comments

1. Deron Bauman on May 12th, 2008 at 6:14 pm

   yes, I do, and I’m not sure ‘when’.

2. Rick Neece on May 12th, 2008 at 6:30 pm

   Years ago, I used to wear a beeper that I kept on “buzz” when I was “managing” an apartment complex. After a few months, I often felt the buzz on my hip when I wasn’t wearing the beeper.

   I thought it was just “me.”

3. Sheila Ryan on May 12th, 2008 at 6:36 pm

   No phantom phone rings (not surprising — I’m pretty bad about answering the non-phantom rings), but I do ‘hear voices’ calling out to me every now and again. I think it happens when I’m feeling guilty about ignoring a plea for help from one I love or otherwise letting someone down.

   But the voices I hear are not those of a cartoon cricket, at least.

4. Jeff Harrell on May 12th, 2008 at 6:41 pm

   Yes.

   And yes.

   Gotta go, I’m sure it’s really ringing this time.

5. Sheila Ryan on May 12th, 2008 at 6:41 pm

   Oh — and I frequently ‘de-scramble’ white noise (such as the hum of a fan), translating it into an almost-but-not-quite understandable radio broadcast.

6. Rick Neece on May 12th, 2008 at 6:43 pm

   Holee Crap! Sheila, I’ve heard that same broadcast in the basement when the furnace was running. Faint and indecipherable, but a very real sounding radio broadcast. Are we from Space?

7. Dave Vogt on May 12th, 2008 at 7:11 pm

   I get phantom vibrations, never rings. I haven’t measured any correlation, but my best estimate would be that they happen more when I want to be out of a situation. I need to find a way to make my phone ring at will.

8. david on May 12th, 2008 at 7:59 pm

   I think I must second Jeff’s answer.

   I would add that I’m not 100% sure about the loneliness thing, but it’s poetic enough that I’ll willingly paper over my 6.32% doubt.

9. Sheila Ryan on May 12th, 2008 at 9:49 pm

   Rick, we might well be from Space (which would place us in good company — Sun Ra and all). I’d like to see them prove we’re not.

   But that broadcast — it sounds as real as real can be, doesn’t it? Sometimes I think it might be WMAQ, bringing us Ben Bernie and his orchestra live from the Edgewater Hotel in Chicago. “Yowza, yowza, yowza!”

   Other times I wonder if it might be Radio Rebelde, broadcasting messages to the people from Fidel Castro and his guerillas. Or some border radio station transmitting hillbilly music from Nuevo Laredo all the way to eternity.

   Reason I know it must be real is I don’t hear it all the time.

10. Jordan Running on May 13th, 2008 at 1:10 am

    I used to feel a lot of phantom vibrations, but now I have a new phone and I often don’t feel it vibrating when someone is calling. I miss a lot of calls–well I wouldn’t say I miss them, but, well, you get the idea.

    When I had a dog I would hear the distinctive jingling of his tags pretty often when he wasn’t around; this persisted eerily several months after his death.

11. Michael Smith on May 13th, 2008 at 7:12 am

    Yes! But, usually I’m annoyed, “who the hell is calling…”

12. Andrew Simone on May 13th, 2008 at 10:26 am

    Maybe you are just teetering on madness, Sheila. The brain unhinges or jerks about for a few moments like a rusty bike chain.

    I know I feel like that sometimes but, oddly enough, not during phantom rings.

13. Sheila Ryan on May 13th, 2008 at 10:34 am

    I prefer to think of such folk as you and me as Visionaries. It’s so much more dignified than Borderline Loonies.

14. Andrew Simone on May 13th, 2008 at 10:35 am

    I’ll take that title to the bank.

15. Sheila Ryan on May 13th, 2008 at 10:39 am

    And anyway, de-scrambling white noise might be thought of as imposing order on chaos, making sense of of non-sense.

    Hmm. That’s what paranoid conspiracy theorists do, too.

    Forget I ever said it.

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