Editor’s Introduction
Ian Timourian (real name) was trained in electrical engineering and computer science as am undergraduate, receiving both a BS in computer science and a BSE in electrical engineering from a leading American university. He has a Masters degree in computer science from another leading university, has been employed as a senior software architect and has one patent pending. His experience occurred in January of 1993.
Note this experience was first posted as anonymous but has been changed at the author’s request.
Meet that Girl!
Ian Timourian
This series of events happened when I was a senior in high school, the winter before graduation and just before the beginning of my undergraduate career.
At the time I lived in Maryland, and that winter we were hit with a blizzard that left some three feet of snow on the ground. As a result, we were out of school for several days. On the evening of the first day that I had off, myself and several friends journeyed to a popular sledding hill near school in order to go sledding in the freshly fallen snow. After several hours of going up and down the hill, we decided to leave and go grab coffee, and so some 10 of us walked to a local coffehouse to warm up.
Once we were seated there I noticed a girl amongst our group whom I did not know but found quite attractive. Nevertheless, I did not speak to her as I was quite self-conscious at the time (having been dressed for sledding and sporting a several-day old display of beard stubble). The remaining time at the coffeehouse passed uneventfully, and eventually we all took leave of one another.
One or two days later I was sitting in my living room watching television when I heard a very clear, distinct voice in the back of my head that stated, simply, “Go to the library. Go to the library and you will see her.” I don’t think I thought much of this, but it caused me to reflect on my watching television rather than reading (I almost never watched television, preferring to read.) And so I decided that I should go and check out some books.
So I drive to the local library, some 30 minutes away, and parked. As I was walking through the electric doors of the library, this very same girl was walking out. The entire episode lasted for perhaps some 15 seconds and consisted of us exchanging small talk and her introducing me to her boyfriend (!) who was with her as well. A very quick, normal exchange.
Afterwards, I walked into the library and was struck with the awesome realization of what had just occurred. I turned around and just went home. My world had certainly been rocked.
Contributor’s Comments on the Experience
At the time I was a highly scientifically-minded person who needed evidence to be convinced of something. This happening helped me to accept the fact that there were things that I could not simply explain away. It seems that this event happened at a pivotal time, right before leaving for college, paving the way for a more open-minded attitude towards science. I have had other interesting experiences since then, and I have tried to assimilate such occurrences with the knowledge that a scientist can balance both the scientific and the spiritual, the reproducible experiment and the seemingly miraculous event.
