February 6, 2005: Amazing Open Lines
Greg Williams recounts his harrowing thirteen days as a prisoner of Abu Sayyaf in the Philippines. Originally a homeless man from Florida who traveled there on a church mission, Williams was kidnapped at gunpoint, tortured with needles driven under his fingernails, and forced to witness the beheading of his companion. He survived when a Muslim translator, moved by their shared faith, risked his own life to lead Williams through a hidden air shaft in an old Japanese cave fortification.
A retired fire captain from New York describes witnessing a collapsed radio telescope at Green Bank, West Virginia, where steel bolts appeared to have been cut as if by a laser on a calm, windless night. A nurse and a retired firefighter each independently describe seeing the spirits of dying patients standing beside their own bodies in emergency rooms, with a physician confirming he had witnessed the same phenomenon throughout his career.
Key Moments
Greg Williams: kidnapped by Abu Sayyaf in the Philippines: A businessman-turned-missionary describes flying to the Philippines after his life collapsed, meeting a 'Blind Prophet' on the plane, then being ambushed in a taxi by masked men with AK-47s and taken by speedboat to Abu Sayyaf's home island.
Out-of-body during torture, then a friend beheaded in front of him: Williams says while his fingernails were being pulled out he had an out-of-body experience and felt the Lord lift him up; days later his Filipino companion Remy was brought to him and beheaded - not the clean cut popular media depicts, but a slow sawing.
Saved by a Muslim translator: 'we're brothers under the same God': Williams tells how the captors' English translator, after a long late-night theological conversation, came back at 4am, used keys from a passed-out guard, led Williams through a childhood-known cave airshaft to his daughter's fishing boat - and at goodbye said he risked his family because they were brothers under one God.
Caller's pact with the devil and Eastern Orthodox exorcism: Responding to Art's reserved 'pact with the devil' line, a caller says the deal first paid off, he was trained by a witch master, became possessed by 'many devils,' then heard Father Malachi Martin on the show and after three years found an Eastern Orthodox priest to exorcise him.
Retired NYC fire captain at the Green Bank radio telescope collapse: A retired FDNY captain describes visiting the just-collapsed 300-foot Green Bank radio telescope on a calm night, finding bolts cleanly cut as if by laser, and learning the antenna was about to be linked into an Earth-spanning array - then encountering UFOs and missing time on the drive home, with video later analyzed by Bruce Maccabee.