Premonition...deja vu....?

[wireliner]

Have you ever been listening to music on the radio and a song pops in your head and then they play it? Been in a place, had a discussion and have known what was going to be said or something happen next? Got a feeling a close person is in trouble?

I'm just curious to see if it happens to others and what level. It happens to me often but how and why???

Thoughts...stories?

And why can't I see the winning lotto numbers!

[rwbuild]

When my daughter was 8, she fell out of a tree and cut herself on some wire. My wife took her to the doctor to get patched up. I was at work and didn't know anything had happened.
My sixth sense said ring the doctor to make sure she was alright which I did, all was good. All this before mobile phones.

When I was 15, my Auntie lived in Gunnedah and would drive down to Windsor about 4 times a year to visit. This particular time she came unannounced and when I got home from school I said that she left before dawn and was lucky the trucky missed her. She said, how did you know, I said I just do.

These are just 2 examples of dozens of instances in my life.

[elanjacobs]

I once saw the front page of the next day's newspaper in a dream.

I've also had deja vu of the same event multiple times

[cava]

Welcome to my life.

[rrich]

Long story, short version.

I was part of the technical organization at the regional level. One of my main jobs was to support several district organizations.

The district had a difficult problem that I was brought in to solve. After the problem was resolved, I was politely told to "Stay the eff out of the account. I was too good for the account." I politely withdrew from the account much to the irritation of the customer. The customer only wanted problems resolved. It would be unfair to say that the two ranking individuals at the district level disliked me. A more apt description would be that they hated my guts.

I was given an assignment to support the company at the national level and make a presentation to a third company. I had made part of my presentation and the meeting recessed for lunch. I used the opportunity to check for messages at the office and handle a few problems.

I returned to the dining room and got at the end of the line for the buffet. After I got my food, there were but two seats left in the dining room. I took one and started to eat. The principal from the account that I was instructed to distance myself from brings his buffet food and sits next to me. For the next 20 minutes the principal verbally beats on me about how badly his company needs some of the products in my presentation. I assured the principal that I would pass the information along to the district sales and support team.

The next day, back in the office, I typed my weekly report into our e-mail system. My manager was located two time zones distant. If I saw my manager three times a year, it was unusual. We did talk a lot over the phone, usually after hours. Our respective wives could recognize our voices. I timed the sending of the e-mail to about 15 minutes before the end of my managers day in the distant time zone.

After thinking about how the district team would probably react, I very carefully crafted a message in the e-mail system conveying to the district account team the needs that the principal expressed, then sent the message about 10 minutes after the end of the work day and went home for the weekend.

In those days, I carried a nation wide beeper or pager. (Really purported to have North American coverage.) The district account team also had my home phone number. The district account team had two courses of action available to them, call me or call my manager. The district account team chose a third option and used regional Vice President's pager to contact him.

That wouldn't have been so bad, except that they used the pager 4 or 5 times before the VP responded. The VP was at a black tie charity dinner where he was receiving an award. The VP was in the middle of his thank you speech when the beeper went off a couple of times, much to the chagrin of the VP and delight of the audience.

The VP is livid and goes to a public phone to respond to the many pages. The account team, on a speaker phone, is jumping up and down, screaming about how I am interfering with the account. Of course there was no mention of the possible $10K in commissions in the deal. I'm surprised that the VP didn't have a heart attack right then and there but he calls my manager.

After the VP vented at my manager and calmed down somewhat, my manager reminded the VP that I was at the meeting that where the VP had sent me and that principal had pounced on me at lunch. As I was told, the VP and my manager had a 15 or 20 minute strategy phone call and then had a conference call with a Human Resources type in another time zone further distant from me. All of this on a Friday evening.

On Sunday evening, my manager called me from a local airport with very explicit instructions. Do not check e-mail until Tuesday, if you don't have any commitments on Monday, take the day off, only call in to say that you are sick and DON'T ASK WHY.

On Tuesday it was announced that the district Account Manager and Technical Manager were pursuing other opportunities. It was about 6 or 8 months later that after a couple of beers with my manager that all the facts came out. The Account Manager was given 2 weeks pay and the Technical Manager was given 4 weeks pay. Then with a twinkle in his eye, my manager asked, "You didn't plan that, did you?" I explained that when the district team wanted to jerk me around they would use my beeper or call me at home. Then I said, "I guess that they didn't want to jerk me around this time." My manager got beer up his nose and gave me a high five.

The moral is that you can anticipate all that you want, just make sure that you have an out to protect yourself.

[rrich]

And then . . .

We have a lottery here, actually three big ones. My daydream is that after I win and at the obligatory press conference when asked how I picked the numbers, my answer will be:

"The lottery officials have told me that I can pick the numbers any way that I want. Well, ya know how there stores where it is possible to purchase the Sunday paper on Saturday afternoon. We subscribe to home delivery of the Los Angeles Times. Occasionally they deliver the paper a day ahead of time. I just looked up the numbers in the paper and played those numbers."

[Toymaker Len]

This is one of those fascinating things that makes you realise that we are not nearly there when it comes to a complete understanding of reality. I have had a few absolutely stunning premonition-like things. For example driving a taxi at two in the morning cruising back into the city, blasting along and day-dreaming when I found my self coming to a full stop on a green light at the intersection of Liverpool and Parramatta roads. Just as I stopped a tow-truck came through the red light from the right (couldn't see it) and would certainly have smashed me into little bits if I had not stopped without a thought on a GREEN LIGHT. But the real blood-curdler...One of my best mates in school had a recurring night-mare when he was fourteen where he would be riding a big motorbike going into a sweeping bend very fast when a mini would come out in front of him and he would smash into it and it would burst into flames. At the age of nineteen he was riding one of the first honda-four super bikes through a sweeping bend when a mini minor came out of a side road and he went right through the middle of it. The mini didn't burst into flames but all the windows burst outwards in an explosion of glass. He spent eleven months in hospital. True story.
I can't wait for someone to come up with a theory of what is going on here. Any serious person I talk to goes with the "It's all a trick of the mind seeing patterns where there are none and mistaking probabilities for certainties."
PS...Rrich I don't quite get your tale as having something to do with premonition or psychic phenomenon? Am I missing the point?

[rrich]

Len,
I knew how the district guys would react. I just thought to keep my manager totally informed and let the district guys embarrass themselves. My premonition was exceeded beyond my wildest expectations.

Now that you have mentioned it, I hadn't thought about the vehicle side of things. At one time I had a ute, Ford F-250, diesel and four wheel drive. A heavy beast a bit over 3.5 Tons. My recurring thought / day dream was that a small Honda Civic would dart out in front of me and I run over it, crushing it like an aluminium beer can before I could stop.

There were two incidents. The first was I was on the down side of a bridge that crossed the water access way to a marina. At the end of the bridge down slope there is a traffic light. A small Toyota basically ran the red light and pulled out in front of me. I locked up all four wheels trying to stop. Fortunately the ABS worked much better than this human and I was able to stop within a few cm of the Toyota. The funny part was the "Where the eff did you come from?" look on the driver's face. The street was 4 lanes in my direction and I was the only vehicle around other than the Toyota. Here we are allowed to turn on a red light at most intersections. The driver did so but didn't yield to oncoming traffic.

The second incident was one of those mornings on the way to work where everything was going right. It was a good morning when nothing could go wrong. Traffic was unexpectedly light for a weekday morning which put me in a very good mood. I had just gotten off of the freeway and not trying to push it at all. Just gently accelerating in no big rush. (I'll adjust right and left for you blokes.) The street had two lanes in each direction. I was in the right lane anticipating a right turn up the street. There was a city bus in the left lane anticipating a left turn onto a street that led to the bus yard. I am passing the bus that is the process of making the left turn. A very small Nissan darts out of the street that the bus is turning into and she is intending to make a right turn. This time I actually hit the Nissan tearing off the rear bumper and facia. The look on the woman's face was one of sheer terror as she realized that she was going to get hit. Somebody was looking out for that woman. If I had not been in such a good mood I would have entered the intersection a half a second sooner. The result is that I would driven over the center of the Nissan probably killing the woman.

The additional lessons learned.
The really interesting thing is that the skid marks left by my ABS attempting to stop started a couple of meters beyond the intersection. I was probably doing about 50 KPH (5 or 10 below the speed limit) at the time of the impact. This was a very vivid demonstration of reaction time. I knew where I was when I first saw her. I knew where and when I started to go for the brakes. The skid marks showed where the ABS made the brakes effective. And when one thinks about it, the skid marks were probably from the rear wheels.

After the ute stopped, I just sat there with my leg shaking and foot on the brake just breathing. After a minute or so I had calmed down enough to call the police and start the obligatory exchange of information. This bit of calming down and regaining self control is vital and can probably prevent further unfavorable events. By getting your heart rate down and the adrenalin subsiding you can start thinking with a clear head.

[Mr Brush]

Not quite life changing, but I was sitting having a coffee at our local shopping centre, idly gazing at all the massively overweight people stuffing into their first KFC at 10.00am. Just as a massively obese woman pushing a trolley caught my eye, a familiar jaunty tune came over the shopping centre PA.....Baby Elephant Walk ! Laughed so much I nearly sprayed coffee everywhere

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6RRwqku04fQ

[cava]

I can't wait for someone to come up with a theory of what is going on here. Any serious person I talk to goes with the "It's all a trick of the mind seeing patterns where there are none and mistaking probabilities for certainties."

Consider the Bible Acts 2:17.

[Mr Brush]

“Whatever happens, they say afterwards, it must have been fate. People are always a little confused about this, as they are in the case of miracles. When someone is saved from certain death by a strange concatenation of circumstances, they say that's a miracle. But of course if someone is killed by a freak chain of events -- the oil spilled just there, the safety fence broken just there -- that must also be a miracle. Just because it's not nice doesn't mean it's not miraculous.”

― Terry Pratchett, Interesting Times

[AlexS]

Turned out not to be an accurate premonition, but it had me worried for a while...

When I was working in Bougainville, we often used a helicopter to get around. Never worried me, never had any 'exciting' moments.
The night before one flight, I dreamed that we flew over the range, into cloud and crashed. Didn't worry me at the time, as we never crossed the range at that point, and the pilot was known to stay well out of cloud. However, that morning, our usual crossing point was clagged in, so we went via the one I'd dreamed of. At this point I started to worry that maybe my dream was about to come true...and then suddenly there was cloud all around us. Fortunately, the pilot managed to find a series of holes in the clouds and we made it safely to our destination.

[elanjacobs]

I can't wait for someone to come up with a theory of what is going on here. Any serious person I talk to goes with the "It's all a trick of the mind seeing patterns where there are none and mistaking probabilities for certainties."

With "multiple universe" theories popping up in the scientific world lately, it could be that there is some sort of interaction between them - perhaps do with alternate futures that converge again at specific events.

[rrich]

Wrong thread

[Toymaker Len]

So there it is... a perfectly clear and totally inexplicable vision of something which then happens. How did your brain produce a clear picture of an event which was yet to unfold in reality? How could information pass back in time? As far as we know nothing but a few tiny particles travel backwards in time and even then for nanoseconds. How does a fully formed vision of geography and flying get into your brain from the future. Ultra-rationalists would say it is simply a co-incidence, that of all the dreams of possible futures one or two will be on the money but I think there is something more happening, but what?