Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Precognition, Synchronicity, or Coincidence?



We've had a couple of instances in the last couple of days that were unusual and involved dreams. I thought I would pass them along and see what you think.

Incident No. 1: Snowmobiles
My husband and I driving along the other day, when we came to a sign offering snow mobile treks. For some reason, and I still do not have any idea why, since I really have never cared much for snowmobiling, I said we could always rent a snowmobile and take a tour of the mountains. My husband said he had a dream the night before about when he almost died on a snowmobile in Montana when he was a young boy. He had never talked about this incident in the 30 years we've been married. Evidently he was with a man, along with two others and an additional snowmobile, who took a route that was rarely used by anyone in the winter. The snowmobiles both quit operating. Now this is Montana, where the temps dip way below zero most winter nights. They couldn't walk back to town - too far in deep snow. The sun was starting to set and there was no way to call anyone (before cell phones.) They were getting colder and colder by the second while the men tried to get the snowmobiles running again. Luckily, some other snowmobilers came along and were riding single. They piled everyone on and made it back to town. My husband dislikes snowmobiling to this day. Their lives were in serious danger, and he knew it. But we had never discussed it until I made the comment on the sign we'd passed and he recalled his dream from the night before.

Incident No. 2: Whale Sharks
My daughter has been busy planning a trip to Costa Rica in May. She dreamt that she was in the ocean and was horrified to see a huge whale shark that appeared to be running from a monster of some sort. But what had horrified her was the size of the whale shark. She is not a person that is at ease in the ocean in the first place, and large fish scare the stuffing out of her. So the next day she and her husband are looking for places to stay that will allow for her husband to surf. On one side is the Caribbean, and the other side of the country is the Pacific. She is reading about the Caribbean side when it notes that one of the benefits is that it is a breeding ground for whale sharks and there is opportunity to view them in their natural habitat! (Whale sharks are slow moving, filter feeding sharks.)

So are these instances just coincidences? Are they synchronicities that make a point? Or are they instances of precognition? (Precognition is the direct knowledge or perception of the future, obtained through extrasensory means. Usually the majority of precognitive events happen with 24-48 hours of the future event.) 

37 comments:

Jen said...

You know what is funny? We actually decided NOT to go to the Caribbean side, but to the very tip of the large peninsula on the Pacific side, which, believe-it-or-not, is ALSO considered to be one of the best places in the world to dive with Whale Sharks. Oh goodie!

Shrinky said...

I think we should always follow our instincts and heed what our subconscious tells us. So what if we are wrong? It's better than being right and not living to regret it!

Sarah Lulu said...

Ah yes synchronicity!

Meeko Fabulous said...

That is so cool! I have stuff like that happen to me all the time. Dreams are strange things really. Sometimes I think they're meant to send us a message of sorts. For instance, in these, I think maybe your husband should give the snowmobiling another try, at noon, with a cell phone in tow. :) As far as your daughter . . . Maybe deep down she really wants to swim with the whale sharks even though she's terrified of large aquatic animals. :)

CrazyCris said...

tell her to go find the whale sharks!!! I hear it's amazing to see them underwater, I'd LOVE to do it myself!!!

Deborah said...

The first story is particularly fascinating and I would consider an ESP connection between you and your husband to be a possibility. It was obviously a traumatic experience for him and the fact that it is still lodged in his psyche is proof of that. Did the revisiting of that memory, still fresh in his mind, communicate itself to you, so that when you saw the sign for snowmobiling, your gut instinct was to mention it?

Your daughter's dream could, I think, be a connection made between information she may have previously received and stored away unconsciously, and the preparation for the trip. The links that are made in dreams are fascinating. Perhaps since the subconscious mind has access to all sorts of information that the conscious mind does not 'know', dreams are the ideal meeting place for these thoughts.memories, and analyses.

A small example, which is neither coincidental nor anything else inexplicable, is that after reading a very well-written post yesterday about feet, and the damage we do to them, I dreamt last night that my left heel had grown toes. The dream was obviously connected to information that I had taken in during the day, and my subconscious made the damage connection in its own peculiar way!

I enjoyed thinking about your post, Nancy. Sorry to have gone on and on, and of course these are only my theories, without benefit of any research!

R. J. said...

I enjoy your thoughtful posts. I like to vote for coincidence especially regarding my dreams.

ellen abbott said...

I think I'd go with pre-cognition.

I have a friend who lives in colorado. Usually, he would come to my mind suddenly one day and then about three days later, I would get a letter from him. This did not happen just one time or two but nearly always.

Delwyn said...

Hi Nancy

I agree with Deborah and think that often the mind pulls all the bits of stored info it has about a topic together in one place, even things you have no memory of collecting in the first place.

I also think that stored trauma re-emerges when the time is right for the owner to process it safely. It may be triggered by sensory input that connects the person in some way to the past like an invisible thread.

Also the unconscious mind can make great use of any stored data to process the contents of your present life, so that it may use sharks and oceans that are topical subjects to process another issue entirely so it pays not to just take the dreams at face value but consider their contents as facets of your current psyche and it's wellness or wholeness.


Happy days

Nancy said...

Jenin - Interesting comments here for you to consider.

Shrinky - I tend to think the same way. I give intuition a great deal of consideration.

Sarah - Ah, you think it was synchronicity? It very well could be.

Meeko - Very good points. The dream was meant for him to reconsider - especially since I suggested doing it. And the whale sharks, which are gentle grill feeders, may be her way of embracing her fear of the unknown.

Crazy - Will do. I tried to tell her they were harmless... it's their size that scares her.

Deborah - Thank you for such a thoughtful reply. I appreciate your take on most things. It's true - the subconscious is the vessel for information we take in and store. She could have read about the whale sharks at some point and stored the information, only to be reminded of it in a dream. I tend to think this may be the case in this instance. As for my husbands dream, I again think you may be right. People have suggested I may be psychic, which I always explain away somehow, (mostly because I believe everyone is intuitive,) but in this instance it was indeed strange. Mainly because I have never had the desire to snowmobile. My suggestion, which prompted him to remember his dream was out of the ordinary for me.

R.J. - Coincidence is one way to explain both instances. One that many see as the obvious explanation. I can't rule it out.

Ellen - You and your friend seem to have some connection, for sure.

Nancy said...

Delwyn - Yes, I agree with everything you said. The subconscious is the tip of the proverbial iceberg. Much goes on there!

Brian Miller said...

these things always give me shivers...i listen...

Reya Mellicker said...

They are synchronicities, indeed. Y'all are tuned in to the right frequency.

I love it when that happens. xx

Amy said...

I agree with Deborah about the first incident. There is a communication between partners (in life) that defies explanation.

Perhaps your daughter's dream was a type of coping mechanism to deal with her feelings about the upcoming trip; perhaps and understandably fearful ones, and maybe some that were just anticipatory and joyful. Just during the past few weeks, my sister and I have had dreams about specific family members who are no longer with us (in body). The dreams weren't frightening or anything negative, but, for both of us, the "voices" in the dream were more vivid than waking recall.

I don't mean to be so long winded, but, like Deborah's experience with a "foot" dream, my daughter's "life interview" with both me and my sister (which literally lasted hours, much of it on the telephone)most likely contributed to the content of our dreams. The interview was part of a school assignment, not a spontaneous sharing of family history - it'll be interesting to read the paper!

You write very thought provoking posts, Nancy! That is a perfect graphic for this post too.

luksky said...

Makes you wonder. I had a dream last night about a very wrecked and dented up car. This afternoon while running errands a car that was very dented and beat up pulled up next to me at the light. Only then did I remember my dream from the night before.

By the way, yes, I did love Hollographic Universe and The Shift.

Joanne said...

I'd say there's definitely something to these instances, that they're more than mere coincidence. What I often find, as happened with you, is that these "synchronicities" usually come in cycles, together. I'm not sure why, but it seems that more than one will occur within a short timeframe.

Nancy said...

Brian - They can be spooky.

Reya - Is that what it is? Tuned into the right frequency?

Amy - I find it so interesting that you are discussing your family members in detail for your daughter's paper and then you have a "vivid" dream. I have had those types of dreams only a few times - where they are just a little too vivid. Hmmm - maybe a visit?

luksky - Very interesting! You dreamed the car and then remembered the dream when you saw the car. Same thing as these two dreams! (Glad you liked the book and movie. ;-)

Rosaria Williams said...

Sometimes, the signs are all there.

Nancy said...

lakeviewer - But deciphering the message is another story.

Hilary said...

I vote for synchronicity. I've been noticing so much of this sort of thing lately. It's just not always clear how to take these situations. Should your daughter and hubby each avoid what they fear? Or should they go head on into their respective situations and conquer them?

The Good Cook said...

Whale sharks are gentle creatures with no predators other than man. I have had the great pleasure of diving with them. Perhaps her dreams has something to do with the anxiety of leaving her son?

I am a believer in the subconscious communicating to our "wakeful" mind important messages and lessons. We just need to dive deep (no pun intended) in our interpretations.

Another thoughtful post Nancy. Did you see "my" swan? I thought at the time it was a sign of life after being surrounded by so much death last week. What I didn't post is that there was actually a third death. (things always happen in three's).. a boy my youngest goes to school with died the same week from bone cancer. He had been battling the disease for 4 years. Sigh..

Trish and Rob MacGregor said...

Great posts. Both stories sure have the quality of precognition. And in my book, precognition falls under the larger umbrella of synchronicity.

Mental P Mama said...

I don't believe in coincidence...so I guess you won't be renting a snow mobile....

Land of shimp said...

It's hard to say what this sort of thing is, isn't it? It could be something rather mysterious, or frankly, it could be part of a brain function we simply haven't learned to understand yet. We often describe being "on the same wave length" with someone to whom we are close -- husband, friends, whomever -- what if it's closer to being literally true than we realize?

We think of spoken or written word as being the only way we process communications, but what if -- since our brains are essentially a mass of electrical impulses -- you just sort of "received" your husband's thoughts about snowmobiling upon waking, so it was on both of your minds?

Clearly I don't really have an extensive knowledge of how the brain works, but what I do know is that our knowledge of the intricacies of our brain is limited. What's now put down to precognition, or extra-sensory perception may some day just be something that has an explanation behind it, and is considered as normal as having a sense of smell.

Isn't that just the neatest thought? We really are in our infancy of understanding, no matter how far we've come, we have so far to go.

"Gut instinct" maybe a sensory response that is processing information ...clear as a bell...that we simply don't understand yet.

The world, and the possibilities within it are so very vast :-)

Nancy said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Nancy said...

That last comment was me - wrong spelling.

Joanne - Very interesting! Cycles - hmmm, I wonder what that means?

Hilary - Exactly! Do you conquer your fear - or take it as a warning?

Good Cook - I've missed something on your blog - I didn't know about the deaths - will go back and re-read!

Trish & Rob - So they are connected, you think?

Mama - That's they direction we're going... :-)

Shimp - I think that is exactly what precognition really is - a part of our brain that is picking up "information" and we just don't understand how it works. Much of what I study is the mind/brain/body/consciousness sort of connections. I think we know much more than our conscious mind would have us believe. Maybe for our own protection? Sort of like how the mind protects the person from remembering traumatic events until it is safe for them to do so. Maybe we are going through an evolution and these things will be understood and mainstream in our lifetimes.

Sylvia said...

I never know about these "coincidences", but I can tell that whale sharks don't appreciate much eating humans. So I think it's allright swimming in that beautiful blue. :)

California Girl said...

How did you get your button?

Inspired by eRecipeCards said...

we dream of what we are thinking of, consciously or subconsciously...

Your daughter is worried about the size of the obstacles facing...

Nah, that's psycho bable.

Find those sharks, will make her trip! BTW, I just moved to St Thomas, tell her to grab a puddle jumper and I will buy her lunch

Mike said...

Did you ever think of a song that you have not heard in many years and then it ends up being the next one played on the radio!? Coincidence??

kenju said...

There is no such thing as a coincidence - it is synchronicity for certain and possibly precognition too. Very interesting!

Nancy said...

Sylvia - I know, but she is still frightened. Maybe if she sees one up close she'll get over it.

California - I'll post about it tomorrow!

Year - Sounds pretty wonderful to me! Can I come, too?

Otin - I think not! Maybe if it was one that was constantly being played it could be coincidence.

kenju - That's what I'm thinking.

Natalie said...

People in the flow, I reckon.....just as Reya said. :)

Was this post a fishing expedition? xx

Nancy said...

Natalie - I like that idea!

Melissa said...

I believe in precognition. I do believe dreams are messages.

I also believe I have lived certain days already. Really strong De Ja Vue.


I always like to see what Reya says :)

I wish I could remember more of my dreams.

Anonymous said...

Nancy I dont know what they are, but I have those sometimes also. I actually have a dreams blog because too many things happened such as what you wrote.
Some people dream things that happen. My kids also have these dreams sometimes. http://strangedreamss.blogspot.com/

susan said...

David Byrne did a great job describing the way I feel about these mysterious events in 'Big Blue Plymouth".