Premonitions… feel like I’m going mad

[Weoirdfeelongs]

I should say that I am not into anything ‘mystic’ and don’t go to card readings etc. I’m also not particularly religious (I like to believe but can’t quite get to the point of a full faith). So I guess you’d say I’m a pretty average person with no interests in this sort of sphere at all.

But for a while now I’ve felt I can tell when something is going to change or alter. It is usually if I think something is going to be cancelled (for a dark reason) and it’s happened again today. I had an appointment first thing at the dentist, I’ve been seeing this person a long time and I usually floss the night before the appointment. As I was doing it I thought dentist won’t be in tomorrow, I just know it. And hey presto, first thing this morning I get a message saying they are dealing with a family emergency.

There’s been various things like this and it’s started around two or three years ago. Another was when I had the most vivid dream about a woman I had not so much thought of in years, to find around 4 days later she had in fact died.

I just wondered if anyone else had experienced this. It really unsettles me. I have read around the topic and know rationally that often you can tell if something can change and just by small and subconscious things that your brain picks up on it… but of course that doesn’t explain the dentist scenario or the lady I dreamt about as I had no contact or anything at all to ‘go off’ when I had these feelings and thoughts. There’s been lots more like this too.

You didn’t want to go to the dentist ad you were really nervous and was willing him to cancel.

By pure coincidence, the dentist cancelled and now you’re wondering whether you willed it!

@Emilybemily8 I did want to go to the dentist though. I love having my teeth cleaned!

That’s really interesting. I mean, the obvious reason is coincidence but equally, it might not be. How often do you have these incidents?

I think some people do have greater intuition than others.
It might seem woo to us but I think there’s likely science we don’t understand behind it and some are just more receptive to it than others.
I have a friend who sometimes tells me things she couldn’t possibly know through anything other than an enhanced ability to read her surroundings. Similar to the lady you dreamt about.
She always says everyone has autonomy though, so you can set an intention you don’t want to receive these thoughts.

I'm a bit 'woo' about life in general but I think, logically, this will come down to pattern recognition and a smidge of cynicism. You were keen for your dentist appointment so perhaps subconsciously thought something like "wouldn't it be sods law if they cancelled? Probably a waste to even floss" - then yes, sods law occurs. But it's not psychic, it's just life and unfortunate coincidence.

Re. the dream about the woman who died - when did she die? If she died the night you dreamt about her, that might be weird. If she'd died a month/week/year prior and you only found out soon after (probably because she was on your mind & you sought out the information), they aren't related at all.

I think the fact that you mention these situations are usually related to 'dark' things does back up the theory that it's you thinking the worst and life goes that way sometimes.

I’m exactly the same but I don’t dwell on it. It’s got nothing to do with subconscious but I wouldn’t call them premonitions either. I can’t describe it really but it’s been happening for over 10 years now.

On the side of rational explanation, some of this can be explained by confirmation bias. For example, the woman who died. You say you hadn't thought of her in years, but it's quite possible in that time that you did think of her fleetingly, or she might even have appeared in a dream, but because nothing of significance happened afterwards, you forgot it quickly afterwards.

You remember this dream only because you found out she'd died a few days later. If that hadn't happened you probably wouldn't remember it, at least on a conscious level.

I am open-minded about these things - I have had some 'unexplained' experiences myself, but it's easy to get carried away - a good grounding technique is to ask yourself how often it hasn't happened by comparison to how often it has - how often do you dream about people and nothing whatsoever happens to them afterwards? It puts it into perspective.

Yeah, I usually get this before something bad happens. Not life changing or horrible. More that I have a strong feeling something is going to happen and it always does.

Next time you’re flossing can you think how great it would be for JustWantsSomeSleep to win the lottery tomorrow?

@JustWantsSomeSleep 😃😃 do my best! Do I get a cut? 😂

I agree sometimes the subconscious picks up on things. Your friends micro expression when you agreed the meet up that subconsciously told you she wasn't keen, so you 'foresee' she will cancel. Spotting that someone looks unwell out of the corner of your mind, and 'predicting' their illness. Some people are extra observant with a strong empathy and understanding of the behaviour of others, and so are more likely to anticipate what they will do.
Than theres the stopped clock effect, once the idea you have this ability takes hold, the twice you're right stays in your memory and affirms you and you take no heed of the times you were wrong.

I believe this too. I often have similar happen to me. Sometimes we’ll book something and I’ll be really excited and we go and have a great time. But sometimes we’ll book things and I won’t get excited because I just have a feeling that we won’t end up going (even if it’s something I’m desperate to do) and then lo and behold, it ends up being cancelled.

I often suddenly think of one of my DCs and literally 3 seconds later a text will appear from them, or we’ll text each other at exactly the same time. Given that we don’t even text every day, but this happens about once a week means that it’s far too frequent to be a coincidence.

I don’t believe it’s ‘woo’, I think there’s a scientific reason for it and we just don’t understand it yet.

@LookingThroughGlass i suppose that’s true I’ve thought of it in retrospect. But then again it was definitely a really really vivid thing, in lots of detail, such that the morning afterwards I was thinking about it.

Co-incidence and confirmation bias.

You can't see the future. You'll just be remembering the times when you think something is going to happen and it does, and forgetting all the times when you think something is going to happen and it doesn't.

I don’t think either scenario is mystic as such.

Ive dreamed of people I’ve not thought of in years - none have died though so I never think anything of it.

Ditto dentist/doctors whatever - I often have a pessimistic feeling something will be cancelled or messed up and sometimes I’m right. When I’m not I probably forget all about it.

I’m sorry I don’t have anything to add to this, I am on the fence whether it could be a coincidence or more. I feel like some things in life are really unexplained.

This does however lead me to me to say, I love stories like this! Is there a ‘woo’ section on MN? 🤣 I’m thinking about the famous MN story of the ghost in the woods which does the rounds every year or so, someone will bring it back up. Can anyone else share any other woo stories? I loveeeee!

Well, it’s never a waste of time flossing, remember only do the ones you want to keep!😁

I’ve had a similar thing many times although it’s got less as I've got older. Mine were things usually about 5 years before they happened, always very random events that stuck in my mind almost like dreams but vivid flashes of mundane things in the future. Never the lottery numbers sadly! Things like a house I’d be living in or a conversation about something random. It happened right from quite a young child but has definitely tailed off the last 10 yrs or so. I’m in my 50’s now.
I do think there is probably much more to our brains than we realise.
A few weeks ago I suddenly announced “Dave’s died” Dave being an acquaintance of both DH and I of 20yrs or so, someone we’d bump into maybe once a year for 30min, but I’m not even sure of his surname…sure enough a couple of months later someone else confirmed that he had died a few weeks before my announcement. He was in his 60’s and died suddenly of a heart event I’m told. That made DH look at me a bit warily!

DH has always worked random hours at random places, sometimes home at 3pm sometimes 10pm, long before tracking apps on smart phones were a thing he had a dog that would get up and go and lye by the back door when he was on his way and 30min from home. Never found anyone who could explain that!

Once I randomly dreamed that someone famous died. I even dreamed the way in which they died. The next day I heard on the news that they had, in fact, died. Some time later the details added up too. It was plain weird as I wasn't particularly interested in the person or been thinking about them.

I subscribe to Carl Jungs idea of the collective unconscious.

Really interesting. You should start a ‘premonition diary’ where you write down every time this happens and see how often you are right. It may be that you have a particular ability (I do believe this is possible, the capacity of the mind is way beyond our understanding), or you may find that lots of your ‘premonitions’ don’t come to pass.

This happens to me sometimes, it feels quite odd. I also just get a weird, sick feeling sometimes, when I know something just isn't right.

There is indeed a Woo section on MN!

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/the_unexplained

I also don’t believe in anything mystical or magical but I have always felt déjà vu really often and very clearly. I have had many vivid dreams that I have then seen happen/experienced ‘again’ in real life.

Weird human brains.

I've had a couple of these situations happen to me but I honestly think it is just down to coincidence as much as I'd like to think I can predict the future.
For example there is a local football pitch on one of the routes I take for a walk sometimes and I always think to myself evertime I walk past, I hope the ball doesn't come flying over the fence and hit me. One day about 10 years ago I had this thought whilst walking past and the football did indeed fly over the fence and smack me straight in the face 🤣 (really hurt actually!) However I still have the same thought every time I walk past and it has never happened since so it is just coincidence.
I even picked up my phone last week and said out loud to a friend oh I havent recieved my amazon delivery yet and instantly my phone pinged with an email to say it had just been delivered!
I often have a vivid occurring dream that a specific friend of mine tells me shes pregnant, in fact this friend doesn't want children and although shes not too old yet im pretty certain she will never have kids so I dont know why I dream it so often as it feels like a premonition but never is.

Life is full of these wonderful coincidences 🙂

Quantum entanglement? I’ve no idea but it’s a known phenomenon and there’s likely an explanation in science that we just haven’t fully uncovered yet.