[Dades]

Originally Posted by panda100

i just wanted to see if anyone else has been to medjugorie (club medj!) and what you though of it?

Actually I was in Medj before the war (i.e. the Yugoslav wars).

I found it a special place in that it was so peaceful and there was an amazing sense of community. People sharing every sort of problems physical and mental, and selfless workers everywhere to lend a hand.

As regards the (continuing) visions I was far from convinced. The visionaries were virtual celebrities as far as I could see. People believe what they want to however, though sometimes that isn't a bad thing. The mind is the greatest healer.

A special place? definitely.
The site of miraculous visions? If you want it to be.

[panda100]

But i do think that the visionaries have nothing to gain from this-they are all quite poor and have a normal family life.One of the visionaries viska has serious medical problems like a brain tumor yet she still allowed us to come to her house(a v.simple poor house)to talk to a huge crowd of us about the visions even though it was a sweltering hot day and im sure she had better thing to do.I was just wondering do any other religons have any visionary phenomens to-like medj,lourdes or fatima?
Also when i was in medjugorie i witnessed a exorcism type thing which totally freaked the hell out of me to be honest.One day we were walking up mount crucifix which is this huge mountain with the stations of the cross-apparently its a v.holy mountain and loads of extraordinary things happen there.So i was walking up with my sister just minding my own buisness and a priest was just a few steps behind us doing his own praying.A bunch of spanish girls then were wallking back down the hill-they looked totally normal,young spanish girls,chatting and laughing. Then the next second one of the girls went running towards the priest and was shrieking.The sound of her screaming was something id never heared in my life before-it was like a cat in lots of pain but it was nothing ive ever heared from a human being-and im a med student have heared a lot of people in pain(not that im putting them in pain-am good med student!)The next thing she was hissing and on the floor trying to attack the priest.I was crapping myself and going to run over to try and pin her down to help the priest.But he was totally cool and didnt even fight back and he just started praying over her or something and her screams just got smaller and smaller and the next thing she was fine. What i couldnt believe was everyone reaction-people were just walking past like they saw this all the time.Afterwards we went up to the girl and the priest to see if they were ok.The priest was like oh yes this happens all the time.The priest said that it was evil spirits coming out of her and she had said afterwards that she is big into tarot cards and reiki and she had jsut come to medjugorie for a day trip.The priest said this is how evil sprits enter us by such things as tarot and reiki.In medj apparently this happens all the time in mass and everywhere people start screaming and stuff.When i saw it it really made me think cos medj was make or break with me and catholicsm.This girl wasnt putting on an act so its very real and happening.I find the concept of satan really difficult to understand but seeing that really made me think there was something unhuman inside her. I was just wondering does this sort of other-worldly phenomen happen in other religions to?

[Myksyk]

Originally Posted by panda100

But i do think that the visionaries have nothing to gain from this-they are all quite poor and have a normal family life.

This presumes that the only type of gain is monetary/material. The obvious gain one might think of in this situation is 'special status' or 'fame', a not inconsiderable gain in any community or society. In this case, the persons' fame is not just local, regional or national but international. Just a thought.

One day we were walking up mount crucifix which is this huge mountain with the stations of the cross-apparently its a v.holy mountain and loads of extraordinary things happen there.So i was walking up with my sister just minding my own buisness and a priest was just a few steps behind us doing his own praying.A bunch of spanish girls then were wallking back down the hill-they looked totally normal,young spanish girls,chatting and laughing. Then the next second one of the girls went running towards the priest and was shrieking.The sound of her screaming was something id never heared in my life before-it was like a cat in lots of pain but it was nothing ive ever heared from a human being-and im a med student have heared a lot of people in pain(not that im putting them in pain-am good med student!)The next thing she was hissing and on the floor trying to attack the priest.I was crapping myself and going to run over to try and pin her down to help the priest.But he was totally cool and didnt even fight back and he just started praying over her or something and her screams just got smaller and smaller and the next thing she was fine. What i couldnt believe was everyone reaction-people were just walking past like they saw this all the time.Afterwards we went up to the girl and the priest to see if they were ok.The priest was like oh yes this happens all the time.The priest said that it was evil spirits coming out of her and she had said afterwards that she is big into tarot cards and reiki and she had jsut come to medjugorie for a day trip.The priest said this is how evil sprits enter us by such things as tarot and reiki.In medj apparently this happens all the time in mass and everywhere people start screaming and stuff.When i saw it it really made me think cos medj was make or break with me and catholicsm.This girl wasnt putting on an act so its very real and happening.I find the concept of satan really difficult to understand but seeing that really made me think there was something unhuman inside her. I was just wondering does this sort of other-worldly phenomen happen in other religions to?

Question...Can you think of any other explanation(s) for what you witnessed?

[Dades]

Originally Posted by panda100

I was just wondering does this sort of other-worldly phenomen happen in other religions to?

You don't really wonder that, do you?! Of course they do. Dieties are tradionally responsible for unexplained phenomena.

I saw similar things in Medj. One of our party had a "revelatory" experience too, and was always a bit different afterward.

Marching up a mountain at dawn to chanting, with thoughts of visionaries and miracles swirling around in your head is bound to affect people in strange ways. I still believe you take from places like this exactly what you came looking for.

Still I'm glad to hear the ethos of the place hasn't been ruined in the intervening years since I was there.