# A brush with the paranormal?



## theletch1 (May 7, 2009)

This thread is inspired by this one on vampires.  I want to hear from the folks who have/think they have had a brush with the super-natural, paranormal, ghosts, phantoms whatever.  Keep in mind that this is the Locker room and not the Study.  Please just interact and enjoy without attempting to debunk anyones story.

I'll start with one of mine.

I have always been close to my youngest uncle.  He's only 6 years older than I am.  When I was 10 we moved out of state and didn't get to see him very often.  One morning something woke me up.  When I sat up in bed I saw my uncle walking toward me.  As he reached the edge of the bed he just vanished.  Later that day we got a call from back home that he'd been in a motorcycle accident and wasn't expected to live.  He did pull through but that incident has stuck with me for almost 30 years as clearly as the day it happened.


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## MA-Caver (May 7, 2009)

theletch1 said:


> This thread is inspired by this one on vampires.  I want to hear from the folks who have/think they have had a brush with the super-natural, paranormal, ghosts, phantoms whatever.  Keep in mind that this is the Locker room and not the Study.  Please just interact and enjoy without attempting to debunk anyones story.
> 
> I'll start with one of mine.
> 
> I have always been close to my youngest uncle.  He's only 6 years older than I am.  When I was 10 we moved out of state and didn't get to see him very often.  One morning something woke me up.  When I sat up in bed I saw my uncle walking toward me.  As he reached the edge of the bed he just vanished.  Later that day we got a call from back home that he'd been in a motorcycle accident and wasn't expected to live.  He did pull through but that incident has stuck with me for almost 30 years as clearly as the day it happened.


An honor that your uncle chose YOU to appear to. Wow... does he have any recollection of it? 

I've encountered ghosts and spirits and once heard the voice of the devil or a demon laughing. I've experienced seeing UFO's on more than one occasion and something out in the woods which still affects me to this day. 

There is more to this world than the one we live in.


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## jarrod (May 7, 2009)

seen doors open & close by themselves, & had some things move when my back was turned.  also had  few weird experiences with an ouija board in my youth.  for instance when my friends were using it, the "spirit" told them what i had dreamt the night before.  also some more ambiguous things like cold spots & general weird feelings.  i tend to understand these things as manifestations of my own mind on the whole though.  

jf


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## grydth (May 7, 2009)

This stuff _never_ happens when I'm around.... it is as if I carried one of those signs from *Ghostbusters* with me.

Now the in laws from my first marriage were a little paranormal, but that can be rationally explained by the theory of devolution. 

When my wife has dreams about me, it always involves something awful happening. Paranormal? Nah, I just watch for antifreeze in the ginger all for a week or so afterwards.


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## Archangel M (May 7, 2009)

never had one...


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## Ken Morgan (May 7, 2009)

grydth said:


> This stuff _never_ happens when I'm around.... it is as if I carried one of those signs from *Ghostbusters* with me.


 
Me too, nothing, zip. I don't believe in any of that stuff, but who knows?


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## MA-Caver (May 8, 2009)

Ken Morgan said:


> Me too, nothing, zip. I don't believe in any of that stuff, but who knows?


Thing is it does happen, several of us can attest to that... just because it didn't or doesn't happen to you, is that cause enough NOT to believe? Have any of us tried seeking publicity for our experiences ... here doesn't count because we've been asked to share them. I'm sure of the several hundred members (read: lurkers) on this forum they could either say yes or no to having experienced the paranormal at one time or another or not at all. 

Some of the experiences could be explained away, yet others... well, unless you've experienced them first hand... can't be explained away.


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## jarrod (May 8, 2009)

grydth said:


> This stuff _never_ happens when I'm around.... it is as if I carried one of those signs from *Ghostbusters* with me.
> 
> Now the in laws from my first marriage were a little paranormal, but that can be rationally explained by the theory of devolution.
> 
> When my wife has dreams about me, it always involves something awful happening. Paranormal? Nah, I just watch for antifreeze in the ginger all for a week or so afterwards.


 
when i was having most of my experiences, i was very open to having them.  when they got to be a pain in the ***, i shut them out of my mind.  from a paranormal perspective you could say i consiously closed off my perception to paranormal events.  from a psychological perspective, you could say that i was projecting these hallucinations because i wanted to see them.  to me, it's the same thing.  but generally, from my observations anyway, people who don't really believe in or want to see this sort of thing typically don't.

jf


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## Jade Tigress (May 8, 2009)

I've had some over the years.
For now:

When my husband and I bought our first house we were awakened in the middle of the night by an extremely loud banging. We couldn't locate the source. It was really creepy and REALLY loud. I can't explain the sound, it was banging but it was a banging sound neither my husband nor I have ever heard. 

This would happen randomly in the middle of the night for about the first month we were there. Then it just...stopped. We were in that house for 7 years and many, many times I had the feeling of being of being watched when I was home alone.

This is a story my grandmother told me. My husband and I were visiting her and talking. She said to me, "you know, we almost lost you". Thinking she was referring to my volatile teenage years I replied, "yeah, I know". She continued by telling this story. 

A little background info: my mom was working full time, my grandma took care of me and my little sister while she worked. (My sister was not yet born at the time this took place). She and my grandpa lived an apartment in the city of Chicago on a busy street.  

Apparently we were outside, I was 2-years-old and went running between two parked cars into the street. My grandma saw this happening and a car was coming. She couldn't get to me in time and _knew_ I was going to be hit. She said it was inevitable. Then she said it was as if an invisible hand reached in and yanked me back out of the way. She said she literally saw the clothes at the back of my neck pull just as they naturally would when someone is grabbed there. 

I think it was the first time she ever spoke of it and I never heard her mention it again. To my knowledge no other family member knows the story. But it stuck with her all those years.

I also saw a UFO once. We were living in Northeast Tennessee, in the mountains. I was driving home from the barn which took me on about 20 miles of switchbacks over 2 mountains. It was late afternoon in the late fall and I saw just over the treetops in the distance a small, bright, oval light. It moved very slowly and very steadily across the treetops. I was mesmerized and slowed down, watching it for as long as I could. I don't even believe in aliens, but this was as real a UFO as real could be. I have no idea what it was, I've never seen anything like before or since.


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## ShelleyK (May 8, 2009)

Ive had so man y experiences I cant even  know where to begin telling them.  Ive been told that I am a "sensitive", clairvoyant and an "empath.  The empath part I can believe...Im very good at reading people, and i can tell a bad person nearly right away, most people call that intuition.
Ive had my dead grandfather visit me 2 years  to the day on the anniversary of his death, Ive had ghosts manifest themselves before me, things brush up against me, sounds happening but I dont know where they are..things like that.  Nothing bad ever happened....once in my early 20's a friend of mine and I were headed to work and we were going to be late, we didnt see the light turn red...and she slammed on the brakes and the car stopped in just enough time from hitting another car...then the car filled with a heavy scent of roses...now mind you we lived in Arizona...there arent a lot of roses in that area...especially in the middle of an intersection in  the commercial part of town!
If you watch the TV show Ghost Hunters, the TAPS team have been out this way to the Buffalo area a couple times, once was in Batavia at the Rolling Hills Haunted Mall.  Not a ot happened to them there so they couldnt deem it haunted but they said it had paranormal activity...well I was there with a group of people on an overnight ghost hunt and let me tell you.....THINGS happened!!


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## mook jong man (May 8, 2009)

I remember when I was about five or six and we lived in this pretty old house , I woke up to what felt like some one sitting on me with their hands around my throat trying to strangle me. 

I've since learned that it might of been sleep paralysis , I still get sleep paralysis occasionally these days , but it doesn't feel like what happened when we were living in that house .

 But who knows I was only a little boy , but it sure did feel like some invisible thing was trying to choke me , it must of scared me because I still remember it today and I'm 41 now. 

To the people who lived in haunted houses , did you have pets , and did they go a bit weird when you moved into the place , apparently dogs and cats are supposed to be a bit sensitive to these things.


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## Ken Morgan (May 8, 2009)

MA-Caver said:


> Thing is it does happen, several of us can attest to that... just because it didn't or doesn't happen to you, is that cause enough NOT to believe? Have any of us tried seeking publicity for our experiences ... here doesn't count because we've been asked to share them. I'm sure of the several hundred members (read: lurkers) on this forum they could either say yes or no to having experienced the paranormal at one time or another or not at all.
> 
> Some of the experiences could be explained away, yet others... well, unless you've experienced them first hand... can't be explained away.


 
I actually think its all pretty cool. I have family members who have experienced strange things. Me? Nothing.

I think we are more then what we are, but I also believe that everything can be logically explained somehow, just because you cant explain it doesnt mean it is true. Just because multiple people have experiences doesnt make it true. A lack of evidence doesnt automatically make the supernatural the only answer. 

Randi http://www.randi.org/site/  has offered a $1000000 for years, to anyone who can prove any of their claims. No one has claimed the $$ yet.  

Like I said, I find it all cool, but..


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## girlbug2 (May 8, 2009)

I have had experiences in this one apartment with feelings of being watched, fully shut doors coming unlatched and opening on their own, weird noises, the windows rattling when there was no wind and none of the other units' windows rattled. I have my personal theories about what caused these things, it is supernatural IMO but it's not ghosts.

I have also known some very smart, rational people telling me of their UFO sitings. People who never do drugs and weren't drunk at the time they saw them, btw. I tend to believe them.


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## Sukerkin (May 8, 2009)

I have had a fair number of inexplicable and 'ghostly' experiences through my life. As with *Shelley*, I been termed variously as a 'sensitive' and an 'amplifier' when it comes to such things. An effect of this is that I seem to draw such things to me.

Our current house has a few 'presences' in it - which is par for the course for me. One we call "the Smoker" hangs about on the stairs - you can guess how we know when he's there . There's another that flits about on the upstairs landing, going between the library and the computer room - she's often hanging about me when I'm on here actually . There were at least two in the dining room. One quiet and warm, the other rather nasty and cold. The latter one seems to have gone now - I don't think he took kindly to my telling him to "Get off me/her!" (my missus, that is) on several occasions.

It sounds a bit crowded doesn't it ? Of course, none of this is scientific proof of anything, tho' some of our friends have noted these prescences without our telling them about them first. 

It may well be that there is a rational explanation of them tho' as there is at least one place in our house that is very weird indeed when it comes to engineering phenomenon.

In our kitchen, there is one spot that is always cold at around shoulder height. If I take a current meter on audible announce and hold it there, it goes off. I have great fun showing this to people and 'mapping' the EM anomaly .

EDIT:  I should make clear that this is in mid-air, not on or near a wall

I haven't found any other areas like that but the existence of one shows that there is some wacky electro-magnetic effect at play and those mess with your perceptions, inducing 'sightings' of what we call 'ghosts'.

No obvious poltergeist actvity this time, I'm glad to say {tho' how can you tell when you share a house with a woman lol:}. They can be anything from annoying to downright scary.


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## Archangel M (May 8, 2009)

MA-Caver said:


> Thing is it does happen, several of us can attest to that....


 
Not to be flip...and this isnt the place for debunking but, does it..really?

I think it can be said that some people are sensing something, thinking that they are sensing something or interpreting the same sensation differently. The causes of it could be a number of things....


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## Bill Mattocks (May 8, 2009)

Archangel M said:


> Not to be flip...and this isnt the place for debunking but, does it..really?
> 
> I think it can be said that some people are sensing something, thinking that they are sensing something or interpreting the same sensation differently. The causes of it could be a number of things....



That little thread on being open-minded we just had comes to mind.  An unexplained phenomena is just that - unexplained.  That does not mean it cannot be explained at some point, or that it must therefore be real.

I've had lots of 'unexplained' things happen.  That doesn't mean I believe them to be real supernatural events.

Refer to the 1st Law of Metaphysics - "Nothing unreal exists."


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## Kembudo-Kai Kempoka (May 8, 2009)

Yeah, I get 'em. Run in the family (or seem to, anyways).

Wierdest one was walking through a city park one night (couple of us doing a Guardian Angel type patrol), and seeing something that looked like the dog-gorilla beasts from Ghostbusters lumbering through the mist...years before GB came out. Thing was, this park never got mist, and the time of year was way wrong for fog. So we opted to see where the mist was coming from, since we could see what looked like a smoke bomb source for it. We walked closer to what looked like a steam grate, and were trying to fogure out WTF?, when a hand with skin the texture of amphibian skin popped out and started trying to lifet the grate. I sprung away with a kiai, then we took off at a dead run, with that gorilla thing on the ground between the trees, squatting and watching, while other things climbed up and down the main trunks in the grove around us. 

Two of us went back the next day to check out the steam vent. There wasn't one. Helluva shared hallucination if there's nothing to it. We tried splainin' it away...there was a steam vent, it was a frog leaping to get out of it, etc. Ran our rationalizations past our compadres who were there, and they blew us off. "Frog, my a&%! I know what I saw, and I saw a mammy-jammin hand! And what does that have to do with some freaky silver-back gorilla walking through Central, standing 7 feet and commanding a bunch of little freaky things that follow us through the tree tops?"
Some have refused to speak about it since then. A couple of us have brough it up in hushed tones at occasions like birthdays or such, when everyone else has left and we're pacing down. Still don't know.


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## mook jong man (May 8, 2009)

Sukerkin said:


> I have had a fair number of inexplicable and 'ghostly' experiences through my life. As with *Shelley*, I been termed variously as a 'sensitive' and an 'amplifier' when it comes to such things. An effect of this is that I seem to draw such things to me.
> 
> Our current house has a few 'presences' in it - which is par for the course for me. One we call "the Smoker" hangs about on the stairs - you can guess how we know when he's there . There's another that flits about on the upstairs landing, going between the library and the computer room - she's often hanging about me when I'm on here actually . There were at least two in the dining room. One quiet and warm, the other rather nasty and cold. The latter one seems to have gone now - I don't think he took kindly to my telling him to "Get off me/her!" (my missus, that is) on several occasions.
> 
> ...


 
Thats spooky , all I can say is I hope your charging then rent.


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## MA-Caver (May 12, 2009)

.


> *Ghost hunters inspect 180-year-old NM hotel site*
> 
> 
> 
> ...



This would be intriguing to watch as it's out in BFE, in New Mexico and the site is 180 years old... White men just barely scratched the surface of seeing the far west and LOTS of things could happen out there without much worry of legal ramifications or consequences. 
To me, ghosts are restless or unresolved spirits of those living who have died without a sense of death or even justice if they were murdered or killed through mysterious circumstances. 
Yet in my experience and learnings they should not be feared. Even if seen or bothered/haunted. They cannot harm you directly. Sure things fall off shelves and may HIT you in a timely manner or something but the spirit of the ghosts cannot even touch you. You may feel cold or their brush on the back of your neck (which is just your own instinctive early warning system of something amiss)... but best they can do is frighten you. 
There ARE those spirits which can hurt you but they're not ghosts of humans gone past. Dunno about others but I do know there are evil spirits/entities which can manifest abundant energies enough to inflict physical wounds. Those ARE to be feared ... if you have little faith. 

Still this would be very interesting show to watch. An even better place to experience for one's self. Perhaps someday.


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## redantstyle (May 12, 2009)

could be some truth to all this.  

however, i tend to think the culprit is a snake in the toolshed.


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## girlbug2 (May 12, 2009)

I loved to watch Ghost hunters from time to time...once in a while I still do. They have caught some things on video and audio which I believe to be genuine paranormal phenomenon, other stuff which they have explained scientifically. Jason and Grant are licensed plumbers btw--imagine, real people with practical skills, LOL!

Did you know that the feeling of being watched is commonly traced to high electromagnetic field readings--usually some kind of wiring is off in the house, a certain area will leak EMFs and people report feeling like they're being watched in those rooms. Ghosthunters have diagnosed this problem more than once since I began watching and it's saved several people from having to move out. I respect that the ghost hunters aren't quick to assume that something is necessarily paranormal.


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## MA-Caver (May 12, 2009)

girlbug2 said:


> I loved to watch Ghost hunters from time to time...once in a while I still do. They have caught some things on video and audio which I believe to be genuine paranormal phenomenon, other stuff which they have explained scientifically. Jason and Grant are licensed plumbers btw--imagine, real people with practical skills, LOL!
> 
> Did you know that the feeling of being watched is commonly traced to high electromagnetic field readings--usually some kind of wiring is off in the house, a certain area will leak EMFs and people report feeling like they're being watched in those rooms. Ghosthunters have diagnosed this problem more than once since I began watching and it's saved several people from having to move out. I respect that the ghost hunters aren't quick to assume that something is necessarily paranormal.


Well consider how many shows ... err houses/places they've checked out and found evidence to the contrary that there's paranormal activity going on. As I understand it both of the leads have had actual paranormal experiences, one of whom still "can't talk about it". 
But either way they've regulated their Ghost Hunting jobs to checking out the house/building for anything BUT ghosts/spirits. They don't look for Ghosts per se they look for what might NOT be a ghost and help the owners get better piece of mind. When they DO find unexplainable phenomena then they could attribute it to a real haunting. 

Still I get those little hairs on the back of me head/neck standing up from time to time... but then again the house I live in is roughly 60 years old and the wiring is still pretty much the original.


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## Ken Morgan (May 12, 2009)

Question, why is it in Ghost hunters, they always work in the evening/early morning hours, and they never turn the lights on? They're ghosts for crying out loud, turn on the lights!!


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## Ronin74 (May 12, 2009)

LOL... I keep wanting to add to this thread, but everytime I re-read my post, I have a hard to believing this stuff happens to me. Yet it's sort of been like this little secret I've had for years.


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## MA-Caver (May 13, 2009)

Ken Morgan said:


> Question, why is it in Ghost hunters, they always work in the evening/early morning hours, and they never turn the lights on? They're ghosts for crying out loud, turn on the lights!!


Well from my own personal experiences with the phenomenon it's harder to see them with the lights on. If you didn't want to be seen would you move around in the dark or in the light?  



Ronin74 said:


> LOL... I keep wanting to add to this thread, but every time I re-read my post, I have a hard to believing this stuff happens to me. Yet it's sort of been like this little secret I've had for years.



Go ahead and share... what have you got to lose? It's a matter of trust I suppose but just because someone laughs or poo-poohs your experiences doesn't mean they're not idiots. 

Love to hear it... it's what this thread is all about neh?


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## Ronin74 (May 13, 2009)

Well, it's a little hard to place, since some may not call it a paranormal experience. I think it was when I was in college, I was introduced to the concept of looking as an artform as a _living_ entity, and not just something we practiced. So when I decided to get back into martial arts at that time, it wasn't hard to see the art in that light. Depending on a person's perception or POV, one might say that our respective arts live through us.

After maybe about 7-8 years of training, a few of us decided to take it further, and for lack of a better phrase "embraced" the art. Ever since then, things weren't quite the same. It's like I had this feeling that the art was practically whispering into my ear. It wasn't just that my reflexes and dexterity in the art improved, but it was like sort of having a martial art at the wheel of my mind.

I know this sounds out there already.

I'd have moments where I'd get out of bed after maybe only four hours of sleep, because I had these overwhelming urges to train. I'd call in sick to work, because I felt like I had to _feed_ a previously unheard of craving for martial arts. In a way, it sort of felt like I had opened myself to something, and it didn't hesitate to get into the driver's seat.

Oddly enough, this all sort of settled down when I started gaining weight- and that happened when it felt like I was denying all these urges. However, as of late, it feels like they're coming around again.

Sorry if this sounds too weird. I can hardly wrap my head around it myself.


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## seasoned (May 13, 2009)

My mom and dad lived down stairs from my aunt and uncle. It was a house that was owned by my aunt and uncle, and the down stairs apartment was previously occupied by my uncle's parents. Once my uncle's parents died the apartment was available for my mom and dad. Within a year of my parents moving into the apartment, my uncle had a stroke, and spent his last days upstairs with my aunt. Now my parents are straight forward no nonsense type people so when then shared their experience with me it sent chills up my spine. It seems my dad had fallen asleep in the living room chair one night and woke up around 3am. As he sat there he looked out into the hallway to see someone walk past. Thinking it was mom he went into the bedroom to find her sleeping. Passing it off he went to bed. The next morning my mom was in the kitchen at the sink when she felt or sensed my dad behind her, so she started to talk to him. With no answer she turned around to find no one there. My dad was still in bed. That night before, my uncle had died.


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## Jade Tigress (May 13, 2009)

Some very odd experiences here, interesting to read. :asian:

I'll share two more, which are also hard to explain but I'll try. 

When my husband and I were dating we lived about 15-20 miles apart, so I would spend my weekends at his house. One night, I was awakened in the middle of the night with an intense feeling of fear. I could sense a malevolent entity literally inches from my face. I frozen in terror. I can't explain how real it was. I was afraid to open my eyes, afraid to move. 

I tried nudging my husband (boyfriend at the time) to wake him up. I tried several times to wake him up with discreet nudges because I was afraid to move. But he wouldn't wake up. It seemed like he was in a deeper than usual sleep. Almost like he was not actually sleeping so much as in a sort of coma. It was really strange.  It seemed like forever but eventually the *presence* and terror lifted. That was truly one of the most frightening experiences of my life.



Many years later, married and 2 young kids later, we were living out of state and came back *home* for a visit with family. We were staying at my sister-in-laws house. She had a young daughter and a live-in boyfriend. Her boyfriend at the time was into very mystical stuff and he had filled her apartment with statues of western style dragons and was into crystals, etc.

We had all gone to bed, my husband and I in a spare room and the kids sleeping in her daughters room. Once again I was awakened by the feeling of a presence, not a good one. Then I sensed a small white light go zipping through the rooms of the apartment briefly hovering over my husband and me before zipping off and hovering over the kids in their room where it faded.

It was also a very weird and frightening experience that's difficult to explain. But both of these experiences were as real as real could be. At least to me. And they were real enough for me to remember them and the terror I felt at the time.


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## Live True (May 13, 2009)

I've had several small instances, particularly with feeling good/bad things about a place. I do find it interesting that folks often talk about malevolent places, but they don't recognize that there are some places that carry a sense of warmth and comfort as well..unrelated to personal experiences...

Anywho, I will share my thoughts and my feelings on the paranormal. First, I agree with MACaver that there is more out there than we can know and explain, and I think that is a gift that makes the world more interesting.  More scary at times, but also more wonderful.  That said, a lot of what we accept as science now, was considered magic a few centuries back.  I do beleive that the world and our bodies are capable of more than we believe.

That said, I'll share this personal story.  I was 16 when my mother was killed in a car accident. I woke up a few minutes before the policeman's knock on my door, because I had just had a tremendously vivid and scary dream.   It involved several iconic figures (I'm part Hawaiian, and tiki idols were involved), but it also involved a wild car ride and a crash.  My mother was killed in a car accident.  Since then, I have had several instances of my mother's presence.  Some would say it's comforting myself, perhaps...but I felt her tears in my hair once, and there was no other near explanation for the dampness on my locks.

I've also had a few instances where I changed my direction/plans only to learn of accidents and other things that happened in the spots I would have been at. 

Personally, I like there being unknown in the world. I think being omnipotent would be quite boring!


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## elder999 (May 15, 2009)

theletch1 said:


> This thread is inspired by this one on vampires. I want to hear from the folks who have/think they have had a brush with the super-natural, paranormal, ghosts, phantoms whatever. Keep in mind that this is the Locker room and not the Study. Please just interact and enjoy without attempting to debunk anyones story.


 
&#8220;Whatever?&#8221;

Some would say my family is steeped in &#8220;whatever.&#8221;Some would call my entire life a brush with the &#8220;whatever..&#8221; :lol: I don&#8217;t like those words (_supernatural, paranormal) very much._ 

What the heck is "_normal?" _:lol:

I&#8217;m someone who walks with a foot in each world. In fact, that&#8217;s one of my Native names: _*walks in both worlds*_. It&#8217;s not easy being a scientist who has experience with such things, and it isn&#8217;t made any easier by people who insist that *everything* must have a scientific explanation, or those who also believe or have experience with the &#8220;otherworldly&#8221; and try to explain it scientifically, when they lack the scientific background to do so in any way, shape, form or fashion. 

Some of my experience is, of course, spiritual, and personal in nature. Some of it can come across as pretty mundane. Some is interesting.

For starters, I&#8217;m not even supposed to be alive anymore. I was born 2 months premature-in *1960*. Spent the better part of my childhood being told how long I had to live.If a pulmonologist unfamiliar with my case looks at my lungs, he&#8217;ll usually assume that I&#8217;m a 65 year old smoker, with limited capacity, and probably on oxygen. They&#8217;re generally (I&#8217;ve had to change doctors a few times) really surprised to see the fit person in front of them-especially since my spirometry (lung function) is relatively off the chart for a supremely healthy man of my age-I have a VO2 max around 85 ml/kg/min, last time it was checked&#8230;..additionally, early in childhood I developed aplastic anemia, which is usually fatal. I did get a bone marrow transplant from my younger brother when he was old enough, but they said it didn&#8217;t &#8220;take.&#8221; Maybe it took, &#8216;cause I&#8217;m no longer anemic. Maybe it was a miracle&#8230;&#8230;.(Medical definition of &#8220;miracle_&#8221;: misdiagnosis :lol: )_

My grandfather, also &#8220;Aaron J. Cuffee,&#8221; passed away in 1965. A year later, when I was 6, I had febrile seizures, with temperatures in excess of 106 degrees Fahrenheit, and you might not be surprised to learn that I also had been resuscitated twice during that experience, and was &#8220;technically dead&#8221; (dead in 1966, anyway) for a total of something like 4 minutes. You might be surprised, though, if I were to tell you that during one of those cardiac excursions I visited a very bright place, and felt much, much better (that was a one hell of a night, and I felt like crap-especially after waking up in a tub of ice water!) . I was picked up by my grandfather, who&#8217;d been dead nearly a year-and he rubbed his whiskers across my cheek and made me laugh and giggle the way I always had. He smelled of pipe tobacco-just as he always had-and told me that I couldn&#8217;t stay-I had to go back because I had things to do. Then he put me down, and sent me on my way-straight back to the emergency room at Bellevue, where I scared the crap out of a doctor by talking to her-saying something smartass, actually. I was supposed to have brain damage from having such high temperatures, and having been &#8220;dead,&#8221; you see.

What else my grandfather said, and what it all means-if anything-is mostly spiritual in nature, and personal, so I won&#8217;t be sharing&#8230;..

My sister died last year She had surgery the day before Thanksgiving,2007, and was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. Being a nurse, and a somewhat anxious person, Karyl proclaimed that she had &#8220;less than six weeks to live,&#8221; despite her doctor&#8217;s assurances otherwise. She came home the Monday after Thanksgiving, and was going to rest up and start chemo. While disregarding her &#8220;six weeks&#8221; comments, the doctors also disregarded her saying that &#8220; I can feel something growing in there&#8230;&#8221; right up to the point when her kidneys stopped working, and she went back into the hospital, because something was, indeed, &#8220;growing in there.&#8221; Anxiety or no, my sister conducted herself with a grace and humor I did not know she had, and was visited by a constant stream of genuinely saddened people who treated her as a sister. I did not know she was a person of that sort of quality, and I lack the words to express how deeply shamed I am that it took her being on her deathbed for me to find it out. At one point I told her she was going to &#8220;beat this thing,&#8221; or some rah-rah words of support, and she said &#8220;I know you&#8217;ll take care of my babies if I don&#8217;t.&#8221; Karyl was a single mom to three teenage boys, divorced from a husband no one has seen in years and who is just no damned good anyway&#8230;.Karyl, the poor kid, couldn&#8217;t catch a break. Systems in her body kept failing, and she was in a coma by Dec. 30. My mom&#8217;s parish priest, Father Brian (who is a bit younger than I, and something of a tool, in my opinion) came to the hospital to perform last rites. There comes a point in the ceremony (with my mother, my other sister, some friends and me all around her bed) where the patient gets anointed with oil. Father Brian put some oil on his thumb, placed it on her forehead and said, &#8220;Karyl, I anoint you&#8230;&#8221; at which point her eyes snapped wide open. She looked right into Brian&#8217; eyes, then around the room at each of us, then she just died-completely shut off, five weeks and four days after her diagnosis.40 years old_._

Aside from her saying that she had &#8220;less than six weeks to live," and that proving to be true, and her saying that &#8220;there&#8217;s something growing in there,&#8221; and that also proving to be true, there&#8217;s the matter of her opening her eyes and looking at us from what was called a &#8220;deep coma.&#8221; The first two could be attributed by some to &#8220;Self fulfilling prophecy,&#8221; or &#8220;body awareness,&#8221; or any number of other &#8220;scientific explanations.&#8221;, and they might even be &#8220;true,&#8221; but what about those eyes opening? Father Brian, aside from having the crap scared out of him (I saw it, the ninny!) says that he saw &#8220;acceptance&#8221; in my sister&#8217;s eyes, while my mom is certain that it was the &#8220;moment the soul left her body.&#8221; Someone else will attribute it to that last synaptic activity, an electrical surge before dying, a response to simply being touched, or just nerves. I can tell you what I saw, what I experienced, and I might even tell you what I feel and believe about it, but I can&#8217;t tell you for certain what it *was*, and neither can anyone else. This happened, that happened, and this is how I feel about it, but as for data_? I don&#8217;t know, I don&#8217;t know, I don&#8217;t know._

_I_ can also make mention of living in the House at Otowi Bridge, and tell you that during the time that I lived there, the house displayed all sorts of phenomena that would qualify it for some as quite haunted.: poltergeist activity, shadowy forms, odd noises and feelings, and a room that &#8220;grabbed&#8221; women-all witnessed by me and others, but it doesn&#8217;t really matter, as I have no videotape, no photographs, no audio tape, no measurements were taken, no data was compiled. We experienced what we experienced, and it all could be due to, in no particular order, underground springs, magnetism, river flow, highway traffic, practical jokers, telekinesis brought on by the onset of puberty, hallucinations, mass hysteria, indigestion or&#8230;ghosts&#8230;..or, I could have made it all up. I can tell you what I saw, and experienced, but I can&#8217;t tell you what it meant, or what really caused it-though I might have an idea, or some beliefs, or an opinion in that regard. In the end, this happened, that happened, and this is how I feel about it, but as for data? I_ don&#8217;t know, I don&#8217;t know, I don&#8217;t know.._

My favorite story from there, though: I dated a woman who wore an eye-patch. We were in the living room, and one of those shadowy forms passed by. I didn&#8217;t say anything, but she (being familiar with stories about the house) playfully told me, _I saw that_. Which was funny, &#8216;cause it was towards the side of her eyepatch, and she shouldn&#8217;t have &#8220;seen&#8221; a thing&#8230;..

I&#8217;ve mentioned before that I follow some American Indian spiritual practices. I was on what some call a &#8220;vision quest,&#8221; though the proper Lakota term is _hanblecha,_ or &#8220; crying or lamenting for a vision&#8221;-literally begging &#8220;God&#8221; to &#8220;show you something.&#8221; Sometimes, one receives a blessing from an animal spirit, or is offered other information. Basically, you purify yourself, stand in a lonely place that&#8217;s been purified and protected, and stare at the sun for four days without eating or drinking, praying the whole time. (Plains Indians are fairly big on suffering-this is actually a cakewalk, though a really serious one, compared to Sundance).

We just call it &#8220;going up on the hill.&#8221;

So, I had been up on the hill for three days, and early in the evening of that day, I saw a bear. Came and sat down right outside the tobacco ties (protection). I&#8217;d been around bears before-this one didn&#8217;t smell, like bears did, and wasn&#8217;t surrounded by a cloud of bugs, and we proceeded to have&#8230;&#8230;.a conversation. After a while, the bear got up, huffed once, and wandered off. Next day, Danny, the man who was watching over me for the ceremony, came to take me down, looking at me pretty funny. He asked me if I&#8217;d seen the bear, and I asked him, kind of wondering_, *Did you?* _

That&#8217;s when he pointed at the bear tracks. Said he&#8217;d come up to check on me, seen the bear, and had been tempted to go get a rifle, but then watched me talking to her for about a half-hour. Never seen anything like it-though it was likely that I smelled pretty delicious to a bear after three days_&#8230;&#8230;:lol:_

Now, hardly paranormal, except for the conversation part, anyway. But not what most would call &#8220;normal,&#8221; either. As for what the bear and I talked about, well, that&#8217;s personal, and spiritual-or, if you feel better, an _hallucination_- so I won&#8217;t be sharing&#8230;.:lol:


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