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NewYeaarsEdition200912_june_july_2009.qxd 16/12/2009 2:32 PM Page 7 7 Future Paradox 7 Future Paradox FUTURE PARADOX FUTURE PARADOX Someone who sees a personal disaster may well be able to avoid it - but this invalidates the premonition, which will then never come true. It is hard to believe that people can foresee the future in dreams or trances unless the future is fixed - in some sense it already exists now or is at least certain to happen. But this proposes a problem. If you can foresee the future, surely you can change it. And if you do, the future is not fixed after all. A Nonexistent Disaster There is no paradox involved if a passenger booked on a flight for the following day has a premonitory dream. In his sleep he witnesses an airplane crash in vivid detail and when he wakes up, decides to stay at home.Although it happens without him, the crash occurs just as he dreamed it. He has Where were all the psychics when the world needed to be warned about the terrible attack foreseen the future. But what if a pilot of an of 9/11? airliner who had the premonition? He dreams of a crash and so does not take off, instead calling unanswered question: “In what world did the Convincing The Skeptics for extra safety checks on the aircraft. As a baby die?” result, the crash does not happen. But when, You will need to convince the skeptics CAN YOU SEE THE what the pilot “foresaw” in his dream was not, CAN YOU SEE THE that you have eliminated and all other possible as it turned out, the real future. He had a FUTURE? explanations for the results. Early Zener card FUTURE? premonition of a disaster that, in fact, never tests were criticized because it was felt that came about. hand-shuffling the pack after each trial did not A famous case of changing the future as It is a simple matter to test yourself and your randomize the cards sufficiently. Other critics the result of a premonitory dream was first friends for clairvoyant abilities. suggested that in certain lighting it was possible reported by Dr. Louise E. Rhine in the Journal to see the symbol through the back of the card. of Parapsychology (March 1955). According to For over 75 years researchers into the To make Experiment 1 as fraud proof as Dr. Rhine’s account, a young woman had paranormal have been using a special pack of possible, you and your friend should be in dreamed that she was on a camping vacation cards for experiments. They were designed by different rooms, with synchronized watches to with her baby son. In her dream, she went down and named after an expert in the psychology of ensure that the card sare being turned over at the to a near by river to wash some clothes, taking perception, Dr. Karl Zener of Duke University. agreed intervals. But make sure you record your her child with her. When she arrived at the river, Zener cards feature five distinct symbols answer before the end of the 30-second period she realized that she had forgotten to bring any - circle, square, star, cross, and wavy lines. when the card is revealed. If you don’t, your soap. Foolishly leaving her child by the There are 25 cards in a pack, and each symbol correct answers might be attributed to riverside, she walked back to the camp. When appears five times. something else - a successful telepathic she returned with the soap she found that her There are two simple experiments using exchange with your friend, rather than baby son had fallen into the water and drowned. Zener cards designed to test for clairvoyance precognition.[] Some months later, the mother and the and precognition: child actually did go camping, on a site very similar to the one that had appeared in the 1) Ask a friend to shuffle the cards and dream. The mother went to the river with her then place the top one face down on the table for baby son to wash some clothes and found that 30 seconds. At the end of that time, it should be she had forgotten to bring the soap. Suddenly placed face up in a discard pile, and the next remembering her nightmare, which card placed face down on the table. Meanwhile corresponded to this waking situation in every you should be trying to guess each card taken detail, she picked up her child and took him from the pack before it is turned over. You can back to the camp with her to fetch what she call out your answer each time so that your needed. Thus possibly - although it cannot be friend can record whether it is right or wrong, or proven - the death of the infant was averted. you can write it down for checking later. 2) Try to guess, before they are shuffled, Priestly Poser the sequence of the 25 cards. Recor your impressions, then ask your friend to shuffle the Writers on the paranormal, such as the Russia cards, and then turn them over, one by one, to mystic P.D. Ouspensky and the English check against your answers. researcher J.W. Dunne, have tried to explain this sort of dream in terms of other dimensions of It is important to conduct a number of time or other alternative “time tracks.” In these, tests. Normal probability suggests that you will possible real futures exist, yet never happen in make 5 correct guesses out of 25 each time. This our time-world. According to this view, the will vary a little on each test. But if you mother’s dream was an accurate vision of a consistently score six or seven, you could well future on a parallel track to the one she be demonstrating either clairvoyance or fortunately chose to take. Discussing this view precognition in Experiment 1, or precognition of the case in his work Man and Time (1964), in Experiment 2. J.B. Priestly put the salient, and so far