The British Premonitions Bureau was formed in 1966 by psychiatrist John Barker after the Aberfan mining disaster in which 144 people, including 116 children, died when 500,000 tons of debris smashed through the Welsh town and buried the primary school.
Reports of precognitive dreams foretelling of the catastrophe prompted Barker to form the bureau in the hope of predicting and avoiding future tragedies.
John Barker worked as a psychiatrist at Shelton Hospital, a Victorian asylum housing people considered "unfit" to live in society.
While Barker pushed for reforms to improve the conditions there, he engaged in unconventional research such as aversion therapy, which used electric shocks to discourage "undesirable" behavior including addiction, homosexuality, and transvestitism.
Earlier, the head of psychology at Harvard Medical School, Walter Cannon, coined the term "voodoo death"[4] to describe a response of "primitive people" dying of fear.
[5] Barker visited the Aberfan disaster site and noted that a number of people seemed to escape death by coincidence, such as missing their bus or sleeping in late.
On the eve of the disaster, a young boy named Paul Davies had reportedly drawn figures digging in the hillside under the words “The End”.
While touring Aberfan and hearing various stories of foreboding, Barker wanted to investigate whether the claims could be evidence of precognition and he contacted science journalist for London's Evening Standard, Peter Fairley.
[4] Barker, who in his late thirties, suffered "emotional stress almost to the point of 'crack up'" and left his previous job as the superintendent of a mental hospital in Dorset,[7] was depressed and believed his end was near.
Joe Nickell has pointed out several issues with premonitions including: Michael Shermer explains that precognitive dreams are formed by how the human brain is designed to see patterns and not randomness.