Dreams have long been known to tell our
conscious minds what our unconscious
minds are thinking - dreams can ALSO be
known to portray the future.
Tell your dreams to our resident
Dream Expert Delphi Ellis and see what
your dreams are telling you.....
This Month's Article
Are Your Dreams Predicting The Future?
Science and sleep research has shown that we all dream, every night, even if we don’t remember them. As a Dreamologist, I work hard to promote the benefits of exploring our dreams in a fun and interactive way, encouraging people to record their dreams and investigate the messages contained within them, messages which I believe can relate to our past, present and future.
For thousands of years different cultures have placed huge importance on interpreting dreams; the Ancient Egyptians are said to have kept writing materials by their bed to record dreams, just as I encourage people to keep a dream diary today. Back then, the role of the dream interpreter was held with high esteem, believing that dreams held messages and vital clues predicting health, wealth and impending danger.
However in recent years, perhaps since the theories of famous psychologists like Freud, Western cultures seem to have stepped away from acknowledging the importance of dream recording and interpretation, believing that dreams are nothing more than the mind’s attempt to process the day’s events or to live out our deepest, darkest fears or fantasies.
History has recorded though, that this is not always the case.
Evidence of Precognitive Dreams
Many people are reported to have cancelled their tickets for the voyage of the Titanic, because of dreams they had had which foresaw the disastrous events which then took place. Author Morgan Robertson, wrote a story called ‘The Wreck of the Titan’ fourteen years before the Titanic sailed, based on images that had come to him during day dreams. In the novel, he is said to describe a great liner, that there were not enough lifeboats for all its passengers, and that the liner was said to be 'unsinkable'.
The Bible speaks of predictive dreams; Joseph interpreted the Pharaoh’s dream of cows and corn as a prediction of seven years of plenty and seven years of famine that were to follow. More recently, mystic Vassula Ryden is just one of many people who claimed to have foreseen the destruction of the Twin Towers in her dreams. Even Swiss psychologist Carl Jung, spoke of interpreting dreams that he felt predicted the future, in his book Modern Man in Search of a Soul.1
Research
There is little research on the subject of precognitive dreams, perhaps because this relies on the ability of the dreamer to ‘come up with the goods’ on demand. Clearly, this is not easy particularly when the dreamer may not know what they did to induce the precognitive dream in the first place, unlike our ancient predecessors who performed various rituals and slept in dedicated temples for that purpose. A survey in 1980 polled a number of people who were asked if they considered they had, at one time or another, a precognitive dream. Forty two per cent of those surveyed said they had at least one dream which came true, relating to events they could not have known about or expected prior to the dream 2.
A recent news article published by the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy, also suggests that many people can predict illnesses or ailments through interpreting their dreams effectively. 3
Your dreams
So, are your dreams predicting the future? When looking at predictive dreams, one overall factor seems to be that the dreamer is more of an observer than actually ‘taking part’, a bit perhaps, like watching a movie. Sometimes there is an overwhelming sense of dread upon waking, like something catastrophic is about to happen. However, I myself have had dreams which have predicted the future and in some cases I am very much a character within the dream. There are no time scales given and no idea when the ‘real life’ event will actually take place.
As a professional Dreamologist, I will never interpret a dream as predicting death and will approach the subject of precognition cautiously. I will always look for the symbolic representation to offer the dreamer both sides of the coin. So if during a consultation, a gentleman recalls a dream where he has arrived at work to find all the staff have been made redundant, I will explore his fears of this becoming a reality and discuss the possibility that this may reflect changes or a situation he may need to remove himself from, in order to work more effectively.
It can be dangerous to declare a dream as precognitive without giving it due thought and consideration, particularly when the dreamer may not be sure of the timescale involved and how their revelation may be received by others. Above all else, it is for the dreamer to decide and to my mind, when it comes to the world of dreaming, anything is possible…