Can a dream be a premonition?

[NewGuy2005 51]

All my life, I have had dreams of witnessing a disastrous event. Always from a distance, never as a victim. The situation/setting is different each time, but the event is pretty much the same. It happens approximately 4 times each year.

Have any of you ever had first hand experience of something like this coming true? PM, if you would prefer.

[Gato 0]

When I was in the 6th grade, there was a girl I really really liked, and one night I had a dream that she was very ill, and I visited her at her hospital bed. The next day, I went to school and found out she actually was in the hospital with a severe case of strep throat.

Freaked me the fuck out.

I never told her, because I was certain she wouldn't believe me.

T.I.N.S.

[JohnRich 4]

No.

But coincidences do happen.

If you worry about someone long enough, sooner or later they will actually be hurt, and then you can jump up and say; "Aha! I dreamed that this would happen!" But that doesn't make it a premonition.

[RkyMtnHigh 0]

Over my life time, I've had a few dreams which actually came to fruition. I don't believe that they were coincidence at all, however I believe it was my psyche preparing me to cope with the situation once it happened.

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[SpeedRacer 1]

There were several times where I've had a dream that something would happen in the future.

They didn't come true though.

Speed Racer
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[Darius11 12]

When I was 14 I had a dream that my mom backed in to a semi truck and broke the back window of her car.
The next day the exact thing happened.


My mom had a dream once of my uncle walking with a limb and having his leg in a cast. A car ran over his leg around the same time and he almost lost his leg.


I have a bunch of them but that’s the two that jump out.

I'd rather be hated for who I am, than loved for who I am not." - Kurt Cobain

[Gato 0]

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If you worry about someone long enough, sooner or later they will actually be hurt, and then you can jump up and say; "Aha! I dreamed that this would happen!" But that doesn't make it a premonition.

Well, I can tell you that this dream was a one-time event. I wasn't worried about her beforehand, and she had no idea that I even liked her.

I don't know if it was a premonition or not, but to just say, "No." makes me wonder how you know.

T.I.N.S.

[Shotgun 1]

I dreamed about my first cutaway the night before it happened. And it happened pretty much exactly the way I dreamed about it. And that's the only time I've ever dreamed about having a cutaway (that I can recall). So I thought that was fairly weird, but I tend to think of it more as a coincidence than a premonition.

[shropshire 0]

Nope.. The future is just that and hasn't happened yet.

(.)Y(.)
Chivalry is not dead; it only sleeps for want of work to do. - Jerome K Jerome

[riddler 0]

I diligently recorded my dream for three years. It was a ritual - every morning when I first awoke, I went to the computer and recorded exactly what I remember from my dreams. If you do it right away after you wake, then the memories are fresh, and not corrupted by your experiences in the day. Typically, I wake up with a song in my head as well, and I would record that.

Later in the day, I would review the dreams, and try to determine what the source was. I was interested in the same thing you were - are there premonitions that happen in the dreams? I would review past dreams to see if any current events were foretold by the dreams. I would also make a short journal of things that happened to me during the day, or things I witnessed. This isn't exactly a double-blind study, but it is more thorough research than I believe most ordinary people put forth.

After three years, I did a comprehensive review of my dreams and analysis. I concluded that not once was there ever a premonition of a future event from my dreams. In every instance, the dream could be tied to an event that happened to me prior to the dream, usually just a few days prior, but depending on the emotional intensity of events that I experienced, I could get fragments of that event months or even years later in my dream. The songs? I had heard them on the radio or elsewhere a few days prior. Any "premonition" was tied to recurring coincidences in my life - for instance, radio stations tend to have the same playlist, so if you listen to it for several days, you will hear the same same song three or four times. It might get into your subconscious from a previous day, then you dream about it, then it happens the next day. Premonition? Probably not. There are a lot of events in our structured society that are repeated, and it may lead us to think that we have had the premonition, or deja vu.

I did make once interesting conclusion from my own dream research. It seemed that I dreamed about experiences that I seemed to want or need at some level of consciousness. If I hadn't been afraid in a while, I would have a mild nightmare. If I had no romance in my life, I would have dreams about girls. I also used to have a LOT of flying dreams, but after I started skydiving, those dreams faded, and now I never have flying dreams. It was as if I wanted or needed certain emotions, and my dreams would indulge me. I'm tempted to think my brain is addicted to different flavors of chemicals, and I either get them in my waking life, or my brain will synthesize them in my dreams.

Maybe you are addicted to the emotion of witnessing disaster? It's a pretty emotional event, and your brain my really love that particular cocktail. If I may suggest a resolution - turn off your TV.

Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

[scaryshari 0]

Okay, I'll bite. I have had some border-line dreams that made me feel a little psychic, and they were soo v-i-v-i-d. Well, I had another very "vivid" dream that I walked into the hangar and took the Otter for a ride. It was fun but then I didn't make it back to the DZ because I crashed the plane. I felt really bad and Mr. B was not happy.

It didn't happen. Plus, I just don't think they'd let yours truly take the plane for a little spin.

If anything, it has kept me from pursuing any ambitions of flying anything than me or a kite.

is

[Vallerina 2]

Several years ago, I had a dream that a friend called me. I then woke up, turned the tv off (I have a habit of going to sleep with it on), and about 5 seconds later, that person called me.

The other day, I had a dream that our elevator broke, and I was stuck in it. I came to work, got on the elevator, and it took me straight to my floor with no problems.

There's that whole saying about how people remember the hits and forget the misses. When one out of thousands of dreams comes true, it is merely a coincidence. Coincidences, no matter how freaky they seem, will always happen. So, no, dreams can't be prophetic.

There's a thin line between Saturday night and Sunday morning

[shropshire 0]

How many Pshycis are billionaires because of the stock market, win the lottery, bankrupt Vegas, win on the gee-gees every week.... case closed.

(.)Y(.)
Chivalry is not dead; it only sleeps for want of work to do. - Jerome K Jerome

[pontiacgtp00 0]

A week ago or so, I had a dream that I was in town and this giant asteroid was bearing down on me. It struck and everything turned red and caught fire and I was killed. Then I remember going up...up...up until I was finally facing god. He was just as you could imagine, big white beard, sitting on a really large bright and shiny throne. He said You can go into heaven!...then I looked down and saw hell and woke up a few minutes later.

[auburnguy 0]

I had a dream a couple of nights ago that I had a double malfunction. I flew the malfunctioning canopies into some trees and lived but was in the hospital for months.

"If you don't like your job, you don't strike! You just go in every day, and do it really half assed. That's the American way."
- Homer Simpson

[AggieDave 6]

I'm not sure if I've ever had a dream come true. Well, my dreams have come true, but not the sleeping dreams.

Even though I've had dreams where I was attacked by a purple zombie midget, it never came true. Which is too bad, since I figure that would have made a decent hook for my autobiography.

--"When I die, may I be surrounded by scattered chrome and burning gasoline."

[RkyMtnHigh 0]

What do you think this lil pup is dreaming about?http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&VideoID=31900730

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[NewGuy2005 51]

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Maybe you are addicted to the emotion of witnessing disaster? It's a pretty emotional event, and your brain my really love that particular cocktail. If I may suggest a resolution - turn off your TV.

Sorry, but about all I watch is Spongebob Squarepants. So I don't think that's it.

That was a pretty impressive self-study. Thanks for sharing it.

[MagicGuy 0]

I hope they aren't premonitions..

I haven't jumped in a few months and I've been having some pretty.. horrifying, to say the least, skydiving dreams. Just last night I dreamt that first, I saw a Twin Otter completely cripple to the ground, and then I misjudged a set-up for a swoop and almost killed myself.

A few weeks ago I had another dream that I was watching a bunch of people land on a beach for a special event. The wind picked up really badly and horrifically, two of the jumpers died.

Those are only two of them.. I have been having some really, really bad dreams lately related to skydiving.

I have always had this thing with dreams. I have at least 1-2 dreams every night that I can remember. Sometimes they are so real.. and sometimes I swear that they must mean something, or are a prediction of something to happen. Really wild.. considering that some people never remember their dreams.

Oh and as a kid, I used to be able to wake myself up from bad dreams. It was cool - I'd hear my voice, like it was coming from a big speaker and echoing, while dreaming.. and it would just say "WAKE UP" really loud, and I would wake up. Wish I could still do that.

Dreams are cool.

[Squeak 17]

I hope so i had a dream today i was hanging with Madonna and Guy, and travelling the world with them
Jet SEt Squeakster

You are not now, nor will you ever be, good enough to not die in this sport (Sparky)
My Life ROCKS!
How's yours doing?

[billvon 2,384]

It quite literally is. If you have a dream and that dream comes to pass, it's a premonition. The question are - are they causally linked?

I've had five such dreams over the years. Nothing big, just a dream about seeing someone drop a bottle of beer or getting lost in a certain part of a city. I've also had dreams that turned out to be identical to someone else's, down to colors of things in the dream.

Causal or not? And which direction were they causal _in_, which perhaps is the bigger question? I don't know.

[skydemon2 0]

Not that I would go into it here but I will say absolutly!

Beauty is only skin deep, but ugly goes clean to the bone!

I like to start my day off with a little Ray of Soulshine™!!

[Shotgun 1]

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It quite literally is. If you have a dream and that dream comes to pass, it's a premonition.

I would only consider it a premonition if you strongly sensed it was going to happen after you dreamed it, and then it happened. Well, unless you strongly sense that all (or a lot) of your dreams are really going to happen, and then one does happen (but most of them don't); I'd still chalk that up as coincidence.

When I dreamed that I had a cutaway, I didn't go to the dz the next day thinking that I was really going to have a cutaway in the near future, so I wouldn't call my dream a premonition.

[ryoder 1,381]

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Even though I've had dreams where I was attacked by a purple zombie midget, ...

You've had them as well???

"There are only three things of value: younger women, faster airplanes, and bigger crocodiles" - Arthur Jones.

[pontiacgtp00 0]

All of my skydiving dreams have involved me losing altitude awareness. Never lost it in real life though.