“My impish nine year old had a bit of the soothsayer in him.”

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

Can You Guess Who He Is?

Born in Charlestown, Massachusetts, this brilliant person graduated from Yale and studied in England.

And he had visions that led him into a career that would change the world.

Specializing in art, he had a dream that he would become famous.  He mentioned this to his teacher who scoffed at the notion that this average student would amount to anything.

But the young man was undeterred and pursued his vision.  It led him into science where he dabbled in numerous areas before having another dream envisioning that he discovered a new way for people to communicate.

He is known for the message he once sent, “What hath God wrought!”

At the turn of the century, when he was only twenty-three, he gave a speech explaining that he was “probing” into his past lives to help him achieve greatness in this one.  He believed that cumulative knowledge form “all his experiences” would help him uncover the secrets of the universe.

Born in 1791, he was Samuel Morse, the inventor of the first telegraph.

Can You Guess Who He Is?

Born in 1889 the child was weak and frail, and many of the neighborhood kids would make fun of him.

The youngster would often “disappear” into his own imagination, and while his peers were out playing and running around, he would find a secluded spot and dream of things to be.

His father was an alcoholic and was rarely around.  His mother Hannah was a performer and often brought her son to the theater.

As he grew into a young man and became more outgoing, he wondered if his creativity and humor could propel him into a career he loved.  He honed his talents as a musician, actor and comedian by touring with a group known as the Karno Troupe.  He shared a room with Arthur Stanley Jefferson who would later become known as Stan Laurel.

He sometimes had the feeling he could be in two places at once:  both on the stage and in the audience watching himself.  In the dark hours of the night, he felt he could leave his body and travel to distant places, what we now refer to as astral travel.

In 1913, he was discovered by film producer Mack Sennett, who felt the versatile comedian would do well on the big screen.  Quickly learning the craft of film making, he started directing, editing and even composing the music for his own features

After becoming an instant success and known worldwide, he once entered a Charlie Chaplin look-a-like contest and didn’t make the final cut.

Charles Spencer Chaplin, Jr. (Charlie Chaplin) died on Christmas Day, December 25, 1977, the most popular entertainer of his day.

“Patton believed in forces that ‘we could neither see, nor explain, nor understand.'”

The famous general, George Patton, believed he had led numerous lives in the past, most of them as warriors.

What most people don’t know is how Patton relied on a close advisor who the General believed had psychic powers.  Patton never revealed the name of his confidant but once relayed this story:

“It was the evening before a particularly critical encounter with the enemy, and I wasn’t sure if the strategy I had laid out to my men earlier in the day was the right strategy.  Normally, I don’t second-guess myself, but somehow in my gut I felt something wasn’t right.  In fact, something was terribly wrong, and I didn’t want my loyal soldiers going into battle with an inferior plan.

“I asked an aide to bring me my ‘secret weapon’ whom I would call upon from time to time to give me his ‘sense’ of whether or not my tactics were to pan out OK.  I admit I smiled a bit when I explained my second thoughts on ‘my’ own decision as he had always accused me of demeaning everyone else’s decision-making ability.

“But my men’s lives were at stake and I was destined to go to hell if I didn’t do everything possible to minimize their losses.”

To the surprise of the officers who reported to him the next morning, Patton did change his battle plan moments before the conflict began.  Subsequently, the enemy was taken by surprise, outmaneuvered and eventually overwhelmed by Patton’s tanks.

Patton explained that he believed in forces that “we could neither see, nor explain, nor understand.  But nevertheless they are present.  And should we not heed their wisdom and powers, we will be doomed to fail.”

“Her four year old had somehow disappeared and she couldn’t find him.”

I was ten or eleven at the time, and something happened that day that I will never forget.

I was with my friend Les walking to a local park for a pick up game of basketball when a woman rushed out of a nearby apartment building.  She was frantic and running here and there, all the while yelling, “Jimmy, Jimmy, where are you?”

We stopped and looked around, hoping we’d see the person she was looking for.  We went over to her and asked what was wrong and she said her four year old had somehow disappeared and she couldn’t find him.

At first we walked up and down the street looking in doorways, doing everything we could to find her little boy.  But then Les said he thought he knew where Jimmy was hiding.

He went over to the woman who was beside herself with fear and Les asked her if she had a friend in the building who Jimmy knew.  When the woman nodded, Les said with an air of certainty, that’s where he is, I’m sure.

The woman looked at him and rushed inside.  A few minutes later she came out of the building holding her son in her arms.  She rushed up to Les and gave him a big kiss on the cheek and asked how he knew.

Les shrugged and said he didn’t know why but he could see in his mind where her little boy was.

Les and I are still in touch after all these years.  He is a financial advisor and says his telepathic instincts help him understand his clients better as well as helping him predict the trends of the marketplace.

G. Stillwater
Norfolk, VA

“It was as if she was channeling him wherever he was.”

I noticed something strange with Annie, our dog.

Normally, around five-thirty in the evening, she starts to walk in a sprightly manner, her tail will wag and she’ll have more energy.  Despite being pretty old (she’s twelve), she still gets excited when my husband, Bill, returns from work.

But this evening Annie appeared sullen.  I didn’t know why until the phone rang.  It was Bill and thank heaven nothing was seriously wrong, but he had been delayed on the way home by a horrendous traffic jam and he said it would be another hour before he’d walk in he door.

Somehow Annie knew it.

When she was just a puppy, she could pick up on Bill’s mood even when he wasn’t home.  It was as if she were channeling him wherever he was.  On the day he was given an unexpected promotion at work, Annie was all over the house with excitement.  In fact, she was so excited she had at least two “accidents” inside the house, and that was highly unusual for her.

Another interesting incident was the time Bill and I were taking a riding lesson at the stable.  My sister was waiting at the barn, and when we returned she commented on how Annie suddenly awoke from her sleep and started pulling on the leash and barking.

When I asked about what time that happened, I wasn’t the least bit surprised to learn it was the exact time we had turned the horses around and headed back to the barn.

C. Matthews
Houston, TX