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Déjà Rêvé and Love at Second Sight, by Daniel Bourke

Déjà Rêvé and Love at Second Sight: The Experience of Meeting in Dreams before Meeting in Life, by Daniel Bourke
Destiny Books, 979-8888502716, 320 pages, January 2026

For those who are dream lovers, Déjà Rêvé and Love at Second Sight by Daniel Bourke is a fascinating compendium of unique dream experiences. This book explores the phenomenon of déjà rêvé (“already dreamed”), the experience of encountering something in waking life that you feel you’ve specifically dreamed before, not just vaguely recognized. The vast amount of documentation surrounding this experience makes it a worthwhile topic of exploration, especially for those intrigued by the idea of precognition.

“Is it possible to dream or otherwise mysteriously envision a future spouse, acquaintance, helper, healer, or even a shaman or saint before meeting them in life? To literally see the face, hear the voice, or sense the presence of another whom you are yet to meet and are nevertheless destined to do so? If our only witnesses were the voluminous records of legend, lyric, and lore on all corners of the globe then answer would be a resounding yes.”1

Jam-packed with hundreds of instances of déjà rêvé, Bourke has organized the chapters of this book by general themes. One of the first types of déjà rêvé covered focuses on healers, saints, sufis, and sheiks. The general focus of these stories is when people had spiritually significant dreams and then soon met the person in the dreams for healing or spiritual growth. Another chapter focuses on how dream visions aid people in making real life decisions. For instance, according to The Schism in England, translated by Pedro Calderon de la Barca, Henry VIII had a dream of Anne Boleyn before he ever met her.

Speaking of fated romances, there’s plenty of stories of dreaming of lovers before meeting them in real life. One of my favorite stories was from the biography of a 107-year-old man from Arkansas who dreamed about heading to a terminal and seeing a beautiful woman standing there who said to him, “You come to carry me home, James? I’m your wife.”2 and then he met the same woman in real life at a New Year’s Eve party later on.

Other chapters do focus on folklore surrounding divination and magic in regard to this dream phenomena, as well as the religious impact déjà rêvé had on some people after their experience. Bourke shares tidbits such as how among the Ilocano (a Filipino ethnolinguistic group), “a man sleeps with a dipper of water near his bed in order to see the reflection of his future spouse, needing to wake at exactly twelve o’clock.”3

Then there’s also a story about a man whose youth pastor encouraged him to pray to God for the person he would marry in the future. He then received a vision of the cross pendant his future wife would be wearing. Lo and behold, he met her when he went to visit a new church and the secretary was wearing the pendant. Wouldn’t you know it, the cross pendant had been a gift from her grandmother, who had told her it had special meaning related to her future husband, who would be drawn to it. Now, it might be easy to brush off these tales as romantic, exaggerated love stories that signify a relationship has a divine blessing, but the sheer number of tales Bourke shares really does expand the reader’s perception of just how common déjà rêvé has been throughout time.

One of my favorite chapters in the book is “Picture Perfect”, which had a sections like “Media and Murder in Motion” and “Death, Ghosts, and Near Death”. Can’t help it—I love thrillers! But beyond the typical dreaming of a partner or spiritual aid, these stories had practical applications, such as solving a crime or reconnecting loved ones with someone who had departed.

What makes the book stand out is its scope: it gathers hundreds of accounts from folklore, historical texts, memoirs, and modern reports, aiming to create one of the first comprehensive collections of this phenomenon. While modern society might have an unhealthy dose of skepticism, many cultures historically have accepted dreams as predictive or spiritual messages. Bourke pulls from an unusually wide range of sources (saints, shamans, historical anecdotes, and contemporary experiences) showing that dream-foretelling appears across cultures and eras. This gives the book a mythic, almost archetypal feeling, as though you’re reading a global folklore archive rather than a single-author thesis.

This said, I found reading it to be overwhelming at times. It took me a few months to make my way though, and it was mostly because I kept getting mentally overloaded. While I was drawn to Déjà Rêvé and Love at Second Sight because I wanted to be immersed in the liminal space of dreams and discover something about their ethereal nature, the content is more along the lines of reporting on this dream experience rather than providing discussion on its significance or the meaning of reality understood through the exploration of this paranormal phenomena.

I would often get a bit of whiplash with how it jumped from one story to the next, quickly spanning time periods and cultures. There’s cohesion, but it’s definitely a book that keeps you in your mind, bombarded with recorded accounts rather than tapping into the spiritual dimension. I actually found this amusing, as dream books usually make me feel a bit spacey or ungrounded, while this one made it feel too stuck in reality with names, dates, and recorded experiences spanning centuries and the whole world.

Plus, the unfamiliarity with many of the cultures or historical time periods had me grappling just to wrap my head around the context of the story, ultimately preventing me from fully engaging with the content. I am all for cross-cultural examination, but one paragraph being about a Burmese writer in the early 1990s quickly followed by another featuring a tale of an Welsh American explorer in central Africa in the 1800s, which within the same paragraph talks about another American explorer living with the Ojibwa Indians of the Great Lakes between 1763 and 1764, you can see how my head could get spinning pretty quickly. Like where am I located in time and space?! I guess in some ways, I did get that untethered dream experience, but not how I was hoping!

Overall, for readers interested in dreamwork, synchronicity, psychic or intuitive phenomena, this comprehensive text will feel quite validating, highlighting just how common this phenomena of déjà rêvé is worldwide. I would definitely recommend Déjà Rêvé and Love at Second Sight for those who enjoy gathering stories, as Bourke collects and presents rather than rigorously interrogates. The documentation of the mystical experience of already dreamed gives backing to further discussion about the nature of reality, purpose of dreams, and the way people are connected. This book is a great launching pad for further study of a very intriguing topic!

Beyond the Mirror, by M.K. Williams and Natalie Kavanagh

Beyond the Mirror: Seechers, by M.K. Williams and Natalie Kavanagh
Luxon-Drake Publications, 1999962877, 194 pages, March 2020

Beyond the Mirror: Seechers by M.K. Williams and Natalie Kavanagh is a promising first book of a series I look forward to seeing develop, as in, I’m already waiting for the next book to come out. I read this entire book within 24 hours. Much to my husband’s dismay, who was hoping to get out of the house this weekend, I couldn’t put this book down and had no interest in doing anything else but reading on. Hey, it happens when you find a good book to dive into, right? 🙂

I was hooked right from the start, which featured a vivid dream sequence playing out. Here, a young girl shoots a young man standing at the edge of a building’s roof with a mysterious vial of glowing blue liquid in his hand. This pinnacle moment seems to be the culminating peak of the book… but it became so much more!

Thinking it was being told in a frame story technique, where the end is given at the start and you then get to know how the characters got there, I was eagerly awaiting to see what went down. As I was introduced to the characters, I was questioning their intentions and curious about when betrayal might strike when I realized the shooter is initially the young man’s romantic interest. Clearly, I became invested in seeing what got them to the point at the start of the book as I read about how their relationship unfolds.

Slowly and with pure craft, the authors revealed the layers at play in the initial scene to create a deeply enthralling plot centered upon friendship, self-discovery, and, awesomely, combating the “bad guys” of course with newly-found powers of the mind.

The premise of the book is an ancient society, called Seechers, knows the secret hidden gateway to the subconscious. This group initiates new recruits every seven years, and in the meanwhile, live seemingly ordinary lives, while also protecting the balance of energy in the world. You know, no big deal! From the initiated Seechers we meet, it seems they all have their own technique of influencing energy, such as healing wounds or connecting with animals.

It is determined if one has the potential to be a Seecher, which is ultimately their own personal choice when invited, by measuring how much epsilon they have within their brain, specifically in the pineal gland. Those with enough epsilon, a bright blue liquid present in their brain, can undergo activation and join the group. Indicators one may possess this mysterious substance within their brain are heightened imagine, prophetic dreams, and psychic senses of “knowing” things.

However, something suspicious is happening to the potential recruits this year. Many are suddenly disappearing, while others are having dreams of violent kidnappings. The Seechers don’t know who is doing this, but they know their potential recruits are at risk. This causes them to take immediate measures. They decided to gather and test the potential recruits a year before schedule.

The readers know, though, about the scientific work being done at Curative Analytics. Here, there are scientists that are set on harvesting epsilon, believing it shouldn’t only be used by the Seechers and curious about its powers. However, when they do extract it from the minds of potential Seechers, it is tainted and becomes a less powerful version of the substance. This less powerful, “dead” version of epsilon is called epsilac, and the scientists are ruthless in their pursuit of obtaining it.

Aris and Maya, two of the main characters, end up deeply submersed in of all this scheming. Turns out, these two are the young man and woman from the initial scene. On a quest to discover more about the Seechers, Maya draws Aris into the pursuit — only for them to realize Aris is a Seecher himself and more than involved in safeguarding the future of the secret society than they could have ever imagined. In true fashion of curious and bold students, they work to understand the connection between all the strange events happening, landing them smack dab in the middle of all the actions where their crucial decisions have rippling effects for everyone.

I feel the plot has the perfect flow and was very well-developed. There’s so many little hints that point towards more books in this series! I am really curious about the lore behind the Seecheers and their ancient enemies, the Tauredunum Raiders. It was their ancient technology Curative Analytics is using to find the potential Seechers.

All the characters are relatable and well defined, especially Aris. Though the main characters are undergraduates in college, there are other mentors, such as the archetypal professor, so this book appeals to an audience beyond young adults. I found the story very believable and the characters well-defined.

What I liked most was this book combines many spiritual and philosophical ideas, making it a truly intriguing read for anyone with knowledge on these matters. I was suddenly inspired to read Plato’s Republic, reflecting on the allegory of the cave. The concept of the Nihilo, the subconscious world beyond ours, reminded me of the Buddhist void: the place beyond the mind, where all is subconsciously interconnected.

When I finished the book, I was reminded of Kant’s theory of an unbridgeable gap, which acknowledges there is a world that lay beyond the grasp of our senses, in the book’s concept of an unseen middle world where energy can be moved, shaped, and rearranged — though not created, abiding by Newtonian laws of physics. That is, unless one of the new Seechers may have abilities that go beyond this…

Oh, how I love a great fiction read that expands my perception and explores consciousness beyond the usual senses. I think there’s so much talent in being able to bring these concepts to life through storytelling.

While the book does have the typical plot of a secret society, new initiates coming in, a great battle between enemies, and “evil scientists” performing unethical research to further their own motives, I still feel like this book was done in an original and creative way. Williams and Kavanagh are exquisite writers who really know how to weave together an engaging plot.

I highly recommend Beyond The Mirror to those who are seeking a novel that incorporates spirituality and philosophy to create a new tale. I am looking forward to the next book! So much more I want to know about how the story will unfold!