Power of the Mind & How it Saved Me

Being a hypnotherapist, I often spew rhetoric about how powerful the mind is. The truth is that, sometimes, I don't truly believe it. However, subconscious experiences have changed my life, I really do believe that. As a social scientist, I have no explanation for it. But I can't deny it, either.

I had a dream once that saved my life. I was in the darkest of my days, depressed and suicidal. I was about 26 years old and dabbling in various forms of spiritual exploration, mostly of the alternate mystical kind. I took a lay course on dreams that was hosted by a friend of mine--a friend who I share a special connection (I took tai chi classes from her, she knew an ex-boyfriend of mine, and I dabbled in other mystical learning with her). At this time, I was in the habit of recording my dreams every morning. I was paying attention to the dreams, in order to determine their meaning.

There was one dream that stood out.

I basically dreamed that I ran out of gas in my car, among other things. Attempting to interpret other parts of the dream over the next days and weeks, I forgot about the gas--until I was running on "E" one night while driving to a Little People show. Interesting, I thought. I think I even mentioned it to my coworkers. I thought about stopping to fill up, and I even gave it some extra thought due to the memory of the dream, but I really wanted to get back to the office (which was not far) and not take up my coworkers' time.

On the way back to the office, a short drive, I took a wrong turn on an exit ramp. Damn it! So much for saving time. My coworkers were nice and didn't appear to mind that this detour would delay our trip a few moments. I didn't stop for gas, either.

As we approached the office, we stopped at a stop light, behind a squad car--something insignificant, yet I noted it mentally. As the light turned green, we turned right as planned, with a gas station on our left, in front of a Target, and a Denny's restaurant on the right. Suddenly, right in front of us (I had to hit the brakes, we were that close) a pickup truck that was parked at the back of the gas station parking lot backed up at FULL speed, screeching wheels and all, jumping curbs and crossing the street, hitting the Denny's parking lot curb across the street. As it careened across the street, I saw the driver's head bobbing as the vehicle bounced him around.

After the truck stopped at Denny's, it immediately started moving forward at full speed, bouncing over curbs and crossing the street in the opposite direction, finally stopping when it hit the side of the Target. This all happened right before our eyes.

Apparently it was a shooting (we read this later), although none of us could figure out why the truck started careening like it did. All we know is that we were about 3-5 seconds from being in the path of this runaway truck.

So, what's my point?

Besides being rather traumatic (as any accident is), watching this car race and bounce uncontrolled across the street in front of us, I believe my dream (and, subsequently, my subconscious mind) served to save my life. Why? Because I was suicidal at the time. This dream made me think twice about stopping for gas, when normally I would have not given it another thought. And when I didn't stop for gas, I made a wrong turn that delayed my arrival at that deadly intersection for enough time to make sure that I wasn't in the crossfire.

After that experience, I had an awakening. I knew I had to be alive for some reason. It gave me a sense of purpose. It wasn't my time. And I needed that experience (seeing that dramatic accident) for a reason: To convince me that I had just missed an event that would have easily taken me.

That's my first example. I'll post my second example on my next post.