The trick always is to know which is which.
It is easy to scoff at premonitions. Most are only spoken of after the foretold event. However, occasionally there are premonitions that are made public before the event.
On a Sunday night in July 1922, Mrs Donegan had a nightmare.
In her nightmare, Mrs Donegan saw the police freeing her husband’s body from a large mixer in his home workshop in Olive St, Albury.
She dreamed that the dead body of her husband, Wiliam James Donegan, was then carried out.
Donegan was a dentist, but he was also an experienced chemist. He often worked alone preparing proprietary medicines and treatments.
The next morning, in front of her daughter, Mrs Donegan begged her husband not to go near the large mixer in his workshop the next day.
Laughing at her whimsy, Donegan, like Caesar before him, dismissed her fears.
The day after Donegan did not emerge from his workshop.
When Mrs Donegan and her daughter opened the workshop door, they found her husband not moving and injured in the mixer.
Mrs Donegan called the doctor and police. Dr Matenson arrived shortly afterwards, but there was nothing to be done.
Police afterwards surmised that Donegan’s woollen jumper had become entangled around the mixer shaft.
He was then drawn into and around the shaft until he choked. His neck was also dislocated and he suffered other serious injuries.
Donegan was 52 and had been mixing a preparation for the treatment of fruit trees and tomato plants at the time.
He was a prominent member of the local Hibernian Society and of the Self-Determination for Ireland League.
He was also related to Dr Mannix, the then highly controversial Archbishop.
Check out last week's Coo-ee here.
Another well authenticated case in 1916 comes from Swan Hill.
There Robert Henry Athorn, a farmer, sought to take out large insurance policies on his life in February.
When asked the purpose by suspicious agents, Athorn explained he had a premonition of death in which he was crushed under the wheels of his own dray.
He had dreamed over and over of lying dying in hospital after the accident being comforted by his wife and of his body then being taken to the cemetery. He also told his wife of his dreams.
In May that year, Athorn fell beneath the wheels of his dray while throwing down posts for fencing. He was fatally injured.
Events exactly matched his premonitions and dreams.
Because his insurance policies were for $8000, an enormous sum, and only one premium had been paid, the insurance companies refused to pay.
They believed it was fraud by suicide. At the inquest, the companies instructed Queen’s Counsel and called witness after witness to prove that Athorn had killed himself.
They failed. The coroner found that Athorn had clearly died accidentally.
True precognition, suicide or sad accident? You decide.
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