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In a way this book began at a Monday morning planning meeting at
Interval Research, a wide-ranging research lab in Palo Alto. My
husband David, a scientist there, learned of a new research project
within the company exploring paranormal or psychic phenomena. Dr.
Dean Radin, the head of the project, mentioned that they were looking
for
people to take part in a new series of experiments.
David thought I might be a good subject. Just a few days earlier,
I had woken up from a dream saying, "I just saw the housekeeper's
son throwing up." The next minute the phone rings and it's
the housekeeper, calling to say she can't come in because her son
is throwing up. David explained that this was fairly typical of
me.
Dean asked him to bring me in to Interval, suggesting I write down
all the psychic experiences I could remember and bring them with
me. Fortunately, my niece Valerie was visiting and happily offered
to type in the stories while I told them to her. Valerie knew my
history and titled the file "Psychic Auntie Gail."
Memories of incidents flooded my mind. I had never thought about
writing them down. Before we knew it we had ten pages and dozens
of stories.
At the lab, David introduced me to Dr. Radin, and to Russell Targ
- another leading paranormal researcher. Hours later, I had summarized
the incidents in Psychic Auntie Gail and other unexplainable events
from my life - like knowing information about a birth, death, or
accident before it happens, and picking up accurate information
from dreams. Among them:
"A Catered Funeral": I hired a woman in her late 20's
to work for me in the catering business, and met her husband. The
next week I dreamed he was going to die. Within two weeks the young,
healthy man was dead with a rare heart virus.
"Dream on Request": My sister Laurie calls during the
last weeks of her pregnancy saying, "How come you haven't had
a dream yet? You usually know what the baby is going to be by now."
I say, "I'll ask for a dream."
The phone is ringing. When I pick it up I hear Laurie's voice say
it's a girl, eight pounds six ounces.
I called and told Laurie the dream. Two weeks later as she lay on
the delivery table she was a bit surprised when the Doctor said,
"It's a girl, eight pounds six ounces."
"The Mustang": My father-in-law had his hand on the door
to get in the Mustang. That second, I saw an entire car accident
in my mind. Minutes later, a drunk driver crossed the divider and
hits the front and rear of the Mustang, totaling the car. I was
more shocked by having seen the accident before it occurred than
from the accident itself.
"Airplanes": My first husband is a pilot. On several occasions
I saw hazards and accidents my husband was experiencing in the air
(or the landing strip) in detail as they occurred.
"Deaths": I experienced the deaths of relatives and loved
ones - my mother, my uncle Willie, my first boyfriend - from great
distances. I not only know the moment they die without being contacted
- I feel their symptoms and final breaths.
Two
and a half hours passed before a researcher noticed we had gone
way over our scheduled one hour interview. No one seemed to mind
- they kept listening to each story and asking more questions. And
as they asked I remembered more incidents.
Eventually the scientists decided they should attend some of their
other meetings for the day. They said they looked forward to working
with me in their upcoming research. Soon I would be a subject in
their 'remote viewing' experiments - sketching photographs that
I would be shown an hour later.
"I wish we'd taped this interview," Dean said, shaking
his head. "You should write a book." Russell came up and
said the same thing. I've heard this many times, but I have to thank
Russell and Dean for encouraging me to write Small Medium At Large.
This book is that seed planted years ago, sprouted.
Why "Small Medium At Large - Adventures of a Psychic Traveler"
?
I'm 4'11". I was 4 pounds at birth. I'm small.
"What is a medium?" you might ask.
To Russell Targ, a medium is "someone whose awareness transcends
beyond ordinary understanding of space and time." Others would
say a medium travels from one world or plane to another and communicates
with the spirits of deceased people. I have had such experiences.
I've been inside the bodies of distant loved ones, knowing just
what happened to them and confirming it later, with no conventional
way of knowing. Once I even heard another voice speaking through
me. But I don't think of myself as a 'medium'.
Still, there are no conventional explanations for many of my experiences.
By the accounts of family, friends, experts, and even strangers,
I do seem to be 'psychic'. I've rarely considered it a unique talent,
but I've never denied it either, and it runs deeply through my life,
my family, and this book.
Mostly, this is a book about my travels and adventures - physical,
spiritual and sometimes unexplainable. The Interval scientists started
out interested in my paranormal life. But they wound up asking a
hundred questions about my other astonishing journeys. Before exiting
the womb, I took a trip to the hospital in a stolen Cadillac. Since
then I have lived and traveled in frankfurter trucks, ambulances,
camper shells, Bentleys and Porsches, and everything in between.
My journey has taken me all over North America and to China, Malaysia,
Philippines, Japan and Europe. And as I've traveled I've dreamed
exactly what was going to happen the next day, or sent and received
messages from across the globe without a telephone. It's all one
fabric.
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