Many have felt near death, perhaps while swimming or before a crash, or during a severe hangover. Some, including notable figures, have accurately foreseen their own deaths, hinting that premonitions hold real weight.
10. Martin Luther King Jr.
Martin Luther King Jr.'s final speech on April 3, 1968, is a famous example of someone seeming to foresee his death. In Memphis to support striking workers, King, no stranger to threats, delivered an ominous address at the Mason Temple. He told the crowd they would reach the "promised land" of equality but stated, "I may not get there with you." He expressed no fear of his fate, relying on his faith for strength.
The following evening, King was assassinated on his hotel balcony. His speech that night strongly suggests he sensed impending danger yet faced it with profound courage and conviction, finding strength in his belief that the struggle would ultimately succeed.
9. Mark Twain
Novelist Mark Twain, who famously corrected exaggerated reports of his death in 1897, actually made an eerily accurate prediction about his own passing. He was born in 1835, the year Halley’s Comet appeared, and he felt his destiny was tied to its roughly 75-year orbit. Just before its return in 1910, Twain stated, “I came in with Halley’s Comet… and I expect to go out with it.”
Tragically, his prediction proved correct: Twain died on April 21, 1910, as the comet reappeared. While some note the comet’s orbital period resembles an average human lifespan, not everyone lives exactly 75 years, making Twain’s precise forecast all the more remarkable.
8. Oliver Reed
Oliver Reed’s legendary love of drink made it no surprise that alcohol would play a role in his death—yet foreseeing almost the exact circumstances remains unsettling. Five years before his passing, Reed appeared on Channel Four’s The Obituary Show, where guests imagined how they’d be remembered after death. From a set designed to look like heaven, he predicted he would die “in a bar of a heart attack.”
In 1999, while filming Gladiator in Malta, Reed suffered a fatal heart attack in a bar. The only detail that differed from his prediction was the context: he was in a drinking contest, not a cabbage competition.
7. Buddy Holly
Buddy Holly tragically died in a plane crash on February 3, 1959, alongside fellow musicians J.P. Richardson and Ritchie Valens, during the Winter Dance Party tour. Remarkably, both he and his wife, Maria Elena, experienced frightening premonitions just days before the tour began.
Maria Elena later recounted a vivid nightmare of a fireball crashing to earth. Upon waking, Buddy revealed his own unsettling dream of flying away on a plane, with a feeling he would never return. This shared premonition of a plane-related disaster, occurring just before his fatal journey, remains a deeply unsettling coincidence.
6. Arnold Schoenberg
Phobias can be devastating, as illustrated by composer Arnold Schoenberg's triskaidekaphobia—a fear of the number 13. He believed this number would be linked to his death, a dread intensified by being born on the 13th.
His 76th birthday on July 13, 1951, was especially grim. He stayed in bed, terrified he would die. With only minutes left before the date changed, his wife felt relief—until the doctor shouted. Schoenberg had just died of a massive heart attack. Some suggest his extreme fear contributed to his death, a stark reminder of the importance of seeking help for such phobias.
5. Abraham Lincoln
One of the most haunting nightmares is dreaming of one’s own corpse, which reportedly happened to President Abraham Lincoln. On April 4th, 1865, he dreamt of mourners in the White House East Room surrounding a guarded body. Upon asking who had died, a soldier replied, “The president. He was killed by an assassin.” Lincoln awoke deeply shaken and told a friend he felt “strangely annoyed,” sensing the dream was more ominous than a mere disturbance.
Tragically, his foreboding proved accurate. Exactly ten days later, on April 14th, Lincoln was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth, transforming his nightmare into a chilling premonition of his own death.
4. Frank Pastore
Frank Pastore led two notable public lives: first as a Major League Baseball pitcher, and later as a popular Christian radio host. Yet, he is perhaps most remembered for the day of his death on November 19, 2012. That afternoon, during his regular show, Pastore discussed a TV program about the afterlife and, referencing his motorcycle commute, remarked that due to careless drivers he could "at any minute be spread all over the 210" freeway.
Tragically, just three hours later, he was struck by a car on that very freeway. He sustained severe head injuries and died in the hospital. A devout Christian, Pastore had used his monologue that day to affirm his unwavering belief in life after physical death, making the circumstances of his passing both poignant and consistent with his lifelong faith.
3. Jim Morrison
Jim Morrison was a defining star of rock's golden age in the 1960s and 70s, living the quintessential high-risk lifestyle of "sex, drugs, and rock 'n' roll." This very existence led to his death at the infamous age of 27. However, before his passing, he made a telling remark that hinted at his own foresight.
Deeply affected by the deaths of contemporaries Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin in 1970—figures who shared his reckless lifestyle—Morrison began telling friends during drinking sessions that they were "drinking with number three." He fully anticipated being the next rock star to die young. While such declarations could be dismissed as drunken melancholy, his history suggested a manic, not morbid, disposition. His death just months later, in the summer of 1971, proves it was more than just the booze talking.
2. Mikey Welsh
Former Weezer bassist Mikey Welsh, who struggled publicly with addiction and mental health, posted deeply unsettling tweets in September 2012. He described a dream of dying from a heart attack in his sleep in Chicago the following weekend, later clarifying it was the weekend after.
Two weeks later, Welsh was found dead in a Chicago hotel room. The cause was a drug-induced heart attack, making his precise, prophetic tweets tragically and eerily accurate.
1. Indira Ghandi
As Prime Minister of India, Indira Gandhi made significant enemies. In 1984, she ordered the military's Operation Blue Star to storm the Golden Temple in Punjab, a site occupied by Sikh militants. The operation resulted in numerous Sikh casualties and widespread anger among their supporters.
On October 30th, Gandhi delivered a speech with ominously prophetic lines, suggesting awareness of her fate. The very next day, while walking to a television interview, she was assassinated by two of her own Sikh bodyguards. They acted in direct retaliation for the events of Operation Blue Star.
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