The term supernatural or supranatural (Latin: super, supra "above" + natura "nature") pertains to an order of existence beyond the scientifically visible universe. Religious miracles are typically supernatural claims, as are spells and curses, divination, the belief that there is an afterlife for the dead, and innumerable others. Supernatural beliefs have existed in many cultures throughout human history.
Characteristic for phenomena claimed as supernatural are anomaly, uniqueness and uncontrollability, thus lacking reproducibility required for scientific examination. Supernatural themes are often associated with paranormal and occult ideas, suggesting for possibility of interaction with the supernatural by means of summoning or trance for instance.
I am not a medium I do not claim to receive messages or have contacts with the dead. However, on one occasion I have seen spirits from an afterlife.
Back in 1970, I was working at a grain manufacturing plant I was a lost soul back then. I read books on philosophy, science and at that time searching for answers to the unexplained phenomena in the world.
World affairs did interest me too but I believed if I was to become involved in world affairs I would first have to have some solid foundation to stand on. i.e. a philosophy or beliefs in something that I could fall back on to help guide me along in life.
Well one night in December of 1970 I was lying in my bed and my body became all tensed up I awoke and saw three spirits. There was a man wearing a suit and tie at the end of my room looking at me and smiling. There was also a young girl sitting on my bed and looking down at me and at the end of my bed was another spirit waving his arms around.
I reached out my hand to the man across the room. I wanted him to tell me something but all three spirits just disappeared.
Now the following night as I lay in bed my body got all tensed up again, I looked up, and I saw Jesus.
Now one might think this happening would have changed my entire way of looking at things. However, I just thought to myself well maybe I'll see more spirits and Jesus was just in the back of my mind. It wasn't until a year later in December of 1971 when someone asked me what I would do if I were president of the US.
It was then I spoke my mind for a very brief interval getting things of my chest and into the open. After that night, I haven't been the same person I believed people were playing games with me on television, radio, newspapers and so on. I was learning a different language all over again.
This incident led me to a VA psychiatric ward where for the first time in my life I had counseling from doctors of psychology. I told the doctors about my experience the previous year with the spirits I seen.
Some doctors were skeptical of my vision however, some did believe me but couldn't help me with the predicament I was in, at that time I was diagnosed with a form of schizophrenia.
It has been quite some time now since I seen spirits I've been on medication and I still see a psychiatrist every six months. I have improved a lot in the past 30 + years i.e. my mental condition I still at times believe people are playing games with me on television. Although I also know I'm not alone I've seen other patients on psychiatric wards who deal with similar situations as mine.
I also believe through my experience that the world has changed a lot as well. I believe Jesus had a lot to do with my ordeal through the years. Although I haven't seen him since that night in 1970, I believe he was with me through it all. I also believe he is still with me and that someday he will get me out of the predicament I'm in.
I've talked with other people who told me they've also seen spirits in their lifetime. If anyone reading this article has had any exposure with the supernatural, please tell me about your experience in a comment or get back to me on my contact icon.
Interesting article David, but these things are not unusual and usually indicate a turning toward spirituality. Depending on the culture, different visions come up. When I was a Buddhist monk in Thailand, villagers would come to my hut all the time and tell me of the wonderful and detailed visions they had of the Buddha, but never Mohammed or Christ. In this country, few see Mohammed or the Buddha. but see Jesus. The contemplative saints; St. John of the Cross and St. Teresa of Avila warned about visions and that they are basically to be ignored if one truly wants to come face to face with God instead of just entertaining themselves. Substantial words that are heard, which sound like teachings, can sometimes be useful, but better to be ignored as well. As a meditation teacher, meditators relate to me all kinds of visions and experiences during Upacara Samadhi (neighborhood concentration), which is the second stage of meditation, a semi dream state before Apanna Samadhi which is dreamless and visionless Samadhi. When I first began meditating 30 years ago, I went through all of this myself including past lives, and learned over the years to ignore them all because they really don’t help in getting to the deeper states of meditation. If you don’t have a teacher, these visions and experiences such as astral travel and psychic abilities can hang you up for years thinking that something really important is going on. Some of the visions that I recall are, instead of your three people, three shafts of light, a small one, a medium size one, and a large one, accompanied with the substantial words (words that sound as if there is a loudspeaker in your head and come across as an important lesson or teaching), which said, “We are watching over you.” If I would have been of the Christian faith, they probably would have appeared as angels. Then there was the experience of feeling that someone hit me over the head with a heavy book, and waves of energy flowing through the top of my head and out the bottom of my feet accompanied by the substantial words, “You are now completely healed.” That was just hours before I ended up in the emergency room and in bed for three months. But I was healed, as I look back because that was a turning point when I really left the world and entered into serious practice. During meditation in the early years I had hundreds if not more of beautiful visions - fields of amazing color that I could taste, meadows of flowers in brilliant hues, past lives, waves of energy, words. Such as, “The brain is dead,” “Go deeper in the valley,” “The only difference between life and death is the breath,” and on and on. It got to the point where I became tired of writing them down and finally stopped being interested in them - then my meditation finally deepened. These are all things still of the world. Deep meditation is beyond mind, beyond world, but these kinds of occurrences, although they point one to spirituality, can actually be a hindrance for deeper development if you don‘t understand what is happening. Many people have wound up in psychiatric wards because of a deep, spiritual experience that have blown them away, and of course, doctors haven‘t a clue about any of this, all they know is the brain “which is dead.” because they are hopeless, earth bound souls who haven‘t awakened from their deep sleep yet. Respond to this comment
David, in my teen years and college years, I had pronounced and recurring hypnopompic and hypnogoguic experiences. Do you know what these are? They are a very well documented phenomenon where, just before falling asleep, or just after waking, the body is still in its dream state, and motor circuits are paralyzed. So, the body is completely paralyzed, but you are awake and dreaming at the same time. Your experiences sound so much like the ones I have had. I have seen aliens and other spirits in these states, lying paralyzed in bed. Never Jesus, though (how would I know Jesus? I have never met the man before!). One time I was an Eskimo on the polar ice, trying to talk a polar bear breaking through the ice into not eating me. When I fully awoke, the polar bear was my ceiling light, and the ice was the white paint of my ceiling.
It is very common for people experiencing this phenomenon to panic, especially since you are completely paralyzed during the experience.
Somehow I get the sense that the diagnosis of schizophrenia was rash, if it was based only on the incidents you describe.
Gregory, my body wasn't paralyzed it was my spirit moving, and I was wide awake it wasn't a dream. I know it may sound hard for some people to believe but these spirits were real and so was Jesus. I don't believe the diagnosis of schizophrenia was based solely on what I described to the doctors it perhaps was my behavior in the hospital. thank you for commenting and pleasant dreams
As it turns out, I am reading some journal articles on schizophrenia. I have worked with schizophrenic people, and have some friends who suffer from schizophrenia. It manifests in different degrees. The people I took care of were not able to live independently. My friends, on the other hand, were able to marry, be fathers, and buy their own homes. It is a very mysterious condition, and not all schizophrenia is the same. Some who have it produce profoundly interesting works of art and literature, especially notable was Louis Wain's famous cat paintings.
Gregory, I also done research on schizophrenia, before the internet I got books on the subject from library's I found doctors know very little about the illness only that it most often begins during adolescence.
I am independent today i.e. I can function in society as any normal person can. Thank you for giving me your insight into it.
"The apparitions of Our Lady of Lourdes began on 11 February 1858, when Bernadette Soubirous, a 14-year-old peasant girl from Lourdes admitted, when questioned by her mother, that she had seen a "lady" in the cave of Massabielle, about a mile from the town, while she was gathering firewood with her sister and a friend.[1] Similar appearances of the "lady" took place on seventeen further occasions that year.
Bernadette Soubirous was canonized as a saint, and many Catholics believe her visions to have been of the Virgin Mary. The first appearance of the "Lady" reported by Bernadette was on 11 February. Pope Pius IX authorized the local bishop to permit the veneration of the Virgin Mary in Lourdes in 1862."
David,
When I was reading your article it reminded me of what I read about the apparition of the Lady of Fatima and Lourdes. Could it be that what you experienced is similar to that of Berdadette Soubirous?
You have written a very profound article and I thank you for sharing this to us.
My best to you. Happy birthday!. (I think you broke the record having the highest number of birthday wishes from SW members, that is how special you are to us. 43 in all) ~Nenita~
Nenita, I went to parochial schools as a child and remember the story about Bernadette quite well. I remember the nuns told us about a letter that was supposed to be opened in 1959. I don't know what ever became of that letter. Thank you for commenting and for the birthday wish
There are indeed;"Ghost Riders in the Sky", as phantoms fill the air around us.
Western medicine is rinky-dink when it comes to the sinister unseen world all around us(see my articles on demonic defenses and metaphysical cleansing, this site for some rare insights) and clinicians cannot and will not distinguish the thin line between psychic / spiritual problems and mental illness.
Many back ward psychiatric patients are not mentally ill but are actually dark side possessed as well as many children who hear voices and see imaginary 'friends' are more psychic than psychotic.
Knowledge is indeed power in this realm and ignorance is never bliss when it comes to demons, ghosts and other interdimensionals who are as real as the nose on your face and equally as hard to see.
Unseen sinister types can cause anxiety attacks, compulsivity and obsessive behavior as well as paranoia and even physical diseases.
It's a shame that you had to wait this long to run into some of my writings that suggest remedies and insights along these lines but do contact me after you've read some of my articles ;Paul Schroeder
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