A few weeks ago, I was walking down the front stairs at my work. The staircase is rather tall and steep, and the steps themselves are narrower than the length of the average adult foot. About halfway down the stairs, I had a sudden mental image of myself lying in a heap at the foot of the stairs. Barely seconds after this vision, my foot slipped, and my weight shifted in such a way as to tumble down. I grabbed hold of both railings and pulled myself back, though it wrenched my arms in their sockets. I believe I may have even shrieked. I sat down right there, to recover from the shock. My heart was racing, my breath was short, and my arms hurt like hell. However, I was all in one piece.

The incident raised an interesting set of questions for me. Did my mental image cause me to slip, or did it alert my reflexes in time to save myself?

It could easily be argued that by picturing myself at the end of a disastrous tumble, I inadvertently allowed the loss of balance, but it wouldn't explain why I had that picture to begin with.

It could be that my deep subconscious detected the error before it was acted out, and served to warn the rest of my body to react, but at the same time, it is hard to see how my subconscious would have been able to detect that the tractionless sole of my shoe would fail to find purchase on the slick "marble" surface of the stair.

It could also be argued that it was one of the few genuinely useful premonitions I've ever had. I'll never really know, but at least I came out of the experience physically intact.

Anyone out there have any tales of useful premonition?