Somewhere around 1973-4 my musical combo was performing in a nightclub in Cumberland, MD.

At the end of each evening I would ask the waitress for my check. One particular evening, as she handed it to me, I had a strange experience. For a split second, when we both had contact with the check, a huge Catholic Cathedral, located 1 mile from my home in Baltimore, flashed into my mind. She must have noticed the startled expression on my face and asked me if I was alright. I told her what had happened and her eyes opened wide. She pointed at an elderly lady at the bar and explained: 'This lady has spent the last hour explaining to me all about the Roman Catholic church.'

I realized instantly that whatever was on her mind as she handed me the check was shown to me through an image that I was familiar with. Since the majority of people would classify such an experience as 'weird', I kept it to myself. However, thoroughly intrigued, I kept developing this talent, ability, gift, or whatever else you might call it. I was careful to do it only with people I knew well and who were inclined to, and had an open mind for, such endeavors.

Upon my return to Baltimore I attended a one-day workshop given by SAM (Society for the Advancement of Man), which is no longer in existence.

As much as I can remember, the gist of the workshop was that our mind operates (vibrates) in four different stages (frequencies). Alpha, Beta, Theta and Delta.

For detailed information on these check out this great explanation at https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/what-is-the-function-of-t-1997-12-22/.

Here is a brief explanation of the four stages:
• Beta waves are characteristics of a strongly engaged mind. E.g. A person in active conversation would be in beta.
• A person who takes time out to reflect or meditate is usually in an Alpha state. E.g. A person who takes a break from a conference and walks in the garden is often in an alpha state.
• A person who has taken time off from a task and begins to daydream is often in a Theta brainwave state.
• The final brainwave state is Deltastrong> – deep, dreamless sleep.

The lady who conducted the workshop proceeded to tell us that she would put us into the Theta stage but not to worry, because it was going to feel as if no change of awareness had occurred. She would let us know when we are in the Theta stage, at which point she wanted us to think about a principle that we had been living by. That's all. No more. She told us that we would receive mental pictures as an answer. She wanted us to write those down so we could discuss them after she returned us to the Beta stage of awareness.

I had not brought any paper or pencils with me, but noticed that the lady next to me had a note pad and a bunch of pencils that were held together with a rubber band. I asked her if she would give me a piece of paper and one of the pencils. She obliged smilingly.

The lecturer put us into the Theta stage and then told us to go ahead and concentrate on the principle we had been living by.

I questioned whether it was a good idea for me, a husband and father of three children, to be out 5 nights a week playing music. Immediately images started popping up and I jotted them down:
• A man fixing a broken, leaking pipe with a wrench.
• A telephone off the hook.
• A dartboard.
• A pair of tennis shoes.
• A bike.

After we were returned to the Alpha state we were told to take a brief intermission followed by a discussion of images received by the various people in the class.

I asked the lady next to me if she had received any images and she said no. I told her that I had received 5 and showed them to her. She got all excited and explained: 'I can identify with the first three images!

• Yesterday I was watching my husband trying to fix a leaking pipe leading to our swimming pool.
• My youngest child played with the phone in the club basement, knocked it on the floor off the hook and we could not get or make any phone calls all day until we discovered the phone and hooked it up again.
• We have a dart board in the basement and play it frequently.'

She could not identify with the tennis shoes and the bike. I knew immediately that the first three images came to me through the paper and pencil she had so graciously given to me.

When the class resumed the lecturer asked if anybody had received any images. I raised my hand and explained what had happed. I precautioned that care should be taken not to touch anybody else's belongings, lest we get images from that person's life. She said that did not matter, because the subconscious mind would use any available source to answer the question. She told me to think about my principle and re-evaluate my images. And she was right!

1. Broken pipe leading to the swimming pool. A week earlier I had bought one of those big, round swimming pools and the kids and I had a good time putting it together and then swimming in it.
2. A telephone off the hook. My wife, a school teacher, told me that it's OK for me to be out at night playing music as long as I call her once on one of the intermissions.
3. A dartboard. I had bought my son Mark a new dartboard for his upcoming birthday, because that's something we enjoyed doing together.
4. A pair of Tennis shoes. My wife and I had just finished a 6-week tennis clinic and we had a great time doing it together.
5. A bike. My daughter Elizabeth loved to ride her bike and kept begging me to get myself one so we could go on bike rides together.

Thus, to me the conclusion was that it was OK for me to be out 5 nights a week provided I will do things, and spend time, with each member of my family.

Over the years I have developed this 'touch and receive' ability. It is not something I do all the time, but is has become an interesting part of my life. E.g. A few years ago I was invited to a Christmas party at a friend's house. When I arrived, my friend Ann came over and gave me a little welcome hug. The moment she did I saw a little black book with gold trim and the number 96. I told Ann what had just happened and she exclaimed: 'I know exactly which book you are talking about!' She asked me to follow her into the club basement to a Chest of drawers. She pulled out one of the drawers and there was the little black book. She opened it to page 96 and found a folded piece of paper. She unfolded it and looked at me with big, astounded eyes. The paper was her husband's will that she had been looking for ever since he had passed away.

I could tell you numerous stories just as thrilling, however, to keep this introduction reasonably short I will stop here.

All these experiences showed me that there is an underlying intelligence that has access to an infinite amount of sources of information that it can use to give us another view, a different perspective, of things that are on our minds and principles that we live by.

After numerous, continuous, and ever-increasing successes I felt compelled to take this one step further. I wondered if that underlying intelligence could use a computer program to generate answers. In other words, I would create a simple program that would accept a statement or principle and then the computer would 'reply' (actually, it would be Infinite Intelligence using the computer to reply). I would furnish a basic set of numbered statements that the computer (Infinite Intelligence) could choose from to form its answer. After all, that is how we humans communicate. We have a set of words that we know and we use those in different combinations to communicate.

Knowing nothing about computer programming I decided to take programming courses at a local community college. The first language was COBOL (COmmon Business Oriented Language). It taught me how computers 'think'. The second language I learned was GW Basic. I pretty much mastered it and created my first program. I would type in a question/statement and it would choose one of 720 phrases I created. E.g. On June 22, 1987 I input 'The Berlin Wall'. The computer picked '187 An appointment with the president.' On June 12, 1987 Ronald Reagan, or president, challenged Gorbachev to 'Take down this Wall!'.

This is how my program worked: I would type in a phrase or word 'The Berlin Wall' and hit ENTER. The program would record the input together with the date and time of the input, assign a number to the input and then choose one of the 720 phrases I had supplied, in this case '187 An appointment with the president'. It then asked me whether I wanted to leave a comment. If I left a comment it would record it and associate it permanently with the input phrase. It would also search to see if any other inputs received 187 as an answer and then display those inputs. This is very important: The comments would enhance, give additional meaning to, and elaborate on the original phrase!!!

The computer I used was the Commodor-64. It had very little memory and an external 170kb floppy drive for storage. In no time I ran out of memory, and I was the only person using the program. There was no Internet, so I could not share the program and invite other users. Thus I stopped using it and devoted my time to other things.

Fast forward to 2019. We have the internet, practically unlimited storage capacity and highly advanced computer languages. I was looking for a certain book and in so doing came across a three-ring binder containing my little program from almost 40 years ago. I glanced over it and the inputs and answers I had gotten way back then. This brief moment re-ignited the idea. Sleeping beauty was awakened after 40 years of sleeping and a new cycle of activity began.

I have about 900 Facebook "friends". So I put out the word whether anybody knows a computer programmer. I received a message from a friend named Janet 'Helmut, I know a programmer. By the way, my mom used to sing in your band when I was a little girl and my dad shot the cover photo for one of your albums.' We started communicating and reminiscing and she gave me the name and phone # of the programmer, John. I called him, we had a meeting in which I explained to him my little program. I asked him whether he would be able to bring it into the 21st century. He said he and a programmer friend named Jason could, and we came to an agreement. And here it is!

Originally I had named the program/website 1080Answers. However, since it does not give you 'answers' in the traditional meaning, but rather phrases for you to interpret, I have re-named it to 1080Phrases. Enjoy, remember to leave your comment and tell others about it.

Helmut