Why Premonitions Feel Real — The Science Behind Intuition and ‘Seeing the Future’

Have you ever had that uncanny sense that something was about to happen — and then it did? Is that a glimpse of the future, or just the mind doing its usual pattern-making? In the PopMech Explains episode on precognition, host Elizabeth Rayne examines claims of predicting events, the experimental work probing them, and why some scientists have speculated about links to quantum mechanics.

The episode features psychologist Richard Wiseman, PhD, a professor at the University of Hertfordshire and author of Night School: The Life-Changing Science of Sleep. Wiseman discusses who tends to report stronger premonitions, the cognitive forces that shape those experiences, and why cultural fascination with the paranormal complicates scientific evaluation.

Edited excerpt from the conversation:

PopMech: What drew you to investigate skepticism and paranormal claims?

Richard Wiseman: I grew up curious about the paranormal and trained in magic, and those interests overlap. Magicians create surprising effects on purpose, which gives insight into how ordinary events or cognitive errors can be misinterpreted as supernatural. For my PhD at the Koestler Parapsychology Unit I looked at the psychological side: how memory, expectation and suggestion can produce convincing but normal explanations for seemingly paranormal experiences.

PopMech: Where does precognition sit among other paranormal ideas?

Richard Wiseman: Claims such as seeing ghosts, foreseeing events, or knowing who will call are similar in that they conflict with our current understanding of physics. At the same time, psychological research shows we constantly make assumptions, selectively attend to certain information, and remember hits more than misses. Those cognitive tendencies can create the impression that precognition happens, even when there's a mundane explanation.

PopMech: What cognitive factors explain why premonitions can feel convincing?

Richard Wiseman: Unusual or emotionally charged experiences are memorable and attractive to retell. We rarely mention the many dreams or intuitions that don’t match reality. This memory bias, combined with attentional filtering and hindsight reinterpretation, leads people to overvalue the rare “hits.” I enjoy the mystery of these experiences, but I also advocate healthy skepticism—especially before making important choices based on perceived psychic insights.

Research context: Parapsychology has a long history of isolated experimental findings — some intriguing initial results that later failed to replicate or were explained by methodological issues. Two widely discussed papers are Feeling the Future: Experimental Evidence for Anomalous Retroactive Influences on Cognition and Affect and a subsequent critical replication effort summarized in Failing the Future: Three Unsuccessful Attempts to Replicate Bem’s ‘Retroactive Facilitation of Recall’ Effect. These contrasting outcomes underscore the field’s replication challenges.

Key takeaways

- Many compelling premonitions can be explained by normal cognitive processes: memory bias, selective attention, and reinterpretation after the fact. - Experience with deception (for example, magic) helps reveal how easy it is to misinterpret ordinary events as supernatural. - Experimental claims of precognition have produced mixed results; replication and methodological rigor remain crucial.

To explore the topic more deeply, watch the full PopMech Explains: Precognition episode and consider sharing your own experiences or thoughts. The conversation highlights both the fascination these phenomena inspire and the caution required when translating anecdotes into scientific claims.