Dream Interpretation Guide-- Part 2 (Body Communication)

[tranquilityseekers]

Most of us think of our bodies as mutely running machines. We think of our physical self as a vehicle that we reside in-- often as an extention of our "selves." Even if we think of our body as dynamic and vital and alive, we don't think it can "speak" and certainly we don't think of it as a community that speaks to itself-- yet this is just what my deep dreaming techniques have revealed.

When I began my Dream Quest over a year ago, I was given some instruction by Nahili, the Shawnee medicine woman I worked with for a time in Ohio back country. Though modern western peoples are starting to "get" that many dreams have meaning-- we don't always apply this knowledge properly. Some conversations with Nahili opened my mind to the concept that dreams reveal the internal workings of our bodies to our conscious minds, and can even tell us things and be told things this way-- something that is common knowledge to shamanic cultures everywhere.

And so I started to dutifully record dreams that I realized were indeed about my body-- part of my body or even entire systems like the digestive system or the nervous system or the endoctrine (hormonal) system. Here is one example of what I mean-- my first recognizable immune system dream:
 

I was watching (and then one of) a group of young men who all stayed at a sort of resort/rehabilitation type facility. They worked on personal health issues and gave each other support. I watched them discuss, in a very New Agey way, all sorts of things like they were in some kind of seminar or cult or something. They were all feeling very optimistic and gung ho about improvements. They were all very lovey-dovey, very alike, and made me think of gay guys because they were so... tough and yet fragile? The headquarters where they lived were at the top of a hill in the middle of a wilderness park of some kind.

In the last scene, they donned all these organic-looking costumes, all different colors, like amoebas and flowers. They were going out doing something they all did very regularly-- jogging around this "park" on designated paths. Anyway, I followed 2 of them down a path that went further than most, even though that meant they'd have further to go to return to rest, and things were going great for quite a ways-- and then, there in the middle of the next path-- ROCKS started coming out of no-where and being pitched at the 2 joggers in costumes! At first, they thought it was directed at them by some horrible god-like force, but then it became a rock-slide, and they realized that something was wrong in the park. They turned back to report to headquarters. They were also scared.

I woke up from this and realized that it was a Health-related dream. The gay cult guys were representing, I believe, my immune system (it's fucked up, but has been rallying for the last few years until very recently.) The top of the hill would be the brain, and the cabins where they slept lower down were the lymph nodes, I bet! Then, POW! they start getting stopped by some terrible thing that hurts them and comes out of nowhere, ruining their mission of jogging along and keeping the park safe and fun. Lying awake, I thought of how the rocks were coming down and across a jogging trail and asked my body if this was about a blood clot or disease of some kind. NO response... Then, I remembered how the rocks seemed so hostile and horrible and asked my body if the rocks represented this rage I've been talking about.

Well! I felt "the shiver" go through my body and give me goose-bumps. I knew that meant, "Yes." (Ever since I was a kid, my intuition communicates with me through getting that sudden, powerful, goosebumps and shiver feeling when I'm not cold. But only for a positive response. If it's "no" or "don't know" I will feel no effect. Only a significant "THAT'S IT!" will elicit The Shiver.) A-HA! So... the rage issues are a part of what is fucking up my health. They seem to start an avalanche of negative consequences for my poor New-Agey guys going out to keep my body working right. As an aside, it was interesting how my dream showed me things from my immune-system's perspective-- psychological chemicals that cause damage are like watching nature become possessed by a malevolent demon or trickster of some kind! My immuno guys are like "what the hell?" and it's like I'm THEIR God. Weirdness.

So... good to know. I have to discover ways to combat what the rage does to my body. Also, my last remission came about when I gave up on my mother, and just let go of giving a damn. In the last few months, my anger at her has returned-- and I've been relapsing. There is a connection there. I'm not saying that I make myself sick or anything, but I do have fragile health and evidently certain things will fuck it up.

There's a neatness to the symbolism here. Immune system dreams have a signature I've learned to recognize, in that they involve groups of people (who are discernably different than you: gay, foreign, cultists, whatever) yet who are on your side working with you and for you. I call the symbolism "the friendly foreigner immunity groups."  By contrast, hostile groups of people who are actively attacking you along with friendly types in a dream are expressions of invasion and represent germs and infections. For example, just before getting the flu a couple of years ago I had 2 or 3 dreams of raids and wars before I felt any symptoms at all-- sure enough, I got slammed with the worst flu I've had since I was 13 years old! Problems interfering with the proper functioning of the immune system can get revealed this way as well, as the above dream example demonstrates.

Another bodily system I evidently have major issues with is my digestive system. It appears to work just fine but for a bit of IBS (Irritible Bowel Syndrome.) However! My dreams have revealed that there is a major problem-- in fact, that my immune system problems seem to be stemming FROM my digestive system!? Witness this dream in which I which I was led to the entrance to a "spiraling mine shaft"  (and what do intestines look like?):

We assessed the situation as to the best way through the tunnels, we all sat around and talked about various and sundry, then-- suddenly, one guy, by the opening area into the deep, dark part of the tunnels called out to the rest of us, saying he found someone. He gagged a little and said that he found some guy down in the depths of the abandoned mine tunnels who should have been a corpse a long time a go, but he wasn't-- it was some sort of survivor who got left down there. Of course, I came for a look as did others-- and there was indeed a weird person, all broken and crabbed up with oozing sores and all twisted and freaky. I barely looked at him and I got sick and puked (right into the convenient mine shaft-- it seemed prudent.)  The twisty near-zombie guy was a threat immediately to everyone, and we all reacted with low level horror and great disgust. The guy was very aware of who he was and what he was doing to us, though, and he apologized as he crawled out from the tunnels -- attracted to our signs of life and light. He said he was sorry he made us all so sick, he had been trapped in the tunnels since he started work for "his master" at the age of 13. 

I ran away from him-- I didn't want contact with him, he was so gross! Then I noticed something happening-- little machines like robots attached to the tunnel walls sprang to life when he appeared, took a 'sample' from the sick-making crawly guy with swabs and tissues, and analyzed the samples. Suddenly, all these little flying machine-robots were being called to alert, and they came out to clean him up. They used bits of cheese as bait to try to catch him (since he was starving) and in the process, got in the way and even mistook me, briefly, for Mr. Ick from Below! Which was annoying as get out. It was funny, if machines could be said to have personalities, then the analyzing things attached to the walls were like fussy, neat-nik ladies in maid's or nurse's uniforms-- I saw hints of this in the dream. The air robots that tried to bait and tackle the guy were less "aware" and more mindlessly automatic.

I can analyze that last part easy-- that was my Immune System! Analyzing biological threats very efficiently and then trying to entice and catch the guy who was effecting my health-- . They were perfectly quiet until a threat loomed and then sprang to action. Like fussy maids and nurses and robots, they represented my antibodies and antibody makers. Makes perfect sense! The trying to catch the guy with cheese was like a whole trap thing of the more mindless white blood cells maybe (since they just gobble anything up that's not supposed to be there.)

Meanwhile, the near-corpse who should have DIED long ago but did not? He gave me a HUGE clue-- he said he started work in the tunnels when he was 13! That's when I got MONO and CFIDS/REDD!  So... he's a part of me that should have died but didn't? 

What I'm confused about is whether the guy who popped up and made me sick-- is he an actual illness? An aspect of my immune system? Or a psychological Shadow Aspect that effects my behavior regarding illness? He DID trip my immune system.... that much was aptly demonstrated. But is he a misunderstood and misjudged part of me that is being unfairly maligned, or an actual BAD guy who needs to be stopped? 

One thing was certain, the rest of the expedition people, as well as my own self in the dream, were very much wishing the near-dead guy WAS dead. We did NOT have pity for him, but rather disgust and some fear. I didn't want to look at him and actually RAN AWAY.  This guy I'll call "Mr. Ick" was smart and able to communicate-- and he said he went to work for his master when I was 13, and the master must be me. Like I sent him down into the tunnels to do something, and nearly killed him, but he didn't die, he just turned into this disgusting, unhealthy thing. He was as old as me, so he MUST be a part of ME. But he causes illness, both spiritually and biologically. He causes REAL problems..... Could he represent a part of my immune system (he had a JOB that STARTED when I got sick) that got massively fucked up and is now causing illness? That seems to be a part of the whole CFIDS methodology-- so that makes sense, actually. He's not so much a psychological Shadow as an representative of a part of me that used to work FOR me and now works AGAINST me. Not because he wants to. He's been physically CHANGED-- he was all crippled and looked more like a crab than a person (crabs could represent cancer-- so yeah! a part of my own body that's turned against me like cancer does!) 

Notice, too, that when Mr. Ick showed up and my Immune System took samples of him, they got "confused" and the little robots were harassing ME and not just him!  Like they couldn't tell who the bad guy was! And I didn't know how to tell them what was up and who was who. Again, makes sense. And-- side note, I hope that this does not indicate any actual cancer! Blah! He's been a damaged part of me since I was 13-- hope that didn't lead to something like cancer. Crappy way to go... I don't think so, as there was only ONE of him, and cancer's all about MANY multiplying out of control and that wasn't going on at all. And he's been making me sick for a long time, so any damage he's doing he's been doing for a long time. Okay-- old illness that's been there a long time.

I wasn't sure at the time I had this dream what the mine shaft and tunnels represented, but later I had a second dream that brought the point home pretty forcefully. I went down into the tunnels of a subway system and road the train there, learning about problems with bad transporation issues and energy shortages.

It appears that in my case, much of my ill-health stems from malabsorption and inefficient delivery of nutrients and energy to where it's needed. Interestingly, as I began to follow the advice on what to do (like more fiber to help speed things along and extra vitamin and mineral supplements, and MOST especially taking yogurt like "Activa" and other helpful bacterial cultures) my digestive issues, immunity issues, and lack-of-energy issues improved dramatically. And all from just figuring out my own body-symbolism in dreams and trying to communicate with my own body (and those helpful Guides-- which are like your own personal Guardian Angels!) 

Other people I've counseled on dreams include an elderly friend who had breast cancer and another who had a stroke. Their dreams very vividly illustrated how their bodies were attempting to deal with the massive damage and changes of not only the initial disease or attack, but of the sometimes harsh medical treatments that came later. For example, the treatments for cancer can be quite brutal, and I talked extensively to my friend "Pat" -- and she was able to talk to her body in dreams and explain why she was poisoning it! (It protested vehemently, as you can imagine!) After she was able to explain that it was to kill the "Crazy Kids" (in her dreams, the cancer invasion was a bunch of hungry, crazy rock n' roll teenagers-- hey, she's in her 70s!) After that, the side effects from her cancer treatment went way down and her doctors were amazed. 

This dream work stuff can be really powerful.