Many people have asked me if I intuitively knew or felt anything about the collapse of the 35W bridge prior to its happening. The simple answer is no. For several days prior to the collapse I did feel a sense of foreboding and a sort of nervous tingling. But that is hardly enough to call those feelings a prediction. As a matter of fact, those sensations aren’t uncommon for me to feel. When I feel foreboding for no apparent reason, I take a minute to check to see if it is about me or not. If the sense of foreboding stems from an event in my life, I can generally trace it back to its roots. Perhaps I had a disagreement with someone or am concerned about my work or finances for some reason.
If I can’t trace the feeling back to a real life cause, then I assume it is an intuitive message. If I have time and feel like doing so, I will sit silently and ask, "Is there something I should know about?" Or, "Is this sense of foreboding or nervousness a message telling me to do something?"
Then, if I get a "no" answer to those questions, I don’t pursue it anymore and the feeling usually goes away.
You see, I have made a deal with the universe. I don’t want to know about disasters unless that knowing aids me in some fashion or unless there is something I can do about it. Even if I had been able to predict the bridge collapse, it was highly unlikely that I could have done anything to prevent it. I rather doubt Governor Pawlenty would pay much attention to a call from a psychic predicting a collapse of what seemed to be a perfectly functional bridge.
Which brings me to what I call the Minnesota Miracle. The best use of intuition is when you use it for yourself…to make your life better. Predicting for other people is fine, but they always have the right to change their own future. Predicting world events is impressive when you are right and gives you a chance to gloat, but generally it does very little good for the world.
What happened on the day of the bridge collapse was that hundreds and perhaps thousands of people did use their intuition to avoid that bridge. I have heard dozens of stories from people who decided to leave early, or late, or take another route home and therefore were not on the bridge at that time. In addition, an amazing number of people were saved, I believe, through the use of their own or their rescuers’ "gut sense."
This is not meant to imply that the deaths on that day were not a great tragedy or to suggest that those who were killed did not use their intuition. But the miracle that so many people avoided death by using their intuition is, in my mind, the biggest story of that event. (This is true whether they were aware that they were using intuition, or not.)
I heard one of the broadcasters from a national news station say something like this: "In most disasters, people run away. Here, in Minnesota, people ran to the bridge."
We live in an amazing state. Rescuers appeared from all over, running to help where they could. I am convinced they were there because their intuition told them they could help. Minnesota is a place of open minds and open hearts. In this case, I believe that saved many lives.
