Actually, I am being really unreasonable. However I would like to ask those who have experienced Angel Feathers to....

[DioneTheDiabolist]

...answer a few questions that I have.

1). What does it feel like when you see that feather?

2). What are your thoughts when this happens?

And

3). What would you say are the long term (if any) effects that you would attribute to these encounters.

I understand that this belief has been the subject of some ridicule here. I have no intention of ridiculing anyone. This thread has been inspired by a previous AIBU thread, but is not a thread about a thread. I am not a journalist. I am not seeking results to use in an academic submission or publication. What I am seeking is knowledge and understanding in the hope that I can use it to help others.

IABU for the following reasons:
I only posted in AIBU for the traffic. If MN rule that I have breached guidelines, can it be moved and not deleted.

And I ask the skeptics not to put people off answering honestly. If you think it necessary, I can start another thread for all your thoughts to be discussed. Perhaps the scientifically minded of you could look at this as an information gathering excersise.

I realise it is getting a bit bunfighty op, but I'd like to share my experience.

We were having a stressful time this summer, I was stressed over work and family issues dh was revising and I took toddler to a local fete to give him space. She was going throughba tantrummy phase and screamed and howled all the 10 miles there. In a want to go - don't want to go sort of way.

The fete was held in the grounds of a Buddhist world peace centre / retreat sort of place.

I carried my kicking screaming baby banshee in, and as I got to the main entrance, by some trees a single 4 in long feather landed at my feet. So did an overwhelming sense of peace and relief. Really really odd. Nice odd, but odd.

Dd eventually calmed down, mainly due to the kindness of strangers who distracted her with random leavesand flowers even someone with a guide dog in training stopped to engage her in conversation. We ended up having a really lovley day. The sense of peace stayed with me. The feather I kept and tucked it behind the interior mirror in my car. It still fills me with peace if I look at it or touch it.

Woo, or just memories of human kindness....? Who knows.

haha, I also thought of my feather pillows. whats the point of this thread?

It's like the messaging dead loved ones on Facebook thread all over again.

It gives some people great comfort in their hours of darkness.

I didn't believe in it before my boyfriend died, part of me still doesn't but when I am missing him and feel like I just cannot cope anymore and I see "a sign" it gives me comfort and stops me taking many pills with a bottle of vodka.

So you don't believe, your life choices but please please don't ridicule someone who does. It might make their living hell a little more easy to cope with.

OP - learn to spell "sceptics"

PS - there's no K in schedule.

I wonder if I used search wrong.
My search says there were 7 MN threads in last 3 months that mention feathers at all, never mind Angel ones.
So I guess the supposed premise of this thread is false, and it was started out of nowhere just to promote the idea?
Meh.

My 'bad taste' comments are used to bring the whole idea of feathers back into the domain of real life, which is where people are claiming it exists. If these angel feathers are real, and angels are real and like you say, they know everything, what are they doing when people are having sex, killing each other, starving to death?

If you google Angel feathers, one of the first "hits" is this - somebody making money out of vulnerable people. Consultation with angels by email, anyone? Oh, and apparently finding a penny is a sign from an angel too. As is hearing your favourite song on the radio, or seeing a pretty shaped cloud.
$80 an hour. You can pay by paypal.

You don't enjoy the same fluffy books that you used to read
Yeah, because books about angel feathers are really heavy going with their long technical sciencey words.

Curlew, I know the thread has moved on, but you were wondering about deletions. I reported one of Rockin's aggressively unpleasant and personal responses to me, and it has been deleted. She seemed so blind to her own rudeness while being terribly sensitive to any perceived slights directed at her/feathers/angels that I thought it might be salutary for her to recognise that a moderator thought that what she had said was unacceptable.

I wasn't steamed up about it, but I was making a point about neutral perceptions of levels of rudeness.

I don't read books about Angel Feathers, nor do I consult websites which you pay for emails, nor do I look for signs in everything. Such stuff belongs in the realms of superstition. The majority of books I read are not very fluffy either.

However I have also studied a lot of literature, narrative theory and folklore along with reading the Bible. The imagery is like a language you pick up. Even the etymology of our words is packed with meaning in terms of imagery. I don't go looking for meaning in things, it finds me sometimes IYSWIM. For me it is not particularly woo, or showy, just normal everyday things. Just puts a smile on my face, a lot of the time, these things act as sign posts to something more profound.

Some of the stuff is also much darker....in folklore and pseudo science. This book shows how 'science' can uncover the darker side of human nature,

www.amazon.co.uk/Bad-Ideas-arresting-history-inventions/dp/0553819550/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1384591981&sr=8-1&keywords=A+bad+idea

Makes you more sceptical concerning some of the motives behind 'scientific' research and the results.

How can you decide that books about angel feathers belong to the realms of superstition when technically there is as much evidence for that as their is your religion? What criteria have you used to discount it? Finish this sentence: 'Books about angel feathers belong to the realm of superstition because_.

However, if someone has found great comfort from a feather, that to me is good, it does not matter if it comes from a bird. The Holy Spirit appeared in the form of a Dove. Angels are God's servants. The feather be it bird's or Angel's if it acts to comfort someone, from the manner of its appearance is special.

"Makes you more sceptical concerning some of the motives behind 'scientific' research and the results."

Good. You should be sceptical. That's the point!

You don't know much at all about me Hettie , have you been at the old divination too?

I know what you've written on this thread, sublime.

head that sentence referred mainly to looking for signs in everything and paying for emails to be sent to you.

In theory there could be a good study of the Angel Feathers books, covering history, anthropology, folklore, religious belief and psychological effects but I suspect there is a lot of the 'fluffy' variety. I am not very New Age because of my beliefs and I find superstition can be particularly dark.

This does refer to belief, yes, because in my belief structure superstition is the opposite of being a Christian. It is dead, the power is assigned to ritual and signs rather than faith in God. Some of 'science' would fall under this bracket.

Hettie I refer to the conclusions you made about me! from limited evidence.

My reservations would also cover some religious practises, especially the more ritualistic ones. However if the result of them is to increase a person's faith in God rather than being reliant on ritual I can understand this. The Pagan connotations and cross over leave me uncomfortable though.

The Holy Spirit appeared in the form of a Dove. Angels are God's servants

This is compatible with science, is it?

And what is religion if it's not superstition?

sublime

I said your scientific understanding was shaky - based entirely on what you've written in your posts.

Part of meaning of the word religious includes a repetitive, ritualistic, element. It is why I describe myself as having Faith rather than being religious.

What's your definition of superstition Sublime?

Not enough evidence there Hettie.

How is superstion dead but Christianity alive. Both give people comfort. Both give people meaning.

More than you realise, sublime.