Buzz
Have you ever felt a sudden pang of anxiety while saying goodbye to someone at the airport? Or perhaps sensed an impending break-in just before leaving for a vacation?
Premonitions manifest in various ways—some as subtle intuitions, others as vivid dreams. Countless individuals have recounted experiencing these forewarnings moments before a major disaster or tragic event unfolded.
10. American Airlines Flight 191
In 1970, David Booth experienced the same terrifying dream for 10 consecutive nights. In his sleep, he saw a jetliner swerve off the runway, flip upside down, and explode into a fiery blaze.
Booth felt an urgent need to report his dreams to the FAA. Officials took his account seriously and deduced that he might be envisioning a Boeing 727 or a DC-10 aircraft.
On the day of Booth's final nightmare, American Airlines DC-10 Flight 191 crashed shortly after takeoff. A detached engine caused the plane to lose balance, flip on the runway, and ignite into flames.
All 273 passengers on board lost their lives.
9. Lynyrd Skynyrd Plane Crash
Some believe Ronnie van Zant tempted fate by boarding his band’s plane just one day after its engine was emitting flames. On October 20, 1977, before stepping onto the plane, Van Zant famously said: “C’mon, let’s go. If it’s your time to go, it’s your time to go.”
Indeed, it was his time. The plane crashed into a Mississippi swamp, killing Van Zant, guitarist Steve Gaines, Steve’s sister Cassie, manager Dean Kilpatrick, and both pilots instantly. Survivor Artimus Pyle later recounted gruesome scenes, including a decapitated pilot and Dean’s body impaled on debris.
Band vocalist Jo Jo Billingsley reported having a vivid premonition of the plane crash the day before it occurred. Van Zant had recently invited her to rejoin the band after she left due to struggles with drugs and alcohol. On the day she agreed to meet him, she dreamt of a plane plummeting to the earth. Her dream turned into reality the following day.
8. Sharon Tate
In 1966, actress Sharon Tate was hiding in a bedroom at her ex-boyfriend’s home, overwhelmed by an unshakable sense of dread. Hoping to escape the feeling, she tried to sleep. Suddenly, she saw a man enter the room.
She identified him as Paul Bern, the previous owner of the house. However, Bern had taken his own life years earlier.
Sharon ran away from the spectral figure, rushing downstairs where she encountered a figure with a slashed throat. After fixing herself a drink, she returned upstairs, only to see the victim on the stairs and Bern’s ghostly presence once more.
In the following years, Sharon grew more certain that the lifeless figure on the stairs was herself. She shared her experience with as many people as possible, but it couldn’t alter her fate.
Three years later, just two weeks before her due date, Sharon and her unborn child fell victim to Charles Manson and his cult, the Manson Family. She was brutally stabbed, and some reports suggest she was hanged from a rafter in the living room. The house where she died was located just a mile from where she had witnessed the ghostly premonition.
7. The Titanic
A series of eerie events foreshadowed the tragic sinking of the RMS Titanic. The ship narrowly avoided a collision with another vessel as it departed Southampton harbor. Some claimed a cat and her kittens abandoned the ship, seen as an ominous sign. After the disaster, rumors spread—some said a cursed mummy was onboard, while others insisted a champagne bottle didn’t break during the christening. These stories have since been proven false.
Numerous individuals claimed to have predicted the sinking through premonitions, and not all can be dismissed as post-event fabrications. Some of these individuals chose not to board the ship, potentially saving their lives.
Anne Ward, a maid for the Cardeza family, who had purchased the most luxurious suite on the Titanic and survived the disaster, refused to board after foreseeing a catastrophe on the maiden voyage. Major Archibald Willingham Butt also had a premonition but boarded anyway, though he prepared his will beforehand, correctly fearing he wouldn’t return alive.
6. Reeva Steenkamp’s Painting
Paralympian Oscar Pistorius shot and killed his girlfriend, South African model Reeva Steenkamp, on Valentine’s Day 2013. He maintains he mistook her for an intruder, and as of April 2014, his murder trial was still ongoing.
Reeva’s mother, June Steenkamp, revealed to a journalist that her daughter had foreseen her own death at the age of 14 and captured it in a painting. The artwork shows Reeva as an angel standing at the base of a ladder ascending to heaven. In the distance, she painted a man holding a gun.
The angel appears frightened, her hands covering her mouth.
While Reeva isn’t here to clarify the painting’s true significance, her parents believe it accurately foretold her death in a hauntingly precise way.
5. Littleton School Shooting
In 2010, a gunman entered Deer Creek Middle School in Littleton, Colorado, and began shooting. No fatalities occurred, including the shooter, but 14-year-old Matthew Thieu was hospitalized in critical condition.
While recovering, Matthew Thieu told reporters he had a premonition of the shooting months earlier. He recounted a dream about a shooting that descended into chaos. In the dream, he was shot and rescued by paramedics.
Matthew and his mother are convinced the dream was a warning about the shooting. It was also a plausible nightmare for him—Deer Creek Middle School had witnessed a deadly shooting decades earlier, and the infamous Columbine massacre took place just 5 kilometers (3 mi) away.
4. Hurricane Katrina
Jeremy Driscoll, a Benedictine monk residing in Oregon, was listening to a report about hurricane risks in Louisiana when he experienced a sudden vision. He saw the Gulf from a northern perspective, with Louisiana visible in the distance. The land appeared vulnerable and ill-prepared for disaster. A hurricane then struck, devastating the state, yet no lives were lost as the area was empty. Father Jeremy was unsure if he had witnessed the past or the future—until Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans in August 2005.
Jeremy’s vision was intended for inclusion in his book titled The Monk’s Alphabet. However, the editors decided to leave it out, believing readers would find it unbelievable.
3. World War I
Carl Jung’s work in psychoanalysis often involved analyzing others’ dreams, but in 1914, he experienced a series of profound dreams himself.
He dreamt of an ocean turning to blood, with countless bodies sinking into yellow waves. Later, he saw a freezing wave engulf an entire nation, leaving no survivors. Jung interpreted these as warnings of war, and subsequent dreams of floods—water stretching from the Alps to the North Sea—symbolized the gruesome trenches soldiers would face.
His final dream occurred in June 1914. Just over a month later, on August 1, World War I erupted.
29. /11
Similar to the Titanic, the September 11, 2001 attacks led to countless conspiracy theories, urban myths, and accounts from individuals who claimed to have foreseen the disaster.
Wall Street executive Barrett Naylor recounts having two premonitions about the World Trade Center. The first occurred in 1993 while he was commuting to work. An overpowering sensation compelled him to return home, and he did—avoiding the bombing that took place that morning.
Eight years later, the same sense of foreboding stopped Naylor from heading to the Twin Towers. He arrived home just in time to see them engulfed in flames on live television.
Naylor, a finance professional, was a pragmatic individual with no prior belief in the supernatural. Yet, these premonitions appear to have saved his life twice.
1. Sandy Hook School Shooting
Logan Dryer was a student at Sandy Hook Elementary School until two weeks before the devastating shooting that claimed the lives of 20 children and 6 adults. His mother, Karen, grew increasingly concerned when the five-year-old began experiencing panic attacks at school.
Doctors found no medical issues with Logan. When the principal attempted to calm him, his mother recalls him screaming, “No, no! It’s not safe there. I’m scared.” While at home, Logan visited friends but became visibly distressed during these visits—his mother believes he sensed something horrific was about to happen.
The tragedy occurred in December 2012. Karen Dryer is convinced her son had vivid premonitions of the shooting. While skeptics argue these were likely unrelated panic attacks, Karen insists Logan inherited his grandmother’s psychic abilities, which ultimately saved his life.
