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Life is stranger than fiction

tanguerra

Moderator Emeritus
From time to time I come across stories in the newspaper that are so 'out there' I can't help but think if someone wrote into the forum about this as a past life memory, people would say, 'no way, that's too weird'. But, sometimes 'weird' things do indeed happen.

So, since it's not strictly reincarnation related, this is the spot for things like that. I thought it might be fun to post stories that people might come across from real life that are 'stranger than fiction' or in other ways are very interesting or inspiring from a 'karma' point of view.

To start it off, how's this one:
High School sweethearts reunite and marry after 50 years

It sounds like something straight out of a cheeseball Rachel McAdams/Ryan Gosling flick: boy meets girl, boy loses girl, man finds and marries woman 50 years later. But for Diane Harris and Rodney Day, the Hollywood ending is reality.

The Californians were high school sweethearts back in 1959. One late summer night, the couple was driving home from a drive-in movie -- as Harris told the Napa Valley Register, she can't recall the film because, "I don't think we really watched it that much."

Day must have drifted off to sleep, because when he woke up, the car was in a ditch, and his girlfriend had gone through the windshield. The sweethearts were taken to different medical centers -- Day was in the military and went to a local Air Force base for treatment, while Harris went to a nearby hospital.

Diane Harris's mother did not approve of the pairing, so the elder Harris used the accident as an opportunity to break the couple up. Mom told both teens that the other one wanted to end it, and Harris and Day never saw each other again.

Fast-forward 50 years to this April. Harris had been married and divorced twice, and Day became a widower in 2007. Day tracked down his high school sweetheart and sent her a letter. The two began emailing, and the couple married on October 17 at an Elks Lodge in Napa, Calif. Day told the New York Post, "It was like 50 years apart hadn't happened." (Want a good cry? Watch the video clip of the nuptials at the Napa Valley Register's site.)...
 
In a similar vein....


Brothers find each other after 60 years

FULTON (AP) — After six decades of separation, two brothers' journeys for their biological families ended this week. After they were placed for adoption 60 years ago from his birthplace in Bad Hersfeld, Germany, Fulton's Bob Olson met his biological brother, Steve Radliff of San Antonio, at Lambert Airport Monday morning in St. Louis. The brothers returned to Olson's Fulton home to spend the week making up for lost time — just in time for Olson's 66th birthday.


"It's strange, when we met at the airport it's like we knew each other the whole time and we just started into a normal conversation," Olson said.


Radliff piped in: "It's been very comfortable."


Olson, born Robert Riegelmann, was 6 and Radliff, born Stefan Riegelmann, was 2 when they were placed for adoption through a Catholic orphanage when their mother, Elfriede Riegelmann, remarried in 1954. But for most of their adult lives, Olson and Radliff unknowingly searched for one another, both making trips to Germany in an attempt to find some trace of their roots, The Fulton Sun reported.


The brothers were both adopted by separate U.S. Air Force families who were stationed in England at the time. Olson grew up in Florida and Colorado, where he graduated high school before enlisting in the Army....
 
Just for fun... there are some amazing pictures in here.

...Just think of all of the amazing things you have been a witness to throughout history. Now, think of all of the things other people you know have seen. It’s a lot of ground to cover, when it comes to memories. But then, if you want to realize just how small you are in the grand scheme of things, think of all of the awesome events throughout history you haven’t seen, didn’t know about and probably wouldn’t have known about… until now...
45 rare photos from the past


historical-photos34.jpg



Mohamed Ali talking to a suicidal man


historical-photos27.jpg



Marilyn Monroe and Sammy Davis Jr just foolin' around...


historical-photos41.jpg



Playing golf on a skyscraper
 
The book that l have just finished is based on me finding my first love again after 30 years and the incredible bonds we share(d)


It is being released on Amazon as an ebook and will come out in both a censored version and ... Well... the not censored one.


Mind boggling to say the least.
 
I came across this story yesterday.


Mysterious woman in black


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...A widow, a mother of two and a US army veteran, 54-year-old Elizabeth Poles had been walking purposefully home for the past two months, back to where her father raised her in Winchester.
After losing her husband in 2008 and raising two children by herself after leaving the army, Ms Poles lost her father last year. The details of these circumstances are unclear. She had since been in and out of Veterans Affairs hospitals, her brother Raymond Poles told Reuters. Ms Poles' journey was as much personal salvation as religious pilgrimage. Reportedly a devout Christian, her story began outside a church in Alabama on a Sunday two months ago.


“When my wife and I picked her up [from church], she shaved her head and she was asking me where can I buy long black robes,” her brother told ABC news in the US. “That’s when she started travelling."


Her stoic solitude captivated onlookers everywhere she went....
 
... and this is the one I was originally thinking of when I started this thread, but then forgot to add it.


Woman who spared the killer of her son


Interview-with-the-Irania-011.jpg


..The idea she might pardon her son's killer first came to Samereh Alinejad in a dream. It was a message she didn't want to hear.
Abdollah Hosseinzadeh was stabbed and killed in a street brawl in the autumn of 2007 when he was only 18. He had known his killer, Balal. The two, barely out of their teens at the time, had played football together. Abdollah was the second son Alinejad had lost, her youngest died as a boy in a motorbike accident when he was 11. Furious in her grief, she was determined Balal would hang. But as Balal's execution date drew nearer, Abdollah appeared to his mother in a series of vivid dreams.


"Ten days before the execution was due, I saw my son in a dream asking me not to take revenge, but I couldn't convince myself to forgive," she told the Guardian. "Two nights before that day, I saw him in the dream once again, but this time he refused to speak to me."


Speaking by phone from Iran's northern Mazandaran province, on the Caspian Sea, Alinejad said she had no intention of sparing Balal's life until the moment she asked for the noose to be removed from his neck. Her last-minute pardon was a remarkable act of humanity that moved hearts across Iran – and the world – but it took Alinejad by surprise as much as it did Balal, his relatives and her own family...
 
Karma works in mysterious ways?


Billionaire killed by champagne cork

...Hong Kong| 49-year old Dingxiang Loeng, a well-known and very flamboyant Chinese businessman, died this morning in his suite of the Island Shangri-La hotel during a reception he was holding for his birthday. According to some of the 217 witnesses of the tragedy, it is while opening a champagne bottle that the billionaire was hit violently in the temple by the cork, an accident that caused a fatal brain hemorrhage.
The accident took place during a sumptuous party that was being held to celebrate Mr. Loeng’s 50th birthday, that would have taken place on August 2nd. Nearly 200 guests were present, including most of Hong Kong’s political and economic elite, when the celebrated, after a brief speech, opened a bottle of champagne and was hit violently in the head by the cork. Many witnesses actually laughed at first, greatly underestimating the severity of the injury...


He was notorious for his drinking habit, drug problems and bad temper, having been arrested more than thirty times over the years for various charges, including public drunkenness, disorderly conduct, disturbing the peace, driving under the influence of alcohol and assault on a hotel doorman...
 
I quote from another post: "Karma works in mysterious ways?"


I've heard another saying along the same lines, for the very same thought, which goes like this: "Paybacks are a M____F____ " for those of the more coarser nature!!! :)


For most of us, Karma, I imagine, keeps us on the right path throughout life, treating others as we would want to be treated, because if we are not a good and decent person, sooner of later, we'll have to pay the "celestial" piper. :)


At least, IMHO, that's the way I think it goes!!! ;)
 
Great topic tanguerra - Love the stories. If and when I see one I'll share. :)
 
I find it interesting how the mind works. This guy studied Mandarin in school and never really got the hang of it, then gets knocked into a coma and wakes up only speaking Mandarin. Several days later, his English finally came back, too, and now he has both. Heh!

'We got the call from the hospital and [the hospital staff member] was saying "Oh Mark, look I just wanted to ring and let you know that Ben's actually started to come out of the coma"...and she said, “I don’t know how to say this...he's speaking Mandarin',"
 
I saw that article too and wondered about this Forum.


To me, from a more "scientific" viewpoint, it is a big possibility Mandarin was formerly his language of birth. There is the other possibility that the combination of his basic knowledge of Mandarin and some months living there and taking in things subconsciously may have "melded together" into "switch circuits in the brain and the subconscious releases its knowledge". The jury is out on that one in my mind, though I acknowledge it is a possibility.


What I would be interested to see is more details on the other people mentioned in the article, to see what sort of background they have as to whether their "new language" came totally out of the blue with no possible logical explanation at all.


Maybe someone knows of a person who had an accident and came round speaking apparent gibberish and someone nearby said "Hang on a minute...that sounds a lot like this archaic language from an obscure region of the world or that has been dead for hundreds of years".


Hmmm...eg someone coming round and speaking the Cornish language, as I believe the last person who spoke that has died some years ago and the language is now dead.
 
I, too, thought ... "hmm, what if it was a past life language?" which is why I posted the link.


Of course, that's hard to know when the person himself isn't talking about such memories. Either way, I'd like to skip the head-trauma, but it would be cool to suddenly become fluent in a language I've been studying. :rolleyes:
 
Cryscat said:
Read this Dear Prudie letter about a man who has thoughts of hurting his 3-year-old nephew and was wondering why. It may be a form of OCD but I thought it could be past life related as well.
[http://www.slate.com/articles/life/dear_prudence/2014/08/dear_prudence_i_fantasize_about_hurting_my_toddler_nephew.html
Golly! Yes, it certainly could be. Very strange. Interesting how in the reply she says 'lots of mentally healthy people have violent fantasies' while briskly moving on. I think a lot of these sorts of things are past life related.
 
Mere Dreamer said:
I, too, thought ... "hmm, what if it was a past life language?" which is why I posted the link.
Of course, that's hard to know when the person himself isn't talking about such memories. Either way, I'd like to skip the head-trauma, but it would be cool to suddenly become fluent in a language I've been studying. :rolleyes:
I've read other stories about this, and other strange things happening to people after accidents and strokes and the like. They don't really have a medical explanation for is, other than vague talk about 'wiring' in the brain, which of course, there is no such thing.


http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1043692/Weve-got-wires-crossed-The-bizarre-stories-people-brains-rewired-themselves.html

The human brain is the most complex organ in the body and contains 20 billion cells, responsible for everything from dreaming and movement to appetite and emotions.
It consists mainly of grey matter - the brain cells or neurons where information is processed. It also contains white matter - the nerve fibres which, like electric cables, send out chemical messengers and relay information between the cells. In fact, the brain contains more nerve fibres than there are wires in the entire international telephone network and sometimes the brain's 'wires' can become crossed, as a result of injury, illness or genetics...
 
[is it my imagination or do these two look alike?]


Man lost 400lbs with help of random internet buddy


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From across the ocean, an English woman inspired an obese American alcoholic to lose 365lb, ditch the alcohol and embrace life in just over a year.
To distract himself from the depression that saw him drinking heavily each night and eating to fill the void, Michigan man Brian Flemming played Draw Something, a Pictionary-inspired app, which matched him randomly with opponent Jackie Eastham in London.


In the spring of 2012 Flemming was 30, morbidly obese, and an alcoholic, with nagging medical problems that were only getting worse. Depressed and obese: In less than two years, Brian Flemming lost 365lb from his six-foot-two frame with the encouragement of Jackie Eastham. Pre-diabetic with recurring bouts of cellulitis, the 625lb Flemming drank a fifth of vodka mixed with a liter of soda each night. He'd dropped out of college, lost his job and played hours of video games at a time. When he wasn't drinking, he was eating....
 
It's a very funny show. There are some amazing stories that you might never hear about otherwise. All very entertaining stuff!
 
This Happened to Me...


On an Autumn trip to the Normandy in France, my husband had a pulling urge to visit Omaha Beach...I can only say that for an empath like myself, I was very nervous...but to give thanks for all the souls who lost their lives, regardless of which side the loss was, we went down to the beach, both of our heads bowed in deep gratitude. I saw no horrible pictures of what had happened that day, just the peaceful movement of the ocean.


On our way back to the car, a man came walking directly toward me...he said "Do you speak English?" I said " Well...I hope so...I'm America " he said " Wow...me too, where are you from?" I said "Michigan" he said..."Unbelievable...me too! What part of Michigan?" I said "Born and raised in Kalamazoo" he said..."No kidding...I went to college in Kalamazoo!" I said..."Me too...which one?" he said "Western" ( By now I had more than goosebumps!!!) I said " Oh my Gosh...me too" he said "Do you remember the bar across the street? I worked there all through college" I said " Of course I do...my uncle owned that bar!!!"


So you see...life IS sometimes stranger fiction! I to this day do not know why this happened...but maybe someday I will find out! :)
 
Aelfgyva said:
On an Autumn trip to the Normandy in France, my husband had a pulling urge to visit Omaha Beach...I can only say that for an empath like myself, I was very nervous...but to give thanks for all the souls who lost their lives, regardless of which side the loss was, we went down to the beach, both of our heads bowed in deep gratitude. I saw no horrible pictures of what had happened that day, just the peaceful movement of the ocean.
On our way back to the car, a man came walking directly toward me...he said "Do you speak English?" I said " Well...I hope so...I'm America " he said " Wow...me too, where are you from?" I said "Michigan" he said..."Unbelievable...me too! What part of Michigan?" I said "Born and raised in Kalamazoo" he said..."No kidding...I went to college in Kalamazoo!" I said..."Me too...which one?" he said "Western" ( By now I had more than goosebumps!!!) I said " Oh my Gosh...me too" he said "Do you remember the bar across the street? I worked there all through college" I said " Of course I do...my uncle owned that bar!!!"


So you see...life IS sometimes stranger fiction! I to this day do not know why this happened...but maybe someday I will find out! :)
Oh wow! I see that as a huge sign from the Universe that you and your husband made the right choice by listening to your intuition! So very cool!
 
Here are some more amazing young people. It would be interesting to know who they were before.


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This boy was only 9 at the time.


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I know a family who's daughter began singing before large groups (church, school, etc.) at age 6. People were surprised that she had no stage fright or nervousness. Now she is 8 or 9 and sings almost like an adult. People are amazed and give her standing ovations. If you would like to hear her sing send me a PM.
 
I actually met this lady once. A musician friend and I spent the evening tagging around with her while she went to play piano in a hotel in the city where she lives, by the kindness of the management, in a little room. She's not crazy, but she is certainly pretty eccentric. She can play any tune you like by ear too, so we spent the evening playing and singing jazz tunes. Just amazing.


79 year old street performer

She goes by the name of “Natalie,” and that’s about all that anyone will ever know about her. Natalie is an iconic Melbourne street performer, and is arguably one of the best composers in the world. She turns 80 years old on the 24th of October of 2014 and in the original video posted on Youtube, there was a goal of 100,000 video views. The video is now at nearly 400,000 views and is going viral.
In the video, Natalie performs an untitled original composition, and I can only tell you one thing, it is absolutely beautiful and it is a shame that this woman is not performing in front of thousands of people.


According to various news outlets, people tend to avoid Natalie when she walks the streets of Melbourne, carrying her few possessions in plastic bags. Even though she had a house and family at one point, Natalie says she never felt “permanently settled” where she was, and always dreamed of living out of a suitcase. When she started playing the piano at a big department store a few years back, she regularly drew crowds, but declined to let the department store pay her.
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Virtuoso has grand plan to soothe the city streets

....Fifteen years ago, Natalie was homeless when The Age [newspaper] found her playing a baby grand piano at David Jones. She would walk in at odd times and ask staff if she could play. On New Year's Eve, we found her again, busking on a Roland keyboard in Swanston Street opposite Melbourne Town Hall. Natalie is no longer homeless. She's living in a good hotel, where she often plays the grand piano in the foyer and where the regulars cherish her. She busks for just half an hour or up to five hours, three times a week if the weather's good, and her son Matthew is available to haul her keyboard. She doesn't do it for money; she tried not putting out a box ''but people would throw coins at me, so I put it back''....
 
This is pretty hard core... You'd have to be dedicated!


Sokushinbutsu and the ancient Japanese monks that mummified themselves to death

Over 1,000 years ago, a practice was pioneered by a Japanese priest named Kukai, which was intended to demonstrate the ultimate act of religious discipline and dedication – self-mummification. The practice, known as Sokushinbutsu, was a ritual observed over numerous years, which culminated in death and the complete preservation of the body. If successful, the monk was posthumously placed in a temple for others to see and honor. Kukai (774 – 835 AD) was a Japanese monk, civil servant, scholar, poet, artist, and founder of an esoteric sect known as Shingon, which combined elements from Buddhism, Old Shinto, Taoism, and other religions.
He and his followers practiced Shugendo, a philosophy based on achieving spiritual power through discipline and self-denial. Towards the end of his life, Kukai went into a state of deep meditation and denied all food and water, eventually leading to his voluntary death. He was entombed on Mount Koya in Wakayama prefecture. Some time later, the tomb was opened and Kukai, known posthumously as Kobo-Daishi, was supposedly found as if sleeping, his complexion unchanged and his hair healthy and strong....


Since that time, the process of sokushinbutsu developed and evolved, and the process of self-mummification came to be practiced by a number of dedicated followers of the Shingon sect. ....


Kukai-meditating-to-his-death-on-Mount-Koya.jpg
 
I came across this one today. Very strange. I've often wondered if 'hoarding' which seems to be a fairly modern ailment, is caused because some people are so wealthy now, because there is just so much 'stuff' in the world, or because of some kind of strange past life trauma related to extreme poverty in a previous life? Bit of everything?


Anyway, the karma in this one is interesting. To have so much, and so many advantages, but to die so horribly and so alone...


Let go

...Probably the most famous American case—Herring leads with it—is that of Homer and Langley Collyer, two brothers who lived in an imposing four-story brownstone at Fifth Avenue and 128th Street, in Manhattan, in the first half of the twentieth century. The Collyers were the sons of a distinguished family. Their great-grandfather built one of the largest shipyards on the East River. Their father was a respected obstetrician. Both boys went to Columbia University, Homer receiving a degree in law, Langley in engineering. But the family had a long vein of eccentricity. The father, on days when his work called him to City Hospital, on Roosevelt Island, is said to have paddled there in his canoe and, at night, paddled back to Manhattan and carried the canoe home.
The brothers worked for a while, but gradually they stopped, and allowed their phone, gas, electricity, and water services to lapse. In time, they began ignoring their tax and mortgage bills as well. Homer eventually went blind, and developed a near-paralytic rheumatism. After that, he did not leave the house. Langley took care of him. He, too, then rarely went out except late at night, usually to find food. But what most surprised the neighbors was the amount of debris that the Collyers seemed to be accumulating. Rumors circulated that the men were rich, and had stashed a lot of money in the house. Hence there were numerous break-ins. The would-be burglars apparently found no cash but, instead, fabulous mounds of junk.


In 1947, a caller alerted the police that someone in the Collyer mansion may have died. After a day’s search, the police found the body of Homer, sitting bent over, with his head on his knees. But where was Langley? It took workers eighteen days to find him. The house contained what, in the end, was said to have been more than a hundred and seventy tons of debris. There were toys, bicycles, guns, chandeliers, tapestries, thousands of books, fourteen grand pianos, an organ, the chassis of a Model T Ford, and Dr. Collyer’s canoe. There were also passbooks for bank accounts containing more than thirty thousand dollars, in today’s money.


As Herring describes it, the rooms were packed almost to the ceilings, but the mass, like a Swiss cheese, was pierced by tunnels, which Langley had equipped with booby traps to foil burglars. It was in one of those tunnels that his corpse, partly eaten by rats, was finally discovered, only a few feet away from where Homer’s body had been found. He was apparently bringing Homer some food when he accidentally set off one of his traps and entombed himself. The medical examiner estimated that Langley had been dead for about a month. Homer seems to have died of starvation, waiting for his dinner....
 
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