Challenging thought experiment


	Tell me what you think about this:

	One of Amy's favorite things to do while
	travelling in the van was to change the ratio
	station on dad.  

	The Ford Aerostar had a volume and channel
	control in the back seat along with passenger
	headphone jacks.

	I'd be listening to NPR or some song 
	she didn't like and all of a sudden, the radio
	would change to a new station.

	The first few time, she caught me - I thought
	something strange had happened with the radio.

	Then, it became a joke for us - I'd pretend
	to wonder how it happened.

	A few times, she got yelled at if I was 
	listening intently to something that was
	boring her to tears and she changed the
	station.

	Most of the time, we all got a good laugh
	out of it.

	So, today (October 12, 1998), I was driving
	around in the Caproni's borrowed van listening
	to NPR.  At the end of a report while they 
	were playing the musical seque to the next 
	section, the station changed from 101.9 to
	something - possibly 97.5 (important because 
	there is a preset to 97.5 which skeptics can
	use to explain away the entire event).

	I puzzled over it for a few seconds, then 
	looked at the presets.  101.9 wasn't (I'd
	dialed it in earlier), so I dialed it back.
	Drove further along and about 5 minutes later,
	in between two segments on NPR, the station
	changed to 97.5 (definitely this time).

	I laughed out loud, immediately enjoying
	even the POSSIBILITY that it might have been
	Amy's spirit/ghost/soul playing a game 
	with me.

	Felt damn good until I started into the 
	kind of automatic denial all of us good 
	mature 20th century folks are trained to
	rely on when strange and uncomfortable 
	things happen.

	I'm not sure what I think about it and
	you know what? I'm not going to push myself
	in one direction or the other.

				
				
		- October 12, 1998