Ray C's Experience

Experience description:   

Okay, this is probably going to sound completely crazy to anyone who reads it.  I know that it seemed crazy to me, when it happened, and still does.  But no matter how it sounds, I can guarantee you that it did happen exactly as I am about to describe, and it was an event that was verified by two completely independent witnesses. 

It is this last fact that should lend credibility to the account, for anyone who is skeptical.  Of course, for those who prefer to remain skeptical, I suppose they can just assume that I am either lying or else I was, in some way, delusional or otherwise mistaken.  As to the former, I can say that I really don’t care whether anyone believes this account of what I experienced or not, because I am not trying to convince anyone of anything…period. I know what happened, and whether or not anyone else believes it is their problem, not mine.  As to the question of whether or not I was delusional or simply mistaken, I guess that you would simply have to trust my sanity, as well as that of the two other people who verified the experience, both science teachers.  I, too, would probably smile and roll my eyes, if I had been told of such an incident.  However, again, as stated, this event was verified by two other individuals, one of whom is a very skeptical individual by nature, a person who prides himself as being a purist, in terms of being scientific and objective.  In fact, I would go beyond that label, viewing him as being not just a skeptic, but rather a cynic.

The entire incident took only about five minutes, from beginning to end, and will probably not sound all that interesting to anyone who was not present.  As with anything, hearing about such an occurrence is nothing like experiencing it, firsthand. 

About ten years ago, it was, as it still is, my practice to begin each day with a half-hour period of quiet meditation, so as to calm my mind, thereby “setting the pace” for the forthcoming, hectic day.  Back then, before I retired, it was far more challenging to remain calm, as my days were stressful from beginning to end. The beginning usually consisted of students standing at my classroom door, needing help with either physics or chemistry, even before I had unlocked it;  this, of course, prevented me from being able to mix chemicals, set up labs, or even go down and do some photocopying, all normal, essential preparations for any lab. science teacher.  And, after the last bell rang at the end of the day, there were usually students coming in, wanting help, as well; many of these were not even my students, but rather those from other teachers’ classes.  And so it went.  The stress continued even after I got home, right up to bedtime, when I had usually just finished grading a stack of papers or previewing the next day’s lesson plans.  In between those two daily endpoints, I had to keep my eye on the clock, pacing my every word and thought, so as to ensure that I covered everything in the day’s lesson.  Life in the classroom is literally run by bells which ring every hour, every day, every week.  It is not a laid-back endeavor, if you “teach bell-to-bell,” as the saying goes, in the education game. And so, to lower my stress, I would arrive earlier than anyone else, in order to get this meditation time in.  The only other person on campus at that time was the custodian, who was always way down on the lower end of the campus, unlocking doors and setting up the cafeteria.  The parking lot was empty, each morning, and I would enter the building, go into my lab., and without turning on any lights, go into my office, where I would settle into my chair, close my eyes and just clear my mind for the next half hour.  The outer doors at either end of the hallway were large, heavy, and would shut with a resoundingly loud clang, allowing me to hear, if anyone entered the quiet building at that time of day. 

On the morning in question, I had been sitting there, alone in the dark and quiet, for about the entire half hour, meditating with my eyes closed, when suddenly…I smelled roses.  It wasn’t just a faint, mild scent of roses, but a very strong, powerful smell, as though someone had just thrust a large bouquet of roses directly under my nose.  It was such a powerful smell that it caused me to stiffen in my chair and open my eyes, wondering what was going on.  During the entire time that I had been meditating, I had not heard anyone enter the building.  The whole room now smelled like roses, so I stepped out of my office, into the dark classroom and looked around, then stepped out into the long hallway, looking both directions. The classroom was empty and the hallway was likewise.  It was just at this point that the door far down at the end of the hallway opened, and I saw two of my colleagues, Matt and Gayle, entering from the parking lot, lunches in hard.  They were the first to enter the building, after I had arrived, about a half hour earlier.  I yelled at them, and asked them to come down to my room.  They looked puzzled, as they came into the lab, asking me what was up.  I didn’t say anything, but asked them to come into my office, where I said, “Do you notice anything?” That was all that I said, not wanting to give any further information.  Matt, still looking puzzled, said that he smelled roses, and when I looked at Gayle, she nodded in affirmation.  When they repeated their question about wanting to know what was going on, I had to admit that I didn’t really know what was going on, except that I had been meditating in my office, when I, too, was suddenly jolted “awake” by the powerful smell of roses.  Matt then simply looked at me, grinned, shook his head, as though I was crazy, and walked off, into his classroom, which adjoined mine.  Gayle, the other science teacher laughed, and, as she walked off, jokingly said, “I told you so, Ray.  Somebody’s trying to tell you something!”  This remark came as a private joke between us, as she, being quite the opposite from Matt, is a very devout Christian, who had often joked with me about my unbelief in such spiritual matters as the existence of God, and would often say that one day, sooner or later, I would finally realize the truth. 

By this time, the smell has almost entirely dissipated, and I was left standing, wondering what had happened…as I still do.

  A little background information/perspective: My office was a small room situated within a larger room (the lab/classroom), all located within the science building, so there were no doors or windows leading to the outside of the building.  There was absolutely nobody else in the building, except myself.  The doors to my class/lab were locked, so nobody, even if they had entered the building, could have gotten within at least thirty feet of me, and would have been out in the hallway, beyond the classroom walls.  The ventilation system had not yet been activated. Even if it had been activated and if someone had spilled rose-smelling perfume in the next room, for example, I would not have been able to smell it in my office.  The ventilation system is a good one, and was constructed in such a way that I could never smell the fumes from the adjoining labs, even on days when they were conducting dissections that involved very strong-smelling biological preservatives, fumes that were so powerful as to require them to open their doors, during the dissections. 

I have no idea as to what caused the phenomenon which all three of us had witnessed, and I have no guesses as to what it could have been or what significance, if any, it could have had.