What just happened?! I don't know what to make of this.

[Believers]

I've had the strangest experience tonight and I don't know how to explain it.

I volunteer with a charity, and tonight myself and 3 others from there went out to a pub I've never been to before for a pre-Christmas drink.

At one point I went to the toilet and as I was on my way out a woman was on her way in. We exchanged pleasantries and went on our separate ways.

About 5 minutes after I'd joined my friends, this same woman came up to us, and sat next to me on the banquette thing. She took my hand and said she had to tell me something.

It was all a bit odd, but I figured she'd maybe had a drink, and I had no objection to her joining us. But then she said to me that she had xxx with her and he wanted me to know that he was happy, that he loved me and that it was time I moved on. She was crying as she said this and I started crying too because xxx was the name of my late dh.

I have no idea how she could've known any of this. None of us knew her, I'd never been to that pub before, dh's name isn't wildly unusual but not that common either, why did she come and find me after our brief encounter in the toilet etc.

I can't get my head around it! Any ideas?!

Ok. Like I said, nothing I say is going to make any difference as you firmly believe this, and i wasn't there so you can say anything you want to. There is nothing to be gained from me debating it with you because you are determined that it is definitely a supernatural event regardless. So... OK.

I've posted plenty of links on the thread for anyone who's interested in learning more about how the psychology works and the techniques used (which in my opinion is far more interesting than believing that a random woman in the street is getting messages from someone's dead dog).

Clearly people are very invested in wanting to believe this stuff and the power of that wish fulfilment is very strong. I have to get on with work now.

I will get flamed for saying this.....

I can remember being poorly (gastrointestinal issues) in hospital as a four year old and a man in a hospital gown visited me every day (I was there for about four days) and he sat next to me.

He told me off for not sharing my colouring book with the child in the next bed. I asked him for some sweets and he said it wasn't allowed. He wasn't a nurse or randomer.

I asked my mum who he was and she said nobody had visited me and that people weren't allowed to just walk into the children's ward. I can still remember it many years on. She said years later that I really scared her.

It was a very old hospital building which was eventually closed (my friend who is a nurse who isn't woo saw all sorts on that ward on her shifts, wouldn't go down it alone). I used to be a work house she said.

So my point is that we can't explain some things. The lady who came up to OP wasn't getting anything out of it money wise. I try to be open minded and it is puzzling when bizarre things occur.

I had a few people tell me I was owed money from a Will several years ago. A few relatives had died before that. Nothing happened and nobody has said it for a while. Cold readers or truthful? Who knows?

I am also a firm believer that some of us have abilities ( almost like how some people retain reflexes that most of us grow out of). There are of course many clever Fakes out there but also genuine people.
a medium I met randomly on holiday told me that my cousin Sarah would have 3 babies and my brother would be getting married. At the time my brother had been single for 10 yrs and socially awkward so this seemed very unlikely and my cousin was paralysed from the neck down when she was 14 so again unlikely and considered impossible by all of us. Lo and behold my cousin did indeed meet a lovely man and despite the odds has 3 lovely boys and my brother also met someone and married her. He also said quite a few other things which were accurate including my grandfathers actual name ( he lived in another country) which even I didn’t know as his was called by a nick name by family.
my daughter before she started school used to talk to a boy called Tom in our house not an imaginary friend she said he used to live here but died in a fire and wants me to be his new mummy 😳 on later researching our house I found there had been a fire in the garret and a boy had died. She also used to see people who we could esp when we drove past the crematorium - however when she started school these things faded and stopped. Might have been imagination or it might have been having an open enough mind to perceive and accept.

And was he wearing a modern hospital gown or a workhouse nightshirt?

Ok, those of us who know this stuff to be true were making it all up.
Would that make those of you who don't, happy?
An old quote.. for those who believe, no proof is necessary. For those who don't, no proof is ever enough.
You'll just have to wait until you get to Heaven, then you might remember this.. but probably not..

Eh?

Retrocausation is a wierd concept that really makes you think that not everything is known yet about things…I think it sounds genuine about the message you were given? So so wierd. But not as wierd as all the people insisting it is not true. How do you know?
Really interesting thread!

@6559maybe It's easy to scoff at things they don't understand.
I guess it makes folk feel superior to insist it's not true. ;-)

What has Heaven got to do with ghosts or mediums?

No one's accusing anyone making things up. I'm sure people believe what they're saying, that's how all con artists operate.
So many of these stories have begun with 'I'm usually a very rational person, but...'
No, your not rational and saying you were before your particular experience does not make your delusion any more convincing.

I would take it and be thankful that some people have this gift xxxx

@knittingaddict
People who have passed on are in Heaven.. mediums can pass messages on from them?

I don't think you understand how the scientific method works. It's not about having a preconceived belief and then refusing to change your mind. Hence the existence of all of the prizes on offer if anyone could ever prove these skills were real.

If 'ESP' of whatever form were proved to be real then rational people would believe it. Because it would have been, you know, proved.

In fact, it's been astoundingly, comprehensively not proved.

If what you're saying is that you believe in this regardless of any reality, facts or evidence, then you're simply saying that you believe it in as a religious article of faith. Which is fine and dandy, but has absolutely bollock all to do with reality.

It's a pity critical thinking isn't on the core curriculum for schools.

If there's a Heaven I rather hoped it would be a break from worrying constantly about my loved ones and having to organise their lives for them. How depressing. 😂

Do you believe in God mamabear and where does he fit into all this?

It really is.

I def think there are ones who have a gift, I had a v specific reading from someone who told me about my late estranged father- the details she gave me about his death and what was found in his bag even I didn’t know about.
I had to ask my brother who wasn’t estranged from him who confirmed what she had told me

It wasn’t your usual, he had pains in his chest etc , his death was by drowning.

Some people have a gift. You must have needed something and your passed husband sent it to you. Blessed to be watched over.

I read the prize rules and they seems a bit odd frankly. For a start it was only open to “professionals” until 2008 so if you didn’t make a living you wouldn’t be considered.
Anyway “Claims that cannot be tested experimentally are not eligible for the Challenge.” so the question is how do you test experimentally the person coming up to you in a pub?

The definition of a white Christmas is required in order to prove if we have or hadn’t one You’d be wrong to tell someone in Yorkshire the U.K. hasn’t had a white Christmas in 20 years because you live in Portsmouth where it hardly snows. So the definition comes from the Met office and it’s much less stringent than most people would say constitutes a white Christmas because it’s really hard to define.

What’s the definition of psychic? How do you rule out the lucky guesses or the skilled manipulators? But if you can’t define it you can’t rule out maybe people are either.

@Believers

I really don't believe any of this stuff. I like how Derren Brown has debunked a lot if the theatrics etc by doing to the same thing while acknowledging that it is all manipulation and suggestion. I also think it takes a special kind of sociopath to take advantage of people the way Derek Acorah etc do.

But (and I hate to be the person who comes along with a but...)

When I was about 21 I was coming to the end of a horrible relationship. We were in the on/off phase as it came to an end. All a bit dramatic because he was 10 years older than me and a narcissistic drama queen. He actually chucked me out and said it was definitely over one weekend. On the Monday I went to a student placement I had, which had absolutely no connection to him -we weren't at the same uni or studying the same subject or anything else. I was shown round the facility. I was pleased to be there and in good fettle I think. Never really been one to give anything away about my personal life when I'm in work mode. At the end of the tour, the manager, completely unprompted, told me it was time to leave the relationship for good, boyfriend was no good for me etc. Completely out of the blue -I'd said nothing about my personal life at all. In response to my confused face he told me that he had "the gift" and it had been a lifelong burden. He even mentioned that there would be a grand gesture...which there was, later that day a huge bouquet of roses arrived for me at my parents house. The whole thing was really weird and I've never really arrived at an explanation that makes sense or resonates with the specifics of what happened.

@knittingaddict
I do indeed believe in God, & He believes in me. :-)
You'll be relieved to hear that you don't have to sort your rellies out in Heaven, they want to help & guide us! It's not all choirs & angels, lol, I knew my mum wouldn't be long for this world when my late dad told me that 'That's the end of my peace, then..' ;-)
He always was a joker, & they don't change!

Do cold readers exist? Yes
Do genuine psychics exist? Yes
Can AI read our minds using tech? Yes
Is it possible that highly sensitive people can also read our minds in a similar way? Probably.

My point is that a Lot of “scientific” naysayers are saying this couldn’t possibly be true meanwhile science has proved that it clearly IS possible to read minds. And that this should give cause for those quoting science to actually rethink their position somewhat..

And they got one wrong (one psychic, that is). Maybe. We cannot know, due to issues with keeping records, and a total lack of knowledge of how psychic impressions were used by police.

I wonder how much the detectives' stories changed due to being unmercifully hounded by others about using a psychic at all? It is a strong possibility.

Oh, and psychics, if there are real ones, don't give "evidence." They give information. There is a vast difference.

I've known a good many people who have fallen prey to confirmation bias, both for and against any given subject. If you want to believe something, or do not want to believe something, you will find a reason supporting your desires.