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A Strange Memory From 1st Jan 2017

lee

Junior Acolyte
Joined
Apr 3, 2016
Messages
72
About six months earlier I started to get irritations on both my hands that just got worse for no obvious reason. My hands were in a mess. Then on 1st Jan 2017 my friends mum died and it was quite sudden, from that moment my hands just quickly healed and returned to how they were before.
I get the odd start up now but it doesn't amount to anything...And it's going away again.
 
About six months earlier I started to get irritations on both my hands that just got worse for no obvious reason. My hands were in a mess. Then on 1st Jan 2017 my friends mum died and it was quite sudden, from that moment my hands just quickly healed and returned to how they were before.
I get the odd start up now but it doesn't amount to anything...And it's going away again.

Sometimes things just go better spontaneously. You may associate the date with the clearing-up because you remember the two things happening together.

This sort of thing has happened to me too. It must be coincidence.

As an example, I used to have a swollen finger joint which seemed to be due to arthritis. Over a couple fo years it became stiff.
One day I clumsily cut the joint on a cat food can, quite deeply, and had to clean and dress it. The original swelling went straight down and it never bothered me again .
 
Ooo thats strange. Maybe the cut was a blessing allowing pathogens out of the body and then healing. But yes....Sometimes we do associate dates and things that happened. Even now...if my hands begin to irritate ...my first thought is....oh dear who is it this time. The brain is very good at making links that do not exist....ie making sense of unrelated issues. :)
 
Contact Dermatitis will often clear up suddenly once you've been away from the irritant long enough. I forgot that I'd left a pan of vinegar and baking soda in the sink and put my hand in it quickly followed by a a bleach solution - result horrible, painful dermatitis. I couldn't go anywhere near bleach for weeks without it flaring up.

Wearing washing up gloves solved the issue and it's been gone for about a year now.
 
Ooo that's not nice! But very informative, thankyou. Something like that could easily be the culprit. Kids..... always cleaning up unexplained findings...rushing from one task to the next....the list goes on. Yes at some point there's going to be cross contamination of either chemicals or spillage with without or through wearing gloves in a domestic setting. Thumbs up to that...many thanks :)
 
It's interesting though because that is how superstitions are born.

Someone dies, something else improves. At an extreme level that is why there were witch-trials or Kings put to death to end a plague or famine.

I once heard that pigeons note what they were doing when suddenly fed, and subsequently repeat the action in hope of a repeat. Or maybe that was a Fortean episode of 'Countryfile' too far..
 
Ooo that's not nice! But very informative, thankyou. Something like that could easily be the culprit. Kids..... always cleaning up unexplained findings...rushing from one task to the next....the list goes on. Yes at some point there's going to be cross contamination of either chemicals or spillage with without or through wearing gloves in a domestic setting. Thumbs up to that...many thanks :)
Someone else suggested ringworm! And looking at Google images...worst case scenario, I thought not....But the fortean link here lays in the realms of the fairy circle. Horticultural term fairy ring. Lo! And behold there is indeed such phenomena present within my garden. The precursor to the appearance of the fairy circle is the much hunted and sought after magic mushroom! I had a few appear in front garden a few years back and thought to cultivate more but the next day they were gone...Never to return...But what followed was the non magic variety....of the fairy description. Now I know the link is RINGWORM I have my whole garden to treat and a determined visit to the doctor. :)
 
As an example, I used to have a swollen finger joint which seemed to be due to arthritis. Over a couple fo years it became stiff.
One day I clumsily cut the joint on a cat food can, quite deeply, and had to clean and dress it. The original swelling went straight down and it never bothered me again .
I had 'trigger thumb' for a couple of months and although it improved a little by splinting it, after two days fishing in sub-zero conditions it vanished completely (almost literally overnight) and never returned.
 
I once heard that pigeons note what they were doing when suddenly fed, and subsequently repeat the action in hope of a repeat. Or maybe that was a Fortean episode of 'Countryfile' too far..

Yup, that was one of Skinner's experiments. Pigeons that were fed at regular intervals learned to anticipate the event and began repeating actions that they'd done before just before food arrived as if they thought this was how to make the food appear.
 
Yup, that was one of Skinner's experiments. Pigeons that were fed at regular intervals learned to anticipate the event and began repeating actions that they'd done before just before food arrived as if they thought this was how to make the food appear.
I think Skinner also did an experiment with rats and a ladder. The idea was to see if rats would learn to climb the ladder to get food at the other end. The problem was getting them onto the ladder in the first place. Once they'd got on, they 'were off' as it were.

The wait for the rat to try the ladder could be very long and it's a nice metaphor for people, especially if they need help. Sometimes you have to wait for them to find the ladder by themselves.
 
I once heard that pigeons note what they were doing when suddenly fed, and subsequently repeat the action in hope of a repeat. Or maybe that was a Fortean episode of 'Countryfile' too far..

Like Scargy said although behavioural conditioning isn't the same as superstition.
 
Like Scargy said although behavioural conditioning isn't the same as superstition.
But the next generation, who learn the conditioning from their elders, would perhaps see it as superstition.
 
But the next generation, who learn the conditioning from their elders, would perhaps see it as superstition.
Not if it worked every time, then it is cause and effect. But yeah, if it didn't happen every time then it could form the basis of a superstition or ritual.
 
Not if it worked every time, then it is cause and effect. But yeah, if it didn't happen every time then it could form the basis of a superstition or ritual.
Iirc, one of the things about the pigeons was that having performed the ritual once and got food, they continued to perform the ritual long after the food stopped coming.
 
Iirc, one of the things about the pigeons was that having performed the ritual once and got food, they continued to perform the ritual long after the food stopped coming.

Similar to Pavlov's dogs still salivating even when the food wasn't produced. I suppose there is a fine line between a learned behaviour in a cause and effect situation and a superstition. Maybe superstition is more long-term and therefore more unquantifiable? i.e. 7 years bad luck as opposed to immediate effect (or not).
 
Ooo that's not nice! But very informative, thankyou. Something like that could easily be the culprit. Kids..... always cleaning up unexplained findings...rushing from one task to the next....the list goes on. Yes at some point there's going to be cross contamination of either chemicals or spillage with without or through wearing gloves in a domestic setting. Thumbs up to that...many thanks :)

I'll also add that you might have developed a sensitivity to something that you're only occasionally exposed to. My own case....

I was working as a cabinet-maker (man, if you want job satisfaction, get good at that) and noticed after several months that my fingers had started slightly swelling up at the end of my shift. Not always, mind you, but enough to be noticeable when it happened.

First thought was stress or exposure to some harmful chemical...I was almost right.

At a previous job, I had to handle and sand Bondo extensively. I knew that it was possible to develop a sensitivity to it and that's when it hit me: we used Bondo at the cabinet shop to fill in dents on corners and the only way to really apply it was by finger. After a little tracking when I did what, it does turn out (at least, anecdotally) that I got slightly swelled fingers on any day I had to apply Bondo by hand. No Bondo, no swelling.

Took me a while to figure that one out.
 
Sometimes things just go better spontaneously. You may associate the date with the clearing-up because you remember the two things happening together.

This sort of thing has happened to me too. It must be coincidence.

As an example, I used to have a swollen finger joint which seemed to be due to arthritis. Over a couple fo years it became stiff.
One day I clumsily cut the joint on a cat food can, quite deeply, and had to clean and dress it. The original swelling went straight down and it never bothered me again .
Plus she says its recurring
 
Random observations: 1. Sometimes unusual and unexpected medical problems stem from an unconscious premonition of something unpleasant. I seem to recall that someone has studied this parapsychologically. My wife suddenly came down with a major attack of eczema. A week later her son (only 40) died suddenly. The eczema disappeared. Sometimes a shock of some kind can have the reverse effect: 2. This may be from Colin Wilson but I can't recall exactly where: someone in India got a bad bout of flu. A local traditional practitioner strapped him into a rather odd looking chair. He pulled a hidden lever and the whole thing collapsed on the floor. When he got up, the patient had no sign of his flu symptoms. And 3. I recall a TV interview with a rally driver who nearly pulled out of his race because of his flu. On a difficult bend he lost control and only just avoided a deadly crash. Again, afterwards, he was quite well.
 
Random observations: 1. Sometimes unusual and unexpected medical problems stem from an unconscious premonition of something unpleasant. I seem to recall that someone has studied this parapsychologically. My wife suddenly came down with a major attack of eczema. A week later her son (only 40) died suddenly. The eczema disappeared. Sometimes a shock of some kind can have the reverse effect: 2. This may be from Colin Wilson but I can't recall exactly where: someone in India got a bad bout of flu. A local traditional practitioner strapped him into a rather odd looking chair. He pulled a hidden lever and the whole thing collapsed on the floor. When he got up, the patient had no sign of his flu symptoms. And 3. I recall a TV interview with a rally driver who nearly pulled out of his race because of his flu. On a difficult bend he lost control and only just avoided a deadly crash. Again, afterwards, he was quite well.
I believe a gigantic burst of adrenaline might manage to overcome the symptoms of some illnesses. Whether the 'cure' is permanent or just lasts until the body is sure that the shock isn't going to be repeated, I don't know.

I remember having a bad cold and someone ringing the doorbell made my nasal congestion clear completely for a couple of minutes.
 
I believe a gigantic burst of adrenaline might manage to overcome the symptoms of some illnesses. Whether the 'cure' is permanent or just lasts until the body is sure that the shock isn't going to be repeated, I don't know.

I remember having a bad cold and someone ringing the doorbell made my nasal congestion clear completely for a couple of minutes.
Also I suspect an explanation for some of the "miracle cures" performed by the evangelical faith healers who used to be popular in the States.
 
I believe a gigantic burst of adrenaline might manage to overcome the symptoms of some illnesses. Whether the 'cure' is permanent or just lasts until the body is sure that the shock isn't going to be repeated, I don't know.

I remember having a bad cold and someone ringing the doorbell made my nasal congestion clear completely for a couple of minutes.
Actors talk about this. They can be very sick, but whilst on stage are completely fine.
 
Actors talk about this. They can be very sick, but whilst on stage are completely fine.
I used to suffer the most appalling hay-fever, except when batting in a game of cricket, I suspect adrenaline played a part.
 
There was a story in t'Guardian years ago about someone who worked with children who noticed one of her charges constantly drawing long, long lines in his pictures. She wondered if he had a tapeworm, and when he was tested for it, he did and was treated.

She was a respected educator, not some crank, and the story was eventually repeated in her obituary as an example of her extreme insight.
 
Tha
There was a story in t'Guardian years ago about someone who worked with children who noticed one of her charges constantly drawing long, long lines in his pictures. She wondered if he had a tapeworm, and when he was tested for it, he did and was treated.

She was a respected educator, not some crank, and the story was eventually repeated in her obituary as an example of her extreme insight.
That is interesting. There is also some evidence (can't recall source) that dreams can give indications of some serious medical condition even before the symptoms have appeared.
 
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