Blog Post 3: ENTANGLED MINDS: Precognitive Dreams

As our consciousness expands, we begin to use many tools and methods to heighten awareness and bring about understanding. One of the tools or methods is our dream. Our nightly dreams become more significant on the path because the soul begins to use dreams as a means of communicating our progress. In other words, dream-work is dualistic in nature: it is a tool for ascension here on earth, and a doorway to the mysteries of the universe. When we experience the dream state, the attention moves into the subconscious mind - a vast inner world where things that seem impossible become possible. Unlike our experiences in waking life, these inner level experiences are not bound by physical space or time. Consequently, people who have passed away can come and visit loved ones through dreams! Dreamers can dream of past life experiences, while others can experience the phenomenon called “precognitive dreams”.

Have you ever had the experience of knowing what someone's going to say before they say it, or even finishing someone's sentence before they speak it?  Precognitive dreams are inner level experiences in which the dreamer dreams of future probabilities. While it might seem impossible, the experience of seeing probabilities is an everyday occurrence. Avid sports enthusiasts can sometimes tell from the release of a basketball shot the probability of the shot going through the basket. Others can tell the probably of a golf putt going into the hole after watching its direction for a couple of seconds. We can even see future probabilities of a student passing an exam based on how much or how little they studied. Sometimes the outcomes differ from our expectations. Nevertheless, many times the outcomes match our expectations, verifying our ability to glimpse future probabilities. According to Dr. Art Funkhouser, precognitive dreams is also known as “Deja reve” An article related to this phenomenon is “Precognitive Dreams”written by Manali Oak. Oak said that precognitive dreams are dreams that appear to predict the future. It is also known as “future sight”. Also, the article explains that precognition dreams are somehow similar to premonition dreams. Many people confuse premonition and precognition for being the same thing. There is a slight difference between the two; though similar in nature, they have the same end result.  Premonitions are mixtures of sounds, random images or feelings that flash involuntary in your mind at any given time.  Precognition on the other hand presents itself in dreams by using types of symbols, events or odd feelings. It also explains that people who have creative bent of mind, have the tendency to experience this kind of phenomena. In addition, the precognitive dreams are associated with that part of the brain which controls feelings. “Greater emotional involvement in someone or something leads your mind to imagine future occurrences pertaining to that person or object, which might give you a feel of having precognitions about them.”

Abraham Lincoln

There are also a lot of famous precognitive dreams. Like in what happened to former President Abraham Lincoln. In 1865, two weeks before he was shot dead, Abraham Lincoln had a psychic dream about a funeral at the White House. In the dream, he asked someone who was in the casket and they replied, "The president of the United States". He told his wife about the dream but neither of them took it to heart - for on the night of his assassination he gave his bodyguard the night off. Same thing happened to the American writer, Mark Twain, and his brother Henry who once worked on riverboats on the Mississippi. Mark Twain had a precognitive dream in which he had seen his brother in a casket. Unfortunately, a week later, his brother died.

Mark Twain

 In another article entitled “Our Pathway to the Truth”written by Ian Wilson, Wilson discussed that there are types of precognitive dreams. First is the Symbolic Precognitive Dream, which states that dream symbolism abstracts the precognitive information and generally is not realized until the actual event. It can be very difficult to identify it as a type of precognitive dream. However, certain symbols in the dream can match or greatly exaggerate future event when it actualizes. Second is the Literal Precognitive Dream, which is in literal detail. What you sense, think and feel in the dream can actualize in the future. This dream can bring about a strong sense of Déjà Vu. Unlike Déjà Rêve, the dreamer has working his memory of the dream where they can reflect and associate the memory to the future event. Next is the 3rd person Precognitive Dream which can take on both symbolic and literal similarities. However, it does not suggest that the information being observed will occur from a first person point of view. Lastly is the Lucid Precognitive Dream, which is a dream where a person is awake and realizes that they are dreaming. More uncommonly, lucid dreaming can emerge within the phenomena of precognitive dreams. This type of precognitive dream can have an even more pronounced déjà vu aura than a non-lucid precognitive dream”.

Nowadays, studies still can’t prove on why we get precognitive dreams. There are many theories on this subject but no substantial evidence. According to Manali Oak, “Precognitive experiences through dreams may not be a pleasant experience. Specifically so, because these dreams hint you about the hidden, they do not make necessarily make a clear indication about anything. Your understanding of what they indicate largely depends on how you interpret them. Thus, precognitive dreaming might be a curse in disguise of a blessing, but sound sleep is definitely a bliss”.