Life Changing Dreams:
Receiving Inspiration and Healing from your Nightly Dreams
As you've already learned, dreams are not just for the famous and brilliant among us. Dreams benefit us all on a personal level and so every dream has importance.
Yet, while those who work with dreams agree that every dream is meaningful, some dreams are surely more compelling than others. As author Emily Bronte said so beautifully: "I've dreamt in my life dreams that have stayed with me ever after, and changed my ideas; they've gone through and through me, like wine through water, and altered the color of my mind."
Here are a few poignant examples of dreams that transformed the personal lives of the dreamer:
Read on to learn more about Lila, William and Sam.
Lila
Before her dream Lila, a 42-year-old teacher with two children, had been particularly depressed. She realized that her marriage had come to an end and she dreaded the ugly custody battle that would ensue. At the time of the dream she was working two jobs and experiencing extreme stress and exhaustion. In her dream the sun's light is veiled by a depressing gloom that shrouds the entire landscape — a fitting metaphor for her waking life dilemma. She says that in the dream it is as if her neighborhood has been bombed, the walls of the homes and the grass around them blackened and burnt. Nowhere can be seen any children or adults. Suddenly Lila’s cousin appears from within one of the houses and points to a nearby tree, charred, twisted and blackened like its surroundings. The following are Lila’s own words:
"I looked and saw the tiniest sign of color at the base of the tree. I bent over and moved some burnt leaves aside. Beneath the leaves was a tiny, fresh, pink rosebud. I picked it up and placed it in my palm to admire it. As I did so, it suddenly bloomed into a beautiful rose. As it bloomed, something truly miraculous happened!
The blackness disappeared, replaced by a blazing blue sky and a bright sun, warm against my skin. The houses became whole and bright white again, children were laughing and playing everywhere, adults stood around laughing and talking, the grass turned green and the trees sprouted green leaves and became whole again.
But the most incredible thing was the way I felt when the rose blossomed. My soul blossomed along with it and there were rays of bright, golden light, spilling out of my chest, and warmth from the sun radiating into me and lighting me up. I was glowing, feeling unbearably happy and blessed."
"As I have faced adversity since then," said Lila, "friends have often commented on how positive I am. I can trace my permanent change in attitude to that dream."
William
Often dreams serve to warn us that we are walking an unhealthy path in our life. Such dreams can be frightening but they arise not to punish us but rather to offer a compassionate message about the need for greater self-caring. The famed dream researcher William Dement — best known for his discovery of the REM sleep cycle during which our dreams are most vivid — had been a lifelong two pack a day cigarette smoker. All of his attempts to quit had met with abject failure. Then in his own words:
"... one night I had an exceptionally vivid and realistic dream in which I had inoperable cancer of the lung. I remember as though it were yesterday looking at the ominous shadow in my chest X-ray and realizing that the entire right lung was infiltrated. I experienced the incredible anguish of knowing my life was soon to end, that I would never see my children grow up, and that none of this would ever have happened if I had quit cigarettes when I first learned of their carcinogenic potential. I will never forget the surprise, joy, and exquisite relief of waking up. I felt I was reborn. Needless to say, the experience was sufficient to induce the immediate cessation of my cigarette habit."
Sam
Sam was a 52-year-old salesperson plagued for years with guilt and anxiety when this dream brought into his life an experience of profound healing and release:
"In my dream I’ve completed a sad and painful divorce, just as I had in waking life. In the dream I wonder about the decision I’ve made and how I ever gave up the childhood values I cherished. I feel like it’s taken everything out of me. Then I hear the bells of a church tolling in the distance and as the chimes get louder an ecstasy builds in my chest until I’m going to explode with joy. I realize in the dream that this is the joy of liberation. Yet, I’ve liberated my soul not from my marriage, but from the prison of deadening rules I had made for myself all my life. I feel no more of that agonizing doubt and now know in my heart that I have done the right thing. After that dream I never again experienced the agonizing and guilt that had plagued me every day since we separated."
Dreams have the power to inspire and change our lives. With your gift the DREAMTIME series can teach and inspire us all.