My father in law passed away unexpectedly this week of a heart attack. He was young, in his sixties. It occurred in the morning. That evening, as my wife sobbed, my daughters alarm clock went off. He had bought the clock for her last year. In all the time she has had it, never once did she accidentally set it to go off again in the evening when turning it off in the morning. Yesterday, as my wife struggled to get information from his wife that he was in charge of for his mother's affairs as we now have to get control and take care of her grandmother, my dog went to the front door and barked for 20 minutes. Nobody was there. She didn't stop until we heard a crash in the bathroom. The bathtub toy scooper, which was adhered to the wall and that he had bought for our youngest daughter, had fallen off the wall. Years ago, we had a townhome that had an alarm when we bought it. We never activated it and never used it. One night the emergency light starts beeping for no reason. In the morning I got a call from my mother that my grandfather passed away in the middle of the night. I'm sure these things can be rationalized as mere coincidences but I tend to believe otherwise. Not a personal story but on the same note, is the story of Michael Murphy, the SEAL officer and Medal of Honor recipient from Operation Redwings (Lone Survivor). After his burial as his mother walked back to the procession she received a text. It was from Michael and read, paraphrasing, "Mom, I'm home safe. Love you." The service provider would trace the message; it was sent five months before when he returned to Hawaii from visiting his family. For some reason it didn't get delivered until that moment. Again, that can possibly be rationalized as coincidence but I tend to believe otherwise. Do any of you tend to believe these types of events are coincidences or are maybe something more?
It's what you want to believe and so you do. My take is that if it was real it would happen to everybody all the time.
sorry about the loss JB.........some say thats the best way to go but it doesn't ease the pain for those left behind. to answer ur question...NO. i don't subscribe to any sort of spiritual charades. i chalk it up to coincidence or pranks. i get into arguments from time to time with friends and relatives who believe otherwise. i tell them i would need absolute proof of such before i become a believer. not gloating here but having an MD and phD puts me on the scientific side of things. be strong for the family
I certainly didn't start this thread to ask for anyone's belief only to tell them they are wrong or dispute them.
My condolences for your loss Yes, I do believe that there is more than we know. I think most of the stories like you mentioned are in fact coincidences, but not all. I do believe in senses beyond the common 6 and abilities beyond common cognitive power. I think those are incredibly rare, but I believe people with extra abilities exist.
Perhaps it does, and people don't believe. You may be right on what people want to believe, but it sure is frickin freaky when it happens.
I've had experiences after a death in the family that were pretty damn spooky. Being a believer in life after death, I can understand certain occurrences being attributed to more than coincidence. JB, I feel for your loss pardner. Look to the family for strength in the coming days.
My condolences jb. I consider myself logical and not very spiritual, however there are 2 different incidents when a loved one passed that i can't really explain with logic and without being spiritual.
Yes I believe. An occurance the night of hurricane Sandy, where my area was devestated, and a dream I had the night before the attacks in Paris reinforces my thinking along the lines of what RuJfan said.
My condolonces... I believe that afterlife exists and there are phenomenons that mess with our intuition and surroundings that feel abnormal yet appear to be supernatural. God to me is real so I believe things like you experienced happen. When my grandmother died my mother felt like a gut punch early morning for no reason and then a little time we got the call.
I swear this story is true: My cousin named Madison 'Maddie' died in an accident at age 19. My uncle, as you can imagine, was/still is extremely distraught. And the day of her death, exactly the one year anniversary, he gets a phone call from some random number on his cell phone. [we later looked up the area code and it was Nebraska. He and his daughter had never been there] The guy on the other line says "Hello is Maddie there?" My uncle says "What?" He says "Is Maddie there?" My uncle says "who is this?" The guy says his name or whatever and that he was looking for his friend Maddie [whatever last name]. My uncle told him that he had the wrong number and that he is sorry if it seemed he was being rude but he lost his daughter named Maddie recently. The guy said he was sorry. They had a short conversation and the guy actually made my uncle feel a little better on that fateful day. Now Maddie isn't exactly the most common name and the Nebraska area code isn't anything close to our area code in terms of numbers. Its hard for me to believe that was a coincidence and I am a skeptical dude. Maybe heaven is in Nebraska, that will make the husker boy here happy.
JB sorry for your loss ! Here is my 2 cents,,,,,when we lose someone suddenly many times we look for a reason, a why ,it's human nature . I believe that there are 2 trains of thought on this,,,,one is sometimes people look for a reason or answer and will take almost anything as an answer or sign ( I am talking about them seeing a cloud formation that could appear to be something or someone or an animal running in front of their car NOT what happened to you ) and if that works for them and someone else wants to question or doubt it who cares so long as it works for them ? Since my wife's grandmother passed away her family has had lights flicker in different houses or hotels at the strangest times , either when they were talking about grandma or telling a story,,,I can't explain it but its happened so many times at so many different locations that I buy it. I also was in the same place as you and was looking for a why or reason And had something happen that could not be explained but worked for me and ended any doubts I had and MADE a believer out of me,,,,so yes I believe .
I believe I've had a couple out of body experiences (very strange). So this has led me to believe mind and body act in concert but are actually two separate entities. But here is a condensed story of an experience: I went to a restaurant for dinner. A middle aged couple was seated next to ours. Eventually, they spoke to us. I thought they said: "My son graduated today". I responded "congratulations!" The man leaned in and responded, "No, my son died today". I then immediately apologized and asked if I could talk with them. Now, the months leading up to this story prepared me for this conversation. My grandfather passed away less than a year ago at the time. This sparked my interest in death and so I stumbled across Near Death Experience (or NDE) testimonials. I've read thousands of these testimonials. At any rate, I began recounting some of the interesting things I read in the months leading up to this (I also asked them to immediately stop me if I say anything they find abusive) but the delivery of the the things I said to this man was almost not my own. Before I knew it our table had a crowd around it and people were listening diligently...mind you this is Friday happy hour at peak time. After my 'monologue' was complete, the couple thanked me and left. Now the interesting parts of this story are: 1) The couple said their son died that day and they were in the hospital with him when he passed. I asked them where and they said Rhode Island. They decided to get in their car and drive south and randomly decided to stop at the restaurant which I randomly decided to go to. (Absolutely coincidental) 2) At the end of the discussion I asked what their son's name was and it turned out their son had the same name as I do. Moreover, we both prefer to go by our full name as opposed to the common nickname. 3) The woman was a nurse. Some of the things I recounted she attested to seeing while working in the hospital. I'm not sure if the experience was as cathartic for the couple as it was for me. It was so profound for me, I wrote a whole story about it entitled "What Happened Tomorrow?" Our paths crossed and our relationship was perfect and then ultimately we will never meet again. I always wonder what happened tomorrow.
Sorry for your loss, but the paranormal is not fact based. However, I do enjoy watching documentaries about paranormal activities. It helps me sleep.
good story GQ. I would read your whole story. The most interesting part for me is the "the things I said to this man were almost not my own." - I remember reading something on Bob Dylan in recent years, looking back on his career. And they looked back at his famously incredible song lyrics and he to this day doesnt know how he came up with some of them and said a similar thing that they were "almost not my own"
Sorry for your loss JB. I didn't experience an after death thing but I lost my father 3 years ago in May. It was Tuesday when he passed away. On Monday before his death, around 3PM Eastern Time, 10 PM Turkish time, I felt a big sadness in my heart that I lost my father at that moment. I was in a meeting at the time. After that sadness came to me, I excused myself and left the meeting. Called Turkey to get an update about my father's health. Couldn't reach my brothers. Called my cousin and asked him about my father. He said he is fine. Apparently he wasn't fine when I called. He was hospitilized and my brothers were at the hospital. I went home with this heavy feeling in my heart. Slept the night and at 5 AM in the morning, my brother called and said we lost our father. Also my mom died 5 years ago. She had an Alzheimers disease. I typically go to Turkey in the summers. But that year, I felt a bug urge to go to Turkey in December and see how my mom was doing. I traveled to Turkey to see her. I saw her alive and 2 days later, we lost her. As if she was waiting for me to come before dying. In our culture, you don't bury the deceased in a coffin. You wrap the deceased in a white cloth and the kids of the deceased put the deceased into the grave with their own hands. Apparently my mom wanted me to be inside the grave with her other kids and put her to rest. This is my 2 cents about the topic.
