Listening to the messages in our dreams stretches
far back in time and some fascinating stories have survived. There
are countless anecdotes of scientists, searching for the answer
to a problem, writers seeking a plot element, composers searching
for the perfect chord, and artists questing for an image, all of
whom received answers in dreams. Albert Einstein claimed to receive
dream guidance when pondering a difficult mathematical equation.
Physicist, Neils Bohr saw the model for the atom in a dream. Author
Robert Louis Stevenson received the idea of The Strange Case of
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde in a dream. Poet William Coleridge wrote
his fragment, Kubla Khan, word-for-word as remembered from a dream.
He was interrupted after fifty-four lines, and the rest was lost
to him forever. This is a potent reminder that dreams are generally
fleeting and therefore need to be captured like illusive butterflies
when we wake.
Edgar Cayce, The Sleeping Prophet
The famous psychic of Virginia Beach, Edgar Cayce, known as the “sleeping
prophet” paid as much attention to his dreams as his psychic
visions. He advised others to heed their dreams and to invest time
learning their language. In one of his trance readings the sleeping
Cayce remarked, “. . . dreams are given for the benefit of
the individual, would (he or she) but interpret them correctly.” (Reading
# 294-15).
Numerous poignant accounts exist of loved ones who paused by a
bedside to say farewell, appearing in a dream at what would later
be revealed as the moment of their death. These nighttime visitations
are generally of great comfort to those losing a loved one, supporting
a belief that life continues beyond physical form. What follows
are a few accounts of some famous dreamers whose stories are moving
accounts of this mechanism.
Tutmosis IV of ancient Egypt
Beneath the paws of the Great Sphinx of Egypt is a stone monument
called the stela of the dream. This relic is dated to the time
of King Tutmosis IV, a New Kingdom Pharaoh, who ruled nearly 2,500
years ago. The stela tells a fascinating story. When Tutmosis was
a young boy the Sphinx was covered to its neck with sand. One day,
in the heat of the desert afternoon, the young prince slept in
the shadow of the huge head and had a riveting dream. The Sphinx
spoke to Tutmosis in his dream saying, “Son, cast your eyes
upon me. Can you see how long I have been neglected? Deliver me
from the sands of ages, and I will crown you king of Upper and
Lower Egypt.”
Compelled by the voice in his dream, the prince awoke and ordered
workers to free the massive statue from |
he tons of sand surrounding its enormous body. As
the voice in the dream had promised, Tutmosis was soon crowned
Pharaoh. He inscribed the stela of the dream and placed the stone
between the leonine paws of the Great Sphinx where it remains today.
Joseph and the coat of many colors
After his brothers sold him into slavery Joseph ended up in Pharaoh’s
jail where he established a reputation for interpreting dreams.
One night Pharaoh dreamed of seven fat cows entering the Nile,
emerging as seven lean cows. Joseph interpreted the dream as a
warning that seven years of plenty would be followed by seven years
of famine, and counseled the king to take heed and fill the larders.
(Genesis 41:17-27) The Pharaoh followed Joseph’s advice,
and the subsequent events have endured as a famous story. Joseph
rose to the important position of advisor to pharaoh and became
perhaps the most famous interpreter of dreams on record.
Apocalypse of Saint John
The book of the Bible known as Revelation, or the Apocalypse of
Saint John, occurred and was transcribed on the Greek island of
Patmos. This vision is usually rendered as a dream. This dream
is perhaps the most often interpreted, or misinterpreted, on record.
Countless scholars have debated the literal or symbolic significance
of John’s haunting and enduring dream images and how these
symbols may apply to ordinary readers of the passage.
Flight into Egypt
Another well-known Joseph, Mary’s husband and the earthly
father of Jesus, received a dream message, warning of danger to
his family. He listened to the angel’s nighttime summons
(Matthew 2:13), fled to Egypt with his family, and saved Jesus
from almost certain death at the hands of Herod’s bloody
executioners.
Abraham Lincoln
President Abraham Lincoln is said to have had a recurring dream
before his presidency that showed him dying in an untimely manner.
Two weeks before his assassination Lincoln dreamed that he entered
the East Room of the White House and found a body laid out in state.
A general told him the president had been assassinated. We can
only speculate what might have happened if Lincoln had been able
to take adequate precautions.
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