Dreaming the future
We’re all familiar with dreaming about past events in our lives, and this is how we think about dreams – that they are residue, influenced by our waking experiences, especially of recent days.
But there are books – like Dreaming Ahead of Time by Gary Lachman – that say we not only dream about the past but we also dream about the future. Can this be true?
Well, it would have profound impact not only on our understanding of how time works, but in the practical everyday life, too.
It would mean that I could see in my dreams the future movement of stock markets and make a lot of money, and indeed there are people who say they can do that.
But how can I know if this is true? I can read some more books but I think the only way I can know for sure is to put the idea to the test.
I built a small app to write down my dreams and see if I can find any future events in their content. I’m publishing the data on my website as the experiment unfolds.
How the app works
I write down my dreams – in the morning or during the night – into the app. This is the database of my dreams.
The app is connected to my public dream dashboard where we all can see how many dreams I’ve written down this week/month/year and it serves as a progress tracking for motivation, too.
Using the app also makes me think about my dreams more, and helps me to remember them better in the morning.
Dreams about the past
I’ve written down 146 dreams so far and I can clearly see their content reflecting my everyday life’s events.
Things happen during the day that I will dream about in the next few nights. I can also see how my dreams reflect my general mental state active at that time.
Dreams about the future
It’s not interesting to read other people’s dreams.
Also, my personal dream examples will not convince anyone but myself about the possibility of dreaming the future. This means that if you want to find out if it’s possible or not, you’ll need to start writing down your own dreams.
But still, I will bring just a few examples here to give you the idea of what might be considered dreams about the future. I’ll keep them short and without unnecessary details.
Going to spa
Dream: I saw a creature with horns on its head.
Future event: We went to a spa and there were these towel hangers exactly like my “creature with horns on its head.”
Possible alternative explanation: I knew that we’ll go to the spa. I had it in my calendar. But I had forgotten about it consciously. I also knew that the spa had these “creatures.”
Getting a letter
Dream: I saw in my dream that I got a letter delivered to my wife’s mother’s house and there were three people, including me, in their living room with the letter.
Future event: I got a call from my wife’s mother that I have a letter at her house. I went there and the three of us – same persons as in the dream – were standing in the same house and talking.
Possible alternative explanation: Can’t explain this. I didn’t know I had gotten a parking ticket and I didn’t know I could even get parking tickets delivered to my wife’s mother’s place (they’re very clever about finding out addresses to deliver parking fines I guess.)
Seeing a reptile
Dream: I dreamed about seeing a snake next to a river. I was looking at the snake and it was not moving for a long time. I thought it was dead. Then suddenly it moved away.
Future event: I was walking my daily route and spotted a small lizard on the road that was next to a pond. I squatted down and looked at it for a while. It looked alive but didn’t move for a long time. Then I continued walking. After half a minute I thought I’ll go back and take a photo because I realized the connection with my dream. When I went back, the lizard was gone (it was alive!)
Possible alternative explanation: Can’t explain this.
Practical use-case
If it is possible to dream about the future then the important question is this:
Out of all the possible future data, why do we get the data we get? And is it possible to use techniques, like setting intention, to query for specific data? (like a stock price movement?)
This is something I’ll investigate further.
But the future events haven’t happened yet
How could it be possible to get data about the future events when the future events have not happened yet?
One way to explain this are probabilities. Some events are more probable than others and you might be able to get data about highly probable events.
Dreaming about the stock markets
Can I get some more interesting data, like stock market movements, in my dreams?
Subscribe to my email list and I’ll keep you updated on my experiments with consciousness and technology.