The Paranormal Experience Thread

[joecool]

Man i never realized how cool people that love cats are!

I new we were special!

Hey thanks for the info on tarot cards. Have you ever heard of cards of Marseilles(sp?) specifically? There are such knowledgable people here! i am so glad i came here, i have always nurtured an interest in the occult. But tell me, do you think that tarot cards would come with directions as to what they are supposed to mean?

 

[jcat]

http://www.tarothermit.com/marseilles.htm
You can get books explaining the meanings of the different cards, and the different ways to lay them. I used to find it a great party gag.

 

[joecool]

that was very illuminating. I will maybe maybe think about getting some.

 

[valanhb]

Not so much by way of ghosts, but I have had my share of paranormal experiences.

Diving cards: I was never attracted to the tarot. I wanted to be, even bought a deck and a book. They just never made any sense to me. Then I found an Egyptian Cartouche card deck and book. It wasn't that I wanted to buy it, it was that I HAD to buy it. And from the first reading it was spot on. I did a reading for my sister over the phone. She was going through a rough time with her husband (resulting in a divorce), and I didn't know all the details. But when I read her, she was amazed because I touched on things that were going on with her that she hadn't told me or anyone else for that matter. Am I psychic? Not by a long shot (I don't think) - but at that point in time I was able to tell her things that she needed to hear through another medium.

The other big strange thing that happened to me has to do with a past life. As soon as we started studying the Civil War, and particularly the events leading up to the Civil War in 7th grade, I always seemed to know more than I should have. By the time we were studying that period in history in 8th grade (more in depth), I got so upset with the biased textbook making such generalized statements about the South that I finally raised my hand and told the teacher, "But you and the book are wrong! This is what it was really like..."

At the end of my little speach, he just looked at me stunned and said, "You're right. It isn't as cut and dried as the textbook says." I pursued it a bit more through the rest of my teenage years, and found more information that just seemed to fit. Then I travelled to Georgia my Senior year to visit my grandparents, who took me to the only town that Sherman spared on his march to the Atlantic. We looked at the Antebellum homes and such, and then we went to the cemetary. I found my own grave. I just knew. She was 22, died in childbirth in 1864 just before the fighting started. I had my camera, but didn't take a picture of that grave. Still don't know why...

 

[pat]

I have almost always had a friend in my life with unusual abilities...first was back in 9th grade, a girl who became a best friend and didn't tell me for sometime that she would have visions that came true - she saw me in one, in a dress and glasses that I no longer wore by the time we met, and told me enough things during our years of friendship, that I had no doubt she was telling the truth.

In my late 20's, I met and dated a clairvoyant..again, enough was said that it was quite clear, it was the truth. In my early 30s, another good friend, again, with visions and dreams that often came true.

As for me, I have had times of great pain when comfort came from elsewhere...the most recent being when I found out Chris had chylothorax after a respiratory distress incident that was severe, and DH couldn't be with me, and I had a decision to make. I prayed with absolute desperation and panic for help, and suddenly felt arms around me in a hug and a sense of calm came over me. Not my imagination, I am sure.

Same thing happened when I was engaged in my late 20's and became "disengaged" as I like to call it. Real sorrow and confusion and pain, and suddenly a beautiful white flower blossumed in my mind...it gave me peace, it told me all would be well eventually.

My own sniggly talent since childhood has been that of suddenly (sometimes in interuption) saying exactly the words the person in front of me is about to say. Since I married, we do this a lot...we both say the same thing at the same time - and some of that I simply chalk up to familiarity with each others expressions, but not all of it. DH will sometimes just look at me and say "get out of my head!" after I've done it without realizing it. Usually I get "feeling" that what I'm about to say or have just said, is what they were about to say or were thinking. During my 13 year nursing career, I did this a fair amount, and got pleasure out of telling the doc the dilation results before he could speak them

If I had any control over this it would be neat, but I don't.

I have no doubt there will be another new friend in this next section of my life who will also have unsual skills, and I look forward to it.

 

[sashacat421]

Originally Posted by valanhb

Not so much by way of ghosts, but I have had my share of paranormal experiences.

.....................
The other big strange thing that happened to me has to do with a past life. As soon as we started studying the Civil War, and particularly the events leading up to the Civil War in 7th grade, I always seemed to know more than I should have. By the time we were studying that period in history in 8th grade (more in depth), I got so upset with the biased textbook making such generalized statements about the South that I finally raised my hand and told the teacher, "But you and the book are wrong! This is what it was really like..."

At the end of my little speach, he just looked at me stunned and said, "You're right. It isn't as cut and dried as the textbook says." I pursued it a bit more through the rest of my teenage years, and found more information that just seemed to fit. Then I travelled to Georgia my Senior year to visit my grandparents, who took me to the only town that Sherman spared on his march to the Atlantic. We looked at the Antebellum homes and such, and then we went to the cemetary. I found my own grave. I just knew. She was 22, died in childbirth in 1864 just before the fighting started. I had my camera, but didn't take a picture of that grave. Still don't know why...

I love this story, Heidi. I told Eric about it and he was glued to every word, as the only time in the past he feels a very strong, weird connection to is the Civil War. He thinks he died on a battlefield.

 

[pat]

Heidi, that is cool. I used to have very strong feelings when in college, that when the sky was a certain color at dusk, and the birds were flying by the quad and the bell tower was ringing, I could feel that I'd seen it before, that I had lived in Medieval times and strongly captured this sight/sounds/the stone buildings in my memory (neat older buildings on my campus' quad area).

 

[jcat]

I have a question for those who have had, or regularly have, paranormal experiences: How do those around you react? My family has become totally blasÃ[emoji]169[/emoji] about my anticipating events, as have most of my friends and co-workers (though some of the latter find it "freaky"). My husband of 25 years, however, has a very negative view of it, and insists that I don't so much "anticipate", as "invoke" situations, meaning I'm not supposed to tell him that I "know" he shouldn't do certain things because of their consequences, because I "make" them happen if he doesn't pay heed, e.g., the coffeemaker/breakdown episode described above. He still thinks I "made" the car break down because he left the coffeemaker on, and there have been hundreds of similar incidents over the years.
On the other hand, he never believed in ghosts until three of us (he, my brother, and I) "heard" one at the same time, and saw its actions. We were all staying at my sister's, and her resident ghost (her rented house was recognized as "haunted" by rabbis and Catholic priests, but the two exorcisms didn't work) at the time stomped down the steps, walked past us, and proceeded to "make breakfast" in the kitchen, which entailed opening and closing drawers and cabinets, putting the frying pan on the stove, etc.. He also has come to accept that I "know" when family members have died, because he's experienced it too many times, but he doesn't wish me to tell him when people on his side of the family are involved.

 

[sashacat421]

Since mine are pretty contained to the feline/animal world and I know it's a gift, I RARELY, if ever, broadcast it. It causes people too much pain if what I sense and feel isn't a good outcome. I only use it if called upon.

 

[carolpetunia]

What fascinating stories! I wish I had the abilities some of you have... at least, I think I wish that. One time years ago, I was reading a book about the paranormal, and I found myself wishing that I could have the experience of seeing a ghost. Then I closed my eyes and tried to imagine what it would be like -- and I imagined it too well! The shuddery chill that went through me was incredibly powerful, and it scared me absolutely silly.

Goodness. As I was writing that, it occurred to me that maybe it wasn't just my imagination. Maybe some passing spirit decided to give me what I'd wished for!

Okay, sleeping with the lights on tonight...

 

[obi]

Here's one to comfort you. This happened to a close friend of our family. His wife had been diagnosed with cancer, of a very aggressive sort, and they simply hadn't caught it in time. They were both very frightened, because death is just difficult to cope with, even if you do believe in God and heaven, as these two did. They did a lot of praying, both for healing but also for comfort. One day they went hiking through a desert (I cannot now recall where), and found a spring. They stopped there to eat lunch. While they were there, they were both suddenly filled with a sense of total peace, something neither of them had felt in a while. They both felt they were being told not to be afraid, that they were both held in the arms of God no matter what. So, they left their picnic site and had gotten a good way back to the car when they realized he'd left his sunglasses behind; he'd set them on the rock next to him. They went back for them. They found the sunglasses on the rock, but there was no spring, and no evidence that there had ever been one.

His wife did die, but the knowledge of that day helped her not to be afraid, and allowed him to KNOW he would not be apart from her forever.

 

[carolpetunia]

Okay, let me tell a couple of my Grandma stories. Grandma -- my mom's mother -- was a very smart, funny, fearless lady who could outcook anybody on the planet... she had a garden full of rhubarb and roses... she played the organ and sang old hymns at the top of her lungs... she drank hot Dr. Pepper from a coffee mug... and she was an absolute demon at Hearts and Euchre. In short, Grandma was a real character, and we all adored her.

But in 1991, she became terminally ill. I went to Ohio to see her four days before she passed, and I was able to make her laugh, so that was good.

Three weeks later, I was awakened in the middle of the night by the phone. I sat up and answered, and I heard a very distant voice say, "Check on Jim."

I was blank for a moment. Then I realized that it was Grandma's voice. "Grandma? Are you there?" Silence. "Grandma, I'm not sure I understand, please say it again." Silence. "Grandma?"

I held on and listened for at least ten minutes, but heard nothing more... only the hiss of the open line. I finally hung up and laid awake for hours wondering what had really happened... had I dreamed it? No -- the phone line wouldn't have been open. Had it been a wrong number? No -- the other party would have hung up. What WAS it?

The next day, I told my mom about it, and I asked her, "So if I'm not crazy and it WAS Grandma, who could she have been talking about? The only Jim I can think of is Jim Flay [a cousin on my father's side of the family], and Grandma never knew him."

"Yes, she did," my mom said. "Weren't you here? One night when she was visiting down here, Jim came by the house in his police uniform and met her. He talked with her for a long time. She adored him, and she always asked me about Jim when we talked after that."

"Well, gosh, Mom," I said. "Maybe we'd better check on Jim."

So Mom called Jim's mother, my aunt. She didn't want to upset my aunt, so she chatted about other things for a bit, and then casually asked, "How's Jim doing?"

"Funny you should ask," said my aunt. "He was over here all night last night, crying his heart out because his divorce was final yesterday."

So that was the first Grandma incident. There've been quite a few minor things, but the other one that really struck me was this:

Four years ago, my mother had to have most of her colon removed. On the first night after the surgery, they overdosed her on morphine and if my father and I hadn't been there, she would have died -- we had to run for a nurse, and they had to use stimulants and so forth to bring Mom back. The overload of drugs in her system put her into a semi-psychotic state, and she was completely out of touch with her surroundings for a week.

After what the hospital had done to her, I wasn't about to leave her alone there, so I sat with her 24 hours a day for four days. I had to -- she was in terrible pain, hallucinating, always trying to climb out of bed, pull out her tubes and IVs, everything. I had to drape myself over the bedrail and hold onto her so I would feel it and wake up if she started to move.

By the fourth day, I was profoundly sleep-deprived, and Mom managed to yank out her nasogastric tube without waking me. She was halfway out of the bed before I realized what was happening, and almost broke her leg in the bedrail.

This led them to do what they should have done the first night: put her in the Critical Care Unit. I was not allowed to stay with her in there, so I spent the night in the empty waiting room. After all that had happened, and in the state I was in, it was so hard for me to be away from her! I was terrified to leave her to anyone else's care, but I had no choice... I could only visit her every two hours through the night.

So I laid down on a couch in the waiting room and fully expected to fall asleep instantly -- but I didn't. I kept hearing a phrase repeating in my head, over and over: "bony fingers." I had no idea where it had come from, but it kept me awake for quite awhile, and it woke me up like clockwork every two hours, when I was allowed to go in and see Mom again.

So... nine days passed, and finally we took Mom home. I got her set up comfortably on the living room sofa, and she was so glad to be home and clearheaded again that she couldn't stop talking. I was barely able to keep my eyes open, but Mom was so chipper and eager to talk that I just couldn't leave. I sat with her and tried to listen, but I started mentally drifting away... and then I heard her use the phrase "bony fingers."

"What? What did you say?"

She explained that she'd been talking about how her knuckles had gotten swollen from playing baseball when she was a kid, and Grandma had always called her "Ol' Bony Fingers."

Sheesh, I'm shuddering now as I tell it. What I figure is that Grandma put that phrase in my head, trying to tell me that she was taking over for me, watching over Mom in the CCU, since I couldn't. It might have worked, if I had been aware of that nickname Grandma had given Mom... but I'd never heard about it until Mom inexplicably brought it up that first day home.

I went to see John Edward (the psychic of "Crossing Over" fame) a couple of years ago, hoping to connect with Grandma and confirm that she really did do these (and other) things, that it really was her. But as I talked with other people seated near me, I realized that my need to talk to Grandma was trivial by comparison to their situations. Some of them had children who had been murdered... some had recently lost a spouse or a parent to cancer... these were people in terrible pain, and as I sat there, I thought, "Grandma, as much as I'd love to talk with you, these people need their connections much worse. If you can, please help their loved ones to come through, and don't worry about me."

And of the six people I'd been talking with in my immediate area, five of them got a reading that night. The sixth was a woman who apparently suffered from some sort of limited mental capacity, and John Edward talked with her companion and arranged to help her privately. Out of an audience of about 2400!

Okay, too long a post, but if I weren't verbose, you wouldn't know it was me. ~ sigh ~ Thanks for listening... and please keep posting your stories!

 

[carolpetunia]

Obi, what a beautiful story! Thank you so much for sharing that one...

 

[joecool]

Let's bring this thread back to life!! I just got some tarots of marseille, and i tried to tell fortunes all day. It was neat, because much of it turned out to be true! I used the directions booklet because i have not memorized the symbols yet. Have you people ever used tarot cards successfully?

 

[sweetiecat3]

Originally Posted by joecool

Let's bring this thread back to life!! I just got some tarots of marseille, and i tried to tell fortunes all day. It was neat, because much of it turned out to be true! I used the directions booklet because i have not memorized the symbols yet. Have you people ever used tarot cards successfully?

Okay, sorry I must be stupid or something, but what exactly are 'tarot cards'? I have heard of them before, but never knew what they were. I guess it has something to do with predicting the future, but...

I don't know, really.

 

[joecool]

Tarot cards are important in cartomancy, or the art of using cards for magical purposes. They have little pictures and names, and you are supposed to unravel the specific answer to a question, or the fortune itself through the image's symbol and your own psychic ability. The cards each have traditional and popular meanings. Surely someone more knowledgeable than i will come along soon and explain better.

 

[sweetiecat3]

Originally Posted by joecool

Tarot cards are important in cartomancy, or the art of using cards for magical purposes. They have little pictures and names, and you are supposed to make the specific answer through the image's symbol and your own psychic ability. the cards each have traditional and popular meanings. Surely someone more knowledgeable than i will come along soon and explain better.

Hmm. Interesting. So are you saying you're psychic? Do you believe that they work?? Personally, I don't really believe in that stuff, but it's still kinda fun to do just for fun, for the novelty of it, and see if it comes true...

Could you do mine???? Pweeeeeez???????

 

[joecool]

Well, i have wondered at the amount of information i was able to glean from the cards this afternoon. I really cannot say if they work or not. But i will say that my father, a very skeptical person, admitted that he was frightened greatly when my aunt used a ouija board. Apparantly the little thing she touched moved so fast that he couldn't see it, as soon as it came in contact with her hand. That is all i know.

I could do yours, if i knew your name.

Joecool

 

[sweetiecat3]

Cool. My name is Patty.

Wow this thread is getting soo off-topic!

 

[joecool]

Not really, it is still paranormal.

You believe someone is lying or making a bad decision or doing the wrong, foolish thing, Patty. Your vision is clouded by your friendship with someone else, possibly the one that the first person may be lying to or harming. The truth is, you are wrong. You are looking for the perfect person, and there are no perfect people. Perhaps you are bored, and looking for trouble where there is none. That is the point, there is no trouble at this moment. You have a great imagination.


This may be a good reading, or it may have nothing to do with you.

But i tried!