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Precognitive Dreams & Premonitions
(...Continued
From Precognitive Dreams & Premonitions Pt 1)
Clearly, my dream had portrayed a vision of the future. Although
the events which I had been privileged to glimpse some ten
hours earlier were not spectacular, they served a purpose.
That same dream came to mind while I was considering whether
to tackle the fire myself or not. Somehow, I knew that events
would go exactly as they did, and there would be a satisfactory
outcome.
Normally, my precognitive
dreams are almost inconsequential - reflecting ordinary occurrences
in my day to day life. So much so, in fact, that I often experience
the feeling of deja vu and recall vague memories of a dream.
Perhaps this phenomenon is as a result of each of us acting
out part of an unremembered precognitive dream?
Returning to Dr Hearne's experience
on the ferry, he found it so intriguing that it changed the
direction of his studies, and led to serious research into
premonitions which, after fifteen years, remains ongoing.
In his own words, he now explains how that event initiated
his studies, and the subsequent data uncovered as a result:
When I met my friend at Grimsby
station, I told him earnestly of my presentiment. The experience
had decided me to alter the emphasis of my parapsychological
research from the artificial set up of the laboratory to the
real world - where such phenomena are happening naturally.
I asked him if he knew anyone
who'd had a premonition. He instantly told of an incredible
case concerning his niece Lesley Brennan who - confirmed by
witnesses - precognised the Flixborough chemical plant explosion.
I began to realise that premonitions were frequent in the
population. Surveys in fact show that seven out of ten people
accept the existence of premonitions and that over a quarter
of the population report that they have actually experienced
such things.
As a result of several articles
being published about my initial research in several national
newspapers, literally hundreds of people wrote to me and completed
questionnaires regarding their premonitions. Little research
has actually been conducted into premonitions as such. Most
scientific effort has gone into laboratory studies involving
the statistical analysis of precognition using card or pattern
guessing.
The data that I received from
percipients showed that nine out of ten of reported premonitions
were experienced by females. There was a possibility that
a 'reporting bias' was operating in that perhaps men were
unwilling to admit to being psychic. I got round that by asking
the percipients who else in their family had premonitions.
It was still overwhelmingly a female ability. About a quarter
said their premonitions were always on a particular theme,
such as plane-crashes.
As to the number of premonitions
reported by these subjects, four out of ten said they'd had
between two and ten, about a third said between 10 and 50
and about a fifth estimated that the total exceeded 50! This
data shows that premonitions are not isolated or random phenomena
but that they seem to be connected with certain people. Most
percipients experienced their first foreknowledge between
10 and 15 years of age. The latency period between the premonition
and later event was usually a day and a few weeks. The subjects
were administered a personality test and observed to be significantly
more neurotic than the 'normal' population. This finding could
conceivably indicate that emotionalism (neuroticism) is part
of the 'tuning-in' process in these people to enable them
to pick up distress elsewhere.
* * *
If premonitions were just
a recent phenomenon in history we could be dubious about their
reality, but the fact is that they have been reported in all
cultures going back to the beginning of written records. Cuneiform-script
clay tablets from Assyria and Babylonia testify that dreams
including foreknowledge were experienced thousands of years
ago. So too, the ancient Egyptians believed that dreams were
messages from the gods and that knowledge about the future
could be conveyed through the vehicle of the dream.
In fact, in ancient Egypt
special temples existed (Serapeums) where dreams could be
encouraged or 'incubated'. After fasting and various cleansing
rituals the incubant would sleep in the temple and await a
special dream - often about the future - which would be interpreted
by the 'learned men of the magic library'. Several papyrii
have been discovered listing different dream symbols. The
notion of 'opposites' in dreams was an early one. Thus, to
dream of a birth could refer to an imminent death.
An ancient Indian book of
wisdom, the Artharva Veda, dating from about 3000 years ago,
commented on premonitory dreams that the time of night that
the dream occurs gives a clue as to when the later event will
happen. A premonitory dream occurring early in the night will
come to fruition later than one occurring near dawn.
The ancient Greeks were also
fascinated by dreams. Aristotle pointed out that some apparently
precognitive dreams of future illness in people may be 'prodromic'
in that the dream may be aware of symtoms that are not yet
available to consciousness. Also that some dreams may be self-fulfilling
prophecies.(Continued
In Precognitive Dreams & Premonitions Pt 3...)
Authors Details: David F. Melbourne
Web
Site
David F. Melbourne, who lives on a remote Scottish island,
has been studying dreams for 25 years and is known all
over the world for his accurate dream interpretations.
Apart from the general public, he has analysed dreams
for celebrities and famous authors, all of whom have admitted
a high degree of accuracy. |
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