Conference hydra::dejavu

I'll start off by sharing mine...

When I was in high school, I lived with my Mother in a small apartment 
for many years.  One day, as she and I drove into the parking area after 
grocery shopping, I became aware of a feeling of great urgency and 
excitement to get into the apartment.  I quickly got out of the car, and 
hurried towards the stairs that led up to the second floor apartments.  
My Mother called to me jokingly to slow down, but I felt an incredible 
desire to hurry as fast as I could.  I knew that there was something/
someone IN the apartment.  I actually felt ecstatic!  

Normally, I would have been very afraid at such a thought, but this was 
different.  I was very excited and anxious to experience this "whatever", 
which somehow, seemed familiar!  I sprinted up the stairs and broke into
a run.  I had to hurry!  That's all I could think...HURRY! IT'S THERE!  
Yet, I really didn't know what "it" was supposed to be.  I ran to the 
door, and quickly put my key in...feeling very strongly that it was 
definitely STILL there inside.  I opened the door and stepped in 
expectantly, and felt/thought "not here".  From where I was standing, I 
could see our bathroom door (through the hallway straight ahead), standing 
slightly ajar.  I felt..."THERE! It's in the bathroom!"  ...while knowing 
that we never (and didn't this time) leave the bathroom door ajar like that.  

I rushed to the bathroom door, aware that my Mom was not even to the 
apartment yet, and knowing that I was totally alone to experience this thing 
being there and yet I wasn't afraid.  I gently opened the bathroom door and 
heard a fast, but strong, rush of wind.  It sounded like something being 
sucked out of the room.  I just stood there to experience it fully, knowing 
that something had really been there, and I smiled and felt really good...not 
knowing why.  I was also surprised that I felt so strongly about recognizing 
this thing as "it".  I have never understood this either.

In the weeks surrounding that experience, my Mother and I, both, experienced 
other unusual things.  I felt someone touch me several times, and one night 
my Mother woke up because someone/something was sitting very heavily on her 
side.  She was very scared and didn't tell me for a few days because she 
didn't want to scare me.  The experiences stopped as quickly as they had 
started.  But it did happen, and was very real, to me.

Jerri
    

     Here's one from just recently.  Last Saturday morning I was awakened by
    a cat on my bed.  I don't have a cat but I knew it was a cat because of
    the way it walked, the movement on the bed, kneeding, purring, and
    rubbing.  It was invisible.  I could feel its prescence and several
    times I could feel its body or fur as it rubbed against me.  I think
    this was a partial OOBE because I couldn't move yet could "feel" the
    cat.  A few times it stepped over my face from left to right and then
    right to left.  
    
     I've had visitors several times before.  At first they scared me but
    I'm getting better about trusting myself and experiencing the event.  I
    think I could even get to like these astral visitors if I could just
    communicate intelligently with them. 
    
      Mikie?

    REPLY TO note 290.  I have "lived" with para-normal experiences
    since I was a child when they come they hardly seem anything other
    than "normal" but I can detect the difference between various sets
    of the current appearent reality and those other things that are
    experiences that I don't frequently share.  But here's one for you.
    
    One morning I was driving to work from Boston's North Shore into
    down town Boston via the tunnel.  As I started up the ramp by the
    air-port split, I was in the right lane doing about 50. Several
    car lengths in front of me was another car in the middle lane. 
    As I stepped on the excellerator to pass him. I "heard a voice"
    from the center of my head that whispered "get in the middle lane".
    My immediate reaction was "if I do I'll have to slow down for that
    turkey"... Then it literally SHOUTED "GET IN THE MIDDLE LANE"!
    I swerved into the middle lane (I had looked in my rearview mirror
    only seconds before and knew there were only 2 cars on the ramp)
    just as I manuevered into the center lane, there was a crash on
    the road at the right side of my car. I looked into my rear view
    mirror to see that the rather sizable and heavy overhanging street
    light assmebly had fallen off pole and crashed onto the road just
    where my car would have been if I hadn't swerved.
    
    Checking with the Dept of Public works they said that one of those
    assemblies had fallen on several occasions but fortunately no one
    had ever been hurt.  The way I figured it; if I had not "listened"
    that thing would have come thru the wind shield of my car and left
    my head and the light fixture in the back seat and left my ex with
    4 children without a father, and a beat-up VW without a windshield.
    

                 <JUST SCRATCHING THE SURFACE?>
    I saw McClains movie, just finished reading Monroe's first book
    and feel real excited about learning and expierencing more.  I was
    discussing the book with some people in the office when another
    engineer came in and joined the group but didn't say anything about
    the subject.  When we were done talking, I turned to the engineer
    and said I felt he sort of fit the description Monroe gave of himself
    and that which was told at the end of his book.  He smiled at me
    and said "I was wondering how long it would take you to come to
    me!" At first I felt he was pulling my leg or something else.  When
    I tried to converse with him he just said we would have to talk
    sometime.  Needless to say we had lunch that day and he said he
    always felt something special about me in a metaphysical way. Vibes
    maybe? He continued to tell me his expierences with esp, oobe's
    etc.  It was a day I'll never forget.  Have I found my teacher?
    Things seem to be happening in an orderly fashion for some reason.
    More later.  I realize this isn't really a psychic expierence yet
    but it's improtant to me to get feedback from others and how they
    got "started".
    Thanks for your help and input...sam
    

      I am not certain if this qualifies as a paranormal experience
    or not------but here goes.
    
      When I was four years old, (some 47 years ago) I was struck by
    a car.  My parents told me later that I had to be revived on the
    scene. Last years my mother was visiting and we began to talk about
    the accident and I was able to relate several things to her that
    I should not have been able to know.  I told her that when I was
    struck I was wearing a red shirt and dark (blue or black) pants.
    She immediately recalled that she had just bought the shirt for
    me the morning of the accident. I also recalled that my left arm
    was jammed up alonside the engine. She said it was, and badly broken.
    I remember seeing myself under the car and the efforts to get me
    out, but not of the efforts to bring me back. I do recall,vividly,
    the feeling of floating through a black tunnel toward a brilliant
    light. Also I had a feeling of total love and peace about me and
    of something or someone telling me that I must go back.  
    
       Is this just a strange rememberance or have other people had
    experiences of a similiar nature?  
    
    Ray
    

    
    re. 4  Who is Monroe...ie. first name?  and title of his/her book?
    	   I saw part one of 'out on a limb' and found it very interesting
    	   	unfortunately, i had to miss part two when the real
    		good stuff was shown ... darn ... maybe next time
    
    anyway...I've had lots of 'could-be paranormal' experiences, several
    were with a ouija board (8.13 in this conference) and I may have
    had a OOBE, but I'm not sure if it was that or my 'fifth eye' -
    i wear glasses, sometimes - but when this exp. happened i was sitting
    on my bed with my eyes closed (TM) meditating - across from my bed
    was a big armoire(?) with mirrors on the doors - suddenly I could
    see around the room from a point which seems to have been several
    inches above eye level, and could even see my reflection in the
    mirror and myself sitting with my eyes closed...there was a calm
    feeling of exhiliration with this - I wish it had lasted longer
    than 2-3 seconds.
    
    Also, I've had many premonitions of someone calling on the phone,
    then the phone would ring and it would be so&so - or as the phone
    rang the person calling would flash across my mind before I answered
    ...I know what you're thinking - that these people called a lot
    and so no big deal - this has happened several times with people
    that I haven't heard from for months, or on one occasion, over a
    year -- my 'sixth sense' seems to have fallen by the wayside in
    the past 5 years or so, and I miss that type of exp.
    
    I wonder why my esp and/or intuition or receptivity to psychic 
    stuff has clouded over so much - any suggestions?  ... hopefully it's
    just a phase I'm going thru - do any of you know any exercises to
    improve ones receptivity?
    
    				Janice Buck
     

RE: .6 Who is Monroe?
    
    Robert Monroe has been discussed frequently in this notes file.
    To "read up" on him type in NOTES, with this file open:
    
    	Notes> SEARCH "Monroe"
    
    which will get you the first mention of him in this conference (note
    2.18, as it happens).  After you read that one type:
    
    	Notes> SEARCH
    
    and you will get the next (note 10.3 now).  Continue until you get
    bored or reach the last such note (this one right now).
    
    			Topher

    I have had several wonderful experiences with my spiritual
    guides both in meditation and latihan but the one I am
    going to relate dates back to our married student housing
    days 1978-80.
    
    We were moving out of married student housing in Davis, CA,
    into an apartment in Sacramento. Thom had driven to the Bay
    Area to pick up some stuff for the new apartment from his
    folks house.
    
    I stayed at our old apartment at Davis to clean up. For some
    reason unbeknownst to Thom, I thought he would be back by 3:30.
    Well, when 4:00 rolled around, I was quite upset. But I went back
    to cleaning but with every passing minute I was getting more
    and more upset. After a while all I could do was curl up on
    the bed in the prenatal position and let out a kind of moan.
    I kept telling myself not to blame Thom, he had no idea that
    I was expecting him back at 3:30.
    
    Ofcourse I jumped all over him when he got back! We had a big
    fight. 
    
    Later at the new apartment, I told Thom what had happened
    and we both thought it strange but passed it off as a
    wierd mood or pms or something.
    
    The next day was Thom's turn to clean while I went to my last
    class. So, Thom started getting these strange and violent
    feelings that I had had. He feels that the only reason
    he didn't succumb to this "force" was that he was forewarned
    by my previous experience.
    Renee

    
    A few days ago, I was doing latihan(kind of like meditation,
    but there's not focusing, just surrender). I had been reading about
    spirit guides and wanted to meet my own. So, I settled down my
    thoughts and felt the familiar rush come over me-a tingling
    sensation around my third and fourth chakras.
    
    Actually, I should preface this...The night before, while reading
    I felt the familiar tingle, and I let out a tentative question
    "who are you?What is your name?" and I got back "Oliver".
    
    So, back to my story....I was very quiet, and open. I got this
    "Renee, why don't you love yourself?" 
    Me-"oh, I don't know. I've done some pretty stupid things..."
    "We love you."
    Me-"Who's we?  Oliver is that you?"
    "All of us"
    
    Then I got this incredible rush of love and acceptance. Of
    course tears were streaming down my face by this time! The
    conversation went on in that same vein. Needless to say,
    I was quite overwhelmed.
    
    Now, some of you skeptics will no doubt say it was all in
    my subconscious. Who knows? It certainly was real to me.
    
    Renee
    
    

    
    A few years ago I took the Silva Mind Control course with a friend.
    As a part of enjoying the new "super natural toys" we found as a
    result of SMC, he and I had been inventing new and practical ways
    to use  the Astral Projection techniques we had learned.  Not long
    after this I had lost my ski gloves.  As I was rushing around the
    house looking high and low for them, I stumbled upon a spur of the
    moment thought.  "Why don't I project myself INTO the gloves.  Then
    open my eyes and see where I am!"  I was only half serious, but
    I tried it anyway.  I closed my eyes, went quickly thru the SMC
    exercize and all of a sudden **WHAM** there I was.  What amazed
    me was that I not only was in the gloves ... I WAS the gloves. 
    I was sitting on the shelving unit in the livingroom.  Then in an
    instant, I was being swept aside by the huge elbow (remember at
    this time I was a small pair of gloves) of my roommate ( I recognized
    the color of the coat he was wearing).  I (the gloves) fell in slow
    motion down behind the shelving unit.  I actually felt the vertigo
    of the fall.  I began to junmp up and down (the real me now) and
    giggle and say "I know where they are ... I know where they are!!".
    My friend figured I had flipped out.  I described what had happened
    as I went to retrieve my gloves.  They were where I believed them
    to be.  That didn't suprise me.  That was my first of my "trips
    into things".  I now do it for recreation.  Now you may say that
    the fact that I was able to find my ski gloves will never shake
    the earch.  That may be true - but the way I did it changed my life.
    

    Re:10
    So, how did you do it?
    Renee
    
        

        The book  "Lucid Dreaming" also mentions the Silva course.  Does
        anyone have any pointers to such a course in the Boston area?
        
        Thanks and sorry  if I missed another note already covering this
        ground.
        
        Robert
        

    A few years ago the mother of a friend had a heart attack. I
    learned she was in the hospital, and so decided to send flowers.

    As I handed the florist the money, I spontaneously composed to
    myself something to go "with" the flowers, although I'm sure the
    actual flowers were two hundred miles away.

    That night I had a vivid dream of a dark man dressed as a tribal
    chieftan, in feathers and rich insignia, holding a staff of
    flowers and seated on a living tree shaped as a throne.

    What's more relevant is that my friend dreamed of a winged man
    entering his mother's hospital room the same night.  He couldn't
    see more than a silouette, but he didn't feel it was threatening.
    He told this the next day at lunch, before he learned about the
    flowers; he interpreted it as his own concern for her health.
    It was the florist's delivery logo, of course...Hermes, swift
    of foot, whose wand is the very symbol of medicine.

    I do not conclude that I "caused" any of this to happen, for I
    don't ordinarily think in the way I was thinking when I handed
    over the money.  My friend might have caused it, or maybe
    it just happened.
    
    Pat

    

    
    Re: 290.11
    
    Renee,
    
    SMC provides many techniques to projection and I have come up with
    the variations that work best for me.  The fact of the matter is
    that I do remember the exact technique I used that day.  It may
    sound fairly half witted, but bear with me.  As I said - it worked
    for me. 
    
    I will describe the several approaches I used that day.  The first
    few did not yield immediate results, but I do not consider them
    to have failed.  They were just steps required for transfer.
    
    First of all I went to a light Alpha level as per SMC instruction.
    At first I tried to get a feel for the direction in which I must
    walk in order to find the gloves.  I stood in one spot and slowly
    turned in circles trying to see if there was any direction that
    I seemed to be drawn to.  I got no general impressions.  Then I
    suggested to myself that my face would feel slightly flushed, or
    I would feel a slight movement of air past my face when I turned
    in the correct direction.  After a short while I was drawn to my
    bedroom.  When in the bedroom, I used the same technique and failed
    to come up with any strong inpressions.  Then I vividly pictured
    the gloves in my mind.  They were red,whit and blue leather.  I
    suggested to myself that perhaps I could smell the leather as I
    turned.  As I was turning I inhailed slowly.  I vividly imagined
    having the gloves up to my face and smelling them.  Then I started
    to get into the projection techniques.  I vividly imagined the sight
    and smell of the gloves as if I had drawn them to my face.  I could
    imagine (feel?) them as I stroked them on my cheek.  Then the
    projection started to take over.  All I could smell was the gloves.
    I remembered that they had a soft furry lineing.  I could feel
    the softness of it on my arms and legs as I slipped inside the gloves.
    My entire (closed eyed) field of vision was taken up by the red,
    white and blue pattern across the nuckles of the gloves.  I could
    feel the soft leather on my face and nose as I embrased them.  Then
    suddenly it is as if I was jerked around 180 degrees and was faceing
    the other direction.  I was no longer faceing the gloves and looking
    at and feeling them.  I was the gloves and I was looking at and away 
    from myself as we all look both at and away from our own bodies.
    
    So that's how I did it.  I cannot tell you how very vivid it was.
    I hope I have done a good job of describing the experience because
    I hope that there are people that will read this and get interrested.
    It would be great to turn someone on to this sort of thing, because
    it is not only a real kick to do it for recreation, but it is a
    real life saver in some situations.  How would you like to have
    Root Canal Therapy done on your tooth while you are somewhere else?
    It really works.  I had it done while I was busy being a tree!
    

Re: .9

I enjoyed reading about your experience.  I don't think that I'm a skeptic,
but I did have some `other' thoughts about this.

...You said the voice said "We love you" and when you asked "Who's we?", the
answer was "All of us".  This was interesting to me because it is my belief
that we all are parts of the same thing, or the one mind.

I don't deny the existence of "spiritual guides", I'm just cautious about the
belief that they are different from us and that they can give us answers that 
would otherwise be unavailable to us.  In believing we're all part of one mind,
the answers then, would be available to everyone.  

It may be easier for us to relate to something we can see separate from 
ourselves...especially if we're getting answers from it!  These guides may 
not be separate and higher from us, but rather just another PART of us that 
we have never trusted, or listened to, before.  By personifying these thoughts 
we are opening up to, it may seem less scary, and we can feel less responsible, 
if we are following the words of a "guide".  WHATEVER SOMEONE NEEDS TO USE TO
GET ANSWERS FOR THEMSELVES IS JUST FINE.  To each, his own.  However, I think 
it's very useful to always consider, and acknowledge that there are, other 
possibilities in an effort to decrease one's limitations.  

I feel that the way a lot of people think right now, they would freak if they 
were getting answers from behind a door, and then opened the door to discover 
THEMSELVES!  It would be a wild realization!  I feel we're afraid of our own
power, so we put a hat and cloak on it and pretend it's something else.  But 
that's what I, personally, believe right now.  And I'm all for anyone doing
whatever they need to, to help themselves learn.  I just recognize that when
limits and blocks are set up for security's sake, the learning stops.

Anyway, Renee, thank you for sharing your experience.  Like you, I've 
experienced these incredible rushes of "acceptance and love" too.  I think 
love and acceptance are the main ingredients for a happy life.

Jerri

    
    Re.15
    Thanks for the comment.What you said really strikes a chord.
    I like to have several ways of looking at things, so I can decide
    what is right for me.Sometimes I can't believe that it is
    anything else BUT me,even though the messages seem to pop
    out from nowhere. Like you said, Jerri, it doesn't matter
    where it comes from as long as it helps!
    
    Renee
    
    

    
    Wayne,
    
    There are probably many noters that could give you a better or more
    accurate account of what Alpha level is, but since you asked me,
    I'll give it a shot.  It has been a few years since I have recalled
    the exact technical description.  Your brain gives off electrical
    waves of varying frequency.  These frequencies are generally indicative
    of the level  or intensity of brain activity.  Scientists have given
    names to the different ranges of frequency - sort of like they have
    used the names UHF and VHF to describe a range of television wave
    frequencies.  The name Beta was given to the frequency range that
    is most predominent when you are awake, alert and involved in an
    activity like speaking with friends or playing tennis.  Alpha is
    the name given to the frequency range that is most predominent when
    you are day dreaming or just falling asleep or just about to wake
    up.  It is also the frequency that is predominent when you are
    dreaming. Therefore in a light Alpha state, your brain waves are
    for the most part falling into this frequency range.  When you take
    Silva Mikd Control you learn techniques that will bring about the
    Alpha state at will.  After you practice it, you can very quickly
    trigger that mental state.  Though there are those who would disagree,
    I believe it to be the same state of mind that is used by those
    who practice Transendental Meditation.  TM, I believe, uses the
    Alpha state itself to bring about an end.  SMC teaches that the
    Alpha state can be used as a "workshop" of sorts.  As I described
    in .14, I go to Alpha level and then begin to work on what I want
    to do using the techniques that work best for me.  In the course
    you learn these techniques in the same way that a carpenter may
    be shown how to use a hammer and a screw driver.  You are shown
    the tools, but it is up to you to use them to build a house.  Further,
    there are any number of ways to build simular houses.  You experiment
    and practice and then you use the techniques that work best for
    you.  I therefore hesitate to describe the instructions given to
    me by SMC to go to Alpha level.  It has been 10 years since I first
    took the course.  My techniques have evolved over the years to superbely
    suit me, but I am not sure that they very closely resemble those
    that were shown to me in the course.  Perhaps a more recent SMC
    graduate (or a more studied one) could take it form here.  I would
    hate to do an injustice to SMC and I don't want to mislead you in
    any way.  Hope I have been of help.
    
    
    

    This just happened to me last night.
    
    I woke up from a rather vivid dream, but one involving me and a
    friend explaining locations of certain things in our pasts - just
    me, my friend, and a map.
    
    I woke up to see an elderly, *very* thin woman standing by my bed
    holding my hand.  I was awake enough to say "OK, she's not real, you're
    still asleep, and believed I was holding my SOs hand".  Still, the
    vision of her persisted.  After a minute or so, my SO reached over from
    behind me and put his hand on my arm - at which point I realized, for
    certain, that it was certainly *NOT* his hand I was holding.  After a
    few seconds of feeling both hands, she disappeared, leaving my hand
    empty.  BTW, the hand I was holding was warm. 
    
    The woman did not seem threatening to me.  I have never seen any
    evidence that there are ghosts in my house - I have lived there
    quite awhile, though there seems to be some sort of presence that
    I have never been convinced was really an entity.
    
    Comments?
    
    Elizabeth

    
    How do you know you were awake?  My daughter called me into her
    room last night because there was a lion standing by the door
    growling at her.  I don't believe there was a lion there, but she
    saw it!  The must be a lion's ghost prowling around inside my 2.5yr
    old New England split!  I must get a exorcist (or lion tamer) straight
    away!
    
    /Bevin

    Re .19, .20:
    
    It's possible that Elizabeth was only partially awake.  On the other
    hand, it's also possible that what she experienced was in harmony
    with some of her background.  That is, it might be a manifestation
    of a nonhostile entity such as a Christian saint, a Wiccan Crone,
    etc.
    
    Steve Kallis, Jr.
    

    RE .20, .21:
    
    I freely admit that it's possible that I was not totally awake.
    This was certainly the case when I first saw the woman, but I was
    awake enough for several minutes to disbelieve her - that she was
    like .20's daughter's lion.
    
    I do, however, find it quite interesting that she was in no way
    part of the dream I was having previously.
    
    Elizabeth
    

    I'm new to DEJAVU, so bear with me.  This is just about the most
    interesting note on the conference!
    
    When I was about ten or eleven, my family and I were out driving
    around (when gas was still cheap enough to do that on Sunday's),
    when I suddenly felt as though I recognized things.  I asked my
    Dad to turn at certain corners, and finally, to stop in front of
    a house.  I leaped out of the car, ran to the house, and rang the
    doorbell.  A woman answered, and I pushed by her into the house.
    I felt as though I had lived in this house my whole life.  The
    furniture was different, but I knew where every room was, and which
    room was "mine".  My parents were convinced that I was having a
    breakdown or something, and the woman who owned the house had just
    purchased it, so she couldn't tell me anything about who lived there
    before.  I've never been able to shake that experience, and there's
    no one alive who can convince me I didn't live there.
    
    Another time, when I was a little older, my parents were considering
    buying a house in the next town.  We all piled into the car to go
    see the house, but I refused to go in.  While I stood in the front
    yard, I was absolutely stricken with fear.  I couldn't move, I was
    so terrified of going into that house.  My parents realized that
    it wouldn't be prudent to buy a house their daughter was panicked
    about going near, so we looked elsewhere.  About a month later,
    my father read (with some apprehension) that the house had burned
    down and everyone in it was killed.  A faulty furnace or something.
    
    I've had lots of other experiences like this, including dreaming
    about things that I witnessed while my mother was pregnant with
    me (I put that on another note), and knowing when my brother was
    in the hospital dying of pneumonia before anyone called me (I was
    on a plane headed home before they let me know about it...he lived!),
    and once I met a faith healer (well, he wasn't really religious
    or anything, but he did heal), who told me I had powers in that
    direction.  I kind of shrugged that off; it's a little strange even
    for me!
    
    Robin
    

    Considering the discussions given under another posting title, I
    finally decided to post this one.  I have had a few experiences in my
    life that I can't explain, but there are two experiences that I will
    never forget. 

    The first was when I was around 12 years old.  I was riding my bike
    with some friends at a school yard near my house.  There was a small
    but very steep hill (4 ft high, 60+ degree slope) that we where riding
    down.  Once when it was my turn to go down the hill, I got the feeling
    of someone telling me to get of my bike.  I thought to myself "Why,
    I've already gone down the hill a half-dozen times and nothing
    happened."  Then the feeling came more powerful:  JUMP OFF THE BIKE,
    DAVE.  So I jumped off the bike, took a small tumble, turned around and
    saw... 
    ...The front wheel of my bike fall off and bounce off the hill, the
    frame of my bike landed (front forks first) at the end of the hill and
    flipped over. If I was still on the bike I would have landed head first
    at a spot where a large bolder was resting. 

    The second time occured a few years ago when I was graduating from
    College. I went back to school to pick up my cap and gown and meet a
    friend for a few beers.  While we were walking around the campus, I met
    with two other friends of mine who also happened to be there and we
    decided to go eat in Cambridge.  As we sat down to eat, I got an
    overwhelming impression that the four of us would work together at the
    company I was working at.  This was contrary to the present situation
    since one of them refused a job from the company a month before,
    another was denied a job after going for an interview, and the third
    was planning to stay and work full-time after graduation at his present
    co-op job (he was also two years behind the rest of us).  Needless to
    say that within 18 months all four of us were employed by the company,
    I didn't tell them what happened that day until after we all were
    working.
    

    It was September of 1979 when a tragic thing happened at the house
    where I now live.  The little girl who lived in what is now my house
    broke her neck and died after falling off of the swing set in the
    back yard.  She was 7 years old and was on the swing standing up
    when she fell.  Her parents sold the house to me that next spring
    because, as her mother had said, "the memory of little Gloria is
    just too strong in the house".  I have not given it a thought until
    last evening.  
    
    The people nextdoor to me have a rather interesting back yard. 
    It is filled with an asortment of very unusual objects.  Included
    in this list is a flag poll.  I have never seen a flag on it, but
    I have often heard the occasional "clink" of the rope blow up against
    the hollow metal pole.  At least that is wat I assumed it was until
    I was over on that side of the yard last evening.  At that time
    I noticed that the flagpoll has no rope or pully on it.  Later on
    - about 10:0PM, I heard the clinking sound.  Then it hit me.  The
    sound I hear is not made by a flag rope hitting a flag pole.  The
    sound I hear is one I have heard a thousand times before since I
    used to live in an apartment that was right next to a playground.
     What I hear is the sound of a child playing on a swing set!  
    
    I would have gone outside to check it out except I couldn't because
    of my back trouble.  "Back trouble????" you say?  YES!  Backtrouble!
    I have a big yellow stripe running right up and down it!  My fiance,
    Gerry, will be visiting me this weekend.  If I hear the sound, I'll
    ask him to check it out.  I'll keep you informed.
    
    Marion 

    
    
    Please do, Marion.
    
    Carole
    
    

    RE: .26
    
    I'll wager he finds a logical reason for the sound.
    
    In a way I hope he doesn't....I love a good ghost story!
    
    
    John M.

    RE: .27
    
    John,
    
    I would like this ghost story a bit better if it were someone else's
    house.  I once moved out of an apartment because I was very uneasy
    about the livingroom.  Actually, there was a bit more to it than
    that.  I would wake up in the middle of the night feeling that there
    was someone/thing in the livingroom.  I was so frightened of whatever
    it was that I'd lie awake for the rest of the night pretending to
    be asleep and waiting for it to go away.  I could actually perceive
    it moveing from one area to the other and walking past my bedroom
    door and standing in the doorway and looking at me for some period
    of time.  This went on for about a month before I just couldn't
    take it any more, so I moved.                    
    
    BTW, John, do you really hope he doesn't find a logical reason for
    the sound???  You havn't been sleeping with those "channeling" books
    under your pillow, now have you???   ;^D
    
    Marion

RE: last few
    
    From what I understand (hauntings are not my area of expertise)
    very few ghosts are hostile, and those that are generally make their
    hostility immediately apparent.  If there is no ghost but some other
    "logical" (i.e., conventional) explanations for the sounds than
    there is nothing to fear.  If there *is* a ghost there is still
    nothing to fear -- our fears come from a fear of the unknown, from
    a fear of association with death (a fear of death is rational a
    fear of association with death is not) and from listening to ghost
    stories selected or invented to scare us.  You have no more to fear
    from the "swinging ghost" of the little girl than you do from some
    toy of hers left behind in some corner.
    
    This goes in general for hauntings, of course, not just this one.
    
    					Topher

    RE: .29
    
    Topher,
    
    I agree with you.  Consider this, however.  Several years ago I
    read a book about demonic posession.  The actual name of the book
    slips my mind right now, but I have seen it spoken of in this
    conference.  An example was given (a fairly well known one from
    what I understand) about a doll that became dangerously posessed
    by a demon.  It all started out inocently enough: the owner of the
    doll would come home each day from work and find that the doll had
    moved to another location in the apartemnt.  Each day when she went
    to work, she left the doll on her bed.  She felt that the change
    in the location of the doll by the end of the day was harmless enough
    and found it amusing.  The point was made in the book that a demon
    must in some way receive "permission" from you to posess you or somthing
    within your area of control.  Her non-forbidding attitude about the
    seemingly harmless doll was just the "permission granted" that the
    demon was waiting for.  I have no idea what I may be dealing with
    here.  If it is the ghost of a little girl, I agree with you.  I
    have nothing to fear.  My experience with the entity in my apartment,
    however, allows me to know first hand that there are some truely
    hairy beasties of one sort or another out there.  I usually go by
    gut instinct and I tell you that there was no doubt in my mind that
    the "creature of the livingroom" was very bad news.  It could be
    that to dignify the noise with a personal investigation would be
    giving it too much "power" - just the invitation that "it" is waiting
    for.  If, on the other hand, I simply ask Gerry to see what the
    noise is, he is not on the hook because I do not intend to mention
    anything paranormal to him about my suspitions.  Just the fact that
    I will not investigate in person for the specific reason that I
    will not give "permission" is failure to give permission in and
    of itself (is anybody following this?).  That's my logic at any
    rate.  Sort of my own home grown "protections" that have been spoken
    of here abouts.  So, Topher, lets look at your title - "Fear of
    Ghosts".  Ghosts? - perhaps or perhaps not.  Fear? - yes but mistrust
    is probably closer to the truth .  Thank you for your input.
    
    Marion
                     

    
    RE: .28
    
    Well, as I said, I like a good ghost story.  I even have one or
    two I may enter some time.
    
    Fess up....YOU'RE the one who sent that channeler to my house, aren't
    you?!  ;-)
    
    John M.

    re: .25
    
    Marion,
    
    When your fiance visited, did you hear the sounds outside,
    and did you send him out to investigate? What did he find?
    
    My own "ghost story":
    
    Three years ago, I lived with four other people in an 
    appartment  about 1/2 mile from where I was going to school. 
    We also had a ghost living with us. (People have often laughed at
    me because of how matter-of-factly I say that!) I don't know who
    the ghost was, but he (/she/it) was friendly or, at the very least,
    harmless. How do I know that it was friendly? It's just another 
    *VERY STRONG* feeling I have, one of many such feelings 
    (instincts?) about things.
    
    None of us ever *saw* this ghost, but there were many instances
    where he was heard and/or his presence was felt. Usually he was
    heard in or around the kitchen, rattling the silverware, playing
    with the toaster or turning the water on and off. 
    
    Soon after we moved in there, we were told a story by the previous
    inhabitants. It seems that two years prior to our moving in there,
    another group of students lived there. One of them couldn't take
    the pressure and he hanged himself in the kitchen. His roommates
    found him sometime later. I find it interesting that the kitchen
    is where our ghost chose to hang out...
    
    Anyway, that, for what it's worth, is my ghost story.
    
    -Amy.
    
    

    re .32 (Amy):
    
    > ... where our ghost chose to hang out...
       
    Terrible (if unintentional) pun. :-)
    
    Steve Kallis, Jr.

    RE:  .32
    
    Nope, I hadn't heard the sound for a while, and now the windows
    are all closed for the winter (with a few exceptions).  I guess
    it'll have to wait 'till next summer (then the fiance will be a
    hubby!).  I have no doubt that I will hear it then.  I'll let you
    know.
    
    Marion

    re .33 (Steve):
    
    Yes, terrible pun, but *very* intentional! ;-)
    
    -Amy.

Marion, now that you are back, and married, whatever has become of the noise in 
the backyard?  BTW, congratulations!

Meredith

    RE:  .36
    
    Meredith,
    
    Funny you should mention it.  Since the weather has been getting
    milder I have been able to leave my bedroom windows open.  I did
    hear the noise both Saturday night just at dusk, and Monday morning
    right around sunrise.  I did not investigate, but I expect that
    I will have plenty of time to do so with all the warm weather ahead
    of us.  I will keep you posted.
    
    Marion (the_still_blushing_bride)

    
    Marion,
    
    HAS anything happened with the noises? the investigation?
    
    You've probably shut your windows again by now, but I'm curious
    as to what has happened if anything!
    
    --  Tracy

    I hope she's alright....it might have been nasty after all...