Theory:Precognitive dreaming

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The following fan theories are about Precognitive dreaming.

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Theories

Theory	Citations	Notes
Angela's ability is not actually seeing the future, but "traveling" through dreaming. i.e. Time travel, Space travel, or Dream travel.	None.	+ When Peter met Charles Deveaux through dreaming, it's not the "future" but its the "past". - Peter may have used space-time manipulation in combination with precognitive dreaming. + In the Angels and Monsters episode, Arthur Petrelli can see Angela and touch her physically. - Arthur appears to have obtained telepathy, and likely use that to invade Angela's dream. + In the Eris Quod Sum episode, Angela talked to Gabriel through his dreams. - Arthur could have been pretending to be Angela in Gabriel's dream. - Angela's brain waves had visibly spiked on the machine when she used her ability. • According to BTE Week 6, Peter did use her power, but that doesn't mean it actually took him to the past.
Angela lost this ability when Arthur touched her in one of her dreams, which caused her coma.	None.	+ Angela had gone to coma, right after Arthur touched her. - In the Eris Quod Sum episode, Angela used her ability to communicate with Gabriel. + It might not have been Angela that appeared to Gabriel in his dream.
Precognitive dreaming is not a literal vision of the future, just a interpretive foreshadowing of what's to come.	None.	+ Peter did explode, but not the way he foresaw it. + All of the characters that appeared in the vision, were at Kirby Plaza. However, they weren't there in same manner as they were in Peter's vision (i.e. different actions, clothes, positions, etc.) + Nathan stood closest to Peter and was incinerated in the vision; in reality, he was closest to Peter, as he flew him away and he got horribly burned.
With experience, the user of this ability can see what will be and what could have been.	None.	+ Angela knew that Future Peter already changed his future to an alternate one. - She also said quite clearly "the only future I've seen is the one caused by your being here."
Gabriel was using the powers gained from Bridget Bailey (clairsentience) when Angela appeared to him in episode Eris Quod Sum and is a direct result of her taking corrective action on a precognitive dream.	None.	+ Angela always manages to be one step ahead of her enemies. + It explains why Angela fed Bridget Bailey to Gabriel in the first place: to prepare for a future she had foreseen. + Angela could have left that message weeks prior to Gabriel witnessed it and the company would have no reason to fear precognition or postcognition.
Angela's ability isn't precognitive dreaming but astral projection, the ability to separate one's consciousness from their body and control it at will.	None.	+ Experiencers of astral projection describe themselves as being in a domain which isn't parallel to a physical setting, although they say they can visit different times or physical settings. The settings and time periods can be anywhere from natural, abstract or artificial, populated or unpopulated and anywhere from beatific to horrific. Experiencers attribute the physical world to the world of dreams, reporting to see sleeping individuals enact dreams, unaware of the bigger picture. + Angela and Peter could visit the future in their dreams in The Butterfly Effect and Fallout respectively. And the events they saw were figurative/abstract and relatively horrific. + Angela enters Gabriel's dream and convinces him to get up and go rescue Peter in Eris Quod Sum. + Etheric projection, a variation of astral projection, is the ability to move about in the physical world in an etheric body that is usually, but not always, invisible to normal people. According to professionals, this type of projection is described as it contains people and places that actually might exist in the physical world. It also doubles as a medium between the physical and astral world. + After Peter falls unconscious, he is able to visit the past and speak with Charles Deaveaux, all the while invisible and inaudible to both himself, Simone and his mother in How to Stop an Exploding Man.
The woman appearing in Angela's dream in The Butterfly Effect is Barbara, who has absorbed the powers of Knox's enhanced strength, Maury's telepathy and her husband, Adam Munroe's regenerative abilities. Assumed arch-villain Barbara would come face to face with Angela with Gabriel being her last line of defense.	None.	+ Of Ali Larter's aliases, Niki Sanders is deceased (assumed to remain so in the future) and Tracy has never been seen without her pearl necklace. + It would seem logical for a character so infatuated in questions to side with one who seemingly always has the answers.