I was meditating a lot at this time - perhaps 2 hours a day 'on a good day'. I attended the Unity Church and read Deepak Chopra's 'Seven Spiritual Laws of Success' until it fell to pieces. I still have that beloved copy of the book, with much pink highlighting. I had begun to have some startling synchronicities and so on in my life. My idea was that my goal, in meditating, was 'a closer connection with God'. I felt I didn't want any of the 'bells and whistles', as I called them then - like clairvoyance, OBEs (about which I barely knew anything) and such.

Sooo... I was preparing to go to sleep in my basement living room/bedroom. I'm sure I had been reading because I have read before sleeping nearly every night of my life since I was abut 8 years old. Now, I was just lying on the sofa with the light still on, staring up toward the ceiling, perhaps thinking about something, or just daydreaming - I don't recall. (I was not asleep, I assure you.) Suddenly - this I very clearly recall!! - there appeared before my eyes, about 5 or 6 feet away, above the other end of the sofa near the low ceiling, a sort of 'screen'. It was really as if a small TV screen had suddenly appeared there, just hanging in the air! I stared at it intensely. I saw two tall walls, slanted out toward me (like this:  /  x  \  ) and in between the walls I saw a human-like figure - the 'x' in my little drawing - apparently sitting on the ground. I saw no clothes, no facial features, and no arms. I could see something like legs stretched out to the left, as he/it was sitting facing, sort of catty-cornered, the left. It was striking that this armless figure was scarlet red from head to toe. As I watched this picture with great intensity, the figure suddenly raised its head, appearing to be in distress. I saw a mouth open as it/he/she appeared to cry out for help.

Now, strangely, I wasn't frightened! (I have since come to believe that when this kind of thing happens to us we're in a sort of trance. I have learned a lot about the hypnagogic state. I think this is why we don't jump up and run around in a panic, or grab the phone and call 911 for help, thinking we have lost our minds.) This scene 'hung in the air' for about 8-10 seconds. That doesn't sound too long, but if you count it out it's a loonnnggg time to be seeing this! As I say, there was no fear, just intense curiosity. I was thinking, 'What the hell IS that??' The picture then just faded away. Honestly, I matter-of-factly shrugged my shoulders, rose and set my alarm clock, which was halfway across the room on a bookshelf, and turned out my light. It was something like 10:07PM.

I lay back down and fell right asleep.

Suddenly I was awakened by several sets of very loud footsteps running in the driveway just outside. It was loud enough to wake me, and instantly frightening. Then I heard male voices shouting, 'Put your hands in the air!! Put your hands in the air!!' There would be a couple of seconds of silence, then another voice (sounding very drugged) shouting, whining and pleading, 'Don't spray me, man!!', followed by more shouting, 'PUT YOUR HANDS IN THE AIR!!' I believe the person was incapable of obeying because he was sprayed with pepper spray or something repeatedly, and this went on while I lay on the sofa absolutely paralyzed by fear. I could hear very distinctly because there was a basement window, not where I was on the sofa, but behind my head in the area where my sons would have been sleeping, had they been there. All this was literally happening 3-4 feet from that window.

Eventually, the cops subdued the man, cuffed him, and I heard them lead him down the driveway toward the street. After a minute I 'unfroze' enough to get up. I looked at the clock and it was about 10:30PM. (For years I recalled the exact times but no longer do.) I cautiously made my way up into my kitchen. Because I was friends with my landlady, the door separating her half (the front)of the 1st floor of the house from my half wasn't locked, and I was able to enter the front hallway and go to the front door. It was an old-fashioned wooden door that was mostly glass, covered by a curtain. I pulled the curtain aside and saw:

Out on the narrow, 2-lane road (this a city/suburban area, but it's a narrow road,) at least two police cars with lights blazing, and a paddy wagon. The police cars were facing each other, angled, like this:/___/   x   \____\    One policeman had the culprit up against the front of the police car on the right, and he (the cop)seemed very angry. I thought he was going to punch the man in the face, but another policeman came by and calmed him down. They then sat the arrested, handcuffed man (the 'x' in my little drawing,)down on the ground in between the police cars, with his legs stretched out sort of catty-cornered to the left. (I still didn't get it.) The man had clothes on. With his hands cuffed behind his back, he appeared to have no arms as he sat there. Because he had been sprayed with something so many times, his face was blazing scarlet red. Suddenly, as one policeman walked past him, (he was so drunk/drugged that he thought the police would assist him...) he raised his head, turned it up toward the cop and opened his mouth in an agonized plea for help. 

!!!!!  Suddenly I realized this was exactly the scene (with interpretation of the symbols) I had seen while still wide awake - about 20 minutes before the running & shouting woke me up. I stood there looking out the front door, absolutely stunned.

The next day, my landlady said she didn't hear a thing! I would have thought I was crazy, except that there were large shoe prints in the somewhat muddy ground just by that basement window, and then the neighbor on that side came out and asked very excitedly if I had heard all that commotion in the night. It appeared the man was running from having done...something - and planned to break in through that window.

I was utterly disgusted by this 'vision'. First of all, I didn't want 'bells and whistles'. Second, I saw no reason for the Powers that Be to send me messages of danger or whatever if they were so obscure that I could never, ever interpret or act on them! Shortly after that I went with a friend to a 'meditation/reiki treatment' session, (I knew nothing of Reiki then and was just along for the ride...) and one of the reiki practitioners was no help at all. When I complained about this pre-cognition experience, she just said, more or less, 'So, ya had a little vision. So what? Don't worry about it.'  :)

Well, I thought if meditation would bring about this type of thing...hmmph. Gradually, I just stopped meditating and for many years devoted myself to being as practical as possible. (Mistake. It didn't work well for me, on any level.) Certainly I was still interested in spiritual things, but I never went to church or groups and had no practice of any kind for years. I was just trying to make some money, watching TV, going to the mall and movies with my son... I was having some fun, yes, especially with my delightful younger son - somewhat steeped in what we call our culture.