Anybody have any experiences they would categorize as being 'other worldly?' Reading what Bill has written about catching serial killers, I wonder how intuitive knowledge or hunches played into his work. And nurses, too. Gail, Diane, Vicki - ever have the feeling somebody extra was around? And what about in war? Louie? Any response to this? And no bs from Cannon here.
As for me, I've always believed in a higher power but remained uncertain about how that higher power would visibly appear or what they might do. As Bob Dylan sings, 'There are some things only dead men know.' I have always hoped that I don't have to die before finding out this type of thing.
I've had 2 things happen in my life that have convinced me that unseen forces are really out there. The 1st one happened in 1999, in early January. I was teaching a class, left about 9:30pm and was going to pull out of a parking lot onto a major street. There was nobody, not a car, not a nobody in sight. I was by myself in this empty parking lot. As I approached the street I decided to gun the motor. I didn't have a stop sign, and I could see in both directions, so why not? So I sped up. At the last possible second before I entered the street I felt fingers moving my right foot to the brake. I was stunned by this, and I certainly didn't expect it, as it caused me to screech to a halt. I spoke out loud at that moment, thinking I was talking to myself. I said, What the...?' At that precise moment a bicyclist rode in front of my car, couldn't have been more than a few inches from the hood. He didn't look up, just kept going. An amazing feeling came over me, and I suddenly felt somebody in the car with me. That was the first time I knew I was not alone.
The 2nd incident happened in 2005 and I won't recount it here, but if somebody asks me at the reunion, I'll tell about it.
I'd love to hear about the things that have happened to the rest of us.
I am going to relate this one for Vicki Smith, because it had to do with my son. When my son was 11 years old, he was shot in the back by his 14 year old cousin. The boys said it was an accident that occurred while playing with a loaded Highway Patrol revolver. When I called Vic to relate what happened, she said she had a dream the same night that she was trying to hang onto my son by his shirt, because he had fallen off a cliff. His shirt was a western shirt with snaps and they kept popping open and he was going to fall out of his shirt. I am not vlear where her dream went from there. My son was actually fine, in spite of his woulnd and actually went bowling the next weekend. When the bullet, hollow point .38, entered his back, it hit his scapula and rotated around through soft tissue and came out his front, a little above and lateral to his nipple. The bullet did not function as designed to mushroom and shatter on impact. We all counted our blessings that night.
Incidently, we were living up in Yosemite National Park at that time and my son was down visiting his uncle and cousin. On our drive down to the hospital around midnight, a huge mountain lion bounded across the road, right in front of my car. The Yosemite Indians consider the Mountain Lion a symbol of a ghost. It was really eerie.
Gail, All I can say is WOW! Your story makes me think and you and Vicki share a cosmic connection. As for the mountain lion symbolizing a ghost, I believe it's possible. I think a lot of things are possible that our logical minds cannot understand.
I could tell many stories. One of the most poignant, however, is from a friend of Ed's brother. It happened about 10yrs. ago at a Tempe Elementary school in the vicinity of McClintock and Southern, in a neighborhood on the northwest corner. This father had taken his daughter school. He pulled up to the curb to let her out. She got out and walked in front of his truck, dropped something, & bend down to pick it up. He did not see her, pulled away from the curb, hit an killed her. The ambulance came, took her to Tempe St. Luke's Hospital. He was on his way to the hospital when he got a 'vision'. It was his daughter's image saying to him, 'I'm alright, Daddy. I love you'. When he arrived at the hospital, he found out she had been pronounced dead at the very moment he got the vision.
I believe beyond a shadow of a doubt, that it was God allowing that image to comfort him. I too believe it was God removing your foot from the gas that day.
You asked if we nurses (Carol, Gail, Vicki and I) had any unusual experiences while practicing our profession. I can't speak for them, but I certainly did. Another 'presence' as you put it. I sat with several when they died, some adults and some premies. Families couldn't bear it, and it wasn't my place to judge. My favorite instructor at ASU, Marlene Weitzel, told us to never leave a patiend alone to die. Thought that was a good idea.
I just began a book today (sitting on the porch in a thunderstorm in Pinetop) that illustrates the kind of stories you are talking about. Each chapter is a different story. Ed read it a while ago and recommended it to me it's called, 'Glimpses of Heaven', by Trudy Harris R.N. As you might guess, she's a Hospice nurse, and a Christian.
Enjoy your long weekend. Hope you have some time off to read. Maybe we can compare notes, as I've just read the first chapter myself.
Diane,
I know what you mean by being with people at their passing. God brings them and then takes them away. Births and deaths are all so miraculous and beyond our huuman control. We can ease the processes. I am not sure how people can question the existance of God. All of life is miraculous and not of human creation. Yes, we perform actions that result in babies and new plants, we nurture and we can destroy, but ultimately it is Gods design.
I am going to look for the book you are reading. I am in my office looking out at the rain and cloudy skies, listening to the thunder roll. I love it up her in Payson. I can just invision you snuggled in your cabin and reading.
I will never forget an experience I had while working at Boswell Hospital. We had an elderly woman who never had family come and visit her. She could be kind of cantankerous at times and wasn't very verbal, but one night as I was giving her meds and helping her eat, she told me that she would like 'Ave Maria' sung at her funeral. I told her that sounded very nice because it's a beautiful song. She asked me if I knew it, and if so, would I sing it for her. I looked around and said, 'are you serious? I don't know much of it'. 'Well, sing what you know, please.' I felt a little silly, but she was so insistent that I sang what I knew of it to her. (you do a lot of strange things while nursing, huh, girls?) She seemed quite pleased, so I finished my rounds and went home not thinking much more about it. The next morning when I arrived at work, I was shocked to learn that she had passed suddenly in the night. This woman was in fairly good physical health, so it wasn't expected. I was sooo glad that I had fulfilled that request for her. It's often times easy to ignore a person with Alzheimer's or Dementia. This impacted me greatly and now I often wonder if someone's request coulld be their last.
I have been with other patients as they have passed on, but this one impacted me the most.
Carol
I know I have a couple of friends in the nursing field and they have told me about various death experiences among their patients. They say that some deaths are very spiritual, and it sounds like Carol helped with one of those. I was with my dad when he passed and he experienced a lot of anxiety. His life was a difficult one, and it made me wonder about his difficulty in passing on. And by difficult, I mean he was not educated in any sense - emotional, spiritual, nor any way you can think of. He was really just a redneck who suffered because of his own backwardness. He was not a bad man, though, just a redneck!
Anyway, do you know anything about your patient, Carol?
Hi Phyllis ~ no, I don't know anything about her. It's been about 20 yrs. ago, but I do remember that her family didn't come to see her and that the medical staff wasn't happy to work with her either because of her attitude. I thought, 'wow, what if I hadn't taken time to do that for her'.
It seems that there are peaceful deaths and then others are quite difficult. I have kind of wondered if the less prepared one is to face death, the more difficult it is. Women who are more prepared for childbirth, have an easier time so it makes sense to me. We are educated in so many areas, but not so much on how to deal with or prepare for death. Many cling to their faith, and others have none. Have you read Helen Kubler Ross's book on Death and Dying? It's pretty interesting. I read it in 1975 after my first husband died in a car accident. There wasn't much reading material then related to ways to deal with death. We're so educated on everything else.
Some other things that were strange surrounding my husband's death was that I had a dream a few months prior to his death and the dream was just a set of numbers like you would write the date. I remember telling him about it. The date was 07/28/7? No other explanation was given. He had a couple of dreams about our wedding, but the groom's face was missing and he was being chased by a black dog. I had another dream detailing his funeral and that I would be living with my family. I remember saying at the time that I would never be in that position. A few months later, he died on 07/28/75 and I wound up going back to AZ to live with my parents until we (my 2 1/2 yr. old son and I) could get back on our feet. I had forgotten that dream until I was already living at my parents. He had died on the date I had dreamed only the 5 was missing in my dream. I kind of wonder sometimes now when I dream if it's going to come true.
I'm sorry to hear about your father's passing. How long ago was that?
I'm sorry to hear about your Dad. What year was that?
My dad died in Feb., 1997. My mother died 4 months before that, in Oct. 1996. I find it odd they died so close together, because they had been divorced since 1965 and weren't on very good terms with each other. My mother's death was very different than my dad's. She died walking herself to Tempe St. Luke's hospital. She didn't make it. INstead, she sat down on the sidwwalk on the east side of Mill, tucked her purse beneath her legs, laid down and died. She was found by 3 college guys in a pickup truck who thought she was a derelict passed out on the sidewalk. They stopped to harrass the derelict, discovered my mother and drove to the hospital. The police arrived just after midnight and found her cold to the touch.
Later on Joanne communicated with me that our mother had spoken with her and told her about what happened. Joanne is clairaudient, by the way, but would die if she knew I was sharing this fact. Anyway, my mother told her that she was having a hard time breathing and thought she'd go to the hospital. She said she stopped to catch her breath and the next thing she knew her parents were there for her. She said dying was easy and that life was a fight for her, that dying was a simple matter of giving up the fight. She said she didn't go through a tunnel but rather entered an area where there was light all around her. I think about her every day...
Phyllis,
This is my opinion. A strong connection must have remained between your mother and father. It sounds as if both had many unresolved issues between them. This could have contributed to your father's anxiety during his death process. Your mother's passing so close to the time of your father's passing tells me she still had strong feelings for him, even though they were divorced and did not get along with each other. Sometimes there is no logic to our emotions. We love and want people, places or things even though we do not like them and if they are destructive to our well being. This could be called an addiction of sorts.
I remember you telling me that your mother was a very strong, brilliant woman. She must have been a powerful force in your life. She sounds like quite a woman. I understand you missing her and thinking about her often. My own mother died when I was 20 and she only 56. Going through my life I wished she was around to talk to me. I wish I knew what she was thinking in so many situations. The older I get, the more intense this is for me.
Phyllis, I am so looking forward to sitting down and spending time with you.
My dad died in Feb., 1997. My mother died 4 months before that, in Oct. 1996. I find it odd they died so close together, because they had been divorced since 1965 and weren't on very good terms with each other. My mother's death was very different than my dad's. She died walking herself to Tempe St. Luke's hospital. She didn't make it. INstead, she sat down on the sidwwalk on the east side of Mill, tucked her purse beneath her legs, laid down and died. She was found by 3 college guys in a pickup truck who thought she was a derelict passed out on the sidewalk. They stopped to harrass the derelict, discovered my mother and drove to the hospital. The police arrived just after midnight and found her cold to the touch.
Later on Joanne communicated with me that our mother had spoken with her and told her about what happened. Joanne is clairaudient, by the way, but would die if she knew I was sharing this fact. Anyway, my mother told her that she was having a hard time breathing and thought she'd go to the hospital. She said she stopped to catch her breath and the next thing she knew her parents were there for her. She said dying was easy and that life was a fight for her, that dying was a simple matter of giving up the fight. She said she didn't go through a tunnel but rather entered an area where there was light all around her. I think about her every day...
Phyllis, you can tell I wrote my note very late last night since I repeated my last sentence twice! :( Anyway, I was just very interested in knowing. I'm also sorry to hear about your mother; and how sad that she was trying to get to the hospital. It's nice to know that she is at peace. I believe she is with you and is observing your life and cheering you on! Yes, I agree with what Gail said. There must have still been some feelings between them.
Gail, I'm sorry you lost your mother too at such a young age. You have experienced many things without her. It must have been hard at times. It sounds to me that you have been tenacious with your education and that through your education and life experiences, you have developed a real compassion to help others. That is wonderful.
Dittto on what you wrote about Gail. How much courage it takes to face the world anyway, but to do it without your mother takes a strong soul. Bravo, Gail.
Carol,
Thank you for your kind words. I think you have wonderful understanding and compassion. I can't wait to get together with you and swap 'nurse stories'
BTW, I had an amazing step-mother, who was a wonderful gift into my life. So with one of the worst things that cold happen, losing my mother, a door was opened for another wonderful woman to come into my life. She died just 2 years ago, so I had her for over 35 years. My father died just 4 years ago at the age of 91. Both were bright, alert, and living together in their own home until the last few months of their lives. We were all pretty lucky to have them for so long.
Gail, Thank you for letting me know that you had a wonderful step-mom in your life. That's sweet that they were able to live together until they were aged. It's sad when you see one in one place and the other somewhere else. I think people decline quickly when they're broken-hearted.
Yes, wouldn't be fun to talk about all of our nursing experiences? We'll need more than just an evening! lol!
Not ESP, but I did have a dream. I usually don't remember my dreams (if I slept more, maybe I would dream more . . . ), but in 2002 I had an extremely vivid dream. I was riding in the back seat of a dune buggy with three other people who I couldn't see. We were in the hills near Telluride and there was a fall dusting of snow on the ground. The driver drove over to a cliff face, goosed the accelerator, and we started going straight up. I was shocked at the impossibility of it, but my wonder quickly gave way to incredible fear as I realized we were already about 500 feet up. I yelled at the driver to stop, but he didn't pay any attention, so I ducked my head down and held very, very still -- I knew that even the slightest movement would send us falling to our deaths. I hunkered, scared out of my mind, for a long time. Suddenly, the dune buggy reached the top, which was flat, and we were completely safe.
Several months later that year we moved, after I'd been laid off, from Seattle to Cincinnati on the strong possibility of two jobs. Nothing was happening in Seattle, so it looked like a good thing because housing was also cheaper in Ohio. We got there only to find we'd purchased the house from hell, and both jobs evaporated. My wife and I tried for almost three years to get jobs, but all we could turn up was periodic work. Our taxable incomes for '04 and '05 were $12,000 -- for a family of four. There we were thousands of miles from home (Seattle), going deeper and deeper into debt, and crazy scared.
Late in '05, I got an email from a guy I'd worked with in Seattle. He said he'd heard we'd like to move back, and that the company he was with had been looking for someone like me for three months. Was I interested? Oh, and it paid a lot more money than I'd been making before I was laid off. One interview over the phone with his boss and I was hired. Off of the cliff face onto the top, completely safe.
My mother (the shrink) said that the value in dreams is in asking yourself how they make you feel. So how did the dream make you feel? And does it parallel the life experience?
Phyllis, sometimes dreams are about us -- everything in the dream is a different part of you. It's our brain's way of solving something that we're dealing with. But sometimes, I think, they can be prophetic. The one I mentioned was definitely prophetic. I journal fairly regularly and wrote this one down the next morning. You'd think that it's importance would've stayed with me so that when we were in the midst of our deep yogurt, I would dig it up, read it, then happily announce to the family that we were going to be just fine. Didn't happen. I forgot about it and discovered it when I was packing my stuff to drive back to Seattle. When I read it again, I just shrugged and thought, 'So THIS is what that was all about.' Duh!
Larry,
I loved hearing about your dream and corresponding life experience. Isn't life the best entertainment of all? Don't get me wrong, I have been through scary times and wondered how I was ever going to get back on my feet, so I am compassionate about your fear. So far everything has turned out just the way it is suppose to be in my life. I am not only not complaining, I am grateful.
Gail, if I ever open up a yogurt shop, that's what I'm going to name it. It's probably been done.
I don't believe, though, that life's experiences always make us better eventually. Sometimes it takes outside intervention, either from people or God, to put things in their proper context for us.
Larry,
I do think life's experiences have the potential to make us better people. I consider outside influences, such as God and people part of my life experiences. Prayer and trusted people have helped me every time. My own thinking can get me into a lot of trouble and worry. I consider the advice from trusted people, who have more information or incite, to all be part of my life experience. I know to do the footwork for my life towards the goals I have in mind (for that current second), but the outcome is not up to me.
I know that with every experience I can develop increased awareness and with that new knowledge I can make my life more authentic, hence better. I find out what works and what does not, then I have choices (as I do with most anything in life.) One of the greatests gifts I have received is the knowledge that I have a choice.
I believe you're right that people don't always recover from bad things. I think it depends on where you are in your life and what the bad thing is. In your case, you told yourself ahead of time what to expect and dreamed it in an event symbolic of what was to come. Boy, don't I wish we could all do that!
I still agree with my mother about paying attention to how dreams make you feel, as sometimes a dream is a way of working through a problem. Feelings aalways count.
Phyllis, the idea that I told myself what was to come in a dream is to attribute to me powers I don't have, nor do I think anyone else has. With all my being I believe it was a gift from God. Though I'm sometimes full of beans . . . and sometimes a Being.
Gail, I think you're right about being able to choose, which is the way good parents raise their kids, and a good God treats us.
I have heard that people can program themselves to do this, but I have never been able to do this myself. I don't think I would be an easy subject to hypnotize, either.
I have had some interesting dream experiences, though. The nature of them make me think I was actually there. They are too vivid to be anything but reality.
I was flying from Manila to Georgia with a lay over in Detroit. While I was waiting to change planes a feeling came over me that there was something wrong with my family back in Tempe. I decided to wait until I arrived in Georgia to call so I could give them what phone number I was at. When I walked into the orderly room at Ft Gordon I was given a note that my father had died. I traced back the time and it was when I was in the Detroit airport.
