I much enjoyed Patricia Garfield’s ”Creative Dreaming”, but was somewhat disappointed with this book.

Garfield had an accident in which she severely damaged her wrist. The doctor said it was just sprained, but a dream told her that it was broken, which turned out to be correct. On recovering, she decided to write this book about 1) forewarning dreams 2) diagnostic dreams 3) crisis dreams 4) post-crisis dreams 5) healing dreams and 6) convalescence and wellness dreams.

In this comprehensive book dealing with all stages of health crises and recovery, Garfield refers at length to many other writers on dreams throughout the ages, including Hippocrates, Asklepios, Galen, Artemidorus, Jung, Freud, LaBerge, Oliver Sacks and Kasatkin. She also refers extensively to many cases of injuries and illnesses and the respective patients’ accompanying dreams and their interpretations.

I myself was and am in a similar situation since I a couple of years ago also had an accident and subsequently had to endure several operations. But I remembered no dreams or nightmares reflecting the accident, the various surgeries and so forth. This might have had to do with my being given morphine and other strong pain-killers. As far as I can see, Garfield does not mention that pain-killers might impede recollection of dreams.

It was not until months after the last operation that I have begun to dream again.

Garfield being a dream expert obviously had no problems in remembering her dreams. However, not everyone recollects their dreams with ease. It would have been helpful had she indicated those remedies available to us that might aid our recollection, such as Vitamin B6, mugwort tea, guayana tea and so on.

She goes into much detail regarding how to relate our dreams to physical problems, Strangely enough, I have remembered no dreams whatsoever relating to the body parts that I have had problems with, not that I have been able to interpret.

She gives us many examples of how we can interpret body symptoms. For example, injured body parts are symbolized by broken building parts, defective objects and defective cars. Dreams of fire or heat = Body Part too hot. Dreams of fiery hair = headache. Dreams of fiery foods = having pain in stomach. Dreams of houses on fire = fever or burning sensation. Dreams of cold objects = inadequate blood circulation. Dreams of excessive water = body edema or mucous production. Etc, etc.

The author suggest how we can work with our health problems, for instance by drawing or painting our dreams, and includes various such drawings in the book.

The last chapter comprises a meditative journey to our inner dream temple. However, I found this journey much too long and detailed to be practicable, though it may be useful to some. The object of this long and laborious journey (which would take several days of meditation to complete) is to meet our inner guide, but I think a shorter process could have been much more helpful.

Thoroughgoing appendices list dream images relating to various disorders.

The book is well-written and thorough, perhaps too thorough, as I did not find it to be particularly readable – it was too full of dream statistics and the like.

Though I personally would not recommend that you read the book, it will probably be useful to many with health problems, especially those that are good at remembering their dreams. Use your intuition to feel whether this is the right book for you. ( )