When in London in November 1976 Anna had a prophetic dream about a runaway train.On the morning of its occurrence she exclaimed to Maitland, "Oh, I have had such a terrific dream! It has quite shattered me. And I have brought it for you to try and find its meaning, if it has one. I wrote it down the moment I was able."
Briefly, the dream was as follows. It was a dark and starless night when Anna and Maitland were on a train full of passengers .A low voice from out of the air told Anna that all the passengers were under sentence of death and the train, which had no driver, was heading for a giant precipice over a fathomless sea. Anna got onto a footboard and wanted to jump off, but Maitland said no, we should stop the train. They made their way past the passengers, all oblivious of their imminent doom, and uncoupled the engine, which sped away into the night.
Maitland interpreted the runaway train as being the forces of unfettered materialism, rushing humanity to their doom. No one is in control of the train, and "nothing can save blind force from dashing itself over the precipice and perishing in the void of its negations."(Life of A.K.,v.1, p.113)The only way to save the situation is to be detached from the engine which is hurtling all to oblivion. Maitland and Anna saw that it was their mission to save humanity from the blind forces of materialism. There is no doubt that if Anna and Maitland were alive today they would be saddened but not surprised at the extent gross materialism has engulfed humankind.
Maitland goes on to observe, "Meanwhile our feeling was that we were living in 'Bible times,' which in reality had never ceased, nor ever do cease, except for those who are devoid of the spiritual consciousness, and for these those times never begin and have no existence. The revelation is perpetual, and the power to receive it is natural to man, requiring no miracle.. That he fails to receive it is through defect, not of constitution, but of condition, being self-induced by his habits of life and thought."
Maitland aged 68