My encounter with strangeness

[Jurgen]

I told this story before but thought it would be nice for the newer members to read...

The year is 1996 and I'm on my way for a job interview at a small radio station. The building where they are located is not in the same city as I live so I take the bus to the nearest stop and walk from there.
Walking down the street alone, I hear someone call out my name. Surprised to hear it I look from where the sound came but only see a scruffy looking character who sits on the ground in a building's porch. He's now looking straight at me and winks as to say "Yeah, you!" I walk to the man and the following conversation somewhat traverses.
(Will call the man Max for convenience, don't know his real name)

Jur: “Hi?�
Max: “Hello!�
J: “How did you know my name?�
M: “I heard it in my head as you walked by�
J: “??? Come again!�
M: “Well… you see… I have contact with the ‘afterlife’. I’m in contact with my former self which helps me out in life. I felt you walk around with questions about life itself and how it is connected with the universe.�
J: “Is that right!� “So what does it all mean then?�

At this point Max starts to talk about the beginning of time itself. He explains that in the beginning everything is ‘one’ and as time begins (big bang?) ‘one’ becomes ‘two’. In the end two turns to one again and the whole process repeats itself. He claimed to have knowledge/memories from all the previous times this happened and that the event itself, one becoming two, had no first or will have a last time it happens. He sort of remembered me from the last time we had this conversation and thus knew my name.
He spoke of ‘one’ as being some primal soup… a place where the collective consciousness resides and of ‘two’ as being like Yin and Yang.
I couldn’t quite follow what he was talking about at the time mainly because I wasn’t really interested or understood what he had to say. Something I regret till this day for I'm still impressed he knew my name which is an uncommon one for a Dutchman.
We talked some more but as the years go by I find it harder to remember certain details. At some point I had to go and we said goodbye... never saw him again.

[Jane]

I remember you telling this years ago Jur, and still gives me a strange feeling. I think it was really odd that he knew your name, and the fact he said you have had that conversation before...spooky.

[GunnerGraham]

So,he reincarnated as a tramp?
He must have been a badass in his former life,lol.
Crazy story that,Jurg,it must have driven you mad over the years.

[Carol Nistri]

Jurg,have you ever considered some type of hypnosis to regain your memory of the rest of your conversation? It seems to me that this man,if it was indeed a man wanted you especially to know certain things.Id go for it,it stayed with you for a reason.

[7th Stranger]

i think you will run into him again

[Hackle]

Most curious! I like that encounter. I agree with 7th Stanger, you'll probably run into him again.

[GINO69]

Originally Posted by Jurgen

I told this story before but thought it would be nice for the newer members to read...

The year is 1996 and I'm on my way for a job interview at a small radio station. The building where they are located is not in the same city as I live so I take the bus to the nearest stop and walk from there.
Walking down the street alone, I hear someone call out my name. Surprised to hear it I look from where the sound came but only see a scruffy looking character who sits on the ground in a building's porch. He's now looking straight at me and winks as to say "Yeah, you!" I walk to the man and the following conversation somewhat traverses.
(Will call the man Max for convenience, don't know his real name)

Jur: “Hi?�
Max: “Hello!�
J: “How did you know my name?�
M: “I heard it in my head as you walked by�
J: “??? Come again!�
M: “Well… you see… I have contact with the ‘afterlife’. I’m in contact with my former self which helps me out in life. I felt you walk around with questions about life itself and how it is connected with the universe.�
J: “Is that right!� “So what does it all mean then?�

At this point Max starts to talk about the beginning of time itself. He explains that in the beginning everything is ‘one’ and as time begins (big bang?) ‘one’ becomes ‘two’. In the end two turns to one again and the whole process repeats itself. He claimed to have knowledge/memories from all the previous times this happened and that the event itself, one becoming two, had no first or will have a last time it happens. He sort of remembered me from the last time we had this conversation and thus knew my name.
He spoke of ‘one’ as being some primal soup… a place where the collective consciousness resides and of ‘two’ as being like Yin and Yang.
I couldn’t quite follow what he was talking about at the time mainly because I wasn’t really interested or understood what he had to say. Something I regret till this day for I'm still impressed he knew my name which is an uncommon one for a Dutchman.
We talked some more but as the years go by I find it harder to remember certain details. At some point I had to go and we said goodbye... never saw him again.

He was qouting the Tao Te Ching . A nice little book written a couple
of thousand years ( I'm too lazy to get up and locate it in my library )
ago,by a palace minister named Lao tsuh who was a contemparary
of Cunfucous. Legend has it that they actually met and had a royal
argument that Lao tsuh apparently won . Confucius took it
philosophically and actually praised Lao tsuh for his mastery over
principles that were ,in his time,of the highest import . The Tao Te
Ching has often been refered to as a work of mysticism . It is not .
It is a poetic exegisis on how to maintain peace in the mind, peace
between men and peace in the nation.
The book has fallen apart and recompiled many times and because
the Chinese revere tradition even if it doesn't make sense , the document has many interpretations most of them mystical in nature
where as Lao tsuh stated in the second half that ,"when the way of
the sage is adhered to the gods lose ther potencies. "
The cultivation of the Tao is merely the practice of meditation
with the objective of attaining the Silent Mind ,since thinking leads
to anxiety and anxiety leads to sickness ,even death.at times. Suicide
being the consequence of to much attention on words and not
enough attention on the material world .
But I'm sure this fellow was just some exccentric that wanted
to scare you a little with profundary.Most people are so shallow that
they believe in anything that sounds true. This is how leaders come
to power without the use of armaments. It's a cool trick . Look
for example the ministry of Jesus , He said very simple things but they
were so profound that the spiritists of today revere him as a
manifestation of God himself rather than just the illegitamite
son of a jewish carpenter.
Here I go again getting philosophical without intending to.
Time to shut up now.
GINO69

[Skeptical]

Jurg - Did he know your complete name or just your first name?

S

[Jurgen]

Just my first... but how could have known it?
I kinda liked the idea about the universe being like an inflated balloon which eventually deflates, only to inflate again and repreating the same prosess over and over...
I do remember I asked him if there ever was a first time the universe came to being but he said that there was no beginning and no end.
No starting point, no ending point. Thinking about it makes my brain ache.

[Wilhelm]

Originally Posted by Jurgen

Just my first... but how could have known it?

Is your first name common? Maybe he's just a nut that yells out the same name to everyone passing by. He's bound to get it right eventually.