Dream: My Dead Uncle Returns

Dream: My Dead Uncle Returns

“What if I dream of my dead uncle telling me to come to him in my dream? What does it mean?”

As a member of Quora’s Dreams and Dreaming group, this dream question was emailed to me by another Quora member. It seems like such a simple question, but it is quite complicated and has multiple answers. The tricky part is deciding which one is right for you because our dreams are filled with a dream language that only we can understand.

Here is my answer based on the research for my dream books.

Dreams of the deceased are one of the most exciting and confusing aspects of dreams and dreaming. In the book Dreams That Can Save Your Life, distributed by Simon & Schuster, many of the 30 life-saving dream stores contained visitations from deceased loved ones and family members during times of crisis.
One dreamer in Part VI, Chapter 42 of the book shares two dream stories about deceased loved ones appearing in her dreams during a time of extreme stress. She had Cystic Fibrosis and was undergoing a triple organ transplant.

One dream is about a previous dead lover who appeared to her in her dream.

On September 11, 2001, (9/11) I received a letter officially listing me for a
double lung and liver transplant. This day symbolized a new beginning for me.
From that day on, my struggling shared space with waiting for the phone call
saying my clinic received organs for me. On August 18, 2001, I got a welcomed
visitor in a dream.

Dream: Mario Is With Me.
Mario, the dead friend I hadn’t thought of for so many months, or get a chance
to say a proper goodbye to, stopped by in my dream. We were sitting in a
house in the living room, just talking as we always did, while there was a lot of
activity around us. It appeared as though someone was moving in or out, but
I wasn’t sure. And while we talked, I couldn’t help but wonder why Mario was
here in my dream, sitting right next to me, while being dead.

The moment I started to wake up, I knew Mario was dead, of course, but still
here with me and would protect and take care of me during the transplant. This
feeling was so clear and real, I immediately wrote down my dream.”
The other dream is about a strange man who keeps returning in her dreams. He hides his face and runs away in the pouring rain. His tan raincoat flaps in the wind behind him, which turns out to be a clue as to his identity as the dreamer had never seen this person before.

Dream: The Face of Death?
It was a dark night on an empty street in the city. It had rained, the streets were
still wet, and the light of the streetlights reflected on the puddles. I stood on
the street alone, not sure what I was supposed to do or why I was there, when I spotted a telephone booth. In it was a man standing in a long coat and a hat,
beige fabric reminiscent of 1960s attire. Every time I spotted him, he half-turned,
opened the door of the telephone booth, and started to walk down the street.
Every time I saw him taking off, I knew as long as I could see him, as long as I
didn’t lose him, as long as he didn’t turn around and show me his face, I was safe.

After I was able to talk, I told my mom about this dream, and she knew immediately
who the man was. It was my uncle, her brother. He always wore long coats
and hats in beige. I had never met my uncle, because he died from Hodgkin’s
lymphoma, at the age of 37, 10 days before my birth.

When she relayed the dream to her mother the description of the man and his raincoat led to the realization that the man was the dreamer’s uncle who had died before her birth.

At the time of the dream, the dreamer was on death’s door after having had a three organ transplant. It turns out the Uncle was just checking up on her and trying to reach-out or speak to her using the phone in an old phone booth, a hint that the Uncle was much older and unaware of cell phones.

This is a classic example of a dead relative trying to communicate with the living in a dream.
Are the dead relatives in our dreams real, aspects of ourselves, or just wishful dreaming to see a loved-one one more time?

Often the people we see in our dreams are aspects of ourselves. If this were my dream and I were not terminally ill, I would ask myself what aspects of my uncle I like to integrate into myself and my life. Was he joyful, or perhaps a strong emotional and intellectual fighter?
Although I always encourage people to look for the answers to dreams using their own dream language, sometimes a dream dictionary can be useful, especially when trying to interpret something that may contain a symbol that may be a play on words, like “Cry Uncle.”

Uncles hold an exceptional spot in the family dynamics. They are often Godfathers to children and the person most entrusted with the lives of their brother’s children.
According to a Jungian dream dictionary: to see your uncle in your dream represents some aspect of your family heritage and trait. It also symbolizes new ideas and emerging awareness. Consider the idiom “cry uncle” to mean surrender or admit defeat.

This begs the question, “Is someone asking you to cry Uncle? Who and why?”
In your dream, your Uncle is telling you to come to him.

Maybe your unconscious feels that you should surrender to something that’s going on right now?

Our dreams concerning passed over loved ones can also be what is known as a duality, two things happening at once that contain different meaning.
A dream-duality can speak to two things happening at once, a conflict, or an opposition. It may contain aspects of ourselves in life and the actual dead relative who has come to help us and give us guidance.

Perhaps the conflict is life and death with the dead visiting the living in a dream in order to secure life from a place of death.

What is your life like emotionally right now? Are you stressed? Is this a time of challenge?
When we are in a place of emotional or physical turmoil our dead relatives are often given permission to return to us in our dreams during our darkest hour to help change the darkness into a defining moment. With them they bring celestial light into a dark place; another duality.

Resources: https://www.quora.com/profile/Kathleen-Okeefe-Kanavos
Dreams That Can Save Your Life: Early Warning Signs of Cancer and Other Disease; Findhorn Press/Inner Traditions; distributed by Simon &Schuster (April 17, 2018)
Surviving Cancerland: Intuitive Aspects of Healing; Cypress House; 1 edition (March 28, 2014)
All book quotes are used with permission from the author, Kathleen O’Keefe-Kanavos and Dr. Larry Burk.

Photo credit: Cancerland Poster used with permission by the author.

About the Author: Kathleen (Kat) O’Keefe-Kanavos-three-time cancer survivor whose guided dreams diagnosed her illness as seen on Dr. Oz, NBC News, American Express Open, in Newspapers and magazines, and detailed in her book Surviving Cancerland, and Dreams That Can Save Your Life. She’s a Contributing author to Chicken Soup for the Soul, TV/Radio Host/Producer- Wicked Housewives On Cape Cod™, the Kat Kanavos Show, Internationally Syndicated Columnist in BIZCATALYST360, and Lecturer who promotes patient advocacy and Spiritual guidance. www.KathleenOkeefeKanavos.com

The Dreams of A Dress the Color of Sky

The Dreams of A Dress the Color of Sky

“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” ~ George Santayana, philosopher

Who among us is not governed, to some degree, by the dark secrets of our past? Emotionally based dreams can manifest as daytime life-storms that refuse to remain contained. They have a way of building and blowing our existence to pieces like a clean dress the color of sky ripped from a clothesline and tossed into the mud.

fish-1358427_1280 floede, pixabay.com Public Domain, Free Commercial Use, No Attribution Required

Just when we think bad memories are forgotten, healed by time, and that all is well in our lives, something triggers a thought that manifests in a dream, which leads to an emotional door in our past hidden deep within the bowels of our psyche. The door, although tightly shut and locked, blows open by the sheer force of pent-up past emotions. A real-life nightmare once contained in silent darkness is unleashed into the light of day. Left unchecked it will consume all that is good beneath the clear blue sky.

Here is food for thought: Unchecked memories can grow strong on unhealed emotions.

Memories can begin to run wild through the paths of our lives like a pack of rats bringing life-threatening disease (dis-ease) with them. Research published in Science Daily shows that happy or sad, our emotions and physical health are inextricably linked. Dr. Rollin McCraty of the Institute of HeartMath in the US is studying the link between, emotions, physical health and how they trigger the peptide hormone oxytocin.

Depression, pessimism, and apathy affect our health in several ways.

“Low mood is linked to low levels of serotonin and dopamine, the feel-good neurotransmitters in the brain,’ says London GP Dr. Jane Flemming. “Serotonin plays a role in regulating pain perception and could be the reason why 45 percent of patients with depression also suffer aches and pains.” So, what is a person to do?

How can we cope with a past hell-bent on destroying our future?

Jennifer Irwin is on tour with her book, “A Dress the Color of Sky” which chronicles the up-hill battle of bad past memories. But, you can meet her here, and now, with this VIDEO Interview on the Kat Kanavos Show.

A Dress the Color of Sky

The story-line of A Dress, the Color of Sky, takes you through the difficult life of a woman named Prudence who is entering rehabilitation for sex addiction, and self-loathing, in order to deal with her disturbing past secrets and to save her faltering marriage.

Prudence has lost faith in herself and life. She feels she is blowing in the wind and cannot predict what her future holds.

How important is it to us to feel in control of our future? Research published in an article written by Dr. Art Markman in Psychology Today raises an interesting question.

How do you envision your future?

This question was explored in a paper in the August 2011 issue of Memory and Cognition by Kathleen Arnold, Kathleen McDermott, and Karl Szpunar. The research points out that your ability to envision the future is strongly influenced by your memory for the past. That is, you tend to use memories of past experiences to predict what your life will be like in the near and far future.

It was concluded that it is easier to use your memories when the future you are predicting is close in time, raising the question, do memories from the far past govern your actions without your knowledge.

We are creatures of habit. Therefore, you have already experienced many specific locations and events that are the ones you will encounter again next week. If you are working you will rise in the morning, get dressed and find your way to your workplace. This is experience is such a habit you will hardly remember getting there. As a result, you can do a good job of imagining through simulation what your life will look like next week.

According to the research cited above, it is harder to guess the effect past memories will have for understanding your life in the distant future. Elapsed time makes it more difficult to make specific future predictions.

Consequently, as an adult, if you have suppressed bad memories of an abusive relationship it is more difficult to predict how you will react to a similar relationship now.

There is an important reason to remember and deal with your past before it controls your future. The philosopher George Santayana wisely pointed out that if we don’t take time to reflect on our past behavior, we may unwittingly repeat it in the future. This is not only true for our behavior but true for other people’s actions toward us.

Forgive and forget may not be the best advice. Forgive and remember, so the transgression does not happen again may be a better choice for a healthy future.

Forewarned by memories is forearmed for the future.

Life is a series of lessons. If we do not think about how badly we were treated, come to terms with it, and use that knowledge to make choices about what to do to protect ourselves in the near future, we’re less vulnerable to being treated that way again.

Stumbling beneath the weight of her horrific past, Prudence has taken the first big step toward correcting her course for the future by remembering and healing her past with the help of therapy.

InDreams cover 3 our darkest hours, we often pray for help and guidance but forget, or don’t know how to watch for the answers in our waking world. According to the New York Times, at least 10 studies on the effects of prayers and healing have been carried out in the last 6 years, and this question continues among researchers.

What if… the life-saving answers come to us in dreams, as studies by Duke University Radiologist Dr. Larry Burk have shown? What if… we are guided to seek help in the form of therapy with a therapist chosen by God? What if… you are the answer to that therapist’s dreams which were also heard by the Lord?

The Lord works in mysterious ways.

A producer met Jennifer Irwin in LA. After reading the manuscript, the producer purchased the film rights. Production of the film A Dress, the Color of Sky, is scheduled to begin in early 2018 with some well-known names attached.

Watch as Jennifer introduces you to Prudence who is struggling to emerge from the dark places of her past and step into the light of a new day.

Prudence’s struggle is one many of us live with, and often die from if left unchecked.

Sky Poster 2

YouTube- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lO7SnT4K2Jg&feature=share

Resources:

Your View Of The Future Is Shaped By The Past | Psychology … (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/ulterior-motives/201108/your-view-the-futur https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/ulterior-motives/201108/your-view-the-future-is-shaped-the-past

The Link Between Emotions And Health | Psychologies, https://www.psychologies.co.uk/self/the-link-between-emotions-and-health.html (accessed January 13, 2018).

https://www.psychologies.co.uk/self/the-link-between-emotions-and-health.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxytocin

http://www1.cbn.com/biblestudy/dreams-and-visions%3A-god-uncensored

http://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Dreams-That-Can-Save-Your-Life/Larry-Burk/9781844097449

Photo credit:

A-Dress-the-Color-of-Sky.jpg January 13, 2018 used with author’s permission.

Dreams That Can Save Your Life used with author Kathleen O’Keefe-Kanavos permission

About the Author: Kathleen (Kat) O’Keefe-Kanavos is a TV Producer/Host and Author/Lecturer of Dreams That Can Save Your Life which promotes patient advocacy and connecting with Dreams for success in health, wealth, and relationships. Contact –Kathleen O’Keefe-Kanavos Website – Inner Guide Facebook – Personal Facebook – Surviving Cancerland Facebook – Wicked Housewives TV Facebook – Wicked Housewives Radio Facebook –Dreams That Can Save Your Life Facebook- Google+ – LinkedIn – Pinterest – Twitter – Youtube- Book