I believe that 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’ll be completely honest with you, it’s very rare that you know all the details of an event and its consequences before it actually happens. Sometimes people do and there have been many stories of people managing to warn those involved before the event and successfully entertaining a potential disaster.
This is precognition in its fullest form, but it’s a sliding scale. Below I have outlined my ideas of different levels of ‘forecasting’. 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 quotes, so feel free to disagree!)
These are my different types of precognition, or ‘telling the future’.
Helen’s Precognition Sliding Scale
Precognition
This is when we have a dream, have a vision, draw or paint a picture, or just suddenly know in advance all the details of an event. In some cases, we know who is involved (usually it will be our friends or family or their acquaintances) and we may be able to warn them in some way. This warning can mean that the event itself can be stopped or changed. Or it could be that we can warn the people involved who might otherwise get hurt in some way and they can choose whether or not to take 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, is already in the middle of the event and can somehow see, feel, or know what will happen. Again, we may be able to intervene with the course of events or warn the people involved. I guess it’s a bit like the feeling of déjà vu, you just 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 from somewhere else) but it is vague. Again, this information can be on a sliding scale from small fragments to more detailed, but still abstract information. Basically it needs interpretation. Examples of this are numerous, such as the person who painted the exploding twin towers but didn’t know where or when the painting was related. Or my own teenage dream of cartoon bombs falling from the sky onto a train track, with various other references in image and cartoon form. I couldn’t interpret this at the time, I just felt weird 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 railway in an area that made sense to me, given the other references in my dream. And it was the train track that the friends used to enter the school. If you’ve ever watched ‘Medium,’ the dramatized story of real-life medium Allison DuBois, you’ve seen how she gets abstract pictures and can’t always figure out the ‘who,’ ‘what,’ and most importantly, ‘ why’ of his paranormal encounters. This makes it very difficult to do anything with any message and has one or two results. If partial precognition is not deciphered, it can combine or become pericognition, so the symbolism of the dream or vision only becomes apparent when you are in the situation. That can mean that you are in a position to say or do something. Or, alternatively, it can become recognition (below).
Recognition
This is where you haven’t noticed (although you may have suspected) or been unable to interpret what turns out to be precognition. That is, you suddenly 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 ‘dream-breaking’ will happen if you know that phrase. Suddenly, you will remember a dream or catch a glimpse of something from a meditation and realize that you knew this was going to happen. Again, it is very similar to déjà vu.
You may recognize that some of these things have happened to you. Other questions on this topic might include,
‘If you know about something before it happens, and you can’t do anything about it, what’s 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 much philosophical debate.