Lively accounts of visitations from the unknown
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‘The Mysterious, The Mystical and The Unexplained’ is the title of Bernie Hay’s latest publication.
Having enjoyed two of her previous publications, ‘Lives that Touched My Own’ and ‘Love Learning and Laughter’ I tried to guess what this book may contain.
Has she written some horror stories I wondered. Impatient to know what the book may contain I read it in one go.
It was a real feast. A delightful experience, for Bernie writes with such ease and sincerity. Each story is like an episode in a tele-play. The stories are not at all scary, all her ‘visitors from the other world’ seem to be of the benevolent kind, even a ten-year-old child can read and enjoy them.
Bernie has recorded twenty one interesting stories in this book, some her own experiences with the paranormal and some related to her by her family members and two of her friends.
She mentions a few coincidences too, which she thinks are extraordinary, hence worthy of attention.
An interesting story is about a premonition of a driver. The lady who employed him had been compelled to change her day’s schedule, at the insistence of the driver, as a result of which they were able to escape death. They had escaped the biggest bomb blast in Colombo- the Central Bank bomb blast.
This incident clearly illustrates the fact that there are certain things that happen to us which are completely unexpected and unforeseen. However, this is one of the mysteries beyond our comprehension and explanation.
I would like to get back to Bernie’s first story. ‘The Cloud figure’, her very first experience of a ghost as a three year-old.
It relates the story of a dead woman’s ghost ‘paying a visit’ to her small child. Strangely the child too having sensed the presence of her ‘mother’ had gone out of her room crying out ‘Amma, Amma.’
The ghost that cried is another interesting incident. Here she tells us about the spirit of a carpenter, ‘Seeking solace in familiar places’, paying a visit to Bernie’s house one night.
‘Terror in the night’, the story of a dead girl’s spirit combing her hair, related to her by her mother is another amazing story. In another story she writes about haunted rooms and unidentified voices emanating from those rooms.
Yet another moving story she had heard from her grandmother is about her two aunts, who had been inseparable. Lily the aunt Bernie had never seen and the other aunt Rose.
Lily’s sudden death had completely changed the four year-old Rose, who had been inconsolable and “crying her little heart out” pining for little Lily. She had been looking emaciated and ceased to be the lively little bouncing girl she had been.
However after Lily’s apparition paid her a visit one night, as witnessed by her grandmother, everything had changed for the better.
Is there a bond between the dead and the living or are they interdependent, the reader may ask. There seems to be a strong relationship between the living and the dead as shown by this story.
The story of Marihamy Amme’s spirit cleaning ‘her’ feet on the doormat and the dog which was very much alive, whining and scratching at the door cannot be brushed aside as a mere figment of a child’s imagination.
The story of a friend’s ‘dead mother’ paying him a visit and the ‘distinct glow’ he had noted around her body leads us to believe that everything does not end after death.
‘The bathing scene’ at the old well related by her grandfather is another amazing story. He had seen a bevy of young girls bathing at this particular well, around ten in the night. This well had not been in use for at least ten years he had found out later.Who were these bathers? Were they spirits? If so, whose spirits were they?
The best answer to these mysteries had been given by Bernie’s grandmother.
Her comment had been, “There are mysteries in this world we can never hope to fathom.”
Power of prayer and the manifestation of holy figures in the hour of need are not altogether unexpected miracles, for most Sri Lankans in spite of a variety of religious beliefs have strong faith in prayer and such miracles.
With all her academic qualifications–a Bachelor of Arts, from the University of Ceylon (Peradeniya) a Post Graduate Diploma in Education T.E.S.L. at the University of Colombo, and a Master of Philosophy in Edu. Linguistics from the University of Colombo and all her scholarly achievements Bernie is definitely aware of what she is writing. Her experiences, though they are of the ‘other world’ as I would like to call them, are ‘real experiences’ she has had no doubt.
Giving all due credit to the scientists who tell us about the living and the non-living who inhabit our environment, we cannot deny the fact that there are many ‘Other beings’ who share the environment with us.
Going through Bernie Hay’s interesting and remarkable stories we are compelled to accept the fact that there’s ‘another world’ beyond the screen of the mundane world.
Only those like Bernie Hay who are blessed with the ‘Third Eye’ are able to see what is beyond the mundane world.
Her remarkable and unusual experiences have given us a glimpse of the other world where all those ‘other beings’ exist.
(The reviewer is a former Principal, Wattegama Central College, Wattegama).