Of course this all leads to the nature and heart of exactly what a premonition might be, as there are no guidebooks nor universal standards. I didn’t get a timeframe, there was no magical exact indexing of a time or date. The experience was marked as I recall by a very peculiar series of events preceded by the overwhelming magnitude of certainty and dread that exclaimed “EARTHQUAKE!!!”, it was very instinctual and seemed motivated by an adrenal reaction- also remarkable because I live in Ohio and have never experienced a “true” earthquake. I have no touchstone for predicting natural disasters or what the sensations and series of thoughts might translate to as far as proximity in time or space (and by very nature this might not even be possible in such a phenomenon). The premonition was vague in specifics but certain in event—EARTHQUAKE, and by amplification… I assumed a big one…something that meant certain disaster and great loss of life, not a tremblor or small event and innately, something that would equate with both the order of manifestation and type of elementals that manifested. To me, it was very unusual and its impact was quite remarkable demonstrated by the fact that I felt compelled to actually share and confide such an absurdity with the bartender and subsequently here at the SDMB, of all places (hostile territory in my mind). I have never claimed psychic ability nor made a serious prediction outside of this one. This was not a prediction of a time specific event but rather a strong urge to warn people that something big was coming and that it was an Earthquake, that I believed and was certain in every fiber of being. It lacks accuracy as a predictor because it lacked intention and is best characterized as a spontaneous experience.
The exact events or elemental manifestations that superimposed and followed the certainty and dread of EARTHQUAKE! happened over a course and chain of maybe 10 minutes. They were mundane events but seemed rather obvious (to me, on a personal level, at least) as spontaneous expressions of three primal elements. On May 3, 2004 I was at an Irish pub/restaurant chatting with the bartender, she struck me as “earthy” and after chatting awhile I developed a distinct impression that she was a “hippy-lesbian chick” (excuse the generalization), and the kind of person I am comfortable with- easy to relate to and down to earth. So, I’m enjoying a $2 Guinness Draft (Monday night special) and smoking a cigarette, Barflyin’ so to speak… I’m sitting at the bar and a very strong pang of dread overwhelms me with no particular or obvious motivator and simultaneously the word EARTHQUAKE!!! crystallizes and slams into my counciousness. I felt an adrenaline rush and actually had to stifle an urge to run. Immediately after this urge and physically to my left, the bartender is replacing a glass on a shelf, as she does this the shelf collapses and about a dozen pint glasses fall and shatter behind the bar. This strikes me as exceedingly odd and disturbing considering my adrenaline and the word EARTHQUAKE! in the forefront of my mind, but I ask her if she’s ok and make a comment to “not sweat it, shit happens” or something to that effect. The import of this incident is great in itself to me but doesn’t really materialize as the earth elemental within the set until the following incidents transpire. She cleans up the mess and I start talking to her again-- Now at this point I must explain to you that I am an amateur magician of sorts. My act and patter is mystical, fun, slightly weird and a great distraction and icebreaker. I specialize in close-up magic and my act is specifically a bar act- coins, cigarettes, paper money, sometimes cards, etc. with transmogrification, de/rematerialization, and levitation as important reocurring archetypes in effect. At the height of my magic days back in the 90’s I had a repetoire of around 15 “tricks” that made up my act. I don’t really do it that often or to the great effect that I once did, but I still occasionally do a couple of my standards and sleights for fun, to liven things up, amaze and entertain, or in most cases to meet or impress beautiful women. My act is not bad and quite original, I am very skilled and practiced at certain tricks and most of my effects never fail to amaze. Think “Hippie David Blaine”. The act is classical magic made fresh with my entirely original patter that incorporates mysticism and ironically, in a comedic and sardonic Penn and Telleresque way, I debunk and reveal both myself and select tricks as an important part of the act.-- that said, I’m talking to the bartender and have decided to do one of my favorite, most simple, and most effective “tricks”. It is my take on what is popularly known as the “Ashes to Ashes effect”. I have a variable patter for this trick that is usually dependant on the crowd or person, I do a “Telekinetic” version, “Eastern Mystic” version, “Phoenix (bird)” version, and sometimes I just do an improvisational off the cuff version. On that night I decided to do my “Eastern Mystic” lead-in which is really my default version if I start with this trick, as it sets the stage for my entire act. The effect was and is essentially that I asked her very seriously if she has ever heard of “Chi” or “Ki” or “Prana”, regardless of her answer I explained to her the concept of “chi” and that (still deadpan serious) after years of yogic practice I have been able to learn to control my chi and actually project it and influence carbon in both inanimate and animate states, all the while dramatically smoking a cigarette. At this point I ask her if she is right or left handed… Whichever hand she stated I asked her to hold it in front of her in a tight fist. I then hold out my hand opposite hers in a tight fist and go into my Yin and Yang spiel and explain that I will use a specific pressure/acupuncture point directly below my third knuckle on the top of my fist which corresponds to so and so meridian…yada yada yada. I then dramatically butt ash directly from the lit cigarette onto that exact spot below the third knuckle on the top of my hand.(Sometimes I actually burn my hand, sometimes not…that night I did…I am accustomed to it and it is usually slight…all for the sake of my craft.) I do some dramatic breathing and hand movements and “draw on my chi” and rub the ash into my hand. I then ask her to open her hand and look at her palm directly below her third knuckle, and of course there stands the impossible, a large spot of ash diametrically opposite my ash on the inside of her hand. “From my outside to your inside, inverse and opposite…blah blah blah.” I let it all sink in and let her feel the amazement and mystification and then go on to explain that it is actually an ancient trick very likely of Indian origin and that certainly my presentation was typical of some of the magic that Indian yogis have used to prove their powers and gain followers and adherents. I do not reveal the actual trick, however. I just explain that I am a magician. So, this was not unusual to me ostensibly, but it is archetypically one of my fire tricks and significant in its representation of the fire elemental. She then proceeds to spill a pitcher she had just draughted all over the bar and some on me… WATER! (Well, BEER!, actually.) This all struck me as funny and meaningful because those are kind of the basic elementals and archetypes that I deal in as part of my act and I was thinking in those terms, half jokingly I mumbled Earth, Fire and Water… I then told her that I had the strangest but really strong impression and feeling that there was going to be a big earthquake… I explained to her and pointed out the significance of what I had just experienced from my perception and POV. I kidded with her just as I was leaving to keep an eye on the sky, that there should be an air elemental, soon.
So that’s it… Whether it has greater meaning objectively, I don’t know. I just know that it is highly significant in many ways to me and felt like a portent after matching recent events, you be the judge.
