Premonition

From Charmed

Phoebe having a premonition in I've Got You Under My Skin

Prue swaps powers with Phoebe and has a premonition in Love Hurts

Phoebe having an astral premonition in The Eyes Have It

The magical power of premonition ((a.k.a. Foresight, Precognition, Retrocognition, Clairvoyance, Psychometry etc) is the ability to see the past, present and the future in various ways. This is Phoebe Halliwell's first power from season one onward ("Something Wicca This Way Comes"). She later loses her active powers, including her premonitions, for taking it for granted but goes on to earn it back ("Styx Feet Under").

Throughout the series, Phoebe's powers have progressively grown, originally being able to only see the future, to being able to see visions of the past ("The Witch Is Back"), and then being able astral project (though not of her own will) into her future self's body ("The Eyes Have It"), and then to being able to possess a separate body from her future self in a vision.

Phoebe can also call for visions if she really concentrates for example in "The Power of Two" when she call for a vision when touching Piper's plane ticket, allowing her to see that Piper was going to miss her plane if they weren't quick enough.

In order to receive a premonition, Phoebe had to make contact with an object that was somehow related to the situation or person her vision was about. Several times, Phoebe has receieved a vision without touching anything, one example being when the Seer sent her a vision of Paige's demise ("Womb Raider"), and another being when entering the demon Vinceres' apartment, where the excessive psychic energies residing in the Apartment because of Vinceres' possession of the power of Empathy allowing Phoebe to receive a premonition ("Primrose Empath").

The demonic Seer Kyra once said that she had to touch objects also, when she was starting in the craft, to have visions. At the time that she made this statement, it was seen that Kyra didn't have to touch objects and could seemingly remain lucid in the present while receiving a vision. This heavily implies that Phoebe will also be able to receive visions at will and remain lucid and many other things that Kyra could do if her powers continue to advance.

It is also possible to transfer a premonition to another person, if the person who had it first remembers it and the person on the receiving end also possesses this power. Examples of this would be:

The Seer to Phoebe
Kyra to Phoebe
Phoebe to bystander (after Zankou interrupted a power switching spell)
Phoebe to Odin

We have seen Phoebe's power of premonition grow into a separate power twice in the series, once in "Morality Bites," where we see that Phoebe's power evolves into the ability of electro-mental ignitions, allowing her to electrocute and destroy the minds of her victims. How it evolved to this is unknown, however. The second time was in "Valhalley Of the Dolls Part 1" where Phoebe states herself that her power of empathy must've grown from her power of premonition. This became one of her permanent powers until it was taken away in season 6 because she took them for granted. However in the Charmed Novel, "Trickery Treat" Phoebe gains back her empathy power.

[edit] Personal Gain

The Amazing Phoebe

Throughout the course of the series Phoebe used this gift once for personal gain when she created potions to take to amplify her powers so she could look more into the future to see who she'd marry and have kids with. She eventually realizes she can't rush this and stops, but she is punished for her "crimes" by being stripped of her powers.She also uses her powers in a selfless way by being a psychic, so she could earn enough money to buy Prue a present for her birthday. But ultimately it serves a greater purpose allowing her to foresee and prevent a man from being hit by a car. And it is at the job where Piper shows up and meets an innocent, Mark Choa who they are to protect from Yama. (Dead Man Dating)

[edit] Electro-Mental Ignitions

Seen in Morality Bites, 10 years down the road, Phoebe's power of Premonition evolved into Electro-Mental ignition allowing her to incinerate and burn the mind of a victim, Cal Greene; during this time we see her use Levitation as well, causing both her and Cal to levitate while she is killing him.

Note: In Morality Bites, when Leo tells phoebe she killed Cal Greene, phoebe repiles "I mean i wouldn't. I-i couldn't. What could i have done...premonitioned the guy to death, my power is passive" well technically she did since electro-mental ignitions is a aspect of premonitions. It's the ability to make people relive over and over within a matter of seconds the worst moments of their life, knocking them unconscious, and if it wished, even killing them.

[edit] Astral Premonition

Also called "Astral Echo" this is the ability to project one's astral body into another time-frame, like a cross between Astral Projection and Premonition. She had a premontion that turned into an Astral Echo where she was shot with Orin's beams in the premonition and then in reality when out of the Echo, experienced the same wounds.

Phoebe first manifested this power when she overcame the problems that neglected her powers for months, and add contact of Gypsy Magic, she experienced the premonition of their death while projecting into her future self's body.

In Hulkus Pocus she manifested it again and pays a visit to her future self and learns to believe in her abilities again, and that she will most definitely have a child in the future.

[edit] Gallery

Phoebe receives her first Astral Echo
		Phoebe just before echoing into future	Beginning of Echo
Phoebe echoes into future self	Orin activates power	Orin strikes Piper	Orin strikes Paige
Orin launches blast at Phoebe	Present Phoebe experiences Orin's blast	She falls to the floor in reality	Leo heals Phoebe
Phoebe touches Chris' blanket	Phoebe echoes into future	Future Phoebe and her daughter	Present and Future Phoebe talk
	Phoebe's daughter smiles