He cared to add the following: "There are however apparent horizons which persist for a period of time. This suggests that black holes should be redefined as metastable bound states of the gravitational field". Basically the new "mind-bending" theory Hawking just presented in his paper entitled "Information Preservation and Weather Forecasting for Black Holes" explains that a black hole can exist without the so called event horizons. He described these during one of his previous lectures "Into the Black Hole". Thus, Stephen Hawking's conclusion is that black holes do not exist in the way we currently perceive them.
In order for his public to better understand this new theory Stephen Hawking explained the following: "Falling through the event horizon, is a bit like going over Niagara Falls in a canoe. If you are above the falls, you can get away if you paddle fast enough, but once you are over the edge, you are lost. There's no way back".
