Numerous strange incidents occurred in my life. The following happened in December 2010. My wife and I were sitting at the kitchen table. She was discussing her late mother and father. Her mother had outlived her father for more than three decades. Her mother had asked her father to contact her as a spirit if he was to die first. She then recalled her mother later saying he had never made himself noticed, ‘not even by stopping a clock.’

Just after my wife had finished speaking, a gust of wind blew a flower pot over the balcony. It made a loud noise. Even though it was windy, the blow came out of nowhere. It was a bit eerie. The next day, my wife noticed that both a clock and an alarm clock were back one hour. One was connected to the power grid, while the other ran on a battery. So, did her late father make himself noticed?

Perhaps you also have experienced something you can’t explain, an incredible coincidence or something else, for instance, a near-death experience. Or maybe you know someone who did. You can’t reason it away. And so you believe there must be something more. That can be comforting. Perhaps there is a God, and maybe your life has a purpose.

Why do people believe in an afterlife or God? Is it because they fear death or want their life to have meaning? Would it be so bad if our existence is just the result of mere chance and evolution and that we exist for no particular reason? Is that so much worse than playing a small part in the grand scheme of a Supreme Puppet Master? And eternal life? I would bore myself to death. For a long time, I believed that I would die one day and that it would all be over by then. And that was a comforting thought.

Let’s end this on a lighter note. In 2014, my wife, son and I visited the monkey zoo Apenheul in Apeldoorn. We had been walking around watching monkeys for hours. A long-tailed monkey came down from a tree to sit near me. I could have touched its tail if I wanted to. And so I said to my wife jokingly, ‘Well, if I pull the tail, a bell will go off, saying ding-dong.’ Within a second, a loud ding-dong came from the speakers all over the zoo. An announcement followed. There had not been an announcement all day, nor did one follow later on. The monkey zoo is in Apeldoorn. That is also peculiar as this name refers to the word ape. Indeed, there may be more about this universe than science can explain.

Latest revision: 6 April 2024

Featured image: South Western langur (Semnopithecus hypoleucos) female, Kanha National Park, MP, India. Charles J. Sharp. CC BY 4.0. Wikimedia Commons.