When pregnant women experience life-saving dreams
Being pregnant can be a real roller coaster. Samantha discovered this through the power of her dreams.
Sam is my niece. I was involved in the study of dreams at the School of Metaphysics during her pregnancy, so I was the first person she thought of when she wanted to talk about her dreams.
His “roller coaster dream” triggered a thought in my mind:
Do women have different types of dreams when they are pregnant?
A perfect opportunity to find out the answer was immediately available, as seven of my friends and family happened to be pregnant at the same time.
To further my research, I started a Dream Catcher group: a private group for sharing pregnancy dreams on Facebook. I invited my pregnant friends and family to the group I created called Pregnancy Dreamers and ended up with eight members total.
I was so curious. Would all of her dreams be similar? Would they be violent or calm? Would they be about your physical or mental state of being? What could a pregnant woman’s subconscious be telling her during this life-changing moment?
I learned this and much more. There can be life-saving miracles in our dream messages, when we know how to interpret them.
Sam is twenty-seven years old and has been trying to get pregnant for a while, so when she finally does, you can imagine her anxiety.
Sam has two dreams in one night:
DREAM NUMBER 1:
I had a dream last night that I was on a roller coaster and I wasn’t tied down because I didn’t know it was a roller coaster and it went downhill and I was hanging on for dear life. I started getting up higher and higher just before I hit the bottom of the drop and I was really scared. SPECTRUM
DREAM NUMBER 2:
My second dream was that we were floating down the river (in an inner tube) and I had to go down with just the cooler and I couldn’t find Tyler (Sam’s husband). Right before we got into the water I couldn’t find a shirt that fit me because my belly was too big. SPECTRUM
“I was so scared when I woke up”, Sam’s anguish is real even as a memory of a dream. I want Sam to understand the meaning of his dreams to ease his fear.
Sam is good at remembering her dreams, but neither she nor the other pregnant dreamers know how to interpret them, so I open the group by telling you two rules of dream interpretation that I learned in my studies with the School of Metaphysics:
1. Every dream is about the dreamer
2. Everything and everyone in the dream is the dreamer.
“Dreams are messages from our intuitive and subconscious minds to our waking and conscious minds,” I explain. “The mind uses the Universal Language of Mind, a language of images, for communication.”
We discuss the symbols and their meanings using Dr. Barbara Condron’s Dictionary of the Dreamer as a reference. The Dream Catcher format extends learning beyond Sam, so all members of the Pregnancy Dreamers group will benefit. My dream group is about to see how dreams can save the life of a mother and her baby.
Sam’s perspective on life and his attitude towards his life are evident in these two dreams.
Both dreams begin with an attitude of fun. However, both dreams turn terrifying.
A roller coaster is a system that repeats itself within a frame just like the neural pathways in your brain. In a dream, a roller coaster symbolizes these paths. She tells Sam that she is locked into a certain way of thinking about her life. She is “unattached”, reflecting unawareness or not paying attention to what is happening in the present.
moment.
The second dream is linked to the first by commenting on how Sam is moving through his everyday life experiences. This is symbolized by “floating in a river”. Sam is floating, cooperating with his life until he “comes down”, illustrating the unknown. Her dream is helping her come to terms with her reaction to impending motherhood.
In both dreams, she loses control. She steps out of her comfort zone.
In the Universal Language of Mind, “clothes” represent how one expresses oneself. I know that Sam is very aware of how his emotions are seen in the outside world, wanting to show a strong and capable attitude. He immediately (and too quickly) began to think that this dream is about the ups and downs caused by hormonal changes during pregnancy. This is certainly applicable, but what happens during Sam’s waking life gives us all a deeper insight into women’s intuition and the power of dream interpretation.
The day after the dreams, Sam runs to the emergency room. She is admitted to the hospital. She is diagnosed with preeclampsia, a pregnancy disorder in which there is high blood pressure and large amounts of protein in the urine or other organ dysfunction.
Immediately, my mind flashes back to Sam’s dreams, giving me an insight I couldn’t see before. Sam’s dreams contained codes about his health! Beneath the fears of pregnancy and frequently experienced hormonal changes, there was another message that you might have seen in hindsight. From my studies, I knew that a dream is most often related to the days just before the dream occurs. I had a vivid example of how dream interpretation includes the larger picture of the dreamer’s waking life.
As a dream consultant, I now want to ask the dreamer about his thoughts and actions in the days leading up to the dream. I want to know if Sam had any signs of health problems before the dream.
“I knew swelling was bad,” Sam confided. “I had pain in my right rib and I saw spots in my vision.” These are all signs of preeclampsia. “I did a 24-hour urine test on Sunday and turned it in to the doctor on Monday.” The camera of him Roller Coaster Dreams on Sunday night, between two o’clock.
The next time I hear from Sam is after she gets out of the hospital. She tells me about a new dream.
ANOTHER roller coaster dream!!
We started by going to a theme park and riding rides all day. We were standing in lines doing theme park stuff. (It was so real that I had the “before riding jitters and sinking feeling”) At one point I noticed the way Zachary (baby’s name) was lying on my belly, and his hand was under his head. He raised his head and yawned. I tried to tell my mom and sister but they ignored me and it made me sad. At the end of the day my mom and sister and I were making a last line to ride and I realized I was supposed to be on bed rest and I shouldn’t be here and I freaked out. I see a sign on the roller coaster that says I shouldn’t ride if I’m pregnant, so I go overboard. I look down and my feet are as swollen as when I entered the hospital. I felt scared, sad and disappointed in myself. Then I woke up. SPECTRUM
The night before I also dreamed of a roller coaster, but when I woke up I really wanted to go to the bathroom and when I went back to bed I completely lost sleep. I just knew it had something to do with roller coasters. It’s very rare that I keep dreaming about them.
This time I start by asking Sam about his thoughts and actions in the days leading up to the dream.
“My actual feelings for the past few days have been up and down,” she says. “I’m trying to stay positive and hoping that everything will stay stable and smooth.
“Sometimes I get scared thinking about what could happen. Preeclampsia can get much worse at any time. Because Zachary will be born a little early, I’m scared the day he’s born. I try to keep thinking positive.
“So I’m up and down.”
The image of a roller coaster is an obvious symbol that we can all recognize.
“I know I’m scared and I’m trying to stay calm,” she volunteers, “but it’s hard. So I may not be calming down as I keep trying to tell myself I am. I’m scared for my baby and me Last night I was nervous before bed because I didn’t feel 100% and I was afraid to go to sleep if it got worse.
“I have been trying to be so strong for everyone around me not to cause them concern, and here I realize that I have to tell you the truth so that we find out what these dreams mean.”
Sam’s warning gave us permission to work on his dreams together. We concluded that his subconscious mind was once again warning her of the seriousness of his condition. The reason we have recurring dreams is because we didn’t listen the first time. The subconscious mind will keep trying to give us its message and the conscious mind has to be ready to receive it.
The surprising thing about this dream is the sign that clarifies: DO NOT DRIVE IF YOU ARE PREGNANT.
Sam told me that her sister represents a stubborn side of herself. This is the aspect of Sam that tries to appear strong so that others don’t worry about his situation. This dream advised Sam to put aside stubborn thoughts of her and take care of herself and her baby first and foremost.
As we worked together, Sam realized that he had been ignoring his spiritual ideals, symbolized in his dream by his swollen feet. “Feet” in the Universal Language of Mind represents spiritual foundation. His swollen feet were in the dream to get his attention. To emphasize this spiritual need, her mother, who represents her superconscious mind, was ignoring her. Sam was ignoring her situation, trying to appear strong and deal with everything internally. It was time to quiet his mind, let her body heal, and let others help.
I explained a concentration routine that involved a simple diaphragmatic breathing technique. After this discussion, she messaged me with this:
“I did some deep breathing tonight. 10 minute meditation like you said. And no more dwelling on the ‘what ifs’ that I have no control over and have to get over this. Getting ready for bed. I plan to focus on my breathing when I’m trying to fall asleep. Hopefully I’m on my way to solving this anxiety and that’s what my body has been trying to tell me to do. Thank you and I love you!”
The women in my Pregnancy Dreamer’s group learned a lot from Sam’s dream experience. They realized that dreams can actually save lives. Sam learned to listen to her inner self and not be too proud to ask for help. She was not alone. Dreams contain important messages from our subconscious mind, the source of our dreams. Listening to them and applying them to waking life supports the progression of the soul.
Sam and the other dreamers in my group continued to dream throughout their pregnancies. His dreams had many of the same themes. Breaking and entering was actually the most common theme during the pregnancy of all. Amusement parks, guns, no one helping and no one listening were common.
Although the dreamers in our group also experienced varied dreams, the number of similar dreams led me to the conclusion that pregnant dreamers have many of the same fears and anxieties that are reflected in the common themes. I now believe that pregnant dreamers have different dreams than other women.
I am grateful that by having this group to share dreams, I was able to get the attention of people who normally would not have paid attention to their dreams. The opportunity helped alleviate some of the women’s misunderstandings, which normally would have caused more fear.
The experiences also lead to many of the group members continuing to share dreams even after giving birth. In turn, I also learned a lot about consulting dreams and how important the dreamer’s input is for interpretation. By incorporating this back-and-forth discussion into my dream interpretation sessions, I will better know how to advise the dreamer to apply their dream to their waking life, which I believe is the ultimate goal of a dream interpretation coach.