I first heard the following story sometime ago. I had always found it fascinating although the specific circumstances seemed too far away from me to matter. The story went something like this:
Many years ago workers at a train station were coming to the end of their day and were leaving to go home. One of the workers decided to do a last round of checking on some of the train cars that were set aside for repairs before going home.
He had looking through one particular refrigerated car when the door to the cas slammed shut. It startled him and, at first, he thought some of his fellow workers were playing a joke on him, but as he paused to listen he heard the faint sound of other cars being shut as well and he realized that the person who was closing the doors had no idea he was inside.
Because the refrigerated cars at that time had no indoor handles he began pounding on the door and screaming in hopes that someone might hear him, but no one did. As it became later, he became keenly aware that the unit he was in was on! He could feel the cold air blowing against him and because he knew of the freezing capacity of these cars, estimated the cold was below survival tolerence.
This spurred him on to resume his screeming and pounding but to no avail, and finally after some time he was forced to stop, his hands had become bloody andhis voice was reduced to a raspy whisper. During that time all he could think of is that if he didn't get out of that boxcar he would freeze to death.
He paced for a long while to keep warm but he finally grew cold and tired and had to sit down on the floor. He clasped himself tighter trying to keep warm but he already knew with the cold he felt it wouldn't be long now.
Spying a large piece of cardboard on the floor he decided to record his thoughts for those who would eventually find him. he penned how he had gotten trapped in the car, and how cold it had been. He wrote how cold it was and how he knew he would not be able to make it through the night. He wrote how he knew he would freeze the death. It was hard for him to write because he was shivering so bad, and finally he stopped his handwriting trailing off.
They would find him the next day - Dead. And later the autopsy report would verify that he indeed had frozen the death. An investigation was started to look into how this could have possible happen.
**********
Just a few years ago, another man had moved into a home with some very nice couple who had a cat. Now the man always got along fine with cats and would even take care of the cat when the couple would go out of town.
ONe day he went looking for the cat and couldn't find her and finaly was able to track her down sleeping in the middle of his bed. That she was sleeping on his bed normally wouldn't have bothered him but he had noticed lately that the cat had been showing signs of being infested with fleas. He quickly scooted her off his bed and out of his room.
That night as he prepared to sleep he was really hoping to himself tht he had gottenher off his bed before it was too late. Unfortunately, he found himself awaken in the middle of the night with the pain and itch of being bitten by fleas. It got so bad that night that he made himself comfortable on the floor of his room, vowing to remedy the problem in the morning.
Well, the next morning he first went to his computer and looked up details about fleas, howhigh they could jump, and what could be done to kill them. Armed with this infomation he went to the store and purchased a couple of flea bombs and, sealing off his room, fumigated his room. Once the "smoke" cleared he was happy to go back to his room and have a good night sleep. This lasted about a week before the fleas were back.
He fumigated again, but this time they were back in less than 3 days. Again he sprayed ad they came back. He looked on the internet and found more and more potent stuff and laid down layer upon layer of poison, which always worked - for a while - but then they were back again.
It wasn't long before they had infiltrated his mattress so much that he had to get rid of his bed, after all, the internet had told him how quicly they multiplied, and how long they could stay dormant, and how many insecticides they were immuned to.
It got so bad that he was practically spraying every other day, and because he didn't want to risk the fleas multiplying under another bed he never purchased another one. He relegated himself to a set of blankets and a pillow that he placed on the floor to sleep. He promised himself that as soon as he got rid of them all he would purchase a new bed. This consoled him every night as he coughed himself to sleep from breathing the remnants of insecticide spray.
The couple he lived with had grown quite concenred about him and had even had a professional come in and spray but that didn't help for long before he was being bit again.
Hundreds of dollars worth of insecticide spray and two years later he was still sleeping on the floor and still coughing!
Finally, the couple decided to take matters in their own hand, convinced that the spray he was inhaling was doing him more damage then the bites he informed him he was experiencing that they compromised and instead of purchasing a large bed for the room to replace the one that was gone for two years, they put in a small sofa-bed that he could fold up when not in use, and still be able to spray for the fleas.
A coulple of days later, the landlord had a professional come in and spray once more andthen confronted the man telling him that there is no way that he could still have fleas in his room afte this time. He told him he had been in the room many times and he had not seen or felt anything.
Well, the man knew what he felt and to finally prove it to him, he pulled up the article about fleas that he had read two years earlier. As he was pulling the article up he explained to the landlord that fleas could jump 6 feet in the air. That's how he knew they were in his romm because even when he stood up (the man was nearly 6 feet tall) he still was being get bit!
The landlord was quite suprised at what he had said, he had no idea that fleas could jump 6 feet in the air. When the article came on the sdreen he quickly moved to the place where he had read the statistic, pointed to the screen and was about to exclaim he was right when he stopped and his own jar dropped.
You see, fleas are so small that they are very hard to see, but even that small they are amazing jumpers, but not as amazing as the man had belived for the last two years, you see, there was a six and a zero together but it wasn't six feet they could jump, it was 60 times their hight, wheich when measured was barely higher than a man's ankle!
**********
So why did I relate these two stories. Well, as I finish both of them it will become clear.
On the first man, the autopsy showed that he had indeed froze to death. Even the very cells of his body testified to it. The only problem with the findings is this - the refrigerated car was broken! Yes, the man trapped in the car felt cold air blowing but it was from the fan pulling in air from the outside. That night tht he "froze" to death the temperature didn't even get into the 40s, but because the man believed that the air he felt was freezing his mind had no choice but to give him wht he asked for. The refrigerated car didn't kill him, it was his BELIEF that the refrigerated car was going to kill him that caused his death!
Now you may say that the story must be a myth or an urban legend and there's no way that it could possible happen like it was reported. After all, you say it was a long time ago and I am sure you have no real proof. Okay, granted! Let me tell you the end of the second story.
when the man realized that he had misread the information on the fleas jumping capability from 60 to 6'0 he realized that there was no way after he had gotten rid of the bed and hwas just walking around the room could a flea jump from the floor all the way up to his arms and next to bite him! But because he BELIEVED FOR TWO YEARS they could, his mind obliged him and gave him exactly what he asked for, two years of scratching, biting, and breathing insecticide!
But here's the real clincher. Within two days after the new belief started to sink in the "fleas" have vanished and having come back - and that was almost two years ago!
Oh, and before you ask for proof, it's not necessary. You see, I AM the second man!
I very wise man once said, "If you believe you can do a thing or you canot do a thing, either way, you're right!"
Because of a simple reading error, I took a perfectly good room and turned it into a two year torture chamber because I BELIEVED it was one. Now, if I could do something tht painful to themselves by accident, could you just imagine what ANY human mind could do when they Truly Belief in a dream or a goal for themselves!
For example, swine flu or no swine flu - I don't take flu shots because I BELIEVE I don't get sick. (It's amazing, but I can't remember the last time I was sick).
Here's even a better one: Although I have RP and my sight is diminished, I BELIEVE i can see clearer and clearer each day! This not only can happen , but i know it will happend. Try it. After all, good vision is nothing to scratch at!
TnjS
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