Is it possible to predict the future? And how much control do we truly have over our destinies? We have all experienced the often unsettling phenomenon of deja-vu at some point in our lives. Could the hand of fate intervene at critical moments to warn us of impending danger?

Lord Dufferin, British Ambassador to France, late 19th Century

The 19th century statesman Lord Dufferin was well respected in Victorian high society. Nonetheless, he frequently recounted a chilling brush with death. Whilst staying with a friend in Ireland one stormy evening, Dufferin was alarmed to see the ghost of a hideous demonic figure carrying a coffin outside his bedroom window. The ghoulish face would return to haunt him in his dreams for many years to come.

In the 1890s, whilst acting as British Ambassador, Dufferin was about to step into a lift in a luxurious Parisian hotel. Suddenly, to his horror, he noticed that the lift operator was the very man he had seen all those years ago on that sinister evening in Ireland. He promptly stepped back and refused to enter. A few moments later the cable snapped and the lift plunged several floors – killing everyone inside!

Who was the strange man Lord Dufferin saw in Ireland and Paris?

A shocked Dufferin made inquiries about the identity of the lift operator. All that was known was that he had started working there that day – but his identity was a mystery. Whoever he was, his sudden appearance had clearly saved the ambassador from certain death.

President Abraham Lincoln appeared to have dreamed about his own fate.

Unfortunately some are not so fortunate – despite being granted a warning of impending danger. President Abraham Lincoln spoke of a vivid nightmare he had several days prior to his assassination in 1865. In his dream he encountered a group of mourners gathered in The White House. When he asked them who had died, they told him it was the President.

President Kennedy seemed to have sensed impending danger on the eve of his fateful trip to Dallas.

President John F Kennedy, who would succumb to the same fate as his predecessor, also made an ominous statement which came to pass. Before his fateful trip to Texas in 1963, JFK is reported to have said: ‘if someone wants to shoot me from a window with a rifle, nobody can stop it, so why worry about it?’

Miraculously, Barrett Taylor avoided attacks on the World Trade Centre in both 1993 and 2001.

The most defining moment of our modern era is arguably the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Centre, New York, in 2001. Since the atrocity, many people around the world have claimed to have experienced premonitions before the tragedy occurred. However, perhaps the experiences of financial executive Barrett Taylor, who was employed at the Twin Towers, are the most startling.

Taylor twice evaded disaster. In 1993 (the year the World Trade Centre was bombed) he felt a mysterious urge to return home just before the explosion. The same eerie sensation would return to grip him on the morning of September 11th 2001 forcing him again to avoid the Trade Centre! He is not the type of person who believes in the supernatural and fails to comprehend the mysterious ‘force’ which spared him from both atrocities.

Albert Einstein appreciated the complexities of time itself. Foreseeing the future, as well as time travel, are concepts we must consider.

To date, science can offer no sufficient explanation as to why we experience such premonitions and indications of future threats. Albert Einstein appreciated that time itself is something much more profound and mysterious than we care to imagine. Time is not merely the seconds, minutes and hours which appear on the face of a clock… Could it be that our destiny is in some way pre-arranged and decided before we live our lives?

So, the next time you experience a vivid dream, curious hunch or strange sensation, pay very close attention to it. The hand of fate may be delivering an important message for you…

The author of the article is David Fox, a professional entertainer and freelance writer based in the UK. For more details about David, please visit: www.davidfoxmagician.co.uk

Do you have any strange stories or experiences you would like to share with us? We would be delighted to hear from you. Please email these to: email@magician-midlands.co.uk