A few months ago I was walking Mutley the dog .. it was a bright December morning, before all of these snowstorms of the winter time struck. We were in the middle no where--on a long path on a mountain. Suddenly, out of no where, I heard a loud shot gun like noise.. It sounded like it was right next to my head. The odd part of the circumstance was the fact that my dog--who barks at pins dropping--didn't flinch an eye. Instead he acted as though he did not hear anything at all..
I spoke to a few people about this. I did not know if it even happened. Was I imagining the noise? Did it happen miles away but travel in an echo right to me? Was it a blowing transformer? A loud boom from the planet earth--the kind Linda Howe talks about on Coast to Coast AM? All of these thoughts immediately went through my mind. But I kept watching my dog, who obviously didn't wonder the same things I did.
A sudden crisis involving my father's health happened a day or two later and I was left think about nothing but that.. The gun noise left my mind.
Until today.
I was working at my computer early this morning with an amazing cup of french vanilla coffee.. My wife had gone to work and my son was at day care. Mutley the dog was soundly sleeping next to me on a chair.
I heard a sudden noise in my right ear.. It sounded like a shotgun cocking right next to my head. I froze up and wondered, quickly, what the sound was and where it was coming from. I expected to hear a gun blast within seconds.
And then, a distance away, I heard a gun shot. One single shot gun blast. It came from the same direction, behind my house, on that same path going up the mountain.
This time my dog heard it.
But he did not hear the clicking sound prior ...
There could be all sorts of explanations. First off, the click itself may not have even happened. My mind may have heard the gun shot and convinced itself to think it heard a click .. after all, we are talking just seconds. But no.. I remember hearing that click. I am actually quite confident I did.
So the next possibility is that I had a premonition, only seconds before the gunshot, that a gun shot would take place. I certainly don't have a clue who fired the gun or where it happened it.. so I have no clue why I would have any actual purpose for having a premonition..
And maybe, as the NEW YORK TIMES reported back in 2001, it could have been a phantom noise in my head.. Back then, the TIMES reported that 50% of Americans hear phantom noises at some point.
But a phantom noise preceding the firing of a gun--and a noise that would typically coincide with that act? Well I just find that odd..
This time the fact Mutley the dog heard the gun shot gives me more confidence that at least THAT NOISE was real.
Back at the end of 2013, when I spoke to a few people about the initial gun noise I heard, someone gave me a weird thought as to where the noise came from: They said it could have be me, in an alternate reality, committing some act of suicide at that same location. That or perhaps it was me hearing the shooting of someone else.. Or the suicide of someone else.
All crazy talk, of course..
Until you study the deep lessons of newfound physics with the prospect that multiple universes exist. And in DONNIE DARKO world, they crash into each other. Maybe in real life they do, too.
The weird part was today, when I heard the actual gun noise, the first thing I thought was that I was hearing an old battle from the Civil War ..
I went outside with my dog today after I heard the shot, and took a brief walk up to the beginning of the path up the mountain. Like December, it was a completely clear sky and a cold morning. I heard no wind.. no rustling of leaves.. no crunch of feet walking on snow. Nothing. A phantom noise.
One that was heard by more than just me this time.
I don't know if my tale is one of a paranormal lure or just a complete bore. Maybe someone just fired a shot at a squirrel.. or bird.. Or whatever. Or it was a car back firing.. Or a transformer. Or an earth gurgle like Linda Moulton Howe talked about last night on Coast to Coast AM.
But I heard the click in my right ear immediately before the gun shot.
I cannot get that noise out of my head..