The Silent Scuffle

There have been several events in my life that have seemed paranormal but could possibly be explained away, even if by a far-fetched theory. 

Tonight's event was not one of those.  At least I can't think of an explanation.

I will back up:  two days ago, I had a couple experiences with texts I knew I had composed and sent only to find later that they were nonexistent.  This happened with two different text messaging services.  Still, technology will be technology, so, while I find it intriguing, I know it could just be a glitch -- even, coincidentally, in two different text messaging services.

This morning, I noticed two of my rats starting what I like to call a "silent scuffle."  Bishop and Farnsworth are such good friends that when they DO appear to have a fight, they go through the motions, but there is none of the squeaking and screeching you hear with two less affectionate rats.  It's kind of like watching a silent movie.  So when I saw this silent scuffle about to start up, I grabbed my iPhone to get it on film so my friend Jocy could see it.  She had heard about their scuffles, but I'd never filmed one. 

Disappointingly, just as I started recording, Bishop and Farnsworth toned it down and just sat there sort of swaying their heads back and forth, merely considering starting a scuffle.  I thought to myself, "Well, this is boring.  But Jocy would probably find it interesting since she would be able to tell what they are actually doing." (Jocy knows "rat language" very well.) 

But when Farnsworth started grooming Bishop, I realized the show was over and I just stopped the recording and went about my morning.  The video wasn't worth sending even to Jocy.

This evening, Jocy accompanied me to a vet visit for my brother's dog.  On our way, I asked if she had seen the two rat videos I had sent her yesterday.  She said, "Yes, I saw them this morning." then she laughed.  "I saw the one with the 'silent scuffle.'"  I looked at her in confusion and she continued, "You know, where the two rats were swaying back and forth in front of each other."

I knew I hadn't sent her the video she seemed to be describing; I hadn't even told her I had recorded one of their scuffles.  So I just decided she was referring to a video with a part I didn't remember happening, or she was just confused.  We were interrupted, but resumed the conversation later.  When she again brought that video up, I said, "I didn't send you that video."

She insisted I did, and she grabbed her phone to pull it up.  Meanwhile, I grabbed my phone to pull up the video of the near silent scuffle.  When I showed it to her, she said, "Yes, that was it."
"But I didn't send this to you," I said.  "I just decided it was too boring and I quit recording and did something else."

Again, she insisted I did send it to her.  And, like I said, she had already described the video, even before I'd shown it to her.  She decided that maybe my iPhone had sent it automatically. 

However, when she went to her email to show me -- it wasn't there.  Only the two videos I remember sending her were there.  She told me it had been a Youtube link within an email, like the others.  I showed her no such email in my own sent messages OR in my uploaded videos in Youtube.  I then showed her the steps I have to take to send her a video (with this particular one, I'd have had to clip it and that takes me some time since I have to decide which part to send) and there are even more steps to uploading it to Youtube then sending it as a link. 

But the fact remained that she had been able to describe this video before we had realized there was no way she could have seen it. (Also note that I have only ever sent her three videos total. Two of those were yesterday and one was months ago. None of them had a scene like the one she had just described that I had filmed.)

To make this more interesting, she told me that as she was watching it, she had figured - considering the boring content - that I had wanted her to tell me what the rats were doing -- which was exactly what I was thinking at the time of recording. 

There is no explanation as of yet for this.  But it's not the first time Jocy has experienced what appears to be an alternate reality.

Pub Quiz Mystery

In our trip to the UK the past two weeks, my husband Richie and my cousin Jeremy and I got in on a pub quiz in York. We weren't really interested at first, so we didn't take any answer sheets, but to pass the time I went ahead and started writing down the answers on my own sheet of paper. I started with number one, so we didn't miss any. Around number 15, I believe, I heard the lady calling out the questions skip to 17 or something. I can't remember the exact numbers, but I know she skipped at least two. As Richie was at the bar, I looked to Jeremy for confirmation that I had heard correctly, and he agreed she had skipped a couple numbers. I expected some participant in the quiz to correct her or ask about it, but nobody said anything. The lady went on calling out questions. She continued in order to number 25, then suddenly she skipped to 29. Again, this anomaly was confirmed by both Jeremy and Richie, and again nobody corrected the lady or asked about the skipped numbers. I could only assume 1) the quiz worked in some odd way we weren't familiar with that the locals were or 2) somebody would point out the mistake before the lady called out the answers, maybe ask what the number to those questions were.

However, that never happened. The questions stopped at 30, and then the lady began calling out the answers. I waited curiously for her to get to the numbers she had skipped. I was positive that when she called out those answers, somebody in the pub would protest and say she had never even given the questions. Instead, when she DID get to those numbers 16-18, 26-28, I remembered those questions being called out. By the end of the answers, I realized that every answer she had called out had been to a question that I had, in fact, heard her ask. What's more, Jeremy and Richie both remembered those questions too.

We couldn't figure it out. We never did figure it out. There appeared to be no confusion in the pub whatsoever. Unfortunately, we didn't think to ask anyone else in the pub if they had observed the same thing we did. I wish so much that we had.

2 UFOs and a Possum

Two nights ago -- that would be the 12th -- my husband and I, along with 4 other people, saw an object in the sky we couldn't identify. It was a solid, bright light traveling with no sound at the altitude of an airplane. It was so low and bright that we knew it wasn't a satellite. It went in a straight trajectory west to east. My husband has worked with military craft for years (he tests weapon systems) and even he was unable to identify the object. This sighting took place around 10:30 or so. It was a cloudless night.

Tonight as I was taking my dog out, I saw another object. At first I assumed it was just a common aircraft because it was blinking, but then I realized it was one single light blinking completely off and on, exhibiting none of the blinking lights other of a traditional aircraft. It was also flying around airplane altitude (which I realize can vary but my point is it was not in space). It, too, was noiseless. It would blink on for maybe a second and a half and blink back out for just as long. It was also a cloudless night.

In another instance of strangeness tonight, when my husband took our dog Tiberius out to use the bathroom, Tiberius came across an opossum that Richie hadn't seen and tried to attack it. Richie snatched him back into, but the poor opossum went into shock. It lay there a few minutes, appearing to be asleep. (This is what people mistakenly believe is the opossum playing dead, but in reality, it is in shock.)

I felt so badly for it that I sat down a safe distance away and prayed for it until it recovered. When it did, it slowly raised its head and looked around, bleary eyed, like it didn't remember what had happened. Then it got up and walked away. I think I found that more interesting than the UFOs.

More Telepathic Experiences

I had a couple friends over weekend before last, and after some chatting and a couple drinks, I casually suggested one of them send me an object mentally.  She had never done this with me before and she sent me four different objects total. 

With the first one, I saw straw, like maybe a scarecrow, but my instinct told me to go with the properties.  (Sometimes I can tell if I'm just getting the properties or the exact item.)  So I said, "I'm getting straw."  She said, "I sent you a red basket."  She sent me a second object and I got simply a big orange ball.  It was just too simple so I figured I had missed it, but I said, "OK, I just got a big, orange ball."  She looked astonished, almost uncomfortable, and said, "I sent you the sun."   The third thing I saw was definitely black and had a large, solid shape to it -- long.  I wondered if it was a whale.  Finally I said, "It's black; it's long, maybe cylindrical."  She said, "I sent you a top hat."

We took a short break and a few minutes later, I asked her to send me another. This time I got a blanket, very clearly.  Again, I felt it was too simple, but I said, "OK, I got a blanket or quilt."  She said, "I sent you a green blanket." She was a bit freaked out over it, and she wanted to stop because it makes her head hurt.  My other friend there, with whom I've always played the game with incredible success, said that it makes her head hurt as well.  They both agreed the pain comes in the center of the forehead.  So while I was disappointed, I didn't request any more objects.  I am going to find out if it makes any of my other friends' heads hurt.

So far, the exercise has worked consistently with whomever is willing to do it with me --  except my husband, my cousin, and my brother.  I was starting to conclude that it only works with females, but recently it worked with a male friend and in the past there was another male friend it worked with.  So I don't know exactly what the criteria are at this point, or if there is a certain type with whom it works best.

Another strange case of synchronicity

As with every Christmas season, I have been receiving books I've requested.  As with every day of the year, I'm already behind on books I have been intending to read.  I'm currently undertaking everything Orson Scott Card has ever written, but because I'm kind of a slow reader due to some degree of attention deficit, that will likely take me a couple years. 

Two weeks ago, I was concentrating my energies on Ender in Exile.  Richie had just bought OSC's latest (Pathfinder), so that was next on my list, followed by Anne Rice's latest angel book. That would take up the next three months for sure, and that's not including my plans to continue reading The Ender series with my uncle. 

Suddenly, for no reason I can identify, I dropped everything and began reading The Owlman and Others by my friend Jonathan Downes.  Why in the world I chose now, halting my already ambitious reading plans, to pick up this book that had been in my possession for two years is mysterious to me, but why I would choose the Christmas season to immerse myself in the part of cryptozoology that deals with the more sinister side of the unknown is even stranger. (The Owlman is the British version of the Mothman.)

Richie and I are presently at my mom's for the Christmas holidays.  Two days ago (and two weeks into my Owlman book) we received a phone call from MUFON (Mutual UFO Network) for whom we are field investigators.  This was an unusual case they were assigning us to: an apparent man-bird sighting in San Antonio.  MUFON does not typically address cryptid sightings, but a lady who, with her husband and son, had seen a giant man-bird flying over her neighborhood back in April had just decided to report it to MUFON. 

I find it nothing short of bizarre that the report this of sighting -- the first of its type that has ever come my way -- would occur the very time I had chosen, for no known reason, to read a book on this very thing.

I cannot believe this is coincidence.  As George Noory says, there is no such thing.

Strange Occurences in My Friend's House

I have a friend I will keep anonymous who has now had four bizarre things happen to her over the past year.  These are things that many people would dismiss as absent-mindedness, but she is one of the most together, alert, and deliberate people I know.  I told her she needed to keep a record of these experiences, so I'm doing it for her:

First incident: Last year, she was leaving the house with her daughter.  She grabbed her very bulky keys and stuffed them into her coat pocket.  She remembers this specifically.  She got the car and they keys weren't there.  She went back to the house, opened the front door (I can't remember if she hadn't locked it or what) and the keys were hanging on the hook next to the front door.

Second incident: She woke up one morning to a bizarre noise.  She discovered it was coming from her deceased grandmother's electronic keyboard which had been turned to full volume.  The cover -- which takes some effort to get on -- was still on it.  My friend not only meticulously turns the keyboard off when she is done with it, but she always turns each volume adjuster all the way down.  Her little girl is too small to have messed with the keyboard and replaced the cover.  My friend shut the keyboard off, turned it back on, and could never get it to duplicate that odd noise again.

Third incident:  the evening before last, my friend was washing her dishes and came to the last thing -- a bread pan.  There was some cheese stuck in the bottom corner of the pan and she considered just soaking it all night.  Then she decided against it since she had a brillow pad or something and she scrubbed it, rinsed it, and put in the dish rack.  The next morning when she got up, the pan was soaking in the sink, cheese still stuck to the bottom, as if she had made a different decision.

Fourth incident: the same evening (evening before last) she specifically remembers putting her phone on the charger because her mother-in-law had tried to call right before she did so.  She ignored the call, joked with  her husband, then plugged the phone in.   The next morning the phone was in its case next to the charger station. Her husband witnessed  her put it on the charger and can't figure it out.  He also is pretty sure he saw her wash and put away the bread pan.

Inconsequential weirdness, but weird nonetheless.

444

I have never been one to take notice of a recurring time on the clock, such as the famed 11:11.  I have actually never paid much attention to the significance of numbers, but a couple weeks ago I started noticing that I kept seeing the clock right at 4:44.  There isn't any particular thing I'm doing at that time to explain why I would suddenly look at a clock.  In fact, I get off work around 4:30 and often go to the gym.  I don't even pay attention to the time.  But over weekends and days when I wasn't at the gym, I kept noticing 4:44.  I don't know why, or if there is a "why."  But it's interesting.  I did finally research 444 and found there is a web site devoted to it. 

Coincidence, Dimensional Cross-over, or Crazy Couple?

I teach high school English in Texas. Back in 2010, my husband and I went to the San Antonio Riverwalk for one last getaway before the school year started. We were eating at Joe's Crab Shack when I noticed that a boy in the family we sat next to looked like one of my students from two years prior.  I didn't want to stare long enough to be sure, though, that it was him.  However, a while into the meal, I heard the young girl (who I assumed to be the sister) call this boy "Keenan," which was the name of my student.  I turned quickly now to look at him, and they all looked at me curiously.

"Are you the Coles?"  I asked.  [I have changed their last name.]

"No," they replied.

"Oh, I'm sorry," I said, "I just heard her say Keenan and I taught a Keenan Cole two years ago --"

"Oh," the father cut in, "This is Keenan Cole!"  he said, pointing at the boy.  Keenan smiled quietly, as was characteristic of him.  "This is Keenan Cole," he said again, "But we aren't the Coles." 

So I assumed perhaps this was Keenan's mother and a stepfather, hence the different last names. 

"He's been saying you look like his teacher," the mother said.

"Well, guess what," I said smiling at Keenan, "I am teaching juniors this year, so I might get you again."  He was still just smiling and the sister now had him in a playful headlock. 

"I hope we don't get any bad notes home this year," the mother said. 

I told them that while I didn't remember Keenan being a problem himself, he had been in one of my rowdiest classes, and I had sent a few emails to parents that year. I reviewed some of the names of the more "energetic" boys in Keenan's class, and he nodded in agreement, laughing with me at the memories. 

So that was that and we said goodbye when they left. 

When school started, I did end up with Keenan on my roster.  On the first day of school, I mentioned seeing him on the Riverwalk.  He said nothing until I mentioned it again later, and this time, he said, "That wasn't me."  I questioned him, not just that day, but for several days because he stuck to his story -- he had never been to the Riverwalk this summer.  He even swore to God and he never swore to God, he said. "I was supposed to be at the Riverwalk that week," he did say during one conversation, "But I didn't go. You can ask my mom." Because this was a personal matter and not school-related, I chose to Facebook-message his mom instead of using school email. That is when I saw that she was not the same woman I had seen on the Riverwalk. She replied that they were never in San Antonio this summer. "I work nights, and he was home taking care of his sister." She went on to express some anger at the people who must have been trying to trick me. 

Other people have suggested it was a prank, but believe me when I say that they didn't have time to plot like that. This was all instantaneous conversation. Also, we live over two hours from San Antonio, so it's not like Keenan could have snuck to the Riverwalk and back home while his mom was working. 

My husband is my only witness - he saw the family and heard the conversation. To this day, I cannot explain what happened. 

Another psychic moment involving Jamie

Today during a faculty meeting, my friend Jamie (from the flux capacitor and garage door "pointless psychic stories") was sitting on my right beside me.  I was doodling, as always, and since parallel universes is always a hot topic of conversation with me and Jamie, I began drawing them.  I began with a point -- a small dark circle -- and drew two parallel lines coming out from the top of it.  I began adding smaller lines coming out from each parallel line so that it started looking sort of like tree branches. Jamie had been listening to the speaker intently.  A little bit later, I noticed Jamie had started doodling and I glanced down to see.  In the middle of her page, she had drawn a dark circle with two parallel lines coming out the top of it. The picture took up a good part of her page. I laughed and elbowed her.  "Is that parallel universes?"  She nodded, and I said, "So you saw mine?"  and pointed to my doodles.  She glanced down at my doodles, which were very small and in my left margin.  Then she started cracking up. "No," she said, "I didn't see yours!"  Then she started laughing even harder because she noticed I had started with a dark circle as well.

I was more astonished than amused.  I know that to anyone who doesn't know Jamie, this story doesn't seem that significant -- as you could assume she was lying or that we had drawn parallel universe diagrams before.  But she wasn't and we hadn't.  Something that our principal had said had given her the idea for her parallel universe drawing.  I had started mine long before for a whole different reason.

Time Warp Text Message?

My mobile phone is set up to send me text notifications whenever I get a message or wall post on facebook. Yesterday evening I kept receiving text messages on an amusing status update I had posted. Every few minutes the notification would sound and I would check the message. At one point, I was talking to my husband and I happened to look down and see that I had received a message from my friend Lizzie. I thought it was odd that I hadn't, as with the other messages, heard the notification sound. The message just appeared as if I had clicked it on to read it. Anyway, I had been particularly interested in what Lizzie would have to say, so when I saw that it began "LOL...", I went onto FB to view the rest of the message. Oddly, there was no such message on FB. I could only assume she had deleted it to reword it or whatever.

So I went to my gmail because I knew that it would have sent the full original message. (For those that may not understand how this works, once somebody has posted a message on FB, I immediately receive an email on gmail and a text message on my phone. Even though the messenger may remove their message, the email and text message will still be there; the sender of the message has no control over the notifications I receive.) There was no message on gmail either.

By now I was getting really confused, so I went back to my text messages to view the message again. There WAS no message in my text messages. It was like it had never existed.

Frustrated, I told my husband what was going on, complaining that I couldn't see any evidence of Lizzie's message that had begun "LOL." About three minutes into our speculating on what could have happened, I heard the notification of a new message. I looked down to see Lizzie's message, yet again. It began "LOL, oh dear..." and this time when I went to FB and gmail, the message was there. Not only that, but it showed that it had been posted that very minute...not three minutes before, when I had actually seen it.

hmmmm....

UFO

Ok, I have one measly UFO story that took place in none other than Parker City, Indiana, the capital of my negative, paranormal experiences. This experience was not negative, and it probably wasn't even paranormal. However, the object my mom and I saw is as yet unidentified, and I have yet to hear a similar description in any known aircraft sighting OR any UFO sighting.

We saw it over the tree in our front yard one night. It was silent, not too terribly high up (I can't judge distance specifically), and appeared to be floating somewhat aimlessly. It was a glowing square. To this day, my mom describes it as looking like a paper bag with a candle in it. But the paper bag imagery throws me off because there was nothing thin or papery looking about. It was definitely square, but solid, and had a light source inside it. We got in the car and followed it down the highway until it disappeared. As it grew more distant, all that was visible was its light, so that now it looked like nothing but a glowing ball in the sky.

That was all. I suspect it was something man-made that was unidentifiable to the untrained eye.

Missing Memory

This is kind of an embarrassing story, and probably nothing more than a memory retrieval issue, but it was just so odd I want to include it in my paranormal accounts.

This took place in my early twenties when I was working at a day care. It was right after naptime, and I was sent to retrieve 2 children from the naproom and deliver them to a classroom downstairs. I went to the naproom, helped the kids get their shoes on, then left the naproom with them following.

Suddenly I was in the ladies' bathroom downstairs, washing my hands. I thought to myself, "Wait, where are the kids? What did I do with them while going to the bathroom? Did I have them wait for me in the hall?" In a panic, I rushed into the hallway. There were no children.

I hurried to the classroom where I was originally supposed to have delivered them, and there they were, safe and sound. Their teacher saw me approach, and I asked her, "Did I bring them here?"

"Yes," she said.

I stared her a moment, trying to gather my thoughts. "Did I say anything?" I asked.

She looked concerned. "Well, you just looked kind of spaced out."

There was nothing more to be said. I don't recall now if I admitted to her that I had no recollection of my actions. I tried from that moment on to reconstruct my steps from the upstairs naproom to the downstairs woman's bathroom, but was never able to remember the steps inbetween.

A psychologist friend of mine once told me that he didn't think I had actually disassociated during the time in question, because I had carried out my duties. I had to have been aware of what I was doing to do so. He thinks I had a memory retrieval problem. Whatever it was, it was very odd and I'm glad to say it hasn't been repeated since (that I remember - lol).

Many people over the years have compared this story to the common experience of driving somewhere and having no recollection of the drive upon arrival. I think that is something entirely different. Most of us go on "autopilot" when we drive, and have the luxury of thinking of other things, daydreaming, listening to music, etc. But to have just 2-3 minutes of blank when you are at work carrying out a specific errand -- with children involved, no less -- that, in my opnion, cannot be compared to the all too common driving experience.

Pointless Psychic Moments

I say pointless because when most people have premonitions, they are meaningful in some way or other. They convey important messages or warnings. My friend Jamie, who is a fellow lover of all things unexplained, has twice been the subject of my three very pointless, recent psychic moments.

First story: This was last summer. I was getting ready to go walk with Jamie. I've always thought Jamie is pretty cool and I guess somewhere in the back of my mind, I'm always worried I'll make an ass of myself somehow and she'll think I'm not cool. That's the only explanation I have for this sudden scenario that flashed through my head of my accidentally driving my truck into Jamie's garage door, busting it to smithereens, and forever ruining our friendship. Well, minutes after this heart-stopping scenario rushed through my mind, my phone rang. It was Jamie. She was upset because her garage door had just broken and she couldn't get it closed. She was going to have to cancel our walk because she didn't want to leave the house with the door wide open.

Second Story: Last spring, I had a dream one night that Jamie bought a flux capacitor. That's the device that enabled Marty McFly to travel back in time in Back to the Future. I woke up amused and emailed Jamie about my dream. She emailed me flipping out: the very night before, while at the school play rehearsal, Jamie had joked with some of the students that the rehearsal was going too slow and they needed to buy a flux capacitor. I had no way of knowing about that, as I wasn't at the rehearsal. Furthermore, neither Jamie nor I have ever discussed a flux capacitor nor, to our recollection, even mentioned the device since the movie was in theaters.

Third story: This past fall, I dreamed that Jamie had a whole room in her house of nothing but church pews. In another room, she had so many easy chairs that it looked like a furniture store. There was also some sort of party going on at her house with sand -- a beach theme or something. The next day I (amused, of course) told her of my dream. She kind of rolled her eyes and mentioned all the family she had had to take in the night before due to the hurricane. She had put up more people than her house can hold. I found it interesting that I had dreamed she had had so many seats in her house (when only she, her husband, and her baby live there), unaware that she had actually had to take in about enough people to fill those seats!

So that's the extent of my recent psychic experiences. Pretty benign.