2010dad, you want to keep an open mind regardless of what science tells us?

Are you deranged? Do you even know what 'science' means? I can only hope that you are being purposefully disingenuous in a bid to meet some lovely ladies.

Until you have experienced it, you can't snub it IMO.
My DS2 can see spirits. And before you say anything, I DO NOT encourage him to talk about it. He simply points them out when they are there. I have watched is eyes track across a room as 'somebody' has walked past.
He does not tell lies at all - ever, and so I believe him.
I too, feel like a crackpot, but I know my own child.

I want to put but I mean it with more of a at the end, as it's each to their own beliefs and all that hippy shite!

Or possibly

TessaK and nula

It's all bollocks
But you can be trained to believe it's not

did she say whether, sorry.

Can I just add that I always used to take the almightly piss out of people who claimed to see the spirits of beloved pets!

TessaK - yes it is very hard to swallow - even for me! I question myself constantly, am I really having the experience that I think I am, am I genuinely feeling what I think I am, is there a rational explanation etc etc.

2010Dad - I wish that I had more answers to your questions, I really do! I am a complete beginner and as such I am not yet in a development circle and have not yet 'tested' myself on the public, iykwim.
I have not to date got a name, apart from my great grandmother's name - which I don't believe I knew beforehand, but it is quite possible that I was accessing information that I already had and just did not conciously remember. Therefore I don't count that instance!

I have had numerous communications with relatives of mine and my dh's over the past few years, and it is increasing. I saw several ghosts as a child and it frightened me so much that I kind of buried the whole thing (no pun intended).

I have felt the presence of an old lady (surprise surprise, yes I know!) at a friend's house, I very much wanted to 'sing' but not in english, I kept on humming, almost in a 'French' way, I wanted to tell my friend that the lady was there, she was a relative but NOT his mother, my lips started to tingle and I felt that I HAD to tell him that she wanted him to know she was just 'popping in' to check he was okay. That is as much 'information' as I got, I knew that my friend's mother had passed away sometime previously but that was all.

So as you can imagine, I felt like a complete dick tbh, but I told my friend who calming took it in his stride and said, that will be my great aunt, she loved French jazz, she loved to sing and had 100's of records etc, did she way whether I should get married or not? I didn't have an answer for that...

I was doing Reiki for a friend and I was 'visited' by two dogs which was the oddest thing ever, I felt their tails brushing against my back (I was crouching down, working on her feet while she sat in the chair) and I 'saw' my friend through the dogs' eyes. I knew how much they loved her and cared about her - that doggy love, you know? Again I felt like a total eejit but she took it calmly when I told her, saying oh yes that will be Beano and Tiger. I think that I was more weirded out than she was.

<sits and waits for men in white coats to arrive.>

I am hoping that as I develop I will be able to get more checkable details. This is as much for my sanity as anything else!

DippyDino, I like to keep an open mind on these things, regardless of what science tells us.

I would be interested to hear whether when you talk to peoples dead relatives, do you find out correct names 100% of the time (or are you told this beforehand, to help you find them), as well as confirming hard facts such as time/location of death and how they died, etc. Or are you only able to put forward vague suggestions to confirm you are talking to this person, such as a favourite dress or a much loved pet?

This is a genuine question, I am genuinely interested.

DippyDino

There's a saying that extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. If you can't prove that what you're doing is real, then it's hard to see why a rationalist would believe you. This may not bother you but perhaps you should ask yourself the question: what would it take to prove to me that I'm not psychic? There must be some sort of test that you would accept. Otherwise, we only have your word for it. You may be a genuine person, but can you see that this is hard to swallow?