Spooky moments

I have never had any kind of supranatural experience and I think everything has a logical, physical explanation - it is just that our science is not advanced enough to give it. Television would have seemed like magic two hundred years ago. Various factors can influence the sense of smell and dreams can be so vivid we still feel we are in them when we wake up. With billions of events happening every second, it would be odd if there were no co-incidences.
I have an open mind as to the existence of thought (or brain) waves which could pass from one person to another. Possibly, thoughts given out in life could still be in the ether after death and could be picked up by someone on the same wave length.
I think many mediums are just good psychologists who prey upon people when they are at their most vulnerable.
I was stopped by a traveller in Chatham, who said she would read my palm. I said I would read hers instead. I looked at her hand closely then told her she was a very good mother, was not always appreciated, but someday she would have her reward. She was convinced I had 'the gift'.

Nice one, Greatnan. I was once told by a palmist that I was a genius. Shows how wrong they can be, doesn't it?

(You are not obliged to agree with the above.)

I definitely agree with her - they are bound to be right sometimes!

Evidence, Greatnan?

You are my friend - 'nuff said!

DD's in-laws had an 'our tune' of The Butterfly waltz. At his funeral, on a December day, a butterfly flew down onto the coffin in the church. It was rather a touching , if spooky, moment.

I am sure you are right Greatnan and that one day we will have a 'scientific' explanation of these phenonema. Meantime, we have a such a plentitude of anecdotal evidence, from a wide range of 'normal' people who have experienced one or more instances of these (currently) inexplicable occurences that they cannot simply be dismissed out of hand. I believe that young children and grown ups who are in the heightened state of awareness which often follows a birth, bereavement, acute illness, etc. are more receptive to these things, which might otherwise pass unnoticed.

I know that the 'near death experience' (hurtling down a tunnel towards a welcoming bright light) I had immediately after a miscarriage had a scientific explanation, in that my blood pressure dropped off the bottom of the scale. I cannot offer anything other than 'I just knew' to the two minute power cut that happened at precisly 9.00 am the morning after my father died. It only affected 4 streets in the immediate area around my house and my father's house, has never happened before or since and should not occur at all as the village is 'double fed' meaning that if power fails to the east the feed from the west will automatically click in with only a tiny flicker to mark the changeover. To make sense of this you have to know that my Father was a power engineer, in the local control room for 40 years, in charge of monitoring loads and switching feeds accordingly to ensure continuity of supply. Probably one of only 4 people who would be able to make a localised two minute power cut. At his funeral his former colleagues assured me that no cut was recorded at that time. So - I 'just knew', immediately that it was a message to say 'I'm fine now'.

We are still looking for an explanation Greatnan of GD7 who from the age of two and a half has predicted the sex of over twenty babies.

I took her to D2's house one morning and she looked at her aunt who was around 12 weeks pregnant and simply said 'boy'. We didn't take much notice, then we went with D2 to the doctors and went in with her, the doctor happened to be pregnant and GD said 'boy'. We told D1 (GD's mother) who had been at work that day and as she was about ten weeks pregnant she also asked what her baby would be and GD said a girl. DIL came over that night as she too was about ten weeks pregnant and GD said it was a boy. Four of my nieces were also in the early stages of pregnancy and GD told them, except one who was overseas at the time, what their babies would be. Many of D1 and D2's friends were pregnant around the same time and she told them what they were having. When GD was four her friend's mother was unexpectedly pregnant. As they had two girls and this pregnancy was not planned they thought they would wait and find out when the baby was born. She asked GD and GD said it would be a boy, it was. A woman who we knew from the school became pregnant and she asked GD who said it would be a boy. D2 got pregnant with her second baby and GD said it would be a girl. I think out of all these babies there were one or two wrong answers. What are the odds though from the age of two and a half of predicting the sex of so many babies when their mothers hadn't even had their scans. I never can predict the sex of any baby, I would have no idea.

I have no idea either, Faye - perhaps each sex gives out a different chemical trace which a young child could detect. What is your probably explanation? I am sure you don't think religion is involved? Could this 'gift' be put to any use, I wonder.
When it was found that dogs could 'sense' which patients were close to death, it was first thought to be something intangible, but it was then discovered that the dogs were picking up various physical changes. Similarly, dogs can be trained to identify possible cancers, because of the chemicals they give off.
There are more things in heaven and earth........ I am more than prepared to admit I don't have explanations for many strange happenings - I just think they are not caused by any ghosts, dead spirits, or other supernatural beings.
I am wary of anyone who seeks to make profit from their so-called 'special gift' - most of the mediums who where so popular in Victorian times were proved to be charlatans.

I have no belief in mediums. I can't believe that a spirit wouldn't simply be able to say 'Hi my name is Mabel and I want to speak to my neice, Sylvia, who is sitting in the second row.'

Sorry meant to say commercial mediums.

I have no idea Greatnan. I asked her when she was around four years old how she knew and she said, 'if they have a boy then they will have another boy and if they have a girl they will have another girl.' She really doesn't know herself.

I remember seeing somewhere long ago (sorry, can't pinpoint it) that a study showed that the toddlers they were using could identify whether a strange baby (a few months old, not in utero) was a girl or a boy, even when they were dressed to confuse and were not being treated any differently.

Our senses are very acute at that age, maybe there was some smell that they could distinguish. A pity they were not able to explain just how they knew.

My thoughts about mediums (genuine, not showbiz) is that some people do have a telepathic ability, reinforced perhaps by practice and by unconscience reading of non-verbal clues and an instinctive feeling for the personalty of others.

We all have inside us an image of those we love, we know how they would react in different circumstances, we are familiar with the lives they led, since and before we met them. If a medium can sense that picture, they can reproduce (innocently or intentionally) the personality that we remember, and can answer questions in character.

Where I am a definite sceptic, it is when exotic spirit guides are supposed to be contacting departed loved ones on behalf of the medium. What is that all about? Why should an Egytian princess, say, waste her time taking messages from Auntie Gladys to Cousin Jean about looking after the canary?

And why do so many reincarnated people believe that they used to be Napoleon. Surely even if it were possible, they could only become one person at any given time? Unless they had split personalities and could time-share in different bodies?

Although I don't believe in the supernatural, I do believe that some people have healing powers. I had a bad back for years and a friend who said she was a healer put her hand on the sore area and I haven't felt pain until quite recently.

I do have personal knowledge of somebody with very bad back pain being cured by a healer, without being touched. I can only assume that there are various electrical charges in our bodies which some people can harness. By the way, the person concerned was as sceptical as I am.
I have personally been cured of severe disc pain by acupressure. I don't know how it works, but it does.

With regard to spirits, ghosts call them what you will, I wonder if it's a bit like the sun shining on stones (eg a wall or path) and then when the sun goes down, if you put your hand on the stones you can feel them "releasing" the heat they have absorbed? I realise I could have phrased that better, but hopefully you will get what I mean!

When exdh & I were first married we lived in Windsor Castle in a flat with an L shaped kitchen, I often had the feeling of something disappearing around the corner as I walked in. We also used to have a lot of small things going missing, tweezers, earrings etc. I used to stand in the middle of the flat and say "ok, now give them back" and they would usually turn up on a shelf in the bathroom a day or 2 later.

Yesterday I was making GDs 7 and 4 fresh fruit juice in the juicer and I said to them 'I would have liked someone make me juice when I was a child.' GD7 replied 'Did you like lamingtons?'

My mother always made lamingtons when I was a child and they were very popular among our family and friends. When I told D1 later she said barely remembers ever having them. My mother had stopped making them by the time GD7 was born. When I asked GD why she said lamingtons, she said it just popped in her head.

Yes Glassortwo I have had the same experience several times of smelling cigarette smoke when I have been in bed sometimes very strong sometimes weak.

Neither my wife or I smoke I believe it is my mother who died 20 years ago who smoked 20 per day because it is when i think about her that it sometimes happens but not always

Apart from the ones mentioned above, does anyone have much experience of dreaming about people that you know are dead? I do have a genuine reason for asking this.

phoenix, I have dreamt about both my parents. In these dreams I am a child or teenager again. It's only natural that people who have been important to you in their lifetime should surface again in your subconscious.

I often dream about my late parents and in my dreams they are always younger and fitter than in their later years. I like to think of this as a compilation of their personalities - their "spirit" if I may use the term. A friend who is religious says this is a sign that all is well with them now. Would be nice to think so.

Years ago me and my ex husband both woke up suddenly.He told me he was in a dark tunnel and he had died,then he saw himself lying on a table and he new he had to get back into his body.The creepy thing was that i was in a tunnel and travelling really fast and new i was going to see my dead family.Then i remembered my 2 children and knew i had to get back ,i struggled to get back.It happened a long time ago and cant come up with an explanation.

I have dreamed several times of people who were dead. They have all seemed to have a message for me.

My dream of my father was somehow linked to an image of a sewing needle, which seemed to represent my and his interest in making things, and the intellectual traits which I had also inherited from him, and advice that these were the paths I would follow.

When I dreamed of my mother, she was telling me that there was something I would find among her things which would distress me. I had a lot of her personal possessions, and in her one pocket of her purse was a photograph of my brother as a child, which she had carried around for years - I was not distressed because I always knew how fond she was of him, but perhaps she thought I would feel hurt that there was no picture of me.

And so on.

Each time I have had these dreams, I have felt better about losing someone. It seemed to me that it was either because all was OK with them, or because I had now accepted their death and come to terms with it.

I have also dreamed of someone I had not heard was dead, who was not very close to me.

He was an old friend of my parents, who I had last seen after my mother's funeral, sitting in an armchair to one side of the fire. He was slightly built and had severe ostoearthritis, and wore a neck brace.

In my dream, I saw someone of his build in an armchair at the side of my own fireplace, wearing a neckbrace and sitting very carefully as though he were protecting his bones. He was very very pale, and I knew that he was dead.

The next time I spoke to someone who knew him I asked how he was. He had died a few days before I dreamed of him.