When can you tell whether a gut feeling is just wishful thinking or when it is a premonition?

A rational observer might say that events just happen off chance and that there are no coincidences. Just because one has a feeling about something doesn’t mean that person has premonitory talents. He may just be a good observer, someone with a good ability to read the feelings of others, or someone capable of discerning a sequence of events or situations around him and, therefore, is able to “predict” a fact or a reaction. That has nothing to do with ESP, but with a good emotional intelligence or with a high IQ.

On the other hand, there are people who have predicted or guessed things to which they had no previous knowledge of. I, myself, have already “dreamed” of places or situations that I had never seen before. At the time of the dream the place or the situation made no sense, but sometime afterwards I’ve found myself in the middle of the event I had previously dreamed about; there I was in a new job, chatting with my new colleagues, or on vacation in a foreign city with friends and suddenly I had a strong feeling of déjà vu, a feeling that I had already lived that moment before. And I had, in my dream.

Sometimes there are coincidences that seem to point that people are meant to be together or that certain situations make sense in a sequence of events. For example, my mother’s and my father’s birthdates are multiples of each other (her birth date is on the 11th of May – month nr. 5 – and his is on the 22nd of October – month nr. 10). That is just one example of a coincidence, that I have noticed more than once, and not only in my family. It can be just a silly thing, with no meaning whatsoever, but whenever I notice those kind of similarities I always wonder... There are more things under the sun that we know of.

Coincidences are also a source of hope because they make us dream. There is for exemple a certain sportsman that I'm a fan of. We live in different countries, and move in different circles, but by a struck of fate he and I happened to be in the same place at the same time. I was on holiday in another country, and he was there healing an injury. When I booked the flight he wasn’t even injured and when I found out that we would be in the same city, I didn’t make much of it because he was supposed to have been gone from there by the time I was scheduled to arrive. But then he stayed more days than planned, and when I arrived he was still there. Knowing that and knowing where he was attending treatment, I went there with the hope of seeing him, and maybe have the chance to ask for an autograph. I didn’t see him then, but, by a sheer struck of luck, I saw him a day later passing me by on the street. I was in the centre square of the city, after dinner, chatting with some friends and waiting for some others to arrive, so we could go to a bar, when I suddenly saw the guy walking by, no more than 5m away from me. I was dumbstruck and had no reaction. I didn’t even remember soon enough to go to him and wish him good recovery, or ask for a signature. But that didn’t matter, because the fact that I saw him in that manner, not when I looked for him but when I wasn't even thinking about it anymore, filled me up with the certainty that things really do happen for a reason and that what has to be will be!

Like I said before, those feelings of certainty we sometimes have maybe be just wishful thinking, but I don’t care because I now know that opportunities arise when we least expect them, and sometimes Lady Luck smiles down on us. We just have to be ready and keep believing that life is good and full of chances.

A.C., Lisbon, January 10th, 2006