Open Thread: Did You Ever Have A Dream That Came True?

Writing my last post in which I reflected on a dream I had about the price of gas falling to 1.75 per gallon at some point in the future made me remember a dream I had which did sort of come true.

I don't recall exactly when I had this dream, but it was some time in the early 1990's when my oldest brother Bobby, his wife, and their first two kids were living in an upstairs apartment in East Meadow. In my dream, I was in my mom and dad's den at their house trying to get Bobby to watch the movie Mississippi Burning. For a bit of background, my brother is a bit of a racist who habitually refers to blacks and people of other races with vulgar epithets. In the dream, I wanted him to see Mississippi Burning because I was hoping it would affect him in some way and cure him of racism.

A week or so later, I dropped Bobby and his family off at their apartment. For some reason, I went up to their apartment for a few minutes, I don't recall why. But when I was in their living room, I noticed a video cassette sticking halfway out of the slot in the VCR. Out of curiosity, I walked over to the VCR to see what it was, expecting it to be some lame comedy or something. However, to my astonishment, when I pulled the cassette out of the slot, it was Mississippi Burning!

In addition to being an atheist, I also am a skeptic when it comes to things like psychic powers, astrology, tarot cards and so forth. But at the time, the incident above made me consider the possibility that we do have the capacity to foresee the future. I had another incident in which I was standing with a friend outside of Planet Hollywood in Manhattan a couple of years later. She and I were talking about what celebrity items they might have on display in the restaurant. As a joke, I remarked that they had the sneakers that Johnny Depp wore in What's Eating Gilbert Grape? The reason it was a joke was because to my recollection, there was nothing notable at all about the sneakers Johnny Depp wore in that movie and there was absolutely no reason to expect that they would be on display anywhere.

When my friend and I finally were admitted after waiting on line for a while, we looked around at some of the celebrity paraphernalia they had. Up ahead on the wall, I noticed a pair of sneakers encased in glass. I walked up to it to see what the caption read underneath the display, and to my complete surprise, it identified the pair of sneakers within as those worn by Johnny Depp in What's Eating Gilbert Grape?

So, did I have a psychic vibe going on, or was it pure coincidence like the dream about my brother? I had one or two other instances where a thought that popped into my mind seemed to come true in some way. But the fact that they were so few leads me to believe that it was all sheer coincidence and that if I really did have some kind of psychic powers that I should be experiencing them on a more frequent basis. Still, when it happens, it does make one wonder about what is possible.

Did any of you ever have any similar experiences? If so, how do you explain it?