In 1999 I had a very vivid dream. In the dream I am standing at the base of a high-rise building. It’s the Brisbane Stock Exchange. Suddenly a large jet airliner crashes into the building. The plane emerges out of the other side and the building collapses. The devastation is immense and all that is left is a large hole in the ground. I am safe but everything around me is destroyed.
The dream had such an impact on me that I began to fear travelling in airplanes. Every time a plane went overhead my heart would beat a little faster. I got married later in 1999 and my husband and I flew to Far North Queensland for our honeymoon. I remember telling him on the plane about my dream and how I was a bit scared. We both laughed at how silly it sounded.
The day of the terrorist attacks in New York, September 11 2001, I saw a version of my dream played out on every television channel. I couldn’t believe what was happening. My psychiatrist told me that all dreams represent something that has occurred in the previous 48 hours.
I have another dream which bothers me. It’s a recurring dream that is also very vivid and I think about it often. It takes a number of forms but basically I am living near the coast or in a city with a river running through it (yes, that would be Brisbane). Suddenly there is a tsunami and the sea rises up and destroys the town. Everyone is madly running as fast as they can go, trying to outrun the waves, trying to get to higher territory. The waves do not retreat and the place is completely swamped.
I make it safely to higher ground, along with a small group of family, friends and some strangers. We travel as far away from the town as we can get, still fearful of the rising waters. We travel into the hills, to the most beautiful place in the world and we are safe. We decide to make that place our new home. Most people have not survived and we are very grateful that we did.
I had my first tsunami dream the day before the Banda Aceh tsunami of December 26 2004. It was probably just a result of over-indulging on bubbly on Christmas day but you never know.
I live in a small seaside village on the shores of Hervey Bay in Queensland. It’s a low lying place and 7,000 years ago the seas reached about 1km inland. You can still see the ‘second ridge’ – the elevation of the original beach, now covered in vegetation.
Earlier this year a cyclone hovered about 100km away from Woodgate and we could feel the winds from the edge of the low pressure system. The wind created large waves which pounded on the shore and one day the waves started to break through the ‘first ridge’, something which the locals had never seen happen. After about 10 days the cyclone eventually moved further out to sea.
One day I think we may have to ‘run for the hills’.
Gabe Feathers McGee 
You’re an enigma. Oppositely, all I can think of now is Iron Maiden, and “Run to the Hills”. My brain is broken, yours is a treasure. 🙂
Ha,ha,ha – that is very apt because my husband is a heavy metal freak – it’s all he listens to. I just asked him (before posting this) whether I should call it ‘run for the hills’ or ‘head for the hills’ and he chose the former. In light of today’s Melbourne cup, all I can say is ‘shocking’ – hope you had a win.
ah ha! someone else with tsunami dreams…I had an one years ago, one of the mythical dreams that stay with you for the rest of your life…
you’re not pisces by any chance???
Taurus my friend. I hope I got that ridge bit right – not much of an archeologist meself! Better consult a real one or two (I’m enriched by archeologists) – you must blog about your dream.
Interesting! Spooky too. Most of my dreams are people related and sometimes they come too close for comfort real. there are times when I FEEL a sense of something about to happen…. kind of like I can feel the energy around certain people, and it scares the wits out of me. However, there are times, like when I was jolted awake early one morning two days after my parent’s good friend had died suddenly to his voice calling my name. It was so vivid that I sat up and answered! However, I didn’t get a reply!! What I was left with was a sense of calm, and a deep feeling that he wanted me to know he had passed over into another realm.
It doesn’t happen often, but when it does…. whoosh!
Great blog!!
Thanks for stopping by Dana – glad you like the blog. I’ve had that name calling thing, usually my mum though she’s not dead – just comes out of the blue ‘Gabrielle’ like she’s warning me of something. Maybe she’s thinking about me and sending out vibes.
Fascinating. Dreams are such a mystery, aren’t they? I’ve had prescient dreams myself on more than one occasion, though nothing on as large a scale as yours.
A great mystery. I seem to dream more the average person – sometimes I feel like I been dreaming all night – sometimes I can remember 5 dreams on waking. I got a sleep study done and the neurologist said ‘this is not normal’ – a condition related to narcolepsy where I fall too quickly into REM sleeping and seem to skip the first 4 stages of sleep. It has led to some interesting experiences. You must tell me more about your dreams.
yeah- when i was little I used to have fortune telling type dreams…except they were about really boring things like in ten years time eating BBQ with parents and friends on Bribie island being able to tell what people were going to say next. Why not the LOTTO numbers fer gawds sake??
Or who was going to win the Melbourne cup, now that would be good.
It’s looking very likely indeed. In fact, it is inevitable, perhaps just not in our lifetime. Continents move, the planet is surprisingly flexible. One of my favourite poets, Louise Waller just moved to Southern Tasmania. Dreaming is a big topic, too big for a comment box.
Thank you Paul. The post is primarily about climate change as you have indicated. I agree that the planet is flexible, it just feels like nothing changes usually because of the pace but that can change and hopefully not in next 100 years. I sense that you may be one of those lucky people who doesn’t remember their dreams very often – ah that would be a luxury.
They say the ones who dream vividly are the genius’ in our world!
I don’t know about that Graham but it sounds pretty good -ha,ha,ha!
The thing is to remember the dream the next day. Why some days, some dreams?
You mostly only remember a dream if you wake up during it or soon after (like when the alarm clock cuts into your sleep). Most people dream five times a night but only remember the morning dream (or not). Some people don’t need to remember their dreams (they have peace of mind) or maybe they can access their subconscious in a different way. If you really want to remember your dream do this: before going to bed say to yourself a few times that you want to remember your dream. Having a notebook on hand to record them as soon as you wake helps to. There is also a technique to remember the other 4 dreams but I’ll tell you about that another time.
I do not try to remember my dreams because they are not pleasant to remember. I have periods were I do remember a lot, sometimes 2 or 3 in the morning and periods with nothing and I feel more rested when I do not remember. Interesting to know there are techniques to do remember, thanks.
I feel more rested when I don’t remember my dreams – so I know what you mean Ben. Sometimes, though, you have a really good one and never want to wake up – ha,ha.
As a American, I am especially stunned by your Brisbane Stock Exchange dream. I find myself thinking like a counter-terrorist, wondering if the stock exchange was ever on anyone’s target list, as well as marveling at its seeming to be a metaphor of 9/11 coming. The twofer of a tsunami dream makes your dream stats really astonishing! Gotta wonder about the nature of time, whether there’s something huge regarding the texture of time that we don’t know.
As regards the happenstance of dream recall, one can forget a whole night’s sequence, and yet even waking may have psychological value. It strikes me as uncanny that sometimes I just happen to wake in time to bring especially significant-seeming dreams into my conscious reach.
A little mystery about dreaming, and some about waking too!
In the weeks after 9/11 there was a very important meeting of heads of government to be held in Brisbane (it went ahead, but they nearly canceled it). My best friend Louise works in the city (and she was also in the dream – she survived) – so I was convinced that there would be another crash. But all was fine.
One of the reasons I started reading gingatao was because of Paul’s discussions on the non-linear nature of time and space – a concept I have thought about for decades, not because of my dreams but because most things that are flat are actually circular (planets etc.) and I couldn’t get my head around the fact that there could be an end to space (when you look at the stars).
Re your last bit – maybe your subconscious is waking you up just in time – I can get my subconscious to wake me up at a certain time (I don’t need the alarm clock – I just say to myself ‘wake up at 6am and it happens – try it).
i’m with you on precognitive dreaming, prophetic etc. when you have one, you just know, might be unexplainable, but when it happens, clearly it is somehow different than the ordinary (if there is such) dreaming. (my grandmother believed she was a prophetic dreamer and used to freak me out when I was a kid with her tales about them) i had a ‘tsunami’ dream shortly before the tsunami in indonesia, only it wasnt indonesia in my dream, but rather a city with tall buildings, like new york. not exactly on target, but still shook me. i hope you will not have any disaster come upon your vicinity. but just to be safe, maybe put together an evacuation plan, so if anything happens you are prepared. to stay calm, keep the faith and have a place to go that’s safe. the peninsula i live on jutting out into the atlantic this thin little sandbar chunk of earth, with no protection, the communities here have all got disaster evacuation plans. so far they’ve only been marginally tested and never used. but it would be up to each family to put the pieces together about what they can do or are directed to do if something of disaster magnitude occurs.
I think the threat is over now but that was one huge earthquake in Chile (8.4 on the Richter scale). The main threat is in the water or on the beach and our SES is on alert.Thanks for your comments tipota. That peninsula doesn’t sound too safe!