THE CHALLENGER

I PREDICTED THE SPACE SHUTTLE CHALLENGER DISASTER

DATE SUBMITTED: 11/12/13

NAME: H.G. (initials only, Male, did not want identity revealed)

WHAT TOWN IN THE MOHAWK VALLEY ARE YOU FROM:  Mohawk, NY

PLEASE TELL YOUR EXTRAORDINARY TALE ABOUT THE MOHAWK VALLEY:
I’m originally from Mohawk NY, and I predicted the explosion in a dream the morning NASA’s Space Shuttle Challenger disaster occurred on January 28, 1986

I was in eleventh grade at Mohawk Central school at the time and I had had enough of Mr. Masterangelo, Mr. Markey and all of the other teachers going on and on about the Challenger mission. It was a big deal to our town because of Gregory B. Jarvis, an astronaut on the shuttle. He was from Mohawk, our small little armpit of a town in the middle of the New York wilderness. He escaped to get educated and get away from all of the small town ignorance and right wing Republican conservatism that surrounded us.  It seemed like the whole school year of 85-86, we were surrounded by Gregory B. Jarvis and everyone I knew of was so tired of hearing about it but anticipating the launch. It was a big deal to our school and our town to have one of our own chosen to be an astronaut that would touch the stars.

The night of January 27th that morphed into January 28th was one of those nights that you keep waking up every hour on the hour looking at the clock. I was restless but had no idea why.  I kept feeling like every time I had woken up that I was missing something or that I had just had a nightmare that I couldn’t remember. In between 5am and 6am is when the dream happened.

As I tossed and turned I kept dreaming of the astronauts faces changing into one another in a painful way like they were melting into each other.  In my dream over and over I kept seeing the generic group picture that the media was showing off the astronauts posing. From that picture they would dissolve into skeletons with a strange blueish glow around them almost like burning ice.

Then I saw it, I  heard it and it was powerful.  The explosion as it tore them to pieces from the inside out. I remember their terror of being blown apart as I woke up engulfed in my emotion and their fear. It was a terrible dream and a terrible premonition that would come true, to my sheer and utter dread.

That morning I couldn’t get those visions out of my head and I was all out of sorts and disturbed because I knew it was going to happen. When we all gathered in the auditorium during my 5th period study hall to watch the launch, it was a painful experience. As our entire school watched, we saw our hometown hero explode over the sky and his ashes flutter away in an explosion of yellow and orange smoke. Just as I dreamed, the event took place. It was a devastating blow to our town and to the Mohawk Valley. It was a tragedy that immediately prompted the town of Mohawk to change the name of the high school to Gregory B. Jarvis school, which is where I eventually graduated from in 1987.

I didn’t tell anyone about this dream for fear of ridicule. The small town reaction to those who do not follow the norm is not kind, so I shut my mouth and I left as soon as I could after I graduated.  I look upon the town with great pity these days as I feel it has a dark cloud hanging over its head. My parents moved to Florida shortly after I graduated so I haven’t been back there since 1988 but I do still have some friends there. I am terrible at staying in touch and I think a lot of it has to do with that dream which really sent me on a journey of discovery and opened me up to a world of precognitive exploration which I am still on today. I see the future in my dreams often. Some good, some bad.

R.I.P. Gregory B. Jarvis.