I know we've recently had a spooky experiences thread, but...

[R0nJ0n]

I was walking to a friend's house today, walked along a road I don't normally go down and as suddenly reminded of something very odd that happened to me on that road a couple of years ago.

The street is a quiet mostly residential one mostly comprised of three story, red brick Victorian town houses. On the day in question I happened to notice a brass plaque by one of the doors advertising piano lessons with the name of the piano teacher and his qualifications underneath. Seeing this suddenly gave me an incredibly intense rush of memory.

I remembered being around ten or eleven and having piano lessons with a male teacher. He had a short black beard with grey hairs in it and always wore a suit, a shirt and one of those seventies type of knitted ties. He had bad breath and I'd hate it when he lent in and spoke to me. He often got a little too close as well, reaching across me to show me something and pressing his body against mine, which I found horribly uncomfortable, but he never did anything that could be classed as inappropriate.

The house had a front and back sitting room, the front one was where I had my lessons and the back sitting room which the family used and where my teacher's children watched TV while I was having my lesson. I used to be able to hear bits of children's programmes when the piano was silent, and I always wished I was at home watching TV instead of being taught. The room I was in was always quite gloomy, the curtains were habitually partly closed and it was decorated in shades of fawn with a brown sofa and dark bookcases, although it was very very neat. I also recalled the smell of the house, there was nothing unpleasant about it, it was just unfamiliar and didn't smell like my home.

The spooky part is, this wasn't my memory. I've never had a piano lesson in my life, none of that happened to me, but it was as real as the most intense Proustian rush I've ever had of my own memories. I remembered colours, scents and emotions, but I couldn't recall exact names or faces which is excatly how my own childhood memories come back to me now.

Has anyone else ever a similar experience, or can anyone explain it?

Weird. Yeah I had a couple of things you may describe as slightly similar.

A few weeks ago I was on the tube on my way back from shopping, and this man was stood in the carriage. I heared him exhale and I turned my attention to him. As he exhaled I got this "flash" in my mind of a sense of coming to a decision, a conclusion, and a vision of helping someone in an email with advice laid out in three points A, B, C.

I haven't really used emails for a while as I have a 10mo and am living a rather baby centric life.

They were not my thoughts. They were his thoughts!

I wonder if your experience was picking up someone elses thoughts. You have to go back and meet the piano man!

no you do not have to try to meet this man. He is the reason you picked up this 'memory' and it's a warning to stay away.

That sounds creepy, I am glad I don't experience things like that.

I often have my train of thought interrupted by a sudden 100 thoughts in one go.

I have to spend a moment unpicking the sudden interruption, and more often than not the "new" thoughts have nothing to do with me or my life whatsoever.

In my first job, many years ago, I was working in a small room by myself in a very old building off Grays Inn Square, London. I was busy with my work, when suddenly I was aware of a man standing behind me. I remember feeling terrified of this man and thinking 'oh no, not again, please'. I was too frightened even to turn round and look at him, though I could picture him clearly - I knew him! And then I realised there was no-one there, that that these had not been my thoughts, but belonged to someone from many years ago who had possibly been in that room, lived there maybe. I looked down at my clothes, surprised to see my normal skirt, jumper etc, because in that moment of terror I had been wearing a long full-skirted dress and my long hair had been pinned up, not loose around my shoulders as it was really.

Hope it's OK to resurrect this old thread. My story isn't worth a new thread but I can't explain the experience.

Three days ago I was preparing lunch with the window open whilst waiting for dd to return from a morning out of town with a friend. She was late and I was beginning to get nervous as couldn't contact her on her mobile.

So I was relieved to hear bikes approaching, with one pulling in to our drive and the other continuing down the road. I heard dd shout 'Bye "Mary"!' in English and "Mary" replied 'Bye!' as she rode off ("Mary" is one of dd's only English-speaking friends, dd speaks the language of the country in which we live with her other friends). I was also puzzled, as I was sure that the girls had taken the train rather than bikes and that "Mary" was planning to get off at the stop before ours which is closer to her home.

Anyway, waited for dd to lock up her bike and come in. Nothing happened. Looked outside. Bike was there. No dd. She wasn't there. Eventually made contact with her on the mobile and she was still out of town. The girls had been delayed and returned several hours later on the train as planned. I have no idea what I heard.

That is weird.