Rick Dodson contemplated some strange otherworldly experiences he had in the 1980s as he prepared for an interview with Epoch Times. What really happened back then? What was that all about?
The tangible reality of the immediate experiences had faded, and self-doubt crept in. He had received strange phone calls—possibly phone calls from the dead. When he found out many other people, including his own grandmother, had experienced this phenomenon, he began a passionate search for the truth about it. But the truth is elusive in such cases. (For a more detailed account of Dodson’s experiences in the 1980s, read “One Man’s Fascinating Quest to Understand a Spooky Phenomenon.”)
Now, some 20 years later, he wanted a sign—something to rekindle his belief if indeed what he experienced came to him across a mystical veil between our world and the next. He posed the question to nobody in particular: “Is this real?!” The answer seemed to come in astronomical coincidences that followed—a resounding, “Yes! There are wondrous forces at work in this world!”
He thought briefly of his father who died about seven years ago and wondered if his father would try to get in touch with him if it were possible for the dead to communicate with the living. Later that day, he got a phone call from a woman saying a package had mistakenly been delivered to her home for a Charles Dodson. That was his father’s name.
The woman asked him if he lived at the address the package was marked for. Dodson replied that he did not, but that he used to own a store at that address. Dodson lives in Driftwood, Texas, a town small enough that he was pretty sure he'd know of any other Charles Dodson living there. His father hadn’t lived in Driftwood for very long before his death. Dodson very rarely receives mail addressed to his father and to receive a package was very unusual.
Dodson called the local post office and asked if they had another Charles Dodson listed in town. They did have a Charles Dodson on record with a postal box. The coincidence of a mistaken address corresponding to where Dodson once owned a store, his father’s name, and the thought that he wanted a sign and possibly one related to his father, made Dodson wonder. But the coincidences didn’t stop there.
He asked for another sign just to be sure.
He thought about his upcoming conversation with me. He thought of my name, Tara, and it struck him as an unusual name since he didn’t know any other Taras. He asked specifically for a coincidence related to me to confirm the wondrous nature of previous events.
Shortly after he had this thought, he saw a request on Facebook to join a community group he moderates. The request was from a woman named Tara. When Dodson’s wife came home, he told her about this flow of coincidences, all in quick succession. She said, “I knew you were going to receive that request.” She was out at a local coffee shop when she heard a woman talking about wanting to join this Facebook group. Knowing that Dodson is the administrator, Dodson’s wife struck up a conversation with this lady and learned that her name is Tara and she just moved to town.
Then the icing on the cake. His friend, Orbra called shortly after he finished speaking with his wife. Earlier, when he had thought my name was unusual, he thought of Orbra, whose name he also finds unusual. Though her call on its own wouldn’t have struck him as strange, her calls are infrequent enough that—in combination with all that passed up to this point—it was a striking time for her to choose to call him.
“It’s something grand,” concluded Dodson. “It’s something that’s above and beyond.”
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