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ASD 2000 Conference 17 Abstracts

Millennial Dreaming: Washington, D.C.

Dreams have been a very important component of my work as a psychologist. Also in my own life dreams have played a major role. Dreams have been my advisers, they warned me of dangerous situations that I would have to face. They helped me when I had to make important decisions that were very difficult for me.

In 1993 I had a whole series of dreams that warned me of the severeness of my disease at that time. I was not able to realize it by myself although I felt unhealthy. My dreams became more and more intense and forceful, later their message even became specific much more so than usual in dreams. My dreams told me that I had cancer and that it already was in a very alarming phase. There were other dreams that showed me my death and my burial in all details.

At this time I was involved in a group whose purpose it was to explore dreams and their meaning and symbolism. This group was lead by a woman who as a professor was teaching the art of dream interpretation. She taught courses in several universities in Germany, so she had a good reputation. I trusted her opinion highly. Unfortunately I trusted her too long. Her interpretation of my series of dreams which made it clear to me how sick I was was totally wrong although all the dreams were quite clear and and became successively more definite. Knowing that I had cancer, she did not take the severeness of my disease seriously at all. She interpreted the dreams about my cancer and about my death as hint that I had to undergo major changes of my personality that I should just let happen. But in the following months I became weaker and felt more miserable than ever before. I already doubted the accuracy of her interpretations, when I had another dream that would change my life completely.

I found myself in that dream being examined in a hospital. After the examination the doctors and the nurses were looking anxiously in my direction. A doctor came to me. She said the cancer I had was very advanced. But she also said that there was a little hope for me. In Hamburg there would be help. There would be a small black box from which I could receive radiation-treatments. The radiation would treat all the sick parts of my body with incredible exactness and effectiveness, but still would not do any harm to any parts of my body.

Although my dreams were telling me in a really clear way, I did not realize, and I did not want to realize how far the development of cancer had already proceeded in my body. The many misinterpretations of my dreams that I received also contributed to not taking my disease seriously enough. Actually I did not take it seriously  until I had that final dream.

I want to entreat you not to make the same mistake which I did, that is putting the advice of others above your power of judgment of your own feelings, although your advisors might appear as fully qualified. Even if they really are, you still have to have a good feeling about what they tell you. When you listen really carefully, your inner feelings can be the most reliable advisor. I do not mean you should not look for anybody else's advice. But what I mean is that you should verify everything that you are told by all your inner senses. It is even more important to do so if what you are told causes doubt in you as it caused in me. 

MARIE EBEL, Buchholz, Germany

Born on October 10 in 1944 in Bilovice, Czechoslovakia. Graduations in sports, Biology, Mineralogy and Pedagogics in 1965 at University of Olomuc, Czechoslovakia.  In 1978 graduation in Psychology at University of Hamburg, Germany.  Since 1984 working self-employed as a psychotherapist with focus on cancer and  psychosomatic disease. Dreamwork has always played a major role in my work with  patients and my life. Eventually it was the message of a dream that brought hope to me   in one of the darkest moments of my life.  At that time, I was severely suffering from cancer. But following the message of  the dream, I was able to recover naturally.

Contact Information

Marie Ebel
Buchholz, Germany
Email : mepg@online.de