Premonitions of Disaster

Throughout recorded history are tales of animals predicting upcoming disasters. Elephants seeking higher ground before the arrival of Tsunami and domestic animals hiding or attempting to flee before an earthquake have been recently documented. Similar reports were written thousands of years ago. Whether through hearing, sensitivity to vibration frequencies, or awareness of barometric changes, animals are capable of telling us when something is about to happen. The question then is: ‘Do humans have the same ability?’

While humans may not have the same level of olfactory precision as other animals, and we are not consciously aware of changes is vibrational frequencies, we can still sense impending events before they happen. Some of us feel a weight, like doom, hanging over us. Some have vivid dreams woven with warning. But, unlike our animal co-habitants, we tend to brush off such presentiments.

Looking back at disasters such as the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, or the San Francisco earthquake of 1906, what may have been different if humans had listened to the warnings given by our animal friends? How many lives may have been saved? If the Yellowstone volcanic hotspot were preparing to erupt, would people acknowledge the changes in behavior of the bison, elk, and wolves in the park, or of their own pets? Would they admit their own foreboding and flee? What do you think your response would be?