CONTACT NETWORK HISTORY PROJECT
Joseph Burkes MD 1997, updated 2024
INTRODUCTION
From decades of contact activism, I have become aware that a special set of contact experiencers that I call “Prime Contactees” are an important feature of the flying saucer scene. Prime Contactees are individuals that typically have a longstanding relationship with UFO intelligences and as demonstrated by doing fieldwork with them, they are human UFO magnets that draw anomalous aerial phenomena to them. Some take on leadership roles within the contact networks that I have done volunteer work for. Others are important members of contact teams and their participation serves to facilitate interactive encounters with Flying Saucers and the non-human intelligences associated with them
The small number of Primes that I am aware of have been typically men with one possible exception. A contact activist that I call “Tracy” invited me to do fieldwork with her in the summer of 1997 in Southern England. There we witnessed many compelling sightings of UFOs. Following one night of contact work we had an encounter with a military helicopter the hovered directly over her parent’s cottage for almost an hour.
Tracy told me that she had the habit of doing solo fieldwork in broad daylight. She reportedly went to a local campground on several occasions. There she allegedly turned on her video camera in record mode, aimed the camera across one of the Great Lakes and then immediately lay down on the ground and took a nap.
The footage obtained under these unusual conditions was impressive. I interpreted one video as showing a large golden flying saucer hovering over the lake. There were also videos showing large orange orbs slowly flying in front of sailboats.
This report is an account of fieldwork carried out in Southern England during the nights of July 16 through July 18, 1997, by two UFO North America contact activists. At the time I was serving on a volunteer basis as Working Group Coordinator for CE-5 Initiative in Los Angeles. It was a position I had from 1992 to 1998. In the summer of 1997, I traveled with my son to Great Britain. The other participant will be referred to as Tracy Travis, (a pseudonym). In the spring of 1997, she emailed me about her UFO encounters on the shores of Lake Ontario.
This joint investigation took place outside of the Tracy’s hometown of Maidenhead England. It is located on the Thames, some 40 miles west of London. In 1997 it had approximately 20,000 inhabitants and could hardly be described as a hot bed of UFO activity. Nevertheless it was the locale of numerous sightings during three nights of consecutive field investigations.
During the summer of 1997 Tracy Travis and her teenage daughter traveled from Canada to visit her family in Southern England. During the spring of that year I had read about her amazing UFO investigations. On numerous occasions she had managed to videotape what were described as orange orbs over Lake Ontario. Though we had never met, as fellow contact workers and as parents of two young adults, I figured we might have a lot in common. I called her from Los Angeles and suggested that we might team up in England and visit the crop circle region together. Having grown up in Southern England, Tracy knew the area quite well. It turned out that she was traveling to England with her daughter around the same time as I was going to be there with my then twenty-one-year old son Jonathan.
Tracy agreed to carry out a joint investigation and was so very kind as to allow Jonathan and me to spend a few days at a rental cottage owned by her parents. It was located in the town of Maidenhead about a half an hour from London by rail. After meeting her family, Tracy showed me her videos of UFOs flying over the waters of Lake Ontario. The clips were truly remarkable. While sailboats gracefully moved in front of the camera, orange orbs slowly passed them by. In one spectacular sequence a large glowing golden disc hovered just over the surface of the lake at a distant shore. The object appeared to be at least one hundred feet across.
THE FIRST NIGHT: Tracy locates our research site.
On July 15, Tracy learned from her mother that a friend Mrs. J…. had a UFO sighting the night before while strolling with her son. Mrs. J noted a disc like object with multicolored lights. It was seen silently floating above a hill belonging to the farm next door. They walked home to get binoculars and on returning to the site they noted that the object was still hovering above the farm. It had no wings and no discernible engine. It was totally silent. The encounter lasted for approximately 30 minutes.
A seasoned UFO investigator, Tracy took the initiative. She advised me to prepare to do fieldwork the following night. I packed my warm clothing, rain gear and signal lantern. We drove to Mrs. J’s home and Tracy took a detailed sighting report. I requested that Tracy be designated the team leader and I would serve as her assistant. Tracy proposed that we do research right there in Mrs. J’s neighborhood. We located a public footpath that lead up to the very same hill above which the disc had been seen.
Our research site was located adjacent to a pasture that formed the crest of a hill. The public footpath ran along a grove of trees, which provided us with partial cover in case we used powerful lights to signal at craft. Barbed wire and an electrified fence kept us from entering a large field that contained livestock. The River Thames was about 500 hundred yards to the west, but the crest of he hill blocked our view of the river. From our vantage point we looked out towards the west and saw a long valley. It spread out from the southwest, sweeping all the way to the northwest. In this valley an enormous expanse of towns and fields were visible. Behind us to the east the view was blocked by tree covered hills.
A “buzzy bee” visits our sky watch site.
On the night of the 16th the sky was partially overcast. There was a cool breeze. The first sighting occurred at approximately 8:30 PM. A strange flying object suddenly became visible in the southeast. It appeared as a brilliant multicolored strobing light that silently and rapidly approached our position. As it drew closer I noted a tightly bunched array of lights in the forward part of the craft. Red yellow and white lights strobed on and off in unison. The object hovered just a few hundred yards away at tree top level. As I flashed my torch at it, Tracy became concerned.
With some alarm she said, “Joseph, that might be an emergency rescue helicopter. Do you want them to waste their time checking us out?” I chose to differ with the opinion that she expressed. In my view this object was no ordinarily helicopter. As it rapidly approached, we soon both realized this. Less than 250 yards away, no engine sound could be heard.
Following CE-5 protocol, I signaled at it several times, hoping to get a response. Instead of signaling back, however, the craft skillfully turned at a right angle to our position and sped over a line of trees. It then proceeded to fly back and forth over the trees retracing its path repeatedly. I estimated the distance between the forward and rear lights of the object to be no more than 25 feet. The anterior multicolored lights were tightly bunched. Together they produced a powerful beam, not unlike that of searchlights. Thus, the craft illuminated the treetops as it darted over the grove of trees to the south. On turning, a blinking red taillight became visible on the posterior tip of this unknown. As the small red taillight flashed on, the more powerful forward array of lights went off. When the forward lights flared on, the red taillight winked out.
By themselves the multicolored lights in the nose of the craft appeared rather bizarre, unlike any light array I had ever seen. Coordinating its rapid flashes with the red taillight in an oscillating pattern seemed doubly weird. The craft changed its direction so nimbly that it had an almost insectoid quality to its maneuvers. Tracy dubbed our strange guest the “busy bee.” It merrily raced back and forth over the treetops as if they were a field of flowers. I noted another highly anomalous feature of this object, the absence of any discernible superstructure.
Even though the moon had not yet risen, the research site had a modicum of ambient light. The environs were illuminated by a multitude of lights shining from adjacent towns as well the M4 superhighway located to the west. Conventional objects like helicopters or planes when seen at this location could be readily identified by their darkened silhouettes against the dimly lit sky. This silent flying UFO was clearly different. Between the forward and rear flashing lights, no structure was visible. The small space between the craft’s lights had the exact hue as the background of dark sky. The absence of any engine sound was particularly noteworthy. All other conventional craft sighted at our research site were clearly audible despite being located at greater distances
We repeatedly stated that we wanted it to approach us, but it moved no closer. But then again neither did it fly away. As the forward lights turned in our direction I decided to try a different approach. Perhaps a more emotional appeal might sweeten the pie. Several times as I flashed at it, I sent the mental message. “I love you. “Please come closer.” Nothing doing, each time I flashed at it, the object quickly turned away. I shared my efforts to communicate via telepathy with Tracy. “Perhaps they simply don’t like you.” she quipped. After four or five minutes, this strange first encounter came ended. The object silently moved off to the southeast and disappeared.
Later at about 8:50 PM in the southwest sky there appeared small circular lights. They were gold in color and repeatedly flashed on and off. They appeared at different elevations, hovering above the hills that were located several miles away. At times they flashed on in pairs. The widely separated twins often appeared at the same altitude, each light was separated from its “buddy” by what I estimated was several thousand feet. I observed no triplets. They did not respond to our signaling. These unknowns had no associated strobes, conventional wing lights, or superstructure suggesting they might be planes. They were all totally silent as they hovered in the sky. Each sighting of the golden globes lasted from a few seconds to perhaps half a minute. As suddenly as they appeared, they winked out in the sky. After about an hour, these sightings ceased. Tracy and I left the field site. We were elated at the prospect of having possibly made contact with “ET” intelligence.
The next morning at breakfast Tracy told me that she had difficulty sleeping the previous night. She reported subjectively acquiring the information that we should not signal at suspected ET craft with our lights. According to Tracy this information was obtained at the level of knowledge as a kind of knowingness that I suspected was some kind of psi mediated communication. I had no difficulty accepting Tracy’s guidance concerning our not using signal lights during the second night of fieldwork. She was team leader and I deferred to her judgment. She was a British national operating on her home territory and we were getting interesting results in the field.
Returning to the same location on July 17th, the merit of her advice became clear. Adjacent to our research site was a large country manor. I had not properly inspected the site the first night and had not seen the house. Using powerful lights to signal at UFOs would have likely caused the owners to investigate. The public access footpath on which we had camped was on their property. Thus the using the torch would have compromised site security. I thanked Tracy for warning me and thanked my “lucky stars” for providing me with such a perceptive coworker.
THE SECOND NIGHT: Loud Munching in the Adjacent Field
The second night was relatively quiet. The sky was overcast. We experienced a light drizzle with little wind. Across the electrified barbed wire, just 30 feet away, two beautiful horses munched loudly on the moist grass. They were large and powerful, one black, one white. To the north on a hillside an amber light repeatedly went on and off. It burned brightly for about a minute and then extinguished. Tracy thought it was probably the security light of large estate on the hill. That area was heavily wooded. It seemed reasonable that a country manor might be situated behind the trees. Several solitary golden globes were seen to the south. Each moved about silently in the sky for a while and then winked out.
Tracy did not meditate during our fieldwork. I made several attempts to carry out solo meditation designated by CSETI as Coherent Thought Sequencing (CTS). While I did so, Tracy stood about forty feet away watching the sky. At about 12:30 AM I gave up. We packed up our gear and hiked down to Tracy’s rented car parked by the side of the road.
THE THIRD NIGHT: We witness a CE-5 with highly anomalous imitation “fireworks” and then someone or something follows us back to the cottage.
Fieldwork started at 8 PM. The sky was clear with scattered clouds. A number of single and paired golden globes winked on to the southwest. They extinguished their lights after less than a minute. Soon after our arrival at the site I noticed something seemed different about the valley to the south. On both of the hillsides and across the valley floor, a dozen or so very bright amber lights were noted. I did not recall seeing them on previous nights. The lights were stationary and at first I assumed they had to be ground lights. Their yellow color certainly did seem to match the sodium vapor lights along the A4 located about 4 miles away. Despite this similarity there was something quite different about them.
First of all it was their intensity. Many times brighter than ordinary highway lights, they did not seem to lose much brilliance even when situated at what appeared to be up to 7 miles away. This was in marked contrast to the highway lights that not unexpectedly lost their brilliance as the road trailed off in the distance. These strange amber lights also appeared much larger than the highway lights, perhaps three or four times larger. Their positions seemed odd as well. The highway lights and the white street lights were arranged in symmetrical patterns evenly spaced following roads and housing. These brilliant amber lights were haphazardly placed with no relation to visible structures.
At the limit of our vision some 10 miles away to the south, at the end of the valley was the strangest yellow light of all. . It was perched motionlessly right on the ridgeline. The light was pale amber, circular and had to be quite large to be visible at all. I guessed it was twenty to fifty feet across, but it might have been even much larger given the distance of its apparent location. The object had a very distinct shape with sharp edges that formed a perfect circle. Throughout the third night of fieldwork it just sat there motionlessly.
Bizarre Visual Display Imitating Fireworks on the Thames: We win the “Golden Globes” Award
To the west, just beyond the river bank some kind of summer fireworks display started around 9:30 PM. Less than a mile away, we watched as pale rockets slowly climbed skyward and then exploded into globe like displays of blue light. And then something truly bizarre happened.
One or two miles away to the south golden lights suddenly flared up out of the darkness. One after another they broke apart into a dozen pieces forming enormous golden “Unispheres”. They reminded me of the enormous steel globe of the Earth that I had seen in the New York City World Fare of 1964. Each yellow fragment was equidistant from the center of the circle. Unlike the conventional fireworks that were exploding along the river, these bursts of pale gold held their shapes for over 15 seconds while they floated around for a bit. In clusters of two and three, these spectacular lights appeared to be imitating the rather prosaic display of terrestrial fireworks. There was no associated rocket launch associated with these anomalous displays and the deep golden color was like no fireworks I have ever seen. It was an apparent CE-5 in response to the terrestrial pyrotechnics. It was delightful! Tracy and I laughed with joy.
The solid golden globes like the ones we had seen the first night, were out in force this evening as well. One after another they appeared at different altitudes and directions. About midnight Tracy suggested we leave. I asked if it would be OK if I signaled a few times with her torch. After such a marvelous display of anomalous lights, I wanted to send the globes a grateful fond farewell. Tracy acquiesced and as she packed up her video equipment, I signaled twice with the torch. I recall how the white light from the flashlight reflected off the leaves of the tree that had sheltered us during our fieldwork. I believe that particular hue (white light) from the halogen bulb has particular significance. Subsequent bizarre events that transpired later that night involved another white light that signaled at us when we got back to the cottage.
Loaded up with gear we hiked down through several pastures to Tracy’s vehicle. We were elated. There was little doubt in our minds that we had made contact with some kind of non-human intelligence. We presumed it was an extraterrestrial one that was responsible for the anomalous light show that we had just witnessed. As we drove the short distance to the cottage, we joked about our being the recipients of the “Golden Globes Award.”
“Helicopter “stake out” Above the Cottage
Back in the cottage as I unpacked my gear I heard a strangely familiar sound. At first soft in the distance, then increasingly loud, was the unmistakable noise of an approaching helicopter. As the chopper closed in on the house, I noted that it was less than 500 feet up in the air. At that proximity to the ground the roar of its engine was tremendous.
In Southern California commercial helicopters are required to stay above 1000 feet when traveling over towns and cities. Living in crime-ridden Los Angeles, I had become quite familiar with the maneuvers of police helicopters that can fly considerably lower. This craft was clearly different. The rumble of its engine was lower in timber compared to the Bell 500 series that I was accustomed to. This British chopper was larger and more powerful. Everything about it said “military.” From its underside was draped a large sack. Some 15 feet in length it sagged in the middle indicating that it certainly contained some kind of heavy cargo. Crop circle investigators had told us that such equipment sashes were frequently seen on military helicopters that buzzed them back in 1991 and 1992. It was presumed that these bags contained sophisticated electronic equipment used to investigate the crop circles. Perhaps they were being used to study the unknown technology of the intelligence that had created the bona fide anomalous crop circles.
For about 5 minutes the helicopter circled Tracy’s parents’ house in a tight pattern. Then it took up a kind of sentry position in the dark sky above the back of the cottage. There in a fixed position some 500 feet up, it hovered for the next 45 minutes. Tracy appeared to be quite disturbed by its presence. She moved quickly around to the back of the house checking the helicopter’s position hovering overhead. We both suspected that its thundering roar must have awakened the entire neighborhood.
A Powerful White Light Flashed at us Twice
The chopper’s location was almost directly above Tracy’s parents’ cottage; the angle of its position in the sky appeared to be about 80 degrees up from the back yard of the house. As we strained our necks starring towards the zenith, suddenly a powerful flash of white light struck us. The light, although emanating from up in the sky, was clearly separated from the chopper. The flash came from a source much closer to the ground and was able to penetrate through the trees in the back yard at an angle of no more than 40 degrees with the horizon.
Less than a minute later another beam of white light flashed at us. This second burst of white light came through the trees from a different position on other end side of the garden. Whatever was the source of light, it apparently had just moved through the sky below the thundering helicopter perched overhead.
I recalled how just 2 days before I had discussed with Tracy’s brother the apparent consciousness link between contact team members and the presumed “extraterrestrial intelligence” that we are attempting to contact. I described the recurring pattern of personal sightings that CE-5 researchers have, once they start investigations. Strange as it may seem, many of the sightings occur at times other than during regular fieldwork. I even divulged to her brother that some of the sightings had even taken place in the sky above the homes of contact workers. As the helicopter hovered above us in the village called Maidenhead, it seemed to me that this pattern of contact was continuing in England as well.
Tracy seemed quite upset by the helicopter and the strange light that had signaling in our direction. She kept pacing back and forth around the back of the house. “What the hell is going on?” she demanded to know. In a matter of fact way I told her my assessment. “You may not want to accept this,” I told her, “but the most likely explanation is that some kind of ET probe has probably followed us back to the cottage. In fact I think it just signaled at us through the trees.” I went on to explain that although the military craft was positioned directly above us. We were not a likely target of its interest. My opinion was that the chopper was probably investigating our “friends” (presumably “ETs”) and not a pair of middle aged North American UFO investigators.
I was really tired, and I must have delivered my assessment dead pan. I suppose this was not the explanation that she was expecting because she immediately fired back with, “Did you hear what you just said. That is the most outrageous thing I’ve ever heard.”
I then detailed the reasons for my pronouncement. The military type helicopter had suddenly appeared over a quiet suburban neighborhood and was hovering in a fixed position right above her parent’s cottage. This occurred after we had just witnessed anomalous lights of presumed “ET” nature while doing fieldwork. Most importantly the copter’s behavior was inconsistent with routine police tactics. The chopper was not using a searchlight to pinpoint criminals. Powerful searchlights are routinely employed by police helicopters to facilitate ground forces that are pursuing suspects. It did appear to budge from a position almost directly above the cottage. Obviously it was not in hot pursuit of say a car thief.
A second object capable of flying through the sky had apparently signaled at us from two different positions. The color of the white light that hit us at the back of the cottage approximated the hue of the halogen lantern that we had employed out at the research site. “Remember Tracy, you gave me permission to signal at those golden globes. Well, it looks like they followed us home and gave us the same kind of signal in a kind of fond farewell or ‘adios’.”
Tracy Once Again Takes the Initiative
Tracy listened to my discourse in disbelief. She nervously paced back and forth as the rumble of helicopter droned on. “We have to go out and investigate this!” she demanded. We must go outside and check the situation out right now!”
I equivocated, “It’s late Tracy, it’s past 1 AM. What other logical explanation is there. Besides helicopters usually only carry about 45 minutes worth of fuel. It will be gone in awhile.” After three nights of fieldwork, plus the residual jet lag from my cross continental /cross Atlantic flight, I was exhausted.
But there was no discouraging her. Tracy was determined.
She said, “If you care to just sit around while that thing is overhead, suit yourself. Stay inside! I’m going out!”
Well what could I say? The contact network is not one for armchair philosophers. I had asked her to be the leader and she had just issued her orders. I chose to follow them. I was dead tired, but as much as I wanted to go to sleep, I couldn’t just let her investigate all alone. I might miss all the fun.
The Local Police Were Present
We piled into her rented car, and I slowly drove around the block. The dark streets were totally deserted. Despite the deafening roar of the chopper hovering above the neighborhood, we apparently were the only civilians that had ventured outside. I turned the corner and less than 200 feet away we encountered two police cars. They were parked close together by the side of the road with lights off. The two officers seated in the first squad car did not appear to even notice us at first. They were seated in the vehicle gazing up through the windshield at the helicopter perched over Tracy’s parents’ rental cottage. (If an “ET probe” was the chopper’s target, perhaps the officers were staring at more than just the helicopter.) Tracy and I only saw the helicopter and there was no sign of another object in the sky.
We drove towards the cop cars. When we were just a few yards away, a policewoman in the passenger seat suddenly turned towards us. Like an animal caught in the headlights of a car, her face registered surprise that seemed to say, “What are you doing here?” Instead of checking us out however, her driver put the car into gear and quickly pulled away leaving the second police car at the curb.
This was definitely getting very strange. This wasn’t area 51 or some other UFO hot spot. I was in a small town in England. Somehow I was not ready for this. I wasn’t prepared to play cat and mouse with surveillance types like the ones that my team had encountered while doing research in the Californian high desert. This was supposed to be jolly old England. You know, safe, conservative and respectable. Yes, the sightings had been great fun, but this was getting to be too much. All very thrilling of course, but freaky and I began to wish that I were safely home in bed.
Shaking ever so slightly, from fatigue, fear or a combination of the two, I carefully drove by the second squad car and turned the corner. We then circled the block, circumnavigating below the chopper’s position. It still was hovering directly above the cottage. The dark desolate streets were lined with empty parked vehicles belonging to rows of cottages. No additional police were seen, no flashing lights, no plainclothes detectives in hot pursuit of some likely criminal. All the while the chopper as if stuck up in the dark sky, didn’t budge from its initial position.
Back in the house we discussed what we had just seen. Tracy now seemed a bit more receptive to my radical assessment. I told her that the big military helicopter was probably stalking a UFO. After flying overhead for about 45 minutes the chopper departed. It returned within 20 minutes. “I guess they went for more fuel,” I surmised. Tracy nodded in agreement. After hovering over the cottage for an additional 10 minutes, the copter roared off into the distance. Whatever it was that had attracted the flying terrestrial vehicle during the first sortie must have left.
The next day I stopped at the local supermarket for supplies. The clerks and customers were all talking with excitement about the helicopter that had awoken them the night before. This was apparently a very unusual event for Maidenhead.
The Authorities Were Lying
Once again Tracy took the initiative, this time to make inquiries of the police. Speaking in her most polite British accent, she first called the local police station. There a female voice with authority proclaimed, “We don’t use helicopters!” Tracy was not to be dissuaded. She called a regional police office where she heard a totally different explanation. This second spokesperson blandly asserted that indeed there was a helicopter out over Maidenhead, but that it was, “chasing car thieves.” With a mischievous smile on her face Tracy pressed on, “Did you catch them?” She inquired. “No. No unfortunately we did not.” was the official reply. Tracy slammed the receiver down in triumph and said, “They’re lying!”
CONCLUSION
During my 1997 visit to England, I spent about a week with Tracy. We drove her daughter and my son to a rock festival where for three days they camped out in the mud and listened to the kind of loud music that young people enjoy all over the world. After Tracy and I separated, I traveled south to Weymouth to give a workshop hosted by David Livingston. Later while doing fieldwork in the crop circle region with Dr. Greer and Shari Adamiak, I briefly ran into Tracy. She reported that she had additional UFOs sightings while touring the English east coast.
I knew I had done well teaming up with Tracy. Her pattern of frequent UFO sightings was highly consistent with her being a Prime Contactee. By associating with this kind of UFO experiencer, once again I had been privileged to have some amazing adventures. Unlike Misha and other prime contactees with whom I worked over the years; Tracy apparently had no regular meditation practice. From the time I spent with her in England, I got the impression that she was a hard working, middle class homemaker, health conscious, concerned about her children, with a kind of matter of fact approach to the contact work. She clearly had no need for the elaborate contact procedures recommended by CSETI or Mission Rama to facilitate encounters.
She denied having any kind of direct telepathic instructions from non-human intelligence to facilitate the filming process. Nevertheless, the consciousness link between her, and what I presumed at the time to be “extraterrestrial intelligences”, must have been very strong. Tracy’s reported ability to obtain video documentation by simply turning her camera on and then taking a nap, as well as my three nights of amazing sightings while working with her in England, in my judgment, are powerful examples of the cooperative relationship between select contactees and the intelligence behind UFO phenomena. I am grateful for having the opportunity to work with such remarkable individuals who are an important part of the worldwide contact drama unfolding all around us.
For More Reports from the Contact Underground the following links are provided:
My human initiated contact team had immediate results when we started fieldwork, but they were not what I expected.
Mystery Lights in the Santa Susana Pass
During the first month of staging Human Initiated Contact Events (HICE) members our LA based CE-5 team not only had sightings during fieldwork, but also while driving home alone.
In our ER I met a patient who worked at a DOE high security facility. He described an UFO act of sabotage at the base. It happened a few thousand yards from our contact team research site.
Staging Human Initiated Contact Events adjacent to a high security research lab involved challenges of surveillance for my team.
https://contactunderground.wordpress.com/2022/05/19/did-a-fateful-phone-call-trigger-the-appearance-of-blackhawk-helicopters-during-contact-work/
This report was first published in 1993 on my return from a CE5 investigation in the “Volcanic Zone” near the Mexico City. There our team witnessed multiple UFOs including a large triangular “craft” that signaled at us.
UFO Investigation in the Volcanic Zone
Crop Circles are thought of as communications from UAP associated intelligences. Might “cloud formations” be next?
What is flying saucer intelligences had access to every witness’ full treasure chest of memories?https://contactunderground.wordpress.com/2022/04/18/do-uap-intelligences-have-full-telepathic-access-to-every-witness-storehouse-of-memories/
Contact Underground 
I so appreciate your blog Joseph; thank you for sharing your years of research and experience.
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