Premonitions and coincidences

Last week my wife and I were in the parking ramp returning from the fitness center.  I had a feeling that our car might have been damaged and asked my wife if she had her camera. She replied that she did not.

When we got to our car, sure enough there was a big depression behind the tire.  We could even see tire tracks of the truck that had been parked next to us when we arrived.  At least I had my cell phone and called security.

Within a few minutes a security guard came and took notes.  She called a colleague who had a camera.  He came took a few pictures and promised to email them to me.  They both recommended that we also call 911 to report it.

I called 911, said it was a non-emergency, and gave the details.  Some minutes later a squad car arrived and that officer filled out a form and gave us a case number for our insurance company.  We are now waiting for a claims adjuster to look at our car.

My wife is disgusted about it but I'm amazed by it.  But not that amazed.

I'm taking a class at University for Seniors called "Religious Thinking and the Evolution of Christianity".  For the first half of the class we've watched a video by Lloyd Geering on Karl Jung's ideas about religion, basically that it arises out of archetypes in our brains.

A few members told about their own experiences of prayer and their belief that it had helped.

I was going to tell about the time that I woke in the middle of the night certain that a friend had died.  This was at least ten years ago and he is still alive.  On the other hand, my mother, my stepfather, my father and many other relatives died and I didn't know about their deaths until I got a phone call or a letter.  Some even I didn't know about until I found their names in the Social Security Death Index.

Similarly, I've many other premonitions of something being not right. For example, a garage door being left open.  Well, a few times we did leave it open.  But many other times we've come back and found it closed.

So, the incident above is a worry that I often have, but generally nothing had happened.  In other words, it was a coincidence that I had the worry and I was right.

Another coincidence happened after I talked with a friend who had been a nuclear submariner.  He said when they turned the key in drills they never knew if the missiles would stay put or be launched.  Now as a father, he is concerned about all the nuclear weapons that exist.

When I got home I found out that somebody had read my parody of nuclear proliferation, "New spear proliferation" from nearly two years ago.  I had given my friend my blog business card, but I doubt that he had had time to look at my blog by the time I saw the reference.

There have been a few times that I have thought of something, and something happened that had a connection to that thought.  But time after time I've thought of something and absolutely nothing related has happened.  What a coincidence!

More about being a psychiatrist than a Muslim?

I don't normally read Gary Kohls' column in the Weekly Reader, but the headline for his column this week caught my attention - "The Fort Hood Murders/Suicide and the Taboo Question", Reader Weekly, 2009-11-12.

Kohls proposition is that modern psychiatrists rather than talk with their patients in depth prescribe too many psychotropic drugs. These drugs can often lead to delusional, self-destructive behavior. Worse yet, some psychiatrists use these drugs themselves. Dr. Nidal Malik Hasan's behavior prior to and on the day of the killings reflects many of the symptoms of psychotropic drug use. Kohls claims that many of the shootings over the past decade have been related to psychotropic medications.

Kohls cites "Drug-Induced Dementia: A Perfect Crime" by Dr. Grace E. Jackson and "The Fort Hood Shooter: A Different Psychiatric Perspective" by Dr. Peter Breggin, Huffington Post, 2009-11-08.

Kohls doesn't write it but Dr. Breggin does, "… Major Nidal Malik Hasan was driven by religious ideology."

Which came first, the ideology or the drug-induced delusions? Was the delusional behavior overlooked because of "political correctness" in the Army?

BTW, I've noticed "political correctness" in news reports, "the alleged shooter". For crying out loud, if two cops are shooting at a guy running loose with a gun, how can he be an "alleged shooter"?

Dr. Breggin writes that too many Army psychiatrists are nothing but pill-pushers who are letting soldiers into combat by suppressing their symptoms and creating greater problems for them in the field.

Then Dr. Breggin reduces his own credibility by touting his book on "How to Live Like Our Heroic Founders". Not that some of them didn't live exemplary lives some of the time, but…

Whatever the biases and credentials of those commenting on the Fort Hood case, it should get more attention than some media coverage and a military or civil trial. Organizations and professions need to look long and hard at their practices.
This case should get more attention than some media coverage and a military or civil trial. Organizations and professions need to look long and hard at their practices.