Mind you, having said that, I've experienced some pretty frightening occurrences
of knowing what someone is going to say or do before they do it.  It's only on
a mild scale, but I believe that although some of it may be coincidence, it
cannot always be so.
-------------------
This is something I have wondered about often.  I have always been a very logic 
based, "If I can't see it, touch it, smell it, it doesn't exist" kind of 
person.  I was a very firm atheist, and not really open to even explore my 
spirituality.  At this point in my life, there have been occurrences that have 
made me stop and realize that just because something does not fit into my 
current view of the world, that it doesn't necessarily not exist.
Many times I have thought of someone or of the phone ringing moments before the 
person calls or moments before the phone rings.  A significant amount of time 
passed and the thought was at the forefront of my consciousness, so I feel I 
can comfortably say I know what occurred with confidence.  I have read papers 
on coincidence, and how that there are so many things going on around you, that 
some pretty amazing coincidences are going to take place that don't necessarily 
have an underlining meaning.  I have always wondered what is really going on, 
without trying to say it has to be this or that.  Any thoughts?
I also have began noticing what seems to me could be considered subtle energy 
in dealing with people.  When people try and project something upon me, e.g. 
their view of me, I am aware of some kind of exchange of energy.  There seems 
to be an actual "something" being exchanged.  What is that something?  Again, 
any thoughts?  What is that energy you can pick up from people?  For example, 
when you are in love with someone, can't you feel the energy radiating from 
them?  Is this all just a product of the mind through our known sensory 
inputs?  Or, is there more?  Does it matter what the source is, since if it 
seems to exist, then as far as our consciousness is concerned it does exist?
Which leads to something I have been pondering, and would welcome any insight 
from anyone:  Since we cannot know the true nature of our 
reality/consciousness, does it really matter what that true nature is, or is it 
even possible to find out?  For example, we cannot know whether or not we are 
just a brain in a jar being fed this experience, or our waking world is just as 
much a dream as what we consider our dream world, or any other mild to wild 
explanation of "What is going on"...  On that note, since all we are is what we 
experience, isn't our dream world just as real as what we consider our real 
world?
I get confused at times pondering because I can also see how we could be 
basically "meat machines" that are simply functioning like a machine, and we 
call our awareness "consciousness"....  Memetics seems to me to work on a level 
of dealing with people as a machine/computer...  and makes perfect sense, and 
especially with what I have read about religion from a memetics stand-point 
seems a very valid model of human behavior/ideas.  So I ask to those of you who 
are very knowledgable concerning memetics to fill me in on how you view some of 
the psychic/subtle energy/consciousness issues.
My personal explanation, at this point, is that we have limited sensory 
ability, in that of all of the different types of information available in the 
world, we can only take in a limited amount with what tools we have evolved to 
have.  Therefore, it seems very likely that there can exist subtle energy and 
other "things" that we cannot perceive with our  limited senses...  And some of 
the senses we seem to have shut off....
Ok, I have rambled enough...  Any views on what I have touched on is greatly 
appreciated...
piece,
Chris
"Chris_Anderson.HWJ@JH.COM"