My kids were invited to a birthday party when they were about five.  Lots of parents in attendance, high fence all around the property. I chose to remain, made myself useful.  Father, grandfather, uncles of the party boy were guarding the property.  About a dozen and a half children present.  Child's mother, her mother and sisters and a few other parents were also there for the duration.  Well organised and run event.

An hour or so later, I was inside the house helping out.  Happened to glance out of a window and saw a little girl peddling furiously down the road on a tricycle.  I did a double take after a moment and asked, 'Isn't that one of the kids from the party?'.  People rushed to the window.  Panic stations.  The child was returned to the yard, objecting loudly.  The hostess couldn't understand how the girl had managed to get out of the yard.  The menfolk had promised the guard the gate like hawks

One of the first parents to arrive to collect their child was 'Lucy', the mother of the little girl, 'Bindi', who'd made a run for it on the tricycle.  Lucy was flustered, said she'd driven to collect her daughter as fast as she could.  She said she'd spent the afternoon with a clairvoyant and with a rush said how relieved she was to find Bindi was fine

We asked what she meant and she said that after telling her many upsetting things, the clairvoyant suddenly said, 'You have a little girl.  I can see her now.  She's riding down a road on a tricycle '

Lucy replied no, that couldn't be right, because her daughter was at a birthday party

The clairvoyant said, 'Yes. I can see her. She's on a tricycle, going hell for leather'

Lucy said that was impossible. Her daughter was at a party and the place had a tall fence.  No way could it be her daughter on a road

The clairvoyant said, 'I can see her now.  She has red ribbons and pigtails and is wearing a red spotted party dress.  She's riding on a little trike'

The description fit Lucy's daughter and very worried now, she'd hurried to where the party was being held.  On arrival, she laughed with relief to find Bindi playing happily in the yard with the others and added, 'I'm glad she was wrong about Bindi being on the road, because it means she was wrong about all the other things she said too'

Someone asked what she meant and Lucy said the clairvoyant had told her that she would reunite with her husband soon -- that she was pregnant and this time she'd have a son.  Then Lucy said the clairvoyant had also said that Lucy's mother would be dead before Christmas

Those of us who knew Bindi had escaped out onto the road didn't speak.  We hadn't known whether to interrupt Lucy to tell her the clairvoyant had been correct and that Bindi had somehow taken a tricycle onto the road.  But upon hearing the rest of the clairvoyant's predictions, we held our tongues, because if we'd confirmed that Bindi had been on the road, it might seem to Lucy that the prediction about her mother's death could also be true

Lucy said the clairvoyant must be wrong.  To begin with, she was not pregnant and had no intention of reuniting with her husband -- and her mother was, as always, perfectly healthy

We agreed.  Clairvoyants, fortune tellers, etc.  Everyone knew they made it up.  Someone asked the name of the clairvoyant.  Lucy handed them a slip of paper bearing the woman's name, address and phone number, saying she wouldn't be needing it any more

After Lucy and her daughter had left, the hostess admitted to feeling guilty for not telling Lucy the truth about the tricycle incident.  We said no harm done, so best forget it.  But of course we were aware that the clairvoyant had been uncannily accurate in at least one respect

In the weeks to follow, many of those at the party went to the clairvoyant in question and the woman's name and contact details were passed from one person to the next

I didn't bump into Lucy until a couple of months later.  She looked very unwell and it was obvious she was pregnant.  She confirmed she was and said as result, she and her husband had reunited

Couple of months later, I saw her again.  She was not doing well but was continuing to work.  Her mother, she said, was dying.  The illness had hit out of the blue.

Later, I learned that Lucy had given birth to a son and her mother had died

I met the clairvoyant when a friend persuaded me to go with her for a reading.  That was a strange experience as it turned out.  But as regards the clairvoyant, she was in her late 30, extremely glamorous and gave the impression of being an air-head.  Professional photos of her were on every wall. She said she'd been a photographic model, had married an American, had a couple of children in the US then returned to Australia when the marriage broke down. She preened before every mirror, was broke, modelling was over for her.  She charged two dollars per reading

When I asked, she replied she had never had any interest in fortune telling.  At a party, a game was invented whereby those present would take turns predicting each other's future.  Later, those present claimed she'd been so accurate in their case that she should try to make money from it.  Which is how she'd begun

When I asked if she gleaned information from voices or visions, pictures in her head, she replied, 'I don't know how I do it'.  She was bored throughout.  She added she'd been told by those in the trade to stop giving out such disturbing information. 
Cont.

Never met a clairvoyant

Spooky

Years ago one August in Japan I was talking with a mate outside a busy local train station when I spied a little girl sauntering down an external staircase all alone. She caught my eye because there was something un-Japanese like about her descent. When she got to the ground floor she made a bee-line to me and asked me (in Japanese) what the time was. I answered and she made her way aimlessly back up the staircase from where she had come. My friend thought the whole incident was strange, especially the relaxed way she had asked a white foreigner the time.

That night many, many miles away I was at another train station, this one much smaller, no more than a corrugated metal roof above a concrete platform. I was the only one there - even the single employee had gone home. The night sky was full of moonlight and beyond the station were empty grass-covered hills and the Pacific Ocean. I had a short wait so walked over to a brightly lit line of drink vending machines. The surrounding area was dark - this wasn't even a proper town but a dying village with a handful of old people hanging on. The vending machines were on the backside of one of the buildings that made up the village and there were the outlines of other small buildings beyond that but all was completely dark other than the harsh white light of the machines. There were no buildings facing the station - it was if the village had turned its back on the world.

As I stood there deciding which drink to buy, that same little girl appeared out of the dark and asked me the time. I can't recall if I answered her or not but I do remember the hair standing up on the back of my neck. She then turned and walked back into the dark.

When I tell Japanese this story they quickly tell me it was a ghost. Non-Japanese will simply say it was a coincidence.

About to log out again, then remembered this.  Doesn't sound like much, but for me, it's still disturbing.  Happened decades ago

Attended a family party with my children, intended to stay for half an hour for politeness' sakes.  A man we'll call Alan was going to catch a lift to the party with us, but was held up.  Just as I was about to leave, Alan arrived in a taxi.  He was fairly drunk.  He wasn't popular with the other party goers and wasn't made particularly welcome.  He became argumentative but instead of their expected response, people instead laughed at him.  He stormed from the party and out into the night

I called out to say we'd give him a lift home. When he didn't respond, people told me not to bother.  The children and I left about five minutes later anyway

Usually, at the end of the street, I swung to the left and took the back roads home.  But feeling sorry for Alan I swung to the right and onto a much older, winding road, thinking we'd catch him up to give him a lift

Not far along, we saw Alan walking down the centre of the road.  When he'd been drinking, he adopted a peculiar walk which was immediately recognisable to those who knew him.  He was tall and thin and (when under the influence of alcohol) walked stiff legged, which resulted in his legs splaying out to the sides, like a tin-man

Apart from the unique way of walking, the figure walking ahead of us was wearing Alan's equally recognisable clothing -- pale blue flares long out of date and a washed to death short-sleeved check shirt.  To top it off was the dark hair six weeks overdue for a trim

There was no doubt in our minds that the man walking down the road in front of us was Alan. So much so that swung out in order to drive slowly alongside him.  He was on my left, close to the passenger side door.  My children wound down their windows, ready to ask if he wanted a lift to his place or at least as far as the highway.  If they'd stretched out their arms, the children could have touched him

A second or so earlier, the car's headlights had fully illuminated him and we'd had a very good view of him from behind.  I worked daily with Alan.  The children saw him and his children regularly.  He had a small head in comparison to his body.  Everything about him was slightly odd, including his hair which resembled feathers growing from his skull, the stacked heels he insisted on wearing which, like the flares, were at least a decade out of date.  The set of his shoulders, the long neck. It was Alan, no doubt

He was staring straight ahead, back straight, stiff legged.  It seemed he was going to pretend he didn't know we were there so must be still fuming and sulking

He was ignoring us.  I was beginning to lose my patience, because I could see my children's feelings were hurt.  I'd never liked that stretch of road and was in a stupidly dangerous position through having to swing around him.  Was he going to stop being a child and get in the car or not?

Then he swung his head to face us.  I saw the kids' shocked and confused expressions.  I put my foot down and left him behind. We were all frightened by what we'd seen

it was not Alan.  The man's face when he swung towards us (still not breaking his awkward stride) was ghastly.  Everything about him was identical to Alan, but not the face

Other people will suggest a dozen explanations, but I still don't have one which satisfies me

Valkie wrote on Jun 18^th, 2019 at 6:34pm:



Thanks for sharing that, Valkie

You're both empathetic obviously and blessed with spiritual gifts

How great that in this big world, you two found each other

PZ547 wrote on Jun 18^th, 2019 at 8:57pm:


She is Truely my treasure.
We are soul mates.

I was a very lucky and blessed man

For years, archaeologists, researchers and writers have dubbed a mysterious group 'The Sea People' who appeared in the mid-east during the reign of the Pharoahs

It's often a mystery as to how we end up watching videos on Youtube and so it was that I found myself watching presentations by a German geologist.  Subject -- the Luwians (pronounced Luvians).  I'd never heard of Luwians prior.  The German is an excellent speaker and believed, with persuasive evidence, that the Luwians were the mysterious Sea People.  They'd lived in Western Turkey prior to their intrusion in Egypt and surrounding regions.  But what caused them to leave their established cities and trading empire of 1000 plus years?

The speaker attributed their movements to the collapse of their society and believed it was a combination of drought, natural catastrophes, weakening economy, etc.

A thousand years is nothing to be sneezed at.  The Luwians had decamped with their wives, children, goods and chattels.  Surely during that thousand years they'd suffered but overcome numerous catastrophes?  What was so different this time?  The answer, according to extensive research, was the combination of catastrophes which proved insurmountable

Food for thought considering today's massive established cities

Few days later I went for a poke around in the weeded-books section of a library.  Lots of magazines and children's books plus a few in foreign languages and a dozen tattered fiction.  And then a fat book which hadn't been there the week before, which turned out to be one which someone had donated.  Title, 'Collapse - How Societies Chose to Fail or Survive'


No mention of Luwians, but the book was published in 2005 so maybe the author wasn't familiar with latest developments in Western Turkey

discussed within the book however are

the Anazazi
the Maya
Easter Island
Pitcain and Henderson
Vikings
Norse Greenland
Dominican Republic and Haiti
Australia gets a mention
China
and more

Vanished societies. Prosperous for hundreds of years, then suddenly gone and buried.  Natural catastrophes, wars .. and abuse and subsequent destruction of natural resources --which is where Australia finds its place within the book accompanied by photos (which apply to others of the vanished societies) of deforestation/land clearing, sheep, cattle, mining, increasing population, etc.

Easter Island, bereft of trees. Isolated, uninhabited stone cottages, forests gone, in Greenland.  Montana, said to be on the tipping point from which there will be no return

But in Papua New Guinean highlands, we're told, the 'primitive' natives conducted (successfully) a tree planting, reforestation programme 1200 years ago when they realised that by continually denuding their forests, they were endangering their own survival

So a random video about a collapsed and until recently unidentified ancient people led shortly afterwards to discovery of a book dedicated to the very same topic with timely warning for people of the present

Coincidence/synchronicity 

and to top it off, my favourite bit of verse ever since early high-school is the book's foreword:

I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: 'Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command,
Tell that is sculptor well those passions read,
Which yet survive, stampt on those lifeless things,
The hand that mockt them and the heart that fed:
And on the pedestal these words appear:
'My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!'
Nothing beside remains.  Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away."

'Ozymandias,'
by Percy Bysshe Shelley (1817)


et tu

Burj Khalifa
Empire State Building
Trump Tower
Petronas Towers
Triguboff

Jasin wrote on Jul 9^th, 2019 at 10:55pm:



Gee, JaSin --- you might have slipped/be slipping into a parallel reality

main thing ….. is it good?

Funny you should mention it because last night I read a post by someone who said it had happened to him, or something similar.  He said it lasted almost a month.  He continued going to work, meeting up with friends and so on, but everything had a sense of unreality.  Then he returned to his usual way of thinking, observing, etc.  People had noticed he wasn't his usual self but each put it down to possibly a virus

His experience wasn't deja vu though.  I read it a couple of times, trying to work it out and wondered if he'd made it up.  For instance, he said he used his usual door key for his apartment, but it wouldn't work.  Just then a man emerged from an adjoining apartment and pointed to a door further along, to indicate the guy was trying to open the wrong apartment.  When the guy tried his key on another apartment, the door opened, but he found that apartment -- although it contained his possessions, was mirror-reversed … for example, the kitchen was on the opposite side to that of his 'real' apartment.  He spoke to the guy who'd emerged to ask his name.  The guy said his name and added he'd been his neighbour for some time

When the poster returned to normal, a month later, he found he was using his normal door key which opened his 'real' apartment.  And the guy he'd spoken to did not live there

The poster also recounted that while in his disassociative state he'd become interested in a politician and had researched the politician online.  When he returned to his normal state, a month later, it was to discover the politician in whom he'd shown such interest did not exist and no one had heard of him

People do slip into what are known as 'fugue' states, according to the literature

and Robert Monroe wrote an interesting bit about how he'd slipped into one.  Robert Monroe wrote about some interesting experiences and worth the read if you aren't familiar with him

in his altered state, Monroe 'went' to a world which was extremely realistic and could easily have been in existence on earth.  While in that state, he saw 'himself' living his ordinary life as a husband, father and commuter.  He saw and interacted with his wife and children, saw 'his' house and vehicle, etc.  It all felt very real and normal.  In other words, he'd become someone else and while in that state he was contented with that life

It's often occurred to me that we may all be living several lives simultaneously, without our conscious awareness.  And of late, there's been a lot of discussion about quantum physics, quantum entanglement and so on.  I'd like to think they'll crack it before I kick the bucket.  It would revolutionise everyone, everthing.  And the feelings of depression, confusion, imminent doom, etc. would be seen for what they are -- merely symptoms resulting from this particular time-line which may be just a perpetually troubled slice of existence -- just a dark and dangerous alleyway that our consciousness stumbled into in the way tourists on earth sometimes wander down the wrong street, wrong town, to be confronted by elements of a country or city that travel-brochures purposely neglect to mention. 

When I see skeletons being unearthed after 3000 years, I think to myself that they are the vehicles used to traverse this 3D reality. That's what they look like .. vehicles, same as skeletonised motor vehicles lying on the side of desert roads.  Abandoned vehicles left to rust and decay, their drivers departed.  All they take are their experiences during the time they drove what have since become their skeletons.  And now science can extract their Dna to learn about those departed drivers.  What may seem to us to be vast lengths of time might actually be only a few seconds in the reckoning of elsewhere

But back to your deja vu -- can you explain what you're experiencing?  It must be fascinating.  I'm certainly fascinated.  Are you able to function normally while it's occurring?  Which do you prefer --- 'this' reality or the deja vu version?  What are you learning from it?  Can you slip in and out of the deja vu state at will? Did you do anything to thrust you into the deja vu state or was it spontaneous?  Have you experienced deja vu frequently prior to this?  Do you feel 'like yourself' whilst in the deja vu state?  Is it frightening to be suspended in that state?  Like most, I've experienced it since early childhood, but only for a few seconds at a time.  It's always perplexed me and no one (when I was a child) was able to explain it to my satisfaction .. nor since, come to that

Deja vu, when you've experienced it once, is instantly recognisable.  You think, 'uh oh, it's happening again'.  It's sort of nice and disturbing at the same time.  But most of us only experience it fleetingly.  Can't imagine what it must be like to spend a couple of weeks in that state of mind.  Hope you'll post about it again