Positive Thinking Creates An Aluminium Ladder!

The power of positive thinking or visualisation - does it work? Here's a story which illustrates that it does. Though many will simply write it off as a 'coincidence'.

Pete Leeder had been doing some outside work on his house and realised he needed a ladder, preferably a 20 foot aluminium ladder.

Although he had most tools in his well stocked workshop, the one thing he didn't have was a 20 foot aluminium ladder. Neither did any of his near neighbours. So he drove to the local hardware store - and no, they didn't have one either.

At that point, Leeder decided to utilise the old psychic powers of the mind and zero in on the subject of ladders and his need and desire for one. Meanwhile, from the hardware store, he drove to meet his wife where she worked. During this drive he was thinking about how he could secure the ladder to the car once he had 'achieved' one.

He remembered there were some heavy ropes in the car trunk so he figured he would tie them to the ladder and then run the ends through the open windows of the car and tie them securely inside. Working on this problem kept his mind constantly on the subject of the ladder need.

Having collected his wife, Leeder now began his drive home but, instead of going the usual way, found himself taking a different route entirely. Part of the route was along a road where there were few houses and little development, so consequently there were few pedestrians and hardly any traffic.

Only two people were walking along that particular stretch of road, and they happened to be boys about 12. Between them they were carrying a ladder, a 20 foot aluminium ladder!

To his wife's surprise, Leeder pulled up alongside them and asked them where they were going.

"We've got a treehouse in the ravine down there," said one. "This is going to be part of the structure.".

"Is it your ladder?" asked Leeder..

"Sure it is," replied the boy. "My pop's in construction but he could've been killed the other day when his metal ladder went near some overhead cables. He got himself a new wooden one and said we could have this one.".

"Want to sell it?" asked Leeder..

"How much?" responded the boy.

"Ten bucks," said Leeder..

"Done," said the boy..

Leeder handed over the money, went to the trunk, got out the heavy rope and put his prepared ladder-tying-up plan into action. It worked. The boys happily pocketed the windfall and Leeder drove home with his ladder..

All in all his positive thinking resulted in fulfilment in just 45 minutes.

I know many ridicule visualisation and positive thinking, or whatever you want to call it but it does work - even for finding a car parking space! See my post How To Get A Car Parking Space Using Coincidences. If you can create a parking space then why not, well anything!

Finding Lots Of Money Coincidence

I've mentioned previously on my blog how my wife often finds money. Above are just some of the coins she has found! They aren't usually large amounts. However, she was a bit luckier when she found a £10 note (about $14).

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 by a different route. 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 in some ways it was exactly the right amount.

Further Reading:
The Art Of Finding Coins Or Anything Else

How Tips And Tipping Began

I'm way off the usual themes for this blog, today the subject is tips or tipping! In rummaging through some old archives I came across an explanation as to where the word tip came from and how tipping started.

In 1938 the Telegraph wrote:

Old English Inns are responsible for the the term. They had small boxes with the inscription To Insure Promptness, into which patrons dropped coins. Tip came from the first letters of these words.

Wikipedia states:

The practice of tipping began in Tudor England [1485 and 1603]. By the 17th century, it was expected that overnight guests to private homes would provide sums of money, known as vails, to the host’s servants. Soon afterwards, customers began tipping in London coffee houses and other commercial establishments.

That's it!

Did The Medicine Man Cause An Electrical Storm In New York?

Sioux warrior and medicine man

On Saturday my post was about a witch doctor. As often happens, I have now come across a similar story dating back to 1940, again mentioning a coincidence. As this is in the language of that period, it may not be what is considered as politically correct today.

"Natives have a firm belief in the powers of witch doctors. In one Indian tribe in America some of the medicine men became widely known to control the weather.

It was reported that they could cause rain in dry seasons and make storms cease. Scientists at once set out to see the rain makers at work.

The witch doctors used rain bundles, which were piles of sticks, and these scientists returned with some to New York. They were warned by the Indians not to open them without the usual ceremony adopted by the Indians.

The bundle, however was unceremoniously opened in the basement of a large museum.

While the operation went on one of the worst electrical storms of the season occurred. The only explanation seemed to be that it was a remarkable coincidence."

But was it a coincidence? The article from 1940 also included the following cure.

"One strange cure witnessed by a missionary in West Africa, had to do with a man suffering from tuberculosis of the bones. He had visited white doctors without success, and at last appealed to a native witch doctor.

He was cured after the treatment. Asked what the native had done to him, the man could only reply that the doctor had placed something in his sores that caused them to run for days. The cure was investigated and proved, but the witch doctor kept his secret."

Other Random Posts:
Witch Doctor Burnt Man At Stake And It Made The Rain Fall
The UFO That Came To Earth At Kecksburg
Parallel Lives Of Synchronicity

The Ghostly Cat With An Old Man's Head

Here's a very odd ghostly experience from Virginia - apologies for my awful illustration above, but you'll get the idea from the story. So, with a pinch of salt, here goes:

"About two years ago, I left my home one afternoon to visit my sick uncle who, with the exception of his cat, Bitsy, lived alone in the country. It was a lovely day, so I decided to walk.

Upon passing a batch of woods, just short of my uncle's house I saw Bitsy emerge from behind one of the trees. I was about to call her when I saw, instead of the cat's head, the head of my uncle. I screamed and the ghostly thing disappeared.

Terrified, I ran as fast as I could the short distance to the house, getting no response to my several knocks, I opened the door and entered. What I saw send cold chills through my body. Sitting in his favourite chair, staring unseeingly at the floor was my uncle. Sprawled upon the floor at his feet, lay Bitsy. They were both dead."

~ Virginia

10 Ghost Story Posts

Witch Doctor Burnt Man At Stake And It Made The Rain Fall

Rhodesian Witch Doctor

I came across this from 1923 and found it interesting as it shows how attitudes have changed - plus it mentions coincidence (but was it actually coincidence?). Southern Rhodesia became Zimbabwe in 1980.

In Southern Rhodesia, Africa, where they have summer while we have winter, the natives recently called in a witch doctor to make it rain. The whole country was parched and withered as the result of a long drought.

The witch doctor, of course, announced that a human sacrifice must be made to the rain god, Mwari.

No one was very ambitious to be the victim, so the primitive city council turned their eyes to a worthless neighbour named Mtegedi. He was notorious for his amours with his neighbours' wives, and the tribesmen gladly seized on the opportunity to get him out of the way.

Well, they tied him to a stake and burned him alive. Millions have similarly perished in the history of superstitious humanity. By coincidence, the victim had been dead only a few minutes when a terrific storm blew along. Rain fell for days, torrents of it.

Coincidence, you know, is the ally of superstition.

If you have been following the scientific news you will know that Americans have been experimenting to produce artificial rain. The most promising method is an airplane scattering electrified sand on a 'roof of clouds'.

Marconi, some months ago, predicted that rain will come and go at our own will in the future. Then we will become lords and masters of creation on this planet. We will then be able to obtain any amount of power without effort.

The contrast emphasises how man in the primitive state seeks the solution of his problems outside himself, and how in the civilised state he realises that the solution comes from within. In other words, we have to work for everything we get on earth, and progress either individually or socially is up to us ourselves.

We still seek alibis and blame our troubles on external (often invisible) influences. But we are gradually learning that the way to get out of a hole is to climb out with our own hands and legs.

Man's fate is in his own hands, with a Divine Being ready to help as we help ourselves.

Other Random Posts:
Abducted By UFO And Told To Love His Fellow Man
Father Meets Son After 40 Years By Coincidence
Kate's Sex With A Ghost Turns To Sleep Paralysis And Thoughts Of Aliens

Shaving Kit Coincidence

Attorney Robert Abendroth opened a brown paper bag and pulled out an ancient shaving kit he had just bought in an antique store.

He told his companion, "This was my father's."

Abendroth, a lawyer, was stunned when he saw the shaving kit in the antique shop because it had his father's name on it! His father had also put the date, May 1940. He had received it as a gift, at a golf course, for making a hole in one.

Now, by a surprising coincidence, it was in his son's possession.

Original source: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

Other Random Posts:
Anne Parrish Book Coincidence
The Precognition And How A White Dove Appeared At A Car Accident
A Coincidence Showed Her She Missed Out On Her Dream Home