Inspired by a post by Hannah, I ask you: do you have any personal experiences of the supernatural? (Or rather "supernatural", since I think we know so little about how the world works that it is folly to think that we know what is "natural" and what is not.)
I have a friend whose wife always knows when her brother is coming to visit. She only ever asked him to put on the kettle in vain once. Her brother got a flat tire that day.
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I am quite sure every single person has some experiences of the supernatural. I have so many that there is no way to even attempt to start mentioning them in a blog comment.
I realise the information value of the above is nil, so I'll mention this: I have discovered that it is relatively easy to train oneself to have the sensitivity needed for, say, remote viewing, or some other type of phenomena having to do with perception. How? As with anything in life, through concentration. Or to put it in layman terms, just do it until you get it. :-) Really.
I don't believe in the notion that some people are psychic, and some aren't. I think we all are.
Okay, this is probably the dorkiest "psychic" experience I can imagine, but I have the ability to predict reruns. I can be thinking of a joke or scene from like The Simpsons or Futurama or something, and then I'll see that exact episode playing within the next day or two. And this isn't something I've done once or twice, I've been doing it consistently for years. It's like a TV Guide in my head or something. But if I try to do it, I can't. I've also done other things, like think about songs and then hear them on the radio, or think about a person and then see them next time I go out. My dad does things like that, too. I wish I knew how to control it better and apply it to other things.
You know, Jes, that might be just dorky enough to make a good joke on The Simpsons. You should send this to Matt Groening. I bet he'd like it!
"Her brother got a flat tire that day."
Which proves that she couldn't foresee EVERYTHING. ;-)
There are some repeated occurrences that are just too much to attribute to coincidence. Serious science doesn't claim to know everything, but only to know everything that can be known using its strictly rational methodology. Which atmittedly has its limits. So, you can be a rational mind without feeling compelled to dismiss anything you can't explain (like some people I know).
Just keep in mind though, that there are ALSO hordes of crooks who will promptly exploit your readiness to believe if they can make a buck of it... of just some easy ego-flattering fame.
There's also the belief-happy syndrome, which I don't need to explain. Some people will only believe the unbelievable and the outlandish.
And, there are some people so busy believing, that they'll never bother noticing that some things they believed in turned out completely false. Like a certain person I know who collects mystic prophecies. Most mediatic "psychics", astrologists, and the like are experts in the art of stating things just vague or general enough to easily apply to real events AFTERWARDS. Basically, anything that can be duplicated by a professional magician (e.g. illusionist) must be forever doubted as unreliable "supernatural". And that's a lot of amazing stuff to set aside!
Also, as Arthur C. Clarke wrote, "a sufficiently advanced technology becomes impossible to distinguish from magic". Just 40 years ago, "perfect" fake photographic or cinematic images were unimaginable. To show it was to prove it. Today, a home videogame console can make any virtual universe you wish, create and animate cartoons in real-time, etc. A mere kid's toy!
The world out there is full of liars, impostors and other people only seeking to exploit your beliefs, be they political, religious, moral, or supernatural. Or even scientific, as some scams have illustrated! Educate yourself, believe in what you know, and stay wary of the rest.
The truth is out there. But so are lots of lies. I won't mock Eolake's friend's mother. But I'll always doubt professional crystal-ballists.
Besides, some entirely natural gifts should be free. My grandfather had the "gift" of finding water underground. It really worked. And he never accepted to be paid, he only did it to help his fellow man. (He never got rich, naturally. But his memory is respected.)
If "they" ask for money, chances are they're not honest.
"Which proves that she couldn't foresee EVERYTHING. ;-)"
No no, it is not premonition, it is telepathy. She can feel him when he is on his way.
I've had a few experiences, but the most memorable was when I was driving back to my college dorm with a friend. I had to stop the car to place a card in the machine to have the gate rise. Suddenly, I feel some kind of warmth near my legs, though the heater was not on. I look down and see some kind of misty white fog thing. I jumped in my seat, which my friend noticed. When I looked again, it was gone.
Eolake,
I've read quite enough to spot telepathy on my own. But you know me, I can't resist a cheap joke. (Okay, so I'm a jokular cheapskate!)
Steve,
What you describe fits in the category of "unexplained phenomenons". Like the name indicates, you don't know what caused it, therefore you don't know whether it WAS supernatural. Or not, of course. Maybe a ghost, or maybe just some transient steam from an unseen source under the car.
Still, it's better than getting abducted and gang-raped by what SEEMED to be aliens (from another planet... or another country)!
Remember the vast quantity of things that were unexplained before science progressed (and it's still progressing). Some very strange stuff proved to be very "natural" and not at all divine in the end. Like the very impressive aurora borealis, explained by quantum and astrophysics. Or volcanoes, terrible but devoid of conscience. Or plagues (lots of nonsense is still being issued about AIDS and God's wrath).
As I've summarized, keep an open mind, but be careful not to become credulous. I know people who paid useless fortunes to so-called "gifted healers" in hope for a loved one to recover. By the time you find out the truth, you're torn between feeling very stupid or feeling very sad.
On the other hand, someone who reads this blog gave me my astral chart, just for fun, but seriously done. And it wasn't a heap of nonsense, I can tell you that! It wasn't deliberately general blah-blah either, unlike what some magazines print every week. The distant planets and constellations can't physically influence us per se (save for the Sun and the Moon), but there's very likely SOMETHING about character and birth moment, statistics have confirmed it.
Seasons, lighting, moisture, temperature, day/night cycles... who knows? It's perfectly logical that the first impressions of a newborn baby, which do depend on date and hour, may strongly influence his/her personnality. Not to mention the biological conditions of the pregnancy. A newborn baby has already lived for nine months, after all...
The same can be said about acupuncture : as strange as it may seem, the theory is incorrect (most meridians correspond to nothing anatomically), but sometimes it really works. It's an empiric science that's been carefully constructed for centuries. And since there IS something there, it should be considered and studied.
Finally, let's not forget intuition. Quite often, we know things, but we're not aware that we know them. Our mind is a very wonderful and extremely complex... thing? Let's say "creation". If you've verified that your intuition is reliable, by all means trust yourself, trust it. It's not belief, only another level of knowledge.
There are some things in this life that cannot be explained.
A long time ago when raising our children, my youngest son and I saw these strange black shadows that were running up and down the stairs.
They were like little people only shadows. I know it sounds silly, but it happened.
Sometimes I feel this overwhelming sensation that something tragic is about to happen or will happen. (And it does.)
No, I'm no physic or spiritual wizard but like I said earlier, some things cannot be explained.
I was eating in my favorite pub last year (The Brass Cat, which is not very "beery" in the day, and the owners are nice). I overheard a little girl (about 8?) at the next table say with conviction: "And this is the last time I come here!"
I found this funny and mentioned it to the owner, Tony. He said "yes, she saw a ghost in the ladies' room."
Turns out the pub has had a ghost for centuries. A barman, Leo, Tony's son, saw it too.
Not all that glitters is gold, not all that shivers is ghost.
There are some things I honestly cannot dismiss, because they seem very convincing. (And this, from a huge Scooby-Doo fan!) And yet, sometimes we need to be careful about how we interpret certain things. Last night, I was talking with my parents in their bedroom, and I heard a faint sound like a cricket. My parents couldn't hear it, so I was puzzled. I'm not too prompt to consider that a house we finished building ourselves two years ago could harbor a cricket's ghost! I finally found out the cause of the mystery sound. I was standing right under the chandelier, and one of the economy lamps was humming/sizzling. My mother only understood after I took her by the shoulders, without a word, and made her stand in my place.
Of course, let's not forget what's written in Harry Potter : "Muggles are very adept at dismissing what they can't believe in when they happen to see it." ;-)
I once dreamed that the spirit of Sitting Bull, whose authentic photography hangs on one of our walls, was sitting in our living-room. He was only there to share some moments and ideas with people who truly appreciated and respected Lakota culture.
One day, I'll write it as a story... (In the end, morning comes, and we do NOT find an artefact left behind by the Chief when he returned to his portrait. Too cheap an effect, way too cliché. Simply, I tell my dream to my mom (she was in it too), and we find out that we had the exact same dream that night. Each will take it according to their beliefs...)
I was the one who did Pascal's chart. And as a humorous aside, he gave me pertinent information on a friend of his and asked me to do HIS chart. I spent many days on this project, not knowing a thing about this mystery friend. I sent Pascal a couple of pages of VERY accurate (I hear) analysis of this friend's character, and then he revealed this person to be the *main* character in a book he was writing! I could have CLOBBERED him!!!! Thank God he's such a brilliant, kind, funny, human dude, or I'd still be sore :)
Laurie
I bet I'd still be sore too, if you HAD clobbered me. (Ouch!)
Trust me on this one, guys: never upset a woman who's got a strong personnality unless you're an ocean away. Leaves her time to cool down, and maybe reconsider. :-)
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