farm. That's just another Tuesday. Want to learn how to homestead or just more effectively develop your character for an unknown future? Follow or direct message on Instagram at Huff and Cluck or Farm. Watch it happen in real time. A wise man learns from the mistakes of others. A foolish man learns from his own.

Ben Austin: 44:16

And so I asked the question of how does your science brain mesh with your clearly non-science brain? Like, how does that work? And she's just like well, I think that science hasn't caught up yet to what I know and what is out there in the universe and the galaxy. And you know what? She's got a point, because when you look at things like quantum mechanics, when you look at things like quantum entanglement, these are scientific theories that have basically been proven, for the most part now, that were not known before, that do in some ways explain things like long distance communication, that could explain things like telekinesis and telepathy. Quantum entanglement simply means all particles are connected to each other, no matter the distance, and so, with that being said, well now anything's possible. You look at quantum mechanics. It means any particle can be anywhere at any time, which means this desk that I'm in front of could disappear at any moment if it wanted to. Right, it means anything in the world could be anywhere at any point in time, and that's what they're finding. So it starts to tear at the fabric of what we know is reality, and that's again going back to the heart of the conversation. That's the real conversation I'm having with people, whether they know it or not. That's the real conversation I'm having with people about aliens is the nature of reality. And again, I think the nature of our reality is like with you, I would imagine you're very value based, so what you pick up on is the values from other people. That's what adds currency to what you're doing right. And so with me I'm the same way. I want to gain other people's perspective because I want somebody to convince me this stuff is real. I want somebody to. I want them to come to the table with a flying saucer and a body. That's what I want. I want them to wheel it on the show. Show me, man. I want to see it, but I don't think that's going to happen. But there's other people that believe well, we don't need a craft, we don't need aliens, you can see it all around us, you can see energy, you can see all that. And anyways, I love the hopeful message. I don't dig the fear side of it, because there's a lot of that going on fear of aliens and fear which it's like. Why be fearful of something we don't even know if it exists or not? But that's what's happening. I would much rather dig into the side of the love and the hopefulness and the faithfulness of that that there is, these beings looking out for us, and you can call that religious, you can call that spiritual, but anytime I get done having these conversations with these people that claim their star seeds, the one thing I can say absolutely is I feel that positive energy at the end of it. I absolutely do, I feel happier, I feel more connected to people, and I might not believe that they're a star seed, but, man, their message of hope is so compelling that I have a hard time arguing against it and that's what I dig. I dig that where, man, I don't know how to explain it, but I like you, I like having those conversations, and so that's what keeps me doing this and talking about your whole theme of transacting value, not to divert too much, but we do a whole thing on the show value for value. We don't do subscriptions, we don't do anything like that. We say look, if whatever value you get out of the show, throw that back at us. The easiest way could be financially, but you could also do time or talent. So if you got a talent that you think could help us grow, let us know. We would love to get you involved. We call them producers. So if you help the show grow, you're now a producer of the show. You know you've helped the show in some way that we needed, and so I would say we are also transacting value. I think your whole theme is very interesting, because I think that's what any good podcast does in general is transact value. You're giving some personal information away, you're giving some personal perspective away. You're giving other people's perspective away. You're showcasing this and, whether people will show it or not, they're listening to it. Clearly, by listening over and over and over again, they're gaining value out of it, and so all we do is we simply say look, whatever that means to you, show us that value, turn it into a number, throw it back at us, turn it into some volunteerism, throw that back at us, and that's what we thrive on. So I love your whole concept of transacting value, because I think that's exactly what podcasts should strive to do is look, we have this perspective, whatever it is, and we're going to share that with you. And not only that, we're going to share other people's perspectives all around this, the peripheral of this whole topic, whatever it is that you cover. I think that's what a good podcast should do is transact value. So I love what you do. That's your whole heart of it, of what you're doing is you're finding value in other people's perspectives and you're giving that value to people in all walks of life, in all aspects of life.

Porter: 49:17

Yeah, and ultimately the goal is showcasing mutual respect and commonalities in a value system. Right, and so that we have those things in common and building appreciation for other people's perspectives in that process is ultimately the goal, right? Learning how to communicate it effectively. My audio quality has gotten better. I've gotten better as a host. You know like some of the harder skills will progress as time goes. But yeah, ultimately that's the point. So I'm glad it comes across and I love your value for value idea.

Ben Austin: 49:43

Well, I got to say that's not my idea. I actually stole that from the pod father, the inventor of podcasts, adam Curry. He's got a show. He was a VJ on MTV way back in the day. You can find his hair. But oh yeah, awesome dude, you got to look him up, adam Curry, but he is the pod father. He invented podcasting. When the iPod came out, he was like that's a radio transmitter, so they found a way to feed RSS feeds into it and that was the first podcaster. That's where it comes from, is it came these broadcasts being broadcasted over an iPod, hence podcaster. So, anyways, but that's what he's done for 16 years, is? He's strictly done value for value. They've never done subscriptions or anything, and so when we did our podcast, I was already a fan of theirs and I thought you know what we should do? The same thing, hmm.

Porter: 50:30

Yeah, I like that. We'll definitely look into it, especially for this next season coming up, 2024. So, yeah, I think it's a super cool idea, ben, though, for the sake of time, man, if anybody wants to check out your podcast, if anybody wants to check out you or social or whatever applies, get involved and appreciate your value, for example, in any manner of speaking. How do they do it?

Ben Austin: 50:48

Oh well, thank you very much. I appreciate that. Well, look, I mean, we're very crass, we are. We're not suited for everybody, but if you like aliens, you like UFOs, I think you'll dig it and we have a lot of great conversations. But where you can find it is all major podcast platforms, as well as we're on rumble. We don't do much on YouTube anymore because we got a few strikes and we're at risk of losing the channel already, but we're definitely on rumble and, again, everywhere you can find your favorite podcast. That's where we're at and, yeah, give it a listen. I mean, we're very just, open and free. I mean that's what I like to do. So, yeah, it's fun, we have a good time and when people search it.

Porter: 51:24

How do they have to search? Because I know you've got an ellipsis in there. How do you actually spell a search query?

Ben Austin: 51:28

So it's UFO, as in UFO, and then dot, dot, dot, n, o and you punch that in, it'll pop up. You'll find a bunch of other UFO podcasts as well. There's that UFO podcast and the UFO podcast, but we're UFO. No, we're the only one. So, anyways, you'll find it in there. But yeah, we've got 143 episodes now.

Porter: 51:49

Nice, and that's as of August, so by the time, yeah as of August. Yeah, you guys will be raking them in, man.

Ben Austin: 51:54

We do at least one show every week, sometimes two, but mostly just one, and anywhere from two to three hours, man. I mean we go long form. We like to have very deep conversations and, as you had mentioned, we talked we've talked about Montauk project, we've talked about MK ultra, we go through everything you can imagine, man from the nidiest of great. We even have an episode about alien and human hanky-panky of aliens, humans that claim that they had sex with aliens. So much fun, episode 69. Of course we had to, but you know that's our style. So, anyways, but no, we're everywhere, man, so look us up and you'll find us and let us know what you think. But I so much appreciate your time, dude. This is so awesome, thank you.

Porter: 52:32

I couldn't have said it better. I couldn't have said it better, man. This conversation was great, a bit longer than what we normally go, but it was totally worthwhile. I love your perspective. I love what you brought to this conversation. I love what you bring to the podcast community, man. I think it's such an awesome opportunity to showcase other aspects of let's call them misunderstood topics. Good on you, dude, good on you, and so thank you. Thank you, but for everybody listening, thank you for tuning in to our conversation as we covered our December core values of faith, hope and love. Obviously, I got to thank UFO knows audience and your team, and obviously Ben you as well, for being able to contribute to all the inspiration for this conversation and to whatever extent you fold from books or movies or eyewitness accounts or any other number of things that your contributors have brought to your show Awesome. I thought it was great conversation. Thank you to our show partners and folks. Thank you for tuning in and appreciating our value as we all grow through life together, to check out our other conversations, merchandise or even to contribute through feedback, follows, time, money or talent, and let us know what you think of the show. Please reach out on our website, transactingvaluepodcastcom. We stream new episodes every Monday at 9am Eastern Standard Time through all of your favorite podcasting platforms, and we'll meet you there. Until next time. That was Transacting Value.