Do dreams carry any meaning? Does it tell you something about the future? What do dreams mean, especially repeating bad ones? What about sweet dreams or scarry dreams?
I get asked this quite a bit but I am unable to help as this is not my area of expertise. In fact intepretating dreams is a separate skill by itself.
Recently I read a book on Chinese Medicine and there is a part on how were used in Chinese medical diagnosis. This is from a section in the Yellow Emperor’s Medicine Classic called the Miraculous Pivot. It makes extremely interesting reading and I would like to share some of their analysis with you.
The classic says that fearful dream is a result of deficiency of qi in the heart and gallbladder. It can also be due a prolonged illness or excessive anxiety.
Angry dream is due to stagnation of qi in the liver and gallbladder or hardening of the liver. It can also be due to the presence of gallstones. On the other hand, happy dream is due to the smooth flow of qi and indicate fast recovery even if you should fall ill.
Sad dream is due to lack of qi in the heart and lung, lack of yin in the liver for example with chronic liver disease and tuberculosis. Melancholic dream is due to imbalance in the liver and spleen.
What about dreams where you are continuous striving for something? This is due to reverse flow of qi in the liver and gallbladder and increasing yang in the liver for example with hypertension and food indigestion.
Floating and falling in dreams are amongst the most common type of dreams. Floating dream is due to excess in the upper part of the body and deficiency in the lower parts like deficiency of the kidneys, excess phlegm or coronary heart disease. On the other hand falling dream is due to deficiency in the upper and excess in the lower part. You see this often in water retention in the kidneys and deficiency of yang in the heart.
What if you dream of looking for food or water? Looking for food dream imply a weak spleen and deficiency of yin in the stomach. Looking for water dream imply excessive yang and depletion of bodily fluids for example due to high fever or dehydration.
What about looking for toilet dream? The classic says that this is often caused by painful urination, inflammation of the intestines, poor digestion or diarrhea.
Finally what about sleep walking? It is most likely due to stagnation of qi in the liver or distractions!
