Has anything paranormal ever happened to you?

[Chfan]

I always find stories about ghosts and whatnot really interesting. Does anyone have any of those kinds of stories to share?

[Fossa]

Yes.

Then science.

Then no.

[Kewangji]

Once, I yelped disturbingly loudly when something seemed to be following me into my room in the dark, deserted house. Lesson learned: Don't hang sweaters on coat hangers on the other side of the door, it scares me.

[Fossa]

To elaborate on my previous post, I have had quite a few "paranormal" experiences. I put paranormal in quotes because I've been able to account for almost all of them with science.

As an example, I have rather unusual control over a lot of my body's functions. I can regulate my heart rate, dilate my pupils, etc. One of the earliest things I got control over that I didn't understand at the time (and still don't fully understand) was the ability to release certain neurotransmitters at will. I'm still not sure if it's endorphins, norepinephrine, a combination of the two, or to be honest something else entirely, but when I used to tell people about the strange, very palpable sensations I could generate I would typically be told I was controlling/channeling/producing chakra/chi/etc.

I much prefer the scientific explanation.

When I was really little I thought our house was haunted. As I got older I learned that our century old home expanded and contracted as a result of the climate producing what sounded like foot steps and occasionally causing a door to swing open.

I even saw a UFO in the desert once. I later found out (conclusively) it was an experimental aircraft.

There are still a few things I've been unable to explain. However, I believe that I've simply been unable to arrive at the logical, scientific explanation, not that there isn't one.

The best example of something I can't account for was something that happened to me in high school. I was sitting in class struggling not to fall asleep when something unusual occurred. I still remember it vividly. I had the sudden sensation of weightlessness, my vision flashed a vibrant, but non-uniform red, and I heard a tremendous roaring sound similar to how white-water sounds if your head is underwater.

The entire experience seemed to last only a split second, but it was very jarring. I felt completely awake afterwords and my heart was racing. I suspect it might be somehow related to exploding head syndrome, but my experience isn't a perfect fit and it's an isolated incident. Still, I chalk it up to something weird that happened within my body, not something supernatural.

[embolalia]

My mother's side of the family claims to have some level of psychicness. For example, when one of my cousins was born, my grandmother supposedly answered the phone with "what took you so long?" having woken up shortly before, 'knowing' that my cousin had been born. Another example, in the mid 90s my dad was visiting my aunt in Brooklyn when his car was broken into, and a briefcase containing important and possibly even classified documents was stolen. My aunt 'knew' where to look for it. Apparently the thief thought it was a laptop or something, but realizing it was not threw it to the side of the street.

I'm personally not inclined to believe that it's anything more than a mixture of coincidence, luck, and memories changing to fit preconceived theories.

[Fossa]

My mother's side of the family claims to have some level of psychicness. For example, when one of my cousins was born, my grandmother supposedly answered the phone with "what took you so long?" having woken up shortly before, 'knowing' that my cousin had been born. Another example, in the mid 90s my dad was visiting my aunt in Brooklyn when his car was broken into, and a briefcase containing important and possibly even classified documents was stolen. My aunt 'knew' where to look for it. Apparently the thief thought it was a laptop or something, but realizing it was not threw it to the side of the street.

I'm personally not inclined to believe that it's anything more than a mixture of coincidence, luck, and memories changing to fit preconceived theories.

You forgot confirmation bias.

Someone who believes they're psychic will latch on to instances in which they are correct in their predictions and reinforce their belief, while tending to shrug off counter examples.

Sure, on the one hand quite a few militaries have employed psychics at one point or another. On the other, there are quite a few prizes offered by skeptics for any proof of any paranormal or supernatural event. If they were actually psychic they could have cashed in to the tune of a million dollars. Many have tried, all have failed. Some of the applicant and trial records are archived on the interwebs. They're rather interesting to read, at times.

My personal favorites are the dowsers who were tasked with tracking a six inch pipe with water flowing through it which was buried 10 inches under flat, level ground. They were usually entirely convinced that they had done it flawlessly, within less than an inch, and then found out they were off by as much as 30 feet (the testing area was only 40'x40').

[Chfan]

(Just FYI, you don't have to believe in this sort of thing being supernatural or whatever to post weird stories. I just fail at wording things. Heck, I don't really believe in them anyway, but they're still cool to read.)

[Admiral Valdemar]

(Just FYI, you don't have to believe in this sort of thing being supernatural or whatever to post weird stories. I just fail at wording things. Heck, I don't really believe in them anyway, but they're still cool to read.)

The thread title wouldn't be quite as striking then.

"Has anything normal ever happened to you?"

All the time, my friend. All the time.

[PatrickRsGhost]

Paranormal activity runs in the family on my mom's side. She's had a few experiences, her mother's had a few experiences, my great-grandmother had an experience once, and even my great-great grandmother had an experience.

Since I've done paranormal investigations and ghost hunts in the past, I've had an experience or two. Quite possibly one of the freakiest I've had took place at an abandoned church we were investigating one night.

The church was an old African slave church, that was still in use by the founders' descendants up until some time in the 1980s. In the early 1990s, the city that the church was located in bought the church from the congregation, who had already built a much bigger church on another side of town, in the hopes of turning it into an interfaith chapel in time for the 1996 Summer Olympics that came to Atlanta. The congregation sold it, and the city began remodeling the church. Unfortunately they never finished it. Why, I don't know. Probably ran out of money, or else some of the local churches offered the services. When we went into the church in 2004, there was still some building materials lying about inside the church.

A lot of stories center around the church. There is a large oak tree out front where a man was once lynched during the 1950s or 60s. One of the spirits that is said to be seen is that of a young woman running through the woods, possibly a slave that was trying to run away to freedom. Sometimes the original pastor has been seen standing outside the front doors.

Anyhoo, one night we were doing an investigation with about 8 or 9 people. Across the street from the church, at the top of a hill, is the cemetery that was once used by the church. While we were investigating that cemetery, I kept hearing voices that sounded like whispering. I had asked everyone to be quiet, to help rule out any of them talking. I still heard the whispering, and it sounded like the whispers were asking us who we were, what we were doing there, and so on.

When we got back to the church, ready to pack it in for the night, we heard distant drumming. At first I thought someone had left their car running, with the stereo cranked up. Problem was the drumming sounded more like it was keeping time than it was a rhythm. I then thought it might have been one of the local high schools, perhaps there was a game that night. That also led to another problem: First, it was almost 11 PM, and no high school games would go that late. Second, we were too far away from any of the local high schools. Third, one of the other investigators' daughter was with us, and she was a cheerleader at one of the high schools. She told us there were no games that night, nor any band practice that she knew of. Again, it was too late for even that.

I've got a few other stories as well, which I will save for another post in this thread.

For a whole collection of true ghost stories and other paranormal stories, clicky. Lots of freaky stuff there.

[Ivora]

The shadow that watchs me while I sleep.

Beyond fucking creepy.

[Upsilon]

Maybe it's your shadow?

[Ivora]

Maybe it's your shadow?

... You think I've gone off the deap end, don't you?

[poxic]

I kept hearing voices that sounded like whispering.

Heh. I run a fan all night (normal, non-paranormal floor fan) to act as a white noise generator, muffling noises in neighbouring apartments. If I'm in an even slightly altered state of mind -- sleepy, tipsy, weirded out by the day's events -- I'll hear voices, music, and assorted whatnots in the white noise.

I used to always hear something like a neighbour's TV playing what sounded like a variety show with skits, laughter and music, even commercials, until I turned off the fan and all was silent. Fan on = a TV somewhere, with no actual dialogue identifiable. Fan off = silence. The first time I diagnosed this, I flipped it on and off several times in a row to prove to myself that it was the fan. (Or a very weird, creepy neighbour with a TV, but Occam's razor and all.)

I've had mental conversations with voices in the white noise. They were mildly entertaining, and on one occasion mildly revealing (it seems I was still upset at a particular person, after all). It was like a conversation with my unconscious, which is probably somewhat close to the truth. Like a Ouija board, but more fannish.

[BigBoss]

One night, I was laying in bed and I kept hearing what sounded like footsteps on the stairs that led up to my brother and I's bedroom. I thought that it was probably just the wood changing temperature, and ignored it. About five minutes later my brother sits up in his bed and yells "Did you see that?" I said no, and he said he saw a woman dressed in white, run to the top of the stairs and disappear.

A few hours later, I start hearing footsteps again. I checked my alarm clock, and it was about 1:30 in the morning. I looked around the room, and my brother was sleeping, and no one was on the steps. I stuck my head back under my pillow to try and get to sleep. I hear the footsteps again, except they come all the way up the steps, and towards my bed. They stop, and then a few seconds later, something hit the top of my pillow. It was like someone smacked it. I jolt up, and almost fall off my bed. I looked around and didn't see anything. I didn't hear any more footsteps after that, and that was the only time something like that happened at that house.

I occasionally see things fly off the shelves where I work. I've seen small food containers lift up into the air, and fly across the kitchen.

[Fossa]

The shadow that watchs me while I sleep.

Beyond fucking creepy.

I read your other post on the matter. The phenomenon isn't unheard of. It's commonly referred to as "shadow people" and there's quite a bit of interest in them on shows like Ghost Hunters. I lack any kind of scientific explanation at this time and I wouldn't want to force one on you even if I had a possible explanation. I know that nothing can be more frustrating than being told your perceptions are invalid...

Still, look into hynagogia some time. It might put your mind at ease.

[olubunmi]

Does deja vu count as paranormal?
Cos I have that about once a month on average.
It used to freak me out when I was little, but I don't really consider it strange now, it just happens every once in a while.


Apart from that, I haven't really had any paranormal experiences.
There have been a few curious events, but I see them as coincidences. It's much easier to cope with that way.

[SecondTalon]

The shadow that watchs me while I sleep.

Beyond fucking creepy.

I read your other post on the matter. The phenomenon isn't unheard of. It's commonly referred to as "shadow people" and there's quite a bit of interest in them on shows like Ghost Hunters. I lack any kind of scientific explanation at this time and I wouldn't want to force one on you even if I had a possible explanation. I know that nothing can be more frustrating than being told your perceptions are invalid...

Still, look into hynagogia some time. It might put your mind at ease.

Humans are very very good at picking out patterns and identifying objects based on very limited data. Good to the point of seeing patterns where there are none, and identifying one object that turns out to be either a completely different object or a collection of objects.

Case in point - the Smiley Face. A circle, two dots and a curved line, and everyone recognizes it as a smiling face. Shadow People are the same thing. You think you see a humanoid figure, and your brain fills in the rest of the details.

And yeah, there's Hynagogia, which is likely what's going on if you see them when you sleep.

[Kewangji]

Nitpick: There's a p in hypnagogia.

[Fossa]

zomg a typo stop the presses.

...actually, I suppose stopping the presses would be a good idea if you discovered a typo.

[Artemisia]

Ive been told a deja vu is just a hiccup of the brain. I have them as well, and I can live perfectly well with that explanation.

My own experience with the paranormal is when I attended a young friend's funeral. My sister was particularly close to him. I felt his presence in a few gusts of wind that didn't seem random, the wind "reacted" to two people he was very close to: his mum and my sister. Very, very touching.

Yes it was windy that day, but I refuse to believe it was just coincidence.

[Indon]

I'll have to go with Fossa's "Yes then No" answer.

Back when I was in high school I was into neopaganism - ritual-based magic, etc, etc.

After studying the whole thing diligently for a while, I, well, kinda figured the whole thing out, and it slowly stopped being magic, so I slowly stopped believing in magic.

I'm still interested in the mechanisms behind that sort of thing - but from a psychological perspective.

[podbaydoor]

No, unless you count being swept up in mob mentality during a revival-type meeting. As I have been able to replicate the same feeling of "God" during several different church gatherings and recognized the formula that pastors and praise & worship leaders used without fail to invoke the same feeling in the crowd, even back when I was a Christian I was very skeptical that it wasn't just human brains getting high off group feeling. And, of course now I don't accept the existence of God to begin with, so...so much for that.

[HiddenCounter]

It's not paranormal, but I can control my lazy eye. See, it only acts up when I stare at something for a while. I can use my lazy eye when ever I want. I taught myself how to only move one eye at a time and I developed a lazy eye in the process.

[PatrickRsGhost]

I kept hearing voices that sounded like whispering.

Heh. I run a fan all night (normal, non-paranormal floor fan) to act as a white noise generator, muffling noises in neighbouring apartments. If I'm in an even slightly altered state of mind -- sleepy, tipsy, weirded out by the day's events -- I'll hear voices, music, and assorted whatnots in the white noise.

I used to always hear something like a neighbour's TV playing what sounded like a variety show with skits, laughter and music, even commercials, until I turned off the fan and all was silent. Fan on = a TV somewhere, with no actual dialogue identifiable. Fan off = silence. The first time I diagnosed this, I flipped it on and off several times in a row to prove to myself that it was the fan. (Or a very weird, creepy neighbour with a TV, but Occam's razor and all.)

I've had similar situations, but without a fan running. I can be on the verge of sleep, in that one stage of semi-consciousness where one would be highly susceptible to suggestion. Sometimes I'll hear what sounds like two people having a conversation, usually with one of them asking questions, and other times it sounds like they're talking about me. A time or two I've heard what sounded like "Go wake him" or "Is he awake? Is he really asleep?" Other times I might hear like what you described: sort of a variety comedy skit show, but without the musical interludes or performances (a la Saturday Night Live). The scenes I hear aren't always comedy related; some might be a bit more serious, or just plain have no intentions of being funny or sad or anything.

When I lived in my grandmother's house after she passed away, I believed she was still around. A couple of times I've felt her presence, especially on my birthday one year.

One night I was lying in bed, trying to go to sleep. It was in the middle of Winter, and the bedroom was ice cold. I had a couple of blankets on the bed, and had just turned the heat up. Half an hour passes, and the bedroom still feels like a fucking freezer. Thinking it was my grandma, I told her to leave me alone, I needed to sleep because I had to get up a 4-fucking-o'-clock. Within a couple of minutes the bedroom finally warmed up.

Of course this could have been due to the heater taking a while to kick on, but normally that heater would have warmed up the house within a few minutes, not over half an hour.

The following year on my birthday, I came home from work tired and pissed off. My mood quickly changed when I walked in the house, because I could feel her presence just as strongly as if she was really there. I got the idea to talk to her using the digital tape recorder, so I walked down to the Dollar General to get some fresh batteries, and went back home. I guess she couldn't wait to say something, because when I played back the recording, right as I hit the Record button, I had gotten an EVP that said "Patrick, Happy Birthday to you." She then wished me a Happy Birthday a couple more times on the recording.

[lulzfish]

One time in Physics class, my teacher built dowsing rods and had us use them to detect current flowing through a cable. It was eerily accurate, but biased because we could all see the wire.

I also sometimes have vivid dreams that feel real but are clearly false when I wake up. Just last night this afternoon, I dreamed vividly that I had a case of Game Fuel in my room. It was a 12-pack, right next to the 12-pack of green MD that actually is there.

And sometimes I'm afraid of my own reflection. I know it's me, but I hate watching myself in a mirror. I'm afraid I'll see something else, I think.

[Walter.Horvath]

I'm surprised that in an environment like this, more skeptics haven't spoken out against the stories told so far.

I place myself in such a category. One night, I walked outside and saw a UFO. My mind went through the steps of "Holy crap, it's real," "Holy crap, everyone will think I'm crazy," and "I'm generally very skeptical!,"... Before realizing that it was a MetLife blimp.

[poxic]

There's always a rational explanation for every paranormal event, even if we can't find it. That almost doesn't matter, really.

The point of the paranormal is our human experience. Something totally rational and sciencey happens but we interpret it as a ghost, a premonition, a spooky action at a distance. I like to think of these events as our unconscious trying hard to bring our attention to something.

Your nervous system is constantly processing stuff, including things that escaped your conscious attention in the moment. (Your entire field of vision is always getting analysed by your visual cortex, for example, even if the only thing you're aware of is the car that looks like it's about to hit that pedestrian.) Paranormal stuff that happens to me usually refers to important things I'm going through at the time: life changes, stressful situations, recent deaths, and the like.

I've stopped worrying about whether unscientific explanations might be true. I choose to take the events at face value and say "huh, apparently I need to pay attention to that subject". If the most effective way for me to give attention (and closure) to a departed relative is to hold a candlelight vigil and perform a few rituals with meaningful props, then hey. Magic or psychology, the difference is irrelevant in practise.

/disclaimer: the above poster has been proven to be full of shit on occasion
//maybe I should say "on frequent"

[podbaydoor]

But poxic, you're so wise! I love the "way of moderation" you seem to post about frequently - on a forum full of hormonal idiots who leap to extremes really easily, you're always there suggesting a zen, less stressful way to approach things.

[poxic]

Aww, thanks. (Mostly, though, I'm just older than the hormonal idiots younger folk here, so all the hormonal stuff has calmed right down and I've been able to think clearly for a while now. )

/holding onto my hat, menopause is right around the corner
//hormonal WHEEEEEEEE all over again >.<

[TheKrikkitWars]

I read the title as "Has anything Propanol ever happened to you" I need to spend less time near solvents.

[Allium Cepa]

Not me personally, but my mom and cousin had the exact same experience several decades apart. There's this chair that belonged to a deceased relative, a priest, and they both claim to have seen him. My mom saw him when she was young, she knew he was, and asked him what he was doing and replied "just waiting." When my cousin was young he saw him too, but had no idea who it was, asked the same question and got the same response. They were freaking out because they thought some random person has snuck into their house, but later he randomly pointed out the relative in a photo album. And another time they were telling this story, and someone said they didn't believe it, and the Uncle's picture flew ten feet off the wall and landed at her feet.

I don't really believe this, but it kind of makes me worried.

[Sheikh al-Majaneen]

The best example of something I can't account for was something that happened to me in high school. I was sitting in class struggling not to fall asleep when something unusual occurred. I still remember it vividly. I had the sudden sensation of weightlessness, my vision flashed a vibrant, but non-uniform red, and I heard a tremendous roaring sound similar to how white-water sounds if your head is underwater.

The entire experience seemed to last only a split second, but it was very jarring. I felt completely awake afterwords and my heart was racing. I suspect it might be somehow related to exploding head syndrome, but my experience isn't a perfect fit and it's an isolated incident. Still, I chalk it up to something weird that happened within my body, not something supernatural.

You were struggling to not sleep, and you failed. Its happened to me before. I have been tired enough before, that I fell asleep and had rather vivid hallucinations in the space of blinking, quite a bit over the space of a few seconds (generally when I am being taught something). At times they haved made me completely awake. Its really not that surprising.

When you say you have had some control over your brain's antidepressant chemicals, what do you do to make your brain release it? Is it as simple as standing on a table in public, surrounded by bewildered strangers (or not-so-bewildered nonstrangers who expect such behaviour from you), and shouting "NOREPINEPHINE GO!"? Would be something to witness, for sure.

Or a simple "I want to feel happy, so feel happy dammit"? Is it automatic?

[SlyReaper]

The best example of something I can't account for was something that happened to me in high school. I was sitting in class struggling not to fall asleep when something unusual occurred. I still remember it vividly. I had the sudden sensation of weightlessness, my vision flashed a vibrant, but non-uniform red, and I heard a tremendous roaring sound similar to how white-water sounds if your head is underwater.

The entire experience seemed to last only a split second, but it was very jarring. I felt completely awake afterwords and my heart was racing. I suspect it might be somehow related to exploding head syndrome, but my experience isn't a perfect fit and it's an isolated incident. Still, I chalk it up to something weird that happened within my body, not something supernatural.

You were struggling to not sleep, and you failed. Its happened to me before. I have been tired enough before, that I fell asleep and had rather vivid hallucinations in the space of blinking, quite a bit over the space of a few seconds (generally when I am being taught something). At times they haved made me completely awake. Its really not that surprising.

I was about to post the same thing. It's happened to me quite a few times, I've been struggling to stay awake, and in the space of blinking I've hallucinated vividly, even with sound.

But the the flash of red, weightlessness, and roaring sound, I've only experienced that when I've stood up too fast.

Anyway, paranormal. I've had a few when I was really young, but I have since put them down to an overactive imagination. Like, after travelling in an aeroplane for the first time and spending most of the flight looking out the window at the ground. Later that day, I saw what I can only describe as a portal in the side of a hill presenting the exact same view.

[wst]

Spoiler:

The best example of something I can't account for was something that happened to me in high school. I was sitting in class struggling not to fall asleep when something unusual occurred. I still remember it vividly. I had the sudden sensation of weightlessness, my vision flashed a vibrant, but non-uniform red, and I heard a tremendous roaring sound similar to how white-water sounds if your head is underwater.

The entire experience seemed to last only a split second, but it was very jarring. I felt completely awake afterwords and my heart was racing. I suspect it might be somehow related to exploding head syndrome, but my experience isn't a perfect fit and it's an isolated incident. Still, I chalk it up to something weird that happened within my body, not something supernatural.

You were struggling to not sleep, and you failed. Its happened to me before. I have been tired enough before, that I fell asleep and had rather vivid hallucinations in the space of blinking, quite a bit over the space of a few seconds (generally when I am being taught something). At times they haved made me completely awake. Its really not that surprising.

I was about to post the same thing. It's happened to me quite a few times, I've been struggling to stay awake, and in the space of blinking I've hallucinated vividly, even with sound.

I has something similar, but... of course not identical. I was sleeping lightly in the car on the way home (a passenger, don't panic!), and we hit a big stone (about 18 inches by 12 inches, about 5 inches tall), and I... saw... the crossmember under the car that had been hit, as it happened. (Turned out it was bent about 30 degrees and one end had been torn free from the mounting.) ... the thing I found oddest was... I've never seen the underside of the car. I didn't know that structure was there.

Another time, we were rear-ended at traffic lights, and I 'saw' the rear window shatter and fly forward. t took a few minutes for me to realise that it wasn't actually damaged at all, despite looking at it. Again, instantaneous mental picture, unbidden. (In this incident, the car that hit us has a crumpled bonnet and smashed headlight, and ours had a scratch on the bumper, but the sound and feel of the impact... something else entirely)

[Elvish Pillager]

I've never had anything paranormal-seeming happen to me.

Also, I'm not very suggestible and I don't feel the need to have an explanation for everything I see or hear.

[Fossa]

When you say you have had some control over your brain's antidepressant chemicals, what do you do to make your brain release it? Is it as simple as standing on a table in public, surrounded by bewildered strangers (or not-so-bewildered nonstrangers who expect such behaviour from you), and shouting "NOREPINEPHINE GO!"? Would be something to witness, for sure.

Or a simple "I want to feel happy, so feel happy dammit"? Is it automatic?

It has some uses, most of which I'm not 100% sure of since I have a sample size of 1 and too many other variables to conclusively determine what the results of doing it may be.

What do I do to trigger it? What do you do to move your arms? What did you do to type that message? You didn't shout out "Left ring finger press D!" In fact, you probably didn't even think about the specifics of the movement. With your hands properly positioned typing is just something your brain knows how to do.

In a similar manner, I can do one or more things to various parts of my body that I'd previously been told were supernatural. The results of doing it are everything from a pleasant tingle similar to an orgasm to a feeling of tense, restlessness in a muscle. I've made myself feel more awake and alert (though it seems to have a backlash making me feel more tired afterwords) and I've made myself happy (though I loathe doing this as I don't feel that I'm genuinely happy).

As for how I learned it, it was a type of biofeedback training. I'm pretty good at isolating specific impulses and recreating them, I guess. It's kind of hard to explain.

A simple example of biofeedback training would be watching yourself in a mirror and trying to "feel" your pupils dilate and contract as you change the light level in the room. Focus on exactly what your body is doing as your pupils dilate, then work at recreating it without the light as a stimulus. This was how I taught myself to dilate my pupils voluntarily which I must say has been very handy at night.

This was something I knew I could learn to do and I simply worked to learn it. It's a matter of focus and being able to identify what your body is doing and how to tell it to do that, I guess.

The neurotransmitters started with me doing a similar kind of training involving muscle movement.

I was probably bored, because this was the first thing I learned to do, I did it when I was very little, and I didn't really understand what I was doing, but I digress. Basically I focused on exactly what I was doing immediately prior to moving a muscle.

Try this. Pretend you're in a "quick-draw" scenario. Pretend you need to grab something from arms length on a table in front of you as quick as you possibly can, but imagine that you need to wait for the perfect moment. An imaginary guard will stop you if he sees you, so you're waiting for him to look away.

Now in your mind keep getting right up to the edge of that perfect moment, feel your arm... not tense in anticipation, but something similar. There's a very palpable feeling associated with the moment before you commit to the movement. Focus on that. Work on recreating it without pretending you're about to try to snatch something. That's what I'm pretty sure is a release of norepinephrine (otherwise known as noradrenaline, by the way). It started with just being able to do this in my arms and quads, but I can now do it anywhere in my body pretty easily.

In short, biofeedback training is awesome.

[Lady Freya]

Ok my first post ever! I made sure I read everything and I'm not repeating, but im suprised this hasn't come up yet. My dreams come true. Unfortunately not the cool ones or even the useful prediction ones, but nevertheless.
I noticed it when I had this really vivid dream about being on a bus going to meet my dad at a specific place, and on this bus with me was a japanese woman with an afro and a purple raincoat, which is quite strange no? And no I wasn't in Japan. So I woke up and thought "that was a boring/weird dream" and told my family about it. Several months later I was on a bus, going to that same specific place and meeting my dad, with the japanese afro lady in the purple raincoat. I thought....no way? Must be deja vu? But I asked my family about it and they recalled me telling them, so it wasn't deja vu. I've had others, like dreams where I've been with a group of people, one of whom I haven't been able to put a name to until much later when I've actually met that person and I think, damn! They were in my dream that time...
Ideas?

[PatrickRsGhost]

Ok my first post ever! I made sure I read everything and I'm not repeating, but im suprised this hasn't come up yet. My dreams come true. Unfortunately not the cool ones or even the useful prediction ones, but nevertheless.
I noticed it when I had this really vivid dream about being on a bus going to meet my dad at a specific place, and on this bus with me was a japanese woman with an afro and a purple raincoat, which is quite strange no? And no I wasn't in Japan. So I woke up and thought "that was a boring/weird dream" and told my family about it. Several months later I was on a bus, going to that same specific place and meeting my dad, with the japanese afro lady in the purple raincoat. I thought....no way? Must be deja vu? But I asked my family about it and they recalled me telling them, so it wasn't deja vu. I've had others, like dreams where I've been with a group of people, one of whom I haven't been able to put a name to until much later when I've actually met that person and I think, damn! They were in my dream that time...
Ideas?

It's possibly just coincidence, or it might be a slight bit of precognition. Very remote precognition, but still...

I had a similar experience several years ago around my birthday. It was the first birthday I'd spend without my parents being close by, since they had moved to the opposite side of the state from me a few months earlier. Mom called me on my birthday, asked if I was going to come over. I said no, because I didn't want to drive such a long distance. She said she'd just send me a card with money.

A week passes, and no card shows up. I called my parents, asked if they forgot. Dad said Mom had been sick, so he'd send it on. That night I had the dream.

I dreamt I was in a town I used to live in, and needed some money. I went to the local bank, and although I didn't have an account, they said I could borrow one of three amounts. Each amount was in a small white envelope, each one marked in black ink as to the amount enclosed within. One said $10, a second $20, and a third $100. Naturally I took the envelope containing $100. I opened it up, and sure enough there was $100.

I told my roommate about the dream, and told her to keep her eyes open for an envelope. A week later, I receive a letter from my dad. He had addressed it to me using black ink, and it was in the same type of envelope as in the dream. When I opened the envelope, there was a letter apologizing for not getting a card to me earlier, and a check for...$100.

Sometimes I'll have a bit of precognition or something. Once in a while I'll be in a store, and I'll see some item on the shelf. I'll concentrate on that item, because for some reason it attracts me at that moment. It may not have before, no matter how many times I've gone down that aisle in the store, or passed that item, but for some reason now is the time to look at it, to concentrate on it. Anywhere between later that same day up to weeks later, I might see that item advertised on TV, or I might see someone consuming or using said item, or someone I know might say "I/We should get (this item)."

I remember when I was a kid having this happen. We were in the local Kroger or Big Star, during the summer, and as we were passing an end cap stocked with picnic supplies, my dad asked if there was anything else we need. I saw a bag of flexible drinking straws, and said we should get a bag or two of those. My mom said we don't need flexi-straws. I said we did, but she won the argument. A week later she gets into a car wreck that messes up her neck, and she can't turn or bend her head. She tells my dad she needed flexi-straws, and commented that I must have been psychic.

Sometimes at work I'll get the feeling that someone is about to come see me. I won't hear them coming, but I know they're coming, so I'll get ready to turn towards the opening in my cubicle, and sure enough someone shows up.

[emceng]

Nearly everyone has a story like this. The problem is selection bias and confirmation bias. People that think supernatural events happen are more likely to talk about their own experiences, and are also much more likely to think 'something' has happened to them.

I've had deja vu, sleep paralysis, or 'preescient' moments. I attribute them to my mind freaking out on me somehow, not some undetectable force. I think about things like Malcolm Gladwell's 'Blink'. The human mind is incredibly adept at recognizing patterns, if just on a subconcious level.

[Fossa]

Confirmation bias also has a lot to do with cherry picking the examples where you were right and ignoring the ones where you were wrong.

For example, a child might imagine he can predict whether a coin toss will come up heads or tails. If he gets half right (statistically likely, he may get even more than that correct) then those instances will stand out more clearly in his mind, confirming his belief that he can predict the outcome. We have a habit of shrugging off counter examples pretty readily.

"Precognitive dreams" suffer a bit from this, but also from the nature of dreams and memory. The power of suggestion is much stronger than most people realize. The brain loves to fill in details to make things make sense. Your memory is malleable, and with dreams themselves being rather mercurial it's rather easy for your brain to make things fit, especially if you're looking for them to.