“The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.” Eleanor Roosevelt

Dreaming is as old as mankind itself. Dreams are significant. They are a part of who we are, a part perhaps that we do not understand. Why? Because they are mystical. They speak in symbols. They may present pictures and riddles. We may appear in a role of someone else. We may have qualities we do not possess in our waking life. Dreams may be full of obstacles or full of blessings. Oftentimes it takes an adept to be able to interpret them. Yet sometimes they are crystal clear, beautiful, uplifting, encouraging and inspiring.

Do you dream? Of course you do. We all do but many of us do not recall our dreams on a regular basis. Some of us never get enough sleep. We zone out in front of the TV, completely exhausted, yet cannot fall asleep when we finally hit the pillow. Others need a daily dose of liquor, beer or wine to help carry them off to la-la-land. We struggle enough with performing our daily tasks, family responsibilities and spousal duties – who has time to worry about dreams? Yet – what if you had an inspiring dream that would brighten your future forever?

Dreams come in many shapes and forms. They can inform and support us. They can warn us, predict a future happening, and help us gain insights into the depth of our soul. There are those dreams that help us digest the every-day events and make sure we store them in the appropriate memory bank for our own sanity. There are annoying nightmares that stress us out even when we sleep and have us wake up bathed in sweat with too much adrenaline pumping through our veins. There are dreams that give us guidance, insights and wisdom IF we can remember them.            

When I was a teenager living in Northern Germany, my parents planned a trip to Munich. The night before the trip, my mother had a dream. She was in the car on her way to Munich, except she never arrived at her destination. After waking up, she remembered that she had not been able to move her right leg.  “How silly,” she said, laughing. My parents took the trip. Shortly before they arrived in Munich, another car got out of control on the autobahn. It hit my mother’s side of the car and she lost consciousness. She woke up at the hospital. Her right hip had been dislocated. Luckily her attending physician was well versed in ski accidents and had been able to put her bones nicely back in place. However, my mother had to endure traction for three months and was unable to move her right leg during that time. Ooops.

Before the Industrial Revolution and long before we believed we could fix every problem with drugs, people believed in dreams. Ancient and modern cultures have used dreams to implore higher powers, find healing cures and understand their inner turmoil. In ancient Egypt, Greece, Ireland, Asia and native America, one would fast and pray to receive a message from God or request the healing of an illness – not much different from what our modern religions teach. In Egypt and later in Greece, people would spend their nights at a healing temple, perform a religious ritual and hope to receive a cure in a dream. Aesculapius, whose rod we still use today as a symbol of modern medicine, was one of the most famous Greek physicians using dream therapy.  

Of course one did not only use dreams to receive therapeutic cures. Messages in dreams were believed to be messages from a divine source, often presented in hidden codes or images that required dream interpretation from a sage or a priest. Oracles received guidance in a meditative dream state, not only for individuals but also for state-wide political, strategic and economic decisions.

The Old Testament is full of dream examples with Daniel being the prime dream interpreter of his time. Socrates in Greece was told in a dream to study music and the arts and followed these instructions. Mohammed obtained much of the content of the Koran from a dream. Hippocrates used patients’ dreams to diagnose their illnesses. Abraham Lincoln dreamed of his assassination before it occurred. Albert Einstein received the formula for the theory of relativity in a dream.

The Australian aborigines talk about dreamtime and native American shamans are more than familiar with the art of dreaming. Tibetans use their dreams not only for guidance. They also know the art of lucid dreaming, a technique that allows the dreamer to re-enter a dream and alter it for his or her benefit or even for the benefit of mankind. Can you imagine?    

Aristotle in Greece is said to have been the first to look at dreams from an analytical perspective believing that they reflect the turmoil of an individual’s psyche. So did Carl Jung. Perhaps. But looking at the big picture, do you not think there is more than one kind of dream?  

about ten years after my mother had her premonition dream, I had a similar dream. My cousin was visiting me in California and we had rented a car for our two-thousand mile exploration of the American West. In my dream, we crashed the rental car. What would you have done? Upon awaking in the morning, we returned the rental car and used my smaller, older car for the trip. We were safe.

After studying alternative healing arts, including hands-on-healing techniques for several years, I had a vivid dream. In this dream, I had drawn smiley faces on the palms of my hands. I visited children in a hospital telling them I was the Happy Healer and I would make them well. The children I treated with hands-on-healing would giggle with delight since the energy currents coming from my hands tickled them on the inside. All the children in my dream got well. Thus was born the Happy Healer Institute through which I still practice and teach healing arts today.

Three years later, I had another dream. Nine elders visited me urging me to write a book concerned with the environment, the plight of the elders in our society, as well as the troubles children are facing these days. God’s will was mentioned several times as well as the desire of all people for peace, happiness and a purpose of life. The dream was intense and very real. I woke up and went to the bathroom. The dream was still with me. I went into the kitchen and drank a glass of water. When I finally returned to bed, the dream continued. It was then that it got my full attention. When inspiration hits you in the face, why turn your back?  

I wrote the book.

Some of us are lucky. Dreams just show up. Information is clear. Messengers are persistent. Others have to work a little harder to gain access to this realm of inner mystery. It is intuitive. It is fascinating. It is accessible. Though dreams can be elusive, if they could give you direction for the future, would you want to know? If a dream could warn you of imminent danger, would you listen? If it gave you a therapeutic remedy for perfect health, would you write it down?

When we sleep, we experience various levels of relaxation, going from a feeling of drowsiness to a light sleep, followed by deep sleep. Have you ever observed your dog or cat while dreaming with twitching paws, twitching whiskers and twitching mouth? Humans are not all that different. When we sleep, every ninety minutes or so, we have a REM phase. REM stands for ‘rapid eye movement’. During these phases, we dream. Imagine your cat or dog watching your twitching eyes during the middle of the night. They have their own spectacle!

If you are mesmerized by the possibility of tapping into the wisdom of your dreams for answers and guidance, here are some steps for easier dream recall:            

Rule #1: Set your intent to dream. Focus all your attention on wanting to recall your dreams. If you like to say a prayer before you retire, request help in recalling your dreams. Ask, ask, ask.            

Rule #2: Get enough sleep! Our dream phases get longer after several hours of sleep, so after four, five, six or seven hours of sleep, our dreams are longer. Why am I telling you this? When the dreams are longer, they are easier to remember and easier to catch!            

Rule #3: Drink a big glass of water before you retire. This may wake you up in the middle of the night when you are dreaming and give you a perfect chance to catch a dream.            

Rule #4: Before you go to bed, get a pad and pen handy. Date it. If you have a specific question you would like to have answered, write it down. As you fall asleep, think about recalling your dreams.

Rule#5: As soon as you awake, begin writing, even if it is in the middle of the night. Whether you recall a whole dream or a fragment of a dream, record it. Honor whatever you receive. Dreams can slip away with one yawn, one look at the alarm clock or one scratch of your head. Trap them as quickly as you can.                    

Rule#6: If you cannot remember any dreams, write down whatever thoughts you have upon awakening. This will teach your subconscious mind that you are willing, ready and eager to receive and record its messages. The more often you record, the more information you will receive.            

Rule#7: Be persistent. Follow the same routine every night.            

Rule #8: Induce sleep naturally. In the evening, relax body and mind and let your physiology unwind. Take a walk, meditate, practice yoga, prepare yourself with quiet time. Review your day’s activities, actions, thoughts and emotions, then let them go.            

Rule #9: Do not take sleeping pills or drown yourself with alcohol. They might simply give you nightmares.            

Rule#10: When you become really good at all of the above, begin to practice lucid dreaming. Consciously connect with a prior dream and make it better for yourself and for the benefit of all mankind.            

Nighty–night!  Don’t let the bed bugs bite!