It was in an afternoon walk through a very large shopping centre and as I was resting with my back against a tall sheet of glass, suddenly a vision came upon me and I fainted.  Yet I was still standing.

I leant against the glass for support, as if in a dream or another space, but my eyes were open.  I saw not with my eyes but with other eyes.  I was hearing but with other ears and I was knowing with a knowing given me.  I saw a great multitude of shoppers wandering in and out, hopelessly lost.

Suddenly, with horror, I saw that they all – all of them, men women and children – had a curious mark – dash – sign upon their foreheads.  Somehow all this seemed normal for the time, adding to the horror.  Somehow they were being controlled, drugged, zombie-like, utterly unable to see what had been done with – to – them.

Their minds were someone else’s mind.  This world seemed without affection or pity, a world in which betrayal would be rewarded.  Individuality had been obliterated, all had been ‘unified’.

I was looking at the world of the near future which had superimposed itself upon the present world.

I heard someone or something speaking these words: “and they that dwell on the earth shall wonder, whose names were not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, when they behold the beast that was, and is not, and yet is.”

I came back to myself, waking as from a living nightmare.  I again became aware of all the shoppers’ incessant chatter, ever-moving, ever-seeking, ever-lost.

The experience left me feeling ill and deeply troubled the whole of that day.