What Do Dreams Foretell?
Dreams are full of randomness and unexpected scenes. We can never know what a dream will show us next, nor can we assume every dream will be filled with laughter and joy. In fact, for most people, intense sorrow and shock are more common in dreams. From a scientific standpoint, such strong emotions may reflect a powerful subconscious at work, which then surfaces in our dreams.
Some people often dream about things they’ve never seen, thought about, or experienced, and find it astonishing. One day, they may suddenly find themselves in a scene from a past dream, watch a disaster they once dreamt of play out, or see joys and sorrows from a dream spill into waking life, leaving them uneasy and amazed. These kinds of experiences are not rare and have given rise to the idea of "prophetic dreams."
In Chinese metaphysics, the study of dreams offers distinct perspectives on how they form. Generally, whether a dream is pleasant or a nightmare, it carries unusual factors tied to fortune. As a result, prophetic dreams differ from person to person and are often hard to interpret.
A woman we’ll call Ms. Gao once sought advice after dreaming of terrifying spirits two nights in a row. A divination revealed two inverted hexagrams, with water and fire restraining each other, and a transforming hexagram of fire over wind. From this it was inferred that the toilet’s water valve at her home was broken; the fire element in the southeast sector had been quenched by the corresponding water, the light in the southeast was out, and an incense burner was sitting unused in a cabinet. This allowed inauspicious energy to spread and depleted the home’s yang energy, leading to persistent nightmares. Ms. Gao went home to check, and everything matched the reading. She replaced the light, repaired the valve, and began burning incense daily, which dispelled the misfortune, and soon her mood and sleep improved.
Dreams Can Foretell Death
Carl Gustav Jung, the Swiss psychologist who founded analytical psychology, had a friend who, after career setbacks, became passionate about mountain climbing and gradually withdrew from his social circle. One day the friend dropped by and said he had dreamt of climbing higher and higher—so high that even after reaching the summit he couldn’t stop and kept going upward, only to realize he was suspended in midair. In the dream he felt a rush of ecstasy. Jung sensed this dream foreshadowed a fatal climbing accident and advised him to stop, but the friend insisted on continuing. Not long after, he fell while climbing and landed on another person, and both were killed. At the funeral, Jung was devastated and regretted not pressing his warning more forcefully.
Dreams Can Also Foretell Illness
A case recorded in the Qing Dynasty book "Insect Sounds" tells of a man who dreamed a monk asked for his queue (braid), and he agreed. The next day he laughed it off as just a dream and told others about it. Within a month, however, he lost all his hair—apparently an early, subconscious awareness of a subtle physical change that surfaced as a dream.
Dreams Can Create Psychological Suggestions
The film "Inception" explores entering someone else’s deep subconscious to plant an idea and thereby shape a person’s lifelong beliefs. In the movie, after the idea of "kill yourself to escape the dream" is implanted in Cobb’s wife, she can no longer tell reality from illusion and ultimately jumps to her death in the real world, leaving the protagonist with lifelong pain and trauma.
In fact, a particularly vivid dream can subtly function as a lifelong psychological suggestion. It’s clear that the quality of one’s dreams can, without our noticing, influence our fate. When troubling dreams arise, it’s worth seeking a remedy.