In the preceding study I talked about Francis’ premonitory dream, which warned her of breast cancer.

Right after putting this dream on my blog, I received an e. mail.

“Hi, Mrs. Riedel

Could we please set up a telephone appointment to interpret my dream?

Last night I dreamt that I had a brain tumor. 

Awaiting your call, I thank you.

Patricia”

Gosh ! Was that a premonitory dream ?

It was not to be taken lightly.  It was urgent to explore it over the phone to understand its meaning. Here is how we studied this worrisome image with the interview technique. Patricia, answering my questions, gave me her associations.

Interpretation

The dream being very short, I immediately went to the heart of the problem :

- Listen, Patricia, your dream could possibly be premonitory. If that should be the case, you must go for tests immediately.

However, we must not neglect the possibility that your dream is symbolic and so at  first we must analyze it from this perspective. If we don’t find a symbolic meaning, then we’ll have to conclude that your dream is to be taken at face value and act accordingly.

After these explanations, I began my interview :

A tumor

Questions :

- Patricia, what is a tumor?

- A tumor is a cancer, a serious, deadly illness.  Malevolent, destructive cells multiply, causing disturbances, which disrupt life. These cells gnaw at healthy tissues and spread everywhere.

- What is the brain?

-The brain, says Patricia, is the seat of mental activity and consciousness. It is the part of me, which allows me to reflect, reason and understand. I can analyze, make hypothesis and deductions. 

The brain also allows me to express myself through words and movements.

The preceding words are the dreamer’s own associations. Of course someone else could say something quite different about the brain. But I work exclusively with the dreamer’s associations.

Establishing the link between the dream and the dreamer’s daily life

Now, we had to put the dream into its context. So for this it was necessary to look at the events that occurred the day prior to the dream.

I went over the associations and, using the dreamer’s own words, I asked :

- Patricia, try to look back on yesterday.  What happened?  What does it remind you of, if I mention malevolent cells that gnaw at you, wreak mayhem in your mental life and affect your capacity to reflect, to analyze ? What was going on in your head yesterday ?

     - What was going on in my head yesterday ?

Oh ! Yesterday, everything went wrong, I had a miserable day. I really hated my husband ! Everything is turning out wrong. I can’t put up with him anymore, our disagreements are amplifying, we have financial problems, he’s always yelling.

Also he doesn’t even look at me and he hasn’t made love to me in a long time.  Mrs. Riedel, I’ve had enough, I can’t take it any longer. And yesterday all that came to mind; I imagined a lot of stuff in my head.

I told myself I would be better off without him, that I should leave him. The idea of ending up alone is not that frightful.

What I would really like is to find a man who appreciates me, who tells me I’m beautiful and desires me.

I would like a nice man, who is not a baby that you have to cater to, but one with whom mutual companionship is possible.

Oh ! You know, I’m so sorry to dump all this on you ! I’m embarrassed but sometimes I find my situation unbearable.

Quite moved I said :

- Patricia, don’t worry, listening to all this is part of my job. You know, studying our own dreams leads us to reveal ourselves, and this can only be achieved by being authentic. So you are justified in expressing your feelings.

But let’s get back to your dream. 

Making verifications

Considering what you have just told me, how would your capacity to think and reflect (brain) be gnawed at by malevolent and harmful thoughts (cancer) ? 

- Oh yes ! I see it clearly : the malevolent cells, that are threatening me, represent all this resentment, all those negative thoughts about my husband.

- So what do you think about the image of cancer ?

- Hum ! I’m invaded, devoured by destructive thoughts, which are undermining me,  ruining my life.

     - Yes. So your dream is a serious warning. You must understand that this proliferation of negative thoughts concerning your relationship with your husband is as dangerous as a real cancer.

Putting the message into application

So, now we’ve understood the meaning of the dream, which is not premonitory.

But once the interpretation is done, that is not all, the work isn’t over. It is wise to look for ways to put its message into application, to define concrete actions to correct and change the situation.

For our dreamer it means giving up a harmful attitude, choosing to replace it with a more constructive one. 

From then on Patricia decided to accept life as it was presenting itself, welcoming the tiniest ordinary delights of everyday life as well as its difficulties.

She admitted that her husband wouldn’t behave according to her expectations ; so she decided to take him as he was without trying to change him.

Following this dream study we discover the surprising paradox of the dream path :

By accepting a loss, Patricia will gain.

By changing her state of mind, from now on she will undergo a transformation process, where she will learn endurance and perseverance.

By giving up her expectations, by accepting that her present life is not as she had thought or wished, she bears her ordeal.

Yes ! Experiencing frustration will  lead her to understand its value ; this inner experience will develop the gem of the soul : patience.

Didn’t Christ say :

“In your patience you shall possess your soul” ? (1)

Her dreams will guide her through this transformation.

Conclusion

If we quickly had taken the dream at face value, we would have lost the precious life lesson given by the dream about patience.

Perhaps this dream has also a premonitory aspect : Couldn’t such a lasting negative state of mind sooner or later produce a brain cancer ? Who knows ?

Patricia and I were thankful and appreciative for the dreams guiding and warning us of dangers night after night. 

How vigilant!  How benevolent! How wise!

Important

Don’t miss chapter 4 !

Next time we will compare the two preceding dreams : Francis’ true premonitory dream indicating a breast cancer and Patricia’s symbolic dream of a brain tumor, which only seems to be premonitory. We will define how to distinguish one from the other.

Illustrations

A question : lulumineuse.com

Brain cancer : faceauxcancers.fr

Yelling : topiro.com

Negative thoughts : « Waiting for the rain”, ladykereska.over-blog.com

Endurance : ladykereska.over-blog.com

Ordeal : ladykerezska.over-blog.com

Patience : “Pick up my Dream” by Insantosa, ladykereska.over-blog.com

Last time we saw a premonitory dream pointing to an impending danger.

Today, let’s see a dream unveiling an event, which will happen many years later.

This is Margaret’s dream, a student of mine who, twenty years ago, wanted to learn dream interpretation.

This dream came to her in 1992:

“I was part of a group going to a conference on health.

We were walking, I was in the back of the group and falling behind.

Then I found myself at the conference.

The subject was: “How to treat the illnesses of modern society and AIDS in particular.

I listened todifferent speakers and all of a sudden a voice spoke out and said:

“ - In the relatively near future – and I know in my dream that that means in twenty to thirty years – in the relatively near future, the voice says, dreams will be a very good therapy to treat the ills of modern society.”

The voice paused then added:

- It will even be an excellent therapy !

And then the voice strongly proclaimed :

- And it will be recognized.”

Interpretation

I was part of a group going to a conference on health.  We were walking.

The dream invites the dreamer to take an interest in the research concerning health.

I was in the back of the group and falling behind.

The image underlines the dreamer’s lack of enthusiasm.  She clearly shows resistances towards the dream world and has a very ambiguous attitude.

On the one hand, she seems to display open-mindedness in regards to the interior world by joining my workshops, but on the other hand she’s very hesitant, even defiant.  She scarcely accepts that dreams have a meaning and can guide her on her life path. She doesn’t progress, she lags behind in this interior transformation work.

The subject of the conference was: how to treat the illnesses of modern society and AIDS in particular.

Why does the dream specifically mention AIDS?

Let’s look at the symbolic meaning of this illness. Symbolically  AIDS is an illness of the soul.

AIDS contamination mostly happens when one makes love without any protection.

On the symbolic level it means that we embrace points of view without distrust and discernment ; we enjoy adopting fleeting opinions, ideas, ideals, and trendy behaviors which pretend to grant immediate pleasure. But we do it without using our own judgment to properly evaluate the soundness of these trends.

Our world is intoxicated with all kinds of fads and theories.

All these currents pretend to know human beings, but actually they don’, because they have no connection with the soul, the psyche, the symbol of which is the butterfly. In fact they don’t understand the dreams, which are the soul’s inner language.

We adopt the prevailing norms and conceptions, which deviate us from our authenticity. We no longer listen to our own instinctive reactions and feelings which are the forces defending us. We no longer know what is appropriate for us or not, we live in dispersal, conflict and anguish. We loose our capacity to fend for ourselves, we loose our immune power and we contract AIDS symbolically.

I listen to the different speakers and all of a sudden a voice speaks out and says:

“In the relatively near future – and I know in my dream that that means in twenty to thirty years –

 Margaret received this dream in 1992.  The dreamer knows in her dream that in a “relatively near future” means within twenty to thirty years which would be in : 2012, 2022. Twenty years ago the dream forecasted events, which are beginning to come true.

And here is what the dream predicted:

Dreams will be a very good therapy to treat the ills of modern society and particularly AIDS.

For many years our society has been witnessing the proliferation of therapies of all kinds, as one dream put it: “they sprout up like mushrooms after a rainfall”.

This multitude of different and varied therapies attempts to alleviate the prevailing distress, which goes to prove that the soul is ill. Actually the soul issuffering a great deal. Could the external pollution correspond to the internal pollution ?

But soon alongside all these reigning therapies, we will really come to understand that dreams have a therapeutic value, that they are a very good therapy. The dream will then regain its true dimension and the place it had been granted throughout all civilizations, except ours.

That’s why our society is sick.

The voice paused then added:

Dream will even be an excellent therapy !

And then the voice strongly proclaimed:

And it will be recognized.

So this dream reveals a long term perspective spanning over twenty or thirty years.

Margaret received this impressive premonitory dream to encourage her to persevere in her search, without expecting to gain immediate benefits or any recognition from her entourage concerning her dream work.

This dream did not have much effect on the dreamer, she abandoned her dialogue with the unconscious.

But for me, this dream was a blessing. Countless times it came back to my mind to support me during difficult moments : when in my solitude I saw people doubting my work, smirking, mocking me or shying away, because what the dreams told them was so different from the prevailing points of view ; and most of all dreams don't necessarily say what we would like to hear. 

And so this great dream, which always brought me such solace, announced changes, which some people are preparing and working on, and others are witnessing. 

Illustrations

I thank the artists and photographers.

Giraffe on fire, by the Spanish artist Salvador Dali, 1904-1989

Butterfly book, contemporary Russian artist Vladimir Kush,

Paranoid face, Salvador Dali, surrealisme.skynetblogs.be

Oiled Pelican in Louisiana, Monday 7 2010, photo Charlie Riedel, cyberpress.ca

The face of war, by the Spanish artist Salvador Dali, oilpainting.com

Purple Horse at Chartres, by Vladimir Kush

To the Safe Haven, Russian artist Vladimir Kush