Prophetic dreams

Last week I had a disturbing dream that my home had flooded. This morning, it did.

The immediate emergency of water gushing from a broken pipe is now dealt with, having turned off the water to the entire place. I am now waiting for a plumber to mend the pipe and wondering what I could have done to prevent this if I had paid more attention to my premonition.

It isn't the first time I have had a prophetic dream. A few years ago I awoke from a nightmare that I was locked in my bedroom and then found, when I tried to leave the room, that I was in fact locked in my bedroom. The door catch had somehow broken and jammed shut during the night.

I was a teenager the first time it happened. It was back in the 1970s and I was a fan of Marc Bolan and T-Rex. One night I dreamt I was at a T-Rex concert. I awoke remembering exactly what clothes Marc had been wearing on stage and that he had coloured streaks in his hair. The dream prompted me to go into a record shop and buy their latest release. I was stunned to see a picture on the record, taken at a gig, in which Marc was wearing exactly the clothes I recalled and had the same streaks in his hair. I was certain I had never seen that picture before and felt sure my dream had somehow given me a glimpse of a real event.

Of course, all of these things could have just been coincidence. I have plenty of stressful dreams that don't come true. I'm certainly glad I don't miss my train to work as often as my dreams might suggest and I am delighted I have never suddenly realised I am naked in the middle of the high street.

But, when I have the next prophetic dream of a misfortune, it would be really nice to know how to prevent it from coming true.