Dream Communication: A Call from a Past Girlfriend

Knoxville, TN, as seen from the top edge of Neyland Stadium (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

             A couple of recent guest posts (here and here) by Stephen T McCarthy of Ferret-Faced Fascist Friends gave me a dream memory jog that took me back to one of my own possible dream communication experiences.  Perhaps not quite as dramatic as the experiences recounted by Stephen, my dream is curious to me nonetheless and left me strongly wondering about it for a few weeks after having the dream and even to this day I wonder.  

The Dream about a Past Girlfriend

          This occurred probably about five years ago or more.  I recall that I was still employed at the time so the time frame would be correct.  The dream itself I don't even remember much about, but the impact of that dream had a big effect upon me.

           In the dream I believe I was at some event like a picnic or something that was occurring outdoors where people were eating.   Faye, a woman with whom I had gone to high school and college was at this event.  The dream presence of this woman was very powerful and I felt like there was a very strong psychic connection between us even though I had not seen or thought of her in many years.  In the dream setting we were having a conversation, but I don't remember what we were talking about.

          When I awoke I felt as though I had actually communicated in some way with Faye.  The last time I had spoken to Faye would have been nearly thirty years previous to having the dream.  She was living in Tennessee at that time and I presumed that she may still be living there.  But after having the dream I sensed that she was somewhere near to where I was living in the Los Angeles area.

           I felt compelled to find Faye because I was convinced that she was thinking of me and trying to find me.  I began searching for her on the internet.  I made phone calls to old friends to see if anyone knew what had happened to her. 

           My search turned out to be in vain and I eventually stopped looking so intently.  Now and then I would check the internet to see if her name showed up anywhere.  I figured she was probably married now and no longer used her maiden name.  The intensity of my interest in contacting Faye waned, though now and then I do wonder about her and that dream.

Who Is Faye?

          In reality Faye was never an actual girlfriend of mine.  She was a year behind me in high school--in the same grade as my younger sister.  My sister and Faye were somewhat friends, but not particularly close.  I was in a few clubs with Faye so we did know each other.

          Later, when I was in college, I discovered that Faye was living in an apartment near campus.  She had also began attending the college where I was.  One of my friends had been hanging out with her and we started going over to her apartment to visit.  I was very interested in getting closer to her, but I didn't think she was interested in me so no relationship ever developed.

         After I stopped attending the university I lost contact with Faye.  Then about five years later I somehow got her phone number--possibly from my sister.  Faye was now teaching ballroom dancing at an Arthur Murray studio in Knoxville.  This seemed rather odd to me since Faye always seemed so quiet and shy.  The years must have changed her.  I called her and we had a brief phone conversation.   We said that we would have to make arrangements to meet up sometime, but we never did and soon after that I left East Tennessee for many years.  I never thought much about Faye after that.

A Surprising Revelation

        Several years later my sister and I were talking about old times and people we had known and Faye's name popped up in the conversation.  My sister told me that in high school Faye had a big crush on me.  I chastised her for not having told me then as I would have liked to have known that.  I realized that Faye could really have been my girlfriend if I had only taken action in that direction.

          Still another several years went by and I had the dream.   Suddenly Faye was back on my mind but in a different way.  I felt like she was communicating with me for some reason.   I had been happily married for a number of years at the time of the dream.   Why that dream at that time I don't know.  There seemed to be an urgency to the dream but it was never addressed as my inquiries to locate Faye were unsuccessful.

         A year or two ago my sister told me that she had made contact with Faye and had her phone number. She said that Faye was now married and she didn't know that much else about her.  Apparently my sister didn't pursue any further encounters with Faye.

          Now with Faye's phone number in hand, I could contact her to see if she remembered having had any strange dream experiences involving me.  Instead I chose not to.   Since I was married and she was married I didn't want to become involved in any awkward circumstances.  

           Perhaps someday we'll run into one another and the topic can be brought up.  The sense of connection was so powerful in the dream I feel like it could have been a situation of dream communication.  Then again it might just be dreamer's nonsense.   I may never know, but I'm still a bit curious.

           Have you had a powerful sense about a dream that made you seek out old friends?   To what would you most likely attribute dreams that seem like communications?     Do you think it best that I did not contact Faye?

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What Does a Dream Smell Like?

Jan Brueghel (I) - The Sense of Smell - WGA3581 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The Influence of Scent on Sleep and Dreams   

        Thanksgiving and the holiday seasons are times that we associate with many odors and aromas.  The smells of savory meals, tantalizing goodies, and Christmas trees will be bombarding our senses and bringing back old memories.  There's something particularly evocative about many smells and the holiday seasons are rich in these prompts to the subconscious.

            This seems like an appropriate time for a topic that came to me after a recent dream that I had.  An aspect of this dream made me wonder about the connection between the sense of smell and the dreaming experience.   Do smells affect our dreams or does the dream cause our minds to conjure an illusion of smell within that dream?   Or could it be a case of either one of these things occurring depending on the circumstance and the dream?

            As is the case with other types of external stimulation, smell must undoubtedly influence what we are dreaming.   If food aromas are present we are likely to dream about food and start feeling pangs of hunger.  If we were to smell smoke we might dream about fire and in some cases be awakened to actual fire--the dream could act as a warning to wake up.  The external stimuli could be cooking smells, perfumes or scented candles and the like, or even bodily emissions from ourselves or our sleeping partners.

            Studies have shown that aromatherapy can have an influence on better sleep and more pleasant dreams.  Likewise, sleepers exposed to unpleasant odors will often report unpleasant dreams.  Various oils are on the market to produce more restful sleep with more vivid dreams.

My Dream Case Study

         In a recent dream I am going through many strange places with my "children"  (or they may be grandchildren or not even really children that I know at all).   Some of these places are very dark and spooky.   I enter into certain places that have a musty putrid smell that I relate to evil-- the smell is accompanied by a warmth.    These are cavernous places with deep canyon-like recessions that disappear into darkness.  I am afraid I or my "children" will fall into one of the "canyons" --they appear to be dark, jagged, and dangerous, but I sense that they could be soft like blankets.

       .   Many people make appearances in and out of the dream corridors.  I seem to be at a fair or amusement park or some very public event.  I see people leaving and I am trying to join them.  Sometimes I find myself on the streets leaving.   The place seems all very unfamiliar though I sense that I know it or recognize it.

          My former boss is there at one point.  I am giving him some paperwork from my office, including sheets that appear to be some sort of inventory report related to a very large order of mostly older or discontinued items  for an Asian customer.

           My dream thoughts keep returning to the smell I sensed in the dark cavernous places.   I continue to think about the nature and the origin of this odor after I wake up.

Where Did the Smell Come From?

           I am not aware of any odor within the bedroom that would relate to what I sensed in the dream.  There is a possibility that the "smell" is merely a illusion based on certain expectations of the dream place.  My mind has probably manufactured the smell which in reality did not exist.  Still I am puzzled since the smell was so distinct and real that I wonder if the had really come from somewhere in the room or had entered the room from outside.

           Have you experienced smells in dreams?  If so what was the experience and to what would you relate the source?   Are you able to imagine smells so vividly that your olfactory senses are actually stimulated?   

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CAN WE COMMUNICATE WITH OTHER SOULS WHILE WE DREAM? -- Claire’s Connection

           In this post Stephen T McCarthy continues with his explorations of dream communication between souls.  See the previous post for the beginning of the series.

CLAIRE’S CONNECTION

DREAM: MARCH 9, 1997

On Monday night or early Tuesday morning (March 3^rd or 4^th ), I had a dream in which I saw Claire H., from the Tuesday night ‘A Search For God’ study group at the church. In the dream, she said to me, “I’m making a connection with you” or “I’m making contact with you”, or words to that effect. She also said, “I’m too hard for you”, and I replied with something like, “You could gain a little weight and become softer.” She balked at that suggestion.

"A Search For God" Textbook

The dream was so vivid, and left such a strong impression on me that I couldn’t get it out of my mind, and I reflected on it over and over again during the course of the day. Although my attendance at the Tuesday night ‘A Search For God’ group meetings had been sporadic at best over the last couple months, I decided that I would go to the meeting that evening in hope that Claire would be there; I wanted to approach her during the break and ask if she had recently had a dream about me, or had been recently thinking of me for any reason.

I got to the church a little late on Tuesday night, so when I walked in the door, all eyes immediately turned to me. I had barely taken a couple of steps into the room, and hadn’t even reached a chair yet when Claire said, “Stephen! Stephen! I’ve got to talk to you! I was hoping you’d show up tonight.”

The Church

I later learned that during Claire’s meditation session at 9:30 or 10:00 A.M. that morning, she had been unable to meditate very well because the image of my face kept reappearing to her for some unknown reason. She doggedly attempted to meditate but repeatedly saw my image until she finally gave up. Then she told me that she kept thinking of me during the day and was hoping I’d come to that night’s meeting because she had been missing my participation in the Tuesday night group lately.

I told Claire about my dream that night/morning and we were both surprised by the sudden and insistent thoughts we’d had of each other. Neither of us understood the references to “hardness” and “weight”. 

Interestingly, Claire had a dream about me approximately 7 or 8 months earlier in which she drove up to a house and parked her car. She tried walking up the path to the house but because of deep snow, and the fact that she was bundled up in some ridiculously oversized snowsuit, she was unable to make it up the walk. Just then, I came out of the house, walked down to her, took her by the arm and helped her up the pathway to the house.

Claire and I seem to have some sort of mutual goal or some sort of spiritual connection.

        Do you think this dream experience signifies some sort of deeper connection besides the acquaintance within the study group?   Have you had a dream communication of this type that you'd like to relate?

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CAN WE COMMUNICATE WITH OTHER SOULS WHILE WE DREAM? - Grandpa’s Guitar

        Again I am pleased and honored to welcome blogger par excellence Stephen T McCarthy whose wonderful writing can be found at Ferret-Faced Fascist Friends and Stuffs.  Over the the span of two posts Stephen will be offering a couple of dreams that suggest the possibilities of dream communication with others.

GRANDPA’S GUITAR

My maternal Grandpa, Floyd “Bulldog” Schulz, passed away in November, 1989. Some years later, my Grandma began throwing away and giving away (to non-family people) a number of his belongings that held special meaning to many of us. It wasn’t malicious at all, but she was at an advanced age and just wasn’t always thinking clearly.

My Grandfather

 DREAM:  SEPTEMBER 28, 1995

I was amidst a large group of people whom I believed to be movie “Extras”. We were waiting to be called to the set and gathered together in a large building with pews, like a church. At the other end of the pew in which I sat, was my Ma, and in the pew behind me were a few (fictional) friends.

I had the old Sears Silvertone electric guitar that my Grandfather had given to me years ago, and I passed it back for my friends to examine. Sitting beside one of these imaginary friends of mine, I saw the ghost of my Grandpa (for in the dream, I was aware that he was actually dead).

The ghost of my Grandpa did not appear like a specter, but seemed to be fully physically present and I was shocked by his presence and yet comforted to know that he was still around.

As I passed the guitar back, one of my friends almost lost his grip on it. I instinctively reached out to catch it if it fell, and my Grandfather did the same simultaneously. But my friend secured the guitar in his hands and began looking it over with interest.

My Grandpa then crossed one leg over the other and was gently and slowly kicking the upper leg back and forth as he used to do when he was content or self-satisfied. But I was the only person capable of seeing him. Later in the dream, I told my Ma that Grandpa had been present because I was sure she’d be delighted to know that.

INTERPRETATION:

I believe this was not so much a dream as it was an actual communication from my deceased Grandpa. The guitar was real and he gave it to me when I was 13 or 14 years old. I was taking guitar lessons at the time, and I used the old Sears Silvertone electric guitar until I lost interest in the lessons. The guitar just collected dust thereafter, but my Grandfather often made mention of it.

In 1978 or ’79, while working on the ‘JAMES AT 15’ television series, I was asked to bring the guitar with me to be used as a prop for a prom scene in the TV show (however, I don’t believe it was ever actually utilized on the episode we were filming).

The Pop/Rock duo England Dan & John Ford Coley (who had a number of hit songs in the ‘70s, including ‘I’d Really Love To See You Tonight’ and the excellent Todd Rundgren-penned spiritual ‘Love Is The Answer’) portrayed the band hired by the high school for its senior prom.

While on the set, working on that ‘James At 15’ episode, one of the two musicians, either England Dan or John Ford Coley (I didn’t know one from the other) saw my Sears Silvertone guitar and offered to buy it from me. I declined to sell it because I still considered it my Grandfather’s guitar.

When I moved to Phoenix from Los Angeles in May of 1995, I left the guitar in my Grandma’s basement. My Mom was anxious to get the guitar back for fear that my Grandma might sell it, give it away, or throw it away. While back in L.A. on September 9 for my Cousin’s wedding (19 days before having the dream described above), I retrieved the guitar from the basement and took it to my parents’ home.

I believe the dream – which referenced the actual history of the guitar having once been present on a Hollywood television set – was my Grandpa’s way of using me to get a message to my Ma that he was very pleased by her decision to get the guitar back into “secure hands”.

Three bits of evidence lead me to believe pretty strongly that this was not just a dream, but a genuine communication from a soul on “the other side”: 1) The dream was extremely vivid; 2) the dream occurred such a short time after I had actually “saved” my Grandpa’s guitar at my Mother’s urging; and 3) the way my Grandpa expressed his satisfaction with the situation by crossing one leg over the other, placing a hand on the top kneecap, and then gently, slowly, kicking the uppermost leg forward and backward.

Later, in real life, when I read the description of this dream to my Ma, she said that she didn’t know what I meant by my Grandpa’s “satisfied leg kick”; so I demonstrated it for her, and the moment she saw it, it all came back to her and she clearly remembered that he DID have a habit of doing that when he felt “all is well”.

And the truth is that if I had not seen my Grandfather do that in the dream, I myself would NEVER have consciously remembered that little idiosyncrasy of his. The forgotten “satisfied leg kick” was the major piece of evidence that convinced me I had really been in communication with my Grandpa while I was in the dream state and he was in the “Heavenly” state.

           What do you think about Stephen's dream and the interpretation?   Have you ever received a communique from beyond or from someone else still living?   Do you think Stephen should have sold the guitar if the price was right?

            

Dreams of My Next President

Politics Balloons (Photo credit: Newfrontiers)

          Only once can I recall having a dream about a president or anything having to do with politics.   That dream was recounted in my post called "Obama In A Parade".   This particular dream did not impress me so much as being of any political portent as much as the vividness of the characterization of President Obama.  The bottom line is that my dreams are never political in any way.

          This does not seem to be the case with everyone.  The other night I was looking on YouTube for a video related to the Frankenstorm Sandy and in my search I was led to a number of videos with people describing their dreams about the current president of the United States and the upcoming election.  There may have been hundreds of these videos--I did not look through all of them as I did not want to devote the time to this pursuit.   I did find it rather odd that there were so many people who were having Obama dreams and election dreams.

          Many--perhaps most--of these dreams were deemed to be prophetic in nature.  The prophecies were generally not too good.   Some of them were quite ominous.   Not sure what that all means, but it might be interesting to look back on some of these videos in a year or so--that is if we're still around.

         Stephen T. McCarthy will be returning for the next two weeks with some more of his dream observations.   If you missed his last post Goldenshadow, I hope you will go back to read it.  Stephen has been standing in for me as I deal with some issues in my life.   I am greatly appreciative to this talented writer and man of deep relevant thought.  He is a gem among bloggers.

          Don't forget to vote if you are a U.S. citizen!

           Do you ever have political dreams?    Do you think there is any reason for the large number of election and Obama dreams other than the impending election?   Do you believe that dreams can prophesy things to come?

         

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