Dynamo
16th May 2015, 09:55 PM
I'd like to share something with the community here. I don't know if this counts as an OBE, a lucid dream or just plain weird, but this bizarre event happened to me in April of last year. Before I go into detail, I need to give you some background info – otherwise it makes even less sense than it does already.
When I was in college in the late 1980's I had a girlfriend – let's call her “Jane” (not her real name). We met towards the end of my sophomore year, but things didn't really get together until my junior year. We had some great times, but it pretty soon became clear there was no way were going to go the distance; we wanted very different things out of life. For starters I wanted travel and adventure; whereas, like the old song says, she'd settle for suburbia and a little patch of land. So we drifted apart, which was kind of sad, but inevitable. I've often harbored the notion that she met some other guy when she went away with her girlfriends over Spring Break, because things cooled quite rapidly after that.
Jane was 18 months older than me, so my junior year was her senior year. After her graduation (which I wasn't invited to) she went back to her hometown and I never saw her again. We corresponded for a little while over that summer, but when my second letter went unanswered I figured our relationship had run its course and we were through. It's not like we had a big bust-up or anything; in fact, I look back fondly on our time together.
After I graduated I went into the Navy, traveled around and spent a lot of time out of the country. When I left the Navy, I settled in the South, got married, and sadly got divorced 2 years ago. In all that time I never forgot Jane, but I didn't give her a great deal of thought either.
OK, that's the background you need to know to put what happened next into context.
In April of 2014 I was on a business trip to London. The company I work for has its European headquarters in London and I usually go there a couple of times a year. The second night I was there I had this weird dream.
In the dream I found myself standing in the hallway of a hospital. I've no idea what hospital it was. I could tell from things like the light switches and nurses uniforms that it was back in the US, but that's all. The hall wasn't particularly long, and there was a sort of lobby area off of it with elevators and orange plastic chairs. I could see daylight through the window – it was night in London, but would have been either late afternoon or evening back in America.
I looked down the hallway and I could see two female orderlies pushing and pulling a gurney. They both looked like they'd rather be anywhere else, and I remember thinking: I'll bet they push their shopping carts round the supermarket with more care than they're showing that poor patient.
As they got closer I could see the patient was a woman, and although she wasn't screaming, she seemed to be in a great deal of pain and distress. When they drew level with me, I looked down at this lady on the gurney and thought: I know her. It took me a moment, but then I recognized her. Oh my God! It's Jane!
She looked kind of different from when I last saw her back in 1988. She was older (obviously) and she wore her hair differently than she did back in the 80's, but she was definitely my old girlfriend from college.
Then things got REALLY weird...
It was like, just for a moment, I was her. I could see things from her perspective. I hadn't realized it until then, but my hearing had been muted up to that point, yet all of a sudden I could hear doors slamming, people talking and all the other types of noises you hear in the hospital loudly and clearly. I could feel the hard rubber surface of the gurney and the chill of the air conditioning through the thin hospital gown. I could also feel this searing lower abdominal pain, the likes of which I've never experienced myself in real life. It was like she had a red-hot lump of charcoal trapped inside her. More than anything else, though, I could feel absolute terror. It was as if she was in fear for her life and expected to die at any moment. This only lasted a couple of seconds – less time than it will have taken you to read this paragraph – but it was incredibly intense. I woke up and thought: Oh no, she's dead. Jane's dead!
I felt terrible – bereft even. I hadn't seen this woman in over 25 years, yet the thought that she might be dead really hit me hard. I must have looked pretty miserable the next day because one of my British friends remarked: “Cheer up, it might never happen.” I felt like telling him it was too late and it probably already had! I couldn't explain what was upsetting me because I couldn't understand it myself.
When I got back home I looked up the website for Jane's hometown newspaper to see if there was an obituary or something, but there wasn't. I kept looking over the next couple of weeks, but any obituaries were just for old folk who had died.
I decided to try and find out what had happened to Jane in the intervening years since we split-up. I put her name into Google, and there were all sorts of results for women with the same name, but nothing for her. I figured she must be married by now, and every time I had a spare moment at the computer, I looked around on public record sites to see if there was any mention of her. Eventually, I discovered she'd moved to another state – fortunately one that puts public records online (not all do) or I'd be no wiser now – and that she'd gotten married there just over 3 years after we split.
I put her married name into Google and found several mentions of her – including a Facebook page. Unfortunately it's one of those Facebook pages that you've got to be logged on to see. I'm not on Facebook (and don't particularly want to be), so I “borrowed” my daughter's account and logged on.
I discovered several things. First off, the page had been updated only a couple of days before my visit – which meant she was still alive and hadn't died a lonely, painful death on a hospital gurney. Needless to say I was pretty happy about that.
Then I saw some other things that completely blew my mind. There were a whole bunch of photos on the site – photos of her, photos of her husband (presumably) and their kids. In the photos posted over the previous 18 months or so, she had the same type of haircut as the lady on the gurney in my dream, so I'm pretty sure we're talking about the same person here. There was also a text post dated around this time last year. In it, she thanked everybody for all the flowers, get well cards and messages of support and goodwill she received during her recent stay in the hospital, and went on to say that she was home now and feeling much better.
Spooky or what!?
I'm sorry if this post is a bit long. Writing it has been a cathartic experience. I've not been able to discuss this with family and friends because I didn't think they'd take me seriously, or might think I'd turned into some kind of nut job or something. I'm sure members of this forum are more open minded.
Thanks for your time.
When I was in college in the late 1980's I had a girlfriend – let's call her “Jane” (not her real name). We met towards the end of my sophomore year, but things didn't really get together until my junior year. We had some great times, but it pretty soon became clear there was no way were going to go the distance; we wanted very different things out of life. For starters I wanted travel and adventure; whereas, like the old song says, she'd settle for suburbia and a little patch of land. So we drifted apart, which was kind of sad, but inevitable. I've often harbored the notion that she met some other guy when she went away with her girlfriends over Spring Break, because things cooled quite rapidly after that.
Jane was 18 months older than me, so my junior year was her senior year. After her graduation (which I wasn't invited to) she went back to her hometown and I never saw her again. We corresponded for a little while over that summer, but when my second letter went unanswered I figured our relationship had run its course and we were through. It's not like we had a big bust-up or anything; in fact, I look back fondly on our time together.
After I graduated I went into the Navy, traveled around and spent a lot of time out of the country. When I left the Navy, I settled in the South, got married, and sadly got divorced 2 years ago. In all that time I never forgot Jane, but I didn't give her a great deal of thought either.
OK, that's the background you need to know to put what happened next into context.
In April of 2014 I was on a business trip to London. The company I work for has its European headquarters in London and I usually go there a couple of times a year. The second night I was there I had this weird dream.
In the dream I found myself standing in the hallway of a hospital. I've no idea what hospital it was. I could tell from things like the light switches and nurses uniforms that it was back in the US, but that's all. The hall wasn't particularly long, and there was a sort of lobby area off of it with elevators and orange plastic chairs. I could see daylight through the window – it was night in London, but would have been either late afternoon or evening back in America.
I looked down the hallway and I could see two female orderlies pushing and pulling a gurney. They both looked like they'd rather be anywhere else, and I remember thinking: I'll bet they push their shopping carts round the supermarket with more care than they're showing that poor patient.
As they got closer I could see the patient was a woman, and although she wasn't screaming, she seemed to be in a great deal of pain and distress. When they drew level with me, I looked down at this lady on the gurney and thought: I know her. It took me a moment, but then I recognized her. Oh my God! It's Jane!
She looked kind of different from when I last saw her back in 1988. She was older (obviously) and she wore her hair differently than she did back in the 80's, but she was definitely my old girlfriend from college.
Then things got REALLY weird...
It was like, just for a moment, I was her. I could see things from her perspective. I hadn't realized it until then, but my hearing had been muted up to that point, yet all of a sudden I could hear doors slamming, people talking and all the other types of noises you hear in the hospital loudly and clearly. I could feel the hard rubber surface of the gurney and the chill of the air conditioning through the thin hospital gown. I could also feel this searing lower abdominal pain, the likes of which I've never experienced myself in real life. It was like she had a red-hot lump of charcoal trapped inside her. More than anything else, though, I could feel absolute terror. It was as if she was in fear for her life and expected to die at any moment. This only lasted a couple of seconds – less time than it will have taken you to read this paragraph – but it was incredibly intense. I woke up and thought: Oh no, she's dead. Jane's dead!
I felt terrible – bereft even. I hadn't seen this woman in over 25 years, yet the thought that she might be dead really hit me hard. I must have looked pretty miserable the next day because one of my British friends remarked: “Cheer up, it might never happen.” I felt like telling him it was too late and it probably already had! I couldn't explain what was upsetting me because I couldn't understand it myself.
When I got back home I looked up the website for Jane's hometown newspaper to see if there was an obituary or something, but there wasn't. I kept looking over the next couple of weeks, but any obituaries were just for old folk who had died.
I decided to try and find out what had happened to Jane in the intervening years since we split-up. I put her name into Google, and there were all sorts of results for women with the same name, but nothing for her. I figured she must be married by now, and every time I had a spare moment at the computer, I looked around on public record sites to see if there was any mention of her. Eventually, I discovered she'd moved to another state – fortunately one that puts public records online (not all do) or I'd be no wiser now – and that she'd gotten married there just over 3 years after we split.
I put her married name into Google and found several mentions of her – including a Facebook page. Unfortunately it's one of those Facebook pages that you've got to be logged on to see. I'm not on Facebook (and don't particularly want to be), so I “borrowed” my daughter's account and logged on.
I discovered several things. First off, the page had been updated only a couple of days before my visit – which meant she was still alive and hadn't died a lonely, painful death on a hospital gurney. Needless to say I was pretty happy about that.
Then I saw some other things that completely blew my mind. There were a whole bunch of photos on the site – photos of her, photos of her husband (presumably) and their kids. In the photos posted over the previous 18 months or so, she had the same type of haircut as the lady on the gurney in my dream, so I'm pretty sure we're talking about the same person here. There was also a text post dated around this time last year. In it, she thanked everybody for all the flowers, get well cards and messages of support and goodwill she received during her recent stay in the hospital, and went on to say that she was home now and feeling much better.
Spooky or what!?
I'm sorry if this post is a bit long. Writing it has been a cathartic experience. I've not been able to discuss this with family and friends because I didn't think they'd take me seriously, or might think I'd turned into some kind of nut job or something. I'm sure members of this forum are more open minded.
Thanks for your time.