Why Are Dreams Healing?

The idea that dreams can be healing is not new. In the ancient civiliza¬ tions of Egypt and Greece, patients who failed to respond to medical treatment could arrange to sleep in a temple especially dedicated to the god of healing. They hoped he would visit them in a dream, enabling them to regain their health. The temples of the Greek God Asclepius were especially renowned for their high success rate - and often grew rich on the contributions of grateful patients.

Native American Indians believed that dreams were sent by the Great Spirit, to act as a guiding light for your soul and prevent it from becoming lost in the darkness of ignorance. Losing touch with them would be disastrous, as you would then be unaware of your true path in life and become depressed or ill.

The eminent psychologist Carl Jung also believed in the healing power of dreams, many years of clinical experience convincing him that most of our problems are the

result of losing contact with our deepest instincts. He observed that there is a way of gaining access to the age-old wisdom hidden in each of us deep within the unconscious mind. That way is through our dreams.

Nowadays, doctors are well aware of the link between our state of mind and physical symptoms. Stress is a major factor in ill-health, whilst suppressed

feelings like rage or resentment can also disturb the body’s equilibrium and create dis-ease. Our dreams are nature’s way of helping us to maintain a balanced outlook. They usually contain helpful messages about the emotional adjustments we need to make from day to day. If we take these seriously, we avoid nurturing unrealistic attitudes and prevent the build-up of stress or toxic emotions.

Sometimes you may develop an illness if you secretly feel unable to face up to something and have a need for someone to take care of you. Your dreams can reveal your hidden agenda and suggest a way for¬ ward. In helping you to focus on the underlying cause of your symptoms, they enable you to participate in your own healing process.

Your dreams can further your emotional well-being by helping you to understand how your feelings and attitudes affect other people, often at a subliminal level, and can therefore create or destroy relationships. If someone has let you down, for instance, your dreams may reveal that, subconsciously, you expect people to disappoint you - and, sooner or later, that is exactly what they do. Once you wake up to the fact that relationships don’t have to turn out this way, you can transform your life.

Whether you need more confidence, to have better relationships, or the courage to make the correct decisions, your dreams can guide you through even the most difficult situations and help you to become the person nature always meant you to be. I hope this Dream Encyclopedia will inspire you to find out more about one of your most precious, yet most neglected natural resources - your dreams.