Why premonitions are annoying and useless… [View all]

Who’s seen The Mothman Prophecies? (Spoiler ahead.) I’m referring to the film because I haven’t read the book or investigated the events upon which it is based. I really like this film and one of the things I like about it is how tormented the main character is by having access to this information that is really so hard to interpret. He gets it wrong over and over again. I guess, in the end it does all click and he saves the girl. But mostly, it’s just impossible to correctly process and act on this kind of information. I really relate to that.

I’ve spoken about this before. For example, before my wedding I had a premonition that I would not walk down the aisle because I would be in a car accident. Terrific. What was I supposed to do, stay out of cars for six weeks until I was married? Well, no. And so I was rolled into the Orthopedic Gym in a hospital bed at Stony Brook University Medical Center to be married.

Here’s the most recent example – not nearly as life-impacting for me or anyone I know. I actually had my first premonition about a celebrity. I was repulsed when I had this premonition for many reasons. First, I just don’t know why I have to have these – I don’t know what to call them – little revelations. But about a celebrity – that just felt so cliché and cheap.

I almost wrote about it here – there was a thread asking if anyone had any premonitions for the new year and I almost chimed in, “Yes. Dolly Parton is going to die.”

Dolly Parton?

See – either we can’t do anything about our premonitions, we don’t understand them, or both.

As soon as I heard Whitney Houston died, I was like “Oh, of course! ‘I will always love you…’”

So this is how it goes. I get a sudden infiltration of knowledge – like an attack. It feels a lot different from just getting an idea. I know it’s a premonition. I am annoyed because I know I either don’t really understand it, can’t do anything about it or both. It nags at me in the back of my mind until the event comes to pass, and then I think, “OK, that was it.” And then I hope it never happens again.

Would anyone like to share similar experiences? Do you have any coping strategies? Has anyone either successfully shut it down or successful become more proficient? Is there a good use for this? I don’t really see what it adds to the world to have foreknowledge of celebrity deaths. (Or car accidents or natural disasters or anything.)

Thoughts?