The following is a former winner of the Amazing but Incredibly True Story Contest.
Copyright April Joy, 1996
For as long as I can remember I have been afraid of heights. I fell down the stairs a lot when I was a child but I know this is not the reason for my fear. I know the fear is founded in a frequently recurring dream. Last month I told my mother about the dream:
It was a bright and beautiful winter day. I seemed to be standing apart from everything and was unable to interact with the environment around me. I knew it was a cold wintery day but I didn't feel the cold. I was near a body of water of some kind with fast, hot water (when I was older I realized it was a hot spring). I knew the spring was hot and fast but I couldn't approach the spring or feel the steam coming from the water. I even knew that thedrop from the fence to the water was a very long drop onto rocks but I could not get close enough to actually see the spring, I just knew it was there.
I seemed to be hovering in a spot between where my siblings were and where my parents stood to the side. I was hovering over the scene but apart from the actual picture. It was a beautiful place and a lovely day but I was overwhelmed with feelings of fear and frustation. It takes me a while in my dream to understand my feelings.
Then I noticed that three kids appeared to be hanging precariously over the edge of the fence along the side of the spring. Each was draped over the top rung of the fence, feet not touching or just barely touching the bottom rail. I was deeply afraid for them. I was terrified that they were going to fall into the water below. I knew they could not survive the drop, and if they did the hot water would either burn or drown them. I could only watch from a distance. I was unable to approach the kids and they didn't hear me calling to them.
The parents of the children were to the right of me arguing about something and not watching the kids. I couldn't seem to get their attention and was unable to speak with them. The feelings of frustration and anger were directed at the parents and I was petrified for these kids. The far off sound of the rushing water only seemed to intensify my fears. In my dream I watched this scene unable to do anything, and I always woke up feeling helpless and angry.
Well, as I grew older the faces in the dream became clearer, for at first I could not see faces on anyone. I also realized that the stream was a hot spring and that the children were my two older sisters and my older brother at a young age. The parents in the dream were my mother and father. After the first time I had this dream, whenever I was anywhere with sharp drops the memory would haunt me. I was petrified if parents didn't move their kids away from balcony sides or the edges of cliffs, bridges, etc...
When I told my mother of my dream recently, she expressed great interest and surprise, for the incident from my dream actually happened at some hot springs in New Mexico. She and my dad had stopped to look at them. She did not notice what the kids were doing until something made her look up and she saw them hanging over the fence. She made them get away from the edge of the spring.
According to her it was impossible for me to have seen this for she was six months pregnant with me at the time. She does remember me being very agitated or active in her womb at the time and said that she almost lost me shortly after the trip to the stream. She even showed me the picture of my brother and sisters in the parking area near the springs. I am definitely not in the picture. It seems I had an out of body experience before I was even born!
I know no one told me this story, because my brother and sisters did not talk about the past when we were children. It is an unspoken rule not to discuss anything about when we were younger. Our father was not one to tell stories of things that had happened or places where we had been. Due to circumstances, when I first dreamed of this my mother was out of my life and didn't return until I was 13. We didn't speak about this dream until this year, and I am now 32.
To contact the author, write to AprilJoy.
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