Precognition

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For other uses, see Precognition (disambiguation).

Precognition is a form of extra-sensory perception which allows a "percipient" to perceive information about future places or events before they happen (as opposed to merely predicting them based on deductive reasoning and current knowledge). A related term, presentiment is used to refer to information about future events which may not present itself in conscious form but rather in the form of emotions or feelings at the autonomic level. These terms are considered by some to be special cases of the more general term clairvoyance.

As with all psi phenomena, there is wide disagreement and controversy within the sciences and even within parapsychology as to the existence of precognition and the validity or interpretation of precognition related experiments.

1 History
2 Precognition in fiction
3 References
4 See also
5 External links

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History

Throughout history people have claimed to have precognitive abilities, and the "gift of prophecy" is a common feature of most religions. Just as prevalent are anecdotal accounts of precognitions from the general public, such as someone "knowing" who is on the other end of a ringing telephone before they answer it, or having a dream of unusual clarity with elements of content that later turn out to be events that actually occur. The French term, déjà vu, meaning "already seen" was coined by French psychic researcher, Emile Boirac to describe the often eerie sensation, and its companion term, "future memory", was coined by American Near-death experience researcher PMH Atwater in her 1996 book by the same title. While anecdotal accounts do not provide scientific proof of precognition, such common experiences motivate continued research.

Experimental research of precognition began at least as early as the work of J. B. Rhine, and eventually came to be his preferred mode of conducting his tests. This was a variation of his famous card-guessing experiments in which the participant was asked to record his guess of the entire order of a card deck before the deck was shuffled. Precognitive experiments have since been studied in a variety of formats by various parapsychologists, for example by the remote viewing researchers, and at the Princeton Engineering Anomalies Research Lab (PEAR).

Sometimes evidence suggesting precognition has appeared in unexpected places as well. One line of research began with the work of Swedish psychologist Holger Klintman in the early 1980s (who was not a parapsychologist, at least not to begin with). He was investigating reaction times in a Stroop task, in which a color block is displayed to a participant followed by the printed name of a color and the participant is asked to say whether the name matches the color displayed. As with most Stroop task studies, there is significant variation in reaction times depending on whether there is a match or not (slower for a mismatch). Klintman was interested in more precise measurements, so he decided to measure the time required for each step, assuming that the reaction time to recognize the color of the color block (RT1) (before the color name was displayed) could be used as a baseline for the subsequent measurement of the reaction time to indicate a match with the color name subsequently displayed (RT2). Since the name displayed was chosen by a random number generator and only after the color block identification was made, he expected a uniform measurement for RT1. Instead he found that RT1 varied more than expected and moreover correlated with whether the subsequent name displayed was a match (slower for a mismatch). After checking for conventional explanations, i.e. apparatus calibration, etc, he considered the possiblity of a precognitive effect, and so he designed a series of experiments to test this hypothesis, with positive results which he published in 1983 in the European Journal of Parapsychology. Participants were generally unaware that their reaction times showed this behavior.

In 1997 parapsychologist Dean Radin designed a new series of automated experiments to test for presentiment. In these experiments, participants are monitored for biophysical parameters such as galvanic skin response, blood volume at the extremeties, etc, and then presented randomly with photographs which have either a "calm" content (e.g. landscapes, still life, etc), or an "emotional" content (erotic or violent). Within predicted parameters, the experiment showed positive results that for some participants there was a correlation between the content of the picture (calm vs. emotional) and a participant's measurements in the several-second interval preceding the presentation of the photo. The experiment's design is fairly secure in that the system is automated and double-blind, and the participant's measured reactions do not involve conscious responses.

There is ongoing criticism and debate of all these results in the literature.

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Precognition in fiction

A precog is a shorthand for a fictional precognitive, who has an ability to foresee future happenings, or it may refer to the precognitive vision itself. It is often featured in the stories by Philip K. Dick such as Minority Report.
Jedi Knights, depending on their knowledge of the "force", often have precognition talents which lead to them to demonstrate adroit-reactions and dexterity, as they see physical changes in their environment before they happen and can anticipate them. Luke Skywalker sees his friends suffering and Yoda tells him 'It is the future you see'. Precognition is also used in battle when Jedi use their lightsabers to deflect blaster bolts, often times back at the person who fired them.
Spider-Man's "spider-sense" is a limited precognitive sense.
Destiny of the X-Men comics series has a precognitive sense.
It appears briefly in White Palace, but is not a major plot element.
Rei Hino of Sailor Moon had Precognitve sense due to her miko powers.
Kagome Higurashi of Inuyasha had Precognitve sense when find the Shikon Jewel
Maia Rutledge a child featured in the 4400 was sent back from the future with precognative abilities, and is commonly referred to as a precog by other characters.
Johnny Smith of The Dead Zone has been gifted (or cursed) with precognition.
Precognition is also used to rule humanity in Frank Herbert's Dune series.
Radar O'Reilly of the TV show M*A*S*H could always anticipate his commanding officer's requests, often walking in just before called, with the documents required already in hand. He was always aware of when the Choppers were approaching.
Milo, a character in Dan Abnett's Ghaunt's Ghost series had similar abilities to predict incoming artillery barrages and superior officer's requests
Joanna Star, a magically transgendered cheerleader from The Wotch and The Wotch: Cheer!, seems to have psychic/pregognitive abilities.
Stephen King, uses precognition in some of his novels, most notable The Shining.
In Stargate SG-1, the DNA Resequencer gave Jonas Quinn precognition.
Neo, of the Matrix Trilogy, seems to possess a limited precognitive ability in and out of the Matrix. Out of the Matrix neo saw Trinity die. Inside he is able to sense when someone is going to hit him so he is able to move out of the way without looking.
The oracle in the series the matrix also has precognitave abilities, but it is unsure if that she didn't tell people about things if they would really every happen. An example might be Neo's Vase accident.