» There I was .. sitting in the passenger seat of an SUV as we cruised down the highway. Chatting with the driver. Yackety-yak. When out-of-the blue I ask, "Is your cell phone in your pocket?"
My friend feels around. Yeah, it's there.
Silence .. as I start wondering .. "how come me to ask that?"
I mean » how come I asked right at that time .. in the middle of another thought? The question seemed to come from nowhere .. from left-field, so to speak.
So much so that it caught my attention .. and made me wonder.
I know why I was curious. Because there's no center divider on this particular road. And one small distraction (.. such as fumbling for a ringing cell .. or hurrying to answer it before the caller hangs up) can be tragic .. as cars & trucks (big-rigs) woosh by. So close.
Most major roads here in California have a center divider (.. often adorned with trees or flowers). But not this one.
Sometimes he places his cell in the dashboard cubby .. so he doesnt have to dig for it when it rings. It can be difficult to dig deep in your pocket while seated and driving at highway speeds (.. something I'd seen before, that made me uncomfortable.)
So that's my motivation for asking. But the timing. And how the thought seemed to come out of nowhere.
While I'm thinking about how the question seemed to pop into my head .. his cell rings. (I sh!t you not.)
Of course, he knows where it is .. cuz he just felt-around and found it. He retrieved it from his pocket and handed it to me. (Illegal to talk on your cell while driving here in California .. even tho everybody does it.)
As he hands me the phone, I say (surprised at the timing), "That was a good trick, huh?" =)
"Yeah," he says. (It was. Maybe 30 secs elapsed between the time I asked and when his cell rang .. 45 max.)
••• today's entry continues here below •••
A Freaky Feeling
Anyway, that happened last month .. but I've been thinking about it now & again.
Specially the part about how the question seemed to pop in my head .. outta nowhere .. while I was focused & engaged on something else.
Did I know his cell was gonna ring? Certainly would seem that way. (Or maybe it just feels that way.)
The question came amid a conversation .. totally unrelated to anything phone-ish. Felt like one of those jarring jump-cuts that French film-makers are famous for.
Would you call that ESP? Prescience? Would I be a freak if I could really foretell such things? (It definitely feels freaky.) Is that an ability you would accept if offered? Really?
Would he have gotten into an accident had I not pre-alerted? I dont think so, but obviously cant be sure.
But then I was surprised when it did ring. That would imply I didnt know. Or maybe a part of me knew, and another part of me didnt. (Can you tell I've been thinking about this?)
I've never had this feeling before (.. like I knew something before-hand.) It's kinda freaking me out a little. I'm trying to explain it away as a cool coincidence, but that doesnt seem to be working.
Freakiness aside, you would hope .. that if tragedy were about to strike .. we'd be warned. By whatever means necessary. Divine. Less-than-divine. Heck, in that situation, I'd even settle for much-less-than-divine. Maybe it's the warning aspect that has me unsettled.
You may note, also, how, back in February of this year .. I mentioned using glowing nuclear spent fuel rods as part of the design I use on the home page .. and I included a story about a guy dying .. then, less than a month later, Fukuhima melts down. Gotta admit that way trippy.
Also .. in January, I discussd the Slide. Now, we are sliding much faster. Just noting data-points.
Even if I *could* see into the future .. doubt I could turn it on at will .. or use it to forecast the stock market.
Tolerating Insecurity
The thing that really got me thinking about that episode again .. was a quote I read by Erich Fromm (.. which seemed to smack me upside the head):
The psychic task which a person can and must set for himself is not to feel secure, but to be able to tolerate insecurity.
Have you ever heard of such a thing? Tolerating insecurity is the goal? .. the "psychic task" we must set for ourselves. Must?
Perhaps the reason why this notion seems so foreign, so outrageous .. is cuz (unfortunately) » I'm well-versed in the subject of insecurity. Not sure how well I'm tolerating it, tho. =)
And I've been looking for security for quite some time .. clicking my heels together every chance I get. (It aint hapnin'.)
If you think about it, none of us have true security. It's an illusion. Reality is » sooner or later .. we end up as food for worms (FfW). All of us. No matter how 'secure' we might be feeling at the moment (.. or how much yoga we might do). Compost is our destiny. That much is certain. ■
Along these lines .. of an ability to glimpse the future (.. even for a few seconds), I see nothing in our current national debate that makes my earlier impression seem any different.
On the contrary, you might argue it seems even more likely now. That our slide has accelerated (.. thanks to ample grease from Washington skids). If our government does default on its debt, would that allow banks to charge us higher interest rates?
For more along these lines, here's a Google search preconfigured for the query » esp psychic
