Seeing Yourself in a Dream

Previously, I wrote that houses and your physical appearance in a dream were important symbols for showing the state of your life. I think the appearance of yourself in a dream is easier to describe, so I will comment on that in this post. Seeing yourself in a dream will give you valuable insights about how your conscious life appears to your unconscious, or at deeper levels to your soul.

 

Let’s consider some simple examples first. Many years ago, I was talking with a waitress in a restaurant who was upset by a recent dream. She had beautiful crowns on her front teeth, and in the dream, they were jagged and broken. This terrified her because her physical appearance was very important to her. I mentioned that I had studied dream interpretation, and she was eager to get my thoughts about the dream. I asked her if she had had an argument with anyone recently. She said that prior to the dream she had had a bad argument with her boyfriend and said some really ugly things to him. It doesn’t take much experience with dreams to see the meaning of her dream.

 

Our teeth are part of our appearance and are in our mouth where our words originate. So, in our dreams about teeth, they are often used to show that the words coming out of our mouth are either beautiful by showing us with beautiful teeth, or they are ugly by showing us with ugly teeth as in her dream.

 

Our hair is also often used symbolically in a dream that shows our physical appearance. Since our hair covers our head or at least is associated with the head much like thoughts are associated with the mind, the appearance of our hair may say something about the state of our mind. If your hair is nicely combed the dream may be saying that your thoughts are healthy and orderly, whereas disheveled hair may be telling you that you need to clean up your thoughts and get them under control.

 

Teeth and hair are not the only parts of our physical appearance in a dream that are used to convey messages to us about our life. The condition of our body, the clothes we wear, and the colors in our clothes or of items around us are all used to show the state of our life. Are we dressed properly for the scene in the dream, or are we out of place?

 

Our dress in our physical life is one of the ways we show ourselves to other people. They reflect how we want to be seen. In a dream, they may represent how we are seen to the unconscious mind. They often represent our values. Dirty clothes may indicate that we need to clean up our thinking. Improper dress for the setting may indicate that we do not have the proper attitude or perspective for a situation in which we find ourselves in our daily life. Torn or ragged clothes may indicate that we need to reevaluate our values and make corrections.

 

A common dream is to be surrounded by dirty clothes that need to be washed. In that case, you should examine your values. A cleansing of your thoughts may be needed.

 

Another common dream is to find yourself naked or nearly so. In this case, the dream may be saying that this is the way you have recently appeared to other people, not physically naked but emotionally exposed. Your thoughts and feelings were laid bare for all to see, and in a dream you appear naked.

 

Our socks and shoes are important items of clothing as well. Old worn-out shoes may mean that your values are old and worn out. It may indicate that you need a new spiritual foundation in your life. Colors are often used to reflect the state of your spiritual life. Dark dismal clothes show a life without light. Colors such as blue, magenta, and lavender are used to show various degrees of spiritual development. Red, for example, is often associated with anger or energy. To understand the colors, you have to examine your life and state of mind. Colors can change from one dream to the next as your mood changes.

 

You may meet another person in a dream who is a stand-in for you. You are meeting yourself. The clue to this may be the person’s initials, for example, which are the same as yours. Some dream theories consider other people in dreams to all be aspects of ourselves. I believe this is false, and in my dream books I give examples of why this is not the case. Yet this belief persists. My precognitive meetings with people in dreams who I later encounter just like in the dream refute this theory.

 

The image you see of yourself in a dream is linked to your psychological and emotional appearance in your corporeal life. It may help to consider the following. In the Edgar Cayce readings, he described three levels of consciousness. First, there is the normal conscious mind. Second, there is the subconscious mind that is the source of most dreams. Finally, there is what he calls the superconscious mind, which is the part of mind that never left its source, the Creator. According to Cayce, some spiritual dreams originate in this third level of mind. There is really only one mind, but this structure gives a way of thinking about the different aspects of the mind.

 

According to Cayce, after we die the subconscious becomes the conscious and the superconscious becomes the subconscious. In this view, facing our issues now in this life is compelling because we will meet them all when we pass on. Everything we have pushed into the subconscious will be with us in our new awareness. We cannot hide from ourselves.

 

I cannot emphasize too strongly that your dreams are about you. Even dreams that may foreshadow an economic or political event are related to your life. You received the information because it was of interest to you. Maybe you had been thinking about something related to the event in the dream or the event would affect your life in some way. When I consider a dream, I first try to relate it to my current daily life. Most of the time there is a direct, obvious relationship, although presented in symbolic form. If I can’t relate it to my life, I reflect on family and friends to see if there is a connection with them. When I had a corporate job, I had many dreams related to situations and people at work. But most important, I had to know my thoughts and feelings to understand my dreams. I could not refuse to look at myself and expect to understand my dreams.

 

During my lifetime, I have discussed dreams with many people who had little knowledge of dreams. I often find an interest and even enthusiasm until the person realizes that things may be revealed that they don’t want to look at. Then they say dreams are something they’ll study at a later time, which usually means never. I have found few people who want to know what tomorrow will bring; most people shudder at the thought and say they would rather not know.

 

Dreams exist to help us live a more complete, balanced life. They are not there simply to point out all our failings. The good news about dreams is they give us the ability to make small incremental course corrections in our life before we make bad mistakes. They provide nightly feedback that is invaluable. Have you ever had someone in your life who you went to for advice. It may have been a parent, friend, teacher, doctor, or religious person. Maybe it was for a limited period, and you greatly miss the advice and understanding you received. Your dream advisor is always there from your earliest memories until your death. Your dream advisor is never busy with someone else or away on vacation; your advisor is focused on you and possesses wisdom and knowledge your conscious mind does not have.

Some Comments on my Dreams and the Economic Environment

Recently, I wrote about my dream and the US dollar. At the time of the dream, I wondered why the focus was on the dollar because it was not something I invest in or monitor. Although I could not see the direction of the dollar’s price move, I did know that it was huge. And I had a feeling that it may not be down as I expected. This dream turned out to be prescient as the strong move up in interest rates is driving the dollar ever higher. And those who bet against the dollar are suffering losses.

 

The increase in interest rates is now driving stocks lower. If rates continue to move higher, we can probably forget about a soft landing for the economy. Maybe they will stabilize; we will soon know the answer. I don’t know if higher rates alone will cause a stock market crash, but higher rates are not good for the market. There is a saying, “Don’t fight the Fed.” This means that when the Fed is lowering rates, it may be a good time to invest. When the Fed is raising rates, be cautious. The Fed tends to overcorrect. If they push rates too high, we could see an edge-of-cliff scenario.

 

I am concerned about the funding situation for Ukraine. This was one of my scenarios as an interpretation for my football dream and collapse of the team. I hope that we do not see an end to funding; I think it could be catastrophic for Ukraine.

 

News articles are now appearing that warn about the effect of climate change on the average household's finances. Here in Florida, I was just notified that the cost of our condo insurance held by my association will rise by 50-70 percent next year. The insurance company said we were lucky because it is going up 100 percent for most condo associations across Florida. This is the result of the huge insurance losses from increased storm activity directly attributable to climate change. Hurricanes have always been a threat, but storms are now more frequent with costs from their effects rising rapidly.

 

If you don’t think climate change is real, watch what happens to your household budget over the next few years. I think you will soon be convinced that something unprecedented is happening. Now it is not a question of whether we will be affected by climate change; it is a question of how much we will be affected. It is not just Florida that is affected; the recent storm in New York city was another shocking example of unprecedented storm activity. Scenarios like that are playing out across the United States and around the world.

 

I apologize for not continuing with my explanation of dream symbols as promised; I wanted to get these comments and those of the previous post out first. I will soon get back to dream symbols and some of their common meanings.

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An Update on a Warning Dream about the US Dollar

 

On August 28, I published a warning dream about the US dollar. In my interpretation, I indicated that I saw a big move, but I was not sure about the direction. It was either not indicated in the dream, or I missed it. Investors and speculators can make or lose money regardless of the direction of a move depending on whether they are on the right side of a trade. 

I believe most people who trade in the dollar were expecting interest rates to move lower, which would result in a weaker dollar. This could still suddenly happen because of some unforeseen event, but rates have moved up since my dream leading to a stronger dollar. The dollar made a six-month high last week. This has undoubtedly caused some traders who bet on a weaker dollar to suffer losses. I cannot say if the current direction of interest rates and the dollar will continue, but I am increasingly concerned about the health of the financial markets. As I advised in an earlier post, I believe this is a time for caution.

 

The situation in China is critical with enormous loans for housing development coming due and a large company unable to pay back loans. In this country we are facing a government shutdown, and interest rates continue to rise with mortgage rates hitting 7.5 percent on the thirty-year fixed. Houses are unaffordable for many people. The war in Ukraine rages on with no end in sight. Credit card debt is at a record level and inflation is still elevated although lower than a year ago.

 

The Federal Reserve has said it will continue to raise interest rates until it gets inflation closer to its 2 percent goal. This is going to cause pain for some, and that pain could rapidly expand from some to many. When a significant slowdown in the economy begins, economic conditions could rapidly deteriorate, and a soft landing becomes a recession. There is a variation of a quote from Louis Pasteur that says, “Chance favors the prepared.” Be prepared because markets do not always go up and unemployment does not always stay at record low levels.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Killer in Plain Sight

In my post about dreams related to our physical health, I gave some of the ways in which dreams give us messages about the state of our physical health. Sometimes the messages are warnings about our future if we continue on our current path, and other times they include suggestions for improving our health. Once in the early days of my dream work, I was shown that the right place for burgers from a fast-food restaurant I occasionally visited was down the garbage disposal. Another time I was shown that I should drink more orange juice and less milk to correct a problem I was having. I heeded the advice both times and benefited physically.

 

In working with your dreams, you will soon realize that good health, both physical and emotional, begins with the conscious mind. It begins with our beliefs and our daily thoughts. The best diet and exercise programs may not save you if you are suffering from extreme stress over a prolonged time. I recall a brief conversation with a salesman who was a business colleague who had recently been informed by a cardiologist that he needed a triple bypass. He was a trim man in his early fifties who exercised regularly and maintained a good diet. But that wasn’t enough. His cardiologist told him there were three main causes of heart disease: bad diet, lack of exercise, and stress. The stress did him in. He was under great stress that he did not handle well for an extended period, and his physical health suffered as a result.

 

I once had a conversation with another colleague, who was also a salesman, but for a different part of the company. He was a star performer in a very high-pressure job and bragged about his ability to live a life of extremes. He dealt with his stress with alcohol, sex, and food. I asked him how he was able to maintain late night visits to the bar at the hotel where he stayed while in town for meetings and still show up at 8:00 am the next day. He laughed and said that people often told him he would not live to see thirty, but he proved them wrong because he had turned thirty a few months earlier. A few months later we were told he was found dead of an apparent heart attack. He saw thirty, but not thirty-one.

 

These two examples may seem extreme, but nowadays I believe many are feeling high stress levels because the pace of everything has accelerated. Even back before the digital age, many in professions you may not consider high stress jobs were suffering the effects of prolonged stress. I once worked on a project to provide automation for a newspaper company. I was part of a team that included several people from my company and some individuals from the newspaper side. One of the newspaper representatives was a man who had a severe drinking problem. His coworker told me it was common in their business because each day they had a new deadline to meet. Think about how your stress level may have increased when facing a deadline on an assignment in school or at work. With them the deadline was every day.

 

Stress can be beneficial if you are faced with a situation in which your entire body needs to be quickly galvanized to action. Or you are feeling stressed because you have failed to do something you should do. The stress is a reminder that action is needed. But prolonged stress with no solution can leave you depressed and feeling hopeless. You feel like there is no way out of your situation and that you have no control over your life. The mental stress causes real physiological changes to your body. On a temporary basis, they may be proper for the situation. But a prolonged basis, your organs may be negatively affected because your body was not intended to receive the chemical changes for the long term. Instead of a brief elevation in your blood pressure, for example, you are left with a permanently elevated blood pressure.

 

Some people begin to turn to chemical remedies to reduce the feeling of being stressed out. They turn to the latest drugs to get a high and before long they have substituted an even worse problem for their stress. And the cause of the stress is still there. Decades ago, the preferred chemical solution was alcohol, and it is still a problem today for many. But with the availability of more potent solutions that are faster acting than drinking alcohol, many have turned to opioids including some very powerful synthetic varieties.

 

The problem of drug addiction often begins from opioid treatment for physical pain, which may have resulted from surgery. Here I am addressing the use of drugs for relief from mental pain because life seems unbearable. For some the result of prolonged stress was physical disease; others turned to drugs before physical disease occurred, but they now had an addition with negative physical side effects from the drugs.

 

Dreams are messages from your subconscious that are trying to keep you on a path that will optimize the value of your life—to maximize your full potential. They deal with all aspects of your life: physical, mental, and spiritual. In the view of Carl Jung, they are important for uniting the conscious and subconscious into a whole that represents the complete person, a process he called individuation. We must begin to examine the mind because everything begins there. A high-quality life and a life of disease both have their origin there. We must become self-aware of the contents of our conscious mind through observation and reflection, and the contents of our subconscious mind through our dreams.

 

If you have a physical disease that developed over time, the starting point was the mind. Your beliefs, thoughts, and feelings put into action daily were either beneficial or harmful for your physical body. Often the very thoughts themselves with their corresponding action on the body chemistry is the primary cause of the disease. Edgar Cayce said, “Mind is the builder. The physical is the result.” If you are filled with hate, you are negatively affecting your physical body and disease will most likely be the result. If you constantly worry, an ulcer or other stomach problem may well be in your future.

 

Medical studies have shown relationships between people’s personalities and certain types of disease. It was found that cancer patients often hold feelings within rather than expressing them (see https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/how-the-mind-heals-the-body/201411/is-there-cancer-prone-personality). I am not suggesting that this is the only cause of cancer. But it is a factor. The stress they felt was internalized. The immune system is affected by stress, and its ability to fight off disease can be compromised by factors that negatively affect the immune system. In many cases, stress is the killer in plain sight.

 

Since the mental world we inhabit is so large and varied, you should not be surprised that your dream world will also be large and varied. Nevertheless, there are some common symbols relating to our broader life that are not specific to our physical health. These include a house with its many rooms and fixtures. Others include the landscape surrounding us and the activities we find ourselves involved in. A few simple symbols that often relate to our daily speech and our thoughts are our teeth and hair. In my next post, I will begin to examine these symbols and what they may mean in a dream.

Dreams of Warning

A very valuable aspect of dream interpretation is the potential for preventing a disaster, or at least minimizing the impact if it can’t be prevented. I showed this in the post on dreams about our physical health. Dreams can come in many different forms because the subconscious has a rich array of memories and associations from which it can build a message or story. Sometimes the dream is a very clear warning without a need for interpretation, and other times an interpretation is required.

 

Let’s consider some examples. When I moved to Florida after retirement, I looked for a condo that was close to my son’s location. I wasn’t yet sure I wanted Florida to be my permanent residence, so I thought I would buy a small unit that could just be a winter home. I found a place and made an offer. That night I had a dream in which a man said, “You bought the wrong place.” After further investigation, I saw some problems with the property and withdrew my offer. A few weeks later I found a place that was the right one. I have lived in it ever since and don’t regret the decision.

 

The warning I received was very clear and required no interpretation. Another time many years ago when my son was a young child, I had the following dream. The telephone rang, I answered it, and a voice said, “Your son is in trouble.” This telephone dream is rare, but when a dream like this occurs, it is often literal. I did some checking and discovered that a larger older kid was bullying my son in a pre-school where he was enrolled.

 

Another time I invested some money in the stock market that was a speculative purchase. One night I had a dream in which a voice from the background of the stock market depicted as Las Vegas said, “Get out now.” I did not heed the advice and suffered a loss.

 

Warnings are not always as clear cut. I owned a condo in Dayton, Ohio, when I moved to Florida. I rented it for a few years before deciding to sell it. When I sold it, I remember the day of closing. It was a Friday, and I was in Florida because I did not have to be physically present for the closing. While shopping at Publix, I felt confident that within a few hours the sale would close. It was a straightforward sale with no special conditions.

 

In the back of my mind, I had some uneasiness about a dream from the previous night. I dreamed about water leaking from a wall and chaos resulting. At the time, I did not think it related to my condo in Dayton.

 

My mobile phone rang and the realtor managing the sale for me informed me that water was leaking from inside a wall onto the unit below mine. She tried to get a plumber, but she couldn’t until the following Monday. A chaotic period followed with contract amendments sent to me via email to get all the necessary signatures on amended agreements to manage the water issue so the closing could move ahead.

 

For my final example, I refer to a dream I had early in my work career and not long after I began a study of my dreams. I dreamed that a tornado hit the main building of the company where I worked, and a smaller tornado hit the satellite building in which I was located. I knew enough about dreams to be concerned that something bad might happen, but conditions at the company seemed good and I had no concerns about my job.

 

Within a few weeks, the company reported losing a major contract and announced layoffs. The cuts in employment were deep in the main building, and moderate in the building where I worked. My job was not affected by the layoffs. The dream was purely symbolic where the destructive power of a tornado was used to stand for another destructive event unrelated to weather.

 

Storms are often used in dreams as symbols of destructive influences. The actual “storms” may be medical, psychological, job related, economic, or something else entirely. If you live in Florida like I do, and it is hurricane season, the dream may be literal. But if you are far away from where hurricanes can strike, look for something else as the meaning of the dream. Again, your dreams are about you: your thoughts and beliefs, your environment, and your associations. You must come to know yourself; you must become aware of the life you live. No one else can do it for you.

 

I offer some advice here. Do not be afraid to make mistakes in your interpretations. With the study of your dreams, you are becoming familiar with the workings of your subconscious. Each mistake helps guide you to a better understanding of your dreams. If you don’t make mistakes, you probably aren’t interpreting many dreams.

 

As an example, let’s examine the dream I posted on 9/19/2023 that I categorized as a warning dream. The dream is clearly a collapse about something. But equally obvious, it is most likely not a dream about football. The question becomes one of figuring out what the football team and cheerleaders stand for. Since this dream does not seem to relate to my personal life, I asked the following: What does it relate to? On a national level, we are currently seeing some threats of collapse in a few areas. The Republican party seems close to collapse in trying to reach agreement on a budget that will keep our government open. And of course, we have the threat of a government shutdown. However, I have trouble relating this to the dream because of the cheerleaders.

 

Next, we have the UAW strike. The workers have helped make the car makers very profitable the past few years, and a collapse in talks and huge losses for car makers could affect everyone, including those on strike. They would not recover what they believed they were owed because of their investment of time and effort. Still, the connections to the dream seem tenuous.

 

Some members of congress are opposing further aid to Ukraine. If the US were to cut off further aid, the effect could be disastrous. Would this be enough to cause Ukraine to collapse. I don’t know. The cheerleaders in the dream could be the countries who have supported Ukraine with large investments in military and humanitarian aid. In the dream, the cheer leaders what to know how to get their money back. I tell them they cannot, which of course would be the case if Ukraine loses.

 

Finally, I consider a collapse in financial markets. The team (US stock market) has been a winner; the stock market has certainly been the place to be invested. The cheerleaders would be the investors who have cheered the market on by making investments of their hard-earned dollars. If the stock market collapsed, they would lose those investments and might not get their money back. History has shown that markets recover in time, but they might have a long wait depending on the cause of the collapse. Now I think you can see that it is not obvious that this is the correct interpretation. But given some other dreams that appear related to a huge market downturn and the precarious political situation in this country, along with the war in Ukraine, I think a stock market collapse is a definite possibility.

 

This dream is the kind of dream that will only be clear in time when the event occurs. But I consider it a warning dream because it might show a financial collapse that would affect every American. If the collapse does not happen, I am no worse off. I have just shown added caution until the political situation is clarified, and Ukraine’s outcome is decided. Of course, climate change is a great unknown factor. At any time, this could take precedence over everything else.

 

 

 

Another Dream about a Collapse

Today the Federal Reserve is meeting, and they will announce their position on interest rates tomorrow. I watched the business news and those interviewed seemed to think the Fed will not raise rates. This could be a positive for stocks. Many economists and financial experts believe we may have a soft landing with no recession after all. Some are even saying that they expect a runup in tech stocks later in the year. This may be what happens, but I can’t ignore continuing troubling dreams that appear to relate to the stock market.

 

I recently had another dream that could relate to the financial markets. The dream used the theme of a football team, which may have been the Dallas Cowboys, often referred to as America’s team. In the dream, people had rushed to support them investing large sums of money. The cheerleaders had invested their savings in the team as they cheered the team on. Then things went terribly wrong and there was a huge collapse; the losses were enormous. The cheerleaders lost most of their investment and wanted to know how to get their money back. But it was gone, and the team was a mess. It was only worth a fraction of its previous value. I told them there was no way they could recover their investments.

 

A time horizon was not given in the dream, but dreams like this normally do not precede the event by a long period. My experience with my dreams is that if the event is going to occur, it will occur in weeks or months at most. If this dream does relate to the financial markets, I think the period from now through the end of the year is a critical time. I suspect that if there is a stock market collapse, we will have little warning. Something will happen that causes the big money managers to decide to unload their stocks. Then panic will set in.

 

There are things investors can do to protect themselves in the event of a market crash or just a selloff. If you are an investor and are concerned, check with a financial advisor for advice. Also, check your holdings to see how they are rated in terms of risk and look to see how they have performed in previous major selloffs. In a true crash good stocks are taken down as well bad ones as everything is sold, but percentage wise they may lose less than the average stock loss. And they will usually recover more quickly as the market stabilizes. The stocks that lose the most are the more speculative ones.

 

I am not a financial advisor and cannot tell anyone what to do concerning their investments. During my lifetime, my dreams have often been precognitive. So, I am making available dreams that occur that may relate to conditions beyond my individual life. Dreams that are about the economy, politics, weather, and other general topics are included.

 

 

 

The Awesome Predictive Power of Dreams

The following dream is described in my dream books, but I think it is worth revisiting it here. It clearly demonstrates something scientists are beginning to understand (see 9/11/2023 post), which is the predictive ability of dreams to show disease before it manifests physically. This dream occurred more than twenty years ago.

 

One night I dreamed that I saw a drop of blood go splat, and I heard a voice say, “In ninety days.” The scene switched to what appeared to be a doctor’s office. A nurse stood beside the doctor as he performed some procedure on me. The dream then ended. When I awoke with the memory of the dream, I was upset. I wondered if it was telling me I was going to have a stroke or a heart attack, although I was not in a dire condition in the doctor’s office. I felt fine and had no symptoms that would suggest an approaching health emergency. I paid close attention to my health for the next several days but found nothing out of the ordinary. I began to think that the dream meant something else and was not related to my physical health.

 

As ninety days approached, I began to think about the dream again. Then at exactly ninety days, I awoke from sleep and noticed as I got up that something was clouding the vision in my left eye. I went to the bathroom to look in the mirror, expecting to see some debris in my eye. But I found nothing. The eye appeared clear. I was due for my annual visit to my ophthalmologist, so I went to see him for what I hoped was a simple fix because the visual obstruction had not cleared.

 

He spent a long time examining my left eye, finally saying that what I was seeing was dried blood. He said it would eventually clear, and he added that it was normally a sign of a retina tear, but he couldn’t see one. Nevertheless, he wanted a specialist to look at it. He called a retina specialist, and I drove from his office to the specialist’s office for an appointment. I now knew that it may be serious.

 

The retina specialist spent a long time examining the eye, and he finally said there was a small tear in the corner of the retina, which caused the drop of blood. After several different eye drops were administered by a nurse, I sat in a chair while he performed a laser procedure, with the nurse beside him, to seal the tear. That fixed the problem, and I have never had any problems with thar eye’s retina since then.

 

I should add that during regular yearly appointments, no problem with the retina was ever found. And I had no symptoms or forewarning that the tear would occur. I think the dream is a great example of the predictive ability of the subconscious mind to not only see a problem developing, but to calculate exactly when it would manifest physically. It predicted the drop of blood on the exact day it would occur ninety days ahead of time. And it determined that it would be corrected by a relatively simple procedure.

 

The subconscious mind, seeing the problem developing, informed my conscious mind through a dream. In this case, there was little I could do other than to prepare myself psychologically for some health event. The fact that the dream showed me conscious and alert in the doctor’s office undergoing a procedure that did not appear to be a major operation comforted me.

 

The dream was predictive for the blood splat that happened in exactly ninety days. But what about the treatment of the problem. How could my subconscious know how the problem would be resolved? Was it also making some calculation concerning treatment based on the nature of the problem? I don’t normally give this as an example of precognition because most of the dream can be explained as the operation of the predictive power of the subconscious. And I have better examples for precognition. But the dream does show that our dreams can predict a health problem long before it manifests physically.

 

Do not just write off this dream as a singular example that you consider a coincidence. It demonstrates what scientists are discovering about the predictive power of dreams for disease. Take some time to reflect on that. Think about how much grief could be avoided if you knew ahead of time that some disease was developing or about to develop in your body. You could act to either avert the disease or reduce the effects of it. A dream issues a warning for a reason—to address the issue before it becomes a critical problem. This may mean changing your diet, getting more exercise, or reducing stress levels—or getting some medical procedure.

 

Your dreams are for your benefit. The subconscious is continuously monitoring your blood and internal organs right down to the cellular level. Some may say, I don’t want to know if a disease is developing or will develop. I don’t want to change my habits and attitude. You have that right, and the cemeteries are full of people who died early because of it. Health experts encourage people to get various preventive tests for intestinal tumors, heart disease, risks of stroke, and for women, breast cancer. Your subconscious is monitoring your body all the time and sending you dreams to warn you of any problems. You don’t have to leave your house, and it is free. Take advantage of it.

 

Now some of you may want to start studying your dreams but you can’t remember them. I believe that this can be overcome with the use of the power of suggestion right before you fall asleep. Tell yourself that you will remember your dreams upon awakening. See yourself remembering your dreams when you get up. You must be serious about remembering your dreams and not afraid of them. You may have to repeat this procedure for several days before you get results.

 

Your sincerity and desire to get help from your dreams can be further demonstrated by having a notebook handy or audio recorder to record your dreams. Dreams can be fleeting and when you recall a dream, firmly fix it in your mind before you even get out of bed. That simple movement can cause you to lose the dream.

 

If you are afraid of what you may find in your dreams, you are likely to suppress them. You must believe they are for your benefit and want to understand their messages. Daily meditation is important and helps establish your intent to receive guidance for you daily life. It opens the channel of communication with higher powers, and you will find improved dream content along with spiritual direction and the awakening of your paranormal abilities.

 

I will say more about it in a later post, but recording your dreams is essential for real progress in understanding your dreams. Often when you cannot interpret a dream, it will be part of a pattern. Recurring dreams in various guises are extremely important, but without a record of your nightly dreams, the pattern may not be recognized. Also, your memories of details can deteriorate quickly, and without the record of a previous dream you may have lost critical details when you decide to examine it later.

 

 

 

  

Dream Symbols and Your Physical Health

In my earlier post of 9/11/2023, I should have mentioned that scientists believe there is a connection between violent dreams and neurological disease. (See https://www.sciencealert.com/strange-violent-dreams-could-be-trying-to-warn-us-about-future-brain-disease.) So, for example, if a neurologist suspects that you are a candidate for Parkinson's, you may be asked about your dreams. But in general, your physician is not going to look for links between your dreams and disease, even if they exist.

 

My emphasis in this blog is on the practical application of dreams, which is why the site is called helpfromdreams.com. In later posts, I will examine some of the theories of dreaming and present why I believe a metaphysical view is important. Some scientists such as Carl Gustav Jung (1875-1961), a famous Swiss psychiatrist and psychotherapist, have seen dreams in this light, and his theories about the subconscious and dreams are in many respects like those of Edgar Cayce. They both saw dreams as occurring for the benefit of humans, and they both see a connection with a spiritual source. Here I do not want to deal with abstract concepts; I intend to show how you can benefit regardless of your understanding of an underlying model for dreaming.

Let’s examine how dreams reflect the state of your physical health. As I mentioned above, the dream can be direct and literal. If you have a serious disease such as cancer or a heart blockage, you may dream that you are in the company of a person who you view as a doctor or advisor who tells you about your condition. That may be all there is to the dream. This can happen even with less serious diseases. Fifteen years ago, when I retired to Florida, I was having frequent pain in my lower right hip. One night I had a dream in which I was with a man who said, “The problem is deep. You should see an osteopath.” I did see an osteopath shortly after having the dream, and after several visits the pain was gone. I still see her today for regular spinal adjustments. Except for minor recurrences, I have been free of pain for fifteen years.

 

Another time early in my work with dreams, I was with a man who commented on the state of my health. He said, “If you don’t start exercising your spine, you will begin to black out.” He then showed me an exercise to do. That dream got my attention, and I began to make corrections to my lifestyle.

 

Over the years, the advisor figure or simply a voice has appeared in a dream many times to supply medical advice. The advice has come in the many forms such as blood test results, comments on the effectiveness of my digestive system, and dental advice. Obviously, these dreams did not require interpretation. But not all health dreams are of this type.

 

Dreams normally use an array of symbols of several types to deliver their message. One of the most common ones for the physical body is that of a motor vehicle. For most people this will be a car, SUV, or pickup. I will simply refer to it as a car. The car has appeared in my dreams in one of two ways: a symbol for my body with the condition of the car standing for the state of my health or as a symbol of my personal power and how I move about in this corporeal world.

 

If I am viewing my car in a dream as a rust bucket on its way to the junk yard, I am most likely in poor physical condition and need to exercise more to shake the “rust” from my body. If I am having difficulty starting my car in a dream, a little reflection may show that I am having difficulty getting started in the morning. A dream about my car with a damaged right rear tire may show a problem with my right leg or foot. If I can’t seem to ramp up my speed to address daily challenges, I may dream about taking my car to a repair shop and being told there is a problem with the transmission.

 

You can be fooled, and what you think is a symbolic dream may be literal. Once I dreamed that I had a dead battery in my car. That morning when I went out to start my car, I discovered that the battery was dead. However, over the years, I have found the depiction of my car in a dream as a good indicator of my overall health. Once when I was feeling at my best, I dreamed I had just gotten a high-performance sports car. Another time of peak health, a voice commented on my car by saying it was a good running engine.

 

You may think of the symbolism about the car as your physical body in the following way. As the physical body is the transporter of your soul on this Earth, the car is the transporter of your physical body. For movement and activity, your soul needs the physical body, and the physical body needs a means of transportation, which is usually a car (broader sense including other vehicles). So, dreams often use a car to stand for the physical body.

 

In addition to the state of my health, I have had many dreams over the years in which the car carries me in a certain direction, showing my activity in life. It reflects my movement in daily life. If I am driving in a haphazard manner, my daily life shows that behavior. If I am losing control of the car on the highway, in my daily life I am losing control. If I am driving too fast in the dream, I need to slow down in my daily life. If I make a right turn onto a highway, that is a positive sign. If I make a left turn, I may have made a wrong choice on some decision. If I am driving cautiously and carefully, that reflects caution and care in my daily life.

 

Now you may not be the driver. You may be the passenger in a car driven by someone else. That someone else in the dream could stand for you, but they could also be another person in your daily life who is either carrying you in a certain direction or you are seeing heading in a certain direction. If they are driving recklessly, you may be close to someone who is behaving in a reckless manner. It may be affecting you or you may simply be seeing their behavior. To understand the meaning of the characters in the dream, you must examine your associations for the characters in your own daily life. Dreams are not separate from your life. Your dreams are about you, and you must be the one to interpret them. If you want to understand your dreams, you must begin to examine your life.

 

Now someone else with knowledge about dreams and your life may realize what a dream is telling you, but even if they are right in their interpretation, it does not have the same impact as your experiencing the truth for yourself. And they only understand part of the meaning; for a complete understanding they would have to be inside your head and know all your thoughts and experiences.

 

In my health dream examples I have not included dreams about medications because other than a few times when I was taking antibiotics, I have never been on medications. I believe that your dreams will warn you if your medications are not beneficial and may show you an alternative approach that is better. The closest I can come to an example from my own life is a dream about aspirin that showed it should be taken with vitamin C. After having this dream, I did some research and discovered that a German study concluded aspirin and vitamin C should be taken together because aspirin interferes with the absorption of vitamin C; aspirin taken with vitamin C can reduce potential stomach damage from aspirin if you are a regular user. Since that German study, others have reached the same conclusion as well. (See https://www.peoplespharmacy.com/articles/vitamin-c-protects-against-aspirin-damage.)

 

My approach to health is proactive. The less I see of doctors, the better. But this does not mean I think people should avoid doctors, especially if experiencing serious symptoms. While I believe that the innate wisdom we have in the form of intuition and dreams makes it possible for most people to live a healthy life with no or limited medical care, I also believe that few have reached that point in their lives. The statistics show a dire picture for the state of health of the average American. The approach to medical care in this country has created a strong dependence on drugs to treat disease. Rather than turning to natural methods, Americans seek a pill to cure every health problem.

 

The experience with Covid-19 is a good example of compromised immune systems. The virus spread rapidly throughout the world with the immune systems of most people unable to protect against the disease. Some declared themselves healthy and immune, only to later die from the disease. The creation of a truly healthy body needs a lifestyle that few embrace. Diet and exercise play a key role, but equally, if not more, important is the mind. Our beliefs, thoughts, and stress levels play a critical role in the state of our health. You cannot become healthy by just declaring that you won’t get sick. You must be feeding the subconscious daily the thoughts and emotions that support good health.

 

I have not had Covid-19, but I also use common sense and exercise proper caution. Likewise, in the case of the flu, when the flu is raging, I don’t go where there are crowds, especially indoors such as in restaurants. And I use a mask where I think there is increased risk. The use of masks for Covid-19 protection has been extremely controversial, becoming political when it should have remained a health issue. Many point to a recent study that showed masks were not effective, misinterpreting what the study really said. It concluded that mask mandates were ineffective not because masks don’t work, but because not enough people would properly use them to make them effective. Numerous studies have shown that a properly constructed and worn mask can reduce the spread of Covid-19 and other viruses from one individual to another. I do not believe that many people would tell their dentist to not bother with a mask or tell their surgeon to not wear a mask during surgery.

 

In my own experience during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, I found that most people where I shop for groceries wore masks. A county mask mandate was in effect, but few had a proper mask and even fewer wore it correctly. I often saw people wearing a mask without covering their nose, and many of the masks had huge gaps between the mask and face. Another consideration is the home life. If you wear a mask only when you go out and not at home but have children who attend school or a spouse with a job where infections are spreading, they may bring Covid-19 home to you, which is exactly what has happened for many people. If you choose to wear a mask during a virus outbreak, you can make it effective, but it must be the proper mask consistently used in risky environments.

 

Like it or not, the American society is dependent on a large array of drugs to treat every known malady. Unfortunately, they all have side effects, and sometimes the side effects are worse than the disease. The human body is a marvelous creation that is inherently able to keep a state of equilibrium and good health with the proper lifestyle. I believe that the proper lifestyle includes regular meditation and working with our dreams. By working with our dreams, I mean interpreting our dreams and applying in our daily lives the guidance we receive. Knowledge alone has little value if it is not applied. Unfortunately, the great powers we have in our subconscious mind revealed in our dreams are rarely used or even recognized. Until this situation changes, we are likely to see even more drugs developed with enormous human cost and dependency.

 

I am not suggesting that working with your dreams will magically cure every disease. If you have a serious disease, unless it was congenital, the disease most likely developed over time. And the treatment may require a change to your habits and lifestyle over time. Instantaneous cures have happened even for terminal conditions, but deep meditation may be needed to reverse critical conditions.

 

Meditation and dream study may lead you to a procedure administered by health care professionals. The Creative Force works through doctors, nurses, and other medical professionals as well. My complaint is not with the professional workers, but with the education physicians and nurses receive and the power the pharmaceutical companies have over health care in this country.

 

In the 1960s and ‘70s, many people became interested in meditation, and dream books were popular with authors appearing on talk shows. The focus was on oneness and becoming a better person. Now the focus is entirely on technology with few interested in pursuing the inner life. Some even refer to AI as the new God. Countries are racing to arm themselves with the latest weapons, and the threat to the world is increasing daily. It just takes one mistake to launch a cataclysmic event. Humanity desperately needs to turn to the spiritual and return to values in everyday life. Hate and division have reached a critical point, and our democracy and way of life are threatened. This situation is reflected in one of my dreams that said the conditions in the United States were like those in Germany prior to the rise of Naziism. This dream occurred more than a decade ago, but I believe the past ten years we have seen a marked further move toward conditions that prevailed in Germany as Hitler began his rise to power.

 

When I watch the news on TV, I am struck by the pictures of armed people patrolling streets in the many trouble spots around the world. There is no lack of weapons, but in these same countries people are starving and malnourished. The World Food Program and other agencies are all that separate the people from total catastrophe. In North Korea, malnutrition is widespread while the country keeps an enormous stockpile of weapons. They chose guns over food. The average North Korean adult is several inches shorter than the average South Korean because of poor diet and healthcare. (See https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-17774210.)

 

 

 

 

 

Monitoring and Improving Your Health Through Dreams

I believe that one of the greatest values of dreams concerns our physical and mental health. Our dreams both monitor our health and provide guidance on ways to improve our health. This dual function of dreams is almost completely ignored although some scientists have studied the predictive value of dreams concerning our health. (See https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/dream-factory/201412/do-your-dreams-predict-your-health.)

 

When did your doctor last ask you about your dreams? The answer is probably never. This is not surprising because medical doctors receive little if any exposure to dreams. (My doctor received none.) If they are exposed to dreams in their education, it is limited, and I believe most physicians think it is a subject for the psychiatrist and psychologist that has little bearing on the diseases they are trained to treat.

 

There is no scientific consensus on the meaning of dreams, which has left them in the purview of various religious and spiritual groups, New Age followers, and a small number of scientists. Scientists study dreams in dream or sleep laboratories, but the real meaning and value of dreams seems to have escaped them. They do acknowledge that certain conditions and warnings can be found in dreams, but they do not relate them to an overall theory of dreaming. Some modern theories of dreaming even regard dreams as meaningless noise from the subconscious. I will say more about this in future posts. I believe to really understand dreams you must accept the existence of God, a soul, and that humans are more than an accidental creation in the universe.

 

My own introduction to dreams came from the readings of Edgar Cayce, the famous 20^th century psychic and prophet. When I was first introduced to his claims, I was dubious about them. Nevertheless, I decided to run my own experiments with my dreams as the source material. After over fifty years of working with my dreams, I can say that my findings were consistent with all his claims about dreams. I am not alone in this regard; the association (A.R.E.) that preserves the Cayce readings and teaches courses based on them has examined results from hundreds of dreamers who also reported results consistent with the Cayce teachings.

 

Cayce did not give some formula for interpreting dreams. It was quite the opposite although he did make many observations about the purpose and nature of dreams. He said we must all learn to interpret our dreams through self-examination and study. He made two major claims that fascinated me. He said that every significant event in our lives is “foreshadowed” in a dream. (This goes far beyond what scientists who believe that dreams can predict disease would claim.) He also said everyone could do what he did through their dreams. The first claim intrigued me because I thought it was something I could measure. It required about six months of recording and studying my dreams before I saw the correspondence between my nightly dreams and daily life unfold. But the correspondence was undeniable. Abilities that Cayce possessed gradually developed over time, although they did not begin to equal his.

 

My dreams became one of the greatest sources of help concerning my health. Conditions not yet physically visible were first reflected in my dreams. Suggestions were given for improving my health that included dietary changes, adding some exercises to my daily routine, and establishing a positive mental attitude. The nightly feedback from my dreams helped me live a healthy and long life free of pain and disease. When I retired from my corporate job, I had not taken a sick day in over twenty years. Prior to my work with dreams and the change of my lifestyle, I had frequent colds and often fell victim to the flu virus in the winter. I lacked energy and often did not feel well.

 

To many people, dreams seem strange with things happening that could not happen in real life—in the conscious world we know. The objects, people, and events in dreams often seem nonsensical. Dreams are seldom literal, with some exceptions such as certain health dreams. In health dreams, I have found that often a clear straightforward message is delivered that is literal. Although not always the case, it has happened in my dreams numerous times. This makes it a good place to focus your attention when beginning to study your dreams. With a small effort, you may receive some quick revelations about your health.

 

You may wonder why scientists in the health field have not fully endorsed the predictive power of dreams concerning one’s health. As pointed out in the previous reference and the following referenced book, some have, but most still ignore dreams as meaningless creations of the subconscious. Studies have been done about the predictive power of dreams for cancer (see Dreams That Can Save Your Life: Early Warning Signs of Cancer and Other Diseases Paperback – April 17, 2018, by Larry Burk M.D. C.E.H.P. and Kathleen O'Keefe-Kanavos), but I do not believe these results are widely known by practicing physicians and other health care workers. Although some may regard the findings described in this book as a major revelation, this predictive power of dreams was matter-of-factly stated by Edgar Cayce a hundred years ago. And the more recent New Age writings of Jane Roberts in the Seth material made such capabilities clear over fifty years ago. (See Seth: Dreams and Projections of Consciousness by Jane Roberts, Stillpoint Publishing, Walpole NH, 1987. This book was published after Robert’s death, but it contains material given by Seth in the 1960s.)

 

The occurrence of health-related predictive dreams is just a special case of the much more general predictive ability of dreams. But even here change is slow to come. The medical profession is conservative and is not likely to accept the diagnostic value of dreams until science has done much more research. And how would the predictive power of dreams be utilized in the healthcare field? Physicians are already having trouble getting people to observe basic dietary and exercise guidelines, so how would they get people to record their dreams. And if they did, who would interpret their dreams. This might be one area where AI could be of benefit. I think it would be of little value for most dreams, but it could have value for health dreams because the AI system would have all the information and test results for the patient, which could be used to aid in an interpretation. Although this is not yet a reality, you can still use the power of dreams in your personal life. In the following posts, I will show you how.

 

In my next post, I am going to focus on the predictive power of dreams regarding your physical health. I will treat mental health as a separate, but related, topic. To discuss dreams and physical health, I will introduce some of the symbolism in dreams and show how the symbols relate to one’s physical health. This will give you a sense of a dream’s use of symbols in their creation of an overall message. Rather than obscure, meaningless messages, dreams provide clear, concise messages about the state of our health. If you are sick, that didn’t suddenly happen overnight, even if you just recently became aware of the problem. The conditions for disease began long before they became physically evident. Your dreams can show you what is being built on a subconscious level, giving you an opportunity to make changes before a serious disease manifests physically. You create your reality in ways most people have never imagined, and there is no better way to see what you are creating than to learn the meaning of your dreams.

A Time for Caution

We are seeing several problems around the world that could easily explode into a social and economic catastrophe for many people. As I write this, the stock market is still strong with some seeing new highs this year. I am not an investment advisor, but I can recognize some troubling signs. The war in Ukraine rages on with high-level Russian politicians advising Putin to use tactical nuclear weapons. If Ukraine breaks through the Russian defenses and appears headed for a clear victory, this could become a real possibility. And in North Korea, we have constant threats from Kim Jong Un that he will use his nuclear weapons against the US and South Korea. Each day he furthers his development of new and better missiles with a range capable of reaching US targets.

 

In addition to the wars or threat of wars, we are now experiencing the effects of climate change in a major way. The economic and human costs are rising rapidly, but so far, the financial markets are for the most part ignoring the threats. Property losses are mounting to the point that insurance companies will no longer offer coverage in certain areas of the country. This is a big problem because there are large populations in some of these areas.

 

Covid -19 died down for a time, but now we are starting to see surges again. Although we are in a better place than we were at the start of the pandemic in terms of preparation and vaccines, it is still a threat. Health experts have warned that other new diseases could emerge because of climate change. I think that few are prepared for that possibility.

 

Finally, I look at the political climate and see the potential for chaos never experienced in this country. Will Trump get the Republican nomination? If he is convicted in one of his indictments what happens? If he is the Republican candidate and loses, would he acknowledge another loss or throw this country into complete chaos. If he is elected, our form of democracy may vanish. He has made his agenda quite clear: greater power for the executive branch and punishment for those who opposed him. The situation would not be any better under a Ron DeSantis presidency.

 

My point in listing these concerns is not to push you into a depression. This country has enormous resources with its people and technology to solve problems, no matter how great. If we work together, there is no limit to what we can accomplish. But I would be remiss if I did not point out the need for caution.

 

The recent storms point out that climate change effects are here and not just something that might happen in the future. Recently, Ron DeSantis, the governor of Florida, raged against the liberals claiming they were saying climate change was the cause of hurricanes when Florida has experienced severe hurricanes in its past long before the talk of climate change. I don’t know who he is referring to who has made such claims. What the liberals (meteorologists and other scientists) are saying is that the hurricanes are becoming more frequent and powerful because of climate change. 

Hurricane Lee has exploded to a Category 5 storm because of the exceptionally warm waters in the Atlantic, and Idalia slammed into Florida’s Gulf Coast as a Category 4 storm, having rapidly strengthened because of unusually warm waters in the gulf. Rather than acknowledging climate change, DeSantis has attacked claims that no one is making. If he is going to attack the liberals’ position on climate change, he should get his facts straight. I believe he is doing the people of Florida a disservice by not recognizing and acknowledging the threat of climate change.

 

Where does all of this leave us in terms of the economy and financial markets. Maybe the financial markets will continue to ignore the many threats and move higher. But think about what would happen in the markets if Russia were to use a tactical nuclear weapon in Ukraine. Or what will happen in the markets if the effects of climate change suddenly worsen. And what would political chaos in 2024 mean for the markets. In an earlier post, I described a dream about the US dollar. Major climate change disasters in the US, as well as political turmoil, could affect the US dollar.

Recently I had a dream like the one about the US dollar. I was with a man who worked in a group I managed many years ago. The stock market had collapsed, and I was expressing concern that it had taken out a lower level that I thought would hold. The drop in the Dow and S&P 500 was enormous. I did not post this dream in a separate post after it occurred because I think it could be symbolic of something else, but a more literal interpretation is certainly a possibility.

 

Several months ago, I dreamed that I met a man who claims to be a futurist and who has made many prophecies about Earth changes. I think of him as someone who can see the probable future. He said the stock market is going to crash, but he did not give a time frame. One could say, it is a safe prophecy because someday that will most likely happen. But dreams don’t work that way. I don’t dream about random events that might happen someday. I had been thinking about the things I mention as threats in this post, and I believe that one or more of them will occur and cause the stock market to crash. Of course, the stock market could continue higher until this event occurs. I am just saying that caution is in order because when the trigger event happens it will be too late if you have not properly prepared for it. Much information is available from an internet search about how to minimize the risk of such an event. I am not a financial advisor and can’t tell you how to position your portfolio if you have one.

 

Your dreams can warn you about catastrophic events in advance, but you must be monitoring them daily and learn your own personal symbols in dreams. No one else can do that for you. Your subconscious creates the dreams from your personal history: associations, events, beliefs, and desires. Something in a dream may have a strong personal association for you but little meaning to someone else. Only you know about that association. To understand your dreams, you must do the work yourself.

Dream Snapshots of Tomorrow

In my writings I have claimed that I see tomorrow in my dreams. I see the most significant aspects of the next day. This does not mean that I see the most significant events occurring around the world. However, if some national or world event occurs that my subconscious thinks I should know about, it will be shown in a dream. What I should know about is based on many factors, not the least of which is my conscious focus in my everyday life. Sometimes my subconscious will bring to my attention future events that may be a threat that allows me to take appropriate action to avoid disaster. At other times such as in a recent dream, it reveals my reaction to something in the news.

 

I have long known that my dreams often tune into tomorrow’s activities. If I watch a movie, even though the day of the dream I had no thoughts of watching that movie the next day, scenes from that movie may be incorporated into a dream. Two nights ago, I dreamed about being with a man who took me to a speech he was going to make that involved tennis in some way. A young female tennis player was nearby and seemed to be the focus. Last evening, I watched the PBS news that had a segment about the fiftieth anniversary celebration during the US Open tournament of equal prize money in tennis for men and women. This is the theme of this year’s US Open and is a major event. Billy Jean King, who was instrumental in gaining equal pay for women, was interviewed along with a young female tennis player. Now in the dream, a man made the speech, but the man (relative) in the dream had a certain aggressiveness, physical appearance, and personality like that of Billy Jean King.

 

I was aware that the US Open tournament was underway but had no thoughts about it when I watched the news and did not expect to see it in the news or know the US Open was celebrating fifty years of equal prize money for men and women. Yet my dream picked up on that moment, perhaps because I am familiar with the history and remember the battle Bill Jean fought to get equal prize money for men and women tennis players. Now if this were a single occurrence one might say it was a coincidence, but a daily pattern makes it hard to justify on that basis.

 

The subconscious mind is not limited by space or time. The rules for its operation are different from the ones we experience in the conscious world in which we live. A study of your dreams will reveal this to you with relatively little effort. Problems that seem unsolvable to your conscious mind have their solution in the depths of the subconscious. But to find the solution, you must be paying attention to the messages the subconscious is sending you each night in your dreams. You must be alert and open to the guidance you receive. If you have decided that the answer to a problem must happen a certain way, you may never see the real answer because you have limited yourself to a small subspace of acceptable options. And you will not even be aware of what may be the best solution.

 

Your dreams are about you. In my example of the tennis dream, I had certain strong associations with the man in the dream. This allowed me to see the connection to Billy Jean King. He was a representative for her. Someone else would probably not make the same connection. This is why you should not turn to someone else to interpret your dreams. Even if they are skilled at interpreting their own dreams, they do not have the reservoir of memories and associations that are used by your subconscious to construct the dream. The dream is not just a random collection of characters, scenes, and actions. Each item in the dream was chosen for a specific reason—because they could tell the story or deliver the message better than another one could.

Dreams of Death, Dying, and the Departed

In a recent post on Facebook, my niece expressed sadness over the death of her best friend. This caused me to reflect on death and consider doing a post about dreams and death. The past few years we have all seen more deaths than normal because of Covid-19, so I thought such a post would be relevant to many. I have posted about death in the past, but often only the most recent posts are noticed so I am posting about it again in relation to dreams. A physical death is something we must all face, and I believe the fear that many people have of death is misplaced. I hope this post helps alleviate that fear.

 

Dreams of death are common, but they usually do not mean a physical death will occur. They are symbolic of a death of something else such as a habit, belief, or behavior. However, dreams that foreshadow a physical death of yourself or someone else do occur, although the dream may appear to be about something else entirely.

 

What if you dream about your death or the death of a family member, close friend, or just someone in the news? You don’t need to panic because the dream is probably not about a physical death. As an example, I once dreamed that I was by a graveside watching the casket of my mother being lowered into a grave. My mother did not die. In fact, she lived another twenty years. At that point in my life, I had been indulging in pastries and other sweets, but had recently completely changed my diet and given up all desserts. My mother was a cook and among the family members well known for her pies and cakes, which I strongly associated with her. The death of my mother in the dream symbolized the death of something I associated with her, which was the presence of pastries in my life.

 

If a dream about the death of someone is not literal, then how is an actual death shown in a dream. There are many ways, and I have experienced several common ones. Once I dreamed that I saw a family member and a large clock. The minute hand moved a short distance and stopped. I instantly knew that the person was not going to live much longer. Within a few months after the dream, they were diagnosed with terminal cancer and did not live much longer.

 

Another time I dreamed that I saw an old woman dressed in black. She asked me something that was family related, which I answered as best I could. She then floated upwards into the sky. Several days later I learned that she had died the day of my dream.

 

In still another variation, I found myself on a train. The train car was empty except for two men, one of whom I knew from work as a coworker and friend. They did not seem to be aware of my presence. The coworker had been ill for some time, and I learned the next day that he had died. In the dream the other man asked him for his birth date, which he gave. Then the other man related his birth date. They both seemed aware that they were going off to a new unknown destination.

 

Many years ago, I had an office off a main walkway. A man who was a supervisor in manufacturing would often pass by, and sometimes he would stop to chat. One day he stopped to tell me about a dream he had the previous night. He was not aware of my interest in dreams; I think he just felt the need to tell someone. He had been experiencing some health issues for several months and was having trouble getting a medical diagnosis. In the dream, he was walking up a spiral staircase to a higher level. He asked me what I thought it meant. I did not give him an interpretation but felt that he knew. Within a few months he passed away.

 

I am reminded of a story that Hugh Lynn Cayce, the son of Edgar Cayce, told at a lecture he gave that included a discussion of dreams. He said that when he was a teenager he had a friend with a car that they used to cruise around the area where they lived. One evening his friend wanted to drive around, but Hugh Lynn said he was tired and decided to go home and turn in for the night. In the middle of the night, he was awakened by a dream in which his friend’s hand came down from a cloud reaching for him. His friend wanted Hugh Lynn to join him, and said it is great where he was. Of course, Hugh Lynn said he was in bed and wasn’t going anywhere. The next day Hugh Lynn learned that his friend had been killed in an auto accident after he left him and went home.

 

Many people wonder if life after our physical death exists. Although I cannot give you proof that scientists will accept, I believe you can answer that question for yourself to your satisfaction through dreams. You must be careful though in your interpretation of dreams. Just because you dream of an encounter with someone who has died does not mean you are meeting that person in your dream. In fact, most likely you are not. That person my be used by the dream to symbolize what that person represented to you while alive. In your daily life, you may soon encounter, or have recently encountered, someone who you associate with the departed person. As an example, you may unexpectedly receive a call from someone you have not heard from in a long time. The previous night you may have had a dream in which you received a telephone call from someone who has died who reminds you of the person who called.

 

However, I do believe there are certain times when you will encounter the spirit of the person who has passed over. As described in my examples, you may encounter that person right after they pass over. If you have a close bond with someone, you may encounter them in a dream. I have met my mother a few times in dreams that I thought represented actual encounters. Once was shortly after her death and over the years a few times in her current environment. Others, such as my father who died when I was a young child, I have never encountered. I have two brothers who have passed. One I observed in a dream soon after his death as he was making the transition to a new existence. The other one has never appeared in my dreams.

 

As a final comment, I want to point out that there is no evidence to suggest that people suddenly become wise and all knowing after death. New age literature suggests the opposite: people continue to learn and evolve. Psychics who claim contact with the departed report that many of them are confused about their state and are no wiser than when they were alive. They may have a different view from the one they had on Earth, but their struggles and mental problems do not suddenly vanish.

 

I make many journeys in my dreams. Sometimes I have encountered people from my past who have passed over, but the encounter is very brief. There is an acknowledgement of meeting on both our parts, and I move on. Again, the encounters are more common when someone has just passed. And often I am not aware of their passing when I have the dream. It is later that I learn of their death.