It wasn't the first time he'd had the dream. In fact, it was one more in a long series of visions

that had come to him in his sleep in the winter of 1913, and they weren't easy to process.

They involved tragedy on a massive scale. Floods washed across Europe between unusually tall

versions of the Alps and the North Sea. Waves of yellow carried a numeral dead, while the debris

of civilization lay all around. The sea and rivers turned red with blood, and the entire region was

frozen solid by arctic blasts. It was horrifying, and left him feeling nauseous and depressed,

and he felt like it meant something. In fact, he couldn't shake the feeling that his dream was a

warning, a signal that something terrifying was about to take place, and no one in Europe was safe.

By the time his final dream took place in June of 1914, his puzzlement had turned to certainty.

War was coming. Less than two months later on July 28th, it all came true.

War War I began, and Europe found itself consumed with destruction as horrifying as he had envisioned,

and the man who had endured all those visions was left with a powerful confirmation of everything

he believed and taught. A man, by the way, who was Karl Jung, the founder of analytical psychology,

and a pioneer of modern psychiatry. If anyone was going to recognize the power of dreams, it was Jung.

But just because they are powerful doesn't mean they are safe. Dreams are just too complex to

nail down as purely good or entirely evil. And it's that unpredictable aspect that gives dreams

their mysterious aura. They can delight us with pure fantasy, or stab us with a knife of grief

over a long lost loved one. They can reconnect us with sights and sounds from our youth,

or they can paint a picture that is difficult to understand. And if you've ever had the sort of dream

that stuck with you the entire day, like a ghost that was eager to haunt your mind, then you understand

just how problematic they can be. A dream come true, it seems. Might not always be a good thing.

I'm Aaron Manky, and this is lore.

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