Interpreting dreams can be a very complicated process, for every answer there is just one more question. Why do certain dreams come through showing an actual event, while others come through in symbols, while others come through as complete gibberish that never make sense? Is there a reason for the timing of the dreams? While some occur almost to the day a year later for me, others occur within a few days and yet others seem to occur at random times with no set reasoning. At times it seems dreams might be more nonsense than sense...until one comes true...

Premonition: anticipation of an event without conscious reason

My first dream premonition actually occurred several years ago and while it was amazing to me I thought it was just a fluke...

The dream: One of my sisters who was attending college was walking through a dark parking lot alone. She stops suddenly, sees a white car, year 1970's, somewhat rusted. Then I appear standing closer to the car than she was-- I feel something dreadful, I feel danger. I turn and tell my sister to run.

What really happened: It was exam time at her college and she had been working into the early morning hours. I was worried after having the dream and tried calling but was not able to reach her. At the same time I had this dream she had the EXACT dream with the exception of me being in the dream. (She has had many psychic dreams herself since then.) The same dark parking lot, the same white car, the same feeling of danger. One night, after she'd had this dream but long forgotten it (her head filled instead with thoughts of overwhelming school work) she decided to take a shortcut because it was so late. She deviated from her normal route and before she knew it came to a halt--there was the dark parking lot she saw in her dream, with the 1970's rusted white car sitting in the lot by itself! She remembered her dream and turned and ran as fast as she could. Months later she and I are watching the local news and what appears? A story of a terrible criminal that had been caught near her campus. What news footage did they show? A 1970's, white rusted car alone in a dark parking lot located very near the campus. The news footage they showed was EXACTLY what appeared in both our dreams.

This dream premonition was literal and there are no symbols to interpret. Whereas this next dream did have a symbol.

The dream: I dream a long lost friend of our family. No one had heard from her in years. I see a birthmark, then I see her in a hospital bed--she is very ill--there is something wrong with her liver. She will need a transplant, but then all of a sudden her liver recovers and she is fine.

What really happened: The friend was pregnant and had to be rushed to the emergency room to deliver the baby. She had suddenly developed an allergic reaction to her own baby. She became very ill and the allergic reaction nearly destroyed her liver. The doctors told her she would need a liver transplant, but then suddenly her liver began to recover. She would be ok. Within days of my dream we hear from her family with this news.

This dream is both literal and symbolic. The birthmark symbolized both the fact that she was pregnant and the fact that she was to give birth.

This next dream shows something I find very interesting. Often times we will forget our dreams or dismiss them. I believe that in order to get us to listen to them there may be "trigger objects" or "trigger phrases" included in them with the purpose of bringing a dream back to us. A dream may have been forgotten and then all of a sudden you see an object or hear something that makes you remember it. I believe these are deliberate and occur in dreams for that purpose.

The dream: The phone rings, my sister answers it. It is her husband's family, his father has passed suddenly. My sister is filled with extreme guilt, I feel the guilt, it is so heavy it is enough to crush you. I ask her why she kept her husband from going home, I tell her she should have let him go whenever he wanted. "I know", she says as she's sobbing. Her husband is so angry and says "I could have carried him, this could have saved him", I hear him repeat the words "I could have carried him" over and over in the dream--these words are larger than life.

What really happened: My sister had been getting annoyed with her husband for going home so often to visit his parents. Even before I had the dream I told her she was being too hard on him, his father was not well and she should let him go when he feels he needs to, even if it is often. She listens to a point, but then begins to get angry again. We are all sitting at the dinner table and her husband begins telling us stories about his sick father, how he has been revived several times, how they're trained to administer an injection into his heart if ever it stops, and then he says..."The last time the ambulance came no one could carry him"...he sits up proudly and says "I carried him". No one else can lift him and he won't fit on a stretcher. He says when his father gets sick it's his job to carry him out and his sister's to give the injection.

This dream is a warning, a premonition of what might happen if...The fact that "I could have carried him" kept repeating in my dream made it the most important part of the dream. I had brushed the dream aside initially rationalizing that I just felt she was being too hard on him anyway and that's why I dreamt it...until I heard him say those words. When he spoke them it was as if he screamed them. I heard nothing else; the rest of his words became a murmur in the background as the dream flashed back to me. I told my sister of the dream and how I heard those words. She has left him alone to go home when he pleases.

The next type of dreams are the most powerful--dreams that repeat. I believe a dream that you have repeatedly is more than a warning that something might happen, it is a warning that something will happen. I have only had two of these types of dreams in my life.

The dream: I see my office building, it's completely empty. There are no computers, no desks, no chairs. The walls are a very stark white. I walk through the building feeling very unsettled, with each corner I turn I am afraid of what I will see on the other side. I feel very cold as I walk through the barren office. The frequency of this dream began to increase, first it occurred once every few weeks, then once every few nights, and finally once every night. The dream was urgently trying to tell me something--and the timing of whatever event was to occur was getting closer and closer since the dream began repeating with greater urgency.

This next dream I can hardly write, because I in no way would ever have believed it to come true. There were a few dreams of concern that led up to this one. The first was of a very old women in a wedding dress. She was very ugly and scary; the dream frightened me very much--I interpreted it to be a bad omen. The second dream both my sister and I had about a year ago. In my dream I saw a kitchen towel left near a hot burner on the stovetop. The towel was about to catch fire. Being that my sister had a similar dream, we searched the house for anything that might be a fire hazard (in case it was a literal dream) but came up with nothing...we wracked our brains...what was about to catch fire?

The dream: I am walking down a street near our home. The street reminds me of our childhood. I have very strong feelings tied to it about our lives. I am talking to my sister, I feel heavy sorrow. I say heavy sorrow, but again it is too extreme to even describe. We are both very upset. I feel like I miss my mom, so, so much. My sister and I just keep saying we can't believe what's happened, how could this be. I have this dream repeatedly for weeks.

So now we know what was about to catch fire a year ago. Why was it my mom in my dream and not my dad? Because had it been my dad I would have disregarded the dream as gibberish since it's not believable to me. He is the picture of health. Because it was my mom in my dream, I took the dream seriously and introduced some very powerful foods that some studies show not only help prevent cancer but actually inhibit tumor growth.

You should never ignore a dream that repeats itself. This in itself, is a powerful message. Pay very close attention to dreams of this nature.

Confused by this next dream, I wondered for weeks what it might mean. It is amazing after the fact how the dreams make sense and everything falls into place.

The dream: I'm in a wonderful place; it's peaceful. The lighting is soft and warm; the grass is very green and all of the colors are amazingly vibrant. I see a pond, and in the reflection of the pond is a women who I cannot see clearly. I only see her reflection in the wrinkles of the pond water. She introduces herself as a co-worker's mother. Her voice is very soft and sweet. I feel peacefulness around her. After she tells me she is the co-worker's mother, I continue to hear her soft voice but lose all comprehension of what she is saying.

What really happened: I awoke from this dream wanting to go back into it. Words cannot describe what a beautiful place it was. There is no place here on earth that I could even begin to compare it to. I knew there was something special about my co-worker's mother, but couldn't figure out what or why I would have this dream. A few weeks after I had the dream my co-worker happened to mention to me that his mother had passed away in the 1970's in a car accident when he was just a boy.

This next dream was unusual because the main premonition was a thought I woke up with. It did not occur in the actual dream. Although the dream did contain information on what else would happen.

The dream: I am talking to this women who has long, very straight, shiny, dark, black hair. She feels terrible about something she's done, almost guilty. I feel like I have to tell her something. I feel nervous about it and am dreading it but feel I absolutely have to tell her. I have no choice. The women also has characteristics that I associate with my mother.

What really happened: I awoke from this dream with this thought in my head "What would you do if a cat were hit by a car right in front of you?" I was completely confused by this thought and dismissed it. I assumed I was thinking it because my own cat has been missing for months and my biggest fear is that she was hit by a car and killed (although I've dreampt repeatedly she's alive and well). A few hours after I had the dream my mother asked me if I'd go to the store with her. Upon returning from the trip we pull into the driveway; my mother opens her car door first and I hear her scream. Just then the thought pops in my head again "What would you do if a cat were hit by a car right in front of you?" Horrified I turn towards the road after hearing a loud thump. I see a beautiful, orange tabby cat come stumbling from underneath the car that's just hit her. We all run to help her. She's not wearing a collar so I run to the neighbor's house to see if they know who the owners are. But after returning to the cat only a few seconds later find that she's already died. The man that hit her had long shiny, dark, black, straight hair. He was very distraught and upset by what happened being that he's a cat owner himself (sensitive characteristics that I most likely associate with a women). Seeing that the cat has no collar he decides to take her and bury her. I was very upset by what I'd just seen but just as upset that the owner's of the cat would never know what happened to her. Being that I know how terrible it feels to lose a cat and always wonder about them, I decide I have to find the owners of this cat. I go door to door until someone finally points me in the right direction. I walk up the driveway of the house still stunned by what's happened. I'm dreading telling them and feel very nervous about it but feel I absolutely have to tell them. I have no choice. If I can prevent someone else from feeling what I've been feeling, at least something good could come of this. I hesitate for a minute and turn around to walk away, but finally walk to the door. I deliver the dreadful news.

I still wonder what the point of this premonition was. Even if I had not dismissed the thought, and really thought through what I would do, the cat still would have died. She only lived for a minute or two. There's nothing I could have done to save her in that short time. This leads me to believe this was a warning to listen to the dreams, record them, not dismiss them and not try to make excuses of reasons I might have dreampt them. I often will justify a dream premonition by thinking I had it because this happened or that or maybe I heard something. But this dream promonition proved one point--there was nothing I could have heard, nothing that could have happened, nothing that could have in any way influenced this dream premonition. It was a completely random accident and a genuine premonition of it.

Learning to interpret your own dreams can sometimes seem overwhelming. Writing them down may help you organize your thoughts. I now keep a dream journal and just as I become tired of writing in it, another dream will come true. Usually a simple dream with a very simple premonition--almost as if to remind me that I should be recording them. After going back through and reading my dreams it is amazing to me how many have come true. It is sometimes difficult to record the dreams because there are so many details. But I have learned that every detail, although it may seem small and make no sense at the time it is recorded, is very important to interpreting the dream. Each detail is a piece to a very complicated puzzle that you must have in order to solve it.