I dream a lot—both in the literal and the figurative senses. Almost every morning I wake remembering my dreams of the previous hours, usually amused and fascinated by the mind’s ability to conjure such bizarre stories, woven together of characters, places and plots just real enough to give a dreamer pause, but with enough distortion to allow easy dismissal. 

I believe in dreams—that is, that they exist and play some role or another in our mental health. I have never, however, believed that dreams have any sort of mystical power to foresee or influence the future. 

A few months ago, I got a voice message from an old friend. I had not heard from her recently. We were once very close, but she married and moved away from our neighborhood. She adopted a child, moved her business to a nearby town and later went through a divorce. This friend is a very successful professional, who started her own company and has been recognized many times for her accomplishments as a businesswoman and for her contributions as a civic leader. She is a formidable woman.

Her message grabbed my attention immediately: “I just had a dream about you and I have to tell you about it.” Since I am hardly a candidate to be the subject of any woman’s fantasies, I eagerly returned her call.  After we exchanged the customary pleasantries, I learned that her dream had not been about me, but for me!  

She told me she had been given a message in her dream with the instructions to pass it on to me! My curiosity was so piqued after she carried out her dream assignment that I immediately wrote it down, as closely as possible to exactly what I had heard:

“You are writing from your intellect. You need to write from a deeper place. This place is in your right brain. You have something in this deeper place that you need to write. To go to this deep place, try meditation. If you’re having trouble finding it, go to see a 3-D movie. Look for what you see there that you couldn’t see in 2-D—that will show you the deeper place.”  

I dismissed this for a while, but my wife and I recently had dinner with this friend to catch up after far too long. When I asked her about the dream, she impressed upon me just how utterly strange and specific it had been. Afterward I went back to read my note. Curiosity has now overcome skepticism. I have been trying to mediate for a while now, but, frankly, it’s an unnatural act for me. So far, no messages from beyond, about my writing or anything else!

Now I’m searching for a decent 3-D movie. Stay tuned!