How do we often know things which we shouldn’t really know?

By David McElroy · January 8, 2019

When I was in college, I knew someone who was going through a difficult academic semester. Finals were just starting, but she told me she had a terrible feeling something was wrong at home.

She called home — hundreds of miles away — to check on everything. Her mother assured her that everything was fine and told her to just concentrate on her finals. She went back to studying, but she couldn’t shake the feeling of dread that something terrible had happened.

She finally got through with finals and called home. She found that her family had decided to hide something from her. A grandmother who she had been very close to had died — right about the time she first started experiencing the apprehensive feeling that wouldn’t leave her alone. The family had decided not to tell her until finals were over — so as not to academically sidetrack the first person in her family to go to college.

The woman was convinced that she somehow knew something was wrong, even if she never could put her finger on it. I’ve experienced this oddness in my own life. For the second time in the last week, I’ve experienced one of those inexplicable feelings today — and I have no idea what I’m sensing.

I’m rational enough that there’s a part of me that wants to ignore such feelings. I certainly can’t prove they mean anything. I’ve tried talking myself into believing the things I’ve experienced have been coincidence, but something in my gut tells me that’s not true.

So I’m left in the odd position of believing something with firm conviction which I don’t really want to believe. I’m left believing that we have ways of communicating with each other — that our mind or spirit or something inside us somehow knows how to access information that doesn’t come through the five senses which we understand.

Late last Tuesday night — actually very early Wednesday morning — I started feeling something peculiar. It was hard to pinpoint when it started, but I suddenly knew it was there. I had no way to know what it was about or what I was feeling. I felt the strong need to talk about it or to start checking on people I cared about — to see if something traumatic or troubling was happening to them.

In my gut, I know there was something going on with someone — but it has more to do with pure instinct than with reason.

Every now and then in my life, I get an odd sensation that there’s something going on somewhere — right at that moment — which is going to affect my life in a major way or which is affecting the life of someone close to me. I can’t explain it and I certainly can’t provide any evidence that it means anything, but I’ve come to trust this odd sensation.

It’s a nervous feeling — which could be about something good or bad — but it feels as though something is going on in someone else’s mind or in a conversation or an argument or some other action which will end up having a huge impact on me. Rationally, I can’t say it’s anything other than an odd intuitive feeling. But something in my gut says it’s important.

When I woke up the next morning, the feeling was gone. Since these feelings rarely happen — every two or three years, I guess — I didn’t think I’d feel it again soon.

But I woke up this morning knowing that something was wrong. Again. I can’t say what it is. I can’t say for certain who it even involves. I just knew there was a strong apprehension in me — like the sort of nervous energy that makes me want to drop everything and go fix something that’s wrong or help someone or…

That’s just the thing. I don’t know what it means or what I should do. It feels as though there’s an emergency and I want to spring into action, but there’s nothing to do — since I don’t know anything specific to do.

It’s maddening.

Some people think anything that smacks of non-rational thinking ought to be shut down as ridiculous. Those people might be right. But there are a lot more people who will quietly admit that they, too, believe they sometimes know things — even if they don’t want to admit this to people who might laugh at them.

I don’t know why I’m feeling this. I just know that every gut feeling in my body says something is going on that I should know about — something which I have no way of rationally knowing.

How do we know such things? I have no idea. I don’t even have a theory. But I’ve experienced enough — in my own life and in the lives of others — to be certain there’s something to it.

I just wish I could look clearly into some crystal ball and see what’s happening — something my spirit knows but which my rational mind doesn’t — and find out whether there’s someone I need to send love and help to.

Maybe I’m crazy, but I believe in certain things I can’t see and can’t explain. There are some things which we just know — and I’m human enough to be frustrated that I can’t know what I’m seeing.

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I’m seeing a lot of simplistic and dishonest explanations right now for the current rioting in France. Those on the populist far right claim it’s all about Muslim immigrants to France disrupting the culture. Their message is that this sort of thing is going to happen in the U.S. unless “we defend the border.” On the far left, socialists and their fellow travelers claim the riots are all about wealthy people in France not paying enough taxes, resulting in cuts to government services. The truth is far more complicated, but it’s rooted in the decline of population growth in Europe. There simply aren’t enough young workers paying into the tax system anymore, so cuts in social services were inevitable. There is genuine cultural tension as more and more people immigrate from other countries, but government cuts to education and other services are even more important to what’s happening. The situation is complicated, so don’t let dishonest people with U.S. political agendas tell you that it happens to support whatever they were already promoting for partisan reasons.

Here’s another reason to appreciate the cats in your life: New research involving 93 countries found that places with more cats per person also tended to have happier people. The researchers say the finding fits with previous evidence that living with pets can reduce loneliness and stress while providing companionship, emotional attachment and social support. The study doesn’t prove that cats cause greater happiness, but it certainly adds to the evidence that sharing your home — and your life — with a cat might be good for you.

The company that owns Facebook and Instagram is heavily promoting its new AI-based software assistant called Muse, but people who are using it as it was designed are incredibly foolish. An early adopter of the software discovered that a few days ago when he advertised an item for sale on Facebook Marketplace — and he inadvertently gave Muse full authority to act on his behalf. The software agreed to a lowball offer made by another Facebook user and then gave that man the home address of the man for whom he was an agent. The software told the buyer that the seller was home and waiting for him. When the buyer showed up and waited angrily, the would-be buyer left an angry review for the man. And this angry man had the seller’s home address. It was only well after that that the software reported what it had done and admitted it had made a mistake. I won’t be putting that much power into the hands of any software. I think anyone who agrees to such terms is a fool. And the software’s user agreement says you’re responsible for purchases the software makes in your name. Nope.

Meet my new girlfriend. Her name is Meg. And she’s my little sweetheart. A couple of months ago, a neighbor across the street told me about a new stray in the neighborhood that she and I were both soon feeding. The cat had been very skittish about contact and she had a lot of scabs and parasites in her fur, but a trip to the vet last week revealed that she was otherwise in good health. The vet estimates her to be 1 to 2 years old. I named her for Meg Murry, the 13-year-old protagonist of Madeleine L’Engle’s wonderful book, “A Wrinkle in Time.” (Please read the book. Don’t watch the horrible movie.) Since we lost Lucy almost a year ago, it seems appropriate that we finally have a new little girl to join the household. She’s already captured my heart, but Alex, Oliver and Sam aren’t there quite yet.

There’s nothing socially acceptable that’s as dangerous as drinking alcohol. Most people grow up being told to “drink responsibly” — and all of us see people abusing this drug in one way or another — but the truth is that drinking alcohol is always a terrible risk. The alcohol in these drinks is toxic and the human liver has to work hard to filter the toxins out. What most people don’t realize is that alcohol is classified as a known carcinogen by the World Health Organization — because of the well-established connection between imbibing and various cancers. Many people have taken refuge behind the idea that light or moderate drinking might be safe, but a new study shows that drinking even one drink a day increases the risks of 10 types of cancer. When I was a teen-ager, I looked around and saw the negative effects that this behavior had on a lot of people and decided not to start drinking, so I’ve never even tried this poison. The evidence keeps piling up that I was lucky to have come to that conclusion early.

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