Dream weaver

Going through some files, I came across a news clipping from the Tuesday, October 12, 2004 edition of USA Today (page 3A).  Here's the story in its entirety:

Teen found alive 8 days after wreck

Volunteer says dreams led her to scene of crash

The Associated Press

SEATTLE -- After eight days, Laura Hatch's family had almost given the 17-year-old up for dead, and sheriff's deputies had all but written her off as a runaway. Then she was found, badly hurt and severely dehydrated but alive and conscious, in the backseat of a crumpled car, 200 feet down a ravine.

A volunteer searcher who said she had had several vivid dreams of a wooded area found the wrecked car in the trees Sunday.

Hatch, who remained hospitalized Monday in serious condition, was last seen at a party on Oct. 2. When she did not show up by the next day, her family filed a missing-person report.

The initial search was slowed because there had been underage drinking at the party, and the young people who attended would not say where it had been held, sheriff's Sgt. John Urquhart said.

On Oct. 6, detectives learned where the party had been held. They searched along Hatch's likely route home, Urquhart said.

But their hope dimmed as the days passed.

"We had already given her up and let her be dead in our hearts," her mother, Jean Hatch, told KOMO-TV.

Urquhart said an investigation into the accident was underway.

Hatch's parents organized a volunteer search on Saturday. That night, Sha Nohr, a church member and mother of a friend of Hatch's, said she had dreams of a wooded area and heard the message, "Keep going, keep going." On Sunday morning, Nohr and her daughter drove to the area where the crash occurred, praying along the way.

"I just thought, 'Let her speak out to us,'" Nohr told The Seattle Times.

Nohr said something drew her to stop and clamber over a concrete barrier and more than 100 feet down a steep, densely vegetated embankment where she barely managed to see the wrecked Toyota Camry in some trees. She call to her daughter, who flagged down a passing motorist.

"I told (Hatch) that people were looking for her and they loved her," Nohr recalled, "and she said, 'I think I might be late for curfew.'"

Hatch was being treated for dehydration, a blood clot on the brain and broken facial bones, a hospital spokeswoman said.

When I did a little online research, I found another report on the incident, this one on a religious Web site that stresses the power of pray. An excerpt:

Nohr said her teenage daughter, distraught over her missing friend, showed Nohr a photo of Hatch on Saturday and asked what they could do to find her. Nohr said she told her daughter all they could do was pray. That night, Nohr, who belongs to an online prayer group, said she had several vivid dreams of a wooded area. In the dreams, she said, she heard the message "Keep going. Keep going." Yesterday morning, Nohr said, she woke up and felt an urgency to look for Hatch. She asked her daughter to go along. They drove to the Union Hill area and pulled over. Nohr said she got out, but "it just didn't feel right." So the two drove farther and stopped again in about the 20200 block of Northeast Union Hill Road. All the while, Nohr said, she prayed. "I just thought, 'Let her speak out to us.' " At one spot, Nohr said she felt something draw her down a steep embankment. Her daughter waited up on the road while Nohr scrambled over a concrete barrier and inched her way more than 100 feet down through thick vegetation. At the bottom, Nohr said, she saw nothing at first. She was about to leave, thinking she was wrong, when through the trees, she said, she saw what looked like a car.It was Laura Hatch's, crumpled so badly that it looked like "modern art," said Randy Phillips, the family's pastor.

Other perspectives:

A skeptical forum dismisses the story as luck, coincidence, and randomness at work.

A PDF file on the aftermath of the story showcases Laura's remarkable recovery.

Incidentally, the hospital where Laura was treated, Harborview Medical Center, was the site of the famous "tennis shoe" NDE reported by Kimberly Sharp.

Comments

Why mention the skeptics at all?

[Marcel Cairo]

Thanks for this story. I had an amazing moment reading this, as by total "coincidence," a song called "Don't Need a Reason" by Beth Orton was playing in the background. Here's the last verse of that song...

So I've been calling angels down to Earth,
An' I don't need a reason,
Calling angels down to Earth,
Because I believe we need them,
We only hurt the ones we love,
Why we don't need a reason,
Gonna get all that you deserve,
And all that you believe in,
Do you believe in,
Do you need them,
If you need them,
Do you know,
Do you need them,
If you need them,
Do you know,
Do you need them,
If you need them.

[irh]

Marcel - interestingly I also had a moment of incandescent clarity while reading this - while "love lifts us up where we belong" was playing in the background. Here is an excerpt of the first verse:

Who knows what tomorrow brings
In a world few hearts survive?
All I know is the way I feel.
When it's real, I keep it alive.
The road is long, there are mountains in our way,
But we climb a step every day.

Love lifts us up where we belong,
Where the eagles cry
On a mountain high.
Love lifts us up where we belong,
Far from the world below,
Up where the clear winds blow.

Some hang on to "used to be,"
Live their lives looking behind.
All we have is here and now,
All our life, out there to find.
The road is long, there are mountains in our way,
But we climb a step every day

Interestingly.....immediately after it ended, "Home Sweet Home" by Motley Crue came on, which I don't have to tell you is just plain weird, huh?

[Marcel Cairo]

Yup, Irh... those are some "hot" songs, too. BTW, there is a difference between clever sarcasm, and A-hole sarcasm.

[Småfornå]

Okay, guys... we're all adults here, right? Let's tone it down. :)

[irh]

Nah.....Marcel is right..:-)

Was only kidding!

(plus I can't get that Joe Cocker song out of my head today - which is ample punishment for my un instigated obnoxiousness!)

[Roger K]

There are other cases like that - here's one I just read about:
http://www.thedailyworld.com/articles/2006/04/27/local_news/01news.txt

[Hope Rivers]

I had a feeling about reading this post....

Click onPremonition to get to Roger K's link.

Glad to serve ;-)

[bonnie]

Hi Michael,
I am trying to learn more about premonitions
and why they happen. I had one in 1993.
During an OBE which I was fully awake at the time, Was very spiritual!
I have talked to priest about it.
It was an amazing experience and I don't think anyone could possibly believe unless
it were to happen to them. I'd like to write a book about it along with all my encounters with angels, spirits, Jesus and life after death!
I was given a special gift that ~ I know have been told by many.
And, feel the need to share it in my story.
I'm not a writer, I do need someone with the experience to guide me on what I should do next.
I'd surely appreciate any advice you might have.
Thank you,
blu

[Michael Prescott]

I'm not a writer, I do need someone with the experience to guide me on what I should do next.

Read one or more how-to books on writing/publishing, in order to learn the basics. Also, look for relevant Web sites. Googling "how to get published" ought to bring up some hits.

Some people benefit from taking a class at a community college, or from joining a writers' group.

After that, it's just a question of writing the actual book. As Stephen King says, you do that the same way they built the Great Wall of China - one brick at a time.

Good luck!

[Leo MacDonald]

A supporter of Richard Dawkins titled why Dawkins if right and his critics are wrong. Obviously a one sided article. I for can clearly see that Richard Dawkins is pushing a position. http://www.secularism.org.uk/whydawkinsisrightandhiscriticsar.html

[Hope Rivers]

Darry, great comment? :-[

I guess your pinning you hopes that intrigue will "tempt" the weak(naive) too click on your name/url to visit your website.

What ever your selling can't be that good. Of course this is my premonition/inner voice speaking as I haven't clicked on you.

But maybe because I brought this up, temptation maybe too great for some and you may get the traffic your seeking after all, but then maybe not ;-)

[Småfornå]

Hope, it's probably just an indiscriminate spambot which will never read your reply.

[irh]

I clicked.

Unless there is a very active libido in the afterlife - there was nothing relevant to see.

(although if there is - Darry has given us all some imaginative things to look forward to)

[Hope Rivers]

Irh, one would have to contemplate why anybody would be looking forward to an afterlife as such? Sounds like bondage to me and I'm glad I didnt click.

[Zetetic_chick]

Sorry for the off-topic, Michael P.

At the last of Zammit's reports, I read that: "It seems that even highly intelligent people can be conned. We have a Dallas psychiatrist, Dr Colin Ross, who claims that he can send a beam of energy from his eyes. With his beam of energy from his eyes, he’s going to apply to the skeptic Zwinge R. for his advertised one million dollars if he can pass the test. What’s the problem with that? The problem is that the flamboyant Florida Zwinge Randi, the closed minded skeptic will not hand over the million dollars. Why not? Because Z R is on record for telling Professor Dennis Rawlings, one of the founders of CSICOP, in relation to handing over any money to an applicant for the farcical, alleged one million dollars challenge, “I will always have a way out" (of paying anything). Further, when I challenged this Z R to match MY condition and put on a SWORN statement that the money is available ZR chickened out. The only conclusion I can come to is that there is NO FUNDING. DR Colin Ross, DON’T WASTE YOUR PRECIOUS TIME, ENERGY and MONEY – you’ve swallowed the skeptic’s trick hook, line and sinker!"

Searching info about Dr.Ross, I read he's "an internationally renowned clinician, researcher, author and lecturer in the field of dissociation and trauma-related disorders. He is the founder and President of the Colin A. Ross Institute for Psychological Trauma"

http://www.rossinst.com/about_dr_colin_ross.html

Do you think Dr.Colin should to take Randi's test? I think he shouldn't...

Maybe Dr.Colin isn't well informed about Randi's negative debunking background, and the propagandist pro-skepticism/materialism nature of that challenge. He's exposing his neck to the wolves...

In any case, I admit that the claim of Dr.Colin seems to be a little bit weird... and I think it's the reason why Randi will probably accept it (Randi will think it's very easy to debunk).

Let's see what is going to happen...

[jonn]

grererret