Premonitions and Spirituality

Spirituality involves an awareness of being connected with something greater than the individual ego or self. This "something greater" has traditionally been called God, Goddess, Allah, Great Spirit, the Almighty, the Absolute, and many other names. Some consider it as the Universe, or as a sense of infinite order and beauty. Many individuals prefer to attribute no name whatever to it. But whether named or unnamed, the awareness of a connectedness with something greater than the "I" has been a source of strength and meaning for individuals throughout human history.

Individuals often find that their power of sensing and knowing expands as they mature spiritually. These expanded capacities often involve the capacity to know yet-to-be events that lie in the future, as the unbroken stream of prophets, visionaries, seers, and shamans throughout history attests. A modern analog of this ancient ability to know the future is premonitions, sometimes called intuition, gut feelings, or sixth sense.

Premonitions are often regarded as unrelated to spirituality, but there are profound connections. The most obvious involves love, as in the following example.

Amanda, a young mother living in Washington State, awoke one night at 2:30 A.M. from a nightmare. She dreamed that a large chandelier that hung above their baby's bed in the next room fell into the crib and crushed the infant. In the dream, as she and her husband stood amid the wreckage, she saw that a clock on the baby's dresser read 4:35 A.M. The weather in the dream was violent; rain hammered the window and the wind was blowing a gale. The dream was so terrifying she roused her husband and told him about it. He laughed, told her the dream was silly, and urged her to go back to sleep, which he promptly did. But the dream was so frightening that Amanda went to the baby's room and brought the child back to bed with her. She noted that the weather was calm, not stormy as in the dream. Amanda felt foolish -- until around two hours later, when she and her husband were awakened by a loud crash. They dashed into the nursery and found the crib demolished by the chandelier, which had fallen directly into it. Amanda noted that the clock on the dresser read 4:35 A.M. and that the weather had changed. Now there was howling wind and rain. This time, her husband was not laughing.

Amanda's dream was a snapshot of the future -- down to the specific event, the precise time it would happen, and a change in the weather.

Love appears dramatically as a mediator of premonitions in sudden infant death syndrome or SIDS, the abrupt, unexplained death of an apparently healthy baby between one and twelve months of age. Premonitions are a recurring feature in the experiences of SIDS parents. An example is Don, a physician in a large metropolitan area. During the first trimester of his wife's pregnancy, he sensed the happiness his son's birth would bring would not be lasting. A few months before the birth, he would occasionally find himself contemplating a nearby cemetery, where his son would eventually be buried. The day he was born and Don first held him in his arms, he felt, for no obvious reason that the newborn was not supposed to be with them. Beginning around two to three weeks before his death, Don would be awakened from his sleep with thoughts of SIDS. The day before his son died, he heard a voice very similar to his own say repeatedly, "Take a good look. This is the last time you will see him."

Don's apprehensions increased when his wife planned a flight with the baby to visit her parents, who lived in another state. Although they disagreed about whether the baby should go, Don didn't make his fears clear to his wife. As he was driving them to the airport, negative feelings came flooding in. At the airport, walking to security, he heard a clear warning that he'd never see his son again. He knew his baby would die during the trip. While walking back to the parking lot, the voice told him to go back and get his son. Finally the voice softened and stopped, as Don ignored it and kept walking. Early the next morning his wife called, hysterically relating that their son had died. He later would find that his aunt had similar apprehensions about the baby.

Looking back, Don said, "The process has been a shock to me since I knew before-hand this [death] was going to happen. The only thing I didn't know was when and where... I have no idea of its meaning. The only thing I can say is that perhaps if I would have listened to 'my heart' many mishaps could have been prevented... I think people have the ability to perceive things and give it a purposeful meaning which can be used for any future event."

Many of the SIDS parents experienced dreams, visions, or feelings of being in contact with their infants following death. They felt uniformly positive about these experiences, and were left with a sense that their baby was being cared for and was in a better place.

There are other benefits that are profoundly spiritual. Premonitions open us up to each other and to the greater world. As mentioned, they show that we are part of something larger than the individual self, that we are an element in the great "pattern that connects," as ecologist-philosopher Gregory Bateson put it. Premonitions suggest that we are linked with every consciousness that has ever existed, or that will ever exist.

Many outstanding scientists have realized this. The renowned physicist David Bohm said, "Each person enfolds something of the spirit of the other in his consciousness." Nobel physicist Erwin Schrödinger also believed that minds are in some sense united and one. He said, "To divide or multiply consciousness is something meaningless. There is obviously only one alternative, namely the unification of minds or consciousness.... [I]n truth there is only one mind."

By linking minds across space and time, premonitions reveal the oneness of which these scientists -- and many spiritual traditions -- speak. Premonitions therefore imply that we are not isolated individuals, but beings whose consciousness operates outside the present and beyond our physical body. They suggest that in some sense we are nonlocal or infinite in space in time. When we deeply sense this, we may become "transparent to the transcendent," as mythologist Joseph Campbell put it.

Through love, premonitions link human beings across space and time. There is no more fundamental aspect of spirituality than love. Premonitions are a window through which we glimpse our connection not only with one another, but with the Infinite as well.

(This essay is based on The Power of Premonitions: How Knowing the Future Can Shape Our Lives, by Larry Dossey, M.D., published by Dutton/Penguin, 2009)

Comments

[careygranite]

she couldn't have moved the crib?

and what on earth was the crib doing directly under the chandelier in the first place?

[XCITIZEN]

Boy, I'm sure glad you 'got the point' of that story! LOL

[weatherwaxx]

Small bedroom, perhaps? I have a room in my home where a bed would be under the light fixture no matter where you put it. Nurseries tend to be small rooms.

[Jonahhexx]

Thank you careygranite. Why was a baby under a chandelier. Who has chandeliers anymore anyway. None I know. At least not large enough to crush a crib and a baby. Maybe this was in a castle of some sort and a haunted one no doubt.

[citizensrus]

I've had premonitions all my life. Personally, I find them disconcerting. I don't like them..and it makes me feel alone and weird. The older I get the more it bothers me. I don't like 'knowing' the future and being helpless to change it.
These premonitions are not psychic premonitions..they are the kind everyone can have..like what the future was going to be under George W Bush. Why anyone would have been surprised is strange to me. All one had to do was research his ties and his past and his record.
The same with the war in Iraq. All one had to do was understand what happens in a war where a nation invades a sovereign country and urban warfare. This war was not going to be fought from the skies or the seas..and the idea that they would lie down and not defend their homes was preposterous.
The same with the SEC and the economy. We have a history of what happens in the economy when regulation is suspended. Why was anyone surprised.
Oh well, I know Dossey was not talking about these kind of premonitions.
However there is a "knowing' that comes from being aware that can be a warning the same as ESP.

[brooklyncitizen]

What you are talking about is the clarity that comes from having a critical mind along with a willingness to face the truth of certain actions. This requires maturity and the majority of people that voted for Bush are childlike in that they handed over their country on a "need to know only" basis and gave him carte blanche to do whatever. Those that supported the war may have also been aware of the same issues you identified but understood the subtext of this war: secure OIL for AMERICA so the war was justifiable and expedient.

THe media also doesn't do its job...though I take that back, it did its job very well- which is to serve up the propaganda on govt policies that will secure our sheep like support.

[weatherwaxx]

It's not all left-brain.

[GodIs]

Universities have exchanged the truth of God our Creator for the lies of Darwin, Marx, Jung, Dawkins, Freud, and many other foolosophers. They have exchanged the truth of theology for the vain imaginations of the secular humanists.
It is impossible to have a clear understanding of truth without sound theology and rejection of theology is a rejection of knowledge.The Lord does not demand blind faith, but commands us all to think deeply and make an enlightened decision to believe and obey the Truth based upon facts.
Hell is not subjective, nor will eternal torment in the lake of fire feel subjective.
God is love.

[darkclouds55]

Since theology is the study of the nature of god, and even the very existence of god can't be proven or shown to be fact, what is your definition of "sound" theology vs "unsound" theology? And how do you study the nature of something that you can't even prove exists? I'm also fairly sure that most of the "non-believers" you will come across have spent much more time and energy devoted to searching for god than most of your "true" believers. Non believers are not usually non believers because of ignorance of theology, but because of thorough investigation of theology. Most believers I've known, are not interested in discussing facts, but like to spout "universal truths".

[brooklyncitizen]

You don't seem to understand that theology is philosophy .

One of the most brilliant philosophers and theologians was St. Augustine, who also made profound contributions to psychology and gave us a deep understanding of human nature. There's been no other mind to match St. Augustine's and his single most significant contribution was in fact a merging of Greek Philosophy (Plato in particular) with Christianity. As an early Christian he provided the foundation of knowledge within the Catholic Church and shaped the dogmas that the Church subscribes to...beyond the Church his intellectual gifts to mankind are unprecedented.

Lastly whose theology are we to embrace? Theology is an intellectual pursuit and as such it has been kicked to the curb by many modern-day Christians especially Evangelicals who do not value critical thinking (as in the earth is 6,000 years old) in any shape or form.

God gave us a brain...let's try and use it.

[BeFairNow]

Okay, please tell me how a command is completely different from a demand. So God supposedly wants us to 'think deeply and make an enlightened decision to believe and obey the Truth based upon facts.' This assertion contradicts itself because it suggests that there is a choice to be made and that people are free to choose yet immediatately thereafter dictates what decision they should reach, thereby denying them any real choice. Hell may or may not be subjective but 'truth' definitely is and so are 'facts' a lot of the time. It used to be a fact that the sky was blue because it reflected the ocean. We have since discovered that it is not so. It was also a 'fact' until fairly recently that Pluto was a planet. Do you see what I'm getting at? You have the right to believe that lime green jelly will come out of your ears if you listen to an opinion that is different from yours but that doesn't make it a fact or the truth and you are certainly not qualified to speak for God, not least because you display an inability to think that will certainly prevent you from following that command you were talking about.

[brooklyncitizen]

Many people that believe in a God do so because of experiential learning....what many atheists don't grasp is that God isn't a "belief" outside of yourself or your life or your relationships or job etc. It's a practical way of life and one can directly experience the divine or the mystery or whatever one wants to call it.

[thelistener]

Ahh yes, the earth is 5 or 6000 years old and you and Sarah Palin have seen the human footprint inside the dinosaur footprint. Very convincing indeed.

[MyNameIsJames]

You are taking it too far. Are you educated about how, in the West, people killed each other in WARS over God and the meaning of God for centuries? If you cannot acknowledge this then your viewpoint is not based in sound analysis at all.

The scientific method was a systematic way to establish "Truth" because technically everyone could verify it without "special" powers. This "Truth" was open to observation. Science undercut Religion's (in the West) exclusive claim to the "Truth". Once scientific "Truth" began to gain momentum in the West -- technology and innovation exploded. People were free to think and EXPERIMENT without the blessings of the Church fathers. A diversity of information began to more deeply penetrate these societies.

Religious types in scientific societies have been upset every since. They complain-but gladly accept and utilize the advancements made in scientific societies. This is why I cannot take what you are saying seriously - It is SOOO ignorant of what has actually taken place in Western society.

Its ironic, how much easier life has gotten for humans who embrace science in their societies as opposed to those that are still dominated by religion. It is often the scientific societies that end up feeding and clothing those peoples who are steeped in non-scientific -and religious explanations of reality. WHY is that?

I am not anti-God nor anti- spirituality -- I am saying that trashing human endeavor and science in favor of a religious monolith is historically INVALID.

[llisa]

I have had several "feelings" that seem to have been premonitions--nothing big--that turned out to be true. But I have had hundreds, maybe thousands, of "feelings" that turned out to be absolutely nothing. Just from sheer volume, some of these feelings have to turn out to have some counterpart in real life.

My Mom, however, had some weird visions that defy coincidence. I have written about them here, before, I think.

But, if I acted on every "premonition" I had, I would be be housebound under a table in the basement.

[brooklyncitizen]

There really is a difference between premonition and irrational fear based thoughts. We can all allow our thoughts to run rampant and create worry that is not valid or real. This other premonition wells up from within and it is very clear and persistent. There is no mistaking this for anxiety or a desire to create drama .That's been my experience anyway. And it isn't always bad.

[llisa]

And my premonition feelings are exactly like the premonition feelings that don't happen. The only way I can tell the difference is when they don't happen. So, i don't worry about any of them.

[moonflowerjewelry]

well, i'm a mom, and to be honest, the first several months the worry that something would happen could be rather overwhelming. i wouldn't call their experiences premonitions, but rather plain and simple NATURAL worry, that in retrospect seems precognitive. Just because someone says they had a vision that came true doesn't mean they are TELLING THE TRUTH! I know lots of people who lie all the time.

[brooklyncitizen]

there's a difference.premonitions come out of no-where and are loud.

[TheLastWallStreeter]

This post is a perfect reminder that the left has its own share whackos, just as the right does. New agers are about as reasonable as creationists, though they tend to be a whole friendlier, but no less frustrating. The few rationalists, whether economic/social liberals or conservatives, need to make sure people like this don't get too much power. Believe whatever you wish, but don't base public policy around your superstitions (Nancy Reagan consorting a "psychic" is fine as long as she didn't use the experience to advise her husband on things more important than what color drapes to buy).

For all you people who seem to believe you can see the future because you have momentary feelings of deja vu- look up confirmation bias.

[kwinter]

Very well said ... thanks!

[llisa]

But, how many times do we have feelings like that about our children or loved ones, nothing happens, and we dismiss it or totally forget it.

The year before My husband and I were to be married, he spent the summer working more than a thousand miles away from me. Many times that summer I would awaken from dreams in which I was going from room to room asking people if they had seen him, and they would say, "He was here, but he went that way." I kept looking, never finding him.

Then I had a dream that I was on a train and he was running to catch up to get on, but the train kept going faster and he kept getting farther and farther behind.

Then I dreamed the plane crash. This one, I did tell him. And on the day his plane was to land, I just knew I would see it crash right into the asphalt.

But it didn't, and we have been married 31 years.

[midwesthousewife]

Those all sound like normal, fear-based dreams. A premonition dream is like reality itself.

[jeanneyogini]

Becoming "transparent to the transcendent," is actually something that can be developed and cultivated. Consciousness is more expanded and unified with all of creation at its deeper levels. Quieter levels of the mind contain more truth and are not bound by time and space. Most of us are restricted to the surface active levels of the mind and never transcend to deeper levels. It is stress that keeps the mind agitated and dull. But intuition doesn't have to be an occasional hunch or feeling. Meditation can clear the mind of the cobwebs and free it to fathom its full expanse. Then you start to live by your deeper instincts and feelings and premonition becomes the norm. Beautiful article.

[hark]

And you know this to be true because . . .

[jeanneyogini]

How do I know this? Because I have been meditating twice a day for 36 years and thats my experience. Its not anything special about me, it is just that intuition grows as consciousness grows. Lots of people find this to be the case.

[Harmony1812]

Through meditation or gift knowledge can be received from places that we cannot experience physically. People that have not experience this always doubt. People that have are forever changed. In our culture we are taught that this cannot be true. Not too long ago people thought hypnotism was hookus pocus. The moon was made of green cheese or the earth was flat.
In most of the world reincarnation and other planes of existance is ot only truth but is accessable. To those of us who meditate and to those who are psychic it is an absolute fact and has been forever.

[kwinter]

I recently had a dream about a bird, and I have had dreams in the past, where I was trapped in some way.
Well, we seem to have a bird, trapped in our chimney ... seriously!

Two things:
Do I have "the gift"?
and
How do you get a bird out of your chimney? (not joking)
It's making a heck of a racket!

[weatherwaxx]

Go up on the roof and take the rain-shield off the chimney, let the bird out, and put it back.

Or go into the basement and open the flue-cleaning hatch, let the bird out, take it outdoors.

Being willing to consider spiritual matters doesn't mean there's a magic solution to a bird with a bad sense of direction.

[popart]

what a bunch of nonsense....the human mind is capable of many things....non of them supernatural....or mysterious...and many of them just plain silly......like so called " premonitions" and "psychic powers".....delusional thinking I call it...the all too human desire to give meaning to random events and imagine some sort of "control" over a chaotic universe....but the stuff sells big time....to the "I want to Believe" set.

[brooklyncitizen]

Joseph Campbell was once asked if he was a man of Faith, did he have Faith believe in Faith. His response was brilliant: "I don't need Faith I have experience".

Many people have had similar experiences and your belief in their experience is besides the point.It isn't about a belief it is about an experience.

[midwesthousewife]

Exactly.

[rektruax]

Never underestimate the power of the human mind...

... to make up some really silly crap.

[JoeAlvord]

I'd be much more convinced if the premonitions were described before the event, rather than after.

[darkclouds55]

Bingo!

[Shirley Fisk]

5/3/09
4:21pm
Alexandria,VA

I.am.willing.to.be.tested.so.that.this.can.bend.visions...I.am.willing.to.be.tested.so.that.this.can.be.proven.
Describing.events.before.they.take.place.is.something.I.have.done.

[kwinter]

I suggest you contact the James Randi Educational Foundation.
You say your abilities can be proven. You can collect a million dollars if that's true.
Good luck!
http://www.randi.org/site/index.php/about-the-foundation.html

[weatherwaxx]

Sometimes they are. I am not going to spend the time and energy to describe my experiences, and those of folks I know, because your attitude suggests that there is no example you would not dismiss.

You might consider reading the first book written by a man named Dannion Brinkley. It's called "Saved by the Light," and no, it is not a book on holy rollerism; he's a man who had a near-death experience and had a number of premonitory visions. He wrote them down and reported them to Dr. Raymond Moody, whom he met at a lecture on NDP while trying to make sense of what had happened to him. Dr. Moody had a list of the foreseen events long before most of them occurred.

Dr. Moody's qualifications: M.D. from the Medical College of Georgia, 1976; Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of Virginia, 1969; M.A. in philosophy from the University of Virginia, 1967
B.A. with Honors in philosophy from the University of Virginia, 1966

Among Brinkley's predictions were the breakup of the Soviet Union, the fall of the Berlin Wall, Chernobyl..

There are always ways of blowing off things that people don't want to accept, but Brinkley's track record is truly remarkable.

[kwinter]

There are many frauds who claim to be able to see into the past or future by various means of divination. Dr.Moody is convinced that an altered state of consciousness is the gateway to the other world. Mirror gazing is a method Moody uses to try to induce an altered state. Moody claims success at having spirits visit him in the mirrored room.

Having a DR in front of your name does not automatically make you credible.

[libwingoflibwing]

Many years ago I had a dream. I was in a room I'd never seen with people I'd never met, but in the dream the room and people were familiar. We were talking about something important, but as dreams go I couldn't remember afterwards what it was. Most of the people left the room at a certain time and only another woman and I were left then. She started to leave and I said, "I'll get the lights." For some reason the light switches were in the back by a door to a side room and there were lots of student type desks in the way I had to move to get to it.

The dream was so strange because the people and place were familiar to me only in the dream. So after I woke up I thought about the dream all that days.

Years later I returned to university. I became close to people in my major. One day at the end of a seminar everyone left but me, I was writing something, and the TA, who was gathering up her stuff. She started to leave and I said, "I'll get the lights," realizing that this was that dreams from a few years back. This was NOT deja vu, although it had that same strange sense. I could remember, and often did, that dream before the actual events happened.

"Space and Time are an Illusion" The Tao of Starchild

[ConfuciusSay-]

Even mall signs can be psychic. Every single time I look at those illuminated maps, they ALWAYS know where I'm standing.

[darkclouds55]

If you'll run as fast as you can to the other end of the mall, and then double-back real fast, you can lose them! Try it!

[kwinter]

Thanks ... my biggest laugh of the day!

[mouselion]

Ha! Good one!

[hark]

I heard a long time ago that this was true about subway station maps, too.

But if you carry one of them on a moving train, they're useless, unlike clocks, which always seem to know what time it is. How do they do that? Unless they are stopped, and even then they get the time right twice a day.

[mergina]

You can learn as much from a plant as you can from a star, or a bird or an insect or a human or a .......

[azureblue]

And the naysayers here patently ignore religions and the Bible- both full of premonitions and prophets. but I seriously doubt those who disbelieve premonitions will call themselves anti Christian. Jesus had lots of premonitions- so what is the difference?

[JohnDavidMyself]

Well, I'm the son of Virgil, not god.

[NHBill]

Way back in The Bronze Age no one had ever heard of a virus so when people started to die of the swine flu it was a plague from god. I think "love thy neighbor as thyself" is one of the most beautifully simple thoughts in human history, but the stories from the Bronze Age book are fantasy. Really, a talking snake? Raising the dead? Water into wine? Do you know that people used to believe with certainty that Neptune controlled the seas?

[mouselion]

The biggest one for me is the virgin birth. Water into wine, walking on water? Illusionists do better tricks than that. Burning bush and talking snake? Some early version of hallucinatory drugs? Someone who appears to be dead could rise. It has happened (and scratches from the inside of old wooden coffins is proof).

[helonias]

From Leviticus:- Do not go for advice to people who consult the spirits of the dead.(l9*31).

If anyone goes for advice to people who consult the spirits of the dead I will turn against him and will no longer consider him one of my People - 20.6.

A prophet or an interpreter of dreams may promise a miracle, or a wonder, in order to lead you to worship and serve gods that you have not worshipped before. EVEN IF WHAT HE PROMISES COMES TRUE, DO NOTPAY ANY ATTENTION TO HIM, THE LORD YOUR GOD IS USING HIM TO TEST YOU TO SEE IFYOU LOVE THE LORD WITH ALL YOUR HEART. Follow the Lord and fear him; obey him and keep his commands; worship him and be faithful to him-(13.1-4) Deutronomy.

He practiced divination and magic and consulted fortune-tellers and mediums. He sinned greatly against the Lord and stirred up his anger. 2 Kings 21.6

[Pearlswan]

Are these quotes claiming that religion is not divination, magic, and fortune-telling? Right, religion is the exception to the folly of divination, magic and fortune-telling, really? Well, I think not. I think religion functions to usurp individual intuition and science-based rationality with personal faith and unquestioned belief in an invisible God that speaks to humans by "magic" through priests and ministers and rabbis who will "read you your fortune" should you deviate from their "divine interpretation" of religious law.

Religion is nothing more than a fairy tale if its not about developing your intuition of oneness that leads to knowing thyself. Knowing others is intelligence but knowing yourself is true wisdom. A premonition is nothing more than a wise message from your own intuition. Its not magic, its not fortune-telling, and its certainly not divination, especially if the premonition can easily be ignored as some kind of psychic "magic trick." Its a message coming from senses you didn't know you had because they are rooted in the unconscious mind, not rational thought, and you can't recognize their existence except when they function through their mysterious, unknown pathways.

[dondon7777]

Thank you Helonais for the courage to post what many of us believe to be the truth. There are many skeptics and cynics responding to this post, not realizing that beyond their personal or scientific opinions there is a God, who is above and beyond all the Creator of the entire universe, particularly of this space-time continuum we presently inhabit. If He is able to speak and cause to come into existence untold numbers of galaxies filled with billions of stars and equally uncountable life forms, with unfathomable quantum physics and laws we cannot comprehend but strive so hard to understand, He is perfectly capable of speaking and telling us what to do and not to do. I find it the height of human arrogance and rebellious ignorance to think that He does not exist and that all this came from nothing and ultimately will end in nothing. He is able through mechanisms we scarecely understand to speak to us and give us supernatural insight into future events and cause us to take appropriate actions that might svae or preserve the lives of our loved ones or those we care about. Spiritual? Most definitely, for God is a spirit and a loving caring, kind and merciful one to boot.

[JoeAlvord]

I've read that book, too. Do you remember the parts that condone slavery? Or the place where pi equals three?

[Chaimirija]

ahhh..this is why you have to stick with chicks...go witches!

[darkclouds55]

And the yaysayers here patently ignore science and any kind of factual evidence - both full of experimentation and logical conclusions.but I seriously doubt those who believe will call themselves rational. Science has many explanations - but what's the difference?

[Harmony1812]

True,. If you believe in the Bible you believe in premonitions. The only thing is that a bunch of men (the church) decided that we won't believe in that anymore. The Bible is also full of sacred geometry and astrology because that is what people were taught and believed. It is also full of stories from previous religions. It is also full of transliteration and editing by church fathers. I doubt that Jesus would recognize it in it's current form. Yet uneducated Christians never researched the origins of their sacred text in any scholarly way. Many Christians have never even read it. Sad, really. What I think Jesus taught was amazing. Many Holy men have taught the same things. Too bad that is not what our Churches are teaching.

[FIGI]

the Christian religion was invented to subdue the populace. This along with bleaching flour (to destroy the vitamins) in bread.. Keep them weak and meak, and submissive little sheep.