Opinions needed: I don’t believe in Telepathy or Supernatural, but……

[Tinami Amori]

..... Something very strange happened right in front of my eyes, and being a person who does not believe in anything that can not be explained scientifically, I hope the following occurrence has a scientific or at least a reasonable explanation….

My friends from New York have a daughter who 2 years ago was accepted to UC Berkeley. My friends asked me to keep an eye on her and to chaperon her a bit, so I do..

Her name is Anna, she is now 21 years old, very intelligent, decent, dynamic girl, who also does not believe in “supernatural”.

First year on campus she met the guy of her dreams - Dmitry; not her first love, she had boyfriends before, but her first Big Love. They dated for 7-8 months, and then decided to live together in an apartment. For Anna, besides her school, Dmitry was the main subject in her life.

Dmitry is 8 years older than Anna, in graduate school, and all his friends are much older, late 20’s/early 30’s. I spent time with both of them together, and was left with an impression that he is a very nice intelligent fellow, but Anna is very young, and he is much more mature and it shows, and he lets Anna feel it….. Anna does feel like a “little girl” in his presence who needs to prove herself. She was quite insecure about the “maturity difference”, and not being smart enough around him and his friends.

Eventually the “maturity issue” did take a tall on their relationship; Anna started to feel he is loosing interest and spending less time with her, and instead of “shaping up knowledge wise” and letting him “miss her” by making her self less available, became more demanding and whiny about spending more time together and bugging him “what’s wrong honey”…

Two weeks ago Anna and Dmitry decided to move apart. Anna said she could no longer handle the indifference and could not stand living "like room-mates" with a man whom she loves so much.

When moving out Anna was under the impression that they are not ending it, but taking time apart to see how things will go in the future.

She packed her bags, moved in with friends, and 2 days later went back East to stay with her parents for 4 days. During that time she had no contact with Dmitry, but her parents called me several times, saying she is crying all the time, and thinks of nothing but Dmitry.

Her girlfriend was supposed to pick her up from the airport upon Anna’s return, but could not, so she asked me if I can pick her up instead instead. I agreed.

The girlfriend also told me “I don’t know how to tell Anna, but I saw Dmitry on campus, and he told me that he is dating a new girl….. that girl is a smash, beautiful, smart, really nice….. I hope Anna does not expect to reconcile with Dmitry, he sounds freshly in-love and total bewitched by this new girl.. Maybe you (she meant me) can break it to Anna gently”.

I was not thrilled about such a role, but when I met Anna, while we were driving to her new residence, did tell her that Dmitry has a new girlfriend.

Anna’s new residence is right next to UC Berkeley Campus. I had to park my car in the campus, under the Student Union Building garage to walk with Anna to her apartment with her luggage. We took the elevator from parking into the Student Union foyer and Anna had to use a rest-room.

We walk into the rest-room, it’s empty except for 1 girl standing over a sink, brushing her hair…. I immediately notice the girl, she was special! she is a pretty, elegant, charming being with a great figure, looking like a European movie star….Rachel Weisz’s look-alike, so I thought.

Anna, in a matter of less than a second, abruptly turns to the girl and asks her straight on: Are you the girl who is now dating Dmitry S.?

The girl turns around and replies, surprised, reluctantly but pleasantly: Yes….. and who are you?...... I don’t think we met…. How do you know I am dating Dmitry? We met only one week ago and I have not met any of this friends….

Anna replies “I am Anna”…… The Girl replies… “I am not sure who you are, he did not mention anyone named Anna….. I know he has a sister, but she is older, married and lives in Dallas”….

Anna’s head starts spinning (apparently), she is close to fainting, and I help her and take her out of the bathroom…. She is silent all the way home, asks me to leave her alone when we reach her door. I leave at that time, and learn the next day from her room-mates that she slept for 20 hours straight, and her hair turned a little gray….

Now I am wondering…… how the heck was she able to identify that the girl in the bathroom is Dmitry’s new girlfriend?

I don’t believe in supernatural or telepathy or vibes or any hokus-pokus stuff…… There must be something scientific in all of this……

I know in extreme situations people can exhibit intensified physical strength when facing danger, like a mother holding up a 200 kg tree to prevent it from falling on her child…. But this situation is not about physical strength…

Is there a scientific name for what happened with Anna? I so hope there is…..

Opinions and information would be greatly appreciated!

[Jackie Sparrow]

I do believe that there are phenomena that we are simply not able to understand or at least not able to understand. I think there are energies out there that we are not able to understand but might be able to be explained from a scientific point of view.

Humans know a lot but not all

[Nan]

Sorry, I can't offer a scientific explanation, but I have witnessed and experienced similar things. I know I don't know everything about the world and the way things work so I just think of these as energy "explosions," much like Jackie said.

[Jenny]

I do believe that there are phenomena that we are simply not able to understand or at least not able to understand. I think there are energies out there that we are not able to understand but might be able to be explained from a scientific point of view.

Humans know a lot but not all

Agree completely - the very idea that we understand all the workings of the universe at this point in time is ridiculous; there is much yet to discover.

I think it's entirely possible that Anna's passion for Dmitry and her increased sensitivity during this difficult and emotional time allowed her to immediately recognize her rival.

It's also possible that in her state, having just learned of Dmitry's betrayal, she might have confronted the first woman she saw, and maybe others too. It is perhaps not coincidence that Dmitry's girl was there - he might have met her in the course of being in the same areas as Anna on the campus.

[BlueRidge]

Yes, the scientific term for this is coincidence.

[El Rey]

It's also possible that in her state, having just learned of Dmitry's betrayal, she might have confronted the first woman she saw, and maybe others too. It is perhaps not coincidence that Dmitry's girl was there - he might have met her in the course of being in the same areas as Anna on the campus.

This. and it just happened to be her. coincidence.

[FigureSpins]

Sounds less like "supernatural" and more like "setup." The student union is usually a gathering place, so odds were that they'd cross paths at some point.

Perhaps the new gf lied about never hearing Anna's name before and wanted to make an appearance to unnerve Anna ... or Dmitry set them both up to run into each other in the hopes of avoiding/creating a confrontation. Was Anna texting in the car on the way there? A well-meaning friend could have even tipped off the others.

I also wonder if Anna didn't read about the new gf on Facebook and maybe even see a photo, if she took your news so well at first.
I'd have to assume that she was "friends" on Facebook with Dmitry, so all she had to do was check his page if he had a photo of his new love.
(Many hs/college kids post couple photos as their profile photos when the relationship is new and shiny.)

[Satellitegirl]

Yeah I'd say it was either coincidence, or you were not let in on some information.

[snoopy]

Yeah I'd say it was either coincidence, or you were not let in on some information.

Yeah it is this ..or I think we can put things together without realizing we are doing it. Like Anna knew what type of girl Dimtry liked and saw these characteristics in this woman. At work, I can sometimes infer “secrets” based on other pieces of information. It is not telepathy but a form of analysis. I’m not always right but my hit rate is pretty good.

[LadyNit]

The important thing to focus on is that Anna will be mourning the loss of this relationship for the immediate future. She's seen the rival. She's faced with the fact that her lover has truly left her for someone else. As a friend, I hope you can just help her to move on. Dmitry surely has.

[Cyn]

While the cynic in me says that there is something to this story that is missing, due to my own experience with "supernatural" "psychic forces" or what ever you want to call it I cannot say for certain that there is not some sort of psychic energy out there.

[susan6]

Chalk it up to coincidence.....or possibly some sort of subtle pheromone or other chemical marking/scent that the human animal picks up. I mean, women living in the same apartment start synching up their cycles due to these things; maybe your friend just unconsciously picked up on some of Dmitry's "scent" on this girl and immediately "knew" her as her rival.

Subtle and unlikely, but I'd buy that before I'd buy some supernatural mumbo jumbo. (Coincidence is the most likely thing here.)

[Rob]

Yes, the scientific term for this is coincidence.

Yeah, the answer was either yes or no so she had a 50-50 chance of getting it right. She got it right.

[SceneIt]

I also wonder if Anna didn't read about the new gf on Facebook and maybe even see a photo, if she took your news so well at first. I'd have to assume that she was "friends" on Facebook with Dmitry, so all she had to do was check his page if he had a photo of his new love.
(Many hs/college kids post couple photos as their profile photos when the relationship is new and shiny.)

^This.

[MacMadame]

how the heck was she able to identify that the girl in the bathroom is Dmitry’s new girlfriend?

She guessed and happened to be correct. Also, the guess was based on intuition about which a lot is known scientifically. It's pretty powerful and it is logical but most of the time we can't explain our thought processes so it seems "magical".

[Norlite]

I sense things like this often. Either about people or happenings or whatever. I believe we can sense other's thoughts or feelings, not like telepathy or esp particularly, just intuitive pick ups.


Or she saw her on facebook.

Either one is plausible.

[BittyBug]

Yeah, the answer was either yes or no so she had a 50-50 chance of getting it right. She got it right.

We should page Theatergirl or Pushkin for this one, but I don't think that just because something has a binary outcome (yes or no) that the chances for either outcome are equal. I think you'd need to look at the # of girls who could have been in that bathroom and then the chance that it was her was 1 out of that many girls.

At any rate, my theory on things like this is that they only seem eerie because we remember the guesses that happen to be correct and quickly dismiss all of the things we've thought that didn't turn out to be correct. If the girl hadn't turned out to be Dmitry's new GF, you wouldn't have thought twice about the incident, nor would you have thought, "Gee, Anna doesn't have ESP."

[IceAlisa]

Yes, the scientific term for this is coincidence.

Yup. She was in a vulnerable state, having just found out that he is dating a new woman and correctly surmising she would be attractive and perhaps have a European vibe. The first girl who fit that description happened to be her.

[Veronika]

Or she saw her on facebook.

That seems like a good guess to me. Or Anna just knew what type of women her ex likes.

[Jenny]

The girlfriend also told me “I don’t know how to tell Anna, but I saw Dmitry on campus, and he told me that he is dating a new girl….. that girl is a smash, beautiful, smart, really nice….. I hope Anna does not expect to reconcile with Dmitry, he sounds freshly in-love and total bewitched by this new girl.. Maybe you (she meant me) can break it to Anna gently”.

<snip>

We walk into the rest-room, it’s empty except for 1 girl standing over a sink, brushing her hair…. I immediately notice the girl, she was special! she is a pretty, elegant, charming being with a great figure, looking like a European movie star….Rachel Weisz’s look-alike, so I thought.

Putting on my detective hat for a minute, we're forgetting that there was a third person in the room when this happened.

Is it possible that Tinami's reaction to the woman, after having just told Anna there was another woman, led Anna to believe it was her?