by Larry Dossey, MD
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Published April 30, 2009 (hardcover) by Dutton
More Info: The Power of Premonitions
Have you ever had a premonition? Three-quarters of us have, according to Dr. Larry Dossey. As I enter the hotel suite to interview Larry about his latest book The Power of Premonitions, a long-forgotten story flows to the front of my mind, and I want to share it. Larry tells me this has been his favorite book tour, because everyone has a story. The tall white-haired former Texan waves me to be comfortably seated, and invites me to share.
I tell Larry that I was newly married, and both my husband and I worked for radio stations. His was a country station, and the DJ’s there were constantly called upon to make appearances. He came home one day to tell me they were going to hoist him up by crane on a Sunday morning, and he would broadcast from the crane above the local 7-11 store. I freaked. Instantly, I felt something was terribly wrong with this idea. He’d been involved with stunts before, and I’d never objected, but this time, there was a foreboding I could not ignore. I begged him to pull out from the stunt, but the bosses were set on it.
The night before the event, I had a vivid dream in which the winds whipped the crane around, and it was completely destroyed. I couldn’t see anything else. It was a rough night, and I awoke terror-stricken. About an hour before he was to leave for the stunt, the phone rang. It was his boss. During the night, a windstorm had kicked up and destroyed the crane. It was too late to get another crane, so my husband would be broadcasting live from the flat top of the 7-11 building. He was safe.
In turn, Larry tells one of his favorite stories. Jean Houston, a delightful philosopher whom I’ve interviewed numerous times, was scheduled to make an appearance before the United Nations in New York. This was about eight years ago. She had a premonition that she just could not go. She called the UN, and politely declined, saying something just didn’t feel right, and she would not be boarding that plane. Larry says to me, “You just don’t say no to the U.N., but Jean did.” She did not get on the flight.
It was September 11th, and she would have perished on the flight she had booked.
Dossey’s book has stories and science and information on how to increase the number of premonitions we have. We are, he says, hardwired with this warning system. One of the studies he sites was done about 9-11. Let me ask you this — how often have you flown on a plane that was nearly empty? Larry says that every one of those 9-11 flights was only twenty-percent full. Which means a lot of people paid attention to their premonitions that day.
Larry tells me that we can increase our ability to recognize premonitions by meditating more frequently. This clears the mind, allows us to pay attention to our internal world. Be playful, he advises. Larry hopes to elevate the dialog about premonitions.
