I Have Psychic Experiences
An Odd Dream...
I couldn't seem to get into a deep sleep one night as I had been under a lot of stress with work. When I finally did fall asleep, I had a very odd dream. I was a young clerk working for some kind of firm/company. We were going over the expenses incurred by someone who worked for our company. He had returned from California, and submitted his expense books. Our job was to go over his books, add up all the expenses to ensure the totals were correct. I was not aware of the year, but it appeared to be sometime in the mid-to-late 1850's. It was a long and boring job and one that was done at night under the light of oil lamps. One person walked about the office reading out page after page of totals I was seated at a large wooden desk writing down each total into columns on paper using an ink dip pen. This went on for over an hour. It was a long dream.
I actually woke up twice during the dream, only to fall back into a stressed sleep to have the dream continue from where I left off, which was something I have never experienced before or since in my life. While writing each total down, I was aware that each total was the sum spent in a single settlement /town, or so we were led to believe. Most totals ranged from about $2.45 up to $3.50 or so. Not large amounts by today's standards. This, as I understood, was for livery fees, food and lodging, and probably represented no more than one or two days stay in any one settlement or mining camp. There were many pages of entrees in the expense books. Apparently, this person's travels took him all over California. I have no idea what his job actually was but suspect he was a salesman taking orders for a product or products. I also have no idea of how such goods were delivered, but they may have been put on a ship in New York and sailed around to San Fransisco.
In the dream, I was trying to imagine what California looked like, what this person saw and experienced, and what he did in this fabled land of gold that I had read so much about. I actually thought of California in the dream as the land of “Gold”, but I failed to conjure up an accurate picture in my mind of just what California looked like on a map. In my dream, I remember thinking that I had never been to California so trying to picture it was impossible -- an odd thought to have during a dream, actually. In my present life I know exactly what California looks like, I have been there.
The list just carried on and on. There were three expense books to go through. Just a long lists of numbers of numbers, over and over again. Until, the reader, the fellow I was working with that night, came to the end of a page, and stated, "the last total on this page is $3.49 in the town of Lisbon". I suddenly woke from my sleep. Did he say Lisbon? It suddenly struck me, even in my sleep, "I can look that name up on Google to see if a town named Lisbon actually exists in California!". I looked at my clock, it showed that it was 4:50am. Yuck... that is a bit early to be turning on my computer, but I got up and did just that. It took a minute or two before I got the Google page up. I quickly typed in "Lisbon, USA". Instant hits... but that was in Ohio and one in Maine. In Maine, Lisbon is a county, not a town. However, my dream specifically pointed out that this was California and the time was around mid-1850's or so. So I changed my search to "Lisbon California". I instantly saw two hits. One of these was for a gold rush town of Applegate. This town was founded in California in 1849 by a fellow named Lisbon Applegate. It appears that the town's name was originally called Lisbon, then changed to Bear River House, but reverted back to Lisbon in 1855 (I did another search on Google later and found a note stating that the town was originally called Bear River House in 1849 and then in 1855 its name changed to honor its founder, Lisbon Applegate. Only from 1855 onward was the town was known as Lisbon). Later in the 1870's, its name changed again to Applegate, strangely enough, this time to honor both the founder and his son, George, who was then the town's postmaster.
The dates and town name meshed with my dream... but I am not sure what it actually all means. Was this a past life vision? Was I working in a office as a clerk for a company outside California in the mid-to-late 1850's? In the dream I knew I was quite young, perhaps in my late teens. Was I working in a family business, and if so, where was this business located -- it certainly wasn't California. Why do I get such flashbacks... surely I must have something better to see and remember than that? I later checked a few of my books on the Gold Rush of 1849, but none list the town by any of its names. I have no idea why, in my dream, I knew the town of Lisbon was in California, especially since the name was changed in the 1870's, over 140 years ago. If you went there today, no one living there probably realizes their town's name was called Lisbon during its pioneer period, nor would they probably care either.
I couldn't seem to get into a deep sleep one night as I had been under a lot of stress with work. When I finally did fall asleep, I had a very odd dream. I was a young clerk working for some kind of firm/company. We were going over the expenses incurred by someone who worked for our company. He had returned from California, and submitted his expense books. Our job was to go over his books, add up all the expenses to ensure the totals were correct. I was not aware of the year, but it appeared to be sometime in the mid-to-late 1850's. It was a long and boring job and one that was done at night under the light of oil lamps. One person walked about the office reading out page after page of totals I was seated at a large wooden desk writing down each total into columns on paper using an ink dip pen. This went on for over an hour. It was a long dream.
I actually woke up twice during the dream, only to fall back into a stressed sleep to have the dream continue from where I left off, which was something I have never experienced before or since in my life. While writing each total down, I was aware that each total was the sum spent in a single settlement /town, or so we were led to believe. Most totals ranged from about $2.45 up to $3.50 or so. Not large amounts by today's standards. This, as I understood, was for livery fees, food and lodging, and probably represented no more than one or two days stay in any one settlement or mining camp. There were many pages of entrees in the expense books. Apparently, this person's travels took him all over California. I have no idea what his job actually was but suspect he was a salesman taking orders for a product or products. I also have no idea of how such goods were delivered, but they may have been put on a ship in New York and sailed around to San Fransisco.
In the dream, I was trying to imagine what California looked like, what this person saw and experienced, and what he did in this fabled land of gold that I had read so much about. I actually thought of California in the dream as the land of “Gold”, but I failed to conjure up an accurate picture in my mind of just what California looked like on a map. In my dream, I remember thinking that I had never been to California so trying to picture it was impossible -- an odd thought to have during a dream, actually. In my present life I know exactly what California looks like, I have been there.
The list just carried on and on. There were three expense books to go through. Just a long lists of numbers of numbers, over and over again. Until, the reader, the fellow I was working with that night, came to the end of a page, and stated, "the last total on this page is $3.49 in the town of Lisbon". I suddenly woke from my sleep. Did he say Lisbon? It suddenly struck me, even in my sleep, "I can look that name up on Google to see if a town named Lisbon actually exists in California!". I looked at my clock, it showed that it was 4:50am. Yuck... that is a bit early to be turning on my computer, but I got up and did just that. It took a minute or two before I got the Google page up. I quickly typed in "Lisbon, USA". Instant hits... but that was in Ohio and one in Maine. In Maine, Lisbon is a county, not a town. However, my dream specifically pointed out that this was California and the time was around mid-1850's or so. So I changed my search to "Lisbon California". I instantly saw two hits. One of these was for a gold rush town of Applegate. This town was founded in California in 1849 by a fellow named Lisbon Applegate. It appears that the town's name was originally called Lisbon, then changed to Bear River House, but reverted back to Lisbon in 1855 (I did another search on Google later and found a note stating that the town was originally called Bear River House in 1849 and then in 1855 its name changed to honor its founder, Lisbon Applegate. Only from 1855 onward was the town was known as Lisbon). Later in the 1870's, its name changed again to Applegate, strangely enough, this time to honor both the founder and his son, George, who was then the town's postmaster.
The dates and town name meshed with my dream... but I am not sure what it actually all means. Was this a past life vision? Was I working in a office as a clerk for a company outside California in the mid-to-late 1850's? In the dream I knew I was quite young, perhaps in my late teens. Was I working in a family business, and if so, where was this business located -- it certainly wasn't California. Why do I get such flashbacks... surely I must have something better to see and remember than that? I later checked a few of my books on the Gold Rush of 1849, but none list the town by any of its names. I have no idea why, in my dream, I knew the town of Lisbon was in California, especially since the name was changed in the 1870's, over 140 years ago. If you went there today, no one living there probably realizes their town's name was called Lisbon during its pioneer period, nor would they probably care either.
