More Thoughts
Another recurring dream that pops up from time to time is about an old gothic house. In the dream, I always let myself in through the front door as if I’m expected. I go down to the basement and the basement has two levels. One level is a platform with a set of stairs to get up. The odd thing is that nothing supports this platform. There’s furniture on the platform: a couch, chairs and a table on one side, some kind of shelf or dresser across from the stairs on the far side, and to the right of the stairs a big black cauldron on a three-legged stand with something steaming and brewing inside. I always have this sense that there’s a witch in the house, but never see one.
What I never understand is how the second basement level supports itself, and how the cauldron can have something bubbling in it when there’s no fire underneath it on the platform?
- They say it’s a good omen when someone gives you something in a dream. When I was sixteen years old, I had a dream someone asked me to marry him. I said yes, and though I knew who he was in the dream, I couldn’t see his face. I told him I was dreaming and had to leave. He took a beautiful solitaire diamond ring and put it in the palm of my hand, closing my fingers over it. He told me not to let go of it, and that when I came back, he would put it on my finger.
When I woke up my hand was closed and I could feel the ring in my hand. I could feel the points of the marquis cut diamond jabbing me, the gold was still cool to the touch. Sadly, when I opened my hand, the only thing that was there were some small cuts where my fingernails had dug into my palm. Alas, no ring.
- I often have recurring dreams about flying, falling, running, walking, tripping, driving and crashing in cars. My favorites are the ones where I’m running really fast and I trip, because that usually jolts me awake. Apparently I like to laugh a lot in my sleep too. Maybe that’s because even in my sleep I know I’m a klutz
My name is Doug Copp. I am the Rescue Chief and Disaster Manager of the American Rescue Team International, the most experienced rescue team. The information in this article will save lives in an earthquake. I have crawled inside 875 collapsed buildings, worked with rescue teams from 60 countries, founded rescue teams in several countries, and I am a member of many rescue teams from many countries. I was the United Nations expert in Disaster Mitigation for two years. I have worked at every major disaster in the world since 1985, except for simultaneous disasters.
In 1996 we made a film which proved my survival methodology to be correct. The Turkish Federal Government, City of Istanbul, University of Istanbul, Case Productions and ARTI cooperated to film this practical, scientific test.
We collapsed a school and a home with 20 mannequins inside. Ten mannequins did “duck and cover,” and ten mannequins used my “triangle of life” survival method.
After the simulated earthquake collapse we crawled through the rubble and entered the building to film and document the results. The film, in which I practiced my survival techniques under directly observable, scientific conditions, relevant to building collapse, showed there would have been ZERO percent survival for those doing “duck and cover.” There would likely have been 100 percent survivability for people using my method of the “triangle of life.”
This film has been seen by millions of viewers on television in Turkey and the rest of Europe, and it was seen in the USA, Canada and Latin America on the TV Program, Real TV.
The first building I ever crawled inside of was a school in Mexico City during the 1985 earthquake. Every child was under their desk. Every child was crushed. They could have survived by lying down next to their desks in the aisles. It was obscene, unnecessary and I wondered why the children were not in the aisles. At the time, I didn’t know that the children had been told to hide under something.
Simply stated, when buildings collapse, the weight of the ceilings falling upon the objects or furniture inside crushes these objects, leaving a space or void next to them. This space is what I call the “triangle of life.” The larger the object, the stronger, and the less it will compact. The less the object compacts, the larger the void, and the greater the probability that the person who is using this void for safety will not be injured.