People We Encounter in Dreams of Tomorrow

We constantly meet people in our dreams. Sometimes they are people we know, and other times they are people with whom we have only minimal contact or no contact at all. 

Why does a particular individual appear in a dream? I can best answer this by providing a concrete example. I have claimed that my dreams preview the next day’s activities and encounters (the subject of my book), so the following example will answer the question of why a particular person appears in a dream and shed some light on how precognitive dreams occur.

A few weeks ago, I dreamed that I encountered Pope Francis in a dream. We talked for a while, and he laughed and was quite amicable. There was a bit more to the dream, but I want to focus on this aspect. 

The next day I went out for a walk in my neighborhood, which I do on a daily basis. I met a man who lives nearby and who is a familiar sight walking his dog. I had never had a conversation with him before, but something occurred in the neighborhood near me that caused him to stop and strike up a conversation. He was very friendly and jovial. We talked for about ten minutes before I continued my walk. I realized later that he reminded me of Pope Francis.

Now, I have said previously that people we meet in precognitive dreams are not likely to be the people we will actually meet, because dreams are usually not literal in that way. The subconscious makes associations. 

My impression of Pope Francis, based upon news videos and articles, is that he is a friendly, even jovial, person. This is how he was tagged in my memory and what was stored in my subconscious. When my subconscious decided to relate a coming encounter with an individual that was outside my normal routine, it used what was stored for a friendly, somewhat jovial, individual. And what was stored recently was Pope Francis.

You might ask why the dream did not just use the actual individual. In this case, I had not talked with this man previously and had not characterized him. The dream focus was not just about encountering that particular man, which would have said nothing about the type of encounter and psychological impact. The dream wanted to say I would have an encounter with a friendly, jovial person with some degree of bonding, so it used the person of Pope Francis to convey that message.

I believe the above analysis explains why few people understand just how prophetic their dreams are. Most would reflect briefly on a dream about Pope Francis and think, how ridiculous. I’m certainly not going to meet the pope. The dream is nonsense. Well, the dream is not nonsense.

Each character and object in a dream is chosen by the subconscious for a reason, and the key to deciphering the meaning is through your associations with the symbol. 

If you dream about a particular person you know, ask yourself what that person represents. What are your associations for that person? What thoughts come to mind when you think about the person? What things do you strongly identify with the person? These will provide clues that will help you decipher the meaning of that person in the dream.