EXCLUSIVE

THE historic ability of people in Scottish communities to predict future events, including the imminent death of friends and loved-ones, is the focus of an international academic study.

A researcher at Edinburgh University has been given more than #60,000 to chart the tradition of ''second sight'' or prophetic visions.

Dr Shari Cohn claims to have established that such powers are passed down through families and now she is also seeking to determine whether there is a relationship between second sight and other artistic abilities.

Examples of second sight date back to the Roman occupation of Scotland. The Celts were also recorded as having powers of divination.

The first detailed accounts of psychic communication date back three centuries and they have become woven into the culture and oral tradition of Scotland.

Modern day accounts, particularly in the Highlands and the Western Isles, remain consistent with those of the past, usually relating to key events in the cycle of birth, life, and death.

Dr Cohn, a post-doctoral research fellow at the School of Scottish Studies, has been awarded a research grant by the Institute of Psychology and Parapsychology (IGPP) in Freiburg to study the phenomenon.

She claims that the data, as well as having archive significance, will provide a closer understanding of unrecognised abilities of the mind.

Writing in the Edinburgh University magazine Edit, Dr Cohn said: ''Sceptics attribute individual experiences to coincidences and the hereditary aspect to purely oral cultural transmission.

''If, however, the capacity to have second sight experiences is a genuine mental talent which is partly hereditary, this would challenge conventional notions about the nature of mind.''

Examples include symbolic representations of someone's fate, such as seeing a shroud on a person before they die.

A recent case in the Highlands involved a bus driver who had a vision of a funeral procession while he was behind the wheel. By recognising the mourners, he told passengers the name of the person who would die.

A woman from Skye had a vision of her neighbour who she thought had returned early from a holiday in England. In fact, the neighbour had died suddenly South of the Border and the vision coincided with the time of death.

In another case, a brother and sister heard the crying of a woman, the crackling of fire and people talking close to their house. Several months later a child died in a caravannete blaze.

One informant from Lewis said second sight experiences made him ''more aware of people, more aware of the fragile nature of life''. Another informant from Harris said: ''Second sight is my culture, is like my fresh air and water, it is just there.''

To find the frequency of second sight in the general population, a mail survey was carried out across Scotland.

Dr Cohn collected more than 500 accounts of second sight from 70 people and more than 200 respondents completed a 65-item questionnaire.

The data was examined by US geneticist Professor Elof Carlson in a bid to establish whether second sight was hereditary. Dr Cohn said: ''Second sight is generally regarded as being more prominent in the Western Isles and the Highlands of Scotland than elsewhere.

''However the survey data shows this not to be the case - the phenomenon occurs in all areas of Scotland.

''Nor was having a family background from the Highlands and the Western Isles a strong predictor of having second sight.

''Throughout Scotland people who reported having second sight were significantly more likely to report second sight in blood-related family members.

''This gives empirical support to the traditional belief that second sight does run in families. The results of the genetic analyses demonstrate that second sight seems consistent with a particular mode of inheritance pattern, especially for small family sizes.''

She added: ''Some research has shown a possible relationship between creativity and extra-sensory perception.

''Through interviewing musicians, painters, and poets, the aim is to examine the social and cultural factors which may have influenced them in becoming artists and to see whether they have had second sight experiences.

''Also to see whether these artistic abilities might be hereditary, family pedigrees will be constructed, analysed for possible inheritance patterns, and then compared to the inheritance patterns observed for second sight.

''If the inheritance patterns are similar, this would suggest that second sight is related to a creative mental process and what may be hereditary is the way sensory information is processed.''