Question: Could you please tell about any experience you had where the paranormal played an obvious and undeniable role?

Sri Chinmoy: In my case I have been using my inner vision and spiritual power since the age of thirteen or fourteen. I have had innumerable experiences, and I can give you a few examples that are both interesting and amusing.

In my youth, when I was a champion athlete in my community, quite a few times I predicted how far others would jump in the long jump. When the participants were about to start, I used to write down their distances on the ground, and my predictions always proved absolutely correct. I did this many times.

I also made predictions about my friends’ times in the hurdles. I used to write down their times on a piece of paper and give it to one of my friends in a sealed envelope, asking him to open it only after the race was over. Again and again, my predictions proved correct.

In another instance, a very good friend of mine was criticising Indian sadhus and swamis. He was saying that none of them had inner power. I told him to come to see me the next day and I would show him some spiritual power. The next day we stood face to face and I said, “Now look at me!” He was a great wrestler, but in a matter of seconds he fainted and fell down.

When he regained consciousness a few moments later, he called me a rascal and ran away. Then he started telling everyone that I had tried to kill him, which was absolutely untrue. But the enormous power he had seen in me in those few seconds had frightened him terribly.

Once in 1967 I was a panellist on a TV talk show in Puerto Rico. The weathermen, astrologers and others were predicting that a terrible hurricane would destroy Puerto Rico in a few days. I said that instead of the island being flooded, there would be just a little bit of water. On television there was a fight between me and the astrologers. I finally said, “Say whatever you want, but I see with my inner vision that nothing will happen.”

At that time I also appeared on a radio programme. The radio interviewer and a few others also challenged me about the hurricane. Then, when my prediction came true, the radio interviewer became my disciple.