Dreams - Pointers To The Remedy
NATIONAL JOURNAL OF HOMOEOPATHY 1993 Jan / Feb Vol II No 1. 
Dr Peter Tuminello.
` Op

Case 1:
In October 1992 a young lady of 24 years came to our student clinic. She had an operation three months ago to remove a right sided ovarian cyst which was causing acute periodic stitching pain. Her problem was that there was no change in the pain inspite of the operation.

On taking the case we found that she was always healthy, experiencing no serious disease. There were no characteristic generals in her case and no modalities for the pain. Mentally she was happy in her marital relationship, friends and family. There was some discomfort with the firm for which she worked. "I find their business practice very embarrassing".

The hunt for dreams
At a loss for clear prescribing symptoms we turned to dreams. As a child she had one dream repeatedly - "I was in the lounge room of my parents home. I hid behind the lounge and skeletons started to walk in through the front door. I watched as a line of skeletons walked by".
From the time she had experienced the problem with the ovarian region she had a number of dreams in which she found herself to be pregnant. She had never been pregnant and never intended to be in the near future.
Using the dreams and the work situation as characteristic of the case we used the following rubrics -

1. Ailments, embarrassment from (Synthetic Vol I)
2. Delusion, skeleton sees (Synthetic Vol I)
3. Delusion, pregnant (Synthetic Vol I)

The only medicine is Opium. It was prescribed in the 30^th potency, one dose daily for three days. Two weeks later she reported that the pain was 95 percent reduced and she also felt calmer and more relaxed generally. A month later she reported on the telephone that there was no further need for consultation, as she was completely free from pain.

Case 2 :
A man aged 36 years whom I had treated for various complaints over a few years presented to me in Sept 92. About a year prior he had a serious skiing accident, where he had damaged his right knee after hitting a tree branch at full speed. Treatment of the knee required a number of surgical operations and 9 months of physiotherapy. For most of the time he was on crutches. At the time of our appointment he was preparing for his first skiing trip since the accident. He told me that he felt very well and was having superficial complaints. I asked him about his dreams. He told me two dreams which he had experienced two nights before this visit.

DREAM 1: He had a broken ankle and was having it attended to. The strange thing was that he could not feel any pain in the ankle.

DREAM 2: He was on a skiing slope but could go only in one direction due to his injured knee. As he looked around he saw another skiier moving at high speed past him, down the slope and over the cliff. He then heard the skiier cry out aaaahhhhhh..... On reaching the edge of the cliff he saw the dead body of the skiier on the rocks below.

Intrigued by these dreams I asked his wife who was also present as to how he behaved on the ski slopes? She commented "He always travels at full speed regardless of how steep or dangerous the slope is. Other skiiers get frightened by just watching him. When travelling on the ski, his only concern is to travel at full speed".

I then understood the state that led him to that serious accident. I prescribed him Opium 200 daily for three days on the basis of the following rubrics -

1. Analgesia (Synthetic Vol II) for the first dream.
2. Temerity (Synthetic Vol I) for the second dream of recklessness.

The Response :
After the medicine he reported that he had many dreams which seemed to release some tension in him. Although he exerted himself physically on the slopes he had no injuries and did not create any Ailments from fright in any spectator.

I have found on a number of occasions that an inner intelligence often produces the dreams that the homoeopath needs to make a correct prescription, on the night or two before the appointment. Great indeed is that intelligence.

It is interesting to note that dreams may indicate the nature of diseased state in symbols as in the above case or may potray the feeling of the diseased state as in the first case. Either way, a strong dream experience is a precious Jewel to the homoeopath who recognises the power of the unconscious mind and knows how to interpret it into our Materia Medica.

Editor : This is amazing indeed! Let us ask all our new patients their dreams one or two days before the appointment and then report to the NJH.