Sometimes a paranormal experience may prove to be a synchronicity for someone else. It can be particularly difficult when that someone else is a member of your family and a skeptic. That’s what happened in the following story, sent to us by a woman who sometimes hears or sees spirits or ghosts. She wishes to remain anonymous because she thinks the story is a bit too “woo-woo” for the business in which she works. So we’ll call her June, her husband will be Max and her brother-in-law, Bob.
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Before Christmas, my brother-in-law, Bob, went shopping to find a gift for me. As soon as he entered the shop, the female clerk said, “You’re here to get a gift for your sister.” He told her no, his sister-in-law. She said, “No. She’s more like a sister to you. Not the traditional sister-in-law relationship.” This was accurate.
“The woman told Bob that she sensed the eagle around me and brought out a crystal that was called “eagle Head.’ Bob remembered that I had carted an ill eagle around most of Arizona looking for a vet that would treat it. Another woman who just happened to be in the shop looked around and said, “Her name is Jenny, but that’s not her real name. She just prefers it to her real name. When did Jenny die?” My brother-in-law told her my name was June and I was still alive. Jenny/June. Close. Then he continued to talk to the store owner until she went in the back to wrap my crystal.
“The other shopper then said, “No. It’s Jerry. That’s what she likes to be called, but it’s not her real name. And she’s dead.” Well, Bob’s mother’s name was Jerry, short for Geraldine, which she hated. And the woman said, “Jerry is all over a situation you’re handling right now. She wants you to know you don’t have to worry.”
So the situation is weird enough – two random shoppers brought together one day in a store so that Bob could hear from his dead mother, Jerry, that she was on top of a “situation” – which was probably the fact that Bob’s wife lost her entire family this past year – her dad to cancer, her mother to emphysema, and then her
brother to suicide.
Bob was less of a skeptic when he left the store. Also, when he told this story to a friend he and his wife had over for dinner, a Christmas ornament fell off the tree as soon as he finished, startling everyone. It was a metal ornament that belonged to his mother, Jerry.
Then there’s Max, June’s husband. “Jerry was also Max’s mom and she’s the one who kept talking to me in my dream state and almost wrecked my marriage because Max didn’t believe me. I demanded that she prove herself to me and Max, so I picked a bracelet out and told her to make Max buy it for me.
“We were on vacation and I chose something odd to make it a really good test. Max had never purchased jewelry for me on a trip, and it was my test so why not make it fun? I was walking the city without Max, saw these bracelets, liked the purple one and decided that would be the test. Well, after a few days I went back
to the store and just bought the bracelet because I knew Jerry would never get through to Max. We came home from our trip, and low and behold, Max pulls a jewelry bag out of his luggage! Yes, the same exact bracelet. And purple. There was like a dozen colors to choose from. It took him a few more big ticket
items to realize that I was really connecting with dead people, even if it doesn’t jive with today’s version of science.
“Once I was able to convince Max and his brothers that their mom was coming to me and talking they started having these kinds of encounters on their own. So it just took them being open to the possibility that life, or more accurately death, was not exactly as it seems, she could start contacting them on her own without my
assistance.”
It also just occured to me that the word "touch" without the "t" is "ouch"
etymology:
-"ouch", from Ger. autsch "cry of pain".
-"touch", from V.L. *toccare "to knock, strike" as a bell.
Jane Roberts/Robertt Butts/Braveheart fashion?!!
Oh that Trickster, what a character
;-)(-;
wv: oushias ('toushies' without the T?… or is that 'touche' as in French touche/engarde)
No butts about it!
Hey! Are you making fun of my butt?!! 'Cause I'll have you know, I've gotten into some pretty big scarey trouble for having dared to mispell 'but', M's. loly
wv: smselit (hmm, "smell it"?!)
That's a big butt, T. lol
It seems (to me anyway) that if you have an "educated" background in a field you have the 'right' to hypothesize on any subject whatsoever with fervour and passion. Butt, if the average Jane/Joe public (without 'formal' education)form the same hypothesis,they become fair game for psychiatrists to then "diagnose" Jane/Joe as grandiose and delusional.
wv: ingen
Good points, Marcus. We wonder what Sagan thinks about life after death now.
Thanks for that distinction, Marcus. That story about Sagan is interesting. I'd never heard that one.
While exploring unknown territory a sceptic eye is always a good thing. Holding strongly to a particular theory is also good, since confidence encourages further research until the theory is either proved or disproved. History though warns us: when people believe strongly about certain preconceived notions, challengers were more often than not, murdered.
In our part of the world people are generally no longer murdered, butt they can certainly be made to suffer. That’s why the author of your story wanted to remain anonymous. It requires bravery to explore new hypothesis against the broader backdrop preconcieved notions.
waaay too many coincidences in one go. if this doesn't make a believer, nothing will…
I like Rupert Sheldrake's distinction between genuine skepticism and dogmatic materialism. Genuine skepticism is an openminded and questioning doubt. Dogmatic skepticism is a blind refusal to acknowledge data which lie beyond one's perspective or worldview.
There is nothing wrong with a skeptical viewpoint. It's the most rational way to address unusual phenomena. It can be the beginning of genuine insight and learning. In his book "When the Incredible Happens", Stan Grof writes of an encounter with famous physicist Carl Sagan. Grof presented Sagan with repeated evidence for the voracity of the Near Death Experience. According to Grof, Sagan rejected or explained away each new piece of data, and when provided with definitive cases declared that they must be fake.
That's dogmatic skepticism.
Genuine skepticism is actually very healthy.
Marcus T. Anthony
Great story. Living with a sceptic is sometime difficut. Exhausting. But when they start to see their own synchronicities and connections it can make for a much deeper relationship.
Your blog is eye-candy, Frieda. Beautiful!
Thank you so much for your lovely comment on my blog and I have since spend ages reading yours. What a wonderful collection of examples of synchronicity and great writing about it! I'll be keeping my eye out for your upcoming book!
well, glad to hear that it wasn't my mind gone "blank" cause i was here earlier and commented on an entirely different post – uh, didn't i???
of this post!!! terrific story!!! and jeff is right i think – there are those concrete thinkers and believers – who must have everything carved into stone – and those of us who are abstract thinkers – loving that airbrushed approach to life and things thereof!!!
The original post was messed up, so we fixed it – and then lost the comments. Fortunately, the comments show up on my Blackberry. Several people commented in the lack of text (no surprise!) but Jeff highlighted the blank area and was able to read it. Here are the highlights:
Jeff: I've come to realize skepticism is rooted in belief.It's not that they're just questioning the unseen or synchronicity, but they believe in a materialist universe. So when presented with an experience that doesn't fit in with their materialistic beliefs, they question the validity of the experience.