Good topic. I've seen/read a little about it. Just like Demonic possessions, and other wierd annomolies, they are few are far between, but very interesting. My jury is still out on the subject.

I have heard of interesting studies done on the power of suggesiton and the subconscious.  In hypnotherapy, several subjects had letters traced on their skin without ink.  The suggestion was placed that at a certain place and time, they would begin to bleed - and they did.

Now, I bring this up, not to discredit stigmata, but to say that in hypnosis, sometimes people are accessing an infinite space.   If they believe, deeply in the crucifixation, then their subconscious connection to the all that is may help bring about real stigmata in the physical world.  If they believe the palms of the hands were involved, then that's where they will be.  Just like the traced letters began to bleed several days later ( I can get a reference on this one).

Matthew

Oh duh, finally remembered what this thread reminded me of.

When I was two and a half or three, my baby sister (of whom of course I was horribly jealous, having been the one and only for two years) came down with an itchy rash.  My parents and grandparents were making a big fuss over her, exclaiming over the nasty rash, and just, to my two year old mind, wasting a great deal of time and trouble on the squalling brat.  So, in good terrible twos fashion, I went off to have a sulk.  About ten minutes later, according to my mother, I came running in to the room hollering my head off  for everyone to look at my arm...on which there was a perfect square inch of rash...

I was too young to understand that I could induce a contact dermititus, even if I'd had anything to do it with, it wasn't just a red spot, like I might have created by scratching at the spot, it was an actual rash.  Don't know how I did it, have never done anything quite that spectacular since (I've created a few physical manifestations, but nothing like that).  I got my little dab of calamine, and, satisfied, I went off nursing my "owie", which healed up at the normal rate of a real rash.  Weird stuff.

Ah, but Don you consciously did not believe in the stigmata, yet you had a firm grounding in religion, and had undoubtedly heard about chritian religious epiphanies presenting this way. 

I will try to find the reference for you for hypnosis documenting letters gently traced over the skin bleeding at a determined time in the future, or actual stigmata.  I don't believe in hypnosis as a separate power, more as a direct link to our subconscious which is associated with infinite abilities.  Thus, I believe it quite possible that your conscious belief was not in stigmata, but that your subconscious had an impression that a profound moving moment can be associated in this way. 

Indeed, it was the universe sending a message to you directly through your body.  Indeed it was an epiphany.  But it also, to me illustrates the relationship of mind/fleeting conscious thought/deeper belief and God.  You were given a sign that was unique to you.  A muslim may have not understood the sign as well or a Hindu, and they may have received other confirmations for their epiphany.

So I leave the cause open ultimately, except to say that I believe it was your deepest belief and connection to God, through your subconscious that was in play.  Quite a powerful post, Don.

Matthew

Betson,

Your point about the palm wounds is important.  This consensus is false, though the stigmata may be divinely tailored to popular expectation.  It is clear that Jesus was actually impaled to the cross through His wrists.  Interestingly, the Shroud of Turin bucks this consensus by portraying Jesus as crucified through His wrists.  For many reasons, the jury is in my view still out on the shroud's authenticity, especially since the Carbon 14 datings are being increasingly challenged as the result of a medieval church fire.   if the shroud can be dated to the first century, I would consider it genuine because I can trace a possible genealogy for it to ancient times.  In any case, more and better dating tests need to be applied to the cloth.  I am upset that the Catholic church is not cooperating with calls for corrective dating tests.

Don

Spooky, there is much about the shroud of Turin that does not make perfect physical sense; it is the seeming impossibility of it all that makes it seem miraculous or true. 


Perhaps, one day the story will be verified or not.


M

Spooky2,
When you say distortions of the image on the Shroud should be more obvious, have you seen how flat they cover the bodies?  It's just one panel that lies flat
on top and swings under without twisting, then lies flat along the lower length. Would that have much distortion?
bets/betson