I bought a small cup at a second hand store because I liked the shape of it. Later when I was holding it in my hand using it, I got very absorbed in a sudden mental image and emotional experience. I imagined an older Asian lady in hospice or a nursing home or something of the sort, and felt her very bitterly resenting attachments of any kind. Why accumulate things that are meaningful to you when in the end they are all taken from you???? Her message was to minimize attachments to things, and recognize that everything is transitory. The feeling was so very, very intense. The cup just vibrates with the sadness of broken (unexpectedly broken?) attachments. I just felt like this cup was one of the woman's most valued possessions, and that everything she valued had been taken from her. After this experience, I researched the cup. It has a dragon and phoenix on it. Such a thing would be a very traditional Chinese wedding gift, with the dragon symbolizing male Yang energy and the Phoenix symbolizing female Yin energy, and the pair symbolizing domestic bliss.

As a scientist, this experience doesn't necessarily fit with how I was taught to believe the world works. I'm not gonna sit here and pretend it didn't happen though. Can any of you guys shed some light on this for me?

Sometimes I feel other stuff too. Like when I went to counseling the other day, I got a super emotionally intense and detailed mental image of another person sitting in the same chair sometime before I went there. Or sometimes when I'm out shopping or driving in traffic, it just feels like other people's feelings are too loud, and I need to go home. Does any of this resonate with anyone here? I didn't really realize there might be a community of people I could ask about this until just recently.