...Dale was a subject for an experiment with a drug that induced mental dissociation. The experimenters hoped that some ESP phenomena might come through as Dale entered the drugged state. As the drug took effect, Dale drowsily stated that now she knew more about psychical research than Mrs. Sidgwick, a pioneer of the English Society for Psychical Research, whom Dale held in great esteem.

"What is it that you know?" asked the experimenters.

For several minutes Dale babbled incoherent nonsense, much to the amusement of the experimenters. When told what happened, after she had recovered from the drug, Dale was mortified.

But apparently her subconscious decided that some extraordinary paranormal feat must be achieved to save the day. That night Dale had a long, vivid dream that was so unusual that she called the ASPR's [American Society for Psychical Research's] executive secretary the next morning to report it to her:

I found myself in a large room on the ground floor of a house which I took to be in Florida... My little dog Myra was lying on a chair toward the side of the room, and there were people present... I was pushing a vacuum cleaner along a rug. Then occurred something that filled me with the utmost horror--the vacuum cleaner became alive and possessed of a malignant will of its own. It began to heave in and out, or bulge and deflate... and I realized I was in great danger, for it was going to explode.

I dropped the handle and ran for the door. As I ran, I knew I was doing an unspeakable thing--I was leaving Myra to be killed in the explosion. I did not stop to rescue her, however, and just as I reached the door there was a terrible concussion (no sound) and I found myself safe on the lawn.

Then followed a somewhat less vivid sequence, the gist of which was this: a man who had been present had attempted to rescue Myra. He had been killed--someone told me this. Then I had Myra in my arms; she was moving, burned, suffering, but at the same time she was dead...

Two days later, when Dale's mother was visiting her in New York, they decided to go to the movies at the Embassy Theater on 42nd Street, which specialized in newsreels. As they walked into the theater a cartoon entitled The Raven was being shown:

A mongrel dog and a raven called upon a Scottish terrier (as opposed to Myra being a Boston terrier) to demonstrate a vacuum cleaner. While the raven was pushing the cleaner along the rug in a large ground-floor room, the mongrel dog went upstairs and attempted to break into the Scottie's safe.

Suddenly the vacuum cleaner "came alive" and began to suck up some liquor from bottles under a grill-work in the floor. Then it began to bulge, heave in and out, and finally with an explosive movement it sent the Scottie dog spinning to one side of the room. While the vacuum cleaner was going through its contortions, the mongrel dog upstairs set off a dynamite explosion that shook the room.

Thus the highly unlikely dream scene of a vacuum cleaner coming alive to attack a dog was repeated in the reality of Dale's experience two days later, allaying her anxiety of failing at an ESP experiment.

EDITOR'S COMMENT

Note Dale's gut-sense that the dream was psychic, that is was a vindication she wasn't a complete idiot--a confidence so strong she called up the American Society for Psychical Research to get it on record before she had proof; that came two days later. A hard one for skeptics to shrug off as anecdotal, after the fact or coincidence.

And the dream didn't just predict a wildly unlikely scenario; it carried the conviction it was psychic not psychological. I call such dreams self-flagging--a dream labeling itself paranormal--or literal, lucid, internal, or about others for that matter; no reason it has to be mystical. But any self-flagging hints that the dreaming mind is more self-aware than most like to think.

--Chris Wayan