Saturday, July 31

Famous Coincidences: King Umberto I

King Umberto I and Queen MargheritaThis is one of those historical, classic coincidences, that's been around for a while, but I haven't posted it here previously. I have to be honest and say that I haven't been able to verify if it's all true but, if it is, then it's a definite 'wow'. Anyway, here's my version of the story.

As royalty sometimes does, King Umberto I of Italy, back in 1900, travelled to Monza and, as he was away from his palace, decided to have an evening meal in a smallish restaurant. The date was July 28th.

He was accompanied by his aide-de-camp and there was much excitement in the restaurant. The owner came out to take the King's order personally. This shocked the King, not because the owner was taking his order but because the two of them were like peas in a pod - identical! Same facial looks, build and so on and the King found out there was more - lots more.

The King and the restaurant owner both had the same name, Umberto, and they were both born on March 14, 1844 and in the same town. But it didn't end there.

Their wives were called Margherita and both couples were married on the same day and had a son called Vittorio. The photo shows King Umberto and Queen Margherita.

The coincidences kept on coming: King Umberto was crowned on the same day the restaurant was opened by Umberto the owner. They served in the Italian military and were both promoted on the same day to different ranks.

As we can imagine, the King was knocked out by this doppelganger, so much so that he decided that the following day the owner should visit the royal palace.

The next day arrived, as they often do, and it was the 29th of June 1900. Umberto, the restaurant owner, couldn't however take up his invitation. He had been killed in a shooting accident.

The King was deeply shocked. The very same day an assassin aimed his gun and shot the King through the heart. The final coincidence was, therefore, that they were both killed on the same day.

A lot of coincidences, but things like this really do happen - despite what the cynics may say.

Further Reading:
Famous Coincidences: Abraham Lincoln
Famous Coincidences: Mark Twain
Famous Coincidences: Michael Jackson

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Friday, July 30

The Alien Visitation And UFO Sighting

We are into UFOs and aliens for today's post. The following story is claimed to be the personal experiences of one person, who wishes to remain anonymous. It's most likely classed as a Close Encounter Of The Fourth Kind - i.e. an abduction or contact with aliens which results in some kind of message or examination.

Okay, these are the said gentleman's experiences:

1979: I wake up in my room, I am 6 years old and there are three or four people standing around my bed at the sides. I cant move, there is a red glowing haze outside my window. I move my eyes and slightly focus and see that it is dark outside but there is moonlight and a red light immerses my room.

I see that these people are my height with big heads and big dark eyes. I black out.

I told my parents about what had happened. They said it was a nightmare, but it wasn't. I had been awake during these moments.

1982: My dad yells for me to come quickly. He is standing in the doorway to our patio, it is one with sliding glass doors. He points to the sky and says, "Look at that."

There is a long cylindrical object flying at a low altitude, a few blocks away and it is big. He calls the airport and tells them there is a unidentified object flying way below altitude.

He had just retired from being an air traffic controller and was also an airplane crash investigator of several years. He flew in World War II and was a test pilot. He had seen the foo fighters over the pacific during WW2.

Anyway, his buddies tell him they have nothing on radar. So we observe this thing for a few minutes. It would stop and hover, then change direction. Then it just shot right up into the sky vertically like a bullet.

My dad smiled and told me to remember this and then he said that we were not alone.

He passed away in 1983 from cancer and told my mother that he was briefed on the alien presence and had been ordered to engage with UFOs and shoot them down. This was to no avail, our jets could not keep up with these UFOs.

Mom thought he was delusional from his treatments but I know he wasn't.

1988: One day at home I get this strong urge to leave the house, it is in the daytime. I go out of the door and walk several blocks not knowing where I am going and why.

Next thing I remember is that I am waking up in a park which is close by and my head is buzzing. It is later that night, several hours later, and around four to five hours of missing time.

I get home and my mother drills me about where I have been. She had prepared supper and I had disappeared without any explanation. She was upset about this and I was grounded for a week.

1989: I'm walking home from my friend's house late in the evening and I black out. Then I remember how I'm walking up a ramp into some metallic round building. There are kids next to me with their hands around my arms guiding me up this ramp.

It is a red light filled corridor and I realize that this is not a building because it is concave . It was some sort of construction I had never seen before.

I also realize these aren't children but little men with big heads and huge black oval shape eyes. I start to panic again I black out.

I wake up on a table in pain and I am naked and it is cold. The next thing I remember is waking up in my room. It is a couple of hours later and I walk down the stairs where my mom is watching TV.

She is startled and said, "How did you get in? I have locked the doors." Again I am in trouble.

She had called my friend's house hours ago and I had disappeared. I have no recollection of what happened until years later. I had a splitting headache and went to bed after getting scolded. My mother was quite a worrier and is to this day.

Source: True-seer, a member of AboveTopSecret.com - The Alien Info Thread.


UFOs have been sighted for thousands of years. In 1254, for instance, a group of monks of St Albans in England described what they had seen in a medieval document. The monks saw in the sky 'a kind of large ship, elegantly shaped and well equipped and of marvellous colour.'

There are also many, many alien stories of visitations and abductions. But where do these images come from? Are they real or imaginary.

Carl Jung believed that we all store archetypal figures buried in our subconscious, which merge into our dreams and the myths and legends of mankind. He also believed UFOs to be a symbol of humanities state of mind projected on to the environment. If this were true it would explain why UFO occupants, i.e. the aliens, have similar patterns of appearances and behave in certain ways. They could be archetypal figures stored in the collective unconscious.

But even Jung isn't always correct. Why should earth be the only planet with life? As there are supposedly more planets and stars than grains of sand, on all of the beaches, 'coincidence' must come into play. It would surely be unusual, to say the least, for their not to be life somewhere other than on earth. I don't think we are alone.

Further Reading:
Over 6000 Pages Of UFO Reports
UFO Forced Driver Into Bus Lane

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Thursday, July 29

67 Not Out Readers Coincidences

Here are a few readers' coincidences. The first three are from comments on my Squidoo lens 10 Strange Coincidence Examples where I have listed ten coincidences taken from this blog.

From Kajohu:

My biggest coincidence is from about 20 years ago. My name is Karen and I live in Michigan (USA), and I met another Karen who lived about a block away from us.

We got to talking, and over a few weeks time we realized that we had both lived in the same house while growing up in Minnesota (about 600 miles away).

Her family lived there before our family did.

Not sure that it really meant anything, but it was very interesting!

From Whitemoss:

We were walking on the hills in the Lakes, where we live, and talking about a friend who we had done the walk with a couple of years ago. When we got back that day, we got a message to say that he had died. He was only in his 40s, seemingly very fit.

We both felt that his spirit must have visited us on that walk - we are not normally fanciful people.

From RinchenChodron:

I like the Spike Milligan story. I did have a coincidence while visiting a church graveyard in Isle of Man - my camera would not work when trying to photograph a Celtic Cross - but later in the room it worked just fine.

The next coincidence was e-mailed to me by Deisy. Thank you Deisy.
Hi Mike!

I just found your blog and thought I'd share a funny story with you.

I was born in a small ranch in Mexico and was to be named Ana but My godmother decided Deisy suited better and my mom agreed.

Eventually we moved to the US and at age 7 I found out Daisy was English for Margarita which happens to be my mom's name.

In High school I met and eventually married Jesse. In Spanish his name is Jesus, which is my dad's name.

Here you have Margarita and Jesus and now Deisy and Jesse.

As if that's not enough I should also add that my parents marriage was not the best and neither was ours, Jesse and I separated and now my parents are too.

Just thought I'd share it with you as I had not met anyone before who payed as much attention to small things as I have.

Congrats on a great blog.
Deisy

If you have a coincidence to tell please email it to me. I will publish the best and will include a link as well to your site if you wish. Thanks, Mike.

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Wednesday, July 28

Good luck Symbols Really Do Work

Good Luck TicketThis post really follows on from Magic Talisman Attracts Money as it's about how scientists are proving that luck charms and beliefs really do work.

As in the post previously mentioned these findings came from the University of Cologne in Germany where Dr Lysann Damisch asked for volunteers to take part in experiments and to bring with them a lucky charm or lucky item. The results were reported in the Psychological Science journal.

The researchers wanted to see if there was any 'power' behind good luck symbols after noting how many sports stars were supersticious. Serena Williams will wear the same socks throughout a tennis event, Tiger Woods wears red on the last day of a tournament and Michael Jordan had his good luck underwear. There are many other examples.

One of the tests was performed on memory. Half of the volunteers had their lucky charms taken away from them. A memory test was then set up where the participants had to pair up playing cards. Those who had their good luck charms performed better than those who who did not. The researchers found that these people also felt more confident and set themselves higher goals.

Other tests showed that simply wishing good luck to someone improved the volunteers manual dexterity. They used the German 'Ich drucke meinen Dauman for Dich' which roughly translated means 'I press the thumbs for you'. It's the equivalent of the English crossing your fingers for good luck.

So it appears that making a talisman or carrying a good luck symbol will only do good. It's not the power of the actual item, it's the power behind the charm that works.

Florence Scovel-Shinn gives an example of this:

"I was with a friend, one day, who was in deep despair. In crossing the street, she picked up a horseshoe. Immediately, she was filled with joy and hope. She said God had sent her the horseshoe in order to keep up her courage.

It was indeed, at that moment, about the only thing that could have registered in her consciousness. Her hope became faith and she ultimately made a wonderful demonstration ... this woman recognised the power back of the horseshoe."
Quote from The Game of Life and How to Play It.

Ultimately it's all about belief, of course.

Good luck!
Mike.

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Tuesday, July 27

The Inner Precognitions Which Saved Two Lives

Sometimes an intuitive feeling can save us from danger and, as this post shows, it's important to follow those premonitions, no matter what.

Basel - Basle
We are turning the clock back to 1973.

It was to be a very special day out for some of the women from Axbridge in Somerset, England. They were about to fly to Basel (sometimes spelt Basle) in beautiful Switzerland, it was all going to be very memorable occasion: shopping, sightseeing and so on. Women from the Axbridge Ladies Guild and the Congresbury Ladies' Skittle Team had been saving for ages so they could have this quite adventurous day trip. As were many others.

As the day finally approached Madge Pye and Connie Wookey both decided they didn't want to go to Basel. As this meant they would both lose their money their friends tried hard to persuade them not to miss out. They also had to put up with a lot of playful leg-pulling about why they wouldn't fly - but Madge and Connie stuck to their guns and were adamant that they wouldn't be joining their friends on their special day out.

Connie said about the flight, "Don't ask me why I changed my mind, I just had a funny feeling about the trip. A voice told me to stay home." As for Madge she had a premonition about the flight which was strong enough for her to cancel her booking.

On Tuesday the 12th of April 1973 at 8.30am the flight to Basel took off on time with 148 passengers and crew. A few hours later came news which sent the whole of Axbridge into mourning.

At 10am the pilot, Captain Ivor Terry, flew the plane over the Hericourt radio beacon at an altitude of 7000 feet. This was the final leg of the flight into Basel.

At 10.10am Basel Traffic Control lost contact with the flight, code named Oscar Papa. There was a great deal of turbulence and Oscar Papa dropped through a cloud base into one of the worst blizzards that had been seen for ages.

At 10.18am fire chief Hansreudi Voegtli phoned the airport to say he had heard a plane flying low overhead followed by the sounds of a crash. He was at a small hamlet called Herrenmatt just nine miles from Basel.

The plane had ploughed into a snowy, forested hillside near Basel, somersaulted and broken up. Due to confusion on behalf of the authorities rescue teams took until 12.05 to reach the site of the disaster - which happened just a few hundred yards away from the phone where Hansreudi had made his phone call.

108 of the passengers and crew were killed. In one heart-breaking moment fathers had lost their entire families, scores of children their mothers.

An awful, almost unthinkable, tragedy but somehow the premonitions of Madge Pye and Connie Wookey saved their lives. They listened to their inner voices and were spared.

For more information on the disaster itself see: Invicta International Airlines Flight 435 Disaster and BBC: Memorial Flight.

Photo source

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Monday, July 26

Riddle Of Epicurus Coincidence

A coincidence today I received by email from Colin Taylor and shows how coincidences can pop up on the Internet, and Facebook in particular. Here's Colin's story:

Riddle of EpicurusI live in Penkridge near Stafford in England and I am on Facebook. My son jokingly suggested I find other Colin Taylor's to be friends with. So I searched the name and invited a few to reply.

One day I was joining a website for some reason and I was asked my favourite quote. I wrote the Riddle of Epicurus, if you know it, in full and submitted my details.

Two minutes later I get an email from Facebook saying a Colin Taylor had accepted my friend request.

I went on his page for the first time ever as it was not possible for either of us to do so up until that very moment, straight away I could see his status was the Riddle of Epicurus.

I contacted him to tell him and got him to check on the site I had just joined. He confirmed I had written the Riddle five minutes earlier. In addition to this we both had, including each other, 100 Facebook friends.

A bit of a coincidence I feel.

One last thing, the most recent Colin Taylor to pal up with me on Facebook, just happens to be a carpenter (like me), a biker (like me) and unusually has a son named Mathew with one "T" (like me), spooky!

Many thanks Colin.

The Riddle Of Epicurus:
Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent.
Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent.
Is he both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil?
Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God?


There are several variations of the riddle.

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Sunday, July 25

You Can't Force Synchronicity Or Coincidences

Samuel
I don't always get things right but, for once, I couldn't care less because I have a beautiful, perfect grandson. I took this photo when he was just seven hours old and he is definitely the most beautiful baby in the world - well since his dad (my son) was born anyway!

So what did I get wrong? Well I thought he was bound to be born on the 6th of July (i.e. 6/7, the significant numbers in my life) or at least be 7lbs 6ozs, or vice versa, in weight but he wasn't. It reminded me that you can't force synchronicity or coincidences. They don't often work that way. They happen when they want to happen, at the right moment. They can't be programmed, all we can do is observe.

Sometimes we may get precognitions but again they usually appear when they want to. I'm beginning to ramble but, so what, granddads do this, don't they?

Saturday, July 24

How The Virgin Mary Had A Child But Remained A Virgin

Virgin MaryThere is that old cliché about 'how God moves in mysterious ways'. This post is perhaps an illustration of this and how the Universe answers our questions in these mysterious ways.

The story is about a gentleman, Terry, who runs a hypnotherapy and meditation centre in the UK. He was in a discussion with a group of Roman Catholics and asked them about the Virgin Mary and how she could have possibly been a virgin. Their answer was along the lines that it was a miracle from God.

Terry couldn’t accept the answer so he asked the Universe about this in one of his meditation sessions. He did receive an answer - and in a mysterious way.

The following is how he found, what to him, was the answer to how Mary was a Virgin and had a child. It may not be want many Christians would want to hear but it’s always up to individuals as to what they believe - and we should respect everyone's beliefs.

Several days after meditating the Virgin question he met up with a friend who often visits his centre. The gentleman, I’ll call him Dave, was uneasy about an unusual experience his wife had undergone the previous afternoon.

His wife had decided to have an afternoon sleep on her bed. She swears, Dave claims, that she was wide awake when she actually felt herself leave her body, 'her inner self leaving her physical body.'

She stayed in the room for a few moments, feeling no fear other than bewilderment, as she looked down on what appeared to be her lifeless body lying on the bed. She then floated through the ceiling and up into space, which she thought of as travelling through time.

Dave continued, "Then she met my brother!"

At this stage he looked to be very embarrassed, and said that his wife is also very embarrassed about what had happened next: his wife and his brother made love. Afterwards she returned from the astral world to her bedroom and felt herself also return to her body. She is emphatic that she had not been to sleep and dreamt the whole experience.

Terry says this was the answer to his question about the Virgin Mary and was the Universe’s way of explaining how the virgin birth came about. In his words:

"The Virgin Mary left her physical body, went to the Astral Planes (Heaven) and conceived a child, possibly with no memory of doing so on her return, or thought it was a dream, or preferred to tell no one about it."

Terry adds, "Of course technically she was thus not a virgin, but in this man’s world of ours she most certainly was."

As a footnote to this story, Dave asked his brother about what had happened and he says he has no knowledge of the incident. He joked that he regretted that he had not had the same experience.

As a further footnote Terry concludes by saying, "Strange, coincidental things happen when you work alongside the supernatural."

Think of this story what you will - I guess you could put all sorts of different interpretations on it!

Further Reading:
Astral Travel By Hypnotherapy
Bible Coincidences Where God Is At The Centre

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Friday, July 23

Examples Of Famous Dreams

"Is it not known to all people that the dream is the most usual way that God reveals himself to man" — TertullianI was wondering what to write about today and then heard a story from Jane McDonald, who is a reasonably well known British singer. Jane told of a dream she had, which came true.

She dreamt about her boyfriend at the time. A blonde woman then came into view in her dream and started kissing him.

A few days later her boyfriend told her he wanted to separate as he had met someone else. Jane says she recognised the woman instantly, it was the woman from her dream. The image was exactly the same.

I've previously written about how Abraham Lincoln had a precognitive dream about his death and also a couple of dreams I've had myself.

It does seem that was can all dream in a 'worthwhile' manner, some call these lucid dreams. Here are a few famous examples.

Paul McCartney - YesterdayBack in 1965, with the Beatles still at the height of their fame, Paul McCartney woke one morning remembering a tune he had heard being played by a classical string ensemble.

Paul went to his piano, which was in his bedroom, found G, found F sharp minor 7th and then went on to play the music from his dream. He said at the time, "Because I'd dreamed it, I couldn't believe I'd written it. I thought, 'No, I've never written anything like this before.' But I had the tune, which was the most magic thing!"

Later he played the tune to the other three Beatles and they came up with the words for the music: "Yesterday, All my troubles seemed so far away, Now it seems that they are here to stay, Oh I believe in Yesterday."

Adolf HitlerMoving on to someone not so pleasant: Adolf Hitler. He reportedly had a dream that saved his life. Without this happening, who knows, perhaps there may never have been a second world war.

During World War I Hitler fell asleep in the trenches and dreamed that he and his fellow soldiers were about to be covered by earth and molten metal. When he woke he immediately left the trench - his fellow soldiers were all killed when the trench was hit by a shell.

Paul McCartney discovered a hit tune and with the help of another dream Elias Howe invented the sewing machine.

Howe had the idea of a machine for sewing but couldn't figure out the design of the needle - until he had a dream, that is. This was his dream:

He was captured by a group of natives and they were dancing around him waving their spears. He noticed that their spears all had holes near their tips at the pointed ends.

On waking he realized that this was the solution to making his machine sew. The thread needed to go through a hole in the tip of the needle. The rest, as they say, is history. Most modern sewing machines still have the same style of needles.

Mary ShelleyMoving on again, the Frankenstein story followed a dream. Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin was with her lover Percy Shelley at Lord Byron's villa by Lake Geneva. He challenged his guests to write a ghost story. That night Mary had a dream:

"When I placed my head upon my pillow, I did not sleep, nor could I be said to think. I saw, with shut eyes, but with acute mental vision. I saw the pale student of unhallowed arts kneeling beside the thing he had put together. I saw the hideous phantasm of a man stretched out, and then, on the working of some powerful engine, show signs of life, and stir with an uneasy, half-vital motion. Frightful must it be; for supremely frightful would be the effect of any human endeavor to mock the stupendous Creator of the world." Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, from her introduction to Frankenstein.

The Bible also attaches importance to dreams, especially in the Old Testament, as in the case of Daniel in The Book Of Daniel - see Chapter 2 for example.

There are heaps more famous dreams recorded on the Internet. Many of these have imparted information, precognition, solutions, advice and warnings. Dreams can become an important part of living - if we bother to listen to them and heed what they tell us.

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Thursday, July 22

The Mystery Of The 3D And Other Corn Circles

3D Warminster crop circleCrop circles are always controversial. Are they genuine or faked? Two men, Doug Bower and Dave Chorley, claim they have created 200 crop circles around the Warminster area in England. They have even told of their techniques.

So, yes, some are fakes but some crop circles cannot be accounted for. Here's something from Cheryl Hopkins which gives a positive slant to the debate. See what you think.

"Last week, a lady came to my meditation group to give a talk on Wiltshire crop circles and turned up with the expert himself, Fred Rusher, who had just arrived in the UK from Arizona to study this year's phenomenal geometric circles.

Fred has been studying these shapes since they first appeared in modern times (though his research has found that the first crop circle was chronicled in the 1500s).

He showed a video of himself and colleagues demonstrating a possible natural theory as to how these circles form.

Fred sprinkled sand on a flat square board then played high frequency sounds at it, making the sand whirl around and form various geometrical shapes. The shape changed with the sound frequency.

Particularly interesting was that Fred linked everything to God or whatever you call him. He said the messages in the crop circles are from the Divine creator and in this latest crop circle are three distinctive crosses (see photo at top of post).

There is more to the universe than scientists want is to believe but, fortunately, the truth is coming out."


crop circleIt is interesting that crop circles are getting more and more intricate almost as if to say: 'look these can't possibly have been made overnight by men with planks of wood and some string.'

One of the latest (July 2010) around the Warminster area is pictured at the top of this post and has a 3D effect. The picture on the right shows what is believed to have been the first three dimensional crop circle from July 2006. What is the message, if any, which needs to be in 3D?

If we accept that some crop circles are made by man how can we distinguish which are definitely fake and those that are perhaps genuine? Dr. William Levengood from the University of Michigan has an explanation.

Dr Levengood claims that the plants, in genuine crop circles, undergo changes and this includes a swelling of the nodes (knuckle like joints on the stems) and says that this cannot be reproduced by a hoaxer.

His actual explanation for crop circles is that they are caused by unstable vortices of ions originating in the atmosphere, which reach the ground in a similar way to lightening. In that moment a burst of heat makes the plant nodes swell up while the crops are whirled round and laid flat.

There are dozens of theories about how corn circles are created, UFOs, ley lines, hoaxers etc. etc., but many reckon that as 2012 approaches they will become more numerous and more intricate. Perhaps, one day, as with many other mysteries, we will discover their full meaning and significance.

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Wednesday, July 21

The Cosmic Boomerang Delivers

The story which follows, from Suzie, gives a warning about the Cosmic Boomerang, well that's what it's called in this tale. I guess most would refer to it as karma, though in this instance it has a slight twist.

Boomerangs"You have mentioned Karma in several of your posts and I thought I would give you this story about a friend of mine. She doesn't call it Karma but prefers to refer to it as the Cosmic Boomerang. She says that just as the boomerang comes back to the thrower so does everything we say and do.

Rebecca told me that on quite a few occasions when people have maligned or tried to hurt her they have experienced physical accidents.

An example recently was when a woman who worked with Rebecca started to spread rumours and say nasty things about her to other staff. She then started to do the same thing within earshot.

Rebecca didn't respond in any way and didn't accept the situation. She got on peaceably with her work and let the barbed comments float over her head as if they weren't for real.

When she does this Rebecca says that things usually sort themselves out, but in this instance they didn't.

The woman continued to bombard her with nasty comments and negativity and this finally got to her. When she got home one night she was in floods of tears, but still hadn't responded otherwise.

Instead of brooding Rebecca went into the quiet and sent the woman showers of love and kind thoughts. She did the same again before she went to bed.

The next morning at work the other woman arrived with one eye and her head bandaged. It seems she had had an accident with an aerosol can the night before. The Cosmic Boomerang had been at work."

Thank you Suzie for the above (I did edit a little).

I suppose the question is: Did Rebecca cause the accident with the aerosol can?

Surely 'showers of love a kind thoughts' wouldn't do this. In my experience if you don't retaliate and instead send out some form of positive thoughts you simply win the other person round.

In some instances though, perhaps the eye for an eye process comes into play - if whatever was aimed at you was something particularly awful.

I personally wouldn't like to think that any action I consciously took would ever harm anyone.

While we are pondering that I'll move on to another example about 'what we give out we get back'. This one actually made me smile.

A young friend was telling me how he and his wife, with their two small children, went out to lunch at a restaurant. By my own standards his children appeared to have misbehaved by running round the restaurant and looking out of a window next to another family.

They constantly banged a chair against the window, shouted and hit the windows and made the other diners uncomfortable. The husband of the family finally snapped and shouted across to my friend that he should control his children. An argument developed.

My friend is convinced he was the hurt party and the other guy was in the wrong. His children can do no wrong.

A few days after this conversation I saw him again and he had been to an open air music concert at the Eden Project near to where we live.

I asked him if he had a good time. He said it was alright but he had a family next to him who kept knocking into him and talking throughout the concert. He thought it was a bit much as he had paid good money to enjoy the concert. I bit my tongue but wanted to say, "As did that other family in the restaurant. They had paid good money to enjoy their meal."

Call it whatever we want: Karma, Cosmic Boomerang or anything else but it definitely pays to watch over what we say, think or do.

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Photo: Deutscher Bumerang Club

Tuesday, July 20

Cloud Formation Coincidence

cloud photoIn August 1990 Francis Brooks was attending a Musikfest held in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania and while there she saw an extraordinary cloud formation. Though far from being a photographer she had time to snap a photo before the clouds changed. In fact this is the only time she has ever taken a photo of clouds.

When Francis got back to her home in Winterville, Georgia she liked the cloud photo so much she had it enlarged and framed. This she decided would look just right for her bathroom, where it remains today.

Nothing so unusual in this you might think but an unusual coincidence would follow.

The years passed by and Francis was holding a dinner for some of her local church members. She got talking to JoAnn Snow, a Web site designer, who moved to Winterville from Pennsylvania in 2003.

They made small talk, as you do, and Francis mentioned that she'd been to a Musikfest in Bethlehem back in 1990 and told JoAnn about the photo she had taken.

cloud photoThis reminded JoAnn of a photo she too had taken of a cloud formation at the time of the same Musikfest. You are no doubt one step in front of me now!

Francis told JoAnn to take a look at the photo in her bathroom. She did and gasped in amazement when she saw the cloud formation. It was identical to the one she herself had taken.

Francis told the Athens Banner Herald, "We had to take these pictures within a millisecond of each other."

JoAnn added, "We were actually at the same angle, but we were a quarter mile apart."

So two photos, taken by two strangers, are identical and they meet up many years later. You might think this is simply a coincidence but JoAnn thinks otherwise: It's proof to her that a higher power guides their lives. She said about her move to Winterville, "I knew this is where God wanted us to be. There are no coincidences like that."

Further Reading:
Photo Taken Of Father Showed His Missing Daughter
Coincidence Or Synchronicity: Photos Are The Same

Monday, July 19

Was Jesus A Vegan

VeganI'm a long time vegetarian though I don't try to convert others - my wife still eats a little meat - I feel that we accept different ways of life when we are ready to do so.

Back in the 1990s I self published several magazines and during that time I obtained copyright to several booklets, articles and so on. One booklet was called 'Jesus and the Animals' by Holly Lancer.

The theme of this is that Jesus was a vegan. Holly writes, "From the day of his birth to the day of his Ascension he never ate any flesh food whatsoever, neither meat, nor fish, nor poultry. Furthermore, he expressly forbade any of his Apostles, disciples or believers ever to eat flesh food."

I'm not saying this is correct and say again that I do not belong to any organised religion.

So how does Holly arrive at Jesus being a vegan theory? She says that her findings are based on scriptural texts from the Gospel of the Holy Twelve, often known as part of the Preserved Gospels or Gospel Q.

Though controversial, and much debated, the Gospel of the Holy Twelve were supposedly written by the writers of the four New Testament Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John and should be part of the Holy Bible.

So why weren't they included? I'll let Holly explain:

"Christianity became a legitimate religion in AD 312 when the Roman Emperor Constantine, having experienced his Fiery Cross vision, decreed that tolerance be shown to Christians; who up to that point had been a somewhat small scale underground religious sect.

This new found freedom afforded Christians the opportunity of laying down a network of churches throughout the Roman Empire. Now, as often as not happens with any kind of fledgling organisation, difference of opinions oft arise and early Christians were no exception.

To remedy the problem all Christian bishops travelled in AD 325 to Nicaea (now known as Iznik in Turkey) to formulate a 'Master Book' comprising all the fundamental points of Christian teachings and dogma.

Now the early bishops had one aim in mind, to make Christianity the number one and sole religion in the known world. To achieve this they had to present a doctrine which had universal appeal to the masses.

Jesus taught gentleness, abstinence, veganism, the oneness of all life and that all people of either sex, colour or race are equal in spirit and in the eyes of God and that the only distinction between people is the degree of love that they have within their heart and soul.

Holy BibleSociety at that time was a degenerate, hedonistic, macho, chauvinistic, prejudiced, hunt-loving, carnivorous one. The bishops therefore felt that the teachings of Jesus in their true, original form would meet with deaf ears. So the scriptures were tailored to suit the people of the day. Thus the Bible was formed."


As a side note the above is why I personally can't accept all within the Bible - but back to Jesus being a vegan. Here are just a couple of the many parts of the scriptures, allegedly omitted from the Bible and refer to Jesus being vegan.

And as Jesus was going with some of his disciples he met with a certain man who trained dogs to hunt other creatures. And he said to the man, "Why doest thou thus?" and the man said, "By this I live and what profit is there to any in these creatures? These creatures are weak, but the dogs they are strong."

And Jesus said, "Thou lackest wisdom and love. Lo, every creature which God hath made hath its end and purpose, and who can say what good there is in it or for what profit to thyself or mankind? And, for thy living, behold the fields yielding their increase, and the fruit bearing trees and the herbs; what needest though more than these which honest work of thy hands will not give you? Woe to the strong who misues their strength. Woe to the crafty who hurt creatures of God. Woe to the hunters for thy shall be hunted."

And the man marvelled, and left off training the dogs to hunt, and taught them to save life rather than destroy. And he learned of the doctrines of Jesus and became his disciple.

And again he was asked, "If there come to us any that eat flesh and drink strong drink shall we receive them?" And Jesus said unto him, "Let such abide in the outer court till they cleanse themselves from these grosser evils; for till they perceive, and repent of these, they are not fit to receive the higher mysteries."

And Jesus said, "For of the fruits of the trees and the seeds of the herbs alone do I partake, and these are changed by the Spirit into my flesh and my blood. Of these alone and their like shall ye eat who believe in me, and are my disciples, for these, in the Spirit, come life and health and healing unto man."

I won't give any more of the quotes that Holly Lancer claims are from the Gospel of the Holy Twelve as this post is getting quite long now - but you'll get the picture.

To sum up I'll say that personally I believe that Jesus could well have been a vegan. As to whether these 'missing' scriptures prove this is up to the reader. You will find on the Internet those who rubbish these scriptures as being made up and those who are believers. One thing I do accept is that the Bible was made for the people of that time.

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Sunday, July 18

It's Only A Photo Coincidence

Photo coincidence
An amusing example today of how a photo taken at the right time, or even coincidentally, can give the picture a whole new meaning.

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Saturday, July 17

Daisy The Gentle Ghost Who Loves Dogs ... (G)

A ghost story today but a nice gentle one. A ghost, a mirage or just imagination? Betty Collins isn't sure but is convinced she saw something.

"This spooked me briefly when it first happened but now I feel quite relaxed about it.

I live in Devon, England and three months ago moved into an old cottage with a lovely big garden at the rear which is perfect for me and my dog Jasper.

I was in the conservatory at the back of the cottage having some lunch and Jasper was outside. He was sitting still and looked to be quite happy. Both of us contented, we got on with what we were doing, me eating bread and cheese while reading a magazine and him sitting in the fresh air.

I glanced up from my magazine and couldn't believe what I saw. There was a young girl, maybe about nine or ten years old and she was stroking Jasper's head. Some guard dog I thought!

I then realised that the girl was in a long, white, old fashioned nightie. I got up to find out who she was and she vanished slowly before my eyes. Jasper shook his head and got up to walk towards me, furiously wagging his tail.

The girl was definitely gone. "A ghost," I thought, "no, can't be."

It puzzled me and sent a shiver up my spine. Over the next couple of days I forgot all about my ghost and never feel uneasy or frightened in the cottage.

About a week later, again at lunch time, I glanced out of the window and Jasper was lying on the grass and the girl was back. She was stroking him and I noticed she had a ring of daisies around her almost golden coloured hair. I stood as still as I could and it looked so real. Jasper was enjoying the attention.

I went to move into the garden and the girl faded away. Jasper turned his head like he was looking for her but she had disappeared.

I've seen her once more but that was now over six weeks ago and nothing since.

The cottage where I am living goes back to the mid 1800s so I'm thinking the girl must have lived there once upon a time. Her nightdress looked Victorian.

I wouldn't mind seeing her again, I call her Daisy, as she was so gentle looking and radiated goodness.

I've asked my nearest neighbours if they have heard of any ghost stories about my cottage but they looked at me like I was mad. I wonder if I'll ever see Daisy again."
Further Reading:
The Ghost Of Granny And Her Revenge
The Ghostly Ghost Photo Of The Brown Lady
Speaking To My Dead Father
The Ghost Of Abraham Lincoln Walks The White House

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Friday, July 16

Married Couple In The Same Photo As Children

Here's a photo coincidence on the lines of the post I published called Photo Taken Of Father Showed His Missing Daughter. I came across this new one by chance on a video from WXII 12 TV . The odds against this coincidence happening must be millions to 1.


Young newly weds Alex and Donna Voutsinas were looking through some of Donna's old photos from when she was a child and came across one of her at Disney World. Nothing too unusual about this, you may say.

Donna is at the front of the photo, see above, with one of the Disney characters and then Alex spotted something - his dad!

Yes, it's his dad in the background of the photo pushing a stroller (pushchair) and, of course, in the stroller is Alex.

A remarkable coincidence because the families didn't know each other back then and, to make it even more remarkable, at the time of the photo Alex lived in Canada and Donna in Florida.

It looks like their lives touched upon each other when they were young ready for the big romance in later years. Fate? Kismet? Who knows.

Another amazing new similar story (2014):
Married Couple Were Unknowingly Photographed Together As Children

And for more coincidence stories see:
Top 10 Coincidence And Synchronicity Stories

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Thursday, July 15

Finding A £10 Note Coincidence

I've mentioned previously (link below) about how my wife often finds money. Not usually large amounts but coins when we are out walking. However, she was a bit luckier when she found a £10 note (about $14).

£10 note
It happened in the usual way, we were walking along together and she suddenly stooped down to scoop up the money. I never notice the coins or money myself.

I laughed when she showed me the banknote and said something like, "That's more like it, instead of all of those coins you normally pick up."

We carried on with our walk and returned a different way. We were nearing home when, on the pavement in front of us, there were three young boys on bikes, probably about 9 or 10 years old. One was telling the others about how his mum would probably 'kill him' when he got home as he had lost some money which he was supposed to use for some items from a local shop.

On hearing this my wife asked him what he'd lost. He told us it was a £10 note so we enquired as to where he had been riding his bike. Sure enough he had been past the spot where my wife had found the money.

She returned the banknote to him and his face looked so relieved. He then sped off to the shop to buy whatever it was his mother needed.

It was fortunate that we returned home by a different route - a coincidence if you like - otherwise we would never have been able to have returned the money to its rightful owner.

Feels good when there is a happy ending.

There is one more small part to the story though, on the Saturday following this my wife won £10 on the UK Lottery. Not exactly the millions she/we had hoped for, but really it was exactly the right amount.

Further Reading:
The Art Of Finding Coins Or Anything Else

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Wednesday, July 14

A Thirty Year Old Newspaper Coincidence

This is one of those coincidence stories where an unlikely find all fits tidily into place. At the time of the happening it quite stunned Robert, whose story this is.

builder clip art"In 2009 I was having a porch built on the front of my house. The builder who had won the tender had just bought a house about four miles away and told me that he'd work on my house in the morning and his in the afternoon. I agreed with this as long as the porch was completed by 15th July 2009 - this was when I was getting married and moving into the house.

About 8 weeks before the wedding the builder rang me at work to tell me the following:

At his own house he'd discussed with his wife about placing another window in his lounge to allow more light into the room.

He made the hole with a hammer and cold chisel and placed the debris into a rubbish skip. Bricks, rubble and an old newspaper were thrown into the skip.

His wife brought him a cup of tea. As he was drinking this he flicked through the newspaper (dated 12 Sept 1977). To his surprise his eyes met with a section that read 'Births. Congratulations Chris and John on the birth of your son Robert.' And Robert is me!

I was born the day earlier on the 11th of September and my aunt had submitted this to the local paper congratulating her brother (my dad) and his wife. And I now have a copy of the newspaper showing the message - thanks to the builder who built my porch!"

- Robert
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Tuesday, July 13

A Loving Moment Of Coincidence

diamond wedding anniversary coincidenceHere's a little story to make you go ahhhh! Reg and Christine Upton of Anslow in Staffordshire, England say that a 'moment of coincidence' has led them to celebrating their diamond wedding.

Over 60 years ago they both had dates in a local park but both were stood up. So, with the help of fate of coincidence, the two wallflowers got together instead - in a perfectly respectable way, of course. And now they have been celebrating their 60th anniversary with 140 guests.

Reg and Christine have five sons, one daughter, 15 grandchildren and 11 great-grandchildren.

Reg told the Burton Mail, "I am proud to say that we are still as much in love as we were when we first met and we would do it all over again if we could. I still remember when we first met. I was 19 and Chris was 17, and I remember having to pay for everything at the wedding.

After paying for the food and all the bits and bobs, we literally had a few pence to last us a week – but it was worth it. And on our wedding night, I had to go out and milk the cows, so we spent the next morning in bed with a cup of tea and a cream cake.

We still love each other as much as we did then and still hold hands while we are on holiday and we love each others company."


I guess some things are just meant to be.

Nearly forgot: ahhhh!

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Monday, July 12

Anne Parrish Book Coincidence

Anne Parrish book: Floating IslandThis is one of those classic coincidences which seems to check out okay. It's about the American author Anne Parrish. She wrote novels and also children's literature, such as Floating Island, and lived from 1888 to 1957 - so, yes, it's an old coincidence!

In the 1920s Anne was in Paris with her husband, the industrialist Charles Corliss, and they were browsing the local bookshops. While doing so she picked up a well worn copy of one of her own childhood all time favourites called Jack Frost and Other Stories.

She handed the book to her husband saying how much she loved the book as a child. He flipped open the book and to their amazement on the fly leaf was written: 'Anne Parrish, 209 N. Weber Street, Colorado Springs, Colorado' Yes, it was her very own book!

Goodness knows how Jack Frost got to Paris, but it nicely linked Anne Parrish with her childhood. This theme happens time after time in the world of coincidence and synchronicity.

Books:
Floating Island by Anne Parrish

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Sunday, July 11

Tommy Cooper Pie Crust Coincidence

Tommy CooperSomething a bit light hearted today. People often seem to see Jesus' picture in bizarre places but how about finding a comedians face in a pie crust!

For non UK readers Tommy Cooper was a cult comedian and magician, who died on stage while performing back in 1984. His catch phrases such as 'just like that' are still heard today as are some of his corny jokes: 'I popped into my local pub the other day and had the shepherd’s pie. He was furious.'

Anyway, chip shop owner Crad Jones was getting stuck into his pie and chips (that's fries in the USA) when he saw an image of Tommy Cooper in his pie. He'd eaten hundreds and hundreds of pies previously but this was a first.

Tommy Cooper face in a pieMr Jones said, "The comparison was amazing. It was definitely Tommy Cooper. I called my daughter over and she recognised it as Tommy Cooper too. I got the pictures because I thought no-one would believe me." Now as if anyone wouldn't!

He went on to say how this exciting find came about, "I was about to eat my lunch in the shop, as I normally do. I got my Peter’s pie, which I always have with chips and peas, and noticed the resemblance of Tommy Cooper on the bottom of it."

And we'll finish the pie with a few Tommy Cooper jokes:

I went to buy some camouflage trousers the other day but I couldn't find any.

A man walked into the doctors, he said 'I've hurt my arm in several places'.
The doctor said 'well don't go there any more'.

Two fish in a tank, one says to the other - you drive I'll man the guns.

I cleaned the attic with the wife the other day. Now I can’t get the cobwebs out of her hair.

A man went into a bar. He went 'Ouch'. It was an iron bar.

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Saturday, July 10

The Gun That Helped Sink The Titanic

I have written previously about coincidences involving the Titanic - see links below - but today I'm writing about how the disaster may have never happened without the gun pictured below.

John Bull Titanic gunIn 1912 Britain was in the grip of a coal strike. This concerned Titanic's owners White Star Line as, without coal, their groundbreaking ship would not be able to set sail.

White Star took proactive action and decided to send George Bull - mostly said to be a bursar or a purser for the company - to Merseyside along with a colleague R McPherson. Their mission was to secure coal for the Titanic - no matter what.

George Bull was armed with the pistol as shown above. It is said that the men intimidated the striking miners while other reports say that they simply stole the coal at gun point. Either way the outcome was the same. They came away with sufficient coal to ensure that the Titanic would be able to set sail on time and with sufficient fuel for the journey.

If it wasn't for this gun the Titanic would have been unable to sail when it did and would not, therefore, have hit the iceberg. Lives would not have been lost. The more you find out about the Titanic the more it seems to have been destined to sink.

The gun in question was made by Hopkins & Allen in 1871, of Norwich, Connecticut, USA and is about to go on sale for £200,000 (around $320,000). There is bound to be a lot of interest as 2012 will see the Titanic's 100th anniversary of the sinking.

Most of the facts check out. The gun is on record as being issued to George Bull in March 1912 by White Star Line 'for his protection'. It is inscribed on the butt 'From MCP to GFB Titanic Coal Strike.'

The gun being sold comes with its original lanyard. There is a brass disc attached with the White Star Flag and on this is engraved 'RMS Titanic George Fredrick Bull', and on the reverse is printed 'If found contact Purchasing Dept. 14 Leadenhall St. London, EO3 Tel. Royal 9150'.

So if you have a few hundred thousands to spare, and collect Titanic memorabilia, the people to contact are the Antiques Storehouse of Portsmouth, UK. Unfortunately the item does not appear to be on the Internet at the time of posting.

Other Titanic Posts
Titanic Coincidences
The Titanic Boarding Pass Coincidence

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