Premonitions

Yesterday morning I had some spontaneous insight into how premonitions “work.” It was just a flow of information that could be completely imagined, so take it for what it’s worth.

I recently noticed that when I am dreaming/journeying and I become aware that in this life, the one I occupy in my ordinary state of consciousness, there are certain events that have taken place, seemingly on a timeline. However, in my dream state, I have trouble recalling in what order things happened. Questions like, “How did I end up back in St. Augustine after giving birth to my first child? Did I finish college? Am I still in college?” are difficult, if not impossible to answer.

My dream self is aware that there are certain major events that have taken place, but the details and order of events aren’t seen in a linear fashion from there as they are from here.

The intuition I had about this basically stated that the reason for this is that time isn’t viewed in a linear fashion from these other states of consciousness. So the question, ‘What happened first- the chicken or the egg?” doesn’t make sense in “non-ordinary states of consciousness. From the “birds-eye” vantage point, it is all happening at once. In non-ordinary states of mind, instead of a straight line, time looks more like a circle or a sphere.

So, to glimpse a bit of what we call the “future” in a dream or a vision is really just seeing from that “birds-eye” view, from a place where there is no past and future, at least not in the way we think of it.

As if to illustrate it, I got very sleepy after lunch and laid down to take a nap. In my very last dream before waking up, I had my arms wrapped around both daughters and we were seated on the floor. They were humming in harmony and I was singing over the top of that, "Hallelujah” repeatedly in a melody I am not familiar with. (I hummed it into my Voice Memos upon waking).

Well, after reading Ophelia her bedtime story later that evening, she gave me a big hug, and just stayed there, humming. I let this go on for a few minutes because she doesn’t just want to be held as much as she once did and I know she is growing up fast. As I listened to her song, I realized she was humming the song that is sung at Trinity Episcopal church prior to communion, the song they say the saints are also singing in heaven, “Holy, holy, Lord….Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord…Hosanna in the highest….”

It was very sweet and it occurred to me that the essence of the dream I had had hours earlier was happening here, in ordinary time. My daughter and I were holding each other and she was humming a song about God.

This reflection on premonitions and how they happen does help explain some things.

It also lightens the pressures of the question, “Did I cause this to happen?” That feeling as though things are our fault due to thoughts or feelings we have had seems not valid after all, if time is indeed a circle, and premonitions are truly possible.

We may not be causing the future so much as seeing the future.

I recall specific instances from my childhood that further this theme.

I will describe them at another time.