IF YOU SHARE AN EXPERIENCE like that of today’s dreamer, you will likely be met with similar tales told back to you by members of your audience. While seemingly fantastic on the one hand, their ubiquitous presence around the world makes precognitive dreams like this one some of the most intriguing.

Dear SMYD,

I had a cousin, Dave, who was born the year before I was. We were very close growing up.

One day he told me of a recurring dream: He is driving in a car on a country road. There is an accident and he is killed.

He explained this when I was about 16. He said he had this same dream two to three times a year for as long as he could remember. He told me that he knew he would die this way and that he would be young. Dave told me that I was the only one he had told of this dream, as he did not want his mom to worry.

He didn’t seem frightened by the dream. Resigned to his fate would be the most apt description.

One day I got a phone call from my brother. He said, “It’s about Dave.”

That was all he had to say and I knew what had happened. Some of the details of the dream versus reality differed, but there was a car accident on a country road and Dave was killed. He was 24 years old.

I am now 61 years old, yet that memory has stayed with me.

If that one is not a nightmare, I don’t know what would be.

Signed, Still Missing My Cousin

Dear Missing,

What an amazing life experience for both of you with such a dream.

Most of us have heard examples of dreams like Dave’s — dreams that presage future events — from family members or friends, if we haven’t had at least one of our own to ponder.

Consider that Abraham Lincoln reported a dream about his own assassination and a second about his funeral at the White House. It’s hard to discount the implications in this extremely clear case, yet many people still do.

Similarly, Mark Twain was unsettled by a dream of his brother’s death which came to pass as it had in the dream.

Note that not all precognitive dreams are about death. Golfer Jack Nicklaus found a new way to hold his golf club in a dream. Albert Einstein first dreamed about his theory of relativity, then developed it in waking life.

Conversely, not all dreams of death are precognitive. Most in fact are metaphors for dramatic change — death of the old self prior to rebirth.

While Dave’s dream could easily be categorized as a nightmare, it better fits the description of a precognitive dream, detailing the “facts” of a future event, and doing so repeatedly. In addition, Dave seemed more accepting and less frightened by it, as he would have reported in a nightmare.

Sorry for the loss of your cousin, Dear Dreamer.

Sweet Dreams to you!

Carolyn Plath, M.Ed., is a Benicia resident and member of the International Association for the Study of Dreams. Reach her at sendmeyourdreams@yahoo.com.

Sharing is caring!