Mysterious voice awakened a woman who was able to save herself and two girls

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In summary, a relative of a family that escaped from a house fire believes divine intervention played a role in their escape. The mother, Taurie Lopuhovsky, was awakened by a voice that guided her to safety. Some readers speculate that this voice could have been a survival mechanism or a manifestation of sleep deprivation. Others share similar experiences with hallucinations or simple partial seizures caused by exhaustion.
  • #1
Ivan Seeking
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A few thoughts on infrasound and travel fatigue

LARKSVILLE - A relative of a Swoyersville family that escaped from an early Wednesday morning house fire said she believes there was "divine intervention" at work in ensuring the family got out alive.
Sue Cobb of Mountain Road said her daughter, Taurie Lopuhovsky, was awakened from a sound sleep by an voice that commanded her, "Taurie, get up!"

Intense smoke and heat nearly knocked her unconscious, but somehow she got herself and her 2 1/2 year-old daughter, Willow, to a second-story bedroom window, then shouted to her other daughter, guiding her to an escape route...[continued]

http://www.timesleader.com/mld/timesleader/8717506.htm

Lets keep any comments to "a voice"; no God discussions please.
 
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  • #2
Given how thick the smoke apparently was, it sounds like part of her unconscious knew something had to be really wrong and created the voice to wake her up to deal with it.

I have often had the experience of assimilating actual physical stimuli into the fabric of my dreams in order to avoid letting them wake me up. I often am able to do this with alarm clocks: I weave the sound into the dream as something other than what it is in order to sleep through it. By the same mechanism, I suspect this woman turned this unfamiliar and obviously dangerous smell into a voice that she had to respond to.
 
  • #3
I was thinking the same thing. One of my hell weeks for work involved a dead CAT Scan and about four days with no sleep. When I finally finished I had to drive about three or four miles down the freeway to get home. I kept falling asleep while driving on the freeway. I would be driving along when this funny buzzing noise kept entering my head. It would get louder and louder until my head snapped up and I realized that I had been dreaming while I was driving. It woke me up four or five times before I got home. It seems clear to me that either someone was taking care of me, or some kind of survival mechanism was kicking in.
 
  • #4
Ivan Seeking said:
I was thinking the same thing. One of my hell weeks for work involved a dead CAT Scan and about four days with no sleep. When I finally finished I had to drive about three or four miles down the freeway to get home. I kept falling asleep while driving on the freeway. I would be driving along when this funny buzzing noise kept entering my head. It would get louder and louder until my head snapped up and I realized that I had been dreaming while I was driving. It woke me up four or five times before I got home. It seems clear to me that either someone was taking care of me, or some kind of survival mechanism was kicking in.
WOW!

This is the trouble with states of mind like that: you often lose the good sense not to do things you're in no condition to do. You were lucky.

Interesting thing you may not want to hear: very loud buzzing noises are known simple partial seizure symptoms. I've had this happen to me three times, I think. Once I was at some guys house applying to rent a room. I was in a state of extreme anxiety at the time because I had to be out of where I was in a week and had had no luck finding a new place. Right while I was talking to this guy I heard what sounded like a large bumble bee hovering about an inch away from my left ear. I'd heard the same thing years before while dropping off to sleep, once, and I recall there being another incident, but not the circumstances. Later, I read several reports of this in the epilepsy literature. Some people hear it as a buzzing that increases to a roar like a jet engine.
 
  • #5
Well, considering the circumstances in my drive home, simple partial seizures might be expected? I was in a state of exhaustion that was beyond my physical limits.

I worked with another engineer who had the strangest reaction to sleep deprivation. While he was sitting and working, a something hundred pound gizmo fell from the rafters and nearly crushed him. It landed only a few feet to his side. He looked up and thought [approx], "wow, that's funny, that almost hit me", then he went back to work. He kept thinking how strange it was that he wasn't getting more excited. A little while later when a colleague walked up to him, he alluded to the thing sitting next to him, which was not there...he had hallucinated the entire episode!
 
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  • #6
Ivan Seeking said:
Well, considering the circumstances in my drive home, simple partial seizures might be expected? I was in a state of exhaustion that was beyond my physical limits.
Exactly. Sleep deprivation is an excellent way to lower the seizure threshold. People who are undergoing video EEGs, in hospital, are intentionally sleep deprived in the hope of provoking seizures that can be monitored and recorded. This is to help locate the focus and also to determine the kind of seizure. It would be perfectly normal for anyone to experience simple partials if they were sleep deprived for four days. One guy I know had only had one deja vu in his whole life which occurred after he went 24 hours without sleep while traveling.
I worked with another engineer who had the strangest reaction to sleep deprivation. While he was sitting and working, a something hundred pound gizmo fell from the rafters and nearly crushed him. It landed only a few feet to his side. He looked up and thought [approx], "wow, that's funny, that almost hit me", then he went back to work. He kept thinking how strange it was that he wasn't getting more excited. A little while later when a colleague walked up to him, he alluded to the thing sitting next to him, which was not there...he had hallucinated the entire episode!
You told this story once before. I don't think this kind of elaborate hallucination is all that uncommon with severe sleep deprivation. I've heard several stories. There is a point where everyone essentially becomes psychotic if they lose enough sleep. Also their motor control is shot.

People who sail long distances in small sailboats, like across oceans, often hallucinate. Sleep deprivation is what I suspect most, but I often wonder if the exposure to so much salt plays a part, since drinking salt water also causes hallucinations. I wonder, also, if the constant assault on the inner ear occasioned by the constant up and down motion contributes.

Joshua Slocum reported an exceptionally elaborate hallucination while at sea, but he attributed it to some goat cheese he had eaten when stopped in the canarie Islands: He fell asleep, and woke up to find someone else on the boat with him steering the boat while he slept. The other guy claimed to be Cristopher Columbus' helmsman who had taken over to steer him through some dangerous waters while he was sleeping.
 
  • #7
I should have split the thread but oh well...its almost 2AM. :yuck:

The deleted entries which were completely off topic and all my fault are now located here:

https://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?t=27144
 
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  • #8
zoobyshoe said:
WOW!

This is the trouble with states of mind like that: you often lose the good sense not to do things you're in no condition to do. You were lucky.

It gets better. The failure was due to a catostrophic short circuit in the the X-Ray tube cooling system. This involves 110, 220, and 15000 volt circuitry. With only five hours of sleep in four days, I'm working with all this stuff strung out like spagetti with all sorts of jumpers and manual switches that allowed me to simulate the automated functions so that scanning could continue.

It is really amazing how when sleep deprived one can function at a high level at certain tasks, while being virtually incapable of functioning in many other modes. I could keep track of the various temps, pressuires, voltages, currents, and sequences to be performed, but I had a hard time talking coherently. I might easily walk into the door jam or forget where I left my truck.

This makes me think of the recent article about auto-mode for driving. The suggestion [maybe serious theory...I would have to find the article] is that two levels of consciousness exist, and that a lower level "automatic mode" of consciousness can take over when our conscious attention is lost for some reason. The classic examples being statements like: "I didn't remember anything about the drive home", or "I was thinking about such and such and I wasn't even paying attention to the road".
 
  • #9
intuition is quite useful, but we are taught to doubt it because we are afterall only human. i think this is a typical case of it, but those who never use it declare it "divine" in a religious manner. you hear a lot about the mother's who have it developed, and i can vouch for that with my own experience:

about 5 years ago my ex-husband wanted to take my 3 year old and 6 month old child to a reptile zoo, as his family were reptile fanatics (not a big fan of reptiles myself and it is not a wonder we are now divorced). that particular day i had to work, but he wanted to go. it didn't settle right with me, but instead of starting an argument over it, i begged him to not allow my daughter to get near any of the pythons this particular museum had. he promised, and they went. a few hours later, he called me telling me the owner of the reptile zoo had to go to the hospital after one of her hungry pythons squeezed her so hard it knocked the wind out of her. after years of owning this zoo, this was only one of the two incidences she had with the snakes.

it could have been coincidence, but i have never ignored my intuition, and so far it has steered me and others clear of possible negative situations.
 

1. How did the mysterious voice awaken the woman?

The exact mechanism of the mysterious voice awakening the woman is unknown. It could be a combination of auditory stimulation and the woman's own subconscious response.

2. Was the woman able to save herself and the two girls because of the mysterious voice?

The woman's quick thinking and bravery, combined with the guidance from the mysterious voice, were crucial in saving herself and the two girls. The mysterious voice may have served as a source of motivation and direction for the woman.

3. Could the mysterious voice have been a hallucination?

It is possible that the mysterious voice was a hallucination, as there are many factors that can cause auditory hallucinations. However, the fact that the woman was able to save herself and the two girls suggests that the voice may have been real and had a purpose.

4. Is there a scientific explanation for the mysterious voice?

Currently, there is no specific scientific explanation for the mysterious voice in this particular scenario. However, there are various theories and studies on the power of the mind and how it can manifest in different ways, including auditory experiences.

5. What can we learn from this mysterious voice awakening the woman?

This case highlights the incredible potential of the human mind and its ability to adapt and respond in times of crisis. It also raises questions about the existence of higher powers or forces beyond our understanding. Further research and study may shed more light on the mysterious voice and its impact on human behavior.

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