Reviewed by Nemo C. Mörck
I have not been on the SPR Conference Programme since 2019, but that year I suggested a panel with psychics, including Christopher Robinson (b. 1951). There was no such panel, but Robinson was invited and gave an appreciated talk (Ruickbie, 2019). At the conference, he met the couple Grant and Jane Solomon. They wanted to write a book about him and Chris agreed. The result is a hefty tome, 472 pages, without index or formal references. The title needs to be addressed. Chris has seen UFOs (e.g., Dawson, 1971) and interacted with entities that he calls extra-terrestrials, but only a few pages concern this. The focus is on his precognitive dreams.
On 12 August 2015, Robinson, disappointed and frustrated, decided to burn thousands of his dream diary pages. This must have caused problems for the Solomons. Nevertheless, they claim: “As far as we can ascertain from the large number of private and public records and witness testimonies we have researched over a prolonged period, all these events happened” (p. viii). However, their attempts to verify accounts are never mentioned. Almost all conversations are necessarily “dramatic reconstructions pierced together from Chris’ memory” (p. ix). The authors also add extensive quotations from newspapers, Psychic News, and SPR publications, to the chronological narrative. I sense that they wish to present it all as evidence yet it is not easy to assess the evidential value at this point of time. Parapsychologists would like to know exactly what was recorded and said and when – Chris would argue that they have had their chance.
Chris Robinson certainly wishes to let the public know that precognition is real and argues that this is why he has participated in so many TV programmes. What is clear is that individuals within police forces and intelligence agencies took his precognitive dreams seriously. This was already evident in the previous book, Dream Detective (Robinson with Boot, 1996). There is significant overlap between the books. Wiseman (1996) complained that it “only contains descriptions of the small number of dreams which have apparently come true, thus giving the impression that he has a much higher hit rate than is actually the case” (p. 26). However, these kinds of books are always like that and should, arguably, be read because they provide a first-person perspective. In addition, such books presents psychic experiences about events, such as deaths, that no ethics committee would allow to be replicated under laboratory conditions.
Chris claims that he was recruited for undercover work by the British secret services in 1975, when he was twenty-four, but does not elaborate on what he did. Who would like to confirm this story? It is more evident that Robinson worked as a TV repairman and personally suffered from overzealous efforts to combat VHS piracy. Chris has lived a full life and has had his share of misfortune. In fact, he was born with a congenital heart defect and was not expected to live. He has undergone several operations due to this – Keith Hearne believes that this is significant, suspecting that the experiences might have made Robinson more receptive to precognitive dreams.
Hearne has studied Chris and his dreams on and off since October 1989 yet appears to have published nothing. This book would have benefited from his input. Re-search – search again – is after all a collaborative practice. Robinson is disappointed by how he was treated by the scientific community (cf. Mishlove, 2000). The books about Chris are about his efforts to gain recognition and to understand the dream symbolism. He believes that the precognitive dreams, at least in part, derive from the spirit world, and in light of his experiences this belief makes sense. However, Robinson is open to other interpretations. Some dreams are clear, but many need to be interpreted. Dream Detective left me with the impression that Chris is the only person who can interpret his dreams. His dream diary entries alone are not as useful as he would have liked.
Myra 4.15 p.m.
Cookham Wood
[HMP] [man with a child
[lesbians] [prisons] (p. 62)
Chris made those notes after having dreamt about being with a group of journalists who met Myra Hindley, the serial killer, in a prison. He did not find a match for this dream, from 4 January 1990, until 31 January, when he read an account of her involvement in the murder of a child.
“The Reverend David Bolster said that it was often only with hindsight that Robinson’s dreams could be interpreted and confirmed” (p. 289), but sometimes subsequent dreams made the meaning clearer. His friend Bolster was quoted, in 1991, as having said “I believe he has some ability to tell the future, although there are some flaws in it” (p. 239). Others have also expressed belief in his precognitive ability yet included caveats. For example, in the foreword to Dream Detective, Alex Hall, Ex-Detective Chief Inspector, Regional Crime Squad, acknowledged: “Despite the vagueness of many of his dreams, we have worked together on a number of investigations ...” Irving (1996) provided some critical commentary and interviewed Richard MacGregor of the No. 5. Regional Crime Squad, who has often been quoted in support of Chris. MacGregor admitted that due to a misinterpretation of a dream they once searched in vain after bombs.
While writing this review I have had Dream Detective and An Honest Liar, a documentary about James Randi (1928-2020), on my desk, hence eyes have been on me. Randi would have argued that what we look at is the result of selective reporting, misremembering, and creative post-hoc interpretations. Chris was once asked to share his thoughts about sceptics in X Factor (issue 11), and replied: “I feel sorry for them, to tell the truth. There’s nothing that I, or anyone else, can do to change their minds. They’ve closed their minds and in my opinion they’re the ones who are missing out” (p. 298). I sense that Robinson is eager to see correlations, but his dreams were taken seriously by individuals within the police forces and intelligence agencies. Surely they were not all gullible fools?
Chris claims that he was too good to participate in the series James Randi: Psychic Investigator that aired in 1991. The preliminary test he underwent is covered in both books. However, we need to take him on his word. Robinson has participated in more formal research, conducted by the well-known sceptics Susan Blackmore (1995) and Richard Wiseman (Wiseman, & West, 1997; Wiseman, West, & Stemman, 1996a, 1996b). He argues that they did not adhere to the agreed protocols and that this is partly why the results were disappointing. Utts (1996) also sent a critical note about the statistics used to evaluate Blackmore’s test. Chris claims that these studies had a negative effect on his ability to work as an informant in the UK. In 2001, he was invited to a meeting.
… his handlers told him that, following the very vocal efforts by media celebrities – such as Randi, Wiseman, and Blackmore – to discredit him, and with his increasingly regular and high-profile media appearances, he had become too much of a potential embarrassment to the 'top brass' so his services were no longer required (p. 336).
Robinson went to the US to be tested by Gary Schwartz. The Arizona Experiments with him were carried out in 2001 and I sense that they were the highlight of his career as a research subject. The study was submitted to the Journal of the SPR and rejected in 2003, for methodological issues. Eventually, it was published in a less prestigious journal (Schwartz, 2011) and subjected to some critical commentary (Endersby, 2014). However, it is clear that his contact with Schwartz was a pleasant experience. After having participated in the study his sleep was studied: “Lack of deep, restful sleep” was hardly a surprise for Chris, but they also noticed “unusual electrical discharges from his brain – e.g., 'paroxysmal temporal lobe discharges' – which they were also seeing in other near-death experiencers” (p. 355). This is interesting since Robinson regards a near-death experience he underwent in 1986, when he was thirty-five, as the catalyst for his precognitive experiences.
Chris returned to the US in 2002 and then met John Petersen, a former naval flight officer, and Thomas Drake, an officer in the NSA. Robinson would come to have more contact with both and Drake became his handler. However, the Americans do not seem to have been as receptive to his precognitive dreams as Chris would have liked. Schwartz complained that the CIA and the FBI ignored the information Robinson provided. Drake also gives the impression that information was ignored, including about 911. Petersen is quoted as claiming that Chris provided information about 911 to the US embassy in London two weeks in advance. According to the authors, he provided information two days in advance – 9 September 2001. However, he had relevant precognitive dreams prior to this, including on 5 August 2000. Robinson was not the only one to have dreams that seem to correspond to 911 (Wargo, 2018).
The authors quote from a newsletter issued by The Arlington Institute (founded by Petersen):
He has taught many people how to dream about the future and, through his advanced intuitive capabilities, helped thousands to understand how to deal with seemingly impossible personal situations. He is also a healer, having on numerous occasions led people with supposedly terminal conditions to eliminate those issues and return to a healthy life.
Did the authors ask Chris about this? They provide no documentation. However, I can understand if they did not wish to bring up sensitive questions about speaker fees and private consultations. A more fundamental question concerns whether Robinson feels that the future is predetermined or if we can change it. He has wrestled with this question before, but it deserve more attention. I gather that partly thanks to being a Christian he attempts to see meaning in what occurs, and has experienced numerous synchronicities throughout his life that supports this view.
Robinson participated in Extraordinary People, which aired in 2007, and writes about his experience of being tested by Chris French, a well-known sceptic. French (2024) has also written about this and remains sceptical. I am also sceptical, not of the existence of precognition, but about the practical applications. There are significant challenges involved in this – not only concerning how to interpret dreams, but also about how to determine when the predicted event will take place, and whether it is possible to avoid an unpleasant future. It is naive to think that one just needs to collect dreams. That has been tried before (e.g., Knight, 2012).
Chris Robinson is now 74 years old and has certainly lived a rich life. I have deliberately mentioned just one of his precognitive dreams, because Chris can relate the stories much better than I can. The book has a website, The Premonition Man, with additional information and videos. Admittedly, I found the earlier book, Dream Detective, more engaging, and wish that the authors had shifted focus to what happened after the 1990s to reduce overlap. Nevertheless, this is an interesting and easy read. Robinson reports that his heart has been successfully operated on again, so we may see more of him in the future. However, hopefully we never need to experience “mushroom clouds over American cities and World War III” (p. 451).
References
Blackmore, S. J. (1995). What’s in the box? An ESP test with Chris Robinson. Journal of the Society for Psychical Research, 60, 322-324.
Dawson, D. (1971, 26 August). ’Mummy, mummy, don’t let the spacemen get us’. The Evening Post.
Endersby, A. (2014,15 April). The Arizona experiments. https://ersby.blogspot.com/2014/04/the-arizona-experiments.html
French, C. (2024). The science of weird shit: Why our minds conjure the paranormal. MIT Press.
Irving, R. (1996). Watching the dream detectives. Fortean Times, 86, 23-28.
Mishlove, J. (2000). The PK man: A true story of mind over matter. Hampton Roads.
Knight, S. (2012). The Premonitions Bureau: A true account of death foretold. Penguin Press.
Robinson, C., with Boot, A. (1996). Dream detective: The remarkable true story of how one man's psychic premonitions turned from dream to nightmare. Little, Brown and company.
Ruickbie, L. (2019). Leicester through the looking glass: The 43rd International Annual Conference of the Society for Psychical Research, Leicester, 20-22 September 2019. Paranormal Review, 92, 14-21.
Schwartz, G. (2011). Exploratory blinded field experiment evaluating purported precognitive dreams in a highly skilled subject: Possible spiritual mediation? Journal of Spirituality & Paranormal Studies, 34(1), 3-20.
Wargo, E. (2018). Time loops: Precognition, retrocausation, and the unconscious. Anomalist Books.
Wiseman, R. (1996). [Review of the book Dream detective, by C. Robinson with A. Boot]. The Skeptic, 10(2), 26.
Wiseman, R., & West, D. J. (1997). An experimental test of psychic detection. Police Journal, 70(1), 19-25.
Wiseman, R., West, D. J., & Stemman, R. (1996a). An experimental test of psychic detection. Journal of the Society for Psychical Research, 61, 34-45.
Wiseman, R., West, D. J., & Stemman, R. (1996b). Psychic crime detectives: A new test for measuring their successes and failures. Skeptical Inquirer, 20(1), 38-40.
Utts, J. (1996). [Letter to the Editor]. Journal of the Society for Psychical Research, 61, 62.