Dreams of a Future We Cannot Change -- Example 1

In an earlier post, I described two types of dreams of the future: dreams of events we can change and those we cannot change. I gave an example (more to come) of a dream about the future state of my health that could be changed. Now I will provide an example of a dream of a future event that I could not change, but for which I could prepare myself psychologically, and perhaps in other ways. The dream is one that is also discussed in my book The Man Who Sees Tomorrow in His Dreams.

At the time of the dream, I was working for a small technical company in a satellite building a short distance from the main building. Work was normal and I had no conscious reason to be concerned about the company or my job. One evening I dreamed that I saw two tornadoes hit the buildings. A large, powerful one hit the main building and a smaller, less powerful, one hit the satellite building where I worked. The interpretation of dreams was still relatively new for me, but I had enough knowledge to realize it was not a good omen. I thought about the dream the next day and finally concluded there was only one interpretation that made sense. Something bad was going to happen to the company that could potentially affect my job. I began to prepare myself for what I saw as a coming storm. I updated my resume and focused on the positive with regular periods of meditation. The dream did not show major destruction to the building where I worked, so I thought I might be spared. And I did not have any other dreams that showed me losing my job. Within two weeks, the company announced that it had lost a major contract that had previously been renewed automatically. Major layoffs were made in the main building and a much smaller percentage in my building. I kept my job, but some coworkers and friends were not as fortunate.

Anyone who has experienced layoffs in his or her career knows that it is not a pleasant experience and has some effect on all employees, not just the ones who lose their jobs. I believe the dream prepared me for an event I could not change, but could view it with greater calm than many of my coworkers, some of whom were completely distraught. This view of the future gave me a sense that I would not be caught completely off guard by events in my life, but would receive warnings, when appropriate, to prepare me emotionally for trying times.