Can You Predict The Future ?

[Gwops]

Even If I am a minority of one, truth is still the truth.

[Moshi Dayan]

It is difficult to understand premonitions until the event takes place.
Though I have had premonitions, I don't think I can foretell the future because of this difficulty.
When I was young I visited a well respected psychic named Hershall Bray.
Mr. Bray said I would spend most of my life in an institution.
He was right.
My wife and I recently celebrated our 35th year in the institution of marriage.
What he said was right, but it sort of freaked me out at the time as I was thinking mental institution, or (heaven forbid) a penal institution.
Mr. Bray had a true gift of second sight, many people were forwarned and many were comforted (he also was said to be able to "call up" the dead).
Mr. Bray never charged a fee for his readings, but most people left him a love offering on the table by the door as they left. Hershall thought this very funny as he was a very wealthy man. He used the love offerings to help disadvantaged families. I knew him for about ten years before he passed on.
He had told me that he would cross over on a certain date, and true to form, he was right again. One thing I took from knowing Hershall was not to fear death. He always said we were holometabolic creatures, and our physical existance might best be refered to as a "larval" stage of our being.
He told me I was as old as the universe, and would be until the universe ended. That always puzzled me, then one day it hit me...all we are is composed of dirt, minerals, and water...all as old as the universe, put together in this incarnation by DNA and RNA...but the fact remains,
"All We Are Is Dust In The Wind"-Kansas.

[Hoppy]

I can't predict the future and nor do I wish to be able to. Your future is your destiny and I don't want to alter your destiny for one millisecond in your life.

You are right we are just star dust. We are made up of chemicals created in the vast hydrogen clouds that followed what created this Universe. Wit DNA now discovered to have memory we need to aim to try to revitalise that memory of our past journeys throughout the Universe.

String theory allows for multiple Universes so our journey has just begun. A parrallel universe may be next to you without you even realising it.

We are all made of star stuff and the opportunities within sciens and metaphisics are boundless. Search for the answers for if meant to be all will be explained ot us in the future.

[Nan]

Not seemingly at will, or precisely what I seek to "know"
but often
a dream, or an "image" will occur withIn me
and I see
that very "preview"
played out,
often in unexpected ways.

fascinating times to Be Human, isn't it?

I agree with Hoppy.
I wouldn't wish to know another's "future"
(tho occaisionally, I sense something approaching...)

the act of trying or wishing to know for someone else...
comes with it, for me, weight of responsibility I don't need.
it's enuff for me to choose every Moment,
from the miriad of potentials of the Now.

great poll, Gwops. thanks.

[KorMan]

I predict that the sun will rise in the east tomorrow, that next year will be 2008, and that horoscopes will continue to be BS. Beyond that, I subscribe to Criswell's Maxim:

"Greetings, my friend. We are all interested in the future, for that is where you and I are going to spend the rest of our lives."

[Aaron LeClair]

I predict that the sun will rise in the east tomorrow, that next year will be 2008

I was going to say the exact same thing.

[KorMan]

Hmmm ...... you must be psychic! Or I am. Maybe we both are. Lessee ... I'm thinking of a 2000-digit prime number ...

[Aaron LeClair]

Well, 2000 you thought of, since you typed it I thought of it too since I read it!

How is "premonition" being defined here?

I was watching a program on television the other day and while I was I kept thinking of the name of a particular place. I even thought to myself "Why the hell are you thinking of that?". I turned the channel at a commercial break and watched something else for a while. During that show the place I had been thinking about was mentioned as a footnote to an entirely different subject.

Would that be classified as a premonition? It seems terribly insignificant by comparison to predicting a major disaster (I did have an odd pre-9/11 dream but that's for another time) or the like.

But if linear time is only something we perceive in this dimension is it so impossible that a premonition is just a glimpse of some other point in time; a glitch in our perception? This could also explain certain types of ghost sitings.

I know this "theory" is nothing new. I don't presume to be groundbreaking. I'm just questioning.

[Yakuzablitz]

Can you discuss predicting the future without getting into the thorny philosophical territory discussing whether we have free will or not and whether the future is predestined or not? I'd like to believe that we do have free will and that the future doesn't have some set course that we have to follow, regardless of our thoughts, feelings, or wishes. Wouldn't the ability to predict the future imply that the future is indeed "locked in"? A scary thought...