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.
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.)
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