Precognition can be defined as knowledge of an event before it occurs. In other words, precognition is future sight. Those with precognitive abilities receive indications of future events in their dreams. Precognitive experiences are unusual experiences of receiving prior information about an event that is yet to occur. Precognitions are mostly experienced in dreams (that is, in sleep state and not in the state of wakefulness). They could be dreams of the unfortunate, like a natural disaster, accident or death; or indications of something good, like a birth in the family, the end of a war, or a new invention. Precognitions of the future are believed to be using the gateway of sleep to enter your mind. Your mind processes the information and gives you an indication about your future. The idea of knowing the future is not as interesting as it sounds. Precognitive experiences are not as exciting as they seem to be. And how can they? How can knowing something you are not supposed to, be pleasant? How can interpreting information that your brain is not designed to process, be interesting? The idea of having knowledge about the future is thrilling. There is this strange kind of attraction towards knowing the future, because of which the thought of having precognitive dreams seems exciting. But not remembering the dreams clearly or interpreting them incorrectly may lead you to nothing more than stress and worry. They are dreams that foretell incidents of the future. Precognition dreams are often correlated to premonition dreams; there's a small difference though. Precognitive dreams are those dreams which give knowledge of the future. They give future sight; which means that an individual acquires future information that cannot be deduced through sensory perception. These dreams convey information that is not derivable from presently available data. It is something beyond normal human understanding and this makes precognitive dreams, a parapsychological process of perception. These dreams provide the means to obtain information that is not obtainable through one's physical senses. They may foretell a future event, predict its result or provide information about an object, location or person. Precognition in dreams is a form of communication that requires no physical channel. It is a form of extra-sensory perception, close to clairvoyance. Extensive research has been done to explore the various facets of precognitive dreaming. It has been observed that precognitions are associated with that part of the brain which controls feelings. It has been found that individuals with a creative bent of mind receive precognitions of better clarity. Also, the rate of those precognitions turning true is higher in creative people. It is also observed that individuals who practice yoga or meditation on a regular basis receive clearer precognitions of the future and the rate of those turning true is again higher in them. This means, you have chances of receiving precognitions about things you are best tuned to. Greater emotional involvement in someone or something leads your mind to imagine future occurrences pertaining to that person or object, which might give you a feel of having precognitions about them. And they may turn true; sometimes for occult reasons, sometimes for reasons clearly seen and at times, it's sheer coincidence. There are records of some classic examples of precognitions in dreams. The question in all these situations is whether the precognitive dreamers could have changed their future. ▸ It is said that Abraham Lincoln had a dream of a funeral at the White house, just two weeks prior to his assassination. In the dream, he saw himself asking someone about who was in the casket. The reply had been, "President of the United States". ▸ Mark Twain had a precognitive dream, in which he had seen his brother in a casket. Unfortunately, a week later, his brother died. ▸ The Roman Emperor Marcian had a dream in which he saw the bow of Attila the Hun breaking. It was on the night of Attila's death. ▸ Joan of Arc had seen her own death in a prophetic dream. ▸ Golfer Jack Nicklaus is said to have found a new way of holding his golf club in a dream. ▸ Einstein is said to have conceived the theory of relativity in a dream. ▸ One more example of a precognition in dreams was with the sinking of Titanic. After the ill-fated ship sank, there were reports of many having canceled their trip on account of precognitive dreams they had about the shipwreck. Reportedly, there were some who could interpret their dreams the right way and save their lives, while there were many others who could not interpret their dream or simply ignored it. Precognitive dreams are associated with psychic abilities. Supposedly, individuals who possess psychic powers have prophetic dreams, and precognitive experiences are a form of psychic dreaming.

• Psychic dreams can be in the form of telepathy, that is when there is no physical communication channel and the communication is believed to take place from mind to mind.
• Or they can be in the form of precognitive dreams, which means that an individual receives precognitions about the future through dreams.

The concept of precognitions in dreams is not new. You will find instances of precognitive dreams in the Bible. In the olden times, dreams were believed to be messages from God. Precognitive dreaming is closely related to dream divination and prophetic dreams, which, according to Hebrew prophets can be of help in changing the future. Aristotle in his On Divination in Sleep, disagrees with the proposition that precognitive dreams are messages sent from God. With his argument that such dreams are experienced by commoners and not by the best or the wisest, he chooses to classify them as mere coincidences. Freud in his Interpretation of Dreams had stated that dreams are associated with fulfillment of wishes and have no link with the psychic. However, with further research on precognition, his theory evolved into accepting the existence of the occult. Prophetic dreams are those which tell you about the future and may give you a chance to change it. Scientists argue that prophetic dreams appear to come true because you are willing to believe in them. As dreams are easily forgotten, chances are that you self-edit the dream content to match it with real incidents. While some prefer to call these dreams mere coincidences, others believe that the subconscious perceives things much before the conscious and its perception is communicated to you through dreams. Precognitions in dreams are considered to be about events which are not under your control. However, it is considered possible to interpret them right and take the necessary precautions. The technique of lucid dreaming can help you change the future based on your dreams. A lucid dreamer is aware of his dream and can participate in manipulating what is happening in the dream. Hence, technically, one might be able to change the future by changing what's seen in one's precognitive dream. Precognitions in dreams can also be attributed to intuition (derived from the Latin word intueri meaning to look inside). It's a gut feeling about whether something is right or wrong; it's a feeling you can't give a reason for. You may have intuitions through dreams. Often this intuition is based on the knowledge you have acquired over a large span of time which is stored in your subconscious mind. Feelings emerging at the subconscious level may not have a logical reasoning every time. The subconscious mind can go beyond the known realms of human knowledge and understanding. As stated earlier, there are some people who possess precognitive abilities, or that they claim so. While some regard precognitive experiences as co-incidences and precognitive abilities as fake, there are others who proclaim precognitive abilities as being God's bliss. Some say that there is nothing mystic about precognitive abilities. Precognition is merely a transfer of energy through non-recognizable channels. Precognitive abilities can manifest themselves in dreams, flashes or through intuition. Studies show that there are many individuals who possess precognitive abilities, but they fail to recognize them. It is said that the more you use your precognitive abilities, the better, as recognizing and using your precognitive experiences for the right, sharpens your ability to do so. Ironically, many a precognitive experiences go unnoticed as they are not recognized as indications of the future. It is up to us to recognize the precognitive abilities we possess and put them to good use. It is something you have or you don't and that developing precognition may not always be in your hands. Precognitions can come in dreams or rarely when awake; some come in a symbolic form, some direct. Precognitions happen at the subconscious level. But interpreting the information received requires using the conscious mind. Precognition abilities can be developed if you start recognizing indications of the future that you receive during sleep or when awake. Often, when you are deeply involved in something, you feel something intuitively, your subconscious takes a sudden decision. You find the solution to a problem that you had long been pondering upon, overnight (you remember of having a dream that gave you the solution.) At all these times, it's your precognitive ability at work; and sadly sometimes, you don't even realize it. Like there are things that help develop precognition, there are things that hamper precognitive abilities. Studies show that alcohol, increased stress levels and mental fatigue impair precognitive abilities. Perhaps the one thing that hampers them most, is disbelief. Even if you experience precognitions in dreams or through intuition, but never pay attention to them or never try to derive meaning out of them, your abilities won't develop at all. Forget developing precognition, you will never realize you had any such strengths. Think carefully so as to identify if you possess psychic abilities that might help you understand things beyond normal human perception. Try to identify whether your precognitions are extra-sensory perceptions or just illusions. Do you have precognitive dreams that entail the future? Do you dream of things that indicate future incidents? Think. Precognitive experiences through dreams may not be a pleasant experience. Specifically so, because these dreams hint you about the hidden; they do not necessarily make a clear indication about anything. Your understanding of what they indicate largely depends on how you interpret them. Thus, precognitive dreaming might be a curse in disguise of a blessing. But a sound sleep is definitely bliss. Sleep well.