I have not really had any spiritual 'uprisings' (for lack of a better term) for a while. I do dream about people from my past and present (and future?) both living and dead. Spiritual experiences in the non-dream state are completely out of my control. Well, spiritual experiences in the dream state are also out of my control. Recently, I had both a dream experience and a non-dream state experience.
Let's start with my pets: my cat and my dog.
My cat died in April after a long illness. He was 17 years old and he was the mayor of our town. He was very stately and majestic. Everybody in the neighborhood knew him and loved him.
Our dog has been battling cancer and huge tumors for about 3 years now. She had major surgery almost 2 years ago and we've been on borrowed time ever since. About a year after her surgery to remove the tumor, it grew back with a vengeance.....and then multiplied.
Long story short when my husband and I left for Minnesota, our dog was in a state where we did not know for sure if she would be there when we got back. Thank God for our daughter, her fiancee, and also my niece who stayed at the house with our dog. They helped her up to go outside to pee, etc. The tumor was so huge it was impeding her ability to walk.
The night after we arrived in Minnesota I had a dream about our dog. I could see her and her leg and tumor were all a mangled mess. Her leg was bare from fur and had veins sticking out. I knew in my dream it was not good. Then, I saw our dog's soul and it was outside of her body. Her soul looked like a miniature version of herself floating about a foot away from her body.
The next morning after the dream about our dog I told my husband that this was the day she was going to die. He looked at me like I was nuts. Sure enough, around 8:00 PM, our daughter called us to tell us they had to put our dog down that day as her leg completely collapsed and she could no longer walk at all. The night before, our daughter also had a dream about our dog. In my daughter's dream, our deceased cat was walking down our hallway coming to "get" our dog.
My daughter and I both had a premonition about our dog's death.
Now....onto the rest of the trip....
I've always have had a draw to the Black Hills in South Dakota and also to Yellowstone - and everywhere else in between. I know of the indigenous peoples of the Lakota, Dakota, and Nakota tribes. To the Europeans they were known as the Sioux Indians - a generic (disparaging) name the whites gave the tribe that encompassed natives living from western Minnesota to Wyoming.
My "feelings" started just west of the Missouri River (known as the Great Muddy River to the Natives) in the tracks of Lewis & Clark. The name of the town where I started to pick up vibes was in South Dakota in a town called Mitchell. I suddenly got a feel for what it was like trans versing across an unknown swath of continent. Lewis and Clark's faithful Native American female guide, Sacajawea, was their real compass and reason for success. I'll get to her later.
The first "weird" experience was in a historic hotel in Billings, Montana, where we spent the night. All night long it sounded as if there was a party going on next door, but nobody was there.
Chalk it up to being tired from driving all day and road weary. Moving on.
The next day we end up at the site of the Battle of the Little Bighorn (Custer's Last Stand) or the Battle of Greasy Grass Ridge as it is known to the natives. The bodies of many lost in battle, both white and native, lie where they fell. The energy of that battle still resonates.
We get to Dillon, Montana where we rented a house. On the way to Dillon, there were several old western ghost towns left over from the mining days. None of them really spoke to me, but we checked them out just the same. We took the road less traveled to get to Dillon and not the freeway. I'm always one for stopping to check out historical sites and read the signs, and my husband? Not so much. Because I was driving at that point I decided to stop at a historical marker as it literally pulled me in. Even before I stopped I had a feeling that the valley we were in was a busy highway of sorts for thousands of years. We stopped and I read the sign. It was Beaverhead Rock where Sacajawea met her brother with Lewis and Clark. Very interesting. It seems like Lewis & Clark along with Sacajawea have been following us this entire trip as there were so many historical markers and museums starting at the Missouri River.
We get to our destination in Dillon, Montana and get ourselves settled. As the sun went down over the mountains, I kept thinking about the valley we were in and how it was a busy highway for thousands of years and all the generations that walked through it. Today, Interstate 15 runs through it. A few generations ago the railroad ran though it. Before that, the natives used it as a main thoroughfare.
The next day we went to the old, abandoned mining ghost town of Bannack, Montana. It is extremely well-preserved and many of the buildings stand as they did in the 1860's. Some friends of ours live in Montana and they met us to give us the tour of Bannack along with the history. Our friends told us that the town was featured on Ghost Hunters and that the hotel was haunted. Being curious, that was the first building I went in. My friend would not accompany me as she was freaked out. I so wanted to feel the ghost, but felt nothing. Disappointed, I went back outside to tour the rest of the buildings.
We get to the jail houses. One of the jail houses had a window where the prisoners could look out to see the gallows that awaited them. The other jail house had an adjacent room. I thought that if anything, the jail house with the window would have spiritual energy, but I did not feel it. At this point I thought that feeling anything was just not going to happen for me in Bannack and gave up. It was then when we walked into the other jail house that I felt something like the force of opposing magnetic fields trying to push me out. My husband opened the door to the adjacent room and I immediately was repelled and said, "We need go get out of here. NOW."
I was startled and I don't know why. It was then our friends we waiting for us in the parking lot while we finished poking around the buildings. I told them of my experience. Much to my surprise, they both said that I was not the first guest they have brought to Bannack that had an experience in that same jailhouse.
Weird.
Back at the house in Dillon we noticed that doors would open and shut. At first we thought nothing of it. Then the shower curtain pulled itself open and both of us KNEW we left it closed. The remote control for the TV would be in strange places where we did not leave it. Objects would disappear and then reappear elsewhere.
Then there was the incident with the car keys. There was a row of hooks inside the door where we kept them in case one of us wanted to use the car. That day my husband went fly fishing with the guys and us girls wanted to to into town. I said I would drive. I went into the house to get the keys off the hook and the keys were not there. Strange, they were there earlier. I looked EVERYWHERE. I tore through couch cushions, pockets, purses, the garbage, you name it looking for the keys. I looked for a good 30 minutes revisiting spots thinking I may have missed something. It was no use calling the guys to see where my husband may have placed the keys, but none of them took their cell phones. Where are the KEYS!!! I am a fanatic about keys. I gave up looking for them thinking that perhaps I was going crazy and my husband had them with him. At any rate, one of the other girls ended up driving into town.
When my husband returned from fishing I asked him where he put the car keys. He said he never touched them and pointed to the hook and there they were....hanging. At that point I started freaking out as they were NOT there earlier - and nobody had been in the house.
There were too many instances of things disappearing, moving, and reappearing to be ignored. My husband, who is not a believer, was even weirded out.
