Tuesday 29 April 2014

Tales of the Unexpected

To start, a full disclaimer type note about this post. Firstly, it's something I've never spoken about to anyone (ominous opening huh??). Secondly, I've always had a very open mind towards things that can't be explained. I have members of my family who are absolutely convinced one way or the other when it comes to these matters, but I've always kind of sat on the fence. I've written this post more as an observation of what I believe I witnessed, rather than as a statement of fact. I don't expect to convince you, dear reader and follower of Monkey matters, I just wanted to share!


A little while ago I wrote a piece about the loss of a very, very close friend (here), and the aftermath of that event. What follows here is a recount of a couple of events that have happened since that I can't explain, but believe to be real. But first, a bit of background...

I've always been quite open minded about a lot of things. When younger I was fascinated by the writings of Nostradamus, and the predictions that he made. Undoubtedly there are a number of his works that are open to multiple interpretations, but for me there are also some that are so scarily accurate that you cannot simply dismiss them as some drug-induced ramblings that have been twisted to fit an event. UFOs are another area that I have read a lot about in the past, and that still hold a certain sense of intrigue for me as well. They are unidentified for a reason, and whilst the explanation may be very earthly (such as secret military projects and the like), there is still that sense that this is something I don't know about, and can't explain, and therefore I want to know more. It's just my nature!

Ghosts are another area where there is a lot of speculation, but not very much evidence to back up any theories. This is a topic which could have a post all of its own, and is a very polarising subject. If you state that you believe in ghosts, you can often be ridiculed by people who don't. If you state that you don't you can be accused by those that do of being very narrow minded. I've always tried to take an open approach to ghosts. As a child I remember being on a residential visit with school and being taken out on a ghost walk by the teachers. I wasn't massively convinced as we were heading out that this was anything more than an attempt to tire us all out. However, on the way back we all agreed that there was something there while we were looking, and I think that probably opened my mind a little more. I also very recently found out that my Dad believes in ghosts as well. For anyone that knows him, they will understand why this came as a shock! My Dad has now come out and said that he often catches glimpses of his Dad watching him, but his Dad has been dead for nearly 32 years now.

I'm also quite fascinated by the brain, and how we seemingly use so little of it. I do believe there are things that can be done subconsciously that we have no understanding of, or control over, and this can trigger other things. Deja vu is a classic example of this. That really odd feeling that you have experienced something before. What I find fascinating about deja vu is that it isn't a feeling of familiarity. It is an absolute belief that this exact situation has been experienced before. I believe this is normally explained away as the mind storing short-term memories in the long-term memory storage area, and therefore you feel like you experienced this a long time ago. Not sure I entirely buy into that as an explanation. There's also the feeling I get (although this may just be me) sometimes just before I receive a text message, I will have a random thought pop into my head about the person who is texting me. A very weird experience, and not something that happens all the time, but each time it does it freaks me out a little more!

There are many well documented cases of remote viewing that have proved successful. Tests were run in the late 80s and early 90s with people claiming to be remote viewers where they were given an area of a map, and given specific details about a particular area and asked to describe what was there. One was in a forest on the side of a loch in Scotland, and the remote viewer accurately described the wooden lodge that was there. Another was an abandoned military base in the former Soviet Union, and again the description was very accurate. Just another example of the brain at work in ways which we don't fully understand.

Whilst remote viewing is one area that seems to be limited to very few people, an area that we are all familiar with where the brain does it's own thing is when we are dreaming, and it is this one that brings me back to the start of the post. Dreams are something that people sometimes say, "it was so real it was like I was there", and this is the case with the a few dreams relating to my close friend who died nearly 2 years ago now, although 1 of these is dramatically different to the others. It was about 9 months after he had died. The day was quite normal, and I'd settled into bed as I normally do. I woke up about 2am (I'm quite a light sleeper and so it is quite usual for me to wake up in the night), rolled over and went back to sleep. What happened next can't be explained in any scientific way, and whilst I know I was asleep (that bit will become obvious in a second), the experience that I had was so incredibly vivid, and unlike any other dream that I have had, that it has made me question whether it was a dream at all or something else.

So I was at a party. Not a particularly boisterous party, more like a get together of friends. Whilst I remember not actually looking at anyone else, I remember there being a feeling of familiarity towards the other people that were there. I was moving between 2 groups of people who were stood talking, when a door opened and in walked my friend, ushered by 2 other people. This immediately felt wrong. I was under no dream-like illusion that he was still alive, in fact my first words to him were "I didn't expect to see you here". When he was alive, a line like that in this situation would have brought a smile or a laugh, but on this occasion he was very sombre and serious. We didn't talk for long, but the thing that struck me was just how serious and saddened he was, something that was not the way he had been through life. Suddenly he said to me, "I'm sorry, but I've got to go". The people with him were ushering him back through the door. I said to him, "We all miss you more than you will ever know," and his response will stay with me forever. He looked me right in the eyes and said, "I know". The door closed and he was gone.

I woke up immediately after this, but feeling very calm, and absolutely convinced that this wasn't just a normal dream. It felt just like I'd actually been talking to him. His whole demeanour and mood were so out of character that this wasn't my brain trying to relive an event of the past. This wasn't how he ever behaved, and it wasn't in his nature to be so serious and sombre. It's a memory that will stay with me until my dying day, and his last words in that conversation will haunt me forever.

So I know there will be 2 schools of thought on this post. There will be the doubters who say, "Your mind was trying to bring him back to you so that you remember. It was just a dream. Get a grip". The believers will say, "Of course this could have been you talking to him. Why not?". Me? I think I err more towards the latter. There are so many unexplained things around us, why not this? Like I said at the start, I'm not here to change other people's opinions, and for me this was an extra chance to say goodbye to a friend that is still very, very deeply missed...

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