"The next shuttle launch took place on January 28th, 1986 and exploded a little over a minute after blast-off, with the seven astronauts aboard... just as in the dream. A few months later, experts discovered the cause of the accident: a defective hydraulic seal. This enormous seal looked strangely like a tractor wheel.... as in the dream. Also at this time, a friend who knew nothing of my dream phoned with the news that one of his friends had lost a synthesizer installed in the shuttle to study the propagation of sounds..."

Commentary: This precognitive case, reported by French psychotherapist, journalist and pianist Erik Pigani, is intriguing on several levels. For one thing, the dream was highly realistic and seemed to evolve over a long period of time (3 months of intensive training, the person later informed us). Also, the dreamer integrated into his dream information from several different "sources": the accident itself, with the death of the seven astronauts; the report, released much later, of the accident's cause (the hydraulic seal, which resembled his tractor-wheel image); and his friend's phone call, informing him of the synthesizer lost in the shuttle. Finally, the timing of the dream points to an interesting dynamic: it occurred just hours before one shuttle launching - which had some minor problems - yet it clearly referred to the fatal shuttle flight, which took place exactly six months later. It seems reasonable to suppose that the first flight "triggered" the dream, but that the "shuttle theme" attracted the far more emotionally "charged" information relating to the future disaster.