Dream Steps : a Bloneironic

  

 

 

"I have dreams that repeat over and over.  I have a dream of my fiancee...sitting in a chair with her back to me...

"...and there’s an Iraqi that cuts her throat.  When I try to save her, when I try to go at him, he disappears.

"I have another dream where I’m mutilating my little baby...picking her up by the legs and smashing her against the wall..."

These dreams were told on the radio program This American Life by an Iraq War veteran, referred to simply as "John".  A self-proclaimed high school "band geek", John did not have a history of violence--until he returned from the war in Iraq.

We don’t seem to be doing a very good job of helping soldiers like John, soldiers suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).  I know that listening to their dreams can help them.  Unfortunately, dream work doesn’t seem to be a part of most therapies today--whether it’s group therapy or individual.

If nothing else, their nightmares will let know them a problem exists, a problem that can not be ignored.  A vet who tells everyone--including himself--that "everything’s okay" may get a different message from his dreams.  These dreams, if shared, can also serve as a warning to family and friends.

I realize it’s difficult to work with dreams.  But it doesn’t have to be complicated.  A dream in which I feel afraid is a dream about my fear.  Simple as that.  You don’t need to be an expert to know that John’s dreams speak of trouble within.

Likewise, a change in his dreams can show he’s beginning to come to grips with his war experience.

I’ve never suffered from PTSD.  But I have had many strange and troubling dreams.  I’ve learned that those dreams aren’t there merely to scare me.  Those dreams have come to lead me out of the dark.

    

 

 

The one below, from Robert Moss' book The Three "Only" Things, may be in the top ten:

 

"Wanda Burch, whose book She Who Dreams is the best guide I know to dream healing, had a recent experience of direct healing through a dream...

 

"A doctor looked at a mole on the sole of her left foot and determined that it needed to be removed.  This would require minor surgery that would cause some residual pain for a few days. 

 

"Prior to the scheduled surgery, Wanda approached sleep with the strong thought, 'Why do I have to go through this?  Isn't there another way?'

 

"In her dream, she inspected the mole on the sole of her foot.  Then a hand appeared from mowhere--as if out of a cloud--holiding a large black pencil.  The hand drew a circle around the mole, and the mole popped off and disappeared.

 

"In the morning, Wanda looked at the sole of her foot.  No trace of the mole.  She looked at her other foot, thinking she must be confused.  No mole.  She got her husband to look, and he confirmed what had happened: a dream event had delivered immediate physical healing.  Her husband insisted she should keep her medical appointment, so the doctors could learn from this."

 

Well, I don't know if the doctors would have learned anything.  But I would have kept the appointment, if only to see the expression on their faces. 

 

Did the "dream event" heal Wanda?  I would say Wanda healed Wanda.  In any case, the result is the same. 

 

This story reminds me of a similar story from my father's boyhood...

 

He grew up in the "sticks", in the hills of Arkansas, where people had not yet lost their folk beliefs.

 

So when he developed a large painful planter's wart on the palm of his hand, he decided, with some trepidation, to visit a woman who lived at the end of a dirt road in the woods, a woman who used all sorts of folk remedies, and was reputed to be a witch.

 

This old woman first told my father to cut a stick from a tree.  She then said an incantation while rubbing his wart with the stick.  Afterwards, following her instruction, he buried the stick in the ground.

 

The next morning, he woke up and inspected his palm.  The painful wart was still there.  The second morning, he again checked his hand.  But the wart was as big as ever.

 

The third morning, he got up and went about his chores, forgetting about the wart completely.  Not until an hour or two later, did he look down to find that the wart had completely disappeared from his hand.

 

Did his healing come from the witch?  Did Wanda Burch's healing come from the dream? 

 

I can't say; however, healing sometimes seems to need a catalyst.

 

  

    

 

A dream that shocked me, though it contained no scenes of death and dismemberment, no haunted houses or strange unseen presences...

 

No, in this dream...

 

 

 

That's all I recall of the dream.  Actually, I didn't even remember that much until the next morning when I got into my car and put the key into the ignition.  Dream memories can often be triggered by such waking life events.

 

Ironically, this dream scared me as much as any of those other scenarios, all of which have appeared in my dreams. 

 

But though the dream signals trouble, perhaps I shouldn't be so frightened.  What scared me was the possibility of getting stuck, of not being able to rely on my "vehicle".  However, in the dream, the engine still starts, still runs.

 

If I'm having problems starting, then a certain spark is missing.  Yes, I can still run.  But in order to keep on running, I need to make some adjustments. 

 

I thought I was doing okay.  But the dream tells me differently.  And that's what it's there for: to tell me what I don't know.

 

Happy Halloween.