Hi, Im new to the board. I have been experiencing some strange things and I am seeking expert opinions. I have, in the recent past had some rather scary and oddly prophetic dreams, as a result I have since read up on psychic phenomena and the like. Many things ring true, but I would like to consult some expert opinions rather than making something out of nothing.

Ok here goes, I've always had kinda wierd dreams where things happen to me that then take place soon after in real life. For Example, before starting freshman year of college I dreamt that I woke up in a strange room with strange people it was incredibly vivid, a month later when I get to school I discover that my dorm room and my roommate and hallmates identically resemble those in my dream. Now I'm in the field of psychology and I know all about self fulfilling prohphecies and how the mind can trick you into believing things so I basically wrote the dream off.

However, most recently in December I had a very disturbing dream, I dreamt that I was driving and slid out of control, I slid sideways through a small snowy field throwing up snow everywhere and finally slamming sideways into a tree. I awoke from this dream feeling very disturbed but relieved that it was only a dream. Unfortunately a month later I repeated this scene in real life, totalling my car and breaking my collarbone.

Now to be honest I have lots of dreams that never come to pass, and I never know if a dream will be "real" until after something happens...

So am I psychic/clairvoyant or do I just have an active imagination. I humbly ask for your opinions and for advice on how to manage/ use these dreams. Thank you very much, and thanks for slogging through the extra long post!
~have a wonderful day~

Hi xentrikchic,

I'm by no means an expert, but I may be able to help a little. It sounds like you may have a good bit of psychic ability given these precognitive dreams. Most people do have varying degrees of psychic ability; for some, it goes untapped and unrecognized and for others, it is a way of life they deal with everyday.

I've known of several people, in fact, have them in my family, as well as my husband's, who do have precognitive dreams. The best advice I could give you is to keep a journal by your bed to write down some of your dreams. Some, you may be able to recognize as just regular dreams or things in your subconscious. Others, may really stand out, making you sit up and take notice. Those are the ones that may have meaning for you and possibly fall into the category of precognitive. In keeping a journal, you may see patterns develop in your dreams, and even little details that you might have otherwise forgotten. Keeping the journal can be a fun little experiment and help you gain some insight into how your subconscious is at work, as well as documenting some of these precognitive dreams. Hope this helps a little!

Welcome to the board xentrikchic.

Don't listen to the previous poster. She's an escaped mental patient posing a kind, caring and sensitive person. =) =) =)
(just kidding xentrikchic =) ).

I don't think you'll find anyone on the board who considers themself an expert. I'm certainly not. We mostly rely on personal experience, what we've learned on the road of life.

You've described what I've experienced my whole life. And psychologists due have an explanation for the deja-vous, precognitive dreams and such. Being a very logic minded person I would agree with them except for the many experiences of my own. I know I've had dreams and visions of things that later came to pass. I can remember visiting the dream between the time the dream occured and the time action occured. The mind playing tricks on oneself can explain some of these occurances and you can't say you they can't be at least attributable to mind tricks. But I've had far to many that I know for a fact were precognitive dreams of things that happened later. There is a point where you have to use discretion up to and then you have to start believing that your not really that messed up in the mind.

As to what these dreams do for you, that's something else. I've found most of the time I just recognize the situation coming up or as it is happening as being seen in a dream or vision. How that helps me, I don't know. Maybe it's just about being aware that there is more to existance that the crude matter you see with your eyes.
But I have had the opportunity to recognize a situation as being seen in a dream or vision before and have taken measures to change the outcome.

I differ slightly with Carrie's belief. I firmly believe that all people are psychic. I believe it is inherent to all. Its partly dependent upon genetics as some people have nervous systems and bodies that are more inclined towards psychic sensitivity and partly environment. Never underestimate man's ability to confuse, convolute and deny anything.

I personally believe that you are experiencing prophetic dreams of future events. They come in all types. Sometimes literally to reality by the second sometimes its more of an overview of a particular time.
If you had remembered that if you drove down that certain road you would get into an accident then maybe you could have avoided it. Maybe that accident was something you were supposed to have and you just saw it because it was one of those predestined events in your life.

There are all kind of theories involving all kinds of faith systems. You'll choose yours.
At least take comfort that you're not abnormal. And you're certainly not the only one who this happens to.
I would suggest keeping mental track of them. Write them down if you wish as Carrie suggests. I don't know if it will get you any answers. It's taken thousands of them to me to come up with what I have so far. They're real. They happen. And they do benefit you some of the time.
But they also can be detrimental. When you see ones like the one you had about the accident. You can spend a lot of time in worry and fear in regard to that dream. Really lowering your quality of life. For nothing. If it happens, it will happen. If it doesn't it won't. Worrying about it will gain nothing.

I'm by no means an expert either but like Nakis and Carrie I'd be happy to share my thoughts.

I agree with Nakis in that I too believe every one of us has abilities that we call 'psychic'. In certain cultures the innate ability we have to sense, feel and forsee is embraced and even nutured allowing one to not only expand upon it but learn by it. Unfortunately Western culutre, in my opinion, still views these abilites to be something that few possess and even then we challenge the notion with the prove it to me attitude. Certainly not everyone has that view point (and I mean no offense) but many still insist that there must be a logical or scientific explanation for anything one would associate with psychic ability (or PN) including things like prophetic dreams. Instead of spending years developing what we already have we train ourselves to tune it out. I think dreams are a great example of that. Instead of training ourselves to do dream recall and understanding of the messages and symbols within a dream we tend to disregard them or block them out, especially if the dream was less than pleasant. Even our nightmares can hold answers and serve a purpose as often these types of dreams are release dreams which we all need to have.

I would make the same suggestion as Carrie to journal your dreams. I have always seemed to have a decent level of dream recall although at times it was (and still can be) fragmented. I started to write down my dreams in the morning before some of the details slipped away. After a relatively short time I noticed my recall improved some so I took it one step further and began jotting down a few key points or words when I awoke in the middle of the night vs just in the morning. This lead to starting a dream journal in which I not only dated the dreams but wrote every last detail down that at times means I can have several pages written from just a single dream. Understanding them was and still is the biggest challenge but I can honestly say I have obtained answers from my dreams and journaling has helped with that. We are each the best person to understand our own dreams as even though there are symbols or content that hold similar or the same meanings for all of us, much is unique to the dreamer. I've read a few different dream books, some have aided with my understanding while others were just too generic offering no value. I really like The Book of Dreams by Sylvia Browne. The different dream categories explained are not only interesting but have helped me with making some sense of my dreams.

I too have had a number of prophetic dreams (and visions) including ones that didn't involve me at all but an event or tragedy etc that I've later read about or seen on the news. I think it's difficult to know which dreams are prophetic until they come to be unless they are the ones which you know with every fiber of your being this is going to happen or you have come to understand your dreams well enough to discern, which is no easy task. As Nakis suggests we can't spend needless time worrying about every dream we might think is prophetic as it can drive us crazy. I believe in the theroy or idea that we charted our path before coming here down to every last detail so prophetic dreams are simply our subconscious mind remembering what we already know. Perhaps those dreams that are so strong that we act upon them are so to help us or another remain on that path which otherwise may have been altered? I too feel the dreams you experienced were prophetic ones, you tapped into that memory and because you didn't do anything that would have changed the outcome (the accident) it was as Nakis noted something you were suppose to go through. Cat =)

Thanks so much for all of your replies... it is very comforting to know that people actually believe in/ understand this sort of thing. What you guys (cat and nakis) said about being given the opportunity to change/ realizing a path that I was on regarding my accident made me think about what was actually happening during my accident... I didn't recognize that things were the same as my dream till well into the swerving and veering out of control part... but as my car was careening across two lanes of traffic I didnt get a sense of "oh my god I'm going to die" panic, Instead I was more like, ok calm down, it'll be ok, we'll stop eventually. I actually recall that thought going through my mind. Maybe my dream was to prepare me for things and to give me a chance to calmly handle things. Considering the heavy high speed traffic that I was in and that I was the only vehicle involved things could have been much worse.

To change the subject a little, and since I'm a sponge for information.... what are your thoughts on recurring dreams? I have a ton of those too.... sometimes I find that during the dreams I realize that I've "done this before" and can change my actions in them to make the outcome in them better/ less scary. Has this ever happened to any of you?

Reoccuring dreams I believe are caused by two things (that I know of).

1 is that you have an issue that your subconscious mind is trying to get you to realize. The mind is trying to get you to be aware of something so it repeats dreams. I don't mean similar dreams or like dreams. Reoccuring dreams are the ones that are the same each time. Your mind repeats the dreams until your conscious mind is able to assimulate the reasons for the dreams.

2 is that some kind of event happened and on that anniversary you experience a dream that has to do with it. Our bodies keep records of past events. The energies of what occurs around us or to us gets stored in your body. The same time next year you experience some of that stored energy/imprint. When you receive some sort of trauma for years afterwards you re-experience a reflection or shadow of that trauma. And often when the trauma itself or parts of the trauma are repressed you have dreams about it. Once again the mind trying to heal itself by bringing it to your consciousness in a healing way.

What you describe as changing your dreams is lucid dreaming. I've been lucid dreaming most of my life. In the past several years I've sort of stopped. Our dreams are a part of our mental health. It's one of the ways we help keep ourselves sane. I've decided that I'd rather go through the dream in the way my subconscious wants it too rather than change it consciously. That doesn't mean you shouldn't do it. It's all a part of our awareness and our whole selves.
You have become aware of the dream while dreaming. Normally the conscious mind is dormant while dreaming. Lucid dreaming is when the conscious mind 'wakes' up in the dream. Then the dreamscape becomes pliable to your consciousness. Always remember too that you can wake up at any time you choose.