"Miracles" we've experienced

[Garlicking]

I'll state here and now that I don't view them as supernatural phenomena. Feel free to add yours if you believe yours were - and also if not!

Shining city in the sky

This was well impressive, even though the city was unexotic Stafford. It was upside-down and very clear for a few minutes. Explanation: Fata Morgana.

Sprites on plane wing

Very cool (or hot, lol). They danced along the edges of the wing for several minutes: St Elmo's Fire isn't supposed to appear on planes, but crew will tell you it does. Just because the right kind of scientist hasn't recorded it yet, doesn't mean it doesn't happen.

Iemanja and the zooming priest

This is a complicated one; it took ages to figure out. She's the sea goddess in Candomblé, the Brazilian 'voodoo' religion. I attended one of her major festivals. The sea had been really filthy the night before; locals told me Iemanja would purify the water. Everyone chucked offerings in, adding to the revolting crud churning on the shore. Day of the festival, devotees in traditional costume danced on the beach for hours. A full moon was clearly visible in the sky, alongside the sun. When the tide came in, the water was indeed crystal clear, cleaner than I'd ever seen it there.

As the dancing, singing and drumming, etc reached a crescendo, a tiny figure appeared on the horizon. It quickly approached the shoreline - really, really fast - and I could see it was a man, standing upright on the surface Standing motionless, he rocketed directly towards the dancers, who danced into the water to greet him.

Explanation: perigean spring tide and a very good surfer. The tide's massive retreat had washed all the crap far out to sea, then came back in too high and fast to pick up rubbish. I had to look up currents on that part of the coast, and there is indeed a 'river' where the priest came in, which would've been running at high speed during the super-tide. Traditional jangada fishermen spend all day standing on rafts and they have huge skills, but the priest must have been standing on a pretty small board.

Ghost fishermen

Also jangadeiros. At sunset, they'd all float back to shore covered in phosphorescence. Jangadas have no motors and they put their sails down close to shore, so looked like a crowd of luminous figures floating mysteriously over the water 👻🙂

Manifesting my Mum's house

She was in a right old tizz, on the verge of making offers on all sorts of unsuitable places but not fully satisfied with any of them. I got her to sit down and describe her ideal new home in detail, telling her all she had to do was to keep it in mind and it would turn up. She found it a few weeks later, and has been living happily there for almost 20 years.

Explanation: Clear focus. We don't consciously register everything we see (or hear), there's too much mental noise. The more anxious we feel, the more inefficient our mental filters get. 'Manifesting' is a way of regaining clarity, so we can discard input that's not what we're looking for but will readily notice things that match our exact criteria. Mum's house had been on the market for a while but not well advertised.

... There's a ton more, these are my favourites. I love the weirdness of this world; hope some people will add theirs!

[BioHive]

Shining city in the sky , im thinking more on science on that one eg an some sort of advanced shield over the city like in the show town called eureka and the shield went down

[Garlicking]

I think I'd rather have a reflection form the clouds than an alien city, @BioHive 😏 Was that the one where the aliens chucked all their rubbish over the sides, littering the Earth?

[BioHive]

@Garlicking

I think I'd rather have a reflection form the clouds than an alien city, @BioHive 😏 Was that the one where the aliens chucked all their rubbish over the sides, littering the Earth?

different show, basically back in Einstein time they decided to help win wars they needed a town for scientists to develop science and tech in secret and built the town and called it eureka, then with upgrades in technology etc they built an electronic shielding that prevents other people using satellites etc seeing the town and the area was part of a no fly zone, but on occasion the shield went down

[CaterhamReconstituted]

A friend of mine was once on a beach in Thailand and saw someone walking towards him. When he got closer he saw that it was person he was in the same class with at school.

He thought that this was some kind of miracle. But it wasn’t.

Same age, same travel interests. They had both heard about this place from others where they were from, so there was a social contagion about where they chose to go on holiday. It was summer, so the most likely time to be on holiday. Also, he could have met literally anyone he knew - not necessarily this person - in any place outside the UK - not necessarily this beach - and he would have thought it was a miracle too. That would mean a lot of possibilities. Not so miraculous when you unpack it.

[HannibalHeyes]

There's always this...

[Garlicking]

I always enjoy these crying/leaking/bleeding statues 😂