Since I can remember, I’ve been obsessed with my dreams. Moreover, the concept that my dreams are connected to my waking life. Most people I know have a freaky dream story about something that came true, warned them or was in some way connected to an important part of their life. 

My Freaky Dream Story

I once woke up from a nightmare in cold sweat. I was in Puerto Rico in May celebrating my 24th birthday with my parents. My dream was about a natural disaster and I woke up terrified. Even after washing my face, I tried to forget the feeling yet it persisted. We got in our car and drove to a nearby beach. The day was sunny filled with clear skies and perfect warm temperature. It was May in Puerto Rico, a true paradise. And yet, as I stood on the shore feeling the warm water ebb and flow over my toes, the hair on my arms were standing up.

It was an indescribable dread. I just wanted out. I had no shred of evidence to suggest my feelings were substantiated and I didn’t want to ruin my parent’s day. They were blissfully enjoying their vacation a few feet away. So I called my friend to confess my crazy thoughts.

“I can’t shake this feeling. My whole body wants out. I desperately want to drive away in the car away. I think I’m having a panic attack,” I said to my friend back home in Miami.

She told me to calm down and perhaps find a way to leave the beach without freaking anyone out. So, I did. I suggested we eat and my Dad knew just the place nearby. We piled in the care and drove a short distance to an little food stand with a small kitchen. It served authentic Puerto Rican food. We took our seats on the patio and my dad noticed he left his wallet somewhere. Perhaps the beach, he thought, so he went back to check.

My heart was still on overdrive. I couldn’t hold it in anymore so I turned to my mom and told her point blank I was not okay. I felt like something bad was going to happen. And that’s all I could articulate. My mom’s eyes were wide open in an expression I won’t forget because it denoted exactly how much she didn’t know how to help me. She tried to calm me down and gave me some water saying, it’s all okay. That’s when the sky turned black. My dad was still making his way back when the previously perfect climate suddenly and unexpectedly faded. Unexpected to everyone but me.

Storms are normal in the tropics, so no one was alarmed. Umbrellas went up and locals kept serving food unfazed by the rain that would probably pass right through. It wasn’t until the winds picked up and hail began to hit the rook life bullets that anyone seriously worried.

Right as my dad arrived, the storm became so bad, the chef directed all the women and children to wait it out in the one solid structure they had, the bathroom. As we were crouched in amazement that there was hail falling from the black sky in the summertime in the Caribbean, my mother looked at my with different eyes. As she held on the the bathroom doorframe she seemed to silently ask herself, How did she know?

Ironically, this was the most calm I felt. The storm hit but we were safe, and that was all my body wanted from the start of the day. It was a quick, turbulent storm. When it passed the locals were still amazed. We left the restaurant and drove past the beach we were just at to found twisted street signs. It was odd. Usually tropical storms take down trees, the only time we see twisted limbs in the Caribbean are with hurricanes. It’s a rare occurrence that happens when hurricanes become so large they form tornados inside. Tornados never happen on their own.

When my dad turned the radio on, the announcer said it was the first tornado that hit Puerto Rico in 28 years. And extremely rare occurrence especially in a month as typically sunny as May. Entire ships that were at sea had capsized or washed ashore, one yacht right on the shoreline I had previously been dipping my toes in.

How Dreams And Intuition Work

How did I know? I remember thinking to myself.

In A Little Bit of Dreams, Stase Michaels lays out the foundation of dream study in an easily digestible way. Michaels goes as far to point out scientific studies that back up current dream theory and ways you can begin to use your dreams as a compass to your life.

My dream awoke me with the sense of imminent terror. I don’t credit this to clairvoyance or seeing the future. I know now after studying dreams that our mind works when we sleep. According to studies, when we go to bed our brain starts to file away information as our bodies regenerate. There are thousands of observations our mind makes unconsciously throughout the day. These get filed in your brain and are what make up your intuition.

Brains see in pictures, they don’t speak in words. Movies are the language of the mind. One working theory is that when your brain is filing away the day’s findings, thoughts and experiences, if something is deemed significant, the brain will work to bring it to your attention. The only method at its disposal to bring this message to you as a dream. In the case of my dream, I have not doubt somehow my mind observed rare signs that were around me and communicated them to me in my sleep.

According to Michaels, dreams are not meant to be interpreted literally. Your mind will take visual cues and string them together in such a way as to convey the message. Depending on how urgent it is, it will use people, objects and scenarios that will get you attention.

I didn’t have a dream about a tornado. I had a dream of being crushed by a natural force and the feeling in my bones of the impending doom, a feeling that remained in my muscles well past my sleep. My brain put together a series of visual cues proportionate to the importance of the message. It essentially asked, How can I communicate this in symbols that will get her attention? 

Research on dreams as a way to unlock our unconscious mind is ongoing! Some people believe in addition to communicating relevant information to our daily lives, dreams helps us heal or bring attention to emotional wounds that require healing. The possibilities are endless…

Do you have any freaky dream stories? Do you ever record your dreams? Tell me! I’d love to know.