I feel that what happened to me needs to be told. It proves to me that loved ones still live.

One day I was walking down Clark Street in Bellflower, CA at about 2 p.m. I was going home to practice my music for school. Just as I was about to cross the street, I suddenly felt something pull me back.

Of course I was startled, and I practically stumbled backward. I was shocked to see a car whiz around the corner. I could almost feel the force of it as it came within inches of me.

Once I was able to get across the street I heard someone say, “I’m here, Edith.”

I turned around quickly as no one had called me Edith since I was a little girl. When I looked, I was surprised to see my Aunt who had died years earlier. She smiled and waved, and then faded from view. This dear lady had raised me and was the only mother I had known.

As I continued on my way home, a lady said, “Gee, Miss, you must have a Guardian Angel!” “Oh,” I said, “I do!” It was an experience I will long remember, for I believe my aunt reached out from the other world to save my life.

B. Leddy
Bellflower, CA

When my mother was diagnosed with lung cancer, my husband and I wanted her to move in with us so I could look after her.

However, she refused to leave her own home, and it was too small for us to move in with her. So, we purchased a vacant lot next to her home and built a house on it.

This compromise worked out fine until she suddenly passed away the following summer.

One afternoon, about one month after the funeral, I was sitting alone on my deck looking over at my mom’s old home and wondering what to do with it. It was so close to my new home that renting or selling it would cause us to lose the privacy we enjoyed. Yet, I couldn’t just let it stay vacant and pay taxes and maintain it.

Suddenly, what appeared to be a bright spot of sunlight hovered in front of me and I heard my mother’s voice say, “Take what you want from the house, lock it up, and let it be. On June 8th, the problem will solve itself.”

I told my husband about the incident. Although he thought I was being rather foolish, he agreed to go along with my wishes to follow those instructions.

One night, a vicious storm broke out and the old house was struck by lightning and burned to the ground. It was insured for replacement value, which was three times what we could have sold it for.

The date the fire occurred was June 8th.

M. Sippu
Plymouth, PA

On the day I turned seven, I saw very clearly my two uncles pass me on the stairs of our home. They waved hello as they went by.

My mother asked me who I was talking to. I said, “Uncle Ben and Uncle Will.” The only thing was, they had both died a few years earlier.

After I was married, my husband and I moved into two other homes where people had died. I saw their ghosts so very clearly. I had not known these people but was told that I had described them perfectly.

Time passed and we moved into a friend’s home. One night my husband was working, and I was alone in the house. I was washing my dishes and standing next to a wall when a voice clearly said, “Put your hand on the wall.”

It scared me and I thought, “Why?” Again came the voice, “Put your hand on the wall.”

Instead, I went into the living room and sat on a chair. Then a force I had no control over picked me up, pushed me into the kitchen and made me put my hand on the wall. It was burning hot! To my amazement, the room behind the kitchen was on fire apparently due to a faulty wire, and the house was filled with fire and smoke within minutes.

The fire department told me two minutes more and I may never have gotten out of that house alive.

D. Piotroski
Trumbull, CT

When I was ten years old, I often noticed an older man who had a cane, wore overalls, and slightly dragged his left leg.

When I walked to the store, he would be standing maybe half a block away. When I came out of the store, he would still be off in the distance, never seeming to get closer. And he’d be looking at me.

I never thought anything about it. He never bothered me or scared me. I just thought it was normal for this man to be around.

One evening after dinner, we were looking through family photo albums. I was sitting next to my dad when we came across a photo of the old man. I asked, “How do you know the old man?” Dad said, “What do you mean? This is my father, your grandfather. He died in 1952, before you were born.”

I was born in 1963. I never knew my grandpa, and no one had ever told me anything about him. I said, “But he’s always outside, everywhere I go! You mean he’s my grandpa?”

My Dad looked at me with a puzzled expression. Then I told him about the old man and about how he walked.

Dad said that a stroke had left Grandpa’s leg partly partially paralyzed, and that’s why he dragged it.

After that night, I looked for my grandfather every time I went out, but he was never around. Since I found out who he was, I have never seen him again. My father has also passed away, and I still look for them both whenever I go out.

E. Paniagua
Belmore, OH

I have a little toddler named Jamie.  She is the light of my life, and at the ripe old age of six months, I realized she “sometimes” had the ability to read my mind.

As with most babies, if I smiled while I held her she would smile back.  But with Jamie I soon found that if I kept a poker face and thought of something bad, she would frown or look puzzled.  But when I thought of something happy and joyful, yet still keeping the same poker face, she would almost always smile.

I demonstrated this to my husband who kept a sharp eye on my demeanor to make sure I was keeping a straight face, and he couldn’t believe his eyes.  And when he tried it, he elicited the same response from Jamie.

My little girl is now a couple weeks shy of two and a half, and I think she may have a few other psychic attributes as well.  For instance, when I come home with the groceries, I place my hand inside the bag, feel around for something, and then I ask her if I’m holding the milk carton.  She’ll either shake her head or nod.  I’ll do that with several more items, and I admit it’s something she and I love to do.  Her success rate is close to seventy percent, which is significantly higher than the law of averages.

I don’t think Jamie will grow up to be a world-class psychic, but I do believe she possesses paranormal abilities that will serve her well in the future.

Alicia Lopez
Valencia, CA

When I was nine years old, I was seriously injured on my bike when a car sideswiped me.

Unconscious for several days, I awoke in the hospital and couldn’t remember a thing.  Fortunately, the only long-lasting physical problem is I walk with a slight limp.  But I believe something happened to me during those days of unconsciousness because ever since I’ve had a sort of sixth sense.

Although I can’t predict everything that is going to happen, I do have special insights into certain things.  For example, when the airplane went down in the Hudson River in New York, I had a premonition in a dream the night before.  I could see people streaming from the plane onto life rafts and could see that the shoreline was nearby.  I could also see the skyscrapers in the distance.

Long before President Obama decided to run for office, I envisioned a young thin black man addressing a pool of reporters while standing behind a podium affixed with the presidential seal.  And behind him were seated his wife and two young children, both girls.

Sometimes I pick up on the thoughts of my brother who lives three thousand miles away on the other side of the continent.  I’ll call him up afterwards and tell him what he was thinking.  This never fails to startle him.

We are only two years apart, but it is as if we had been born identical twins.  We look alike, think alike and are in the same profession, dentistry.  However, he doesn’t have the premonitions or ESP that I have.

Donnie Schoof
White Plains, NY

It was the middle of February and I was daydreaming how nice it would be to spend a week or two in sunny California.

It was a particularly miserable winter in Chicago, and I yearned to get out of town.  My wife had called a few minutes earlier and alerted me to a problem our youngest boy was having in school.

Turns out he was in trouble with the same teacher again, and we wondered if he was alienating her or perhaps she somehow had it in for our boy.  After all, Dustin was a quiet kid who wouldn’t hurt a fly, and he was the last person we’d thought who would cause trouble.

When I returned home that night, Dustin and I had a “man to man” talk, and I was shocked by what he told me.  My impish nine year old had a bit of the soothsayer in him.  It seems he was constantly interrupting the teacher by shouting out the answer before she opened her mouth to ask the question.

I told my wife about this, and after having a good laugh, we thought it best to ask Dustin’s teacher if this was indeed true.  Well, it turns out that Mrs. Miller was at her wits end because she said our kid somehow was getting “into her head” and would interrupt her time and time again with something she was about to say.

Fortunately, Mrs. Miller had a good sense of humor, and she admitted she wished she had Dustin’s ability to read minds.  She said Dustin was a good boy and she’d figure out how to cope with his “talent.”

She also told me something about Dustin that I’ll never forget.  A few days earlier, he had shouted out “fire drill” only a second before the alarm rang.  Mrs. Miller said the school principal had alerted her that there would be a fire drill that day but hadn’t informed her of the exact time.  “Apparently,” she said, “I should have asked Dustin.  He would have told me.”

R. McGurthy
Tucson, AZ

Bernard had come down with cancer and his health was failing rapidly.  He was only forty-five years old and up to that time he had been quite active and in good health.

One Saturday morning, Bernard told his son Johnny to go out and play, that he was feeling weak and needed some sleep. The eight year old nodded and went out to the back yard to play on the swing set.

No sooner had Johnny sat down on the swing, he noticed his father walking out the yard and down the road.  “Daddy, daddy,” he called after him.  At first, the man didn’t turn or even acknowledge his son’s call.

Johnny started to run after him.  Bernard stopped slowly and said, “It’s OK.  Go back to your mother now.”

Johnny ran into the house but was met by his mother who he noticed had tears in her eyes.  “It’s better you not come in right now,” she said.  Then she went on to explain that his father isn’t in pain anymore and that he had passed away.

“But I just saw him,” cried the little boy.  “I did, too,” said his mother.  Apparently, she had seen the vision of Bernard walking out of the house, and a few moments later, Johnny saw his father walking down the road.

She reports that from time to time when she is in the kitchen she can see his vision in the garden.  “It only occurs for a few seconds, and then I can’t see him anymore.  I think he comes to check on us, to see if we’re OK.  That’s the way he was in real life, and I think he’s showing me he still cares for us.”

M. Marquais
Albuquerque, NM

Mary Sampson was a South African woman who was charged with taking care of a severely handicapped boy named Maxwell.

Maxwell had been horribly injured in a tractor accident when he was nine years old and he could barely function without assistance from his loyal caretaker, Mary.

Mary wrote in her journal:  “I was very depressed because Maxwell’s parents were running out of money and they simply couldn’t afford to take care of Maxwell for much longer.  The boy needed constant attention, and it was the saddest thing I had ever witnessed.

“One morning, Maxwell, without saying a word, motioned with his eyes toward a pillow that was resting beside his head.  He silently said ‘do it.’  I looked at him and said, no, I can’t.

“I never felt so terrible in my life.

“I sat beside Maxwell for a while wondering what was best for him.  I finally came to the conclusion that perhaps it was best for the boy to put him out of his misery.  I don’t know what got into me, but when I noticed Maxwell had fallen asleep, I slowly picked up the pillow.

“I stood there for what seemed to be an eternity not knowing what to do.  Tears were streaming down my face as I moved the pillow toward Maxwell’s face.  Then I almost jumped out of my clothes when the phone rang.

“It was Maxwell’s mother who said she had a feeling that something was terribly wrong.  I dropped the pillow and was sobbing as I explained that I didn’t know what was going to become of Maxwell.  We both cried together that day.

“Maxwell died peacefully in his sleep two years later.”

I was sitting at the breakfast table having my morning cup of coffee and reading the paper when my husband walked in.  He had a strange look on his face and when he sat down and said nothing, not even a hello, I asked him if anything was wrong.

He said he had a dream that an old flame from the past had suddenly appeared at the front door.  He said the dream was so real that he could describe her outfit right down to the last detail.  And he said she had something important to tell him but although her lips were moving he couldn’t make out the words.

I asked who she was and he went on to explain their relationship.  I was a bit taken aback because Jeff and I never keep any secrets from one another.  At least I didn’t think so.  And seemingly out of the blue he was telling me about someone who had apparently played an important role in his life.

I asked him why he appeared so troubled.  After all, we had been married for over twenty years now, and the past is the past.  But he said something happened that he had to explain.

Jeff went on to tell me about a child she had that she gave up for adoption.  And he looked up at me and said the child was his.

I walked around the table and hugged him.  I asked him if he had ever seen his child, and he just shook his head.  For the first time since I’ve known Jeff, he cried.

We spoke about it for the next week or so, and then the unexpected occurred.  We received a letter from a young man named Charlton.  Incredibly, he explained how he was trying to find his birth father and was now convinced Jeff was the man.

Jeff has had dreams before that have alerted him to things to come but never anything quite like this.

J. Spencer
Casper, Wyoming