Could your brain actually tell you through dreams what will happen next?

[ILikeNightmares 163]

Okay, this MIGHT sound paranoid... But I am really curious now. I love dreaming, as in the way by remembering dreams, researching them and making silly jokes about them and what happened in them, and sometimes lucid dreaming when I pull it off. And I got to the point where I remember my dreams from beginning to the end, and started to actually research the MEANINGS of certain dreams. Since I also have recurring dreams almost every night, I wanted to look it up. I found various websites that tell the meaning of each thing that we dream of (a car, death, animals, actions etc. Once again, this might sound paranoid and completely crazy, but I kinda believe in it now).

 

Most of my dreams ended up meaning that I will be very successful in my job I do for living, that I will find love after a long time, that some member of my family might die and that I will get into a huge fight with someone from my family's circle. 

Now, month later, I actually became loved by everyone I work with on my job and I am doing a great successful work compared to before and being promoted, my friend that I know for over a decade came out to me recently, my mother got some terrible disease and ended up in hospital and I got into a fight with my mother's friend.

 

And these dreams occurred one or two months before all of this started happening. I am really creeped out right now...  

[Ponies4Bronies 394]

Yes, I think it happens to me a lot. And the dreams are creepily specific too like to what show is on TV or if I am holding something in my hand, even the conversations of people around me. I feel deja vu a lot it's weird. But then again I have those fun dreams where I'm Superman in Candyland.   So who knows is it coincidence? 

[Sporemane 546]

I don't believe dreams can tell the future.

[simba86 1,541]

they might be able to, or  it might be a lucky guess LOL

[yeet 2,027]

It happens to people sometimes. It's probably more that they dream tons of different scenarios for the next day and they just happen to dream the one that does happen. I know sometimes I dream and bits happen from it. I don't predict the future though I just always over think things to the point I dream then occasionally too XD

[Ziggy + Angel + Rain 11,303]

I'm not necessarily supporting nor attempting to refute what was presented in the original post, but I do feel that dreams are fascinating and of real significance.

[vampireponyprince 185]

if you read anything about sleep studies on dreams many things in dreams are your subconcious trying to communicate with you

its really interesting

[Lord Bradley 1,319]

Ya know, I once came up with the idea that all of this is just virtual reality we're livin' in, and it came entirely from some of these dreams I had. Nowadays, All I do is Lucid Dream, which is kinda sad for me sometimes. I can't really experience what my weird mind would've planned for me ;-;

 

 

... Now that I think about it, I had this one recurring dream about me "surviving" in an apocalypse setting. I don't really remember what caused the apocalypse, or why it still was an apocalypse, but it always started and ended with one thing. Me standing infront of a broken fence, fixin' it with planks of wood. Then a bunch of running and stuff happened after I heard a noise to my right, and the middle part is kinda fuzzy. It always ended with something hitting me in the back of the head, though, and me waking up the moment it hit. Gods, I swear I could feel a pain in the back of my head every time I woke up from that dream... Wonder if it meant somethin'

[cybershocker455 324]

I've always wondered about that. Sometimes I dream of a mundane event. A long time from now I live through an event that felt like I lived through before. I don't know if it's because of dreams.

[Tranquil Claw 80]

Secretly grinning over here because I know an explanation that no one from the debate section would believe. This adds more evidence to Michael Newton's discovery ya know!

[alpinefroggy 451]

Okay, this MIGHT sound paranoid... But I am really curious now. I love dreaming, as in the way by remembering dreams, researching them and making silly jokes about them and what happened in them, and sometimes lucid dreaming when I pull it off. And I got to the point where I remember my dreams from beginning to the end, and started to actually research the MEANINGS of certain dreams. Since I also have recurring dreams almost every night, I wanted to look it up. I found various websites that tell the meaning of each thing that we dream of (a car, death, animals, actions etc. Once again, this might sound paranoid and completely crazy, but I kinda believe in it now).

 

Most of my dreams ended up meaning that I will be very successful in my job I do for living, that I will find love after a long time, that some member of my family might die and that I will get into a huge fight with someone from my family's circle.

Now, month later, I actually became loved by everyone I work with on my job and I am doing a great successful work compared to before and being promoted, my friend that I know for over a decade came out to me recently, my mother got some terrible disease and ended up in hospital and I got into a fight with my mother's friend.

 

And these dreams occurred one or two months before all of this started happening. I am really creeped out right now...

How do you go about determining that it isn't a hasty conclusion wrapped in confirmation bias as opposed to seeing into the future. Until this is established you cant conclude anyone

[Unikitty 1,212]

Believing dreams predict the future is just as nonsensical as believing in Astrology. Your dreams are just an amalgamation of memories and experiences patched together as your brain rests and sorts itself out. Humans are adept at finding patterns, to the point where we can often find them even in random chaos. This is all you're doing when supposedly finding messages in your dreams. Dreams are a thought process like any other, so it's not impossible nor even uncommon to gain ideas and knowledge from your dreams. But none of this pertains to set in stone future.

Your brain is impressive, but it's not communicating to you your future. It just isn't, that's not how brains work and anyone who thinks otherwise is either a conman or a fool.

[Cimarronboy 248]

There's been quite the amount of research on premonitory dreams. When summed it basically states that premonitory dreams are quite informative but more so to those with heavy deductive skills. Reason why is that they can be as strait as saying the sky is blue or they can be as riddled with info as an I spy book, and that's without adding in how memorable they are when the dreamer is awake. Some dreams again will be straight forward but others will sub details out (i.e. people, objects, time, etc) for other more or less related objects and you won't get the whole understanding until the foreseen event takes place. 

 

The book I read on the subject of premonitions is called "The Power Of Premonitions: How Know The Future Can Shape Our Lives" by Larry Dossey. It's an interesting read. I'd recommend it if you're looking to bone up on premonitory dreams.

 

As for personal experience, I've had a couple dreams that came true. Compared, though, to my "willies" (shivers down the spine provoked twitching) premonitory dreams are rare. My willies are more common. 

 

Might want to tread carefully though, the ability may not be as desirable as it seems. For instance my willies always happen before something bad happens to anyone I know. Lately I've been taking the "coincidence" part of the timing in consideration. It's too much of a coincidence to be random, that is cement fact. What I'm questioning is whether they really are a "heads up" or whether they are more related to a cause-effect situation, like some superstitions. Black cat randomly crosses your path, bad luck, I have a bout of willies, something bad randomly happens to someone (not saying an intentional thing but one of those "this randomly just happens so this happens in reaction"  kind of things).

[Invincible 2,092]

I think of it as if your dream loads up information and you're partially aware of it. The same way I start the dream as a wealthy business magnate, a magician, or even a mantis-person. Sometimes you just have information fed to you, and you don't even question it.

 

If the dream gets too weird, eventually I'll notice and arrive at a near-conscious level where I can forcefully wake up.

.

.

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None of that actually relates to TRULY seeing the future. Because the brain feeds us some junk-info while it rearranges itself to hold data more accurately. I could be seeing me turning into a mantis-person, but that doesn't mean that would actually happen, would it? 

 

It's just serendipity, your dreams had elements that are more realistic and possible. If you dreamt about a zombie apocalypse happening, I all but guarantee to you that it wouldn't happen... 

[cider float 2,539]

When I was younger I had deja vu that occurred from dream to reality. Maybe it's just a coincidence but this happened multiple times.

[Untitled Goose Q 5,138]

Sure some dreams might manage to predict the future, but not everyone remembers all of their dreams, and I'd bet that the majority of dreams do not predict anything.

 

It's basically a case of guess enough times and you'll get it right eventually.

 

There's also the statistical bias- you are more likely to share a dream that predicted the future correctly, especially when talking about such dreams.

 

Until it can be done reliable, better to assume that they don't.

 

And with the OP's experience... Finding the "meanings" of the dreams may well have given you the extra boost you needed to get it. It's like any fortune telling, it's designed to make the person getting the fortune/dream meaning think they'll do well, so they keep using the service.

[Concerned Bystander 2,904]

To believe that dreams can inform you of the future is to believe that the future is already written.  I'm certainly not sold on that.

 

However, there is such a thing as a self-fulfilling prophecy.  For example, if you dream that you will be successful in your career, and, armed with this knowledge, you approach your career with newfound positivity and enthusiasm, then you have brought about the prediction through your own efforts.

 

Obviously, that doesn't work in every instance, you cant cause someone to fall ill by willing it for example, but then again, a statement like "some member of my family might die" is more than likely to happen to everyone, in fact it's practically inevitable that you will experience this at some point.

[alpinefroggy 451]

To believe that dreams can inform you of the future is to believe that the future is already written.  I'm certainly not sold on that.

 

However, there is such a thing as a self-fulfilling prophecy.  For example, if you dream that you will be successful in your career, and, armed with this knowledge, you approach your career with newfound positivity and enthusiasm, then you have brought about the prediction through your own efforts.

 

Obviously, that doesn't work in every instance, you cant cause someone to fall ill by willing it for example, but then again, a statement like "some member of my family might die" is more than likely to happen to everyone, in fact it's practically inevitable that you will experience this at some point.

 

That is why what is prophetic is heavily dependant on it being specific.  I have touched on this before with stuff like biblical prophecies or peopl that "predict" the future.  The more vague and general something is, the more likely it is to seem miraculous without proper skepticism and understanding of what can be rationally said to be prophetic.  Confirmation bias is perhaps the largest contributor to fallacious claims to prophecies and prophetic things fallaciously labeled prophecies.

 

Personally all I see when I see people thinking dreams can be prophetic is a bunch of argument from ignorance fallacies, confirmation bias and misunderstanding of what can be prophetic.  Overall though there is nothing that doesn't suggest its just a bunch of hooey.

Edited February 4, 2016 by alpinefroggy

[Admiral Regulus 2,769]

Okay, this MIGHT sound paranoid... But I am really curious now. I love dreaming, as in the way by remembering dreams, researching them and making silly jokes about them and what happened in them, and sometimes lucid dreaming when I pull it off. And I got to the point where I remember my dreams from beginning to the end, and started to actually research the MEANINGS of certain dreams. Since I also have recurring dreams almost every night, I wanted to look it up. I found various websites that tell the meaning of each thing that we dream of (a car, death, animals, actions etc. Once again, this might sound paranoid and completely crazy, but I kinda believe in it now).

 

Most of my dreams ended up meaning that I will be very successful in my job I do for living, that I will find love after a long time, that some member of my family might die and that I will get into a huge fight with someone from my family's circle. 

Now, month later, I actually became loved by everyone I work with on my job and I am doing a great successful work compared to before and being promoted, my friend that I know for over a decade came out to me recently, my mother got some terrible disease and ended up in hospital and I got into a fight with my mother's friend.

 

And these dreams occurred one or two months before all of this started happening. I am really creeped out right now...  

 

Unless you can theorize how this might be possible in some way, I'm going to call it out as a coincidence. As humans, we have a natural tendency to see patterns where there are actually none.

[Evilshy 5,091]

Well, seeing the future is impossible since it would involve something from the future having an effect on something in the past, violating causality.

 

Predicting the future is totally possible and is something that everybody does all the time without even thinking about it. If you think "I have to be at work in an hour, so I'll leave in 40 minutes" that's predicting the future, predicting that it will take about 20 minutes to get to work. Your subconscious could put together some details you weren't think about and you dreamed about it.

 

Now, that being said, I think dream interpretation is mostly bullshit. Predictions are purposely vague, and almost never specify a time, making hard for them to NOT end up correct. If somebody says your dream means something good will happen at work, well yeah, statistically speaking something good will happen to everybody at work at some point. It's similar to horoscopes, they're written so vaguely they could apply to just about anyone.

[Lil Pip 775]

Well, seeing the future is impossible since it would involve something from the future having an effect on something in the past, violating causality.

 

Predicting the future is totally possible and is something that everybody does all the time without even thinking about it. If you think "I have to be at work in an hour, so I'll leave in 40 minutes" that's predicting the future, predicting that it will take about 20 minutes to get to work. Your subconscious could put together some details you weren't think about and you dreamed about it.

 

Now, that being said, I think dream interpretation is mostly bullshit. Predictions are purposely vague, and almost never specify a time, making hard for them to NOT end up correct. If somebody says your dream means something good will happen at work, well yeah, statistically speaking something good will happen to everybody at work at some point. It's similar to horoscopes, they're written so vaguely they could apply to just about anyone.

This, and confirmaiton bias.

We tend to remmeber the corretc ones, not the wrong ones, if you think about it less than like 1% of your(OP's) dreams have been right.

Edited February 4, 2016 by Lil Pip

[Envy 6,268]

I don't think so. I suppose it's possible that dreams could try to send you signals about the state of your health, though. I don't know about that, though. Just a wild speculation, and I have nothing to back it up. But I will say the thought of predicting anything else is utter nonsense.

[PinkieatHeart 208]

Depends of what you believe in. Personally, I definitely believe in the power of dreams. I've had several premonitions through them myself. Including a time when I dreamed about my grandfather's death during the exact hour it happened (and I was over a thousand miles away and had no idea it'd really happened until my mom called me three days later).

 

Not all dreams deliver futuristic messages. Some are your subconscious trying to give you messages about what your feeling or going through that you might be missing or ignoring. Other times it's just your brain taking extra care to process the things that went on that day. And sometimes, if you believe in this sort of thing, you can astral travel. Some people even believe you can temporarily visit other realms and places in the astral plane.

[EpicEnergy 23,240]

I doubt that, if it could then your brain could predict the future.

[Stone Cold Steve Jobs 22,473]

That’s tough to really say. The brain alone shouldn’t be able to do that, at least from what we understand. Can dreams reflect things going on in our lives? Absolutely. Can we mistake these dreams as predictions? Of course. But if one person has a prophetic dream, I think there’s a lot more to look at there then just the dream itself.