hey folks. this isn't a ghost discussion group, but ghosts are allowed. this is the place where anyone can share some particularly unusual happenings related to their creativity that others might find fascinating or inspiring. have you had an experience like this? many artists have been inspired by dreams, for example. has that happened to you? have you had an encounter with something or someone that you can't explain but that you felt was directly related to some art or literature or creative experience either as helping you to create it or appreciate it ? do you believe there are muses out there? who wants to start?

oh wow, susies. it's 4 in the morning here. i can't sleep for some reason. i keep waking up every stupid hour. so i came on here, and i find you so incredibly poetic at this hour. how is that possible? i guess it's in all those things you mentioned. the extraordinary can be in the very ordinary. i love that 2 am train sound. the muses are everywhere! ...particularly in the middle of the night! ;-)

do you ever wake up in the middle of the night inspired, susie? and then do you have to work on something right then?

The Extraordinary sounds delicious! Can't wait to dig in and start this one.....Have to go out today, but I'LL BE BACK..................

well now it's regular morning, and i'm awake like a normal person. but i have to agree with you guys that thos wee hours can be highly inspiring. what is it about that? but i had some good writing ideas then. i wonder if the ideas wake us up or something else wakes us up, and then that hour just breeds some creative ideas. i'm looking forward to your inspirations, margaret!

Hi Lisa. Thanks for inviting me to this topic. I'm comforted to know that I'm not the only who wakes at odd hours stirring about in the twilight. Not sure even why I wake up, other than to go "powder my nose", if you know what I mean. Then I just can't seem to get back into the slumber of rest. I don't have much to add at this time on the topic, but I'll be lurking about in it for sure to read the comments and responses.

ok well i guess i have to be the first person to tell a bizarre story. this doesn't have everything to do with creativity, but it happened when i was teaching a music class. and i have NO idea what happened or what it meant. ...

i was having a regular lesson with my little music student. i had cleaned the living room that day, so i knew where everything was. that's important to the story. another important part of the story is that i had been looking for a penny to hold the screen door open that same weekend. and i didn't have one anywhere except one which was in the middle of the coffee table. ...

ok so she came in and was getting her violin out, and rosin'ing up her bow. i was sitting on the sofa. all of a sudden i heard a HUGE BANG and kerplop right in the middle of the floor onto the hardwood floor fell a penny. it was not something you couldn't notice. it was LOUD like it had falled from very high up. but where it fell, it couldn't have fallen off of anything. it was in the middle of the room. i didn't see if it was actually there, but i just knew something was there. i didn't want to look like a weirdo to the student, so i didn't comment on it.

so then she suddenly said , "ok lisa, when are you going to say something about that penny falling from the middle of the SKY!!! HELLO!?" and "i said i thought you might not have noticed!".."not NOTICED? it might as well have been a meteor!' she said. i said go look at it. so she did. a penny. heads up. neither of us could figure out where it came from. and the only penny i knew of in the room was sitting on the middle of the coffee table undisturbed. so we just continued on with the lesson, but to this day we both wonder what WAS that????

faeries? really? well rebecca, you are the first person i have ever met who actually BELIEVED in faeries. i mean i love literary fairies and art fairies and even horton hears a who type fairies...but real ones that play pranks? oh my! i guess anything is possible! but why? why throw a penny down in the middle of the room? just cuz they can?

ooo you have a point there! but to get my attention to what purpose??

susie...haha! rebecca, are we talking little wee people?? where do you feel they come from? what a great thought. i love the idea of fairies. i'm not sure i'm sold. however it sure would be nice if....

I have heard our "friends of the woodland realm" referred to as
"elementals"..I believe it was in the sufi tradition...why do they have
a hierarchy ...ie "queen" etc.?

elementals??? wouldn't that be fire, rain, wind, water? what the heck? good question about the hierarchy, steve. this whole thing has me confooosed. who has an experience of something extraordinary inspiring their creative work?

I saw a faery once. I was at a retreat center in the middle of the woods, and they have a big lake. You can take boats out on the lake for fishing or whatever. Whenever I'm there, I take out a canoe and have some me time with nature. Once I was out in the canoe in an area that's away from the lodge and everything else. No one else was around. I was drifting along near the shore, about 10' out.

I was looking at all of the trees and plants and all of a sudden there it was. It flew up beside a tree, hovered there a minute, and flew off. I couldn't tell if it was male or female. It appeared to be about 3" or 4" tall but it was clearly a faery. It was hovering there vertically, with wings on it's back. Someone said it was probably a dragonfly but it was bigger around and was certainly not a dragonfly. The wings were also different and I've never seen a dragonfly fly like that either.

It was probably the most magickal experience I've ever had.

ok i started out thinking this was all a little over the top. but now so many of you believe in fairies i'm going to have to rethink this. i even asked a friend tonight on the phone if she ever heard of people believing in fairies. and in a very normal tone as if i had asked her if she ever heard of coca cola, she said "oh i believe in fairies...". i sure do WANT there to be fairies. and you SAW one? and you're sure it's not a dragonfly? i've seen big dragonflies. but they really don't look like fairies. hmmmmmmmm....so what's up with them? they hang around here to heal the earth like rebecca said???

This was clearly not a dragonfly. It looked like a little person with wings. It was bigger around than a dragonfly and was not shaped like a dragonfly. Also, I've never seen a dragonfly hovering like that. It would have been hovering with it's body vertical instead of horizontal. Maybe they do that, but I've never seen it. But again, it just didn't look like one at all, even the wings were different.

Why they're here I can't say, but I would love to talk to one to find out. Really I've always believed in creatures like that but still had a pinch of skepticism in my mind until I saw one. After that, I put all doubt aside about them and anything else that people dismiss. But I'd already had experiences with ghosts and possibly aliens so I don't know why I should have had doubt about faeries. Maybe I just needed to see one, and I did.

They could be here to heal the planet, it certainly needs it.

this is a pretty incredible story, barry. i mean just think ...faeries. little people with wings that are among us ...busy. that's pretty wild. i love the possibility of that. i sure would like to see one too. when i saw that movie in i spoke of earlier ...i wish i knew the name of it. all i can remember is the theosophists....something about the faeries in there rang true. horton hears a who rings true. little worlds among us rings true. there is so much to this world that we don't know about. are you going to tell us your spirit stories, barry?

I'll share the spirit stories soon, promise. I'll blog about them tomorrow if I have time.

Appox. 12 yrs ago ,I was vacationing on Oahu...swam and snorkled most afternoons. On one such day, my S.O.P. drove us to an undesignated,secluded beach. I was in awe at it's beauty and even more "turned on" by the awesome sounds of waves crashing off the nearby boulders. I was feeling really alive and without a care and I literally bounded into that turbulent water and swam a slight distance when, suddenly, I was overcome by a wall of water and my body was tossed about like a salad spinner.....total space/directional disorientation.......did not know up from down......I could not fight it's power, so I went with it, so to say. Quite soon, I sensed the intense need for AIR/oxygen.......that's when I saw it. Quite clearly, a hand with it's arm outstretched to me..........unexplainably, the water relaxed it's hold on me and so I semi-swam towards that still-visible hand............and ,in the next instant, I had resurfaced ! Sure, I was choking, but air was also mine now. I twisted around and saw my S.O.P. laid out on the warm sand, apparently sleeping.....unawares. I easily tread-swam back to the waiting shallows of the sandy shore, still dazed and amazed by it all. I never did tell my boyfriend , other than to explain that I was" choking on some water....I'm fine."

oh wow! that is such a beautiful story!!! than you for sharing that, jodie. i love it. you know what? my niece's husband was swimming out far at sea alone and had a similar experience. he was caught in a current and began to drown. he was an excellent swimmer, but he knew he was a gonner. he started to surrender to it. and suddenly he felt a presence lift him out and into a safer area where he could float awhile and catch his breath and then get to shore. he swears he felt a presence there and that he was literally lifted out by hands.

I have a friend who says, "People pray to God and then don't even recognize his voice when he answers." I'm a true believer that if you pose a question to the Universe/God, you will receive an answer. About two years ago I was trying to decide whether or not to move back to my home town after retirement. So, as I left work one day, I said outloud, "Okay, Universe, do I move back to Cushing?" Five minutes later when I reached the Interstate the south bound lanes to Ardmore (where I lived at the time) were backed up and traffic had stopped. The north bound lanes to Cushing were moving freely. I got in the south bound lane and inched my way down the road, while I told myself that that could be an answer. Then for giggles I decided to turn the radio on and take the first thing I heard as confirmation to the answer. The very first thing on the radio was a political ad, "Vote Yes," was all I heard. And so, the decision was made that moment and synchronicity was engaged. The perfect house at the perfect price became available in Cushing in addition to a plethora of other little things that fell into place.

oh that's so cool, diane! i've had many moments like that, and you're so right. it's about being open to the answer. sometimes i've heard an internal voice so loud while i'm asking the question only to wonder why i'm not paying attention to the voice! other times i get little signs from things like songs or things people say...or even something on tv. but there is always an answer out there. i think the only times we don't hear it is when we doubt that it's there!

oh Diane, so true.....one can say circumstantial ,but I ,like you, am firm in that Divine intervention occurred. thanks for confirmation