Creative Whack # 12: Listen to Your Dreams
I love to dream. I wish I could remember every detail, but I never can.
Sometimes my dreams reveal things that are interesting, helpful and healing.
One of the best and most vivid of my dreams happened after a dear friend died suddenly. She was my boss when I worked at American Express. We had grown very close and I loved her. I was devastated when she died and had a difficult time overcoming the anger I felt that she was gone. She had three young children, too. That was the worst part…..

This is the picture I saw in my dream. This picture of Susan B. Anthony is adapted from the portrait in the History of Woman Suffrage by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and others.
One night, after she’d been gone nearly three months, she came to visit me in a dream. It was not like my normal dreams, which are usually really colorful and wild. This dream was focused -very sedated, or maybe soft is a better word to describe how it felt.
The interesting thing about this dream? There were two me’s. There was the me sleeping and laying there, doing the dreaming. Then, there was the me who talked to Jean while my sleeping self laid there. I knew I was dreaming that I was looking down at myself dreaming…. but still, it was more real than a dream
It was like a dream within a dream within a dream that was real. Does that make sense?
Hah! Probably not!
Well, my dreaming self (while I knew the me looking down at myself dreaming was also dreaming, it was so real at the time and in retrospect, too.
I remember asking if she visited her kids because they missed her so much.
She told me they were doing fine. She said she worried about me – needed me to stop crying. She wanted to tell me she was happy and I needed to stop worrying and start living. That was the essence of the message.
I can’t sit here and say, with 100 percent certainty that it was an out-of-body experience, or anything like that. But somehow, I know that is what it was. I can’t say with certainty, but I feel certain about it. One thing I am certain about, I felt better from then on….
In another dream, I heard the name Susan B. Anthony and shown a coin of some kind that her profile was on. I didn’t know what it meant, but it was vivid.
I was in my twenties and had never heard the name Susan B. Anthony. And I didn’t know that, in about a six months later, her picture would be on the new one dollar coin. Then, when it was announced in the news and in the paper, that she would be the first woman to be honored on a coin, and I saw her picture and the picture of the coin, I was shocked. It was exactly what I’d seen in my dream!
I didn’t tell anyone for years about it because I thought no one would believe me, and why in the world would I be dreaming of a woman from the 1800, and why would I see the coin?
I didn’t second-guess myself about what I saw, I knew what I’d seen. But I didn’t know WHY I’d seen it! I still don’t know why. It seemed very strange to me and I told no one about it until years later.
It was a strange premonition!
Anyway, I’m still listening and dreaming with my eyes wide open – now more than ever.
Your awareness was in your spirit body. The body you saw on the bed was either your dreamer inside your physical body, or simply your dreamer by itself if it was not at the site where you originally fell asleep. Were you able to see what your dreamer was dreaming of? This is exactly what I write about… 🙂
Hi George! That’s what i think, too. And, yes, I was able to see that me, the dreamer, was dreaming it and it felt like I knew it was all a dream, but yet not a dream, if that makes any sense! I’ll have to pay more attention to what you write about, that’s for sure! Thank you so much for your insight…. I really appreciate it!
My pleasure, Andrea. It’s in my book writings, not in the regular blogs. Believe me, it’s a treat to find another person this happens to! In case you ever feel like discussing it outside of a public forum, my email is georgefloreswrite at yahoo dot com.
Thanks! Have you published, too? My, you’re a man of many talents, my friend!
Wow! I can totally relate! In fact, for a good full year I kept a “dream” journal and pen by my bedside, for when I awoke from a “wide awake” dream, I could scribble quickly all I envisioned before it vanished with the haze it came in. I did this because I was having too many walking “deja vu” incidences, where I’d blurt out, “I dreamt this moment”, or time, or place, and my friends would say, “RahRah, you’re full of it!” They would not believe me, and so I didn’t believe me either. But it kept happening, so I started journaling the dreams until I was certain I could trust those “hazy” dreams. Belief and trust in self, faith, hope, love, hugs to all!
Hi RahRah!
I used to do a dream journal a long while ago but ever since I got my dog, as soon as he knows I’m awake, POUNCE! he’s on me and the dream is practically gone. I love those moments you describe. I have those, too, and for the last few years, things I think about – people I miss, events I’d see happening, etc., do happen and I think, wow – I knew that was coming! I knew I was going to quit my job… but my head didn’t want to allow it and I was fighting and fighting against it until I couldn’t resist it anymore, I guess, and it happened. Don’t you just love it when things just “happen”?!!!
“Thanks! Have you published, too? My, you’re a man of many talents, my friend”
Nope. Soon I will begin the search for an agent, but I am unpublished, so far. And I’m a woman with a man’s pen name 🙂
Georgina
OMG! That is hilarious – I am so sorry, I sincerely didn’t realize that was your pen name! There are so many ways to get published nowadays….though it’s always easier said than done. 🙂
hehe I actually wanted everybody to get it wrong, I even went so far as to say I was male in my email profile. I have a psycho ex, so I figured it might throw him off. The problem is that I insist on telling everybody who I am because I feel bad misrepresenting myself. Oh well! Cheers, I’m hanging out with my old pal Smirnoff tonight (again) 🙂
I’m on the Harper Collins booksite, Authonomy, but I may grow impatient and do the self-publishing route. If you know anything about the whole ordeal, let me know, I can always use advice.
I absolutely will! Are you familiar with this site? http://inkwelleditorial.com/ I just found it, but have been so busy I haven’t had a chance to give it a good look… my cursory look at it tells me it seems helpful…
I’ll give it a try, I just favorited it to come back to it. Someone else needs to use the computer at my place so I’ll have to wait until they finish. I’ll check it out and give you an opinion. Thanks!
Great! Yes, do let me know…. 🙂
Sorry about the long wait, Andrea. Things have been crazy in my house. I checked out the site and it’s for freelance writing, not for fiction publishing. Still, it’s worth a shot. It would be cool to make 250$ a day just for writing 500 word articles!
Loved your hair dryer pic above 🙂 and hope you are enjoying Orlando. Is it chilly up there, at least? It has been so hot these past few days. Happy Holidays!!!
Darn it all, it’s not chilly at all. But, it is gorgeous! It’s been nice in the shade, like South Florida. But, the mornings and evenings are much cooler here than in South Florida.
I went to a dog park today with my brother and his dog, and me and mine, and I sat on a bench and had a nice long chat with a women from West Palm. It was so lovely sitting in the park, under the trees and the cool breeze blowing. It doesn’t seem like florida here – there are little hills and slopes and the trees…OMG, they are so pretty here! Come to think of it, I don’t think I’ve seen any Palm trees…. I took pictures of the trees…. I’ll post them soon, they’re so nice….
Anyway, thanks for your comment about the dryer picture! I swear I don’t look like that, really!
Hope you have a grand and festive holiday, too!
Too bad it’s not a bit cooler, but it sounds like you’re having a nice time. I look forward to your pictures. Sometimes it’s good to be reminded that not all of Florida is beaches and palms.
🙂 We all look that way under the dryer!!!
Thanks.