Staying Healthy Through the COVID-19 Threat

Many people are worried about contracting the COVID-19 virus, which is causing enormous stress. I think there are some basic things you can do to promote a healthy immune system and minimize your susceptibility to the virus. These include having a good diet, regular exercise, daily meditation, and recording your dreams.

Of course, I recommend these practices for other times as well, but they are particularly important now. Your diet will have a big effect on your ability to repel viruses like COVID-19. As a member, I received an email from the A.R.E. that quoted one of the Edgar Cayce readings that is very relevant. The reading stated, “if an alkalinity is maintained in the system — especially with lettuce, carrots and celery, these in the blood supply will maintain such a condition as to immunize a person.” (480-19) This number in parenthesis is the identifier for the specific Cayce reading. All of the readings are catalogued and available online through the A.R.E.

A healthy diet means you should eat plenty of fruits and vegetables with a salad for lunch. Drink enough water to maintain hydration, and don’t rush your meals. The right foods support your immune system, in addition to providing numerous other benefits.

Regular exercise is important. You will feel better and it will help you stay positive during the COVID-19 restrictions. If possible, you should get some sunshine each day for vitamin D.

The health benefits of meditation have been studied and are well documented. Meditation will reduce stress and be beneficial for your immune system. The results of meditation are more than just a feel-good effect; meditation has tangible effects on the chemistry of your body. I refer you to a Forbes’ article by Alice G. Walton, Senior Contributor for Healthcare. It was published Sep 6, 2016, and is titled New Clues Into How Meditation May Boost The Immune System. There are numerous other articles easily found with a web search that describe the many physiological benefits of meditation.

Of course, the recording and analysis of your dreams has been the main subject of my posts. Your dreams provide feedback on your daily thoughts and activities. So if you need to make adjustments in either area, you will see it reflected in your dreams. You may be advised to add some activity to your current schedule that will be beneficial, but escaped your conscious notice.

COVID-19 will eventually pass, but it will probably have a lasting effect on our society. Unfortunately, I think it is but an early warning for challenges we will face this decade. The world was not prepared for such an event, even though infectious disease experts knew it was a distinct possibility. Pandemics were the themes of many movies and TV programs, with some being quite prescient. But governments did not take them seriously.

Now is a good time to reevaluate your life. The things I suggested can improve the quality of your life, even during normal times. And they will prepare you for future challenges. The time to make adjustments in your lifestyle is now, not when the next crisis arrives. Find the center of your being and all your fears will dissolve.

Time to Reevaluate

The world is now facing a situation that has been depicted in movies and TV programs. As is often the case, fiction has become reality. World health organizations have warned about the possibility of a pandemic for many years, so this event should not be the surprise that it is to many politicians and world leaders. I do not believe the United States, and most other countries, were properly prepared for a pandemic. The warnings have been clear for a long time, but they were not heeded.

I don’t want to dwell on what is past, but I do think it serves as a reminder of our unpreparedness for the chaos we are going to experience from climate change because of global warming. For now, climate change is pushed to the background. But when COVID-19 has subsided, the dangers we face from the radical changes in climate the world is experiencing will still be with us. If our political leaders refuse to recognize the dangers, as they are doing and initially did for COVID-19, we are going to see a disaster far greater than what we see from COVID-19.

This is a time for all to reevaluate their beliefs and ideals. President Trump has declared today, March 15, a national day of prayer. However, that alone is not going to change the future. We must behave in a way that proclaims our belief in God, not simply set aside a day of prayer. We must demonstrate in our daily words and actions our faith and belief that we are our brothers’ keeper.

In what do you place your faith? In recent years, material wealth and/or technology have become what many worship. People have come to think that technology can solve all their problems. But here we are with life brought to a standstill by a microorganism. And technology has no ready answer. Thousands will die; there is no medicine to magically destroy the virus. All the wealth in the world cannot provide a cure if you have the Coronavirus.

I think that now is a good time for the many people who are staying home to examine their beliefs. What is your ideal? In what do you place your faith? If you believe there is a God, is it just a hope? Or do you have a real sense of the spiritual power that is at the center of your being? Some may ask the following: I want to reach my true inner self, but I don’t know how. I believe there are three ways to connect with a higher power. They are as follows: prayer, meditation, and dreams.

Prayer demonstrates your intent, your willingness to recognize a higher power. And prayer recognizes your desire to seek help beyond your individual ego.

Meditation helps you connect to that higher power. It stills the conscious mind and prepares you to receive an answer to your prayers. It puts you in touch with your inner self.

Dreams provide another way to receive concrete guidance from a higher power. If you seek sincerely, your dreams will provide an answer, regardless of your conscious feelings about the problem or dilemma for which you seek help. You may consciously thing that your situation is hopeless, that there is no answer. But to the Universal, nothing is impossible, and your dreams often provide solutions that never occurred to your conscious mind.

We are at the beginning of a new decade that my dreams have indicated will be very challenging for all humans. Dramatic Earth changes will take place. The government may be helpless to overt some disasters or respond in a timely way to others, and you may be left alone wondering when help will come. Now is the time to find that source of inner strength so you are never truly alone.

We have seen just how fast our perceived material wealth can dissolve when a crisis occurs. The stock market lost nearly thirty percent in a matter of days. Although it has recovered almost ten percent, the turmoil might not be over. What if the crisis took the market down by fifty percent, or more, and the government had to freeze all accounts or close the market for an extended period. Where is your wealth then?

The answer is not accumulating weapons and ammunition. The answer is recognizing your spiritual nature and finding your comfort from within. I do not know how long the Coronavirus will last. I have not seen a dire outcome for the United States. In one dream, it was dark and cloudy outside, but when I opened the door and went out, I discovered the storm had passed and the sun was shining. So maybe it will be short lived. But if not, I am prepared for whatever happens.

Prior to the financial panic, I had a dream one night that I was in a car with another person. We arrived at what appeared to be a national park. As I got out of the car, I spotted a bear and became afraid. I yelled to my companion that I saw a bear. Then I watched as the bear started to move in my direction, but the bear was abruptly stopped because he or she was tied to a tree. I saw a long rope restraining the movement of the bear. At the time, I thought the dream indicated the danger of a bear stock market, but I was not and am still not certain if the dream was saying the bear market will be very limited and restrained. It could be saying that the bear who had been restrained is about to be unleashed, although I did not see that happening in the dream.

Reevaluate your life and values. Do you know your purpose on this Earth? If not, maybe it is time to find out. You can find answers through your dreams, but you must be willing to make the effort. Many books can provide help, but you must do the work on a daily basis to fully realize the benefits of dream interpretation.

Dream about a Rock Hitting the Earth

Two nights ago, I awoke in the middle of the night from the following dream. I was watching a news broadcast about a rock from space that was close to the earth. At first, it was thought that it would miss the Earth. But it did not; it hit somewhere in the region of the North Pole as a thirty kiloton explosion, about twice the force of the Little Boy bomb dropped on Hiroshima. In the dream, I thought the size of the rock was two feet, which seemed far too small for such an explosion. Anyhow, in the dream I was worried about the effect around the world from such an explosion. The news indicated chaos ensued in the area of the impact.

This is a good example of the form taken by many dreams: the use of metaphor and the relationship to one’s daily life. Of course, I always consider the possibility that a dream is literal, although that is not the case for most dreams. But some of my dreams about the Earth, whether it is climate or something else, have later proved to be literal. In this case, I do not believe the dream is literal for the following reason. A rock of the size mentioned in the dream would not cause an explosion of thirty kilotons, even if it reached the surface of the Earth. It is possible that I didn’t remember the size correctly. Anyhow, before you become panicked, consider my alternate interpretation, which I believe is the correct one.

Dreams frequently make use of metaphor to tell a story or deliver a message. Also, dreams usually relate to your current concerns and reflections. In my case, that day I had been thinking about the drone strike on the Iranian general. The rock shooting into the polar region is a good metaphor for the missile striking Soleimani. Our relations with Iran were already frigid—hence the North Pole in the dream. The chaos after the rock struck the Earth symbolizes the chaos in Iraq and Iran after the missile strike. The fact that the news first reported the belief the rock would miss the Earth may relate to reports that the initial thoughts were to call off the done strike. I believe the numbers in the dream are also significant. The number 2 for the size of the rock indicates division, and it could also relate to the size of the missile. Two can be a weak number that indicates great division. The number 30 represents the power of the explosion, but three can represent the trinity of mind, body, and spirit. I believe the destructive force and message of the missile strike has affected all three aspects of life in Iran, and other parts of the Middle East.

In summary, we have the clear metaphor, and the dream related to my thoughts and concerns of the day. So I believe this symbolic interpretation of the dream is the correct one. I believe that the killing of Soleimani will have major repercussions. I do not know the details of the justification for his assassination, but I recall that the Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria-Hungary is often listed as the immediate cause of World War I. You can find more on my thoughts about drone strikes in the first topic, Utilitarianism Unmasked, in my book A Prophetic Dreamers Reflections on Life.

Ominous Signs for the Future

During all of the debate of the future health of the US economy by the politicians, financial analysts, and economists, I think the cost of climate change has been almost completely overlooked in the projections. The climate continues to get warmer and the costs of the effects of extreme weather are growing. In a recent post, I described a dream I had several years ago about the effects of Earth changes during the next decade. I believe that as the weather causes flooding, fires, and crop failures the costs will climb substantially. And as we experience increases in earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, many nations will become bankrupt.

It was recently announced that the 2019 budget deficit reached $984 billion dollars. The national debt is nearly $23 trillion dollars. Since we are already running budget deficits around one trillion dollars a year, what happens when we experience enormous costs from violent weather and other Earth changes. As a nation, we have no reserve. I believe we will probably see both tax increases and higher interest rates as the government finds it necessary to borrow even more money, money that may not exist since other countries will also have problems.

I have not seen any projections that include large escalating costs resulting from climate change. Any cost increases appear to be pushed onto to local communities to deal with, but I believe the problems will be on a national scale and far greater than local flooding, hurricanes, tornadoes, or fires. The federal government will have to address them. The government could create even larger budget deficits and add even more than what is currently projected to the national debt, which could destabilize the entire economy. Or it could raise taxes to increase revenue to offset the higher costs. Since the damage experienced may also cause a slowing of the economy, this is not a good scenario—raising taxes with a slowing economy.

My conclusion is that the path we are on with huge budget deficits during relatively good times is a recipe for disaster, especially considering what my dreams show for the next decade. I believe that Barack Obama was correct when he said that climate change was the most significant problem facing humans. But as a nation we are not listening; we are exploiting the Earth’s resources and spending as if the problem does not exist. I suspect that in the near future the blame game will start. People will wring their hands in sorrow, wondering how it happened, how we could be so unprepared. And then people will look for those to blame, but blame will not change the reality we will all have to face.

Last week I had a dream that was taking place as massive Earth changes were occurring. I was with someone else, and we were above the Earth near the West Coast looking down. Some people far to the east of the United States were leaving the planet (dying?), and I was focused on the West Coast of the US. I commented to the other person that it was going to be much worse when the volcanoes began erupting. The air would be filled with poisonous gases and debris, making it impossible for people to live in large areas of the West Coast. I wondered where they would go.

An Interesting Dream about Politics

Last night I dreamed about preparing for a test on Roman history along with a large group of other students. The focus was on Julius Caesar, who was assassinated by members of the Roman Senate. I was cramming for the test, trying to understand the events that led to Caesar’s death. Eventually I entered a classroom to take the test.

I find the dream interesting with all of the political drama that is currently taking place in Washington. I don’t know that the dream is precognitive, but if it is, it could be indicating that President Trump’s supporters in the US Senate will eventually turn on him, just as Caesar’s friends in the Roman Senate turned on him. In Trump’s case, the assignation would be a political one. There are definite similarities between Donald Trump and Julius Caesar. Both Donald Trump and Julius Caesar are considered authoritarian and populist in their political leanings.

I don’t believe the dream is just a reflection of my personal beliefs because I would be quite surprised to see the republicans in the US Senate turn against him. Also, my belief is that President Trump would resign if he believed he would be both impeached and convicted.

When I have dreams like this one, I try to relate it to what is happening in my own life. If I can’t, I put it aside as one whose meaning may become clear in time. I can’t relate this dream to my personal life, so I will have to wait to see if it is in fact related to the events in Washington.

Monitoring Your Health Through Your Dreams

On 3/25/2019, I posted an item titled Health Advice from Dreams. Because of the importance of our dreams in relation to our health, I continue my thoughts on the subject in this post. Also, I recently had a dream that reminded me of the ability of my dreams to provide concrete guidance concerning my health.

Recent surveys have indicated that health care will be one of the major concerns of Americans for the next presidential election. An enormous amount of money is spent on health care in this country each year. Yet the results are disappointing, with the quality and effectiveness of health care in the United States far down the list compared to many other countries. We spend more and get less. I think many reasons for this exist, and various solutions are being proposed by political candidates. Politics aside, I believe that one obvious answer is to teach people to take better care of their health. And they can do this by monitoring the state of their health depicted in their dreams.

I believe that your dreams represent one of the best sources of information about the state of your health. And it is a powerful diagnostic tool, completely ignored by the medical profession. Scientists are still arguing over the meaning of dreams, while some of us routinely use dreams to monitor our health. In my books, I give several examples of how I received health advice from my dreams, and the benefits that resulted. During my years in a corporate job, I cannot recall exactly how long I worked without a sick day, but I know it was more than twenty years prior to my retirement. During that same period, people in the group I managed, were frequently absent due to illness.

I attribute my good health during that time to changes I made in lifestyle, as well as the constant feedback from my dreams alerting me to health risks or further changes needed to maintain good health. In addition to providing many other types of assistance, my dreams were a health advisor that kept close watch over my physical and mental health.

The good news about health dreams is that they are among the easiest dreams to interpret, often providing advice in a clear unambiguous way. Consider the dream I had a week ago. I dreamed that I had taken my car to a service station because it wasn’t running properly. The mechanic said he didn’t see anything fundamentally wrong, but I needed to drive it around more to get it to run better. Those of you who follow my blog posts will know that a car is often a symbol for the human body in a dream. So I identified the car with my body.

Now, as some background, the past few months I have not felt well. I lacked energy and just didn’t feel robust. I live in Florida, and because of the unusually hot and humid weather, I have been exercising inside on an exercise machine I own. I thought that this would be a good substitute for my normal two-mile walk outside each day. After the dream, I realized that I might have been wrong. I believe that the exercise machine helped, but something was lacking. The dream seemed to be saying that I needed to walk around more. Fortunately, it has cooled down some recently, so I immediately returned to my fast-paced walk outside. The change in how I felt was immediate. I now feel like my old self. Again, the dream guidance was dead on.

Many reasons exist that people give for ignoring their dreams. I believe that if they would begin to see them as coming from a wise and concerned advisor, they would feel differently about them. Dreams are a source of great help, and they are not to be feared. The time to be afraid is when you ignore their guidance.

Dreams as a Mirror of Your Inner Self

In my books and in my posts on this blog, I have attributed many benefits to the study of one’s dreams. However, the fact is that most people that I encounter have virtually no understanding of dreams. They do not know even the basic facts that scientists have documented, which includes the fact that everyone dreams many times during the night’s sleep cycles. Over my lifetime, I have seen numerous books published about dreams and authors of those books have appeared on national talk shows. But among the public knowledge about dreams still seems to be very sparse.

I believe that many people have had one or more dreams that they recall, and want to know the meaning of a particular dream. But the interest stops there. Some will search until someone gives them an interpretation that makes sense, but then they forget about their dreams until they have another one they want to understand. Very few people see dreams as important messages from the unconscious that they should try to understand. Even many scientists have not reached this conclusion, and some consider dreams meaningless creations of the subconscious.

Previously, I have written about the reasons that people ignore their dreams. Several reasons are discussed in my dream books and they all contribute to the limited interest in dreams. However, in this post, I want to focus on what I believe is one of the most important reasons dream interpretation is not popular. And that reason is the fear of what we may find.

We all have an image of ourselves: what we think we are. This image determines how we see the world. Our beliefs form early in life and continue to develop into adulthood. They give us our picture of the world we inhabit. No two people see the world the same. Two people may have major agreements, but even then, some differences will remain because their interests, abilities, and life experiences are not identical.

We all have filters. Some information is filtered out. We do not see it or pay attention to it because we do not agree with it or do not think it is important. If someone we do not like does something good, we may not “see” the good act. We may automatically filter it and do not even notice its occurrence.

The world we see is one that corresponds to what we think it is. In this day of deep political divisions, try to convince a person with strong political beliefs that the opposing party has the best interests of the people in mind. The person will rattle off all the justifications for reviling the opposition’s approach, and will not notice any of their good qualities. The current strong political views are usually based on what is wrong with the other side, not what they have in common or share.

Our dreams give us a mirror we can look into to see our inner selves. Dreams reflect our true image: who and what we really are, not what we hope we are or would like to be. If someone is open-minded and fair, that image will be reflected in their dreams. (Note I use the now accepted their instead of his or her.) However, if someone is narrow-minded and bigoted, that image will be reflected instead.

As we age, physical changes will be reflected in a mirror. A person can look at their physical image and wish it were different, that those puffy eyes, lines and age spots, or extra flab weren’t really there, but the mirror cares little about such desires. It simply reflects what is there.

Similarly, dreams reflect our inner selves. We can decide to not look, as in the case of some vain person who destroys all the mirrors in their house so they won’t see anything that may distress them. But that doesn’t change anything. The reality of their physical image does not change. And other people are well aware of how they look. We can decide to not look at our dreams because we fear what we might see, but other people usually see our real selves even if we don’t. If a person is a braggart or a liar, other people know that. People may lie to themselves, but they are not fooling those around them.

As I have stated, many people avoid interpreting their dreams because they are afraid of what they might find. They may have behaved badly and don’t want to be reminded of that from a dream. Avoidance of dreams is particularly true concerning precognitive dreams. Over the years, numerous people have voiced to me their fear of seeing some bad things that may happen in the future in their dreams. Their response is to avoid their dreams altogether, and if they have a frightening dream that shows an undesirable future event, they try to put it out of their minds as quickly as possible.

Unfortunately, this does not solve any problems. In fact, it prevents them from potentially avoiding the occurrence of the probable future event. And if it cannot be avoided, it prevents them from coming to terms with it psychologically prior to the occurrence. I refer to this as the mental Ostrich syndrome. If we don’t look at it, if we don’t see it, maybe it will go away.

Carl Jung, a prolific writer and one of the most famous and studied psychiatrists of all time, believed that we need to unite our conscious and unconscious minds to become whole as human beings. We cannot do that if we hide from our dreams. Our dreams are a mirror of our inner selves, and our time making an examination of them is surely worth as much concern as an examination of our physical selves, which occupies some of the day for most people, and much of the day for many people.

In the metaphysical writings of Edgar Cayce and Jane Roberts, we find that dreams play an important role. Both of them consider it essential that people pay attention to their dreams, and that they learn to interpret their own dreams. The symbols in your dreams are unique to you; no one else can tell you what something in a dream means to you. Certainly, there are common themes in dreams. And some of the symbols share a similar meaning across people’s dreams. But to get at the heart of it, which is why those particular symbols were selected in your dream rather than some others, you must examine what they mean to you. What are the associations you make? No one else can do that for you, which is why dream dictionaries are of limited use.

If you expect another person to interpret your dreams, you are asking them what your life means. You are asking them to interpret your innermost thoughts and feelings. No one can do the job for you. You cannot become self-aware by asking another person to do it for you. You have to do the work yourself.