like a drifter I was born to walk alone

[25yearsmlc]

[quote=Painter]Ginger, that sounds like a profound reading you had. I hope it was helpful and that you can continue to process all the wonderful input you received.

Doodler, this is by it's nature a field that is wide open to frauds, but there are genuine people who also do very valuable work, especially with people in deep grief. I have had personal experiences with involuntary channeling - messages from people who have passed over - but I can't control it.

I've had strange experiences all my life, but I'm a big skeptic so I've never really believed it. During the last 15 years, I've had a number of experiences I just couldn't brush off anymore.

My personal view is that it's nothing supernatural about it, it's just that science hasn't figured out yet what happens and how it works.

I get this^^^. Just read the book "Blink", which explains a lot about why what our "gut" says about someone or something, without apparent sufficient data, is spot on.

There are signals we don't take in consciously but when we listen to them, we are freakishly accurate.

One small example happened a few years back, but after driving for hours, and being behind a truck for some time, I moved my car from one lane to another for no "real" reason. Within seconds, I heard a noise and in my rear view mirror, I could see the truck I had previously been behind, have a blow out, turn sideways and roll, with the car that HAD been behind ME, crashing into the truck. WTF?

In the book "Blink", the theory would be that at some subconscious level, I must have noticed something "off" about the way his back tire was moving/wobbling and some danger signal caused me to change lanes without thought, which saved my life.

OR it was divine OR it was both! Don't know, can't prove. I accept that something I was not mentally aware of in my choice to move my car suddenly, did indeed occur.

Anyway, the book has empirical data supporting this "trust your gut" phenomenon that has been very poorly understood before.
While the book Blink attempts to explain these events, it only goes so far. The author concedes there are people who "guess" at things far better than others, and it's not yet understood why.

We know there are plenty of frauds out there, obviously. For me, Doodler, the mocking doesn't feel helpful. I'm familiar with Penn/Gillette & I share many of their political beliefs. But they do not persuade me against my religious beliefs, which are incredibly personal.

Anyhow, Ginger said she got something valuable out of the reading so, I am not going to challenge that. Why would I?


There are things in my life which I don't understand, including my m, obviously. But more importantly I don't understand all the elements of my faith, i.e. the mystery of my faith.
Hence the terms, "mystery" and "faith".

I don't have all the answers about God or my higher power or who I'm praying to IF anyone,
or where I'm getting strength & guidance from, or the role of Jesus, or Buddha, or heaven and redemption etc.

I see no conflict between science and faith, indeed it's just the opposite.

The more we learn, e.g. space travel/neurosurgery, cyberspace, musical pieces we still play 300 years later, art pieces we find beautiful, from centuries ago, marriages that last a long life time and are happy, the more intentional it all seems...

. I don't need ALL the answers, and I'm at peace with being awed. I have faith in the evidence of things not seen. That's why they call it faith.


**So GINGER, one of my closest long time friends LC lost her 22 y/o son suddenly last fall. (Undiagnosed Cardiac myopathy. He was an athlete, too). This happened out of the blue...during a phone conversation with her, we were interrupted by her h with that bombshell. I mean, I have No words... )

Anyhow, since I moved back east - I am able to be more supportive and I appreciate that as a gift to me, and hopefully to her.

But there are 2 things I want to share with you about having people in our lives who have had overwhelmingly crappy events occur -

Clearly it helps us to keep our perspective about things. Not so much "so it could be worse!!", which we already knew.

But more like "wow, in every life of depth, there will be deep loss" and the universality of this theme is both sad and comforting. We are not alone. And we can reach out to support others, even in our own pain. (Hence being here).


Second, this same friend asked me to go hear the Long Island Medium Teresa Caputo, with her. I'm not someone who goes to these things. I've been too cynical about it, and have always thought they were fakes. Maybe she is!

But then I think, "what's the harm?" I'm not selling my car to get a reading or some advice. Plus, I could not refuse LC. She wants to go with someone and invited me. It's called being a friend.


Obviously I hope LC hears something comforting about her son. Obviously. I'm Not sure how it works or if I have to push her up front or what.

In case it's not clear, no I won't give away anything about LC. I'm crossing my fingers there's something to this medium and that it helps my friend in her grief. She's just so sad.

Anyhow I'll keep you posted.