Okay, I guess if everyone else is going to share I'd better too.
So much for trying to keep it short-n-sweet! *LOL*
My great grandmother had a dream when her son Frank was in the Navy during wartime that he was adrift in burning water and found out later (slower communication at the time, remember) that his ship had been shot out from under him and he and his crewmates had stayed afloat amid the burning fuel for hours before being rescued. There were several other stories like that from her.
I think my grandparents had it but didn't talk about it. My dad's sister knew how the pets were going to die moments before it happened but blocked the ability quickly because it was so traumatic. My dad is the one with the real ghost story, he had a friend who'd been having spooky things happen to him and his fiancee like a radio turning on to a love song in the other room then turning itself off, etc., and they had Dad come over as they knew he was interested in that sort of thing just to see if it would happen when he was there. He used a meditation technique that he'd
thought was just a visualization, and to his own surprise saw a man-shaped aura move from the chair where his friend was sitting, over to his fiancee, then back to Dad's friend. Dad told them what he'd seen and his friend got misty-eyed and said at the same moment Dad had seen the aura move back to his chair he'd felt a squeeze on his shoulder exactly like his father had always given him when he was pleased. The father had died not long before and they felt he had come back to give his blessing to the marriage and share his joy with them.
Dad also did some experiments with friends back in college trying to sharpen telepathy and related skills with predicting what card was going to come up next, what a tossed dice was going to land on, sending images to each other while seated in other rooms, that sort of thing, and got pretty good at it. (Keep in mind he's an engineer- he couldn't resist testing it scientifically!
) He's a farm boy so while he likes animals he's always thought of them more as, well, animals- meat and wool producers, not intelligent individuals with spiritual goals of their own. His views started to change when he met my mom and watched how she treated her horse and over the years he's gotten more and more understanding of who they really are. Mom's Arabian Bo was enough to convince anybody!
He was an old soul with a wicked sense of humor.
Dad was watching with his visualization trick when the shamanistic healer we use came out for the first time and worked on my Spyderman who was suffering from severe post-traumatic stress issues. He told me later that Spyder's aura had been incredibly closed down tight to his skin when Vita started and by the end was huge and open and flowing as he began to release all the tension he'd been holding for years. Vita gave him a strange look out of nowhere during the middle of the session and talked to Dad later because she said she'd felt him participating. He admitted he'd been "peeking" at that moment and said it had felt like there was a high pressure front pushing back his probe when he tried to extend it towards Vita and Spyder. Vita approves of my dad rather a lot since then! LOL.
When I was away at college Spyder needed some nasty Penicillin shots for one reason or another and Dad went out one night to help my mom administer them. He says he tried opening himself to Spyder while stroking his neck and holding him still, not really expecting much, and suddenly felt like he'd fallen into a deep underground lake. He says he felt Spyder's gentle amusement and appreciation of the attempt to support him and Mom says he came up looking like someone had hit him on the back of the head with a board. He told me later that he felt like "I was trying to loan my strength to
that?!"
He was awed by the power and depth of the horse's spirit and hasn't underestimated him since. I think it also took him aback when I wasn't surprised and merely commented that finally Dad was seeing him as I always had. I guess it is sort of eye-opening when you realize your little girl isn't so much "riding horses" as purposefully and knowingly allying herself with a massively powerful spirit in a thousand-pound body! Hehehe.
Mama has her own ghost/visible guardian angel stories and has always seen things. When she had to put down her beloved Sheltie in his extreme old age she suddenly saw him gamboling around her feet by the vet's exam table as a young puppy, joyful and free. I was grieving during a visit home from college about my beloved cat who had passed and she got a strange look on her face but then didn't say anything. I caught it through my tears and asked her what she'd seen and she told me that Mitch had just jumped up onto my chair and curled up lovingly around my shoulders before fading from view. She hadn't wanted to tell me because she knew the fact I hadn't seen him would hurt me. I've always envied her and Dad the visual aspect of their gifts as I never see or hear things and sometimes I'd sure like to as "proof" to myself that it's really coming from outside me.
My gifts, however, seem to lie in different directions. I'm not particularly precognitive, I don't know when someone is hurt or dying, and I never get words or images from my pets no matter how connected we are. I had a dream visitation from my pony when she died but that's the only time I've seen someone who passed. But I know things. I mean really KNOW things. As in deep down carved in stone I understand this is the truth of the person or situation despite having absolutely no way to know any such thing. I was lucky in that my parents were very open to intuition and never once shushed me or told me I couldn't know that or wasn't really talking with the cat on the stairway so I never blocked the skills away although I also didn't particularly develop them until a few years ago. My mom and I always used to tell each other what the animals were "saying" by their body language and I think that kept me open to getting stuff from them telepathically as well. Still, I never got words or inexplicable answers or anything. Not until Vita.
I was hopelessly frustrated with Spyder's terror and dangerous over-reactions to nothing after years of sanity because I sensed there must be a reason for his behavior but I couldn't understand it and couldn't reach him no matter how much I loved him or how hard I tried. It hurt that he wouldn't trust me after all our years together; I'm only human and I was ready to give up when I called her. After she did her thing and told us exactly why he had been acting as he had I wanted to cry for what he'd been going through and the fact I'd been angry at him for it. I had no way of knowing, but still. I was glad I'd never given into anger and beat him as I'd sometimes wanted to do because I'm not sure I could have ever forgiven myself if I had. Since then I began to have moments where he'd be nervous or start acting up again and I remember really grounding, centering, and opening myself to him with the desperate question of "Why?!"...and for the first time getting an answer. There was no way I could have known that particular reason, it wasn't the first thing I or anyone else would have guessed, but when I decided to go with my instincts and act accordingly the horse proved my "knowing" was right. Since then it's gotten easier and easier and become more two-way between him and I. I learned through trial and error with the one animal I felt closest to how to open myself and how to use that skill when I wasn't driven by emotional need. I just
know why Kody does some things, that the shy kitten in our garage would blossom and become the most demandingly affectionate thing on the place if only I could lay a hand on him, that his mother and sister weren't ready to give us their names but that the shy one was okay with being called "Hunter." I knew when Bo wasn't ready to go yet, had a feel for the time frame of when he would pass, knew why my mom was doing certain things even when she wasn't sure herself. It's like playing a mental game of "Hot or Cold." I open myself and ask the question and wait with my internal compass quivering for some sort of direction. Then I follow my instincts until suddenly something feels completely right and act on that answer. So far when I've truly felt something I haven't once been wrong.
That same instinct guides me very well with people. I've surrounded myself with those I feel comfortable with and simply avoid those I don't but once or twice I've gotten a really nasty feeling about someone and believe me I listen to that. I think it's really important for a female to learn to trust her gut- one who does and has finely tuned that sensor will never get into an abusive relationship, rarely be cheated on, and will help her kids learn to stay away from bad friends. I won't go into details but I've had enough experiences to trust mine implicitly. Heck, I pegged Clinton when I was a little kid! I told my mom that he seemed slippery (not evil, but slippery) and I didn't like him. Look how that turned out.....
I also seem to get a sort of feel for someone's purpose in life. Not like "He's here to be a plumber," but more like "She came back because there was something unfinished" or "He's a joyful spirit here to remind others to enjoy life." I never told Liz (nootka) but when I first met Kyan I was sort of surprised because I got the feeling immediately that he wasn't here for an extended stay. Nothing dire like death premonitions or anything, but it just seemed to me that he wasn't making deep attachments because he didn't plan to be around long. He was friendly enough but I understood within a few moments that he was gently saying I wasn't who he was here for. He had a purpose alright and he expected to complete it within a short time. (This is where I get nervous sharing things as I don't want to cause pain if I'm wrong but that's the feeling I got. That's why I never pondered buying him even though he was nicely built and a gorgeous color- I knew it wasn't what he wanted the same way I knew Kody and I were meant to be together the minute I met him.) I don't get these impressions about everyone because frankly a lot of people both two- and four-legged are just sort of here without remembering why and even for the others I have to open myself to them to find out, but it's a definite ability that is getting stronger with use.
ALL of these abilities get stronger with use and confidence in them. Spyder scared and confused me at the ocean this year and I couldn't get a feel for why he was acting that way so I called Vita. I told her what I had suddenly realized might have caused it and the motivations I thought I was sensing behind his subsequent behavior and she confirmed that I was right on and filled in the missing explanation I wasn't picking up on my own. I was sort of surprised given how frustrated I felt to find I'd already been half-way to the answer by myself. I guess I'm picking up more than I think I am! At least I've gotten enough confidence in my feelings these days to be willing to bear up under public skepticism with confidence and handle my horses the way I feel they need to be handled. They always repay me three-fold.
Leia
I forgot to mention that I did feel Bo's spirit pass me like a breath of wind when he died. It was the most amazing thing and my mom, my dad, the vet and I all felt it. Later when I was curled up alone against his side crying because I was going to have to cut a hank out of his tail and I felt like I was disturbing the dignity of his body, I looked up across his barrel with blurry eyes and there right in front of my nose in the only spot I could possibly have seen it was a single tail hair glistening in the light. I was startled out of my grief and as I picked it up I could feel Bo telling me I was being silly and to stop crying and cut the tail hair already. I started laughing and told him I knew he was right and did it with a teary smile on my face. That horse was one of a kind and I kept that hair in my scrapbook to help me remember his gift to me.
And I love the show with TAPS - Ghost Hunters
OH! 
