Zendo Calrissian:
And Ian, I appreciate your response. Without going into details as to the motivation for asking the question, what you said was exactly what I needed to hear in this circumstance. Strangely relevant, like you know more about my situation than I provided in my query. Weird.
If my explanation connected with you (despite the distraction provided by sawfoot) then it is because I, too, have had to deal with these same questions in my own practice. Unlike you, though (since you are new to the practice), I have been practicing meditation for nearly 34 years now (the last 14 of which have been primarily influenced by the teachings of Gotama's Dhamma), so I have had the time and the space to contemplate these matters from many different perspectives in order to figure out what is happening.
In other words, I've been in your shoes, I know the terrain that you are traveling over, and therefore, based on my extensive experience, I am able to provide you with the benefit of my experience.
If my explanation resonates with you, then you and I must be on the same page in that regard. There's really nothing weird about that. And certainly nothing "psychic" or "prophetic" about it in terms of the popular understanding of the word "clairvoyance." If you look the word up in the dictionary, it simply means "clear seeing." Nothing in that about being able to predict the future or know things about people that they are surprised that you know about because they've never expressed them to you.
It is simply a matter of having paid one's dues in the practice. I've been there, done that! It's really quite that simple. That is why I am able to describe these matters with such certainty and matter-of-factness. I
know whaJimIt I'm talking about.