The Value of Dreams
NATIONAL JOURNAL OF HOMOEOPATHY 1993 Jan / Feb Vol II No 1. 
Dr Jayesh Shah.
` Bell.

Understanding dreams is very useful in practice. In almost every case of an adult or a child I always inquire about the dreams. This has helped me to arrive at a similimum in many cases. Dreams help us to perceive the real feelings. Dreams often give us valuable information about the state of the patient.

In January 1991, a man aged 35 years approached me with a note from a colleague saying Urgent. He came without an appointment and complained of a very acute pain in the abdomen. He narrated his complaints with great anxiety and tremendous excitement. I was stunned by the sheer intensity of the whole thing. So I asked him for how long are you suffering with this pain ? The answer was may be 4-5 years! This man was in such an intense state for 5 years! After he finished his excited narration, I asked him and his wife about his temperament. His wife described him as an unreasonably bad tempered man. He would blow up his head on trifles.

Expressions of violence
Once he thrashed his 10 year old son mercilessly as he had failed one of his exams. I understood that he was an unusually violent man. In order to perceive his inner most feelings and the deeper state I immediately inquired about his dreams. He had persistent dreams of violence. He frequently dreamt of riots in the old streets of Karachi; mobs of people on the road and a tremendous chaos, that he is on this crowded road wanting to escape, suddenly he finds a group of people chasing him and he runs in panic, as if to save his life. He enters his home and closes the door. Even before he can relax, there is a loud vehement knocking at the door. They break open the door, and he wakes up with a jerk. He also sees that the surrounding has caught fire. He frequently dreams of escaping from this kind of violent situations.

Though in reality he has never been in such situations. He complained of getting startled from least noise. The dream clearly depicts his state of mind and his perception of the reality. The violent pains and the violent mind are nothing but the expressions of the same disease phenomenon. I could understand the state of Belladonna by analysing the essence of the dream. Now we can appreciate so many rubrics and symptoms of Belladonna.

Belladonna symptoms

1. Delusion : Caught he will be.
2. Delusion : stabbed a person who passed on the street, he had.
3. Delusion : die time has come to.
4. Delusion : fire, visions of home, on distant.
5. Delusion : fire house on.

Hides, on account of fear, cruelty, moral feeling want of. Violence, rage, desire to escape are all different aspects of Belladonna. If we refer the materia-medica or the rubrics of Belladonna as given in Materia- Medica of Human Mind Dr. M L Agrawal many rubrics can be understood in the light of these dreams. Belladonna 1M / 1dose gave a very speedy and lasting amelioration to the patient. This case also illustrates that he was in the Belladonna state chronically. The Belladonna state represents a posture one would adopt in an acute chaotic violent situation. this patient was persistently in this state of Belladonna for years together. In 1 year of follow up, I have given him a dose of Belladonna 1 M only twice. There is a marked improvement in all his complaints. The dreams and the violent anger have also simultaneously disappeared along with the pains.

Importance of dreams.
Dreams which come repeatedly, which occur without any situation and also dreams which are out of proportion to the situation of the patient, are most valuable to perceive the innermost and deeper feelings of the patient. It is also interesting to observe that many rubrics in the chapter of dreams are similar to those in the chapter of delusion. Dreams also represent the most sensitive part of the mind. Dr. Jurgen Becker of Freiburg (Germany) conducts a lot of drug provings. His provings are entirely based on the dreams which the provers experience after taking the proving drug. He gives the dose of the drug for proving and inquires mainly about the dreams of the prover on subsequent days. He has himself proved so many remedies by observing the dreams he got after taking the remedy. He has also observed curative dreams after giving the similimum.

The chapter of dreams can be utilized to study the essence of remedies which are not clearly understood. It would be very useful to have a materia-medica of dreams on a similar format like that of the Materia-Medica of human mind by Dr. M L Agrawal.