Jim is saying that his dreams either had access to future information, or chromosomal information about the contents of a uterus, 4 out of 5 times. Or 5 out of 5, if you hold the popular belief that lesbians are men. To do this, there would have to be cellular level remote viewing phenomena using some kind of undetectable energy, or traditional psychic magic.

Let’s compare that premise with a skeptical alternative, which would be that Jim is lucky. I don’t think it’s off the table that Jim simply remembers being lucky and was not.

Jim dreams nightly, and remembers the dreams that are significant. While your wife was pregnant the first time, dreaming about the child’s sex was significant. You were right, and there was a 1 in 2 chance (50/50) of that.

Due to the success, it became very significant for you to make a predictive dream. After a single predictive dream for each pregnancy, it was no longer as significant because you already made a prediction. Therefore I suggest it is reasonable to assume you there was an extremely high likelihood of a unique predictive dream each 9 month period. That’s back to the 1 in 32; the only unique event here is that Jim made a big deal out of the first prediction.

No magic is required at all.

Honestly, I dreamed about having my daughter before I knew her sex, and though I have no data, I bet it’s extremely common. I dreamed my second kid will be a boy named Simon. I’ll let you know how that turns out.

“There are things, as it is said, in this world that are stranger than the eye can see or the brain imagine.”

Classic “Argument from Personal Incredulity”.

The fact that you tend to dream about such things increases the odds that you will continue to do so. Dreaming about a future child is not random chance. It is human.

What is so hard to imagine, really? The odds are pretty good that many would have the same experience, then assign some significance to it.

There are things, as it is said, in this world that are stranger than the eye can see or the brain imagine.

I am a skeptic, but…

I agree with the above. Some other things to consider.

1 in 32 chance (for predicting 5 children’s sexes correctly) is better odds than rolling a double six on any given backgammon roll. Most of us have done this many, many times.

If you consider that many, many people likely make predictions about the sex of their future children, then it is highly likely that occasionally someone will get 5 in a row. That person will then attribute some significance to this random event.

This is similar to the “Myth of the Hot Hand” in basketball (see Thomas Gilovich’s excellent book, “How We Know What isn’t So, the Fallibility of Human Reason in Everyday Life”)

The probability of guessing one baby’s sex is about one in two. The probability for five babies in a row is one in 32.
Coming up with predictions while dreaming is just as meaningless as coming up with them while drunk. A guess made in an altered state of consciousness is still a guess.

Last time I checked, scientists were saying that homosexuality is 30% genetic and 70% environmental. How much of the environmental factor is inside the womb and how much is upbringing I don’t know, but I’d bet that upbringing plays a role, especially for girls. But I digress.

I wonder about the odds being one in thirty two. Each time this might be the odds, but five in a row?

Did I mention that the other four dreams were very specific as to sex? Only in one case was the dream less than determinative.

I don’t subscribe to the theory that homosexuals are created by environment, and I don’t think modern science does either.

And there were NO wrong “guesses”, ie dreams. Each time the dream was revealed to others before the child was born. You can believe it or don’t, as the saying goes. Still a strange experience, not repeated since.