Dreams of Impending Illness

Dreams often provide useful health information. Learning how to distinguish health warnings in dreams may help you find a path for healing or help you prevent illness altogether.

Dreams of Insects are Sometimes about Autoimmune Problems

A common dream symbol of autoimmune disorder is an infestation of small insects, termites, ants or spiders in a house. Each insect seems to represent an unhealthy cell in the “house”, a metaphor for the body. One dreamer shares:

I realized in the dream that there were too many ants for natural products to work and I would need to use chemical pesticides. The area they were infesting was a spiral staircase (often represents the spine) … and the bone marrow biopsy of my spine was one of several diagnostic tests where the cancer showed up. I also had several more dreams before, during & after treatment that seemed to chart the course of things.

This dreamer received chemotherapy and is healthfully alive seven years later!

Breast Cancer and Little Seeds

Another woman dreamed a doctor removed a black seed-like substance from her body. At the time she had breast cancer and, seeing the dream as a sign to remove the cancer completely, she decided to have her breast removed.

She is now a breast cancer survivor with a clean bill of health, a new outlook on life, and says her dreams were instrumental in helping her choose her treatment. She’s recently celebrated five years of healthy living!

Insects in a Bowl and Intestinal Problems

I once dreamed I found a large ceramic bowl I made in college. The bowl was filled with cobwebs and spider mites. In the dream, I successfully cleaned the bowl with tap water, removing all cobwebs and spider mites.

As a dreamworker, I was acutely aware that dreaming of an infestation of spiders can be about cancer or illness. I was concerned for my health, but I took comfort in the fact that my dream-self easily cleaned the bowl simply by rinsing it out with water.

Two weeks later in waking life I developed an intestinal problem. I felt awful. After a few hours I remembered my dream. As it turns out, the bowl in my dream represented a place to store food, symbolic of my “bowel” which is the place where my body stores the remnants of digested food, and that my “bowel” would have some “bugs.”

The dream provided useful information on how to rid myself of the “bug” by flushing out my system with water. I drank large quantities of water for 3 days, hardly ate a thing, and my body returned to normal. It might have healed on its own anyway, but the water helped tremendously.

Chased by a Rhinovirus
I once dreamed a rhinoceros was chasing me. In order to get away from it, I locked myself in a room.

A few days later I could feel a cold coming on (“rhino” virus!) Honestly, though, I didn’t make the connection until after I saw a commercial for a cold remedy that entailed a rhinoceros chasing a woman! It was as though my dream was being shown to me again on TV.

I didn’t take the advertised cold remedy, but I did take Chinese herbs to boost my immune system (to create a “boundary” between me and the “rhino”virus), ate a lot of home-made chicken noodle soup and rested. I never got sick, but my partner Scott was sick for 2 weeks. He doesn’t always believe in the significance of dreams.

Book Recommendation

Robert Moss has a fantastic chapter on Dreams of Healing in his book Conscious Dreaming, A Spiritual Path for Everyday Life.

Pay attention to your dreams. Insect infestations can be a health warning, indicating an immune problem. The good news is that if you pay attention, chances are that you’ll also be given instructions on what to do to heal your body.