I've been kicking around the idea lately that dreams can be prophetic.

[Tobin S.]

My step-dad related a dream to me not long ago that he had. That was odd in that he and I have never really been close, and he seemed to be looking for an interpretation from me as if he was asking for my help. He knows that I place a high value on dreams. The dream was very powerful, and I got the idea that it was recurring. In it he is being chased by wild horses and he is very afraid. The horses are not like regular horses. Their bodies are like terrestrial horses, but the heads and necks of the horses are like sea horses. After he has this dream it keeps him up the rest of the night. It's important to note that my step-dad is 68 and has had health problems with his heart recently. He has drank to excess his entire adult life, and has also smoked cigarettes during that time. He's slowed down on the drinking, and he doesn't smoke nearly as much as he used to, but those things have taken a toll on him. He is also very overweight. So a lifetime of sensual indulgence is starting to catch up with him.

Not long after having this dream, he and my mom were in a oil change shop, and on a table there was a figurine that looked exactly like the odd horses in his dream. Carl Jung called an event like that synchronicity, and entire books have been devoted to the topic. It reinforced in me the idea that this is a very important dream for my step-dad.

I work nights and I am up all hours of the night even on my days off. I was reading a book tonight and was struck by a passage in it to the point that I immediately had to sit down and write an e-mail to my mom and step-dad. I will call them in the morning to make sure that they see it. I'll relate it to you here:



I ran across an interesting passage in a book I'm reading by Ram Dass called Polishing the Mirror: How to Live from Your Spiritual Heart. It reminded me about dad's dream about horses. I think that dream is very important, and the synchronicity event that you experienced at the oil change shop (seeing the figurine) reinforces that thought in me. Some other part of dad, maybe his soul or God, is trying to get his attention.

Ram Dass broke his hip in 2009. As a part of relating that story he has this to offer:

"The body and the soul are like a coach and horses and a coachman. The horses are desires. The coachman is the ego, the "I" that controls the desires and looks where he's going...But inside the coach is a passenger. Who is riding in the coach? It's our soul. 'Coachman, would you stop, please?' 'Coachman, you are going a little too fast.'
I am riding in my coach, and now and then my coach needs a grease job or a new bearing or a joint replaced. I'm in the coach shop for a hip joint, and they're the coach repair experts. That's fine as long as I know who I am- that I'm not the coach, that I am a passenger inside the coach riding along, merrily, merrily, merrily.
On the outside I am recovering from a hip replacement operation, but inside I am dancing. I look like an old fart, but I am dancing inside. And what a joyful, joyful dance! In India it's called lila, the dance or the love play of the soul. And you can join in the lila anytime, because it's always going on. Here in this moment, it never stops."

The idea that the horses are desires is what is most important here. It could be what the horses represent in dad's dream, and the fact that they are wild and he is being chased by them and they are making him afraid could be a very important clue. This could very well be a dream about dad's health, and concerns about it in his conscious life.