Has anyone had this happen to them? Especially IRL, especially for something significant?

Reminiscing about the college days, I recalled about being accepted for a creative writing course. Students were supposed to submit examples of their work months ahead of time. When I heard about the course, that time had passed. During the enrollment period, it was closed to capacity. At this university if you wanted in a class, one (or I anyway) almost always had to try to get in after the semester started. (I don't think there was any course I got turned away from.)

Anyway back to the writing course. It turned out there were 6 or 8 people wanting into the class. I remember one girl kept insisting she deserved to be in it and she had won this award and that award, etc. The teacher said no one had in fact followed the submission guidelines and why didn't we draw lots for it?

I have terrible luck. I think I may have one one draw and it may have been fixed. So I was not looking forward to drawing lots. The one girl again listed why she should be in, I guess she had rotten luck, too. So the teacher says everyone can plead their case why they should be accepted since this one girl let everyone know several times and someone else was doing the same after listening to her a couple of times.

So they go down the line and I'm hearing some pretty impressive reasons. I'm last in line and have no real reason. When the teacher asked me I started making stuff up like having a couple news articles published in the local paper (had one), had a couple magazine articles published and was wanting to brush up because I had been asked to rewrite a tv script. Pretty much total BS. The teacher says really, you may be overqualified.

The thing was, while I was waiting my turn, I had a premonition. It was like someone whispered in my ear draw for it, you will win. The closer it got to me the more confident I became that I would win this lottery. I never win anything based on luck. So when she said really, I said, "No, I made it all up. Can we draw now." Gave her a good laugh and she starts tearing paper into pieces and writing on them while the one girl starts saying again why she should be in the class.

We draw the paper out of a hat. I go last and pick the winner. There is a bunch of bickering saying I cheated because the hat wasn't over my head. I went last, I didn't even get a choice. But the voice whispers in my ear do it again, you'll win. So I tell the teacher we can do it again. She looks surprised and tells everyone I can go first, makes a point of holding the hat way over my head, and letting them no she doesn't want any complaints. I pull out the winner again and slam it on the desk before anyone even gets to choose, saying, "There's 2 out of 3, no sense keeping everyone in suspense."

That was about the clearest premonition I have ever had.

Anyone else?

I don't get premonitions. Just Deja Vu. *grin* Mine's less useful by far.

Bah, most of my odd experiences tend to be Jamais vu. You guys are both lucky.

Well, I have a friend who can sometimes see glimpses of other people's lives. One time she was walking down the hallway in school, when she saw a total stranger wearing a sweater. She stopped. She went to him and said, "Hi, I don't know you, but did you get that sweater last christmas, with your mom giving it to you and you were standing by the chrismas tree..." and she went on to detail the scene of when he received the sweater. The guy just stared at her and said "How... did you know that...?". Anyway, that's just one example, it happens to her every so often. She can't control it, it just happens. She doesn't like to talk about it much, though.

Anyway, was there a relevance to shadowrun, aside for creating examples of how divination can be roleplayed?

Actually, just today I had something like that.

There are two routes to get to work, one is smaller highways, and about 5-10 minutes longer, the other is the beltway (so if there's a major accident, it's usually on the beltway).

As I was approaching the split, I got a premonition that I should take the long way. I ignored it (I mean, come on!) Between that split and the beltway, the cops had cordoned a couple of blocks, forcing everyone to detour and making me five minutes late for work.

Feh.

I guess it has to do with present day magical effects. Or almost magical. Usually when it comes up in a small group, there are a few wierd stories.

I mentioned the event when it happened and there were a few stories like the traffic ones. I mentioned it at a place I worked and one of the guys was fresh out of his tour with special forces. When people were saying the traffic story type things I mentioned what followed a heartbreaking break-up for me.

I could sense when my ex was around. Problem was, she only lived about 10 blocks away and we frequently crossed each others path. I woke up one morning, had the feeling she was near, looked out the bedroom window and her car was driving down the street. Went back to sleep, awoke again, same feeling, look again, here comes the car back the other way. Ran into her like 3 times that day and had the feeling prior to each sighting. Told my room mate at the time about it because it was kind of freaky and he was skeptical to say the least. He said let him know next time I have the feeling and he would look. Feeling hits me then, tell him to look out the front window, he says he doesn't see anyone, I look and she's leaving the grocery store across the street.

The ex-special forces guy says it sounds like what they referred to as a gut feeling. You have these feelings and can't really explain why you get them, but it's your subconscious processing information you may not even be aware you are taking in. Like I could have distinguished the sound of her car from others and even though I was asleep, my subconscious was saying that person you care about is near, better wake up. Had to admit a lot of times she was in her car or just starting or exiting her car.

Years after we broke up, she came up behind me in a line. I had no idea she was there but started getting sick to my stomach. When I turned to leave, I saw her and realized, I had been smelling her.

Anyway, the SF guy said they were told or maybe trained to pay attention to that little voice and ever since when I ignore it I usually wind up screwed.