I place this under religion not really knowing the appropriate heading, but hoping others will see it and comment.

In 1980 I left Houston in my Chev. Caprice pulling a 2 axel U-Haul trailer. I was facing a custody battle for my daughter(which I later won) and was traveling by myself. I was headed to my mothers in South Georgia to collect my thoughts and visit for a while. As I traveled Interstate 10 west close to tallahassee it began to sprinkle rain. I saw a young man, in dark pants and white shirt, with no bag or luggage, walking beside the Interstate. I had never picked up a hitchhiker, although he did not stick his thumb out, I found myself pulling over to offer him a ride. I stuck my 45 colt revolver down between my seat and drivers door for security. He got in and I pulled back into traffic. He was a nice looking, clean cut young man with a nice smile. Friendly sort of fellow. He said he was headed to Jacksonville. We small talked for a while and I found myself telling him about the problems I was going thru and how much I feared losing my daughter. He assured me that things would work out in my favor and not to be so worried about things. I felt reasured.
I told him that I had to turn north up ahead in Tallahassee but would stop for gas and he would be close to the on-ramp to get another ride. When I pulled up to gas up, because of the trailer, I stopped at the outer pumps for ease of pumping. This placed me a good ways from where you pay and nothing was close by. No other cars were there either.

Before we exited the car I pulled a 5 dollar bill from my shirt pocket,change from a previous gas-up, and offered it to him saying that he could get some breakfast at the near-by restaurant. He said that it was not necessary, but thinking him on hard times, I stuck it in his shirt pocked. He smiled brightly, thanked me and repeated that I would see that everything would work out for me and not to worry. We exited the Chevy. I heard both doors shut and he was no longer there. He had disappeared. I went around thinking he had fell or something but he was not there. I even looked under the car thinking that he had wacked out or something and was hiding. He was not there.
there was no where for him to go! I gased up, paid and went on to mothers. Somewhat perplexed. I thought I had imagined this but the five from my shirt pocked was gone. I have never halucinated. Always thought I was of reasonably sound mind. This still perplexes me today.
What do you think of this? Ever had a similar experience?

I saw a pink elephant chasing bigfoot and his pet purple wolf while drinking a beer :D :D

Just kidding, maybe you saw a ghost or maybe your 6th sense was trying to tell you everything was all right. Some people feel we live in a parallel world with others, sometimes they come to us and other times we can go to them. There are countless stories about hidden people, elf's, ghost etc.... Some of these creatures can only be found in certain places while others have a wide range. Life{and death} is an unknown no matter how much humans think they know there will allways be the unexplained.

Thanks for the reply mad dog. I have seen enough in my life to suspect that there are things happening around us that we are not aware of.
I was once having a discussion with my wife about people being selfish.
I had went as far as saying "selfishness is the root of all evil."
She wanted a coke and I stopped at a convience store to accomodate her. As I got back in the car after the purchase a fellow in a suit parked next to us, in a new black truck with no tag, looked over and said "Dan, I just wanted to tell you that you are on the right track." He then cranked up, backed out, and drove away. My wife said who was that. I said I do not know, never saw him before.

I could recount other stories where people were present with me and strangers have called me by name and given me tid-bits of information. Or I could recount events that were even stranger. I will not go into great details here.

My purpose in this post is to see if people are aware of similar things happening to them.

Notice a little more the people around you. Occasionally someone is there apparantly that are not what they seem.

I also have had happenings that did not make sense, but they sure did save my arse or even helped me save another. It may be the spirits of loved ones looking over us it may be an unknown force, or maybe some people are just more intune???? I feel everyone has a certain amount of unused power it may be esp, talking with the dead, seeing unseeable things etc... but if we ignore or are taught to ignore these things then they will go away.

Could be that todays society is structured so that we spend so much time on daily things that we do not give ourselves the room to expand our awareness in the proper direction. The world is very distracting. We get caught up in daily tasks and suddenly the day is gone. We seem to give our minds busy work.

The things discussed here are normally somewhat taboo. The accepted norm has placed such things in science fiction. Maybe man has become so "smart" that he is missing his true capabilities. Sometimes that which we do not understand makes us a bit uncomfortable, or in our selfishness, afraid of what "others" will think.

Even in posting this topic I expose myself to judgemental ridicule.
I am glad I am past the point in my life where I worry much about what others think, for to remain silent is to miss a sharing of information. A person that swims too much in the handed-down fears of human reality can drown from ignorance.

Originally posted by Dan Fussell
Could be that todays society is structured so that we spend so much time on daily things that we do not give ourselves the room to expand our awareness in the proper direction. The world is very distracting. We get caught up in daily tasks and suddenly the day is gone. We seem to give our minds busy work.

I agree society also does its best to fit in. If Joe has a 30" TV then Bob will want one the same size or even bigger even though Bob may not watch to much TV. I had a friend who loved chevy and hated ford, he wanted to fit in with the bosses at work so he could get his climb up the ladder. One of the things he did was buy a ford{which he hates}, but instead of buying want he wanted he bought what fit into his environment. People worry way to much about the material world instead of what is important. Most people get caught up into the hype they don't even relize what is going on. Every year it seems to get worse.

The things discussed here are normally somewhat taboo. The accepted norm has placed such things in science fiction. Maybe man has become so "smart" that he is missing his true capabilities. Sometimes that which we do not understand makes us a bit uncomfortable, or in our selfishness, afraid of what "others" will think.

I don't see where man is getting smarter{overall} we invent things but are we really any smarter. One thing that seems to be missing today is common sense, we make people wear a seat belt then up the speed limit{and make the cars faster}. Making money has replaced common sense.

Even in posting this topic I expose myself to judgemental ridicule.
I am glad I am past the point in my life where I worry much about what others think, for to remain silent is to miss a sharing of information. A person that swims too much in the handed-down fears of human reality can drown from ignorance.

very well said,