Mind to Mind

The first time that I noticed Puck might be picking up vocabulary from our thoughts was on August 13^th, 1993. That day an observer came to document what she could hear Puck say and, unfortunately, became so intrigued with him that she forgot to write down much of what she heard! I had to frequently remind her to “TAKE NOTES” as she sat mesmerized. I remained for the whole session, and heard Puck say “miracles speed up.” Well, the day before I had read that phrase as part of a sentence in a book by Kenneth Wapnick. I was stunned because the phrase was so strange, in and of itself. I had not spoken these words, nor discussed the book with anyone in the house.

A flurry of similar episodes occurred the following month. On September 6^th, an observer was seated at the dining room table while Puck played next to her. Our 25 year old niece came to visit, and Mark, the niece and I retreated to the other wing of the house. Here, with two closed doors and two rooms separating us from the dining area, we conducted a conversation in very low voices. After a couple of hours, we returned to Puck and the observer. She was very excited stating that, just a short time earlier, she had heard Puck say “freak out from this drug.” The observer thought that this comment was so unusual! Well, our niece had been telling us about the strange place she had chanced upon earlier that day, and how she felt it was a front for a drug den. In fact, she had stated “This drug den freaked me out!”

We related our conversation to the observer, and then we all marveled at how the bird must have picked up the thought somehow. The episode was rather strange, to say the least. “Freak,” by the way, was a word never before heard spoken by Puck.

On September 10^th, he uttered “He stole me bike.” Now about three hours earlier, I had read a newspaper headline regarding bicycle theft in a neighboring town. I might even have read a few sentences in the article, but I didn’t discuss the story with anyone, because it held no real interest for me. “Bike” was a word that Puck had seldom used.

Then on September 15^th, he said “appointment book” about one hour after I had spent a few minutes transferring appointments from a wall calendar to my appointment book. And that was all he said for a few minutes!

On September 22^ndthere were two episodes. Puck was next to me playing on the end table in the living room while I alternately read, and took notes when he went into a talking mode. Among his words that evening were “in Austria a copier…” Now the day before I had been at the home of my niece’s best friend, where my niece discussed some aspects of Austrian life (she had lived there for several months). “Austria” was a new word for Puck! Within a few more minutes he said “membership,” while I was perusing my local public television station’s magazine describing members’ services. Once again, a word never heard before!

I met some out-of-town visitors on September 24^th for lunch at a restaurant. While eating I discussed some of my Peace Corps experiences years earlier. This is a topic I rarely discuss; in fact I probably hadn’t used the words “Peace Corps” in two or three years. And, yes, that night I heard Puck say “Peace Corps.” “Corps” was a new word for him.

On September 28^th, while I was looking at Puck and thinking how fragile this tiny bird was, he said “I’m a delicate parrot.” This ended the flurry of episodes and I was not aware of any further telepathic communication until December 20^th. I had had a vivid dream the night before, and was mulling over how real this dream had seemed, when Puck said “She’s dreaming.”

The next episode I noticed was on January 30^th, 1994. Mark was doing the math for a new truck purchase, calculating the best deals for two different manufacturers. Puck walked across the worksheets a couple of times, and then said “Pucky’s a nice number.” “Number” was a word he rarely used.

The final episode took place on March 2^nd, when I was thinking about various animal brain sizes, and how there wasn’t a consistent correlation between size and intelligence. Case in point, Puck, and all the other parrot species. In the midst of this train of thought, Puck said “Pucky’s got special brain.”

All of these occurrences were noticed in Puck’s final year of life. Within a couple of months following this last episode, Puck was moving into a slow, steady decline.