This was the first time in years that I have ever tried anything like dream programming. I did try something similar years ago on the advice of a friend to ask for ‘wisdom from the spirit guides’ right before I went to sleep. However, to my knowledge, and my family will attest to this, I never received any wise advice during my sleep. But I did have an experience years later (too long a story to tell here) which I attributed to spirit guides, so I was open to the idea of dreams possibly giving people information.
So, after reading the experience of the poster here I followed his example and asked before I went to sleep, I asked ‘Why do I have pain and what can I do to make the pain stop?’ I also asked, as he did, to please let me wake up after the dream so I could write down what I remembered of it. I left a still-blank journal, 2 flashlights, and several pens on the nightstand to ensure that I would have the necessary writing tools at hand in the unlikely event that I did wake up and was able to journal-- and in the likely event that, should I wake up and start journaling, one flashlight and at least 2 pencils would break on me.
To my amazement, I DID wake up immediately after the dream, as if on command. That’s the part I still can’t get over. It wasn’t like I ‘just woke up’ in the middle of the night, as often happens. It’s as if someone or something woke me up from a dead sleep and reminded me that I had work to do.
That’s not to say that I was fully awake when I started journaling. but
I wrote down what I could remember. My writing was so bad that I can’t read all of it.
HOWEVER, my dream was so disconnected from reality that I can’t believe it relates to anything that’s really going on in my life. Still, I’ll bring up what I wrote down in case anyone has insights—but please, there’s NO need for anyone to force a stretch to try to ‘make’ it work—there will be other nights and other dreams for me.
The background setting of this dream was a desert-like setting and I was a member of a very large American Indian tribe
First, for background’s sake, I’ll mention that I’ve traveled a little bit more than the average American, both throughout the world and the US.. I’ve vacationed out west 5 or 6 times in my life and have had pleasant encounters with modern-day American Indians; however, I have never lived in a desert among Indians in teepees and the like. This dream was more the stuff of a John Wayne movie.
My dream:
I dreamt I was an American Indian girl, about age 10, living with a large tribe in the desert. I was wearing leather clothing, had long black braids and an Indian headband same as everyone else in the tribe. I lived in a teepee with my mother but she was not my real-life mother and had no emotional part in my dream other than ‘being there’ (like a background person in a movie to set the scene. she had no signifcance otherwise. There were other kids around, but my basic playmate—I assumed my best friend-- seemed to be this one particular girl, who in this dream was annoying me by talking too much, too loudly, and playing too rough. We were kids, all rolling around on the ground and laughing, including me. But I was uncomfortable with this. For me was like being tickled—just because I’m laughing doesn’t mean I’m having fun. I wanted to get away from this annoying friend, at least for awhile.
Scene changes: I find myself as per usual outside my teepee walking my pet pink rat on a pink harness leash through the Indian community (who says you don’t dream in color?). . I am totally comfortable, content and at peace as I walk through all the teepees and dozens of Indians as I always am. As per usual none of the Indians speak to me because they are too busy with their own tasks of the day, as am I with the walking of my rat. Yet all of the Indians DO look at me as they pass me by, and the look is always one of acceptance and contentment—even pleasure—as if they’re thinking, “She’s one of us. We’re glad to have her among us.” In fact, I just realized that that was the enormous beauty of this dream. It was knowing that, as I walked my pink rat through this community I lived in, I needn’t fear that anyone would look at me with hostility or dislike because I knew for 100% sure that everyone fully accepted me for who I was and that they were glad that I was part of their community.
Scene changes to a happy, fun one with us whole community of Indians bouncing up and down, about 10’ in the air each time, on a football-field-sized mat of bright fuschia-colored flowers. It was a bright, sunny day.
Scene changes again: And PLEASE, I fully understand the symbolism of this so please DON’T mention it unless you see a unique, direct connection to the rest of my dream because there’s nothing you can tell me that I don’t already know—but in this last scene, I’m sitting in a room and my husband walks in. Suddenly, the feeling of ease and freedom with myself shuts down and the room darkens as I brace for my husband’s criticism and negativity towards me and me alone. The last words I wrote--and I can’t read my own handwriting at this point but there’s something about ‘falling into a hole’ and a ‘plum-colored shoe coming off.’
So regarding the earlier parts dream about the Indian tribe and so forth. Perhaps it does tell me something about how I wish my community could be. Then again, perhaps it tells me something about myself, about how I MYSELF am not viewing members of my community fairly--after all, who am I to assume that people won’t accept me just because a walk a pink rat every day ?
But does anything in this dream help tell me why I have my pain and how to get rid of it? Or was it just a random, odd dream? Thank you for any insights anyone might have. Sorry for the length of it.
TO STEVE OZANICH, IF YOU READ THIS: I’ve only just read your book this past 2 months, and I thank you deeply for changing my life. But there’s something I need to know that I don’t understand and I don’t know how/where else to ask you:
QUESTION FOR STEVE: Why did you have your wife beat your legs until you cried? How could that possibly make TMS pain go away? Wouldn’t it instead just create injury and make the pain worse?
Thank you for listening.
