Dreams are funny things. We go to bed, get all comfy in our sheets and quilts and pillows, and the moment we shut our eyes, our brains go to work, sorting and analyzing events of the day, week, month. But at some point, that process stops and dreams provide us with the raw material of the future.
Sometimes, these dreams are so literal you know what’s headed your way. Two weeks before my mother passed on, I had an early morning dream where I was at a writers’ conference (and had, in real life, just returned from such a conference) when someone handed me a post-it with this message: Your mother has died. When I headed out to breakfast that morning and related the dream to Rob and my dad, who was living with us at the time, my dad said, “I dreamed that she died, too.”
Right then, we both knew her death was imminent.
Since then, I pay attention to these early morning dreams, which seem to deliver clues about what’s coming up in my life. On August 1, I had one of those early morning dreams and it bolted me into full wakefulness. I glanced around the room, taking stock, taking inventory.
Thanks to the night light in a nearby bathroom, I could see Noah snoozing on a quilt next to his crate, the place Nika occupied when she lived here. Simba, our five-year-old orange tabby featured in the photo above, was stretched out alongside me. As usual, Rob was hogging the pillows. I flipped over onto my back and Simba climbed on top of me and as I shut my eyes, I remembered my dream:
I hurry up the hallway from the bedroom and encounter Simba. He has been dismembered by a dog – his body literally cut in half, and is somehow still alive. I’m freaking out, shrieking for Rob, screaming that we need to get Simba to a vet. Simba, like our other two cats, came to us through our daughter, Megan. She chose him, he’s our only male cat, and for a long time, he used to sleep with her.
In the dream, my dad suddenly materializes. “He’s in pain, Trish,” he says (or something like that), and pulls out a puny .22 pistol and shoots Simba, ending his misery.
In real life, my dad never shot anything. He owned a .38 because in his later years he became paranoid about robbers, break-ins, etc. So now I’m beginning to think that dream was a hint about what was coming up for Megan’s pet (Simba in the dream, Nika in waking life): A dog (pitt bull) attack in the neck, which necessitated drainage tubes in her neck. I also think it’s a synchronicity in terms of after life communication; my dad often appears in my dreams to deliver messages, warnings, affirmations.
If I had been paying closer attention, I might have been able to warn Megan to be vigilant about Nika when it came to other dogs. But, frankly, this option never occurred to me.
And that’s the challenge with precog dreams, at least for me. The interpretation. I know I drove Simba crazy, checking on him every hours of the day. But…
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The update on Nika: the tube in her neck has been removed, she’s her usual bouncy, joyful self. Today, Megan presented the owner of the pitt with the vet bill for Nika – $1300 and loose change. The woman promised she and her boyfriend would pay by next Friday. If that doesn’t happen, I’ll be knocking at their door on Saturday. I’m a pretty laid back person until an injustice hits someone I love. And then it’s not a pretty sight.
facebook and dreams,,,,, yeah well… blah blah blah,,,,,
So happy to hear Nika is doing well. You are I are alot alike when it comes to injustice to someone we love. I have had a very odd dream that has stuck with me – which does not happen often. It was the number 1735. I have no idea what it means, but at the end of the dream it was repeated over and over with me waking up and putting it to memory. Is it 1735 hours? Like 5:35 p.m.? Or is it an address, mailbox, year?? I have no idea, except I wanted to remember it when I woke up.
Wow, 1735. A real mystery! See adelita’s comment about my dream, about techniques to use.
I’m so glad that Nika is recovering well, for her beautiful sake and that of her wonderful loving human family. From my own experience and from what I’ve read and heard from others, dreaming the future is a very common occurrence that goes undetected because people don’t often keep track of their dreams. Sometimes a dream heralds a fascinating but seemingly insignificant dream synchro, like when my 5 year old grand niece announced that the lady standing by the water fountain at the park was in her dream last night, while other times it’s a heads up about important events to come. In the Active Dreaming approach Robert Moss calls Lightning Dreamwork, dreams are always subjected to a “reality check”; is there anything in this dream that could possibly happen in waking life? If the answer is yes, and if the feeling tone of this dream is scaring me, then my next step is to re-enter the dream in a waking meditation and play it forward to see if I can get more details that might help me unravel the symbolic or pinpoint the literal aspects of the dream. If it’s my dream of Simba being cut in half in a dog attack, when I lay back with him cuddled on my chest (my cat does the same thing) I would re-enter my dream scene, perhaps see if I can see him whole again, then ask him to tell me if he’s in danger; if this is a health warning about him or if it’s about someone or something else. I’d also talk to my dad in the dream for his take. Entering dreams while wide awake, using the dream scene but then dreaming it forward is another Active Dreaming approach that’s very close to shamanic journeying; it doesn’t require going back to sleep, just letting the imagination continue a dream scenario. If it’s horrifically scary, I’ll first enlist some form of protection, like in this case, maybe I’d go in with a team of vets. The idea is to see if I can get more info from the inner dialogue with dream figures that can help me assess whether this is a warning dream of some sort. Precognitive or warning dreams predict a possible future that we may be able to alter with enough information. Another thing I’d do is ask for a clarifying dream when I go back to sleep or the next night. The key is to record dreams so we can go back and check for the clues they’ve given us. I find it very interesting that you felt so unsettled on the day of the attack, as if the same radar that was at work with your dream was prickling into alert mode. Perhaps the dream served its purpose in putting you on high alert, sharpening your response to Megan when she called? Some precognitive dreams are so literal, some so veiled in symbol, but both recording and re-entering dreams give me a way to follow-up and learn from them. I doubt there’s much new to you in what I’ve said; I just share the same fascination with our psychic dream abilities that you do.
Thanks so much for your insights, Adelita. I think I’ll try what you suggest, enter it fro a waking state first and then see what happens when I hit the sack tonight.
So glad Nika is doing well….get those boxing gloves on… I think you’re gonna need ’em! Maybe if everyone would hold Pitt owners accountable for the damage they cause… more folks would reconsider not getting this breed of dog in the first place. Not sure what kind of dog this is in this video but it’s why the folks out here think they need the Pitt dogs….this is a hilarious slice of Chicago you might enjoy. The dog kept the robbers from entering the room where the surveillance camera was kept. Here in the city folks keep the Pitts, and similar aggressive dogs for fear of crime…and yes they encourage the aggressiveness. I’m not a fan…..but I think you’ll get a kick out of the video…this guy sounds like he’s just out of a Saturday live skit. Pretty typical for out here. DaBears!!
https://www.wgntv.com/news/wgntv-armed-robbery-and-assault-caught-on-tape-20120807,0,5631495.story
Good luck with the Pitt owners.
Thanks for the link! I’ll give you an update on the pitt owner!
I too, of course am so happy to hear that Nika is o.k. again. And I love hearing about other people’s precognitive dreams. They aren’t always easy to tell that they are at first but since we have them they certainly do point to our psyche’s travel out of time.
Wow. I obviously didn’t dig deep enough in that dream. Thanks for your insight.
great story of dreams – and their meaning/relevance in our waking lives – wonderful news of nika!!! that’s my girl!!! 😉
I’m so glad that sweet Nika is doing well.
Funny story about your cat!!
odd that the gun in your dream was a .22.
Reminds me of your post, The Lost Indiana Jones Novel, where Rob states :
I looked at the departing tolley car in the cover art by Christian Guldager and saw that it was #22. Megan is 22 …
It’s great to hear that Nika is healing so well and is herself again! Dreams…..When I was six years old, I began to have a recurring, pre-awakening dream. It was a very strange dream for someone that young. In the dream, I always saw myself as a teenage girl, sitting in the back of a classroom. A teen boy opens the door to the classroom, walks to the teacher at her desk, and gives her a note. The teacher reads the note, calls me to her desk, and tells me I must go to the office. Someone has come to pick me up; my Dad has died. I had this dream off and on for many years, and it was always the same. When I was not quite eighteen, I was sitting in the back of my English class at school and a boy came into the room and handed the teacher a note. The teacher called me to her desk and told me I had to go to the office. Someone in my family had come to pick me up because my Dad had been taken to the hospital.
Everything about the recurring dream manifested, except that on THAT day, Daddy had been taken to the hospital. He didn’t die until seven days later. In the summer of my 16th year, I kept having a recurring dream before I awakened, and would go to the breakfast table in tears, which upset my mother. In the dream, I saw my then boyfriend, Bill, who was a quarterback on our school team and the pitcher on the baseball team, lying in a casket. He was wearing a brown suit, and there was a wreath of flowers shaped like a football in front of the casket. I kept telling my Mom the dream , and she kept telling me I was a melodramatic teenager. A few days before school started, Bill was mowing the coach’s lawn and passed out. He was diagnosed with acute leukemia, and five days later, he died. At the church, he was laying in a casket wearing a brown suit, and there was a wreath in the shape of a football in front of his casket. Yes indeed, our minds are very busy when we are sleeping. They apparently are very aware of things to come, just as YOUR dream knew about what would happen to Nika. Sometimes the dreams are spot-on in every aspect; not symbolic. And sometimes they use symbols to represent the message. We must pay attention. And you guys are so right to hold the pit’s owners responsible for Nika’s medical bill!!!! I wouldn’t want to be in South Florida if they don’t come across as promised! But, again, am so happy Nika is her happy self again! BTW, do you know what has happened to the pit bull?
The pitt was supposed to be removed from the building yesterday. Haven’t heard if that happened.
Since you are my Facebook friends, you’ll notice if I share the photo of your cat. Am I allowed to share it? It has some personal meaning to me. It’s like you’ve used someone else’s idea (a photo of a cat reading and meditating).
Of course. Share away, Aleksandar!
Have your seen our meditating dog photo, Alek?
Yes. In that inside joke mentioned in my previous comment the cat was reading Castaneda and Jung.
Castaneda and Jung! Great combination.