The notion of 'precognition'

Abstract

Precognition requires a non-chance correlation between a present experience and a future event that satisfies specific negative conditions, namely that the event is not caused by the experience, nor do both share a common causal ancestor. While experimental and sporadic data provide evidence for “ostensible” precognition, the conceptual framework of “genuine” precognition faces profound a priori difficulties. The epistemological challenge—that one cannot perceive what does not yet exist—is largely surmountable, as perception does not strictly require simultaneity between the object and the experience. However, the causal challenge is fatal: since the future is a set of unrealized possibilities, it lacks the ontological status necessary to exert influence on the present. Because retrogradient causation is logically incoherent, any non-chance correspondence between events must imply some form of causal link. If such a link is excluded by definition, genuine precognition is logically impossible. Consequently, instances of ostensible precognition are better understood as manifestations of other paranormal faculties, such as subconscious inference, telepathy, or clairvoyance, where the subject acquires information about contemporary intentions or physical states rather than the future itself. – AI-generated abstract.