The Preying Mantis

Here is something true, yet quite wild. All this stuff happened in a short period of time, much of it within a few hours.

I was at a local grocery store and I came out and there are three crows near my vehicle. So I'm thinking "death." Crows are associated with death from my understanding.

So I'm driving and I noticed something in the road. I wasn't sure what it was and came back by later. It was a medium sized turtle on his back, legs out head out, I guess he was dead. It seemed smaller the first time I saw it. I noticed the light colors on the bottom of the shell matched the legs and head, for some reason that didn't seem right. Anyway, earlier I was running a weed eater, and I saw something black (ghostly) swoosh up from the ground in front of me. Hallucination? Read on.

So I'm home and mom gets a phone call. Mom is upset, my aunt was having a heart attack.

Mom goes on to work (she works midnight shift). I think around the time she got another call, saying that they didn't think my aunt would make it, mom sees a Preying Mantis in the bathroom, on a toilet paper roll. She said it was like it was telling her to pray. Oh, one more thing. My brother and his wife had a preying mantis hanging around the outside of one of their windows. I guess it was there a few days, I never heard if it left. I remember my brother saying he was going to see how long the Preying Mantis was going to hang out there.

Anyway, my aunt made it through a quad bypass surgery, and lived. She's in the hospital now. I guess she cheated death?

Feel free to add your wild stories and/or comments here.

Troy

WOW! Talk about signs. This is not the fiorst time that I have eard of this but I still find it fasicinating. I guess some people may call this "Divine Intervention"

Pretty weird to encounter such a variety of animals in such a short period of time, especially in a big city. Crows I can understand, but I've only seen maybe three praying mantises all my life (How many have you seen, are they more common in your area?), and the only time I ever saw a turtle on the road was up north about 5 hours. Pretty crazy stuff.

Wow that's really something.
Your aunt must be quite a special person though, I wonder why it is that all this supernatural activity took place? Would you mind telling us anything about her that might be relevant? Is she very religious or something else like that?

All these signs are open to those that keep their awareness of their surroundings open.We just have to be open to the natural laws of nature.

Or maybe just a chance event?

Dont be so quick to relate things to each other if they make completely no sense by a physical means. You suggest divine or magical reason, I suggest wishful thinking and chance, but mostly wishful and paranoid thinking.

When it comes to life and death experiences will wishfull thinking be enough?

Understand that mom works in a hotel. A Preying Mantis needs to make it through double doors and into a bathroom door. Yes it could happen, but the coincidence with those two Preying Mantises makes it tough to dismiss. Honestly I really don't see Preying Mantises all that much., and to have one hanging out in your window, well I don't know how often that would happen?

"Signs" are not new to my family. My aunt is on my dad's side of the family. Now on my mom's side of the family there is another story of "signs."

Basically here is how it goes. There was this oval picture that would fall off the wall, and when it did there was a death in the family. True.

And another true story about my aunt. This is not a make believe story. My mom as a witness. My aunt believes that her clothes were "witched" one time in the past. Witch, spirit, whatever, it was wild. And here is what happened. Her clothes would be in the closet falling appart at the seems, mom could sit there and watch the clothes come apart at the seems. Her husbands clothes right beside of hers not affected.

My aunt did like to mess around with Tarot cards for one thing.

Originally posted by menguard
All these signs are open to those that keep their awareness of their surroundings open.We just have to be open to the natural laws of nature.

Totally agree, the human race is way out of sync with nature, and theres alot of things we dont pick up on that we should. Animals have exterordinary abilities to sense danger when its comming, humans should have this ability but just alot stronger, but were just not tuned in.

Originally posted by Raideur
Or maybe just a chance event?

Dont be so quick to relate things to each other if they make completely no sense by a physical means. You suggest divine or magical reason, I suggest wishful thinking and chance, but mostly wishful and paranoid thinking.

Disagree. There are some things that should be treated with skpetisim, but this I feel, is not one of them. Some people just arent open-minded enough.

my sympathy's are with you for your aunt. i am glad she is doing better.

in this sort of situation, it sounds like (and this is spelled wrong) couinsidence.

or maybe your imagination is noticing every day occerences and taking them to a new level. regardless of the fact belief and hope are very powerful tool and if this belief in these so called "signs" gives you hope, then by all means, go on with your bad self. well need hope in our lives and whatever brings it to us, commands at least MY respect.

Feel free to add your wild stories and/or comments here.

Troy

This happened about 15 years ago.
I used to work with a fellow who's wife died of lung cancer, though she was a nurse who never smoked. After she passed on, he raised their two daughters as a single dad. It was about a year from her diagnosis until she was gone. Around a month before she passed on she told him that she was going to send him some kind of a sign. He is a very honest, family-oriented, devout Catholic, and I honestly cannot see him lying about something this serious. Then, from her hospital bed a week before she passed on, she told him she knew what the sign would be....lightning.
I have only been to one funeral in my life, and it was scheduled for 1 P.M., one Saturday, at a local Catholic Church. As we arrived it was pouring rain out, really hard, the sky was completely filled by very thick, very low overcast clouds, and it made midday as dark as if it was dusk. We sat down, got settled in, and then boom, thunder, and the lights in the church went out for a couple of minutes. My friend told me that when the thunder struck, he immediately looked at his watch and, by coincidence, it was 1 o'clock on the dot. After the funeral was over we came out to find there wasn't a cloud in the sky; I looked in every direction.
Everything was soaked and dripping, yet the sun was shining.

Probably just a fluke that she told him lightning would be the sign, then at the set time of her funeral, at the church it was held in, lightning happened to strike. At least it was a comfort to her widow, my friend.

What exactly is an Preying Mantis ?

Gamerman, a praying mantis is an insect widely distributed throughout North America, New Zealand, Japan, and probably many other areas. They range anywhere from about 2-12 inches and come in a variety of colours, most often green.

I have only ever seen a few in my lifetime. I saw one in the woodpile in my backyard, my neighbour found one, and I accidentally caught one in a net thinking that it was a nice white butterfly going by (They develop wings in their "teen" stage.)


Frankly, they scare the crap out of me. If they were a little more rare, they would probably fall into the Cryptid catagory, because I would never believe these things exist until I saw them. Here are some pics:









[edit on 13-8-2005 by Yarcofin]

[edit on 13-8-2005 by Yarcofin]

Thanks for the great reply its called "kneler" in norwegian = transelated = Kneeler or Croucher .

But do peoples believe that the Preying Mantis has something to do with Paranormal or Psychic ?

For the first time in my life, I saw a preying mantis, in the flesh, just about a week ago. It was the coolest thing. It seems to rock back and forth at times, but mostly, it was very still, being very much aware of anything in its vicinity. The way it moved its head around was sooooo cool. I think they must be rare to see. Anyway, I was glad to see one.

Faeryland

Maybe there is some sort of weird, worldwide thing where mantises are multiplying rapidly and being seen everywhere. Sign? Maybe. Probably not though.

Usually happens with all sorts of bugs here, they have their "year". One year we had tons of earwigs really bad. Look down on the floor and there would be an earwig there. Shake out your shoes and they would be there. Kick a hedge and a dozen would fall out. I think last year was ladybugs, all over the outside and inside of the house inexplicably all summer, etc. This year it seems to be fruit flies. I sure hope a ton of praying mantises don't start appearing around my house, but I'll keep my eyes peeled.

I think I mostly don't like them because they are so big of bugs for this area, and they look so dangerous and alien-like with their huge eyes and weird scythe-like front arms. I agree they do move pretty cool though, the way they sway to mimic a leaf in a breeze and move like the perfect hunters.

Thanks for all the replys guys. Black Guard, cool story. I really think many people underestimate our abilities and our ability to percieve certain things.

My aunt was sent home the other day. So, hopefully she does well. Thanks umwolves for the sympathy.

Yeah, I've got more of these paranormal type stories stored in my mind.

Troy

[edit on 14-8-2005 by cybertroy]