Accidents and disasters are an unfortunate fact of life. Because disasters affect so many people, they have been intensely studied. However, every time a disaster occurs, the same questions are raised. How could this have happened? Could it have been prevented? Why do some people survive and others do not? Is there really such a thing as a random accident, or is there a hidden meaning to each disaster?

      Of course, disasters are thoroughly investigated. And often, an in-depth investigation will reveal a hidden side to disasters. However, there is one aspect of disasters that has been largely ignored. In virtually every major disaster, there are accounts of strange premonitions that predict the disaster.

      If these premonitions are true, then some obvious questions are raised. Are these premonitions accurate? Who is having them? What is their purpose? Surely there must be a way we can harness the power of the human mind to help deal with these disasters.

      Probably the great majority of premonitions are prophetic dreams predicting disaster. This is illustrated perfectly in the following case. In 1914, one hundred twenty Newfoundland sealers were abandoned on an ice-floe in the north Atlantic ocean during winter. Due to the incompetence of the ship's captain and others, the missing men were not noticed for two days and two nights. By the time they were rescued more than half were dead. It was the worst disaster to strike the Newfoundland sealing community in many years.

      However, the disaster did not come without warning. One of the 55 survivors later told of a dream he had two weeks before the disaster. According to Cassie Brown's report on the disaster: "John Howlet had suffered a chilling nightmare weeks before. In his dream he was on a mountain of ice, lost and freezing. He was alone, terribly and frighteningly alone, but everywhere he wandered there were vague, indefinable 'things' on the ice around him-things with no particular shape that he could make out. He found himself walking among those things, unable to find his way, wondering what they were and dreading them. In his dream he was counting, counting, counting...He was still counting the white mounds when he awoke, shivering and terribly depressed."

      Unfortunately, the dream was not enough for him to stop from joining the crew of the ship, Newfoundland, most of whom would be dead in a matter of days. And only afterwards was he to recognize the white mounds for what they were - bodies covered with snow.

      Ideally, a premonition of a disaster should be used to prevent the disaster. The following case provides a good example of someone who was able to use their premonition positively.

      On May 7, 1915, the British luxury liner Lusitania was sunk by a German torpedo, causing the death of nearly 1200 people. In many ways, the disaster was foreseeable. Firstly, there was a state of war between Germany and England. Secondly, several advertisements had been run in major US newspapers from the German Embassy warning that travelers crossing the Atlantic are doing so at their own risk.

      Nevertheless, the over-riding public sentiment was that the Germans would never attack a passenger ship. Unfortunately, they were wrong, and many people suffered a watery death. Not surprisingly, there were some reported premonitions. One passenger, upon seeing the ship for the first time, became decidedly uneasy and concerned about her safety. Also, on the day before launch, the ship's mascot, a small black cat, abandoned ship, causing several crewman to remark it as a bad omen. However, the strongest premonition came from successful shoe dealer Edward Bowen of Boston, Massachusetts. Bowen had booked passage on the Lusitania, but on the day before sailing, became unaccountably concerned. He canceled his passage. Later he told his friends, "A feeling grew upon me that something was going to happen to the Lusitania. I talked it over with Mrs. Bowen and we decided to cancel our passage - although I had an important business engagement in London." (Hoehling, pp. 31-32.)

      Probably one of the best established and most reputable cases of premonitions of disaster comes from the grim events that occurred on October 21, 1966 in Aberfan, Wales. On that day, 116 children and twenty-eight adults were killed when a large mountain of coal collapsed and buried a small section of the town of Aberfan, including an elementary school filled with children. The disaster touched nearly every family in the town and effectively extinguished an entire generation of children in the town. It was the worst disaster ever experienced by Aberfan. After the disaster, the reports of premonitions began to flood in. The mother of one of the deceased students reported that her ten year old (who had died in the disaster) had a dream the night before which foretold the disaster. The child told her mother, "I dreamed I went to school and there was no school there. Something black had come down all over it."

      A week earlier, Alexander Venn received a strong premonition that there would be a coal-mining disaster. He told his wife, "Something terrible is going to happen, and it won't be far from here."

      The reports of premonitions literally came from all over Wales and England. One lady had a nightmare that she suffocated in "deep blackness." Another dreamed of a small child being buried by a large landslide. Another clearly saw a schoolhouse be buried by an avalanche of coal, and rescue workers digging frantically for survivors. Another woke up from a nightmare in which she was being buried alive.

      On the morning of the disaster, Mrs. Sybil Brown woke from a dream in which she saw children being overcome by "a black, billowing mass." Probably the clearest of the premonitions was reported by a man in northwestern England who claimed that the night before the disaster, he had a dream which consisted only of letters being spelled out in dazzling light, A-B-E-R-F-A-N. At the time, the dream had no meaning to him. Hours later, he would realize with horror what it meant.

      Because of the large number of reported premonitions, three separate independent organizations conducted a study of the premonitions. The studies eventually combined and the result showed that there were more than twenty-four individual precognitive episodes foretelling the disaster. London psychiatrist J. C. Barker headed the study. In his conclusions he wrote "that the time had surely come to call a halt to attempts to prove or disprove precognition. We should instead set about trying to harness and utilize it with a view to preventing further disasters." Dr. Barker did just that, and formed the British Premonitions Bureau. To date, however, the bureau has been unable to prevent any disasters, though they have had some limited success in predicting them. (Time-Life. pp. 33-34.)

      The wreck of the Titanic remains the single most famous shipwreck of all times. Not surprisingly, it also represents the strongest case for the veracity of premonitions of disaster.

      The story of the Titanic is well-known. On April 14, 1912, the Titanic struck an iceberg and sunk in the North Atlantic, carrying with her more than 1500 lives. The lack of sufficient lifeboats has often been blamed as the leading cause of fatalities; however, experts will tell you that there were hundreds of causes leading to the accident including everything from faulty construction of watertight compartments to a failure to pay attention to numerous warnings of icebergs in the area. What's important here, however, are the huge numbers of premonitions that foretold this disaster.

      Probably the first premonition came from author Morgan Robertson, who published a novel about a shipwreck in 1898. Although this was 14 years before the Titanic disaster, the novel, Futility seems to tell the exact disaster of the Titanic. The number of similarities go way beyond coincidence. In the novel, the ship was named Titan. It was the same size as Titanic, and carried the same number of passengers. In the novel, the ship also struck an iceberg in the north Atlantic in mid-April and sunk with the loss of over half the passengers due to insufficient lifeboats.

      Another author, W.T. Stead, wrote numerous stories and articles predicting that a large ocean liner would sink with the loss of over half on board, again due to the lack of sufficient lifeboats. W. T. Stead was also interested in psychic mediums, and he recorded his visits with them. He received three separate warnings that can be easily linked to the Titanic disaster. One was that "travel would be dangerous in the month of April, 1912." Another told Stead that he would be involved "in the midst of a catastrophe on the water" involving the deaths of more than a thousand people. One clergyman, upon hearing about the building of the Titanic, was so moved by his own premonitions that he wrote to Stead predicting that the Titanic would sink. Despite all these warnings, Stead booked passage on the Titanic, and died in the disaster.

      Several people went as far as to act on their premonitions and canceled their passage. Second Engineer Colin MacDonald declined his position on the Titanic because of a "hunch" that disaster lay ahead. Even some of the rich and famous passengers felt something amiss. J.P. Morgan and Vanderbilt both cancelled their passage admitting to the superstitious fear of being on a ship's maiden voyage.

      Another crewman received a warning but failed to act on it. Luigi Gatti, manager of the Titanic's controller's office, signed on the Titanic despite the fact that his wife was against the idea. She had a premonition about his job on the giant ship and "felt strange about it." One of the most dramatic premonitions occurred as the Titanic was steaming past the Isle of Wight. Hundreds of people lined the coast to watch the largest ship in the world. Among them was the Marshall family, who were initially delighted to see the massive ship. Then suddenly, Miss Marshall began to scream in horror: "It's going to sink! That ship is going to sink! Do something! Are you so blind that you are going to let them drown? Save them! Save them!"

      One of the most dramatic cases of premonitions occurred during the final moments of the disaster. Major Archibald Gracie had been unable to find a place on the lifeboat and was plunged into the icy waters as the ship sank. As he says, "It was just then that the thought that this was my last moment came upon me. I wanted to convey the news of how I died to my loved ones at home. As I swam beneath the surface of the ocean, I prayed that my spirit could go to them and say, 'Good-bye, until we meet again in heaven.'...I thought that if I prayed hard enough that this, my last wish to communicate with my wife and daughter, might be granted.

      Meanwhile, at that exact moment, hundreds of miles away in New York City, his wife had a sudden premonition. As Mrs. Gracie was, "I was in my room at my sister's house, where I was visiting, in New York. After retiring, being unable to rest I questioned myself several times over, wondering what it was that prevented the customary long and peaceful slumber, lately enjoyed. 'What is the matter?' I uttered. A voice in replay seemed to say, 'On your knees and pray.' Instantly, I literally obeyed with my prayer book in my hand, which by chance opened at the prayer, 'For those at Sea.' The thought then flashed through my mind, 'Archie is praying for me.'"

      Miraculously, Major Gracie was able to make it on top of an overturned lifeboat and survived the disaster. Major Gracie feels that a number of remarkable coincidences allowed him to survive his ordeal.

      Later, investigators were stunned by the huge number of premonitions, numbering to some accounts over fifty. However, more skeptical investigators, after discarding "vague forebodings" and "after the fact claims of prescience" came up with the still impressive figure of nineteen cases of precognition. Only the unreasonable skeptic could deny that there was some precognitive warnings of the disaster.

      We are now at the stage of moving beyond skepticism. The strongest cases should remove any doubt that premonitions do in fact occur. To discount these as being untrue is not only preposterous, it would be totally unscientific.

      The formation of the British Premonitions Bureau (and later a counterpart in the United States) is obviously a huge step ahead. Unfortunately, most people are unaware of these organizations, and they have yet to have any measure of success in preventing a disaster.

      For most people, the difference between a fear and a premonition is that fears are vague and not unusual. Premonitions, on the other hand, seem to come spontaneously, and often with great force and clarity. In fact, for most people, the problem is not recognizing a premonition, but acting upon it.

      Ultimately, premonitions of disaster represent a higher awareness of events that are usually deemed beyond our control. It is not only important that we attempt to learn all we can about them - it is literally a matter of life and death.