Reprinted from: Living Water, Vol 1X,
Number 2, April-May-June Issue 1969.
The man who wrote this was a personal friend of the publisher at the time.
The article is given as he wrote it in 1937, in boyish handwriting. He had
fallen from a horse at age 17 and for days he had a concussion. During
this period of time a continuing dream came night after night. It was as
though he were viewing a tremendous earthquake and inundation in
California and other parts of the world. Joe Brandt had also written in a
drowsy state through his days while recuperating in the hospital about
positions of various faults, strata of rock, earth movements,-so much
material that a geologist of many years would scarcely attempt such a
work. The boy knew nothing of geology or the possibility of a coming
earthquake. There are five-points to note which lift this dream/vision out
of the realm of ordinary night-time dreaming, and the huge sheaf of
geology data out of ordinary day-time writings, as follows:
1. The dream/vision took place in perfect continuity, night after night,
for many nights, always picking up exactly where it left off. This is
super-normal.
2. The viewer was projected at least 30 years ahead in time, seeing modes
of dress for youth not faintly imagined in 1937 by anyone. This is super-
normal.
3. Half-sized cars were seen-many of them, and in 1937 such cars were not
familiar to the United States. He remarked about the odd shape, which
could have been the Volkswagen, now so common in the United States. There
are about three times as many VW's in California as elsewhere in our
country.
4. Super-highways are noted, which he had not seen in his trips to Los
Angeles from his home in Fresno, California. (By the way, he saw Fresno
wiped out in the catastrophe.) This is super-normal knowledge.
5. He wrote about geology he had never learned, nor at 17 had there been
time to learn that much. He was given a vast knowledge of "faults" of
which he was totally unaware. This is super-normal knowledge. When checked
later with a graduate geologist, it was found to be factual. Note: absence
of birds. Birds and animals flee an area just before earthquakes.
Those who do not believe in dreams or visions had better re-check Holy
Writ, replete with hundreds of accounts of God's dealings with men through
this means. The area of dreams and visions is a subtle one, and must be
tested and re-tested before accepted. Dates can be deceptive, but should
be weighted as a possibility. Here now is Joe Brandt's dream/vision, which
confirms what we have had from spiritual Christians by the hundreds. It is
up to you to decide what you will do with it.-and may we add, ABOUT it.
Having to die in a holocaust is not the great tragedy. The tragedy of all
the ages- of an entire lifetime- is to die without Christ.
(Condensed a bit, but in doing so, have not changed a word)
THE DAY OF THE EARTHQUAKE
I woke up in the hospital room with a terrific headache- as if the whole
world was revolving inside my brain. I remember, vaguely, the fall from my
horse-Blackie. As I lay there, pictures began to form in my mind-pictures
that moved with the speed of lightning-pictures that revolved-pictures
that stood still. I seemed to be in another world. Whether it was the
future, or whether it was some ancient land, I could not say.
Then slowly, like the silver screen of the "talkies", but with colour and
smell and sound, I seemed to find myself in Los Angeles. It was Los
Angeles-it was bigger, much bigger, and busses and odd shaped cars crowded
the city streets. I thought about Hollywood Blvd., and I found myself,
there, on Hollywood Blvd. Whether this is true, I don't know, but there
were a lot of guys about my age with beards and wearing, some of them,
earrings. All the girls wore real short skirts... and they slouched along,
moving like a dance. I wondered if I could talk to them, and I said
"hello", but they didn't hear or see me. I decided that I would look as
funny to them as they looked to me. I tried, for awhile, that crazy kind
of walk. I guess it is something you have to learn. I couldn't to it. I
noticed there was a quietness about the air, a kind of stillness.
Something else was missing, something that should be there.
At first, I couldn't figure it out, I didn't know what it was-then I did.
THERE WERE NO BIRDS. I listened. I walked two blocks north or the
Blvd...All houses...no birds. I wondered what had happened to them. Had
they gone away? Where? Again, I could hear the stillness. I had never
experienced anything like it. I listened...just the stillness.
Then, I knew something was going to happen. I wondered what year it was.
It certainly was not 1937. I saw a newspaper on the corner with a picture
of the president. It surely wasn't Mr. Roosevelt. He was bigger, heavier,
big ears. If it wasn't 1937, I wondered what year it was. It looked like
1969...but I wasn't sure. My eyes weren't working just right..
Someone was coming...someone in 1937... it was that fat nurse ready to
take my temperature. I woke up. Crazy dream (There are pages here about a
similar dream occurring-finding himself in Los Angeles-although it was the
next day (in 1937) it was the same day in Los Angeles, and the dream would
continue where the last dream left off.) My headache is worse. It is a
wonder I didn't get killed on that horse. I've had another crazy dream,
back in Hollywood. Those people. Why do they dress like that I wonder? I
found myself back on the Blvd. I was waiting for something to happen.
Something BIG was going to happen and I was going to be there. I looked up
at the clock down by that big theatre. It was 10 minutes to 4. Something
BIG was going to happen. I walked down the street. In the concrete in
front of a theatre they had names of stars. I recognized a few of them.
The other names I had never heard. I was getting bored. I wanted to get
back to the hospital in Fresno, and I wanted to stay there on the blvd.,
even if nobody could see me. Those crazy kids. Why are they dressed like
that? Maybe it is some big Halloween doings, but it don't seem like
Halloween. More like early spring.
There was that sound again. that LACK OF SOUND. STILLNESS, STILLNESS,
STILLNESS. Don't these people KNOW that the birds have gone somewhere? The
QUITE IS GETTING BIGGER AND BIGGER. I KNOW IT IS GOING TO HAPPEN.
SOMETHING IS GOING TO HAPPEN. Something is happening now!
It sure did. She woke me up, grinning and smiling, that fat nurse again.
"It's time for your milk, kiddo," she says. Gosh, old woman of 30 acting
like the cat's pyjamas. Next time maybe she'll bring hot chocolate.
THE MOMENT OF THE HAPPENING
Where have I been. Where haven't I been! I've been to the ends of the
earth and back. I've been to the end of the world. There isn't anything
left. Not even Fresno, even though I'm lying here right this minute. If
only my eyes would get a little clearer so I can write all this down.
Nobody will believe me, anyway.
I'm going back to that last moment on the Blvd. Some sweet kid went past,
dragging a little boy (twins, I guess) by each hand. Her skirt was
up--well, pretty high--and she had a tired look. I thought for a minute I
could ask her about the birds, what had happened to them, and then, I
remembered she didn’t see me. Her hair was all frowzy, way out all over
her head. A lot of them looked like that, but she looked so tired and like
she was sorry about something. I guess she was sorry BEFORE it happened,
because it surely did happen.
There was a funny smell. I don't like it. A smell like sulphur, sulphuric
acid, a smell like death. For a minute, I thought I was back in chem.
(chemistry). When I looked around for the girl, she was gone. I wanted to
find her for some reason. It was if I knew something was going to happen
and I could stay with her, help her. She was gone, and I walked half a
block, then saw the clock again. My eyes seemed glued on that clock. I
couldn’t move. I just waited. It was FIVE MINUTES TO FOUR O'CLOCK ON A
SUNNY AFTERNOON. I thought I would stand there looking at that clock
forever waiting for the something to come.
Then, when it came, it was nothing. It was just nothing. It wasn't nearly
as hard as the earthquake we had two years ago. The ground shook, just an
instant. People looked at each other, surprised. Then they laughed, I
laughed too. So this was what I had been waiting for. This funny little
shake. It meant nothing. I was relieved and I was disappointed. What had I
been waiting for? I started back up the Blvd., moving my legs like those
kids. How do they do it?
I never found out. I felt as if the ground wasn't solid under me. I knew I
was dreaming and yet I wasn't dreaming. There was that smell again--coming
like from the ocean. I was getting to the 5 and 10 (Newberry's?) and I saw
the look on the kids' faces. Two of them were right in front of me, coming
my way. Both with beards. One with earrings. One said: "let's get out of
this place. Let's go back East." He seemed scared. It was as if the
sidewalks were trembling - but you couldn't seem to see them. Not with
your eyes you couldn't. An old lady had a dog, a little white dog, and she
stopped and looked scared, and grabbed him in her arms and said,” Let’s go
home, Frou, Frou. Mamma is going to take you home." That poor old lady,
hanging on to her dog. I got scared. Real scared.
I remembered the girl. She was way down the block, probably. I started to
run. I ran and ran, and the ground kept trembling. But I couldn't see it.
I couldn't feel it. But I knew it was trembling. Everybody looked scared.
They looked terrible. One young lady just sit down on the sidewalk all
doubled up. She kept saying "earthquake, it's THE earthquake." over and
over. But I COULDN"T SEE THAT ANYTHING WAS DIFFERENT.
Then, when it came. How it came. Like nothing in God's world. Like
nothing. It was the scream of a siren, long and low, or the scream of a
woman I heard having a baby when I was a kid. It was awful. It was as if
something- some monster- was PUSHING UP THE SIDEWALKS. You felt it long
before you saw it, as if the sidewalks wouldn't hold anymore. I looked out
at the cars. They were honking but not scared. They just kept moving. They
didn't seem to know yet that anything was happening. Then, that white car,
that baby half-sized one, came sprawling from the inside lane right
against the curb. The girl who was driving just sat there. She sat there
with her eyes staring, as if she couldn't move, but I could hear her. She
whimpered. Like a little girl. She made funny noises. I watched her,
thinking of the other girl.
I said that it was a dream and I would wake up.. But I didn't wake up. But
I didn't wake up. The shaking had started again, but this time different.
It was a nice shaking, like a cradle being rocked for a minute, and then I
saw the middle of the Blvd. seemed to be breaking in two. The concrete
looked as if it were being pushed straight up by some giant shovel. it. It
was breaking in two. That is why the girl's car went out of control.. AND
THEN A LOUD SOUND AGAIN, LIKE I'VE NEVER HEARD BEFORE...THEN HUNDREDS OF
SOUNDS...ALL KINDS OF SOUNDS... children, and women and those crazy guys
with earrings. They were all moving, it seemed, some of them above the
sidewalk. I can't describe it. They were LIFTED UP. and the waters kept
oozing...oozing. The cries. It was awful. I woke up. I never want to have
that dream again.
THE EARTHQUAKE
It came again. Like the first time which was a preview and all I could
remember was that it was the end of the world. I was right back there--all
that crying. Right in the middle of it. My eardrums felt as if they were
going to burst. Noise everywhere. People falling down, some of them bad
hurt. Pieces of buildings, chips, flying in the air. One hit me hard on
the side of the face, but I didn't seem to feel it.
I wanted only to wake up, to get away from this place. It had been fun in
the beginning, the first dream, when I kind of knew I was going to dream
the end of the world or something. This was terrible. There were older
people in the cars. Most of the kids were in the street. But those old
guys were yelling bloody murder, as if anybody could help them.. Nobody
could help them. Nobody could help them.
It was then that I felt myself lifted up. Maybe I had died. I don't know.
But I was over the city. It was tilting toward the ocean-like tilting a
picnic table. The buildings were holding, better than you could believe.
They were holding. They were holding. The people saw they were holding and
they tried to cling to them or get inside. It was fantastic. Like a
building had a will of its own. Everything else breaking around them, and
they were holding, holding. I was up over them-looking down. I started to
root for them. Hold that line, I said. Hold that line. Hold that line. I
wanted to cheer, to shout, to scream. If the buildings held, those
buildings on the Blvd., maybe the girl-the girl with the two kids-maybe
she could get inside.
It looked that way for a long time, maybe three minutes, and three minutes
was like forever. Everybody was trying to get inside. They were going to
hold. You knew they were going to hold, even if the waters kept coming up.
Only they didn't. I've never imagined what it would be like for a building
to die. A building dies just like a person. It gives way, some of the
bigger ones did just that. They began to crumble, like an old man with
palsy, who couldn't take it anymore. They crumble right down to nothing.
And the little ones screamed like mad-over and above the roar of the
people. They were mad about dying. But buildings die. I couldn't look
anymore at the people. I kept wanting to get higher. I kept willing myself
to go higher.
Then I seemed to be out of it all, but I could see. I seemed to be up on
Big Bear near San Bernardino, but the funny thing is that I could see
everywhere. I knew what was happening. The earth seemed to start to
tremble again. I could feel it even though I was up high. This time it
lasted maybe twelve seconds, and it was gentle. You couldn't believe
anything so gentle could cause so much damage. But then I saw the streets
of Los Angeles-and everything between the San Bernardino mountains and
L.A. It was all tilting toward the ocean, houses everything that was left.
I could see the big lanes-dozens of big lanes still loaded with cars-five
lanes in one place, and all the cars sliding the same way.
Now the ocean was coming in, moving like a huge snake across the land. I
wondered how long it was, and I could see the clock, even though I wasn't
there on the Blvd.. It was 4:29. It had been half an hour. I was glad I
couldn't hear the crying any more. But I could see everything. I could see
everything.
THE OTHER CITIES
Then, like looking at a huge map of the world, I could see what was
happening on the land and with people. San Francisco was feeling it, but
she was not in any way like Hollywood or Los Angeles. I seemed to see it
was the GARLOCK FAULT, not just the SAN ANDREAS that was rocking San
Francisco. It was moving just like that earthquake movie with Jeanette
McDonald and Gable. I could see all those mountains coming together-the
Sierra Nevada, and the San Andreas and Garlock.
I knew what was going to happen to San Francisco-it was going to turn
over, because of Garlock. It would turn upside down. It went quickly,
because of the twisting, I guess. It seemed much faster than Hollywood,
but then I wasn't exactly there. I was a long, long way off.
I shut my eyes for a long time-I guess ten minutes-and when I opened them
I saw Grand Canyon, that great big gap was closing in, and Boulder Dam was
being pushed from underneath. And then, Nevada, and on up to Reno. Way
down south, way down Baja, California, Mexico too. It looked like some
volcano down there was erupting, along with everything else.
I saw the map of South America, especially Colombia. Another
volcano-eruption-shaking violently. Venezuela seemed to be having some
king of volcanic activity. Away off in the distance, I could see Japan, on
a Fault, too. It was so far off-not easy to see, because I was still on
Big Bear Mountain, but Japan started to go into the sea. I couldn't tell
time, then, and the people looked like dolls, far away. I couldn't hear
the screaming, but I could see the surprised look on their faces. They
looked so surprised.. They were all like dolls. It was so far away I could
hardly see it. In a minute or two it seemed over. Everybody was gone.
There was nobody left.
I didn't know time now. I couldn't see a clock. I tried to see the island
of Hawaii. I could just see huge tidal waves...beating against it. The
people on the streets were getting wet, and they were scared. But I didn't
see anybody going into the sea. I seemed way around the globe. More
flooding. Is the world going to be drenched? Constantinople. Black Sea
rising. Suez Canal, for some reason seemed to be drying up. SICILY.. she
doesn't hold. I could see map. Mt Etna is shacking. A lot of this area
seemed to go, but it seemed to be earlier or later.
I wasn't sure of time, now. ENGLAND.....huge floods-but no tidal waves.
Water, water everywhere, but no one going into the sea. People were
frightened and crying. Some places they fell in the streets on their knees
and started to pray for the world. I didn't know the English were
emotional. Ireland, Scotland-all kinds of churches were crowded-it seemed
night and day. People were carrying candles and everybody was crying for
California, Nevada, parts of Colorado- maybe all of it, even Utah.
Everybody was crying-most of them didn't even know anybody in California,
Nevada, Utah, but they were crying as if they were blood kin. Like one
family. Like it happened to them. NEW YORK was coming into view-she was
still there, nothing had happened, yet water level was way up. Here,
things were different. People were running in the streets yelling-"end of
world". Kids ran into restaurants and ate everything in sight. I saw a
shoe store with all the shoes gone in about five minutes. Fifth Avenue-
everybody running. Some radio blasting from a loud speaker that in a few
minutes, power might be shut off. They must control themselves. Five girls
were running like mad toward the Y.W.C.A., that place on Lexington or
somewhere. They ran like they were scared to death. BUT NOTHING WAS
HAPPENING IN NEW YORK. I saw an old lady with garbage cans, filling them
with water. Everybody seemed scared to death. Some people looked dazed.
The streets seemed filled with loud speakers. It wasn't daylight. It was
night. I saw, like the next day, and everything was topsy turvy. Loud
speakers again about fuel tanks broken in areas-shortage of oil. People
seemed to be looting markets.
OREGON, WASHINGTON, THE DAKOTAS, MISSOURI,
MINNESOTA, CANADA
I saw a lot of places that seemed safe, and people were not scared.
Especially the rural areas. Here everything was almost as if nothing had
happened. People seemed headed to these places some on foot, some in cars
(that still had fuel). I heard-or somehow I knew- that somewhere in the
Atlantic land had come up. A lot of land. I was getting awful tired. I
wanted to wake up I wanted to go back to the girl-to know where she
was-she and those two kids. I found myself back in Hollywood-and it was
still 4:29. I wasn't up on Big Bear then- I was perched over Hollywood. I
was just there. It seemed perfectly natural in my dream.
TV, RADIO, HAM OPERATORS
I could hear now. I could hear, someplace, a radio station blasting
out-telling people not to panic. They were dying in the streets. There
were picture stations with movies-some right in Hollywood-these were
carrying on, with all the shaking. One fellow ( in the picture (TV)
station) was a little short guy who should have been scared to death. But
he wasn't. He kept shouting and reading instructions. Something about
helicopters or planes would go over-some kind of planes-but I knew they
couldn't.
Things were happening in the atmosphere. The waves were rushing up now.
Waves. Such waves. Nightmare waves. Then, I saw again, Boulder Dam, going
down...pushing together, pushing together breaking apart-No, Grand Canyon
was pushing together, and Boulder Dam was breaking apart. It was still
daylight. All these radio stations went off at the same time-Boulder Dam
had broken. I wondered how everybody would know about it-people back East.
That was when I saw the "ham radio operators". I saw them in the oddest
places, as if I were right there with them. Like the little guy with
glasses. They kept sounding the alarm. One kept saying: "This is
California. We are going into the sea. This is California. We are going
into the sea.. Get to the high places. Get to the mountains. All states
west-this is California. We are going to the - We are going to the" - I
thought he was going to say" sea". But I could see him. He was inland, but
the waters had come in. His hand was still clinging to the table, he was
trying to get up, so that once again he could say: "This is California we
are going into the sea. This is California we are going into the sea." I
seemed to hear this, over and over, for what seemed hours-just those
words.
They kept it up until the last minute-all of them-calling out "Get to the
Mountains-This is California.-We are going into the sea." I woke up. It
didn't seem as if I had been dreaming. I have never been so tired. For a
minute or two, I thought it had happened. I wondered about two things. I
hadn't seen all what happened to Fresno (his home) and I hadn't found out
what happened to that girl. I've been thinking about it all morning. I'm
going home tomorrow. It was just a dream. It was nothing more.
Nobody in the future on Hollywood Blvd. is going to be wearing
earrings-and those beards. Nothing like that is ever going to happen. That
girl was so real to me-that girl with those two kids. It won't ever
happen-but if it did, how could I tell her (maybe she isn't even born yet)
to move away from California when she has her twins-and she can't be on
the Blvd. that day. She was so real!
The other thing-those ham operators-hanging on like that-over and
over-saying the same thing: " This is California. We are going into the
sea. This is California. We are going into the sea. Get to the mountains.
Get to the hilltops. California, Nevada Colorado, Arizona, Utah. This is
California. We are going into the sea." I guess I'll hear that for days.
This vision was
written by Joe Brandt, age 17, while recovering from a brain concussion in
a Fresno, California hospital in 1937. Previously published in "California
Super quake 1975-1977?" by Paul James. Again published in "When
the Comet Runs" by Tom Kay, 1997