Hi dib,

Thank you very much for the compliment, but I believe this board has many "charming and intelligent" people. When I tell you how I ended up here you may want to revise your assessment of me.

At 19, I was a junior at UCLA when the Sylmar EQ hit. (2/9/71) I knew little about geology and even less about earthquakes, but I did "know" that a big earthquake was coming.

The night before it hit at approx. 6 a.m., I started to feel extreme anxiety coupled with a strong premonition that there would be a large earthquake sometime during the night. I had never been in earthquake and had no logical reason to associate my anxiety with one, but I was absolutely certain one was imminent.

I told my dorm friends about it at dinner, and they sort of blew me off. Unable to sleep, I roamed the halls and hung out in the lobby all night, telling anyone I ran into that an EQ was coming. A few people seemed concerned, but most probably thought I was tripping on something.

The night before, there had been a lunar eclipse; the atmosphere was eerie. Around five a.m., I finally drifted off to sleep, only to be awakened an hour later by the rumbling that preceded the shaking. On the 13th floor, it felt as if I were on a sailboat in a storm.

Somehow I managed to make it across the room and hang onto the doorknob while the place shook for what seemed like an eternity.

We were all evacuated and sent out into the streets in our pjs and bathrobes (and one unfortunate but terrified young man in nothing but his Jockeys).
We couldn't use the elevators, and the stairwells were jammed with panicked students, but we made it all the way down before the first big aftershock.

The friends I'd told earlier were just awestruck, and to tell you the truth, so was I. (Also scared out of my wits, not only by the EQ but by my own prescience.) This quake, if I'm not mistaken, interrupted a long period of quiescence in S. Cal., so no one in my generation had ever been through such an experience.

Anyway, earthquake prediction has since held a certain fascination. I have little scientific knowledge, and certainly nothing on par with most on this board, but I enjoy learning. I hope someday I will find an answer for an empirical experience that still mystifies me.

In my life I've had many psychic experiences. My reality just doesn't jibe with the laws of science as we understand them, and that's something I'm trying to reconcile.

After reading this, you may write me off as just another loon. Still, I wanted you to know I am no ordinary loon but rather a major loon with experiences no science (save, perhaps, psychiatry) can explain. :-)

Anyway, I do hope you stick around. Unlike some other boards (which shall remain nameless), I feel Earthwaves has a lot of tolerance for different viewpoints as long as the debate is kept respectful.

Thanks again for your comments,

Cathryn (going out now to howl at the moon)