Meaning of Dreams in Chinese Medicine

Do dreams carry any meaning? Does it tell you something about the future? What do dreams mean, especially repeating bad ones? What about pleasant dreams or scarry dreams?

People frequent ask me but I am unable to help as this is not something that I am familiar with. In fact dreams interpretation is a separate discipline by itself.

I read a book recently on Chinese Medicine and there is a part on how dreams can assist in Chinese medical diagnosis. This is from a section in the Yellow Emperor’s Medicine Classic called the Miraculous Pivot. It makes extremely interesting reading and I would like to share some of their findings with you.

The classic says that fearful dream is a result of lack of qi in the heart and gallbladder. It can also be a result of a prolonged illness or excessive anxiety.

Angry dream is due to stagnation of qi in the liver and gallbladder or hardening of the liver. It can also be due to the presence of gallstones. Conversely, happy dream is due to the smooth flow of qi and indicate quick recovery even if you should fall sick.

Sad dream is due to deficiency of qi in the heart and lung, deficiency of yin in the liver as with chronic liver disease and tuberculosis. Melancholic dream is due to lack of balance in the liver and spleen.

What if you dream of continously striving for something? This is a result of reverse flow of qi in the liver and gallbladder and rising of yang in the liver for example with hypertension and food indigestion.

Floating and falling in dreams are amongst the most common type of dreams. Floating dream is due to excess in the upper part of the body but deficiency in the lower parts like deficiency of the kidneys, excess phlegm or coronary heart disease. Falling dream is due to deficiency in the upper and excess in the lower part. This is often seen in water retention in the kidneys and deficiency of yang in the heart.

What if you dream of looking for food or water? Looking for food dream imply a weak spleen and deficiency of yin in the stomach. Looking for water dream imply excessive yang and depletion of bodily fluids for example due to high fever or dehydration.

What about looking for toilet dream? According to the classic this dream is often caused by painful urination, inflammation of the intestines, poor digestion or diarrhea.

Finally what about sleep walking? It is usually due to stagnation of qi in the liver or distractions!

Feng Shui Consultant. More Feng Shui and Naming articles here.