OK, I’ve been thinking of this for the past 2 days so I’m letting it out. Monday night I dreamed about a multi-storied building on fire. I dreamed a baby was dropped out a window from an upper story. That’s all I remember. The next day, as I was walking through the family room, I caught the end of a story……….of a baby dropped out the window of a burning building.
Needless to say I was kinda freaked out but this isn’t the first time I’ve had a dream or thought that came true.
Several years ago I was eating breakfast one Sunday morning and the thought came to me: “I wonder if Mr. T. died if we would go to the funeral.” The thought just came out of nowhere – I wasn’t thinking nor had thought of Mr. T. (our next door neighbor) probably in weeks. He was something of a recluse. I found out about a week later he had had a stroke the Friday before my thought and had lay on the floor of his bedroom until Monday morning, when he was found. A week later, he died.
In the month before Katrina hit, someone close to me dreamed 3 times in 3 weeks the same dream: A hurricane was coming and we needed to get out. The overwhelming message was: GET OUT!
The Friday before Katrina, I was at work like everyone else. There was no indication the storm was coming our way. Still, I had an overwhelming feeling that something was going to change….that life as I knew it was going to change. I didn’t connect it at all with the weather….it was just a feeling, almost a sadness that I couldn’t rationalize. By the next day we were feverishly boarding up the house and making plans to evacuate.
And, of course, life as I knew it did change. My city changed and it will never again be as it was.
I am just an ordinary woman. An ordinary woman who has had dreams and thoughts that have turned into reality. I don’t remember every single thought or dream but I remember these.
So I ask: is the future pre-ordained? And, if it is, what are the implications?
What do you think? Have you had similar experiences?
My dreams never come true! And for me I find that my dreams act as symbols for me, and me alone, to connect with. So, for example, if I dream of a hurricane it will have a far different meaning than if my friend in Colorado dreamed about a hurricane. But that’s me. I wouldn’t doubt that you could be picking up some vibes out there and dreaming them before they actually happen.
Keep us posted of your dreams!!
By: Nola on February 6, 2008
at 10:33 pm
I don’t think your experience is uncommon at all Charlotte. I’ve had similar and so have many other folks I know. Is the future predetermined? I don’t know, but I suspect it might be. What are the implications if it is? I think the Anais Nin quote you have up there in your header says it all
I agree with Nola too: Keep us posted!
By: evenstar on February 7, 2008
at 2:31 am
I think this is quite common, too. It has happened to me occasionally. One night I had a conversation around a table of people, several of whom had had foreboding dreams before Katrina. The dream that scared the daylights out of me a week beforehand, though not literal, was this one: I was driving down Poland Avenue (and I didn’t live anywhere near there, so it was weird that I was so aware that was exactly where I was), and I couldn’t drive farther bc people were crowding into the street. The funny thing is that one of them was Harvey Keitel (???). I stopped the car, and they all swarmed around me and said “We’re here to help you.” I told them I just wanted to keep driving. Harvey Keitel (ha) gestured forward and said, “There’s nothing up there.” I looked ahead and there was a terribly scary wet and dripping stone wall. I abandoned the car and ran as quickly as I could, and woke up so shaken that I actually told people at work about the dream the next day.
I agree with others here. Post your dreams!
By: A.F. on February 7, 2008
at 10:35 am
Woo Hoo! Post my dreams? Ya’all have no idea….I have some very ummmm….flamboyant dreams.
Nola & AF….I cannot count how many stories I’ve heard from people who had strange or unexplained things/dreams occur in the days/weeks before the storm. Wouldn’t it be interesting to gather the stories together?
Evenstar….thanks for visiting! I am soooo very much enjoying yours and Mau’s travels!
By: Charlotte on February 7, 2008
at 4:59 pm
It would be interesting to gather all those stories. And (now I’ll sound nuts), it occurred to me only after relating the story here that the significance of the odd occurence of Harvey Keitel in the dream may be that he has the same initials as Hurricane Katrina. Maybe too much of a stretch. But I sure as hell was scared of his ass.
By: A.F. on February 7, 2008
at 5:46 pm
I think there are only a couple of categories to put dreams in. They are either working out something that’s going on in your life and use symbols to represent the “real” things in your life, or they are predictive. Depending on what you believe, time is not necessarily sequential. So things that may seem to us like they are in the future are not. If you don’t buy into that, then I think you have to accept that there are far too many people that have dreams that come true to dismiss the possibility that we can do so. As to whether the future is pre-ordained…I personally believe that the choices we make in every moment effect our future and often the future of others. If we make the same kinds of choices all the time, then the future stays on a fairly predictive path, but if we change how we believe and the choices we make, then the future changes too. In other words, I don’t think it is pre-ordained.
By: amlifecoach on February 7, 2008
at 6:00 pm
Yeah. I agree with Amlifecoach, mostly. I don’t think predictive dreams mean the future is preordained. We still can’t change the course of hurricanes though, so I guess, by Friday, Katrina’s course was decided. Predictive dreams give us a chance to be proactive rather than reactive.
By: Sophmom on February 11, 2008
at 7:04 pm
Interesting comments. Does anyone know the word or phrase for when someone keeps thinking of a bad thing over and over in their mind, and it actually ends up happening, as the events above? I know there is a word or phrase for this.
By: Ken on May 5, 2008
at 2:19 pm