Premonition research needs to be discussed against the background of the concept of "One Mind," the title of Larry Dossey's latest book.  See this interview in which Dossey explains the basis of this revolutionary idea:

http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=larry+dossey+one+mind+youtube&&view=detail&m...

With that interview as background, let's turn to the subject of this thread which is discussed in Dossey's prior book:

"THE SCIENCE OF PREMONITIONS:" A Book by Dr. Larry Dossey:

By "science," Dossey has in mind replicable lab experiments that confirm compelling anecdotal cases and suggest that we all potentially have this ability, an ability which can be transformed into a gift of the Holy Spirit, when it is used to edify Christians for God's glory. In the 2nd post of my thread on Speaking in Tongues and Spirit Baptism, I describe the electrifying experience that seems to have activated by potential to have regular premonitions. See the intriguing Dossey interview below:

http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q...3D3569D21757F924BBFD3D3569D21757F92&FORM=V...

For me, the real "scientific" question here is this: When do mere "coincidences" become so improbable that it becomes reasonable to invoke paranormal causal agency apart from the space/ time continuum. For this thread I will initially focus on my own frequent experiences of premonitions. I invite readers to discuss these testimonies and post their own experiences with this phenomena. In my view, the premonitions I'll share establish the existence of a spiritual dimension. Here is my first premonitory experience:
(1) At age 19, I was a Winnipeg college student. About 5 years my senior, my friend Dallas was the leader of our church youth group of about 150. I had just been Best Man at his wedding and was now invited to the newlyweds post-Christmas dinner. After eating, we played table tennis in their basement. Dallas mentioned that he was going deer hunting in northern Manitoba the next day and I instantly felt a sense of dread. It seemed as if I saw his skeleton and was certain that he would be killed in an accident if he went on this trip. Horrified, I felt compelled to share my premonition with him. He was offended and blamed my so-called premonition on my anti-hunting views. I had no such views, though I've never gone hunting myself. What could I do? I had no evidence beyond my certainty. I guess I hoped God would confirm my premonition to Dallas.

A few days later, we had a New Year's Eve service at our church. What happened when I arrived at the church was straight out of a horror movie. 3 young girls in our youth group approached me, giggling, and said. You do know that Dallas was killed yesterday in a hunting accident. He was riding a snowmobile with his gun placed near him and hit a bump. The resulting jolt caused his rifle to discharge into his shoulder. He bled to death before his hunting buddies got him to a doctor. The girls giggled and one said to the other, "Wow, I guess we sure ruined his day!" It was as if Hell was taunting me for my friendship with Dallas! What was so funny about their youth leader's death? I charitably assumed that their was just a nervous laughter. I later obsessed over what this tragedy meant. Why was I given this premonition if it would be useless to prevent his death? And was his death predestined fate?




Don-

Another thought about premonitions. There are countless stories about people who change travel plans  (as just one example) based on a premonition and subsequently learn that the plane they intended to take crashed with no survivors. Or stories from 9/11 where someone had a bad feeling about going to work that day and called in sick.

Almost invariably they consider it to be a warning from God or a guardian angel or the like. And they conclude, to use a well worn expression, that "God must have plans for me".

On the other hand more than 3000 people were killed on 9/11.
Does that mean that the balance of their lives were somehow all that unimportant or less important? Does God play favorites? If God is given thanks for these premonitions, does that mean He should be blamed for ignoring the victims? Or maybe He did and they didn't pick up on it?

I'm not sure about the spirituality of these phenomena. Maybe so, but maybe there's something else at work. Some sort of protocol we just can't grasp.

My own life was saved when I was a young boy but I am quite sure it wasn't because I was singled out over all the kids who were killed in car accidents or by other causes. For me it remains a mystery.

R

Don, I think we all have a propensity to give meaning to our experiences and the denotations we give come from our beliefs.  For example, most people feel a premonition is received as a message from God or other being as an indication that some kind of action is required, but that's not necessarily true.  Sometimes, perhaps most of the time, what we call a premonition is nothing more than knowing something before it happens.  It doesn't always mean it can be prevented from happening, nor does it mean we need to try to prevent something from happening.

When attending a birthday party I had a premonition (knew) that a woman I'd just met would within a month be diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and that she would die within a few months.  If I'd walked up to her and said something to her she would have thought I was not only nuts, but intrusive.  And at that stage it wouldn't have changed a thing anyway.  There was no reason for me to know this, yet I did.  Sometimes we just know things and it really is just as simple as that.

  I also don't understand what was up with those girls. It almost sounds like they were temporarily possessed, or they felt like they had a hand in his death (maybe they were experimenting with hexes or the like?).  Either way, a very, very odd reaction. 

   The future is not fixed, and most of us have at least a couple various probable exit points at different times and of different causes. 

   Over the years my spouse has had a number of dreams which indicated that I would die fairly young (one dream mentioned in my mid 40's). Both of us have had a lot of precognitive dreams, and can usually tell the more symbolic ones apart from the more literal, precognitive ones.  These dreams of her seem to be a way for her Expanded self to prepare her emotionally for my probable early death. 

  Yet, the last dream that she had related to this theme seemed to indicate that things were not necessarily set in stone.  In the dream, we were on a spaceship with another person, an accident happened and to survive, we had to put on helmets/suits to survive.  The group was one helmet short, and I voluntarily gave it up though we knew it meant I would die. She was very upset, and became angry, and kicked the ship. When she did that, an unnoticed compartment opened up with an extra helmet, which meant that I would live after all. 

   There could be other meanings to the dream, but it seemed to be speaking to the whole, probable early death thing, as it comes up once in awhile between us. If so, it could be saying that it doesn't necessarily have to take place. Personally speaking, except for leaving my spouse and our future children behind, I have no problem at all with dying young. 

Yes Justin. Don't know if you have read The Screwtape Letters but E. S. Lewis understood this, including the mechanics.

R

  I decided to erase my last two posts--too off topic to the thread. 

An edit to correct some info in the above post (I wasn't able to edit the above post directly anymore).  The NT does also mention the above incident as well, in Jude 1:9. Hence, it's not necessarily a confirmation or verification between the Dead Sea Scrolls and Cayce's info. 

Berserk is back--but as The Donald!   In my most recent attempts to return and post, I received a form spoofing warning and a virus.  Bruce reregistered me under this name, but I got another form spoofing warning.   And the whole site looked different.  Recently I was delighted to get an E-mail from Rondele, Kathy, and Matthew that has prompted me to give it another try.  So far so good.

I will continue posting on this thread and will also start new ones that reflect my current thinking and recent paranormal experiences.  I'm particularly interested on how oldtime posters have changed their minds over the years. 

I moved to northeast Washington from Buffalo in 2007 to pastor a United Methodist church and be closer to my elderly parents in Kelowna, BC.  But in the past 3 years, both parents passed, and that removed my main reason for living here (Colville).  I retired in July, 2015, but after much thought, I've decided to stay here in Colville.  I would have responded to those e-mails sooner, but I've been asked by troubled strangers to performs memorial services for loved ones, and I find that and accompanying sessions exhausting but very rewarding, including the inevitable spectacular paranormal experiences that attend the deaths.

One of my major beefs against Trump (The Donald) is that he trivializes all us minor Donalds as just "a Donald."  So I decided to rebel and post on various game sites as "The Donald."  To my great surprise and delight, some came to believe that I was actually Trump!  Being a practical joker, I began to channel Trump, using repetitious phrases and overusing trademark words like "great" "beautiful," and "tremendous."  Other posts caught the joke and joined in the ruse, thus persuading more gullible posters.  Of course, this meant I also got hate posts for Trump's many missteps, but I valiantly defended the indefensible to get more "fans."  For example, I remarked how delighted Melania was with the expansive White House bathrooms, and other women began discussing their efforts to get their husbands to remodel their own bathrooms.  Anyway, on this site, I will trot out the more serious me and hopefully renew acquaintances with old friends. 

I'm delighted that Dude has posted a thread on my flawed hero, Swedenborg, and I will diligently try to track down my old thread.  The only thing I have against Dude is that he once started the only thread that is longer than my ES thread.   

Well, we finally coerced Don to return! Welcome back. I was thinking of you when I read this post from seagull. I would add a long time question of my own- yes, Jesus died for us. But since Jesus knew that he would return to heaven, doesn't that diminish the sacrifice?

Anyway here is seagull's post:
     
Re: Emanuel Swedenborg

"I have to say, I looked at some of the links, Dude. I got to the animal sacrifice links while clicking on your suggestions randomly. I was so repulsed by the content that I thought, oh, that's why I don't read the Bible. Then, I saw all the content regarding Jesus being the sacrifice for our sins and I realized that it was equally repulsive to me for the simple reason that any God that required or approved of such a thing follows no logic I can comprehend. But, that's just me".      

Your response appreciated. And I'm sure it will be the most beautiful, elegant and magnificent response ever posted on the ak forum since, after all, you are The Donald, and our expectations are high!

R

Hi Don,

   I've had a number of issues with this site in recent times as well.  I've had to change my password some 6 to 8 times now within a period of a month or so, because I kept getting username/password do not match messages (while entering in both correctly).  At first I thought it was Bruce doing it, because he had banned me awhile back, but currently I don't think he had anything to do with it, since another member told me similar happened to them, and they are in good graces with Bruce. 

But yes, something whacky sure is going on at this site.  It seems that the security certificates haven't been updated since my web browser says the site and the connection to same is not secure. 

  I don't really know enough about computers, the internet, etc to know what's really going on, and if this site is being attacked or targeted by immature hacker types or not. 

   I tend to think of you more as "The Don", more like in the Godfather mafia based movies, than the President, but that's just me (I'm joking).

   Just the Justin whose been on this site for some 11/12 years. 

Recoverer 2 wrote on Apr 26^th, 2017 at 10:28pm:


  I get the sense of A LOT of Oy Veys, some definite head shaking, occasional laughing, sometimes weeping, and once in awhile, a combo of two or more of the above at the same time.     
   

Perhaps also, some gnashing of teeth. 

I doubt that Jesus views this site as a ghetto. I believe he is way beyond trying to feel good about himself by looking down at others as ghetto dwellers.

Quote:

I believe it was disrespectful for Don to use the term "New Age Ghetto" at this forum.

2 PREMONITIONS AT PRINCETON [but not my last one there, which will be treated separately in my next planned post, because it was one of the most beautiful experiences of my life.]

(2) My next premonition after Dallas's accidental shooting happened just before Christmas at Princeton Seminary. I regularly dined with a great and very witty guy named Ted in our refectory. Ted already had 2 masters degrees and had just been accepted into the NT doctoral program at Cambridge U in England. I went to his dorm room to borrow his Cambridge catalogue, so I could apply to Cambridge as one of my potential grad schools. When Ted gave me the catalogue, I again seemed to see his skeleton in a premonition that his death was imminent. This time, though, I said nothing because I had no idea where the danger lay and, in any case, I had been unsuccessful in deterring Dallas from his hunting trip. When I returned to seminary after Christmas vacation, I learned that Ted and his friend Ken were driving home for Christmas together, but their car spun out on ice and crashed into a pole. Ken broke his arm, but Ted was killed. When I reflected on why I was given this premonition, the only interpretation that made sense was that I was meant to pray that Ted would be spared. Unfortunately, I could not bring myself to accept that the premonition was accurate and instead just tried to put it out of my mind. But I would soon learn that my premonitions were always accurate.

(3) My next premonition at Princeton Seminary came in the form of a nightmare in which my life was threatened and I pleaded with God for mercy. The next day, I drove to the Newark College of Engineering, where I was doing field work as a chaplain assistant. As I was driving home in the dark on a freeway, my motor suddenly died and my car slowed to a stop. I was fortunate to walk off the freeway through the heavy traffic and my car was totaled by another car shortly thereafter. I called 2 friends, Mike and Peter, from my dorm and they came and picked me up. Both of them said they too had experienced a nightmare the night before. At least in this case, the premonition seems intended to alert me to my personal danger and to induce me to pray for God's protection.


L

(4) My next premonition is not the most evidential, but I experienced it as part of the 2nd most spiritually profound day of my life. [ I'll share the most spiritually profound day in the section "Religions and Their Beliefs" under a more appropriate heading.]

I was in the final 2 months of my senior year at Princeton Seminary. I had applied to various doctoral programs in New Testament and Judaism, but since I was 16, I had always dreamed of getting my doctorate at Harvard. As a 16 year old soccer player in Canada, I received a serious eye injury that threatened me with blindness and my Winnipeg doctor urged me to have the surgery in Boston. So my Dad accompanied me on the long train rides to Montreal and then to Boston, and a kind Christian Armenian couple took me in as a total stranger, while I convalesced from the surgery. Mr. Chorlian drove me around Boston and eventually around Harvard, bragging about how great a university it was. In my time of crisis, I needed a dream and the thought of getting a Harvard doctorate became that dream. But now in my last 2 months at Princeton, my friends were warning me that I had no chance of admission because I lacked a sufficient academic background for the program.

At Princeton, I had taken a preaching class with George, but he wasn't really a friend. Still, somehow he heard about my dream from a friend and decided to pay me a visit in my dorm room. When I opened the door, George just radiated warmth and love. He said, "Don, I've been praying for you, and the Lord has given me assurance that you will be accepted at Harvard soon." At once, my anxiety vanished and George's premonition about me became mine as well.

The next evening started horrendously. Anne, an attractive fellow student, came to my dorm room in a rage, accusing me of calling her on the phone and telling her she was too emotionally unstable to be a seminarian. I liked Anne because she had been a great comfort to me when my close friend had been killed in a car wreck. How could she think I'd do such a thing? Well, I was a friend of her boyfriend John who had just broken up with her, and I guess she wrongly thought he had confided in me about the break-up; and the guy who called her must have sounded like me.

In the midst of Anne's harangue, there was another knock at my door. I was told there was a phone call for me on the pay phone in the middle of the dorm. I excused myself and raced to the phone. It was John Strugnell, the Harvard professor who controlled the Dead sea Scrolls at the time, calling to inform me of my acceptance with a scholarship. Imagine my emotional roller coaster ride from false accusation to the news that fulfilled a long-time dream! When I returned to my room, Anne demanded to know who that was, and her jaw dropped when I told her. Evidently, she feared that John was calling me to warn me about her imminent tirade!

Suddenly, her mood changed and, alarmed, she asked me, "Are you OK?" I mumbled, "Fine, under the circumstances. Why?" She replied, "Because your right hand is gushing blood from the palm and is streaming onto your pants!" At that time, I had always dismissed stigmata as a Catholic superstition and I have never experienced this before or since. But my "stigmata" evidently convinced Anne of my innocence and she hastily left my room. I just sat there with a beautiful blend of elation and sorrow, as I thanked God for George's kind intercessory prayer in my behalf. The providential timing of these events served as a powerfully loving reminder that God has my back and wanted to make me aware of His protective hand in an unforgettably dramatic way.  Even now, I often savor the sweetness of His presence in those 2 days. 

I can't recall any subsequent conversation with George.  I wish I could track him down to make him aware of how momentous his thoughtful prayer and follow-up visit had on my life.







May 31, 2016
Report

TWO PREMONITIONS DURING MY HARVARD DAYS:

(6) A young woman I had dated briefly in Boston asked me to take her to the New England Flower Show. Reluctantly, I agreed to do so. After I got all flowered out, I noticed a card reader at a table who charged $5 for a reading. Bored and curious, I walked up to her, paid the $5, and sat for her reading. Let me first confess that I have never done anything like this before or since, and would not recommend dabbling in any form of divination. I report this experience only to illustrate how the mind can have paranormal premonitions that it receives from its ability to operate outside the spatial-temporal realm.

The lady asked me to draw 3 cards. As she looked at them, she made these 3 points:
(a) She observed, "Stop seeing that woman (my date); she's not your type." I'm glad my date was not within earshot. The card reader was right, but how did she know that woman was not my wife?
(b) She then told me that very soon I'd be actively involved in working with children, and that I was ideally suited to do so. I skeptically thought, "I'm a single doctoral student with little time on my hands, and I don't want to have anything to do with children right now."
(c) Thirdly, she told me that I would soon be offered a job in a very exotic place, but that I should turn the offer down. I told her, "I haven't even applied for any jobs. I'm half way through my Harvard doctoral thesis and a job would take me away from my research." She smiled and reassured me that the job offer was imminent. I was stunned to discover that predictions (b) and (c) were fulfilled within a couple of days.

(b) The next day my dissertation advisor called me to ask why I was overdue on my latest dissertation chapter. I made excuses, but soon learned that this was not the real purpose of his call. He said that was the President of the Arlington Youth Soccer Association and that he needed a coach for an under-12 boys team. He had overheard me say at a social function that I used to play soccer in Canada. I reluctantly agreed to coach the team. It proved to be one of my most satisfying recreational experiences ever. Those boys became like the sons I'd never have as a single man. In my 2nd year of coaching the team, we made it all the way to the county championship game of our section of Greater Boston (losing 2-1). I coached youth soccer for the next 5 years and loved it.

(c) Within 2 days of my encounter with the card reader, I received a stunning phone call. It was from the chair of the department of religious studies at Memorial University in St. John's, Newfoundland. He was offering me a summer teaching position, which I declined. He got my name from someone at the University of Toronto. The card reader had told me that I'd receive a job offer from an "exotic" place; and to me, Newfoundland is about as exotic as it gets! She had rightly advised me to turn down the job offer.

(7) I was developing a friendship with Linda, an attractive young Harvard grad student who was separated from her unfaithful husband. She was wrestling with the question of whether it was right to divorce him. She had recently prayed about this and then felt prompted to quickly open her Bible to the first verse her eyes glanced--Jesus' prohibition against divorce in Mark 10:11-12. She asked me whether I thought his was a valid way to find divine guidance.

I responded that her method was called bibliomancy, which was a form of divination and, as such, might fit within the category of the Bible's prohibition against divination. On the other hand, St. Francis of Assisi had used this method in deciding whether a certain candidate was a good choice to be one of his followers; and I myself once used bibliomancy to receive a sign of God's guidance for a difficult decision and had immediately received a very specific answer that turned out to be valid.

While pondering what else to say, I suddenly blurted out, "Linda, give me yourBible!" In the split second, I held it, I instantly jammed my finger inside and found it pointing to Deuteronomy 24:1, which endorses divorce for anything the man finds objectionable in a wife. Now Linda's Bible was the thickest Bible I had ever seen because of all the detailed notes at the bottom of each page and I'd never seen it before. There is no way I could have found that verse in the split second I took to point my finger inside this Bible.

A stunned Linda wryly exclaimed, "So are you claiming that your guidance trumps my guidance?" I replied, "No, Linda, I once used this method and received effective guidance. But then I got obsessed and thought, "Wow, I'm going to use that method for all my major decisions!" To my dismay, I found that I could routinely instantly find a perfect verse to address the issue I had in mind. But this method lacked any predictive efficacy and proved to be useless as a tool for future guidance. So what I'm saying, Linda, is that there can be a thin line between genuine divine guidance and the meaningless paranormal ability to instantly find texts that suit your goal. So I'd advise you to study everything the Bible says on this subject and then listen for God's guiding impulse, but don't trust bibliomancy. It can be unreliable." Linda got the divorce. What amazes me in retrospect is my premonition that pulling this stunt on Linda would actually work very well.

I later shared this story with a professor friend and his wife and they challenged me to see if I could perform this feat with their Bible! They handed me their Bible and said, "Why don't you see if you can zap your finger onto a verse about some kind of grain or chemical? I did and twice in a row, my finger instantly pointed to a verse that mentioned "wheat!"

(8) My next premonition was clearly one of the most edifying and I do consider it a manifestation of "the word of knowledge (1Corinthians 12:8)." I had just finished my year of teaching and was looking forward to a much needed vacation. It was Friday and I was contemplating travel plans, when I was overwhelmed by a premonition of an imminent death that would affect my life. But who and how? The more I tried to put my sense of dread out of my mind the stronger the impression grew. By Sunday, I feared it might be a premonition of the death of a close family member. That Monday morning, I was about to bolt out of my door to have breakfast at a favorite restaurant, when an inner voice seemed to shout, "Sit down! You are about to hear about the death!" Stunned, I sat down by the phone and instantly it rang. It was the professor in charge of our summer graduate theology program. She told me that Cassian, a visiting Catholic professor, had not shown up for his first class (Pauline Theology); so some students went to the on campus apartment where he was staying and got no answer to their knocking. University officials opened the apartment and found Cassian dead in bed. My colleague said she didn't want to cancel the class and that I was the only professor still around qualified to teach that course. I agreed and had an unusually fulfilling teaching experience with a group of very intellectually curious grad students. In this case, I feel that God was preparing me to sacrifice my vacation plans, despite my fatigue, to fulfill a teaching role I might otherwise have rejected.