Premonition?

[RandomElement]

Last year, I was driving home on a suburban four lane road. I was several hundred feet from a somewhat blind intersection, meaning that I could see to the left, but the right-hand view was blocked by buildings until almost upon the intersection. I have driven the same intersection perhaps a thousand times and have NEVER slowed down unless the light just changed. I am an aggressive, but safe driver.

On this particular day, the light had been green for maybe 5 seconds and I was clipping along about 45 mph when a scene popped into my head of me being T-Boned from the right. I slowed down to about 15 mph and craned my head to the right just in time to see a car zooming through the red light at high speed.

Let's recap:

1. Driving timidly is not my style.
2. I was in autopilot mode driving on familiar turf.
3. There were no visual or auditory cues at the time I applied the brakes.
4. I would likely have been seriously hurt (or worse) had I not slowed down.

Disclaimer: (I have to keep adding this because you guys are so abusive and quick to attack!) I am as hardcore a skeptic as they come.

 

[DangerousBeliefs]

What do you want me to think? We're very good at finding patterns in the randomness.

Once we try and test our ability to find patterns, we find that there is only the random.

 

[RandomElement]

What do you want me to think?

The fact that you believe that I have some specific desire as to the direction that a stranger's thoughts would take is some serious woo.

 

[gfunkusarelius]

i think this is an interesting occurrence, especially to the person it happened to. unfortunately, it isn't really valuable in terms supporting the theory that you had a "premonition." i don't say this because of anything other than the fact that it is totally unreproducible. so i am not even saying it couldn't be something currently defined as supernatural, but i am saying to speculate on it based on what you have provided is scientifically pointless. a lot of people i talk to get very annoyed when they try to tell me more and more anecdotes, as if 50 are more persuasive than 1 when it comes to something that isn't testable by scientific method.
so, i think your story is cool. i remember an experience where i was having deja vu and i swear i knew not just that i was reliving a moment i remembered, but i actually knew what was about to happen- i said "yeah i remember, and to my right, i will see my cat walking by" and i looked over and saw my cat. now, it was very convincing to me, and to this day , it seemed like i had a moment where i saw into the future, but since it is so easily explained by so many subtle senses (maybe i heard her collar and didn't really register it consciously, maybe i had seen her in my peripheral vision earlier, etc) that i never try to use the story to anyone, including myself, to argue for the existence of supernatural powers. i might bring it up in a "cool, whatif" context when having a few beers with friends, but nothing more.

 

[Reno]

How many times have you slowed down at an intersection and a car has not come flying through a red light? Or don't you remember those occasions?

 

[RandomElement]

How many times have you slowed down at an intersection and a car has not come flying through a red light? Or don't you remember those occasions?

*sigh* If you actually read my post...

 

[Ersby]

What was the weather like?

 

[Reno]

*sigh* If you actually read my post...

*sigh* I did.

 

[RandomElement]

What was the weather like?

It was sunny and dry.

 

[RandomElement]

*sigh* I did.

Your local community college probably offers reading comprehension classes.

 

[MetalPig]

How many times have you slowed down at an intersection and a car has not come flying through a red light?

I had one of those recently. I was driving in the dark, it was raining, and in the distance was a zebra crossing. I had a feeling there was a pedestrian in dark clothing (I couldn't see him, so he had to be wearing dark clothes) that was going to cross the road and I would hit him.
I slowed down a bit, and of course there was not one there.

 

[Solus]

Last year, I was driving home on a suburban four lane road. I was several hundred feet from a somewhat blind intersection, meaning that I could see to the left, but the right-hand view was blocked by buildings until almost upon the intersection. I have driven the same intersection perhaps a thousand times and have NEVER slowed down unless the light just changed. I am an aggressive, but safe driver.

On this particular day, the light had been green for maybe 5 seconds and I was clipping along about 45 mph when a scene popped into my head of me being T-Boned from the right. I slowed down to about 15 mph and craned my head to the right just in time to see a car zooming through the red light at high speed.

Let's recap:

1. Driving timidly is not my style.
2. I was in autopilot mode driving on familiar turf.
3. There were no visual or auditory cues at the time I applied the brakes.
4. I would likely have been seriously hurt (or worse) had I not slowed down.

Disclaimer: (I have to keep adding this because you guys are so abusive and quick to attack!) I am as hardcore a skeptic as they come.

Sorry, this isn't meant as an attack but you sound like my mother. Just the other day she was talking about the same thing.

"I was driving down a road and I thought in this area you never see coyotes appear around here and just at that second a coyote came out and crossed the road." "what do you think of that? how can you explain it, huh"?

I tried to tell her that of the billions of thoughts that cross our minds. Every once in a while something like that is STATISTICALLY going to happen but of course she dismissed it.

Let people believe what they want, I did my part by giving her a rational answer.

I've had a similar experience with phone calls and old movies showing exactly when I think "oh, I wish that movie was showing right now." Then what do you know it's on! What are the chances of that? I could look it up for you but it's always bound to happen with enough passage of time.

 

[MetalPig]

Your local community college probably offers reading comprehension classes.

Your post talks about that particular intersection; Reno was asking in general. I think.

 

[Solus]

Your local community college probably offers reading comprehension classes.

I wouldn't start with personal attacks here. You have no idea what your getting yourself into...
For record he started with the personal attacks I was going to be nice but no. Give no respect and you get none. Have fun here.

I am an aggressive, but safe driver.

How can you be an aggressive but safe driver? Do you know how asinine that sounds. Ever heard of an oxymoron.

 

[DangerousBeliefs]

I've had a similar experience with phone calls

You mean like when you think about calling someone, reach for the phone, and it rings just as you're going to pick it up... and it's the person you were going to call.

... queue spooky music...

(Random chance)

 

[baron]

<nitpicking> It's not really a premonition, because it didn't happen. </nitpicking>

I'm not totally denying the possibility of such a phenomenon (my standpoint comes primarily from personal experience a good deal more convincing than this story!) but in this instance there's not enough specific detail for me to be impressed.

 

[Solus]

You mean like when you think about calling someone, reach for the phone, and it rings just as you're going to pick it up... and it's the person you were going to call.

... queue spooky music...

(Random chance)

Yeah, an Ex-girfriend I had couldn't get over that. I mean what are the chances of two people (in a new relationship) calling each other at the same time?

Must prove Ufos exist or god or something, I don't know. People like this just take that which helps prove what they already believe and ignore the rest.

 

[RandomElement]

Nice commingling of a thought with an action. That is not critical analysis nor a good analogy.

I have been driving 35 years. Let's say 20K miles per year, so roughly 700,000miles. Let's say 71% driving in the city or 500,000 miles. I will be generous and say only two intersections per mile or a total of 1,000,000 intersections.

Number of clear intersections where the light was green that I have braked at without hearing a siren or seeing someone crossing against the light - one.

 

[DangerousBeliefs]

Nice commingling of a thought with an action. That is not critical analysis nor a good analogy.

I have been driving 35 years. Let's say 20K miles per year, so roughly 700,000miles. Let's say 71% driving in the city or 500,000 miles. I will be generous and say only two intersections per mile or a total of 1,000,000 intersections.

Number of clear intersections where the light was green that I have braked at without hearing a siren or seeing someone crossing against the light - one.

We all want to feel special.

Ever been in an accident?

(Random chance)

 

[RandomElement]

I wouldn't start with personal attacks here. You have no idea what your getting yourself into...

How can you be an aggressive but safe driver? Do you know how asinine that sounds. Ever heard of an oxymoron.

OK, I will try to follow your respectful style.

Aggressive means - well, you can look it up at dictionary.com. Safe means zero accidents.