The Miracles Thread

[Gene Steinberg]

Some folks say that the crash landing of a jet in New York recently was a miracle of some sort, largely because nobody died and there were evidently no serious injuries.

No as a practical matter, you could say the end result was mostly due to a smart crew and the right circumstances that allowed them to make a crash landing in the water rather than on land, which worked together to avoid a potential tragedy of major proportions.

So tell us: Have you had encountered any events in your lives that you could only chalk up to a miracle of some sort?

Inquiring minds want to know.

 

[bobheck]

Some folks say that the crash landing of a jet in New York recently was a miracle of some sort, largely because nobody died and there were evidently no serious injuries.

No as a practical matter, you could say the end result was mostly due to a smart crew and the right circumstances that allowed them to make a crash landing in the water rather than on land, which worked together to avoid a potential tragedy of major proportions.

So tell us: Have you had encountered any events in your lives that you could only chalk up to a miracle of some sort?

Inquiring minds want to know.

Ok, this is probably a 'no big deal' to others, but to me it was something scary -- just a 'my little world' thing. I was about 10 or 11 years old -- I grew up in the Florida panhandle and we had fire ants all over. One of the accepted ways to get rid of fire ants was to pour gasoline on the mound and burn it. What fun for a 10 year old! I had poured some gas on the mound, and (like a total idiot) was holding the still open gas can (no spout, just an open hole in the can). I lit a match to light the mound and inadvertently dropped the lit match into the opening of the gas can I was holding pressed against my chest with my left arm. The match simply went out when it hit the liquid -- the gasoline actually extinguished the match -- I can still see it today, I literally saw it drop in slow motion, I kid you not, I knew what was at stake.

Now, for a few years I really thought that was a miracle. But, shortly after I learned from a fireman that it is the fumes that actually explode, and not the liquid itself. But, the liquid could have easily ignited without an explosion and burned me very badly.

So conditions must have been just perfect for me to come out of that safely.

So, there is my contribution.

Interesting question to ask, Gene.

 

[AnnetteMarie]

A candle on my bedroom desk (sitting on a plastic dish no less) started a fire, that burned the dish, and the veneer on the desk. SOMEBODY poked me in my hip area, and I woke up to see a dim orange glow on my desk.
I tried turning on the light, but couldn't see it come on.
The room was so full of smoke, I know I would have died in another minute or two. I saw the school nurse the next day as my throat was really sore, and when I told her what had happened, she told me how lucky I was.

The curtains were made of spun fibreglass (70's chic, what can I say? ) and that was another good thing, as they couldn't flame up and drop onto the sofabed I used.

So, yeah, a miracle - or one of my deceased grandpas. And no, candles may be in my house, but they are not often lit, unless I am wide awake and in the room.

yet another reason not to burn candles when you are trying out wacky-tabaccy...:redface:

 

[pixelsmith]

in 1999 i left a blues pub and while entering a winding on ramp to the highway i banged thru the gears of my mint 1972 Volvo 1800 ES, a deer jumped out and i swerved to avoid it only to launch myself off a small "cliff". i hit a tree about half way up which bent slightly and launched me further into the air. i woke up 3 hours later shaking like crazy because i had lost so my blood. in the course of the crash i rolled end over end and side over side, at one point my head went out the window and the car rolled over my head severing my right ear, i also split my head open in a few places and suffered multiple deep lacerations and punctures as well as broken ribs. i was pinned in the car for a short time and the driver door was stuck shut. i knew i must be going into shock because of the shaking of my body so after several attempts i managed to crawl over the center console and crawl out of the car. my first concern was my car. it was totaled. i knew i didnt have much time to get help so i scratched, crawled, fell back down and crawled again all the way up to the highway. the first car that stopped rolled the window down, the driver screamed and took off. same with the second car. i started walking towards the hospital which was only a few miles away. i walked backwards inches at a time towards help. dozens of cars flew by me until a highway patrol stopped and called an ambulance. i had made it a little over a mile. once in the emergency room i was greeted with looks of horror. i was quite a mess. i received an immediate xray and waited for a doctor to come and talk to me. it was 4:30 AM at this point. i drifted in and out of consciousness and came to listening to 2 doctors talking about my quadriplegic condition. i startled the hell out of them when i asked what the hell they were talking about. they looked at each other like they were saying "you tell him", finally one of them said i would recover but i would never walk again because of the severe fracture of C2 in my neck. i thought i was dreaming for a moment and lifted my hand up to my face which caused both doctors to jump back. they told me to hold still but i had to see if my legs worked, i raised both my legs and further shocked the 2 doctors. i was quickly immobilized further and was visited by numerous doctors for quite awhile. after each new doctor looked at my xray they asked if i had difficulty breathing and were very surprised that i could move my arms and legs. many comments i heard were "how is this guy alive much less moving his arms and legs?". long story short, (BTW-i broke my neck once before in 1973 which is a whole story in itself) i spent only a few weeks in the hospital and wore a "halo" vest for 3 months. i am fully recovered with only a small loss in range of motion in my neck. my ear was not salvageable and my face looks like i lost a sword fight. this is only one of my miracles. the other broken neck, getting struck by lightning, being buried alive are a few others. needless to say it seems to have made me short tempered with people who waste my time, i have a certain amount of brain damage which most here will concur, and i live each day as if its my last.

 

[Bixyboo]

Pixelsmith, glad you are ALIVE and WALKING!!

Some people might say I was a 'miracle baby'. But you be the judge.

My mother's due date with me was Dec 25 1967.

I was born Aug 16 1967.

Weight: 1 pound, 7 ounces.

Length: 11 and a quarter inches.

My skin was so thin, and transparent, that you could see nearly every organ inside my body! (yick!)

I was so extremely premature that my mother watched my cheeks literally develop before her eyes! (don't know at which point this happened, but the nurses said it happened at the time it 'would've' happened within the womb).

Geeez, I really WAS a face 'only a mother could love' eh? lol!

I was slated to go into the Guinness Book of World Records of 1967, as the world's smallest surviving baby. But upon interviewing my mom, she couldn't provide them with all the info they needed.

The newspapers followed and tracked my growth for a few years, tho. Still have all my articles.

Also being so extremely premature, I literally quit breathing. A lot! Then it got worse from there, and on one of the times I quit breathing (dr's quit telling my parents after about the sixth or the ninth time or so...)...it got so serious, that the dr's told my dad to go buy me a coffin and a headstone and make all the arrangements. And he did. He even took a picture of the coffin and kept it. (The pic). It was a beautiful baby-sized white coffin. When he showed me the picture several years ago, (before his death in '99), it was creepy and gave me the shivers!

But anyways, I died over nine times. One time, I needed a full blood transfusion.

But I kept pulling through. The Dr's said I would probably not have a good quality of life due to some possible brain damage, lung damage, etc.

Well, I miraculously ended up perfectly healthy, except for being deaf in my left ear and blind in my left eye. I'm also hearing impaired in my right ear and wear a hearing aid. And have severe nightsightedness in my right eye of which I wear a -9.50 to -10.00 contact lens for it. Who's complaining!?

I could've emerged with a whole host of issues, retardation, brain damage,etc!

And this was with the technology of 1967!!

I never did gain weight easily, tho. (still don't). I can't seem to get much beyond 90-95 lbs, tops.

I luckily went on to have full-term babies with no problems (including one surroson I had for a couple).

So I count my blessings, and TRY not to take life for granted, let me tell you!

That's just one Miracle story, I have others....

Bixyboo

 

[pixelsmith]

Bixyboo that is indeed a miracle for 1967. WOW!

 

[AnnetteMarie]

pixelsmith and bixyboo have the sort of miracles that strength of will lends more than a helping hand to. and even newborns can have that, and surmount odds the rest of us would fold over.

My father was a miracle in that way, too.

 

[Bixyboo]

Aw shucks, thanks, you guys!

I was hoping to see more stories here by now, tho!

 

[skunkape]

I've seen an old lady revive a goat that was dead as a doornail. A winter storm came in during the night and the goat was frozen solid...eyes solid grey-blue, laying on its back with a sheet of ice forming over it. She brought the animal inside, wrapped it in a blanket, and sat petting and rocking with it for a long while. I thought she was crazy, but sure enough the thing thawed out and came to. I don't know if that qualifies as a miracle, but it sure did trip me out. I thought I was going to have cabrito for dinner.

 

[Stillborn]

I never failed a grade. That has to be a miracle.

 

[Frozen E.T. Burrito]

I am perty sure that I healed a crow one time. I found it laying on its back on a trail under the hot noon day sun, on the way to drink some beer in the woods with these other two dudes by some railroad tracks near one of thems house. I picked it up and tried to do the ol healin hands thang, then put it over under a bush to die in the shade at least. I could not bring myself to mercy kill it.

We went on up about another maybe 20 yards to the spot he was showin us to hang at, just an openin in the woods... it was pretty cool. I reckin I was about maybe 19 or 20, in the mid 90s. We started just hangin, poppin beers and chattin about probly Led Zepplin or maybe crazy folks around the county... who knows now, and after about 5 or so minutes heard a powerful commotion in the woods, and that crow flew up out of the bush, landed in on limb up over us, sat thare for a while, I don't know, maybe 5 minutes, who knows... it was a little while anyway, and then flew on off. It was a trip. Coulda been too, that that crow was just fakin, let me do my thang, then flew so I would think I had done a neat trick. Too, coulda got into some old beer and been drunk, and I just helped him out of his hangover. Don't know!

I have an old hillbilly Uncle Jim, who when I last went to his house (it had been years) a couple of months ago to get a photo of my Great Granddady to scan, told me when I asked how good he expected to do with his indoor tomaters like he was doin them, "Don't know, never tried it before... nuthin veentured, nuthin gained", and then I knew what I would put if I ever broke down and got a tattoo. :shy:

 

[Bixyboo]

That's inner-restin' ET.

 

[Frozen E.T. Burrito]

That's inner-restin' ET.

I found it to be so as well. If I were to assume that "I healed the crow", then there are all kinds of sub things to concern myself with, like, what actually made for the success? Did I "intuitively know what to do"? Was it actually "energy movin through my hands" and "through my chakras and crap"? Was my diet especially good? Worst era for my diet ever. Let's see... I was not exercising or anything, in any conventional sense, but I had been just startin to learn some tai chi.

I had also been messin around a lot with my breathing. :shy:

 

[Schuyler]

I've enjoyed each one of these stories. I would probably call some of them 'miraculous,' too. In fact, I have a similar 'near-crash' story on another thread about 'miraculously' avoiding death at the last minute. But I think we commonly use the terms 'miracle' or 'miraculous' much too loosely. None of the stories here, nor my own, would I term a true 'miracle' any more that I would the last-second in-zone catch that gave the Steelers their Super Bowl victory last Sunday. I would use terms like astounding, unusual, phenomenal, timely, extraordinary, or other superlative terms to all these stories, but when you get right down to it, I wouldn't use the term 'miracle' to describe them. There are more mundane explanations.

To my mind, anyway, 'miracle' means a suspension of the 'Laws of Nature' as we know them for an event to take place. I think this is important because here on the Paracast we are looking to examine 'real miracles' and real phenomena that are paranormal. In any other context using 'miracle' in the vernacular is accepted and even proper, but I don't think it is here. Examples of 'real miracles' include 'Arigo; surgeon with a rusty knife.' His operations, by and large, have no mundane explanation. All you are left with is 'miraculous.'

And now, it gets worse. 'Miracle' is really a line we draw in the sand according to our understanding of the Laws of Nature. It is, I suspect, arbitrary. If we had a more advanced understanding of the Laws of Nature I suspect that we would look at what we now call bona fide miracles and say they aren't miracles at all. It's how the Universe works. The word 'miracle' is one we use when we don't understand how the Laws of Nature really work. It is a testimony more to our ignorance than it is to our understanding.

My suspicion is that the physical world we see is not all that there is, that there are additional dimensions, including (cough) 'Heaven' (just to throw a loaded term in here), that our ET guys have learned to manipulate matter and energy in both worlds, and that with sufficiently focused consciousness one world or dimension can influence the other. I think it works both ways and I think some people have either developed or been given a state of consciousness that allows them to move more freely in these areas than most of us can.

Ultimately I suspect that advancement in our knowledge of both science and religion will result in an understanding that both explanations about the nature of reality can be accommodated. In that sense we will keep pushing our definition of a 'miracle' further and further until we find we no longer need it at all.

 

[Frozen E.T. Burrito]

'Miracle' is really a line we draw in the sand according to our understanding of the Laws of Nature.

Absolutely agreed, and very nicely put. :shy: That's exactly why (or one of the reasons anyways) I'm willing to simply TRY crazy things like miracles and stuff... as my Uncle says... "Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained".

 

[Xylo]

.

So tell us: Have you had encountered any events in your lives that you could only chalk up to a miracle of some sort?

Inquiring minds want to know.

Nothing really special, more serendipitous than a miracle...

I was driving on a "back road" one night on my way home, and I suddenly had this feeling that it would be good to slow down. So I did, and when I came around the next corner there was a deer standing in the road, on the outer edge of the travel lane.

I thought that was odd, because usually I drive that road at a high rate of speed.

 

[Bixyboo]

Nothing really special, more serendipitous than a miracle...

I was driving on a "back road" one night on my way home, and I suddenly had this feeling that it would be good to slow down. So I did, and when I came around the next corner there was a deer standing in the road, on the outer edge of the travel lane.

I thought that was odd, because usually I drive that road at a high rate of speed.

Wow, aren't moments like that so cool?

 

[skunkape]

Nothing really special, more serendipitous than a miracle...

I was driving on a "back road" one night on my way home, and I suddenly had this feeling that it would be good to slow down. So I did, and when I came around the next corner there was a deer standing in the road, on the outer edge of the travel lane.

I thought that was odd, because usually I drive that road at a high rate of speed.

Tip o' the hat to St. David Lynch.

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[Xylo]

HAHA...awesome commercial. Never have seen that one before!

 

[Bixyboo]

LOL, what a commercial!