“Somehow I was hearing his silent cries for help.”

It was a cold day in Minneapolis and I wasn’t in the mood to go out in subzero weather.  So I grabbed a book I had purchased the night before, and I was ready to spend a comfortable afternoon huddled before the fireplace.

Little did I know I would soon be running around in the cold searching for the frantic cry for help I kept hearing “inside my head.”

It was the weirdest experience I had ever had.  One moment I was engrossed in a biography of Winston Churchill, the next I was dashing down the stairs of my apartment building without having any idea where I was headed.

At first, I had heard faint whimperings.  I thought maybe it was my imagination.  I day dream a lot and have a lot of imaginary conversations going on in my mind.  Call me strange, but that’s the way I am.

But the voice in my head started to grow louder and louder, and more frantic.  I couldn’t understand what was going on, but then it occurred to me that perhaps someone was in distress and somehow I was hearing his silent cries for help.

It was then I grabbed my heavy coat and rushed down the stairs not having a clue as to where I was going, and kind of hoping no one I knew would ask where I was headed.

I literally ran out the front door, stopped, looked around and let my senses take hold.  I started walking one-way, stopped again, and suddenly I had the urge to cross the street and move across the large lawn of a very old house.

It was then I heard the voice again, but this time it wasn’t inside my head, it was real.  I could actually hear the man faintly saying, “help me, help me.”  And it was coming from inside the house, or rather under the house.

As I moved closer to the building, I peeked through a small window into the basement, and there I saw a man lying on his side holding his back.  He shouted for me to come in the side door.

Well, it turns out he had fallen down the basement stairs, and wrenched his back.  He was unable to walk and was in too much pain to crawl back up the stairs.

Fortunately I had heard his silent calls for help.  It didn’t really surprise me because I feel I’ve always had an ability to pick up on someone’s thoughts.  This time, however, my psychic ability really paid off.

Dillard Kizer
Minneapolis, MN

“His final prediction was his own death.”

My uncle Jerry was a world traveler.  A year before he died he told me of an incident in London that proved that truth is often stranger than fiction.

He was staying in a more or less rundown hotel when a man who looked like he hadn’t shaved or showered in days approached him, asking Jerry if he was an American.  My uncle was leery at first because there was something strange about the man, but as they began to talk, Jerry could see the man was highly educated.

The man, who didn’t reveal his name, said he had come to London because a “voice” had told him that he should immediately return to his birthplace.  That it was “his time.”

Upon hearing this, Jerry thought perhaps the man was schizophrenic.  Then the man pulled out a stack of one hundred dollar bills from his pocket and started peeling them off to him.

Jerry, who is as honest as they come, refused to accept the money and told the man he shouldn’t be giving his money away to strangers.  It was then that the man told Jerry the voice predicted he would be dead within the next twenty-four hours.  Jerry scoffed and said that although the man looked unkempt, he didn’t look sickly.

Later that night, Jerry heard a commotion in the hallway, and was taken aback to see the man being carried out of the hotel on a stretcher.  He was unconscious and looked white as a ghost.

When Jerry went to the hospital the next day, he was told the man had died the previous evening of apparently natural causes.  He also learned the man was an heir to a shoe fortune and was also known for his uncanny ability to predict the future.

In this instance his final prediction was his own death.

Monte Irvine
Scottsdale, AZ

“It was exactly the same dream I had, down to the very last detail.”

This happened a while back, and I still consider it one of the most bizarre incidents of my life.

I’ve been married for a little over four years now, and my husband, Michael, and I have been soul mates from the moment we first set eyes upon one another.

I can’t tell you how many times he was about to say something and I’d beat him to it by expressing precisely what he was about to say.  But the weirdest thing happened about a month ago.

Michael was in Oregon on a fishing trip with a pal of his.  He had been gone a few days and I really missed him.  On that third night I had trouble falling asleep, but when I did I had a very clear dream of he and I walking down a dirt road.  Like most dreams, things kept jumping around.  There were small bridges leading to nowhere, there was a shack that he and I were suddenly in, and there was a group of men kind of hovering around that appeared hostile.

When I spoke with Michael the next morning, he told me how much he missed me and said he had a strange dream the night before.  When he went in detail, I couldn’t believe it.  He spoke about a dirt road, bridges leading nowhere, and hostile men nearby.  It was exactly the same dream I had, down to the very last detail.

Penelope Avarus
Cedar Rapids, Iowa

“I think it proves there are spirits looking after us.”

I’m a believer in spiritual forces that help us, at least some of time.

I’ve had several experiences during my lifetime to know that certain happenings weren’t merely coincidences.  One example is the time when I was shopping with my mother in a downtown department store.

I was eight years old and my mother and I were separated when I had apparently wandered off without her noticing.  As she tells the story, she panicked and frantically started looking for me.

She had this horrible thought that someone had taken me by the hand and was leading me out the store.  And she had a clear vision of exactly what he looked like.

Well her vision was mostly on the mark because a man was holding my hand and he looked exactly as she had envisioned – but he was a security guard and he was staying with me until I was reunited with my mom.  When she saw the two of us, she was about to scream until she realized he was protecting me.

Another time my younger brother, James, was being picked on by a bully in the schoolyard.  At the time, I was playing on the other side of the building and suddenly my arm started to ache.  Somehow I knew he needed me.  When I ran over to see what was happening, James was crying and holding his arm where the other kid kept hitting him – in the same part of the arm that was hurting me.

I think most people have had similar experiences, and I think it proves there are spirits looking after us.

Janice Conwell
St. Petersberg, FL

“People simply shouldn’t mess with me.”

I believe with all my heart that I have a guardian spirit that has been with me since childhood.

It first began when I was in the first grade.  A bratty little kid was sitting behind me, pestering me, touching my hair, splattering crumbs on my desk, and I was afraid and intimidated.

I remember covering my eyes and praying.  I would hope that something bad would happen to him so he would leave me alone.  And I recall turning around and telling him that.  But he would give me that sly grin and just shake his head.  I remember being furious with him and telling him that he would be sorry.

About a week later, he was absent from school.  At first I didn’t think much of it, but after he was gone for several days, I learned that his appendix almost burst and he was rushed to the hospital.  After that, I noticed his attitude had changed and he would look at me with a leery eye.  He never bothered me again.

In high school a similar incident occurred when Eric, an old boyfriend, kept calling me at all hours and just wouldn’t let me alone.  Once again, I warned him that something bad would happen if he didn’t cut it out.  Maybe two or three weeks later, Eric’s father took a job in a different city, and the family would be forced to leave in mid semester.  Eric was devastated and told me I was the cause of it, that I had cursed him.

Well, he may have been correct.

It doesn’t happen every time, but I can tell you that if I care enough and concentrate hard enough, something will happen sooner than later, and people simply shouldn’t mess with me.

Fortunately, my guardian spirit works in a positive way as well.  I am happily married with a beautiful baby girl, and I have another one on the way.  I’m not saying my life has been a bed of roses because I’ve certainly suffered my share of setbacks.  But my prayers have been answered so many times, in so many unique ways that I am totally convinced there are spirits that guide and affect our lives.

And one last thing, and the reason I’m writing this:  Yesterday, I woke up with the thought that Erin, an old friend, would call.  Within seconds the phone rang and it was she.  And there was absolutely no way that could have been a coincidence because we hadn’t spoken in two or three years.

V. Rettersford
Providence, RI

“I believe greater forces were at work”

This is a story about how I got even with a person who really had it in for me.

Let’s call her Jane so I won’t get sued if she reads this.  Jane is in her early thirties, a bitter woman if ever there was one, and she had a tone in her voice from the first day I met her.

We work for the same insurance company, although we don’t work in the same office.  But we’re often in meetings together because of the nature of our work, and she always tries to undermine me no matter what I say or do.

Now I’m an easygoing person and not one to have confrontations, but a week ago, Jane went too far.  While I was making a presentation, she virtually yelled at me and said I didn’t know what I was talking about.

At first there was stunned silence.  Even our manager didn’t know what to say.  I looked at him and realized he wasn’t going to step in and defend me despite the fact that he has reassured me that I’m doing an excellent job.  He has told me numerous times to ignore her.  So I felt abandoned and knew I had to take matters into my own hands.

I turned my attention from him to Jane.  I gave her the most severe stare I could drum up, and we locked eyes for what seemed to be an eternity.  Neither she nor I said a word; we just stared and stared and stared.

And then – as if God himself reached down and did it – her wig fell down over half her face.  She let out a muffled scream, and for a moment everyone was stunned.  But then one person let out a giggle, then another, then the room burst into laughter.

Jane looked around in horror as she tried to adjust her wig back on her head.  Then she leaped from her seat and ran out of the room.

Now normally I don’t relish the misfortune of others.  And I certainly don’t laugh when someone is embarrassed.  But when Jane got her just desert, I believe greater forces were at work.  But most important, since Jane’s humbling experience, her “tone” has disappeared and we are no longer enemies.

Marlene Streeter
Houston, TX