It is through dreams that we may be transported to worlds that defy the laws of physics and which obeys their own laws of time, space, motion and conscious reality, where the future is juxtaposed with the past and where time runs backwards and forwards (Campbell, 1988; Freud, 1900; Jung, 1945, 1964). Throughout history it has been believed that dreams open doors to alternate realities, to the future, to the past, and the hereafter, where the spiritual world sits at the boundaries of the physical; hence the tendency to bury the dead in a sleeping position even 100,000 years ago (Joseph 2011a,b). Although but a dream, the dream was experienced during dream consciousness much as the waking world is experienced by waking consciousness. The dream was real. Thus, throughout history dreams have been taken seriously especially when they gave glimpses of the future.

Dream are often of events from the previous day and may concern the future. It is through dreams that the dreamer may gain insight into problems which have plagued him or which he anticipates encountering in the near future. Just as one can think about the future or the past and make certain deductions and predictions, a dream may include of anticipations regarding the future, and in this respect, the dream could be considered an imaginal means of preparation for various possible realities. As such, dream-time and dream-consciousness could be considered manifestations of the "Many Worlds" theory of quantum physics.

Not uncommonly the dream will include so many branching and overlapping multiple realities that it makes no sense at all, except to those skilled in the art of interpreting dream symbolism (Freud 1900; Jung 1945, 1964).  Indeed, it is due to the non-temporal, often gestalt nature of dreams which require that they be consciously scrutinized from multiple angles in order to discern their meaning, for the last may be first and what is missing may be just as significant as what is there.

Dream-consciousness and dream-time are also associated with accelerated levels of brain activity (Joseph 2000, 2011a). Relativity predicts that observers with an accelerated frame of reference experience time-dilation and a shrinking of time-space such that the future and the present come closer together relative to those with a different frame of reference (Einstein et al. 1923, Einstein 1961). Thus, during dream-time, the dreamer may see or experience the future before that future is experienced by the conscious mind.

Many Worlds of Quantum Dream-Time

There are at least three dimensions of time: space-time which obeys the laws of relativity; conscious-time which obeys the laws of quantum physics; and dream-time which defies the laws of Newtonian physics but which could be viewed as a manifestation of the "Many Worlds" interpretation of quantum mechanics. Whereas conscious-time occupies the 5th dimension, dream-time is the 6th dimension of the quantum continuum and the space-time manifold embraced by relativity.

Although dream-time encompasses dream-consciousness, dream-time and conscious-time are distinct. Consciousness and dreaming are not synonymous. Dreams may be observed by consciousness and as such, dreaming and consciousness are entangled as dream-consciousness. However, consciousness is generally little more than a passive witness during dreaming, an audience before the stage upon which the dreams are displayed in all their mystery and majestic glory. It is rare for consciousness to become conscious that "it" is observing a dream, and when such rarities occur the dreamer may awaken or briefly take an active role in what has been described as "lucid dreaming" (LaBerge, 1990).

Unlike conscious-time and the conscious mind, the dream-kaleidescape of dream-time and dream-consciousness could best be described as manifestation of the "Many worlds" interpretation of quantum physics where all worlds are possible and past and future and time and space are juxtaposed and intermingled; time can run backward and forward simultaneously and at varying speed, and multiple realities come and go no matter now improbable. Dream-time represents accelerated states of brain activity and is entangled with the "many worlds" and the space-time quantum continuum of future and past, and as such, while dreaming, the dreamer may obtain a glimpse of the future before it arrives.

Abraham Lincoln Dreams Of His Death

In April of 1965, less than two weeks before he was gunned down by an assassin's bullet, President Abraham Lincoln dreamed of his own assassination (Lamon 1911). Lincoln told this dream to his wife and to several friends including Ward Hill Lamon who was Lincoln's personal friend, body guard and former law partner. According to Lincoln:

"About ten days ago, I retired very late. I had been up waiting for important dispatches from the front. I could not have been long in bed when I fell into a slumber, for I was weary. I soon began to dream. There seemed to be a death-like stillness about me. Then I heard subdued sobs, as if a number of people were weeping. I thought I left my bed and wandered downstairs. There the silence was broken by the same pitiful sobbing, but the mourners were invisible. I went from room to room; no living person was in sight, but the same mournful sounds of distress met me as I passed along. I saw light in all the rooms; every object was familiar to me; but where were all the people who were grieving as if their hearts would break? I was puzzled and alarmed. What could be the meaning of all this? Determined to find the cause of a state of things so mysterious and so shocking, I kept on until I arrived at the East Room, which I entered. There I met with a sickening surprise. Before me was a catafalque, on which rested a corpse wrapped in funeral vestments. Around it were stationed soldiers who were acting as guards; and there was a throng of people, gazing mournfully upon the corpse, whose face was covered, others weeping pitifully. ‘Who is dead in the White House?' I demanded of one of the soldiers, ‘The President,' was his answer; ‘he was killed by an assassin.' Then came a loud burst of grief from the crowd, which woke me from my dream. I slept no more that night; and although it was only a dream, I have been strangely annoyed by it ever since."

The 6 Dimensional Time-Space Manifold

Euclidean geometry dictates that the universe has three dimensions of space and one of time which is independent of motion, with time progressing at a fixed rate in all reference frames. Time is treated as universal and constant, being independent of the state of motion of an observer.

In Euclidean space, the separation between two points is measured by the distance between them. The distance is purely spatial, and is always positive. A minus sign is associated with the dimension of time. If two events have a greater separation in time than in space, this results in a negative and they have a time-like separation. If the quantity is positive, the two events have a space-like separation which is greater than their separation in time. If the result is 0, then the two events have a light-like separation and are connected only by a beam of light.

For example, if a football player throws a pass and it is caught by a retriever 50 feet distant after an elapse of 5 seconds (5000000000 nanoseconds), then the separation in space is 50 and the separation in time is 5. By calculating the square of the separation in space minus the square of the separation in time, it can then be determined if the separation of the two events are space-like or time-like:.

50² (feet) 5000000000²(nanoseconds) = 2,500 500000000000 = -499999998500.

In this instance, since the results are a negative, the two events have a greater separation in time than in space.

The star Proxima Centauri is 4.2 light years from Earth. If the time traveler was required to visit that star 10 years from today, then they would be separated by 4.2 light years in space and 10 years in time. Thus it would be 4.2²(space) 10² (time) = 17.64 100 = -82.38 meaning that the two events are separated in time and have a -82.38 time-like separation from now. However, if the time traveler had to arrive on Proxima Centauri in 3 years, then it would have a space-like separation and it would be impossible for him to get there is 3 years since there is not enough time; unless he were to exceed the speed of light or travel via dream-time.

In relativity, space and time are combined as a single continuum within a fourth dimension: space-time (Einstein 1961). In space-time, the separation between two events is measured by the invariant interval between the two events, which takes into account not only the spatial separation between the events, but also their temporal separation. For two events separated by a time-like interval, enough time passes between them that there could be a cause--effect relationship between the two events.

In space-time, a coordinate grid that spans the 3+1 dimensions locates events (rather than just points in space) whereas the other 3 dimensions (considered separately) locate a point and location in a certain defined "space." The spatial location of an event is designated by three coordinates, X, Y, Z, whereas a fourth coordinate is based on time; all of which constitute "frames of reference." Together the 3+1 dimensions locates events and when and where they took place. Therefore, in relativistic contexts time remains entangled with the other three dimensions of space (length, width, height).

As theorized by Einstein (1961), and unlike the Copenhagen model of quantum physics (Bohr 1949; Heisenberg 1927, 1958), space-time is relative to but independent of any observer. Consciousness is relative but irrelevant having no effect on the passage of time. In relativity, each event which occurs at certain moments of time in a given region of space are relative to those observers in different regions of space, such that each observer chooses a convenient metrical coordinate system in which these events are specified by four real numbers. All four dimensions are measured in terms of units of distance, e.g. in two spatial dimensions x and y and a time dimension orthogonal to x and y.

However, in further contrast to the Euclidian perspective, in an Einsteinian universe the observed rate at which time passes for an object depends on accelerated frames of reference and the strength of gravitational fields; all of which can slow or accelerate the passage of time, depending on the object's velocity relative to the observer (Einstein 1961). Specifically, time slows at higher speeds in one reference frame relative to another reference frame. The duration of time can therefore vary according to reference frames.

In relativity consciousness is merely relative. In quantum physics, consciousness is a separate reference frame which can collapse the wave function and register entangled interactions within the environment. Consciousness by the act of observation or measurement takes a static or series of pictures-in-time which then becomes discontinuous from the quantum continuum (Heisenberg 1958; Planck 1931; von Neumann 2001). These entanglements (Francis 2012; Juan et al. 2013; Plenio 2007), or blemishes in the quantum continuum, may be observed as shape, form, cause, effect, past, present, future, the passage of time, and thus reality; the result of a decoupling of quanta from the quantum (coherent) continuum which leaks out and then couples together in a knot of activity which is observed as a wave form collapse.

As based on the Copenhagen theory of quantum mechanics (Bohr, 1958, 1963; Heisenberg 1955, 1958), time and reality are a manifestation of wave functions and alterations in patterns of activity within the quantum continuum which are perceived by consciousness as discontinuous. Wave form collapse is always a matter of probability, and is non-local, indeterministic and a consequence of conscious observation, measurement, and entanglement. Consciousness, therefore, is entangled with the quantum continuum, and alterations in consciousness can alter the continuum and the space-time manifold. Just as a Time Traveler can accelerate or slow down, contracting or dilating time and time-space, consciousness can accelerate or slow down, and time will slow down or speed up accordingly. Conscious-time represents a second dimension of time, whereas dream-time represents a third dimension of time.

During dream-time the brain is in a "paradoxical" state of accelerated activity, known as paradoxical sleep, as demonstrated by rapid eye movement (REM) and electrophysiological activity (Frank, 2012, Pagel, 2014, Stickgod & Walker, 2010). As predicted by Einstein's (1961) relativity, under accelerated states time contracts and the future arrives more quickly. Therefore, in dream-time one may visit the future or the past during the course of the dream.

A fifth dimension of conscious-time, and a sixth dimension of dream-time creates a 6 dimensional time-space manifold. This would be conceptualized as three dimensions of space² minus the separation of -time², minus the separation of conscious-time (-ct²) minus the separation of dream-time (-dt²).

Dream-Time Of The Future

Because conscious-time and dream-time appear to have no significant mass or gravity they would not significantly affect, for example, the orbits of planets around stars, the orbit of this star around the Milky Way galaxy, and so on, except through entanglement and observation, in which case the effects outside of dream-time and conscious-time, would most likely be inconsequential or local.

A separation in conscious-time would include the "past," "present," and "future." In dream-time past-present-future and the three dimensions of space may exist simultaneously as a gestalt thereby violating all the rules of causality and the laws of physics. During dream-time events may occur in a logical or semi-logical temporal sequence, or they may be juxtaposed and make no sense at all. Because the future past present may exist simultaneously and as the future may be experienced in a dream during accelerated states of brain activity, then during dream consciousness the dreamer may get glimpses of future events which may occur within days, the next morning, or which may even trigger wakefulness. Access to the future occurs because dream-time takes place during an accelerated state of dream-consciousness and thus the future comes closer to the present and the dreamer arrives in the future in less time than those who are awake. In other words, just as increased velocity causes a contraction of space-time thereby decreasing the distance between the present and the future (Einstein 1961, Einstein et al. 2913), accelerated dream-consciousness has the same effect.

Dream-Time and the Many Worlds of Quantum Physics

In dream-time and dream-consciousness all worlds are possible simultaneously and in parallel. These many worlds include those of the future and the past and where time and space are juxtaposed and every probable outcome is equally likely, and where the world is continually splitting into alternate worlds. Dream-time-consciousness is a manifestation of and in many respects obeys the laws of the "Many Worlds" theory of quantum physics as first proposed by Hugh Everett (1956, 1957).

Hugh Everett's "theory of the universal wavefunction" (Many Worlds) is distinguished from the Copenhagen model, as there is no special role for an observing consciousness. Everett also removed the "wave function" collapse which he believed to be redundant, and instead insisted that what is observed must be clearly defined (thereby answering one of Einstein's criticism of quantum theory). According to Everett's theory, every action, every measurements, every behavior, every choice, even not choosing, can create a new reality, another world, generating a bifurcation between what happened and what did not happen, such that innumerable possibilities and possible worlds arise from every action, including realties which do not obey the laws of physics and cause and effect.

As conceived by Everett (1956, 1957) and Dewitt (1971), when a physicist measures an object, the universe splits into two distinct universes to accommodate each of the possible outcomes. In one universe, the physicist measures the wave form, in the other universe the physicist measures the object as a particle. Since all objects have a particle-wave duality, this also explains how an object can be measured as a particle and can be measured as a wave, but not both at the same time in the same world, and how it can be measured in more than one state, each of which exists in another world. The simple act of measurement creates two worlds both of which exist at the same time in parallel, and each separate version of the universe contains a different outcome of that event.

Instead of one continuous timeline, the universe under the many worlds interpretation looks more like a forest of trees with innumerable branches and twigs each of which represents a different possible world. According to Everett the entire universes continuously exists in a superposition and juxtaposition of multiple states. In many respects, Everett's theory defines dream-time and dream-consciousness.

According to Everett (1957), observation and measurement does not force the object under observation to take any specific form or to have any specific outcome. Instead, all outcomes are possible; much like a dream. For example, an NFL football player, a receiver, is running down the field and the quarterback throws him the ball. According to the "Many Worlds" interpretation of quantum physics, every conceivable and incomprehensible outcome is possible: The receiver catches or doesn't catch the ball. A female cheerleader runs out into the field and catches the ball. The receiver and the cheerleader ignore the ball and take off their clothes and have sex on the field. The head coach takes out a shotgun and begins shooting at the football. Spectators run onto the football field and erect circus tents and it becomes a giant carnival with rides. Some of the football players dress up as clowns and circus performers. Players and spectators lay on the grass and swim toward the goal posts. An alien space ship crashes into the football stadium and aliens emerge selling popcorn. Terrorists attack the football players and steal the football, and so on.

All outcomes are possible in Multiple Worlds, ranging from the most probable, to the least probable (Dewitt 1971). Thus every probable outcome is possible; trillions of outcomes including those where the improbable, and in defiance of physics may become the law of the land. Moreover, each of these multiple realities exist, simultaneously, side-by-side, in parallel. They exist simultaneously with the reality in which the observer resides; and whatever reality houses the observer is just one probable reality.

PreCognition in Dream-Time and Dream-Consciousness

During dream-time and during dream-consciousness the reality being dreamed is characterized by every possible outcome. Some dream worlds exist in the future, others in the past, and yet others in a world where past, present and future are juxtaposed and exist simultaneously and where every possible outcome is possible. Thus, in dream-time, the dream-consciousness can witness any number of these possible worlds including those which exist in the future.

However, these futures and possible futures which are observed by dream-consciousness are not "just a dream." According to the Many Worlds interpretation, they actually exist. In terms of space-time, these future worlds exist in the future, in a distant location. As predicted by quantum mechanics, the observer is entangled with that future. However, in dream-time the observer (dream consciousness) directly observes that future; including those futures which are improbable or most probable.

The Many Worlds of dream-consciousness provides the foundation for dream-time precognition. The dreamer may dream of the future just before it occurs. And upon waking from that dream of the future, the conscious mind may remember it and then experience it as it occurs in real time.

Dream-time access to the future is made possible because the brain is in a state of accelerated activity during the course of the dream. As predicted by Einstein (1961) an accelerated frame of reference brings the future closer to the present and makes time travel possible. Accelerated states of consciousness not only bring the future closer, but provide glimpses of those futures before they occur; a phenomenon best described as pre-cognition in dream time.

Aberfan Disaster Dream-Time Precognition

Aberfan is a small village in South Wales. Throughout late September and October 1966, heavy rain lashed down on the area and seeped into the porous sandstone of the hills which surrounded the town and against which abutted the village school (Barker 1967).

On September 27 1966, Mrs SB of London dreamed about a school on a hillside, and a horrible avalanche which killed many children.

On October 14, 1966 Mrs GE from Sidcup, dreamed about a group of screaming children being covered by an avalanche of coal.

On October 20, 1966 Mrs MH, dreamed about a group of children who were trapped in a rectangular room and the children were screaming and trying to escape.

On October 20, 1966, a 10 year old child living in Aberfan woke up screaming from a nightmare. She told her parents that in her dream she was trying to go to school when "something black had come down all over it" and there was "no school there."

On October 21, 1966, part of the rain soaked hills of Aberfan gave way and half a million tons of debris slid toward the village of Aberfan and slammed into the village school. The 10 year old girl who dreamed of the tragedy and 115 other schoolchildren and 28 adults lost their lives when the school was smashed and covered with mud. There were less than a dozen survivors (Baker, 1967).

Assassination of Archduke Francis Ferdinand: Dream-Time Precognition

In June of 1914, Austria was seeking to expand it's central European empire; plans which were resented by neighboring states, including Serbia, who wished to remain independent. That same month, the Archduke Francis Ferdinand, nephew of the Austrian Emperor Francis Joseph, went on a diplomatic tour accompanied by his wife, to build alliances with the leaders of these independent nations. In late June he and his wife arrived in Sarajevo, Serbia.

On the evening of June 27, 1914, Bishop Joseph Lanyi prepared for bed and upon falling asleep he began to dream. The Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, heir to the throne of Austria, had been the Bishop's student and pupil, and late that night the Archduke appeared in Bishop Lanyi's dream. The dream became a nightmare and at 3:15 AM Bishop Joseph Lanyi awoke, frightened, upset and in tears. He glanced at the clock, dressed himself, and because the dream was so horrible, he wrote it down:

"At a quarter past three on the morning of 28th June, 1914, I awoke from a terrible dream. I dreamed that I had gone to my desk early in the morning to look through the mail that had come in. On top of all the other letters there lay one with a black border, a black seal, and the arms of the Archduke. I immediately recognized the letter's handwriting, and saw at the head of the notepaper in blue colouring a picture which showed me a street and a narrow side-street. Their Highnesses sat in a car, opposite them sat a General, and an Officer next to the chauffeur. On both sides of the street there was a large crowd. Two young men sprang forward and shot at their Highnesses."

In the dream, Bishop Lanyi read the dream-letter, which had been written by the Archduke. According to the Bishop's account, which he wrote down in the early predawn hours of June 28, the dream letter from the Archduke was as follows: "Dear Dr Lanyi: Your Excellency. I wish to inform you that my wife and I were the victims of a political assassination. We recommend ourselves to your prayers. Cordial greetings from your Archduke Franz. Sarajevo, 28th June, 3.15 a.m."

Bishop Joseph Lanyi was convinced that the Archduke had been assassinated, and called his parishioners and household staff to tell them of the terrible news. Later that morning of June 28, 1914, the Bishop held a mass for the Archduke and his wife. But, the Archduke were still alive and would not be shot dead for another 2 hours.

On June 28, 1914, at 11 a.m., as the Archduke and his wife were leaving a ceremony at Sarajevo, a Serbian nationalist leaped from the crowd and killed them both. It was the Archduke's assassination which triggered World War One.

Death of Mark Twain's Brother: Dream-Time Precognition

In May of 1858, Mark Twin had a dream about his younger brother Henry who was working on a riverboat as a "mud clerk." As related by Mark Twain:

"The dream was so vivid, so like reality, that it deceived me, and I thought it was real. In the dream I had seen Henry a corpse. He lay in a metallic [burial case]. He was dressed in a suit of my clothing, and on his breast lay a great bouquet of flowers, mainly white roses, with a red rose in the [centre]. The casket stood upon a couple of chairs...it suddenly flashed upon me that there was nothing real about this--it was only a dream. I can still feel something of the grateful upheaval of joy of that moment, and I can also still feel the remnant of doubt, the suspicion that maybe it [was] real, after all. I returned to the house almost on a run, flew up the stairs two or three steps at a jump, and rushed into that [sitting-room]--and was made glad again, for there was no casket there."

A few days later, Twain's brother left on a river boat from New Orleans. As related by Mark Twain:

"Two or three days afterward the boat's boilers exploded at Ship Island, Memphis. I found Henry stretched upon a mattress on the floor of a great building, along with thirty or forty other scalded and wounded persons... his body was badly scalded... I think he died about dawn. The coffins provided for the dead were of unpainted white pine, but in this instance some of the ladies of Memphis had made up a fund of sixty dollars and bought a metallic case, and when I came back and entered the [dead-room] Henry lay in that open case, and he was dressed in a suit of my clothing. He had borrowed it without my knowledge during our last sojourn in St. Louis; and I recognized instantly that my dream of several weeks before was here exactly reproduced, so far as these details went--and I think I missed one [detail;] but that one was immediately supplied, for just then an elderly lady entered the place with a large bouquet consisting mainly of white roses, and in the [centre] of it was a red rose, and she laid it on his breast."

The Dream-Murder of Tanya Zachs

In a legal case investigated and reported by Joseph (2000), a beautiful young woman, Tanya Zachs, disappeared on her way home in San Jose from her job in Santa Cruz in September of 1984. Her car was found abandoned along highway 17 midway between the two cities and which courses through the Santa Cruz mountains. That night, a young woman "Sunshine" who lived in a nudist colony, Lupin Lodge, situated in the Santa Cruz Mountains, had a nightmare: A woman was being brutally murdered. The next day, Sunshine read the story of Tanya's disappearance in the local newspaper, and that night she had the dream again, but this time the victim appeared to her quite clearly. It was Tanya.

In the dream Tanya showed "Sunshine" a narrow mountain road off highway 17, one of many leading from the long and winding highway between San Jose and Santa Cruz. Tanya led the dreamer down the mountain road which was bordered by a thick canopy of redwood trees and pines, and then to an isolated spot alongside. Tanya then beckoned the dreamer to follow her down a rather steep incline leading from the mountain road into the forest and thick brush, and then along a forested trail. Finally, Tanya stopped and pointed out her naked body, lying spread eagle on a huge slab of rock surrounded by trees.

Sunshine was convinced she knew where Tanya's body lay hidden. On the morning of 9/15/84, she contacted Tanya's family, told them of her dreams, and that same day led them and the police to the mountain side road Tanya had showed her and finally to the isolated spot. The police climbed down the tree-covered steep incline, and just as Sunshine had dreamed, they found the trail leading into the forest. But, there was no body. That night Sunshine had another dream and Tanya took her to the same spot, down the same trail, then pointed at and emphasized a little deer trail that forked off to the right between the trees, and which led directly to her body. The next day, Sunshine and the family met again, and then climbed down the incline, took the trail to the right, and there was Tanya's body laid out exactly as revealed to Sunshine when dreaming.

The murder remained unsolved, however, until four years later. Damon Wells, beset by horrible nightmares where the victim kept accusing him of her murder, sought psychiatric treatment and confessed (Joseph 2000).

Precognition Dreams Are Common

Precognition dreams are common (Fukuda 2002; Haraldsson, 1985; Lange et al. 2001; Ross & Joshi, 1992; Stowell, 1995; Thalbourne, 1994) and often involve negative, unhappy, unpleasant events such as deaths, disasters and other calamities (Ryback & Sweitzer, 1990). About 40% of precognitive dreams are linked to an event the following day (Sondow, 1988), or take place several days or weeks later. However, anecdotal evidence indicates that the dreamed events may occur just prior to waking, even triggering wakefulness.

Precognition dreams can be about mundane affairs of concern only to the dreamer. A colleague of this author admits to frequently having had precognitive dreams and relates the following: "I dreamed that my water heater busted and that water was flooding out onto the floor. Three days later, the water heater sprung a leak." "I dreamed about getting a flat tire while driving on the freeway. It was the rear tire on the driver's side. A couple days later, the car's dashboard-computer informed me that the rear tire on the driver's side was low in air." "I dreamed that I took a girlfriend to my hot tub in the back yard, but it was empty and there was no water. When I tried to turn the water on nothing would happen. In the dream I was irritated because it would have to be replaced. A few days later the hot tub on-switch broke and after several failed attempts to fix it, I had it junked."

Several studies indicate that precognitive dreams are more common in younger than older individuals and that women report more precognitive dreams than men (Lange et al. 2001). It has also been found that those who have experienced deja vu are more likely to have precognitive dreams (Fakuda, 2002).

In large samples, anywhere from 17.8 % to 66% of individuals report that they experienced at least one precognitive dream (Fukuda 2002; Palmer, 1979; Haraldsson, 1985; Ross & Joshi, 1992; Ryback, 1988; Thalbourne, 1994) whereas over 60% of the general population believe such dreams are possible (Thalbourne, 1984; Haraldsson, 1985). However, Ryback (1988) after investigating 290 case reports of paranormal dreams, dismissed most of these precognitive dreams as coincidence and concluded that only 8.8% of the population actually have these dreams.

The Big Dream

Precognitive dreams have been reported throughout history, with accounts even appearing in the ancient Babylonian epic of Gilgamesh. Among ancient societies dreams were seen as extremely important sources of information about the future. In the ancient world, be it Greek, Rome, Egypt, or Babylon, it was not uncommon for someone to have what is called "a big dream" which was of great importance to the whole tribe, city, or nation (Campbell 1988; Frazier 1950; Freud 1900; Jung 1945, 1964; Malinowkski 1954). As possible harbingers of the future, these dreams had to be analyzed most carefully and the populace would gather around the man or woman who had the big dream and then debate its message and what do do about it. "Big Dreams" were even announced two thousand years ago in the Roman Senate. However, there were many who were non-believers.

PreCognitive Dream Skepticism and Professional Baseball

Over 2000 years ago Aristotle wrote a book expressing his disbelieve in precognitive dreams: "On Divination in Sleep." Aristotle complained that most of those having precognitive dreams were unworthy of the honor of receiving advanced information and "are not the best and wisest, but merely commonplace persons." Aristotle argued that "the sender of such dreams should be God." According to Aristotle "most dreams are to be classed as mere coincidences..." and do not take "place according to a universal or general rule" and have no causal connection to actual events in the future.

"Coincidence" has been the major objection to claims of precognitive dream activity (Caroll 2000; Wiseman 2011). Caroll (2000) refers to the "law of large numbers" and dismisses all claims as being a function merely of coincidence. For example, the odds, are with so many dreamers having dreams about so many different themes, that a few of them will have dreams about an airplane crash or a ship that sinks. If the next day a ship sinks or a plane crashes, this is merely coincidence. According to Caroll and others, if precognitive dreams were real, they should be more commonplace, with more dreamers coming forward, and thus there should be a high "hit rate" and there is not; and as such "precognitive dreams do not exist."

However, if we applied the same reasoning to professional baseball, then professional baseball does not exist. Consider, from 2000 until 2013, the average baseball batting average ranged around 267. During regular season play during 2013, out of 750 major league players, 726 had a batting average of less than 30% (http://espn.go.com/mlb/stats/batting). Taking into considering fowl balls and hits which result in "outs", but considering that each player has at least 3 opportunities each time at bat to hit the ball, and then taking that .267 average, it could be said that the average professional baseball player actually gets a base hit less than 20% of the time. Be it a 20% or 30% hit rate, obviously this does not mean no one in professional baseball is able to hit the ball, or that when they do it is merely a coincidence. The same standard must be applied to precognitive dreams.

Precognitive dreams need not be about Earth-shaking national tragedies and it is unknown how many dreamers would ever come forward to report their dreams even if they did have national implications. In fact, most dreams are forgotten upon waking (Frank, 2012, Pagel, 2014, Stickgold & Walker, 2010). Further, many precognitive dreams may be related to mundane matters like a "flat tire," or a phone call or visit from a friend the next day; or they may be entangled with events which are about to occur just minutes or seconds into the future, i.e. backward/precognitive dreams.

Since most people forget their dreams upon waking and most dreams are forgotten, how often precognitive dreaming occurs, and how many people have them, is unknown. What is known is that such dreams can be explained by quantum physics and the neurological foundations for dream activity and dream-time.

PreCognitive Backward Dreams

Precognitive experiences occurring during waking may be entangled with innocuous event which are just about to occur, such as thinking of a friend and then getting a phone call or email from that friend minutes or hours later. Just as a professional baseball player is more likely to swing and miss than hit the ball, the fact that one might think of a friend who does not call is not evidence against precognition.

During accelerated states associated with dream-time, precognitive dreams may be for events which will soon happen, or are just about to happen, perhaps seconds, or minutes away. These latter-type of dreams care best described as precognitive-backward dreams.

A case in point, "Katherine" dreams she and a friend "Sheryl" are shopping in Boston. They go from store, lugging shopping bags. "Katherine" in her dreams feels this sense of urgency to go home as if she is late for something and someone is waiting for her so she sets her bags down on the sidewalk and sits on a bench to wait for a cab or a the bus. She then realized her friend "Sheryl" is gone. Katherine looks for her, goes in and out of stores, but can't find her. "Katherine" sees a bus-like street car coming down the cobbled street and she picks up her packages and steps out onto the curb. As the street car pulls up and stops "Katherine" is surprised to see that Sheryl is driving and is ringing its bell. The sound of the bell grows louder and louder and then jolts "Katherine" from her dream. Katherine realizes that her phone is ringing. She picks it up and it is her friend "Sheryl" who is calling. Sheryl and Katherine are going shopping that day.

That "Katherine" dreamed about going shopping with "Sheryl" is not remarkable in-itself. That "Sheryl" was ringing the bell and it was Sheryl who was calling can be explained away as interesting coincidence. It is no surprise that Sheryl called. What seems paradoxical, however, is that the dream of shopping and walking down the streets of Boston laden with packages, the desire to go home, then looking for her missing friend and then seeing the bus-like street car all seemed to lead up to the ringing of the bell in a logical order of events so that its ringing made sense in the context of the dream. Hearing the ringing bell seemed to be a natural part of the dream, and it is. However, the dream did not lead up to the bell. Rather, the ringing of the bell initiated the dream. The effect (ringing bell) and the cause (the ringing phone) are identical. The effect caused itself.

There are two explanations for these quite common "backward" dreams. Dream-time and dream-consciousness does not obey the laws of physics. In dream-time, dream-consciousness may attempt to impose temporal order on a dream which has no temporal order and which may be experienced as a gestalt. In other words, in dream-time the entire dream was instantaneous and the dream was initiated by the ringing of her phone. The bell was heard and the dream was instantly produced in explanation and association. Future, present, past may be juxtaposed and experienced as a gestalt; like seeing the forest instead of the individual trees. In fact, although dreams may seem to last long time periods, they may be only seconds in length (Frank, 2012, Pagel, 2014, Stickgold & Walker, 2010).

The other explanation is that the ringing of the phone and the fact that Sheryl was calling Katherine, was perceived in dream-time, before it happened. Just as a time-machine traveling at superluminal speeds from the future into the past will pass by an observer only to be followed by its light image (which trails behind at the speed of light), information just seconds or minutes away into the future can be perceived by dream-consciousness in dream-time through entanglement. However, it is not future information traveling at superluminal speeds, but the mind and brain of the dreamer which are accelerating toward that future event in advance of those conscious minds which are still awake.

In dream time, the brain is highly active (Frank, 2012, Pagel, 2014, Stickgold & Walker, 2010), and certain regions in the limbic system are hyperactive (Joseph 1992, 1996, 2000). During dream-time, brain activity is accelerating which causes a contraction in time-space. The future comes closer to the present during dream time relative to outside observers which may include, upon waking, the conscious mind of the dreamer. However, while in dream-time, in a state of accelerated dream-consciousness, the future may be sensed and it may trigger a complex dream which then leads up to that future event when it arrives in the present thereby waking the dreamer.

Another illustrative example: French physicist Alfred Maury dreamt that he had taken part in the French Revolution and that he had been condemned to death and his head cut off at the exact moment when his bedpost broken and struck him across the neck:

"I was rather,unwell, and was lying down in my room, with my mother at my bedside. I dreamed of,the Reign of Terror; I witnessed massacres, I was appearing before the Revolutionary,tribunal, I saw Robespierre, Marat, Fouquier-Tinville, all the most wicked figures of,that terrible era; I talked to them; finally, after many events that I only partly remember,,I was judged, condemned to death, taken out in a tumbril through a huge throng to the,Place de la Revolution; I mounted the scaffold; the executioner tied me to that fatal,plank, he tipped it up, the blade fell; I felt my head separating from my body, I woke up,racked by the deepest anguish, and felt the bedpost on my neck. It had suddenly come,off and had fallen on my cervical vertebrae just like the guillotine blade."

Certainly it would be expected that a major blow to the head and neck would cause instant waking. But in this instance, it did not. Instead, the dreamer experienced a long and convoluted dream which was initiated by what was about to happen, and which could also be considered a warning of what was about to happen; albeit in the unique dream-language characteristic of dreams. This is not a case of an instantaneous backward dream, but a precognitive dream which provided the dreamer with a glimpse of what lay in store just moments into the future.

A third example related by a colleague: "I'd been working in my yard into the late afternoon and was exhausted. It was hot and I stripped off my shirt and lay down in a swinging hammock in my yard to take a nap, fell asleep and began to dream. In the dream I was in a nightclub and there was this exotic beautiful woman with long black hair drinking at the bar. We began drinking together and then we were dancing and kissing and then we were suddenly in my house and we were laying on the floor and I was taking off her clothes and she was getting very excited and aggressive. All at once I could see she had yellow eyes and black skin, but it wasn't skin, but resembled an insect's chitlin. Her arms and hands became claws and her teeth became razor sharp and pointed. She put her claw arms around me very tight as I struggled to escape. She had turned into some demonic insect-creature and pressed her razor sharp claw-hands into my back. I could feel her razor sharp claws knifing me and I felt I was being stabbed in the back. The pain was terrible. It seemed as if her pointed claws were going to completely pierce my back and come out my chest. The pain was so horrific I woke up. But the pain was still there. I got up from the hammock and there was a crippled black bumble bee laying there. The damn thing has stung me on my back."

Dreams that seem to paradoxically lead up to an event which wakes the dreamer are common. These dreams may be relatively brief or become lengthy complicated dreams leading up to some event which then occurs, as if on cue, waking the dreamer who discovers upon waking that someone was knocking on his door, the phone was ringing, it was the alarm clock, a kid was yelling outside the window, and so on, all of which initiated the dream which then led up to the event which caused the dream (Joseph 1992). The dream was produced, so as to explain in the unique language of the dream what was about to happen; and this is because, it already happened in the future. The only other explanation is the dream was produced as an instant gestalt and the dreamer dreamed the dream in accelerated dream-time without any temporal order, and it was upon waking that the dream was reconstructed in a temporal sequential time frame (Joseph 1992).

Be they backward dreams instantly produced as a gestalt, or examples of dream precognition, backward dreams are the most easily comprehended because the conscious mind utilizes temporal sequences to explain what is observed, and may recall the dream in reverse, so it makes temporal-sequential sense; as if the cause led to the effect, when the cause and effect were either simultaneous, or the effect was its own cause.

Joseph Dreams His Death 2000 Years Ago?

In the early 1950s, when I [R. Joseph] was a boy of 3, and for many years until around age 7, I had dreams about a little boy playing by the sea shore, by the ocean. And there were crowds of people. Some lying or sitting together on the sand. Others swimming or fishing. And then in the dream the ocean began to recede... the ocean waters drew back back back... and I could see shells and fish flopping on the wet sand where moments before there had been ocean... and ships and small boats lay on their sides... and I ran to where the ocean had been, on the wet sand, picking up shells... and many other people also ran onto the wet sand picking up wiggling fish and laughing and talking in amazement that the ocean had pulled back for miles and miles leaving the sand and ocean floor completely revealed for everyone to see.... and then... and then... and then... I walked further and further out to where the ocean had been, picking up giant shells some with wiggling living creatures still inside, and gazing in wonder at what the ocean had hidden but which was now revealed… and then I heard screams... women and men and children were screaming... and in my dream,  they were all running from the wet sand where the ocean had been toward the dry shore...and people on the shore were also running... everyone was running away and screaming... and I could hear this rumbling roar from behind me… and when I looked back to see why, what they were running from and what was making that roar, I could see the ocean... it was still miles away--but it was a WALL OF OCEAN.. a WALL OF WATER looming up maybe 100 yards perhaps even miles into the sky... and in my dream the wall of ocean was rushing forward, to where the ocean had been minutes before, toward where I was standing with sea shells in my hands... and I started running... like everyone else, running running running... and I could see, over my shoulder, behind me, the roaring wall of ocean water coming closer, and closer... and faster faster faster... and I kept running... everyone was running and screaming...trying to get away... and then the towering WALL OF WATER was just behind me... then looming over me... and then it crashed down upon me... and the little boy that I was, in this dream, drowned.... and then I awoke in my bed... the same boy who drowned, but a different boy...me...

I had this dream over and over for years; the same dream, the source of which was a mystery to me as I had never even imagined that the ocean could actually recede and then rush back to land as I had dreamed.  It was not until 20 years later that I learned, for the first time, about Tsunamis and how characteristic it is for people to foolishly run out to where the ocean and been… and then... the ocean comes rushing back as a wall of water drowning everyone who did not  immediately run away.

How could I have dreamed so vividly about something 3-year old me knew nothing about in the early 1950s when we didn't even have a television? There were clues in yet other dreams when I was a child, and they were dreams of the same little boy. But it was during ancient Roman times, and I was sitting with my mother who was dressed in royal robes typical of the Roman period. She was singing to me… And down below I could see Roman soldiers marching, and peasant women by a river, washing clothes, and the river was flowing into the ocean. The peasant women, who had with them many naked children, were dressed in clothes I associated with Biblical times, of ancient Egypt; my grandmother would often read to me from a Bible picture book. But in these river-side dreams which began so peaceful, they all ended with incredible earthquakes, like the world was turning up-side down...

How do these two dreams relate? Almost 50 years after I had these dreams, I searched the records for Tsunamis in the Mediterranean sea near Italy and Egypt.

On the morning of July 21, 365 AD, an earthquake of great magnitude caused a huge tsunami more than 100 feet high and it inundated and destroyed several towns on the coasts of the Mediterranean, including Alexandria. This is how Ammianus Marcellinus, a  Roman historian described it:

Slightly after daybreak, and heralded by a thick succession of fiercely shaken thunderbolts, the solidity of the whole earth was made to shake and shudder, and the sea was driven away, its waves were rolled back, and it disappeared, so that the abyss of the depths was uncovered and many-shaped varieties of sea-creatures were seen stuck in the slime; the great wastes of those valleys and mountains, which the very creation had dismissed beneath the vast whirlpools, at that moment, as it was given to be believed, looked up at the sun's rays. Many ships, then, were stranded as if on dry land, and people wandered at will about the paltry remains of the waters to collect fish and the like in their hands; then the roaring sea as if insulted by its repulse rises back in turn, and through the teeming shoals dashed itself violently on islands and extensive tracts of the mainland, and flattened innumerable buildings in towns or wherever they were found. Thus in the raging conflict of the elements, the face of the earth was changed to reveal wondrous sights. For the mass of waters returning when least expected killed many thousands by drowning, and with the tides whipped up to a height as they rushed back, some ships, after the anger of the watery element had grown old, were seen to have sunk, and the bodies of people killed in shipwrecks lay there, faces up or down.

Had Joseph dreamed of a previous life from nearly 2000 years ago? Or did he journey to the past, during dream-time, and visit the long ago in the time machine of consciousness?

The ancients believed the past could be accessed through dreams. But according to general relativity and quantum physics, time reversal is possible only at superluminal speeds.

Quantum Physics of Dream-Time and Dream Consciousness

Dream-consciousness and dream-time are associated with accelerated levels of brain activity. Relativity predicts that observers with an accelerated frame of reference experience time-contraction and a shrinking of time-space such that the future and the present come closer together relative to those with a different frame of reference. Not surprisingly, two dissociated conscious minds may experience slowing and speeding up simultaneously. However, space-time is also part of the quantum continuum; and this continuum extends into the future and the past, such that all are entangled.

As based on a coupling of the Copenhagen with the Many Worlds interpretations, dream-consciousness can become entangled with the space-time continuum which includes the various futures as they flow toward an observer; futures which are also entangled and which will become modified to varying degrees before being perceived and then upon the act of registration. Thus, during dream consciousness, not just the most improbable, but also the most probable future world may be observed; a probable future which may or may not happen in this reality, in this world, but which will or has happened in another world as predicted by "Many Worlds."

Dream-consciousness, and dream-time, because they are maintained by brain structures which, during sleep, are freed of inhibitory restraint, also have a sensitivity to the quantum continuum which differs from and is more wide-reaching than the mind during waking. Much of the human brain is subject to inhibition, which prevents sensory overload and allows for the focusing of attention. However, if that inhibition is removed, specific neurons and brain areas may greatly increase their activity and begin processing information which is normally filtered from the conscious mind.

Einstein proclaimed that the "distinctions between past, present and future are an illusion," that time is embedded with space, creating a space-time manifold where numerous futures, pasts, presents overlap and exist simultaneously in parallel, all flowing in various directions relative to observers. The future, or rather, multiple futures exist, albeit in varying distant locations in space-time. All of space-time, the quantum continuum, is entangled, and just as the ripples of a pond may strike distant shores, the space-time quantum states of the future may also effect distant shores occupied by what the mind experiences as the now.

If the 4th dimension is space-time, and if the future and the present and differences in time are related to accelerated frames of reference and movement through space, then within the quantum continuum, everything is connected: stars, planets, dogs, cats, past, present, and the future.

Be it the time traveler who accelerates toward light speed and then to superluminal velocities, such that he first travels to the future and then the past, the time machine of consciousness, freed of inhibitory restraint, may also accelerate toward light speed, lifting the veil and enabling the dreaming mind to see what had been concealed including what may occur in the future and what may have taken place thousands of years ago in the past.