Doug's anomalous experiences

Thanks for your comment, Chris. I can't think of any other possible associations, apart from the common link you mentioned. As far as I knew, my friend had nothing to do with the airline, nor did any of her family members. It simply turned out that for me, she was the common link to the tragedy yet to unfold.

I think it's interesting to speculate about how these things may work. For example, in his book Eric Wargo is very keen on the idea that precognition manifests itself through rather indirect mental associations. I remember during the dream experiments on Skeptiko some people very much favoured the approach of teasing out networks of indirect connections between their dreams and the target and decoy images. I think on the whole they were the ones who had the highest hit rates. In contrast, towards the end I was trying to think as little as possible before making a choice, as I was concerned about the possibility of too much concentration on the decoys and not enough on the target. At that stage I did experience quite a striking direct resemblance between the dream and the target, having spent a frustrating day trying to keep it out of my mind after seeing the decoys and before seeing the target.

It's interesting that your dream seems to have involved first an indirect association, and then a very direct message.

I think it's interesting to speculate about how these things may work. For example, in his book Eric Wargo is very keen on the idea that precognition manifests itself through rather indirect mental associations. I remember during the dream experiments on Skeptiko some people very much favoured the approach of teasing out networks of indirect connections between their dreams and the target and decoy images. I think on the whole they were the ones who had the highest hit rates.

I enjoyed watching the process unfold, and marveled constantly at the creativity expressed among some of the dreamers in using dream symbolism to find the targets. For me, K9! seemed to be supreme in that area, although I tended to prefer many of Ian's (Ninshub's) dream reports for their more literal and easier to follow associations. Abiding by our original compact when forming the Dream Experiment, none of us is permitted to share the dream reports and commentaries of others, but I don't see any problem in sharing our own, if we should desire. I'm secretly hoping to persuade Ian to post his dreams from the series, along with his commentary on them and reasons for choosing one image over the other. I'll even help dig them up for him, if there's time.

In contrast, towards the end I was trying to think as little as possible before making a choice, as I was concerned about the possibility of too much concentration on the decoys and not enough on the target. At that stage I did experience quite a striking direct resemblance between the dream and the target, having spent a frustrating day trying to keep it out of my mind after seeing the decoys and before seeing the target.

I imagine you should also post some of your dreams and commentaries to further enlighten the readers. And maybe someday, when version 2.0 of MyBB appears, adopting a more Skeptiko/mind-energy.net IM interface, we can talk once more about doing another series of trials with a new group of enthusiastic and motivated dreamers.

It's interesting that your dream seems to have involved first an indirect association, and then a very direct message.

"My dream"? It was at best a short reverie, but "dream" will do providing you understand it was based in daydreaming, something I was once very good at. It felt more like a rapidly growing inspiration that consumed me in loving flames, without any care as to the content it delivered. If I hadn't suddenly been jolted with the realization of where the inspiration was leading me, I might have remained in a state of bliss for several minutes over knowing that I had been shown a bit of world history shortly before it occurred.

I enjoyed watching the process unfold, and marveled constantly at the creativity expressed among some of the dreamers in using dream symbolism to find the targets. For me, K9! seemed to be supreme in that area, although I tended to prefer many of Ian's (Ninshub's) dream reports for their more literal and easier to follow associations. Abiding by our original compact when forming the Dream Experiment, none of us is permitted to share the dream reports and commentaries of others, but I don't see any problem in sharing our own, if we should desire. I'm secretly hoping to persuade Ian to post his dreams from the series, along with his commentary on them and reasons for choosing one image over the other. I'll even help dig them up for him, if there's time.


I imagine you should also post some of your dreams and commentaries to further enlighten the readers. And maybe someday, when version 2.0 of MyBB appears, adopting a more Skeptiko/mind-energy.net IM interface, we can talk once more about doing another series of trials with a new group of enthusiastic and motivated dreamers.


"My dream"? It was at best a short reverie, but "dream" will do providing you understand it was based in daydreaming, something I was once very good at. It felt more like a rapidly growing inspiration that consumed me in loving flames, without any care as to the content it delivered. If I hadn't suddenly been jolted with the realization of where the inspiration was leading me, I might have remained in a state of bliss for several minutes over knowing that I had been shown a bit of world history shortly before it occurred.

Sorry, I shouldn't have described it as a dream. I think I was just sloppily slotting it into the same category.

I do have some of my dream descriptions on my old computer, but not the one that seemed most like a hit to me. I'm not sure whether I even have the Kate Bush/Yeti one.

I did think there were some very interesting aspects, such as the person who was developing a very impressive record of "psi-missing" but who then came out with what I thought was the most amazing correspondence with the target. Or the one week when I thought nearly everyone's dreams seemed to contain correspondences to one of the four images, but not the one that turned out to be the target. (I think that's what persuaded me people might be picking up the decoys.)

Thanks for your suggestion, Hurm. The unfortunate part of the experience was that there was no phone call registered to my cell phone in the minutes before I received the little ringtone indicative of a voicemail message. Moreover, after listening to the alarming message at home (Doug, I can't breathe...), it disappeared from my cell phone call database. I'm afraid these inconsistencies appear to support the idea that my stepfather's "phone call" was created by my own unconscious mind and imprinted directly to my cell phone's circuitry, totally ignoring the usual step of using the phone's technology to deliver a normal phone call. Calum Cooper (Telephone Calls from the Dead) and other collectors of such accounts seem to all agree that such phone calls are rather ephemeral in nature, not to be tripped up by logical processes.

I think you're probably right... The fact that big complex chunks of reality (such as a voicemail or a doorknob) can be discontinuous or replaced in whole with no trace makes me think the nature of this reality is more like a Matrix than anything else.

This past weekend my wife and I were going to a few antique stores and we pulled up to one just as a couple from our pregnancy class was leaving. I recognized them and wanted to say hi, but thought it might be awkward, so we didn't say anything and pretended like we didn't see them and I don't think they noticed us, but then my car alarm started going off... Maybe the alarm button on the key fob in my pocket just happened to bump something setting it off (never happened before), but the timing was so funny, that part of me wonders if it wasn't another poltergeist type of thing... my desire to say hi and be open to the possibility of a friendship with these people was being suppressed so the unconscious part of me acted out to get their attention? I don't know.

I think you're probably right... The fact that big complex chunks of reality (such as a voicemail or a doorknob) can be discontinuous or replaced in whole with no trace makes me think the nature of this reality is more like a Matrix than anything else.

Thanks a lot for this suggestion, Hurm. I hadn't thought of anomalies before as broken off chunks of reality replaced by other chunks from the unconscious, confidently exerting its own internal logic. Such experiences do seem to presuppose a matrix style (or perhaps, a dream style) of consensus reality.

This past weekend my wife and I were going to a few antique stores and we pulled up to one just as a couple from our pregnancy class was leaving. I recognized them and wanted to say hi, but thought it might be awkward, so we didn't say anything and pretended like we didn't see them and I don't think they noticed us, but then my car alarm started going off... Maybe the alarm button on the key fob in my pocket just happened to bump something setting it off (never happened before), but the timing was so funny, that part of me wonders if it wasn't another poltergeist type of thing... my desire to say hi and be open to the possibility of a friendship with these people was being suppressed so the unconscious part of me acted out to get their attention? I don't know.

Wow, that must have been quite an uncomfortable experience! I hate when stuff like that happens, and it seems to occur a lot more often when I'm under some bad stress. What's worst is that the electronics around me seem to be adversely affected. It took me maybe a dozen tries to get my computer to start one morning while I was heavily stressing about phoning the DMV to report the car I was driving was missing from my account. I dreaded having to go to the DMV to straighten out the problem. Fortunately, after I managed to get my emotions under some control, the computer finally got past the point where it was hanging on me, and it finally started all the way.  I've had things like this happen to me frequently in the past, and it seems the events most always occurred while I was under considerable stress.

06 - Bookcase

Similar to the previous account
(05 - Premonition https://psiencequest.net/forums/thread-d...7#pid27217)
on a late night (2-3 AM) toward the end of the 1970s, I found myself in another pleasant, contemplative mood after praying for a while. However, unlike the previous episode, I wasn't presented with a premonition, nor the lovely arrival of an unseen heavenly visitor. Instead, the loudest rap I've ever heard exploded from one of my two large bookcases situated against the wall opposite the one my back was propped against. It was so loud I nearly jumped out of my skin, and I found myself trembling afterward with a racing heart. Needless to say, I really dislike sudden, loud noises, and can't get used to hearing the spontaneous ones. I jump involuntarily whenever I hear one.

At the time, I found myself pondering whether the fact that I had built both bookcases had anything to do with the production of the strange effect. The noise was so loud that I couldn't accept that it was simply caused by a naturally occurring creaking in the wood, the kind that might be heard occasionally from the settling of a wooden house or large piece of furniture. Perhaps something had emanated from me into the wood when I built the bookcases...

A couple of months later, the incident repeated itself, along with the same outcome. This time, however, the noise wasn't as deafening as the first, but it was still unnaturally loud to the point where I was once again left rattled. After that, I found it very difficult, if not impossible, to enter contemplative moods in the still of night. The fear of a loud rap in the bookcases had been implanted in my mind, and I couldn't get past it. This was very unfortunate, because I believe I might have progressed a bit along a path to mysticism, had the fear not blocked my ability to relax and contemplate.

My  two incidents recall a similar one involving Carl Jung and Sigmund Freud.

Len Fisher PhD, writing for Psychology Today, offers a skeptical version of what happened, while Miguel Romero (aka "Red Pill Junkie") has a more supportive one at Mysterious Universe:

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/...isit-freud

https://mysteriousuniverse.org/2016/05/t...cal-feuds/

06 - Bookcase

Similar to the previous account
(05 - Premonition https://psiencequest.net/forums/thread-d...7#pid27217)
on a late night (2-3 AM) toward the end of the 1970s, I found myself in another pleasant, contemplative mood after praying for a while. However, unlike the previous episode, I wasn't presented with a premonition, nor the lovely arrival of an unseen heavenly visitor. Instead, the loudest rap I've ever heard exploded from one of my two large bookcases situated against the wall opposite the one my back was propped against. It was so loud I nearly jumped out of my skin, and I found myself trembling afterward with a racing heart. Needless to say, I really dislike sudden, loud noises, and can't get used to hearing the spontaneous ones. I jump involuntarily whenever I hear one.

At the time, I found myself pondering whether the fact that I had built both bookcases had anything to do with the production of the strange effect. The noise was so loud that I couldn't accept that it was simply caused by a naturally occurring creaking in the wood, the kind that might be heard occasionally from the settling of a wooden house or large piece of furniture. Perhaps something had emanated from me into the wood when I built the bookcases...

A couple of months later, the incident repeated itself, along with the same outcome. This time, however, the noise wasn't as deafening as the first, but it was still unnaturally loud to the point where I was once again left rattled. After that, I found it very difficult, if not impossible, to enter contemplative moods in the still of night. The fear of a loud rap in the bookcases had been implanted in my mind, and I couldn't get past it. This was very unfortunate, because I believe I might have progressed a bit along a path to mysticism, had the fear not blocked my ability to relax and contemplate.

My  two incidents recall a similar one involving Carl Jung and Sigmund Freud.

Len Fisher PhD, writing for Psychology Today, offers a skeptical version of what happened, while Miguel Romero (aka "Red Pill Junkie") has a more supportive one at Mysterious Universe:

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/...isit-freud

https://mysteriousuniverse.org/2016/05/t...cal-feuds/

Hi Doug 

Very interesting. If the rapping happens again it might be worth trying a dialog and asking it to repeat or ask questions and see if you get an answer.

Hi Doug 

Very interesting. If the rapping happens again it might be worth trying a dialog and asking it to repeat or ask questions and see if you get an answer.

Good suggestion, Obiwan. I'll just have to remember to keep my wits about me as I begin thinking the house is about to explode.

So, it would appear that one part of your self, produced  this phenomenon. In order to discourage another part of your self from gaining mystical  insight? 
I think my selves have done the same thing..just not in nearly as dramatic a fashion.

I don't think I've encountered these types of raps or sounds much in ordinary waking life. But I've heard them a few times at night. One, in particular, the night after my mother died, I was sleeping in her house and there were bumps, bangs and creaking of stairs all night. I barely slept, it was a prolonged experience. The sounds, other than the stairs were not familiar, but as though the furniture was being forcibly struck in such a way as to make a loud noise, not be ignored.

It was not repeated on any subsequent night. I'm wondering between the idea of a 'restless spirit' roaming around a familiar place in a disoriented fashion, or whether it was a deliberate and focussed attempt to say a last goodbye, intending to be heard, to give a clear indication of still being alive after all.