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Original poster

Something really strange just happened

519 replies

InSwamTiddler · 10/12/2018 06:08

I’ve NC for this as I’m not sure what to make of it and I’m really confused.
Back story - I was raised Catholic, but I’m atheist now. I work in a science based field and for as long as I can remember I have believed in the factual, empirically provable reality of things. I don’t believe in God or the afterlife, or ghosts / paranormal stuff.

Nearly 9 years ago my dad died. He died very suddenly and unexpectedly at a young age in my childhood family home.

Due to some circumstantial things, I’m currently living back in my family home.
My mum has mentioned a few times over the years that she’s felt my dad’s presence here and I’ve always been openly kind to her about it, but thinking “nope. Your imagination is going crazy because you’re grieving”. She’s mentioned she’s felt pressure on the bed as if someone has sat down on it next to her for example.

Anyway, this morning DP has left for work and I was still in bed. I was listening to him brushing his teeth, then popping the kettle on so I was definitely awake, but a little drowsy.

I felt him get back into bed with me and thought “what’s he doing?”... it’s not unusual for him to pop back into the bedroom and give me a hug or kiss before leaving the house.

I felt the heaviness of him pressed against my back and his arms wrapped around me. There was a heat between my shoulder blades I have never felt before but I wasn’t scared but I knew it wasn’t DP then. I heard the front door open so DP was leaving the house. Then my whole back went tingly a bit like pins and needles but not in an unpleasant way.

When it was happened I felt calm and warm but I’m freaking out now and can’t stop crying. Sounds silly but I feel like it may have been my dad.

I was 100% awake, not dreaming. I leant over and flicked the lamp on straight after.

Does anyone believe in this stuff? I never have but now I’m questioning everything.

OP posts:
TwitToWoo · 10/12/2018 17:01

Well, you could ask the scientists you “know” but off the top of my head - a physicist.

Information moving from place to place is what physics is all about.

olivertwistwantsmore · 10/12/2018 17:12

@InSwamTiddler - YOU said

I felt the heaviness of him pressed against my back and his arms wrapped around me. There was a heat between my shoulder blades I have never felt before but I wasn’t scared but I knew it wasn’t DP then. Then my whole back went tingly a bit like pins and needles but not in an unpleasant way.

I'm not trying to make anything sound 'sick'. I just think your description was bizarre when talking about what you thought was your father.

DioneTheDiabolist · 10/12/2018 17:15

What type of physicist and what do you think they would do?Xmas Confused

WilburforceRaven · 10/12/2018 17:28

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Gardai · 10/12/2018 17:38

Just because someone doesn’t agree with the consensus doesn’t make them a ‘cunt’.

Cheesenacho123 · 10/12/2018 17:42

I don’t believe it’s sleep paralysis. When I lived with my mum and step dad, this happened to me every house we ever lived in asleep and awake! It would scare me but I could still move. No I didn't see anybody there either. Since moving away from my mum’s I no longer get it happening. I know what it feels like too, it’s like a pressure on the bed, the bedcovers would fall down or a touching feeling enough to make my hairs stand on end even when I was wide awake sat up! It’s weird it no longer happens, either it was the houses we lived in or my grand parents or my dog that died quite a few years back.

WilburforceRaven · 10/12/2018 17:47

I never specifically called anyone a cunt on this thread.

iseecabbages · 10/12/2018 17:47

It sounds lovely and if it brings you comfort then where's the harm in believing it is your dad.
I liked an earlier comment I read when someone said a priest had advised them that not everything was explainable and to regard it as a gift, that sums it up perfectly to me,

mindutopia · 10/12/2018 17:49

I think it’s totally possible. I’m a scientist but the reality is that present scientific knowledge can’t explain everything. Just because we can’t explain it doesn’t mean there isn’t an explanation.

I’ve had a similar experience. My dad died when I was a teenager. On the morning of his funeral, I woke up and sat up in bed. The printer across the room turned on (lights came on, it made all the start up noises, etc). It had been turned off as I’d not been using it as hadn’t been at uni the few days before due to planning my dad’s funeral and dealing with all the legal and financial stuff (I was 18 and his next of kin). The printer started working as if on it’s own (didn’t actually print anything on the page, just made all the movements and noises). Then when it was finished. It stopped and the lights on the front just started to flash. That printer had been a gift from my dad a few months before. I’ve never had any doubt it had something to do with him. It never did that on its own before or since. I was totally conscious and awake and sitting up when it happened. I feel like it most have been his way of letting me know he was there and maybe saying goodbye on what was otherwise a really heavy day. I can’t really explain it but that’s what I felt.

abcriskringle · 10/12/2018 17:51

I get pins and needles with sleep paralysis. Could you move during the incident? Perhaps you started to doze off again and that's why it happened- I usually get sleep paralysis at that kind of time (dozing off).

Walkingdeadfangirl · 10/12/2018 17:57

Sounds exactly like a version of sleep paralysis / lucid dreaming, not uncommon. Noise triggers mine and since I was burgled I now sometimes hear burglars breaking into my house & 'feel' them sneaking into my bedroom....

As a child your Catholic indoctrination will have in-bedded a subconscious fear/belief in the supernatural that is almost impossible to get rid of even if as an adult your rational thoughts try to dismiss them.

Add to the mix your mum planting the suggestion that your Dads presence is in the house, he puts pressure on the bed, he died unexpectedly young, you were lying in bed in the dark and your memory of climbing into bed hugging your Dad.

You had a nice dreamy memory / experience of your Dad, that was very realistic. Be glad it was a positive one, the negative ones are quite scary.

TwitToWoo · 10/12/2018 17:59

I’m a scientist but the reality is that present scientific knowledge can’t explain everything No scientist would use this as justification for believing in the paranormal,

Dione. Test, test and test again. If the data indicates that there’s something in the claim, form a hypothesis, present to peers etc. How science usually works.

Sorry, not going to answer any more of your banal questions. If you are genuinely confused by the idea that information about the future travelling to the present wouldn’t be of interest to scientists and science in general then further explanation is pointless because you probably wouldn’t understand.

Canibuildasnowman · 10/12/2018 18:00

Sleep paralysis, i’ve Had it and it’s bloody eerie

Pandamodium · 10/12/2018 18:01

I fell into a coma a few years back. "Spoke" to my dead grandad and was with my first son who had died a few month earlier.

Was lovely and peaceful and it comforted me for ages. Looking back now the thirty diazepam I'd took to get in that state probably had something to do with it.

It wasn't real I don't think there's life after death, I lost my faith alongside DS. It makes me cry because I really want to see him again and hold him but realistically that's not happening or at least not without a shit load of drugs.

InSwamTiddler · 10/12/2018 18:16

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Jux · 10/12/2018 18:24

A neurological thing? Go to your gp and describe the sensation - sudden and sustained heat between your shoulder blades followed by pins and needles. I suspect an mri will be ordered

Good luck, op, it's probably nothing serious, but best get it checked out.

No need to invoke the supernatural.

WilburforceRaven · 10/12/2018 18:31

God, my sister couldn't even get an MRI when it was suspected she had serious soft tissue damage in her knee. She ended up having to pay for it. Can't see a GP ordering one for what sounds like a one-off case of sleep paralysis with no other symptoms.

Deadbudgie · 10/12/2018 18:38

As a scientist you know that we are making new discoveries all the time and altering understanding of what we thought we did know. Most of the world is made up of perception please take the warmth and love you felt, that you felt because of your dad, either in a phsysical or emotional sense and keep that close

Jux · 10/12/2018 18:49

Wilbur, it must depend upon where you live then. DH dd and I seem to have them at the drop of a hat!

WilburforceRaven · 10/12/2018 18:52

Wow, I'm moving there! Plenty of people I've known had to fight tooth and nail for one even when presenting with symptoms of what turned out to be cancer.

DioneTheDiabolist · 10/12/2018 19:22

Test, test and test again. If the data indicates that there’s something in the claim, form a hypothesis, present to peers etc. How science usually works.
I am unaware of the physics study of premonitions. I do know how science works. Institutions apply for funding to back a testable hypothesis in order to create a result that will benefit the investor.

You however seem to think that a random, calling up a physicist (not sure what branch) and claiming to predict the future will be enough to warrant serious or even preliminary investigation.Xmas Shock

My question wasn't banal. Your supposition was ridiculous.

CaliHummers · 10/12/2018 19:40

I do know how science works. Institutions apply for funding to back a testable hypothesis in order to create a result that will benefit the investor

Have you ever put in for funding for a science project? Or tried to publish scientific results in a peer-reviewed journal? Have you looked at the measures in place to try to prevent interest and observation bias?

TwitToWoo · 10/12/2018 19:48

Scientists have been testing paranormal claims for years and years, Dione.

So your “point” is entirely baseless.

TwitToWoo · 10/12/2018 19:53

So we have this extraordinary fact - that information concerning the future can make it’s way to human minds - and humanity will never know because no scientist would bother looking into it? Ever?

Except they have. Many, many times.

CaliHummers · 10/12/2018 19:55

The Society for Psychical Research was founded in 1882 and at the time had impeccable scientific credentials. If I really thought I could predict the future I would contact them first.