I'm seriously freaked out.

[JoeTheJuggler]

Then I was talking with a mutual friend of ours. Apparently, she has had three different experiences where she dreamed of a friend or family member dying in a car crash.

So the whole thing is an anecdote you got secondhand. I don't think it amounts to anything at all.

Between 40 and 50 thousand people die in auto accidents each year in the U.S. It's a fairly common occurrence. You never heard your friend predict (or dream of) one in advance. You also have no idea how many times she had dreams of auto fatalities that didn't come true.

Don't get upset about it, but recognize that probably the most dangerous thing you do with any regularity (by many orders of magnitude) is to drive or ride in a car.

<derail rant>
I guarantee if we took say $20 billion from Homeland Security and spent it on enforcement of traffic safety laws (including DWI/DUI enforcement, enforcing safe following distances, etc.) and improving the roads that we could actually save a great many lives.
</derail rant>

 

[jimtron]

What did cross my mind is...if she really saw the deaths coming, wouldn't she have done everything in her power to stop them? I laid in bed last night thinking of ways to stop Shannon from driving for the next two weeks...I must be going crazy. That's what fear mixed with OCD will do to you. Thank you for your responses.

If she can accurately predict the future, how could you change it? IOW, if you're friend is accurate in predicting that someone will die in a car crash, then they will die in a car crash. If the car crash is prevented, then the prediction was wrong. Since no one has ever been able to prove psychic powers, I highly doubt your friend has them. However, it would be pretty easy to prove. Why not start posting her predictions here, as soon as she has them (not after they have already come true). That way, we can all see how accurate she is.

 

[Miss Anthrope]

Is this the friend who psychically figured out that you were gay, the friend who had ghosts writing on her, the friend who psychically answers Trivial Pursuit questions, or the friend whose daughter can psychically locate missing mugs?

JP, it seems, based on these posts linked above, that you are hanging with a very woo crowd that is given to much drama.

Coincedences happen, but as a former cold reader who hung with these types, you'll see the stories evolve quite a bit, becoming embellished the more often they are told.

There is also an interesting thing to look at. In an above post you noted she said it happened three times before. Have you ever heard of the phenomenon of "Three is the liar's number"? I learned alot about this when I did Occupational Psychology and saw several studies in college. Unfortunately googling I can only come up with this from a former criminal profiler:

Studies have also shown that the number three is a liars number. When deceptive people have to come up with a number, they will often choose the number three.

Not an impressive cite to be sure, but it's something to throw out.

I'm a little skeptical of why you're starting so many woo threads, but I do encourage you to do some research and consider the sources.

 

[LostAngeles]

If she lost three people to car crashes, then it's possible that this has created a deep fear of such a thing. As a kid, I was afraid of the end of the world (particularly via nuclear war), and as such, I had a lot of nightmares about the end of the world growing up. So it's possible she could be having these nightmares a lot, but happens to remember this one since the other haven't come true.

Counting the hits...

 

[EHLO]

Hi JP, you obviously care a lot for Shannon and so your concern is understandable.

However the level of fear you are expressing is irrational, based on a dream and the prediction of a friend with self professed psychic ability. Is Shannon as worried as you? Is your psychic friend as worried as you? Relax! I predict everything is going to be all right. Que sera sera…

 

[JoeTheJuggler]

Is this the friend who psychically figured out that you were gay, the friend who had ghosts writing on her, the friend who psychically answers Trivial Pursuit questions, or the friend whose daughter can psychically locate missing mugs?

Ah. . .it's one of THOSE characters.


So, JP you say:

My best friend, who has claimed to have had some psychic ability (which I haven't really believed in) has told me in the past that she has had a feeling that she will die in a car wreck. I brushed this off.

Your verb tenses are very confusing here. Do you believe your friend has some sort of paranormal power or not?

I'm guessing you're a believer. Why on earth would you want to post your second hand anecdote of supposed psychic dreams to a skeptic's forum?

I think you're just messing around with us. . .again.

 

[Skeptic Ginger]

Apparently, she has had three different experiences where she dreamed of a friend or family member dying in a car crash.

She has claimed to have had these 'prophetic' dreams.
Some possible explanations are:
She never had any such dream.
She had the dreams after the event and either lied or deluded herself about the timing about the timing.
She had the dreams, along with many other dreams, before the event and they had nothing to do with prophecy.
An impossible explanation:
She had the dreams before the event and they were prophetic.

Another possibility: her friends and family are really poor on driving safety. Or even just the ones she picked out as being at risk. Maybe she had a premonition because she observed the cues before the events.

 

[Skeptic Ginger]

Thanks for the heads up Joe. JP1283 is apparently dishonest for whatever reason he gets enjoyment out of these posts. Here's a sample of the last few threads started by JP. Time to get a life I say.

Suddenly, the covers on my left side were jerked down really hard, then they fluffed up in the air, then got jerked down again. My immediate thought was that one of the cats was still in the room, but then I remembered that the other two cats were out in the front room. This was also validated when I got up the next morning and they were both on the couch.

...Donna has claimed that there is a psychic streak that runs in her family. She had said that her two-year-old daughter was especially gifted with this 'streak.' She would often say things that she wouldn't have any way of knowing about, such as where objects were, etc. Well I came face to face with this, and it was really weird....Somehow, a mug of mine ended up on a chair. While I was in my tent, I heard Donna ask her daughter where her mug was. Her daughter replied that it was on the chair. The thing is, I can't think of a way she could possibly have known that the mug was on the chair, as they were in their tent! It was really weird.

Since we were playing on teams, it was her team's turn (each team had 2 people) and I asked her team their question. The question went something like this:...Which couple reunited to film the movie "Back to the Beach?" (That's not exactly how the question went but you get the gist.) At first Shannon said it was Brooke Shields and "that other guy," but I told her she was wrong. She thought about it some more, then looked at me hard and, out of the blue, she said "Frankie Avalon and..." Her teammate then said Annette Funicello before she got the chance....I was floored. I myself have never even heard of this movie, nor any of its predecessors, and if I know Shannon, she wouldn't have either. I was thinking that maybe she had already been asked that question once before, but she hasn't had the game very long and has only played it a couple of times, mostly with me.

Here's more:

Top 10 Ghost Photos

Demonic Experience

Weird experiences.

My One "Paranormal" Experience

And the list goes on, I didn't bother going any further.

 

[JP1283]

To Joe and Skeptigirl:

No, I am not messing with you. No, these are not people or stories I have made up. They have happened to me, and I know that there isn't any way to tangibly prove that to you. I turn to the JREF with these stories because I realize I'm being irrational by believing in them, in the hopes that I can get some objective feedback from people who don't believe in it. I don't want to believe in it, and I'm sorry that I've made you think that I have some other purpose here other than to do that.

I noticed Moxierain joined this forum because of this topic. She is a friend of mine on another forum, and she can vouch for me that I'm not certifiably crazy or just trying to make trouble on a different forum.

And I agree with the poster that says that I associate with a very "woo" crowd. I try not to, but Shannon has been in my life for practically my entire life.

I only really start a thread on this forum when something really freaks me out. I have a lot of issues with fear, OCD, and anxiety, and these easily get to me. It hurts my feelings a little that I've been told to "get a life" by two of the posters here.

 

[JP1283]

I just re-read Skeptigirl's post where she quoted from my posts. None of those are lies. Those are things that happened in my life and those were the ways that I interpreted them. I swear on my dead grandfather's grave, and also the grave of my other good friend who died in a car wreck back in November, that I did not make these things up. You may have different thoughts on the way that I interpreted them, but please don't throw them in my face and tell me that I made them all up. I haven't been rude, vicious, or trying to prove a point in any of my threads. Please don't treat me as such.

 

[kerikiwi]

Two most likely explanations:
You are ,JP, certifiably crazy.
You are playing games.

Nobody has suggested you have been rude, vicious or trying to prove a point. You don't need to be doing any of those things for the above two explanations to hold good.
But swearing on graves is a little melodramatic, and further supports the two explanations.

I would not necessarily say you need to get a life, but you may well need to get help.

 

[JP1283]

I envy all of you. I really do. Because you have experienced nothing out of the ordinary that made you fearful or scared. And you didn't have anybody to belittle you for being scared about it.

No, I am not certifiably crazy, Keri. No, I am not playing games. I am trying to convince everyone here that I'm not just some spam poster who gets his kicks writing stories and posting them. What would I have to gain from that? You're right, perhaps swearing on graves was melodramatic, but I guess I was trying to drive the point home that I don't have any ulterior motive or anything here.

 

[Explorer]

JP I think your "clairvoyant" friend needs a little more intelligent investigation.

As this subject is worrying you to the extent that you say it does, then it would be good practice to firstly get corroborative evidence that she actually made the predictions prior to the three events actually happening. Try and find out the dates from other mutual friends when each prediction was made, given that she told other people. If you cannot get that evidence, then her claim cannot stand up.

You most certainly now do have ONE prediction that has not happened yet, your friend Shannon's forthcoming accident. Did Sarah give you a time scale? It seems that all the others died within two weeks of the claimed prediction. Is that what she is claiming now, or is it open ended? If it is the latter, then it is an extremely cruel, selfish and indulgent act to pass that kind of indefinite sentence of fear and concern on to somebody for no good reason, other than to support a spurious and dubious claim of clairvoyance.

On the balance of probabilities, the most likely answer is that a random (lucky or unlucky, if you prefer) statistical cluster has occurred rather than a paranormal prediction, and your friend is doing you and Shannon no favours in winding you both up, particularly when you personally have an existing anxiety problem.

I think you should choose your friends more carefully!

 

[osmosis]

I'm concerned about three things here.

1) The delusions
2) The panic attacks
3) The OCD.

JP1283, my best advice to you is go see a psychiatrist. I sincerely mean this in the most compassionate way possible. There is noone here qualified to offer you the type of help you clearly need.

Go see a psychiatrist, and tell him/her what you've been telling us. Do not pass "go", do not collect $200.

 

[JoeTheJuggler]

I only really start a thread on this forum when something really freaks me out. I have a lot of issues with fear, OCD, and anxiety, and these easily get to me.

I don't see any connection. You hear woo stories, you feel anxious, so then you post a thread on a skeptic forum?

You don't think maybe discussing it with a counselor would help allay your fears better than this?

I don't buy it.

 

[JP1283]

You're right about the counselor. I went in to see my general practitioner two weeks ago for a follow-up on my depression and anxiety, and she gave me a referral to a counselor. Unfortunately, that particular one doesn't accept my insurance plan, nor does the one she referred me to after that, so I'm still in the process of looking. I suppose it would be better therapy than posting it on a web forum.

 

[JoeTheJuggler]

I envy all of you. I really do. Because you have experienced nothing out of the ordinary that made you fearful or scared.

Why do you presume any such thing about the assorted people on this forum?

Misperception, goofy memory, visual illusions, night terrors, hallucinations--all of these are much more common than you might think.

 

[JP1283]

Explorer, you are definitely right. I thought about telling Shannon that I don't want to be her friend anymore because of all the drama she creates in my life (and my head.) If she makes it through the next two weeks, I might do that. It really isn't healthy for me mentally to be hanging around her if she has this effect on me and my thinking.

The timeline that Sara gave is two weeks. Apparently each person died within two weeks of her having the respective dream about each one. Shannon is driving to Idaho from Reno a week from this Friday, and I'm concerned about her going. However, I feel a lot better today about it than I did yesterday, as I talked with a few other friends about it (who think it's weird but that it won't happen.)

 

[JP1283]

Why do you presume any such thing about the assorted people on this forum?

Misperception, goofy memory, visual illusions, night terrors, hallucinations--all of these are much more common than you might think.

That was a stupid comment. I had just read the responses that you, skeptigirl and kerikiwi wrote and it was somewhat retaliatory, and I apologize. I know that everyone has had something unexplained happen to them.

But why do you presume that I'm lying about everything I've posted about to everyone here? Do you think you're above me in your intelligence, or because you think I'm crazy or a nut who just posts weird stuff for fun? That's not the case at all. I don't know how many more times I can say it.

 

[Explorer]

Explorer, you are definitely right. I thought about telling Shannon that I don't want to be her friend anymore because of all the drama she creates in my life (and my head.) If she makes it through the next two weeks, I might do that. It really isn't healthy for me mentally to be hanging around her if she has this effect on me and my thinking.

The timeline that Sara gave is two weeks. Apparently each person died within two weeks of her having the respective dream about each one. Shannon is driving to Idaho from Reno a week from this Friday, and I'm concerned about her going. However, I feel a lot better today about it than I did yesterday, as I talked with a few other friends about it (who think it's weird but that it won't happen.)

JP, I was referring to Sarah in particular when I made that comment about choosing your friends more carefully. Does Shannon also give you problems too of this kid?

Anxiety and depression is a topical subject in the UK at present, and the best therapy apparently is a long walk in the country (specifically NOT the town). Good exercise helps a hell of a lot too! Try that first before any medication, I suggest, if you haven't already.