To ask if anyone has had any paranormal encounters/experiences

[HowlingBitch]

Or do we all need another ? I just find it all fascinating.

ps I love garlic too.
I stayed with a count in Transylvania once (wife's family from there originally)
It was probably a bit of a joke but they kept garlic above the doorways.
Yes it is true. You can check him out, Count Tibor Kalnoky

Cheers, archie, I did look at vibrational healing - not for long though
I read the Pendulums thing last month! I did read some of Wilson's and Gurdjieff's works while a student, but lacked the experience to really get it I think; will revisit :)
I hope you have a peaceful weekend.

Just seen your other post about the Transylvanian count! Funny
People with haemophilia and pernicious anaemia used to be (wisely) advised to drink blood. But there never was a Dracula, you know that don't you?!

Vladdy Hell! - he did exist!

I bought a painting of the house where Vlad the Impaler/Dracul was born in Sighisoara,
from a man whose studio was Vlad's house. He is a hero in Romania

I'd better apologise before you turn into a bat and drain my blood

Happily I shall be leaving work soon and can leave these batty nutters :)

Posset, that story is freaky.

K999 - that's lovely and comforting.

I was dreaming of my grandma one night, like she was really there, hugging her and as I woke it was as if someone had just got out of bed, I'd like to think she was really with me.

There was one story on here, some years ago, that was chilling.

Hopefully the poster is still around.

She told of a haunted terraced house she lived in with her partner before they had children and whatever was haunting it was bad.

She said they moved when her partner went to use the bathroom and closed the door and found the word 'die' scratched into the heavy wood.

If you're out there, come back and re-tell it!

Thanks for the links garlicnutter - I'll read them when I'm sober

Yyy to string theory!

We can see the evidence of time passing from age and decay, but if there is nothing physical (ie matter), does time still exist?

I think our perception of time is flawed - how can we explain how time seems to fly or drag?

And strangely, have any of you had a dream where a sound (alarm clock maybe) wakes you, but at the end of a long, detailed dream? The duration of the dream must only have been a fraction of a second to involve the sound of the alarm but seems a lot longer.

I haven't had any supernatural experiences except hearing the voice of God in my head during labour with DC3 (could have been the G&A though).

Yes to everything you just wrote, Loretta - except god's voice! What did it sound like?

Loving this thread, really do want to believe but don't have any ghost stories. But, Seeker, it is not a myth that people thought the world was flat. Research it and you will see.

Can anyone explain deja vu to me? I know there is some rational explanation but it sure is freaky when you get that feeling... I often have the sense that I have dreamt the situation/conversation that gives me deja vu.

Lots of people believe deja vu is a memory from a past life. I personally don't I think it's to do with something like getting to much oxygen in your blood and your brain going a bit funny for a moment, Things like that. I don't know the real reason tho, Just speculating.

seeing how small we are in the universe and scheme of things is enough to make my head explode!

I've had periods of almost permanent déjà-vu ... at the times when I was having a breakdown. It's to do with the way your brain processes information. In my case, because it was feeling overloaded, it probably shunted incoming stuff into temporary memory for a split-second. So, when it fetched the information out again for proper processing, it was coming from the memory section. Which is why I felt as if I was having a memory and experiencing it at the same time.

There are several common causes of déjà-vu. What I've described above is what (probably) happens when you're anxious or under stress. Have you noticed it happens more when you're fretting? I always used to get it on the way to a wedding!

The other really common thing, which seems mysterious until a mental health crisis forces you to learn about it (), is dissociation. I still get it for long periods, though I'm improving. That's when you feel like you're observing what happens in your own life - as if it's all a TV programme, or you were standing near yourself but not in your own body.

It's actually a very effective self-protection mechanism: people who do all the great stuff in a crisis are usually in a state of dissociation. Everybody does it hundreds of times a day, very very briefly.

The majority of out-of-body experiences are actually dissociation.

givingoffsparks, that's why I'm not so big on the paranormal! The realities we already know about are so wild, mysterious and exciting :)

Interesting theory about deja vu garlicnutter.

Haven't particularly noticed that it happens when I'm anxious or overwhelmed though... seems to be occur quite randomly in quite innocuous situations.

And I do feel as if I have dreamt this moment happening... I have a memory of dreaming it iykwim. I actually feel as if I dreamt it in the last couple of nights and am remembering part of this recent dream. Normally I don't remember my dreams.

I don't think dissociation is anything like genuine de ja vu, or time slips ect. I have suffered from dissociation quite a lot, quite severely, even now, I feel like my whole life is a dream, I'm occasionally amazed that I have children and that I exist. Even within this I feel odd de ja vu things, there was a really odd thing when I was at my sisters house where I seemed to lose time.

Dissociation is very different from de ja vu, sometimes I even have trouble knowing if I have dreamt something or it is real. A really horrid dream will lurk all day, they really do stay with me .

I've been having that, too, VV, with dreams {slight thread diversion} It is part of the dissociative thing, along with the time-slips/fugues. Are you doing mindfulness? It's making quite a big difference to me. I also started writing down my dreams as soon as I got up. Helped me seperate them out, iyswim.

garlicnutter, the voice of 'God' was in my head when I was out of it on G&A. All was quite peaceful in the delivery room, I was very near the pushing stage when I had an overwhelming feeling I was going to die. Not from the pain or anything, just a strong feeling that this was It.

Then I heard (I knew it was in my head) a deep, booming voice saying, "we are one".

That's all - very strange - I'm not religious at all, but it sounded god-like.

And deja vu - yes, I know I'm heading for a bout of depression if I experience it.