Writers have been known to psychically tap into the future, perhaps unknowingly, revealing speculative events in their fictional stories which later come true. While some have referred to this phenomenon as precognitive insight revealed in the written word, others have referred to it as prophetic writing.

In my post, Salem witch trials’ book returning from the grave, I shared some personal experiences about how I’d write passages for a book, and the next thing I knew those circumstances emerged in my life. At the time it seemed creepy. After studying what was happening though, I realized I was experiencing precognition. Somehow, my future events made their way into my subconscious, and I incorporated those influences into my books. How these events infused my unconscious could have been through dreaming, or I drew upon these insights while invoking my imagination.

At one time, I heard another author discuss an experience she had while staying at a Boston hotel near the Boston Harbor. One evening before retiring, she wrote a chapter in her newest suspense thriller about a body being found in the harbor. The very next day, a body was found in Boston Harbor.

The more I thought about experiences such as these, the more I realized that over the centuries many authors have done just the same, with more remarkable results. Gene Roddenberry’s Star Trek, for example, provided many glimpses of the future. The 1960s TV show introduced visionary ideas, like: interactive computers, cell phones, magnetic resonance, lasers, and more. Scientists today are studying theories introduced by Star Trek, like the propulsion system and antimatter theory. Even teleportation, the beam me up machine, where a person dematerializes from one place and emerges in another, has received serious reflection from physicists with the support of quantum mechanics.  Gene Roddenberry clearly tapped into a stream of consciousness which inspired him to include future technology in his stories.

In 1898, the novel Futility, by Morgan Robertson was published. The tale was about a state of the art ship, named the Titan. The British ship was 800 feet long, had three propellers and the capacity to carry 3000 people. In the story, in April while crossing the North Atlantic the Titan collides with an iceberg, and because there are insufficient lifeboats, many lives are lost. Sound familiar?  On April 14, 1912, fourteen years after Futility was published, the Titanic hit an iceberg. The Titanic also struck the iceberg about the same time of night on the starboard side, it had three propellers, the capacity to carry 3000 people and was approximately 880 feet long. 

Mr. Robertson followed with a book in 1914 called Beyond the Spectrum. In that story he wrote about a future war where aircraft carry “sun bombs” that can destroy a city after creating a blinding light.  What he describes is often compared to a nuclear bomb that was created decades later.  When Beyond the Spectrum was written, airplanes were barely able to carry one person safely, never mind launch a weapon of mass destruction. Another noteworthy item is that in Robertson’s book, he begins his war in the month of December when the Japanese launch a sneak attack on Hawaii.    

Some refer to Robertson’s stories as coincidence. Others consider it prophetic writing. Aside from the obvious holy books: the Bible, Qur’an & Hadith and Nostradamus’ Quatrains, there have been numerous writings over the centuries that have depicted future events. There’s little doubt that whether Robertson’s writing is considered precognitive or prophetic; he clearly tapped into something which stirred him in a way to write about the events. 

I believe that many writers when going to the creative place, where they stir their imagination are drawing from future and even the past experiences. Only, rather than accepting their psychic hits, it’s easier to explain them as coincidences.

Do any writers have experiences they’d like to share?