Tuesday, March 16, 2010

The Tunnel

The human mind is a very strange place, and I can't begin to understand some of the strange things that have happened to me. I am a pragmatic sort of person, and I don't believe in the supernatural, or psychic occurrences, and yet these things keep happening. One day a few years ago I was on an inter-city bus, going to visit my brother who at that time lived in a suburb of Vancouver. As the bus turned a corner a few blocks from his house, I began to feel strange. I had the feeling I was in a speeding car, and I had no control. I began to have a feeling of panic as the car entered a tunnel. My breathing began to quicken and the feeling of panic overwhelmed me. At the next stop, I got off the bus and composed myself, walking for a few minutes and breathing the fresh air.

When I got to my brother's place, the feeling had passed and I was completely myself again. My brother offered me a cup of coffee and a snack, and we chatted, and I felt as if nothing had happened. But the strange event stayed with me, and I could not forget it.

When I got home a few hours later, I switched on the television to see the news report of the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, in a tunnel in Paris. With the time difference between Vancouver and Paris, I determined that the accident had happened at precisely the same moment I had had my strange incident on the bus.

I had never felt a connection with Diana, and I wondered why our minds had chosen to connect across the universe at just that moment in time. And then I thought perhaps we are all connected on some level -- with one consciousness. Some of the strange thoughts that pop in and out of our heads may actually be the echoes of other people's thoughts -- a sudden craving for a Crispy Crunch chocolate bar, a piece of music, thoughts of a friend who is just about to phone us, and we pick up the phone knowing who it is. These things happen to us every day, and they remain a mystery to all of us.

22 comments:

The Panorama said...

Nice post, Jo. I have never had a supernatural experience but I have had very vivid dreams and often they tell me something is wrong.
But I have heard of other people having such experiences.

SparkleFarkel said...

"Some of the strange thoughts that pop in and out of our heads may actually be the echoes of other people's thoughts." <-- I second that emotion. Another curiosity (that others have to be experiencing from time to time, too, or else it's white jacket time for this "psychic"!) is how many times a day this happens to me: I'm writing a word, or reading a word. At the exact smae time that word is filtering into my "circuits," somebody on the radio, TV, in the room says the exact same word. It's no Princess Diana in a tunnel (more like a SparkleFarkle in a stalled taxi?), but it happens so often, it can't be coincidence.

P.S. I love your new look!

Katy said...

I think the connection that all living things have to eachother is one of those most amazing mysteries of our world that we will never fully understand. It is something I have experianced though. That weird feeling. That need to call a friend at the right moment. The color of the flowers that renews your spirit on a particulary crappy day. Or that little bull frog you notice at just the right moment.

Katy said...

.... and I love the new layout.

Brenda said...

I have had one experience such as the one you described having. I think it was the first time I thought I had something "strange about me"...in that I could know what happened to someone, before I knew for sure it happened. Only one or two stand out though...thank goodness. I don't think I would want to have it happen too often.
I read or watched a program on TV about this subject not long ago, but I can't recall right now everything I read or heard. Interesting topic though. I like your new look here. I have been having fun with blogspots new templates also.

Alissa Grosso said...

I don't watch much television, and almost never watch it in the middle of the day, but some years ago now there were times when for no reason I suddenly turned on the television in the middle of the day only to find that the news was on because during the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, the bombing of the Oklahoma City Federal Building and the Columbine High School attack. After that, I decided that I was not going to turn on the TV in the middle of the day no matter how strong the urge.

PurestGreen said...

What a strange story. I have heard of such things happening but have never had such an experience myself.

Jeannette StG said...

Wow Jo,not every one "picks up" on those things though! Related to that incident we were the week before that in Paris, and hubby who "never" is attuned to these things, determined, "something is going to happen (here in the city) and they'll have to give an account of that to the world."

BTW I love your new header:)

DJan said...

Hey, I see you used the same new blog template that I've got on DJan-ity. I just love the birds flying out of the side, although I went with lavender.

Carl Jung wrote a great deal about the "collective unconscious" which I believe is what you experienced. Not everyone is attuned to these vibrations, I think I am, but it isn't exactly comforting to think about. Or is it? Does it help to think of our possible connections to each other?

Unknown said...

My little brother, justin, and I frequently call each other and we nearly always say "I was just going to call you!"

That's about all the supernatural I ever encounter though.

KrippledWarrior said...

Do you watch "FRINGE" on TV?
Try it you'll like it.

JeannetteLS said...

My late sister had so many moments of premonition that were correct that I became a believer that some people are more connected to whatever it is that connects us all... I've had just enough experiences of believing something was wrong with a friend when something WAS wrong, to listen to that voice. Even when it's mistaken. Jean Ellen used to tell me, since I was little, that she felt she was just passing through here as part of an eternal, unknowable continuum... that it was all connected. She never feared death, right to the moment she left--only DYING. So whether we call it some fancy name or not, I just think that there is some connection among all living things. It was quite something to share a room with a girl and then a home with the woman who had such a connection. She rarely talked about it with more than a few of us, but we all had the experience of that call from Jean Ellen... "So what's wrong?" It could be after an absence of MONTHS, but there it was. She simply knew.

So the tunnel may have been the thing, and some thought YOU had at that moment may have mirrored Diana's> Who knows? Isn't it all kind of cool and comforting, though?

Anonymous said...

Goodness, Jo. I don't know if you've written about this experience before. But I have been reading your blog(s) long enough to remember you writing about similiar things happening to you. I do remember one post about the Pope. I think you might be one of the most psychic people I've ever heard of. Just my opinion of course.

BTW, love your new blog layout.

PhilipH said...

We just do not know enough about how our minds work, especially in these seemingly 'clairvoyant' ways.

Thus far in my life I've had many of those 'deja vu' type of things. I simply 'know' what is about to happen. Everything about the place and people; what will be said next and who will say it. Odd, to say the least - and I've no idea of the cause, the whys and wherefores ... nothing. But I have been 'there' before. Exactly the same in every way.

And I am no believer in any of the para-normal etc., stuff - but there are strange things that DO happen and we/I cannot explain them.

TomCat said...

Josie, I've had similar experiences, including dreams of the exact circumstances of the deaths of both parents. I guess we have to accept that there are things that transcend our ability to understand them and stop trying to do so.

Anonymous said...

How very interesting to read in the middle of the night. Wishing you always a light ahead of you and nice dreams as well, into a bright and kind Wednesday for you all.

Cloudia said...

Relax and dare to maybe believe that there is more than dreamed of in our science (yet)


See anything about me?



Aloha from Hawaii my Friend!


Comfort Spiral

Jo said...

Saroj, I think supernatural experiences can be almost like waking dreams. They are definitely a shift in reality...!

Sparkle, isn't it weird when that happens? You're reading a word, and someone says the word at that very moment. That happens to me a lot too.

Katy, oh, yes, the little bull frog just at that moment. It's as if it willed us to look. Or, we felt its vibrations, its animal energy.

Brenda, you know, I don't believe in psychics or psychic experiences, and yet they keep happening to me. It's very odd...!

Alissa, omigoodness...! You know, I have a friend who only calls me whenever there is bad news, and so when I see her number on my call display, I don't pick up. It doesn't matter what the bad news is, she is always the first to tell me.

PurestGreen, you may have had such experiences, but not realized you were having them.

Jeanette, omigoodness, your husband said that one week before it happened? Holy doodle...!

DJan, someday I will tell you my Pope story. It's a humdinger. Maybe I will publish it again on its anniversary.

Michelle, that is actually a very strong supernatural experience. You and your brother are connected.

KrippledWarrior, I have heard of "Fringe" but I haven't seen it yet. I'm going to watch it. Thanks!

Jeanette, I sometimes feel sort of the way your sister feels. Maybe it is a finely honed intuition. I am going to do a post in a month or so about my Pope story. It still amazes me.

Carla, yes, you read my story about the Pope. That was an incredible experience, and completely unexplainable.

Philip, you are describing deja vu, and yes it is a very strange experience. I know someone who has the theory that the universe expands and contracts, and therefore we have done everything before -- over and over. Interesting, hey?

Tom, dreams of the exact circumstances of the death of both parents? Holy doodle! That's incredible.

Robert, thank you. And a bright and kind Wednesday to you too. :-)

Cloudia, I see that the tsunami spared you and your boat...! :-)

Bagman and Butler said...

I suspect this kind of thing is more common than we think, but we are seldom in touch with our thoughts enough to realize it.

Pauline said...

your posts are a constant source of amazement, of beauty, and of things to ponder -

heartinsanfrancisco said...

Wow. That is simply astonishing. I have no doubt that you and Diana connected, but as you say, why is a mystery. Maybe she was literally scared out of her wits - her consciousness went elsewhere - and you were receptive to receive it.

My daughter once remarked that she thought Princess Diana and Mother Teresa were traveling together because they died on the same day.

Paula Slade said...

I do believe we are all connected and some, such as yourself, are more sensitive to this connection. Fascinating story Jo.