Today one of our newest DarkSiders, Enisa Haines, talks about
Throughout history people have been intrigued by the paranormal—that which is beyond what is considered normal. Stories abound of phenomena such as ghosts, vampires, witches, angels, demons and werewolves. But are paranormal phenomena imagination or reality?
I am a Hospital Scientist. Logic tells me the paranormal is a trick of the mind. But logic fails when unexplained phenomena that cannot be dismissed as fantasy appear in real life. That has happened to me. Not once, or twice, but many times.
I was 18 when I encountered the paranormal for the first time. High school had ended. I was overseas visiting relatives. On the last day when saying goodbye to everyone I was waving to an uncle from the car when I got the strangest sensation. I was certain I would never see this uncle again. Wondering why I would think that, all that came to mind was ‘death’. My uncle’s death.
This upset me greatly and when I was back home I told my mother. She tried to make light of it, saying that I probably thought I wouldn’t be travelling again for a while. I wasn’t very happy with the explanation but I had no other. Six months later, my uncle suffered a heart attack. A fatal heart attack. My emotions were everywhere. How did I know? What had I tapped into?
My second encounter was during that same overseas trip. I’d been told of a palm reader thought very highly of by the locals. Always intrigued by psychics, I promptly went and had my palm read. At one moment the palm reader stopped and looked at me with a grave expression. He pointed to the break in my life line. “Be very careful. Within the next 18 months to three years there will be a very serious accident. You will be close to death.” Then he traced where my life line was split into two lines, and said, “You will pull through.”
A very scary, confronting reading. Back home in Sydney, I told a friend, and then put the reading out of my mind. I wanted happy thoughts. I was young, about to start university. Time passed. I was in my final year. Mid-year exams were just three weeks away. A long day had ended. It was 7 p.m. and night had fallen on this mid-week late-autumn day in mid-May. Thankfully home was a five-minute walk away from the train station. I didn’t make it home.
To this day I don’t remember what happened next. The police who visited me in hospital said a car had approached the pedestrian crossing at speed and did not stop. The driver, a 69-year-old wearing a wide hat and glasses, did not see me and the impact of the hit threw me 4 metres into the air before my head hit the gutter.
Bruising at my waist and a cut at my ankle were minor external injuries. However, internally, the brain’s major blood supply, the middle meningeal artery, had burst. I was ‘bleeding to death’. An emergency operation and then a tense wait. Will I live? If I live, will I be normal or had the injuries sustained affected the brain? Five days later I woke from an induced coma and passed every doctor’s test. Spent 21 days in hospital. A stay I’ll never forget. Not for the injuries, because I don’t remember getting hit, but because a palm reader told me I would almost die in an accident. What’s that if not paranormal?
Enisa Haines is a founding member of RWA. She has previously written romantic suspense but has discovered her real love is paranormal romance. Her current ms was a finalist in the 2014 RWA Selling Synopsis contest and has progressed to the 2nd round of the 2014 RWA Emerald Award.
Paranormal Phenomena
Throughout history people have been intrigued by the paranormal—that which is beyond what is considered normal. Stories abound of phenomena such as ghosts, vampires, witches, angels, demons and werewolves. But are paranormal phenomena imagination or reality?
I am a Hospital Scientist. Logic tells me the paranormal is a trick of the mind. But logic fails when unexplained phenomena that cannot be dismissed as fantasy appear in real life. That has happened to me. Not once, or twice, but many times.
I was 18 when I encountered the paranormal for the first time. High school had ended. I was overseas visiting relatives. On the last day when saying goodbye to everyone I was waving to an uncle from the car when I got the strangest sensation. I was certain I would never see this uncle again. Wondering why I would think that, all that came to mind was ‘death’. My uncle’s death.
This upset me greatly and when I was back home I told my mother. She tried to make light of it, saying that I probably thought I wouldn’t be travelling again for a while. I wasn’t very happy with the explanation but I had no other. Six months later, my uncle suffered a heart attack. A fatal heart attack. My emotions were everywhere. How did I know? What had I tapped into?
My second encounter was during that same overseas trip. I’d been told of a palm reader thought very highly of by the locals. Always intrigued by psychics, I promptly went and had my palm read. At one moment the palm reader stopped and looked at me with a grave expression. He pointed to the break in my life line. “Be very careful. Within the next 18 months to three years there will be a very serious accident. You will be close to death.” Then he traced where my life line was split into two lines, and said, “You will pull through.”
A very scary, confronting reading. Back home in Sydney, I told a friend, and then put the reading out of my mind. I wanted happy thoughts. I was young, about to start university. Time passed. I was in my final year. Mid-year exams were just three weeks away. A long day had ended. It was 7 p.m. and night had fallen on this mid-week late-autumn day in mid-May. Thankfully home was a five-minute walk away from the train station. I didn’t make it home.
To this day I don’t remember what happened next. The police who visited me in hospital said a car had approached the pedestrian crossing at speed and did not stop. The driver, a 69-year-old wearing a wide hat and glasses, did not see me and the impact of the hit threw me 4 metres into the air before my head hit the gutter.
Bruising at my waist and a cut at my ankle were minor external injuries. However, internally, the brain’s major blood supply, the middle meningeal artery, had burst. I was ‘bleeding to death’. An emergency operation and then a tense wait. Will I live? If I live, will I be normal or had the injuries sustained affected the brain? Five days later I woke from an induced coma and passed every doctor’s test. Spent 21 days in hospital. A stay I’ll never forget. Not for the injuries, because I don’t remember getting hit, but because a palm reader told me I would almost die in an accident. What’s that if not paranormal?
Enisa Haines is a founding member of RWA. She has previously written romantic suspense but has discovered her real love is paranormal romance. Her current ms was a finalist in the 2014 RWA Selling Synopsis contest and has progressed to the 2nd round of the 2014 RWA Emerald Award.
Wow. I too had my palm read by this old French lady. She was spot on. Although I don't normally go in for that kind of things. I'm glad you pulled through.
ReplyDeleteHi Enisa, that is an amazing experience. I had an experience one night where I was sitting in my lounge room writing an assignment. My family were safe in their beds. It might have been 1 or 2 am in the morning, I'm not sure. I jumped when something turned on in the kitchen. It was my kettle, it had turned itself on. You have to push the lever down to make it boil. I was so scared, I unplugged the kettle from the wall, went to bed and cuddled up to my husband, hoping that I'd just imagined it. My grandparents, now dead, originally built and lived in this house. To this day, I wonder if they still live here.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing your story Enisa. Looking forward to Part 2 next month! =)
ReplyDeleteLogic is only a human conditioning allowing us to scoff at those things we can't understand. Instead of saying 'It can't be', why not ask why can't it be'.
ReplyDeleteThere are many things in this world people scoff at. We only need open our minds and marvel at things that can be.
We are only one dimension, surely there are others.