| Strange Tales 2: Which One is False? | |
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This little game was very popular the first time we tried it, so here's another round. Four stories of the paranormal and unexplained are given below (and on page 2). Three of them are true, having been published in other sources, and one was entirely fabricated by yours truly. Read all four stories, then on page 3 vote for the one you think is false.
Story 1: The Past Life
Do we live many lives? It has long been believed my many cultures and religions that our spirits or life force reincarnates as many different people through history. And occasionally, there are documented cases that seem to prove it.
One such case involved a Brazilian woman named Tina, born in 1940. Tina was able to recall not only her past life, but also her traumatic death - and the interval of time between her past life and present one.
Tina remembered the day of her death as a child in France, murdered by a German soldier sometime in the early days of World War II. "I don't think there was anyone home that day," she told the Brazilian Institute for Psychical Research, "because it was I who answered the door." Tina related how a soldier entered her home wearing a round helmet and olive green uniform, and carrying a rifle. Without provocation, he shot the little girl through the heart.
"I remember asking for water before I died," Tina said, but I don't remember if they gave me any. I can see myself lying on the floor on my back, wearing a light dress."
This story wasn't Tina's only evidence of her previous life. In this life, as Tina, she bears two distinct birthmarks on the front and back of her left side - exactly where the soldier's bullet, aimed at her heart, would have entered and exited her body.
More remarkably, Tina vividly recalled some of the time between her death in France and her rebirth in Brazil. She recalled actually visiting the home of her soon-to-be parents and was able to accurately describe what it looked like, right down to the furniture.
Story 2: The Comforting Ghost
The connection between the living and the dead is a mysterious, sometimes powerful bond. On rare occasions, that emotional and psychological bond breaks into the physical world in spontaneous and miraculous ways.
Mary Carol Henry had many psychic experiences throughout her childhood, but one night in particular when she was 12 years old would stay with her forever. One of her older brothers had relocated to Pittsburgh, and she volunteered to help him move his belongings. After a long day of work she decided that rather than go back home she would stay overnight in her brother's new place - an old four-story house in Pittsburgh's Hazelwood section.
There was something about the house that disturbed Mary, however - something she could not quite put her finger on. She went to bed around 10 p.m., listening to the strange house's many noises. As she lay in bed, she heard her brother come into the room to check on his baby, who was asleep in the same room, and then return downstairs.
Mary was having difficulty falling asleep. Then she heard a strange noise that sounded like newspapers being crumpled. She turned over in bed and saw a small girl, bathed in a green glow, step out of the closet. It was Patsy - her little sister who had died in a gas explosion at the age of five. Mary recognized that she was wearing the same gown she had been buried in.
The ghost serenely walked over to the bed and sat at Mary's side. Mary noted that bed even sank down under the "weight" of the spirit. Patsy's ghost gently placed her translucent hand upon Mary's, leaned over and kissed Mary softly on the cheek. The kiss felt like that from a live person, Mary said. And then the spirit vanished.
Mary later told the story to her mother, who commented that Patsy had briefly returned to comfort her older sister in the strange, unfamiliar environment.
Next page > Stories 3 and 4 > Page 1, 2, 3
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