News story about a precognitive dream

[Liselle]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/03/13/jay-williams-super-soul-sunday-regret_n_6865836.html

Excerpt from the article:

"Weighing heavily on Williams' mind were the warning signs he ignored. "I've been told so many times not to ride this bike," he says. "I've had a dream about this particular moment that I decide not to listen to."

He's referencing a premonition he had at age 17 about his accident. Williams dreamt he was spinning out of control and looked up to see a red fire hydrant, the exact scene he would experience years later during his motorcycle crash.

"Here I was in the situation that I've got all these signs telling me not to do this and I still put myself in that position to do so," Williams says."

Not sure what to make of this. On the one hand, this dream was clearly precognitive, and I understand the man's anguish about not heeding it and staying away from motorcycles. (The article says that not only did he have the dream, riding motorcycles was against his contract.)

On the other hand, how do you separate the signal from the noise? If it's safe to assume we all have bad dreams from time to time about bad things happening to ourselves or others, certainly not all of them come true, and probably not always because we took the dream's advice and purposely avoided the danger.

For example, years ago I used to have a recurring dream about being in a large bathtub containing dangerous fish. The chances of any household bathtub (which this one was, albeit larger than most) having poisonous fish in it are practically zero. Even if I assume it was metaphorical in some way, what am I supposed to do - never go in a bathtub again? I've of course been in bathtubs countless times in my life and nothing even slightly bad has ever happened (not that my life is over yet, but still). The worst thing I've ever encountered with a bathtub is accidentally allowing one to overflow, but that just made a mess - there was no actual damage to me or anything else.

Since I know about the I Ching, I suppose I could always ask about it. Mr. Williams probably didn't have that option.

At any rate, it's pretty fascinating.

 

[goddessliss]

Dreams are curious things - I once had a dream that someone my husband had never met was going to hurt his family. I was sure it was a premonition and was so upset by it I couldn't bring myself to tell him so I emailed the details of my dream to him in the next room the next day. His response was 'It's just a dream".
The dream came true within about 5 months and had a domino affect that lasted for several years.

- Liss

 

[pocossin]

I used to have a recurring dream about being in a large bathtub containing dangerous fish.

At the time were you being troubled by gossips?

 

[pocossin]

His response was 'It's just a dream".

According to Sakis Totlis, dreams are true because structural features of emotionally charging experience are recreated in the dreams.

 

[Liselle]

At the time were you being troubled by gossips?

Hmm. Not that I know of, although I can see how that possibility makes sense. It was long enough ago that I'm having trouble even pinning down when the dreams were - was I in my 20s? A teenager? Circumstances could have been very different, depending. I also can't remember when the dreams stopped, after recurring for several years. Darn it.

Dreams are curious things - I once had a dream that someone my husband had never met was going to hurt his family. I was sure it was a premonition and was so upset by it I couldn't bring myself to tell him so I emailed the details of my dream to him in the next room the next day. His response was 'It's just a dream".
The dream came true within about 5 months and had a domino affect that lasted for several years.

Oh my word.

Was there anything that could have been done if people would have taken this seriously? Did anyone make comments afterwards about that person, like "We might have known X was no good" or anything like that? (I mean, did other family members know Person X, even if your husband didn't? Would a mere mention of a bad dream about Person X to the right family member have made a difference, do you think?)

Perchance did your husband ever acknowledge your dream?

 

[pocossin]

I also can't remember when the dreams stopped

Did they stop when you moved somewhere else? A relative with special abilities, including that he spoke Japanese, developed a recurring nightmare. My opinion is that he was kept in the front lines in the south Pacific in WWII too long. After the end of the war, he would wake up screaming in the corner of the room, believing that he was under machinegun fire. The army psychiatrist who treated him recommend that he abandon his army career and leave the military atmosphere of Hawaii. He did so and recovered. Following the energy analysis of mental phenonema of Sakis Totlis, my opinion is that the energy discharge (catharsis), that is the function of dreams, fails in recurring nightmares because the nightmare is so intense that it recharges itself. The nightmare feeds on energy from the environment.

 

[Liselle]

That's a good question, Pocossin, but unfortunately I just can't remember. I've been trying to place the dreams in a timespan all morning, and the best I can come up with is "a long time ago." The good news is that they stopped (also a long time ago), and I don't worry about them anymore. Even when I was having them, I wasn't actually worried - I chalked them off to "just a dream," as Liss's husband did. If I were to have a recurring nightmare now - now that I've learned they really can be precognitive - I might be more afraid!

That was really my question here - for every example like Liss's, or the one in the article, of a dream predicting a specific real-life event, there are probably many dreams which never show up in reality, or at least not in the same direct way. Is there a way to tell which to pay attention to and which not? Might it have to do with the specificity of the dream? Or the likelihood of the thing actually happening?

IOW, the man in the article had a dream about a motorcycle accident. That is something which could easily happen in real life. Liss had a dream about a specific real person causing harm to other people - that's also plausible. Versus my dream, which makes no direct real-life sense at all. (Maybe psychological sense, as you said about gossip.)

"[W]hich to pay attention to and which not" - I realize people might say that all dreams are worth paying attention to, because maybe they're all trying to tell you something worth considering. I think there's something to that, but still, I think there's a difference between dreams like Liss's and the one in the article, and a lot of other dreams that people have every night. Am wondering what that difference is, and how we might recognize it.

 

[pocossin]

the man in the article had a dream about a motorcycle accident

Is this true? From what I can understand, there was no motorcycle in the dream. Is the dream a premonition? Or is this a premonitory interpretation of a dream evoked by other causes? The 17-year-old Jay Williams was apparently experiencing performance anxiety concerning the upcoming game at Madison Square Garden, reason enough to dream. The fire hydrant could have meant no more than that he needed to visit the bathroom. I confess that I am a cynic who does not believe anything from Oprah. I am frustrated that there is not enough information about the situation for me to apply Sakis' theory of dreams. Williams is perhaps borderline suicidal and needs to believe that the Great Spirit or some such Force validates his wasted career.

 

[Liselle]

Oh dear, yes, I see there's more information in a second article, here:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/03/12/jay-williams-motorcylce-accident-premonition_n_6849826.html?utm_hp_ref=own-video

which (ahem ) I hadn't read.

From that, it seems there was no motorcycle in the dream. The similarity was the spinning sensation, and especially the red fire hydrant - the dream ended with him staring at a red fire hydrant after spinning, and his accident ended the same way.

WELL...so much for that . I mean, I can see how he would make a strong connection between the dream and the accident, but calling it a "premonition" seems like a stretch. It's hard to call a dream a premonition of a motorcycle accident when there's no motorcycle accident in the dream, no matter that other things are common to both. I mean, the motorcycle would be the important part.

Liss's example is much more interesting!

 

[goddessliss]

I interpret dreams a lot for myself and others and definitely believe it's just our subconscious self reflecting back at us what's going on at mostly an emotional level.
Personally I dream a lot when taking such things as the Bach remedies.

Re my dream - noone knew this person existed at the time and only my husband could have prevented the incident that caused the domino affect by getting some help and clarity on a situation.
No he never acknowledged the premonition.

- Liss