Below darkened skies

Ever since I was little, I had this reoccurring dream. I am in a small boat drifting away, all the while I heard the sounds of people crying and the splashing of water as if something was dropping into the sea. And before I could make sense of it all, I would wake up cold and shivering as if I had just come out of the water after a swim.

As I grew older, I'd continue to have that same dream, but as the years went by, more images were added, and the dream became clearer.

The boat I was on was a lifeboat, escaping a sinking ship. The sounds of people crying are the unfortunate souls who couldn't make it to the lifeboats in time, so instead of going down with the ship, they took their chances by jumping into the waters below. Indicating that the splashing sounds I heard were the people hitting the water.

Having reoccurring dreams is normal, and some experts will tell you that dreams usually mean there is something in your life troubling you or something is about to happen. But for me, it feels different, almost as if I'm living or have lived another life.

When I explained this dream to my friends and family, they shrugged it off as someone with an active imagination and that I needed to stop reading and cut down on the sweets before bed. But to me, this was not something caused by too many ghost stories or chocolate chip cookies.

It felt very real, and I needed to figure out why I have this same dream on the same date and time since I could remember.

As an open-minded person who believes in the supernatural, I took it upon myself to visit a local medium specializing in past lives and clairvoyance. After speaking with her over the phone, she invited me to see her in her shop so she could get a better understanding of me.

When I entered her shop, she greeted me and directed me into the back room, where she offered me some calming tea. She must have sensed that I was nervous.

She directed me to sit down in a velvet chair and brought me the tea, and I drank it, feeling relaxed as the warm liquid hit my throat. Then she asked me to describe my dream once again, and as I did, she took some notes.

Once I finished explaining the dream down to every last detail, she asked me to take her hands so that she and I could connect on a spiritual level.

As soon as I took her hands, she instructed me to close my eyes, relax, take a few deep breaths, and trust her. And after she spoke a few words, we entered a different world, my dream world.

Images flashed right before our eyes. We were on a large ocean liner surrounded by people dancing and singing, wearing clothes not fit for the times. It was as if we went back in time to at least a hundred years ago.

Music from the 1910's played throughout this large vessel, and it seemed that everyone was having a good time until they weren't.

The ship jerked as if it had hit something, and the lights flashed. People were thrown off balance, and water started filling in. It felt cold beneath my feet.

We walked up some stairs that led us to the deck, and there were people crying and men in uniforms barking orders. "Women and children first!" One of them yelled, "quickly. To the lifeboats."

I then saw something familiar, as if I've been looking into a mirror and seeing double. It was me, in a lifeboat being lowered into the icy waters below.

Soon I went from being on the ship to the lifeboat, and as it paddled away, I could see the vessel as clear as day. It was a large ocean liner with four smokestacks and on the side of the vessel were word the words "RMS Titanic."

People in the lifeboats, including myself, watched in horor as that mighty ship split into two parts and was slowly consumed by the ocean.

As for the date and time when I always had the reoccuring dream, April. 15 2:20 a.m.

The date and time when the mighty ship sank.