[b]
History [/u]
In 350 B.C.E Aristotle skeptically debated precognitive dreams in his paper, “On Prophesying by Dreams” and states “As to the divination which takes place in sleep, and is said to be based on dreams, we cannot lightly either dismiss it with contempt or give it implicit confidence.”[9]
The prophecy of the assassination of Julius Caesar on March 15th 44B.C.E came to fulfillment as he was warned, “Beware the Ides of March”, according to Plutarch, a seer had warned that harm would come to Caesar no later than the Ides of March. On his way to the Theatre of Pompey, where he would be assassinated, Caesar passed the seer and joked, "The ides of March have come," meaning to say that the prophecy had not been fulfilled, to which the seer replied "Aye, Caesar; but not gone."[10]
The first thorough collection and critical review of such spontaneous cases was created by the British Society for Psychical Research (SPR). Reports of these cases were authored by Eleanor Sidgwick in 1888,[11] and Herbert Saltmarsh in 1938.[7] Sidgwick believed the evidence warranted further investigation as to the validity of the concept of precognition, and Saltmarsh offered that the evidence based on 349 cases of precognition.
It was found that over half were proven to be true and accurate based on record and data verification.[12]
German actress Christine Mylius [13] sent her
dreams to Professor Bender at the Institute for Borderline Areas of Psychology for archiving. When she would have a dream come true, they would reference it in the archives.
Irish aeronautical engineer J. W. Dunne [14] kept a detailed account of his dreams and, using the scientific method, investigated his own precognitive dreams (see
John William Dunne - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia ).
Louisa Rhine at the Parapsychology Laboratory at Duke University compiled the best-known and largest body of dream evidence. Dr. Rhine collected over 7000 accounts of ESP experiences. The majority of these accounts were dream related and were seemingly precognitive in nature.[15]
Neurological Changes During Sleep
There are several neurological and psychological factors during sleep that affect the quality of precognitive dream data.
The most measurable are the neurological effects of brain activity during sleep which affect memory, awareness and perception (MAP).
The brain undergoes dramatic changes in activity with areas that become inactive.
The dorsolateral frontal convexity, for example, is inactive in REM sleep periods in order to shut down motor function.[16]
Dream content generation becomes apparent in the frontal lobes and the Parieto-Occipito-Temporal junction (PTO) as evident in Solms (1997a) who showed that dream content generation ceases when the PTO is damaged.[17]
Studies have shown that during REM sleep brain activity is very similar to that while awake
(thus it is also known as paradoxical sleep)
and dreams during these sleep phases can be more easily remembered than during deep sleep (non-REM phases).
This does not assure, however, that the dream content is always remembered upon waking.
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Hobson, (2003) Finds that many dreamers are aware that recall actively eludes them as they awaken and further explains,
“The very absence of recall is a datum which any dream theory must explain, especially in the face of the robust brain activation in REM sleep!”[18]
When memory is present but not recalled this is better described as amnesia.
The neurological impact of sleep causes two types of amnesia to confront the dreamer.
Sleep Induced Amnesia and Waking Induced Amnesia.
Sleep induced amnesia spans the duration of sleep through the NREM and REM stages whereas Waking Induced Amnesia is the sudden decay of dream memories upon waking.
Memory still resides as evident by NREM and REM studies using fMRI. These studies show activity in the frontal lobe. Information flows out of, but not into, the hippocampus during NREM sleep.[19]
Dream memory occurs in short-term memory without transferring into long-term memory. This explains why dream memory rapidly fades when a person wakes up from sleep.
Quite often memory can be regained when certain triggers during the day spontaneously allow the dream content to be recalled.
In the case of déjà vu and precognitive dreams it is the onset of the future event which acts as the trigger causing the content to be remembered. When déjà vu is linked to a dream memory, it is called déjà rêve[20]
Then there is a picture of encephalograph, graph.