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It's because I'm mentally ill apparently

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No. Heavy stress, lack of sleep, dehydration and any number of conditions can cause people to temporarily see or imagine things.

Nobody has called you mentally ill.

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Not true, the urbane LHoward has certainly called me mentally ill on many on occasion

One other poster nobody likes may have said that at some other time in some other thread.

Seems a bit irrelevant in this thread.

I thought yall were kindred spirits. The condescending remarks of "did you save any scale samples" certainly point towards my mental instability.

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I thought yall were kindred spirits. The condescending remarks of "did you save any scale samples" certainly point towards my mental instability.

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LHoward is on a different atheistic plane than MrMeek. Waaaaaaaaay different.

That was polecat, not lhoward and busterag agrees it's a valid question.

Your story doesn't make me think you are mentally ill. Your worries regarding a certain pencil game on the other hand...

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I once saw literal scales fall from my eyes, after returning to Mass from a near 4-5 year hiatus. I was born into a devout Catholic family, but had always kind of resented going to Church as a kid. It took up a lot of your Sunday, I felt it was boring, etc. When I joined the Corps as a fish in '02, I definitely couldn't find time to go to Church on Sunday, as the weekends were pretty much the only times that didn't suck, and I wanted to maximize my free time. I ended up not going to mass between '02 and '06, and my life took a turn for the worse. I didn't get into crazy trouble, but I went to work as a bouncer because I liked beating people up even though I didn't need the money, and probably started dabbling in border-line alcoholism. It all kind of culminated when I took the money my parents had given me to buy my Aggie ring, and blew it all on a hooker and gambling in Louisiana.

I came back from the trip feeling pretty low, I had no way to explain to my parents what happened to my ring money, and they'd definitely notice when I didn't have my aggie ring in a few months, so I was in a pretty sticky scenario. I took myself to mass for the first time in several years, and while sitting in the pews, I literally saw "scales" (they really looked like pieces of a shaded flat egg-shell that had been cracked and started flaking away) fall from my eyes. The only way I can describe the effect is that of when you've been driving for a long time, and you've forgotten you're wearing sunglasses, and you take them off and are astounded how bright it is, and can't believe how you forgot you were wearing glasses the whole time.

After mass, I drove to my parents house in Cypress (30-45 minutes away) and they were both waiting for me outside their garage, when I hadn't told them I was coming. They both said they'd both been struck by the notion that I was coming home and had come to wait for me. We ended up getting my life back on track, they gave me money to buy my aggie ring, and I really dove back into my Catholicism (although I didn't really fall IN LOVE with the Church again until a few years down the road), so all's well.

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Fascinating. Thank you for posting your story, despite the push-back I'm sure you knew you would get from the skeptics. Are you a Bobcat, by chance (high-school)?

Heh, actually went there also way back in 2003.

Bobcat class of 02! BFND

06!

Small world man.

It is an interesting question on whether or not other people could see them.

I believe, sometimes, things are there, and we can see them, even if they are not physical (not that I am saying that physical scales did not fall from your eyes. I wasn't there).

Studies show/suggest that the brain can physically change its wiring during major events like this. Even if the scales were not physical, you know for yourself if they were really "there", so blow off these other guys.

[Sorry, meant to reply to BustUp.]

There were no actual scales that fell from my eyes, if I didn't make that more clear I'm sorry. I had the vision of scales falling from my eyes, there was nothing literally covering them. The egg comment was try to explain what the phenomenon looked like.

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Did you tell this to your parents / grandparents? Is this a story that you retell often?

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I asked my grandfather and father to look through the magnifying glass to see if they could also see the newspaper. Unfortunately, they could not. They didn't look hard. I'm sure they thought I was playing around or something. I wish I had tried to copy what I saw onto a piece of paper. I would love to know what it said, if it said anything real at all. Unfortunately, I can't recall the level of detail to reproduce what I saw that day. If there was a way to go back to relive a memory, I would try to do this. I read a little Hindi now, so that might make it easier as well.

I've told this story one other time online, and I'll usually tell it if people are talking about strange things that have happened to them. My family has quite a few strange stories. I've asked my dad if he remembers this particular incident, but he does not.

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I like this story! I think you are in a losing battle with the skeptics, but you already knew that going into your post. I appreciate the post nonetheless!

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Appreciate the heck out of you AR

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Did you tell this to your parents / grandparents? Is this a story that you retell often?

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I asked my grandfather and father to look through the magnifying glass to see if they could also see the newspaper. Unfortunately, they could not. They didn't look hard. I'm sure they thought I was playing around or something. I wish I had tried to copy what I saw onto a piece of paper. I would love to know what it said, if it said anything real at all. Unfortunately, I can't recall the level of detail to reproduce what I saw that day. If there was a way to go back to relive a memory, I would try to do this. I read a little Hindi now, so that might make it easier as well.

I've told this story one other time online, and I'll usually tell it if people are talking about strange things that have happened to them. My family has quite a few strange stories. I've asked my dad if he remembers this particular incident, but he does not.

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Very cool. I can't remember anything from when I was 5 except the crazy funeral thing.

I only ask about you retelling the story as your memory of the event is as fascinating to me as the actual phenomenon. I have heard that sometimes, if a story is retold a lot, we make memories of our memories, and things get more vivid as we remember events often.

I wonder if recalling your newspaper type is worth some hypnosis? That does actually work for long term recall, sometimes, but can be expensive.

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If that was the case, and it was an immaterial vision, there would be no tangible difference between that and a hallucination, correct?

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Dunno.

Maybe. Maybe not.

This might interest you

http://science.time.com/2013/11/19/remember-that-no-you-dont-study-shows-false-memories-afflict-us-all/

False memory syndrome. We all do it/have it

http://mobile.nytimes.com/2015/05/15/nyregion/witness-accounts-in-midtown-hammer-attack-show-the-power-of-false-memory.html?referrer=&_r=0

In first grade my all the classes had a picnic day in the park. I was running around the woods with a friend exploring and we both swore we saw a shack with a bunch of guys acting suspicious. We told the teacher and nothing was found. I was convinced I had seen it but with age I realize my imagination ran wild.

As you might have guessed, this happened to me.

I swore that someone had said X to me in front of 60 people, just before I suffered a concussion at football practice. He really said Y. I thought that all 60 people just had it out to play a joke on me. It took me a long time to realize my mind just made it up that he said X.

Memory is weird.

But, when more than one person is involved, it is a lot easier to corroborate.

When more than one person is there you can do some corroboration but you also have to worry that they may bias each other or feed off of what each other claims to have seen. It can be easy to convince yourself another's claim is your experience. The mind really does play tricks on you

This is why we do things like interview people separately

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I thought yall were kindred spirits. The condescending remarks of "did you save any scale samples" certainly point towards my mental instability.

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LHoward is on a different atheistic plane than MrMeek. Waaaaaaaaay different.

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All athiests are the same. What could possibly be the difference between one athiest and another?!? What do you mean by howard is on a different plane than meek?

I'm on Southwest and he's on Aeroflot

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I think the difference is the enthusiasm with which they reject religion. I think meek is usually a pretty rational poster, and from that comparison, I'm guessing that this other guy deals in insults and the like more than argument.

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Shoot, you must not post much. He labels God as the only being deserving of Hell, and as an evil despicable beast frequently. He calls people who claim to witness miracles subhuman charlatan despicable beasts. He longs for the day when Christianity is gone from America, and is generally extremely condescending and insulting to Christians and our God. To say he's not as bad as LHoward is not saying much.

You should post more, I appreciate your posts and viewpoint.

I do believe I've said he is the only being that would deserve hell. That's about all you got right. Please continue to call me other posters on every thread. It really helps the quality of dialogue here

Howard is straight forward with his hatred of religion. He uses a "tough love" approach when he posts. Note that I'm not sure about the love part. He comes off as incredibly condescending. No doubt a bright guy that would be a positive addition with less attack and more tact. That's whats bothersome. His opening posts are like throwing a baseball at someone's head on the 1st pitch of the game.

Meek is well studied on these subjects and presents good points/counter points. If he finds something ridiculous he likes to point it out with little to no patience. He loves sparring but, I think that comes from being somewhat young. He has energy to go back and forth for pages.

So.. That's the difference.

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I do believe I've said he is the only being that would deserve hell. That's about all you got right. Please continue to call me other posters on every thread. It really helps the quality of dialogue here

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On the Fatima thread you didn't call those who claimed to see miracles despicable humans, liars and charlatans?

I called the liars of Fatima charlatans. I do think that without religion we would be better off with one less hyper polarizing thing for us to get pissy about and fight over. I don't think that will ever happen and I don't desire to persecute believers.

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I thought yall were kindred spirits. The condescending remarks of "did you save any scale samples" certainly point towards my mental instability.

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LHoward is on a different atheistic plane than MrMeek. Waaaaaaaaay different.

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All athiests are the same. What could possibly be the difference between one athiest and another?!? What do you mean by howard is on a different plane than meek?

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This comment is very small minded. It is like saying all Jews, Muslims, or Christians are the same. I have not been posting on this board long, but in my short time doing so, I have encountered a few really interesting and insightful atheists. The OP ranks right up there at the top. Stick around a bit and learns something...maybe even a little about yourself.

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I called the liars of Fatima charlatans. I do think that without religion we would be better off with one less hyper polarizing thing for us to get pissy about and fight over. I don't think that will ever happen and I don't desire to persecute believers.

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You didnt call them despicable human beings? You also claimed that the declining Christianity of the US was "the closest thing to a miracle you've ever seen" and that a non-Christian US would be a more moral society.