ESP(N): Extrasensory Perception (Nugatory)

Maybe it's just the time of year. My apophenia has been acting up again.

It would help if the patterns were useful (or if I even paid attention to them except in hindsight), but these mundane premonitions act as sort of a psychic appendix. They exist...and that's about it.

Let's just hope they don't fill up with poison and explode all over my cerebral cortex.

I wonder if the season has something to do with it. Last year, the number of hair-brained connections I made decreased during the Spring and Summer. My theory (and this is purely my own, based on nothing but a cursory knowledge of the paranormal. A Google search yielded almost nothing on the subject.) is that Winter is more conducive to psychic activity. (I can't believe I'm typing this) Our brains go into hibernation during the months of December, January, and February. The subconscious takes advantage of this Dream Time to make connections the conscious brain ordinarily wouldn't.

I wish I could blame this on the Reefer. I have no such scapegoat.

Is it noteworthy that, out of the blue, the night before the earthquake devastated Haiti, I got some weird sudden interest (where none had existed before) in looking up Haitian Culture online?

Or that, after I made a mental note to start using the word Dispassionate more often, it appeared on my Mac's screensaver the next day?

Or while getting a massage, I began mulling over the lilting Yanni tunes they had running in the background. I thought You know, I wish they'd play Faure's Sicilienne...but I can see why they don't. Oh, well. Five minutes later, it played (and it was my favorite recording).

And yesterday: Notnits and I were listening to a Podcast for "A Way With Words" (which, by the way, is great if you're into wordplay, language evolution, and weird word/phrase origins) and they put out their usual announcement for any listeners to call with peculiar phrases or words, that they might discuss them.

In recent weeks, Notnits has called to attention my use of the phrase "might could" - as in "We might could go to the store," or "I might could meet you downtown." This is a pretty common Southernism as an expression of possibility. "I might be able to meet you downtown" seems cumbersome to me.

So, when the hosts made their announcement, I said:

"We should ask them about 'Might Could'."

He laughed in agreement.

The very next call they answered was from a woman in Virginia asking about this phrase that she has never heard outside of the South: Might Could.

You could have knocked me over with a feather. At least I had someone there to witness the whole thing.


In general, I tend to be an Open Skeptic. I'm not adverse to the idea that psychic ability exists, but the burden of proof is pretty heavy.

Still, I can't just eschew these instances as mere coincidence, can I? If only I could recognize them with some foresight - maybe I could hire myself out as a detective and get a television series made out of my real life!

(Shaking Magic Eight Ball)

My sources say no.

Figures.