The Earthquake Premonition

I mentioned before in my previous articles, that I am a very scientific and analytical person, yet I have always been fascinated by the paranormal, dreams, and “the other side.”

I just recently started reading one of the books from the extensive Time Life collection (I highly recommend these books if you like a good read). The book is from a series called “ Mysteries of the Unknown.” In short, the series covers the paranormal, along with many other unexplained events, which prompted me to write this story.

As you may know, throughout history, many famous people, good and evil, have used premonitions, oracles, fortune tellers, and the like, to make decisions on just about everything. Kings of ancient times would actually consult oracles to make decisions on major events like whether to wage war! Abraham Lincoln and Winston Churchill were among the many figures in history who had a “feel” for things which would normally be dismissed by some as just a coincidence. On another note, (I didn't know this until recently reading it), Samuel Clemens- aka Mark Twain, had a dream about his brother's death. Even the book of Revelation in the Bible comes from a fantastic dream.

With all of the above being said, now I don't think it so strange that SOME dreams may be trying to tell us something. It may be good or bad. For instance, the saxophone was invented based upon a dream. On a humorous note, the cartoonist Gary Larson had a drawing which read “Dreaming is your brain saying: Testing one two.” Is this really the case?

Now that I have rambled on a bit, here is MY firsthand account of a vivid dream

I was living in Anchorage, Alaska in 1994, and until that time I had lived in Florida for most of my life, so I never experienced things like snow, sub-zero temperatures, mountains, and certainly not, earthquakes. Alaska is very geologically active, and if you don't already know, the most intense earthquake in North America occurred there in 1964, on Good Friday. I was fortunate enough to get to speak to a few people who were there when it happened. (What stories).

I was only in Alaska for about two weeks when I got to experience a 3.8 earthquake. At first I thought it was my guitar player clowning around with me, but reality set in quickly when I found out he was not the one shaking my bed, and the noise in the kitchen was dishes breaking as they were being shaken to the floor. This was a startling event to say the least, and at first the whole thing only lasted about 15 to 20 seconds. However, the “aftershocks” continued throughout the day, almost on the hour. If you ever experience an earthquake, you will never forget the rumbling sound, accompanied by the shaking. By the way a 3.8 earthquake is nothing compared to the one that struck Alaska in 1964. There are conflicting opinions on the intensity, some say it was a 9.2, which is pretty huge. (every number is 10 times greater in intensity; a 4 is ten times greater than a 3, and so on).

Due to my job as a fire suppression system technician, and Alaska being such a large state, I frequently had to travel by air. One time I was scheduled to fly to Fairbanks, and the night before I left I had a dream that seemed like it was in Technicolor and “on the big screen at a theatre near you.” In my dream I was driving down Northern Lights Boulevard, and I came to a traffic light. While I was stopped, I felt my truck shake as if someone bumped into me. Then the shaking was more intense, and the light poles were swaying, and they started falling like dominos. As I was driving, I was looking for a safe place, only to find the ground starting to fold into hills, and a huge split formed in the road. Then I heard a siren from the Tsunami warning center, and that's when I woke up. That was one of those dreams which stick with you. It seemed SO real.

In the morning, I headed to the airport and boarded the plane to Fairbanks. I did my work there, and boarded the plane back to Anchorage. About five minutes after take off, the pilot informed us that there was an earthquake happening! It turned out to be a 6.3, and no one was hurt, but there was a damage to a few small structures, and a water main broken. I know this was not exactly what was in my dream, but I though it was quite a “coincidence” that I happened to be leaving while it was happening. You be the judge.