Some people have prophetic dreams involving more widespread

disasters.  Lynn Walbeck has had many dreams of the crash of

commercial planes, usually days before the crash occurred.  The

dreams, however, are vague, although sometimes she knows the

continent and occasionally the country.

Lynn's most disturbing dream, however, was about the explosion of

the space shuttle Challenger in 1986.  The dream occurred the

night before the launch.  "I was visibly upset when I went to

work the next day," she said.  "I told some of my friends about

my dream, and, during break, a woman came in to tell me the

Challenger had just exploded."

Marla Miller also dreamed about the Challenger.  "The next

morning," Marla reported, "I turned on the TV to a Special Report

on the launching of the Challenger.  And then watched my dream

again as the Challenger exploded on my TV screen."

Kirby Bevans dreamed of an exploding plane.  ""I found myself

falling toward the ground," Kirby says, "surrounded by sharp

plane fragments."   Kirby landed in the water, then realized that

the water was actually a swamp.  Twenty-four hours later, a jet

plane coming into Logan Airport in Boston made a low approach to

its runway and crashed into the sea wall.  Passengers were thrown

into shallow water that was, indeed, like a swamp.

Reports are widespread of people who dreamed about the Kennedy

assassination.  The mining disaster in Wales that destroyed a

school in Aberfam and took the life of many children haunted many

dreams beforehand.  Another occasion when dreams may have been a

factor in the saving of lives was the sailing of the Titanic.

More than twenty tickets were canceled for undisclosed reasons

shortly before the ship set sail.

There are reports of dreams that foretell more pleasant events:

the birth of a child, an engagement or a wedding to come.  People

have claimed they dreamed winning lottery numbers, or seen the

outcome of a horse race.  Using the dream as a guide, they've

become winners.

The majority of prophetic dreams, however foretell death,

disasters or accidents.  Perhaps these events have a stronger

impact on the sleeping mind than pleasant experiences.  Sigmund

Freud believed that, when a person slept, his mental defenses

were lowered.  Another possibility, however, is that people do

remember more clearly the shock of envisioning death or disaster.

Richard Broughton, Ph.D., of Rhine University says, "It could

also be the case that these events are things one should be

warned about.  [The dreams] may anticipate potential dangers and

thus serve some evolution-based survival mechanism."

Janice Baylis, author of "Sex, Symbols and Dreams," sets the

occurrence of prophetic dreams at 23 percent of all dreams.

Richard Broughton estimates a little lower, at 15 percent.  There