Do you think dreams can predict an event?

[The Blue Lotus]

I ask because I 100% do. I have seen it happen with my dreams. I take them very seriously.

Was just kinda wondering if anyone else is that way as well?

And yeah I know more than a few of you are laughing your rear ends off right about now... That's ok but remember we do not/can not know everything about this life we live.

 

[Devor]

I'll go with "Sure, why not?"

But I don't think it's very smart to have a dream and then say, "My dreams means this." If a dream means anything in the sense that we're discussing, I believe that meaning comes after the fact.

 

[Sheilawisz]

Lotus, I have been writing my Dreams Journal for several years and I am very experienced in the realm of dreams!! I want to start a thread about Dream Travelling, it's something that I really love... about dreams working as a way to predict events, it's real and it has happened to me too, but my dreams are more about just having travels and adventures =)

 

[The Blue Lotus]

I rarely dream about anything that makes any type of normal sense, usualy talking trees and flying fish (like birds)

I mean stuff that would trip anyones weird crap o meter... However every once in a while I will have a dream about someone I know. And when I do something bad always happens to them.

Like for the last four nights I have had this recurring nightmare about a friend. I know it is "Charli" even though I can't see him... He is driving down this bum nugget road and the car breaks away from him.

I can litteraly hear the glass shattering, and the metal twisting and grinding on the pavement.

I can feel "Charli's" bones snapping like twings.

the dream has gotton worse with each passing night, last night I laid down and the dream started just like every other night save for when I woke up, this time I could feel my friend choking to death on his own blood.

When I wake up I feel like I have been hit by a car. It is that real.

 

[Sheilawisz]

Lotus, that sounds really bad: It would be better if you tell your friend to check his car, make sure that everything is working fine with it and tell him to drive carefully =)

 

[The Blue Lotus]

Yeah I got ahold of him... I just hope that he takes it to heart.

 

[Rikilamaro]

I do believe dreams have meaning in the real world, but it's a bit of a chicken vs. egg paradox. You have a a dream, an experience happens to you, you react the way you did in your dream because it feels familiar and you think you know how it'll turn out. If the dream hadn't occured would you have chosen a different path? I suppose we could conjecture constantly, and never really come up with a evidence-based answer.

 

[Benjamin Clayborne]

There's never been any reliable scientific evidence that dreams can predict the future any better than chance. One's perception that one's own dreams are prophetic is not wisely considered as evidence; we're all subject to cognitive biases which make us ignore the hundreds of our dreams that are totally random nonsense, and focus on the one that sorta-kinda-if-you-squint seems to have predicted something happening.

And those are most likely just random chance. Think about it this way: On an average night, there are probably at least a thousand people in the world who dream about a plane crashing. Every. Single. Night. Even on nights NOT preceding a plane crash. So if a plane does crash, is it reasonable to say that any or all of those dreams predicted that crash? Just by random chance, there's going to be some statistical overlap between plane crashes and dreams about plane crashes.

 

[Saigonnus]

I haven't really had any dreams that foretold the future, but I believe humans can communicate subconsciously across any distance through dreams. For example, I was out of town, hundreds of miles from home and my 4 year old cousin (who'd been staying with us at the time) said goodbye to me in my dreams. It seemed that his dad came to take custody of him (his mom had been a bit "out of whack" and was deemed unfit) and there wasn't really any advance notice... so I never got the chance to say goodbye to him; except in my dreams.

If that is possible, there is little doubt in my mind that other things are quite possible for dreams.

 

[Caged Maiden]

In high school I used to not sleep for like 70-80 hours at a time, and all kinds of things started happening because I was delirious half the time. Oh, and I was starving myself and weighed 89 pounds. So anyways, I used to have this 9:11 thing, where I looked at a clock at 9:11 morning and night most days (but I never saw, say 9:13...) it was really weird. I remember screaming one time in class because it used to freak me out, and my teacher wrote out a hall pass and it said 9:11.

Some time later the thing stopped happening, and then 9/11 happened.... and it instantly made me freak out.....

So that's weird, right? Well.... that was ten years ago, and the thing hasn't happened since.... but all of a sudden, a few months ago it started happening again.... and I now look at the clock morning and night and get to see 9:11 twice almost every day!

Regarding dreams.... can anyone explain why we have sex dreams about random people? HAHAH No I'm being serious. Every time I start a new job or something, I have sex dreams about the new people I'm meeting, and it's disturbing (because I have a hard time looking at the person after) For the record... none of them have turned out to be psychic dreams. And, I don't think I've ever had a dream about something that has come true.

 

[Amanita]

I don't usually have dreams that come true, but I often have very vivid dreams.
One of the most common ones involves me getting on the wrong train without a ticket. Or something else being wrong with trains, last night for example I had a dream where many different trains where standing next to the platform where I usually get on at the same time.
In another one I'm standing on a bridge and there's a train passing through that just goes on and on or looks very eery for some reason. I'm living close to a railway station and therefore can hear the trains at night but that's been going on much longer. As child I've been extremely afraid of tanker cars and waggons, therefore they've been featuring in my dreams quite often too. This is okay now though, even though at the railway station close to my flat, they actually do park tanker trains which looks almost like some things I've seen in past nightmares. Now I don't mind anymore as long as there's nothing extremely dangerous in there which still makes me feel weird.
Another very common dream of mine involves poisoned water. In this dream I'm drinking a glass of water, and afterwards I see that it looks wrong and freak out because I believe it has been poisoned. This is probably my most common dream and it always works as a nightmare.
As a child, I've been extremely afraid of poison anyway. I used to believe that someone might poison my food if I leave it unattended for example. And I don't understand this at all, because there's been no reason whatsoever.
Now I'm dealing with it in real life, maybe not least to get over this and it works quite well.
The fact that my stories feature plenty of poison probably isn't a conscious choice either though.

The only dreams that have actually come true were about horses. I've seen certain horses in real life and dreamed about riding them and when I actually did get them, it was almost exactly like that. This might be because I've watched them before and now enough about horses by now to realise what they would behave like. These dreams are almost always ver nice.

 

[JCFarnham]

Hmmm the theory goes that dreams are our way of interpreting what has happened to us in the past. In my experience any one dream could arguably be a mass of tens of different memories. You may dream about having sex with someone you've just met a work, likelihood is you're thinking about sex (for whatever reason haha) and seperately thinking about this new guy. I've heard it said that since your brain keeps more or less working when your asleep and needs something to do since it can't move you or use the conscious, it runs through your short and long term memory. Of course, being asleep you're unable to properly remember these occurances so you get what may as well be an unfettered mess of memory and just plain running through scenarios.

For example, I regularly have dreams set in educational establishments, and involving people I know. Nine times out of ten it'll include my partner, who considering she grew up two hundred and fifty miles plus away from me, couldn't possibly have been part of a memory. These dreams also tend to include obscure symbols from my life. Occasionally there'll be a crow or raven, sometimes something straight out of books or television. Last night in particular I had one of these dreams.

Now, that evening I had watched the Fresh Prince and in this episode all Nicky wanted to do was make himself dizzy and watch power rangers rather than be all posh and try and get into a high-class preschool or some such thing like that. Another occurance that day was me coming up with a solid idea for a superhero comic. This culminated in my dream world as a power rangers villian (not anything out of the fresh prince you'll note) attacking a town which included a school (of course! haha). Towards the end of what I can remember of it I could fly. (oddly enough, and often regardless of the dream scenario, if I begin to lucid dream or rather recognise that I'm dreaming, I'll be able to fly... though I never fly well. strange huh?)

Anyway, on the subject of dreams predicting future events in your life: If one is prone to vivid dreaming and strong recollection of said dreams, we're more likely to draw on those in our waking life. I remember once dreaming about getting about ten new dogs at once (at the time I'd been talking to Jennifer about awesome breeds), almost the next day I learned of my actual dog Rosie coming down with some serious womb infection (it was pretty touch and go but she's still with us in to the ripe old age of sixteen). At the time I was in Halls at University and my parents were away on holiday. Now. I could very well take this as a kind of precognition (and I'm not denying it, I'm very open minded to this sorts of thing), but equally so it could have been sheer coincidence ie, my brain mashing together the discussion on awesome breeds of dog and my worries about our elderly dog being on her own.

Usually I take dream predictions with a pinch of salt. My male analytically brain refuses to believe shall we say. I'm decidedly on the fence about the whole thing. On the one hand I like to believe in the unknown, that the human race knows very little of how nature and the universe works (which is way I write... and write scifi ), and have in fact read a theory about shared consciousness and the idea that brain waves (aka electrical impulses) can be picked up on within large crowds at times of stress (the group mentality it's been called.) But on the other hand I'm a firm believer of the human brain drawing conclusions and forcing patterns on to things that are by all accounts random and coincidental. It has been widely documented that if you have a obsession with a certain number, or secquence of, you'll be more likely to pick it out in most situations even if there is nothing there. Like the numerological occurences where people multiple or add the individual digits of a number larger than ten together and end up with their "obsession number". Its all very interesting of course, and a very weird fault of the human psyche. We often WANT to draw links where there are none and pigeon hole to kingdom come.

I'm open to believing in dream-based precognition, but I'm equally unliking to let myself be told something and then subconsciously go out of my way to ensure that it happens. Theres a word for that phenomenon isn't there? It's eluding me at the moment ...

 

[Caged Maiden]

Hmmm the theory goes that dreams are our way of interpreting what has happened to us in the past. In my experience any one dream could arguably be a mass of tens of different memories. You may dream about having sex with someone you've just met a work, likelihood is you're thinking about sex (for whatever reason haha) and seperately thinking about this new guy.

I hope that's not the case... I had one about George Bush once... and it happens with both males and females... and most often with people who I don't particularly like.... But it never happens when things aren't in a state of change... which makes me attribute it to anxiety over meeting new people or something. Just wondering whether anyone else had recurring dreams like that that are somewhat disturbing.

Wow trains huh. I have read books on dream interpretation, and don't necessarily believe that there are universal symbols, but if you were inclined to try to decipher what they meant, I'd look inward and think about what trains mean to you. I think it's akin to my sex dreams... a symbol of something important to you (my social anxiety), something that your brain needs to work out at night in its down time...

 

[JCFarnham]

I hope that's not the case... I had one about George Bush once... and it happens with both males and females... and most often with people who I don't particularly like.... But it never happens when things aren't in a state of change... which makes me attribute it to anxiety over meeting new people or something. Just wondering whether anyone else had recurring dreams like that that are somewhat disturbing.

Sorry if it wasn't clear, but to use the example of George Bush. You were thinking about him, the fact he was in power, or some of the bizarre things he said or something, you're brain could have stored that I suppose. As a separate occurance, I suppose the sex thing could certainly be related to various anxieties as a manifestation of those worries. In dreams things get mashed together in my experience. It just so happened on this particular night the "sex" part and the Bush part coincided in the same portion of your brain. Odd sure. But I doubt you need to worry about it

Well, that's my theory anyway.

There certainly is meaning in dreams, or rather, surreal and random intepretations of subconcious thought.

 

[The Blue Lotus]

It is weird... so many times I have had dreams about someone.
And them I get a call or email saying XYZ happend (never good stuff mind you)

It never necessarily has to do with the dream. Take this for example: I once dreamed the my Grandfather got killed in a tornado. A few days later my Aunti called to tell me he was in the hospital ER with double pneumonia.

I had a dream about my son and I playing cards, he was in Texas with his dad at the time. The next day my EX called to tell me that they had been in a car accident and my son has suffered a head injury.

Weird things of that nature.

I can't take anymore of these dreams, I hung a dream catcher over my side of the bed and another one in my bedroom window. I need sleep!

I slept like a baby last night after I put them up. Not a single dream. Which Might not be a good thing in this instance.

 

[The Blue Lotus]

I hope that's not the case... I had one about George Bush once... and it happens with both males and females... and most often with people who I don't particularly like.... But it never happens when things aren't in a state of change... which makes me attribute it to anxiety over meeting new people or something. Just wondering whether anyone else had recurring dreams like that that are somewhat disturbing.

Wow trains huh. I have read books on dream interpretation, and don't necessarily believe that there are universal symbols, but if you were inclined to try to decipher what they meant, I'd look inward and think about what trains mean to you. I think it's akin to my sex dreams... a symbol of something important to you (my social anxiety), something that your brain needs to work out at night in its down time...

I think as some point in time we have all had a reccuring dream that was disturbing. As a child I would dream about killer pumpkins chasing me through a trailer park the homes all had basments which was odd considering 99% of trailers don't have a basement. All the homes had basment windows that had a skull and cross bones symbol in them. At the end of the dream I would be hog tied and have an apple stuffed in my mouth, waiting for the Pumkin King (he happened to be a human skeleton) to toss me onto the BBQ. Oddly enough I usualy had this dream when things were relatively calm at home.

Now that I'm older and NOT scared to death of pumpkins or trailers I think it was my minds way of working out my fears about my home life.

The mind is a very interesting organ.