The 13th Thirteenth

I woke at ten to seven this morning after a dream in which I was reading a new book entitled The 13th Thirteenth.

Part occult, part current affairs, the book sought to explain today's events in terms of entangled quantum uncertainties, chaotically steered by a grid of clashing human wills. An uprising of hitherto unrecognised wills, too small to pick out individually, but lashed together by social media, into a historically unprecedented force. Billions of frightened egos, large and small but all of them fragile, cornered by manufactured fears, rear up to take on imagined foes. Across the world our early-human superstitions have been re-awakening to cross fingers, knock on wood, turn three times and recite magic spells. The rational reassurance once heard in our televisual talking heads has evaporated; the timbre has changed - to one of distrust and anger. There is a sense of urgency but lack of direction. But which way? Never mind! We must act! How? Doesn't matter - we must act, and act now! Fear breeds hate.

I pondered the preceding 12 thirteenths. Me, I don't like 13. 

My father didn't like 22. We talked about this on the phone one evening in May 2017. "Tomorrow's the 22nd," said my father. "Not a good number. I don't like it.". The next day we spoke again. It was the day after the Manchester Arena bombing. "I told you," said my father. "On the 22nd, 22 people were killed by a 22-year-old suicide bomber." [The Crocus City Hall attack in Russia also happened on the 22nd, March 2024.]

Coincidences that run through dreams, coincidences that can be written off as meaningless by the rational mind. The physics of dreams is entirely different to that experienced in our waking state. Much like the physics in a Tom & Jerry or Roadrunner cartoon is different, but instinctively relatable. When dreaming, reality is perceived in a different way. The rational mind is suppressed while we dream. Once asleep, our imagination seizes control of the cerebral cortex. But is it just imagination? Could it not portend something more... real?

In the early hours of 2 June this year, I had the following dream: On a USAAF airbase in England, summer 1944, and I'm training as an air gunner. We were being trained on the ground in the use of .50 cal and twin .30 cal machine guns on board bombers' waist positions. There was a camera crew over from the States filming us for a documentary; with them was a woman called Gerarda Battna (exactly this spelling - I jotted this down at 02:35; 'Battna'  with a double 't'), who was composing the score for the film. As we were firing the guns from the planes, on the ground at distant targets, we were being filmed. Just then, a P-51D Mustang flew in; it had a 500lb bomb just about attached to the port wing; there was a malfunction - the bomb wouldn't drop off. It was dangling half-on. The pilot had to force-land at our base. There was great danger that should the bomb detach on touch-down, it would explode. We all had to take cover... He landed safely, and taxi'd gingerly to a blast-proof revetment some distance away from us. Fortunately all ended well. The bomb didn't dislodge, the pilot walked away, and the bomb-disposal team came and carefully removed the bomb from the plane's wing.

But who's Gerarda Battna...? I googled. Two hits!

     "...z osebno izjavo o govoru Gerarda Battna..."  [note the 100% match on spelling] 

Both results linked to the Slovak transcript of a European Parliamentary debate in which the MEP and former UKIP leader Gerard Batten took part - 'Gerarda Battna' being his name in the genitive form in Slovakian. I've never read any transcript of any European Parliament debate, let alone in Slovakian! (And not a language I know at all.) Coincidence? Or some quantum leakage happening in the universe?

And the same goes for this intriguing dream from five years ago; was my sleeping self observing something happening to an Italian-American voice coach at another time in another place?

Weird things are happening, yet on an insignificant scale; a phenomenon "too weak to even recognise", but if you are sensitive to it - you'll know it's real.

This time last year:

Ghastly June day in London

This time two years ago:
Perfect weather week in Warsaw

This time three years ago:
Further progress is unimaginable

This time four years ago:
Baletowa reopens as rail works move on

This time seven years ago:
Polish doctors in UK offer new healthcare model

This time ten years ago:
The closure of the Góra Kalwaria - Pilawa railway link

This time 12 years ago:
My blazing bus pic gets on front page of Gazeta Stołeczna

This time 13 years ago:
Storm clouds rising