The other day I wrote about how I saw a friend of mine when he wasn’t actually there.
(Which is different from thinking that I saw my friend; to find out exactly how they’re different, you’ll have to read the original Daily Reminder.)
Well, here’s a funny little story to demonstrate that the opposite is possible too: you can not see someone, when they are there.
🙈
Many years ago I played a naughty little prank on my mum, leveraging the principles behind how we experience life to cause confusion and chaos in the Cotswolds.
I’d been invited to go and visit for Sunday lunch—my sister was coming down to stay from the North of England—but the date unfortunately clashed with a bike race I’d entered ages before, so I couldn’t go.
Everyone was disappointed but, you know, shit happens, so we all got on with our lives and I arranged to come over to Mum’s some other time.
Except, at the last minute, due to bad weather up in mid-Wales, the race was cancelled.
So I hatched a plan.
😈
I borrowed a big overcoat from a friend, jumped in the car and started the hour-or-so’s journey over to my mum’s, to surprise her.
On the way, first I phoned my sister, who was travelling by train, to let her know what I was up to, and to place bets as to whether I could pull it off.
And then I phoned my mum… pretending I was en route to the bike race, and expressing my regret again at not being there for the family shindig.
Misdirection!
With her expectations firmly set to create a very particular reality—one where Giles was in mid-Wales—I got to the train station (a tiny two-platform affair) well in advance of when my sister was due to arrive, and sat on the opposite platform, knowing my mum would be along shortly, to wait for her.
And she was. A good 20 minutes before she had to. To sit directly opposite me, on the other platform. She was so close I could have had a conversation with her.
🥸
I was wearing the long overcoat, some dark sunglasses and a hat and I can tell you, my heart was beating faster than it would have been, if I had been racing my bike at that moment!!
I stared straight at her for those 20 minutes and every time she looked over at me (pretending not to), I smiled. And she’d look away. And every time she did, I couldn’t quite believe that she hadn’t recognised me.
The power of Thought!!
Eventually my sister’s train arrived on the other platform and with it blocking the view between us, I headed up to wait on the bridge I knew they’d have to come over, to walk back to the house, which was just round the corner.
As they came up the stairs I saw my mum grab my sister’s arm, to pull her out of my way, saying quite loudly (in that way that only parents can) that this weird man had been staring at her the entire time she was there and should be given a wide berth…
… at which point I whipped off the hat and the sunglasses and said,
“Hi Mum, it’s me!”
😇
I’ve had to pause typing this for a few minutes while I gather myself because I’ve been laughing so much at the thought of the look on my mum’s face, and of seeing my sister doubled over in fits at her response… 😂🤣😂🤣
Such a naughty boy!
But look, here we go again – this is yet another demonstration of the fact that we do not experience reality; we experience Thought-perception, being created through the lens of our conditioning.
The entirety of our felt experience of life comes from within, as if there was a movie playing, projecting the story of our lives outwards into the world, through our eyes.
My mum had two totally different experiences of that vibrating mass of energy in ‘overcoat,’ ‘sunglasses’ & ‘hat’ that occurred on her watch – the first being rooted in ‘other’ and fear (which was fair enough); and the second being rooted in total confusion, then relief, and then severe reprimanding of her insolent offspring for pulling such a cruel deception!!!
You can remember this, the next time you find yourself taking ‘reality’ a little too seriously.
😉
Giles
Mentioned above
Giles P Croft
The flip side of your Thought-perception ‘reality’: seeing someone who's not there