Thought Of The Day

Whatever you can do, or dream you can do, begin it.
Boldness has genius, power and magic in it.
Goethe

Photo: Benalmadena, south Spain. © Mike Perry 2010

Dreaming Of A Phone Number Led To Romance

Some coincidences are hard to believe but nevertheless the people involved are always adamant that the stories are absolutely true. One such case is the romance of David Brown and Michelle Kitson - real people, that's them in the photo on the left. It involves a coincidence of phone numbers.

One morning in 2007 David woke with an unfamiliar mobile phone number going over and over through his head, he couldn't shake it off. Curiosity got the better of him so he decided he might as well text the number.

Michelle, a 17 year old, answered. She lived some 60 plus miles away from John, didn't know him but, to cut a long story short, they exchanged texts, then phone calls and eventually agreed to meet up ... and now they are married.

John described what happened, "I went out for a quiet night with some mates and ended up having a few to drink. When I woke up this phone number just kept running through my head."

Michelle said that after the initial contact with David, "It was really weird but I was absolutely hooked. My mum and dad kept saying, 'But he could be an axe murderer', but I knew there was something special about it. I hadn't had a boyfriend before. Those first text messages were a real adrenaline rush.

"I believe that things happen for a reason. I know some people will find it hard to believe, but we know the truth."

Regarding their very first meeting David got to their meeting place early and decided to phone her. He saw a girl answer a phone on the opposite side of the road, it was Michelle.

He says of that first meeting,"It was love at first sight for me - I loved everything about her."

About remembering Michelle's number he explains how he has, " ... no idea how I ended up with her number in my head - it's only a few digits different from mine."

Of course many will be sceptical of such a story but the couple insist that it is absolutely true. The Daily Mail newspaper tried to find out how this sort of thing could happen and asked a Professor Heinz Wolff, an emeritus professor of Brunel University.

Professor Wolff answered, "Whatever else it is a charming story but I would be against a supernatural explanation. It is likely the number of this girl was mentioned in the pub (where he was with his mates the nigh before) and somehow this young man overheard it, even without realising, and his subconscious remembered it."

Is this a big coincidence or maybe some precognition in a dream? Were the couple destined to meet or is the spoilsport Professor correct?

David and Michelle know exactly what they believe and so do other people, who have had very similar coincidences with phone numbers and romance.

Like, for example, the friend of Roy Smith's from Vancouver:

"Many years ago a friend of mine was making a regular routine mid-week phone call to his girlfriend. However, on this occasion, he absentmindedly miss-dialed the last digit and ended up talking to the 'wrong number' for an hour or more. They decided to meet for coffee. They got along fine. He ditched his current girlfriend and he and the 'wrong number' have been happily married for over 30 years."

And also Ezgi Erkol from Izmir:

"Almost two years ago when I went to Italy I stayed with an Italian family which had a son at my same age. After coming back to Turkey, I decided to add him to my msn contacts. Fortunately I confused his name and surname and so I ended up adding another person, with the same name, to my list. Although we realized that I made a mistake, we didn't stop talking. Finally he came to Turkey just to see me and we understood that we were the two halves of the same apple!"

Further Reading:
A Romantic Coincidence

Houses Have Feelings Too

My son recently moved to a new house - not new in the sense of just being built but a house new to him and his fiance.

After they had moved all of their furniture and belongings inside and straightened things out a little I sat in their living room and immediately felt comfortable. I thought, "This is a good house filled with happiness."

I remember reading Tennyson when he wrote:

"Woods have tongues
As walls have ears."
That's sort of true. Houses and buildings somehow absorb attitudes and perhaps temperaments of the people who have lived there previously. If the last tenants were full of family love this permeates the atmosphere. The opposite is true as well. If there has been hate and ill feeling these vibrations linger and can be felt by the new owners.

All buildings have a mood. I love visiting churches and places of worship wherever I travel in the world - even though I don't belong to any organised religion. Most churches give an instant feeling of peace and tranquility.

Other buildings give off different vibes. Obvious ones are places such as airports, where everything seems to be hustle, bustle and confusion. A doctors surgery may give off anxiety, restaurants a sense of expectations and so on.

Some people say they see ghosts in their houses or in other buildings who repeat the same thing. These apparitions walk down the same stairs, in the same way or across a room in a certain direction over and over again. Some strong emotion has imprinted this into the house.

It's interesting (or maybe worrying!) to consider what the walls of our own houses are taking in as they observe our moods, tone of our voices, thoughts and so on.

Shelly said, "One wandering thought pollutes the day." As well as polluting our minds perhaps these thoughts also pollute our living areas.

Wonder how people feel when they walk into our homes?

Photos: Rye Church Mike Perry 2010

Voices Told Woman She Had A Tumour

This is a strange case because it may involve some form of telepathy or even voices from a higher level. What makes it particularly interesting is that it is from a good source - The BMJ, the British Medical Journal, and was reported by a consultant psychiatrist.

The story is about - what appeared to be - a perfectly healthy woman (known in the report as AB), a full time housewife and mother, and someone who rarely went to her doctor.

She was sitting at home reading when she heard a voice inside her head. The voice told her, "Please don't be afraid. I know it must be shocking for you to hear me speaking to you like this, but this is the easiest way I could think of. My friend and I used to work at the Children's Hospital, Great Ormond Street, and we would like to help you."

The voice continued, "To help you see that we are sincere, we would like you to check out the following" — and the voice gave her three separate pieces of information, which she did not possess at the time. She checked them out, and they were true.

Thinking she was going mad she went to her doctor who referred her to the psychiatrist who made his report to the BMJ. He diagnosed a 'functional hallucinatory psychosis' and treated her with counselling and medicine. The voice left her alone for several weeks and she felt well enough to go abroad on holiday.

While away the voice returned. They told her words to the effect that 'they' wanted her to return to England immediately as there was something wrong with her and she should have immediate treatment. She returned to London.

The voices then gave her an address to visit. Her husband reluctantly drove her there. It turned out to be the department of a London hospital. On arrival the voice told her to go in and request a brain scan because (1) she had a tumour in her brain and (2) her brain stem was inflamed.

She saw the psychiatrist the next day and he arranged for AB to have the scan to reassure her. The hospital, however, refused to do this because they could see no medical reason as to why this should be carried out - she had no symptoms, headaches and the like.

After several weeks of discussion they finally agreed. The scan 'revealed a left posterior frontal parafalcine mass, which extended through the falx to the right side. It had all the appearances of a meningioma.'
An immediate operation followed the findings and the tumor was removed.

After her recovery she heard the voice once more, "We are pleased to have helped you. Goodbye."
Twelve years later AB remains completely well.

So was it the tumor itself which caused the hallucinatory voices (this is seemingly sometimes possible) or something else? A form of telepathy perhaps? Or maybe some sort of skulduggery by the woman herself? Opinion is split.

As a non medical man myself it's difficult to reach any conclusion. Again it's another case of 'believe what you wilt.'

Photo: Wikimedia Commons Thomas Schultz

The Mystery Of The Lobster Nightmare

Here's a strange story from John Moss and I'm assured that it's true. I can't explain how it happened maybe you can.

One year in my youth when I had been working a couple of years, I went camping with a friend of the same age at a small seaside resort where we fished and went after lobster from a small rowboat.

Our tent was an ex army bell tent. My friend mentioned that we must be careful with lobster as his father had once been bitten by one and suffered three months of blood poisoning.

One afternoon we caught a number of lobsters and just left them free in a section of our boat. We were both barefoot and I disliked the creatures moving about, trying to climb up the sides of the boat, their legs and feelers never still.

The result was that all this preyed on my mind that night.

We turned in and made the tent safe by pegging down the ground flaps and roped the door flap to keep it closed against stray dogs, marauders and the wind.

In the early hours of the morning I had a violent nightmare when I saw hordes of red lobster coming for my bare feet. I must have yelled in terror, which woke me and I found myself standing outside the tent in the moonlight.

My friend lit a hurricane lamp and had to untie the door to get out and ask me, "What's the matter."

The tent was secure and to this day it remains a mystery to both of us how I got outside the tent.

Further Reading
10 Coincidence Or Synchronicity Examples

Lots Of Spanish Water Even In The Mountains

I was talking about how we should, perhaps, ask for answers or help from the Universe in my post of a few days ago The Secret Answer To Problems and Questions.

Since then all sorts of memories have flooded my mind about how I have found help by asking. Don't worry, I'm not going to bore you with them all! However, one sticks in my mind from when our son was only about 10 or 11.

We were in the south of Spain on holiday and, in a small hired car, set off into the mountains. Can't remember exactly where we were heading but the roads became narrower and narrower as we went higher and higher. We hadn't seen another car or vehicle for over an hour when our car suddenly decided to grind to a halt.

Luckily there was a space where we could pull over, opposite was a sheer drop. The car had overheated and the radiator was empty. I wasn't too sure what to do. We needed water to fill the radiator and I then figured we could just about turn round and head back to civilisation.

Only problem was the mountains were completely parched and it was very hot. I went off for a walk to try and find some water, perhaps a small stream but no such luck. There was nothing about and no villages for many miles according to the map.

Strangely I felt very relaxed about the situation. I went off again in the other direction and after a few hundred yards sat on a big rock looking at the wonderful view. I then started to visualise water - lots of it, gushing everywhere and asked the Universe to help me.

I wandered back to the car and my wife and son were getting quite anxious. I told them not to worry as we'd get some water soon. Not sure if I believed this fully, especially when asked, "Yes, but how."

Moments later a lorry was coming down the road towards us. The first vehicle we had seen for ages and ages. The lorry pulled up and the driver said something or other. I don't speak Spanish so, with hand signals and random words, I indicated that we wanted water.

It was then I noticed the back of the lorry held a big circular tank and, yes, it was filled with water.

The driver beckoned me to the back of the lorry and I stood there with a small bucket he had given me. He turned a handle at the back of the drum and suddenly a jet of powerful water gushed all over me and virtually knocked me over. I was drenched from head to toe but couldn't help but laugh - as did my wife and son.

To cut a long story short the lorry had been delivering water to some of the small homesteads high in the mountains. Our car engine cooled, I filled up the radiator with water (plus a bottle for emergencies), turned the car round - though very apprehensive of the sheer drop - and then slowly drove down the mountain and finally reached where we were staying on the coast.

My visualisation of water gushing everywhere certainly came true. It was as if the Universe was playfully saying, "So you wanted water ... I'll give you water!"

Sceptics will say that the lorry was heading in my direction anyway, but to me - and the way it felt at the time - I had a little help along the way.

Further Reading:
The Secret Answer To Problems And Questions

Footnote Warning: One of the things I've noticed about asking for stuff from the Universe is that it doesn't pay to boast about it or to think suddenly you've got it all sussed. If you do you get a kick up the pants, playfully of course.

For instance I wrote a post The Art Of Finding Coins Or Anything Else. It was about 'how my wife is always finding coins' whenever we go for a walk. But since then my wife hasn't found any coins at all - not even a penny! As with a child the Universe gives us a bit of a nudge if we get too big for our boots. So I now have to say 'how my wife was always finding coins!'

Being On Earth Is One Big Coincidence

Many of the posts on this blog are about coincidences or synchronicity. I've written about lots of examples, some small and others more impressive. But when you think about it, we are all here on earth at this time by one big coincidence or maybe even millions of them.

The odds of us being here now must be billions and billions to one. For example, if our great-great-great-great-great-grandfather hadn't have met up by chance/coincidence with our great-great-great-great-grandmother then we wouldn't be here now. And you could take this right back to the first men and women who walked on earth - even Adam and Eve if this is what you believe.

It looks like we are all linked, almost relations if you like, going back thousands of years.

Let's now look at this from another viewpoint, this time looking forward. Our meeting with our partners and then us producing our children stretches way into the future. Our great-great-great-great-grandchildren will be there partly because of us and other coincidences along the way. We are linked therefore to millions and millions of people in the future.

Now some will say, though all of this might be true, there is more to it than this. They would bring in their beliefs of how we are souls or spirits - or whatever else you might wish to call the part of us which is God, for want of a better word.

If we are atheists then us being is here is definitely one massive series of coincidences. We are almost freaks by being here in our present form purely by chance - lucky to have had the opportunity to experience a short life. Simply a speck of dust along the highway.

If we believe there is something more to us, and we are eternal, then perhaps the coincidences that got us here are in fact part of some Master Plan. Some say we choose our parents, for instance, and are here for a purpose of learning. If this were/is true those coincidences, which created our physical bodies are less meaningful, but other coincidences and synchronicity are the opposite - very much more meaningful.

It all depends on what we choose to believe.

Regarding coincidences in general I feel that The Celestine Prophecy guy James Redfield has got it partly right when he says:

"A new spiritual awakening is occurring in human culture, an awakening brought about by a critical mass of individuals who experience their lives as a spiritual unfolding, a journey in which we are led forward by mysterious coincidences."

Further Reading:
10 Coincidence Or Synchronicity Examples
How The Past Can Link To The Future
Coincidence or Synchronicity - Example 10 - About a link to the past.