Premonitions

Premonitions

Keeping a dream journal has proved to be very interesting. What might appear to be a meaningless and forgettable dream, may turn out to be more than you think. I found myself looking back at old entries...and some discoveries were quite eery.

I’ve had dreams that predicted future events, friends’ engagements, relationship issues, events in the news, and death..Which brings me to today’s topic. The BP oil spill in the gulf has been one of the biggest environmental disasters in our history, and I can’t say it hasn’t affected me any. In fact, it makes me angry. And I think it should. If you thought 9/11 was a wake-up call to terrorism and national security, how is this situation not an environmental wake-up call..to how we continue to live our lives..to our obsession with oil. To selfishness and greed. Not thinking about the outcome of our actions. It’s frustrating. How many wake-up calls do we need? First, the financial “collapse” of our economy and now this.

I could go off on a whole other rant, but the point is, this oil spill is a huge deal and has made a huge impact on the world. Which brings me back to the topic of dreams.

Flipping back through my dream journal, I came across an old entry, that now suddenly seemed to have meaning. It felt like it had meant something significant at the time, but the thought was fleeting as I had nothing to connect it with.

(Keep in mind, I was the one experiencing the dream, thus it is going to be through my interpretation--hence it taking place in Bellingham as opposed to the Gulf, etc)

Here is my original entry, line for line. It is fairly short, but still eery:

Dream: 9/29/08

"There are oil wells all over Bellingham. I am with my mother and all the sudden all of them explode and oil starts flooding the entire city. We are by the bay and the flood of oil smashes into us and knocks us into the water. We are okay, but it is an emergency and we need help because I know it’s effecting everyone."

Quite random you might say. I don’t think my subconscious mind, let alone my conscious mind, would ever be thinking about oil. Why would I have such a dream?

If you are still intrigued, here is another blog I wrote on the subject back in February of ‘09:

Death and Dreams
I’ve had some powerful dreams lately. Dreams that linger long after they have passed. Dreams that are even more vivid in my mind than events of the day before. I might not be able to tell you what day it is today, but I can tell you in graphic detail the images of a dream that has refused to go away.

I can decipher the difference between a dream that is abstract nonsense, recycling feelings and thoughts that have been on my mind at the time, and a dream that seems to come out of nowhere, with a very distinct message. For instance, if I’ve spent all day thinking about candy bars, I’m going to have a dream about wanting that candy bar. Just to spite me, I’ll most likely end up searching for that candy bar the entire dream, and just as my hands are about to wrap around it, tear off the wrapper and stick it in my mouth, I’ll wake up. And then I’ll go to the store and buy some chocolate.

But then there’s the type of dreams, like the one I had about a week ago, that couldn’t possibly have come from my subconscious. Dreams that coincide with events that are taking place in the world. Dreams that demand attention and refuse to leave your mind.

This particular dream effected me from the moment I woke up till the moment I fell asleep again that night. It made me reflect on a few things. The power of dreams cannot be simply dismissed. Emotionally you may experience such a dream as though it has actually occurred. There is no difference in your mind’s eye, save for the fact that it never really happened.

This dream came to me just weeks prior to the day when two planes crashed; one, a plane flying over Buffalo New York, crashed into a home, killing all those on board and a man in the home. The other, a plane in London, crash-landed at the airport. The passengers all survived, a few were injured.

Now, death is a subject often on my mind, but never so specific as this was. I had jotted my dream down in a journal, but it had temporarily left my mind, until the two plane crash incidents on Friday, Feb. 13th.

I close my eyes and I can still see it vividly.

I’m flying aboard a plane with my mom and brother, Marcus. But we are all separated, seated in different sections. As we are about to land, we are informed by the pilots that they've lost control of the plane and that the plane is going down. They tell us that we are not going to survive, that we only have a matter of minutes to live. Like a slap in the face, I’m confronted with the fact that I’m falling to my death. Trapped in my seat, awaiting my execution. These will be the last fleeting moments before my life has passed. Fear strikes me. I don’t want it to be over. I haven’t accomplished everything I wanted to.

What will it feel like? Will I finally discover the biggest mystery of life...what happens after death? I don’t have time to fully comprehend it all.

It’s then I realize that I’m going to die alone. Alone, surrounded by strangers. Separated from my family.

The plane crashes.

The lights go out.

I’m still alive...

Disoriented, I look about me. We are upside down and to my right I notice that the right wing of the plane is mangled, a few people conscious but injured. A few in front of me have been killed.

Those of us still alive manage to make our way through the plane, checking to see who has made it. My mind is set on finding my mom and brother. Luckily they are fine, and the rest of us get out okay.

The pilot had managed to land somewhat safely, causing only a little damage to the plane. However, a few lives have still been taken in the process.

When I get back home, my close friends greet me and embrace me. It is all over the news and they had feared the worst. Feared that the last time they’d seen me we’d had an argument. They could hardly express how they felt. And neither could I. I was in shock.

Having faced death square in the face, and survived, I could only reflect on the fact that none of us were supposed to have lived. And yet here we were still.

You say just a dream...I experienced it.