I'm not sure if this falls under the realm of taboo forum topics (religion?), but I was curious to know what everyone's belief is regarding pets and the afterlife. That is, if you believe in an afterlife.
There was a writer from Atlanta - Lewis Grizzard. He talked often of his dog. A companion that lasted through several wives. He devoted multiple columns to his beloved pet both before and after he died. When Grizzard died after surgery, the Atlanta Journal Constitution posted a drawing (half-page, above the fold) of Lewis entering through the pearly gates with his dog waiting for him. That was the front page - I kept the copy. In another thread we talked about the pets we've had - I've always imagined that I would see them again - I believe I will.
I have never thought that animals had souls and therefore would not be a part of any afterlife, but I sincerely hope I am wrong.. I love my dogs!! I think that the rainbow bridge is a very good depiction of what I hope to experience in my own passing of this life. Everytime I read it - I get a little teary eyed. http://rainbowsbridge.com/Poem.htm
As my father-in-law neared the end of his life last December, he told my husband he soon would be joining his grandson, his mother, his brothers, and our dog Joe (all who had gone before him). I'm sure he's right on all that. I believe all beings are connected, and the animal spirits will be out there with ours.
I don't' really believe in anything, I consider my self an agnostic, and don't really want to talk about religion....
But I have to admit, I sure hope that when I pass I get to hangout with all my loved ones, friends, and pets that have passed... That would truly be heaven for me.
That rainbow bridge thing makes me tear up every time I read it.
Keeping the focus on religion as inexistent as possible: I don't know if there is an afterlife. I don't actually believe in it. But, if there is one, I think animals deserve it more than any human.
Aside from any religious viewpoints, I have had my share of experiences that convince me that there is "energy" that exists beyond this reality.
I was a Nursing Assistant for a facility in El Paso, Tx, for three years. This facility was more like a hospice than anything else. Most of the patients came to be cared for in the final chapters of their lives. I was privileged to be witness to several people passing on. One incident sent the hair on my arms to stand up.
I had just left a man's room with the attending RN, a "strict isolation" patient since he had VRE and MRSA. I had just finished bathing him and I knew from his breathing that the time was close. As the nurse and I were walking down the hallway away from his room we hear this loud CRASH!!! We rushed back to his room and found him in the position we had left him, he had passed; but across the room the double window was completely shattered outward (we were on the 5th floor). It was as if someone had taken a chair or something as big as one and threw it through the window. There was nothing below but broken glass in the parking lot.
This man, he was incapable of lifting anything or moving out of the bed due to advanced Parkinson's Disease. He was completely in a fetal position for many years, in and out of Nursing Homes. This time he was in the facility for infections to bedsores. He was not cognitive for years and could not even roll over on his own. He was kept alive with feeding tubes and IV.
There was an investigation afterwards. Nothing could account for the window. Nothing was missing from the room.
When we re-entered the room it was as if the temperature had dropped by 20 degrees. Hospitals are typically cold, but this was uncommonly cold. There was a distinct odor to the room, very similar to a stale bar. Afterwards, as we were talking, we decided this is what happened: This man died. He stepped out of his body; an old whithered, unrecognizable body whom he himself did not recognize. As he stood there he realized it was indeed himself. The shock must of been terrible for him. I do not think he understood that he was no longer physical and could have simply walked out of the room but instead jumped out of the window and as a result broke the glass in the process. He literally broke free of the nightmare before him. He may or may not of known his own state of being and somehow was able to breach the physical realm literally.
As we all discussed this at the Nurse's Station I clearly remember how we all stood there with our hairs standing on end and how unbelievable this was.
This was just one of the many occurances that I and others had witnessed. Once a woman I was caring for began to have conversations with someone in the room. It could have been accounted as Dementia, but as she was talking to this someone I asked her to tell me what she was seeing. She described the entire floor of the hospital as being "without walls, but with curtains partitioning areas". She described the people she saw as wearing white smocks and head dressings. She said people were covered on the tables. She passed away not long after this and this stuck with me. It was several months later that I learned that the 5th floor was the old "Morgue". One person that remembers it as the Morgue (some 25 years prior) described to me what it looked like. She told me how the workers there dressed and it was nearly perfect in detail. No walls, just curtains separating the various areas. Another hair-raising feeling hit me.
Perhaps we are so full of electrical energy that residually we leave behind imprints or impressions of what was. Perhaps some folks have a "Sight" and can see what once was. I cannot say, but I do believe that there is a thin veil between the world of the living and the world of the dead. That some folks simply keep living out the dramas of life until we come to terms with them. We even create the Heavens of our hearts and sometimes the Hells of our nightmares; it is a process of growth on either scale. I know I certainly would want an evil person to face the pain and suffering that they have caused others, and as equally so I want to believe that there is a peaceful place, a tranquil existance for all the good hearts of this world as well. Somewhere there is even a realm between worlds where we are given a time to adjust from one existence to another. Perhaps this is the "Rainbow Bridge", because the innocent animal is life energy itself, and life energy regenerates continuously into life itself over and over. I think that all creatures regenerate back into life, through the stars, through eternity, back into the innocence of life itself.
If we behave ourselves we just might find out .
I sort of hear the theme song for "The Twilight Zone" right now LOL. BOO!
My mother had a terminal form of adenocarcinoma and I was fortunate to be able to home hospice care for her. During the last 10 days of her life, she was on morphine and said many different things. We (my brothers and I) wrote them down. It could have been a complete hallucination on her part, but the conversations she had with people that weren't there (each one of them had passed away) has always stuck with me. I have always taken comfort in the peace that she had.
A good friend of mine, Brendan, killed himself when I was just out of college. It was horrible, he had shot himself in the stomach. Anyway, the day all of us [friends] found out we spent a lot of time at his house with his family and stayed up late sharing stories about him in his bedroom, where he had shot himself. We all fell asleep around midnight and then all woke up at exactly the same time, 3:21am, and the room was freezing - cold enough to see our own breath... now keep in mind this was in Georgia in the middle of the summer.
It was creepy to say the least, but it was also incredibly comforting to all of us, like we all just knew it was Brendan or something. It was months before any of us could talk to each other about what happened that night.
Really crazy!
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I am also a twin, and I have countless stories about "feeling" or "seeing" things that are happening to my sister and she has the same thing. It creeps people out when I tell them about it, but for Amberly [my sister] and I it is just normal and we don't even give it any thought.
Once I "saw" her have a car accident while I was driving to school [in high school]. I stopped and turned around to drive to the scene because I just could not check - it was just to real feeling - I arrived almost at the instant she slammed into a tree. I pulled her from the car and phoned for help.
There has been so many other small things w/ my sister and I but that is the most dramatic.
You and your sister are lucky to have been able to touch a part of mysteries of the Universe that most folks can only imagine. You amaze me LOL. A cat person gone dog person, and now this LOL. I love it.
Seriously, I think that there is more validation to this gift in twins that Science would never deny.
Once, when I was visiting my mom, we were discussing random things and she was discussing that month's finances. I looked at her and asked, "what are you going to do when Nicki and Jack get here?". She was a bit thrown by this because Nicki and Jack were this couple she knew years and years back in Germany. She laughed "what are you talking about? I have not spoken to them in years." I told her that I thought she got a letter recently saying they were coming into town for a visit. She said no.
I left and not 30 minutes later the phone rang and it was Nicki and Jack calling from just outside of town. They were pulling through on their way to California and thought they would surprise her. She told them what I said and even they were shocked because it was their intention to surprise her without warning.
I still remember it like a memory. Like I had heard it or read it prior to it happening.
The first is probably the least interesting. One day while in college, I was just feeling like crap. Anxious, jumpy, pissed off at everyone and everything and I couldn't figure out why. That afternoon I got a call from a friend telling me he had wrecked his car late the night before in a pretty spectacular accident and was just being released from the hospital. I instantly felt better.
When my grandmother (on my mom's side) passed, I was off visiting colleges with my mother. We left one city (I don't recall where exactly we were) and had a two hour drive to our next hotel. The weather was terrible...storming and raining. At 7:03pm, the song "Holes in the Floor of Heaven" by Collin Raye came on the radio---a song I had been wanting my mother to hear for months. At about the same time, off in the distance, a circular area of beautiful white clouds opened up in the dark clouds the blanketed the sky. Shortly after the song ended, the white clouds disappeared. We got to our hotel a little after 8:00 and had a message waiting for us from my father. My grandmother's heart had stopped beating at almost exactly 7:00pm.
When my sister was an infant, one night she started crying uncontrollably. My parents couldn't get her to stop no matter what they did. They tried feeding her, singing to her, taking her for a ride in the car, and none of those things worked. She cried for over three hours, and then, just as quickly as she started, she stopped. Five minutes later the phone rang and it was my grandmother calling to say that my grandfather had just come through a three hour emergency surgery and the prognosis was good.
Last one....When I was in high school, one summer I found myself very sick. After two weeks of tests and a surgery, I had to check into the hospital for treatments. That particular summer, my sister was living in small mountain village in Ecuador teaching public health issues to the villagers. She was cutoff from civilization. The villagers communicated information by yelling from mountain top to mountain top. The nearest phone for her was an entire day's trip that required her to walk for miles, then hitch a ride into town. Not 30 seconds after the first drips of medication went into my IV, the phone rang in my hospital room so I answered it. It was my sister. She didn't say hello, the first words out of her mouth were "David? Where are you? What's wrong?".
Ok Dave, those are fantastic evidences of the ability of "spirits" (or whatever) that are interconnected with one another to communicate on a different level. There are a number of materials out there related to this, sometimes referred to as "intuitive" (or as some of us would say, reading the mind of others). I have two close friends who I learned through our interactions with one another have this ability. I've experienced this many times with each of them, including everything from the very mundane (each calling one another simultaneously and leaving messages on one another's phone on the same random topic) to more serious stuff, although none so serious as the ones you described.
The intuitive process is used by some practitioners in alternative healing processes (energy healing, etc.) and I suspect a lot of the more conventional healers to discern the source of illness or pain. There are practicioners who apply this to both humans and pets. Both of my friend that I mention above have been/ currently practice some of the alternative therapies. One is a massage therapist I see weekly. Anyway, you can find lots of good Internet reading and books on this topic... just Google "intuitive medicine", "intuitive healing", "energy healing" or the like.
As you know from your experiences and others that have been recounted here, this form of communication is not just about medicine and healing, though. There may be certain people who have more of this with one another due to the lifelong psychic connection that exists with family members. For example, I find myself quite unsettled in my sleep some nights, and it seems inevitably if I have a chance to talk to my daughter later she may relate that overnight she experienced some sort of anxiety that kept her from sleeping well or at all (she lives away from us for the most part (kind of in and out of the house on a daily basis, though, and has been diagnosed with anxiety, depression and post-traumatic stress).
Ron - I agree, I think the twin thing is one of the few things most scientist will admit exist on some level.
Bev - I have done some reading, out of curiosity, on energy healing - there is a lot of that here in Taos. I can't say I prescribe to it, but I'm not close minded enough to totally discredit it.
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I have always had random psychic type things happen to me, I have always just figured it was coincidence. There are a few times tho that I have to admit must have been something more than just coincidence.
Here is an example, one that always sticks with me:
When I was in Art School and living at home I drove a 300zx that was always having issues. I found a guy, Greg, in the area that I lived at the time that specialized in Nissan and had my car at his shop very often to figure out some odd electrical bugs. I ended up getting on pretty good terms with the Greg, he was this crazy Irish Rally Racer... he was a pretty funny/interesting guy - I remember him referring to my gear shifter as a "nipple" that I must touch "gently". lol.
Anyway...
Well the last time my car was there it was a few days past the day it was supposed to be done [which was pretty normal], but for some reason I knew that Greg had passed away. I had no reason at all to think this would be the case, but for some reason I knew he had passed and I just couldn't bring myself to call and check on my car.
I remember my mom asked me if I had heard from them regarding the status of my car and I told her "No, I don't want to call". My mom ask me why and I said "I dunno, I just have this feeling Greg has passed". My mom looked at me like I was crazy and then asked me to call right there in front of her...
I called and a lady I had never spoke to answered, I asked for Greg and she said he was not there. I explained that my car was at the shop and I wanted to know the status...
She said "Brad?", I said "yes, that's me" she said, "I'm Greg's fiance, I'm sorry but Greg passed away last night."
I was shocked! Not shocked that it had happened - because I already knew that - but shocked at how connected we all are. My response to her was:
"I know, I dunno how, but I knew he had passed. I'm so sorry".
Come to find out he had terminal cancer and was in remission during the time he worked on my car. He had passed the night before in a car accident, driving 100+mph down the wrong side of the road!
That's what has always got me about the story - he didn't pass from cancer which I can connect to my subconscious picking up on his sickness or something... but this was a total random accident he had been killed in. It was so odd.
When I got off the phone and told my mom [tho she already knew because she was standing right next to me], she said "Brad, you have always done that, since you were tiny".
Alright, guess I will share one of mine. Like Brad, I have had a knack for this stuff. I can walk into most homes and I can tell you if someone has ever died there, how they died, and if they ever still come to "visit". I also have a 100% success rate in guessing the sex of my friends kids. But I digress.
When I was 9 my dad dropped me off at school. I was staying at a girlfriends house for a birthday slumber party. I felt sick the whole night. I kept throwing up. My mom came to pick me up early. I was sitting in the driveway waiting for her. When I got the car. She said Daddy didn't come home last night. I said okay. We got home and my house was filled with detectives and reporters. I went into my moms room and said "Mom Daddy isn't coming home" she said "Of course he is honey." I said "No he died today". She cried.
The next day the police found his body in a hotel room in Baltimore. He had taken his life.
To this day though whenever I am having a tough time a bluejay appears (my dad had a pet bluejay) and I know it's him. I have spotted them in places they aren't indigenous. He can be pushy like that.
It is kind of a fun thing on my part but I dabble in Numerology. I once attended a big party in San Antonio, TX, where I offered my services to raise money for the Animal Defence League. I must of done 25-30 readings that night and I am happy to report that I raised over $250 that night.
Well, during my readings this woman sat down at the table I had set up (she was next in line), and I recognized her from the local News Station there in San Antonio. I began to give her a reading when suddenly it hit me that she was pregnant (not visibly) and so I came right out and told her. She busted out laughing. She said she only found out herself and she hadn't even told her boyfriend yet. She was floored that this came up. I had a good buzz at the time and it was all in good fun.
I even got to meet Dennis Rodman and did a reading for him while he was with the San Antonio Spurs. Too fun.
whoooa. o___o; Those are incredibly creepy things. I think the only 'weird' thing that happens to me on a daily basis is that I have this thing where I always look at my watch almost everyday at 10:27 am. My dad's birthday is 10/27.
The only thing that does happen to me often is that sometimes I hear the jingle of a collar, or footsteps downstairs. ( Our pets aren't wandering around at night, dog is crated, and cat sleeps on my bed ) But, its been a year and a half since I put my dog and cat down. I have such an attachment to my previous dog that I cannot let it go ( I still tear up when I think about her ). I'm not sure if its me going mental, or if its really her.
Wow guys. This is just so cool for me to hear. I had no idea there were so many other people out there thad have had brushes with the meta-physical. Thanks everyone for sharing!
My imaginary friend when I was little was my grandpa. He's been dead since my mother was about 13. I honestly couldn't tell you what my mental state was at the time. Was I really speaking with my grandpa or was I making it all up for fun. I don't even remember when I stopped talking to him.
My little sister died in the house where my brothers live now. She was 2 weeks old at the time. If I'm in the living room in the middle of the night I could hear a baby crying from the bedroom where she used to sleep. Freaked me out because I was the only one who hears it.
I’m blessed with a very thick skin when it comes to the paranormal, so I don’t have that many spooky stories. I did have a rather pleasant gnostic ephinany in a parking lot outside of a Grateful Dead concert back in the day; but I have a feeling I wasn’t the only one. I walked away with a very profound appreciation for the fact that just because you can’t see it doesn’t mean it isn’t there. But I digress.
My real reason for posting is to make reference to the greatest (IMHO) Twilight Zone episode of all time, “The Hunt”. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hunt) they even have a link to the full episode. This should clear up any theological questions involving the importance of dogs in the afterlife.
Granted, it may well start a flame war amongst heretics who would dare to set other twilight episodes before it. ;-)
“Travellers to unknown regions would be well-advised to take along the family dog. He could just save you from entering the wrong gate. At least, it happened that way once—in a mountainous area of the Twilight Zone.”
I don't have any spooky stories but I can share one from a friend. Tim is a General's Aide and frequently I socialize with the General's wife when time permits. She is quite an interesting soul. For their honeymoon, they stayed in New York since Kelly is a country gal and has never ventured up north. The General, as you can imagine, is a military history buff and wanted to see all the hot spots such as the Pentagon and other American history landmarks. As they were riding in a cab around the city, they neared the World Trade Center. Kelly shouted "STOP! Stop the cab. There's going to be an attack" and made the cab pull over mid-traffic. She made her husband get out of the cab and took off full-speed in the opposite direction. He was pretty upset and embarrassed that she made such a scene. The next day, they went down to the Pentagon. It was a big deal to the General and they were given a personal tour of the premises. When they got to corridor 4, Kelly felt like her body was fire. She stopped in her tracks and told John that she felt like she was on fire. Again, he was embarrassed that she was acting so strange in front of their guide. She wouldn't go down the corridor and made him leave with her. September 11th happened two weeks later.
The really spooky part is she keeps having this recurring vision of being in an underground bunker surrounded by natural disaster relief items. She's holding her adopted Chinese daughter (they are in the process of adopting now) and the General isn't there. She sees herself climbing out of the shelter at night to give some supplies to her family down the street but everything outside is in ruin. It looks like a bomb hit. She doesn't know if it's a local disaster or worldwide and doesn't know if or more importantly, when it will happen.
When I lost Bandit, my girlfriend gave me the book "Cold Noses at the Pearly Gates". It was comforting, I enjoyed reading it and was thankful she shared it with me.
You guys really have your share of spooky/paranormal stories. I have a few, but I don't really like to even talk about them. One makes me feel incredibly guilty.
Don't feel guilty Heidi. When I started typing up my story Dahmer started intently staring off toward the bedroom and got me paranoid as heck. I don't think I'll be sharing stories anymore.
Here is a story my husband sent me for all of you who wonder about your pets life after death. Enjoy!
A man and his dog were walking along a road. The man was enjoying the scenery, when it suddenly occurred to him that he was dead. He remembered dying, and that the dog walking beside him had been dead for years. He wondered where the road was leading them.
After a while, they came to a high, white stone wall along one side of the road. It looked like fine marble. At the top of a long hill, it was broken by a tall arch that glowed in the sunlight.
When he was standing before it he saw a magnificent gate in the arch that looked like mother-of-pearl, and the street that led to the gate looked like pure gold. He and the dog walked toward the gate, and as he got closer, he saw a man at a desk to one side.
When he was close enough, he called out, 'Excuse me, where are we?'
'This is Heaven, sir,' the man answered.
'Wow! Would you happen to have some water?' the man asked.
'Of course, sir. Come right in, and I'll have some ice water brought right up.'
The man gestured, and the gate began to open.
'Can my friend,' gesturing toward his dog, 'come in, too?' the traveler asked.
'I'm sorry, sir, but we don't accept pets.'
The man thought a moment and then turned back toward the road and continued the way he had been going with his dog.
After another long walk, and at the top of another long hill, he came to a dirt road leading through a farm gate that looked as if it had never been closed. There was no fence.
As he approached the gate, he saw a man inside, leaning against a tree and reading a book.
'Excuse me!' he called to the man. 'Do you have any water?'
'Yeah, sure, there's a pump over there, come on in.'
'How about my friend here?' the traveler gestured to the dog.
'There should be a bowl by the pump.'
They went through the gate, and sure enough, there was an old-fashioned hand pump with a bowl beside it.
The traveler filled the water bowl and took a long drink himself, then he gave some to the dog.
When they were full, he and the dog walked back toward the man who was standing by the tree.
'What do you call this place?' the traveler asked.
'This is Heaven,' he answered.
'Well, that's confusing,' the traveler said. 'The man down the road said that was Heaven, too.'
'Oh, you mean the place with the gold street and pearly gates? Nope. That's hell.'
'Doesn't it make you mad for them to use your name like that?'
'No, we're just happy that they screen out the folks who would leave their best friends behind.'
Well, to add a little more to the story above, when my husband sent it onward he had a special comment about our farm "up North" in Mn. to all his friends and family. Although we still have the hand-pump up there, its no longer operative, but there is a dirt road, the driveway gate is always open, and the pets are equally welcome along with the humans. I guess that's why he views it as heaven on earth, as do his friends. Hope you all enjoyed this, and that you find a little piece of heaven on earth with your families, including your doggies and other pets. That way if you're not sure of the afterlife, you're likely to make the most of your time here!
Comments
I think that the rainbow bridge is a very good depiction of what I hope to experience in my own passing of this life. Everytime I read it - I get a little teary eyed.
http://rainbowsbridge.com/Poem.htm
But I have to admit, I sure hope that when I pass I get to hangout with all my loved ones, friends, and pets that have passed... That would truly be heaven for me.
That rainbow bridge thing makes me tear up every time I read it.
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I don't know if there is an afterlife. I don't actually believe in it. But, if there is one, I think animals deserve it more than any human.
I was a Nursing Assistant for a facility in El Paso, Tx, for three years. This facility was more like a hospice than anything else. Most of the patients came to be cared for in the final chapters of their lives. I was privileged to be witness to several people passing on. One incident sent the hair on my arms to stand up.
I had just left a man's room with the attending RN, a "strict isolation" patient since he had VRE and MRSA. I had just finished bathing him and I knew from his breathing that the time was close. As the nurse and I were walking down the hallway away from his room we hear this loud CRASH!!! We rushed back to his room and found him in the position we had left him, he had passed; but across the room the double window was completely shattered outward (we were on the 5th floor). It was as if someone had taken a chair or something as big as one and threw it through the window. There was nothing below but broken glass in the parking lot.
This man, he was incapable of lifting anything or moving out of the bed due to advanced Parkinson's Disease. He was completely in a fetal position for many years, in and out of Nursing Homes. This time he was in the facility for infections to bedsores. He was not cognitive for years and could not even roll over on his own. He was kept alive with feeding tubes and IV.
There was an investigation afterwards. Nothing could account for the window. Nothing was missing from the room.
When we re-entered the room it was as if the temperature had dropped by 20 degrees. Hospitals are typically cold, but this was uncommonly cold. There was a distinct odor to the room, very similar to a stale bar. Afterwards, as we were talking, we decided this is what happened: This man died. He stepped out of his body; an old whithered, unrecognizable body whom he himself did not recognize. As he stood there he realized it was indeed himself. The shock must of been terrible for him. I do not think he understood that he was no longer physical and could have simply walked out of the room but instead jumped out of the window and as a result broke the glass in the process. He literally broke free of the nightmare before him. He may or may not of known his own state of being and somehow was able to breach the physical realm literally.
As we all discussed this at the Nurse's Station I clearly remember how we all stood there with our hairs standing on end and how unbelievable this was.
This was just one of the many occurances that I and others had witnessed. Once a woman I was caring for began to have conversations with someone in the room. It could have been accounted as Dementia, but as she was talking to this someone I asked her to tell me what she was seeing. She described the entire floor of the hospital as being "without walls, but with curtains partitioning areas". She described the people she saw as wearing white smocks and head dressings. She said people were covered on the tables. She passed away not long after this and this stuck with me. It was several months later that I learned that the 5th floor was the old "Morgue". One person that remembers it as the Morgue (some 25 years prior) described to me what it looked like. She told me how the workers there dressed and it was nearly perfect in detail. No walls, just curtains separating the various areas. Another hair-raising feeling hit me.
Perhaps we are so full of electrical energy that residually we leave behind imprints or impressions of what was. Perhaps some folks have a "Sight" and can see what once was. I cannot say, but I do believe that there is a thin veil between the world of the living and the world of the dead. That some folks simply keep living out the dramas of life until we come to terms with them. We even create the Heavens of our hearts and sometimes the Hells of our nightmares; it is a process of growth on either scale. I know I certainly would want an evil person to face the pain and suffering that they have caused others, and as equally so I want to believe that there is a peaceful place, a tranquil existance for all the good hearts of this world as well. Somewhere there is even a realm between worlds where we are given a time to adjust from one existence to another. Perhaps this is the "Rainbow Bridge", because the innocent animal is life energy itself, and life energy regenerates continuously into life itself over and over. I think that all creatures regenerate back into life, through the stars, through eternity, back into the innocence of life itself.
If we behave ourselves we just might find out .
I sort of hear the theme song for "The Twilight Zone" right now LOL. BOO!
Ron
A good friend of mine, Brendan, killed himself when I was just out of college. It was horrible, he had shot himself in the stomach. Anyway, the day all of us [friends] found out we spent a lot of time at his house with his family and stayed up late sharing stories about him in his bedroom, where he had shot himself. We all fell asleep around midnight and then all woke up at exactly the same time, 3:21am, and the room was freezing - cold enough to see our own breath... now keep in mind this was in Georgia in the middle of the summer.
It was creepy to say the least, but it was also incredibly comforting to all of us, like we all just knew it was Brendan or something. It was months before any of us could talk to each other about what happened that night.
Really crazy!
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I am also a twin, and I have countless stories about "feeling" or "seeing" things that are happening to my sister and she has the same thing. It creeps people out when I tell them about it, but for Amberly [my sister] and I it is just normal and we don't even give it any thought.
Once I "saw" her have a car accident while I was driving to school [in high school]. I stopped and turned around to drive to the scene because I just could not check - it was just to real feeling - I arrived almost at the instant she slammed into a tree. I pulled her from the car and phoned for help.
There has been so many other small things w/ my sister and I but that is the most dramatic.
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You and your sister are lucky to have been able to touch a part of mysteries of the Universe that most folks can only imagine. You amaze me LOL. A cat person gone dog person, and now this LOL. I love it.
Seriously, I think that there is more validation to this gift in twins that Science would never deny.
Once, when I was visiting my mom, we were discussing random things and she was discussing that month's finances. I looked at her and asked, "what are you going to do when Nicki and Jack get here?". She was a bit thrown by this because Nicki and Jack were this couple she knew years and years back in Germany. She laughed "what are you talking about? I have not spoken to them in years." I told her that I thought she got a letter recently saying they were coming into town for a visit. She said no.
I left and not 30 minutes later the phone rang and it was Nicki and Jack calling from just outside of town. They were pulling through on their way to California and thought they would surprise her. She told them what I said and even they were shocked because it was their intention to surprise her without warning.
I still remember it like a memory. Like I had heard it or read it prior to it happening.
Now if I can only generate the Lotto numbers LOL.
Ron
The first is probably the least interesting. One day while in college, I was just feeling like crap. Anxious, jumpy, pissed off at everyone and everything and I couldn't figure out why. That afternoon I got a call from a friend telling me he had wrecked his car late the night before in a pretty spectacular accident and was just being released from the hospital. I instantly felt better.
When my grandmother (on my mom's side) passed, I was off visiting colleges with my mother. We left one city (I don't recall where exactly we were) and had a two hour drive to our next hotel. The weather was terrible...storming and raining. At 7:03pm, the song "Holes in the Floor of Heaven" by Collin Raye came on the radio---a song I had been wanting my mother to hear for months. At about the same time, off in the distance, a circular area of beautiful white clouds opened up in the dark clouds the blanketed the sky. Shortly after the song ended, the white clouds disappeared. We got to our hotel a little after 8:00 and had a message waiting for us from my father. My grandmother's heart had stopped beating at almost exactly 7:00pm.
When my sister was an infant, one night she started crying uncontrollably. My parents couldn't get her to stop no matter what they did. They tried feeding her, singing to her, taking her for a ride in the car, and none of those things worked. She cried for over three hours, and then, just as quickly as she started, she stopped. Five minutes later the phone rang and it was my grandmother calling to say that my grandfather had just come through a three hour emergency surgery and the prognosis was good.
Last one....When I was in high school, one summer I found myself very sick. After two weeks of tests and a surgery, I had to check into the hospital for treatments. That particular summer, my sister was living in small mountain village in Ecuador teaching public health issues to the villagers. She was cutoff from civilization. The villagers communicated information by yelling from mountain top to mountain top. The nearest phone for her was an entire day's trip that required her to walk for miles, then hitch a ride into town. Not 30 seconds after the first drips of medication went into my IV, the phone rang in my hospital room so I answered it. It was my sister. She didn't say hello, the first words out of her mouth were "David? Where are you? What's wrong?".
The intuitive process is used by some practitioners in alternative healing processes (energy healing, etc.) and I suspect a lot of the more conventional healers to discern the source of illness or pain. There are practicioners who apply this to both humans and pets. Both of my friend that I mention above have been/ currently practice some of the alternative therapies. One is a massage therapist I see weekly. Anyway, you can find lots of good Internet reading and books on this topic... just Google "intuitive medicine", "intuitive healing", "energy healing" or the like.
As you know from your experiences and others that have been recounted here, this form of communication is not just about medicine and healing, though. There may be certain people who have more of this with one another due to the lifelong psychic connection that exists with family members. For example, I find myself quite unsettled in my sleep some nights, and it seems inevitably if I have a chance to talk to my daughter later she may relate that overnight she experienced some sort of anxiety that kept her from sleeping well or at all (she lives away from us for the most part (kind of in and out of the house on a daily basis, though, and has been diagnosed with anxiety, depression and post-traumatic stress).
Ron
Ron - I agree, I think the twin thing is one of the few things most scientist will admit exist on some level.
Bev - I have done some reading, out of curiosity, on energy healing - there is a lot of that here in Taos. I can't say I prescribe to it, but I'm not close minded enough to totally discredit it.
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I have always had random psychic type things happen to me, I have always just figured it was coincidence. There are a few times tho that I have to admit must have been something more than just coincidence.
Here is an example, one that always sticks with me:
When I was in Art School and living at home I drove a 300zx that was always having issues. I found a guy, Greg, in the area that I lived at the time that specialized in Nissan and had my car at his shop very often to figure out some odd electrical bugs. I ended up getting on pretty good terms with the Greg, he was this crazy Irish Rally Racer... he was a pretty funny/interesting guy - I remember him referring to my gear shifter as a "nipple" that I must touch "gently". lol.
Anyway...
Well the last time my car was there it was a few days past the day it was supposed to be done [which was pretty normal], but for some reason I knew that Greg had passed away. I had no reason at all to think this would be the case, but for some reason I knew he had passed and I just couldn't bring myself to call and check on my car.
I remember my mom asked me if I had heard from them regarding the status of my car and I told her "No, I don't want to call". My mom ask me why and I said "I dunno, I just have this feeling Greg has passed". My mom looked at me like I was crazy and then asked me to call right there in front of her...
I called and a lady I had never spoke to answered, I asked for Greg and she said he was not there. I explained that my car was at the shop and I wanted to know the status...
She said "Brad?", I said "yes, that's me" she said, "I'm Greg's fiance, I'm sorry but Greg passed away last night."
I was shocked! Not shocked that it had happened - because I already knew that - but shocked at how connected we all are. My response to her was:
"I know, I dunno how, but I knew he had passed. I'm so sorry".
Come to find out he had terminal cancer and was in remission during the time he worked on my car. He had passed the night before in a car accident, driving 100+mph down the wrong side of the road!
That's what has always got me about the story - he didn't pass from cancer which I can connect to my subconscious picking up on his sickness or something... but this was a total random accident he had been killed in. It was so odd.
When I got off the phone and told my mom [tho she already knew because she was standing right next to me], she said "Brad, you have always done that, since you were tiny".
creeps me out.
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Like Brad, I have had a knack for this stuff. I can walk into most homes and I can tell you if someone has ever died there, how they died, and if they ever still come to "visit". I also have a 100% success rate in guessing the sex of my friends kids. But I digress.
When I was 9 my dad dropped me off at school. I was staying at a girlfriends house for a birthday slumber party. I felt sick the whole night. I kept throwing up. My mom came to pick me up early. I was sitting in the driveway waiting for her. When I got the car. She said Daddy didn't come home last night. I said okay. We got home and my house was filled with detectives and reporters. I went into my moms room and said "Mom Daddy isn't coming home" she said "Of course he is honey." I said "No he died today". She cried.
The next day the police found his body in a hotel room in Baltimore. He had taken his life.
To this day though whenever I am having a tough time a bluejay appears (my dad had a pet bluejay) and I know it's him. I have spotted them in places they aren't indigenous. He can be pushy like that.
Well, during my readings this woman sat down at the table I had set up (she was next in line), and I recognized her from the local News Station there in San Antonio. I began to give her a reading when suddenly it hit me that she was pregnant (not visibly) and so I came right out and told her. She busted out laughing. She said she only found out herself and she hadn't even told her boyfriend yet. She was floored that this came up. I had a good buzz at the time and it was all in good fun.
I even got to meet Dennis Rodman and did a reading for him while he was with the San Antonio Spurs. Too fun.
Ron
The only thing that does happen to me often is that sometimes I hear the jingle of a collar, or footsteps downstairs. ( Our pets aren't wandering around at night, dog is crated, and cat sleeps on my bed ) But, its been a year and a half since I put my dog and cat down. I have such an attachment to my previous dog that I cannot let it go ( I still tear up when I think about her ). I'm not sure if its me going mental, or if its really her.
My little sister died in the house where my brothers live now. She was 2 weeks old at the time. If I'm in the living room in the middle of the night I could hear a baby crying from the bedroom where she used to sleep. Freaked me out because I was the only one who hears it.
My real reason for posting is to make reference to the greatest (IMHO) Twilight Zone episode of all time, “The Hunt”. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hunt) they even have a link to the full episode. This should clear up any theological questions involving the importance of dogs in the afterlife.
Granted, it may well start a flame war amongst heretics who would dare to set other twilight episodes before it. ;-)
“Travellers to unknown regions would be well-advised to take along the family dog. He could just save you from entering the wrong gate. At least, it happened that way once—in a mountainous area of the Twilight Zone.”
The really spooky part is she keeps having this recurring vision of being in an underground bunker surrounded by natural disaster relief items. She's holding her adopted Chinese daughter (they are in the process of adopting now) and the General isn't there. She sees herself climbing out of the shelter at night to give some supplies to her family down the street but everything outside is in ruin. It looks like a bomb hit. She doesn't know if it's a local disaster or worldwide and doesn't know if or more importantly, when it will happen.
Crazy huh?!
A man and his dog were walking along a road. The man was enjoying the
scenery, when it suddenly occurred to him that he was dead. He remembered
dying, and that the dog walking beside him had been dead for years. He
wondered where the road was leading them.
After a while, they came to a high, white stone wall along one side of the
road. It looked like fine marble. At the top of a long hill, it was broken
by a tall arch that glowed in the sunlight.
When he was standing before it he saw a magnificent gate in the arch that
looked like mother-of-pearl, and the street that led to the gate looked like
pure gold. He and the dog walked toward the gate, and as he got closer, he
saw a man at a desk to one side.
When he was close enough, he called out, 'Excuse me, where are we?'
'This is Heaven, sir,' the man answered.
'Wow! Would you happen to have some water?' the man asked.
'Of course, sir. Come right in, and I'll have some ice water brought right
up.'
The man gestured, and the gate began to open.
'Can my friend,' gesturing toward his dog, 'come in, too?' the traveler
asked.
'I'm sorry, sir, but we don't accept pets.'
The man thought a moment and then turned back toward the road and continued
the way he had been going with his dog.
After another long walk, and at the top of another long hill, he came to a
dirt road leading through a farm gate that looked as if it had never been
closed. There was no fence.
As he approached the gate, he saw a man inside, leaning against a tree and
reading a book.
'Excuse me!' he called to the man. 'Do you have any water?'
'Yeah, sure, there's a pump over there, come on in.'
'How about my friend here?' the traveler gestured to the dog.
'There should be a bowl by the pump.'
They went through the gate, and sure enough, there was an old-fashioned hand
pump with a bowl beside it.
The traveler filled the water bowl and took a long drink himself, then he
gave some to the dog.
When they were full, he and the dog walked back toward the man who was
standing by the tree.
'What do you call this place?' the traveler asked.
'This is Heaven,' he answered.
'Well, that's confusing,' the traveler said. 'The man down the road said
that was Heaven, too.'
'Oh, you mean the place with the gold street and pearly gates? Nope. That's
hell.'
'Doesn't it make you mad for them to use your name like that?'
'No, we're just happy that they screen out the folks who would leave their
best friends behind.'
Take care, and peace to everyone...