Doug Dillon's Blog, page 69
May 26, 2015
Musical Paranormal Patterns
Strings of odd coincidences create a fascinating paranormal pattern.
Back in 2009, my wife and I went to a concert at The Hard Rock Cafe here in the Orlando area. David Garrett, the great violinist was playing.
The guy is really terrific. He can shift from classical to rock and then into country in a matter of seconds.
In watching him though, my analytical mind started working overtime. Because the man moves that bow so incredibly fast, I wondered what temperatures his bow strings reached with all that friction. Then I started wondering if he replaced those bow strings before each concert to make sure they wouldn’t break.
Not satisfied with those mental meanderings, I continued to wonder if his bow strings broke very often during a concert and if that affected his performance greatly. Finally, I realized I wasn’t enjoying the show because of all that internal questioning.
As a result, I made a very concerted effort to focus just on the music. Didn’t happen. My obsession with the guy’s bowstring’s wouldn’t leave me and, in fact, they strengthened. That really irritated me because I can usually let my thoughts go when I tried but no this time. The compulsion was really getting to me.
In tremendous frustration, I immediately started working diligently to refocus my mind. The thing is, less than two minutes after launching into that effort, Garrett actually broke several bow strings. I couldn’t believe it but there they were just flailing away in the air as they guy continued to play. People all around me pointed and took pictures as Garrett courageously went on playing and ended that set with a flourish.
As soon as the music ended, he studied his broken bow-string, fondled them a bit, looked at the audience, grinned, shrugged, and then went on playing.
With all of my questions somewhat answered, I enjoyed the rest of the show and ignored the bow strings still flopping in the air.
My son, Greg Dillon, graciously allowed me to use the picture he took of a violin for this blog. It pays to have a professional photographer in the family. Thanks Greg. It fit perfectly.
If you are truly interested in paranormal phenomena, you might be interested in read my book, Carl Jung, Hauntings, and Paranormal Coincidences. You can find it in most online bookstores. Listed below, however, are direct book links to some of the larger retail outlets in the English speaking world:
Amazon.com, Amazon Canada, Amazon UK, Amazon India, Amazon Australia, Barnes and Noble, Kobo (Canada)
A Florida Paranormal Premonition
Premonitions can happen anytime but when they happen as you’re driving, they can be especially disconcerting. This short story is about once such paranormal incident.
I was on my way home after having visited a patient in my duties as a Hospice volunteer. As I scanned the four lanes of traffic around me, I suddenly had this vision of two guys fighting in the street in front of me. As soon as that picture flashed through my mind, I wondered why it had happened.
Almost immediately, I had at least a partial answer. A number of years before that event, I was driving on the same highway with Barb in the car. When we stopped for a traffic light, two men came out of nowhere, wrestling with each other and even bouncing off cars, including ours. My conclusion? Umm, maybe just being on the same road, perhaps at the same time of day, created the “fighting” vision. A weak conclusion, admittedly, but nothing else came to mind.
Seconds later, the traffic ahead of me thickened considerably. As it did, a black pickup truck swerved dangerously to the left, barely squeezing between two cars. The guy in the car now behind him slammed on his brakes and then he swerved dangerously to his right, caught up with the trick and matched speeds with it.
The next thing I know, both car and truck stopped dead in the middle of the highway. Luckily, I was in the far right lane, so I was able to zip past those two stopped vehicles without incident. But as I looked back in my mirror, car and truck were still unmoving as the drivers obviously raised hell with each other through their open windows. Traffic backed up behind them and people slowed to gawk–a dangerous situation all around.
Luckily, one or both of the drivers broke off their confrontation before it could escalate any further. Car and truck roared past me and out of sight and I breathed a sigh of relief.
Had I been warned about that confrontation? If so, for what purpose? Was it just to show me how valid premonitions can be or was it something else? The only thing I can think of was that after having the vision, I was highly vigilant in my driving. Maybe through such hyper awareness I was able to avoid having an accident. What do you think?
If you are truly interested in paranormal phenomena, you might be interested in read my book, Carl Jung, Hauntings, and Paranormal Coincidences. You can find it in most online bookstores. Listed below, however, are direct book links to some of the larger retail outlets in the English speaking world:
Amazon.com, Amazon Canada, Amazon UK, Amazon India, Amazon Australia, Barnes and Noble, Kobo (Canada)
Carl Jung: Synchronicity & Suicide
Fascinating new book by paranormal author and investigator, Doug Dillon, brings to life Carl Jung’s personal supernatural experiences. Backed up synchronistic events and strange happenings in the lives of a large variety of other very reliable people.
Praise for Carl Jung, Hauntings, Paranormal Coincidences:
“This book is a part of all of us. The journey that we are all taking is inherently connected to those stories told in this book, written with so much joy, curiosity, and intelligence . . .”
Steven Ballou,
Psychotherapist and Adjunct Faculty/Psychology, Southern New Hampshire University
“Wow! As an experienced and seasoned paranormal investigator (24 years), I really loved this book!”
Jill Borter,
Operations Manager and Electronic Voice Phenomena Analyst, Orlando Paranormal Investigations
“Doug Dillon’s work helps one better appreciate the magnificence of all that surrounds and defines our existence.”
Jim Caccavo,
former NEWSWEEK, Vietnam war correspondent/photographer
“What a journey. What a litany of experiences. If you like ‘the Paranormal’, you’ll love Carl Jung, Hauntings and Paranormal Coincidences.”
Chuck Dowling,
author of The Hammer of God Series, the Story of Arthur
“I could hardly put this book down. For anyone who has questions about what happens when we pass from the living world, I recommend this book.”
Mary Jo Fister,
Lead Investigator and Case Manager, Offthetrails Paranormal Investigations
“This book illustrates the relationship of spirituality in everyday life with a curiosity about things we may experience and never understand.”
Kitty Mendoza,
Psychotherapist in private practice, Longwood, Florida
“Each vignette is crafted so well that I couldn’t stop reading.”
Diane Ross,
Hypnotist and author of Meditations for Miracles
If you are interested in reading this book, you can find it in most online bookstores. Listed below, however, are direct book links to some of the larger retail outlets in the English-speaking world:
Amazon.com, Amazon Canada, Amazon UK, Amazon India, Amazon Australia, Barnes and Noble, Kobo (Canada)
This book is based upon a series of very popular blog posts Doug did on Carl Jung’s paranormal adventures. See links to all postings on the following lead article titled, Carl Jung Part 1: Paranormal, Coincidences and Synchronicity.
May 25, 2015
Meet Florida Authors
LibCon Orlando on June 27, 2015. A full day focused on books, authors, writing and publishing. Come join us.
Panels, talks, discussions, workshops. Meet the authors and talk about their books. A literary delight!
LibCon Orlando
Saturday, June 27, 2015 (Free)
10 AM – 4 PM
Orlando Public Library, 101 Central Ave., downtown Orlando. 407-835-7438. Parking garage across the street.
Love books? Want to meet loads of published authors? Want to be an author and learn how? Here’s your chance. Don’t miss this wonderful opportunity. Book signings going on all day.
Meditation, Mindfulness and Premonitions
A quest for understanding dips into the unknown and plunges into haunting coincidences.
Even though I’ve been meditating for quite a number of years, I also attend meditation retreats periodically. They are a wonderful time to get away from it all, deepen my skills and learn more about myself than I could in any other way.
And although I have been studying and investigating the paranormal for a very long time, I never made a connection between meditation and “things that go bump in the night.” That all changed when I went on an extended retreat near Brooksville, Florida.
Florida is notoriously flat, but our retreat center turned out to be on one of the tallest hills in the state. A beautiful place, built in 1842, it was originally a plantation, now turned conference center. That location is one of the few in Florida where you can actually look down on a sunset.
The administrative offices were located in the manor house, behind which were smaller buildings, guest quarters, meeting space and, of course, a cafeteria. The rooms where we slept were comfortable and the wooded surroundings were wonderfully peaceful.
While driving to the retreat from my home near Orlando, I smiled at the fact that the manor house of the plantation was built right after the end of the Second Seminole War. Why? Because of a series of three circumstances that came together to form an interesting set of coincidences.
First of all, I had just completed the first novel of my young adult paranormal/historical series titled The St. Augustine Trilogy.
The book, Sliding Beneath the Surface, plunges two teenagers back in time, right into the middle of the horrific battle that began the conflict, a place not far from the retreat center. Every year there on the anniversary of the Dade Battle, as it is known, reenactors stage an incredibly accurate portrayal of what happened.
So for me, staying at a place built during the same era as the nearby battle as described in my book made for interesting speculation about how all three things could fit together so neatly. You see, long before that day, I had concluded, as had Carl Jung in his theory of synchonicity, that such coincidental events often point to something deeper in the nature of our existence.
But as interesting as the coming together of those three things were, I had a retreat to attend. And before long, I became thoroughly engrossed in my meditations. Engrossed, that is until one day everything changed.
It started after breakfast, two days into the retreat. After each meal, we were given a period of free time, and on that day, I chose to take a leisurely walk around the grounds of the old plantation. My little jaunt started out on what had once been an old road with tall trees still on either side of it.
And as I studied my surroundings, I looked up at the trees all around me and noticed how each one of them had a lot of dead branches at the top. Immediately, I became afraid, worried that one of those branches could come crashing down and hit me or one of my companions.
Fear? The likelihood of being clobbered in that way was very low and I had walked under many such trees in my time. So why the apprehension? I asked myself, trying unsuccessfully to shake off that sensation.
Instead of giving in to such thoughts, I started wondering what the original owners of the surrounding plantation might think if they encountered such modern day intruders on their property. And true to my writer’s inclinations, I suddenly conjured up this vision of a man in period dress in front of me.
In my imagination, this gentleman and I then had an interesting conversation about the past Vs. the present. And at the end of that chat, the man said, “And remember. Suffer the little children to come unto me.”
What? Those words were so inconsistent with what was being said, that it totally blew my little day dream apart. My companion disappeared, and I continued walking, this time past the manor house in an area I hadn’t visited before.
But those words spoken by my imaginary friend still made me wonder. That whole conversation was just me talking to me in an imaginative way, right?
Yes, I was raised a Christian, but I had long ago found Christianity unable to fulfill my spiritual needs. In fact, my retreat was based on Buddhism. Why that quote from Jesus would suddenly popped into my head made no sense, but I let it go.
Looking to my left, I was surprised to find a small cemetery dating back to the early days of the plantation. Obviously, it was the final resting place of long forgotten family members, containing only five or six tombstones.
One of those stones lay flat on the ground. Attached to the top of it was a carved lamb. The inscribed dates showed that a child was buried there who died at the age of one year. And under the date were the words, “Suffer the little children to come unto me.”
Okay then. That really made me think. In fact, it made me wonder if, when I was communicating with my imaginary companion, was I somehow tapping into something else?
Or, could it be . . . Nah, the guy couldn’t have had some sort of reality that I didn’t understand. Or could he? A ghost? No way.
Telling myself that I was l letting my writer’s creativity run away with itself because of the coincidental circumstances relating to the retreat location, I spent the rest of the day deeply immersed in meditation.
Then came dinner. And after dinner, I decided to just sit on one of the many benches strategically set between our cafeteria and living quarters. It had been a good day, even though part of it was a bit weird.
And, of course, my mind went back to my fear of those tree branches, the encounter with my ghostly friend, and the inscription on that poor child’s tombstone. What a strange set of events, I thought, just as something huge and heavy crashed to the ground about ten feet to my left.
When I say huge and heavy, I’m not kidding. The impact made the ground shake and immediately, one of my meditation friends came running over wondering if I was OK. Together, we surveyed the large branch that had fallen out of a tree. If it had hit me, I might well have been killed.
Did I have a premonition? And if so, why? I mean, did looking up into those trees and thinking how a branch could fall somehow influence me to sit on that bench instead walking under the branch that actually fell? I don’t know, but it certainly is food for thought, as are those other happenings during my retreat.
Could my meditations have somehow opened me up to such occurrences? Was there some sort of residual energy in that historic location ready to connect with me just then because of that openness? Beats me. Maybe.
Since that retreat, I visited the same location multiple times but without another recurrence of similar events. What I learned through those experiences though, was not to so easily dismiss those things I might normally consider as imagination.
The Dade Battle reenactment .
Oh, one more thing. The day the retreat ended, I felt compelled to visit the little cemetery one more time. And when I got there, a car was parked very close to the tombstones. A license plate on the front of the car said, “Seminole Wars Foundation.”
End of story, but if you are interested in premonitions, coincidental events, ghosts, Carl Jung and synchonicity, you might want to take a look at the book on your left.
I wrote it because I am fascinated by not only Carl jung’s theories but also by his own paranormal experiences. And in studying all that I decided to combine what I had learned with my own experiences and those of others. That’s the package.
You can find the book on most large online bookstores, but below is the link to Amazon.com where you can see the reviews by those who have read it.
Carl Jung, Hauntings, and Paranormal Coincidences.
Sliding Beneath the Surface: Book I of the St. Augustine Trilogy
May 24, 2015
Best Book: Ghosts & Hauntings
Fascinating new book by paranormal author and investigator, Doug Dillon, brings to life Carl Jung’s personal supernatural experiences. Backed up synchronistic events and strange happenings in the lives of a large variety of other very reliable people.
Praise for Carl Jung, Hauntings, Paranormal Coincidences:
“This book is a part of all of us. The journey that we are all taking is inherently connected to those stories told in this book, written with so much joy, curiosity, and intelligence . . .”
Steven Ballou,
Psychotherapist and Adjunct Faculty/Psychology, Southern New Hampshire University
“Wow! As an experienced and seasoned paranormal investigator (24 years), I really loved this book!”
Jill Borter,
Operations Manager and Electronic Voice Phenomena Analyst, Orlando Paranormal Investigations
“Doug Dillon’s work helps one better appreciate the magnificence of all that surrounds and defines our existence.”
Jim Caccavo,
former NEWSWEEK, Vietnam war correspondent/photographer
“What a journey. What a litany of experiences. If you like ‘the Paranormal’, you’ll love Carl Jung, Hauntings and Paranormal Coincidences.”
Chuck Dowling,
author of The Hammer of God Series, the Story of Arthur
“I could hardly put this book down. For anyone who has questions about what happens when we pass from the living world, I recommend this book.”
Mary Jo Fister,
Lead Investigator and Case Manager, Offthetrails Paranormal Investigations
“This book illustrates the relationship of spirituality in everyday life with a curiosity about things we may experience and never understand.”
Kitty Mendoza,
Psychotherapist in private practice, Longwood, Florida
“Each vignette is crafted so well that I couldn’t stop reading.”
Diane Ross,
Hypnotist and author of Meditations for Miracles
If you are interested in reading this book, you can find it in most online bookstores. Listed below, however, are direct book links to some of the larger retail outlets in the English-speaking world:
Amazon.com, Amazon Canada, Amazon UK, Amazon India, Amazon Australia, Barnes and Noble, Kobo (Canada)
This book is based upon a series of very popular blog posts Doug did on Carl Jung’s paranormal adventures. See links to all postings on the following lead article titled, Carl Jung Part 1: Paranormal, Coincidences and Synchronicity.
May 23, 2015
Florida Literary Event in Orlando
LibCon Orlando on June 27, 2015. A full day focused on books, authors, writing and publishing. Come join us.
Panels, talks, discussions, workshops. Meet the authors and talk about their books. A literary delight!
LibCon Orlando
Saturday, June 27, 2015 (Free)
10 AM – 4 PM
Orlando Public Library, 101 Central Ave., downtown Orlando. 407-835-7438. Parking garage across the street.
Love books? Want to meet loads of published authors? Want to be an author and learn how? Here’s your chance. Don’t miss this wonderful opportunity. Book signings going on all day.
LibCon: Big Literary Event at Orlando Public Library
A full day focused on books, authors, writing and publishing. Come join us.
Panels, talks, discussions, workshops. Meet the authors and talk about their books.
Saturday, June 27, 2015 (Free)
10 AM – 4 PM
Orlando Public Library, 101 Central Ave., downtown Orlando. 407-835-7438. Parking garage across the street.
May 22, 2015
Do We Exist After Death?
After death experiences often bring the paranormal world that permeates our existence home to us in very startling ways. There are a lot of stories about such circumstances but one in particular has stayed with me for many years. Why? Because it was so startling and came from someone who witnessed it–a nurse.
I came by this testimonial when my step dad lay dying in a Central Florida hospital. His passing was long and difficult. Family members were stretched to their limits.The medical staff was wonderful, doing their best to help us understand what was going on and make us comfortable.
At one point, the only people in the room besides a nurse and me were my mother and my wife Barbara. We continually talked to my step dad, trying to ease his passage into the next world even though he was unconscious.
“Part of him knows you’re there,” the nurse said as she checked his vital signs yet once again.
“I guess you’ve seen a lot of this, huh?” I asked.
She looked at me, nodded and said, “Oh yeah. Too much of it if you want to know the truth. But then again, one case I had always sticks with me and gives me hope for us poor lost human beings.”
I encouraged her to tell us about it and she did.
“Well,” she said, “it was a night like this for another family. A young father had died and his family sat around his bed for a long time weeping and comforting each other. We let them stay as long as they wished. Every once in a while I would check on them to make sure they were OK.
“During one of those visits to the room is when it happened. Just as I walked in the young man who had died sat straight up in his bed with his eyes wide open. He looked at his wife who was holding his hand and said, “I’ve been to the other side but I’ve come back to tell you it’s OK. All is as it should be. Please don’t worry.” With that, he closed his eyes, collapsed and, well, died again.
“I’m telling you, that man was clinically dead the first time. There was no doubt about it.”
If you are truly interested in paranormal phenomena, you might be interested in read my book, Carl Jung, Hauntings, and Paranormal Coincidences. You can find it in most online bookstores. Listed below, however, are direct book links to some of the larger retail outlets in the English-speaking world:
Amazon.com, Amazon Canada, Amazon UK, Amazon India, Amazon Australia, Barnes and Noble, Kobo (Cana
May 18, 2015
Meditation, Mindfulness and the Paranormal
A quest for understanding dips into the unknown and plunges into haunting coincidences.
Even though I’ve been meditating for quite a number of years, I also attend meditation retreats periodically. They are a wonderful time to get away from it all, deepen my skills and learn more about myself than I could in any other way.
And although I have been studying and investigating the paranormal for a very long time, I never made a connection between meditation and “things that go bump in the night.” That all changed when I went on an extended retreat near Brooksville, Florida.
Florida is notoriously flat, but our retreat center turned out to be on one of the tallest hills in the state. A beautiful place, built in 1842, it was originally a plantation, now turned conference center. That location is one of the few in Florida where you can actually look down on a sunset.
The administrative offices were located in the manor house, behind which were smaller buildings, guest quarters, meeting space and, of course, a cafeteria. The rooms where we slept were comfortable and the wooded surroundings were wonderfully peaceful.
While driving to the retreat from my home near Orlando, I smiled at the fact that the manor house of the plantation was built right after the end of the Second Seminole War. Why? Because of a series of three circumstances that came together to form an interesting set of coincidences.
First of all, I had just completed the first novel of my young adult paranormal/historical series titled The St. Augustine Trilogy.
The book, Sliding Beneath the Surface, plunges two teenagers back in time, right into the middle of the horrific battle that began the conflict, a place not far from the retreat center. Every year there on the anniversary of the Dade Battle, as it is known, reenactors stage an incredibly accurate portrayal of what happened.
So for me, staying at a place built during the same era as the nearby battle as described in my book made for interesting speculation about how all three things could fit together so neatly. You see, long before that day, I had concluded, as had Carl Jung in his theory of synchonicity, that such coincidental events often point to something deeper in the nature of our existence.
But as interesting as the coming together of those three things were, I had a retreat to attend. And before long, I became thoroughly engrossed in my meditations. Engrossed, that is until one day everything changed.
It started after breakfast, two days into the retreat. After each meal, we were given a period of free time, and on that day, I chose to take a leisurely walk around the grounds of the old plantation. My little jaunt started out on what had once been an old road with tall trees still on either side of it.
And as I studied my surroundings, I looked up at the trees all around me and noticed how each one of them had a lot of dead branches at the top. Immediately, I became afraid, worried that one of those branches could come crashing down and hit me or one of my companions.
Fear? The likelihood of being clobbered in that way was very low and I had walked under many such trees in my time. So why the apprehension? I asked myself, trying unsuccessfully to shake off that sensation.
Instead of giving in to such thoughts, I started wondering what the original owners of the surrounding plantation might think if they encountered such modern day intruders on their property. And true to my writer’s inclinations, I suddenly conjured up this vision of a man in period dress in front of me.
In my imagination, this gentleman and I then had an interesting conversation about the past Vs. the present. And at the end of that chat, the man said, “And remember. Suffer the little children to come unto me.”
What? Those words were so inconsistent with what was being said, that it totally blew my little day dream apart. My companion disappeared, and I continued walking, this time past the manor house in an area I hadn’t visited before.
But those words spoken by my imaginary friend still made me wonder. That whole conversation was just me talking to me in an imaginative way, right?
Yes, I was raised a Christian, but I had long ago found Christianity unable to fulfill my spiritual needs. In fact, my retreat was based on Buddhism. Why that quote from Jesus would suddenly popped into my head made no sense, but I let it go.
Looking to my left, I was surprised to find a small cemetery dating back to the early days of the plantation. Obviously, it was the final resting place of long forgotten family members, containing only five or six tombstones.
One of those stones lay flat on the ground. Attached to the top of it was a carved lamb. The inscribed dates showed that a child was buried there who died at the age of one year. And under the date were the words, “Suffer the little children to come unto me.”
Okay then. That really made me think. In fact, it made me wonder if, when I was communicating with my imaginary companion, was I somehow tapping into something else?
Or, could it be . . . Nah, the guy couldn’t have had some sort of reality that I didn’t understand. Or could he? A ghost? No way.
Telling myself that I was l letting my writer’s creativity run away with itself because of the coincidental circumstances relating to the retreat location, I spent the rest of the day deeply immersed in meditation.
Then came dinner. And after dinner, I decided to just sit on one of the many benches strategically set between our cafeteria and living quarters. It had been a good day, even though part of it was a bit weird.
And, of course, my mind went back to my fear of those tree branches, the encounter with my ghostly friend, and the inscription on that poor child’s tombstone. What a strange set of events, I thought, just as something huge and heavy crashed to the ground about ten feet to my left.
When I say huge and heavy, I’m not kidding. The impact made the ground shake and immediately, one of my meditation friends came running over wondering if I was OK. Together, we surveyed the large branch that had fallen out of a tree. If it had hit me, I might well have been killed.
Did I have a premonition? And if so, why? I mean, did looking up into those trees and thinking how a branch could fall somehow influence me to sit on that bench instead walking under the branch that actually fell? I don’t know, but it certainly is food for thought, as are those other happenings during my retreat.
Could my meditations have somehow opened me up to such occurrences? Was there some sort of residual energy in that historic location ready to connect with me just then because of that openness? Beats me. Maybe.
Since that retreat, I visited the same location multiple times but without another recurrence of similar events. What I learned through those experiences though, was not to so easily dismiss those things I might normally consider as imagination.
The Dade Battle reenactment .
Oh, one more thing. The day the retreat ended, I felt compelled to visit the little cemetery one more time. And when I got there, a car was parked very close to the tombstones. A license plate on the front of the car said, “Seminole Wars Foundation.”
End of story, but if you are interested in premonitions, coincidental events, ghosts, Carl Jung and synchonicity, you might want to take a look at the book on your left.
I wrote it because I am fascinated by not only Carl jung’s theories but also by his own paranormal experiences. And in studying all that I decided to combine what I had learned with my own experiences and those of others. That’s the package.
You can find the book on most large online bookstores, but below is the link to Amazon.com where you can see the reviews by those who have read it.
Carl Jung, Hauntings, and Paranormal Coincidences.
Sliding Beneath the Surface: Book I of the St. Augustine Trilogy
