Karen Foley
Lynn Raye Harris
Ellen Hartman
Diana Holquist
Samantha Hunter
Shirley Jump
Dee Tenorio
Jeannie Watt
Welcome Debut Author Rita Oberlies!
More Than a Feeling…
Today my mother packed her car after a week long visit, kissed her grandchildren and headed home to Boston. As I puttered around the house, missing the sound of her laughter, I was haunted by her parting admonition: don’t share anything too personal when you blog this week.
With the release of my debut novel The Catcher and the Lie from Samhain Publishing I’ve stepped further into the online world. To my mother this means I’ve discovered another outlet to share anecdotal stories. Family stories. Stories that should never see the light of day.
Her words, coupled with a half smile, told me she was concerned about a specific topic. It’s funny because for a long time this was a topic I considered taboo outside of my immediate circle of family and friends. Precognition. The ability to perceive information about an event through paranormal means before it happens. Do I believe in the authenticity of the phone-a-psychic friend hotlines that litter cable television? Well, um, not really. Do I believe that precognition exists? Absolutely.
I could share with you specific events from my childhood that introduced me to the notion of precognitive ability. But to be fair, those are my mother’s stories to tell or withhold (and frankly you would need an extremely large bottle of Baileys Irish Cream to make her lips move). The topic was an uncomfortable one for her, only raised in warning. Don’t dabble with things you don’t understand. Which translated meant – never wish for moments of such insight because it was more of a burden than a gift.
It was years before I understood the reason for her discomfort. In the early part of October 1997 I told my husband that the stock market was going to crash. As we rode down a side street in Sarasota, Florida I told him that on October 27th of that year the market would experience its largest point loss in history. His reaction? Mild amusement until I insisted that he write down the date, what I predicted, and tuck the note in the glove compartment.
Fast forward a few weeks. As I watched the television, breaking news updates began to pour in. October 27 was shaping up to be a devastating day on Wall Street. By four o’clock that afternoon my husband was scratching his head. How the heck did I know weeks before that it was going to happen? Um…it popped in my head out of nowhere. Crazy but true.
We privately laughed and decided to share the story only with my mother. About a dozen incidents followed with the same pattern. An image, usually a warning, would flash in my head in the weeks leading up to an event. Sometimes they hit too close to home creating great anxiety. Waiting and worrying for the shoe to drop. In most cases they focused around family and friends, not major world events.
I’m not psychic. Thank goodness. But I do know that there are times when some quirk of nature allows me insight into things beyond my normal sensory perception.
Does this happen to you? If it hasn’t, do you believe it can happen to others? Oh, and if you know my mother, please don’t mention this blog. I want a warm welcome home this Christmas.
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Welcome Rita!
Welcome to Cigars (well, you have been here as a member, and now you are here as an author! Woo!).
Love the cover, and love the blog topic. I absolutely believe in precog. For me, it was two dreams which came true, or symbolic dreams that I realize after the fact were peeks forward. Interestingly, the very first one was extremely detailed, projecting a situation that would happen 24 hours later, and did happen, detail for detail (I don't want to share, because it was too personal, family stuff), but the dream ended at the point I needed to make a choice about what I was going to do -- I didn't make the choice until the event actually happened.
But then yes, there is "that feeling" you get when you "know" something. It's sometimes hard to trust, but there's just the really strong wave of intuition or knowing, and that's something that we either learn to trust or we don't.
I think it's probably something everyone has, but people desensitize themselves to it, or ignore it, and like most things, if you don't use it, it goes away.
Neat topic. :)
Sam
Thank you for the very warm welcome, Sam!
I'm glad you love the cover of my book. Samhain has an incredible art department (actually, everyone there has been pretty amazing).
Your dream story hit home with me, as well. It took time for me to trust my instincts enough to know the difference between what I was projecting and what was actually precognitive. It also helped for me to sort of accept the fact that I couldn't alter what was going to happen - I could just mentally prepare myself for it.
Rita
Sorta
I do love your cover, and I think it's true, Samhain does a wonderful job. I know Dee's covers have also been amazing, and I guess they give authors approval and imput on the covers? That's a real treat. :)
My experiences with any mild precognition and tarot, for instance, though, led me to a different conclusion -- I think we have all the power in the world to change things, everything happens (including the financial markets, global warming, etc) because of the choices we make. So, for instance, tarot, to me, is about linking into intuition to get some insight into what we might call a "trend" but we have all the power in the world to change how we approach that trend, the choices we make, our reactions, and that will change events themselves. My initial precog dream suggested that to me, the importance of choice, at a very early age.
So, that's how I think based on my experiences, and yours are just as valid of course -- I don't want to suggest my way of thinking about it is the only way, since the world is wide and varied, but I really do think that ultimately, even Oct 27 would not have happened given different choices being made -- it was just one possibility at the time.
Sam
Great point!
I think choice is often overlooked. Our actions and reactions impact how things actually play out. I'll give an example - not exactly in line with what you said- but true. When my sister was in college she was given a very clear warning to avoid being a passenger in a small, two-door red car because there was going to be an accident in the very near future. The warning came from a family member and contained some pretty specific details. The person who 'saw' this had an image of my sister in the backseat after this car was struck. About eight days later there was a crash that decimated the backseat and trunk area of a friend's car. My sister had refused a ride that night based on the warning she had been given.
Here's a different scenario. On a Friday night about two years ago I get a clear image of my aunt gathering family members together on a Monday morning to deliver bad news. I see my mother and my brother huddled around her in support. After much internal debate I call my mother and tell her that she needs to brace herself for some difficult days ahead. That weekend my aunt is told that she has inoperable cancer. Sunday night my mom gets the phone call asking her to drop by her sister's house the next day. The health situation was obviously beyond anyone's control but the reaction my mother had was probably different based on the conversation I had with her. Does that make sense? Because I'm great at babbling....
Rita
Welcome Rita!
How cool that first you were a poster and now you're an author!!
I do believe in precognitive moments and will share one of my own.
Years ago, I was on the East Coast visiting my fiance's parents. The day in question, my fiance and I were at the National Zoo. We were wandering around when I suddenly stopped and looked at my watch. 11:15 local time. I turned to him and said My grandmother just died.
She had been ill for years but there was nothing specifically wrong with her when we'd left the west coast.
When we returned to his parents house that night, his father told me that there had been a call earlier to say my grandmother had passed away. I called my parents and when I asked when, it was at 11:15 local time (8:15 on the West Coast).
I don't know how I knew but I knew.
ani
Thanks for sharing your
Thanks for sharing your experience, Ani. It totally gave me the chills. I've always wondered how that happens, because I've known a few people who've described almost the exact same thing.
In those cases the experience was not negative, even though it was a very sad event. One of my friends described it as a reaffirmation of his deep connection to the person that passed. A final goodbye from someone he loved.
Oh, and I'm still pinching myself over the fact that I'm posting today as an author. It doesn't feel real and probably never will :-)
Rita
It has never happened to me,
It has never happened to me, but I do believe it can happen to others.
Yeah!
Oh, Estella. I wish you could convince some of my siblings. LOL. I am the youngest of six and a few of them think I'm absolutely crackers!
Now, I admit that I might be slightly kooky at times...but I'm not sure that I qualify as a complete loon:-)
Luckily, I do have one brother and one sister that can relate. Whenever possible, we try and make the others feel like they're the odd ducks.
Rita
Wow!
Congrats, Rita! As Sam said, great cover! And no, I haven't had that kind of experience myself, but don't rule out the possibility! I'm always curious to read or hear other people's stories!
Thanks, Fedora.
It's funny the process for settling on a cover was slightly traumatic. The art team at Samhain came up with a cover that I absolutely fell in love with. The guy was pretty much the spitting image of what I had in my head when I was writing the story. But we couldn't use it :-( I was crushed.
There was a concern, a completely legitimate one, that the characters appeared to be an ethnicity that was not outlined in the story. We didn't want to mislead anyone, so they came up with a second cover. It took me a few days to warm up to it (only because I loved the first one so much). But I have no complaints. I really do like the final product!
Rita
Congratulations on your
Congratulations on your book, Rita! That's an amazing story. I've never had this happen to me, but I feel sensitive to other things--particularly places.
Jeannie
Thanks, Jeannie!
You hooked me...
In terms of sensitivity to places, is that when you can pick up a feel for events that have taken place there previously in history? Or is it you intuitively know things about a place that you've never been to before (you walk down a street for the first time but you know where everything is and what everything looks like already)? Or, maybe it's something completely different --- my brain is caffeine deprived at this moment :-)
Rita
Hi Rita! Huge congrats on
Hi Rita! Huge congrats on your debut book!!!! Did you have a site for your books so we know of news and releases? I shall do a search and watch Samhain too!
I can't say that I ever experienced this, but I have had people who have told me their prediction after it happened. For me, I'd probably be scared if it did because I rather not be one who would know. I'd want to share it so I make sure it doesn't happen. That make sense? I guess thats part of me being that way. But if it said I would win the lottery, I'm sure I'll be playing, LOL.
Great reminder...
Thanks for asking about a site for news about releases, Caffey. Promotion is not my forte!
Please visit my website at www.ritaoberlies.com (there is a link there to my blog).
I have a second release, Are You Ready To Take a Chance Again, coming in April '09 with The Wild Rose Press. Currently I'm modifying a third story, Matters of the Heart, that my editor at Samhain expressed interest in.
Oh, I completely understand the whole not wanting to know something in advance or sharing it with others. Fortunately, when I've had these weird moments they were situations that I viewed as beyond change; they were going to happen and all I could do was mentally brace myself. Although, Sam's comments have me re-thinking this viewpoint. Maybe I approached it from that mindset thereby blunting any possibility of altering the event.
Rita