Q for Erin: dreams that happen - premonition or intention-manifestation?

[Bitsy]

Hi Erin (hopefully...)

A week or so ago I was reading an article by Steve about a time you and he were going on a trip and you had had a dream that you both got stranded in the desert. Because I have had my head so full of intention-manifestation recently, I initially was thinking you and he were manifesting your dream in your reality. However, I saw that you and he interpreted the situation such that, your dream was a premonition and that you did not simply have a dream that you were then both manifesting.

I would like to know how you know if a dream that you have that then happens is actually a premonition or something that you manifested due to having had the dream?

I am asking out of curiousity, but also because I have had dreams which, at the time, I had no idea they meant anything, but some weeks or months later, I found myself in a situation like the dream - and they were always the worst possible things you could imagine happening in the situation in question. I also learned to feel the difference in the dreams that meant something and the ones that are normal.

Additionally, when I was in my mid-20's, I was in love with a guy who had kept me hanging on, I think now for a reason totally un-love-related, but I didn't know that, and at one point, I wrote a poem about him called "The Curse" and I was certain he would regret letting me go. We lost touch and some years later we got back in touch, he was in a miserable marriage and began calling me drunk a lot at night while spending the night in his garage or his office. That is to say, my poem came true, except in one detail.

I don't know if I intended that for him or if it was an outcome I foresaw. How can I know?

Are you able to interpret or understand someone else's dreams, especially if they are warning about the future or about some situation (if you know something about the situation in the person's life)?

Thanks,
Lucia

[Erin Pavlina]

Hi Lucia,

You've got it right in that you can learn to tell the difference between just a dream and a sending as I like to call it. There is a different feel to the dreams that are sent to you in warning.

Regarding your guy and the curse, it sounds like he was already not too nice and probably manifested an unhealthy marriage as a result. Still, it is wise to be careful with your "word" as it can act as a spell of intention for someone.

[Bitsy]

Thanks Erin. Dreams have always been a big part of my life experience and I don't understand them. I wish I could. And the only dreams that come to happen are awful. No good dream I have had has ever happened.

It would be great if I could write a "blessed" poem about someone who is currently cursed and have that poem come true too...

Lucia

[Lola]

I have premonition type dreams frequently. When it happens, I have no doubt when waking that I was getting a message or warning, but the details are always fuzzy. I rarely know precisely who, or if I know who, I don't know what, or I might know what but not when...etc. I rarely say anything to people about these "warnings" because what am I going to say? "Uh...yeah...like, uh...be careful...something might happen...and, uh...it might be bad." So that's frustrating. (However, I was occasionally known when raising teenagers, to suddenly forbid a particular activity for no apparent reason other than "You should not do this at this time. Trust me." Yeah, right mom )

But besides the premonition wannabe dreams, I have had about half a dozen dreams in my life that were startingly clear, (and terrifying, I might add). The type that have me bolting from bed, in a sweat, heart racing. In these dreams the details were very clear. However, I can't really call them premonitions (do they have a name?) because they were happening in real time. An example, one night in college I woke up at 1am dreaming of my brother's face smashing through glass and sirens and flashing red lights. I felt hurt and scared and was crying when I awoke. When I calmed down, I felt too silly to call anyone at that time so waited until morning. Finally, the next day after unanswered calls to my parents and my brother, my mom calls from the hospital. They were there with my brother who was getting his face and teeth put back together after going through the windshield in an accident the night before at - yep - 1am.

[Bitsy]

Originally Posted by Lola

I have premonition type dreams frequently. When it happens, I have no doubt when waking that I was getting a message or warning, but the details are always fuzzy. I rarely know precisely who, or if I know who, I don't know what, or I might know what but not when...etc. I rarely say anything to people about these "warnings" because what am I going to say? "Uh...yeah...like, uh...be careful...something might happen...and, uh...it might be bad."

Hi Lola,

Thankfully, I have not had many premonition dreams, and with the first 2, I had no idea they were going to materialize in my reality in some form. Now I know when I have one like that, that it means it will materialize in reality in some way. And until last summer, the dreams only were about bad things happening to me (that's how I know they came true). Last summer I had one about someone I love very much and, while even more than one life-altering, horrible thing has happened to him since then, when I think about the specific things that have happened to him, I still can't figure out their connection to the feelings and events in my dream.

Also, thankfully, I have never had a dream like the one you mentioned about your brother. I have enough trouble sleeping nights without such things. However, I have had experiences like that without being asleep and not in the form of a dream, but in the form of sudden worrying about someone. It has frequently happened with the same person I mentioned in the previous paragraph.

I think these are all awful experiences that I have not been able to find any practical use in life for and I don't understand why we/I should see these things. As I mentioned, without all of these things, I'm lucky if I can sleep at night as it is, and it is hard enough to live from one day to the next without being haunted in your sleeping and waking states by true things you can do nothing about.

In one example, on a Friday night last year, 23rd December, 2005 to be precise, I was struck with a worrying feeling about the person I mentioned. I tried to contact him and my worry grew. On Saturday, I called his best friend, who is really really clueless and he told me he hadn't talked to my friend recently but that he was fine eariler. By Saturday night, I was so beside myself with worry, I was hyperventilating and physically ill. I feared some horrible accident had happened to my friend and began thinking he could be dead. In the end, it turned out that he had had a huge fight with his father and had run away from home and no one knew where he was. And for me, I got to spend 4 days in hell not knowing what was going on - very useful.

[Lola]

Originally Posted by Bitsy

However, I have had experiences like that without being asleep and not in the form of a dream, but in the form of sudden worrying about someone.

...I think these are all awful experiences that I have not been able to find any practical use in life for and I don't understand why we/I should see these things.

Yeah, I know what you mean Bitsy. I get this too and was always deeply troubled by not knowing more. I finally learned to accept the information even though I may not know what it is specifically, but just accept it and then pray/meditate for the other person, or determine what the warning is and take appropriate action if it's for me. But I would definitely like to learn how to better interpret what I'm feeling.

Then on the other hand it's not always all bad - I work with a delightful woman, a mom of four kids, who lost her own mom when she (my co-worker) was 21. In a conversation about parenting the other day she made a comment, then said jokingly, "Boy wouldn't mom be proud of me for that!" I was instantly engulfed in a warm, tingly sensation and felt very strongly I should say, "Actually, she's very proud of you." I don't know for a fact it was her mom but it seemed like I should pass it on.