IF YOU WOULD BE A REAL SEEKER AFTER TRUTH,
IT IS NECESSARY THAT AT LEAST ONCE IN YOUR LIFE YOU DOUBT,
AS FAR AS POSSIBLE, ALL THINGS.
Descartes
What I once thought of as only a mind-boggling coincidence I now recognize as my first experience with ESP.
Although I very seldom remember any of my own dreams, I had read a book about the meaning of them wherein, I was informed, that to dream about travel portends death.
My parents, in the ensuing years prior to their re-marriages, dated on a regular basis.
There came a time when I was living closest to my father and consequently saw him or at least spoke to him more frequently than I did my mother.
Dad had several girlfriends at one point during those years and I was amused by the obvious reversal of roles that took place in our relationship.
Whenever he met a "new" significant other he would bring her to my home to meet me and, shortly thereafter, phone me to ask my opinion. There was one in particular that, in a roundabout way, brought about that first experience.
I went, with my father, to his girlfriend’s home where I was introduced to her mother.
I saw the older woman only that one time.
In a dream that occurred shortly after this one and only meeting, I was in a bus station when my deceased grandfather appeared accompanied with Dad’s girlfriend’s mother. I remember that even in my dream I was surprised by her presence.
Suddenly this woman began to cough and choke. My grandfather announced to me that it was time for them to be leaving and I watched them walk away until they were finally out of my sight.
I awoke still wondering why on earth this woman had showed up in my dream.
I was also left with the puzzle of the bus station. I detested travelling by bus and hadn’t done so since my college days. Since those days, I have never gone anywhere – no matter the distance – by bus.
I didn’t tell anyone about that dream and continued to wonder about the why of it all until an amazing answer came my way.
It wasn’t more than 3 or 4 days later that my father called to inform me that his girlfriend’s mother had suddenly and unexpectedly died. She had been lying down when she regurgitated. The contents of her stomach had, in the course of her coughing and choking, entered her lungs and caused her to drown.
A precognitive dream? I can’t conceive of how it could be labeled otherwise.
In a 1998 issue of a newsmagazine I read that neuroscientists believe dreams may come from random impulses in the brain stem. Even if this particular theory is one day proven to be a solid and irrefutable fact – I’ll not be able to believe it.
A few years after that experience my grandfather appeared in yet another dream. Again it was a bus station. This time his eldest son accompanied him. When he announced it was time for them to leave I asked, "Must you leave right now?" His answer was no, not now, but soon.
I then awoke.
The next morning I called my father and told him he should visit his brother (who lived in another city) as soon as possible. When he asked me for the why of my suggestion, I told him.
He immediately relegated the advice to the realm of the absurd.
It was only a month or so later that my uncle died.
After this second occurrence, whenever I was able to remember a dream I paid far closer attention to it. I was also relieved when my dreams ceased to involve bus stations.
