Being pregnant can be a real roller coaster ride. 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” sparked 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 in total.
I was so curious. Would your dreams all be similar? Would they be violent or calm? Would they be about your physical or mental state? What might a pregnant woman’s subconscious be telling you during this life-changing time?
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 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:
Last night I dreamed that I was on a roller coaster and I was not tied down because I did not know it was a roller coaster and it fell down and I held onto my life. I started to get higher and higher just before I hit the bottom of the drop and I was really scared. EOD
DREAM NUMBER 2:
My second dream was that we were floating on the river (in an inner tube) and I had to go down for a shot with the cooler by myself and couldn’t find Tyler (Sam’s husband). Just before we got into the water I couldn’t find a shirt that would fit because my belly was too big. EOD
“I was so scared when I woke up”, Sam’s anguish is real even as a memory from 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 them 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 subconscious and intuitive mind to our conscious and awake mind,” he explained. “The mind uses the Universal Language of the Mind, a language of images, to communicate.”
We discussed symbols and their meanings using Dr. Barbara Condron’s Dictionary of the Dreamer for reference. The Dream Catcher format extends learning beyond Sam, so that 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 it are evident in these two dreams.
Both dreams start with an attitude of fun. However, both dreams are scary.
A roller coaster is a system that repeats itself within a frame much like the neural pathways in your brain. In a dream, a roller coast symbolizes these roads. She tells Sam that she is stuck in a certain way of thinking about her life. She is “not tied down”, reflecting a lack of awareness or not paying attention to what is happening in the present.
moment.
The second dream is related to the first one that comments on how Sam is moving through his everyday life experiences. This is symbolized by “floating on a river”. Sam is floating, cooperating with her life until she “sinks”, illustrating the unknown. The dream is helping her to admit her reaction to impending motherhood.
In both dreams, he 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 viewed in the outside world, wanting to portray a strong and capable attitude. Immediately (and too quickly) I begin to think that this dream is about the ups and downs caused by hormonal changes during pregnancy. This is certainly applicable, however 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 rushes to the emergency room. She is admitted to the hospital. You are diagnosed with pre-eclampsia, a pregnancy disorder in which there is high blood pressure and large amounts of protein in the urine or dysfunction of other organs.
Immediately, my mind remembers Sam’s dreams and an idea occurs to me that I could not see before. Sam’s dreams contained codes about his health! Beyond the pregnancy fears and hormonal changes she frequently experienced, there was another message she might have seen in hindsight. From my studies, I knew that a dream is usually related to the days before it happens. I had a vivid example of how the interpretation of dreams includes the larger panorama of the waking life of the dreamer.
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 the swelling was bad,” Sam confided. “I had pain in my right rib and I saw spots in my vision.” All of these are signs of preeclampsia. “I did a 24-hour urine test on Sunday and gave it to the doctor on Monday.” Their Roller Coaster Dreams arrived Sunday night, between the two of them.
The next time I hear from Sam is after he gets out of the hospital. She tells me about a new dream.
ANOTHER roller coaster dream !!
It 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 nervousness and a sinking gut feeling”) At one point I could notice the way Zachary (baby 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 that made me sad. At the end of the day, my mother, my sister and I are standing in the last row to ride and it occurs to me that I am supposed to be on bed rest and that I shouldn’t be here and it freaks me out. I see a sign on the roller coaster that says I shouldn’t ride if I’m pregnant, so I step out of line. I look down and my feet are just as swollen as when I went to the hospital. I felt scared, sad and disappointed in myself. Then I woke up. EOD
The night before I also dreamed of a roller coaster, but when I woke up I had to go to the bathroom very badly and when I went back to bed I completely lost sleep. I knew it had something to do with roller coasters. It’s really strange that I keep dreaming about them.
This time I start by asking Sam about his thoughts and actions the days before the dream.
“My real feelings for the past few days have been high and low,” she says. “I’m trying to stay positive and hoping that everything stays stable and smooth.
“Sometimes I get scared thinking about what could happen. Preeclampsia can get worse at any moment. Because Zachary will be born a little earlier, I am afraid of the day he will be 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 like I keep trying to tell myself that I am. I’m scared for my baby and I was nervous last night before going to bed because I was not feeling 100% and I am afraid of going to sleep and getting worse.
“I have been trying to be so strong for everyone around me so as not to cause them concern, and here I realize that I have to tell you the truth so that we can find out what these dreams mean.”
Sam’s warning gave us permission to work together on his dreams. We concluded that his subconscious was warning him once again about the seriousness of his condition. The reason we have recurring dreams is because we don’t listen the first time. The subconscious mind will keep trying to give us its message and the conscious mind must be willing to receive it.
The surprising thing about this dream is the sign that clarifies: DO NOT RIDE IF YOU ARE PREGNANT.
Sam told me that her sister represents a stubborn aspect of herself. This is the look of Sam who tries to look strong so that others don’t worry about his situation. This dream advised Sam to put aside her stubborn thoughts 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. The “feet” in the Universal Language of Mind represent the spiritual base. 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 his situation, trying to appear strong and deal with everything internally. It was time to quiet her mind, let her body heal, and let others help her.
I explained a concentration routine that involved a simple diaphragmatic breathing technique. After this discussion, he messaged me with this:
“I took some deep breaths tonight. 10 minutes of 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 try fall asleep. Hopefully I’m on the 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 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 during their pregnancies. His dreams carried many of the same themes. Home invasion was actually the most common theme during 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 leads me to conclude that pregnant dreamers have many of the same fears and anxieties that are reflected in common themes. I now believe that pregnant dreamers have different dreams than other women.
I am thankful that by having this group to share dreams, I was able to draw the attention of people who normally would not have paid attention to their dreams. The opportunity helped alleviate some of the misinterpretations by women, which would normally 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 the dream query and how important the input of the dreamer 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.