The Word Cloud

I wrote this book three years ago but I've chosen it because it's been quite successful and I loved writing it. At last I was being given the chance to write about something that has fascinated me for most of my life. I've written about astrology, tarot, numerology and other divination techniques, plus auras, but nothing quite like this.

Thanks for putting that up, Spangles.

Why don't you write a book about jam and marmalade? That way you can make jam and marmalade and sell it on the market. Market research!

I know, I'm a genius; but please don't dedicate the book to me :-0

Thanks, Pat. It's funny you should say that, because my next book (out in September) does contain some jam and marmalade recipes! It's a miscellany of countryside facts and ideas and folklore and lists and lots more besides.

I've just gone to Amazon and pre-ordered "Red Sky at Night" - it looks wonderful! (And the cover is definitely beautiful).

Kate, you are lovely! Thank you so much. I hope you enjoy it when it finally arrives.

Ah Spangles, look, you see, you had to be my kind of person, look at the interests we share: Jams, marmalades, (my grandson is so taken with those we make he wants to go into production) he is 9.
Gardening, astrology, and auras!
But until I read your book I had better hold my comments or I may find you do not believe in auras.
I used to teach listening skills at college (it is a topic that ALL doctors should be forced to take)
and meditation, and during this class I saw the auras of a couple of students, amazing. I have also seen the aura around a clump of violets and some roses. I hardly dare admit this. It only happens in a particular state of mind I find.
One of my students had a broken aura and when I talked with the group later over a glass of wine I discovered that her son had been killed. I have had some amazing experiences (viewed with suspicion by some members of my family, so one generally keeps these to oneself.
I had out of the body exp too and didn't tell anyone until years later I met two american women who were travelling the world lecturing about it and realised there were books about the subject - of course more is spoken of these days. I used to think I was wierd - as many still would.
Am reading Emma Darwin's book at the moment but will look out for yours too. I am def psychic, or as my daughter calls me - sensitive.
Bren

Bren, it's so nice to see you back on the Cloud as I know you've had other things to occupy you over the past couple of weeks. I think your grandson's enthusiasm for making marmalade and jams is wonderful. If he ever wants to know about sourcing jam jars, let me know because I did some research on the subject — and they ain't cheap, unfortunately. I think the answer is to save your own. My seven-year-old nephew recently told his father that he enjoys cooking so much he wants to be a 'sheriff' when he grows up!

Spangles - looks like an amazing, a wonderful book. Congratulations.
You must have had a huge sense of achievement when you wrote this.

Bren I have been labelled over-sensitive all my life. My mother always said I had 'pre-knowledge '. I have never seen an aura but am very sensitive to feeling them around people - I am not sure if this is something unusual or if it is just an overdeveloped sense of 'knowing' that person - being able to feel their suffering even if I dont know that they have suffered. I am excruciatingly aware of suffering in animals. Too hard to bear sometimes.
I wonder if I HAVE seen auras - I paint ( something that gives me huge pleasure) and when I was really into it I used to see the most amazing colours around the things I was painting - could that be 'aura' ?

I had quite a few rather intense clairvoyant ( not sure if this is the right word here) experiences as a child but they became less intense as I approached adulthood. The writer ( Psychiatrist cum Para-normal psychologist )Lawrence Le Shan reports that this is normal - particularly if we fear these experiences and we believe that If I think THIS - it causes THAT to happen) - a bit like what you are saying about your dedications, Spangles. That kind of thinking can be counterproductive ( he says) to developing ones psychic self.
Perhaps your dedications were based on pre-knowledge. Sub-consciously you knew that something not-so-nice was going to happen to the people you have dedicated each of your works to. ...so, your conscious mind reaches out, wanting to do something for them - make them feel good about themselves, make an effort for things to remain as they are at the time of writing. I dont know , this is just a suggestion.

I trained in the Sciences and so this kind of 'talk'does not go down too well with alot of people I have had to work with. They think I am potty - especially as I believe firmly in a human collective consciousness - the threads of which lead us back to when we lived very close to nature and the shamans - spiritual souls - were greatly respected as valuable members of the community. This is a theme in my book.

Hope you both have a great day !
J

Thanks for your kind comments, Jacquie. Yes, I did feel a sense of achievement when I finished the book, and I'm very fond of it. Your theory about the dedications is interesting. I shall have to mull it over.

Hey very well done and congratulations Spangles. Can you explain to me what numerology is or are you going to make me buy your book? I only ask because I am confused by all things numerical.

Thanks for that Spangles, very kind of you to explian.

Numerically I could only be described as a dunce. I just don't get numbers at all. I wish I did, I reckon I would have a much better relationship with my bank manager if I did!

Do you know the works of Lawrence le Shan Spangles - I do believe it is probably really dated now, but I read some of his books in the late 70s and early 80s. He was a trained doctor ( a Psychiatrist I think ) who developed an absolute fascination for the para-normal. He worked very closely with some famous clairvoyants like Evelyn Underhill.

Aagh, Lizzie, don't mention bank managers! Let me know if you'd like any more info about numerology. It can be very revealing to work out the numerology of your name or birth date.

Spangles - I knw that he wrote some highly acclaimed works on healing - particularly cancer. The book that stands out for me is 'The Medium, the Mystic, and the Physicist: Toward a General Theory of the Paranormal ' My copy does not bear this title though - it is called 'Clairvoyant reality - towards a general theory of the paranormal' You may find his work too stodgy and very dated. I have his "how to meditate ' and pulled it out the other day and was very disappointed in a book that at the time was highly acclaimed. So much is written these days on meditaion that is much more readable as far as I am concerned.
Another person whose works you may wish to investigate ( if you haven't already done so) is the Zoologist Rupert Sheldrake. He does work on the collective conscious and includes animals in his writings. He wrote what is meant to be a very interesting book called "People whose dogs know when they are coming home " I find what he says rather intrigueing indeed
j
PS had an incident with my little dog this morning that can only be described as telepathic ! So amazing. He was sitting outside a big window that I cannot see when I get out of bed and go towards my bathroom . He never ever sits there - he is allways waiting to be let in on the other side of the house. I got up this morning -half asleep- and walked towards the bathroom and a voice in my head said 'there's Zullich, right behind you ' I spun around and sure as nuts there he was, staring intently through the floor to ceiling glass with his ball in his mouth , tail wagging....

How funny, Jacquie, because I was going to ask you if you'd read Rupert Sheldrake's book Dogs That Know When Their Owners Are Coming Home. Great minds! I thought it was a wonderful book, and found some of the stories quite astonishing. I read some other animal books afterwards, including one whose title and author both escape me right now and which I can't find on any of my bookshelves (helpfully), and they encouraged me to start talking properly to our two cats. By which I mean asking them what they wanted or how I could improve things for them, and listening to the answers that popped into my mind, and asking them to come in at a certain time when necessary. I always explain why I need them to do something, so they know why it's important. They're especially good at presenting themselves at a particular time. For instance, when they were still kittens we had to have some trees cut down, and the cats went out first thing as usual but I told them there would be a lot of noise and asked them to come back in by 8.30. They returned at 8, and I found them sitting outside the back door quite obediently. Just as well, since the tree surgeons arrived early.

Your cat story is fabulous ! Yes . All VERY interesting. The Buddhists urge us to become like the cat , become like the dog ( I think what they mean is that we must embrace THE MOMENT, live in the moment, Carpe diem... in the same way that animals do.)

Yes, I think you're right about Buddhists and being in the moment. Our two cats are always right here now. They don't bear grudges, they don't worry about tomorrow, they just eat, sleep, catch mice, purr, etc.

Hi Spangles.
I for one, truly can't believe how many people I've found on here that are curious, or simply just interested in this area. (I'm not allowed to talk about this openly in my office where I work).
I actually take a beginners psychic awareness class at my church. Even as recently as 1 year or less ago, I would never have seen myself as a class leader doing guided meditations and teaching basic awareness. It's only when I was physically put in this position did I truly begin to understand and realise how much knowledge I have got.

NUMEROLOGY.
one of the modules in my therapy training was numerology. It was fun, even though me and numbers don't go together that well. :o)
Do you find yourself doing numerology on the presidents of the US and other countries ? I did once. What a shocker. lol.
they can truly say so much about people can't they.

Well, the book looks fab, you're obviously very knowledgeable in the subjects you've written about and are very good at getting the right words across to the reader - tons better than me.
WELL DONE :O)
Nibs

Thanks, Nibs! If you're leading a psychic awareness class at your church, I imagine that this isn't just any old church. Is it a Spiritualist church? It's fascinating how matters are sometimes taken out of our hands and we're put in a position that we didn't expect (or even think we wanted) but which is absolutely right for us.

How strange that this discussion has come up - will try and keep this short and to the point - last Saturday I met a lady called Pat, her daughter is a GP - after stopping and chatting for a while, Pat asked if I was OK as she sensed something was wrong, I told her that I had a splitting head ache - one of the ones that stop with me all day - she told me that she was a Spiritualist healer (reckie or something like that) she put her hands on the front of my head and then moved them round to the back of my head - I could feel her hands kind of vibrating on my head - this all took about 2 minutes - she said; it will be gone soon - well after saying good-bye I got into my car - I hadn't even left the village and my headache was gone? later in the day I met another friend of mine (Lloyd) he has had a long time problem with his leg - I took him to Pat and asked if she could help - Lloyd has reported that even though he now has a little pain in his leg, it's no-where as bad as it was!

How brilliant! I think it must be Reiki that she does. Healing is marvellous isn't it?

Going to try that out' 'thanks Spangles' I love this - I mean; how many times have all of us thought about someone we haven't seen in a long time and behold'' we are later that day walking in the street and there they are' as large as life - you say' crikey' I was only thinking about you this morning - or the phone rings; and we know before we pick it up who is on the other end (in my case a call centre trying to flog me something) or my crew and me are on the way back after a bad RTC (worse if children are involved) there is just silence in the pump all the way back to the station - only to be interrupted by the radio calling us out to another incident - all of us turn around and say; I knew that radio was going to go off - I know a lot of this can be put down to sheer coincidence or science can explain when we say; I knew you was going to say that' apparently our brain plays a trick on us' hard to explain this' what we have just heard go's in our brain back to front - so our memory part tells us that we knew that they were going to say that. -:O)

Gosh yes, I find that happens a lot to me. I believe we attract what we think about, which is why it's so important to try to keep our thoughts positive. I've found it happens a lot with the books I'm commissioned to write. Although I've written enough synopses for book proposals to paper every wall in our house and still have some left over for the recycling bin, I've only ever managed to sell one of them, and that was for an idea suggested by my agent. I always get commissions, apparently out of the blue, and several of them have been for books I've always wanted to write. Many moons ago when I was a book editor I wanted to commission a book on literary Britian (at the time, the only book on the subject was published by OUP and I thought there was room for another one). But it never got off the ground. Then, many years later, I was commissioned to write a book called — guess what — Literary Britain and Ireland. The same goes for books on London. I adore the secret London — not what you see at eye level in Oxford Street but what's round the corner or what happened there centuries ago. And sure enough, I was commissioned to write a book called Royal London, about London's royal associations. It can take a while for it to happen, as you can see (thirty years in some cases!)

'Wow' you are so right Spangles - do you ever dream of people' you know who they are in your dream but try remembering them when you wake up, then 'months'years' later you meet them and know all about them - going out on shouts we know what to expect at an incident and always pre plan on route, I book us mobile and turn around to see who is riding and before I even speak one of the crew will say; do you want me to do vehicle stabilisation and glass management' and guess what' that's just what I was thinking.
I think everyone in the emergency services has had some kind of calling' it's something that is in you from an early age - whenever we are sat in the pub chatting and the other side comes into the conversation we all share the same view - I have seen people walk away from a crumpled wreck without a scratch on them - others have been fatal after a 20 mph bump - I am sure all our lives are pre-planed and that some of us get to have a peek at the future now and again.