{"id":4925,"date":"2012-07-16T11:24:09","date_gmt":"2012-07-16T15:24:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/dreamgates\/?p=4925"},"modified":"2012-07-06T23:16:35","modified_gmt":"2012-07-07T03:16:35","slug":"how-dreams-wake-us-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/2012\/07\/how-dreams-wake-us-up.html","title":{"rendered":"How dreams wake us up"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Eye of red-tailed hawk<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Here\u2019s an open secret about dreaming. It\u2019s not fundamentally about sleeping. It\u2019s really about waking up. In ancient Egypt, the word for dream, rswt<\/em>, meant an \u201cawakening.\u201d Those Egyptians were onto something.<\/p>\n

For starters, dreams wake us up to what is going on inside our bodies and what we need to do to stay well or get well. Mary Agnes, a registered nurse in Baltimore, dreamed she traveled inside her body and found it was like a boiler room in danger of blowing up. Waking, she realized she had been given a tour of her digestive system. She went to a doctor and found she had an ulcer that needed treatment.<\/p>\n

Wanda Burch, author of She Who Dreams<\/em><\/a>, received an urgent health alert from her dead father, who appeared with a surgeon in tow, shouting, \u201cYou have\u00a0breast cancer – do something about it now<\/em>.\u201d Wanda believes that dream may have saved her life, by spurring her to get to a doctor\u2019s office in time to contain a life-threatening disease.<\/p>\n

Dreams not only diagnose; they can deliver a personal Rx. Nancy, a clinical psychologist in the Chicago area, dreamed she saw the words \u201cvalerian root\u201d printed in huge black letters. She later discovered that valerian root is a natural sleep aid that also promotes dreaming.<\/p>\n

Dreams wake us up to challenges and opportunities on the road ahead.<\/p>\n

Teresa, an administrator for a software company in McLean,VA, dreamed she was headed to the airport for a trip to Europe but had to turn back because her passport had expired. The next day she put her passport renewal in the mail.<\/p>\n

Hilary Swank, the star of Million Dollar Baby<\/em>, dreamed she was called on to save someone\u2019s life during what seemed like a heart attack. The dream prompted her to learn CPR. She was ready three months later when a man collapsed in front of her at an airport. She performed CPR, revived him briefly, but was unable to save his life. She\u2019ll be ready if it happens again.<\/p>\n

I dreamed of my possible death at a fork in a road, driving up a hill east of Troy,NY. Three weeks later, driving up that same hill, I found my view of a curve in the road obscured by a delivery truck. Because I remembered my dream, instead of pulling out, I slowed almost to a stop \u2013 and so missed a head-on collision with an 18-wheeler that came barreling down the hill at 60 mph, blocking the whole road.<\/p>\n

When we can\u2019t change a future event we preview in a dream, we may be able to use dream information to do some good. Carol, a pastoral counselor in Niskayuna, NY, dreamed she received a phone call from a client who told her that her sister had died. Snow was softly falling. \u201cAt a crucial moment,\u201d Carol recalls, \u201cwithout telling the dream, I was able to use the information to help my client prepare for her sister’s passing.\u201d Three months later, Carol received that call in waking life, as a fine soft snow was falling.<\/p>\n

Dreams can wake up the artist, writer or creator inside us.<\/p>\n

Terry Persun, a novelist in Port Townsend,WA, dreams he is writing at his desk \u2013 then gets up and puts his body where it was in the dream. \u201cI go from a sleep state to a waking state with the words already in my head.\u201d<\/p>\n

He\u2019s in good company. Jacqueline Mitchard dreamed the plot of her bestselling first novel The Deep End of the Ocean<\/em> and then dreamed up her second book. Architect Frank Gehry dreams up building designs. Paul McCartney dreamed the music of \u201cYesterday\u201d.<\/p>\n

Dreams can wake us up to the possibility of richer, more fulfilling relationships. They can even introduce our life partners. \u00a0New Jersey schoolteacher Marybeth \u00a0dreamed there was an \u201cenergy cord\u201d running from her heart to her ultimate \u201cMister Right.\u201d She imagined herself being drawn by that heart-cord towards the man of her dreams. Fourteen months later, she found him and they got married.<\/p>\n

Dreams sometimes wake us up to our bigger story. As Viktor Frankl wisely insisted in his classic Man’s Search for Meaning<\/em>, humans need meaning<\/em> just as they need food and air. In the midst of the stress and clutter of everyday life, dreams can remind us what it\u2019s all about and restore our inner compass.<\/p>\n

In my dreams, the red-tailed hawk sometimes lends me its wings and its gift of vision, helping me to wake up to a bigger picture and see life’s everyday problems from a wider and higher perspective.<\/p>\n

We can all do better when we wake up and dream.<\/em>\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Here\u2019s an open secret about dreaming. It\u2019s not fundamentally about sleeping. It\u2019s really about waking up. In ancient Egypt, the word for dream, rswt, meant an \u201cawakening.\u201d Those Egyptians were onto something. For starters, dreams wake us up to what is going on inside our bodies and what we need to do to stay well…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":224,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,10,13,5,12,30,6],"tags":[1001,1813,1382,1384,94,666,1385,141,1383,1811],"class_list":["post-4925","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-active-dreaming","category-conscious-dreaming","category-dream-symbols","category-dreams","category-meaning-of-dreams","category-precognition","category-sleep","tag-awakening","tag-dream-diagnosis","tag-dreaming-mr-right","tag-hilary-swank","tag-red-tailed-hawk","tag-rswt","tag-terry-persun","tag-vision","tag-wanda-burch","tag-writing"],"yoast_head":"\nHow dreams wake us up - Dream Gates<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/2012\/07\/how-dreams-wake-us-up.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How dreams wake us up - Dream Gates\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Here\u2019s an open secret about dreaming. It\u2019s not fundamentally about sleeping. It\u2019s really about waking up. In ancient Egypt, the word for dream, rswt, meant an \u201cawakening.\u201d Those Egyptians were onto something. 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He is the creator of Active Dreaming, an original synthesis of dreamwork and shamanism. Born in Australia, he survived three near-death experiences in childhood. He leads popular seminars all over the world, including a three-year training for teachers of Active Dreaming. A former lecturer in ancient history at the Australian National University, he is a best-selling novelist, journalist and independent scholar. His nine books on dreaming, shamanism and imagination include Conscious Dreaming, Dreamways of the Iroquois, The Dreamer's Book of the Dead, The Three \"\"Only\"\" Things, The Secret History of Dreaming, Dreamgates, Active Dreaming and Dreaming the Soul Back Home: Shamanic Dreaming for Healing and Becoming Whole. His most recent book is The Boy Who Died and Came Back: Adventures of a Dream Archaeologist in the Multiverse. Over the past 20 years, he has led seminars at the Esalen Institute, Kripalu, the Omega Institute, the New York Open Center, Bastyr University, John F. Kennedy University, Meriter Hospital, and many other centers and institutions. He has taught depth workshops in Active Dreaming in the UK, Australia, Canada, Costa Rica, France, the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Romania, Brazil and Austria and leads a three-year training for teachers of Active Dreaming. He hosts the \"\"Way of the Dreamer\"\" radio show at www.healthylife.net. He has appeared on many TV and radio shows, ranging from Charlie Rose and the Today show to Coast to Coast and the Diane Rehm show on NPR. His articles on dreaming have been published in media ranging from Parade to Shaman's Drum.","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.mossdreams.com"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/author\/rmoss"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4925","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/224"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4925"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4925\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4966,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4925\/revisions\/4966"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4925"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4925"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4925"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}