If you could go back in time ......

Tess66

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I was feeling very melancholy yesterday, so to shake off my funk, I walked down to a little lake near my house to feed the ducks.

It was a beautiful day, unseasonably warm, not a cloud in the sky, light breeze. It was so peaceful, just the sounds of the ducks and geese, birds chirping, just one of those perfect days.

Given the date, of course my thoughts ran to Michael and his love of nature. While I'm certain that wherever Michael is has beauty (it would have to as he's there), I still wished he was physically here to enjoy the things we often take for granted.

It got me thinking, if I could go back in time, knowing what I know now, and warn him, what would I say if I was only allowed one thing to warn/advise him of? It was hard, actually kept me up most of the night thinking about, and still I'm not sure. There were a lot of things that were catalytic for him, domino effect so to speak, that I'm frustrated as where the key actually is.

So, I ask the people here. If you could go back in time, knowing what you know, and could only give Michael one piece of information that might have changed his ultimate outcome, what point of his life would you go back to and what one thing would you say?

I am still pondering the questions myself, but would truly like to know what members here would do/say?
 
That's a Really hard one to answer as Michael seemed to be someone who wouldn't really listen to warnings from others and always did what he wanted in the end but I think if I could go back in time I would have told him to not have returned to America and to have stayed out of the limelight. With his skills he could have easily made money working behind the scenes, he was so talented. I'm a believer though so I think this is what he is actually doing. ?? Mj
 
I saw and spoke to Michael 7 days before he passed!!

I think about it often, if I only KNEW what was going on in that room and what was going to happen 7 days later.. As I spoke to him from outside his vehicle, I would have told him to stay away from Conrad.. I would have to be overly invasive (which may turn him off) but it would HAVE to get him thinking "There is no way this guy would know X/Y/Z if he didn't know SOMETHING.."

Guys I was freaking there, I saw his bedroom light turn on after he went back home after rehearsal on the 18th.. I saw the vehicles show up before when he was threatened about not going into rehearsal.. I had no idea what was going on, just caught up in the moment of seeing Michael, hearing him rehearse to think anything that horrible was happening and going to happen..

I would have done whatever I could to STOP Conrad... I may have seen his vehicle, I am not sure!
 
^^Were you a follower then? Wow!! To see and hear him up close, amazing! I was never even able to go to a concert!
 
I was in los angeles and drove by his house.. I did not expect what was to happen after! there was a camp of followers out there including MJ fan "waldo" who told me that "Michael is coming out any minute"... So I waited and waited and waited... I live in Arizona, was not privileged enough to be a regular lol!
 
Stopped him from meeting the Chandlers. I would warn him and then make sure their paths didn't cross.
 
^ Imagine if his car did not break down that day, or maybe even broke down 20 miles further in the drive... I think about that too..
 
Ahh!! I saw you're in AZ, thought perhaps at the time you were following him. I've read about the dedication the FF have, going all over the world to see him. I know there is a member here who also saw him during the last week, the gal who gave him the "Curls... " t-shirt. That story ... Wow!
 
Stopped him from meeting the Chandlers. I would warn him and then make sure their paths didn't cross.

^ Imagine if his car did not break down that day, or maybe even broke down 20 miles further in the drive... I think about that too..

I thought about them, but not sure if they were the primary thing. I thought about warning him about the Pepsi commercial that burned him and caused him so much pain throughout his life. I thought about the Arvisos, and the nightmare they caused.

I even thought about going back to when he was a young boy and telling him to be quiet about his talents until his was older, but I doubt he could have hidden his gift.

Sigh, so many things.
 
If you believe in the butterfly affect, then maybe going back and preventing the 84' Pepsi accident would also prevent mj from meeting the chandlers/arvisos. It's a tough call to make. I feel like I would have to go with preventing the allegations.
 
nice thread and brave to start it!:D

I was really thinking of Michael yesterday too! 25th of each month does that to me! The bittersweet memories just bubble to the surface somehow. The sadness, the anger, the feeling of loss!

Yeah, I often talked about it with my Dad about the 'what if' but yeah the 'butterfly' effect hey! If you change something, then the future just changes :( and I gotta admit some beautiful things did happen out of all this misery :shutup:

Anywayz, I would have loved that Michael would have stayed in Ireland. He seemed happy there and he was recording songs and just living a happy 'incognito' life!

He really didn't NEED to come back To L.A to 'prove' anything really but I 'doubt' indeed if Michael would have listened to 'good advice' and in a way I do understand his passion. It's just something you can't control and you're compelled to it even if it kills you lol !

Besides, I really thought for awhile they were taking good care of him and when the worry started to seep in, it was too bloody late to 'save' him, right?

So the questions and 'guilt' remains and it's better to focus on the good stuff that Michael taught us and brought us together with his sacrifice :cry:
 
nice thread and brave to start it!:D

I was really thinking of Michael yesterday too! 25th of each month does that to me! The bittersweet memories just bubble to the surface somehow. The sadness, the anger, the feeling of loss!

Yeah, I often talked about it with my Dad about the 'what if' but yeah the 'butterfly' effect hey! If you change something, then the future just changes :( and I gotta admit some beautiful things did happen out of all this misery :shutup:

Anywayz, I would have loved that Michael would have stayed in Ireland. He seemed happy there and he was recording songs and just living a happy 'incognito' life!

He really didn't NEED to come back To L.A to 'prove' anything really but I 'doubt' indeed if Michael would have listened to 'good advice' and in a way I do understand his passion. It's just something you can't control and you're compelled to it even if it kills you lol !

Besides, I really thought for awhile they were taking good care of him and when the worry started to seep in, it was too bloody late to 'save' him, right?

So the questions and 'guilt' remains and it's better to focus on the good stuff that Michael taught us and brought us together with his sacrifice :cry:

Beautifully written as usual, thank you for responding. (I love your Fan Fiction).

I think, somehow, we still would have gotten the beautiful things without quite so much misery for MJ.

I too wish that MJ had stayed overseas. The U.S. had definitely not been kind to him. Although, even living abroad, didn't mean that he still wouldn't have been pressured to do a concert series. Perhaps though, in different surroundings, the outcome would have been different. I always thought his European fans were an amazing force and he seemed happier away from the U.S.
 
I would go back into the 80s. I would beg Michael to be more! than attentive of people who intrude his environment, his life, his business... Who he described some years later in his song "Money".
 
I love your description, you painted a vivid picture in my mind. Beautiful thread

I always struggle with if I would change something.
You stop him meeting that family and there's no Stranger In Moscow or no resilient Mike we saw between 1994 - 2000. Obviously I'd do it but it's always tough.

If I would change something I would change 2002 onwards, bashir, sony sucks campaign, that other family, the medication, Conrad.

Imagine if he didn't tour Invincible, he went on hiatus outside of America for 6-7 years and comes back announcing a tour and a new album. Imagine how well he would have been mind, body and soul. Look at the way the world embraced him with open arms after the 2005 trial imagine if there had been no new trial.
He would have conquered the world.
 
^^
Thank you for your thoughtful reply.

I haven't been able to stop thinking about the scenarios, it's a fine line, trying to "rewrite" history. You change one thing, you change many. However, after reading more, I think my answer is....

I would go back to just before the Pepsi commercial that burned him. I would tell him not to do it or change how it was being done so he didn't get hurt. I believe that injury was the catalyst for pain medications that he came to need often in his life, and with them, the slew of doctors that just put Band-Aids over bullet holes. Perhaps if that injury never happened, he wouldn't have been introduced to pain meds at all. I would tell him to never use pain meds for sleep especially and if he needed help sleeping, to see a specialist in the field and to never allow any doctor to give him medications that would tender him unconscious (unless he was actually having surgery).

Yes, the ugliness with the Chandlers, Bashier, Sony, Arvisos, etc., may still have occurred, but in the end he survived those times. What he didn't survive were the "doctors" (term used loosely). Not just Murray either, any doctor who took advantage of him and his pain.

JMHO
 
^ Imagine if his car did not break down that day, or maybe even broke down 20 miles further in the drive... I think about that too..

Yeah ridiculous how such a thing pretty much destroyed his life. I dont believe in fate but sometimes with all the things that happened to mj because of things like that and say filming say say say at what would become nevvy it makes u wonder.
 
If I could go back in time to ask Michael something it would be if he could use his voice to sing on the Simpsons episode, and release 'Lisa, It's Your Birthday' as a b-side to 'Do The Bartman'.

I'd be present at Hayvenhurst for the unauthorised interview in '83, where I could ask him all about 'Startin' Somethin' - my favourite song Oh, and 'The Man'! Just to witness his joy would be magical! We could dance and play tag!
 
If I could go back in time to ask Michael something it would be if he could use his voice to sing on the Simpsons episode, and release 'Lisa, It's Your Birthday' as a b-side to 'Do The Bartman'.

I'd be present at Hayvenhurst for the unauthorised interview in '83, where I could ask him all about 'Startin' Somethin' - my favourite song Oh, and 'The Man'! Just to witness his joy would be magical! We could dance and play tag!

Hmm, fun concepts, but I think you misunderstood the question that is relevant to this thread which is ....

"So, I ask the people here. If you could go back in time, knowing what you know, and could only give Michael one piece of information that might have changed his ultimate outcome, what point of his life would you go back to and what one thing would you say? "
 
^^
Thank you for your thoughtful reply.

I haven't been able to stop thinking about the scenarios, it's a fine line, trying to "rewrite" history. You change one thing, you change many. However, after reading more, I think my answer is....

I would go back to just before the Pepsi commercial that burned him. I would tell him not to do it or change how it was being done so he didn't get hurt. I believe that injury was the catalyst for pain medications that he came to need often in his life, and with them, the slew of doctors that just put Band-Aids over bullet holes. Perhaps if that injury never happened, he wouldn't have been introduced to pain meds at all. I would tell him to never use pain meds for sleep especially and if he needed help sleeping, to see a specialist in the field and to never allow any doctor to give him medications that would tender him unconscious (unless he was actually having surgery).

Yes, the ugliness with the Chandlers, Bashier, Sony, Arvisos, etc., may still have occurred, but in the end he survived those times. What he didn't survive were the "doctors" (term used loosely). Not just Murray either, any doctor who took advantage of him and his pain.

JMHO

Yeah, Bold and Truthful answer here too! You have to go back to the 'root' of all the misery to change one's life for the better.
The right term for "doctor" is QUACK :angry: I've met many too and only Two 'real' Doctors have 'saved' my life so far. :eek:

Sometimes, when we love someone unconditionally we don't want them to suffer but how harsh it is really... It's a 'lesson' that life brings as IF Michael wasn't so 'abused' by quacks, I wouldn't have 'realized' that quacks are just out to 'destroy' yours too.

Life is always a flipped coin of 'what if' and the only thing we are left to do is 'honor' Michael in the BEST way we possibly can. :)
 
I would go back and warn him for the pepsi commercial.
I wonder how his life had been without a dependency of painmedication, if he had been healthier,or made other decisions.
 
I saw Michael in London in March 2009.

I was one out of maybe 15 fans that were outside his hotel when he left for the airport and managed to give him a letter I had written to him. Though I am happy with what I wrote, knowing what we know now I would change the content of my letter and warn him, maybe even beg him to not go back to the US.

When talking about our final moments with Michael to my friend who was there with me, we have repeatedly said "we let him go". We didnt know it was the last time we would see him but we feel so guilty and sad about this even though we know theres nothing we could have done.
 
Yeah, Bold and Truthful answer here too! You have to go back to the 'root' of all the misery to change one's life for the better.
The right term for "doctor" is QUACK :angry: I've met many too and only Two 'real' Doctors have 'saved' my life so far. :eek:

Sometimes, when we love someone unconditionally we don't want them to suffer but how harsh it is really... It's a 'lesson' that life brings as IF Michael wasn't so 'abused' by quacks, I wouldn't have 'realized' that quacks are just out to 'destroy' yours too.

Life is always a flipped coin of 'what if' and the only thing we are left to do is 'honor' Michael in the BEST way we possibly can. :)

You always put things in the right perspective, thank you!

Quacks, yes, absolutely!! I too was a victim of doctors who didn't search for a cause, just kept brushing off my complaints as a woman who was getting older and going through the "change". They kept putting Band-Aids over bullet holes as well. I suffered for 2 years before ending up in a hospital where a real doctor took the time, did the tests and found out what was causing the issues. It took a long time to feel better, and some of the damage was permanent, but at least I had found a legitimate cause beyond "getting older"!

I agree about honoring Michael, that's all we can do now. He was just too damn good for this world. "Only the good for young".
 
I saw Michael in London in March 2009.

I was one out of maybe 15 fans that were outside his hotel when he left for the airport and managed to give him a letter I had written to him. Though I am happy with what I wrote, knowing what we know now I would change the content of my letter and warn him, maybe even beg him to not go back to the US.

When talking about our final moments with Michael to my friend who was there with me, we have repeatedly said "we let him go". We didnt know it was the last time we would see him but we feel so guilty and sad about this even though we know theres nothing we could have done.

Wow!!

No, there was nothing you could have done of course. I've read about other fans who saw him during those TII times, and they have similar stories to yours. Even some who have stated that something didn't seem "right", Michael not looking well, etc. They all say what you did, wishing they could have warned him, but not knowing at the time what was really going on. Feeling guilty over it, but how could anyone on the "outside" have known?

Sigh, at least you got to see him, that must have been amazing, especially being able to give him something from your heart!
 
Who knows what direction MJ's life would have taken if we changed his future. We could go back, and warn him about The Chandlers, and his life would take on a whole new direction. For example Prince, Paris and Blanket may have never been born, or MJ could have had kids that were completely different.
 
-"Hey, that person who you think is nice? Yeah, stay the hell away from them" (Robson, Chandler, Safechuck, Shaffell, Schmuley, Arizvos)

-"No, I think this take was fine. No more" (avoid the Pepsi accident)

-"You're great looking just as you are" I think this would've made a world of difference


I think his hanging out with families and kids, constantly having bad business and personal influencers in his life, and not taking time to love himself more caused him a lot of grief. After Thriller, him traveling and just having fun as a 26 year old guy and going back into the studio in 1986 would've been a huge difference
 
Back to March 1984 and tell Michael, now he has recovered from his hair burns, never to use Pain killers again, unless they are needed after surgery.

I would also say "Cool it with the nose jobs, your nose looks great now, you look great now".
 
If I went back in time, I would have warned him of Lisa Marie, I think all his troubles came from being unhappy in personal life, but if it didn't help and there was still this situation that brought to death then I would bring proof that I am a time traveller, would hide in the bedroom and would try to talk to Dr. Murrey not to do what he did, but if he was just following somebody's order to do it I would need to have a weapon to stop him. Anyway it would be a mission not for 1 person but for a group of time travellers as nobody knows if only Dr. Murrey was behind it or an organised group of people like mafia or FBI, and I would take a doctor with reanimation equipment as well and try to transport MJ to the present times where he could be safe from whoever was after him.
 
^ With Lisa warn him specifically that they would not last? or that they would argue etc? I personally am happy that he had a real relationship, like they say.. "it's better to have loved than not to have loved at all".. The pain that came with it, of course I'd like to save him from but I highly doubt he ever regretted her. more so unhappy that it did not last.
 
^ With Lisa warn him specifically that they would not last? or that they would argue etc? I personally am happy that he had a real relationship, like they say.. "it's better to have loved than not to have loved at all".. The pain that came with it, of course I'd like to save him from but I highly doubt he ever regretted her. more so unhappy that it did not last.

I agree.
Its a shame their marriage didn't last. I believe he truly loved her and that their breakup was caused by external sources more so than Michael and Lisa.
 
There are so many separate events I would like to go to to give him advice. Stop the Pepsi fire from happening, stop the surgery (he was so beautiful even before surgery) and make sure his car didn't break down that day.

I have just finished yet another read of my original 1988 copy of Moonwalk. It is so sad how many times in there he states that he feels tragic for the stars that succumbed to fame and paid the ultimate price, with their life. He was so adamant in that book that it wouldn't happen to him. He also talks about how in control of his life he is at that time and how he knows every inch of his personal business. You wonder where and how it all went so wrong for him. I would like to pinpoint that moment and fix it. In 1988 he had so much going for him. Yeah the crappy rumours had started in the press of course - but not the ultimate, disgusting lies that would destroy his soul.
 
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