Is there a logical explanation...or is paranormal the only one?

Question

This is my mum's dream:

The story goes that my mum was away skiing for the weekend, and that night had a dream. She dreamt that she was being hunted by a sniper in a distorted area with many high rises all around, and was dodging bullets that were being fired from the gun. Then a second sniper joined the attack, and she was stationary dodging bullets that were being fired repeatedly. She then dreamt that she was running across the top of the roofs of inner-city Victorian houses, and was being hunted by the single sniper.

This apparantly was a very unsettling and vivid dream, and when she returned back from the snow, she watched a newsflash. Melburnians may recall the Hoddle St massacre in the 1980's. The events that were being described on the news were exactly the same as what my mother dreamt, including the second sniper joining for a brief period, and the sniper escaping by running over the roofs. Even the highrises were accurate. Coincidence, or what is the paranormal explanation?

Answer 1

I would say neither, the chances are that the information was probably told or played on the radio or tv one time while you mother was present.  She probably didn't even realise it, but some part of her unconscious mind took it in, she probably didn't consciously know it was being said, but it was brought to her conscious mind through her dream.

Answer 2

do you always use the word paranormal as a synonym for "unknown answer"

Answer 3

Very much a coincidence and I'm sure her memory (specially of a dream) was distorted by the images she saw on the news. It's amazing what lousy eyewitnesses we are.

Answer 4

I don't believe in coincidences so there must be a reason or answer either logical or paranormal though I don't know which.

Answer 5

I could be paranormal but it i smore likely that she experienced this as a result of hearing a news broadcast like a couple of other people already said.

i will just add what i experience which is not paranormal and you can make up your own mind. When I sleep if there is any radio or television within hearing, I dream of the events I hear and they are bvery real.

When Nixon resigned i was asleep because I worked nights and I was there with him when he gave his resignation speech. I was not really with him, but the dream was so vivid I thought I was with him.

I was just a boy when Whitman shot all those people in Austin in the sixties, but I was taking a nap when the news about it came on and I had a very vivid dream that I was one of those people running for my life.

Now I know things patranormal happen and I have experienced many things paranormal, but  the average person is too quick to believe and wants to experience things paranormal so bad theat almost everything seems to be a paranormal phenomena.

Study each event with a open mind and consider all normal possiblities first then make up your own mind, because on websites and forums like this it is impossible to accurately answer your questions because we are not there to question and to document. All we have is opinions and only you can study this and determine if it is paranormal or natural.

I woyuld not even suggest calling paranormal investigators because although many are trusly careful to document only real phenomena,  there are two extreems, one extreme is to be so skeptical that they dismiss real paranormal phomena as natural and the other extreme is they see paranormal phomena in everything. That is why i always encourage people to study for themselves and use the same methods because the so called "professional;" paranormal investigators are just people who join ghost organizations and read book and go to workshops adn you can do the same see link below and study the free articles and view the free photos and see for yiourself.

Answer 6

I would say mum has a gift.  I sometimes have dreams that come true although the events leading up to it in the dream are bizarre.

Answer 7

Sorry, but it seems made up to me, but how should I know?  I don't think I'll be able to believe something like that until I experience it.  I can't have faith in something that seems to have no purpose, especially becasue the event your mum saw had happened in the 1980's. What was the point 'seeing' something that happened in the past and was well documented and reported?

Answer 8

Chemical reactions in the brain. There is a mental structure in our brain that sometimes will let you see what you want to see. She subconsciously remembered that dream and connected two random events. Sorry, I love science. I don't argue with it.

Answer 9

Subconsciously, she may have heard of this massacre some time ago.

She may have just been reliving subconsciosly supressed memories.

Answer 10

I can suppose anything else will start flame wars, so will just list this:

Answer 11

maybe she see it on tv when it happened and is maybe remembering there

Answer 12

This happens to many people, far more than you would think since they do not usually feel comfortable disclosing it except in places of relative anonymity such as here on Answers.

I have not had these experiences, but I have had other kinds of "paranormal expreiences" so that to me, paranormal things are more normal than most think.

Coincidence it was not, I will tell you that. Everything went to perfectly. That even assumes that there are coincidences. I don't personally believe in true coincidences, but that is off-subject.

And by the way, just because your mother had this dream doesn't mean she has superpowers. Everyone can do this, though not everyone does and it happens different for everyone. It means that she is normal, not paranormal.

Answer 13

People often dream about things that are related to things they heard,  or saw within the past two weeks, even if they weren't paying complete attention.

Answer 14

Lots of people can have these type of dreams and yes there is no logical explanation - it was a paranormal experience. Dont be scared - also what you describe it seems that she was there more in spirit form. I have had dreams where I felt I was like flying through the sky weightless and then a few months later I drove to an area and I knew I had been there the  subconscious is very complex

Answer 15

did your mum have any prior knowlege about the sniper attack? It is possible she had seen the original news show and then heard a preview of the event.

But it sounds to me like she was actually reliving the event.  For some reason, the sniper attack is resurfacing in the common consciousness.  She may be 'picking up' on some vibrations, was this the aniversary of the shootings?  Has someone disturbed the buildings recently?

Answer 16

ITS NOT MERE COINCIDENCE,TRY FIND OUT WHEN YOUR MOTHER WAS DREAMING AT THAT TIME ANYWHERE IN WORLD THAT PROGRAMME MIGHT BE RUNNING OR SAY BEING AIRED AND ONLY CO INCIDENCE IS THAT ONLY YOUR MOTHER WAS IN THAT STATE OF MIND THAT TIME ,IN WHICH HER SUB CONCIOUS MIND WAY ACTIVE TO RECIEVE THOSE TELEPATHIC SINGNALS . THATS ALL . AND NOW WHEN SUCH A FUSS IS CREATED IN YOUR FAMILY SHE WILL SEE THESE DREAMS AGAIN AND AGAIN BECAUSE OF HER SUBCONCIOUS FEAR WHICH HAVE BEEN SETALLED IN HER MIND

Answer 17

Coincidence.

Answer 18

Paranormal is what you call it when you are too mentally lazy to search for the logical (most likely real and correct) answer.

You have to ask yourself, what is more likely:

1) That she had prior knowledge of the actual event and dreamed about it, incorporating this prior knowledge into her dream? or

2) That she has some supernatural power (to foresee events) that has never been observed before? or

3) That it was a coincidence (something that happens fairly commonly)?

When someone tells you a story about two completely unrelated events and they try to convince you that they are somehow related, they say, "Do you really think that's just a coincidence?"  You should respond by saying, "Yes.  That's what a coincidence IS."

Answer 19

My guess is paranormal.  I would like to see what the chances, mathematically expressed, would be that this would happen coincidentally.

A friend of mine once had a vivid image in a dream, of a small dot suddenly exploding into a star shape.  The next day he was driving his car, a pebble shot up, hit his windescreen, and he saw exactly the same image he dreamed of.  Another coincidence?