Psychic experience

Here is an extract on one of my recent short article for potential publication in a magazine (with interest in the spiritual etc.) in the 'Real life Stories' section. It is about a psychic experience during a summer holiday in East Germany:


'Opa' is the German word for 'Grandpa'. My Opa Hermann was born in East Germany in 1902 and died in 1985 in the small East German town where he lived almost all his live. He was a farmer in his younger years and than became a night watch man - I guess what you would call a security guard these days. Though with his small 5ft 4 frame, he certainly wouldn't make a very frightening security guard! This is my first conscious psychic experience, involving Opa Hermann. 

When I was born, the Berlin Wall was already up and for us, this was the normal life. I was an only child living with my parents in a small town, with my maternal grandparents living close by.


Whilst not being explicitly forbidden, spirituality was not something ever talked about in East Germany. Religion was tolerated but certainly not encouraged. There was no such thing as 'Religious Education' in school, and church goers were viewed with suspicion. As a child growing up in the system, for me, they only seemed somewhat odd, didn't fit in. It would not have even occurred to me that there might be things in this world which cannot be explained rationally. 


In the summer of 1985, my parents took me on my first ever holiday to the seaside; I was 16. going on a holiday was not as simple as booking a B&B and getting to the place. 'Holiday places' were allocated in East Germany by whatever state-owned company one worked for. And holidays by the seaside were always particularly popular of course, and very hard to come by. My parents were ordinary workers and first in line for a coveted seaside holiday. I don't know how, but finally they managed to get us a holiday by the seaside.