Who Is Charlotte King?

My name is Charlotte King and I am the Pioneer of Biological Earthquake Forecasting..
I prefer to use the name “ forecasting “ vs prediction because all my “ forecast “ are based on past experiences and that is all I can go on..

I am 69 years old and was born in Salem Oregon in August 1946. I guess I had a normal childhood but my Aunt Alberta told me one time, “ when you were about 2 years old, you used to be playing with toys and all the sudden stand totally still and turn your head as if you were hearing something and were turning your head to find the source of what you were hearing”

She said “ I thought you might be empty upstairs ” a nice way of saying I was crazy but she was a awesome aunt. My mom told me that I would scream and cover my ears each time I would hear the steam train going through town, the vacuum running or even water going down a drain.

So perhaps even at the age of 2 I was already picking up the sounds that I somehow blocked out and they came back to me in 1976 and changed my life forever.

I spent most of my life in Salem, graduating from North Salem High School in 1964 and married shortly thereafter. We lived in Salem and Corvallis and had 3 great kids. Two boys and a girl. All still live in the area. I have 6 grand children.

When the sounds began to be heard by me, in May 1976, I was surprised, shocked and totally determined to find the source of the sound. After numerous tests and visits to my home from the DEQ, Oregon State University on two occasions, and eventually the USEPA. No one has been able to identify the source of the sound.

To say “the sound” as I call it changed my life is an understatement. When it first began it was just there but soon it was everywhere and then I began to notice changes in the rhythm of “ the sound “ and variations in the tone. In June 1979 “the sound” changed and I called our local television station in Portland KATU Channel 2 and asked if something was happening.

I had been calling them on and off with the changes I was noticing in “ the sound ” and watching to see what happened 3 days later, so when they said “ Nothing is happening” I couldn’t let it go, I knew something was happening. A few hours later, the news carried reports of a major beaching of Sperm Whales off the Southern Oregon coast at Florence, 41 massive creatures died.

I was waiting to see what would happen in 3 days and 3 days later there was a series of moderate quakes in Big Bear CA.. it all began to make sense. The whales heard the same sound I heard, they became confused, perhaps in pain and beached and then the quakes hit in Big Bear. So it all began to fit together like pieces of a puzzle..a “the sound” changed, the whales beached the quakes hit. It was not a coincidence. So far all I was experiencing was sound but that was about to change.

I still wanted to know the official cause of the beaching. Test revealed they were not sick so the mammalogist thought they may have been following a dominate male. I told them no, they were picking up on the quakes, they heard “the sound” I heard, became confused and beached.

The Massachusetts Cetacean Institute when I contacted them about my theory of what caused the beaching said “ it makes perfect sense, since the fault lines in that area run perpendicular to the beach, the whales get into the fault areas, pick up “the sound” and follow it to the beach”

Still no one else believed me but our local paper did carry stories to the effect of “ mom monitors sounds after beaching” but a year later they were going back to the beaching in a larger paper  “the Oregonian” in Portland, Oregon and it said “ Although they were not sure what caused the beaching, the most logical theory was the whales became confused by earthquakes being recorded at the same time” so I was vindicated, even if they did not use my name, it all began to make sense.

In September 1979 “ the sound “ changed, and I woke with a severe earache and my heart was really hurting. Being only in my 30’s I was not too worried but when the pains got worse, I headed for the specialist for both symptoms. An Ear, Nose and Throat specialist and a Cardiologist.

Both doctors ran test on me and I was given a clean bill of health, although they had no idea what was causing the symptoms. After the 3rd day of the pain, it stopped as quickly as it began. Then I heard on the television news that evening that there had been a series of major quakes in Italy. That did not catch my attention, but what I heard on the radio, Paul Harvey Show, a couple of days later did.

He was talking about the quake and made a comment that was a “A HA” moment. He said there had been numerous persons who had been seeking medical attention before the quake with the complaint of earaches and many had also reported heart pains. There had been numerous heart attacks, at least three fatalities, and this is the kicker, these happened several days before the quakes.

It was then I knew I was feeling the quakes in Italy, thousands of miles away, before they happened. From that point on I began to experience pain as well as sound. I experienced various forms of intermittent pain from that day forward normally was not severe but “the sound” was constant.

In January 1980 I started the day with a headache. I seldom had headaches so it made an impression, when the headache continued for over 48 hours I was anxious for the 3rd day to see where the quake would hit. The 3rd, 4th, 5th and beyond and nothing stopped the pain.

I went to doctors, I had CT Scans, I even tried bio feedback, I had EEG’s nothing was wrong, but I was in pain. This went on for over 2 months, and it was getting more and more difficult to handle the pain but taking care of 3 kids and a husband I did not have the option of just going to bed. I was working at the local YMCA and that was also becoming harder due to the pain.

Then in March 1980, the headache went to migraine strength and it was all I could do to function. I had caught the attention of various news feeds and articles were written about me, but was surprised when I received a call from Ivan Sharpe from the San Francisco Examiner to meet for lunch in a few days.

The pain was awful, I was still working but not sure how long I would be able to continue. On the morning of the 20th of March, 1980, the pain was so bad I called in and did not go to work. Later that day the news carried a report that there was a 4.2 quake at a dormant volcano in Washington State. Was Mt St Helens was waking up?

Small quakes continued for several days and then on the 27th I was with Mr. Sharpe for my interview and was sitting at a picnic table at a park in NW Salem. He was asking me to grimace or make a face etc.for a photo for his newspaper, I refused to do that.

It’s difficult to show pain in a photograph without something to look at..all the sudden, I will remember that time forever, it was just after 12:30 PM… I began to hold my head as I was hit with waves of major pain, and tears were rolling down my cheeks, and Mr. Sharpe said “ that’s perfect,  that’s just the kind of pose I wanted,” I did not respond to him instead I said “ it’s the mountain”  and ran for the car.

I turned on the car radio just in time to hear the announcer say “ we have a volcano in Washington, folks we can call it a volcano now they just measured a steam and ash emission. Planes in the area confirm that there is a dusting of ash on the snow covering the volcano”. So it was at that point, I became linked physically to St. Helens. I would pick up an event up to 4 days before it happened, then again  at 12 hours and again at 4 minutes. At work it was more and more difficult with the migraines coming and going in sync with the mountains activity.

In late April, I was taking a pile of papers to my managers desk kitty corner from my desk, I got up, and instead of walking to his desk, I walked across the room and directly into the wall. I was embarrassed and excused myself to the ladies room and it was there I noticed that the capillaries, pores on my face and hands were enlarged and blotchy and I was bleeding under the skin with what they call petechiae, tiny red dots under the skin.

I knew I could not work any longer, it was time to go home. So I walked back to my desk, wrote out a resignation, effective immediately and left. With the migraines and then the petechiae I had no idea what was next. Later that evening I heard there had been a series of explosions lasting 4 hours. So I knew I had made the correct decision by leaving my job. It was getting more difficult to take care of my family. Headaches, vertigo and heart pains were a daily happening.

I had been in contact with a man in Las Vegas at the USEPA for several months, Rick Tell was interested in what I was feeling and hearing. So he had made plans to come to Salem and see if he would be able to identify the source of “ the sound ” and cause of my pain. I was watching television in mid May and called Rick and told him. “ Rick if you want to see the mountain erupt you better come right away ”

He arrived in Salem a few days later. I was not aware he had been doing some tests on his own before he contacted me at home. He came to my home on the 15th of May and did his tests. Then he left to go to Washington, St Helens,  and see what was happening there. After a long quiet day, it clouded up and we had hail in Salem.. totally unexpected. I noted later that each of St Helens eruptions were proceeded by hail 2-3 days before an eruption, at least where I was living in West Salem.

On the 16th of May I was invited to lunch with Sandy Poole who worked at KATU in Portland so we met in Portland and Sandy noticed I was having difficulty walking upright, I was tilting to the L side of my body. We had lunch when Sandy noticed the petechiae on my cheeks and hands and I knew I had to leave. I told her something was up and it was big and would happen soon and then left.

I made a stop on the way home. I had been asked by a student at Lake Oswego High School to come to his science class, I was his “science project” So I went to the class and was explaining what I felt and heard and laid my had on one of the metal tables you find in a science lab. I felt a distinct vibration. I knew this was not good and told the students.“ Something big was going to happen at St Helens within 48 hours or less” that was about 2:30 PM Friday afternoon May 16th, 1980.

It was noted that none of the other students seemed to be able to feel the vibration I was feeling. So I said my goodbyes and left for Salem about 48 miles S of the school.

Arriving in Salem, things were pretty normal. I made dinner and did the dishes, helped kids with their homework and settled down to try to watch a bit of television.

My husband and sons were going camping the next morning so they were all in bed.. it was quiet, I turned off the tv and “ the sound ” was deafening. I had to turn on the tv and turn up the volume to at least drown out a bit of the intensity of “the sound” Eventually I was able to watch the television.

I finally went to bed, got up early to get the men in the family off to their camping expedition. My daughter was having a friend over to spend the night so there were some last minute things to do. Surprisingly the pain had eased off. For the first time in over 2 months and I was able to get through the day without fighting tears due to the pain. The day was sunny, quiet and peaceful.

The girls had dinner, and were playing in the bedroom. It was about 8 PM and my headache was back with a vengeance. I wanted to change the channel on the television and instead of walking to the corner of the room where the television was located, I walked directly across the room and into the fireplace hearth. Memories of the early April event at work came back.. I knew something was going to happen. I sat down on the carpet and laughed and then I cried, for some reason I was scared but did not know why.

I finally got up and paced a bit and finally picked up the phone and placed a call the KATU in Portland. I asked for Doug Crombie, my contact and he was not in, I talked to Tom Brown who I had spoken to and met on several occasions when I was being filmed for a news story.  I asked Tom if I could speak to their night anchor Stan Wilson, but he was on another call, so I told Tom, tell Stan, “ You all wanted to know when the volcano is going to erupt, it will erupt in 12 hours. Note my call at 8:20 PM tonight” then I hung up.

I continued to watch television but my mind was not on it, it was on a group of Boy Scouts who had hiked into Spirit Lake on the volcano to retrieve some of their gear that was left there. They would be hiking out in the morning I hoped it was not too late.

I then placed a call to a Dr Melvin Kreithen, Ph.D. who was at Cornell University and was doing special research on pigeons and infrasound, later he joined the faculty at University of Pittsburgh. It was late in New  York but I knew it was important, important enough to wake him up. I told him basically what I told Tom at KATU the volcano was going to erupt in 12 hours or less.

To be fair, people, including myself were getting tired of hearing about “ St Helens” so I do not think my call to Channel 2 had much of an impact. But they had the prediction and this one was a prediction. It was a certainty.

The girls went to bed, I could not sleep and was pacing, and again I was scared and did not know why. I was sad and crying and that too had no known cause. All I knew was something terrible was going to happen. After dozing on and off all night, I got up about 5AM and was making some coffee when a police officer friend who lived in the area stopped by. He knew my husband and boys were gone and wanted to be sure I was ok since it was so early and all the lights were on in the house.

I invited him in for a cup of coffee. He was leaving about 30 minutes later, it was getting daylight and the sun was coming up as he was getting ready to leave I saw the paper boy ride by so we went out together and I saw the morning paper laying on the sidewalk, as I bent down to pick up the paper as he was getting into his car and that is when I noticed the sky, it was bright red.. the old saying came to mind.
“ Red sky at night, seaman’s delight, red sky in the morning, seaman take warning” I burst into tears and said “ A lot of people are going to die this morning ” he looked at me kind of funny and left.

I went back into the house and could not relax, I checked on the girls and they were still asleep. I made a cup of tea and drank it and then lay down on the sofa. I had some mindless cartoons on and looked at the clock it was about 6:30 in the morning.

I lay down and finally dozed off. I woke about 8:28AM according to the clock on the television not sure what woke me but I lay there quiet and waiting something was happening I had no idea what it was, about 10 minutes later, the  cartoons were interrupted by a news announcer reporting that St Helens had erupted with a 5.1 quake and a violent lateral and then vertical explosion.

Ash was thrown over 60,000 feet into the air. From that point on, it was on all the stations. I was having difficulty getting off the sofa, my head was killing me and I found my left foot was numb. Finally about 15 minutes later I was up. I began to place calls to family and friends.

I was vindicated but as I said, everyone was so tired of hearing about the mountain that when it actually did go off, station personnel were so busy they did not even think about my call to the station the previous night, being a weekend and the weekend staff being gone did not help. No matter it was on the record. I did hear the scouts had walked out about 6:30 AM they were safe.

Not so for 57 others who lost their lives on the mountain that fateful May 18th 1980 morning.

So that is most of what and who I am. Since that time I have accurately forecast hundreds if not thousands of earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and in the last 10 years solar activity.

I have put together an extensive list of symptoms and their corresponding locations. I have been part of a volunteer study with Dr Christopher H Dodge of the US Library of Congress, a Biologist who together with myself started “ Project Migraine” which was a project to prospectively make forecast for quakes and or volcanic eruptions.

We were Co Author and Co Investigator.

Over time we had over 50 persons who were checking in with symptoms. But unless I was able to confirm a symptom or area no alert was issued. We, I never missed one event.

Although I had a few false positives. The timeline in the beginning was 1-4 days plus or minus 12 hours. Later it was narrowed down to 1-3 days plus or minus 12 hours except for Washington state which is 1-4 days plus or minus 12 hours.

Chris and I worked together on Project Migraine till his passing in the late 1990’s. At that time, I was the only one on the project with him. We were making headway. He had arranged donations and I was sent to the US Bureau of Standards Magnetic Testing Labs in Boulder CO.. there I also made believers out of non believers.

Chris also met with Senator John Glenn, and people at Battelle International in WA and shared our success and explained our project.

People were listening. Besides Colorado,  I have been tested extensively in Oregon, in Washington and later in California.

After the activity at St Helens in 1980-81 and my subsequent constant illnesses and need to talk to some one who would be able to help me understand what was happening to me, and my life. I ran up massive phone bills searching for answers month after month and it was causing problems in my home and marriage.

I could not concentrate much of the time due to the continuous migraine headaches which no medication would touch,  taking care of myself not including the kids was becoming impossible.  My husband working all day had to come home and take care of the kids at night.

Many times dinner was not ready. I was in pain all the time, nothing helped.

Since the pain was being caused by external events pain meds had no effect on the pain. If a person does not see, feel, taste, smell, or hear something for many it does not exist, that was the case with much of my family and extended family.

Finally in December I knew the best thing I could do was put my children in the care of their dad since I was not capable of caring for them or working and leave the area.

So I filed for divorce and moved to Sacramento CA. I had friends there but the real reason why I moved there was because I was taken seriously there  by both State and the scientific community.

I stayed in Sacramento for 7 years, getting remarried in 1986 and then my husband became ill so he had to retire and we moved back to Oregon in 87’.
First we lived at Newport on the Central Oregon Coast but it was not a comfortable place for me to be so we moved back to the valley to Salem in 1988 and we have been here ever since.

I have been honing my locations and symptoms and sounds since that time.

In 1997 I started a email subscription service, first I charged a nominal monthly fee but soon discovered, I could not charge for what was happening to me, and the email updates have remained free to this day.

So if you want to subscribe to my email updates, drop me an email and put “subscribe” in the subject line. Answer the 5 questions I will send you by return mail and you will be subscribed.

I can say in the last 20 plus years I have made forecasts for major quakes 7.0 or greater quakes based on observations and symptoms that have not happened but an event of 6.6-6.9 does. I have not missed a major quake of 7.0 or greater in over 28 years.

Sometimes I am not sure of the location and these are quakes I can only state are “ not natural ” they do not present the ususal symptoms, most of the time they are based on observations or precursor events I have identified.  But then we have the ones with the symptoms like Oregon, St Helens in Washington, California, Chile, and Japan, and Indonesia and Mexico as well as volcanoes in those areas, there is no doubt with those events and many others around the world.

I over time have learned to follow patterns, watch animals, insects, and birds, watch for EQ Clouds and of course my symptoms and the ever present Sound.
Many persons also feel these same symptoms and some actually hear sound. For most the sound is higher than what I hear but I believe in reality it’s a harmonic of “the sound” that I am hearing, but at a much higher frequency.

Many persons say they feel this or that and have been doing it for some time. That may be true but no one was doing it consistently by symptom and sound before I pioneered “Biological Earthquake Prediction” in 1976.

So its to this constant sound, symptoms and observations and the persons who experience, hear or see them that I dedicate this blog, a name coined by doctors, scientists and the government officials who tested me “ The Charlotte King Effect©1980”.

©  April 24, 2016