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Post by ianr on Oct 31, 2022 6:48:24 GMT
OK so it's Halloween perhaps just the right time to tell you a story that happened to me many years ago and let you make your own minds up as to what may have happened. The only thing I'll say is it's all true. A little background first. I was 16 and one of the first jobs I went out on as an apprentice plumber. The guy I'm working with was called Bob, no real sense of humour but a good plumber. not the sort to play jokes. The job! A boiler change at an big old manor style house just outside of town no one home just me and bob. First he sent me upstairs to the attic room a proper attic all boarded out plenty of roof lights and partitioned into two half's, one half had the water tanks the other storage. My target the tanks. Put this piece of wood over the tank and tie the valve up tight I don't want it to leak. He told me. I removed the lagging placed the wood and tied up the valve at least half a dozen granny knots proper sisal string too. Back at the boiler and all is going well until water starts running out of the cut pipe ends. The valves passing go fix it bob says, up the stairs I run. Now bob had not been out of my sight all morning and wasn't the sort to play practical jokes anyway. Sure enough when I got back into the tank room the valve was running full tilt and the string untied still looped under the valve arm but the ends splayed out neatly either side of the tank. How could that happen? I didn't take long to tie it up and get out of the attic. I've often wondered about it and I'm pretty sure bob had nothing to do with it. There's been other things over the years, but there for another day maybe ian
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Post by accipiter on Oct 31, 2022 9:05:55 GMT
Sounds like the well-known initiation ceremony to me, e.g., the young secretary sent to buy some rubber tin tacks. In other words, I think ole bob was indeed playing tricks on you.
As for ghosts or little green men from mars, in most cases its an over active imagination at work, either that or sheer lies. However, I have been told I have second sight, here I’m alluding to apparitions,’ ghosts, spirits if you will. As far as I’m aware these are most like to be seen shortly after the death of a family member. My first sighting was seen floating pass our kitchen window at the age of ten, in this particular case my grandfather had died unbeknown by anyone else at the time.
Incidentally I’ve seen quite a few more spirits since that first sighing. E.g., the disembodied face at the window or, the figure in the room may appear as if from a higher plane. As before, no one else was aware of the death of a family member; spooky is it not.
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Post by ianr on Nov 2, 2022 6:28:32 GMT
Nah! he just wasn't the sort and excess water only leads to extra work for him. However he did once send me back to our on site workshop 'RAF camp' for a long wait, I smiled and went to the NAAFI for a coffee and bacon butty ian
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Post by accipiter on Nov 2, 2022 15:42:02 GMT
Nah! he just wasn't the sort and excess water only leads to extra work for him. However he did once send me back to our on site workshop 'RAF camp' for a long wait, I smiled and went to the NAAFI for a coffee and bacon butty ian I hear what you’re saying Ian as I use to work with a chap similar to Bob going by your description. In point of fact no one else wanted to work with him as he was so difficult to get along with; being old school. But I found if one didn’t take what he said to heart and treated everything as a joke, he was quite a good ole boy really. What I’m trying to say is it could have still been Big Bad Bob. Just for argument’s sake less say it was something from the spirit world. Some say there’s no such thing and they could well be right; I only know what I’ve seen could only be described as such. Which leaves only two alternatives, since I don’t believe the untying of knots, or indeed things thrown around the room are the work of poltergeists. So, either your knots were not quite the ticket, or someone else crept in and crept out again. Seriously though, I do believe, less call them spirits are more commonly seen then most people think. The difference being most people never mention it for fear of being ridiculed, to put it politely. At the same token I could just as easily explain my sightings as figments of the imagination, or just coincidence as they only happened on the passing of a family member. Or leave it as it stands, just another of life’s deep dark mysteries.
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Post by rowanberry on Nov 8, 2022 19:22:06 GMT
These are not 'ghost' stories exactly... just two unusual occurrences, both involving cats. Many years ago, my parents had a family cat, named Rex- a large grey-blue shorthair. Rex was very much an outdoor cat- he would come in if the weather was bad, but he never ever spent the night in the house. When it grew dark he demanded to be let out, and he stayed out until morning... Dad had an old boat with a cover he could get into if he wanted to. He wasn't a cat for cuddles- he'd tolerate being held or petted up to a point, but not for very long. The night before I left for university Rex didn't ask to go out, which was unusual. What was even stranger was in the early hours he came and got on my bed and slept at my feet. I remember being careful to not move and disturb him... and feeling honoured, because he'd never done such a thing before. I woke early- a combination of nerves and anxiety, I guess... and Rex crept up to lie by my side. He let me put my arm around him, and we stayed like that- him purring until Mum came to get me up. It was the last time I ever saw him... Dad phoned me a week later, and told me they'd found Rex out in the garden. He'd passed away curled under a shrub. The second incident was from when I used to house and cat-sit for friends who went abroad every summer. They had three cats, but Albie was another strictly outdoor cat. They had a cat-flap, and although the other two would come in during the day I rarely saw Albie- I'd put food down for him and hear the flap rattle in the middle of the night. He was another one who did not like being cuddled, but as he got older he would come in if the weather was bad. The minute I came into any room where he was, he'd scoot back outside. The night they were due to come home I was sitting in the front room watching television- packed up and ready to go and waiting for them to arrive. I suddenly realised Albie was sitting by the corner of the sofa watching me, and when I spoke to him he jumped up beside me before curling up in my lap. He let me stroke him until he fell asleep- he stayed like that for over an hour until my friends came in. When I told them what he'd done, even they were surprised. He passed away about a month later. In both cases I think they knew... and it was their way of saying goodbye.
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Post by accipiter on Nov 9, 2022 12:56:45 GMT
Very interesting, but then again, I’ve always been interested in animal behaviour. One could explain your example as extrasensory perception ESP, or heighten awareness, or simple coincidence. However, I’m inclined to believe your experience may well be an example of heighten awareness in animals. Further to that I’d like to tell you a strange story albeit very true. As a boy of 14 we owned an Airedale terrier, it’s quite a (large dog,) now this dog had his own easy chair two floors down from my bedroom. Havin read all there is to know about the paranormal (I was born that way,) I thought I’d try calling the dog up to the bedroom purely by the power of thought. And guess what, open came the bedroom door and in walked the dog so you can probably picture my look of surprise. However, most if not all would say that’s just coincidence, but was it; when he’s never walked upstairs in all the eight years, we owned him. I’d like to think I’m far from gullible but rather the type who is prepared to keep an open mind to quite a few things connected with animal behaviour misinterpreted or not. Having said that, William Shakespeare had something to say about this phenomenon - there are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy. Hamlet has been told by the night watch that the ghost of his father has appeared to them. Hamlet and his friend, Horatio go up to the battlements and the ghost appears. Horatio is a practical, down to earth scholar and he is stunned by this – he doesn’t believe in ghosts. He says: “O Day and night, but this is wondrous strange.” Hamlet replies: “There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.” He is suggesting that the human imagination is limited and that there are many things we don’t know, things that haven’t been discovered and, in fact, things we haven’t even dreamt of. www.bps.org.uk/psychologist/extra-sensory-perception-controversial-debate
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Post by Tringa on Nov 9, 2022 18:44:01 GMT
In answer to Ian's question at the beginning of this thread, no I do not believe in ghosts. However, the posts from Rb and Alan I find interesting. Our dog, Dino, a crossed fell terrier, - wildaboutthebritishisles.uk/thread/3018/dog - does seem to be tuned into feelings/responeses/comments of our family. It is well known that dogs express and understand a lot of body language and I think this extends to in some way 'reading' emotion in humans. When me and Mrs T go away our daughter looks after Dino and she has said sometimes on the day we return he is a bit 'wound up'. I don't think he has some sort of second sight but although our daugther is acting normally, Dino, perhaps, picks up on something that is a little out of the ordinary in her behaviour that gets him a bit worked up. Dave
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Post by ianr on Nov 10, 2022 7:26:37 GMT
Now I'm not going to go to far down the ESP route. BUT I've been with my wife since we were 16 that's 50+ years and although we are quite different people in our outlooks and even life styles, chalk and cheese you could say. I often find myself smiling when she says things I was just thinking myself a little deja-vu you might say but it happens so often, it can be about anything and anywhere. I sometimes look at her and wait for her to say what I'm thinking She'll ask what you smiling at? just gas I'll reply It happens both ways round too. I put it down to just knowing each other soul mates you could say. But is that just the easy excuse? ian
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