greyline

Regarding hypnosis: I don't understand much about it, but my brother studied it and once hypnotised me. There was no "stare at the pocket watch and count down from ten". He simply raised my arm to shoulder height and said "You are not able to lower this arm." He then pressed lightly on my arm and I could NOT lower it.

There is something about the whole set-up that makes a part of the brain switch off (in this case, the message from brain to arm telling it to lower).

More on the idea of eyewitnesses to miracles telling tall tales, if unwittingly: I went to one of those huge Christian rallies as a teenager, again with a visiting American preacher (complete with four suits on stage... to guard him??). My friends and I were seated in the balcony. At one point in the proceedings, a woman in a wheelchair down the front stood up, along with others, during an hallelujah chorus or round of applause or something. My friend said "Praise the Lord! She's walking!"

I didn't have the heart to tell her that I'd seen the very same woman walk into the hall earlier, and that she'd simply been given the wheelchair because (presumably) she was unwell or handicapped in some way. The friend left that hall believing she witnessed a miracle.

SteveB

you asked for instances of healings/miracles.
I've both had it happen to me, and been part of it happening to others.
first, my own experience.
In 1978, I, like many who were teenagers, was involved in the drug culture of the day.
Some friends and I got together for our weekely union meeting to have a smoke, and drink a few. During this time, one of my "friends" pulled out his Colt 25 pistol, and started showing it off. Keep in mind we're smoking pot, and drinking beer. To keep a long story as short as possible, I got shot, in the throat.
Of course, the police were called, and an ambulance. I spent a week in the hospital, and a week after my release I saw the ENT that did my emergency repair job of the tracheotomy that I'd received from the gunshot. He'd informed me that friday afternoon that the bullet had penetrated the trachea, and lodged in the cartilage between my trachea, and esophagus, giving me not only a tracheotomy, but opening up my chest cavity to possible infiltration by food, if I was not careful. He further informed me that because of the wound location that they were not able to just stitch the wound shut, and had to staple it shut. He made it real clear that because of this, I would need to be careful of the foods that I ate, because it could open the stitch job, and food could pass in to my chest, and give me heart troubles, or kill me. Since I liked eating, that was a real issue, as you might imagine.
Now, for any physicians, or surgeons in the crowd, this was 1978. As a cancer survivor, I'm aware that there are medical miracles that did not exist back then.
This was a friday. Saturday night, I went to a christian concert, and listened to a preacher preach. Afterwards, I joined the melee, and asked to be healed of my throat injury. On Monday-- two days later, with the request of my docotr on friday afternoon, I returned to his office for a follow up visit. He again looked in my throat, and commented that something strange had happened. When I asked what, he said that it didn't look like I'd ever been shot, and then said... "It's a miracle." Well, not being one to pass on an opportunity, I told him about Saturday night, and how that God must've healed me. Of course... being a scientist, he said, "well, I don't know about that, but this is definitely a miracle."
His offices were in Fullerton, CA, on the northwest corner of Bastanchury, and Harbor Blvd, opposite St. Jude Hospital. He was an ENT. I'd think he's retired by now though. I only saw him-- awake-- twice. I've not had any trouble with it ever since.
Now for my involvement in another... healing.
Years later, around 1983, a friend of mine had complained of a headache one evening, while we were at church. Since our church was charismatic in their practices, she asked me to pray for her. I did, and within a moment or so after I'd finished, she was grabbing her head, and exclaimed, "It's gone." I looked at her, and said, are you sure? to which she replied in the affirmative.
While I've heard numerous stories, those are the only two that I've been directly involved with, or in.
There is another, but it's more about my having beat my doctors prognosis for my longevity, after having received a stage 4 metastatic melanoma diagnosis. Each time I visit them, they comment on why I'm still alive, and how they just can't believe it. 7.5 years since my diagnosis, and getting near to 15 all total time having had it.

Seven

Here it goes, What im going to tell you all is more an enumeration of events then a chronological story. plz take the effort to read the hole post, i have taken the effort of telling you about my experiences.

Until i became 12 everything felt just fine between God an me. But around my 12th year a new family moved into the house next to my family;s house. They dident believe in God but i did hang out with the boy that was of my age. One day i came over at his place and he introduced me to this cool multiplayer game called counter-strike. I found it such a cool game that i immediately bought my own copy of half-life so i could play the game counter-strike on my comp too. I kept playing it more and more hours per day and it became a true addiction. I dident care about anything else anymore, it was CS 24/7 for me... I barely made it to the next class of my school, and when i got to bed i dreamed about nothing more then counter-strike like scenario's. (I was messing up my life with this game.)

After playing intensively counter-strike for a year long, there was a certain night where i dident get the usual counter-strike dreams but a different one which had absolutely NOTHING to do with counter-strike whatsoever.

It went like this,
I was in a merky dark space with fog everywhere. In front of me was a cage with an open door. I walked to the cage,stepped in it, and closed the door behind me. When i tried to get out of the cage the door wouldent open, it was locked.

Then out of nowhere a man approached me from outside the cage, opend the door for me, and said that i shouldent lock myself up like that.

I walked away and i came across a giant red dragon with fire coming out of his skin. He said to me: Because i am helping you, i want you to find me 3 sheep on which i can feed on. I did it without hesitating And returned with 3 white lams. The dragon devoured them with one single bite and send me away to get him 3 more sheep. When i returned, i returned with 3 more sheep. But this time they werent white but black. The dragon then said to me: I dont want to eat those because they serve me well. Then i looked in the direction of the sheep and i saw that the first had white foam around his mouth and very agressive looking eyes. The second one kept giggeling over and over again, and the third one looked sad and depressive.

Then i heard a voice coming from nowhere that said: You say you love me but your loving satan also a bit.

And then i woke up. After thinking about the dream for a few secs i started to understand what this dream ment. Ill explain every element to you.

1. The cage: I walked without hesitation into the cage but when i wanted to leave the cage i couldent because the door had fallen in its lock. Therefor the cage represented my addiction of the game CS. I started playing CS without hesitation, but i couldent stop playing.

2.The man that helped me out: God? an angel? who knows, someone that helped me... thats for sure.

3. The dragon: well thats simple, It represented satan himself or specifically the game counter-strike that had enslave me through addiction.

4. The 3 white sheep that were being eaten, The good things in my life that were pushed away by the game; School, social life etc.

5. The 3 black sheep that were spared by the dragon, I think they were the negative things in my life that were caused by my addiction.
- agressive sheep: If i got shot by a camper in the game counter-strike i sometimes started swearing so loudly that my parents could here. The game itself also gave me some strange idea's. Like i wanted to make the biggest firecracker by using RDX crystalline, the primairy explosive used in both semtex and C4. And i wanted to buy an AK-47 too. I got the recepy of how to make RDX from the internet, but fortunately i never was able to get my hands on 99% conc- nitric acid

-Giggly sheep: When i was forced to leave the computer because it was my brother or sisters turn, i usually got very annoyed and started irritating my parents with stupid behaviour. I also insulted people on dutch chatrooms.

-Sad/depressed sheep: That sheep could have represented the feeling of guilt that i felt for playing so much CS, because in a way i was worshipping CS more then God.

The voice: God

That dream opend my eyes and i started to realize that i was destroying myself on almost every level in my life.
I dident stop playing counter-strike from that they on, but i did start to reduce my game hours to 2 hours per day. At the present time i hardly play any games at all anymore. And if i play, its NS.. not CS anymore, and im doing a very good education right now.

The day before i had that dream i played counter-strike. And no, the game counter-strike doesent contain any flocks of sheep, open cages, or dragons....Just guns,bombs, terrorists and counter-terrorists. See for yourself on www.counter-strike.net.

I was thankfull for this dream... it was a sign that God dident turn his back on me and was pointing out the wrongs in my life by a warning dream. But despite of that, the worst part had yet to come in my life... After i barely got my diploma i dident know what education to follow, but my friend did go to the medical/chemical analist school. I thought"maybe this is a cool edu" So i went to the same school too, just because i dident know what to do... But after 1.5 year i quit because i dident like it at all. I decided to redo high school but this time on a higher level. (HAVO) This however wasent possible because some of the subjects on my MAVO diploma werent on the required D level. I had 3 subjects on C... So i had no other choice then to take a one year course on a night-school for adults to get a D level for the 3 subjects that were at the time on C.

Thats when the depression kicked in, i realized i could have spared myself all this trouble if i had just done my best on elementry school, and i had low-self esteem... And insecure about how God thinks of me since i got interested in the paranormal due to forseeing dreams/visions about random stuff which i would then see in real life in one of the upcoming days.

anyway over the year the depression got worser and worser, and yes i did start to see a psychiatrist because my doctor orderd me to. I got several psychiatrists actually, all of them were still in training... it was highly unorganized and therefor i never got the intended therapy... Just a 2 year lasting "diagnosis" period preformed by several unexperienced psychiatrists. They even forgot about me for a couple of months after the first psychiatrist moved to another part of the country. despite of my depression i still managed to get those subjects D level'd. So the year after i could finally got to do my HAVO which normally is a 2 year course, but i choosed to do it in one year to save time. I dident make any permanent friends during the HAVO course year (because of my depression which probably made my face look angry 24/7), And i got behind most of the subjects too... Mostly because i was sometimes just too depressed to even do one assignement of my homework.

But i still prayed to God to give me strength so i could do my homework, and i asked him if he could plz make me pass this course year... because if i wouldent i would have been hopeless. In that same year i got also 'in love', but since my self-esteem was so low i was too chicken to ask her out or something... It was horrible, everytime when i saw her i was reminded of what a weak bitch i really am. This hole 'being in love' crap feeling aided to my depression and brought it to a critical level. Not only did i feel shitty all the time, but now my chest litterally started to ache, and i got a headache too whenever i saw her. The mental pain reached to a level that was unbareable for me, and i started to have suicidal tendecy's(i dident get far, i just placed my knive to my chest and wrists a couple of times). This would also have been the point where i started to get angry with God... At first i thought that maybe God was just testing me to see if i would leave him if things were going bad for me(like he did with Job?). But my life had become seriously FUBAR and i wasent prepared to live it any further if it would continue like it did then.

I was angry at God because he dident do anything about my problems and i even started to think that maybe he gave me that warning dream just to see me rot away in the upcoming future. But somewhere i still thought of God as a good and caring God. One day i was in my room, crying because of the same mental pain every day again. While i was laying on my bed i decided to pray to God and ask him why he is allowing me to suffer like that. So i sat down on my bed, still in tears, and started praying. But this time using my voice instead of my thoughts since those were *%## up at this point in my life.

I told God that i couldent go on anymore living in this agony. Then i told him that i was his child and therefor he should help me. Then i asked him if he could please cure me from the mental agony i was suffering, because i couldent go on like this.

Then i just waited to see what would happen. 2 seconds or so, after i said the last word of the prayer, i suddenly started to smile for no reason. I started to feel a force moving into my chest creating a tinteling feeling of total extasy and bliss. The force then moved from my chest into my neck, and from my neck into my head.It felt almost like a cool breeze going through me. When it happend i started crying even more, but this time tears of happiness, i also started to breath very rapidly. After the force/ flow of wind reached my head it stopped, but the tinkeling feeling in my upperbody remained for 45 minutes or so. After it stopped i said "thank you God" and cried for 30 minutes. Not a single thing on earth ever made me as happy as i felt during those 12 seconds of absolute euforia.

From that day on i was cured and i know God still cares about me and doesent think im an dummy.

And plz, spare me the crap that my mind somehow induced this moment of extasy because that is scientifically IMPOSSIBLE. I was so depressed my serotonine levels must have been below zero, and there is NO WAY that my brains can produce massive amounts of serotonine in just 12 seconds.
I wasent desperately EXPECTING anything to happen after i finished my prayer, i just waited (what/if anything) would happen, i dident imagine anything.. it just happend.

And i have witnissed that God can actually talk with words also.
It happend in the time before i was cured by God. One day i was finished brushing my teeth and i wanted to use a toothpick, but i couldent find the little box with toothpicks so i started looking for it. After a while i had checked the bathroom and my own room twice but still hadent found the box with toothpicks. I started to get really pissed and i yelled 'ooh God where are those ***** toothpicks!!!!!!'. I know, not very nice of me... but the funny thing was that after i said those words i heard a voice in my mind saying "look in the pockets of your trousers"... I dident get it because i already checked the pockets of the trousers i was wearing. Then i looked at the floor of the room i was standing in, and i saw an old (pair of?) trousers lying on the floor. I checked its pockets and, believe it or not, i found the box of toothpicks in one of the pockets! It was funny but also weird because God usually dident talk with words to me.

In one period between the day i got cured from my depression and this present day i was walking the dog with my dad. We saw a mother duck with a few ducklings behind her swimming in the water. They all seemed to be fine except for one of the little ducklings. It swallowed a piece of an elastic and sticky toy. You know, a sticky cord with shaped into a ring on one side so you can place it around one of your fingers, and attached to a sticky ball at the other side of the cord. You can usually buy those at passing village fairs. Anyway the duck had swallowed the ring shaped end of the toy and the ball attached to the other end of the cord was drifting behind the duck, so the duck had no choice but to drag te toy with him if he wanted to move. Because the ringshaped end was stuck in the ducklings stomache the duckling couldent eat either.

Anyway my dad ran home to call the animal paramedics and i stayed with the ducks. As i looked at the ducks i asked God if he could plz help that little duckling. Not with my voice, but in my mind. I heared a voice say 'have patience'. Then my dad came back with his mobile phone to see if the duckling was still in trouble.. And while he was phoning the duckling swam towards the bank with the toy still stuck in his throath/stomage, got out of sight for a about a second, and then swam away from the bank without having the toy in his throat anymore.

Now there were no branches of root or tree's hanging over the bank where the outer end of the toy could have gotten stuck to, it was just a bank with grass. And the toy was just drifting in the water when my father pulled it out of the water. Offcourse we dident see how exactly the toy got out of the duckling his mouth, but i do think it was a miracle of God.

The last event (which is one of many) i want to tell you about isent so much about God but it sure is a fascinating one.

I mentioned earlier in this post that i have had forseeing dreams and visions, not only in my puberty but throughout my life.
Let me tell you about one of the visions that made me curious and interested.

one night when i was lying in bed with my eyes closed i got a very clear image of a bicycle tire on the forground, and nothing but white on the background. There were small cracks in the outer layer of the bicycle tire, and i could see small bubbles of air escaping out of the cracks because the tire was wet. That was it. The next day i came out of bed and it had snowed, i did the usuall stuff (washing myself, having breakfast) before going to work on my mothers bicycle. When i was ready i got to our bicycle barn, and pulled my mothers bicycle out. Then i heared something say, '(my name), dont you remember what you saw last night?'. But i thought 'aah its probably nothing special...'

So i went on my way and when i was 3/4 way there, my back tire suddenly started to deflate very rapidly... when i realized what was going on i started swearing because i needed this bike to get the data-entry stuff from work back home... Then i rememberd what i saw in my mind last night, and i was still kind of mad but the hole thing did give me a rush... However the best part had yet to come... After 15 minutes of walking i finally got to the house of my boss, and asked him if i could use his tire repair stuff so i can be on my way. He gave me the repairbox and a bucket of water.

I placed the bike upside down so i could start repairing the back tire. At first i inflated the back tire and threw some water over it, so i could estimate the location of the hole. After turning the wheel a bit i saw the spot where the hole must ev been because i saw small bubbles coming out of the cracks. Then i saw to my surprise the EXACT same image i had seen in my mind the night before this day. The same bubbeling cracks, the same tire, the same white background(which was snow).

And there is NO WAY that my physical brains could some how have made an image identical to something i would see in the future.

I can induce these visions by closing my eyes and focusing but i cant make it stop after i induced it.. And what i see are mostly random things that arent related to each other. I havent seen plains crash or anything, but i have had a vision of the iron ore train from holland that had de-railed somewhere in germany a few months ago..
But because it is very difficult to make it stop, i (temporarely) stopped doing it. Because i need to get enough sleep.

--------------------------------------------------------

Well those were the most important events (about God) in my life that i wanted to share with you peeps . Feel free to give comments.
And in case your wondering if i got my HAVO diploma? The answer is YES , Im doing VWO right now and will have my exams in may. After that i can finally go to university to study to become a doctor or something

Sorry if i made any grammatical errors

JPD

I should think that the cage was your addiction, satan represented the game and "God" was actually you asking yourself whether this was how you wanted to behave.

Seven

right... and i miraculously cured myself from the depression by subconsiousely making my body produce massive amounts of serotonine in just a few seconds and change my entire mental state from absolutely horrible and wanting to die to an euforic level of happieness?

Sorry, that just doesent sound right... I tried to cure myself in the past through meditation but it dident work.

EDIT: supposing you would give the same explanation what happend the day i got cured from my depression.

JPD

The sudden rush that you experienced could have been delusion - it happens all the time.

Seven

Do you think i somehow induced that 'rush'??? I believe that i told you in my post that after i finished praying i just waited to see what would happen. If nothing happend i would probably have given up my faith completely and then i would ev suicided because i couldent bare the pain anymore. When i was waiting i thought of nothing, i wasent fantasising about a sudden rush, it just happend right after i started to suddenly smile. And it wasent a one time thing either, after that i never felt depressed the way i was before this.

JPD

Do you think that the brain is simple to fathom?

You wouldn't feel depressed in that same way again because you remind yourself on a regular basis of how your state of mind appeared to improve at that time.

Seven

fathom??? Sorry, can you tell me what that is?


I havent felt depressed at all after that. And the miracle was about a year ago so i dont think about it on a regular basis, i dont see why i should either.
I dont tihnk you entirely know what a depression is all about, In a long-period depressions your body doesent make enough serotonine, you need serotonine in order to feel happy. Your body on its own cant produce large amounts of serotonine in just a few seconds. My pain was both on a mental and a physical level present. And there is always something causing a depression, like a low social life, no self-esteem. As long as long as those causes arent eliminated the depression will stay under normal circomstances. Over the year i have vuilt up my self-esteem, but i still have a low social life. But yet im not depressed anymore even though my life isent at its best at the moment.

JPD

To understand thoroughly

Well I haven't been through anything like that. If the delusion makes your life easier then that isn't a bad thing.