On Precognition

A precognitive dream is one in which we glimpse the future, either literally or symbolically, witnessing details which are later verified. Once the waking life event occurs, we may look back and say ‘Yes, that was a precognitive dream’ with varying degrees of certainty. The more literal precognitive dreams are easier to confirm, detail by detail, than the symbolic kind, although the dreamer always knows.

If the event occurs exactly as seen in the dream, it may be simply because we did see the future. Perhaps, on the other hand, we believed what we saw and made the future match it by virtue of our own actions or thoughts. We may see a ‘good’ scenario and gather enough confidence and inspiration from the dream vision to go out and make it happen, often without realising we have created our own future. Alternatively we may be horrified at the events we see in what we perceive as a precognitive dream, yet accept them as inevitable, thereby bringing them about through our own negativity. Often we have a good enough unconscious grasp of the likelihood of future events based on the present to project ahead and give ourselves fair warning, or hope in our dreams. Depending on whether or not we heed the warnings or flow with the hope, our dreams may or may not manifest as ‘real’.

When our precognitive dreams are couched in the language of symbolism, or need an element of interpretation to match waking reality, it is more difficult to ‘scientifically’ confirm precognition. In the end we have to remember the ground rule of dream interpretation: ‘It’s the dreamer’s dream’. Deep down inside, every dreamer knows the meaning of his or her dram. Translated into our waking language (English, Japanese….the language of logic, technology and waking world perception) we lose much of the dream’s significance, especially if we have forgotten how to move back into ‘dream language mode’ while we are awake. When a dream is interpreted, either by an interpreter or by the dreamer’s waking self, the dreamer will recognise a ‘correct’ interpretation by a strong gut reaction. Touching the meaning of the dream brings a resonance, which ignites a deep inner voice of confirmation. This is true for every dream, but when we live through an event which we have experienced in a symbolic precognitive dream, we just know the connection, because that same deep recognition is contacted.

As a precognitive dreamer myself I am aware that I experience varying degrees of precognition as described above, including literal and detailed preview, as well as witnessing events which are happening simultaneously to my dreaming (telepathic dreaming). These experiences are shared by many people and are far from unusual.

In this survey of life-changing dreams, we have an interesting juxtaposition: six dreams had strong aspects of precognition, or apparent precognition, yet they were also considered to be life-changing. While an event that is apparently ‘fated’ may be truly life-changing when it occurs, how can the original precognitive dream itself be perceived as the key to changing a life if the change was destined anyhow? These six dreamers have looked back and identified their life-changing dream as also being precognitive, yet they see the dream, not the event, as being the life-changing trigger.

Ocean Dip
Annie
Luke's Story 1993

~~~~~~dream~~~~~~

My husband and I were sitting in the doctor’s office being told we were expecting a baby in November. I could see myself sitting in a hospital bed waiting to go to theatre for a caesarian section. Then I could see a son being held up. He looked exactly as I thought he would. The dream ended with my husband and I crying and saying ‘He’s perfect’.

~~~~~~

My husband and I had been married for seven years and had a wonderfully close and loving relationship, despite our terrible sadness at our inability to conceive a child. I had been diagnosed several years before with endometriosis and had a badly scarred pelvis from two major operations. We had conceived a child in 1989 by IVF in Perth, but I miscarried at ten weeks under very traumatic circumstances. We then moved to Tasmania and continued on the IVF program with many unsuccessful attempts at a pregnancy.

We applied for adoption sometime in 1991 and were accepted in November 1992. We were waiting allocation of a boy from the Philippines and had all but given up hope of conceiving our own child. Our doctor advised us in 1992 that we were coming to the end of our time on the IVF program and he didn’t think he could help us any further. I had given up hope that IVF would work for us.

My dream was a very vivid experience, almost like a vision. The dream had so much impact on me because through all our years of infertility I had never experienced a dream which was so clear and positive. In previous dreams involving birth I never reached the point of delivery: they always stopped short of this.

The moment where they held my son up really stood out in the dream as, in my heart of hearts, I always felt a son would come into our lives, be it an adopted son or otherwise. My interpretation was that I should clearly try again on the IVF program and that I would be safely delivered of a healthy son by caesarian section. Without a doubt I felt this dream was an omen of future events.

I had a hard job convincing my husband that we should embark ‘yet again’ on the IVF program as it would be our ninth attempt and he was worried I couldn’t cope with more disappointment. Once he was convinced, I made an appointment to see the gynecologist to convince him to put us through once again. This was January 1993 and we were leaving for a six-month working holiday in April. I felt in my heart I must act fast and try again before we left for England. Eight weeks later we commenced the IVF program. I worked hard at getting myself fit and doing everything in my power to ensure we had the best possible chance of success.

Just as in my dream, I had a caesarian section and was delivered of a beautiful, healthy son, Luke, in November 1993. Every day I look at him and know he was meant to come to us at exactly the time he did.

Jane’s Interpretation

‘Ah, a wish fulfillment dream,’ some Freudians would say. What are wishes, anyway, but dreams which require action to make them real? So often wishes are written off as fantasy, as if we shouldn’t have ideals, plans or hopes, let alone aspire to them. Which is it to be: accepting mediocrity because the general consensus is that ‘it can’t be done’, or believing that you can have what you want and making it happen? How is Annie’s dream for providing an inspirational answer?!

When I hear dream interpreters say ‘wish fulfillment’, I cringe. How shallow a thought! How totally disempowering! If a dream holds a perfect picture, or even a shadow of something you want, it is better to try it out, whether or not you fully succeed, than to write it off and never know how life might have been.

Symbolically I would notice the dream’s emphasis on perfection and its sense of destiny, and suggest that whatever their relationship created, whether that was a child or a symbolic baby such as a joint business, an adopted family, a beautiful garden or a special understanding, all would be perfect and exactly as it was meant to be.

River 12
Jaquie
Working with the Inner Self 1978

~~~~~~dream~~~~~~

I was driving my car to a big city hospital many miles from where I was. I was going for an interview for a nursing position. As I parked the car I saw a sign bearing the name of the hospital concerned. I then found myself entering a small, older type brick building which was separate from the main building. I was shown into a waiting room and distinctly heard my name called. I then found myself in a room facing a long wooden table with three women sitting behind it looking very efficient. One I remember registered strongly as she came across a bit gruff. I somehow got through the interview and was told to report back on 4 February. I left the room feeling happy at how easy it had been.

~~~~~~

It was in October 1978 and I was employed at that time by the social services to be a support network for the disabled who took holidays at his particular hotel in Avon, England. The hotel was up for sale and my job was no longer a viable position. I was having to leave in the beginning of the new year. I wanted to change my life very much at that time, but I was not sure in which direction to seek work, or in which area.

Just prior to going to Avon I had been through a messy divorce and was working full time in district nursing. My parents, who were aging, were pulling at me to go and live with them and look after them. I was in my late twenties.

At the time my whole being had felt that would be wrong and that I needed to move forward, so I had applied for the job in Avon and was initially turned down for it. I then had a dream which told me I would get a job, and indeed they rang me to say the chosen girl was not suitable and would I be prepared to take the job now? So I did.

I’d set myself in motion for change from that time forward, so that when the Avon job was folding I didn’t want to go backwards. I felt I had set myself a goal and needed to keep going with it. I had a concern that I would find it easier to slip back, to go back home and look after my parents, because I couldn’t see a way forward at that given moment. I wouldn’t call it fear, more concern that I would be taking a retrograde step rather than a more positive one. So the hospital dream came at the most important point, I think, for what was going on.

Jaquie’s experience of precognitive dreaming gave her the incentive to follow through her hospital dream:

What stood out for me was how clear the dream was: the name of the hospital, the interviewing board and the date given. I had actually been toying with the idea of nannying or housekeeping, not nursing at all. Somehow there was a knowing that the message was a strong one rather than being a dream concerning a past situation, as I had been nursing many years before taking the social services post. Because of its clarity, I decided to test it out, and wrote to the hospital in question to enquire about nursing posts and courses. This was the morning after the dream.

There was no reply to my letter immediately, but then they wrote back and said they had courses available. At this point I felt confident that changes were awaiting me. And by golly I was right!

I applied for a course and went to the interview. I found the hospital with no problem at all. I seemed to know exactly where I was going although I really didn’t know that part of the country at all. The interview was exactly as I had dreamt it. The lady with the glasses, from the dream, was the one who ushered me in. She was very gruff and stern, exactly like the lady in the dream. I seemed to pinpoint to the middle lady when I actually went to the interview. Somehow or other I had resonated with her in the dream so I chose her to resonate with on the interview panel! There were three ladies behind the board desk altogether and everything went well. I started at the hospital on 4 February, as in the dream, which was the first day of the operating theatre course I had been selected to do.

A week after I started at the hospital I met Graham in the pub that was directly opposite the hospital. From then on my life set off on a different chain completely. Following my divorce I had spent a couple of years really hating men and everything else that goes with marriage, but Graham just seemed to be right for me, yet he had everything that was wrong for him. We were very, very happy. He became my husband: I refer to him as my ‘first’ husband because my original marriage had been completely wrong.

Five weeks after we got married Graham was diagnosed with leukemia and we were told we would not be able to have children, but I had another vision dream and our son was born five weeks before Graham died. We had been married for three years.

Just meeting Graham was a whole new growth area for me. He taught me about being feminine again and I started to enjoy life and to get back my confidence. So he was very much a key figure in my life and really did change my life around.

Although I think meeting Graham was the main change resulting from the dream, I did learn a lot just by going through the theatre course. I learnt a whole new aspect of nursing that led to surgical nursing. This, in turn, helped me so much more when I was working with patients because I’d seen what they’d been through on the table and I could equate that with what they were going through and with the after care that they needed.

I’ve been psychic since I can remember and it used to be a bit of game that I could see blue smoke coming from my hands when I used to touch the patients. I’d think ‘Oh, this is good!’, and my healing work just evolved from there. When I came out to Australia I was led to the Federation of Healers and into the spiritual healing I’m involved with now.

At first I worked in operating theatres here for three years, taking a year out to do counselling and to explore the healing and spiritual part of who I am. I wanted to learn about centering and balancing. The whole thing happened, I believe, to allow me to reflect back a little bit, to see how I had used the opportunities that had come to me. It was like a year in retreat, risky, but I’ve enjoyed it.

I am married again now, and I had many visions right up until the marriage. My present husband is not into it at all and somehow it didn’t seem right to bring it in, so I lost a bit of it. It’s beginning to come back a bit more now, and through reading Sleep On It and Change Your Life, and getting back into learning about my dreams, I’m starting to do it again.

I listen, and I follow. I applied for a job recently and when I got called for the appointment, I was everything they wanted. When I left the interview I was so sick in my body I really couldn’t wait to get home. I thought ‘my body is telling me something is not right’. That night I had a dream which was quite complex, but I interpreted it, and knew that I couldn’t take the job. As soon as I turned down the job I got more and more home-based clients so I didn’t need to take work anyway. The dream certainly helped me change direction.

Looking back over the years, because of the sequence of events that followed, I am delighted that I followed the hospital dream by taking the course of action that I did.

Jane’s Interpretation

If there is also symbolism in Jaquie’s dream, it would be this: the dream ends with satisfaction and a feeling of a job well done, suggesting that the dream action is worth following. Symbolically this means staying in control (driving the car) and moving ahead ('many miles from where I was'). Jaquie was not to stay put or go backwards, as she had been contemplating, but to move forward.

While the dream advises her to go back to nursing, the double symbolism also refers to the healing (hospital) that would result. When she parked the car, Jaquie saw a sign bearing the name of the hospital, so the double meaning becomes ‘just follow the signs’. The older building may have been symbolic of Jaquie’s previous (older) work, nursing, but because it was situated separately from the main building it represented studying or working within a branch, or a different or smaller sideline of nursing, perhaps away from the mainstream. The number three tends to present in dreams as a ‘whole’, the body, mind and soul. The three women symbolically referred to development in all three areas for Jaquie, with a slight warning that one area (gruff) might need some careful handling.

With such a ‘feel good’ dream, Jaquie took the obvious and most positive course of action to discover that the dream was at least literally precognitive, if not symbolically so too.