I think it is possible to predict the future, but it can be very difficult to interpret the information that we are given about future events.
I will be completely honest with you, it is very rare that you know all the details of an event and its consequences before it actually takes place. Sometimes people do and there have been many stories of people who managed to warn those involved prior to the event and successfully deflect a potential disaster.
This is precognition in its fullest form, but it is a sliding scale. Below, I have outlined my ideas on the different levels of “predicting the future.” I don’t think you will find this scale or these phrases and their definitions anywhere else because I have created this ‘system’ to try and make it easier to understand. (These are just my thoughts, experiences, and phrases, so feel free to disagree!)
These are my different types of precognition or “telling the future”.
Helen’s sliding scale of precognition
Precognition
This is when we have a dream, we have a vision, we draw or paint a picture, or suddenly we know all the details of an event in advance. In some cases, we know who is involved (usually our friends, family, or acquaintances) and we may warn them in some way. This warning can mean that the event itself can be stopped or modified. Or it could be that we can warn the people involved that they might otherwise get hurt in some way and they can choose whether or not to follow your advice.
Pericognition (I made up this word, but it makes sense, at least to me)
This is when we know how a situation will play out when a chain of events has already started. We, or someone we know, are already in the middle of the event and can see, feel or know in some way what will happen. Again, we may be able to intervene in the course of events or warn the people involved. I guess it looks a bit like a deja vu feeling, you know what’s going to happen next.
Partial precognition
This is more common than full precognition and occurs when we get information from somewhere (divine intervention, our guides, loved ones in spirit, or elsewhere) but it is vague. Again, this information can be on a sliding scale from small chunks to more detailed, but still abstract information. It basically needs interpretation. Examples of this are numerous, such as the person who painted the exploding twin towers but did not know where or when the painting was related. Or my own dream as a teenager of cartoon bombs falling from the sky onto a train track, with various other references in the form of pictures and cartoons. I couldn’t interpret this at the time, it just felt strange when I woke up, you know those dreams that just stay with you (typical of precognitive dreams). Anyway, that morning an unexploded bomb was found near the railroad track in an area that made sense to me, given the other references in my dream. And it was the train track that friends used to go to school. If you’ve ever watched ‘Medium’ the dramatized story of real-life medium Allison DuBois, you’ve seen how she gets abstract images and can’t always figure out the ‘who’, the ‘what’ and most importantly the ‘why’ of their paranormal encounters. This makes it very difficult to do anything about any message and has one or two results. If partial precognition is not figured out, it can be combined with, or become pericognition, so the symbolism of the dream or vision only becomes apparent when you are in the situation. That may mean that you are in a position to say or do something. Or, alternatively, it can become re-cognition (below).
Recognition
This is where you haven’t realized it (although you may have suspected it) or haven’t been able to interpret what turns out to be precognition. I mean, all of a sudden you say, ‘Ah, that’s what that dream meant’ (I almost call it Ah-Cognition). At one point, some time after an event, you recognize that your dream or vision was in fact a precognition. This can be very frustrating! The other way Recognition happens is that something will happen that will ‘break a dream’ if you know that phrase. Suddenly, you will remember a dream or the glimpse of something from a meditation and you will realize that you knew this was going to happen. Again, it is very similar to deja-vu.
You may recognize that some of these things have happened to you. Other questions on this topic may include,
“If you know something before it happens and you can’t do anything about it, what is the use of knowing?” and ‘Are the events set in stone or can you change them if you know them in advance?’ Questions for another time, and a lot of philosophical debate.
