All the talk on recent threads about what is real and what is beyond the explainable made me decide to reveal something that happened to me. I usually keep these things close to the vest, because I truly do believe in the phrase: "He that knows does not speak. He that speaks does not know." Usually, there are no words sufficient to explain the experience, much less the other things that go along with it emotionally, intuitively, and even mentally, so generally it’s best to just keep it to oneself.
I have changed the names and the event because I have told my story to JW family and if they are lurking, I would be identified in a heartbeat. But the below scenario is similar to one that happened to me.
A human is many things in One. You are a physical body, but while that body is doing the physical things like eating, drinking, digesting, walking, sleeping, building, typing, gardening, driving, etc., it is absorbing information, as well. This is a physical process of the body brain.
But, then something else takes over. You accommodate and assimilate this information in your physical brain, but it is transformed into something else. It mixes with something called emotion and mental constructs and something called experience takes the information and decides what category to put it in based on your brain’s "filing system". The following example is similar to something that happened to me, and I’ve never been able to blow it off as nothing but a coincidence.
For instance, you are out on the beautiful ocean sailing (not too far off shore). I don’t know much about sailing, but since it is one of the things on my "bucket list", I will use it as an example. It is a lot of work. You have to do a lot of physical preparation and wind calculations, but once the work is done and everything is just right, you sit back and begin to take in the experience. You put your face up to the sun and close your eyes feeling its warmth on your damp skin. You smell the ocean and taste the salt water on your lips. You feel the touch of the wind blowing your hair, you hear the waves gently slap against the boat and listen to the cackle of the seagulls. You are fully and completely in the moment using all of your physical senses. This is the physical reality of your life at this very moment.
Suddenly you’re in the past mentally and tears fill your eyes as you recall a sailing experience just two short years ago with a now deceased loved one. Then you remember the day you took his ashes out on this very boat and poured them into the sea not far from this very spot. Sadness washes over you as you emotionally acknowledge how very much you miss him. You wonder about an after life and inside your mind you pray: "Father, if my loved one’s consciousness has continued on, I ask that in some way, you let me know." You allow the emotion to embrace you for a few minutes, then you release the question into the universe. Then you brush it off and get back to enjoying this moment in this present.
Later, that evening, after you’ve docked your boat, you walk along the pier. Your loved one is still on your mind and you laugh inwardly about an argument you had with him not too long before he died right here on this very pier. Your daughter was having her first child and the ultrasound showed it was a girl. She decided on the name Sidney. You thought the name was lovely and when you told your loved one, he said Sidney was a boy’s name. You playfully argued with him that day about the name, and now, as you walk toward a small restaurant at the end of the pier (one of his favorite oyster bars), you recall him telling you he had never known a girl named Sidney but had known three or four male Sidneys in his lifetime. He pulled you to his side, and firmly said with a gleam in his eyes, "Girls are not named Sidney."
Back in the present, the hostess at the restaurant greats you, "How many in your party."
"Just me tonight," you reply with a slight lonesome tone in your voice.
"As she walks you to a booth, she says that your waitress will be with you momentarily," and she hands you the menu.
Moments later a lovely young girl walks up with pad and pen in hand and says at the very moment you look at her name tag, "Hi, my name is Sidney. I’ll be your waitress tonight. What would you like to drink."
You KNOW with absolute certainty that you have been given your answer. There is no doubt whatsoever in your mind. The experience of the day, the sentimental recollection of an exact conversation about that exact name, and the entire day’s dynamic was more than a mere coincidence, and somehow you know it with absolute certainty.
What is at play here? Mere coincidence? Have you ever had something so revealing happen to you that you KNOW it is something more?
To me, this is where reality and the unknown come together. Sometimes, when you are open and watching (seeing with seeing eyes and hearing with hearing ears), you are given answers.
Your thoughts, please.