Observations placeholder

George B. Scheurer •

I make no claims that explain our existence and self awareness. I am a scientific rationalist by nature. Yet, something is going on that defies rational thought at least as it relates to the sum of knowledge about our understanding that we exist in time and space. Let me give you just three examples from my life.

I am at the moment in life when I am 16 and my father is in the hospital. I am asleep in my room. I wake up and sit on the edge of my bed. I know my father has just died. About 15 minutes later the phone rings and it is the Hospital telling me exactly that. Just a coincidence you can justly say.

I am in my 40's and I am stopped at a light. In front and slightly to the right is a pond covered in ice. I say to my family member next to me in the front passenger seat as I point, "two people are going fall through that ice and drown." I have no idea as to the time frame...just soon. The next day we hear on the local news that a young boy broke thru that ice and his brother did the same when he tried to rescue him.

One Christmas the three members of my nuclear family go to the mall. We all decide to meet at one set of doors and then go out to the car together. We separate and begin to shop.I buy one thing and then I am walking to the next destination when I feel the urge to reach into my pocket and wrap my hand around my Swiss army knife...I go with it for a minute or two and find that I want to follow two people out of the mall ....I say to myself...someone is going to kill somebody here with a knife. I stop shopping and go to the doors we agreed to gather at. Once everyone is there I tell them what I felt and we leave. I take a look carefully around us as we get into our car. I happen to notice the color and make of the car directly across from us. The next day the headlines read a young woman was killed (knifed) as she was getting into her car. It was the car parked directly in front of our car. Later, I still feel connected to the murderer. I knew he wore a hat to hide his distinctive male pattern baldness and that he had a long history of psychological problems. He later committed suicide and the local news confirmed I was right on all counts.

I am now 74 and I do not get any "feelings" but I know that our brains can do some very strange things and those things do not have to follow the arrow of time.