Prescience

[Definition: Knowledge of actions or events before they occur; foresight]

Ever been spooked by prescience? For example, say you hear a random Barry White song while flipping through the radio dials and stop there, warbling along to "Deeper and Deeper". It's been a decade or so since you thought about Barry White. You get home and, still thinking about Barry White, sift through your records (yes, LPs) until you find the disc; lay it on the turntable and allow the velvet bass to raise up the tiny hairs on your neck. You wonder what old Barry is up to these days. You enthuse about Barry White to your friend/partner/spouse/fellow party-goer that night. You make a crack about his weight and voice, saying he'd end up sounding like Tiny Tim if he lost weight. Someone asks who Barry White is.

It's July 3, 2003. The next day, while rushing to the liquor store for more beer before they close for the Fourth of July, you hear on the radio Barry White just passed away.

Lately, Superfly and I talk a lot about prescience. Superfly is scarily prescient. Well, except when it comes to buying Mega Millions tickets, but he probably is just psyching himself out. He generally knows when important things are going to happen. I'm prescient about really trivial things, like predicting entertainment or fashion trends. Some of our friends mentioned similar visionary moments in passing conversation and Superfly and I looked at each other and said, "Prescience".

It is catching? Is this one of those signs of impending apocalypse, when extremely ordinary people become oracles?