Here is an article from www.phenomenamagazine.com about dreams and gaming. I cut and paste it below, but if you want to read it for yourself, visit the website and click under the altered states tab. Thx Colin F for the link!
The Fitzgerald Files
Dreaming Horse Race Winners |
Dateline: Saturday, July 24, 2004 |
By: RANDALL FITZGERALD |
By: Senior Editor |
One of the most memorable dreams that northern California restaurant owner Neil Murphy ever had came in 1994 and consisted of a single image or scene that turned out to be precognitive.
"It was very vivid, in beautiful color," Murphy, a longtime acquaintance, told me. "I was at a racetrack and I looked up at the infield tote board where results are posted, and in this frame of lights was a name, Perky Wonder. I remember in the dream thinking, 'this is interesting.' I woke up and as the day progressed I had a growing feeling of excitement about the dream and the name of that horse."
As a teenager Murphy attended his first horse race and it was so thrilling that he became an avid reader of racing results. But he had never in his more than 40 years heard of a horse named Perky Wonder, nor had he ever felt so affected by a dream until now. He checked the horse entries in that morning's San Francisco Chronicle and sure enough, there was Perky Wonder slated to perform later that very afternoon in the sixth race at Bay Meadows in San Mateo, California.
"I said to myself, 'this is something that shouldn't be passed up.' The dream just felt too special. Even though I had never had a precognitive dream before, in my family there was a history of precognitive dreams. All of them were about the death of loved ones, both humans and animals. My family was all born in Ireland, or spent time there, and my mother used to say we were all a bunch of witches even though we were devout Catholics."
To place a bet on Perky Wonder, Murphy needed to drive an hour to Santa Rosa, the nearest large town. But he couldn't afford to leave work on such short notice. He tried to find someone else to make the drive and place a bet for him, to no avail. Murphy spent a frustrated night waiting for the next morning's newspaper to see if his dream came true.
"I checked the paper and Perky Wonder had won at 10 to one odds, and had won going away. It would have been a lot of money." Murphy smiled as he finished his story, adopting a philosophical attitude toward this lost opportunity. "I decided it was a wonderful cosmic joke. That God had pulled a trick on me, and we both had a good laugh."
Over the past couple of years, as part of my research for Lucky You! and another book in progress, Dream And Grow Rich, I have collected dozens of stories about dreams predicting the winners of horse races. Nearly all of them, in contrast to Murphy, had happy monetary endings.
Many of the lucky dreamers talk in terms of how the precognition seemed to be created by a helpful 'dream director,' a wise guide (perhaps our own higher self) who may be present inside each of us and who already knows the short term future and will tell us in our dreams if we inquire with the proper degree of respect and persistence.
My own take on the phenomenon focuses on the link between the emotion of excitement and a childhood fascination with horses. While many of the race dreamers professed no interest in horse racing prior to their dream, all confessed to being enthralled with horses, and adrenalized by the thought of them, more than any other animal.
Whether it is the emotional connection between loved ones that inspires precognitions, or the familiarity one feels toward a particular slot machine in a casino that facilitates premonitions about winning, this theme of adrenaline-fueled resonances provides a rich vein of insights for future exploration on these pages.
Phenomena senior editor Randall Fitzgerald is the author of LUCKY YOU!, a book about how to conjure up paranormal luck. More information about his work in this area can be found at color=#0000ff www.doctorluck.com.