Precognition: I Haz It? :/

[The Overlord]

This is something I have been thinking about for a while. You reach a point where you see enough things that you are left wondering if there’s even more to you than you thought, and then, alright what are you going to do about it?


My first full-blown incident occurred the very late eighties. The dream I had involved standing on a shoreline at sunset. The water was placid, and the shore lined with pines to my right side that were filtered with that awesome orange glow you see in forest when the setting sun is shining through them. A path ran parallel to the water just inside the trees, and I was observing from a sandy beach adjacent to it.


Several years later I saw the place for real. It’s up on the tip on Door County, Wisconsin; the ‘thumb’ of that state that sticks out into Lake Michigan. It’s actually at Peninsula State Park; I went camping there with a friend and his family one summer afterward. One evening we stopped at a beach not far from the campground. The scene was exactly as I had dreamt it, down to every detail. The setting sun over the water, the lake is calmer on the side facing in toward Green Bay. The beach with the pines to the right and the parallel path, etc., it was so exact I had a major déjà vu moment on the spot. In some sense, I think I had been there, despite the fact that it was my first trip to that region of Wisconsin.




In the past few years I have been correct on the gender of three unborn children. The first was a long-distance friend I had gamed with on the old Gray Archive and then RPOL. She dropped out for a time and we did not know the details, but later, once she was able to talk about it, we learned she had gone through the trauma of a miscarriage. One night on IM we had a long talk and the subject came up. I had asked her ‘it was a girl, right?’ It wasn’t so much a question as a gut feeling that panned out true.

At one point I had a part dream and part waking instinct on what she looked liked, despite the fact we’ve never met IRL. I was able to convince a common friend to send a pic of her, and I was chilled how accurate I was. That sort of chill running up your spine feeling. But this girl and I, we delved deep; as deep into each other’s psyche as gamers can cross-country. Our characters had close and interesting relations, and she admitted she discussed things with me she never discussed with RL guys she dated. The best role-players among us tend to bring a piece of us into our characters and project that, and I was willing to entertain the theory I picked up on that.



The second event was the birth of my cousin’s son, which I did not have as much certainty on, nevertheless I predicted a boy, and he turned three this month.

Now his wife has a New Year’s Day due date for their second child, and the bets were openly on the table this time. My cousin believed (hoped) it was another boy. His wife’s family was saying it was twins. I was very certain it was a girl and steadfastly maintained this in conversation, and they recently released the news: I am three for three.

Her family tends to be smaller and shorter, ours taller. My further prediction is that their daughter will get her mother’s darker hair, but our family’s size and height…of course I can’t cash in on this one for at least a decade I figure.




And now…I had this real curious dream last week. I’m looking north at the night sky. I knew the general statistics of the scene: It’s within two hours of sunset, and the air is nippy but not cold. I would say it felt to be late October or early November but not yet true winter, however, I think that’s open to debate.

Just below and to the right of Polaris is a small, bright comet. In appearance it was close to Hale-Bopp the great comet of ’97, but even more distant. High enough in magnitude to be bright white and distinct like Hale-Bopp, not fuzzy. It had an sharp upward curve to the eastward pointing tail, like it had some rotation or something.

The second comet wasn’t immediately visible, by then I saw it, just below the other. It was very close but smaller and fainter, like Hyakutake from the previous year, but with a gnarled tail that stretched a good 20 degrees or more, but tenuous and broken in the middle. What I felt from the dream is this one was going to pass very close to us, skimming over Earth from above, or celestial north and will be a rare event that will get people’s attention. There might be a second and smaller piece of it as well.


A star pattern was in the background by the comets as I looked through binoculars. A lower star was the brightest, with a slightly fainter star up and to the left, and a third to the right that made a rough triangle.

I at first felt it could be the head of Draco, but when that constellation is positioned below Polaris, it’s usually lower in the sky than what I saw. And that’s how I felt on this dream; I keep a notepad and pen where I sleep so I can record anything interesting, in case I might forget later. The dream actually got me busting out my star charts to take a look; the stars in the Little Dipper and Cepheus might also be candidate areas. As I said, I knew the scene was occurring within two hours of sundown; a view that is supported by the eastward tails of the comets, and I was trying to pinpoint a month by consulting charts. Call me fucking crazy, but that’s what this dream compelled me to do.


All I know is if two comets appear in the sky just about anywhere I’m going to shit kittens. And if they do, you saw my post here on it. :/



So what it comes down to…am I precog or not? I need material I can delve into on this, because if I’ve got perceptions and powers of some sorts, it’s not enough for me to just know they are there. I want to know how far I can go with them.

[Serephino]

It definitely sounds like you have something.  I too have lots of deja vu moments, and predicted not only both my older cousin's pregnancies, but the gender.  I also had a dream about a younger cousin getting married.  That also turned out to be true. 

I'm not really sure exactly what you can do to develop it other than tuning more into your 'gut'.   You can try learning to read tarot cards, but that isn't for everyone.  There is also rune reading and pendulums.  These things help because trying to turn it on on demand is kind of like flexing your intuitive muscles.  Trying to force it sends a message to your subconscious to kick it in gear.

Keeping a journal by your bed is an excellent idea.  That's actually something suggested to help you remember your dreams so you don't miss anything important. 

[The Overlord]

  You can try learning to read tarot cards, but that isn't for everyone.  There is also rune reading and pendulums.  These things help because trying to turn it on on demand is kind of like flexing your intuitive muscles.  Trying to force it sends a message to your subconscious to kick it in gear.

Yeah, see that's the sort of thing I want to hear if it would work like that for me, because if I have the actual ability to predict events like this, then I want to know how to fine-tune it or make it more frequent.


It's like my lucid dreaming. All the literature I've read on the topic says anyone can technically lucid dream by using the right techniques, but I've done it spontaneously without ever practicing anything. In fact it's because I did it that I researched it a bit.

I've also been able to wake myself from an illogical or unpleasant dream, and even put myself back to sleep to finish a dream I was enjoying. I do it rarely, and I don't know if you can technically be a 'natural' at it, but I seem to have some level of innate ability.

[HairyHeretic]

I can't help with the tarot, but I have a strong connection to the runes.

[Oniya]

There's a very simple exercise that you can do with 25 squares of cardstock.  Make five sets of five symbols: a circle, a square, a plus sign, a star, and a set of parallel wavy lines.  Shuffle the cards and put them face down in a pile.  Without looking at them, write down what you think the symbols on each of them are.

By pure chance, you should get 3-7 right.  More than 10, you probably have some ability.  More than 20, go buy a lottery ticket.  ;)

[The Overlord]

Hypnagogia. This was the term I was looking for, which refers to Stage I sleep.

Sights

Among the more commonly reported,[23][24] and more thoroughly researched, sensory features of hypnagogia are phosphenes which can manifest as seemingly random speckles, lines or geometrical patterns, including form constants, or as figurative (representational) images. They may be monochromatic or richly colored, still or moving, flat or three-dimensional (offering an impression of perspective). Imagery representing movement through tunnels of light is also reported. Individual images are typically fleeting and given to very rapid changes. They are said to differ from dreams proper in that hypnagogic imagery is usually static and lacking in narrative content,[25] although others understand the state rather as a gradual transition from hypnagogia to fragmentary dreams,[26] i.e. from simple ‘eigenlicht’ to whole imagined scenes. Hypnagogia can be induced with a Dreamachine, which uses a pulsing frequency of light close to alpha waves to create this effect. Descriptions of exceptionally vivid and elaborate hypnagogic visuals can be found in the work of Marie-Jean-Léon, Marquis d'Hervey de Saint Denys.

For me, the vivid color phenomena can take the form of bright white spirals or red sparkles, and my tunnels look more like amorphous clouds that move from one layer to the next, like curtains closing on a scene repeatedly. This I’ve always attributed to the retina and/or optic nerve going crazy in the dark, as I tend to sleep in near total blackness; this may be a form of Prisoner's Cinema.


Among the audio elements I’ve experienced are Exploding head syndrome, which like the article suggest might not be unhealthy but can definitely be startling, to hearing fragmented voices. In the latter case I think it’s related to the white noise of the fan I sleep with, in the same manner that people believe they hear the phone ringing when they are in the shower, these are phenomena that can manifest in waking hours.


The apparitions though, as I mentioned in the ‘bad robot’ thread. They are distinctly different; not amorphous and fuzzy like the rest, but clear and precise. I’m not entirely convinced they are my brain’s visual lobe working overtime.

[The Overlord]

There's a very simple exercise that you can do with 25 squares of cardstock.  Make five sets of five symbols: a circle, a square, a plus sign, a star, and a set of parallel wavy lines.  Shuffle the cards and put them face down in a pile.  Without looking at them, write down what you think the symbols on each of them are.

By pure chance, you should get 3-7 right.  More than 10, you probably have some ability.  More than 20, go buy a lottery ticket.  ;)

That sort of card deck has an official name, does it not?

[Oniya]

Yes, it does.  Zener cards.  However, you don't need to shell out for something with the 'official name' on it.  Heck, you can even use a deck of playing cards and predict by suit.

[The Overlord]

Yes, it does.  Zener cards.  However, you don't need to shell out for something with the 'official name' on it.  Heck, you can even use a deck of playing cards and predict by suit.

Yeah reason I ask is I was thinking something made elsewhere, as opposed to me making a Zener deck and inadvertently putting some sort of bias on the cards, and thus skewing the results.