| Precognition | |
|---|---|
| Ability information | |
| Category |
Reading |
| Type |
Mental |
| Usage information | |
| Ability to |
Perceive future events |
| Used by | |
Precognition is Alice Cullen and Leland's ability to gain information using mechanisms other than the five senses.
Alice Cullen[]
- "She can see into the future, although what she sees is based on decisions being made; thus, she must wait for a decision to be firmly rooted in the mind, or acted upon, before she can see the end result. Her talent is limited to humans and vampires because she has been both; she cannot see the futures of werewolves or hybrid vampires."
- ―Entry on Alice's gift
Alice's power works by receiving visions of the future, sometimes at will. At first she couldn't control them, but she gained it during her growth as a vampire. She can use it to keep tab of an object's decisions by merely focusing on it. She has also described that some visions come to her when there is a connection between her and the source of the vision; whether it be a threat to her family or simply someone she relates to.
She can focus on several objects at the same time, though only as much as her mind can comprehend. Several visions can come to her if the situation forces more objects together.
In Eclipse, Alice explains that since her visions are no illusion of the mind, but rooted into reality, therefore she can see Bella's future.
Limitations[]
Her visions are subjective; she can only see the future once a decision affecting it has been made, and some visions are more certain than others. But the visions can change if the subject changes her/his minds, meaning sometimes it can change all too quickly for her to see clearly. If a decision still hasn't been made, her visions will remain fuzzy and unclear, and she will see different "pictures" until it's decided.
Her subjects can "hide" from her vision by being indecisive. The vampire Victoria evaded being seen while creating an army by letting someone else select her soldiers and remaining in the shadows.
She can see vampires and, less clearly, humans. However, she cannot see any visions involving shape-shifters or hybrids, because, as she says, "she had never been one". The closer, or 'attuned', she is to a person, the clearer she can see him or her.
It is also very likely that she cannot see any vision that involves real werewolves.
Origin[]
Alice was born with this power as a human, though her predictions mostly manifested as feelings and only visions when the future was set. She was accused of being a witch or changeling because some people believed she had put a curse on them instead of believing that she was really seeing what was going to happen. At age 18, she had a vision of her mother's death and tried to keep her safe, until she eventually failed. As her father remarried within 6 months after her mother's death, she confronted her father about her suspicions, and then saw herself being killed and realized that she had turned to the real culprit.
Her father later accused her of having gone mad as a result of her mother's death and her visions, and demanded the county to take her away. Alice was eventually admitted to an asylum where she received shock treatments that removed all of her memories.
Alice was saved by an unknown compassionate vampire, who changed her to protect her from the tracker James. Alice smelled beyond mouth-watering to James, so she was changed in order to prevent James from killing her. By becoming a vampire, her visions were strengthened.
Note[]
The fact that Alice was able to see James coming for her as a human is questionable. If her gift involves seeing humans and vampires because of her transition, she should not have been able to see vampires as a human. However, perhaps because humans can become vampires or werewolves through a bite, this allowed her to see James in some ways. This also suggests that her power involves seeing real werewolves as well, since a vampire's gift is only enhanced and not restrained by the transformation.
Leland[]
- "He can see visions, visions of things about to happen or being made. What he sees is not based on rooted decisions, or things acted upon, they are the true result of the future. His gift is only limited to not seeing multiple possibilities."
- -Entry on Leland's gift
Leland can recieve visions of the future, mostly at will, but often lets the ability figure the result for itself, as if it were alive. He describes finding the result himself as being too vivid.
Limitations[]
The true limits of his gift are unknown. His visions are based on seeing the future once a decision affecting it has been made, some of his visions are more vivid than others and some are harder to explain. If the future were to be possibly changed, his visions would create a new end result.