Information about Precognition

Paranormal Terminology
Nostradamus was thought by some to have the ability to predict future events.
Details
Terminology:	Precognition
Definition:	The ability to perceive events in the future through the use of Psi
Signature:	The ability to perceive future events through means other than deduction
Miscellaneous
See Also:	Prescience, Anomalous cognition, Retrocognition

Precognition (from the Latin præ-, “prior to,” + cognitio, “a getting to know”) denotes a form of extra-sensory perception wherein a person is said to perceive information about places or events through paranormal means before they happen.^[1][2] A related term, presentiment, refers to information about future events which is said to be perceived as emotions. These terms are considered by some to be special cases of the more general term clairvoyance.

Those skeptical of the existence of precognition and other forms of ESP believe it to be the result of fraud or self-delusion and contend that selection bias is the cause of the belief that one has precognition where individuals remember the "hits" and forget the "misses". Skeptics contend that the human memory naturally has a tendency to remember coincidences more often then other non-coincidences and thus individuals tend to remember more frequently when they were correct about a future event and forget the instances when they were wrong.^[3]

History and research

J. W. Dunne, a British aeronautics engineer, undertook the first systematic study of precognition in the early twentieth century. In 1927, he published the classic An Experiment with Time, which contained his findings and theories. Dunne's study was based on his own precognitive dreams, which involved both trivial incidents in his own life and major news events appearing in the press the day after the dream. When first realizing that he was seeing the future in his dreams, Dunne worried that he was "a freak." His worries soon eased when he discovered that precognitive dreams are common; he concluded that many people have them without realizing it, perhaps because they do not recall the details or fail to properly interpret the dream symbols.^[4] Joseph Banks Rhine and Louisa Rhine began the next significant systematic research of precognition in the 1930s at the Parapsychology Laboratory at Duke University. Rhine used card-guessing experiments in which the participant was asked to record his guess of the order of a card deck before the deck was shuffled.^[5]

London psychiatrist J. A. Barker established the British Premonitions Bureau in 1967, which collected precognitive data in order to provide an early warning system of impending disasters. Barker succeeded in finding a number of "human seismographs" who tuned in regularly to disasters, but were unable to accurately pinpoint the times. The Princeton Engineering Anomalies Research Lab is one of the more recent examples of attempts to study precognition, it began in 1979 with precognitive experiments have since been done in a variety of formats by various parapsychologists, for example by the remote viewing researchers. This facility is closed down in 2007. ^[6]

Skepticism

The existence of precognition is disputed by those who believe that there is a lack of scientific evidence supporting the existence of precognition and who contend that examples of what are commonly thought to be precognition can be explained naturally without evoking supernatural abilities.^[3] Skeptics point to the fact that the human memory has a tendency to selectively recall coincidences and forget all of the other examples where, for example, dreams and other thoughts do not come to be. Examples include thinking of a specific individual right before the individual thought of calls on the phone. Human memory has a tendency to remember the instances where the individual thought of calls and forget the instances where the individual calls when not thought of just prior to calling. This is an example of selection bias and skeptics assert that examples of precognition are better explained using psychology and natural human tendencies opposed to supernatural or paranormal powers.^[8]

In fiction

Further information:

• In the Star Wars franchise, both the Jedi and Sith are granted precognitive abilities through mastery of The Force. Allowing them to predict probable future events and to react to events that have not yet happened; giving them the appearance of possessing super human reflexes in combat.
• In the TV series Heroes, the characters Isaac Mendez, Peter Petrelli and Sylar have the ability to see and paint pictures from the future, although only Issac had this power originally; Sylar and Peter both acquired it from him.
• Horror author Stephen King uses precognition in some of his novels, most notably The Shining and The Dead Zone, where a man can see the immediate future or past by touching an object relating to the subject of his prediction.
• Precognition, and the implications of wielding a power like it, plays a significant role in Frank Herbert's Dune series, in which precognition is essential to faster than light space travel.
• Many Marvel/DC character possess the power of precognition, including Destiny of the X-Men comics and Lilith from Teen Titans series. Spider-Man's "spider-sense" is also a limited precognitive sense
• Minority Report features 3 precognitives that predict crimes before they happen within a 200 mile radius of a future Washington D.C.
• In the anime series Weiss Kreuz, one of the antagonists Brad Crawford is a pre-cog.

See also

• Parapsychology
• Premonition
• Prescience
• Anomalous cognition
• Déjà vu
• Second sight
• Postcognition

References

External links

• Precognition, Presentiment & Remote Viewing - Dean Radin
• The Best Case for ESP?
• Failed Psychic Predictions for 1998
• A simple experiment for validating Dream Precognition
• Online Psi Experiments Links to precognition experiments (Parapsych.org affiliate of the AAAS)
• The Scottish Government - The work of precognition agents in criminal cases This report examines the small-scale use of precognition agents in Scotland