THE POWER OF PREMONITIONS

“For anyone who is interested in knowing about the deeper meaning of our existence, this book is a must read. Once again, Larry, being the pioneer that he is, has written a classic.” —Deepak Chopra, M.D., author of Jesus: A Story of Enlightenment



THE POWER OF PREMONITIONS How Knowing the Future Can Shape Our Lives
Larry Dossey, M.D.
Author of the New York Times Bestseller Healing Words

Some arrive as dramatic, vibrantly detailed dreams. Others sneak in as vague, gnawing gut feelings. They range from revealing the trivial, like where to find missing keys, to foreshadowing disasters, destruction, and death. Regardless of their form or focus, premonitions are universal, scientifically verifiable, and vital facts of life.

“I believe that to be alive is to have premonitions,” declares respected spiritual trailblazer and bestselling author Larry Dossey, M.D. “Premonitions are not something we can avoid. They are our birthright.” In his latest groundbreaking book, THE POWER OF PREMONITIONS: How Knowing the Future Can Shape Our Lives (Dutton; May 2009; $25.95), Dr. Dossey confirms the validity of these remarkably common, uncanny occurrences and makes sense of their paradoxical nature. What’s more, he opens minds to acknowledging, cultivating, and acting on premonitions to not only avert dangers, but strengthen bonds with loved ones, connect with strangers, and change the world.

During his first year in medical practice, Dr. Dossey had a vivid dream about the young son of a physician colleague that predicted a series of events with chilling accuracy. After three decades of wrestling with questions about how and why premonitions happen, the author decided to do what he does best: delve into science to demystify the mystical. Combing the neurological, psychiatric, and parapsychological literature in search of answers, he found overwhelming empirical evidence to support premonitions as a real, natural phenomenon with a critical role in our universe. As Dr. Dossey reveals, backed by compelling true stories and computer-based experiments, nearly everyone has the ability to know the future. Yet, because it usually operates outside our conscious awareness, this innate gift is widely denied and ignored, often at significant personal toll and sometimes others’ peril.


Grounded in rigorous scientific research and actual cases, THE POWER OF PREMONITIONS sheds light on:

• How premonitions often herald tragedy…and how premonitions often save lives. Among many striking instances, Dr. Dossey shares how a young mother in Washington State took a frightening dream seriously, over her husband’s laughter, and saved her infant from being crushed by a fallen chandelier; how an Oklahoma City obstetrician learned to trust his chest pains as signals of impending delivery to improve patient care; and how hundreds of individuals all over the country had premonitory dreams prior to the events of 9/11. On that shattering day, many also followed their hunches and cancelled travel plans at the last minute. American Airlines Flight 77, for example, had a 78 percent vacancy rate when it crashed into the Pentagon.



• The value and routine practice of employing premonitions in business. Along with exposing “business intuition” for what it really is—a knack for predicting business cycles, trends, and strengths—Dr. Dossey spotlights experiments using premonitions to make money. Incredibly, two different series of trials of remote viewers’ success at picking winning stocks were right on the money—until greed became the objective. The lesson? Purity of purpose pays off.



• How premonitions are as much about feeling as seeing. Based on breakthrough studies by established consciousness researchers, the body undergoes physiological changes—increases in sweat gland activity and heart rate among them—in anticipation of danger. As Dr. Dossey points out, these “presentiment experiments” demonstrate, under double-blind conditions, that when the average person is about to see an emotional picture, he or she will respond before that picture appears.



• Why we should want to cultivate premonitions and how to do it. As Dr. Dossey makes clear, even when they present a fragmentary picture or a mere inkling, premonitions serve as welcome guides to navigating the future with confidence and compassion. For those who aspire to become more premonition-prone, he urges getting comfortable with ambiguity and chaos; embracing a sense of the “transcendent”—a certainty that there is something more than the here-and-now—and the unity of all life; respecting the unconscious; and staying attentive and positive. He also advocates employing common sense, with practices like keeping a dream journal.

In the final section, Dr. Dossey explores the potential of premonitions to help us see and change not only the future, but the past as well. He offers a vision for revolutionizing our understanding of time, space, and consciousness.

Insightful, enlightening, and riveting, THE POWER OF PREMONITIONS is a book for anyone fascinated by the possibilities of foreknowledge and everyone who’s experienced an unshakable hunch or unforgettable dream about the future. While a firm believer in taking premonitions seriously, Dr. Dossey cautions against exploiting premonitions for selfish aims or protection against risks and surprises. “Future knowing is a valuable quality,” he affirms, “but we should hope that it never eradicates all the mysteries of life.”


About the Author
LARRY DOSSEY, M.D., is a respected leader in bringing scientific understanding to spirituality and an internationally influential advocate of the role of spirituality in healthcare and wellness. During his distinguished career as a practitioner of integrative medicine, he helped establish the Dallas Diagnostic Association and served as Chief of Staff of Medical City Dallas Hospital. The author of eleven books, including the New York Times bestseller Healing Words, he is executive editor of Explore: The Journal of Science and Healing. Dr. Dossey has lectured all over world and at major medical schools and hospitals in the United States—Harvard, Johns Hopkins, Cornell, and the Mayo Clinic, among others. A native Texan, he lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

For more information, visit:
www.dosseydossey.com