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So there have been a lot of topics recently about psychics with several opinions coming in. I'd really like to take a step back here and look at things more fundamentally. A lot of people have espoused the idea that a psychic can read the future. To me, that means the future is preset - that certain things are pre-ordained or pre-destined to happen. Also from where I sit, that means humans DON'T have free will. In a fixed an immutable future, we're merely cogs in a great machine - fulfilling our designed role.

I therefore see several potential paradoxes...

If we don't have free will - how can we be held accountable for our actions? After all, we truly didn't CHOOSE them in a pre-destined future.

If you believe in free will (roll me into that camp) - you can't simultaneously believe in individuals "reading the future" beyond the perview of "self-fulfilling prophecy".

Thoughts???

(can, open... oh my - worms everywhere!)

Oh my ... errrr

Can't psychic's see what people will chose of their own free will in the future. Will someone knowing what choices you will make mean that your future is pre-set - they will, even in the future, still be your choices.

I believe that psychics see a possible future. It is based on the most likely choices a person will make as people do tend to be predictable. If someone chooses to do something out of character and make a different choice, then that will change the future.

I can almost see the "possible future" bit, but then that makes psychics no different than someone doing a "behavioral interview" on someone. People tend to behave in certain patters... there's nothing "supernatural" about drawing a line in the sand to say that they'll continue that pattern...

... sometimes you're right, sometimes you're wrong though...

I think we are the product of our upbringing and that the decisions we make on a daily basis are for the most part predictable or even pre-ordained by the environment and situations that have happened in the past.

That means that futures could be predicted if we had all the variables but not predicted in the sense of 'fate'

I believe in rare cases that people can see into the future, and that few decisions are already set in stone, but they can be swayed by actions and fate. Every human does have free will to change destiny but it depends if the person chooses to act upon it or not. It all really depends on so many different circumstances.

The 'possible future' makes the most sense. Furthermore, there might be two or three different 'possible futures' based on things we are most likely to do. After all, I might choose pepperoni on my pizza, or go with sausage instead. Each is equally likely. Perhaps I'll take a risk and get both. But I don't think there is one absolute concrete future. It will always be effected by both yourself, and the people around you. Suppose the pizza boy forgot to order more sausage? That could change my mind entirely. I could end up ordering Chinese. You never know. That's why a lot of people don't believe in psychics. They can't always be right.

Psychics can see what the future has in store for someone. Or even the path that person will choose. It's not 100% accurate however, as they may change their path. People do still have a choice and in my opinion thats what a psychic cannot see past.

may i ask a question on this?

i believe that my life is my own to make but at the same time i believe that psycs can see some things about the future. The reason i believe this is because i have dreams. i will dream something several years before it happens, and then when it does happen i call it a deja vu episode.

i have had dreams of people and places that i have never meet or been to before, forget about the dream and then a couple of years later it happens. What does this mean? i have been having this occur to me my whole life so yes i do believe in pyscics but i also believe that i choose my future not someone else.

Another good topic would be time travel do you believe that it is possible? Wouldn't it tie into the whole knowing the future thing???

Alot of psychics can predict while sleeping.

As for time travel, i don't know. It seems to hard to believe.

Precognition is by far the best psychic ability in my opinion XD

yes but i have only been able to do this with my own life and noone elses that i know of at least, and there are times that i can sense things but i am in no way very good at it, any suggestions as to how i could make this gift of mine better?

Stormwind,

I believe that in certain belief systems, such as that of the Aussie Abo, they hold that we do predestine our own futures- during the time 'inbetween' lives.

In essence, choosing for ourselves the life path which we wish to experience.


As to 'reading the future', I do believe that glimpses, perhaps flashes of inspired understanding, occur within those minds which are attuned to a specific pattern- one which is capable of deciphering the backwash energy signals of time itself.

But it can be avoided in the self-fulfilling manner, by virtue that events may occur which are far beyond our sphere of influence. For example, if one saw the Twin Towers event, how would one go about preventing (or causing) it?

How could it be told? No-one would take a prophecy of their destruction seriously. Thus rendering the fulfillment or prevention of it null by ones own inability to act upon it.

Of course, Chaos Theory comes in and kicks over the anthill by suggesting that the mere thought of its possible happening, causes the series of chain reactive events, which, in the end, do cause it to occur.

Maybe then, it does become 'self-fulfilled', but by the indirect actions of others upon ones behalf.

In a way, this is how I view magic to operate on a fundamental level, but thats another thread...

I think real psychics can see aspects of the future that the seeker presents. No doubt there are those gifted and many times predictions are made on probabilities, but things may change in the person's actions that change probable outcomes.

I also believe that many psychics are asked for too much. People should realize they have most of the responsibility of their own lives and future.

I do believe in a form of predestination, but in the case of reading the future, it's only a reading of a possible outcome, and not necessarily what WILL happen. What happens is what's meant to happen, n my opinion, and I often enjoy sitting back and watching the whole thing unfold...

Psychics read trends. If things continue on the path that they are on and the person makes NO CHANGES to their lifestyle and make an effort to affect a certain outcome, that is what the psychic sees. It's not 100% unless one wants it to be.

We have free-will and nothing is pre-destined. If the opposite were true, then why would we even want to exist? Life already written for us? Not very interesting, imho.

Well, if indeed life is predestined, the point of living is for you to learn whatever lessons you set for yourself to learn in this lifetime in order to further your spiritual development. At least that's what I believe...

I also have dreams that tell me a possible future. However I can change it by choosing something else or keep it by following the map. For example, I saw that I was going to get hit by a car. I forgot about it and crossed the road at the designated time and bam, the car hit me. On the other hand, I had dreamed of a future with two children, which I want, but ended up marrying someone who did not want children. I think that visions are more reliable when they are on a smaller scale. The larger scales have more variables that can derail the vision.

I apologize that I can't remember exactly how this information goes, but I was watching a show on TV that was talking about some studies physicist did on physic abilities and they had some very interesting findings.

First of all according to most studies the idea of the paranormal is not impossible, but all together plausible. Second it is nearly impossible to be truly physic without any error because the future is not completely pre-determined. However that does not mean that some people don't have some physic ability, it just means that the future is not an exact science.

I’m not saying this is the hard and fast truth, I just thought I’d share what I’d learned from this show.

firstly, there is a difference between predetermined, and predisposed. maybe some things are already preset, but small variences can be allowed for. for instance, if you fall off a ladder, the law of gravity will cause you to move in a downward direction until you hit the ground. the moment you slip, you know you are falling, and you know you will hit the ground, and there is little you can do to prevent this. that does not mean that you have no free will. we can do many things, but we have limitations - we cannot choose to fall up instead of down. we cannot choose to grow younger instead of older.

conversely, there are those who believe that free will is a total myth. our actions are determined by our desires, but our desires are preconditioned by our environment or our genetic makeup.personally, i choose not to believe this - or atr least i believe i choose not to believe it. maybe evolution, upbringing, social condtitioning have all conspired to make me want to believe in free will. i look at it logically. if i was a mere puppet, there would be no need for me to believe in a "fictional " free will, because my behaviour would be the same anyway. as a belief in free will is unecessary, then why would it come into existance? therefore there must be free will for me to believe in it. as for predicting the future, and how that fits in with free will - how long do you have?

I believe that our future is predetermined, that people do things because of 'fate', but that it's not set in stone. To me, there is reason to believe that humans do have free will, but it's more that their souls are likely to follow a certain path that's already been paved out for them and we just choose to follow it.
I also believe that all time exists at once, but that we merely percieve it differently, namely piece by piece. Everything can't happen all at once, we all know how long it takes to brew coffee, but that's just how we see it. We measure time by day and night, the rotation of our planet around the sun, and by seconds, minutes, hours. Days, weeks, months, years. You get the point. Perhaps we have it all wrong though.
If all time exists at once and our future is set, then yes, I believe there are those who can see the future and can tell us of it, and perhaps we have some chance of changing something.
Just to agree with someone, it would be BlackWidowsgirl, because I experience the same things, which only makes me believe more that the future is set. heh, maybe I just like the idea of fate to decide everything :) I think Time Travel would also be possible if this were the case.
Ah, just to bring in the wolves, what about religion? Isn't God set on the future?

Well this topic made me think and do some reconsidering of thoughts and ideas I had. I have always thought that our lives are set out for us. There is this tricky little thing called self will that can come into the mix and alter that. On another note I have had my experiences with Psychics. Now I have had people boggle my mind and tell me things from my past or presence that were true and I was like how would you know that. In my own experiences I have not had one so much be 100 percent on telling me future accounts.

changing a predestined future is a matter of understanding what attitudes and actions could cause those things to become.

I would have to say that although we have free-will and the ability to chose whatever path we wish there is the ability to forsee the results of the actions. Having precognitive abilities maybe I can help to expound on this. I know that when I have dreams about future events these events always take place although I do not know what choices I have made to get me to those points. If I had known what decisions I had made to lead me to that point this would provide the possibility for me to change this outcome.

Here is a question for you though. What else are we changing by altering this one outcome in the overall picture of our lives?

This is a fascinating thread!

I was brought up Presbyterian. Part of the Calvinist belief system is the concept of predestination AND free will together. It sounds contradictory, and I've suffered from many headaches coming to grips with it.

The main idea is that (Insert your diety here) knows what path you are going to take, even though your path is chosen by your own free will. It's as if someone is watching you as you pnder what you are going to have for dinner....The diety says "She's going to have pizza" and you, seperatly and unaffected by the dieties knowledge say "I want pizza". The diety knows you so well that what choices you are going to make are apparent to (him/her) before you make them.

If you can apply this theory to the psychics, perhaps they are tapping into the "mind" of the diety and can also "see" what path you are going to take. The knowledge of what decisions you are going to make does not remove your free will to make whatever decision you wish.

I hope you don't have my headache now!

I don't belive that they see a set future but only one path that is most likely to happen we can change our path by the things we do or donot do.

It's both. Most go to hell because they failed to choose God and some go to heaven because God chose them. It's a paradox, I know, but that's how it works and if it seems unfair, just remember that we all deserve hell.

KCRC - you hit on a very interesting point, and one that I've always had the most theological problem with...

What you describe is essentially the "illusion of free will" - the path we take is predetermined, but we are ignorent of that, and in our own frame of reference we "make up our own mind".

That may work theologically in some belief systems, but I honestly don't believe it works in the Christian belief system. Christian theology holds that all humans have sinned and are therefore in need of salvation. Yet Christian theology also teaches that humanity was born blameless and fell through our own actions (our own free will).

Ifr you take the hard line theologically, all humanity is condemned to hell or oblivion apart from those who are "saved". Yet we are also taught that God is a loving God. Now, if God knew the exact future, God would have known that humanity would fall, therefore humanity was created to burn. Seems impossible to reconsile with the notion of a loving God.

Where I sit theologically is that (insert divine being here - for me it's "God") knows all POSSIBLE futures, but there is no particular path that we are predestined to take.

However, this brings up an interesting parallel topic. Some theoretical physicists postulate that there are an infinite number of universes out there... and that somewhere, every possible future happens in some parallel universe. In some ways that ALSO belies the concept of free will, because SOMEWHERE all of my options happen - just not to this version of "me"... Thoughts?

I believe in free will. But I also believe it is possible that a psychic can know how someone will choose in advance. Of course there remains the chance to surprise...

If a "psychic", or anyone somehow could see into the future, if time is linear, that would create a time loop. Watching the future arrive in the present in which you are watching the future. Seems to me, something like this would overload our senses, or instill madness at best.

If one could see the future without this paradoxal loop, we would probably be talking about a fork-like timeset. Linear at the point it came into existence, but forked after that, and forked again to create an infinity of choice, thus choosing direction of time down a myriad of channels.
But that would also be pointless! If one for example saw ones death in a possible future: If actions were made to avoid that death, one would not know if the actions one made to prevent it would not instead lead toward that death instead!
One could only see sections of the future! If one could CONSTANTLY see ones future actions, one's sight or mind would be overloaded again, being presented with an image similar to standing in a hall with mirrors on both sides.
Infinite action. So, seeing the future would not only ba dangerous to the mind, but also pointless. :D
Cheers for the present!

WHen a psycic reads someones futureit is meant to be the future that will happen if they continue down that path that they are walking at that moment. the persons future can change if they make a change themselves, and there path changes

agree with wilds..if ya keep going down the psth yer on theres the possibility of psy said outcome..but we choose that path we want to take

Choice is overrated. There is a thing called a Butterfly Effect, which means that even the slightest thing, like tripping on a piece of gravel, can have the gravest consequences in your future.
You, choosing your path by not going to work that day, or choosing a specific college to got to, are fairly insignificant in the whole equation of setting your 'path'. People are not in control of their destiny. That kind of choice is an illusion, PSYCHIC or not. A stone tumbling down a hill.

i think psychics dont see future its a feel they get.

I believe that we have free well and telling the future is just sensing the common well of the universe.

Wow... I like this thread...

I'm one of those you hear about who have dreams about events and people years in advance. I have no idea how to harness or control it... but what I have found is that these dreams I have are telling me what direction I'm going with my life and what will happen if I continue that path...

I doubt there is a true form of "predestination", but where I do believe that people choose their paths in life, I can't say for sure that it's not all set in stone. Even if time travel were possible, it would prove nothing in the predestiination department. What if it was fate for you to go back in time and change your choice? You know what I mean?

Newdeathsensation, that is an interesting way of looking at it.

I believe in free will and that the furture is never a constant. I agree with many here that say that it could just be a educated guess by the "psychic" that since the person has done "x" so far that "y" will happen. At the same time so many of these people use vague answers that people sometimes believe they were told the future but not really.
Plus if you tell someone, your going to fall in love with a guy named Mike in the next year, she might make that her own even if it wasn't true. She meets a guy named Mike and they fall in love. How common is the name Mike? She just was told it could happen and she created it.

I believe that people (I don't think you have to be "trained" or particularly gifted to be "psychic") are able to see possible outcomes (more than one) for future events. One's actions determine which possible outcome actually comes to pass, and it is a never-ending path with many branches and forks along the way...

I am a person the believes in APW vis-a-vis quantum mechanics. Therefore, I do not think an absolutely predictable path is available for a person to "read" about someone else. I liked the comment that some people may be "pre-disposed" to certain tendencies and that certain people seem to carry readable energy fields (like joy or sadness) but a prediction of future events? I would say the "best" psychics are intuitive, can sense a persons general energy or disposition and thereby draw some accurate conclusions.

Sevenn - speaking of quantum - that brings up another interesting facet I hadn't considered in this context - the Heisenberg Uncertainty principle. Electrons are one of the fundamental particles in nature - yet you can't know both their location and path with 100% certainty at any point in time...

Just because some is psychic and can see future events, does not mean we do not have free will and do not make choices that affect are future. A psychic may see someone shoot another person. The person with the gun made a choice to pick up that gun and fire it at somebody. Predestination may play a part in some things, but I am more incline to believe that people make choices everyday that affects what will happen to them.

Predestination vs Free Will has been a topic of debate for philosophers for years. The philosopher Jean-Paul Sarte believed that our choices (free will) determined what would happen to us. If you told this man you wanted to be a ballet dancer, the first question he would ask you is did you study dance and practice. If you said no, he would say that you did not want to be a ballet dancer, because you chose not to study dance. The philosopher/psychologist, B.F. Skinner, believed some things were predestinated due to circumstances in one's life. Things according to him were going to happen and personal choice played little or no role in the matter.

I believe psychics see a combination of the choices a person makes and the circumstances that lead up to the event.

"A psychic may see someone shoot another person. The person with the gun made a choice to pick up that gun and fire it at somebody."

But if this action is guaranteed, there is only the illusion of free will, and he has no real choice in the matter, as mentioned above somewhere.

: I'm wondering if the choice NOT to shoot, exists simultaneously in another reality or multiverse to ours, or if that reality is spawned in that moment it becomes different from that choice? Will this broaden the forked-timeset theory, or are there simply infinite realities...

'ang on. I think I just proposed traveling in-between universes. If a parallel universe is spawned by our action, then we would shift into another reality at that moment, because we chose it, and our other self would remain in the last one, to perform the choice we DIDN'T make.
Am I making sense here?

I believe in free will! Psychics only see a possible future or were your path is leading at the moment! This doesn't mean it can't be changed! I think when the psychic tells you, then it can be changed, cause they have made you aware of were your choices are taking you!

its a possible future. if they were right 100% of the time then it would be predestined

Why can't one have free will and still have seerers fortell the future. i never did go much with set rules....our future changes from day to day..one makes their own future.What one seer may see one day may change the next and the next after that. nothing is set in stone and certainly not our future..

i think i said this on another posting some time ago, but here goes again. if we had no free will, then self awareness would serve no purpose. we have self awareness, therefore, by default, we must have free will. without free will, this very discussion could not take place. if there were a god determining predestiny, then this discussion would be a pointless waste of his time. if everything was predetermined by physical laws and evolution, then again, it would not serve any purpose. in fact without free will, the concept of free will would not have been born.

A waste of time for whom?
For us, performing the discussion, or for God who caused this discussion to happen?
Even the most meaningless act would be meaningful, if there was fate. It would be predestined to happen, for a greater purpose.
And if there is no fate, the discussion is not meaningless there either, because it advances understanding of philosophy and the self.

Fortune telling is one thing ive always been scepticle about.Psycic powers are real I have a latent telepathic ability.I believe in fate,but we all have the power to change our destiny to a certain degree.Going from the point of view that once you,ve been turned into a vampire you cant go back,but the future is still yours decide.like feeding,I wont kill to feed,there are ways sustain the thirst if you look to find them.Predestination?fight for your rights,its your life to control.noone elses,crush underfoot those that stand in your way.

Free will to me is making your own choices. For example, you have a free will to smoke or not to smoke, to take drugs or not to take drugs, etc. A tarot reader is someone who can tell you a different path you may take, tarot readers are not allowed to tell you that they can predict the future. It is only a suggestion that there maybe a different path that you can change on your own free will. I had had much experience with psychics. One man did'nt even know my friend, and he touched her and told her I am sorry your cancer is coming back, and it did. I had a mediumn describe my mother to a tee. I don't even know or begin to explain it. I do know I do watch my expressions if I do see any of these people, and if they do know me, I don't have them do anything for me.

To keep my response short: I don't belive in pre-destination or any of that "crap." Simply put: "I am the Captain of my Fate, Master of my Soul."

I really like this question.

In my opinion there is no such thing as reading the future. My personal experiences its more like reading the possibilities of what can or can’t come from this action or that. Think of it as a giant spider web if you go here you have this chose or that but you can see what is to come from both and pick the best one. That is one of my talents to read the web and see what is going to come from this chose or that one and help people come out on top from both but its up the them to make the chose. There are so many possibly out there that you just have to finally stop trying to see them all and make the leap. Another way to look at it is the way a surfer knows what the wave is going to do before it happens, experience. So the only thing that’s preordained is that there is not but one thing any body can do jump in and hope for the best.

good question... and part of my philosophy on the "religion" i follow actually.

i am partially psychic, i can't control it, i'll have dreams where i will wake up screaming because of how real they were, and "luck" is something i have.
most of my visions are about the end of the world... at least as it is now. in this vision i basically become A john connor, from terminator, leading only a small rebellion unit. until the time where my visions come true, i have a moderate amount of free choice. by accepting this vision as reality i am also making free choice in whether to follow it or not, hell i could kill myself before anything happened and get out of it no problem... i choose not to though.
in other words... you can choose whatever you want to do, some things, though predetermined don't happen exactly as foreseen based on choices, and you can choose whether to believe what you are being told is your destiny... or you can't pass it off as superstition.

Or, dreams could be dreams, and not be visions. Really.

But, to the point; If they are visions, you are having them in the present. They are created in the present. Their content could be the future, or not at all. This, one cannot know before the future has become now.
Sure, you can SAY that they are visions, but you can't know for sure until it has arrived.

Bloody good thread.

I agree with some, but to state my opinion more exactly (and hopefully not waste anyones time) my beliefs on this are a little... strange. First off, every action made effects everyone. It's a domino effect that can't be helped. For instance, by flicking a cigarette into a river a bird could eat it and die, which would effect the birds flock, etc. Secondly, I believe that every person has many different path's set out before them and with each choice, a path is eliminated or changed. The last path, obviously, is death.

As a general rule, I believe that most psychics see which doors are about to open for you... not necessarily that you will walk through them... but that the opportunity to walk through them is about to appear.

It is postulated (I cannot remember where) that all events produce a wave-like affect that travels in all dimensions. Those sensitive to it can see this.

An event can be diverted and the wave effect will still flow in that predetermined line... or rather it is more likely that an event can be partially diverted. If one predicts that a flood will occur, with will you can sandbag your house and prevent damage that would have otherwise have occurred; Machiavelli covers this to some degree.

It's also possible (depending on your beliefs) that there are creatures or spirits that live outside of time. Sort of "an always was - always will be" type of being that would have no reference for time. These beings may be able to perceive things as they are happening, at the same time they are watching the events leading up to it happening. Since quantum physics theorize that something can be in two places at once (or across times in the same instant) this would be a bit like a quantum spirit.

Now if a psychic were in tune with these spirits, it could provide a glimpse of the future for the psychic or spiritualist as perceived by this spirit.

Free will is not to make a choice from the two dualitys given, but to be an eternal witness.....

Hello and good evening,
A good point you have brought up... I f anyone reads this than they can hear what I believe.... I believe that sure we can see the future, BUT, it is a forwarining unless you do somethings about it. There are two outcomes usually. One about what was foretold or you changed it...

I do hear that our lives have been pre-written. Now I believe we make our own choice and destiny. Physics I think see a possible choice , whether we make that choice is up to us.

do i believe are lives are set before us..... no i think with each choice we make changes things to come...yes free will without it we wouldnt be able to make the choices in our lives we do everyday....i do belive that some psychics have the ability to see into the future but that futuer could change.... nothing is set in stone........

i believe pyschics can predict some what in the future...but more of a guideline sometimes...

fate has a way of stepping in and changing things around.....

free will, that's all we have. i don't believe that anything is predestined. your life is planned out by you. you control your destiny. no one else. just you.

Ok. Loved that scene in Donnie Darko.

Is there such a thing as free will? Because if there is free will, then time travel into the future is impossible, for if there is nothing preordained, then the future cannot exist until it has come to pass... Yep. That made sense.

I don't know what I believe in. To believe in predestination and fate is to believe that a power that is so beyond what our understanding of reality is that it can forcibly move us along paaths we don't necessarily want to take. But we have no choice. Or you could believe that everything happens for a reason. I think it was fate that brought my boyfriend and I together, but who am I to know?

Anyways that is my two cents

Im not sure if psycicks are just for knowing the future it may also lead to past and present things, even feelings. ( sorry I can't spell)

I believe in them. There are some that are fake. But there are alot that are really. And if someone choices to go and see one of them. That is their own choice and they have to live with that they get told

This is a very interesting topic. Hmm... Here's my theory. In order for free will to logically exist, it would have to be an effect controlled by a persons soul, and that a soul must remain somehow unaffected by what goes on around it. A persons brain behaves somewhat like a piece of machinery, it can only do what it is programed to do, and is programed by observation. It sees life around it, the way other people act and react and bases itself off of that.

In this sense the future must be set and free will can not exist, as machinery, and therefore brains, cannot deviate from how they have been programmed, in the same way that people follow the examples that were set for them during their childhood. Therefore, for free will to exist, there must be some form of external influence that can make a human behave in a way that is un-scripted, and the best thing I can think of would be a soul.

However, for those that believe that when you die your soul can live on, this creates a new problem. The above idea would suggest that a soul is independant from a persons personality, and therefore would not act exactly as the living counterpart would once the body and spirit sepperate. This also begs the question, what is it that makes a soul behave if it is not effected by external influence? Does it come into being fully formed and not develop past that?

Great, now I've gotten myself confused!

Raum - I think you underestimate the human mind. Humans have problem solving intelligence (and I would say my half fjord gets close to that level as well, but that's another issue entirely).

I think a lot of people are confusing INFLUENCES on peoples behavior (past experience, hormones, etc.) with CONTROL of behavior (because A happened, then B must occur).

At the end of the day, I believe we have free will. Our entire systems of justice and government depend on it. For example, if I go shoot someone, it's not the gun's responsibility (although a lot of democrats would disagree with me), or fate, or hormones - it's MY responsibility - and I must face the consequences of that action...

If you argue that humans have a destiny and therefore no free will, you must also be ready to throw out the entire criminal justice system - because if an individual isn't responsible for his or her actions... the system doesn't make sense...

It would be very difficult to predict the future, because it is constantly changing.

as for seeing the future, well maybe one of many possibilities.

psychics seeing the future doesn't take away free will because free will gets us to the point that a psychic sees; only the knowledge of it will make it not free will

predestined

Wow, tricky question. But for me I see psychics as being able to see possible outcomes, not ones that are set in stone. I believe that all things are subject to change, so I would have to say that we do have free will and all things are possible...

This is one of those things we won't really ever know I think, but:

I believe that divination/visions are more of a "what if" type of thing. If I apply these variables to this situation, what are the probable results?

Then there's the idea that some things come from a concsiousness far above our own. Different can of worms for that one.

I remember reading an interesting book in a philosophy class years ago where Devil and God are having a debate on free will. God decides to show the Devil what free will might mean and gives it to man for just a minute. Man falls down and starts flapping about like a fish out of water. The Devil is confused...
"Why's he doing that," asks the Devil.
"Because he can," responds God. "Free will would mean the ability to decide on a choice of action totally free from influence. Influence from our surroundings; influence from our past choices, influence from our knowledge of what is safe."
Man meanwhile has stripped naked and begins running himself into a tree repeatedly.
God continues, "by removing the value of influence, man's choices would always be schizophrenic and well...crazy."

It was an interesting book that equated predestination with our growth and learning. The more we grow and learn, the less free will we have. Almost a sliding scale towards complete predestination based on our environment.

Hi Stormwind :) The subject you brought up is interesting as it makes me think outside of the box.. and I never thought before, is what I am doing in life truly of my own free will and my ownchoice, or could it be a choosen path that I must follow.

I would hate to think that I walk on a pre-destined path, as I have always considered myself an independent free spirit.

What a pandora's box you have opened!

I like my free will. I hope it isn't an illusion

This really is a can of worms isn't it? No easy answer to this one...

never thought of it in the futuristic kinda way ive always thought of it as the psychic knowing where something happened like a murder or such so im not sure i believe in the psychic predicting the future part ~just my 2 cents

When you believe a psychic can predict the future, do you believe we have the power to change it or is it set in stone at that point. Predestination would hold that your future can't be changed even if you know what's coming.

There's an even older belief of predestination beyond psychics which held that the gods decided your future or your fate and that you were a pawn in their game. Oracles could predict the outcomes but most believe that you were powerless to change your path. There were many myths that revolved around someone's fate happening no matter how much they tried to avoid it.