Dreams have often been a very curious part of my life. I dream in colour, never grey, and (when prepared) can easily interact and control my dreams as easily as I interact with the real world. It wasn't until quite recently that I began to take note of the symbology of dreams, the way that the subconscious mind tries to leak overlooked information back into the conscious mind, or sit around deciphering clues and restating them when necessary.
One aspect of dreams which has had a particularly profound effect on me involves what I would like to term the "How Did You Know That?" factor - the ability of your dreams to provide information on an event which you don't find out about until later. In particular, an event which occurs at the same time as your dream and is not likely to be known about subliminally beforehand...
The reason I've suddenly decided to talk about my experiences with these is because of a recent incident involving someone very close to me - my grandfather. I had a dream about him recently, the first time I ever recall having a dream about him. He was sitting in his armchair talking to me - though I haven't a clue what we were talking about, but it may have involved a crossword puzzle. I'd like to point out that I don't remember him ever doing a crossword puzzle, but he did always sit in the same armchair.
It was a pretty average dream, and I didn't think about it too much when I went to work the next morning. It was a Friday, and my parents were going to be in the neighbourhood that lunchtime so I was going to meet them for lunch. When they arrived they told me that my grandfather had died during the night. They had only found out after I had been at work, and I had had no contact with anyone who could possibly have known until that point. There was no way I would have known about the incident during the night, not even subliminally...
Coincidence? Possibly. We have lots of dreams during the night, total that up over the year and take into account the number of incidents we learn about during that time and you are sure to get a few matches out of the statistical noise. Throw in the personal aspect of the situation, and you could be excused for thinking that something paranormal had happened. Did I sense his death? Who knows, but maybe I should ask if he was doing a crossword at the time...
A couple of years earlier, I had a very similar, though more vivid, dream about a friend of mine. It was one of those dreams where you feel you have woken up, but haven't. I 'awoke' suddenly, because there was someone in the room making a noise. I turned over and sat up to face the end of my bed. The friend was standing there. It felt very, very real indeed - I could've happily reached out and touched her.
The friend was calling for help. She was talking with her normal voice, though with a slight agitation and urgency to it:
"John, help me please. I need you to help me."
I knew she couldn't be physically in the room, and by now had worked out I was dreaming, though I can still recall how totally real everything felt - to the smallest detail. The smell of her perfume, her presence in the room, the 'just woke up' feeling, the background sounds of the room, her breathing, everything. Then I woke up, sitting upright. I checked my watch, and noted that it was just a few minutes after 2am, before trying to get back to sleep. For your reference: I hadn't seen this friend for a couple of months, I wasn't expecting to see her for a while - and yes, she does have a very special, very emotional significance to me (do I have to spell it out? *grin*).
Two days later, I bumped into her and we caught up on what had been happening to each other since we had last met. During the conversation, she pointed out some scars on her wrists and neck - someone had held a knife to her down a dark alley two days previously... naturally, I remembered the dream and had a thought...
"This didn't happen at 2am?" I asked, expecting her to say no.
"Er.. yes. How did you know that?" she said. So I told her about the dream.
I could go on. I've several other dreams involving her which have been representative of actual incidents involving her. Always happening when I've been out of contact with her for a while, and always involving something bad - illness, boyfriend troubles, and so on.
Coincidence, or something significant? I find it particularly interesting to note the recurrence of closeness with the subject (the stronger the better), the involvement of stressful moments and the occurrence during sleep. During the day, for example, the background clutter received by the conscious mind could mask out any weak psychic effects present in our environment. But could it be that these combinations, for me at least, enhance any natural psychic ability humans possess or provide a way for our subconscious to filter out these signals?
After all, aren't most premonitions about stressful events?
