J W Dunne's research into precognition whilst dreaming suggests that people do in fact dream future events. His study published in An Experiment With Time concluded that people who dream an event before it happens are more likely to observe a news report of the event they had previously dreamed rather than witness it firsthand.
If he is correct this suggests to me that the recent evacuation of the Flotel Safe Scandinavia which was widely reported may have been an ontological paradox.
A 23 year old woman on board the Flotel Safe Scandinavia had a dream that the offshore platform was evacuated due to a bomb scare. She was so upset by this dream that she related it to some other residents of the platform. The story of the dream spread around the platform like a rumor until panic spread and eventually the Flotel Safe Scandinavia was in fact evacuated due to a bomb scare.
If she did dream the future events or even the future subsequent news coverage as Dunne suggests is possible then surely this whole event was an ontological paradox?
KodeK
reel8.co.uk
Ivan Seeking
Apr18-08, 12:31 PM
You need to post a credible reference for this claim.
KodeK
Apr18-08, 01:10 PM
I'm not sure there is a credible reference. Other than J W Dunne's study I have never found a serious investigation into dream precognition and J W Dunne never got a full scale study completed, only small test groups. I know for certain that I have seen future events in my own dreams but of course there is no way to prove this, it becomes a matter of faith or mysticism which is what J W Dunne was trying to avoid. This is the kind of thing that Richard Dawkins writes off as delusion or coincidence but I'm sure there is more to it than that.
KodeK
reel8.co.uk
Ivan Seeking
Apr18-08, 02:30 PM
How about a reference for that study?
If he never published a paper in a mainstream academic journal then this is not a topic for discussion.
Edit: We can discuss personal experiences, but claims of experimental evidence require a link to the published paper.
my_wan
Apr27-08, 09:16 PM
You got the Flotel Safe Scandinavia story a bit wrong also, or perhaps you could supply a source for that. All the sources I found said she dreamed there was a bomb, not a bomb scare/evacuation. It's a really big stretch to go from dreaming about a bomb to dreaming about a bomb scare and then relating it all back to J W Dunne. By the way, I'm not at all sure what an "ontological paradox" is, especially within the context here.
http://www.boingboing.net/2008/02/11/womans-dream-of-bomb.html
A woman who works on an oil rig in the North Sea had a dream that a bomb was on the platform. When she was overheard recalling the dream, it resulted in an evacuation.
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/article785907.ece
The worker, aged 23, told pals of her nightmare about a device on the giant Safe Scandinavia accommodation block ‘flotel’.
She then reportedly tried to jump off the rig after throwing her bags in the water.
Wild rumours about a bomb then spread about the rig.
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/topstories/2008/02/12/oil-rig-bomb-dreamer-in-court-over-north-sea-alert-89520-20316653/
Dana Rosu, 23, triggered a major evacuation when she "flipped out" after dreaming there was a device on the North Sea platform.
http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/2008/02/11/161-evacuated-from-oil-rig-after-bomb-scare-nightmare-86908-20315519/
He added: "It was complete madness. This girl had a dream about a bomb being on board and she was a bit shaken. She told other people and before long it had grown arms and legs.
Burnsys
Apr30-08, 10:12 AM
I don't see the paradox, take this example, i dream about a bomb being place in my bank, then i go to my bank yelling "There is a bomb", next the bank is evacuated.. So what's the big deal?
Garth
Apr30-08, 06:22 PM
A 23 year old woman on board the Flotel Safe Scandinavia had a dream that the offshore platform was evacuated due to a bomb scare. She was so upset by this dream that she related it to some other residents of the platform. The story of the dream spread around the platform like a rumor until panic spread and eventually the Flotel Safe Scandinavia was in fact evacuated due to a bomb scare.
If she did dream the future events or even the future subsequent news coverage as Dunne suggests is possible then surely this whole event was an ontological paradox?
KodeK
reel8.co.uk
It is not 'precognition', it is a 'self fulfilling prophecy'.
If a financier with sufficient reputation says on TV that a bank is about to go bankrupt then everyone takes their money out of that bank and then indeed it does go bankrupt. No ontological paradox there.