Editor’s Introduction
Peter Main (real name) earned a Masters in Electrical Engineering. Now retired, he has managed various development projects. His dream experience occurred in his late 50’s while he was living in Sydney, Australia.
Fire on the Ghost Train
Peter Main
Some years ago in Sydney there was a fire in the ghost train ride at an inner-city fun park. It was after midnight, just before the park closed. Several people died and the ride, then later the whole park, was closed in consequence.
On the night of the fire I had an unusually vivid dream.
I dreamt I was trapped in a strange building which was on fire. The peculiar thing was that there were small railway lines in the building, as though it was a railway station, but very narrow gauge and the building was a lot smaller than a railway station. It seemed that someone was with me, probably a child, though not one of my own children. I smashed my way through a wall to escape the heat and smoke, only to find myself in another section, also with small railway lines and more flames and smoke. At that point I woke up.
The dream was so vivid that I went over it in my mind then and there (I was, of course, at home at the time of the dream) to try to make some sense of it. It had a particularly vivid quality and was quite terrifying – it’s no fun to be trapped in a burning building!
Next morning on waking I told my wife about my dream, then went out to get the morning paper. You can imagine my surprise when I then read about the ghost train fire in the paper! My wife wasn’t particularly surprised – she accepts such things – but I don’t, being a card-carrying skeptic. She will verify, though, that I told her about the dream before I read the paper.
Contributor’s Comments on the Experience
It seemed to me at the time, and in some ways still does, to have been a genuine case of telepathy (I think I “tuned in” to the mental screams of one of the poor victims who died in the fire). I still don’t believe in telepathy, but how else could this experience be explained?
