From oracles in blockbuster movies to the real-life psychics that follow many paranormal investigations, the ability to predict the future is a hotly contested topic.
Can humans see through time?
Predicting the future
Last year, a study was published in the peer-reviewed Frontiers science journal on this subject. Titled 'Predicting the unpredictable: critical analysis and practical implications of predictive anticipatory activity', the study sought to examine whether or not unconscious future predictions are possible.
Tarot cards are a popular method of future predicting.
Though some people call this phenomenon 'presentiment', the authors have called it predictive anticipatory activity (PAA). This differs from classic precognition, whereby the person is consciously aware that they are predicting the future, because PAA is about 'feeling' the future - on an unconscious level.
Though the experiment was hard to test and produced unclear results, they did show that it is entirely possible PAA exists.
"PAA (...) has been under investigation for more than three decades, and a recent conservative meta-analysis suggests that the phenomenon is real," the authors wrote.
Real life examples
One instance of predicting the future comes recently from the UK. Though this example isn't precisely unconsciously feeling the future, it is a more unusual form of the phenomenon.
UK ghost hunter and amateur photographer Laura Dickinson claims she is being stalked by a ghost that foretells when something bad is about to happen. Strangely enough, this phantom doesn't warn her with words, but instead with a pungent fish odor.
"Ever since I was little, I've sensed spirits around me. I'd pick up on presences in the room and the fishy smell would come as a warning," she said.
With this method she sensed when her grandmother was hospitalized, as well as when her friend died.
One question that is unclear is whether the fish smell is from a spectral follower, or whether Ms. Dickinson can actually predict the future herself - just in an unusual way.
Have you ever met someone who can foresee the future?