What supernatural/seemingly supernatural things have you witnessed ?

[Jeremy]

Free arcade games = awesome mum

[minkturtle]

...

[Sue]

@minkturtle - I once had a friend who could affect stuff like that. Don't think she ever played machines though!

She was also a healer, and worked with cancer (I think) patients (with the doctors' permission) in an NHS hospital (I mention the hospital work only in an attempt to stop further mocking, though I doubt it will).

I agree that having precognition can be a curse. There are some things you just don't want to know about, particularly in advance.

ETA - sorry, wrote the above before I'd seen your later post, what you say is very interesting. I have (another) friend who has a similar what I would call gift. She can also do absent healing, and I can always tell if she's been doing it on me even if she hasn't said she's going to, because I can feel it.

@Jeremy - I believe what you say about particle theory (or whatever it's currently called) is correct, but the alternative to thinking that there's an actual scientific explanation for some of the incidents described above is that there is some "psychic" thing going on, however you choose to define "psychic". Isn't it?

And we have no idea if or how parallel universes might interact, assuming they exist in some way. Many things, like flight and space travel, which used to be considered "in the realms of science fiction", as you put it, were subsequently found to be possible.

And now I must get off the forum cos got a gig tonight and things to do for it. Damn!

[Ted Max]

Sue - some other explanations could be...

Pills: The hayfever pills were mislaid in the folds of an article of clothing or bag, and dropped out into the middle of the room as your brother left the house left one day, without him noticing.

Bike: Somebody took the bike, did not dust it (the bastards), and then put it back.

Headache: The spare room was too hot/cold/exposed to CO. Or the guests were typically served strong drink in generous quantities the night before.

Car Key: You bent the car key in your pocket because you have untapped and otherwise unused and unnoticed supernatural powers.

I'm not mocking, but you don't have to go too far to come up with reasons other than the paranormal, or parallel, worlds. We see, I guess, what we want to see.

You woke "feeling strange", for example. Already a shade of glass in place to cloud the vision.

[KidKruger]

I do not require explanation for the stories, so posters please share your experiences !!

Don't feel obliged to justify everything.

[ianr]

oilworker Wrote:

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> "Will you tell us the precise location?"

>

> yes - at the letter "o "where it says "San Donato"

Thanks, I'll have a look next time I'm down the Duomo.

[HAL9000]

Jeremy Wrote:

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> HAL - my understanding of the many-worlds

> interpretation, is that a particle has many

> simultaneous states until it is observed... at

> which point, a single one of those states gets

> bound to our reality, and the other states fork

> off to parallel "worlds".

You appear to be conflating many-worlds with the Copenhagen Interpretation? Many-worlds denies observer-induced wavefunction collapse, although incidental observers (as you say) are bifurcated into alternative reality streams (or 'worlds') that experience all possible outcomes, each resulting new instance of the original observer being a superposition.

Use of the word 'parallel' is incorrect in this context ? these phenomena are best described as 'alternative' realities. Parallel universes proper are the product of other scientific theories.

> I've not read anything about parallel worlds re-integrating with each

> other - that's in the realm of science fiction.

Science has observed the re-integration of superpositions through decoherence.

> Even if such things were possible, the

> probabilities are so infinitesimally small,

> practically any other explanation is preferable.

When dealing with infinite possibilities, it should not be considered anomalous for the more likely outcomes to be quite common relative to our perception of the rate at which time passes ? in my view.

Last week's Horizon program What is Reality? attempts to illustrate these concepts for a popular audience.

The insurmountable hurdle here is that we are trying to understand a process that affects our own individual perceptions of reality ? even if everyone were to wake up in an alternative reality every morning ? we?d have no way of distinguishing between such a reality and the one we think we are experiencing.

We are now literally at the boundary between objective science and subjective phenomenology.

[KidKruger]

That's exactly what I was about to say HAL9000.

[Huguenot]

It would take a spectacularly anthropocentric (or shall we say religious) approach from quantum mechanics in order to use it to whip the bicycle from the student house of the daughter of a lady already predisposed to believe in the supernatural.

To consequently fail to dust the damn thing almost seems rude.

As for minkturtle, you clearly are the new messiah (albeit without the stern moralising), and I shall do my best to ensure that I play no part as a bureaucratic Pontius Pilate.

I have in fact been an absent healer for many years. You get no gratitude. I cured a fat bastard from a small town near Phoenix Arizona yesterday and he put it down to Lemsip. I've slapped him down with Leukaemia but he won't find out for two months. I hope that someone else is going to look after that one.

[Jeremy]

HAL9000 Wrote:

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> You appear to be conflating many-worlds with the

> Copenhagen Interpretation? Many-worlds denies

> observer-induced wavefunction collapse, although

> incidental observers (as you say) are bifurcated

> into alternative reality streams (or 'worlds')

> that experience all possible outcomes, each

> resulting new instance of the original observer

> being a superposition.

I have no doubt that my explanation contains some inaccuracies, but I think the basic thrust is correct. Many-worlds avoids wave function collapse by having all other states branch off into other worlds.

> Science has observed the re-integration of

> superpositions through decoherence.

What's your source? I'm at the very limits of my knowledge here, but according to wikipedia, decoherence is basically "a loss of information from the system into the environment" and is irreversible. You are suggesting the opposite!

> When dealing with infinite possibilities, it

> should not be considered anomalous for the more

> likely outcomes to be quite common relative to our

> perception of the rate at which time passes ? in

> my view.

In my view the probability of the disappearance and re-appearance of an entire large object can be treated as zero, in any QM discussion. I agree with Huguenot, in that this would be a gross distortion of the theory.

[ClareC]

Can we stick with the spooky stories and start another thread debating possible explanations?

[brum]

My housemate's boyfriend had just killed himself after she dumped him. In her grief, she arranged for a medium to visit her, hoping she could somehow communicate with him. As we waited for the medium to arrive, the doorbell rang. Assuming it was him, I opened the door only to find nobody there, or anywhere nearby. Puzzled, I looked up the street and saw in the distance a solitary figure slowly approaching, walking with the aid of a stick. It was the medium.

[RosieH]

I was once taking part in an end of term quiz at school. Fastest chalker first on the blackboard. I stood with chalk in hand and knew the answer to the question before the question had even started to be asked. I knew the answer was going to be Scrooge.

For about 10 minutes I was convinced I had supernatural powers, and then, as a precocious and cynical 13 year old, I realised that it was the end of the autumn term (i.e. 5 days or so before Christmas) and clearly the questions had been leading in a Dickens-direction. So while I may not be supernatural, I am Derren fricking Brown, and that'll do for me.

However, my cunt of an ex-boss (big believer in astrology incidentally, and who also has regular premonitions) had a vision while on a hill overlooking Jerusalem, that told him how his organisation should be run. He came home and made me redundant. He's a cunt. And so are his "visions".

[karter]

Doesn't mean to say his organisation will run better without you RosieH, things just happen, and for a reason i suppose. Spooky story though.

[HAL9000]

Jeremy Wrote:

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> HAL9000 Wrote:

> --------------------------------------------------

> > Science has observed the re-integration of

> > superpositions through decoherence.

> What's your source? ... according to wikipedia,

> decoherence is basically "a loss of information

> from the system into the environment" ...

See Wiki's Quantum Decoherance page, section 6 Experimental Observation:

The collapse of a quantum superposition into a single definite state was quantitatively measured for the first time by Serge Haroche and his co-workers at the ?cole Normale Sup?rieure in Paris in 1996. ... Haroche and his colleagues measured the resulting decoherence via correlations between the energy levels of pairs of atoms sent through the cavity with various time delays between the atoms.

If you are referring to this Wiki page then the version in your reality must be different from mine ? spooky!

[Jeremy]

HAL - I'll take it to PM, as nobody else is interested!!

[HAL9000]

Great idea.

[katie1997]

I had a 'vision' that you would both take this to private messaging. Spooky, eh?

*cue eerie music*

[Ladymuck]

Jeremy Wrote:

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> HAL - I'll take it to PM, as nobody else is

> interested!!

I was interested!!!!!!

[Keef]

I get deja vu quite often, but apparently it's just a short circuit in the brain...

Me too, and I find it a bit unsettling sometimes. Don't think there is anything supernatural about it though.

When I was in the first year of uni, my girlfriend was living in an all girls hall, and she and at least 2 other girls were convinced they'd seen ghosts. Thing is, I'd stay with her there all the time, and I'd always be asleep when the ghosts decided to put in an appearance!

Now, my ex had her faults, but she wasn't a liar, and I knew her well enough to know that she was scared, and believed what she was telling me she'd seen (2 different ghosts, in her room at different times, I think one was wearing a robe like a monk). I tried suggesting that the big tree outside the window tended to cast shadows on her walls, and stuff like that, but she was adamant, and went in to some detail about what she believed she'd seen.

In the end, her room, and those of a couple of other girls, were "exorcised" by a priest (I wasn't there for the actual process, but I suspect they did a blessing or something).

I never saw anything, and I don't really believe in ghosts and things, but I believe that the girls believed in what they were saying. It was all rather odd.

[Guest]

Interesting topic.

About a year ago I was at a psychic demonstration and was told that I'd soon have a reminder of my late grandmother, to whom I was very close. I kind of shrugged at the time as it seemed rather vague. Lying in bed one morning a few days later, I glanced at a large piece of clear green glass that sits on my bedroom window sill where it catches the light, and inside it I could see my grandmother's face clearly, just as it appears in a black and white photo that most of my family have a copy of. A few weeks later I had to move the glass and haven't been able to see it again.

[Guest]

Another one:

A few years ago I was living outside London and cycling home late one summer night from the local station. As usual I turned down a quiet residential road to avoid the busy and horrible main road through the village, where I felt vulnerable even in daylight.

As I turned a voice I didn't recognise said calmly and clearly that it would be sensible to go by the main road where it was better lit. I carried on anyway and saw further down two cars facing each other; due to the cars parked on both sides of the road it was obvious one would have to back up and let the other pass. I cycled slowly towards the one closest to me to make sure I and my lights were visible in the driver's mirror. It seemed that neither driver was prepared to give way but there was a 2-3 foot gap between them and the parked cars that I could get through. The driver closest to me was a woman; the other car had a male driver and a female passenger, but all were in their forties or fifties and no signs of aggression so I wasn't feeling too concerned.

The calm, clear voice then said it would be better to go around by the pavement. Instead I got off my bike, trying to catch the eye of the driver closest to me and point to let her know where I was going. Just as I got between her and the parked car, she slammed her car into reverse and shot backwards at an angle, crushing me and my bike against the parked car and forcing the handlebars into my stomach. I tried to shout but luckily she saw me and stopped before I was seriously hurt.

Did wonder about guardian angels after that. However, we do have a perfectly good animal brain under the more highly evolved bit that we tend to rely on and perhaps it was the two at work together, translating a message about danger into a form I could receive easily (even if I decided against taking its advice).

By the way, the same voice said 'No' at the moment I met both my exes. Wish I'd listened to it.

[Jaws]

I have seen a ghost too - though I absolutely never believed in them whatsoever until I saw one. I always just thought it was peoples minds playing tricks on them or that they only 'saw' it because it was what they wanted to see...

You totally don't have to believe this of course, but I thought I'd share anyways...

Maybe 8 or 9 years ago I was staying up in Leicester at the Post House hotel - I'd stayed there a few times a week for around a month at that point as I was there for a work project. The evening in particular, I had dinner downstairs in the restaurant and had one bottle of Budweiser - which I didn't even finish as I took it upstairs to finish off in my room when I went up to bed around 9 o clock.

On all of my previous stays at the hotel, I had been given a room always up on the 3rd floor but on this occasion they allocated me a room in the newly refurbished wing on the 2nd floor.

I'm waffling I know...anyways - I pulled the heavy curtains closed so no light could come in, turned the tv off so that only the time in red could be seen at the bottom of the tv and went off to sleep.

Just to give you an idea of the room; as you walked in the main door, to the left was the bathroom and straight on (like 2 steps) was the bedroom - the bed was to the left, windows and tv straight ahead and a large mirror at the bottom of the bed on the other wall.

Around 2.34am I woke up as there was a light in my room coming from the area outside the bathroom and to the right of me, where the door to the room was - I was petrified as I truly believed that the porter or some dude had managed to get his way into my room so was lying dead still and trying to breath and think of what to do at the same time (I'm sure you know what I mean)! Anyway, I noticed the bottle of Budweiser that was on the bedside table so I made the decision to grab it and spin around to hit the dude before he got me! Trouble was, as I spun around with said bottle in hand ready to do some damage - there was a little old lady at the bottom of my bed all lit up!! And the second I saw her, my panic disappeared completely and I felt completely calm....

The lady was kind of shaking from side to side slightly and she was just standing there in her pleated skirt and short curly white hair - she never said a word to me at all...just stood there kind of like looking over me.

I checked the time at the bottom of the tv to make sure this was all real and I was not dreaming it - trust me, I wasn't - I continued to stare at this woman and the time on the tv screen continuously for about half an hour as I wanted to make sure the whole thing was really happening - I looked in the mirror at the bottom of the bed - where she was standing in front of, and couldn't see anything....looking at the old lady too, I she had no detail on her face - the oddest thing.

I got an overwhelming sense to lay down and off I went to sleep - to wake up remembering every single details, even to this day.

I have no idea who she was or what she wanted, but she was most definitely there.

[Sue]

Wonder if anyone else who had stayed there had ever seen her, Jaws?

Would be interesting if so, and to know who she was.

When my Mum died, at her funeral, one of my sisters saw her turning cartwheels - although my recollection is that she said it was "in front of the altar", and I'm not sure they have altars in a crematorium? Will have to ask her.

Just remembered something else which freaked me out somewhat. I went on this weekend course at the College of Psychic Studies, never done anything like it before (or since) but I'd had a few weird experiences and had found them quite scary and I thought if I found out more about what was going on I wouldn't be so scared.

Anyway, the main thing I remember is that we did this exercise where each person wrote their name on a piece of plain paper, then crumpled up the paper and put it in a bag. The tutor came round with the bag and we each had to pull out one of the crumpled up balls, open out the paper again, and talk about what we "got" from it.

With mine, I couldn't see anything on the paper at all really, and when it got to my turn I said all I could see was a boomerang, which meant nothing to me at all. The person whose paper it was then said she was about to emigrate to Australia. And no she hadn't mentioned this before, and I had never met her before.

[RosieH]

Belatedly read through this thread (in spite of posting).

Clearly Sue = hot loins.