"It's a MIRACLE!!!"

"It's a miracle!" Yes. Those words have been heard and said by people on many occasions. Usually in situations where someone has beatin' extreme odds. From Jesus' face appearing on a piece of toast, to surviving near certain death. But, do miracles truly exist?

I have seen this video floating around on the internet and was intrigued by the story. A 19 year old girl woman named Katie Lentz was trapped in a car in Center, MO when a catholic priest came out of nowhere and started praying for her immediately after she asked for prayers. There were multiple eyewitnesses to this event. even the first responders believe this was a true miracle.

The weirdest part about the story was that after they freed her, the priest had vanished from the site. They said the road was blocked and that there was no other accessibility to cars from that location cause the road was blocked off due to the accident.

So, what truly happened there? Some claim it was a miracle. Some claim it was an angel in the image of a catholic priest. Maybe it was Jesus disguised as a priest coming to aid the poor girl that was calling out for prayers? Nobody knows.

I have heard others exclaim, "Well, if it was a real angel, where was he during the Connecticut shooting? Or the Batman massacre?" Here is my take on this from a logical 'faith' point of view....

If you were so inclined to believe that an angel or God performed a miracle at this crash site, then you must believe in the other side of the coin. Yes. I am referring to 'evil'. Pure and simple.

So, according to the bible, evil can take on many shapes and forms. Like... a psycho killer, perhaps? In my book, this is the most heinous of all evils. Maybe sometimes evil is so extreme that a 'miracle' just can't happen. No matter how hard you pray or try, it just doesn't show up. Not to say that you shouldn't try... but you get the point.

Let's look at this another way... What if there truly is an afterlife and angels on the other side just let these things happen because they know everything will be 'ok' once someone have crossed over? Obviously, we look at certain situations as a tragedy... but 'What if...'?

Nobody has the answers to these questions until the inevitable end. I have read numerous reports on NDE's (Near Death Experiences) over the years. I know that the majority on NDE's believe wholeheartedly in an afterlife and have little to no fear of dying after such an experience.

Until next time... keep praying if you feel the need to. It can do nothing but help in my opinion.

UPDATE: An artist has created a sketch of the miraculous disappearing priest from the crash scene. The Catholic priest does not appear in any of the nearly 70 photos taken at the crash scene. Here is that sketch below:

My Trip to Switzerland and Italy

Just got back from a long tour of Italy and Switzerland. Very eventful and tiring. I drove all over these 2 countries. Beautiful to say the least. From the large snow capped mountains in Switzerland, to the monumental historical sites of Italy. Having never been to these countries before, I noticed quite a few differences while I was there.

Did we pay for a tour? No. We did the tour ourselves. I am sure we saved a lot of money by doing so. We visited Zurich, Lucern, Interlaken, Venice, Tuscany, Florence, Castelluccio, Rome, and Lake Como.

For those that have never been, Europe is expensive in some aspects. Cheaper in others. If you are in the 'touristy' areas such as Rome and Venice, it's expensive. Smaller towns and lesser frequented places are way cheaper.

Switzerland is "efficient" in every way. They do not waste like we do over here in the United States. Everything seems to have a purpose and very little is wasted. The people of Switzerland are polite and direct to the point. The Polizei(Police) presence is almost non-existent. I only saw a few police officers at the train stations and still felt 100% safe.

Switzerland is a very clean country and the food is fresh. It is like they care about what they eat. Portions are smaller and healthier. Unlike the crap we buy from Walmart and Shop Rite here in the United States. In a way, this really worries me. Why are Americans eating such crap? Why can't we eat like the Europeans do?

Yes. You can drink in public in Switzerland. You can go buy a can of beer and drink it while walking, on the trains, or just sitting in a park.

The roadways in Switzerland are pretty organized as well. They use roundabouts to get around for the most part and the highways are pot hole free. Most cars are manual transmission(stick shift) and even the gas stations are clean.

Everything I just wrote about above pretty much holds true for Italy as well. The roadways, cleanliness(in most places I visited), great food, and people were amazing as well.

Don't get me wrong, there were a few things that were pretty hard to deal with.

Rome can be a rough country to tour in if you are not used to the heat. We stayed in a few apartments that did not have air conditioning and the only way to cool off the rooms were to open the windows. This is a bit problematic if the mosquitoes are around. I had an instance were they were buzzing my head at 3am one morning and it was not fun. Needless to say I went to the nearest hotel(Thank you Best Western of Rome, Italy!) the next day and jumped back into comfort with full air conditioning.

It is obvious that Europeans care about their lifestyle and well being. Maybe it helps because these countries are so beautiful to see. The air is clean and the food is fresh. I really wish that the United States would learn a lot from the Europeans. Would I ever go back? Absolutely. In time... I will.

So, where is the paranormal in all of this? Well, I stayed in a villa in Tuscany that had some weird occurrences happen, so naturally... I investigated the location a bit. The lights would flicker on occasion, I heard unexplained noises, the place even felt a bit weird. You know... like that electric/energy type feeling in the air. What really opened my eyes a bit to the place being haunted was a few things:

1. The overall feeling of the place was slight bit electric/energized.
2. Lights flickered on occasion and had no apparent pattern.
3. Unexplained sounds. (Shuffling, footsteps, etc.)
4. Feelings of being watched.
5.  My iPhone 5 shut off completely and had a 50% charge left.

Yes. My phone shut down completely. I turned it back on to find the 50% charge. Why in the heck did it shutdown? That never happened until then... ever.

This all happened at 3:30am in Tuscany at the villa I was staying at. I walked around outside and got that "I am being watched..." kind of feeling. Took a few photos, but nothing substantial as of yet. It felt pretty crazy to say the least.


Time for some additional pics! Click on a photo to enlarge it:

Check out this panorama shot: