Do premonitory dreams really exist?

“On July 25, 2019, I woke up in the middle of the night, because I had just dreamed of my grandmother’s death. I felt great anguish, it was the first time I had experienced such a thing. I understood that something was wrong. The next morning, my mother told me that my grandmother had died during the night,” says Marie, 25.

Before this “traumatic” episode, the young woman had never had premonitory dreams, but her grandmother was used to it. “She had predicted several misfortunes that happened in my family, a car accident, a miscarriage and my grandfather’s cancer,” continues the young woman.

Throughout her childhood, her grandmother’s violent awakenings traumatized her. From now on, Marie says, a little ashamed – because she “isn’t the type to believe just anything” – that she is afraid that this “curse” is now hers.

But can we really adhere to the idea that our unconscious would warn us of the trials of the future, or do these “deja-vu” events not result from the power of deduction of our brain? Lise Bartoli, clinical psychologist and hypnotherapistauthor of How to improve your destiny (Ed. Payot and Shores) answers us.

What is a premonitory dream?

Before questioning its legitimacy, it is essential to understand what is called a premonitory dream and what differentiates it from a “standard” dream?

“It’s a dream we have when we’re asleep or daydreaming, sincethey can also occur in a state of semi-consciousness. We’re going to dream of something, but it’s going to be strong, something we’re going to remember when we wake up or when we come to ourselves. We know that something has happened, that important information for us has been given to us”, explains Lise Bartoli.

If for the psychologist, everyone is able to do it, because it is not a “gift” – it is enough to be in a moment of letting go (at night, during a meditation session… ) – it is important to know how to recognize the sensations they generate in order to distinguish them from everyday dreams.

“Even if we can’t decode it, we feel it, it’s so strong that it usually wakes us up. This is what differentiates it from a standard dream, there is like a presentiment, which we do not find in the nightmare”, she elaborates.

Vision of the future or feeling of déjà vu?

But as Lise Bartoli prefers to point out “we don’t have the answer to everything”. Hence the legitimacy to ask the question: was it a premonitory dream, or just a feeling of deja vu?

Because if we can sometimes have the impression of having flashes like the protagonist of Raven Phenomenonthey could very well turn out to be premonitory dreams, integrated during moments of “semi-consciousness”.

The time we live in is not that of our unconscious.

“When we work in hypnosis, we know that we will be able to work in a space outside of time, to seek information that is very distant, because the time we live in is not that of our unconscious. It’s the same with the feelings of déjà vu”, develops the clinical psychologist.