Since we've got a toss up between "mind tricks" and "spiritual shenanigans" (I don't think anybody else was involved), I thought I might dob in the psychiatrist I used to see by way of "evidence" for the spiritual world.
He retired in 2022 incidentally. His name is Dr. William Wilkie.
One of my bugbears in life has been what might be called the lack of a trade or career. Some years ago I was on a bus whining about this in my mind, and a voice just cut clear across my thoughts clear as a bell "Bob! What's
wrong with being a write??!!" There was a distince emphasis on the word "wrong". "Writing" was not what I wanted to hear and I'm still dragging my feet. I wanted a trade.
I eventually got around to telling the psychiatrist about this and he said "That's interesting. Did I tell you my story?" He said he'd been sitting in his office in Wickham Terrace (the specialist street in Brisbane, Qld) typing away when a voice just said to him "Go to Maclean!"
There was no context, no other instructions, nothing but he said it was pretty firm. He wondered what to make of it. So he just noted it. He wasn't even sure which Maclean it referred to. There's a North and South Maclean not far from where I live, and another in Northern New South Wales. There could be others.
About two weeks later he was at a "family healing mass" in a town called Lismore in northern NSW. After the mass an indigenous woman came up to him and said "I don't want to make a nuisance of myself or cause any trouble, but I seem to be getting told you should go to Maclean."
Here was the missing link. He ended up going to Maclean and apparently there's an island in the Richmond River (on which Maclean is located) which was once used as a "lock up" for indigenous prisoners in the early days of settlement. He said there seemed to be some unfinished spiritual business there.
But in the long run he thought it was mainly to help her as she'd become Christian. She was copping some flack from her own people.
The other event related to my oft told story about my father turning up the night he died. I'd often related this to Dr. Wilkie. I think it was about four years ago when he said to me in one of our sessions "Something strange happened last week". I asked him what it was.
He said he'd been going to a Catholic Church in a suburb called Indooroopilly when they announced a parishioner had died that morning. But he knew her as she'd also been one of his patients. He said "She was in the church!" He could see her. He said she seemed to be trying to get his attention but gave up and moved to the other side of the church. He thought she might have had family there.
Personally I think God gave him that experience as evidence for my own business with my "father's ghost" the night he died. I only saw the psychiatrist every 3, 4 or 5 months, but the psychiatrist "just happened" to have his experince the weekend before I was due to have my next appointment, or in other words "last weekend". I think his memory would have been pretty frest a few days later.
By of establishing his bona fides, he has a book written for the layman on sale in our local Catholic bookshop "Saint Pauls." I know it's there as I was in the bookshop yesterday.
Have you ever had a nervous breakdown? Are you still mystified by your behaviour at that time? Is someone you know breaking down under stress? Do you seem powerless to stop the deterioration in your relationship? Is work-related stress getting the better of you? Do you want to know how to...
secure.stpauls.com.au
He's Catholic, ex-Protestant like me, and rather spiritual. I was fortunate he was the one recommended by a protestant pastor for the depression I had at one stage.
So a "voice" could be spiritual in origin in Michie's case or it could have been a trick of the mind. "Sleep paralysis" is out of the question and I don't think anybody else was involved.
Just making use of the opportunity to expand somewhat.