Dream To Heal
by Judith Orloff MD
Re-printed from Holistic Health Journal
Recently, I had a decision to make—a big one. My 77-year-old father
with Parkinson’s disease was in the hospital on Christmas Day with
pneumonia, nearly delirious from a fever of 104. He looked like death
warmed over. I was devastated. He barely recognized me. Was his time
up? I wondered. So did his doctor. Along with antibiotics, there was
only one thing left to do, his doctor concluded.
“We have to put a permanent G-tube in your father’s stomach.”
I froze. This meant that he would never eat real food again. No more
pastrami sandwiches on rye, his favorite. He’d have to live with a six
inch plastic gastrointestinal tube surgically inserted through his
skin, sewn into his stomach. Ensure, that horrible canned
chocolate-flavored supplement, fed through the tube, would be his only
sustenance. Not a pretty picture. But if it would save his life? I
understood the thinking behind this choice. The theory was that
Parkinson’s disease caused my father’s swallowing muscles to stop
working properly. As a result, food intended for his stomach ended up
in his lungs. Thus, he was susceptible to recurrent pneumonia.
Still, something didn’t feel right. So I did what I always do when I’m
too involved to intuitively see clearly. I sent out an SOS for a dream.
That night it came: My father and I are having dinner at a table with a
simple white cloth. He looks happy, physically fit. I watch him eat; he
savors every bite. He says nothing. Suddenly he looks up at me. His
eyes turn a radiant emerald green. They are loving and bright. I fall
into them. Then all at once I know: It’s okay to put off the decision
about the tube until later. I wake up certain of this.
That Christmas day in the hospital was over three months ago. Since
then, my father has met Janice, a lovely 89-year-old widow. (“An older
woman,” as she puts it!) They have fallen in love. She’s given him a
new lease on life. They go out for Chinese food, hold hands in the
movies, stroll side-by-side with their walkers in the park. Without a
doubt, this was worth every minute of his doctor’s obvious frustration
with me, that look he gave me that I was trying to kill my father. I
didn’t tell the doctor about my dream. I feared it would have only made
matters worse.
The other day, my father winked at me and said, “I’m under your wing.”
I understood. By following my dream I spared him the hardship of
rushing into a premature decision. I bought him precious time.
There is a healing instinct within you that can manifest in dreams.
You’d be surprised at the straightforward health advice they give,
either spontaneously or on request. Tips on food, preventive therapies,
treatment options constantly come through—but we miss them. Once
remembered, the essence of many of our dreams is lost because we, or
our therapists, misinterpret them.
A patient told me about a recurring broccoli dream.
“You can’t be serious,” he chuckled. “It’s actually trying to tell me what to eat? A vegetable?”
Yes—it was. Such practical suggestions we often dismiss as meaningless. But sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.
Keep it simple. Try something new. If you dream of eating a luscious
mango, run out, devour one. Or when, in a dream, you’re soaking in
natural hot springs, make a date to go. I have a friend who dreams of a
health spa in Mexico every few years when she’s overly stressed. She
takes it as a signal to make a reservation.
How do you know if the advice you receive is right? What if you feast
on an entire, incredibly scrumptious, chocolate mousse cake in a dream?
Does that mean you should run to the bakery to buy one, then eat the
whole thing? Of course now. Count on common sense to guide you. Along
with this, begin to familiarize yourself with traditional dream
interpretation. I suggest Carl Jung’s classic text, Man And His
Symbols, or take a look at The Dream Encyclopedia, by James R. Lewis.
There’s an intuitive level to understanding dreams. Reliable intuitive information stands out in very specific ways.
Watch for these clues:
- Statements that simply convey information
- Neutral segments without emotion
- A detached feeling, like you’re a witness watching a scene
- A voice or person counseling you—as if you’re taking dictation from an outside source
- Conversations with people you’ve never met before who give instructions about your health
Be aware that your dreams go by different rules than your waking life. Get ready for a mind shift. Physical laws no longer apply. Gravity changes. In dreams you can fly! Remember as a child (or adult) when you took off wingless, soared over mountains and valleys below? Health-wise, this is a reminder of the vitality and freedom that is in you. Silence is pregnant. A dream’s tone can be as restorative as its content: a revelation about staying well can come through someone’s eyes rather than words, as it did with my father.
You are in partnership with your dreams. Initiate an ongoing dialogue with them. It’s like consulting the wisest old-time family doctor you can imagine, who knows you inside out. You can ask your dreams anything—even what seems most impossible. How can I keep my blood pressure down? What about my hip pain or allergies? Are there ways to stop catching so many colds? No question is trivial if it is meaningful to you. Expect answers. Some will be direct. Others may require interpretation.
Dreams can keep you well. Dreams provide answers. But first you must retrieve them. How many nights have you awakened with the most amazing dream you were certain you’d recall? Then, the next morning it was gone. Our memory deceives. During sleep, we suffer a kind of amnesia. Dreams are not of the rational mind. Your intuitive memory is what is needed
When you are finished, re-focus on the health question you asked the previous night. See how your dream applies. One/two/three impressions about the who/what/where of your solution may have surfaced. My own answer to preventing recurring sinus infections came in a dream: the flash of an acupuncture office. An elevator. An old Chinese man. A rush of vitality. These were my signposts. Take note of yours. Get in the habit of recording your dreams regularly. Be assured I’ve never met anyone who can’t be taught how to remember.
Keep at it. If your answer doesn’t come the first night, try again. More details will emerge, rounding out the picture. Then look to your daily life for evidence of what your dream tells you. The woman’s face you glimpsed for that split second could just be the healer you’ve been searching for.
I’ll let you in on a secret. One of my favorite ways of conjuring up dreams is to turn on music at twilight as the moon rises, and dance. You can try it, too. Instantly I’m out of my head, into my body (a basic formula for intuitive awakening—memorize it!). In my living room, gazing out at an expanse of purple ocean and pastel sky, with no one to please, I gyrate wildly to Nirvana’s heavy metal blasting; boogie to Miles Davis; or I’m a raven gliding on the wind’s currents to haunting Gregorian chants. Tension dissipates. Energy surges up my spine. I leap, spin, twirl faster than light. I flash yellow on the horizon—then become invisible. No more mind. Memory returns. Dreams fly through me. I become them. I am open. I can see.
The preceding is a selection from Dr. Orloff’s new book, Intuitive Healing, a work in progress to be published by Random House.
Four Ways To Remember Your Dreams
- Keep a journal permanently installed by your bed.
- Write a question on a piece of paper before you go to sleep. Formalize your request. Place it on a table beside your bed or under your pillow (like you did as a child when you made a wish to the tooth fairy).
- In the morning, do not wake up too fast. Stay under the covers for at least a few minutes remembering your dream. Luxuriate in a peaceful feeling between sleep and waking, what scientists call the “hypnogogic states.” Those initial moments provide a doorway.
- Open your eyes. Write down your dream immediately, otherwise it will evaporate. You may recall a face, object, color, scenario, feel an emotion. It doesn’t matter if it makes perfect sense—or if you retrieve a single image or many. Record everything.
About Judith Orloff
Judith Orloff M.D. is featured regularly in print, broadcast and online media. Her unique and sought-after guidelines on how to recapture and affirm our energy, emotional wellness, and intuition have helped people worldwide to heal. Dr. Orloff's work has been featured in O Magazine, Newsweek, the Wall Street Journal, Self, Cosmo, The Washington Times, and the New York Post. She has appeared on The Today Show, The Dr. Oz Show, Good Morning America Health, CBS Early Show, CNN, PBS, and NPR. Dr. Orloff's work is featured on Beliefnet.com, iVillage, WebMD, AOL Health, and she is a blogger for the The Huffington Post and Psychology Today. Her national public television special “Emotional Freedom Now!” is based on her book “Emotional Freedom.”
