Summary
Chapter 1: Twin Towers Falling.
The author recounts his very first apparent precognitive dream when he was 13 and asks: "Was this déjà vu really precognition?" Twenty-five years later the tragedy of 9/11 is directly experienced by millions, yet precognition did not prevent it. Given the enormous quantity of information everyone is storing, precognition should trend in one direction: either toward increasing skepticism or increasing validation. Which is it?
Chapter 2: Destiny, Hope and the Trifid Nebula.
If you could see the future, could you change it, or is your destiny predetermined? Dr. Kalas argues that fate is an illusion, the future can be changed, and that hope has a physical basis in our tenuous perception of future events through dreams. This perception is called the "oneironaut phenomenon."
Chapter 3: The Heidelberg Dome
The author recounts how information from a dream allowed him to find a group of people dining at an unpredictable location in the German town of Heidelberg. He asserts that irrational choices, like the instincts of the animal kingdom, are in fact based on rational processing of precognitive information.
Chapter 4: Fomalhaut
Dr. Kalas shows that his discovery of a large comet belt around the nearby star Fomalhaut using the Hubble Space Telescope was recorded in his dream diary nine years earlier. Skeptical approaches such as those based on cryptomnesia, pareidolia, and confirmation bias are reviewed. The author concludes that the physical evidence most likely represents a measurement of precognition. He also discusses how your identity emerging at any instant is not merely a product of your autobiographical past, but also includes the events that could be perceived through dreams from your possible futures.
Chapter 5: Dissect the Oneironaut!
The author's ensemble of 332 déjà vu experiences is analyzed. He argues that the oneironaut phenomenon is an outcome of learning; it's an innate ability that can be strengthened. He estimates that 0.1% of dreams are future experiences, which translates to experiencing the future for nine seconds per night, or 2.6 days in a lifetime.
Chapter 6: The Physics of Time Using Nature's Swiss Army Knife
Dr. Kalas summarizes our knowledge of space and time by reviewing some of the fascinating properties of light, which he calls nature's Swiss army knife.
Chapter 7: Hippocampus
Which part of our brain is most likely our time machine for information? The hippocampus is central for memory, learning, and navigation, and the author studies how it is related to key aspects of the oneironaut phenomenon.
Chapter 8: The Oneironauts
Even if the oneironaut phenomenon is not perfectly understood, why not go ahead and make it useful? Dr. Kalas envisions practical applications for the phenomenon to improve the lives of individuals and ultimately to engineer the future of humanity.