At a most fascinating time in my life when I was learning how life can respond in real time to the lessons I was /am learning internally, I had the following experience:
One summer night, I am walking on the street towards the subway. A car passes with dogs barking out of the window. The barking reminds me of a quote I had read recently about “listening to the barking dogs of the unconscious” (i.e. noticing subtle experiences like nightmares that try to catch our attention with an important message). The driver stops and asks directions and I gladly tell him how to find the street he is looking for. I continue to the subway, contemplating a principle I seem to be learning in my life, symbolically exemplified by the passing car and barking dogs... about how it is wise to give help to people when they ask for it. I don’t think it applies in every situation but there seems to be some truth to this principle, at least spiritually speaking. I respect all religions and teachers who offer wisdom, and this principle seems to resonate with what Jesus may have meant when he said, “Ask and ye shall receive, knock and it shall be opened.”
As I descend the subway stairs, I am a little lost in my thoughts when I see an old gentleman slowly hobbling down the steps with a cane. Without thinking twice, I ask him if he needs help. He does not look at me but he does say something very odd: “As I was walking down the stair, I met a man who wasn’t there.” He has a British accent, which is quite unusual in Montreal. I’m confused by his response, yet out of good will I repeat my offer to assist him. He shakes his head and says,“It might be a little convoluted, but hopefully you get the point.”
Well, I don’t get it, but I wish him well and continue down another couple flights to the subway. Nearing the bottom, it strikes me that perhaps the old gentleman is trying to help me learn the precise lesson I was contemplating as I entered the subway, since I twice offered him help when he hadn’t asked for it. I immediately run back up two long flights of stairs to speak to him again.
At the speed he was hobbling down the steps—unless he was completely faking it—there is no way he could have either passed me or even turned back and left the subway. In the 20 or 30 seconds it takes me to sprint back to where he should still have been, there was, amazingly, nobody there!
His peculiar statement suddenly seems to make sense. He said, “As I was walking down the stair, I met a man who wasn’t there.” I laugh at the magic of the moment and return to catch my train, no older gentleman anywhere to be seen. ∞
Craig offers highly transformational online classes in Applied Dreaming, Dream Interpretation, and Lucid Living. To learn more or register, please visit: www.dreams.ca/teleclass.htm
Craig Sim Webb's book, The Dreams Behind the Music, reveals little-known dreams that inspired tremendous success for over 100 top artists, and highlights principles and techniques anyone can use to harvest their own dreams for significant breakthroughs.
