The 3:15 Club

Can Dreams Diagnose Health Problems?

2010-03-17T20:05:00.000-07:00

About 2,400 years ago, the ancient Greek physician Hippocrates, who’s sometimes called the Father of Medicine, postulated that the body was able to sense the coming of disease before said disease took hold and impaired the body. Often the dreamer received a warning regarding the illness––in a dream. According to Hippocrates, who also knew a fair amount of astrology (like all learned people of the time) the appearance of the sun, moon, or stars in a person’s dream symbolized his or her physical state. If the stars in the dream glowed brightly, said Hippocrates, the body was in good shape and functioning as it should. However, if the stars seemed dull––or if a cosmic disaster of some sort occurred in the dream––it meant a disease was developing in the body.

Holistic medicine proposes a body/mind/spirit link––the three levels of being cannot be separated. Even allopathic medicine now recognizes that the mind and emotions influence physical conditions. Before an ailment, whether it’s a common cold or cancer, manifests physically it may have existed in a nonphysical form for quite a long time. If we accept a body/mind/spirit connection, it’s seems reasonable that in the dream state we might get clued into something that’s gone amiss, long before the information filters down into our waking lives.

Signs and symbols in your dreams may warn of potential health problems, although those warnings are likely to be cloaked in symbolism. Here’s an example. During a very busy period in my life, I dreamed I was driving dangerously fast and wrecked my car. Cars, in dreams, often represent the physical body and your direction in life. My dream was warning me that if I didn’t stop pushing myself so hard I could damage my health.

Sometimes our dreams suggest cures when we’re ill or offer advice about how we can heal ourselves physically and emotionally. Dreams connect us with a level of awareness some people call the Akasic Records, a cosmic data bank that holds all the knowledge that has ever existed. The great psychic Edgar Cayce never studied medicine, yet by tapping into the Akasic Records in his dreams, he discovered remedies that helped thousands of people.

Sometimes our dreams illuminate health problems that could develop if we don’t take corrective action. Dreams also may tell us that a treatment we’re undergoing is right or wrong for us. A colleague of mine once dreamed she stopped her car at a gas station. Instead of pumping gasoline into her tank, the attendant used a hose-like apparatus to suck out decaying matter that was clogging up her car. At the time she was undergoing a healthful, cleansing program and her dream told her that the process was working.

If you want your dreams to give you advice about a health situation, ask for insights before falling asleep. Record your dreams and keep a log of dream symbols, as Hippocrates did, to understand how your subconscious speaks to you. What do your dreams tell you about your health? Have you gotten advice in your dreams that you’ve applied to your own health situations? Have your dreams helped you to avert physical disease, or perhaps nip it in the bud?

Spiritual Hives

2010-03-12T08:40:00.000-08:00

In one of my first posts I admitted to an obsession with searching for the next big thing. I’m convinced that once I find the thing my life will change so profoundly that it will redefine my very existence. A new king-sized mattress came close. Bio-identical hormones came closer. But there’s always an intangible something still missing that I can’t quite put my finger on …. so, I keep looking.

For way too many years I’ve been addicted to anything and everything self-help. A definite off-shoot of the thing. With unwavering certainty, I know that the next book, the next tape series, the next DVD, the next Omega workshop or Brother Dyer live appearance – will be the thing that finally leads to my personal satori. Even my blog partner, Skye, half-jokingly talks about the need for an intervention and 12-step program. Hmmmm.

I’ve always thought that reading self-help books before falling asleep was the way to go – let the sub-conscious mull it over, construct an action plan and all that. So the other night after an hour of reading the latest and greatest about becoming a new and improved, excuse-free me – there was no way I could fall asleep. I couldn’t sleep because my mind was frantically trying to assimilate, organize, and somehow not forget what I had just read – the tips, the quotes, the secrets, the exercises, the 4 main categories with the 14 essential bullet points … I was an information-overload mess.

At any given moment I’m trying to be compassionate, feel gratitude, be in the now, focus my attention, let go of judgment, watch my breathing, work through my fear, let go of attachment, feel love toward everyone and everything,visualize, keep my ego in check, lose my self-importance, meditate, find my life’s purpose, take responsibility, manifest my destiny, stay balanced, get in touch with my higher self, and, oh yeah, remember that visualization without feeling doesn’t count – all done in a blissful state of joy, while understanding that it’s nothing but a universal, holographic dream anyway.

I’m supposed to keep all these balls in the air every waking moment, yet remain relaxed and detached? I have an in-box of motivation quotes dating back to the early 80s that I can’t bear to delete, reams of inspiring quotes I’ll never read again, every personal transformation guru’s website bookmarked in “my favorites” … this is insane. My obsession with enlightenment is seriously stressing me out.

So that’s it, you’re all going to have to go on the vision quest without me. I need a break. In the true spirit of detachment, I’m hitting the spiritual pause button. I’m going back to reading Stephen King and Architectural Digest, cancelling every emailed motivational quote of the day, deleting Amazon’s s self-help book suggestion of the week, and taking myself off of Oprah’s “Live Your Best Life” mailing list.

I no longer want to live my best life. Right now, I just want to live.

Symbolic or Real?

2010-02-27T19:53:00.001-08:00

Most dreams are symbolic. They use symbols to convey information about situations in our waking lives. But sometimes the literal nature of dreams amazes me.

Two nights before the Chilean earthquake occurred and set off a tsunami in the Pacific, I dreamt a man dropped my cell phone in a glass of water, rendering it inoperable. However, I didn't seem too upset about it.

The dream accurately depicted a waking-life scenario––one I couldn't have known about in advance. The man I live with was visiting friends in Hawaii at the time. Because of the tsunami, he was evacuated to a remote place inland where his cell phone didn't work. I couldn't help laughing at how my dream described the situation, and let me know there was nothing to worry about.

Do you believe in magic?

2010-02-10T11:08:00.000-08:00

It's no coincidence that precisely the moment I needed to hear it most, my writing partner, Skye, told me she was editing a book about synchronicity.

Some significant something has been missing from my life lately, but trying to put my finger on it has proven maddeningly mercurial. Then, as she began to talk about the book project it hit me: I'd stopped believing in magic.

I suddenly remembered that synchronicities used to be a routine but welcome part of my life. The incidents were not always mind-blowing in scope, but each one served as an important reminder that although I may be caught up in the ordinariness of the moment, energetic magic was always sizzling around me. I also loved the way synchronicities gave me an electrifying jolt, guaranteed to anchor me in the moment.

But somewhere along the line, it seems I allowed myself to get caught up in that ordinariness and I had stopped paying attention. It seemed so incongruous. How could the mundane have taken precedence over magic?

Call them what you like: synchronicities, omens, affirmations, agreements -- in my mind they are magical reminders that life is so much more; that we are so much more. And they happen because we are inextricably connected to one another.

Within a day of our conversation, I received an email from someone I'd been thinking about for weeks but hadn't communicated with in years. My husband and I talked about a song from the 60s that was meaningful to us - one we hadn't heard since college. That same afternoon the song was on the car radio oldies station. Awhile later I mentioned the title of the blog post I was thinking of writing and within the hour heard the song "Do You Believe in Magic?" by the Lovin' Spoonful. Coincidence?

Yesterday, after a week of flopping around about the unfairness of it all, that nothing is manifesting the way I thought it should, that life was not cooperating, that the universe wasn't listening .... a man who used to work for our company walked into my office. He had come to pick up his W-2 and was waiting to see the business manager. It was a cold day and although he had on a heavy jacket, he was wearing rolled up jeans and pink flip-flops. While he waited he brought me up-to-date on his life.

A series of unfortunate events had left him homeless, with a bicycle as his sole possession. His clothes, including the flip-flops, were items on loan from the Salvation Army thrift store. He was matter of fact about it all, and did not want my sympathy. He seemed to have a good grasp of cause and effect and was taking responsibility for where he was in life.

As I listened to him I silently thanked the universe for this wake-up call. The pettiness and irritation of moments earlier drained out of me. Here was a man who had nothing, but who continued to express gratitude for the only thing he did have - the ability to turn his life around.

Yes, synchronicities are personal - only you can interpret what they mean. But I know in my heart that this was no coincidence. This man had shown up when he did because there was a message I needed to hear.

So, there you go. Just when I'd convinced myself I no longer believed, synchronicities started showing up all over the place.

Just like, you know, magic.

Fear: The Greatest Obstacle to Happiness

2010-02-01T09:50:00.000-08:00

For most of us, fear is a constant presence. It attaches itself to us like a tick and sucks the life from our bodies and souls. We’re taught to fear from the moment we enter this world, and from then on, as my blog-partner Lyndsey Powers wrote in an earlier post, “it’s fear-speak everywhere you turn.”

We fear failure. We fear poverty. We fear exposure. We fear losing the people we care about. We fear sickness and death. Some of us spend so much time and energy trying to protect ourselves from our fears that we can’t experience joy. Often, however, the things we fear lie far off in the future or may never happen.

My favorite poet, the 14^th-century Persian Sufi master Hafiz, put it this way: “Fear is the cheapest room in the house. I would like to see you living in better conditions.”

Fear is the voice of the ego. The ego’s goal is control, and it achieves its objective by keeping us in a perpetual state of near-panic. The ego (backed up by 24/7 bad-news media) tells us the world is a frightful place, filled with suffering and evil, and there’s nothing we can do about it. But what if that’s not true? What if the ego is lying to save its own skin?

Lately, I’ve been experiencing a lot of fear. I know I’m not alone. A shaky economy, war, natural disasters, and a host of other perils have sent lots of ordinarily strong, stable, sensible people into a tailspin.

So a few nights ago, I appreciated the encouragement and affirmation a dream offered me. In it, I was driving along a winding road after a major windstorm. Branches and debris were strewn all over the road. I dodged most of them, but finally came upon a large, fallen tree that blocked my path. I tried to go around it and over it, to no avail. The only answer was to get out of the car and attempt to drag the tree out of the way. Now, I’m a small woman and this was a BIG tree, and I had no hope of budging it. But as I took hold and started to pull, surprisingly it came away pretty easily. The obstacle wasn’t as great as it appeared. Hmmmm.

I like to think Brendan Francis was right when he said, "Many of our fears are tissue-paper-thin, and a single courageous step would carry us clear through them.”

How do your fears show up in your dreams? Do closet monsters disturb your sleep? How do you deal with them?

The Pursuit of Joy

2010-01-15T09:13:00.000-08:00

Last week, my writing partner on this blog and I enjoyed a cold winter evening with a group of friends––eating, drinking, and being merry. We laughed so much that by the end of the evening our sides and faces hurt. As I drove home, I realized how important laughter is and how often we forget to put joy first in our lives.

That night, I dreamt about driving along a narrow, icy road bordered on both sides by snow banks twice my height––an apt symbol for my currently restricted life. Finally I emerged at a beautiful beach, where I saw windsurfers riding the waves. Even though the ocean was pretty rough, the surfers seemed to be having a good time gliding up and down the watery peaks and valleys. Watching them, I thought, “That looks like fun. I could do that.”

Of course, most of you know that water symbolizes the emotions. Waves represent the ups and downs, the crests and troughs, of our emotional lives. The windsurfers in my dream enjoyed riding those waves––even when they capsized they laughed, then got back on their boards and tried again.

Since then, I’ve thought a lot about joy. What’s its source? Where can we find it? Why is it lacking in so many people’s lives? Why do some of us seem to connect with it naturally, while others seek it desperately, yet unsuccessfully? How can we recapture it when things go wrong, rather than giving up?

I’ve thought a lot about my related dream, too. How succinctly and vividly our dreams speak to us, and how often they give us hope. My dream showed me that peaks and valleys are all part of the ride––you can’t surf on calm seas. It also said I don’t have to stand on the sidelines observing joy. Fun needn’t be an occasional experience, it’s available to us anytime, all the time.

Where do you find joy? What prevents you from embracing it? What can you do to experience more joy in your life? We invite you to share your thoughts and dreams.

The Watcher, continued

2010-01-07T13:41:00.000-08:00

I really hope you’ll humor me on this one because I’m still stuck on the theme of my last post about “The Watcher.”

As I mentioned previously, many of us are able to wake up at whatever time we designate (right down to the minute) without an alarm clock. The question that’s been keeping me awake lately is that if time is a man-made concept and our conscious minds are asleep, who’s actually watching the clock for us?

Articles I’ve researched on the subject say only that yes, it’s been determined in controlled studies that this is something we should all be able to do. A statement which is always followed by “but it is unclear how the brain keeps track of time,” or “how the brain manages to keep track of the hours is unknown.” Well, my point exactly.

I’m having trouble believing that it’s the brain keeping track of hours via circadian rhythms or hormone levels or whatever. If that were true, how is it that it still works even on the first night of daylight savings time (yet another contrived human invention)?

But now there’s a new twist – instead of just waking up at the prescribed time, the characters in my dreams have started telling me it’s time to get up. They’ll interrupt whoever is speaking to announce “it’s 5:30” (my normal wake-up time). Or if I lie down to take a short nap, I’m warned by a disembodied voice that “okay, it’s been 45 minutes.” I half expect to see an etheric someone standing there with squinty eyes, giving me a motherly finger wag …

If I can learn to compose myself before my eyes pop open – my next step is to unearth some personal information about these timekeepers. Who are you? What are you? Where did you come from? Do you have a name? But most importantly, how did you end up with this thankless job anyway? ;-)

Meditation and Insomnia

2009-12-31T13:17:00.000-08:00

Using meditation and yoga to relax during the daytime helps you sleep better at night, showed a study directed by Ramadevi Gourineni, MD, director of the insomnia program at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Evanston, Illinois (published in ScienceDaily in June 2009). According to Dr. Gourineni, if you suffer from insomnia it’s likely you are in a state of hyperarousal 24/7.

The study divided participants into two groups. One group practiced Kriya Yoga, which uses meditation to focus attention; the control group didn’t. At the end of the two-month-long trial, the patients who practiced yoga/meditation experienced improved sleep quality and sleep time.

The results of Dr. Gourineni’s study didn’t surprise me, but they did remind me to spend more time relaxing during the daytime. Over the years, I’ve noticed that when I do yoga and meditate regularly I sleep better. When I don’t, I lie awake for hours worrying about things I can’t or won’t change, rehashing the day’s most meaningless and miniscule details, and sometimes even gaining what seem to be genuine insights.

One of reasons people meditate is to stop the squirrelly chatter that runs rampant through our minds most of the day. For those of us who suffer from sleep dysfunction, the chatter doesn’t stop when we go to bed. A daily dose of meditation trains us, over time, to turn off the chatter, or at least turn it down.

Here’s another thing I’ve noticed about meditation and sleep: When meditating, I frequently recall my dreams, even those that occurred long ago. Perhaps that’s because during meditation our brainwave frequencies slow from the usual 13–30 cycles per second (when we’re awake and active) to 8–13 cps, closer to the dream state’s 5–8 cps.

Has anyone else experienced this? Do those of you who meditate and/or do yoga find it helps you sleep better? Is it more effective than other forms of relaxation? We invite you to share your thoughts.

Overlapping Worlds

2009-12-21T09:54:00.000-08:00

Lately I’ve been wondering how much our waking and dream worlds overlap. Of course, we're all familiar with the nightly processing of our daytime issues and how the subconscious communicates advice via dream scenarios. Occasionally we experience dreams that foreshadow things to come in our everyday lives, or journey in our dreams to places that actually exist here on earth––even though we may never have gone there except during sleep.

But a few nights ago, I experienced something new (for me anyway) that caused me to look at the idea from yet another angle. I dreamt a tarantula was in the bedroom and my cat was playing with it. When I awoke in the morning, I noticed she’d pulled out a patch of her fur. Looking closer, I saw about a dozen spider bites on her bare skin!

How much of what’s going on around us are we aware of while we’re asleep? What part of us keeps watch over the waking world and how does it communicate with the dreaming part? Anybody have thoughts or experiences to share about such things?

Dream Journeys

2009-12-15T08:52:00.001-08:00

Where do we go when we dream? The idea has intrigued and baffled us since before recorded time.

Usually we think of dreams, and the arena where they’re acted out, as being subjective and imaginary––personal fantasies concocted by the unconscious in order to convey information to us while we sleep. And indeed, it appears there’s some truth to this, but it’s only a partial truth. According to some researchers, the level at which nocturnal problem-solving and self-analysis take place is but one neighborhood in the complex landscape of dreams.

Shamans suggest the realm of dreams is actually an alternate reality, a place every bit as “real” as the physical world we inhabit by day. In his book The Art of Dreaming, Carlos Castenada talks about different dream worlds, including the world of inorganic beings. In Dreamscape, Bruce Vance describes the dream environment as an objective territory with its own inherent laws. He says it remains essentially the same when viewed by any dreamer––an idea that contradicts what we’ve been led to believe about the individual nature of dream experiences.

Some of us also journey via dreams to places that exist here on earth––an instantaneous way to travel that eliminates security checks, passports, and jet lag. Several years ago I took a dream trip to what I believed was Africa (even though I’d never been to Africa in waking life). In the dream, which seemed incredibly realistic and vivid, I stood on a plateau overlooking a green lake. When I described what I’d witnessed to globe-trotting friends, they immediately recognized the place as an area of Zimbabwe.

Journeying in the Dreamscape is an option open to anyone who chooses to pursue it. All it takes is intention and a little practice. In fact, you may have already done some dream traveling without realizing it. Have you journeyed in your dreams? What worlds have you visited? What experiences did you bring back? Please share your adventures with us––pictures anyone?

Who is The Watcher?

2009-11-30T09:07:00.000-08:00

For the past four nights I have awoken at 4:44. Nothing particularly noteworthy about that other than – how does that happen? How can someone wake at precisely the same hour and minute four nights in a row?

All of my life I have had the ability to wake up at exactly the time I intended; I’ve never needed an alarm clock. How does that happen? As far as I know, only my waking consciousness understands the man-made concept of time – so what part of me is lying awake watching the clock?

There are nights when I’ve attempted to trick the clock-watcher by choosing randomly odd times to awake, like, 1:27. Didn’t matter – the watcher was not amused. I don’t know about you, but I find this a fascinating phenomenon. Since I know I’m not the only one who can do this I have to wonder, has anyone ever done a study on this? Is there a sleep institute somewhere handing out grants?

Do you suppose this task falls under the job description of guardian angels? Page 2,037, paragraph 3, second sentence, “become familiar with the peculiarity of the human race called “time” and whatever you do, do not allow your human to sleep past their arbitrarily-appointed hour and minute.” With everything else mine has to deal with during the night like making sure I don’t walk into the closet by mistake, steering my bare feet away from the big ugly bug by the bed, or holding onto me so I don’t fall into the toilet in the dark, I would think she’s much too busy for clock watching.

If anyone would like to share their thoughts on this, try me tomorrow morning – say, 4:44?

Deja Vu Dreams

2009-11-25T20:51:00.000-08:00

Dreams enable us to transcend the boundaries of time and space to peek into the future. Seers often report that their dreams convey information about upcoming events, and we find many examples of dream prophecy in spiritual texts. In fact, precognitive dreams aren’t particularly rare––lots of us have them, yet we may be baffled or unnerved by their appearance. How can we know about things that haven’t happened yet?

Einstein’s work showed that time isn’t linear. Rather than being like an expressway from the past to the future, time more closely resembles a winding mountain road that bends around and occasionally curves back on itself, so that you periodically catch glimpses of the same scenery in the course of your journey––hence, the experience we call déja vu or “already seen.” Some Eastern spiritual traditions believe that the past, present, and future all exist simultaneously, like a mountain range with peaks and valleys.

One night I dreamt I found a black cat on the side of the road. At first I thought it was dead, but when I touched it the cat woke up. I took it to a vet who told me the cat had distemper and suggested performing surgery immediately. The cat didn’t seem particularly ill to me, so I refused to let him operate.

The next day while I was out walking I spotted a black cat lying in the gutter. It appeared to be paralyzed and I thought it had been hit by a car, although I saw no sign of injury and it didn’t seem to be in pain. I knocked on the doors of all the houses in the area, but no one answered, so I took the cat to a vet. The vet surmised that the cat must be near death and recommended doing an autopsy to see if it had a contagious disease that might infect my cats.

Remembering my dream, I refused and took the cat home instead. Later I returned to the neighborhood where I’d found the cat and again knocked on doors until I located the cat’s confused owner. She told me she had no idea how the cat had gotten out––it had been paralyzed from birth because its mother had contracted distemper during pregnancy.

When I related my dream, she grew even more amazed. The previous night she’d dreamt her cat had disappeared!

The God of Dreams

2009-11-21T20:05:00.000-08:00

The drug morphine was named for Morpheus, the god of dreams in ancient Greek mythology. Morpheus is said to infuse dreams with visions of humans and to give shape to the beings that inhabit dreams.

According to many dream researchers, everyone who appears in your dreams represents an aspect of you. Who inhabits your dreams? Do any particular characters turn up with regularity? What facets of yourself do you meet when you're asleep?

The Witching Hour

2009-11-17T15:30:00.000-08:00

According to an old Pagan belief, the time between midnight and 3:00 A.M. on the night of the full moon is the “Witching Hour.” During this period, the veil between the spirit world and earth supposedly thins, allowing entities from other realms to visit us humans.

Some Christians call 3:00 A.M. the “Devil’s Hour.” Based on the idea that Jesus died at 3:00 P.M., this theory proposes that the opposite point on the clock belongs to the dark side, i.e., demonic forces whose power is strongest at this time.

Regardless of whether you subscribe to either of these concepts, you may experience unusual or inexplicable occurrences between three and four in the morning. Many people report hearing sounds or smelling aromas that have no discernable source. Others say they sense the presence of nonphysical beings––angels, spirit guides, deceased loved ones––when they wake during this eerie hour. One summer night several years ago, when my sister slipped into a coma unexpectedly, I awoke to the tinkling of tiny bells and the scent of her perfume. She died a few days later.

Researchers suggest that we reach the deepest levels of sleep between 3:00 and 4:00 A.M., and that the most vivid dreams of the night are likely to occur at this time. During this stage, our awareness may expand beyond the normal range, enabling us to perceive other levels of reality. If we’re fearful, or conditioned to believe that evil lurks in the shadows, we might interpret our early morning experiences as demonic rather than instructive.

Many of us find ourselves wide awake at, well, 3:15 in the morning. This is the time when I often do my best thinking. With nothing to distract me, I can no longer avoid whatever issues I’ve pushed aside during the daytime. In the still of the night, my subconscious finally feels free to offer up insights I might otherwise block or reject, giving me a chance to explore them at length.

I must admit, though, that I often feel alone and vulnerable in the darkest hours of the night. Problems tend to look scarier, bleaker, more formidable and beyond my control. Perhaps that’s the real meaning of the “Devil’s Hour”––when we come face to face with our own Shadows (as Jung called the repressed part of the psyche), the personal demons that lurk in our inner darkness.

Do angels or demons visit you at night? Do you find the early hours of the morning serene or sinister? We invite you to share your thoughts and experiences.

Are you awake? Or are you dreaming?

2009-11-09T16:49:00.000-08:00

Okay, I had another one of those MADDENING dreams last night – we all have them – the one where you’re trying to make a phone call and the phone is missing numbers, or entire keys, or you’re talking and the other person can’t hear you, or you can see the entire keypad and numbers but for some reason your fingers keep hitting the wrong ones? Often in my dream I’m also in a hurry which only amplifies the confusion.

For years I’ve wondered what was behind these frustrating dreams. And maybe that’s it. Maybe they’re nothing more than the manifestation of the things that frustrate us about being alive, about being in this body, and on this physical plane. Communication is a huge issue in our daily reality – trying to be heard, to be understood, to understand what someone else is trying to say, to get a point across. If we communicate inappropriately we risk hurting another’s feelings. I mean, how often do you feel like you had a truly stellar communication day? Where the entire day you were diplomatic, empathetic, sensitive, humorous, and able to access exactly the right words every time in every encounter? Maybe these dreams are the culmination of the frustration we feel in general with our lack of communication and inter-personal skills.

What I have learned about these dreams is that they can be excellent triggers to alert me to the fact that I’m dreaming. When things start to act up and turn strange I have the perfect opportunity to stop and realize I’m dreaming. Once I realize I’m dreaming I can often turn the frustration into a productive lucid dream experience instead.

Another type of trigger, which has some interesting side effects of its own, is to ask yourself, whenever you think of it, “am I awake or am I dreaming?” Do this long enough and you’ll find yourself saying it in your dreams as well. And when you find yourself stopping to consider this question in a dream, you realize that in that moment you also have the ability to completely change direction if you like.

What has happened for me as a long-term result of this practice is that it has blurred the line considerably between “waking life” and “dream state.” Go ahead and try it right now. Ready? Out loud, ask yourself the question, "am I awake reading this or am I dreaming I'm reading this?

Are you sure?

How do you know?

Predictive Dreams

2009-10-26T12:51:00.000-07:00

A man I know once dreamed about finding a trapped bird and setting it free. When he arrived at work the next day he discovered a bird flying around inside the building. He was able to catch it and put outside.

Dreams often give us glimpses of the future. Sometimes they warn us of things we need to know about so we can prepare ourselves. In some instances, as in the case of the man and the bird, we seem to erase the boundaries between present and future in our dreams––we actually witness an event before it happens in the physical world.

Some precognitive dreams are laden with poignant images. Others are straightforward and nearly devoid of symbolism. Three months before his brother died, Mark Twain dreamed of the death and funeral––exactly as it happened, right down to the smallest detail. Shortly before my father died in an automobile accident, my four siblings and I all dreamt about it.

Most people don’t go to bed intending to dream about the future––predictive dreams generally come to us unbidden. Researchers suggest, however, that the more aware we become of our dreams and our waking lives, the more likely we are to have precognitive dreams and to recognize them when they occur.

Have your dreams predicted things that later happened in your waking life? How do you know when a dream is forecasting the future—is it different from ordinary dreams? Please share your experiences.

Problem-Solving Dreams

2009-10-16T08:44:00.000-07:00

Many famous people have used dreams to help them solve problems. Albert Einstein, Thomas Edison, Harry Truman, and Benjamin Franklin are only a few who were known to “sleep on it” when confronted with a problem or important decision.

Elias Howe, who patented the lock-stitch sewing machine, discovered the key to his famous invention in a dream. For ten years Howe had been struggling to perfect his machine. Then one night he dreamt he’d been captured by cannibals who told him he would die a horrible death if he didn’t resolve the matter. As he sat in a large cooking pot, waiting to be boiled alive, he glanced up at their spears and noticed holes near the pointed ends. Howe had his answer. He put the hole near the tip of the needle and the sewing machine was born.

Some part of you––your subconscious, your higher self––already knows the answer to your conundrum. It just hasn’t percolated through to your rational mind yet. If you have a problem and want help solving it, hold the question clearly in your mind when you go to bed. Tell yourself you’ll be given an answer while you sleep. You can even write down your request on a piece of paper and put it under your pillow. Chances are you’ll receive guidance during the night––though you may have to repeat the process for a few nights before the solution comes to you.

What answers have you gotten through dreams? How do your dreams speak to you and help you understand baffling issues? How do you work with your dreams to gain insight into situations in your waking life?

Fear. It's everywhere you want to be.

2009-10-11T19:04:00.000-07:00

What are you afraid of? Old age? Being penniless? Being old and penniless? Being old and sick and penniless? Public speaking? Death? Clowns? Strangers? Spiders? Storm drains? An appendicitis attack while camping? Seeing the dentist? Not measuring up? Being laid-off? Having a car wreck? Hey, the sky’s the limit! And I suspect that, like me, you’ve already discovered that fear’s finest hour is generally oh, sometime right around 3:15 am.

It’s fear-speak everywhere you turn. Twenty-four hour bad-news media presents us with fears we didn’t even know we had. Even when we’re aware of what they’re doing, it’s easy to fall for it. I saw it on my home page this morning: “The 15 Things Women Do Every Day that They Should Never Do” (it’s nearly impossible not to check that one out).

And of course, fear sells products. Big time.

Fear of looking old? Better buy our patented wrinkle cream.
Fear of spending eternity in hell? Join our church – we’ll save your soul.
Terrorists are everywhere! Vote for me and I’ll protect you.
Bicycle riding can lead to brain injuries! Have we got a helmet for you.
Chances are 1 in 4 that you will get sick and need hospitalization! Pay us hundreds of dollars a month and we’ll give you peace of mind.
Intruders could break in and steal your children! You need our home security system.

It’s sad to think that fear is such a big part of who we are that doctors have an entire genre to identify each and every phobia. Thanks to phobialist.com here are just a few:

Arachibutyrophobia (fear of peanut butter sticking to the roof of the mouth)
Lachanophobia (fear of vegetables)
Dementophobia (fear of madness)
Mageirocophobia (fear of cooking – one of my favorites)
Geniophobia (fear of chins)
Consecotaleophobia (fear of chopsticks)
Hippopotomonstrosesquipedaliophobia (yes, you guessed it, fear of long words)
Novercaphobia (fear of your step-mother)
Walloonphobia (fear of the Walloons) Walloons?
And to round out the list - Phobophobia (fear of phobias) But of course.

But what if life were just the opposite? What if you were surrounded and bombarded by love-filled talk instead – and had been as long as you can remember? What would that feel like? What kind of a person would you be? How good would you feel about yourself and others? What would your family life be like? What if we loved ourselves enough to only speak loving thoughts to, and about, others? On a larger scale, what would happen to the economy? Our political infra-structure? Our planet?

I think back on how many of my major life decisions have been rooted in fear. I think about how different the outcome would have been if I had applied love to my decision-making instead. Love of myself. Love of life. Love for the other people involved. Love from a higher perspective.

Do you know how to tell where your thoughts originate?

Fear-based thoughts never feel good.
Love-based thoughts always feel good.

Give it a try – I think you’ll be surprised at how well it works.

Herbal Remedies for Insomnia

2009-10-07T11:13:00.000-07:00

If you’re having trouble sleeping, but don’t want to take drugs, here are some safe, natural remedies recommended by Jacob Teitelbaum, M.D., noted sleep expert and Medical Director of the Firbromyalgia and Fatigue Centers, Inc. For more information, visit Dr. T’s website www.endfatigue.com and look for his forthcoming book End Sugar Addiction Now! from which the following has been excerpted, with the author’s permission. (Please note this material is copyrighted.)

Theanine: This amino acide that comes from green tea improves sleep at night and alertness during the day. Use only brands containing the SunTheanine form (pure L-Theanine). Recommended dose: 50 to 200 mg at bedtime.

Jamaican Dogwood: The bark of the Jamaican dogwood tree has analgesic (relieves pain), sedative, and anti-spasmodic properties.This calming herb aids insomnia, anxiety, and even muscle aches. Recommended dose: 12 to 48 mg of the extract at bedtime.

Wild lettuce: The bitter cousin to ordinary garden lettuce, this herb aids insomnia and anxiety. Research shows that it is useful as a mild sedative and even a cough suppressant. Recommended dose: 30 to 120 mg of the extract at bedtime.

Valerian: The go-to remedy for insomnia, it improves deep sleep, lessens the time it takes to fall asleep, and enhances the quality of sleep. Recommended dose: 200 to 800 mg of the extract at bedtime.

Hops: A native British plant (related to stinging nettles) and member of the hemp family, the ripened cones of the female variety are used to make beer. This herb is good for insomnia, relaxing muscles, and anxiety. Recommended dose: 30 to 120 mg of a hops extract at bedtime.

Passionflower: A favorite herb in South America for its calming properties, it can also be used to treat anxiety, muscle spasms, and menstrual pain. Recommended dose: 90 to 360 mg of the extract at bedtime.

Lavender: A member of the mint family, lavender is one of the best herbs for sleep and relaxation. Mist your pillow with a mixture of lavender essential oil and water. Or, add lavender essential oil to bathwater and enjoy a soothing soak before bed.

Lemon balm: Like lavender, this member of the mint family is a natural relaxant. Placebo-controlled research published in the medical journal Fitoterapia in 1999 showed that taking 80 to 160 milligrams of lemon balm with 180 to 360 milligrams of valerian at night improved the quality of deep sleep.

Dreams and the Collective Unconscious

2009-09-30T08:45:00.000-07:00

Last week, while enjoying a much-needed vacation at the beautiful ranch Waldemar in Hunt, Texas, I attended three dream sessions facilitated by therapist La Jeune Wint. La Jeune explained that each individual’s dream is everyone’s dream, a concept I’d never considered before. I’d always believed dreams were an individual affair––but having read some of C.G. Jung’s work about the collective unconscious, the idea intrigued to me.

Instead of attempting to analyze and interpret one another’s dreams, this group of women (maybe a dozen or so on any given morning) practiced a technique that was new to me. We sat in a circle, eyes closed, warming our hands around steaming cups of coffee in the cool September morn, and opened our minds and hearts. While one woman recounted a dream, we listened and allowed ourselves to glide into her dream, to follow it as if we were dreaming it ourselves.

As each woman shared, her dream unfolded its significance for me, personally. Her closet monsters invoked mine; her conundrums called mine into question; her journey echoed my own quest. Amazing, I thought. Never mind that her dream hadn’t originated in my own psyche. Never mind that I’d never even met most of these women before. We were fellow travelers, connected in some inexplicable way, sharing a common experience in the dreamscape. I may not have reacted to or interpreted the dream’s content in exactly the same way as the woman who’d presented the dream, yet her dream revealed symbols, patterns, and “aha’s” that held meaning for me.

Later, as we discussed our insights and what we’d individually gleaned from someone’s dream, I realized that every dream––regardless of who dreams it––can help me understand my life. Not only my own dreams, but other people’s as well, can ferry me through life’s challenges and offer guidance in my waking world. We’re all interconnected, all part of the cosmic web that Jung called the collective unconscious, the world of archetypes and myth. And we are all here to help one another.

L1/L2

2009-09-17T12:16:00.000-07:00

It’s got to be because I’m co-writing this blog ….

But it used to be oh, sometimes 3:10, or 3:30, or on a really good day, even 4:00 before I’d experience the BIG WAKE-UP and know I was done for the night. But now, as reliable as ants at a picnic, my eyes open at exactly 3:15. Not 2:59 or 3:14, but 3:15. I stare at the illuminated numbers on the clock and think about Bill Murray’s character in the movie Ground Hog Day. It’s a sick, cosmic joke – at the stage of life when I feel I need more sleep than ever – it’s becoming more and more elusive.

The last few mornings I’ve been contemplating a comment by Wayne Dyer – something along the lines of “if you find yourself waking at odd hours, think of it this way …. perhaps the universe is using the only time it can to get through to you. Consider that it’s urging you to get out of bed and use that time wisely.” After a righteous dissing of the good doctor, (“yeah, well, he doesn’t have a 9-5 job”, “he wakes up to the sunrise in his beach house on Maui,” “he can get up at 3:15 because he can take a nap at 10:00 ….”), I remember that he’s also a very wise man and just maybe I should listen to him.

I roll out of bed wincing as I hit the squeaky spots on the hardwood floor wondering if I’ll ever have them memorized. My cats look up at me with squinty eyes; even my nocturnal animals think this is crazy stuff.

For many years now I’ve been having an early morning dialogue with my higher, more evolved self – she is L1 and I am L2. L1 lives our perfectly manifested life in northern California in our perfectly manifested, down-to-the-last-detail house near the redwood forests. We communicate via a special email account. She writes me from the future and takes great pains to tell me about the life waiting for me there. She tells me what she does all day, what the weather is like, what she’s reading, what new fabric she found at a craft fair that is just right for the couch in the den. I note with a twinge of jealousy that she’s always happy, always content, always well-rested, and has always just done an hour of Bikram yoga.

I write from the here – wherever that may be – and tell her about my days, my struggles and concerns, how I’m progressing (or not), and sometimes, even about the little victories. Most of the time I solicit direction and wisdom from her higher perspective – and what has come of this pre-dawn dialogue is nothing short of astonishing. I have no doubt that it is the combination of the stillness of the hour and not being fully awake that allows me to open a blank email and allow her to talk to me.

I have just enough coffee to be a functional typist, and then quietly clear my thoughts (fortunately there aren’t many at that hour) and open my heart. I type until there’s nothing left to say and I do not read it until the next morning. L1 is a much better writer than I, and speaks with a voice and vocabulary that is most definitely not that of L2. Not only do I have no recollection of taking the dictation and what was said, but the advice she gives is always dead-on and jaw-dropping in its clarity.

So the next time you find yourself wide awake at what seems to be an un-Godly hour, try changing your perception to embrace the hour as quite possibly the most sacred time of day. Rather than lying there silently cursing the dark and your inability to sleep, choose to be honored that, just maybe, someone magnificently wise and greater than you has awakened you for the sole purpose of having a talk.

Now how cool is that?

Recurring Dreams

2009-09-11T08:27:00.000-07:00

Most of us have dreams that repeat themselves periodically. If you believe that your dreams are trying to tell you something, a recurring dream suggests you haven’t gotten the message yet. These dreams, then, are especially important.

The dream a high-powered business executive related to me is a good example. She repeatedly dreamed she was walking naked along a crowded city sidewalk. Although this woman was very successful, she felt inadequate to the responsibilities of her job and worried she’d be exposed as a fraud. When she took a job that suited her better, she stopped having the dream.

From time to time most of us dream of being in a classroom taking a test for which we are unprepared. Not surprisingly, we tend to have this dream at turning points in our lives, when we’re facing new challenges or moving into a new phase of life.

During a particularly difficult time in my life, when I was faced with many daunting challenges, I dreamed my basement was crammed with old junk and debris that I had to clean up. (Usually a house in a dream symbolizes your life situation.) Several weeks later I dreamed my kitchen sink and counters were cluttered with dirty dishes. I continued having variations on this dream for some months, and each time the “task” before me diminished in size. The last dream in the sequence involved removing a few old garments from my closet and putting them in a bag for The Salvation Army. My dreams marked my personal growth as I sorted out the troublesome areas in my life.

What dreams keep replaying, like old movies, for you? Pay close attention to your own recurring dreams. Notice any changes in the dream’s narrative, setting, or characters––these will tell you how the situation referred to by the dream is progressing.

Unreasonable Happiness

2009-09-06T11:11:00.000-07:00

Lately when 3:15 rolls around I find myself staring at the wall, thinking about happiness. And joy. Does happiness lead to joy - or vice versa? Is there a difference between the two?

I think about the very few people I know that I consider honestly happy, and I try to dissect their lives for the formula that makes them so. A few are obviously passionate about how they spend their life energy, others have just made the choice to be happy, no matter what the circumstances. A few I can see no reason whatsoever why they should be so happy - life seems to have dealt them a rough hand, but no matter. I think about where I land on the spectrum.

Like many people, I believe I love animals and keep them around to remind me about the joy of living in the now. Animals don't drag around thoughts about whether they're living up to their potential, or their reason for being on the planet. They don't create endless stories about how if they hadn't made the dumb choice to run off that day, they'd be back home and much happier than they are now. They don't wonder if they've been putting out too many negative thoughts to the universe and that's why their luck has changed ..... we couldn't ask for better role models.

Complaining is the antithesis of happiness. It's impossible to be happy when you're negatively verbalizing - or listening to someone who is. And complaining is our national past time. We complain about the weather, politics, neighbors, our aches and pains, other drivers, co-workers, bad service - and sometimes we're downright righteous in our complaining. "If people weren't so rigid and intolerant," we think, "we'd all be much happier." And there we are, rigid and intolerant and complaining about those that are rigid and intolerant. And on and on it goes.

In an earlier post I talked about my hope that a new mattress would be the Thing That Makes Me Happy. And it does! My back couldn't be more pleased, which makes me very happy. I started on bio-identical hormones, thinking okay, all those annoying symptoms will disappear and I can go back to being really happy again. They work, and I am! I'll move to a larger house where I can spread out and I'll be happy. Yes, it's great! I got a new job and a pay raise - yay! - that definitely makes me happy. Lots of things make us happy in life.

But lying in the dark at 3:15, I realize that though we may have a life filled with lots of individual events that make us happy - it's still not happiness.

I'm a sucker for quotes (quotes that really hit home make me happy) and one of my all-time favorites is from the book Wisdom of the Peaceful Warrior, by Dan Millman. Dan's teacher, Socrates, tells him,

"A fool is 'happy' when his cravings are satisfied. A warrior is happy without reason. That's what makes happiness the ultimate discipline. Happiness is not just something you feel - it is who you are."

"Feelings change. Sometimes sorrow, somtimes joy. But beneath it all, remember the innate perfection of your life unfolding. That is the secret of unreasonable happiness."

The Color Purple

2009-08-30T19:12:00.000-07:00

Is there a connection between sleep, dreams, and the color purple? Deep purple, the color of the evening sky, embodies a sense of mystery and magic. Holistic healers associate purple with the crown charka, the energy center that links us with the spiritual realm. In chromotherapy, the art of healing with color, indigo (blue-violet) and purple light are used to alleviate nervous tension and remedy sleep disorders.

The purple gemstone amethyst has long been prized for its balancing and soothing qualities. Its tranquil vibrations encourage relaxation and promote a sense of inner peace. A favorite sleep aid since ancient times, amethyst calms fears, restlessness, and tension; it can also induce vivid dreams and improve dream recall. Early healers recommended rubbing the gem on your temples to encourage sleep. In her book The Encyclopedia of Crystals, Judy Hall calls it “a natural tranquilizer” and says “Sleeping with Amethyst facilitates out-of-body experiences.” Place an amethyst under your pillow or on your nightstand to enhance sleep and dreams. Hold an amethyst in your hand to relieve stress or deepen meditation.

The fragrant lavender plant is widely utilized as an herbal nerve tonic and sleep aid. When inhaled, the scent of lavender dispels tension, eases anxiety, and benefits insomnia. Put a little lavender essential oil in water and mist your pillow with it. Or, as I suggest in my forthcoming Aromatherapy Card Deck, “At the end of a stressful day, add a few drops of lavender oil to a tub of hot water. Soak in the bath, relax, and let your cares float away.”

What’s your experience with the color purple? Do certain colors resonate with you or inspire particular reactions? Have you ever worked with color in sleep- or dream-related areas? For healing purposes? We invite you to share your ideas and insights.

Is Lack of Sleep Making You Fat?

2009-08-21T11:20:00.001-07:00

Is lack of sleep wrecking your diet and keeping you from losing weight? Here's what Jacob Teitelbaum, M.D., noted sleep expert and Medical Director of the Firbromyalgia and Fatigue Centers, Inc., has to say.

How much sleep is optimal for staying skinny? 7-9 hours is best. Less than 7 hours increases the risk of obesity about 30% and adds an extra 5 pounds on average.

According to Jean-Philippe Chaput, MSc, from Laval University in Quebec City, Quebec, Canada, and colleagues, "Current treatments for obesity have been largely unsuccessful in maintaining long-term weight loss, suggesting the need for new insight into the mechanisms that result in altered metabolism and behavior and may lead to obesity."

The increase in body weight in the US population has been paralleled by a reduction in sleep times. For the past 4 decades, daily sleep duration has decreased by 1.5 to 2 hours, and the proportion of young adults sleeping less than 7 hours per night has more than doubled, from 15.6% in 1960 to 37.1% from 2001 to 2002.

Studies in adults and children have repeatedly shown that reduced sleep is associated with increased weight.

To determine the relationship between sleep duration and weight, researchers followed up 276 adults aged 21 to 64 years who were enrolled in the Quebec Family Study, a 6-year longitudinal study in a community setting. The investigators compared weight gain relative to sleep duration: short (5-6 hours), average (7-8 hours), and long (9-10 hours).

Compared with average-duration sleepers, short-duration sleepers gained 4.4 pounds more in a 6-year period. At 6 years, short-duration and long-duration sleepers were 35% and 25% more likely to experience a 12-pound weight gain, respectively, compared to those who slept 7-8 hours a night.

Compared with average-duration sleepers, short-duration sleepers had a 27% increased risk for the development of obesity, and long-duration sleepers had a 21% increase in risk. Adjustment for caloric intake and physical activity did not affect these connections.

(Reprinted with permission from Dr. Teitelbaum.)

Visit Dr. T’s website www.endfatigue.com for more information––and look for his forthcoming book Beat Sugar Addiction Now!

Dreams,Art, and Divination

2009-08-19T18:45:00.000-07:00

A couple years ago I took a workshop offered by the very talented Santa Fe artist and dreamworker Victoria Rabinowe (see the link for her Dreaming Arts Studio). Along with several friends, I spent a lovely afternoon creating a series of “dream divination cards” using the medium of collage art. The cards we designed drew upon the images and themes presented by our dreams, and we translated them into a series of visuals that functioned on many levels simultaneously.

Dreams, of course, have long served as oracles, offering wisdom and sometimes glimpses of the future to the dreamer. Victoria suggested that our personally created dream cards might provide even better guidance than tarot cards or oracles (such as the I Ching and runes) that had been designed by other people.

So that afternoon, after my friends and I had produced six dream cards apiece, we put them to the test. Each of us shuffled our cards while contemplating a question or matter about which we sought advice. Then we laid out the cards in a prescribed pattern to reveal answers.

The results amazed us all. Just as Victoria had promised, the cards responded eloquently to our queries, providing a wealth of insights and information. Being a long-time student of the tarot––as well as an artist––I was thrilled. I was so excited that I set about creating a whole deck of dream divination cards.

I now have more than 50 cards in my deck and keep making more art cards as my dreams inspire me. I continue consulting these cards on a regular basis, whenever I need help from a “higher source.”

How do your dreams guide you? What insights do you get from them? Do your dreams reveal glimpses of the future to you? We’d love to hear about your experiences.

If you’d like more information, please contact Victoria Rabinowe or us here at the 3:15 Club.

2009-08-18T15:09:00.000-07:00

Welcome to Billy Bob's

2009-08-16T13:56:00.000-07:00

It's one of those things you don't notice until you're ready to make a buying decision. Signs that say "Mattress Sale - Today Only!" You think "Hey, that's great!" "'What a stroke of luck!" "Am I a saavy consumer, or what?" As you get closer, you see the sign's edges are yellow and curled up, with hundreds of dead flies stuck tight behind the glass.

Rule #1 - mattresses, like used cars, are always on sale.

The concept of "moderation" is not well understood in Texas, and I find myself at the entrance to Billy Bob's Big-Ass Bed Emporium staring into an airplane hanger filled floor to ceiling with nothing but mattresses. No, no, no, no no! This is NOT how I had visualized it at all. I am stunned by the decisions that must be made before progressing to Level 2 - the actual test drive.

Queen or King? Or maybe California King - like sleeping on opposite sides of the continent!
Innerspring or memory foam?
Coil count is critical! Heavy or light gauge?
Hourglass shaped, continuous coil or individually pocketed?
How about half innerspring and half memory foam?
Are either of you a light sleeper? (ok, now that's funny)
Do you prefer firm or soft?
Are you a side sleeper?
Are you a side sleeper who likes soft and your partner a back sleeper who prefers firm?
Do your arms tend to go numb?
How about a mattress with a water bladder?
Do one or both of you get up alot during the night? (I'm not clear whether those last two questions are somehow related.)
Then there's the matter of pillowtop. Plush, Euro-style, quilted, silk, cashmere, cotton or wool?

If you think you might want to try memory foam - great! Same material the astronauts use (you know, I had never thought to put mattress material and "G" force sustainability into the same sentence before).
Memory foam is a little more firm but conforms to your body! (There's no mention that it also creepily resembles packing material.)
How about a solid core latex mattress then? It's all natural you know. And, you'll sleep cooler than on synthetic foam (a rubber bed - this is joke, right?)

Trying to be accommodating, the salesman assures me there's a bed for every budget - $500-$4500 - which narrows the decision considerably.

And then, to drive in the last nail of his sales arsenal he reminds me, "But, of course, you can't put a price on a good night's sleep now can you? After all, heh, heh, you'll be logging 30,000 hours on this baby! What's that worth to you?"

I realize I probably look like a cobra staring at a snake charmer. I'm even swaying back and forth with my mouth hanging open. I put my tongue back in and refrain from screaming at the baby-faced salesman with his 29-item ala carte mattress menu.

"Don't you understand? I just want to buy a damn bed that will allow me to sleep through the night, which will put me back into the game, so I can become absurdly happy, fabulously rich, over-the-top good-looking, the epitome of health & fitness, with a higher IQ and maybe a new wardrobe! There is absolutely NO WAY I can make this decision without a decade or more of research. No, no, no, no, no." I am not happy. I want to run out of the store. I need more time. I need someone to make this decision for me. I need fresh air. No, I take that back; what I really need is wine.

Menopause has already rendered my usually rational, linear, quick-to-make-a-decision-with-no-looking-back brain into the equivalent of mental Bisquick; this was to have been a simple lie down, this feels good, how much, I'll take it kind of day. Deliver it tomorrow and by Tuesday I will be A BETTER PERSON.

Obviously, this wasn't going to be the quick fix I had envisioned. It was to have been The Thing that changes EVERYTHING. And The Thing did not include the equivalent of a multiple choice mattress SAT.

So forget about the bed. Besides, I've just learned of something even better. This is the Real Deal. This is The Thing. I'm told they will stop the aging process, give me Linda Hamilton's biceps, repair snapped synapses, allow me to sleep throught the night, and give me the flexibility to finally do Pilates:

Bio-Identical Hormones

to be continued ....

What Are Your Dreams Trying to Tell You?

2009-08-12T13:51:00.000-07:00

Although we don’t know exactly where dreams come from, many researchers and psychoanalysts believe our dreams are trying to tell us something. Freud and Jung proposed that all dreams contain information that can help us in our waking lives. Deciphering this information, however, can be tricky because messages are usually encoded in symbols. Here are some common symbols that show up in most people’s dreams and mean pretty much the same thing for everyone.

A house usually represents you and the various facets of your existence. The basement signifies your unconscious, instinctual side; the ground floor describes your everyday living situation and ego; upper floors indicate spiritual awareness or mental activity. Individual rooms have meanings similar to their functions in waking life––a kitchen suggests nourishment, a bathroom cleansing, and so on. Finding an unknown room in the house means discovering a hidden ability. The condition of the house is important, too. A dilapidated building suggests your life needs fixing up; a crumbling foundation indicates your support system is weak or deteriorating. Conversely, a large, elegant house depicts a rich, full, healthy life––or that you are moving in this direction.

A car generally signifies how you travel through life’s journey and/or your physical body. Look at who is driving the car. If it’s not you, who is it? Then ask yourself why you’re letting someone else pilot your life––is it time to take back the wheel? A friend of mine often dreams he can’t see out the windshield when he’s driving. This person doesn’t have much direction in his life and hasn’t established clear goals for himself. The dream describes his situation accurately: he can’t see where he’s going. I once dreamed I was driving dangerously fast and wrecked my car. My dream was warning me that if I didn’t stop pushing myself so hard I could damage my health.

Water usually symbolizes emotions. If you find yourself swimming or immersed in water it could mean your emotions play a large part in your life. Look at the state of the water. Rough water suggests turbulent emotions. Muddy water indicates murky feelings; clear, sparkling water corresponds to a happy, balanced emotional state. Deep water or a large body of water describes powerful feelings.

Sex dreams usually mean the masculine and feminine sides of yourself are united and working creatively together. Or, these dreams may urge you to dissolve barriers between yin and yang. Look at your partner in the dream––what does this person represent to you? Your dream shows you are successfully merging with the qualities symbolized by your dream partner.

Dying in a dream rarely means physical death. Instead, it points to a transition and shows that part of you or something in your life is dying to make room for something new. If you dream someone else has died, ask yourself what characteristics you associate with that person––these show what’s passing out of your life.

Giving birth in a dream generally means something new is entering your life or that you’re beginning a new phase. This dream can also signify creativity, fruitfulness, or the birth of an idea or opportunity.

Dream images may also have meanings that are unique to the dreamer. For example, a dream about redecorating a house usually means you’re reorganizing your life, but if you’re an interior designer, your creativity may just be working overtime. That’s why it’s a good idea to keep a record of your dreams and list the major symbols that appear in them, especially the ones that crop up again and again.

Why Do We Dream?

2009-08-06T21:41:00.000-07:00

Since the beginning of time, dreams have fascinated and perplexed us. Why do they happen? Where do they come from? What do they mean? Are dreams merely the result of chemical changes in the brain, as some studies indicate, or vehicles for divine communication?

Dreams figure prominently in the literature, practices, and mythology of all cultures. Muslims believe that a spiritual source gave the Koran to Mohammed in a dream. Buddhist priests use information gleaned from dreams to help them locate each new incarnation of the Dalai Lama. In ancient Greece, people with illnesses spent the night in temples built to Aesclepius, the god of healing. There they received guidance in their dreams from the god, and the cures were written on the temple walls. The early texts of the Egyptians and Hindus, the Old Testament of the Bible, the writings of such diverse authors as Shakespeare, Socrates, Omar Khayyam, and Descartes all provide evidence that for millennia people around the world have looked to dreams for guidance, prophecy, wisdom, and inspiration.

American Indian, Australian Aranda, and Celtic shamanic teachings suggest that the dream realm is a parallel universe, a place we journey to when we sleep. Though nonphysical, it is every bit as real as the world we inhabit when we’re awake. Author Carlos Castenada described these alternate realities in The Art of Dreaming and other books.

Although we don’t always remember our dreams, we dream every night. In fact, most adults spend about 1.5 hours dreaming and have three to five dreams per night, each lasting from a few minutes to half an hour or more. Most, but not all, dreams occur during periods known as REM (Rapid Eye Movement) sleep, when the brain stem sends out signals that stimulate the brain’s sensory channels to produce images.

Neuro-physiological explanations of the process, however, don’t tell us anything about the purpose of dreams. Perhaps, as David Fontana proposes in his book Dreamlife, “We sleep partly in order to dream. Sleep…may be the servant of the dream.”

2009-08-05T15:14:00.000-07:00

"Cats are rather delicate creatures and they are subject to a good many different ailments, but I have never heard of one who suffered from insomnia." – Joseph Wood Krutch

I love this picture––perfect repose! Unfortunately, I don't know who the artist is (I cut it out of a magazine long ago). Can anyone enlighten me so can credit him/her and ask permission to keep these kitties on my blog?

The Gates of Delirium

2009-08-05T09:13:00.000-07:00

So, at 3:27 this morning I did the math and figured I’d just spent the past 5 hours kicking, flailing, yanking, flopping onto my back, my side, my other side, flinging sweaty, wadded up sheets onto the floor, up, down, swearing, moaning, sighing, grunting, and even occasionally falling into exhausted sleep. A few minutes later I’d wake up and start again.

On a better night, it might sound like the starring role in an amateur video. But tonight’s performance is straight out of Dante’s Seventh Level of Hell - also known as Melatonin Deprivation.

I groped around on the nightstand for a half of a sleeping pill and knocked my water bottle and the clock radio onto the floor. NPR’s late night at the opera blasted my husband out of bed and straight into Level 4, Martians Have Landed, Red Alert. Now he’s a great guy – patient, kind, attentive, understanding, cool under pressure, a terrific listener, loves cats …. But it seems he’d been awakened once too often during the night and was NOT his usual laid back, empathetic self. Once he realized what had happened he stood there scowling at me – his beloved – like he was contemplating a career move to serial ax murderer.

And then – it was at that exact moment that I had this flash of satori – sudden enlightenment. And because you and I are walking this seventh level highway to hell together, I’m going to share what I learned. Are you ready?

There is a fundamental solution that will solve every one of your middle-aged life challenges. It will make you absurdly happy, fabulously rich, over-the-top good-looking, smart, creative, the epitome of perfect health & fitness, with a brand new wardrobe to boot. You see, grasshopper, it’s not that complicated. All you need is:

A NEW MATTRESS

That’s it! Like most epiphanies, the remedy was staggeringly simple. During that brief moment of satori I was convinced there was nothing in life that a good night’s sleep couldn’t fix – and a king-sized, top-of-the-line, cost-be-damned mattress was just the ticket.

With all that sleep, we’d be so on it and tuned into our manifesting selves we might even win the lottery. Within 60 seconds of this revelation we were giving notice and moving into our new 45-foot RV (with our new wardrobes, work out equipment and 6 cats). Woohoo!

And with that resolved, I promptly fell asleep – right as the alarm went off.

At breakfast my husband enthusiastically embraced the idea, and even expounded a bit.

“Can you imagine what the world would be like if everyone on the planet had a new mattress? If the entire world was well rested and feeling the love – there would be no more fighting, no more wars! People would naturally make the choice to get along and have meaningful dialogue with each other.” What can I say? He’s an Aquarian.

So – that was it. Our life had turned a corner; things would never be the same. Thanks to our soon-to-be new mattress, we saw a future filled with freedom, money, time, spontaneity, travel, and Mensa membership. Life was good. We did happy dances and couldn’t wait to go shopping. But as it turned out, satori would take us only so far.

Right to the doorstep of Billy Bob’s Beds to be exact.

to be continued …..

In the Still of the Night

2009-08-01T08:20:00.000-07:00

Once upon a time, on an island in the deep blue sea, a woman woke up at 3:15 in the morning, for no apparent reason. She tossed and turned, got up and went to the bathroom, thought about all the things she had to do once the sun rose, pondered the mysteries of life, read for a while, and finally dozed off not long before her alarm clock jangled her awake again. She sleepwalked through the day, fell into bed exhausted that night…and again awoke at 3:15.

Pretty soon she discovered that many of her friends were keeping the same early-morning vigil. In fact, a lot of people she knew were wide awake at 3:15, while the rest of the world slumbered. They established a network of sorts, so that when they awoke in those darkest hours before dawn they wouldn’t be alone––they could connect with kindred spirits.

Because on their small island everyone lived close to everyone else, they agreed that when they woke up in the wee hours of the morning they’d shine flashlights out their bedroom windows to signal fellow insomniacs. If you saw a circle of light shining faintly in a dark house on a dark street, you knew you could call, or come over, and chat with a friend instead of lying there by yourself, bullied by your closet monsters.

An informal “after hours club” evolved. A secret society of sorts, where shadow worlds unfolded, where dreams and nightmares could be shared, and where ideas too elusive or wild or disturbing for daytime discussions emerged.

At the time, the group of friends knew nothing about the so-called “devil’s hour,” a Christian theory that suggests sinister forces lurk at 3:00 AM to “dis” the righteous, because Jesus supposedly died at the clock’s opposite hour: 3:00 PM. Nor were they aware of what Pagans called the “witching hour” (from midnight to 3:00 AM, on the night of the full moon), when the barrier between the spirit worlds and planet earth ostensibly dissolves, allowing ghosts and other eerie entities access to the human realm. They hadn’t read The Amityville Horror, the story of a Long Island family haunted by the spirits of victims murdered at 3:15 in the morning, or seen The Exorcism of Emily Rose, in which strange events occurred at 3:00 AM. They had no idea that more deaths occur in the early morning hours, when the body is particularly vulnerable, than at any other time.

What they realized, however, was that their imaginations blossomed in the still of the night, unhampered by the distractions of the mundane world. Sometimes they discovered answers to daytime problems. Other times their deepest fears showed up to be reckoned with. In the silvery moonlight they often saw more clearly than in the bright white light of day.

A lot of inspired thinking took place then. It still does. We believe the Divine Feminine dances in the dark, sings in the shadows. The unconscious reveals itself once the lights go down, and wisdom whispers across the Void if we’re willing to listen. Our sensitivity to things beyond our normal sphere of understanding expands, allowing us to see and feel subtle energies we miss during the daytime.

The 3:15 Club is an extension of that early circle. It’s a place to share thoughts, dreams, insights, questions, experiences, fantasies, fears, secrets, and more. We welcome creative thinking, humor, practical advice, and lunatic ravings.

What wakes you up? What keeps you awake? What do you do when you’re awake while the rest of the world sleeps? What do you contemplate alone in the dark? What were you dreaming about before you woke up? How do you handle insomnia? What nightmares terrorize you? What worlds do you visit when you’re asleep?

When sleep eludes you, don’t just lie awake alone in the dark, share your thoughts with a circle of friends.