[Setting: Virginia Beach, Florida, 1965; the first dream workshop at the A.R.E. (center for Edgar Cayce's teachings), led by Everett Irion; as told by writer Jess Stearn, also present. The dreamer was Belva Hardy, "a youngish middle-aged type, and a well-known teacher of music." She was an experienced dreamer who suffered a sudden "dreamnesia"--recalling a couple of dreams at the start of class, but then, nothing.]

Only recently, she disclosed under group questioning, she had been going through a bit of an emotional crisis. Her granddaughter, who had been living with her for some time, had just been taken back by the mother, and the grandmother was heartsick and lonely. She was yearning for the child, so much so that she broke into sobs just talking about it...

The most significant vision came the night she checked into ARE headquarters for the dream seminar. She called it the Porpoise Dream.

Two porpoises were playing in the water, in a setting reminiscent of the Marineland of the Pacific. They were leaping and gamboling about and talking together; they were extremely happy. Meanwhile, Belva was standing on the bank, watching.

Suddenly someone came by with a straw hat turned upside down--passed the hat in front of her and asked her to give some food to the porpoise. She dropped three kernels of corn into the hat and said "Be sure to bring it back because I don't have much."

Next, Belva dredged up her fragmentary dream: "A young couple is silhouetted some distance from me. The young lady is dressed in blue. The dream said, 'Don't bother to write this one down--there is more coming."' She was already blocking.

After this fragment, Belva went dreamless four straight nights. Everett Irion pointed out that if dream material is ignored or suppressed, the individual does not dream for a while.

In some detail, Irion had clarified the symbology of the Porpoise Dream. The Pacific signified peace; corn was the highest spiritual food, the three kernels representing Father, Son, Holy Ghost, and when Belva said, "Be sure to bring it back," this very clearly meant that she wanted the child back.

The obvious interpretation had also struck her. The two porpoises were her daughter and granddaughter. Their reunion was an extremely happy one, and they were enjoying each other. She should cut her own ties, and bless the situation. This would free her mind, including the distracted subconscious, and prepare her for whatever was best for her.

Belva got the message. She sat down and prayed, and her prayers were for what was best for the child. Permeating good will, she subsequently visited her daughter and the child in California. The daughter reacted with similar warmth and understanding. When the conversation got around to the child's schooling, the daughter suggested, surprisingly, that the girl might do better in an Eastern school.

"I had broken my hold on the child," Belva observed, "and now I found her coming back to me--this time for her own good and not to fill my own little needs." At last report, the child was with the grandmother again, and Belva was dreaming good solid dreams every night.

She had nothing to keep from herself.

SOURCE: Edgar Cayce, the Sleeping Prophet, by Jess Stearn, 1967, p. 215-17.

EDITOR'S COMMENTS

My own recall goes up and down. I used to share Stearn's and Irion's belief this was always ominous, a sign of blocking. No longer!

• Dreams about big issues come in waves to me; after, I'll often fail to recall much new stuff while I'm working on these mega-dreams (or drawing them, or writing songs, or poems, or...)
• When I'm overwhelmed with work, my recall will drop until the flood ebbs.
• Ann Faraday notes that dreamers in sleep labs rarely report erotic dreams; they simply feel that's private. Similarly, Belva may not have wanted to air her jealousy problem in public.

Neither Stearn nor Irion asks why daughter & granddaughter change to porpoises. Being me, I hear a pun. Belva can only relate cleanly to them once she's faced, and changed, her... purpose.

--Chris Wayan