A Worrisome Dream

The night before the Paris attacks, I had a worrisome dream. Other dreams occurred that night in which great commotion was taking place involving many people, but I could not specifically relate them to the situation in Paris. This particular dream probably does not relate to the Paris attacks either, but it causes me concern for other reasons. First, I will relate the dream.

In the dream, I was in a plane that was coming in for a landing. The plane appeared to be a small commuter plane. I was walking down the aisle when a flight attendant instructed me to take my seat for landing. I couldn’t seem to locate it, and the attendant pointed to a seat next to a large, overweight man. 

In an instant, I found myself above him squished against the ceiling. I thought, I can’t stay here like this. I then seemed to realize I was out of body and not a normal passenger. As the plane taxied into the gate ramp, I was already walking toward the front exit. 

Suddenly, a huge explosion occurred that seemed to come from the rear of the plane. A wave of fire and debris blew the entire front of the plane and me away. I think it affected the terminal building as well.

Obviously, as I have stated many times in my posts, I first look at current and planned events in my life to see if the dream fits any of them. I have done that and at least as of today cannot find any relationship. Of course, this could change over the coming days and weeks, but right now I don’t have an interpretation that fits my life.

The worrisome part of the dream is what appears to be my out-of-body visit to this plane. When this happened in the past, within a few days planes crashed just like in the dreams. In one dream, I can still recall the terror of the passengers when they realized the plane was going down. I experienced it with them.

I certainly hope that this dream is not precognitive of an actual event. However, with terrorists targeting so many nations, it is conceivable that this could happen. ISIL has already claimed responsibility for the downing of the Russian aircraft, which some airline safety experts believe was due to a bomb. 

I don’t know why I found myself on that particular plane. If one is destroyed in a similar way, perhaps the answer will become clear. I have flown on a number of commuter planes during my working career; maybe the plane in the dream relates to one of those. 

I want to emphasize that I am not predicting that a plane will be destroyed as in my dream. But I do make associations, and my past associations with this type of dream were disturbing. Perhaps this time it will be different. As always, use caution wherever you are. If you are traveling and see something that seems out of place, report it.

What do we fear?

During the summer months, I often walk at a mall in the morning for exercise. It is not busy, so I can get in a good, brisk half-hour walk. The heat and humidity make walking outside quite unpleasant here in Florida.

One day this past summer, I was walking in the mall past a jewelry counter in the middle of the aisle. A young man works there who has often stopped me to inquire about my walking. As he learned about me, I made him aware of my interest in dreams. He asked me many questions, and we had some good discussions. 

On this particular day, he waved me over to the counter and introduced me to a young woman behind the counter. He told her I had written a book on dreams and could see the future through my dreams.

She immediately shrank back with an almost terrified look on her face. Then she said, “That’s scary.” She wanted nothing to do with me, and she kept her distance. Soon after this encounter, I left. The display is close to where I complete my walk anyway, and I was done for the day.

I don’t think we fear the unknown. After all, if something is unknown, what is there to fear? I think we fear what we think might be there to harm us in some way. I think we fear our own projections of things we are afraid to face, thinking we may see them in our dreams.

Maybe this person, like many, has a view that dreams only reveal our repressed, unsavory desires, and she had no wish to see them. Or perhaps she is a pessimist and thinks there is only bad in the future, and she has no wish to see it in the present. Regardless of the reason, her initial reaction was one of fear.

When I first encountered the possibility of seeing my future in my dreams, I saw many positives. I found the prospect very exciting. But many of the people I encounter do not see it that way. They see the negative and think bad things will happen soon enough without seeing them now. They fail to understand the benefits of seeing the probable future.

The probable future is not cast in concrete; in many cases, it can be changed. In some of my early posts, I give examples of a probable future that can be changed. And if it is negative and cannot be changed, we can prepare ourselves mentally and emotional for the future event. Either way we are better off.

I think few people work with their dreams because most would like them to be meaningless nighttime fantasies. Then they don’t have to face their fears. They don’t have to face themselves. Because of this, they are cut off from the enormous potential of their inner selves. They are cut off from their real identities.

Astral Projection

Some teachers of metaphysics have said that we routinely leave our bodies during sleep. I know of many occasions when I was certain I was out of body and not just having a normal dream. In one of my previous posts called Dreams and Two Aspects of Mind (1/30/2015), I gave an example of a dream involving astral travel. I have had numerous others over the years.

About month ago, I had an interesting experience related to astral projection while waking up. I had read a long time ago that if we were alert and kept watch, eventually we would catch ourselves leaving or entering our bodies as we fall asleep or awaken. 

In my case, I was starting to wake up, not yet fully conscious, when I became aware of myself making a fast rotation like a spinning top as I reentered my body. So I did indeed catch myself returning from a nightly sojourn.

In the past, I have had experiences of feeling like I snapped back into my body upon awakening. But this is the most dramatic one. I actually experienced the reentry into my body.

Updates to Posts

As part of my effort in compiling my posts into a book, I have reviewed all of the previous posts and made editorial changes to many of them. In some cases, I found a word was missing, misplaced, or used incorrectly. In other cases, I found some posts were not as clear as I would have liked. 

These posts typically dealt with more abstract topics like the mind and time. I have edited them in an attempt to clarify some of my points.

Overall, I think many of the paragraphs were too long, so I have shortened them. This is in keeping with current writing standards for blogs. I also want to ensure a level of consistently among the posts, so I have used the same font and size for all the posts in their updates. 

Hopefully, the posts are now more readable. I cannot guarantee that they are error free, but many of the errors have been fixed. 

Proofing copy is a real art, and sometimes even my repeated reading of a post does not reveal an error. I use spell and grammar checks before I post an item, but errors have still found their their way into the final copy.

If you find an error or think something I wrote is confusing, please comment on it. I will be grateful for your feedback, and it will allow me to fix a problem right away. So far I have not had any comments on my posts, so I don't know if I am getting my points across.  

I have not yet made the changes to the posts on the blog on my website thepropheticdreamer.

Rain and More Rain

In my last post, I wrote about some severe weather in South Carolina with rainfall that broke all previous records. And now, we are seeing this happening in Texas.

During the hurricane season, some areas of the US often receive large amounts of rain due to hurricanes or tropical storms, resulting in flooding and power outages. However, the amount of rain in South Carolina and Texas is not normal even for the hurricane season, and it has broken existing records. The weather experts attribute the conditions to an unusually strong El Niño, and warnings have been given that some areas of the US should expect severe weather this winter.

My last dream concerning weather indicated that weather would get increasing worse during the next 10 – 15 years. There may well be periods of relative quiet, but the dream forecast worsening weather overall. 

I personally think we will see increasingly larger storms with rainfall records being shattered in many parts of the world. This does not mean all areas will experience more rainfall. More rain may occur in some areas and severe drought in other areas.

In another earlier dream in my post on 5/07/2015, I was told that food shortages would occur in China in three years. Severe weather that causes flooding in some areas and drought in other areas could certainly lead to food shortages. Crops may be destroyed or wilt, depending on the conditions, but in either case they are lost.

Pay attention to your dreams and events such as these will not leave you caught unaware. Climate change is real, and the effects are going to be felt worldwide. I will continue to post dreams that might be warnings about future severe weather or earth changes.

I found an error in my post of 8/04/2015. When I provided an update to my earlier post about storms and food shortages, I mentioned a food shortage occurring in China in two years. It should have been three years, as stated in my original post about this. I verified that three years is correct by going back to my original recording of the dream, and I have corrected this error in the post.

Kindle Availability

In addition to its availability on Amazon.com as a paperback, The Man Who Sees Tomorrow in His Dreams is available on Kindle devices.

Book Availability

The Man Who Sees Tomorrow in His Dreams: With Faith, So Can You is available on Amazon.com.

Kirkus Indie Review for The Man Who Sees Tomorrow in His Dreams

"Readers of spiritual and self-help books will appreciate how Desautels frankly says that his dreams only point the way to action; in dreams regarding his diet or exercise routines, for example, he notes that the actual waking-world work is all up to him. This practical turn makes the book consistently rewarding.

The intriguing story of how one man harnessed his dreams and changed his life."

Kirkus Indie, Kirkus Media LLC, 6411 Burleson Rd., Austin, TX 78744

The complete review can be found at indie@kirkusreviews. 

My website is www.thepropheticdreamer.com. I have included a separate page for Europe with links for ordering from Amazon.com

A Precognitive Dream About Storms Becoming Fulfilled

Today I checked the news and found the top story on CNN is about unprecedented rain and flooding in South Carolina. According to CNN, “President Barack Obama has declared an emergency in South Carolina.” 

If you have not read my posts or have forgotten what I wrote, I suggest you read my posts of 5/07/2015, 8/04/2015, and 8/18/2015. The first two are about the prediction of a major rain event in South Carolina, and the last one is about what we can expect concerning weather for the next 10 – 15 years.

I don’t know if anyone in South Carolina read my posts when I published them, but clearly our dreams can help us prepare for such events. If we are wrong or things change and the events do not occur, no harm is done and we are probably much better prepared if such events should occur in the future. 

As I write this, it is raining where I live in Florida. Although rain is normal this time of the year, we have had record amounts the past few months. Florida, South Carolina and Texas have all seen record rainfall this year. And similar conditions have been seen in other parts of the world, not just the United States

Pope Francis recently made a plea to President Barack Obama about the urgent need to address climate change. I believe that things will only get worse, and we must all wake up to the rapid changes in climate. Pay attention to your dreams and be forewarned about dangerous situations and events that might affect you and your family. 

My thoughts and prayers go out to those in harm’s way. During my lifetime, I have lived through major storms, and an all-consuming fear can be present. The danger to you or your family, as well as the threat of your house or livelihood being washed away, can make you numb. 

I have always been a proponent of advance preparation and being proactive, which is probably why I give such importance to dreams. You do not need to be blindsided by such events in your life. I believe a source of help is available that is unrecognized by most people, and that source is your dreams.

Current and Future Plans

Recently, I have reviewed my posts of this past year and found I have covered the main topics concerning dreams. I have collected all my posts in the form of a book with posts categorized by major topic. This collection provides my views and experience with a wide variety of subjects. 

This is not the end of my posts, but they will be less frequent in the near future. If I have an interesting dream or something to say regarding some topic related to dreams, I will still create a post and send out a notification as a tweet. But I am no longer trying to publish two posts a week as before.

My intent is to publish my posts through July of this year as a book with the following chapter headings or something similar:

• Dream Basics

• Health and Health Dreams

• Daily Challenges and Dreams

• Precognition in Dreams

• Mind, the Psychic, and Spirit

• Dreams of Death and Dying

• The Nature of Time

• Additional Topics

The table of contents will include a description of each post and corresponding page number. Any person interested in my views will be able to quickly find my posts related to a specific topic of interest. My best estimate is that the book will be available in the first half of next year. My current thought for a title is Commentary on Dreams and Related Topics. 

I also intend to finish preparation of a book of short stories. This has been in the background for a long time and I now feel the need to finish it. These two efforts will consume much of my time, which is one of the reasons for less frequent posts. Also, things are changing in my life and I feel the need to expand the subject matter of my posts, but cannot do it until I finish my books. 

I expect future posts to deal with other topics such as healing and personal transformation, which have only been touched upon in relation to dreams. They will become major topics in themselves.

Remembering Dreams and Improving Memory

This morning I was reminded of the frustration that can result from the inability to remember a dream that was once very clear. Yesterday, I took a nap in the afternoon and remembered two dreams upon awakening. The second one seemed more important, so I focused on its possible meaning. After that, I dismissed it, certain I could later recall it when I was ready to record my dreams.

When I recorded my dreams from last night, I intended to include the two dreams from my nap the previous afternoon. I easily recalled the first dream, but I drew a blank for the second one. For a brief moment, I found it frustrating because I was certain I would have no trouble remembering it.

If you find yourself in this situation, don’t despair. Leave space in your notebook for recording the dream later and continue with your daily activities. You will discover that something that seems completely unrelated can often trigger your recall of the dream. In my case, I went through my normal morning routine and then drove to a mall. Later when I returned home, as soon as I stepped into my house, the dream flashed back into my mind. I can now record it with full details.

Of course, the dream is never really gone from your mind. It has simply gone into a part of your consciousness that is not easily accessed at will. 

One approach to recall a forgotten dream is to just relax as you do when entering meditation and give yourself suggestions that you will easily recall the dream. Often, you will find that the memory of it will pop back into your conscious mind. 

You should never tell yourself that you have a poor memory and cannot remember your dreams. By so doing, you reinforce to your subconscious this condition.

Another approach is the one I took. I avoided being stressed out about it. I forgot about it and just carried on with normal activities. Later, the forgotten dream popped back into my conscious mind without any effort on my part.

The use of suggestion in a relaxed state is a good way to improve your memory. You can do this by feeding suggestions that affirm you have a perfect memory and can easily recall any information you desire. The repetitive message eventually reaches your subconscious, which tries to make it reality. You may have to play with the words to get a phrase you are comfortable with, but if you are persistent, you will see results. 

Unfortunately, many people do the exact opposite of what they should do. As they age, they often complain that their memory isn’t what it used to be. They convince themselves that their memory will continue to deteriorate as they get older. The subconscious, being fed this message repeatedly, accepts it as fact and responds accordingly.

Dreams and the Stock Market Plunge

In an earlier post, I indicated that I am reluctant to relate dreams that I have had which deal with the stock market. I do not want to be responsible for someone else’s financial decisions. I am not a financial planner. Also, my dreams that convey messages about the markets are experienced by me to address my concerns at a given moment in time. They may not literally be about the stock market. 

In any case, my dreams may be of little use to someone else and can even be misleading. Your answers to concerns you may have need to come from your own dreams. The main emphasis of my posts has been to encourage you to get help from your dreams and show you how to proceed. The objective is not to show you how to get rich, but to show you how to become a better you and experience a richer life.

I write this today because of the recent plunge in the stock markets in the United States and around the world. You may wonder if I have had any dreams about this sharp downturn. I will say that my dreams continuously monitor all aspects of my life, often previewing events to come. So this applies to my financial health as well as my mental and physical health. 

My dreams sometimes relate to my investments and do provide warnings when appropriate. I do not know what the stock market is going to do next week or next year, but I am warned when I take some action that might be risky or when economic conditions change. Sometimes I am advised to purchase an asset that will do well in the future, as described in my book.

A few months ago, I saw a sharp correction or downturn in the market as a distinct possibility. This should not surprise anyone because the market has been overdue for a correction. The market goes through cycles and corrections naturally occur. 

However, I am concerned that the market has been driven to an artificially high level by the Federal Reserve. In fact, a year or more ago I dreamed that the bull market was experiencing a drug-induced marathon run, which I believe was due to the Federal Reserve’s actions concerning quantitative easing and keeping interest rates near zero. 

In the actual dream, I was told the market was at a 54-year high. I associated the number 54 with Studio 54, where drug use was reportedly common. In other words, the market was on a drug-induced high, and I took the drug to be the actions of the Federal Reserve.

If you want to feel more secure about your investments and any financial decisions you make, get a financial adviser and pay attention to your dreams. Your dreams are not a magic genie you can stroke to make you rich, but at times advice from your dreams may be forthcoming that greatly benefits you financially. If you have the right purpose and keep your life in balance, you will receive guidance and benefits from your dreams. 

In any case, you should have a financial plan. If you have investments, you may want to see a financial planner who can help you structure a plan to meet your needs.

My longer-term concern about the health of the economy involves climate change. The economic impact of these changes could be monumental. Without considerable preparation by the United States and other nations, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and severe flooding and drought could devastate the world’s economies.

A Matter of Faith

The subtitle of my memoir The Man Who Sees Tomorrow in His Dreams is With Faith, So Can You. This is not just an afterthought; it is essential to everything I say you can achieve through dreams. 

First, let’s examine the word faith. The dictionary usually defines it as a strong belief in something without having concrete proof. Now the lack of proof, which scientists require, is what causes some to consider those of faith as weak-minded and hoping for something that doesn’t exist. I think this is a misconception of how faith works.

There are laws of cause and effect that govern the universe in which we live. They form the very foundation of physical existence. The concept of causality goes back to the ancient Greeks and extends into all of modern science. We find it in the major religions such as Christianity and Hinduism; the phrase reap what you sow and Hindu laws of karma are familiar to most of us.

However, I am not going to discuss the scientific aspects or even the religious ones. Instead, I would like to focus on some of the metaphysics regarding cause and effect and show how it relates to faith.

Several times in my posts, I have mentioned the book The Law of Psychic Phenomena by Thomson Jay Hudson. This classic work is important because it examines a possible framework for the operation of many phenomena that are not part of hard science, but are recognized by diverse segments of the population.

I am referring to paranormal phenomena, which seem to exist, but cannot be adequately explained with current scientific theories. In this realm, I include aspects of dreaming that involve precognition and telepathy. I am often asked how such dreams are possible. My answer usually is to the effect that it is the nature of things.

The Law of Psychic Phenomena also explains that it is the nature of things, but it defines and explores the aspects of mind that make such phenomena possible. According to Hudson, there are two aspects of mind: the objective and subjective. The objective is our normal conscious reasoning mind and the subjective is our unconscious or subconscious mind, which is the creative force that maintains and builds the lives we desire.

According to Hudson, the subjective mind has abilities our objective minds do not possess such as clairvoyance and telepathy. These powers can be activated in various ways, such as through meditation, hypnosis, and even severe trauma.

Through our daily activities, we are constantly feeding information to the subjective mind. Our constant mind talk is taking our strongest beliefs and impressing them upon our subconscious or subjective mind, which then tries to carry them out. So if you have a strong belief about something, faith in something, your subconscious mind will use all its powers to bring it about.

If you are sick and believe you will get well, your subconscious mind will try to restore your health, provided you are not also sending it negative or contradictory thoughts. If you have faith in the ability to get answers and daily guidance from your dreams, your subconscious mind will try to bring that about, which is easy for it to do since it creates the dreams.

My point here is that faith has a real and tangible effect whether it is related to your health, finding a job, or solving some other problem in your life. There is a law of cause and effect, just as real as with normal physical phenomena, only here the initiator is mind.

Perhaps the scientists will say it is all still physical, that certain thoughts cause certain electrical impulses or electromagnetic effects that in turn cause other physical effects related to the subconscious. I don’t intend to argue those points, but I will say that the processes that can be activated in the subconscious include abilities not yet adequately explained by science.

The principle I just described forms the basis of many of the self-help books written in the 20th century. It is integral to the Edgar Cayce philosophy from the readings. At least one reading suggested using repetitive thoughts during pre-sleep to convey requests to the subconscious to correct problems or for dream guidance, since it is easier to reach the subconscious while in that state.

Cayce himself used self-induced hypnosis to reach the trance state from which he responded to questions during the readings. The use of suggestion is also prevalent in the books of Jane Roberts that are based on channeling through Seth; belief is central to the recommendations for improving one’s life provided in The Nature of Personal Reality by Jane Roberts.

The principle of faith is used by successful athletes who work to convince themselves that they will achieve a certain result. They must see it as happening so strongly that the subconscious does everything in its power to make them succeed. There can be no doubt, and no maybe I can. There is only I have succeeded.

This same approach applies to true religious faith. If you want a healing or to heal as Christ did, there can be no room for doubt. Doubt just serves to send a contradictory message to the subconscious, and now the subconscious is torn between two different messages. You want an unambiguous message sent to the subconscious so your orders are completely clear. It is a matter of faith.

Some may question how religion enters into this picture at all. In The Law of Psychic Phenomena, Hudson states that he believes the subconscious can apprehend the laws of the universe. In the Cayce view, there is an aspect of mind called the superconscious that never left its source, the Creator.

Messages from the superconscious are direct messages from God. Through meditation and in certain dreams, the superconscious can be reached. If your purpose is spiritual and consistent with the Creative or Universal Forces (Cayce expression), the power of God resonates within you and strengthens your power so anything is possible. Your mind is now operating through the superconscious mind and is in tune with the Universal.

Now suppose you desire something that is a selfish or harmful goal—one that is best described as unloving toward yourself or others. You can attempt to enlist the power of your subconscious mind to achieve that result, and may even have some success. 

However, your desire will not be in harmony with the Universal or your superconscious, something your subconscious will recognize, and the results will be ambiguous or may cause mental or physical problems as your subconscious tries to tell you that something is wrong. Your abilities will eventually dry up because they are being misused.

As a simple analogy that illustrates the importance of having individual efforts in sync with external forces, suppose there is a force pushing a child on a swing. If the force to the back of the child is applied at just the right time, the swing will travel farther on each cycle. This is because the applied force is synchronous with the movement of the swing and aids the child’s efforts. 

Now, if the force is applied at the wrong time, the swing distance will decrease and the swing movement may become chaotic instead of smooth. If this continues, the swing will stop and may result in the child being thrown to the ground.

If you go with the flow—your thoughts and actions are in harmony with the flow— your life gets easier and you become successful in what you undertake. If you are out of sync with the flow, you may experience frequent disappointment and problems.

There is a second volume to The Law of Psychic Phenomena called Physical Manifestations and Philosophy of Christ. You should read this if you want to better understand the work of Hudson and his view of Christian faith. For those interested in becoming healers or in receiving a healing, I think you will find this a fascinating read.

Your faith activates the creative force within you. There is a real cause and effect relationship. But doubt can undo this by sending a conflicting message to your subconscious. Also, any selfish motives will be in opposition to your higher mind and cause conflicts at deep levels within yourself, resulting in eventual disappointment and sorrow.

If you want to be certain that your beliefs and desires are the correct ones, find your soul’s purpose. Then bring your desires into alignment with that purpose. Now you are operating in harmony with your higher purpose and cannot fail. You are going with the creative flow that some call the Holy Spirit and others call the Tao. There are many names for it, but it simply is The Way.

You cannot simply tell yourself that you believe and expect results. The subconscious cannot be commanded in this way. Either you believe or you don’t. 

The operation of the subconscious remains hidden from the conscious mind and your conscious mind cannot just order it to do something. It operates based on your real beliefs, not your pretended or hoped for beliefs, and possesses its own unique drive toward a loving creativity.

Even in hypnosis, when the conductor of the session gives instructions that appear to go directly to the subconscious mind of the person hypnotized, the morality of the individual in trance cannot be overridden. People under hypnosis who believe committing a crime is wrong simply fall out of hypnosis or become very confused if ordered to commit a crime.

Your work with dreams will aid you in understanding yourself and your real beliefs. You can keep beliefs that work for you and are in harmony with your soul’s purpose, and you can change beliefs that don’t work and are limiting you in various ways. As the subtitle of my book states, with faith you too can see tomorrow in your dreams.

A Dream About Edgar Cayce and Climate Change

Last night I dreamed about Edgar Cayce and climate change. In the dream, I was viewing a large vertical panel that contained a chart of some kind describing distinct periods in the history of the earth. There was also some mention of Edgar Cayce and his prophecies concerning earth changes. 

My attention focused on what was labeled Period 6. This period was concerned with the present and near future. An inner voice told me that the weather would get much worse during the next 10-15 years. It said that some current landmasses would be under water due to flooding. I saw the year 2030 as the end of this period.

We have already recently seen a climatologist report telling us to expect severe weather this coming winter in many parts of the United States. Climate change is already affecting many parts of the world such as Myanmar, which is experiencing severe flooding and loss of land. My dream seems to be saying that flooding will get much worse as storms increase. 

In the dream, I was aware of Period 7, but I did not focus on it to see the content. Perhaps it will be revealed in another dream. As always, there is the possibility that the dream was symbolic of something else entirely. However, the dream is consistent with the weather changes we see occurring and predictions made by others such as Edgar Cayce and Gordon-Michael Scallion.

Sex Dreams

Sex is a subject that many associate with dreaming due to the Freudian view that dreams represent our repressed drives and desires. One source worth considering for the basics, particularly for teenagers experiencing wet dreams, is WebMD. 

This site also references a study in which 8% of the adults had dreams with some sexual content. However, one should accept these results with caution since the average age was about thirty, making the group non-representative of the broader population.

The 8% of dreams with some sexual content, which includes kissing, intercourse, and masturbation, might be lower than many people expect. With the enormous focus on sex in our everyday lives, from news to entertainment, 8% does seem like a low number. However, this is what the study found.

There are many possibilities in sex dreams, from an expression of conscious desires continued into the dream cycle to symbolic representations of other situations that nothing to do with sex. I find that an intimate or deep verbal intercourse with another is often shown as sexual intercourse in a dream. 

This may occur with someone of the same sex or opposite sex. So if you dream that you have had sexual relations with someone of the same sex, do not assume that this means you have homosexual tendencies. That is one possible meaning. Another equally likely meaning is that you had a deep conversation with another person where real bonding occurred, and the dream has nothing to do with the sex act or having sexual desire for that person.

Both types of dreams, symbolic of a bonding and indicative of homosexual activity, were found in the Cayce readings. Often the sex dreams were warnings about the dangers of irresponsible or excessive sex. 

Some will find the Cayce view of sex difficult to accept, and others will applaud it. In his readings, he states that sexual intercourse outside of marriage is unacceptable to God. Of course, one might ask what he means by marriage. Regardless of the definition, I think that few would consider the relative free sexual expression that occurs nowadays as constituting what Cayce and most others mean by marriage, whether it is homosexual or heterosexual.

Edgar Cayce strongly believed in the bible and claimed he read it once for every year of his life. He was active in the Disciples of Christ church, and during his early life, he would probably be considered mainstream in his Christian beliefs. 

The life readings he gave that referred to previous lives began to change that. He eventually accepted reincarnation, but it was only after a long struggle with what he initially considered a strange concept that he worried was counter to biblical teachings.

I think one can naturally question whether Cayce’s personal views affected the information that came through him in a reading. During the readings, his biblical views based on his Christian upbringing did not filter out references to past lives and the doctrine of reincarnation that he found foreign in his waking state, but his personal views of sex and marriage could still have colored the readings.

Some believe there is a need for chastity to achieve true spiritual enlightenment. In the early 1990s, a great many people were shocked when it was revealed by a woman that Jiddu Krishnamurti had carried out a long love affair with her mother and wife of his close associate. 

This was particularly shocking because many thought that Krishnamurti was above sexual desires and had achieved a spiritual state without carnal desire. As a young man, some thought that Krishnamurti was the second coming that the world waited for, and an entire spiritual organization was built around him.

You must always remember that your dreams are about you. If you find warnings in your dreams about your sexual activity, don’t try to make a general statement that applies to all of society out of it. 

Look at yourself, your beliefs, and your activity. Is your activity consistent with your moral code, or does it violate it? Is your action beneficial to you and others around you? Or does it expose you or others to dangers such as disease, emotionally instability, or responsibilities for which you and they are ill prepared?

There is nothing free about free love. Many teenagers have seen their college and career dreams evaporate as the result of a momentary bad decision. And even excessive safe sex that you feel you can handle emotionally does not protect your partners from psychological or emotional trauma, and it may indicate you have an addiction. 

We affect everyone we contact; we leave them better off or worse off as the result. And if we leave them worse off, that is something we will eventually have to face in ourselves.

During my lifetime, I have encountered several women whose lives were unalterably changed during their early teenage years as the result of a disastrous sexual relationship for which they were not ready. They gave themselves to their partner totally, believing it was true love. And when it ended badly, they were devastated. 

Years later, these women were still struggling with deep-seated psychological problems and wounds that may never heal. And perhaps the men involved also carried with them unresolved psychological trauma. 

There are other dreams with sexual connotations that normally are not related to sex. Sometimes in a dream, you may see someone naked, or find yourself partially or completely naked. The dream could be saying the other person is an exhibitionist or you are an exhibitionist, but more often it is because someone has become exposed emotionally. 

If you see another person naked in a dream, the person who is exposed in waking life is probably not that actual person. The person naked in the dream is someone who reminds you of the person actually exposed. 

Update to Dreams About Storms and Food Shortages

In my post of 5/07/2015, I said that on April 22, 2015 I dreamed about storms hitting South Carolina. There was also a feeling of huge amounts of water in the dream due to continuous rain. 

Recently, we have seen record amounts of water in the Tampa Bay area due to continuous storms from the Gulf of Mexico. Fortunately, the area where I live has not experienced any flooding. I do not live in a flood zone, something I checked out carefully before I bought, and the area appears to be safe. However, this is not true of many areas. 

I watched an interview with the Mayor of Tampa on the local news during which he discussed problems in South Tampa, which has seen severe flooding with many roads and intersections closed. I even heard him use the words climate change as one of the possible causes of all the rain.

I am providing this update to the earlier post because it is possible that the storms I saw in the dream were the storms that have recently affected South Tampa and other parts of the Tampa Bay area. 

My dream indicated the area was South Carolina, and I associate South Carolina with severe weather that has devastated parts of the coast in the past. If the dream wanted to highlight South Tampa, South Carolina would be a natural association. Also, I received the information in the dream from a TV news report, which is how I received the information about South Tampa. 

Time will tell if this interpretation is correct. I will continue to watch for any storm activity near South Carolina as the hurricane season comes into full swing. Also, in the dream, I was concerned about this type of weather spreading to other regions around the world, a concern I have felt during the past few days with the flooding in Myanmar (Burma), now under a flood emergency.

The other earlier dream I had on April 19, 2015 that was mentioned in the previous post was about food shortages in China occurring in three years. I was shown a map of where the food shortages occur, which appeared to be near the central part of the country. 

If food shortages are literal and do occur somewhere in three years, China may just be an association my subconscious made for the actual area. At this time, I don’t know of any obvious association other than China being the country with the largest population in the world and a rapidly growing economy.

Perhaps that association translates into some other highly populated country or area that experiences severe food shortages. Of course, we are already seeing huge problems with food shortages in several regions around the world due to conflicts in the Middle East and Africa and flooding in Myanmar and Bangladesh.

As always, dreams are about the dreamer. The storm dream appeared to tune into to a future event that would have some impact on my life. Sometimes we dream about future events that will be of interest to us, even if we are not directly involved. I suspect this will be the case for the dream about food shortages. It will mostly likely relate to China or some area of the country or world in which I have an interest, so I will closely follow any major news story related to it. 

Of course, the dream may not be about food at all, but since the storm part appears to be literal as an event that occurred, I tend to think the food shortages will be as well.

I Am Who I Am.

We sometimes hear someone make the comment: I am who I am, or I am what I am, or it is just the way I am. This often occurs after the person has received criticism for some statement or action. I am not referring to LGBT. This post is dealing with something else. The subject here is any individual who may occasionally justify certain characteristics or behavior with one of the three responses about his or her identity that is not related to sexual preference.

This begs the question: Who am I? People have investigated this question for thousands of years, and religions believe they have the answer. Some scientists too have concluded that they have the answer, which is often dramatically different from any answer religions provide. 

So when people give one of the above three responses, or something similar, to criticism, what do they really mean? Do they mean that their behaviors are hard coded into their personalities to such a degree that they cannot be or do otherwise? They came out of the womb that way and there is nothing they can do to change, nor should they try.

Parents often face this dilemma in raising children. During the teenage years, the child is frequently heard saying, "you won’t accept me the way I am. You want me to be someone else." And in many circumstances, this is a valid response, especially if the parent is trying to decide the child’s future and life’s career.

But many times it is not an appropriate response. A child who does not want to take personal responsibility for his or her actions may also respond this way. And here we have the crux of the matter. When is a criticism valid and when is it misplaced? Sometimes we may be affected by a criticism and think we should change, even when the criticism is not justified.

My answer to this is that you need to know yourself. You need to know who and what you are. Through dreams, you can discover your individual identity and soul's purpose. Then you are not affected by others’ criticism if is counter to your purpose and knowledge of yourself. 

One of the worse reasons I can think of for doing something is because everyone is doing it. Sometimes the herd is following a leader off a cliff. You need to be so certain in your own self-awareness that even the influences of your family and friends will not send you in the wrong direction.

The other side to this is our recognition that we are the wrong path or have behavior that is unacceptable and needs to change. Someone in this position who gives one of the three, or similar, responses I listed to criticism is saying I don’t want or intend to change. This person’s attitude is that this is the way I am and you are going to have to accept me this way. 

Of course, for someone behaving badly, this attitude is not based on any deep introspection, but rather it is based on the person’s laziness and lack of concern about his or her behavior and any negative impact on others and his or her own life. The response is a selfish one and indicates a complete lack of self-awareness.

Our dreams make it difficult for us to ignore our own selfishness and lack of regard for others. If we are sincerely seeking help and working with guidance from our dreams, we will see all aspects of ourselves. Our beauty and creativity will be evident, but so will our blemishes and pettiness. 

So the next time you are tempted to say this is just the way I am, ask yourself if you really know this to be true. Or are you just avoiding dealing with some aspect of yourself that you would like to ignore, but need to correct. Of course, our failings are usually quite evident to others, even if we ignore them.

Our dreams show us our potentials, what we can become to family and friends in our lives, but they also show us our deficiencies. I believe that one of the reasons few people work daily with their dreams is their unwillingness to look at their deficiencies. They don’t want to see them; they don’t want to change.

Bad behavior that can affect one’s health is an example of this. If a person is doing something that is detrimental to his or her physical health, the effects will be revealed in dreams. The person can refuse to look at it and ignore any future dreams, but the effects will still occur. 

We live in a world of cause and effect. If you want to change the effect, you have to change the cause. Those who laugh it off and treat the warning as trivial are destined to reap the consequences.

During my life, I have known several people who lived hard, consuming excessive amounts of alcohol, engaging in late night partying, and getting inadequate amounts of sleep and exercise. They laughed at any suggestion they should slow down and bring balance into their lives. A common response was "I am going to enjoy life and not worry about it. When my time comes, it comes." (One person I knew with this attitude died shortly after turning thirty.)

If that is really their choice and they have a full understanding of what that entails, then they have made their decision and must live with the consequences. However, years later, I heard many (those that still survived) of these same people say they wished they had made better choices when they were younger. 

It is amazing how a diseased, suffering body and the approach of the end of one's life changes one's perspective. I think few people who abuse their bodies when young really understand what they are doing, and they don’t actually want to face the consequences. 

Serious work with our dreams changes our views; it changes us. We grow in our understanding of our own lives and the creation of those lives through our thoughts and actions. New potentials open up, and we see our connection to everyone and everything around us. We begin to learn who we really are. We see the life we are building and the consequences of our actions.

Literal Dreams

I have mentioned literal dreams in several of my posts, but only in connection with some other topic. In this post, I focus entirely on literal dreams. 

First, let me define what I mean by a literal dream. I consider a literal dream one in which the story or message is literal. If you dream that you meet someone and have an unusual conversation, the dream would be literal if this meeting and conversation actually occurs just like in the dream. 

Suppose you have a friend or a family member who has just been diagnosed with a serious disease like cancer. This individual meets with you or calls you to tell you the diagnosis. If you dream about this event as it actually occurs, the dream would be literal. 

Now, it is possible that you may have a dream in which a portion of it is literal, but symbols are also present. If in the above example, suppose you dreamed that someone else was telling you about the cancer. 

The message may be literal, but the person delivering it could be a symbolic representation of the person with the disease. In this case, the person in the dream will usually remind you of this other person in a striking way, so the subconscious mind through association used this other person to symbolize the individual with the actual disease. 

A telephone dream can be a literal dream as far as the message is concerned, but in your conscious state, you do not receive a telephone call. The telephone in the dream is there to tell you that you are receiving a communication from your subconscious that often contains a critical message. 

In my case, one night the telephone rang in a dream with a disturbing message. The voice on the other end said your son is in trouble. This dream occurred over forty years ago; at the time, my son was in preschool. Unknown, to my conscious mind, my son was having a serious problem with an older, larger boy in the preschool who was a bully. 

Perhaps, there were signs my conscious mind missed. This was a chaotic period in my life and many things undoubtedly escaped my conscious awareness. However, this situation did not escape my subconscious awareness, so it made my conscious mind aware through a dream. My subconscious considered the message too important to put it in a dream with symbols that I might not interpret correctly. 

I have found that dreams in which I receive a warning about some action I have taken or am considering taking also often contain literal messages. The message could be delivered via the telephone, but my dreams usually deliver the message through a voice without any association with a person. I just hear a loud background voice that delivers the warning. 

The voice does not have to be delivering a warning for the message to be literal. The voice may advise you to take a certain action that would be in your best interest, but either you are unaware of the opportunity or are procrastinating. 

Once I dreamed that a voice said now would be a good time to buy puts on the stock market. I did not take any action, but the market did take a dramatic downturn within a week or two of the dream. 

I have had many dreams in which a voice comments on the health of an individual who is a close friend or family member. In one I dream I had recently, an angelic presence in a dream suddenly approached and said that George (not actual name) has a serious heart problem.

Of course, this dream could be symbolic, but based on what I know about George, I think it is literal. Other times, especially when I am concerned about the health of someone, a voice gives me an update on the state of the person’s health. 

If you have a telephone dream, or hear a voice as I have described, pay close attention to the dream. The message could be of critical importance to you. I should add that some of my dreams about earth changes such as a certain coastal city not being safe after the earth axis shifts were delivered in this fashion. 

I give more credence to these dreams being literal indications of future events than my symbolic dreams about earth changes, which could just as well be about internal or external events in my own life. A similar comment applies to economic events such as sudden major changes in the financial markets. 

A Potentially Cataclysmic Event

There is an article in the July, 2015 issue of The New Yorker called The Really Big One by Kathryn Schulz that caused me to reflect on a dream from many years ago about Seattle. The article is about a seismologist’s view that there is a significant probability of a major quake in the Pacific Northwest within the next 50 years. 

The area is in the Ring of Fire, where the Cascadia fault zone is located off the coast of the Pacific Northwest. Scientists know that earthquakes in certain regions where there are fault zones tend to repeat with a known cycle, which is independent of current climate changes, and they have discovered that this is one of those regions.

The projections are not due to some prophet calling for destruction in that part of the world. They are based on known data and scientific projections about potential quakes in that region. Earthquakes have occurred there before every few hundred years on the average, and the next one is already overdue. The article that describes this with all the details is well worth the read.

My interest, as I stated, is due to a dream I had concerning the city of Seattle, which is in the zone of impact should a major quake occur. The dream occurred a long time ago, and it was during a period when I was reflecting on potential earth changes.

One night I dreamed a major quake had struck the region with a severe impact on Seattle. The top part of the space needle had broken off and fallen to the ground. The city had been inundated and was under several feet of water.

Seattle was not an area I ever traveled to on business, and normally I would not think about this particular city. Of course, as I have stated in other posts, this destruction in Seattle could symbolize some event that occurred in my life at that time. However, due to the recent article and likelihood of a major quake in that region, I think my dream could also have been a reflection of a future event. 

Perhaps at the time of the dream, when I was reflecting on possible quakes in California, my subconscious tuned into an occurrence in the Pacific Northwest that it saw as a future event. What triggered it doesn’t matter; it is worth considering as a potential warning.

I do not live near Seattle and have no plans to visit that area, so I am not at risk should a seismic event occur. However, there are millions of people potentially impacted by such an event. My advice to those living in high-risk areas is to be alert to warnings from your own dreams. 

If you are meditating and working with your dreams on a daily basis, you will not be caught unprepared. If you are at risk and have no desire to experience a catastrophic event, I believe your own inner guidance will provide warnings in advance of such events. 

Note that I say have no desire to experience such events because some people actually crave what they consider as excitement when in a potentially life-and-death struggle.

If you wait until a disaster occurs to try to tune into your inner self, to get guidance from your dreams, you may find it is too late. Learning how to decode your dreams takes time and practice through regular effort. A disaster doesn’t suddenly give you that ability. 

A similar comment can be made about meditation. If you have not been meditating on a regular basis, you may find it impossible to meditate during a crisis. Louis Pasteur made the statement, "chance only favours the mind which is prepared" often quoted as “chance favors the prepared mind.” I would like to add the statement: Survival in the time of disaster favors those who are prepared.

I am reminded of a story told by one of my English professors in college. He said he was taking his oral exam for the PhD when he was asked a question about what he considered an unimportant reference he could not recall. He responded by saying he could always look it up if he needed it. The questioning professor said, “You need it now.” 

Our physical life is fragile indeed. If you place all of your trust in you wealth, job, and the stability of your environment, during a major disaster you will discover how quickly your sense of security can disappear. A house, personal possessions, and job can all be gone in an instant. 

True security comes from a sense of attunement with your inner self and higher consciousness; it does not come from the material. During my lifetime, I have experienced power outages and blocked roads because of storms. I was never in serious danger, but without power and easy access to stores, I realized just how dependent we all are on technology and accessibility. 

I think people who have grown up with tablets and mobile phones will be quite challenged if they have no cell phone access and are without power for their homes. Yet, this is something many may come to experience.

Nightmares

Yesterday there was a headline article on CNN about former POW Jessica Lynch. She describes for CNN her life the past twelve years and the challenges she has had to face. Now traveling and speaking to groups as a motivational speaker, she acknowledges that for twelve years she failed to seek help for her mental health. Apparently, this year she has changed her mind and is now getting professional help.

The reason this story caught my attention is her assertion that she has had the same nightmare for the last twelve years. Apparently, this is not uncommon for those suffering from PTSD as the result of combat or some other traumatic, life-changing event. In her case, the nightmare is a replay of Iraqi soldiers coming to get her as she tries to escape. 

This fits the classic definition of a nightmare as a disturbing, realistic dream. Nightmares, as contrasted with normal dreams, only occur during the REM dream cycle.

If you are suffering in a similar fashion with a recurring nightmare that affects the quality of your life, I urge you to get professional help. Even a few weeks can seem a long time with a recurring nightmare. And a period of twelve years is an extremely long time to experience the same nightmare. 

Sometimes those suffering from PTSD after returning from war have experienced nightmares the remainder of their lives.

The nightmare resulting from some traumatic event like enemy capture is one type of nightmare and professional help may be needed to help the individual face and resolve the cause of the nightmare. For most people, the underlying cause could be stress due to something in their individual lives. 

Perhaps they are failing at something regardless of the effort made. It could be marriage, a job, a sport, or finding themselves unable to pay the bills. This stress could trigger a recurring nightmare in which they are sinking or being chased. Or they may be climbing up a slippery or treacherous slope unable to reach the top and find themselves falling or in fear of falling.

I believe that nightmares can also be triggered by coming events seen by the subconscious, which triggers a response in the form of a nightmare. As a young child less than five years old, I frequently had dreams, including nightmares. In fact, in the family I was known as the dreamer and sleepwalker. 

I can recall a recurring dream that terrified me at the time. I dreamed that I saw a gigantic ball of snow and ice starting to roll down a hill headed toward our house. As the ball started to roll over and crush the house, I awoke. I lived in Vermont, so ice and snow were common sights. However, in the dream we were being destroyed by the snow and ice.

This dream recurred until my father died from a kidney disease when I was five years old. After his death, our family fortunes went downhill very rapidly. 

My mother went back to work outside the home after being out of the labor force for almost twenty years. She was forced to accept a low paying job, which had to support two young boys. A load of medical bills left from my father’s illness added to the pressure. Within a few years, we were destitute. We were indeed crushed by the death of my father.

I believe that my subconscious mind saw the coming death and drastic change in our financial situation. This information took the form of a nightmare in my dreams, and it continued until the actual event occurred. Regardless of whether your nightmares are precognitive or dealing with known situations, if they are recurring, you should pay close attention and try to determine the cause.

Individual nightmares might be triggered by strong medications that can disrupt the sleep and dream cycle, so examine the list of side effects associated with any medications you are taking. My own philosophy is the fewer medications, the better. But you may be dealing with a serious illness, and the medication you are taking may be the prescribed treatment. 

If you find the side effects unacceptable, you should discuss them with your physician. He or she may be able to find an alternative medication that is equally effective without the unpleasant or harmful side effects.

Some think that certain foods can cause nightmares, and there is limited evidence to supports this view. However, I cannot think of any examples from my own dreams. 

Nevertheless, this is a common view. In fact, when I reported my nightmares, and even non-stressful dreams, to my mother and grandparents as a young boy, they concluded they were caused by something I ate. Of course, their view of dreams was based on folklore and not any serious study, but sometimes there is an element of truth to folklore. 

As I have mentioned in other posts, for the most beneficial dreams you should eat a proper diet, get adequate exercise, stay away from drugs, unless prescribed by your doctor, and meditate daily.

Three Recent Precognitive Dreams

A week and a half ago, I had an interesting dream that is typical of many of my dreams that reflect the highlights of the next day. In the dream, I was talking with someone about a two-dimensional barcode. Data was being encoded in the barcode in a strange way. As the string of numbers was parsed, the representation of each digit was placed in the barcode on a certain row and column with no order structure apparent. 

The other person in the dream asked me if I understood how it worked. I said I did, and I told him someone just needed to write a program that did a table lookup to determine where to place the digit in the barcode based on the table. The table was key to the placement of data in the barcode.

A voice in the dream gave me a number that was four or five digits and said it was my identification. This number related to the barcode in some way. For clarification, I should add that I was once responsible for a font group that created digital barcode fonts, among other things, used for printing on commercial high speed ink-jet printers.

The next day was Sunday. I had just published a new post the previous day and did not plan to spend any time on my computer. I thought about going out for the day, but as the day progressed, I decided against it. Then late in the afternoon, I found myself on my computer. 

I suddenly decided, at least so I thought, I would start collecting my blogs into a book format. As I did, I realized that I had to do considerable rearranging of the order of the posts. I had to select the post and then decide where to place it in the book based on the product I had in mind. 

The product was a certain arrangement of the posts by topic and required my creating a mental table for the blog post location based on the topic. The dream played out and as always captured the salient parts of my activity.

About a month ago, I was awakened by a disturbing dream. The dream was brief and straightforward. Something happened in the area of my upper right molars. What appeared to be a bundle of nerves hung down from a section in my mouth. I was shocked in the dream and thought I had better go to the dentist immediately. 

Upon awakening, I checked for any pain or discomfort in that part of mouth, but could not find any. The teeth seemed fine, and I had never experienced any problems with the teeth in question.

I have often observed that if my dreams reflect a future event of this type, the actual event may not occur for a few weeks. Now, early last week or a few weeks after the dream, I noticed a sensitivity in that part of my mouth after eating some crunchy items the previous day, making it difficult to chew. I waited a few days to see if I had just irritated a tooth by what I ate or by grinding my teeth at night. The discomfort did not worsen, but it did not improve either.

On Sunday night, I had the following dream. I dreamed I was with a man walking along a road that passed a housing development with houses on each side. The man, who happened to be English, was in an executive position at my previous employer. We were going toward a building that housed two companies. He expressed concern over the presence of two companies in the same building. He was trying to determine which company caused some kind of problem involving them.

One thing I associate with the English is dentistry because of the stereotype of the English having poor dental care. I believe the dream meant the following. The houses represented my teeth. The walk was a journey through my mouth with the dentist, symbolized by the Englishman. His concern over the two companies represented some kind of concern over two teeth.

The next day, I was driving home from the mall, which takes me past my dentist’s office. I suddenly found myself turning into the parking lot, even though on Sunday I had decided to give it another week before making a decision about a visit to the dentist. I went into the office about 3:00 PM and the receptionist said she could get me in at 5:00 PM. 

When the dentist saw me at 5:00 PM, the dental assistant had already asked me questions, taken an X-ray, and checked for sensitivity on two molars. The dentist was very thorough, but despite his best efforts, it was not clear which of two teeth was the problem. One molar had a crown so it was not possible to determine the state of the underlying tooth. It is possible I irritated both. 

Right now, I am in monitoring mode and have another visit scheduled for August. If it was just an irritation from something I did like eating the crunchy food, it might clear up. I will look for further dreams that might indicate any needed action.

I should state very emphatically that in the case of the barcode dream and the second dream about the dentist, I did not intend to engage in the activity reflected in dreams when I started the day. These activities were not something I thought about before retiring the previous evenings to precipitate the dreams. 

The day after the barcode dream, I had no plans to access my computer when the day started. And my trip to the dentist appeared to be a spontaneous decision. Yet both dreams reflected the next day’s activities accurately before I even knew what I was going to do. 

I am not implying from my examples that these are the only recent precognitive dreams. These dreams were selected because I could easily describe the circumstances surrounding their occurrence. 

My dreams continue to reflect the next day’s key activities, events, and interactions. However, for some dreams a great deal of information would have to be provided for someone else to understand their meaning. Also, sometimes the information is highly personal relating to others as well as myself, so is not used in examples.

Paranormal Abilities in Dreams

In dreams, you can experience abilities of the soul that are not obvious in daily waking life. Telepathy, clairvoyance, and astral projection are the best known abilities. First, I will describe what I mean by each of these.

By telepathy, I mean the communication of one mind to another through a means other than the physical senses. Some may think that this automatically means that someone with telepathic powers can read minds, such as the main character Toby Logan in the TV show The Listener. 

This is not normally the case. However, there may be times when you suddenly “hear” someone say something to you or about you when no words were spoken. I give an example of this in my book involving a waitress in a restaurant I used to frequent.

Clairvoyance is the ability to see things beyond the use of the normal senses, which usually includes the ability to see future events. My precognitive dreams can be considered examples of my clairvoyance while in the dream state. And this ability does not just relate to the future; I may see events taking place that are beyond the range of my normal senses, such as a family member who is emotionally distraught at the time I dream of him or her.

Astral projection is thought to occur in dreams, although probably less frequently than telepathy and clairvoyance. This phenomenon is an out-of-body experience during which the astral body is said to travel outside the physical body to another location. 

The astral body is thought to be a replica of the physical body, but consisting of an energy form that is sensitive to feelings and emotions. This body lies between the mental body and soul.  

We all have psychic powers as part of our true nature, but for a variety of reasons they are not visible for most people. However, in dreams, we often will communicate directly with another person about issues not discussed in the waking state. Sometimes we are not involved in the discussion, but receive the thoughts of other people about us or some situation that involves us. 

I have had numerous dreams with both kinds of communications occurring. Consider the following example. Suppose you have recently starting dating someone, become infatuated, and are anxious to know what your friends think of your new love. You might well have a dream in which you overhear a conversation your friends are having about your situation. 

As another example, your behavior may have suddenly changed recently leaving your friends puzzled. You may hear their concerns or tune into their thoughts in a dream. 

As a final example, you may be avoiding a situation, thinking that no one has noticed. But while dreaming, you tune into the thoughts of a close friend that indicate otherwise.

I find that some of the most remarkable dreams involving ESP may involve people who are close to us such as family members. The communication is not necessarily with the family member, but may be with someone else who is involved with the family member.

I once dreamed that I met someone I did not know very well and received a simple message. The message was there are things about me you don’t know. This person was involved with someone close to me, and we both later discovered that there were important things that the individual had concealed about her background.

Dreams directly about family members can be extremely revealing. If you are in a committed relationship, and one of you has an affair, the partner is almost certain to see evidence of this is a dream. Also, in dreams, you are likely to discover how your partner really sees you, not how you think he or she sees you. You see yourself through the other person’s eyes. 

In the case of children, if one of them is involved in some forbidden activity such as consuming alcohol or taking drugs, he or she might be able to fool your conscious mind, but not your subconscious. If you see this type of activity in a dream, don’t panic, but do look into it right away.

In addition to family, dreams about someone with whom you have contact can be particularly valuable when they make you aware of hidden motives of the individual that may affect you. If a co-worker is going behind your back to enhance his or her position to your detriment, this will most likely be revealed in a dream. You are telepathically picking up his or her real intentions and subversive actions. 

I once had a warning dream about a colleague who was trying to undermine my position. Consciously, I was completely unaware of his intent, but the dream put me on guard and in time I saw the reason for the warning. 

Another time, in an example given in my book, I was tuned into a situation with a contractor that could be considered a telepathic connection with several people concerning their opinion of him.

During my years in a management position in a corporation, my dream telepathy benefited me greatly. My job required extensive communication with sales, customers, and third parties. I had responsibilities that involved business units in Europe and Asia as well as America. 

I quickly learned that some of the norms for business conduct in other countries are quite different from the United States. My dreams helped me understand the cultures of these other countries and made me better at dealing with business and personal issues involving them. 

Often the dreams were precognitive dreams that alerted me to a situation involving an imminent telephone call, which included the mood of the individuals involved and the tone of the discussion. I was often able to defuse a situation with angry customers or sales people because I was prepared ahead of time through a dream.

In my precognitive dreams, clairvoyance was rather routine. I once saw a house and lot I later purchased in detail in a dream weeks before I saw the actual property. My dream even pointed out the concerns that would, and did, surface when I saw the property.

In another dream, described in my book, I entered work one Monday morning and encountered my boss with huge red blotches on his face. The prior night I had dreamed about my boss in exactly that condition.

I found that astral projection is rarer as an occurrence, but it can be induced prior to falling asleep through suggestion in the pre-sleep state. One night, prior to falling asleep, having expressed a desire to experience astral projection, I dreamed I was taken on a tour by another man. 

We approached a train track with a speeding train approaching and he just passed right in front of it without concern. I stopped before the track. He looked at me and laughed, saying that it couldn’t hurt me. We then went to a location where people were assembled and some type of performance was taking place. 

In my dreams that may involve astral projection, I am traveling on the wings of thought with remarkable ease and a sense of well-being. Of course, there are those who will dispute that such a thing as astral projection even exists. If you have an open mind, but remain doubtful, I suggest you read There is a River by Thomas Sugrue or one of the other biographies of Edgar Cayce. 

I am not suggesting that all flying dreams involve astral projection; it is only one possibility. As some authors suggest, it may also mean rising above a situation in your life. Other possibilities will depend on your current life situation and associations with flying in the dream.