I submit to you fellow ATSers an absolutely true story, witnessed and partaken by my mother, brother, myself and over 400 bingo players in a small
country town. Grab a drink, sit back and enjoy.
When my brother and I were in our early 20's, we were both seeking and learning about all things metaphysical on a rather large scale. During that
period we stumbled on some information about visualizations, which many of you probably know about or have experienced. Visualization is the art of
visualizing clearly an event, item, or thing that you want to occur in real life, and also usually involves some form of meditation to propel these
energies into motion. Well, after a period of practicing how it is done (and this varies), we decided that we would try our luck at winning a bingo
game.
You see, our mother was working every Monday night at a community center bingo hall handling the financials of the game as it went on, and was
responsible for the accounting and handing out of the prize money for each game played. (For any of you not familiar with how bingo games for money
work, please research). We had played many games there before (with not much luck) and were very familiar with the hall and seating layout.
So one Monday afternoon my brother and I got together a few hours before the game and setup a visualization routine, with the specific intent of
visualizing us winning that night. We both sat in a closed, quiet room at home and started by doing a basic meditation to clear our minds. Once "in
the zone", we started slowly talking out loud about where we were going to sit exactly, and designated two chairs next to each other at a specific
table that we both knew because again, we were very familiar with the hall, and we knew from experience how packed the place always was. We wanted to
insure that we were going to get seats.
Then we moved on into talking about the game itself, and I can remember vividly my brother at one point jumping up from the seat with a lot of
emotion. "And in the 5th game, I am going to jump up like this and yell 'BINGO!!!", he nearly screamed. I mean we were INTO this. We FELT it, there
in our little ritual. "And in the 7th game I am going to jump up and yell "BINGO!!!", I said as I followed his example, albeit with not quite the
enthusiasm he had. We then proceeded to visualize together the color green, and the money in our hands. At each step we paused for a minute and
reaffirmed in our minds quietly the plans as they developed. Once complete, we were about to leave in my car when our mother, just home from running
errands, pulled up in her green car asking us if we were going and if we wanted a ride. We both looked at the green car, smiled at each other and
jumped right on in.
10 minutes later, we pulled into the parking lot, climbed the stairs, and mom took her usual trek to the back room behind the stage while my brother
and I waited in line to buy tickets. The place was packed, and way packed. But the line moved quickly and there we stood in front of the girl that
somewhat knew us cause our mom worked there. "OH, aren't you *******'s boys?" she asked. "Yeah, how's it going?" I said. "Hang on, I've got
something for you from the director, cause he said you guys might be coming tonight." (We had told our mom that we were going to be there, and every
time we'd go once in a while, there was always that apprehension of "we're the accountants kids," which could potentially be a conflict of
interest. But the people were always very nice, insisting that they didn't care cause it was a bingo game, with an air machine, and they knew we had
the same chances of winning as everyone else, with no chance of any kind of fraud.) "Here," she said, "compliments of the director," and handed us
each a ticket. He looked at his, I looked at mine. Green tickets. Comps. Never had seen em before.
After we thanked her profusely, we made the quick turn left onto the stairs, and gazed down at the hall. Packed to the brim, except for two seats,
right where we had envisioned. "Wow," I said and turned to my brother who was lit up with glee. "This is gonna be interesting," he laughed. We
worked our way through the crowd to the seats. "These seats taken?" my brother said to a smiling lady sitting next to the empty seats. "Nope," she
said in a friendly voice. So we sat down and no sooner had our butts hit the chairs, a hand from behind me reached over our shoulders with two
programs, bingo cards and two bottle type liquid bingo markers. We both looked up. "How ya doing guys?" said the director, "Glad you could make
it." We just changed those programs this afternoon, see if you like them." We looked at the programs and the bingo markers. Green. As if not knowing
what to say, my brother and I just kind of stared at each other in disbelief. "Wow, thanks so much," my brother said, and I concurred. "It's been
a while since we've seen you, and well, your mom's been working so hard for us, it's the least we could do." And off he went with a smile back to
his duties, getting ready to call the show onstage.
Quickly reflecting on all that had just happened, we were even more stunned to discover that we had the only two green programs and bingo markers as
far as we could see in the hall.
So the games begin, and right after the first game, along came the girl from the front with a couple of complimentary drinks for us. "Here you guys,
I grabbed these glasses from the kitchen, only ones we had left," and off she went in a hurry to tend to the crowd. We looked down. Green glasses.
"Oh my God," exclaimed my brother, and we definately tripped. Again. Games two and three went by pretty quickly, and I could tell my brother was
getting a little nervous. Neither of us was close to winning so far. On game four however, he got 4 in a row within the first 10 numbers called,
pretty fast, and got excited. But nope, someone else bingoed after several more numbers.
Taking a quick breather, he said "Well I guess this is it," anticipating the next 5th game. Game starts, first number called, "Got it," he said.
Second number called, "Got it." Third number, "Got it". I looked over and they were in a straight line. Fourth number called, "Don't got it."
Fifth number called, "Got it." Again in the line. Sixth number called "Don't got it." Seventh number called and before I could look, I must have
heard the loudest bingo in history, as my brother jumped up screaming "BIIIIIINNNNNNGGGGOOOOOO!!!!!" The crowd went silent, staring at my brother in
disbelief. The director came running down from the stage staring at the card, marked neatly in green. "My God, that is the first time in the history
of the center anyone has bingoed in 7, and we've been doing this for 35 years! Let me see that." He grabs the card, runs back to the stage and
examines the card against the balls. "Amazing!" he says over the microphone. "He got it!" Erupting in a standing ovation, some of the crowd went
to the stage, and some came running over to congratulate and ritually touch my brother for good luck.
After a noticeably long time, Mom finally came out from behind stage and handed the director an envelope with an apprehensive look on her face, almost
as if the bank had been broken. "$ 950.00," she said, "That's the most the center has ever paid for a single regular game. I just looked it up."
The crowd cheered again. She was about to walk off stage when she noticed who the crowd was cheering. I'll never forget the look on her face. But she
quickly regained her composure, and without further ado, waltzed right back to her little office shaking her head.
So after this episode, the crowd finally calmed down, and we all went back to playing. 6th game, pretty non eventful, went kinda slow. "Well, I hope
it's my turn now," I said as I glanced at my brother. He had the strangest look on his face, and was obviously drawn into contemplating the deeper
reality of what was happening with the visualizations we had done. "Yeah man, I'm still just tripping over this," he said incredulously. "Good
Luck."
7th Game. First number..."Got it," I said. Second number. "Don't got it." Third number. ..."Got it". Fourth number. "Got it in line". Fifth
number. ..."Got it in line." Sixth number. "Don't got it." Seventh number. "Don't got it." ...."You've got 4 inline?" Says my brother.
"Yeah. I said." Eighth number. Marked my card, and was flying out of my seat. "BINGOOO!!!" I yelled. But so did someone else in the crowd at the
same time. Director says "Wow, a bingo in 7 and now a bingo in 8? With two people? This is amazing, all in one night!"
The crowd applauded, and again Mom took longer than usual to emerge from backstage, looking like someone had killed the cat. "$575.00 split two
ways," she said as she handed two envelopes to the director, and then whispered something in his ear. "You have some real lucky sons," I overheard
the director say, leaning away from the mic. My mother, not really thinking about what he had said, was nearly back in her office when she spun around
and looked back towards our table incredulously. I just smiled and held up the envelope. Gotta love Mom.
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Well, needless to say, my brother and I were amazed. But interestingly, neither one of us mentioned this whole event much after all these years, and
only told a select few people about it. We never tried anything like that again together, although we did separately a few times on different subjects
(as in not bingo games), again with success. We talked about it a while back, and I think we were both so taken aback by the sheer power of it, that
we decided to leave well enough alone. Almost out of fear that we would fail the next time if we tried. Yeah, we thought about the lottery, and all
kinds of stuff. Just haven't tried, don't know why, really. Anyhoo, hope you folks enjoyed the read. And good luck with your visualizations.
[edit on 16-11-2004 by TrueAmerican]