2) Personal Reflections on Telepathic Dreaming or Pre-Cognition

In the fall of 1964, my life was transformed dramatically because of a telepathic and/or precognitive dream. This dream had a profound affect on me, awakening my interest in the interplay between science and religion, which today has coalesced into the field of transpersonal psychology. This dream concerned the need for medical treatment of a female classmate of mine that I was emotionally very close to. I first publicly discussed this dream as an example of what a genuine transpersonal experience is on May 16, 1989, with several graduates from the Center for Humanistic Studies in Detroit, Michigan, who were completing their doctoral requirements in clinical psychology at The Union Institute. I would like to acknowledge this sixteen-member audience for their enthusiastic participation. In particular, I would like to thank Maria Carrera for her contribution to the content of this meeting. Carrera’s comments were not only insightful, they played a key role in shifting this meetings conversation from my discussion of psi experiences to the specific examples of transpersonal psychotherapy that are practiced in her home country of Puerto Rico. Sending my account of this dream to Charles T. Tart, he responded by saying:

"What I find especially interesting about this account is the enormous pressure [that was] brought to bear on [you] to invalidate [your] own experience. This kind of pressure and the negative consequences it has on many people’s psychological development is one of the main reasons I created [The Archives of Scientists’ Transcendent Experiences] site" (Tart, 2000).

In attempting to discuss this dream experience, it is important that we know what telepathy and pre-cognition means. “Telepathy,” according to J. B. Rhine, refers to “extrasensory perception of the mental processes of another person” (Krippner: 9, 1975), while Rhine defined pre-cognition as, “extrasensory perception of future events” (Krippner: 9, 1975). My 1964 dream is therefore either an example of what Rhine referred to as dream telepathy or pre-cognition. For a clearly written discussion of the differences between dream telepathy and pre-cognition, that is accessible to students and general audiences, I would recommend Stephen Kierulff and Krippner's book Becoming Psychic: Spiritual Lessons for Focusing Your Hidden Abilities, 2004. I also recommend Robert L. Van de Castle’s well-researched, yet non-technical chapter, on “Paranormal Dreams: Psychic Contributions to Dreams” in his book Our Dreaming Mind (1994). I also want to recommend Sally Rhine Feather and Michael Schmicker’s book The Gift: ESP, the Extraordinary Experiences of Ordinary People (2005), which is one of the best sources of personal accounts on psi events.

My own dream begins with my first grade class taking a field trip to the Homestead National Monument, near Beatrice, Nebraska, which comprises several acres of wooded grasslands. As is customary for primary school children of that age, we were paired off as partners. We then began a walking tour of America’s first homestead. At a certain point in this dream my female companion began complaining of stomach cramps, saying she could not walk any more. Consequently I stopped to let her rest. The other members of our class, however, began to complain about our lagging behind and encouraged us to keep up. So we started walking again, but eventually the pain forced my friend to collapse. I sat down with her, empathizing as best I could with her agony. Her cramps finally became quite severe and I noticed she had now begun to bleed abdominally. At this point I knew she definitely needed medical assistance. Still none of our classmates seemed to notice what was happening. Instead they continued to scoff at us for playing such a silly game.

Sometime that next morning I awoke early and recalled the former dream in vivid detail to my parents. Imploring them to call my friend’s home because I knew she needed medical attention. My parents responded by telling me that dreams are not real, although they sometimes seem real. I disagreed, saying that this dream was somehow different and that my friend really needed to see a doctor. Continuing to assure me that everything was okay, my parents said I should get dressed and go to school. In a final attempt to reassure me, they added: “when you get to school and see your friend, you will see that she is okay and realize that this was just a dream and not something real.”

So I got dressed and walked the mile to school, telling my dream to all of my classmates that I saw along the way. After arriving at the schoolyard, I continued to tell my dream to anyone that would listen. In response, my classmates all laughed at me for being so silly. They repeated what my parents had told me, saying, “it was just a dream.” Eventually I went to my teachers and told them my dream. But they too responded in like manner, adding: “Mark, you really have an over-active imagination. We think you have been reading too many weird books. You will see it was just a dream and not reality when your friend gets here on the bus.”

I waited for the bus to arrive. On arrival, I waited for my friend to step off the bus. To my dismay she was not on it, nor had the bus driver seen her that morning. Once again I became frantic, saying to my teachers and classmates that something was wrong and that we should call her home to find out what had happened to her. Again my teachers attempted to reassure me, saying: “Now Mark, she must have missed the bus. Her mother must be bringing her to school today.” So I waited for her mother’s car to arrive . . . until the school bell rang. The schoolyard cleared, as another school day was about to begin. Eventually I too left the schoolyard as the final tardy bell rang. The concern for my friend continued to weight heavily upon my thoughts. Entering my classroom I continued to make a fuss about calling her home until my teacher finally told me to stop talking about it, as I was disturbing the class. . . . I was restless all morning.

Our class re-convened after lunch. The first thing my teacher announced was that during the night my missing friend had been taken to the hospital for emergency surgery, because of something called an appendicitis attack. This explanation put my mind at rest, having confirmed my conviction that my friend really had been in need of medical attention. In response I said something to the affect “my dream had been real.” My teacher did not acknowledge my comment, but acted as if she could not hear me. Perhaps she felt that by not answering me, my interest in this dream would become a passing fancy and I would soon forget about it. Much to the contrary, my teacher’s strange silence and reluctance to discuss my dream (and its apparent verification with the announcement that my friend had actually needed to be hospitalized) was, instead, a great source of mystery to me. Consequently, the experience as a whole became too psychologically moving for me to forget.

I had wanted to visit my friend in the hospital, but the law at that time forbade minors to enter unless they were visiting their parents or close relatives. When my friend returned to school, I told her about my dream. At first she was open to discussing it as well as her own near-death experience. During our first conversation she told me that the night her appendicitis took place she was taking swimming lessons under the direction and guidance of her sister. When she began to complain of cramps, her sister (familiar with my friend’s laziness and ability to stretch the truth) believed this was simply a story made up to get out of completing her lesson.

That night at home, following her lesson, my friend again complained to her mother about cramps. Her sister, however, convinced their mother that this story about cramps was simply being repeated as a way to gain sympathy, and to get her older sister in trouble. This explanation also seemed to their mother to be the more convincing story, concluding that my friend’s complaint of cramps was not real, which resulted in her being sent to bed. Fortunately enough for my friend her father was a medical surgeon and took the time to investigate my friend’s complaint of cramps when he came home from the hospital that evening. Diagnosing his daughter’s condition as an acute appendicitis, my friend was rushed to the hospital, where emergency surgery was performed. Had my friend’s father not have been a physician and been unable to diagnose her condition in time, she probably would have died that evening from a ruptured appendicitis.

On completing her story, I felt my dream had been further vindicated. I expressed the concern to my friend that I was very interested in finding out how I had been able to predict her illness in my dream. On my friend’s second day back in school, however, she was more reluctant to talk to me, having been influenced by her mother, teacher, and peers to ignore my questions. She herself began to doubt my story. By the third day my friend’s opinion had hardened into full agreement with the consensus view that I was just making up some kind of fantastic story, no doubt to get attention. In fact, from this day on, she absolutely refused to explore the possibility of my heart-felt experience. My friend also refused to further discuss her own close encounter with death, as her mother, teacher, and peers had advised her that she should try and forget her horrible confrontation with death.

References

(references will be posted in the last entry of this serios of blogs).